Back In Delmar
Albany County Rail Trail
Downsize Government
I was reading the other day about Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to Food Stamps that help the needest Americans. While I agree with Donald Trump that we need to cut government spending, Food Stamps is not where the pork is. It’s in law enforcement and the sheer number of laws that need enforcing. If we had fewer laws, we could have fewer cops, fewer jails, fewer government officials. We need to transition law enforcement workers from public sector jobs to the private sector, where they can serve as an engine of economic growth rather than a tax on working folk. We need to repeal laws not create new ones.
Our government has gotten too big and complicated. The fear of the evil doer in combination with the corporate war profiteers have swollen our defense department. Even though the threat of terrorism is insignificant we spend trillions going after a phantom enemy. It all needs to be shrunk. While I’m sure many men and women in uniform work hard, they should be re-trained for private sector jobs. They don’t all need to be eating out of the public trough. Government is too big and burdensome.
While there is much that government does that is important, the overregulation of private lives and the centralization of power is a threat to all Americans. Our leaders should work tirelessly to downsize government, not take from the needest but from the fattest of fat cats that have made their billions profiting off of the fear of average Americans. Government should be in the business of repealing programs, especially unnecessarily punitive and expensive programs. Re-train government workers, and help them be the next generation of private sector professionals.
One way to shrink government is to end the war on drugs. It’s stupid to tell private citizens what they can or cannot do in their own private homes. I think all recreational drugs should be legalized. This would save billions in taxpayer dollars. If people want to use heroin and opioids recreationally then that’s their choice to poison their bodies. People don’t die from overdoses, they die from consuming unsafe, unregulated illegal drugs. Government should stand back and only regulate these recreational substances to ensure their purity and safety, and to tax them to provide essential revenue including treatment programs from those who are addicted. Prohibition has always failed and its making our country broke with all the money we spend on corrections producing even more broken people.
Downside government. It’s the way we can move our country forward.
Cass Hill
Switchbacks and all as one climbs out of Clarksville over Wolf Hill.
February 11, 2023 Morning
Good morning! Happy Saturday. Partly cloudy and 33 degrees at the Albany County Rail Trail. ⛅ It was cloudy to start out the day but the skies are clearing rapidly. There is a northwest breeze at 15 mph. 🍃. Waited a bit for it to warm up this morning with the breeze. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 6 pm. ☃️
I wanted to get out by 6:30 🌄 but it was too dark and cold. So I started my walk around 7. While I don’t have to go to work today, I wanted to avoid the crowds 👪 on the rail trail. Looks like I missed the worse of it. There were some early morning 🐶 dog walkers in town and I thought the rail trail would be crowded but so far it’s not.
Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 37 degrees at 1pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 18th. My hope of it hitting forty for the sake of a long run of 40 degrees weather seems dashed. Northwest wind 7 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 26 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1981. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 1933.❄
Norman’s Kill Gorge and the Noonan Preserve this morning 🚂 and then maybe Five Rivers Environmental Education Center and Meads Road this afternoon after lunch. 🐸 That will cover the bulk of the daylight hours and then I’ll retire early to bed 🛏. Not a bad day but a bit raw. But I like the sunshine, it’s nice for a change.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.3° from the due south horizon (-37.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:42 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (245°). 📸
The sunset is in the west-southwest (252°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:22 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 5:50 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:24 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 26 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 1st. South wind 3 to 7 mph. In 2022, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 3 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1979.
Maybe I should have turned up my heat last night ♨️ but it was warm enough. Tonight I might have to do it but today should be enough above freezing with the sun. ☀ Going to be cool tonight though still well above average. I’m ready for winter to be over and I can sleep with the windows open.
As previously noted, next Saturday is 6 PM Dusk 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 5:31 pm with dusk at 5:59 pm. On that day in 2022, we had snow showers, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 24 and 19 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1981.
Outside Font Grove
Cold
Creek In Voorheesville
