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!

The bomb test is cancelled

The largest bomb blast in history, code named Divine Strake, has been indefinitely postponed by the U.S. government. Let's all thank each other for the noise and stink raised about this dangerously stupid military folly. It also brought a lot citizen groups together on a vital issue of public health and safety. I ask again, would a private citizen or company ever be allowed, by this same government, to pollute the atmosphere in such a signifigant way?

Alas, I won't have to flee to Mexico as previously planned, so Bonnie I'm afraid that the tequila and olives you requested will just have to wait, for now. I'm happy now that I can go down there when the weather will be a little cooler.

http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4955511

Backed up past Robertson on the 10

From the comments section of the last blog:

Audie said...

Beamis said "I ... don't give two shits about global warming," and yet quite a bit of space on this blog has been devoted to contesting the phenomenon's very existence and/or denying human beings' contributions to it. If Al Gore were being hypocritical about some other topic, I doubt we'd be reading about it here.

Anyway, I was wondering if you'd seen a copy of the speech given a few months ago by one of your heroes, Walmart president Lee Scott. Here's an excerpt (italics mine):

"... We are looking at innovative ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. This used to be controversial, but the science is in and it is overwhelming.... We believe every company has a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gases as quickly as it can."

When even the big corporate CEOs are recognizing it (because it's impacting their bottom lines), do we get to say "I told you so" yet? Or shall we keep waiting?

3:52 PM

beamis said...

Stumpy it's still too big for us to know anything about.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

I'd be way too optimistic and naive to believe that mere humans could obtain such cosmic certainty about a subject so elusive and ephemeral. The very limited set of intellectual capabilities possessed by homo sapiens just ain't powerful enough to really "know" this type of information. That such charlatans as Al Gore spout it as fact should make one ever more doubtful to its veracity. That it is also the current global cause du juor in Hollywood and the upper West Side makes me even more suspicious of its factual underpinnings.

We can't say with any certainty that recent volcanic activity isn't just as much of a factor, if not more, for current weather patterns, than we can say that the noxious fumes emanating from the Santa Monica Freeway represent the hellish path to a carbon induced planetary meltdown. Which is benign, which is a danger? Who decides? Doesn't Al Gore just use a helicopter to get to his Malibu fundraisers, rather than risk being late because of a tie up on this famously clogged artery, backed up way past Robertson and the 405 interchange?

Ants fart a lot, and they also happen to equal us in biomass (which I just read in a recent National Geographic at the dentist's office). Termites also emit gases, the ocean emits gases, cows, chickens, horses and turtles emit gases, life and shit happens and then it decays....into more gases. Existence is a gas man!

I think our planet is way okay and will stay that way Stump.

We as humans got bigger fish to fry than fretting about the state of the heavens. It is not our place to decide or exalt leaders who will save us from the "gases".

Want less. Always be lowering the bar on material consumption. Learn about your spirit. The earth will be fine. We all be fine. Hotter days to come? Your guess be good as mine.

Beamis at home

Al Gore is "carbon neutral"?

Today as I read the headlines I realized that we are coming ever closer to the regimented and ignorant society depicted in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, featuring figures on the world stage straight out of Evelyn Waugh's most cartoonishly extreme political satires, with situational elements borrowed from the theater of the absurd. Samuel Beckett you ain't seen nothing yet!

We can start in Cannes, France with a story from Reuters:

A representative affiliated with "An Inconvenient Truth", a film about global warming involving former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has stressed that the movie and Gore's tour to promote it are "carbon neutral".

Last week, Gore and his team were seen driving the 500 meters or so from a hotel to the Cannes festival headquarters in several cars. The representative said that arriving at events like photocalls and news conferences in cars was normal practice in Cannes. And Gore walked the shorter distance from another hotel to the festival for the movie's screening.

This hit a nerve because I have sorta been wondering lately about Mr. Gore's campaign to save the earth and all of the carbon that he has to burn to get his message across about the dangers burning carbon poses to the inhabitants of our planet. How do you stay so sane when you're such a superior being Mr. Gore?

I myself burn far less carbon than Mr. Gore does, not because I believe that it is a bad thing to do, but because I only need to drive to town once a week, usually on my way to or from work at the Bit & Spur or to give a tour. Otherwise I prefer to stay at home for at least five days in a row and to keep my car driving to the barest minimum. My electric bill is usually less than $40 dollars a month (for two buildings) and I fill my propane tanks once in the fall for about $500. I do admit to burning Kingsford charcoal to prepare my tasty feasts, but that is probably not very much carbon production compared to Mr. Gore's privately chartered jet. Oh-oh there goes another glacier Mr. Gore.

I find it ironically funny that I actually practice what he preaches and don't give two shits about global warming. The whole human race is always better off when they are thinking about ways of lowering their material desires. This keeps us focused on the land, the sky, each other and the comforts derived from a balanced awareness of what existence really is. From Buddha to Christ it has always been the same message: reduce, shed, discard, donate, just desire less and then, and only then, may you begin to realize your full spiritual potential as a sentient being.

As for people like Al Gore, a limousine liberal hypocrite, they come in all shapes and sizes. God put them here on earth to amuse and entertain us in these latter days of decline and fall.

***************************************

A recurring theme I like to write about, comparing the atmosphere of 1930's Germany with the current state of affairs in the USA, was admirably addressed in today's essay by Robert Higgs:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higgs42.html

***************************************

And this day also saw guilty verdicts in the Enron case in Houston, with former CEO Ken Lay facing life in prison. Now do you all really believe that he deserves this fate when real criminals like George W., Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld will get to sleep comfortably in feathered beds until God comes to gently turn out their lights? Ken Lay may or may not have been a vile crook but I don't believe for a minute that he is as bad as the aforementioned politicians, who have perpetrated crimes against humanity that will take centuries to heal, if ever at all.

I guess if you want to get away with crime stick to government work where you always get your pension-----no matter what.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/25/D8HQU2G06.html

Maryland to Utah

It's been exactly one year since I took an exciting road trip with Bill Bassett from Baltimore to Springdale. There are recently unearthed photos from that trip that I thought some of ya'll might like to take a gander at (no reruns from last year's original e-album).

This beautiful continent of ours is one helluva of a landmass to explore and experience.

Also on this particular trip, there was no such thing as 3.2% beer sold at the gas stations & convenience stores of Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa or Nebraska. Weak & shitty 3.2% was the rule in Colorado and Utah.

The very worst stretch in the nation is where four of the six states with 3.2% beer laws are all in a row for close to a thousand miles: Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado & the holier-than-thou Beehive State. How I hate to travel that dry and parched route through the heart of rabid Protestant self-righteousness! If I am forced to go that way I always load up the cooler and fill the trunk before departing Arkansas, which sits on the western frontier of Dixie. The prairie and high plains are way more fun when you've got a beer buzz going.

Camden Yards: Orioles vs. KC Royals


Bassett meets some Maryland rednecks: my friends.

Harpers Ferry, WV


Bassett state line.


John Deere Factory & Museum in Moline, IL


Iowa through the windsheild.


Back home in Utah: the San Rafael Swell.

The Spectrum peddles religiously intolerant nonsense

I have written letters to my local paper (The Daily Spectrum) in recent months questioning why the Mormons of this area appear to be such ardent supporters of warfare and a government that deliberately poisoned them with nuclear radiation in the past, and then proceeded to cover it up with lies. I also brought into question the whole doctrine of the LDS Church's 12th Article of Faith (which stresses respect and obedience to secular leaders and institutions) as it applies to principles and causes that both Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith would have thoroughly abhorred. For some reason I just can't see them arm in arm with Dick Cheney. My queries were intended to stimulate discussion and debate and were written in a respectful manner.

I was politely told that I would never get a letter published in The Spectrum that contained such questions and that in the future it would be wise for me to leave out any references to Mormons and to further refrain from questioning the worthiness or reasons why local boys and girls are dying in the sands of Mesopotamia.

Well it was with some degree of shock that I read yesterday's letter from a man in Sun River who basically said that Islam was a plot by Satan. It showed me to what extent this whole sordid mess has become entwined with the more idiotic aspects of organized religion and how totally biased the local media has allowed itself to become against another religion it has no fear of offending. Read on.....

Satan's plan is to rob God of his glory

One day an ordinary young man went to a private place to pray. While in prayer he received a supernatural visitation. The fruit of his vision led to a revealing of new "scripture" intended to correct errors and omissions in the Bible. The new scripture, and subsequent revelations, became the foundation and doctrine of a new religion.

The young man's name was Mohammed. While in a cave praying the "angel Gabriel' imparted to this "prophet" the text of the Koran, the foundation of the Islamic faith. Additional doctrines and teachings have been "supernaturally" imparted to Muslim leaders over the years.

God in His omniscience warns us of supernatural deceptions in 2 Cor 11:14, where He reveals that Satan can transform himself into an "angel of light" to deceive us. And again in Gal 1:8, God warns that men, and even "angels," will try to preach a false gospel.

My friend, Satan doesn't care about you. His "master passion" is to rob God of His Glory and trample on the blood of Jesus by luring you into placing your faith in a false prophet, a false God, a false Jesus and a false gospel. Friends, please don't buy into Satan's lies.

Joe Slobig

SunRiver

I'm convinced.

Some Springdale citizens speak up on the bomb test

A resident of Springdale has proposed that local citizens in southern Utah obtain their own air monitors to independently verify whether or not toxic elements, especially radioactive isotopes, are present in the atmosphere following the upcoming bomb detonation at the Nevada Test Site. (What, you mean someone is calling into doubt government assurances of complete safety?) I know next to nothing about these devices and was wondering if any of ya'll out there in the blogosphere could lend me a notion or two on the subject. What would I be looking for in a Google search? Does eBay sell 'em?

Another Springdale resident has proposed that once the definite date of the blast is known the town should shut down, lest they be accused of tempting visitors to be here during a potentially dangerous time. A shutdown would be an honest gesture of concern on the part of the local tourism industry towards its valued customers.

Again I ask where is the voice of the Mormon Church on this matter? How evil does something have to get before you will stand up and assert your moral authority? It is, after all, primarily members of your flock who, again, will be absorbing the toxic clouds emanating from the belly of the never sated war beast.

Just like the National Park Service, with its silly obsessions over exotic weeds and endangered snails, your pious finger wagging on the evils of caffeine and unmarried sex seem, at this point, very quaint and not a little trite in the face of the much larger issues of moral collapse and societal decay represented by this bomb blast. When are you going to stand up for the health of your own church members and the sanctity of their communities? It sure would be nice to know that you care.

At this point no one is holding their breath.

The everyday joys of existence

With all of the turmoil & violent death Big Brother is creating for us on the world stage it is very important to always stay in touch with the things that really matter. I'm talking about the stuff that no one can ever take away: the people, places, things and sensations you savor, listen to, love, ponder and recollect. The real world. The unified plane that all sane and healthy individuals must remain in contact with for the continuous process of necessary rebirth.

Existence is always exquisite here:

In the California desert;

Being with Vanessa;


Holding a piece of Wheeler shale full of trilobites (Elrathia kingi);


Stumbling onto out of the way rock art;


Watching Fleance sleep for 14 hours;


and oh yeah, eating grilled chicken.

Patrick J. Buchanan hits the nail on the head!

A better synopsis of the current situation as it concerns American war making has not been written. Read on dudes:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan42.html

By the way where is the peace movement hiding in this country? And who'd a thunk that the day would come when Pat Buchanan would turn out to be a proto-peacenik?

Onward march the Christian soldiers!

Who else could get away with it?

Nevada Test Site in the 1950's

Apparently the states of Nevada and Utah want assurances from the federal government about the health and safety implications of the upcoming above ground bomb test, which by the way, will be the largest man-made explosion of all time. Now just what kind of whacked out paperwork routine are the old boys in DC gonna foist upon us this time? Are they about to tell us that this is perfectly safe and not to worry one little bit?

Would a private landowner, who owns similarly vast & empty acreage in say Montana or Texas, ever be given permission by the government to undertake the same type of thing on their property? Could any private citizen pollute the atmosphere this extensively and ever hope to escape the full wrath of the federal officials in charge of "protecting" the environment? You know the answer.

By the way, it would be nice to see the superintendents of our Utah national parks have the intestinal fortitude to speak out on this issue. The NPS is always attempting to eliminate so-called "threats" to their parks such as the noise made by aircraft, night-sky light pollution and the ravages of tour guides, but have been conspicuously silent about a bomb cloud potentially full of radioactive particles settling down onto their parks in June when there will be many visitors and the maximum number of seasonal staff.

I know I'm asking a lot when I demand courage from bureaucrats in peonage to lavish federal retirement plans but it makes you all look pretty ridiculous, as guardians of the environment, to have, so far, ignored this very obvious danger to biologic life. The menacing specter of non-native weeds and the fate of the Virgin River spinedace (a "threatened" minnow species) will just have to wait for another time, because the day of reckoning is upon us.

Nero he did fiddle on.

Some good news-----maybe

The above-ground bomb test, code named Divine Strake, has been delayed by three weeks. Let's hope it is the first step in keeping this aggressive and arrogantly wasteful act from ever occurring at all.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3797038

Music on my birthday

So it was my birthday and Larry was grilling up these monstrously fat Fred Flintstone steaks, as he watched me begin throwing back shots of tequila. This was the night to hog his fancy stereo equipment with MY musical choices, it being Leon's birthday and all.

We started with George Jones' My Favorites of Hank Williams and Trouble in Mind (an English import of two unavailable American releases from the early 60's). He is in his best voice of all on these recordings which always make my spine tingle and inner guts rumble.


George Jones

The Possum was followed by Hank Williams the 3rd's latest masterpiece Straight To Hell which I highly recommend to everyone, except for the ears of little kiddies under the age of 21. Hard-nosed and sophisticated country punk from the grandson of the master himself. Greatness often skips a generation.


Hank the 3rd

The Kinks album Lola Versus Powerman and The Moneygoround-Part 1 was the next platter up. Larry was not familiar with this LP, but it certainly ranks right up there as one of the best records by this way underrated band. Learn about The Kinks you youngsters out there! Much of rock n' roll as we know it today is an outgrowth of this pioneering group's work. The Beatles were expert Kinks copiers as were many another successful rock band of that era.


The Kinks

Cruisin' With Reuben and The Jets by the Mothers came immediately after the Kinks which got both Larry and I into a nostalgic mood and led me to eventually play One Size Fits All till we were wiping our brows at the sweaty intensity & polished musical genius displayed by one Frank Vincent Zappa. Hoy, hoy, hoy!


The Mothers

We finished off with a Shuggie Otis collection which always puts me in a nirvana like state because he is so smoothly gentle to float away on when you are more than slightly drunk. It's funny and kind of weird that my favorite music is still the stuff that made me happy and turned me on when I was a much younger lad. I'm glad this stuff is still solidly alive in my hard drive and am grateful to have been able to blast it at full volume across the empty desert night.

Thankfully I am still able to act like a kid of 17 howling at the moonlight like a rebel without a clue.

War is the gateway to hell

Iraqi boy climbs out of a bomb crater that was once his neighborhood in Fallujah.

The following linked article (Our Descent Into Hell Has Begun) is written by a Texas newspaper editor and Vietnam vet. He has put into words what I have been feeling for quite some time about the evil that is being performed in my name and with my confiscated wealth. This particular passage chilled my bones:

In Iraq, our descent into hell, our "Apocalypse Now" moment, has begun. First there was Gitmo, then the global rendition program, then Abu Ghraib, then the pulverizing of Fallujah, and now trigger-happy raids that are filling multitudes of sandy graves with men, women and children. Has "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" become the mission in Babylon? Can't anyone remember Vietnam, where we left behind more than a million dead civilians? In Iraq, we're way past the half-million mark, probably the million mark, if you count the 1990s sanctions. Are the American people as blind and deaf as they seem? Don't we see ourselves walking through the gates of hell and can't we hear the doors clanging shut on our country?

I can and do. What about the rest of you?

http://www.counterpunch.org/swindell05042006.html

Buckethead

I was going through some photo files from last year and stumbled back upon this little gem and just had to share it with all of you other Buckethead worshipers out there. It's so damn satisfying when a fan can capture a decent image of one of their idols in action. I can't wait to go see him perform again just so's I can photograph him some more.

There ain't another act in show bidness quite like it.