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When they come for the cat people, let's not do anything
If you can spare a 400k download, check out this movie.
I suggest we start requiring cats to be licensed, so we can conduct a roundup of their "parents" at an opportune time.
The video is from the makers of the CatSeat:
Man's product seeks to potty train cats
OKLAHOMA CITY - An invention by a man seeks to eliminate litter box odor by toilet training household cats. As head of Evolve Products, manufacturer of The Feline Evolution CatSeat, Kevin Rymer accepted an award Monday from a national trade magazine...
Rymer says the CatSeat attempts to wean cats off litter. Shaped like a regular toilet seat, it is attached to a box with retractable shelves that are textured to replace the feel of litter.
Eventually, the device can be mounted to the toilet, where a push of the button allows it to be used by people.
The company quotes doctors and veterinarians as saying there are no health risks associated with cats and people sharing the same toilet.
Posted to WackyHumor at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)
What's the deal with the Ford Foundation?
That's what I want to know.
Consider this interview:
"I don't think there's any question that the principles involved in the Ford Foundation now -- the current president Susan Berresford, her predecessor Franklin Thomas, and the people who -- on the staff who control the giving of the Ford Foundation -- have as its objective to destroy the immigration controls of this country, and they have funded organizations, litigation, ethnic lobbies, and others that have worked mightily for 30 years to dismantle and destroy U.S. interior immigration law enforcement.
The ethic is to create, of course, a multiethnic or multicultural society. They use very neg -- very objective language when they try to describe the grants, but what, clearly, Susan Berresford and others want to do is carry on an agenda that carries -- goes all the way back to Emma Goldman and the radicalization of labor movements in 1910 and '20, Bill, to create essentially a population that the left elite can control..."
Whether the conclusion drawn in the second paragraph accurately represents their goals or not, the first paragraph can't be denied.
A UCLA study says California's constitution should be amended so the state's four and a-half million non-citizen adults can vote in local elections... Study author Joaquin Avila says cities wouldn't be ordered to let non-citizens vote, but would have the choice to do so.
When this story first broke, I considered this guy just a wacky academic with yet another wacky "study." The very idea is preposterous, but, for those who don't think that same way, this editorial discusses some of the many reasons this is a very bad idea.
Is Mr. Avila just a wacky academic? No. In fact, it turns out that Mr. Avila worked for MALDEF as a "staff attorney (1974-76), Associate Counsel (1976-82), and as President and General Counsel."
MALDEF was created from scratch by the Ford Foundation, as this article describes in great depth.
Not only that, but the Chicano Studies Research Center where Avila works was started with a Ford Foundation grant.
Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN did a segment on Avila's "study," and the transcript is here: "a UCLA spokeswoman called me after my interview with Mr. Avila today, trying, it seemed, to distance the university from this study. She said it's not a UCLA report. And I asked her, Well, isn't the UCLA Chicano research organization funded by the university, and she said, Yes, partially, also by the University of California."
Is UCLA a willing participant in this, or are they just pawns being used to give respectability to the Ford Foundation's agenda?
I'll ask them, and print whatever reply I receive in a future post.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 12:53 AM | Comments (1)
"A Net of Control... How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power"
From this:
Issues 2004 - Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of rebels and free-speechers: the Internet...
...Freedom was allegedly built into the very bones of the Internet, designed to withstand nuclear blasts and dictatorial attempts at control. While this cyberslack has its downside—porn, credit-card fraud and insincere bids on eBay—it was considered a small price to pay for free speech and friction-free business models. The freedom genie was out, and no one could put it back into the bottle.
Certainly John Walker believed all that. The hackerish founder of the software firm Autodesk, now retired to Switzerland to work on personal projects of his choosing, enjoyed “unbounded optimism” that the Net would not only offset the powers of industry and government but actually restore some previously threatened personal liberties. But in —the past couple of years, he noticed a disturbing trend... In September Walker posted his fears in a 28,000-word Web document called the Digital Imprimatur...
How could the freedom genie be shoved back into the bottle? Basically, it’s part of a huge effort to transform the Net from an arena where anyone can anonymously participate to a sign-in affair where tamperproof “digital certificates” identify who you are... The best-known implementation of this scheme is the work in progress at Microsoft known as Next Generation Secure Computing Base (formerly called Palladium). It will be part of Longhorn, the next big Windows version, out in 2006. Intel and AMD are onboard to create special secure chips that would make all computers sold after that point secure...
The Internet’s pre-eminent dean of darkness is Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford University guru of cyberlaw. Beginning with his 1999 book “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” Lessig has been predicting that corporate and regulatory pressures would usurp the open nature of the Net, and now says that he has little reason to retract his pessimism. Lessig understands that restrictive copyright and Homeland Security laws give a legal rationale to “total control,” and also knows that it will be sold to the people as a great way to stop thieves, pirates, malicious hackers, spammers and child pornographers...
Posted to Privacy at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)
"Media Mum on Dean's 'KKK' Fund Raiser"
From this:
There's little doubt that if Howard Dean were a Republican, he'd be announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race this week, as details from a recent Dean rally - so ripe with racism it would make a Ku Klux Klansman blush - have begun seeping into print.
Since Dean is a Democrat, however, at least one prominent media columnist is saying it's no big deal that the entertainment for the ex-Vermont governor's Dec. 8 event included "N"-word jokes, imitations of Condoleezza Rice in an Amos 'n Andy accent and references to the president of the United States as a "piece of living, breathing s--t..."
Deborah Orin of the NY Post broke the story here:
YOU won't be seeing any video of Howard Dean's x-rated, epithet-ridden New York fund-raiser because Team Dean made sure to bar the TV cameras. Which suggests they expected trouble... So there were no TV cameras last Monday night when pro-Dean comics took the stage on West 18th St. in Chelsea at a $250-a-head Dean fund-raiser (reduced from $500) and competed to see how often they could use the F-word in the same sentence...Janeane Garofalo ridiculed the Medicare prescription-drug bill that Bush had just signed as the "you can go f--- yourself, Grandma" bill.
Posted to Politics at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
Losing to a chat girl isn't that bad...
In the Wizbang Poll, it looks like I'm going to come in second with 70 votes. The winner is a site named jozjozjoz.com, and she/they got almost twice as many votes.
To those who voted for me, thanks.
To those who didn't vote, or who voted for someone else, no hard feelings.
You see, I recently drove over 10,000 miles from L.A. to Maine to (currently) Arizona, blogging all the way. Ten thousand friggin' miles. Almost four months' worth of entries.
On the other hand, jozjozjoz recently drove to from L.A. to San Jose to put up flyers for her lost dog.
Whereas I cover - and have had some influence on - important political issues like the California gubanatorial race, jozjozjoz used to work for Arianna Huffington.
jozjozjoz also has a cute drawing of herself! Plus, she's got more HTML accessories than I can count: a calendar, an Amazon registry, a "shoutbox", a "wee mee," graphical links for her website, a weather pixie... the list just goes on and on. Is there an HTML Doodad she doesn't have?
Like a compulsive shopper, jozjozjoz seems to spend a lot of time at the HTML Doodad Galleria. If I had a "wee mee" or a "shoutbox," would you like me better?
Plus, jozjozjoz has the lowdown on the greasy fries at the lunch truck on her lot.
Plus, lots and lots of exclamation marks.
Yes, the blogosphere truly has spoken, and The Lonewacko Blog is truly second to jozjozjoz.com
Posted to Bloggage at 08:13 PM | Comments (4)
An Open Letter to Howard Dean
Dear future-President Dean:
I have been a supporter of yours since the very beginning of your campaign. Day after day I've turned to you for wise guidance on today's news events, and I've cheered on your attempts to overturn selected pResident $hrub and $hrubCo.
Now, with the news of the "capture" of "Saddam Hussein," all of your supporters and all of AmeriKKKa are in desperate need of your leadership.
I hope you will investigate this "capture" and consider all of the strange coincidences involved. For instance, consider the fact that Bush knew about the "capture" the night before, but said nothing. And, consider the fact that this "capture" comes on the heels of yet more news of Halliburton misdeeds. Coincidence? I think not.
Further, Saddam is reported to be cooperative and talkative. The real Saddam would have resisted or committed suicide rather than be captured by the AmeriKKKans.
I say "the real Saddam" because I do not believe this is the real Saddam. I think instead this is yet another one of Saddam's doubles who has been hired by $hrubCo and his NeoCon handlers to impersonate Saddam.
I urge you to consider all possibilities here, and not to take pResident Shrub's statements at face value. I - and millions of other AmeriKKKans - are counting on you to be the lone voice of truth in the wilderness.
Yours,
Lonewacko
Posted to Politics at 12:24 PM | Comments (6)
How about a vote then?
OK, so you don't want to contribute money. But, hows about a vote then? It'll just take a few seconds to select 'Lonewacko' and click 'Vote,' and I promise to be up to 10% less curmudgeonly if I win.
Posted to Bloggage at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)
Tom Ridge: "This time we mean it. No really. Really! We really mean it this time!"
According to "Homeland security chief endorses legalizing undocumented immigrants":
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told a Miami audience Tuesday that the country should legalize millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country.
"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it..."
"I'm not saying make them citizens, because they violated the law to get here," he said. "So you don't reward that type of conduct by turning over a citizenship certificate. You determine how you can legalize their presence, then, as a country, you make a decision that from this day forward, from this day forward, this is the process of entry, and if you violate that process of entry we have the resources to cope with it."
Isn't legalization a reward for illegal behavior? Is Ridge so incompetent that he doesn't realize the internal inconsistency of his statement?
What do we do after Ridge's pledge to finally enforce immigration laws in the interior turns out to be just more BS? Interior enforcement has dropped sharply over the past few years. This article has all the details. If Ridge is unable or unwilling to enforce our immigration laws in the interior now, what makes anyone think he will do so in the future? What happens in another decade when there are millions more illegal immigrants here, yet another amnesty? Won't this "non-reward reward" of legalization - as well as the prospect of a yet another amnesty - just encourage further illegal immigration?
Why don't we give a try to enforcing our current immigration laws in the interior like we used to and see what happens?
At the same time, we could discourage future illegal immigration by not accepting Matricula Consular cards, giving illegal aliens driver's licenses, giving illegal aliens a better deal on college tuition than citizens, and all the rest.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 01:07 PM | Comments (1)
Geronimo, Cochise, and me
As I was getting ready to leave Lordsburg, I was still debating where I was going to travel next and what I was going to do. West or North? Forsake L.A. and spend some quality time in Denver?
I briefly considered visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Tent camping there was free, but it was also about 20 degrees at night and it was (supposedly) a tough 2 hour drive from the monument to the next "big" town, Silver City. Subconsciously I sucked up my drive-to-the-monument time with my photo essay of Lordsburg. Then, I headed west and after just twenty miles I was rid of out of New Mexico and into Arizona.
I stopped to visit the Fort Bowie National Historic Site:
For more than 30 years Fort Bowie and Apache Pass were the focal point of military operations eventually culminating in the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 and the banishment of the Chiricahuas to Florida and Alabama. It was the site of the Bascom Affair, a wagon train massacre, and the battle of Apache Pass, where a large force of Chiricahua Apaches under Mangus Colorados and Cochise fought the California Volunteers... Apache resistance was finally crushed at Fort Bowie, and the result was the end of the Indian wars in the United States.
The several buildings which made up the fort are now in ruins, but it is worth a visit. Those who are disabled are allowed to take a road to the fort, everyone else has to walk there.
The drive from I10 to the trailhead is about 12 miles on back roads. The total walking distance to the fort (including that required to walk around the fort) is about 4 miles RT with about 200' of gain. It's an easy hike, but it goes through some attractive areas. It starts with dry southwestern scrub, but when you're in the area of the Apache Springs (which is still running) it gets a bit greener. I saw a fox cross the path and there are several other items of interest along the way, such as the route of the Butterfield stage.
The town of Bowie, Arizona itself has a business loop off the I10, but there didn't appear to be too many businesses still operating. The town of Bowie makes Lordsburg look like a thriving cosmopolitan metroplex. There is, however, a shop selling "pecans, walnuts, and wine," but it was closed. I got out of the car to stretch my legs a bit, but I waited until I was almost on the freeway to do it. There are still people living in Bowie, and I was a bit apprehensive with the thought of being set upon by rural street urchins. On the outskirts of town was a house with fresh green paint and a green and yellow fence. It looked a bit out of place to see something that wasn't delapidated in such a town; perhaps it belongs to the purveyors of those "pecans, walnuts, and wine."
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 08:25 PM | Comments (1)
Lonewacko of Lordsburg
On my way out of El Paso, I made a bit of a mistake. Namely, I should have spent the night in Las Cruces. It's New Mexico's second largest city (OK, that's not saying much, but anyway...) and it seems to have some of the things that El Paso lacks.
For instance, I took a spin through the La Messilla area and I saw some Christmas carollers in the square there singing away for a crowd of about 100 people. It was mainly a family-type of event, and the only shops there appeared to be touron gift shops and restaurants, so I didn't stop. Nevertheless, unlike El Paso there appeared to be people out and about at night. The motels there are expensive for some reason, but I could have grabbed a tent site. Instead, I kept driving west on the 10. Just between you and me, I kinda wanted to get out of New Mexico. Not that it's that bad of a state and all, it's just that after spending a couple weeks in West Texas and southeast New Mexico, it was kinda wearing on me, if you know what I mean.
Around Deming, I started to get a bit tired, so I decided to look for accomodations. By this time I had decided to tent to save money. I stopped at the Road Runner campground. There were no other tent campers there, and it was a set of open spaces next to a fence separating it from another RV park. I didn't consider it that safe, so I kept on moving. I decided I could make it to Lordsburg before I crashed.
By the time I got to Lordsburg I couldn't drive any further. There's a KOA there, and that's where I planned to spend the night. When I first drove in, I saw a hare hop its merry way across the road. Oh, how nice! As it was late, the office was closed. But, as with most other KOA's, they love their late registrators.
While familiarizing myself with the campground map, someone approaches me on the driver's side and from behind, and asks if he can help me. I decide to take a look around first. He says I should go for it. The tent site at the back of the camp is taken, but the ones at the front are free. Unfortunately, the ones at the front are near the entrance gate, and I didn't particularly like the look of the houses right outside the gate.
Nevertheless, I decide to get one of the sites. The Philipino owner curtly fills out the requisite forms in triplicate. I decide, partially based on past experiences with others from the Philipines (send your letters to abuse[at]tolstoy[dot]com), that it's not so much that he's rude, it's just his way. I was originally thinking he was an asshole, and I was considering not giving him my bidness. But, after coming to that realization, I go ahead with the transaction. Only afterwards does he go into the thing about the restrooms.
You see, a lady was almost raped at another nearby campground's restrooms. And, since he's near the freeway, people occasionally stop by to use his facilities. The restrooms there are now equipped with touchpad entry locks, and as an official KOA guest I am given their combination. OK, OK, when I use the restroom I'll be sure and close the door behind me. Fine, let me set up the tent and sack out.
Which I proceeded to do. I'd just put in all three poles in the tent body when, looking for the best place to locate the tent, I noticed something out of place. There were several pellets mixed in with the gravel of my new tent site. Now, I realize that hares or rabbits haven't so far been implicated as Hanta virus carriers; that's been restricted to a few species of mice and one species of rat. Nevertheless, they are rodents and I don't want to get sick. So, I decided to cancel my stay there.
Thankfully, the owner was making the rounds of the place, shining his flashlight under the RVs parked there. He was wearing a bandana, and I couldn't tell whether it was him or some very bold RV burglar. It turned out to be him, and he agreed to cancel me out. It appears that, aside from not sweeping the (most likely generally unused) tent sites, he's a Lordsburg resident who's doing the best with what he's got.
After that brief waste of time, I began looking for a motel, and I stayed at the Budget Motel on their I10 loop for $25. It wasn't that bad at that price.
In the morning I took a tour of the town. Lordsburg looks like a stereotypical southwest town on the extreme decline. The ghost town of Shakespeare is located a few miles south of Lordsburg. It's only open to the public a few days a month, and that wasn't one of the days. Even though I didn't see Shakespeare, I'd imagine that in places Lordsburg and Shakespeare look similar.
A business loop of the I10 runs through the town. Their business loop is about the same length as that of Fort Stockton. However, the business loop in Fort Stockton has a large number of motels ("Over 900 motel rooms!" their touron information tells us) as well as a fair supply of fast food restaurants. Lordsburg has a smaller number of motels and associated businesses, and many of them are boarded-up. In certain sections, 1/3 of them appeared to have been patiently awaiting renovation for many years. Only the parts directly off the freeway have a few chain motels and fast food stores.
There's only a small section of the main drag that isn't boarded up. In that section, I stopped in an antique store. Apparently a local burgher had purchased a couple of blocks there and is in the process of fixing them up. Unfortunately, he spends his weekends in Tucson, so he wasn't available for an interview.
The young lady at the gas station had a nice face, but she was a bit stocky bodily. Plus, she failed the Lonewacko TQ (touron quotient) test. She wasn't able to give me a detailed explanation of why Lordsburg had a museum or a historic area. Plus, she was too young and, after I started to hear her discussing local gossip with someone else, I quickly rejected that idea.
"But, Lonewacko, you should have spent more time there. Done a photo essay. Interviewed lots of people, found out why they kept on hangin' on in the boarded-up town. Then, you might have something blog-worthy. A photo essay on residents of an incipient ghost town would make this blog worth reading!"
Listen, m*$%^#$%@#($%, if you want a f*$((#& photo essay, you get off your f#(@)($ a*$ and drive to f@#)$(# Lordsburg yourself. I'm f*$(#($ sick of this s#*@. I drive all the f#*@**# way from L.A. to Maine and back, and all you b(#@#*#@ can do is whine like a b*$#*. F#@@ you, m$#(@(#$(##(s.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 11:45 PM | Comments (1)
[Insert El Paso summary here]
After my hike at Hueco Tanks on December 5, I drove out of El Paso along the Trans-Mountain Highway. I already posted some of my thoughts on El Paso here, and I hereby promise you a more complete treatment at a later date.
On the way out of town, I paid a visit to the El Paso Archaeological Society's museum. It's rather small but it's somewhat informative. Unlike me, the lady there thinks Kennewick Man is an Asian. To each his own. The mannequins there are almost nekkid. Sure, some have loincloths on, but some are fully nude for all the world to see. Lonewacko Jr. jumped a bit when he saw a hottie mannequin on her knees grinding masa, so I escorted him out of the museum tout de suite.
Outside the museum is Wilderness Park. I hadn't read the brochure that carefully, because I thought it was a zoo like the Living Desert State Park outside Carlsbad. However, it was basically just a small cactus garden.
Next door to the archaeology museum is the National Border Patrol Museum, which was one of the places I had on my El Paso shortlist. I could have safely passed it by however. It's kind of rundown and antiquated, and not in a good way. Some might consider it a funky tourist destination, but I just thought it was a bit dumpy. They're independent and not affiliated with the Border Patrol itself, so they refused to discuss border issues with me. If they knew anything about the wider context of immigration policy, they kept it to themselves. They were mainly a cop museum, and not a site dealing with the wider issue of immigration.
And, like I said, stay tuned for an El Paso summary in a day or so.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 11:19 PM | Comments (1)
The other Hueco
I spent the night of December 4th in the campground at Hueco Tanks State Park outside El Paso. The temperature was above freezing, and initially I hadn't set up the rain fly. However, around 10pm suddenly the wind came in with a vengeance, making it quite cold and most likely in the 20s with the wind chill. I put up the rain fly and spent the night hearing the flapping of the tent. In the morning, I took the Pictograph tour, which was quite interesting. The tour was lead by the park's superintendent who, strangely enough, had a Radio Voice Like Me.
Unfortunately, the other four members of the tour were housewives who had apparently never walked on rocks before, and they slowed it down a bit. If my fellow tourons had had a bit more experience, perhaps the tour might have been able to take in more places. Nevertheless, I saw several ancient pictographs, as well as some from when this was a stop on the Butterfield stage in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, there was also some graffitti of a more recent vintage. After being on the rock for a few years, the graffitti becomes more or less part of the rock and can't be removed. Because of things like that, they now make campers there sit through a 20-minute video giving background information on the park, but also telling you all the things not to do.
After taking the pictograph tour, I took their chain trail up and over the North Mountain. I didn't need the chains, but I guess if you were carrying lots of stuff it might be useful. Then I headed across the rocks, spending time looking for a way off the rock that didn't involve rappeling. After making a few trips to the edge, I finally found a way off the rock. The North Mountain is the only one of the four mountains there that has full access, and it's somewhat similar to Stoney Point, albeit with a foot print a few times larger.
The name "Hueco Tanks" refers to hollows (the Spanish meaning of "hueco") in the rocks which contains collected rain water. One is pictured in the second picture above. They've been used as a water source in the area for thousands of years, and those who've stopped there have left the various pictographs on the rocks. I saw several huecos along the way, some of which were filled with water. The name "Waco" is apparently derived from the "Waco Indians," and their name may be derived from "hueco."
Most of the rock climbers there were boulderers, and I didn't see anyone with top ropes set up, so I decided to move on.
Fort Bowie, which will be covered in this post, was another stop on the Butterfield stage.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)
What you drive through on the way to the Carlsbad Caverns
On the way to Carlsbad Caverns, you drive through White's City. It's a small tourist trap with a motel, gas station, museum, etc. I didn't visit the "Million Dollar Museum" as it's already been done.
The above shot was taken on the way to the city of Carlsbad, not to the caverns. Specifically, just over the New Mexico state line north of Orla.
To get to the caverns from Carlsbad I took a different route. Consult a map if you're confused. You see, it's a bit like an "A", with the city of Carlsbad at the top of the "A" and with White's City at the midpoint of the left line of the "A" (marked as b' on the figure, and otherwise known as 62/180). The right line of the "A" is the highway from Pecos to Carlsbad, specifically 285. The horizontal crosspiece of the "A" (marked c' in the figure) is a back road ("Black River Village Road") the cuts between 285 south of Carlsbad and White's City. Like I said, this would be much easier if you had a map in front of you.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
Behind the scenes at the Lonewacko Blog
Driving from Fort Stockton, Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico with his tape recorder in his hand, blogging superstar "Lonewacko" tries to write the Great American Road Novel. This transcript - taken direct and unedited from the Lonewacko tape recorder - shows the blogging legend at work:
"shocked around the bend and see two giant mobile homes, two huge wide loads coming straight at you several feet into your lane.
The asphalt creates a lake that evaporates and disappears as you approach, only to reappear further on down the road. Cars coming at you appear to have undercarriage lights as their chrome reflects in the sunlight. It's hard to tell distances and it's hard to tell whether the car coming straight at you is in your lane or not. The reflection of the cars in the distance makes them look like boats on a lake. As the semi-trucks get closer all apparitions have disappeared, and the truck is there just like it would be on a freeway. Except the truck is driving 70 miles per hour and just feet to your left. The truck passes and so does the danger, however, to leave you a momento of your meeting, the truck's wake slams into your car and forces you to turn the wheel a bit to correct.
Suddenly the top of a tractor trailer or a moterhome rises over the next bump in the road. Slowly but steadily rises over the next bump.
In parts, water across the road forms a serious of strems whcih evaporate together like gates lifting. Tires of the semi-trucks reflect the water underneath them. Chrome shimmers in the heat."
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
Lonewacko drives from Fort Stockton Texas to Carlsbad New Mexico
A couple weeks ago I drove to Carlsbad, NM starting from Fort Stockton, TX. Fort Stockton is a dumpy, disheveled hole which isn't that bad a place to spend a night, except it doesn't have a Wendy's nor a Hardee's/Carl's Jr. I had a bit of a problem at the Wal*Mart there, and, if not for the fact that it's the only Wal*Mart for untold miles, I'd suggest you avoid shopping there.
On my way to Alpine, I had stocked up in the FS Wal*Mart, spending in excess of $28. At the time I was wearing my backpack, and no one said a word about it as I was spending my hard-earned blogging dinero.
A couple days later I went back, and I was told by the "greeter" and her supervisor that I couldn't wear my backpack in the store. They seemed to like my money good enough before. In protest of this ever-changing policy, I immediately went out to my car and returned as much of the stuff as I could. I even went back with a second load later.
On the way to Carlsbad, I drove through Pecos, which is about 20% larger than Fort Stockton and about 30% more run-down. I saw a few places with smashed windows, and I hadn't seen anything like that in Fort Stockton. The girl who was trying to sell Avon products was cute, but her and her high-heeled tennis shoes were a bit too young and it looked like she was driving a family van, so I didn't even make an attempt when I met her outside Pecos' museum. I didn't have a second thought about it when I accidently met her again at a gas stations blocks from there. I had gone to the gas station by chance. While getting into my car outside the closed museum, I had seen a cop car go by. Then, a half a minute later, what looked like an unmarked cop car went the same way. Thinking something was up, I followed the unmarked car, but I lost it somewhere near the freeway. So, turn to someone else for the Pecos crime blotter.
Overall, Pecos looks like a good place to just drive through. On my way to doing that, I decided to stop at the local McDonalds. The girl at the drive through had a cold and, after thinking about it for a bit, I decided to go inside and return it. The men's room was out of soap, so I was forced to use some of my precious hand sanitizer.
There was no "McDonald's" under the large double-arches outside, just a big empty space. Perhaps it had been stolen or had fallen off.
Standing beside the counter was my old friend Ronald McDonald. However, he looked a bit different from his usual trademarked self. Specifically, the styrofoam figurine had strange white lines and pockmarks on his orange suit. Upon closer inspection, it turned out not to be a new design. It looked like Ronald had been run over or otherwise abraded.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Robert Hilburn Interview: Lonewacko Jr.
Lonewacko and Lonewacko Jr. recently visited El Paso as part of their Blogging Across America tour. I interviewed the junior member of the team in a cheap motel at an undisclosed location a day's drive from their home base in Los Angeles. Lonewacko Jr. entered the room dressed in a white sweatshirt, and we began the interview...
Robert Hilburn: There was much expectation and ensuing speculation regarding your recent visit to El Paso. Que pasa?
Lonewacko Jr.: When Lonewacko first told me we were going to El Paso, I was quite, er, excited. In fact, I haven't been this excited since we visited northern Maine. Of course, I'd rather visit Brazil, or Quebec, or Bangkok, but El Paso definitely sounded interesting...
RH: So, did you, you know?
LWJ: No, not even close.
RH: Oh.
LWJ: Yes, same thing I said. [laughs]
RH: Did you get close?
LWJ: No, not really. Lonewacko kept eyeballing the young lady at the Kinko's, but he never even talked to her. He chatted a bit with a lady who seemed to be some kind of regional gas station manager, but nothing came of that either. He chatted with a lady in a gas station in Ocotillo, but nothing came of that either...
RH: So, did Lonewacko try to meet Tejanas in some venue other than gas stations?
LWJ: Oh boy did he try. It's just that there aren't really places. He took me to the Barnes & Noble one night, but it was mostly teenies. He only thought of the UTEP library the day before we left, and we never went there. It's not like there's an infrastructure, you know?
RH: So what did you and Lonewacko do? Just watch telenovelas with the sound off?
LWJ: [laughs] Yep, that's about what it came to.
RH: Thank you for your time, Lonewacko Jr.
-- Robert Hilburn is the L.A. Times' Pop Music and Blog Critic.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
The Organ Mountains
No jokes now, they actually look pretty interesting. They're on BLM land next to the White Sands Missile Range. I spent a bit of time and fuel driving off the highway six miles to the campground in search of information and perhaps a short hike. The only two described hikes were too long to do that late and there was no one else around except an older camper.
So, I continued on. Las Cruces looks slightly interesting, and might warrant a future visit. But, I wanted to get to El Paso, so I didn't stay long.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 01:08 PM | Comments (1)
That explains everything!
A shot from the White Sands Missile Range museum.
The plaque says "This spacecraft was a section of the Voyager Balloon System which was launched near Roswell, NM and landed on WSMR... These bright, shiny aeroshells projected an illusion of flying saucers."
What is it they want us to believe? That all those UFO sightings were actually caused by either this thing or one of those "weather balloons?" Or, is something more subtle at play here? Do they want us to dismiss the first explanation, in an attempt to hide the even more hideous truth?
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)
Lonewacko of Arabia
When I visited Waco, I avoided making the obvious pun. So, to make up for that, the title of this post.
The above shots were taken at the White Sands National Monument, which is located between Alamogordo and Las Cruces, NM.
Driving along the road into the heart of the dunes is certainly an interesting experience. It's somewhat reminiscent of Ice Station Zebra, but with sand instead of snow.
I decided to take the Alkali Flats trail, which is a 4.6 mile loop through the dunes. I saw people at the beginning of the trail and at the end, but in the vast middle section I only saw one other person briefly off in the distance. At least I think it was someone else.
The Alkali Flats trail isn't really a trail, just a series of posts with red tops, designed to help you avoid walking in circles. That would certainly be somewhat easy to do, given the fact that the area is flat and, unless you took your bearings using the mountain ranges available on either side, you might easily get lost. If you were to get lost out here, in addition to just walking in circles, you'd also need to worry about walking in a straight line and never seeing that the road was this way or that.
After about three miles of the trail, I was really getting tired of it. The monotony of going up one dune and down the next and between the next was the worst part of the hike. But, then again it was also the best part of the hike. After a couple hours of doing this, it became a bit - pardon me - zen-like. Or something mystical like that.
There are things to see along the way, such as the "pedestal" in the last photo. That's about 20' high, and sheltered inside a depression created by a dune. There are also the crusts like that shown in the second photo. And, if I had done this at the start or end of the day or at night, I probably would have seen a few animals, however small.
Unlike any other hike I've taken on this trip, this hike had no goal to get to. There's nothing at the farthest point of the loop except an alkali flat. No mountain summit here. Just one flat area or sand dune after another.
At the beginning of the hike I kick-stepped and switch-backed up a few sand dunes. I soon got tired of that, as there were many sand dunes ahead, and I certainly couldn't expend the energy necessary to go up and down each one. Instead I began following the markers and adjusting to the monotony.
UPDATE: As mentioned in this post, I had some problems with my hiking poles both here and on Guadalupe Peak. The poles were somewhat helpful here because I replaced the baskets they come with with snow baskets. Yes, when one is hiking in Touron Country that causes ijits to utter for the 1,000,000th time "where's the snow?" My response to that is simple: it's part of my probation agreement. If I used the poles without baskets, they'd make quite an efficient spear. I certainly don't want my PO to see me without baskets on my poles now then, do I?
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)
"I've had this conversation a few times before..."
[Post summary: Stay away from Alamogordo, NM. Just drive right through it. Don't stop. Don't buy anything. If you can find a way to make them spend money instead of the other way around, do it.]
"Say, do you have any demographic, er, musings on Alamogordo?""No"
"I mean, where did those people come from? Have they moved there from other states?"
"I get the feeling most of them are people who've been there for a long time."
"Well, I kinda got the feeling that a lot of them were from Oklahoma, or Appalachia, or the Deep South."
"I hadn't noticed that..."
"I mean, a lot of them seem to be hicks. No offense to hicks, that is. But, a lot of the Alamogordo residents seem to be hicks, and not the good kind."
"Well, I haven't had too many good experiences there..."
"Any idea why? Is it going through an economic downturn or something?"
"I don't know, but you aren't the first person to notice something wrong about the place. I've only been here a few months, but I've had similar conversations before."
Unfortunately, that conversation took place just as I was leaving the fine town of Alamogordo, New Mexico. This was after I'd spent a couple days and some of my money there. I had a bad experience the first day, and a bad experience the second. On the third day, I decided to get out of there as fast as possible before something else happened.
I first drove into Alamogordo along the scenic US82. It would have been a bit more scenic if I'd driven it earlier in the day. As it was, I drove through the areas with the highest concentration of highway-crossing deer at twilight, and by the time I got to the even more scenic parts it was dark.
I soon set to finding a place to spend the night. The former KOA campground on 24th looked like it would OK in an extreme pinch, except it was a bit more expensive than one might hope, and it was basically just an open, semi-grassy area divided into demarcated tent sites. Plus, there was no dataport, just an antiquated pay phone.
I began looking for something else, when suddenly I heard a snap and everything got blurry...
The frame of my glasses had broke, and it didn't look like something I could fix myself. I began frantically calling jewelers and optical shops until I found someone who seemed like they could help me. Which was quite lucky, considering it was after 6pm on a Saturday.
I'm not going to bore you with the whole long story. Let's just say I thought I was going to pay $30 to have my old lenses put in a new frame, but when I got the bill it was for $40. I felt like I'd been baited and switched. Perhaps I had been, or perhaps it had been me who'd made the mistake. Although, I'm very doubtful about the latter. After a bit of disagreeable back and forth, I ended up paying the $30, otherwise I'd currently still be in New Mexico awaiting my day in Small Claims Court.
The next day, I had an unfortunate incident in the local Wal*Mart. I'm not going to go into that at all.
But: if you trust me - and you should - it is my personal recommendation that you avoid Alamogordo entirely. Especially avoid eyeglass-related shops there. Especially avoid the Wal*Mart there. Trust me on this one.
On the other hand, if burning Harry Potter books - alongside those of William Shakespeare - is your thing, please move there.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
Carlsbad Caverns
Like Guadalupe Peak (see the previous entry), I'd wanted to visit the Caverns for a few years. I read up on them and seen the pictures, and I was ready for my first trip underground. Since I'd done the Caverns of Sonora a few days earlier, it wasn't an entirely new experience. However, the sheer size of the Carlsbad Caverns was quite different from those in Sonora.
I visited them twice. The first day I took the Natural Entrance and then took the loop around the Big Room. Yes, I did see a lot of things and read several of the plaques, but I also tried to do it fairly quickly. It took a little over an hour, which included me slowly jogging parts of the path. Part of that was also, to be honest, to show that I didn't have many worries about being 800' or so below the surface with uncountable tons of earth above my head.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures that day or bring along my headlamp so I could look into dark corners. I really should have.
My first visit was on a weekday. My next visit was on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Trying to take pictures or have other quiet moments on the second day was quite difficult, as the place was packed. I'd set down the tripod, only to see yet another human wave headed my way down the narrow path. Lift tripod, wait, place tripod, see wave, repeat.
Shortly after the last human wave crashed on my shoreline, the ranger came by "sweeping" all of us tourons in front of her. So, trying to get a respite between the last elevator down and the sweeping ranger is not going to work. Better to visit on a weekday morning I guess.
Seemingly every possible photo of the Caverns has been taken, but the ceiling might be more neglected than others, so I tried to take some shots of it. It's a bit difficult because of the lighting: in the few shots I was able to try, there was always one part of the shot that was brighter than others. The above shot should just be considered a failed attempt.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)
The top of Texas
I hiked up Guadalupe Peak - the highest point in Texas at 8749' - on Thanksgiving day. In keeping with the Lonewacko ethos, it was a solo hike.
I felt very good about getting to the top of this peak. I've wanted to come here for about three years, but one thing or another would keep me away. I'd book a flight, then cancel it a week later. When I set out in the morning from Carlsbad, I was concerned about the wind, and I was thinking I might only go up part way and then turn around. But, by just putting one foot in front of the other several hundred times, I made it to the top.
It took a bit under 3 hours up and a bit under 2 hours down. There were several other parties on the trail, and I was joined on the summit by a large group of college-aged hikers (who I passed on the way up...), a couple, and another soloist.
My pack weighed around 20 lbs., over half of it liquid refreshment. I carried 3L of water and 2L of Gatorade. I drank 1.5L of the water and 1L of the Gatorade getting to the top, and the rest coming down and on the drive away. That was a lot more than I needed, but better safe than sorry.
When I left Carlsbad in the morning, the wind was quite heavy, but it was a lot lighter in the Park, and it was never an issue on the hike, although it did make it a bit chilly. The summit itself was actually somewhat warm.
Many of the others who climb this peak seem to come from El Paso. I came from the other direction, so my first good view of El Capitan was from the summit of Guadalupe Peak. It was quite impressive, especially since I hadn't seen it from below first.
There's no real exposure anywhere on the hike, unless you walked off (or were blown off) the trail. The trail and the surroundings remind me a bit of terrain at the lower levels of the San Gabriels or San Jacinto Peak.
A minor complication occured when one of my hiking poles failed: the lower section collapsed, and I couldn't get it to tighten back up. Oh well, I'll just use one pole, switching it from hand to hand every once in a while. That worked for a bit until I went to lengthen the pole that still worked: I couldn't get it to tighten up either. I had had a problem with these poles before, but in the opposite direction. The lower section was stuck in there, and not even putting it in a vise and trying to turn it with a wrench worked. REI had just replaced both lower sections at that time. I'm sure they'll replace these poles as well, but I might just trade up to something that's hopefully a bit better. BTW, these are REI/Komperdell Traverse poles.
Wackily enough, the poles later worked for my hike in the White Sands National Monument (more later, you know the drill by now), but then failed near the end of that hike...
Since I got Mount Livermore and Baldy Peak earlier, I now have the #1, #5, and #7 highest named peaks in Texas. (Don't laugh, it's an interesting state.) Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are also in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, but, since two of the three require cross-country travel and at least an overnight, I decided to return and get them when there are more of me.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 11:52 PM | Comments (1)
What to do in Alpine, Texas
Alpine is a somewhat interesting small town pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Or, at least 60 miles from the I10, and about 100 miles from the real middle of nowhere, Big Bend National Park. Unfortunately, I never made it to Big Bend, but I did spend some time in Alpine. I'll save my description of the town for a later post, but for now:
I stayed one night at the Pecan Grove RV Park. It's right in Alpine, which is a lot more convenient than the next tent camping area at the Davis Mountains State Park, twenty or so miles from any services. I camped in a repurposed RV spot, camping as far away from the sewer line as possible. There were no trees between me and the RVs, but at least it was fairly cheap. I used the Boingo WiFi access at the Lost Alaskan RV park, which is on the edge of town. When I got there, the office was closed and no one else was around. So, I put on a couple layers, set up the computer on a table outside the office and went to it. This was the strangest yet Boingo location, but it worked and it was quite surprising to find a WAP away out here in the middle of mostly nothing.
I visited the McDonald Observatory, which is located outside Fort Davis. It's got a pretty good view there, and they hold Star Parties there on a regular basis. The Star Parties let you view the nighttime sky through telescopes, but unfortunately you can't use the two large research telescopes. They do, however, let the general public look through the research telescopes occasionally, but you need to reserve months in advance according to their brochure.
More later...
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
HUD: Fighting racism with... more racism
Somewhere in New Mexico, I heard a radio commercial from the Department of Housing and Urban Development which sends a bit of a not-so-subtle racist message. The message is that the word "racism" specifically implies white-against-minority racism, and that only white people - and specifically WASPs - can be the beneficiaries of racism.
Despite that subtext, the commercial recently won the Ad Council's "Golden Bell Award" for the best PSA of 2003:
"Accents," the award-winning PSA, features a prospective renter who, while using varying accents, inquires about an apartment by phone. The PSA focuses on how he is treated differently solely because of his perceived race or ethnicity. The innovative PSA was produced for HUD by the New York-based advertising agency Merkley, Newman & Harty under the direction of Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund and the National Fair Housing Alliance. To view the PSA go to HUD's website at www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/
In the commercial, the impersonator pretends to be, in order, the following:
Juan Hernandez Sanjay Kumar Tyrone Washington Chin Lee Khalib Moshe Goldberg Graham Wellington
After each voice except the last, the landlady says that the apartment has been rented. "Graham Wellington" learns that the apartment is still available.
HUD's message is that housing discrimination is a bad thing. HUD's subtext is that housing discrimination is only practised by whites/WASPs against various flavors of oppressed minorities.
Are there not landlords and landladies of various ethnicities? Don't some of them discriminate against people of various ethnicities? As far as I know, there is only one version of this commercial. While white-vs-minority discrimination might be the most frequent, it certainly isn't the only kind. But, in HUD's world that appears to be the only kind, or at least the only kind that they care about.
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 02:35 PM | Comments (1)
Mitre Peak
When I first drove into Alpine, I noticed a quite impressive pyramid-shaped peak rising out of the desert. It was visible starting a few miles from Alpine along 67.
On my way to visit Davis Mountain State Park (see the previous entry. Confusing, eh?), about 10 miles outside of Alpine, I turned onto Mitre Peak Road which seemed like it would lead to the base of the peak.
Indeed it did. However, the presence of barbed wire fences indicated that this wasn't public land. I asked at the neighboring Mitre Peak Camp (a Girl Scout camp) if it was possible to climb it. The Camp didn't own the peak, it was owned by an out of town rancher. The peak is 6100', and it appears rough from both the front and the back.
Apparently, there have been problems with people running into problems when trying to climb it. If you take the right route it (supposedly) doesn't require ropes. But, one party took over 12 hours to get up and down, and another party had to be airlifted from the top.
After that, the owner apparently decided to disallow access. In any other western state, there's a fair chance that this peak would be on Forest Service or BLM land. However, there is almost no public land in Texas. Other than Texas' state parks, various city parks, and a few National Parks, everything is privately owned.
The map in the BLM office in Carlsbad was quite striking. Splotches of color showed BLM and FS presence throughout Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and California. Nevada was almost all salmon pink. Whereas Texas was almost all white, with the exception of the National Parks.
I might have more to say about this subject later, but for now I'm still trying to decide which is worse: the taking of rights or property by a government agency, or private land owners being allowed to hog things like Mitre Peak all to themselves.
Apparently there's a land rights proponent in Alpine who is continually writing letters to the editor in opposition to The Nature Conservancy; I have her phone number and perhaps I'll do a spot of real reporting at a later date.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 12:09 AM | Comments (8)
Mt. Livermore and Baldy Peak
On November 21, I drove through Alpine, Texas (of which more later), bound for Davis Mountain State Park. The park didn't seem that very interesting, but then again I didn't do anything other than stop at the visitor's center. It's divided into two parts: a developed area with some campsites, and a primitive area across the highway. I asked the ranger if the highest point in their county was in the park, and it turned out that it wasn't even close: their highest point was about 6000', but the highest point in the county was Baldy Peak at 8378'. Baldy is set atop Mount Livermore, which is considered its own summit.
I was informed that Baldy Peak was on land owned by the Nature Conservancy. They had an office just down the road in Fort Davis. Luckily, Luckily, and thanks to the kind folks at that TNC office, I was able to join an excursion for the next day.
It was almost too easy. After arriving at the TNC property, I followed two other cars up the rough dirt road for a few miles. Then, when we came to a patch that my car couldn't handle, I parked and then got a lift in one of the other cars.
We parked a down the road from the summit. The two other groups went their own ways, and I set off for the summit alone.
It ended up being a hike of just 3 miles RT with about 1000' of gain, almost all of it on a rough fire roads, parts of which were a bit steep. It took two hours total, with 15-30 minutes up top. Getting to the top is a lot easier than the first photo might imply.
On the opposite side it just involves a short easy stretch of 3rd class. The only exposure would come if you got off route, which might be possible if you don't take note of the way you came up.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
Touring the forts
On the way to Fort Stockton, I decided to stop at Fort Lancaster State Park, which houses a fort used to defend against Comanche raids and protect travelers from San Antonio to El Paso. That's located on a 20 or so mile bypass highway that runs from the 10, through the dumpy town of Sheffield, and back to the 10. Before Sheffield, I rounded a bend and saw my first glimpse of how this part of Texas is not in anyway like the areas around Dallas, Austin or San Antonio. There in front of me was a gully a few hundred feet high. Certainly, even some of the gullies in the Verdugos are deeper, but this was a bit of a shock. The road runs around the lip of the gully, and I was thinking it would a chance for some good, quick exercise to climb from the fort to the road and back. However, the gully - like most of the land in Texas - is privately owned, and that wasn't possible.
The fort is fairly interesting, despite the fact that all of the buildings are now just rubble. The plaques discussed how lonely and boring it was to be stationed out here. It'd be boring and lonely even today, and one can only imagine what it would be like over a hundred years ago.
Posted to BloggingAcrossAmerica at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)
