Montana Strawbale Test Drive

Wow....a few days in Northern Montana in an off-grid is simply incredible! It was quite, cool (68F when it was 98F outside!) and we had everything we needed...all off-grid. Check out our site for the details!

It even inspired us to start our own addition with strawbale!

Cheers!

It's been awhile since I last posted, but my project in Houston is operational and the new ones are in progress, so life's been good.
I have to weigh in on portgate, the very idea that US ports would be managed by oversea concerns is very troubling to me.  But rather than jump on the anti-Bush bandwagon, I would like to see a very in-depth investigation of this transaction, including the question of why the Whitehouse tried to slip this by the American people and the President's strong stance in support of it.  I don't want this issue to go away until we have full disclosure of the issue and know all the details. I want public, non-partisian hearings and a full accounting of the details leading up to the deal and the White House's reaction to it. I want to know who knew what and when, and exactly what kind of investigation Homeland Security performed. Then and only then should the people be allowed to vote on it. Then it can go away.

A Question of Rights

It came up in conversation today about rights and the limit of rights.  A few of my colleagues think that rights are unlimited and may be expressed at will. I hold that people have only three rights from birth, the right to life, the right to freedom, and the right to pursue happiness.  Any other rights are the benefit of the government under which you live. They may be revoked by that government. These rights are also not available to non-citizens even though they may reside under the jurisdiction of that government.  Should a government grant all people the same rights and privileges as  its citizens, then the value of citizenship is diluted leaving the citizens to question why they possess the burden of responsibilities and no additional rights. But I digress and will discuss the dilution of citizenship later.

As I go about my life, I have the right to do damn near anything that I want.  That does not mean that I do anywhere close to the things that I can…common sense, courtesy (look it up if you don’t know what that means) and respect for the rights of others all weight in on my decisions. What gets my hackles up is when someone insists that they have the right to do something that interferes with my rights, and then scream that I am denying them their rights if I complain to them. Whose rights take precedent?   This is a question I ponder daily. Let me know if you have the answer.

I’ll continue this discussion tomorrow …

Hoskald Asgeirsson
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Cordwood and an American Individual

Thinking of individuals in America and having been raised to be a rampant individualist (Edward Abbey is my hero) I must give a mention to DayCreek. I have watched this site grow over the past few years as I have watched Alan’s house grow. It’s not flashy “green-tech” or some kind of political grandstanding.  It’s just one guy who decided he wanted a home for his wife and him at retirement. He didn’t want to depend on the outside world to provide for him or his wife for basics of life and he wanted to have fun doing it.  And that is just what he has done.

The home is a double-walled cordwood structure, two stories and roughly 2,000 square feet. It uses passive/active solar heating, grid-tied solar electric and a slew of interesting gadgets, most of which Alan designed and built. The house is almost complete now. 61 full walls are complete with only one to go.  I started watching this when he only had 5 walls up.  What an adventure!

He has a great writing style, a wry sense of humor and tons of great information about cordwood building. If you are interested in this style then also check out Rob Roy of New York, one of the leading pioneers in this technique.

Let's Go Viking Explained

Why is my Blogg called “Let’s Go Viking” then have the First Amendment quoted underneath? It’s due to the fact that in my research it appears that the Icelanders, during the settlement period, had what is probably the most efficient Democracy, having a nation controlled by the Rule of Law, with no executive branch and no Head of State. It lasted for roughly 300 years, from 912 C.E. – 1200 C.E. when Denmark used a civil war as an excuse to invade and place Iceland under Danish rule.  They placed a great emphasis on individual responsibility which I find sorely lacking in modern America.
I think that we in the United States could learn a great deal from the history of Iceland (relearn actually since much of our legal system is directly descended from the Icelanders).

I hope that in the entries to come to explore the political landscape and provide food for thought for the coming 2008 elections. Since I am politically independent I have no agenda and no party affiliations, I hope to provide some rational commentary.

OnLine First Amendment Bill Defeated

Today was not a good day for free speech online. The US House defeated HB H.R. 1606 that would remove restrictions placed on online speech by the Federal Elections Commission in 2002 in an effort to control "soft money" (good thing - Ed.Note). The result is Federal Control over on-line, political speech (bad thing -Ed.Note). Political comments now face certain restrictions (see http://www.fec.gov ) that in short make it almost impossible for an individual to freely comment on elections, or elected officals due to the everchanging reporting requirements.

From the ">First Amendment Center "The House voted 225-182 for H.R 1606, which would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments."

Looking at the Roll Call Vote from the House of Representitives (Roll Call Vote 559) the following Representitives voted to Pass (this mean not send the Bill on for consideration) and fail the bill:

Aderholt Akin Alexander Baca Bachus Baker Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Beauprez Berman Biggert Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Blunt Boehner Bonilla Bonner Bono Boozman Boren Boucher Boustany Brady (TX) Brown (OH) Brown (SC) Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp Cannon Cantor Capito Capuano Cardoza Carter Chabot Chandler Chocola Clay Cole (OK) Conaway Conyers Costa Cramer Crenshaw Cuellar Culberson Cunningham Davis (KY) Davis (TN) Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Tom Deal (GA) DeLay Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doolittle Drake Dreier Duncan Ehlers English (PA) Eshoo Everett Fattah Feeney Ferguson Fitzpatrick (PA)

Flake Foley Forbes Fortenberry Fossella Foxx Franks (AZ) Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gibbons Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Granger Graves Green (WI) Gutknecht Harris Hart Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hensarling Herger Herseth Hoekstra Honda Hostettler Hoyer Hulshof Hunter Inglis (SC) Issa Istook Jenkins Jindal Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Keller Kelly Kennedy (MN) Kennedy (RI) Kind King (IA) Kingston Kline Knollenberg Kolbe Kuhl (NY) Latham Lee Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Linder Lofgren, Zoe Lucas Lungren, Daniel E. Mack Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCaul (TX) McCotter McCrery McHenry McHugh McKeon McKinney McMorris Melancon Mica Miller (MI) Miller, Gary Moran (KS)

Murphy Murtha Musgrave Myrick Neugebauer Ney Northup Nunes Nussle Otter Paul Pence Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Pickering Pitts Poe Porter Price (GA) Putnam Rahall Rehberg Reichert Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Ross Royce Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Salazar Sanchez, Loretta Scott (GA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Shadegg Shaw Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Sodrel Souder Stearns Strickland Sullivan Sweeney Tancredo Taylor (NC) Terry Thomas Thompson (CA) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Udall (CO) Waters Watson Weldon (FL) Weller Westmoreland Whitfield Wicker Wilson (SC) Woolsey Wynn Young (FL)

In my opinion this is completely unacceptable behavior from the House. If your Representitive is on this list, call, fax, or email then today! Rep Jeb Hensarling will be attempting to reintroduce this bill before the session ends.