Thankfully it's.............

Why do we need a holiday to be thankful for things? Why not do it all the time. Well I guess we forget to appreciate so we seperate this day aside. Thanksgiving is becoming one of my favorite holidays because it is the last sanctitude away from commercialization. Sure it started off rather differently, but over the decades, it has become something better.

Examples of victims are: Halloween, Easter, Mothers Day, July 4th, Presidents Day, and the ever infamous Christmas. Thanksgiving is one of the **BIG** truly American Holiday. By "American" I don’t mean citizens versus non-citizens, immigrants versus non-immigrants, blacks vs. whites, vegetarians versus meat-eaters, doves versus hawks, Republicans versus Democrats, Native-Americans versus Non-Native Americans, or rich versus poor. I’m not talking about any of the myriad things that divide us as a nation. I’m talking about all of us – the 300 odd million of us that make up America.

Admittedly there are a few holidays that are not fully invaded, like Veterans Day (unlike its cousin Memorial Day), yet it is the harbinger of that aformentioned Christmas shopping frenzy of black friday and the chaos that ensues. We are also often forced to the altar of the food gods for this holiday, but it isnt that bad giving our money for a Traditional Harvest feast to the farmers of america, if it wasnt for those twin evils of High fructose corn syrup and Hydrogenated vegetable oils. But yet I digress.......

For 364 days each year we may focus on other priorities in our lives. We are simply asked to reflect on the things that we’re grateful for. We don’t have to drink green beer, send gifts, carve pumpkins, buy cars, or shoot off fireworks.

We are asked, simply, to be thankful. And to this I wish to just say to all my friends, family, loved ones for bieng you - through arguements and disagreements, Good Times and rough, sour patches or overenthusiam, complaints and compliments; I am glad for those in my life. And if I don't say it enough, or sometimes forget to stay in touch - then know it is in my heart; Thank You ... all of you, for everything.

I hope your Thanksgiving is one of just that.

A Nation of Purple

Ive been catching up on some of my politics as distasteful as it may be - but necessary to not be one of the sheeple. And distasteful it is when you hear some questions these candidates pander to and agree with. The one that prompted this latest posting was from one participant in a town hall who spoke of the "anger the average European Christian, native-born American feels when they see their country turning into a multicultural chaos Tower of Babel."
WOW! People believe that this is their nation? A European Christian nation? What about the Native Americans who were here before us? All the African Americans that were FORCIBLY brought here by all those "European Christians"? The Asians (and Irish) upon whose this nations railroads were built by? All the Hispanics we annexed (& bought) from Spain via Texas, California, New Mexico & Arizona? All the Creole people who make Louisiana such a unique State? The Inuit? etc. et. al......

We are lucky that sometimes the candidates sometimes have common sense and this particular questioner was quickly silenced by Mr. McCain with as sound "(he was) grateful to live in a nation that has been enriched by people coming to our nation from around the world." Can we get a great big Howard Dean "YEEEEHAAAAAH!" for standing up to that idiot and not pander! We are a not a nation made up of red states, blue states - but a combination of much more - both together and so much more - A nation of purple with a hue of every color in there!

So thus I continue to go about the ardours duty of going through each of the candidates stances on the issues, or lack thereof - as many just have blurbs with no real policy or details behind them. And yes, this is for both parties as unfortunately no one else has signed onto the WHIG party.
My ranking of the candidates on the issues is below - with one candidate on each side getting a slight boost due to some aspect that makes him stand out (personality and other intangibles)

Reps: 1- Huckabee; 2- McCain; 3- Guliani; 4- Hunter; 5- Romney; 6- Paul; 7- Thompson; 8- Tancredo
Dems- 1- Richardson; 2- Obama; 3- Gravel; 4- Biden; 5- Kucinich; 6- Edwards; 7- Clinton

My rankings on both sides actually came as a surprise, mind you I don't agree with all the issues of my top picks, and it was semi unscientific using this: http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm and of course the candidates sites themselves.

OK now onto the scary part: In one of the latest Defense bills passed I discovered this passage in the Defense Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2007 ; H.R. 5122 [109th Congress]:

Subtitle E - Defense Against Terrorism and Related Security Matters Section 1042 -
"Revises federal provisions allowing the President to utilize the Armed Forces in connection with interference with federal and state law to allow the President to employ the Armed Forces and National Guard in federal service to restore public order in cases of natural disaster, epidemic or other public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or domestic violence. "

WAIT!!!!!!!! This - if I understand it correctly (and I do) effectively makes the Posse Comitatus Act invalid!!! I'm fed up at this point at the growing powers of the Executive Branch - where is the backbone of Congress? Our voice - our freedoms don't mean a thing if we elect people who are just going to go with the flow and be walked all over. OK I'm not trying to sound all Conspiracy theory and all, but still its too much of a trend, the politics of fear are some of the worst ever..... (minor update: This is even better explained under the Insurrection Act of 1807 entry)


All I can think of is a quote by one of our founding fathers :


They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin

Mountains, Meadows & Morlocks

Spent a cool fall weekend at the Myron Glaser Cabin near Paris,VA for Kevin L.'s birthday. (above left is the composition of "Javin" ; Right is our Hike group @ Sky Meadows)

A first on this particular trip due to the hike in while raining and packing everything on me for the 2 miles from the car to the cabin. I don't think I had hiked anything like that since I was a Boy Scout. Even then, I don't think I carried as much as I did this time, or in such an awkward fashion compared to the rest of the group who had proper packs.


Eventually the rain stopped and we finally emerged into true sunny fall weather for a great hike to Sky Meadows along the old Appalachian Trail. It's kinda of strange in that I would have never guessed 4 years ago that I wold have enjoyed the mountains so much. But in a way I see it as a replacement for the beach, since the beach is always better! This trip was particularly cool in the sense that wildlife was actually spotted by my own eyes: 2 Deer, 1 Bald eagle, at least 2 hawks/falcons of some type - one extremely low-flying over us as we ate lunch at Sky Meadows, and various turkey Vultures headed to South Florida most probably (pic of them on the Miami Courthouse) . This was in addition to the various uncounted songbirds heard in the forest.

The view was kind of neat at sky meadows - but pretty spectacular was the pseudo impromptu game of Frisbee at the top of what is effectively a plateau with a view of the Paris, V.A. farmlands.


Overall a better way to spend a pre-Halloween weekend eschewing the costumes and parties for this year..... Either way it seems as if some phantom figures (or ghosts) showed up anyway, leaving strange images on my camera. Only discovered 2 days later when downloading them, I finally figured out why my batteries were so low!



The following week I re-did Old Rag Mountain. It was even more amazing than in the spring with all the foilage in perfection! Although I didnt also do the rock scramble on the way down due to starting off rough with what I believe was a pain in either the Tibal Posterior or Flexor Digitorum Longus Tendon(s). Either way is seriuosly hampered me to almost a crawl for about 30 minutes before the pain was bareable. Despite it I worked through it and was well enough later on, but still wasnt up to the scramble down. Next time I do Old Rag- although I will miss some amazing foilage on the fire road back- I will do the scramble down! I am glad I stuck it out because the colors were AMAZING!

From OLD RAG fall ...