Good discussion on Friday about admiring those you don’t agree with. Thanks to Clyde for the thoughtful guest post, and for bringing up Jon Hassler, whose writing provides a comfortable place for so many readers.
And so far, so good on the state government shutdown.
At least as far as my personal comfort is concerned, and what else matters? I’ve already got money, food and good health. Why should I worry about suddenly absent services that only other people need, especially if they’re people I don’t know and can’t see?
A friend forwarded a video for those who adhere to the old Ronald Reagan saying –
“Government is not the solution to our problems, government IS the problem.”
I can’t deny that government is sometimes inefficient and bureaucratic. But unnecessary?
It’s handy to have someone or something to blame for all the problems you see. But you may not want to wish it away entirely.
Where is the most lawless, unregulated place you’ve visited?
Trail Baboon 
Morning all. I’m tempted to say Sturgis on motorcycle rally weekend, but that would be unfair and probably untrue… it just FELT that way. And why I, who has never owned a piece of black leather in my life, was in Sturgis on rally weekend is a `hole nother long story!
I’m kinda thinking that here in Minnesota is the only lawless, unregulated place I’ve ever been. I don’t think I’ve been anyplace else when the government has shut down periodically and it’s been twice now since I’ve lived here!
Off to get car looked at and sundry
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errands.
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Lived in south Chicago in mid 60’s. Was once a reluctant part of riot during a HS football game where I was hired to work, until the police got us out. Campus was safe, but off-campus required some care. And a good friend was killed by random violence. We were good friends with a K-9 patrolman, who had some tales to tell.
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I don’t even like to drive into South Chicago. I have mentioned before that I ended up walking out of South Chicago at night because I couldn’t connect with a taxi there. Apparently there was no taxi service in that area at night.
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My favorite quote this year seems germane. “Republicans run on the platform that government doesn’t work and set out to prove it.”
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A Rock Bend Folk Festival committee meeting! You’d have to experience it to believe me but it’s almost complete anarchy. And it’s really, really fun!
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how much does it cost to go to that rock bend festival and when is it?
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Oh, come on, tim! You should know by now that it’s FREE, FREE, FREE! It’s always the weekend after Labor Day – this year Sept. 10-11. Thanks for the opportunity to talk it up a little! Here’s what we’ve got so far:
Red Horse (Lucy Kaplansky, Eliza Gilkyson & John Gorka)
Mu Daiko Drummers & Dancers
Beausoleil avec Michael Ducet
Larkin Poe
Kelley Hunt
The Fendermen
The Divers
The Fabulous Love Handles
City Mouse & Friends (Mike P. on drums)
Brian Wicklund and the Barley Jacks
Eilen Jewell
Eli Hoehn either with One Fast Move… or the Rain Dogs
Orange Mighty Trio
The Minnesota Zoo
Pete Bloedel comedy & juggling (this is a must-see, mandatory act – if you haven’t seen Pete, you have never been entertained!)
and more that have not been confirmed yet.
I’ll post more info about this as we get closer to what we call “the most wonderful time of the year!” Our website is never up-to-date. We purchased new software and will be updating our website soon. The site is rockbend.org but if you go there now you’ll get last year’s schedule. There are lots of pictures from Rock Bend in years gone by though, as well as information about the festival. You can also check us out on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rock-Bend-Folk-Festival/130156342012
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Great line up, Krista. Of course, I am pleased that the Orange Mighty Trio is on the list. I was hoping your band would be included because I wasn’t able to be there last year to hear you. Please let us know where and when we can hear Flathead Cats
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Good morning to all:
My answer is Azerbaijan where I was a volunteer in agriculture. Actually I didn’t have any problems with safety there myself. We did have a joke about one of the problems there, corruption in goverment. A man who ran a fish processing plant responded with the words “same with us” when told how smoothly the inspections of processing were conducted in the USA. Of course, the only way to get a good inspection in Azerbaijan would be to pay a bribe to the inspector. You better pay the bribe to the inspector because he needed the bribe money to pay off the person who gave him the inspector job. The fish plant operator thought that his response of “same with us” was a big joke and the other Azeri people that I was with also thought so.
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Love the stories of your seedy travels.
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Thanks Clyde. I will try to provide more stories about the seedy people, or in this case a fishy person, from my seedy travels.
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gosh – the goat barns? there are rules (mine) but no one follows them. then there are rules (theirs) but i often don’t know them. Dream would not give a care if the little ones didn’t get to eat. T always pushes Niblet aside when it’s time for head rubs – he gets them all, he says.
it just came to me that the goats do not have a caring societal structure. i wonder how they voted in the last election?????
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Finally a justification for the voter ID bill-to eliminate illegal goat votes!
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I’m not aware of a requirement for voters to be a member of any particular species. Are the goats over 18 years of age and have they lived in Minnesota at least 20 days? Have they been convicted of a felony and not had their voting rights restored?
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i don’t know how many goat years they are – i figure if they can have kids, they are legal voting age. no felonies (that i know of).
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Years ago I was visiting a friend in Northern Wisconsin, and she suggested stopping by a local bar called Swede’s for a couple of beers. When we got to the bar I drove into a random parking spot, and she pointed to a place closer to a light and suggested parking there instead. I asked, “Why, is the car going to get ransacked in the parking lot?” She replied, “Well, no, but someone might p*ss on it.” “Does that happen a lot here?” “Well, Swede’s doesn’t have any bathrooms.”
We were on the Lac Court Oreilles reservation, and they don’t have building codes or health department inspections. Apparently, if there’s no requirement that bars have bathrooms, someone will build a bar without bathrooms.
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Used to be a bar up in the Superior National Forest that we all called Friendly Mary’s. Mary was friendly about many things.
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Well, I just got back from the Pine Ridge Reservation, and I can’t say i saw much visible government at all. Bad roads, poverty, and youth suicides are rampant. There are terrific things happening, too. The trip was wonderful and strange, by he way, and I will submit a guest blog for Dale to stow away in the freezer for his next vacation.
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Reservation life gives you a different perspective on poverty. We are used to a world where housing regulations and codes raise the standard of living for most, but have the unintended effect of pricing certain people out of any kind of shelter at all.
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The Rez was an interesting study of an outsider looking in to so dak reservations
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i visited alaska a couple years ago and they take a great deal of pride in the fact that no one messes with you unnecessarily. there is kind of a refreshing sense that even the most pigheaded move by a citizen is no reason to resort to law. we can work it out and find a solution with out having to call in the authorities.
indonesoia was a place in turmoil when i was there. they were throwing out their president and the army was against him. the guy who was our local athority and tour guide told us not to worry, without the army they wouldn’t be burning down all the cities like last time. when you aint got nothin you aint got nothin to lose.
china is a mix of no and ultra government. they live like there is no government and they had better not get caught. the government there does nothing for the people only to the people. more like a mob boss than a caring parent.
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Somebody once said that to live outside the law you must be honest. Maybe that could be Alaska’s state motto.
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A science fiction convention at about 2am, although it does have some rules and codes of conduct, looks much like a lawless town with some really whacky immigration happening.
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Yeah…especially when Sarris suddenly appears out of the spaceship wreckage and Commander Taggart has to disintegrate him.
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Happen to be re-reading, for the sake of something I am writing, Paul Theroux’s travels through Central America in the 70’s. Now there is lawlessness and lawless and repressive government at the same time.
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Greetings! Lawless and unregulated sounds like a college cast party after a theatre production ended. Otherwise, that pretty well defines the lower level of my house. Most of the computers, games and TVs are housed down there, so that’s where my husband and sons spend their time. I don’t go down there because I don’t like their computer games and I’m not a big TV watcher. I stay upstairs where it’s relatively neat and I have some control.
In the Downstairs Dungeon they’re up all hours of the night, eating, munching, drinking soda, watching tv, dirty dishes stack up, there’s wastebaskets that aren’t used and all of Jim’s electronic junk is down there. I stay upstairs where a sane radio is playing MPR and I can read or something intelligent without tripping over electronic junk that has no use and no home for it to be out of the way.
Of course, asking them to help out while they are in said Dungeon and playing mindless games is truly futile trying to get them away from their mindless past times. What to do? I’m a patient woman and I love them dearly. Some things you just have to accept about loved ones as long as they still do their part.
My knee is still really badly swollen and I’m still sitting around yelling at everybody to help me — so that’s been fun. Have a great day all!
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Joanne, I hope they help you out and that you get back into shape soon.
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Ever wish there was another woman around?? 🙂
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Oh yeah — I definitely need a wife because I’m not very good at this domestic stuff.
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The most lawless place I’ve been was that pulp mill hotel I wrote about a day or two ago, but I can think of another story. When I graduated from college, there was a span of about seven deadly days after the last class but before the graduation ceremony. All the graduating seniors slowly woke up to the idea that we were on campus but the administration couldn’t do anything to us now because we were almost out the door. A party started and built steam for several days, cresting in a number of incidents that included one involving me. My poor parents showed up beaming with pride because the first person named Grooms was going to get a college degree and instead were told that the Dean of Men had thrown me off campus. The line he gave my parents was something like, “When the sun comes up again on Grinnell, we do not want Steve to still be in town.” I thought that was a bit melodramatic, given how innocent I had been, although I had intended to be more evil than I actually was actually able to be. The fun part of my punishment is that whenever the college calls me to ask for a donation to their trust fund I get to tell them that my college career culminated in being run out of town :).
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I would like to give the same line to the people who call me for donations to a school from which I graduated. I was told that I wasn’t a proper student because I participated in anti-war activities. This message came from the Dean of the School of Agriculture.
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My last Kindergarten classroom, spring of 1974. I had officially resigned, and was, I now see, depressed, and pretty much let go of the discipline thing. Every new kindergartener that entered the district (long story about schedule tracks and year-round school) ended up in my room, which was up to 33 kids, 7 of whom didn’t speak English. I had a Spanish speaking aide who was such a non-self-starter that it effectively made that number 34. I took every sick day I had coming, so there was a sub about once a week. We all just survived the spring and I bid teaching adieu.
Love your weekend post, Dale, and the video insert. We’ve just survived the minor anarchy involved in having no electricity for 36 hours. Came on again at, apparently, 5:something this morning, after being knocked out by Friday evening’s short but intense storm. Interesting and a bit unnerving, realizing how much we absolutely NEED that electricity. Come the revolution… I need to think about that.
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I usually get along okay for short stretches when there is a power outage. I do remember once, though, when it was out for three days in the summer. It’s really hard to not have power to run a fan in the summer. A/C is a nice option to have when it’s really warm and humid, but a fan seems like a real necessity, even when the temp is lower.
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No power outage here. I did have a power outage for several days once during very cold weather. That wasn’t good. Last week we had about 3 or 4 hours without telephone or internet. I couldn’t even get my cell phone to work, but I was told that was because I was calling land line phones. A fiber optic cable had been cut and they can only be repaired by a special techician that had to come in to do it. I didn’t have any problem due to this outage except getting a little nervious However, I think some business people lost some business.
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I get nervious, sometimes, too. 😉
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