| flora |
Posted on: 23-Feb-2011, 05:26 PM |
Replies: 2,510
Views: 68,948
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We have had the air conditioner on for the last week (low 80's). President's Day we enjoyed a nice picnic out on the deck (low humidity). But those pesky mosquitoes are starting to come back. I have noticed robins and ducks on the way back north.
Flora |
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Forum: The Jester's Court · Post Preview: #301268 |
| flora |
Posted on: 01-Feb-2011, 10:14 AM |
Replies: 1
Views: 4,429
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Oh my gosh --- that one brought tears to my eyes. You sure find good ones, MacEoghainn. In the end, it reminded me of my husband yelling at the GPS when we travel.
Flora |
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Forum: The Jester's Court · Post Preview: #300953 |
| flora |
Posted on: 29-Jan-2011, 07:20 PM |
Replies: 14
Views: 3,649
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Hello Wizard,
I tried replying a moment ago, but I am traveling and I lost my connection.
Sorry you are feeling so low.. I know someone on cymbalta and it helps with the low feelings but there are no high feelings. Perhaps you could check with the doc and see if a different prescription or maybe a new combination might be in order?
Most of all remember that every person is unique and special and you are appreciated and I look forward to your comments and opinions. Sometimes when words don't easily come, a genuine smile or nod to others will lift them up as well as yourself. Most importantly don't block yourself from others, keep communicating.
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #300927 |
| flora |
Posted on: 11-Jan-2011, 11:10 PM |
Replies: 10
Views: 1,783
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It takes an extra special person and family to answer the call to be a missionary. I am so sorry that your friends are going through such a trial. I know that they appreciate your friendship and support. I just wanted to take a moment and let you know that you and your friends have my thoughts and prayers.
Flora |
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Forum: Kirk and Chapel · Post Preview: #300651 |
| flora |
Posted on: 07-Jan-2011, 11:14 AM |
Replies: 8
Views: 1,405
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Beautiful music interpretation and beautiful picture slide. It gave me a slice of cold weather.
Rhymer, I enjoy your pictures also.
Thanks for sharing.
Darlene (quoting Winston Churchill) Never Never Never give up.
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #300603 |
| flora |
Posted on: 07-Jan-2011, 10:55 AM |
Replies: 23
Views: 6,276
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Gosh even here in Florida we have had to wear winter clothing (sox and shoes, sweaters 
Even though our crop damage has been over 273 million, the strawberry plants were able to survive. Yay!!!!!!! But corn, cucumbers and green beans roughly went from 8 to 30 dollars a box. Ouch!
I love Cades Cove too. I go there quite often but my most favorite was when it was covered with snow.
I look forward to the longer daylight hours also. More time to be outdoors. And if gas prices continue to go up the way they are calling for I will be staying closer to home this summer.
flora |
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Forum: Quizes & Polls · Post Preview: #300602 |
| flora |
Posted on: 09-Nov-2010, 01:54 PM |
Replies: 7
Views: 753
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I really enjoy this also. My grandson (who is eight, and usually a Trans-Siberian Orchestra fan) and I listen to it while taking him to school every morning.
And if things get a little crazy, I slip into Silent Night to give me a few minutes of peace. Beautiful!!!!!
Flora
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Forum: Celtic Music · Post Preview: #299877 |
| flora |
Posted on: 20-Oct-2010, 04:41 PM |
Replies: 7
Views: 802
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Hello, Rhymer and welcome. You have posed a good topic.
I have pondered this myself. I wish I could find an article that I read about Celts in China.
It doesn't seem impossible does it? Most believe that the early Indians migrated from Russia over the Bering Straits. Why couldn't they have been Celts?
You will find interesting information here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/596542/posts. Be sure to read down through the post because there are good references to other articles on the subject.
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #299622 |
 Hiking (Pages 1 2 )
| flora |
Posted on: 08-Oct-2010, 01:59 PM |
Replies: 28
Views: 3,522
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This happened October 4, 2010. I wonder what this winter is going to be like?
Allyson Virden, resident manager at the LeConte Lodge atop Mt. LeConte is reporting the first snow of the year in the Smokies. On her "High on LeConte" blog, Ms. Virden is reporting that the mountain received 3 inches of snow on Monday morning, and another half-inch overnight.
She also stated that this is the biggest first snow since 1979.
Flora
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Forum: The Trail Sign · Post Preview: #299485 |
| flora |
Posted on: 26-Sep-2010, 06:11 PM |
Replies: 15
Views: 2,034
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I'm right there with you, Haggishead. Pass the popcorn.
Check out Turner Classic Movie channel every Friday in October.
 
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #299384 |
Pinned: Pub humour (Pages 1 2 3 ...211 )
| flora |
Posted on: 20-Sep-2010, 06:45 PM |
Replies: 3,156
Views: 175,351
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I have a broom and I know how to use it!
This is not a joke per se, but I can't stop laughing about it. 
CHESTER — Two men armed with a handgun were chased from a Madison Street Thursday home by a 43-year-old woman brandishing a broom.
One person was treated for non-life-threatening injuries in what police described as a “burglary gone bad.”
The incident took place around midnight in the 2200 block of Madison Street, according to Detective Capt. Stephen Fox. The two suspects entered the home and were confronted by the homeowners.
The suspects tied up a 49-year-old man then began to go upstairs when they came face to face with an 80-year-old man.
“They pulled a gun then took $50 from him,” Fox said.
The 49-year-old man was able to break free and confronted the suspects. A struggle ensued.
A female resident grabbed a broom and went after the two robbers, who fled, Fox said.
Crime scene investigators were called to process the scene. As of Thursday afternoon, there was no ID on the suspects.
The description of the two armed men were described as black males, possibly in their teens.
The 49-year-old man was later treated at an area hospital. His condition was unavailable.
Flora
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Forum: Ye Ole Celtic Pub - Open all day, all night! · Post Preview: #299341 |
| flora |
Posted on: 18-Sep-2010, 03:09 PM |
Replies: 6
Views: 1,282
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I read an article that decorating for Halloween has become one of the biggest of all the seasons. Since I live in Florida, I think many decorate just to "create seasons". I love this year's motion activated witch's broom and going through the stores and activating all the merchandise. Do you decorate for just the one day or do you try for the month? Do you find that you are doing more than before? I have grandchildren so I try to decorate for the month (yeah, that's the excuse I'm using). I was looking to update the glow in the dark eyes shower curtain and found some that where pretty gruesome, especially the one that has the shadow of a man with a knife as in Psycho! No I didn't go that route. What's on your list?
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #299300 |
| flora |
Posted on: 18-Sep-2010, 02:49 PM |
Replies: 15
Views: 2,034
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I thought I would bump this back up to see if anything new is going on. I watched Nicole Kidman in "The Others" and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Shutter Island." I don't do gore!
This year seems filled with alot of Zombie movies. 
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #299299 |
| flora |
Posted on: 18-Sep-2010, 08:03 AM |
Replies: 183
Views: 19,299
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I hope you don't mind this article Englishmix. I was doing research on Alladale Reserve and thought it was an interesting insight on the Highlands. With land such a precious commodity and the "right to roam" debate in Scotland, we tend to be spoiled here in America with the great expanses available to us.
Published Sep 16 2010 by Yale Environment 360, Archived Sep 16 2010
In Scotland’s search for roots, A push to restore wild land by Caroline Fraser
As Scotland asserts its identity and its autonomy, environmentalists are working to restore its denuded landscape – planting native forests, creating wildlife corridors, and reintroducing species that were wiped out centuries ago.
Ecologically, there is little left of Scotland. Lanced of danger, fully domesticated, the countryside has been kitted out as an English larder, a table laid with lamb and strawberries and clotted cream. Sheep and dairy cows crop the grass north of Hadrian’s Wall. Polytunnels full of “soft fruit”—raspberries and strawberries—gleam under the occasional sun. North of Flodden—where James IV and his Scottish troops were cut down by the English in 1513—fields of potatoes stand ready to be turned into chips, and waves of barley bow to the inevitable meat pie.
The last wolf in the British Isles was said to have been killed in Scotland in 1743. Auroch, the enormous wild bovine that once roamed the Isle, is extinct. The European elk—known in North America as the moose—was wiped out several thousand years before the Romans arrived; lynx and brown bear were gone by 500 AD; wild boar by the end of the 13th century. Beaver went missing 400 years ago. No one alive has seen the habitat where these creatures held sway: the great Caledonian forest of Scots pine, aspen, oak, and juniper that stretched across 3.7 million acres of the Scottish Highlands since the last Ice Age, whittled away to 35 isolated remnants. One percent of the original woodland survives.
The quintessential Scottish countryside has few trees and bare, short-grass hills.
But while no one has yet seen it, the vision of clawing back a bit of that Caledonian splendor is very much alive. Biologists, activists, and hill walkers dismayed at the monotony of the landscape, tantalized by tales of budding ecological restoration projects around the world, have seen it in their minds’ eye and are plotting its return. Plotting and planting: Unlikely as it may seem, sheep-loving Scotland has become a hive of restorationist fervor.
There are a few ruminants in the way. The coming of livestock created the landscape we picture as quintessentially Scottish—rugged, denuded hillsides covered in short grass. In the larger sense, hoofstock also wrought the country’s capitulation to its southern neighbor. In 1707, when the Scottish Parliament dissolved itself, voting for the Treaty of Union with England, it did so to preserve the market for hides, beef, and mutton. At the end of that century, the same class of landowners let loose their “factors,” property managers who drove smallholders off the land during the infamous Highland Clearances, burning their thatched huts, starving them out to create a sheep walk. Ecologically, the whole country is a kind of Culloden—the moor where British troops slaughtered Highland clansmen in a brutal 1746 rout—laid waste in an act of enforced national unity.
Thus, beneath the superficially peaceful surface of Scotland simmers a longstanding discontent. Politically, the country is roiled by nationalism, fully engaged in “devolution,” the process of hedged independence set in motion a decade ago, when citizens voted in 1997 to reawake their slumbering Parliament. On the ground, Scots are as restive with an Anglicized landscape as they are with Anglo rule. “Who owns Scotland?” cries Rob McMorran, coordinator of a group of activists known as the Scottish Wild Land Group. “Up until a few years ago, God owned Scotland. It was a feudal system of ownership.” It many ways—despite passage of land reform in 2003—it still is. McMorran is echoing the title of a popular book and website, Who Owns Scotland? which reports that a mere 343 private individuals own half the country’s 19 million acres. Scotland’s two national parks, also created in 2003, are not nationalized: The majority of land within them is owned and managed privately, with continued sheep grazing and commercial forestry.
As they struggle to break free of the past, Scots find themselves immersed in pitched battles of a modern kind: debating the wisdom of wind farms or massive hydro schemes on their lochs, grappling with a ballooning population of deer that routinely bolt in front of trains and cars, causing accidents and delays. They are resentful of disfiguring conifer plantations grown and cut by the UK Forestry Commission, symbolic of outdated policies favoring cheap paper and pulp. As for the Highland Clearances, they might have happened yesterday, so raw is the memory. Another act of the reconvened parliament was the restoration of the “right-to-roam,” allowing every citizen to walk freely across the country, unchecked by fences or gates. The land has been taken back, at least symbolically, by the Scottish people. But the question arises: What will they do with it?
Volunteers began planting seedlings at Carrifran in Scotland's southern Borders region in 2000.
In this intoxicating atmosphere, environmentalists are determined to see how far they can go. Environmental groups are buying hunting estates to reforest; private landowners are experimenting with native planting; beaver have been reintroduced after decades of debate. Many such projects fall under the rubric of “rewilding”—the conservation method of restoring core wilderness areas, maintaining corridors between them for wildlife to migrate and disperse, and reintroducing top predators. But not everyone agrees on how to accomplish these goals, especially when it comes to carnivores.
“Wolves and bears are not going to be on the agenda in our lifetime,” Philip Ashmole says calmly. That kind of practicality has characterized everything about the project he helped organize, Carrifran Wildwood, from fund-raising to restoration. A biologist and expert in oceanic island ecosystems, Ashmole taught at Yale for some years, exploring the American park system during vacations. When he and his wife Myrtle, also a specialist, returned to the U.K., they were dismayed at the comparative dearth of wild lands. By the mid-1990s, joined by friends who volunteered legal, real estate, and business expertise, they began searching for a valley in the southern Borders region that could be restored to its original suite of habitats, from native forest along the lower slopes to scrub and heath near the craggy summits. They wanted a complete catchment, and found it—along with some of the highest peaks in southern Scotland—in a narrow glen named Carrifran, “seat of ravens” in the ancient local language.
They helped to set up a dedicated group, the Borders Forest Trust, building relationships with established environmental groups and soliciting donations from committed supporters, including David Stevenson, past owner of Edinburgh Woollen Mill, who put up the money for half a million tree seedlings. Eventually the Trust raised 335,000 pounds to buy the land, and on January 1, 2000, Millennium Day, a hundred volunteers began planting the first trees. At 1,640 acres, Carrifran is one of the largest ecological restoration projects in Scotland, fully planted with 450,000 birch, yew, aspen, juniper, oak, pine, and hazel seedlings—many grown from seed collected locally in patches of surviving native woods. It is estimated to offset nearly 30,000 tons of CO2 over the next century. Patrolled by Wildwood’s “dirty hands” volunteers—its boundary inspected over a hundred times in the past decade by hill walkers—the Carrifran project has been hailed as a monument to community-based conservation.
Trees are taking hold beneath the grazed hillsides of Carrifran.
The saviors arrived in the nick of time: Slopes stripped by sheep and goats, Carrifran’s few ancient trees clung gamely to rocky promontories perched over the stream, or “burn,” that bifurcates the valley. The stump of one of the last hollies in the glen collapsed after a storm, but cuttings sent out suckers and roots, contributing to the resurrection. While no one alive will see Carrifran in its reforested glory, a process that may take several centuries, the valley is already a stunning sight, covered in a thick pelt of vegetation.
As Philip Ashmole and I crossed the glen this past July, we were up to our knees in new growth: dog rose, bird cherry, downy birch, alder, juniper, and holly, which were flourishing and producing seed. Bare grass had been replaced by stands of willow and groves of hawthorn and hazel. Rare species of fern and anemone have been found. Black grouse, declining elsewhere, have been heard drumming in two leks high on the slopes. Once scarce woodland birds such as willow warbler, chaffinch, blackcap, siskin, and grasshopper warbler have been flocking back. Badger, fox, stoat, otter, weasel, mountain hare, and field voles are now common, and peregrine falcons are on the prowl.
The project has faced daunting challenges. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 required that tens of thousands of seedlings be quarantined for months before planting; many were lost. A 2003 fire burnt 10,000 newly-planted trees. The group had underestimated how bracken—ferns that colonize pastureland—suppresses regeneration, shading and crushing new growth; hand-cutting and spot-spraying of herbicides are dealing with that. Perhaps the most unexpected development occurred when residents of a nearby village protested the removal of feral goats. “They thought them part of their heritage,” Philip Ashmole said dryly. But Wildwood stood its ground, removing most goats alive, although three stragglers had to be shot. A deer “stalker” patrols once a week to ensure that no grazers penetrate fenced areas; sales of venison support the project.
With Carrifran maturing, the Trust has set its sights on the historic Ettrick Forest, where William Wallace rallied Scots to attack the British in 1297 and where the infamous Border Reivers—cattle rustlers—hid stolen herds in a glen known as the Devil’s Beef Tub. Grazed centuries ago, the Ettrick Forest is no more, but the BFT plans to do something about that, raising 700,000 pounds to buy a farm that includes the Tub. The property will forge a near-connection to Carrifran, less than two miles away, restoring three valleys and another major catchment.
In stark contrast to this carefully considered, incremental project is another approach, one that has been wildly controversial. In 2003, Paul Lister—English heir to a multi-million dollar furniture fortune—bought Alladale, a 23,000 acre Highlands estate. Scottish hunting properties have become a trophy acquisition for the super-rich. But Lister was different. Inspired by South Africa’s private game reserves, he brashly announced plans to turn Alladale into Great Britain’s first wilderness reserve, replanting native forest and reintroducing native predators, including the wolf. In 2006, he suggested the wolf reintroduction might be accomplished by 2009.
It hasn’t happened yet. Lister learned he would have to apply for a zoo license under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act, which he did late last year. But the plans remain mired in contradictory requirements: While EU regulations encourage reintroductions, the zoo licensure makes it illegal to keep predators and prey in the same area. Meanwhile, ramblers object to electrical fencing required to contain the animals, a violation of the roaming act. The British press has made a meal of it, gleefully reporting that locals call the place “McSerengeti.”
But Lister has remained unfazed, consulting with biologists at Oxford WildCRU (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) and wolf specialists in Romania, creating 18 jobs at Alladale, said to be the most on this land since the Clearances, where workers have built an unobtrusive hydroelectric plant to power the fully-restored lodge. A herd of Highland cattle have stepped in for the extinct auroch, and an 800-acre enclosure houses an experimental group of boar. The boars’ rooting destroys bracken, improving soil quality, so WildCRU undertook a study to establish the size of their territories. Two bemused-looking moose, Hercules and Hulda—immigrants from Sweden—have settled into another enclosure. While a previous owner began small-scale reforestation, Lister has planted 150,000 native trees—Caledonian pine, rowan, birch, oak, willow, and aspen—with an additional 250,000 planned. There are restoration plans for capercaillie, Britain’s largest game bird, and red squirrel.
Alladale may seem the opposite of community-based, but the land—vast stark valleys cut by torrents of peat-black water rushing over stone—has already claimed the dedication of the rangers who work it. They tackle everything from tree-planting to deer stalking (halving the number on the estate), guiding groups of local children who have never had a chance to fish or hike on the property’s rugged expanse.
Innes MacNeill, Alladale’s lanky reserve manager, has spent 19 years working at Alladale, where his father and uncle worked before him. He passionately defended the restoration efforts. “The land’s been raped and that’s a fact,” he said fiercely, as we stood in the open door of the garage, watching rain pour from the sky. “I don’t want to wait for things to grow. The scientists, the boffins, they say it will regenerate naturally. But that’s bullshit. For me, it can’t happen quick enough. That’s why I’m big into tree planting.” While granting that true wolf reintroduction into the wild would not happen in our lifetimes, he praised “the boss” for challenging the status quo. “Wolves,” he said, staring across the property. “Put them out there tomorrow.”
Ronnie MacLeod, a soft-spoken ranger with thirty years on the estate, was no less invested. After a visit to nearby Croik Church—famous for the messages scratched into its windows by homeless crofters who sheltered there during the Clearances—he described tree planting as a kind of solace. Sitting in a wooden badger hide set into the bank above a stream—an area where he himself had planted thousands of trees—he said, “It’s very personal. On hard heathery hills you plant Scots pine. Aspen like to grow by the river. You’re creating a forest as you go along. It’s very, very satisfying.”
This is happening across Scotland. Trees for Life has bought 10,000 acres west of Loch Ness, where more boar are hard at work, rooting and repairing soil. At Glenfeshie, 45,000 acres within the new Cairngorms National Park, deer are being culled and restoration is under way. In the end, it may take every kind of approach—from Carrifran’s deliberate march to the radical challenge of Alladale—to achieve “Caledonia! stern and wild,” a place that was a fantasy even when Sir Walter Scott wrote it, in 1805.
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Forum: Scotland · Post Preview: #299295 |
Pinned: Pub humour (Pages 1 2 3 ...211 )
| flora |
Posted on: 15-Sep-2010, 08:20 PM |
Replies: 3,156
Views: 175,351
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HOW TO START A FIGHT
One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas
gift...
The next year, I didn't buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied,
"Well, you still haven't used the gift I bought you last year!"
And that's how the fight started.....
______________________________
My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in
bed.
I turned to her and said, 'Do you want to have Sex?'
No,' she answered. I then said,
'Is that your final answer?'
She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, 'Yes..'
So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."
And that's when the fight started...
________________________________
I took my wife to a restaurant.
The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.
"I'll have the rump steak, rare, please."
He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?"
"Nah, she can order for herself."
And that's when the fight started.....
________________________________
My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she
kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a
nearby table.
I asked her, "Do you know him?"
"Yes", she sighed,
"He's my old boyfriend.... I understand he took to drinking right after we
split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn't been sober since."
"My God!" I said, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that
long?"
And then the fight started...
________________________________
When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me
that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to
take care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer.. Always something more
important to me. Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.
When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily
snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for
a short time and then went into the house.. I was gone only a minute, and
when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, "When you finish
cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."
The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.
________________________________
My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, "What's on TV?"
I said, "Dust."
And then the fight started...
________________________________
Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and
slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van, and
proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50
mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day. I went back into the house, quietly
undressed, and slipped back into bed.. I cuddled up to my wife's back, now
with a different anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is
terrible."
My loving wife of 5 years replied, "And, can you believe my stupid husband
is out fishing in that?"
And that's how the fight started...
________________________________
My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds."
I bought her a bathroom scale.
And then the fight started......
________________________________
After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social
Security.
The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my
age.
I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home.
I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and
come back later.
The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'.
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she
processed my Social Security application..
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the
Social Security office...
She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten
disability, too.'
And then the fight started...
________________________________
My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
"I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly.
I really need you to pay me a compliment.'
I replied, "Your eyesight's damn near perfect."
And then the fight started........
Flora |
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Forum: Ye Ole Celtic Pub - Open all day, all night! · Post Preview: #299276 |
| flora |
Posted on: 15-Sep-2010, 07:03 PM |
Replies: 884
Views: 40,269
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Better than us. We are at $2.69.
Flora |
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Forum: Quizes & Polls · Post Preview: #299275 |
| flora |
Posted on: 15-Sep-2010, 06:43 PM |
Replies: 884
Views: 40,269
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Gas has gone up $0.20 a gallon in the last two weeks. What's up?
flora |
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Forum: Quizes & Polls · Post Preview: #299273 |
| flora |
Posted on: 30-Aug-2010, 06:20 PM |
Replies: 2,901
Views: 266,561
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Wow, where did the summer go? I just blinked and it was time for the grandkids to go back to school. We have had a rough couple of months with a death in the family, one of our dogs of 14 years died and I just got my husband out of the hospital. (Sounds like a country song doesn't it? )
Please tell me that somewhere the weather is cooling off and the leaves might be turning color. We could only squeeze in one week of camping and like Leenie we hope to do more in October or November.
Stay safe everyone.
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #299138 |
| flora |
Posted on: 19-Jul-2010, 09:22 AM |
Replies: 13
Views: 352
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Sorry MacEoghainn, I am not ignoring your questions. We have had a death in the family. Hopefully I'll be back to learn more.
Flora |
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Forum: Politics & Current Events · Post Preview: #298515 |
| flora |
Posted on: 15-Jul-2010, 10:02 AM |
Replies: 13
Views: 352
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Hmm, walk into a nursing home or hospital and look at individuals that might not be there because of information they received earlier in life. Do we stop having compassion for people because of the way it might be paid for?
I get the Constitutional Republic and I wish we could rely on non-profit organizations to raise money. But it wouldn't even come close in scale to the money raised by a tax. Why is paying taxes so painless to many but to donate money is like pulling teeth?
People have an option of paying the tanning tax or not. I just can't look at this as strictly tax on white money. Of course money is the primary objective for taxes. Banning people from activities that are harmful? Yeah, that'll work.
No, it is not going to reach everyone but it will reach some.
Health care expenses are reduced when cancer is reduced. There are also discounts in health care and life insurance for non-smokers.
Not every program out there is going to work. But the more ideas and information out there, the more chances individuals out there will find what does.
Jillian, I'm sure when you started smoking you weren't thinking about the health hazards down the road. But realizing now what you might be avoiding is part of the battle. Keep on taking care of yourself!
Flora |
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Forum: Politics & Current Events · Post Preview: #298361 |
| flora |
Posted on: 13-Jul-2010, 05:48 PM |
Replies: 13
Views: 352
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Oh I agree that many will shout about racism and nobody is disputing that you don't have the right to shout about it. I believe the current administration will use racism to win over many that might be seeing that they can't deliver what they promised to begin with. Also there are many (DOJ) who will not take on disputes (including the NBPP) because they are protecting their own careers. Where's Elliott Ness when you need him? Too big a conflict for so little money.
But you have to look at what the bill might accomplish. From what I understand the original tax was going to be on botox and plastic surgery. I don't think lives would be saved there.
The average tanning bed salon grosses between $125,000 to $250,000 and is a 5 billion dollar industry. I think they could have had top lobbyist for their cause. Tanning beds emit up to 15 times the UVA & UVB radiation of the sun at noon time. Skin cancer is at an all time high. If you wanted to tax all sunbathers, the only way to do that would be to put a tax on suntan lotion which is a 2.2 billion dollar industry. If you get the same results as cigarette tax you would have people going without lotion and an increase in cancer.
Scientific studies show that every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking rates by about 6.5 percent and overall cigarette consumption by about four percent. If you get the same results for the tanning bed tax, how many young people have been saved and health care expense reduced?
Flora |
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Forum: Politics & Current Events · Post Preview: #298318 |
| flora |
Posted on: 12-Jul-2010, 08:21 AM |
Replies: 13
Views: 352
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Hello Shamrock.
I wonder if there is another way to look at this. For being a beach child from an early age I am always concerned about skin cancer. It seems that the tanning beds are higher in the cancer causing rays then the sun.
Now I am not a smoker but haven't they taxed tobacco because of the health threat?
Flora
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Forum: Politics & Current Events · Post Preview: #298279 |
Pinned: Pub humour (Pages 1 2 3 ...211 )
| flora |
Posted on: 05-Jul-2010, 06:58 AM |
Replies: 3,156
Views: 175,351
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| QUOTE (Patch @ 05-Jul-2010, 04:16 AM) | The following are real statements found on insurance claim forms. Drivers attempted to summarize the details of an accident succinctly.
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Coming home, I drove into wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have.
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I thought my window was down, but found it was up when I put my head through it.
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The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intentions.
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The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
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I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.
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In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
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I had been shopping for plants all day and was on my way home. As I reached an intersection a hedge sprang up obscuring my vision, and I did not see the other car.
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The telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out of its way when it struck the front end.
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I was thrown from the car as it left the road. I was later found in the ditch by some stray cows.
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The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.
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I had been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.
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I was on my way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.
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As I approached the intersection a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident. To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.
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My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.
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An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.
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I told the police that I was not injured, but upon removing my hat found that I had a fractured skull.
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I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the curb when I struck him.
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The pedestrian had no idea which direction to run, so I ran over him.
Slàinte,
Patch |
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Forum: Ye Ole Celtic Pub - Open all day, all night! · Post Preview: #298031 |
| flora |
Posted on: 03-Jul-2010, 02:39 PM |
Replies: 15
Views: 510
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Taiwan vessel poised to aid oil recovery
But red tape may delay the giant skimmer from starting work because it's not a U.S. ship.
Scott Harper
NORFOLK -- Ten stories tall and nearly four football fields long, the world's largest oil skimmer dropped anchor here Friday on its way to the Gulf of Mexico and a likely encounter with the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
Before the floating superstructure can wage war, though, its billionaire owner has a few hurdles to jump, including one key question: Will it even work?
Nobu Su, the CEO and founder of TMT Group, a Taiwanese shipping company, described the engineering behind his latest creation as "totally not common sense and totally against the rules."
Speaking in shirt sleeves and a blue baseball cap on the docks of Norfolk International Terminal, Su was referring to the special holes he had cut into the sides of his behemoth vessel, named A Whale.
As designed, the giant skimmer would roll across the Gulf "like a lawn mower cutting the grass," Su said, ingesting millions of gallons of oily water through the narrow slits.
The tainted water would then fall into huge storage tanks in the belly of the ship. There, oil would separate from sea water naturally. The toxic stuff would be collected and later disposed of, the water returned to the Gulf.
"A large-scale disaster needs a large-scale solution," Su told a crowd of reporters, shipping executives and regulators at the dock.
A Whale could handle 500,000 barrels of oily water per day, or slightly less than what all the skimmers now in the Gulf have gathered in more than 60 days on the job, Su said.
A no-brainer? Not quite.
Because the vessel is Taiwanese and built in South Korea, it needs an exemption from the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly known as the Jones Act, a federal law requiring commercial ships doing business in U.S. coastal waters to be American-flagged.
Then there are environmental concerns. Because the ship would discharge water back into the Gulf, albeit after much of the oil had been skimmed away, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must go along with the deal.
Compounding the problem is that A Whale has never actually processed oily water before though it did pass a recent test in Portugal, where foamy water was sucked into the ship's bowels at sea and "did quite nicely," said Bob Grantham, an executive with TMT Group.
Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration supports the experiment and hopes A Whale is granted all necessary approvals "to see if it works," said Matt Strader, a deputy secretary of transportation.
TMT Group has hired a Washington lobbying firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, to help negotiate with federal regulators and to create public pressure in favor of A Whale.
One reason the ship came to Norfolk was so the Coast Guard could get a good look at it. TMT held a briefing for Coast Guard officials on Thursday, and a few Coast Guard officers attended the media event Friday.
Also attending the event was Ed Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University. TMT flew Overton to Norfolk to get a personal look at the mega- skimmer.
"Bureaucracy shouldn't stand in the way of cleaning up our coastline," Overton said. "We need help. So I encourage them to just go down there and not take no for an answer. I mean, seriously, how can it hurt?"
Ironically, the ship was originally built as a supertanker for oil. But soon afterward, the BP oil spill began off the Louisiana coast, and Su saw an opportunity.
He sailed the ship to Portugal for modifications, turning A Whale into an oil skimmer that "drinks sea water," Su said.
Su has spent "many millions" on the project, said Frank Maisano, a spokesman, and would "pretty much like to recover his costs."
The shipping magnate has not talked to BP yet, and is not sure who would pay his expenses, assuming A Whale is approved for the work.
Still, the ship was expected to leave Norfolk on Friday night, arriving in the Gulf within three days.
She is in the Gulf now and is expected to start Sunday. I sure hope it works!
Flora |
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Forum: Politics & Current Events · Post Preview: #297949 |
| flora |
Posted on: 01-Jul-2010, 01:10 PM |
Replies: 42
Views: 3,985
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I'm so sorry to hear this Mike. The waiting and wondering is so hard. Please take comfort that you have many praying for you and your family. I will check back frequently for news. Keep your chin up.
Flora |
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #297865 |
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