The Crater Lake shooting and more scary cop stuff

In a cap she looked much older
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man

------Lovely Rita (Lennon/McCartney)

I respect the response of DD, a formerly armed U.S. Park Ranger, concerning the recent shooting to death of an unruly camper at Crater Lake N.P., as possibly being warranted under the circumstances.

Upon further reflection I began to reconsider whether firing shots from a powerful hand gun, in a densely filled campground, was such a good idea in the first place.? Why were there no tasers available? And I ask again, would a wild and wooly bear have been shot as quickly, without "the work team" at least contemplating other options? Why are only high caliber hand guns the principal weapons available for the relatively peaceful clientele the rangers would normally host in their campground?

When NPS rangers are required to qualify or re-certify for their law enforcement "commissions" they shoot at a silhouette of a man and aim for his heart, not the shoulder or leg. You won't pass the test if you're only hitting those. These are COPS not rangers. It seems that COPS are now everywhere, getting in our faces, hands on their over-sized weapons as they inch their way towards my car window looking for any provocation to search the entire vehicle or maybe ending up having to shoot me.

The, supposedly, undercover "drug task force" has been operating in the resort town I work in, for the past few weeks. They've been pulling everyone over and then acting overbearing and arrogant. Their haul so far? A poor penniless hippie caught with a pot pipe and a small piece of paper with traces of cocaine on it. Thanks be to God you've saved us from this scourge Big Brutha! Meantime the driver of the car the hippie was arrested in had no vehicle registration or insurance but was not cited! Who is the bigger threat to society: the hippie with a pipe and some paper with coca powder on it or an unregistered, uninspected, un-insured truck recklessly barreling down the road with a brain dead idiot behind the wheel? The COPS, it seems, aren't even doing their real job protecting the community, but are using traffic laws to open the door for finding illegal drugs and contraband. This is their "higher calling" on our behalf. The sheeple of the village mostly went along with this bullying as something that would be unwise to oppose out loud.

Did you know that illegal drug users are the new Jews in Herr Bush's Amerika?

More about that and the police state that is the U.S.A. in my next blog.

What will you do if we let you go home,
And the plastics all melted,
And so is the chrome?
WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE?

-------Who Are The Brain Police? (FZ & The Mothers)

We're Living in the O.K. Corral

National Park rangers shot and killed a camper involved a domestic dispute at Crater Lake, Oregon on Weds. night. Read the account and decide for yourself if they really needed to shoot him to death at nearly point blank range. They could've run.

http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/07/29/news/oregon/fri06.txt

Switching to the Big Apple-----a tour bus was raided by police in riot gear on Sunday because a group of passengers were reported to be brown skinned with bulging backpacks. The resulting incident left all involved terrified and in shock at what police power is doing to our country.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers10.html

The occupation has begun and they'll be taking no prisoners, so ya'll had better get used to it, whether you reside in Fallujah or Cedar City.

The shootout is about to git started boys. Are yer guns loaded?

The Death of Sgt. Wood

My letter to the local newspaper concerning the death of Utah National Guardsman Ronald Wood of Cedar City (adapted from my last blog post) was received, and I wish to share their reply:

Thank you for sending your opinion to The Spectrum. While it is valid to point out that people here wanted this war and are now having to pay a terrible price for it, the way in which you make it is so inflammatory that I think people will not address the issue because they will be too incensed for other reasons. If you would like to rewrite it we can consider running it. I would suggest taking out the references to Mormonism. Also we are not going to print that Sgt. Wood "is dead for nothing." You have good points to make that should be heard, but there are better ways to make them.

My response:

I agree with many of your points about my letter and have re-written it. I was pretty upset about this guardsman's death and adapted the first letter from a post I wrote on my blogsite. In the re-write I have not taken out the references to Mormonism because I believe that they are valid and relevant to the point at hand.

Here is the re-written letter, I hope you will find it less full of bile and anger at what I perceive to be the blindly loyal support given to the U.S. government from folks who have suffered greatly at its hands in the past.

"Dear Spectrum,

The first national guardsman from here in southern Utah was killed last Saturday in Kirkuk, Iraq, when a bomb struck the Humvee he was riding in. Folks around here are reciting the same patriotic platitudes about how this poor young man died protecting our freedom.

What I'd really like to ask these same people is this: what do you think would have happened to your precious freedom if the U.S. government had refrained from invading Iraq? Do you really believe that the occupation of this Arab country, by the U.S. military, is in your best long-term interests and is something that is tangibly preserving your liberty? Is the tragic death of an honorable young man in the Utah home guard something you are proud to hold up as a meaningful sacrifice to the enduring battle for what is morally right?

In this Mormon-dominated community I am shocked at the un-questioning support shown to a government that openly participated in the persecution of their church in the 19th century and then in the 1950's and 60's, knowingly rained down the vilest forms of radioactive fallout from 126 above ground nuclear tests on the entire population of the church's home region of Utah. I’ve read that the federal government often delayed these nuclear tests when the prevailing winds were blowing towards California and would simply wait for them to start steering again towards Utah before detonation, with the net result that the state's southernmost counties of Iron and Washington possess some of the highest rates of birth defects, rare cancers and mental retardation in the entire country. One would hope that the people of Utah might find some empathy in their hearts for others in the world that now suffer under the same tyrannous aggression that was inflicted upon them by the exact same government in the past.

I feel that they really should know better but am beginning to see what several generations of government schooling has done to the entire country. Here, in the once proud Beehive State, it has nurtured to fruition a brand of fear based, government dependent, march-in-lock-step thinking that has debased a once strong and vigorous sub-culture based on piety and self-determination.

As for the Son of Man, whom the Church of "Jesus Christ" of Latter Day Saints is named, I would like to briefly quote His views on armed conflict: "You have heard it said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also." Matthew 5:38

"You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'. But I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others?" Matthew 5:43-48

Meanwhile I am truly sad that a young man in my valley is dead for nothing more than the vain and unholy ambitions of imperial world empire."

Spectrum please let me know what you what you think. This letter springs from the deepest parts of my intellectual and spiritual convictions.

Thanks for your editorial feedback. It was valid and on the mark, but I won't compromise my stance to spare the feelings of people who should know better.

I'm grateful for your frank and helpful response.

Cedar Valley has first Iraq war casualty

The first national guardsman from here in Cedar Valley was killed Saturday in Kirkuk, Iraq, when a bomb struck the Humvee he was riding in. Folks 'round here are saying the usual inanities about how this poor young hireling died protecting our freedom. It is actually getting me close to the boiling point, what with the heat wave and all, to keep hearing this idiotic propaganda spouted by a populace that hasn't a clue about the real truth of the matter.

I'd really like to ask these same people what they think would have happened to their precious freedom if the U.S. government had refrained from invading Iraq? Do they really believe that the destruction of Mesopotamia is in their best long term interests and is what is preserving their liberty? Is the senseless death of a young man in the Utah home guard something they are proud to bear up as a meaningful sacrifice to the enduring battle for what is morally right? How stupid and blind can these sheep be?

In this Mormon dominated community I am shocked at the un-questioning support shown to a government that openly participated in the persecution of their church in the 19th century and then later, in the 1950's and 60's, knowingly rained down the vilest forms of radioactive fallout from 126 above ground nuclear tests on the entire population of the church's home region of Utah. These nuclear tests were often delayed by the federal government when the prevailing winds were blowing towards California. The military would simply wait for them to start blowing towards Utah before detonation; with the net result that the state's southernmost counties of Iron and Washington possess some of the highest rates of birth defects, rare cancers and mental retardation in the entire country. For this sordid legacy a local boy has needlessly died in the torrid sands of Iraq, to preserve the imperial power of a U.S. government that has commited many harmful acts of tyranny against people of Mormon faith in the past.

I feel that they really should know better, but am beginning to see what several generations of government schooling has done to the entire country. Here, in the once proud Beehive State, it has nurtured to fruition a breed of scared, dependent, march-in-lock-step dummies molded out of a once strong and vigorous sub-culture based on piety and self-determination.

As for the Son of Man, whom the Church of "Jesus Christ" of Latter Day Saints is named, I would like to quote His views on armed conflict: "You have heard it said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also." Matthew 5:38

"You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'. But I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you , what reward have you? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others?" Matthew 5:43-48

Meanwhile I am truly sad that a young man in my valley is dead for nothing.

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050719/NEWS01/507190310/1002

China calls the bully's bluff

The enclosed link, from today's world headlines, is China's joyful take down of a global bully, the U.S. government. The Chinese military has now publicly placed the prospect of nuclear war on the table over interference in the matter of Taiwan.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/28cfe55a-f4a7-11d9-9dd1-00000e2511c8.html

I think this is a positive announcement aimed at preserving peace. The U.S., in effect, is finished as a military power in the Far East and good riddance indeed! Our presence has meant nothing more than a legacy of death, destruction and dislocation to the people of East Asia ever since we sailed into Manila Harbor and began building bases in the Philippine archipelago in the early 20th century. It was called, even way back then, gun boat diplomacy.

The following rogues gallery of disasters this policy proceeded to inflict on the region includes: two urban nuclear bombings over Japan (after massive civilian targeted firebombing which incinerated nearly a half-million innocent people); the Korean War; the Vietnam War; plus U.S. inspired political fiascos resulting in massive bloodletting in the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia to name but a few.

This new message from China is a clear concise warning: "Yankee go home!", and I hope he does.

Gun boat diplomacy has finally run it's course in Asia. Hip-hip-hooray!

It's only a matter of time before we are tossed from Southwestern Asia too. Tra-rah-rah-boom-dee-ay!

Secession!

Blogger ag in Prague responded to my views concerning secession with much disdain for the potential territorial ambitions of a place like the Republic of Texas. She harbored a lingering suspicion that they might attack their neighbors to gain power. I can understand her views, to a certain extent, what with the Bushes and Lyndon Johnson being some of the biggest warmongers of the last 50 years.

The truth is I seriously doubt Texas would be interested in invading any nearby states. I don't think any Oklahoman or Louisianan would stand for it one itty-bitty second. I can hear it now on the news "a suicide cell from Baton Rouge has just blown themselves up in a tony Dallas hotel lobby filled with the wives of rich cattlemen meeting for their annual conference. " The suicide bomb vest designed by the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka will truly change how things are to be decided concerning the ambitions of Empire for a long time into the future.

From state secession we can go to regional break-ups. West Texas is more akin to New Mexico and Chihuahua, while East Texas is akin to Louisiana and Arkansas. I say let the regions evolve and adapt to what works best socially and economically for each individual entity. Physical geography and the attendant culture regions they create should dictate the boundaries of human organization just as it does for all the other animals.

San Francisco could be a principality like Monaco, while New York City evolves into a grand and marvelous city-state like Singapore. The coastal strip of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia are already talking about forming the free and independent nation Cascadia, gourmet marijuana exporter to the world.

Los Angeles is, in geographic fact, the major regional metropolis of northwestern Mexico (more specifically the area of California known as the Southland). Why shouldn't it become more fully integrated with the actual function it serves as an urban core to a real hinterland? An international boudary is meaningless in the face of actual geographic imperatives. The fact that the border line was created by stealing territory through war makes it even more compelling to abolish the scar that it truly represents between our peoples. LA could eventually become an independent territory of Mexico or maybe the capitol of a new state carved from Sonora, Baja, Arizona and California. Or maybe it becomes an independent city-suburb all it’s own.

Africa should have a big conference and abolish the ridiculous colonial boundaries of past invading empires and re-write the map of their continent based on actual geography and the natural affinities of culture and commerce. Switzerland is an excellent example of this process done to perfection.

The day of the super state is over and it is time we start thinking about how we want to re-order this mess. A new day is dawning and Empire is being soundly defeated everywhere it ventures to control. We are going to need a new paradigm or a multiplicity of paradigm(s).

Suicide bombers were never mentioned in Orwell's "1984". A good thing too, because it would've ended the book on page ten. Good-bye Big Brother hello local tribesmen.

The Logic of Suicide Terrorism

Enclosed is a fascinating link to an interview with a University of Chicago associate professor who has collected a complete database on every suicide bombing in the world from 1980-2004. His research has produced a very different set of conclusions about the nature of this threat than what Big Media and the gov-mint is currently handing out to the public. It conclusively shows that it is non-Islamic in nature and simply derives from foreign occupation by an invader. The U.S.A. is now experiencing suicide attacks for the first time because their federal government began stationing troops on the Arabian peninsula, then Afghanistan and eventually all of Mesopotamia. Simple as dat! Same goes for the U.K. The research shows that attacks decrease as soon as the invaders go home and mind their own business-----which is why Switzerland has never had a terrorist attack. There is an interesting dialogue about the IRA and why their attacks are down to nothing. They got what they wanted.

This is a vitally important piece of scholarship we can all use to counter the claims made by the U.S. government. We then need to point out that it is specifically their actions alone that are the sole cause of these bombers on our shores.

The exercise of aggresive empire, in fact, is the only thing that can produce a suicide terrorist----read on.

http://amconmag.com/2005_07_18/article.html

Land of the Dead

It has been 20 years since Pittsburgh based film maker George Romero has added a new installment to his ongoing series of "Dead" films. The very first was the cult classic "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), followed by "Dawn of the Dead" (1978); "Day of the Dead" (1985) and now "Land of the Dead". All four films pack a powerful punch, not only in terms of the excellent special effects rendered in depicting the gore and violence that these flesh eating zombies can inflict on tame flabby middle-class Americans, but also the keen and savage underlying social commentary that these films can refract to the attentive viewer. I highly recommend this latest effort and think it is as good or better than the previous three.

If you're a long time aficionado of these flicks, you'll get all of the inside jokes, references to past films and the recycling of familiar plot constructions. This particular film has a lot to say about the current state of affairs in our society and most especially about a militaristic outlook in a world where the Empire is outnumbered and out maneuvered. Even weapons of mass destruction cannot protect them from the eventual collapse of an evil & corrupt system. In this case the system is literally devoured.

The main difference from the first three movies is that it takes place mostly out in the world where the zombies exist rather than fortified away from the monsters in, first, a farm house, then a shopping mall and in the third film an underground government complex located in a former salt mine. There is also a central villain of the plot, who is played splendidly by Dennis Hopper. The ending is especially gratifying as swarms of well-heeled yuppies are grotesquely slaughtered by the ever hungry zombies who break into their exclusive galleria type mall. One of my favorite munching scenes is of a zombie plucking out a teenage girls silver belly button piercing with his teeth, leaving a nice bloody hole in her navel from which he could tear her open from. The scenes of yuppie carnage got the best that special effects could offer to graphically portray them being eaten messily for my viewing pleasure. A great flick if you wanna avoid the cliches of Hollywood and the blather of Big Media and take in a couple hours of great images, metaphors, horrific gore and well written dialogue.

I'm glad George Romero had one more epic left in him. As most of you know I despise Hollywood and this feature is most definitely not from there. It is honest good intelligent fun from the streets of Pittsburgh. As my grandmother would say "enjoy it in good health".

Is it getting warm in here?

Today I just happened to have the ABC TV Sunday news show on, hosted by Twerpanopolis, and lo and behold George Will actually had something worthy to say. He quoted articles from 1975 in the NY Times and elsewhere about the certainty of a resurgence of much colder weather in the future, with the possibility of, gasp, large scale glaciation occurring again in the northern hemisphere after a several thousand year rest. With the same certainty that COLD was touted to be in our future 30 years ago, HOT is now being trumpeted as our certain and obvious future.

How can ANYONE know this be a fact? The answer is: they can't. A lot of times when giving a science lecture people will ask me "how do we know what we know?" (basic epistemology) and I'll say "someone got grant money and they had to come up with something----if they ever intended to get any more grant money." People laugh at this reply but I sincerely think the search for objective truth in the postmodern age is often subverted by this need to please those putting the money on the table looking for a pre-determined answer.

A good example is "ecosystem management" which permeates the federal land bureaucracies and is just plain old bad and flawed science. It purports that ecosystems are specialized non-changing static environments that must be preserved from the "invasion" of non-Aryan, er I mean, "non-native" plant and animal species. Currently all federal agencies are instructed to wage a ceaseless war on these "exotics" regardless of their actual effect good or bad upon the landscapes they exist on, while zealously guarding the "rights" of insects, rodents and minnows to live undisturbed as nature intended before the onslaught of human "encroachment" and the introduction of "aliens" in their midst. The last time this type of science was widely believed was around the 5th century B.C. when Aristotle taught a young Alexander the Great that the universe was a fixed and static entity that would remain unchanged in perpetuity.

How can modern universities continue to get away with cranking out graduates imbued with such sloppy reasoning and the belief in out right lies? The colleges know where their bread is buttered and are simply following the funding formula which produces an agenda driven form of science that any sane and truly educated person can only laugh at. It then legitimizes the control and seizure of private property by the state to protect the "integrity" of a given ecosystem. Remember that power is always seized and liberties taken away for a "wider good", in this case for the maintenance of "pre-Columbian" plant and animal inventories whenever possible. Nothing is more ridiculous or brutally enforced than a government orthodoxy.

We all know that Hitler and Himmler were both vegetarian environmentalists who were only trying to rid Germany of those "polluting" non-native er, I mean "non-Aryan" elements that compromised the "pristine" ecosystem of the Fatherland, and then tried, sincerely, to clean up the untidy mess that is greater Slavdom so they could bolster the "integrity" of the Eurasian landmass. U.S. bureaucrats call it a general management plan (GMP).

I believe global warming is another sham designed to give the state even more far reaching control over our lives by "protecting" us from the consequences of a warming planet. They don't know any better than you or I, or the man in the moon, what will actually happen, but when has that ever stopped them from taking an opportunity to seize power from their subjects? Like everything else you need to ask yourself who produced a particular idea and why?

What the New York Times will be writing about in 30 years time is anyone's guess but I betcha' it'll be about a prolonged cold spell over the earth and what we can do to keep warm on this frigid and icy blue planet we call home. Again it's anyone's guess.

Perpetual Warfare

The rapid emergence of our federal government as a true force of evil in the world eventually compels all of us to re-assess our own personal plans and ambitions in the acknowledged recognition that this unbridled monster is a dangerous threat to every human being alive on the planet. The government of the United States is known, to the majority of the world's citizens, as a savage war machine unleashed; with thirsty ambitions to spread it's current conflict beyond Mesopotamia and Afghanistan on into ancient Syria and the mountain fastness of Persia.

How many of you knew that the American military, just today, was launching a major offensive in western Iraq? How many of you knew that in this operation by the 3rd Battalion of the Third Marines was about "maintaining pressure" around the town of Haditha and has been fiercely fighting there for the past three months "rooting out" insurgents.

The funny thing about it is that a major offensive staged by the current version of the American military is only around a thousand men. According to the wire story it consisted of "about 1,000 U.S. Marines, sailors and members of Iraq's security forces...", a rag-tag bunch at best, outnumbered in the thousands against heavily armed fanatics bent on their total annihilation.

It reminds me of many similar invading armies from the past including the bogged down Nazis in Serbia and Montenegro "rooting out partisans" in the 1940's or the hapless U.S. Marines of 40 years ago in Vietnam "maintaining pressure" along the DMZ or the Imperial Roman Army getting their asses kicked and bloodied by the ancient Scots (Picts) and the even badder-assed Welsh during their ill-fated British expeditions 2,000 years ago. In each case the invading army is probing blindly deep within someone else's fanatically held territory. The very presence of these invading forces is not only found to be offensive but, in many cases, an actual affront to the local clansmen's God or deity. One's actual entry into heaven is often bound up in the enemy's total annihilation. In the case of the Vietcong it was never about heaven but getting a nice strip mall store in Garden Grove or Fountain Valley after the war was won.

The American military enlistment rate has fallen down to nothing and a new draft day looms on the horizon. The war machine has already consumed a half-trillion of our productively raised dollars to plunge us all headlong into a spiral of debt, death and misery-----not to mention the enmity of just about every nation on earth. When are we gonna get up off our asses and stand up and say "NO, not in my name!" They are planning to invade Syria and Iran by the fall, or so they say, and all we can generally muster for interest in a wider world is a muted glance at today's headlines concerning the runaway bride or requests made by the Santa Barbara County D.A. to show pictures of Michael Jackson's penis. These may well be the final days after all.

My prediction: Allah will first cleanse the infidel from his holy lands and then completely from this earth! Don't say I didn't warn ya'll.

Earth Day's bogus boogey-man

Gentle Readers,

For the Earth Day weekend my 12" inch b&w TV perched atop the fridge kept me company while I mopped on Saturday. At that particular time it belched forth leftist environmental propaganda about the dire consequences related to the planet's latest menace du jour Global Warming. Narrator Alan Alda droned on about such bugaboos as the rise of ocean temperatures and the melting of glaciers "as big as Rhode Island". Why do they always trot out Rhode Island for geographic comparisons? Big fucking deal. No glacier with any least bit of pride would want to be compared with such a dingy & diminutive entity. Now give me a landscape feature at least as large as San Bernardino County---now that will grab my attention. "A dense cloud of locusts as large as San Bernardino County is currently devouring people and livestock west of Liberal, Kansas. The Watch has now been upgraded to a Warning until 10:00 Monday." I'd be impressed with that. Anyway Alda persisted with how these changes in the atmosphere are: a) caused by humans and b) is something that is bad and could cause our ultimate demise. Nothing could be more preposterous for a human to postulate, as there is no way to know either of these facts with any certainty. Our limited understanding of the dynamics at work concerning a subject as daunting as the workings of the earth can be amply displayed by how weather is predicted by the experts who make the public forecasts each day. They don't do all that great (about 40% accuracy) and it's not because they are dumb, it's because the subject matter is so complex. It is not easy to grasp the intricacies of such a vast and overwhelming force as the atmosphere of a planet. Having said that, I'd like to take on both suppositions, that we are causing global warming and that it is bad for us, and look at it in a different light. That's what I'm here for.

What we do know with some certainty is that we are emerging from a recent ice age. There are many indications we may well drift back into another one, based on preliminary findings obtained from Antarctic ice core samples. What if I was to say that our ability as creatures to burrow into the ground and extract carbon (coal, petroleum, natural gas, peat and tar sands) and by introducing it into the atmosphere we are benefiting plants, which thrive on carbon and which they in turn exhale as oxygen?

What if I were to propose that burning fossil fuels (petrified sunshine) is not only a good thing to do but is a benefit to our continued existence. Yes there is more carbon in the atmosphere since the 19th-century but there is also a whole lot more oxygen too. Plants are definitely thriving in the richer atmospheric mixture created by human combustion, volcanoes, insect methane and cattle farts. We breath thicker air than two centuries ago for a variety of reasons which I would neither categorize as good or bad but just what is. Can there be such a thing in the post-modernist perspective? Can a condition exist that does not refract a political consequence? A condition that does not require a government solution through regulatory control? The Kyoto Treaty makes me laugh at the comic hubris of humans who think they know what makes a planet tick and can legislate accordingly.

I want to know why environmentalists propagate as fact that it is a bad thing if the planet warms up. Is it worse than if it gets frigidly cold? Under what form of scientific reasoning is global warming being touted as a threat? What are the dire conditions that this supposed ecological cataract would bring about? I mean if it got warmer there would be less need to heat places like Finland and North Dakota every winter, spring, summer and fall. Crops could be potentially grown in new places. New York and LA might be underwater------so big deal. The whole concept just doesn't contain a credible amount of fear inducing doom for me. Where is the concrete evidence that global warming is a looming disaster? Do scientists who believe in it really have the slightest clue about what will happen in the future? I seriously doubt it.

No friends, I'm not scared of this currently fashionable environmental boogey-man called global warming. I know a tame little runt when I see one. It's just another propaganda myth that has been created to encourage more central government control over every aspect of people's private affairs. The real wreakers of death and destruction in our midst---central governments are what I'm afraid of. I don't know about you but I'm way more scared of George W and Dick Cheney than I am of the atmosphere any day of the week.

A new blogger emerges

I didn't know much about blogging until my friend Dave in Denver sent me a link to his new site a few months back and I put it on my favorites list. I check in from time to time and think that he raises many good points about issues that are important to me, but receives back a lot of juvenile nonsense and foul sexual humor from his immature friends. I'm hoping I'll have better luck than Dave in the quality of responses I might get from you my fellow bloggers.

I'm not sure what this blog will discuss or accomplish but wanted to throw my hat in the ring and see what might happen.

Beamis was my hillbilly name from way back in the day when all respectable Zion field rangers at the Oak Creek Dorm possessed such a moniker. They had their first re-union this year and plan a second for Las Vegas next year. The photo is of me playing a stringed instrument during a recent moment of treasured leisure.

Future blogs may be about travel, nuclear testing, the war in Iraq, geological discoveries, funny situations or how much more beautiful some women keep getting the longer you look at them.

The title of the blog is a line from an old Dylan song I loved as a kid:

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

I like buckets.