I spend the day today tailgating, and watching football at the Chiefs v. Bears game. 

Chiefs fall to Bears 20-10

By JASON KING

The Kansas City Star 

CHICAGO | The Kansas City Chiefs are 0-2 for the second straight season following a miserable offensive performance in Sunday’s 20-10 loss against Chicago at Soldier Field.

The Bears opened the scoring early in the second quarter on Rex Grossman’s 2-yard touchdown pass to 315-pound offensive lineman John St. Clair, who had checked in as an eligible receiver.

The Chiefs went three-and-out on their ensuing possession, and Chicago capitalized when Devin Hester returned Dustin Colquitt’s punt 73 yards for a touchdown.

(more…)

This week, I drove to the Chicago suburbs to attend the American Eventing Championships for work. This time, I was able to see a lot of dressage, which is like “horse ballet” in that it is series of precise movements. It’s also a little slow. The previous eventing shows I’ve attended were upper level, but this event had a wide range from novice to advanced, which demonstrates how good the advanced riders really are.

Blackrock a publicly traded “hedge fund” is now jumping into the agricultural markets with both feet.  The question is: can limited agricultural markets continue to absorbe massive speculative money? My opinion is yes, but others disagree.  Many are asking if hedge exemptions for large “index funds” are responsible for price spikes that we have seen recently in the grain markets.  Currently index funds hold roughly 20% of open interest in CBOT commodities.  That’s some serious buying power.  

BlackRock Plans $200 Million Agriculture Hedge Fund, People Say By Danielle Rossingh and Saijel Kishan

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc., the largest publicly traded asset manager in the U.S., plans to raise as much as $200 million for an agricultural commodities hedge fund, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

The BlackRock Agricultural Fund will start trading early next month under Graham Birch, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the fund’s details are private. Birch, 47, who heads BlackRock’s natural-resources team in London, helps manage more than $30 billion.

(more…)

A shift in the political tenor of Kansas shows how centrists in the Republican and Democratic parties have gained ground at the expense of conservatives in the heartland, writes the New Republic’s John B. Judis. A liberal Democrat still would be unlikely to carry the state in a presidential election. But like other famously Republican strongholds including Indiana and Nebraska, the Sunflower State has become politically competitive again, Mr. Judis says. Democrats have had some recent electoral successes in the state, including the election of Kathleen Sebelius, who is in the middle of her second term as governor.

Sam Brownback

The political drift goes beyond the disenchantment with the Bush administration’s performance in Iraq. At least as important, says Mr. Judis, are centrist Republicans’ discomfort with the conservative wing of the party and demographic changes in the state. The moderate wing of Kansas’s Republican Party has clashed repeatedly with conservatives on issues such as abortion and the teaching of evolution. As conservatives like Sen. Sam Brownback tightened their control of the party’s machinery, some moderates have decided to jump ship. Helping the defectors has been the growth of financial and telecommunications companies in the state, which has brought in more moderate voters more sympathetic to spending on education and high-tech research. (more…)

Here are some highlights of our wonderful weekend at the Ryan Ranch. A much-needed vacation and a chance to catch the last few moments of summer with Mom, Dad, and the Hughes family. In between these pics, we ate great barbeque and sipped a few cool drinks.

  Potential property with an erosion problem.

  Does someone smell gas? The Hughes boat breakdown.

        Skiing on Blackwell.
One side of the lake.    And the other side of the lake.

      Chris skiing.