Sunday, Sunday...

A thoroughly boring day by some standards; a thoroughly pleasant day by others.

The Grievances: Swarms! (minor update)

As I mentioned the other day, I thought I might study The Grievances-- the 27 specific gripes the Colonists had with King George III that constitute the body of the Declaration of Independence. Now into my studies, I think "study" was too ambitious.

For the most part, I'm reading tertiary if not quaternary and quincentenary sources (although primary sources are available both in my library and online.) That may be a way to learn about how the experiment in freedom and personal liberty came about, but it's no way to study the experiment. If you don't believe me, you can go ask Mr. Big Food et al.

That said, you gotta start somewhere. And I think that some folk have picked up on the tradition we have here at the Farm of reading the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day is a fine start. And I also think that reading some-- more than one-- crappy old books-- if you can get your hands on them-- is an excellent next step. And failing that, the world wide web has many crappy old books on line that you don't even have to get your hands on. There are many good web sites that describe the state of affairs in the Colonies pre-1776, and for the most part, Wikipedia is not too bad.

I could be mistaken, but from what I've read, The United States of America is the only state begun from scratch in the middle of history. It's the only state created by wiping the slate clean and considering how things ought to be. Yeah yeah. It wasn't-- and God knows, isn't-- perfect. No state-- no individual-- ever was or is. But it was the best attempt at the best state ever attempted.

We owe it to ourselves to at least learn more about our country's founding, don't you think?

And now...

Grievance 10 of 27

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

This is a favorite of mine and others (1) for so many reasons.

Recall the first and last few words of the Declaration

When in the Course of Human Events,...

... we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

In my humble opinion, the Declaration begins and ends with words bigger than life. In the middle, the words themselves speak to regular life.

Although probably not true for today’s city mice, we country mice still know what a swarm of insects is. To be sure, the folks of Colonial America knew. They knew what a swarm of striped cucumber beetles could do to their crops of melon, zucchini, winter squash, and pumpkin. A swarm of beetles could eat out the substance of their gardens and fields, leaving them hungry now, and starving come winter. To liken the Officers of the multitude of New Offices to swarms is to bring this grievance to the people-- to even the low information folk of the day “hesitant Americans.” (2) Swarms. Brilliant, in my humble literary opinion.

“A multitude of New Offices,” you can say that again!

Folks at The National Humanities Center, which has an annotated version of the Declaration, have this to say:

Of the new offices created after 1763, the most unpopular were the British customs agents (tax collectors) who arrived in 1767 with expanded authority to conduct searches of ships and warehouses for goods smuggled into the colonies (a practice, long ignored by Britain, to avoid British import taxes).

They goes on to remind us that this grievance, in part, gave rise to the Fourth Amendment which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

There is a bit more to the story, though.

Don't act up! Behave. (3, p.93)

In 1763, the year the French and Indian War ended, George Greenville (f.n. 1) became  Chancellor of the Exchequer. Because of the Seven Years War, of which the French and Indian Was was only a part, Britain was in an economic recession, and the country was broke. Greenville was a man of “little talent” and great “obstinacy” who was not “well versed in American affairs.” (4) He focused, first on customs services which had grown lax, and sent British agents to America to enforce them. It's important to note that " '[o]ne of the convictions most firmly planted in the minds of eighteenth-century Englishmen was the superiority of true-born Britons to the American colonists.' " (3) No doubt the British agents were of such a mind.

Greenville then authorized the Commanders of Naval vessels to serve as customs agents, to thwart smugglers and collect taxes. He pushed the Sugar Act of 1764-- an act in part to defray "the expences of defending, protecting, and securing the said colonies and plantations"(f.n.2)-- through Parliament and sent 10,000 British soldiers to America to enforce it. And then he got the Stamp Act passed. The Stamp Act was a real doozy. You name it and it had to have a stamp on it, but that wasn't the biggest worry. The Act provided for the eventual establishment of ecclesiastical courts, which did not exist in the Colonies. These courts, were they to come into existence, would have been overseen by English Bishops-- another swarm.

As time went on, however, and the full import of of the various policies initiated by Greenville began to be realized, American resentment grew. Greenville’s policies seemed admireably designed to cripple in the most effective manner the economic life of the colonies. 

[snip] 

The colonies were poor, and the debts that they had incurred, or that some of them at least incurred, during the French and Indian War seemed heavy; yet this was the time the English government selected to restrict their trade, remodel their monetary system, and tax them for a kind of protection that they did not want and thought they did not need. (4)

[More on Greenville's other projects-- alluded to in that quote-- here.]
 Greenville was Mister of the Treasury for only two years (f.n. 3), but as you can see, the Acts just kept on coming. I’ll note that the chart (above) stops at 1767-- well before the tea tax and the “Intolerable Acts” of 1774. Each of these Acts meant more and more Brits to enforce the provisions.

 It's no wonder that by 1776 the Colonists-- at least the ones paying attention-- felt as if their substance was being eaten out. What was next? A tax on rabbits magicians pull out of their hats? No. We had to wait a couple hundred years for the swarm of  "Bunny Team Six." Steyn:

In 2011, I mentioned that USDA was dispatching crack field agents to poke around the back yards of children’s magicians on the off-chance they might be using rabbits on stage. Two years on, Bunny Team Six has come up with a new hare-brained scheme to take the magic out of our lives. Sure, it’s impressive when a conjurer pulls a rabbit out of his hat, but let’s face it, it’s not as impressive as a federal bureaucrat pulling a new regulation out of his butt:

My USDA rabbit license requirement has taken another ridiculous twist. I just received an 8 page letter from the USDA, telling me that by July 29 I need to have in place a written disaster plan, detailing all the steps I would take to help get my rabbit through a disaster, such as a tornado, fire, flood, etc. They not only want to know how I will protect my rabbit during a disaster, but also what I will do after the disaster, to make sure my rabbit gets cared for properly.  I am not kidding–before the end of July I need to have this written rabbit disaster plan in place, or I am breaking the law.

The magician, Marty Hahne, has been given until July 29th to submit his cottontail disaster-relief plan in the event that a tornado strikes his top hat, and to provide proof that he and his wife are trained to implement the plan. How much further down the rabbit hole can America go?

Just a reminder-- 25,000 Americans died during the Revolutionary War, a full 1% of the population. 

Footnotes and References below the fold.

Just so You Know

Via Instapundit.com linking to Patterico's Pontifications: 

Senators are questioning whether the National Security Agency collected bulk data on more than just Americans’ phone records, such as firearm and book purchases.

I'd seen the bit about the gun registry the other day and thought, "But of course." But this was the first mention of BOOKS I'd seen.

Patterico links to The Washington Free Beacon: 

The senators noted that the federal government’s authority under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act is broad and rife with potential for abuse. Among the senators’ concerns was whether the NSA’s bulk data harvesting program could be used to construct a gun registry or violate other privacy laws.

“It can be used to collect information on credit card purchases, pharmacy records, library records, firearm sales records, financial information, and a range of other sensitive subjects,” the senators wrote. “And the bulk collection authority could potentially be used to supersede bans on maintaining gun owner databases, or laws protecting the privacy of medical records, financial records, and records of book and movie purchases.”

[my emphasis]

Just so you know, Mr./Ms-Low-Man-On-The-Totem-Pole-Who's-Tasked-With-Following-My-Little-Blog, this coming Monday is the first Monday of the month. That's the once-a-month day the Public Library in Starkvegas has its book sale. I'll be there. I'll be especially interested purchasing crappy old books pertaining to American and English history, as well as those containing practical information such as how to properly tar and feather folks.

Since I'll be paying cash for my crappy old book purchases, it will be somewhat difficult for you to know just what books I'll add to by crappy old library. So, just so you know, I'll file a post with details. I appreciate that you must have a lot of little blogs to follow so just check back at your convenience. 
~~

The more I read about the Grievances, the more I appreciate how pissed off the Colonists must have been.

Jam

What'd you do this weekend?

You Never Know What You'll Find When You Go Berry Picking!

Naturally, dewberries

A happy face :-)

A BIG fungus

And another

And another!

A Libertarian truck

And OMG! A Libertarian!! They're not as rare as they used to be, though.

It's Dewberry Day!

Dewberries are a species distinct from blackberries, but for all intents and purposes-- namely picking berries for jam-- dewberries are wild blackberries. Emphasis on wild.

Long pants. Long sleeves. Hat. Boots. A quart or so of Deep Woods Off [TM]. Gloves. Water. Camera. Phone. Gun. Shotgun (armadillos). 

What a chore. 

But there's jam at the end.

Dusk: Nature's Sepia

Foggy reflections of dusk

Hat tip to Rocky & Missy who got all worked up about something, prompting me to look outside.

Doesn't Every American Do This Already?

From my inbox:

 

Those of us who celebrate Independence Day here at the Farm read the Declaration every Independence Day. Can't eat if you don't!

Here's the link to the Pledge if you're interested.

And by the way-- if you head over to the link here, you'll read that last year there were nine copies of the Declaration of Independence available for our guests to read. As I continue to collect crappy old books, I'm pleased to report that number has more than doubled. Because, you know, you can never have too many copies of the Declaration of Independence.

And You Thought You Were So Smart!

via Daughter C come the "100 smartest cities in America."

Starkville, Mississippi-- home to Mississippi State University: #34

Oxford, Mississippi-- home to the University of Mississippi, or as we like to call it, That School Up North: #75

Cincinnati, Ohio-- home to the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University and many others: #100

Here's the list. I do believe many big city mice will be quite surprised.

The Grievances

Every American knows by heart how the Declaration of Independence begins.

When in the Course of Human Events...

Every American can recite 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --

Every American knows

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --

Every American knows how the Declarations of Independence ends.

And for support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Sadly, however, not every American knows what's between beginning and end. I count myself among the ignorant. Don't misunderstand! I know every American knows it is the Grievances-- the list 30 or so things King George III did or did not do that got the Colonists' knickers in a knot. And to be sure, every American has a general sense of some: taxation without representation, keeping standing armies, abandoning trial by jury and the like. 

But is a general sense enough?

... That these United States are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States...

Not just are; ought to be. Not a fact of the matter; a powerful statement of what is morally right.

Is a general sense enough? I think not. 

I think I'd like to take a closer look at the reasons the Founding Fathers asserted these United States ought to be free and independent. 

So, in what is sure to be a haphazard adventure, with no doubt many twists and turns-- e.g., who knew I'd be thinking about Hume this morning?-- I'm going to study the Grievances.

Inspiration

Born June 27, 1880

From Anniversaries and Holidays: A Calendar of Days and How to Observe Them (Mary E. Hazeltine, American Library Association, Chicago, 1965).  

American lecturer and writer, blind and deaf since infancy; the inspiration of countless handicapped people throughout the world.

[Photo from Pushing to the Front Volume II by Orison Swett Marden, The Success Company, Petersburg, N.Y., 1911. More on Marden here.]

There was an inspiring story in this week's newspaper as well.

Two fellows-- one, Rob "Bobcat" Robinson, from around here, and the other, Gillian Anderson, from Kansas-- have formed a nonprofit organization, Forever Outdoors. According to the front page story, "Their goal is to help people overcome obstacles that stand between them and outdoor experiences." Their first project is a "'wounded warriors' deer hunting trip to Anderson's place in Kansas for five soldiers who were severely injured in combat." 

The organization is accepting donations to fund the trip and hunt, but Robinson said one of the main needs is for someone to volunteer to take the wounded warriors to Kansas in a motorhome. The hunt is set for Sept. 13-21 and Robinson said it is about 1,000 miles to Alexander's property.

Should you wish to make a donation, make your checks payable to "Forever Outdoors." The weekly newspaper published Robinson's home address, his phone number, and email. 

Should you really wish to make a donation, the email is i hunt ks but just one string, no spaces, at yahoo and then a period mark and then "com."

Inspirational, no? Well, yes. But that's not the most inspirational part. 

I remember reading the back story last December. Unfortunately, December's papers were put to other uses here on the farm and I no longer have them. Here's what is reported now, supplemented with some memory.

The two first met in 2008, when Robinson began turkey hunting on Alexander's land in Kansas. As I recall, it was a formal arrangement-- they'd never met, didn't hunt together and so on. But over a few years they got to know one another. Geeze. I wish I could find the December write-up but the newspaper doesn't have their full archives online. What's in this week's paper I hope will give you a sense of inspiration:

Alexander, who had been fighting a kidney disease for about 20 years, was on kidney dialysis treatment by 2011 and badly in need of a transplant.

Robinson, who is a firefighter with the Starkville Fire Department, decided he would check to see if he could help and discovered his kidney was a match. After Alexander was cleared last year to receive a transplant from Robinson, the transplant was successfully completed on Nov. 26 at Kansas University Hospital.

Both men now say they want to give back because of their blessings, resulting in their decision to launch Forever Outdoors. Robinson said he has always wanted to start a hunting business — not for the money but to give back. Alexander, out of gratitude for his friendship and his kidney donation, told Robinson he wanted to help him.

“Both of us have been so blessed we wanted to give something back,” Alexander said Tuesday from his Kansas home. “We hope to be able to help people who can’t enjoy the outdoors (including kidney patients).”

Inspiration.

Robinson and Alexander and a dog

"Song of the Kudzu Vine"

I picked up a book the other day at Palmer Home Thrift Store-- where all proceeds go to support the Palmer Home for Children-- by Channing Cope, an old Georgia farmer. It's titled, Front Porch Farmer (1949, Turner E. Smith & Company, Atlanta, Georgia). My goodness! Those Front Porch Farmers back in the crappy olden days sure had some interesting ideas.

IT'S A MIRACLE!

Chapter 3, "The Miracle Vine," concludes with a poem Ollie Reeves, Poet Laureate of Georgia. (There's no Wikipedia page for Ollie, or Oliver Reeves, but you can make one. Emory University, however, has his papers.)

The lovely little poem is below the fold.

Recipe: Crunchy Cornmeal Onion Rings (Veganizable)

Emphasis on the onion! We recommend Vidalias.

To veganize, substitute almond milk.


CRUNCHY CORNMEAL ONION RINGS
Serves 4-6

4 onions
Milk or buttermilk
2 C corn meal
1 tsp salt
Dash black pepper
Oil for deep frying

Slice onions ¼ inch thick and separate into rings. Soak onion rings in milk or buttermilk to cover for 30 minutes, then drain. Combine cornmeal, salt, and pepper (can use a freezer bag for this), coat onion rings with mixture, and drop into deep, hot (375o) oil. Fry until golden, drain on paper towels, and serve immediately.

Recipe: Green Beans with Pine Nuts

Best, of course, with homegrown green beans!

GREEN BEANS WITH PINE NUTS

1 lb green beans, trimmed, left whole if small, halved if large, cooked in boiling salted water 10-15 minutes or until just tender, drained, refreshed with cold water, and drained again
½ C pine nuts
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
Salt, pepper

Melt butter, add beans and pine nuts, and cook over medium heat, tossing beans carefully until very hot and well coated with butter. Add parsley, and salt and pepper to taste, and pile into a hot serving dish.

Recipe: Homemade Maple Sausage

Used in this meatloaf recipe.

There was some discussion about meatloaf, with Miss M saying before she turned vegan she liked brown sugar on top. In this meatloaf recipe, the maple sausage adds the hint of sweet.

HOMEMADE MAPLE SAUSAGE

Makes 1 lb, easily multiplied

1 lb ground pork
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp curing salt (like Morton’s Tender-Quick)
½ tsp Accent
¼ tsp coriander

Combine all ingredients, mixing well, and form into a log. Mixture will be very sticky. Wrap in plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray and refrigerate 24 hours. Use or freeze.

Recipe: Meat Loaf Delux

Mr. Big Food used Homemade Maple Sausage.

MEAT LOAF DELUXE

1 Tbsp butter
½ C white onion, chopped fine
½ tsp garlic powder
¾ C evaporated milk
1 lb ground beef
½ C chili sauce (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)
½ lb bulk pork sausage (any variety—hot, sage, maple, whatever, and preferably homemade—see recipes in Meats section)
2 Tbsp steak sauce (any variety—your choice)
1 egg, beaten
1 C herb-flavored stuffing mix
1 tsp salt
1 C shredded cheese (any variety—you choose)
½ tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350o. Saute onion in butter until clear. Combine with remaining ingredients in order listed in large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly. Spoon into greased loaf pan. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until juices are no longer pink.

Recipe: Jalapeno Black-Eyes (Veganizable)

I forgot to snap a photo of this dish. Sorry.

Mr. Big Food made some modifications to the recipe. He 1) substituted veggie stock for beef stock; 2) used 1 pound fresh (frozen from last year's garden!) black eyes so need to soak them, and 3) cut the amount of stock to 2 cups.

Served with vegan cornbread.

"Substituting veggie broth for beef makes this vegetarian and gives an interesting different flavor."

JALAPENO BLACK-EYES

1 lb dried black-eyed peas

5 C beef stock (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, minced

3 pickled jalapeno peppers, chopped fine (or an equivalent amount of sliced pickled jalapenos, also chopped fine) (preferably homemade—see recipes in Canning section)

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp Greek seasoning

4 oz jar diced pimentos

Salt, pepper to taste

Tabasco

Corn muffins or cornbread (preferably homemade—see recipes in Quick Breads section)

Rinse black eyes and soak in water to cover by 3 inches overnight. Drain black eyes and return to same saucepan. Add broth, onions, garlic, jalapenos, bay leaves, and Greek seasoning and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until peas are tender and most liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally, about 1- 1 ½ hours. Mix pimentos into peas. Season with salt and pepper if desired, Serve with corn muffins or cornbread and Tabasco.

Recipe: Vegan Cornbread

Dang good. Fairly dense. Awesome with black-eyed peas.

“This is a delicious basic vegan cornbread. It is moist and crunchy and corntastic. It is not a sweet bread, but a bread to be savored with soup or smothered with guacamole. For best results, use old-fashioned cornmeal.”

VEGAN CORNBREAD

Makes 12 to 16 squares

2 C cornmeal
1 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 C canola oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 C soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350o. Line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper or spray the bottom lightly with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together soy milk and vinegar. In a large bowl, sift together cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. Add oil and maple syrup to soy milk mixture, and whisk mixture with a wire whisk or a fork until foamy and bubbly, about 2 minutes.

Pour wet ingredient into dry ingredients, and mix together using a large wooden spoon or a firm spatula. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Slice into squares and serve warm. Store in an airtight container.

Farm Hand?

Via Instapundit.com:

As the first anniversary of her graduation in eco-tourism and cultural history approaches, Linnea Borjars remains jobless and frustrated.

Well, I am designing a food plot which I hope will attract not only turkey, deer, and quail but also artists, photographers and nature lovers. And we do have a lot of crappy old books in my library that I've tagged with both "cultural" and "history." And I could use a farm hand. 

Room, board & a chance to hang out with famous people included. 

A "famous" libertarian

Mr. Big Food Was On Television! He's Famous!!!!!

Okay. We know Mr. Big Food is famous.

By "we" I mean those of us who know Mr. Big Food, personally. Personally: as in, your brains & minds, bodies & souls, have been nourished, and as a consequence, have flourished, by being in Mr. Big Food's company. The list of folks who know Mr. Big Food personally is actually quite long. We are legion. And we know he's famous. 

But come to think of it, Mr./Ms-Low-Man-on-the-Totam-Pole-Employee-Of-Mine-Who's-Charged-with-Following-My-Little-Blog does not, so far as I know, know Mr. Big Food personally, and so does not know how famous Mr. Big Food is. And since we're a pretty inclusive group here at the Farm-- we're Libertarians, don't you know? (oh. yeah. right. you probably do know.)-- I've been trying to find ways to include you in the goings on here. And I can think of no better way to show you just how famous Mr. Big Food is than to post this video of Mr Big Food on the 6 o'clock news! If that doesn't make you famous, I don't know what does.

This could be a gold-mine for you, little Low-Man-Totem-Pole dude who works for me. You got video, audio, AND a back-handed criticism of Coach Mullin. Make of it what you will.

OR

You might wonder why it is that we are having so much fun living the Big Life. And you are a) not having fun and 2) not living a Big Life.

Recipes US: This Looks Interesting

They claim to have almost one million recipes!

Someone from RecipesUS left a comment on the Grilled Vegetables with Herb Marinade post inviting me to submit the blog to their site. And so I have! I believe it will take a day to process my "application" and I'm not sure how they are going to differentiate the recipe posts from, say, the dog posts, but I imagine all will become clear in due time.

Meanwhile, check out the site and its features. It's nice to see so many folks home-cooking, isn't it? Reminds me of this crappy old sentiment:

The Modern Family Cook Book. Meta Given. J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company, Chicago. 1958

Welcome Home :-(

MSU Baseball 'Welcome Home' Celebration set

June 26, 2013

Celebrating the best season by any team in school history, the Mississippi State athletic department invites fans to Dudy Noble Field this Thursday [June 27], at 7 p.m., to celebrate the 2013 national finalists Mississippi State Bulldog baseball team. Gates open at 5 p.m. and admission is free.
Event parking and all seating will be free and be made available on a first-come, first-served basis. Suite holders will have access to parking spots in Lot A as well as access to their suites. A limited selection of baseball merchandise will also be available for purchase inside the stadium.
Prior to the celebration, the video board in right field will air messages from current Diamond Dogs in Major League Baseball, as well as highlights from the 2013 season, including the NCAA Starkville Regional, the NCAA Charlottesville Super Regional and the NCAA College World Series.
Starting at 7 p.m., emcee and voice of the Diamond Dogs Jim Ellis will host a program which will include introductions of players and coaches, remarks from university officials, Head Coach John Cohen and selected players.
For questions regarding the event, please Tweet @MStateBB and a member of the athletic department will respond to your Tweet.
2013 Celebration Quick Facts
Who: Mississippi State Baseball Team and Fans
What: 2013 Welcome Home Celebration
When: Thursday, June 27, 2013, 7 p.m.
Where: Dudy Noble Field on campus of Mississippi State University
Admission: Free (General Admission)
Parking: Free (First Come, First Served)

http://msstate.edu/web/media/announcement.php?id=1702

Mr. Big Food and the owner of the tractor store spent a considerable amount of time talking about the Dawgs yesterday. They both had their doubts. Sadly, they were correct.

Oh my gosh!

I was so consumed with tractors that I forgot to mention that we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes and green beans tonight while State was getting loosing.

Recipes tomorrow.

I Do Not Care to Engage in the Idle Activity of Shopping, But When It Comes to Tractors...

Isn't she a beauty?

In fact, she is. But she's not what were shopping for. 

How much is that tractor in the lot?

More than you'd expect. 

Yes. We are shopping for a tractor. We've gotten some excellent advise from our county Agent, her pal from a neighboring county, the John (overpriced) Deere guy, our neighbor, and various other interested folks. 

So we have a pretty good sense of what action we need to take. BUT it always makes good sense to turn back a historical page or two and consult a crappy old book.

The Operation, Care, and Repair of Farm Machinery Twenty-First Edition, John Deere, Moline, Illinois. 1947

We need a disc.

We don't need a cultivator.

We most decidedly do not need a combine.

But we do need a Bush Hog [TM]

As an aside, I finally figured out what was up with that crappy old book. As it turns out, between 1927-1957 John Deere gave these books to high schools and Vo-Ag schools. Gave. For Free. 

http://www.magneeders.com/ocr.html

http://www.retiredtractors.com/Q/books.html

The state of the corporate state was very quaint back in the crappy old days. 

John Deere tractors are made in India.

The particular New Holland tractor we're looking at is made in Italy. (Italians don't make their beds.)

We are not done shopping! Thursday, we go to the Caterpillar place.

As it turns out, I don't mind tractor shopping. 

Isn't This Cute As The Dickens?

A/C, power steering

Seats two comfortably with plenty of room in the back for the youngins'

And only $18,000!

It Ain't LA

Last Friday was a BIG day in Starkvegas-- the Mississippi State Baseball Dawgs advanced to the World Series of Baseball! And I just happened to be in 'Vegas to capture the excitement!

It's been a while since I've traveled to Euro-America, but here in Redneck America The South, we do enjoy us some balcony bars. 

Not exciting enough for ya? Hold on!

A Dawgs fan being interviewed

by a journalist! WLOV: Tupelo / Columbus / West Point

She did well, for a Country Mouse.

 Look at the size of the Crowd that Gathered!

~~

Humm, Score at the bottom of the 4th: 

UCLA 3
Miss. State 0

It's a three game series. There are at least 14 more innings of ball to play. (Bruins led off tonight, so game two will have to go at least nine.)

~~

As you know, I pay no attention to college sports. (I apologize for that damage to your computer keyboards). As a dyed-in-the-wool Libertarian, I strongly object to ESPN dictated college sports.

But it sure would be nice to see State win a national title in something. That would be exciting-- and distracting!