Going Dark

Dark

ptg is going into the dark for a while.
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Updated: On crawling out from under the porch:

Thank you for your kindness and concern, everyone. I think things are clearing up here at my end. For reasons that must remain obscure, I felt that the time had come for me to leave town in a hurry. There wasn't time for a yard sale and I'm sure I'd be no good at arson, so hurried preparations seemed to preclude any fiddling around with blogging. This urgency has passed.

I'm trying to get things back on an even keel here at the feedlot, and will be taking it easy for a while. Sudden changes and haste are no good for what ails me. Since my liver failed me in the late 90's, I've been trying to create a quiet, peaceful home and to live in it at at measured pace. Because I don't actually deserve such a peaceful state, it isn't a stable one.

I guess what appear to be two different reasons for this instability are really one. My misspent life and my excessive consumption of whiskey are inextricably connected. I couldn't have done the things I did if I had been sober. At the same time, I wouldn't have done those things had I been sober.

I try not to whine about my situation. If men are in fact punished for their wrongs in this life, then I've gotten off easy so far. I'm reminded of an old National Geographic story about longevity. It included interviews with cats who had passed the 100 year mark. One of them, a South American lady, felt that the only reason for her long life was her youthful wickedness: "God will need a very long time to punish me."

Having established that there are two interconnected aspects to my knee-jerk reaction to this week's events, I'd like to share a bit more. I won't go into details about my misspent life, but I will say a few thing about my troubles with alcohol.

I never drank much until I was over 21. By the time I was 30, I was a heavy social drinker, but beginning to drink in solitude. Sometime in the 1970's, I made a conscious decision to become addicted to alcohol. From then on, I never had another hang-over. The habit required me to dose myself about every four hours. For the next twenty plus years I bashed my way through life while drinking a quart of whiskey or its equivalent every 24 hours.

During those 20 years, I was able to run my businesses (albeit poorly), travel extensively, get mixed up in all manner of odd, sometimes shady enterprises. Not only did I survive many dangerous scrapes relatively intact, but I also went to law school and passed the bar exam, all while drunk as a lord.

I suffered a few injuries, but I never incurred so much as a single drunk driving charge. I never had any real trouble with the law in those days, on the contrary, my criminal record actually got cleaner.

In my youth a crooked prosecutor had forced me to confess to a crime. First he had me beaten all night by the police to get me to confess to a murder. Then, when that didn't work, he hired a gunman to force me to confess to yet another crime. The sentence was a mandatory 2-5. Before I started drinking I was a convicted felon, but I got the conviction thrown out and was acquitted many years later, while I was a drunken law student.

In the mid 90's I decided to stop drinking. There were numerous reasons, but I had always known that my addiction would have to end eventually. I measured my daily intake of whiskey, looked up delirium tremens and made a withdrawal chart. It took only 10 days to taper off and quit. Not having been driven to drink by demons, I haven't had a drop of alcohol since then. But it was too late for my liver.

Some time later I got what I thought was a bad case of the flu. It got worse until most of my internal organs shut down and I swelled up like a toad. An emergency trip to the hospital saved my life. The doctor drained many liters of ascites from my abdomen, and after a long recuperation I was given the bad news: diagnosis: cirrhosis of the liver, prognosis: 5 years to live.

I naturally asked my gastroenterologist to pull no punches, and to tell me what to expect. What I remember him saying was that there were a number of ways for cirrhosis to kill a person.

First is sudden hemorrhage from esophageal or intestinal varices, a "dramatic, but quick" way to go, he said. It could also be the return of the jaundice and miserable organ failure that had brought me to the hospital in the first place. Another cheery prospect would be a form of fatal dementia not unlike Alzheimer's disease.

After five years passed without any of these things happening, I became severely depressed. The gastroenterologist said I might last another 10 or even 20 years. My continued abstinence from anything that could further damage my liver or cause internal bleeding plus strict adherence to a very low sodium diet seemed to be working. My diet is unexciting and I can't take any medications, not even an aspirin. He prescribed a tiny dose of Zoloft which seemed to help with the depression. Recent untoward developments in my condition have caused me to stop taking even that.

I know that the cirrhosis (what my doc euphemistically calls a "life limiting disease") will kill me if something else doesn't get me first. But we all must die and it would be a shame to die from nothing (Redd Foxx).

Thanks again for your concern and offers of help. Special thanks to DadGum and the Mickeys. These cats never question my crazy fears and dangerous impulses. I didn't realize I had so many friends.

Thus endeth the confession. Still, my impulse is to crawl under the porch like a dog when I feel the icy breath of the grim reaper on my neck.

Jon Voight: Obama sowing socialist seeds

Actor Jon Voight

Not everybody in the entertainment industry is a fan of Barack Obama. Read this nice piece by Jon Voight in the Washington Times. I'd quote from it, but I'd prefer if you read it all. Mr. Voight is no Hollywood airhead or trendy New York know-nothing. He certainly has got Obama's number.

I heard about it from Ziva at Babalu Blog, where you can find anti-communist bloggers that know the enemy better than most.

Old timers like myself can recall when Hollywood wasn't the temple of anti-Americanism and Marxist thought it is today. John Voight, who started his acting career in the 1960's, is better known these days as Angelina Jolie's 69 year old father.

Obama's Civilian Security Force - update

Most Advanced Candidate

Remember the miniature shock waves that Presidential candidate Barack Obama caused when he announced that he wanted to establish a "civilian security force" as well funded and as powerful as the US military to help fight America's enemies? The MSM won't touch the story, and the "civilian security force" portion of Obama's disturbing speech has been purged from his web site, but you can still view the video here.

When I finally heard about this totalitarian trial balloon, one of many Barack Obama has floated during his campaign, I likened it to the Maoist Red Guard from the Chinese cultural revolution. I didn't think that the Hóng Wèi Bīng was Barack's inspiration for the "national security force" he proposes. There is a difference between comparing totalitarian institutions and inferring that one institution inspires or serves as a model for another.

Other folks compared Obama's "national security force" to the East German Stasi, or Joe Stalin's NKVD, (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), or even the Inuit (Eskimo) Katimavik. Naturally no list of totalitarian indignities would be complete without mentioning Hitler, who had a similar "civilian defense force", the VolksSturm, as well as a civilian state police, the dreaded Gestapo.

All these comparisons are valid to one degree or another, but I'd like to know where Barack Obama got the idea of a "civilian defense force" in the first place. What inspired Obama to test the waters with such an obviously totalitarian notion?

I think I've found the answer. Barack Obama's "civilian security force" plan is inspired by communist Cuba's Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (CDR). The Cuban CDRs are not only comparable to Obama's plan, but it is probable that Obama has studied the Cuban 'spy on your neighbor' scheme. Its no secret that there is an immense mutual admiration between the Cuban dictatorship and the presumed Democrat candidate for the US presidency.

Here is the 'official' Cuban description of the CDR, (read it in English, translated roughly here). Note the "Che" icon that heads the page, a popular theme with Obama and his supporters.

El Gusano at La Contra Revolución and our friends at Babalu blog and the Gateway Pundit have come to the same conclusion. Obama's got his inspiration for and models his "national security force" after the Cuban CDRs sounds more reasonable than his getting the idea from the Eskimos or any of the other totalitarian sources mentioned. Mao, Hitler, and Stalin are all currently under Obama's bus, along with his grandmother, his preacher, his pals from the Weather Underground, etc., etc.
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Liberals are scrambling to defend Barack's "civilian security force". Evidently the Kos kids aren't hep to Obama's method: if the trial balloon doesn't fly, just say it never happened, erase the evidence and move on. The mainstream media gets it, they have given the story the Servpro treatment: "like it never even happened."

Nothing Honorable About Ted Rall

I'm surprised that Ted Rall can leave his house without getting his ass kicked.

From May City to Music City

Shawn Mayer

I'll admit I haven't paid a lot of attention to the Nashville Star show on TV. Every couple of years a female singer resurfaces in her old hometown somewhere in Northwest Iowa to let the folks back home know that she's trying to make it. That's fine but I don't remember any of their names. Now one has come back who has the key to get past my mental firewall and her name is Shawn Mayer.

She grew up outside of May City, Iowa, pop 45. Somewhat of a tomboy she's been a mechanic, firefighter and worked on a hog farm. While still a local girl she opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the 2002 Clay County Fair in Spencer. At that point she was hooked. After moving to Nashville she found it impossible to carry on a long distance relationship with her May City boyfriend who she described as "the greatest guy you could imagine" and ended it. She then wrote I'm Not Looking Back which you can watch her perform at the Nashville Airport on You Tube.

As part of the Nashville Star competition she gave a concert in May City this past week. That little town had probably never seen 3000 people in one night. I listened to it on the radio. She said that people ask her about the dog tags she often wears around her neck. They're blank dog tags and they represent all the soldiers who have died in defense of the many freedoms we have. She then sang the Billy Ray Cyrus hit All Gave Some, Some Gave All. It's worth the time to hear Billy sing it on You Tube.

One of the judges on Nashville Star used the words "absolutely fearless" to distinguish Shawn from the other contestants. Monday night she'll be up against the amazing Melissa Lawson and two male singers. This will be the first time I've watched the show but I expect I'll be casting a vote for her.

California Crazies

If this isn't the stupidest law ever: Schwarzenegger Terminates Trans Fats. I wouldn't even visit California ever again, let alone live there. They ought to find out what makes Californians so damned dumb and ban that.

White Swans to nest in Cuba?

Russian Strategic Bombers

Some folks have said that Russian political thug Vladimir Putin wants to tighten his grasp on power by reviving the cold war (see the feed trough). Recent news from Russia hints that they intend to base nuclear bombers in Cuba and Latin America. From the Mclatchy Report: Moscow paper claims Russian bomber crews visited Cuba. Here is the story as it appeared in Izvestiya, translated by Google. Russia seems ready to raise the volume of their nuclear saber rattling to a level not seen since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Reaction to the bomber story from the Russia's Cuban lapdogs, the Castro brothers, has ranged from cryptic to taunting. Who knows which "Latin American" nations might also be under consideration for Russian nuclear bases, but there is no shortage of Rooskie sympathizers in the region. Think Chavez and Morales. They would love to have another pin to stick into their voodoo dolls.

It takes two superpowers to make a cold war, so General Norton Schwartz, newly nominated to be the US Air Force's chief of staff, has issued a stern warning to the Russians. Now we are in the game. Its an ugly, dangerous business. Get your fallout shelter plans right here.
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The old feeder recalls the Cuban Missile Crisis all too clearly. On the US side, JFK was hopped up on amphetamine shots he got from Hollywood's Dr. Feelgood. Holding down the Soviet side was Khrushchev, a Ukrainian boor with a bad commie attitude and a raft of H-bombs.

The kids in school had to practice ducking under their desks. Farmers built fallout shelters for cattle, one of which is near the feedlot. It was a bad time for all, and the final resolution had so many secret rooms that some have yet to be discovered. It wasn't just the Soviets that blinked.
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I wonder how a president Barack Obama would handle this threat to US security? Actually, I don't so much wonder as worry about it.
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Hat tip: Ben Dare

FDA now says the mystery salmonella is in jalapeno peppers

Feedlot Peppers - click to authenticate

First the bumbling FDA blamed a recent salmonella outbreak on tomatoes. They even hinted that the sickness could be blamed on Mexico. Now they have found the exact strain of salmonella that caused the outbreak on one, single Mexican-grown-but-handled-in-Texas jalapeño pepper. Tomatoes are back on the table, but you still won't get any decent pico de gallo with hot peppers being pulled off the shelves.

I figure the FDA wouldn't know shit from shinola, whether it was in a can or on a chili. I'll be sticking to my homegrown.

Save the Rodeo

Bull Rider - Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo

Texas Fred wants everyone who likes the Rodeo to help show the anti-rodeo animal rights wackos just how small their vocal minority really is. Here's the story:

MSNBC has run a story about animal rights activists targeting Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, they have a poll along with this story, at this point the animal rights folks are winning this poll, it seems you can only vote once so please vote NO and forward widely so we can show how much support rodeo has, here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25725545/

Rodeo is not a cruel sport.

Please vote against this new rights agenda.

Go to a Rodeo and see for yourself if possible.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25725545/

The way I see it, animals have no rights whatsoever; not animal rights, not civil rights, not legal rights, none, nada, zip. Human beings do have responsibilities when it comes to animals. They are a gift to us from the creator and we must treat them as such. Its pretty simple, even if your god is money.

I don't find anything wrong with rodeos at all. The danger and excitement reflects and intensifies the everyday world, with its everyday risks and rewards. I feel the same way about the bullfight.

Even if the rodeo isn't your style, don't you think its worth a little effort to tell the animal rights spoilsports that most folks don't agree with them? The rodeo, or something like it, is a popular tradition in cattle and horse country everywhere.

Vote to save the Rodeo. Check out Texas Fred's 'related' video,

San Diego Harbor Police rescue, then kill man

If you accidentally sign up for a Gay Pride cruise, don't jump overboard to escape.

An Oil-Free America

Better park all of our airliners - they burn oil

I keep hearing about how America should aim to be an oil-free country. After all, the algore-science consensus pegs oil as one of the main causes of Global Warming, and we all know that it makes us sick. Besides, unless we are willing to drill for oil here at home, we are stuck for buying it from folks that hate us.

Barack Obama seems to think we can achieve energy independence and freedom from our oil addiction. So folks are discussing the pros and cons of becoming oil-free. But they aren't using their heads.

I heard Rush Limbaugh say this about becoming oil-free on the radio today: we will have to give up flying to become oil-free. None of the 'alternative energy' sources anyone has even dreamed of to date can produce the power to weight ratio required for heavier than air flight.

I guess flying for business and pleasure was just a fad we can't afford any more, along with eating meat, keeping warm and driving nice cars. These earth-destroying fripperies were fun while they lasted, but its time to get grim about our future.
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If Barack gets elected president, we won't have anything left to defend, so we won't need the Army, Air Force or Navy doing any tank driving, jet flying or going to sea in their big ships either. They can defend America on foot or horseback, from sailboats and hot-air balloons.

These are changes we can believe in.

What the monkey said when he slammed his tail in the door:

It won't be long now!

The old feeder will be eating ripe tomatoes over the sink. Its spitting rain at the feedlot, so I can't get very much done outdoors. The garden likes the rain, the mower chokes on the wet stuff.

I have been fooling around with the Flock browser. I heard about it from a cat whose opinion on these matters I trust, mØnkyman at Aptenobytes. Here's what he says about Flock:

This sucker is based on Firefox2, but it's more of a specialty browser. It's designed for social networking. Go now and try it. If you're a Facebook or Flickr addict, a blogger, or suffer from any of the other networking addictions, this puppy is the cat's pajamas. It's open source (mostly GPL) and uses standard bookmarks as it's Firefox 2 ancestry would suggest. Tabbed browsing works as expected.

I've now switched to Flock, although it doesn't quite feel like a Mac app, the added functionality of it for what I mostly do is enough to overcome that.

Oh, did I mention that it has a dedicated blog editor built in? that's what used to write up this post.

Flock is free, easy to set up, it neatly imported all my FireFox preferences, bookmarks, passwords, etc. So far, Flock is performing as advertised. You can get it here.
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You might think it odd that an anti-social type like myself would be interested in social networking. Not really. Some cats use Facebook, Twitter and such to supplement their normal interactions with others. I use them instead of having normal interactions with people.

Fred Thompson is no Gandhi

What Would Gandhi Do?

I still think the GOP screwed themselves when they failed to take Fred Thompson seriously. The old cat never ceases to amaze me. A Google Alert popped these two stories from the Indian Blogosphere into my in-box this morning: Gandhian self-destruction from Indian Raksa - Defending Secular India, and Gandhi’s Way Isn’t the American Way: Collective suicide is no foreign policy from Islamic Terrorism in India.

Both of these posts are based on this March 15, 2007 National Review Online transcript of a Fred Thompson radio spot. Listen to Fred right here. (mp3 file) Doesn't he sound presidential?

Here is a cut and paste of Fred's still relevant talk:

At what point is it okay to fight dictators like Saddam or the al Qaeda terrorists who want to take his place?

It turns out that the answer, according to Gandhi, is NEVER. During World War II, Gandhi penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife,” he said. “They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.” “Collective suicide,” he told his biographer, “would have been heroism.”

The so-called peace movement certainly has the right to make Gandhi’s way their way, but their efforts to make collective suicide American foreign policy just won’t cut it in this country. When Americans think of heroism, we think of the young American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking their lives to prevent another Adolph Hitler or Saddam Hussein.

Gandhi probably wouldn't approve, but I can live with that.

I could live with that myself, rather than than die trying to appease or reason with the murderous Mohammedan fanatics. Peaceniks, who needs 'em? I'll leave it up to you to ascertain the answer to What would Obama do? We shall see if he's still for surrender in the middle east after he visits the victory zone. Perhaps another giant BO flip-flop is in the works.
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Google Alerts - like having your own clipping service.

Piesepampel at the Gate

Its too German for the feedlot. Read about it here.

Save your fun in pictures

Today's late breakfast at the feedlot

Sometimes you have to stop and smell the steak to realize how lucky you are. No links, only gratitude.

Barack Obama: US needs a Hong Wei Bing

Smash the old world - Establish a new world

I saw this story, Barack Obama Says America Needs A Civilian National Security Force at La Shawn Barber’s Corner. Here's a quote:

We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

Just as strong and as well-funded as the US military? Presumably, President Obama would be the Commander in Chief of this second army of federal civil servants. The story made me think of the Red Guard. Do you remember China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? I do.

It was another "Change" movement; its goal was the same "Change" Barack Obama invokes like a mystic seer. The primary force for change in the Cultural Revolution was the Red Guard, or Hóng Wèi Bīng. They were a civilian outfit devoted to the re-invigoration of revolutionary political correctness, i.e., Maoist ideological purity.

The Red Guard's stated enemies were the Four Olds: old ideas, old cultures, old habits, and old customs. They would make your life miserable if you were though guilty of harboring any of them. Their methods were slightly less horrific than Pol Pot's civilian force, the Khmer Rouge.
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Would you join Obama's civilian force? Will there be conscription? How will you receive Obama's Red Guard when they come to your door?
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Others are comparing Obama's civilian forces to the East German Stasi, Hitler Youth, Brown Shirts, etc. Barack is going to exhaust the world supply of nasty totalitarian metaphors before November.

As usual, BO's reaction to this story is to purge it.
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Update: Barack Obama's "civilian security force" plan is quite possibly inspired by communist Cuba's Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (CDR). The Cuban CDRs are not only comparable to Obama's plan, but it is probable that Obama has studied the Cuban 'spy on your neighbor' scheme. Its no secret that there is an immense mutual admiration between the Cuban dictatorship and the presumed Democrat candidate for the US presidency. Pay attention to those who know all about civilian defense forces here at Babalu blog.

Lighten up, I need to

Oh, no, don't let the rain come down

Recent storms damaged my roof. Night before last the feedlot received over 4" of rain. Much of that rain found its way into my library/office/bench/studio room. Think buckets, fans, visqueen*.

This made me feel better: America Must Not Allow Me to Fail. The iowahawk is a tonic. Check out these old trains in the Depot of the Macabre.
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* the plastic film, not the band

Rev. Jackson: Obama telling niggers how to behave

Telling them how to behave

Everyone has heard about Jesse Jackson getting caught on tape saying he wanted to cut Obama's nuts for talking down to blacks. As soon as Fox's creepy Bill O'Reilly said there was more to the tape he wasn't going to play, I figured the rest would be too hot to keep under wraps for long.

The other shoe has fallen, and it was the N-word. Like it would be poison to say it or spell it out. Here's the offending phrase, according to TVNewser:

Barack...he's talking down to black people...telling niggers how to behave.

Conservative blog reactions: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit. Most folks are howling about a double standard. I figure the double standard in matters of racism is a given. What will happen or not happen to the Rev. Jackson as a result will just be another example of it. Everyone already knew Jackson was a race racketeer. Whats new besides it being on tape?

As for myself, I'm not afraid of words. If I let words hurt me, all it means is that I'm weak. Likewise it would be a weakness if I were to be afraid to use words. Remember the "He said Jehova" scene from Monty Python's The Life of Brian? I try not to be uncivilized or vicious in my use of language, but I'm not going to pussyfoot around the facts.

The fact is, Jesse Jackson said the black folks Obama "talks down to" are niggers. He didn't say n------s, n—s, n*****s, niggaz or call them the N-word. He said they were niggers. I wonder if they'll take it without a fuss.
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Updated: Al Sharpton, America's hardest working racism hustler, weighs in. CBS News reports Al's disappointment, "I think this certainly does not reflect the Reverend Jackson that we all know and love". The article concludes that "the question is whether the use of the N-word by an African-American to another African-American, talking about African-Americans is offensive." What?

M4GW

Argentine researchers collect methane from cows

I found a link to this excellent video: Imagine There's No Global Warming in my e-mail today. The video is from Minnesotans For Global Warming (M4GW), a fine outfit of straight-shooting squareheads from the land of 1,000 lakes. These cats make GW denial fun. Check them out. They have a blog as part of their larger web presence.

I've lived in NW Iowa, which is as close to Minnesota as one can get without having to learn the language. The winters there were cold enough to make Al Gore wish for a long, global heat wave.
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Also playing at Love Global Warming

James Bond: rolling in his fictional grave

The Hon. Alexander Allan

As soon as I saw this story Spy chief Alex Allan found with 'blood everywhere', I knew there was going to be a mystery. Shades of 007. Britain's top intelligence officer, Alexander Allan is found in his home near death. Here is how the Wikipedia editor summarizes the events:

On 3 July 2008 it was reported that Allan was unconscious and seriously ill in hospital after he collapsed at his home earlier in the week. Government sources said that there was no sign of foul play. It has been suggested that Mr Allan was poisoned by one of several organisations, including Al Qaeda, or the Russia Government but this was initially dismissed by New Scotland Yard. Another theory is that he took an overdose. On 4 July 2008 it was reported that British police were carrying out toxicology tests to determine if Mr Allan had been poisoned. On 10 July 2008 a Cabinet Office spokesman said Allan had regained consciousness but for now will remain in hospital to regain his strength.

You know there has to be more to this than meets the eye. I can't even guess what the official story will be. Similarly, I can't say that I'll believe the official story when it does come out. The cat is strange by American political standards. He's a devoted fan of the LSD drenched Grateful Dead. He once used a windsurfing board to get to work in London during a train strike. The picture above sure doesn't seem like that of a future diplomat or spy-master. His career details may be found here on his own web-site.

Alex Allan - a more recent photograph

His current job as chairman of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Committee is described as: "a full-time post that requires him to read all the most secret intelligence and to assess its value before providing a weekly summary for the Prime Minister and other appropriate Cabinet ministers in the so-called Red Book." Now he is the center of a deadly mystery with possibly wide repercussions. Drug overdose? Ham-handed ex-KGB thuggery? Skulking Arabists? Civil Service back-stabbers? Angry lover? I can't wait for the next episode.

White Powder Scare at Bellevue, Nebraska Post Office

Anthrax? Ricin? Juju Powder? Eat it!

Last Thursday workers at the Bellevue, Nebraska Post Office noticed a mysterious white powder leaking from a package addressed to someone with a 'foreign-sounding' name. The PO was evacuated, Haz-Mat teams were called, emergency decontamination equipment was set up. Several folks that came into contact with the powder were washed down. The mysterious powder turned out to be mail-order tapioca. it wasn't anthrax, ricin or ju-ju powder.

The oddest thing about this story is that one local news outlet, KETV Channel 7 News, reported that the authorities had taken the mysterious package to the addressee and asked him to eat some of it to prove his claim that it was only harmless tapioca. This "eat it" report was vehemently denied by a US Postal Inspector interviewed on radio station KFAB.

There are more twists to this story than a Chubby Checker festival. Get the whole, unbelievable story from Scott Voorhees and Lucy Chapman, who discussed the ridiculous situation on KFAB radio. You can listen to it here. Cop a laugh.

Bull Moose McCain

Wild West McCain

US Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain sees himself as the new Teddy Roosevelt. Say what you will about McCain, but the hero of San Juan Hill is as pure an American icon as you'll find outside of Hollywood.

Now we can understand why Senator McCain persists in aggravating his conservative base with his unpopular stance on illegal immigration. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first to embrace the then popular concept of the "White Man's Burden". When Kipling first published the poem by that name in 1899, TR copied it and sent it to his friends. I'll bet that won't make the race gangsters at La Raza feel good.
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A few things that come immediately to mind about Theodore Roosevelt:

• National Parks
• Teddy's "It takes more than bullets to kill a Bull Moose" speech
• The Rough Riders and San Juan Hill

The old feeder sees National Parks as nothing more than stolen property, but I am painfully aware of being in the minority on this matter. I wonder how long it will take the eco-nuts to disown TR now that McCain has adopted him as role model.

The Bull Moose speech was magnificent; no modern pol except McCain has cojones of that caliber. There weren't any teleprompters then, either.

As a kid, I was always fascinated by the fact that TR rode into battle at San Juan carrying a dozen extra pairs of glasses. What a Mensch. John McCain could have done worse in choosing a role model.

Is Obama's halo sputtering out?

Obama's numbers are slipping. His campaign hasn't trumpeted the collection plate take for last month. Some folks think he's not a Christian, let alone the Messiah. Is the glow fading?
	Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

Perhaps Nebraska's maverick turn-coat RINO Senator Chuck Hagel will lend some needed gravitas levitas to Barack's sputtering campaign. I hear Chuck is going to accompany Obama on his coming visit to Viet-Nam Iraq.
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This can be fun: Make your own Obama poster. Be careful what you type. Obama's operatives are taking IP numbers. I saw it at the Poor Farm.

Yet another reason to skip the Chinese Olympics

Man's Best Friend off the menu (risky click)

If the human rights abuses, pollution and slime don't keep you from visiting or supporting the 2008 Olympics in Peking (Beijing for appeasers with double jointed tongues), this news ought to help make up your mind: "Beijing has asked hotels and restaurants in the city to take dog meat off the menu for the duration of next month's Olympics."

No dog meat? Why bother to travel to the other side of the Earth only to have succulent dog meat unavailable? What will be next, no chopsticks?
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Not all the Chinese Olympics culinary news is bad. The ever-popular donkey meat will remain on the Olympic restaurant menus. (Don't look in the Feed Trough if you are squeamish.)

Feedlot Garden Report

Summer Squash

The feedlot garden took a beating during the Big Blow we had on June 27th. I couldn't feel too badly about the damage; it was small potatoes compared to the widespread suffering and expense caused by that ill wind. The squash pictured above grew new leaves to cover up the ones riddled with hail holes. I'm eating these little yellow delicacies every day now.

Green Tomatoes

The tomatoes didn't look very good after the storm. I hadn't staked them up yet, and it looked like they might not recover. After giving them a few days to heal, I propped them up and put some wire mesh around them. All the tomato plants but one recovered nicely and have set lots of fruit. The one that didn't survive was replaced by a volunteer from last year's detritus.

The hot pepper plants are tough as nails. All of them are doing well. The jalapenos and cayennes (which I love to eat green, like a cajun) are producing enough to keep my eats as hot as I want. It looks like there will be plenty for pickling and drying. The traditional chilis and the red habaneros are always slower to mature. My banana peppers had fruit set, but the storm knocked them off. Now they are laden with fast growing replacement fruits.

I have faith that there will be a bountiful harvest.
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I could never understand why folks insist on reading Jesus' parable of the sower as if it were an allegory. It isn't, unless you believe the disciples interpretation. I've never trusted Jesus' disciples very far; one reason is their explanation of many parables as allegories.

A parable touches upon truth at one point only. The parabola in geometry is a curve drawn equidistant from a point and a straight line. Only at one single point on the parabola does it come the closest to the point and the straight line. In an allegory, each aspect of the story has a corresponding point of truth which it represents.

The disciples allegorize the parable of the sower by making the seeds be the "word", the different soils into the "hearers of the word", etc. In my understanding of the message of Jesus, this is a grotesque corruption of Jesus' message. Read as a parable, the story of the sower promises a bountiful harvest, punto final. I find this reassurance in keeping with the main "don't worry, be happy' line of Christian faith as expressed in many of the parables of Jesus.
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BTW: As these pictures I took today show, the corn is all silks and tassels here.

Jesse Jackson goes for Barack Obama's testicles

Racist scam artist Jesse Jackson says he wants to cut off Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's nuts for suggesting that black kids should stay in school and forget about becoming rap stars. Fox has the video and the story has spread like a California grass fire.

Look for Jesse to wind up under Barry's big bus. "That's not the Jesse Jackson I knew."

Does Jesse carry a knife? Perhaps he would bite them off, like a Laplander. No, he specifically said "cut". Even metaphorically, the notion gives me the willies.
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Someone should have 'cut' Jesse before he could sow his seed so far and wide. Remember this?
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There was more "trash talk" from Jesse Jackson caught on the same tape, but Fox wouldn't air it. If the shoe were on the other foot, and a McCain supporter were caught saying such things by CNN or CBS, do you think it would have been withheld?

Gag me with a dictatorship of the proletariat

Revolution You Can Trust

Its like he's our Che, man. Barack Obama is so effing cool.
Venceremos, dudes.
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Addendum: David Seaton, an American expatriate living in my favorite city: Madrid, Spain, reminds us that it is again time for the festival of San Fermín. I wish I could be there. His outstanding blog is David Seaton's News Links. Not only that, but he has a brilliant photoshop of Our Saviour Barack linked at Is Barack Obama the Messiah?

Muslim Picnic in Omaha, Nebraska

Roasted Hog

I missed it. Along with most everyone else, since the public evidently wasn't invited until the day of the event. From KETV News' web site: Omaha Muslims Hope Picnic Improves Understanding.

Let's see, a bunch of Mohammedans, no hog roast, no beer, no scantily clad ladies, no advance publicity, and it was held on that most American of holidays, the Independence Day weekend. My understanding is improving already.

Big Sur Burns - ANWR Safe

107 square miles of California's beautiful Big Sur burns up and the world doesn't come to an end. But developing (not burning) less than 4 square miles of the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve is intolerable. Go figure.

Firecracker 50

Independence Day at the Fairgrounds

I went to the July 4th races at the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer last night. I try to go once a year and I missed last year. Nothing like watching seventeen 700 hp sprint cars to give your eardrums a workout. The feature event was the WDRL Late Model Series which was won by Chad Simpson. It was a thrill watching him drift the outer edges of the turns and pull away from the competition every time. One hundred times he had to do that. One mistake and he would have been another also-ran.

Two racers were ejected for "extra-curricular" activities, a 2300 lb fist fight at 80 mph. The crowd enjoyed that. Not a fancy group of people. For a lot of them some sacrifices had to be made to come up with the $22.00; that's how much it meant to them. After the warm up laps were completed the announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen at this time we ask you to all stand for the National Anthem as we celebrate the birth of this great nation and all of its freedoms." The crowd all stood, the men removed their hats and the kids shut up and stood still for it.

Chad Simpson (in red) and his car

After the races I went over to the pits to mingle and got a picture of Chad and his Late Model winner. Then it was time to get ready for the fireworks. A new flagpole was being dedicated at the fairgrounds. Representatives from the American Legion, VFW, and local volunteers carried flags from each military branch plus a number of American flags, each one representing a recently deceased local veteran. The picture at the top of the post shows the ceremony.

Dirt track drivers don't need much imagination to empathize with soldiers. Full metal body slams, dusty turns that limit your vision to zero before you pull out of them, and always the risk of collision and injury. Fire, steel and gasoline. Smoke, oil and rubber. If you're good and luck is with you there'll be a taste of glory waiting. Otherwise there's late nights working on the car and another chance next week if you don't get rained out.

Hope you had a noisy Fourth of July

Independence Day - 2008

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration
of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ——— We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. ——— He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. ——— He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. ——— He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. ——— He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. ——— He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. ——— He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. ——— He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. ——— He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. ——— He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. ——— He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. ——— He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. ——— He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. ——— He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: —— For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: —— For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: —— For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: —— For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: —— For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: —— For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences —— For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: —— For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: —— For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. ——— He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. ——— He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. ——— He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. ——— He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. ——— He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. ———

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. ——— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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Keep this with your important papers. You may be required to show it to anti-American wackos that wouldn't know a Patriot from a traitor.
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Fly your flag. Celebrate liberty. Rejoice that your government at least once recognized that you are endowed by your creator with inalienable rights. God bless America.
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Aren't you glad that that we in the USA are no longer British Subjects? What a bunch of sorry sons of bitches they are. Not only is their food bad, their women homely and their men sissies, but they also have no bill of rights, a parasitic monarchy, a state religion and spines made of gelatin. Mohammedan terrorists will eat them alive - unless we save their arses from their own stupidity yet again.

On to November - another step toward ending racial and gender discrimination in Nebraska

The Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative says it has plenty of signatures on it's petition to place the issue of affirmative action on the ballot in the form of an amendment to the state constitution. From an e-mail the old feeder got from the Right Wing Professor last night: "This baby is not just done, it's not just well done, it's slow-barbecued overnight in thick, spicy sauce."
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Here's a link to the Omaha World Herald story. Only yesterday the racists at the OWH had been saying, Petition drive to ban affirmative action faces hard fight. Read these links now, the web-dumb newspaper will try to make you pay to read them in short order. Read them and maybe weep.

First, the down side of this Independence Day: Nah

We are unworthy

I had a down-side post based on Chris Satullo's A not-so-glorious Fourth and similar Independence Day liberal hand-wringing in mind for today. Instead, Scott Voorhees is doing a great job of it on KFAB right now. He's got the listeners going with this one. No sniveling!

Real Nebraskan's don't like this anti-American bent the liberal revisionists have taken.
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I was even going to mention the long faces in Elkhorn since their cool town fell to Fahey's Falangists. The new ruling junta's anti-American edict:

The only LEGAL fireworks within the City of Omaha are Snakes and Caps. All other fireworks are illegal within the city limits of Omaha, NE. A person using fireworks within the city limits of Omaha can be faced with a $500 fine and/or jail time.

Liberty dies by inches. In San Francisco they don't even call it Independence Day; its now America Festival: A fun Fourth of July weekend. The article doesn't even mention a reason for the celebration at all.
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Tomorrow: God Bless America, even atheists can say it once a year. What have they got to lose?

Sex predator - Teacher Kelsey Peterson pleads guilty to sex with student

Click here for the most recent Plains Feeder post
about Kelsey and Fernando.
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Kelsey Peterson, Nebraska's sex crazed teacher who ran off to Mexico with her 13 year old illegal immigrant student lover has entered a guilty plea in federal court today. The case went to federal court because Kelsey fled across state lines with her victim.

Our federal DA, Joe Stecher, has been prosecuting these types of cases diligently, taking pedophiles off the streets. Nebraska's own courts have a dismal record when it comes to punishing child molesters. The NTV web site quoted here has the full press release from Stecher's office.

Former middle school teacher Kelsey Peterson on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a federal charge of taking a minor across state lines for sex. She will be sentenced in September. She was arrested last November after taking the boy into Mexico. The following is a news release from the U.S. attorney's office in Omaha.

The associated Press seems to think she will get about six years in a federal penitentiary when she is eventually sentenced. Kelsey's hot-shot defense attorney, Omaha's James Martin Davis, wasn't cracking quite so cocky today. I suppose he earned his fee, smearing little Fernando, the naughty teacher's victim. Fernando was all of 12 years old when his teacher started molesting him.
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Previously in the Plains Feeder:
November 02, 2007 - Kelsey & student sex toy: headed for Mexico?
November 08, 2007 - Kelsey Peterson & Fernando: an update
November 13, 2007 - Kelsey Peterson: revolting development
November 20, 2007 - Father of Kelsey's daughter gets custody
November 28, 2007 - Kelsey Peterson - she's back in Nebraska
November 29, 2007 - Teacher who had sex with her student, fled to Mexico, pleads not guilty

Racial Equality in Nebraska - Yes or No?

Sign the petition to put the abolition of institutionalized racist and sexist discrimination on the ballot here in Nebraska. Do it today; the deadline for signatures is Independence Day.**

Martin Luther King: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

BAMN: We have a scheme to judge Dr. King's kids by the color of their skin and by the contents of their underwear, and we will make our scheme stick By Any Means Necessary.

That BAMN scheme is affirmative action, just another name for discrimination based on skin color and gender. We know it isn't right. We shouldn't tolerate it. Race and gender discrimination are inherently wrong. Help the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative abolish the racist and sexist laws that shame Nebraska. All they are asking is for the issue to be put to a fair vote of the people.

Do your part to help end wrongful discrimination. Sign the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative petition now. If you need help finding a petition to sign, check with Gerard Harbison.
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Any questions? See Gerard Harbison's Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative: the blog! Nebraska blog readers also know Gerard as the author of one of Nebraska's premier blogs: The Right Wing Professor.
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** Duh! Gerard Harbison just e-mailed to point out the obvious to me: the State offices will be closed on Friday, so you need to sign that petition today!

Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson jabs Iran

Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, reporting from beleaguered Sderot, Israel, accuses Iran of causing trouble in the region. Not a stretch, since Iran has been supplying the terror rockets the Palestinians have been shooting at Israel. Our man managed to touch an Iranian nerve.

Ben has been at loose ends lately, unable to work up any genuine enthusiasm for Barack Obama's stretch-to-fit platform. Seems Senator Nelson has gone back to what he does best, being a maverick Democrat.

Now if he can just quit flogging ethanol. The damage is already done. Ethanol hasn't helped our energy costs and has wrought havoc on food prices.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hottest burqa babe

"She's a looker"

Today's Gateway Pundit post, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Shows Off His Special Lady, set me to laughing this morning. The look on the Iranian love imp's face begs one to imagine what could be going through his twisted Mohammedan mind. The illustration above is based on the number of hits the Plains Feeder gets from IP numbers in Moslem nations where the reported 'search words' indicate the user is looking for Islamic pornography.
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I keep a record of these perverts' IP numbers, search words, duration of visit and out-clicks. I plan to send them off to the Committees for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice or the Mutaween in these Muslim bastions of Sharia. Some of you Mohammedan cats will have some explaining to do. I wonder what the Mullahs cut off for using porno?