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Federal Judges Behavior

  Our Sand Hill Sage notes that the U. S. Constitution, Article III, Section 1 provides that (emphasis added): The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office . That says, in effect, that a Federal Judge can not hold their office if their behavior is not “good”. No process such as impeachment should be necessary since the article, in itself, is complete and their employment is automatically ended.   It seems that the behavior of at least three current supreme Court Justices disqualifies them to continue on the Court. Beyond that, a general review of other supreme and inferior Courts would be appropriate to assure that j...
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Two Heroes of the 1930s

Two heroes of my childhood made a great impact on my life. The most crushing blow was the death of Will Rogers in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935. He was my hero and, even at a young seven years of age, I was an avid reader of his newspaper column and attended many of his movies. Later in my life as a cowboy poet I was especially appreciative and honored when two of my books (Western Images and Views from the Saddle) were awarded the international Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award for Cowboy Poetry.  The second hero was Amelia Earhart who disappeared over the Pacific when attempting to fly around the world in 1937. She was an adventurous lady who helped open the doors for the women of today.  Both heroes were exceptional public figures who inspired so many youth in the 1930s.
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Questions:Book Markets

 An email note yesterday asked several questions regarding availability and sales:      What books have you published?  An annotated list is posted at https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/3033796.Clark_Crouch. As the primary publisher, books are also listed by Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Clark%20Crouch/author/B002NZMYM2          Where are they available for purchase?    Kindle (ebooks) of most are available on Amazon which sometimes offers an occasional free download. Paperback editions are available (often at discounts) by Amazon, Powells, Third Place Books, Barnes & Noble, and others in national and international markets.  Do you sell the books yourself?   No, I let the professionals do it except when performing I take some books to offer for sale after the performance.
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Tutoring to New Poets

 The life of an author, whether poetry or prose, can be somewhat isolating. Over the years I found that there are a great many would be cowboy poets in search of assistance. On request I have tutored several who have now gained a great deal of recognition as writers and performers of western and cowboy poetry. It has been very rewarding for me to observe and celebrate their success in the field. These new poets are enjoying a secret of the profession...authors and performers of traditional western poetry tend to receive many more performance requests than do most producers of unstructured modern poetry. One reason might be that some modern verses tend to be ethereal while western poetry  is straight forward and requires no explanation to understand it's meaning when presented orally. 
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Getting an Education

I added to my base knowledge of the cowboy world by working from age 12 through 17  as a summertime cowboy for local ranchers. Despite my age, I was paid a man's wage of a dollar a day plus found (a rural word for "room and board." ). That $90 summer  wage was enough to buy clothing for attending high school in town.   On my own economically, I also found work in town during the school year to pay for room and board. All four years of high school, each in a different town where I could find work, I had a weekly income of $7.50. That was enough to pay $5 a week for board and room and allow a third of my salary to be used for other expenses. The jobs generating that income were varied: clerk in a general store, Nebraska licensed cream tester, school janitor, printers devil for the county newspaper, telephone operator, and coal delivery driver.  In all of that, I was very fortunate...had there been today’s Child Labor Laws, I might not have received the educational...
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An Invitation

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Origin of a Poet Lariat

The original poet lariat comes from the book, Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain. The name was later assumed by Will Rogers during his rope-spinning days. It was a grand heritage adopted by Badger Clark to promote the West through cowboy poetry. Since then, a score or more of today’s poets have also adopted the title. Some are even cheating a bit by producing free form western poetry with no rhyme or rhthm in place of in traditional poetic forms as actually used by cowboys as they rode the range in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Some today even adopt the title as they write and publish nonwestern verses! 
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