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When this is the best response you can come up with regarding an article that obviously has so much heart and soul put into it, you probably should think twice before responding at all.

Our nation is dieing at it’s core and you are picking at grammar and spelling? You are a “Hell of a guy”. A typical Liberal.

Sorry, I can’t agree. The good news is that the people of the Church have become more active within the Church and are aware of what has been hidden in the closets. The Priests are no longer put on pedestals. They are now recognized as men with faults who can also sin. The Pope is only infallible in very exclusive issues of faith and morals and he hasn’t made such a proclamation for a very long time.

The Church loses much credibility when it harassed women for years about birth control. It was threatened all forms of birth control as a mortal sin to the point in which woman would risk their lives rather than the loss of their souls. They continue to have children despite knowing the danger to their health and the inability to financially support another child. Now the Church either turns her head or doesn’t even acknowledge birth control as an issue. What happened? Did it change as a sin in God’s eyes? What about all the women who died trying to stay in the good graces of a rule made by these Church authorities?

Please don’t tell me that the good news is they are changing the wording of the Mass - again. That doesn’t even touch the harm they have done.

Let’s try to think this through. When Pope John XXII opened the Second Vatican Council, he knew exactly what he was doing. I knew a dear nun that said that this will be the end of the Church as we know it. So what...! Most of this is fluff, tradition and Church ego. It has nothing to do with basic salvation and faith issues. Get real.

Remember how quickly the Church has changed the degree of a sin. One day various issues were a moral sin and the next a venal sin. One day you fast 8 hours before receiving Communion and the next 3 hours. One day if someone commits suicide they cannot be buried in a Catholic cemetery because it is consecrated ground. The next day they are considered mentally ill victims. As for divorced Catholics, it really depends on how many annulments they can afford.

I am not bitter - I am a realist. I have been there through all of the changes and studied Church history. Maybe the Church should go back to separate tradition based mandates from faith based and see what is left.

Dexter Hedrick swells with pride when he talks about the Wild Horse Program’s partnership with the United States Border Patrol.

“To have done something to help protect my country is just such an honor to me,” said Hedrick, a manager for the Wild Horse Program at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility.

On Friday, the U.S. Border Patrol adopted six mustangs from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Hutchinson. The horses were gathered from BLM-administered public lands and transported to the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, where inmates trained them as part of a special rehabilitation program.

This is the first time the U.S. Border Patrol has adopted horses from Hutchinson, said Paul McGuire, Public Affairs Specialist for the Bureau of Land Management. The horses will be used by the border patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector to patrol the border near McAllen, Texas.

“The thing about mustangs that appeals to the Border Patrol is their sturdiness, their agility, their stamina and their intelligence,” McGuire said. “Mustangs have qualities that the Border Patrol is going to be able to take advantage of.”

In 2001, the prison became a holding and training facility for wild horses removed from public lands by the BLM. The BLM manages about 200 wild horse herds on 27 million acres of public land in the western United States.

“Managing wild horses and burros is one of BLM’s vital missions,” McGuire said. “Wild horses are a highly valued resource, but they have to be properly managed.”

Excess numbers of wild horses could have very negative effects on wildlife, so it’s important to keep their populations in balance, McGuire said. The BLM remove horses to several different places across the country, including the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, where inmates then train the horses and members of the public can adopt them.

BLM has been running for about 35 years, and in that time has probably adopted out about a quarter of a million horses, McGuire said. The Bureau removes about 10,000 horses a year and many of them come to the HCF, which is equipped to handle about 350 animals.

Hutchinson is one of five correctional facilities in the country with wild horse rehabilitation programs. Others include Canon City, Colo., Carson City, Nev., Riverton, Wyo., and Gunnison, Utah, Hedrick said.

“We are the farthest point East,” Hedrick said. “We do a lot of adoptions in Texas and Oklahoma, even more than we do in Kansas.”

The program provides inmates with valuable skills such as discipline, respect and a sense of accomplishment.

“That is one of the gems of this program,” McGuire said. “That we are able to partner with this program that not only improves the horses but also improves the men involved in the training.”

HCF is a minimum-security camp, which is the first criterion for this kind of program, Hedrick said. To qualify for the rehabilitation program, inmates must have reached at least a level two behavior level, which means they have demonstrated that they can behave properly.

“If we see the right attitude and a willingness to work, we will bring them in,” Hedrick said.

Wild horses are typically trained at HCF in 60 to 100 days, Hedrick said, although each horse is different and some take longer to train.

“Horses are just like people,” Hedrick said. “They all have different personalities and different levels of ability.”

The Border Patrol has adopted horses from other correctional facilities, said Mary Oliveras, a supervisory Border Patrol agent. Since 2007, the agency has adopted about 91 horses, mostly from Colorado. With an increased need for horses, it decided to expand its partnership to Kansas as well.

“We are very impressed with the way the horses are trained here,” Oliveras said.

The horses work well for the Border Patrol, often better than using vehicles or patrolling on foot.

“They’re better than night vision,” Oliveras said. “Horses are alert to anything in the area, and allow us to more easily find people hiding than if we were in a vehicle.”

After the six newly adopted horses are transported to Texas, the Border Patrol will work to slowly get them acclimated to the area. The horses will spend about two hours in the field for the first few weeks, and eventually will work up to six to eight hours in the field a day, Oliveras said.

The Rio Grande Valley Sector has nine stations, two checkpoints, air and marine operations and an intelligence officer. Rio Grande Valley agents patrol more than 320 river miles, 250 coastal miles and 19 counties totaling more than 17,000 square miles.

Your description of the hometown 4th of July Parade brought back many memories of years gone by. It also depicts how respect for the flag should be. We, as Americans, seem to forget that our flag represents the investment of a lot of lost lives. It is not just a piece of cloth that stands for a temporary Administration and plot of land.

People have died for the freedom that flag represents. The older generation know what it represents because they had to actually make decisions on what it was worth to them. Maybe it is time the rest of us make some decisions too. Defend your flag wherever it is not being given the proper respect.

Thanks for the reminder Bowtie

Iowa used to have the best school systems in the country, but no more. When their voting base and priorities went from Conservative issues like educating our children, God and country to Liberal issues of bleeding heart spend money to help everyone no matter what the issue - something had go.

This happened when the basic influx of new residence to Iowa cities was encouraged by growth at any cost. I am not saying that this was bad. I am just saying that the “silent majority” of native Iowans needs to speak up. They were correct before and they are correct now.

We were there when the polls opened and so far so good. I am more concerned about the absentee voting and the early voting than about problems today. I think there will be a lot of people keeping a close watch on all aspects of the procedure today. I don’t expect the results in some states for months after many recounts. It’s very sad when we can’t even trust our voting officials.

Hillary has no shame. She goes from one thing to the next and does whatever is best for Hillary. She has no interest in enhancing goodwill for the United States as Secretary of State. She is only interested in enhancing goodwill and the career of Hillary. She would never understand such pure motives as those of Mother Theresa.

Since you didn't bother to read the entire article you didn't get the full meaning. The author stated very clearly that Sonya Sotomayer is just the next step in Obama’s outrageous procession of unacceptable proposals before the American people. Compared to the others, this one seems tame. If you had the patience to excuse a computer error, instead of being so quick to criticize, you would have benefited from a well thought out article. Shame on you.

I am not disagreeing with you. History shows that you are right. My nature is nonviolent but have I spent most of my life serving my Country and our military. The civil unrest is brewing and I find it tragic that we have come to this.

Families are being torn apart over politics. My own family has suffered because the Obama message has become, to them, more important than the family unit. I see it is happening every where. It is Biblical.

Despite my basic nonviolent nature I will always be in the trenches with those who defend the truth. I don't think this is a conflict. I think this is being a realist.

Noumenon, you said, “...I am prepared to honor my oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign AND domestic.” I can assure you that your feelings are shared by many loyal Americans throughout the country. It is being shown statistically by the increase in gun sales and ammunition stockpiles that is also occurring. As one who is nonviolent and legalistic, I find this very unsettling. As a realist and avid historian, I can see the inevitability. I can further assure you that, just as mans rights are given to him by God so that they cannot be taken away by the government, there will always be an element that fights for those rights no matter who is in power. It is just a matter of how far you are willing to go to retain your God given rights.

The courageous work done during WWII on behalf of the Jews was done by individual Catholics and NOT by the Vatican. Hundreds of Jewish children were hidden and saved. Many Catholics sacrificed, and were killed, in an effort to fight the obvious evil taking place during that time. However, their efforts were separate and apart from the organized Church.

Where is the Pope's stand in all this? The Pope goes to the Middle East to “encourage” peace but stirs up more hard feelings with Jews because he can't find it within himself to acknowledge the Vatican's part in WWII. No Pope ever came out beyond the point of saying that sexual molestation was a sin. Do you really expect him to take a stand on this?

As for the Bishops, they are still waiting for the wind to settle before they stick their heads out. Lets face it, the mortgages are paid by full churches. Money talks.

There are no leaders in the churches - Catholic or otherwise. That is why we have a man like Mr Obama as President. That is why we are fighting the internal battles we are fighting in this country. That is why there are no absolute rights and absolute wrongs anymore.

This is just one more step in the planned hand over of America to the Islamic world. Obama showed his loyalty by bowing to the Sheik thereby stating that we, as a nation, are subservient to them. Now he wants an excuse to have a Muslim on his Cabinet.

This intimacy between an American President and an Islamic Sheik are told about in the book 2012 The Evolution, by A. Adams. Obama and the Congress are falling into this books predictions like a playbook. It is a must read for anyone who wants to know how our country got into this situation and where we could be heading.

The true Libs are going to continue to play dumb until it is too late. The book 2012 The Evolution, by A. Adams, spells it all out. Americas demise will not come from a military takeover. It will be a corporate buyout. The power is in the money. Look at the Obama Cabinet. Read the book.

The answers are obvious and no spin can change them. Obama has now placed the United States as subservient under this Islamic Sheik. In the book, “2012 The Evolution” by A. Adams, the President greets the Sheik with a bow at an official function, just like this one, and then later turns the country over. This book is amazing. Obama’s Cabinet are following this book like it was a script! The buyout is already happening.

This disgraceful action by Obama was predicted in the book “2012 The Evolution”. The book also describes the buyouts of major corporations in America by terrorist sleeper cells which leads to the eventual takeover of our Government.

While “2012 The Evolution” is listed as fiction, frighteningly Mr. Obama, and the Congress, continually do things daily that seem to pull from this book which may eventually change its category on the bookshelves. Who would have ever thought an American President would bow to anyone - let alone an Arab leader?