Senate and Farm Bureau in lockstep

Wow! Did you see how most of our elected senators fell right into lockstep last week with former dairy farmer Senator Gary Stubblefield’s terrible bill (aka the Superfluous Stubblefield Stinker) who is carrying water for the Arkansas Farm Bureau?

Looks to me as if far too few complacent Arkansans have made their voices heard in Stubblefield and company’s latest attempt to needlessly circumvent the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) in favor of handing regulatory oversight over hog factories to the woefully unprepared Arkansas Natural Resources Commission and local Soil Conservation Districts.

And now federal environmental regulators rightfully are reviewing this truly onerous piece of lawmaking as it heads over to the House. Has anyone asked why the Farm Bureau and Stubblefield felt it the least bit necessary to develop and push such unjustifiable legislation? Let’s all think real hard on that.

Short of turning our obviously lobbyist-compliant state government completely over to the Farm Bureau, there’s still time for you to contact your state representative where this contrived legislative end run around our existing laws was next headed as of last week, as well as reaching out to the governor’s office. Survival of our popular and beloved National Buffalo River is up to you now, valued readers.

Biggest labor forces

Have you seen the latest relevant figures on the highest percentage of people in the labor force across our state?

Based on the latest Census Bureau data for cities of 60,000 or more, Rogers leads with 72.3 percent, followed by neighboring Springdale at 69.4, Little Rock with 67.6, Jonesboro at 66.5 and Fayetteville’s 64.5.

Rounding out the top eight are Conway, 64.1 percent, Fort Smith, 72.8 and North Little Rock 62.2 percent active in the work force.

People in the labor force include those employed as civilians, armed forces and the unemployed in search of work (should they be counted?).

Not included are non-working students, homemakers (wait, these folks work harder than most), retirees and the institutionalized.

Why does this matter? Well, in addition to job opportunities, a high percentage of the population in a communitiy’s labor force makes it a more attractive area to live because local governments gain higher tax revenues with fewer costs connected with social programs.

Courage of convictions

We’ve all seen the news about Trump supporters and/or staff being rudely kicked out of restaurants and private citizens wearing “Make America Great Again” caps being assaulted by leftist goons despite our constitutional right to free speech and expression.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see some resistance to this self-proclaimed resistance make headlines in this paper the other day. Seems a grocery chain based in Camden sent its weekly advertisement to its area stores

The ad’s front page promoted the usual food products along with the text: “Heaven has a wall, a gate and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders. Let that sink in.”

Mac’s Cashsaver is a family-owned and Christian-oriented private business.

Jack Digby, manager of the Camden store, told the Associated Press he’d answered dozens of angry calls about the ad. (Bet that reaction wouldn’t have happened 40 years ago in this nation.)

The store’s management also told a Little Rock television station it stands by its ad and will continue to develop messages that accompany weekly ads.

Now there’s one business that openly displays the courage of its convictions. It also may represent a turning point where others who have wrongly been treated rudely, at times brutally, and smeared by the mainstream media for expressing their beliefs in the Land of the Free and are beginning to stand up for them.

I don’t recall hearing of those choosing to wear shirts bearing the image of late mass murderer Che Guevara being attacked or having them ripped from their backs, do you?

Holding their own

Although I place little stock in political polls since the 2016 presidential debacle that left a lot of those paid prognosticators rightfully redfaced and weeping, I nonetheless offer recent results from the folks at the Morning Consult.

According to that firm’s 2018 study of voter approvals for each state’s U.S. senators (and with a 2 percent margin of error) our Republican senator John Boozman has a favorable approval rate of 47 percent versus 26 percent disapproval with 27 percent uncertain.

Senator Tom Cotton’s approval rate also was 47 percent with 31 percent disapproval and 22 percent uncertain. Both men polled two percentages above the average of a 45 percent national favorability ranking for senators overall.

According to what I saw in the full national list, Boozman and Cotton’s numbers seemed downright positive, especially when compared with Arizona’s now former Democrat senator Jeff Flake whose favorability at home was 28 percent with a whopping 49 percent unfavorable and 24 percent undecided. Former Democrat Missouri senator Claire McCaskill, also now departed, rated almost as badly with 35 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable and 15 percent undecided.

Of the active senators, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican Majority leader, carried a 38 percent favorable rating compared with 47 percent unfavorable and 15 percent without an opinion. And that was even up from the last poll! Apparently Sen. Mitch has continued to disappoint more than a few voters.

Laws and evil

Finally, file this piece of adult common sense, unfortunately lacking today across many portions of our country, in your truisms drawer: Passing law after law in an attempt to stop and/or prevent evil is futile and fruitless. Evil remains an unfortunate aspect of our lives together, regardless of how many laws against it we humans decree.