May | 2016 | Grumpa Joe's Place

Wabbit War Expands

Posted on 26/05/2016 by Grumpa Joe

Opening day of my 2016 garden season was in March on an unusual sunny day when the temperature was a balmy sixty degrees. On that rare day I attacked my thistle with glyphosate. I had to spray them twice to slow them down. Since then, the weather has not cooperated, and my body hasn’t either. This week, however, things changed. The Lord switched Illinois from spring into summer with a flick of his Godly touch. Last week it was wet, in the forties and windy, or another way to say it, perfect hypothermia conditions. As I write this it is Thursday morning, and the Lord switched us back to early spring again. The first three days of the week were in the eighties and required the air-con to run during the daytime.
I spent the good days in my garden finishing what I began in March. The pond came first. Ponds get weedy just like flower beds, and it is necessary to pull the unwanted critters to achieve a serene pond look. I also had a bed of irises overtaking the north end, and had to thin it out. The job looked like an hour of easy work in my mind, but turned into three hours of hard labor.

Last Import - 1 of 1.jpg

Over the last eight years I invented a system to access pond plants without treading in the water. I span a ten foot extension ladder across the water and lay some wide boards on the rungs to create a platform. I then crawl out onto the ladder on my hands and knees and lay on the boards. This allows me to reach over the water to pull plants, or to reach into the water to fertilize the lilies. When done, I had two bushels full of unwanted plant matter to dispose of. The pond looks much better and the lilies may even bloom now that they got a shot of fertilizer.

The second day I attacked the thistle invasion in my front yard. By now the critters were three feet tall and poking through the Mugo pine. Trust me, thistle does not add curb appeal to any home. It was five days since the last rain so the ground was very hard and I needed a spade to loosen the plants enough to pull them. I was in the morning sun and the temp was already in the eighties. I wilted, but that damn thistle thrives in that temperature. The goal was to complete the entire front of the house, but I only lasted long enough to complete a third. The remainder awaits me. I would be pulling thistle this morning except for the rain. I opted for dry and cool inside conditions.

Pulling thistle always gets me to think philosphically. The root system of the plant forms a runner underground and will send shoots up from the runner. When pulling the main stems the root breaks from the runner. That means another shoot will soon emerge from the runner in another place. I pictured the thistle as a muslim jihadis. We continue to kill these bastards but they keep popping up again. If we truly want to rid ourselves of jihadists we have to learn from the thistle. Destroying the visible plant is not enough, we have to get at the root of the problem. In the case of jihadis the root is in the unseen cell (underground root system) which continues to fester and grow into a new warrior. A garden warrior(like me)does not know in which direction the root grows or how far it will grow before a new shoot pops up. If left unattended the shoot grows to maturity, then flowers, and then seeds. The seeds blow in the wind to spread wide and far (Islamic immigrants and refugees).

In order to destroy thistle or muslims complete annihilation is the safest most complete method. I call it the Hitler method. Even though, I do not like muslims and am not afraid to say so, I just can’t bring myself to think about annihilating two billion people, they can’t all be bad. The problem is learning which ones will become bad and to destroy them. A better way I propose is to convert muslims to another belief system. Even the best and most influential dictators in the world like Joe Stalin and Mao Tse Tsung were not smart enough to accomplish conversion, so it brings me back to annihilation again. Do we keep pulling the big weeds, even though that allows some of our flowers to perish along the way, or do we initiate an all out war of annihilation? What do you think?

Next time I will compare muslims to the fallen angels.

Filed under: Biography, Garden, Government, Pond, religion | Tagged: Glyphosate, muslims, Thistle, Wabbit Wars | Leave a comment »

One Pissed Off Woman

Posted on 25/05/2016 by Grumpa Joe

Today, I received an e-mail from a retired Air Force Colonel. It contains a letter from a lady named Patty Meyers. I checked it with Snopes, and they declare it Mixed. The reason it is mixed is because they cannot attribute all the statements to Patty Meyers. What that tells me is that Snopes wants to discredit this piece because it highlights problems created by Liberals. The letter refers to the last time Congress had to bail out Social Security several years ago. The problem is relevant again because the fix of kicking the can down the road has caused us to reach the can again. The root cause of this problem stems from the Democrat President Lyndon Johnson who asked Congress to remove Social Security from it’s trust fund protection and to put the fund into the general budget. His argument was that his Great Society could benefit by the infusion of cash, and the government would make good on the money it was now borrowing from Social Security. Well folks, good old Lyndon is long dead and the Congress that voted this plan into law is also gone except for a few of the career guys like Alan Simpson who voted for the changes. The simple fact is that your Social Security comes from your paycheck and your employer contributes an equal amount. The money funnels into the general fund and Congress spends it on their generous social programs that benefit.

It is real easy to give away other peoples money which is what Congress does for a living. The problem is that they spend it faster than you give it to them, and with millions baby boomers retiring Uncle is in a lot of trouble. I will wager that if someday they eliminate Social Security payments they will continue to withdraw money from your check.

Alan Simpson currently works for President Obama on a special commission to propose ways to reduce the federal deficit.

Read the letter below, you will laugh cry and get angry all at the same time. You may also begin to understand why Donald Trump is doing well in the primaries.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Alan Simpson, the former Senator from Wyoming, calls senior citizens the ‘Greediest Generation’ as he compared “Social Security” to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.

Here’s a response in a letter from PATTY MYERS in Montana … I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is!
………………………………………………………………………………
Hey, Alan, let’s get a few things straight!!!!!

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole (tit) for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).

3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in ‘an interest bearing account’ for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Lucy and Charlie Brown, you and “your ilk” pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and
moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your “shill commission” are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from day one, and now “you” propose to change the rules of the game.
Why? Because “you” mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal our money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you “incompetents” spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt. To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” to your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU:

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or as usual, have you exempted yourself and
your political cronies?

5. It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the “greedy” ones.

6. It is you and your fellow thieves who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes, your job and retirement security at our expense.

7. That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

8. And you can take that to the bank.

NO, I did not stutter.
P.S. And stop calling Social Security benefits “entitlements”. WHAT AN INSULT! I
have been paying into the SS system for 48 years. It’s my money give it back to me the way the system was designed and stop patting yourself on the back like you are being generous by doling out these monthly checks.