Pop some popcorn

In the almost unimaginable case that you haven't seen it, check out the latest edition of Wonk's Work, the AFSC WV Economic Justice Project's irreverent look at the WV legislature. This week: education deform, SNAP, xenophobia, preemption, and a really cute cat picture. Click here to bliss out.

A call to replace. And a gratuitous animal picture

I wish I could link a new story from Politico, but it's limited to paid subscribers of which I ain't one. The gist of it is that there's growing consensus among governors that the Affordable Care Act shouldn't be repealed until it is replaced. That's encouraging. I hope congress listens.

Meanwhile, my dog Bo and I attended a rally yesterday outside the offices of WV's Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito urging the same. We were a little disappointed Bo's picture didn't make the paper so I'm including this one, which shows his standard way of requesting a walk in the morning while I'm trying to drink coffee and read.

This fight will require dogged persistence.

New resident

We interrupt Goat Rope's regularly scheduled program to announce a new resident/visitor to the farm.

It's a green heron that built a nest in a tree beside our pond. It's the heron equivalent of a hillbilly living by Golden Corral. Photo credit: the Spousal Unit.

Down dog

Edith crashing (photo credit Spousal Unit)

This blog has been sorely neglected lately. It was a combination of things, including:

*a brutal 60 day legislative session;

*Hell Day (when the time changes, robbing innocent people of a blessed hour of much needed sleep); and

*a mandatory staff retreat that entailed a 1000 mile car round trip.

I'm trying to lick my wounds, although I lack some of the abilities in that department displayed by some other residents of Goat Rope Farm.

HERE WE GO AGAIN. Session aside, WV's ruling class last week was engaged in another hissy fit over Hilary Clinton's unfortunate remarks about coal. In fairness to our ruling class,however,  leading national Democratic politicians seem to have forgotten how to throw their WV counterparts a bone every now and then.

In this climate it's nice to find some common sense. Here's what my friend Ken Ward had to say about WV's economic situation and what can be done about it at Coal Tattoo. It's also nice to see that the  Gazette-Mail's conservative editorial side has come around to the idea that WV should take advantage of federal initiatives to help the coalfields rather than just complain about it.

NOTE: I hear some people are not getting Goat Rope through email these days. If that's the case, I think you might need to resubscribe.

Gratuitous animal picture

It's been a while since I went there, but this one of Arpad wearing a tiara is just too good to pass on. Some of us wear them better than others. (Photo credit: the Spousal Unit)

A meme is born

For someone who has been blogging for several years, I'm pretty behind on social media. One thing I have recently resolved to do is to learn to make memes for Facebook and such. I mean hard hitting social justice memes. But today, just to see if I could make one at all, I resorted to a gratuitous animal picture of Edith and her toys. Hard hitting social meme content to come. Just probably not today.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM. Here's more on possible conflicts of interest involving drug companies and WV's attorney general.

ANNALS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE. A while back the city of Charleston WV passed an ordnance allowing city residents to own chickens and such. Here's one nice success story. Meanwhile, the hens at Goat Rope Farm have either permanently retired from egg production or have gone on strike.

In lieu of a serious post...

...how about another gratuitous animal picture? This photo, taken this weekend shows Arpad, our Great Pyreness and official People's Commissar of Public Safety at Goat Rope Farm, with his latest treasure find, to wit a decomposing deer hide.

I don't presume to channel what he's thinking, but if I had to hazard a guess, it might be something like:  "Deer season--the gift that keeps on giving." For him, it's yet another proof of the generosity and benevolence of the universe.

And, while I love him dearly, at times like these I'm glad he's mostly an outside dog.

SPEAKING OF DOGS, Paul Krugman wonders here whether Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan's recent musings on "inner city" folks might be a "racial dog whistle." My only reservation about this conclusion is that I thought dog whistles were supposed to be so subtle that humans couldn't detect them.

SO WHERE WERE DOGS in the infinitesimally short explosion that gave birth to the universe? I'm guessing they were very tiny. And well insulated.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Turkeys meet world

I may have mentioned a while back that we have something on the order of 22 baby turkeys on Goat Rope Farm. They've spent the first few weeks of their lives in a little enclosure.
Now that they're bigger, we decided it was time to let them out in the bigger world. They filed out like a bunch of schoolkids.

Their first action as free birds was to start chowing down on ragweed.

Who would have thought that this plant would turn out to be turkey crack?

THINGS PEOPLE LIKE ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM. The problem is, they have to know about it first.

BLACK LUNG never really went away, but now it's back with a vengeance.

THIS PERSON MUST HATE FREEDOM. He's writing about climate change.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Hang on

Photo credit: the Spousal Unit.

If an ordinary picture is worth 1000 words, this ought to be worth a few more. But here's a thought: if this was a New Yorker cartoon, what would the caption be?

Unconditional surrender

I had intended to blog about something else today but have been overtaken by unforeseen circumstances. Although I have tried to do what I can with Goat Rope, mine eyes have now beheld a blog beyond which no greater blog can be conceived. I am bound by my code of honor to admit it when I have been outgunned, or in this case out-dogged.

The supreme blog that I hereby acknowledge is titled Food on My Dog and is pretty much entirely composed of pictures of a very compliant dog with various food items on its head.

Look upon it, ye mighty, and despair.

Great moments in mycology (not)

Every so often, and especially after a good rain, the Spousal Unit gets the urge to go mushroom hunting.

This usually involves an inter-species search party of which Arpad is a prominent member.

He is a bit of a big lumbering ox, which sometimes means bad news for the specimens.


But he's cute.

The ones that got away

Aside from links and comments about current events, Goat Rope is all about gratuitous animal pictures. Many of these are captured right here on the farm or in the course of travels.

This latest gem was found on the farm by the Spousal Unit. Praying mantises are one of my totem animals and are associated with a style of kung fu. I have related here before about how I got beat up by one such insect several years ago.

But sadly, we don't always have a camera around when we need it. During a recent trip to Vermont, we saw baby beavers while we were splashing around in a tributary of the White River. They were cute little buggers, especially the tails. Alas, we probably won't run across any of those any time soon.

Another one got away earlier this week as we were taking the dogs on their ritual 2 mile evening walk. It was an ichneumon wasp dragging a big but stunned spider across the road. If you recall, these guys stun their prey so they can move and lay eggs in them. The unlucky critter, an arachnid in this case, provides a living dinner to the larvae. Slowly.

This variety of wasp created great theological problems in the 1800s when people tried to find proof of divine providence in nature. Those seeking to find evidence of this had no problem with ordinary hunting and predation, but this kind of feeding seemed a bit...unsportsmanlike.

Lao Tzu said it best, "Heaven and Earth are not humane."

RESTORING THE MIDDLE CLASS. Here is a speech by Elizabeth Warren, who, if there's any justice, will head the new bureau of consumer protection.

HERE'S ANOTHER ONE. I don't always agree with this columnist, but I'm with him on letting the Bush era tax cuts go the way of archaeopteryx.

COAL, MONEY AND ELECTIONS. Here's an update on all three from Coal Tattoo.

GOING GREEN. Orangutans seem to be ahead of humans.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

NEW LIFE (AND A TURKEY)

We interrupt Goat Rope's usual torrent of hard hitting social commentary to announce the birth of Luna and Juno. Arcadia S. Venus, militant goat union leader, is the proud mother.

Also...



...five as yet unnamed chicks hatched on the same day. And then there's Diego, a (confused) new arrival if not a neonate:



GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED