I recently posted my thoughts on what I see happening in the energy markets on an ag website. We are getting a lively-spirited discussion going about it. I sometimes post on the site below under the name, “SD Wild/OBG”.
Here is a link to this discussion;
http://dgroups.agriculture.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=agmarketing&tid=61152
As I read recent headlines, I think to myself, “Are people stupid?” I often 
wonder, “Could it be that humans are merely clever apes that stumbled upon some easy-to-get oil and moved higher up the food-chain than we deserve?” Then I contemplate, “Maybe evolution doesn’t always mean progress… maybe people are actually dumber today than they were 200 years ago?”
Anyway, below are ten news headlines, along with some little snippets that absolutely blow my mind with their self-evident level of absurdity;
1) World Leaders gather at Copenhagen Climate Summit to discuss ways to combat global warming. – There are simply no words to describe this….
2) Saudi Arabia calls for investigation into ‘ClimateGate’. – I love this… The Saudis found a PERFECT excuse to cover their falling oil production. The next time that we ask them to pump more oil, they can tell us that they don’t like our condescending attitude about oil. That will be hilarious….
3) Harry Reid calls Opponents to Healthcare Reform to supporters of slavery. – OKKAAAYYYYY….. Let’s see here, this joker wants to confiscate fruits of labor from the productive members of society. Sounds like he’s bringing back slavery in grand fashion….
4) Pelosi Endorses ‘Global’ Tax on Stocks, Bonds, and other Financial Transactions – What a concept! Let’s see, and what does this crazy witch want to do with the booty raised by such robbery? The mad-woman says the, “revenue from such a tax could be used to help fund more stimulus spending.” OK, I officially declare that the days of electricity and running water in the USA are nearly over…
5) US plan to round up wild horses draws opposition
The government wants to carry out what is believed to be the biggest-ever roundup of wild horses on federal land, moving as many as 25,000 mustangs and burros to pastures in the Midwest and East out of fear their fast-multiplying numbers will lead to mass starvation. -
Ok, so let’s go back a couple years. The government in its infinite wisdom banned the slaughter of horses, now their numbers have grown to the point they are starving. What a shocker. But here is the really nutty part of this;
The plan is facing heated opposition from advocates, including celebrities Sheryl Crow, Bill Maher and Ed Harris, who contend the proposal is itself inhumane and unnecessary.
The government argues that the mustang population in 10 Western states is growing so rapidly that the horses are quickly running out of food, in part because of drought ravaging the region.
One of the most vocal wild-horse advocates is Grammy-winning singer Sheryl Crow. “One of the first things they say is something must be done because the horses are starving. We don’t believe it,” Crow said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Good grief. Our government intends to impose a cow-flatulence-tax consisting of 10% of the value of each cow, because they think that cow farts makes icebergs melt. Clearly the people of this country are over-fed, and I mean that. What we need is a good-old fashioned famine. I’m talking Medieval levels of extreme belt-tightening. Until people actually can no longer drive to the store and get a banana, they will continue to dream up utter foolishness.
Maybe a new ice-age will do the trick….
The Biggest Loser…. Why do people watch this show? According to my sources, this TV series is wildly popular. On that program, really, really overweight people go to a sort of “Fat Person Camp” where they commence to lose hundreds of pounds…. per person. They bawl a lot. By bawl, I mean they all cry rivers of tears, all episode long, every episode.
So watching overweight slobs in sweat pants go through life drowning in self-pity is popular? Explains the trend for shopping at Wal-Mart I guess. One part of the program that irritates me is that the obese folks on the show somehow become a victim, but the biggest annoyance is that they become self-absorbed and think they are important.
The only thing worse is Jon and Kate Plus Eight. This lady has about 6 kids at once, and their family becomes a reality show. Before you know it, Kate is signing autographed copies of her book, and she and Jon wind up divorced. How is that riveting entertainment? I probably watch less than 2 hours of TV per week, but it doesn’t take that much to determine what is happening to American culture.
I caught an interview where Kate is explaining that without fortune and fame, she and Jon would have wound up divorced anyway. She said the cash actually slowed down the process. Wrong. People in financial misery don’t get divorced, they muddle through life, cuz they don’t have options. Sorry I’m digressing, that’s a whole different story.
My point is that it’s crazy that folks become famous for becoming famous. We watch people who others watch, and before you know it, we all look like a herd of sheep, waiting for the coronated-ones to actually do something. The entire concept is insulting to the human race, and as a species, I’m not sure we could really insult ourselves more.
What became of the collective IQ of this nation? We standby and allow Healthcare legislation to bankrupt the country. We passively allow America to join 3rd world status as we watch Kate blather on and on about how important she is, and complain how her friends wind up in tabloids.
I often question the notion that people are more advanced than apes. Certainly a select few homo-sapiens created some nifty techno-advances, but what about the rest of us? We willingly engulf mass quantities of greasy fast food, and expect someone else to pay the Dr’s bill. We idolize complete fools, to the point those fools don’t even understand it.
Maybe I’m acting jealous, that could be… I’ll have to think on that. I was only popular once, and for a short period. My friends and I ran a party house in college. We ran through 7 kegs every Wednesday night, and as such, folks you don’t know treat you with loud shouts of admiration as you walk across campus. Pretty soon, everybody else wants to know you, whether you deserve it or not. Before long, the expectation for doing something outlandish and admiration-worthy gets the best of a person. The next thing you know, there you are, riding the conveyor belt in the University cafeteria singing John Denver’s Thank God I’m a Country Boy. Near as I can tell, popularity always ends badly.
Tearing out walls and ripping up carpets; what better way to spend nights and weekends? Just grab a few buds, and a couple of Buds and let the destruction begin.
Hillary and I decided to move to Twin Lakes. We bought Jim and Patty Larson’s cabin, and intend to live in it year-round. With the help of some friends, the cabin will undergo some big changes from knocking out walls, to installing new kitchen and bath.
It’s actually a ton of fun. We’ve bought and fixed up old houses before, but wound up hiring a lot of the work on some of the projects. If a person has a fun crew, then blowing insulation into an attic becomes more enjoyable than sitting around watching “The Biggest Loser” on TV.
OK, I’ve got acute writer’s block, probably because I need to run to Wall, SD and weigh some corn. I don’t know what else to say, so hope everybody has a safe harvest!
It don’t get much better than this! Plant corn with an airseeder and harvest it 
with a draper header. This is truly a dream come true!!
UNBELIEVABLE!!! What will the buying power of the US Dollar be in a few 
more years?? One HAS to open this link below to check it out…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_account_balance
Talk about a rough crew!
I just returned from hunting for wolf/elk/bear in MT. I hunted with a guy named Pat in my grain marketing group and his long-time friends. I’d known this farmer for years, but never met in person. That’s the glory of the internet; a person can converse daily with talented minds from anywhere about markets, and where they are headed.
I stood there in a hotel parking lot in Dillon, MT at 7:30 AM with a flat tire. I called Pat on the phone, so he drove up with a tank of air and a bottle of Crown shouting, “Welcome to MT!” My concerns were relieved, this chap was alright.
Home Sweet Home
Hunting Elk in the Rockies takes “roughing-it” to the extreme. You chop down trees, you unpack massive amounts of stuff, you build a fence for the horses, and on and on. It’s entirely impossible without copious amounts of Crown Royal.
Setting up a “spike camp” is definitely not for the tenderfoot. If you think packing up your belongings and moving to a different house is work, try doing it on horseback!
You carry this damn thing!
I like to climb to the top of mountains. One gets to shove over boulders that are almost ready to tip off of a ledge, and just plain think about stuff.
You can JUST see the camp below....
This little granite Batholith pictured above was created only 20 million years ago, (Oil is 100 million years old) so like the Montana State Cheerleaders, that formation is very young. According to my GPS, I’m 1,800 feet above the base camp which you can kinda see pictured below the batholith.
While predator calling, a person reflects on one’s personal demons, on the meaning of life, and how small and insignificant humans remain in the grand-scheme of things. A person contemplates Stephen W. Hawking , Jesus, Darwin, and Copernicus. I wonder why so many folks think that man can break the laws of the natural world, when in fact we can’t even pick up mother nature’s bra.
At night the stars are farcical, like they were created by a movie producer with a flair for over-doing it. You can almost reach out and touch the blinding incendiaries. The feeling of crackling soil as the thin, frosty crust crunches under the sole of your boot gives a man the sensation of strength and power. Then the burn starting in the quadriceps and leaking into the calves reminds one of the previous days hike, and humility takes over.
This is the natural ebb and flow during the battle that is man vs nature. The perpetual quest to understand the meaning of life… is in itself the story.
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Aerosmith
I'm the one on top....
Myself and my Elk Hunting buddy Pat recovering from 3rd degree hangover
I’m convinced that Iceland is the preview to what we in the USA will 
experience within a few years. They simply hit a wall a little quicker than we have so far.
A person MUST read what is going on in Iceland, and this news article REALLY tells the story. Here is an excellent excerpt;
“People aren’t buying flat screens, they aren’t buying furniture, they aren’t traveling abroad or buying luxury goods,” said Bogi Thor Siguroddsson, owner of Johan Roenning hf, an importer and retailer, who says his sales volume has dropped 50 percent. “What is selling now is food, drugs and gasoline.”
Click here to read this mind-blowing article!!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awXzaHHx8T6M
I took this picture of a yield monitor opening weekend of pheasant season. Dryland Producers Hybrids super corn in central SD!
WOW!!
I haven’t written much about hunting in the past, mainly because the statute of limitations on most of my memories hasn’t expired until recently.
1) Raccoon hunting was my favorite high-school sport. It required all the basics every sport needs, agility, speed, strength, and a high alcohol tolerance. You combine both of your neighborhood friends, which live 15 miles away, guns, and old beater pickup, a spotlight, a bottle of Boones Farm wine, baseball bats, and head out to chase down coons. I’ll never forget the night we ramped a creek and blew out a tire on the ol’ beater pickup. We used posts to prop it up, cuz we couldn’t find a jack.
2) Opening weekend of pheasant season was the highly anticipated event of the year. The same group has been coming out to my Dad’s farm for 30 years. This group became like family, and while the pheasant numbers varied, the crazy times and fun stories never did.
3) Kangaroo hunting in Australia, although highly illegal, was a lot of fun. It was a lot like raccoon hunting, except instead of running them down on foot, we used old cars. I tried to bull-dog one by jumping out of a car as we raced across the desert in the middle of some night. That ended badly. Don’t wanna talk about it.
4) When I was really young, Buffalo County was overrun by jackrabbits. I never got in on the whole, “surround a township and walk to the center” thing. Hopefully before I’m too old I’ll get a chance at it. I’ve heard the stories, and can’t fully imagine it. I mean, here you’ve got a bunch of farmers dressed in bib overalls armed with clubs and pitchforks, banging on pots and pans as they each walk three miles to the center of the circle. As the noose tightens, jackrabbits pile on top of each other in a teeming swarm of frenzied fur. Hmmm…. That must have been before the days of PETA.
5) My biggest regret while hunting is not Calvary charging two of the biggest buck mule deer I ever seen in my life. Darrin Schmiedt and I were riding around the Missouri River breaks a few years ago when we stumbled across this pair of monsters. We chose to pull rifles out of our scabbards, dismount, and fire away at the fleeing super-bucks while our horses galloped the other way. Had we just pulled out holsters and charged them, shooting form mounted position; we probably would have had more fun.
Next week I’m traveling to the mountains of Montana to hunt wolves on horseback. I’m gonna help set up a camp for Crown-chugging Elk Hunters, and learn all the lines to the “Mountain Men” movie. Walking in the footsteps of old outlaws, trappers, Indians, and Spaniards will be my life’s dream. Camping in the woods and tromping through snow with a good horse hopefully becomes a perennial endeavor. I guess if nothing else, I’ll learn some survival skills for when the collapse hits.
