In a number of states now and Minnesota, you can’t transport firewood outside of the local area due to the spreading of diseases like the Emerald Ash Borer. These insects live under the bark. While I am generally anti-excessive regulation, this is a necessary public environmental issue to try and stop or slow the killing of thousands of native trees and take the issue quite seriously. Of course these were introduced from China in wooden packing crates, just like the Flying Carp that can destroy recreational water use. Besides, wood isn’t that heavy, and some locations now like Minneapolis are trying to eliminate wood burning. Chickens are OK but not fireplaces.
Warning: Right turn signal on. You ask what excessive regulations? How about the Ag Department regulation requiring school lunch clerks to be at the end of the lunch line instead of the beginning? Yes it is a dictate from DC. Brought to light as schools are trying to deal with kids that don’t have money in their lunch accounts and not discovered until they are at the end of the lunch line with their tray of food. In some schools the food is then thrown out. Silly silly silly.
How about the Ag Department regulation requiring school lunch clerks to be at the end of the lunch line instead of the beginning?
If you don’t like any Govt intrusion…then do what our town does…DON’T ACCEPT the Govt money. It’s as simple as that. You’re standing there with your hand out and then get upset when there are some restrictions put on it.
Automatic adjusting extra weight for a pickup.
When you shovel your driveway and walkway you shovel all THAT snow into the pickup bed.
There’s today’s extra weight.
As the snow on the roads melts…the snow in the bed melts too.
When there’s no more snow on the road, there’s no more snow in the bed.
“If you don’t like any Govt intrusion…then do what our town does…DON’T ACCEPT the Govt money.”
Or, you could do as the esteemed governor of NJ has done–accept the money intended for actual victims of Hurricane Sandy, and instead divert it to private companies building luxury high rise buildings in areas that were untouched by the Superstorm. Who could have imagined that he would take federal monies intended for rebuilding small Jersey Shore homes damaged by that storm, and instead give it to wealthy political allies for purely self-serving purposes?
As ok4450 said a few weeks ago, Chris Christie represents all that is bad in politics.
BUT…
be sure to check your tires as the weather is forcast to move in…
Check your tires…GO LOOK !
The tires that did so well for you last year have worn. Sipes are gone, edges are rounded and some smaller spaces don’t exist any more…GO LOOK.
– example …ME.
I put some pretty good tires on my 08 Expedition when I got it in October 2009.
Michelin LTX A/T2 - p275/65-r18. ( but I still miss my 'stones on the 92 Explorer, that thing was near un-stoppable )
Now, I have a history of being the one people call to pull them out. But at the beginning of this winter I looked at my ‘‘great’’ tires and kinda cringed as I saw how little tread was still there ! ( 2/32 front, 3/32 rear 60k tread warranty tires and currently at 60k miles of use )
“Gee, I sure hope nobody calls this season cuz I might get stuck too.” I told my self as I begin saving for the next set.
So…
this season, YOUall get all the snow and ice back east and we’re killing our grass to make do with what little water is left.
( note; I’ve been trying to play the ‘‘karma’’ or ‘‘murphy’s law’’ card but it’s not working. you know, entering in to the winter season with knowingly poor ties would surely CAUSE all the snow we so badly need out here . But alas…)
“If you don’t like any Govt intrusion…then do what our town does…DON’T ACCEPT the Govt money. It’s as simple as that. You’re standing there with your hand out and then get upset when there are some restrictions put on it.”
Sorry Mike but like I said before, I think this is a pretty lame answer to silly regulations. We Minnesotans pay in about $1.50 for every $0.85 we get back from the feds, so the answer is to get back may $0.65 instead so we don’t have to reign in silly regulations? We’ve got a population of 5 million and over a million hungrey kids in school every day so easier said than done.
"be sure to check your tires as the weather is forcast to move in…
Check your tires…GO LOOK !"
Good advice. Let me add one thing. Don’t go out in really bad weather with all season tires. AT and snows for sure but many others may have lucked out before. These tires are generally capable of handling minimal snow conditions even when new with few hills involved. Your car is never really prepared for severe conditions with anything but the most capable tires on the most capable vehicle. I have an automatic check. If I can get out my road to the first paved road will little trouble, am good to go anywhere. Generally though, flatlanders and suburban dwellers with well plowed paved roads can easily get a false sense of security with their all season tires or worn tires and family sedans with 4 to 5 inches of ground clearance.
@kengreen Expeditions run out of that 8 plus inches of ground clearance real fast with a long well over 200 inch wheel base and can get hung up or begin floating. An old top heavy shorter Explorer was always better, at least in snow. And you are right. Even the best AT and snow tires can’t cope with just 2/32 inch of tread, especially being that wide (275) and unforgiving in snow. Your Explorer tires were much narrower which is much better in snow.
[I sense a thread coming off the rails] @Bing, I am actually quite curious about this USDA rule on lunch line clerk positioning that you refer to. Not kidding about that. Where would I find info on such a thing?
@bing - Fine accept the money…then accept any restrictions that go along with it and stop complaining. You’re taking money from the Fed’s and then complaining about how the feds are telling you what to do. And you make it sound like some big Govt conspiracy…which it is NOT.
@cigroller Warning, off the tracks: Wish I never would have brought it up but it was just a comment from the local school district Finance Director concerning lunches being thrown out for non-payment. The article is not on line and can’t find a source. She just said: “Part of the issue is brought on by the federal Dept. of Aggriculture, which requires districts to put the lunchroom clerk at the end of line instead of the front.”
This is in regard to the national scandal of kids lunches being thrown out when they get to the end of the line and find out there is no money in their account. So Minnesota did a survey to see what the practice are and they are all over the board. So with my business analyst hat on I thought the answer is to punch the tickets at the front of the line before they are served but no go. You can just google school lunches thrown out and you’ll get all the comments you want, but here’s the Federal Register pdf on the regulation changes. I don’t know how many DC staff are involved in this but seems to me we used to do a pretty good job 50 years ago without this help from DC.
I actually did Google it, but didn’t come up with that one. Most of it was about attempts to make school lunches healthier - and how the regs to do that had a lot of kids not liking the food. Surprise surprise. I always just sent my kids to school with lunch.
The reason I ask is that a lot of the time a) stories do get completely made up or “spun” (think Fox New style) - or people completely misunderstand what something means or implies. So I was curious about that. And b) sometimes regulations and policies do weird things from unintended consequences. When you go look at what a regulation really says and why it’s there it makes perfect sense (even if one might say its not needed). And then the unintended consequences get spun out as people doing stupid things - which only makes sense if it was intended. You also learn that regs often come about because of people doing stupid things. In any case, I am interested in such cases for various reasons. Perhaps I’ll dig through that Fed Register doc (yawn).
The problem of unintended consequences, of course, is not confined to government. It’s just that government has a harder time hiding it and lacks the advertising budget of massive corporations that also spin out plenty of their own irrationalities - sometimes from unintended consequences. Sometimes not.
I can tell you what often occurs in the education field. When an administrator wants someone to do something, maybe in a lunch program, that seems a little out of the ordinary, they look for a scape goat. Literally, as far as most are concerned, the federal govt. is an easy mark. When was the last time a federal official or federal agency sued a private citizen or even a “network” for slander ? Blame it on the Feds. You know, all this bad weather we’re having has something to do with “chemtrails” and the Feds… Somehow. Put more sand in the trunk, the Feds are out of control !