One of Florida's Best Kept Secrets

An early morning walk in one of my favorite places, The Timuquan Preserve, U.S. Park.

Swim With Sharks, My Ass

This is where we send Wall Street crooks in these parts.




The Okefenokee Swamp canal at Stephen Foster State Park, Fargo, Georgia.

Sometimes, A Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand Words

I remember back in the early 80's reading an article in Smithsonian about what Russian soldiers do with their day off in Afghanistan.  The opening line was something like this; What do you do on your day off in a country where the most popular sport is batting around a goat's head from horseback and you are despised for the evil influences of blue jeans and rock n roll you bring with you?


I remember thinking at the time, the war is over.  Not the Afghan War, the Cold War.  Russian soldiers.  Blue Jeans.  Rock.  At that point in time, those things just didn't equate.  Consumerism wins.  You lose.  It took about another decade to formalize it.  


And, here we are, three decades later.  This video sums it up perfectly in 21 seconds.  http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/must-48/?src=sch&pagewanted=all

Florida's Best Kept Secret

An early morning walk in one of my favorite places, Big Talbot Island State Park.

We're all too smart for this.... Aren't we?

I know this video is way too long for blog standards, but... it's well done and if you take the time to view it I believe you will find it worthwhile.

Finally, Proof - There Is No God

Some time ago I did a post on the arrogance of science wherein I stated that I thought the world's great religions should be taught in school.  It turned out that the great majority of you agreed with me but it sure stirred up the radical fringe, much to my delight.  So much so in fact, that I decided to submit the article to our local tabloid which indeed, published it.


The other day I got this unsigned, unmarked letter in the mail.  (click on them to enlarge)

Ok, now I'm convinced.  You can't argue with such eloquent logic and unassailable truth.


The fact that I clearly stated the article that I am not a Creationist seems lost on these guys.  It seems the very word "creation" triggers some uncontrollable reaction in them.  Sort of like Pavlov's dogs.


Oh well, to para-phrase Mark Twain, Evolution as taught in school is actually backwards. Man came before the ape.  God created the ape because he was so disappointed in man.

Did the Founding Fathers Screw Up?

I've been thinking about this a long time. No, I mean a long time... I graduated university in 1970 with a double-major in Government and International Affairs. I've been thinking about this since then. I think I have finally reached a conclusion about our government, and it ain't pretty.

Civics 101: The government (state and national) is comprised of three branches, Executive, Legislative and Judicial. All three of these branches have equal power. It's what's known as "checks and balances." Each of these branches is comprised of groups of people who render decisions; Executive Branch, the President and his Cabinet; Legislative Branch, the Senate and Congress; Judicial, Nine old farts and the court system.

It's a complex system that by its very nature renders anything it does terribly compromised and vulnerable to the influence of special interests. Therein lies the problem.

The Founding Fathers were very deliberate in designing a government that would be nearly impossible for any king or dictator to gain control of. Remember, these folks were revolting from rule by monarchy. Unfortunately, the result is a government out of control.

Sadly, after all of these years of thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that the Founding Fathers screwed up. That the flaw is the system itself. By making our system so complex and compromised, they actually played right into the hands of the ultimate controllers who have taken full advantage of a vulnerable and weak government. They didn't, or couldn't, foresee that something would emerge that was even bigger and more powerful than the government... multi-national financial institutions.

Even as powerful as corporations such as The East India Company were in their day, they were nothing like what we are facing today.

What we have now is a government so compromised, convoluted and muddled that it allows the powerful virtually free reign with no accountability. The system is so entrenched with greed and special interests that no matter how good their intentions, be it a President or a Congressman, they have nearly no chance of success.

So, what's the answer? A constitutional convention that completely restructures our unsustainable government more along the lines of a parliamentary system, one that's more responsive to Vox Populi.

Fat chance.

Mexico - WTF Is Going On Down There?

Has Mexico become our new worst enemy?

The headline in the paper the other day, "21 Die in Gun Battle Near U.S. Border With Mexico." And this was a fight between rival drug gangs that didn't involve the police or the military. This is more deaths than in a typical Iraqi or Afgan fire fight.

All in all, more than 22,000 people have been killed in drug-related battles along the U.S. border since 2006! That's twenty-two thousand! In Juarez, just across the river from El Paso, 700 people have been murdered this year alone.

Now it turns out that two hot-shot American banks, Wachovia and Bank of America, have been laundering billions - that's $ billions with a "B" - of dollars of Mexican drug cartel money over the years which, of course, they didn't realize they were doing. To quote the news release, "Wachovia admitted it didn't do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion (WTF?) for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That's the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money laundering law, in U.S. history."

The take away:

1. Mexico needs our military help a lot more than Iraq,
2. Our financial system needs an outright revolution as it is apparently corrupt to the core,
3. It's way past time to legalize drugs and end the ridiculous and immoral Police-Industrial-Complex sponsored "War on Drugs."

And none of this even takes into account the impact of illegal immigration!

Oh, BTW, Happy Independence Day.