The Senate Ag Committee wants to clamp down on financial derivatives. Committee chair Blanche Lincoln, right, has proposed regulations so stringent, that even that raging socialist (if you believe raging Tea Party rhetoric) Barack Obama has balked at the language in her bill, scheduled to be taken up tomorrow by her committee. More than 1,500 lobbyists, executives, bankers and others have made their way to ag committee members to give their views on legislation that would introduce transparency and control into the complicated and murky world of financial derivatives trading, according to reporters Edward Wyatt and Eric Lichtbau, writing in yesterday's New York Times.
  According to the duo...
  Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. 
  Are we to understand that Blanche Lincoln, the Senator from Arkansas, is going to wrestle that gang of Wall Street robber barons to the ground and make them behave? Can she do that? From the ag committee? The Ag Committee?
  Apparently, she's got them scared. They can hear that lasso whistling over their heads. If Blanche has her way, they'll have to duck to escape her rope. They''ll have to run bent over double. Crawl on their hands and knees. Slither on their bellies. 
  You know, I don't understand Wall Street, but I've seen enough, heard enough and read enough to know that there are too many people there who've become rich by stealing from me. And from you. And everybody we know and all their friends and relatives.
  Hooray for Blanche. Hooray. Hooray.
  To read the New York Times story, go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/business/20derivatives.html?dbk 


  The sagging economy has thrown some serious speed bumps into plans to relocate, rehab and rejuvenate Pennsylvania's famed Star Barn, possibly the most photographed, sketched, painted and admired barn in the country. Built in 1872, the barn's impressive architecture - the soaring cupola, the gables, the five-pointed stars on each end - would have made it a standout in the middle of nowhere.         When I-283, connecting Lancaster and Harrisburg opened in 1972, hundreds of thousands of drivers yearly could not help but notice this magnificent structure just outside Harrisburg. As the decades rolled on, it became obvious that the barn was deteriorating. 
     Robert Barr took special notice, and, in 2006, bought the barn through Agrarian Country, an enterprise he founded to relocate it. He was in the process of recruiting volunteers, grants and donors when the economy happened. Barr is bowed but not beaten, according to Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres, who wrote about the project for our current edition. You can also read his story here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2911


  Middle-aged fool attacked by puppies. Wife orders a case of dewormer. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/golden-retriever-puppies-attack/1ab1g5zvx