Utah guv comes out against bomb test

I am glad to report that Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has finally spoken out against the upcoming bomb test on June 2nd. Hopefully his voice will add to the growing clamor to keep this evil & detestable act from ever being committed.

http://sltrib.com/utah/ci_3761462

A Very Kind Master

Manuel Lora is one of my favorite contemporary writers and today's essay is sweet and to the point concerning our benevolent Big Brother:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lora/m.lora19.html

And from the old home boy (he hails from the same neighborhood I grew up in) we have Pat Buchanan asking a very important question about our current dictator, Kim Jong-Bush, and the extent of his war making powers:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan40.html

The above ground bomb test, code named Divine Strake, is still a solid go for June 2nd. That means I'll be stationed on the coast when this poisonous material drifts over my county. I'm planning to be 85 miles south of San Diego on Punta Banda in Baja del Norte.

Anybody need me to pick up some really good tequila at the Gigante Super Center located on the south end of Ensenada? My all-time favorite is Real Hacienda, a delicious reposada that is clean to the palette and very easy on the stomach. Great to drink while grilling fish on the beach with a frosty Negra Modelo chaser. I will also be stoppping in Maneadero to get multiple jars of the delicious olives that grow there on the way out to my campsite along the south shore of Bahia de Todos Santos.

Can ya'll hear a rebel yell? Why that was me in a Mexican reverie.

Well hell----with happy thoughts like these I may just keep on driving south to Loreto and live at my friend's compound on the Sea of Cortez, never to return. The smuggling business ain't such a bad way to make a living really. In between long stretches of fishing and rock hounding that is. We'll see.......Happy May Day!

Zion Canyon geology nerd

Contact between Navajo (upper layer) and Kayenta formations

I took a random scoot up the side of Bridge Mountain in Zion Canyon last week. My immediate goals were to reach the base of the Navajo sandstone for some much needed exertion and to scour the talus slopes for dino-prints.

I followed the base of the Navajo ledge eastward into Pine Creek Canyon where I terminated the scoot on the upper switchback right at the entrance to the Zion tunnel. Along the way I took photos of the geologic contact between the Navajo and Kayenta formations, with the intent of illustrating how they interact to bring about the canyon scenery we see today.

Basically it goes sumpfin' like dis here:

The porous and crumbly Navajo sandstone overlies the denser & less permeable Kayenta shale which creates a prominent spring line in Zion Canyon. Famous landmarks that are a direct result of this "contact" are the Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, Grotto and the hanging gardens of the Narrows. Kayenta is a Navajo word that literally means "place of the springs". This friable shale layer also erodes more quickly, once exposed, causing the softer slabs of sandstone above to overhang. Eventually these precariously perched slabs violently collapse into the canyon depths below causing the thunderous rock falls that Zion is rightfully famous for. In this way the canyon gradually widens as layer upon layer peel off from the walls and are then carried away by the waters of the Rio Virgin.

Simple enough, ain't it?

Cracks form in an over-hanging slab prior to collapse.

Collapse!

View from my perch on the wall.

Editorial on the bomb test in June

The following is an important editorial by our local paper (The Daily Spectrum) on the U.S. government's impending above ground bomb test scheduled for June 2. It is good to see the usually slumbering sheeple of this area begin to stir from their torpor. Protests are being planned. I'll let ya'll know more when I hear something definite.

This vital health and safety issue should bring the people of southern Utah together like nothing else in our history. So come all ye rednecks, hippies, cowboys, Indians, illegal immigrants, trust funded wastrels, ostentatiously retired bureaucrats, second-home scum and navel gazing new agers; let us join together under the banner of righteous indignation at this heinously evil act. We do NOT want to ingest radioactive sludge into our bodies and enviornment just to slake the never ending thirst of the war gods in DC.

To all of my Mormon friends in this area: your God says do not worship false idols and the gods of war are as false as they come. You must remember that this is the same government that deliberately poisoned you in the past (and still officially denies it), but all that I notice you doing lately is cheering on the 222nd National Guard unit in Iraq who are supposedly "defending our freedom". How blind you must be! They want to poison you and your children again, when are you going to finally stand up and use your moral authority against this obvious evil? The 12th Article of Faith, which promulgates obedience to earthly masters could well end up being your undoing. It's time to wake up and smell the Postum!

Big blast, Big mistake

It's not easy to remain calm about the potential for history to repeat itself with the large explosion, code-named "Divine Strake," scheduled to detonate in seven weeks only 150 miles west of St. George at the Nevada Test Site. It is expected to create a dust cloud that could reach an altitude of 10,000 feet. While it may not be seen in Southern Utah, long-term ramifications are feared to be felt without adequate means to control wind shifts of the radioactive particles caught in that dust from earlier nuclear tests.

The government contends the 700 ton blast - equivalent to 593 tons of TNT - is for conventional research purposes, but we've been lied to before regarding activities at the test site. We've also heard sudden changes in terminology to soothe concerns, which has once more yielded its ugly head as the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency altered its original nuclear reference in relation to the test to being merely an "improper" use of language.

Why does the government deem the population of the western United States so disposable? Thousands of downwinders - who have suffered and died from various cancers and other life-threatening illnesses caused by nuclear fallout from the 1950s and 1960s - can attest to the government's past falsehoods.

It is absolutely hypocritical of the U.S. government to initiate a war in Iraq against dictator Saddam Hussein on the basis of the development of weapons of mass destruction, only to create and promulgate low-yield nuclear devices.

Experimenting with the lives of civilians in the name of national defense with the simulation of a nuclear arsenal is a travesty and injustice we'd have thought our elected politicians would've learned from by now. But we won't let their memories fade so easily. The message is loud and clear with a resounding: "NO!"

We praise Rep. Jim Matheson for being the first to publicly express his skepticism to the government. We add our firm voice of dissent because we, too, have every right to be uncertain. We've been lied to before. Underground testing has leaked, and the pretty hues of orange the school children rushed to the windows from their classrooms to view were anything but colorful drifting clouds.

Why should we believe new nuclear weaponry is not be pursued? We dare the government to prove otherwise.

State lines

Utah giving way to Nevada

The state is real and tangibly manifested in asphalt.

Vanessa and I decided to hike a section of U. P. tracks out by the Utah-Nevada state line. We did the usual stuff: mile long games of kick the can, smashing pennies with south bound trains and competing on how far we could walk on a single rail before slipping off.

On our way to railroad fun we stopped, as is the custom, to take tourist pictures at the spot where the pavement changes color along the 114th parallel of longitude. The actuality of a state is, to me, a very bizarre abstraction and no more vividly on display than in this abrupt change of road color miles and miles from nowhere; on the border of Vice and Nice.

Partner in crime


Modena, Utah
Gateway to Nowhere

Dylan made me do it

Naomi Fern Wright of Virgin, Utah asked me last week if the title to my blog had anything to do with the Bob Dylan song Buckets of Rain? I replied that she had hit the nail square on the head. Smart gal she is------and quite fetching too.

So with it being the one-year anniversary of this blog I thought I'd re-aquaint my gentle readers with the words that inspired the title:

Buckets of rain
Buckets of tears
Got all them buckets comin' out of my ears.

Mr. Zimmerman has been a most extraordinary influence upon my life and I'm glad I lived through the wonderful times when one could buy big black petroleum derived discs stamped with his music on them. I'd lay in bed late into the night listening to Bobbie sing in his nasally twang about all of the things that poets are known to dwell upon: villains and thieves, angels in heaven and long lonesome freight trains "riding down the double E".

The last verse of Buckets of Rain seemed to fit my current position in the universe quite well:

Life is sad
Life is a bust
All ya can do is do what you must.
You do what you must do and ya do it well,
I'll do it for you, honey baby,
Can't you tell?

Utah movie premiere

Drummer Stephen Perkins premiered his new film (A Drummers Life) this past Saturday at The Bit & Spur. In attendance were members of the local community and a few curious tourists, who also got to consume some of Brad's special finger food from heaven.

The film itself was very well received, with audience members clapping and cheering after some of the more extraordinary drum solos performed by Mr. Perkins.

I'm happy to report that he was visibly pleased by their responses.

Stephen----thanks for bestowing upon us this highly momentous event in the long tortured history of Zion Canyon. You'd have to jump back to at least the Jurassic for this much thunderous excitement.

Linkage (not pleasant) to bomb testing in June

I have found what I believe is a legitimate link between the recent announcement by the U.S. government that it will detonate a bomb on June 2nd (that will cause a mushroom cloud to rise over this area) with the looming specter of war with Iran.

Before we get to that linkage I'd like to point out that, thankfully, our representative in DC is speaking up about the dangers of this test, and what he's got to say should scare the shit out of all of us:

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060408/NEWS01/604080311&SearchID=73241047101084

I believe that this particular test is intended as a warning to Iran, as was the nuclear bombing of Japan more of a warning to Stalin than a tactical device used to defeat an already vanquished foe. Not only are we being forced to pay for this sinister gesture but we here in southwest Utah get to absorb all of the poison that it will generate.

The following article is from Saturday's headlines concerning the U.S. government's plan for a nuclear attack on Iran. The timing of this upcoming test is no mere accident. (Make sure you scroll down to the diagram in the article, it depicts exactly the same type of bunker busting bomb being detonated at the Nevada Test Site.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=C3HY5I431EHHRQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/04/09/wbush09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/04/09/ixportaltop.html

It will not be safe for anyone who comes in contact with this cloud. I personally think IT IS indeed a nuclear test. Detonating it where other nuclear blasts have been conducted in the past will provide a ready excuse when radioactive fallout is detected downwind. This dangerously toxic cloud will be explained away as the residual dust and particles from previous tests. No worrys.

Don't ever forget that we have evil monsters in control who don't give a rats ass about our welfare. Take that to the bank. We are all in deep doo-doo if these things come to pass! Mark my words!

If I'm wrong------we can all thank God later.

Please don't go back to sleep!

It is what it is

The road up ahead.

My one year anniversary as a blogger approaches and I'd like to thank all of you who have participated and to know that it has been a wonderful adventure for me. As life is.

It is what it is:

Quichapa Lake w/Horse Ranch Mountain in the distance.


Eddie strums


Strange ancient weirdness


Midnight at the oasis

Jared's birthday party

Happiness is being home.

Follow up article on Nevada bomb test

A follow up article on the above ground bomb test planned for June 2 at the Nevada Test Site:

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Plans for a Pentagon-led experiment that involves detonating 700 tons of explosives in the desert drew criticism from state leaders and a disarmament activist.

The explosion scheduled for June 2 at the Nevada Test Site is part of an effort to design a weapon that can penetrate solid rock formations in which a country might store nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction.

"I am concerned that tests of this magnitude have been planned without providing Nevadans with any information about the possible impact on their health or safety," said Demcratic Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid in a statement Thursday.

Nevada Test Site spokesman Darwin Morgan said the test will be conducted about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, near the center of the former nuclear testing site.

A Nuke over Nevada.

The test, named "Divine Strake," will involve nearly 40 times the amount of commercial ammonium nitrate and fuel oil explosive set off in the largest open-air, non-nuclear blast at the site to date. In 2002, 18 tons of explosives were set off at the Nevada Test Site.

"This is nothing that's out of the bounds for us. That's what our expertise is in," he said.

Morgan said the site obtained the required state approvals and air quality permits in January. Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates the site, alerted the state's congressional delegation and state government in December.

The Nevada Department of Administration responded with a letter stating: "Your proposal is not in conflict with state plans, goals or objectives."

No elected officials responded to the notice until Thursday, Morgan said. The test site is not required to seek public comment, he said.

"Given the level of contamination in areas where nuclear tests were conducted, I have real concerns about the dust and other pollutants that will be released into the air as a result of this explosion," said U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley.

Disarmament activist Pete Litster said tests at the site violate international law. Litster, executive director of the Shundahai Network, said the site belongs to the Western Shoshone Indian tribe.

I personally plan to be west of here on that day, on the other side of the prevailing winds, somewhere peacefully quiet like the Reel Inn in Malibu, where I'll be pounding Negra Modelos between shots of tequila.