You run across some pretty weird things as a blogger, especially when your foot soldiers send you weird links. Not sure if this is controversial, but it certainly is strange.

So the person who is hired by the state (Jennifer Stalley) to be the executive director of the SD Athletics Commission, you know, the folks in charge of making sure MMA fighters perform safely, is also the head lobbyist for Midwest Solutions. What do they lobby for? The SD Veterinary Medical Association.

What is most bizarre about this is, first off, what is the connection (not sure there is one)? But more importantly, was the state so strapped to find an ED for the Athletics Commission that they had to hire a PRIVATE lobbyist? Forget the fact that she lobbies for an industry that cares for the well-being of our pets and livestock while running another organization that promotes people punching each other in the face.

One could say being a private lobbyist and a state employee at the same time may be a conflict of interest. Not sure? But the oddity of promoting people fighting for entertainment on one hand while promoting the health of animals on the other, that’s a new one in a state with some very strange bedfellows and almost NO ethics.

How did this all come about? Jennifer helped with a presentation yesterday at the Sioux Falls city council informational meeting about lifting the ban on ultimate fighting in city owned facilities (so one of my foot soldiers decided to see who Jennifer was). Like I have said in the past, I don’t care either way. MMA is just glorified boxing, and if the Pentagon is already hosting these events, why not the Events Center.

Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or just shake my head when I see some of the doofus things our state government does. Well it’s good to know our animals are safe, the MMA fighters, I guess they are safe to . . . just sign on the dotted line.