Yes... "The times they are a changin' "

As a student growing up in public school during the sixties, this song by Bob Dylan comes quickly to mind when I see articles like these from ShiftWA.org today:

State Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen) will propose legislation allowing trained K-12 teachers to carry firearms at school. “If an individual school district wanted to let its teachers concealed carry, the law would simply allow the option,” he said. Walsh also proposes adding school resource officers to every school. (Longview Daily News)

and...

State Rep. Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley) led the 51st State Rally last weekend, saying that the idea to split Washington into two states is not new. Shea’s Liberty State would be formed from all counties east of the Cascades. “Downtown Seattle has had enough of us, too. We get in the way of their socialist plans,” he said. (Sunnyside Daily Sun News)

Who knows how long it will take before either of these issues gain any real momentum, but, since the second item has been tried before and given the current more severe climate of differences between eastern and western Washington, I'd give it a greater chance of generating any real chance of going anywhere. 

After all, it is just news at this point.

What Liberals Don't Understand About Race

We've seen lately a lot about Kanye West and Candice Ownes making the news about their support for President Trump's policies and alignment about with certain concepts regarding one's personal character.

Now, Candice Ownes has contributed to Prager U's video series on conservative concepts regarding what is normally referred to as the "race card" but is called the "Black Card" in this video presentation.

It clarifies the concepts which Martin Luther King, Jr. promoted when he was still alive working to forward equal treatment for African-Americans in the 1960s.

Just today, I saw a little sign in a music classroom where I was substitute teaching for the afternoon that caught my attention because I had always struggled with how to explain the difference to my students while teaching full-time about "fairness".

It stated succinctly, "Fairness is not that everyone deserves the same things. Fairness is that everyone deserves the same opportunity to achieve success for themself."

This is why M.L.K., Jr. said in his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, "...we should not judge a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character."

The Silent, Yet Looming, Threat

Geologists who focus on the volcanoes of the west coast and

Pacific Rim are expressing heightened concern about 

Hawaii's latest activity. 

 

They're concerned because it could have implications for the 

volcanoes which run - like a string of pearls - along the 

western coastal states from Northern California to the 

Canadian border.

 

But the article linked above, while informative in certain 

respects, is also misleading to those who read it, but have

no familiarity to the region.

How? First, the article references "Spokane, WA," which is hundreds of miles to the east side, and far away from the Cascade Mountains. The picture of Mt. Rainier accompanying the article shows it framed by the bridge in Tacoma over the Thea Foss Waterway.

It should have referenced, "Tacoma, WA" or "Seattle, WA,” 

as these two cities, as mentioned later in the article, are 

much more threatened by a possible eruption from the two 

closest volcanoes.

I've lived in the Northwest for nearly 35 years now, and I 

know the geography fairly well.

 

In my early years here I took a course at the University of 

Washington in Geology; more specifically, volcanoes and the 

earth's crustal movement known as tectonic plate activity 

during the same period as the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 

1980.

 

Part of that research included David Johnston's masters 

thesis on a volcano in Alaska. Johnston was killed while 

within the vicinity of Mt. St. Helens' blast zone.

Only a few years later, I climbed to the top of both Mt. Baker 

and Mt. Rainier and learned a considerable bit more about 

the volcanic threat of the Pacific Coast volcanoes. While 

standing on its summit of Mt. Rainier, one could see Mt. 

Baker to the north and the volcanoes of Mt. Adams, Mt.St. 

Helens, and Mt. Hood to the south.

Having lived, driven and hiked/backpacked around the 

greater Puget Sound Region, I've often wondered just how 

effective the various communities which lie within eye sight 

of the volcanoes would be, should one of them erupt. 

Anyone who knows the natural geography of the area 

realizes that the valleys which snake out in all directions 

from the base of a volcano were created in the distant past 

by former eruptions and the resulting massive lahars, which 

travel downhill and out to the lower elevations, carving them 

out even more. 

 

Yet even with this knowledge, there have been many 

communities developed over the years which are on the 

valley floors of many of the paths a lahar would take. 
Any lahar - a pyroclastic flow sweeping down through the 

valleys which surround every volcano - contains a 

combination of melted glacier ice, ash and rock that turns 

into a massive moving lake of viscous, hot "cement" with the 

front of that flow essentially being a huge wall that sweeps 

clean the valley it flows through.

 

Nothing can stop it and everything in its path is destroyed 

and often buried several feet deep in scalding hot mud and 

boulders (some larger than houses). One needs only to 

search for footage of this on YouTube to see lahars from Mt. 

St. Helens flowing down the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers.

The article claims - as do many of the communities which 

reside in the valley carved out by previous massive 

eruptions – that there are plans in place to evacuate their 

citizenry to higher ground and that they regularly practice the 

drill to evacuate. This is ludicrous. The actual time Orting, for 

instance, would actually have to evacuate, compared to the 

time they take for their evacuation drill, would be 

considerably longer.

 

With the increased housing development which has 

occurred over recent decades, and my familiarity with the 

limited roads and highways which connect to higher ground 

out of the valleys to get away from an oncoming lahar flow, 

it's obvious to me that the resulting devastation will be much 

worse than they believe will occur, and that many thousands 

– perhaps tens of thousands - will perish.

 

This fact is precisely why, when buying my house, I 

deliberately chose a property on a hill - roughly 500 to 800 

feet high- above the nearby area where a lahar will 

ultimately empty its contents; hot water, ash, boulders, and 

anything in its path, as it flows down the valley on its way to 

Puget Sound … which is exactly what happened in the past, 

well before there was any modern development.

 

Yet, hundreds of thousands of people go about their daily 

lives, working and living in their homes in the very path 

which has the potential to sweep clean any and all in the 

lahar's way.

 

God forbid that it ever happens... but if it does, we'll have 

hell to pay. And we'll have only ourselves to blame.

Why?

That's right, why?

Why is America on the downhill skid as a nation? That, I'm certain, is the $60 Billion question on the minds of at least half the nation's population.

I keep hearing from our President that he's working furiously to "Make America Great Again". I understand that this massively humongous "ship of state" with its behemoth bureaucracy of unelected workers who make most of the country's regulations is very difficult to turn around. However, I can't help but wonder just how patient we who are asking this question will be.

For the past several years - with the last ten accelerating exponentially - our country has witnessed event after event and a steady increase in crime, homelessness, taxation and an increasing disregard for the very people who's productiveness is feeding local, state and national governments' coffers.

As I've pointed out in previous posts, the GOP has told us for decades now that we just needed control of Congress and things would begin turning that "ship of state". We know now, after only one-and-a-half years with Pres. Trump in the White House, and a majority in both houses of Congress, that we've once again been dupped by those we elected to change things.

The Omnibus Bill which passed recently and added another $1.5 TRILLON to our national debt is our latest glaring example to which I refer.

Yet, we now are witnessing states thumbing their noses at a DOJ which liberals claimed had the ultimate say in national policy when their "poster boy" was in office. And our A.G. of the DOJ seems to be comatose and lacking any chutzpah on dealing with them.

I believe the real issue with these problems lies in the local communities; the majority of which are part of my generation of senior citizens who've either given up on fighting this trend, or just don't care because they've been convinced it's a lost cause to fight them.

There are a few communities which have the fight still in them. They are those in southern California who've realized what their Governor Brown is doing to their standard of living by imposing his sanctuary city policies on them. But, their numbers are not enough yet to make a difference. And that's just one state.

Here in the Northwest, the homeless crisis is creating a "boiling point" which is beginning to reveal itself. Because they've tolerated policies by local government for so long, things have reached the level whereby they no longer can sit back and be silent. It's now impacting them personally with threats to their jobs, and their pocketbooks in the form of increased deductions from their wages in taxes.

The millennials and younger generation will be hit the hardest if something doesn't happen to generate enough momentum to bring this current trend of the "socialism train" to a screeching halt.

Further Drift Away From Our National Origins?

There have been multiple examples over the years of "progressive" influence which have gradually eroded our nation's founding principles of checks and balances away from a strong representative republic. After all, that has been the Progressive's intent all along.

However, each of those instances - however small and seemingly insignificant - over time have gradually built up to the point today where the nation's very existence is threatened in its once seemingly indestructible form of protecting liberties and freedoms.

To anyone who claims otherwise, in my opinion, is simply either ignorant of the facts as they are today, or have been convinced in some way or another, that some other form of governance - such as Venezuela - is better.

The state of Connecticut is the latest example of what I refer to here. This type of action by states is counter to efforts by conservatives, who understand the consequences of such a trend, to exercise our Constitution's Article V provision to call for a Convention of States which would propose amendments to strengthen it.

 If this type of movement is not stopped in its tracks, the chances of our nation dissolving into something akin to Venezuela in the future are good. How soon that would occur is anyone's guess. I just hope it's not while I'm still here, or things are going to get much, much worse than they already are!

Sound Transit is Ripping Off Consumers!

Just watch this video... it's self-explanatory. If I need to explain it to you further, you've been living in isolation too long.

Okay for Homeless to Defecate on the Street, But No Free Popcorn?

Okay, there are probably daily instances of local laws and ordinances across the country which impact businesses, but they are in place for a good reason; usually pubic safety.

But what of the damage done by those laws and ordinances to the intent of a business to generate a climate which fosters a positive community relations climate with their customers? Say, for instance, providing free popcorn to customers who step into their store.

Do those offices or agencies within the local community, county, or state care at all about the adverse impact which results from those laws or ordinances on businesses? One has to really wonder.

Take, for instance, this story of a community store in the San Diego area of California where for decades a hardware business has had free popcorn for those in the store, but has now been ordered to cease providing it because the health department claims it's not safe in preventing communicable diseases of those who might reach in and grab a handful of popcorn, rather than using a scoop and bag to put it in. What?

I understand the premise, but the bigger question to me is, is this action by the health department overkill? Surely, there's got to be a more simple answer or fix to this. Something tells me that this news report, once again, doesn't provide all the details in reporting this story that actually occurred.

I don't know about you, but have you ever been in a theater buying a hot dog and seen the teen behind the counter wipe his/her hands on their pants after coughing, then, without any protective gloves pick up a customer's hot dog off the shelf and place it into the cardboard tray, then attempt to serve it to them? If it were mine, I'd reject it and get something else!

Of all the food franchise establishments across the country, how many employees faithfully follow the health department's requirement for every employee to thoroughly wash their hands regularly... especially after going to the restroom? I mean, if the health department was really intending to stop potential situations where various pathogens or viruses could be transmitted to customers in such places, one would see someone from that agency at every establishment monitoring every employee as to whether or not they were following the requirements... or at least video cameras monitoring such things.

Currently, in many west coast cities the homeless problem is out of control and the unsanitary public conditions on those city's streets are way beyond "safe" for the public. Yet, we can't have free popcorn in a hardware store?

Where's the reasonable, common sense balance regarding this issue? Why is it that our tendency today is to have our civic leaders treat its people they serve as though they're our elite overlords? If they really cared about our health, they'd change their policies about the homeless for a start!