For The Birds - You Should All Enjoy Threatened Status Because You Are

This is a Lesser Prairie Chicken, a bird native to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico.  The Feds have just designated it as threatened.

I have no problem with that at all though species disappear all the time and new ones appear.  To recognize that, however, is not politically expedient.

See, I think all birds and even bats should be considered threatened because we're the ones killing them in droves.

These particular birds  have major habitat in potential oil fields so it stands to reason this is why their disappearing. So says the government anyway. It has nothing to do with the fact this administration is against any fossil fuel.  But it's not the only reason.  It's drought.  Severe drought which is not man made nor made by energy companies.

On the other hand, you hear little from government sources about how many birds are being slaughtered by what they deem to be the energy of the future.  Wind farms and solar fields.  What a way to go.  Starve because there is no food or water.  Get your head lopped off from flying into the blades on wind turbines or get fried by the heat generated by solar panels.  Oh, yeah,  don't forget all those who get sucked into jet engines!

All man made except for the drought but I'm sure somehow or other that will be blamed on President Bush and the Republicans.  Boy, that would be ironic.  Bush, a former oil man!

For all you feathered friends, I wish I had millions of acres I could groom into the specific habitats you need.  Unfortunately I only have a shy five acres but you're welcome to nest or rest here.  The birds we do have live a pretty good life.  Those who don't survive don't because of natural selection.  The hawks do like quail for dinner now and then but everyone is pretty savvy as to how to avoid the times when its less than safe.

Heaven forbid any government entity should come around. Then none of them will be safe. Every once in a while I see one of those turbines pop up.  I wish people would raise as much of a fuss about their unsightliness as they do about cell towers!  Which aren't safe either.

If these generators of energy are the wave of the future, don't they owe it to the birds to make them safe before inundating acre upon acre with them?

We need to make the safety of birds a political agenda, an ideology even.  That is the only sure way to save them.  Too bad.

Obamacare - Dumb And Dumber

Sometimes the irony of this of the administration' s actions really gives me a good laugh.  Most recent is Harry Reid telling the world we're too dumb to know how to use the internet, thus the reason why so few are signing up for Obamacare.

Now I will admit I'm not very tech savvy.  There is more stuff on my computer than I'll ever learn to use.  My "smart" phone is so much smarter than I am I haven't mastered it either.  And probably won't.

So I'm not insulted when someone tells me I'm too dumb to use technology to it's fullest.  But then I'm not signing up for health care either.  Being on medicare, I'm pretty much taken care of.  For now.  Knock wood.

What strikes me as so funny is that the age group who the administration so desperately needs are the most tech savvy generation we've ever had!  Talk about insulting a whole generation!  Of course a lot of the TV ads directed at these young people are equally insulting.

But there's ole dingy Harry telling them they're too dumb. Funny.  They don't seem so dumb to me.  They know enough that they're being played for suckers.  That they're expected to pay for the older and less well all because they're young and healthy!

Yep.  Dumb enough to take a wait and see attitude because the web site is still not finished.  Wait and see because the President keeps changing the requirements.  Wait and see what the Supreme Court is going to do. Wait and see if the law, such as it is, will even survive.

Of course they may well be older and more infirm by then.  They'll still wait and see if those coming behind them will have a wait and see attitude. With a little bit of luck ole Harry will have faded away and the government will be functioning in a meaningful way once again.

We'll just have to wait and see exactly who was really dumb!

Boom! Manhatten Is Gone!

Obama is more concerned about a nuke exploding in Manhattan than he is about Russia. This tells me a couple of things.  Even though bin Laden is dead, he's no longer sure terrorism is dead.  Also, it tells me he thinks Islamic terrorists have the capability to get a nuke to our shores.

I'm somewhat dumbfounded by how our President views the world.  In reiterating his view on Russia's take over of Crimea as an act of weakness rather than strength, I wonder how many Ukrainians feel the same way.  It's not so easy with an army an eyeball away.

He also views Russia as merely a regional power rather than a world power.  Shall we try both? We do have things in common.  Both our economies are weak, both of our militaries are being depleted.

We also have great differences.  Putin's image is one of strength.  Obama's is one of weakness. If Obama's thoughts about al Qaeda and it's off shoots are that they're strong enough to attack us he can thank Mr. Putin for it.  After all Putin is the one who has negotiated the deals with the likes of Syria and Iran that have allowed us to negotiate with them too.  The problem is he got their cooperation; we've gotten nothing.  Now, which one is strong and which one isn't?

The Europeans are reluctant to hop on the sanctions band wagon because of their economic ties with Russia. Retaliation from Russia isn't in their cards. Our Congress is dithering over what should be in a Ukraine aid package.  Putin plans his next move.  He's in no hurry.  He has three years left to toy with us.

It's tit for tat I suppose.  If that's how you want to look at it.  To me, however, what is of utmost importance is which of our adversaries has the capability to get a bomb over here?  It isn't Afghanistan nor the terrorist organizations that use it for a play ground.

Pakistan has nukes but would they dare?  Russia has nukes. They'd dare and wouldn't much care.  After all, it would do away with that pesky Obama.  Putin is like a cat toying with a mouse. The outcome depends on how long it takes him to get bored.  He could walk away from it.  Or he could put it out of its misery.  He's just not that weak.  So just maybe we shouldn't brush off Russia quite yet.

There's The West And There's Obama's West

Our upcoming trip couldn't have come at a better time.  We're headed for Great Falls, Montana to the Charles M. Russell western art extravaganza.  Some of the best western and wild life art in the country, among other genres, will be presented in a variety of venues.  Much is for sale outright, as much if not more is up for auction to benefit a variety of causes, the main one being the Russell museum.

It takes me back to the days when men were men, women were just as tough and youngsters had respect.  In a lot of cases, that view still holds true in parts of the west.  Perhaps mainly in Montana where people are few and spaces are vast and beautiful.

I may have singled out Montana because that's where Hub grew up.  He has many of those characteristics as did his family.  They're tough.  All of them.  That they consider me one of theirs is a compliment of the highest kind.

I go in anticipation of being able to chat with jean and boot clad artists who rarely show ego.  Real people who portray real people, portray them with a passion that brings their paintings to life.

This comes at a time when I'm embarrassed for our nation.  For our oh so cool leader who is clueless, vain and arrogant. Those men of the old west would not have shared with him the time of day.  Perhaps it's why there are so many "Impeach Obama" signs to be seen in peoples yards.

This is a part of the country to which Obama and his administration couldn't begin to relate. They don't speak the same language.  It's more foreign to the administration than Spanish.  But it's music to my ears.

Hopefully by the time we return we will not have ceded all the Balkan countries to Russia, Obama will quit changing the rules of his health plan and the vanished jet liner will become a foot note rather than non-stop and in many cases ridiculous speculation 24/7.  What am I thinking?  We won't be gone that long!

What I do expect, though, is for our fearless leaders to keep moseying along pretending they know what they're doing and hoping we don't notice that they don't.  Some things, however, are pretty hard to miss!

It's Not Just Putin

I'm not going to defend Putin's actions but rather I'd like to call attention to the fact that the Ukrainian government must share some blame in the unrest in their country.  Putin, ever ready to pounce on an opportunity, is merely doing what comes naturally to a man of his background.

If the Crimean people had been happy living under the Ukrainian flag this referendum would have gone no place.  That too is understandable since so many of them are ethnic Russians.  What they don't understand and I'm not the one to explain why, is that they are likely to be worse off returning to Russian control than they are now with a struggling Ukrainian government.

I also read where Quebec is making noises about independence from Canada again.  This is a constant for them and one day the Canadians may well tell them to take their independence and be done with it, beating them to the punch and thus being the ones to set the terms. In the long run Quebec will be the losers because Canada holds the strong hand.

Venice is considering a referendum to separate themselves from Italy.  How many American states have recently made noises about seceding? It speaks to unrest with all their respective governments.

Only the U.S. has succeeded in melding it's ethnic groups into a homogeneous whole.  It lasted for decades.  People were Americans first.  They learned how to speak English.  They worked hard and built  what is now the fast disappearing American dream.  Yet now we divide ourselves and winnow out the ethnic groups for special favors.  The Hispanics.  The Blacks.  The Middle Easterners.  The Asians.  They all have their enclaves around the country where they are more their former selves than the Americans  they came here to become and we pander to them.  We print signs in a multiplicity of languages.  We teach English as a second language.  We deport or not depending on the need be it workers or a voting block.  This isn't the United States of America - the great melting pot.  This is a back to the future look at all the ingredients that went into that pot before the fire was lit.

Somewhere along the line, the fire went out and we have great clumps that don't blend.  What happens if Canada should want Alaska or the route of the Keystone Pipeline instead of dealing with our feckless government?  What happens if Mexico wants Texas and New Mexico and Arizona?  What if China wants all the ports in California?  No one in their right mind would want the rest of the state.

Could the people in those areas become disillusioned enough with our government to referend themselves out from under U.S. control?  With or without foreign troops massing on our borders?

Never say never.  Putin is the head of a failing state with a failing economy and an army weaker than our own yet he plunges ahead. Don't bet that it couldn't happen here.  People don't always understand the future implications of their actions but they sure do understand what drives them to take them.