Monday, January 07, 2013

Stop the Obesity Epidemic! Establish 'No Pie Zones' and Ban Spoons!

by Mike Rogers

"Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure costs this country more than $120 billion dollars each year." – Michele Obama

It is well known that obesity is Americas number one killer today. Don't believe me; just take a gander at the video of Michelle Obama as she makes the quote above. 

Recently many people in the USA have been calling for a gun ban as we all know that inanimate objects (as well as God, dogs, voices in the head and Frank Zappa recordings) can and do control human actions. Guns are responsible for about 9,000 deaths in the US annually. Meanwhile obesity, er, I mean, spoons and forks, account for over 300,000 deaths. Where are our priorities?

Of course we need to ban all guns and ammo (as well as camouflage clothing, night vision glasses, Coleman camping equipment and sterno lanterns). But, let's get our house in order and set our priorities straight! We must fight back against the obesity epidemic by severely restricting spoons and all other types of silverware and table utensils that make it easier to become obese!

The real problem with America today is obesity not gun murders... Therefore I propose a federal ban on spoons as too many Americans eat far too much ice cream and sweets... I also propose enforcing a "No Pie Zone" over all major American cities.

I have pitched this idea and done so for absolutely free (no copyright claims to come from me as I do this for the greater good – Apologies to Walter Block). I have also shown this idea to my intelligent friends on Facebook and asked for their opinions. I think you'll find the following exchange of ideas to be quite refreshing and invigorating....

Let's now put our heads together and find a way, a true way, in the American spirit of bi-partisanship, towards finding the best way to deal with this obesity scourge that is obviously caused by kitchen utensils. 
I have a dream! Today spoons and forks, tomorrow desert plates and tablecloths!

Let the discussion begin! Here's how we tackle this obesity epidemic once and for all! Here are selected quotes from my distinguished panel of friends! 

Red Brown: You need to move incrementally – you can't just throw this down all at once. First you need to make people register their spoons, and also restrict the capacity of spoons allowed. Once that becomes accepted, you can move towards limiting the number of spoons a person can have, and you can also restrict the movement or exchange of any spoons. Then, and this is the important part, you announce that there is a bill in the works to criminalize any and all silverware. Finally, you strike down all the provisions of this new bill except banning spoons of any type. You also move most of the old spoon restrictions over to forks. Everyone thinks they got off pretty well and gives up their spoons – easy as that! 

Marc Abela: Since you don't want to alarm everyone, first I suggest we increase taxes and add bureaucrats who will build a paper based federal spoon-registry list... all spoons will need to have a serial number on them, and they will need to be registered and attached to a clearly identified owner...

Red Brown: Unfortunately, a huge black market, of illegal spoons from foreign countries and also locally made spoons, explodes into existence and the Feds create a new bureaucracy called the BATFU (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Utensils). This monstrosity consumes 1/10 of our federal budget and most of the employees are grossly overweight.  




Rogers says this Eatensil should be banned!

The Eatensil is designed for the kitchen. It combines seven tools which make eating easier – a spoon, fork, knife, pizza cutter, chopsticks, bottle opener and wooden chip fork – all in a Swiss Army Knife-type casing." The Eatensil?! We've got to put a stop to this!

Song Of The Day #992


It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and here's Milton Brown with This Morning, This Evening, So Soon.

 The tune was recorded on August 8, 1934 in San Antonio and was released on the Bluebird label.

More tomorrow on the future of Song Of The Day.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy



Pioneer treasures

 by Julie Carter

I slid down off the back of my fat slick horse, unfettered by the trappings of a saddle, and tied him to the nearest tree. The afternoon summer sun shone through the aspens and the only sounds were of the birds moving around from branch to branch as they chattered about my arrival.

Looking around, I was alone except for nature’s critters as I watched a cottontail rabbit hop away as an indication of my intrusion while a chipmunk chattered at me from a nearby pile of rotting wood slabs.

This adventure was like the many I took as a teen when the summer days seemed endless, both in number and in length. Hours were spent exploring the secret places of a high mountain ranch that was once home to Indian tribes, miners, trappers and eventually homesteaders. It captured my imagination and lured me to journeys of discovery.

My mother was used to me gathering up my horse using only a bridle and riding off, giving her only a general direction and a promised time of return. My father’s only admonition was to not go inside any of the crumbling and caving old homestead structures that remained from an era gone by. I failed that instruction more than I admitted.

From a framed window that no longer held glass, I peered into a large room of the old house that held tight to its past. The ceiling, also wood, had fallen over half the room and the floor boards were intact only in a few places. Scattered across the remaining floorboards were books in all sorts of disarray and condition, some completely tattered from exposure to the elements.

Leaning in as far as I dared, I tried to reach some of the closer volumes, knowing that surely they would reveal the character and mindset of the inhabitants of the house when it was a home. I found a song book that had dog-eared pages marking old hymns and a few children’s songs. I was able to pull out a faded catalog that offered practical household items as well as fashion and dry goods.

Not satisfied with what I could access with my hands, I soon was reaching with a long branch to drag more toward me, sitting in the afternoon sun to flip through the pages that weren’t matted with moisture. My imagination took me to a time when this same browsing action took place by someone I could only create in my mind.

And then there was that one book. The one in the middle of the room, barely visible because of the tattered remnants of other books, the one with the dark green binding and an embossed title I could only see partially. Of course, I had to have it, just because.

I carefully slipped over the window sill and eased my way across the creaking, cracking floorboards, fearing impending disaster from the sagging roof remnants, but not enough to abort my mission. When I could, I reached for the book, pulled it from the pile and carefully retraced my steps to the outside.

With no time to browse through my ill-gotten treasure, I stuck it in the waist of my jeans, remounted my horse and headed for home.

The book was a treasure for its time. A sort of encyclopedia of everything you needed to know about any number of things. It offered a variety of self-help items ranging from recipes for sour dough starter to home remedies for physical ills, tooth aches and child birth. The most fascinating to me, and I’m not sure why, was the recipe for embalming fluid.

While my family thought my treasure was indeed a great find, my dad was not fooled as to how I had come by it. You see, he too found great intrigue in poking around those old homesteads, and he had seen that very book, knew where it was and that it didn’t come into my hands without my disobedience.

Nowhere in that old book did I find a remedy for disobeying my dad, but at least the use of the embalming fluid didn’t become necessary. However, the section that covered the tanning of hides did hold some possibilities.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com.



Fartin' Horses & Federal Policy



Equine flatulence
The Path of Grandfather Logic
Unnatural alterations
By Stephen L. Wilmeth


            I had two wonderful, and, yet, diametrically opposed grandfathers.
            Carl Rice was my friend. He kept me in cowboy hats and he cared what I looked like under one. He taught me to love outside. He made sure there was something under the Christmas tree that he liked as much as I would. He liked my company, and I loved his.
            Albert Wilmeth was a mentor extraordinaire. With him, we were constantly positioned in real life situations that mattered. He taught us little accomplishments were the path to big ones. He never cared what was under the tree. I don’t know if he even liked my company. I rely on his today … nearly 35 years after his passing.
            Equine flatulence
            Walt Anderson and I had a serious discussion about equine flatulence. That subject happens to be a profound one of which too few have much knowledge.
            The discussion started when I asked Walt if he thought horses farted as much today as they did years ago. His reaction was much like yours when such a seemingly irrational question is posed. The fact is I don’t think they do, and, with a bit of explanation, Walt altered his reaction to the subject as well.
            For those with grey hair who listened to thundering remudas of horses running to the corral before sunup 50 years or more ago, there was more to the thunder than heretofore discussed. As those ponies approached the corral gate, a cacophony of muted, uproarious, explosive, and disharmonious sphincter babble was a fact of their existence. Exertion acting upon stored reserves was the facilitator.
            It would continue as horses were saddled and humped backs were softened and relaxed. Mounted cowboys could prompt it again by a jab of a spur. It would continue at a diminishing rate except for exceptional horses.
Snooper was renowned for his ability to pass gas on command. Once, at the end of a long day, Hugh Reed and I doubled up on him bareback to ride down the creek to fish. He stood there immobile with his ears back until Hugh jabbed him with his heal. His response was a typical loosely discordant first note. An explosive chorus followed with each lunge in a pitching, straightaway run. With a fishing rod in each hand, he tipped me out the back about the third jump.
Hugh was whooping and hollering as he regained control and came back up the trail. There I stood in the muddy trail on both feet planted firmly where I landed. Snooper still had his ears back, but I held each fishing rod in the same position they had been prior to the prelude.
A Texas cowboy told me some years ago he believed the phenomenon was the feed we feed today more than the horse we have. In the days of thundering remudas, horses didn’t eat hay unless they were kept up. They were selectively grained or grained enough to make them want to come in. The bulk of their diet came from natural turf.  At Grampa’ Wilmeth’s barn on the Mangus, there may have been only a dozen bales of hay at any one time, but there were a number of 55 gallon drums of whole oats.
A good many of those horses looked different as well. With big barrels and worked hard, they consumed great quantities of roughage to satisfy their dietary demands. They didn’t get anything in measured doses, but they ate throughout the day when turned out.
The health of those horses was not an issue, either. Until years later, I never heard the term colic except for human babies that didn’t sleep through the night. Now, colic is a worry and I can look out the window and see three horses that have a demonstrated some history of the problem. In fact, there is a big bottle of Banamine in the refrigerator in the shop bathroom. I know the typical respiration rate of each of those horses, and, if and when we need our Vet, he now asks what kind of gut sounds I hear on each side.
Certainly, horses were lost from what now must be assumed to be colic. A favored horse of my uncle found dead in a field one morning likely expired from colic.
The point is it wasn’t such a problem that it was a big worry. As a result, a theory must be accepted that horses maintained under natural evolutionary conditions, on their own, are less likely to be susceptible to such problems. Under those conditions they will maintain immense populations of micro flora and fauna to digest all that mass of roughage, and … a natural byproduct from that process is equine flatulence.
The Grandest Analogy
What else have we altered, manipulated, and subsidized similarly that equates to worry and permanent maintenance?
At a minimum, we must realize that at least 20% of the nation has tipped over into a crevasse that poses perhaps insurmountable consequences to our future well being and freedom. Eleven states now have more welfare recipients than employed citizenry. Alabama, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, and South Carolina have more folks on the take than self supporting.
            New Mexico has 1.53 takers for every one giver!
            As this is written, the day after the infamous fiscal cliff vote, the specter of worsening conditions is the only honest outcome that can be anticipated. The represented 45:1 ratio of increased taxation against spending cuts is laughable … especially when there is no real intent to cut anything regarding entitlement spending.
            Our Congress isn’t going to change this accelerating free fall into oblivion. For too long, we assumed there was reasonableness among their ranks, and at least the issue of spending would eventually take precedence over politics. It hasn’t.
We must now face the inevitable truth. The emerging cataclysm isn’t just a multiyear mismanagement of our national treasury and trust. It is the pending annihilation of our entire constitutional system. There is evidence that the true nature of unfunded obligations doesn’t equate to one year of gross national product.  It equates to over 14 years of total gross national product.
In other words, to fund all obligations now contracted by legislation every dollar created by every American would be swept away for 14 years. That doesn’t even account for future grand projects envisioned by these money changers.
This is epic. It is unavoidably assigned to us as the ultimate closet to be robbed. We are not just feeding high powered hay … we now have every being hooked up to an IV and are spoon feeding every ounce of sustenance needed. There is no reliance on the individual to be given the God given freedom to care for and look out for himself. This is an all new horse of unfathomable consequences. On the deserts of southern New Mexico, it looks like a fatal case of national calamity and inevitable bankruptcy.   
The Image is cast
Today, there is not a single elected national leader who has earned title to be showered with accolades. Starting and magnified from the top, there is not a single leader who can be counted upon to lead this collective band of blind, inept avant-garde proxies out of their dreamland. If there was, he or she would have emerged or he or she would have gone to his death fighting for the sovereign existence of our country.
Words … just words!”
That next morning the alphabet soup news readers were going through the tedious ranks of the Washington crew getting their take on the outcome of the vote. The comedic analogy was just too apparent not to draw attention to it. The jabs of the spurs were symbolically transformed into the rapid fire questions from the other incredibly biased migratory troop of tramps, the Capital Hill reporters. 
Just like that bay horse, Snooper, the automatic babble responses were immediate and continuous with each jab.  The substance of the ‘cacophony of muted, uproarious, explosive, and disharmonious (orifice) babble’ was no more meaningful than the similar clouds of gas that dissipated into the morning air all those years ago.
At least the horses were honest, and … didn’t attempt to shape or enunciate their responses for future reference.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Yea, I know … I have left it to this point to tie my grandfathers to this topic, and, since we have breached narrative etiquette already, we’ll linger there. They both offered logic in reasonable doses. One universal suggestion was a lesson in selecting horses and men. The ditty was ‘a fartin’ horse’ll never tire, and a fartin’ man is the man to hire!’ That logic has never failed, but, with the standoff of one being a staunch Republican and the other a middle of the road Democrat, neither contributed to my constitutional proficiency … just like Congress.”

Federal surveillance continues despite constitutional concerns

By Melissa Daniels

    The federal government will probably continue to keep secret even the most basic data involving “warrantless wiretapping” despite calls for transparency.
    The U.S. Senate in December voted to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008...
    The act allows the National Security Agency, under the guise of foreign intelligence, to intercept communications to or from an American citizen without a traditional court order as long as one party is outside the United States.
    Multiple amendments that would’ve made public more information about the scope and gravity of surveillance fell short of collecting the 60 necessary votes to pass. Requests included providing estimates of the number of Americans whose communications have been tapped, disclosures of interpretations of the law made in a classified court and a shorter sunset period to boost discussion.
    Over the years, civil liberties advocates, constitutional defenders and digital rights champions have lambasted the FAA, arguing the program violates the Fourth Amendment.
    The proposed amendments, proponents said, would uphold the rights of citizens’ in the modern surveillance age, adding transparency and accountability without interfering with security operations.
    It’s acceptable for the government to keep its national security intelligence classified, Richardson said, but the fear is FAA is used as a “mass collection tool,” sweeping up bundles of unrelated communications because the terms used for collection are overly broad. Even the government’s logic for maintaining those unrelated communications is a secret.
    Julian Sanchez, a research fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the overall problem is the secrecy of how surveillance decisions are made. This could lead to over-collection, as reported by The New York Times.  
    “The vacuum cleaner here is so powerful that it can, in a way, be almost indiscriminate,” Sanchez said.
Beyond that, the lurking fear is what happens with all that information, digitized and easily stored. Sanchez said there’s concern about “backdoor searches,” or federal agents, in search of other offenses, potentially sweeping back through data unrelated to their initial investigations.
    What does it mean for Fourth Amendment rights?
    “What we do know is that we really shifted from the traditional, individualized warrant process to something that looks a look lot more like what the American colonists were so opposed to,” Sanchez said.

Whoops—'Cash for Clunkers' Actually Hurt the Environment

 by Andri Antoniades
    Back in 2009, President Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” program was supposed to be a boon for the environment and the economy. During a limited time, consumers could trade in an old gas-guzzling used car for up to $4,500 cash back towards the purchase of a fuel-efficient new car. It seemed like a win for everyone: the environment, the gasping auto industry and cash-strapped consumers.
Though almost a million people poured into car dealerships eager to exchange their old jalopies for something shiny and new, recent reports indicate the entire program may have actually hurt the environment far more than it helped.
    According to E Magazine, the “Clunkers” program, which is officially known as the Car Allowance Rebates System (CARS), produced tons of unnecessary waste while doing little to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
    The program's first mistake seems to have been its focus on car shredding, instead of car recycling. With 690,000 vehicles traded in, that's a pretty big mistake.
    According to the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA), automobiles are almost completely recyclable, down to their engine oil and brake fluid. But many of the “Cash for Clunkers” cars were never sent to recycling facilities. The agency reports that the cars’ engines were instead destroyed by federal mandate, in order to prevent dealers from illicitly reselling the vehicles later.
    The remaining parts of each car could then be put up for auction, but program guidelines also required that after 180 days, no matter how much of the car was left, the parts woud be sent to a junkyard and shredded.
    Shredding vehicles results in its own environmental nightmare. For each ton of metal produced by a shredding facility, roughly 500 pounds of “shredding residue” is also produced, which includes polyurethane foams, metal oxides, glass and dirt. All totaled, about 4.5 million tons of that residue is already produced on average every year. Where does it go? Right into a landfill.
    E Magazine states recycling just the plastic and metal alone from the CARS scraps would have saved 24 million barrels of oil. While some of the “Clunkers” were truly old, many of the almost 700,000 cars were still in perfectly good condition. In fact, many that qualified for the program were relatively “young,” with fuel efficiencies that rivaled newer cars.
    And though the point was to get less fuel efficient cars off the roads, with only 690,000 traded in, and over 250 million registered in the U.S., the difference in pollutant levels seems pretty negligible.
    But all that vehicular destruction did more than create unnecessary waste for the environment. It also had some far-reaching economic effects...more

Gore Sought to Skirt Taxes on TV Sale Profits

    Al Gore’s sale of his cable channel Current TV to Al Jazeera has an intriguing footnote: The former vice president sought to close the sale before Jan. 1 to avoid higher taxes in the new year. 
     Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news giant financed by the government of Qatar, reportedly paid $500 million for Gore’s low-rated channel, meaning Gore stands to gain $100 million for his 20 percent stake in Current.
    “Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1, according to several people who insisted on anonymity,” The New York Times reported.
    But the deal was not signed until Wednesday, Jan. 2. 
    Gore said in an interview in November that the “most fortunate” in America should pay their “fair share” in taxes. 
    Fox talk show host Greta Van Susteren said on Thursday: “Apparently he doesn’t want to apply that rule to himself, or he has a different idea of what his fair share is.”
    Gore and his business partners founded Current TV seven years ago. Al Jazeera now plans to rebrand Current, which is available in more than 40 million U.S. homes.
    Current TV co-founder Joel Hyatt said he and Gore would join the advisory board of the new channel.
    Observers may also find irony in the fact, noted by Politico, that “Current, which was co-founded by climate change advocate Al Gore, agreed to be bought out by a broadcaster owned by the Qatari government, and therefore funded by oil.”
    Conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s media company The Blaze approached Current about a sale last year, The Wall Street Journal reported, but was told that “the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.”
    Al Jazeera ran an op-ed in July 2011 comparing Beck to a terrorist, saying he and several prominent terrorists “share the same core afflictions” and are “insecure, violently inclined, and illiberal.”

newsmax.com

Celebrities’ GM crusade stops science feeding the poor

The environmentalist Mark Lynas said GM crops could help provide more food at a lower price by reducing the need for pesticides and fertilisers. He said the poorest people of the world could benefit from crops with added nutritional benefits or designed to resist droughts and floods, but such crops were not being developed because people in positions of power said GM was dangerous. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef, the gardener Monty Don and the Prince of Wales have all spoken against GM. “My message to the anti-GM lobby, from the ranks of the British aristocrats and celebrity chefs to the US foodies to the peasant groups of India is this: you are entitled to your views, but you must know by now that they are not supported by science,” said Mr Lynas. “We are coming to a crunch point, and for the sake of both people and the planet, now is the time for you to get out of the way and let the rest of us get on with feeding the world sustainably.” Mr Lynas, author of The God Species, apologised for previously opposing GM crops. Speaking to the Oxford Farming Conference, Mr Lynas said the argument for GM crops was now “rock solid”. He said trillions of GM meals had been eaten without any deleterious health effects and that in 2011, an area of land six times the size of Britain was planted with GM crops without harming the environment. The public must be taught the benefits of GM so an “avalanche” of regulations suffocating the technology and “not based on any rational scientific assessment” were lifted, said Mr Lynas...more

Biden ‘guarantees’ January passage of ‘strict gun control legislation’

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said Vice President Joe Biden “guaranteed” that President Obama will pass strict gun control legislation by the end of the month, according to the Boston Herald. “He said, ‘Tommy, I guarantee you, we’ll get it done by the end of January,’” Menino said. “They’re going to get it done.” Menino, a proponent of strict gun control, co-chairs Mayors Against Illedal Guns with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg...more

Ten gun bills on Congress's first day

Members of the 113th Congress introduced 10 bills on Thursday relating to gun violence, most of which came from Democrats seeking new restrictions on gun ownership. The flurry of legislative proposals show that members are likely to push the issue in the wake of the December shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 children dead. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), whose husband was shot to death in 1993, introduced four of the bills. The congresswoman has vowed to seek changes in federal law in response to the school shooting. H.R. 137 and 138 from McCarthy would require people prohibited from buying firearms to be listed in a national database, and would prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition clips. McCarthy's H.R. 141 would require criminal background checks on all firearms transactions at gun shows, which would close the so-called gun-show loophole. Her H.R. 142 would require face-to-face purchases of ammunition, the licensing of ammunition dealers, and the reporting of bulk ammo purchases...more

Suspension Lifted for Kid Who Made Gun Gesture with Hand

The 6-year-old Silver Spring boy who was suspended from elementary school for one day after making shooting gestures with his hand will have his school record cleared, according to his lawyer. Rodney Lynch, a student at Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, was suspended from school on Dec. 21 for making gun gestures with his thumb and forefinger. Thursday, Montgomery County Public Schools notified Lynch’s family they were striking the suspension from his record. Robin Ficker, the family’s lawyer, said “they’re delighted the suspension was cleared.”The suspension infuriated Rodney’s parents, and Ficker said the school overreacted. “He was playing,” Ficker said, adding that the school took the worst interpretation it could while dealing with the incident...more

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Wind power among big fiscal cliff winners

The “fiscal cliff” bill that prevented income taxes from rising for most Americans also renewed special tax breaks for a variety of industries, from Hollywood to wind power, in what has become a perennial ritual on Capitol Hill. The tax breaks, which the Senate included in the legislation that ultimately passed Congress late Tuesday, will end up costing about $100 billion over the next two years. A provision costing $222 million gives revenue from rum production in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands back to those territories, which use it to provide large subsidies to the industry. These provisions, known as “tax extenders” because most must be extended by Congress every year, help sweeten unpopular deals for lawmakers. It gives them a tangible benefit they can show constituents and provide a boon to lobbyists who charge clients to fight for them year in and year out. The renewable-energy industry made out better than most, with $18 billion from taxpayers over the next two years. Wind power producers in particular did well, extending a tax break worth 2.2 cents on each kilowatt-hour of energy they produce from plants built this year, adding up to about $12 billion from taxpayers over the next decade. The subsidy has support from lawmakers in both parties because it aims to benefit the environment as well as rural areas...more

Inmates using newspaper's gun owner map to threaten guards

Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the information to intimidate guards. Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger. "They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to Newsday. Robert Riley, an officer with the White Plains Police Department and president of its Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, agreed. "You have guys who work in New York City who live up here. Now their names and addresses are out there, too," he said adding that there are 8,000 active and retired NYPD officers currently living in Rockland County. Local lawmakers also say that they intend to introduce legislation that prevents information about legal gun owners from being released to the public...more

Court faults EPA for Bush-era soot regulations

An appeals court is siding with environmental groups that had challenged Environmental Protection Agency regulations on soot as too weak. The three-judge panel ruled Friday that the EPA regulated soot of a certain size under weaker cleanup requirements than it should have. The environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, had challenged two rules dating back to the George W. Bush administration. The court sent the rules back to the EPA with instructions to strengthen them. Soot, or fine particulate matter, is microscopic pollution released from smokestacks, diesel trucks and other sources. Breathing it can cause lung and heart problems, contributing to heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks. Two of the three judges were appointed by Republican presidents, the third by a Democrat. AP

Friday, January 04, 2013

Feds Block New Mexico Man From Clearing Debris From Dry Stream Bed

by 

    The federal government is at it again: fighting to prevent citizens from improving their own property under the alleged authority of the Clean Water Act of 1972.
    The latest target of tyranny is Peter and Francoise Smith, a retired couple from Lone Butte, New Mexico.
     Here’s the on ramp to the story as provided by the Santa Fe New Mexican:


Peter Smith said the 20 acres the couple bought in 2005 is near old ranch property in Lone Butte. An arroyo crosses about 1,000 feet of the property. Smith said he cleaned up glass bottles, beer cans and other trash from the arroyo, and periodically, he mowed back non-native, fast-growing salt cedar trees.
Smith said deep, eroded ruts in the arroyo threatened to flip over his tractor when he tried to mow. “So I went in and smoothed the ruts over,” he said.

    Gallina Arroyo is the name of the little stream that is giving the Smiths so much trouble.
    Imagine being the sort of person who takes pride in your property, keeping it clean, being a good steward of the land only to have agents of the federal government come in and accuse you of violating federal law and threatening to fine you for your efforts.
    “People dumped garbage down there, and there was a beetle infestation that took out a lot of the piƱon,” Peter Smith said, as quoted by the Albuquerque Journal. He added that the some 600 dead trees he was removing were an undeniable fire hazard.
    “The salt cedar was getting to the point it was so thick you couldn’t walk through it. So I cleaned up as much as I could and tried to maintain it with a tractor and a Bush Hog,” Smith told the Albuquerque Journal.
     Now, imagine that the “law” the feds accuse you of breaking was designed to protect the “waters of the United States” and the dry stream bed you are clearing rarely has water flow through it at all.
    Irrelevant, says the Army Corps of Engineers. According to the federal and state inspectors, the Gallina Arroyo has a “significant nexus” with the Rio Grande River. In case you’re wondering, the Rio Grande River is about 25 miles from where the mostly dry creek runs through the Smith’s property.
    “Basically, it discharges, eventually, into the Rio Grande,” said William Oberle, project manager with the Corps’ Albuquerque District regulatory division, as quoted in the Albuquerque Journal. “It’s a tributary, to make it simple.”
    According to documents filed in the lawsuit, the Gallina Arroyo may be mostly dry and far removed from any significant waterway, but when water does flow through it, that water occasionally empties into other arroyos, that in turn empty into bigger arroyos that eventually empty into the Rio Grande.
    Lest anyone think Peter and Francoise are muckrakers and are out to “git the gubmint," comments made by Mr. Smith to the Santa Fe New Mexican make it clear that he respects the law. “The main point is that it is not the waters of the United States,” Smith said. “It would be different if it was a flowing river going through there, but the thing is dry.”



Late cash saves Noble Basin

A big donation late in the game has completed the purchase of natural gas leases in the Noble Basin and prevented development there. Joe Ricketts, a Sublette County rancher and the founder of TD Ameritrade, stepped in at the 11th hour with money to complete the buyout of 58,000 acres of gas leases in the basin. The area had been targeted for development by Plains Production and Exploration, known as PXP. The Trust for Public Land, which organized the $8.75 million deal, had been about $750,000 short of the purchase price all the way up to Monday, the day before the money was due. The announcement came from Chris Deming, Wyoming director of the Trust for Public Land. “We have closed with PXP,” Deming said Wednesday. “Joe Ricketts provided the closing gift, and we were able to get the deal done the day before closing.” The trust had no assurance that the last funding would come through until the last day, Deming said. Ricketts owns the Lodge at Jackson Fork Ranch, a fly-fishing retreat near the basin that forms the headwaters of the Hoback River. Having previously given $1 million to the trust, he was the largest publicly identified donor — until Wednesday. The effort’s single largest donor, who previously had remained anonymous, was Hansjorg Wyss. The Swiss billionaire and Wilson resident gave $4.25 million through his foundation in the early phases of the buyout effort...more

Thursday, January 03, 2013

BLM’s decision on Nevada-Utah water pipeline called ‘pure folly

Las Vegas’ plan to tap billions of gallons of groundwater lurched closer to reality this week after the Bureau of Land Management granted a right of way for a 263-mile pipeline connecting the fast-growing gambling destination with rural basins to the north near the Utah state line. But excluded from this decision, which environmentalists and local ranchers will likely challenge in court, was the contentious matter of whether the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) will tap water from under the Snake Valley, the basin straddling the state line west of Delta. This is because Las Vegas has yet to secure rights to this groundwater, which remains in dispute between Utah and Nevada.  A proposed interstate agreement for dividing Snake Valley water awaits the signature of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. According to a spokesman on Friday, the governor and his advisers intend to review BLM’s move before deciding whether to sign off on the agreement, which has been favorably vetted by a panel of water-law experts. Under this proposal, Nevada would be able to pull up to 36,000 acre-feet annually from Snake Valley for diversion to the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which is seeking water sources to supplement its reliance on the over-allocated Colorado River.  The new BLM decision focuses on proposed infrastructure that will move 84,000 acre-feet of groundwater from Cave, Dry Lake, Delamar and Spring valleys, and another 41,000 acre-feet secured through agreements with ranchers and Lincoln County. (An acre-foot, equal to 326,000 gallons, can meet the annual needs of up to four households.)  SNWA General Manager Patricia Mulroy called the new BLM decision a "huge milestone" for southern Nevada, while environmentalists called it "pure folly."...more

Montana Judge Allows Wolf Season to Resume Near Yellowstone

Wolf hunting and trapping can resume near Yellowstone National Park after a Montana judge on Wednesday blocked the state from shutting down the practice over concerns that too many animals used in research were being killed. The restraining order from Judge Nels Swandal allows hunting and trapping to resume in areas east and west of the town of Gardiner in Park County. State officials closed the gray wolf season in those areas on Dec. 10. That came after several wolves collared for scientific research were killed, drawing complaints from wildlife advocates. The move prompted a lawsuit from sporting groups and a state lawmaker from Park County, Rep. Alan Redfield, who said the public was not given enough chance to weigh in on the closures. In his order, Swandal sided with the plaintiffs. He said the lack of public notice appeared to violate the Montana Constitution and threatened to deprive the public of the legal right to harvest wolves. He ordered the state "to immediately reinstitute and allow hunting and trapping of wolves in all areas of Park County."...more

Group will sue feds over mexican gray wolf trapping

An environmental group has notified federal authorities that it will sue to block them from trapping wolves that wander into Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico or the northern Rocky Mountains. On Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity announced its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a 2011 rule it adopted allowing agents to trap and relocate wolves wandering north of Interstate 40 or south of Interstate 10. Those areas are outside the agency’s Mexican gray wolf recovery zone — a 4.4million-acre swath centered in Arizona’s Apache National Forest and New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, where reintroduced wolves are considered experimental under the Endangered Species Act. Outside the recovery zone, wolves enjoy fuller protection as an endangered species. The group asserts that this means they should be allowed to roam “perfectly good wolf habitat” regardless of where they originated. “Despite that full protection, the Fish and Wildlife Service surreptitiously granted itself a permit to remove wolves from those areas,” said Michael Robinson, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. The group is challenging the rule in part because it was made without public involvement.  In recent years, it has grown more likely that wolves could come into the states from the booming population in Wyoming or from Mexico’s reintroduction efforts near the border. Wolf advocates believe that the rules Fish and Wildlife established before reintroducing wolves into the Blue Range that straddles the Arizona/New Mexico line impeded recovery, compared with the similar effort in the northern Rockies...more

4 Mexican gray wolves found dead in 2012

Officials confirm that three of the four wolves found dead in 2012 were illegally shot. In the most recent case, the carcass of a female member of Arizona's Hawks Nest pack was found in December. The cause of death is under investigation. Eight wolves were found dead in 2011. Three were shot, two were hit by vehicles and three died of natural causes.For the 2012 fiscal year, the coordinator of the wolf recovery program, Sherry Barrett, says officials made 19 payments worth more than $27,500 from a special interdiction fund that was set up to reimburse ranchers who lost livestock to the wolves. Fewer Mexican gray wolves were found dead in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona this past year, and federal officials say efforts aimed at reducing conflicts with livestock seem to be helping.  AP