What's Better and What's Worse In The News

* What's Better With Benghazi?
  Talk radio host Andy Dean says he was told by a Navy Seal that authority to cross another nation's borders by the military has to be given by the president. It's called "Cross Border Authority." The question now is did Obama give that authority to Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey the night Benghazi, America's Second Alamo, fell or was it even possible for him to do that? This begs the question of what was so important to Obama that he had to disappear for about five hours. Was the nuclear football with him?
*What's Better With a Lost Arabian Horse? For this I turn to the intrepid Bigfoot hunter, Two-Guns: " Hello. What's better for the lost Arabian is, frankly, that I am looking for him. Perhaps you know the story from the Internet of the Arabian on a 22 mile or so endurance run being spooked by something - my bet is that it was Bigfoot drawn by curiosity about the race- throwing the professional rider and running off into the jungle woods last January at the Goethe State Park in Florida near Dunnellon. Two other riders in the race saw the rider thrown.
I was bigfooting through the woods and had already called in a suspicious car - a spotless cream PT Cruiser parked in the woods- and the fact that I had talked to someone who was trapping hogs in the park. I was surprised that the dispatcher didn't ask me even what kind of vehicle the hog trapper was driving. In fact, she said nothing. There was only stiff silence when I told her of the hog trapper. There was obviously something she didn't want to discuss about it. I hadn't been on Ten Mile Road long before I got to where two pipes were installed under the road so the creeks wouldn't flood the road. One creek was completely dry, and the other had a pool of water at both ends of the pipe. There was what looked like black, moist dirt in the creek by these water holes, and that dirt looked disturbed. I got out of my little truck, hoping I'd see Bigfoot tracks in the black dirt, and praying he wouldn't be nearby to kidnap me as I am unarmed. My left knee is almost gone due to a necrosis (dead area of bone) in it. I almost fell once, and there was no way I could get down into the creek. I had to stay on the bank and peer down. What I saw was very puzzling. The imprints looked like they had been done by something soft, and they were rectangles several inches long and slightly less wide. My first thought was "Horse? A little horse?" Later, I wondered if the tracks were Bigfoot on his knees scooping up water with a cupped hand as he's been seen to do. I wanted to talk to the owner before I called this into Ranger's Station as I wasn't thrilled with the reception I was getting there. After many calls and sleuthing  about the next couple of days, I found and talked to the owner, Robyn, who has moved to Canada for the summer. Lucky her! I had talked to the work crew at Goethe, and they had said they would go look at the prints Saturday morning and call me back with what they thought they were.  I never heard from them. This afternoon, I called Goethe again and talked to Ranger Thompson who promised to go take a look at the tracks. He confirmed that where the horse threw the rider was very close to where I saw the prints. This time, I said I'd call him back. I then called Robyn in Canada and asked her to call and  tell Ranger Thompson she was aware of his promise to me and looking forward to hearing what he found. The problem is that I found those tracks last Wednesday, and indubitably there has been rain  since then as this is Florida in the summer, and the tracks have been erased. I hadn't planned on going back to Goethe State Park for a while because of lack of funds, but I've got the hunting fever now and want to find that horse. I've had two rescued Arabians and appreciated their spirit very much. I'm sure it's why they are endurance racers. If this Arabian is still alive after six months in the jungle-woods of Florida, she's something else. She deserves a break. If you're an animal-lover too, please call the Goethe State Park Ranger Station and urge them to make patrols to that creek on Ten Mile Road on the chance that is where she's getting her water. She faces a lot of danger. There's coyotes,wild hogs, alligators, three specieis of poisonous snakes, panthers, bears, Bigfoot, and humans who drive very fast on the paved roads at night. The Ranger Station's number is 352-465-8585. That's all from me. Two-Guns."
Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW 352-359-0850 Gainesville, Florida  Sources: Wall Street Journal,  Gainesville Sun, Talk show hosts Limbaugh, Cain, Morrison, Dean, Savage, and reading widely.