Comments

Episode-477- Call in Friday 7-16-10 — 23 Comments

  1. Internet in the boonies: Verizon Broadband. They claim to have more coverage than ATT. It worked for me with DSL speeds in the national forest in Montana. In fact, I’m in the woods now, in route to my bug out area. Still have another 50 miles to bicycle.

  2. Bad news, Jack.
    On the drip irrigation. I’m in western Ohio and no body around here sells any drip irrigation parts or systems other than landscapers and they require you to hire them to install it in order to get their parts.
    That includes all the big hardware stores.
    I asked the guy in the garden section at the local Home Depot and he looks at me like I had 2 heads. He couldn’t understand what I was talking about. He tried to sell me a down spout.
    I suspect the issue is region related. Most people here don’t even own sprinklers, much less drip systems.
    I was able to buy a cheep kit at Harbor Freight but it wasn’t worth the $7 I paid. It has tiny 1/4″ rubber lines and no pressure regulator so if you turn up the water high enough to get through 10′ of the line you blow it apart.

    The good news is HomeDepot.com carries everything needed to set up a drip system and for a reasonable price.
    So my advice would be forget about the local hardware stores and buy it all on line.

    Thanks for everything you do Jack!

  3. You read my mind on the stickers – except Mom had an AR and there was a “…” instead of kids. Of course, a lot of people out there read an NRA sticker the same way.

    Maybe SW & TW could work on some of these decals.

    Other great bumper stickers I’ve seen:
    “Keep honking. I’m reloading.”
    “Fight crime. Shoot back.”

    Honorable mention:
    The teenage girl wearing the the tee shirt that said [to paraphrase] “While you were playing video games, my parents were teaching me how to shoot.”

  4. I live just outside of Cincinnati (SW Ohio) and the large home centers (lowes & home depot) as well as the smaller garden centers have drip irrigation products. Might it be seasonal so they just aren’t carrying it all year? i.e. post-Independence Day = autumn sales

  5. You’re wrong about the extra pay. Hazardous duty pay applied to certain positions not just war zones. For instance, military personnel working with explosives, for example, testing them, may also get hazardous duty pay. Members living in high cost areas such as Alaska, Hawaii, parts of CA, Japan, etc. get COLA (cost of living pay) which is in excess of their regular pay and sustenance and housing costs. It’s to supplement the increase of the cost of living in certain areas to prevent financial burden on military personnel and their families. Also, members of the Armed Forces receive separation pay while stationed, tdy’d, or deployed away from their families.

  6. @Megan, Exactly how am I “wrong” I never stated you only got extra pay for being in a combat zone? I only stated that you absolutely did get extra pay when deployed to one. I even gave examples of other types of extra pay, jump pay which I stated I collected and in the Navy things like sea pay, nuke pay and sub pay.

    Sorry but your comment comes off a bit annoying, “your wrong about”, come on that is pretty assuming specifically given my mention several examples of additional pay for various reasons.

    I think people would all get along better online if everyone read comments, responses, etc in full before we hit submit. Also you might check into your blanket comment about TDY pay, it is something I drew on several but not all deployments. It isn’t as simple as if you are deployed you get it.

  7. @Jim Foreman
    Thanks for the heads up Jim!
    Next time I need some drip stuff I’ll head down to Cinci.
    Or if I get down south maybe I’ll just run in and grab some as back up.

  8. If you can get broadband from Verizon or Sprint or even ATT, they usually have a “hockey puck” that you can connect up to 5 wireless devices to, or you can get a router that uses the USB cellular modems. They are WAY faster than satellite, and for the most part they have decent coverage. This service usually runs between $30 and $60 depending on the package. Check into it before you check satellite.

  9. The best sticker ive seen was on the front door of a gun shop.You see this hand with a giant revolver pointed at you and in bold letters it said criminals beware employees may be armed so dont evan think about it.

  10. @Dan Hunter

    The one I have thought about doing for the Gear Shop would be similar in the picture but the quote I have been thinking of is

    “Intruders Beware – We Don’t Dial 911 Until the Shooting Stops”.

    It might be a better investment of 10 bucks for a sticker like that on the back door, front door and fence gate than an expensive security system.

  11. Oh and I saw one on a truck that I loved years ago, it said,

    “Is there life after death? Mess with this truck and find out.”

  12. @Dan Hunter

    No need for such a sticker at the local gun shop. No maybe about it – the employees carry open in the shop and attached range.

    I know gun shops tend to have quite a bit of cash on hand, but how bold to you have to be to try to rob one?

    There is no better place than a gun shop or range to apply Robert Heinlein’s “An armed society is a polite society.” I can think of no place where I see a more consistent use of good manners.

  13. Re: military pay

    Don’t know if it is still this way, but in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, my pay (+ hazard duty pay) for each month where I spent at least one day in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait was exempt from federal income taxes.

  14. I think that in order to understand why we deflate when money is being “printed” you must understand that our money supply equals our debt.

    We are deflating because despite the fact that the banks have been given billions of “printed” money, people (you and me and everyone else) are paying off their debts and saving money more now than ever. If the banks can’t (or in some cases won’t) make loans, then the money supply truly isn’t increasing, and as people pay off debts, they lower the supply of money.

    For example, if you owed the bank 25,000 dollars, and you paid it all off, the bank now has 250,000 less dollars they can have on their books. (Fractional Reserve rules require they have 10% of cash on hand)

    At least, this is my understanding.

  15. RE; Military Pay
    Jack, in response to your Military Pay Piece. You said something to the effect “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the only place you can get multiple special pays is the Navy”. For the most part your whole piece was generally correct. You can actually look up online the Military Pay tables for exact pay amounts for the ranks across the services and for the special pays. However, the answer is Yes, you can receive multiple special pays and it is not limited to the Navy. I am currently an Active Duty Soldier in the Army in the MOS 89D (Bomb Squad/ Explosive Ordnance Disposal) and receive multiple special pays. I no longer receive Jump Pay, because I’m no longer on jump status, but I do receive Hazardous Duty pay or Demo Pay for the nature of my job and did receive both when I operated in both enviornments. I also receive Special Duty Assignment Pay because of a shortage in that occupational specialty and it is an incentive to recruit and retain experienced people to work in this field. When deployed I also receive Hostile Fire Pay for being in a combat zone. For the most part the ability to receive multiple special pays finds itself limited to those who work in high demand MOS’s (Military Occupational Specialties). I hope this was helpful.-Mike

  16. I like the Armed Society sticker myself. The one on my SUV says “Gun Control Means Using Both Hands!”. That’s what our newly elected Sheriff said in an interview! Ain’t that awesome!

  17. Just a heads up, since it looks like some may interested, in the military anything classified as “pay” is taxable, and anything classified as an “allowance” does not have taxes taken out of it. Someone had mentioned this above. Military families essentially LIVE on allowances.

    Also, the Coast Guard (don’t know anything about the other branches) has allowances similar to the Navy…..Hazardous Duty, Separation, Sea pay… etc.

  18. I wanted to pass on a link and some info that had to do with wood gasification. I took a Bioenergy class in college and the teacher had a friend who developed a gasifier to run his Dodge pickup. He developed it himself and hasn’t driven on gasoline in five years. They even tried to get some media attention and drove from South Carolina to California and back only on wood. If you look up “Wayne Keith” or “Wayne Keith Auburn” you will find a few videos of this old country boy who did this himself. If you have time listen to “Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Speaker Wayne Keith” for his own presentation of what he did. The technology may not be great for the whole country or for people without any extra time to learn how to use it, because it can be finicky. But, it ran for one or two miles per pound of wood that he carried in feedsacks in the back and he got all his wood from a cabinetry shop.