Avatar on DVD

I cannot believe this movie was so popular when released in 2009. All I can say is Americans sure must be cynical to think our US Marines Corps in Iraq leaving with their tail between their legs during Obama's drawdown is the enemy in James Cameron's pretentious portrayal here. This tawdry film sinks to a new low like his outstanding Titanic. Unlike the Sunnis & Shia in Mideast political insurgency, the Na'vi on the planet Pandora (Pandora's box perhaps?) are seen as a primitive civilization much like our Native American nations-living in a tree of souls, riding around on flying reptiles, equipped with poisonous bows and arrows. Dances With Wolves in a Jurassic Park meets Tarzan. Real acting is forsaken with special effects of blue monkeys in a Garden of Eden. The premise of this show errs with the cynical notion the USMC seeks to secure mining rights for a floating rock from the floating mountains by invading Pandora using helicopter gunships & walking Star Wars-like transformers. Then the movie audience is patronized to accept our wheelchair ridden hero as a dreamwalker, teleported as an experimental hybrid of human DNA and the indigenous tribes by climbing into a computerized clamshell to be embedded with the alien inhabitants-not convincingly at all as beaming down or up like in Star Trek. Our hero assimilates to their way of life which in the show is nothing like al-Qaeda or ISIS today; the Na'vi are not terrorists, the Marines in the show are the bad guys, ala blue coats in our Indian wars. Okay Cameron got that far, but where he fails in this farce is our leathernecks of Iwo Jima and Korea fame didn't go to Baghdad to take their oil. America sought to secure the Middle East from chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from being used in another 9/11-like attack on US soil. "Strong heart, stupid baby" rejects his citizenship a little like Edward Snowden of the intelligence agency did, to defeat our Marines and live happily ever after with his lady in the forest. Hell is paved with good intentions perhaps, but the only stupid babies are the ticket holders who got duped by a very unpatriotic James Cameron. Semper Fi.

The Revenant, My Review

The new Leonardo DiCaprio film about Hugh Glass the mountain man in the Rocky Mountain West was right up my street-at an AMC theater I only occasionally go to anymore. Set in 1820s Montana and Dakota Territory beaver pelt trappers from Missouri worked the frontier, competing with other fur companies, the French, hostile Arikaras & the unrelenting elements. The story is about his survival following a grizzly bear attack, then left alone for dead by his companions as they escape a savage Arikara attack for return to Fort Kiowa. A spiritual theme of honor persists throughout as Hugh Glass cares for his Pawnee son, following the death of Hawk's mother by French soldiers in the Mound villages. I believe the Mandans whom Lewis & Clark met along the Upper Missouri River were also in the region-not far from Sioux lands. Hugh Glass lives in the Native American tongue and philosophy of forbearance amid strife by respecting the wind, the trees through his humanity toward a Pawnee man eating buffalo meat as well as saving an Arikara woman being raped by Toussaint Charbonneau in the French camp. The French trade pelts with the Arikara but the Indians want horses instead; the Arikara are looking for the missing daughter Powage on the war path throughout the plot. Revenge is the main story line here as Hugh Glass seeks John Fitzgerald who took his rifle, supplies; betrayal by Fitzgerald ensues as he had agreed to stay with Glass and Jim Bridger to later be paid by Andrew Henry their leader gone ahead with the others for the fort.

The film is visually stunning with camera pans of great trees, ice-covered grasslands, golden spacious plains cut by what's likely portrayed as the Powder River country, the Yellowstone perhaps, the rapids scene, bison herds, elk crossing a stream and snow-covered mountains of avalanches, storms, bitter cold; the moon growing ever larger during this chronology in the winter landscapes! Hugh Glass makes it back alive, reclaiming his redemption as an Arikara party with the woman he saved trot past him on the river bank, following his encounter with Fitzgerald. This movie has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards, a great engaging performances comparable to Jeremiah Johnson, Dances With Wolves, Cast Away or even The Martian which I also saw on DVD this week.

Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp starring Kevin Costner came out in 1994 to my astonishment. I recently found it on Warner Brothers DVD at a supermarket, a 21 year-old movie! I've watched it twice now just this month; I believe it is one of the best Western  films ever made! This version of the famous lawman and the shoot out of the OK Corral in Tombstone surpasses the Kirk Douglass-Burt Lancaster 1956 one or the Kurt Russell-Val Kilmer 1993 show, because I feel Kevin Costner with director Lawrence Kasdan really bring out the history of the period in a comprehensive way-the story focuses on the Earp family, his brothers Virgil, Morgan, James and Warren. Gene Hackman plays their father in the beginning who taught them the value of blood relatives, the evil in the world and the law. Bill Pullman is Ed Masterson, first hired on by Wyatt as a buffalo skinner with his brother Bat-both later become deputies in Dodge City. Wyatt meets Doc Holliday, portrayed by Dennis Quaid with humor and loyal perseverance. The film unlike most of this genre moves meticulously with the characters and personalities, rather than the scenery. For just over three hours it held my interest with the sad death of his young wife in Missouri, Wyatt swearing off liquor for coffee & cigars, faro card games, enforcement of gun rules in town, the love scene with Josie, the murder of Morgan on the pool table, the four man march to the Corral and the payback in the Tucson train yard at night. There's insight to life as well: some men are affable or they're deliberate. When Mattie, Wyatt's live-in prostitute girlfriend tries to kill herself, Doc pours Wyatt a drink while musing about the merits of the other side-Doc suffering from tuberculosis. If Wyatt is going to break his fast, then Doc proposes he do it with a friend. Am I off the hook Wyatt asks, referring to Mattie for Josie? Doc replies" there's no hook, only what we do." Wyatt has his shot. I just can't believe the critics panned this movie. Maybe for some it's too slow or long, but Costner pulled it off and carried it through. This film stands out among Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, Tom Selleck-Sam Elliot Louis L'Amour series, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood productions. Wyatt Earp is one of my favorites!

Insight To Everyday History & Opinion: Trump

Insight To Everyday History & Opinion: Trump: I think Donald Trump needs a bigger airplane-called Air Force One. His sleek personal executive jet landed in Norwood MA for a fund raiser w...

A Letter To a Doctor

With all due respect to your education and medical experience I want to get more facts, knowledge regarding "malignancy" and the colonscopy procedure. Before I can submit to this hasty process since June (phone call appointment, July exam and August fecal test) I've lots of questions and self-educated pre-conceptions about all this. I'm also a very spiritual man with a lot of life wisdom, existential awareness and a college major in philosophy which always questions things.

Common sense probably mixed with normal fear, anxiety tells me a fecal test may or may not indicate colon cancer polyps-not all polyps bleed nor are cancerous, right? FIT detects the presence of blood but not the source. (I've had bleeding gum, also take aspirin). It sounds simple to "remove" a polyp or polyps but the truth is the removal creates a wound that surely bleeds inside my colon wall lining-and if the polyp is already cancerous you've just spread the malignancy inside to adjacent capillaries & lymph system accelerating cancer! Colon cancer in later stages consists of rectal bleeding, diarrhea, anemia/fatigue-none of which I've had continually.

Sedation by anesthesia doesn't turn me on. Propoful is a very dangerous substance-it killed singer Michael Jackson with an overdose. Dehydration, blood clots?

The prep before colonoscopy includes the laxatives which kill "good bacteria" which aid digestion. Disbacteriosis destroys the GI tract giving one food poisoning because incoming food cannot be sanitized by inadequate levels of hydrochloric acidity and enzymes resulting in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, farting and dehydration. Wonderful!  The rotting of undigested food proteins produces CADAVERINE (lol) poisoning the bloodstream! Infection from pathogenic bacteria and inflammation can also occur. (Colitis, Crohn's raises cancer risk 32 times).

Other risks, realistic complications & unknown factors could include heart attack, stroke, internal bleeding, perforation, pulmonary embolism, kidney failure and/or intestinal obstruction. Fear, stress, humiliation,and depression also enter into the mix.

The odds of complications, injury exceed the actual existence of colon cancer as well. The colonoscopy really is naught anyway offering zero protection from colon cancer. Good fibers get destroyed contributing to weakened state; the synergestic bacteria which protects the mucosa can no longer fight cancer-causing pathogens. A virtual CTC uses radiation risk missing 27% of colorectal lesions giving false positive readings. A natural risk of colorectal 2 1/2-5%, cancer risk by CTC scan goes up 4-8 times or 20%. According to American Cancer Society there two kinds of polyps: adenomas potential cancer and the hyperplastic polyps, not pre-cancerous.

It takes 10-15 years for a polyp to become cancer. This means I could live to age 75 or 80 if the danger is there? Glad to do another FIT, second part of the pneumonia vaccine Oct. 9 appointment. Just me talking. See you again...  Sources: Mayo Clinic, WebMD, others

Trump

I think Donald Trump needs a bigger airplane-called Air Force One. His sleek personal executive jet landed in Norwood MA for a fund raiser with car magnate Ernie Boch Jr.in late August 2015 as Trump's poll numbers continue to climb. Why not a president Trump? Reagan was an actor, Carter a peanut farmer, so let's have a successful billionaire straighten out our mess!  The media loves to edit the man's remarks, spinning their "we're so offended" sound bites while the other GOP candidates languish in relative obscurity. Recall Mr. Trump did say SOME immigrants are nice people. But we do have laws which still have to be enforced. Build a wall with the lovely doorway. I don't think children born in US should be deported, but I think their parents, if illegally here, either obtain citizenship or they take their kids back to wherever! Unreasonable? At that recent most-watched debate FOX NEWS Meghan Kelly should've said he allegedly called women such & such, but I never heard him say that!  She singled him out that night which infuriated him for attacking his character-heck he is married and has women employed in his Trump Organization and Trump Entertainment Resorts. It would be interesting for media to disclose how many minorities work for him as well. Again there are laws. I've not yet heard from the others how we will defeat ISIS, but Trump says we can secure the oil fields over there, taking away the enemy's economic base. Oh that would violate their sovereignty you say. It's time our/Allies' airplanes, trains, malls, cargo ships, skyscrapers, military bases and newspaper office sovereignty were no longer violated by those depraved, barbaric renegades who profess a religion. And Iran will think twice about cheating on this nuclear deal while innocent people continue to be imprisoned there. I like Trump's appraisal about how rich people can control politicians with their lobbyists/ donors-by making the politicians dance like puppets-very honest thing to say by him. I think Donald Trump is exploiting his reality show success (I never watched it) to capitalize on his power, pull and popularity. He is funny & articulate. I love the story how he sued Bill Maher $5 million for calling Trump a name on Jay Leno in 2013. He won and gave it to charity. This country needs self-respect again after 8 years of coddling street thugs, and appeasing our enemies overseas with empty threats/ redlines. End this rubber stamp deficit spending to finance faulty health care websites and automobile ignition switches in near bankrupt stimulus practices. The Veteran's Administration has acted shamefully as our returning maimed people await attention, following a war which was lost by a patronizing, feckless leader who assuaged his audience for political gain in 2008. The new VA hospital project in Denver has skyrocketed to over a billion dollars! I believe Mr. Trump could solve these problems, making America great again. How many of you have taken time to look up his background on Wikipedia? I did- taking two hours to write down his military school and business experience. He's written 17 books about making money, real estate, golf and America. Everybody is talking about Trump. With a 24-30% lead in the polls, crowds turning out in Iowa, NH and South Carolina, maybe the other candidates need to wake up, join forces, and give in to a Trump nomination if Republicans want overcome past defeats by McCain & Romney to take back the White House and Air Force One in 2016!

National Park Service Approaches 100 Years

Next year the National Park Service will have a centennial birthday. I dunno about you but I love going to our parks! Ken Burns really did a great job on PBS with "America's Best Idea", the story of John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, Stephen Mather and other great people who found the foresight to set aside our extraordinary landmarks from total destruction in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. NPS was established within the US Dept. of Interior in 1916 after several parks had already appeared on our map! Those parks include Yellowstone 1872, Yosemite 1890, Mt. Rainier 1899, Mesa Verde 1906, Glacier in MT 1910 and Colorado's own Rocky Mountain 1915 which I honored with a May visit to Bear Lake, still covered in slushy ice and a Mother's Day snowfall. Before there were park rangers the US Army cavalry and the Buffalo Soldiers kept the poachers and loggers away. As time went by not only the views were protected, but the wildlife such as bears, wolves, and exotic birds became the focus of the NPS mission. Some parks have bus/tram systems to cut down on vehicle congestion such as Zion, Grand Canyon and Cape Cod National Seashore. Unlike BLM and National Forests where disbursed camping is allowed, the national parks require developed campground use only-you can't just pull off the road and sleep in your car. That said, I can say they've done a great job in 100 years-saving beautiful places of unique grandeur like Acadia, Canyonlands, Grand Tetons, Death Valley, Capitol Reef and Great Basin-some of my favorites. Over my lifetime I've stopped to ponder NHP-national historic parks which also remind us of where we've come from as a nation, like Minuteman, Saratoga, Gettysburg, Antietam, Yorktown and Appomattox. For sure Washington DC comprises quite a few memorials which all are administered by the Park Service: Lincoln, Washington Monument, Jefferson, FDR, Vietnam Wall and so on. So as a single, retired senior with no real responsibilities beyond an aging parent (siblings help) & an art profession, I am going to Alaska at long last in 2016; going on a limited budget/ time with a nine day stay in Anchorage to explore the trail network in this small city next to Cook Inlet with views of volcanoes west, the Chugach mountains east, glaciers and Kenai NP south. The train will take me to Denali entrance for two nights base before the bus trip into 6 million acre Denali NP with Mt. McKinley the focus, if the rain clouds part for a peek at its two summits 18,000 feet vertical up from the valley! At 20,320' elevation, Denali is higher than Whitney, Elbert, Rainier and the Matterhorn. I'll have to forgo the Arctic portion, Brooks Range and North Slope as the cost skyrockets beyond $6000. Alaska here I come! Happy birthday again in 2016 to our park system.

Iran Negotiations: My Reply to NY Times March 4, 2015

I wrote: "The fallacy in your argument & Thomas Friedman column presumes the US will back up Iranian misdeeds by force-just like Obama's red line vs Assad a few years back. Netanyahu doesn't shrink from his substantive argument at all. Iran was warned."  To each their own opinion, but this is my blog, my soapbox identified as such. I thought it quite timely and appropriate the Israeli prime minister came to Washington DC to present his case. As Bill O'Reilly once said a few years ago, if Iran obtains a nuclear weapon, using it on Israel, then there's no more Israel-it's too late. The Supreme Leader accuses Israel of crimes. Against whom? HAMAS in Gaza used rockets firing first into Israeli sovereignty. Russia, North Korea, and Iran are a fascist bloc all working together, sharing nuclear technology. Iran is competing with al-Qaeda, Hezzbolah, ISIS, al-Shabab and others to dominate and CONQUER the Middle East, by supporting terror through arms and their Revolutionary Guard in Tikrit, Mosul and Erbil standoffs. Iranian agents have fought against US troops in Iran and Afghanistan to my knowledge. It makes great propaganda for Iran to send their foreign minister to Geneva for talks with Kerry re: nukes, uranium quotas, centrifuges, inspections and  verifications to/ for a limited agreement. Critics, including the Obama Administration who snubbed a US ally/ leader says Netanyahu said nothing new, no substance. Using Nazi Germany as history, the Jewish nation will no longer be passive; "those days are over," he exclaimed. Israel will stand alone if necessary just as it did 4,000 years ago led by Moses out of Egypt. America will stand with Israel we hope...our focus on ISIS may win a battle but still lose a larger war, and I agree with him. He said the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy. Iran is Shia Muslim as is Assad's Syria. The Sunnis support ISIS in Iraq and Syria. We're not over in Afghanistan either as the Taliban still threaten new government there. Iran remains a threat to Israel, having said so! Iran also threatens the region and our planet. This negotiating process is the same naïve, weak appeasement for peace, as was the Munich Conference with Hitler in 1938, which of course resulted in World War II. If my country, Europe is serious that Iran will not be allowed a nuclear bomb, then really no deal must be met with even stronger, crippling sanctions which only hurts their human population-amidst Iranian human rights violations, stronger checks/ elimination of their heavy water-or it'll be war because they cannot be trusted to keep their bargain. Their 1979 Islamic Revolution held our hostages for 444 days until Reagan became president after a helpless Carter. Reagan demonstrated defense through strength, but Iran got paid off too I think-to nobody's delight GOP or Democrats, except for the ayatollahs. To say our present government will back this agreement emboldens our enemies around the world from Yemen to Nigeria, because Obama-Biden ran for 2008 election on an anti-war campaign and will give away the store. I'm glad Prime Minister Netanyahu gave the world a talking to. Let's hope somebody listened.

Gone With The Wind after 75 Years

I bought the LIFE magazine photo issue commemorating this classic film over the holidays. The gist of its content reminds us the film portrays a contented Old South with happy slaves and isolated plantation owners, which sounds simplistic but true. Or maybe in Margaret Mitchell's tale some blacks were contented to be honorable servants to respectable white folk-like the O'Haras, Wilkes, Hamiltons and Kennedys in Civil War Georgia. For New Year's Eve I played the four hour DVD to relive this epic, timeless masterpiece from 1939.

The themes all came back to me: don't squander time, the land is the only thing that lasts, there's no winners in war, the Confederates were Americans too and love is blind; the triangle love story dominating the plot with Scarlett pining for Ashley the forbidden fruit while conceited Rhett seeks her attention. Set against Sherman's burning of Atlanta, carpetbaggers' promises of 40 acres/ mule, famine and defeat, Scarlett pulls herself together shooting the Yankee intruder on the stairs, rebuilding Tara and trying to get closer to Ashley at the lumber mill.

Events unravel of course as Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy for the $300 taxes; the shanty town muggers attack her in the carriage as Big Sam comes to her aid. Kennedy is later killed while Rhett and Dr. Meade bring a wounded Ashley back home posing as drunk from Belle's to avoid arrest by the Union Army. Rhett & Scarlett tie the knot and have a baby girl only to lose her from a horse accident. Melanie dies bringing Scarlett a reality check that Ashley always really did love Melanie, not her so Scarlett runs after Rhett walking away. She's left alone in the sunset with her Southern land.

I always found Scarlett so attractive because of her passionate zest for life, true to her desires and strength to carry on making a dress from drapery, growing cotton, saving the cow, caring for Melanie's childbirth and running a business. I laughed when she pulled her sister's pigtail. She gave Pork her father's watch, very touching. Her weakness was fear of rejection, manifested in her quest for Ashley Wilkes, the vulnerable, patriotic gentleman married to the faithful, re-assuring, magnanimous Melanie. You cant be rejected if you go for someone already taken, because loving an imaginary ideal outside yourself avoids that fear of rejection. In the end Scarlett finds love but it's too late as the heartless, selfish man from Charleston fades into the mist. She had her chance.

 Love is for the happiness of the other person; for most of the story Scarlett only wanted to be in charge-Rhett was only money. Ashley the nice guy maintained their friendship telling Scarlett she doesn't know fear. But he's not on her wave length because Scarlett DOES know fear, and she has to grow up at the end. The triumph of the whole story though seemingly sad is love feels good until the two-edged sword hurts you, then you have to love yourself alone. You cant be afraid of that!

Potpourri of Issues

We sure have a lot of problems. We also have a lot of debate on how to solve them. I can't solve them here but I'll give you my attitude on what these issues are. For sure, I am always opinionated. Some solutions are offered here too, can you hear me now?

Health care: Obamacare/ the Affordable Care Act really isn't that affordable from what I hear. People are losing their old plans for new ones. Taxes go up. I just went on Medicare so I'm in the mix now; so far I've got a no-premium HMO saver plan though with Plan B I still get $104 deducted from my Social Security deposit each month. When I tried to get a referral on a dermatology visit through the PCP, personal care physician, I got a very impudent, snobbish response and dropped from the doctor's receptionist. I reported the incident to my insurance and requested a new PCP as a male too, and got one. As for the VA it took me THREE VISITS to get my photo taken for the new cards coming out. The VA data network includes Obamacare using an outsourcing contractor which told me I was ineligible for the updated card. Hogwash! I protested rather loudly, speaking to the chief of staff, explaining our veterans cards are based upon our service, qualifying us for ALL our benefits-not just based on their means test or income. Very demeaning. A third experience involves the state system called MassHealth which after 10 months tells me I have to fill out a SECOND APPLICATION because their website hasn't worked properly and my benefits will be jeopardized if I don't reapply before 2015.  Shameful! Their problem will not be my problem and I told them so.

War and peace: In retrospect Bush didn't start war, the terrorists did. The 2007 surge cleaned out Anbar Province only to have Obama lose Iraq by bringing US troops home to assuage his 2008 election promises for approval by his constituency. Obama found out he couldn't close Guantanamo, defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan nor remove Assad from Syria. His "redline" was a fake vs Syria after the chemical weapons were used. Obama's empty threat resulted in the build up of ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. In Libya at least NATO helped out, and Kaddafi was later killed. The Benghazi attack on our embassy was dismissed and covered up for Obama's re-election in 2012.  Okay you say Obama got bin Laden and he did, but that success really belongs to Bush in part- because W went after al-Qaeda after Sept. 11th. After all the talk with a new Iranian president, Iran is still hosing us with their secret centrifuges for nuclear weapons-contrary to their pleas regarding sanctions. America and the European Union just watched while Putin went into Crimea and now eastern Ukraine, because Obama is viewed as a weak leader. Meanwhile he challenges Congress.

On immigration: Obama will go around Congress to suit him after all the patronizing speeches for Congress involvement in war. Yes this country was founded on immigrants, but amnesty for the illegals already here will only encourage more illegal immigrants coming across our weak southern border. Some say we don't welcome legal immigrants? A lack of English speaking and desire for US  citizenship is an awkward mix; I'm for the legal process with papers and identification which is the basis for how America does business. All persons are created equal, but an illegal status does not entitle them to citizen rights if they are not legal citizens! Am I missing something? If Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Honduras etc. want in- apply! The green card visa a valid way; guest workers should be allowed to enter if they want jobs in agriculture. However I still oppose handouts, driver's licenses to illegal immigrants as a path to citizenship, or our laws/ screening standards for citizens mean nothing.

Energy: Oil prices, gasoline down for now but will we ever learn our lesson? North Dakota's oil boom has reduced our dependence on overseas imports; we're drilling off shore in the Gulf and Alaska. I say we need to drill ONSHORE in Alaska as spills on the land are less harmful than the likes of BP in 2010 Louisiana. And the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada's tar sands should also be approved and built. The Democrats want jobs but still think Washington DC can pay for all our problems with   "monopoly money" we're broke, remember? The oil companies have LOTS of real money to hire workers, but with prices down the drillers & producers now lose money. After the 40 year ban on oil exports by the US we could now sell oil, natural gas to Europe, Ukraine to help our Allies, and hurt Putin. We still need coal to keep the miners and railroads in business too. I'm all for wind farms and solar energy where appropriate. The Northeast has a sun shortage and higher prices for heating than rest of the nation. Why wouldn't you want a natural gas pipeline? And LNG tankers offloading out at sea terminals safe from the cities? You cant power cars on hot air!

National Security: We're at war against suicide bombers, therefore our intelligence secrets are not to be compromised by Edward Snowden and other self-appointed liberal crusaders. Spying on our Allies' cell phones crosses the line however I think. I've no problem with NSA, FBI, CIA, Secret Service and law enforcement monitoring US citizens phone & internet activities. Got something to hide?

Ferguson: I hope the police officer is exonerated as the kid went for his gun at the police car. Racism isn't just for whites you know. The OJ Simpson murder verdict was a breach of justice. Travon Martin was pursued by that man and killed after the dispatcher warned him not to chase the kid who was unarmed.

Other: The Colorado ski industry must be involved in the widening of I-70 into the mountains, with a guideway train already proposed by CDOT. If energy can pay extraction fees, why can't Summit, Vail pay to help the state?  The NOAA ban on cod fishing hurts like hell but can the fishermen outfit for dogfish, mussels, scallops and swordfish instead? Funny how GM and Chrysler got ignition switch recalls-weren't they bailed out by Obama's stimulus hoopla in 2009? Ford didn't take the money and didn't have these issues, am I on to something here?  If Massachusetts wants jobs then let's have casinos, even if you don't like gambling as I don't, the hotel buffets need food service and room attendants.  The pine beetle kill out West is turning whole mountainsides into red, dead trees a real fire hazard. The US Forest Service and private industry needs more fire fighters, and slurry planes, helicopters to combat drought-caused fires; loggers to mitigate dying forests to reduce this threat. Better research warning programs are needed to predict earthquakes, avalanches & landslides. At least two drones crashed into geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park; stricter enforcement stopping this kind of vandalism needs to be more vigilant.  Better sub-division planning coupled with more dams will prevent the flooding as seen in northern Colorado last year.

In summary the Federal government needs to operate on a balanced budget, not more feckless spending! We need to make our enemies pay too, reparations maybe? End foreign aid to rogue regimes and uncommitted nations, Turkey? Syria? Jordan? India? Pakistan? Latin America? Mexico? Our state governments need more independence from Washington DC, stop trading votes, money and pork. Priorities need to be set by somebody. The rural West embraces independence while the East and California can't manage nor afford to fix their urban problems like crowding, crime, traffic and transit. We are a divided nation because our respective cultural values are so different. Guns for example, energy and agriculture again. United we stand. But without a stand we stand for nothing!

Rust, Silver and Gold

I-155 approach to Mississippi River near Caruthersville, MO. I'm somewhere between my New England childhood home and choices for an adult home. I don't forget where I come from, but still stay focused ahead.
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Back East I really have no standing; I am nothing here only revenue, a cog in their wheels of government, justice and economic expectations. Individuality is not respected here, only the law and authority. Power clings to protective patronage. It's the money chase and the put on for a false show of compassion and sophistication. We know what's best for you. Narcissism, the herd instinct: keep up with the Joneses, the Sullivans, the Kennedys and Kelleys!  Irish flag license plates. Self-worth by ancestry and birthplace. Turf wars and class consciousness. Possession through bullying- aggression prevails. Outdated crumbling infrastructure. Bureaucratic entities cover their own rear ends at the expense of responsibility for the common good in the name of a commonwealth.

The Harvard/ Amherst rabble. Mafia cronies. Tatooed, pierced body parts, metallic boom box rap crap in-your-face vandal vulgarity. You're on your own in the merry-go-round screwball madhouse, perpetuated by neglect and disrespectful apathy. Winter's dark days of icy overcast gloom and chill stretch from November to March in an endless pile up of cold steel and salt. Curt abrupt strangers rush up behind my rear view mirror, pushing me to get out of their way. Wait in line for everything. Fearful multitudes elbow each other in reticent subway caverns of tabloids, urine odors and panhandlers.

Away from the bumper crop of car commercials and news center insanity is a place of rest somewhere, sometimes the tension and gall lifts in a whiskey glass or a bottle of wine. A roaring fire brings warm comfort in the North Woods beneath a New Hampshire birch. Swells and seabirds ride a breeze upon a beach, sometimes accompanied by bikini-clad beauties for a middle-aged man to enjoy. The bounce of a sailboat in a port tack relieves the dreary soul of suburban stress for an open breath of birth rite. Those dark winter skies aren't so bad after a day's skiing above the snarl below.

Then there's an open interstate free of tolls and taxing tailgaters, leading me once again over the Alleghenies to the corn belt flat horizons. The restrictions of a structured culture ascends for an individual on the road, tall in the saddle and high in the chin! Open ranges of sagebrush chaparral with Chihuahuan-Sonoran-Mojave-Colorado Plateau-Great Basin desert zones get shared with antelope, owls, rabbits and coyotes. Cattle guards, runaway truck ramps, snowplows, elk crossings and hushed evergreen forests mark the Rocky Mountains separation from so called civilization in a measured pace of deference.

Westerners don't recognize class; everyone is a class to one's self; identity is accepted inherently with your presence-everyone shares the common bonds to a county, a creek, a ranch, a resort, a small town, the land itself, providing a culture outdoors. Geography is measured by miles, not miles per hour, People say hello to one another usually with a "howdy" and a "you betcha." And the sky is almost always visible overhead with occasional abrupt changes, but the dry southwest wind patterns usually last longer than the stormy stretches. There are no fences in a national forest, BLM or national park beyond the private land boundaries. You are free. You've left behind the emphasis on crusading social issues and pretenses of reform through cookie-cutter, chaotic fitting in. Instead you get a tip of the hat pardner and a warm handshake in a less violent, virulent society.

What's Next In Space?

Since the early years of Mercury and Gemini manned flights, Apollo to the moon, the Sky Lab, Salyut,  Mir to the International Space Station, I've been hooked ! I recall Vanguard, Tiros, Sputnik, Explorer, Vostok,  Ranger, Mariner, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, the two Voyagers, Cassini, Magellan, Messenger, Soyuz and more- both unmanned and manned. The Mars missions particularly compelling like Viking, Sojourner-Pathfinder, Mars Express, Phoenix; the Spirit and Opportunity rovers as well as the latest Curiosity just wet the appetite for more knowledge-and the fabulous pictures. Shown here is a watercolor of the last Hubble repair mission. An even bigger James Webb telescope is planned for 2018.

Sorting out the latest new thing takes some catching up to do. This past September 2014 NASA announced the two winning candidates for a space taxi to resume US launched flights to the space station above. Boeing to build the CST-100 with a maximum capacity of seven astronauts, replacing our Russian partner's Soyuz hitch-hiking since the end of our shuttle program. CST be launched by the Atlas 5 rocket with a five year success history of 26 lift-offs. We should've kept one orbiter available in this gap, but President Obama put 7,000 out of work, ending STS as well as the proposed Ares plans; we even had a successful launch of the Ares 1 in 2009-10. The other space taxi contractor is Space X, short for Space Exploration Technologies; their capsule Dragon is already being used as a cargo ship, lifted by their Falcon 9 rocket. Recently the ESA, European agency completed a space plane mission in earth orbit, unmanned. They also put Philae, released by Rosetta, onto a comet called 67P after a 10 year transit around the inner solar system, a remarkable triumph.

Other attempts in this new commercial crew program include the Orbital Sciences Corporation's recent failure of their Antares rocket vehicle carrying the Cygnus payload; allegedly the Russian- made engine failed on launch and was destroyed over the pad at Wallop's Island VA. Within a week a second setback occurred over the Mojave Desert as the SpaceShipTwo tourist thrill ride by Virgin Galactic broke apart after the tail feathers were deployed prematurely before apogee and descent, killing one; the other test pilot survived.

As for the Russians their space agency called Roscosmos completed a ground experiment called Mars 500 whereby a crew quarantined themselves for 519 days. Russia of course uses Progress cargo ships and the Soyuz to bring crews to the ISS, and home again. The current contract with them calls for 6 US replacements to go up with Russia in 2016, returning them in June 2017. By then we hope to be independent of Russia for space station transportation. Russia has plans for updating, extending their spaceports and cosmodromes; launching a Mars vehicle 120-150 ton capacity, a Liquidator satellite that cleans up space junk in a geostationary orbit, a meteorological Meteo, other high tech satellites at $9.7 billion, and a moon base by 2040 utilizing cranes & mining hardware! 

China is in space now having succeeded in landing a rover on the moon, as well as docking with a laboratory in earth orbit with their Shenzhou 10 spacecraft. I believe India has done some unmanned launches as well. North Korea has also put something up amidst their saber rattling propaganda. I would like to see NASA and ESA work with China, welcoming them to the club!

On December 4, 2014 America hopes to test fly the Orion atop a Delta IV Heavy in a four hour unmanned trip through the radioactive Van Allen Belts at 3600 miles up, then re-entering earth's atmosphere at 20,000 mph to test the ablative honeycomb heat shield made by Textron in Wilmington MA.  The drogue chute to slow the craft to 175 mph with main chute splashdown at 20 mph if all goes well. The contractor for the Delta IV is United Launch Alliance, partnered with Lockheed Martin, a Colorado company. Boulder's Ball Aerospace is also involved.

The SLS, Space Launch System replaces the Ares program for the heavy lifting to Mars.  I can't conceive an Orion crew going to Mars with a single rocket for all the cargo, supplies and a lander needed, therefore I presume another SLS launch vehicle will provide these inherent essentials! The first SLS test comes in 2018 if we don't delay; it also is to be built by ULA/ Lockheed Martin, making both these rockets a cousin, descendent to the old Titan.

So that's the plan. I submitted an interest in the Orion "boarding pass" offer and my number will ride with it, J2M000001082691, that last one is me! The longer we delay the longer it'll take to reach our goals.        

More compiled data:  The Orion test flight last December 5 was a huge success. I watched all four hours, following the launch in a spectacular fiery orange lift off, the Delta IV separations, fairing and escape tower jettisoning. The second stage re-ignited pushing the craft up to 3600 miles above Earth with fantastic blue pictures of our world the curvature the size of a basketball.  The heat shield did its job as the drogue & main chutes gently set Orion onto the water 600 miles south of San Diego with the Navy in the recovery zone.

March 28 of the new year the launch date for Soyuz to bring Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko up to the International Space Station for their one year duration flight. The Kelly twin brothers are to be featured in TIME magazine, Scott on the cover. The longest record for an American in space will take 5,920 orbits in the station the size of a 747 jumbo jet with 14 modules, 358' length, or about the size of a 4 bedroom house. Time spent will consist of science, health monitoring/ exercise and maintenance. They'll be joined and left behind by other expedition groups of astronauts. Books, movies and TV show requests will be available with their e mail/astronomical/photographic pastimes.

I've learned the Boeing space taxi CST-100 will be using four "pusher" thrusters at the capsule's base for a newly-advanced emergency escape system, instead of the tower configuration Mercury, Apollo and Orion had. The Space X Dragon also will use this new plan.

The Webb Telescope consists of an infrared camera to look at the first stars and galaxies, seeing further back into time than Hubble. These heavenly bodies are so far away their light can only be seen by detection of red shift in the spectrum; it takes millions of years for the Creation to reach us!

Venus? I read an article about a notion to send two astronauts in a spacecraft that would land on high ground, then inflate for habitat module; a 30 day orbital mission would be called the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept. The premise Venus tempertures are only 17 degrees higher than the hottest on Earth at an altitude of 50 kilometers or 30 miles up! Venus is somewhat closer to Earth with a 440 day round trip, compared to Mars at 650-900 days round trip. Isn't that something?!       

July 11: NASA announced the names of four military/ astronaut veterans to begin the commercial crew missions to the ISS, probably in 2017 or after. Following the recent Space X cargo rocket launch failure it'll take more money & testing for the CST-100 "space taxi"to be man-rated for flight by both Space X and Boeing. The astronauts picked for the first flight are Navy Capt. Sunita Williams with 322 days in space, holding the space walk record at 50 hours, 40 minutes combined; F-22 test pilot Robert Behnken USAF with two shuttle missions, USAF Colonel Eric Boe of 55 Southern Watch Europe-Mideast sorties/ two shuttle trips and Douglas Hurley USMC also two shuttle trips. I believe the most days in space for a woman is now held by ESA Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti recently returned to Earth.

The exciting news occurs in deep space as the New Horizons probe fast approaches Pluto for a fly by through the Kuiper Belt at 7:49 am July 14, 2015! From early appearances Pluto looks red-similar to Mars except methane gas mixes with sunlight giving this far out dwarf planet its icy red hue.

Scott Kelly has just passed over 100 days in the space station so far, about 1/3 into his one year mission. He has been on Twitter showing strange algae in the waters, landforms, as well as photos of Boston, London and other points of interest below him!

Semi-Native

Self-worth doesn't have to be earned, only discovered by the self.  Money, materialism and rank are not the measure of a man, only his enlightenment of what feeds his soul-that is what belongs to him.

Code of the West:    Live each day with courage     Take pride in your work     Always finish what you start    Do what has to be done     Be tough but fair     When you make a promise keep it      Ride for the brand    Talk less and say more    Remember some things aren't for sale    Know when to draw the line  -author unknown     

The Men Who Don't Fit In:    There's a race of men who don't fit in, A race that cant stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin and they roam the world at will.  They range the field and they rove the flood and they climb the mountain's crest.  Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood and they don't know how to rest.  -Robert Service    

I can relate to this poem with my skiing, birding, camping, driving across country, national parks quests, living & surviving odd jobs, alone roaming our deserts, canyons, plains, ranges and seashores seeking the Holy. I identify with other personalities like Thoreau, Abbey, Muir, Amundsen, Miller, Killy, Magellan, Washburn, Cameron, Grissom, Schirra, Powell, Fossett, Smith and my grandfather Griscom; they all possessed this spirit of adventure, and being the best to themselves!

A few more thoughts from others:  The way one lives is social work itself.  -Krishnamurti 
Faith resolves doubt.   -Billy Graham       You are responsible for your own behavior.  -my brother
Time is wealth.  -Allen Ginsberg     Don't do anything foolish.  -my Dad   What's left but our separateness and our dignity to bear it?  -from Route 66 TV series   Bad roads=bad driving !  -me 
The rocks live forever.  -Geronimo

Journalism Ethics/ Copyright Protection

The purpose of my blog here is to openly share my take on life, views on the issues and publish things both current as well further back that have been sitting just filed away! Be advised I do have original work here and it is protected by the U.S. Library of Congress, Registration #VAu 1-178-051 effective December 20, 2012 for all text, two dimensional artwork including photographs and paintings, titled Daley Art. Some of my photography and watercolor can be viewed by clicking my profile, to my You Tube Channel Art which is part of my Google account. I do subscribe to others' videos on You Tube, but WILL NOT UPLOAD others' stuff obviously and I don't know how to upload my own videos; I don't make videos anyway! Furthermore if I quote, borrow from another writer it is my intention to reveal that source,  as well as protect myself. I hope you'll enjoy my posts here and find them stimulating, contentious, agreeable or thoughtful. Thank you.

Philosophy Thoughts and Meditations

You get appreciation from yourself which is the reward in giving in life, love, family, philanthropy, social crusades or whatever; the joy is in the giving. We are programmed to receive- (Eagles) which causes all the conflict when what we expect or demand from others is not received.

Character is a system of values personally chosen by and for the individual in growth. For me it's resiliency, adaptation, curiosity, personal discipline, determination, fortitude and listening too. Philosophical reasoning and the quest has to be a unity of subjective and objective knowledge.

I don't believe authority figures can impose character on someone else, not God, clergy, teachers, politicians, police, courts, parents or employers. It has to come from within, again chosen. Choice. Otherwise why mince words like freedom and liberty when power and law asserts itself for power's and law's sake? The purpose and translation gets lost in the assertions, enforcements whatever.

There can be guidelines, rules and laws for the general good, but the motive and goal remains for the general good-NOT for the ones doing the guiding and ruling!

Mesa Verde (or______________) always tells the truth. The land opens us up to the agelessness of the Earth and our age within it. This world has no boundaries except those we humans construct to shut each other out elsewhere. Here on the land the only thing we can attempt to shut out is our own Truth-and it wont let you do that. Where I go, what I seek and see is who I am.

Vietnam on Another Veteran's Day

I didn't know how to upload a previous file on my desktop to this new blog so I'll just summarize to begin here. At 65 I don't have combat experience to comment on the Vietnam War, but I was stateside in the Navy, observing events like the Tet Offensive in 1968, the assassinations of King and RFK, the Chicago riots and Johnson's decision not to seek re-election. Looking back and using several books as reference material my conclusion is our leaders, including the higher brass didn't really care about winning the war, just covering their own rear ends to convince the American public opinion why the war was justified; and they lied, manipulated body counts, even composed speeches for the likes of Thieu, Ky, Khanh and Diem, the South Vietnam prime ministers of the era to legitimize their authority. Less focus was placed on respect and more focus centered on how many GIs can we sacrifice for so many a number of North Vietnamese regulars. I got the impression our people were ignored or forgotten as like the siege at Khe Sanh for example. This policy was known as attrition, cutting our losses to suit our aims, which is a pretty harsh thing to say. The draft brought green recruits into the jungle and booby traps; the lucky got through their one year tour to go home. And there was My Lai and presumably other episodes of innocents killed, villages burned. Yes the Viet Cong used people to hide grenades, even children and our people didn't have much choice. During Nixon/Agnew there were enemy lists, Christmas bombings on the North and the Watergate scandal-which led to the impeachment and resignation of his presidency. What a tumultuous period of history! I believe in a strong foreign policy, during Ford, Reagan and both Bush administrations I had to separate the self-defeating "Vietnam syndrome" loser's self-fulfilling prophesy- from the later crises that came along like the 1979 Iranian hostages, USSR in Afghanistan, Bosnia/Kosovo, Saddam in Kuwait, 9/11 and our present War on Terror-in order that we succeed in these justifiable, righteous campaigns. Vietnam was one theater of the Cold War like Korea, Berlin and Cuban Missile Crisis all were. Thankfully the Soviet Union gave it up in 1989 for which Gorbechev, Reagan and Bush 41 get credit! Today we use a professional soldier instead of a draftee. I think if we go to war to preserve freedom and the peace, it has to be done with integrity and the right reasons, with compassion for the innocents as well as justice for those who commit the atrocities like ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban. These are determined enemies, but if our leaders can LEAD and remain firm, focused on the objective-instead of opinion polls-we can prevail and hold up ourselves with pride, self-honesty. We can learn from the Vietnam era to go forward while never forgetting those who did what they were told, serving honorably in a terrible situation-mismanaged up the Chain of Command at the time.