2001-01-28 - 21:13 MST

January 28, 2001

Sick Bay

Okay, so I thought I was home free, 'tain't so. Projectile vomiting all night last night. Judging by the way Heather is reacting to her ailment I should feel better tomorrow. I have been sucking down 7 - Up like crazy, drinking water to combat dehydration.

I saw in today's news paper where the wild horse herd near Rock Springs, Wyoming numbering around 2000 plus/minus are being systematically shot. Apparently by people feeling that the horses are eating grazing food, depriving ranchers cattle.

I am no expert, but having traveled I-80 every now and then and by Amtrak when they still ran the train from Denver to Portland, the country appears very barren, dry, desolate. I have never seen cattle around or horses for that matter.

I guess people from Illinois and other states with a greather population are not used to seeing nothing but miles and miles of miles and miles. Vegetation is sparse, soil bare having just enough anchoring weeds to keep the whole state from blowing away. From the train I could see the occasional cattle corrals and loading chutes where cattle were long ago shipped to the slaughter houses, now falling apart with age, unused since maybe 1928 or earlier. Most of what I have seen of Wyoming seems to be dry and barren. Jackson hole and Yellowstone areas are nice and are about the only places that seem to be comfortably habitable.

There are herds of wild horses throughout the west, running loose through country that livestock would be hard pressed to survive. I just can't imagine anyone trying to ranch and raise cattle there, when I have seen the territories further east which are much more conducive to cattle raising.

I dunno what this is all about, I think there is more to this than has been revealed in the newspaper.

School vouchers, seems to me to be lame brained totally. Took this country a lot of years to build a public school system where every one could attend. Now people want vouchers to allow their children to attend private schools, religious schools. Why threaten the public school system. Sure, there are troubles but they can be solved if the politics are dropped out of the picture.

Giving people Social Security money to invest is another dipsy-doodle line of thought I think. Unwise investments can put people on the dole rather than accomplish the miracle touted.

So many miraclous solutions wouldn't be needed if the systems in place were cleaned up.

As in many things, there are more than enough laws on the books to effictively handle things. More laws seem to create more loopholes.

Still feel lousy tonight but a bit better than this morning, so I am headed back to Sick Bay . . . . .

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