America is the freest Country on earth. Not. Their was a post on here about Jury duty. I stated it is your right and duty to be on a jury. Hits closer to home when my wife receives a letter for jury duty stating you are DEMANDED to be at the couthouse at a certain time and place. 4 hours later they tell them a deal had been made. It's still our duty, but to be demanded. Taxes, I have to watch my personal and business budget to stay ahead of the wolves. Our elected officials are the masters of selling. They lie cheat and steal to get into office with promises of no new taxes. My complaint for nicer words is that once they are in office, we have no control how they spend our money. Cash for this or that clunker, furniture, appliances. They are all like get rich quik schemes. Nothing good in the long run happens. And the ones who benefit ie GM pulls their contract from Montana and Whirlpool is trying to leave, to name only two. The point is our elected officials spend all of our money and want more taxes. they are suppose to be a vote of their district. I hardly think so. What day of this year are we really getting ahead (Wendy might know) I know if I dont like it leave. But it is my money . I also understand that all of the elected officials get to keep their election war chests tax free once they retire plus their pension. I could be absolutley wrong tho. I guess my rant and point is that I just learned how much additional I owe uncle sugar.

[This message has been edited by Scott P (2/26/2010)]

Personally, I like paying taxes, and am grateful to the government for all the services they provide....schools, roads, clean environment, etc. I don't think that we as Americans are taxed enough.

Scott, I'm sure you're not alone in your sense of disappointment and frustration.

In talking with people lately I detect a lot of angst in our society. I don't know if it's always been this way and I'm just taking note of it or if the problem is truly getting worse. Certainly the Internet allows for the spread of (mostly bad, it seems) news in a way that didn't occur in the past. I'm sitting here at my computer and I see today:

- Teacher shot and killed in Tacoma, WA.
- Gunman on the loose at Oklahoma College.

- Yesterday, cops shot and one killed in Fresno, CA.
- The day before that, gunman at a Colorado middle school.
- Two weeks ago, professor guns down people at UA Huntsville.
- etc.

What do you think? Typical day in the U.S. or are people reaching the boiling point?

I read old newspapers for a living. Guess what? People were shot at work or murdered by spouses or ran riot and just killed randomly 25 years ago and 50 years ago and 100 years ago. The pictures are in color now but the story remains the same.

As for jury duty, you are a citizen of the United States of America. That comes with obligations and responsibilities. There are no free rides so suck it up and do your duty. What if everyone whimped out on jury duty and military duty and doing anything that wasn't fun? Adults accept that freedom, as they say, isn't free.

I was just going to post something, but Amorette basically just stated everything I was about to say. So look at the post above (the one from Amorette).

If life were fair, horses would ride half the time.

Jury duty is quite fun actually. I've enjoyed my time doing my civic duty.

Gunnar, I don't mind paying taxes. What frustrates me is the lack of accountability of where the money is spent and how much. The idea seems to be at all levels of Government is. We did not run our part right so lets tax more. I can't go to my copy machine and print money. Well I could but then where would I be.

Ammorrett and Larry, totally agree on jury duty. Mabye its the way the letter was stated. You are Demanded to be here at this time and place. mabye something as , your civic duty or something but demanded. And I was not the one being demanded. It was my wife.

I know people are killing others, stealing money, from people, charities and business owners. They blame the economy, drugs, alchol whatever. They are held accountable by the couts and jury.

Why not hold our officials to the same standards. If I dont work i don't get paid, if I don't show my business in a good light, I don't get paid. They will just go somewhere else.

I saw 5 city employees working on 1 pot hole the other day. Actually one working and the others standing. Figure their wages at 15.00 average.

My neighbor had shingles put on his house two weeks ago. The high temp was in the low 30's they will never seal. Where is the future claim stupidity or being guliable. The contractor will b long gone. Again accountability.

I've rambled enough. I appologize

The whole thing of crime getting worse, my best friend Dave, especially in regards to people killing themselves or others, in a manner worst than the past, is a rather irritating issue -- because it's not true.

I remember a story my grandmother told me, about a woman who soaked herself in kerosene, and lit herself on fire to commit suicide (which worked) and this was at Stacey. If you take the number of people who ever lived at Stacey, and did a little division, and multiplied it -- that's actually one of the worst places to ever live.

I also don't like stuff, such as the Super Bowl, where after they say "it was the most watched program ever, even higher than the last episode of Mash".

Well, the thing is they are going by gross numbers -- which increase each year. Now tell me how many people lived in the USA (or the world itself) back then compared to now.

See now you have to do a little simple algebra to figure out if it truly was the most watched show ever. I'll give you a hint, it wasn't. Not even close. The rankings are incorrect.

As a person who is going thru moving out of Stacey I find your last story interesting Larry...I must say it is a beautiful place to live, but I can understand why some might not be happy living there...I look forward to my new area (near Billings)....Sure will be easier to access medical services, etc etc...

My family, I'll omit her name (for privacy purposes), actually owns Stacey proper. Bridgier may know who I'm talking about. Part of it burnt down a while back, but I have some pictures of when it was at least block long, if not a couple or more. The whole foundation of it, you'll have to get me into genealogy mode, I know the whole story -- it requires names like Hamilton, Daly, Griffin, etc. Sorry if I'm coming off gruff at all, I've just been really irritated lately, but what I just stated is fact.

In the case of Stacey's suicide rate, I think statisticians would tell you that you're not dealing with a large enough sample to make an accurate statement about the severity of Stacey's suicide problem.

In the case of the Super Bowl, if the last Super Bowl had more viewers than any other televised program in U.S. history, then I think they are accurate to say that it was the most watched program in U.S. television history. They didn't say it was the most popular, just that it had the greatest number of viewers. Misleading perhaps but not incorrect.

As for my reply to Scott's post I didn't want to make a statement about America's crime rate so much as I wanted to make a statement about the current state of mental well being in America. And, no, I'm not trying to call Scott "crazy". "Dorothy", yes, but not Scott.

Yeah, I absolutely agree, small sample sizes don't make great results, however I think the point of my post still stands.

I lived in Stacey for only 7 years, and don't really know a great amount of folks from there...I can well imagine how hard it must have been in the past due to the isolation etc...While I enjoyed my time there for the most part, I am really looking forward to less isolation in my future...I will be 35 miles from Billings and have just found out my home owners insurance will be half price compared to Stacey, (I would guess because of closer fire stations)...Taxes will be higher so maybe it is a wash...We originally purchased 640 acres in Stacey and here in the new place will have just 20 acres...A large difference but don't really need a whole section of ground for two horses LOL...Also emergency services will be only 10 to 15 minutes in the new place which could well save my or a family member's life in the future...

640 acres is a section, and the last place I lived at in Billings had 20 acres -- so don't tell me that is same place, otherwise it would be really weird.

My mom built about 30 houses in Billings, many on Bannock (sp?) Drive, some out on the west end and scattered around as well (although now the whole west end has exploded, so I don't know if I could even find the houses there if I wanted to).

The 20 acre place was back then on RR1 or RR3 (???), or more easily Larimer (sp?) Lane, above the car race track.

We had a race car. My sister and I (more my fault than she) accidentally crashed it into the house.

The whole story of that race car (which it truly was, I think it was a 56 Chevy all pumped up and stripped out) and the rest of anything in regards to that race track would take a book to explain.

The house itself was (and still is) actually extremely ugly, the drunk brick sub did "weeping mortar". Ugh, but it had like 6,000 square feet. It was huge.

And here is another strange fact, I have like about six stories about the dude who bought and blurnt down Red Rock. His mistress lived right next to us on that 20 acres. The other stories are more interesting though.

Our 20 acres is 35 miles north of Billings toward Roundup, in the Bull Mountains...Very pretty area...also very muddy area right now LOL...

Yeah, when I lived at Stacey (1977-1985), there wasn't much left standing. There was an old post office building (which I don't believe was the actual stacey post office), the hotel and a little brick building. We tore the hotel down in 1980 or so - no one (particularly the children) were allowed in.

I've got a picture of my great grandma in first grade at South Stacey. All of the kid's names are listed, as well as what, if anything, killed them before reaching adulthood. "Joe So-and-so, first grade, later drank turpentine and died. Sally So-and-so, second grade, kicked by a horse and died three days later", etc, etc, etc.

Are we off topic or what?

The whole thing of crime getting worse, my best friend Dave, especially in regards to people killing themselves or others, in a manner worst than the past, is a rather irritating issue -- because it's not true.

Exactly. Per capita violent crime levels are at 1970 levels, down from a peak in the 1990s. People think there's more crime because they now hear about everything from everywhere all the time.

[This message has been edited by Wendy Wilson (2/26/2010)]

The reason the crime rates are down is because we have record numbers of people incarcerated. If criminals are locked up, crime rates go down. Does NOT mean we have less criminality at all.

Sadly, a vast percentage of incarcerations are for non-violent drug offenses. Since prisons have gone private, they have a vested interest in locking up more and more people, thus the insane war on drugs.

oh...polar bear wrote that!

Speaking of criminality.....I read in today's paper about some 24-year old in Billings who was just convicted of trafficking 10 lbs. of meth. At first glance, you think, "yay! get this guy off the streets".

Then the article concludes, "Rodriguez faces a sentence of up to life in prison."

Wait a minute....life in prison? For selling meth? I would have thought, "....a sentence of up to 5 or 10 years" would have been somewhat reasonable.....but life? This is outrageous....another example of how our society no longer has any personable accountability.

"Oh, sure Linda Lou has left her kids sleeping in the van outside the casino all night while she squanders her paycheck on keno machines.....but that is only because Rodriguez sold her some meth, which she has been snorting for the last three weeks. It isn't Linda Lou's fault....its all the fault of that despicable drug dealer, Rodriguez!"

Living in the Bull Mts. Ever watch the movie Deliverance?

Yup sure have...But these are the Bull Mountains in Montana not Georgia..

[This message has been edited by howdy (2/27/2010)]

The speech is different, but the Banjo music is the same.

LOL...