Bell Mountain Wilderness, 18 April 2009

Here’s the second of Missouri’s eight wilderness areas. I hike Hercules Glades with friends in February, and last weekend we did Bell Mountain Wilderness in Iron County with two friends.

One of us (*cough* me *cough*) foolishly left the tent behind when we piled into the carpool vehicle, so we didn’t get to backpack as intended. Instead, we did the point-to-point trail in a day, then got a room at an Ironton motel. Probably for the best, as it _poured_ rain all night.

It rained during the hike, too, for about an hour and a half of the six hours. Not cold or windy, just steady. That’s why there’s no pictures from the summit glade. Bell is almost as high as Missouri’s highest point, Taum Sauk Mountain, but it’s far more exposed, and therefore in weather like last weekend’s, the top is in the clouds. So, there was no view. The rest of the pictures turned out reasonably well, though.

We hiked from the upper trailhead off of the forest road, reaching the summit in about two hours. We had lunch there, in a steady rain, then started heading south to the Ozark Trail trailhead on Highway A, where we’d left another car. That area is dry as a bone most of the year, but because of the rain and the cold, wet, miserable spring we’ve had so far, the granite of the Ozark Trail was slippery as hell. Muddy, too.

It was an awesome hike, nevertheless. However, I think the Missouri Conservation Department may have spoken too soon when it declared victory over feral hogs. We never saw them, but we saw a great deal of their sign–scrapes on trees and rooted-up areas near the trail. Take care when hiking here, and keep in mind it’s an open season on feral hogs because of the damage they do to the environment.

Just How Bad Is The Bailout?

The following is from Reason TV, by way of the puppy blender. It lays out, in 2 minutes and 43 seconds, just how massive the Bush-Obama (but mostly Obama) spending increases actually are. It’ll make you want to stick a screwdriver in your face, but don’t. One, you can’t afford the screwdriver with the tax increases that are coming and two, the government needs you around to pay taxes or the Chinese will foreclose on the Statue of Liberty.

By the way, have you ever noticed about how when TOTUS or Gibbs or Geithner are questioned about this unprecedented deficit spending, they always reply that, well, the Obama administration started with an already pretty big Bush deficit? Has anyone in the media EVER followed up on this irrational line of thinking? “Well, I was already $10,000 in debt, so I decided to make things better I’d go $100,000 in debt.” Bush’s bailouts were wrong, and I said it here back then, but in his first few months as President, Mr. Obama has achieved a literally incomprehensible deficit.

Thanks, 52.

Incidentally, besides attending a tea party protest next Wednesday, there’s NOTHING you can do about this. The Democrats can force through anything they want for the next 2 years, at least. What you _can_ do is take care of yourself. The tax increases will begin next year. This year, pay down debt, build up savings, buy tangibles. You do have some control over your own situation, and it behooves you to be as self-sufficient and independent as possible.

Wilderness Trail, Meramec State Park, April 5

I had a chance to get out to Sullivan, Missouri, last Sunday to hike the Wilderness Trail at Meramec State Park. This is an easy 10-miler (as opposed to, say, Hawn State Park, which has a more difficult 10-mile trail). It is a backpacking trail with eight established camps. I day-hiked it in about 4 hours, though. It extends through glades, pine forests, bluffs, and (at least this early in the spring) numerous clear spring-fed creeks. It also passes through Copper Hollow and Copper Hollow Cave and spring (where I photographed the lush mats of watercress).

While I was out, I saw only one other hiker, who was mushroom hunting. It was early in the spring, and the weather turned cold and windy later in the day, but it was pretty cool to see green and flowers returning to the forest after a long winter.

If you ever hike it–be sure to take “The Long Way” as the sign phrases it. Otherwise, you’ll miss Copper Hollow and a view of the Meramec River, and you’ll only skip one relatively easy hill.

The ex-armadillo was right where the shortcut spur re-connected with the main trail. Missouri has a great many dead armadillos, but I’ve never seen a live one.

I, For One, Welcome Our New Robot Caller Overlords

There’s an election coming up here in St. Louis next Tuesday.

Here’s the ballot. Notice anything missing?

Our choices for mayor are the incumbent, Democrat Francis Slay; a Green; a Libertarian; and an “Independent” (in actuality a bitter Democrat who had epic fail against Slay previously).

That’s right, boys and girls–the Republican party didn’t even bother to try to come up with a candidate.

If 100 people show up to the polls next Tuesday, Slay would get at least 80 votes. Still, you wouldn’t know it’s a foregone conclusion by the way the man campaigns. Every day, I have at least three mass mailings sent to me. I can count on campaign literature on my door at least every other day. There are campaign signs on thousands of lawns. It’s all very cruel to the environment, but at least every piece of glossy paper has the union label on it.

Then there’s the robo-calls. I get about four of those a day. Mayor Slay is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a campaign he can’t possibly lose. On the one hand, you have to admire the way Democrats campaign. On the other hand, it’s wasteful in a city that’s suffering the way this one is.

For what it’s worth, Slay has been the best mayor this city’s seen in decades, which is a sad commentary. However, I don’t vote for Democrats as a matter of principle. I’m paying their taxes and I’ll be paying off their 12 trillion dollar debt for decades, and that’s enough. Plus, one-party rule is wrong anywhere it occurs. St. Louis has had unbroken Democrat rule since 1949. The Democrats have had complete freedom to push through their agenda without any interference for six decades. This, incidentally, is why St. Louis is currently such a vibrant and prosperous low-crime city with fantastic race relations. The Republican party is ball-less and stupid for not even attempting to run a candidate, so one has to make do with the Libertarian.

Anyone who runs against the Democrat is going to lose. It doesn’t matter. You still fight. The reason the Democrats are ascendant in this country (or at least were until Mr. Obama began his incredible overreach) is that they fight every election, from dogcatcher on up. Okay, you won’t immediately get a Republican mayor. Start with a small aldermanic race or two. Build on small victories. I love this city, and the fact that conservatives have given it up to the predations of the Democrats without a fight dismays me.

This is how a third party will start (FWIW, I sympathize strongly with the Libertarians, but they’re too doctrinaire and inflexible to ever actually achieve their goals)–there WILL be people willing to take the debate to the Democrats, if the Republicans continue to abdicate. This change may coalesce around the tea party protest movement.

Somebody once said, we are the change we’ve been waiting for. 🙂 It’s still your duty to vote next Tuesday, so be sure to get to the polls.

Friday Night Miscellaneous

I’m exhausted with politics. Absolutely sick of it…for tonight. I’m sitting here, with a bottle of gin, watching “Miracle,” a Disney film from a few years back about the 1980 Miracle on Ice in the Lake Placid Olympic Games. A buch of talented, hard-working college kids defeated the Soviet Union to win gold. I was just a kid then, and my family wasn’t into hockey, but we watched that, and I remember everyone screaming to wake the dead in those last few minutes. Again, I wasn’t sentient enough to be aware of how bad the 70s had been, but I knew that victory was more than just a hockey game.

I’ve found, in these long months of work-outs, that a little motivational speech helps a lot. I’m partial to the first 10 minutes of Full Metal Jacket, where R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann mercilessly breaks down the recruits. I don’t know why I find that motivating, but I do. However, I try to run a PG-13 site, so you’ll have to go to YouTube yourself to get it.

There’s three great motivational scenes in Miracle. Also, Kurt Russell is an astonishingly underrated actor.

First, Coach Brooks responds to a lackluster tie between his team and the Norwegian national team. This clip is 8 and a half minutes long, but watch the whole thing:

Then, in the Olympics, the team is down while playing Sweden, and Coach Brooks comes in to “motivate” an injured player (bad video quality, but good sound):

Finally, there’s the speech Coach Brooks gives just before the game with the Soviet Union:

From fiction to nonfiction, here’s actual footage of the Miracle itself.

It is your duty to go out and rent “Miracle” if you’ve never seen it.

Edited to add: Ever since I read “Atlas Shrugged,” I’ve been trying to think how I’d cast the film. So far all I’d come up with is that Robert Downey Jr. would be great as Francisco D’Anconia. I think I’ve got another one–Kurt Russell would be an awesome Hank Rearden.

Edited further to add: Okay, this may be crazy talk, but Nathan Fillion as John Galt? It could work…

Kelsey Grammer as “Midas” Mulligan?

Rush Limbaugh Shrugs

Rush Limbaugh has announced that due to New York State’s new crippling, regressive taxation policies, he will sell his properties there and no longer use New York as a backup studio location. Bravo!

Rush is just one man, a well-known man, but one individual nevertheless. But, just as he shrugged off being punished for his success, so too will more of the people New York needs to stay relevant. Other states will fall over themselves to make themselves attractive for such successful people to set up shop there. Just as California is dying under its poor governance, so too does New York face disaster over its policies. Still, that’s their choice. The state made theirs, and Rush made his.

As for me, I always like seeing Atlas shrug. May it occur many more times.

The Subtlety of Media Bias

I haven’t watched network news willingly since I lived in my parents’ home before college. I was a liberal then, but that half hour overview, 20 minutes without commercials and at least half of the rest fluff, just never appealed.

I watch a little Fox News now (shocka!), but mostly I read news aggregators for the stuff that interests me. I’m aware that all news is biased, but I choose what to read and think through my own conclusions.

Still, when one goes back to network news, it’s a little surprising how blatant, and yet oddly subtle the bias is.

When I was in J-school, they’d given up on the idea of objectivity and replaced it with dependency theory and the importance of changing the world, but it was still instructive to see the way the “sausage” was made. You could show bias immediately simply by your choice of stories. For example, you might find 4000 privileged hippies protesting against globalization at the G20 to be newsworthy, yet spike the story about the 4000 local folks who turned out for a tea party protest. It’s just that easy. And yes, liberal readers, that _does_ go both ways.

That’s a long set-up for this. I was in the gym today, watching Mad Money, and one of the other patrons turned on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. I was powerless to turn away. A good third of it was about the G20 summit, which is fine. However, Ms. Couric mentioned twice the 216-point gain in the stock market and both times credited it to the trillion dollars the world ponied up to the 3rd world and the agreements reached today at the G20.

Interesting, that. The stock market had been going up for hours before any of that made the news. There was absolutely not a peep about how the Financial Accounting Standards Board had voted to relax the mark-to-market rules. This is a change that investors had sought for at least 8 months, and when it happened, it had a big psychological effect. Funny how Ms. Couric didn’t think to mention that, but instead _twice_ ascribed the sweeping transnational changes and redistribution of wealth as the reason for the market’s good showing today.

Still, the evening network news knows it’s dying. I paid more attention to the commercials than to the news, just to see what target demographic they were aiming at. Lots of ads for medicine for one’s bowels, bones, bladder, and boner. They know their audience is old and getting older, and they will never get those younger viewers back.

That doesn’t excuse indoctrination, though. Ms. Couric manufactured the news, she did not report it. In doing so, she did a disservice to hundreds of thousands of viewers. Somehow, I don’t suspect she misses much sleep over it.

“That’s One Heavily Armed Recreational Vehicle”*–Bill Murray

• Okay, the Homeland Security RV wasn’t actually heavily armed, but it’s always nice to be able to use a “Stripes” quote.

John Galt headed over to the east side over the weekend to look over the wares at The Biking Life magazine’s swap meet in Collinsville, Illinois. I totally shouldn’t spend the money,but I can’t resist looking at bike parts and accessories.

It was raining, and as I drove up, I thought there were automobile wrecks on the road–on both sides of the road there were police cars with flashing lights. Then I saw the Homeland Security recreational vehicle drive up. Then I looked over at the gas station and saw a police sniper with a rifle inside a bright blue Wal-Mart tent on the roof. It clicked then, but it was hard to believe–this MASSIVE show of force was in response to the swap meet.

The organizers of the swap meet had allowed the various biker clubs to wear their colors, see. I went inside, paid the entrance fee, and saw at least 20 police officers inside, one of whom was taking photographs of many of the attendees. Later in the day, I saw a K9 unit outside. This was in addition to the well-organized private security that had been arranged by the hall or organizer.

Nothing happened while I was there. For what it’s worth, the cops all seemed like very nice people. So were the bikers. I can see some concern if this had been a competitive-type thing, a bike show or such, or if it were at night and there was alcohol involved. But for Pete’s sake, it was just people out shopping. There were families with children in the hall, and senior citizens. No one misbehaved, and no one was scared of the “big, bad bikers.”

A cop or two, I can see. If something _had_ happened, they could have called for help swiftly. But a sniper? A police photographer taking photos of people shopping? Homeland freaking Security? This must have cost the town of Collinsville thousands of dollars its generally working-class taxpayers can’t afford. It was all a bit of overkill, to say the least. I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Again, I don’t fault the police, who were very professional. However, the Libertarian in me was troubled by the excessive show of force to police a swap meet.

Michael Moore Pays A Visit To The Constitution

Millionaire Socialist Michael Moore is a big fan of Mr. Obama’s recent firing of the head of General Motors.

In the link above, he describes a vignette where he went to see The Constitution at the National Archive.

What he doesn’t mention is what part of the Constitution gives the President the authority to fire the CEO of a private business. The powers enumerated to the Executive Branch are quite limited, so I’ll include them below:

Article II – The Executive Branch Note

Section 1 – The President Note1 Note2

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

(The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two-thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice-President.) (This clause in parentheses was superseded by the 12th Amendment.)

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

(In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.) (This clause in parentheses has been modified by the 20th and 25th Amendments.)

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Section 2 – Civilian Power over Military, Cabinet, Pardon Power, Appointments

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section 3 – State of the Union, Convening Congress

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section 4 – Disqualification

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

I missed the part where the firing was constitutional.

But remember, folks–Michael Moore has earned every penny of his bloated…savings account. Why, it would be wrong to cap how much money HE can make. He’s an ARTIST, for Pete’s sake. He’d grab his Big Mac and a torch and pitchfork were the executive branch to ever attempt to cap his salary. He’d be screaming about tyranny if Bush had ever fired, say, the head of Air America (or perhaps, more aptly, the head of National Public Radio, since they take taxpayer money).

Funny how that works….

If something is wrong, it’s wrong regardless of whether it was done by someone you like, Mr. Moore. It just goes to show, if you give this kind of power to the government, you cannot be surprised when they wield it against you. The government that has the power to give you everthing can take everything away.

I was not in favor of bailouts for anyone, regardless of whether it was President Bush or Mr. Obama doing the bailing. I don’t believe in “too big to fail” and I was convinced from the outset that GM was doomed. Regardless of all that, Mr. Obama had no authority to fire Mr. Wagoner.

Glenn Beck made the point today that what we’re seeing isn’t so much Socialism as Fascism–not the Fascism that ends in concentration camps and guys calling themselves Il Duce, but an unhealthy alliance of business and government, and increasingly onerous rules put on the people for “the national good.” I’ll need to think on that for a while. Mr. Obama is the child of two Socialists, was mentored by Socialist Frank Marshall Davis growing up, wrote in his books about how he identified with the Socialists in college, became a community organizer, got his start in Chicago politics with the socialist New Party, worked with Socialists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and was rated a more liberal Senator than the Senate’s one avowed Socialist. That’s a lot of evidence for Socialism rather than fascism. I think Mr. Obama’s meddling in business is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It’s an interesting theory, though, and there’s obviously a continuum there.

N.B. This is NOT saying “Obama is Hitler” or “Obama is Mussolini.” Obviously, this tendency has been growing in government for some time, under both parties. The rot is going deeper, that’s for sure, but it can’t be placed solely at Mr. Obama’s feet.

In Which The Late William F. Buckley, Jr., Was Way Cooler Than President Obama

TOTUS held an Internet town hall meeting this week. In it, he jokingly noted how many people had asked about the legalization and taxation of marijuana as a way to help the economy. You can see why they would: Attorney General Holder had noted that the Justice Department was going to stop raiding medical marijuana clinics in California. I myself had noted to liberal friends that my opinion of Mr. Obama would go up, slightly, if he were to legalize marijuana, which is less harmful than alcohol and whose Prohibition has caused problems similar to our misguided attempts to go dry.

Mr. Obama, who noted in one of his two autobiographies, Dreams from My Father, that he used to smoke weed and snort cocaine, said no can do.

Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though

I wonder if he could articulate why he holds that position. For what it’s worth, the late, much missed conservative philosopher William F. Buckley, Jr., wrote eloquently against prohibition and for legalization (he also admitted that he’d smoked dope in the past).

For what it’s worth, I find the “medical marijuana” argument to be a pointless red herring–sure, it has medicinal properties, but people want to get high. That’s fine, as long as, similar to the enjoyment of alcohol, one’s indulgence does no harm to another. Also, under no circumstances should one start to find Jay and Silent Bob funny:

The first President to decriminalize pot will be a Republican. Bet on it. It’s a freedom issue for me, and I also think taxation of marijuana is fair, and would be a good source of revenue, although of course it won’t come close to paying off the trillions in debt that future Americans will be saddled with.

Still, it’s been a tough week for liberals–first he harshes their mellow on the weed, then he announced he’ll continue the war contingency operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He’s just disappointing all sorts of people lately.