Wednesday, March 07, 2012

CBO Debunks Myth That Tax Code Favors Oil Over Renewables

Environmental activists and liberal politicians are fond of bemoaning the supposedly disproportionate tax benefits that go to the fossil fuel industry compared to its renewable energy competitors. The president specifically has made “ending tax breaks for oil companies” a pillar of his paltry efforts to reduce the federal deficit. But a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) handily debunks the myth that oil companies uniquely or excessively benefit from the tax code. One devastating chart sums up CBO’s key findings:


  As the chart shows, renewable energy is far more heavily subsidized by tax carveouts than any other energy sector, including fossil fuels. The chart does not, however, take into account the level of those subsidies in proportion to the amount of energy that each sector creates. By that measure, renewables’ federal subsidies are even more lopsided. As Heritage’s David Kreutzer has pointed out, wind energy companies, for instance, get about 1000 times the subsidies that oil companies do, per kilowatt-hour of energy produced...more

Hunters-Gatherers: The Original Libertarians





Abstract
Hunter-gatherer societies can shed light on one of the most fundamental issues bearing on political economy—whether man is better adapted to individualism or to collectivism. The evidence suggests that for millennia before the agricultural revolution, man lived in a state of political autonomy and economic freedom and acted basically as a self-interested individualist, not as the altruist depicted in much of the socialist literature.

Read the article here

UPDATE:  This link will work...
http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_16_04_01_mayor.pdf

Soros, others set to cash in on Natural Gas Act payday

George Soros and other top contributors to Democrats are one step closer to making millions of dollars off their natural gas investments, thanks to tax breaks and subsidies included in the Natural Gas Act which was filed March 5 as an amendment to the highway bill. Capitol Hill sources report that a ruling by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will allow the Natural Gas Act to be included in Senate Res. 1813, “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century America Fast Forward Financing Innovation Act of 2011,” commonly referred to as the highway bill. The highway bill was debated by the Senate Tuesday. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who filed the Senate’s version of the Nat Gas Act in November, told us he added it to the highway bill last night. Chief among the beneficiaries of the Natural Gas Act is Soros Fund Management, which according to federal filings, owns 6.6 percent of Westport Innovations, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based natural gas engine distributor and manufacturer. The fund’s position is worth more than $135 million at today’s stock market price. Westport, with three partner factories in China, is a global leader in fuel systems and conversion kits. Known on Capitol Hill as the “Nat Gas Act,” the proposal will extend federal tax credits for the purchase and operation of natural gas-powered vehicles; provide subsidies for the manufacture of natural gas engines, the establishment of a national system of privately held natural gas storage facilities and refueling stations. The legislation would also facilitate the migration of government-owned vehicle fleets to natural gas use. The largest individual shareholder in Westport is Kevin G. Douglas, whose 2,990.431 shares are worth more than $125 million. With his wife Michelle, the couple own, directly and indirectly, 17 percent of Westport, according to the couple’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Douglas and his wife Michelle M. contributed more than $130,000 to President Barack Obama and Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission records...more

Song Of The Day #788

 Ranch Radio's song today is Carl Smith's recording of Don't Just Stand There.  The tune was recorded in Nashville on June 8, 1951 and that's Grady Martin on the electric guitar and Bob Foster on the steel.

The tune is available on several of his collections, including his Essential CD.

Coal heats up as campaign issue for Obama

As gasoline prices continue to rise and keep the heat on President Obama’s energy policies, critics also are accusing the president of shifting support away from the coal industry, a major source of fuel and jobs in several battleground states, including Colorado, Michigan and Ohio. Lawmakers on both sides of the partisan aisle say Obama administration environmental regulations aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissionsare poised to hit jobs and consumers harder than the Keystone XL decision at the same time the president seems to have abandoned his stated support for the coal industry and clean-coal technology. House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, wrote a letter to Mr. Obama last week taking issue with the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas rule-making, naming an anti-mercury rule among several regulations that he said would cost a combined 180,000 jobs. In late February, a bipartisan group of 219 members of Congress led by Reps. Ed Whitfield, Kentucky Republican, and John Barrow, Georgia Democrat, sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget calling for a stop to the EPA’s greenhouse gas rule-making. “Affordable, reliable electricity is critical to keeping and growing jobs in the United States, and such a standard will likely drive up energy prices and threaten domestic jobs,” they wrote. “Forcing a transition to commercially unproven technologies could send thousands of jobs overseas and raise electricity rates on families and seniors at a time when the nation can least afford it.”...more

Ranching practice being challenged as animal cruelty

A fight between a Southern Arizona rancher and Pima County animal control officials could determine this week whether legislators will create a new exemption from state and local animal cruelty laws. Legislation awaiting a final House vote would provide an exemption from the laws for "any activity involving the possession and training, exhibition or use of a dog in the otherwise lawful pursuit of ranching or farming work activities.' But HB 2780 goes even farther. It spells out that counties, which now are empowered to adopt more stringent standards, also have to take a hands-off approach to ranching. Rep. Peggy Judd, R-Willcox, acknowledged her legislation is aimed squarely at Pima County, which has an ordinance which makes it illegal to tie out a dog under any circumstances. She said one Cochise County resident who ranches in Pima County with his dogs was cited for violating it. "They were out in a remote location and they tied them to keep them out of the way of the stock,' she said. The legislation got the support of several lawmakers with ranching experience like Rep. Chester Crandell, R-Heber. "Picture yourself on a horse riding out 25-30 miles away from anywhere and your dogs are with you pulling cattle out of brush, helping you to corral them,' he said. "Dogs are very exuberant and they want to help,' Crandell said. "Sometimes when you get in a corral with wild cows, that's not the best situation to be in.' He said the best thing is to "simply tie them with a leash to a post or under the shade of a tree or someplace where they can be comfortable out of the way so they're not getting hurt, the cows are not getting stampeded and those who are working the cows are not going to get run over.'...more

Rancher, 85, faces sentencing in water pollution case

Scappoose, Ore., rancher William Holdner describes himself as a conservationist with a love of wildlife. "I'm an environmentalist, going back to when I was born," Holdner, 85, said in an interview March 5. "Other than spot spraying for tansy ragwort, I never use chemicals. I use no insecticides or chemical fertilizers." But last month Holdner, who runs a beef-cattle operation, was found guilty of two Class B felonies for polluting waters of the state and 25 misdemeanor counts. Columbia County Circuit Court on March 6 put off sentencing to give Holdner a chance to come into compliance with state law, according to Ray Jaindl, administrator of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's natural resources division, who was at the sentencing. Holdner refused to obtain a confined animal feeding operation permit from the state despite attempts by state officials to convince him. Holdner said several conditions of the permit were unworkable, including one that prevented him from capturing runoff during storms and applying it to a nearby field. The permit, in essence, would have forced him to funnel the runoff into the creeks, he said. The ODA's Jaindl said just the opposite is true. By spraying the runoff onto fields, Jaindl said, Holdner was saturating fields during storms and contaminated runoff was escaping into the Mid Creek and South Scappoose Creek, which border Holdner's Dutch Canyon facility...more

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Utah’s oil boom would be bigger without feds, officials say

Times are good in the Utah oil patch. Could they be better without federal meddling? Record gas production and a rebounding crude output are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the state budget. Uintah County, the state’s hydrocarbon mother lode, had just 4.2 percent unemployment in December — the state’s lowest rate and half the national average. The main drag along U.S. 40 in Vernal and Naples is a hopscotch run of chain-linked oil-field service companies, which supplies workers well beyond the Beehive State, including to North Dakota’s oil boom. Utah officials predict a long, lucrative future in the business (bigger than the $4 billion that the state says flowed from the ground last year), and the government has leased far more lands and permitted more wells than industry has developed. So why all the fuss about federal obstruction of drilling? “They can say whatever they want,” Bill Ryan, a Vernal-based oil-field services consultant, said of an Interior Department that he believes is blocking what could be a much larger industry. “[President Barack] Obama’s administration can say they’re pro-development, but they always add ‘as long as it’s environmentally sound.’ They’re using the environmental argument to hamper development.” While state lawmakers threaten a long-shot legal bid to own Utah’s federal lands and prime the petroleum pump, the congressional delegation rails against an administration it calls anti-energy. State and county officials say the problem is with a bureaucracy that strings out permitting long enough to deter some would-be bidders. “We’re seeing more exploitation of state and private lands just because companies are seeing that it’s getting more difficult on federal lands,” said John Baza, director of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining...more

Song Of The Day #787 - Election Commentary?

Today Ranch Radio brings you Jimmie Dolan's 1953 recording of The Wheel That Does The Squeakin'.

The whole tune reminds me of the election season here in the U.S.  But this line seems most appropriate:


The pig that does the squealin' is the one who gets the slop


Video: The cost of Obama’s broken promises

http://youtu.be/CV2mlZ9cAYo

Wolves in Oregon: Bigger, badder than before?

As wolves continue to re-establish themselves in Oregon, a debate simmers over whether they are similar to the animals wiped out following state-sponsored hunts that ended in the 1940s. Many ranchers and critics of wolf revival say they’re bigger and nastier than the ones that once roamed the state. Supporters of wolves and those behind their reintroduction say those claims are overblown and are used to vilify the predator. As a rancher near Dayville, about 120 miles east of Bend, Harry Stangel, 66, doesn’t want to see wolf packs return to Central Oregon. He says the wolves are an exotic species. “It’s a Canadian wolf,” he said. “It’s not the wolf that (was) indigenous to Oregon and Idaho.” While old-timers say Oregon’s native wolves were just slightly larger than a coyote, with males weighing about 80 pounds, there are reports on the Internet of wolves in Idaho weighing over 170 pounds, said Rod Childers, a rancher near Enterprise and chairman of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. “They are bigger, and they are going to demand more food,” he said. That food is deer, elk and, possibly, cattle. Bangs, who lives in Helena, Mont., said examinations of skulls from modern wolves and ancient wolves from Oregon show that today’s wolves in the West are bigger, but only by a matter of millimeters when it comes to the head size...more

K.C. JONES Ropes his 5th TEC Title!

 5-Time Champion Pushes Career TEC Earnings to $445,500

No multi-champion of the Timed Event Championship of the World had gone more than six years between titles.
          That is until Sunday.
          K.C. Jones, 44, who claimed his fourth TEC title in 2001, won the 2012 Timed Event with 360.6 seconds on 25 head at the Lazy E Arena. Jones is only the second cowboy in the 28-year history of the Timed Event to win five or more titles. Trevor Brazile, out this year with an injury, has won six times.
“Just thank God,” said Jones of Burlington, Wyo., who also has been a runner-up five times. “I’ve been fortunate and had a lot of people help me and worked hard at it and worked hard with my horses. It’s just great.”
After finishing second in 2010, Jones went penniless at the event a year ago in Guthrie. This time around though, he not only won the average for $50,000 but had the fourth and fifth fastest rounds to total $57,000 in three days. That runs his career TEC earnings to $445,500.
“The finances are great and that’s why we do it,” he said. “The money’s great, but I don’t know if we’d work quite this hard for the money, but we do this because we love it.”
At the Timed Event, each contestant has to compete in the team roping–heading, tie-down roping, team roping–heeling, steer wrestling and steer roping. The latest version of the “Ironman Event of Pro Rodeo” certainly was not without suspense.
Jones was 57.2 seconds ahead of the field after 14 runs. But after 24 head, his lead was 21.8 seconds over Russell Cardoza of Terrebonne, Ore., who was second in the average and Jones was 38.7 seconds ahead of Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colo., who was third. In the steer roping, Peek used two loops to go 28.0 for 400.0 seconds, while Cardoza was solid with a 20.9 for 376.0.
So Jones rode into the box needing to be 42.6 seconds or faster to win the Championship.
Jones said the late Clem McSpadden, “Voice of the Lazy E Arena,” often teased him about needing a good steer roping horse of his own. The cowboy trained one in recent years and was riding the horse he calls “Clem” to a steer roping run of 27.3 seconds Sunday to clinch the title.
In addition to his runner-up finish, Cardoza placed third and sixth in the fast rounds for earnings of $32,000. He is fourth in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) heeling world standings with $20,495. The 25-year-old was never lower than ninth in the average at the TEC. Cardoza led after the sixth and seventh runs and then suffered a 60-second penalty (the equivalent of a no-time) in the tie-down roping of the second round. However, he worked his way back into contention.
Peek, 32, the 2010 Timed Event champion, finished third in the average for $15,000. The two-time PRCA reserve all-around World Champion, was never lower than fifth in the average after the first round, and he was second or third in the average after the last dozen runs. 
Daniel Green, 39, of Oakdale, Calif., the 2002 and 2008 TEC champion, was fourth in the average with 426.6 on 25 and posted the fastest round of the weekend with a 54.0 in the fourth-go to total $20,000.
“Everybody that was entered here knows it was the ‘Ironman’ here this year,” Jones said.
The contestants were 20 of the most established, versatile cowboys in the game, and they earned the right to be part of the by-invitation-only crowd to compete at the Lazy E, which developed the Timed Event Championship in 1985 to determine the best all-around timed-event cowboy in the world – the man who could stand out in more than his specialty event, the man who could be consistent in all five timed events.
Most of today’s ProRodeo cowboys focus on a single discipline, maybe two, but the Timed Event Championship allows each contestant the opportunity to spread his wings and fly in a different direction. It’s an outstanding test of all the skills that have made the sport of rodeo what it is today. It’s a challenge, and those who have walked away with the coveted Gist Gold Buckle and $50,000 carry the admiration of thousands of other great athletes who make up ProRodeo. They also carry the bragging rights to one of rodeo’s greatest accomplishments. The winner of each Timed Event Championship of the World is in a special class of competitor. It’s a small fraternity, and only the best are included.
The 2012 Timed Event Championship was sponsored by Priefert Ranch & Rodeo Equipment, Pendleton Whisky, Wrangler, American Farmers and Ranchers Insurance, Cross Bar Gallery, Ram Trucks, John Vance Motors, Energy Force, R.K. Black Inc., Gist Silversmiths, Spin to Win Magazine, National Saddlery, Hot Heels, The Oklahoman, Shorty’s Caboy Hattery, CSI Saddlepads, the Best Western Edmond, and the Fairfield Inn & Suites – Edmond.
The 2012 Timed Event Championship was a Lazy E Production.  For more information on the Timed Event Championship or other Lazy E events, contact the Lazy E Arena, 9600 Lazy E Drive, Guthrie, OK  73044, (405) 282-RIDE, (800) 595-RIDE or visit www.lazye.com.

FINAL RESULTS – Timed Event Championship 2012

AVERAGE: 1. K.C. Jones, Burlington, Wyo., 360.6 seconds on 25 runs, $50,000; Russell Cardoza, Terrebonne, Ore., 376.0, $25,000; 3. Josh Peek, 400, $15,000; 4. Daniel Green, Oakdale, Calif., 426.6, $10,000; 5. Jess Tierney, Hermosa, S.D., 450.2, $7,500; 6. Kyle Lockett, Visalia, Calif., 481.0, $5,000; 7. Paul David Tierney, Oral, S.D., 482.0, $4,500; 8. Chad Masters, Clarksville, Tenn., 498.9, $3,000

FASTEST GO-ROUND: 1. Daniel Green, 54 seconds, $10,000; 2. Chad Masters, 57.6, $6,000; 3. Russell Cardoza, 58.6, $5,000; 4. K.C. Jones, 59.5, $4,000; 5. K.C. Jones, 60.4, $3,000; 6. Russell Cardoza, 61.5, $2,000.

OVERALL MONEY: 1. K.C. Jones, $57,000; 2. Russell Cardoza, $32,000; 3. Daniel Green, $20,000; 4. Josh Peek, $15,000; 5. Chad Masters, $9,000; 6. Jess Tierney, $7,500; 7. Kyle Lockett, $5,000; 8. Paul David Tierney, $4,500.

Monday, March 05, 2012

Another Tombstone showdown: The town vs. wilderness

Wyatt Earp might be long gone, but there is another showdown underway in Tombstone, Ariz. — this time between the town and the federal government. The “Town Too Tough to Die” is currently having to rely on two ground wells (one of which has been compromised by arsenic) to meet the water needs of its 1,500 residents and more than 400,000 annual visitors because the federal government will not allow the town to repair the waterlines damaged and destroyed during the 2011 Monument Fire. George Barnes, Tombstone’s city clerk and manager, explained to The Daily Caller that since many of the pipelines are in a “wilderness area,” the U.S. Forest Service will not allow the mechanized equipment needed to fix the waterlines into the area for environmental reasons...more  

And there is this:

The City of Tombstone is squaring off against the U.S. Forest Service over water rights in a fight to rescue “The Town Too Tough to Die.” Citing the Wilderness Act, the Forest Service is refusing to allow the city to repair its waterlines to mountain springs it has owned for nearly seventy years – and which date back to the 1880s. This refusal is threatening residents, private property and public safety with the risk of a total loss of fire protection and safe drinking water.  

So you want flood control Las Cruces? Then don't surround the community with wilderness areas.

Activists: Birth control can fight global warming

During a discussion series on Monday at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., speaker and activist Kavita Ramdas argued that contraceptives should be part of a strategy to save the planet, calling lower birth rates a “common sense” part of a climate-change reduction strategy. At the event, titled “Women’s Health: Key to Climate Adaptation Strategies,” Ramdas pointed to studies conducted by health consultants at the for-profit Futures Group, the government-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, in Austria, to connect contraception with climate change. Ramdas told The Daily Caller that the research shows “empowering women to time their pregnancies” and avoid unwanted births would reduce carbon emissions between 8 to 15 percent globally...more

New Mexico signs conservation agreement

New Mexico on Friday signed a conservation agreement with the federal government to protect more than 387 square miles of habitat for two species that have been the focus of a bitter battle among environmentalists, politicians and oil and gas developers in New Mexico and West Texas. New Mexico Land Commissioner Ray Powell said the agreement represents a "monumental step" toward finding a way to protect the lesser prairie-chicken and dunes sagebrush lizard while allowing for oil and gas development to continue in the Permian Basin. "We've had enough of the circular firing squads," Powell said during a signing ceremony attended by biologists, project managers and others from state and federal agencies who have worked for nearly a decade to line up conservation agreements with oil companies, ranchers and private land owners. With New Mexico signing on, nearly 248,000 acres are being added to the conservation effort. Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that is the largest area to be set aside by a single state as part of a conservation agreement. In all, 29 oil and gas companies and 39 ranchers have enrolled in the effort in New Mexico to cover more than 2.5 million acres...more

Have things really changed?

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss is upset over Interior's $200 million cut in Gulf projects and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn is praising Secretary Salazar for not closing two fish hatcheries.

As you can see, the Republicans are charging hard to control spending and limit gov't.

Song Of The Day #786

 It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and we'll get your toe tappin' with Natural Bridge Blues by Greg Hooven and Riley Baugus.

National Parks Pump $31 Billion Into Local Economies

If you've ever visited Yosemite in the summer, you have an idea of just how popular America's national parks are. And according to a new National Parks Service report, our love for the great outdoors generated more than $31 billion for local economies and supported more than 258,000 jobs in 2010. The Parks Service's report, Economic Benefits to Local Communities from National Park Visitation and Payroll, 2010, shows that the $31 billion and 258,000 jobs generated by the National Parks system alone in 2010 represented increases of $689 million and 11,500 jobs over 2009. According to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, recreation in national parks, refuges, and other public lands combined led to nearly $55 billion in local economic benefits and 440,000 jobs in 2009. Hoping to further increase the economic contribution of the nation's parks and public lands, President Obama in January issued an executive order intended to promote travel and tourism in the United States and has made promotion of the national parks system a key element of his administration's Great Outdoor Initiative...more

Don'tcha just love propaganda?

Spotted Owl: Logging, and Shooting of Hoot Owls Planned

Barred Owl
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released court-ordered critical habitat proposal for the endangered northern spotted owl that emphasizes "active management" of habitat, which includes logging and shooting the invasive barred owl, or "hoot owl."  The proposal, which preliminarily identifies areas to be included in the final habitat designation, stresses the benefits of excluding any private lands and importance of economic considerations in indentifying suitable habitat, according to a statement from the Department of the Interior. Reinforcing Interior's own emphasis on excluding as much land as possible from designation, President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordering him to pay special attention to the impact on jobs of any plan, and to "give careful consideration to providing the maximum exclusion [of land] from the final revised critical habitat." In addition, Obama ordered Salazar to break with 30 years of practice and produce an economic impact statement on the proposed rule at the same time the critical habitat designation is made. The proposal identifies nearly 14 million acres of land in California, Oregon and Washington that meet the definition of critical habitat for the spotted owl. However the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already proposed to exclude 2.6 million acres of national parks and federal wilderness areas where protections for the spotted owl already exist, and nearly 1 million acres of state and private lands already subject to conservation agreements...more

Obama Administration Creates National Water Trails System

President Barack Obama said Friday that his personal experiences with America's national parks - both as an 11-year-old with his mother and grandmother and later as a father - have made a conservationist out of him.
The President was speaking at a conference hosted by the White House linking conservation with strong local economies through tourism, outdoor recreation, and healthy lands, waters and wildlife. In connection with the conference, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the National Water Trails System, a new network intended to increase access to water-based outdoor recreation, encourage community stewardship of local waterways, and promote tourism that fuels local economies. Salazar signed a Secretarial Order that establishes national water trails as a class of national recreational trails under the National Trails System Act of 1968...more 

They've got the land.  Now they'll have the water...are Air Trails next?

Radio rancher ruled the sky

My first acquaintance with this show's cast of characters actually began when they were just images in mind on their radio program in 1946. I'd catch their 15-minute episode in the afternoon after school in front of my Grandma's console radio. If he hadn't had a catchy nickname, I'd probably not have been captivated by a western hero named Schuyler. However, Schuyler became "Sky King," and the concept of a modern-day flying rancher who fought the bad guys caught me (as it did many other impressionable kids). The television show premiered in September 1951 and lasted only a year on NBC, but it lived on in reruns on both the other major networks and even in syndication in the 1980s. Sky and his niece, Penny, and nephew, Clipper, hung out at his Flying Crown Ranch near Grover City, Ariz. Sky flew a twin-engined Cessna named "The Songbird" as well as being able in the saddle when called upon by his sheriff buddy to apprehend some criminals. Sky was played by Kirby Grant on television. The radio program actually overlapped the TV show as it ran from 1946 to 1954...more

Giving sausage a face

A Berlin initiative is on a mission to revolutionise meat consumption. At Meine Kleine Farm, consumers can see a picture of the pig they're eating on the packaging. They can even choose which pig will be slaughtered to make their sausages. “Pig 3” has become an online star. The sow was the winner of the latest Meine Kleine Farm Facebook competition. The prize? Slaughter. Pig 3 met its fate on Friday in Brandenburg at farmer Bernd Schulz’s pig farm - its memory will live on in the form of pork products. The pig’s face will appear on the packaging of 250 glasses of Leberwurst, 50 cotechino or Schlackwurst (a type of boiled Italian sausage) and 25 Mettringe sausages, already promised to buyers over the meinekleinefarm.org online shop. Meine Kleine Farm is the brainchild of Berlin student Denni Buchmann, who is on a mission to change the way consumers think about meat. He thinks people should eat less meat and show more respect to the animals. Buchmann regularly selects and buys pigs from Schulz’s farm, photographs them and posts the photos online. Users can then vote on which pig looks most tasty. The winner is slaughtered and its photo appears on the products...more

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Cowboy girl lives one-of-a-kind life

There was nobody quite like Caroline Lockhart. Rancher, novelist, journalist, newspaper publisher and one of the organizers of the Cody Stampede, Lockhart lived most of her long life in Wyoming and Montana. When Red Lodge writer John Clayton stumbled onto her ranch near the Bighorn Canyon more than a decade ago, he was surprised that he had never heard of the woman who was known across the country during her lifetime. Clayton began researching her life, turning what he found into a 2007 book, “The Cowboy Girl: The Life of Caroline Lockhart,” published by the University of Nebraska Press. Raised in Kansas, Lockhart grew into a superb horsewoman. From the start she was smart, willful and independent — talents that she put to good use after her father cut her off financially when she finished school. After a brief stint as an actress, Lockhart started a career as a “stunt girl” journalist on East Coast newspapers where she would engage in an activity — sometimes in disguise — and then write about it. Lockhart came to Montana in 1901 to write about what would become Glacier National Park. She traveled unchaperoned with a guide from the east side of the mountains over the divide to Lake McDonald. That wasn’t the first or last time she ignored societal norms about what a proper single woman should or shouldn’t do. She came to Cody, Wyo., in 1904 because of her acquaintance with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, she would later say. More likely, Clayton writes that Lockhart was trailing one of her boyfriends. Lockhart would be in and out of Cody for the rest of her life, spending long stretches at her ranch, continuing to write for publications around the country and publishing seven Western-themed novels...more

Obama: Conservation boosts the economy

The argument that environmental conservation stands in the way of economic growth is “a false choice,” President Barack Obama told conservation leaders Friday. On the contrary, Obama said in remarks at the Interior Department, conservation provides a boost. “We’re not just preserving our land and water for the next generation, we’re also making more land available for hunting and fishing, and we’re bolstering an outdoor economy that supports more than nine million jobs and brings in more than $1 trillion a year,” he said.
He also spoke about rising gas prices, repeating his now-standard joke that Republicans’ only solution is a three-point plan, where all three points are more drilling for oil. “If we’re going to take control of our energy future and avoid these gas price spikes in the future, then we’ve got to have a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy,” he said. Before Obama spoke, Newt Gingrich called for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s ouster, adding him to a list that already includes Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who Gingrich said Thursday should be fired. “If the president would replace Dr. Chu with one of the people who has developed North Dakota oil and then replace the secretary of the interior with one of the people who has developed North Dakota oil, in about 90 days you would have a revolution in developing oil and gas in the United States,” the Republican presidential candidate said Friday while campaigning in Savannah, Ga...more

What’s ailing the Chevy Volt?

On Friday, GM announced it was halting production of the Chevrolet Volt until April, so as to maintain “proper inventory levels.” Sales of the electric vehicle have been disappointing, with the company missing its target of 10,000 Volts sold last year. Why hasn’t the car caught on?  But the scare over batteries is only a partial explanation. After all, Volt sales rebounded in February to 1,023 vehicles sold, and it looks like the fire scare is slowly subsiding. But neither the pre-panic nor post-panic numbers were anywhere near the rate needed to meet GM’s goal of 45,000 Volt deliveries this year. A more likely explanation is that the Volt is just far too expensive for many customers. The car gets about 94 miles per gallon, according to the EPA, but it starts at $39,195, and only upper-income buyers with a big tax bill can qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit. As auto blogger Jonathan Welsh writes, “Even if you never used gasoline in the Volt, you’d wait about 12 years before you saved enough on gas to make up for the Volt’s price premium.”...more

Five PA coal-fueled power plants to close due to Obama administration regulation

GenOn Energy Inc. plans to close five of its older coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania over the next four years. The company, based in Houston, said Wednesday that tough new environmental rules make it unprofitable to operate the plants, which generate a total of 3,140 megawatts of electricity. The plants are in Portland, Shawville, Titus, New Castle and Elrama. Two plants in Ohio and one in New Jersey will also be closed. The company said the timeframes are subject to further review based on market conditions. The Sierra Club said in a statement that closing the plants will prevent about 179 premature deaths, 300 heart attacks and 2,800 asthma attacks each year. "Above all, this is a win for public health and for families who have been breathing polluted air from these outdated plants," said Bruce Nilles, Senior Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. But Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican, said that as many as 315 people could lose their jobs. "I am dismayed by the news that hundreds of Pennsylvanians will lose their jobs because of this impending wave of federal regulations. While I fully support sensible, existing power plant regulations to protect our air, the cumulative effect of these new rules, which are some of the costliest in the EPA's history, is overwhelming."...more

A big victory for restoring private property rights

Property rights advocates across the country are cheering for the U.S. House of Representatives, which unanimously passed the Private Property Rights Protection Act on a voice vote Tuesday. The measure, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., was part of the furious backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court's wildly unpopular 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which approved taking property from one private citizen and giving it to another for the purpose of "economic development." Specifically, five of the nine justices voted that it was permissible to take Susette Kelo's little pink bungalow and the homes of her neighbors, and use the ground under them for a multimillion-dollar urban redevelopment project. Eminent domain condemnations must satisfy the Fifth Amendment's takings clause -- "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." The Kelo decision muddied the meaning of "public use" by claiming that an urban redevelopment project might produce economic benefits that might be a public purpose that might be a public use...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Batteries not required

By Julie Carter

Is the world a whole lot more complicated, or is there simply more of it to understand? That can be argued by the boys in agriculture, leaning on the hood of a pickup while waiting for the brand inspector to show up.

The cow business might possibly be the last bastion of commerce conducted on a man’s word. Cattlemen of good repute can still buy and sell cattle over the phone.

A generation has passed since the day of signature loans for large amounts of money for cattle, equipment, feed or whatever. Now you need to have a credit report from some place in the sky. You will also need to mortgage whatever you were using the money for and sometimes even throw in the first-born male child for security.

And counter checks?  Remember when you just walked into any place of business and filled out a blank check they had on the counter and then signed it? Now you have to have three picture IDs, your home and cell phone numbers, your blood type and recent dental records to cash a $12 check in a business you frequent three times a week.

Along with the economic changes we have also lost an entire language that was common to rural living. If you hear it now, it is usually prefaced with “my grandmother used to say,” or “my Dad used to call it that.”

“Store bought” was an indicator of a slight increase in financial status, usually indicated extra-value and often came with bragging rights. If one was eating “light bread” as opposed to biscuits or cornbread, it meant it came from the store.

Getting big enough to reach the “foot feed” in the pickup so I could drive was a milestone. I remember my first “picture show,” and when my brothers got their “ears lowered.”

Does anyone get lumbago anymore or self-medicate with castor oil and prune juice? And remember Mentholatum rub and that stinkin’ rag around your neck if you had a cough?

There was a time when the saddle was the workbench for making Western history. Later it became a throne in a tradition of “cowboy” that endures today.

But just as fishing became a sport, so also did cowboying. Horses have gained recreational value and saddles are created specific to the job (cutting, steer roping, team roping, calf roping, barrel racing, reining).  A one-saddle-does-all is an endangered species.

And remember the horse racks that fit in the bed of the pickup? The fancier ones had a hood right over the top of the cab to protect the eyes and head of the horse.

These memories are like the “I remember when Hershey bars were a nickel and I walked five miles to school, uphill both directions” discussions. There is no ending and it serves no real purpose other than reminiscing the “good old days.”

We now live in a high-tech fast-paced world that swallows up time faster than we can get comfortable with each new thing. Most fads of the new millennium involve some sort of electronic, computerized, digitized gadget that your grandchildren have to show you how to use.

Anyone recall Big Chief tablets with pages of paper that had wood chips embedded in them so big that your pencil skipped when you wrote over one? However, no batteries were required.

Julie can be reached at jcarternm@gmail.com




Heaven on Earth

Where’s the Cavalry been?
Heaven on Earth
Of gods and men
By Stephen L. Wilmeth


            The budget sessions we sat through at Concordia were exercises in patience. When Andy Anderson chose to challenge the expenditure of the porch extension at the parsonage, I thought enough was enough. The pastor didn’t make enough as it was, but to challenge him on submitting a request to extend the porch on his own time was unconscionable. Rethinking my reaction today … I was probably wrong.
            The Potrillo Wilderness
            For five years, “five angry ranchers” have fought against the unwavering intent by Democratic Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall to designate a quarter of a million acres of Wilderness largely on the Mexican border in southern New Mexico. What those opponents of the bill have preached has been proven correct.
Mexico is out of control. The state of its affairs emanates from the turf war surrounding the safe havens of the smuggling corridors allowing illicit drugs and illegal immigrants to breach American lines of defense.
            Catholic invisibility and the big question
            When the decision was made outside of Dona Ana County to designate the Wilderness, a host of governmental bodies were solicited by the well oiled PR structure of the Wilderness Society umbrella groups. This included the Catholic Diocese of Dona Ana County. The Diocese went right along with the progressive agenda and signed up to support the effort.
            Several members of the “five angry ranchers” met with the bishop and suggested there was an entirely different side of the story and that his actions might be served better by considering all members of the community. He was cordial, but his ultimate approach was a timid call for reconciliation. He was confident a solution could be found, but he was clearly unwilling to support political incorrectness.
            In light of the bishop’s reaction and the birth control debacle last month emanating from Washington, a question needs to be asked.
Where has the hierarchy of the Catholic Church been in the last 85 years in the fight for right and wrong? Whether they want to admit the truth or not, their propensity to defer to, agree, and even enable the progressive front is destroying the underpinnings of their faith, and it has weakened our society.
            Granted, it isn’t just the Catholic Church. The Presbyterians are attempting to get a measure passed through their hierarchy to label Israel an apartheid state.
            And, yes, while these questions are being asked and the issue of Israel is brought up, we might as well ask the big question that leaves us dumbfounded. Why do the Jews insist on supporting the very progressive fronts that will inevitably turn on them and seek their destruction? How many times will their predictable actions serve to wreak havoc on their existence … and serve to further weaken all of us?
            The majority of the world I live in supports Israel as an unerring principle. Time and again, though, there is the same old dilemma of trying to understand their affinity of ignoring allies and giving way to conspire with the very agents that will seek their destruction.
It is a conundrum of gigantic proportions. It is almost as if their true allies are attempting to defend them while they are drawn to stand repeatedly in the onslaught. Was God similarly perplexed with his chosen people?
A moth to the flame
How many times over the years have we wondered where the Judeo – Christian hierarchy of our society was when the memberships and ranks of communicants desperately needed their reassurance, guidance, and public support?
When their memberships fought for family values in a public arena, they fought alone. When they recoiled from the horrors of the implications of abortion, they found themselves alone. When they watched the actions of their elected representatives double down on public assistance, and, at the same time, disrespect all fiduciary responsibilities to taxpayers, they found themselves alone.
We have no alternative but to acknowledge that that the hierarchy was a willing partner in the grand cataclysm that has netted us nearly $16 trillion in debt and the promise of adding another $9 trillion to that unfathomable balance in the next 4½ years. The hierarchy became willing accomplices in schemes of social justice and wealth redistribution as much or more than any elected official.
 Under their watch, the sovereign individual became the last to be considered and the first to be vilified, condemned, and blamed.
 The ranks of the hierarchy have become what all foundational Judeo – Christian teachings have fought to avoid and to cast aside. They joined the ranks of leaders who came to view their actions as not just men and women of importance, but … creators of heaven on this earth.
The bastion of Hope
Is there hope? We are taught there is and our instinct remains intact, but our collective leadership has demonstrated no ability to change direction. If they haven’t noticed, their collective elected buffoonery has resulted in another $5 trillion in debt and not a single check on bureaucracy.
Our leaders don’t govern. They sit in observance of an ever expanding officialdom that has allowed a myriad of extrinsic resource kingdoms to expand the role of government. In order to hold that claim, officials and agencies alike will have to further expand their role as protector, benefactor and enforcer.
In its current trajectory, this is worse than medieval monarchies. At least those dominions produced a monarch who could be identified. Our system has produced an army of trustees who are demonstrating they will burn our cities and our hopes if their well being is jeopardized, antagonized, or otherwise challenged.
The lessons of self reliance
If there is hope, it must exist in a most basic form. It can only rediscover its strength through original roots. The sovereign individual, the family unit, a courageous individual pulpit voice may be the only points of hope … just as they always were.
The southern New Mexico border wilderness fight has revealed an important lesson. Those who have been on the front lines of the fight are curiously lucky. They have seen a completely different view of the proceedings. They have learned simple, but hugely important lessons.
If our system is to survive, vested citizens, those at actual risk of loss of life and freedom, must be willing to fight for the original premise of the Constitution. Our government has demonstrated it is incapable of interpreting and enforcing those values on our behalf so our actions must serve as the proxy to that failed leadership.
It is actually an exhilarating prospect. To think that the sovereign individual has control of his destiny is a powerful concept. What we must realize, though, is that such a concept in not new. It is the moral battle of right and wrong.
This battle, like all battles, promises nothing in its current form. In fact, failure is probably more assured than success, but the original premise is gloriously correct. We have simply put our trust in the wrong places. A place to start is to go look in the mirror, and, then, go read our two most sacred documents.
Only then will we be prepared to stand for unwavering compromise of principle and make changes in the only things we have any hope of actually controlling … our own actions and our own fate.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Judges, Kings, and … professional legislators have failed us.”

Baxter Black: The mud bath

Just because some women have an occupation involving farming and livestock, it doesn’t mean they’re not concerned about their appearance, hair, skin and body care.

Kadie is one of them. She’s on a family ranch in Montana. Both she and her husband share the calving duties in the spring, but cold windy weather plays havoc with her beauty regimen.

Last Christmas, she clipped out an ad for a spa that included hot tubs, massage, pedicures, manicures and mud baths. She even posted a sample page from the ad on her bathroom mirror listing the services she might need.

At 4:30 a.m. one insomniac morning, she rose to check the heavy heifers. Her back ached and she couldn’t sleep.

Might as well work.

She pulled on her jeans, a wool shirt, rubber boots and a warm but ratty jacket. Before leaving the house, Kadie grabbed her flashlight and furry cap.

The weather had warmed up to 35 degrees two days earlier. Snowpack turned to mud...

J.C. Mattingly: A Socratic Rancher

Everyone involved with farming and ranching knows the value of a good hired hand, just as hands know the value of a fair and decent boss. There's an old joke about the rancher and his hand. The hired hand asks for a raise. The rancher says, “At that wage, if you save up, you can buy me out in a few years, and when you do, promise you'll hire me back to work for you at these same wages so I can save up and buy you out.” When we have a good working relationship with a person in agriculture, whether with an employee, vendor, or neighbor, we value it. In some instances, we value it enough that we will put up with a few flaws the person might have outside the working relationship. In one case, I worked with a man, Don, who was one of the best — honest, prompt and skilled. Then he was given two dogs. Large dogs, Labs mixed with mutt, who were rather overfed and possessed of boundless energy at exactly the wrong times. The one time these two dogs made it into my house, I wondered how much my home insurance covered damage to the contents. From dogs...more

‘Industrial Terrorism’ of Undercover Livestock Videos Targeted

Undercover investigations of animal abuse and unsanitary farm conditions would be outlawed in eight states, including Iowa and New York, under an expanding effort by legislators who say the exposes malign livestock industries. Montana, North Dakota and Kansas have already passed “ag gag” laws to thwart whistle-blowers, who have targeted Tyson Foods Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Yum! Brands Inc.’s KFC chicken suppliers. Iowa and New York are debating similar legislation, as is Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska and Utah. Measures in those states, backed by Monsanto Co. and other agriculture companies, would halt activists from using deceptive practices to target producers in the $74 billion-a-year U.S. beef industry, or the $45 billion poultry business, as well as other businesses. Animal-rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States contend food safety will be compromised if abusive and unsanitary practices go unexposed...more

Song Of The Day #785


Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this morning is Wonderful There by the Delmore Brothers'

Friday, March 02, 2012

What the hell is next?

Most of you know Sharon spent three days in the hospital and I just get her out Wednesday.

Didn't get to work on The Westerner last night because of a request from a Congressional office to review some legislation.

Went to get up this morning and the power chair won't move.  The little screen on the armature said "reset" according to Sharon.  So where is the "reset" button?  There isn't one.  Unplug and start.  No dice.

We call the repairman.  I'm sitting on the edge of the bed.  Sharon is to weak to help me get back in so I'm stuck there.

Repairman arrives and his first fix doesn't work.  Calls for tech help and it still doesn't work.  I'm sitting on the edge of the bed.  Repairman says may take 3 weeks for new parts.  I'm sitting on the edge of the bed.

Wait.  Repairman says he may have an old, beat-up joy stick apparatus in his van.  He goes to look in his van.  I'm sitting on the edge of the bed.  Thank heaven he has one.  Plugs it in, reprograms it, and it works!

I'm no longer sitting on the edge of the bed...but.

These things happen to me in three's...so what the hell is next?


.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Roundhouse Cowboy

On Jan. 17, the opening day of New Mexico’s 2012 legislative session, longtime state House of Representatives Speaker Ben Luján, D-Santa Fe, stood before a hushed chamber. Luján, a diminutive man in his 70s who for years had controlled much of what happened at the capitol, had just announced that he had lung cancer and planned to retire from politics. The 2012 session would be his last. It was the end of an era. While many House members wept openly during Luján’s emotional speech, one politician sat quietly in his assigned seat in the back row of the chamber. A year ago, Andy Nuñez, an outspoken, drawling rancher from southern New Mexico who wears a large cowboy hat and can often be seen with a childlike smirk on his face, was the most vocal backer of a southern coalition united to replace Luján as speaker. Now, Luján’s poor health overshadowed any intraparty turmoil in the Roundhouse. But it couldn’t halt a political shift already underway across the state. Luján’s coming retirement marks the declining dominance of northern Democrats in state politics; conservatives from agricultural, oil-and-gas-dominated southern New Mexico are positioning themselves for greater influence. As a former Democrat turned independent and the champion of an effort to repeal the state law allowing foreign nationals to obtain driver’s licenses, Nuñez has become the unlikely poster child for a rising right...more

The first time I met Andy I was going to college and was a bartender at the Drive In Bar.  Andy was employed by the ASCS and was in town for a meeting.  I was a runnin' buddy of Andy's brother, Danny, so was pleased to meet Andy.  Later that night the power went out all over Las Cruces and it went dark in the bar.  I lit some candles, folks gathered around the bar, and Andy entertained us until the power came back on.  I should have known then he would become the "poster child" for something.  Way to go Andy.

Song Of The Day #784 (Special for Sharon)

 Ranch Radio is mucho happy his Sweet Sharon is home and out of the hospital.  Over the years, many friends and acquaintances have asked, "How on earth have you put up with Sharon all these years?".  A very small, minor, miniscule number have wondered how she's put up with me.  Anyway, this song by Delbert McClinton explains why I'm still in love with my darlin'.