Let's visit on the Porch II (subsidized, democrats, conservative)

[jasper12]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Here's another profound article about the 'shutdown' vs national parks (read the whole thing):

Mark Steyn: If a government shuts down in the forest, and nobody hears it, that's the sound of liberty dying

Very profound. I have no doubt the originators of the NPS would be saddened today. The goal of NPS was to preserve pristine areas for people to have access, and enjoy...sort of missed the whole concept of that in the last few weeks.

I agree, shut down all facilities, put a notice, "No ranger on duty"...turning our country into a military state is a slippery slope to government control. Scary.

Welcome Misfitbanana! I have been to the sprawling metro of Glendive, nice folks there. It is pretty much on the edge of no place...but you can feel the prairie there, as one of my Sioux friends told me.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by jasper12

Very profound. I have no doubt the originators of the NPS would be saddened today. The goal of NPS was to preserve pristine areas for people to have access, and enjoy...sort of missed the whole concept of that in the last few weeks.

I agree, shut down all facilities, put a notice, "No ranger on duty"...turning our country into a military state is a slippery slope to government control. Scary.

And missed the concept that We The People own this country, not the government whom we've hired as property managers.

This 'comment' has already gained the status of urban legend (and like most such, was probably mostly, uh, concocted), but it's something to think about -- why were they so well-prepared for the shutdown?

Do these Signs point too the Pre Planned Shutdown?, page 1

Originally Posted by jasper12

Welcome Misfitbanana! I have been to the sprawling metro of Glendive, nice folks there. It is pretty much on the edge of no place...but you can feel the prairie there, as one of my Sioux friends told me.

Oh, yes... I know exactly what your Sioux friend means. The hugeness of open space of prairie or desert (and probably ocean and outer space) -- very different from other, more-constrained environments. Yet they're not quite like one another, either.

[MTSilvertip]

Welcome MollyBanana.

Glendive is a "fur-piece" from beachfront property, but I always liked it. Those hi-line towns are a place unto themselves.
I don't know how much effect the Bakken has had on Glendive, but it has really had an impact on a lot of towns in the region and changed the make-up dramatically. They aren't the towns they used to be, but they have lived through oil booms before and come back as charming little places with good people that you are happy to live in and raise kids in.

Crispy morning in Helena! 24 at my place, lots of frost on everything, glad I had the stove going!!

Traveled to Ennis, (the Tobacco Roots were completely white, cloud cover on the Spanish Peaks) and then over to Big Timber (couldn't even see the Bridgers or the Crazy Mountains, but the snow line was down to about 4500 feet), and back to Helena this weekend. Full fall colors out there, beautiful time to be on the road, well, outside of the storms anyway

Snow wasn't sticking to the road, but boy was it wet, and kept it up for 2 full days. I didn't get out of the storm until I was nearly to White Sulphur.

Winter is definately in the air

Better get some more wood in soon....

[Reziac]

Here's a couple interesting graphics regarding business-friendliness... Montana ranks in the top ten:

How Well Is Your State Government Working? - Joe For America

[note that in the top graphic, unfriendly is dark and friendly is white, while in the 2nd graphic, unfriendly is dark and friendly is grey.]

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by MisfitBanana

I didn't want to make a thread just about this, so maybe this thread is appropriate. This just cracked me up - I was looking at the information about Drummond, MT on Wikipedia, and under Demographics, this is what it says:

The gender makeup of the town was 48.5% boys and 31.5% girls and 20% undetermined.

LOL - I've never seen that before. I'm sure that it's just someone messing around, but still - 20% "undetermined."

That's funny. Actually, where I live, we have some that are undetermined too.

[ElkHunter]

I wonder, who, in the scheme of things, determines essential billets on keeping the Gov running, partially? This was a Gov slow down, not a shut down. They furloughed 400,000 non-essential employee's, when in fact, a bill opened up those billets and yet Obama kept them closed. They passed a bill to bring back to work, all Military and DOD Support personel, and yet, shipyards were closed as all the shipyard, civilian, workers were furloughed. Aren't they DOD support?

I think their (Congress and the President) are scared right now that we have half of all Government workers furloughed and yet, the country seems to be running anyhow. I think they are scared that we are going to realize that those personel really aren't needed.

The other thing. Somebody, not sure if it was Obama, or if it was Gov somewhere, determined that websites would be closed down. Obama said it was to save money, however, anybody that knows anything about websites understands that you pay annually, or pay for 5 years, or ???? So to shut it down for a few weeks doesn't save a single dime, it's already been paid for and even to have a page up that says "This site is close" costs the same as if the website was running normally. But, websites were shut down and I can't figure out how they determined which ones. It seems to me that somebody was vindictive and not just selective. They closed websites that would hurt the public and **** them off. For instance:

Amber Alert site was initially shut down and then through third party funding, it was brought back on line.

The USDA website for Section 8 housing, was shut down and is still down.
http://www.usda.gov/fundinglapse.htm?home=YES

Michelle Obama's GOVERNMENT website for children, was never shut down. It is still up and running.
Let's Move!

Who picked what? And Why?

[Reziac]

How Old People Park Their Car

[ElkHunter]

It's just now the middle of October and we've had two major snow events. Is anybody, besides me, thinking maybe this winter is going to be a doozie?

I remembered we discussed this earlier, I haven't went back and looked, but I'd like to change my forecast for winter.

[Reziac]

I don't have to change my forecast. I said months ago, this winter would be long, cold, and wet. Hey, what's this nonsense about if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes... crap, it changed all right -- it's worse!

[Threerun]

Spent a week in Westby MT and hunted my two dogs on birds. My young 9 mo male Schnitzel did awesome. After a few days he settled in he pointed, held steady and even retrieved in muck water. He tracked a couple wounded pheasants and retrieved them as well.. Came back with my limit and managed to eat a few for dinner and lunch while up there.

My older and more 'trained' 1 yr old female was a s*it head. She got loose a couple times and blew up 30-40 pheasants in a long slough and just kept on a running for the hills.. Most of the other guys were a little p*ssed with that behavior, including me. Wouldn't cooperate worth nothing.

Anyway the little big guy did great and is an awesome bird dog. Downside to the whole trip? Never sleep in a truck camper for a week with two dogs that run through duck s*it filled sloughs all week. It was getting a tad foggy in there.. Yeesh.