A Day for Spatting.

Today is October 12, 2026.

Department of Defense logo from 2000.

It's also officially Columbus Day, which has a long history of introduction in the U.S.  It was first celebrated, on this day, set to always occur on a Monday, in 1792 by the Columbian Order of New York, better known as the Tammany Society, which evolved into the famous New York political machine.  Italian Americans picked it up as a day of Italian pride as Columbus was an Italian.  It was recognized annually by the Federal Government starting in 1934, and then officially made a Federal holiday in 1968, to be first on the calendar in 1971.

It's still there.

Native Americans have never been particularly keen on the day, for obvious reasons.  This lead to protests over the years and eventually the day was recognized in some areas as Indigenous People's Day.

Taking the guns at Standing Rock.

Columbus Day was the source of increased agitation by Native Americans dating back into the 1970s, which was the height of power of the American Indian Movement, although if you look at today's entry for 1911, you'll see that it was on this day that the first national organization for Native Americans convened.  That probably wasn't an accident.  Some Native protests against the day have verged on violence, so deep is the opposition to it in those quarters.

Wyoming doesn't officially recognize either day, thereby avoiding taking any kinds of stand, but it does recognize Native American Day, which is in May.  Laramie and Jackson recognize Indigenous People's Day on this day, however, those two municipalities being the most "liberal" in Wyoming (which makes Rebecca Bextel's campaign being headquartered in Jackson ironic).  Casper doesn't recognize either day but usually finds a means of making the day a municipal holiday.

This year, Casper found a way to recognize both:

City of Casper Releases Indigenous Peoples’ / Columbus Day Services and Hours

City of Casper releases Indigenous Peoples’/Columbus Day services and hours

Garbage collection, water, sewer, emergency services and more will operate as usual.

Casper, Wyo. (October 8, 2026) – The City of Casper administrative offices will be closed for the observance of Indigenous Peoples’/Columbus Day 2026 on Monday, October 12, 2026.  Normal water, sewer, 911 dispatch, police, fire, and metro animal control services will maintain their regular schedules.  Solid waste crews will collect garbage as usual on Monday, and other crews will be on call to respond as needed.

The following is the complete list of services and hours.

• Trash collection will run on the normal schedule.
• Casper Regional Solid Waste Facility: Open 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Police Patrol, Fire-EMS, and 911 Dispatch: Regular hours.
• Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants: Regular hours.
• Water distribution, sewer, streets, parks, fleet services, and public facilities crews on call for emergencies.
• Metro Animal Services Patrol Officers (APOs): Available 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.by calling non-emergency dispatch at 307.235.8278.  Outside those regular hours, APOs are on call for emergencies by calling 911.
• Fort Caspar Museum: Closed (closed on Mondays for winter hours)
• Casper Municipal Golf Course: Open normal hours, 1st tee time is 8:30 a.m., the Golf Shop will close at 6:00 p.m.
• Highland Cemetery: Grounds open dawn to dusk with burial search map signs.
• Casper Area Transit, operated by the City of Casper: limited services on Monday. LINK transit services will be unavailable. ASSIST services will run limited services from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for scheduled medical-only appointments and for ADA complementary paratransit services.
• Metro Animal Shelter: Closed.
• Casper Ice Arena: 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. (Open Figure Skating), 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Open Figure Skating)
• Casper Family Aquatic Center: 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Casper Recreation Center: 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Donald Trump, who loves a good cultural spat, spoke in Columbus, Ohio last week, which took down its statute of Columbus some time ago.  While there, he stated; “We demand that Christopher Columbus be put back into the heart of Columbus, Ohio,”

Well, we demand the dumb ballroom be taken down.  

Anyhow, Trump loves to troll in racist waters, which this is an example of.  It feeds into the far right belief that "whiteness" is some sort of inherent quality, and that it's being attacked.  If you want to polish that up, it would be that the country's European heritage is being attacked.

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, which always occurs on October 11.  It's set by some homosexual rights organization.

I don't pay much attention to this as I largely do not care if people with same sex attraction come out.  I don't think that people have to make social martyrs of themselves.  But Adam Kinzinger made an observation that no GOP members of Congress came out.  Well, I wouldn't have expected any to, but he's suggesting that there's at least an appreciable number, or perhaps a number who are significant, in the GOP in Congress.  That might actually matter for a party that takes a position, sort of, on social issues in this arena.

There are consistently rumors to this effect.  Hunter Biden, who may very well not be the most reliable witness on this topic, claims there's a Republican "closeted gay mafia".  There are some figures whom rumors circle around continually.  I was once told by a very inside member of the state's GOP that a certain Republican figure was a homosexual, which is the first time I heard the term "beard" used to describe a female spouse of a male homosexual, married to camouflage the attraction.  The marriage, in that context, made sense to me.  I've been told the same thing about the same person by an openly homosexual politician, but that person is sort of wildly unreliable.  And there are questions that circle about others simply due to their state in life, I suppose.

None of these people may actually be homosexual, and if they are, that doesn't make them "gay" or "queer".  Still, it matters because if you are holding yourself out as a defender of traditionalism in all sense while engaging in homosexual liaisons, you are being hypocritical.

Back to Trump, or rather the Trump Administration, Scott Bessent, who is a homosexual in a homosexual union, sent Elizabeth Warren this letter last week.

I've never been a fan of Warren's, who is one of those Democrats that cause people to avoid the Democratic Party, but this letter is just mean and snarky.  Warren legitimately is an expert on economics.  The final handwritten line recalls Warren's claim to have Native American heritage.  And she actually does, as her DNA tests revealed.  It is, however, remote.  Trump repeatedly lampooned her for this, calling her Pocahontas, which is mean, but Warren should have avoided the entire topic in the first place.

So should Bessent who perpetually comes across as scared when he's interviewed.  Maybe he isn't, but that's how he comes across.  And Bessent has been press ganged into the Trump ongoing excuse machine.  Some of his own claims have been lampooned, as in "I'm a farmer".

But the point here is that, once again, the MAGA Hypocrisy is at work.  Trump's supporters claim to support him due to his traditionalism and his loyalty to Christian values.  Bessent is an unapologetic homosexual in a same sex union, which is not traditional to say the least.  Trump's a serial polygamist himself.  The administration won't release the files on Epstein whose island was an epicenter of child rape.

So, like Festivus on Seinfeld, let the airing of the grievances begin.

Tuesday, June 23, 1925. The Gros Ventre Landslide.

The Gros Ventre landslide near Jackson occurred following heavy rains and a 4.0 magnitude earthquake.  Approximately 38,000,000 m3 (1.3×109 cu ft) of sedimentary rock came down the Tetons, dammed a river, and created the Lower Slide Lake.  The dam partially failed in 1927, wiping out Kelly.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 21, 1925. Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1929, China, Chinese Warlord Era, Communism, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Lex Anteinternet: Is Beer the Most Distributist Product Ever? Hey, what about whiskey (and other distilled beverages)?

A bottle of "double cask" Wyoming Whiskey, which is Wyoming Whiskey that's also been partially aged in a sherry cask.

Here's an item I just posted, all about local beers:

Lex Anteinternet: Is Beer the Most Distributist Product Ever?: Eh? Okay, let's start off with a definition refresher, as for many folks the term "Distributist" is a mystery. ...

Several years ago here, I posted an item on whiskey that featured a photograph of a bottle of Wyoming Whiskey:

The Rebirth Of Rye Whiskey And Nostalgia For 'The Good Stuff' & Beer and Prohibition.

Things have really changed since then.  Like breweries, distilleries are popping up all over.  Even locally, to my amazement.

Wyoming Whiskey was a new offering at the time, and was advertised as a bourbon comparable to Maker's Mark.  Frankly, I didn't care much for it, but I'm not a huge whiskey fan.  Inside word is that its much improved since then and I did buy a bottle of it as a gift for somebody the other day and, yes, it was much better than I recalled.

But it certainly isn't alone anymore.

Actually it wasn't even then.

Before we move on from Wyoming Whiskey, which as noted now has a reputation as being much improved as noted, let's note something on the Distributist angle to this.

As probably everyone knows, Wyoming Whiskey is owned by the Mead family.  It isn't employee owned or anything, so it doesn't really fit the model perfectly and its certainly not in the same category in regards to that as Casper's Skull Tree Brewery or Ft. Collin's Fat Tire Brewery, but an interesting thing about it is that it was formed as the Mead's had more corn than they knew what to do with.

Plowing a corn field in which last years cut stocks are visible.  1906.

Corn is the basic constituent of bourbon and sour mash, the archetypal American whiskeys which are notable in that regard as it distinguishes them from the whiskeys of the British Isles, where whiskey got its start (Scotch and Irish Whiskey are rye whiskeys).  Bourbon, which bears that name for reasons I know not of, got rolling as Appalachian farmers, mostly descendants of the Scots and Scots Irish at first, didn't know what to do with their corn surplus so they distilled it.  The Mead's took the same approach.  So they do provide an example of a farming family with a local product that made it into another local product.  If not a great example of subsidiarity, it's sort of one.

Anyhow, there was already the Koltiska Distillery in Sheridan Wyoming when Wyoming Whiskey got up and rolling and which was making an assortment of hard alcohols.  I've never tried it and I've never even seen it in anyone's home for that matter. But it was around then and still is now.  In fairness to my original post, it doesn't distill a whiskey and it specializes in liqueurs, although it now distills a vodka.

Vodka was the original product of Backwards Distillery, a small distillery that got up in running in Mills Wyoming and which is owned and operated all by immediate  members of the same family.  I was skeptical that the small distillery would make it at first, but the collection of people who own it and work there proved to have a real business head as its first product, vodka, was its choice simply because its easy to make correctly.  It turns out that they always intended to offer a whiskey and they've been aging a batch for some time.  According to the early press on it, the constituents are unique so it can't be classified as a bourbon or rye, etc., but is something else. American Whiskey is what they're calling it.  Based on what I read, it features corn and wheat.  Maybe wheat has been used in other whiskeys (I know its been used in vodkas, and in fact is what vodkas are normally made of), but if so, I've never heard of that.

This is interesting in and of itself as they've not only successful produced an aged whiskey as a very small outfit, they've done it under the wire so that not much was known about it as they were doing it (they also started distilling gin).  I don't like vodka as a rule (and I don't like bourbon really either) but the one and only occasion I had Backwards vodka it was actually really good.  Since then I've had a high quality Russian vodka brought back from Russia by a friend on a single occasion and I have to note that it was good also, so my opinion on vodka may be based on bad vodkas, which if that is true, would include nearly ever vodka.  Anyhow, it'll be interesting to see what their American Whiskey is like.

A page out of the same book might be found in Jackson Hole Still Works, which is a distillery in Jackson Hole that produces vodka and gin, which seem to be the starter hard alcohols for distilleries. Their web site indicates that they might have whiskey on the horizon.  The company was started by two friends and they note that they use all local products.  As there's no constituents grown in the immediate Jackson's Hole area, they importing corn from Byron and Powell, which means they are benefiting local farmers within the state. They emphasize, in a subsidiarity sort of way, that they're committed to environmental and local causes, and all of their spent grain is donated for animal feed to a local livestock producer and a further emphasis on having a low carbon footprint.

They aren't the only Jackson's Hole distiller, however, and a Grand Teton Distillery also is up and running in Jackson although it gives its address as Driggs Idaho.  It also produces its products, including vodka and bourbon, from local constituents, advertising that nothing comes from more than 25 miles away.  It bottles potato vodka, which for an Idaho distillery, makes particular sense.

There was, until this past July, a Wojtek Distillery in Laramie, which I don't know anything about other than that the Polish sounding distillery was owned by Polish descendants there who specialized in Polish distilled beverages, including something called Vazoonka.  I'm clueless about Vazoonka, but Laramie, while a college town, isn't a giant city (20,000 souls).  It briefly had a distillery of its own, but one that didn't produce whiskey (which is okay by me).  It shared space with a winery, but when it shut down it indicated that it's "parent company had sold" and I note that the winery it was indicated as being associated with apparently no longer exists.  It promised to reopen soon, but I can't see that it has yet.

The individual that started Wojtek Distillery is apparently from an Albany County ranch family, which if so gives us another sort of Mead like example, although I know nothing else about this operation.  I lived in high altitude Albany County for a little over six years and I saw very little in the way of crop agriculture while there, although there's a little in the Centennial Valley region.  Given that, I'd be surprised if they're raising whatever the constituents for these products are, but I don't know that or anything else about their operation.  They believe that they are the only producers of Vazoonka outside of Poland, or rather were, I suppose.  Whatever that beverage is, I'd note, it's so obscure that I can't even find a Wikipedia entry for it.

Anyhow, this is a really interesting trend.  I've been surprised by the explosion of local breweries, and further surprised when at least one, Skull Tree, dedicated itself to acquiring its constituents locally. Distilleries surprised me even more, and then to find at least three of them dedicating themselves to using local constituents in a really dedicated way, and one of them, Jackson Hole Still Works, going even further in that in their community involvement, is really remarkable.

So we're seeing local products in this area competing with something that only a few years ago was very much headed in the other way. And now some of them are dedicated to using local constituents.

Interesting.  And. . .interesting model for other areas?

Saturday, June 3, 1899. Death of Strauss.

 

Johann Baptist Strauss II, popular Austrian composer, died at age 73.

Pel & Ploma commenced publication.

I know nothing about it whatsoever, but the illustration is really cool.

You would have thought the Wild Bunch heist north of Rock River would have been front page news, but nope.

Renegade Indians in Jackson Hole. . . . 

Last prior edition:

Friday, June 2, 1899. The Wild Bunch Robs the Overland Flyer at Wilcox and the Philippine Republic declares war on the United States.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, 1900s, 1906, Crime, Philippine Insurrection, Philippines, Railroads, Rock River Wyoming, The Wild Bunch, Wyoming, Wyoming (Rock River)