HarryWeezer

Congrats Ed. Well done!!!

LOL

5,000 POSTS. Where's my freakin' medal??

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Have a happy Blu Bird. I well remember the party when I turned 18 - back then, that was the drinking age. Don't overdue it.

Welcome to XI!!!

So sorry to hear Razor. As to the breakfast club, there's no finer bunch of folks.

Have a great birthday LOM. Remember, an old fart is just as good as a new one.

One more fanatic certainly can't hurt. Welcome!

Welcome to the Good Ship Idiot.

Welcome goop, ear geep - whatever...

La sauce c'est tout. I thank you.

My take: Because it overreaches into our lives, cannot be trusted (as in the IRS targeting of conservative groups), and tramples our rights when convenient to some political purpose, the federal government has few friends among the citizenry. And so it's easy to sympathize with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is under siege from the Bureau of Land Management, and join the chorus protesting what they claim is yet more government thuggery. But the facts are often lost among emotional outcries in situations like this and they argue for Bundy’s arrest. If the BLM is to be faulted it should be for its failure to act sooner and more forcefully. Bundy grazes his cattle on federal land as do thousands of other ranchers who pay a relatively minor fee for that use of public property: $1.35 per month, per animal. That’s a great bargain, at the taxpayers’ expense. But 21 years ago, Bundy decided he’d rather pocket the fee and quit paying it. When challenged, Bundy said he didn’t have to pay the fee because his family has used the land for over 100 years. He said he “owned” the land, but that even if he didn’t own the land, the state, and not the federal government, owned it. Well, there are no squatter’s rights to federal land, and Bundy’s refusal to compensate the taxpayers for use of their land is no different from someone who decides to quit paying his income tax. Two federal court rulings side with the government, and Bundy was told any further grazing on public land would result in seizure of his livestock found there. We are a nation of laws, after all. Allowing Bundy to continue to break them invites every other rancher to follow suit.

Have not a clue. I'm just using this thread to close in on 5,000 posts. So keep on reading - nothing to see here.