Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

I see in the paper that a Type 2 Management team is coming in to take over the Eastern Montana fires. The actual quote is;

A Type 2 management team from California is arriving to fight more than 20 fires in Custer, Powder River and Rosebud counties. Management of the fires will be transferred at 6 p.m.

When I read this my first thought was, "Oh no, I feel sorry for the landowners in these areas." Why you may ask?

About four years ago we had a big fire in this area that when all was said and done burned almost 40,000 acres around here. We had been fighting it for about 3 days and wasn't getting it under control, it was about 5000 acres at this point, when they brought in guess what, a type 2 management team from California to take over the fire. In the first twelve hours they were on the fire it ballooned from 5000 acres to 20,000 acres and then 3 hours later ballooned to about 40,000 acres. I to this day and will always blame the idiots from California for letting this happen. So that is why I feel sorry for these guys. The words "Type 2 management team from California" strike fear in my heart. If there is a way to screw things up, I'm sure they will find it.

Let me say at this point that I understand why they bring in a team like this after a while. The local resources are stretched to a breaking point and need a rest. The Type 2 management team comes in and hires engines and crews to fight the fire under their direction. The Type 2 team does not have any equipment to fight fires on there own, they have to hire the crews to do the fighting. So when I talk about the incompetence of the management team I am not talking about the firefighters themselves. They did a wonderful job, it was just their bosses that didn't have a clue.

There are a lot of things I remember about this fire but two things that I vividly remember about this Type 2 team are the meetings and the insistence that I couldn't fight the fire. Every day from 5 in the morning to 10 in the morning there was not a single fire fighter on the fire. They were in town, 40 miles away, having there daily briefing on what the plan was for the day. Don't get me wrong, I understand the idea of briefing everybody on what was going on but was it really necessary to pull the night crews to go all the way in for the briefing, brief everybody, then send the new crews out and leave the fire unattended for 5 hours every day? More than once when the crews got out there the conditions were nothing like they were briefed on because nobody was there fighting or monitoring the fire so they would sit around until 3 in the afternoon while the Type 2 management team decided what to do and then when they finally decided what to do it was getting so late they wouldn't do anything. This got real old after a while. I never went in to their stupid meetings because I figured it was more important to be fighting the fire than pulling everybody off to meet about it.

The other memory is them telling me I couldn't fight the fire. I would be doing my thing fighting the fire and one of the management types would come up and tell me, "You can't be here fighting this fire." I didn't have the energy after so many days of fighting fire to argue with them, I would just say okay and keep fighting the fire. They would give me a funny look and say, "Everybody on the fire line needs to be wearing official clothes so you can't be fighting the fire." I again would say okay and keep working. The guy would leave at this point and about an hour later a guy higher in the chain would come along and we would play the whole charade over again and I still wouldn't leave. We played this game every day they were here. Them telling me I couldn't fight the fire and me ignoring them. They never got tired of telling me and the look on their face when I ignored them was precious. They couldn't figure out why I wouldn't listen to them. Why should I? They aren't God.

Now the chances that the people taking over the Eastern Montana fires being as incompetent as I felt they were on the fire here is slim. Like I said though the words "Type 2 management team from California" strike fear in my heart and always will. Stupid, I know, but that's just the way it is. I hope everybody fighting fire the best of luck in the world and hope they get them under control. I hope you have better luck with your Type 2 team than my memories leave me with.

I have memories - but only a fool stores his past in the future. David Gerrold

I really wonder what some people use for brains. They forgot they left their infant in the car on a 90 degree day? Maybe my handy rope will improve their memory a little. I always say it, some people shouldn't breed.

I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius. Leo Szilard

Ups and Downs from the Billings Gazette.

DOWN: Fuel economy stalls. While gas prices soar above $3 a gallon across America, the U.S. Senate's Commerce Committee is diluting legislation that would mandate the first significant increases in fuel efficiency in 22 years. Consumers need vehicles that get more miles per gallon to stretch their dollars and to conserve the nation's fuel supply. Senators need to catch up to the pump price reality that confronts average Americans.

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EXCUSE ME, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COW SHIT. It doesn't take the government to mandate fuel economy. The consumer has the option of buying a vehicle with higher fuel economy if that is what they want. If enough empty headed consumers bought only vehicles with higher fuel economy the car companies would get the idea and offer more vehicles with higher fuel economy. Real simple and easy.

Last year I stepped out and bought a new to me vehicle for the family and one of the highest concerns to me was fuel economy. I found something that would work for me. I had the choice and I used it. I would have been happier with a vehicle that had more room, more power, more ability in the mud, but I didn't. I made a damned choice and stuck with it.

When will people quit whining that the government needs to mandate this or mandate that and just live their life making the appropriate choices so the government can stay out of our damned lives. BUY A DAMNED CAR THAT HAS HIGH FUEL ECONOMY INSTEAD OF WHINING ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You as a consumer can make a difference and the difference doesn't need to be lobbying Congress to make our lives difficult it's making a fuel friendly choice when you purchase a vehicle. Make a choice. I guess for most idiots out there it's to hard to do that.

They hammer, they hammer; it is unbearable. That is why you have to go away. They hammer everywhere! They hammer in your brain! Hell, these idiots, they come with their hammer, where people are sitting, to hammer! Klaus Kinski

I can not believe the stupidity of some people. Latest on my list is Todd Shriber. Who is Todd Shriber you may ask. Todd Shriber was, he has since been fired for his antics, a press secretary for Rep. Denny Rehberg, Montana's lone Representative.

It appears Todd was a little embarrassed by his college grades and attempted to hire a hacker to hack into the college computers to up his grade a little. Believe me on this one, you have to read the transcripts of his email correspondence with the people he believed to be hackers. It is about the funniest thing I have read in a long time. the part about the pigeons and the squirrels had me literally rolling on the floor and laughing. Todd really had no clue.

I would be really curious if they can charge Todd with a crime over this. Soliciting somebody to perform a Federal crime seems like it would be a crime to me.

What is equally as funny in this is the number of people who are blaming Rehberg or all Republicans in general for this. One idiot does not a party make and while Rehberg might be responsible for the people he hires, you can't always control what they do. If he had no knowledge that the idiot was doing this, he can't have had any control over it. Hell, he fired the stupid idiot as soon as what he did came to light. Have to give him credit for that.

They say it takes all kinds but I really think idiots like Todd aren't necessary. They demean us all.

Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them. Walter Kerr

I occasionally read stories about expensive hamburgers and they astound me. Here's another one.

Jakarta hotel puts $110 burger on menu

A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country.

The $US110 ($A141.27) hamburger offered by the Four Seasons is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean pears - served with french fries, of course.

They're not exactly selling like hotcakes yet, but the hotel says it has sold 20 of the 1.0 million rupiah ($US110.1) hamburgers since they were launched this month.

I think people are crazy to spend this much for a burger. I admit, I have never tasted Kobe beef but I really doubt it is worth that much. I really like the part about the calves drinking beer and eating "pesticide-free grass." I don't drink beer myself, let alone feed any to the calves but " pesticide-free grass" is the only food available on the place to all the critters including the calves.

I don't use any "pesticides" on the crops I produce or on my grasslands. I guess if I had an agenda I would say I raise everything "organic." I don't have an agenda though, I just do what seems right and raise quality cattle. They don't sell for the prices listed here and I wouldn't want them too. I want everybody to afford my product, not just idiot rich people who can afford $110 for a burger. They need their heads examined.

It pisses me off, people are idiots, but what are you going to do? The world is full of idiots. That's why we'll never have flying cars. People don't know how to drive. Dustin Diamond