Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. Oscar Wilde

OK, what would I comment on this morning? If you know me it's real obvious.

Mad cow test scares U.S. beef industry

To start with I think "scare" is an awful strong term to use. Concerns or uneasy would probably be better descriptions at least if they think it through. I will point out it is only a preliminary test and a more comprehensive test is all ready being conducted. There has been a couple of cases all ready that the preliminary test was positive but the comprehensive test was negative and I bet that's the case here.

This just shows that the procedures in place are working and that we don't need to be "scared." Now it's a waiting game to see what further testing brings. Maybe I am wearing rose colored glasses but I think the American public is smart enough not to overreact to this information and use common sense. They didn't overreact last year when the one cow was found to have BSE in the US and they will not do so again.

I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. William Hazlitt

GOP working to repeal label law

I don't see a big surprise here. This has been coming for a while and isn't it just par for the course that we're hearing about it after the election? I could rant and rave about it but what's the use. It's going to happen since cattle producers don't have enough money to outbid the meat packers to buy Congressmen.

Of course Montana's Congressional delegation have all come out opposing the move to repeal the law.

The cattle producers of Montana are very much for this bill so Montana's Congressional delegation would have to be crazy to want to repeal it. But wait, Didn't our esteemed junior Senator vote to kill it all ready? So has Burns flip-flopped on this issue or is he just blowing smoke up our ass pulling the wool over our eyes.

"It's gonna be a bare-knuckle fight," Burns' spokesman J.P. Donovan said. "Some people in Congress feel a voluntary program is the way to go. But we say, it's been proven that doesn't work. They could do it now, and nobody's signing up."

If you belive, after his previous vote to kill it, that Burns is going to fight this I have some ocean front property in Southern Montana to sell you. He's just talking the good talk in hopes of getting elected down the line. What a hypocrite.

The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that's also a hypocrite! Tennessee Williams

I see Governor-elect BS's transition team is working hard on thier jobs by rooting through trash. So the most efficent way BS can find to get ready to lead our great state is to dig in the garbage? Lord help us all.

This will go over like a lead helmet. Where does personal responsibility enter the equation?

When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves. George Pataki

Now I understand that Indian legislators have thier own agenda for thier constituents. That's the whole idea of drawing district lines to ensure a minority group canadate can win an election. Those of us who have the misfourtune of being included in these districts are just left out to hang without much representing our interests. I have a question in all this. Thier agenda is:

Items on the agenda included tribal affairs coordinator, taxation, tribal-state relations, tribal compacts, economic development, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, federal impact aid, sovereign immunity and legislative funding for Indian education.

Most of it I can understand but what always bothers me is they are always concerned about thier sovereignty from the state but yet want state funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and legislative funding for Indian education for thier constituents, and even if it isn't mentioned, includes monies for schools on the reservations that non-Indians aren't allowed to attend (Yes, some of my property taxes go to a public school my children aren't allowed to attend since they aren't Indian).

So what ever happened to mutual respect and responsibility? They want all these goodies from the State but they want to be sovereign from the State so that the State has no control over them. All other residents have responsibilities that go along with getting help from the state but these soverign entities don't. All they want is money out of the pot but don't want to contribute any in to the pot. I guess thier able to have thier cake and eat it too. I just don't get it.

I am all for the tribes doing everything they can to help themselves and be part of Montana but how can they do this if they insist on being a seperate, soveriegn entity? All this does is bring disputes and divisiveness among us and doesn't help the whole State of Montana move forward into an economic powerhouse it could be.


Responsibility is the thing people dread most of all. Yet it is the one thing in the world that develops us, gives us manhood or womanhood fiber. Frank Crane

Only me. I contacted the Navy for some records that I don't have and they informed me I don't exist in thier records. So what did I do for 6 years, imagine I was in the Navy? The IRS sure knows I exist so whats the deal?

Reasearching what I need to do, I have found out that I have to supply the Navy with a certified and notarized copy of my DD214 to prove to them I was in and then they will try to find me. Wonderful. I do have a question that I can't find an answer to that maybe somebody can help me with. What is a certified and notarized copy? I have never heard of such a beast. I know what notarized is, but certified and notarized, that is confusing. Only the government.

When all else is lost, the future still remains. Christian Nestell Bovee

If you have been paying attention to the news at all you know that Scott Peterson was found guilty. While I agree with the verdict it does suprise me that they came to this conclusion. Above and beyond that though this leads to one small problem in my little brain. We used to say somebody got off "scott-free." With this conviction that saying just doesn't sound right any more. What problems we now have with our language. We are going to have to come up with a new saying. Orenthal-free maybe?

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away. Arthur Helps

Wish I could say something exciting is going on around here but its not. It's always the slow time of year in November. Just watching the cows and yearlings get fat and sassy.

Since it did get dry enough to ship calves out it's also dry enough to get some of the hay I bought in. This stack is all that's in so far and it's around 280 tons. Not quite half of the 600 tons of this that I bought. The guy I bought it from says he is going to haul all week and if he does that I should have almost all of it in. That will sure make me feel better.

The only other project we have been working on is burning some weeds in a field. Let a field get out of control and then it's nothing but work to clean it up. Live and learn I guess.

Learn to limit yourself; to content yourself with some definite work; dare to be what you are and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not; and to believe in your own individuality. Henri Frederic Amiel

Brain inflammation link to autism

I found this over at Wizbang and as you would expect it piqued my attention. I have read that there was a theory that brain swelling might cause autism and this seem to prove it.

The researchers say it might eventually be possible to develop a diagnostic test for autism based on looking for signs of inflammation - and that treating this inflammation might reduce the symptoms of autism.

Where this will lead I don't know but any progress forward on this problem makes my heart feel good.

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. Zora Neale Hurston

I have mentioned that sometimes I have memory problems and I heard this joke which fit right in with that theme.

Two old men were sitting on the porch when out of the house came a dog. The one man asked the other what the name of the dog was. He hemmed and hawed for a minute and said "a flower...smells good...red...thorns..women love it..." The first old man piped up at this point and said "a rose?" The second old man straigtened up and said "that's it. Rose," he yelled "what's the dogs name."

God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. James M. Barrie

Why do you blog? First Pandora asked the question and I have been considering it carefully and now Sharon asks the same question. Why do you blog?

That is such a loaded question. I have only been at it for around a year so it probably is a good self-examination to ask myself this question. To start with I enjoy reading other blogs. They are educational, informative, and inspiring. They make you think and weigh who you are and how you fit in the world. But these things don't explain why I blog?

I have always felt I expressed myself better when I write than when I speak. I had to laugh a while ago when David talked about bloggers being outgoing people. That doesn't really describe me well. I am not overly outgoing but a blog, where I can write, fits my style much better.

Blogging also helps me stay in contact with the world. When you live on an isolated ranch and your nearest neighbor is over 15 miles away by road you can sometimes go days without seeing another soul besides your family. Blogging reduces the isolation.

Blogging is also a way of keeping my mental acuity up. It helps clarify and refine my thoughts and keeps my mind active. Sometimes you focus in so on your job it's hard to dig out of the rut. I know some ranchers that are so focused on ranching that they don't bring their head up and see the world around them. They only see thier little part of the world and can't see the whole picture sometimes and they approach everything without seeing the bigger picture. I'm trying to avoid that. Broaden my horizons so that I don't get bogged down in my daily routine.

Probably the no.1 reason I blog though is I enjoy it. It's real simple. For no reason I can consciously explain, I enjoy it. That's why I blog.

True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Armed security guards in public schools. For better or worse it's a sign of our times in a lot of places around the country. I understand security guards are used instead of police because they are so much cheaper but we can hope they don't shoot any better than this one does.

Thomas said she approached the student and tried to detain him, but he became aggressive, pushed her, then reached under his shirt.

"She thought he was reaching for a weapon. She drew and fired one time, striking him in the foot," Sgt. Paul Accardo said.

I wasn't there or involved so I can't say if drawing the gun was necessary but it appears to be appaling marksmanship to hit him in the foot after drawing your weapon. It turns out to be a good deal she was such a bad shot but really makes me wonder about the competence of security guards.

Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. Laurence J. Peter

Drunken, man killing elephants. I know its a serious story but the thought of wild elephants consuming rice beer and going on a drunken rampage makes me laugh. A sight that would be interesting to see from a long, long ways away.

Women are like elephants. I like to look at 'em, but I wouldn't want to own one. W. C. Fields

I again express my condolences to Wyoming ranchers. More cattle have been found with brucellosis so the restrictions on their cattle will continue. This makes doing buisness as a rancher extremly hard.

Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance. Susan Sontag