Journalists lately love to latch on to the "Amish angle" of high gas prices.  I think they just find the idea of Amish being impacted by high gas prices to be an irresistable story-line.  As we've discussed here, though, even with the Amish sense of self-sufficiency they are not totally "in a bubble."  High gas prices DO ripple through their daily lives .  One story making the rounds on the Associated Press wires caught my eye because it chronicles the impact of high fuel costs in the Adams County, Ohio Amish community.  I've often said that this is probably my favorite Amish area.  Take a look at the story here.

Meanwhile, this is a superb story that appeared in the Shreveport, Louisiana newspaper over the weekend.  The story is good because of it's writing and rich detail, but also as a "public service" piece.  I'm sure many people in the region see the population of "plain people" increasing and probably just assume they are Amish.  Many people here in Southwest Ohio incorrectly refer to our nearby Old German Baptists as "Amish."  So whenever local media can help bridge cultural confusion over various plain populations, I'm please. Click here to read.

An interesting story out of New York state.  Two Amish parents are being accused of child neglect for not taking care of a heart ailment suffered by their toddler.  The news story incorrectly states that: "Amish culture sees medical treatment and hospitals as against religious beliefs."  This just isn't true.  I've known PLENTY of conservative Amish who's kids have had heart and other problems and have taken them in for major medical treatment.   Now I have also known Amish parents who simply didn't have the medical information needed to make important decisions, but that is a different issue altogether.  The Amish view on modern medicine is very "individual."  Some Amish readily embrace modern medicine, while others are suspicious of it.  But to make a blanket statement like this article does is just incorrect.  Click here to read more.

How's this for the ingredients to a bizarre story: single young Amish lady  in Iowa has a tryst with an older married English man.  Tryst produces kid.  Young Amish woman then marries Amish man and becomes devout member of the church.  The kid then becomes a rope in a cross culture tug-o-war between the non-Amish father and the Amish mother.  The mother doesn't want the child to have anything to do with the father, citing the difference between their values and his (um...didn't SHE have an affair with a married man?  Seems both the Amish woman and English man have a values problem).  Anyway, the case landed in court and here's the latest developments.

I found this article amusing, boring, and interesting all at once.  I mean the piece is about "podiums."  What a dull topic.  So the Amish make podiums for a high-tech classroom?  Does this REALLY merit a story in Newsday?  The Amish have been doing wood-working for years and this is really just an extension of that.  On the other hand, the piece was interesting in just illustrating how Amish and English can team up to create a business (much like Lovina and I divide duties on the Amish Cook column).  So, if you really want to read about Amish-made podiums click here.

I've commented before how our country goes into these periodic diatribes against people who don't speak English (these days it's stamping out Spanish), but THEN a generation or two passes, times change, and society laments the loss of the very language they once tried to exterminate.  The US government spent a gazillion dollars trying to exterminate the Native Americans and their tongue, but today we wistfully wish their culture had been preserved. Louisiana spent massive resources at one time to assimilate the Cajun French only to today fund programs to preserve the few settlements left where people speak it.   Pennsylvania Dutch/German language speakers were once persecuted and encouraged to abandon their language and culture.  Now with the language virtually vanishing at least one college professor is undertaking an effort to record the dialect before it disappears.  Click here to read. 

A judge ruled against a group of Amish hunters in Wisconsin who claimed that wearing "orange blazes" infringed on their religious freedom.  The Amish WERE on private land, so this ruling bothers me a little bit. On the other hand, wearing a little orange while hunting being a violation of Amish religion seems a bit of a stretch. Click here to read more.

When I am speaking of "depression" I mean prices.  Lovina and Joe attended a horse auction today hoping to unload two of their equines.  The high price of hay has forced them to attempt to make some cut-backs.  But apparently every other horse owner in Michigan has the same idea which has resulted in a glut of horses.  Lovina reported some horses were going for as low as $100 or $150 dollars.  A cute pony was being offered for $25.  Lovina said she had never seen prices so low.  With any hope of cutting their losses gone on such low prices, Lovina and Joe went back home with their two horses in tow.  So while all of us non-Amish are suffering through high gas prices, the Amish are dealing with high hay. SIGH, the nearest gas station to me has now jacked their price up to $4.15 a gallon....I think I'll definitely board a train to Kansas City...

The Wall Street Journal has a superb article this weekend about the often helpless situation "plain people" find themselves when it comes to health care expenses.  The Amish and most conservative Mennonites generally opt out of any health insurance plans from their employers.  They believe that the Amish community needs to take care of one another.  For the most part this works.  Amish church members pool their money and if someone falls ill the bills get paid.  But what about a settlement that gets hammered with many, many people falling ill?    It's a tough, tough problem and the WSJ does a great job of walking through the complexities and nuances.  Ultimately, though, the article could be applied to our health care system as a whole: we have some of the best healthcare in the world, with the most unfair ways to fund it.  Anyway, I won't preach here.  Just read this good article and we can discuss.  

And, gee, big surprise: bye, bye "Pigeon King."   I wrote about this absurb outfit earlier this year and how so many Amish were getting roped into this.  Well, now, big surprise, Pigeon King has come crashing down.

Despite a desire to think that at least the Amish are immune from the pain at the pump these days, they really aren't.  High gas prices hurt them because many Amish hire "English" people to drive them into town or to doctor's appointments.  The hired driver's rates are now becoming unaffordable for a quick trip to the grocery.  In this sense the higher fuel prices have strengthened the Amish bond with their horse-drawn buggies. Although at the same time gas prices have been skyrocketing so too has the price of hay.  This has really caused feeding horses to become more expensive.  In fact, Lovina and her husband are selling two of their horses at auction this weekend simply because the strain on the budget became too much to bear. Read more here about how the Amish are impacted by the price of gas.

Quote of the day:
"I'm sick of dealing with them!" - an inspector in New York's North Country.

Now, THAT is real professional.  In the continuing building code battles in New York, score one for the Amish.  An Amish man was issued a proper permit for building a chimney, because, a) the chimney appeared functional and b) the inspector was just sick of dealing with the Amish.  Read more here.   I guess the building inspector needs to move to a land where everyone is the same, there are no different cultures, religions, or beliefs to deal with (insert sarcasm).  Those New York North Country government officials just seem to have a real chip on their shoulder regarding the Amish.

SIGH, this whole story just seems silly all the way around.  It's silly that the government is spending it's time and money prosecuting someone for selling raw milk.  And it's silly that humans drink milk in the first place.  As I've said ad nausem, we are the only animal to drink the mammary fluids of other animals.  A giraffe doesn't drink zebra milk, a rabbit doesn't drink cat's milk, and so on....I think the whole issue of "raw milk" could be solved by simply having the purchaser sign a waiver removing the seller from liability and be done with it.  But, no, at least in Pennsylvania selling raw milk is a criminal act. 

I posted yesterday about this tired, worn-out, rehashed, re-tread that ABC TV is serving up tonight at 10 p.m.  The special is about "rumspringa", which refers to a period of exploration and rebellion by some Amish teens.  Why the mainstream media is so fascinated with what is really typical teenage behavior found in any religion or culture escapes me. Whatever.  You can read about one of the teens being profiled in this feature from a newspaper in Ashland, Ohio.  Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised by tonight's show, perhaps it'll be good, nuanced, balanced journalism.  But I won't hold my breath....

Meanwhile, Hutterite-raised livestock is really growing in popularity with consumers and it isn't a leap to figure out why.  Hutterite colonies raise their animals in humane rangeland environments and fatten them up with organic feed.  This is much closer to how meat is supposed to be enjoyed rather than the factory-raised, trucked-in livestock smashed into steaks and nuggets like most places sell.   So check out these lucky South Dakotans who have easy access to these prime cuts.