Puffs

Deer ‘O deer Me . . .

Every spring I pay attention to the number of deer I see. Both running across our land and those sleeping along the side of roads. This year it seems I’ve been seeing more deer than usual (whatever that is). I guess I’m trying to guess what the November Deer Hunting season will be like.

Then I read in several different places that those experts in the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission have already done all the estimating and they have already decided to reduce the hunting pressure on deer by reducing firearm permits by something like more than 6 percent for this autumn.

Nonresident permits will see the greatest decline, but native Nebraskans will also see a decline, depending on where you live and hunt.

Game and Parks noted the harvest of deer has been reduced in the past few years and noted that fawn production has declined significantly in recent years.

I’d suggest you order your permit early this year. I was betting on a better year for 2023 based on my sighting of deer this spring. However, it seems I was wrong.

A O

There is no doubt that summer is here for 2023. I recently came across a short story about summer: “During a heat wave, a man went to a store to buy a hand fan. There were two, similar in make and model, but one was 25 cents and the other 50 cents. The man opted for the cheaper one. Before he left the store, the owner tried to tell the man how they worked, but he wasn’t interested: a fan is a fan is a fan, and he knew how to work it.

The 25 cent fan broke. The man came back yelling that the fan was no good. The owner explained that he should have stayed for the operating instruction. ‘With the 50 cent fan, you move your wrist left and right to get the air flowing,’ he said. ‘With the 25 cent fan, you hold the fan steady in your wrist and move your head left to right.’”

A O

If you have watched any national TV news lately, or read any national news in newspapers, I’m sure you must have hear about the Supreme Court decisions recently made.

One decision had to do with the repayment of educational loans to college students. Our president decided (on his own) to cancel some part, or all, of the loan debt of recent college grads. I guess is wasn’t just recent college grads, it was any graduate who had not paid off their loans yet.

I agree with the decision that said our president could not take over the job of Congress in deciding how tax money could be spent.

What I find interesting, however, is the divide between those people who agree with the Supreme Court and those who do not agree. Why do the Democrats want to allow the cancellation of the student debts so badly while the Republicans agree with the Supreme Court that the president does not have the authority to decide how our money is spent? His job is to carry out the wishes of Congress, not to do their job.

My guess is that the Democrats simply want to use this “event” to promote their particular brand of “Socialism.” It is not any more complicated than that. It was a chance for them to use “tax money” to get something they want.

However, I suspect many a Democrat that used the student loans, and have repaid them already, or many a Democrat that did not go to college may not want to pay for someone else’s college education.

All those students who now want their loans “forgiven” knew when they signed the loan agreement they would have to pay back that money. Now, they have to ‘grow up’ and do their job.

In general, it’s another example where the federal government should not have ever gotten into the business of providing student loans in the first place. The system they had before the program was completely turned over to the government seemed to be working just fine.

The other major decision was saying colleges could no longer use “race” to decide who was accepted into a college (called affirmative action). It seems that before Congress supported the decision to use ‘race’ to increase the number of “non-white” students in college as a way to right the wrong of centuries of discrimination, a lot of discrimination did take place. That was not “right” and we hope it doesn’t come back as it was at that time.

I hope and believe we, as a country, have gotten beyond those years of discrimination. We have made great progress in the past 50 years, but we are not perfect yet.

It’s the story of life.

The last major decision involved a person in Colorado who said she could not provide her service for a wedding involving a “Same-Sex” couple because it was against her ‘religious’ faith.

I again agree with this decision, but it may be easy for some people to use this venue to discriminate.

Again, Democrats disliked the decisions while Republicans agreed with the decisions. Again, I suspect the Democrats feel their path to socialism was put in jeopardy. This time because the decisions inhibited their desire to be able to tell people what they could do, or not do. It could lessen the power of the government.

A O

The Fourth of July . . . I hope you took time to reflect on this celebration. We have many cares and concerns in this day and age, but in 1776, the people had just as many cares and concerns. They may have been different, but they had them.

Remember to give thanks to almighty God for all the blessings he has given us.

A O