The conservative function of price

With the price for a gallon of gasoline now over $3, and likely headed towards $4/gallon before too long (of course, nothing is ever for certain with commodities, at least in the short term), no doubt people who own--usually in partnership with their bank--SUVs and large pickup trucks are getting nervous. Who can blame them? There's nothing like filling up with $70+ worth of gasoline every week or two to make one start rethinking his transportation needs.

There was a time when it seemed like practically every second vehicle on the road was large and held a big engine. In my area, it still seems that way, but I think it's just due to past momentum. If what I've noticed at a small, local used car lot is any is any indication (see photo), I think the message may finally be filtering through to folks that the overall trend in gas prices is ever upward and vehicles with cavernous interiors and thirsty power plants drain too much discretionary capital. The idea of the low-mileage big vehicle was supported for years by cheap, abundant (those two words go well together in a [relatively] free market) oil, but it can now no longer support itself, at least by those without deep pockets.

What we are beginning to see today is the first manifestation of a principle in economics known as the conservative function of price. Gas prices are rising, so this catches the public's attention and more effort is made to use gas wisely. People, eventually, tend to act rationally when faced with economic choices which they cannot evade and change their behavior.

This change won't happen overnight, and my small sample of one local, independent car lot does not a national trend make, but for the purposes of this blog post, I am going to extrapolate what little information I have anyway. The photo above does not show very well all of the vehicles on the lot, but I can tell you that about 90% of them are full-size trucks and SUVs. I can also tell you that in the past the ratio was 40% large to 60% small/medium vehicles on that lot. The fact that so many large vehicles with robust energy appetites are available tells me that they are less popular than they used to be. Slowly, the smaller, fuel-efficient car is looking better and better to the average American, especially when faced with the equally distasteful choice of paying a large fuel bill or walking.

Take care.

DAL357

The cutie and comeuppance

The 'Net's been filled with stories over the last few days about now-former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's imbroglio with a top-dollar call girl (pictured) and his subsequent resignation. I don't really have much to add except that it's really sweet watching this poster boy for hypocrisy, one who has put so many people behind bars as a prosecutor for breaking what are often unconstitutional laws in the first place, twist in the wind. I can only hope that if it is proven that he used public monies for his trysts, he will spend time in prison with some of those same folks he helped put there. I won't go so far as to say that if this comes to pass that I hope he is violated sexually while in the pokey, no doubt as some of his victims have been, but that would be poetic justice.

This is the type of behavior and arrogance you get, folks, when government is peopled with career bureacrats/politicians.

Take care.
DAL357

Now, let's get back to digging that hole we're in.

As you may have heard, Ron Paul is now officially out of the 2008 presidential race, although some would say he was out before he even started. But those same people who might say that are also the same who will vote for either the Republican or Democrat party candidate and expect things to be miraculously different. The only person I'm aware of who actually offered substantive change to the American people, as opposed to just mouthing the word, was Ron Paul. Now that he is out, we can really get down to the business of business as usual.

Not that this surprises me. Americans are fated to follow their present course to its inevitable conclusion: a totalitarian state that mandates and directs practically all facets of life. Heck, we're already well on the way there as it is.

But what happens once we get there, be it in one generation or three? Somewhere down the line, people will realize that the government is made up of nothing more than people, people who can no more circumvent the laws of reality than any individual can. Those who are naive enough to believe a politician's/bureaucrat's promises/lies in exchange for ever-more helpings of their liberty/sovereignty will be bitterly disappointed when they find they have nothing left to give and they are getting a whole lot less than they bargained for. Unfortunately, I think this is the depth the American people will need to sink to before they start looking for true alternatives, not the same old pig with a new makeover.

If it comes to pass, perhaps the financial superstorm that appears to be looming just over the horizon will finally disgust Americans enough to jettison the two main parties (who are looking more and more the same to me every passing year), and embrace, however tentatively, a new approach. This is probably a wildly optimistic hope, but it's one which I still cling to.

Given their past history of behavior, though, I believe the more likely reaction to an economic catastrophe by American voters will be to clamor for more of the same poison that got them into the situation in the first place--government intervention in the economy. This is akin to a junky trying to kick his habit by taking more dope. Sure, they'll feel better for a bit, but when the temporary high is over they'll find the pit they're in has only grown deeper. Eventually, the junky will have to wise up, grow a backbone, realize that life encompasses both pleasure and pain and that it's not one long laugh-fest, and knock the monkey off of his back or he will die. Ditto the American public.

It takes a lot of moral character and courage (and a dollop of intelligence) for an epochal event like that to happen with a people, and I'm not so sure the aggregate of the American population is up to the task. You have no idea how wrong I hope I am.

Take care.
DAL357

Wrong is wrong, but it's your right.

Let me lay my cards on the table at the outset and say that it is not only my belief, but my absolute certainty, that homosexuality is an aberration. This does NOT mean that I believe people who are homosexual should be persecuted; they have the right to exist just as does any individual who is pulling their own weight and not infringing on anyone else's rights. In this country, the United States, a person has the right to be wrong as long as he is not coercing or hurting anyone else. And, in case you missed my point above, homosexuality is wrong.

How can I say this? Let's reason it out together.

Once all of the niceties such as romance, courtship, bonding, etc. are stripped away, human sexuality is for one purpose and one purpose only: procreation. Flowers, candy, long walks, long talks, gifts, cooing and cuddling are all just preludes to the need to perpetuate the species. Yes, sex is fun, but it's fun because it has to be to maximize couplings and create the next generation. Heterosexual sex is, therefore, natural in that it follows biological correctness. Yes, there are some practices that heterosexuals engage in that lead to a procreative dead end (birth control, sodomy), but, in general, heterosexuals are on the right track.

Homosexuals, on the other hand, are a procreative black hole. Their sexual acts do not, and cannot, ever, contribute to the perpetuation of the species. The sexual actions they engage in are not in accordance with nature, hence, their actions are unnatural. If something is unnatural it means it is so against nature that it does not contribute to the advancement of the species and, in fact, is against the species. So, homosexuality, as both an act and a philosophy, is anti-human.

Over the last generation or so, there has been a persistent cry from militant homosexuals that they did not choose the way they behave sexually, but that they were born that way. Scientifically, although there has been no physical evidence yet found to back up this claim, the jury is still out on a final ruling. With the human genome project now complete, it should only be a matter of time before a homosexual gene, if it exists, is found. Should a gene be found that really does cause a person to be homosexual, or at least have a proclivity towards that behavior, perhaps the parents of an unborn child found with this gene would elect to abort him or her.

Oh, I can hear the outcry now of militant homosexuals to that course of action. "It's genocide against homosexuals [only they would use the asinine term 'gays']! We're being persecuted for who we are!" I would have to say to them, "No, we now have the knowledge that homosexuality is indeed a birth defect, no different than spina bifida or Down syndrome, and we can begin to eradicate it from the population. If you don't like it, perhaps you should join with the Christian right, if they'll have you, in an [unholy] alliance against abortion." What a hoot THAT would be.

But what if homosexuality is a choice and not genetic? The human mind is the most complex piece of machinery in the universe; who knows what subtle and not-so-subtle influences it is exposed to cause it to choose certain paths, especially in a young, developing mind. Just to reiterate, I am not for persecution of homosexuals, but neither am I for the promotion of it as just another lifestyle (deathstyle, as some wag once said, is closer to the truth). If adult folks choose to be that way, that's their business, but I will never consider it natural, nor will I ever teach my child that it is anything but an aberration.

In the end, this debate on what causes homosexuality really is pointless. As I laid out above, whatever its cause(s), homosexuality is anti-life, and that's reason enough to oppose it as wrong.

Take care.

DAL357

Surviving survivalism

A Google search for survival sites and blogs, and a quick perusal of some of the hits found, is enough to make one think it's all too much to bother with, and that would be a shame. Much of the information is well intentioned, but it's written for others of like mind. The average Joe who has other interests in life than preparing for a total, irreversible societal meltdown will find most of the information not only over-the-top, but also overwhelming.

The reason for this is that practically every survivalist is seemingly looking to prepare for a complete societal collapse. In this scenario, only the strong and prepared survive and the rest get to fight each other over the scraps, a fate they deserve because they weren't prescient enough to lay in the necessities of life. Yes, this can happen in certain areas under extremely rare circumstances (Hurrican Katrina comes to mind), but there are two things to keep in mind: it's not happening everywhere at once, and it's temporary. A person, a family, or a group may have to be prepared to help themselves for a few days in a row, maybe even 2 to 3 weeks in succession, but having month upon month of supplies stocked away seems to be overkill, unless one plans on feeding his unprepared neighbors, which brings me to my next point.

Based on what I've learned from the various plights of others, the most successful survivors did not try to go it alone. They banded together with their neighbors and worked in concert to survive. They pooled resources, including knowledge and skills, and made the best of a bad situation. Show me a person who thinks they can do it all in the face of a natural or man-made catastrophe and I'll show you a person who has watched too many Hollywood fantasies and read too many TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) books.

Now, does the above mean I think survivalists are all wet? Not at all. Like everything else in life, one needs to adapt broad information to their own situation. The point where I and most survivalists part company is in the depth and detail of preparation and, as indicated above, in the siege-mentality mindset. What follows are MY guidelines on the basic needs in case of disaster. One should plan on having enough of these items for 2 to 4 weeks.

1. Food: mostly canned goods that can be eaten cold if need be


2. Water


3. Medications


4. Sanitary items: toilet paper, soap, wet wipes, toothbrush


5. Alternative cooking source: fireplace, camp stove, barbecue grill


6. Alternative light source: candles, flashlights, lanterns


7. Battery-powered radio


8. Alternative heat source: fireplace, a tent heater that can be safely used indoors, etc.


9. Diversions: a deck of cards, books, a journal, etc.


10. Firearm(s): a shotgun is king here, as evidenced by the Hurricane Katrina stories I've read, closely followed by a handgun

Many of these items you may already own; others you may have to acquire. The best way to stock up on the consumables you might need is a little at a time. Each time you go shopping, throw a few extras into your basket and put them into the basement or a closet. In short order, you'll have what you and yours need.

One area where I think survivalists go WAY overboard is in the area of firearms and ammunition. No, I can't tell you what type, how many you'll need, or how much ammo you should store, but I can make an educated guess. Some survival websites sound as if they are preparing for an onslaught of wave after wave of flesh-eating zombies, and advise that thousands of rounds of ammunition should be on hand for umpteen firearms. Look, if you've got that many people trying to get to you who aren't deterred by a few rounds fired in their direction, having enough ammo and guns for a platoon isn't likely to help you. Having a shotgun or two, and maybe a handgun or two as backup, as well as 100 rounds for each, is all you are ever likely to need for the amount of time you're going to be in dire straits. Learn how to use these tools and you'll be well served in case TSHTF (The Sh** Hits The Fan) and you have to provide for your and your neighbor's security because social order has been tempoararily interrupted.

I guess that's about it for this subject. Being prepared for the unexpected, within reason, does not mark one as paranoid, but as a wise person who knows things don't always go as wished. Hey, you're not expecting a fire, but you have a fire extinguisher in your house, right? The same type of thinking goes for that spare tire you're carrying in your car (as opposed to the one around your waist). Don't completely blow off what survivalists say; they do have some good points. But don't worry if you don't have a cabin in the hills, an AR-15- or AK-47-type rifle, a generator, and several thousand dollars worth of MREs. The few preps I outlined on my list will see you through practically any temporary crises this country will ever face.

Take care.
DAL357

Rapid movie review: Babel

I watched the 2006 movie Babel a few days ago after checking it out from the local library. While it's not anything great, it is a flick with a solid story told in an interesting way. I'm not going to give a synopsis here, you can look up the movie on the 'Net and find out about it, but I will give it my recommendation, and that should be all the impetus you need to secure and watch it yourself. Not that my opinion is all that (except to me), but those of you who know me know how little I think of most offerings from Hollywood.

Take care.

DAL357

The unintellectual approach to crime control

The link below is to a piece by ABC's 20/20 reporter John Stossel about the futility of trying to control crime by controlling access to guns by law-abiding folks.

It boggles my mind that there are still otherwise intelligent people out there who insist that no one but the police should have guns. Look, I wish we could all hold hands and sing Kumbaya and progress as a species towards a better tomorrow, but that ain't the real world. Times occur in life, thankfully realtively rare, when a person minding their own beeswax has their space intruded upon by one or more bad guys intent upon doing evil. If a cop happens to be within shouting distance, great, hail them over and let them take care of the situation. Just in case one isn't immediately available, however, the impending victim had better have a way of defending/extracating him/herself from the scenario. A firearm in capable, i.e. trained, hands is THE best way of protecting oneself when criminals come calling. It's a force multiplier that puts a lone or weaker individual on a more equal footing with what's likely to be one, or more, younger, stronger thugs.

One part of the video I'd like you to pay particular attention to is when it's stated that many of the horrific incidents of mass murder we've witnessed have been in so-called "gun-free zones." I guess the murderers that operated at will in those zones for many crucial minutes before help arrived--help being good people with, get this, guns(!)--must have missed the admonishment to enter sans firearms. Or maybe they chose that particular place because they knew they'd have many defenseless victims and no armed opposition. Somehow, I believe the latter scenario is the more likely.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qyoLuTjguJA

Here's a somewhat humorous sketch illustrating why criminals love gun control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3kUD6W8QaQ

Finally, the following link depicts, via outright absurdity, the pipe dream of controlling crime through gun control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7pGt_O1uM8

Take care.
DAL357

Monopolies bite, or, another shot fired over the bow of the Medical Industrial Complex

For some time I have been intending to write a post about the sky-high price of dentistry in the United States, and here's the article that finally pushed me to do it.

*****
Americans go to Mexico for a cheaper perfect smile
By Robin Emmott
Fri Feb 1, 1:43 PM ET

It was fear of the hefty bill as much as fear of the drill that kept American musician Don Clay away from U.S. dental clinics for 30 years.

When a sorely infected tooth eventually drove him to the dentist last month, it was to a clinic in a Mexican border city better known for violent crime and drug cartels.

Shrugging off concerns about hygiene and Mexico's brutal drug war, thousands of Americans are heading to Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border cities for cheap dental treatment.

"I had to get my teeth fixed. I need a perfect smile to make a successful career in music. Treatment in the United States is so pricey," said Clay, a Texan trying to get a record deal as a hip-hop artist.

U.S. dental treatment costs up to four times as much as in Mexico, making it tough for uninsured Americans to treat common problems such as abscessed teeth or pay for dentures.

A dental crown in the United States costs upward of $600 per tooth, compared to $190 or less in Mexico.

Aspiring Mexican dentists are moving to border cities in droves and are luring American patients away from farther flung discount destinations such as Hungary and Thailand.

Americans have long crossed the border for cheap medicines, flu vaccines, eye surgery or specialist doctors, but dentists are now in highest demand.

Dental clinics are on almost every block in central Ciudad Juarez, ranging from dingy dives to clinics that look more like posh hair salons. Getting there involves dodging prostitutes, drug pushers and cowboy-boot sellers.

BARGAIN-HUNTING
"We've gone from a handful of patients when we started 2-1/2 years ago to 150 new patients a month," said Joe Andel, an American who owns the Rio Dental clinic in Ciudad Juarez with his Mexican dentist wife, Jessica.

Rio Dental, which uses U.S. labs to make its crowns, picks patients up at the airport in El Paso, Texas, across the border and has treated people from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.

"The Internet makes this possible. It allows patients to find us and research us and shows we can do dental work of equal or superior quality to the United States," Andel said.

Internet bloggers swap stories and compare notes about Mexican dentists, but it always comes down to money.

Dentistry in the United States has become prohibitively expensive for some patients, with bills that can run to tens of thousands of dollars. Malpractice insurance premiums, operating costs that are much higher than in Mexico and dentists seeking to claw back the rising cost of their tuition all weigh.

Even among Americans who have medical insurance, many find they are not covered for treatment other than the basics, and paying on credit means high interest payments.

"I did $4,000 of dental work in the United States and put it on my credit card. Because of the interest, I only paid off $400 in three years," said a U.S. teacher from New Mexico getting treatment in Ciudad Juarez who gave his name as Bill.

Cosmetic dentistry, which insurers do not cover and which can be paid in dollars in many Mexican border clinics, is also popular, Ciudad Juarez dentist Luis Garza said.

"If you want a perfect smile, you have to pay for it, and we can do it cheaper, that's all," he grinned.
(Editing by Catherine Bremer and Eric Beech)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
*****

If you are a U.S. dentist, this could be bad news. If you are a U.S. dental patient, this is definitely good news.

Of course I'm going to explain why, silly.

For decades and decades, dental-care providers in the United States have had a monopoly on the market. Now, there are two different types of monopolies in a free market: natural and man-made. Natural monopolies occur in areas where competition can't start and develop because of physical or current technology limitations. Examples of natural monopolies include utility companies and, at one time, the phone company and cable television. Man-made monopolies are those that depend upon some type of force or coercian to keep out competition. In a free market, the only way a monopoly can exist for any length of time without having competition is through government intervention OR by being so efficient and innovative that other companies can't compete because they are unable to bring the same or similar product to market at a competitive price. This last is the only example of a good man-made monopoly, and the minute this man-made monopoly starts to rest on its laurels, a competitor will appear to exploit its laxity.

So, what does this have to do with dentists? Read on, please.

Like any industry, the dental profession seeks to maximize its profits. According to my Internet research, there are 56 ADA (American Dental Association) accredited dental schools in the U.S., and the competition to enter them is fierce, with only students possessing the best-of-the-best academic records even considered. There is nothing wrong with this. Any group should be allowed to set its professional standards at whatever level it considers appropriate. The ADA sets its standards so high to ostensibly produce only the best dentists, but it really does so to keep the pool of available dentist fairly static so as to maintain a high income for dentists. In 2004, there were 175,705 active dentists in the United States, and of that number the average income for a general practitioner was $185, 940, and $315,160 for a specialist.

If these incomes were the result of healthy competition in the marketplace, I'd be all for them and more. The problem is, they aren't the result of any type of competition at all. They are a result of a man-made monopoly aided and abetted by the Unitied States government, which allows the ADA to be the sole body to decide what constitutes necessary dental training and standards. No alternate, competing body is seriously considered or recognized. The U.S. government uses its muscle, based on standards promulgated by the ADA, to stifle alternative forms of treatment and/or accreditation, without a care for the real victims of this monopoly, the dental consumer. Naturally, as consumers faced outrageous dental prices, they began to look for a cheaper alternative. As the article above shows, they found one. Good for them. No doubt you'll hear many stories of unclean dental practices performed by Mexican dentists (unclean practices happen in the U.S. too). Some of these will likely be true. What you won't hear of are the thousand of successful procedures performed at a fraction of the monopoly-inflated U.S. price; that would be bad for the U.S. dental business.

I am not anti-dentist. Dentists perform a vital service for their patients. What I am against is, as if you couldn't guess already, the artificial shortage of dentists created by the ADA monopoly on standards and practices with the willing assistance of the U.S. government. As long as this continues, Americans will be forced through sheer economic necessity to seek out less-costly options to get their needed dental care.

Take care.
DAL357

Tribes and toilet bowls

Evidence continues to mount that the world* is little more than a swirling toilet bowl of blood.

Kenya's Rift Valley burns as death toll soars:
NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - Protests erupted in western Kenya and machete-wielding mobs faced off in the Rift Valley on Monday after scores of people were killed in ethnic violence, complicating mediation by former U.N. boss Kofi Annan.

Hezbollah demands inquiry into Beirut killings:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful faction, on Monday demanded to know who was behind shooting that killed eight opposition supporters in some of Beirut's worst street violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

Gunmen free Pakistani school children and surrender:
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen who took up to 250 Pakistani school children hostage on Monday in a northwestern town freed them all and surrendered to tribal elders, a government spokesman said.

Can you see the common thread in all of these stories gleaned from today's headlines? It's tribalism, one of the most primitive forms of society in existence. Tribalism is the forerunner of socialism and shares many of its tenets, the idea that an individual is subservient to a group being chief among them. As long as any people embrace tribalism, they will behave in the above manners. When the individual is looked at as a means to an end, be that end social, political, or religious, rather than as an end unto themselves, they will be seen as expendable and the value of life will be cheap.

The West, and the United States in particular, could expend all of their resources and not change this primitive way of life. The West would, however, end up changing its way of life, and not for the better. But what would that gain the West? Even more enmity than it now has from peoples who do not understand and therefore cannot value liberty and its concomitant political/economic systems of a representative republic/capitalism. That old saying, "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still," is no more true than it is when using force to drag tribalists to reason.

The United States must get back to being a shining example of a better life through the exaltation of the individual and the protection of his rights on its own shores. We must once again become the model primitives look upon as what life could be like and wish to work towards. Becoming involved in every internecine conflict around, inciting coups, backing any group over another, and generally meddling in affairs that have no direct or indirect bearing on the people of the United States--the only people of the world the U.S. government should be concerned with--serves only to tarnish our image AND, most importantly, to weaken our country. As harsh as it may sound, the primitives of this world are not worth one drop of American blood.

Yeah, I know it's a dream. But you know what? The coming economic calamities the United States is facing in the future (not-too-distant and medium term) just may turn out to be a good thing IF it causes us to rethink our dealings with clueless primitives and return to a constitutional form of government. Hey, I can dream, right?

Take care.
DAL357

*One notable exception being, even with all of its burdensome problems, the United States.

Books read in 1998.

By the way, below is a list of books I read in 1998. I started this list to keep track of what I read and when; it's difficult to believe it's been 10 years since I read some of these classics. As you might guess from the list, I absolutely adore Victor Hugo.

Reading is one of the most important acts a human being can engage in, especially when it involves good literature, as opposed to a steady diet of periodicals. Periodicals have their place, but too much information/chatter can circumvent clear, thorough thinking on issues. Plus, I really enjoy it for its own sake, in case you couldn't tell.

Books Read in 1998

January: “The Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore Cooper 430pp.
“The Call of the Wild” by Jack London 105pp.
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson 126pp.
“Calumet ‘K’” by Samuel Merwin and Henry Kitchell Webster 345pp.
“Toilers of the Sea” by Victor Hugo 356pp.

February: “The Odyssey” by Homer 306pp.
“The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo 416pp.

March: “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky 472pp.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens 227pp.
“Candide” by Voltaire 120pp.

April: “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo 1222pp.
“Lysistrata” by Aristophanes 123pp.

May: “Fathers and Sons” by Ivan Turgenev 207pp.
“Around the World in Eighty Days” by Jules Verne 208pp.

September: “Iliad” by Homer 391pp.

October: “The Last Day of a Condemned Man, and other prison writings” by Victor Hugo 198 pp.
“The Gambler” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 117pp.
“The Laughing Man” by Victor Hugo 573pp.

November
&
December: “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy 1444pp.

Take care.

DAL357

Happy(?) New Year!

A bit late--unless you are following the old-style Russian calendar*, which is exactly two weeks behind the modern calendar and would make today the first day of the year--but HAPPY NEW YEAR! Of course, it remains to be seen how the year will actually turn out: Will it be happy or will it be dismal? Check back in about 11.5 months.

This is the time of year when tradition dictates that predictions be made for the next twelve months. I really have none of my own, save for one. This year I predict that one of the presidential candidates somewhere, sometime, will actually say something logical, intelligent, and harmonious with reality, but then be pilloried for it by the press and public and quickly retract it. This does not include Ron Paul, a Libertarian in Republican clothing, who is 180 degrees opposite any other candidate and always in tune with reality.

To quickly recap some of the 2008 predictions of others I agree with, I'll start with these: Oil's price per barrel will bounce around, but it will hit $125 to $150 per barrel ($4+ per gallon at the pump). We'll experience a recession this year (we may already be in one). The federal reserve will vastly inflate the money supply to pull the economy out of the doldrums, thereby fueling inflation and enabling Wall Street to hit record on-paper highs. 2008 will see Obama-Hillary or Hillary-Obama ticket slide into the White House, however, they will only reside there for one term. Why? Because the next few years are going to see some hard economic times and the White House occupants will get the blame. So, in the long run, the party who loses this election will actually be winners, of sorts. (I say of sorts because, to me, both of these parties are losers for so many reasons that I won't delve into now.) Gold will go over $1000/ounce, silver will top $25/ounce. I suppose that's enough for now.

Take care.
DAL357

*Side note: This difference in calendars actually had a profound effect on history. Although the exact year escapes me, Napoleon won a battle that almost assuredly he would have lost had his enemies been using the same calendar. In concert with other Napoleonic foes, Russia was to attack the French dictator at a set time and date. The battle plans were drawn up, dates set, and everything was agreed upon. Somehow, though, the calendaric differences between the allies was overlooked and the Russian army showed up for battle two weeks after Napoleon triumphed. Doh!

Lazy blog entry 4

I make no claim to the following piece's authorship, in fact, I don't know who the author is or I would give him much-deserved recognition. But don't let that stop you from reading and enjoying these forty very clever bon mots to the gun control crowd, especially if you are familiar with the disinformation (aka outright lies) they put out. I really enjoy numbers 7, 8, 12, 18, 23, 32, and 34 (you have to be a part of the shooting sports to fully appreciate this one).


40 Reasons Guns Should Be Banned

Recent events show us the need for re-familiarization with the following 40 reasons guns should be banned:

1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, Detroit & Chicago cops need guns.

2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.

3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."

4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991.

5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.

6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.

7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.

8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.

9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense - give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p. 125).

10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.

11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seat belts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.

12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.

13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.

14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" refers to the state.

15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.

16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.

17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons'', but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles'', because they are military weapons.

18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, fingerprinting, government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's, anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.

19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.

20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.

21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.

22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."

23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.

24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.

25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.

26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."

27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.

28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.

29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self- defense only justifies bare hands.

30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.

31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.

32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.

33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.

34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over handguns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.

35. Private citizens don't need a gun for self- protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.

36. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.

37. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.

38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that's bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that's good.

39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.

40. Handgun Control, Inc., says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.


Take care.
DAL357

The Unquiet Grave

Recently, I became aware of an anonymous old folk poem that I like, so what better place for it to end up but on my blog? Truthfully, I am not much of student of poetry, prose being my preferred passion. This, no doubt, has to do with how little effort I put into reading poetry, but it probably also to do with the fact that I am somewhat of a literalist and many subtle allusions and metaphors pass right by me unnoticed.

Or maybe I'm just a bonehead. No matter what the reason, I think you'll enjoy the following piece of literature. One thing I've noticed in my small experience with poetry is it often benefits from being read aloud, and this offering is no exception.


The Unquiet Grave

The Wind doth blow today, my love,
And a few small drops of rain;
I never had but one true-love,
In cold grave she was lain.

I'll do as much for my true-love,
As any young man may;
I'll sit and mourn all at her grave
For a twelvemonth and a day.

The twelvemonth and a day being up,
The dead began to speak:
'Oh who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?

'Tis I, my love, sits on your grave,
And will not let you sleep;
For I crave one kiss of your clay-cold lips,
And that is all I seek.

You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips;
But my breath smells earthly strong;
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
Your time will not be long.

'Tis down in younder garden green,
Love, where we used to walk,
The finest flower that ere was seen
Is withered to a stalk.

The stalk is withered dry, my love,
So will our hearts decay;
So make yourself content, my love,
Till God calls you away.


To all but the dimmest bulb, this poem needs no intermediary to help make sense of it, which may be one of the reasons I like it so.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Take care.
DAL357

Notes from the Hunting Journal--11/18/07

11-18-07: I took another stab at deer hunting. This outing proved that once again that the journey is often at least as interesting as the arrival.

Since John A. had taken his deer last weekend, he wasn’t hunting, but his son, who accompanied us for the first time this season, was with him. We checked in at Range Control on Ft. Carson, a bothersome formality, and chose the area we wanted to hunt. The area John took his deer in the previous week was closed to hunting on this weekend. This bit of news miffed me since I could have sworn that the recorded phone message I listened to that states which areas are open on a given weekend said that area was open. We chose an alternate area, one just across the road from the desired area, completed the sign-in process, and were on our way.

Driving to your hunting area on Ft. Carson before the sun’s come up is good training should you ever think you might go blind. The downrange road rules for Ft. Carson do not allow white lights to be used because they interfere with the night vision equipment soldiers may be using. In other words, no headlights allowed. Only amber lights are permitted, and unless you have some amber-tinted fog lights, this means you must drive using your parking lights. This makes for a slow, and sometimes disorienting, ride.

Luckily, the area we wanted to hunt wasn’t too far from Range Control, so it didn’t take us long. By the time we arrived, geared up, and started hunting, it was light enough to see. I moved to a spot next to a large, leafless bush on the edge of a plateau where below the land fell away about 70 feet to a maze of draws and opened into a large semi-circular, bowl-like area approximately one-half mile across. From this spot, I glassed the entire area slowly with my Pentax 10x43 binoculars, seeing two other hunters on the opposite rim of the plateau. After at least 20 minutes of glassing, I spotted a lone doe to my left. I glanced back to see if the other hunters had noticed her, but they couldn’t see her from their angle. Turning the binos back to the doe, I couldn’t find her again. Damn! I had looked away for less than a minute and now the deer had disappeared. Disappointed, I glassed the area again and, finally, claimed sight of the doe again--as well as two sister doe. They slowly meandered up a hill and there I saw, standing next to an evergreen tree, a buck. Once they were all in the same area, they went down into a small depression and didn’t reappear. During the entire time I watched them, the deer were much too far out of range, at least 500 yards, to take an accurate (read ethical) shot. I left to find John and son, making a mental note to search that depression later. I never did.

After meeting up with John, who was closer than I thought, we decided to see what lay in the opposite direction we had been looking. Our plan of attack was decided upon and we were off. The plan was simple: John and his son, Matt, walked on the sides of some rather large hills while I paralleled them on the road. We were all walking downhill, off of the plateau. The distance between us was 150-200 yards. We kept in contact via John’s two-way radios, which didn’t work about as often as they did.

After traveling a few minutes, I left the road and walked back onto the grass a short distance and did a little glassing. On the road quite a ways below, I saw four doe cross the pavement and melt into a draw. Glassing some more I noticed, at the foot of a hill far ahead of John and Matt, a group of six doe feeding; again, they were too far for a shot. I called John on the radio and told him to get to a spot where he could see them, which he did, and I further said I was going to walk below them and then double back and move the herd in his direction. He said okay and I was off.

Returning to the road, I walked past the feeding ungulates, who took notice of me but did not run. The fact that I was a good distance from them probably helped, as did the fact that they see human activity in the form of soldiers in the area all the time. Passing the herd until we could no longer see each other, I left the road and used small draws to shield my approach. As I neared, I went into a dry creek bed that ran along the foot of the hill and John radioed me that the deer had moved into that same creek bed. I told him to watch for them but not to shoot until they were far above where I was in the creek bed. I walked about 100 yards more up the creek bed and then the deer spooked and started moving back up the hill in John and Matt’s direction. One doe split off from the herd and, less than 75 yards away, stopped to look back at me. I could have ended my season then and there, but for the fact that John and company were in the background. Granted, from where I stood they were to the left of the deer and quite a bit higher on the hill, but it still didn’t seem safe. I did call John and said I was going to take the shot, but he didn’t respond and I thought better of it and let the chance pass.

Matt, on the other hand, took his chance at one of the deer--and missed. Personally, I think they were still too far from the deer and I wish they had gotten closer before making a stand, but so be it. Repeated calls to John on the radio inquiring whether or not Matt connected went unanswered. While making my way towards them, I heard Matt fire three more shots, but not in the direction the of the herd I moved. He saw another deer back towards the road. After he began firing, I guess the deer didn’t stick around, ‘cause I never saw it. Oh well, at least my stalk had worked and I was quite proud of that. I actually felt like a hunter.

We met back at the road and followed it to the vehicles. There, we decided to go down into the bowl-like area where I had seen the first deer of the morning. John and Matt took up a spot a few hundred yards below the plateau’s rim and I said I’d walk in their direction from above and try to scare something up. (I enjoy doing this, by the way, so it wasn’t as if I drew a short straw or anything.) Once I got to the point I where wanted to start my sweep, however, I realized I really didn’t have all that much energy left to perform a strenuous hike (I had forgotten to bring my lunch, and a bowl of early-morning oatmeal only gets you so far), so I called John and told him. Since Matt had to be at work at noon and it was already after 11:00 a.m., we decided to call it a day.

On the way back to them I met a couple of hunters driving in a truck. They stopped to chat and declared they were looking only for bucks. One offered information, however, that there were quite a few doe in a creek bed below. The hunters continued on and spoke to John when they caught up to him and apparently told him the same thing. We decided to quickly check out the creek bed and walked along a dirt road (more, really, of a vehicle-blazed trail) that ran closely alongside it. After a few minutes, with John and son ahead of me, they stopped suddenly. I strained to see what they were looking at and saw a buck trying to make it up an eroded hill on the other side of the creek. It was too steep, so he went a little farther up the creek, found a better spot, and quickly moved out of sight over the crest. I remember telling Matt not to shoot while it was still in sight because it was a buck, but he said there was a doe also. At this point I finally saw it moving up the same hill and I told Matt to shoot, but he said it was my turn.

Thank goodness I hadn’t forgotten my homemade shooting sticks this time (see photo above), because they served their purpose handily. As the deer was making its way up the steep hill, I dropped to one knee, placed my rifle on the sticks, took a quick aim, flipped off the safety, made a clicking noise so the deer, that had just crested the hill, would stop (I read that sometimes it works--it did this time), and touched off the 100-yard shot. As I was coming out of the .30-06’s recoil, I saw the tail of the deer flip up as it ran out of sight. I thought I had missed it, but John said it looked like it shook after I fired. Ethics dictated that we must check it out, so we started across the dry creek bed and up the hill.

I can honestly say that that hill worked out my thighs like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. No squats have ever given me such cramps. I actually had to stop a time or two on the way up, not because I was winded, but because my thighs cramped so badly that I thought I might topple down the hill. My legs HURT! Thankfully, shortly after reaching the top of the hill and walking on flat ground again, the cramps left. May the never return.

After a quick search of the area, Matt saw where the doe had fallen. The shot had caught her low in the chest, through the heart. Had the bullet’s path been two inches lower, it would have passed harmlessly under the deer altogether. I give a lot of credit to the shooting sticks for helping me make the kill. After a quick field dressing, John took my keys and went to get my truck while Matt and I dragged the doe towards the road, a chore made easier, but still not particularly easy, because the deer was a whitetail and not a mule deer. (28 years earlier, I had bagged a mule deer doe and it took four people to drag her up a short hill; she was quite a bit more robust than the whitetail I had just taken, or the one John had taken the week before that.) After loading her in the truck, John contacted the game processor, who said they couldn’t take the deer before 4:00 p.m. At that point it was about 12:30 p.m. We covered her with a tarp and drove back to Range Control to check out and parted ways.

On the way home, I stopped to buy a couple of bags of ice, as the butchers suggested, to place in the deer to keep it cool until they could get to it. I also called my brother Donald and nephew Michael to ask if they could help me handle the deer while I hosed it out. They arrived at my home shortly after I did and were invaluable in their assistance. After hosing out and drying the deer, I put the bags of ice in the body cavity, recovered it with the tarp and parked the truck with the deer in the bed in the garage. It was a fairly warm day for November, but the carcass stayed cool, always vital when handling edible game.

After a quick shower and meal, I relaxed with my wife and son for a while and then took the deer in for processing. I dropped the carcass off and told them how my wife and I wanted the meat cut, and then enjoyed a hot chocolate at Starbucks while reading Dostoyevsky’s
“The Brothers Karamazov.”

Just over an hour after leaving the deer, they called my cell phone and said it was ready for pick up. The total cost for processing was $103, which included $25 for skinning. I took the meat home and, to my surprise, it all fit in the freezer.

The next day I took the head in to the Department of Wildlife so that they could check it for Chronic Wasting Disease. For the area where I took the deer, this check was free, although it’s not free in all areas of the state. The man said it would be about 10-15 business days before the results were back, so we are now waiting for the yea or nay. In the meantime, I vacuum sealed all of the individual meat packets so that they will last longer and not incur freezer burn. We are not big red meat eaters, so we will likely consume the meat slowly over the next 6-12 months, in between meals of chicken and fish.

All in all I am happy with the results. I am curious to see if the meat from a whitetail deer tastes any different from a mule deer. Once again, the same ol’ Winchester model 670 .30-06 that I’ve had since I was just shy of my 19th birthday helped me bring home the meat. To say that I am really fond of this sub-MOA rifle would be an understatement. By the way, this is the first time I used one of my handloads (165 gr. Hornady bullet #3045, 48.5 grains of Varget powder, CCI 200 primer, Remington case) to take a big-game animal. I can’t wait to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Take care.
DAL357

"A date that will live in infamy."

By the way, lest we forget, exactly 66 years ago today the United States was attacked by Japan. Yes, there's more to that event than meets the eye, but for now let us pause to remember not the politics behind the scenes, but those Americans who lost their lives on that fateful, tragic day nearly a lifetime ago.

Take care.
DAL357

The dental patient.

Not that this is an absolute sign or revelation that societal collapse is imminent--a horse that’s been flogged past the point of death for countless generations--but the following little anecdote is another mile-marker on the road to a nasty, brutish, low-class society, a pit whose bottom we must surely be nearing, for I cannot believe that it’s all that much deeper.

Earlier this week, while dropping off a ballet ticket for my wife to one of her friends, I was blindsided once again, per usual, by coarse behavior. My wife’s friend works at a dental office and I went to the front desk and asked to speak to her. While waiting, a young female patient was on the phone at the other end of the short counter apparently trying to cajole a ride from the party on the other end of the connection. The other party must have shown some reluctance to grant this request because the young female patient said, without any hint of hesitancy or shame, that the other party had better give her a ride, or “I’ll f--k you up.” Then she concluded the conversation and went to sit down in the waiting area.

Not only I heard this exchange--the receptionist heard it too. She glanced at me with a kind of resigned, embarrassed, what-can-you-do look. Judging from the clientele (lots of baggy, sports team-emblazoned sweat clothes filled with pudgy figures built from processed foods) I noticed in the rather spacious waiting area (perhaps I should say holding area) when I walked in, I doubt this is the first time she heard this type of crude talk, or the last.

Now, here is where the disclaimer should come that says I am not a prude, snob, or elitist and that I, too, have used that type of language (although not in a public setting). But, you know what?, I don’t believe I’ll do that. Why? Because I am better than those people, at least in terms of public manners and comportment. Thank God I had parents who raised me to be polite to others and mindful of my surroundings, and who taught me that the world does not revolve around me. And thank God that I spent my formative years in a time when self-control and self-censorship was seen as the hallmark of a decent, normal, unexceptional, person.

How did I escape this? I was not exposed to any great degree to the effluence pumped out by Hollywood rump-humpers and money-maddened music-industry morons. There was still a measure of decorum within these areas of entertainment, at least outwardly, although even then it was beginning to crumble.

More than anything else, I feel sorry for the people exposed to all sorts of crass, vile language/behavior the entertainment industry uses to make a buck. These poor folks, raised on garbage pumped directly into their homes by parents who were, in turn, raised the same way, have no concept of what passes for polite public discourse.

All of which brings me to another point. I wish I could say this behavior is limited to a certain socio-economic class, but, alas, it isn’t. It has seeped out and soaked practically every stratum of society, although it usually doesn’t manifest itself as openly in the "higher" classes as the example I gave earlier.

Thanks, entertainment moguls, for taking the low road to make a buck, and in the process coarsening a society and making it unfit human habitation. Thank you for helping to destroy the long evolution of everyday civil behavior built over centuries. Thank you for children who now carry baggage they were never meant to lug via your graphic images, situations/stories, and language; their childhood has been stolen from them and, once gone, it can never be replaced. You have so very much to be proud of.

Take care.
DAL357

Notes from the Hunting Journal--11/11/07

11-11-07: John A. and I went out again, this time to a different area, XX, which was open this day to hunting with high-velocity rifles. (I should explain that there are certain areas at certain times on Ft. Carson that are closed, closed for all but low-velocity guns [muzzleloaders, shotguns], or open to all types of guns, including high-velocity cartridges. All of this seems due to the training or non-training of army personnel that goes on in a given area.)

Not too long, perhaps one hour, after we started hunting the area, I sat down near the crest of a hill to glass the area below. Within a few minutes, I saw a doe in a small clearing about 400 yards to my left foraging down a hill. In a seated position, I put the crosshairs on her, but the rest was too unsteady, so I decided to go prone. Whenever the deer looked in my direction as I was getting into position, I froze. After finally going prone, with my rifle resting on my blaze orange-colored backpack, I was ready to shoot, but the deer by that time had moved to a less-than-optimal stance, which was okay since I didn’t feel that confident about taking a shot at that distance anyway. She eventually disappeared behind a tree and I never saw her again.

About this time, while I was watching to see if more deer would appear in the area I had seen the other one, I heard a shot to my right. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was John bagging a deer. As soon as I looked over to the direction the shot came from, I saw two deer run over the summit of a hill across the small valley that was below my perch. I glassed the area and saw nothing.

By this time John, who had fired at his deer from a kneeling position about 200-250 yards away, had made it to his deer. This scared three more of the animals still in the immediate vicinity into moving and I saw them clearly. Grabbing my rifle, I assumed a seated position, but again found it too unsteady for the distance (at least 350 yards). Since I couldn’t go prone due to the direction of the deer, which were straight across from the face of my hill, and due to the grade of my hill, I was at a loss for a course of action. Thinking quickly, I grabbed my backpack, laid it across my knees/lap, and laid back against the hill. This was still a less-than-ideal setup, but it’s all I had time for. In retrospect, I should have just passed on the whole situation, but I didn’t. I fired at the creatures, and missed, not once, but five times (I believe I was shooting under them due to the distance). They actually stayed around so long after I started shooting because their attention was focused on John. After serving as shooting gallery targets for a while, they decided to vacate the area, and did so quickly. I then began to walk over to John.

On my was to John, I saw still more deer. Three of ‘em, to be exact, about 150 yards away. As soon as I saw them, I went into the kneeling position and my left knee landed squarely on a cactus. Ouch! I moved a bit forward and once again kneeled, waiting for my breathing to return to normal so I could take a shot. Of course, by the time I did, they were already moving behind a scrub oak bush. "When they come out," I thought, "I’ll take one," but they never did reappear. They took the back exit and went down a draw behind the bush. Oh well. I continued on to John, my knee smarting with what would turn out to be seven cactus thorns stuck in it.

When I got to John, he already had his deer open and had the innards halfway out. He said he was getting tired, and that he needed help. After pulling on some vinyl gloves he gave me, I cut the connecting tissue while he pulled the guts out. I then retrieved a folding saw from my pack and cut the pelvic bone to finish the process. We dragged the deer uphill about 60 yards to a rough dirt road, and I went to fetch my truck. By the time I returned, John had already called the game processor and set up a time for us to drop his deer off. We loaded the deer in the truck, I snapped a few photos, and we were off.

The lessons I either learned or that were reinforced on this outing are as follows. 1) Never, obviously, kneel on, or in any other way touch, a cactus. 2) Bring the shooting sticks you took the trouble to make (this alone might have helped bag me a deer). 3) Don’t forget your gear. (I forgot my hunting gear belt which included my knife, compass, water bottle, and earplugs, among other things. I could really have used those earplugs on this trip because firing five rounds from a muzzle-braked .30-06 is LOUD. My left ear is still ringing.) 4) Practice at distances farther than 100 yards from positions other than at the shooting bench. Learn the bullet drop for your particular load and either commit it to memory or, better yet, tape it to the stock of your gun.

Even though I did not bag a deer this time, the good thing is the season is long and we’ve found an area with abundant game. I’m reasonably sure I’ll get another chance at venison soon.

Take care.
DAL357

Notes from the Hunting Journal--10/27/07

10-27-07: Went deer hunting on Ft. Carson for the first time of the post’s long season (it runs until Jan. 31) with John A. Although the area we went to had some sign (tracks and scat), we failed to see anything.

John and I devised a strategy to try to flush out some deer. John stayed in one spot, on the hillside of a draw, while I walked through the draw to flush any deer that might be there toward him. A decent plan, but the problem was in its execution.

I got somewhat lost and didn’t see John again for two hours. I lost sight of my direction beacon, the mountains to the west, and I wandered aimlessly. While I eventually used my compass to try to help me, I distrusted it since I thought I knew approximately where I was, a dumb mistake some people make, or so I’ve read. Finally, realizing I was getting nowhere fast, and knowing that the road I came in on was to the east, I decided to quit screwing around and follow the compass east. I did this and within 15 minutes was back on the road.

When I reached the road, however, the truck was nowhere in sight. I called John on the two-way FRS radio I had and he recognized the spot I described as being about half a mile(!) south of the vehicle. He came and picked me up and we had a quick snack and decided to call it a day, as it was around 11 a.m. On our way back, in an area that was closed that particular day to hunting, we saw two doe lying within a stone’s throw of the road peacefully watching us as we passed by.

Take care.
DAL357

One man's creativity.

One of the fascinating things I've found in my years on the 'Net is the creativity of people out there. Below is a link to a site where a man shows, step-by-step, how he built his own little travel trailer. It looks pretty darn good, and he did it for under $1,000. I've seen similar factory-built rigs going for close to ten grand! Take a look and enjoy one man's creative energy.
http://www.crocodiletear.com/

Take care.
DAL357