I became politically aware because I had to. I coulda been killed. In 1968 I registered for the draft. That meant that I could be chosen to give up my life for reasons determined in secret by the folks who had control of the United States Government at the time. I lost friends to that secret cabal. Turns out it was mostly a bad decision by one guy, Robert McNamarra, that got the whole country all torn apart. Some of my friends were blown to bits in Southeast Asia and some of them were merely shot and killed. I have been wanting to go see the Viet Nam war memorial to look for their names. Some of my friends are like my neighbor up on the mountain. His sister in law describes him as one of those poor boys who never came all the way back from Viet Nam. He has all his fingers and toes but something else never was right about him and won't be...ever.

We will see the same thing when all this war that is happening now is over. The world will not be a better place for our war in Iraq. It will not be the fighting that will change the world, it will be when we stop the killing that change will come. Why not do it right now? As it is right now, we will have friends who will never come back completely. We can make the choice right now or we can wait until we hit the thousand mark in dead children of America. Or we can do like Richard Nixon did...He ran for his second term saying he needed to be kept in office so that he could end the war. He got reelected and he did in fact end the war...after another 50,000 American children got killed. The we got "Peace with Honor". Yeah, right!

Country Joe and the Fish wrote the song that replaced the National Anthem during the Viet Nam War. It is the "I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag." Its most famous line is, "...and it's one, two, three, What am I fighting for?" Here is a line from another Country Joe song:

"And those who took so long to learn the subtle ways of death / Lie and bleed in paddy mud with questions on their breath / And we send prayers and praises."

Country Joe is still playing music and writing songs. Here is a line from his recent effort. it sounds familiar:

"And pound their feet into the sand of shores they've never seen / Delegates from the western land to join the death machine / And we send cards and letters."

So now here we are, driving our country incredibly deep in debt with the money essentially going to a company with huge financial ties to the Vice President who is one of the four or five men who are the architechs of the war in the first place. The organization they belong to is called the Project for a New American Century. Things have gone very very wrong for them and their war. That means that things have gone very very wrong for us and our children.

Ask yourself this question: "What is the best possible outcome that can be reasonably expected from the Iraq War?" It is not good. I have a proposal to make. Instead of reinstating the draft, instead of creating ahorrible division within our own country, and instead of killing and wounding physically and emotionally thousands more of our children, instead of killing more Iraqis... Let's just leave! Here's how we can do it. Let's load up and come home. We spend a fraction of the money on alternative enrgy sources and energy conservation and we redirect our economy to creating healthy industries and the price of oil drops through the floor! There is then no money to support the Saudis, the Syrians, the cartel in Venezuela, and the house of Bush and Cheney go bancrupt too, but hey, there have to be casualties in any war, right? Why not them instead of our children?

Peace,

Steve

This might just sum up the problem:

"We don't have a choice. God is the only one who can decide,"

That was from a woman on the sidelines at the Women's march in Washington this weekend. An open minded reader will identify the woman as one who is willing to impose her particular version of God on all of the others marching down the street. Why aren't they entitled to their own God instead of hers? Isn't that the ultimate freedom supposedly guaranteed by our Constitution?

My own view of the abortion issue is very simple: It is none of my business! A long time ago I decided that men should stay out of this debate. In fact, I think women of child bearing age are the only ones who should have a say, period. The rest of us can offer our thoughts if asked but otherwise, what do we think we are doing telling someone else they have to bear a child?

Isn't that a form of slavery?

It all comes down to someone wanting power over someone else. Anti-choice people take the ridiculous position that it is murder but that cannot be defended if you think about it. Here is the argument:

Life begins at conception.

or:

Life begins at birth.

or, as the Catholic Church would claim:

Life begins with consumation

(or possibly even the intent to consumate, I am unclear on this one).

What we have is an unanswerable question that simply depends on "belief" for a determination. I don't "believe" we should force our own "belief", which in this case is nothing more than an "opinion", on another person.

I have noticed something, else, and I'm not the only one who has. It seems to me that the people who are so willing to force their will on a pregnant woman under the auspices of saving a "child" are the same ones who were willing to kill an untold number of children on the off chance that Saddam Hussein would be killed at the same time.

Remember back before the war actually started, when George Bush sent a cruise missile to deal death on a house in Bagdad? That was a decision to kill everyone in that house regardless of who they were. How on earth can you justify that decision? Between 20 and 30 of the nearly fifty people killed were women and children. Saddam wasn't there. I call that an act of murder! I call that a war crime. President Bush authorized more than one attack of this sort. More than a few children died.

That is a small number of children when you compare it to the thousands of civilians we have killed during this war. I guess they are free now, huh? That's why we killed them isn't it? To bring them Freedom? Jim Jones had something along the same idea when he freed all his followers with cyanide Kool-ade. Makes just about the same amount of sense to me.

This war was entered with far less thought than the average woman gives to an abortion. That is apparent due the amazing incompetence of it all. The Bush people seem to stagger from blunder to blunder as they make us safer from Terror. (Does anybody still believe this lie?)

At the end of the day, there is only one tenable postition: Every woman must make this very difficult decision for herself. Not the Pope, Not the President, Not the Supreme Court, Not me and not you! And guess what? That is the opinion of the majority of all Americans! I think the Majority should get their way in the next Presidential election.

Yesterday in Washington, DC about a million women asked us to leave them alone. Works for me!

I heard this song on the radio on the way to work Wednesday morning. I was merrily singing along having a fine time until I got to the last two verses. Danged if I didn't get all misty eyed!

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff, oh
Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.
Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Together they would travel on boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail
Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name, oh

CHORUS

A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giants's rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave
So, Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave, oh

CHORUS

By Peter Yarrow and Leonard Tipton On Peter, Paul & Mary's
MOVING, IN CONCERT, and 10 YEARS.
Copyright 1963 Pepamar Music.

I grabbed the beater guitar I keep at my office and worked through the song a couple of times and I still got misty before Puff could slip into his cave. I don't know why. Perhaps it is because my own dragons have lost their painted wings. Perhaps it is because my children are now young men and I don't get to play with them in the dirt with stuffed animals. It is soccer balls, mountain bikes, and kayaks, instead, and though that works too, it is not the same.

It's not a song about pot, by the way. (I can hear some of you snickering) Here's what the guys that wrote it had to say about that urban legend:

http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/puff.htm

I get fairly irritated when I hear someone talk about environmental extremists. Earth day is tomorrow and I happened to hear the term used by a local conservative radio jock. I was at a gathering in Atlanta on the very first Earth Day. We listened to speeches and music and swore we wouldn't let the world continue to die like it looked like our parents had. We have done some good., but not enough.

Water quality is better today, although it has gone well south in areas downstream of CAFO's. Those are factory farms that dump huge quantities of animal waste into our streams. People get sick and die downstream of them, but hey, that's "BIDNESS". Remember Pfisteria? The evil organism that showed up in North Carolina coastal waters that was infecting people as well as fish? Some of those infected will never recover. The water is still unhealthy years later even though the CAFO's are now so heavily regulated that they have run to Alabama, taking the problems with them. They are jumping from state to state trying to stay ahead of the locals who don't know any better and welcome them in to their counties as "Economic Development".

Here in Tennessee we have managed to let corporations steal the very air we breathe. It is unhealthy to go up into the Smoky Mountains and breathe. Now let me ask you who is the extremist, the environmental activist or the corporate CEO that chooses to let his business poison the air we all must share rather than commit to paying the price to keep it clean? We make the metaphorical pact with the devil to take pieces of our health away in the name of economic development without taking the time to face reality. There are only so many pieces that can be taken before we die. Worse than that, we let our leader make choices that will destroy some one else's health. The coal fired generating plant in Kingston makes lots of electric power and the emmisions go up a 1000 foot smoke stack and float away to somewhere else. Where? The first stop is the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Great courage is required by a leader to face his constituency and tell them he will make a choice to keep them healthy instead of allowing a few people to get richer. Courage is not something we see in politicians. Yeah, lots of them are my friends and they know I think they are pussies! That is a kind word for coward. That's just the honest ones. An oxymoron? Honest politician? I actually think there are honest elected officials. I know a few. We have to help them be strong and can help them make that choice. It takes work and eternal vigilance. There is always someone who can rationalize your health against his bank account. I have lost too many battles because I was not willing to keep the fight going all the time.

Dennis Hayes organized the first Earth Day in 1970. He has kept the fight going for a long time. I urge you to read what he has to say. It is your children he is trying to protect.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001909054_earthday22.html

The Magic Dragon has lost his cave. That's where we put the Nukular waste now.

Peace,

Steve

PS: I still have my ponytail. My hair cut was put off until next Tuesday. Pictures then.

You folks got relief from my blog this morning. I was traveling to my job actually. This evening I am relaxing at our old cabin in South Carolina. Way back in 1976 I moved to this area for one thing, mainly. Quiet. Yeah, quiet as in the absence of noise. No interstates or trains or gun shots in the night. Well there are actually no interstates but I can hear a few cars now and again out on the paved road. Trains? Nope.

There was going to be a railroad in these mountains but the going is tough up here. They never finished the tunnels for what would have been the Black Diamond railroad. For a while they made cheese in Stumphouse tunnel but never did a train rumble through it. I use to tell my younger brother and sister scary stories at the end of it in the dark. When I say dark, I mean dark like you have never seen. Well of course you haven't seen it(even the folks who have seen it, and some of you have, haven't "seen it"), but I want you to understand dark as in a quarter of a mile back into a mountain in a tunnel dug into solid rock by Irish immigrants with star drills and green oak stobs, dark. First they would pound a drill hole into the granite with a star drill. That wasn't actually a drill but is a steel rod with a star shaped end that you hit with a two pound hammer. Each time you hit it, the end of the drill chips a little bit of rock loose, you turn the drill slightly and hit it again. After hitting it enough times there is a hole in the rock. I have used a star drill. Tain't work I liked. In Stumphouse tunnel they knocked holes in granite and then drove oak stobs into them. The stobs were dried in kilns and had shrunk up as much as the wood could. after driving it into the rock a worker would pour water on the end of the stob. eventually the water would soak into the wood and cause it to expand. The pressure from the expanding wood put pressure on the rock internally and with the help of the workers pounding hammers on a line connecting several holes the rock would eventually crack off. it would be hauled away and the next hole would be started with the star drills and hammered. Apparently Irishmen were cheaper than black powder.

Anyway it is relatively quiet here. Except for the planes. They fly high on the way to Atlanta and tend to quit after midnight so I can deal with it. Gunshots were a problem when I went to Georgia Tech in Atlanta in 1968. Back then, nobody much, maybe a few, got shot but that isn't true nowadays. We in America got all upset when 19 Arabs killed a little less than 3000 People on 9-11 but we can move right along with our lives as over ten times that number get shot each year in our country. As for where I am now, the shots in the night come from coon hunters. I have tried to reason with coon hunters late at night or early in the morning, as in one or two am, but it doesn't work. They don't seem to understand why they can't shoot a racoon out of a tree in your yard at 2 in the morning. They're hunters, the dogs ran the coon up a tree and they have to shoot it. Sorry about it being in your yard but that's where the coon went. Not their fault! Coons got to be shot! Dogs are barking, hundred thousand candle power flashlights are waving up in the trees and two little beady eyes are reflecting back at us all. The coon hunters have dogs and guns and seem to be just a bit drunk. I am in a disturbed sleep quiet rage. After a bit they fear me. I am not a rational human being. They have treed a coon and I will not let them fire their weapons because there will be noise. They can't comprehend that is the noise that I will not tolerate. It's just a shotgun...They are just going to shoot the coon and leave after it hits the ground. If they can do it with out making noise,I say, fine... I must be crazy. Finally I say, 'Guys, you're on my land. You didn't ask me. Go away and some other time we'll talk about coon hunting." This seems to give them a way out of having to deal with me and we all smile, see ya, and they go away. I will never let them shoot racoons out of my trees in the middle of the night, ever, even though I hate the damned things. it makes too much noise. I hate the coon that is clinging to the tree maybe forty feet above me but he will live through this night. In my heart of hearts, I hope he dies tomorrow night, as long as he makes no noise in the process.

It is very quiet now. Coon hunters fear the insane. it is still winter here and the frogs are quiet, too. They fear nothing... it is too cold for them. Not me, I like it now. For a moment, I can hear the stars twinkle.

Peace!

Steve


Check what's happening in the tanks:


http://www.conservationfisheries.org/Newsletters/newsletter_22_april_2004.htm

With all the garbage that is going on in our country, I have to take a breath and write of things beautiful. This morning is the kind that you paint in your mind. The storm came through last night and was mild as spring storms go, with an inch of rain spread over the entire night and no thunderstorms strong enough to freak out the dog or wake me up. The sky is post rain clear with low flying clouds crawling up and down the gorge. Yep they do go both ways here, which probably violates some kind of law on the other side of the creek...that is Rhea County, TN over there. The boys can hit Rhea County with their potato gun when I let them make noise. The Rhea County Commisioners made a lot of noise themselves, recently, when they passed a law saying gay people can't live in their county. After making the National news they met again and rescinded the law the next night, saying they were confused. I'll buy that explanation.

In addition to County Commisioners, we have an odd kind of disturbed person in East Tennessee, one that stands out amongst a whole bevy of disturbed persons. Arsonists! They strike mainly in two seasons of the year, early Spring just before leaf out and Fall, just as the leaves begin to cover the ground. We typicaly have dry spells then that suits their puposes. Just yesterday, Firefighters were dealing with 20 fires in our area. Three were folks burning brush that got out of control, two were campfires, and the other 15 were arson. Some body likes to set the woods on fire. It happens just before turkey season...I don't get the connection but I am told there is one. We hold our breath until the leaves fill out the trees or we get a Spring rain. This morning we breathe free and easy. I tried to photograph it for you but my talents fell short of adequacy. You will have to paint your own morning in your own mind. Take a mountainside with most of the trees still bare except for the White Pines, Virginia pines, and Hemlocks scattered in clumps over the hillside. Then you add the Tulip Poplars, which aren't really poplars but they do have a pastel yellow green leafing in early stages, and top that off with soft maples with their red blooms mimicking a delicate fall color. A couple of wild apples are in bloom taking up the slack left by the Sarvice Berries that were the first to show their pink touched white flowers. They are natives in the apple family and are my favorites of the Spring. Our warm weather is bracketed by the Sarvice berry in the Spring and the Witch Hazel in the Fall. Somehow I believe that the Spring color is superior to Fall. One is merely spectacular while the other is spiritual

As I sat here yesterday morning the power went off and I heard thunder to the south. I went out on the deck thinking that this would be a rare morning storm this early in the season. Turns out that a fighter jet had crashed a few miles from here, in Rhea County. The pilot was ok but commited stupidity and flew into a power line. I would have preferred a thunderstorm.

Peace,

Steve

I know the second verse of Dixie. By cosmic chance in the space time continuum, I was born in Dublin, Georgia. I will always have sand between my toes and cornbread in my memories. I have picked cotton on my Grampa's farm. Didn't like it much. They have machines to do that now and Grampa's farm got bought for nothing from my Gramma after he died way too young from lung cancer. He was 56 and a heavy smoker. Gramma wasn't. She died in her nineties but her lights dimmed ten years earlier from Alzheimer's. A big timber company wound up with the farm. It got clearcut and grows pine trees now.

When I was nine or ten, Grampa was driving my brother and I around the "back" of the farm... He called the part of his farm that he hunted on, the "Back" because it was swampy and lay along the Oconee River in Laurens County. It was back behind the part where he grew corn and beans and cotton. His farm was about 500 acres and in those days farmers left as much of their land as they could alone. This way they could hunt things. On the farm part of the farm, he also had cows, but what I remember most that he grew was watermelon. That day he was driving two of his grandkids around and showing off his farm to us, you know, the "back" part.

I think this made for a fine day for Grampa. At that point in his life he was not yet fifty and had six surviving children who in turn had yielded him nine grandchildren. Grampa was doing allright in the "eat, survive, reproduce" sense.

Thinking back to Grampa's big belly, I think he was especially good at the eating part, even though he only had about a third of his teeth left by then. Breakfast at Grampa's house usually involved extremely well ripened cantaloupe and streak o' lean. I have tried to over come many prejudices in my life, but the most unyielding one is my hatred of cantaloupe. It is a personal failing I have decided to live with. I cannot get over the smell which sends me hurtling back to my Grandparents dining table where I would sit eye level to my plate, and stare at the beautifully presented slice of musk melon ripened to near stinking mush. The assault on my childhood heightened olfactory sense was intensified by the adult's command, "You have to eat your vegetable before you can have anything else." I never, ever, ate one of the damned things! Grampa never gave in and neither did I. He would eventually get tired of trying to convince me that I wouldn't grow very tall if I didn't eat my cantaloupe and go on about his day. I think if he had been taller that 5'5" it would have helped his case. Gramma would give me an egg after he left.

So there was Grampa driving us down the sand road on the back of the farm and, as we round a curve, an animal is standing in the road. My brother saw it first but we all got a good look at it. I remember thinking at first that it must be somebody's hound dog, but it didn't look quite right. It had a huge tail from a dog perspective. In the late morning sun it looked dark colored. Grampa immediately stopped the car, got out, and took his shotgun out of the trunk. The animal loped down the road for a hundred yards or so and cut left into the woods. It didn't seem like it was in too much of a hurry. The beast just didn't like being in the same place we were and decided to leave. Setting the shotgun at the ready beside him, Grampa started the car down the road to where the animal had turned into the woods. I think Grampa did a lot of driving around with the shotgun alongside his right leg because he seemed real comfortable with it. "Stay in the car," Grampa told us as he took the gun and got out. We sat there about two seconds before we jumped out and ran right up behind him. He smiled at us even though we had disobeyed a direct order. I remember wondering why, since he was a fairly stern man, but I understand now, as I look for evidence of independence and bravery in my own two kids.

"Boy's, that's a Panther," he said. "Don't see 'em much but they're here." He said it softly and as a matter of fact. It was no big deal to him. Just a perceived threat to his farm animals that he was going to shoot if he got the chance. I don't think they are "here" anymore. There are maybe fifty or less somewhere in south Florida. Back in 1958 there was at least one in Georgia and I saw it. I'm glad. I treasure that memory. I will not be able to share it with my own children, I don't think. We stared at the tracks. The car had covered some of them up but we could see where it had kicked up the sand when it turned and jumped into the woods. As hard as we looked into the woods, we saw nothing. From what I know now of Puma behavior, it was more than likely standing somewhere a little ways off watching us. Even big predators are nearly invisible in their element. Humans stand out like a stinking cantaloupe in a flower bouquet.

I thought about the panther because someone who hunts near us told me that his brother had seen one. It is always someone's brother or neighbor or cousin that is claimed to have seen a cougar. I'm skeptical but I am also hopeful. I would love to think that an endangered species could make a comeback like that.

It is an odd thing to me that anyone could be opposed to the Endangered Species Act, since it is supposed to keep species from disappearing from the Earth for all time. I think it is generally misunderstood. The Eastern Cougar should be thought of as our canary in the mine just as should every other species inhabiting the planet. Certain species are early indicators of the Earth's ability to support life. When the canary keeled over, the miners knew something had to be done. The mine owners did not necessarily agree and lots of miners have died over the years. Are you making any connections here?

Predators, for the most part, are not getting picked off by farmers with shotguns. They are getting killed by pollution and having no place to live. First it is the big predators, then the little ones. Then it will be us.

Even though we make a big public display about the sanctity of human life, killing people is actually no big deal in our society. We aren't very consistent about it though. A straight forward honest murderer who gets mad and shoots someone will probably go to jail. Certain states will kill him back, or at least will kill someone for the crime whether they actually did it or not. It is OK for Corporations, though, to kill a certain number of people if these corporations can make a profit on the deal. Humans aren't much of a predator except to themselves, it seems. Want to know how much a human life means much to the accounting department of a large corporation? It is the amount of money in the cost benefit ratio. Your life is worth somewhere between $3.2 million and $6.2 million dollars in cost benefit money to the Environmental Protection Agency. It used to be the higher figure but the Bush Administration has proposed the lower figure. Your life has lost $3 million dollars in value over the last few years.

This concept of cost benefit analysis for human lives was one of the main planks in Newt Gingrich's Contract with America. This contract was based on the basic conservative theory that voters are morons. Every time I watch a Speech by President Bush and he says he attacked Iraq to fight terrorism, I have to think that this particular piece of Conservative theory may be correct. Bush is the cattleman wanting his cows to be happy as they plod up the ramp to the abattoir.

If our society can justify taking a human life for a certain amount of profit, I have to be fairly pessimistic about having my kids by my side and seeing a Cougar.

Peace,

Steve

Most of you got Brian's comment on Social Security. One thing he said stood out to me:

"I feel that we should definitely defend SS, but I must say that I do begrudge paying it since the reports on its solvency make me think that I will never see any return on the investment." Brian

Actually this makes me think about the failure of our media in that the idea that Social Security is insolvent falls right in line with Iraq having nukular weapons and being an imminent threat to the US. Social Security is doing fine. Even though Bush robs it blind every day to cover his war and tax refunds for very wealthy people, taken by itself, there will need to be only minor adjustments for things to run smoothly for the next nearly fifty years! Saint Paul Krugman makes this exceedingly clear as he rips Alan Greenspan for lying about it.
I don't think folks realize what is actually being proposed....Bush is not proposing to give you back your SS payments! He is proposing to confiscate them! To use them to reduce the deficit he created by giving tax cuts to rich folks.... Duh!!!

Nice guys, Those Bushies! How many of you remember Rod Serling?.......

Imagine, if you will, a large and powerful man stand before you holding weapons that can reduce your entire body to mush in seconds. He points into a metal box indicating that you should enter. Your hands and feet are bound together so that it is difficult for you to comply with his demands...but you do so as best you can. How did this happen to you?

Welcome to the Twilight Zone!

While on a legal visit to a foreign country, You are taken prisoner and told that you have been identified as having met with the worst terrorist on the planet and will be taken to a remote foreign country to be tortured and interrogated. When You plead your innocence and ask for your consulate, you are forced into a shipping container with 300 other prisoners. It is closed up and there are no air holes to allow the men inside to breathe. Someone takes pity on the suffocating men and shoots holes onto the container, ostensibly so they can breathe, but several are killed by the bullets as a result. Of the 300 men inside the metal box, only 20 survive. You are one of the "lucky" ones who lived.

You are held in a tiny cell in solitary confinement for three months. You are never allowed to contact anyone who can prove you are innocent. No one from your country is told you are there. You are held in shackles that will not allow you to stand up straight and "interrogated" over 200 times with such brutality that you eventually confess to being somewhere you know that you weren't. You are so mentally and physically broken that when someone finally comes and removes your chains and tell you to walk out of your cell, you are too frightened to move and have to be dragged out!

Why are you being released? The spy agencies of your own country have discovered that one of their citizens is being held prisoner in violation of the Geneva Conventions and all international law and after investigation they confront your captors with irrefutable evidence that you were not even in the country at the time they claim you committed the heinous act of "Having a conversation with a terrorist." You are innocent of everything! You have been imprisoned, beaten, tortured, brutally chained, and psychologically abused to the point that, after you return to your own country, you cannot sleep in your own bed at your own house even after you have been found to be completely innocent. The last and possibly greatest indignity to be perpetrated upon you is that your captors demand that you sign a document absolving them of wrong doing and agreeing to say nothing about your experience. You refuse, even though it may mean that you will go back to your cell.

It was only after intense pressure is brought by the diplomatic agencies of your home country, that you were released. They were going to hold you even though you had been proven to be innocent but eventually became afraid of the international scandal that was bound to occur.

Thank you for visiting American soil! We hope you enjoyed your stay at Guantanamo. Have a safe trip back to England.

This is the picture that is emerging and will add to the world view of America.

This next story is not going to die. It continues to present the picture of a man who has no business leading America:

‘‘We've released the president's complete military records, with the exception of his medical records, and they speak for themselves.”

Well no, they haven't. Even considering Bush's records were cleansed by folks who worked for Bush when he was Governor of Texas, there is information they are refusing to admit to. Check this! They are stonewalling:

The bureau's chief historian said he couldn't discuss questions about Bush's military service on orders from the Pentagon.


‘‘If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can't talk with you,” said Charles Gross, chief historian for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.


Rose Bird, Freedom of Information Act officer for the bureau, said her office stopped taking records requests on Bush's military service in mid-February and is directing all inquiries to the Pentagon. She would not provide a reason.


Air Force and Texas Air National Guard officials did not respond to written questions about the issue.


James Hogan, a records coordinator at the Pentagon, said senior Defense Department officials had directed the National Guard Bureau not to respond to questions about Bush's military records.

Records show Bush had a ‘‘secret” security clearance for Cold War fighter-interceptor missions and was certified ‘‘combat-ready” to engage Soviet bombers.


In April 1972, at the same time the military began drug and alcohol testing for the first time, Bush stopped flying the F-102, and according to White House documents, did not take a required physical in May. He was formally suspended in September 1972 for failing to take the test. What followed was a period in which Bush sporadically attended Guard drills, according to White House documents, and spent the summer in Alabama.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking-news-story.asp?submitDate=200431401040

It's all fun! At least it is fun when it isn't tragic....And this is the guy who is so mistreating our military that they are refusing to reenlist. Bush is in the process of destroying the Volunteer Army and will have to reinstate the draft. Is that what you folks want?

Anybody see Rumsfeld get nailed on Face the Nation yesterday? They nailed him on his lie about the "Imminent threat" He says they never said that and they nailed him with several direct quotes. Good to see the media growing testicles!



Peace!

Steve

When Camels Roamed Virginia


Hey let's move on to some other interesting things. So before we wiped out the large Native American populations with germ warfare, they had a pretty good trade system going. We find Obsidian spear points and Mexican opals in North Georgia and other trade items widely distributed from their geological origins. Archeologists thought that a large grouping of jasper or flint found in Virginia was from such trade. Turns out is was a flint mine dating back quite a ways. Rarely do we get a snapshot of an ancient period preserved in such isolation and clarity.

Because it was used for a relatively short period of time and charcoal from campfires used by the ancient miners, scientists were able to pinpoint its age with some accuracy. Some of the charcoal was from spruce trees, indicating it dated back to the late Ice Age.

Samples were sent to a lab in Florida and it was established that the mine was in use 11,000 to 11,500 years ago by Paleo Indians, DeJarnete said.
“This was a very different world, one when Mammoths, Mastadons, camels and bison were here in Virginia,” noted Dr. Albert Goodyear.

www.madison-news.com/2004/March/11/mine.shtml


I realize that the article will contradict some creationist timing but I say look at the information and let the facts fall where they may. I was looking up a carnivorous plant I found and ran accross this very clear staement by the Botanical Society of America on Evolution. I had never thought of the KJB biblical account of the Ark in terms of population distributions before. See what you think:

http://www.botany.org/newsite/announcements/evolution.php


So here's the flesh eating plant I was looking up. These little flora are widely distributed in most of the states in the US but not everywhere in those states. I remember them first from the dried up boggy areas of open sandy pastures in Georgia. I have found a very few in upstate South Carolina. They are usually about the size of a quarter. Be very carefull when you are out looking for them lest they grab your leg and eat you alive!


http://www.botany.org/newsite/publications/carnivorousPlants/drosera.pdf

The photography and diversity of carnivorous plants is amazing to me. Try this for more stunning pix.

http://botany.org/newsite/publications/carnivorousPlants/carnivorousPlants.php

Here's the funniest thing I found to share with you today. You have to go there to get the joke!
http://www.republicansforkerry.org/

Ethan told me this one at the coffee shop yesterday:
Did you hear what Stevie Wonder said after receiving a new cheese grater for a present?

"My gosh, this is the most violent novel I've ever read!"

Remember to tolerate everything except intolerance!

Peace,

Steve

What a beautiful morning! The Goldfinches are just starting to change color from their winter camo to summer garish. We have two immature eagles chasing each other around. Oddly enough, the female seems to be the aggressor. (I knew it!) The book says it is time to start the spring plantings but we're still working on firewood for next winter. We are still cutting up storm downed hardwoods and I guess there is no way to use it all. Some of the trees are just too far back to get, but we'll stay warm enough as it is. Our house is not exactly solar all the way but it is designed to accept passive solar heating. On sunny days we have to remember not to throw more wood on the fire after about 9 am. The house will overheat if we do. I have to laugh at myself sometimes when I think about looking up and admiring my solar house from the warmth of my electric hot tub. I am not pure!
The SUV piece from the Union of Concerned Scientists drew a large response. Now I'll confess. We own five vehicles not counting the tractor. We live in a very rural setting. Well to be more honest we live a mile or so back in the woods. there is a rural setting back up the gravel road a bit. We have a 4 wheel drive pick up that does yard duty, a minivan that stays parked except for soccer transport and vacations, and three cars that do daily service. I wish there were some way around all these vehicles but there isn't at this point in America. We have chosen to go small as we can, use higher mileage cars and feel guilty. My personal car seems to average around 33 mpg and is still fun to drive. The thing is, I guess I can afford to drive whatever I want to but I don't. I have friends that I know are stretching it financially to drive Excursions and other beasts like that. Why do we do things like that? Here's the other kicker: The big ones are less safe, not only being more dangerous to everyone else on the road but to the people inside! Why would you knowingly choose to put your kids inside a more dangerous vehicle? I realize that the concept of global warming and environmental destruction is an abstract for most people but your children's safety should not be. Here's some feed back:
Steve-
I still think John Anderson (I think that's the right name.) had it right. A big part of his platform was to increase gas tax by 50 cent per gallon. Regardless of what W says, we cannot sustain current consumption levels, the current "American way". Either regulation or economics, in the form of taxes, need to come into play here. The true cost of gas is way higher than the current price at the pump.
Joe

Pat sends this one. It's a Kerry speech about the Republican atack on science. Nothing surprising here. Bush does the same thing to anything or anyone he doesn't like. Don't find WMD's? Get rid of Scott Ritter and David Kay. Don't like someone saying there are no "NUK-U-Ler" weapons in Iraq? Ruin his wife's CIA career. Don't like the General saying the Iraqi peace is gonna get a lot of American kids killed? Fire the General. Don't like the science? Rip up the text book and fire the scientists. Replace them with fundamentalists:
Written before the Union of Concerned Scientists report!

Click here: :: John Kerry for President - Remarks by Senator John Kerry Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center ::

And this one, which documents the distortion of science at the hands of George Bush:

1. There is a well-established pattern of suppression
and distortion of scientifi c fi ndings by
high-ranking Bush administration political
appointees across numerous federal agencies.

These actions have consequences for human
health, public safety, and community well-being.
Incidents involve air pollutants, heat-trapping
emissions, reproductive health, drug resistant
bacteria, endangered species, forest health, and
military intelligence.

2. There is strong documentation of a wideranging
effort to manipulate the government’s
scientific advisory system to prevent the appearance
of advice that might run counter to the
administration’s political agenda.

http://www.ucsusa.org/documents/RSI_final_exsum.pdf

Remember...Global warming doesn't exist, isn't happening, nope of course not...well maybe it is but it will be good for you. The Pentagon doesn't think so, neither does nearly every scientist on the planet, except for those working for the big oil companies and the Christian Coalition...and you know what? The ones working for big oil are getting scared too!

It is time for a top down change. Scientific research can not be compromised. We have to know the truth in order to be prepared to deal with what is coming for our children.

Brad sends this one:

This is a poll being conducted by American Family .So far, of the 17,000 people who have participated, 90 % favor John Kerry over GWB or Ralphy .
People who subscribe to American Family are typically pretty conservative . Interesting huh ? I am not certain if I should be surprised or not .

I'm not sure what this means, being a seriously non-scientific poll but I'll take good news where I find it!


Now! Just in case there are any of you who can sleep at night, try this one. I am no fan of Howard Stearn, by the way, and I cringe at what I hear in songs on broadcast radio. Howard Stearn isn't the point, however. Read down if you can and you'll find a good scary overview of the folks who want to take over your children's minds.

According to Newsweek, "As he prepared to run, in 1999, Bush assembled leading pastors at the governor's mansion for a "laying-on of hands," and told them he'd been "called" to seek higher office." And as Bob Woodward wrote in Bush at War: "The President was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God's Master Plan," wherein Bush promised, in the President's own words, "to export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil."

Now why doesn't everybody love America? Just because our President has promised Christians he will "export death and violence?" Christians want this? This is the Christian thing to do? Read on:

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/03/far04007.html

OK, lighten up, eh? At least we're getting some good jokes out of all this.

Courage folks,

Steve

Ellen sent the following quote that I would like to share:

I've been reading The Things They Carried - a novel - from Tim O'Brien
about the Vietnam War. He was opposed to the war, but served 69-70, was
at My Lai. This struck me - thought I would share . . .

"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage
virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men
from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do
not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if
you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the
larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and
terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue.
As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by
its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil."

Do you think we're stuck in Iraq until their government is up and
running? Despite recent revelations about WMD and such, I hear no one
suggesting we withdraw.

Ellen


Well, Ellen,

The assessment that I buy into is that the same one that George Bush Sr. held to. It is better to have a greedy, despicable, controllable, dictator in place in Iraq than a rabid fundamentalist Islamic State with legions that hate you and are willing to die to go to heaven and get their 40 or 70 or however many virgins. That option has been taken away by the ill conceived actions of the very short sighted and self deluded people who have momentarily gained control of the resources of the most powerful nation on earth.

Our options stand as follows:

1. Remain in place until the increasing talley of military deaths forces us to withdraw unilaterally and accept the civil war that will eventually occur.

2. Leave now and accept the civil war that will inevitably occur.

3. Bend over for and beg forgiveness of the UN, convince them to come in and oversee the establishment of a civil government that will last until the civil war that will eventually occur.

4. Accept a fundamentalist Islamic government now.

I hope I am wrong. Does anyone else have a crystal ball they want to look into?

Steve

As it nearly always does, our winter funk has gone crystalline in the morning predawn sky. The mental cold of deep fog has vanished into the now brisk and enervating elegance of the dark sky between the stars. It is a wonder to me that I am happier in 20 degree lower temperatures, but I have decided that it's because I have things to look at, now. The gray sky closes in on you sometimes. It takes longer hikes and more vigorous explorations to keep the mind awake, in those times.

This morning I saw Jupiter hanging in the West above the sandstone cliffs across from our house. It is a rare moment when the eastern sky brightens enough to hide the lesser deities overhead while presenting the "star father" in glory. It is like those old medieval scenes in which no mans head can be higher than the king's. We got one bright and shiny object in the sky and it's a whopper.

I first started seriously looking up after I bought a spotting scope to watch eagles. One evening I turned it up to Orion and got infected with looking up. How can a gas cloud be so beautiful,, and costly? This moment of awe led to all kinds of expenditures on optics and there is a wonderful telescope downstairs that is just too big to haul outside on most occasions. I now have binoculars that serve me well on short notice. My favorite pair is ten power, light weight, and pocket sized. They go with me on most trips. This morning several of us looked through them at the little diamond specks that are the Gallilean moons of Jupiter.

Saturn is by far the most beautiful object in near space. The photographs from Hubble blow me away, but nothing will prepare you for the experience of personally seeing Saturn through an adequate telescope. It is an unworldly experience in the most precise sense of the phrase, and yet it doesn't reach the level of one's first view of Jupiter, which looks like a solar system all its own. Jupiter is obviously alien and obviously "just like us", at the same time. Its moons are little planets when seen through a couple of hundred bucks worth of modern optics.

Gallileo first described the four largest moons of Jupiter. He proposed very imaginative names for these four moons. The names were "One", "Two", Three", and "Four". This actually would have worked very well since we are still, to this day, discovering new moons of Jupiter. The last count I have is 61 of the things. I am sure there are more to be found. Every rock that floats by our solar system falls under the influence of Jovian gravity. A few years back we all got to watch Jupiter eat a comet and not so much as burp, in the planetary sense. Another name for Jupiter is Jove from whence we get joviality. Jupiter is the "Bringer of Jollity" and eats comets. This morning I ate eggs and checked the Jovian moons as they circled. You can watch them orbit Jupiter because, it is so big, the moons have to be really fast to keep from being eaten themselves.

A couple of thousand years ago, some folks told other folks that Jupiter was a God. They said God Jupiter had quite the libido and liked to "mess around". This led to another suggestion for the names of the Gallilean moons. Here is an excerpt from Johannes Kepler:

Jupiter is much blamed by the poets on account of his irregular loves. Three maidens are especially mentioned as having been clandestinely courted by Jupiter with success. Io, daughter of the River, Inachus, Callisto of Lycaon, Europa of Agenor. Then there was Ganymede, the handsome son of King Tros, whom Jupiter, having taken the form of an eagle, transported to heaven on his back, as poets fabulously tell . . . . I think, therefore, that I shall not have done amiss if the First is called by me Io, the Second Europa, the Third, on account of its majesty of light, Ganymede, the Fourth Callisto . . . .

Is there a better phrase for this day than "Irregular Loves"? That is much better than one, two, three, and four!

Peace,

Steve

It is a wicked day here. It is drizzling and the temperature is just above freezing. I skipped my predawn hot tub experience because the wind is just too cold and blustery and, frankly, I'm a wussie! They would never have let me get away with that kind of cowardice when I was in Japan. I miss that culture, at times. They always seemed to work at finding a way to smile and not be unhappy. That may have been the act put on for a guest in their country, but it had the essence of reality and worked well for the gaijin me. Gaijin is the Anglo version of something my computer keyboard won't type. It sort of means "other". In Japan you are either us or other and I was other. This other was very happy when slipping into volcanically warmed water... Geothermal energy at its finest and highest use.

The light in the sky is diverse and changing, with the clouds arguing as to which way they want to go this morning. If you can stay warm and dry it is beautiful. There is an energy exuded by the birds as they hunt for food at dawn. Interestingly, they are making a lot of noise this morning. What are they telling each other in the January dawn?

We have a shrub-like native plant that grows around our house. My neighbor, Rose, calls it Mountain Blueberry. I like it because it has a cultivated looking waxy leaf that hangs on well into the fall with a red wine color. It also has something like a blueberry on it. If the late summer weather suits it, the plant yields lots of berries that I think taste pretty good for a few minutes each year, before they dry up and hang around until about now. At this point the birds decide that they are hungry enough to work on the Dogwood berries and then the Mountain Blueberries. One of the birds that is attracted by all this is the Blue bird. This time of year their color is muted, somewhat, but the sight of forty something of them in the crown of a dogwood tree swarming like bees on clover blossoms is stunning. When they attack the mountain blueberries it can be comical. The berries tip the ends of tiny twigs that simply won't hold up a bird. First one bird lights on a branch and then another and they start working on pulling the berries off, and then, all of a sudden there are too many birds and the shrubbery gives way all at once, sending a flurry of pastel blueness onto nearby perches. Then it starts all over again, much to my great entertainment. In a few days the Mountain Blueberry bushes will look very barren. The birds will move on to other business and the bushes will settle in to a late winter funk.

I get a bit down in the heart sometimes when I think about the country and the planet it looks like I'll leave to my children. Sometimes I just think the human race is just plain suicidal, then I watch a George Bush sound bite and frankly I go from "think" to "know". When this happens, I go outside. I wanted to get a run in, but I had forgotten my ear bands and it was really cold. The wind was blowing off the lake in Kingston but I thought I could tough it out so off I went in my plodding way.

When people see me jogging they understand why my Indian name is not "Born to run", but is actually, "Runs like Camel". Still, like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, it feels so good when you stop, so I do it. I usually prefer to suffer in private but events took me to town so I was running on the track the city fathers and mothers have installed around the lake in one of our downtown areas.

We have lots of downtowns in Roane County, Tennessee, and each one has a Mayor and City Council and Police Department. I think this is a kind of local jobs program since lots of the mayors and policemen have the same last name, but this is Tennessee, after all, and we really don't have an over abundance of last names to begin with. The towns are all small and this gives folks a focus for their arguments with each other. Every time one person tries to do something for the community, there will be two people who show up to stop them. This causes arguments. Usually the basis for argument has something to do with something someone did to someone else in grade school, but it will eventually manifest itself in a traffic light being installed on someone else's street to slow them down on their way to work. I think we have more traffic lights per capita than any other place on earth. We put traffic lights up for parking lots. We use lots of electrical wires going in all directions for these lights. At some point the electrical wires will blockout the sky. Speaking of jobs programs and arguments, just try saying something about our public electrical utilities around here. It doesn't matter if you say something good or bad, an argument will result.

Highway 70 is a very famous road that goes through several of our towns. A movie was made about it. The movie theme song is called "Thunder Road" and is one of the first ones I learned to play on guitar. The movie is about fast cars hauling moonshine back when Tennessee was supposed to be "dry" and before marijuana made whiskey stills obsolete. Our Thunder Road actually travels across most of the entire United States so people can come to one of our towns and sit in the middle of a road that goes a couple of thousand miles across America only to stop at a traffic light for a street that goes two blocks in the other direction. Highway 70 lies alongside my running track, lurching from traffic light to traffic light as I am running. Jim Mitchum must be turning over in his grave about now.

Sometimes our little town arguments get results that make this a great place to live and I am loping along on one of them. It has an absolutely magnificent view. So I'm "thundering" along thinking about stuff and coming to grips with the fact that I can't feel my ear on the windward side. The wind is whipping right off the lake and right into my left ear. I am used to pain when I exercise because things don't work as well as they used to because I have fallen down a lot over the years. This kind of pain is nature's way of reminding you that you have been really stupid at times in the past. If you have enough times past, you will have been really stupid a lot of times, and you'll hurt like I do. It ain't that bad though and I had put my hand over my ear thinking it would warm it up. Warm up it did and suddenly all the nerves in my ear started working again and let me know that once again I had been stupid. Dang it hurt!

At that point I was holding my ear with my hand, still trying to run, and the people driving by were seeing this and wondering what kind of cell phone I was trying to use and why didn't I just stop and talk to whoever it was instead of looking like a complete idiot in front of every one on Thunder Road? I tilted my head back in pain. As I looked up into the sky, a Bald Eagle soared twenty feet above my head. I stopped and stared up at it and the people around who had been looking at me in pity looked up too. Some folks pulled over and watched as the Eagle circled and rose higher. An older couple that had been walking along stopped and pointed at the bird. We all watched it circle higher and then glide away right over the top of our small town. Everybody smiled and went on about their way. My heart was lifted up by that bird. The Bald eagle is a symbol of recovery in America. We did things that almost killed them all and now they are back because we did some other things, liked cleaned up some of our poisons.

Things can get better, you see. We have to make them get better because we have children. What will be the focus that pull us together and make us change? I think the people in power right now want us to be against things, like terrorists and evildoers. I think we have to find something to be for, instead. We have to define our common goals and work hard toward them. I have tried to think about what these goals ought to be and here is something I ran across that lays it out pretty well. I couldn't have said it better myself..so I won't. This is from MoveOn.org.

"What are we for?

The themes were universal. Americans want true security based on working with allies and the rule of law – not an American empire. Americans demand corporate and individual responsibility – greed is not good and we’re all responsible to future generations. Americans want everyone to have a real opportunity to do well in our country and live the middle class dream – we will not be divided into haves and have-nots, or by race or gender or lifestyle. Americans believe that we are the beacon of freedom and democracy – the Bill of Rights is non-negotiable and democracy is not a partisan game. The themes that emerge are: Freedom, Opportunity, Responsibility and Security."

http://www.moveon.org/mission/

I want you to take a look at this. It is a graph of George Bush's disapproval ratings. It clearly shows that he can be replaced.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/graphics/bush_approval_012004.html

How long will we tolerate what Bush and his puppet masters have done to our country when we have such wonderful people to replace him with? We have nine months to get the Democrats to quit eating their own young and attack the true enemy of America.

What are you for?

Peace and courage!

Steve

Yesterday's message inspired a number of good, literate, and thoughtful responses from you folks. I want to share parts of them with you.
Steve,
"I am frustrated that I have only questions , and no answers. Well, I now believe we all know the answer . It is a matter of whether or not we have the strength, courage, and convicton to follow through and do what needs to be done. I am tired of feeling helpless, I am tired of complaining . And though I am certainly no leader of people, I am feeling a call to do something ."

And here is my reply:

Ask yourself this: What will be the outcome of events following any action I take?
I have marched and protested and it gave me personal satisfaction but I don't think it changed much. I was very afraid of getting my head busted or gassed or something. I have come around to thinking that change takes a long time. I don't have the answer as to what makes people change their minds, but I'm working on it. I think I have decided to do my part by incremental step.

Point out the truth...Every single time! Never support a significant falsehood through misplaced politeness.

Laugh at the liars.

Personally challenge people to come into the light.

Give no concession to those who support the lies, but do this kindly! Most of these people will be our friends and loved ones. They did not come up with these lies; they have caught the contagion and are acting as agents for their propogation.


Ruthlessly examine your own beliefs for falseness. (Nothing is true just because you want it to be true)
Have the courage to change your mind.
Fortify those who believe as you do.
Learn to convince people who are ready to change.
Challenge and negate those who lead in the wrong direction.

Make your own decisions, Friend. Cover your back, though. Maintain your credibility and accept that you will be attacked on the most visceral of levels. If you can't take that easily, back up and find a level of activism that supports your sensibilities. It is very difficult to change peoples minds by honest methods. The world does not function by critical thought. More people read the National Enquirer than Science News.

Think about it and be sure that what you want to do will get you the result you want. I am absolutely not suggesting you not act, just that you act with wisdom.

Now this:
"Steve,
It seems inappropriate to combine Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who was a Christian preacher and had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, with Gandhi, who rejected Christianity and Jesus Christ. Although both are great men, your email implies Dr. King is a follower of Gandhi, which is not true."

My message is very clear on the fact that Gandhi was a major influence on Martin Luther King. They faced very similar, seemingly overwhelming situations and managed to keep their doctrine of nonviolence. I admire both men tremendously. I did not combine Martin Luther King with Gandhi, Martin Luther King did that himself. I have a picture of King standing at his desk. There behind him on the wall of his office is a picture of Gandhi. If George Bush looked around MLK park in Atlanta he would have seen the statue of Gandhi that resides there. Here is something said by someone who may have personal knowlege of MLK's relationship with Gandhi:
Mrs. Coretta Scott King stated that, "It is gratifying and appropriate that this statue is installed in this historic site because my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., was deeply and profoundly influenced by the life and teachings of Gandhi. As Martin wrote in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, "As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi, my skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the arena of social reform...." Her message adds that, "It not only commemorates the life and contributions of one of history's greatest leaders, but also the eternal bond between Gandhi and his foremost American disciple, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the spirit of goodwill between the people of India and the United States."

I see nothing inappropriate here except the attempt to separate men's worthiness by their religions. Silly in another way, since there is quite a body of work touting the amazing similarities between Jesus and Vishnu. It is sad for me to see the Darwiniam increase in tensions between these two religious systems since the core moralities are so similar in the acceptance of the power of love!
So with that: Peace, Love, and courage! I'm having deja vu all over again.

Steve

Today we have a political holiday dedicated to Martin Luther King. (I hope you read Brad's account of his excercize of his constitutional right to public assembly on King's actual birthday.) King often stated that there was one main influence on the conduct of his personal life, Mohandas Gandhi. I have sorted through a few quotes from this skinny little man to share with you. I could ramble on a lot here, but it seems inconsequential compared to these thoughts so I'll shut up.



Gandhi:

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees.
An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.

Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and
done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.


Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the
other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more
effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.


It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled us
we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it is that
the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis
of society was violence.


The most perlous traits in a society:

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice



Gandhi was once asked what he thought about western civilization. His
response was: "I think it would be a good idea."



Peace and courage, as always,



Steve

I'll hold my thoughts today and pass along a message from a friend. Brad made the decision to protest Bush's visit to Martin Luther Kings Grave in Atlanta. Read on:

Hey Steve ,
I want to tell you about my experience yesterday at MLK Jr. center . This may not seem like a big deal to many, but it was a totally new experience for me .
I've never protested anything in my life, except perhaps my childish protest of going off to daycare as a young child, or other things that amount to not much
more than that, in importance . The experience yesterday has made a lasting impression upon me . I will never again sit on the sidelines and let others
fight my battles, or sit Idly aside and assume that everything will work itself out, and that Washington has our best interest in mind....

When I returned to The King Center yesterday at about 1:30 in the afternoon, there was a small crowd of people waiting in anticipation of Bushes arrival .
At this point there were more Secret Service, and APD Red Dogs, and other unknown military and or law enforcement types clad in fatiques,
accompanied by very long rifles, and big German Shepherds, than there were protesters . I was a bit uncomfortable initially .
As time went on the crowd began to increase dramatically . Much more than I had imagined . There wasn't a Bush Backer to be seen within
ten miles . To my surprise everyone there was protesting( why am I surprised by that ?) . I had heard reports the previous day that Pres. Clinton had been greeted by thousands of cheering supporters, welcoming him to the King Center and Atlanta . So, I didn't no what to expect on this day, with Bush visiting .

The media made reports of hundreds of protesters, I heard 300, 400, 500, and 800 . My estimation would be closer to 1000-1500, when you take into
account the protesters that were cordoned off around the corner, out of site of the cameras .
Some people were protesting the war, others were protesting Bush enviromental policy(or lack there of ), others were protesting the loss of 3 mill.
jobs . Most were protesting all of the above, and the very presence of Bush at the King tomb on this day .
The original plan of the APD was to move the crowd away from the area in which we had gathered directly across the Street from the tomb, on Auburn ave.
Albeit the crowd was peaceful, we were not going to let them push us out of site . And in an effort to avoid a very negative news story the APD didn't push it.
As I mentioned earlier there were protest signs, essentially everyone had one, they read- "This is not a photo op", "Bush - Zionist Puppet and War profiteer",
"Bush No More In 2004" ( my sign : ) , and another one I remember, and liked, was " You should read some of MLK's books, you have much to learn", it seemed
very appropriate . There were unified chants; "show us what democracy looks like, Bush is what hypocrasy looks like " and many others, we went back in forth
between various chants, sometimes breaking into song . It was elating . There was a reverential looking older black man with a bull horn, accompanied by several
other men with brass instruments who began an old spiritual, but were quickly quashed and ushered away by very big men in military fatiques . Tempers flaired mildly.
then the aforementioned men reappeared, singing and playing there instruments, only this time from much further away . Away from the front line . I still don't know what that was about . Yes I do.

The crowd chanted on, waving banners and signs of protest overhead . Word circulated through the crowd that Bush would not show up if protesters were present .
I began to wonder if that was a victory or a loss . I didn't want him there, but I wanted him to see us, and hear us . I thought that was important .
In spite of the rumors the crowd did not disperse . We as a united group of black, white, asian, and latin people, rich and poor, old and young decided we would stay until the last SS, and last police officer left, to be certain he would not show up with out us being there .

Suddenly a half dozen marta busses turned the corner, pulled up directly in front of us . Parked bumper to bumper, so that no one could squeeze through .
APD Red Dogs were dispatched atop of the buses, with guns, to prevent us from going over around or through . There were dozens of police on either side
of the buses standing in single file formation, facing the protesters . The prodigious Presidential Motorcade turned the corner followed by dozens of press corp.
vans. Not 1 photograph was taken of us by the press corp . It was obvious they wanted to . They were captivated by the crowd, they were staring at us, with
cameras half raised as if they were tempted to take a shot but didn't dare . They followed blindly or rather stumbled behind the Surrounded, out of site Bush .
There were there for a different reason . They had an agenda, even though perhaps not set by them .
This gesture of parking the buses between us and the President was a huge insult . It smacked of- I don' t see you, I don't hear you, I dont acknowledge you .
You don't have a voice . Frustrating, frightening . How far will this go ? Were will it end ?
Dozens of people crossed the line yesterday, they were quickly arrested . And though I am certain, or at least hopeful they were as quickly released, I can't help but wonder if the day will come when people who cross the line will be ushered off to Quantanomo . It is our responsibility to prevent this from happening .
If this should happen it will not be the Government that has failed; we will have failed ourselves . For the government is in midst of failing now .

As one of the chants went yesterday -" The people have the power if the poeple are united " . I am hopeful this is still true, but I can't help but wonder if it is .
Is it just lip service on our part ? Or can we unite as a people, and regain the power ? How far will we let things go, how many wars will we allow to be waged, and
innocent lives lost ? How many species must go extinct ? How ill must we get from the air we breath , the water we drink, and the food we eat ? What will it take for us to unite,and together crawl under, over , and around those buses that are parked between us and them . How must we be heard . How will we do it ? When will we do it ?
How far will we let them go before we cross the line ? Much is at stake now, much more than people know or realize . I fear the people that support Bush are unaware,
of all that is at stake, or perhaps somehow they believe they will end up on the same side of the buses as Bush .

I am frustrated that I have only questions, and no answers .





Brad

May we all have the courage those people demonstrated!

Peace,

Steve

I don't know how it works out there in the woods, but sometimes the animals call a meeting. Maybe they always have meetings and we only notice when they get too close to the road. Picture a moon past fullness but still very bright on a 20 degree night with a little snow still lying in the shady spots. We were driving home from an evening soccer game on our gravel road and encountered the first of several groups of deer. Not unusual but we had to slow down for not one but four groups in a hundred yard stretch of road. The woods are thick up to the edge of the road and the white ice of refrozen snow covered the curve just before we got to our driveway. The deer tolerate us and so, moved out of the way as a last resort on this night. Several of them have scars from wrestling matches with vehicles. Why do they think they can win such a contest? I suppose that, since there are more of them now than ever before, they actually are winning after a fashion, and the Subaru has scars, too. Now, after repair and recovery, the Subaru and the deer have only small scars, but the marks are there, nonetheless.

We think the beast that flew across the road just before we turned up the driveway was a fox. It would have to have been a grey fox but it was definitely in more of a hurry than the deer and did not present itself for indentification. Its tail orbited furiously as it changed direction at high speed to lose itself into the smallest opening under a downed pine tree. Sometimes you have a flash encounter with something that you can only identify by the way it moves. The bobcats trot faster than most things can gallop and their rear end seems like it is going to outrun the front. Coyotes are just shadows that appear and disappear except for every once in a while when one of them will parade around in full scruffy glory. Shunks, possums, and racoons all have signature shuffles. Skunks have another kind of signature and, judging form the number of autographs we pass on our hikes, the skunks are doing pretty well out there. They were all at the meeting.

We can take our hikes and see a few animals most times, but things are usually sparse. It is clear to me that they don't trust us all that much. I like to find a good spot and sit quietly for twenty minutes or so. After much thought, I have come to think that one designated animal gives a signal and all of them start some kind of dance about the country side at the same time. Sometimes the woods will be empty and noiseless. Then, like someone flipped a switch, it gets crowded and clattering with activity. I guess we drove through one of these moments the other night.

In my fractured memory of childhood, there are some other moments of white light clarity, like the first time my father showed me a canebrake rattlesnake that had come into our yard behind the chicken coop... Like the time I saw a gopher tortise walking, in all its waddle necked glory, from under the mill house we lived in down to the woods at the edge of our yard. I was three and four years old for these events but they are burned in and easily retrievable from my mind's good places. I can't clearly recall what I did after breakfast yesterday but I have countless snapshots that define those intense minutes of joyous life that constitute heaven.

I wonder if my children will remember the animal meeting we attended?

Peace and courage,

Steve

I am not having enough time to fit things in right now. Saturn is huge and my telescopes are so dirty I haven't gotten a clear view so far. I also have a new hiking trail that I am laying out. We have a series of cliffs behind the house that block the way to the top of the ridge. After living here ten years I had a "duh" moment and realized that the deer and coyotes probably want to get around that big rock face as much as or more than I do. After a rain I started following the trails and marking the gaps in the cliff that they were using. I have found three new routes so far, but I have not connected them to make the big loop I desire. Deer season will be over after this weekend and I will no longer have to fear "humans in the woods with weapons" and I can try to complete the task before me. When I finish I hope to have a loop that will present a view of Chilhowee Mountain to the Southeast and Black Mountain to the Northwest and several high lookouts over White's Creek as it cuts its way out of the Cumberland Plateau. For those poor deprived folk who have never spent time in East Tennessee, Chilhowee separates the Hiwassee and Ocoee rivers as they flow into the Tennessee Valley. Black Mountain is a geological wonder with huge caves and a sandstone playground on top where the Cumberland trail crosses it. Black Mountain also has an FAA radar dome on top and is the source of the only light that can be seen from my house. It is about 18 miles west of here.

On to other thoughts.

Something is going on in America that seems to be promising. Take this example:

Here is a bit of obvious liberal rant taken from the pages of an obvious liberally biased media outlet:

Four years ago, at the start of the last Presidential campaign, the US economy was enjoying record job growth, rising incomes, and large budget surpluses. Today, after three years of the Bush Presidency, the economy has lost close to 3 million private sector jobs, the typical family's yearly income has fallen by nearly $1,500, and there has been an unprecedented reversal in outlook -- from a projected 10-year surplus of more than $5 trillion to a projected 10-year deficit of up to $5 trillion.

Got that? The average blue collar worker, the one most likely to vote for Bush, was given a $300 check in the mail while five times that much was taken from him in his paycheck. I have only one word to say:

"DUH!"

In another article this liberal mouthpiece has the audacity to give a positive review to a new book that lays out how utterly corrupt the US tax system has become. Here is the first bit of the review:

The Great Tax Rip-Off

PERFECTLY LEGAL
The Covert Campaign
To Rig Our Tax System
To Benefit the Super Rich
-- And Cheat Everybody Else
By David Cay Johnston; Portfolio; 338 pp; $25.95

Once upon a time, Washington collected the taxes it needed to pay for the services it provided. Not anymore. Today, the feds gather $400 billion a year less than they spend. And pols have turned revenue bills into endless opportunities for the well-connected to dodge their obligation....

What do you think? An obvious liberal rant, eh? The source of these obviously biased words is the January 19 issue of Business Week. The very last paragraph in this issue states the huge concern that Rupert Murdoch, a rabidly conservative Australian, now owns way too much of the American media and will use it to bias the information we receive to advance his own political views.

This was from Business Week. Are people waking up? Yes, they are! Do they have the courage to do what has to be done? We'll see.

I recommend you read an interview by another hard hitting journalistic rag, Rolling Stone. here is a teaser:

"I think the Republicans are much meaner than the Democrats are. I don't want to absolve the Democrats, but Republicans are just brutal. They do not care what happens to the country as long as they stay in power, and they're willing to do anything they can to stay in power. It's the most unforgivable thing about this administration and the congressional leadership....

I admire George Bush's father. There were some things I strongly disagreed with him on -- but he tried to be a good president. This president is not interested in being a good president. He's interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father. He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country.

The speaker in this case wants George Bush's job. I personally want him to have it. please read it!

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2760

Those with delicate sensibilities should stop here and go have a nice day. What follows is catty, profane, and small minded at times. Also hilarious!

Since I am stuck on interviews today, I offer this one for your pleasure: Betty Bowers' totally fictional and offensive interview with Laura Bush. We can sometimes read truth into satire when it can't said any other way, but please give those mentioned the benefit of the doubt. (Was it Karl Rove who said wives are fair game?) I wonder if Valerie Plume has an opinion on that?

http://www.bettybowers.com/laurabush2.html

Baptists! Gotta Love 'em!

Peace and Courage, Brethren and Cistern!

Love ya,

Steve

"A King who is unfaithful to his duty forfeits his claim to obedience. It is not rebellion to depose him, for he is himself a rebel whom the nation has a right to put down."

Oddly enough, this is from the foundation of conservatism, and essay by Thomas Aquinas. I hereby embrace it with all my heart. There is a groundswell from within the Republican party that will ultimately join with the rest of us a create regime change right here in America. It will not come from the entrenched, chickenhearted Democrats embodied by the likes of Richard Gephardt. The mainstream Democratic Party has failed America in a huge way. It is up to party insurgents and ethical Republicans to save the American ship of state! It is happening. Here is a State GOP party chairman stating exactly that:

According to former state of New Hampshire GOP Chairman David Gosselin, "We need a challenger to draw [Bush] out on the issues and answer the questions we have about the war, the economy, and questionable dealings the President has had with major corporations to which he or his staff have connections.''
"George Bush is a maverick who does not follow the traditional Republican party line regarding overspending," stated one local voter. "If I were to go out and spend double and triple my annual income the way that Mr. Bush does, I would very soon be bankrupt -- or in jail. His open-handed spending policies are scaring me."

http://truthout.org/docs_04/011104J.shtml
I think as the election grows nearer Bush will die the death of a thousand cuts. So does John Dean, former Whitehouse counsel under Richard Nixon. Here's what he has to say about the treasonous exposure of Valerie Plume as a CIA agent. (Rove is going down!)

If this case does not make headlines in 90 to 120 days, it will be quite surprising. There has been too much high level action and Comey, a presidential appointee, knows that politically it would be better for Bush & Company to have the matter flushed out within the next few months, than to have it arise just before the November election. Needless to say, this could be an interesting year for the White House, with more than reelection to worry about.

http://truthout.org/docs_04/010804E.shtml

The GOP hit the ceiling in pompous outrage at a piece on the internet comparing the Speeches of George Bush to Adolph Hitler. Of course they both said those things but what has truth got to do with it? Turns out this particular train of thought is a big discussion topic in Europe. After all, they have pretty close experience with Hitler and are seing way too much of Bush:

And who are these bloody Europeans who keep comparing Bush to Hitler?

http://truthout.org/docs_04/010704A.shtml

I am a great fan of Johnathan Swift. He made his "Modest Proposal" many years ago to a reception of laughter and outrage in early 18th century Europe. David Podvin makes a modern proposal that I find very appealing. Though I thought Swift's original had merit, too, so what do I know?

http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/satire/040111_AModestProposal.htm

Peace and Courage,

Steve