Out of Whack

         Man, this has really been a crazy fall. It’s hard to stay positive on all of the issues we face at this time. I wish it were just the UW football team going south. I hope they can salvage something from the season, as the team and coaches deserve better. But the news these weeks leaves us all kind of down in the dumps. Maybe we’ve had it too good for too long.
    The financial news from Wall Street has really hit main streets this week. Meanwhile Congress goes about their daily finger pointing on whose fault it is and who is not trying to fix the issue. I’m not sure we need a bailout, but we do need to protect American’s savings and the country’s future. At some point those at fault need to be held accountable and not rewarded. All of this worthless paper money floating around kind of scares you, doesn’t it? Most of the national politicians are joining the scramble to “save the world.” It seems to me that the easiest way not to get elected these days is to promise everyone a job. Thank God people in Wyoming want to work and we have enough good paying jobs to go around.
    Speaking of Congress, don’t they have anything better to do than take up the anti-horse transportation bill? This bill is titled the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act and would make it illegal to sell, ship or own horses bound for slaughter. Isn’t a horse private property? Isn’t it your and my right to say how to care, manage and dispose of it? Today it is a horse, but what are they going to tell us to do tomorrow? As I understand it both Republican and Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee just sat there and let the bill go forward. With numerous members of the Humane Society in attendance the group proved to be a powerful force to deal with, especially on an election year. Fortunately one congressman was able to insert wording that should get the bill sent to the House Agriculture Committee, a body that doesn’t favor the legislation. It just goes to show you the power of the animal rights people when they can get Congress to address a topic like this during the middle of a financial crisis. Please let people you know in other states know about the issue and have them call their Congressional people. This is a dangerous bill.
    Enough complaining. How about all of those Texans who got nailed by Hurricane Ike? Man, there have been some terrible pictures coming from the Galveston and southwestern Louisiana areas where livestock losses were numerous. They are taking care of the problems themselves and we haven’t seen the media making a big deal of the clean up. It’s nice not to see pictures of people asking where the handouts are. Maybe there are just too many mosquitoes, enough to keep the press away. The people there are self-sustaining and are going about the rebuilding themselves. Good for them.
Dennis