Academics

"Too many academics write as if plain English is beneath their dignity and some seem to regard logic as an unconstitutional infringement of their freedom of speech."

Dr. Thomas Sowell

Sayings

My daughters laugh about all their grandmother's old sayings.
One of her favorites is "My lan"
Ex: Well my lan! I could have done a better job of it than that!
The Scottish words "My Lane" means - on my own

D'Souza

Dinesh D'Souza has written a book on the president and why he believes that President O hates America and Britain. D'Souza says O's father taught him that these colonial powers are evil.

I don't know. He did send the bust of Winston Churchill back to England. I figured George W had been using it as a door stop and he wanted it out of the way. He did give the Queen and Prime Minister Gordon Brown an Ipod. Maybe he wanted them to enjoy a little Motown.

Strange Christmas Season Football

In Kirkwall Scotland there is a traditional game played between the Uppies and the Doonies.
It 's quite a shoving match and I must say they have their ups and doons.

Youtube Kirkwall Ba Game

Giants Win

You know you are getting old when you can remember being fourteen and pulling for the Giants against the Dodgers in that last game of 1962.

Yes Juan Marichal did have a kick that was higher than his head; loved to watch him pitch. The 62 Giants carried some big lumber, the "Baby Bull" Orlando Cepeda and "Say Hey"

Willie Mays.

Majority Rules

More and more I hear people who should know better, use the term Democracy to describe our government. Perhaps they do know better.

Our founding fathers understood that man is terribly flawed. He will misuse a democracy. His envy, jealousy, greed, and hate for those different from himself will always lead to unfortunate situations.

John Adams once said, "Democracy will envy all, contend with all, endeavor to pull down all, and when by chance it happens to get the upper hand for a short time, it will be revengeful, bloody and cruel."

Jessie James Shootin' Arn

Jessie James preferred the Smith and Wesson Schofield pistol.

It was a top break, single action revolver. Production started in 1870.

Jessie and Frank didn't really believe they were doing such a wrong.

After all, those were Yankee banks they were robbing.

The cost of dying

I was just looking at a hospital bill and a burial bill for a great uncle who died in 1924.

Six days in the hospital including medicines came to $ 64. 35
I don't know the illness but he never recovered.
The Burial charges from a Dyersburg Tennessee Funeral Home were as follows:
Casket---------------------------------- $ 100.00
Underware, shirt, hose and tie ----------$ 4.75
Cleaning and Pressing of suit-------------$ 1.00
Embalming & incidental services---------$ 25.00
Bathing, Shaving and dressing------------$5.00
Hearse services--------------------------$15.00
Total-------------------------------------$ 150.75

You may say to yourself, "boy, prices have increased"
It's true that medical technology has advanced and therefore has become costly in that respect.
But if we consider the undertaker's business, the cost is about the same.
The only difference from 1924 to today is - It takes a lot more paper money to buy those same goods and services. Since around 1900 the dollar has lost 95% of its worth.
Hold on, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Howlin' Wolf

I was watching TV a couple weeks ago and this commercial came on with a catchy tune.
Eventually it came to me what the song was "Smoke Stack Lightening" by Howlin' Wolf.
He was born just outside West Point Mississippi about twenty five miles from where I live. Like many blues singers, he had a difficult childhood.
Youtube the song - see if you recognize the commercial.

Howlin Wolf "Chester Burnett" 1910-1976

Fast Ball

Can you believe that guy Chapman of the Reds threw a 105 mph fastball?
Talk about bringing heat!
We used to have corn cob wars around the family barn. All the kids would get an arm load of corn cobs, run in and out of stables, through the barn loft, under the corn crib and throw those cobs at each other. The ones soaked in water and cow urine did the most damage. Sometimes we'd have a casualty and have to call time out, or a kid would smack someone in the head with a soft cow turd.
Can't imagine getting hit with a 105 mph corn cob.

And The Living Is Easy

The calender says its early fall but it's late summer in Mississippi. Katydids still sing a lazy nocturne that nourishes the growing nights.

Greet the Sun

Dawn's rosy fingered

Burning Bibles

I suppose you heard that the U.S. Army burned bibles sent to Afghanistan from American churches, written in the two most common languages of that country.

Old Times There Are Not Forgotten

Many young people believe that only Blacks picked cotton and may never have thought about how many white families in the South grew five, ten, twenty acres of cotton as a cash crop. We continued to pick this crop by hand until the mid 1960's in many places. The Dept. of Agriculture began handing out free food to anyone who qualified. At that point it was difficult to get anyone to work in the fields.

This is how it was done. Seven a.m. you arrive in the fields wet with dew. You are wearing a long sleeved shirt and maybe an old jacket. Within a few minutes your clothing is wet. As the sun gets higher you start shedding layers of clothing. By mid afternoon it's hot. You pull either a 7 1/2' or 9' sack around the neck and across one shoulder. The fingers and thumbs are extended. If you have dexterity you can lift all five locks of the cotton bowl with one grab. Note the sharp burr between each lock of the cotton flower. They go deep into the cuticle if you aren't careful. If the cotton was good a person could pick 200 lbs per day. My avg was more like 150. We harvested our own cotton and hired out to work for other farmers for three cents per pound. A grueling day would get you $ 6.00.

Levis were $ 5.00. The children were sent to the wagon to get the water jug to keep the workers hydrated. We would weigh our sacks roughly every two hours. Really good pickers have sixty or sixty five lbs. (5-6 lb would be deducted for the first weigh-in because of the heavy dew. After that it was around 3 lb.)

People also raised their own beef and pork. They milked the cows by hand before going to the fields and again around dusk. This is just a snapshot of the actual work.

Believe me when I tell you, all the kids in my neighborhood weren't getting into trouble in town. Today when I see kids in trouble for every crime under the sun, I say to my wife " that kid needs about five acres of cotton."

I am encouraged when I travel past the Midwestern farms and see young people working the ranches out west. These people usually turn out to be the most dependable.

Yeah I know, I'm just an old shit talking about the way it used to be.

A side note: In the 1950's and 60's, thousands of poor southerners went to Detroit and other northern industrial towns to work. The old men told me that if you were from the South, you were hired on the spot.

Wondering Souls

The Ancient Greeks believed that if the body wasn't buried, the soul would wonder for eternity searching for rest.
Odysseus stood over the body of a slain Trojan and taunted it. He assured him that his mother and father wouldn't close his eyes but the vultures would claw them out while their wings beat his corpse.

Aint Got One Cryin' Dime

Mr. Banker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPWpbatJsZU

Brothers

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother - -"

Shakespeare "Henry The Fifth"

The S E Sea

I was in Tuscaloosa last week. Those Alabama fans are already fired up. Talk shows were discussing everything from the quality of line chalk to another Heisman.
I wish them well, but I'm secretly pulling for that little ole school in Idaho.

Matty Ross

Yell County Arkansas has two county seats.
Danville and Dardanelle.
In the Novel/movie "True Grit" Matty Ross said repeatedly that she was from Dardanelle in Yell county.

Patrick R. Cleburne, an Irishman who had served in the British Army, organized the Yell Rifles for the Confederacy. He rose to be a Major General and was arguably the best leader in the Western Theater. Cleburne wrote a letter suggesting that the South recruit thousands of black soldiers giving them their freedom in return. He was never promoted after that.

Mighty Mo

Oh, I'll never leave Montana brother.

Paul Maclean

A River Runs Through It

Gus McCray

Woodrow is determined to be the first man to graze cattle in Montana even if it kills all of us.

Capt. Augustus McCray

Warrior

Homer describes a great warrior:

Aias (Ajax), bulwark of the Achaeans (Greeks), spring(s) forward with a grim smile on his face as he brandished his long spear and strode onward. The Argives were elated as they beheld him, but the Trojans trembled in every limb, and the heart even of Hector beat quickly, but he could not now retreat and withdraw into the ranks behind him, for he had been the challenger. Aias came up bearing his shield in front of him like a wall - a shield of bronze with seven folds of ox-hide - the work of Tychius - - - - over these he had set an eighth layer of bronze.

Is There Another Reagan Out There

I ran across Reaganfoundation.org today.
For a quick learning experience on your government - click on Reagan on the right side of the bar. Click on quotes
click on More and you will get audio and video

put in key words such as Growth, Freedom, etc

More trivia

The old Blacksmiths could do amazing things with steel, even weld on an anvil. The round hole is called the Pritchel hole. It is used with a punch to put round holes in hot steel. The square hole is called the Hardie hole. It holds different tools, one of which is a chisel shaped cutoff hardie to cut hot steel into.

Horses

Old horses should be out to pasture.

Nothing to do

I stumbled across------------ Shelly Roche blog and Youtube

very interesting

Can

When I was a kid all motor oil came in these tin cans.
People used a special plunger with a funnel to empty it.
Poor boys used a "Church Key" beer opener.

Stuff

See Health Care Bill, Section 9006

Rumor

"Rumor, swiftest of all the evils in the world. She thrives on speed, stronger for every stride, slight with fear at first, soon soaring into the air ------ under every feather on her body- - -an eye that never sleeps and as many tongues as eyes and as many raucous mouths and ears pricked up for news."

Virgil

Rural Hospitals

Tupelo Mississippi has the largest rural hospital in the United States.

Knowledge

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives . . . . "



James Madison

Burr under saddle

Phillip Hamilton was killed in a duel after he confronted a man who spoke ill of his father.
His father Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel three years later by Aaron Burr over political disputes.

Good Cents

As an experiment I went to the bank and asked for four rolls of pennies. It came as no surprise to me that all two hundred were cheap and shiny, minted in 2010.

Up until 1982 pennies were copper. Now copper is worth more than a penny so the government is doing what governments usually do, substitute cheap currency for the real thing.

I placed a pre-1982 penny on top of this pile zinc pennies coated with copper.

I would guess that fifteen percent of the pennies in circulation are copper. They will all be gone soon.

In The Hole

Not Another Cabinet Post

I just read about a push by progressives in Congress to pass Bill # HR 808.
It would create the office of "U.S. Office of Peace"

Read the bill; better yet, read between the lines

Larry Belitz

The man on the right is Mr. Larry Belitz. He has been involved in Native American culture since he was a kid. His buffalo skin teepees are in several museums across the country. He sews them with sinew from animal ligaments. Larry makes a lot of different "authentic" pieces, that is, there are no shortcuts or man made parts or ingredients in the shirts, robes, bows, buffalo coats, toys, bladder water bottles etc. The work is quality. Larry made the breast plate and other pieces for Kevin Kostner in the movie "Dances With Wolves"

My buddy Robert and I spent the day with Larry helping him with a teepee.

If you have someone who is difficult to buy presents for, look this guy up on line and see his work.

Car of my youth

Boy this brings back memories. 1956 Chevy

Bel air Mine was red and white. Saturday night at the drag strip. If you've never matched up with another driver and watched the Christmas tree lights blink down, you've missed something. What a rush. I was too poor to drive a really hopped up car.

Dragon Fly

Chopper drops cold Missouri water on a fire

HayU

Montana Mist

Moccasin Montana

Moccasin is named for the low mountains in the area. The word moccasin is from the Algonquian

word mockasin.

Located in Judith Basin County Montana, the town of Moccasin was built on the Great Northern Railroad long ago. A great fire devastated the town in 1919. It never recovered.

Located on U.S. Hy 87 between Stanford and Lewiston:

Sixteenth Amendment

In 1895 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the income tax on individuals passed by Congress was unconstitutional. (Article 1 Sec. 2 - Taxes shall be apportioned among the States) Article 1 Sec. 9 - Taxes must be apportioned by the States.

Not to be deterred, Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment. These parts of Article 1, Sec. 2 and Sec. 9 were destroyed. Ratified 1913

Almost forty years earlier Abe Lincoln and Congress passed the Revenue Act. This was the first income tax (August 1861) a graduated income tax -------- War costs.

In 1848 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote the "Communist Manifesto"
For Communism to replace Capitalism, Marx and Engels proposed ten points.
One of them--------- A heavy progressive or graduated income tax

The NPCA website states that the top 1% of income earners pay 35% of the taxes
The bottom 50% of income earners pay 4% of the income taxes in the U.S.

Milwaukee Road

Milwaukee Road----steamed up 1847 as the Milwaukee and Waukesha RR. then became the Milwaukee and Mississippi. In 1874 the name was changed to Milwaukee and St. Paul. The long version became Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad or CMStP&P.

It merged with the Soo Line in 1986. Interestingly it was never headquartered in Milwaukee but Chicago.

Today there is a 14.5 mile section in the Bitterroot Mountains between Loop Creek Idaho and East Portal Montana called the "Route of the Hiawatha" bike trail.

Hiawathas were passenger trains of days gone by on the Milwaukee Road.

This picture was taken in one of the towns between Great Falls and Roundup Montana.

Fishing

I believe this is the N. Fork of the Blackfoot River

Cabin-et

Fixer-upper, one room 1/4 bath - close to house

Our First Czar

1889

"Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, the new Speaker (U.S. House), who so extended the functions of his office as to earn the title of Czar. He practically destroyed the power of the minority to delay progress either by the usual motions or by refusing to vote. Moreover, he consolidated in his own hands the power thus gained for the majority. He controlled the calendar which provided for bringing bills before the House, and arranged long in advance the speakers who should be recognized. Under his leadership, Congress was able to pass an extraordinarily heavy program."

The Development of American Nationality by Carl Russell Fish

Your Cold Dead Hands

Until today I was happily ignorant of an organization called IANSA, and Rebecca Peters.
(this is a world organization bent on depriving Americans of their Second Amendment Rights)
The donors to this group are numerous with deep pockets.

I didn't know how determined the U.N. was to do the same.




Maybe it's better to be ignorant.

Two Four Count

Jamie headed for a fishing hole.

"Poets talk about "spots of time," but it is really fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment."

Norman Maclean

Rogers Pass

Hy 200, Rogers Pass near Lincoln Montana.

Elevation 5,610 ft.

Can't Understand the Constitution?

We've been told for years that only lawyers can understand the Constitution.
It's amazing that we fall for this.

For those who have tried to read the Constitution and became stumped on a word they didn't understand, there is a man named Michael Holler who has written the Constitution in modern language. The book is called
"The Constitution Made Easy." Michael juxtaposes the original writing on one page in parchment and the same document on the opposing page in modern English. He says that this is not a commentary on the constitution. It's like comparing the King James version to the NIV.

Google-------http//1828.mshaffer.com - for Webster's dictionary of words and their meaning. This is much closer to the time when the Constitution was written.

Holler says that contrary to Lincoln's "Of the people, by the people, for the people," the Constitution in it's entirety says "Of the states, by the states, and for the states." The people were never to be ruled by a national government but by the states. They weren't to be directly taxed but the states furnished taxes for the defence, interstate commerce etc.
The federal government was granted only seventeen powers.
Something has gone badly wrong. Don't go to your grave having never read the Constitution, Articles of Confederation, Declaration of independence, and the Federalist Papers

Ballerina

Jackson Valley

Early morning clouds over the Tetons.

Youcut

Friends, If you would like to get your hands on the government budget, you now may have a chance.
Congressman Eric Cantor with others are putting up a choice of several nasty spending programs every week. The public can vote for the one they want cut. Both sides of the isle are coming together on this and making things happen.
Go on line to Youcut or You cut Eric Cantor and start voting.

KCS

A Kansas City Southern engine pulls out of the chipping mill yard in Louisville Mississippi with a load of pine chips.
There is a region just south between Meridian and Hattiesburg called the "Pine Belt." If you ever pass through there you will understand why.

My granddaughter is moving far away

The little toy dog is covered with dust,

But sturdy and stanch he stands;

And the little toy soldier is red with rust,

And his musket moulds in his hands.

Time was when the little toy dog was new,

And the soldier was passing fair,

And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue

Kissed them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come, " he said

"And don't you make any noise!"

So toddling off to his trundle-bed

He dreamt of the pretty toys.

And as he was dreaming, and angel song

Awakened our Little Boy Blue -

Oh, the years are many, the years are long.

But the little toy freiends are true.

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,

Each in the same old place.

Awaiting the touch of a little hand,

The smile of a little face.

And they wonder, as waiting these long years through.

In the dust of that little chair.

What has become of our Little Boy Blue

Since he kissed them and put them there.

Nurse Nurse

Well, we graduated my youngest daughter as a RN Friday. It's probably the toughest nursing school in the south. Mississippi University For Women, the first state supported college for women in the United States. 1884
And you thought we were last in everything!

Red Molly

Molly and I went on a sunset ride today. It was a bit cool but a sweat shirt and jacket made it perfect. Every back road smelled of wild honeysuckle. Memory recalled my little girls removing their blooms and tasting a drop of nectar from each one.

This is the secret to a southern girl's sweetness, with a dose of the good book and a little " yes ma'um and thank you sir"

Good document - deliberately vague

"Thirty-nine men signed the Constitution. Interestingly only six of them had signed the Declaration. These Framers of the Constitution were not of a younger generation but from the same generation. They were less diplomatic but educated never-the-less. They were divided on every issue. Many wanted to insure that individual states would hold ultimate power. There were more attending who represented powerful men of business and a strong central government and banking system. The entire document was not inspiration but compromise, small states threatened by large states, slave vs free, commercial vs agricultural.
Every issue had to be compromised to the point that no one was delighted with the results. Any other approach would have ended in failure to produce a document.
Today many believe that the Civil War resulted from it."

"The country did not divide because the Constitution was ambiguous, but the Constitution was ambiguous because the country was already divided"
Carl Russell Fish historian 1913

Bus A Cap In'em

It was reported today that recently a British soldier picked off two Taliban machine gunners breaking a military sniper distance record.

Craig Harrison, using a British made (L115A3 long range rifle, 8.59 cal. The Silent Assassin)spotted two enemy gunners setting up their gun. Harrison took aim and hit the first one through the midsection. Before the second one could pick up the machine gun Harrison put one through his middle.
The bullet took almost three seconds to reach his targets traveling at 2,093 mph. The distance was 8,120 ft or better than one and a half miles away. These shots break the previous record by 150 ft. set by a Canadian. The distance is 3,120 ft beyond the official range of his weapon.

A Child's Toy

This is Lola. She is a stuffed toy giraffe.

Lola is the soul mate of my granddaughter May.

This toy began as one of two toys. If one was lost, the other would be quickly produced. Once they both appeared at the same time. Long distance calls have been made to grocery stores and other places where Lola may have been dropped. Her other half vanished and its just one Lola now. She has been patched all over her body except her face. She still chews leaves on one side of her mouth. Her little horns are still erect.

You see - - - - - -May doesn't care if Lola has a checkered past, that she was once a show girl, she loves Lola just as she is. This is the undying love of a child. Except we become as a child like May - - - - -

Self Esteem Early Education

Ben Franklin once stated that self-esteem is certainly not a virtue, for it ends up esteeming itself.

Thank you Ben for those words of wisdom. Now Ben, if you will please convince the U.S. Department of Education and the left wing National Education Association, we will have settled one small issue.

OK, how bout a little dodge ball!!!!!!

Friendship

"Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore, contended that it cannot be resisted." But friendship is voluntary
"A man who is a friend in the fullest sense, Aristotle said, is a virtuous man, for the highest friendship is that between two individuals who share a love of the good and who seek in others the good. It is in the company of such friends that we ourselves become virtuous."


From bill bennett's book Our Sacred Honor

Sail Me On a Clipper

The "Cutty Sark" last of the clipper ships is being repaired in dry dock somewhere in England. She was built in 1869; her sister "The City of Adelaide" 1864, is just a hull on the shores of Scotland. I hear the the third and last clipper remaining is rotting on the beach near Punta Arenas (Sandy Point) Chile.

The clippers were tea haulers, small compaired to other ships but could sail east and fetch a moderate load and return at a clip turning a quick buck. In the day, fast horses were called clippers. The ship's name actually means something akin to short underclothing or short shirt. All this is tied somehow to the Scottish witch Nannie made famous in the Robert Burns' tale
" Tam o' Shanter"

See rock group - Dire Straits "One Handed Sailor"

Are We To Become Slaves

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. - - - Let them all become attentive to the grounds and principles of government, ecclesiastical and civil. Let us study the law of nature; ancient ages; contemplate the examples of Greece and Rome. - -
Let us examine into the nature of that power, and the cruelty of that oppression, which drove them from their homes - - -
Recollect the civil and religious principles - - -
Let the pulpit resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear the danger of thraldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence, in short, from civil political slavery - - -
that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest or happiness - and that God Almighty has promulgated from heaven liberty, peace, and good-will to man!

John Adams - 1765 Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law

It's like this John-----we left our kid's education to the Progressive State!

Louisiana Flag

The Louisiana State Flag is one of my Favorite of the fifty, or as one man said fifty seven.
The banner displays a mother Brown Pelican on a nest with three chicks. She has three blood stains on her breast.

Plane as day

In WWI the German army not only had the U-boat (an American invention), they also had the Fokker Eindecker and Fokker Dr 1 aeroplane (the plane also an American invention). The Red Barron, Manfred von Richthoven piloted the Dr 1 and grew to fame as the Ace flyer of the war with 80 kills. These planes had a cam device that allowed the machine gun to fire between the turning blades of the plane. Pilots could more easily point their craft toward the enemy and fire.

Anthony Fokker, a Dutchman was inspired as a teenager by Wilbur Wright's exhibitions in France in 1908. His father sent him to mechanic school but he quit and built his own plane he called De Spin (the Spider) actually three, improving each time. He moved to Germany prior to WWI and built an aeroplane factory. When the war broke out the German Govt. took over his factory but left him in charge. He furnished 700 planes to the German cause.

After the war he moved to New York and started another business.
Never underestimate a young person who is truly inspired.

They Fired On Govt. Troops

235 years ago Today a rag-tag but well disciplined rebel army of 77 men stood before the greatest military power in the world. They were driven out of Lexington by hundreds of Red Coats, but ambushed the British Army on the march and killed approximately 300 of them.

The British Govt. understood what a "Well Regulated Militia" was.
Some of the rebel soldiers were literally defending their own farms.
Remember, a dog is mean in his own yard.

In case of emergency

I heard a human behavior expert say that if a horrible situation such as a total economic crash takes place, 80% of the population would be frozen in fear and therefore will wait for someone to tell them what to do. It is unfortunate that those in political power are counting on it.

The best I remember:
10% would totally freak
10% already has a plan to deal with it

What You Weren't Taught In College

James W. Gerard wrote of the Germans in 1914:
"The workingmen in the cities are hard workers and probably work longer and get less out of life than any workingmen in the world. The laws so much admired and made ostensibly for their protection, such as insurance against unemployment, sickness, injury, old age etc., are in reality skillful measures which bind them to the soil as effectively as the serfs of the Middle Ages.
I have had letters from workingmen who have worked in America begging me for a steerage fare to America, saying that their insurance payments were so large that they could not save money out of their wages."
P. 124 from the book "My Four Years In Germany"

Wisteria

I took Molly on a ride at sundown today. The wisteria vines are hanging from trees at old deserted home places. Their purple flowers look like clusters of grapes from a distance. They give off a wonderful fragrance to bike riders and good ole boys with their pickup windows rolled down. The rest of the world, with tightly sealed cars only get the visual.

Educated Beyond Your Intelligence

"I'd rather entrust the Government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

William F. Buckley Jr.

MKT

I was looking at Brian's photo blog. One was a RR crossing. I thought of the old blues song,
"She caught the Katy, leff me a mule to ride"

The Katy was short for "Missouri Kansas and Texas Railroad" or MKT

Who Developed Higher Learning

I find it to be true that where ever Christians go, education follows. Calvin believed that lay people should be able to read the Holy Scriptures for themselves.

Settlers who traveled the Oregon trail and settled in the Northwest built three Christian universities in Oregon before it became a state in 1859 and another school in 1867.

Willamette University - Methodist - 1842
Pacific University - Congregational - 1849
Linfield College - Baptist - 1849
Lewis & Clark College - Presbyterian - 1867

Come to think of it, most states, maybe all built religious colleges before state universities appeared. We could name many back east.

Where There's Smoke

Neath the billows of tyrannical smoke, looms an all consuming fire.

Try Men's Souls

The words written to the retreating rebel soldiers and other patriots from the pen of Thomas Paine 19 December, 1776 is applicable today.

"It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home countries and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now, is dead: the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy."

Mid 80's Already

Dandies by the door.

Sassafras tree in bloom; some of their leaves look like mittens;

Tea from the roots - purdy tasty.

The white stars? We haven't been properly introduced.

Monroe Doctrine - Not A Medical Term

Around the time of WWI, the U.S. was concerned about Huerta the dictator of Mexico. It seems that Germany had proposed to Britain that they jointly put down the dictator. As in most invasions the Europeans would have set up military garrisons in Mexico and Central America and would have eventually colonized. This would have destroyed the Monroe Doctrine. In 1912, it wouldn't have gone over well in the U.S.
We all know about and many of us witnessed the Cuban Crisis in the early 1960's.

This last week our leaders paid little attention when Vladimir Putin visited Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. It appears he may sell the strong man $5 Billion in arms.
The West doesn't have to be taken by force. We'll give it away.
In the last few months we've grown fond of dictators.

Jews in Germany

When we think of German cruelty to the Jews of that country we often think of Hitler. Before WWI Jews weren't permitted in the German Court. They were allowed to put the prestigious name "von" in front of their last names if they submitted to a Christian baptism.

These folks couldn't buy a break, but struggle and hardship has always been their legacy.

Sunday Drive

There's nothing like a Sunday ride on your Harley to blow away those Monday dreading blues.

Yankee Banks Yankee Trains

Jessie and Frank James ran with Bob and Cole Younger for some time, pulling robberies from Kentucky to Texas.
The Youngers got the idea to rob the Northfield First National Bank in Northfield Minnesota, not because it was stuffed with cash but because they believed that Adelhert Ames, Reconstruction Governor of Mississippi had interests there. Their belief was also that Ame's father-in-law, former Union General Benj. Butler had interests there. Both were hated by southerners. Butler had occupied New Orleans during the war and acted with such cruelty that he was transferred only to loose two battles and be replaced. Of course he wound up in Congress where many losers have found themselves.
As most of you know, the Minnesota raid was a failure. Two bankers were killed and two of the James Gang with others wounded. Butler had no investment in the bank. (Sandra Bullock was not a suspect)
Hatred had boiled over years before when Kansas became a free state. Raids, killings, and burning of homes were so frequent on both sides of the border between Kansas and Missouri that it finally came to a head when Wm. Quantrill rode into Lawrence Kansas with what he considered payback for what the Jayhawkers and Red Legs had done to Missouri.
Days later, Order # 11 was issued by Union General Ewing and approved by Ole Abe himself removing most of the disloyal citizens from the four boarder counties of Missouri, (Jackson, Cass, Bates, and part of Vernon) Though Missouri never left the union, hundreds of Irish joined the Confederacy while the Germans remained with the Union.

College Grad No Education

I found a hot new book by Jason Mattera called:
Oboma Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation

This young man is very entertaining and very bright. He says most Republicans like McCain don't have a clue how to communicate with University students while Obama's crowd was putting on rock concerts and signing up kids to vote for him. Their patriotism was a concert ticket.
He says too many are spoiled and concern themselves with the most trivial things. Oboma has now made bigger babies out of them by letting them stay on their parent's insurance until they ate 26.
They have a real surprise coming at age 27.

A Very Very Very Fine House

It has been said that a young man from the country can go to the city and learn all it's ways but a young city man can never learn all the things a farmer knows.

I suppose the same could be said about Native American culture before it was badly damaged.

The Cheyenne used three pole tepee, that is, the beginning framework erected with three and the

rest were added. The Crow used a four pole. This appears to be a three pole but I'm not an expert.

The reader can see the rope that is looped around the top of the poles and tied to a stake in the center on the tepee. It also had a liner on the inside to stand against thirty below winter nights. Most had a half ceiling to hold the smoke and heat from buffalo chips a little longer before it escaped through the top. Many had one buffalo tail left on a hide directly in the back to help the woman orient the door. Flaps could be turned to draw smoke away in the wind or could be closed.

This is just a sprinkling of things that would have gone unnoticed to the stranger. Different tribes could identify each other from long distances by the shape of their head dresses, and other features known only to them and a few white trappers.

School Days

I was reading a page on "Organizing For America"
It said in part that more funds and energy must be applied to preschool
This is the time in a child's life when much learning takes place.
So the Government will be taking our children out of our homes earlier.
Those who read my blog know what this is about.

Half Bath

Can't imagine getting out of bed on a cold Montana night and making a run for this place.

Well, actually I have some memories from 1955 Tennessee.

When the system fails, discarded corn cobs newspapers and old magazines will once again return to more useful purposes.

Fourteen Hands

Native Americans have been witnessed riding a horse full speed shooting smooth bore guns then charging the gun with powder and spitting lead balls down the gun barrel to fire again and again. If they got a gun the first thing they would do was to cut the barrel off and knock off the sights to make it lighter.

If they got pants from the trading post, they cut the legs off them, threw away the pant and made leggings from the legs. More comfortable.

Before guns they adapted their weapons for horses. The clubs were made with much longer handles to reach his opponent. He didn't need a long bow. The bow was very short. He could ride along side the buffalo and shoot it in the side. No More Buffalo Jumps (cliffs to run them off)

A Pale Horse

I once asked my junior high class what Indian ponies ate when the Montana snows were knee deep and winter lasted months.

Some said corn. One said horse feed.

Maybe they thought a store was just down river.

Horses were a sign of wealth, the more horses, the higher the owner's status. Actually the braves stripped large sheets of bark off cottonwood trees to feed their animals. Still the mortality rate was somewhere around 20%

March - Moon When The Ponies Shed

Horses that escaped from the Spanish in Central America and Mexico drifted northward. They reached Northern Texas around 1600, the Northern Plains by the early to mid 1700's and Canada around 1770.

Native Americans quickly moved from working dogs pulling travois to horses. The native American glory days of the 1800's were because of the European horse and the European firearm.

Horse soldiers complained that Indian ponies weren't necessarily faster but ran much further leaving exhausted, overloaded Army horses in the dust.

Stuart's Horse Artillery

"the 9th Virginia, the regiment which also received the oldest son of General Robert E. Lee,---
late stroke oar at Harvard, a gentleman said to be too big for a man and not big enough for a horse, called Rooney."
John Pelham commanded Stuart's Artillery. According to Thomasson he always got close to the enemy with canister. He commanded nineteen guns at Sharpsburg; fifty at Fredricksburg.
He was the only lower officer ever mentioned in General Lees official reports. He refered to him as the "Gallant Pelham."
"Jeb Stuart, riding with one of Fitz Lee's regiments as a volunteer sabre, bowed on his horse's neck and wept, when they told him of Pelham's death."
"Von Borcke was detailed to escort John Pelnam home to Alabama: the body went in an open casket, and at every stop the people thronged to see him, lying dead with the pleasant, smooth face of a boy."
There is a town in Alabama named - - - - - -

One of my favorite books: "Jeb Stuart" by John Thomasson

A'bloom

It is said that man began life in a beautiful garden.

He dreams of its return.

A Girl's Best Friend

Diamond T; company started around 1905 building automobiles; later became known for its trucks; became a subsidiary of White Motor Co.; around 1967 merged with Reo Motor Co. and became a country band.

Sorry, didn't mean to loose you - Country Music Band Diamond Reo = = = = Oh, how bout REO Speed Wagon!