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It is time for something a little light hearted. My brother, Ted, likes to clip articles from various sources to send to me. He knows my interests, so the article contents typically support or challenge those. He and I don’t agree on everything, but do on most.
One article he clipped was one about the Asian carp, a fish now found almost throughout the United States but one that was not native to North America. Various carp species were brought to this continent from Europe in the early 1800’s. Not the smartest decision environmentally, but humans were pretty stupid about those things then. In Europe, the carp are both a sports and food fish. In Asia, carp have been a popular food fish for thousands of years. In North America, carp have not been considered either a sport or food fish. Mostly, they are considered a “trash fish”. That may be changing.
The article Ted sent says, “Asian carp is leaping onto table-tops in Kentucky’s finest dining establishments”. At a restaurant named, “The Ward 426”, the fish is served as “Kentucky Carp”. The charge is $24 for fish specially browned in butter and served atop sweet potato puree with roasted fig jam and mushrooms pickled in balsamic vinegar. In Kentucky, the carp are sometimes called, “Western Kentucky Silver Carp”. It outsells catfish whether grilled, fried, blackened or buffalo-style. One top chef compares carp to scallops and Chilean sea bass. For the white and meaty carp, chefs pay less than half the price of more expensive seafood such as sea bass.
Mature Asian carp average 45 to 70 pounds. Now there is a fish! The meat is white, clean tasty, and low in contaminants such as mercury due to its feeding habits. Carp are plant eaters.
But carp are environmentally destructive. This is a fish that when too many can really screw up the aquatic environment for native fish. This is a fish that lays 1 million eggs a year. An over population is a threat to native fish such as bluegill, crappie, bass, and shad. Oh, did I say that the eggs can be a source of roe or caviar? So, what to do?
The answer is for human beings in North America to eat up. A knife and fork will go wonders to helping the environment and enjoying a fish feast. The Mighty Carp needs to become a staple in our search for “sea food”. All winners for the environment and for the food supply.

The Kokomo Dispatch blog has been resting long enough. I chose to consolidate posts to the kentblacklidge.wordpress.com blog some months ago. Now I believe it time to undo part of that choice.
The Kokomo Dispatch masthead existed on a print newspaper for decades. It began as a local newspaper in Kokomo, Indiana, as an enterprise started by the Poynter family who went on to bigger things with the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. The Dispatch was purchased by my great grandfather, John Arthur Kautz. The Dispatch name was carried as a sub-head in the Kokomo Tribune until the late 1960s when the name was dropped.
The Tribune was sold in 1981 to the Thomson Newspaper group. At that point the Tribune had close to two dozen family owners, all descendants of Kautz. The family was in the situation where the death of one of the older partners would trigger a forced sale just to pay estate tax. The decision was made to sell. The market for newspapers was very good at the time, but the sale to Thomson was not good for the paper nor for the community. The focus went from serving the community to maximizing profit. Unfortunately, this was the story for hundreds of family owned newspapers across the country.
I want to carry on the Kokomo Dispatch name which was not included as a part of the sale to Thomson. I feel it is part of my history and duty. I think the Poynters would be pleased as would J.A. Kautz since the Tribune name was passed on to others.
It is interesting to me to realize how deeply newspapers and journalism are rooted in me. Some of my earliest memories are of times going to the newspaper offices with my father. I was around newsrooms, composing rooms, and the press more times than I can imagine. I can still smell the ink and paper and still hear the rumbling of the press as it printed the thousands of copies of the paper to be delivered to doorsteps. I remember.
After the sale of the Tribune, I changed course. For years I was involved with science and the academic community. I loved that, too. I was able to make a significant contribution in evolutionary biology. I went off, too, in other directions that hit dead ends. For the past 16 years, professionally I have been a licensed real estate appraiser in Indiana. This has had its rewards in that I have become very familiar with about all communities in North Central Indiana and have met hundreds of very interesting and good people. My vision as a result has widened.
For years, the voices within rooted in my decades with the Kokomo Tribune were muted. They have come alive. We are in precarious times for our country. Everyone who can should speak out.

The uproar over the Trump sex talk video is a whole lot to do about nothing. His apologetic response should close the matter completely.
Men have a way with them beginning with the onset of puberty. Studies have shown that healthy men have thoughts about sex frequently, very frequently. Those who don’t have such thoughts are either liars or eunuchs. Any male who has been on a team, in a locker room, on a golf course, or with male gatherings of about any kind know that sex talk and braggadocio pop up more often than not. And any man who notices the female gender has thoughts of sex at least from time to time. This is all normal in our society.
And for women, have you noticed at the check out line at the grocery store the number of magazine covers featuring some female clad in “sexy” fashion or about nothing at all? Do you see any covers with male models on them? I don’t. And what is this about? Have you noticed the number of magazine covers that feature some article about great or better sex? They are all over the place. And women in the United State of America don’t wear burkas that cover from head to foot; quite the contrary.
None of this means it is proper to act on every thought. Our culture is filled with sexual suggestion and allure, but talk is a universe different from actions. Donald Trump talked 11 years ago in ways that were meant to be private and between men as men sometimes are.
What gets me is the sanctimonious outrage from both women and men over what Trump said 11 years ago. I particularly question the character of the Republicans — including House Speaker Paul Ryan — who express shock and judgment, then go about back peddling or distancing themselves from the Republican candidate for President of the United States of America. They are like rats fleeing from a ship. One wonders about people who profess they are so much better than Donald Trump or are they just “posers” who were always looking for a reason to dive back into the Washington cesspool from which they have come and love so much.
I can not conclude without comment about the Clintons. Bill Clinton is a true sexual predator. Hillary Clinton was an enabler. She was the one who went about threatening Bill’s victims. Silence is golden or else.
Donald Trump never claimed to be an angel or perfect. He is a male human being with flaws like the rest of us. Maybe that is why the “rest of us” like him so well. He has apologized. Now let’s get on with the debate about the issues that are going to make or break this country.

So, the members of the Kokomo Tribune Editorial Board are going to vote for Hillary Clinton and they believe we all should do the same. I believe this to be an incredible demonstration of poor judgment and complete naivete. The KT Editorial Board would have us vote for a blatant liar who, along with Barack Obama, is largely responsible for the deaths of thousands and setting the world on fire.
Hillary Clinton is in the pocket of Wall Street, large corporations, big donors, lobbyists, foreign governments, and anyone who would feather her nest. What Wall Street giant would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 30 minute talk unless they are buying influence and favor? What foreign government would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions, into the Clinton Foundation unless they are buying influence and favor? It stinks to high heaven.
Hillary Clinton is responsible for the deaths of 4 Americans at Benghazi. She has lied about what happened and who is responsible time and time again.
Hillary Clinton put the United States at security risk for nearly a decade with an email server in her home, a fact clearly stated by the Director of the FBI. She has lied about emails time and time again.
Hillary Clinton is all about Hillary Clinton. Hillary Rodham Clinton should be in the jail house, not the Whitehouse.
Donald Trump may be blunt, brash, and undiplomatic at times. I say, “Good for him”. We need to hear it straight out. His dry sense of humor may not be understood or appreciated all the time, but I say this is a problem for those who don’t get it, not for him. Wise up; get smarter.
As for your comments claiming Trump disrespects our military, he is the one who believes the VA is a mess and is not taking care of vets as they should be. This is one of his primary issues. And he is the one who thinks it is pathetic we have planes that can only fly having scavenged parts from others. He is the one who believes our military has been abused, used, and allowed to degrade. He is a champion of the military, not one who disrespects it. Ask the vets.
Many of us are fed up with the Washington political elite of which Hillary Clinton is a decades long card carrying member.  We are tired of politicians who dance around the issues and do nothing. We are tired of getting screwed with abusive trade agreements. We are tired of “do nothing” about illegal immigration except to open the doors wider. We are tired of incompetency and self-serving. We are tired and fed up.
I, for one, will be voting for Donald Trump in November. I hope and pray Indiana will join the states needed to put him over the top. Frankly, I strongly believe if we do not elect Donald Trump as President of the United States but rather put Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitehouse, we can kiss this country good-bye.

If it was up to the GOP District Chairman from Howard County, Satan would make a better choice for the Republican nominee for President of the United States of America over Donald Trump. This is what Craig Dunn, the Chairman, told Politico in an interview. According to Politico, Dunn said, “If Satan had the lead on him (Trump) and was one delegate away from being nominated as our candidate and Donald Trump was the alternative, I MIGHT vote for Donald Trump. I have always wanted to own a casino, but he couldn’t give me a casino and have me vote for him”.
If it were just Dunn, this might be dismissed, but it is not. The GOP in Indiana has it totally backwards. Most of the 57 delegates, three from each Congressional District and 27 at-large, that will represent Indiana and its citizens at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland have already been chosen. If you wanted to be considered for a spot in the delegation, an application had to be filed by March 15th; long before the citizens of Indiana will vote on May 3rd. One requirement for eligibility to be selected as a delegate is a promise to provide $2000 to participate. This selects out people of limited means. One GOP district leader who is involved in delegate selection also says, “One of my criteria for filtering out folks was whether or not they supported Donald Trump. I didn’t care whether they supported Ted Cruz or John Kasich”.
The final choice of delegates is made by Party insiders. Delegates have one obligation and that is to vote on the first Convention ballot for the Presidential candidate chosen by the people of Indiana. Beyond that, they have no obligation or loyalty. They can vote for whomever they choose. Politico says that according to interviews with a dozen party leaders and officials in the delegate selection process, an anti-Trump sentiment runs “hot” among the GOP leadership in Indiana. This means that if Donald Trump does not secure the nomination for President on the first ballot, they will be free to “vote their conscience” regardless of the outcome of the vote by the citizens of Indiana.
In other words, the dice are loaded. Your vote may come to mean nothing, particularly if it was for Donald Trump and even if the majority of voters in Indiana voted for Donald Trump. The only vote that would matter would be those of Republican Party insiders; the system as usual.
People in the United States are angry. They are fed up with politics as usual. They are fed up with party insiders and politicians who for decades have feathered their own nests. They are fed up with the loss of millions of jobs and the decline of the middle class. They are fed up with political manipulation and skulduggery. They want America back.
If the Indiana GOP engages in back room politics as usual, which it appears is happening, there will be consequences. The voters of Indiana, regardless of who wins the vote in our state, should be represented by delegates loyal to the will of the voters; not their personal whims and interests. They should stand fast for the voters regardless of the outcome of the first Convention ballot.

Enough is enough. The “protesters” at Trump rallies, meetings, and in front of Trump property are not protesters but rather are largely agitators and anarchists. Many are admittedly being paid. Many, when asked, don’t even know what they are protesting; they are only there to disrupt.
The electronic media are to blame for sensationalism of the “news” coverage of the bad and threatening behavior of agitators. The media has become a driver of the news rather than a reporter of the news. The electronic media aid and abet the shutting down of free political speech.
There are two incidents that are telling. One involved an African American Trump supporter who punched out a agitator who was wearing Ku Klux Klan garb, defacing an American flag, and yelling all sorts of profanity. How would you expect the African American to respond? And this was during a time when security personnel were attempting to remove the agitator who was kicking, screaming, and punching at them. It was too much and over the line. The other involved a woman agitator who screamed in the face of a police horse, then slapped the animal in the face when the horse did not flinch at her screaming. The screamer was later arrested and will face charges.
Then there is a video by a black Tucson police officer, Bradon Tatum, that has gone viral. He attended the Trump Tucson rally as a civilian. He reported how shocked he was at the violent, profane behavior of the anti-Trump protesters. Further, he told about how he was not mistreated by the Trump supporters; much to the contrary about how electronic media are reporting treatment of Black attendees. Tatum said he feared for his own safety from the anti-Trump protesters. He said, “These are the most hateful, evil people I’ve ever seen. I could not believe what I saw.”
Now the Secret Service and Trump have said that security staffing for the Trump campaign will be increased. This follows disruption of several Trump gatherings and blocking of Trump Towers, the residence of the Trump family. NBC reported that former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino said, “You have counter-assault assets, you have counter-sniper assets; this says to me that this is a grave threat [to Trump]”.
Disruption and agitation are not coming from Trump supporters. Donald Trump speech is not responsible for the behavior of the agitators as alleged by the media and his rival candidates. Trump does not encourage his supporters to retaliate on agitators but rather directs security personnel to “get them out of here”. The Secret Service and police need to get tough and, if necessary, rough with people who are only present to agitate, disrupt, or harm. It has been well established paid agitators are not “protesters” but rather disrupters being paid by such as MoveOn.Org and others. Get them out of here.