Cliven Bundy is a rancher in Nevada who has been in the news lately for a squabble he’s been having with the federal government, specifically the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Mr. Bundy asserts that his family has ranched the land he grazes his  cattle on since the 1870s and he apparently resents that the BLM has the authority to assign and collect grazing fees on this land.  In addition, an endangered tortoise lives in the area and nearby areas and Mr. Bundy was told specifically to remove his cattle from those areas where the tortoises had nests.

For the past 20 years, Mr. Bundy has been thumbing his nose at the federal government and not paying the grazing fees that he has been assessed by the BLM.  There have been several lengthy court cases where Mr. Bundy has asserted that the land belongs to him and not the federal government and he has lost all of them.

The BLM then moved in to the area to round up his cattle which were grazing on federal land with the intention of selling them off to start satisfying the over $1 million debt that Mr. Bundy has accrued.  The BLM came with armed individuals, expecting that there might be resistance and that order might need to be kept.

This inspired Mr. Bundy to put out the call to individuals who view themselves as patriots who oppose the overreach of the government.  The supporters of Mr. Bundy arrived armed to the teeth and ready to do battle with the evil representatives of the federal government.

Did I mention that Mr. Bundy does not recognize the authority of the federal government but does recognize the authority of the state of Nevada and the county in which he lives, both of which he tried to pay his federal back fees to and who both, wisely, refused to accept them?

There are  a great deal of facts which can be found and a whole lot of hot air which is what seems to be being reported.  Here’s a capsule of the facts.

Mr. Bundy claims that his right to graze on the federal land comes from a land grant he received from the Mormon church, which, while it did have some authority to grant land in Utah, did not have the authority to grant it in Nevada.  His family, who quarreled with the Mormons in Utah, moved on to live in the southwestern corner of Nevada and claimed it.  This land was owned by the federal government, who got it by treaty from the Mexican government who apparently claimed it despite the native Americans who already lived there.

Apparently, while Mr. Bundy’s family did occupy the land from the 1870s, they began as farmers not as ranchers and as such were granted water rights to the land.  Water rights and grazing rights are not the same thing.  Water rights permits the use of the water, grazing rights permits cattle to graze and are granted by the owners who charge fees to use the land.  In this case, the BLM.

Mr. Bundy has a history of making the news for thumbing his nose at the federal government and claims that he is a patriot in the same manner as the founding fathers.  He even goes so far as to have a Tea Party version of the Constitution in his pocket as he rides around on his horse carrying a large stars and stripes American flag.  You know, the one that represents the United States and it’s federal government, the one he refuses to recognize.  Try not to rust from the irony of that one.

Mr. Bundy called out the troops on this one and the West has no shortage of independent thinking, government distrusting individuals who believe that the government is coming to take everything they own and enslave them.  Right wing might be a little too left for some of them.

As things grew more tense and tempers flared, the BLM and their armed guards and police dogs confronted the family members of the Bundy clan and a dog clamped down on Mr. Bundy’s son.  The armed and distrustful rallied around the Bundy’s, set up a camp and were angered when a “First Amendment area” was set up for them to disagree to their hearts content while not being in the way of the cattle roundup.  This, to the distrustful, meant that they were being detained and would soon be enslaved.  They argued with the BLM guards and the scene was on.

In this instance, the government acted with restraint and common sense.   They pulled back and released the cattle.  At first, this was seen as a capitulation by the government by the public until more facts came out, facts which were stated by the distrustful group themselves.

The distrustful group was so sure that this would be come another Waco or Ruby Ridge, that they made sure that women and children were there and their plan (from their own leader’s interviews with the press) was to place the women and children in the middle, so that if shooting began, it would be the women and children who fell first.  The media, it was assumed, would film it and the rest of the country would rise up and overthrow the government.

When the government backed away to spare the innocent, the Bundy’s and their protectors claimed that the first battle for the West was won by them.  They heartily told their story over and over to any media outlet that shoved a microphone in their faces.  The people were about to take back the government!  (Do you hear the snap of the Gadsden flag in the background?)

Conservative news media had found their darling-Bundy was a symbol of the little man versus the big, bad government and the backdrop of the West conjured up just the right images.

The problem for Mr. Bundy arose when the press, as they so often do, needed something more.  Mr. Bundy’s ego was happy to comply.  His monologue on wondering whether or not the blacks were better off as slaves than as indolent. broken families blew up the whole image the conservative media wanted to portray.  Even the most ardent supporters of Mr. Bundy were in danger of hurting themselves from backpedaling from their support of him.  The usual labels of racist and right-winger were applied with a heavy hand.

But here’s the thing.

The basis of this whole issue is that Mr. Bundy did not pay his fees to the federal government-the same government which is managing the land for the citizens of the whole country.  This means that Mr. Bundy was not stealing from the government, he was stealing from us.  He owes us the money and he should pay us.  Immediately.

He can claim all kinds of things, but he’s had his day in court and he has lost.

If reason were stick by which this whole issue were measured, Mr. Bundy would come up very, very short.  Because in the age of reason, facts speak louder than opinions.  No matter how many times you repeat your opinions.

Mr. Bundy thinks he’s won this battle, but the conservatives who backed him have lost the war.  When you back a bad  horse, you always lose.  That’s what’s reasonable.

Kids these days are either the beneficiaries or the victims of competitive motherhood.

Let me explain.

Being a good mother (however THAT is defined….) is a worthy endeavor.  But I have to wonder where the line is that defines the “good mother” from the “so-so mother”.  I think we can all spot the horrible mother.  (Mostly because we have been there….)

The competitive mother brings the full force of her social group with her.  Play dates are approved only if the child’s parents meet the criteria of doing all they can to ensure a wonderful childhood for their child.  Their child’s social calendar is crammed with not only the obligatory sports and groups such as Scouts, but also filled with theme birthday parties, theme spring parties, theme snow parties, and so on.  Nothing seems to be random and spur of the moment, but everything is filled with cutesy props and decorations and often costumes.  Venues are chosen that are photogenic because a series of “look how much fun we are having!” images must be posted to social networks.  The children have not only been to Disney, they’ve been several times.  They also have a friend relationship with every Disney Princess.  Everyone must know that these chosen children are living the dream childhood.

Really?

A mother of one such younger mother and I were discussing this trend lately.  Both of us have reared smart individuals and neither of us went for all of the social posturing that seems to be so prevalent today.  We discussed the cost of all of these activities and how they seem to be escalating.

That’s only logical, of course.  Once you’ve done the dog and pony show, you’d next better have the giraffe and elephant show.  By the time these little darlings hit the magical age of 13, I shudder to think of the magnitude of their parties.  Parachuting, anyone?

Social media is part of what drives this:  Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, et al…..all offer quick and easy ways to get out the message that you’ve done your absolute best for your child and you have the proof.  I know individuals who have lengthy Pinterest boards for each year’s birthday theme.  I’m not sure some of these folks have planned for their children’s college as much as they’ve planned Birthday, Age 9.

Yep, really.

I just wonder how jaded these kiddoes are going to be when reality smacks them upside the head.

Let’s face it.  Childhood is grand all by itself.  None of the huge responsibilities are looming over you, time is relative to what you want to do, and the IRS is not even on your radar.

The funny thing about being 26, or 37, or 42, or 56 is that no one is throwing you a party, unless you do it yourself.  Disney is only interested in you because they can separate you from your money, and Pinterest doesn’t focus on your middle ages….

Maybe, just maybe, what the kids really need is the freedom to be real.  As in real dirty, real tired and real in terms of entertaining themselves.

Because the real world isn’t always very entertaining because it’s full of real work.

The planet has not dropped me off of it’s surface.

I have not been kidnapped by aliens.

The NSA has not shut me down (but they COULD be reading….).

I am still alive.

But busy. OH HOW BUSY!

We are in the second year of a renovation/combination of my library at the high school and the addition of part of the soon-to-be-closed middle school.

Think of your worst moving nightmare.

Then add too many chiefs and only a few Indians to do the work.

You get the picture. The new library is beautiful and quite useful. Now we are dredging out what we want from the middle school and integrating it into the hs collection. This is slow, deliberate and detail oriented work. Very time consuming while keeping the original library services going as well.

But, I miss this place and will try to make an effort to get here more often.

I just hope that someone, anyone is still reading!

Well, I feel like I’ve been dropped off in a strange new land. Bear with me as I find my bearings and look around. I can already tell that this place needs some sprucing up!

How’s that for an attention getting title?

Dr. King’s dream is being celebrate today and it should be.  As an inspiring speech, it rank among the best ever.  The ideals behind it of EVERY person being treated with dignity is nothing less than what most major religions teach.  And which their followers claim to adhere to…..sort of.

I live in Central Pennsylvania.  This is an area full of hard scrabble people who take on life with gusto.  They have good hearts for the most part, but they do struggle with people of color.  The migration of people of color has been slow in this area.  The agriculture takes care of itself for the most part and there has been no need for migrant labor.  There is a small percentage of blacks in most of this area but with a few pockets in some of the more settled smaller cities.

You can’t throw a daisy petal into the wind without hitting a redneck.

I’m not talking about the cutesy rednecks such as you find on The Dukes of Hazzard or on Duck Dynasty.  I’m talking about rednecks who cherish the ideals of being poor, hardscrabble and nasty to anyone not just like them.  They just ain’t gonna let you forget that you aren’t them, and in their minds?  They is the best.  (Yep, bad grammar is deliberate here.)

Lately, I’ve been noticing an uptick in homes, trucks and SUVs flying the Confederate (rebel) flag.

This isn’t the south.

The Dukes have been off the air for years.

You have hardly left your hometown and have never been south of the Mason/Dixon line.

Did you miss history class?  The South lost the Civil War. That flag is an insult to those whose families were slaves.

Today I went past a home that was flying both the American Flag and the Confederate Flag.

I’m sorry, the only things those two have in common (besides being flags having flown in America) is that the one with the stars and stripes celebrates the country and constitution that allows you to fly the orange with blue x one.

Maybe you aren’t a redneck after all.  Maybe it’s just yellow that’s turned orange as it has become polluted with hatred.

I haven’t left Xanga.  Just watching and waiting to see how this all turns out.  This is about as bad as waiting for paint to dry.

Ok, so it’s been a few weeks since I’ve been on here.

Why is everyone moving to other blogging sites?

I saw something about “pay to play” for Xanga, but I’ve been a premium member for years.  What does that mean for me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Had a nasty storm here the other day.  Here being Central PA, not Oklahoma where they get the really, really big wind.

But nasty enough to put the trees into the powerlines and cause us to be powerless for 25 hours.

And we were powerless.

For heaven’s sake, you would have thought the world was ending.  Our pioneer ancestors were probably spinning in their graves.

And I have to admit, I was complaining right along with the rest.

I’m such a power slut.

Let me start by saying that I firmly believe that the IRS’s targeting of specific groups is wrong.  Period.  Doesn’t matter whether it’s a conservative, liberal, progressive, Tea Party, Islamic or other group, it’s wrong.

I’ve been following the snafu with great interest.  The IRS, when spoken aloud, invokes a response somewhat like saying Voldemort out loud.  People shudder and look over their shoulder.

The IRS has an important job to do-trying to insure that proper tax money is collected and that job requires them to collect information about groups and individuals. Most of us do not like that concept, but it is necessary.  It also gives bean counters a bad name and leaves a bad taste in most of our mouths.

Both sides are jumping in politically to cry foul.  In a lot of instances, they have the right to do so.  But…not everyone in the Tea Party has had clean hands in their dealings and set up of their organizations.

For some background:  In the lingo of the tax codes, when a group sets up their tax exempt status, they must choose from a variety of identifiers.  501(c)(3) status refers to groups who are identifying themselves as a traditional charity.  This designation bars all political activity.  501(3) (4) designates a political non-profit organization, implying that their funds are being used faithfully for political use and not to profit any one group or individual.

These designations are very important. 

Tea Party groups tended to identify as 501(c)(4) groups and an impressive number of groups under that umbrella (over 3500) all applied for tax exempt status around the same time.

The Tea Party has cried foul that the IRS has asked for a list of their donors, implying that the IRS was collecting information about general everyday taxpayers.  As a nation, we cringe at that and it makes us very uncomfortable.

But here’s the rub.

Some individuals involved in various Tea Party groups may very well have been using the Tea Party to shield their shady fundraising activities and/or find ways to raise money to possibly pay off personal debts that the leaders owed to the IRS.

Where is the evidence of that, you say?

Political shennigans first.

Catherine Englebrecht, leader of the True the Vote/King Street Patriots, has been a screeching voice in the media condemning the IRS.  But her group has had ethics violations charged against them and a Texas judge agreed, saying that although the group had a nonprofit designation, the group was, in fact, operating as a political action committee, illegally funneling money to the GOP and that the training they offered to “poll watchers” was an attempt to train individuals to engage in voter intimidation.  (Refer to this article:  http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/08/true_the_votes_large_and_growing_far-right_network.html  and also here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/us/politics/groups-like-true-the-vote-are-looking-very-closely-for-voter-fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 and if still not impressed, try here: http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/12819/new-proof-king-street-patriotstrue-the-vote-are-voter-suppression-groups

Possible improper fundraising.

Mark Meckler, of Herbalife fame, was an integral part of the Tea Party Patriot movement.  Mr. Meckler’s business activities had drawn the scrutiny of the government officials as being run as a possible ponzi type of business.  There have been many, many accusations of this type of behavior.  Mr. Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin (beginning leader and idea behind the Tea Party) collaborated on a book together which outlined how to take back America to it’s prior glory.  Their collaboration ended, however when Mr. Meckler went on record as stating that the Tea Party Patriots were not sharing his viewpoint.  “I’m not a Republican, and large numbers in the movement, 40 percent in the Tea  Party movement, aren’t Republicans. So when they sponsored the Southern  Republican Leadership debate to the tune of $250,000, really it was just kind of  the final blow for me.”  and further in the article, he says, “From my perspective, the Tea Party Patriots have become this big top-down  organization raising multi-millions of dollars,” he said. “None of that money  was flowing through to local people, or very little of it, and that’s just not  what I’m about.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/212843-tea-party-leader-says-he-resigned-because-group-got-too-close-to-the-gop#ixzz2Tdoz5iIQ

Mr. Meckler had an inkling, apparently, that the activities of the Tea Party might just be gathering the interest of the IRS.

Jenny Beth Martin has been seen on multiple media outlets, decrying the investigation of her organization as a likely witchhunt of conservatives.  The IG has reported that their investigation of the IRS has shown that it was in the set up of the groups that drew the interest of the IRS.

Evil or clueless? 

I’m going to give the Tea Party a pass (for the most part) on this one.  Setting up these groups requires a working knowledge of how the organizations will fit or not fit in the established regulations.  Most of the people involved in these groups are outside of Washington, aren’t lawyers and do not understand the nuances of these designations.  My thought is that most of them, in the rush to get their groups set up and working, failed to do (or did not know how to do) the basic work of establishing their groups properly.

Are these groups evil?  No.  Did they follow all the rules?  No, but with a qualifier-I simply do not believe that they understood what they were getting into, possibly because of the nebulus nature of their groups-lacking, as it were, a clear idea of where they were going and what they wanted to do.  Born of a desire to get government back under some control, they moved first, passionately, without understanding the baggage.

Haven’t we all done that at one time or another?

But here’s the rub….at some point, you need to back up and make sure you are functioning within the lines of the rules.  The IRS has a job to make sure that the groups were and probably looked at the biggest group coming in a little more closely than other groups.  Remember, when a herd is dependent on surviving, they move quickly and in large numbers. 3500 applications is a herd.   I suspect that within some of the Tea Party groups there are those who saw an opportunity to finagle some funds for themselves.  See here for some interesting allegations: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/irs-tea-party-tax-problems  (Yes, I know that Mother Jones is an alternative press magazine.  I also know that they do some darn fine reporting and I checked their sources out before using their article.)

Upshot of all this?  The Tea Party does not have clean hands in this, mostly out of ignorance of the law. The IRS may have been just doing it’s job but probably did not do it right.

Everyone needs to wash their hands, fess up, and clean this mess up.  And maybe rename the IRS Voldemort.

Whew….it’s only Saturday and this week has already used up all of it’s emotion and energy in America.

Obviously, the Boston Marathon bombing has taken center stage. 

Some thoughts:

1. Terrorism is still a horrible and ongoing possibility.  Angry people will do drastic things and hurt people.  That’s a given.

2. Our law enforcement has amazing restraint.  Between high nervous alert and tiredness, they managed not to kill the second suspect. 

3. Photographs (yes, I do hit up Twitter) from the people in the Watertown area showed law enforcement in full tactical gear searching homes.  While the need was there, there is also something chilling about those photographs.

4. There is a huge outpouring of sympathy for those killed and a burning desire to help those injured.  It’s what we do best in the worst of times.

5. I never thought you could make an area of one million plus persons “shelter in place”. Boston and it’s environs win the hide and seek prize hands down.

6. The news media were, as usual, on display.  The news got reported but so did rumors and downright lies.

7.  Glenn Beck is a total idiot.  His foreign policy authority that it was a Saudi who was being hustled out of the country was pure bull.

8.  Ditto for Ann Coulter.  Nice job, tweeting your network rival as the best place to get the news.

9.  NBC sent a real reporter, Ann Curry, to actually investigate the news rather than hair plug Matt.  That may have been their best move yet.

10.  You didn’t hear much about the woman who was abused in Boston for her heritage.  Bet you won’t hear much either.

11. I need to develop the focus of the marathon runners who, when the bomb went off around them, still were determined to finish the race.  They ran 26 miles and I can hardly walk 2 miles.

12. People were almost a detriment to the investigation.  Just because you can broadcast the police scanner feed via Twitter does not mean that you should.  DUH!

13. All the people screaming about immigrants in this country should remember that one of those killed in Boston was a temporary immigrant from China.

14.  A lot of folks will need therapy for their knee jerk reactions to all of this.

15.  Memo to Arkansas legislator who tweeted that the “Boston Liberals probably wished that they had ARs with magazines right about now”–if you are stupid, keep your mouth shut and don’t advertise it.

16. I have to wonder if the two bombers were attempting to plant a bomb at MIT when they ran into the policeman they killed.  We’ll never know if his death saved many.

17. Christians will struggle with praying for justice and praying for justice for the bomber.

18. The President was correct in going to Boston and offering comfort to the city.  Those who do not believe so would find fault if he grew wings and a halo.

19. The world was watching.  This may or may not be a good thing.  We gave away a lot of secrets about our firepower and tactics.

20. All that technology and skill and it turned out to be a guy who noticed his boat who found him. 

21. Best tweet I read.  “Let’s see.  The bomber is in a boat.  On dry land.  In a town called Watertown.  Priceless!”

22. It will take a long time for Boston to heal.  Wait until they get the police bill.

But Boston wasn’t the only story this week.

In Texas, in a town called West, a horrific explosion occurred.

Fifteen are dead (so far), ten of whom were first responders.

At last count 60 were still missing.  The odds are not in their favor.

The nation, while riveted to the Boston story was also praying for Texas.

Politicians who voted against the Hurricane Sandy relief package are now coming, hat in hand, asking for government money for West.

Towns with these types of plants are now looking at them in brand new ways.

In a lot of ways, West was lucky that the explosion happened when it did.  Earlier in the day and the middle school there would have been full.

As the world turned this week, there were wars (Syria, where rebel fighters paused to send a photo of their support to the Boston PD), natural disasters (big earthquakes in China and Iraq), and funerals (Margaret Thatcher and countless others).

The world will continue to turn.  Better rest up.  This week might be even busier!