Almost Gypsy Soul

Well, if you have watched the news at all since the beginning of October you know that I have ALOT of time to watch the news. I am was a federal employee with the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA), who now has to figure out how to spend my days without spending money while Congress continues to not talk to each other about the horrible situation that America has realized. BUT what you probably haven't seen on the news is the awful devastation that South Dakota farmers and ranchers are still trying to assess. Early reports estimate regional cattle losses to be about 5%, with some ranchers losing 20-50% of their herd. Do you know what this means for these guys? It could be the end of their ranch without help. And where should help be coming from? Well normally that would be a task that FSA would be charged with, except we are all at home on furlough and Congress has once again failed to enact a Farm Bill that would contain disaster programs to assis...

Just over 5 years ago I started working for the federal government, where I signed on for the job with thoughts of proving the "typical government worker" stereo type wrong, I wanted to be different, I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to help people, particularly agriculture people. Never once did I ever think that in just 5 years at the ancient age of 30 that I would be unemployed and not receiving unemployment checks. Yet here we are. I would like to extend my gracious thanks to both the President and all Democrats and Republicans of Congress. I am extremely disappointed in the blinders and pettiness that is rampant in Washington with little regard to how your selfishness affects ordinary American citizens who want to do good, who want to go to work (most days) who want to help and serve other Americans. I sincerely hope that you all can make your mortgage payments, pay your bills and afford to go to the grocery store because there are thousands more who will strugg...

I really wanted to leave this 5-part series, "The Dirty Game" published by SI, alone, really I did but Part 5: The Fallout sent me reeling, flying off the handle if you will. I wanted to leave this story alone because I am an OSU Alum and I am proud to be a product of Cowboy Country and therefore some may think that my opinion is biased. Yes, I am proud to be a Cowboy. No, I am not a die hard football fan. gasp. In fact, most of the names in this "story" I didn't even really know who they were, but that does not change my opinion of the final part, The Fallout. I'm not going to discuss my thoughts on the first 4 parts, The Money, The Academics, The Drugs, The Sex because I do not think that a legit investigation has been completed yet. There were definitely not enough facts presented by Mr. Dohrmann and Mr. Evans to convince me that the OSU Football program was, beyond a reasonable doubt, guilty of the accusations. Now I will say this, I'll be dis...