Category: American wilderness

To make a short story long …

Several days ago, we had a perfect storm of sorts. On the very same day our Internet went down, and our microwave over fizzled as well. Gadzooks! Zounds!

To make a short story long … nah, details do not matter. We now have Internet, and while a replacement for our old GE Profile microwave would have cost $479 at Best Buy, a $70 model at Target would have to do. The cupboard space for the Profile is 24x12x12, and only a very few machines fit in that space, but to save $409, we will make do. This is the second time that GE Profiles have failed on us.

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Whither Lake Mead?

Sinking waters in the Colorado basin

I subscribe to Dr. Tim O’Shea’s newsletter, the most recent of which I link to here. In it he talks about Lake Mead, the reason we have a large city in Nevada named Las Vegas. (There is also a Las Vegas, New Mexico, where we have spent more time. The series Longmire was shot in large part there. What we did there stays there, and anyway can easily be forgotten.)

There is considerable concern that Lake Mead is being drained and that in the near future it will be a “Dead Pool,” that is, it will no longer be able to run the turbines that send electricity to Las Vegas and California.

I do not place much faith in Dr. O’Shea, as I imagine in real life he is very busy with his practice and doesn’t have much time to go really in depth on things. His work on Covid, while useful, is not deep enough, that is, he believes in viruses. He has a habit of talking down to his readers, too. That is also the case with his thoughts on Mead, but it did cause me to look into the matter for myself, reading a long, long piece about the area put out by, I think, the National Park Service, but maybe the Bureau of Reclamation or BLM. I don’t know. I’ve lost the piece, and you are on your own anyway. I did learn that Lake Mead collects 97% of its water from the Colorado, and damned little from any other source, because it sits in the midst of a drought-prone region that normally has very little moisture.

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Appreciated Assistance, a short story …

Note: The short story below came to me via email from Dave, along with a warning that it was 39 pages (double spaced) if I would not mind reading it. Dave Klauser is a friend of the blog, and if he wishes he can tell you more about himself in the comments. The thing that grabbed me immediately about this story was that I was familiar with the landscape, as was Dave. The trail head, Lady of the Lake, was the very first hike I did with my brothers in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness, maybe 1960 or earlier. I was very young, maybe ten years or less. Dave has the trails, the lakes and peaks correct, and writes as a skilled outdoorsman. As the story unfolded I realized I was in a cliffhanger. It’s a page turner.
This is a completely new twist for the blog. I am happy to run this piece for Dave. I hope the story grips you as much as it did me. I hope if anyone reading this who might have any dusty manuscripts sitting around, that you send them along. Just for fun, as this blog is and always will be non-monetized. If there is a running blog theme here, it is that Mark gets repetitive and needs assistance, and others to provide it.
Enjoy Dave’s writing. He is very good.,
MT

Appreciated Assistance

By DS Klausler

I awoke.

As I listened intently, I determined that I had not heard such a sound–ever. Ah yes… growling. Not human; guttural. Now loud; yes: feeding. No… an attack. Wait, now human… screaming–male. Gurgling.

Whatever; I suited up. Wailing; human. Thrashing and growling; must be a bear. Yes. Crying. Moaning. Silence.

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The Hitler Project: Hitler’s Old Man

I am of the opinion that the celebrities who attempt to infest and suffocate our fantasy life are all planned for royal bastards. By royal bastards I mean the off the books progeny of the hidden hands in the cap stone we never see. Just below the cap are these blood loyal whelps who pose as various personae to keep us enthralled and distracted while the inbred lizards behind the curtain practice their black arts.
Um-

Todays subject may not appear to be all that relevant given the cascade of evil befalling us at the moment but I think it is a good example of how even the illegitimate strands of these bloodlines carry on in service to their Satan.
Jeez- calm down!

Many people over time have asked this question: How can a nobody from the Austrian sticks become, even for a brief duration, the most powerful and dangerous man on planet Earth?
I’m talking about Adolf Hitler, of course, and the answer I like best is: If you are a Rothschild you can.

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About that ankle

Some time ago I asked for home remedies regarding a ligament problem in my right ankle. I tried a couple, including DMSO, to no avail. Physical therapy made only a temporary difference. While in Alaska, I quit wearing the brace, as it seemed to make no difference. The discomfort, mild anyway, with or without it was the same. I took to heart the words of the Mayo Clinic website, that eventually, it will heal.

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Editor emediocrus

I used the post down below as a means to write a review of the book, Unsettled, by Steven E. Koonin, severely editing it. I had little hope of seeing my review published by Amazon, as over the past couple of years overt censorship has taken over so much of our lives.

“Overt,” mind you. Not new,. It has always been like this. Technically speaking, we have, as expressed in the Bill of Rights, an inalienable right to freedom of speech. It is not given us by our Constitution. We own it, have it, have always had it. But during my years after schooling I slowly realized that this inherent right to speak our minds is severely limited, that is, if I have an opinion about who should be the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, that opinion easily flows through the censors. It is painless, stupid, offends no one, not even the current quarterback, whatever his name. (Russell Wilson.)

However, if my opinions are of a more serious nature, and especially if they rub up against anyone who has power, say the editor of a small local newspaper, they will be censored. Back in pre-Internet days the outlets for personal opinions were limited to newspapers and radio talk shows, and the gnomes guarding the caves were newspaper editors and talk show hosts.

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It’s official now: I have lived too long

My wife and I are in our seventies now, and each of us is trim. That doesn’t just happen, however. It takes great effort.

First, we had to understand the nature of body weight – why it accumulates, where it accumulates. There are a lot of fad diets, from starvation (and accompanying psychosis) to vegan. In between are things that sell books, like South Beach and Caveman. I cannot speak for my wife, as we each cook for ourselves and eat differently. For myself, I long ago settled on what is now called “Keto,” short for ketosis.

If you wake up in the morning with “morning breath,” you are in ketosis, that is, fat-burning mode. Often during the night our bodies run short on carbohydrates and convert to that mode. This is the essence of Keto, to force our bodies into fat-burning mode, not just as we sleep, but 24/7.

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A new link, and a treasure trove of podcasts

This link is to a specific podcast, Most Peoples Brains Are Broken. In comments beneath another post, we were linked to Legalman and some of his writing, that about the abuses of the Supreme Court. I think the name of the blog was The Truth About the Law. He has apparently quit posting and gone over to podcasts.

This link is to his current blog, which looks to be entirely podcasts. It is called The Quash.

Two things about Legalman: One, he is a lawyer. The other, his voice reminds me of Jimmy Stewart, or at least Stewart as done by Dana Carvey. You might catch this as his voice inflects upward.

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A glimmer of hope

The post below was written in 2016. I had just read a book that, amazingly, still rests on my shelf, called Everything You Know About the Constitution is Wrong, by a man calling himself Edward James Snowden. I normally do not recommend what others should read or watch or think. It is up to you.

Last night comments were appearing on the nature of our Constitution, and I remembered this book. It had impacted me. There are many threads within the book that Snowden writes well about, but the one that caught my eye most when I read it was the 14th Amendment, passed in 1868. It is long and wordy, and I will reprint here only the pertinent parts of the first clause:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Honestly, that sounds like overstating the obvious along with virtue signalling. The country had just emerged from a bloody Civil War, blacks were emancipated, so the ground was ripe to make major substantial changes in our laws. Prior to this amendment, non-black people were citizens of the various states, and none (except slaves) could be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Blacks were no longer slaves. Why restate? It appears as though the purpose was to make everyone a subject of the Federal Government rather than any state.

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