Dusk in the Buffalo Valley

View from where I am with Mount Moran in the background. Cooling off at this magical time of day. Still great sleeping/sweater weather here at night. But the days are scorching hot!

Hot and Dry, Dry, Dry in the West

It's unseasonably hot and dry in Wyoming and everyone is trying to stay cool. Air conditioning is almost unheard of here, but it won't be long until AC is big business if this drought continues many more years. Worse still, the fire danger is extreme. It reminds me of the weather here in 1988, my second year as a homeowner, when the great fires of Yellowstone became international news. These fires came within only five miles of my cabin in the woods and required numerous evacuations. It was a wild time.

But so far, no great fires have broken out here, though it wouldn't surprise anyone if an inferno started at any time. Afternoon Chinook winds lash this dry valley almost every day. If accompanied by dry lightning, then anything could happen.

When I'm not headed to the river, I get out and exercise in the early cool of the morning, after a strong cup of black coffee and 4-5 tall glasses of water. Staying hydrated and protected from the sun is not optional.

But (and I know it's a bore) is it global warming or just a normal trend?

No! says Cheyenne meteorologist Don Day today in the Casper Star Tribune.

"Wyoming traditionally sees its warmest weather between mid-July and mid-August and a spell like this is not unusual. Short periods of warm weather offer no more evidence of global warming than brief periods of extreme cold portend a new ice age. We had the second coldest January on record this year in Laramie."

Whatever the cause, we're all praying for rain and soon. It will be a blessed relief when it comes.

Nightmare or Dream Come True?

As aptly stated on Pajamas Media, this is the liberals worst nightmare, and the mullahs worst nightmare too.

Heh!

Playing Cribbage

Few things can keep me away from the computer for long. But, if I don't post much over the next few days, it's because I'm hanging out with someone who, like me, loves, adores, to play cribbage. One of two of my favorite games in the world---the other is UPWORDS, a three dimensional Scrabble---finding a worthy opponent can make me turn off the computer, shut out the news and play, play play.

We even have a new deck of cards, along with a new crib board in the shape of a horse shoe! So here I go. Fun, fun, fun, if you've never tried it. Be back later, alligator!

Victor Hanson on the NYT's Surrender and Robert Spenser at Hot Air on Rep. Keith Ellison

Victor Davis Hanson on the shameful surrender at the New York Times. As a military historian, no one puts this in perspective better than he can.


This is another great video that keeps us current on the first Muslim U.S. Representative, Keith Ellison and his ties to subversive groups that would like to see The Constitution replaced with Sharia Law.

One Day You'll Be Singing a Different Tune, Deary

One day we'll look back at this time of domestic peace and economic plenty as the good ole days. History will deal with Bush in a much kinder way than you libs.

In any event, No! I won't trade you my Donald Rumsfield photo for this ridiculous cap. Never, no never! NEVAH!

The Stock Market Hits All Time Highs!

Nobody says it better than Larry!

The bottom line, free market capitalism is still the best path to economic prosperity.

Blast from Our Past

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods and His Secret Life on the Web As "Rahodeb"

A fascinating story about Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey is unfolding both online and off. It involves Mackey's secret, anonymous life online for the past six years posting under the pseudonym of "Rahodeb" in Yahoo! Finance chat rooms. In these he openly discussed the prospects of his company's stock WFMI.

The question is, can and should a CEO like Mackey go into stock discussion rooms anonymously, or at all, and discuss a stock which he has intimate knowledge of? And can and should Mackey have discussed, usually in negative terms, the stock of chief competitor Wild Oats Market (OATS), a company that Whole Foods today has contracted to acquire? Did any of his comments over the years influence WFMI's upward movement? Or the downward movement of competitor OATS?

Full disclosure: I have always admired Mackey as a businessman, and made some money in the stock market on WFMI stock.

As an investor and blogger, I will be following this story with great interest, and as yet haven't made up my mind as to what I think of the whole thing. The Securities and Exchange Commission, however, is not amused and is taking Mackey's anonymous comments on the Internet very seriously.

Probably way too seriously, in my opinion. But, be that as it may, fireworks may be in the offing as well as a potential deal breaker for his company's proposed acquisition of Wild Oats Market.

Stay tuned.

TUESDAY UPDATE: Mackey apologizes to the Whole Foods board for online comments.

Our New Role Models

Weapons of mass destruction? Pride in stilettos goeth before a fall?

It's the Beckhams, stupid.

Sunday: General Revelation by God Through Natural World Is Offered First to All Men, Before Specific Revelation

One of the great arguments against believing in Christ goes something like this: If God is so gracious to mankind by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes in Him shall be saved and have eternal life, then what about all those millions of people who lived before Christ was born and didn't have a chance to know about Him?

In our Bible readings this week, we're starting Paul's letter to the Romans, and in Romans 1, Paul writes about this very issue: how all men are given the chance to believe in God first through general revelation, the revelation of the Creator in nature and the outdoors. If our hearts are open to this general revelation and to starting to worship the Creator, rather than just the creation, then God continues reveling Himself even more through specific revelation.

Below, Bob Deffington gives a commentary on this very issue. One thing is for sure, I can't be in this great outdoors for long without being overcome by the magnificence of nature and the sure, amazing knowledge of the Creator. So now to Deffington's commentary on Romans 1:

God’s Revelation in Nature

There is available to every man a certain knowledge of God. This knowledge is attainable by observing the handiwork of God in creation. Just as we can learn much of a writer by studying his work, or of a painter by his paintings, so, also, we can learn of God from His handiwork, His creation. We may learn, Paul says in verse 20, of God’s eternal power and of His divine nature. Who can look at the raging power of the Niagara Falls and not be struck with the power of the One Who created them? Who can study the power of the atom and not be impressed with the infinite power of the Creator? And who can ponder creation without concluding that someone far greater than mortal man was the originator of it all?

As the Psalmist put it long ago: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:1, 2). The witness of creation to its Creator has been acknowledged by many great minds.

Dr. Horstmann testified, “My scientific conscience forbids me not to believe in God.”⁶

Pasteur concurred, “Just because I reflected I remained a believer.”⁷

Dr. A. Nueberg agrees when he says, “God is the cause of all things, and whoever thinks in terms of cause and effect thinks in the direction of God.”⁸

Even an unbeliever like Voltaire confessed, “I do not know what I should think about the world. I cannot believe this clock exists without a clockmaker.”⁹

Granted, there are some who are students of creation, but who do not seem to be able to look beyond to the Creator. They look at creation in the way a glass-maker analyzes the glass in a display window. They note its thickness and freedom from distortion. They observe the size and quality of the glass and the way it is framed. But they fail to look through the glass to the display behind, the true purpose of the glass being overlooked.¹⁰

Man’s Response to God’s Natural Revelation

Man's proper response to the revelation of God should have been worship and grateful acknowledgment: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks …” (Romans 1:21a).

Man’s response to natural revelation is three-fold. First of all is the initial act of rejection: Men simply refuse to accept God as He has revealed Himself. Paul tells us in verse 18 that men “… suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” They refuse God as He is. How often we consider the problem of the heathen to be lack of revelation. We somehow view God as withholding revelation essential to the salvation of the pagan. But Paul describes the heathen as having confined God's revelation to a box of their own making, and piling on the lid of the box their own sins. The pagan’s problem is not the sparsity of revelation, but the suppression of it.

Whenever we reject one explanation of the facts we must necessarily counter with an alternative. This is precisely the situation with the heathen. They have rejected God’s revelation of Himself and they have replaced it with another. The key word here is ‘exchanged’ (vv. 23, 25, 26). Instead of worshipping the God Who made man in His own image, they made gods in their image. They worshipped the creature rather than the Creator. Bad enough to conceive of God in terms of humanity, but they went far beyond this to represent God in terms of the beasts of the earth. The Greeks had their Apollo, the Romans the eagle, the Egyptians the bull, and the Assyrians the serpent. Paul may have been alluding to these ‘gods.’

Not only did the heathen exchange the truth of God for a lie, but they also exchanged the blessings of God in His provision for sexual fulfillment for that which is unnatural and disgusting. “… for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire towards one another …” (Romans 1:26b-27a). There is here, I believe, a deadly sequence of events. Rejection of God’s revelation leads to idolatry, and idolatry leads to immorality and man at last plummets into the grossest perversions imaginable.

If you have thought of the heathen as an idolater because he didn’t know any better, Paul insists that he is an idolater because he has refused to know better, suppressing God’s self-revelation.

Read Deffington's entire commentary here.

When God Plays Jokes, Whadda Expect?

What's a nice conservative woman like me doing with liberal friends who not only believe everything they read in the MSM, but who actually help create the myths I constantly attempt to debunk here? What kind of joke is God playing on me when he keeps bringing these kinds of people into my life?

Add to that they have a rare outrageous sense of humor f(or a liberal), that makes me laugh uproariously in spite of myself, and are about to arrive from the elite EAST for a five-day visit?

I pray and then get out the big guns!

Most of the time, I keep my most un-demure sense of humor in check. However, I will need it in spades starting today and bring out much mischief in order to keep the upper hand in my own living quarters. It won't be easy, believe me.

I am about to have a NON-STOP, LIVE LIBERAL COMMENTER in my creekside abode, with no comments moderation except maybe earplugs, a little jar of crushed garlic in my frig, my iPod, a fire extinguisher and a little cannister of red pepper spray for bears.

It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

To wit: I've just pasted on the wall of the guest room---actually over one of the beds---this postcard photo I received in the mail yesterday of one of my all-time favorite conservative men. He, of course, is Darth Vader, Dracula, and Satan all rolled up in one to the libs (except of course the two other big Satans---Bush and Cheney!) more dreaded than the great grizzly bear.

But to me he's strong, attractive, masculine with a wicked sense of humor. Nearby on the bedside table: The Claremont Review of Books with articles such as "Is the Left Patriotic" awaits this imminent assault on reason.

I have other tricks up my sleeve. But for now, I'll let the postcard scotch taped on the wall do the welcoming.....should be fun. If I don't come back to my blog in due time, please send the Secret Service out to look for me!

Life is filled with irony.

Meanwhile, here's a very funny little clip on that all-time favorite conservative man:

Some Accomplishments of the Bush Era

Bush and Iraq loathing has reached such a fever pitch in America and the MSM today that it's easy, even for conservatives, to lose sight of some of the very real accomplishments of the Bush era. I believe that history will deal far more kindly with Bush than the braying masses. Here are some things to remember from Invincible Armor on Bush's successful agenda:

• Aggressively fighting the war, expanding and rebuilding the military, and
  trying to transform it into a 21st-century fighting force;
• Lowering taxes and making the cuts permanent;
• Security measures such as the Patriot Act, the NSA al-Qaeda intercept
  program, the SWIFT surveillance program, National Security Letters, and so forth;
• Allowing faith-based organizations to fully participate in charitable
  governmental functions;
• Reform of Social Security, MediCare, and other
  entitlement programs to introduce at least some element of privatization;
• The various border-security and employer-enforcement provisions of the
  recently killed immigration bill, all of which Bush supports (and none of which the Democrats support);
• Appointing federal judges who believe in judicial restraint;
• Firm opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research,
  particularly federal funding;
• Unwavering support for traditional marriage and opposition to same-sex "marriage".

The areas of disagreement, while often intense, are dwarfed by the things with which we share common ground. It's easy for us to lose sight of the positive in the face of constant and vocal opposition. Let us not forget the amazing boom in the economy for anyone hard working and resourceful enough to take advantage of it.

And let us not forget the Democrats have declared war on this amazing prosperity. John Edwards is going to be in our face soon as he begins his upcoming and farcical "poverty tour" soon. I can hardly wait to watch the Silky Pony re-invent recent history for his own personal gain, even as he flies in Hollywood hairdresses to cut and style his hair while on the road.

Still Crazy After All These Years

For the past 17 or 18 years, we've fished together, laughed, cried, fought, made up, told secrets and gone on to fish again. I hate to admit it, but she's a better fisherwoman than I am.....on certain days, a good day, on a streamers and some dry flies. However, there are days, on a dry fly, a hopper, I can whoop her buns.

Today on the Snake was a golden day on the river. One of those days you remember in the deepest, darkest part of winter! Sure we caught fish, and plenty of them. But it's more than that. It's being out in this magnificent creation with wildlife, great company and lots of laughs. The fish are just the bonus.

Love you, Edie. And John, you are the best, very best, of guides and boatmen. Great to have you here showing us yankee neophytes how it's really done, during your New Zealand winter.

To be continued.

Some Things Never Change

This is the first risque thing I've put on my blog, but I think it's adorable. I hope you get as much of a laugh as I do from this.

And I repeat, some things never change....

Setting the Depravity Bar Lower and Lower

How low can we go for depraved American icons? God help us all. These creatures from England---and yes, I know who they are, what they do and how much money they're worth-- look like they've escaped the bowels of hell to me.

At least they're honest in their goals: They've come to the United States to be our new "role models" and want to become even more filthy, rich, famous and powerful in the process.

Who knew? Just two sad, lonely and lost looking people, willing and desperate to do anything to attract attention, to me.

Facilis descensus Averno.

Taking Political Correctness to the Woodshed at Blogodidact

Several days ago, there was a little dust up over here at a post I did on the disgraceful photo of some of the White House staff women, including Karen Hughes, attending the rededication of the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. wearing scarves and looking like Muslim converts. It was political correctness at its most shameful worst.

Whereupon, the comments starting flying advocating the respect we should show for all religious traditions, including Islam. I stuck to my guns on the disgracefulness of this photo in the face of liberal apologists for Islam.

Fortunately, Van at Blogodidact came over and took up the banner of righteous indignation with me. And today, he has done a larger post---go and read it all--- expanding his argument and defending our similar positions.

Van continues in a very insightful post saying:

"Numbers Don't Mean Squat
What Vienna VA and other members of the culturally clueless don't seem to grasp, is that a culture is not led by the opinions of its majority. A culture is led by those who effectively position themselves as its public face. It doesn't take a majority to impose the rules. It only takes an active, vocal minority to make demands and threaten those who disagree with them, to denigrate them - to put their face forward as THE Face, into your face, and with a majority who will not only let them do so, but will accept the denigration and embarrassment over their disagreements ("Gas guzzling, SUV Driving...", "Energy hogs.", "More concerned with comfort...", etc) in order to just get along, to not make waves, with just that and no more, the vocal minority will easily be able to rule - they will be perceived as the public Face of the Culture.

Webutante said "... to me political correctness and appeasement is generated by a deep and unacknowledged fear not to confront and make waves."

Yep.

What leaders, good and bad, have always understood - and what the rest of us never seem to grasp, is that those who make up the culture, are only a very small slice of the population. Those who appear to be the guiding lights of the culture make up an even smaller slice of them. They are the ones who set the tone, or seem to, which the entire population will then seek to march in step with - even those who fancy themselves as the 'counter-culture' busily take note of the popular beat, in order to be out of step with it - making themselves if anything even more slavish than the simple follower.

For those who take comfort in the reassuring nods of their leaders and the accompanying phrases such as ‘it can never happen here’, just what is it that they think secures the 'culture' they live in? Numerical advantages? How many people are aware that the US Revolutionary war was supported by only a fraction of the populace - a third at best? That Hitler was voted into power by a small percentage of the population - which nevertheless was larger than the opposition groups? It wasn't because the majority of the people agreed and was with them, it was because a majority of the people weren't aware that they were the majority, and so went along with those few they took the majority to agree with."

This is not stuff you're going to read or hear in the MSM. We need to listen to what Van says and there's more good writing over there.

Old Real Wyoming, Turpin Meadow

This is the meadow where I lived and worked part of the year for more than a decade. And a river runs through it.

My Summer Office

Naturally air conditioned. Great views. Ideal way to keep weight down cause standing in cold water all day forces the body to use plenty of calories keeping temperature steady. Instead of using supplies like paper clips, computers and pens, only a few simple instruments---like gink, forceps, clippers---are required.

What can I say? it's fishing season. Presidential election? War on terror? what war on terror?

There are a few occupational hazards---like grizzly bears, mosquitoes, heavy currents, high winds, occasional quicksand and getting hooked---but they pale in comparison to the great fun and exercise of interacting with nature and wildlife up close and personal. And letting your mind be soothed by the sounds of wild water and chinook winds, with occasional hawks screeching overhead.

The fish I am releasing will go back into the water a smarter, more sophisticated fish and thus much harder to catch next time. It forces us to become better at fishing too. The fish and the fisherman all get smarter as the season progresses. This is as it should be.

Catch and Release Fishing

Fly fishing with true sportsmen always keeps the playing field level between man and the wily trout. We fish only catch and release, barbless, single hooks. In other words, we don't kill fish. It requires much greater skill on the part of the fisherman, sometimes leaving him or her humbled. But not often. And certainly not yesterday.

Here, one of my favorite fishing partners, fisherman and conservationist extraordinaire, gently takes his barbless hook out of a native cutthroat, while keeping the trout in the water. Then he releases the strong, healthy fish back to its habitat so it can be caught another day, another year.

Busy day today, but more fishing tales to follow later. Yesterday, this man had to pull me out of quicksand. I'm staying on dry land today.