Category Archives: States
The Tortoise and The Harry
In the old cowboy movies range wars were fought over cows and sheep. Now they’re fought over cows and dessert tortoises.
Thanks to the Cliven Bundy standoff with BLM we learned that the federal government owns 81% of the land in Nevada. Harry Reid owns the rest. Well, not quite but it seems that way.
The 7/8 on the US not under the thumb of the BLM is the “brokest nation on earth” according to Mark Steyn:
I think it’s absurd and obnoxious that an obscure and unaccountable government agency should rule an area the size of France, Germany and Italy combined. What for? Why should the 26th largest country on earth (which the Bureau of Land Management is) be maintained in perpetuity as the world’s biggest nature preserve for the desert tortoise? The seven-eighths of the United States that isn’t under the iron rod of the BLM is the Brokest Nation in History: it wouldn’t hurt to have a little more productive land.
Speaking of Bundy, Steyn doesn’t think his racial attitudes should get the BLM off the hook.
Let’s stipulate that Cliven Bundy is a racist. Let’s also assume, if only to save time, that he’s Islamophobic, homophobic and transphobic. So what? Does that make criticizing the Bureau of Land Management “racist” or “homophobic”?
Cliven Bundy Steps in It
Just when Cliven Bundy was generating sympathy for standing up to the man he opened his mouth and stepped in it
Crazy Cliven’s cows graze on on federal grass and he hasn’t paid the bill for 20 years. That makes him sort of a welfare queen of the range. Which is why it was surprising to hear him talking about “negroes” on government subsidy. Here he is in his own words:
Western Water Wars
Western Water Wars went wild last week when young Dallas Swonger peed in an Oregon reservoir and forgot to flush.
Thanks to the Water Bureau’s quick thinking response, the three parts per billion of Swonger effluent were safely removed by draining 38 million gallons of water. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish – yes that’s his real name – humbly accepted credit for the life saving action:
“I didn’t have a choice. I don’t have the luxury of slicing it too thin when there’s a potential risk, however small, to public health,” he said. “Frankly, it’s one of those calls where you know you’re likely to be criticized no matter what. The professionals who report to me all said, ‘Dump the water. Don’t take any chances.’ It’s the conservative but correct call.”
Dem Hopes Sink
With the defeat of Alex Sink in a Florida special Congressional election, some Democrats’ hopes may be sunk.
Hopes Sink
Sink was a capable moderate Democrat running in a district that supported Obama twice for president. She couldn’t be blamed for ObamaCare because she wasn’t in Congress when it passed. But rather than run away from the ACA she let it stick to her by promising to mend it, not end it. She ended up losing to David Jolly, a former lobbyist who promised to repeal the thing.
