The latest peeps out of the incubator recognize a good mom when they see one. Hilarious to watch, they follow her around and run underneath when she crouches down. And this should be the definition of 'natural beauty' - looking good while squatting on chickens.

The True Cost of our Government

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal government will spend 3.8 trillion dollars this year. State and local governments will spend an additional 1.6. The cost of complying with government regulations will add another 1.8, bringing our total cost of government this year to 7.2 trillion dollars. That is equal to every penny earned by every American from January first through august twelfth. The eight years of George Bush's presidency added 18 days to our annual sentence. The (so far) two-and-a-half years of Barak Obama's presidency have already added 27 days.

Our leaders no longer even discuss actually reducing our national debt, only how much deeper to go into it. If you've been losing sleep worrying that we might be heading for a fiscal disaster you can relax now, because it's here. Social Security is broke. Medicare is broke. The Obamacare freight train hasn't even hit us yet, and it's already broke.

Prediction: we'll raise taxes, inflate the currency, and then default on entitlements. The only question is when.

Speaking of entitlements, and to make matters worse, we've trained a huge percentage of our population to depend on social welfare programs and to think of work as an undesirable lifestyle choice. When the Mailbox Money stops arriving the inner-city people whom the politically-correct media refers to as "youths" will riot like they've done in Watts, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami and New Orleans.

As politically-incorrect journalist Fred Reed puts it, "Imagine a black kid of seventeen in Detroit... He has never read a book, and never will. He doesn't know where England is, or Africa, or the United States. His mental world is small beyond the imagining of the literate. He has no grasp of government, and has never heard of any author. He cannot do simple arithmetic. He has perhaps never seen a checkbook, and will never have one. He doesn't watch the news. If he did, would not understand what he was seeing...

Of history, the kid knows only that blacks were enslaved by whites. He cannot approximate the dates of the Civil War... and cannot name a single country in Africa, but he knows that blacks were stolen from their homes and very badly treated.

He has in all likelihood never been out of Detroit, or perhaps his neighborhood. He has no contact with the larger society except through the police and television, where he sees whites leading glamorous lives in a wide world beyond his grasp...

He doesn't have a job or, if he does, it will be of a very low level with no future that he can see. There is a reason why cash-register keys in fast-food chutes have pictures of hamburgers and milk shakes instead of words, why the registers make change automatically. The kid in Detroit can't make change. Little commercial demand exists for the illiterate and innumerate who have very bad attitudes.

Which the kid has. He hates whites, whom he blames for all of his troubles and inadequacies. He hates Asians, who excel in school. It is an ugly hatred on a hair trigger and explodes readily in savage violence. The media play this down, hard, but what you pretend doesn't exist still does."

My daughters tell me I'm a racist for believing the above. In a way I'm glad that they're naive about the ghetto culture. But I saw the riots in Detroit and Miami with my own eyes. And you can turn on the news almost any night and hear about "flash mobs" of "hooded youths" - Madison, Philadelphia and Maryland in just the past few days.

I believe that the true cost of our government is going to be most of our savings, most of what we've been forced to invest in the Ponzi schemes of Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare, and large portions of many of our major cities.

The Way Things are in Venezuela

These signs are in most of the restaurant and shop windows in the Caracas airport. A Columbian fellow translated for me and said that the Chavez government allowed the businesses to remodel and stock inventory, then imposed an onerous new social security tax. Those that can't pay are being nationalized. He thinks that was the plan all along. He also told me not to ask Venezuelans about it because they're very afraid of informers, who are rewarded with cash.

"La Nueva Seguridad Social cumple con los Venezolanos" - The New Social Security works for Venezuelans

"Empresa inspeccionada" - Examined business

"En Mora" - In default

Amazing how fast a beautiful country can go down the drain. I've seen it firsthand both here and in Zimbabwe.

Also interesting:

There was a Cuban flag flying at the airport.

There were Chinese petroleum engineers staying at the hotel.

How Far will Amoral Ambition take a Guy?

When I was a Lieutenant of Marines, this guy was a Major in the same squadron. One of the most unscrupulous, Machiavellian people I have ever known, willing to use up subordinates, back-stab contemporaries, and tell superiors anything they wanted to hear. He would have sold his grandmother into sexual bondage to get ahead.

After I left the service, I don't think I ever gave him another thought. But I just read today that he's "Obama's favorite general". I'm at a loss.

There was a time when I thought Generals were demigods, with some sort of wisdom beyond ours.

And speaking of amoral ambition, there's Hillary sharing the photo op....

Honey Bees

Almost all the bees in a hive are female, and only one of them, the queen, is sexually mature. These two hives came from Vermont. So most of the occupants aren't just immature females, they're liberal immature females consumed by righteous anger who don't shave their armpits. Every fall they evict all the males to starve and freeze. Sometimes they kill their queen and commit mass suicide. Sometimes half of them just up and leave. On their best days, they ignore me. Sometimes, for no discernible reason, they come boiling out on a mission to inflict pain. More than once my neighbors have seen me running around the yard screaming like a little Japanese girl being chased by Godzilla.

The advantage of pain-based training is that the learning curve is steep. The Department of education should station liberal Vermont girls with armpits that make them look like they have Gary Busey in a headlock in every classroom, to stab kids who make mistakes with little syringes of burning venom. Those delinquents would be ready for Princeton by about seventh grade. I don't know, maybe that's how China and India are churning out all those scientists and engineers while our kids major in 'Black Studies' and 'Gender Issues'.

Anyway, my experience with these hives combined with a careful reading of Winnie the Pooh has convinced me that bears are the predators that most of their defenses have evolved in response to. Anything that reminds them of bears sets them off, like "furry" clothing (sweaters or fleece), dark colors, rough handling and nocturnal prowling. When you mess with bees, wear smooth-textured fabric in light colors, do it close to high noon, and try to move like fluid.

If you open a hive at night, everybody's home and perturbed about being bothered after working hours. If you open a hive on a warm sunny day, most of the workers will be off gathering, and the nurse bees left at home will be relatively mellow. Even so, keep it brief. Bees are like snapping turtles and ex-wives: if you mess with them long enough, they'll find a way to get you. Plus, bee brood is sensitive to chills and dehydration. Instead of examining details in person, maybe take photographs that can be magnified and perused at your leisure.

Anyone Else Getting Nervous?

Have threats to freedom been exaggerated in order to restrict freedom?

Are police powers being expanded for the pubic good?

Is an ignorant electorate enthusiastic about national socialism?

Is there a movement to disarm the citizenry for it's own safety?

Are we "bringing peace and democracy" to foreign countries that purely coincidentally happen to have, oh, I don't know, maybe lots of oil?

Are there truths you hesitate to speak because politically correct informers at work might turn you in?

Have we been trained to meekly line up and show our papers for things like travel?

Have you so been conditioned by intrusive regulations that you now obey even ridiculous laws?

Welcome to Germany in the 1930's.

Gear that Works: Swedish Reflector Oven

Reflector ovens are designed for baking on a fireplace hearth or by a campfire. I've also had good results propping one against the metal side of my wood-burning tent stove. It doesn't seem to matter if they're shiny or dark, so don't bother polishing them, as some people advocate. Think of them as "trapping" heat rather than "reflecting" it.

My folding Boy Scout reflector oven is a flimsy, frustrating piece of junk. An antique we own is sturdy but bulky. My favorite is from Sweden, made by a fellow named Svante Freden. I bought it here:

http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Detail?no=285

It's an ingenious folding design, and his workmanship is outstanding. It's replaced my Dutch oven for almost everything but car camping. It's far lighter, and doesn't require coals - in fact, it prefers flames. It's the perfect size for a nine-inch pan. Biscuits or a bannock are ready in about ten minutes.

Svante Freden was kind enough to post plans for anyone who would like to build their own. Just Google "Do It Yourself Svante Freden foldable Reflector Oven". I've been thinking about building a large, non-folding version that could double as a food storage container, with a wooden cutting-board lid. I have no illusions about being able to match his quality of construction, though.