environmental news

Caverns teach a life’s lesson

cave

CARSLBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK, N.M. — It only hurt while we were making the hike.

Afterward? It didn’t hurt a bit.

We came to Carlsbad Caverns National Park to see for ourselves what we’ve heard our entire lives. They are to believed only when you see them up close.

My wife and I possess those lifetime senior passes that get us into every park in the federal system for free. OK, I don’t consider it a free pass, given that our federal income taxes are continuing to pay for the parks’ upkeep.

We went to the park to tour the King’s Palace, which is a particular network of caves within the massive subterranean system.

We got our tickets and then got the “bad news”: The elevator doesn’t work, the U.S. National Park Service officer informed us.

It meant that once we walked down we had to walk back up.

No sweat. We’re in decent shape for folks our age.

We gathered at the entrance to the cavern, got our instructions from the ranger, then we started our trek down into the bowels of the planet.

The paved trail took us 750 feet down; that’s roughly the height of a 40-story building. We met another ranger in what’s called “The Big Room.” She introduced herself to the crowd of about 30 individuals.

Then we headed into the King’s Palace.

What did we learn? Well, we learned that a 16-year-old Texas ranch hand named Jack White was the first white man to explore the caverns; his discovery occurred around 1900. Our tour guide, a young woman named Toni, told us how he managed to rappel into the cave using a homemade latter and armed with a fuel-oil lamp.

He wandered into the cave. At one point during his exploration, the lamp flame went out. The ranger doused the light at the deepest portion of the tour.

Total blackness. Very strange. We all sat there in complete silence.

We learned about the dangers that humans bring to this highly sensitive eco-system. We learned that the cave network essentially has stopped evolving, given that the water that formed it in the first place has receded.

The tour lasted about 90 minutes. Then it was over.

All who walk down have to walk back up.

So, we started our hike back up the paved trail. Back and forth we trudged. Switchbacks galore.

My legs were killing me. My wife is much tougher than I am — big surprise, right? — but she showed great patience as I had to stop from time to time to catch my breath.

Then we saw the first hint of sunlight. It was like a vision. It spurred us to walk a little more briskly out of the dark hole.

Then the pain in my legs disappeared.

I thought right then about something my dear mother once said. Mom told me about how, after giving birth, the intense pain she felt disappeared the moment she held her children in her arms.

Hey, I’m not comparing what we did with childbirth.

Mom, though, was right. It hurt only for a little bit.

national news, political news

‘Tag team’ gangs up against Trump

cruz and kasich

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio have formed a tag team.

The want to stop Donald J. Trump’s march to the Republican Party’s presidential nomination so badly they’re willing to forget the mean things they’ve said about each other.

Will it work? I am not holding my breath for this strategy to cause the sky to crash down on Trump’s campaign.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/ted-cruz-john-kasich-team-up-222377

It is an interesting alliance and an interesting strategy.

Kasich is going to bow out of campaigning actively for the Indiana GOP primary in two weeks, intending to leave the field more open to Cruz. Meanwhile, Cruz said he’s going to cede the anti-Trump vote in Oregon and New Mexico to Kasich.

What does this to — or for — Trump? It gives him some ammo to fire in his effort to suggest the GOP primary nomination selection process is “rigged” against him.

Yep, it’s going to fire up those devoted Trumpsters — or should I call them Trumpkins? — who are standing by their man through thick and thin.

My nagging question, though, is this: Suppose this strategy works. Who between the tag-team partners is going to emerge as the top dog in this fight for the party’s presidential nomination?

 

national news

Sen. Wofford to get married … big deal? Well, yes

wofford

Two blog posts in a row on a matter that makes me uncomfortable …

Bear with me on this one.

Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford was married to a woman for 48 years. Then his wife, Clare, died of leukemia in 1996. Sen. Wofford was despondent.

Then he met someone else five years later.

The someone else is Matthew Charlton. Wofford and Charlton fell in love. And so, quite soon, the two of them are going to get married.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556283/Former-senator-married-wife-48-years-reveals-marry-new-male-partner-fifty-years-junior.html

Wofford is now 90 years of age. He served with distinction in World War II in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He and Clare produced three children.

I get that people of Wofford’s generation who were gay perhaps were afraid to reveal their sexuality in that earlier time. I also believe Sen. Wofford’s statements about how deeply in love he was with Clare.

Then he has this new love interest enter his life. Is it a big deal that the new significant other is of the same gender? It’s not nearly as big a deal as it would have been a generation or two or three ago.

The truly weird part of this story to my way of thinking is that Matthew Charlton is now 40 years old. He is five decades younger than Sen. Wofford.

Wofford said he never attached the terms “gay” or “straight” to his sexual orientation.

He said he’s now just happy to have found love once again. That it happens to be with a man must be just, well, the way it is.

A lot of us out here in the peanut gallery who are watching this latest chapter in the life of a one-time public man are left to wonder: What in the world is up with that huge age difference?

 

national news, political news

Transgender bathrooms become a POTUS campaign issue?

Transgender-Bathroom-600x321

What in the name of bathroom breaks has happened to the presidential campaign?

Let’s see: Donald J. Trump said something about it being OK with him if a transgender individual wants to use a bathroom that makes him/her comfortable.

Then we hear from fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who starts peppering Trump with criticism over his statement.

Holy mackerel, man!

First of all, I am not dialed in to this transgender issue. If I were king of the world — which Trump seems to aspire to become — I wouldn’t waste a moment of time worrying about this issue.

Transgenderism isn’t on my radar. I guess if I had to make an argument for it one way or the other, I’d oppose allowing transgender individuals to use whatever rest room they wish.

People are born with certain physical attributes that make them either male or female. I guess physiology rules out over emotional psyche.

OK. That said, why are presidential candidates even talking about this issue?

It won’t matter one bit to any president. This is a state issue exclusively. If there’s a law to be enacted, it will be done by state legislatures and signed into law — or vetoed — by governors.

The LGBT community seems to want to make an issue of it. While I oppose laws aimed at discriminating against Americans based on their sexual orientation, this transgender bathroom issue that has blown up in some states takes this tempest a step too far.

And for the life of me, I don’t understand why presidential candidates are talking about it now.

 

 

entertainment news, legal news, national news, Sports news

O.J. returns — sort of — to the spotlight

OJ

Orenthal James Simpson might be getting out of prison soon.

The Nevada parole board has granted Simpson parole for some of the crimes for which he was sentenced to prison five years ago. He’s going to remain behind bars, though, until he becomes eligible to be paroled for the rest of the crimes.

So, what will he do once he walks out of the slammer?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/31/oj-simpson-parole/2603497/

Here’s a thought: He ought to seek to repay the African-American community that cheered his acquittal in 1995 for the double murder of his former wife and her friend.

Simpson went to prison on charges stemming from an altercation he had in Nevada over some sports memorabilia. I don’t begrudge his becoming eligible for release on those charges.

It’s the double murder and his acquittal of those charges that continue to eat at many millions of Americans.

The jury’s finding of “not guilty” was the result of brilliant defense work by Simpson’s legal team led by the late Johnnie Cochran. That the former football star walked on those charges infuriated most Americans … but cheered a significant minority of Americans, namely, African-Americans who were glad to see Simpson remain free.

More than 20 years later, it remains a fair question to ask: Why cheer this man’s acquittal only on the basis that he, too, is black?

For his entire adult life, there can be no finding of evidence that O.J. Simpson gave back to the community from which he emerged to attain athletic stardom and, to a lesser degree, a level of celebrity as a film actor.

Indeed, I saw something just this weekend about Simpson wanting — get ready for this one — to date Kris Jenner, the former wife of the late Robert Kardashian, another member of Simpson’s superstar legal team.

Eventually, Simpson will walk out of prison. He’ll be free to do whatever he wants — as long as he doesn’t violate the terms of his parole.

He ought to start his road back by giving something to the community that cheered him when — in my view — a jury let him get away with murder.

Then again, he did once vow to look for “the real killers” of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Is that pledge still on the table?

 

local news, political news

Movement founder makes her exit

1 Comment

MPEV

A young woman with whom I am acquainted deserves a word of praise.

So I’ll give it to her in this blog post.

Meghan Riddlespurger has moved to Fort Worth to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer coordinator.

Riddlespburger made a name for herself in Amarillo over the past year. She became leader of a political action organization called the Amarillo Millennial Movement. She became as well a leading advocate for some big plans for the city’s downtown district.

AMM took the lead in promoting the multipurpose event venue, aka the MPEV or The Ballpark, which Amarillo voters endorsed in a referendum this past November.

I became a supporter of the young woman. I said so in this blog. Some comments responding to a few musings were quite critical of Meghan — and I’m quite sure some of the regular readers of this blog are going to toss a few more brickbats at her.

http://m.amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2016-04-22/millenial-movement-co-founder-leaves-fort-worth?v#gsc.tab=0

The only negative element I want to point out is that Riddlespurger chose to leave Amarillo after campaigning aggressively for a downtown revival concept she said ought to be aimed at keeping young residents here.

Her departure for Fort Worth would seem to take away some of the sincerity of her comments promoting the MPEV, the downtown convention hotel and all the other improvements being undertaken downtown.

I’m happy that Riddlespurger has answered a new calling by going to work for CASA. The organization does important work on behalf of children who need love, support and the protection offered by the state’s judicial system.

I also am delighted that, if only for a brief time, she rose to the challenge here and sought to get other young Amarillo residents involved in the political process.

I’m not entirely confident the push forward among some younger residents will retain its vitality.

For a time at least, Amarillo’s millennials had a spokeswoman who put herself front and center — and, yes, in the line of political fire — for a worthy and noble effort.

 

local news, media news

Full-time retirement inches a little closer

retirement_road

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

One of the many joys of my post-daily journalism life has been in telling folks that I work four — count ’em, four — part-time jobs.

Well, I can’t say that any longer.

I’m down to three.

Actually, you can call it two-and-a-half.

What does this mean? Well, I figure it means I’ll have a bit more time to start looking forward to the full-time retirement gig that is looming ever larger on the horizon.

Two of my remaining jobs are of the self-employment category. I work from home to do one of them, which is to edit news copy and proof-read pages for the Quay County Sun in Tucumcari, N.M. The other job requires to pile into a motor vehicle and interview subjects for stories I write for NewsChannel10.com, the website for KFDA-TV NewsChannel 10.

A third job came to an end this week when Panhandle PBS’s general manager informed me of the station’s plans to move in a new direction. I’m OK with the decision, although — as I admitted to my former boss — I am disappointed and, frankly, a little sad that my time there as a public affairs programming blogger has come to an end.

Still, I wish them well. The station is run by a good crew of energetic and (mostly) young staffers intent on producing public television programming that matters to those who watch it.

I made a decision a while ago to work at the automobile dealership only when needed: vacation or sick relief, those kinds of things. My employer agreed.

What’s left for yours truly? Well, my hope is to stay busy writing and editing for as long as I can.

My wife and I believe we are moving toward the best of our life together.

We are eternal optimists. Not a thing that has happened since we entered this new phase of our life has changed our outlook about the prospect of full-time retirement.

 

International news, military news, Uncategorized

Paranoia strikes deep in North Korea

north-korea-to-kick-off-nuclear-armageddon-probably-not-1414440285

Kim Jong Un must be clinically paranoid.

One of the North Korean strongman/boy’s top hands has declared that if the United States stops its military exercises with South Korea that the North Koreans will end their nuclear tests.

The commies are afraid of a first strike by the South Koreans or, perhaps, by the United States.

A little history should be offered up here. So, I will.

In 1950, the communists started the Korean War by invading South Korea. The United Nations responded with a military counterattack. The UN force was led by Americans. They drove the communists out of South Korea, and then had to face troops from the People’s Republic of China who came to Pyongyang’s rescue.

The fighting stopped in 1953. The combatants signed a cease-fire. There is no peace treaty.

The two nations — South and North Korea — are technically still at war.

The U.S.-South Korean exercises have been undertaken for decades as a defensive measure against North Korea’s demonstrated willingness to start a war.

And to think that the North Koreans view their nuclear program as a deterrent.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/277403-north-korean-official-well-stop-nuclear-tests-if-us-halts-military

I don’t know whether to laugh, scream or laugh some more.

I get that it’s not funny, except that Kim Jong Un has assumed a ridiculous posture if the believes South Korea or the United States is going to launch a first strike against this tinhorn dictator.

 

national news, political news

Speaker fails to perform ‘basic’ task

90

Paul Ryan spoke the truth when, as chairman of the House Budget Committee, he said the federal government must perform its basic function, which he said is to approve a budget.

Now that he’s speaker of the House, Ryan is finding matters are getting complicated.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/paul-ryan-no-budget-votes-222270

Speaker Ryan said he lacks the votes to approve a federal budget.

He’s battling the TEA Party wing of the GOP, which wants to stick to the sequester provision that allows across-the-board cuts in many government programs.

Oh, the divisions within the Republican House caucus are deep and wide — and they might be getting deeper and wider.

What’s the speaker to do? How does he get his fellow Republicans to speak with a single voice? Isn’t that what leaders do?

Well, he’s finding himself in the same predicament that bedeviled his predecessor as speaker, John Boehner, who ended up getting so fed up with the TEA Party that he gave up the speakership — and then quit the House of Representatives.

Governing involves compromise. It means all sides give a little. Sure, they can cling to their principles.

The speaker, though, is unable to lean on House Democrats to bail him out. Why? That toxic environment on Capitol Hill has become seemingly terminal.

Government cannot function under those conditions.

 

political news, State news

What’s with this agriculture commissioner?

IMG_3002_jpg_800x1000_q100

There must be something about serving as Texas commissioner of agriculture that brings out the weirdness in some of those who hold the office.

Sid Miller is the guy in the office at the moment. He’s a Republican who seems to look for ways to make himself look silly. He makes goofy pronouncements, goes off on state-paid junkets and then spends public money on matters that should be financed out of his own pocket.

In a strange way he reminds me of another agriculture commissioner. Do you remember Jim Hightower? He served a single term as head of the agriculture department in the late 1980s. Rick Perry got elected to the office in 1990 and he was succeeded by Susan Combs, who then was succeeded by Todd Staples. Those three individuals managed to serve with a degree of decorum and dignity.

Hightower, though, was a jokester. The Democrat was quick with the quip and managed to say things just to get a laugh out of those who heard him say them.

Miller, though, is presenting some unusual problems.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/22/sid-millers-tenure/

As the Texas Tribune reports, Miller is making a spectacle of himself:

“Miller’s conduct in office has ranged from the cartoonish — revamping inspection stickers for the state’s more than 170,000 fuel pumps to more prominently feature his name — to the potentially criminal — allegedly bankrolling two out-of-state trips with public funds to receive what’s known as a ‘Jesus Shot’ and to compete in a rodeo.”

Miller won the office partly by campaigning as a fiscal conservative. So what does he do? He boosts the pay of top staff jobs.

He seems to look for ways to make headlines, to get his name out there. Remember how he lifted the state ban on deep fryers and soda machines? Why does an elected agriculture do something like that?

I much prefer that these folks simply do their job quietly. There’s no need to create spectacles.

The agriculture commissioner has a big job. The state has a gigantic farm and ranch community — and much of it exists out here on the High Plains.

Can’t this guy just promote the value of Texas’s myriad agricultural produces without being such a buffoon?

 

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