12/25/2012

Common Sense Reductions in US Defense Spending

Having served in the US Army for several years during and
after the Viet Nam era and spending my career in the defense industry, I am one
of the first to support adequate funding for the DoD to support the men and
women we send to do our bidding in foreign lands as well as to stand ready to
defend our borders if and when our leaders (I use the term loosely} should
attempt to defend us from aggression at home. 
However, accepting that our last two presidents and our representatives
during that period have acted so irresponsible and piled up a debit that we
will never be able to repay, I am ready for some regrettable but necessary
changes.  My first recommendation is that
we close most of our foreign bases. 
Maybe Ron Paul finally got through to me.  While our efforts to maintain a strong
military presence in Korea for instance is noble and probably has limited North
Korea’s irresponsible leader’s interest in physically invading the South, I am
coming to the realization that we just can’t afford it anymore.  Given the current state in our military
technology, I suspect we might actually be in a better position to respond by
having our personnel and assets outside South Korea.  We could reinvest a portion of what we spend
on keeping a force in foreign bases each year in additional standoff capability
such as aircraft carriers, in-flight refueling, armed drones, combat airlift
capability, etc. This would improve our already pretty good ability to project
strength anywhere in the world.  I am not
for isolation but I am willing to face reality. 
Following WW II the world was in disarray and supporting people who
tried to rise up against abusive dictators to improve their standard of living
was a noble cause we could afford.  We
got used to being the avenging force around the world righting wrong as we saw
it.  We have left fighting forces in
previously hot spots across the globe. 
So much so, that we are disliked worldwide in spite of our efforts to
rescue the oppressed, feed the hungry and provide aid to almost anyone who
would seek it.  If we take a fresh look
at what we are doing without the burden of the knowledge of how we got here, it
makes no real sense.  Does Japan need
such a large force of US military personnel to protect them?  Their economy is one of the strongest in the world;
can’t they afford to protect themselves now?   Germany is another good example.  After all, Germany had threatened the security
of the entire European and African continents and we were called upon to beat
them back into their borders and then to dismantle their military
capability.  We did it, but why are we
now responsible for defending Germany against any future aggressor?  At one time there was a real threat that
Russia might invade Germany and we needed heavy equipment on the ground to
counter that potential. Even if it is our role to protect them which I don’t
agree with, do we think this threat is still real and is keeping a heavy force
in the way the best way to counter the threat? 
I don’t think so.  I believe we
became wasteful in this as well as many uses of our resources.  Having done the work to establish and build
bases in these areas we felt compelled to keep them.  Nice if you can afford, it but sadly we can
no longer afford this.  Our financial
situation requires that we face reality, sad we got here but we can no longer
be the police force for the world. 

We must focus or now limited resources instead on setting
better examples for people around the world to see what free people can
accomplish using free market principles and smaller government designed to meet
specific missions in support of the citizens vs “managing” citizens to force
compliance to shifting ideologies.  Lets
pull back our presence but maintain the capability to defend our interests
around the world.  Let the mission of
suppressing the bad actors fall to someone else for a while. 

 

Take a look at the facilities we built and now are paying
to man and maintain, including local national staff and support
contracts for food, cleaning, facilities work, etc.:  (my source was Wikipedia)

 

United States Army

Bulgaria

Germany

 

Israel

Italy

Japan

Kosovo

 

Kuwait

South Korea

 

United States Marine Corp

Afghanistan

Australia

Germany (GR)

Japan (JP)

United States Navy

Bahrain

British Indian Ocean Territory

Brazil

Cuba

Djibouti

Greece

Guam

Israel

Italy

Japan

Kuwait

South Korea

Spain

United Arab
Emirates

United States Air Force

Afghanistan

Bahrain

Bulgaria

Germany

Greenland

Guam

Italy

Japan

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Netherlands

Oman

Portugal

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

South Korea

Spain

Turkey

United Arab
Emirates

United Kingdom

Dec 25, 2012 10:29:00 AM | Political

12/17/2012

view from deck at Indian Shores RV resort

Iphone Sept 2012 200
Dec 17, 2012 3:26:32 PM

RV resort in Wisconsin Lake's country - Red River Sage

Iphone Sept 2012 189

Lakeside RV living in Wisconsin’s lake country is one of
the best experiences we had this last year. 
We found the most wonderful RV resort near Woodruff, Wisconsin on the
shores of Tomahawk lake, quite by accident. 
Indian Shores RV resort (http://www.indian-shores.com/index.aspx  ) is a mix of normal sites for daily lease
and sites for sell.  We really enjoyed
our stay.  They have spacious sites, many
with concrete pads. The atmosphere was festive. 
There were lots of trees, campfires in the evening, and colorful, well
decorated sites customized by owners.  Water,
power and sewer were all in good order. 
Roads are well maintained and hard surface.  They have a very nice restaurant / bar with
an outdoor deck overlooking the lake. 
The food was excellent.   They will even deliver to your site if needed.  We really enjoyed the boat rental at the
resort.  We rented a nice pontoon boat
twice while we were there.  Tomahawk lake
is one of several in a chain.  We were
able to go all the way to the community of Minocqua.  There we found restaurant with dock areas for
visitors.  The park has boat storage units
for sale or lease and a boat concierge who will pull your boat out of storage,
put it in the water and have it tied to the deck when you arrive.  Of course they will also take it out of the
water and put it back in storage as well.  The RV park is owned / managed by Dick and
Jane who roam around in a golf cart. 
Everyone knows them of course and they seem to be very well liked.  The surrounding area has a lot to see as well
although I seemed to migrate to the restraints to sample local foods.  Meat markets and farmers markets provide most
of what you need and it couldn’t be fresher. 
This place is definitely on our short list for future travels to
Wisconsin and we highly recommend it to anyone looking for a lake side RV
experience.

 

 

 

 

Dec 17, 2012 3:07:05 PM | Travel

12/16/2012

RVing at Winstar Casino

 Winstar Casino is located on Interstate 35 between Dallas and Oklahoma city just north of the Red River in Oklahoma (exit 1).  They have an excellent RV park with concrete roads and parking pads.  The parking fee is $20 per night.  Power, water and sewer are all excellent.  Probably the best thing that we like is the shuttle that takes you to and from the Casino. Shuttles run ever 15 or 30 minutes depending on day and time of day.  We go primarily because of the entertainment they schedule but we also stay several days each time and take advantage of the Casino and the wonderful places to eat there.  This time we had tickets to "The Band Parry".  The show was great but a little loud for an old man.  We had meals at their buffet, Toby Keith's restraurant, the mongolian grill, and El Finix restraurant.  I recommend this stop if your traveling between Dallas and Oklahoma City or if you live in the region and would just like a good get-away.

http://winstarworldcasino.com/

 

Dec 16, 2012 3:03:21 PM | Travel

Gun Violence: Analysis and solutions

"Guns don't kill people, people do"

I don't know who first said this but I believe it is true. Having though about this some this weekend as I suspect most of us have, I have a few thoughts that I wanted to record in hopes that they might somehow help those who feel the need to regulate us some more.

  • We have people in our society that have trouble
    identifying right from wrong, controlling their emotions or tempers, dealing
    with difficult issues in their life, etc. They need help but don't know it.
    Even if they did, or if family members see the need, there is very little help
    available that is either affordable or that does not result in permanent
    stigma. This is an area that society can help. Mental illness today is so
    closely linked to drug or substance abuse that there is little room for these
    other mental issues.
  • I believe the statistics will show that there is
    a dramatic increase in these incidents over the last four years. Reflecting on
    this timeline, I believe our political discourse has been too much for many
    with these mental issues to process properly. We have managed to elect a
    President who spent over a year campaigning for the job and four years
    governing using the tactics he learned on the south side of Chicago in his
    community organizing role. He has demonized many different groups of people in
    our nation. A short list would be "Rich People or millionaires and
    billionaires" (defined as those making more than $200k a year (1/5th of a
    million)), Banks and Bankers (there is a bank in every neighborhood), Wall
    Street people?, Corporate executives who fly on private planes, Republicans
    (who do you think a sick mind might include in this group), Insurance
    companies, Non-Union workers, local incidents such as Travon Martin death in
    Florida or the police arresting the black college professor. The news media then
    picks this up, amplifies it and intensifies the discussion about how the
    particular group is harming the country. I suspect sick minds may not be able
    to deal with this very well. They may feel the need to right the wrong.
  • Video games and movies from Hollywood have
    become extremely violent and realistic. People without a lot of real world
    interaction are spending thousands of hours shooting realistic looking people
    in these video games. Blood splatters everywhere, scores build up and you can
    restart the game and those you killed come back to life. They become very
    proficient at shooting the targets which are becoming more and more realistic
    people looking. I am not sure sick minds can deal with this properly.
  • With all this going on, we have also taken
    actions to remove or limit the foundational beliefs and moral rules of conduct
    that free people require in order to interact and co-exist without resorting to
    violence or other leveraged action. We have or are in the process of erasing
    common references to religion in our public areas. Our prolific use of lawyers
    and ever increasing complex laws, precedence, politicized legal rulings, etc.
    have driven everyone to keep to themselves, keep their mouth shut (we are
    adding listening devices to public transportation in several cities after
    saturating the streets with video cameras), etc. We have stopped looking after
    each other in favor of an ever expanding federal watchman. Sick minds may
    decide to help right the wrongs that society is ignoring.

I suspect our solution
lies more in controlling our political discourse, news media toning down the rhetoric
and reducing hate speech, limiting or eliminating violent video and video games
and making help for those with troubled minds easier and more forgiving to
obtain. Continuing to lock and guard every place where those with troubled
minds have taken action and attempting to remove weapons from our society is
likely to add to our societal pressures and further limit personal liberties.
Remember the famous words of Ben Franklin "They who can give up essential
liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor
safety."

Dec 16, 2012 2:11:10 PM | Political

11/15/2012

Upgrading to a new 5th wheel RV

After a year of using our older 5th wheel we decided that we needed more updated digs for our new travel life.  We had spent the winter in a very nice park in San Benito, Tx and began internet searches and visited RV dealers in that area and as we started our trip back to our home.  We selected a new Redwood 5th wheel that we found in Bourne, Tx (outside San Antonio).  The key features were:  automatic hydraulic levelers, a full size shower, king size bed, rear living room with flat screen and electric fireplace, center kitchen with solid surface island, double door refrigerator, lots of storage, solid wood cabinets, two air conditioners with one heat pump, full paint on exterior with appropriate graphics erand an apartment style stacker washer and dryer.  2012 model 36FB (39 feet long)

http://www.redwood-rv.com/products/redwood/redwood-photo-gallery

 

 

Nov 15, 2012 4:00:54 PM | Travel

The Beginning

Welcome! 

The intent of this blog is to capture the activities and travel experiences of Bill and Rebecca Grimes as they go forward into retirement.  I will probably reach back into this year some for the first few posts but after that I will try to post more regularily to put up some photos and let you know where and what we are up to.

Bill Grimes

aka the "Red River Sage"

Nov 15, 2012 2:41:43 PM