richardide

Pennsylvania Representative Camille “Bud” George states this about Force-Pooling: “…Intrusive government would be depriving an individual’s property rights to benefit private companies.” Oil and Gas Industry lobbyists have concocted another name for it:  “fair pooling.” There’s nothing “fair” about it; Force-Pooling is eminent domain in sheep’s clothing. Let’s say a Force-Pooling  law is enacted in Pennsylvania, and, for whatever reason, you have remained unleased to any Oil and Gas... Read Full Story

This past weekend I attended the “Gathering Of Authors” convention sponsored by INFINITY PUBLISHING at the Raddison Hotel and Convention Center in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. I was set back on my heels by two speakers in particular–Dan Poynter (that  estimable  guru of Self-Publishing from Santa Barbara, California) and Marc Schulman, consultant and President of MultiEducator, New Rochelle, N.Y. Let me list, paraphrased in outline form, what they said that so jolted me: 1. ebook... Read Full Story

Visitors to Las Vegas may not be aware that a  part of their number are the truly indigent–the down and outer. You won’t bump into them on the bus, train, or plane, or on your arrival at McCarran International Airport. Just when they do  arrive in Vegas, and what their means of transport might be, often remains a mystery. But arrive  they do, and many become full-time residents. Let’s be clear who I’m talking about. These are not  gamblers who  find themselves suddenly broke; they are the... Read Full Story

The Kindle production of 3 ACES is now downloadable from the Kindle Store. You will find every word faithfully reproduced from the soft-covered paperback production, along with the chapter indices, interstate highways, and military map pages so necessary in filling out my interwoven story of a distraught young woman (Dawn Carlisle, the great granddaughter of the Sioux chief Red Cloud), a solitary truck driver (Abner Weaver, the SF recon Vietnam vet.) and Pip, my injured half-breed pit bull... Read Full Story

Having just set up a new desktop computer – my old faithful homebuilt crashed after eight years of steady use – you can understand why I haven’t posted much of anything these past weeks. Another reason is that I just got tired of mostly putting stuff out there for you spammers to make money from. Yes, after two years of writing blogs, that I hoped would stir up interest in my 3 ACES website and perhaps an occasional purchase of my novel, 3 ACES, I’ve come to the realization that perhaps the... Read Full Story

If you recall, in my blog of July 19th, 2009, HARD TIMES, HELL - JAMMIN’ DOWN FREMONT STREET, I bemoaned $30 Billion of stalled hotel/casino projects out on the Strip. I’m saddened to tell you that the situation in May of 2010 is not much improved. Ten months later, and putting aside the “For Sale” sign (your bid as good as anyone’s) hanging over that hulking blue glass multi-billion sink hole, better known as the Fontainebleau, there appears to be one bright spot in the rusting construction... Read Full Story

Silly question?… It seemed so to me until I was introduced to a layer of black rock buried more than a mile beneath us here in Northeastern PA. Seems the old-time geologists knew all about this 400 million year old backwash of organic stuff, a layer of thick black shale called The Marcellus, that lay compressed deep below us. The geologists knew it contained natural gas; but it was a “tight” formation that would be hard to crack, let alone get to, in a cost-efficient manner. Five or so... Read Full Story

It was 2:00 in the afternoon, Sunday, February 20th…I had just pulled off Interstate 83, north of the Baltimore Beltway, into the parking lot of the Hunt Valley Shopping Center for a cup of coffee, when I felt the bump-bump-bumping of a front left tire quickly going flat. I got no more than ten feet toward the row I intended to park in, when, in a flash, the brake pedal of my 1987 Dodge Diplomat slumped all the way to the floor; the car keeled over and screeched along the asphalt to a halt... Read Full Story

Yes, there’s a terrific amount of competition out there meeting anyone who promotes and attempts to direct-sell a self-published book. Forget the fact that a sea of new books hit the market every month. Look at it this way: if you manage to reach a few potential readers every month, that no one else is pitching at the same time, you are likely to convince them that they cannot do without a copy of your book. That, of course, assumes you have an appealing and fully professional volume to... Read Full Story

If you recall, in my blog of July 26th, 2008 - LEAVING I-95 AND LOVIN’ IT… -I stressed the financial chaos experienced, at the time, by the casual automobile traveler to Florida. I referred, at the time, to a quick trip of my own in late June, made from the Endless Mountains, west of Scranton, PA to the Sarasota area. Stressors then had been generally intense traffic flows, especially through the Washington, D.C. area and on down to Fredricksburg, Virginia; erratic and/or deceptive posted gas... Read Full Story