Clarkson Energy Homes

I read Government At Its Worst figuring Chuck Colson had found some anecdote about the power of government gone awry. I was not disappointed.

His poor friend decided to rehabilitate a campground for noble purposes. His first mistake? He pulled his permits. He went to one government agency and announced what he was doing. It’s a shame , really. If you are not in the correct state and under the guidance of adequate legal advice, you can’t rehab squat.

(more…)

I saw this comment on a townhall.com article:

So she mentions two patients that cost a lot of money. And for that we should deport 12 million people.

Oh, Dave, you poor demented fellow. You’re missing the point completely. Any solution which purports to treat immigrants like human beings will always fail miserably. Any policy in which human beings are treated with dignity and with respect hurts the true winner of high medical costs. The government bureaucrat.

(more…)

Watch this video:

This guy is too funny. I ran across him on a libertarian email newsgroup. Let’s look at his finer points. He is telling us what he would do to ruin the the American way of life (which he never actually defines). I wonder how many takes it took. He couldn’t possibly say all these things with a straight face on the first take.

I would foreclose on millions of homes. You know. Kick people out of their houses.

(more…)

Today, I only rent the land, but a few years ago, I used to rent mobile homes. I had one fellow who had a couple of kids and was squeaking by. Like most people, he tended to live paycheck-to-paycheck. I tried everything short of paying him to help him stay in my rental, but eventually had to evict him.

During the last week or so of his stay, we were still trying to work things out and he said he was speaking with someone about something at lunch earlier that week. Now, I need you to picture how I lived at that time. I had gone to work for Wal-mart because my rentals were not pulling in enough money for me to live on and my savings were quickly dwindling.

I live a pretty meager life. I don’t eat out. I don’t commute. I combine trips to save fuel. I only watch matinees at the cinema. I set up a community book exchange to lower my book costs. I drink a diet powdered drink to save money on food. Back when this was happening I didn’t even have cable TV.
(more…)

In another lifetime, I used to work for The Home Depot. Back then, it was important to me to know as much about big box retail as I could learn. I read the insider magazines and read a lot of the manuals and generally tuned my ear to anything having to do with any of the big box retailers.

I met a fellow once who had worked for a lumber yard who was a competitor of ours. I asked him why contractors seemed more likely to go to his stores rather than mine. He said something which made very much sense at the time and something which later I would participate in as well.

As a mobile home park owner, much of my time is spent doing odds and ends jobs around the park. It is not uncommon for the company pickup truck to be loaded with plumbing parts, tools and other valuable items.
(more…)

I ran across this piece of code in a program I am updating. The original author is a great game designer, but only a fair programmer. He also seems to have very limited experience with SQL.

When writing database applications, you need to be as good at writing queries as you are at writing code. Here's a rewrite:

(more...)

I tried to watch the movie Stakeout (1987). I kept getting interrupted by the children in my neighborhood, but I did see the opening scene or two.

Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez play police detectives and they are chasing a criminal on the docks near some body of water. In the second or third scene Richard's character has the suspect covered when Emilio's character pulls up in a forklift and breaks the line of sight to the criminal.

During the this first part o f the movie I keep waiting for Richard's character to ask Emilio's character what he was doing on the forklift. Forklifts are not generally faster than people and starting one often requires specialized knowledge (like knowing the location of the safety interlock switch). It is very unlikely that the forklift would have aided in the arrest.

(more...)

Picture this. You are called in to a local court and asked by town officials about your earnings over the last year. It is revealed that you have had a really great year. Your pay went up and you were able to pay down your existing debt. You have a few skills that make your labor much in demand. Demand is so great that you will see a massive increase in pay this coming year.

Now, one of the idiot politicians asks, "Since you made so much money last year and since there is a shortage in alternatives to your work skills, why not work for less next year." I'm willing to bet that you would probably want to ask the idiot politician what he or she was smoking and whether they were willing to share.

Let me make sure you understand what I am saying. You have a highly demanded skill, but there are alternatives for your customers. Unfortunately, all those alternatives are even more expensive than purchasing your skills. Your customers are hitting hard times and they need financial relief from your high prices.

(more...)

I just ran across this web site titled:

Don't Get Scammed - Top Internet Scams Exposed!

And in the tet I found this. I kid you not:

Our top pick is Grant Search Guide which is %100 free all you have to cover is the shipping costs ($2.95).

Let me get this straight. The bastion of honesty about internet scams is telling me a bold face lie and wants me to somehow believe that paying $2.95 is some how the same as 100% free.

(more...)

Many years ago I lived on Long Island in Suffolk County, NY. I have always been an avid bike rider and I recall a personal best where I rode solo for 42 miles. I don't recall how I did the first half of the ride, but I took a beach road most of the way back.

I visited the beach on my bicycle at least once a week back then. I occasionally commuted to work 18 miles each way also. I even did Bike New York several times, but I remember that one day especially clear. Perhaps it was because I didn't plan it or perhaps it was that I didn't have to wait for others in my group to catch up. That day was just a magical day.

(more...)