"Let's get this straight. We're going to be 'gifted' with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, which purportedly covers at least ten million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke!!

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?"

From the Gartman letter.

Some Sunday color from the homestead.

Go here to experience one of the better and more offbeat blogs I've seen. Once you start to wander around there, It's hard to leave.

Hat tip here

It looks like at least a foot of new snow fell from that last storm that just blew through. Here at our house in the valley it rained so hard that the dogs got scared by the sound and hid themselves in the closet.

The below picture was taken on the 24th.

Here is the view this morning. Check out how much more of Half Dome was obscured by the new snow.

If you only read one hunting story this month, read this one. It's the tale of a nine day hunt down by Douglas, Arizona. Also, note that the hunt was made with a Ruger no. 1 single shot chambered in .357 magnum, a true sportsman's choice.

Look at the size of the paw on that cat. I'd hate to have that big boy scratching at the back door at night.

Also, note how the color of the lion's fur perfectly matches the desert environment. Great camouflage from mother nature.

Here is the lion's lair. High desert rim rock country is bleak but beautiful.

A dog loving young cowboy.

Simply cool picture of a waterspout at sea.

Saturday porch pictures.

St Louis has lost 8% of it's population over the past decade. I wonder why? Could it be that it is another Democrat run hell hole? Why yes, it is.

Let's turn the whole US in to the same thing, shall we? Let's keep Obamacare, high taxes, huge public employee unions feeding at the expense of a declining number of taxpayers, large illegal immigration of people hostile to our values, and who can be trusted to vote Democratic. Let's belittle and marginalize those who have traditional values, and let's have a media that will cover up all the mistakes of this crazy ideology, and lie about everyone who challenges it. Yeah, all of that.

Will we ever learn?

While Teddy kills Sasquatch and Khadafi kills his country; while the Middle East burns, and while the Iranians deliver missiles to Hezbollah, President O and the Mrs. will host a party and concert at the White House to celebrate the music of Motown.

Priorities!!

Hope and Change .... that you can believe in!

Meanwhile, Obama's ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, chooses to miss an urgent Security Council meeting on the chaos in Libya and the general unrest in the Middle East. I guess that it isn't so important what is happening in that part of the world, even considering the number one export from this region that is absolutely essential to the economies of the developed world!

Party on!

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! To bad we don't have a president like Teddy now, instead of the neutered metrosexual occupant seat warmer Obama. If TR was in charge, you could forget about problems with pirates, Arabs, oil sheiks, Venezuelan grandees, or the like. You know that TR eats what he kills, and that forest fire ... to TR that's just exactly what he needs for a barbeque.

Buy this poster here.

The comments to a post on an SEIU site goes terribly wrong. Maybe it had something to do with the violent music they were promoting? It must be that new civility thing.

Hat tip: SDA

From

The original Right Stuff on display right here!

Back on February 20th, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to circle the Earth in the Friendship 7 spacecraft, as part of NASA's Mercury program.

Here are the boys going through survival training in the Nevada desert, wearing clothing they made out of their parachutes. You might recognize from the movie the names, from left to right, of Gordo Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, and Deke Slayton.

This shows John Glenn climbing into the capsule. The duct tape on the window must have given him confidence, along with the ten prior canceled flights! Notice as well the tiny, claustrophobic door. Not much room to escape if necessary.

Glenn made three successful orbits at 17,500 miles per hour, and was the third human (two Russians beat us to it) to circle the Earth in space. If any of you have kids, did their school mention any of this? Probably not, and too bad for that.

After his successful flight, the crew got together in this picture for a bit of celebration.

Left to right, Carpenter, Slayton, Glenn, Grissom, Shepard and Schirra.

It's springlike here in the country, although I can't imagine we will go long before another storm sweeps through.

While the sun is shining, the dog decides it's time to roll in the sweet green grass.

If it's not too wet that is.

The 15 year old decided that it was time to wear his hairy leggings ... otherwise known as the ghillie suit he got for Christmas.

This rose hip looked about as much like an apple as it could.

This is a red letter day, because the chickens have produced a triple play. Three brown eggs were in the coup this morning, and in spite of my close interrogation, all the hens plead innocence.

Not to worry, as long as they keep this up all year, there is no chance of starving. Good job team cluck!

U.S. army personnel send a love letter to the Taliban from a forward observation post in Kunar, eastern Afghanistan.

My dad, God rest his soul, used to take pleasure in pointing out these cloud formations when I was a teen, calling them alto-cumulus mammatus, and then asking me to see if I could guess why they had that name. Ha, ha, adolescent fun for all.

Anyway, if you see them, they predict rain, and form when larger, heavier droplets begin to fall down from the layer of cloud above.

These dramatic examples were photographed over the Olympic Valley, California.

This picture proves that no matter how profoundly ugly your dad is, if your mom is fine, you have a chance to be tolerable enough. The woman on the right is Jerry Hall, and the chick on the left is her daughter by famous ugly man Mick Jagger, Georgia May Jagger. She should thank God almighty that she takes after her mom.

Check out the incredible snowpack that was piled on the Sierras in just the last couple of days. The first picture below was taken on February 16. Take notice of the three trees on the left, then glance down to the bottom photo taken today. Only the very top of one tree can still be seen over the massive mound of fresh snow that has landed on the mountains in the past day or so. You can barely see Half Dome. I don't ever think I have seen snow piled so high from this web cam, and so quickly. Impressive!

Saturday porch pictures.

Does this old 1911 have a hole at the end of the slide? Why yes it does.

The story is that during the battle on Iwo Jima, a Japanese sniper took aim at a young American Marine. After passing through his wrist, the bullet was mostly stopped by the Colt 1911 he was wearing on his hip, no doubt saving his life. It has been in the soldiers family ever since.

What a great family relic! Read the whole story here.

Marko Peltola made this dramatic image of the northern lights in Finland this month.

A massive, world record Gar caught by a fisherman in Louisiana. 8 foot 5 inches and 327 pounds, but a 175 pound fisherman, all alone, managed to wrestle it into his boat by his lonesome. He said it was so cold the fish was very lethargic, otherwise it simply wouldn't have been possible.

This world record fish is estimated to be 50 to 70 years old.

And that ain't no fish story!

This sort of foolish, childish behavior is not good for our republic. I cannot over emphasize how concerned this makes me. Party leaders, presumably adults, have made the decision to do this.

What else will they do? Where is the line?

Interesting post on a gold mining forum. This guy was sweeping with a metal detector several hundred yards from an old mining camp when he got a strong signal. He dug up this old can filled with nuggets, clearly someone's old stash. It was likely buried away from camp for safe keeping, and it was, since it wasn't found again for over a hundred and some odd years. Too safe, clearly.

One wonders why the miner never came back to claim the treasure.

Shazaam! Here is egg number 2 (the brown one) with the newest arrival, egg number 3, which is greenish like No. 1. Those chickens are starting to really get to it. Go team clucker!

A very atmospheric view today of Half Dome from Glacier point at Yosemite National Park in California. The more snow the better.

Mars, the red planet. Named for the god of war. It's barren surface lashed by planet wide dust storms that last for months, it is a forbidding and lifeless environment. Below is the last picture sent back to Earth by NASA's Martian rover Opportunity before all communication with the home planet was cut off by the advance of the Martian winter. A vision never before seen by Earthlings.

Oh wait. That's not really true.

It's really only a picture of a common rock taken by the 15 year old on a dirt road near our home.

But you gotta admit that is sounded better in the first telling....

Well, wet and rainy weather is perfect for stew making, and the cast iron pot is the way to do it. What to call this concoction is up in the air, but the like of it has never been seen. First, some cube steak cut into bite sized pieces are on the iron and browning, and while that is going on, the below ingredients are prepared. Red onion, beets, parsnips, mushrooms all made a unique combination.

Now that the meat is browned and the beef broth, tomato cubes and red wine is boiling, into the iron go the vegetables.

The family dog is lured into the vicinty by the fabulous aroma. To bad she won't be getting her own bowl.

Here is the "masterpiece" up on the stove, ready for feasting. Fine food for a frosty evening.

For more cooking fun, take a stroll over here. You will like it.