It’s a good thing to do on a rainy January afternoon.

And these ones don’t fly away when I try to take their pictures:

Silly birther issue: Is Ted Cruz eligible to run for president? Absolutely. He was born the child of an American citizen. Will raising this issue damage his campaign. Absolutely. Of course, whatever diminishes his chances is okay by me.

This question first raised its head when Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964. He was born in Arizona when it was a U.S. territory, as was his father. (Think Puerto Rico.)

“Nationals” of U.S. territories cannot be president or even vote in presidential elections. Barry Goldwater was eligible because his mother, Hattie Josephine Williams Goldwater, was born in Illinois. And because she was Episcopalian and raised her son as such (always an advantage), his father’s being Jewish was not mentioned, at a time when this point too could have been raised.

Didn’t hurt that he was a “Marlboro  Man.”

Being a handsome cowboy didn’t hurt this guy either:

In presidential campaigns, things that shouldn’t matter do.  It helps to be handsome and hurts to not be.

Of course, LBJ was elected anyway.  He was a cowboy.  Handsome, not so much.

Personally, I love the way Bernie looks.

And  don’t like the way Hillary looks.

I plan to focus on what should matter.

The flowering quince brought in on New Year’s Day to force into bloom did:

Malheur is a corruption of an old French word that means bad luck.  I guess whoever arrived there first didn’t like the looks  of things.  I can’t think why.

For people from Texas, Oregon may not seem like a very big state, but to illustrate things,  Malheur County is as far from Portland as the middle of the Panhandle is from the Metroplex, except it’s over a mega-mountain range, and the biggest town out there is about the size of Barstow.  It is the size of the State of Massachusetts.  It has a population of 8000 souls.

To understand what is going on out there, it is necessary to understand a couple of things. Three of the occupiers also are sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who, with a contingent of armed supporters, faced down an effort by the Bureau of Land Management nearly two years ago to seize his cattle for nonpayment of grazing fees — a bill that remains unpaid (over 1 million dollars).  They are out-of-state political grandstanders.  They may have some legitimate political grievances, but so do the Piutes.  Most of the locals are not in league with the Bundys and want them to go home.

You can be sure if Mr. Bundy looked like this

instead of like this

the entire exercise would be moot.  This is still the Wild West in some ways.