Bumper Sticker Alert

Michelle Malkin flags two bumper stickers that will be popular in places like my home state of Wyoming:

Vegetarian: An old Indian word for bad hunter.

and

PETA stands for People Eating Tasty Animals.

Hunting season starts soon.

Travel Blogging V

Today we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs where the park headquarters has been since the beginning. It is the headquarters location because it is at a lower altitude, by 2-3000 feet, and that makes it somewhat less frigid in winter.

The park was run by the U.S. Cavalry for several decades before the National Park Service was set up. So...much of the headquarters area looks like the old-time military post that it was for many years.

Today we took a stroll down "officers' row," housing for the senior officers of the detachment and their families. Only the CO or commanding officer had a free-standing house. Other senior officers' families lived in duplexes. Junior officers lived in the BOQ or bachelor officers' quarters. Officer housing looks like that at the Presidio in San Francisco or any other old time military base.

The enlisted cavalry troopers lived in barracks that housed large groups. Their housing was no worse than that of their horses, the care of which took up a serious part of the work day.

Cavalry patrols throughout the park did preserve much of the natural wonder. The pony soldiers arrested poachers and vandals, built roads, and kept the peace.

When the National Park Service was finally established, they recruited a substantial number of cavalry troopers to be the first park rangers. You can still see echoes of the old cavalry uniforms in today's rangers' uniforms.

Quote II of the Day

Moe Lane writing for RedState.com, about the left wing netroots (the blogosphere's version of grassroots):

The netroots can't help themselves, of course: they've been well-conditioned by now to automatically hate all who oppose them, and they are woefully unaccustomed to having to be accountable for it. But don't get mad at them: they're just... unwell, really.

It was a real mistake closing the mental hospitals. They might even have been able to help Michael Moore, with sufficient Thorazine.

The OODA Loop

Take a look at this American Thinker article about a fighter pilot concept: the OODA Loop. How quickly can a pilot observe, orient, decide, and act? The author argues that the McCain organization is shooting down the Obama guys, particularly with the Palin nomination, by seeing faster, figuring out what it means faster, deciding how to react faster, and acting faster.

The article won't change your thinking forever, or anything so profound, but it is fun and maybe accurate too.

Quote I of the Day

Senator Hillary Clinton, on CNN Political Ticker online, speaking about the nomination of Governor Sarah Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee:

We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain.

And if they win, guess who won't be too sorry as long as she isn't blamed?

Travel Blogging IV

Today we took a drive up Dunraven Pass beyond the summit, and then up the Chittenden Road to the parking lot for the Mt. Washburn trail. The Chittenden Road is narrow, washboarded, unpaved and without guard rails over most of its length. That parking lot is very likely the highest point to which one can drive in the park, and the views are breathtaking.

You stand there in awe and as far as you can see in every direction there is nothing, except the road you drove up on, that reflects the hand of man. These vistas look as they did when the first Europeans hiked into this wilderness during the Jefferson administration 200 years ago.

We broke out the binoculars and scanned a vast space, larger than many nations, which the founders of the National Park System decided needed to be kept wild. As we noted the other day, they have succeeded.

Yellowstone was the world's first national park, and remains today one of the largest and most spectacular. It has the world's largest collection of thermal features, serves as an enormous outdoor zoo-without-fences where the animals do as they choose and the people need to protect themselves, and the scenery is amazing enough to warrant a park all by itself.

An interesting cultural aside: we shared a tour with a British couple who pronounced the thermal features that shoot steam and water into the air, geysers, as "gee.zers," whereas in the U.S. we pronounce them "guy.sers."

We told them that Fishing Bridge (a bridge over the Yellowstone River near its exit from Yellowstone Lake) used to be called "Fanny Bridge" because of all the tourists bent over looking in the water. They replied that the term "fanny" is quite off-color in the U.K. and we shouldn't use it there in polite society. I Googled it and found it refers to female genitalia. I guess that means the U.K. is no place to market fanny packs, that bag-on-a-belt, unless you rename them.

Political Humor Alert

Go see David Brooks' great satirical column in The New York Times where he imagines the perfect(ly awful) convention speech by one of the many party hacks who get to stand up and gas at us. One of my favorite bits is this section where his imaginary 'orator' refers to Obama's acceptance speech:

We were thrilled by his speech in front of the Greek columns, which were conscientiously recycled from the concert, “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis.” We were honored by his pledge, that if elected president, he will serve at least four months before running for higher office.

And I love this piece of faux political boilerplate:

We meet today to heal the divisions that have torn this country. For we are all one country and one American family, whether we are caring and thoughtful Democrats or hate-filled and war-crazed Republicans.

The whole thing is worth your time if you'd enjoy a laugh at the political clowns.

McCain Picks Palin

If John McCain's pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee is any indication of his governing style, a McCain presidency will be a wild ride, more fun than we've seen in years. This is a guy who likes to roll the dice, take the chances, and count on his luck. So far, his luck has been phenomenal and we have been joint beneficiaries along with him.

Faced with a number of safe, boring choices, McCain reached instead for the brass ring and may have caught it. We'll know in just over two months. No question Palin helps him with the social conservative base, and with the famous Clinton-voting white working class, and she is a reformer with a record of tossing the bums out. How cool politically is having a husband who is a world class snowmobile racer and a part Yupik Eskimo and a certified blue collar oil field worker? And did I mention she likes to hunt and eats moose burgers?

If she is no Joe Biden, Obama is no McCain. Obama, having almost no experience, needed a veep with lots of experience and got one. McCain has lots of experience and needed other things, which I argue he may well have gotten. I guess the choice is now whether you want the person with almost no experience as the president or as the vice president, the latter makes more sense.

The real unknown in all of this is the extent to which liberal feminists who supported Clinton will be willing to vote for a woman who is not liberal. Is sisterhood more powerful than ideology? Perhaps liberal feminists will hold against Palin the fact that she is attractive. In about a week the daily tracking polls will give us a clue.

Travel Blogging III

Herewith we continue travel blogging. Late today we took a ride in one of these old "historic buses." Ours was a 1936 White that had been totally rebuilt with Ford running gear, engine and drive train. In Glacier National Park they call them "jammers" as they originally had non-synchromesh transmissions and the drivers would jam them into gear, probably with a good deal of grinding.

We had a great driver/guide named Brooke; one of those not-rushing-into-adulthood folks who provide guiding and other services at the parks. I met a number of them as a professor, often very interesting folks.

We saw plenty of wildlife on this drive, including the large fellow above who was maybe 5 feet from our vehicle. If he appears to be taking a dim view of us, he nevertheless showed good sense enough not to charge a motor vehicle that outweighed him by a couple of tons. We saw hundreds of bison, several deer, and a herd of elk all relatively close, and what was either a wolf or a coyote (more likely) but seen at such a distance that we couldn't tell which, even with binoculars. We also saw clueless tourists standing 10-12 feet from a bison, which is really asking for a Darwin Award.

We lucked into a spectacular sunset over Lake Yellowstone, which can be seen on the other DrC's blog located at cruztalker.blogspot.com. She specializes in photos of pretty places and flowers, and interesting critters.

We chatted up several park employees in the course of the last two days, they are often very pleasant people from all over the world. That is part of the fun.

Travel Blogging II

Today we revisited the Old Faithful Inn, one of the architechural wonders of the National Park system. It is made of local wood and stone, and is over 100 years old. Above is a photo of the multistory lobby, taken by the other DrC who is a dab hand with a camera. The exterior is interesting too, with a very steeply pitched snow-shedding roof pierced by many dormer windows. You just have to see it for yourself to fully appreciate it.

We went out on the patio roof of the portico to watch the geyser erupt, which it did a little behind schedule. Then we had some ice cream from the creamery off the lobby, another of our traditions. Along the way home we spotted elk and bison, several quite close to the road. When we got back to West Yellowstone we filled the truck with diesel, and ran up a bill greater than $100. This may not be a first but it hasn't happened often and did get my attention.

Tomorrow's explorations will take us over to Canyon Village. Canyon is located at the north end of the Hayden Valley, summer home of the largest remaining wild bison herd in the world. Canyon gets its name from the nearby Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, which is pretty darn spectacular in its own way, though not in comparison to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in Arizona.

Travel Blogging I

Southwestern Montana is sure some beautiful country. Today we drove north out of eastern Idaho into West Yellowstone, Montana, a very small town which sits just outside the park's western boundary. The road, U.S. 20, is excellent and the scenery around Henry's Fork (of the Snake River) and Island Park is pleasant. I particularly enjoyed the drive between there and West Yellowstone, through second (or third) growth conifer forests that have been logged off, replanted, and will be ready to log again in 20-30 years.

Tomorrow we will drive around Yellowstone National Park, as we have done for several decades. We marvel at how it looks just as it did when we first saw it together in the early 1970s. The 1988 fire damage is healing; fire causes lodgepole pinecones to pop open and reseed the land. The regrowth trees are maybe 6 feet tall, quite an accomplishment when you realize the growing season at 8000 ft. elevation is about 45 days a year. Lots more than half of the park didn't burn, and looks exactly as it did when I first saw it with my parents, staring out the windows of an old Chevrolet sedan full of camping gear.

Consumer Confidence Up

Considering how much doom and gloom the politicians are spreading around, you'd think the American consumer would be virtually suicidal. Nope. Not even close.

This Bloomberg News report says the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose 5 points in August, after rising in July. This is nearly a 10% increase. They credit easing in gasoline prices and a lessening of home market problems. Go here to see the Conference Board's website.

I predict politicians, particularly Democrats, will continue to tell us that we are all going to hell in a handbasket. As is usual with politicians, if you can see their lips moving, they are lying.

Gallup: McCain Takes Lead

The Gallup Daily Tracking Poll shows that McCain now leads Obama 46% to 44%. When you realize that these numbers include the first day of the Democratic convention, the whole purpose of which is to help Obama be more popular, you begin to see the magnitude of his problem.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen Reports has the two candidates tied at 44% each. They note:

Obama’s support has declined in each of the last three individual nights of polling.

That leaky rowboat I mentioned the other day seems to keep taking on water.

Travel Blogging Alert

We will be traveling for the next 10 days and blogging will be intermittent, depending on internet availability. I hope to share some impressions of Yellowstone and the Tetons, places we've been going back to for over 30 years. I don't expect the conventions to produce much in the way of surprises, and don't plan to watch them. I'll let the paid journalists do that work for me.

Quote of the Day

Lou Dobbs, CNN talking head, commenting on media bias:

My colleagues in the national media are absolutely biased, in the tank supporting the Obama candidacy while claiming the mantle of objectivity. Whether they're in the front page of "The Washington Post," "The New York Times," whether it's any one of the news casts, I mean, it's ridiculous.

Source: Newsbusters.org transcript of Dobbs' Sunday evening show.

Russia Makes Lemonade

There is an old saying about making the best of a bad situation, if someone gives you a lemon, make lemonade. As a result of invading Georgia, the world has handed Russia a number of sour lemons in the form of diplomatic signals that things Russia wants won't be forthcoming. Things, for example, like membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This article from Agence France-Presse says the Russians have announced that they no longer actively seek membership in the WTO, although low level negotiations may continue. It is always better to claim you don't want something you won't be allowed to obtain.

Make no mistake, Russia isn't happy making this announcement. It is a feeble attempt by the bear to save face.

Quote of the Day

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Ed Rendell is a former Clinton backer who now supports Obama. His remarks about media coverage are reported in the blog of Politico.com's Michael Calderone:

Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing.

In particular he was not impressed with cable news coverage:

MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign.

When the media gets so biased that even Democrats comment on it, we may be beyond the point of no return.

Negative Bounce

Barack Hussein Obama named Joe Biden as his vice presidential nominee and got a negative bounce from that action. This CNN article reports a poll taken after the announcement that shows McCain and Obama tied up at 47% each. The article quotes CNN Polling Director Keating Holland:

This looks like a step backward for Obama, who had a 51 to 44 percent advantage last month. Even last week, just before his choice of Joe Biden as his running mate became known, most polls tended to show Obama with a single-digit advantage over McCain.

This Gallup Poll reports the two tied at 45% each, again there is no bounce.

Oh, my, what can the matter be?

Wall Street Journal Agrees

Yesterday we wrote in this blog that Biden was Cheney 2.0. Tomorrow's The Wall Street Journal carries an editorial entitled "Obama's Cheney." It makes many of the same points we made, and it is nice to have them agreeing with us. The Journal says:

As a vice presidential choice, in short, Mr. Biden is not unlike Governor George W. Bush's selection in 2000 of Dick Cheney as a reassuring counselor on national security. If the angry liberal Netroots don't like that analogy, so much the better for the country.

Thanks for the support, guys, welcome aboard.

Quote of the Day

Joe Biden, Democratic vice presidential nominee, speaking of his view of Barack Obama:

I think he can be ready but right now, I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.

Source: CBS News