Meet Stella...and the Kayesville Bonneville Shorline Trail

No, not the Stella from the Rocky movies. This Stella is a new member of the family who happened to arrive yesterday. Stella would happen to be my new mountain bike. Now why would anyone choose the name Stella for a mountain bike. All I can say is The Italian Job.
This past week I have been out biking quite a bit and my brother Chad came on one trip with me. He has been looking at getting a bike and getting a little more exercise into his daily routine. Well, to be able to start mountain biking one first must have a mountain bike to ride. This is where it got a little tricky. Seeing how Chad's wife just had a new little baby boy last Thursday it was looking pretty tight money wise and we all know that Chad was not about to go out and drop close to a grand on a bike, well he most definitely would have, but his wife wouldn't have let him. So I decided to take one for the team and sacrifice myself for my brothers sake. What did that sacrifice entail? Well, it entailed me getting a new bike! So now I can go around and sell my old one to my brother at a fraction of the cost he would have paid if it were new. That's not the only reason I got a new bike, however it was a great push into the purchase. I've come to find out that I've maxed out on good old Bumblebee and if I wanted to improve my biking I had to take it up a notch on equipment. So, long story short, please take this moment with me to welcome Stella into the family.
Now getting a new bike wouldn't be anything if I didn't take her out on a ride right? Well of course I did. Chad and I went out on a quick ride this morning along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that spans from Layton to Kayesville. It is a quick, and fun little ride that includes some good push climbs and also some flats for a good sprint. It's mostly single track that follows the contour of the Wasatch as it weaves in and out of the little side canyons, one of them being Adam's Canyon. Seeing how Spring has just begun the streams that flow out of these canyons are running high, loud, and cold. At various places one has to cross these streams but for the most part there are little foot bridges built over them, except for one. This stream is one you can either walk across because there are plenty of rocks laid out to step on, or you can bomb through it on the bike. Seeing how it was early in the morning and only like 40 degrees I decided that I didn't want to ride with frozen toes so there was no bombing through it for me.
As I said, the trail follows the contour along the old Bonneville Shoreline and offers a great view of Davis County (yes I did say something nice about Davis County but I was merely talking about the scenery, not the people.). I took these opportunities to get some nice panoramic shots. I have to say, they turned out better than I expected.
Parts of the trail are out in the open sage but when it dives back into the little canyons you immediately ride through tiny groves of trees and vegetation. Those time when you come into those groves and are weaving in and out of the trees just might be my favorite section of the ride. Not only is it fun to do but beautiful to see as you go through. Then there are some great downhill parts with plenty of roots, rocks and drop offs to make it interesting. Now the old me would've taken those downhills a little bit slower but since I had Stella and her dual suspension and disc brakes, well lets just say controlling the bike on the downhill was much easier, and more comfortable to ride.
Seeing how today was a Saturday and this is a fairly popular trail there were plenty of people to ride past and talk with. We even ended up playing bike tag with a group that we kept passing and then they in turn kept passing us. It's a different feeling being up on the mountain than it is in the city. For the most part the people are more friendly and willing to stop and chat for a couple of seconds. It doesn't matter if they're bikers, hikers or joggers there exist a code of the trail that most people seem to respect. Granted, there are the occasional few that tend to ignore everyone and just keep going.
The trail itself is only about 3.5 miles long and downhill for the most part if you start on the northern trail head. Once you come to the end you have the option of riding back along the trail, or following highway 89 for a good cardio. Eventually you have to climb back up the mountain to get to the Jeep. Overall I believe we did about 8 miles. Before hitting the final pull up the hill we stopped off at a local Sinclair for some quick OJ after we found five bucks along the side of the road. Chad took this opportunity to express how his legs were feeling after the highway 89 section, and the whiteness of said legs.
It was a cool morning but overall a beautiful day to be out on the trail. Watching the shadow of the mountain recede over the valley as the sun slowly crept its way up was a beautiful sight to take in. The sky was a clear blue and reflected amazingly of different parts of the Great Salt Lake. Pollution hasn't gotten too bad yet and so the islands of the lake were easily visible from a distance. 6:30 am comes really early and I told Chad that I was cursing his name as the alarm clock sounded, but being out there on the trail and taking in the sites we did made it worth the early morning start. Knowing how hot it can get in the afternoon also made us appreciate the cool morning ride. The different sections of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail each have their singularities but one thing they do have in common is sitting on the west side of the Wasatch Front and when the afternoon sun beats down on them it makes for a grueling ride. However, in the morning they are a great way to get the day started. Each trail offers a great variety of good hills to push up and also long flats to sprint across. Overall these trails offer a great early morning workout without completely draining you for the rest of the day.

Wheeler Canyon

Time again for another uplifting and informative blog on the bike trails of Utah. Today's adventure takes place on a little trail just south of Pineview Reservoir, known as Wheeler Canyon. The trail head begins right at Pineview dam and heads up along a double track, well groomed trail. The trail follows a path high above the creek of Wheeler Canyon. Again, it's a fairly easy ascent with a steady climb and smooth trail. My brother Chad decided to come along with me and seeing how this was the first time he's been mountain biking in a long time, I thought this would be a great tail to start out with. About a mile into the trail the canyon divides into a Y and a trail heads up either side. We stayed along the north end of the trail because eventually the trail loops back around and we can come back through the south canyon. The north end heading up continues as the double track well groomed trail. Again it follows a creek until it meets up with the Old Snowbasin Road at the ArtNod junction of the trail. From here many different trails spread out over the base of Snowbasin and the surrounding mountains like the coronary arteries of the heart light up under arteriograms. While talking with Chad I informed him that in the future we would be hitting up those trails as well. We followed the road until it met up again with the trail that would take us back down Ice Box canyon into Wheeler. At this junction where the road meets a trail is a beautiful meadow that later on in the spring will be filled with yellow wildflowers. The trail now is a single track trail with a fun descent into the meadow. However, because of the recent rain and ever increasing runoff the trail was muddy, slippery, and slow. When I got to the bottom of the meadow my black/yellow bike (from now on will be known as Bumblebee, you know...like the Camaro in Transformers) was brown and grinding. However, that's nothing compared to what happened to Chad. As he comes down the trail and over the bridge onto the flat, dry ground he immediately stops and has a look of extreme disappointment on his face. He yells saying that his chain had busted. When I pull up next to him I realize that it wasn't so much his chain was the problem as it was his derailleur had broken of at the hanger which connects it to the frame. The worse part for Chad was that we had done all the grunt work to make it up to this point and the single track trail that lied ahead of us was mostly down hill and fun. So after a brief laugh Chad hiked his bike back up to the road that we rode along while I continued down the trail. Now some might consider this inconsiderate of me, leaving my brother behind while I continued along the best part of the trail, but someone had to go get the Jeep. And seeing how I had done this trail before and knew the path back it only made sense that I be the one, right? Ok, I'm not going to lie, I had a blast flying down.
Now for Chad's sake the round trip trail was only about 5 miles long and we had done over half of it before the bike broke so it wasn't going to take me that long to get back. And it didn't. It actually took me longer to drive the Jeep up to where he was then it took me to ride back to it through the canyon. So I eventually made it to Chad and we loaded up the bikes and went on our way home.
Now for the best part...the bike wasn't even Chad's. It was the bike of a friend of ours named Taylor. Luckily the derailleur wasn't that much, around $20. The worst part was fixing the thing. I've never had to fix one before so it was a good learning experience...right? It took me over 3 hours! Now there is good reason why. I first bought the derailleur but hadn't bought the hanger that connects it to the bike (where it had actually busted at). So I had to go and get that. After disconnecting the derailleur I replaced the hanger and decided to put the old derailleur back on seeing how it hadn't broke (just the hanger, remember). Once I got it connected up and the chain back on I had to adjust the cable so that it shifted smoothly and into all the gears. That's where the problem begins. I had printed off some instructions on how to make these adjustments (and they are very fine tune adjustments) and was following those and doing what I thought they said to do. I tweaked a screw hear, pulled a cable there, shifted while adjusting and everything short of picking up the bike and throwing it in frustration when it just didn't seem like what I was doing worked. I couldn't get the stupid thing to shift into it's highest gear and when shifting into it's lowest gear the chain would fall off. So after a couple hours of making these hairline type tweaks to the screws and cables I decided to start all over. Maybe it's the derailleur I thought, maybe it's bent slightly. So I get the new one out, put it on, reconnect everything and it's time again to tune it. Who would've though, 10 minutes later I get it shifting perfectly! That right there is a testament to how important properly working equipment is. It makes life so much easier when things work the way they're supposed to.
So anyway, that's the trip for today. Hopefully since I have a couple of weeks off and the weather is supposed to be warm I'll be able to get another couple of rides in and posted.

Media Induced Panic

It's not uncommon these days to turn on the television and see some report of a major health crisis affecting not only our nation but also the world. There seems to be a new epidemic/pandemic every year that threatens our very existence. And so with the ringing in of 2009 we have the notorious Swine Flu A H1N1. It was first discovered in a patient in southern California in later March by the CDC. Mexico had also been dealing with a recent increase in flu like symptoms and discovered that it's patients were also infected with this new strain of the virus. After what I can assume to be a painstaking history process Patient 0 was eventually discovered to be a small boy in Mexico. From there the virus spread to the rest of the world. Since it's discovery the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised it's pandemic alert level from 3 (which has where it's been since the recent Avian Flu outbreaks) which means that human to human infection is not yet present to a level 5 meaning the human to human infection is sustained and a pandemic is very, very possible.It has now infected people in over 18 countries with a total worldwide infection of 898 (as per WHO report on May 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 am). Mexico has the highest number of cases with 506 CONFIRMED including 19 deaths. The United States has CONFIRMED 226 cases, at least one in every state, with 1 death in Texas, an infant visiting from Mexico City. Austria (1), Canada (85), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), France (2), Germany (8), Ireland (1), Israel (3), Italy (1), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic of Korea (1), Spain (40), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (15) have all reported confirmed cases as well, however no deaths. All this information can be found on the CDC's and WHO's web pages.
So we have a new strain of influenza that has the potential to be problematic. This wouldn't be the first time the world has faced this problem. Back in 1918-1920 the world was struck with possibly the worst pandemic (even worse than the black plague) it's ever seen. This flu was named the Spanish Flu (more correctly named the flu of 1918 because it didn't originate in Spain) and killed between 50-100 million people worldwide. It is estimated to have infected over 1/3 of the worlds population at the time. All this took place in a course of 18 months. It generally infected and killed healthy young adults with strong immune systems. The belief is that this particular strain sent the immune system into a cytokine storm, or over surge with destroyed the body. Those with weak immune systems, like the elderly or infants weren't as susceptible, thus the noteworthy death of young adults. Two other well known pandemics were the Asian Flu of 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968, although they weren't as virulent or lethal as the flu of 1918. These were serious pandemics which affected the world in a great way.
In my lifetime this is the third "flu epidemic/pandemic" that has been reported. Back in 1988 there was a similar Swine Flu outbreak that received wide coverage by the media. In 2004 Avian flu was the new pandemic. Both of these influenzas received broad media hype and scared a lot of people. Now in 2009 we have another media propagated Swine Flu. Here's the problem with media propagated medical issues:



Now I don't wish to sound like this doesn't have the potential to cause a worldwide problem, because it can have that potential. But what worries me more is the widespread hysteria generated by those individuals who are influenced by media, rumors and opinions from friends/acquaintances, and hypochondriacs. The biggest problem with this is that incorrect information is given, or correct information is given but the interpretation of such information is questionable. For example, the virus name H1N1 is not an entirely new virus. The recent strain isolated and now known as the Swine Flu A H1N1 is actually a recombination of four different viral strains, one of which being a common human H1N1 virus. This strain affects millions of people every year and according to the WHO "these annual epidemics result in about three to five million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths" annually. Another great example is that of the number of infections being reported by the WHO and the CDC, 898 internationally and 226 in the US. While some might quote these numbers and say that the infected rate has more than doubled in the past day and that more and more cases are being seen, what is being reported is that if you take the overall worldwide cases of 898 and factor that into a worldwide population of over 6 billion people, well people the math turns out to be 2 x 10-7 (or 0.0000002%) worldwide infection. Now lets take the number of infected US citizens at 226 divided by a population a little over 304 million that equates out to 7 x 10 -7 (or 0.0000007%) US infected, with 1 death that technically isn't even a citizen but a visitor from Mexico.

Remember people that 60% of statistics are made up 55% of the time by 9/10 dentist who recommend Crest to 90% of their patients.

And so I repeat, this new strain can have the potential to break out into a pandemic as bad as the Hong Kong or Asian or heaven forbid the 1918 Flu but let's not let the media scare us into overreaction or irrational acting. The best place to get information on the current situation is from your health care provider and also from the CDC or WHO. They will have information on how to protect yourself and others, what signs and symptoms to look for, and what to do if you do come down with a case of influenza, swine flu or not. The information given by health care providers right now is the following:

Protection:
-Avoid close contact with those who are symptomatic.
-Regularly wash your hands with soap and warm water. Use of antiseptic gels when/where needed (but if you live in Ogden you'll be hard pressed to find them seeing how many stores have sold out.)
-Do not share eating utensils and other things of such nature with those who might be sick.
-Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or sleeve when coughing and sneezing. Wash your hands immediately after.
-Maintain a healthy life. This means eating healthy (fruits, vegetables, grains, etc), getting plenty of rest, and daily exercise. (This is the most effective disease prevention for almost any disease)

And most of all, stay up to date on correct information posted by responsible agencies. Television news, newspapers, etc all have an agenda to fill and it's about "getting the story first." It doesn't have to be the correct story, just the story. Media is in competition with each other and whatever will get the best ratings will be aired. Remember "898 worldwide infections in 18 different countries have been reported so far!" sounds a lot more serious than "898 worldwide infections in 18 different countries which equates to be 0.0000002% of the worldwide population."

A New Season: Bonneville Trail

It's getting that time of year again. These past couple of week the weather has been teasing us with rising temperatures and then sudden rainstorms and cold fronts. Sometimes we struggle to believe that Spring has really arrived. Well, I'm glad to say that the bike has been out a couple of times this month and so it is official, Spring is here. And so begins another year of mountain biking and sharing with others the experience through blog.
My first trail this year was what should have been a fairly simple one, unless of course you're out of shape and didn't keep up on the cardio during the winter like you should have. Those of you familiar with the Ogden area know of the Bonneville Trail system that follows the west bench of the Wasatch Front. There are many sections to this trail and I did the Ogden section of couple of times this past week. It's one trail that can easily be done after work and it's not uncommon to pass by other bikers, runners (all though why would anyone run when they can bike?), and hikers. This early in the season the vegetation is still just barely beginning to bloom. The trees have yet to sprout leaves, however, the shrubs and grass along the trail becomes greener and greener as the days pass. Water begins to stream from the canyons as the snow pack melts. On Monday as I crossed the stream that comes from Taylor Canyon there wasn't even a trickle of water. The creek bed was dry and parched. On Thursday, however, that had all changed with a full flowing stream typical of early snow melt. I was amazed to see how big a difference only 3 days made. Those streams coming from Waterfall Canyon and Strong's Canyon had already started their early Spring decent.
My section of the trail started at the entrance to Ogden Canyon in the Rainbow Gardens parking lot. It is a single track trail that leads of up quick ascent until it merges with a double track service road that runs along the foot of the mountain. One can follow this service road over to Ogden Canyon to access the water pipeline that spans the entrance of the canyon. At that part you can look up the winding road of Ogden Canyon. On the adjacent canyon wall, depending on the county's water need, you can see the man made waterfall from the pipeline splashing down below. From the service road one can follow many different trails. The Ogden foothills are filled with dozens of trails, many of which end up in the same general vicinity. The more famous trails are the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and Indian Trail. I plan on doing a hike along Indian Trail this summer so check back periodically for that.
Back to the trail. From the service road we hooked up with the upper part of the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Again, it turns back into a single track trail, gradual climb with ups and downs, and weaves in and out along the rock wall in between Taylor and Ogden Canyon. At the Taylor Canyon junction you can head back down to the city or continue along. The trail becomes less technical at this point but the incline continues with less ups and downs. The trail now hugs the side of the mountain and has a very steep drop off to one side. It's mostly a dirt trail but every now and then you come across some rock slide areas that leave a lot of gravel where it crosses the trail.
Eventually you come to a popular resting point in the trail called Overlook Rock. From this point you can see the entire Weber Valley which encompasses North Ogden, Ogden, South Ogden and everything to the West including the Great Salt Lake and many of it's islands. From this point the trail begins to level out. It still hugs the side of the mountain and weaves in and out of its little nooks and crannies, but the uphill is done with.
The next major canyon you ride into will be Waterfall Canyon. This is a very popular canyon for hikers because of the 200' waterfall at the end. I don't have a picture of this waterfall because it's been years since I've hiked this canyon, but I did find this picture on the Internet that was taken during the winter when the waterfall was frozen. Kind of cool. The stream coming down from the canyon is in full force and the bridge to cross is not in the best shape of its life. Just a couple of planks were missing. No worries though...right?
Again you follow the trail along the contour of the mountain and then weave in and out of Strong's Canyon. Eventually you end up at the end of the trail which meets up with a neighboring community built high along the bench just west of Weber State University. This is the end and you have two choices. Follow the road back home (boring!) or double back along the trail to get some revenge on that stupid incline at the beginning. The choice is pretty obvious from there. Upon arriving at the service road again I followed another trail to the 22nd street trail head, which is close to where I live, while my friend headed back to Rainbow Gardens, close to where he lives.
The trail is a great way for beginners, and out-of-shapers, to start of the season. In fact, in some spots it's a pretty great trail for youngsters to learn to mountain bike. We saw this mother with her two children up on the trail. She had one child on his mountain bike and was guiding him and holding onto the bike as he learned. I would've suggested the trails just below this one because they are a little flatter and easier to handle. My friend Darek made the comment about "throwing the kid into the deep end of the pool." Regardless, it was great to see a mother out teaching her child how to ride, instead of letting him play video games all day long.
To end off, I'll leave you with my classic Google Earth view of the trail. This year, however, I'll be adding a topographical map and also a vertical profile of the trail (Tyler got a handheld GPS at the beginning of last year and has been playing with it ever since). I also am going to leave those of you interested in a link to a great website Darek gave me about Utah mountain biking trails. I've already found and have mapped out three more trails that I want to do so. That link is http://www.utahmountainbiking.com. Stayed tuned for future updates...and if we're lucky, maybe even some great stories about getting the boat out.


GOTTA GET'M STARTED EARLY!!

Obama on Leno

So tonight President Obama became the first president to appear on the Jay Leno show while in office. I watched it to see what he would say and what questions Leno would ask. A lot was said about the A.I.G scandal and President Obama said that he thought there were many Americans out there that have this sense of entitlement about them. He also said that we are in tough times right now and that the country needs to get back on its feet and the only way it'll happen is if we get back to the principles on what this country was founded upon. In other words, what our forefathers taught. I started laughing as soon as he finished that statement. Not because I don't believe in that principle, but I don't see his policies as doing that. In fact, I see them going in the opposite dirrection. A lot of his policies are trying to make government even stronger in the lives of the people and more a part of their lives. Look at health care, finance, redistribution of wealth, housing, etc. More government involvement is what's being preached.
That's not what this country was founded upon. This country was founded upon principles of hard work by the people. The government is there to protect the rights of the people, not medle in their lives. If the people can't handle themselves properly it's not the governments responsibility to come in and fix it. How will the people learn if the government is there to bail them out? When you take away those responsibilities from the people, then democracy fails and the country will be in prime setting for a dictatorship or communism.
More government involvement leads to more sense of entitlement, leads to less responsibility from the people, leads to less involvement from the people, leads to the fall of this nation. President Obama is right, we need to get back to those principles that our forefathers founded this nation on. How was this nation founded? Through revolution, abolition from a government that failed to let them live their own lives. I'm not calling for war against our nation, but I'm saying that we need to stop expecting the government to jump in and catch us everytime we fall. We need to take responsibility for our own actions. If those actions lead to great riches and benefits then that's our right. If we decide to be lazy and not work hard then we also have no right to complain that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

Payoff after 20 Years!

It's almost time, only a few months left! Ever since I was six years old I've been going to school more days than I've been able to play and have days off. Granted the only difference between kindergarten and home is that instead of mom yelling at you to clean up your mess and take a nap it's a teacher instead. But now, 20 years later, I see the end. I've gone through many different schools: Club Heights Elementary, Washington Terrace Elementary, Midland Elementary, Sandridge Jr High, Roy High, Weber State University, and now at the end of July I'll be graduating from Idaho State University. DONE! No more school! And the best part of it all...I'll have a career that pertains to all this blasted education I've been going through. It won't just be a job to pay bills, but a career that I've studied for. It's truly a great feeling knowing that I'll be done with school and will be able to focus on other things, like waterskiing, vacations, and overall play...oh yeah, that work thing too I guess.
So what's with the "payoff" statement in the title. Well, like I said I'll finally be doing work that I've studied for and that work will start at Midtown Community Health Center in Ogden, Ut. That's right, I haven't graduated yet but I've already had a job offer and signed a contract to work at that clinic starting August. I've been doing one of my rotations there just recently and have loved it. The staff are great to work with and the patients are as well, for the most part.
For those that don't know it's a clinic located in downtown Ogden, on 23rd and Adams. The patient population are mainly those of low income status and Spanish speaking only. The clinic offers family practice, prenatal care, and acute care to all patients. It has an in-clinic pharmacy that is very affordable and sometimes even cheaper than Wal-Mart. It's partialy subsidized by the government which allows it to serve the econimicaly challenged. It has deals worked out with local hospitals that allow our patients to receive diganostic imagging services and also referals to specialists at a discounted rate. Overall, it does a lot of good for the downtown Ogden community.
I'm pretty excited to start working there this fall. I think it will be a good place for me to get established back in my hometown but also a place where I feel that I will be able to help those who are truly in need of it. I also feel that it will provide me with the opportunity to further increase my medical knowledge and also better my skills.

State of the Nation - Children's Version

I got this in an e-mail the other day from a friend and got a good laugh out of it that I thought I'd let everyone get a chance to read it.

The Little Red Hen
> >
> > (The New American Way)
> >
> > "Who will help me sow my wheat?" asked the little red hen.
> >
> > "Not I," said the cow.
> >
> > "Not I," said the duck.
> >
> > "Not I," said the pig.
> >
> > "Not I," said the goose.
> >
> > "Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen, and so she did. She
> > planted her crop, and the wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden
> > grain.
> >
> > "Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.
> >
> > "Not I," said the duck..
> >
> > "Out of my classification," said the pig.
> >
> > "I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.
> >
> > "I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.
> >
> > "Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen, and so she did.
> >
> >
> > At last it came time to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake the bread?"
> > asked the little red hen.
> >
> > "That would be overtime for me," said the cow.
> >
> > "I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.
> >
> > "I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.
> >
> > "If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose.
> >
> > "Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen.
> >
> >
> > She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see.
> > They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.. But the little red hen
> > said
> > "No, I shall eat all five loaves" and she did.
> >
> > "Excess profits!" cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
> >
> > "Capitalist leech!" screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
> >
> > "I demand equal rights!" yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
> >
> > The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
> >
> > And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around
> > the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
> >
> > Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, "You must not
> > be so greedy."
> >
> > "But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.
> >
> > "Exactly," said Barack the farmer. "That is what makes our free enterprise
> > system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants.
> > But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must
> > divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle."
> >
> > And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who
> > smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, for now I truly understand."
> >
> > But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked
> > bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free.
> > 'Fairness' had been established.
> >
> > Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one
> > cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
> >
> > EPILOGUE
> > Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
> > Hillary got $8 million for hers.
> >
> > That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years
> > repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.
> >
> >
> > IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?