4 in 5 Americans Face Near-poverty, No Work Under Obama

This was in the news on Sunday, 28 Jul 2013.

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.


As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused — on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.

Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures.

Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987.

In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."

"I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia.

Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks.

"If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said.

"Children have nothing better to do than to get on drugs."

While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, race disparities in the poverty rate have narrowed substantially since the 1970s, census data show.

Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in the government's poverty data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press.

The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line.

Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.

Marriage rates are in decline across all races, and the number of white mother-headed households living in poverty has risen to the level of black ones.

"It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty.

He noted that despite continuing economic difficulties, minorities have more optimism about the future after Obama's election, while struggling whites do not.

"There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front," Wilson said.

Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession.

While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.

More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.

Sometimes termed "the invisible poor" by demographers, lower-income whites generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white.

Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains.

Buchanan County, in southwest Virginia, is among the nation's most destitute based on median income, with poverty hovering at 24 percent.

The county is mostly white, as are 99 percent of its poor.

More than 90 percent of Buchanan County's inhabitants are working-class whites who lack a college degree.

Higher education long has been seen there as nonessential to land a job because well-paying mining and related jobs were once in plentiful supply.

These days many residents get by on odd jobs and government checks.

Salyers' daughter, Renee Adams, 28, who grew up in the region, has two children. As a jobless single mother, she relies on her live-in boyfriend's disability checks to get by.

Salyers says it was tough raising her own children as it is for her daughter now, and doesn't even try to speculate what awaits her grandchildren, ages 4 and 5.

Smoking a cigarette in front of the produce stand, Adams later expresses a wish that employers will look past her conviction a few years ago for distributing prescription painkillers, so she can get a job and have money to "buy the kids everything they need."

"It's pretty hard," she said. "Once the bills are paid, we might have $10 to our name."

Census figures provide an official measure of poverty, but they're only a temporary snapshot that doesn't capture the makeup of those who cycle in and out of poverty at different points in their lives.

They may be suburbanites, for example, or the working poor or the laid off.

In 2011 that snapshot showed 12.6 percent of adults in their prime working-age years of 25-60 lived in poverty.

But measured in terms of a person's lifetime risk, a much higher number — 4 in 10 adults — falls into poverty for at least a year of their lives.

The risks of poverty also have been increasing in recent decades, particularly among people ages 35-55, coinciding with widening income inequality.

For instance, people ages 35-45 had a 17 percent risk of encountering poverty during the 1969-1989 time period; that risk increased to 23 percent during the 1989-2009 period. For those ages 45-55, the risk of poverty jumped from 11.8 percent to 17.7 percent.

Higher recent rates of unemployment mean the lifetime risk of experiencing economic insecurity now runs even higher: 79 percent, or 4 in 5 adults, by the time they turn 60.

By race, non-whites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent.

But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.

By 2030, based on the current trend of widening income inequality, close to 85 percent of all working-age adults in the U.S. will experience bouts of economic insecurity.

"Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers.

"Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need."

The numbers come from Rank's analysis being published by the Oxford University Press.

They are supplemented with interviews and figures provided to the AP by Tom Hirschl, a professor at Cornell University; John Iceland, a sociology professor at Penn State University; the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute; the Census Bureau; and the Population Reference Bureau.

Among the findings:

—For the first time since 1975, the number of white single-mother households living in poverty with children surpassed or equaled black ones in the past decade, spurred by job losses and faster rates of out-of-wedlock births among whites.

White single-mother families in poverty stood at nearly 1.5 million in 2011, comparable to the number for blacks. Hispanic single-mother families in poverty trailed at 1.2 million.

—Since 2000, the poverty rate among working-class whites has grown faster than among working-class nonwhites, rising 3 percentage points to 11 percent as the recession took a bigger toll among lower-wage workers.

Still, poverty among working-class nonwhites remains higher, at 23 percent.

—The share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods — those with poverty rates of 30 percent or more — has increased to 1 in 10, putting them at higher risk of teenage pregnancy or dropping out of school. N

on-Hispanic whites accounted for 17 percent of the child population in such neighborhoods, compared with 13 percent in 2000, even though the overall proportion of white children in the U.S. has been declining.

The share of black children in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped from 43 percent to 37 percent, while the share of Latino children went from 38 percent to 39 percent.

—Race disparities in health and education have narrowed generally since the 1960s.

While residential segregation remains high, a typical black person now lives in a nonmajority black neighborhood for the first time.

Previous studies have shown that wealth is a greater predictor of standardized test scores than race; the test-score gap between rich and low-income students is now nearly double the gap between blacks and whites.

Going back to the 1980s, never have whites been so pessimistic about their futures, according to the General Social Survey, a biannual survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Just 45 percent say their family will have a good chance of improving their economic position based on the way things are in America.

The divide is especially evident among those whites who self-identify as working class. Forty-nine percent say they think their children will do better than them, compared with 67 percent of non-whites who consider themselves working class, even though the economic plight of minorities tends to be worse.

Although they are a shrinking group, working-class whites — defined as those lacking a college degree — remain the biggest demographic bloc of the working-age population.

In 2012, Election Day exit polls conducted for the AP and the television networks showed working-class whites made up 36 percent of the electorate, even with a notable drop in white voter turnout.

Last November, Obama won the votes of just 36 percent of those noncollege whites, the worst performance of any Democratic nominee among that group since Republican Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide victory over Walter Mondale.

Some Democratic analysts have urged renewed efforts to bring working-class whites into the political fold, calling them a potential "decisive swing voter group" if minority and youth turnout level off in future elections.

"In 2016 GOP messaging will be far more focused on expressing concern for 'the middle class' and 'average Americans,'" Andrew Levison and Ruy Teixeira wrote recently in The New Republic.

"They don't trust big government, but it doesn't mean they want no government," says Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who agrees that working-class whites will remain an important electoral group.

His research found that many of them would support anti-poverty programs if focused broadly on job training and infrastructure investment.

"They feel that politicians are giving attention to other people and not them," Goeas said.

This past week, Obama pledged anew to help manufacturers bring jobs back to America and to create jobs in the energy sectors of wind, solar and natural gas.

Of course, with over-regulation and ever increasing demands from the EPA and other politically controlled agencies of the Federal Government - the Obama administration will go down as the most anti-business administration in American History.

The results prove it!

Captured by the Arapaho, 1875

Walter Glazier was born near Albany in upstate New York. He joined the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War and was captured by Confederate troops in October 1863.

Over the next year, Glazier was moved from prison to prison throughout the South until he was able to make an escape in November of 1864.

His freedom was short-lived, however, as he was soon recaptured.

Following the war, Glazier wrote a book recounting his experiences that became a bestseller.

His experiences during the war not only brought him financial independence but imbued him with a wanderlust that inspired a plan to travel America from coast to coast on horseback.

In early May 1875, Glazier mounted his horse in Boston and headed west. His journey ended on November 26 when he waded in the waters of the Pacific near San Francisco.

The time in between was filled with adventure that resulted in another book published in 1896.

Captured

We join Glazier's story as he leaves the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming in the company of two horse herders.

Glazier describes his fellow travelers as "rough men and plain of speech, but apparently reliable and trustworthy."

They are escorting a group of mustangs to Salt Lake City for sale.

As the travelers clear a rise in an area known as "Skull Rocks" about thirty miles west of Cheyenne, trouble appears on the horizon:

". . . over a slight elevation appeared a body of Indians - thirteen in number. This caused us no surprise at first, as Indians are often seen on the Plains.

We soon discovered, however, that they were on no friendly errand, and were pronounced by the herders to be a raiding party of Arrapahoes [sic].

They were decked in their war paint, and as soon as they saw us raised a shout.

My companions, fearing that they were in the presence of an enemy who would doubtless endeavor to relieve them of their mustangs and ponies, made friendly signals.

The signals, however, were ignored by the Indians, who continued to advance and gradually formed a circle around us.

This is the common Indian mode of attack.

The circle is contracted while a fire is kept up upon the centre where the victims are effectually imprisoned - the Indians by rendering themselves a constantly shifting target are thus comparatively safe from the fire of the centre.

Riding around rapidly and firing at us, I and my two companions returned the fire over the backs of the mustangs and ponies which were used as a breastwork.

The circle gradually became smaller in diameter, when a shot from the gun of one of the herders killed an Indian.

A rush was now made upon us, our arms wrested from us, and ourselves speedily bound together with thongs.

The mustangs and ponies were promptly seized, and we were prisoners. Further resistance was useless.

We were helpless in the hands of twelve powerful Indians. We were soon ordered to mount, and the entire party, less one Indian, killed, started off in a northerly direction.

Skull Rocks - site of the attack

We rode at a trot until about ten o'clock at night, when a halt was ordered by the leader - a chief called ‘Lone Wolf’ - and all dismounted; a fire was kindled and some antelope meat partially roasted, a portion of which was given to us. We were all squatted around a big fire, the Indians being engaged in earnest conversation.

One of the herders understood enough of their language to explain that the discussion referred to their captives - that the friends of the Indian who was shot at Skull Rocks, and who were in the majority, were in favor of putting us all to death for having killed one of their number.

Lone Wolf, however, interposed, saying it would be enough to take the life of the one who had killed their brother.

The supper over, four of the Arrapahoes approached us and seized the herder who had fired the fatal shot.

They forced him towards a stout stake which they had previously driven into the ground about fifty yards from the fire.

The whole party of Indians then, without ceremony or talk with their victim, commenced dancing around and torturing him in the most fiendish manner.

They had heated their arrowheads in the fire and held them in contact with his naked flesh, while others, at a few feet from their victim, cast at him their sharp-pointed knives which, penetrating his body, remained embedded in the flesh until he nearly died from agony.

One of their number then advanced and shot him in the head, and this ended his sufferings.

In the meantime, the other herder and I were seated on the ground bound together and unable to offer any assistance to our tortured companion.

Several of the Indians now approached us, and dragging me to the stake, bound me to it and commenced a series of dances accompanied by much gesticulation and taunting which they doubtless intended as a sort of introduction to tortures which were to follow.

Lone Wolf who at this time was some distance from the camp-fire, rushed forward and dispersed them.

One of the Indians removed the scalp from the head of the dead man and fastened it to his waist; after which they all squatted around the fire again, engaged for the most part in shouting and speechmaking. I had never before witnessed a case of torture by Indians and trust I may never see another.

The horses of the Indians had been tethered by long ropes to stakes.

A guard of two Indians was placed in charge of us, and we were made to lie down, still bound together, with an Indian on each side of us to prevent our escape.

The other Indians disposed themselves around the fire and slept. . .

. . . At the first streak of dawn, the Indians in a body leaped to their feet.

The herder and I were each given a mustang which we mounted under the close scrutiny of our guards and the entire party started northward at a brisk trot."

Escape

The Indians and their captives rode for three days, resting at night.

We rejoin Glazier's story as dawn breaks on the fourth day and the prisoners, their hands bound, see a chance for escape:

"I now worked at the cord on my wrist and found I could unfasten it. While making the attempt one of the Indians moved in his sleep, and we ceased our efforts for the moment and all was quiet again.

The opportunity arrived, at length, the knot was loosened, and the noose slipped over our hands which gave us our liberty.

We knew where the arms lay, and each of us quickly and quietly secured a navy revolver without disturbing our guards.

We then, together, struck the two sleeping guards a strong blow on the head with the butt of the revolvers.

The one struck by the herder was nearly killed, while my man was only stunned.

We now made for the ponies, leaped into the saddles, and, before the other Indians had shaken off their slumber, had struck out with all our might in the direction from which we had come.

Not many minutes elapsed before a pursuit commenced in right earnest, the Indians shouting and yelling as they urged their ponies forward; but this had the effect only of spurring us to still greater speed.

I turned in my saddle and sent a bullet among them.

Another and another followed, and one Indian was dismounted, but the darkness prevented our seeing if the other shots had told.

The Arrapahoes returned the fire, but luckily without any worse result than increasing the pace of our flying ponies.

Away we tore at the top of our speed and soon entered a canyon.

Only two or three Indians could now be seen in pursuit, and my companion saying it would be safer for both if we took different directions, at once dashed off through a ravine to the right.

One Indian was observed following, but I sent a bullet into his horse, and this put a stop to further pursuit.

I now dropped into a gulch where I remained hidden until daylight.

Finding the coast clear in the morning, I emerged and set out walking in a southwesterly direction which brought me to a cattle ranch, the owner of which, after hearing my story, supplied me with food and a fresh mustang.

Again turning my face to the westward I pursued my course over the Rockies."

This eyewitness account appears in William Glazier's  Ocean to Ocean on Horseback (1896); William C. Davis' The American Frontier (1992).

Goats - Facts and Trivia - Part One

Yesterday, my wife and I decided to skip our planned anniversary trip to Old Town Sacramento and instead put in the Amador County Fair. Once there, we more or less made a beeline for the livestock to see what the 4H and FFA kids were exhibiting this year. Among the youngsters was Kristina Woolsey whose FFA project was a couple of goats. She's a Sophomore at Amador High School and lives in Dry Town. 

Goats are pretty interesting for a lot of reasons! First off, goats have been around a long long time. In fact, goats were the first animals to be domesticated by man back in 10,000 B.C.

The phrase Judas goat is a term that has been used to describe a goat that is trained to herd other animals to slaughter while its own life is spared. In earlier centuries, goats were often used to nurse babies. And believe it or not, goats were the first animals to be used for milk by humans.

According to Roman history, on February 15th, young men would run around wearing only the skins of goats they sacrificed earlier and hit women with strips of goatskin, known as "februa," to promote fertility. It is from these purification instruments that the month of February gets its name.

In the biblical town of Jericho, people kept goats as long as 6,000 to 7,000 years before Christ. In many parts of the world, goats are economically valuable for a variety of purposes such as skins for leather, and the pelts are used for making rugs and robes. Before coins were used for money, it is said that goats were traded for silver because they were so valuable.

I'm not trying to get some people to hate goats, but we all know how Christopher Columbus upsets a lot of people these days. What does Columbus have to do with goats? Goats were first brought to America by Columbus in 1493. I hope that fact of history doesn't make some simple-minded snowflake go out and start attacking goats.

 
Actually, the early explorers used goat skins for water and wine bottles when they traveled. During biblical times, goat skins were used as parchment for writing. Many of the scrolls that have been found were goatskin. 

The Tennessee Stiff-Leg Goat, also known as the "wooden leg" or "fainting goat" is native to the United States. Yes, it too is a descendant of that Columbus guy's goats! This breed suffers from a recessive trait called "myotonia." When frightened this animal will experience extreme muscle stiffness causing extension of the neck and hind legs before it topples over onto the ground.

There are approximately 450 million goats around the world. There are over 210 breeds of goats in the world. Most goats can be found in Asia and the Mid-East. And it's not that surprising that with its huge population, that China has the most goats (over 170 Million).

Goats were regularly imported into America in the early 1900s. The male goat is called a "buck" or "billy." A castrated male goat is called a "wether." The breeding age for male goats is between 8-10 months. A mature, healthy male buck can breed 20 to 40 doe. Bucks can be quite aggressive to their handlers during the breeding season. The larger the scrotal circumference of the buck, the higher his libido and fertility. Of course, breeding season is when male goats go through a period called a "rut" when they are ready to mate. This period coincides with the start of the breeding season. The "rut" is characterized by a decrease in appetite, obsessive interest in the does, fighting between bucks, and most notable is a strong foul-smelly musky odor. And yes, they have a tendency to stink because they pee on themselves. 

A large group of goats is called a herd. Depending on the breed, adult female goats can weigh between 22 to 300 pounds and adult males between 27 to 350 pounds of body weight.

The female goat is called a "doe" or "nanny." The act of giving birth is called "kidding." Why? Well, because a "baby goat" is called a "kid." Healthy kids can stand within minutes after birth and are able to move with the herd almost immediately. Colostrum is produced in the first milk of the doe and it contains high levels of immunoglobulins (antibodies), vitamin A, minerals, fat, and energy. Newborn kids must ingest colostrum within the first 24 hours of life to help protect them against diseases. Blood in the milk or "pink" milk may be a sign of udder trauma and not mastitis.

Goats and sheep are seasonal breeders. The age of puberty for female goats is between 7-10 months and 4-8 months for male goats. A yearling doe should be bred when she has reached 80 pounds of body weight or when she has reached 60-75% of the adult weight for her breed. She must also be in good body condition and health. 

The length of gestation (pregnancy) in does is between 146 to 155 days. A doe can have 1 to 6 kids per litter, but having 4 to 6 kids are rare. A doe can produce 3 litters of kids every 2 years. The traditional breeding season for goats in the United States is between late August and the early part of January, however, some goats can breed out-of-season.

Estrus (heat) is the period in which doe is receptive to mating. The estrous cycle is between 18-22 days in does. The duration of estrus is 12-36 hours. Signs of being in heat include tail wagging, mucous discharge, swollen vulva, bleating, mounting, or being mounted by other goats, etc. 

A lactating doe that is kept in a pen with a musky buck may produce milk that tastes "goaty." It's said to be offensive to humans. Goats can be born with or without horns (polled). Some doe and bucks that are polled are also infertile. They are of no use to the owner, either as breeding stock or milk producers.

Boer goats are considered the leading meat breed in the United States today. Mature Boer goat males can weigh between 260 to 380 pounds and females may weigh between 210- 300 pounds. Those are big goats. 

More trivia, goats do not have teeth in their upper front jaw. Goats have 24 molars and 8 incisors. Goats do not have tear ducts. Goats and octopuses have rectangular pupils of their eyes. Normally goats have two teats and cows have four. Goats are bovines and are closely related to cows and antelopes. Goats are herbivores (plant-eaters) that spend most of their day grazing. 

A ruminant is any hoofed animal that digests its food in two steps. First by eating the raw materials and regurgitating a semi-digested form known as "cud" then eating the cud. Ruminants include goats, sheep, cattle, deer, camels, llamas, giraffes, bison, and more. 

Most medications that are currently used on goats were developed for use in other livestock species such as cattle and swine. Goats can become lame after an injection has hit the sciatic nerve. This nerve runs from the hips down to the leg.

Goats deposit less fat externally and deposit more fat internally around the organs compared to sheep and cattle. Goats have a four-chamber stomach that contains fermenting bacteria and "protozoan" that aid in breaking down their food. Goats are hollow-horned, bearded, ruminant mammals of the genus Capra and the species Hircus. Wattles are those little tufts of hair that cover the skin that dangle from the throat of some goats. Wattles serve no function and are thought to be remnants of gill slits that mammals shared somewhere back down the evolutionary tree.

No, there is no such thing in nature as "transgender" animals -- including goats, even though both male and female goats have beards. But then again, a "hermaphrodite" goat is a goat that exhibits both male and female sexual characteristics and organs. No, they are not just found in San Francisco!

Goats do not eat tin cans, clothing or garbage, but are selective eaters when provided with a well-balanced diet. They will eat hay, grasses, weeds, and grain. Of course, the main part of a goat's diet is "roughage" which is usually grass or hay that is high in fiber and has relatively low calories. Goats are able to consume 3 to 5% of their body weight in dry matter (perhaps more if the forage is highly digestible). To consume this amount of forage, goats must be pastured in an area with a large quantity of available vegetative forage. Goats will eat less when they are moved to poor-quality pastures.

As for seeing if they are getting enough water and are staying hydrated, there is a simple test to perform. To check for dehydration, pull the skin that is over the shoulder area. If the skin snaps back quickly the animal is adequately hydrated. If the skin does not snap back quickly and remains erect the animal is dehydrated.

Goat's milk is said to be easily digestible and less allergenic than cow's milk for humans. Goat's milk is higher in calcium, vitamin A and niacin than cow's milk. Dairy goats have little subcutaneous fat. Goat's milk is naturally homogenized and can be digested in less than 20 minutes -- whereas cow's milk can take almost all day.

Of course, besides milk, goats are raised for wool and meat in the United States. Goat meat is lower in fat and cholesterol compared to beef, pork, mutton, and poultry. Worldwide, more people eat and drink milk from goats than any other animal. Besides wool, milk, and meat, goats are also used to make gelatin, their manure is used for fertilizer, they are used for research models in biological studies, they are used to pull carts, and they are used as pack animals.

The normal body temperature for goats is between 101.7 to 104.5 degrees. The heart rate of goats is between 70 to 135 beats per minute. The normal respiration rate for goats is 12 to 15 breaths per minute. The natural life expectancy for goats is around 8 to 12 years and in some cases, goats can live over 15 years. Azalea bushes are poisonous to goats. Plant poisoning most often occurs in goats in the spring after the herd has been released into a new pasture. Vomiting in goats is almost always due to poisonous plants.

Goats are usually between 17 to 42 inches tall from the shoulders. Goats are very agile creatures and have been known to jump over 5 feet. Goats do not like to get wet and prefer to seek shelter when it is raining. Goats are very social creatures. Goats are one the cleanliest animals and are much more selective feeders than cows, sheep, pigs, swine, and even dogs. Goats do not grow as fast as sheep nor can they utilize feed as efficiently. Goats do not like eating food that has been soiled, contaminated, or has been on the ground.

Because of the influx of Middle-Easterners to the United States since 2000, goat meat production has become the fastest growing livestock industry in the United States as of 2005. The top ten states with the largest population of meat goats are found in Texas with over one million of the critters. Next comes Tennessee (98,000), then Georgia (77,000), Oklahoma (65,000), Kentucky (63,500), North Carolina (52,200), California (50,000), South Carolina (41,000), Alabama (37,800) and Florida (36,000) as of 2005. The top ten states with the largest dairy herds are Texas (30,000), California (30,000), Wisconsin (28,000), Iowa (13,000), New York (13,000), Philadelphia (13,000), Ohio (9,500), Oklahoma (9,000), Indiana (8,800) and Missouri (8,600) in 2005.

 
Ethnic consumers are the backbone of the meat goat industry in the United States. Approximately 1.5 million pounds of goat meat is imported into the United States every week from Australia and New Zealand because domestic production and processing systems in this country can not keep pace with demand. It is believed that demand for goat meat will continue to increase as the population in the United States becomes more ethnically diverse by consumers who traditionally eat goat meat. At this time, the marketing infrastructure of the goat industry in the United States is said to be relatively disorganized. Nationwide there are no mechanisms in place by which the animal is moved from the farm to the processor and the product is accessible to the consumer.

The Egyptian pharaoh Cephranes loved goats so much that he had 2,234 goats buried with him.  Mahatma Gandhi reportedly consumed goat milk every day for more than 30 years. If you like coffee, you should thank the goat since coffee was first discovered when goat herders noticed their animals acting very energetic after eating coffee beans.

As for the last two bits of trivia. There have been 12,000-year-old paintings of goats found on the walls of caves in Europe. And lastly, believe it or not, Abraham Lincoln's sons had two goats that lived in the White House with them. my wife and I had a goat wonder on to our proper

Duck Facts & Trivia

While these are only a handful, there are more than 120 different types of duck in the world.

The ducks are divided between several subfamilies:

• Dendrocygninae
• Oxyurinae
• Anatinae
• Aythyinae
• Merginae

And yes, ducks may have been responsible for the discovery of the Americas?

Apparently on October 8th, 1492, crewmen aboard one of Columbus's ships, the Pinta, observed ducks flying south-west and altered course to investigate.

On October 12th, they sighted land in the Bahamas.

 

Interesting Duck Facts & Trivia

All types of ducks are part of the bird family Anatidae, and there are species of ducks found worldwide on every continent except Antarctica.

A baby duck is called a duckling, and an adult male is a drake.

An adult female duck is called a hen or a duck, and a group of ducks can be called a raft, team or paddling.

All ducks have highly waterproof feathers as a result of an intricate feather structure and a waxy coating that is spread on each feather while preening.

A duck's feathers are so waterproof that even when the duck dives underwater, its downy underlayer of feathers will stay completely dry.

Ducks are precocial, which means that ducklings are covered with down and able to walk and leave the nest just a few hours after hatching.

A hen will lead her ducklings up to a half mile or more over land after hatching in order to find a suitable water source for swimming and feeding.

Male ducks have an eclipse plumage similar to females that they wear after the breeding season for about a month as their new feathers grow.

During that month, they are completely flightless and more vulnerable to predators.

Most duck species are monogamous for a breeding season but they do not mate for life.

When constructing her nest, a hen will line it with soft down feathers she plucks from her own breast. This gives the eggs the best possible cushioning and insulation.

Ducks are omnivorous, opportunistic eaters and will eat grass, aquatic plants, insects, seeds, fruit, fish, crustaceans and other types of food.

A duck's bill is specialized to help it forage in mud and to strain food from the water.

A hard nail at the tip of the bill helps with foraging, and a comb-like structure on the sides of
the bill strains small insects and crustaceans from water.

Most male ducks are silent and very few ducks actually "quack."

Instead, their calls may include squeaks, grunts, groans, chirps, whistles, brays and growls.

It is a myth that a duck's quack won't echo.

This has been conclusively disproved through different scientific acoustic tests, and was even featured as "busted" on an episode of the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters.
But like it or not, some myths refuse to die, "a duck's quack doesn't echo is an enduring urban myth."

This is true even when researched and busted by the University of Salford, Manchester, England.

When you think about it, how hard is it to put a duck in a sound studio and turn on the recorder. Result - the duck's quack echoes.

Ducks have been domesticated as pets and farm animals for more than 500 years, and all domestic ducks are descended from either the mallard or the Muscovy duck.

There are more than 40 breeds of domestic ducks.

The white Pekin duck, also called the Long Island duck, is the most common variety raised for eggs and meat.

One amusing ritual for introducing friends to an Indian restaurant, is to persuade the greenhorn to order a Bombay duck, and then watch their incredulity when the waiter brings a dried fish.

The "Bombay Duck" really is a fish, or to be completely accurate, a lizardfish, which does indeed live in the waters off Bombay.

Seven Peking ducks were imported into the United States from China in 1873.

Little did these entrepreneurs realise that these ducks would turn into a $30 million industry farming and cooking their Peking ducks ancestors.

Incidentally, attempts to rename Peking duck to Beijing duck have been a spectacular failure.

"Dabbling ducks" is a general name for a classic duck.

The duck you see in children's books, the mallard duck that you see at top of this page and the Peking duck in the previous snippet.

The male duck is the drake, while the female duck is the hen; their eggs hatch into ducklings.

A flock of flying ducks is a 'team of ducks'. When they are on the water we call them a "paddling of ducks."

However, everyone else seems to refer to them a "flock of ducks", whether they are flying, swimming, or on land.

In England, in the sport cricket, a batsman who is out without scoring is said to be out for a duck.

One "wag" back in 1859 spotted that a zero (0) on a scoreboard looked like a duck's egg - some in America refer to a zero score as a "goose egg!"

Here is an unusual word to throw into your conversation - "anatine", it means duck-like.

The Term "Lame Duck"

"Lame duck" was originally an 18th century term for investors in the stock market who could not, or would not, pay their brokers.

Later in 1926 a Wisconsin newspaper, wrote the heading: "Making a lame duck of Coolidge".

Calvin Coolidge would be the first of many American presidents to be saddled with the epithet - Lame Duck President.

Today, Obama is a Lame Duck President who takes a lot of trips abroad while his administration shreds the Constitution at home!

Donald Duck was banned in Finland - for wearing no pants in 1977

Because of their familiarity and comic nature, ducks are often featured as fictional characters.

The two most famous fictional ducks are Disney's Donald Duck, who premiered in 1934, and Warner Bros.' Daffy Duck, who premiered in 1937.

This shows the power of hype, and the way in which mundane facts are exaggerated, take out of context, and distorted.

What happened back in 1977 was that Youth Board in Helsinki decided not to subscribe to the Donald Duck comic.

As on off-the-cuff remark one of the committee members commented that Donald Duck did not wear pants.

The rest as they say is history - or in this case Internet mythology.

Rare Ducks in Madagascar

Eighteen Madagascan pochards - the world's most endangered duck - have hatched in a captive breeding centre. This brings the world population of the ducks to just 60.

Scientists are studying the remaining wild population closely, in order to understand the reasons behind the species' decline and to determine the right conditions for releasing birds back into their natural habitat.

Duck Race

An incredible 250,000 plastic ducks took to the water in 'The Great British Duck Race' 2008.

The event was held on the river Thames at Molesey Lock, near Hampton Court Palace, in London.

The stretch of river was cunningly selected so that it took about 2½ hours to drift down the one-kilometre course.

Unfortunately, the 2010 race was postponed.

As usual, each duck was sponsored for a charity, and the winning owner received £10,000 - or $15125.00 US Dollars.

The prize fund generously stretched to include the next 29 ducks to finish. It costs £2 to adopt a duck, that's about $3 US Dollars.

The event could raise as much as £200,000 for charity. And that's about $302,500.00 US Dollars, which is no small amount of money - unless of course, we're talking about one of the Obama's monthly vacations which run into the Millions of US Dollars each month.

"The Great British Duck Race" is said to be the largest charity duck race in the world. 

We have to say that a plastic duck race is a fun way to involve a community in fund raising.

Urban Myth - "Ringer" Plastic Race Ducks?

It was reported from an unsubstantiated source that a plastic duck race in Chicago had to be abandoned when someone tried to substitute a "ringer", a plastic duck with a tiny outboard motor.

Imagine that!

While a miniature motor in a duck is far-fetched idea, there supposedly was a Duck race in New York where a plastic duck was filled with baking powder with a tiny hole at the rear.

The idea was that the baking powder would react with the water to produce carbon dioxide, which would propel the "ringer" faster than the rest.

The problem was that when filled with backing powder, the duck was much lower in the water the rest and soon drew attention.

The other problem was that there was no way of controlling the direction the duck was propelled - unless you installed a radio controlled rudder!

Singing and Dancing Duck

A duck, named Bengbeng, [apparently translates as 'Silly'] has become a celebrity for its singing, dancing and counting abilities according to the Dahe Daily.

Its owner, Du Xinai of Xingxiang city, China, takes the duck with him when he goes to the local agricultural market to buy vegetables each day.

This funny duck can be seen wearing a small red scarf and a pair of tiny shoes. 

"If you ask him to sing, he quacks rhythmically while shaking his head and body. He quite enjoys it. If you put up one finger, he quacks once, then twice with two fingers, and so on."

Du says "Bengbeng is also a good citizen, and always waits for the traffic lights."

Bengbeng has become quite a star. Everywhere he goes, people welcome him like a "Super Star."

Only in America - Duck Gets 'Order of Protection'

A pet duck named Circles, who was shot and wounded with a pellet gun, has received an order of protection. New York introduced the protection law to deal with domestic violence.

This was the first time that an animal has benefited from such an order.

What happened was that the duck Circles was in its owner's backyard when a neighbour shot it through the neck.

The duck was successfully treated by a vet.

Meanwhile, the neighbour was charged with animal cruelty, and at the arraignment and Circles got an order of protection.

Duck Lips or Bills?

Ducks have bills, this girl has Duck Lips!

Duck Face?

People making what is now termed Duck Faces on the Internet is a bit confusing.

It is believed that they are trying to be sexy and failing at it big time!

Yes, these are city girl "Duck Faces!"

Finally duck funnies for the kids!

A farmer got tired of his old rooster waking him up late. So being the good guy that he was, he retired his old alarm clock and replaced him with a duck.

Yes, that's so he'd always wake at the "quack of dawn!"

Q: What do ducks get after they eat?
A: A bill!

Q: What do you call a crate full of ducks?
A: A box of quackers!

Q: Who stole the soap?
A: The robber ducky!

Q: What do you call it when it rains chickens and ducks?
A: Fowl weather.

Q: What says "Quick, Quick!"?
A: A duck with the hiccups

Q: Why do ducks watch the news?
A: For the feather forecast!

Q: Where did the duck go when he was sick?
A: To the Ducktor

Q: What did the detective duck say to his partner?
A: I hope we Quack this case.

Q: What did the duck say to the banker?
A: My bill is bigger than yours.

Q: Which side of a duck has the prettiest feathers?
A: The outside!

Q: Why did the duck fly south for the winter?
A: Because it was too far to walk.

Q: Which animal grows down?
A: A duck

Customer: How much is that duck?

Shopkeeper: Ten dollars.

Customer: Okay, could you please send me the bill?

Shopkeeper: I'm sorry, but you'll have to take the whole bird.

Q: What do you call two ducks and a cow?
A: Quackers and Milk.

Q: What do you get if you cross a duck with fireworks?
A: A firequacker!

A duck walks into a pharmacy and says, "Do you have any chapstick?"

When the pharmacist puts it on the counter, the duck replies, "Thanks, just put it on my bill."

Q: How do you get down off a horse?
A: You don't get down off a horse... you get down off a duck.

Q: What's another name for a clever duck?
A: A wise quacker!

I bet you're glad this post is done!

Until later, thanks for visiting my blog!