We are up a mountain, at a campsite frequented by off-roaders, and I must say there is a gathering of good old boys and gals a few campsites away, and they are more American than the apple pie we ate today in a shop that proudly displayed the tail fin from an unmanned drone that flew in “Operation Freedom” in Afghanistan that they had sponsored. A business that proudly sponsored an unmanned drone. We have rarely felt so far from home. And here they are, one truck with two enormous American flags flying out the back, and another with the Confederate flag. I remember trying to convince people at the swamp that freedom meant freedom to be different, not freedom to be exactly like them. But I digress.
We went to Joshua Tree yesterday, and ended up driving on through – it is interesting to see, but it is in a desert, and they have only a handful of campsites that are all cheek by jowl – a vast open space but you must keep to the paths – and back to Thomas Mountain, where we had camped the first night, but at a turnout, not at the campsite we were aiming for, with the lovely name Tool Box Springs, which we did find last night. The actual name of this campsite is Bobcat Meadows, and it is the less serviced overflow from Corral Canyon. It is one of the few places apparently in California where off-roading is allowed, so we kind of knew what we were getting into.
We met a delightful young man in Long Beach before we rented the van and it really enforced the notion that we have been forced into polarized camps. No one can have a moderate opinion – pick an issue like abortion – you are for or against, can’t have a reasonable compromise – gun control – for or against, and declared a lunatic for wanting to limit the amount of automatic fire, for example, or range – drugs – just say no – a more idiotic campaign rarely springs to mind. Just say no to drugs – antibiotics, anti-psychotics, insulin … But when you talk to most people, you actual tend to find common ground. It is the news makers and politicians that create these polar opposites so they can get the people wrapped in whatever flag they are peddling.
And having said all that, here are some pictures to soothe the soul:
Hope to see you on the morrow, with very little sorrow …
pertaining to your observation of a distinct polarization of opinion…
“In France the party riding highest in the polls is the right-wing National Front of Marine Le Pen, who polled nearly a third of voter support in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, beating out likely candidates from the center-right and center-left parties.
The support for these “extremist” parties says more about the failure of mainstream parties to listen to their voters than it does about any radicalization of those voters.
Le Pen said ahead of Greece’s election last month that she was rooting for a Syriza victory and that she supports Podemos in Spain because, in the absence of strong right-wing parties in these countries, they are her allies in opposing the misguided austerity policies of the EU.”
and
“Mainstream conservative parties in Europe have also lost significant support even though they are more in sync with the prevailing EU orthodoxy. So the support for the formerly fringe parties looks more like a collapse of the center rather than a rise in extremism.”
and more here…
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/europes-revolt-isnt-just-in-greece-or-spain-2015-02-06?page=1
i also think that the old cliche “a squeaky wheel gets the grease” applies. moderate people need to get vocal. in the USA, the nut jobs on both sides make all the noise, and of course get all the press coverage too.
and Hi Pete.
s’up Woodpecker? hi all.
Sunny and 65 here today. Shorts, t-shirt, shoes off, windows open and gathering some needed rest.
& I have decided to have a fantastic day.
Thanks Xty.
Sir Pete.
Duane and Greg’s take;
🙂 🙂 🙂
OK, so I set up my twitter account. And every step of the way they want me to follow people. And I’m feeling like I have no interest in following anybody. We are at an impass right from the start. I spend all my time “unfollowing” people that they suggest.
Let’s cut to the chase.
I don’t give a flying fuck what anybody else has to say about anything.
Anyone.
Zero.
Is that overly arrogant? I suppose so, but I don’t even care. Kinda kills the idea of “social media”, don’t it?
you are on to something Xty.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/181490/obama-approval-ratings-historically-polarized.aspx?utm_source=Politics&utm_medium=newsfeed&utm_campaign=tiles
“PARIS (AP) — An anti-immigration movement founded by a man repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism now leads polls in France. The mainstream conservative party risks collapse amid a financing scandal. The Socialist president is the most unpopular leader in modern French history.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/french-conservatives-campaign-financing-drama
“India has it’s own useless two party system”, well at least for now…
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/02/10/move-over-syriza-and-podemos-revolutionary-indian-political-party-sweeps-new-delhi-elections/#more-21128
interesting…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loomio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podemos_%28Spanish_political_party%29
this comment…
” diptherio February 11, 2015 at 10:53 am
Podemos is pioneering a new way to accomplish that, with their “circles” and bottom-up organizing and policy structure. They’re using Loomio to facilitate their discussions and decision-making, which I love since Loomio was created by a co-op/collective in the wake of Occupy (cue Banger to say Occupy didn’t accomplish anything ;-).
From what I can tell, they idea behind Podemos is similar to the one I’ve been advocating here. A political party where the platform is simply that we provide a transparent platform for democratic decision-making. It’s not about demanding everyone agree with your policy proposals, it’s about giving everyone a voice in shaping those proposals from the bottom-up.
I had a little nerdgasm when I saw how many Podemos groups were on Loomio, a tool we’re using to organize a national Commons Day and/or Week. One of the founders told me over twitter that they’ve got over 1000 Podemos groups using Loomio and are now working on how to network all of them together. So basically they’re building the platform I’ve been hoping somebody would, that will allow for actual direct democratic control of elected representatives.”
followed this article…
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/eurogroup-ministers-to-syriza-drop-dead.html
this is profound. i hope by posting it that someone, anywhere, will change their world view. just watch the video at least. it is subtitled.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/kievs-bloody-war-is-backfiring/5430799
Well EO I don’t think anyone gives a fuck what you have to say anymore either and I am tired of (and very disappointed that) you just drop shitty comments here. If you are a one way hose, get your own blog but stop using mine to be an asshole.
Sorry folks for that but jeez louise and here where I ask only that you be polite.
And now let us move on.
Good Morning
I follow a conservative site that while it romps off on stupid utopian fantasies has one key member who is constantly trying to get the “right” to come back to the centre, especially on social issues. And it absolutely fits in with the collapse of the centre but it isn’t newsworthy to suggest we need to figure things out slowly, everyone just wants a soundbite solution. To consider Obama a socialist is madness, let me tell you. But the left has adopted totalitarian top down measures to get its way, too impatient for democracy, so they are out too.
I have been struck before that Americans insist they are the free-est people but accept peeing in cups to work and then the drinking age hit me too. You can vote and join the military to die in a war you don’t understand at 18, but you can’t drink until 21? Odd.
But back to the common ground – we have met some charming people and one young man that I will be sure to keep in touch with – he has almost solved his six-sided rubics cube. Who even has one? 5-sided, sure … but six? Too smart and a little lost, but he sure helped us out. But there are certainly some very self-satisfied people with expensive motorhomes or brand new audis zipping around here. Oh and we drove through Camp Pendleton … California is much more military than I had realised, and hence many military families and they only have one opinion, raised on it and fed it daily. I really rue the day they stopped with assassination and went for invasion instead. Why not have just popped Saddam? It was wrong, perhaps, to murder errant world leaders in an abstract way and you might make a mistake, but one life and no infrastructure down. Like Romania managed, and they would have loved some help just in disposing the dictator.
I should add that my approach to a rubics cube would involve a hammer and remembering sequences of moves and numbers is not my strong suit so I choose to not play but hubby got it and I had a niece who remembered how to solve something like 200 hundred different starts. Our eldest first saw a three sided rubics cube when she was 5 and asked what it was, and her dad explained that it was a puzzle and you had to get all the sides to be the same colour. She took it away and came back quite soon with it solved and we looked stunned and asked her how, and she promptly took the thing apart like an engineer and rebuilt it – no one said how to do it …
We need that kind of outside the box, stripped of preconceptions thinking to get us out of some of the institutional traps we build for ourselves. But where can we find a roster of intelligent five year olds?
We were up a mountain and in a dessert:
And then we spent two nights in South Carlsbad State Park where we met a nice mum who had had some tough luck, but Ben and Jacob, a proselytizing Jehovah but he waited until after the repair, fixed her back wheel which had broken most of its spokes. Jacob had seen her and went home and got some wire and clippers and it just so happens that one of hubby’s first jobs was in a bicycle shop and his specialty was spoke tightening and wheel alignment. They managed to fashion spokes out of the bits that were sticking out by bending them and attaching pieces of the baling wire Jacob brought and basically remade her spokes for her.
And then we left and went to Doheny and Dana Point which are beautiful and I don’t seem to have taken any pictures – there was a tiny approachable swell and we actually rented surf boards and while I would say hubby really gave it a shot I decided that paddling around on the board was much more fun than getting rolled and tossed – I think I don’t need to conquer nature, just being in it works for me. I did go in the second day, and managed to avoid all the waves very nicely. But here is a cool picture from South Carlsbad – I haven’t checked the camera yet but oddly really didn’t reach for it. It was super fun travelling in the van – we really had a great time and saw a bunch of places – Mission Bay in San Diego was much nicer than I expected – now we are in Ventura in a cheap but great hotel – thank you internet – and in rental car that only cost $99 for a four day rental and we can drop it at SFO after picking it up at SNA – thank you internet – after having a great odd dinner at Neptune’s Net – thank you internet – and are driving up to San Francisco today. Went back and visited my new adopted son in Long Beach on the way, whom we wouldn’t have met if not for the internet. What an amazing tool!
glad to see someone posted today! so just a few quick comments, since i have been hogging the blog for the last few days!
i am only familiar with the 4 sided Rubik’s cube (tetrahedron) and the six sided (cube). 😛
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid
i memorized how to solve the standard cube in high school, and at my peak i could often do it in less than 2 minutes from any state of randomness. i too did take my first cube apart, but only to grease the inside so i could spin it with less resistance, and therefore faster. i took another one apart, and filled each piece with lead shot and plaster, so that the cube weighed several pounds when i put it back together. i used to then toss it to unsuspecting people who asked if they could play with it. the Rubik’s cube had come out while i was in Germany in 1981, and so i bought a pile of them while there as gifts, thinking that i had a unique present for most everyone on my list. when i got off the plane upon return home, the first thing i noticed was a kid playing with one at the gate.
i think that you and Ben should have continued on down to “TJ” since you were just across the border in San Diego. i believe that you would have been able to drive across the checkpoint with your Canadian passports. i believe that anyone visiting So Cal should visit Tijuana, if only once per lifetime, and if only to be able to brag about surviving it in their later years. my wife is unaware of my opinion on this matter, which is surely based on personal experience, so luckily she does not read my posts here.
speaking of which, my wife is yelling at me from the kitchen. she refuses to chop onions. i would hate to be careless and get busted. so talk to ya later. 🙂
😀 😀 😀
Hi.
Doing my best to sidestep all the noise and madness these days, tweaking my reducing valve I guess.
Trying to be really good to the people that are good to me.
Just a tune that I like.
Safe and sound in the truly frozen north, sunny and brutally cold. Shovelling and helping start the neighbour’s car … helpful excellent boys at home and Mouse …
Sorry for the outburst, but I try to write things that might be interesting, and if someone doesn’t care to know what I think, then why use foul language to tell me that? Just kick the dog … that’s what I consider that kind of thing and I don’t appreciate being the dog that get’s kicked, especially while enjoying a fabulous trip! What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?
So enough about that and when the room stops spinning I will be back, with my merry prankster fully restored.
And we weren’t allowed to take the rental van to Mexico. Que sera sera …
Something ain’t functioning properly with my utube to Lighthouse transfer, will try again later.
1st snow of the year here, 5-8″ predicted with some icy rain to follow, this whole area will be shut down tomorrow..already wrecks galore and it really just started..fun,fun.
Beautiful “Purple Wreck” spliff came my way today so yep its’s a snow day.
a duplicate from not long ago, but it caught me when i heard it.
and i’m struggling, keep getting that “Duplicate Video” message and then an endless circle>, anyway somehow some videos aren’t transferring over here even if they are new to the site. not sure/dunno.
Good Morning …
awake and appreciative of the tunes and maybe I can turn off a setting to allow duplicate comments since you can always delete them anyway. Wanting to put up a new post but must make the coffee and wake the lad … real world stuff to cope with like actually paying for the boat and transferring money to the US we botched while away and must fix now. The bankers who have our money wouldn’t transfer it to a third party unless that third party was us, but we no longer have a US bank account … bankers will take your money but they sure hate to part with it. Back in a bit.