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India's Animal Wars

Looks like the animal wars are escalating. I read where Hindus in India planted pig parts on the site of new mosque. In retaliation, Muslims slaughtered a pregnant cow on the grounds of a Hindu temple. Several people were reported killed in the resulting riots.

If the practice of critter dumping spreads to Texas, I hope the offenders use the entire animal. After their point is made they can donate the carcasses to our Southern Baptists so they can throw a barbecue.

A Little Sunday Entertainment

If you've ever been to Louisiana, you understand what a different world is tucked into our gulf coast. Swamps, Spanish moss, alligators, snakes, millions of birds, and a cast characters you couldn't even imagine. The first time I drove through the state, I tuned in a local radio station and heard this kind of music as I enjoyed watching the wildlife that populated the bayous along the road.

It Might as Well be Spring

On a day when the Pacific Northwest is being pounded with snow, ice and flooding, and Canada's prairie provinces are experiencing minus 30F temperatures, I should probably feel guilty talking about spring.Then again, it might give some hope to those having to put up with more typical winter weather.

More than four and twenty...the blackbirds are flocking together and feeding heavily as they prepare to migrate.

A few brave bulbs are sending up shoots to test the weather, so it appears a few of them survived the brutal summer. I was afraid that most had been baked.

Salad fixin's from a volunteer bibb letuce will be ready in a few days and there are a few others a week or two behind this one. If the weather stays mild, I'll have to begin planting early crops in about two weeks.

I forgot what this bush is called, but it's trying to bloom early. Looks sort of like a wild rose, but I don't remember planting anything like that.

But, there is a downside to the mild weather too, as the weeds are also making an early appearance...

Then there is the surest sign of spring. The purple martin scouts have already begun to arrive in South Texas, Louisiana and Florida! They are about a week earlier than normal.

January Pain

Property taxes, Christmas bills, estimated state and federal income taxes, plus auto insurance on four vehicles, certainly makes January a painful month for my bank account.

If we made payroll deductions for all taxes illegal, people might get angry enough to put the government(s) on an economic diet. When you have to sit down and write checks, tax paying becomes a whole lot more personal.

A Hint of Spring

Mother Nature has been blowing warm kisses across the Gulf of Mexico into East Texas the past few days. Yesterday it was a breezy 73 and it's already 60 at dawn this morning.

One unidentifiable bird has apparently been fooled by the balmy weather and has already begun singing his spring song, so I had better clean out the bird houses soon. The bluebirds usually begin nest building in early February.

One bad thing...billions of tiny weeds are sprouting in the yard, but maybe they'll be killed when we get the hard freeze that I know is yet to come.

Journalistic Logic

"The shooting renewed dabate about a federal law that made it legal for people to take loaded weapons into national parks."

This quote in today's paper is another brilliant display of journalism from the Associated Press, referring to the killing of a park ranger in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Let me get this straight. The guy was running from a multiple victim shooting in Skyway...blew past a ranger checkpoint in the park...shot and killed a park ranger who tried to block him...and then ran again. And now the debate is whether a loaded weapon should be allowed in national parks?

I'm sure if there had been a sign warning that no loaded weapons may be carried into the park, that he would have stopped and turned his in.

Only from a mindless, nanny mentality can you expect this type of logic.