The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
February 28, 2013, Issue No. 127(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)
Riley and the Littles -- Winter in Middle-of-Nowhere has for the most part been cold and snowy. No particularly huge storms, but constant overnight and daylight lake-effect snow frequently has been adding up to an inch or so of accumulation per day between storms. And not too many warm thawing days. Riley and his feline entourage alternate between running about the place and lying about the place. We also now have an orange and white stray cat living in the wood shed and under the garden shed. All of the little ones love running around in fresh snow.
Fort Plain, NY
February 28, 2013, Issue No. 127(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)
Riley and the Littles -- Winter in Middle-of-Nowhere has for the most part been cold and snowy. No particularly huge storms, but constant overnight and daylight lake-effect snow frequently has been adding up to an inch or so of accumulation per day between storms. And not too many warm thawing days. Riley and his feline entourage alternate between running about the place and lying about the place. We also now have an orange and white stray cat living in the wood shed and under the garden shed. All of the little ones love running around in fresh snow.
Plowing and Planting -- The only crops growing here now are the snow and ice, although we have started some peppers and onions indoors. The greenhouse has yet to be opened for the season, owing to the cold overnight temps.
And They're Off -- January 24 brought minus 12 degrees at 6AM in beautiful downtown Fort Plain. Well, Fort Plain anyway. Record cold for our 5-year stay here in Middle-of-Nowhere. Also, a record low of 26 in the barn, which was cold enough to freeze the barn water, and necessitated our hand-carrying warm water to the barn from the house to thaw the animal water buckets and the hydrant. It had warmed to a toasty minus 6 by 9AM when we embarked on the chores. Rio and Lady always want time outdoors, but our several severe cold spells limited that a bit. We have had a few 4-7-day spans where the daily high temp was in the teens, with overnight lows below zero. Leaving the animals in the barn during the day keeps the barn temperature in the 30s day and night.
The Herd of Five -- Cattle is mooing, eating and pooping all the day long. The Fearsome Fivesome senses the cold and have become somewhat adjusted to spending a few days in a row in the barn without time in the pasture. When the temps warm a bit, we release the cows to romp in the snow.
Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- We mostly heat the house with wood - will probably burn 10 cords of hardwood this winter. We took a few of the milder days over this winter and began cutting trees to continue opening-up the woods a bit and collecting firewood for next year. We already have 14 cords of newly-cut wood split and stacked under cover, and have another 26 trees felled, limbed and bucked, lying in the woods for collection and piling by the woodshed for splitting. Once this year is done, we will stack 5-6 cords in the basement and leave the rest outdoors for seasoning. Cutting and stacking firewood is really as much of a winter hobby and exercise program as anything else.
Fowl Weather -- Turkeys and chickens love the barn life. One of our roosters, an all-white Jersey Giant/Red Star mix, who we have named Foghorn Leghorn (I know, a bit obvious) has taken to attacking Susan and Nancy during feeding time. Although using a stick to ward him off, or tossing food into the pen gets around this temporarily, old Foghorn had better be careful, or he might end up as chicken soup. His confederate rooster, Silky (all black with feathered legs and red and turquoise hues throughout) calmly watches the antics. Breeding season has begun for the birds, and we already have 23 eggs in the incubator.
Visitors -- Very quiet here in Upstate, although we have made a few trips back to the Boston area.
Blog -- The Riley Factor's official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.
Editorial Comment --
President Obama and his progressive socialist agenda are destined and doomed ultimately to failure, unless and until they come to recognize harsh reality, and view the private sector as the generator of economic growth, and not the as means to fund government.
Quotes of the Month --
Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing. -- Benjamin Franklin
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. -- Aesop
May blessing and peace of heart be your rich gifts from God. -- I Thessalonians 1:1
Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.
This is the time to remember, 'cause it will not last forever. These are the days to hold onto, 'cause we won't although we'll want to. -- Billy Joel
At the end of the day, all stock price movements can be traced back to earnings. -- Steve Reitmeister, Zachs.com
To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens. -- Adolph Hitler
Obama is a doctrinaire socialist, who believes government can, and should tax and spend your money to achieve the remaking of America as he and his leftist pals see it. -- Bab Bauman, The Sovereign Investor
Man is not free unless government is limited. -- Ronald Reagan
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time, we've been
tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to
government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to
govern someone else? -- President Ronald Reagan, first Inaugural Address, January, 1981
If a Republican doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one. If a Democrat doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. -- Jeff Foxworthy
If a Republican doesn't like a talk show, he switches channels. Democrats demand those channels they don't like be shut down. -- Jeff Foxworthy
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. -- Albert Einstein
I have a bad feeling about this... -- Princess Leia
Who is John Galt? -- Ayn Rand
Thought of the Month --
Whenever you do not understand what’s happening in your life, just close your eyes, take a deep breath and say 'God I know it is your plan. Just help me through it.'
Bumper Sticker of the Month --
PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR A LIVING ARE BEING OVERWHELMED BY PEOPLE WHO VOTE FOR A LIVING
D. A. D. D. D. Dads Against Daughters Dating Democrats
Who is Rich and What is fair? -- By Alexander Green, Investment U --
Answers are largely a matter of opinion. But here is a fact: IRS figures show that the top 10% of income earners make 43% of all the income and pay 70% of all the taxes. Is that fair? If not, how much should they pay: 75%… 90%… all of it? And how about the now widely recognized fact – thanks to Mitt Romney’s secret videographer – that 47% of Americans don’t pay any income taxes. Is that fair? Opinions will vary. According to the IRS, the top 2% of income earners – the ones that just had their marginal tax rate raised 13% to 39.6% – already pay approximately half of all income taxes. President Obama says it’s about time these folks “chipped in.” What a kidder.
And who is “rich?” For today’s discussion, I’ll leave aside the truism that you are rich if you enjoy good health, a loving family, close friends and varied interests. Politicians (and most voters, apparently) seem to believe that a person’s wealth can be determined by his or her income. I would argue that you determine real wealth by looking at a balance sheet not an income statement. But why not look at both? According to the Tax Policy Center, if your annual household income is $107,628, you are in the top 20% of income earners. If your income exceeds $148,687, you are in the top 10%. You are in the top 5% if it is $208,810. And if your household income is $521,411, congratulations. You are in the top 1%… and perhaps demonized by those who view hard work and risk-taking as a matter of good genes and good fortune.
Facts of the Month --
In 2016, the government we will begin paying-out more in Social Security benefits than it collects in Social Security taxes. Without changes, by 2037 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted.
51% of adults in the U.S. are married. A generation ago, the number was 72%
41% of births in the U.S. are currently to unmarried women. 33% of U.S. children are being raised in single-parent homes.
In the short time since President Obama was re-elected, November 6, 2012, the federal government has issued hundreds of new regulations. The bureaucrats never stop. There are now more than 170,000 pages of federal regulations.
One in four children in the U.S. were on food stamps in 2011. -- USDA
The average age of a vehicle currently on the road in America is 11 years. -- Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford
80% of all antibiotics sold in America are used on food animals, mostly to promote growth or prevent disease in crowded, unsanitary conditions. -- Consumer Reports
40% of all employers perform an online check of prospective employees when evaluating employment candidates, including reviewing services such as Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter, as well as performing Google and other searches.
According to the FBI annual crime statistics, annually the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs far outnumbers the number of murders committed with a rifle. In 2005, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 445, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 605. In 2006, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 438, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 618. And so the list goes, with the actual numbers changing somewhat from year to year, yet the fact that more people are killed with blunt objects each year remains constant. In 2011, there were 323 murders committed with a rifle but 496 murders committed with hammers and clubs. Another interesting fact, according to the FBI, nearly twice as many people are killed by hands and fists each year than are killed by murderers who use rifles.
The U.S. is no longer a nation where workers earn wages and save for the future. See the following comparison of net worth now and 25 years ago.
Commentaries of the Month --
Zero-sum Makes Zero Sense
But the worst thing that you’ve done internationally is what you’ve done domestically. You sent a message to America in your reelection campaign. Therefore you sent a message to the world. The message is that we live in a zero-sum universe. There is a fixed amount of good things. Life is a pizza. If some people have too many slices, other people have to eat the pizza box. You had no answer to Mitt Romney’s argument for more pizza parlors baking more pizzas. The solution to our problems, you said, is redistribution of the pizzas we’ve got—with low-cost, government-subsidized pepperoni somehow materializing as the result of higher taxes on pizza parlor owners. In this zero-sum universe there’s only so much happiness. The idea is that if we wipe the smile off the faces of people with prosperous businesses and successful careers, that will make the rest of us grin. -- P.J. O'Rourke, World Affairs
Pathetic Leadership
The deficit for fiscal 2013 is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to exceed $1 trillion once again — for the fifth consecutive year. Mr. Obama persuaded Congress to raise taxes to pre-2001 levels for every individual tax filer making more than $400,000 and joint filers making more than $450,000. How much extra revenue will that produce? Roughly $60 billion. That's just 6% of the $1 trillion annual deficit, if that number is even believable. (In reality, it's probably much higher than that, but let's just keep it simple and say it's only $1 trillion a year.) Making a 6% dent in a problem that threatens the future worldwide economic leadership of the United States is not much of a solution. It's pathetic. -- Greg McCoach, Wealth Daily
