In A White Wood

Root River in the Snow

A view of the Root River in Greendale. This spot is in a parkway less than a mile from where I grew up. 15 or 20 years ago I used to bike past this spot nearly every day during summer. It looks a little different during the summer.

Call it what it is

I usually try to stay out of politics, but some of the rhetoric about the economic stimulus/tax rebate package just drives me up the wall. The Saturday Wall Street Journal reported:

[Congressional Democrats] also discussed denying rebates to taxpayers who earn more than $85000 and offering them to those who don't pay income tax at all.

Just to be clear, they're talking about literally mailing checks to people that don't pay any income tax at all. That's not a rebate. It's taking money from people that do pay taxes and giving it to people that don't. The kindest term I can think of for that is income redistribution, but really it's just plain theft.

I understand that people with less money are more likely to turn around and spend the "rebate" than people with more money, which would provide a greater economic stimulus. Heck, it may even be a good idea in the grand scheme of things. But don't try to bullshit me by calling that a "rebate." It's not.




PS, if you're still thinking that robbing from "the rich" sounds like a good idea, you may wish to peruse these statistics. Short version -- the "over $85000" set is more than 10% of the population, and already pays over 70% of the income tax. Seems like they're being robbed plenty enough already, if you ask me.

PPS, I'm watching the Democratic debate, which is covering the same topic. All of them want to give "rebates" to people that don't actually pay income tax. Obama also wanted to limit the rebates to those who make under $75000.

OK, I gotta stop watching debates while on Blogger, but every time one of them says something about "the rich getting richer", go reread the last three bullets of this.

Nose In The Air

Last month we went to a workshop held at home in the mountains near Evergreen. We were early, so we went looking for snapshots to pass the time. The homeowner had an outdoor cat that would climb on your lap at every chance, and a stereotypical hyper-energetic little yappy dog that was always underfoot.

But he also had an old, tired hunting dog with gray creeping into his fur. That old dog just ambled from nap to nap, with an occasional stop for a belly rub. This seemed to be one of his favorite spots, flopped down on the edge of the deck with his nose sticking out into the air twelve feet above the ground.

Thorny

PPD 104

Another photo from the Wehr Nature Center. This is on the waterfall at the edge of Mallard Lake. I'm rather pleased that this came out at all sharp, as it was shot handheld at 1/20s while crouched down on a slanted, snow covered rock. Actually, I'm rather pleased that I didn't end up taking a swim.

PPD 103

Lost in thought...

PPD 102 - Winter

A walk surrounded by wintry whiteness in the (not very) wild woods. With alliteration.







See, Nicki, it's a winter photo. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?! :)

PPD 101

I shot this a while back on drive through the mountains. I like the general late fall, end of the season moodiness to it.

Halloween Time

A widely known fact about my older brother is that he's got an interest in zombies. Well, that's not fair... it's really more of an unhealthy obsession with zombies. Naturally he's got a ridiculous amount of books and video games about zombies. So many books that he started shipping them to me, I guess to free up storage space.

I'm not one to let books and games go to waste, so I've been reading and playing them. Yes, I've been positively immersed in shambling waves of zombie "culture." So naturally when I was thinking of ideas for pumpkin carving, the first word that came to mind was "braaaaaiiiinnnnnssss!" Thus was unborn the undead zombie pumpkin!



Zombie pumpkins are a fearsome species that feast on the squishy innards of the living pumpkin. We've caught this zombie in the act of eating this poor victims succulent, brain-like guts.

Thankfully it's easy to spot these undead abominations by unhealthy green color and glowing red eyes. Keep an eye out for this unholy menace, and protect your pumpkins!