Tyranny is here

The following column by Chris Floyd echoes what I've been saying to my intimates of late, that we here in 'Murica have crossed the Rubicon and now live under a clear and unabashed tyranny. It is Germany after the Riechstag fire.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd12.html

Dusk in Zion's

It's an ominous sign of the evening to come when you see the Roto-Rooter truck parked in front of the restaurant where you work. Add to that a state law that forbids the serving of alcohol until the polls close at 8:00 (Who knew it was an election day?) and I was more than glad to volunteer to leave early when it proved painfully slow and one of us had to be let go. Instead I stayed awhile and took some pictures of what I call Bit & Spur moments.

Genevieve's wings were a flapping.

Squeezin' by Ten Bears to give her papa a flower.

Carlito and brother Christopher, who live on the grounds of the Bit & Spur, wanted to show me how big their prize rooster was getting, which they've raised from an egg. They are natural born hams, who always make for good photos which I then give to their madre. They named him Rogee.

Carlito & Chistopher

Smoke & rain

Christopher & Rogee

Dog daze of summer

Unsettled skies over Zion's

There are three major fires burning here in southern Utah that have made the skies murky and smoky tasting in the 100+ degree heat. A monster high pressure cell is slowly moving eastward and sucking Mexican tropical moisture northward, which could well splatter us with mud filled droplets intermittently for the next few days.

Hooray, we'll take what we can get!

It is time to be grateful for such inventions as air-conditioning and ice machines. I hope ya'll are staying cool as well, 'cause we're coping quite well......in our fiery hell........for the moment.

That is as long as they don't turn the power off again, lawd a mercy---cain I git a witness?

Dog dazed.

Global warming has its doubters. For real?

Uh-oh Mr. Gore!

Just another set of opinions on the unknowable. Thought I'd throw it into the ring for your amusement.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/harris061206.htm

We have 150 years of temperature records to base our assumptions on, which for a planet that is 4.5 billion years old, a statistical sampling so miniscule as to be utterly laughable. I personally think that the behavior of the sun is the most important component in climate change, but also admit that I haven't a clue as to the scientific method required to arrive at the truth of what I think. It is UNKNOWABLE!

Why can't humans be humble enough to realize that there are many things, in our known universe, that we can't predict or control? To know how the atmosphere of a planet is going to behave in the near future and predict with certainty what this will do to human life is nothing short of arrogant hubris pure and simple. I refuse to scare little children with this nonsense.

It is kinda like trying to describe what God looks like or as Shakespeare so penetratingly wrote 400 years ago:

But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.

Well said bard.

By the way, the most excellent Utah Shakespeare Festival, held annually in Cedar City, starts this coming week on June 22nd. Ya'll come see a play or two if you get the chance.A very cool dude.

Trouble in Paradise

Roadside bombs in Springdale?

The front page of today's local newspaper featured an article about our local police chief here in Zion Canyon, the beloved Kurt Wright, who recently attended an Incident Response to Terrorist Bombings training. It was sponsored by the Dept. of Homeland Security at an Orwellian sounding place called the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center in New Mexico. The article opens:

SPRINGDALE - If you asked Springdale Police Chief Kurt Wright two months ago what he thought of a backpack left on a shuttle bus bench, Wright would have replied that a tourist went off and left it.

Now, after going through incident response bomb training, Wright said even in quiet Zion Canyon, a backpack left behind should be handled with caution as it could contain a bomb.

So this is what we've come to here in our earthly red rock paradise: bombs posing as backpacks on national park shuttle buses. The very thought of it keeps me gripped with terror. Now even on your peaceful vacation a hostile horde of potential "enemies" may be lurking just beneath the surface of your placid recreation, waiting for the chance to blow you sky high with an IED (Improvised Explosive Device).

It's beginning to sound like a ride on the Zion Canyon shuttle could now be as deadly as a trip through Baghdad or Jerusalem. No wonder all the cops I see are sweating in the 100 degree heat under heavy protective vests. It is amazing to me how such a violent and hostile situation could have spread all the way up into Zion Canyon from the Middle East in no time flat. What new threat will these dastardly "terrorists" cook up next? Put on the Bat-signal!!!

I say thank goodness for Chief Wright's training. I felt so much safer once I put the newspaper down, and took another sip of coffee, reflecting on just how much I want and need their protection to save me from "the enemies" of freedom, justice, truth and democracy.

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060606/NEWS01/606060308/1002

Where are the Christians?

Would He approve?

As many of you know I have been on a tear lately about the unwavering support shown by the majority of Christians in this country for the unjust warfare being waged by the U.S. government. I found a great talk given by Laurence Vance last week which addresses this issue in a very informative way. A key passage:

Politics or no politics – the war in Iraq is an unconstitutional, unnecessary, immoral, senseless, unjust, and unscriptural undertaking. It is unconstitutional because only Congress has the authority to declare war. It is unnecessary because Iraq was no threat to the United States. It is immoral because it was based on lies. It is unjust because it is not defensive. It is senseless because over 2,400 U.S. soldiers have died in vain. But this war is also unscriptural, and, because I am a Christian – a conservative evangelical Christian – I intend this to be the focus of my remarks.

The percentage of Americans who identify their religion as Christianity is higher than that needed in Congress to pass a constitutional amendment or override a presidential veto. The percentage of members of Congress who identify themselves as Christian is even higher. But as we have now passed the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, support for the war among Christian Americans continues, funding for the war by a Christian Congress continues, and justification for the war by a Christian president continues. And we wonder why Muslims hate us?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance81.html

Amerika is as free as a prison

The good guys. On our behalf. God love 'em.

Today as I went to my local credit union to deposit checks and cash from recent tour activity I noticed a sign on the counter from the Department of Homeland Security declaring that henceforth all established accounts would now require a valid photo I.D. to qualify for acceptance, and that all previous accounts not complying with this new requirement would soon be asked to do so. Failure to produce government required photo I.D. would result in the forfeiture of said account. The sign went on to state that the credit union strongly believed in the sanctity of my private information and a securely safe military dictatorship to keep me protected from terrorists and illegal "aliens". Reading that sign gave me the deepest sense of relief and comfort. Thank God for your help massa! Oh lawd thank ye massa!

What would we do without these guys? I'm so glad that they are fully inserted between me and the financial institution I've chosen to do business with. I really won't be satisfied until they start sleeping with me. You know, cuddled up close. Spooning with Alberto Gonzales. Hoy, hoy, HOY!

Oh Mr. Chertoff!!!!

I love you too Beamis!