Same old tired look, new fresh taste.

Lets hope it doesn't turn out like Coke II.


Quick review of the last few months.
1)Haying done.  We had a fair hay crop and feel ready for the winter.
2)Harvest done.  Crops were so-so in nature.  We'll take what we got and be glad we got it.
3)Family vacation was taken- Thank goodness that's over.  Mother and Daughter continue to butt heads or be butt heads to each other. Take your pick.
4)Summer is over and dang that was fast.- Kids are starting school and we're looking at the next couple of months trying to get ready for snow.


Now we can get onto the new part of this blog.  We'll be making some changes around here.  Slowly at first. Then we'll go a little slower as we get used to it.

I've started a new path in my life.  I'm am now officially taking two college level courses online, for a total of 6 credits.  In retrospect I should have started out with just one to begin with.  My age-ed brain is having a hard time getting going learning the new material.  They are both intro classes, but they are still challenging for me.  One is, Intro to American Government and the other is Intro to Criminal Justice.  So far I'm pushing through the criminal justice chapters and will try to take the first quiz by Monday.  I haven't even looked at American Government yet and I keep stalling off on it.  I have participated in a discussion to a limited degree, but due to a lack of a real debatable idea, I've been holding back.  My knowledge in our own government is lacking and hopefully this class will be a good start in fixing that.

So from time to time I'll throw out some of our discussions from the class on this blog and get your ungraded input.  Sometimes I wonder about the honesty of peoples choices when they are being graded.

The first discussion-

Who would you consider to be your favorite influential political leader?


This is where I get in trouble.  I'd say 80% of the class picked the most notable ones out there.  FDR, Martin Luther King Jr, JFK, and so on.  One gentleman(a well educated fellow at that) picked Allen Greenspan, and was able to give really good arguments for his choice.

The separatist in me wanted to pick someone less well known, problem is, I couldn't really pick someone out and give a good solid argument toward them as my choice.  This was the first time I have had to really acknowledge my lack of knowledge in our own government.

I'm tempted to go with Calvin Coolidge.  Why him?  A guy that lived to maintain the Status Quo(source White House.gov) I think it was a mere 5 years later that the Great Depression Set in.  And it makes me wonder while we all hate big government and the influence they force into our every day lives, Would have the depression been lessened if the Government had been more proactive in monitoring business and the farming practices of the time, possibly encouraging a sustainable level of growth and production, while keeping direct control at a minimum.

Maybe I should have taken a economics class instead.  I still have a hard time agreeing that having high home prices is good for economy.  If you have to put less income into purchasing a home, doesn't the money that's left over have a better chance of going back into the system more evenly spread out?  Again, Maybe I need a economics 101 class as well.  Quantitative easing just sounds like a bad idea in the long term.  What ever Quantitative Easing really is.  A YouTube video can't portray it well.

Later, and have a good one.