My Wife Gets Her Horse

It was 7:30 Friday morning when my brother showed up with two horses. One a 15 year old Arab and the other a 2 year old Quarter. Both good looking, even tempered, and both needing a home.

So how did they get here? In this economy when people are getting rid of their horses because they can't afford to feed them, why two more horses here? Well, it all started about about ten years ago.

That was when I started taking in unwanted and neglected horses.  Even then I was making friends with people who couldn't afford to keep their horses. 

It wasn't hard to get them here. It was always the same routine.  Someone would say something about a horse that was "free" and an owner in trouble, and I'd be in my old Milley trailer and down the road I'd go.  Thehen when I get there, I really couldn't say no.

The first two years I picked up quite a few horses, but I did find good home for most. Of course there are those that are just going to stay and hopefully enjoy their retirement here.

Of course my brother showing up with two more is not that crazy really.

There are crazier things.  On one of my brother's trips to California from the Big Island of Hawaii, it sort of got a little crazy for me.

My brother had an appointment at the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto and needed me to pick him up at the airport in San Jose. He was flying in from Hawaii and it was an appointment that was six months in the waiting. The appointment was at ten that morning and his flight was supposed to come in to San Jose at six. All this meant that I needed to leave my home in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at three to be there on time.

Well I picked him up at almost eight because his plane was late and we headed for Palo Alto. There is nothing like driving in city traffic when you haven't done it in a long time. Yup, nothing like it at all.

Two trucks that had never seen a dirt road or a bale of hay nearly took off my back end while trying to pass me. A small car named something that looked like it belonged on an Italian restaurant's menu nearly clipped a big rig driven by a guy with a turban. All the while my brother screamed obscenities at everyone. It was shaping up to be a rough morning.

Before leaving home that morning, if 3am still qualifies as morning instead of the dead of night, I had helped give birth to a foal from a mare that had a rough time of it. By the time I got my brother to his appointment, I was tired, hungry, and knew for certain that I thanked God for where I live. Yes, even at 5am in the morning the traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area is nuts!

The Sierra Nevada Mountain range stretches from Oregon to Mexico and is as beautiful as places come. My little part of it is a place called Glencoe with a population of 189 that sits about in the middle of the Sierra's in California.

This is the Gold Country! The place where the 49ers, the 1849ers, came to California in the first place. And right then sitting in traffic after his appointment heading out of the San Francisco Bay Area, my mind couldn't help but wonder how many cars we had in Glencoe compared to how many there was on the freeway that day.

My brother was as hungry as I was by the time we got to Livermore, so we stopped at a place that I used to go to when I was living there. The gals who worked there were gone so like a lot of places it just didn't feel the same when something's missing. Then my brother came up with a good idea. He wanted to know if the Rough Stock was already at the rodeo grounds for that weekend's rodeo.

After we dropped on by the grounds, we saw that they were there and that the Rodeo Mixer was on for that night. The Mixer was a combination of cowboys and greenhorns who get together a few nights before the rodeo to share a night of BarBQ, drinks, dancing, and greenhorn penning where the local Rotary Club members can get their pictures taken on a horse.

The BarBQ was great and I got to see a lot of old friend. ...

I bet you're still wondering about where this is leading considering it's a story about getting two more horses?

Well during the dance, and yes I was still dressed in my old carhart jacket which yes did have some blood on it from that morning's birth. And while I wasn't up to dancing, an old lady friend had a different idea and grabed me for a Two Step which I quickly remembered.

Then in the middle of this two step I see this very pretty gal sitting there by her self tapping her foot to the band The California Cowboys who were on their game that night. I made mention that she was pretty and my old friend told me to ask her to dance and the next thing you know I was asking her for her phone number at the end of the night. She was as she still is, and that my friend is a very good lady.

We talked on the phone for the next month and she came up to visit, and yes we dated for a while. During that time I asked her to go riding with me, and we did. But the horse she rode was Ol' Mac and he was getting older daily. While he was truly what anyone would consider "Bomb Proof," the problem was that he was also arthritic.

That gal that I met during the Rodeo Mixer married me five and a half years ago, and I've been blessed ever since. The only slack in the rope that we call our life is that three years ago Ol' Mac had the hardest time getting shod, and after talking with the shoer we agreed that his riding days had ended.

If there is one thing that I have learned in my life it's that you should never promise something that you can't produce. Seven years ago I promised a nice gal that we'd be able to ride together. Three years ago that stopped just when she was in the middle of learning to ride.

Part of the reason that my wife and I haven't rode together is that I've been pretty hard head steadfast about her first horse being another "Bomb Proof" older horse.

When I got Mac, I got lucky. He was a horse that anyone could ride. It never mattered if it were kids, old folks, or even a nice gal from the city. When it came to pleasure riding, Mac was always nice to have around and available. For the last three years, I just haven't had a horse like him that I would be able to trust with anyone atop him.

Well the other day, my brother and his wife gave such a horse away. When he told me about it, I said that it was too bad that I didn't know about it because it sounded like a horse that would be perfect for my wife. Then two days later, the people that took the horse said that they were having money trouble and couldn't keep the horse after all.

So friends, we now have two more horses around here and that's how my wife got her first horse. Fact is that horses are always coming and going in life, and now my wife will start experiencing the joy of being able to hook up with one of God's great gifts and really enjoy the time she has with her.

From all that we can see over the last three days, her new mare's name is Tango, and I really believe that she'll make a great riding companion for my wife who is just starting out with horses.

To Answer An E-Mail Regarding My Defending Theodore Roosevelt

My friend asks, "Out of curiosity, how much reading have you done into the late 19th century Progressive Movement? In my opinion, you haven't characterized it correctly. They were quite interested in big govt. solutions/socialism. They also realized that it couldn't be done quickly, but by incrementalism. President Wilson was a big proponent of it. Both Roosevelts continued along the path. They went into hiding for a while, but are out again now in force.

My good friend,

That's a great question! Actually while I was going for my degree in Criminal Justice, I started to read about the formation of different Police Departments.

I started reading a great deal about Theodore Roosevelt starting when he was a New York City Police Commissioner. I found it very interesting that he was already fighting against corruption, graft, citizen abuse, and the political machines and "Bosses" of the time.

This lead to my reading about how he championed blue collar Americans who had no rights during that era. This lead me to reading about the horrid situation with Child Labor abuses in our country.

"With the coming of industrialization in Europe and the United States, the implied right of abuse was transferred to the factory, where orphaned or abandoned children as young as five worked sixteen hours a day. In many cases irons were riveted around their ankles to bind the children to the machines, while overseers with whips ensured productivity."

Source - http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1361/Chi...l#ixzz1AHZRbMKP

Wouldn't you fight against such Bullspit? Knowing you the little that I do, I'd say that you would absolutely fight against such an abuse.

Since I have been a long time Republican and hard core Conservative, and subsequently have done what most Conservatives do .... and that's give all that I can to help those in need without the government getting involved, I couldn't understand how people are calling Theodore Roosevelt a modern day "Progressive".

Then I found out that the Progressive Movement from 1890 to 1920 was different than what is called Progressives today. Which by the way was not a term used by modern day "Liberals" again until 2004 after the DNC hired a Linguist to help the DNC "re-package" their message. Why? Because in poll after poll at the time, the term "Liberal" had become a negative in the eyes of the American public.

The Progressive Movement from 1890 to 1920 tackled such problems as unfit working conditions and landlord abuse. It never expounded the ideals of Socialism and in fact fought against the idea that the State should take care of it's citizens from cradle to grave. It did however give the average working man, woman, and child some muscle to defend itself from situations were they never had a voice.

People have a way of rewriting history. In the case of those who fought against housing and labor abuses, they weren't Communist ( and trust me when I say that I've seen real Communist at work) ... but instead they were simply Americans looking out for the next guy.

I think if I were around during the Gilded Age and saw the ways that Americans were being treated, then I'd probably would have joined in the fight to help those in need.

If it were happening today, would my fight against such abuses mean that I'm a bleeding heart Liberal? No it doesn't because I wouldn't advocate a Government take over of that business who is doing the offense ... instead I'd use the law of the land to rectify such an abuse.

Remember pard, TR wasn't the one who started a lot of the reform. In fact much of the reform started way before McKinley took office. But those reforms did lead to things like the 1938 passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (52 Stat. 1060) where the federal government started regulating child labor, among other provisions.

TR said all he wanted was for Americans to have a "Square Deal", and his policies which he carried on after McKinley was shot would go along with the preamble of the U.S. Constitution:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

That ain't Socialism! That God Bless Us is Americanism!

Defending Theodore Roosevelt

I never thought that I'd be in a position to defend Theodore Roosevelt. But I guess if I'm going to defend one of my heroes, then it may as well be TR.

Lately, maybe because the Progressives are so much in the news, I hear more people trying to paint TR as a flaming Liberal. But should anyone call him Liberal in today's terms? I don't see how!  

He wrote over thirty books, a besides being our 26th President, he was also a Cowboy, a Policeman, a Soldier, a Conservative, a Populist, and an old school Republican activist.

As a New York Police Commissioner, he reorganized and helped to modernize the New York Police Department. The police force was reputed as one of the most corrupt in America, so he attacked the corruption and abuse of power within the Police Department .... and later did the same in the New York state house.

He took that same sort of vigor to the Oval Office after McKinley was shot by going after corruption in the Political Machine of the times and the abuse of power by corporations over average Americans.

He was definitely anti-Special Interest and a Government ruled by those interest.

Some of the results of his fight were the never before heard of Child Labor Laws to restrict the exploitation of children. 

And besides the Child Labor Laws, he championed the 8 hour work day, the 40 hour work week, an employee liability law for industrial injuries, and a living wage. This is what made TR so-called "anti-corporations".

During his time he was the first to start food safety regulations to stop the sale of bad meats and other foods, drugs, and beverages. The result was The Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906) which was passed to protect public health.

He was not in favor of Unions and was actually anti-Union, especially by today's standards where they control so much with their political contributions. He hated the idea that those with money could make huge political contributions and subsequently control things. 

He appointed three very Conservative Justices to SCOTUS including Oliver Wendell Holmes.

He loved nature and championed the conservation movement of the time. He was a Conservationist and set goals to preserve the land FOR our future. He was not an environmentalist like those in today's Environmentalism movement which has become a political wing of America's Left and a haven for crazies who see humans as the enemy of the environment.

TR was so concerned about our environment and energy needs in the future so much that he put aside coal, oil, mineral, and forest reserves that did not come available until 2009. He knew that at the rate that they were using our natural resources during his term in office that there might not be any available one hundred years later. So he put much of those lands aside for the USE of Americans in later generations when he founded the National Parks system and other resource preservation acts.

He also championed a woman's right to vote and was a women's suffrage supporter to reform laws against women, especially old laws against a wife's right to inherit her husband's property. In many states at the time it was against the law for women to own property, and in many states after a husband's death ... the property would go to his next male kin.

TR believed in U.S. power, built up our Navy, welcomed the idea of U.S. expansion, and he even sought to extend the Monroe Doctrine to other countries. He put into place a temporary U.S. style of colonial rule over the Dominican Republic in 1905 and Cuba in 1906, as well as organizing the 1903 secession of Panama from Colombia in order to obtain the Panama Canal Zone. 

In an article on immigration, Roosevelt said, "We must Americanize in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles, and in their way of looking at relations between church and state. We welcome the German and the Irishman who becomes an American. We have no use for the German or Irishman who remains such... [b]He must revere only our flag, not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second[/b]."

None of these that I've listed are anywhere near Liberal positions today. 

The idea that the American Progressive movement of the late 19th century is in anyway similar to the so-called re-labeled Liberals today who call themselves Progressives is insane. They are like night and day.

One great example that the Progressive Movement of the late 19th Century is different than the so-called Progressives of today is that during the TR's time Progressives sought to enable the citizenry to rule more directly and circumvent political bosses.

Read Theodore Roosevelt's speech that he gave in 1912 pertaining to "The Rights of the People to Rule" and tell me if it is the same as the Liberal Left's agenda today? It isn't.

"Are the American people fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves, to control themselves? I believe they are. My opponents do not. I believe in the right of the people to rule. I believe the majority of the plain people of the United States will, day in and day out, make fewer mistakes in governing themselves than any smaller class or body of men, no matter what their training, will make in trying to govern them. I believe, again, that the American people are, as a whole, capable of self-control and of learning by their mistakes. Our opponents pay lip-loyalty to this doctrine; but they show their real beliefs by the way in which they champion every device to make the nominal rule of the people a sham. I have scant patience with this talk of the tyranny of the majority. Wherever there is tyranny of the majority, I shall protest against it with all my heart and soul. But we are today suffering from the tyranny of minorities. It is a small minority that is grabbing our coal-deposits, our water-powers, and our harbor fronts. A small minority is battening on the sale of adulterated foods and drugs. It is a small minority that lies behind monopolies and trusts. It is a small minority that stands behind the present law of master and servant, the sweat-shops, and the whole calendar of social and industrial injustice. ...

The only tyrannies from which men, women, and children are suffering in real life are the tyrannies of minorities. If the majority of the American people were in fact tyrannous over the minority, if democracy had no greater self-control than empire, then indeed no written words which our forefathers put into the Constitution could stay that tyranny.

No sane man who has been familiar with the government of this country for the last twenty years will complain that we have had too much of the rule of the majority. The trouble has been a far different one that, at many times and in many localities, there have held public office in the States and in the nation men who have, in fact, served not the whole people, but some special class or special interest. I am not thinking only of those special interests which by grosser methods, by bribery and crime, have stolen from the people. I am thinking as much of their respectable allies and figureheads, who have ruled and legislated and decided as if in some way the vested rights of privilege had a first mortgage on the whole United States, while the rights of all the people were merely an unsecured debt. Am I overstating the case? Have our political leaders always, or generally, recognized their duty to the people as anything more than a duty to disperse the mob, see that the ashes are taken away, and distribute patronage? Have our leaders always, or generally, worked for the benefit of human beings, to increase the prosperity of all the people, to give each some opportunity of living decently and bringing up his children well? The questions need no answer." (Theodore Roosevelt, 1912)

This sounds more like Tea Party Conservatism than it does 2011 Liberalism.

This sounds like all of the reasons that the November 2010 Elections turned out the way they did.

Can You Believe It's 2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


I see a lot of signs that this may be a good year!


This morning my father-in-law lost it and laughing so hard at his own joke that he had tears running down his cheeks. And friends, that in itself is something rare to see.


I heard from a friend last night that this year may be good in the aspect that President Obama may stay out of Washington all month golfing in Hawaii. It seems that he loves his time away from the Oval Office. Well there's some of us that really like it when he stays out of the Oval Office. Maybe he can stay away for the next two years? Maybe being a golfer is more suited for him? Afterall his abilities to lead our nation is lacking at best.


Another sign that there is hope for the new year is the big event at Travis Air Force base in California. This month will see Nancy Pelosi give up her huge government furnished jet which she has used liberally to transport friends and relatives and her wealthy donors across the country and to Europe. She will be flying commercial like you and me. And friends, it's about time.


This coming year will probably go down as the "Year of the Great Repeal". It will be a "Take it back, we can't afford it" year.


"Take it back, we can't afford it!" That's what my mom used to tell us kids when we were in a store and we'd find something that we wanted. There was six of us kids, my dad was a sheet metal worker and welder, and of course mom managed the household. She knew how to stretch a dollar, especially when dad was off of work again because work was slow out there.


Maybe we need a "mom" as our president? Heck just her experience of running a family in itself is more experience than the present president had before he took office.


Yes, it was always up to mom to manage the family's money wisely and not spend our budget on things we just couldn't afford.


Sounds familiar to you? I bet it does! It's that way with most us. We are the great majority that folks forget about or can't relate to. Average Americans, not rich and not poor. Average Americans who fight to make it from check to check. I can't help but wonder how many in this present Administration can identify with us?


President Obama and his family are worth Millions and Millions of dollars. And some might say that that is his present financial condition and it wasn't always that way for him, but I can't help but wonder if it he's always had it easy.


Think about it. I think Obama would be hard pressed to understand us. I guess if you've never lived like us than it would be very hard to understand what folks have to do to get by sometimes. Especially during hard times.


Obama can't understand us. Here's a man who went to one of the most expensive private schools in Hawaii, Punahou School which was once known as Oahu College, and who went to expensive colleges in the mainland. Heck, the man had someone else pay for his college tuitions to the multiple colleges. And yes, those who paid his way are unknown because the public hasn't been able to see Obama's college transcripts.


We don't know what kind of grades he got, what he majored in, what kind of student he was, or who actually paid for his education .... because he won't release that information to us.


The concept that you can't always get what you want, even if you whine about it, is probably unfamiliar to someone like Obama who has had everything handed to him. Most Americans know how it is to want things and yet can't afford it.


The State of California is in the midst learning that lesson. Now it's the time for the Federal Government to learn how it is to have to "Take it back, we can't afford it!"


We The People just can't afford it.


From what happened during the elections in November, and knowing how hardy most Americans truly are, I see things as being pretty promising for 2011!


My advice to people who ask me about politics and what to expect from the world, was said best back in 1903 by Teddy Roosevelt, when he said, "Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready."


I'm sure some will say that we have an attitude, but that's how we should deal with the future. We should speak courteously, deal fairly and wisely with each other, and we should keep ourselves armed and ready because our fight to retake America has just started.