Occupation of Independence

A couple summer agos I got serious at trying to like summer camping.  'Water people' must wonder how somebody could be so dense.  But of course there is no water in the western states and where there is,  the camping comes with noise, crowds, fees, reservations, restrictions, and flying insects. But the water people are right.  Washing up before going to bed, with lukewarm water and soap on a washcloth, helps quite a bit. I haven't pursued the water bladder method of cooling my head or feet while sleeping.  It would have been effective, but it proved more convenient to buy one of those mini-fans that have their own lithium battery: mounted near my neck and head, the cooling is adequate at low fan speed and noise. The need to stay cooler forced me to renounce a long held prejudice about northern forests versus the ponderosa forests of the Southwest.  Yes, ponderosa forests are easy to camp in.  And they are visually appealing since you can see between t...

You can't expect spring-time breezes to last all summer, but the other day I was relieved to feel such a breeze on a day that was expected to be hot.  My camping spot is on what you could call a peninsular knob that sticks out from the side of a mountain, and seems to hang out over steep slopes.  Thus it is exposed to wind as well as a good view. A cool breeze at the same time as warm, dry, sunny air.  It is quite a pleasure to feel pain and pleasure at the same time , just as you do in winter with simultaneous chilly, calm air and a warming, early morning sun. Ahh how fine this is, I thought at the time, and slowed down on our dog walk to take it all in.  This is one of the best things you could experience in the outdoors.  But it was troubling to experience it in a too sedate way.   There are temperaments that are content to put bland, sugary, Heinz ketchup on their hash browns at breakfast.  Other people want tabasco sauce.   It seeme...

It is a rare pleasure, listening to the hooting of an owl at night, while camped in a ponderosa forest in Idaho.  You'd think it would happen more often.  A quicker thinker would have grabbed his smartphone and recorded the sound.   Apparently owls are not that numerous.  You'd think they would be, with their size and capabilities.  In my next life I am going to learn some biology. Speaking of biology, I was impressed by the 'marauding' done by a hungry butterfly today, alongside a mountain bike ride.  You usually think of butterflies with cyootsie-wootsie and pretty-poo behavior, but this mariposa was like a terrier with wings. The next morning, these flowers were closed up like a street vendor at night.  Why so?  If I was a flower I would close shop during the heat of the day to preserve water.  Once again, learning some biology is desperately needed.  

  I continue to be both amazed and satisfied by un-flashy things I see in the natural world around me.  For instance, it has only gradually crept up on me over the last few years that the feminine characteristics of nature are wonderful. Recently my little sweetie and I were biking on a forest road.  I stopped at an unflashy cluster of yellow flowers of a type I never noticed before.  It seemed important to stop pedaling and let it all soak in for a couple minutes: My little sweetie obviously agreed. Looking around my environment, there are 'girls gone wild' everywhere.  Sometime it is in the curves of the topography: The male mind -- being what it is -- can't look at curves on hills without running off in a direction that is all too easy to guess. But most of the time, the feminine characteristics of nature are subtle.  Even water has become feminine in my imagination because it allows life to flourish everywhere: Maybe you need to spend half the year in t...

This is a real challenge.  Try to think of something to say about the state of the world that is not divisive and partisan; not childish name-calling; not religious, tribal, and cruel. ...but is rational, adult, and halfway realistic. My best offering for something most Americans could agree to is that we have serious institutional problems that need our attention, and that the world doesn't need America running around the world preaching about 'freedom and democracy' merely as a sales-pitch for a militaristic empire. How could a country that has elected Trump 1.0, Biden 0.0, and Trump 2.0 have the arrogance to think that it should practice regime-change in one country after another, and thereby 'fix' those countries?!  This arrogance started after World War II when most countries were rubble, and America was prosperous because it had the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Atlantic on the other.

Have you seen the speed of some of those missiles hitting Tel Aviv?  Amazing.  It is so easy to think that modern war is about bombs, drones, and missiles hitting valuable targets on the surface of the earth. But a big part of war is putting valuable targets underground -- 100 feet, or is it 200?  I have trouble visualizing that.  I always thought they used t unneling equipment, similar to building underground coal mines.  After  getting down 200 feet, they would have to create a big "cave" to hold a large building.  Building that seems so slow and expensive since you need to remove all the loose stuff via tunnels, and then bring in the construction materials through those tunnels. I don't think they dig out a giant open-pit, and then build structures at the bottom of the hole in the usual way, and finally fill in the hole with "loose fill." It seems like loose fill would be less protective than a similar depth of solid rock, b ut solidity itself is no...

Here we go again.  These times are certainly exciting for armchair generals, like me.    Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator" I read an interesting article by Larry Johnson (sonar21.com) talking about the difficulty of Trump/Israel sustaining an air war against Iran by using aircraft.  Iran will fight back with (repaired) air defense, missiles, and drones. American aircraft are maintenance-intensive.  Missiles and drones aren't.  Aircraft needs pilots who receive years of training.  Missiles and drones only need electronics and computers. Of course the Zionist axis has missiles and drones, too.  But they have depleted much of their supply with a losing war in Ukraine.  How fast can they manufacture new missiles and drones? Consider China's role in the war against Iran.  Iran is an important energy supplier to China.  Wouldn't it be a great opportunity for China to test its missiles and drones in combat?  China's manufacturi...

You gotta' give Alberta credit for having a nice motto on their license plates: Wild Rose Country.  But actually, wild roses are all over the place in the northern Rockies.  (Perhaps they even take in a wider territory than that.)   June is the month for them.  Don't wait too long -- they fade pretty quickly.  Their colors are most vivid when the blooms first open up.  I like how this photo shows blooms of different 'newnesses': Sometimes the wild roses clump into 'flocks' of one hundred.  At some point you can stand away from them and smell them.  Is there any fragrance more delightful?! But why are overpowering good or bad odors so rare for human beings?  It seems like most animals are drastically superior to homo sapiens in their ability to detect odors.  If you argued that olfactory ability is an essential tool for being a successful hunter, that doesn't really answer the question, because humans lived by hunting and gathering u...

I never thought I would praise or admire Greta Thunberg.  But there was some risk to the humanitarian stunt she and her companions were trying.  The publicity that goes along with her probably saved the sailboat from being sunk by Israel. But what if Israel had sunk the sailboat with Greta and her companions?  Would any government in Europe or America have  done anything about it?  Would it have been mentioned in the mainstream media?  And if you objected to their slaughter, would you have been accused of anti-Semitism? Is it even theoretically possible for Israel to commit any crime that would weaken the Zionism of the American congress, Lindsay Graham, AIPAC, or Trump?  It is strange how something so monstrous can be happening, how my own country can be largely responsible for it, and how you really can't talk about it.  That's 'freedom and democracy' for you. I need to find that quote from de Tocqueville about 'religious insanity is everywhe...

So much of the art of travel comes down to being able to appreciate things -- and not just freakish scenery. Recently I camped out as far as I could go before reaching the orange signs about road work.   I wasn't that close to the road but huge, belly-dumper trucks came by, one after the other, and blasted me with noise and dust.  It doesn't sound like the greatest camping situation, but I actually enjoyed the entertainment show. Later, I even told the road engineer that I enjoyed watching the show.  He smiled. And why shouldn't I?  Gravel roads are superior to unimproved, dirt roads by a wider margin than paved roads are to gravel roads.  There is something about a gravel road that charms.  It pulls your imagination back to a not-so-distant past, a past that belonged to ancestors that you might remember from your childhood. I didn't see the belly-dumpers disgorge the gravel, but presumably it was laid down about a foot deep.  Then the grader pull...

I spent half the day  yesterday at a city park, enjoying some pleasures that are rare for me.  When a city park has a dog park I actually get a chance to have quality conversations with local people.  Just imagine how rare that is, for a traveler! All of the trees were leafed out.  The variety is almost unbelievable.  There was even a sweetgum tree, here in northeastern Oregon.  Normally it grows in the southeastern states.  It is strange to think that there are many people who take trees like this for granted. from istockphoto.com The leaves of the maple trees look like giant, juicy green, water balloons.  Again, you have to contrast that with the uninteresting trees in national forests.  One can tire of trees that are nothing but bark and needles. A traveler is wise to take advantage of cool weather to come down from the mountains and enjoy town-pleasures like this before the low-altitude town becomes a furnace.

Young people probably tune-out oldsters when certain phrases come out, such as "I remember when...," or "It happened 50 years ago, but I remember it just like yesterday." But the thing is, good ol' Gramps was right after all.  Because it was 50 years ago when my Grandpa -- a lifelong farmer -- was reminiscing about his one and only scenery vacation to Colorado.  There was a change in the barbed wire fences when he reached the Great Plains compared to a Prairie State further east.  Then he caught himself, smirked, and said, "You don't want to hear about that.  A young man needs so much excitement..."  And I can remember it like yesterday, dammit. Indeed, I have noticed how satisfied I can be with things that don't seem flashy or exciting.  The other night it defied the weather forecasts and gave us a nice little shower at 4 in the morning.  On the morning dog walk I was impressed by how fresh the sagebrush and grass smelled.  It was dead calm....

Fuses blew and circuit breakers snapped open.  Such was my head when I learned that the only laundromat in town would not accept quarters.  They wanted me to pay upfront for a card, and then use a credit/debit card to load up a balance on the card.  The instructions were printed on the wall.  About 16 steps were needed. As an alternative, I could download an app onto my phone and pay that way.  I was shocked to learn that the washing and drying machines were connected via bluetooth to the customers' phone, so no card was necessary. from istockphoto.com There was a telephone number on the wall.  Amazingly enough, a human being answered it.  He explained that the former laundromat owner went out of business partly due to vandalism of quarters at the machines.  The man who answered my call was a personable young fellow, and soon he had me in the mood to see this whole infuriating experience as a game to have fun with.  The app wanted me to set u...

What could be more shameful than your country actively aiding the extermination of a people?  It makes an individual in America tune the whole thing out -- it is too depressing to think about.  But that will just guarantee that the murderous people win.  The alternative is to look for some help, some escape, from this shame. Apparently elections are a false hope.  We have had a Democrat administration and now a Republican administration actively participating in the slaughter in Gaza.  To hell with the Blue versus the Red -- in either case, the Media and Congress are complete slaves to the Israeli lobby. If we back off from the daily news and take in a long-term view, we see public assemblies going through fundamental changes from time to time, typically because of some crisis.  Think of the changes the English Parliament has had over the last few centuries.  Or consider King Louis XVI reconvening the French Estates-General, only to watch them reconst...

There is no shortage of postcard scenery in northeastern Oregon.  I could have camped at a spot where this view would literally have been out the front door:  And I enjoyed the view for a few seconds, but quickly lost interest.  I wanted to find something that wasn't such a tourist  cliché.  What sort of surprises could I find out here, if any? There was a sagebrush and grass ridge that made for surprises and delights.  Those are the words I use when I can pedal my bike uphill in something other than granny gear.  It was proving to be a great ride.  Near the high end we ran across this: The mountains were OK, but what really grabbed me was the soft, gently uphill curves on that dirt road. There wasn't much traffic on my dirt road.  But there were more houses than expected.  Perhaps this was an old mining town.   The locals weren't the kind of people you would probably want to talk to.  They were stereotypical rural yahoos ...

Isn't that how the old song goes?  Travelers in the deserts of the Southwest frequently see wild burros.  And they love them! But in the northern states I have never seen wild horses, despite being on their areas.  Until now.  When I got out of bed yesterday, there they were. They didn't act too wild, actually.  They were only 50 meters from my camper, and calmly watched me and my little dog going on our morning walk.  The horses seemed to want to mooch something from me, but I resisted.  After all, they are supposed to be wildlife. When I spoke quietly, they slowly walked away. 

Sometimes Caitlin Johnstone really hits me hard in the stomach with her op-eds.  Her recent "Multiple Western Press Outlets Have Suddenly Pivoted Hard Against Israel" is a perfect example of this.  (She is available free on Substack and Consortium News.) "After a year and a half of genocidal atrocities, the editorial boards of numerous British press outlets have suddenly come out hard against Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza...'' "These people have not suddenly evolved a conscience, they’re just smelling what’s in the wind. Once the consensus shifts past a certain point there’s naturally going to be a mad rush to avoid being among the last to stand against it, because you know you’ll be wearing that mark for the rest of your life in public after history has had a clear look at what you did..." "So if you’re still supporting Israel after all this time, my advice to you is to make a change while you still can. There’s still time to be the first a...

Driving across Hell's Canyon the other day, I saw a little bit of heaven:  It was easy for me to appreciate these red maple leaves, but I can't lavish enough thick, gloppy words over the experience to cause a reader to appreciate the leaves.  Most of them see real trees-- you know, the kind with leaves of interesting shapes -- all over their hometown and yard.  'Hunger is the best sauce' as the old saying goes, and you must live in a gawdforsaken waterless wasteland to feel that hunger. Another miracle: enough rain was prophesied that I actually relocated camp onto a hard surface.  It was exciting to visualize the possibilities with the clouds around camp: There were many flowers and much green grass between the sagebrush: One of the real bragging points of a camera is that it can take closeups of small, dispersed flowers and give them importance while blurring the background. All this vegetation makes for some happy mule deer: I hope the reader is as big a sucker fo...

 Whether the written word is obsolete or not might seem like an over-the-top question.  But before deciding too quickly, let me ask you when was the last time you did a long division problem with pen and paper?  Or even addition or multiplication? I do multiplication mentally when calculating the prepay price of gasoline.  But I do the multiplication in a weird sort of spatial/geometric way, not much like how we did multiplication in grade school. Or play this game: imagine a 75 year old comparing today with the year of their birth, 1950.  I find it even more interesting to go back 75 years from their year of birth, 1950.  What sort of predictions would somebody have made in 1875 about what 1950 would look like? Another way to ask the question is: why was writing invented in the first place? 1.  Semi-permanent records of kings and gods, inscribed into stone or clay tablets.  Even papyrus lasted a lot longer than a human lifetime.  The same w...

  In principle the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II is an excellent opportunity to revisit the misinformation and myths that many Americans subscribe to.   Larry Johnson has done a good job of that at sonar21.com .  I hope many more writers take on the myth. After 80 years it would be so nice if America finally said, "Why are we still in NATO?  Let the Europeans run NATO." But of course powerful lobbies want to keep the gravy flowing.  So the post-World War II American empire will linger on.  Still, I want to cling to a little bit of hope that the 80th anniversary will have some effect on how Americans think. Doing an internet search of iconic World War II photos seemed like a good idea.  Here is the photo that captures the myth better than any other: It  is natural for a Baby Boomer like me to relate to this photo.  It reminds us how coterminous we were with the American Empire.

When was the last time you read a clay tablet?  How about a papyrus scroll?  It is getting to be that way with paper-and-ink books.  eBooks represent genuine progress.  But something more fundamental is at stake. Regardless of the physical medium of a book, the real problem is that a book is a gigantic pile of information that is mostly useless and therefore tedious to shovel through.   Books are one-directional.  They are not conversational and lively. Maybe Twitter (X) has the right idea: the written word still has value, but say what you want to say in a paragraph or two, and then shut up.  Let somebody else respond.    I am being too hard to please, because on You Tube I start thinking of new complaints: why so many talking heads?  Who needs video?  A radio or podcast would work just as well.  And why so many non-rhotic English accents? It is ironic to be writing about this because yesterday I had the best conversation...

Southern Idaho.    What goes through a traveler's mind when going through a new town?  Perhaps they want to quickly put the town into some well-known category.  It was fun the other day to be confused about a town I was seeing for the first time.  I was even having trouble thinking of the right adjectives.  Finally, "solid" and "underwhelming" seemed best. Everything did its best to be unflashy, untouristy, and unpicturesque.   Most people think that the American cowboy, where he actually still exists, is picturesque and romantic.  But this is what the town gave me, instead: It is easy to see why an ATV (quad) is more practical than a horse, especially with all the downstream-of-Yellowstone lava around.  The vaquero did not even glance at me, despite how rare it is to see a camper in this area.  The vacas paid us little attention, as well.  But when El Toro came by my camp and registered some complaints, I decided to change ...

Like most people in the USA I do not have a good feel for public sentiment in Asia, Africa, and South America.  But I guess that the publics in these non-NATO countries admire the Houthis in Yemen for standing up for the Palestinians and for having the courage to defy American military strength. I wouldn't even be surprised to learn that many people in NATO countries feel the same way.  They probably don't advertise their feelings.  For one thing, they have to fear the police in Trump's, neocon, kiss-Israel's-ass regime. But quite apart from the politics and geopolitics, there is something more fundamental at stake.  I rewatched Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" the other day.  There is a recurring theme there that sits in the background a bit.  Recall the conversation between Robert the Bruce (a Scottish hero of the future) and his cynical father: Father (more or less): "So you admire this William Wallace?" Robert the Bruce:  Nods yes. Father: (He laugh...

  It just isn't obvious to a traveler how important it is to get "north" early in spring.  But that depends on what you call north.  It need not mean snow, ice, and mud. I underestimated how pleasant it is to camp in sagebrush and grass at this time of year.  The weather is chilly, but dry.  The roads are completely dry.  It is windy of course but it is everywhere, in spring.  If it is really chilly and windy my dog and I take great walks, without worrying about rattlesnakes and ticks.  Hungry coyotes are her main danger.   The chilliness ensures the best sleeping of the year.  It is warm enough to resist using propane heating.  Most days it is warm enough to mountain bike.   Off in the distance, the higher peaks are still snow-covered and beautiful.  Tourism is off-season this time of year. And I underestimated how civilized Idaho is.  There is a home-grown version of Tractor Supply called D & B Supply...