Palestine

It is an irony of sorts that Palestine is the Greek name for Philistine, the bitter enemies of the Jews.

Wise Ole Dog

"Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick up and carry on."

Winston Churchill

Unnatural Selection

Darwin's original book title was "The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation Of Favored Races In The Struggle For Life.

We can see why he soon dropped the later part of the title.
Margaret Sanger, the mother of Planned Parenthood once spoke before Klansman in the north. After the speech she was invited by several Klan leaders to speak. She and her group were about eugenics and were determined to limit people of color, poor whites, the weak, afflicted etc.
She and her group didn't attempt to hide their intentions.
Germany's leaders were taking notes.

The opening of the six story abortion mill (largest in the U.S.) in the inner city area of Houston may convince more of our African American and Hispanic brothers and sisters that liberals are not their friends.

Watch Your 401K

Sometime back around 1984 I heard a conservative economist on the radio warn that we will know when this country is near its financial end when the Government confiscates retirements, 401Ks, and IRAs.
Here we are twenty six years later and the Democratic Congress is floating a balloon out in the public about guaranteeing retirements. If there isn't a lot of complaining they will proceed. From what I've read, citizens would be told that under govt. control their retirements will be safe. Between $ 1 and $ 3 trillion dollars would be confiscated. Pensions would be doled out in inflated money.
Employers will not be able to deduct their contributions (another slam against capitalism.)
All this would be overseen by the Social Security arm of govt.
I wouldn't surprised if a few members of the GOP went along with such a bill.

Swan Song

Swans - For they, when they perceive that they must die, having sung all their life long, do then sing more lustily than ever, rejoicing in the thought that they are about to go away to the god whose ministers they are. But men, because they are themselves afraid of death, slanderously affirm of the swans that they sing a lament at the last, not considering that no bird sings when cold, or hungry, or in pain, not even the nightingale, nor the swallow.

Socrates

Plato's Phaedo

No Rhyme Or Reason

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?
Quoth the raven "Nevermore."

The writer was born on this date in 1809

Quakers

I noticed on the news that Pat Robertson was really catching it for recalling the folklore or history of the Haitian people selling their souls to the devil for freedom.

I'm not interested in taking sides on this thing. People believe what they believe and tend to not change their minds.
I think one should look at these controversial issues as though they were a big red barn. Look at it from the front, the back, the sides, the top and walk through the center if possible.

The front of the barn: God is the only judge
The back of the barn: But he also makes it known what really angers him.
The left side of the barn: Americans have been taught tolerance so long that they tolerate almost any behavior without judgement.
The right side of the barn: the Haitian people are suffering terribly. The only thing we need to be concerned with at the moment and for the next year is their health and well being.
Walking through the barn hallway: I've seen the Voodoo rituals on the education channels. For me it is very disturbing to witness. I don't stand outside during a thunderstorm and I wouldn't invite one of these rituals onto my front lawn. Think what you want.
The barn from the top: A related subject - Christians believe strongly that the Green Movement will not work. Man can't save the earth. The enlightened ones are not gods capable of creating utopia on earth. We're promised that the earth will be renewed without our help. We do however, have an obligation to be good stewards of the land. Robertson's believes the biblical promise - "If you turn from your wicked ways and turn your face toward me, I will forgive you and heal your land." He believes Haiti can be healed.
This is one divided country.

Colter Was A Man

I always enjoy reading the old story of John Colter who was with Lewis and Clark. Later he went to the Three Forks area of Montana three times for beaver pelts and adventure. Once he was caught by the Blackfeet, stripped naked and asked if he could run fast. Thinking quickly, he said "no." They gave him a two hundred yard head start and took out after him. He would die in horrible pain. But Colter was tall, lean and fast and headed for the Madison River through prickly pear. Soon he glanced back to see only one brave behind him. Colter quickly turned, wrestled the spear from the man and killed him. He then jumped into the Madison and swam beneath a log jam put his face between two logs to breath. When dark came he floated down stream for some distance then walked for a week and a half to the nearest fort
Eventually Colter found a woman and settled down back in Missouri I believe. Two years later he was dead. A friend said it was the adventure that kept him alive. The writer of this version, a guy named Junger compared this phenomenon with Whalers out of New Bedford some years later. After a miserable three years on a bloody greasy whaling ship found they couldn't stand to be normal men in a sleepy town, so they signed up for another voyage. He said that Veit Nam vets couldn't return to normal life so they kept reenlisting. Colter, wasn't afraid that something would happen to him. He was worried that something wouldn't. This is what drove him. Junger says that Americans are secure in the fact that whey will always have a house, food, spending money, car and the rest, that there is no danger in their lives which seem meaningless. To artificially stimulate excitement men climb mountains, sky dive , ride motorcycles etc. Some die while doing it but to them its better that existing seventy five years and never have lived.
How many of us would rather die on a Harley at 110 mph with pipes roaring, or smash a plane into a foggy mountain or die in our easy chair with yesterday's paper across our faces?
Young man, one never knows when life will throw one in the thick of trouble and survival.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

There is a predominately black church in Roanoke, Virginia, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. I has a stained glass window with the image of Stonewall Jackson, hero of the Southern Confederacy.

So how can a man who fought for the slave holding South be honored by blacks?



When Jackson was a professor at VMI he started a Sunday School for black children both free and slave. Obviously he believed that blacks have a soul, but then many southerners believed the same. The southern fear was that if slaves became too educated, they would declare their freedom. Jackson being a good Calvanist ignored that law.



The Rev. Lylburn Dowling arranged for the stained glass to be installed in 1906 in recognition of the man who taught his parents to read, moreover, led them to salvation.

This goes to show that Men aren't one dimensional as they are sometimes portrayed.

The Love of Money

The British Pound got its name from the weight of silver used in trade during the ninth century.

1814

And let us not forget the fiddle tune "Eighth of Janurary"
In memory of Old Hickory and his Tennessee Volunteers finishing off the battle of New Orleans.
The Vols pervailed. It is said that Jackson had three good recruting years prior to the battle.

Crazy Horse 35 - Custer 0

8, January, 1877 Crazy Horse was killed by his captors where he was being held after his surrender. Dee Brown in his book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" says that his Lakota name actually meant Enchanted Horse, The Enchanted One. Was there an error in translation or did white men want to degrade him?
There were others, Young Man Afraid of His Horses. The name actually meant that even the appearance of his horses struck fear in his enemies.

Inventions

In 1910 a crew leader Edward Pulaski and forty five men were confronted with a forest fire blow up in Idaho. He found a cave for them to hide in while the giant fire passed. Five died, several others were badly burned. This man later invented a tool for fighting forest fires. It is an axe on one side and a pick hoe on the other. One side to cut brush, the other to scrape a fire line. To this day the tool is called - you guessed it - a Pulaski.

Surveying

Not so long ago surveyors used a 66 foot chain to measure land. 20 chains equal 1/4 mile. 80 chains equal 1 mile.

The Great Beyond

In Plato's "Apology" (apology being one who upholds and defends his beliefs) he tells the story of Socrates' trial and death in the year 399 BC. His accusers said that he corrupted the young men and didn't worship the gods, that he worshiped other gods.

Yes he had to drink the hemlock.


Socrates believed that the soul continues to live after the body dies. Then again most Greeks believed in Hades or another life somewhere down below. He believed that a child is born with certain knowledge, a knowledge that existed before it had a body, a soul if you will. He believed the body was a hindrance to the soul with its lusts and gluttony etc. Only when the soul breaks free of the corrupt body can it reach perfection.

"To die is gain." Socrates said. You have read this from the Apostle Paul, but he didn't come along until four hundred years later. Socrates had figured out in his own brilliant mind that there was more than meets the eye. In fact he said never trust your senses, hearing, vision, etc. The only things real are the things not seen. Maybe he was a stoic.

This toga talker had some strange ideas but insisted that man should not fear death because it was a beautiful beginning. His friend compaired the lyre to the body and its music the soul. He wondered if the sound was still living somewhere. It makes me wonder about music in Christian
religion. Maybe its one more thing in the religion that is intended to be spirit and not body.

Native Americans and other societies held similar beliefs in a great spirit and the next life long before priests and smallpox.
Socrates and Paul didn't have the same beliefs but there are certainly parallels.

The belief in life of the soul after death, I believe, is innate in man unless he becomes too educated by other men.

A Sporting Sort

The first city in the United States to legalize prostitution was Nashville Tennessee.
During the Civil War the Union took possession on the city. The army tried its best to discourage the sport because one third or more of the fighting force was suffering from STD's at any given time. The Army even commandeered a large river boat and sent a large number of these women to Cincinnati. The boat was brand new, maiden voiage if you will. The boat was ruined and the move was a failure.
Finally the profession was legalized and doctors did their inspections every few days. Health returned to the ranks.

These diseases were difficult to treat in those days. Mercury was the poison uh drug of choice.
The saying was "A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury." Many unsuspecting wives got these diseases after the war. Thousands of families kept the secret.

"The Story The Soldiers Wouldn't Tell" by Thomas P. Lowry M.D.

Fire On The Mountain

I took this picture a few years back when Jamie and I were fishing on the Missouri near Wolf Creek Montana. This ole boy made repeated trips to the river picking up water and transporting it to a fire over the mountain. We were watching Fire Fighters on the hill above us cutting a line.

These bags are sometimes called Bambi buckets or Sims buckets.

And these are small compaired to the logging copters that can lift thousands of pounds.

No fish have ever been found in these buckets.

Or fly fishermen

Icarus Complex

I was reading a book that was written back in the mid 90's. The writer said that a Smoke Jumper made $ 8.50 an hour. With overtime and hazard pay they could make almost $ 30,000.

From 1,500 feet it takes about a minute and a half to para shoot to the ground, therefore a Smoke jumper is paid 21 cents to jump.


Sebastian Junger

Bentonite

Bentonite is a powdery earth deposited from volcanic dust. The magic of Bentonite is that it expands when wet. As a result it has many uses. It is used for drilling mud in the oil and gas fields. It's used to coat the walls of water wells. Bentonite can be placed in areas of ponds and lakes that seep water as a sealer. It's a good clarifier of some wines.

Bentonite---------named for Ft. Benton Wyoming

Liver Eating Johnson

Most of us know him from the movie "Jeremiah Johnson."
John Johnson rode into the Montana Territory around 1846. He married a Flathead girl and built themselves a cabin. One day he returned home to find his wife killed by the Crow. Johnson swore an oath of vengeance. He killed every Crow brave that he could find. He would eat a piece the victim's liver after every kill, thus he was known as "Liver Eatin' Johnson." The Crow as you can imagine developed a great respect for the liver eater. Eventually he made peace with the Crow.
He later became Town Marshall of Red Lodge Montana.
Johnson died in Los Angeles in 1900.
With stories of men who knew him, Thorp and Bunker wrote a book about Johnson called "Crow Killer."

Memories of an old soldier

I called my dad today as I do every weekend. Somehow Korea came up in the conversation. He told me the Korean peasants cooked a strong smelling dish made of cabbage. According to him the smell carried for hundreds of yards. He said it was called "Kimchi" kim chee.
It's amazing how the mind of an eighty seven year old man struggles with advanced age, yet can recall a Korean dish from 1952.
If memory serves me correctly the cabbage was fertilized by human excrement.
G.I's. didn't touch it.

This is not a reticule of the people. The poor have to get by the best way they can.
I like cabbage but when cooking it smells to high heaven.

Your son may be a wimp

Statistics show that every year there are more women than men graduating college. Some would say, "It's about time."
I would say that it's one more terminal illness to a society. I'm now hearing others echo what I've been saying for years. Watch TV commercials, and sit-coms. You must have noticed how the wife is always the one who knows best and the husband is a total buffoon. We have a serious problem. We have men who don't know how to be men teaching their sons how not to be men, single mothers trying to do the same (with a lot of help from Hollywood, Govt., the ladys at the beauty shop, schools etc.)
Too many of these boys are being doped up for eighteen years and told to keep quiet; Janie Sue is trying to learn.
You're tired of my harping you say. If you have a daughter, it will be more difficult for her to find a companion who is not feminized, weak, abusive, under educated, fearful of commitment. He won't be willing to lay down his life for her.
She wants security above all, not career.
Girls, take a long look at his family, especially his father before before taking him home.