Hog Tied

Joni Ernst has jumped into Iowa politics with a bang-up commercial which has pushed her to the front of the pack of Republicans vying for the nomination to replace, if elected, the retiring Tom Harkin in the U.S. Senate … see: Washington Post Story. She claims in this “break-through” television ad that she grew up on a Iowa farm castrating hogs and so she will know how to “cut the pork” in Washington.

I must confess that she is a compelling candidate just on the basis of her chutzpah, great smile and her vow for fiscal austerity. However, I too have spent some time on a farm as a youth … and, as I recall, the castration process for hogs did not involve any cutting. The way that it was done in Pennsylvania was to place a very strong, tight rubber band around a shoat’s scrotum which cut off the blood supply. After a few weeks this piglet’s testicles turned black, dried up, and fell off.  Nice and neat … and bloodless.

So perhaps, if Ms. Ernst is nominated and elected, she might take a goodly supply of strong rubber bands with her to Capitol Hill.  Nah! Most males at that venue are eunuchs anyway.