Moon rise

Tonight while I was sitting in my guard shack I got to see one of the most beautiful moon rises I've seen in a while. It was large and round and glowing pale yellow. It almost moved me to tears. Seeing an event such as this I can understand why early man was enamored with the moon. The beauty of it must of moved them too. They watched it and studied it. After a while they began to understand the moons effect on our world, the seas and we humans. I was wishing the power plants in our area would shut down so we could really see this moon and sky. Have you ever seen moon shadow? What a wonderful world we live in.

There is talk the government may shut down our return to the moon. I hope they let us return. We must have dreams.

Homeless

Last Sunday a coal train came into the plant with a couple of transients on board. A man and a woman plus a dog. They left in a hurry. It got me thinking. Living where we do we see a lot of people walking around with big backpacks and such caring signs, wanting rides. The other day I saw a man walking on the side of the road with a large day pack caring a duffel bag. I would guess he was caring all he owned. At first I thought poor guy. Then I remembered I had to rent a 26 foot U-haul packed floor to ceiling to move down here. We still didn't have enough room for all our stuff. My daughter and I were sore for a week because it was just the two of us caring stuff into the house. Poor me I think.

Stuff! Things! Crap! Who owns who. Do I own my stuff or am I just a slave to it? Time and time again I try to reduce this mountain of stuff. I just can't get it done. So who's freer? The homeless man or transient carrying all they own on their backs? Or me carrying all I own on my back crushed by the weight of it all. This addiction for stuff is fueled by that temptress the TV. "Your life sucks" so buy our stuff and you too will be handsome and strong and rich and successful. The government says we need to buy more stuff to stimulate the economy. "Don't save, buy"! The credit card companies and banks tell us to barrow so we can have more stuff.

So now I've gone from talking about transients to being a wage slave. One thing leads to another and it's a strong man who can resist the siren call and not be dashed upon the rocks. To become another shipwreck on the alter of STUFF.

Just in case you don't hear from me anymore, goodbye. The weathermen are predicting another "end of the world" event tomorrow. Snow deep enough to shovel! Freezing rain and sleet! Kiss your children goodbye! Since we moved to Springfield, Missouri every storm that comes by is really played up. Maybe it will be a bad storm, maybe not. It just sounds like the boy who cried wolf all the time. I'll let you know if we survive.....

On a totally unrelated note. We had to take Mary to get another x-ray of her lungs today. That's two this week. The chemo is not working like it was and she is starting to get some fluid around her left lung again. The doctor needed a different view to see what needs to be done. While I was waiting for her there was a family of seven in the waiting room too. I know I am in the Ozarks and all but you can buy teeth here too. With the exception of the daughter there was not a full set of teeth among the rest. An they were fighting over the last stick of gum! Oh well.

Odds and Ends

"I decided not to talk today,
so I put my hands in my pockets" me

I have had quite the cold the past week so I have not felt like posting or thinking or writing or... well you get the idea. But I'm back. I was thinking about what to write tonight at work as I watched the fog roll in. I went from seeing the city lights in the distance to not seeing anything beyond a quarter mile away. I thought my world was shrinking. It was and it is. I mean how far can someone really see out of the circle of one's life? With the Internet and cable and cell phones etc you can be in contact all over the world but just how far is your, or my, influence? Really just a handful of people listen to me. I'm not sure any of them are really listening. I sometimes think I am just background noise. If I jump up and down like a little kid and scream "Listen to ME!" then pull the camera back. You now see other people jumping up and down shouting "Listen to ME!" Pull the camera further back and the whole world is jumping up and down shouting and screaming "Listen to ME!" Everyone wants to be heard and we're all shouting at once. But thanks for taking the time to visit here and listening to me.

Now to political stuff. Wow! Tuesday's election of Scott Brown as Senator in Massachusetts was big. Just last week the Democratic super majority in the House and Senate was goose stepping down the road to Government domination trampling the will of the people into the mud. Now it's like a slum apartment in Congress. Someone turned on the lights and the cock-roaches are scattering. Most of the Democrats are lining up at the mics to explain maybe we should slow down on health care. Yeah it's Obama's fault too because he was pushing too hard. It's funny to watch. Everyone of them were licking the shoes of Obama, Palosi, and Reid just a few days ago. Now it's CYA on steroids. The goosestepping in lockstep juggernaut is now in chaos, milling around like they're in a Woody Allen movie or something. Chaos is good for us. If Congress can't get their act together they can't be bothering us. Enjoy it why we can.

Pictures n' promises

Say what you will about Obama but he did make his campaign sound like there was hope in the air and change on the way. We should have known.



A long, long time ago I wrote in my diary that "politicians say whatever they can to to get elected and what ever they need to to stay in office". It would seem the worst name you could call someone is Politician. Obama is just a politician.




The above is what the Founding Fathers were fighting against when they went up against the most powerful nation in the world at that time to gain their freedom. Why can't we see that the United States today is just a bastard great, great grandchild of this once great nation.

The Tea Party insults

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called Candidate Brown a "... far-right tea-bagger Republican". When the tea party movement started and the left started calling us tea-baggers I had to look the term up. I wish I didn't know now. Sometimes one can have too much imformation. But lets go back in time. It's 1998 and Chucky Schumer is running for senator for the first time. His opponent calls him a putz-head. Chucky hits the ceiling. Why he rants and raves all the way through the campaign about it. Putz apparently means penis in Yiddish. Who knew? So I guess that means he was called a "Richard cranium".

This goes to show you the double standard here. Don't call the Democrats names or they will get mad. But, and this is a big butt, they can call anyone anything they want. Schumer can call Brown a "tea-bagger". Reid can call Obama a "light skin Negro who doesn't talk with a Negro dialect". Reid says sorry mister President and Barack says no problem. Senator Lott had to quite at leader of the Senate and resign as senator when he praised 90 year old Strom Therman at his birthday party by saying things would have been different if Strom had been president years ago. Apparently Strom liked to keep the races separate back then. But Lott wasn't necessarily talking about Stroms racist tendencies. It didn't matter to the Dems and their lap dogs the media. Compare that to Reids treatment by the media. Nothing, Nada. Yeah he shouldn't have said it but he's a good guy who just miss spake. Can't we all just get along.

Back to little Chucky Schumer. I would love him to call someone at a tea party rally a "tea-bagger" to his face. He'd be spitting teeth for a week.

Third Day

It's Third Day. The third day after Mary receives Chemo is usually the worst. While she is not sick she is very, very tired. She will sleep off and on all day long. This is the day the "happy juice" starts to wear off. That is all the anti-nausea and anti-pain medicines they put in her before they start the actual chemo. They take two to three hours just to put this stuff in her. Then they start the chemo. So she's tired and she's sleeping. This is still better than the chemo treatments she received in 2000. I have never seen anyone so violently ill as she was then. Thank God for modern medicine.

America Lost?

You sit around and feel somethings not right. You feel the world is slipping through your fingers. You're right. America as we know it is coming to an end. The Democrats are locked behind closed doors dividing our lives like Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill did eastern Europe when they meet in Malta. An Iron Curtain of health care is about to fall and "We the People" will be walled in place. Locked behind this barrier we can only get fleeting glimpse of freedom, of better times past.

The President has broken many of his promises from the campaign. He promised to air the health care reform in public sessions on C-SPAN. When he and the Democratic leaders in congress saw the American people were not in favor and were very outspoken in their opposition they moved the sessions behind closed doors. Why?

"He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."

The Democrats are in a rush. The senate race in Massachusetts is getting close and the Republican candidate is inching ahead of the Democrat. The horror of loosing "Kennedy's" seat is too much to bear. Couple that with the real possibility that if the Republican wins the Democrats in the Senate will loose their 60Th vote that allows them to pass anything they want. If they loose the seat the Republicans can block legislation with a filibuster among other procedures.

So whats happening in the race? The Democratic Candide states in a debate she believes there are no terrorists in Afghanistan. When a reporter catches up with her on the side walk afterwords and asks her if she stands by her statement she looks around and says "next question". That must be the "code word" because the reporter is then knocked down by one of her goons. This thug then helps the man up. The cameras are rolling after all, and asks to see his press credentials. While watching the video I see this goon continually obstruct the reporters path while the candidate makes her escape. Ah democracy in action.

Now the other shoe. If the Republican wins in Massachusetts the Dem's may seek to delay his certification and swearing in as the new senator for some time, maybe a month or more. This political conniving would preserve the Democratic majority in the Senate until the finial health care vote is taken. The will of the people will be ignored once again.

"He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected:....."

And finally, since I am writing all these quotes, there are the Czars. I'll write more on them another time but let me write this last quote.

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."

The above quotes are from our Declaration of Independence. The similarities are beginning to pile up. The super majority of the Democrats in the House, Senate and White House has caused their leadership to become drunk with power. They don't even try to hide their ambitions. Speaker of the House Polosi laughed into the camera when asked about Obama's promise to hold public hearings on the Health Care Bill. She laughed and said "I'm sure a lot of things were promised on the campaign trail". What gaul! Her disdain for the American People was apparent. She in effect told us, "you don't expect us to keep our promises". Her laugh was a laugh of contempt saying "you are dumb if you believe a promise made in a campaign".

I was raised to believe a promise is a promise. If it is broken there were consequences. The time is running out if we are going to change the direction of this country. We need to put fear into their hearts. We the People need to strike down those who try to rule us and replace them with servants of the people who represent us.

Twenty-ten is our cry!
Throw them out, do or die!

Chemo

Today was another chemo day for Mary. Approaching two years now. You know you go to a doctors office too many times when everyone knows your name and family history. Even the greeter in the building's lobby commented on Mary's finger nails and noticed she had changed their color. Wow, every two weeks for six to eight hours each treatment. Well it's worth it. Mary is doing OK and is scheduled for a CT and MRI scan next week. We hope they continue to show everything is stable.

Weather is getting warmer again. The temps will be in the 40's over the next few days. Yippee.

The buck stops Here.

"The buck stops here". Well the President said it. He has now taken all responsibility for future events. He has a problem though. He has set himself up to fail. Take a look around the conference table of security advisers just a few hours before the President made his statement. Twenty people were setting there. To name a few; Secretary of State, Secretary of Defence, Secretary of Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, NSA, NSS, TSA etc. The problem I see is there are too many department and agency heads. Too many kingdoms. They all are searching for terrorist. They all are receiving data. But are they all sharing? We have learned the Government knew about the Christmas day bomber. They were going to detain and question him when he landed, if you can believe that. But no one told the airline about him. No Sky Marshall's were on board the plane.

My concern is that there are too many hands in this cook pot. Too many filters for information to pass through. Not enough people putting eyes on the total picture. Sure someone sees a man is on the watch list. But someone else sees he applied for a visa. Someone else hears form his dad about him being a possible threat. There is too many someones. There is no centralization, no hub which this data passes through.

Someone dropped the ball, but no heads will roll. The President can say the buck stops here all he wants but so what? If the Christmas bomber hadn't gotten his panties in a twist he could have set the bomb off. Almost 300 souls on that plane could have been lost. If the plane had come down into Detroit the death toll could have been a thousand!

Solutions? One, we need a new Secretary of Homeland Security. Two, this department need to be the central warehouse for all data collected foreign and domestic. The FBI handles domestic. The CIA foreign. Three, eliminate the other departments and make them all sub sets of Homeland Security. Four, eliminate all Czar positions related to security, I think there are at least two. The secretaries of Defence, State and Homeland Security have to be approved by Congress. I think the FBI and CIA director does too. We don't need anyone working with our security that doesn't get screened through Congress.

Next we need hard and fast rules about coming into this country. On a watch list? No entry. From a country supporting terrorism? No entry. No passport? No entry. Get the picture? These rules apply to everyone. No exceptions. There is a report someone vouched for the Christmas bomber when he first boarded his plane even though he didn't have a passport, paid in cash, was on a watch list, had no luggage, etc. The days of "he's with me" are over. This could get us killed!

Finally, even though the President says "the buck stops here" don't be fooled. He flies on his own jet with fighter escort. He has armies of people protecting him. If something goes down it will be us who die. I'm sure he would get upset and maybe even work up a tear but that won't do much good when we are all splattered on the ground.

Maybe we should just make all airplane passengers eat a ham sandwich before they can board?

Reading

I love to read. I read anything and everything I can get my hands on. Books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, anything. One of the first books I remember reading is John F. Kennedy's PT109 in grade school. He was still alive when I read it. I was hooked. In Junior High I discovered Jules Verne. Mysterious Island was a turning point for me. The main character was an Union Officer who was an engineer. His collection of knowledge helped everyone survive and even prosper. Andrea Norton was next. She was a Syfy writer I enjoyed very much. Especially her Starman's Son. Later I discovered Tolkien and Clancy. I've already talked about Thoreau. Then there is Ellis Peters and her Brother Cadfael's seires. Of course I read Louis Lamour and Aurthur Conan Doyle. I could go on. But wait there's more. In my library you will find books about camping, Military, living off the land, religion (not just Christian books), etc.

One of the best books I have read lately is "The Black Arrow" by Vin Suprynowicz. It takes place in the not to distant future in an America that has gone all wrong. No freedom, no justice, no order just laws and corrupt politicians and goon squads that are more apt to rape than do anything else. Out of this mix comes our hero The Black Arrow. A man who evens the odds with his bow because the people have been disarmed and terrorized by their government. I could not put this book down! The only thing I didn't like about it was it was not mine and I had to return it to the library. I first heard about the book reading Claire Wolfe articles on the Outlaw Life. It seems the older I get the more I want government to get out of my life.

You can read more of Claire Wolfe's article online at the Backwoods Home Magazine web site. You can read Vin Suprynowicz website at http://www.vinsuprynowicz.com.

Sorry Mr President but you have reached your CO2 emissions for today.

Christmas Tree Orniments

Ok, a quick question. Who had a Christmas tree with a Chairman Mao ornament and a Hedda Lettuce - Drag Queen ornament? Think real hard. Need a clue? How about a Mount Rushmore ornament with one of the Presidents faces replaced by Barack Hussein Obama? Bingo, give that man a cigar. The answer is The White House. Sometimes called "The Peoples House". Someone in the administration had the bright idea to hire some "famous" decorator and this is what he came up with.

Mao and a drag queen ornament. I'm so proud of my government. I shouldn't be surprised though. This is the same government that has a Safe School Czar. This man once wrote for a magazine that advocated men having sex with boys. And they gave him a title of Safe School Czar. Makes you wonder what the people who voted for Hussein was thinking about. Wait a minute. They weren't thinking that's the problem.

Chains you can believe in.

The Pine Song

When I was a young lad I would listen to my dad tell of his time in the woods hunting and fishing. When I got old enough I started wandering into the swamp behind our house in Illinois. It was just a one acre wooded puddle but it was the great outdoors to me. Later on when I joined the Boy Scouts my outdoor world really opened up. Camping or hiking throughout the state and even a canoe trip to Canada. I enjoyed the woods.

Then, in high school I took an American Literature class taught by Miss Zimmerman. In her class I was introduced to Henry David Thoreau for the first time. I read “Walden”. I read “Civil Disobedience”. I was hooked. Thoreau touched me in such a way that my woods roaming was never the same. The woods stopped being a bunch of trees in which I played. They became living poetry.

But as with all youthful tales, I grew up. My trips to the woods became more infrequent until they stopped altogether. I became one of those men Thoreau said “were leading lives of quite desperation”.

Years later, when we lived in Manito, Illinois, my wife Mary started playing cards with “the girls” once a month. Since there was a nice state forest outside of town I decided on those days to renew my woods roaming again. The effect was like giving sweet water to a thirsty man. I drank deep. My parched soul was renewed. I started looking forward to Mary’s cards with the girls. Then there was that day…….

I park my truck at the usual spot. It’s November and there’s a nip in the air. It wasn’t quite misting. I wouldn’t call it a fog. It felt like a cloud had settled on the ground for a rest. Haversack and canteen on my shoulder. Staff in my hand. I step onto the trail. It was the Red Trail once again. An old familiar trail for an old familiar walk. But not today. Today was different. The cloud had changed the woods. The first part of the trail lead through the Oaks. Their leaves scattered about. Rice Krispies we call them because they go snap, crackle and pop when you walk on them. But the cloud had quieted them down. I make little noise as I start my walk. Nothing stirs. Not even the squirrels. I’m the only thing moving. My pace slows. I cast my eyes right then left and occasionally down my back trail. A queer feeling grows in my mind. I almost bolt for the truck. “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”. Stealing myself I walk on. The oaks mark my progress. Their bare branches spray out like giant spiders, swaying in the wind, waiting to pounce. Mighty is their presence. Masters from root to twig. But solitary. Though hundreds, thousands strong they each stand alone. They let me pass unmolested.

Where the trail cuts a fire break I pause. After the oppression of the oaks I should be happy for the open fire lane but the openness worries me. I’ll be exposed as I cross. Who’s watching me. Looking up and down the lane I search for watchers. Guardians to prevent my escape from the oaks. Or to prevent me from entering beyond. The other side is a giant pine phalanx. The trail leads into it’s dark opening. I am drawn towards it. Glancing side to side I trot across the fire lane. I enter The Pines.

After a few paces I stop and check my Six. What is wrong with me? The feeling of Presence is growing. I feel I’m not alone.

Generations ago these pines were planted in straight rows north, south, east and west. In the ensuing years they have grown straight and touching the sky. I’m standing in a Cathedral of trees. Their trunks are pillars holding up a ceiling of green. The lowest branches are high over my head. Pine needles lay in a carpet inches thick.

Silently I move on. My footsteps not making a sound. The wind plays it’s tune and the Pines begin to sing. The sound is soothing like a lullaby. Time slows, I move slow. Then I reach my goal.

A few hikes before I found this place. A bowl, a depression 100 yards across where the pines thin a little but the canopy still covers. The ceiling of boroughs even higher here. Today with the cloud it takes on mystical powers. It reminds me of a Fairy Circle. Where unwary travelers enter in and never return. Held captive by the Fairies for all time. It beckons me. I enter into this alter area, this Holy of Holies, in this cathedral of Pines.

Along the path reclines one of the Patriarchs of the forest laid down by time. I set down and rest on his back. Closing my eyes I listen to the Pine Song. Each branch plucked by the wind. The creaking trunks joining in. Time stops. Eternity in a heartbeat. There is a brush on my cheek and I am back among the pines. Their song has stopped. The cloud has lifted back to the heavens. Time and the world have returned. My heart aches.

At the edge of the bowl I turn and look back. Like Conway in “Lost Horizon” I wonder if I’ll ever see my Shangri-La again. Bowing my head I turn and walk away. I have returned to this spot a few times since but it’s not the same. The magic is not there as I set upon the log longing for a touch that will not come. The world is not the same. The Pine Song has changed it all.