Song Of The Day #422

Today's tune on Ranch Radio is performed by Shreveport, La.'s Singing Sheriff, Faron Young (his band was named The Country Deputies). If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin') was recorded in 1954 for Capitol Records.

For some trivia, Peanuts' cat in the comic strip was named Faron and was named for Young. Charlie Schultz was an admirer.

Faron Young - If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin').mp3

Arizona replaces controversial signs warning residents of illegal drug activity

Arizona signs confirming that drug and human smuggling activity was taking place well inside the Arizona border have received a face lift and now offer campers and hikers different information when they travel to the Arizona public land regions. The new sign now reads, “Visitor Information Update- active federal law enforcement patrol area, clean-up and restoration crews at work, contact BLM rangers for current area status.” In smaller print in the lower left-hand side of the sign provides the Bureau of Land Management district office phone number and encourages residents to call 911 for emergency. The tamer BLM signs sparked speculation as to why Arizona’s Bureau of Land Management decided to make the change. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio put it in plain and simple language; “They were embarrassed.” “Arizona’s BLM decided to change the signs after they created a national hysteria and they decided to temper it,” said America’s toughest Sheriff. The new signs went up over the weekend as a result of a Congressional bill that granted $600 million to increase border security measures. BLM received a special $200,000 emergency grant to conduct and increase patrols in the southwest portion of Arizona in an effort to saturate the region, according to BLM spokesperson Deborah Stevens...more

BLM takes part of their grant "to conduct and increase patrols" and spends it on signs? Does that comply with Congressional intent?

This was a political decision pure and simple and I wonder who actually gave the order to change signs.

GAO report says Obama administration not allowing Border Patrol to do their job

I've posted on this before (Feds feud while land is overrun, 'Green' red tape said to hinder Border Patrol, Border Patrol Projects Caught Up for Months in Red Tape, Government Study Shows) but the GAO report is still making news. This is from yesterday's Washington Examiner.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report claiming that the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department have prevented about 15 percent of the 26 Border Patrol stations in the American southwest from apprehending illegal aliens and drug smugglers. Before Border Patrol agents can build roads or set up surveillance posts on at least half of the land along the U.S./Mexican border, they must first apply for permission from the Interior Department and the Forest Service. Before permission is granted (if it is), the land management agencies conduct environmental studies which take several months. Of course, all the while…both drug and human smugglers operate basically unimpeded...

Update on Sue Krentz from Judy Keeler

Hi everyone,

I apologize if you're receiving more than one copy of this, I combined several lists so everyone would know how Sue is doing....

Most of you already know Sue Krentz was hit by a drunk drive about a month ago (article below). She and a friend were crossing the street when a car came around the corner and hit them.

Both ladies were injured and air vacced to the University Hospital in Tucson. Sue suffered severe injuries including 5 breaks in her hip, a broken leg, head injuries and several fractures in her spine. She has been in ICU in the University Hospital for the last month.

She was moved into Rehab last week and I’m here to report she’s on the mend!! Thanks to everyone’s prayers and thoughts she’s doing much better.

She still has a lot of surgeries and rehab to look forward, but Sue’s a fighter!!! She's set her mind to be home by Nov 18th, pray she gets to be there for their shipping!!

October 31st is Sue’s birthday. Thought you might like to send her a card or give her a call and let her know you're thinking about her.

If you call or visit, try to be brief (I know that's hard to do with Suzie), but she’s still on pain meds and they make her sleepy. If she falls asleep, it’s not because she doesn’t want to hear from you!!

Here’s her contact info:

Susan Krentz
Health South
2650 N. Wyatt, Rm 218
Tucson, AZ 85712

Several people have asked about making donation to help offset the medical costs. ACGA has established the following account to help the family. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact their office- 602-267-1129.

Wells Fargo - Sue Krentz Recovery Fund 5206283169

I’ll be Tucson with her Wednesday and Thursday.

And, keep her in your prayers!! She has a long row to hoe!!

Judy

Turtles last hurdle for huge solar project

The only thing standing between California and the largest solar power plant in the world is four desert tortoises. The four reptiles will be relocated in the coming weeks to make room for the Blythe Solar Power Project in eastern Riverside County by the end of the year. The plan was approved Monday by the Interior Department. At 6,000 acres, the project will be the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world, said Bill Keegan, spokesman for Solar Trust of America. It eventually will generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 300,000 homes. The project is just one of nine in the state that are racing to meet a deadline set by President Obama's economic stimulus package. Renewable power projects that secure all their permits and start construction by the end of this year can receive a federal grant worth 30 percent of the project's cost, in lieu of taking a tax credit of equal value. The site will use mirror arrays to collect and concentrate sunlight. When focused on a tower filled with liquid at the center of the four separate arrays, that energy will produce steam. The steam will then turn a turbine to generate electricity. Keegan said he expects the $6 billion project to begin generating power by the second quarter of 2013...more

Shouldn't they be called TARP turtles?

Do you reckon BLM was under any pressure to meet that deadline?

First the Bushies pressured them on oil and gas, and now Obama pressures them on wind and solar.

Let's see, 30 percent of $6 billion is...you better damn well believe those turtles were gonna get moved.

There is more info from the AP, including the fact the project is by a German company.

D.C. toilet shortage

The calls of nature may be particularly loud at an upcoming D.C. event if attendees don't have a place to "go." Comedy Central organizers are having a hard time finding port-o-potties for their rallies to take place in a week and a half, after the Marine Corps Marathon planners snatched up about 800 of them for the same weekend. The organizers of Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity and Stephen Colbert's March to Keep Fear Alive, both to take place Saturday, Oct. 30, have asked the marathon staff to share the portable toilets with their 65,000 expected to attendees. But the Marines aren't budging -- they plan to lock the toilets until the morning of their race the day after, they tell the New York Times...more

There's all kinds of things I could say about this but I will refrain. I've always been fond of the Marines though.

Aren't there any endangered turtles in DC?

BLM director wants to reopen inquiry

The director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has asked federal investigators to reopen an inquiry into a former Farmington BLM manager. Steve Henke faces renewed questions regarding his tenure leading the BLM's Farmington office after a previous investigation found he accepted golf vacations and other gifts from the oil and gas industry. The call for further investigation indicates Henke's problems are not resolved. BLM Director Bob Abbey "has new information, and he has referred that information to the inspector general," said Celia Boddington, a bureau spokeswoman. Abbey, in an Oct. 18 letter to Interior Department Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall, requests the office "renew its investigative inquiries regarding certain questionable activities that may have occurred during the tenure of Steve Henke," including activities that "eventually led to his employment by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association." Until resigning in May in retirement from the BLM, Henke served for nine years as district manager of the BLM's Farmington field office. He is now president of the oil and gas association, a trade group that advocates for industry interests. Henke did not return messages seeking comment Monday...more

Wildlife agencies stress extreme caution (bears)

This year, bears are on the move and hunters need to be aware. That’s the message from wildlife managers at the Wyoming Game and Fish (G&F) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Last week, a Sublette County incident came to light that reinforces the need for caution. According to FWS Special Agent Roy Brown, an adult grizzly bear was shot and killed on Forest Service land in the Horse Creek area west of Merna. The incident took place on Sept. 7, but because a Department of Justice policy prohibits public disclosure of information in pending cases, information about the shooting wasn’t available until after charges were dropped in mid October. Reading from the incident report, Brown said a Wyoming outfitter, his guide and an out-of-state client were hunting moose in a remote Wyoming Range area above Horse Creek when they unknowingly disturbed a grizzly from its “daybed.” Brown said the men first noticed the bear when it growled and charged. The guide – who was leading the group – shot the bear with a .450 Marlin rifle, knocking it down. When the animal attempted to get up, the guide shot again. Brown said a third shot ensured the wounded bear was dead. Brown said there was no evidence the bear was protecting a kill and the report did not mention cubs. The three men rode horses from their camp and were hiking when the bear charged them. The men did not have downed game. This has been a particularly busy year for wildlife managers. In the past two months, grizzly bears have attacked three hunters and several cattle on public grazing allotments north of Pinedale and near Merna...more

Mountain lions seen in Tucson area

Hikers have recently spotted mountain lions in Sabino Canyon northeast of Tucson and other nearby areas, prompting wildlife officials to urge caution. The U.S. Forest Service says as many as four lions were seen in Sabino Canyon in late September. Agency spokesman Joshua Taiz says there was a “territorial encounter” involving a male and female lion and two of her cubs. But Taiz says none of the lions have approached or attacked people...more

Judge Allows Colorado Mustang Gather

A federal court judge has denied wild horse advocates' motion for an injunction to prevent a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) mustang gather in Colorado. The BLM began gathering wild horses that had moved outside of the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area, southwest of Meeker, on Oct. 11. BLM public affairs specialist David Boyd said the gather was necessary to maintain a healthy wild horse herd that is in balance with other resources and land uses. In a suit filed in federal court on Oct. 7, Habitat for Horses (a Texas-based equine welfare agency), the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Cloud Foundation, Toni Moore, and Dr. Don Moore asked the court to stop the BLM from removing any of the horses pending a complete judicial review of the BLM’s conduct. On Oct. 21, U.S. District Court Judge William H. Pauley, III, of the Eastern District of New York, declined to grant the injunction on multiple grounds including that the BLM is obligated to manage public lands "not solely to maintain the vitality of wild horse populations."...more

BLM backs Richardson's wild-horse sanctuary

The head of the federal Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program supports a plan for a proposed mustang sanctuary in New Mexico near Cerrillos and said it could serve as a model for other states. Don Glenn, chief of the BLM's Division of Wild Horses and Burros, said the agency solicited ideas for more sustainably handling an ever-growing number of wild horses that need homes. "One idea was to seek out partners and places to put sanctuaries," Glenn said. "We are interested in a partnership with the state if they buy this land." A few weeks ago, the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, which oversees the State Parks Division, announced plans to purchase the 12,000-plus-acre Ortiz Mountain Ranch, also known as the Ball Ranch. The property is south of Madrid. The $2.9 million for the purchase would come from Gov. Bill Richardson's discretionary portion of New Mexico's federal stimulus funds. The purchase would expand Cerrillos Hills State Park tenfold, although the ranch is not contiguous with the existing park. A portion of the ranch would be set aside for a wild horse sanctuary, according to Jim Noel, Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Cabinet secretary...more

The Roan Plateau goes to court

Negotiations have fizzled between an energy company that wants to drill on a treasured plateau in western Colorado and the environmental groups that sued to stop it. That means a federal judge will decide whether to halt energy exploration on the wildlife-rich Roan Plateau. When the Bureau of Land Management sold parcels there amid furious complaints from environmental groups in summer 2008, it netted $118 million -- the biggest energy sale in the lower 48 in BLM history. Federal Magistrate Judge Kristen Mix had ordered the negotiations before the case proceeded, but late last week the two sides reported they were deadlocked...more

National monument land swap draws protest

Hikers, bikers and horseback riders are protesting a planned 7,269-acre land swap between the federal government and a Palm Springs Indian tribe, saying the trade gives up an irreplaceable public gem and threatens access to popular trails within the Santa Rosa San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. Under the plan, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would exchange 9 square miles in the northern part of the monument for 2.3 square miles belonging to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. The tribe would gain 5,799 acres of mostly inaccessible land, except for two key sections with trails, including part of the nationally ranked Skyline Trail, better known as Cactus-to-Clouds, a challenging hike from the Palm Springs Desert Museum to Mount San Jacinto Peak. Tribal members say the land, which contains ancient art and village sites, belonged to their ancestors and should have been part of their holdings all along. Though the tribe says it won't make changes, members of the Desert Trails Coalition are campaigning to block the exchange. They say it could result in restrictions on 11.6 miles of trails, including Thielman, Garstin, Araby and Wild Horse, that cross land the tribe will acquire...more

2 agencies crack down on smugglers

For the past seven weeks, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Bureau of Land Management rangers quietly carried out an anti-smuggling campaign in two national monuments that had become infested with drug runners and illegal immigrants. In an interview Monday, directors of the two agencies said they've added manpower, erected barriers and torn down smuggler-lookout posts in an effort to secure the notorious Vekol Valley near Casa Grande. im Kenna, Arizona director for the BLM, and Victor Manjarrez Jr., chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said the two agencies established unprecedented cooperation in an effort to combat border-related crime in the Sonoran Desert National Monument south of Interstate 8 and the Ironwood Forest National Monument west of Tucson. They said the campaign, including saturation patrols and nighttime operations, was prompted by a series of violent events near Casa Grande during the past year. In one incident, a deputy was wounded in a shootout with smugglers; in another, two Mexican nationals were killed by suspected bandits...more

Drought-stricken Canadian ranchers forced to slaughter breeding cattle

The beef cattle herd in B.C. has been in steep decline over the past five years and ranchers are selling off breeding stock for slaughter, mainly due to persistent drought in the province's Interior and the North, according to the B.C. Cattlemen's Association. "The herd dropped by seven per cent between July 2009 and July 2010 ... and I would bet it has dropped another seven per cent since July," said B.C. Cattlemen's Association general manager Kevin Boon. "A lot of guys have been losing money since BSE [mad cow disease] and are selling in bigger numbers or their whole herd," Boon said. "We are getting down to about half what we had from our peak time." The association worries a shortage of breeding stock could leave the industry years from recovery once conditions improve...more

Song Of The Day #421

This morning Ranch Radio presents Eddy Arnold singing his big hit Bouquet of Roses.

Arnold's recordings are widely available, as you can see by going here.

Eddy Arnold - Bouquet Of Roses.mp3

A Gift to the Drug Cartels: Will New Mexico Become the Next Arizona?

Opposition to S. 1689, Senator Bingaman's wilderness bill, has gone national. One study and one commentary were released last week to a national audience. The Center for Immigration Studies issued A Gift to the Drug Cartels: Will New Mexico Become the Next Arizona? and a nationally ranked blog posted the lengthy report New Mexico Wilderness Bill – Another Disastrous Federal Land Grab.

Here is the CIS press release:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new Center for Immigration Studies Memorandum explores how seemingly innocuous legislation before the Senate could turn 25 miles of southeast New Mexico's Dona Ana County into a staging ground for drug cartels and illegal alien smugglers.

S. 1689, the "Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act," changes the currently designated "public use" of certain Department of Interior lands to a "wilderness" designation. The end result would be to severely curtail the Border Patrol's ability to operate due to the stringent nature of wilderness laws. New Mexico could suffer the same results as Arizona, as documented by the Center in its mini-documentary series (http://cis.org/HiddenCamerasSeries) showing the waste, destruction, and unsafe circumstances that borderlands suffer when wilderness laws (and poor federal government policy) create a law enforcement vacuum.

The new Center for Immigration Studies Memorandum, "A Gift to the Drug Cartels: Will New Mexico Become the Next Arizona?" (http://cis.org/new-mexico-cartel-gift), authored by Janice Kephart, Director of National Security Policy at the Center and producer of the "Hidden Cameras" mini-documentary series, leaves no doubt that bill's goal is to support legitimate environmental conservation. However, through an in-depth examination of current law and policy, Kephart concludes that the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act would leave the Border Patrol with little ability, and little incentive, to do its job. The measure would effectively hand drug cartels 25 more borderland miles for operations; an alternative would be to assure conservation with adequate law enforcement in the area, thus keeping the cartels under control while protecting our public safety and national security.

The measure, co-sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, and Tom Udall (D-NM), was passed out of Chairman Bingaman's committee in July 2010 and is awaiting consideration on the Senate floor.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent non-partisan research institution that examines the impact of immigration on the United States and neither endorses nor opposes legislation.

The CIS study has received wide media coverage, such as:

Will New Mexico Become the Next Arizona? newsmax.com

Expert says change to federal land designation in New Mexico ‘a gift to the drug cartels’ U.S. Report

It's even reached New York City, as witness this letter published at Congress.org:

Subject:
S. 1689, the "Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act,"

To:
Sen. Charles Schumer
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

October 21, 2010

Senator Gilibrand / Senator Schumer,

Please vote against "S. 1689, the "Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act," .
The measure would effectively hand drug cartels 25 more borderland miles for operations.

We already have large sections of our border with Mexico posted with signs that says "It's dangerous to travel in the area", we don't need additional areas of our country under FOREIGN CONTROL!

New York , NY

Gateway Pundit has been rated as one of the Top 100 blogs in the U.S. by Carnegie Mellon University and he has posted New Mexico Wilderness Bill – Another Disastrous Federal Land Grab. I'm pleased to report a fellow Las Crucen, Rachel Pulaski, played an important part in this national exposure.

Here are some excerpts:

The New Mexico Wilderness Bill, if enacted, will be disastrous for New Mexico and disastrous for America...

What does Federal Wilderness Designation mean? When land is designated as Federal Wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act, there are numerous prohibitions, such as:

* no permanent road within any Wilderness area
* no temporary road
* no use of motorized vehicles
* no motorized equipment of motorboats
* no landing of aircraft
* no form of mechanical transport
* no structure or installation

Of course these restrictions would not concern people that have no regard for U.S. laws. People like the drug cartels, drug smugglers, illegal aliens, human traffickers, etc. The DOI has submitted a 2002 report titled “Threat Assessment of Public Lands” that outlines the dangers that we face on a daily basis from illegal incursions on these lands. The report contains grim statistics. Video here...

Bingaman's bill is finally receiving the national attention and critique it deserves.

Mexico: 14 dead in massacre at Ciudad Juarez party

Gunmen stormed two neighboring homes and massacred 13 young people at a birthday party in the latest large-scale attack in this violent border city, even as a new government strategy seeks to restore order with social programs and massive police deployments. Attackers in two vehicles pulled up to the houses in a lower-middle-class Ciudad Juarez neighborhood late Friday and opened fire on about four dozen partygoers gathered for a 15-year-old boy's birthday party. The dead identified so far were 13 to 32 years old, including six women and girls, Chihuahua state Attorney General Carlos Salas told reporters at a news conference at the crime scene. The majority of the victims were high school students, a survivor said. Relatives of the victims gathered outside prosecutors' office, some weeping laments, some shouting demands for justice. All asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. "Why, my God, why," shouted the mother of Daniel Figueroa, 16, after she identified her son's body. "I want to be dead, with my daughter," the mother of a 19-year-old woman killed in the attack told a reporter. "This cannot go on. We want justice, even though nothing can bring her back." Salas said a total of 20 people were wounded, including a 9-year-old boy...more

Mexico’s ‘war next door’ linked directly to U.S. - Cartels established in 270 American cities

The Mexican trafficking organizations have also crossed deeply into the United States, peddling tons of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine to American drug users, who reward the cartels with an estimated 19 to 39 billion dollars a year, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Federal authorities say Mexican traffickers are now entrenched in at least 270 American cities, running sophisticated and disciplined networks that not only bring the drugs in, but also ship truckloads of cash back to Mexico. A distinguishing feature of the Mexican drug war is the unspeakable violence played out daily on the streets and posted in graphic detail by newspapers and media websites. Large-scale gun battles, mass executions, corpses strewn in public, beheadings, torture and grenade attacks have become commonplace. As of this writing, at least a dozen Mexican mayors have been killed in 2010 alone. A gubernatorial candidate was shot dead on a highway. After a Mexican marine was killed during a raid against a drug kingpin, gunmen massacred the young man's family after his funeral. "I think they make al-Qaida look tame in terms of what they do. I can't explain how someone loses their humanity and resorts to these things," said Anthony Coulson, a recently retired DEA supervisor. Coulson ran the DEA's Tucson District Office, overseeing 255 miles of border between the U.S. and Mexico. He argued that the violence, and the amounts of illicit drugs flowing from Mexico into the United States, has never been higher and that the traffickers have never been more powerful or in control of more territory than they are now...more

Mexico's narco-war claims victims North of the Border

Although some media outlets have portrayed the murder of an American citizen by a Mexican cartel organization as an unusual event, it is really quite common. In fact, 79 American citizens officially were reported murdered in Mexico in 2009, according to U.S. State Department figures, and the State Department notes that there were probably other cases that went unreported. For 2010, the State Department reports 48 American citizens have been murdered in Mexico through June 10. Research has uncovered at least another six reported deaths since June 10 (including David Hartley), so unofficially the number of American citizens reported murdered in Mexico is approximately 54 for the year to date. While many of the Americans murdered in Mexico are undoubtedly involved in some way with the drug trade, others have no apparent link. Two of the American citizens murdered in Mexico in 2010 were Lesley Enriquez, an employee of the U.S. consulate in Juarez, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, a detention officer at the El Paso County Jail. Still, with more than 9,100 murders from cartel violence to date this year in Mexico, the 54 American murder victims comprise only a small percentage of the overall body count. Because of this, some of our contacts in the Mexican government are having a hard time understanding why the Hartley murder has elicited such an intense media reaction in the United States, which in turn resulted in diplomatic pressure on Mexican authorities from the U.S. government. At the same time Mexico is being pressured by the U.S. government about the death of one American citizen, it is also are trying to come to grips with the fact that the lead Mexican investigator in the case was kidnapped and beheaded. This turn of events provides a fairly good illustration of the security environment in Mexico today...more

Wife of Man Missing on Border Lake Wants Obama to Take On Mexican Cartels

Tiffany Hartley, the wife of David Hartley who was allegedly shot and killed by Mexican pirates on a border lake with Texas, is telling President Obama that it's time to take on drug cartels. "He should wake up and look what's going on in our backyards," she told the Denver Post. Hartley says her husband's death should be a focal point as to why the U.S. should take on these drug cartels. "David is not the only American who has been killed, but this situation may be a turning point," she told the paper...more

Citing Species Act, Judge Spares Prairie Dogs

A Kansas rancher’s long battle against the poisoning of this state’s biggest prairie dog colony is being hailed as a significant victory for wildlife conservation. Numbering about 25,000 prairie dogs in far western Kansas, the colony is a prime source of food for one of the most endangered mammals in the world, the black-footed ferret. Larry Haverfield, the 74-year-old rancher on whose land the colony thrives, went to court to stop commissioners in Logan County from exterminating the prairie dogs without his permission, despite a 1901 state law that allows them to do so. Last month, the judge hearing the case here sided with Mr. Haverfield and Gordon Barnhardt, who also owns some of the land. “It’s important because it says the Endangered Species Act trumps a 100-year-old state law that forces the extermination of prairie dogs,” said the men’s lawyer, Randy Rathbun...more

‘Algae’ and ‘Grasses’ May Be Used to Reach Mandated Biofuels Goals for 2022, Says Obama Administration

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former Democratic governor of Iowa, said that for the Obama administration to reach its goal of producing 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel every year starting in 2022, it may blend algae and grass with gasoline. Ethanol, gasoline blended with corn alcohol, is a readily available biofuel. The biofuels push was mandated by Congress through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and it is partly designed to reduce U.S. consumption of oil. The 2008 Farm Bill established the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), which is intended to help the U.S. attain the 36-billion-gallon-a-year biofuels production goal. “We would expect and anticipate several hundreds of millions of dollars being utilized in BCAP,” Vilsack said at a “newsmakers” event at the National Press Club on Thursday. “We announced and indicated that $281-and-a-half million in the assistance programs -- all of this money has been appropriated and authorized, so it’s not a matter of going back to Congress and asking for more resources to do what we are announcing we’re going to do.”...more

The Energy and Farm Bills, two examples of the DC Deep Thinkers saying they know more than you what fuel you should buy for your family or business.

The Energy bill was 827 pages...so the issue must be very complex.

I have a less complex solution. Use your gas-powered vehicle to get down to the voting booth and retire these DC Deep Thinkers. Let them "think" on their own dime.

Trew: Is this really progress?

Once upon a time, here in the Panhandle, groceries and other supplies were available only at Tascosa, Mobeetie, New Clarendon and Dodge City. This is a long way from our modern Quick Stops and Super Stores. Imagine making out your grocery list for enough staples to last six months or more at a time. Or, list the items needed on your chuck wagon to feed eight hungry, hard-working men on a cattle drive lasting for several months. Of course the fare was simple, mostly flour, salt, baking powder and dried pinto beans. Meat was butchered as needed whether at home on the frontier or on the trail. One of the most important facilities for a frontier home was a dirt-walled root cellar where almost anything could be stored in an effort to preserve food a little longer. When meat-packing companies developed home meat cures, everyone built a large wooden meat box to hold cured hams, shoulders, bacon sides and sausage after the fall hog killing. Another fall practice that worked well was hanging sides of fresh beef, wrapped in old bed sheets, in the windmill towers...more

Song Of The Day #420

Last week Ranch Radio got this email from Jimmy Bason:

date:Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 9:34 AM
subject:music?

For Heavens sake! Get some JB weld and bailing wire and fix that music gizmo. We have to have to some reason to go to your site.

Jimmy

Well, I can see why an Obama supporter like Bason would not go to The Westerner for it's content. At least he still has an appreciation for good music (although that's probably Patti Lu's doing).

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and today we present Eric Lewis and Andy Ratliff performing Calicoon Rag. This tune is an example of "soft swing", which we are presenting today since Bason apparently doesn't care for anything that is true blue or hardcore.

You'll find this catchy tune on their 14 track CD Edgar's Blues.

Just click on the Play icon or the title of the song and a media player will pop up. If you don't like the media player following you around the blog, then just click on the arrow on the right side of the player and it will diminish.


Eric Lewis and Andy Ratliff - Calicoon Rag.mp3

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Cowgirls don't cry

by Julie Carter

Little girls are not all born "cowgirl" tough. They also don't have to be a cowgirl to have the trait.

However, many of those lessons are taught in the dust of a corral or at the end of a day so long that her saddle becomes a torture chamber and the dark has overtaken everything.

Daughters and their daddies have a special relationship that is an unpredictable mixture of tenderness and toughness.

With a soft heart he will give in to her natural wiles that turn him to putty with the sound of her voice and the batting of her eyelashes.

With an iron-tough determination, he will go beyond the bounds of good sense to protect her, even when it means evoking her anger and forcing a daughterly pout directed at his resolve.

With a soft voice reserved only for her, he will tell her that life will let her down and like the falls she has taken from her saddle horse, it'll hurt, but only for a little while.

"Honey," he'll say, "cowgirls don't cry."

In his guidance, he'll tell her, "When you fall off, you get right back on and ride. Don't wait, don't think about. Just do it. And honey, cowgirls don't cry."
Those life lessons will always serve her well.

The taste of dirt in her mouth, the pain of a hard-ground landing and the sting of the tears as she fights them back are physical memories that translate to that "grown-up living" everybody talked about.

True to her training, she never let the world see her heart break; she was determined there would be no evidence of a "fall apart." In the recesses of her mind, those words echoed like down a long canyon, "Honey, cowgirls don't cry."

Life gives no quarter to those in boots and jeans. It batters and buffets, tosses and slams. Whether natural or man-made, the storms in life keep coming.

There have been times in my life when, in spite of that stainless-steel badge of courage I was handed as a very young girl, I cried.

I cried when my first horse, Ranger, died. I was 5 years old, he was 20-something and in a running fit of his last breaths of life, he raced the length of a meadow and then lay down as his heart stopped beating. I lost my first best friend that day.

I cried when my best buddy, our blue-eyed Australian shepherd, Sally, was no longer at my bedroom window every night to be let back into the house after my dad had put her out.

The loss surpassed all the usual teenage heartbreak brought by peers, boys and the drama of growing up.

I cried when my dad sat before me and told me that we were moving from the ranch I'd known as home all my life.

I was 16 and recall the moment still with a sharp pain in my heart and tears waiting to fall, not because of his words, but because it made him cry too.

Until that moment, I'd never seen my dad cry.

Through the years, there have been other occasions for tears. Happy tears and heart break tears.

Sometimes I let them fall, but more often, I did not. "Honey, cowgirls don't cry."
When my dad lay dying at the age of 50, cheated of the life he worked to create, I cried every tear I hadn't cried up until then.

It seemed as if they'd been stored for that moment when the pain of the loss far surpassed the indoctrination of "cowgirls don't cry."

And when it was over, so were the tears of that magnitude. I knew the lesson was not in the "not crying." It was in the determination to get back on and ride again.
I finally understood that he wasn't telling me not to cry, not really. He was telling me to not quit and not stop trying.

What he was really saying was, "Cowgirls never give up."

Julie can be reach for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

It's The Pitts: Dressed Beef

by Lee Pitts

Although I’ve never heard a single song by Lady Gaga I am a huge fan of hers after she wore a dress made out of meat at this year’s MTV’s Video Music Awards.

It wasn’t just Lady Gaga’s weird dress that was made from meat but her shoes and purse too. She even wore what appeared to be a deboned steak as a hat, which I thought was a little bit over the top, but that’s just me. Fashion critics were split on the dress, some calling it “elegant” and “fashion forward” while others saw it as an extension of the trend to show exposed female flesh. Certainly the combo of Gaga and her outfit dressed out and was fleshier than a yield grade four steer. PETA really had a cow over Lady Gaga’s meat dress, which made me like it even more.

If meat dresses catch on, just think, it will give all new meaning to the term “clothes horse.”

Lady Gaga must perspire terribly, either that or she spilled Worcestershire Sauce on her meat dress, or the dogs attacked it, because she wore three outfits on the MTV show. Mind you, I’ve never watched MTV in my life but I did see pictures of Miss Gaga in her meat outfit and I must say, it looked well done. Okay, so that’s a poor choice of words. Let’s just say it was rare.

But not as rare as you’d think.

Lady Gaga had previously worn a bikini made from meat and before that a Canadian artist, and I use the term loosely, named Jana Sterbak, made a meat dress she called a “Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorexic” way back in 1987. I’m told that Sterbak’s outfit is now rotting away in a Paris museum. I suppose it was either that or it was going to be made into fast food burgers, but I can’t even see Frenchmen ordering a Meat Dress Whopper or Big Mac with French flies.

The idea of “carcass as clothing” didn’t reemerge until 2006 when a Chinese artist, Zhang Huan, made a “muscle suit” from meat. Then some contestants in America’s Top Model wore meat in 2008 and any day now I expect to see Cher wearing lingerie on stage made from nothing but a rump roast. And even though I’d love to see Michael Jordan’s Beefy T’s made from ground round I must say that Lady Gaga’s dress didn’t look all that comfortable or practical. It looked like if she attempted to sit down in her juicy outfit she might rip a fat seam, tear a muscle or bruise her beef.

From looking at the photos I’d guess that Lady Gaga’s dress was no “off the rack” outfit. (Or, I guess it was, in one respect). The dress must have weighed 50 pounds and probably doubled Lady Gaga’s annual beef consumption in just one night. And I don’t suppose the dress could ever be used again. I mean, what’s she going to do, hang it in her closet and wear it to church or a nephew’s marriage?

The best part of the meat dress was that it appeared to be made from cheaper cuts of beef. Flank steak seemed to play a major role. As a result I can envision beef becoming a natural fiber just like wool, only it will be ready to wear, or grill. The Beef Board has been looking for ways to increase the value of the parts of the beef carcass that don’t bring as much money and clothing from beef would certainly do that. After Lady Gaga’s display I expect Hollywood actresses to soon be wearing $100,000 Versace gowns made of meat. Just think what that could do for beef prices! We could easily change our slogan to “Beef! It’s What To Wear to Dinner!”

One critic said Lady Gaga’s dress was “immature” but it looked to me to be well aged. In response to critics the singer said, “If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones.” I say, Gaga for President... or at least our next beef spokesperson!

PETA says the idea of wearing parts from dead cows will never, ever catch on. But I’m not so sure. After all, people have been wearing leather shoes, belts, pants, purses and jackets for what, thousands of years now?

But it’s probably just a fad.

PETA vs. CEI

From the Competitive Enterprise Institute's OpenMarket.org

PETA vs. CEI: A Surprisingly Amiable Exchange of Ideas

by Michelle Minton

Yesterday, the DCist reported that PETA planned a protest outside of the Capital Grille, a meat-centric restaurant here in the nation’s capital.

The point, according to the organization’s press release, is to convince folks that “meat is not green” by showing that the meat and dairy industries contribute to global warming because cows release methane gas into the atmosphere thereby compounding greenhouse gases.

Despite recently released reports that suggest cow-methane production is much less than previously estimated, and that not only cows, but also other animals, marshlands, and anything decomposing produces methane gases, the PETA folks decide to target meat-eaters. Why?

The reason PETA chose meat-eaters as their target is because they are an animal protection group-not a world protection group. The mission of their organization is to prevent animal killing, abuse, and exploitation. They simply latched onto the global warming angle as way to promote their agenda.

CEI staged a counter rally nearby and we were prepared for a shouting match, but to PETA’s credit, they were pretty accepting of our presence. Of course, they may have been a little shy to get in any altercation considering they only had three people and we had about seven folks. We had signs expressing the deliciousness of meat while they had a person dressed as a cow and pamphlets appealing to individuals to consider giving up meat.

While their arguments made it pretty clear that PETA is more concerned with animals than the welfare of humanity, their appeals to the individual to voluntarily change their behavior on an individual level are acceptable and fine way to try and “change the world” and as far as we could tell they weren’t petitioning governments to get involved and prevent the production of meat or consumption of energy as other environmentalists groups do.

Our counter rally, which was more of a pro-meat/pro-humanity rally, seemed to receive a much more enthusiastic reception from passers-by as we handed out Enjoy Capitalism stickers and free sticks of beef jerky.

In the end people love meat and the industrialized production and shipping of meat has substantially improved the quality of life and nutrition for people around the world. Sorry cows.

THE WESTERNER officially designates Michelle Minton as an "Honorary Cowgirl".

Here is the CEI video of the event, Go Meat!:

Medical Journal Bias on Guns

Medical journals have increasingly strayed into politics at the expense of scientific accuracy. For example, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has over the last few months published a number of extremely biased and poorly done studies on gun control, says economist John R. Lott, Jr.

One article makes the case for extending background checks to the private transfers of guns, arguing that "perhaps the principal reason for the well-documented failure of the Brady Act to lower rates of firearm-related homicide is that its requirements do not apply to private-party gun sales." But the authors make this argument without providing any evidence that these or any other background checks reduce crime.

* The only "evidence" that "screening works" comes from their claim that, in 2008, 1.5 percent of those having a Brady background check were denied from purchasing a gun.
* However, virtually all these cases represent so-called "false-positives."
* In 2006 and 2007 (the latest data years available), a tiny fraction -- just 2 percent of those 1.5 percent -- involved possible unlawful possession; just 0.2 percent of the 1.5 percent were viewed as prosecutable.

Gun shows are not an important source of guns for criminals, says Lott.

* Justice Department surveys of criminals indicate that fewer than 1 percent of such guns are obtained at a gun show.
* Instead, the vast majority of crime guns come from illegal purchases off the street, something exceedingly difficult to control.

A second piece describes the effects on crime from the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court decision in the following way: "Dire predictions have not yet been realized." This suggests that there is inevitable misfortune yet to come, but in fact D.C.'s murder rate fell by 23 percent in 2009 and continued falling sharply in 2010, several times faster than the drop in murder in the rest of the nation.

Source: John R. Lott, Jr., "Medical Journal Bias on Guns," National Review Online, October 18, 2010.

For text:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/250157/medical-journal-bias-guns-john-r-lott-jr


NCPA

Killer Bees Responsible for Georgia Death

The Georgia Department of Agriculture confirmed on Thursday that Africanized honey bees -- more commonly known as "killer bees" -- were responsible for the death of an elderly man in southwest Georgia last week. The Dougherty County man disturbed a colony of the bees with his bulldozer, and received more than 100 bee stings. Africanized bees are a hybrid of African and European honey bees. The Africanized bee and the more familiar European honey bee, which is Georgia's official state insect, look the same. They both are only able to sting once, and there is no difference between the venom produced by each variety. The difference is that Africanized honey bees are extremely defensive and are likely to defend a much wider area around their nest. They are also very aggressive, and will sting individuals in large numbers. Africanized bees first appeared in the United States in Texas in 1990. They have since been found in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and now in Georgia. Experts have been expecting the arrival of the killer bees in Georgia for several years. A breeding population of the bees have been in Florida since 2005...more

NM - Virgin spaceship to pass new milestone

The world's first private passenger spaceship will pass another milestone toward its commercial lift-off Friday, at a remote spaceport in the New Mexico desert. Flamboyant British multi-millionaire Richard Branson will commemorate the completion of the main runway at Spaceport America, near the town of Las Cruces where the Virgin Galactic project is based. SpaceShipTwo, which could carry paying customers into suborbital space by early 2012, had its maiden flight in the California desert in March. On Friday, the aircraft -- re-Christened the VSS Enterprise -- will stage a flypass high above the new two-mile (3.2-kilometer) long, 200-foot (60-meter) wide runway in tandem with its mothership, known as WhiteKightTwo or Eve. "The completion of the runway at Spaceport America (is) a major milestone in the construction of the world?s first purpose-built commercial spaceport," it said in a statement. Virgin Galactic, which aims to become the world's first company to promote space tourism, has already collected 45 million dollars in deposits from more than 340 people who have reserved seats aboard the six-person craft...more

Corporations, conservation, and the green movement

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, corporate consolidation—a trend since the 1990s—is also making it easier for green groups to go after companies. As Jason Clay, Senior Vice President of Market Transformation at WWF, noted in his July TED talk in Oxford, convincing leading companies to change the way they source commodities can have a substantial impact on global supply chains. "100 companies control 25 percent of the trade of all 15 of the most significant commodities on the planet," he said. "We can get our arms around 100 companies." For example, during the summer of 2009 Greenpeace released a report linking deforestation in the Amazon to major consumer products including fast-food hamburgers, Gucci handbags, and Nike shoes. The fallout was immediate—Brazil's cattle industry, which is the largest in the world and a dominant force in Brazilian politics—was brought to a standstill virtually overnight. Brazilian cattle giants saw their offices raided and loans suspended or revoked. They also faced stepped-up threats from the government—led by the public prosecutor of the state of Pará—and a sharp public rebuke from some of their biggest buyers including Walmart, Nike, and Timberland, who demanded greater accountability for their supply chains. Under pressure from their customers and the government, Brazilian cattle processors and traders fell into line, declaring new sourcing policies and moratoriums on deforestation. The hottest commodity in the Brazilian Amazon became credible supply-chain management, spawning a rush to develop certification systems and land registries for “responsible” ranches. "The industry—from Nike and Adidas to the slaughter plants—is under pressure to have a clean supply chain," said John Carter, a rancher who runs Alianca da Terra, a Brazilian NGO that is developing a land registry to support a certification system for the cattle industry. "Greenpeace essentially created a federal mandate that everyone had to come into compliance via a land registry." The push for reform is being led by big buyers. Walmart Brazil, the largest beef buyer in the country, and Grupo Pão de Açúcar, a big supermarket chain, have set up the first traceability system for beef, allowing customers with a cell phone or an Internet connection to track packaged meat back to its ranch of origin...more

Pay attention. It's all there - premises registration, traceability, certification - mandated by the buyers and run by the private sector.

So pick your poison: private or public, buyers or bureaucrats.

Judge may put Bush polar bear ruling on ice

A federal judge ordered the Obama administration on Wednesday to review whether polar bears, at risk because of global warming, are endangered under U.S. law. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wants the Interior Department to clarify a decision by the administration of former President George W. Bush that polar bears were merely threatened rather than in imminent danger of extinction. Sullivan's request, made at a hearing Wednesday in federal court, keeps in place the 2008 declaration by the Bush administration. Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in May 2008 that the bears were on the way to extinction because of the rapid disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice upon which they depend. But he stopped short of declaring them endangered, which had it been declared would have increased protections for the bear and make oil and gas exploration more difficult. Scientists predict sea ice will continue to melt because of global warming. Along with the listing, Kempthorne created a "special rule'' stating that the Endangered Species Act would not be used to set climate policy or limit greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming and melting ice in the Arctic Ocean. The Obama administration upheld the Bush-era policy, declaring that the endangered species law cannot be used to regulate greenhouse gases emitted by sources outside of the polar bears' habitat. If the bears are found to be endangered, however, that could open the door to using the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gases. Sullivan said he would issue a written order shortly, but said Wednesday that the government is likely to have about 30 days to explain how it arrived at its decision. A lawyer for an environmental group called Sullivan's action "good news for the bear,'' adding that the popular animal's fate was now in the hands of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar...more

Say "thank you" to pansy-assed Bush and his cowards at Interior.

New Mexico: Wolves, wilderness, drilling and Latinos

"Nothing is more attractive to a wolf than the sound of a crying baby," said then-Rep. Steve Pearce, R, during a 2007 debate over one of his bills, which sought to kill funding for the federal Mexican wolf reintroduction program in southern New Mexico, Pearce's district. More recently, Pearce expressed his views of land protection and immigration by opposing a wilderness bill along the Mexico border because it would "provide new corridors of access for drug trafficking and human smuggling." Stances like these got Pearce a lifetime score of 3, out of a possible perfect 100, from the League of Conservation Voters -- which is about 3 points higher than his scores from other progressive groups. Pearce's anti-wolf bill lost. And in 2008, Pearce lost, too, in a face-off with Democrat Tom Udall over a Senate seat. Now Pearce wants his old House seat back from the Democrat who won it in 2008, Harry Teague. Given Pearce's stances on wolves, wilderness and drilling -- his top campaign contributors are oil and gas folks -- environmentalists are jumping into the fray. Defenders of Wildlife has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads painting Pearce as corrupt...more

Yeah, but Pearce's internal polls show him up 9 percent and the DCCC has pulled their dinero for Teague TV ads. Poor wolves.

Utah: A Sagebrush Rebel headed for D.C.

Utah's most important election this year was held in the springtime, when angry right-wingers overthrew three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett in the Republican primary. Mike Lee, a lawyer who pushes high-profile Sagebrush Rebel cases, is now the Republican candidate for Senate. And given Utah's history, Lee will almost certainly crush Democrat Sam Granato to win the seat in November. Soon-to-be-Sen. Lee not only wants the federal government to stop regulating federal land, he believes the state Legislature should seize federal land and kill Utah wilderness bills negotiated by county governments. That's a big change from Sen. Bennett, who'd become the best hope for new Utah wilderness: Bennett helped Washington County locals negotiate a 2009 deal with environmentalists that designated 256,000 acres of wilderness while allowing the sale of up to 9,000 acres of federal land, and he's working with other conservative counties to cut similar deals in their pieces of canyon country...more

Wolf recovery brings backlash in Congress

Bills introduced in Congress in recent weeks would either remove the act's protection of wolves in the Northwest or, as proposed by Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, forbid any listing at all of the once nearly extinct predator. Biologists say that outcome could jeopardize recovery efforts in the Southwest and Midwest and in fledgling new populations in Washington and Oregon. The 1973 act, the nation's landmark species-protection law, rarely has been amended, and conservationists say the bills mark a significant shift in the enduring contest among mining, timber and ranching interests and the plants and animals often squeezed out by human expansion. "Heretofore, there's been fairly strong bipartisan support of the sort of Noah's Ark notion that if we're serious about our moral commitment to share the planet with our fellow inhabitants, we don't start throwing identified species off the ark," said Douglas Honnold of the public-interest legal organization Earthjustice, which has been fighting to expand wolf protections in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. "I think to a large degree it would really be unprecedented," said Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "If passed, any of these bills will rip the heart out of the Endangered Species Act and set a terrible precedent for wildlife management generally." Government officials in Montana and Idaho say that, after 15 years of trying to follow the letter of the law in restoring wolves in and around Yellowstone National Park, they have been rewarded with a large and growing wolf population that threatens livestock and game animals such as elk, as well as hunters and hikers in the backcountry...more

Ski-pass tracking: Is it Big Brother on the slopes?

Going skiing? You may be tracked. Resort operators have implanted tiny radio-frequency computer chips with antennas in lift tickets and season passes. They're installing more scanners on mountain slopes. The scanners automatically track skiers and snowboarders, recording their whereabouts in company databases. Some skiers and privacy advocates object. "Any kind of technology that creates an automatic tracking system by default violates people's general expectation — not just of privacy but of the world," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the pro-privacy Electronic Frontier Foundation. "You are not expecting to be tracked." A Colorado ski instructor started producing aluminum "ski-pass defender" sheaths that block radio signals and is selling them at the rate of eight sheaths a day. All 89 lifts at Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Vail, and at Heavenly in California, will be outfitted with scanner portals able to read the chips as skiers and snowboarders pass through, Vail Resorts spokeswoman Kelly Ladyga said. Vail passes carry 900-megahertz tracking devices, which industry publications indicate can enable longer-distance reading, rather than the 13.56-MHz tags considered standard for ski passes...more

So now if a cattleman goes skiing...

Lawsuit Puts Federal Livestock Grazing in Doubt

Western agricultural groups say a June lawsuit filed by five environmental groups in U.S. District Court is threatening the livelihoods of more than 20,000 ranchers who use federal lands for livestock grazing. But environmentalists counter that grazing is destructive to public lands and is burdensome to taxpayers. Their complaint seeks amendments to grazing fee regulations and requests that the National Environmental Policy Act be used in determining fees. When announcing the lawsuit in June, Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns manager for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the “federal grazing program is as fiscally irresponsible as it is ecologically harmful.” “In responding to our petition,” McKinnon said, “the government must now choose between correcting and continuing the subsidized destruction of America’s public land.” The agricultural groups are represented by the Mountain States Legal Foundation. In an op-ed column, William Perry Pendley of the Mountain States Legal Foundation wrote that, while there have been numerous challenges to federal grazing regulations, the current lawsuit is “the biggest challenge yet” from environmental groups...more

The Government’s License to Steal

In the late 1990s, after a public backlash against the use of civil asset forfeiture to take money and property from innocent people, seven states passed laws assigning all proceeds from such forfeitures to public schools or the general fund instead of police departments and prosecutors’ offices. The idea was to reduce the incentive to seize assets from innocent owners and to target people based on the value of their property instead of the seriousness of their crimes. In Indiana, the state’s original constitution called for criminal forfeitures to be earmarked for a school fund, and recent attorneys general have applied that provision to civil forfeiture as well. But thanks to various evasive maneuvers, very little forfeiture money actually ends up in the fund. One way around the rule is “adoption,” a process in which police departments call the feds when they’re about to close a case that promises a big forfeiture payoff. The investigation then becomes a federal case, governed by federal law. The feds collect the proceeds and send as much as 80 percent back to the local cops. The school fund gets nothing, and the perverse incentives remain in place. Another trick is to negotiate a settlement with the property owner, perhaps by letting him keep some of his allegedly ill-gotten gains. Settlements aren’t considered forfeitures and therefore aren’t governed by the funding earmark. Given all of these ways around the law, how much forfeiture money actually flows into Indiana’s school fund? Almost none...more

'The Wake of Forgiveness' by Bruce Machart

As in Greek tragedy, Machart has an eye for the moments in which fate turns, lives change, regret is not yet a glimmer in a character's eye. "The Wake of Forgiveness" begins on such a moment. Vaclav Skala, a Czech immigrant and farmer in Lavaca County, wakes on a February morning in 1895 covered in his wife's blood. The baby, Karel, their fourth son, is born, but his wife, Klara, dies in childbirth. Vaclav reverts to the violent rage, his former state of equilibrium, that will shape the lives of his sons and for all we know generations of Skalas to come. The boys are raised, "bereft of the feminine tenderness that, to young boys, is nothing shy of sustenance." We see the world through Karel's eyes for the 30 years of the novel. The most important thing in Lavaca County is land and, after that, horses. Vaclav, full of bitterness, cares more for his horses than his sons, who grow up literally yoked to the plough, working their father's vast acreage. It is never enough. Vaclav bets a few hundred acres on a horse race with his Scots-Irish neighbor, Patrick Dalton...more

Texas National Guardsman slain in Mexico

Authorities say a 21-year-old Texas National Guard soldier was one of two men killed on a street in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Spokesman Arturo Sandoval of the Chihuahua state attorney general's office says family members identified the soldier as 21-year-old Jose Gil Hernandez of El Paso. The identity of the other man was not available, and details on the incident and the dead were few. A message left with FBI El Paso spokesman Michael Martinez by The Associated Press on Wednesday night was not immediately returned. However, he told the El Paso Times that Hernandez was shot about 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Colonia Revolucion Mexicana in Ciudad Juarez. Martinez told the newspaper that the FBI and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division were trying to verify the details of the shooting...more

Gunbattles Erupt in Mexican Cities Across Texas Border, Stirring Panic

Mexican soldiers battled gunmen in two cities across the border from Texas on Wednesday, prompting panicked parents to pull children from school and factories to warn workers to stay inside. Assailants in a third city threw a grenade at an army barracks. The U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo warned American citizens to stay indoors. The statement said there were reports of drug gangs blocking at least one intersection near the consulate in the city across from Laredo, Texas. The local city government and witnesses reported several more blockades — a new tactic that has emerged in northeastern Mexico, where violence has soared this year amid a split between the Gulf and Zetas drug gangs. Cartel gunmen frequently use stolen cars and buses to form roadblocks during battles with soldiers. Witnesses in Nuevo Laredo said gunmen forced people from their cars to use the vehicles in the blockades...more

No Evidence Gulf Oil Spill Killed Fish, Says NOAA

There is no evidence the Deep Water Horizon oil spill killed any fish, according to federal and state officials overseeing the oil cleanup, while captured commercial fish passed testing by multiple government agencies. But even with plenty of fish in the sea, the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico is still suffering from a big perception problem. “In federal waters, I can tell you, there haven’t been any fish kills reported that are linked to the oil spill,” Christine Patrick, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told CNSNews.com. “I know there have been fish kills reported in state waters, but I think they have determined they weren’t a result of the oil spill.” Fish have died for seasonal related reasons, said Bo Boehringer, spokesman Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “We’ve investigated fish kills, but none have yet been tied to oil impacts,” Boehringer told CNSNews.com...more