Puffs

Let’s cover several topics of conversation this week and in no special order.

CONVENTION: Let’s have a party. Nebraska made national news last week. Many, or even most, folks didn’t have knowledge of it. You see, Nebraska became the 17th state to authorize the state to take part in a Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution.

Doesn’t sound terribly exciting does it, and maybe that’s why there was little media coverage of the event.

You see, back in the late 1700s when the U. S. Constitution was written, they realized that there might just be a time when the Constitution needed to be changed. They made it possible to do so.

There are two ways to amend the Constitution:

1: Congress proposes and passes an amendment which then is sent to the states and three-fourths of the states need to ratify it in order for the proposal to become part of the Constitution. (To date, Congress has passed 33 amendments and the states ratified 27 and are now part of the Constitution.)

2: The second way to amend the Constitution is for two-thirds (currently 34) of the state legislatures to call for a convention for such purposes. (To date, this method has never been used.)

Just recently Wisconsin was the 16th state, and Nebraska the 17th state to pass legislation for such a Convention to be called.

Obviously since the convention amendment method has never been used, there are many questions as to how it would all work. Answers are few.

At the present time it seems many states would sure like to convince the federal government it would be a good idea to balance the federal government’s budget in some way. Many states are not sure the federal Congress will ever do it on their own.

The action of the Nebraska Legislature put the citizens of Nebraska in line with 16 other states and this balanced budget idea seems to be a major point in the actions of all the states.

However, 17 more states need to take similar action. It might be interesting to see what the future holds . . . if we live long enough.

A O

THE NATIONAL MEDIA: You have heard me complain about the national media and their reporting (or lack thereof). Well, the annual ‘March For Life’ in Washington DC was just held and I never saw a bit of coverage on TV from the major media sources. For 49 years huge numbers of ‘Pro-Life’ citizens have stage a ‘Protest’ march to call attention to the killings of millions of babies via abortions.

The national media ignores the event and seems to take the attitude that if they don’t report it, it didn’t happen.

Well, last week I finally saw in a newspaper a report on the March. They also reported on a group of citizens called “Catholics For Abortions.”

I guess I have to give credit that someone did report on this small part of the day’s activities. However, nowhere was it reported that “Catholics For Abortions” is a contradiction of terms.

A person cannot be both ‘Catholic’ and ‘For Abortion’ at the same time. They may not know it, but if a person was a Catholic and then decided it was correct to kill an unborn human via abortion, they ceased being Catholic . . . whether or not they realized it.

A O

MANURE: What is it about California ? ? ?

Too often we hear about activity with good intentions that often go haywire . . . in California.

The following was written about by a person familiar with farm policies and practices and in whom I trust to do an accurate job in his reporting. (Perhaps part of the national media, but seems accurate more than not.)

California has a very extensive system to transport water from one place to another (where it is needed). It is said that 47 percent of California’s water movement is for meat and dairy production. And as anyone born and raised in an agricultural state knows, that also means manure. In concentrated amounts that also means methane gas (which nobody likes).

About 10 to 15 years ago California’s solution to this methane gas was to build manure digesters to trap the gas to be burned by vehicles or put into the natural gas grid.

By 2020 the results were being monitored and guess what? Methane emissions have risen more than 15 percent.

It seems people found they could make money with methane emission systems as well as from cattle. So . . . they expanded the number of cattle so they had more methane gas to capture and sell.

Gosh . . . wasn’t California the place where the Obama Administration paid millions upon millions of our tax dollars to the failed solar wind energy systems that fail.

I don’t think we should be surprised that our current president’s “Build Back Better” economic program that is still in Congress contains a river of federal subsidies to promote ‘climate mitigation’ plans like manure digesters in the coming years.

I realize we have multiple problems here in the U. S. that need to be solved. However, why is it that so often, when in a rush to solve a problem of whatever sort, we rush into a solution that often turns the situation worse. Many of the problems are complicated because of our technology and culture. I would not have answers to many of the problems, but, there are people out there who could find solutions. We just need to take the time to realize the extent of the problem and take the right action.

And . . . the answer isn’t always from the federal government.

A O

Did you read where the Nebraska Natural Resource District’s life just turned 50?

From what I understand, Nebraska is one of very few (if any other) states that has started a system to manage our water and natural resources as we do. We’ve put the problem of managing our water resources at a local level. In our case along the natural line of river drainage areas.

It seems fair to let people who live within an area make decisions, not someone in a far off location, who in spite of good intentions, does not know what the impact of their decisions will make to an area.

Big government is needed in certain areas, but certainly not in all areas. State governments generally do a better job in the solution of problems (with maybe the exception of California), but sometimes those problems just need to be left to the people in the area they live.

Happy 50th Birthday to the Nebraska Natural Resource District (NRD).

A O

Here I am at the end of this week’s contribution to the newspaper and I haven’t even mentioned the upcoming national holiday . . . “Ground Hog’s Day.” By the time you read this, the day will be passed. Hope you had a good day.

Also . . . from the daily news reports, all of America is concerned whether or not Tom Brady will continue playing in the National Football League. Too be honest folks, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me and I don’t understand why everyone is so concerned about it.

A O