“Our God given unalienable rights are given to us all as individuals. They tell us what we may do for ourselves, and they are the embodiment of liberty.
The so-called rights that government gives to some of us are parcelled out to select groups as classes. They tell us what one class of people may require another to do for them, and they are the very essence of slavery.”— Perri Nelson, February 9, 2010
A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh?
Absolutely correct
Published Mon, Jul 6 2009 2:27 PM
I’m a conservative or a “right wing extremist” as characterized by some in our government. I’m not quite as “right wing” as the John Birch society, but in this instance, I agree with them one hundred percent…
This IS a republic and not a democracy, regardless of the propaganda you may have been fed in school or by the major media. And we really should keep it that way, or at least return it to that ideal.
Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)
Tiger Mountain State Forest
Published Mon, Jul 6 2009 10:16 AM
There are occasions when a man just has to get away for one reason or another. Such an occasion occurred for me yesterday, and so I returned to a place I wandered about a few years ago under similar circumstances. Last time I went there, I had a cell phone with a camera in it, but the pictures I took while hiking along the trail were fuzzy and small. This time, I determined to take my real camera with me and took a hike up the old timber trails in Tiger Mountain State Forest.
One of the things along the trail that I remembered quite well from my previous trip, and one of the reasons I chose this particular location for this trip was a huge (about 8 to 9 feet in diameter) boulder on the opposite side of a small stream that caught my eye. When I took it’s picture last time, I was hoping for a better result, but upon downloading it from my cell phone I was truly disappointed. This is all I got out of my camera that time…
This time, I managed a much better picture…
It was easily the biggest rock I saw on the trail. Of course, this was a trail in a state forest so you’d expect to see a lot more than just big rocks. Next to the trail somewhat further into the forest there was the stump of an old dead tree, with this rather huge root sticking out of the ground. The root was old and weathered smooth, and had some rather interesting grain patterns, so I snapped another picture…
Not everything in the forest was dead either. I didn’t see too many animals, but there were lots of birds singing in the trees. Unfortunately every time I tried to capture one digitally, it flew off before I quite finished aiming the camera. The flora though was fairly interesting, for example this foxglove…
There were a lot of weathered rocks and stones along the trail. It was running up the side of a mountain after all, so it shouldn't be too surprising. Some of the rocks had some interesting color patterns, especially with the lichens and moss growing on them… something like this…
Being in a mountain forest, it shouldn’t be too surprising to find shelf fungus growing on the trees either. I didn’t see much of it, but this one caught my eye. It looks a bit like a duck bill or something to me…
The trail through the forest was full of switchbacks, moving back and forth as it climed the mountain. Every now and then the trail would cross a small stream, and when it did, there would be a small bridge to cross. And of course, everywhere there were trees…
I'm not quite as young as I used to be and my wife was somewhat concerned about my health. I wanted to follow the trail to its end, but after an hour of climbing, I decided to turn back so I could head home rather than keep her worrying about me. I had a nice, pleasant time on the trail, away from people, and away from the noise of civilization. The trip wasn't a waste of time by any means.
One thing that was markedly different about this trip up the mountain from my last one was the quality of the litter I encountered. Last time I ended up carrying out other hiker's garbage. This time I carried out their money. Last time someone dropped their Starbucks cup along side the trail along with some other trash. This time someone dropped twenty dollars. I'd say the quality of litter has improved.
Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
Blogs Against Nancy Pelosi
