Buffalo Gal

March 14 is a definitely a lamb-like day. It is so sunny and so warm that I am going to be bold and hang clothes out on the clothesline for the first time since last fall.
The warm days have caused all yard snow to disappear (for the season I hope but who knows?) March is such a “swing month..just like November for us in the northland we live in.
I am presently working on a series of feature articles for the local paper; there is an All School Reunion in late June and I decided to write about the history of journalism and journalists from the small town school over the decades. For a small town, there are some distinguished journalists to come out of the small town school setting.
I am in touch with one of them who graduated in 1948 and went on to a 45- year career as a journalist. I am also in touch with the daughter of another local photographer and journalist who made a big mark on the field over many decades just like the one from 1948.
Cal, the older of the two men (now deceased) was one of the generation of young men who had their young lives turned upside down by
WW2. Many of then did not get to complete their educations before they had to serve in the Military during the second world war. Russ, the other one I am writing about, had the same experience with the Korean War taking him away from his chosen career to serve in the US Navy from 1953 for 5 years hence.
Both of these men are remarkable journalists who had nearly 50 years as journalists once they got a chance to pursue their careers. It is a joy to write about them.

And then there is the March LION:
It is a conservative female LION who loves to let others know what a mistake was made when our present President was elected. This LION does not have a problem with the man (Obama) himself—only his radical policies that are endangering both our freedoms and our constitutional liberty. It seems that the Beltway Libs and others who live in an Ivory Tower environment with other Libs are convinced that anyone who disagrees with the President or his Party are for sure not only too- far right…. but also believe they are Racists. How that jump is made I do not know but I heard evidence to that effect recently.
A black journalist named De Roy Murdock gives his conservative opinion about the present administration so perhaps Mr. Murdock is also a Racist?
Google this title for Mr. Murdock’s op-ed: “The real photo ID civil rights issue”
It appeared on March 9 in the National Review .
Then there is an amusing story about Joe Biden, our vice president, who has the persistent habit of sticking both his feet in his mouth at the same time. He did it again at a fancy fundraiser at John and Teresa (RB)Heinz- Kerry’s big mansion in the Georgetown neighorhood of Washington, DC. 85 or so Dem supporters paid $10,000 per couple to attend the soiree at the Kerry home and also got to hear Biden tell them that Republicans are out of touch with middle – class Americans. How is this possible? Joe Biden at a ten – thousand – dollar – per- couple dinner tells them that the Opposition party is “out of touch”? Maybe Joe and his companions should look in a mirror to see who is out of touch.
Google this: “Biden Hails Middle Class At Wealthy Fundraiser”

And once again the Thorn- In- The- Side of the Obama administration and some of its slighty shady supporters has been exposing more slightly shady goings on with the same cast of characters (like
Planned Parenthood and Acorn workers and this time Vermont election officials).
O’Keefe filmed some some goings – on at voting venues in Vermong that are a great embarrassment to the Vermont officials and probably to the present administration as well.
Google this: “Exclusive: O’Keefe Video Exposes Voter-Friendly Fraud In Vermont”

I guess these op- eds and articles are showing us another form of “MARCH MADNESS” but unfortunately such madness does not go away with March.
Voter ID is badly needed nation-wide to insure a non-corrupt election process.
But the Administration is bound to not let it happen….Eric Holder is opposing a Texas voter ID law just as was done in ‘South Carolina.
What are these people afraid of? A fair election that may interfere with their fixing certain elections in their favor?

I just read two things online that struck my fancy.
In a not surprising turn of events the US Justice Deptartment headed by the hapless and incompetent Eric Holder, now opposes the Texas law requiring voter ID in that state. SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!
I wrote a blog about this subject not long ago…voter ID with a picture for all who wish to vote in any US or state elections. I am in favor of it…. especially since the 2008 election in MN in which over 300 felons were discovered to have voted…illegally of course. It happened in Hennepin and Ramsey counties both of which are heavily DFL. So if you want your candidate to be elected, you just bring in the felons or have others sign up to vote so that you have more voters signed up than are actually on the voters’ list! It is so simple.
Those who oppose voter IDs are mainly liberal; they say it interferes with Hispanics voting (as in Texas) or that it hinders the elderly or the poor or other minority groups. What it really means is that it is much harder to cheat in an election if photo IDS are required.
The article can be found by googling the exact title:

“Justice department opposes Texas voter ID Law” (it is from the Washington Post)

Then in a hilarious enactment of Chicagoland mob style activities that are not too surprising in Chicago…..
Concert goers at the marvelous and historic Orchestra Hall in downtown Chicago were treated to a fist fight in one of the box seats this weekend. Orchestra Hall has such perfect accoustics that you can hear a whisper from the stage in the top tiers of seats..I know this to be true because in February, 1959 I was with a concert choir that sang in Orchestra Hall and we tested the whisper theory when we were setting up for our concert. You COULD hear a whisper from the stage! So about this fist fight at this weekend’s concert: patrons could hear the sound of a fist smashing a face at a quiet moment in a Brahms piece and it turned out that two wealthy patrons(men) in one box duked it out over where one of them was going to sit.
I am sure this is the influence of having Rahm Emanuel for a mayor now. He was brutal with his words but others have brought physical brutality into the concert hall where two aging pugilists knocked each other around over where to sit.
Google this:
“Fistfight stuns patrons at Chicago symphony orchestra”

Would we see wuch at an FM symphony concert? I think not.

I got up this morning at about 7 pm..DAYLIGHT STANDARD TIME..grump, grump….and found it cloudly and rainy so I have a new “MURPHY’S LAW to share with you.

“On the first Monday of DST it WILL be cloudy and rainy and dark and gloomy.”

I enjoy other Murphy’s Laws as well.

The original Law: “If anything can go wrong , it will.”

“If anything CAN’T go wrong, it will anyway.”

“In Nature nothing is ever right so if everything is going well….something’s wrong.”

“A falling object will always land where it does the most damage.”

(and along that same line…)

“The chance of buttered bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.”

“A valuable item will fall into an inaccessible place (like a diamond ring down the drain) ..or into the garbage disposal while it is running.”

On Saturday and Sunday I got out the lawnchairs from the garage and sat on the deck in the most glorious sunshine for more than an hour each day.
I am not going to sit on the deck today…which just goes to prove another of a Murphy -type law for the RR Valley area:

“If you don’t like the weather just wait five minutes”

I got this today from a friend in Texas.
GOOGLE THIS TITLE:
“Obama, GOP ready for heathcare arguments”
by David Jackson in USA TODAY March 9 2012.
It is an article about the upcoming Supreme Court session that could determine the fate of Obamacare as it was “written” (I use that term loosely)
Remember when Nancy Pelosi said we “would have to read the bill to know what was in it” ??
We have been finding that out since the Monstrosity was passed by the Democratic – controlled House and Senate in 2009. 70% of the American people now oppose the healthcare plan according to polls like Rasmussen, Gallup and other reputable pollsters.

Now it is going to be vetted by the Supremes to see if it violates the US Constitution.
It seems the Obama camp is truly desperate because they (who have scorned things such as Prayer and Bible reading) are about to call for a “prayer vigil” in front of the Supreme Court Building prior to the first day of case presentation.
Am I stunned? You better believe it.
This is coming from the President who scoffed at voters in Pennsylvania who “cling to their guns and their religion.” ( see references)
This from the President who sat under the “teaching” of Rev. Jeremiah Wright who infamously said “Not God bless America…God Damn America!”
And now they want to hold a “prayer vigil”!!

I wonder to which god they will be praying? Allah? Buddha? The Hindu panoply of multiple gods like Rama for one? Pele the pagan goddess of Hawaiian volcanoes?
Do you think God (Yahweh of the
Torah and the Christian scripture will hear their prayers?
Not if the Bible is correct…..only “He who has clean hands and a clean heart” will be heard according to scripture.
There are a lot of bloodied on hands in the O. camp….when Obama was an Illinois Senator he voted against a bill to preserve the lives of aborted babies who survived their abortions…..let their tiny living bodies be relegated to the closet where the dirty hospital linen was thrown.
This is the president who cheers on the Abortionists in the nation…..even if the highest number of aborted babies are black or of other minorities.
Yes, there are bloodied hands here.

(references: google this:
** “Top Ten Reasons Obama voted against Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act”
( in Illinois Review for Jan 10 2008)

** “Obama More Pro-Choice Than NARAL”
(Dec 16, 2006 in Human Events)

** “Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America-U.S. to blame for 9-11″
(from ABC news)

** Obama: small- town PA-clinging to religion, guns, xenophobia”

(Ben Smith in Politico, April 11, 2008)

And who will lead this prayer vigil?
Reverend Jeremiah Wright? Reverend Jesse Jackson?
Who will give the invocation or opening devotions? Bill Maher? George Soros?
Bill Ayers? David Axelrod? Professor Bell of recent fame from the Harvard video of Obama’s student activist days?

Wait: You should not use the C–t word or the T–t word when calling upon
God! So cancel Bill Maher.

Maybe Michelle can comment on how mean the USA was til her husband got elected?
Who will sing praises at the prayer meeting? All the hip – hop entertainers who have been at the White House parties/bashes?

“He who has a clean heart and clean hands”

(I don’t think the prayer vigil will change a thing for the Obama camp if they hope that the God they scorn will suddenly come to their rescue)

Nefore I get into my observations of woodpeckers I cannot resist telling about an e mail I just opened. It was called “Lifeguard with a sense of humor” It is a video of a crowded swimming pool in tropical surrounding..looks like a vacation place in tropical climes….
The lifeguard gets on his battery operated bullhorn and says “Please exit the pool, Ladies and Gentleman. The pool will be closed for 5 minutes so I can take my bathroom break.”
Everyone gets out of the pool and goes to sit on patio chairs or on the deck. As soon as the poll is cleared the lifeguard steps down from his high lifeguard chair and wades into the pool til he is waist deep. Then he stands very still for a few minutes after which he makes a small shaking motion (getting the drips) and then climbs back onto his perch where he picks upthe bullhorn and says “The pool is now open; you may get back in the water.”
By this time everyone by the pool is laughing hysterically and the video does not continue long enough to see if people actually go back into the pool.
I suspect that a lot of pools are about 50% children’s urine anyway. I do not like it when I see daycare groups of 15 kids entering the pool together no matter what their caregiver had told them about NOT peeing in the pool. YUCK….I want to get out of the water right away before the urine spreads to my end. Call me nit-picky but that is how it is.
Now for the Woodpeckers.
I made some really yummy (apparently by its popularity) homemade suet with lard and peanut butter and oatmeal and cornmeal. The Downy and Hairy woodpeckers love it but the males will not allow the female to eat until they are done!
They get rather hostile if the women try to eat first and the males will chase them off the suet.
This pattern is kind of repeated in Hutterite colonies where the men are seated together and served first. Only after the men are done eating and the children have been fed do the women sit down on the other side of the dining hall.
I do not wish to compare Hutterite people to woodpeckers but I have observed both “cultures” and the women do not get to eat first in either one.
Is this the natural order of things? Have militant female rights leaders been trying to interfere with the natural order of the universe? Are their attempts to degrade men in general good for our culture?
I am just wondering.
I can plainly see that woodpeckers seem to know how it is done.
I wonder how the male readers think of this?
It will be interesting to see if anyone expresses a view on this touchy topic.

The first days of March 1966 brought a killer blizzard into North
Dakota and Minnesota. The storm raged for 3 days and when it was over 25-30 inches of snow had fallen and winds up to 100 mph had driven the snow into drifts as high as 30 feet. The storm started about noontime on March 2 and did not abate until March 5.
This was perhaps the worst blizzard to hit the Dakotas and Minnesota since weather had been recorded. A blizzard in 1888 was also bad but records did not contain the information available about the March 1966 storm.
For 11 long hours, visibility was zero, even in farmyards… to say nothing of out in open country.
Travelers were trapped in their cars along highways and roads. Three ND men died of heart attacks while shoveling snow and two young girls died in their own farmyards when they tried to get to the barns to feed livestock. I vividly remember the report of the death of an 11 year old girl named Betty who died when she got lost in the blizzard in her farmyard near Woodworth, ND.
Two couples who were trying to get to the hospital in Dickinson for the birth of babies were caught in the storm. One couple found refuge at a farm home where their baby was born. The other couple made it into Dickinson but got stuck in the city streets and the baby was born in the car. The two young parents and their newborn baby walked several blocks to the hospital in the storm.
Three trains with a total of 500 passengers became stalled in huge drifts near New Salem, ND and were not dug out until the storm ended. Engines with snowplows could not even get to the stranded trains and men with shovels were forced to dig the trains out of the drifts.
One amazing thing about this tremendous blizzard was that their were not more lives lost. People trapped in cars somehow survived by staying inside their vehicles. Some were resucued by brave highway department rescue teams.
The economic impact of the March 1966 blizzard was enormous. Many cattle, sheep and hogs died out in the open fields. 74,500 head of cattle died, 54,000 sheep died…. many of them suffocated inside barns that were buried in heavy snowdrifts, 2400 hogs died.
People who live here know that blizzards will strike in winter. Over the years, many people have endured big storms and the aftermaths of them. Lives get adjusted to winter weather conditions and people know how to cope with severe winter weather. People know to stay home and not travel in bad conditions; they also stock up on food items when a forecast for a storm is coming.
Over the decades a lot of board games and card games have been played through days of howling blizzards; books get read; my elderly neighbor told how quilting materials would come out during a blizzard and many “blizzard quilts” were made during terrible storms. I remember a 2-3 day game of Monopoly with my neighbor and friend Harlan during some bad weather during the mid 1940′s.
I remember the March 2- 5 blizzard well. We had just moved back to Minnesota after 5 years in much milder Washington state. The big blast of March 1966 reminded of us of childhood blizzards we had endured.
I remember seeing drifts in town as high as the roofs of houses.
A road grader got stuck in a huge drift in front of the house we lived in at the time and had to be pulled out by a much larger rotary snowplow.
Kids made slides from rooftops down the huge drifts. Igloos were built and tunnels dug.
I know kids enjoyed almost a week of snow days during that huge blizzard the likes of which we have not seen since.
We had a lot of storms in the winter of 1997 but none tht lasted for 4 days with no letup.

After the mainstream media created a big flap over degrading comments made by Rush Limbaugh, it is worth googling this article:

“Obama’s Waiver For Bill Maher”
the writer is Aaron Goldstein.

Also an article this morning (Wed Mar 7) needs to be read for another follow-up.

“Investors Flee Carbonite After Limbaugh’s Announcement” it is written by Jeff Poor.
Carbonite stock plunged 12% on Monday; Carbonite is one of the advertisers that pulled its support from Limbaugh’s show.
Both articles are fascinating reading.

A media firestorm broke over comments made by Rush Limbaugh regarding Sandra Flukes.
Rush was forced to make a public apology because he was losing sponsors right and left.
Bill Maher has made a million dollar donation to the Obama campaign.
Bill Maher makes the filthiest comments of all on his so called show and suffers no repercussions. Nor will the Obama campaign return the million dollars!
Kristin Powers writes about the liberal men who have freely use mysogynistic rhetoric and faced no outrage as Limbaugh did… but then Limbaugh is a leading conservative commentator. Here comes the Liberal’s hypocrisy.

Powerrs wrote this:

“Maher has called Sarah Palin ‘a dumb twat’ and dropped the C-word describing the former Alaska governor. He called Palin and Congresswoman Michelle Bachman ‘boobs’ and ‘two bimbos’ He said of the former vice presidential candidate, “She’s not a mean girl, she is a crazy girl with mean ideas.’ He recently made a joke about Rick Santorum’s wife using a vibrator. Imagine the same joke during the 2008 campaign with Michelle Obama’s name in it…and tell me he would still have a job. Maher said of a woman who was harassed at an Applebees for breast feeding her child.
‘Don’t show me your tits!’ as though a woman feeding her child is trying to flash Maher. (Here’s a way to solve his problem: don’t stare at a stranger’s breasts)
Then his coup de grace, ‘And by the way there is a place where food and breasts go together. It’s called Hooters’ ”

According to an article in the Weekly Standard, White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton who runs Obama’s Super-Pac , did not reply when asked if he will be returning Maher’s 1 million donation.”

So once again we are treated to the horrendous hypocrisy of Liberals who “have a cow” when Rush Limbaugh or Don Imus or any other man makes a disgraceful comment about a woman… but let Bill Maher do it on a nightly basis and no one bats an eye….or gives up a cool million donation.
This alone should be reason enough to throw the White House crowd out of our national mansion—and our government.
Bill Maher is the biggest hater and insulter of females on the planet.
His foul mouth alone should guarantee him a reserved spot in the hottest Hell reserved for the likes of him and his same-thinking male cronies.

A letter to the editor (FORUM) last summer asked an interesting question. The letter writer… Chuck Fuller.. of Park Rapids related being asked by a lady why she needed a social security number for a fishing license in Minnesota but did not need any kind of ID to vote. He did not really have a viable answer but referred to Minnesota as the “Land of Sky Blue Voters” saying apparently fish are more important than people in that state.
I vote with no ID also but that is pretty common in our litte township hall. The town board knows who everyone is! We simply sign our name on the voting register before we get our ballot. Small communities probably have little or no voting fraud committed due to the fact that everyone knows everyone else…but that is not true in the big metropolises….especially Minneapolis/St Paul in Minnesota where voter fraud surely got Al Franken elected in the last senatorial vote. Missing ballots, more voters than the voter registration lists.. showed up in the election that put Franken in office. This kind of voter fraud could be totally avoided if states required IDs for voting….drivers’ licenses, social security numbers, proof of citizenship or picture IDs… but most states do not require such identification and it is a sure way for dishonest politicians and dishonest state party leaders to get candidates elected that probably would NOT be elected if the process was conducted fairly, legally, and totally honestly. It is too much of temptation to commit fraud in order to get questionable candidates elected.

It seems that career politicians speak out against having a picture ID or a driver’s license required to be shown to election officials before voting.
How would some of them be able to commit voting fraud if such a requirement was in place? DUH!
The last senatorial election in Minnesota notoriously had thousands of strange votes in some of the questionable voting precincts.
FRom a July 20, 2010 report in US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, titled “Al Franken may have won his Senate seat through voter fraud”, John Fund of the Wall Street Journal is also quoted on voter fraud. This is a quote:

“At least 341 convicted felons voted in Minneapolis’s Hennepin County and another 52 felons voted in St Paul’s Ramsey County. Dan Mc Grath of Minnesota Majority–a voter watchdog organization — says that only conclusive matches were included in the groups’ totals. The number of felons who voted in those 2 counties alone exceeds Mr. Franken’s {narrow} victory margin.”

As a citizen born and raised in Minnesota, I am so ashamed that this happened here. Minnesota has been known for its clean poltics..or so I thought..but that image is forever gone after the crookedness and fraudulent voting in November 2008.
And the career politicians claim that having to have Voter ID will somehow take votes away from some people? Those voters and those election officials who allowed the fraud are the ones that SHOULD HAVE their right to vote taken away!
What is so complicated about showing a picture ID or a drivers’ license before a person votes? We have to do that in order to write a check at a grocery store or to get a library card or a credit card or any number of everyday things we do. We have to routinely show our social security cards for a huge number of things. The stupidty of those who say that having voter ID is somehow harmful are full of baloney…not to mention criminal intent if they want to commit voting fraud by letting convicted felons vote in a national election. Those who vote without IDs in the huge city precincts are likely to be inelgible voters, but the crooked policiticans love to have them voting.
Every state in the Union should have requirements for ID for anyone who votes in future elections. Let’s hope that MInnesota learned its lesson in 2008 when a man took a seat in the greatest legislative body in our nation—most likely because of voter fraud. It is too late to change the results of that 2008 election but the state of Minnesota (and other states) better make sure that voter fraud is a thing of the past in 2012.

I am old enough tor remember what America was like when nobody expected the government to provide for your every need or want. I was raised with the work ethic of my parents, members of the Greatest Generation, and the Great Depression generation, who believed in “pulling the wagon ” instead of riding in it. I see the US becoming a nation of too many people who want to “ride in the wagon” (let the government pay for everything) and we are running out of people who will “pull the wagon”
I read a disturbing article in London’s DAILY MAIL this morning and I highly recommend it to readers of my blog.
Google these words”
“Why Britain has fallen out of love with the welfare state”
It is a gut-check on what British society has become since the end of WW2 when a social reformer named Beveridge developed the plan to turn Britain into a welfare state.
The story clearly reveals what has happened in the decades since that major decision was made by the governnent in Britain. It is not a pretty scene–it is nauseating to me.
Norway has gone the same road but Norway can afford it thanks to their offshore oil resource which makes it one of the wealthiest nations on the globe.
Will we allow our great nation to sink into this morass of social welfare as it seems to be sinking?
I am greatly distressed to think my grandchilren may have to live in this sort of a society if the present ideas pushed by this administration and the liberals in our government continue.
We are already well on the way to becoming a Welfare State and it is an ugly preview of things to come if we do not change it by voting for the kind of legislators and leaders who are not going to lead us over the social and economic cliff as the Europeans have already done.

Today is Read ACross America Day . I assume this day has been continued since it was intiitated in about 1998 and done on March 2 which is the real birthday of the much loved “Doctor Suess”,
I remember the first year of RAA at our elementary school. I organized a big shin-dig for the whole day and enlisted help from other teachers who entusiastically jumped into it. One made up a Dr Suess trivia game and played it with 4th 5th and 6th graders. We all dressed up that day like characters from familiar books for kids. The first year I was one of the WEIRD PARENTS from Audrey Wood’s book of the same name. One year I was the Granny from THE NAPPING HOUSE also by Audrey Wood.
I was once a little boy in short pants and a backwards cap….my friend Donna( speech therapist) and I always did a readers’theater many times that day for all the classes. Another pair of teachers once did a play from a book about GRANNIES…who went to excercise classes and I cannot remember laughing that hard since I saw them do it. They both stuffed themselves with big pillow to appear as fat as the Grannies in the story.
The Title One teachers once did the story of THE SNEETCHES by Dr. Suess and had their students being the Sneetches…the plain bellied ones and the ones with stars on their bellies..it was such a good play and the Title One Kids were so thrilled to do it for all the other kids.
We had guest readers in and out of classrooms all day long..parents, our Principal who always dressed up in costume to read THE PRINCIPAL’S NEW CLOTHES… as takeoff on the EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES.
Another pair of teachers did GREEN EGGS AND HAM and our wonderful cook Kathy always prepared a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast for anyone who signed up to eat it…we had hundreds of kids and parents for the special breakgfast. One time we got Marv Bossart and Najla Amundson to be guest readers..they were so wonderful with our students.
What great menories I have today on March 2—a day that became a real highlight in my years as a childrens’librarian at LPA school.
I wonder if theyu still so RAA at the elementary school? It has been 8 years since I retired and things have changed a great deal since then.