For the last couple of days, the temperature was in the high 70's or low 80's and we ran the A/C. This morning it is near 40 and not expected to warm up a lot over the weekend. Most of our leaves are down and blowing around the place like dancing fairies. There is a pair of deer down the hill staying below the windy part of the hill. I'm sure that they are attracted to the scent of apples that barb dumped there and there is now nothing but smell left.
We hosted the US Congressional second district candidate yesterday and I found that he has a lot of great ideas. He had a lot of ideas and admitted that some of them were like a forward two and half into a crystal ball. One idea that I loved was that he was going to make sure that the entire Kansas Delegation got together and discussed what Kansas needs and to ask them to refocus on what took them there in the first place. He said that he will try to overcome the rancor that divides the parties now and establish open and frank communication with everyone. I think he has had his hand slapped over the subject of gun control and walked around the issue. He knows that unless the congress can find a way to get together the "Sequestration" rule will kick in and start our congress down the path to being a hell of a lot more accountable. He did admit that they congress kicked the can down the road on that issue from January to March so there is always wiggle room in any issue.
Tobias Schlingenseipen is a darn nice guy with a lot of good ideas. I do wish we could have had a bigger turn out for him but he addressed all the questions from everyone. My Daughter-in-law asked him why so many of the members of congress are in the upper 10% of income and really don't represent the norm. He said that sending him there would sure change that by a long shot. Most of the people at our gathering agreed that there are a lot of things about the Affordable Health Care Act that we thought were good ideas. He pointed out that there is money to help the government look at some of the models that are working and to help the availability of services to the under served. he said that the reason so many of the poor go to the Emergency rooms is there is no other way they can get health Care. He pointed out that right after WWII, the government had a shortage of beds for all the wounded Veterans. They passed a bill that built new hospitals and additions to hospitals with the only requirement that they provide health care to everyone without consideration of the race, creed, religion or color of the people needing service. In one city, the medical community saw the crush on the Emergency rooms and did a medical outreach where there were no Doctors. They cut the crush on the Emergency rooms down by well over 40%. The last time I went to the emergency room I had a couple of hour wait to get some stitches done. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I was not able to pay on top of everything else.
It was very interesting to have the discussion on what and where our schools are influencing our society. He admitted that there is a real problem in having Colleges turn out people with degrees and a shortage of over two million jobs in emerging technologies. I have a family member with a degree in Education that is working on a windmill farm. No silly, they don't plant windmills, she is on the maintenance crew that performs the regular scheduled maintenance. At the cost of a windmill, they don't wait until something breaks to work on it.
We had an interesting talk about the fact that in a few years he expects the US to produce more oil than Saudi Arabia. he is unsure that the technology is ready right now but soon we will be able to tap the oil and gas out there and help our balance of payments. he admits that the world will absorb any of the world production that we don't use. he said that there is a lot that we don't know what we don't know about. He agreed that a lot of kids enrolling in college today will have a lot of what they learned obsolete by the time they graduate.
I told him that in all the years I have lived in the US, I have not felt that there was any need or pressure for the people to change our way of Government. I did tell him that unless or Congress can find a way to convince the people that they can come up with some ideas, the time is getting near that we will force a change. He didn't flinch when I said that. He spent some nice time with us and then asked for our vote on election day. He has mine. Obama not so much.
MUD
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