Cold At Last, Cold At Last. Thank God Almighty...

This has been the coldest, snowiest winter we have had for quite a few years. The temperature has hovered between the single digits and high teens for most of the month of January. We have also had enough snow to choke a Morgan horse. I am not one to wear a coat unless it is super cold or I am going to be outside for more than a few minutes. I have been wearing my coat to work every day and actually appreciating that I have it on. This is from the guy who sweats when its 60 degrees.

So what is up with all of this frigid weather? I have three articles about the voodoo science of global climate change that I wold love to rip to shreds but I would rather save them for another time. Am I just getting older and feeling the cold or is this the real deal and the temperature dip is actually chilling my tootsies? The fact that I have had to use my scraper to wipe the snow off of my windows more than twice this year tells me that mother nature has more to do with this than my impending march toward retirement.

It is nice to have a real winter for once to remind people that temperature changes mean that things go from cold to warm and back to cold again. For those who live in the fantasy world of "man is to blame for everything" it should be a wake up that we do have seasons and as the world spins, so changes the weather. Whether it is an arctic cold snap, a fall hurricane, a spring tornado, or a summer drought, it is part of the cycle of life. Weather has been changing since the Earth was born. Our current 15 minutes of fame as the dominant species does not change a single solitary second of our world's past nor should we be arrogant enough to think we can so radically affect its future. Of course, the pseudo scientists want to play god and think we are. But the wackos would have to believe in God which I guess would make them narcissistic atheists. How did I manage to get here? Oh yea, its freakin' cold. Burr!

Icool

Cobb

Farewell To Fantasy Island

During those cold winter months growing up, we used to watch two sun filled shows on Friday nights. The American Broadcast Network aired Love Boat at 8:00 followed by Fantasy Island at 9:00. Love Boat was cute and had plenty of guest stars who always seemed to work out their relationship issues over the course of an hour. Fantasy Island was similar in that the guests to the island managed to figure out the obstacles that led to their misery and become happy and adjusted over the sixty minute show. Of the two, I enjoyed Fantasy Island mainly because Carol Channing and Charo were not on it every other week. The other plus was the cool way Mr. Roarke, the mysterious owner of Fantasy Island performed his magic every week.

Mr. Roarke was actually Ricardo Montalban. He was of Mexican heritage, suave, and exuded a kind of cool that only The Fonz had at the time. He was also known for his commercials for Chrysler Corporation back in the 70's. When Chrysler went to the government for loans to stay afloat, he was doing commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba. His catch phrase was soft Corinthian leather. He made it sound like it was something more than it actually was. After Fantasy Island ended, he starred in one of the Star Trek movies as the character Khan, a clone with super human strength and cunning. He had starred in the series as that character and reprised the role for the movie. His bulging muscles became the talk as he bulked up for the role.

Well, Ricardo Montalban passed away January 14 of this year. He did not make a big splash like other actors, but his parts were always memorable and enjoyable. I last saw him as the grandfather in Disney's Spy Kids series. He was still cool as ever. We will always be able to watch him in reruns and hear those memorable lines again; De plane, de plane and Welcome to Fantasy Island.

Icool

Cobb

The Environment Strikes Back

I remember eagerly awaiting the sequel to Star Wars. After the sci-fi movie went to become the bigger than life space opera, the whole world (or at least the fans) clamored for the next installment. We got a bigger and better vision of the adventures of Luke and Darth. But this is not about the '80 box office. This is about what not to do to fix non-problems. Well now we have proof of what happens when we try to interfere with mother nature. (Didn't there used to be a butter commercial that said that.) We have tried to save the environment and due to the interference of man, we have destroyed what we wanted to save.

Dateline: An island off the coast of Australia.

Feral cats were removed from the island of Macquarie causing an ecological disaster. The cats were removed to save the native seabirds. Unfortunately they did not see the outcome of removing the natural predators from the island. Once the felines were removed, the rabbit population exploded and destroyed the vegetation the sea birds depended on for cover. Now the sea birds are even in greater peril and it will cost $24 million to fix the problem. Once again the attempts of the liberal environmentalist wackos to force their agenda on us not only makes the problem worse but costs tax dollars to clean up.

Now look at global warming. It is a natural Earth cycle or just plain random weather making people think that "things they are a changin." We are being goaded into changing what we are doing, trying to force higher taxes to burn fossil fuels, and even suggesting that America bare the brunt of the cost to clean up a non-existent mess. If they truly get their way and we put system in place to reverse the percent of carbon dioxide in the air, we may end up killing all plants on Earth. After all, they depend on CO2 to live. Oh well. They didn't mean to kill us all, it was just their short sightedness.

Icool

Cobb

I'm A Pickin' and I'm A Grinnin' No More

For those of you who grew up with out the benefit of cable television and were restricted to the then three networks, Hee-Haw may have been part of your Saturday afternoon viewing routine. In my house, my father enjoyed the back woods, hillbilly humor that the show seemed to have in abundance. My father was a barber and always enjoyed the jokes told from the barber chair. I would expect that he also enjoyed the Hee-Haw girls running around dressed like Ellie Mae Clampett. There was also the bevy of country music and Grand Ole Opry members that graced the show.

This entry is a salute to the Hager twins. For those of you who paid attention to the less talented of the cast of Hee-Haw, there were identical twins that did acoustic songs on the show. One would play the guitar and both would sing. I never thought they were very good but I did not care for country music (that hasn't changed). Jon Hager died a few days ago at the age of 67. He was the surviving member of the duo. His brother Jim passed away last May. Both brothers were fresh faced and mop topped and always had that innocent charm. On a show with talents like Roy Clark and Buck Owens, they were like the fill in act on the Lawrence Welk Show (again I date myself)

As I get older, the staples that filled my childhood are slowly becoming no more than memories. All of the actors and music groups are slowly becoming as Kansas says, Dust in the .... At least we will have the shows and the songs to remember them by. So a a last farewell to the Hager twins, Salute!

Icool

Cobb

Electing Morons (We Did It)

Our government officials have once again presented the kind of warped logic that makes you wonder how they stay in office. Of course, when they can vote anyone anything at any time, it helps to stay on their nice list especially if you are a Wall Street CEO, bank or an automaker. But this is one of those issues that really makes me wonder if we don't need to make some radical changes in who we allow to legislate for us. I am talking about the recent discussions about raising the tax on gasoline.

We have been hounded recently to conserve gasoline. To drive our vehicles less and to trade our gas guzzling SUV's for small economical vehicles. To car pool and take public transportation when ever available. So what is the consequence of all of this? We are using less gasoline. That means that the taxes we pay for gas have also been decreased. The government coffers (someone said the government income, but they to not make anything. They just take.) that go for roads and highways have been dwindling. Again a misstatement as it all goes into a general fund but let those poor disillusioned bastards make believe that the funds are separate. After all we have the social security trust lock box, just ask Al Gore. As a consequence of a decrease in the amount of money the government thinks it deserves, they are thinking about raising taxes.

Since I have heard that the free market is dead, the next statement is just a debunked theory but I still think it has validity. It is called supply and demand. When the price of something does up, we use less or find alternatives. When gas went to $4 per gallon, we changed our habits to use less. Now they want to increase the price of gas to fill their general fund and what do you think will happen. If we stop driving less, will they raise taxes again? Where does it end? The state of Oregon is considering taxing the number of miles that you drive. Can anyone say "Let's see how low we can go?" If you tax miles, people will find ways to reduce their driving even further. It is amazing that we are smarter than our elected politicians. Unfortunately, they do not think so. Click on the title to read the Oregon story.

Icool

Cobb