Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

I have shut down all comments on the blog. I am sorry to do this but things are getting out of hand. I have no control over something that happened over 20 years ago between my sister and my father. Then to start to attack my wife is going over the edge. My wife and my oldest daughter are so mad now I can barely keep them in check. Who knew hiring a women would cause this much family grief. I am who I am and can take a lot but to hurt my wife and kids goes over the line. People might not mean to say hurtful things but in the heat of the moment it happens. Please everybody, take a step back and take a deep breath before this goes overboard.

Well, I have a new hired hand, it's going to take me a while to get used to that. It's all been via phone interview but she is the most impressive applicant we have had. Thoughtful with intelligent questions and answers and self confidence in her abilities. Whether she will work out remains to be seen but at least I should have someone around here through the winter.

We have a neighbor that has been looking for over a year for a hand and still have not found one. They are requiring at least a year commitment from the applicants with two years preferred. I asked them if they had ever heard of slavery. They gave me a really dumb look when I asked the question. I guess this is why they are still looking.

The work is often deadly and boring, but it requires a keen intelligence, and the only way I can compete with large corporations is to treat my employees better, move them up faster, give them more money and put mirrors in the bathrooms. James R. Uffelman

Guess what happens when you insert a new video card in your computer without paying attention to the size of the power supply in the computer?

That's right boys and girls, you fry your power supply. Hopefully nothing else was harmed in the mishap. I will know when I get the new power supply.

I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously? Emile M. Cioran

Kill a child and what do you get for punishment? ONE YEAR IS ALL!!!!!

District Judge Gregory Todd sentenced Bieber to 20 years in prison with 15 years suspended for negligent homicide. The judge imposed consecutive, 10-year suspended sentences on each of two felony criminal endangerment convictions.

Todd said the sentence means that Bieber will spend at least one year incarcerated at the Montana Womens Prison.

Why suspend so much, so she can kill again? I cannot understand why when a person kills a child they tend to get such a light sentence. They say justice is blind, I think it was also stupid in this case. Judge Gregory Todd should be tried for miscarriage of justice or at least suspended from the bench. What a travesty.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us. Francis Bacon

If the Japanese say US beef is not riskier, why did they not open up their borders to US trade? This just shows it's a matter of politics and not food safety.

In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it. Donald Rumsfeld

What good is repealing the gas tax going to do? Put the state into debt? I know gas prices aren't as low as they were earlier but today when I was in Billings at 9:00 am the gas price was around $2.52. By 2:00 pm when I left town the price I paid was $2.44. The price is coming down on its own now that the gas from other parts of the world is finally reaching our shores. I don't see that we need to repeal the gas tax so we can pay more income tax to make up the difference. I would rather not see any tax but that is not the nature of our society so don't mess with what is all ready plenty broken Gov. You will only make things worse.

Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea. Craig Bruce

Let's hope and pray that the House votes with the Senate and allows the plan for Rosa Park to lay in state in the capitol to proceed.

Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 led to a 381-day boycott of the city's bus system and helped spark the modern civil rights movement.

She definitely deserves it.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party. Herbert Hoover

Was Harriet Miers withdrawal a blow to the President or was it in his Strategic Plan all along to get the candidate he really wanted? I think its all a big plan set up when he nominated her.

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised. Denis Waitley

I came across an interesting quote here this morning that I had to say something about. The quote:

White men are the only group of people who don’t know what it’s like to live every day feeling like they have a target on their forehead. They’re at the top of the food chain, and they think that’s just fine, until someone wants to level out the playing field. Then they shout, “Unfair! Unfair! Equal rights for everyone!”

This person really needs to understand a couple of things.

1. There are many parts of the world where "white men" are not "the top of the food chain" and they get along just fine without yelling and screaming for "rights."

2. A "white man" can live in the US and not be "at the top of the food chain." In fact they are second class citizens, along with "white women," who have no say on how they are taxed, or treated by the local authorities. Do they run around screaming “Unfair! Unfair! Equal rights for everyone?” No. They deal with the situation as best they can and not whine.

Equality- the quality or state of being equal

Equal- like for each member of a group, class, or society

So why advocate more protection for some people while at the same time talking equality? That is not what equality means.

Just something to think about.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. Mohandas Gandhi

I see your, I will let you other Montana's have him, [sarcasm]esteemed junior Senator Conrad Burns[\sarcasm] managed to put his foot in his mouth yet again. Not a hard task for the "man." If nothing else he should get points for speaking his mind, politically correct or not. Doesn't change my opinion of the a**hole but it might some people.

When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril. Harry S. Truman

Who really cares if consumers know where there meat comes from. Many in the beef industry do but are being shut out by the big meat packers.

It doesn't need to be so hard and expensive, just force all cattle coming into the country to be identified at great expense. Domestic cattle shouldn't require anything. Any which way it will cost the producers money but it's the right thing to do.

What I don't understand is why ban the slaughter of horses for meat sold for export to European countries? If that's what they want to eat why can't we supply it if that is a persons desire? I guess that means we can export horse meat to Canada who can then sell it to Europe. There is always a way around these things if a person wants.

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Mark Twain

Once you really commence to see things, then you really commence to feel things. Edward Steichen

Well the search for a hired man continues. We've received 10-20 applications and the number that jumped up as any good were very slim. There was one guy who was really anxious to come work here, so anxious that I was a little put off and would never offer him the job. Usually somebody who wants the job that bad and lives so far away, Texas in this case, is only trouble. They are usually running from something and I don't need trouble on the place. He also had 4 kids which is about 2 more than the living quarters will handle.

I did offer the job to someone on Sunday. They said they would have to think about it for a while. I kinda like that personally, she just isn't in a big rush for a job and has the resources to really think the situation out. It will be a big change if she takes the job, it will have to be a hired hand instead of a hired man. She had the only application that really stood out in the bunch. It just seems like no one wants to do this kind of work any more. We'll see.

There is one other guy we just got an application for that might work out, if he does something with his 20 cows. I will not run 20 cows for a hand until they've worked here a while. The job has all ready been offered to the gal right now so we will have to wait and see what her decision is.

Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can. John F. Kennedy

Isn't this the way things go?

October 24, 2005
Last modified October 24, 2005 - 12:03 am
Japan food safety panel expected to recommend lifting ban on U.S. beef

October 24, 2005
Last modified October 24, 2005 - 9:59 am
Japan delays decision on ending U.S. beef ban

In ten hours go from lifting ban to not lifting ban. It's not a surprise to me. We will see what happens next. They have to do what they feel is right so I can't harangue them on this issue. It will eventually reopen.

The politics of surprise leads through the Gates of Astonishment into the Kingdom of Hope. Max Lerner

From Nasa image of the day.

Resembling a work of modern art, variegated green crop circles cover what was once shortgrass prairie in southwestern Kansas. The most common crops in this region—Finney County—are corn, wheat, and sorghum. Each of these crops was at a different point of development when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) captured this image on June 24, 2001, accounting for the varying shades of green and yellow. Healthy, growing crops are green. Corn would be growing into leafy stalks by late June. Sorghum, which resembles corn, grows more slowly and would be much smaller and therefore, possibly paler. Wheat is a brilliant gold as harvest occurs in June. Fields of brown have been recently harvested and plowed under or lie fallow for the year.

Like crops throughout large sections of the U.S. Midwest, these crops are partly fed by water from the Ogallala Aquifer, a giant layer of underground water. The rivers and streams that initially fed the aquifer have long since disappeared in the geologic development of the West after the last ice age. Water now takes a long time to trickle down through the soil to recharge the aquifer, though the rate varies from region to region. Like a bank account, if more water is taken from this underground bank than is deposited into it, it could run dry. For this reason, efforts are being made to conserve the water of the Ogallala Aquifer.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Utterly astounding if you ask me. It's also scary to think about all the water they are pulling out of the Ogallala Aquifer. It's not an inexhaustible resource and it will be depleted if humans aren't careful. The thought of pulling all the water out of the aquifer is my problem with Coal Bed Methane development. Even seeing what it's growing the thought of all the electricity being used and all the water being used is scary.

One of the scary things is that, when you're a kid, you look at your dad as the man who has no fear. When you're an adult, you realize your father had fear, and that you have it, too. David Duchovny