Guard Dog

110V pump. I thought about using a DC powered pump with a 12V battery connected to the solar array. But it would have to to be connected in parallel with the batteries in the house. That means a long cable run, 75-80 meters or so. Using DC that means at least a 6 AWG wire. Kind of expensive. If I place the tanks close to the house it means pumping water through a 75-80 pvc pipe run which requires more power off the battery when means the house system does not get as much. So placing it close to the house has too many problems. I have a 110V circuit in the barn and it's only 15-20' from the irrigation system for the garden. So I'm using a 1/2 HP pump and an extension cord. I'd LOVE to use a 3 tier down spill system and let Sir Isaac Newton water my garden. But that would require a scaffolding of some kind. A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs give or take. So five 100 gallon tanks when full is in the ballpark of 4k lbs not even counting the weight of the barrels and interconnecting PVC. That would be a pretty beefy structure to support that kind of weight. And I don't have the kind of elevation changes to use the lay of the land. That would be sooo cool though wouldn't it?

I ordered four 100 Gallon plastic tanks to make a rainwater retention system to irrigate the garden. I have one already. Going to make one for the greenhouse too. Not sure how that is going to work yet.

Whatever happens today, no one should feel any stress over it. No outcome of this election will appreciably change this country. The ship of state will continue to tack pretty near the center of the channel. The reason is it take a long time to change the direction of the country and our electoral system is almost designed so no one political party gets to hold the tiller for long. As it stands there are five possible outcomes. Biden wins, Dems hold the House, Republicans hold the Senate. This will keep things pretty much status quo. Probably the best possible outcome. Biden Wins Dems hold the House AND Senate. This will be the least desirable outcome. They will almost certainly overplay their hand and Congress will change hands in 2022. But a lot of damage can be done in two years of near absolute power. Biden wins, Republicans hold both House and Senate. Seems really, really unlikely. But this would be ok. Trump wins, Dems hold the House, Republicans hold the Senate. This will be two more years of what we've had in the last two years. Heated rhetoric, twitter wars, nothing changes. This is an acceptable if not great outcome. Trump wins, Dems hold both House Senate. This would be the most interesting outcome. If they choose to impeach his he will likely get removed. Hard to even predict how this goes down. Trump wins, Republicans hold both House & Senate. Yeah... this is not going to happen. Thank God.

The problem with the "state" is that it is made up of individuals. The very people that can't be trusted to be reasoned, dispassionate, impartial executors of justice. How does it serve me to appoint such a flawed creature to such authority to dispose of me and mine? Should I entrust my family's welfare to people whose only qualification was that they managed to convince enough voters on a certain day they were the least bad option? Being elected does not make them wise. Or tempered. Although good luck convincing any politician of that. When the "State" wants something you have your rights mean s--t all. Who took Suzette Kelo's house away from her? It wasn't Pfizer. We do not live in a just society now. Of course this discussion really is academic. Constraints on behaviour are required. Better they were voluntary clear cut and apply eaqually to all. Not what we have now but we're in the ballpark. Government is but a necassary evil in it's best state. Hopefully it can be kept from becoming an intolerable one as Paine put it. But it is not something that can be dispensed with.

Off-topic you know I’m surprised selective service is still a thing. If there is anything the Vietnam war taught us its that a conscript army is far less effective than a voluntary force. Personally I hope the draft never becomes a thing again for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which it’s the worst thing you could possibly do to the military. It’s not an easy life sometimes. You have to want to do it. Back on topic, you seem like an educated guy to me. Have you ever read Thomas Hobbs? He would have us believe that a society ruled by the cruelest most heavy-handed autocrat It’s still better off the one where there are no gods and no masters. I could not disagree more. Getting to choose the people who will wield power over you is not freedom. Freedom comes from severely limiting what those people are actually able to do. We as a country have been heading in the wrong direction for a long time on that count. If the office of the president retained only those powers enumerated to it in article 2 of the constitution it would not be so terrible to have a man like Donald Trump. Or Obama, or any of them.

Sure. A lot more than that actually. It’s also something you have to choose to do. We don’t have a draft. They can’t come up to you and say you’re going in the military and you don’t have any say so in it. Not the same thing. I knew what I was getting into and I volunteered to do it. But I also knew it wasn’t forever. And I could leave at the completion of my time if I chose to do so.

Do you know what the social contract is? A vague notion to which no one has explicitly agreed to enter that supposedly allows a certain class of people to kill, steal, and imprison in order to advance some “greater good” that only they get to define. Does not sound like anything I would sign up for.

Exactly right. If you call your state representatives office there’s a pretty good chance the representative themselves will answer the phone. If you call your congressional representative they might get back with you in a day or two. Your US senator will never even hear that you called. Forget trying to get in touch with the president. You don’t even exist as far as they are concerned. Now out of all those people who do you want having the most power over you and yours?

LOL true it’s not for everyone. But the fortresses are easy to live in peace with. Don’t tell them what to do, don’t try and take their stuff, and basically just leave them be. Know what my biggest problem with modern politics is? It’s becoming impossible to just opt out. The choose not to participate. And you know that was a thing I hated the most about the affordable care act. For the first time doing nothing opened you up to sanction. I really don’t care who wins the presidential election. For completely different reasons I have no use for either candidate. I am far more interested in who controls Congress because I think will all be better off if the government neutralizes itself. But even if it doesn’t, don’t screw with my constitution, don’t screw with my property rights, don’t screw with my gun rights, don’t screw with my first amendment rights, my 5th amendment at least pay lip service to the 10th and 14th amendments, and will all get along fine.

it’s a book report for “atlas shrugged“

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I think heavily armed, anti-social hermits living alone with dogs on isolated farms is underrated. But that's me.

Three words that haunt Biden “Dewey defeats Truman“

You know it’s a good thing you were a lawyer. You would’ve made a poor behaviorist or psychiatrist.

JFK was before my time but I clearly remember the campaigns of all the others you mentioned. I do not recall ever hearing that chanted. Some political leaders in US history have engendered some real affection and even admiration from the public. Most are treated with a little respect to downright derision. None in my lifetime has ever heard a crowd chant "we love you". Frankly it bothers me a little bit. Political leaders are a necassary evil. But too many autocrats have heard that for me to comfortable.

Sitting on my porch with the Dolphins/Rams game on the radio

Cohen is an idiot. It doesn't matter. As I have explained to exhaustion the point of voting for LP Presidential andidates is NOT to make them president. It's to make ballot access easier. It's to move the LP one vote closer to campaign matching funds. It's to move the party closer to major party status. It's not about THIS election. It's about the NEXT, and the one after that. whether that is a sound strategy or whether money would be better spent on Congressional or State races, or whether it should go to things like the Free State Projects, is irrelevant. That is not how they decided to go. That is why votes for candidates that have fifty state ballot access are NOT, I repeat NOT wasted. They help far more than one more Biden vote in California or one more Trump vote in Tennessee. If you live in a hard Red or hard Blue state you can vote for Libertarian or Green (if they ever get their s--t together) candidates with a clean conscience. Of course if you find both candidates equally objectionable and your personal ethics direct you to throw your support elsewhere how could that vote be wasted? Telling someone they wasted their vote really is the height of sneering arrogance isn't it? Anyway, this isn't the politics thread so that's the last post on it from me.

So last night I was following a little bit of the Trump rally on Fox news on my XM radio. As you might expect it was part campaign pitch, part BS session, and part Pep Rally. Along the way the crowd broke out into chanting “we love you“. Apparently this has happened at others of his rallies. OK, I have to say I’m a little put off by that. That’s not something Americans typically do. Look, we are not a reserved people generally speaking. But hearing people chanting that to a political leader is a little, shall we say, offputting. Even more than when they were chanting “yes we can“ at Barack Obama. Or maybe it’s just me.

DogTV had a Haloween Costume contest. This was the winner. The girl is pretty hot!

Hell yes! I liked it better when knowledge was both earned and valued!

Goodbye Mr. Bond. Daniel Craig was good. But nobody was better than you!

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Boy genius, 12, set to study aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech Holy crap! This kid is something else!