 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There was a good turnout for the Creston neighborhood watch's clothing give away.
The Shrine ATV Poker run is scheduled for May 30 on the historic dePue farm at Creston. They always have a good ride.
The government moved Decoration Day to May 25. The peonies are coming into their glory so there should be flowers to place on the graves.
The Creston area continues to have rain and mud. The amphibians have been singing & milkweeds and poke are choice now for greens.
Rev. Carlos Nutter filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church.
Jody Goff was calling on Euell & Charles Russell. They were also consulting their physician at the Minnie Hamilton Health System.
John Little installed a new submersible water pump at the Creston Community Building. His skill and expertise in such matters are a help to the area.
The Calhoun County sheriff was attending to business on the Richardsonville Road.
According the the Spencer paper, a 17 year old from Creston was arrested when he and three others from Reedy & Spencer robbed an elderly couple who live on Stutler's Run road near Reedy.
Some while back some local women talked with the welfare & child protective services about a situation where a registered sexual predator was spending time around a young girl. They were advised, "Nothing can be done until he does something since his conviction involved an adult female." When advised that he was involved in a previous "situation" involving a young girl they were told, "Oh that case is sealed and we can't access it to use it against him. Now if he does something, we'll act.' At that time the welfare folks were told, "It'll be too late then." The answer was, "Well, those are our rules, you know."
Of course, he did act and the response was to tell him to stay away from the girl. They refused to bring charges for some reason and said, "Oh, she is young and she'll forget all about it!". Those familiar with the little 3 year old girl note that she has nightmares about the crime. The gendarmes, apparently lacking any 'evidence' are reluctant to act on the case. At least for now the predator is staying away from this little girl but there are many other small children at risk. Perhaps if there is enough outrage over the lack of action by those who are supposed to protect the vulnerable something might be done. Someone suggested naming the names of those who refuse to do their job so that when they go to the store or any public place folks can ask them, "Why?"
Those who follow the news and/or use tobacco products know that the tax went up "to fund "government social welfare programs". John Manfreda, administrator of the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax department announced that the federal tax on snuff would go up 92 1/2 cents/lb while chewing tobacco rose 30.83 cents/lb. Cigarettes rose $64.74/1000 while loose tobacco (remember Prince Albert in a can?) went from $1.0969/lb to $24.78/lb. It was noted that Phillip Morris had this latter done to keep folks from going back to rolling their own as was done when times were hard before. Also it was noted that Phillip Morris wants FDA to take over so they can be "on the inside" and eliminate all the competitors just like GM did with FDR in the 1930s eliminating competing car manufacturing companies and just like the folks did in Germany during the same time frame.
ACORN the outfit that the Big Eared One formerly worked for in Chicago continues to be in the news as now it is learned that all the money for over 200 entities that are associated with the outfit goes to one address in New Orleans. It seems that ACORN came from the brainchild of two fellows at Columbia who set up the Cloward-Piven strategy for class warfare against capitalist forces. Their goal was "to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse."
One of the parts of the plan was to increase the number on welfare rolls. The number went from 4.3 million to 10.8 million in the mid- 1970s. In New York the plan worked extremely well and there was one welfare client for every two workers. William Radke, the founder of ACORN determined to use the same tactic on voter registration to overwhelm the system with fraudulent registrations using multiple entires of the same name, names of the deceased, random names from the phone book, even contrived names. George Soros, through his Open Society Institute, funded much of this activity as did government agencies, gullible religious groups, etc. Now this same outfit, currently in criminal trouble in Nevada for fraudulent action in voter registration & voting is to be in charge of the U. S. Census.
Those who have been following the developments in the Chesapeake fraud case know that the claims administrator sent out the initial letters to those who were impacted. Now it seems there is a glitch as someone "overlooked 900 flat rate wells operated by Chesapeake". No doubt someone in Oklahoma City is laughing. The amounts are being recalculated.
The big sooper dooper power line (PATH) for the east coast is back in the news now that the company has come out with revised maps. Once the legal notice is published in the newspapers, landowners in the corridor (which is very wide) have only 30 days to be involved in the discussion. If one does not then write to the PSC then, when you find that your land is to be taken, you are out of luck. One does not to look at the "line location" but one must look at the outside lines of the corridor. Of course there is a real question as to the justification for the new line since, for the first time since folks started using Thomas Alva Edison's light bulbs, there was a decline (7%, a significant amount) in electric use. Speaking of light bulbs one had best stock up as they are now banned for "causing global warming" as directed by the High Priest of the Church of Global Warming. The replacement bulbs are all made in China and must (legally) be disposed of as hazardous waste. Technically, if one is broken in the home your site would be contaminated (by mercury, etc.) & you would need to do an EPA syle cleanup.
Andrew Schreckengost & Michael Collins were both attending to business in Creston. Bernard Smith was calling at the O'Dell residence.
Those who want to be where the action is should remember that the Creston Community Building donation auction will be June 6. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Those who have items to bring should call Alvin, Jack or Fred to have items picked up.
The price of local Penn grade crude dropped $2.25/bbl over the weekend to $49.50/bbl although the price of gasolene and other refined petroleum products seems to have remained steady. Natural gas is still in the $4/MCF range which, in actual dollars, is 'cheap'. Domestic gas consumers have yet to see reductions in their bills.
The continuing economic malaise and the government actions which would seem to make matters worse are getting the attention of some who had not followed "the action". While billed as "going after the rich", rich seems to be getting redefined. Now that the government has taken over the auto and banking industries, their stocks & bonds are worthless or nearly so. The big eared one said Chrysler and GM had too many dealers and now the car problems have impacted local residents. West Virginia dealerships have been ordered closed even if they were profitable. Now it was announced that GM would (as run by the federal government) have their automobiles made in China -- that would stimulate employment there for sure.
As various industries are trashed and destroyed the stocks and bonds become worthless and "rich folks" like state road employees, school bus drivers, county employees and anyone who is drawing or hopes to draw a retirement is now at risk for even well managed pension funds will be wiped out as "even the safest investments" will be impacted as America' economy is converted to government control. Then too inflation will eat up any interest income and each day money will be worth less.
Locally, the crash in energy prices will result is much lower tax revenues for counties, especially those with significant oil and gas production and on the state level it will be bad. In 2010, Calhoun County's tax revenue will likely be cut by 20%. Maybe the little Rockefeller boy will get an ambassadorship and the Big Boss can pull out for Dee Cee leaving Earl Ray and his mother's puppies to solve the problems.
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