Buffalo Gal

We spent Halloween night with friends in West Fargo and got to watch the little Gremlins who rang their doorbell ! A very nice reaction: our friend greeted the little kids and said “Thank you for coming!”. She is a sweet person all the time!!!!

On October 31 I remember my own Halloweens long ago. When we drove back into town tonight, it was calm and quiet. It wasn’t that way when I was young……kids then had a wild time thinking up pranks to outdo ones that had been done before. One year an old threshing machine was hauled to the school yard (about 6 blocks) by a large gang of “Halloweeners” in the wee hours of Nov 1….. I think. Then there was the removal of a wooden bridge that got put in the middle of a neighborhood street. Every single Oct 31 a gang would always send the empty cream cans a -roll at our old town creamery. That was usually the first thing that happened early in the evening. Outhouses were tipped; bale piles were “re-arranged”…..a lot of mischief was done on October 31.

One Halloween night, our one and only “cop” whom we called “Fearless”…. fell asleep in his car at an intersection—-too much territory for one officer, and he would get exhausted trying to catch pranksters. So there he sat, asleep with his head on the steering wheel. A huge crowd of kids gathered and a few of them quietly pushed the cop-car into the middle of the intersection. As soon as that as done, they broke into a loud roar, waking the hapless “Fearless” who did not know where he was or what he was doing!!! This was “the talk of the town” for months and months….the Pranksters triumphed!

But the biggest prank of all took place before I was born and was told to me by my parents who were a young married couple at the time. On this particular Halloween sometime during the 1930′s, an enormous gang of kids—-more than 100 reportedly….carried an outhouse down Main Street and pushed it up against the door of “Mac’s Sweet Shop” trapping Mac inside. Mac was not your ordinary “Arnold”, the cheerful malt shop guy on “Happy Days”…..Mac was cranky and had earned the kids’ vengeful outhouse plan. Mac stayed inside his shop screeching at the kids who laughed and taunted him from the street. There were plenty of adults watching too, as the prank was well publicized ahead of time—to everyone but Mac!!!! It has to be the all-time champion Halloween Prank pulled off in our small town.

Kids do not “soap windows” any more as kids in my day did. Anyone—especially a teacher,who left his/her car outside on October 31 got the windows soaped but good. The stores downtown got soaped also and the town handyman always had 5 days of steady work scraping off and washing off the soap letters and pictures drawn by the Pranksters. I just hope nobody in their teens reads this blog…it could cause a new eruption of soaped windows.
(Ivory soap worked the best!!!)

Or so it seems. When Keith Langseth first knocked on our farmhouse door way back in the early 1970s he seemed like a humble man who wanted to serve the people in his district of Minnesota.
But after reading a Voter’s Guide today and seeing Langseth’s responses to questions that the people in his district are asking I am thinking that Senator Langseth has lost touch with his own roots and certainly with those of his consituents. Certainly the ones I know best.
Career Politicians have a way of losing touch with the people they represent and Keith Langseth has done just that.

Here are Keith Langseth’s answers on the Voters’ Guide I have just perused:
Q: Would you vote to place before the people of Minnesota a state constitutional amendment recognizing marriage as the union of one man and one woman and the only domestic status recognized in the state?
Langseth: NO
Q: Would you vote to end taxpayer funded abortion in Minnesota?
L: NO
Q: Would you have voted to raise taxes by 6.4 billion dollars over ten years increasing the state’s gas tax by 8.5 cents per gallon,sales tax , and license tab fees on cars? (Senate Journal p. 6707)
L: YES
Q: Would you have voted to legalize marijuana for medical purposes and authorize p;rivate4 persons to grow and sell large quantities of marijuana to other persons for medical purposes?
L: NOQ: Would you have voted to prohibit public schools from promoting acceptance of homosexual or bisexual behavior though anti-bullying policies?
L: NO
Q: Would you have voted to require p;ersons who vote on Election Day to present a picture ID?
L: NO
Q: Would you have voted to allow parents to use existing education tax credit for tuition at the school of their choice?
L: NO
Q: Would you have voted to grant parents access to and control over their minor childrens’ medical treatment , withoput requiring the childs’ consent, for alcohol and drug abuse, pregnancy, or sexually transmitted diseases?
L: NO
Q: Would you have voted to establish a condom promotion mandate in sex education courses in every Minnesota public school, grades 7-12?
L: YES

This guide was published by and the questions were asked by the MN Family Institute, 2010.

OOPS! PS to Post: I just saw a picture of several men lined up at voting booths and it looked like lineup at the urinal in a mens’ bathroom. I hope no guys get mixed up on what they are doing when they are voting in a line like the one I just saw pictured!!!!!

Dr. Charles Steele Jr. founded People for Fair Energy, a non-profit organization devoted to fighting for energy laws that are fair and affordable for working people and low-income families. He has served in the Alabama senate and has been inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College and the Tuscaloosa Civic Hall of Fame. Dr. Steele writes of his concern for a coming crisis in electrical energy…especially for those who earn the least in our society.

Dr. Steele begins with information about the recent jump in electricity cost just in the past months….electricity prices rose 3 % higher in July 2010 than in the previous month.
Now we are facing another cold winter…here and in other parts of the country which occupy the northern tiers. There are reliable forecasts this year(a La Nina year) for a much colder winter in the eastern one-third of the nation. Americans will require more electricity to heat and light their homes…adding to an already devastating economic recession.

“If the soaring electricity prices weren’t bad enough, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is on the verge of imposing burdensome regulations on electricity providers which will have an effect on everyone. Since Americans—especially low-income families, minorities, and senior citizens—-continue to experience economic hardship, the last thing the country needs are higher electricity costs and reduced electrical capacity just when families need elctricity the most.”

Jan 2, 2011: the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations will go into effect. Traditional electricity producers….coal fired plants, rewewable biofuels producers and other “emitters” as defined by the EPA…will be hit the hardest.

Come January…in just two months—we will not only face continually rising electricity prices but also be more likely to have unreliable electricity just as the winter’s worst storms come on. Then add on the expected loss of jobs that the EPA regulations will bring on …. an added burden to the already crisis-proportions of our economy….joblessness and personal family economic crises multiplied over and over.

Our state and federal representatives need to be contacted and urged to take action to ward off this crisis in electrical energy production by taking action to put the brakes on the EPA’s severe regulations it wants to impose.

Google these sites also: The Affordable Power Alliance and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

The EPA must reverse its regulations before it is too late….especially for the Poorest among us,

Today’s FORUM (October 28) had a story about the bad storm in our area just a day ago. It was compared to a past storm…a very similar sort of weather system that led to a terrible deadly blizzard in March 1920. 34 people died as a result of that 1920 storm and one of them was a 16 year old girl from Oliver County, ND….her name was Hazel Miner and she is remembered as the Dove of the Prairie in ND’s history. A monument to Hazel Miner stands at a courtyard in Center, ND. It was built through the contribution and kindness of former Governor L.B. Hanna and family.
Not that many years ago, a songwriter and singer from Mandan, wrote words of that ballad that are tender and heartbreaking…as was the death of that courageous 16 year old who saved her younger brother and sister from death by giving her own life for them.
At Hazel Miner’s funeral, the presiding pastor used the text from the gospel of John that says “Greater love hath no man than he lay down his own life for a friend”. It was most fitting for Hazel.
The Miner children lived on a farm in Oliver County and attended a rural school near their home. Hazel drove a sleigh in the wintertime, pulled by a faithful horse that knew the way to the school and back home again. On March 15, 1920 the weather changed from the previous days when it had been mild and warm; much of winter’s snow had melted and the “coulees” (small valleys) were full of snowmelt water on that day. The day of March 15 became suddenly cold with a driving wind of over 40 miles per hour which was also driving falling snow and whipping it into a blinding blizzard.
(People in our area who are in their 80′s and 90′s also remember a similar March blizzard that seemed to come out of nowhere in March of 1940 on a similar mild warm day. Many died in that sudden storm also because many were out and about on what started out as a beautiful day which also featured District 23 basketball tournaments in Moorhead, MN. People got stranded trying to get home from basketball games that night as the horrendous blizzard hit hard as it did in Oliver County in March 1920.

On that day…March 15, 1920…the rural school let the students leave early so they could reach their homes before the worst of the blizzard hit. Hazel Miner hitched the horse to the Miner sleigh and tucked her younger brother and sister into blankets before they set out for home. Her worried father, William Miner, had ridden another horse to the school to accompany his children home. But the horse either bolted for home or the children began the ride home too soon and they became lost in the blinding snow and wind. The father desperately tried to find them but could not do so. Realizing that his children were lost, he got home and telephoned neighbors to help search for them. Nobody could find the Miner children that day. In the snowstorm, the sleigh went into a water- filled coulee and in her efforts to get the horse and sleigh out of the coulee, Hazel was soaked in icy water up to her waist. Then the sleigh tipped and trapped the three children undereneath it. Hazel took the three blankets and placed two of them on the ground and had her siblings lie down on them while she covered them with the other blanket. Finally in an effort to keep the blanket in place, Hazel laid her own body on top of her brother and sister and comforted them with songs and stories, telling them to keep moving and to not stop….she urged them to punch each other so they would stay awake. Her brother recalled that after hours of this Hazel no longer spoke or sang and he knew she was dead.
The following day a party of searchers discovered a single track of a sleigh leading east from the school. After spreading out and walking on foot the large party of searchers found the upset sleigh in the coulee with the horse alive and still standing attached to the sleigh. They found Hazel dead, her body frozen stiff atop her siblings who were miraculously still alive under their sister’s frozen body. Hazel’s arms were outstretched, sheltering the younger children. Her arms appeared to be like protective wings over her brother and sister.
The three children were brought to neighboring farm where the gathered people…all of them sobbing in grief…tried desperately to revive Hazel but she was dead and frozen and nothing could bring her back. Mrs. Blanche Miner held her two younger children, rocking and warming them. She recalled a dream she had had in the night in which Hazel had appeared to her and said “Mama I am not cold any more….I’ll be warm tomorrow”.

Here follows the words of the song, “The Ballad of Hazel Miner” written and sung by Chuck Suchy on two of his albums.

“Wings on ther snow, a fate not chose, Morning finds a dove so froze/ Who too soon thought Spring arrived, In warmth below her love survived.
Up in Oliver County on the West Dakota plain/ Lived a farmer’s daughter, Hazel Miner was her name.
She was soon to come in bloom, a prairie rose of spring, She’d never seen the young girl dreams/
Her sixteenth year would bring.
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, cold is like a sorrow/ Sing a song, it won’t be long, you’ll be warm tomorrow.
A 1920 mid-March storm caused school to let out early/ So each child could reach their farm, before the blizzard’s fury.
With her brother, sister bundled tight, Hazel hitched the sleigh/ In the night of blinding white, she somehow lost her way.
For falf a day they plodded on, in darkness, desperation/ Hazel put the young ones down/ laid her body o’er them.
Through the night she gave therm songs and stories to sustain/ Near the dawn, her strenth all gone, three by sleep were claimed.
Hush-a bye, don’t you cry, cold is like a sorrow/ Sing a song, it won’t be long, you’ll be warm tomorrow.
Silent song, paling wind, storm at end, begin again/ Not all to soar, the winds aloft,
Stiffened wings, her feathers soft.
The next day the searchers came and found her/ It’s eyes and nose frozen, the horse still standing closed, no duty more demanding.
They lifted Hazel from the snow, only limp her hair/ With sadness, joy, the girl and boy, alive beneath her there.
Hush-a-bye, con’t you cry, cold is like a sorrow.
Sing a song, it won’t ber long, you’ll be warm tomorrow.”

If you live in a rural area…especially the more secluded rural areas, you become subject to things you do NOT WANT to happen……like THE DUMPERS. Dumpers can be of more than one kind; there are the Dumpers who break all the laws and run amok on country roads….stopping to dump their garbage in ditches instead of doing the civilized thing and disposing of their garbage in the prescribed way…..having a dumpster with the service that comes with it so that a legitimate business comes by on a regular basis and takes your garbage to a proper landfill where it is disposed of.

We–and a lot of our neighbors have become acquainted with Dumpers who drive slowly along country roads..mostly in the dark stillness of night when they think nobody will observe their crimes against the environment and the landowners. We have found great DUMPS of garbage and trash in ditches close by our home and land…….right now there are several tires, a large applicance (stove or refrigerator)…a kitchen chair and other odds and ends from somebody’s household. How convenient to dump off their cast-offs in ditches and drive away to let somebody else deal with it.

Some Dumpers are truly stupid. Among their dumps they leave evidence…..we have found names and addresses mixed in with trash and a former deputy to the county sheriff was quick to take pictures of the evidence and drive straight to a home and serve the DUMPER with a summons to court to be convicted and have to pay a three-hundred dollar fine.

One of the most amusing DUMPS in past years occurred when a teenage DUMPER (who had been given an amount of cash to haul the family garbage to a landfill) decided instead to pocket the cash and dumped a load in a nearby neighbor’s ditch. A bit of amateur detective work on the part of a couple of towhship residents led to an ultimatum. In a phone call to the DUMPER’s home, the party was told they had 24 hours to clean the ditch of the entire Dump or it would be turned over to the county authorites. It was amazing how quickly the Dump was gone!!!!! The long arm of the law–and all that good stuff!

My fondest wishes for THE DUMPERS of garbage into rural ditches is that the DUMPERS would spend Eternity up to their ankles in a pile of very ripe, stinky garbage….STANDING ON THEIR HEADS! Poetic Justice, Yesssssss!!!!!!

Ther cruelist DUMPERS are those who dump a pet along the country roads. Most rural dwellers have had a pet dog or cat wander helplessly into their yards…..hungry….subjected to the elements they are totally unused to….having the look of confusion on their faces—-true victims of the cruelest humans on earth. Most kind people try to to find the pets’ owners but of course in the case of a pet DUMP you will never find them. These SUB-HUMANS deserve something equally cruel. I would like to know that they have been DUMPED OFF in some remote area, without food or adequate clothing or far from shelter……that would be a worthy punishment for those who so carelessly and thoughtlessly buy a pet and then dump it off in a country ditch when they get tired of it. There is no example of ugly human behavior quite like it unless it is the deliberate torture of another human being.

” The hills are alive with the sound of liberal Democratic contempt for the electorate. So are the valleys,the prairies and the coasts. For months voters have been signaling their discontent with the president, his party , and their priorities. In less than a week, they appear ready to deliver a stinging rebuke. Yet rather than address the voters’ concerns with seriousness and respect, too many Democrats and their allies on the left have chosen instead to slur those voters as stupid, extremist, or too scared to think straight.” (Jeff Jacoby, BOSTON GLOBE, Oct 27, 2010)

Indeed! All of us who follow the current events of each day have heard statements made by those who will surely be “sore losers” come November 3. Both President Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton plan to “blow the pop stand” (the U.S.) rather than stick around for the 2010 election aftermath. I find that extremely revealing. Bill Clinton has been listlessly “campaigning” for Dem. candidates but his words are less than fired up; it is as if he is saying “It really doesn’t matter to me but I suppose someone has to campaign” Bill Clinton has had half-empty venues on his attempts to campaign for Dems.

Before Barack Obama gave it up in favor of getting ready to fly off to India, he has cut a few radio ads but otherwise it is pretty much over for him. He has fired some shots over the bow by saying things like this:

“Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is , because we are hard wired not to always think clearly when we are scared. And the country is scared.”
Mmmm-hmmmm! In other words if us lowly unwashed peons in flyover country were not so darned scared we would be supporting HIS agenda wholeheartedly. In his smugness and condescension, the president refuses to see the truth. If his huge number of opposing political views on exhibit by those who will vote on November were seen clearly by HIM, he is the one that is scared and NOT thinking clearly. His dwindling presidential approval rating is fueled by his own divisive performance as president. But his extreme narcissism keeps him in a tiny bubble of denial. Just wait til after the election and we will be hearing every possible blame game for others…but certainly not anything about his own failures in the first year and a half of his presidency. If the votes go as pollsters of all reputable polling organizations predict there will be all sorts of rationalizing and blaming of others. What the president is unable to grasp or face is that this election is a huge referendum on his unkept promises from 2007-2008. It is a referendum on the piling up of 13 trillion dollars of additional national debt……in spite of Nancy Pelosi’s recorded statement about her House Leader’s pledge to absolutely stop deficit spending!!! What a joke!!!!

The trashing of conservatives or members of the Tea Party Movement is in high gear on the part of the SMUG ones (ie extreme liberals. “Nutcases” is the way Massachussetts Senate President Therese Murray puts it. Christiane Amanpour of ABC news weighs in with” a grassroots movement gone to the extreme” and says “it is not conservatism as we knew it” but then they did not like the other sort of conservatism that much either—whatever that means to the liberals like Amanpour.

What is most interesting is that the electorate is not buying it in any way shape or form! The American voters are onto the smug self-righteousness of the liberal left.

Next week’s elections afre going to prove that Americans remain a center-right nation; it will show that the majority of Americans want an end to the federal governments’ outrageous deficit spending and intrusiveness into American lives in so many ways. Over 70% of Americans did NOT want the healthcare bill that was passed against their will last spring. Americans do not want the Cap and Trade bill that will kill American jobs and industry as well as raise then cost of energy to levels that ordinary peoplel cannot afford.

The overreaching by the President and his party is about to receive a real gut-kick and I do not think they are going to be able to handle it at all. It will be an interesting election night on Novemberf 2 and the early hours of November 3.

It is only 6 days til Halloween. Children love to gather “treats” on this strangest of American holidays but adults get into the act too when they have costume parties and try to outdo each other with clever masks and costumes.
My Halloween costumes and masks from my distant past consisted of paper mache, glue-laden painted masks wth weird eyeholes and mouths that got soggy from breathing into them..or if it was a rainy night on Oct. 31. Costumes…if you had one….were homemade and often were old clothing one of your parents had worn at one time. Still we loved our candy we got… mostly from our near neighbors since “trick or treat” was pretty low key 60-some years ago.

But for those who want to be politically INCORRECT at a party this week, I am going to share some really good costume ideas, thanks to a writer named Skyla Freeman. Ms. Freeman came up with some very original ideas, especially for those who might be attending a party at the home of a known Liberal.

“Costume 1: Nancy Pelosi’s Botox Needle: supplies needed: extra large funnel(for hat/syringe tip) silver pipe cleaner (for needle), all white outfit. You can offer fellow partiers a “touch-up” at no cost to them.

Costume 2: White House Party Crasher: Supplies: Indian Sari (or overpriced boutique skirt + blond wig with split ends.
This is your chance to attend any party you want to go to! Be sure it is one to which you were NOT invited. You can get extra points for evading security.

Costume 3: The Washington Bubble. Supplies: Place a large plastic bubble over your head. Then shout (at every opportunity) “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
Be sure to avoid getting near or speaking to any Middle Class people, the unemployed, the working class or Sarah Palin.

Costume 4: The Carbon Off-Set, Off-Set: Supplies: Soot. One can hair spray, one box cigars. Activities: Drop in on party down the street, the one hosted by the neighbor who announced his birthday gift was $500 dollars worth of carbon-off-sets for his hybrid SUV (no word if he purchased water off-sets for the Mississippi Delta that emerges every time he waters his lawn). Spray aerosol around, and be sure to sit your sooty self down on the couch made out of recycled plastic bottles. Light up a cigar as soon as you enter the home and puff vigorously spreading smoke all over the rooms…go from room to room puffing on cigar. Tip: Turn on the bathroom faucet before you leave.

Costume 5: “Freaktose” Corn Syrup. Supplies: a bag of candy, (be sure to check the nutrition label; high numbers in the right hand column are preferred. Activities: This is a great one for scaring grown-ups. Whip out M and M’s and Lifesavers and watch parents flee in terror from the Freddy Krueger of additives. After their departure, give candy to the grateful kids. Tip: If you have an old trans-fat or carb suit left over from the last decade, this is your chance to wear it again. Nobody can tell the difference between these stupid fads anyway.

Costume 6: The Jobless Person: Supplies: resume, business cards, your best suit. Activities: grab the DJ’s mike and announce a special opportunity to reduce the jobless number by one. Then shower the dance floor with business card confetti. Corporate parties are best.”

These costume suggestions should insure that you will be recognized for your creative and unusual constume(s). It may also insure that you will be thrown out of the house within the first hour of the party. If that happens, just go around til you find another party and then crash that one til you get thrown out. Continue routine til 2-3 a.m. in the morning or whenever the parties are over.

HAVE LOADS OF FUN!!!!!

A follow-up to yesterday’s blog:

After she fired Juan Williams from his National Politically(correct) Radio contract, the CEO Vivian Schiller has made some followup statements that seem to indicate she has gotten one of her female chest appendages “caught in the wringer”.

Her original statement said “His {Williams} remarks on the O’Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR”.

But after stepping into a mine field of outrage and public opposition, Schiller “adjusted” her first statement:

The Associated Press reported this:

“Schiller said Williams’ firing is not a reflection of his comments (on Fox News Channel) that he gets nervous when seeing people in Muslim garb on an airplane. She says she has no problem with people taking controversial positions, but that such opinions should not come from NPR reporters or news analysts.”

So if that is what she really means, then legal affairs correspondent (REPORTER) Nina Totenberg better start looking for a new job.

Here, according to Stephen Hayes’ (WEEKLY STANDARD) research of past Totenberg “reports” on NPR are some “controversial statements” made by the reporter Nina Totenberg.

“On ‘Inside Washington’ (Oct 17, 2010) Totenberg told us that Michelle Obama is ‘an incredibly graceful surrogate for her husband who gives people ‘warm and fuzzy feelings’.”

Then on October 10 Totenberg “reported” on the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, the prominent campaign finance case when she “reported” and compared it to Watergate. Host Gordon Peterson said: “Thanks to the Supreme Court Citizens ruling earlier this year, 501(c) nonprofits can pump millions of dollars into our elections and they don’t have to tell us where the money is coming from. The best government money can buy, Nina.’ Totenberg, who is not shy about expressing her OPINION said ‘Well, you know, this is the next scandal in Washington in the making. They don’t have to disclose anything. And eventually this is the kind of thing that led to watergate.”
(This is reporting?)

On October 3 Totenberg had decried Republicans on one of her “reports” calling them a “concerted minority” for “holding up business in the Senate and declared that their unwillingness to exploit antiquated congressional rules was a ‘loony way to do business.’ ”

Totenberg’s prejudiced and left-leaning “reporting” issues go on and on but one that she made when talking about the late Senator Jesse Helms is perhaps the most blatant and grieveous of all.
She opined that it would serve justice if Senator Helms and his grandchildren contracted AIDs.
How’s that for sticking to the non-existent “standards and practices” of NPR as defined by Vivian Schiller?

Schiller ought to fire Totenberg and then herself!!!!

Get a load of this: NPR has terminated the contract of long time NPR regular, Juan Williams for comments he made when talking to Bill O’Reilly on the FOXnews program. This just proves that telling the truth will get you fired on National Politically Correct radio!!!!

Williams’s Scarlet Letter sin went this way:
Bill O’Reilly and Juan Williams were discussing the brou-ha-ha that had occurred on “The View” when O’ Reilly referred to Muslims attacking the Twin Towers on 9-11-2001. Williams said to O’Reilly:

“Look Bill, I am not a bigot. You know the kinds of books I have written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane,I got to tell you, if I see people who are dressed in Muslim garb, and I think , you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get scared.”

And for that….Williams was fired from NPR—-the most bigoted media outlet in America—the one that cannot make it on its own and must suck off the government to stay on the air. Then under the auspices of the United States government, they proceed to air the most Left leaning news reports and commentaries and downight insulting programs directed at dissing anything that is slightly conservative politically or culturally…and they do this on the government DOLE!

Who is bigoted here? Not Juan Williams, that’s for sure!

NPR’s namby-pamby statement about Williams’s firing said this.

After giving Williams some praise for being a valuable contributor , “His remarks on the ‘O’Reilly Factor’ this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR”.

Indeed. Their “standards and practices”…at the expense of American taxpayers, is to only practice Leftist extremist “reporting” ( I use that term loosely) on the NPR radio outlets. If one listens closely to their output (a.k.a. drivel) it is the most extreme form of pandering to one side of the American political spectrum….the Liberal Left.

And then we are also treated to the spectacle of outlets like this tax-funded one… complaining about the content of another media outlet (FOXnews) as being a voice for Conservatism, only! How much hypocrisy is there on NPR and other Liberal-leaning media voices????? They are blind to any other views but their own.

I know that Juan Williams will have multiple opportunities at many other media companies; his sensible and fair comments will be welcomed by the vast majority of the American people…most of whom do not give a Rat’s A – - about NPR and what they trumpet. Go Juan!

I have been outside this morning….first just sitting in our yard swing with my kitty. While I was in the swing, I heard a coal train pulling hard up the long slope that continues for at least 3 miles as the land rises out of the hole a town is built within. The heavy freight trains have to strain hard to get out of town! Then after the long uphill climb, I can hear three whistles: first at the “Winnipeg Junction” crossing; then quickly at the Sandman crossing; and seconds later, at the Dale crossing. After that the whistles at the crossings east of Dale cannot be heard. Ever since I learned that every train engineer has his own distinctive whistle pattern, I pay attention to them. This morning’s engineer has 4 longs as he approaches whistlestops.

I also gazed at the late-blooming pink cosmos bush…planted from seeds in the spring. They are usually August flowers so I do not know why they are so late.
October has been a once-in a blue moon month…..so much warmth and little rain or snow or sleet. Some Octobers I can remember early snowstorms after which the snow melted and we had “Indian Summer”…..but this October has to be one for the record books.

I also hung out sheets and pillowcases on the clotheslines just now. When I was hanging the big items up, the wind switched and blew hard (the metorologist I heard say that the wind would be rising and switching was right!). Suddenly I was tangled up in damp sheets that were responding to the rise in the windspeed and direction.

I also cut two huge bouquets of cosmos and have arranged them in large vases for the inside of the house. It is most unusual to cut fresh flowers in October. Cosmos are so delicate with their fern-like foliage and frail blooms.

ONE LEFTOVER CRAW-STICKER: Yesterday I forgot one! It is most curious (and is sticking in my craw) that a leading Democrat said a couple of days ago when facing the oncoming election deluge, that he hoped the winning legislators would be williing to “cooperate and compromise” with the “other side” of the aisle. Would that be like the “cooperation and compromise” we witnessed from the overwhelming Dem majority in the last (disastrous) Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? I am referring to that legislative session that excluded the minority party from EVERYTHING and conducted business behind closed and locked doors? The same “cooperation and compromise” that rammed healthcare reform down the throats of the American people who opposed it overwhelmingly? The same “cooperation and compromise” that resorted to bribes and blackmail a’la’ the “Cornhusker Compromise” and the “Louisiana purchase” as well as other questionable and nefarious “deals” and arm-twisting???? If that is the same kind of “cooperation and compromise” the Dems want, I say give it to them….just like they gave it to the Republican minority throughout 2009-2010. They richly deserve to have a taste of their own medicine.