farmeruminations

the Republican Candidates

2011-11-23T13:04:00.010-06:00

I attended the Family Leader Presidential Forum on Saturday night.

As I left the building at the end of the evening I was asked by a reporter from ABC News what I thought of the evening and of the candidates.

My response was simple.

"I saw a lot of half empty glasses. Or half full ones if you think that is more optimistic. Either way I saw a lot of candidates with some strong points and some serious negatives as well."

In an attempt to put the glass empty analogy in a visual form, I asked my daughter to do a little work in photoshop to create a visual image of each candidate as a glass/cup.

In no particular order.

Of course, some are fuller than others. And some are full of it.

Thoughts From the Iowa Straw Poll

2011-08-14T16:41:00.002-06:00

I took my family to the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday. I've been able to attend every one since 1995 when Bub Dull and Phil Gramm "tied" (what a scam).

The following are a list a random thoughts about what I saw and experienced.

First, it was a gorgeous day. In 2007 it was hot and muggy, almost unbearable. Yesterday on the other hand was close to perfect. Temps in the low 80's, high intermittent clouds, and a gentle breeze from the NW at 5 to 9 mph. People were comfortable, even while standing in line, fairly agreeable and generally in a good mood. The weather alone was probably a huge factor in the turnout.

Second, the voting its self was, while poorly organized, very straight forward and did't allow anyone to suggest that the numbers were not very accurate. They tried to run too many people at a time through a small hall way to mark their ballots, which lead to some very long lines. Someplace where more people could get through the voting process at a time would have been very helpful. The accuracy however was excellent. The new Republican Secretary of State in Iowa is pushing for voter ID at the polls. In conjunction with that, reminding all Iowa voters that the Democrats are resisting Voter ID at the polls, all those who voted in the Straw Poll were required to show proof of Iowa residence with an Iowa drivers license. After they had marked their ballots and the ballots were placed in the ballot counter, everyone was required to mark their thumb with blue ink. I personally had gotten two tickets to vote, from an advocacy group which was present, and a candidate. After I voted once, I was not allowed in the door with the blue mark on my thumb.

Speaking of advocacy groups. It was interesting mix of wacko atheists, limpwristed gun groups like the NRA, big money grubbers like the wind energy advocates, and the big oil front groups. There were also some serious advocates like Gun Owners of Iowa, pushing Constitutional Carry. And a new group I helped with a petition drive, Iowa Pro-life Action, which is dedicated to ending the "pro-life" exception scam. We are advocating a personhood Amendment to the Iowa Constitution. We are tired of Repuke politicians giving the life issue, lip service during their campaigns, then voting for legislation which allows abortion till 20 weeks, or funds Medicare provided abortions. "A pro-life, but you can go ahead and kill the baby approach."

Got a ticket from the Strong America Now group, which is pushing Lean Six Sigma. They spent a great deal of time and money pushing their idea for reducing the budget, by reducing fraud and waste in the Federal Budget. So I let them spend their $30 bucks for my ticket. They were giving away t-shirts, hats and candy. Between the freebies there and at other tents, I shouldn't need any t-shirts for another year.

On the candidates. Had a short, rather contentious visit, with Rick Santourum in the parking lot on the way into the event. True story. He asked for my vote, I told him only when he got down on his knees and apologized for supporting Arlyn Spinchter. He refused, and tried to defend his actions by claiming that Spinchter allowed Bush to put two "conservative" justices on the SCOTUS. I countered with, "Do you really believe that Toomey would have lost?" To which he suggested only Spinchter could have gotten Roberts and Alito confirmed. I told him that I didn't consider Bush a conservative, and I do not think helping a flaming liberal, baby killer lover, to be reelected to to the US Senate was a benefit to the cause of "life" which he claims to support. I walked away irritated, and he was visibly aggravated. He asked, I gave him my opinion. And I'm quite sure he did not appreciate it.

Saw a bunch of my Ron Paul supporting friends. I was there in 2007 when all of us supporting Ron Paul fit in a tent that would hold a couple of hundred people. He got 1305 votes that year, out of 14,302 votes cast. This year there were Paulistia's everywhere. After being there about an hour, it was clear that either Paul or Bachmunn would win the vote. Both of them overwhelmed the rest of the candidates there with their supporters. Visually, it was a toss up who had the most supporters.

Two comments directed to the Ron Paul group. First, I admire their enthusiasm. They were having fun, they were aggressively supporting their guy. And they clearly put up more signs, banners, and Ron Paul paraphernalia than any other candidate did. But, sometimes they were their own worse enemy. See a wacky looking pot head, a poorly dressed/unkempt neer-do-well, or a radical atheist-leftist (who wants to end first amendment rights for Intelligent Design scientists and Christians) (more on that later) and they were wearing Ron Paul shirts. Your pothead, anti-god, leftist radical friends are not helping your cause. I talked to several people who might have supported Dr. Paul, who instead supported Bachmann, and did so because of the kind of people who identified themselves a Ron Paul supporters. A lot of people believe the old saying, "You can tell a lot about a man's character by the company he keeps." And frankly some of Dr. Paul's supporters were a scary looking bunch.

Bachmann and Pawnlenty and Santourum supporters were very similar. Families or older couples. Normal white bread, conservative American's/Iowan's who want another normal white bread president, who looks and acts like they do. The difference between the Bachmann and T-Paw supporters were that many of the T-Paw people were the establishment Repuke crowd. The ones you see at the Repuke fund raisers. The ones with ties to the Bumstead administration. The ones who currently serve as State officials or Legislators and don't want to rock the boat. The Bachmann and Santourum voters were split between those who claim to be very conservative, yet can not jump on the libertarian wagon. The Bachmann people were people I know who are very conservative, who do not like the current mess in Washington and want to stop the federal leviathan from getting bigger, as opposed to the Santourum crowd who think we will have to work within the system (think Spinchter) to achieve their conservative goals.

Two obvious facts to this observer. Bachmann and Paul were the only two who vociferously argued against raising the debt limit. And they lapped the rest of the field. Clearly, whether you are a Bachmann or a Paul supporter, you believe that we must stop getting more credit cards to pay off the staggering debt problem. T-Paw wavered on the subject, and Santourum claimed in the Thursday debate that talk of not raising the debt ceiling was dangerous. Second, and you libertarians take note. Life is still a huge issue. Bachmann is wholeheartedly pro personhood. Very outspoken about her views on life and marriage. Paul spent much of his speech on Saturday defending his pro-life position. Santourum is clearly pro-life and the rest of the field gave it lip service. You can not win in Iowa and be pro-baby killer.

Because of this Ron Paul is going to continue to have trouble reaching a broader audience. The radical libertarians among his supporters could care less if the innocent life in the womb is sucked into a tube, flushed down the stool or cut into chunks and sold as Soylent Green. Liberty means that "Every man can do what is right in his own eyes." And if a few million babies get killed in the preservation of liberty, who cares, liberty is the thing. That's why you see radical atheist professors like Dr. Hector Avalos and his wife supporting Dr. Paul. Avalos is the one who got Dr. Guillermo Gonzales fired at Iowa State University because of his ID theories. See "Expelled" for details. Yet, a large number of the Paul supporters were Godly Christians, Reformed/Calvanists who believe in total depravity, and that the Laws of Nature and Nature's God are supreme over even the Constitution. At the point that Dr. Paul's policies allow some states to choose to support abortion on demand, he will have a total revolt on his hands from within his own base. Many of these supporters tolerate the anarchist, pot-head, anti-god crowd only to reach the goal of defunding, destroying or downsizing the federal leviathan. If the Libertarians attempt to push their pro-baby killing libertine ideas, there will be a total war between the two groups.

Bachmann on the other hand is going to face firestorm/total destruction from the establishment ruling class within the Repuke party. They do not want her views on abortion, sodomy marriage and debt limits to be allowed on the stage. They will do everything in their power to destroy her. I predict that the first line of attack, within the next 48 hours will be directed at her husband and his counseling ministry, which attempt to get sodomites to turn from their wicked lifestyle and live as God intended. They will find someone or several someones who have been through his program, to claim that he used state money to indoctrinate them. I would not even be surprised to see him accused of engaging in acts of sodomy or molestation. She is hated by the Repuke establishment, and by every godless liberal pro-abort, pro-sodomy advocate out there, and she must be silenced if they have their way.

The Iowa Straw Poll was great. Had a blast, and I voted for................... Well, I wrote in a name and my guy got less that Thaddeus McCotter's 35.

Bash on the Farm

2011-05-23T21:13:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine has been having this event for 10 years.

Most of the bands are "Christian", and the gospel message is given on both evenings.

If you have the weekend free, come to the Bash, then come see the farmer while you're in the neighborhood.

Here's the website.

Bash on the Farm

Another Possible Presidential Candidate

2011-03-29T19:52:00.001-06:00

I found out today that another possible candidate for President has been putting out some feelers, and forming an exploratory committee. Now I have met this guy, talked to him on the phone recently and think he would make a good Presidential Candidate. I have edited his National Issues Position statement enough to take out the obvious references to his career. Without knowing who this man is, do you like his positions on the issues, and would you support him if he were to run?

Economy – Lower taxes, smaller government, and less spending will reduce the deficit and enable economic growth and a truly “stimulated” economy.

I believe in the reduction of taxes at all levels, and a need to reform the tax system by studying and implementing a “flat tax” or “fair tax,” which relies on a national sales tax instead of a tax on income.

We also need to return American manufacturing to our Country by revoking unfair “free trade” agreements which have severely damaged our economy through loss of jobs and skill development. We need the phrase “Made in America” to mean something again.

We must cut the deficit and balance the budget using accurate data unlike budget projections used by the present administration.

Constitution – ......................, I know that the Constitution of the United States is the Supreme Law of the Land and all officials, state and federal, Legislative, Executive and Judicial are bound thereby.

Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, States’ Rights, and our Bill of Rights are integral parts of the Constitution which we must observe.

All actions of state and federal officials must conform to the Constitution and it should only be changed by amendments by the people, not decisions of activist judges.

Immigration – We must stop the flow of illegal aliens across both our northern and southern borders. Open borders are a threat to our national security and to our economy.

We must allow willing states (like Arizona) to do their own job of protecting the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.

Health Care – We do not need socialized medicine which will ultimately lead to loss of quality and affordability of health care, as well as loss of access to the latest medical technology.

Businesses should receive tax credits for employee health care coverage, and health insurance should be available between the states for competition and quality care.

Churches and charitable organizations should be encouraged to help the needy and poor.

Military - As a former military officer, Vietnam veteran, and graduate of West Point, I believe in a strong military defense, and I have always been a strong advocate for the men and women who now serve in the Armed Forces.

More funding should be available to develop a missile defense system and to bring back our Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines and Coast Guard to the most modern technological advances including weapon systems.

Homosexuality should be against military policy as was the law prior to Bill Clinton.

We should not be entangled in foreign wars merely at the whim and caprice of any President. Only in dire emergencies should a President as Commander-in-Chief employ the use of arms as set forth in the War Powers Clause. In all other cases action by Congress is required under the Constitution.

Energy – We need independence from foreign oil by freeing access to our own natural resources and developing other sources such as nuclear, solar, wind, and fossil fuels. Coal and oil supplies should be developed. Off shore drilling should be increased but subject to reasonable regulations.

Education – the federal government should not hamper the education systems of various states as there is no authority for federal involvement under the Constitution.

Competition between the states and freedom of various educational structures should be available to parents who are charged with the responsibility to teach their children.

Charter schools, vouchers, tax credits, home schooling, Christian schools, and technical training should be encouraged.

Foreign Affairs – America should serve as a good example to other nations, not as a police force to force our will upon others.

We must treat sovereign nations as we would want to be treated.

Respect for our strength is our best defense. “Walk softly and carry a big stick” is and should be our guide.

We should not be subject to UN control and direction and should not rely or support UN treaties like LOST (Law of the Sea Treaty), Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Kyoto Protocol, which Barack Obama unsuccessfully tried to force on our Country. Such treaties only undermine our sovereignty as a nation.

We must stand strongly with our allies and act with authority and discipline with those who would undermine and destroy our national security.

We must maintain a strong nuclear defense and not rely on nuclear reduction treaties which will leave us vulnerable to foreign powers.

Family – As a husband, father, and grandfather I know the importance of the future we leave to our posterity.

A strong family based on marriage between one man and one woman is and shall remain our only guide and model.

I oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, civil unions, and all other threats to the family.

Funding for Planned Parenthood or any form of abortion using federal funds should be stopped.

We must remain a moral and virtuous people, and remain one Nation under God.

I strongly support freedom of worship and faith in God upon Whom we have always relied in peace and war.

I'll post his name on Friday.

I'm Back

2011-03-23T18:45:00.003-06:00

I simply haven't taken the effort to post anything for a long time. Too many other things going on. Since I intend to start posting again, I'll try to tell about some of those things in the coming weeks.

Tonight however, I want to point you to a phenomenal article in the latest issue of Imprimis. This in not an endorsement of the publication, Hillsdale college or the author. I simply desire to urge you, maybe even implore you to go to the website and read this piece. It is amazing on about 5 different levels.

I've been getting Imprimis since Paul Harvey was offering free subscriptions way back in the late 90's. Most of the time it goes in the round file with the rest of the neo-con, faux conservative propaganda.

The Floating Dollar

I welcome your comments. What do you think??

Concealed Carry

2010-07-11T12:46:00.004-06:00

Iowa has been, for years, I don't know how long, a state where the sheriffs issued concealed carry permits based on the discretion of the sheriff, or what is commonly called a may-issue system.
The sheriff may issue a permit based on his own discretion, and is not required to issue a permit.

Those of us who are purists have real trouble finding the concept of may-issue permits in the text of this Constitutional statement,

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

In my humble opinion is takes a real serious case of mental absurdity to find in that text the ability of some two-bit County Mountie to deny a God given right. Of course I'm not a sleazy lawyer, nor do I desire to play one on TV.

In the last legislative session here in Iowa, a friend of mine introduced for the second year in a row, a bill was based on a Vermont style carry law. Here is an excerpt of a position paper from Gun Owners of America of which I am a member on the subject.

Several states are considering adopting "Vermont-style" concealed carry legislation. Most of the Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) laws in the country require citizens to first get permits. But in a couple of states, like Vermont, citizens can carry a firearm without getting permission . . . without paying a fee . . . or without going through any kind of government- imposed waiting period. There are many reasons for a state to adopt a genuine right to carry law:

1. Carrying a firearm is a "right" not a "privilege"

The Second Amendment guarantees that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This means that law-abiding citizens should not need to beg the government for permission to carry a firearm. That would turn the "right" to bear arms into a mere "privilege." Likewise, one should not have to be photographed, fingerprinted, or registered before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights. Criminals certainly do not jump through these "hoops." The Second Amendment is no different than any of the other protections enumerated in the Bill of Rights. That is, honest citizens should not need a government issued permission slip; rather, they should be able to carry as a matter of right.

What we got instead was a compromise deal between the NRA and the sodomy loving Demoncrat president of the Iowa Senate, which allowed a bill that made shall-issue the law in Iowa. Now this is an improvement over what we had, but we were one vote short of getting the Vermont style law last year. And in an attempt to keep that from happening, the NRA sold out the Iowa gun owners to claim victory in getting a shall-issue bill.

As a side note, it should not surprise anyone that the NRA may endorse Harry Reid in his Senate Race in New Mexico. Anything it takes for NRA to keep itself in a position of power seems to be the current mode of operation at NRA.

Anyway, Iowa is now going to be a shall-issue state. The sheriff must issue a permit, unless he can provide a written reason explaining his reason for refusing to issue a permit. This legislation passed near the end of April, and goes into effect later this year.

I still intend to fight for a Vermont style law. I'm assuming I will be fighting against the NRA and it big money interests, but I will continue to fight.

I was motivated to write about this issue after a verdict was announced in a recent court case here involving an acquaintance of mine. Rather than try to explain the details I'm just going to link to several articles on the subject, ......

Concealed Carry Denial

Too Little (Almost) Too Late

First Amendment Violation

And I going to reprint this one, the highlights are added by me,

Wall Street Journal

They say you’re never too old to learn, but one sheriff who ran afoul of the First Amendment won’t have a choice.

A federal judge upbraided Osceola County, Iowa, Sheriff Douglas L. Weber this week for denying a concealed weapon permit to an Iowa man because he engaged in frequent political advocacy. So egregious were the sheriff’s actions, the judge found, that the judge ordered Weber back to school for a court approved course on the Constitution. See here for story in the Sioux City Journal. (h/t: The Volokh Conspiracy)

“In denying Paul a concealed weapons permit, Sheriff Weber single-handedly hijacked the First Amendment and nullified its freedoms and protections,” wrote Federal Judge Mark Bennett in the opinion. “Ironically, Sheriff Weber, sworn to uphold the Constitution, in fact retaliated against a citizen of his county who used this important freedom of speech and association precisely in the manner envisioned by the founding members of our nation.”

Paul Dorr, who filed the suit, was denied the permit because people considered him strange as a result of his political activities, which included gathering information on the size of the county budget. By way of explanation for the denial, Weber wrote on Dorr’s application, “Concern from Public. Don’t trust him.”

Bennett writes in his ruling that it is often difficult to determine what drives an individual’s decisions in a case like this, but Weber’s testimony was so forthcoming that it didn’t leave a shred of doubt.

“The court finds a tsunami, a maelstrom, an avalanche, of direct, uncontroverted evidence in Sheriff Weber’s own testimony to conclude beyond all doubt that he unquestionably violated the First Amendment rights of at least Paul Dorr,” he wrote.

Dorr, unsurprisingly, was quite happy with the ruling. “Justice is served,” he told the Sioux City paper Wednesday. “I get my permit back and the sheriff is being sent back to school. The harm done by Sheriff Weber against the 6th and 9th commandments has been made right.”

The paper couldn’t reach the sheriff for comment on the case or the required class. Judge Bennett, for his part, seems quite comfortable giving a lecture himself:

“This is a great reminder that the First Amendment protects the sole individual who may be a gadfly, kook, weirdo, nut job, whacko, and spook, with the same force of protection as folks with more majoritarian and popular views.”

And I want to say that this kind of behavior by sheriffs is exactly why I want a Vermont style law as opposed to the Shall-Issue which we will soon have as Law.

If a sheriff will knowingly violate the rights of a citizen thy way Sheriff Weber violated Paul Dorr's rights, by what logical standard can we expect that same kind of sheriff to justly and fairly exercise his position when the shall-issue system is in place. I believe that some sheriffs will find every way possible to continue to deny gun owners the right to carry by using every illegal, immoral and underhanded tactic they can think of to refuse to issue carry permits. Just like Sheriff Weber did to Paul Dorr. They will have to work harder at it, they will have to issue more permits than they previously did, but my guess is that we will continue to hear accounts of lawful citizens denied they Constitutional rights by sheriffs who have no regard for the rights of the citizen,

Maybe I could ride the Tour De France?

2010-06-04T18:11:00.003-06:00

I used to ride a bike a lot when I was a kid. Had one for getting around when I was in college. Went on several rides around Saylorville Lake in those days. Now that I'm old, I haven't been on a bike for several years. But, I wonder could I take up competitive cycling if I had one of these bikes?

I have a fair collection of Dewalt cordless power tools. And I've always wondered how they could be used to power a bike. I think we have an answer.

And no I couldn't ride competitively, unless they have a class for fat guys.

The Lastest News from the farmers place.

2010-05-17T18:33:00.007-06:00

First, this picture is for Res Ispa.

A while ago you asked if there were common around here. And the answer is, sorta.

Since so much of the land is tilled for agricultural purposes, the areas where you can find them are limited. But, in those areas, we seem to have the proper rainfall and temperature for a healthy crop. A good friend of mine found several hundred of them earlier this year. I went to a county park and looked for a while one evening, found nothing.

This evening one of the twins was mowing along the grove and found these.

Now an update on the chickens. They are at the ugly stage. Lost all the downy yellow fuzz, and have very small feathers on the wings. Otherwise they are butt naked and butt ugly. On the second week we had them we had a cold snap in the weather, it got too cold in the barn, even though they were under heat lamps. So I put some old Ron Paul campaign signs around the room for the chickens and hung a LB White, LP gas heater in there for about a week and a half. We lost 12 from them piling up when it got too cold.

On Friday I took the day off. At 7:00am we left the kids at a friends place, then the lovely Mrs. farmer and I drove to western Iowa pulling a 24 ft trailer with a couple of sign/billboards to put in the back of a pickup for a parade. I'm helping a group of concerned citizens here in the area fight back against the lawless decision of the Iowa Supreme Court, which advocated granting sodomy permission certificates.

After we dropped off the sign in western Iowa, we went to my folks place, picked up a busted lawn tractor, which I need to work on as well as an old chicken nesting box which needs some major work. After we get these broilers raised, we may get a few laying chickens.

From my folks place we went to Des Moines for a meeting at 3:00, then parked the trailer in Ankeny, then visited some relatives for a few minutes.

We left Ankeny, went down East 14th to Euclid, went west two blocks and ate our supper at the Iowa Beef Steakhouse. Good food, decent price, good service. No complaints.

With our stomachs full we then ventured into downtown Des Moines to the Embassy Suites. Campaign for Liberty held a regional conference there. I joined Gun Owners of America for a year. Shook hands with several political types. Then heard speeches from Jan Mickelson of WHO Radio,( a Christian Libertarian), Thomas Woods author of Meltdown, and the honorable Ron Paul. A very enjoyable evening.

Picked up the trailer in Ankeny on the way back north. Got home about 11:30.

Chickens

2010-04-25T12:51:00.003-06:00

One again the farmer's clan is in the chicken business.

We ordered 150 chicks from the local hatchery on Tuesday the 13th, they were hatched on Monday the 19th, and my wife picked them up from the USPS on Tuesday morning the 20th at 7:20 am. So, on or around the 25th of May we will once again be butchering chickens.

Since last years chickens got rather large, 10 lb average, we will be butchering before eight weeks of age. And because we got a new video camera, we will try to post pictures over the next few weeks showing the growth of the chickens.

He is a short video taken in the afternoon, on Tuesday.

Sorry Res, no ducks this time. Maybe later in the year.

We still have a few which remain unspoken for, so if you are interested say something in the comments, or email me.

In other news.

We are somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 done planting for the year. All of the hog pits have been pumped and hauled. We are far ahead of the seasonal schedule, and even farther ahead of last year.

I'm supposed to go to the Repugnant Party district convention this weekend. We'll see if the weather allows that? The governors race is heating up here in Iowa. We have a three way contest, with the former governor Bumstead, who held office for 16 years, raised taxes thirty times, introduced legalized gambling, and had as his Lt. Governor a Planned Parenthood activist, and current sodomy marriage supporter, seeking a 5th term. Then we have a very nice, polite, standard issue, conservative Republican, who has served 5 terms in the State Senate, without ever making a name for himself by doing anything of note, a typical party man who shows no real abilities as a leader, just a party man. And a relatively young former educator, businessman, consultant from northwest Iowa. He has pledged to fight the Iowa Supreme Courts ruling on sodomy marriage, by issuing an executive order staying the ruling until the legislature changes the law or amends the Iowa Constitution. He is promising to take the funding of the education away from the state and give it back to the parents of school children (60 percent of the state budget), he wants to challenge the Obama healthcare fiasco on 10th Amendment grounds and yesterday, he endorsed an Oklahoma/Arizona type immigration reform.

Shouldn't be a difficult choice. But, I'm quite certain that the Repugnant establishment has got the second guy in the race to take votes away from the third. We have not had a true "conservative" candidate for governor in Iowa in twelve years who did not face a three way race. The establishment is very anti christian conservative. They are more concerned about retaining power for a handful of elites in Des Moines, than in seeing actual change in the current system.

My guess is that Bumstead will win the party nomination, and the Demoncrats will retain the governorship because those of us on the far right side of the aisle will either not vote, or vote third party in the general election.

A little humor at the vegans expense!!

2010-03-14T13:38:00.002-06:00

Saw this at LRC. Laughed out loud.

Hope you enjoy it.

The Speech

2010-02-23T21:40:00.002-06:00

Since I asked for your help, I thought it only appropriate to keep you informed about the speech to which I referred.

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be speaking for about 7 minutes at an event for Iowa Family Political Action Committee.

I have been helping them with a project to get the Iowa Marriage Amendment on the ballot.

I will probably post my speech tomorrow evening.

I need some help with a mental exercise.

2010-02-19T06:22:00.002-06:00

I have to do a little speech in a few days, related to my worldview. Explaining why I hold my spiritual, political and personal views. The group I'm speaking to is specifically concerned with family issues.

Remember Hitchens interview in which he asserts that if you don't believe X you really can't call yourself a Christian!! Well, I'm a Christian fundamentalist. I don't consider anyone who doesn't hold to the five fundamentals of the faith to be a Christian.

As a point of reference we'll use the following as the five.

1. The Deity of Christ
2. The Virgin Birth
3. The Blood Atonement
4. The Bodily Ressurection
5. The Physical Return of Christ

Now, as a fundamentalist, I think that there are certain absolutes/truths which follow in two other areas. We'll call them civil government, and family.

What would you consider five fundamentals in each of those areas?

Civil Government

1. God has established government and has power over it.

2. Government's first duty is to punish evil.

3. Power comes out of the people.?

4.

5.

Family

1. Marriage One Man, One Woman, for life.

2. Children are a blessing from the Lord.

3. Education is the responsibility of the parents.

4. Old age care of parents is the responsibility of the children.

5.

I think you get the idea. Now, please help me fill in the blanks, start over, make a better list, .................

I have to give this speech next week.

All your help would be appreciated.

And if the troll/human weed shows up, don't respond to it, I'm going to delete all of it's comments.

A seriously funny trashing of a liberal atheist.

2010-02-08T19:44:00.002-06:00

I don't know the proper etiquette for the following post. Am I supposed to just link to it or cut and paste it? Whatever, I'll do both!

It is not my work. It comes from the guys at WHO Radio in Des Moines. Jan Mickelson is my favorite talk show host, bar none. I have been listening to him since 1989? and I sincerely believe he is one of the best at his craft ever. His letter is posted by Steve Deace the afternoon host at WHO. Deace is slowly learning the truth. He started out as a Republican bootlicker, and has now learned enough to be an independent who is despised by the Repugnant party.

The letter is in response to one from Hector Avalos the atheist religious studies professor at Iowa State University. Dr. Avalos is one of the leaders of the group that help keep Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez ("The Privileged Planet") from getting tenure. Gonzales story is one of those featured in "Expelled" by Ben Stein.

I went to a "debate" between Avalos and Mickelson at Iowa State, featuring a topic related to sodomy marriage. Mickelson didn't really so much debate as throw hand grenades, which amused the large crowd of supporters and enraged the small contingent of sodomites.

So these two have a very public history. And it is clear that Mickelson enjoys sticking in the knife and twisting it, before he pulls it out and sticks it in again.

I hope you enjoy the exchange. I sure did.

here is a link to the original post at WHO Radio,

February 8th Steve Deace

Deace's Daily Diary: February 8th, 2010
Monday 02-08-2010 8:08am CT
There are times you come across something that somebody has written that makes you realize you can't possibly top their work, so you just get out of the way and let it speak for itself.

Today's blog is one of those days.

My fellow WHO broadcaster Jan Mickelson exchanged emails recently with a militantly atheist religious studies professor at Iowa State named Dr. Hector Avalos, who once compared the Bible to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf: Dr. Hector Avalos

The exchange is below and is today's blog entry for two reasons:

1) I'm lazy.

2) This is so good nothing I could possibly write today as the Sultan of Snark himself could top this, so why try to reinvent the wheel?

Guest commentary:
Haiti’s suffering is ungodly

By Hector Avalos
Special to The Tribune

Published: Saturday, February 6, 2010 11:45 PM CST

Haitians were just starting to be dug out from collapsed buildings, when Pat Robertson, the televangelist and former presidential candidate, told us he knew what had caused Haiti’s horrific earthquake.

Hint: It was not geology.

As Robertson phrased it on his show, The 700 Club (Jan. 13): “They (Haitians) were under the heel of the French ... And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you get us free from the French.” Haiti’s earthquake and poverty are punishment for that pact.

Where do Robertson’s ideas come from? The earliest trace of any legend of a Haitian “pact to the Devil” is a book on the history of Haiti (titled, “Histoire de la Révolution de Saint-Domingue”) published in 1814 by a French inhabitant of Haiti named Antoine Dalmas.

According to Dalmas, on the first night of the Haitian revolution (Aug. 20 to 21, 1791), some slaves at a plantation drank the blood of a black pig sacrificed to an African deity. The ritual supposedly made participants invincible.

That’s pretty much it. Later writers added more dramatic and uncorroborated details, including an oath. Since the ceremony involved nothing beyond a few hundred slaves, it cannot be described as an entire nation making a pact.

Nonetheless, Dalmas describes a ceremony associated with Voodoo, the collective name for diverse African religious traditions, which were often combined with Christian elements, in Haiti.

Voodoo, now an officially recognized Haitian religion, was often denigrated as devil-worship by Christian slavemasters. Robertson simply continues this demonization of African religions.

And as for poverty being God’s punishment for Voodoo, a World Bank study, titled Social Resilience and State Fragility in Haiti (2007), calculates a poverty rate of 47 percent for Voodoo practitioners, 49 percent for Catholics and 51 percent for Baptists. Therefore, Haitian Christians actually are slightly poorer.

Furthermore, Haitian slaves did not see just the “French” as their oppressors. Haitians saw white Christians enslaving them. Since Christianity was not helping them, slaves appealed to their African gods. Slaves could argue the appeal worked because Haiti became the only nation established by a successful slave revolt.

However, Haitians paid a price for liberty. First, their revolution devastated the sugar industry, the heart of their economy. Revenues plummeted.

France also imposed a price of 150 million francs (perhaps tens of billions in today’s dollars) to recognize Haiti’s nationhood in 1825. Paying that debt with already limited resources proved difficult. It took Haiti until 1947 to pay it off.

Moreover, big slave-trading countries initially refused official recognition of Haiti’s nationhood in order to punish it for the sin of overthrowing slavery. The United States waited until 1862. This delay further distanced Haiti from all the benefits of trade that accompany recognized nationhood. Thus, much of Haiti’s poverty resulted from burdens imposed by outsiders.

And this brings me to Iowa pigs. The former president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, wrote a book called “Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization” (2000), which claims Iowa pigs impoverished Haiti even more.

According to Aristide, prior to the 1980s, Haiti used very hardy local (Creole) pigs that could withstand tropical heat and eat almost anything.

But, in 1982, international agencies, many influenced by the United States, convinced Haitians to slaughter their pigs because of concerns about a swine flu epidemic. The United States promised that better pigs would be substituted, and these came mostly from Iowa.

However, Iowa pigs required clean water, which was unavailable to 80 percent of Haitians. Special roofed pens had to be built because Iowa pigs were susceptible to the sun. While Haitian pigs ate anything, feed for American pigs cost $90 per year in a country where the annual per capita income was $130.

If a pig sacrifice helped to liberate Haiti in 1791, Haitians were being sacrificed to American pigs in the 1980s. Aristide claims that Haitian peasants lost $600 million in this fiasco (“Eyes of the Heart,” page 14).

So, if Robertson had read Haitian history, he might have spotted a club of Christian slave-trading nations, and not God, shaking the foundation of Haiti’s society and economy to this day.

Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies at Iowa State University, writes monthly for The Tribune. His columns appear the first Sunday of the month.

Doc,

Always great to hear from you. I always enjoy reverse engineering. And Billy Bob Robertson always is entertaining as well. That guy serves up a lot of nonsense for the consumption of the rubes…when he isn't rebuking hurricanes and taking out third world dictators, he still managed in his spare time to raise over two billion dollars for the relief of the poor over last couple of decades. Puzzling how crazy people do things like that.. And about those evil Christians who in the last several weeks have donated nearly another billion for Haiti relief….must be residue guilt over what those French Christians did don't cha think? I used to be similarly afflicted.

Then, I became enlightened by science. Since then, I've come to realize compassion and altruism is completely wasted upon the lesser evolved races. All the money spent on those "yard apes" has been mostly wasted. By any objective standard, continuing to subsidize genetically deficient sub-species is a waste of time and money. In fact supporting humans who can't seem to get it together either before their African Muslim brothers sold them into slavery, nor after more than a century of welfare, should be cut loose. Nature should be allowed to take its course.

I agree with that Darwin fellow. "At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes [that is, the ones which look like the savages in structure] . . . will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla."

That earthquake is merely expediting Darwin's interrupted good works.

Maybe we should keep a few Haitians alive and put them in the zoo like Darwin's buddies did to the Australian Aborigines during the World's Fair in the last century…and if they become extinct we could employ the services of a good taxidermist (as was done to some Aborigines) so as to keep alive at least the image of a Haitian so our grand children can get a glimpse what we overcame.

I am appalled as you must be to see some deluded zealots try to adopt Haitian orphans…a genetic cruelty which will just keep the legacy of those savage races extant way beyond what Darwin intended.

As to that slavery thing, perhaps if we have to keep around the legacy of those savage races, then "…if we are all biological accidents" as Darwin teaches, "why can't the white accidents own and sell black accidents?"

Anyhow… always nice to hear from you. I was beginning to doubt my resolve.

Mickelson

BTW… it's always gratifying to see atheists affirming competing religions. Your support of the religion of Voodoo is indeed heartwarming. Certainly a feeble step in the right direction. A few more natural disasters like this and you may be found humming "nearer my God to Thee"….

My New Favorite Song

2010-01-27T22:54:00.002-06:00

I think any comment I might add is unnecessary!!

The Supreme Court Slaps Juan McMarkOCain upside the head.

2010-01-21T22:04:00.003-06:00

today the US Supreme Court got one right.

What's appalling is that there were actually 4 of the black robed tyrants who failed to defend the Constitution from a traitor like Juan McAmnesty.

Big Journalism

I written about this travesty before. And I greatly enjoy seeing Juan boy get slapped silly.

Post Election Comments

Now if we could just hold his impeachment hearing and assemble the firing squad, maybe the country would sit up and take notice that the Constitution is not to be trifled with. One can only hope I'm afraid, after all, Jorge the Younger Shrub is still on the loose as well.

2010-01-07T17:45:00.009-06:00

The weather here just continues to be awful. We did not leave the farm over Christmas, then I worked in the cold on Saturday and Sunday. New Year's week, it was at least -15 several times. On New Years Eve, we drove down to southwest Iowa to do Christmas with my family. It was very pleasant, everyone made it for the occasion on New Year's day. Ate to much, laughed a lot, had a great time.

As I've mentioned earlier, I've been working on a project in my shop for several months. One friend gave me a hydraulic cylinder. Another friend traded some cutting torch work for a piece of I-beam. In an old shed at my dad's place was an old hydraulic control valve off of a combine header control, and I remembered an old sprayer frame in the weeds down at my folks, so I scrounged all the stuff together and built this,.........

So, there you have one of my excuses for why I haven't spent much time at this blog lately.

It's designed to use the hydraulic power from a tractor. Can be used horizontally or vertically.
It got one coat of primer and some very flat black paint I bought on sale at the John Deere store.

Now if I could just complete some of my other long list of projects I've been accumulating pieces for, a smoker from pipeline pipe, a large portable grill from an old fuel barrel. Fixing a 4-wheeler that a friend gave us, and the big one, finishing that(those) Oliver tractors.

Happy New Year everybody. I'm home sick today. Have some kind of stomach flu. Went to work in the blowing snow. Fed the cattle, weaned pigs, then came home and spent the rest of the day in bed or in the recliner, when my back couldn't stand laying in bed any more.

BTW, it was between -15 and -18 when I put that thing together in Dad's yard, Friday morning. Man did I miss my heated shop.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T17:14:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas from the farmer's house.

I hope you took time today to celebrate the birth of the Saviour of the World.

The Saviour of the World

W.Y. Fullerton, 1857-1932 sung to an old Irish melody

I cannot tell why He whom angels worship,
Should set His love upon the sons of men,
Or, why, as Shepherd, He should seek the wand-'rers,
To bring them back, they know not how or when:
but this I know, that Christ was born of Mary,
when Bethl'hems manger was His only home,
And that He lived at Nazareth and labored,
And so the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is come.

We had a rather different Christmas this year.

In case you were unaware the mid-west is engulfed by a large and lingering winter storm. It has been precipitating in one form of another since late Monday/early Tuesday, and probably won't quit until afternoon tomorrow. I'm sure we've had at least 8 to 10 inches of snow and it is snowing now. It rained all afternoon on Thursday. Now the temp has dropped into the middle teens, and the slushy snow and ice have frozen hard.

So we did not travel to either side of the families homes, rather we stayed here by the fire, where it's warm and cozy, just the immediate family. We had ham and baked potatoes for dinner with green bean casserole and frozen sweet corn. I spent some time out in my shop working on the project I am supposed to be giving my dad for Christmas. It's not quite done, but I have started the painting phase. But some primer on this afternoon.

Again Merry Christmas, God bless all of you.

A friend set me an email entitled: Democrat with a Rifle

2009-12-14T20:00:00.002-06:00

The Return of the Great Depression

2009-12-10T18:56:00.005-06:00

Return of the Great Depression by Vox Day

In case you were unaware, the financial/economic world has been going through a period of profound distress in the last 18 to 24 months. My two years of college with a series of general requirement classes did not include any economic classes. In the years since, the subject has always been one I never took the time to include in my attempts at expanding my knowledge base. In an effort to better understand these events, I have read all or part of several books related to this topic. Over a year ago while the TARP bailout was being debated, the stock market was falling and the country was throwing George W. Bush and his political cronies under the bus. I read some of Murray Rothbard's "America's Great Depression" with a group of people at Vox Popoli blog. Each week we would read a chapter, then take a quiz and discuss that weeks reading. The latter part of fall harvest and the holidays interfered with my plan to finish that book.

This spring I bought Thomas Wood's book, "Meltdown" and got it read just before planting started. I have Ron Paul's "End the Fed" laying in my stack of books to read.

Being a regular reader at Vox Popoli blog, when Vox announced that he was writing "Return of the Great Depression" I quickly acquired a copy as soon as it was available. Of course it came during harvest this fall, so I've just now completed reading it.

As I've already mentioned, until the last year I had very little knowledge of economics. "Return of the Great Depression" is a very effective tool for expanding one's knowledge base on this topic. The book addresses all of the various economic theories, while at the same time, pointing out some of the flaws/failures in those theories. It seemed to me that as an overview of economics, the book is useful in laying a groundwork upon which to do further study.

We've all heard of Keynes in the recent months, yet I did not understand the extent to which all of the economic actions taken by the government and the "Fed" have been influenced by Keynes in one way or another. I did not know anything about the monetarist theory nor the "Chicago School", even though I had heard of Milton Friedman. BTW, for those of you who still listen to Limbaugh, this is one reason he so despises Ron Paul and those who want to return to a gold standard. Limbaugh is a proponent of the Chicago School, and Friedman.

I had never heard of David Ricardo and his Vice. And I have long since concluded that the "Beast from the Sea" is an apt description of the fourth bank of North America. The subchapter on that topic includes an excellent short history of the "central bank" concept in the United States, leading to the obvious conclusion that we should rightfully "End the Fed".

The style of the book is different than I expected. Imagine listening in on a lecture in which the topic is the history of economics and finance. Since most effective speakers make the topic personal, the lecturer starts with an account of his own experience during the Japanese boom and it's following bust. The lecturer then begins to lay out the history of economic theories while at the same time interspersing comments and ideas on current events into the lecture. The conclusion of the lecture is a summation of the reasons to believe that we are about to experience a "Return of the Great Depression", This is followed by a list of six possible scenarios which will unfold either refuting or confirming that idea.

Vox concludes with a list of practical policies which would help, in the long term, to fix the coming distress. They are interesting, if almost completely impossible to see happening, since all of them require political and financial leaders with integrity and conviction who would be willing to do some serious amputation in order to save the patients life. Instead they will keep applying more leeches while promising another blood transfusion.

I can also say I never expected to see a poem in a book on economics, and I'm sure I did not understand it, but it certainly was different.

Get "Return of the Great Depression" for yourself. You will learn some facts about economic theory, you will certainly learn some history, and depending on which scenario you chose to accept, you can prepare for the economic future with a better understanding of the coming events.

Something Very Unusual

2009-12-09T07:19:00.003-06:00

I've worked for the same farming operation since 1997. We typically start the day at 7:00 am. For only the second time since I worked there, I got a phone call this morning telling me not to come to work.

In these days of AGW, (Anthropogenic Global Warming) we are having a major snow storm. Seems that all of Iowa is shut down for the day.

The boss was out on the tractor with the snow blower, trying to make a path so that we could get to the farm. And he could not see the road ditch on either side from the tractor seat.

So I'm currently sitting at the computer at 7:30 in the morning, with a nice warm fire in the fireplace.

What's your weather like?

Update: The boss called about 3:00 pm and said he was coming out with the snow blower, to clear the 4 to five foot drifts out of my yard. I could not even drive the 4 wheel drive pickup out of the shed. After he blew the snow out I went and did the evening chores. Put fresh bedding in for the cattle, and moved some more snow out at the main farm, so that we can wean pigs in the morning. Got home about 6:30, and the county still had not plowed any of the roads. Had to drive through someones yard to get around one pickup stuck in a drift that must have been 6 feet deep and twenty or thirty yards long.

Viewer Warning

2009-11-22T17:10:00.004-06:00

Before you view this video from SNL, beware that it is ~~borderline~~ , no, it is crass, and tasteless.

It is however very indicative of the position we as a nation find ourselves in. Our president is a laughing stock, deservedly so. We are in genuine economic peril, we have sold ourselves into slavery, and the man who represents our nation to the world, seems to believe that he can lie with abandon to everyone he meets. And even his liberal cohorts are beginning to make jokes about his complete and utter incompetence.

Again, you have been warned. This is not child friendly. And if you would rather not see reference to immoral activities, please refrain from watching.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Soybean Harvest is finally over.

2009-11-10T20:53:00.001-06:00

Chopping Earlage

2009-10-22T20:13:00.002-06:00

Each year we chop earlage to fill the silos here on the farm.

from Greg Lardy, a North Dakota State University Extension Service beef specialist,

Earlage, which is ensiled corn grain, cobs, and in some cases husks, is higher in energy than corn silage with similar protein content. It’s lower in energy than corn grain because it includes the husk and cob, but it works well in a variety of cattle diets, including growing and finishing diets for beef cattle and feed for lactating dairy cows,

The chopper is a John Deere 5820. I think the hp rating is in the 325 range, I'm not certain. This particular chopper was sold new in Germany. A business in Minnesota imported the used machine, (came over on a ship). My understanding was the shipping costs were less than 2500 dollars.

In the first video if you look closely you can see the speed hitch system we use. It automatically hitches the forage wagon to the pulling implement.

Next we drive alongside the chopper and the forage box it is pulling. The chopper has a regular corn head which strips the ears of corn off of the plants, then the ears flow back to a drum with 48 knives on it, (about 3 inches long, razor sharp,) which cut the ears of corn into pieces which must pass through the holes in a 3/4 inch screen. The chopped ear corn then passes into a blower, (literally a giant fan with paddles on it) which throw the corn out of the machine into the wagon.

After the corn is chopped into the wagon it is hauled to the silo. There it is fed into another blower which blows it all the way to the top of a seventy foot silo. The blower spins at 1000 rpm. Laying horizontal to the ground at the bottom of the blower is a spinning disk with small paddles on it, which throws the earlage into the moving paddles of the blower.(Think throwing something into the moving blades of a fan.)

We completed chopping corn, almost exactly a month later than normal, blame it on global climate change or something, the crop was simply far behind normal in maturing. The rest of harvest is going just as slow or worse. The crop is not drying down naturally, we have had abnormal amounts of rain, and cold weather.

Many years the entire harvest is done by the second week of November. At the rate it's going now, we will not be done till some time in December.

NICE!!

2009-10-02T17:30:00.001-06:00

The Billboard I'd Like to Have at the End of My Lane

Mental Gymnastics

2009-09-26T05:32:00.001-06:00

Dict.com

gymnastics

(used with a pl. verb)

(used with a pl. verb)

a.

Complex intellectual or artistic exercises: mental gymnastics.

An intellectual challenge!

Last Saturday, I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon at the ordination counsel of a good friend.He had served as an intern pastor at our church while attending Bible college and seminary. He is currently an assistant pastor of a church in our fellowship.

So I participated in a three and a half hour session of questioning him on his understanding of the Word of God, his ability to use Scripture to defend those answers and I hope challenging him to study some areas where his answers were "weak".

Since I am a fundamentalist, I believe in the inspiration of Scripture, and that Scripture should be our final authority for faith and practice. I find it a stimulating exercise to watch and participate in this process. I derive as much enjoyment from the mental challenge of attempting to answer the questions as I do from hearing a good man do well in defending his beliefs.

Questions about the God/man Jesus Christ, His ability to sin or not, His relationship to the Father, etc, and then backing those answers with Scripture is a real intellectual challenge. He got questions regarding the Canon of Scripture, inspiration, etc.

Practical questions about ministry, such as the role of music in the church, his understanding of the divorce and remarriage issue,

He was challenged on his personal prayer life, his personal witness, what he was currently reading, .............

Anyway, I had a great time. Because he handled the Word of God effectively in answering the questioners, because he clearly has a solid grasp of Biblical knowledge, and probably the most fun was forcing myself to mentally answer every question he faced, that was a real challenge and one I throughly enjoyed.

And yes the counsel did recommend to the church that they proceed with the ordination.

A summary of the last few weeks.

2009-09-11T20:24:00.004-06:00

Our CO vacation started on a Monday afternoon. We drove to southern Iowa, picked up the stuff we were hauling west for a friend. Stayed at my folks place Monday night. Left bright and early 6:08 AM headed west. Stopped several times going across that wasteland which is Nebraska so that the driver could stretch his legs and the rest of the crew didn't kill each other.

When we got into CO we took 71 south to Limon, drove through a thunderstorm with some light hail, and then took 24 on the angle into CO Springs. Arrived at the friends home around 7:00 had a bite of supper and were done unloading about 24 hours after we loaded the stuff in Iowa.

Stayed at a very nice hotel courtesy of my brother who works for one of the major hotel chains. He got us a very nice room for about 40 dollars, regularly $120? Did lots of touristy stuff on Wednesday, and Thursday, drove up Pike's Peak on Thursday. Did not enjoy that experience. I'm a flat lander folks. When I look out of the truck and can't see anything but blue sky beside, below and above me, I get just a little shaky in my boots. My kids were laughing at me. They've seen me drive in a blizzard with one hand on the steering wheel and a MT. Dew in the other. I was steering with both hands and white knuckles on Pike's Peak.

After we survived that experience, WB a friend I've met through some of the blogs I frequent, invited us to his home for buffalo burgers. We had some home raised hamburgers so we gave them to him to try. We throughly enjoyed the evening.He and his lovely wife were very gracious hosts. The view of the mountains from their deck is gorgeous.

On Friday morning, we started back east. We meandered north and east somewhat cross country, winding up in Ogallala and camped at a county park below the damn at Lake McConaughy. Forgot to calculate the loss of one hour of time, and arriving at a cousins home right at noon. She was gracious enough to serve us lunch. We then drove across central Nebraska on a state hiway, instead of the interstate, since my brother lives north of the interstate, and going south to go north makes no sense to me, beside I hate traveling that stretch of interstate anyway. Arrived at my brothers house about 6:00 pm, in fact we stopped in a nearby town and brought the pizza with us, out to the farm.

Went to church with them on Sunday, got home about 7:00pm Sunday night.

Now, since arriving home the level of activity has actually increased.

On Monday morning at 5:00am we loaded two semi-loads of hogs, then hauled corn to the ethanol plant all week. On Friday I went in at 6:00 so that I could leave by 3:00. Our church was hosting the men's retreat at the camp we support. I got to the camp at 4:00 and helped cook 450 pork chops till 6:30, ate quickly, then got to the 7:00 service. The music was great, nothing like 450 guys singing "It is Well With MY Soul", sounded awesome. The speaker was an old friend who "quotes" Scripture. Although he calls it saying Scripture. It's is amazing. He says entire passages. I've heard him do the entire book of Revelation, straight up, 1:10 minutes worth.

I got home about 11:00pm, We loaded two more loads of hogs at 5:00am. Did the rest of my chores by 8:30. Hurried back to camp by 9:30 practiced with the pianist at 10:00, sang "His Eye is On the Sparrow" at 10:30 in front of about 300 guys, then went out to the grill and helped do 300 hamburgers and about 250 brats. As soon as lunch was over I hurried home, hooked the pickup up to a friends trailer, and went out hunting picnic tables. Got 9 of them back to my place, ran out to the main farm for chores, got back home at 5:15 to a yard full of homeschool families. Helped get the grill going for a cook your own meat evening meal. Went and took a very necessary shower because I smelled like hogs. And then fellowshipped with the fellow homeschoolers till they left.

Chores on Sunday morning, church with our speaker saying Scripture (Galatians), then a noon fellowship dinner followed by another session with him saying the book of Philippians.

Didn't sell hogs on Monday, but had a meeting about trying to stop the sodomy lobbys push of sodomy permission certificates in Iowa, got home late.

Skip to the end of the week, went in at 6:00 again, left about 3:30 drove about an hour and ten minutes away for a family reunion on my fathers side of the tree. The lovely Mrs. farmer had taken the truck, trailer, kids and a ton of stuff right after noon. She and I were in charge of not only the whole reunion, but six meals for about 50.

We served Mrs. farmer's killer chili and sandwiches for supper Friday night. Got up early and made Swedish pancakes, bacon (cooked ahead of time in the oven) and an egg bake casserole and plenty of fruit.

For the noon meal I cooked yard fowl (chicken breast) on the grill with garlic bread, with fresh garden vegetables and salad.

For Saturday night supper we had pork chops on the grill with my mother's famous potato salad, fresh corn on the cob, angel food cake, and home made ice cream with one of the cousins providing a special treat of Guarana (Antarctica) a Brazilian pop, for all the Brazilian transplants and missionaries.

Sunday morning my mother made some of her world renowned coffee cake.

And the piece de resistance for Sunday noon, two 16 lb chuck roasts, with baked potatoes.

In between the eating we had a great reunion, with someone from each branch of the family tree opening the Scripture for us, sweet fellowship and some very good special music by family members. I'm already being questioned about the next one.

We loaded hogs again at 5:00 on Wednesday. And I've been mowing every evening in my off hours getting ready for this weekend. Our annual church cook out, trap shoot and fellowship is tomorrow night.

Other than that, nothing new around here.

Long time no post.

2009-08-15T17:47:00.003-06:00

As anyone who has been here lately knows, I've not posted since the first of July.

I could use the same old excuses, but, fact is I've just not taken the time to do something about it.

I have been doing lots of different things in the intervening time.

I finished reading "Meltdown by Thomas Woods, "A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse". A cogent and concise explanation of why we are in the financial mess we are in.

I've been participating in an on-line study of Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg editor at National Review. Each week we read a chapter of the book, then Vox Day at Vox Popoli has a ten question quiz over that weeks reading. I've done well, 10/10 and not so well 5/10 (read the wrong chapter) and average about 8/10 over the first 8 weeks. Goldberg traces the roots of communism, socialism, fascism and American progressive liberals back to the same basic tree of evil. I've developed an even greater dislike for Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt than I already had. And although Goldberg hasn't touched the subject so far, my disdain for Jorge the Younger Shrub has also grown. Near as I can tell he is basically a progressive liberal who dislikes abortion like Margaret Sanger did. Of course Sanger was also in favor of eliminating "human weeds" like black people as well, so I wouldn't say he's in real good company.

Today we spent most of the morning processing fresh sweet corn to put in the freezer. Shuck it, boil it, then cut the corn off using a "Lee's Corn Cutter and Creamer".

I we froze 35 bags of corn, each with 3 cups of corn in them. Ought to last for a while don't ya think. Might go good with chicken!

I spent the afternoon, prepping for our family vacation. We will be leaving on Monday, stopping to load up a friends possessions which did not fit in the moving van. Staying Monday night at my folks, then leaving bright and early Tuesday morning for Colorado Springs. We'll deliver the things for the friend, then do the tourist thing for a couple of days in and around Colorado Springs before coming home.

I've put off posting pictures of our new purchase. In late March we bought a 1995 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 with a Cummins diesel engine. It was almost exactly what I was looking for, except for the fact that, (and I'm ashamed to admit) it has an automatic transmission. All those nasty things I said about wimps who drive automatics are going to haunt me forever. We felt like we got an excellent deal on the truck, it was a repo out of Arkansas, never been on salted roads. It has more miles than I wanted, but the price was acceptable.

We will be driving the truck, pulling a small trailer to CO.

Enough about our life for now. Thanks for hanging around my blog.

Yard Fowl

2009-07-01T19:37:00.002-06:00

I think I told this earlier, I did not go back and read the previous posts, so if not, now you know.
Anyway, we decided to raise some chickens this spring. The main and most important reason being that my children needed some chores. As a side benefit, home raised chicken always tastes better than something from a store. But, mainly, it was so that the kids had some chores. Ever child/young adult needs chores. Makes 'em responsible, if they don't do their job, something dies. Makes it a serious thing.

So on April 28th we got sixty baby chicks in the mail. United States Postal Service. Chicks were hatched on Monday, arrived at our local post office Tuesday morning before 9 am.

And last Saturday, 8 weeks and 4 days later, we butchered them. And when we weighed a couple of them on the scale. Ten pounds, that's right, ten pound chickens !!! Last turkey we bought weighed 11 pounds.

Now those pounds were not cheap. After all the costs were figured, they came to about .93 cents a pound.

That cost included having a family do the butchering for us. They killed, scalded, plucked and butchered 44 chickens in 30 minutes, It was amazing.

They travel with a homemade water boiler, chicken plucker, and several plastic barrels, which they fill with fresh water. All of this is set up with in a disassembly line, where the various stages of chicken processing take place. Fast, efficient and worth every cent.

Yes, I could do it my self. But, it would take me hours, I hate plucking chickens, and my family was less than keen on the whole butchering thing anyway.

If I can get the camera to cooperate, maybe I can post a few pictures.

Very Funny Video

2009-06-22T11:44:00.002-06:00

Just watched this at Lew Rockwell.com??

It is very funny. After 2:05 is an advertisement, and I'm not endorsing them or their products.

I especially enjoyed those rather large listening devices attached to our "hero" gorgeous mug.

My Thoughts on Tiller the Killer's Untimely Demise

2009-06-04T21:20:00.002-06:00

I asked what y'all thought about Tiller's passing from this life to the next. Now I'll give you a summary of what I said other places. Some of it will be straight cut and paste from comments I made earlier in the week, so they may be a bit disjointed.

Before I do that, I want to thank each and every one of you who posted in the last few days. You have produced a lively discussion. Funny how one side of the argument seems to produce quotes, documentation and evidence, while the other side resorts to an endless potpourri of vituperation.

My thoughts,

Sunday afternoon,

I wonder what the reaction from our new Sec of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebalius? will be?? She was this piece of sh*ts lap dog. Kept him out of jail several times, and gave mucho bucks to her campaign.

Will BHO come out and condemn the culture of death that caused a radical right wing nutball to commit such a heinous act?

Will they outlaw powder blue Ford Taurus's, since only abortion provider euthanizers drive powder blue Ford Taurus's?

The list of questions boggle the mind.

Sunday evening,

What do you mean that "the law doesn't work"?

"For by the law is the knowledge of sin"

"the wages of sin is death"

Seems from a cursory reading about the law that Tiller the Killer deserves death, right?

Furthermore, what law are you referring to? The law that allows a woman to kill her unborn child?

When the law is no longer just, then lawlessness prevails. Someone decided to obey the "natural law" (whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed") and do justice.

Response from another person,

"Sure, we all do."

So you admit that you know Tiller the Killer was worthy of death, but you refuse to admit that his death is justice?

What is justice then?

You're hiding behind the community, while at the same time allowing injustice to prevail.

The facts are, as someone previously stated, that Tiller the serial Killer " operated publicly and famously for decades." The current legal system had failed to uphold justice,

and Tiller the Killer continued to murder unborn children every day,

therefore the very first Biblical admonition to do justice, the first mandate for mankind to rule over mankind, the first duty of and most important role of mankind's self government,

was necessary,

Genesis 9 is the very foundation of the natural law principle. Mankind is to hold himself and all other men accountable for human life. Tiller the Killer violated the first principle of natural law, he shed innocent human blood. By the decree of God himself, Tiller was worthy of death.

From Monday,

Frankly, I am very underwhelmed by the response to Tiller the Killer's death. The man was a serial killer. He was a paid baby killer. By his own admission, he claimed to have done more than 60,000 abortions. That's the entire population of places like Carson City, Nevada or Bismark, North Dakota.

Genesis 9:6:

"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."

Seems to me that God looks with great disfavor on someone who sheds the blood of innocent children!!

Look what Jesus said in Luke 17:2:

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Tiller the Killer was worthy of death. Why should we feel anything but relief that justice has been done.

Justice:

is rendering to every one that which is his due. (Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary )

By God's standard, justice was done to Tiller the Killer, period, end of discussion. The epithet on Tiller the Killer's tombstone should be,

Galatians 6:

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;

Today and tomorrow, less babies will have their lives snuffed out because this piece of human debris has now gone to his eternal reward.

BTW, you think I'm harsh, I simply stated the Biblical case. God is the ultimate judge. If Tiller the Killer is not worthy of eternal damnation in the lake of fire, God is fully capable of determining his just reward.

Maybe Tiller really was a christian, then you can see him in heaven some day and he can brag that he got there sooner than you did. We're all gonna die folks. That's a guarantee, this discussion is over whether Tiller the Killer got his ticket punched early? And since I believe God is sovereign, I figure he knew that Tiller the Killer was cashing his chips on Sunday morning.

God is a righteous judge, he will judge based on the facts. No empathy, just the truth. Justice will prevail.

There is a summary of my comments on the death of Tiller the Killer.

What do you say now?

Your Comments Please?

2009-05-31T11:58:00.003-06:00

Tiller the Killer

I'm curious to see your comments.

Should we mourn Mr. Tiller?

Should we rejoice that he is now facing the ultimate judge?

Or, is this simply a yawner, similar to "dog bites man" story?

Without the Shedding of Blood, There is no Remission of Sin

2009-04-10T17:22:00.002-06:00

I don't often do this, because, number one, I don't assume most of my readers are wimps.
Second, I am not all touchy feely about anything, so I have very little concern if you are, and thirdly, to be honest I deal with this on a regular basis, so it does not affect me nearly as much as it will some people.

But what takes place in this video is graphic in nature,
it will bother some of you, in fact some of you will not be able to watch it all,

but on this day, I believe it is a powerful reminder of what our faith in Jesus Christ is all about,

again, be warned, this is graphic stuff,

Sacrifice of a Lamb

I immediately thought of this passage of Scripture,

Hebrews 9

19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

20Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

21Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

25Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

And then John chapter 1

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

Today we remember the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sin of the world.

2009-04-05T18:26:00.002-06:00

I was recently castigated at another blog, which for the moment will remain nameless, for describing the policies of the Oprompter administration as fascist. Here is my reply. At the bottom of the page will be a link with another man suggesting the same thing.

Also, Farmer Tom, is it really necessary to name-call just because you don't agree with someone? It's just common courtesy, and calling someone a fascist is hardly likely to result in a productive discussion.

Lia,

Sadly, I'm afraid your comment demonstrates a symptom of the collapse of our intellectual culture. Let me attempt to demonstrate.

water

wa⋅ter

[waw-ter, wot-er]
–noun
1. a transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, H2O, freezing at 32°F or 0°C and boiling at 212°F or 100°C, that in a more or less impure state constitutes rain, oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.: it contains 11.188 percent hydrogen and 88.812 percent oxygen, by weight.

marriage

mar⋅riage

[mar-ij]
–noun
1. the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
2. the state, condition, or relationship of being married; wedlock: a happy marriage.
3. the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of a man and woman to live as husband and wife, including the accompanying social festivities: to officiate at a marriage.

fascism

fas⋅cism

[fash-iz-uhm]
–noun
1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." [Robert O. Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism," 2004]

Now Lia, the culture can try mightily to change the meaning of words. They try to claim that marriage is not the union of one man and one woman for life, but instead the union of two perverts (sodomites). Water is water, marriage is marriage, and the policies of our current administration are fascist in their nature.

The president of the United States has fired the Chairman of an automobile company, since when is it the job of government to tell an automobile company how to run their business? The government is taking your and my money and giving it to business and banks. Since when is that the role of government? The government is demanding that doctors and nurses do the bidding of the government when it comes to health care. Since when is it the role of the government to tell anyone what is acceptable or preferable for their personal health care?

See, the meaning of policies and practices of a political leader and his party are not determined by what the latest spin or analysis coming from a media sympathetic to the very same political party and its leader are telling us . Facts are facts, and the policies this administration are pursing can not be accurately described by any other term than fascism.

Going back to your comment about name calling, you assume that speaking the truth about the policies of this administration is name calling. What pray tell would you call their policies? Since when is using obtuse language and/or failing to call water water useful in helping people understand the facts about anything?

If I had said that the policies of this administration were freedom loving and lead to personal liberty would you have objected?? Those would be blatant lies, since nothing this administration has done so far has expanded individual liberty and personal freedom, nothing.

You may not like that facts, and you may wish that I had not mentioned them either, but the facts are the facts and while many people would like to ignore the facts (or even more likely) cover up the facts, they remain what they are, and the facts are that the policies of this administration are best described by the term fascism.

Oh, and one more thing, you and several others lately have talked about convincing others, productive discussion, or an open dialog. That is unmitigated male bovine effluvia. One can not have a productive discussion, an open dialog or a convincing argument if the two parties have not defined their terms and/are speaking in finite, mutually understood terminology. Water is water. Marriage is marriage, and fascism is fascism. Now we can have a discussion, because we have established the boundaries of the discussion and the meaning of the terms we will use.

Are you on their list?

2009-03-18T17:00:00.003-06:00

Militias and Domestic Terrorists

Looks like those of use who believe in the right to life, liberty and property are now the suspects rather than patriots.

Would they arrest Patrick Henry, for inciting violence by saying, "Give me liberty or give me death!!"?

So what have you got on your vehicle?

An NRA sticker?

A sign saying "Protected by Smith & Wesson"!

Shoot all the ragheads!

Shoot first, ask questions later?

Gun control is hitting what you aim at!

Ron Paul

Any of the above and I'm sure you're considered a nut ball radical.

New Planter

2009-03-08T15:40:00.004-06:00

Looking through the latest farm magazine, I saw that Deere is starting production on their new planter. Before I link to any pictures, let me illustrate how big this thing is.

When I was helping my dad as a kid he had a 4 row planter. When I started farming for myself I bought a 6 row planter. Several of my neighbors had 8 row rigs, both 8 wide (38") and my father-in-law had 8 narrow (30").

The farm where I work now had a 16 row (30") when I started, now they have a 24 (30").

This video is something I found on YouTube which shows a 24 row planter, turn the volume down, this guy has the stereo cranked up.

That's 24 30" rows, 60 feet wide.

We have at least two neighbors who are trading DB90s for one of the new DB120s 48 30" rows, they were among the first to have the 36 row 30" spaced DB90s so they get first shot at the new rig.

Does This Bother You? It Makes the Hair on the Back of My Neck Stand Up

2009-02-19T20:20:00.003-06:00

House to House Search for weapons dealer

Arcadia, IA

Try this one, look like a terrorist haven to you?

Why not do this in a real urban area, like the NE part of Des Moines?

Why aren't they searching for rag-head terrorists, instead of "a weapons dealer"?

What happens if you don't want to participate in this little charade, does your name get put on a list of those who are "uncooperative"?

Since when is it necessary for the "National Guard" to be searching American citizens homes?

I have more questions, but I'm afraid that I probably won't like the answers.

What do you think?

Black is in....

2009-01-22T19:45:00.003-06:00

From the UK Telegraph, via Drudge

CNN's orange-haired septuagenarian chatterbox Larry King has been bowled over by the new Age of Obama, enthusing that his youngest offspring (from his seventh marriage) wants to be black. I guess it's a case of black being, er, the new black.

Interviewing a visibly uncomfortable Bob Woodward on his eponymous CNN show last night, Larry, 75, gushed: "My younger son Cannon, he is eight. And he now says that he would like to be black. I'm not kidding. He said there's a lot of advantages. Black is in. Is this a turning of the tide?"

Ok, that is strange, whatever trips your trigger I guess. But wait there's more,

My wife said, "Have you checked the e-mail?"

Me. "No."

She. "Check out the offer for the new credit card!"

And here it is,

and now the fine print,

Annual Fee $495

The question?

How many who want to be "black" will pay $495 per year for the privilege?

A New President

2009-01-20T15:21:00.002-06:00

We now have a new President.

The Dow Jones and NASDQA are both down. The world is at peace, war has forever ended, abortion is now morally acceptable, sodomy is now normal human behavior, and everything you own is the property of the government.

Hope and change. Hope and change.

For those of you who did not punish yourself by watching the tragedy/usurpation unfold, a brief reminder of the most important point.

Today Barak Hussein Obama stood on the podium in front of not only the nation but the world, and said the following,

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That is the oath of office in it's entirety. Nothing about government bailouts, nothing about expanding the Right to Kill, nothing about negotiating peace in Israel, nothing about expanding education. Just one simple task.

Seems to me that the oath of office suggests that the overarching/mandatory requirement for the President of the United States is very simple. Follow the Constitution as it is written.

Adam and Eve were given one simple command in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

One simple command, just one, and they failed.

As BHO takes office, he has one simple task. To follow the Constitution of the United States of America. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. BHO has just made a vow, while placing his hand on the very Word of God, that he would follow and protect the Constitution.

What about you? Do you follow the Constitution as written, according to the original meaning when written by the founders, or do you accept as normal and legitimate "laws" which directly violate the Constitution. Do you or did you vote for politicians who ignore the Constitution?

I am suggesting that those who claim to Love God, followers of Jesus Christ, should treat the Constitution in a manner similar to how we treat the written Law of God. ( I'm not saying they are the same, rather, the Law of God should be our guide for faith and practice, and in the secular realm, the Constitution should be our standard for how we relate to our government.)

What is the test we will use to determine whether BHO and any other President have been good Presidents?

Did he do the following?

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Faith in the White House

2008-12-11T19:29:00.005-06:00

I have been very critical of the current President, I never voted for him and I have made personal friends very unhappy with me for some of the comments I have made about him. If you are one of the offended, I'm genuinely sorry, not for what I said, or that you were offended, but that you were gullible enough, so tied to the Repugnant party, and so spiritually undiscerning that you allowed your self to be sucked into the web of distortions and innuendo that was used to portray GWB as a christian.

The man is a Biblically illiterate, "christian in name only", who neither understands the God of the Bible, nor believes in the true God of the Bible. Christianity is not a philosophy, contrary to what Bush said way back in the primaries prior to the 2000 election.

And anyone who claims that Muslims and the Taliban pray to the same God that Christians do, is delusional.

1 Corinthians 8:6
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him

Ephesians 4:6
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

James 2:19
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

And if the Bible is not literally true, then what parts are false?? What parts do you believe sir and why?? Is the Bible like a smorgasbord, sir, take the things you want, and the rest you throw out with the trash?

II Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Hey, George, what part of all, don't you understand?

And since when has the theory of evolution been proved? If that's the case, I assume you also believe in global warming. Dimwit!!

*********************************************************************************************

The following is a loose transcript of the conversation on Nightline between Jorge the Younger Shrub, and Cynthia McFadden.

It is possible to view the interview on the web. The transcript leaves on the interviewers questions, in particular she mentions Muslims and the Taliban in the question about who he prays to.

Faith in the White House

The private religious life of a president has always garnered public interest. As President-elect Obama prepares to take his place in the White House, many are wondering which church he will choose to attend in Washington, D.C.

Like his father, Bush is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington and often attends services at Camp David. He told McFadden that he prays in the Oval Office and said that faith "has made a great difference in my life."

"There is a sense of calm in the Oval Office, where there are obviously a lot of dramatic moments and a lot of, you know, pressure, but there is calm in the Oval Office," Bush said. "People say, 'But how do you know that it's because of prayer?' And I guess the answer is because of faith is how I know -- I can't prove it for you. People, you know, say it's just a crutch. For me, it's not a crutch, for me it's the realization of a power of a universal God and recognition that the God came manifested in human and then died for sins. Now, all of this was hard for me to understand for a period of time and I am still trying to understand as best as my human mind can possibly do so. But in the understanding and in the search and in the quest, I find comfort and strength."

When asked if he thinks that he prays to the same God as those with different beliefs, Bush said, "I do."

"I do believe there is an Almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people," Bush said, but he drew a distinction when it comes to those who perpetrate terror.

"I think anyone who murders to achieve their religious objective is not a religious person," he said. "They may think they're religious, and they play like they're religious, but I don't think they're religious. They are not praying to the God I pray to ... the god of peace and love."

When asked if he believes the Bible is literally true, the president said that he's "not a literalist" when it comes to reading the Bible, but rather focuses on the important lessons he believes the Bible teaches.

As for whether one can believe in the Bible and believe in evolution, Bush said he does, adding that "I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life.

"I think that God created the Earth, created the world," he said. "I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."

************************************************************************************************

If you voted for this fool, you should fall on your face before God and ask His forgiveness for voting this man into office.

One consolation, God is sovereign, so even though you acted the fool, and supported this irrational, "christian in name only", God had some reason for allowing him to be our President. I would guess to test the discernment of those who claim the name of Christ. And to punish this nation by using GWB and his irrationality, to destroy the economy of the United States of America.

An Addendum:

It seems that I'm not the only one appalled by Jorge's confessions of disbelief.

Here's an article calling out the "Religious Right" for their support of Jorge the Younger Shrub.

Chuck Baldwin

Farm Related News and Comments

2008-12-05T18:29:00.007-06:00

First, an apology to all who come here and have found nothing new lately. I seem to have numerous things which have interfered with my blogging. Now that harvest is officially over and all the hog manure has been hauled to the fields, I should have more time in the evenings to post something.

Second, I have also struggled a little with what topics I should post about. This is my blog, I may post or say some things which those of you who know me may find controversial or just plain wrong. Feel free to disagree, you're welcome to comment about what you find objectionable, but I'm going to say what I think. So, in the coming weeks I intent to tackle some subjects which may be less than politically correct.

Tonight I want to talk about some current events in the ag community and their effect on you and on me.

The December corn futures reached an all time high this summer, with corn contracts reaching $7.99 1/4 per bushel in the last few days of June. Since corn has become a source of energy with the increase production of ethanol, the two charts are almost parallel in their upward and then their downward trends.

With the recent fall in oil prices, as well as in corn prices, suddenly the hue and cry over the high cost of food caused by the high corn prices seems to have completely disappeared. Since this hubbub was a foolish argument before, it is clear for all to see now. A box of corn flakes still costs the same at the supermarket, but the value of the corn used in those corn flakes has gone from 7 cents a bowl to 3 cents a bowl. The high price of food was never really attributable to the high price of the food ingredients nearly as much as it was the high cost of energy, any type of energy.

The following is a newspaper article on the subject By David Kruse author and producer of the CommStock Report. CommStock Report

Read Commentary by David Kruse as it is published weekly in newspapers around the Midwest.

Food Prices

The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) attempted to use higher corn prices, which they blamed on ethanol, as a diversion to give them an excuse to raise food prices. The facts are not on their side. Food only comprises 19% of the food dollar and only a very small portion of that is corn related. Blaming higher food prices on corn and ethanol as the GMA has done to explain food price hikes is like claiming that the tail wags the dog.

Higher energy prices have had significantly more impact on food prices than the cost of the raw food ingredients. Ethanol had more impact lowering the cost of motor fuel then it did raising food costs. When Texas Governor, Rick Perry asked the EPA to roll back the RFS, the subsequent EPA study conducted showed ethanol raised feed prices costing Texas livestock producers $1.8 billion but saved Texas motorists $4 billion, for a net savings.

While complaining about higher corn costs, lashing out at ethanol, many food companies reported larger profits. In other words, they raised prices more than food and energy costs went up, profiteering from the rising prices using price hikes blamed on higher costs to gouge consumers, widening margins.

The Iowa Corn Grower's reported, "Citing the (recent) decline in corn prices, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has asked the Grocery Manufactures of America (GMA) when its members will reduce food prices and challenged GMA for continuing to make ethanol a scapegoat for high food prices. Congressman Collin Petersen, Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, has also called on GMA members to reduce prices and apologize to farmers for its anti-ethanol smear campaign. A GMA response maintained that ethanol production is the largest factor increasing corn prices."

Ethanol was a factor raising corn prices among many other factors. No one would argue with that. We would argue that the GMA members enjoyed the benefits of below the cost of production corn prices for many years, low prices sustained by government subsidies and like spoiled children losing a privilege, reacted like cry babies when the price of corn became profitable to farmers like that was something unfair.

The price of corn is now back down below the cost of production again, so the GMA can stop shedding those crocodile tears. With the profit they have been making, they can afford silk handkerchiefs. Sen. Chuck Grassley challenged the GMA directly on what he called a smear campaign, distorting the impact of corn prices and ethanol on food prices. In a letter to the GMA, Grassley wrote, "Since the smear campaign was launched last spring, I've been calling for intellectual honesty regarding ethanol and its role in the economy. Recent changes in the market confirm that many factors contributed to higher food prices during the last year. Yet as recently as October 6, 2008, Scott Faber of your organization was quoted by the Desert News as saying, 'The food manufacturers are high-volume, low margin companies that have initially absorbed a lot of the costs of higher commodities prices.'"

Food companies used higher corn prices as cover to gouge consumers with large price hikes. They now have the luxury of seeing raw food prices fall so they can trail food product prices lower while maintaining fat margins. These guys are very good liars who got where they are at by knowing how to game the system.

Senator Grassley added "In fact, when oil prices and commodity prices rose earlier this year, food processors and grocery stores reflected their higher input costs almost immediately, passing them onto consumer's. However, since commodity prices have declined over the past three months, we have seen retail food prices continue to rise."

While there were other factors than the impact that ethanol had on corn prices and many factors more powerful as to why corn prices went up than ethanol, the GMA focused on ethanol as the cause of food prices rising. That's a gross distortion of facts and so irresponsible the ethanol industry was compelled, like Senator Grassley, to respond.

The ethanol industry and other ag groups formed a coalition called Growth Energy to launch an ad campaign challenging the GMA's claim that ethanol raising corn prices, pushed them hard to raise food prices.

It's becoming the battle of ad agencies as, "The Glover Park Group, the Washington consulting firm that has been managing the anti-ethanol campaign for GMA and other organizations, called Growth Energy a splinter group, that seeks to perpetuate the myth that rising food prices are a result of a food company conspiracy. According to an October 31st story in the Wall Street Journal, Kraft's revenue increased 19 percent from the year-earlier period. Kraft's net income for the third quarter was $1.4 billion - or 93 cents a share - up from $596 million, or 38 cents, a year earlier."

Like Kraft Foods, Heinz blasted ethanol and corn prices for raising food costs and then boosted its prices enough to increase its profits 22% last quarter, netting $276.7 million. Doesn't that say it all? Food company's profits inflated dramatically, despite the higher corn costs so they have a lot of cash available to be able to afford anti-ethanol campaigns to cover their tracks.
They tell everybody how they have to raise food prices because of ethanol, but look at their profits soar.

**********

Now, I have argued before that I would much rather see corn used to produce food. But, with the increased efficiency of the ethanol industry and the growing use of the by-products left from ethanol production, (Dried Distillers Grains) it is a fact of life that corn is going to be used to produce some of our energy needs in the future. The current spot market price for ethanol is $1.39 per gallon. If I read the chart right, Reformulated Gasoline is .90 cents. Of course thats before the government takes their cut in the form of taxes.

The result of the sagging economy, falling commodity prices and market uncertainty makes for interesting days in the ag world. Land prices had been on a decade long climb with record prices recorded in the last 10 months. Now corn and bean prices are such that land purchases will no longer cash flow using current land prices. There have been several "no sales" of land at auction in the last month. Land owners saw record high prices and wanted to sell, farmers were in the mood to buy when corn was over $7.00 dollars a bushel, now corn prices are below cost of production, and they can not afford to pay record high prices for land.

And a related matter, ethanol company declares bankruptcy

One of the most irritating things about this Verasun fiasco is the fact that the bankruptcy court may allow Verasun to renege on all of the contracts that they wrote which are no longer profitable for them. In other words, some farmers sold corn to Verasun at $7.00 dollars per bushel, a tremendous profit for the farmer. Now with corn back below $4.00 dollars per bushel those farmers have contracts to deliver grain to Verasun, but Verasun does not have to pay the $7.00 dollars per bushel. However Verasun will honor the contracts written two years ago in which farmer contracted corn at $3.00 per bushel. That will sure cure your financial ills in a hurry, if you can pick and choose to honor only those contracts which will help your bottom line.

Want to buy into the ethanol business at rock bottom prices, there are numerous ethanol plants for sale at fire sale prices? There is also a brand new never been used bio-diesel plant for sale, built with farmer money, which is currently on the market, and now soybean prices are back to levels where bio-diesel production is again profitable.

In other news the cow herd continues to shrink,

see this article, shrinking cattle profits , so a smart guy, in a normal economy, would be buying cows and feeding cattle.

But, the vegans are out to stop that as well,

From the AP wire,

Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers

By BOB JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Bob Johnson, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 5, 4:43 am ET
These Montgomery, Ala., cows seem unaware of a proposal Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 AP – These Montgomery, Ala., cows seem unaware of a proposal Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 by the Environmental …

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.

Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.

"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.

It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.

The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."

Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.

"We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said.

EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.

Butterfield said the EPA has not taken a position on any of the proposals. But farmers from across the country have expressed outrage over the idea, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week.

"It's something that really has a very big potential adverse impact for the livestock industry," said Rick Krause, the senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.

"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said.

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, a Republican from Haleyville in northwest Alabama, said he has spoken with EPA officials and doesn't believe the cow tax is a serious proposal that will ever be adopted by the agency.

"Who comes up with this kind of stuff?" said Perry Mobley, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation's beef division. "It seems there is an ulterior motive, to destroy livestock farms. This would certainly put them out of business."

Butterfield said the EPA is reviewing the public comments and didn't have a timetable for the next steps.

In summary, production agriculture faces interesting times ahead. What is it about me that wants so badly to be in the game when everything looks so unsettled? It must be something in my blood.

One World Government on it's Way??

2008-11-15T08:52:00.002-06:00

So the solution to the current economic crisis is to create a one world financial system?

How about instead we return to the Constitution,

Section 8

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Section 10 - Powers prohibited of States

No State shall........... emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;

and the Biblical standard of "just weights and measures"?

Leviticus 19:36

36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Proverbs 20:10
Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.

I copied this directly from,

The Inflation Calculator

What cost $1.00 in 1936 would cost $14.81 in 2007.

Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2007 and 1936,
they would cost you $1.00 and $0.07 respectively.

If you think the dollar is a just weight and measure, think again.

Post Election Comments

2008-11-06T19:45:00.005-06:00

Well, the man I voted for did not win. But, this now makes 16 years since I voted for a Repugnant party candidate for President. Until the Repugnant party nominates candidates who are truly pro-life, pro-marriage (between one man and one woman), who believe in sound money, a strong national defense, (not some globalist empire building un-ending war), protect the Constitution as the foundational law of the country, and start the process of defunding the unConstitutional agencies and departments which consume our nations resources, as well as burning down and salting the earth where the public school system stands

Children of the State

..... I will not be voting for them any time in the future.

So I voted for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.

To those of you who voted for Mc-Mark-O-Cain, I wonder, would your conscience have bothered you less if you had actually voted on principle, for a man with truly conservative/Constitutional positions rather than a RINO who acts and talks so much like a Demoncrat that most of the time he's siding with them?? Praise God the Mc-Mark-O-Cain lost. You sheep would have gone along with Mc-Mark-O-Cain's crazy socialist/leftist ideas just like you did with Jorge the Younger Shrub.

And maybe that is the most important thing I have to say this evening, until all of you out there on the web reading these comments, come to grip with this truth, you will continue to me defeated at the ballot box. Jorge the Younger Shrub ,was never a conservative.

Go to the transcript of this debate, February 15th, 2000 There was one and only one conservative sitting at that debate table and it wasn't Larry King. In the last 3 Presidential elections those of you who claim to be conservative, who claim to believe in small government and Constitutional freedoms voted for the other two men at the table, the ones who were not and are not now conservative.

How's that working for ya??

Until those conservative/Christians who claim to love God, this country and the Constitution which establishes the laws of this country vote for men who love God, this country and the Constitution, you will get spineless, liberal, appeasing men like Jorge the Younger Shrub. A man who claims the name of Christ, yet believes that he worships the same god as the Muslims do.

Can a Christian pray to Allah.

See when you vote for men who claim the name of Christ yet, say things like this, you are guilty of adding and abetting an infidel.

Before you consider voting in the next presidential election I would suggest you actually study and read the things what ever candidate you support believes and stands for, and if he says he supports the Constitution, yet advocates federal involvement in education, call him the liar that he is, since the Constitution never mentions education. And if he says he will support overt attacks on the Constitution like Mc-Mark-O-Cain/Feingold, call him a traitor to the Constitution like he is, in Constitutional language it would be "enemies foreign and domestic".

So my postmortem autopsy concludes that the election of Barak Hussein Obama is the direct fault of those of you who voted to put in power for the last 8 years a man who failed to support, defend and enact the conservative agenda. You elected a man who claimed the name of Christ and yet repeatedly acted in ways contrary to Biblical and Constitutional principles.

As to the future, "May God have mercy on our souls!"

Oh, and to you complete ignoramuses talking about running Jeb Bush in 2012, will you quite trying to lose elections and destroy this country? Do you really expect him to be any better than his worthless father or incompetent brother?

Update: Seems I'm not the only one who thinks that much of the blame for an Obama win lies at the feet of pseudo conservatives like George W. Bush and John McCain.

Conservatives Lost More Than An Election

A Conversation/Debate Tom(Bahama)Harkin and Christopher Reed

2008-10-24T18:36:00.002-06:00

A tough young ex-Navy man, who runs his own business here in Iowa, decided to take on the Iowa Demoncrats biggest dog. And from what I see in this (debate) is he took a stick to the big dog and gave him a beating.

If you have spare change, send Mr. Reed a few dollars so that he can send Tom home to the Bahamas.

see the video here

IPTV

you can go to Mr. Reed's website,

here

Sarah Palin Photos

2008-10-23T20:33:00.004-06:00

This is not an endorsement of the Palin/McCrazy campaign, and no I still will not be voting for them. A friend, who was at a Palin appearance in the last few days took these pictures. Since I'm not adverse to posting pictures of an attractive woman, and a Christian to boot, I offered to post them for him. So here they are, thanks Ted.

To bad he can't post them on the website he works for, but McCain/Feingold killed that.

A Third Party Vote and a Sovereign God

2008-10-09T21:12:00.004-06:00

Our church decided to do something different than normal for Sunday School this quarter. Normally we have the different classes use material chosen for that specific class. I teach the Jr. High/Sr. High Class, we had been doing lessons I had prepared on Doctrine/Apologetics. The ladies were doing something about women of the Bible and the other adult class, mostly men were in something to do with the Judges. This quarter, all the classes are still meeting separately, but all of them are doing the same book and lessons.

Since this is not an advertisement or endorsement of that particular book/lesson, I'm simply going to say that the topic is related to the Sovereignty of God. If you want to know about the book ask and I'll give you the title and author, but for the purposes of this post, that info is irrelevant.

With the presidential election one month away, we are again hearing the usual arguments about how a follower of Jesus Christ should vote this election cycle. The following opinions are mine, you get what you paid for. But, there are several conclusions/assumptions that are givens in the following analysis. First, I will never ever vote for a candidate who supports the pro-abortion positions. I believe that man kind is created in the image of the Creator God, that all human life is therefore precious in His sight, and that someone who does not respect the right to life is worthy of God's wrath. Therefore I can not in good conscience support such a person. Second, I believe that the lesser of two evils, is still evil. I will not support a candidate simply because he is not as bad as his opposition. In a choice between Hitler and Mussolini, evil wins either way, therefore I will not support or vote for either of the two.

Using those principles then as a starting place, I can not in good conscience support either Barak Hussein Obama or John McCain. While many of you understand and agree with my position on BHO, you still are considering or maybe actively supporting McCain. I have previously established my strong dislike for McCain, here, so I will not repeat the litany of faults I contend deem him unworthy of my support. I will mention however that the economic chaos of the last 14? days has increased my contempt for the man, he is a socialist thru and thru. In crisis his immediate reaction is for government to do something/anything to fix the problem, and he will gladly steal the taxpayers money to do it.

Since Obama has voted in favor of infanticide, see this article by Andrew McCarty, also one by Jill Stanek and he considers a baby to be punishment, Punished with a Baby I have absolutely no use for BHO.

Consequently, my choices are limited. I can refuse to vote, something more and more people are doing. According to this article52 percent of "evangelicals" did not vote in the 2000 elections. I could also write in a candidate, something that is legal in all fifty states, I think. Our I could vote for a third party candidate.

And immediately people with an interest in seeing one of the two major party candidates begin to toss around the term "throwing away your vote". They claim that a vote for C candidate is a vote for B candidate, if they are a fan of A. And if they are a fan of B candidate they will claim that a vote for C candidate is a vote for A candidate. Now I ain't no genisus:). But a vote for C candidate is clearly a vote for C candidate, A and B can take a flying leap. And herein lies the greatest problem facing those who hold a worldview similar to the one that I hold. Far to many of them have believed the lie, that they must support A or B because the other candidate is evil, and that a third party can not win.

Some numbers for you to consider. I got these in just a few minutes of searching the internet. I'll give the sources, you can make your own case for their reliability. I simply took the numbers I found and did a few calculations.

According to numerous polls, some where between 70 and 80 percent of the US population claim some form of Christianity. See this page for details. Now lets narrow that down a little bit. According to this article, Publiceye "the number of persons in the United States who described themselves as either Evangelical or Born-Again between 1976 and 2001 fluctuated between 33 percent and 47 percent with a reasonable estimate being 35 percent of the population or just over 102 million people in 2003." So I think it is well within the realm of possibility that just over 100 million American voters would identify themselves as being within the group of people who hold a biblical/christian worldview.

In 2000 George W Bush received 50,456,002 votes in the general election and Al Gore received 50,999,897 votes. and as I stated previously, according to Publiceye 52 percent of that 100 million Evangelicals did not vote. Now, according to the same article, somewhere between 37 and 40 percent of the total votes cast for George W Bush were cast by Evangelical Christians. Using the 40 percent figure for ease of calculation, we are talking about 20,182,401 votes cast by Evangelical Christians for GWB. Using the same source of info, about 11 percent of Evangelical Christians voted for the Democrat candidate or 6,493,128 votes.

Here's the deal. If the group that calls itself Evangelical/Born-Again Christians, would as a group vote what they claim to believe, here are the resultant numbers. In 2000, GWB would have received 30,273,601 votes. Algore would have had 44,506,769 votes. And a candidate supported by that coalition of Evangelical/Born-Again Christians would have received 26,675,529 votes.

So according to my friends who continue to believe the lie, that we must support A or B because C can't win, Algore would have won the 2000 election. And they believed a lie. Because as I said previously 52 percent of so called Evangelical Christians Did not Vote in 2000. If you could convince 50 percent of those people 52,000,000 "christians" to vote their conscience, thats 26,000,000 "christians who did not support either A or B, you would have the potential for a vote total on the order of 52,675,529 with the up side potential of 78,675,529.

And here in lies the problem. Without pointing fingers at anyone in particular, too many of you have accepted the lie that a third party candidate can not win. You therefore give your support/vote to the lesser of the two evils while at the same time making it impossible for men of much higher moral standards and character to win office, because you are in effect voting to stop evil by accepting evil. And in so doing you reject the Sovereignty of God.

If God is Sovereign, and I believe He is. Then when you vote for evil, in an attempt to prevent evil, you are saying that God is not capable of preventing evil from assuming a position of power. This is totally contrary to God's revealed Word. Here is one of my favorite passages, which we studied in Sunday School last Sunday.

Daniel 4:17 "to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men."
Again in verse 32 "until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will."
Then Nebuchadnezzar's own testimony, " 34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
36 At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."

Not convinced, how about Romans 13:1" Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."

So here's my plan. I will vote my conscience. I will vote for a man who has evidence in His life that He has a proper understanding of government, the He understands his position is one given by God, that he is accountable to God and that secular government is something God ordained to rule among the affairs of men. I will vote for a man who believes that human life is created in the image of God, and is therefore worthy of our protection from the womb to the tomb. And I will not vote for someone simply because I think he is less evil than the other guy. I will trust the Sovereign God of the Universe to "rule in the kingdom of men", and assume that he knows far better than I in my finite little mind who should be the leader of this country. And if enough of you will do the same, my God is fully capable of putting into office C even when A and B are claiming that voting for C is a wasted vote.

Now it's possible that you have read all this and are not convinced. Fine, but I have one question for you. When you stand before the Lord someday, and you are asked why you voted the way you did, and you will be asked, we all must give account, I Corinthians 3 and 4 say so, how are you going to explain to the Creator of the Universe, the Only Wise and Sovereign God, that you, in your finite wisdom, voted for an evil man to prevent an evil man from assuming power? Good luck with that!!

Post Script,

Any corrections of spelling and grammar would be deeply appreciated.

The Clue Phone is Ringing

2008-10-01T19:45:00.003-06:00

For any of you out there in the ether, who still believe that we live in a country with even some semblance of what it was designed to be, should answer the clue phone.
This country was supposed to be a Constitutional Republic. The elected leaders chosen by the citizens were to be bound by the Constitution to do only those things which it allowed.

For the last fifty years we have had much closer to a democratic social welfare state. Where the majority demand something and the elected leadership respond by handing out OPM (other peoples money). So if you wanted something real bad, you just had to get the majority to go along with you.

But today, we have now progressed into some sort of bastardized oligarchy

ol·i·gar·chy

1.
1. Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
2. Those making up such a government.
2. A state governed by a few persons.

Read this from WIRED,

An aide in the office of Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said Wednesday that the senator has received more than 91,000 e-mails, calls and letters regarding the legislation. Ninety-four percent of the authors of those notes were against the bill.

On the right, FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit, created the NoWallStreetBailout.com website, and has collected 41,415 names and statements from people who oppose it.

Widespread anger and opposition to the Senate's imminent approval of the Bush Administration's bailout proposal continued to spread online and overwhelm congressional offices in a flood of e-mails, faxes and phone calls on Wednesday.

And what did they do, were they bound by the Constitution?

Did they respond to the majority of the people?

No. They voted by a margin of 74 -25 to do what they want. Your opinion and the Constitution are completely ignored.

And for those of you still under the illusion that Juan Mc-Mark-O'Cain is somehow more conservative and different than BarelyBlack Hussein Obamba, well guess what, they both voted for the thing. Now there's a real conservative for ya. A man of principle, a man willing to take the hard position, a maverick, just like Barry Boy.

Update, And just a personal note to Senator Grassley, "Dude, you failed to pass the conservative/constitutional test, I will never vote for you again. As far as I'm concerned the Repugnant Party better start looking for your replacement, cause I'll do everything I can to see you lose."

Sarah Palin

2008-09-30T19:50:00.003-06:00

I have for the most part avoided commenting on Juan Mc-Mark-O'Cain's choice for the office of Vice-President. There are several reasons for this enforced silence, and it's now time to elaborate.

First, I thought that Juan Mc-Mark-O'Cain's choice of Mrs. Palin was an astute political move. She represented so many things that he did/does not. By all accounts she is a born-again Christian, he on the other hand, spoke of Christians in the most derogatory terms in 1999/2000, he clearly has issues with Christians.
She was very pro-life, to the point of having a Down's syndrome baby, instead of choosing to abort. Mc-Mark-O'Cain is pro-life the way most politicians are, only when it's time to run for office. He is for embryonic stem cell research, which destroys human life, so while he may claim to be pro-life, he is inconsistent at best.

I've read that she was anti illegal immigration, while old Juan is an open borders zealot. She is a life-time member of the NRA. Mc-Mark-O'Cain gets a F- rating from the Gun Owners of America, and was considered persona non grata by the NRA until about 9 months ago. Mc-Mark-O'Cain has worked with George Soros funded gun-grabbers trying to close down gun shows, and other enfringements on the Second Amendment.

And Mrs. Palin is extremely attractive. Mc-Mark-O'Cain is Bob Dole with a better looking wife. An (no offense to those of you who are older than Juan) old geezer with a bad comb over. Even I would look good standing on a stage next to Sara Palin. Ok, that might be stretching it a little, but clearly Mrs. Palin is not hard to look at.

So as a political move adding Sara Palin to the ticket was a great idea. It was literally the only topic of conversation for almost two weeks. Her speech at the Repugnant Convention was more watched than his. People like James Dobson who had vowed never to vote for Mc-Mark-O'Cain changed their mind when Mrs. Palin became part of the ticket.

However, I do not, nor have I ever, voted on the basis of who is second on the ticket. If the Lord Jesus Christ Himself were second on the ticket to Juan Mc-Mark-O'Cain, I would not vote for the ticket.

And therein lies my problems with Mrs. Palin. When she accepted the second spot on the ticket to a man who is a traitor to the Constitution of the United States. She became an accessory to his unlawfulness.

from Dictionary.com

accessory
Law.
a. Also called accessory before the fact. a person who, though not present during the commission of a felony, is guilty of having aided and abetted another, who committed the felony.

As I have written before, Vote for McCain, Never The man (along with Jorge the Younger Shrub) should be impeached.

Now Mrs. Palin has put herself in the position of having to defend the positions of a traitor to the Constitution. In fact she is now being forced by his people to answer questions about her beliefs with some codicil such as, "I personally believe" each time she has an opinion different than Juan.

I believe that Mrs. Palin is in the truest sense of the term, unequally yoked. II Corinthians 6:14 "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"

If Mrs. Palin is really a follower of Jesus Christ. If she believes in absolute truth. If she is willing to defend her beliefs from a Biblical worldview. Then she has tied herself to a man who hold positions contrary to that worldview.

Now, I take no pleasure in pointing out Mrs. Palin's position, but let it serve as a warning to those tempted to compromise on their beliefs, (just a little bit) to gain access to power. She can and very likely will do harm to the cause of Jesus Christ, because of the position she now finds herself in. If she follows the party line, says what Juan wants her to say, she will be forced to
a. eat her own words from previous occasions,
b. advocate positions she personally finds to be unBiblical,
c. lie

any one of those scenarios will give the press a field day, especially if they catch her lying about her past positions to defend Mc-Mark-O'Cain's current ones.

Beside the fact that she must now play second fiddle to a man who is not trust worthy. She is also in a bind regarding the future. On Thursday night Mrs. Palin will debate Joe(the plagiarizer)Biden. Let me give you one example of the terrible position she finds herself in. What if Gwen Ifeld asks Mrs. Palin if she will support Juan's position on embryonic stem cell research? If she says yes, she will be immediately eviscerated by the right for failing to uphold the pro-life position. If she says no, she will be accused of being insubordinate to the man who gave her the position she holds. If she attempts to avoid the question she will be cast as indecisive and ignorant.

And maybe the most important question of the entire election cycle is going to destroy any future potential thoughts she has for elective office, regardless the out come of this falls election. Both Juan Mc-Mark-O'Cain and the Lord Most High, BarelyBlack Obamba are in favor of the Wall Street bail-out. By some polls, 75 to 90 percent of the American public are opposed to the bail-out. Today, Mc-Mark-O'Cain excoriated Republicans who failed to vote for the bail-out. You can be guaranteed that Mrs. Palin will be asked if she favors the bail-out. From things she has said in the past, if Mrs. Palin is going to be consistent, she could not in clear conscience support this unConstitutional and clearly corporatist money grab. Will she follow Juan's commands to support the bail-out, thus disregarding the wishes of the vast majority of voters, or will she defy Juan, and portray herself as insubordinate?? Either way she becomes a has been as a political figure. The only way I see her saving her political future, is to resign the V.P. slot, telling the nation that she needs to spend her time with her family. Any other action will make her a pariah, in future years.

Why is this bail-out so toxic? Because just as campaign finance reform, and open borders, this thing is so clearly unConstitutional that even the mind numbed citizens recognize it. If Mrs. Palin supports it, she has just sold her soul to the devil. If she opposes it, Mc-Mark-O'Cain may very well have her thrown off the ticket. Not a pretty place to be, in my opinion.

I was asked a church the other day, what I thought of Mrs. Palin. I think she appears to be a lady I could like. A fellow follower of Jesus Christ. But, I believe she has made a horrible mistake by tying her political future to a traitorous, unprincipled man like Juan Mc-Mark-O'Cain.

May God grant her peace and wisdom. She's going to need it, in unbelievable amounts.

A busy weekend.

2008-09-18T19:52:00.003-06:00

On Friday evening the farmer and his family were host to our area homeschool group. We had about 75 homeschool parents and children come here to the farm to cook some food on the grill, fellowship together and listen to the trucker tell his stories:).

Each of the families brought their own meat to cook on the grills I had waiting, and something to share with the group.

My children hid 4 cases of pop cans, each numbered on the bottom, around the acreage, then I sent the kids off to find them. As they returned with a found can of pop, it was marked off of the list, then thrown in a tub of ice water. When all the cans had been found, after about 45 minutes, everybody could drink a can if they wanted one. Not a single parent objected to the fact that their children were drinking soda at 8:00 oclock at night, rather, most of they were thankful for the peace and quiet while the children were running to and fro hunting for the sodas.

By the time all the cans were found, darkness had arrived, whereupon the children started a game of capture the flag. That lasted right up until the guests departed, so that we had most of an hour and a half of uninterrupted adult conversation without the crum crunchers hanging on mothers arm.

Our home is surrounded by a large corn field. So the one and only rule was repeated often and loudly.

DO NOT GO INTO THE CORNFIELD !!!

I did not want to be trying to console some distraught mother, because her child had wandered off into a corn field a mile long. Thankfully, everyone obeyed the rule, and there were no search parties required.

On Saturday we repeated the process, only this time it was our local church family as well as another local church of like faith and a few other guests that I had invited.

This is the 5th ? annual cookout with our church family. We do a couple of things differently at this event compared to the one with the homeschoolers. First, "the church that shoots together works together", so we set up a couple of clay pidgeon throwers and blasted some holes in the sky. This year the sheriff did not come to investigate the gunfire.

I was busy cooking, so I can't personally testify to the accuracy of this report, but I heard that this young lady was a very good shot, and did better than many of the men.

The other thing we did different, is that I bought the meat through my local meat vendor, 45 ribeyes and 60 lean hamburgers. US Certified Angus Beef Choice Grade I did the cooking on the grill, with some assistance from my younger brother and my pastor. My lovely wife baked up 80 some baked potatoes in electric roasters, then the guests each brought something to share as well. I'm sorry to say that I had to charge something for the meat since I'm not independently wealthy, and couldn't afford to give everyone a free meal. Lord willing someday I can do that.
There was a tremendous amount of food left over on Saturday night.

We again hid the pop cans, the kids now expect that game. And most of the older kids played volleyball in the back yard under a light I had set up. We have a trampoline, two swing sets, a (very cool) tire swing, set up the badminton net, as well as the volleyball net, had an old tractor wheel rim set up as a fire ring with a bonfire in it, so that there were numerous things for everyone to do.

Sunday we went to church, took the lovely Mrs. farmer to Pizza Hut for her birthday, and then we rested. Monday we took back all the picnic tables we had borrowed, enough to seat 120 people.

Thanks to everyone that came, thanks to those who loaded/loaned picnic tables, and the most thanks to my lovely wife, who puts up with my desire to be the host with the most.

The Rally for the Republic

2008-09-03T19:38:00.002-06:00

On Tuesday I ventured away from my quiet, isolated, rural Iowa acreage, took the big road north, and waded into the teaming masses in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. It took all of five minutes to remember how much I despise the metropolitan environs. Why would any human being submit them selves to the torture of live in such a place? Noise, constant, irritating, ceaseless noise. Cars rumbling, people talking, sirens wailing, I had forgotten the noise. And the huge amount of lights, flashing signs, scrolling billboards, street lights, stop lights, rows and rows of office windows, with lights, large public buildings with lights attempting to show off their architecture paid for with stolen tax payer dollars. Lights everywhere. And the people, so many people, I saw more people last night in 4 hours than I see in my community in several years. People of every size, shape and color. People who look sad, people who look angry, people trying to attract other people, people trying to sell ideas, and some people actively trying to repel others by their actions and appearance.

So why did the farm boy go to the big city? To hear a speech. Last night, I had the privilege of hearing, Ron Paul speak at the Rally for the Republic. Last night I risked life and limb to refresh my love for the Constitution, to hear a man who loves life and liberty remind those assembled that we were given a great system of government, to quote Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

And last night was all about our desire to keep this nation a republic. To stop the unending growth of the federal leviathan. The massive social welfare state that we have become is the antithesis of a republic. I went to hear a man of integrity extol the superiority of a republic. And in reality it was mostly just refreshing to spend a little time with people of like mind. With people who do not want to get a hand out from the government but would rather slap the hand of government, and tell them to "get your stinking hands off of my life and property".

I saw several people I knew, people who believe in personal liberty and responsibility. There were numerous vendors pushing their ideas, financial products related to real currency and lots of organizations handing out samples of literature, political fliers and campaign information. I met a couple of brothers, libertarians, who run their own business, and want the government to leave them alone. They were circulating a petition to get Bob Barr on the ballot in Minnesota.

Ron Paul's speech was good. But, in the end, I was far more encouraged by the large number of people who came to defend the republic, to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The crowd of young and not so young Americans who believe that less government and more personal responsibility are the key to keeping the republic.

I hated my time in the city, but, it was worth it, because I came home with a renewed desire to defend the republic, and to keep telling my fellow citizens that our God givens rights to life and liberty are still loved and valued by numerous Americans, and that there are some of us who will continue to push our fellow citizens to return to the vision of our founders, and the republic which they gave us.

Something to Make You Laugh

2008-08-12T18:40:00.002-06:00

Another busy month has come and gone, and I have posted nothing.

Last night I was looking for something on You Tube and thought of this old commercial. In the summer of 2002 I happened to be home on a Saturday afternoon when the Cardinals and Cubs were playing on the Saturday game of the Week. The game went extra innings, I think it was 13 innings, anyway the TV people must not have been prepared for extra innings, cause they ran this commercial every half inning from the 8th on. Something like 14 times they ran this commercial. I was laughing till I cried every half inning and the lovely Mrs. farmer was so sick of the thing she kept leaving the room after each half inning.

Now some of you know that I am not a user of alcohol in any form. This is not an endorsement of this product, nor am I suggesting that anyone try this product on the basis of this commercial. But, I'm thinking if you don't laugh, there is something seriously wrong with you. This is funny stuff.

One more that I saw on the web several years ago which made me laugh uproariously.

So there ya go, two things to make you laugh. And I've posted something.

Reposting this time with pictures.

2008-07-03T14:36:00.000-06:00

This is an attempt to repost an earlier post with the pictures included this time. I'm home sick with a terrible sinus cold, and called the internet provider to complain about my slow service, suddenly it's much better. I don't know what happened, but now every thing works.

So on Father's Day evening, a quick summary in pictures of the last few weeks.

We got a new puppy for the kids. Yellow lab and mountain cur. Name is Buck.

Here is a shot of the lovely Mrs. farmer and Buck.

As you may have heard, we have been blessed with a great deal of water lately.
Here is a view of the local grocery store last Sunday evening. The water got up to the second shelf. Bags of softener salt apparently make inferior quality sandbags.

And yesterday I drove down to SW Iowa to my former stomping grounds and brought home my motorcycle. It's a 1981 Yamaha SECA 750. Needs some TlC. A new tail light, turn signal, throttle cable and a front tire.

I think this may actually work.

More later.

Letter To the Editor

2008-06-29T15:34:00.002-06:00

I'm posting a complete copy of a letter I just sent in the last five minutes to the Des Moines Register. Since they habitually edit reader letters, and there is a very small chance that my comments will be posted anyway, I will post the letter here. Comment at will, I appreciate the feedback.

I have on more than one occasion sent a letter to the editor of the Des Moines Register related to the “right to keep and bear arms”. On one of those occasions I received a personal reply from Mr. Richard Doak in which he argued his wacky (albeit the standard liberal position) case that the Second Amendment was strictly limited to the militia and was not an individual right. So when Heller vs. DC was released this week, I made a special effort to see what the Register had to say about this decision.
Now if only a nobody like Justice Antonin Scalia were the only person in the history to argue that the Second Amendment was an individual right, then Mr. Doak and his ilk might have an argument. But when noted liberals like Laurance Tribe who called the Second Amendment "a right (admittedly of uncertain scope) on the part of individuals to possess and use firearms in the defense of themselves and their homes." [Tribe, American Constitutional Law, Vol. 1, pp. 901-902 (2000)] . And Alan Dershowitz stated “"Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.”. On the other hand the position that Mr. Doak takes is that championed by that noted Constitutional lawyer Rosie O'Donnell, who argued on her show on numerous occasions including one with Tom Selleck that the Second Amendment is not an individual right.
So lets see, on one side we have Justice Antonin Scalia, four other member of the Supreme Court, Alan Dershowitz, Laurance Tribe and millions of American gun owners, on the other we have Mr. Richard Doak, Rosie O'Donnell and thousands of Constitutionally illiterate liberals, unable to read the clear meaning of the language of the Second Amendment. I quote from Justice Scalia's opinion, “

Three provisions of the Constitution refer to “the people”

in a context other than “rights”—the famous preamble

(“We the people”), §2 of Article I (providing that “the peo-

ple” will choose members of the House), and the Tenth

Amendment (providing that those powers not given the

Federal Government remain with “the States” or “the

people”). Those provisions arguably refer to “the people”

acting collectively—but they deal with the exercise or

reservation of powers, not rights. Nowhere else in the

Constitution does a “right” attributed to “the people” refer

to anything other than an individual right.6
”

So what is clear to millions of us, is unclear to a few, who would argue that the right to free speech is an individual right, then turn around in the next breath and argue that the Amendment following is not. Clearly the Register and Mr. Doak don't like the ruling in Heller vs DC. The question you need to ask yourself is, do I hate guns so much, that I would ignore the clear meaning of the Constitution to limit the Right to Keep and Bear Arms? Mr. Doak and the Register answer the question in the affirmative.
One more thing, Mr. Doak's explanation that the State of Iowa does not have an equivalent to the Second Amendment is well, laughable. Sir, with all due respect, there are certain “self evident truths” which the writers of the Constitution both at the Federal level and here in Iowa assumed were so clear to the people that it was unnecessary to elaborate. I highly doubt that the founders could imagine a day when newspapers and other public institutions would attempt to describe the “Right to Keep and Bear Arms” as anything other than an individual right. They were wrong of course, because we have not only sunk to the depths of attempting to pervert that right, we now have a culture which would attempt to equate the meaning of the word marriage with the deviant acts of the sexually confused. I've got to believe that if the writers of the Iowa Constitution thought that someday Iowans would be told that the “right to keep and bear arms” was anything other than an individual right they would have included something like the Second Amendment in the Iowa Constitution, and furthermore I think if they had even considered the possibility that the citizens of Iowa would be forced by a judge to accept as “a right” the ability of sodomites to get “married” they would have written into the Constitution wording making that idea impossible. Come to think of it, I think a majority of the citizens of Iowa would vote for such a Constitutional Amendment today.

Come on Down to the Farm

2008-06-17T20:51:00.002-06:00

http://www.lewisandlewis.org/OnlineStore.html

A Much Better Post with Pictures

2008-06-15T19:50:00.008-06:00

A Debate

2008-05-19T18:41:00.005-06:00

It sprinkled a little bit, the manure pit was empty and I've already put in 12 hours, so I have time to post something. I also completed replacing the head gasket and water pump on a car for a cousin of mine. He's a college student, short of funds, and the local shop wanted about $1500 dollars to fix it, I put about $410 dollars in parts, gaskets and had the head planed and a valve job done on it. They drove it away yesterday, hopefully it lasts him a while. So one of the projects that has been consuming my time is gone down the road. PTL

Today the Jan Mickelson Show on 1040 WHO Radio out of Des Moines IA, held a debate between Dr. Hector Avalos (an atheist) a professor of religious studies at Iowa State University and Dr. Richard Weikart author of "From Darwin to Hitler : Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism".

You can download the podcast here, http://www.mickelson.libsyn.com/

I was amused with Avalos's argument, which amounts to little more than claiming that Hitler never actually mentioned Darwin, so therefore there is no connection between the two.

If you have read here before you should remember that Avalos was one of the principles responsible for denying Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez tenure at ISU. Both Gonzalez and Weikart appear in Expelled which I reviewed earlier.

BTW, If you have not seen Expelled yet, go do it now. It is worth your time and money.

Punished with a Baby

2008-05-13T21:25:00.004-06:00

I have been very busy lately, very busy, and I am also having computer issues. So I have not been posting or even reading much which would give me topics to bring up here.

In a week or two I have some farming pictures, and I have several things of interest running through my head, but for the time being I simply don't have the time to post anything.

I did read this post over at Animate Matters the other day and asked Wes for permission to post it here. I've made in clear that I don't like John McMark-o-cain at all, but this does not mean I have latched onto the Magic Negro. This dude is evil personified. Wes did an excellent job of describing the depths of depravity that Barak Hussein represents. So thanks to Wes for letting me post his thoughts here, Well said Wes.

Brokeback Osama made this comment during a town hall meeting in Johnstown, PA on March 29, 2008. He was discussing the dangers of AIDS:

"When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education – which should include abstinence education and teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual. But it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I've got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals.

“But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

That final line is one of the most vomitous statements I’ve heard gush from a politician’s mouth. It tells you everything you need to know about Osama’s moral center, which is a black hole (no pun intended).

The last I checked, be-bopping into the car’s backseat with your boyfriend so he can demonstrate the suspension’s springiness isn’t a “mistake.” “Hooking up” after the all-night kegger, while your parents think you’re sleeping over at Molly’s house isn’t an “oops” moment. The sexual act is just that—an act. And a conscious one, to boot. It requires forethought and effort. I’m so tired of the deconstruction of language. Deliberate acts are mistakes, and mistakes are intentional acts. Uh-huh. Babies don’t mysteriously fall out of the sky and land in teenage girls’ stomachs; there is no stork flapping overhead, waiting to bomb teen twits with screaming infants: I don’t care what mommy told you when you were five. Personal responsibility lies in the same grave as the T-rex and the dodo, it seems. A mistake is tripping over my own feet, as I make my way to the bathroom in the dark, in the middle of the night. Or mashing my thumb with a hammer as I drive a stake into Hillary’s cold, shriveled heart. Those are legitimate and unintentional errors. Getting it on after the prom because it’s the “in” thing to do extends somewhat beyond the category of “Yikes! Didn’t mean to do that!”

As for Osama’s perverse definition of punishment, babies are punishments in the same sense that strawberries are dire consequences for the vines from which they sprang. Is the logical outcome of your actions a punishment? Calling his statement asinine is unfair to asinine idiots everywhere. God isn’t sitting up in Heaven on a cloud, saying: “I smite thee, oh Betsy Jones, with a howling infant of your own.” That’s not how it works. Rather, God created a biological mechanism by which children are brought into this world. It’s called “procreation.” Look it up. I understand that the sex act isn’t just about producing children, but it’s inextricably intertwined with the pleasure aspects. If you don’t understand this simple, demonstrable fact, I have three words for you: keep it zipped. And pray that someday, someone will come along and help you with your rectal-cranium-insertion problem.

What Osama really means is this: “If my daughters reach puberty and do something stupid and irresponsible, I don’t think they should suffer the consequences of their actions—even if this means an innocent child loses his life. Instead, I think they should live in an artificial world that exists nowhere outside our house, where actions have no reactions, and causes have no effects.”

How’s that for family values?

Review of "Expelled"

2008-04-21T20:18:00.003-06:00

I took my lovely bride and some friends and drove to Ames on Friday evening to see Expelled on its opening night.
The theater was packed, even some college students sitting on the floor in the aisle.
We thoroughly enjoyed the movie. There were several laugh out loud funny parts, old black and white comedy routines interspersed throughout numerous segments of serious discussion. PZ, Dawkins and others trying to tell how evil God was while attempting to also appear erudite, stuff-isticated, although they managed to come across as arrogant members of the species Equus asinus; male version refered to as Jack.

The theater was deathly silent as Ben Stein visited with the tour guide at Hadamar mental hospital talking about the scientists and medical personal even in the years before Hitler, Darwinists, who had already begun the process of gathering up the weak and disabled, the "useless eaters" to prevent them from being a hindrance to the superior, fitter members of society. Then walking through the chambers at Dachau and considering the thousands of people who died simply because one group of people believed they were superior to another group of people. Survival of the fittest, or something like that,

I thought the movie was well done. Even if you do not like the ID approach to worldviews, you will find that Stein and friends make an excellent case that freedom of speech is being limited for those who hold a view outside of the Darwinist/anti-god camp.

After the movie was over, Professor
Guillermo Gonzalez author of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery. spoke and answered several questions. Dr. Gonzalez was one of the professors in Expelled who lost his chance at tenure because he dared to mention ID in his book. He was personally targeted for refusal of tenure by the head of the Religious Studies department at Iowa State University Dr. Hector Avalos (an atheist).Dr. Gonzalez talked about what had been done to him and what he was doing in the future.

Afterward on the way out we were handed a propaganda sheet by some of Avalos's minions promoting a lecture by Avalos refuting the film.

All in all a good evening, topped off with BBQ ribs at Hickory Park, my favorite rib joint.

Well worth the time and effort of making the trip down to Ames.

BTW, I've said this before, but please get the Privileged Planet DVD or the book and see Dr. Gonzalez's work, it is outstanding.

Coming Soon, To A Theater Near You

2008-03-31T20:57:00.002-06:00

I am really looking forward to this movie. I'm making it a priority to be there for opening day April 18th.

Another Day

2008-03-26T19:52:00.002-06:00

As I have written before, I do not farm for myself. Some of my frustration in the last post was job related, we'll leave it at that. If you are the praying type, would you consider praying for me? My goal was to farm for myself. When the kids came along, 3 in eighteen months, and a couple of flood years, I had to take a job to put bread on the table.
Enough about that, pray for me.

I'm more than a little put out by the political scene as well. Here in Iowa the Demoncrats control the governorship as well as both houses. In the last few weeks, they have killed a state Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, tried to pass a collective bargaining agreement which would pretty much make any union employee of any kind eligible for third party arbitration for not just salary, but job requirements, class room size, insurance package, retirement, even staffing levels. More here, The Taxpayers get Screwed

On the national scene, The Lizard Queen and Barack the Magic Negro seem to be doing an excellent job of tearing each other apart. With the help of the media, Hillary is once again proved to be a bald faced liar in relation to the "sniper" incident. With the Rev. Wright situation, even the liberal whites are mildly concerned about Barack's racist tendencies. All the while McMark-o-Cain sounds more and more liberal and less and less rational.

So, I've been thinking about it and I have a question, is it unBiblical for believers in Jesus Christ, worshipers of the God of Abram, Isaac and Jacob to pray that McMark-o-Cain would suddenly assume room temperature prior to his receiving the nomination? If we believe that the God of Heaven is actively involved in the affairs of men,
Daniel 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. This is repeated in verses 25, 32, and 5:21. In the middle of that passage are these verses.

34And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:

35And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

36At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.

37Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

If the God of the Universe controls who ruleth over men, is it not within His power to remove from positions of authority men who would deny Him or would act in ways contrary to God's revealed will? Since John McMark-o-Cain has not been and is not now a man of Godly character, having opportunity to elect someone else would be a good thing. That is possible only if McMark-o-Cain is no longer in a position to receive the nomination. So should we pray for his demise?

Read this article by someone strongly opposed to McMark-o-Cain.

8 reasons I won't vote for John McCain

There is another option though, The Constitution Party. Sounds like Alan Keyes, Judge Roy Moore, and Chuck Baldwin are mentioned as possible nominees.

Resurrection Sunday

2008-03-23T20:16:00.003-06:00

Today is a day filled with hope. Our eternal life is dependent on a Risen Savior. What was it Paul said?

13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

And I believe that Christ rose again.

But for some reason today I'm feeling, well, in a funk. Seems like none of the things I would like to be doing are happening, finances are a continuing struggle, and I'm not looking forward to a new week of the same old, same old.

Sorry for the whining, I really don't have anything important to say, and if I talked about some of the garbage that is going on in our state politics/government, I'd probably get angry, so I think I'll avoid that as well.

So that's it. I got nothing and I'm not particularly in a good mood either.

Later.

Your comments on this?

2008-03-15T21:37:00.001-06:00

From The Sunday Times (London)
March 16, 2008
Royal college warns abortions can lead to mental illness
Sarah-Kate Templeton, Health Editor

Women may be at risk of mental health breakdowns if they have abortions, a medical royal college has warned. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says women should not be allowed to have an abortion until they are counselled on the possible risk to their mental health.

This overturns the consensus that has stood for decades that the risk to mental health of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy outweighs the risks of living with the possible regrets of having an abortion.

MPs will shortly vote on a proposal to reduce the upper time limit for abortions “for social reasons” from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, a move not backed by the government. A Sunday Times poll today shows 59% of women would support such a reduction, with only 28% backing the status quo. Taken together, just under half (48%) of men and women want a reduction to 20 weeks, while 35% want to retain 24 weeks.

Some MPs also want women to have a “cooling off” period in which they would be made aware of the possible consequences of the abortion, including the impact on their mental health, before they could go ahead.
Related Links

* An embryonic disaster?

More than 90% of the 200,000 terminations in Britain every year are believed to be carried out because doctors believe that continuing with the pregnancy would cause greater mental strain.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends updating abortion information leaflets to include details of the risks of depression. “Consent cannot be informed without the provision of adequate and appropriate information,” it says.

Several studies, including research published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in 2006, concluded that abortion in young women might be associated with risks of mental health problems.

The controversy intensified earlier this year when an inquest in Cornwall heard that a talented artist hanged herself because she was overcome with grief after aborting her twins. Emma Beck, 30, left a note saying: “Living is hell for me. I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I want to be with my babies; they need me, no one else does.”

The college’s revised stance was welcomed by Nadine Dorries, a Conservative MP campaigning for a statutory cooling-off period: “For doctors to process a woman’s request for an abortion without providing the support, information and help women need at this time of crisis I regard almost as a form of abuse,” she said.

Dawn Primarolo, the health minister, will this week appeal to MPs to ignore attempts to reduce the time limit on abortion when new laws on fertility treatment and embryo research come before parliament.

Dr Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: “How can a doctor now justify an abortion [on mental health grounds] if psychiatrists are questioning whether there is any clear evidence that continuing with the pregnancy leads to mental health problems.”

How do you really feel??

2008-03-01T21:37:00.004-06:00

Part of my wages each year is 2 hogs and a beef. We are talking USDA certified Grade A Black Angus corn-feed prime beef. The kind of beef that you would pay $35 or $40 dollars for at quality steakhouse. Well marbled, tender, succulent beef.

The steer is taken to a local locker to be processed, hangs in the cooler for about 10 to 15 days, and then cut, wrapped and packaged. Last week we got our 1/2 of a beef from the locker. We usually get a half a beef at a time cause we don't have freezer space for 800 to 900 lbs of frozen beef.

Now the locker where this is done is a private business which serves a local clientèle. Most of the animals he processes are directly off of the farm, done for the family that raised the animal. Sometimes he will process meat which a customer buys from the farmer. In any case, he works with quality meat, for customers who want the very best.

Be patient, I'm getting there.

Iowa is known for having some large deer, as well as a very large deer population. The first weekend in December often sounds like rural Iowa is a war zone with all the gunfire in the distance. If you don't hunt deer you're considered to be some sort of freak. A lazy worthless, good for nothing couch potato, who fails his civic duty to help lower the suicidal quadruped population. When the act of hunting has become a sporting event in which the goal is not really to kill something and eat it, rather to kill something and stop the long legged varmits from reproducing. What one does with the animal after successfully ventilating said animals hide, is a secondary question in many peoples thinking.

Their actions follow along this general train of thought. Kill Bambi = good. Less car accidents, less danger to mankind, fun activity to do only a Saturday, and also an excuse to get very drunk. Only after Bambi has assumed room temperature does the typical hunter consider what to do with the carcass. Some literally leave the animal lay in the woods, these are the type that consider anything that moves to be a fair target, and would never make the effort to do anything other than pull the trigger.

The second group like to eat venison, consider the opportunity to hunt, a way to put cheap meat on the table, and I might add would eat kangaroo and anything else that moves, if given the opportunity. These hearty types generally process the deer themselves, because as well as eating something like venison, they are also a little on the penny pincher side, in other words, their cheap. They would eat bad tasting venison even when they could go to the locker and buy some home raised beef, cause it's cheap.

The third group is where we get to the crux of the matter. Often times the third type, shoot the Bambi, then have a discussion with themselves about what to do with the thing. "Dude, I don't what to cut it up, you do it". Or "lets take it to the local locker and have a professional cut it up". So I have seen literally hundreds of deer carcasses piled up outside the locker.

The owner of our local locker does not appreciate this kind of customer. First they often really don't want the meat anyway, so they wind up giving the a meat to charity or some such thing. Second they sometimes do not pay the bill for processing Bambi. Leaving the locker owner with a pile of meat he can not sell. It is illegal to sell venison harvested in open season. And he used his valuable time cutting up Bambi instead of focusing on the normal customers who would not consider venison worth the time to eat, they want corn fed beef.

So in honor of his disdain for the deer hunter population, and the Bambi they bring to his shop to be processed, the local locker owner has placed in a prominent place, just inside the front door, this visual devise to show his contempt for Bambi.

Insert your own caption here.

Barack Hussein Obama, "The Audacity of Hope, and Steven Phillip Kazmierczak

2008-02-18T20:39:00.007-06:00

UPDATE:

Maybe Kazmierczak was putting his hope in the 72 virgins theory. Sounds to me like he was getting a little help from some less than friendly jihads'.

from Debbie Schlussel

For those who have never been here before, don't blame me, I read the idea here.

Mary Mitchell

Now I have a few thoughts on the subject as well, but I'm confident that my take on the subject is much different than Ms. Mitchell's.

First a little about Barack and Hope

Much has been said and written in the last few weeks about Barack Obama's appeal to the voters in the election cycle. He wrote a book last year entitled "The Audacity of Hope" in which he suggests that Americans need to again have hope in the future, believe that change can come, that a spirit of optimism is essential to the American dream. Some on the right would suggest that Mr. Obama's fervored speeches are little more than empty pablum filled rhetoric. I'll leave that for the reader to decide. I want to concentrate on hope.

American Heritage Dictionary
hope (hōp)
v. hoped, hop·ing, hopes

v. intr.

1. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.
2. Archaic To have confidence; trust.

v. tr.

1. To look forward to with confidence or expectation: We hope that our children will be successful.
2. To expect and desire. See Synonyms at expect.

n.

1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.
2. Something that is hoped for or desired: Success is our hope.
3. One that is a source of or reason for hope: the team's only hope for victory.
4. often Hope Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.

Since I have not read Mr. Obama's book, we will assume here that he uses the term hope in either the verb or noun form, most likely definition #1 in each, and most likely uses both. So hope is a wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of it fulfillment or a wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment. In the speeches by Mr. Obama which I have heard he refers to hope, that we can end the war, suffering, and a long list of other things, "if only we have the audacity to hope".

Now hope can be a good thing, I hope my children grow up to be responsible, God fearing adults, who want to live in a manner pleasing to Jesus Christ, and that they have a personal relationship with Christ which is sincere, fruitful and eternal. I can hope those things. But if I never do anything more than hope, well, it's highly doubtful that this hope will be realized, why, because in my world, hope requires action on my part. I can hope to win the lottery, but since I believe that games of chance are not something that God would have me be involved in, I never buy a lottery ticket, my hope is useless, because you have to play to win, right?

And according to Ms. Mitchell our culture is suffering from the "The pain of hopelessness".
And the question is why? Is it because we lack in material goods? Is it because we lack a political system that "cares" about us? Is it because we have crime and poverty and violence on our streets and in our homes?

Or is it because we have lost the true meaning of hope, and/or we confuse success in life with things which are in reality things which lead to hopelessness? We'll come back to this in a moment.

Lets think about Mr. Kazmierczak for a moment. What would lead a young man, an intelligent, well educated, well liked,he even had a girlfriend, to kill 5 other humans and then shoot himself? Doing some searching about Mr. Kazmierczak on the internet, one soon finds some disturbing things.

Mr. Kazmierczak

and from his girlfriend

if you read through all that, here's a short list,

he was confined to an asylum after he started cutting himself,
he was taking psychotropic drugs to control his "schizophrenia",
who joined the army in 2001 but had to be discharged soon after for psychological reasons,
got a job in a prison but suddenly stopped going to work.
his mother died two years ago,
He was a co-author of an academic paper called “Self-Injury in Correctional Settings: ‘Pathology’ of Prisons or of Prisoners?” which examined why inmates might hurt themselves with behaviors like cutting their skin.
he had begun to get tattoos which included "- and he had disturbing tattoos inked on to his arms; one of a character from the horror movie Saw, one of a skull with a dagger through it and one of a satanic pentagram."
and one of the last things he sent to his girlfriend was "a paperback edition of 19th Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Anti-Christ," a book he had been reading recently, according to sources."

So in summary, Ms. Mitchell was right, "We are living at a time when depression seems to be as common as a cold or flu. Yet what is depression but an impenetrable cloud of hopelessness?"

Here was a young man without hope. But not the hope which Barack Obama is pushing. Because this young man was a part of the the culture of hope. His plan was to help those in the criminal-justice system. He was concerned about his fellow man. He was a good person. He had every reason to hope, right?

All this leads to something which the media, the culture and even the church has failed to tell people. Hope in not found in politics, hope is not found in a college education, hope is not found in popularity or fame. From the definitions above,
"4. often Hope Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help."

Hope, real genuine hope is found in Jesus Christ, God the Son.

Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Galatians 5:5
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Colossians 1:5
For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

1 Thessalonians 2:19
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

1 Thessalonians 5:8
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

1 Timothy 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Titus 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Hebrews 6:18
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us
Hebrews 6:19
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

1 Peter 1:21
Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

I think you'll are smart enough to get the point. The hope that Barack is selling and the hope that Steven Kazmierczak could not find are both false hope, empty hope. True hope is found in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the Cross of Calvary. Through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have the hope of forgiveness of sins in this life, and the hope of life eternal. Real hope.

Do you have that hope?

Vote for McCain? Never!

2008-02-01T20:14:00.000-06:00

Just participated in a poll on whether I would vote for John McCain.

BTW, I highly recommend the Andrew Napolitano speech on YouTube linked below.

I never voted for George W. Bush, I didn't buy his "compassionate conservatism". I will not under any circumstances vote for John McCain. He is far more liberal than Bush on almost all issues.

Start with the Constitution.

First Amendment, McCain/Feingold was one of the most egregious violations of the Constitution in the last 20 years. In any other universe than this one, a member of Congress who writes a law, in fact champions to this day a law, which attempted to supersede the words, "Congress shall make no law" , would be impeached. Period, end of story. The man is an enemy of the Constitution.

Second Amendment, John McCain along with Joe Lieberman introduced a bill, S.890, in 2001, which would have outlawed the private sale of firearms and strictly limited the ability of gun owners to buy guns and gun accessories at gun shows. He receives an F- rating from Gun Owners of America.

Fourth Amendment, John McCain voted for the Patriot Act. See this YouTube speech by Andrew Napolitano. This is a fascinating lecture on the erosion of our civil liberties. If you are really interested you should find all 4 parts of the lecture. This is just part of the lecture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SU0zuUzrSg

Fifth Amendment, John McCain is not pro-life, read this statement from August "1999, which he repeated on more than one occasion as recorded by a liberal web-magazine, Slate. He would allow abortion to continue unchecked, I quote, "I'd love to see a point where Roe v. Wade is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations." John McCain is in favor of depriving the right to life from the unborn by never repealing Roe vs. Wade.

http://www.slate.com/id/2139775/

Fourteenth Amendment, John McCain does not understanding the meaning of the words, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof", so he considers all babies born on US soil to be citizens even though that is directly opposed to what the author of the original wording of the 14th Amendment had to say about it. Quote Jacob Howard "Absence of owing any allegiance to any other foreign power, which in return allows the United States to exercise full and complete jurisdiction over the person." and Senator Lyman Trumbull quote "“It is only those persons who come completely within our jurisdiction, who are subject to our laws, that we think of making citizens…" birthright citizenship for illegal aliens is a direct violation of the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment and John McCain supports birthright citizenship.

http://federalistblog.us/2007/09/re...risdiction.html

Sixteenth Amendment, John McCain does not understand that the "first fruits" of a mans labor do not belong to the government but to the person who earned the money. One can make a Biblical case that God is entitled to the "first fruits" but never is the government entitled to them. Senator McCain does not support the repeal of the 16th Amendment, which is an immoral taking of the property of the private citizen.

http://www.mises.org/etexts/rootofevil.asp

Senator McCain has stated in previous campaigns that he has no personal problem with women in the military. I personally find that indefensible.
He has also stated that he would not support a return to the former policy of excluding all homosexuals from the military.

He does not support giving the oil companies the freedom to drill where ever it is economically viable including ANWAR , and off the western and southeastern coasts. Therefore he would rather fight a war in the middle east than pump our own oil here at home.

John (Al Gore) McCain is a supporter of the global warming hoax.

John McCain says that he would keep troops stationed in Iraq for 100 years. How many generations is that? Your children"s grandchildren will still be there?

I could go on. It won't do any good. Too many of you are lacking in principle. You claim to love this nation and the freedoms we enjoy. You claim that our rights come for God. Yet you do not have the backbone to stand in opposition to a man like John McCain who would willfully, with malice and forethought, deprive you and your fellow citizens of those same God given rights.

Freedom is not free. Are you willing to pay the price?

Book Review of The Irrational Atheist by Vox Day

2008-01-20T23:04:00.000-06:00

Sometime in the fall of 2003 I came across the opinion column written by Vox Day on World Net Daily. The article, which sticks in my memory, was about a personal friend. This friend was an artist, a real free spirit and also a self-professed atheist. For what ever reason this young lady came to a point where she chose to carry the atheistic worldview to it's ultimate conclusion, to control even life itself, by ending her own life.
This nihilistic, Godless, self-aggrandizing worldview, this rejection of a world with rules, standards and consequences to the same, is currently being championed by a group of authors Vox has dubbed the Unholy Trinity. The Irrational Atheist is a full frontal assault on Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, schills for the ungod.
I have a friend who works in the CBM gas fields of NE Wyoming. On occasion he encounters rattlesnakes. Now he doesn't hate snakes, he believes in live and let live. But, when a deadly poisonous snake sticks up its diamond shaped head, rattles it tail and threatens to strike, ignoring the danger has deadly results. My friend has a solution to the problem. He takes a trusty shovel and proceeds to make the situation less threating for himself, very deadly for the snake.
The Irrational Atheist is killing snakes with a shovel. The UnHoly Trinity stick their heads up, rattle their tail, and flick their bifurcated tongues, and Vox Day takes a shovel to them. This book is a beat down of ideologies, theories and rationalities which hold dangerous consequences to mankind. Vox shows in various ways that the attempt to take away religious belief, a faith in a divine being, leads to totalitarian slaughter in an attempt to enforce a Godless culture. Whether it's the current regime in N. Korea, the bloody hands of Mao-Tse-Tung, or the mass killing by the nation celebrating The Union of the Militant Godless, mankind is in danger when its people believe that “there is no God to whom he must ultimately answer for his deeds”.
I have read several works of Christian apologetics, The Case for Christ by Lee Stobel, I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Gisler, Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell, and others. This book is nothing like those. This book is an attack on atheism/Godlessness using reason, logic and facts, the very things that the UnHoly Trinity claim to love. The results are not pretty. Harris in particular, but all three are made to appear as ignorant fools. This should be no surprise to the Believer, since we already know that, ”the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
I've heard Christian friends and leaders say that it's not possible to use reason, logic and facts to show the existence of God. While this may be true, Vox does an absolute masterful job of using those three things to eviscerate the arguments of D,H and H. Yes, its true that as believers we need to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who hold an atheistic worldview, but some of them, may need to have their faith system destroyed first. The Irrational Atheist is an intellectual challenge to the commonly used arguments by many atheists. Rather than appeal to the atheist using the Book they consider to be fairy tales, Vox resorts to bearding the lions in their own den, using their own arguments.
Who should read this book? Atheists who are willing to consider that fact that many of their arguments and the champions of those arguments are fatally flawed. Atheists who are convinced that they are the font of all knowledge and truth, you'll find the answer is, not so much. Any student, high school or college who is currently studying worldviews, belief systems and/or theology. Christians who desire a useful tool for understanding and confronting the atheistic worldview. And Christians who are dealing with militant atheists using D,H and H as sources of information in their attacks on Christianity.
A few disclaimers. Vox writes with a slash and burn style. A take no prisoners, blow them up and leave a smoking hole mentality. Some in the Christian community are going to be offended by this approach. I would remind them that our Lord had some rather harsh things to say to some of His critics. You don't call someone a “generation of vipers”, “whited sepulchres”, and “fools” without having your targets tend to react unfavorably to these terms. Vox does not treat D,H and H with kid gloves. It's an in your face, put up or shut up, throw down.
Some in the Christian community will dislike Vox's theology. Fine, you need to read the book for all of the information given related to atheistic thoughts and ideas, so that you may better understand how to defend your own beliefs and worldview. If you find his notions of AI and free will to be different than your own, you will have still benefited from reading the book.
One other thing. Sometimes Vox uses descriptions which are, well, crude. While they illustrate the point he is trying to make, they can be more than a little over the edge. You've been warned.
The Irrational Atheist is a great read. It challenges the proponents of atheism on their philosophies, and in the end, leaves them looking defenseless and hollow. I believe that Vox has a personal dislike for those spreading the lies of Godless atheism because he has seen the results of their ideas in the lives of those around him, including his friend in that column years ago. So in this book he makes his attempt to show the folly of their belief system. If they are messed up a little in the process, what are they going to do, appeal to a higher authority for vengeance?

Is Mike Huckabee a Liberal?

2008-01-12T13:21:00.000-06:00

From

http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/

Joe Carter

Am I wrong about Mike Huckabee?

For the past few months I've been arguing that Governor Huckabee is a solid and consistent conservative. I even went to work for his campaign in a role that gave me a clear and detailed view of both his record and his policy positions.

Yet many conservatives that I respect believe that I am wrong. In the last debate Sen. Thompson even said Huckabee would "bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies." Are they seeing something that I am not?

My answer,
First a story. Then an explanation.

In 2000 Jorge the Younger Shrub was campaigning for President here in Iowa. And the most powerful radio station in Iowa is WHO radio. They are very conservative in philosophy, the hosts are conservative and if your going to reach a conservative audience you have to go there and make an appearance.

Now Jorge made his appearance, and as the Mickelson show progressed Jorge made his claim of being a "compassionate conservative". Asked to explain, he talked about a smarter, less intrusive government, a government that would not tell people what to do, it would respond to their needs. A government that would follow the Constitution.

Now up to this point I was convinced. That sounded really good. That sounds like the opposite of Bill and Hillary care, cradle to grave nannyism. I was ready to buy Jorge the Younger, he was the man.

That all changed in the next sentence. Jorge said, I want to be the education president. Mickelson, said, Please explain. I want to make our education system better, I want our students to learn faster and help those who are falling through the cracks.

And there is the nut of the problem. One sentence, a government that follows the Constitution. The next he wants to be the education president, government giving us a bigger better education system.

Nowhere in the Constitution is education mentioned. Let me repeat that. NOWHERE

Jorge the Younger and now Mike Huckabee have accepted the liberal position that since some other fool violated the Constitution and entangled the Federal Government in the education system, therefore it's his job to make the education system bigger and better.

A conservative/Constitutionalist would close the Department of Education.

Since governor Huckabee has proposed fixing the education system, he clearly does not understand the role of the federal government. Therefore one can only conclude that he is a liberal.

Maybe you doubt my characterizations of Huckabee's ideas.

In an article/chart in the Des Moines Sunday Register Sunday July 29, Mike gave the following answers.

Question, What would you do to ensure U.S fourth graders are competitive in academic achievement with there international peers in math, science, and reading?

Huckabee said he would create preschool programs and implement a program similar to Arkansas' Smart Start, which targets children in kindergarten through fourth grade with increased standards and accountability measures.

Question, What, if anything, would you do to change the No Child Left Behind legislation, and how much, if any, federal money needs to be added to the program?

My comment, this legislation was written by Ted Kennedy.

Huckabee said the legislation should be tweaked to create a level playing field for schools with disproportionately large numbers of children who can't speak English, who live in poverty or who have other disadvantages. He doesn't support increasing federal money for the program because such money often comes with stipulations that don't allow states to make localized decisions about education.

Are you concerned about the amount of college debt young people have? If so, what should the federal government do to help solve this problem?

Huckabee said he would allocate money to federally funded, state-administered scholarships for college graduates who who are willing to go into national service outside of the military, such as teaching in impoverished areas of the country. He also supports similar merit-based scholarships for college students who come from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Want to see how a conservative/constitutionalist answers the same questions?

----- said he would get the federal government out of the classroom and allow states, local officials and parents to make the decisions that are best for their individual situations.

---- said that No Child Left Behind is uncontitutional legislation that usurped state and local authority over education. He said he would seek to repeal the law and give the money being spent on No Child Left Behind back to America's parents so they could once again be in charge of their children's educations.

---- said he is concerned about college debt, and the best way to combat it is to lower the tax burden on the American family so a person can have more resources to devote to education.

I rest my case. Mike Huckabee is a classic big government liberal, because he has accepted the principle that government can do a better job of managing education or (fill in the blank) than individuals can.

On the other hand the conservative/constitutionalist is more concerned with the individual, with protecting and empowering the parent/family than expanding or (tweaking) the existing system.

Isn't this cool?

2008-01-12T08:42:00.000-06:00

An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh

2008-01-08T20:10:00.000-06:00

Rush,

I laughed out loud at you on Monday's show. It seems that you are having a dust up with your listener's over Mike the Huckster. I laughed because the problems you're having explaining why Mike isn't a conservative are problems of your own creation. You sold out to the establishment a long time ago and the results are just now starting to be visible to you.
Before I go on, a little background. I started listening to you in 1988 when you were doing just two hours on WHO radio 1040 in Des Moines Iowa. I remember Mick from the high mountains. I was there for the first gulf war. I first went to Stroud's in KC after hearing you talk about it on your show. I remember the bake sale, your endorsement of Bill Clinton,(I was not fooled) I also remember when you endorsed Pat Buchanan. I listened for a long time.

You have for a long time claimed or at least intimated that you are the conservative leader in the country today. Yet you had a caller Monday suggest that you need to explain just what a conservative is, now that's funny. I think you've failed Rush and you failed because you sold your soul to the establishment. Now I can hear your bluster already. I'm an outsider, I'm not the establishment, I have no ties to the establishment. But history says you are reading your own propaganda, while ignoring the reality of what you have become.

I quit calling myself a Rush fan, in fact I later abandoned the term conservative, because of what you became on the show the day after February 16, 2000. That's the day you sold out. That's the day you abandoned conservatism in favor of pragmatic Republicanism. From that day on you have become nothing more than a Republican shill. Your listener's don't know what a conservative is because I'm convinced that you have so bought the neo-con republican line that you don't either.

I on the other hand have rejected conservatism in favor of Constitutionalism. I am a Constitutionalist, I no longer identify myself as a conservative. I have voted for the candidate from the Constitution party in the last 3 elections. The Republican party has abandoned the Constitution in particular and conservatism in general. I can no longer identify myself with the Lee Atwater, big tent, compassionate conservatism of the Republican party.

You on February 16, 2000 rejected conservatism to shill for the man you admitted at the time was not the most conservative man there. Go back watch the video. Rush, there was one conservative at the encounter, one, and you backed the faux conservative, the compassionate conservative, Jorge the Younger Shrub. And to this day, well at least until Monday, you have confused yourself and your listener's with attempts to make a man who's campaign motto should have been, “Read my lips, I'm a conservative!” appear to be conservative.
"
Now along comes a man claiming to be a better, "more compassionate conservative", a Jesus loving, born again populist conservative, and you are having regrets? second thoughts? guilt pangs? an attack of conscience? What is it? On what basis is the Huckster less conservative than Jorge the Younger Shrub?
The Huckster claims that campaign finance is unconstitutional, the Shrub signed that. The Huckster says that Faith-based initiatives are unconstitutional, the Shrub proposed them. The Huckster wants a bigger better military, the Shrub failed to grow the military, even contemplated shutting some more military bases. The Huckster claims he will close the border, the Shrub would open it up for unfetter access to any and all immigrant workers. So now the question is, how is the Huckster less conservative than the Shrub? Could it be that when you sold your soul for the establishment candidate, the “compassionate conservative”, that you forgot what real conservatism is? Maybe your listener's don't know what a conservative is, because they have been told since February 16, 2000 that Jorge the Younger Shrub is conservative, when in reality he was and is a moderate middle of the road establishment politician. A country club republican who labeled himself “compassionate conservative” and you backed his play.

What is a conservative Rush? Is it someone who's hero is Fredrick Hayek ? When's the last time you talked about him? Is it someone who believes in limited government like Reagan did? Is the Shrub a limited government type of guy? Remember the Shrub is your man, you've been shilling for him the last 6 years. Does a conservative believe that McCain/Feingold was an abomination, a blatant violation of the First Amendment? Did you call for the Shrub's impeachment for signing that travesty?? More worried about protecting the Shrub's ass, than defending the Constitution weren't ya Rushy. Does a conservative shill for Arlen Sphincter over Pat Toomey? Does a conservative protect a president that stabs conservatives like Pat Toomey in the back, helping instead to ensure a pro baby-killing big government RINO like Sphincter remain in office. It seems to me that your attempts to protect the Shrub led to confusion over what a conservative is. You've been riding the “compassionate conservative” fence so long that you're getting sore. Your listener's can't tell if you're a “compassionate conservative” or a establishment Republican, either way they no longer know what a conservative is, and it's your fault.

Rush, there is a Constitutionalist in the race, a classic conservative, a Reagan conservative and you have so swallowed the party line, the neo-con position, the ”compassionate conservative” position, that you no longer recognize a conservative when you see one?

Now I know you like the front runners, the party hacks, the establishment Republican candidate (see Bob Dole) does this mean that you will endorse some loser like John McCain or Fred Thompson or a “more compassionate conservative” like the Huckster when there is a real Constitutionalist conservative in the race? Why don't you go back to the old conservatism, the limited government, freedom loving, friend of liberty that is running for president on the Republican ticket.

So what's it going to be Rush, another faux conservative, a violator of the First Amendment, a hater of the Second Amendment, a “more compassionate conservative” or a Constitutionalist?

Thoughts on the Iowa Caucus

2008-01-03T22:11:00.000-06:00

I was disappointed in my fellow Iowans. They talk a good game. They claim to believe in the Constitution, yet they vote for people like John McCain and Fred Thompson who spit on the Constitution when they voted for McCain/Feingold. They claim to believe that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental principle upon which our nation was built, yet they voted for McCain and Thompson, the former with an appalling and the later with a wishy washy record on this issue.

At my local caucus after the vote had taken place, I talked to men who did not know either of those mens record on the issues I mentioned. Many of those I talked to voted for Fred (he got 19 votes) because they disliked the Huck and distrusted John and Mitt. Out of 57 votes cast at my precinct Mitt got 1 vote.

Some of my good friends voted for Mike because "He loves Jesus". Mike got 21 votes and clearly it was a vote based on his "Christianity" over anything else. What they fail to realize is that he will be marginalized just as Pat Robertson was, just as Gary Bauer was, trying to choose a secular governmental leader solely on his religion will always fail because the office of the President is not the national preacher. I agree with Mike on most issues related to Christianity, but that does not qualify him to be President of the United States.

Ron Paul got 7 votes, and several of the people I spoke to told me they would have voted for him but they don't like his position on the war on terror. Many of the same people are unhappy with what is happening in the "war on terror" but claim that Ron Paul is too isolationist. So they voted for guys that are going to maintain the status quo, explain that in logical terms.

The Ghoul and John Insane got 4 and 3 votes respectively.

I could go on but what's the use? The people of Iowa failed. They did the same old thing, just like they did in 1988. A religious figure leaves the state the leader, and will be out of everything in 2 months. The tide will eventually sweep into place making Fred or John the next Republican nominee, a Bob Dull redo. So much for a change, look for 4 years of Demoncrat rule.

In the Fullness of Time

2007-12-24T21:20:00.000-06:00

Galatian 4:4 "But, when the fullness of time was come God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law,"

It is the time of year when we remember the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I shared in the devotional at our children's Sunday School program last week, this event occurred at the exact moment in history ordained by God the Father.

First, the fullness of time. In the Greek,

that which is (has been) filled

a) a ship inasmuch as it is filled (i.e. manned) with sailors, rowers, and soldiers

b) in the NT, the body of believers, as that which is filled with the presence, power, agency, riches of God and of Christ

2) that which fills or with which a thing is filled

a) of those things which a ship is filled, freight and merchandise, sailors, oarsmen, soldiers

b) completeness or fulness of time

3) fulness, abundance

4) a fulfilling, keeping

God put together all the pieces "as a ship fitted for passage" then he sent forth His Son.

What were those pieces?

We know that in Daniel 9, God promises that the Messiah would come 483 weeks/years after the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That was 49 years or 7 weeks until the exiled Jews would return to Jerusalem plus the 434 week/years till the Messiah would come.

We also know that there were numerous other prophecies which had to be fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah. That he would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David. That He would be born in Bethlehem.

That he would be born of a woman, see Genesis 3:15, Luke 1:34, and Galatians 4:4.

All these things God caused to occur just as He fortold, so that at the one moment in time when all of the necessary prophecies were completed or prepared, as ship fit for passage, God sent His method of Redemption.

As you and your family celebrate the birth of the Savior of the World, remember that Christ came at precisely the time God intended for Him to come.

And a question, if the God of the Universe is capable of telling when and how His Son would come, what prophecies are yet to be fulfilled? What does the future hold?

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. And may your future be filled with the hope of a Coming Savior.

A little test for my readers.

2007-12-15T08:31:00.000-06:00

After you take the test let us know how you did.

I got 9 out of 12. I'll explain later.

Update:

Ok, I apologize for not telling all of you that the answers page was no possible to access without taking the second part of the survey.

I would never encourage anyone to lie, but I happen to know that if you answer the questions, put John Smith in the name line, JohnSmith@hotmail.com on the email line and ajdieioajf on the friend section it will pass you through to the answers.

The answers page has pop-ups with dates court cases and other info worth reading.

An update on Rudy Ghoulini and Stare Decisis

2007-12-10T20:49:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my friend, and legal advisor, BriantheGreat for this update.

In the post I wrote on November the 7th, I tried to make the case that Rudy is talking about appointing strict constructionist judges because he believes that judges who are strict constructionists will not overturn Roe vs. Wade based on a legal principle called stare decisis.
Read the previous article for a much fuller explanation.

BriantheGreat told me about an interview by Cal Thomas of Rudy Giuliani in todays Des Moines Register.

And this is the money quote, I would say I told you so, but that's not polite. Just read it and see for yourself.

Of greatest interest to social conservatives is Giuliani’s pledge to nominate only “strict constructionists” to the federal courts. Why would a supporter of “choice” on abortion nominate judges likely to overturn Roe v. Wade? “My view of a strict constructionist or originalist judge who sticks with the plain meaning of the Constitution comes from my judicial philosophy. It’s not that I want one particular decision changed.” He added that originalists might have “different views on this” and that precedent might trump even a wrongly decided case like Roe. Or, he said, the justices could overturn it. He cited the Second Amendment case the Supreme Court agreed to consider as a fine example of strict constructionism and noted that Judge Laurence Silberman read “The Federalist Papers” and other writings and speeches at the time the Bill of Rights was written to see what the authors intended.

Let me highlight the relevant point, that precedent might trump even a wrongly decided case like Roe.

He's not hiding it, he's not trying to fool you, he's right in your face with it. I'm going to appoint judges who will not overturn Roe vs. Wade, even though it's bad law, because of stare decisis or using his word, precedent.

There it is plain as the nose on your face. What more can I say?

For JACIII

2007-12-08T20:21:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of the combine I had when I was farming for myself.

I've always been one of those guys who does things a little different than most people.
I bought an adapter to run JD heads on a IH combine.

Lastest Iowa Poll Results

2007-12-02T14:58:00.000-06:00

My analysis of the Des Moines Register articles of Sunday Dec. 2nd.

First, I'm not surprised that Huckabee is now leading in the polls. The anybody but Rudy crowd has hitched their wagon to Mike's horse and they will ignore his big government tendencies, his support until recently of Jorge the Younger's open door policy toward illegal aliens. After all, Mike is a born-again Christian, he's an excellent public speaker, and he's not bad looking either, now that he lost a hundred lbs.

Romney is in free fall. I would not be surprised if he continues to loose support. And his friends aren't helping his cause. The Republican Majority for Choice ran a full page add in todays paper showing Romney's pirouettes on the abortion issue. One day he's pro-baby killer the next pro-life, the next limited baby-killer, the next limited pro-life, only kill part of them, ya know. I quote from the add, Take a stand Mr. Romney. On behalf of the Republican Majority for Choice, ask Mr . Romney to flip-flop just one more time, back to being pro-choice... and stay there. Ouch.

Fred is dead. He will be lucky to finish 5th. He just comes across as, well, old and tired, I don't personally know of anyone still supporting him.

Ron Paul and McCain were tied at 7 percent. Now that is a bit deceiving as McCain is also toast. I only know of one person supporting him and she signed on over a year and a half ago. She is also a party person to the core, so it's his turn in her mind.

Deep in another article is a fascinating piece. In a paragraph entitled

Republicans: Can Paul finish third?

Ron Paul has tied John McCain, an amazing development for both men. But Paul attracts a lot of young people and first-time caucusgoers. Yet based on his rate of gain in a month, Paul could challenge Rudy Giuliani for a third-place finish — if he spends more time in Iowa and some of that wad of money he's raised on the Internet. He needs to show his zealous supporters just how to attend a GOP caucus

This column is written by David Yepsen, a lib, but a relatively fair one. If he thinks Ron Paul has a chance of finishing third, my guess is he knows the numbers are there. He's been a good prognosticator of Iowa elections. In other words Ron Paul is still gaining ground.

Now the other side of the picture. The liberal left (including the entire staff at the Register) hate true Constitutionalists. In this same edition of the paper, where one of their senior news reporters considers the possibility that Ron Paul might finish third on the Republican side ran an editorial article with the title "Recommit to Founding Principles" the issue Civil Liberties

In this article they trash Jorge the Younger for abandoning the Fourth Amendment with the Patriot Act and other attacks on civil liberties. Below this article on the same page is a chart with the candidates positions of the issue. They give all the democrats + scores while giving only John McCain a + score on the republican side(yes the same John McCain of McCain/Feingold). Amazing thing though, Ron Paul is not included on the list. I nearly blew a gasket. One man in the entire campaign, spends time talking about the erosion of our civil liberties and he's completely ignored.

It seems like the Iowa voters are likely to get exactly what they have gotten every time since Reagan. They will choose a good guy who talks the conservative line, and they will get a slow and steady loose of their remaining rights. Instead of voting for a candidate who wants to make a radical move back to the Constitution, they will instead chose the conservation of the here and now, ignoring the fact the we now live under 7 of the ten points of the Communist Manifesto.

Ron Paul Vote for a return to the Constitution

A Day to Focus on Gratitude

2007-11-22T11:40:00.000-06:00

Since this blog is supposed to be about more than politics, farming and my ugly face, I want to spend a moment reflecting on this day when we remember the reasons we have to be thankful. I would be willing to wager that if we Googled Thanksgiving today it would be mentioned on thousands of blogs. So we will use the word gratitude instead.
First and foremost I want to express my gratitude to the Creator of the Universe who placed me on this planet, in this country and offered to me the free gift of Salvation through His Risen Son Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:17, 19

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Even when all of life's trials and frustrations get us down, we have hope in Jesus Christ.

Secondly, I want to mention my gratitude to God for giving me my wife. I would be a hopeless mess, an unmotivated loser, and probably living in a one room shack with no running water. She is my best friend, my confidante and my lover. I can not imagine life without her.

I also thank God for each of my children. They all have special attributes which are unique to themselves. I'll not go into detail now, suffice to say that our home would be and empty and lonely place without them.

Less important but worth mentioning, I'm grateful for my job, I still live, breath and eat farming. The house we live in, and our church. All of them make our days interesting and exciting.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to teach the jr-sr. High Sunday School Class. It makes me be in the Word, studying to find the words and ideas to explain to them the Truths of God's Word.

As I was taking off my chore cloths this morning I was thankful as well for my wife's new washing machine. We wash hog clothes sometimes twice a day, so it's been a real blessing to have a separate machine to wash the hog clothes in, while washing the good clothes at the same time in the new machine.

Have to go now, family is here for the Thanksgiving Feast.

God Bless all of You on this Day of Gratitude

Pat Robertson, Rudy and Strict Constructionist Judges

2007-11-07T20:05:00.000-06:00

This post is going way outside my areas of knowledge. I am not an lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, and no I did not stay at Holiday Inn last night. Most of you will already know and understand what I am about to say, good for you. For those who don't, find an honest lawyer, hi Brian, and get him to explain the problems. I first heard about this subject during an interview of Robert Bork on the Mickelson show, (did you hear me today? I talked about this subject with Jan.)

I believe that the Left side of the Republican party is attempting to run a scam on the right wing of the party. I've heard Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney both claim that if they are elected president, that they will appoint strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court. I have had discussions on the web with many well meaning folks who think we should vote for Rudy because he can beat Hillary, and he will appoint "str. con." judges.
First, I don't believe that Rudy can beat Hillary, because people like me will never vote for a pro-baby killer, no matter what party he or she is in. Besides why vote for the lesser of two evils when you can get the exact same policies from evil personified? Vote for the more evil of the two evils if thats your choice, you don't settle for second worst on most other things in life, go for the worst you can get.
Secondly, you have to actually trust the candidates making these promises, a rather questionable assumption in my opinion. If the one can't keep his marriage vows, twice, why should I believe a promise to appoint str. con. judges?? The other was pro-baby killing up until 15 months ago, why should I believe a man who suddenly changed his mind on the issue of life, just weeks before he declared himself a candidate for President? The Bible talks about not appointing a novice as a leader, heres a guy who didn't know what he believed was wrong less than two years ago??
Thirdly, and this is the main point here, I believe the Strict Constructionist thing is a scam, a ruse to fool the rubes, a gambit intended to convince the uninformed that the justices that these guy will appoint will overturn Roe vs, Wade, when in fact they have just the opposite in mind.

I'm sailing off the edge now, so hang on. From the Manchester Union-Leader.

"Rudy Giuliani today said social conservatives could achieve most of their objectives under his presidential administration, despite his pro-choice stance.

The former New York City mayor said he would appoint strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court in the mold of Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas — all conservatives nominated by Republican Presidents.

There are as many as 200 federal judicial appointments which are at stake in the 2008 election, Giuliani added. “If you get Hillary, there are 200 liberal judges,” he said. “If you get me, there are 200 conservative judges.”

The following is taken form Wikipedia, I realize that it is not an authoritative source but for the purposes of this post it will do.

Strict constructionism refers to a particular legal philosophy of judicial interpretation that limits or restricts judicial interpretation. In the United States the phrase is also commonly used more loosely as a generic term for conservativism among the judiciary.

Strict sense of the term

In its strict sense, strict construction requires a judge to apply the text as it is written and no further, once the meaning of the text has been ascertained (perhaps using tools such as originalism or purposivism). That is, judges should avoid drawing inference from a statute or constitution.[1] Thus, for example, Justice Hugo Black argued that the First Amendment's injunction that "Congress shall make no law," should be construed strictly: the term "no law," Black thought, admitted virtually no exceptions. However, "strict construction" is not a synonym for textualism or originalism, and many adherents of the latter two philosophies are thus misidentified as "strict constructionists."

The term is often contrasted with the pejorative phrase "judicial activism", used to describe judges who seek to enact legislation through court rulings, although the two terms are not actually opposites.

Common use

"Strict constructionism" is also used in American political discourse as an umbrella term for conservative legal philosophies such as originalism and textualism, which emphasize judicial restraint and fidelity to the original meaning (or originally intended meaning) of constitutions and laws. It is frequently used even more loosely to describe any conservative judge or legal analyst.[2] This usage is pervasive, but in some tension with the legal meaning of the term. On the campaign trail in 2000, for example, President George W. Bush promised to appoint "strict constructionists in the mold of Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas," though Thomas considers himself an originalist, and Scalia leans more toward textualism on statutory questions rather than true strict constructionism.

The meaning of "strict construction", then, may turn on who uses it in what context; an appellate judge asking counsel at oral argument whether the statute should be construed strictly is likely using the term in its legal sense; a candidate on the campaign trail who promises to appoint or oppose strict constructionists is likely using the term as a surrogate for a broader set of conservative legal views.

Criticism

The term has been criticized, especally from the left, as being a misleading or meaningless term.[3][4] Few judges self-identify as strict constructionists, due to the narrow meaning of the term. Antonin Scalia, the justice most identified with the term, has said that he is "not a strict constructionist and no-one ought to be,"[5] and has called the philosophy "a degraded form of textualism that brings the whole philosophy into disrepute." In contrast, he claims to look for the ordinary meaning of words, not their "strict" meaning.

To a conservative this may sound good, I think that this is why Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy today because he believes that Rudy will appoint conservative judges who will overturn Roe vs Wade. In fact he said something to that effect in his endorsement speech, from Newsday, Robertson said he was willing to overlook Giulani's pro-abortion rights stance because he takes him at his word that he will appoint "strict constructionist" judges to the Supreme Court and federal bench a widely accepted term for judges likely to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling.

Here's the scam. Rather than try to put it in my words, which would be very unclear, I'm going to quote from a piece by Charles Krauthammer from May 11th, then I'll elaborate.

Legalizing abortion by judicial fiat (Roe v. Wade) instead of by democratic means has its price. One is that the issue remains socially unsettled. People take to the streets when they have been deprived of resort to legislative action.

The other effect is to render the very debate hopelessly muddled. Instead of discussing what a decent society owes women and what it owes soon-to-be-born infants, and trying to balance the two by politically hammering out regulations that a broad national consensus can support, we debate the constitutional niceties of a 35-year-old appallingly crafted Supreme Court decision.

Just how tangled the issue gets is illustrated by the current brouhaha over Rudy Giuliani's abortion response in the first Republican presidential debate. Spokesmen for the other candidates have gleefully seized upon what they deem to be Giuliani's gaffe -- not only defying Republican orthodoxy but appearing to want to have it every which way.

On repealing Roe v. Wade:

Giuliani: It would be OK to repeal. It would be also (OK) if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as precedent and I think a judge has to make that decision.

Moderator: Would it be OK if they didn't repeal it?

Giuliani: I think the court has to make that decision and then the country can deal with it. ... states can make their own decisions.

Giuliani's response has been almost universally characterized as a blundering two-way pander. I think not. I've actually heard Giuliani elaborate his position on abortion. His debate answer is an overly concise version of it, which makes it so open to ridicule.

Democrats are pro-choice and have an abortion litmus test for judges they would nominate to the Supreme Court. Giuliani is pro-choice but has no such litmus test. The key phrase in his answer is "strict constructionist judge.'' On judicial issues in general he believes in "strict constructionism,'' the common conservative view that we don't want judges citing penumbral emanations and other constitutional vapors to justify inventing new rights they fancy the country needs.

However, one strict constructionist might look at Roe v. Wade as the constitutional travesty it is and decide to repeal it. Another strict constructionist judge could, with equal conviction, decide that after 35 years the habits and mores shaped by Roe v. Wade are so engrained in society that it should not be overturned.

And there is precedent for strict constructionists accepting even bad constitutional rulings after the passage of time. The most famous recent example is Chief Justice William Rehnquist for years opposing the original 1966 Miranda ruling as "legislating from the bench," but upholding it in 2000 on the grounds that it had become so engrained in American life that its precedental authority trumped its bastard constitutional origins. (He used different words.)

In a country with a rational debate about abortion, Giuliani would simply have been asked how he would regulate (up to and including banning) abortion. That's not a relevant question here because neither presidents nor legislatures nor referendums decide this. Judges do. All presidents do is appoint judges.

Giuliani's answer on how to go about picking such judges is perfectly reasonable. It appears to be a dodge about the abortion issue itself simply because -- thanks to Roe -- every such debate becomes tangled with otherwise irrelevant issues of constitutional doctrine and stare decisis.

dictionary.com
sta·re de·ci·sis
–noun Law.
the doctrine that rules or principles of law on which a court rested a previous decision are authoritative in all future cases in which the facts are substantially the same.

Websters
stare decisis
the principle in common law of adhering to precedent when deciding a legal case Latin 'decided matters' law; v phr 'to be bound by precedents'

American Heritage
stare decisis
A Latin phrase that literally means “to stand on the decisions.” It expresses the common law doctrine that court decisions should be guided by precedent.

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law
sta·re de·ci·sis
New Latin, to stand by things that have been settled
: the doctrine under which courts adhere to precedent on questions of law in order to insure certainty, consistency, and stability in the administration of justice with departure from precedent permitted for compelling reasons (as to prevent the perpetuation of injustice)

When Rudy talks about appointing strict constructionist judges, he is talking about judges who will honor stare decisis. He and many like him,(I think Romney as well) believe that Roe vs Wade is settled law, and that unless there is some compelling reason, the court will never overturn itself, even if there are 9 conservative judges on the bench. Rudy wants Pat Robertson and you to believe that when he says he will appoint strict Constructionist judges he's talking about judges who will overturn Roe vs Wade, when in reality he is talking about judges who because of stare decisis will leave Roe vs Wade just as it is.

So that's the scam. Kind of a heads I win, tails you lose sort of deal.

If you would like to read more on stare decisis, here is a good article.

http://www.constitution.org/col/0610staredrift.htm

another interesting article is here,

http://fluff.info/blog/arch/00000207.htm

Well that's our law lesson for today.

A Horrifying Face

2007-10-21T13:42:00.001-06:00

Now I've known for years that I was not going to win any beauty contests. You've heard all the sayings, Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone! He's got a face that would make a train take a side street! When God gave out good looks, you were behind the barn!

I was amazed when my lovely wife actually said yes when I asked her to marry me, I didn't realize she was blind. She is an artist, maybe she saw something in this block of stone that nobody else could see, or maybe she felt sorry for me. On the other hand, my children profess to love me, but it's not like they have another dad to say that too. I mean really, they don't know any better.

Ok, what does that have to do with anything. Well, I've never posted a picture of myself, because I figured it would scare away those of you who comment here. It's one thing to post on a blog as a nameless, faceless person, it's another thing to have a freak of nature post on your blog or to post on the freaks blog. Be patient I'm getting there,...

So it's been raining since last Saturday, and on Sunday it rained close to 5 inches down in Southwest Iowa where I came from. On Monday my youngest brother called saying that the river was out on his corn field. He and his lovely wife were going to get away for a part of the day, kind of a mental break from the stress of farming and did we want to meet them in Ames at our favorite eating establishment, Hickory Park? Now I'm ugly but I ain't stupid, so I called Mrs. farmer told her to start making plans for supper at Hickory Park.

My brother and his wife had a baby in June, I posted about that previously. She is cute as a bugs ear. My girls were looking forward to holding the baby. My brothers wife likes the fact that we have three baby sitters and I was drooling over the BBQ ribs we were going to eat. Everybody's happy, ........not so much!!

This picture is a classic. I believe that this expression is exactly how every woman I've ever met feels when they first see me. The combination of horror, fear and revulsion is amazing. So to prove to you, that I am truly scary to look at, that women are filled with revulsion when they see me, I for the first time am posting a picture which includes my face.

You have been warned. I have it on good authority that Spacebunny still has nightmares after Mrs. farmer and I met her at a homeschool conference. It is entirely possible that your computer screen may break, the hard drive on your computer may go up in smoke, you may be blinded. Do not look at this picture while eating or drinking, it may cause your digestive tract to reverse course.

Please concentrate on the cute little girl I am holding. Pray that she will not be scarred for life. Ok, enough stalling.

Don't ya feel sorry for that cute little doll? In all of her life she may never encounter something so vile and repugnant as this face.

Hope I made you laugh.

farmer Tom

an update,

Doesn't she look cute when she's not terrified of her ugly uncle??

New Pics

2007-09-27T20:09:00.000-06:00

Soybean harvest is moving along. Yields are good. We have had several light rain showers in the last week, so we will combine for a few hours when the ground and the beans are good and dry then wait till the next day/afternoon before we can go again. The ground is damp enough that in the evening when the sun goes down, the header will not slide along the top of the ground, it starts pushing up leaves from the soybeans then pretty soon it makes a clump and starts pushing dirt along with it.

So we are limited to nice dry daylight hours for the harvesting of soybeans.

I spent the afternoon running the grain cart which we use to catch the grain coming out of the combine on the go. That way the combine never stops to unload, it goes on across the field while the tractor and grain cart go over to the truck filling it with the beans.
I don't have any pictures of that yet, need someone else to run the camera.

Normally the Lovely Lady Leah runs the grain cart but she was gone today so I filled in. When she got back, then I returned to my normal tasks, fixing things and driving the truck and/or tractor and wagons back to the bin to unload.

Oct 7th, an Update,

Soybean harvest is over, got done yesterday afternoon. Now we will concentrate on corn harvest and spreading hog manure. Looks like rain for tomorrow, so repair jobs and livestock chores will be on the list. There is no rest for the farmer.

Harvest Has Begun

2007-09-13T19:57:00.000-06:00

We have started chopping ear corn silage. I have no time to blog, hardly time to see my family.

A couple of quick pictures to show the change of seasons.

I do not have a picture of the huge spiders that always appear this time of year in the silo house, the building at the bottom of the silos, where the silo unloaders drop the feed. Each fall they string large webs across every space in the building, so that when I go in there in the morning, I carry a broom, otherwise, I come out looking like some creature from a horror movie, all wrapped up in cobwebs.

The first picture is of the corn as it reaches maturity. Notice how the plant dries up from both the top and bottom. All of the energy in the plant is moving to the grain.

The second show the different maturity rates on a couple of varieties of soybeans planted on the same day in May. Since this picture was taken, the beans on the left have nearly lost all their leaves, and will probably be combined by the end of next week.

The last one was taken this afternoon as I checked to see how full the silo was getting. I hate heights, so I was hanging on for dear life. The lovely Mrs. farmer took the picture.

I've got to run, we load cattle at 5:00 in the morning. Did that today as well, and didn't get home until 8:00pm. Long days.

Ever Wonder Where The Idea of A Living Breathing Constitution Came From?

2007-08-27T19:08:00.000-06:00

I was rereading a section of the book, "Christianity and the Constitution" by John Eidsmoe. I wondered if any of you had ever read this before. I posted the same thing over at Vox's today and then decided I should post it here as well.

From "The New Freedom" by Woodrow Wilson

One of the chief benefits I used to derive from being president of a university was that I had the pleasure of entertaining thoughtful men from all over the world. I cannot tell you how much has dropped into my granary by their presence. I had been casting around in my mind for something
by which to draw several parts of my political thought together when it was my good fortune to entertain a very interesting Scotsman who had been devoting himself to the philosophical thought of the seventeenth century. His talk was so engaging that it was delightful to hear him speak of anything, and presently there came out of the unexpected region of his thought the thing I had been waiting for. He called my attention to the fact that in every generation all sorts of speculation and thinking tend to fall under the formula of the dominant thought of the age. For example, after the Newtonian Theory of the universe had been developed, almost all thinking tended to express itself in the analogies of the Newtonian Theory, and since the Darwinian Theory has reigned amongst us, everybody is likely to express whatever he wishes to expound in terms of development and accommodation to environment.
Now, it came to me, as this interesting man talked, that the Constitution of the United States had been made under the dominion of the Newtonian Theory. You have only to read the papers of The Federalist to see that fact written on every page. They speak of the "checks and balances" of the Constitution, and use to express their idea the simile of the organization of the universe, and particularly of the solar system,— how by the attraction of gravitation the various parts are held in their orbits; and then they proceed to represent Congress, the Judiciary, and the President as a sort of imitation of the solar system. They were only following the English Whigs, who gave Great Britain its modern constitution. Not that those Englishmen analyzed the matter, or had any theory about it; Englishmen care little for theories. It was a Frenchman, Montesquieu, who pointed out to them how faithfully they had copied Newton's description of the mechanism of the heavens. The makers of our Federal Constitution read Montesquieu with true scientific enthusiasm. They were scientists in their way,— the best way of their age,— those fathers of the nation. Jefferson wrote of "the laws of Nature,"—and then by way of afterthought,— "and of Nature's God." And they constructed a goveminent as they would have constructed an orrery,— to display the laws of nature. Politics in their thought was a variety of mechanics. The Constitution was founded on the law of gravitation. The government was to exist and move by virtue of the efficacy of "checks and balances." The trouble with the theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton. It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its tasks, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life. No living thing can have its organs offset against each other, as checks, and live. On the contrary, its life is dependent upon their quick co-operation, their ready response to the commands of instinct or intelligence, their amicable community of purpose. Government is not a body of blind forces; it is a body of men, with highly differentiated functions, no doubt, in our modern day, of specialization, with a common task and purpose. Their co-operation is indis-pensable, their warfare fatal. There can be no
successful government without the intimate, instinctive co-ordination of the organs of life
and action. This is not theory, but fact, and displays its force as fact, whatever theories may
be thrown across its track. Living political constitutions must be Darwinian in structure
and in practice. Society is a living organism and must obey the laws of life, not of mechanics; it must develop. All that progressives ask or desire is permission—in an era when "development," "evolution," is the scientific word — to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle; all they ask is recognition of the fact that a nation is a living thing and not a machine. Some citizens of this country have never got beyond the Declaration of Independence, signed in Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776. Their bosoms swell against George III, but they have no consciousness of the war for freedom that is going on to-day.

A Recap of the Straw Poll

2007-08-12T12:59:00.000-06:00

Some thoughts about the straw poll.

First, about the voter numbers. In both '95 (Bob Dull) and '99(GW) the winners buses in huge numbers from out of state. There was no provision made to make certain that only Iowans were voting. I have always believed that neither of them would have won if only Iowans had been the voters. So the number of voters was inflated because many simply voted with tickets provided by the campaigns.
This year was much different, when the lovely Mrs. farmer and I voted we had to show our drivers license as proof of Iowa residency then after recieving a ballot, put our thumb on a pad of indelible ink. Then we voted on a paper ballot which was then fed into a Diebold? counter. BTW, the number of tickets sold is deceiving as well, I had signed up with both the Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo campaigns for free tickets. So the wife and I had four tickets. My younger brother had signed up with Tancredo, but his tickets would not allow him to go into the auditorium to hear the candidates speak(there was number limit on that for seating purposes). I gave him two tickets, so he and his wife were able to get in, then the tickets he had been given to vote, but not hear the speeches went unused. I know of several others which signed up for tickets with more than one campaign.

As far as it goes, this system was still better than the last vote at the str-pll. That is why there were so many less votes cast. I heard several people asking how they could get an Iowa id to beat the system, but for the most part I think the vote was honest.

On the other hand, if you have big bucks, Romany had them, then all you had to do to win was get the bodies, warm breathing but unthinking bodies to vote. Romany had buses from every one of the 99 counties in Iowa and large counties had more than one. He had also rented over a hundred golf carts. His strategy was very simple, get as many old geezers as you can, give them a free ride to Ames, don't make them walk from the parking to the event, feed them the best food in town, Hickory Park Barbecue, then carry their stuffed, portly ass over to the voting machine. Along with this plan, never mention change in any other than rhetorical fashion, so mr and mrs geezer think the SS and medicare checks will keep coming, and ta da you gots yourself a winner.

I had several friends and acquaintances there, all of them remarked on the large numbers of geezers in the Romany contingent. Throw in a number of faithful wearing the Holy underoos and it was a slam dunk.

I was surprised that Brownback did as well as he did, there were not a lot of signs of public support. I guessed he was going to lose to Huckabee but I would have guessed that Tancredo would beat him as well.

It was not just presidential campaigns there though, FairTax had a huge presence as well and the NRA, all six in my family got free hats from NRA, several groups lobbying for change in SS law, repeal of Real ID, even a group trying to petition Alan Keyes to make another run for President.

All the candidates had food, I ate a light breakfast at Tancredo's tent, Krispy Kremes and fresh fruit. Most had a stage with entertainment acts, bands speakers etc. There where lots of families. You know the type, us homeshool parents with 4, 5, 6, or more kids in tow, I know one family with eleven was there. Brownback, Paul and Romany had games, slides, inflatables for the kids to play on.

Ron Paul had by far the most volunteer help there. They literally lined the streets and sidewalks with volunteers holding signs and shouting Ron Paul. I think if all of them could have voted he might have won. Saturday morning Dr. Paul's wife was admitted to the hospital with an irregular heart beat, so he was late arriving at the event.

I had to leave at noon to attend a wedding, so I did not get to hear the speeches. According to my brother, who did not hear them all, Romany was perfect, looked perfect(looked like he spent a week in the tanning bed), spoke perfect, no stutters or stumbles, paused at the right times for applause, just did a perfect acting job playing the part of a conservative in the mold of RR. And the geezers ate it up like candy.

Tancredo on the other hand stuttered and stumbled, spoke during the applause, lost his place several times, so had to look at the written copy, not a good performance by any standard.

And yes I voted for Ron Paul.

more info is in the Des Moines Register Sunday edition online.

The Iowa Straw Poll

2007-08-09T21:43:00.000-06:00

First, let me tell you about my upcoming weekend. Tomorrow, (Friday), I'm taking my first day off in several months. A close friend is getting married on Saturday at 2:00. Friday evening I volunteered to cook the rehearsal supper for his parents. So I'm in the process of loading up the second family truckster(spell check doesn't like that word) with all the necessary things one would require to cook steaks and toast garlic bread on a grill for a group of 50. We will be serving Black Label Certified Angus Beef rib eyes.

Early Saturday morning I will drive from the town where the wedding is to be held, the 15 miles or so to Ames for the Straw Poll. I understand that most of the candidates will start serving food of some kind by 10:00 AM. I think that we can also cast ballots at 10:00 AM. I know that the NRA is having a big shindig, Newt is going to be there shilling for his "think tank"/foundation whatever their calling it these days. Each candidate will give a 15 minute speech starting at noon. I however will need to leave, at or around noon to go back and get dressed for attending the wedding, which starts at 2:00 PM. After the wedding and reception to follow, I will probably change clothes again, then head back to Ames, where they are supposed to announce the winners at 7:00 PM. Then, if I know my wife, she will suggest that we go to Hickory Park in Ames and consume a rack of pork ribs. I tell all of you, with utmost sincerity, they is the best poke ribs I ever done et, period, bar none.

Now the stuff you have been waiting for. Who am I going to vote for?

I will not, nor have I ever to my knowledge voted for a pro-baby killer candidate for any office. So Rudy is out. Since I believe McCain neutered himself with his pro-amnesty position, and I would never vote for anyone who help write, voted for or had anything to do with McCain-Feingold, John is done, stick a fork in him.

I believe that Mitt Romney is one of the most slimy politicians to ever come down the track. This man has changed positions more often than the hands on a clock. I tell you with all sincerity, I would rather have Hillary as a president than this guy. We know Hillary is evil incarnate. The normally spineless Republicans might actually stand up to her. Mitt on the other hand would say and or do anything if he thought it was popular. I think the man would show you his magic underoos if he was convinced it would get a few more votes.

I claim to be a Constitutionalist. I believe that we should treat the founding documents of our secular government exactly how I as a fundamentalist treat the Holy Scripture. Scripture is to be interpreted according to the original intent of the Author. This is why I believe in Sola Scriptura, using Scripture to interpret Scripture. In the same way, we should interpret the Constitution according to the original intent of the writers.

Let me give you an example I mentioned on a previous post. I can find nowhere in the Constitution where the federal government has any authority to be involved in education. In the 2000 race for president, when GWB said that he had a plan called "No Child Left Behind" I refused to vote for him, because that program is outside the jurisdiction of the federal government. He claimed to be a "compassionate conservative" but the first policy he purposed was a vast increase the feds involvement in education.

I referenced an article in the DSM Register about the candidates stand on education. Brownback, Hunter and Tommy Thompson all talked about tinkering around the edges. More teacher, more accountability, more advanced classes, report cards for the schools (Thompson), none of those three mentioned anything about the unconstitutional role the federal government has in doing anything related to education. Romney purposed,(and I'm not making this up) "providing laptops to all middle and high school students". Funny thing, here is the same guy running radio adds in which he claims to be a small government conservative.

The question the Register asked is as follows,
What would you do to ensure U.S. fourth-graders are competitive in academic achievement with their international peers in math science and reading? Only two of the nine candidates gave an answer which fits with my worldview.

I was very disturbed by Mike Huckabee's answer. He said he would create preschool programs and implement a program similar to Arkansas' Smart Start which targets children in kindergarten through forth grade increase standards and accountability measures.
That is not a conservative position. The federal government has no authority to create "mo and better" programs. In fact he sounds a whole lot like GWB on the topic. I will not be voting for Mr. Huckabee. I think he's a nice man, but in the end, he believes that government is the solution to the problem. I believe government is the problem.

Tom Tancredo said, "He does not favor the expansion of the federal governments role in public education." and he would work to repeal "no-child left behind" because it strips away local control.

And Ron Paul said, "he would get the federal government out of the classroom and allow states and local officials and parents to make the decisions that are best for their individual situations."
He also said, " NCLB is unconstitutional legislation that usurped state and local authority over education . He would seek to repeal this law and give the money being spent to America's parents so they could once again be in charge of their children's educations."

So there are two candidates which have actually read and understand the constitution. Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo. All the rest are just liberals, claiming to be Ronald Rega

I will vote for one of the two. I will reveal which one on Sunday evening, since we won't get home till Sunday evening.

So it's Ron Paul and/or Tom Tancredo. I know I left you hanging. I really have not made up my mind. I see positives and negatives for each. Until Sunday evening.

God Bless America

Out of Time

2007-08-06T22:05:00.000-06:00

I went and heard Dr. Ron Paul speak tonight. According to a friend my ample backside made it on TV. The lovely Mrs. farmer Tom went with me, then we went to our favorite Mexican place for supper.

It's 11:00 pm and I have to load cattle at 5:00 AM, I'm going to bed. I will provide comments on Dr. Paul's speech tomorrow.

This You Have Got to See

2007-08-05T07:47:00.000-06:00

As I've written or said on numerous occasions, Jan Mickelson on WHO 1040 radio and web is my favorite talk show host. I've heard him turn more than one guest into a quivering puddle of flesh after an intense disscussion of the issues. One of my favorites was a Catholic Priest telling Jan that the Scripture was wrong. I laughed for an hour that morning.

Anyway, Jan had Mitt as a fly by guest on Thursday. It got rather heated off air, Jan even said something to the effect that the off-air conversation was better than the on-air one. This morning I found this video link.

Taylor still has not showed me how to create links, so copy this and paste it, then watch the video, very entertaining stuff.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0807/Mitt_unplugged.html

Update:

Here's the video.

Political Puzzlement

2007-07-30T20:55:00.000-06:00

I have been pondering the many different political candidates, their statements, speeches, spinning, sniveling, and stupidity, and have been frustrated, exasperated and irritated and once in a while have been pleased with something one of them has said. How's that for a long sentence??

I think that I have reached the point where I have decided who I am supporting and why.

But, I have some personal questions to ask of this particular candidate before I formally commit.

So I am not going to announce yet. I think I'm convinced, but I want clarity on several issues.

Now I realize that this is a tease. I'm talking politics, and not revealing my hand. Tough. I'm not shy, and when I get ready to tell y'all I will speak right up. Until then I am going to pray about it some more, read some more articles, and attend another speech or two.

I have a couple of questions to ask of my reader(s). Are there more than one of you?

Did you see the chart/article on the candidates and their ideas about education in the
Des Moines Sunday Register? I don't care which candidate you think your supporting, which one has the most logical, Biblical, and Constitutional stand on education?

Hint, if you think it's the one that is going to "provide laptop computers to all middle and high school students". (BTW, I'm not making that up.) Then you and I have two totally different views of the world.

If you think creating more preschool and head start programs is the answer, you and I are also seeing the world through different glasses.

In less than two weeks, the Iowa Straw Poll will be taking place in Ames. I am planning to be there, I have arranged for tickets, and I am going to vote in the Straw Poll. Between now and then I will tell you who I have decided to vote for. Until I tell you, I'm praying, reading, listening, and looking to find a man of true principle and character. Are there any in the race?

Now that's Funny

2007-07-18T19:45:00.002-06:00

Kucinich hospitalized with apparent food poisoning
Associated Press

CLEVELAND - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who is a vegan, has been hospitalized with "severe" effects of apparent food poisoning.

The 60-year-old congressman from Cleveland became sick Sunday night while flying to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to address the national Longshoremen's convention. He went ahead with the speech Monday but immediately returned home and was hospitalized in the Cleveland area.

The name of the hospital wasn't disclosed. Andy Juniewicz, a campaign spokesman, said Kucinich was improving Tuesday night and said no medical update was available Wednesday morning.

Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor, typically polls in the low single digits.

What a hoot. All these vegans who are worried about their food being tainted and then stuff like this happens, this is high quality humor. Hope you get to feeling better soon, dude. Maybe if you'd eat a steak Dennis, you'd feel better.

Knee High, By the Fifth of July

2007-07-05T20:17:00.001-06:00

Since the days of my youth, too many years ago now, the old timers would talk about the corn crop looking good if it was "Knee high, by the 4th of July". Now this saying was directly related to the fact that the corn was typically not planted until after the 5th of May and sometimes the real procrastinators would not be done planting corn till near the 1st of June. Over the years we have learned something about growing corn. Every day after the 15th of May, some are saying the 10th, reduces yield by one bushel. In other words corn planted on the 20th of April should yield 20 to 25 bushel an acre more than corn planted on the 15th of May. Using a price of $3.00 dollars a bushel, we're talking about $60 to $75 dollars an acre for planting early. In the cutthroat farming game, those dollars are far to precious to let slip away. So, most corn planted in north Iowa this year was planted between the 20th of April and May 10th. This planting window allows for rainy days or even a week, multiple fields and other things which are required to produce a crop, such as manure hauling, fertilizer application and spraying.

All of which, helps to explain this picture. The corn was planted on (I think) April 28th, we have so far had adequate rainfall, and warm weather. Corn needs a certain number of "heat units", ie days with x amount of BTU's in sunshine, to reach maturity. I'm not giving a specific number because this number varies according to the number of days a particular varity takes to reach maturity. Some corn takes 98 days to reach maturity, some takes 114 days. A farmer will plant some corn from several different groups to spread his risk, each group will be affected differently by the weather conditions, rainfall during pollination, and other factors such as bugs, fungus, and wind. This corn in the picture has been growing for 68 days. It will tassel, and begin pollination in the next 5 days. Yields will be much better if we recieve rain during pollination. The the pollen falling down onto the silks on the ears of corn will stick and pollinate the plant better if they are wet.

As you can see, this corn is a little past knee high, on my seven year-old.

The crop is looking good. We'll need a rain in the next ten days, and not to much heat, it was over 90 today.

Nitrogen for growing corn.

2007-07-02T17:43:00.002-06:00

Before I started this blog I had several on-line converstation with people who asked questions about commercial fertilizer, organic crops and modern agriculture. Now I work on a farm where most of the latest and best agriculture practices are used. Some, maybe even most are related to large scale production, this does not make them wrong, it simply means that the goal of this operation is to produce as many bushels of corn and beans as possible with the lowest possible amount of inputs(costs). Nothing is done that will not show a financial return. Money is not spent on needless trips across the fields, or spraying chemical just to make the paranoid enviromentalist/luddites have a hissy fit.
I would be glad to expand on that paragraph. If you have questions, I'll try to answer, but the post tonight is about the effects of commercial fertilizer. Someone questioned why put good money in the ground by putting on anhydrous ammonia(NH3), as I showed pictures of in a previous post. One of the most important nutrients necessary for growing corn. Without the nitrogen the corn plant is pale almost yellow, it is stunted in height, and most importantly without nitrogen during the pre pollination stage, the corn plant is already determining ear length and the number of rows of kernals. Without nitrogen those things will be considerably smaller, leading directly to reduced yields. And since high yields are the goal, having all the nitrogen available to the plant when it needs it is critical.

The following picture is an excellent illustration of this lack of nitrogen effect. One of the tool bars shown in that previous post, had a plugged knife,(three different operators, none of us noticed the the knife was not working correctly) the part which goes into the ground, injecting the NH3 into the soil. As a result, each pass made with the toolbar left a streak in the field where little or no NH3 was applied. As you can see in the picture, the corn is yellow, stunted (a foot shorter) and generally unhealthy compared to the field around it. A dark green plant, with high levels of chlorophyll is going to be much more effective in the photosynthesis process, turning the energy of the sun, into grain. This particular field was corn on corn, so there was little nitrogen left from the previous year,(remember soybeans add nitrogen back to the soil). On the fields which were corn on beans this streak is not noticable.

On Saturday we went to southern Iowa to see that new baby. It was good to see everybody again. Got to be there on my parents 45th wedding anniversery. I have a couple of pictures from down in the hill country of southern Iowa. Some people have the mistaken notion that Iowa is all flat as a board, with nothing but corn and bean fields interupted by the occasional hog building. Not where I grew up. This is some timber land on the home farm.

Before the summer is over I intend to take my family camping in that timber, as well as any other friends who are tough enough not to have to sleep in a house on wheels. We are going to rough it for a couple of nights, no running water, no electricty and no TV. The next picture is standing in roughly the same spot looking the other direction at a huge old oak tree. The tires in the foreground were used at several church youth outtings sponsored by my younger brother for games, like roll the tire race, run through the tire race, stack the tires over the little kid (just joking).

This last picture I am especially proud of. My second daughter, one of the twins, took this one at dusk, looking west from our yard. We gave her the digital camera for Christmas, and she is beginning to show some real talent in the photography field. I let the kids read the comments ya'll make, so if you like it, say something and she'll see it. Can you see the firefly in the middle?

Ok, I admit it, I have been lazy.

2007-06-22T18:39:00.001-06:00

I was going to post some more farming pictures, but I took those on the daughters camera, and she has it at Bible camp, so no pictures.

I got an e-mail asking why I hadn't posted on immigration, a good question. Two reasons, well three if you count the lazy thing, anyway, first I believe that Jorge the Younger clearly stated in the 2000 campaign that he was going to push some kind of "amnesty", although he refused to call it that, so I for one am not suprised that he is failing to follow his Constitutional duty to defend this country from invaders from the south. He told us he wanted them to come here, it's one reason I never voted for him. Secondly, I've reached a level of frustration with the media that can not be described. The reponse of the public to this abominable piece of legislation was profound, yet if one were to believe the news vendors, this is no big deal, business as usual, same old same old. I'm afraid if I were to actually say exactly what I thought about the subject I would have some government agency showing up at my door, wanting to know why I had advocated packing illegals into schools buses like sardines and shipping them back across our southern border like lawbreaking trespassers. I'd be accused of being racist or some such foolishness. I don't care who you are and what color your hide is, if you are here illegally,GO HOMEand the sooner the better. I have relatives who would like to immigrate here legally and ya'll are making it impossible for them to get in.

I have also typed up a rather scathing note to the author of the book I reviewed earlier. I gave her book a favorable review, I've even given a few copies to young women that my wife and I know, I like her thoughts on having an "agent". But twice now I tried to post at her blog some comments about her tendency to blame men for all of the problems between the sexes, while refusing to acknowledge that her lifestyle, thought processes and even her own personal description tend to make her sound like a feminist. From her blog, Occupation: Author, Attorney and Homemaker
a Biblical woman would not put her children and husband last. Debbie the proper way to list these things is as follows. Wife, mother, then sometimes author, and if I have to so we don't starve, lawyer. If the lawyer thing is more important than the homemaker thing, her priorities are all out of wack, which is exactly what I've been trying to tell her.

If she keeps refusing to have a discussion about her feminist leanings I'll have to post my entire letter here.

Congrats to my youngest brother. He and his lovely bride had a bouncing baby girl on Monday. Haven't seen her yet, although from what I've been told we can thank the Lord for several things, one, a safe delivery, two, that some minor problems for the baby after the birth seem to be gone, and lastly, the child looks like her mother. Life is hard enough for little girls without being born with the disavantge of looking like your father.

Enough foolishness for now,

Ok a quick story. Two weeks ago Saturday Tom Tancredo was speaking in a town nearby. I worked most of the day hauling cattle floor(crap), onto a recently harvested alfalfa field. The meeting was at 6 I got home from work at 5:25, the Mrs was at a homeschool conference, ran through the shower, told the kids to behave until their mother got home(about 6:00) and hurried out the door and down the lane at 5:40. I can make the meeting right on time if I hurry. I made it three miles before the local county mounty busted me for speeding. I was stopped and sitting on the side of the road, ranting about my bad day, before he hardly had his lights on. I just stood on the brakes and pulled off to the side, stopped so fast he had to drive by and turn around to get behind me. He comes up to the door, asks for license, registration, and proof of insurance. I'm not particually happy, made some comments about what a lousy day I was having, trying to be at a meeting at 6:00 etc. He said, "Don't get mad at me," I said, "I'm not blaming you, I am just having a very bad day". He went back to his car to do his thing, I'm thinking, great, a ticket I can't afford, on my driving record, and late to the meeting beside.

About thirty seconds later he comes running back to my van. He has all my paperwork (license, registration, and proof of insurance) in one hand, he shoves it into my hand, waves his finger on the other hand at me and shouts SLOW DOWN, runs back to his car jumps in, and races away with tires squealing and lights flashing.

Now the question is, is it correct to thank God for keeping me from getting a ticket, or should I be confessing for having been driving to fast? What'da think, thanks or confession?

The Other Shoe Drops

2007-06-12T18:26:00.000-06:00

In the previous post, I put up a column which showed the huge amount of money that has been transfered to production agriculture in the last 10 years. Now with the advent of the ethanol industry, the price for grain has risen, subsidies are no longer necessary, and the livestock industry is actually having to pay a price for the grain it consumes, which reflects a real cost of production, rather than a subsidised cost. After all the money that livestock sector has made in the last few years, one can easily guess the response. They want things the way they used to be. So they are now intent on killing the ethanol/biofuels industry.

I'm posting a link here, which gives more details on this fight. This writer,who I highly respect, has been dead on, in his analysis of the ethanol business, the changes in production agriculture, and the price changes relative to those conditions.

http://www.thecommstockreport.com/Newspaper/2007-0524colm.htm
Since I still can't seem to make the links work, you'll have to cut and paste this to your search engine.

Go there and read this column, and any others you see, you'll get some good insite into the farming business.

Understanding the Problems in American Agriculture

2007-06-02T12:03:00.000-06:00

This is a copy of a column written by a guy I read regularly. He tends to see things from a liberal point of view and I do not agree with him alot of the time, but I believe that this one column does a great job of explaining some of the current problems in production agriculture. After you have read this, in a couple of days I will post another column from another writer who will show some of the effects of this problem.

Sir Isaac Newton meets Congress

Newton's Third Law of Motion,
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," has direct application to the physics of Farm Bills.

For example, the 1995 Farm Bill, Freedom to Farm or F2F for short, was to run seven years and cost taxpayers $50 billion. Congress, however, wrote such an unbalanced law that it ended the "market-oriented" experiment a year early after the U.S. Treasury blew through more than $100 billion of your money.

Congress's arrogance of accounting -- "$50 billion? $100 billion? Whatever." -- was matched only by its ignorance of physics. F2F's action of unbridling production and subsidy spending delivered a predictable reaction: a nine-year run of over-production, low prices and enormous subsidies.

The opposite and equal reactions to this cheap grain policy then rippled through the rest of agriculture, according to Timothy Wise of Tufts University's Global and Sustainable Development Program.

In a Feb. 26 paper released by Tufts, Wise calculates F2F dropped U.S. corn prices 23 percent and U.S. soybean prices 15 percent below their respective costs of production from 1997 through 2005.

In turn -- and here comes Newton -- livestock "feed prices were an estimated 21 percent below production costs for poultry and 26 percent below costs for the hog industry."

The cheap feed became a windfall for the big pig and poultry gang. Based upon "available market share information," Wise and Tufts policy analysts estimate the "economic savings for the top broiler and hog producers from (the) below-cost feed from 1997-2005" was a collective $19.75 billion.

The flood of institutionalized, cheap feed lifted the biggest boats the highest. Tyson Foods, calculates Tufts, saved an estimated $2.6 billion in feed costs in poultry operations over the nine years; GoldKist saved $1.13 billion; Pilgrim's Pride $1 billion and ConAgra Poultry $900 million.

The pig boys fattened themselves at F2F's trough, too. Smithfield, estimates Tufts, saved $2.54 billion on feed from 1997 through 2005; Premium Standard saved $680 million. Two other pork giants, Seaboard and Prestage benefited to the tune of $678 million and $426 million, respectively.

The cheap feed caused a chain reaction: huge profits funded the continued integration of the meat industry.

In late 2003, Pilgrim's Pride bought competitor ConAgra Poultry for $590 million and leapfrogged GoldKist to become America's biggest cluck. Then, this past January, Pilgrim's Pride completed its purchase of GoldKist (for $1.1 billion) to become the cock of the walk.

The others giants used their F2F savings to integration ends, also. In 2003, Tyson's bought beef giant IBP for $3.2 billion and, on May 4, Smithfield bought Premium Standard for $1 billion.

The F2F-funded concentration and integration of market power had other, on-farm consequences. For example, the number of independent U.S. pork producers fell from 138,690 in 1997 to 65,540 in 2005

In fact, in 2005, only 115 pork operations, or 0.2 percent of all operations, produced 55 percent of all hogs in America. In 1997, that same ratio was 20 times larger: 4 percent produced 55 percent.

All of the above should serve as inarguable background now that Congress is eyeball-deep into writing the 2007 Farm Bill. Its legislative actions, as in 1995 and 2002, will fuel market reactions. Yet, few Farm Bill writers seem to know Newton's Third Law.

As proof, House aggies already are robbing conservation programs to underwrite a massive, near-doubling of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a program whose largest beneficiary is big livestock producers.

That action carries this predicable reaction: more and larger animal confinement units, more environmental problems and fewer independent livestock producers.

Farm Bills can do many things, but they shouldn't finance big agbiz getting bigger.

Columnist Alan Guebert has covered food production and ag policy for more than 20 years. He can contacted at agcomm@sbcglobal.net or by writing to 21673 Lago Drive, Delavan, IL 61734

A few farming fhotos.

2007-05-24T19:50:00.001-06:00

It's has been a long and busy spring. I had my daughter take a few pictures of the different phases of planting a crop. She did a splendid job of excluding my ugly face from most of them. I refuse to post the pic of my ample posterior.

First up is a photo of applying anhydrous ammonia. I'm no chemist, nor do I play one ever, but NH3 is made from natural gas and contains high levels of nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential for growing corn. Without additional nitrogen the plant is limited in its ability to produce yields above that of the naturally occuring nitrogen in the soil. NH3 is a liquid which expands into a gas. In the field application process, the desired result is to get the liquid into the ground where the nitrogen attaches to moisture in the soil. If it is allowed to come in contact with air, it will turn into its gas form and escape into the atmosphere. So the liquid is literally knifed into the soil at a depth of about 7 inches.

Here are two tractors and tool bars one with 17 knives and one with 19 knives, the tanks that they are pulling (one set, two tanks) each hold about 2000 gallon of liquid NH3. How many acres that will cover is dependent on the rate of application. Assuming a goal of 180 bushel of corn, allow one pound of nitrogen per acre x the yield of the soybeans raised on that ground the previous year, (soybeans put nitrogen back into the soil), average yeilds last year were in the 60 bushel range. So we have 180-60= 120 lbs of nitrogen needed to grow a 180 bushel corn crop. Using round numbers each set of tanks will cover about 60 acres. It's a whole different formula when growing corn on ground which was corn the previous year. Corn takes nitrogen out of the soil and does not put any back, so to grow 180 bushel corn it will require more than 180 lbs of NH3. In that case the same set of tanks will only cover about 38 acres.

In the last photo I'm hooking up the hose which takes the NH3 from the tanks to the bar for distribution to the knives.

The Bigots at ISU

2007-05-15T17:09:00.000-06:00

The "tolerance" crowd at Iowa State University has proved once again that they really do not want diversity, rather they want to force every one to believe as they do. When a Professor at their school writes a book challenging their sacred worldview, uniformitarianism, their reaction is not a celebration of the diversity of thought and an intellectual discussion of his work. Oh, no, the reaction is to blackball the guy. Iowa State University can not tolerate someone who does not march in lockstep with the atheistic/materialistic worldview.

Follow this link, it shows the book that caused an Iowa State Professor, Guillermo Gonzalez, to be refused tenure.

http://www.amazon.com/Privileged-Planet-Cosmos-Designed-Discovery/dp/0895260654/ref=sr_1_1/103
-5775821-4655822?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179271105&sr=1-1

The thing about this travesty that galls me the most is that the attack on Dr. Gonzalez is being led by Hector Avalos, the associate Professor of Religions Studies at ISU, an avowed atheist. That is a lot like putting a child molester in charge of a day care. Mr. Avalos has stated publicly that he does not want ISU to be known as a school that tolerates a professor who believes in intelligent design. Mr. Avalos worships the god of time/chance and he does not want anyone who disagrees with that view to be given tenure.

An ironic part of this story is that Dr. Gonzalez escaped as a child with his parents from communist/atheistic Cuba for the freedom of our country. Now 35 years later the atheist/godless are going to keep him from acheiving tenure. So much for freedom of speech. Failure to toe the party line will not be tolerated.

Here is a link to a news article about this story.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20070515/NEWS02/705150402/1001/NEWS

Sleeping in the Recliner!

2007-04-28T21:39:00.000-06:00

No the lovely Mrs. farmer did not kick me out of the bedroom. I had a little run in with a dead sow and I lost.

An older sow died during pig birthing(farrowing), so her carcass had to be dragged out of the farrowing crate and taken outside. After we got her out of the crate, we used a winch to pull the carcass up onto a two wheeled cart. This cart is a frame of steel rod, the bottom 18" are at about a 30 degree angle to the floor, the total height of the cart is about five feet. The top section is approximately 70 degrees from the floor. There is a cable winch mounted on the back side of the cart, and the cable runs over a pulley at the top end, then down to the deceased critter. Attach the cable to the critter, crank the winch till it pulls the deceased up near the top end of the cart. Then, (in theory) you tip the top end down to make the cart level, and wheel the critter outside.

This particular sow was very long, and very heavy. When we got her cranked up to the top there was still a lot of her on the floor. When I tried to push the top end down, so we could roll her out, I could barely get the weight shifted, so I leaned into for all I was worth. Now I'm not a small boy, 6'2" and more than 270. I got her tipped part way then lost the battle, the top end of the cart came back up, caught me under the ribs and lifted me off the floor.

I now have very sore ribs. Deep breaths, bending over, sleeping in the bed, laughing, and other activities I will not describe, all cause considerable discomfort. So I'm sleeping in the recliner.

And the sow is still dead. Stupid swine.

Real Global Warming

2007-04-15T10:43:00.000-06:00

Lately I have become increasingly irritated by the alarmist cries of Al Gore and the global warming crowd. We just had another 8 inch snow in April, something that tends to make any farmer trying to get to the field in early April a touch cynical. Add the fact that the loony left are having their climate change rallies today on the east coast and battling snow storms to get there and the whole thing becomes a ludicrous comedy act.

While I do not listen to Limbaugh all the time, I have heard the parody he is playing of the old Johnny Cash song "Ring of Fire" in which Paul Schanklin portraying Al Gore singing "Ball of Fire" and I laugh heartily every time. I laughed when I heard that a global warming conference being held in Minnesota, (the land of eternal winter) was canceled because of a blizzard. And I laughed when I heard that "all scientists" agreed that the temperature on the earth was 7/10 of a degree higher in the last 50 years, and it was caused by human activity.

As you can tell by now I consider the whole thing to be silly, stupid, chicken little, collectivist types, attempts to exert more control on the population by forcibly restricting personal freedoms. I was very disheartened to read that Newt had conceded the idea that global warming was caused by human activity. I'm not surprised since I have always thought that he was more about gaining power than defending truth. Lastly I think any honest(and there are very few of them) person looking at the evidence would have to admit that the change in global temperature is most likely caused by an increased temperature at our radiant heat source(the sun for you idiots). If the sun is burning hotter(it is) then guess what, it is going to be hotter here. That's the way it works with radiant heat, turn the heater up, voila', it increases the surface temperature of the object it is heating.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my pastor is preaching through II Peter. I read chapter three today. I think maybe Al gore needs to take up his global warming protest with God. After reading the last part of the chapter, I'm thinking this is some serious global warming. Mankind will be somewhat responsible, for it will be God's judgement on the wickedness of the human race. God will judge the earth with fire.

7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Now that's real global warming. And it should call us to worry less about internal combustion engines, and more about the internal condition of human hearts, are you/they ready for the judgement?

Family Vacation

2007-04-02T11:54:00.000-06:00

This is going to be a very short post.
We went on a three-day weekend tour of points south and west, seeing family and friends in the area where I grew up.
Made it to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha and to the SAC air museum between Omaha and Lincoln.

The highlight of the trip in my opinion is captured in this photo.
When you walk in the front doors of the SAC museum, this plane appears to be flying directly at you. A very cool sight.

More later.