Already deeply engaged in a bloody war, a young, untested president– whose thin resume noted but a handful of undistinguished terms in the Illinois General Assembly and a brief stint in Congress — did not hesitate when Congress delivered legislation that might spark a new beginning for a tiring nation. When Abraham Lincoln signed the [...]
So corn is rockin’ north of $7, beans are toyin’ with $14, cattle look to be headed to who-knows-where and hogs, well, bacon is sellin’ for what steak used to.
A day does not pass without some Big Ag chieftain or Capitol Hill yakker parting their perpetually pursed lips to unleash total nonsense on you, me and the body politic. To wit the following quote, an answer given by a member of the U.S. Senate to an Aug. 25 question on who will be dominate [...]
The official name for the group of 12 U.S. House and Senate members charged with finding “at least” $1.5 trillion in cuts to the federal deficit by Thanksgiving is the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. Super Unofficially, the group usually is called the Super Committee. Not Super Group, Super Committee. A Super Group would be, [...]
Bloggers might do coincidence; journalists don’t. We do irony, maybe even allegory. Sometimes we stray into ennui and pathos. Coincidence, however, features facts that aren’t tied as tightly together as we like. My Oxford Desk Dictionary agrees.
The undercooked thought and overbaked talk that endlessly paralyzes Washington would not have gone far on the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth before someone, boss or hired hand alike, would have condemned the yak and urged all to “get to work.”
It’s simply isn’t true that only nine people in America understand the nation’s arcane federal milk price formula. Only four people understand it.
Rupert Murdoch came before a House of Commons committee investigating the misdeeds of his company’s British newspapers with his heart on his sleeve. He called the day of his testimony, July 19, “the most humble day of my life.” Humbling or not, he left the hearing unbowed. Explanation Murdoch’s explanation of what his firm’s reporters [...]
Hedge ’em, hide ’em or howl at ’em, facts are facts. Trim ’em, trash ’em or trip over ’em, they still are facts. What they aren’t is opinion, a difference often overlooked by radio foamers and politicians, especially if honest facts clash with honest opinion. Debt ceiling For example, on July 12, Speaker of the [...]
Six months have passed since readers have had their say about me, my work and its effect on their digestive system. Turns out the first two often riles the third as in a mid-April emailer, who signed his missive “All Small Farmers,” noted.
