Editorial / Opinions

I am the type of person who enjoys each season. Typically, I don’t favor one season over another and by the time one season ends and the other begins I am ready to embrace the change.

Government regulations are getting worse and even worse than that.

A few years ago, I wrote a column about the sweetest smells on earth and it just happened that they all came from the farm; freshly plowed soil, newly mowed hay and cow manure on sale day. Well, a lady approached me after a recent speaking engagement and accused me of being biased toward farming and asked if I had any favorite odors that were not farm oriented. As it just so happens, I do have two more.

Since my last column there has been more development on the passage of the farm bill. My last column addressed the failure by the House to pass a farm bill but that has all changed now. On July 11, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a version of the 2013 farm bill that excludes the Nutritional Title (Title Four). The bill passed on a 216-208 vote. Zero Democrats voted for the new bill.

I don’t like change.

Since my last column there has been more development on the passage of the farm bill. My last column addressed the failure by the House to pass a farm bill but that has all changed now. On July 11, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a version of the 2013 farm bill that excludes the Nutritional Title (Title Four). The bill passed on a 216-208 vote. Zero Democrats voted for the new bill.

I was in Air Force Basic way back in 1960 when I read in the San Antonio paper about Texans trout fishing in Arkansas at a place called Gastin’s Resort on the White River. We had bought a place in Arkansas and planned to move there. So I stored that away and as my finances grew some in 1976, Pat and I went over there to stay at Stetson’s Resort. I recall having a good time and catching fish, however, Pat is not a boat person.

I don’t like change.

I am sure by now you’ve heard that the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass the 2013 Farm Bill with a final vote announced as 195 to 234. The rejected farm bill comes after members were divided over food subsidies and food stamps.

Anyone who has known me longer than 32 years can attest to the fact that I now use much better grammar when I speak than I did in 1981. My writing has improved vastly, as well, from the time when I submitted the first draft of my dissertation one Friday afternoon only to have it returned to me the following Monday morning, covered in red marks. I can still hear my major professor, whom I admired immensely, saying as he handed the papers back to me, “Where in the hell did you go to school?”