The Ice Beast

Life is like an unorthodox teacher -- you get the test first and the lesson comes later. During the evening of January 26, 2009, my region of the country was having a severe ice storm. Ice was forming on trees, causing them to literally explode as large branches were falling, trees were splitting down the middle and some were toppling from the root. Power lines in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky were ravaged. My utility company reported 32,000 out of 37,000 households were without electricity. The four utility poles in the line across the road from my property had been destroyed. In northern Arkansas, over 6,000 utility poles had to be replaced. My driveway was blocked by three large fallen trees and a large branch had collapsed on my van rendering it stationary. I was without electricity (my only source of heat) and running water, and my phone lines were dead. The temperatures dipped into the low 20s and teens over the next several days. The temperature inside my place dropped into the 30s at night. I had plenty of stored food, water and whiskey on hand, but no alternative heating source. I spent the first three days trying to stay warm under some quilts by candle light in my smallest room. My dog threw off some body heat as well. It was an eerily quiet time for staring out windows all day and staring at walls at night, and contemplating my existence. Then on day four, I started thinking about my grandfather and Hugh Glass. My grandfather was a very rugged, independent guy who had a plaque on his wall that read, "I felt sorry for myself when I had no shoes until the day I saw a man with no feet." It was obvious the electricity would not be restored soon, so I decided to stop waiting for help and do something about it. Since my chainsaw was electric, I started sawing by hand on the fallen trees in my driveway. The wood was green and wet, making hand-sawing nearly impossible because it kept pinching the blade. It took two full days to clear a path, thanks to a guy who lives down the road and drove by and helped me with the big pieces with his chainsaw. Then I had to clear the hanging branch from my van and move it out of there. Unfortunately, the only place I could move it was where it got stuck in some deep mud with no room for maneuvering. I couldn't get it out for many more days until the mud dried. After 17 days of struggling and hunkering down, my electricity was restored on February 11. It took another three days to repair my running water system because of frozen pipes that had cracked. Hugh Glass was my inspiration through much of the ordeal. He was a mountain man, fur trader and honorary Pawnee in the early 1800s. In 1823, Glass was with an expedition party of 13 mountain men in the Dakotas whereupon he was off by himself scouting for game and was attacked by a Grizzly bear. He fought it with his knife and the bear was eventually killed with the help of his partners, Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald. Glass was badly injured. He had a broken leg, gashes on his back exposing his ribs and remained unconscious. The expedition party determined Glass would soon die. Bridger and Fitzgerald volunteered to remain behind and bury Glass when he expired, as the expedition party moved on toward the valley of the Yellowstone. While Fitzgerald and Bridger were digging the grave, a band of hostile Arikara Indians appeared. Fitzgerald and Bridger quickly grabbed Glass's rifle, knife and equipment, and high-tailed it out of there. When they caught up with the expedition party, they reported that Glass had died. At some point, Glass regained consciousness. No weapons, no equipment, abandoned by his partners. First, he set his broken leg. All of his deep gashes were festering, potentially turning to gangrene, so he laid his wounded back on a rotting log allowing maggots to eat the dead flesh. The nearest settlement was Fort Kiowa on the Missouri River, some 200 miles away. Glass wrapped himself in a bear hide that was intended to be his burial shroud and began crawling toward the south. Glass survived on wild berries and roots. On one occasion he drove two wolves away from a dead animal carcass and consumed some meat. It took him six weeks to reach the Cheyenne River, where he fashioned a raft and floated down the river, eventually reaching Fort Kiowa. After a long recuperation, Glass set out to have an unfriendly chat with Bridger and Fitzgerald. He eventually encountered Bridger near the mouth of the Bighorn River on the Yellowstone. But Bridger was only 17 years old at the time of the incident, thus Glass forgave him. Later, he found Fitzgerald. But Fitzgerald had joined the U.S. Army, so Glass refrained from killing him. Killing a soldier would lead to a death sentence. However, he did retrieve his missing rifle from Fitzgerald. In the winter of 1833, Hugh Glass and two other mountain men were killed by Arikara Indians on the Yellowstone River. A few months later, some fur trappers recognized Hugh Glass's rifle in the hands of an Arikara Indian who was trying to pass himself off as a friendly Minitaris Indian, whereupon he was swiftly dispatched to the Happy Hunting Ground in the Sky. So I figured if Hugh Glass could travel 200 miles by crawling overland wrapped in a bear skin for 6 weeks with a broken leg, then build a raft and float down a river, surely I could survive without electricity and running water for 17 days. The glory of existence is not what happens to you -- it's what you do when it happens. ___________ Quote for the Day – "When you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a couple of dogs and where electricity is a very handy item. ___________ - -

Men and their Dogs

Dogs are the role model for living life. You can make a fool of yourself and your dog will make a fool of itself too, while laughing with its tail. HOW TO UNDERSTAND MEN THROUGH THEIR DOGS is a book written by Wendy Diamond, informing women how to judge a man by the breed of dog he owns. Since I have a keen insight into men and dogs, I can save you the price of the book. I have absolutely no insight into women but it seems irrelevant under the circumstances. SPORTING DOGS · Pointers, retrievers, setters and spaniels are field dogs bred for hunting. · A man who owns a sporting dog is a lazy outdoorsman who needs a dog to do most of the work, like finding and retrieving game. · He also wants a woman who will do most of the work, including stocking and retrieving beer. · But he isn’t too keen on pointing, especially someone pointing at him. · If you want to be a waitress, this is your guy. HOUNDS · They're used in hunting too but have a different personality. · They sniff out a trail and make lots of noise, called baying. · When not hunting, hounds are very lazy and spend a lot of time napping. · If you want a man who is primarily a couch potato, when he’s not out sniffing around and making lots of noise, a hound man is for you. WORKING DOGS · This category includes boxers, pinchers and huskies, plus very large dogs such as Great Danes, Rotweilers and Mastiffs. · Men who have large dogs, particularly pit bulls, are men who have difficulty coping with the world. · They’re macho on the outside and frightened on the inside. Their dog is their protection. · Dangerous paranoid men have dangerous paranoid dogs. · If you seek danger and paranoia, join the military. NON-SPORTING DOGS · This category includes Bichon Frises, Shar-peis, Lhasa Apsos, Schipperkes and Shiba Inus. · These are pretentious dogs with pretentious names. · A man who owns one of them is a pretentious man who probably thinks a slick necktie is hot and jazz is cool. · He owns a trendy car, wears fashionable clothes, sniffs his brandy and checks for lint. · Unless you’re a fashion model or a Capricorn, you won’t be pretentious enough for him. TERRIERS · Feisty dogs, bred to kill vermin, this breed has little tolerance for other animals, including other dogs. · A man who owns a terrier is a feisty man who has little tolerance for others, including his alter ego. · If you have a psychological need to have a man snarling at you, find a man who has a terrier. TOY DOGS · Members of this category are miniature versions of the real things. · Men with toy dogs are miniature versions of real men, unless they live in an apartment and there’s no room for a bigger dog. · They usually have limp wrists and a flair for decorating a room. · If you want someone to do your hair or nails, find a toy dog man. Otherwise move on. HERDING DOGS · This group is made up of shepherds, collies and other breeds that control the movement of animals, primarily cattle or sheep. · They are highly intelligent, easy to maintain and have a natural instinct to nibble at the heels of whatever they are herding. · One of my previous dogs was a female Australian Cattle Dog, also known as a Queensland Blue Heeler. They're magnificent creatures, much like their owners. Just make sure to keep them from nibbling at your heels. MUTTS · A mutt is a dog of mixed breed and low status. · It’s more carefree than purebreds because it doesn’t have to live up to some meaningless standard. · Mutt men don’t live up to meaningless standards either. · My current dogs are mutts. As best as anyone can tell, they're part terrier and part goofball. · I'm part Swedish, part German, part English and part rebel. · Mutts are very good at frolicking with skunks and I'm very good at avoiding the rest of the world. · If you want a carefree man of questionable status, find a mutt man. · Be sure to check for fleas. A man without a dog has no soul. If a man has nothing to give a dog, he has nothing to give a woman. A man with more than two dogs has too much responsibility. If a man pays too much attention to his dogs he has no time for a woman. Either way, you’ll be ignored. Owning a cat is like owning a fuzzy rock that changes position once in a while. A man who owns a cat prefers indifference to companionship. If you want to be treated like a fuzzy rock, find a cat man. Certain dog men make good companions. If you scratch their bellies, they’ll aim to please. ___________ Quote for the Day – "The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." Andy Rooney ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a couple dogs and an imaginary girlfriend named Trixie "Boom-Boom" O'Toole. ___________ - -

UFO Reality

In 1971, Dr. Edgar Mitchell (PhD from M.I.T.) was the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 14 moon mission. He, along with fellow astronaut Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest moon walk ever. On July 4, 2008, Dr. Mitchell appeared on the "Larry King Live" program on CNN and claimed that high ranking officials, both military and civilian, have told him that the UFO phenomenon is a reality and in part a non-human gathering of intelligence of Planet Earth and the human race. On July 23, 2008, Dr. Mitchell made the same assertions on a London radio station interview, stating that he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA, but each one was covered up. . "I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge..." Dr. Mitchell claims, "We've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real. It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it." He also confirmed an extraterrestrial craft crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. On July 4, 1947, several reliable witnesses saw a distant object crash to the earth near Roswell, New Mexico. This unidentified object was spotted on Army Air Force radar and an armed unit was dispatched to the area. Later, Mack Brazel discovered a large amount of unusual debris scattered over his ranch near Roswell. Major Jesse Marcel, intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group at the Roswell Army Air Field, had personally gone to the Brazel Ranch to recover the wreckage. He described the metal as being incredibly tough, yet paper thin. It couldn't be burned or cut, and contained strange inscriptions. On July 8, 1947, Lieutenant Walter Haut, public relations officer, issued a statement to the press that began, "The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc." The following day, on the orders from the base commander, Colonel William Blanchard, Lt. Haut issued a subsequent press release explaining that the previously reported flying disc had actually been a weather balloon. Lt. Haut died in 2006. He left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death. That statement was made public in June of 2007. In it, Haut asserts that the weather balloon claim was a bogus story to cover up the truth. According to Haut, the real unidentified flying object (UFO) had been recovered by the military and stored in a hanger. Haut also declared that he had seen the recovered craft, as well as several recovered alien bodies. He described the craft as being a 15-foot by 6-foot egg-shaped object with no windows, no wings, no tail and no landing gear. The recovered bodies were approximately four feet tall with disproportionately large heads. For decades, local Roswell undertaker Glenn Dennis claimed that he had been summoned by an officer at the Army Air Field to deliver four "child-sized" coffins to the base, which he did, shortly after the crash incident. Haut's sworn affidavit went on to mention a meeting he had with base commander Col. Blanchard and the Commander of the Eighth Army Air Force, General Roger Ramey, and others. They examined the wreckage material and were unable to identify it. Plans were made to divert public attention away from the incident and recover debris from both sites. There had also been a second crash site that was kept from the public. Col. Phillip J. Corso was a Pentagon Army Intelligence officer and former Inspector General of the 7th Army. He wrote a book in 1997 (shortly before his death) titled THE DAY AFTER ROSWELL. He went into great detail about the cover-up of the UFO crash near Roswell, and about how he and Lt. Gen. Arthur Trudeau, the chief of U.S. Army Research and Development, used some of the debris from the crash to conduct further military research. Either Haut, Marcel, Brazel, Dennis and Corso are all liars and trying to pull an elaborate prank on the American public or they're telling the truth. And if they're telling the truth, it means that one or more UFOs crashed in New Mexico in 1947 and our government has withheld the truth from us for some 60 years now. Astronaut Gordon Cooper (1927 -- 2004) wrote a book in 2000 titled LEAP OF FAITH. He described how he chased UFOs as an Air Force pilot while stationed in Germany in 1951. He also wrote about how he shot film of a UFO encounter from Gemini 5 that was quickly classified by President Johnson and confiscated. In the final paragraph, Cooper wrote, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us." Haut, Marcel, Brazel, Dennis, Corso, astronaut Mitchell, astronaut Cooper, a former director of the CIA, the former chief of the British Royal Navy, highly ranked military personnel, prominent government officials and others have all stepped forward to reveal the truth about the UFO phenomenon. Yet the mainstream media scoffs at the mere mention of UFOs and it provides fodder for late night TV comedians. On July 24, 2008, the evening following Dr. Mitchell's London radio interview, David Letterman's Top Ten List was the top ten excuses NASA hasn't revealed UFO contact. 1) Our leader isn't as bright as their leader 2) Busy trying to confirm evidence of A-Rod/Madonna sex video 3) Too upset to talk after what happened to Pluto 4) No number 4 – writer abducted by aliens 5) Hey chillax, bro 6) We were waiting to reveal it on a very special episode of "The Tyra Banks Show" 7) Been sort of preoccupied with this giant asteroid that's headed toward Earth 8) Too much Tang 9) We would like to visit these aliens but gas is so damn expensive 10) Didn't think it was a big deal Of course, the real reason is that the government wants to keep the cycle of production and consumption going full throttle without any distractions. The revelation of the validity of UFO activity might cause fear and panic, thereby hampering the primary objective of the government which is to sustain its ferocious appetite for growth. Most of the human race goes through life in a hypnotic state, too apprehensive to accept the truth, or too self-centered to give a damn. They're trapped in a system of self-imposed slavery, obedient to an illusion, struggling to acquire things, oblivious of unperceivable truths. They would rather be comfortable with their false view of reality, or their escapism from reality, than to learn the true nature of existence. We are not alone. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known" Carl Sagan ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where too much Tang is rarely a problem. ___________ - -

HAPPY NATIONS

Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester in England, has collected data from more than 100 studies around the globe and created a list that ranks 178 countries on the basis of happiness -- the subjective perceived well-being of the populace within each country. Participants in the various studies, some 80,000 people worldwide, were asked questions relating to satisfaction with life and personal happiness. According to Professor White, "a nation's level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels, followed by wealth, and then provision of education." Believe it or not, the top 20 happiest nations are: 1) Denmark 2) Switzerland 3) Austria 4) Iceland 5) The Bahamas 6) Finland 7) Sweden 8) Bhutan 9) Brunei 10) Canada 11) Ireland 12) Luxembourg 13) Costa Rica 14) Malta 15) The Netherlands 16) Antigua and Barbuda 17) Malaysia 18) New Zealand 19) Norway 20) The Seychelles Some of the more prominent nations with large populations and/or significant global influence include: 23) USA 35) Germany 41) England 62) France 82) China 90) Japan 125) India 167) Russia. And at the bottom of the list: 176) Democratic Republic of the Congo 177) Zimbabwe 178) Burundi. As expected, the smaller nations tend to be the happier ones -- less people, less problems. Large countries with a multi-cultural populace have more internal conflict -- it's difficult to accommodate a wide variety of views. Obviously, freedom wasn't a significant factor in this study. The countries at the top of the list are highly socialistic where taxes are burdensomely high and the government operates a multitude of social services. In a collectivist society, people become dependent upon government thereby lowering individual initiative, causing economic stagnation. It also diminishes the pride and joy of personal accomplishment. It's not too surprising that a social psychologist would consider "well-being" factors as the primary elements of happiness. But to many people, individual freedom is far more important than a government handout. Weather certainly wasn't a major consideration either. Six out of the top seven nations are Nordic countries near the Arctic Circle where the air is cold, the nights are long and everyone drinks vodka just to stay warm. In 2004, a liberal friend of mine was so upset with the Bush administration he decided to move to Finland because they have all sorts of government benefits. He also indicated he wanted to teach his sons to be self-sufficient. When I pointed out that Finland had a high incidence of depression and the highest suicide rate in the world, he argued it was genetic. When I mentioned that socialism was the opposite of self-sufficiency, he growled at me. When I told him the search for happiness was one of the main reasons for unhappiness, he told me to eat dirt and die. I don't think he ever did move to Finland, but don't know for sure. Our friendship ceased when it became apparent he was a blithering idiot. Wherever he landed, I'm certain he feels entitled to the earnings of others -- after all, that's what self-sufficiency is all about. The USA is far from perfect. But it's big enough, from sea to shining sea, to explore until you find your niche, be it the backwoods of Arkansas, the lakes of Minnesota, the mountains of Colorado, the desert of Arizona, the beaches of Florida, the hills of Tennessee, the expanse of Alaska, the islands of Hawaii, the shores of Carolina, the big sky of Montana, the bayous of Louisiana, the bustle of New York, or the fantasy of California. You can live a happy life in the USA. There are plenty of lifestyles to choose from; or you could end your pursuit of happiness and just be happy. If you can't find happiness within yourself, you won't find it elsewhere. Besides, if you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn't be human – you'd be a game show host. ___________ Quote for the Day -- "Mystical references to society and its programs to help may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats." Thomas Sowell ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Donner and where happiness is an inside job. ___________ - -

Abundant Black Gold

The USA controls three percent of the world's proven oil supply yet consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, thereby allowing foreign governments, corrupt political leaders and terrorists to have leverage on our economy. Plus, the USA production of crude oil has been stymied due to environmental concerns. Under these conditions, oil industry insiders reap large profits and cause economic instability. The USA has become dependent on foreign crude oil suppliers, particularly from the Middle East where self-centered sheiks and tyrants squander zillions of dollars on themselves while their subjects struggle in poverty. But suppose the supply of oil was somehow regenerating itself and not in danger of being depleted after all. Dr. Thomas Gold is a physicist at Cornell University. Some of his accomplishments include landmark research on the workings of the ear, developing the mathematics of the rules of cosmology, and overseeing the construction and operation of the world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Dr. Gold is also a proponent of the abiotic theory of oil. Developed by the Russians in the 1950s, the abiotic theory states that oil is not derived from decayed plant and animal life, but is rather a bio-product of a continual biochemical reaction below the surface of the earth that is forced to attainable depths by the centrifugal forces of the earth's rotation. In other words, oil is continually being produced (created) deep within the planet and "seeps" toward the surface by the centrifugal force of the rotation of the planet, which rotates at a speed of over 1,000 miles per hour at the equator, as Planet Earth travels through the Universe at 67,000 miles per hour. THE DEEP HOT BIOSPHERE: THE MYTH OF FOSSIL FUELS is Dr. Gold's groundbreaking book, published in 1998, promoting the idea that oil is not a fossil fuel and, contrary to popular belief, is a renewable resource. While conventional scientific wisdom dictates that life is formed on the Earth's surface, with the aid of the sun, Dr. Gold believes that most living entities reside deep within the Earth's crust at temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Celsius, living off of methane and other hydrocarbons. Although highly regarded as a physicist, Dr. Gold has had a history as being a maverick. In the 1950s, the first radio astronomers discovered odd radio sources in the sky and thought they were unusual stars. Dr. Gold claimed they were actually distant galaxies. Years later, with new technology, Dr. Gold was proven to be correct. In the 1960s, a different type of radio source was detected in the skies, flashing on and off with regularity. Dr. Gold wrote that these pulsars were neutron stars, the existence of which had been predicted but had never been seen. Although many of his colleagues scoffed at this explanation, once again Dr. Gold was proven to be correct. Jerome R. Corsi (PhD from Harvard) is the author of 18 books, including ATOMIC IRAN and UNFIT FOR COMMAND. Craig R. Smith, Chairman of the board of Swiss America Trading Company, is the author of 24 scholarly books. Corsi and Smith have co-authored a book titled BLACK GOLD STRANGLEHOLD, which shares the notion that oil is continually created deep inside the planet and contends that the so-called scarcity is a marketing ploy to charge higher prices. For example, researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, as well as other studies, have demonstrated that fossils from plants and animals are not necessary to create crude oil or natural gas. It's a fact that numerous capped wells which were formerly dry have been discovered to be plentiful once again after many years. Perhaps this is newly created oil "seeping upward" by the pressure of the expansion of newly created crude oil (and centrifugal force). According to various sources, including NASA, USGS and many oceanographic institutes, there is a "natural" oil seepage into the earth's oceans, estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 million gallons of crude oil per year. Once again, this is clearly an example of "seeping upward" on the ocean floor from lower depths below the floor surface -- highly unlikely to be extinct dinosaur juice "trapped" under the depths of the ocean. In 1542, Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo used tar from natural oil seepage, known to sailors as asphaltum, off the coast of North America to waterproof his ships -- just as the Native American Chumash Indians did with their canoes. In 1792, English explorer George Vancouver noted in his log that parts of the Pacific Coast were covered in all directions "with an oily surface so thick that the entire sea took on an iridescent hue." Natural seepage of oil under the ocean, which is currently monitored by NASA, continues to this day. And 75 million gallons of crude oil seeping upward from the ocean floor every year is no small amount -- additional evidence of the possibility of oil perpetually regenerating itself. The Middle East is in continual extreme turmoil. World War III may be on the horizon. And it's all about the availability and production of crude oil, supposedly a limited resource formed millions of years ago by decaying vegetation and extinct animals. However, all of this bloody unrest in the Middle East may be unnecessary. Perhaps oil is a renewal resource, continually generating additional crude oil deep within the earth whereby it seeps upward toward the surface on a regular basis. Perhaps there are those within the oil industry (and elsewhere) who are aware of the abiotic phenomenon but remain silent (or prevent disclosure) of this fact in order to remain highly profitable. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water." Miguel de Cervantes ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where chiggers seem to seep up from the ground. ___________ - -

South of the Border

In 1980, when I was married and living in Los Angeles, my wife and I took a trip to Club Med in Playa Blanca, Mexico. We boarded a 707 passenger jet, chartered by a travel agency, on a Friday night bound for Manzanillo. To my surprise, the plane landed in La Paz on the Baja Peninsula where each passenger was given a card by the stewardess and told to fill it out. Then we all disembarked from the plane, stood in line in the terminal, handed the cards to a customs agent, got back on the plane and eventually took off for our original destination. Apparently, this exercise in inefficiency was standard procedure for entering Mexico. Even though no one got on or off at La Paz, it was a "port of entry" into the country so we all had to go through this bureaucratic absurdity. While my ex-wife always seemed to enjoy our travels, this sort of nonsense generally caused my blood to exceed the boiling point of tungsten. But it's nothing compared to the rigors involved in moving to Mexico. A director with SW Bell in St. Louis recently posted an Internet account of his ordeal in relocating to Mexico. In order to receive a permanent work visa, called an FM3, the man had to submit the following original items: · Birth certificate (plus his wife's birth certificate) · Marriage certificate · High school transcripts and proof of graduation · College transcripts and proof of graduation · Two letters of recommendation from supervisors he had worked for at least one year · A letter from the Chief of Police of St. Louis indicating he had no arrest record, no outstanding warrants and was "a citizen in good standing" · He also had to personally write a letter about himself clearly stating why there was no Mexican citizen with his skills and explain why his skills were important to Mexico The above documents then had to be certified as legal transactions, notarized and translated into Spanish. Next, he and his wife spent five hours, accompanied by a Mexican lawyer, visiting various government offices where they were photographed and fingerprinted three different times. At four separate locations, they were instructed on Mexican tax law, Mexican labor law, Mexican housing law and Mexican criminal law. The couple paid out a total of $4,000 in fees (and bribes) to complete the process. They were required to obtain a Mexican driver's license. Once again, photographed and fingerprinted. They were instructed that if ever stopped by a policeman to never give their driver's license to the policeman (instead, hold it against the inside of the window) otherwise they would have to pay a ransom to get it back. At that point, the man was issued a "permanent" FM3 work visa, which was good for three years and renewal for two more years after paying additional fees. Hell hath no fury like a bureaucracy scorned. As U.S. citizens, the couple was not allowed to purchase a home and required to rent in compliance with Mexican law. In addition, to submit their annual Mexican income tax required about 20 legal-size pages. The U.S. Congress has been currently working on new immigration legislation that may include some improved security across the southern border, temporary work permits for Mexican laborers, etc. However, the Mexican government is opposed to any such legislation because they consider it to be an insult and inconvenience to their people. “The greatest power of bureaucracies is to make the smart act stupid and the good to act evil.” Raul Ramos Note to the Mexican government -- Life is a two-way street and convenience isn't exactly your specialty. The USA needs seasonal Mexican laborers (jobs most Americans won't do) and the laborers need the work. There must be a simple solution to this problem, but adding more government bureaucracy probably isn't it. In an imperfect world, where fruit grows on trees, there are growers and pickers and consumers -- and those whose sole purpose in life seems to be to make it more difficult for everyone to venture from Point A to Point B. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Remove the document and you remove the man." Mikhail Bulgakov ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and has no plans to venture south of the border. ___________ - -

Beyond Earth

Planet Earth is orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles per hour -- it is also rotating on its axis (spinning) at 1,000 miles per hour at the equator. Our solar system (the sun and its 9 planets) is travelling through space at 515,000 miles per hour. Our sun is a single star within a galaxy of stars, called the Milky Way. Our Milky Way galaxy, home of our solar system, is 100,000 light years across -- it would take about 230,000,000 (230 million) years at the speed of light to travel all the way around the outside perimeter of the Milky Way galaxy. There are about 300,000,000,000 (300 billion) stars within the Milky Way galaxy alone, a modest-sized galaxy compared to most other galaxies in the known universe. Our known universe contains some 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) galaxies, with each galaxy potentially containing multiple billions of stars. On a clear night, the average person is able to view approximately 3,000 stars with the naked eye. On July 22, 2003, CNN News reported that astronomers announced there are 70 sextillion stars in the visible universe. A sextillion is a 1 followed by 21 zeroes -- that's 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 known stars in the universe, more than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the entire Earth. This is not the total number of stars in the universe -- it's the number within the range of present day telescopes. The true number could be a zillion times higher. Our single star (the sun) contains 9 planets -- imagine how many potential planets are contained within 70, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000 known stars (other suns). Keep that in mind the next time you complain about finding a convenient parking spot. Also, keep that in mind if you assume that Planet Earth is the only spinning orb in the universe that contains intelligent entities, such as human beings, whose intelligence is often highly questionable. ___________ Quote for the Day – “Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.” Albert Einstein ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where the universe is a fairly large place. ___________ - -