Puffs

My deer hunting experiences over recent years has always been with a son-in-law. We’ve had our share of success . . . and failure. I can remember a couple of years when we saw “NO” deer at all.

Well, I can report for the 2022 deer hunting season, my hunting partner and myself had a 100 percent successful season.

On the final hour of the final day of the 2022 season, we saw our first deer of the season and my partner was successful in harvesting the deer.

To be honest, we did see a couple of other deer, but they were not on the land we were hunting. They were out of shooting range. They didn’t count.

I did not see a deer to shoot at, but there is a certain excitement in helping my hunting partner clean and load the deer he had. I was giving some consideration of not hunting this year, or next, but that certain excitement of having a successful year may give me the incentive for next year.

One deer for the freezer and the feeling of helping obtain a 100 percent successful hunting season is a great feeling.

A O

The 2022 elections are supposed to be over, but there are still a number of U. S. House of Representative elections still not decided. I don’t understand why those states with going through this delayed election results can’t or (will not) change how they do things. I know that in this day of ‘instant gratification’ we are spoiled, but two weeks is long enough to wait.

Politics are fascinating . . . There is a definite difference between the liberals and conservatives. Most often known as Democrats and Republicans.

I noticed the Republican governor of Florida, when asked if he was interested in being a presidential candidate in two years, simply said: “Don’t you think it’s time to just take a break from elections and politics. We just had an election, let’s just take a bit of time before we go into our next election process.”

In general, I suspect many of the conservatives in the U. S. had pretty much of the same feelings. That may be their nature.

The Democrats (or liberals) however, rarely take time off from politics. Looking ahead to next year the Democrats can see they will no longer have total control of the U. S. Congress. I suspect that may be the reason they are trying to pass some legislation here at the end of 2022 before the new Congress is started in 2023.

One item caught my eye last week and that was the Democrats effort to pass a so-call “Respect for Marriage Act.”

From what I understand, the passage of this legislation would repealing provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Democratic advocates say the legislation promotes equality, but religious leaders warn that it explicitly targets people of faith.

I think every major religion in the U. S. considers a marriage is between a man and woman. This legislation would allow the government to force religions to allow what is called ‘same-sex’ marriages.

What is seldom noted in this particular effort to “fundamentally remake American” (as one ex-democratic president wanted to do) is the effect such a change would have on children.

We’ve been told many times in recent years that children in “same-sex” unions suffer no more than any other child.

However, Katy Faust who writes for The Daily Signal noted most all of those studies were wrong because of poor methodology such as ‘self-reporting,’ or ‘short duration of the study,’ and poor reporting of the studies.

Studies found that compared to children with opposite-sex parents, children of same-sex parents; • Experienced definite or severe emotional problems at a rate of 14.9 percent versus 5.5 percent. • Were diagnosed with ADHD at a rate of 15.5 percent versus 7.1 percent. • Struggled with learning disabilities at a rate of 1.41 percent versus 8 percent. • Received special education and mental health services at a rate of 17.8 percent versus 10.4 percent.

I hope our legislators can see the possible harm to society as a whole and not put us through this “remaking of America” which is not correct.

A O

Along with this same theme of ‘remaking of America’ is the fact that education took a central role in many elections these past years.

The president of Hillsdale College, recently pointed out a trend in American education.

He charted the growth in the number of students, teachers, and district administrators in public schools in the period between 2000 and 2019.

The number of administrators grew by 87.6 percent; students grew by 7.6 percent and teachers by 8.7 percent.

That number of administrators surprised me.

I’ve noted over the years that state governments across the nation have been “dumping” work on their educational systems. Social changes desired by certain groups have made up the majority of this.

Even in Nebraska our state department of education has been trying to implement what is called “Critical Race Theory” education. I’m not sure if the legislature is pushing this or not. I just suspect the board of education was on its own pushing what it wants . . . not what the average citizen wants.

All of these separate ‘programs’ required additional ‘administrators’ and that is why the above figures are so astounding.

“Education” . . . “Politics” . . . “Fundamental Change in America?” . . .

We all have to decide.

A O

MAIL . . . Hey folks, did you miss your Locomotive-Gazette issue last week on Wednesday ? ? ?

Seems those people who get their mail “in” the post office in Lawrence did not receive their issue last week. However, the rural route people did.

Seems both Lawrence and Nelson papers were delivered last week, but the box section at Lawrence were not there, unknown to the people delivering the papers.

On Monday of this week, the papers appeared with the Monday morning mail. It may be that those papers had a short tour of the U. S. before coming home.

The Superior office noted they had a number of calls wondering why the papers were not in the mail boxes . . . just like every other week.

This may be a situation where the answer to the problem may never be learned. However, it is still nice to learn that people still miss their paper when it doesn’t arrive on time.

A O