Just saw this article on drudge that the healthcare bill exempts Amish people from having to partake in the mandatory buying of healthcare insurance and the associated fines for not doing so?

So if we all convert to being Amish we can just bypass it?

Amish Exemption

Maybe,...but ya have to be able to build a barn without nails,...by yourself,..in 3 days,...while wearin' one 'nem funny hats.

Not too many people can make the grade.

You don't have to pay Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid taxes either.

You'll have to give up your computer, TV, drinking, and electricity though, and maybe shaving and bathing too. Not really sure I want to return to the 19th Century, although the government and the environmentalists seem to be driving us in that direction.

On the plus side,...their women haven't started shavin' their boogers into those wooley worm shapes.

Ya gotta take the bad with the good,...and I never *have* been able to get romantic about a wooley worm.

Then gen-X women have gotten just too damn creative with bic razors.

I hadda 'nuff playin' doctor back when I was 8 years old. I have no need to relive it as an adult.

No Guns,......

Yup,

GTC

The Amish?,...no guns?

You better check again.

Nope,....?

Yup?

anyhoo,.....NO guns.

GTC

http://amishamerica.typepad.com/amish_america/2007/11/the-amish-and-h.html

I remember while in the Arthur, Illinois settlement a few years ago being surprised to learn that the Amish do use guns for hunting. Since that time I've found that many Amish are avid hunters and I've had numerous conversations with them about the sport.

Yup, bettah go to the sportsman's shop in new holland, pa. Before hunting season the parking lot is full of horse drawn buggies.They might be pacifists but dey izz pacyfists dat is armed to da teef.

http://www.thesportsmansshop.com/

I love it,...thanks for the wake up call.

Come to fink on it,...the Hutterites were that way , too.

Frolic with their Daughters, sell em' a gun,....split.

Mis-spent youth,....MMMmmmmm,

GTC

All of my insulated garage doors here on the property, house and outbuildings, came from Arthur, IL and are made by the Amish. They are incredibly good doors, and I'm pretty sure they have a few modern conveniences to produce them.
We also have a very large furniture store here, unfinished hand-made from the folks down in Arthur. Quality stuff. They are entreprenurial and hard-working, and I don't think they're playing with wooden mallets and pegs anymore. Maybe in some places in the country, but not down in Arthur.

Best Wheelwrights left on the planet,

.....take that to the BANK.

GTC

I was okay with alla that till I reread and got to the drinking part that I'd missed.

didn't sound much different than how I lived when I was guiding.

but even out there we had alcohol

a man has to know his limitations. I can give up a lot, but some things are sacred.

I don't know any Amish people, but I've drank with Hutterites a few times, I used to work for a guy that sold them combines, lots of big new expensive combines that they paid cash for. And to facilitate selling them more we would go to their communities (In Montana and Canada), help them with the concaves, fans, and straw walkers, etc. and usually eat dinner with them mess hall style (Women and kids eat when the men are done) They had lots of good home made wine after excellent meals, and you really had to talk your way out of drinking too much of it with them.

I was wondering about Amish, not sure what all their religious differences amount to, and I just found this little jewel;

"Sheriff's deputies attack hard in the spring, when most big drinking parties start. On one night last year, they took into custody an entire busload of Amish teenagers after breaking up a party".


link

The Hutterite wine thing's eluding me,

most likely they've "Reformed" their scripture,.....

Haven't hung with a "Hoot" colony since the '70s, and that was north of the Medicine Line.

Fine folk, they were,...treated me like a King.

I Honestly don't remember them having any booze around.

GTC

There's always a few of the younger ones (without beards) in the bars around Shelby, Chester, and Lethbridge, or at least there were back in the 80s?

I remember a few showing up at a house party in Shelby once too -- but they weren't old hands, kinda like greenhorns to the party world. Made me think of those "Wild and Crazy Guys" on Saturday Night Live, but with black pant's and suspenders!

I think it'd be kinda like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg

Oh ,....HELL yeah

Ft. Mcleod was a little safer for the wild young'uns though, I'd reckon, they'd hang there with the Blood Bucks from Brocket.

Always funny to see one of those big crew cabs pull up, and an "Elder" go in and herd em' out,....what?

On a completely different wave legnth,......I've seldom flirted , or been inclined to flirt as what those totally dressed young "Hoot" gals would inspire one to do.

All pink cheeked ( hell that being all one could see),.....rosy,....no makeup,....dunno,...it just got ones young juices flowing. WAY more attractive than some D-bag biker hose bag in a tank top,....comin' on to you and good to go.

What was the name of that bar on the East side of the Town Square in Lethbridge,...back than ?

FWIW,...there actually WAS a way to catch up to those rosy cheeked little maidens, too.

I'd not speak much about that, now, though.

if'n you get my drift?

GTC

Not on a Hutterite Colony.

GTC

Bottom-lining it, no thanks. I've got a lot of them just north of me. Amish, Mennonite, German Baptist, Dunkers, what-have-you. The beards look itchy.

Not too sure about that either. My uncle makes half a dozen barrels of hard cider a year and he always has straw hats hanging down in his basement 'talkin'. They must really like my uncle 'cause they're always introducing a new cousin or other inbred relation.

Seen plenty of Amish smoking pipes as well.

oh yeah the amish are armed! we have a place that does trap shoots all year round and they show up with Perazzi's and other such $5,000 to $10,000 shotguns.

plus, they hunt deer around here too and have been known to shoot way too many compared to their tags, they get in a big hunting party and drive properties and pile up the deer.

In Maine we have numerous Mennonite family's, one such family are my neighbors. Great folks and the best of neighbors.

Question........Are Mennonite's exempt as well?

I spent some time in Amish country and thought it was really nice. I spent time staying with a man who rented draft horses and sleds and wagons to Amish construction businesses. They get a lot of restoration work out Lancaster way. They don't use vehicles though. He told me you can't convert. You're either born into it or they don't want you. It's kind of a double standard because they turn their kids lose on us as teenagers and will only take them into the Amish church after they reject our way of life. They encourage their kids to live among the English and do all the things we do: drink, party, drive cars, get a job... Then they are asked to give it all up forever to join the Amish church. People always talk about their exemption from military service. The health care issue kind of stinks too. They want to live amongst us, enjoy the benefits but pay none of the price of being an American. It's kind of like the church not paying taxes. I don't think anyone should ride for free.

This country was founded on not being forced to pay taxes. I don't resent people who have gamed the system to keep it that way, I wish the entire country could and would do the same thing. It would sure cut down on government meddling in the affairs of citizens, like health care, money, firearms etc., etc. I would love to starve the beast known as government that mendaciously calls itself "representative democracy", because if we don't, it's going to eat us alive.

one of them told me they have their own insuance. i dont remember if it is through the church. but they take care of their own people.

he shod horses and had bad feet and a foot doc told him he had to quit. that was when he spoke of the insurance.

he wanted to go caribou hunting but was not allowed to fly so someone would have to drive him. seems there was demons in the air. same reason he could not own rubber tires with air in them. but he could ride on the demons if you owned them. funny thing was he had an air compressor in the barn to drive air tools and give him running water. guess it was ok to let the demons out.

Some of those Hoot girls are pretty cute. A hot one would make a great wife, domestic talents and all.

I can't remember any of names of the bars in Lethbridge, I spent most of the time up there far from town -- Well unless Foremost counts, but even then we were out in the wheat and barley and only got to Lethbridge occasionally.

I did stay near Shelby (Galata) quite a bit longer, I droppped out of the combine crew and took a job with a farmer elevator owner who had a sweet horny daughter who wasn't a Hoot. I had had enough though by Spring and hooked back up with my old crew in Oklahoma just in time to head North again. I got out of cutting the farm in Galata that year though. I was nearby, with another part of the crew on a different farm, trying to stay out of trouble.

What I wonder about though, is there going to be a Gov't test to determine who is practicing their Amishness enough to qualify for the exemptness of it all? I've seen plenty of other of the religious types that are religious only in name. Like Obama being a Christian. Does trying to be Amish mean that you can't get a drivers license? Can't you just be a little bit Amish in the eyes of the law? Where's the line, what's the test? Is it just filling in a blank on a form?

Yeah, I heard that on Fox a few days ago, or was it Rush. I can't remember. I think there will be many people converting to that religion. Seems to be the only way to keep government off your back. Maybe we should form Amish communities all over the country and live in Amish enclaves.

Ughh, that reminds me of an Amish story and what an Amish horse doctor did to a girl.


Couple years back, we had an Amish girl who was being abused by her family(big surprise). The way a neighbor told me, the girl's older brothers were having their way with her. She didn't much like it so she let her dad know. Apparently he didn't care too much and smacked her up a bit for letting him know. The girl then told some of her Amish neighbors who instead of informing the authorities(a big no no for Amish) turned around and told the father. The father being pretty agitated, brought over the local Amish horse doctor who proceeded to pull every one of the girls teeth out as a punishment and to keep her mouth shut.

The young girl still didn't give up. She finally was able to get help by leaving notes in the mailbox. Once authorities were informed by the mail carrier, the girl was quickly removed from her home and the father arrested. A couple months later as news slowly leaked out, that Amish family and some of their neighbors quickly moved to Ohio. From what I understand, the Amish girl has since turned English. I still remember looking at the family's property for sale around Fryburg, Pa but I didn't know what was going on at the time.

Good question. Why do they get out of it anyway? Is it due to their religion? If so, how's come I, as a plain-jane Christian, can't be exempt? It's against my religion to pay for some crap that's gonna finance ho's for the congress and senate. How come some sects get a pass and others don't? Guess it's just like on the airplanes with the Muzzies not having to bend over for the full-cavity search whilst some Jewish granny gets her space invaded to be sure she's not carrying bombs in her thong or a letter opener or some such.

I live close to a lot of them and other like-sects, as I said before. Lots of people go on about what fine folk they are, and I have no doubt some of them indeed are. However, they have their problems like every other bunch does, and sad to say, but I've heard similar stories. This one is particularly horrifying though.

Might want to first watch the movie Witness with Harrison Ford.

mendaciously - excellent word!

+1

Best I can tell. all you gotta do is click your heels three times and say "I'm Amish." Kinda like be a "reverend" or a "community organizer".

______________________________________________________________

So you want to join the Amish
One thing that sets the Amish apart from many Mennonite groups, and for that matter most other religious bodies: they don't recruit.

Amish typically neither condemn nor encourage attempts to join. They may seem a bit discouraging towards the idea. If the subject comes up, usually you hear something like 'if you don't grow up Amish, it's really hard to do it.'

Occasionally, you run into an Amish person with a name that just doesn't 'sound' Amish. That's often a clue.

It frequently happens that non-Amish who join stick it out for a little while but leave when the novelty wears off.

I've only met a very few that have joined, and that's out of literally (literally literally) thousands of families met while selling books in their communities.

I regret not having a chance to get down to the nitty-gritty about it with the joiners (What's it like? No, what's it really like? What do you miss most?).


One was a teacher. Another works in a factory. A third, fairly fresh convert raises and sells mums. He supposedly fell for an Amish lass while on a visit to the community.

Asking another 'native' Amishman in his community about the newbie, I was told, almost wink-wink jokingly, that he seems to be doing alright (so far), as if the underlying idea was 'is he gonna make it?'

But this guy, and the other people around him were supportive as far as I could tell. In fact, the outsiders who have joined and 'survived' seem to garner a bit of extra respect.

Apparently, one way it works for interested parties is that you first come to live and get put to work for a certain length of time, just to see if you can hack it on that end.

Back in the '70s I always seemed to be working very VERY hard, and naturally one's thoughts turn to "Easy Money".

In the grand old tradition of the American west, we'd oftimes discuss bank Robbery as one of the easy money options.

It occurred to me that making that "Transaction" dressed as a filthy bearded , stinkin' decrepit hippy would fly,......in Lethbridge or Calgary.

If on dashing out and around the corner, and into an alley, one pulled off a Superman type quick change.

Under the hippy rags, and false beard / mustache would be a very fresh "Hoot Suit",.....and the chin whiskers to conform.

Appearance thus modified, one could leave town at a relaxed and leisurely pace,......in a big ole' Grain Truck.

GTC

I willing to bet that "converts" come from men not from women.

crossfireoops you talking about my part of the world brings
back many favorite memories. When did you leave So. AB & just
where was home at that time for you? Cheers NC