Dr.Hess

I used to shave with a straight razor. I once shaved with my Dawson model 99 knife after a friend sharpened it. Then I quit shaving for about ten years while in school. Mostly to p-off the school, I think. Now I use one of those Mach 3 things, as I'm back in the "business" world where full beards and Harley shirts don't fit too well and my beard turned from red to mostly grey anyway. Lessee, what do I do that's old fashioned? I'm building my own car from scratch. I fix just about all my own stuff. I make my own beer (brewed a batch of Hesselbrau last Sunday, it's fermenting as I type), I make my own bread from scratch although I got lazy and use a bread machine now, my "new" bike is now 21 years old, been married to the same woman for 20+ years, plus the stuff we all do here like make my own bullets and other gun related stuff.

I've a hankerin' to go to the big Tulsa show this April. Still not 100%, depeinding on if I can scrounge up some bucks for "stuff," but I'm thinking about it. Dr.Linda likes the road trip, but was about burned out the last time we were there. When you are walking 10 acres, after a while all the stuff starts to look the same.

Of course, I have very limited knowledge of what's actually going on there, but it seems rather silly to me to just now suddenly decide that it is OK to kill people that have been trying to kill you. Why didn't they do this years ago? Even back then, many people said "Shut down Iraq's borders" as a start. Why didn't they? I don't know, unless it was to deliberatly pull in all the radical Moslems into one area so they aren't stirring up trouble in their own countries. In other words, there would have to be a larger plan involved than just kicking Saddam out and letting the Iraqi's do their own thing. I personally think they should have gone on a AC130 building spree on 9/12/2001 and put the things in a pattern flying the perimiter of Iraq and wasted everything that moved outside of an official border crossing under full control and scrutiny. The so-called insurgency would have dried up fairly fast.

Yeah, we that isn't going to happen. It does look like he set out to get arrested. His "trial" went like this: Judge: "Defense, tell me here in private everything you're going to say and I'll tell you what I will let you." The judge was quoted as saying that the 2nd Amendment was about a state's right to a National Guard, a collective, not individual right, etc. He wouldn't let the the defense attorney say anything about anything except the actual guns themselves. The defense just sat there and didn't call a witness or do anything. Guilty. Still took the jury 5 hours to decide. Anyway, he was screwed as soon as he made that first side plate and really should have known better, unless this is what he was expecting and wanted.

Well, here's the results of his trial: http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/01/...07fzfincher.txt Fincher found guilty of having illegal weapons Militia leader faces prison time for machine guns This article was published on Friday, January 12, 2007 10:07 PM CST in News By Ron Wood The Morning News FAYETTEVILLE -- Round one went to the government Friday. A federal court jury found Hollis Wayne Fincher guilty of having illegal, unregistered weapons, including machine guns and a sawed-off shotgun. Fincher, 60, had two .308-caliber machine guns, homemade versions of the Browning model 1919. The other firearms were 9 mm STEN design submachine guns and the shotgun. Fincher's attorney, Oscar Stilley, vowed to appeal the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "Basically, the Second Amendment got defined away so that if the government can tell us what's affected by the Second Amendment, if anything, I'd like to know what it is," Stilley said. "If this case holds up, the federal government has gone from a government of limited powers to a government that's absolutely unlimited by the Constitution, by the grant of power (by the states to the federal government) or anything else except politics." Fincher looked at friends and family in the gallery before the verdict was read and said, "They won't defeat me." He later mouthed, "It's OK," as he left the courtroom with U.S. marshals. Family members cried and comforted each other as Fincher was led away. Fincher faces up to 20 years in federal prison, but Stilley said he hopes to be able to hold it down to 30 months, which he said was the plea bargain offered by prosecutors before trial. Sentencing will come in about 60 days, when a presentencing report is finished. While the defense tried to make a federal case of the Constitution versus gun laws, the government kept the case as simple as possible for jurors -- Fincher had the machine guns and they weren't registered as required. Prosecutors felt the law was clear in the case. "We felt we were on very solid ground, however, the defendant had very strong beliefs," said Wendy Johnson, a deputy U.S. attorney. "They're good people and they believe very strongly, it's just different and contrary to what the law is." It took the jury almost five hours to reach a verdict, even though the defense presented no witnesses or evidence to counter the government's case. Fincher never denied he had the guns. "I think the jury did a great job," Johnson said. "They took their duty and their job seriously and of course we were pleased with the verdict and the outcome." Fincher and other Militia of Washington County members were featured in a March 2006 front-page report in The Morning News, firing the weapons. That report, according to federal law enforcement officials, was what prompted them to begin investigating Fincher and the group. Fincher's backers said they fully expect to see more indictments issued, based on the investigation and bolstered by Fincher's conviction. Johnson would say only that the investigation is continuing. The trial was hard-fought and somewhat disjointed because U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren had to make so many rulings about what law and evidence the jury was allowed to hear. Hendren repeatedly ruled the defense could attack the government's evidence, but not the law that applied to the case. He also ruled, based on U.S. Supreme Court precedents, that laws passed by Congress to regulate firearms do not violate the Second Amendment. A major issue was whether the Militia of Washington County is a recognized state militia, exempt from federal gun laws under the Second Amendment. Hendren ruled it is not. The judge ruled that Fincher's proposed testimony was inadmissible because it was aimed at challenging the legality of federal gun laws, not if Fincher had illegal, unregistered firearms in his possession. Fincher maintained his possession of the guns should not be criminalized because it was "reasonably related to a well-regulated militia," based on the Second Amendment. He also testified he doesn't think there should be any restrictions on gun ownership, including what kind of guns an individual can have. After the trial, Stilley said Fincher had obviously set out to challenge the government on gun laws because of his Second Amendment beliefs. Since 1934, it's been illegal for civilians to own machine guns without permission from the U.S. Treasury Department. ....

Those spammers are bad. Grassroots Motorsports was hit real bad. They went to the manual approval thing too. Apparently the spammers hire Indians or whatever to go around creating accounts on boards in order to get around all the stuff designed to keep bots out.

It is certainly true, Karl. I challenge you to find anything I have ever writen that wasn't true. Uncle Bill did it by Presidential Order or Executive Order or whatever they call it where he bypasses all of our constitution and declares a new law on anything he feels like, like the assault weapon ban by Bush 1 that cost him his re-election. We'll never know the real reason for the Iraq invasion, mainly because it has become a political issue where the Dems are using it to regain power, somewhat sucessfully with the help of the news media. I also strongly suspect that if we knew what was really going on, we would have demanded that we just nuke the bastards and prosecute the Clintons for incompetitancy. Of course, then Hill would never get elected in 08. So, we don't get the truth. Remember Sandy Burgler cleaning out all the copies of incriminating memos or reports with notes from Uncle Bill or something. I strongly suspect the truth includes behind the scenes nasty stuff Saddam was doing to include an involvement in OKC through Al-Quida via the Phillipines and "John Doe #2", 9-11 as has been documented by the Bulgarians, I think, his chemical weapon development, and nukes. The last two of which are probably burried in Lebanon or Syria. Also, the sudden appearance of West Nile Virus in the US is highly suspect. The particular DNA fingerprint of what is here just happens to match the middle east virus strain as found around Isreal, which, of course, is right next to Iraq. Dr.Hess

As I've said before, the Green River Valley has more oil in it than the rest of the world put together, including the entire Middle East. If Uncle Bill hadn't nationalized it and made it a wildlife preserve, we could be the energy exporter of the world. Really, it is all about control. If the US was energy independant, we wouldn't need the rest of the world for anything and we could (again) take over the world any time we wanted to. We are kept dependant on foreign energy and divided into two camps for this reason.

So tell me, are you guys worried about global warming? I'll bet you guys and the Canadians are laughing your back sides off. "Yeah, bring on Global Warming. Think I'll take the SUV down to town and leave it idling to dump as much CO2 as I can." What, is it only going to get down to -49 next year? Woo-hoo! A heat wave!

It is criminal. There appears to be an "Old Boys' Club" that consists of CEO's of various companies that sit on the board of other companies and decide to give each other fantastic sums of money, stolen from the stockholders. How they ran that HD meeting seems to be pretty telling. I saw a report that 10% of company profits are being sucked out by these people. It is amazing. On another note regarding your posted article, I think that the satellite radio business is the wave of the future. Clearchannel occasionally runs little blurbs about "We're free, as radio should be..." which indicates to me that the sats are starting to hurt their market share. If you listen to one of the sats some time, you will be amazed. You can get the music you want without all the non-stop BS. Even when a Clearchannel station does play music you like, it is only the same 100 songs over and over again, and inbetween every single song is their "branding" of 9X.X The Eagle or whatever. It is annoying. While XMSR and SIRI haven't been doing that great from a stock price perspective, I think that in the long run (several years out) they are the wave of the future. XMSR turning a profit is a big turning point, I think. Look how long it took Google to turn a profit. Of course, with Google, you have all the lefties jumping on their bandwagon and that price is insane, but my point is that it took them a while in a new industry to break even. Right now, I think the biggest thing hurting the sats is their competition with each other. Paying insane amounts of money for big name hosts is a mistake, I think. Once one buys the other out or they change their antagonistic marketing and celebrity purchases, things will settle down. Dr.Hess

Here's an update: http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/12/...06fzfincher.txt Interestingly enough, there are "Free Wayne" signs popping up around the town. I think he is screwed. Arguing constitutional law is a sure way to lose. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, we don't live under the Constitution anymore. Not since the 30's when FDR packed the Supreme Court and they started this "living Constition" BS where they just make up new meanings for words or new interpretations of things like the Comerce Clause. And no court in existance will ever challenge the new meanings, because our entire current government is based on it. I never heard a 1919 go off around here. I'm pretty sure I could have heard it. I occasionally hear something like an Uzi going off, I think, sounds like a 9 anyway, around the 4th or New Year's (but not this New Year's). Well, he's going to the big house. Or the Country Club house (Fed pen) anyway. I wonder if that's the end of the Washington County Militia. Probably so. You just have to wonder about these people. He made illegal weapons and talked the talk, including putting pics of himself shooting the things on the internet which is like saying "Please, someone come arrest me" and even threated anyone that tried to do that but when it came to walking the walk, he raised his hands and gave up. Starting down that path is a one way ticket to prison or death, and if he wasn't willing to be a martyr, why did he go that way? I guess he just didn't think it through or totally underestimated the Feds. Dr.Hess

Unfortunately, it has been my professional observation that what people really want is a magic pill. I have many examples, like the woman I told "'Mam, if you don't quit smoking, we're going to have to cut your legs off." Her reply: "If there was a pill I could take that would make me never want a cigarette again"... pause while she reflects..."I'd take it." That was it, her total comittment to her health was to wait for a magic pill. When these advertisers come out and say "Here's a magic pill," all these people line up to buy it. Dr.Hess

Well, then like you said, you basically sold the coops to the insurance company and owe tax on the gain (100% if your tax basis was zero). Pay the taxes and be glad you had the deductions over the years. Really, I could care less about the big bloody steak. I have been a vegetarian now for about 18-19 years, I guess. I will buy you a beer or give you a Hessel Brau (my home brew) if you come down south. Dr.Hess

Hey Jim, I'm sorry to hear of your circumstances and hope it all works out for you. What FC posted says, basically, (and I ain't a lawyer, I'm more an anti-lawyer) that if you have something, like a turkey house, say, that you built and then depreciated on your taxes, there will be a "tax basis" for that turkey house. For example (and I'm pulling these numbers out of the air): You spend 50K to build a turkey house. You depreciate that turkey house every year on your taxes, using various complicated formulae, and after 10 years, you have depreciated the cost of that turkey house down to 10K, say. You have the turkey house insured for 50K. An ice storm comes in and wipes it out and the insurance company gives you a check for 50K. Well, you really only have 10K in that turkey house, from a tax stand point, as you have declared the other 40K as depreciated operating expense, and it reduced your taxes from the turkeys or other income accordingly over the 10 years. The IRS says you have 10K in the turkey house from the IRS' standpoint, you got a check for 50K, you owe the taxes on the 40K. These are the taxes you saved over the years by depreciating your turkey houses. Now the feds want it back. This is the problem with depreciating income producing property. It is really only a tax deferment, not a tax savings when it comes to real property that will keep its value or go up. If it was a truck that you paid 20K for, drove to the ground, depreciated to 2K, wrecked and the insurance company gave you 1K for it, then you would not have a tax gain, but a tax loss. If they gave you 3K and it was depreciated to 2K, you owe taxes on 1K. The insurance company would never give you full original purchase price on an old truck, so that 20K would never be there on a truck, but on a rental house or a turkey coop, it is different than a truck as the value remains. So, what you need to do is find out what your depreciated basis was on the turkey houses. Have you been depreciating them? How much was left? Like the guys said, we can all chip in a few bucks and help you out there, fella. Just don't hate us vegetarians. Dr.Hess

When I took Texas History at Blinn, taught by a former Green Beret Colonel that was also 18 mo in French Indochina with the French Foreign Legion, we read a letter from either Stephen F. Austin or his dad, I forget, but it was sort of a advertisement from 170 years ago. It was really hysterical. Texas, home of the prickly pear cactus that you can eat or feed the cattle (not mentioning that there was no grass and they had to eat the stuff or die), the wonderful mesquite tree with its berries, like manna from heaven. Advertisement hasn’t changed a bit.

I seriously doubt they are theologians. I strongly suspect a left wing ACLU type component in that web site. Karl, you're right on the money.

Hey Fritz, Today, Dutch Christmas, BTW, is my 20th wedding anniversary. I won't comment further on your post. Dr.Hess

Hey FC, The thing is that the Kyoto BS really does nothing at all for global warming, even if you believe that "man" is causing it. What Kyoto really does is set up a new financial system to extract money from industrialized nations (read the U.S.A.) and transfer that money through a "banking" type system that takes a cut to third world dictators. They call this "selling CO2" something or others. See, the Republic of Kawanabamba Obamma has zero CO2 production because, well, they have nothing to produce CO2. But, the UN, through Kyoto, gives them so many CO2 "coupons". They sell this on a newly created "market" to the US, which has to pay them for the right to burn gasoline and produce CO2. See? Meanwhile, a whole new banking sector takes a slice off the top, plus that money going to the Republic of Kawanabamba Obamma somehow never quite gets to the poor people, or even to build infrastructure but somehow or other winds up in bank accounts in the Caymans or Switzerland or wherever else the rich are hiding their money. That is the real story behind Kyoto. It has nothing to do with "global warming" except to BS the ignorant. Dr.Hess

Grandkids are so much fun, I had them first. Dr.Hess

I bought my wife an Olympus at Wally World. 7.1 megapixel, takes XD ram chips. I think it was about three bills plus the memory. Fantastic camera. It was the best one Wal*Mart had, in my opinion. Pretty small, too and even the ones that look like a 35mm SLR don't have more resolution. I have an Olympus 35mm I bought in Singapore 25 years ago and it takes great pictures, which is why I stuck with Olympus. They are known for their lens quality. Edit: Stylus 700. Dr.Hess

Their HQ is maybe 1 mile down the (paved) road from me. Not sure where this guy's 120 acres is located, but it is probably pretty close to me as well. Probably where their HQ building is. I've seen these guys at the local gun shows with a booth and handing out flyers. I remember thinking to myself, "Do you guys know who the federal agent is?" Sort of like when you go to a poker game: If you can't spot the sucker, you're it. Messing around with illegal stuff is just being stupid. I guess they just don't think these things through. Then again, from my observations of published reports in the the news media, the federal agent is usually the one promoting the most radical stuff anyway. Dr.Hess

I dunno. I'll tell you guys, the difference between the two parties is: Do you want to be on the road to socialism at 95MPH or 65MPH? Changing the road isn't an option. Even the Republicans only defend the Second Amendment to placate us so we'll vote for them. Do remember that it was George The First that banned imported guns that looked mean, a ban still in effect. Would have done much more, but that was as much as he could get away with at the time, and it cost him a re-election and left us with Uncle Bill for eight years, and probalby his too next. We only get "lesser of two evil" type elections. It's how we are controlled. Dr.Hess

Found the solution: http://www.buckstix.com/CoehornMortarHunt.htm

The two most useful classes I had in grade school were TV Repair (shop) and Typing. Dr.Hess

At the campground in Sturgis there were two guy camped next to us from Idaho. They said that the question wasn't "What's for dinner?", but "How are we cooking the elk and potatos?" Dr.Hess