Yancey Fire Department got their higher rating but at what cost to others?....

The Yancey Fire Department now has a higher rating but has also lost it's volunteer status in the process. The County has increased and paid for a paid staff but at what cost to the rest of the districts in Augusta County? Operation Drumbeat has link to NewsLeader article...

“You can stand with oil companies, or you can stand with the American people.”

Recently some of the best "Political" conversations have been in the break room at work where it is possible to sit with other "middle class" workers in varying economic situations and talk about current "political" events... It has been a pleasure to watch several of my co-workers who have been and some who are still JMU students, and were past supporters of Candidate\President Obama and now have a better understanding of the real "Hope & Change" he was selling as Candidate Obama...

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One of my friends sent me his observations of the recent speech by our President regarding the war he is obviously promoting between the evil oil companies vs. the people...

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A few weeks back in New Hampshire, President Obama said in a speech, “You can stand with oil companies, or you can stand with the American people.” A choice between oil companies and the American people? Hardly. President Obama should get an A+ for playing politics, however when it comes to leadership and economics, he deserves an F.

This administration will say and do almost anything to increase oil and gas companies’ tax rates. But the question is why would we ever want to do that? The oil and gas industry is one of the few areas of our economy supporting economic growth and lots of jobs, more than 9 million jobs in fact. The industry also pumps over $1 trillion into the American economy. Best of all, U.S. oil and gas companies are actually positioned to stimulate the economy in the future without having to use government IOUs.

So why do some people not understand that placing new taxes and regulations on this industry will have dangerous repercussions? It’s because President Obama continues to frame the issue as oil companies vs. Americans as if it’s a zero-sum game. This may sound good in a speech, but let’s think about that for a second. These oil companies that President Obama so openly vilifies are actually American businesses that employ millions of American workers and contribute to the American economy. Let’s not forget to mention they provide American energy so we can drive to work and transport goods.

Most troubling is that Obama’s agenda of higher energy taxes and more regulations disregards basic energy research. According to a statistic from the American Energy Alliance, repealing oil and gas sector tax provisions would reduce household earnings by almost $35 billion over the next 10 years. Another study from Dr. Joseph Mason at LSU shows that eliminating these provisions would bring in $30 billion in federal tax revenue at the expense of $341 billion in economic output.

The math clearly doesn’t match Obama’s rhetoric. More than 20,000 new jobs have been created by the U.S. oil and gas industry since the recession started, yet this president continues to use “oil companies” as a scapegoat for his own failed economic policies. American energy can help create more jobs and help turn the economy around, but it will take real leadership from a reluctant White House. It appears President Obama needs some more education on American energy and the vast potential it holds for our economy.

Augusta County takes control of Yancey Volunteer Fire Department...

Many could turnout to protest the higher insurance rates but nobody could volunteer to staff their own firehouse?...

Operation Drumbeat: augusta takes control of yancey vfd

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Sinker Sales 2012....

The Point Pleasant Scuba Rescue\Dive Team had their annual showing at the Fishermen Flea Market this year where they sold over 2,200+ lbs. of lead sinkers to raise funds for the team...

Augusta BOS looking for their own numbers?...

Operation Drumbeat has an interesting piece on the Augusta BOS seeking to get their own numbers by doing the re-assessments inhouse.

Scuba Surfing.....

Scuba Surfing: the next extreme sport? from Undersea Productions on Vimeo.

Have not seen a defense that weak since the Clinton administration budget cuts....

Went to the JMU (James Madison University) vs. VMI (Virginia Military Institute) hockey game in Charlottesville last night and even with the lopsided score it was good to get in the next to last game of the local season....

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JMU came out of the starting blocks with a score in the first 50 seconds and followed up with another 9 goals in the first period...

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The "Keydets" just failed to clear out the area in front of their goal and allowed the JMU forwards to have their way

VMI did manage their first goal with 3 minutes left in the 2nd period after coming alive after a timeout where it was obvious that the game plan had been updated to address the scoring by JMU in the first period...

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The Main Street Arena is a great place to watch a game for you can get up close to the game and the players. Looking forward to next seasons games here...

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Economic Development in SAW Staunton~Augusta~Waynesboro

Coverage over at Operation Drumbeat.....

JMU Hockey and the "Hockey Stick" manmade global warming theory...

Went to the JMU vs. Radford Ice hockey game last night at the MainStreet Arena in Charlottesville and saw a good game along with reading about Michael Mann, author of the "Hockey-Stick" graph on man made global warming, being in town giving a enviro-talk to the students of UVA...

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Great game with Radford coming out and delivering two massive hits in the first 20 seconds of the first period to set the tone of play. Radford controlled the first period with what must have been a 3 to 1 shots on goal ratio and the first score in the first half of the period. JMU Dukes did get it together towards the end with a score 9 seconds before the end of the period...

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In the 2nd period JMU came out like a new team and continued to crash the Radford net and this resulted in a 5 to 3 lead for the Dukes at the end of the 2nd period. There was a very interesting call where the Radford goalie performed a "Poke-check" in front of the net (No doubt the result of a prior suggestion by fellow hockey fan Chris Green to the Radford coach after a prior game) but lost his stick and pushing the puck away from the JMU player and the Ref granted the JMU a penalty shot which was stopped by the goalie.....

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In the 3rd Radford tied it up after the JMU goalie attempted a poke-check but ended up feeding the puck to the trailing Radford wing who promptly deposited it into the JMU goal. Radford ended up scoring the final goal and winning the game in front of a pretty good crowd of people gathered...

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During one of the intermissions I sat and read an article in the local C-ville about climate scientist Michael Mann had returned to UVA to give a keynote lecture regarding those who question his climate research and conclusion of man made global warming. "“Contrarians
or deniers, I think that there has been some tendency to give those who denythe scientific consensus far too much prominence in the public discourse.”

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Now I was in his backyard and old stomping grounds of UVA where he once was a climate scientist and eventually came up with the famous "Hockey Stick" graph showing the dramatic increase of global temperature that he concludes comes from man made gasses, and I was reading a local weekly C-ville paper, so what should I expect?...

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By Mann's and the C-ville papers definition, I am one of those "deniers" who continues to question the conclusion that global warming is caused by man made gasses. I do not dispute that there is global warming but do question that it is caused to the extent that some claim is responsible for much of the warming now being experienced.

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Anybody remember back in the 70's when we were told of the coming Ice age that would cover much of the U.S. ? If we have made such a dramatic swing in such a short period of time how do you think we could ever slow down or possible stop this "man made" warming? ....

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$14 Trillion or $15 Trillion debt... Who cares?... It makes no difference...

Had a conversation at work the other day and it turned to the next $1 trillion we are about to add to our national debt bringing it to over $15 trillion dollars owed... Now there have been many examples of how much a trillion really is but the conversation got to a point that if the additional $1 trillion is not really felt at the immediate paycheck level what difference does it matter?...

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The average person has not really felt the effects of the last trillion that was added to the debt for it has not hit them directly in their pocket. This is obvious at work for even at the last "Black Friday" we saw a considerable increase in sales over last years numbers and the customers continue to spend as long as the credit card swipes and the approval is instant as it is anymore. I mean let's face it. With the economy as bad as they say it is do you really need to buy that new ratcheting screw driver that works both directions? Thought we did not have any manufacturing jobs in America anymore and who needs a screwdriver like that?....

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It looks like Congress will approve to add another $1 trillion to our national debt this week but will anybody notice? If adding another trillion to our debt resulted in every person seeing $50 missing from their paycheck every week there would be such outrage in the first month we could not imagine. Just look at what happened when Bank of America attempted to raise their fees by just $5 a month...

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