Thursday, September 22, 2011

Freeze and Frost Dates

Via Survival

The most important factor in determining when to plant a certain type of vegetable in your garden is the “Last Freeze Date” in the spring, and the “First Freeze Date” in the fall for your area. These dates for a given area are based on historical weather data from that area over a 30 year period compiled by the National Climatic Data Center.

The actual dates that the freezing temperatures occurred each year in a given area, during this 30 year period, are averaged together. Probabilities of a freeze occurring are then assigned to these average dates.

Let’s look at an example.

Fourth Southern National Conference

The Fourth Southern National Congress
November 18-19, 2011

Dear Southern National Congress Delegate:

Fourth Southern National Congress The Fourth Southern National Congress will convene Friday and Saturday, November 18-19, 2011 at Montgomery Bell State Park, near Dickson, TN, about 30-40 minutes southwest of Nashville, TN.

The Fourth Congress will be the most important yet. As our country continues to deteriorate right in front of eyes, we are reminded daily why we became delegate.

We chose Montgomery Bell State Park again for its more or less central location, in the hopes of making travel from the outlying States relatively easy. Nashville has excellent air connections with the rest of the country. The Tennessee SNC Delegation has kindly offered to arrange a shuttle service from the Nashville Airport for those in need of ground transportation after flight arrival. (Nashville Airport code is BNA)

We also chose the Park for its excellent meeting and banquet space, for its settingThird Southern National Congress and ambiance, and for its affordable cost. The Park is lovely, and the Inn overlooks a picturesque lake. The guest rooms have all the usual amenities and a beautiful view from the individual room balconies. There are also villas a few minutes from the Inn that sleep about 7-9, for Delegations who wish to stay together. Meals in the on-site restaurant are quite good and reasonably priced.

This year there will be a $25.00 registration fee per delegate and $40.00 per couple if both are delegates.

Click here to download a pdf format registration form and here to download a Microsoft Word registration form. Please complete form, attach check and mail to the address on the form.

Each delegate will make their own lodging reservations. See list below for lodging information.

See more information on the Park at this link:

http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/MontgomeryBell/index.shtml#conference

The Southern National Congress provides Southerners a unique opportunity to take part in a representative assembly of the fourteen Southern States that speaks for our interests and voices our grievances as Southerners in a manner denied up by today's corrupt political system. I hope you'll reserve this date and plan to join us at the Third Southern National Congress on November 18-19, 2011.

May God bless the South.
Mark Thomey,
Vice Chairman

If you are not a Delegate, click the following for a Delegate Application

Delegate Application

Lodging Information:

Delegates may make reservations directly with the lodge at Montgomery Bell. 615 797-3101 We have 80 rooms reserved at $68 plus tax of 14.75 or $78.03 per room per night.

For those who want to save a little money, here is a short list of hotels at the Exit #173 in Dickson.
Driving distance to the Montgomery Bell park lodge is approximately 12 miles (25-30 minute drive).

Days Inn 615 446-7561
double 44.99/night (plus tax)

Hampton Inn 615 446-1088
double 79/night (plus tax) (100% non-smoking & non-pet)

Econo Lodge 615 441-5252
double 49.99/ night (plus tax)

Best Western Executive Inn 615 446-0541
double 54.95 / night (plus tax)

These rates are discounted slightly for us. Mention the Southern National Congress when making reservation. There are a number of other hotels at the same exit.

Reaction to the Newell Letter "correcting" his testimony.


"Between Burke's crying while testifying and Newell's DOJ-crafted CYA letter, you think these two are wondering what size prison jumpsuit they may be wearing soon?

We're only one election away from real accountability on this blood-soaked disaster.

Issa should be appointed AG. The proverbial heads would roll."
==================================================

Heh!:)

Below is the best, but there's more
HERE.

=======================================

Some of the street agents over at CleanUpATF.org put it a little harsher. Said one:

Cleanupatf.org Webmaster and moderators, I am going to ask that you tolerate this post even if you feel it is too strongly worded. That is how passionate I am about what I am about to write and I really can't take the edge off this.

Who saw Bill Newell's written statment to Congress today? If you have not then here it is attached below. Be prepared to vomit.

Bill Newell you are a lying coward. This letter was written not to clarify anything you lied about but to attempt to avoid an indictment. You repeated your lame justifications and made excuses, the same thing you have done since the day you set foot in ATF. You lied to Congress and you are trying to cover your lies by calling the Whistleblowers, Gil and Canino liars. You are a 100% chickenshit.

You are a whiny little bitch to actually compose a letter to Congress after you lied to their faces and blame your lies the the "pressure" you feel and that this is "unlike anything you have ever experienced". You are pathetic to say that this experience has taken a toll on your health and family.

What about the toll on Brian Terry's family? What about the toll's on the hundreds of dead Mexican citizens and their families? All you ever have or ever will care about is you. You are one self-centered m_ _ _ _ _ rf _ _ _ _ r.

Here is where I am going to get off and probably be deleted. My friend is Jay Dobyns. Newell you are quite possibly the biggest hypocritical pussy ever in ATF to make the statements that you made in your letter knowing what you did to him and his family. You helped your boys Gillett and Higman go above and beyond to try and frame him as an arsonsist and attempted murder. You turned your back just like you did in Fast and Furious. I don't have the vocabulary to state what a double-standard POS you are. You think Dobyns felt pressure living under the allegation that he tried to murder his family for the last three years? How about the toll on his family have to hear that their husband and father intended to burn their house down on them and murder them? Then you lied under oath in that case too.

Don't bother to apologize. Whatever it is that happens to you, it is not evil enough to balance what you have done. Rot in hell.

GOA Alert: Rep. Paul Broun Introduces Concealed Carry Recognition Bill

Pro-gun champion Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) recently introduced a concealed carry recognition bill, H.R. 2900, that allows law-abiding citizens who can legally carry concealed in their home state to carry all across the country, as well.

Titled “The Secure Access to Firearms Enhancement (SAFE) Act,” this legislation recognizes that constitutional rights do not become null and void at the state line.

And, most importantly, Rep. Broun’s bill is “constitutional carry” friendly. The SAFE Act recognizes that while CCW permits are the “norm” in most states, constitutional carry is the ideal.

For more than twenty years, Gun Owners of America has pushed constitutional carry (also known as Vermont-style carry) at the state level. Such legislation recognizes the right to carry without having to first get the government's permission.

After all, how much of a right is protected by the Second Amendment if citizens must first pass tests, fill out applications, take classes and, in many cases, be fingerprinted and photographed to obtain a license—in essence, to prove to the authorities that they're not criminals before being allowed to carry?

Vermont had it right for over a century. Any person can carry a concealed firearm—whether they are a resident of the state or not—except for use in the commission of a crime. That’s it. No registration, no paperwork, no arbitrary denials by anti-gun bureaucrats.

And the result? Vermont consistently ranks among the safest states in the country.

And other states are finally starting to follow suit. Three states (Alaska, Arizona, and Wyoming) have passed constitutional carry laws for their own citizens. Texas passed a modified version, allowing for a concealed firearm anywhere inside one’s vehicle, including motor homes. And since 1991, constitutional carry has been allowed in more than 99% of the state of Montana.

Even with these improvements, however, reciprocal agreements between states are written in such a way that an actual permit is still required in order to carry concealed from state to state.

And in many instances, there is NO way to legally carry concealed in another state.

Rep. Broun’s bill addresses this issue in a way that respects the Constitution and in a way that recognizes the unalienable right to defend one’s life—without needing a permit from the government.

Just as GOA works to eliminate government restrictions on carry at the state level, GOA has never supported a bill at the national level that stops short of recognizing constitutional carry.

After all, a bill that requires states to implement a permitting system risks setting back the efforts of the many states seeking to pass real concealed carry reform.

The SAFE Act also respects the Constitution and states’ powers in that it does NOT establish national standards for concealed carry, nor does it provide for a national carry permit or require a state like Vermont to move to a permit system (in order for its citizens to carry out-of-state).

In fact, the Broun bill will do nothing to change what the states already do in terms of allowing or denying their citizens their right to carry firearms. This bill simply allows citizens who are able to carry in their home state, to also carry in every other state that allows concealed carry.

Another important distinction is that Rep. Broun’s bill, unlike other legislation being debated in Congress, does not rely on an expansive, erroneous interpretation of the Commerce Clause. The SAFE Act instead recognizes the “full faith and credit” protection that is guaranteed in Article IV of the Constitution.

Constitutionally-protected rights, including the right to self-defense, do not disappear at the state line. Rep. Broun’s SAFE Act will simply allow lawful gun owners who have the right carry concealed firearms in their home state to also carry in other states.

ACTION: Please contact your Representative and urge him or her to cosponsor Rep. Broun’s SAFE Act.

Click Here to Send Your Representative a prewritten email message

Click Here to assist GOA financially in protecting gun rights

Solyndra employees: Company suffered from mismanagement, heavy spending

Former employees of Solyndra, the shuttered solar company that exhausted half a billion dollars of taxpayer money, said they saw questionable spending by management almost as soon as a federal agency approved a $535 million government-backed loan for the start-up.

A new factory built with public money boasted a gleaming conference room with glass walls that, with the flip of a switch, turned a smoky gray to conceal the room’s occupants. Hastily purchased state-of-the-art equipment ended up being sold for pennies on the dollar, still in its plastic wrap, employees said.

As the $344 million factory went up just down the road from the company’s leased plant in Fremont, Calif., workers watched as pallets of unsold solar panels stacked up in storage. Many wondered: Was the factory needed?

“After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,” said former Solyndra engineer Lindsey Eastburn. “Because we were doing well, nobody cared. Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.”

Solyndra’s ability to secure federal backing also made the company eager for more assistance, interviews and records show. Company executives ramped up their Washington lobbying efforts, hiring a former Senate aide to work with the White House and the Energy Department. Within a week of getting a loan guarantee commitment from the Energy Department, Solyndra applied for another, worth $400 million. It never won final approval.

On Friday, company executives are scheduled to appear before a House committee investigating how Solyndra obtained its loan and whether the Obama White House rushed its approval for political reasons. Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover were supposed to face a grilling about the company’s spending and collapse, but they announced Tuesday that they would assert their Fifth Amendment rights because of a criminal probe of the company by the Justice Department.

MORE

Morning Bell: The Obama Investigations

You wouldn’t know it if you solely paid attention to the mainstream media, but while President Barack Obama attempts to sell the country on hundreds of billions in new stimulus spending and $1.5 trillion in new taxes, his Administration is smack in the middle of several growing scandals: the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running debacle and the crony capitalism wrongdoing involving Solyndra and LightSquared.

In the fall of 2009, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is overseen by President Obama’s Department of Justice, launched an effort to sell weapons to small-time gun buyers in the hopes of tracing them to major weapons traffickers along the southwestern border and into Mexico. Their effort, which is known as Operation Fast and Furious, failed terribly.

Around 1,500 of the guns went unaccounted for, about two-thirds of those guns ended up in Mexico, a border patrol agent was shot and killed with weapons that were sold as part of the operation, 57 Fast and Furious weapons have been connected to at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S., and in Mexico an unconfirmed toll of at least 200 people have been killed or wounded with other weapons linked to the botched effort.

Save for recent reports from CBS News and the Los Angeles Times, and earlier reporting by ABC News, the mainstream media has largely ignored the story and the White House press corps has not bothered to ask the President or press secretary Jay Carney about the scandal since July 5 — that’s 78 days, and over 40 press briefings, without one single related question.

MORE

Attention: Marines in the Central Alabama area.


We have a Marine, Nam vet, who lives in Jemison and has essentially been sent home to die, cancer victim. This proud veteran has asked for visits from Marine veterans before he passes.

Can we get a group visit coordinated to go visit this veteran and grant his wish???

Please contact all Marine veterans that you know in the Post or District and lets get a visit set up to go visiting. Let me know how many we have and it is now scheduled for Wednesday evening, 9/28 at 7 PM.

How Semper Fi proud are you...answer this call!!!! Time is short - let's get it done ASAP...

Steve McAnally
The American Legion
Department of Alabama
Second Division Commander
205-755-5886 Home
al2div.cmdr@yahoo.com

ATF Counsel email to Melson on Gunwalker-Terry murder link preceded intimidation

A just-uncovered January 5, 2011 email to former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Kenneth Melson from Stephen R. Rubenstein, Chief Counsel, ATF, responded to a request by Melson for information regarding allegations on whistleblower website CleanUpATF that walked guns were linked to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and indicated this was a violation of ATF Orders and Standards of Conduct.

Study:81% of Texas jobs went to immigrants

Via California Tree of Liberty

With both jobs and immigration likely topics of sharp debate at tonight's Republican debate here in Florida, a new report suggests that newly-arrived immigrants have filled a majority of new jobs created in Texas, home to Republican frontrunner Gov. Rick Perry.

"Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal)," says the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates reduced levels of both legal and illegal immigration. The report estimates that about 40 percent of the new jobs were taken by illegal immigrants, while 40 percent were taken by legal immigrants. The vast majority of both groups, legal and illegal, were not American citizens.

Native-born Americans filled just 20 percent of the new jobs in Texas, the report says, even though "the native born accounted for 69 percent of the growth in Texas' working-age population." "Thus, even though natives made up most of the growth in potential workers, most of the job growth went to immigrants," the report concludes.

The report is based on analysis of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey.

MORE

The Beloved And Beautiful First Lady: Then And Now

Via The Feral Irishman

HERE

======================

Recently, At a Wedding Reception......

...... someone yelled,"All the married men please stand next to
the one person who has made your life worth living."


Photobucket









The bartender was crushed to death.

Dan Wilson to CopBlock.org, “What a bunch of losers”

Cop Block
VERBATIM POST
====================

Dan seems to have all sorts of logical points to make so I figured I’d post them (his are in block quotes), of course, I’ll add my thoughts as well.

Sooooo…let me get this straight. Just like in the 1960′s you unemployed losers want to whine and cry about your rights and the unfair policies of the lawfully elected government…and take it out on the men and women who come to my house to protect me when you have run out of money for your drugs and want to steal my property and assault my family so you can get your fix. You are pathetic losers and cowards. I have six cops in my family and I marvel at the fact that they would all read this and still want to protect your sorry asses. You should be ashamed.
You’re an embarrassment, but I bet this never shows up on your coward site.
Dan Wilson
partyback405@gmail.com

Dan,

I hate to bust your bubble but I’m not unemployed (in fact, I think every CopBlocker I know is employed). I am under paid but I don’t mind because I’m able to provide for my needs, while doing something I love.

It sounds like you have a issue with the war on drugs? Maybe you can talk to your six family members, who are cops, and relate to them that their involvement with such war is why people are breaking into your house. If prohibition was repealed (again) – remember when they banned alcohol (a drug) – then maybe these “druggies” would be able to have their own businesses. In a world without prohibition the people you fear would be able to provide a good and/or service in order to make money – without having to worry about those six relatives of yours approaching them with guns and locking them in cages.

I’d also suggest talking to those six relatives about providing their protection service voluntarily. Though you question our employment I promise that those who pay us do so without the threat of force – they do so voluntarily. Your cop relatives are paid for by taxation, something a growing number of people think is too high, and what if I don’t want to give MY money to the police/government because I don’t like what they’ll do with it? Guess what happens then? Your relatives (the police) come to our house and make us pay – or take us to jail until we do pay. Doesn’t sound so voluntary or honorable to me? Isn’t it stealing if someone forces me into giving them my money?

So, when you say that your relatives will still protect me even after visiting this site, is it as honorable as you thought? I mean they stole money from me to pay for their salaries, guns, cars, radios and whatever else they outfit themselves with. How nice of them to stop by – often times too little to late – and let me reap the benefits of the goods I paid for. What if they hadn’t taken stolen those tax dollars from me? Maybe I could have bought my own gun, car, taser or surveillance system and protected myself? Nah, I need the police to protect me, it’s silly to think a person is able to provide for and protect themselves via voluntary means isn’t it?

But to you, we’re the embarrassment, ok?

Thanks for the submission.Link

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 09-21-11

VERBATIM POST
Injustice Everywhere
========================
It’s been quite a day I’m afraid, but let’s start with the 30 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Wednesday, September 21, 2011:



2 Fullerton CA police officers have been charged for their roles in the beating death of Kelly Thomas in July of this year. The Orange County DA described the incident, as shown above, when laying out the charges against one officer for 2nd degree murder and involuntary manslaughter and another for involuntary manslaughter and use of excessive force. Four other officers involved in the incident are still on paid leave pending the results of an internal and federal investigation. However, alleged experts are saying it will be difficult to gain a conviction and our 2010 statistical report bears this out as the successful prosecution rate against criminally charged officers in 2010 was around 36% compared the the general conviction rate of 67% for cases against the general population. [0] bit.ly/nc0irM

  • Gurnee IL cop was sentenced to 6 years prison for molesting a 10-year-old girl and threatening his ex-wife’s boyfriend with a gun. The deal dropped molestation charges involving another child. [0] bit.ly/pbnFch
  • Des Moines IA poised to settle a lawsuit for $500k to a couple who were peppersprayed & beaten with batons by two cops during a traffic stop [0] bit.ly/pw1lyc
  • Louisville KY cop under investigation over a YouTube video showing him hitting a man in the head w/flashlight during an arrest [1] bit.ly/pmiDZE
  • Milwaukee WI police sgt was caught on video harassing a news station’s photojournalist at the scene of a house fire before knocking him to the ground and arresting him. [3] bit.ly/olcUUa
  • Belleville IL cop arrested on battery charges for allegedly grabbing & throwing man who asked for his supervisor [0] bit.ly/nlZPAY
  • Oakland CA police ordered by judge in charge of Riders settlement agreement to explain recent misconduct issues ranging from a report alleging officers may be drawing their firearms too hastily to questions of accountability. [1] bit.ly/pPuggZ
  • Ontario Provincial police are investigating officers after a judge rebuked cops for the 2nd time in two months over allegations of excessive force in two different cases. [2] bit.ly/pUm8IL
  • Alorton IL Public Safety Director who is also a Fairmont IL cop was arrested for allegedly pulling over a woman while he was off duty and out of his jurisdiction in a police cruiser then demanding oral sex from her under threat of arrest. [0] bit.ly/nlZPAY
  • Columbia MO cop fired after caught on video shoving a detainee against a wall in a holding cell [0] bit.ly/qXWmZn
  • Sanger TX cop on leave after being arrested on witness tampering & solicitation of a minor charges. [1] bit.ly/nO8cQ4
  • Chicago IL cop was charged with felony perjury over her false statements in a road rage incident where she got into an argument with peopel in a funeral procession after weaving in and out of it while she was late going to work. She had one woman arrested and convicted for assaulting her but video emerged afterward that contradicted her account and led to the conviction being overturned. [0] http://t.co/1ByKLQ1Q Our friend Rick discusses it here
  • Yakima WA refuses to release details on 3 cops faceing possible termination. Reliable sources apparently say one falsified info on a search warrant and two others for falsified expense reports. [3] bit.ly/nXrjfQ
  • Shelby Co OH sheriff arrested on sexual battery charge involving allegations made by former female deputy [1] bit.ly/nmzp3J
  • Isle of Wight County VA deputy under investigation by state police on allegations he downloaded child porn [0] bit.ly/nOHiAJ
  • 17 New York NY cops may be indicted as a result of investigation into ticket fixing and other related allegations [0] nydn.us/q519eV
  • Harris Co TX Precinct 6 constable is apparently under investigation over allegations of misconduct involving a charity he runs [3] http://bit.ly/qMEnPr
  • Bunnell FL cop is the subject of a suit alleging he created a fake sex ad on Craigslist using dept computers in order to harass ex-wife’s friend. He resigned prior to any disciplinary action for that incident. [0] bit.ly/psYTuU
  • Pittsburgh PA police sued by professor claiming she suffered hearing damage from a sonic crowd control weapon that police used during the G20 protests there. [0] wapo.st/oZpHdI
  • North Carolina Wildlife Resource officers accused inhumanely shooting man’s deer to death over lack of a proper permit [0] bit.ly/olk29I
  • Sumter SC cop suspended w/o pay while under investigation for allegedly punching his estranged wife, who is also a cop, in the face. [0] bit.ly/qd6DPk
  • St Cloud FL cop fired after arrested on allegations that she beat her boyfriend then kicked cop responding to call [0] thesent.nl/pPahqt
  • East St Louis IL cop arrested on allegations he accepted unemployment benefits when he was employed [0] bit.ly/o51uZk
  • Wathena KS police chief opts to retire to halt unspecified investigation after told he would face internal charges [4] bit.ly/pZg0WZ
  • 2 Colorado Springs CO cops accused of lying about drinking during bar sting after video contradicts testimony [3] bit.ly/qmMuWI
  • Washington Park IL cop arrested for allegedly stealing bullet proof vests from his department [0] bit.ly/nlZPAY
  • Fairview Heights IL cop arrested for allegedly stealing a cell phone from a crime scene then using it as her own [0] bit.ly/nlZPAY
  • Lyons GA police chief arrested on allegations of marijuana distribution, violation of oath & theft by conversion [0] bit.ly/pBEut9
  • Horry Co SC officials ask state to investigate county police officials over various allegations of misconduct [3] bit.ly/mSgc8M
  • Prince George’s Co MD cop pleads guilty to federal charges related to cigarette smuggling scheme [0] wapo.st/okXrkK

South for Peace, North for War

The duplicity of James Buchanan, William Seward and Lincoln, first in secretly attempting reinforcement of Fort Sumter with armed troops and later by misleading South Carolina’s peaceful mission to Washington, confirmed for Southerners that further political connections with the North were counter-productive. Like the American colonies who wanted independence and had to fight for it, the American South was forced to follow the same path.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
========

The honorable exertions of President Davis, cordially approved by Congress and the people, to avoid collision of arms [with the United States], were disappointed, and events had now verified his life-long conviction, that the exercise of their sovereignty, by the States, would be attended by a war involving their existence. Sustained by an unlimited popular confidence, with a comparatively perfected organization, and with every possible preparation that the difficulties of its situation would permit, the Government met, with commendable composure, the shock of arms which its chief had foreseen to be inevitable.

The proclamation of President Lincoln, declaring war upon the Confederate States, was promptly responded to by President Davis, in official announcements, appropriately recognizing the condition of public affairs, and inviting energetic preparations for immediate hostilities. He at once called upon the various States for quotas of volunteers for the public defense. In every instance, and by all classes of citizens, an enthusiastic response was given to the demands of the Government. In all the States the responses to the call for volunteers exceeded the quotas.

Congress assembled in special session, in obedience to a proclamation of the President, on the 20th of April. The message was an eminently characteristic document…Europe was not less amazed with its dignity and force, than was the North impressed with the earnest terms in which the purpose of resistance was announced.

[The President] spoke in terms of keen, yet dignified satire of Lincoln’s proclamation, which attempted to treat seven sovereign States united in a confederacy, and holding five millions of people and a half-million of square miles of territory, as “combinations,” which he proposed to suppress by a posse comitatus of seventy-five thousand men…..[and] concluded with these impressive words:

“We feel that our cause if just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honour and independence; we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the States with whom we were lately confederated. All we seek is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms.

This we will, this we must resist to the direst extremity. The moment that this pretension [of war] is abandoned, the sword will drop from our grasp, and we shall be ready to enter into treaties of amity and commerce that can not but be materially beneficial. So long as this pretension is maintained, with firm reliance on that divine power which covers with its protection the just cause, we will continue the struggle for our inherent right to freedom, independence, and self-government.”

(Life of President Davis, Frank H. Alfriend, National Publishing Company, 1868, pp. 273-276)

========
South for Peace, North for War

Once you’ve been flying against flak, skiing down unknown slopes in the dark is child’s play

GSTAAD—One of the safest countries on Earth is in trouble. Good old Helvetia, a country more up and down than sideways, according to Papa, could end up on its head. Its industrial base might melt as its currency is much too strong for its own good, and deflation might set in as the Swiss National Bank is printing money to tie its fortune to the euro. Lashing the franc to the euro seems suicidal, but such are the joys of global finance. Mind you, I don’t understand a thing and am on my way down to see some bankers who will explain things—not that I trust bankers as much as I used to. Still, buying foreign currencies in unlimited quantities to win respite for one’s exporters is a dangerous practice, and the Swiss are not known for courting danger.

Switzerland is a small country which unites a number of unique, diverse communities which are small worlds in themselves, all with a well-earned reputation for freedom, independence, industry, and honesty. The Swiss enjoy direct democracy, with referendums at regular intervals about important subjects such as joining the EU, permitting tall minarets, and until 1990 in the canton of Appenzell, allowing women to vote. I’m a big fan but a worried one. Every bum I know wants to come and live here, and bums do not have the Swiss attitude of hard work and honesty. Soon the place might turn into Italy, Greece, or even Britain.

“Every bum I know wants to come and live here, and bums do not have the Swiss attitude of hard work and honesty.”

The expensive Swiss franc is another problem altogether. When I first came to Gstaad and moved into the Palace hotel, one dollar got you 4.3 francs. Living at the best hotel in town cost me around ten dollars a day, tips included. The most expensive chalet was worth around 100,000 francs; you do the math. A season ticket for all the mountains in the region was less than 100 dollars. My season began on December 22nd and ended around Easter. The place was full of Americans, many of them pilots who had bailed out over Switzerland while bombing the industrial Ruhr. Those were very good types: tall, blond, sports-loving daredevils with an eye for the girls. Most of them were WASPs. Alas, all of them are now dead, but I have some very fond memories of deep-snow skiing without guides and with very little light left. Once you’ve been flying against flak, skiing down unknown slopes in the dark is child’s play.