It seems that it is good to be a big corportation and pay little taxes, be rich and pay a low tax rate, have an airplane and pay little and yet it is bad to be poor, on medicare, on social security or be on welfare as that is what congress wants to cut bebefits for as well as cut more taxes for the higher income.

If we could only get the fair tax bill passed (HR25/S13) the tax paid would be the same for everyone that bought anything new and all the other taxes would be eleminated as well as the IRS. Of course you say what about the poor? Well everyone will get a refund called a prebate to be able to afford the basic necesities like food. Congress won't budge because they are the rich and like their tax breaks the poor and middle class can't take advantage of. They like their perks like a per diem expense account that is tax free and not deserved for many (pay a housing and food allowance while they are home - why, pay them per diem when they are not really in session - why). They like their retirement program and medical program not ours.

We need to really get mad as hell and really not take it anymore. We need to ask serious questions of the up and comming candidates. We need to withhold our vote for the wrong answers or wrong behaviors. We need to vote. It seems the silent majority is allowing themselves to be hoodwinked into staying silent. The public is being dumbed down.

Congress, Weather, Elinen

The congress is cutting funds from farm conservation programs. Know Your Farmer and Know Your Food (KYF, KYF) program will probably go. Why don't they ever start at the top for making cuts?

The weather is getting wild an woolly again as it rains here and snows at 7000'. Are we going to have an early winter? After all it is almost July and my flower seeds are just getting up.

There is a lot of talk about comet or brown star elinen. 9/26/11 it is going to cause our magnetic field to switch and then 11/22/11 it will switch back. In between times there will be a some days without light. Spooky if it is true and that is what the NASA and the JPL say.

Wildlife and such

On the way to church this morning we passed a flock of turkeys in the street and then saw a herd of cattle being driven down Main St. This was the second cattle drive down Main St. right in front of the JnR Hotel this week. It was great but it was a little late since we have mass at 8:30 am on Sundays. I lucky to have the camera with me and took a couple of shots. They are posted at http://www.facebook.com/jnrhotel. The drive got hung up down the street near the Country Hearth. I guess the cattle smelled the bacon or the people watching scared them, most likely the later. From across the street on the corner I was able to zoom in on one in front of Golden's. You can see the fear in their eyes and I wasn't very close at all - a good 500' away. The drive was a real treat though because it isn't something you can see everyday. The first drive seemed much smaller because I almost completely missed it. It takes a while to get the sounds of the drive to register in the brain to look out the window to see there are animals & cowbows in the street going by. On the way back from church we saw a couple of geese grazing.

The squirrel hunters are doing well but they don't seem to be making much of a dent in the population. The squirrels are mutiplying just too fast.

The wildcats are getting a bit thick too. A jet black one has been seen on the Alturas side of Cedarpass. There was a nice picture of a regular one in Lake City. When the deer and livestock are gone who's next?

The rotary had their foundation dinner last night at the community church. If the chamber can modify one of the flyers a bit it will be great for the squirrel round up next year.

Vitality News for March 2011

The latest newsletter from the Modoc Economic Vitality Group has been downloaded to the website. To access it go to http://www.jnrhotel.com, then click on the Calendar Tab. On the calendar page is a red link to the newsletter.

So why is it so hard to get there? We have been running a contest recently involving finding the newsletter, telling us where it is and then getting a discount on lodging.

Spring is finally threatening. The squirrels are running for their lives because the hunters are here after them. Everyone hope the hunters are very successful because the squirrels are a menace to alphalfa farmers. Beside the holes and tunnels all over the place, they eat a significant portion of the crop.

My Facebook page for the hotel is now active too and there is a link on the hotel website http://www.jnrhotel.com that will take you to the Facewbook page. I hope everyone is enjoying all this work - http://www.jnrotel.com (hotel website), http://www.facebook.com/pages/JnR-Hotel/207586182601754 (Facebook Page) and http://www.jnrhotel.blogspot.com (blog page).

Someday I will add iphone capability to the website, spread the blog to the other places this software works with automatically and other things as I get time.

If you like all or any of this let me know.
Jim

I just read an article today about hotels becoming smoke free. In Nov 2008, AAA counted 8300 smoke free hotels and a new survey counted 12,800. We have been smoke free since Aug. 2005. We try to stay ahead of the curve. Wait until you hear about our new tool. You'll love to know we got one. It is way ahead of the curve.

4 way test and honesty

I wish more folks would join the Rotary and believe in the 4 way test. Paul Harris when he started Rotary 100 years ago, found that if he followed certain principals in business he was much more successful. The principals became the Rotary FOUR-WAY TEST. Just ask yourself of all the things we say, do and think: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair for all concerned? 3.Will it build Good Will and Better Friendships? 4. Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?

If everyone could just tell the truth and be fair the world would be much better. If you cannot negotiate a solution to a problem you are having with someone, it seems one party will attempt to force his/her will on the other even by violence if necessary. Folks will get so angry that reason goes by the wayside and they consider murder is the only solution. What a waste

The JnR Hotel is run on the Rotary beliefs - honesty and integrity and the businesses we patronize do the same if they want our business.

Polio

Do you remember that President Franklin D Rosevelt founded the National foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938? It has since been renamed to the March of Dimes. Do you remember Albert Sabin developed the oral polio vacacine (He died 3/3/93)? Did you know in 1953 $70 in dimes was stolen in Alturas from a display there by 3 youths? Did you know the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Rotary International a challange of $355 million toward the eradication of polio? Do you know what I have in common with Mia Farrow and Itzhak Perlman? We survived polio. It is indisciminate. Did you know that the Rotary Internation goal for 2011 is to finish erradication of Polio? Did you know we have been fighting polio for 23 years?

You can donate to the fund in person at the JnR Hotel in Cedarville (I don't have a paypal link yet on the website http://www.jnrhotel.com/rotary, but will) or by credit card on the web at http://www.rotary.org/EN/CONTRIBUTE/Pages/ridefault.aspx