Cattle Guards

CATTLE GUARDS
>
> For those of you who have never traveled to the West or
Southwest, cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed at fence
openings, in dug-out places in the roads adjacent to highways (sometimes
across highways), to prevent cattle from crossing. For some reason the
cattle will not step on the guards, probably because they fear getting
their feet caught between the rails.
>
> A few months ago, President Obama received a report that there
were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado. Because Colorado ranchers
had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, he ordered the
Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the guards immediately.
> Before the Interior Secretary could respond and
presumably straighten him out, Vice-President, Joe Biden intervened with
a request that before any guards were fired, they be given six months of
retraining.
> And we PAY these people???

Daylight Savings Time

The fateful day day has arrived and we all "spring forward" one hour for the start of Daylight Savings Time. In October 1884, delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., for the International Meridian Conference. They agreed to establish a single world meridian, which passed through the Greenwich Observatory, and create a universal day that began at midnight Greenwich Mean Time.

The delegates also discussed the creation of a worldwide system of 24 time zones, each one hour apart. Though the measure was not passed by the conference, it was gradually adopted by most countries over the next five decades.

The above is a brief history of the establishment of time zones. In the early 1800s almost every town had their own time zone so to speak and that forced railroads to have several clocks in each railroad station which at times created much confusion as to when, where & at what time the train departed. Daylight Savings times was started in 1918 for the usual political reasons (in other words who knows why) and we still have it today to give us more light which should result in less use of energy. I know my father liked it as it us more time to work cattle and do repairs on the ranch/farm before dark. Does Daylight Savings Time really accomplish anything, who knows?

Have a fun day & don't take no wooden politicians.

LSU and the State Budget

Yesterday I heard on the radio that there is a 20% budget cut across the board at LSU and a number of Professors and Instructors may be laid off. Students gathered at the LSU football stadium to protest. The story within a story is the baseball coach got a $100,000 raise and one of the football coaches got around a $200,000 raise per year for the next three years. I made sales calls on various Professors and Instructors at LSU and everyone was very upset not only by the budget cuts but especially the Democratic like arrogance of the politicians to do just the opposite with the athletic department. I know that athletic scholarships have made it possible for some of the greatest minds in this country to go to college, but where is the balance/ Shouldn't the football coach take a pass on the raise?

On another note there will be a play later this month at the Swine Palace (yes there really is a place) next door to the Agronomy building entitled, "Self Defense or Death of Some Salesmen". Glad yesterday was my last day at LSU for awhile, at least till open season on sales reps is over.

To All a Good Night

The frantic rush is over and Christmas 2009 is in the history books. How well did your budget enjoy Christmas? Now the days of returns and exchanges are here. Remember as you exchange and/or return your gifts that there are only 358 more shopping day till Christmas.

With end of Christmas for this year the return to the craziness of normalcy begins with an attempt to blow up an airplane in Detroit, to health care reform, the national debt and other frivolities & falderal that is all but common on this the third rock from the sun....oh the humanity of it. So go forth, be fruitful & multiply and enjoy what is to be.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Today is the big day to be with family and friends to give thanks for everything....God, family, friends and this great country. I give thanks to God for my family, now 15 strong, all healthy & happy. My friends, some I have known for 50 years, are all honorable, honest & patriotic men and women. This great country, which is a beacon of freedom to the world shows what can happen when a group of people are free and stand as one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

We saw a movie the other night called "Taking Chances" starring Kevin Bacon as a Lt Col in the Marine Corps who volunteers to escort the body of a Marine private home who was KIA in Iraq to a small town south of Billings, MT. It was based on a true story and very moving for as he made the trip everyone treated him and especially the fallen Marine with great respect. When I see a movie like this based on a true story it is Thanksgiving everyday, not just once a year. For regardless of where we come from we are Americans from sea to shinning sea.

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving and pray for our troops.

The State of the Nation

As I travel around North Texas, Southern Arkansas & Louisiana I hear more and more how much people are dissatisfied with the way the country is going under the Democrat majority and the Republican minority. To paraphrase Churchill---never has so few done so much to so many. Congress has the lowest approval rating in history, yet everyone like his or her Congressman and/or Senator. This lowest approval rating doesn't stop them from doing whatever they please...giving themselves a raise, working 3 days a week and at least 2 months a year off to name a few. From what I understand they are in the process of ramming through a national health care bill that no one really understands, doesn't know how we are going to pay for it and the very Senators & Representatives that are pushing it through have add an amendment exempting themselves from the plan. What does that mean?

The founders of our nation wrote the Constitution with safe guards to prevent government oppression and to maintain the rights of the individual. Yet one hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine
Supreme Court justices, which equates to 545 human beings out of the 300
million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible
for the domestic problems that plague this country. Do we the people vote for higher taxes? Are we the people allowed to correct our income tax mistakes without penalties? Are we the people allowed to take a year off with pay to run for office? Are we the people allowed to give ourselves a raise? Do we the people even have a voice in government any more?

We have all but abandoned God and moral high ground, and justifiably so God and moral high ground as all but abandoned us. Given all this we must never give up. Keep voicing you opinion and maybe someday we will be heard.

Arizona Visit with Comments

I am writing this from my motel room in Phoenix, AZ while on vacation. I brought my Mother (who is 81) and my Father (who is 90). Before World War II my Father was in the CCC working around the Grand Canyon & up into Colorado building roads, fighting fires etc. He always wanted to see the Grand Canyon one more time, so here we are. I'm amazed as to how well he gets around for his age, but he does tire easily. They haven't flown in 30 some years so it has been interesting getting them through security etc and changing planes in Albuquerque. We also lived in Casa Grande, a small town about an hour south of Phoenix, moving back to Oklahoma when I was 10. We plan on going there also, almost 50 years to the day since we moved back to Oklahoma.

Arizona is a nice state for the most part. One thing I didn't know is that they stay on standard time year round, which makes them 2 hours behind Dallas. Ah civilization, where is thy sting?

Anyone amazed as to who got the Nobel Peace Prize? Maybe they meant the Nobel Piece Prize for taking a larger piece of the American economy for who knows what. I treat all politicians of either party the same--none are worth a bucket of warm spit-- to paraphrase Wallace, FDR's first Vice President.

Everyone have a good day and pray for our troops.