The Big 12: Urgent Federal Action Needed

Iowa State is a land-grant university with three over-riding goals, to wit: 

--(a) Teach lads to efficiently grow more row crops than they can profitably sell on the open market. 

--(b) Instruct the same lads in means of extorting sufficient taxpayer money  to guarantee  themselves handsome profits  for  the  unsellable goods mentioned in (a). 

--(c)  Provide low-level entertainment to the rural  masses via wholly-owned subsidiaries playing football and basketball.

Therein comes  comes the  crisis.  Iowa State is a member of the Big 12 athletic conference which seems to be on the verge of going toes up.  The sky is falling. What to do? 

Why, son, go talk to the federal government in the persons of your senators Grassley (R) and Harkin (D) who have each taken this thing seriously and issued profound statements on the matter.

I'm especially anxious to see reports of President  Obama's reaction to this Heartland  drama. Certainly his good friend Sen. Harkin will alert him to the national danger of the Cyclones not having a conference to play in.

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Is nothing beneath demands for federal  action?

Here's a plug for two businesses, three if you count Amazon.

Amazon's seller is Shooters World of Dacula, Georgia. The company promised to have my order here by June 22. It appeared in my mailbox June 8.

The product is  a .45 ACP dedicated crimp die from Lee Precision, the good guys in Hartford, Wisconsin. I've been using their stuff for ever,  including the "Lee Loader" on which I loaded my first cartridge sometime during the Harding Administration. Yes, .45 ACP.

The die works as billed, no fuss. I'd never been quite happy with the way my Herter's die crimps the .45s. I was getting too many slightly loose bullets or, in curing that, crimps that I didn't trust to positively headspace the round.  The crimp die solves the problem nicely, and, to boot,  sizes the entire loaded round. If nothing else it adds deep layer of confidence that my loads will chamber perfectly, every time.

It's the second recent reminder how much I like Lee stuff. The first was the .45 Colt die set. I bought it at a Cabela's and asked the clerk to grab me a shell holder. No need, he said. Lee packages a holder with the dies. Good  idea.  Good company.

Invasion

This is about a third of them, all I was able to get in a grab shot in the rain. A pair with their offspring wandering  the front yard isn't unusual, but a  whole goose neighborhood decided to picnic here this morning.

(Speaking of Which)

Tomoko in her home on the hlll above Yokosuka Harbor, early 1960s.

T