Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Does Mark Henckel ever have it right.

Are wolves a good thing? Are wolves a bad thing?

That really doesn't matter anymore either. Wolves are here to stay.

And the bottom line is that good thing or bad thing, wolves are a costly thing and the price to you and me is going to keep rising.

I've been saying this all along. I don't like the way the whole wolf situation has been handled but there is no use complaining about it now. Whether I like it or not, it is a done deal and we have to find a way to deal with it. Why cattle and sheep producers in the affected states are the whipping boy in this situation is real easy. We don't have the power. Public perception is that we are rich ranchers and our rights are trampled on by the majority that doesn't care about our situation. They only care about what they want.

The real truth of Mark's is this.

As wolf populations spread, look for the bring-back-the-wolf-backers to exit the scene, patting themselves on the back all the way out the door. Organizations will use their wolf victory to sign up new members and beef up their donations. Big shows of national support and, more significantly, the highly-publicized payoffs for livestock losses by private organizations will be a thing of the past.

Ranchers will be on their own in absorbing livestock losses. Dollar-strapped counties won't be able to pay them. Ranchers will be left to plead with the state for relief. Who's the state going to look to? My best guess is that somehow or another, the dollars will come from hunting and fishing license fees. Wolves are wildlife, right?

"Ranchers will be on their own in absorbing livestock losses." That's the way it always is. Those "evil rich ranchers" can deal with it on their own. Between this kind of stuff, increasing taxes, the federal government taking all our water rights away (which by the way has become a real fiasco that I am unsure I can dig my way out of) and increasing government survelliance into our activities the will of the majority through their elected government will strip us ranchers of all our rights and put us out of buisness. They will have to look for somebody else to terrorize then.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson

One person kicks another person because he doesn't agree with their political views. It turns out the kickee is a college student and the kicker is a college teacher visiting the college. The teacher issued an apology.

"I acted entirely inappropriately by kicking you, giving vent to a thoughtless knee-jerk political reaction that should never have happened," she wrote. "Before the incident, I did not know you and that you are a Fort Lewis student."

So it would have been okay to kick them if the person wasn't a student? That's the way it sounds to me. Not much of an apology.

Apology is only egotism wrong side out. Oliver Wendell Holmes

While most people have been focusing their attention on the Presidential election this year, I have been paying attention to our Montana Governor race with more interest. It's not that the Presidential race isin't interesting, its just that everyone seems to be watching it so close that the more local elections are going by the wayside and being forgotten.

This morning There was an article in the Gazette about the would be Governors and the budget. In it is another perfect example of why I think Brian Schweitzer is an idiot. I know, strong language but bear with me.

The Democratic candidate said he would ask businesses getting trained graduates from Montana colleges to pay one-third of the costs of these graduates' tuition. Finally, to encourage Montana college and university graduates to remain in the state, Schweitzer proposed that they could deduct on their state income taxes 100 percent of their principal and interest payments on their student loans for five years.

Now I have commented on this whole wacky plan that would allow graduates to deduct thier student loan payments on the state income taxes and how this will not help keep Montana graduates to remain here. It takes jobs to stay here, not schemes.

Now though he wants Montana buisness men to pay 1/3 of a graduates tuition. How is this going to keep Montana graduates here. As a buisness man I can choose to hire a Montana graduate and pay thousands of dollars extra as part of hiring him or I can hire a graduate of a out of state school and pay no extra for hiring him. The choice is pretty plain to me as a buisness man. The graduate of an out of state college will cost me a lot less money to hire so he will get the job.

What another hare-brained scheme by the idiot that is more than likely going to be our next Governor. The election of this man to the top Montana spot worries me more than anything than I can think of. He will harm Montana more than John Kerry, George Bush, Bin Laden or any other disaster, natural or unatural, that might befall us.

Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions. Albert Einstein

Karen has quite a good disscusion over at Big Sky Blog this morning on farmers. It is really a kind of ironic/funny discussion to me since yesterday I helped a neighbor ship and we got on a real similar disscusion.

It's amazing these rich people that come along and buy ranches and call themselves ranchers and have no concept what it means. They don't "neighbor" with the person next to them or even talk to them. They seem to be above that kind of thing. They don't want to see cattle on "their ranch" so when they are present there is no cattle around, but when they leave, the ranch manager brings cattle in to graze all the grass to reduce the fire danger. They don't want any "dangerous pesticides" around, so the ranch manger only allows them to be used when the "boss" is not present. They want to see wildlife when they are around, so the ranch manager baits them in so the "boss" can see them. Then if there is a government program that they can involve themselves in that provides them with income for doing nothing (conservation program) they are the first at the trough waiting to get fed. Then they call this, farming and ranching.

As Kalamity says, real farmers and ranchers work their land and are proud of what they do. They're not like the rich guy since they don't have an outside source of income to pay all those taxes, which are signifigant whether farm ground or grazing ground, so they have to work the land to hold the place together. Most do it willingly and lovingly getting manure and dirt in their hair and face because this is what they like to do, whether farm bred or city bred. Working all days of the year, including Thanksgiving and Christamas, is what they do and don't even give it a second thought. They don't sit around and say they "deserve a vacation," (one of the most detested phrases I hear people utter along with "I deserve a three day weekend because I work so hard") they get away when work conditions allow and even if it is only a couple of days, they call it a "vacation."

Farmers and ranchers work hard for a living, enjoy it, and would have it no other way. I guess thats why the rich and famous might want to emulate them.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. Kahlil Gibran

I saw last nights Blood Moon and it was spectacular. I was going to say something about it but I recuse myself and let you read this which expresses it better than I can.

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker. Mikhail A. Bakunin

After the announcement that Japan would start accepting our great beef product, now Taiwan has also announced that they will start accepting our wonderful product again. This just really strikes me, a cow-calf producer, as great. Of course some people complain. The meatpackers are whining as usual about the increased costs of aging the critters before there acceptable to going over to Japan.

I never have figured out why the meatpacking industry always whines about everything. Here there is a chance to increase their market penetration after losing it and all they can do is whine about it. Don't get me wrong, it's not going to be easy to get the market share back. It appears that Japanese consumers aren't too sure about US beef even after the aggrement. Instead of whining about it though the meatpackers should be looking at the oppurtunity and going after the new market aggressively. A real buisness would look at the situation and see the positive in it but the government backed meat monopoly only can see the negative and will probably appeal to big daddy to help them out. So sad.

If anybody has a right to look at the downside in the opening of these markets to US beef it's the Australians. They increased their market share while we were kept out of the market and while there might eventually be a decline for them they should keep some market share too and maybe we can all prosper.

EAT BEEF!!!

Markets change, tastes change, so the companies and the individuals who choose to compete in those markets must change. An Wang

Luckily I don't have this problem here yet but I really wonder what kind of good this meeting is doing? A chance to get together and bitch? A little earlier this year Stillwater county had another meeting about the drought that was basically just a bitch session too. I am not a big fan of meetings though so that may color my viewpoint here.

I mentioned before one of Montana's big fires was here last year and they, being anybody that felt like it, had fairly regular meetings while the fire was burning. The people fighting the fire, and others, would come out here and ask if I had been to the meeting. To begin with I would ask what the meeting was about and the answer would vary from plans to fight the fire to how landowners can get paid for thier losses. I would tell them that they could meet about the fire all they want, I was going to fight it and put it out while they were busy discussing it. They would ask "what about getting paid for your losses?" I told them I didn't want a god damn dime from anybody, I just wanted the fire out and that was exactly what I was doing while they were busy talking about it.

I don't know, endless meetings don't seem to get a person anywhere to me. They are just big bitch sessions with nothing really accomplished but, I guess it makes some people feel better so they do it.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything. John Kenneth Galbraith

If it's not cloudy tommorow night this looks like it will be a treat.

On Wednesday night, Oct. 27th, North Americans can see a total eclipse of the moon. According to folklore, October's full moon is called the ''Hunter's Moon'' or sometimes the ''Blood Moon.'' It gets its name from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead. You can picture them: silent figures padding through the forest, the moon overhead, pale as a corpse, its cold light betraying the creatures of the wood. The Blood Moon rises this year on Wednesday, Oct. 27th. At first it will seem pale and cold, as usual. And then ... blood red.

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream. Wandering by lone sea breakers, and sitting by desolate streams. World losers and world forsakers, for whom the pale moon gleams. Yet we are movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems. Arthur O'Shaunessey

I find this sick/sad. Teenage girls getting plastic surgery including breast implants. What really bothers me about it is these weak kneed parents who "give" them such surgery for a graduation present.

Breast implants and liposuction are now bestowed by parents as graduation or birthday gifts. Some doctors say they have performed breast augmentations on baby-boomer mothers and their teenage daughters.

I understand that girls have a lot more self esteem issues than boys do. I am having this situation with my oldest daughter right now. She complains that "no boy will ever like me, they all want barbie dolls."

Psychologist Ann Kearney-Cooke, a visiting scholar at Columbia University who studies girls and body image, said the increase in cosmetic surgery among adolescents reflects a pernicious trend that pervades popular culture: the glorification of rail-thin, large-breasted women. It is, she notes, an unnatural body type rarely achievable without surgery.

"Kids spend a lot of time in chat rooms and they're bombarded by the media with these unrealistic images," Kearney-Cooke said. "When you're a teenage girl, there's this whole myth of transformation that's very powerful: namely that cosmetic surgery can transform your looks and your life.

Sometimes kids, which a teenager still is, don't realize the commitment they are making with such procedures and the risks they are taking. The Barbie doll image is just too important.

Although many women continue to believe their implants made them sick, no scientific link has been conclusively established with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to the FDA.

But the agency warns in a 2004 handbook for patients that "most women with breast implants will experience local complications" including pain, hardening and rupture. Recipients "should be prepared for long-term follow up, reoperations to treat complications and personal financial costs." Less common complications include numbness, infection and blood clots.

I wish I knew what the answer was for our culture. Plastic surgery might put a little icing on the cake but it doesn't change fundamentally who you are. It's more than just the girls too. I have been focusing on them in this disscussion but the boys need to learn that the perfect "barbie doll" is just an illusion. The fabricated eye candy they see paraded across screens, TV and movie, are not what real life is all about. There is an underlying beauty under the skin that is much more important than the eye candy and that is what should be important. But our visual society just doesn't see it, how sad.

Those real pretty women are just high maintanence and since I am no great shakes in the looks department myself, it isn't that important to me. Pat (My Hired Man)

A duck goes into a bar and asks the bartender, "Got any grapes?" The bartender says, "No. This is a bar and we don't sell grapes." The duck leaves.

The next day, the duck goes back to the bar and asks, "Got any grapes?" The bartender says, "I told you yeaterday. This is a bar and we don't sell grapes."

The following day, the duck returns and asks,"Got any grapes?" The bartender loses it. He grabs the duck by the neck, and yells, "I already told you twice! This is a bar! I don't have any grapes! If you ask me again, I'll nail your beak to the floor!"

The next day, the duck goes in the bar and asks, "Got any nails?" The bartender sighs and says, "No, we don't have any nails." The duck says, "Good. Got any grapes?"

I am glad this teacher isn't around here.

After Amica (parent) wrestled the bag away, police say Rucker (teacher) picked up a chair and hit her in the back, knocking Amica to the floor. Rucker then began punching Amica in the face and body.

During the fight, the girl was reportedly crying for her teacher to stop hitting her mother and ran up to them. Rucker then allegedly hit the child, pulled her hair and pushed her out of the way before starting to strike the mother again.

Rucker dragged Amica by the hair outside the classroom, according to the report.

I don't know what this teacher thought she was teaching but she definitly needs to re-evaluate her career choice. Sounds like she would make a better professional wrestler than a teacher.

If we weren't all crazy, we'd just go insane. Jimmy Buffett

I had to laugh at Bragg's article this morning in the Gazette that asks where the ghosts are. I didn't grow up in Billings, but my experience was the same in small town Montana. There was no "haunted house" or ghost stories. Maybe it has something to do with being Montanan or something, I don't know.

When I was in the Navy almost every base I was at there was some building that everybody swore was filled with ghosts or haunted. At Great Lakes Training Station where I went to "A" school my class had to pull duty one night, I had other duties and responsibilities so I was excused, in the local "haunted " building and they were downright scared to death about it. I never could figure out why they were so scared about it but maybe Bragg has the explanation. If you don't grow up with those kinds of stories, you aren't afraid of them later in life.

No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes. Thomas Carlyle

I have a new song. It is sung to the Beatles tune "Yellow Submarine."

We all live in the Okie Fenokie Swamp,
Okie Fenokie Swamp,
Okie Fenokie Swamp,
We all live in the Okie Fenokie Swamp,
Where life is so muddy.

By the way, what cartoon character lived in the Okie Fenokie Swamp?

Thanks to Joe G. For reminding me that Pogo the Possum was the character I was thinking about. I was looking on the Internet and found this pic. I can remember having one of these cups when I was younger. What a sad day it was when the handle fell off and it cracked.

I do not follow baseball or know anything about it but I followed Ed's advice this morning and found a story about baseball. This story about the hot dog was interesting. I didn't know the Montreal Expos were relocating to Washington D.C. That leads to the question in my mind doesn't Washington D.C. have a team called the Senators? Not very many towns have two team. Good for them.

Playing baseball for a living is like having a license to steal. Pete Rose

Japan Easing American Beef Exports Ban

Some potentially very good news for the cattle industry. Don't get me wrong, there are still some sticking points.

During the talks, U.S. and Japanese officials reviewed a Japanese proposal to exempt younger cows from testing. They also discussed methods to confirm the age of cattle, including using dental and birth records, the official said on condition of anonymity.

But dental checks have rarely been used on animals so young, and the two sides have yet to agree on details, he said. Public broadcaster NHK said Japan has demanded more precise methods for determining age.

"There's never been a need to identify animals 20 months or younger before ... We proposed a way to do it and we're going to be working together to verify that it does work," a second member of the U.S. delegation said on condition of anonymity.

Now I don't know what is going to be required here but I did this year sign a document that went with the big bunch of calves that steated when my calving dates were and that verified I had not feed them any supplements that I knew contained bone meal. Sounds to me like the feeder who bought my calves was looking ahead to exactly this situation. With my calving dates by the time they slaughter the cattle they will be under 20 months of age and eligible for the Japanese market if all things are worked out.

How much of the Japanese market we will regain is a big question I can't answer. The Australians have made a large inroad in the market during the ban and whether, with our high priced beef, we can get it back I don't know. But it is good knowing there is another outlet for beef.

While this might be good news for the cattle industry, consumers are not going to benifit by it in the US. This will only keep cattle prices high in the meat counter so it will take longer before they start coming down. Sorry, but I will enjoy the high prices while they last.

Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world. Kofi Annan