Musings from Michael Fitzsimmons (aka "The Fitzman")

The Lenovo X120e ThinkPad Review

2011-12-25T08:38:00.000-08:00

The Lenovo X120e

Seldom do I sing the praises of consumer good but this new computer of mine is awww-some! Here's the technicals as delivered to me:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium; Version 6.1.7601 SP1
SYSTEM: 64-bit
PROCESSOR: AMD E-350, 1.6 GHz, Dual-core
RAM: 2GB DDR3 1.33s MHz (1 DIMM)
STORAGE: WDC 320GB SATA Spinning at 5400 RPM (3 partitions)
BATTERY: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery 57 Whr
DISPLAY: 11.6"
WAN: Ethernet 802.3 11b/g/n PCI Express
DIMENSIONS: 11.25" x 8.5" x 1.25"
WEIGHT: 2.93 lbs

Additional I/O: Additional features include:

- 4-in-1 memory card reader
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- VGA DB-15 and HDMI external display port
- Ethernet port

Why do I like this guy so much? Many reasons - starting with the price. Lenovo had the X120e on sale plus I received an eCoupon in the mail which turned out to be 20% off! Total (taxes & shipping included) was $359. It was shipped from Shanghai, China the day I ordered it (online) and was in Louisville, KY 36 hours later where it sat for 3 days. Finally I called UPS to inquire as to how it could make it from China to Kentucky in 36 hours only to sit in KY for 3 days. The lady laughed and very politely reminded me of customs. I was cool with that and even better she gave me her personal phone number and said to call her anytime I needed assistance with a UPS delivery. Turns out a couple days later I came home to find a "tried to deliver" sticker on my front door. So I called my UPS friend and asked if there was anyway she could contact the truck and tell them I was home. 45 minutes later I had the computer in my hot little hands.

All that I have done since receiving the computer is remove any BS programs from Lenovo, load AVG, and add a 2GB memory DIMM ($20) for a total of 4GB memory. By the way, it took me over a week longer to get the memory DIMM than it took to get the X120e!

So, the price was right and the delivery was awesome. We're off to a great start.

I was prepared for the display on the X120e to be sub-par since I read some reviews dissing it. I find the display A-OK. Where this machine shines for me is speed and power. I haven't measured the boot time because it's not that important to me - I don't boot often. What I do alot of is entering and exiting sleep mode. Fn+F4 puts the machine in sleep. Touching Fn wakes it up - and it wakes up *immediately*. I can literally be back on the internet in the time it takes me to enter the password on my screen saver. The thing is fast and the wireless connect is fast. I run the Firefox browser and use CCleaner (downloaded from cnet.com) to keep my machine lean and clean and man, all I can say is this little sucker rocks.

Better still is the battery life. I haven't made any engineering type measurements or power experiments other than this: I hook the charger up at night after browsing in my bed and in the morning, fully charged, I disconnect it and take it to the living room. I can use this pretty much all day (in and out of sleep mode) and the X120e seldom needs re-charging. Now, granted all I do is email, play chess and sudoku, check stock quotes, and perform general browsing...but still - all day until I go to bed? Awwwsome bay-beeee! Love this thing.

Lastly the weight: 2.93 lbs is great! My son laughed when I told him my old ACER used to hurt my lower back when at midnight I would reach out to sit it on the bedside table with an out-stretched arm. Ouch! Me back! Hey, at my age I could feel that in my lower back. Not so this guy. It is sooo nice and light. Oh, and the keyboard has a great feel to it as well!

If I had to give the machine a knock, it would be the packaging of the battery. Steve Jobs would never have let that out the door (which you can see in the picture above). That said, it's no biggee considering all the pluses of this machine, and I have certainly gotten over it.

Now, the lack of a CD drive concerns some folks. Not me at all. However, when buying the machine you do need to consider you will need an external hard drive (dedicated if you want the start up image) as a backup. Or, you can call Lenovo and tell them you are having problems recovering from a problem and they will send you the original Win7 64-bit production disks (2). Or, you can do both like me. Funny enough, even though Lenovo bought the PC division of IBM many years ago, the disk arrived with a packaging slip that said:

IBM
501 Innovation Avenue
Morrisville, NC 27560

Go figure. And, I must say, the X120e sure feels like the old IBM ThinkPads too.

All I have done so far is add the 2GB memory DIMM which was easy-as-pie. For only $20, why not. There is even a nicely packaged memory test which was very thorough - walking one, address tests, sensitivity test, nibble tests - heck, I felt like it was 1984 and I was back at Burroughs' Memory Engineering Group in Rancho Bernardo!

I am considering buying an Intel SSD to replace the hard drive. Yeah, they are expensive on a per GB basis - but I estimate an SSD will be about 20% faster and perhaps a 20% reduction in power too. The performance is fine now, but I really want to save the power for both extended battery life and hopefully to extend fan life. My 4 year old ACER was still going fine til the fan died...then I suffered a melt-down. I could not bring myself to order a fan from some little Hong Kong outfit I never heard of, nor was I willing to pay the price (plus shipping) U.S. vendors (or ACER was asking). Anyhow, I am kinda glad the ACER died cause it was slow as molasses and heavy. Btw, I still think Microsoft has a counter that keeps track of how old XP machines are and slows them down on purpose so you will buy a new machine - and a new OS license...).

Welp, that's it folks. I love the X120e. Oh, I am having some problems finding an inexpensive padded case (no, not the neoprene sleeves...) for the machine, so if anyone out there has a good solution - please let me know.

All that said - the true test of a PC is reliability and longevity. I hope the X120e lasts a long long...long time. And let's hope there is no "slow-down" counter in Win7!

Btw, as of right now, the X120e sells for $409 on amazon.com (free shipping, no tax). But be careful - that one has a slower processor (AMD Fusion Single-Core Processor E-240 1.5GHz) and only 1 GB memory.

On lenovo.com, the exact computer I have is selling now for $449, but they will charge you tax (shipping is free). Hopefully, you can talk a sales person into giving you an eCoupon and save some cash! Good luck.

The Fryingpan River 2011

2011-08-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

The Fryingpan River's Ruedi Dam Outlet

Bases Loaded

Despite the bigger sized fish at the dam, how I yearned to be at some of my favorite downstream runs (alone...) casting dry-flies and fooling nice rainbows and browns...maybe next year?

The Fitzman with a Brown caught on his Mysis Shrimp

Thanks for the pic Sherrie!

This football took the Fitz Special

This guy took the Store Bought Mysis

Ya know, you watch these fisherman with a guide and it looks so easy to net these fish when the guide nets em for ya. But I gotta tell ya, I missed this fish 3 times before netting him...it was an adventure in fly-fishing. That said, this fish had so many hook marks in his mouth his "lips" were near gone. I was prouder of the brown above caught on my mysis shrimp. His mouth was virgin - or near enough for me ;)

The Irish Dominate Golf's Major Championships

2011-07-18T04:47:00.000-07:00

Here are the winners of golf's major championships over the past 5 years:

The Masters
2011 Charl Schartzel
2010 Phil Mickelson
2009 Angel Cabrera
2008 Trevor Immelman
2007 Zach Johnson

U.S. Open
2011 Rory McIlroy
2010 Graeme McDowell
2009 Lucas Glover
2008 Tiger Woods
2007 Angel Cabrera

British Open
2011 Darren Clarke
2010 Louis Oosthuizen
2009 Stewart Cink
2008 Pádraig Harrington
2007 Pádraig Harrington

PGA
2011 Aug 11-14
2010 Martin Kaymer
2009 Y.E. Yang
2008 Pádraig Harrington
2007 Tiger Woods

Of these 19 majors, 6 were won by Irishmen. Paddy Harrington jump-started the Irish charge with 3 major championships including back-to-back British Open victories. For Irishmen the world over, it was particularly gratifying to see the Republic of Ireland's Tricolour flying on the 18th green of the British Open!

Golf is a game of confidence and Paddy's major championships gave his fellow countrymen the confidence and belief that they too could win. Graeme McDowell followed on Paddy's heels with his victory at the 2010 U.S. Open. Rory snapped right back from his Master's meltdown and won the 2011 U.S. Open. And the sentimental winner at this year's British Open was journeyman Darren Clarke.

Ireland is an island of 6.2 million people. The world population is 6.7 billion. So how does a country with 0.0009% of the world's population win 32% of the last 5 years' major championships?

From a golfing perspective, Irish golfers have an advantage being raised on links golf where the wind, the rain, and the undulating ground require golfers to be good ball strikers, control their ball flight, and learn how to mentally deal with the forces of mother nature. But the Scots and Brits also play links courses...so why are the Irish dominating?

I think it has to do with the character of the Irish people. They are a hearty stock who have lived in a violent country of political, economic, and religious troubles for centuries. They are a stubborn lot instilled with a great work ethic. They are a creative and crafty bunch. Lastly, after a cold wet 18 holes, Irish golfers retire to the clubhouse and warm their bones with the greatest of all Irish inventions: Guinness.

I remember playing the course at Westport, Ireland during a particularly stormy day. On the 5th hole, it started to hail. My playing partners (both Irish) didn't blink an eye. When we got to the green, the putting was like playing bumper pool with half-inch sized hail stones. Neither of my Irish players even commented on the conditions. We simply kept playing on. At Waterford, I paid my green fees despite an imminent storm which I planned to play through. On the first hole, the clouds opened and it was a torrential downpour. My ball was washed off the green floating in an inch of water. I had no choice but to bag the round. I went into the clubhouse and asked for a refund since I had not even completed one hole. The man didn't want to return my money..."we don't do that here he said - you play on". Well it was impossible, and he finally admitted as much and offered what we call here a "rain check". I explained I was leaving the country in a few days and would probably not be back anytime soon. We settled on a half refund. Despite McIlroy's recent whine about the weather after the British Open, most Irish golfer's simply accept mother nature's significant role in the game of golf.

But I did have two glorious days at Ballybunion - golfing the links under blue skies on the west coast of Ireland. The wind off the ocean was constant. Depending on the hole, the wind could be in you face, at your back, or from your left or right. I shot an 84 on the old course, with a 10 year old Irish caddy helping me every step of the way. I consider that round my greatest golfing achievement.

As most things Irish, underneath the golfing celebrations are political implications. Paddy is a Catholic who comes from the so-called "Republic of Ireland." He has no problem embracing the tri-colour Irish flag that symbolizes Irish freedom from English oppression. Darren Clarke, I have read, is also a Catholic that sympathizes with the cause of Irish freedom. Clarke was tending bar once when a call came in saying the pub would blow up in 5 minutes. Clarke believed the caller, emptied the bar, and sure enough, a bomb exploded in the pub. Graeme McDowell is a Protestant Ulsterman.

Rory McIlroy is a much more complicated case. Rory is a Catholic, but has said on at least one occasion he considers himself British. That's a hard one to fathom, but who knows what makes people in the so-called "Northern Ireland" do what they do and say what they say just to survive. In the 2009 World Cup of Golf, he represented Ireland. When the sport returns to the Olympic Games in 2016, after more than a century of absence, he has said he “probably” will play for Britain. Asked in an interview with the PGA Tour Web site last year whether he considered himself more British or Irish, McIlroy answered, “Pass.”

Last month, the very day after McIlroy’s United States Open victory, sectarian violence broke out in the Short Strand neighborhood of East Belfast, five miles from Rory's childhood home. Bricks and Molotov cocktails flew for two days. Three people sustained gunshot injuries. Police estimated that 400 to 500 people were involved in the disorder.

A pro-British paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, murdered the McIlroy's great-uncle in 1972. According to previously published reports, the great-uncle, Joseph McIlroy, moved into a Protestant area of East Belfast when the Troubles were at their height. Presumably, he had faith in the essential reasonableness of his neighbors. It was misplaced. He was shot dead in his kitchen. No one was convicted.

Did anyone notice that as McIlroy walked off the 18th green at Congressional Country Club last month, someone tossed a green, white and orange tricolor in his direction? It was not clear exactly what happened to the flag, but it quickly disappeared. Did Rory spurn the flag or did it merely fall by the wayside? Not surprisingly, a Facebook page showed up on this subject. Note the very contentious comments:

Rory Turning Down the Tricolour?

One has to feel for a young kid stuck in such an uncomfortable political and religious spot when I'm sure all he wants to do is appeal to both sides and simply play golf. For a more detailed story on this issue, see this excellent article in the NY Times:

McIlroy Transcends Boundaries

The British Open was actually played in Ireland once. It never should have been! The Irish have their own tournament, and the Irish Open will be played next week in Killarney.

Ireland is one island and it is one country. Anyone born on the island is Irish. Golfers from this small country are currently dominating golf's major championships. So let us forget the "troubles", forget the ridiculous marching season, and raise a pint of Guinness to the four major champions from the country of Ireland.

Trapper's Lake 2011

2011-07-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Fitzman at Trappers Lake

As expected, Colorado was quite different from the most recent summers due to this winter's abundant snow pack. Some areas were 200%+ above normal. As such, the lakes and reservoirs were full and the rivers were raging. It rained every day of my trip.
Driving through Glenwood Canyon and seeing the water covering the bike-path along I-70 by 2-3 feet, I prepared myself for a less than optimal dry-fly season. I was early and I knew it - but the timing could not be avoided due to family issues. So I headed straight up to Trapper's Lake hoping a few days there to let the rivers come down was a good strategy.

But first, I stopped off at the Meadow Lake campground where I spend a day or two to acclimate to altitude and get my fly-fishing gear out for a walk on easy water. I was told my campsite was under 2 feet of snow the day before I got there. The CG wasn't even open so I camped for 2 nights for free. Good action!

Free Camping!

The fishing at Meadow Lake was sub-par. The bigger fish were still down deep and although the area around the creek inlet was full of fish, they were smallish, dumb, and soon bored me. So, onto one of my favorite spots: Trapper's Lake. On arrival, a friendly guy waved so I hung out at his campsite. A cop from Grand Junction and his wife - a school teacher. They were all excited to go on their first over-night (2 nites) backpacking trip. As they were packing, I heard his wife say "what other food are we taking" whereby the cop says, "don't worry honey - we'll just eat fish. I always catch fish with my fly-rod". "You sure?" "Sure I'm sure!" and he grins at me. I agreed, I mean who can't catch trout in just about any backwoods Flat Top's Wilderness lake?

Trapper's Lake fishing was pretty good to me again this year. My first outing I caught 10 or 12, a mix of cutthroats, rainbow, and brook trout. This was in stormy weather while the wind blew and the rain came down in sheets. These trout were taken primarily by stripping black (and olive) woolly buggers as well as the "Fitz special" with a zebra midge dropper. A friend from Craig was doing very well on black leech patterns and I saw several leeches swimming around near the shoreline.

A Beautiful Trapper's Lake Native Colorado Cutthroat

The "Fitz special" is the name given to a fly I have been tying for some years now. Every time I show it to folks, they say "what the hell IS that?" (or something close to that effect). So, instead of saying "oh, I dunno, I just tie it up and it works", I now say "it's a Fitz special!". This fly is very simple to tie - a gold beadhead, orange yarn or thread body, red wire wrap (like a zebra midge). A couple small pieces of flash are optional. Depending on water depth and current, I use this fly in sizes from #20 to as big as a #14. I started using this fly instead of split-shot, which I have learned over the years will lose you flies: repeated casts with split-shot on the tippet will eventually weaken the tippet right at the shot, and eventually you'll lose the fly (and usually a fish along with it) if it is not retied in time. So, I started using the "Fitz special" as a means to get my flies down quickly, and drop the main course off the Fitz special hook. Low-n-behold, on many occasions I started catching as many (or more) fish on the Fitz special as on the main offering. It has become a standard weapon in my arsenal.

Mysis and Fitz Specials - Click to Enlarge & Zoom

Every year I make it a point to do something new when I go to Colorado. A new hike, or fish a new spot, or visit a new campground. My plan this year was to hike around Trapper's Lake, which I had never done before. However, my friend from Craig advised against it. All the trees which burned in the "Big Fish" fire of 2002 now have roots which are well rotted. When the wind blows (as it was the entire time I was there), this becomes a pretty dangerous situation. Instead, I decided to hike up to Coffin Lake and then visit Little Trappers Lake. Coffin Lake has a reputation of holding very large cutthroat up to 30". So, I grabbed my backpack, loaded it with my gear and some lunch and headed out. The lake is aptly named - it is in the shape of a Coffin and very deep. As I headed around the Lake, it became clear the side in the sun, which was relatively shallow, was pretty bare except for the occasional 14-16" cruisers that sees you way before you see them. The steep banked side of the lake was a different story. There were spawning cuts near every little trickle of water from the rains. I rigged up and was soon catching trout very easily, although fishing was quite technical due to the steep bank, all the downed trees, and all the logs in the water. I'd catch a cuttie, and then 4 or 5 others would immediately swim toward the fighting fish and attempt to mate with it. Funnier-n-shit. After 8 or 10, I felt guilty catching spawners. I waited to fish the deeper holes looking for one of the big ones. I worked all the way around the lake with no luck until the last deep whole back where I started. I thought I was hung on a log until it started moving. I caught a slight glimpse of the monster, although the water was 8' deep & dark. It was a *big* fish. I had no chance with all the logs & such and 4lb tippet. He robbed me blind but I will surely visit this lake again.

A Coffin Lake Spawner

Next I headed up to Little Trappers and decided to put on my waders since the shore was shallow and no action. I must have stabbed myself while fishing Coffin because I had a relatively deep cut on my left leg. These burned and fallen trees are accidents waiting to happen. Be careful!! Anyhow, I worked my way around the entire lake, saw no fish, saw no rises, and didn't even see any fish spawning where the two creeks empty into the lake. The only lake I had seen this dead was a few years back when I hiked into Rock Lake in the San Juans. While hiking out, I ran into a woman on the trail who told me, after I commented the lake look "dead", "oh yeah, they killed it". I said what do you mean? She explained that the Colorado DOW had begun a new program of trying to restore lakes to its native fish only. According to her (i later verified with a DOW employee) they chemically treated Rock Lake to kill off all the fish (the brook trout were the problem) and then stocked the lake with only its true native fish - in this case the Rio Grande cutthroat. Well, I had convinced myself that Little Trapper's Lake was dead. But then again, the season was 2-3 weeks behind the last few years...water colder...higher...naw man, that lake is DEAD.

So, I hiked back to the truck and got to camp in time to eat and head down to Scot's bay where I caught some more cuts.

Fell victim to my Zebra Midge

That evening, while cooking dinner, a guy dropped by my campsite to bs. He said he planned to hike up to Little Trapper's with his belly boat. I said "Ohh man, don't do it! You'd be better off fishing Scot's bay on the main lake!" Little Trappers is dead I told him and explained why I thought so. "Aw, you're crazy..it's not dead." Okey-dokey buddy, but I think you're wasting your time.

Meanwhile the couple from Craig had come back. How was your trip I asked? Great he said, but all his wife said is "are those steaks done yet?" (they smelled divine). Anyhow, he looks at me with a sheepish grin and about that time his wife said she is tired of eating freeze dried meals. "Didn't you catch any fish?" He looked a me with this kind of startled look and said, "Man, the lake was still frozen over!" I guess he tried to knock a hole in the ice to sink a hook but the slush filled in quickly. What lake did you hike into I asked? "Surprise Lake". How fitting! Bar har har - surprise, surprise, surprise!

He said they saw snow banks up there with 10-15 feet thick and doubted they would melt prior to new snow this fall.

Meanwhile Mr. Belly Boat drops by and said "Little Trapper's isn't dead!" while shooting me a sideway's evil eye. Honestly surprised I said, "Really? You did well?" "Yup" he says, " I caught several 15 inch cuts on dry flies" still looking at me as though I must have purposefully lied to him. I said "Hey man, that's awesome, I guess I was wrong. I was just trying to save you a grunt of a hike with your belly boat." I'm not sure he believed me, but I was glad to hear Little Trapper's is alive and well.

The Fiat "Panda Natural Power"

2010-12-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

The Fiat Panda Natural Power vehicle can run on natural gas or gasoline! It has separate fuel tanks and a switch to go from one fuel to another. The perfect design for countries with limited natural gas refueling stations.

I am trying to find out if you can purchase a home natural gas refueling appliance bundled with the Panda. I am also trying to find out if it is even possible to buy this car in the United States! More on this when I get additional information. I have also requested detailed technical specifications from Fiat. This car recently won a German contest to determine what European vehicle could go the furthest on 30 Euros of fuel (450 miles).

Here is a really cool video about the car and you can watch it being refueled with natural gas!! Very cool. The video is in French. Click on the link below.

Panda in Action Video

You Tube Video (mostly car profiles and cool jazz)

Panda Profiles Video

Interior Picture:

Just imagine, if Americans were able to buy this car along with a home garage natural gas refueling appliance: we would be filling up in our garage with natural gas from the American Haynesville and Marcellous shales for HALF the price of gasoline derived from foreign oil at inconvenient gas stations. We could begin reducing our over 60% reliance on foreign oil tomorrow. No waiting for breakthroughs in battery technology, no wait for expensive and unproven electric cars. We could reduce foreign oil imports NOW. When will Congress, the American financial media, and Americans themselves wake up and smell the roses?

"QE2" Is a Four Letter Word; Oil is Spelled O-I-L

2010-11-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here we go again - the Federal Reserve (an un-Constitutional bureaucracy operating in complete secrecy without Congressional oversight) is going to print hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air to make bond purchases in the market. The goal is to keep long-term interest rates low and to boost the economy and supposedly create jobs. One unspoken goal of Bernanke's is to generate inflation. At that, one can definitely say he will be successful. Today, the stock market is taking off, gold is up over $40/oz, silver is up over $1.50/oz, and oil is up over $1.50/barrel!! Missed in all the jubliation on Wall Street today is that the U.S. dollar index, YOUR U.S. dollar index is down -0.80%. That is, your money and your savings are being devalued by your wonderful Federal Reserve.

GOLD PRICES SINCE GEORGE BUSH BLEW OUT THE DEFICIT

Ron Paul tells this great anecdote about why the country should stick to Constitutional money (backed by gold & silver) instead of paper dollars printed by an un-Constitutional "Federal Reserve" (btw, it is not "Federal" and there is no "Reserve"!!). Here's the story: back in the early 1900's when the U.S. was on the gold standard, a 1 oz $20 gold piece could buy you a suit, tie, belt, and shoes. Today, what would $20 get you? Maybe the tie. Yet, a 1 oz gold piece (valued today at $1365) will still buy you a nice suit, tie, belt and shoes! The point is, you currency has been devalued by over 90% since the Federal Reserve was created. This was the framers of the Constitutions worst fear - having the money supply controlled by a small group of people who are allowed to print dollars out of thin air and distribute it to its friends.

YOUR U.S. DOLLAR BEING DE-VALUED BY YOUR FEDERAL RESERVE
When will this country learn that you cannot pave your way to success by printing paper dollars? I mean, if that was all it took, Zimbabwe and the Wiemar Republic would be running the world! Clearly, they are not.

The inconvenient truth the U.S. faces is this: the serious economic, environmental, and national security issues facing the country today are a direct result of our addiction to foreign oil. The U.S. imports ~12,000,000 barrels of oil a day. At today's price of $85/barrel, this is $1,020,000,000 a DAY. That is, over $1 billion dollars per day!!

Additionally, one must add the cost of the U.S. military exploits in the Middle East to this number, for no one should be deceived into thinking those maneuvers have anything to do with WMD's, "freedom", terrorism, or anything else but OIL.

Meantime, the U.S., in Picken's words, is proving itself to be the dumbest country in history by not adopting natural gas transportation and replacing foreign oil imports with cheaper, cleaner, and abundant *domestic* supplies of natural gas. We could all be refueling our NGVs in the garage over night while we sleep if the U.S. government would simply adopt, embrace, and encourage natural gas transportation initiatives.

So, here we go again. Oil prices will take off as the economies around the world begin to reflate. The U.S. economy and its citizens will be fooled into thinking this is progress. However, unlike last time oil went to $150/barrel, who can doubt that the U.S. is already bankrupt and will be completely at the mercy of the Chinese to "fund" our progress.

Here are the policies the U.S. should be adopting:

1) A Strategic Long-term Comprehensive Energy Policy:

http://thefitzman.blogspot.com/2008/08/strategic-long-term-comprehensive-us.html

2) Adopt natural gas transportation!

3) Audit the Federal Reserve

4) Transition the country back to Constitutional money (backed by gold & silver)

5) Shut down the Federal Reserve!!

TOP 10 FLIES

2010-10-25T07:24:00.001-07:00

This list should really be broken down into categories like dry-fly, nymphs, trout versus bass, etc. etc. But I am lazy tonite and will just throw this list out there to see what, if any, comments I will receive. Perhaps I can be persuaded to adjust the list as it was only a one Guinness project. Also, please note I am a self-admitted dry fly bigot. As such, nymphers will no doubt be shocked by this list!

#1 Adams Wulff

This dry-fly imitates so many different hatches it is simply an awesome summertime fly. I have probably hooked more trout on this fly than any other because I love to fish it and it works well in so many different conditions. Tied to a well designed leader and cast by a good fly rod, this fly can be landed as delicate as a feather. The white wings are much easier to see than the plain Adams and it appears to work just as well if not better. Put me on a river in Colorado with this fly tied onto my Beasley 4 wt bamboo rod, and it's heaven on Earth. I caught my only grand slam (a brown, rainbow, cutthroat, and brookie) all in one day and all on this fly.

#2 Wooly Bugger

I have caught some of my biggest trout on wooly buggers. For trout, black and olive/black seems to work best. For the white bass run of the Texas Hill country, white with a couple strands of silver/grey flash. A great all-around fly for lakes or rivers. Best worked with short quick strips. Caught a nice Trappers Lake native cutthroat this year on a black & olive wooly bugger.

#3 Orange Stimulator / Hopper

Another great dry-fly which imitates many bugs and terrestials. I lumped it in with the generic "hopper" because the two flies fish the same and are in effect interchangeable (in my experience). Like choice #1, this is a great summertime fly which can produce lightnin' violent strikes. Brown trout especially seem to hit this fly with pure abandon. I highly recommend this fly on the Arkansas River in the Salida area - the hotter the weather the better. Fluff up the wings as wide and big as possible and keep the body from getting waterlogged with some schtank. Don' be shy to try an occaisional "splat" cast as sometimes this will provoke the larger browns.

#4 Zebra Midge

The zebra midge can work magic under the right conditions. It's fairly easy to tie and is a must-have in every fly-box. I've caught fish on southern U.S. tailwater rivers (Caney Fork, Clinch), Colorado lakes (Trappers, Meadow) and on famous trout streams (Fryingpan). A #20 dropped off your favorite dry-fly is a great combination for early morning fishing before warmer temperatures really turn on the dry fly action.

#5 Yellow Humpy

A great fly for summertime Colorado trout as well as pan-fish down south. Imitates many hatches and I believe the yellow triggers strike response.

#6 Copper John

I am a self-admitted dry-fly bigot, but when forced to nymph the copper john can produce results. If I can catch a fish on this nymph, anyone can as I am not the best high-sticker by any means.

.

#7 Green Drake

I don't use this fly much, but I have had a few fantastic and very memorable experiences. The first was on the lower Fryingpan River when I hit the drake hatch in full glory. I fished for 3 hours in the evening and lasted 30 minutes past sunset. I would cast the fly out and just listen for the toilet plunger sound of the trout gorging it then bam! Hookset. Great fun! Also, I hit a rare green drake hatch on the Conejos river were I worked 20 yards of river upstream and caught a trout about every 3 feet. The picture shown is an extended body drake - not necessary and not preferred (bigger to cast, makes a bigger splash, and gets torn-up anyhow after several fish). Stick with the regular body green drake, but always have one on you in case you are lucky enough to come upon this hatch. You may find the trout will not take anything else. They must be very tasty!

#8 Royal Wulff

This fly is similar to the Adams Wulff but has a red stripe and is somewhat heavier. It therefore lands a bit splashier. Hoewver, for high mountain hungry brookies, this fly can be a real winner

#9 StoneFly Nymph

This fly is a must if fishing the Conejos river. The trout there can be very finicky. One day you can tear the fish up on dries, the next - nothing! During such times if you see any signs of fresh stoneflies on the rocks, just tie on this nymph and hold on! The bigger fish will head straight for the swift water, and you'll lose your share - so, bring at least a half-dozen. Brown seems to work as well as black for me.

#10 Clauser Minnow

The Clauser Minnow is a great fly and easily tied. It would be higher on my list were it not for the weight, which makes it not too fun to fish. That said, it's a great fly for white bass when they are holding down. However, try the white wooly every so often cause it is much easier to fish and when tied with flash, is very similar to a Clauser without the weighted eyes.

Comments? Feedback? I have probably left a few of my favorite flies off this list - but just try slimming your list of flies down to just 10!

Tight lines buddy-boy!

Johnny-Man Catches Caney Fork Rainbows

2010-08-04T08:40:00.001-07:00

John Shows His Technique

Center Hill's generators ran from 9-11am yesterday and the flow made the upstream run in Jim's boat interesting. When we to a run where Jim and I slayed them earlier this summer but alas, the fishing was slow. I got several strikes by some good sized bows on my zebra nymph but failed to hook them as they were not slamming it by any means. John wasn't doing as well on his attractor/nymph rig so we switched him over to a soft-hackle emerger. He pretty quickly hooked a nice size bow that got off (an "LDR"), but subsequently hooked-up and landed two rainbows. For a first time fly-fisherman, he handed the rod like a veteran! The lack of caught fish wasn't his fault but his guide's (i.e., ME). I only landed 4 myself. Surprisingly, 3 of the 4 were brookies. No boat today, so we'll be fishing up by the dam when they stop generating, and down to happy hollow later in the afternoon.

Fly-FIshing on No Name2

2010-07-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

Blown Out!

After fishing the "No Name2" river for somewhere close to 15 years now, I flatter myself by thinking I know the river. When the flow on the Arkansas River dropped dramatically, it was a signal for me to head over to "No Name2" which should have been just about right. The water level on the lower stretches of the river appeared to be middle of the range or slightly lower than normal. I figured the upper reaches of the river would be perfect. I drove the long dirt road, got the Teardrop all set up at the campground, and hurridly and excitedly set out to fish one of my favorite stretches of water before the afternoon storm came. When I hiked down to the river, I was shocked and puzzled to find high flows and white water! Unwadable. I found one little stretch of calm water (in the picture) and my fly was quickly engulfed by a large brown trout which immediately headed for the fast current and it was an "LDR". I overheard this term "LDR" being used by a guy on the Fryingpan River. It's short for "long distance release" and sound much better than "he got off". In my case, it was an "LDRLF" - long distance release/lost fly. That is, the fish popped off my tippet and stole my fly. I had no chance. Crap. I hiked back to the truck with a melancholy feeling that I would not experience the magic of the green drake hatch I was lucky enough to catch the year before on this stretch of river. Also, the Pinnacles was definitely out of the question.

One of my favorite runs whited out!

Why was so much water being released from the reservoir and why, if flow were this high on the upper stretches of the river, was the lower river average or even a bit lower than average? Where was the water going? I am still perplexed about this. One thing is for sure - I surely don't know this river as well as I thought. Nothing felt "right" for me this year on NoName2.

Oh well, my favorite spots on NoName2 were all unfishable so I was forced upstream to fish in the meadows. Never liked the meadows before because the fish were so spooky, you needed perfect casts with long leaders and small tippets, and once spooked, you had to travel a bit before another attempt. But this year the water was higher and faster and I thought I'd be able to catch one or two - but it was a challenge. Normally quite placid and shallow, the water was high and fast and I, being a right handed caster, needed to cross the river for an enjoyable day of dry flying. So cross I did - the sight of fish rising near the opposite bank was all the motivation I needed. I crossed right about the middle of the river in picture below.

The crossing wasn't too bad despite the lack of trees in the meadow (i.e. I had no wading staff for support). I began fishing with a dry/dropper combo and, as usual, even though there was absolutely nothing rising remotely resembling an adams wulff on the surface of the water, I began catching a trout or two on a #14 and took off the dropper. Here are some of those trout.

A Brown Trout from the Meadows of NoName2

Decent.

One that got away.

I came to one nice bend in the river that held some trout in a deep pool. They were rising steadily to a fly I could not identify (nor match) and I quickly put them all down with my first cast with the adams wulff. What a screw up. So, I sat on the bank, ate a power bar, relaxed, viewed the elk feeding up by the tree line, and tied a few more inches of flurocarbon tippet and a #20 BWO. Once the trout started rising again, I laid it out there and snagged a couple nice ones. It was waaaay cool to watch these guys rise out of that pool and slurp my fly. Soon they were down again, so I took some time to tie on a small yellow humpy. I didn't stand up but just flicked it out there thinking my chances were slim. Low and behold a big bow rose up and engulfed it not 5 feet from me. I got a decent hook set but was slow to climb the bank and run downsteam with him. Soon my line was horizontal to the river, he made one nice leap about 30 yards downstream and the was the last this fisherman ever saw of that fish.

NoName2 trout were camera shy this year!

Soon I was suffering from river anxiety. This happens sometimes when I have crossed a river (that maybe I shouldn't have crossed in the first place), have finished my fishing, and need to re-cross to get back home (the truck). What made it worse this time was the glare on the water - I couldn't see the rocks I was walking over. Plus, I had no wading staff and sure didn't want to hike all the way up to the tree line to find one. So, I zipped-up and heading out with confidence (you've done it a million times laddy!) but also a bit of trepidation. Things were going pretty good til I got about midway across and the water was up to mid-thigh and moving pretty rapidly. Whooops, one bad step and church was out. Down I went and the only thing out of the water was my fly-rod and my right hand. The water wasn't that deep, so there was no danger of drowning or anything (less my head strike a boulder or something), but I tell ya...it's hard to stand back up when you are moving along with the current and all the rocks you are trying to stand up on are meadow rocks with alot of green algae over the top of them. Let's just say any observer would not have witnessed a very graceful recovery....but gawd knows I did not want to head down into that canyon. I crawled up onto the bank like a wharf rat. However, I must admit it was a very refreshing dip. However, one thing is for sure: it is bad for a dry-fly fisherman to get all his shit WET. The only thing dry was my left sock. So, I went back to the truck and stripped down...much to the delight of passing fisherman who had, I am sure, been there and done that. Luckily the sun was out and all my flies that did get wet were soon acceptably dry once again.

Everything got soaked but my left sock.

It was then back to the camp to consult the doctor: Doctor Al K. Hall.

Jamie's Triple Distilled
Next to Guinness and her people, Ireland's best Export

Ahhh...nothing like a lil nip of Jamie's to warm a person from the inside out.

A wise old man in one of the black-n-white Gunsmoke episodes (which I am becoming very fond of...anyone see the episode where Chester wins a level in a poker game?) was sitting around a campfire and after listening to all the young whipper-snappers said "Boys, I'll tell ya - a man finds one of three things in his life: love, money, or a bottle." I heard this saying again up at a Flat Tops campfire. Hell, that was good enough truth for me...certainly better than any "facts" you can get from the bubble headed bleached blondes on the TV "news". This being the case, I went out and bought myself a bottle.

NoName2 Transitions from Meadows to Canyon Runs.

A Fish Story

2010-07-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

A couple named John and Sandy from Texas were camping next to me at Sugarbush. I was waxing on about my broken hook story and Sandy says, well, I have a fish story for you. She was fishing some river in Colorado and caught a nice rainbow. In her excitement I guess she cranked it out of the water pretty good and the fish ended up falling into a big pile of large rocks some feet from the river and it had gotten off her hook. Sandy couldn't move the rocks but she could see the fish flopping around down there and felt badly about it. She thought, well, I'll put a salmon egg on the hook and drop it down there. She did, and the fish bit it and got hooked! So, she just lifted the fish out of the pile of rocks, washed it off in the river, and headed for home with dinner. Next thing she knows some guy is scrambling down the cliff, walks right over to the pile of rocks and just stares. Apparently he had not seen the first catching of the fish and only witnessed Sandy pulling the fish out of the rocks. When they left, she looked in the rear view mirror and the man was still standing there with his hands on his hips and just staring at the pile of rocks.

Fly-fishing the Arkansas River

2010-07-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Arkansas River Rainbows - Making a Strong Comeback!
(Click on Pictures to Enlarge)

There is nothing like a trip to the Arkansas River in mid-July to renew a fly fisherman's faith in his or her ability to catch trout on a dry fly. This year the river dropped about 2 feet over-night on July 6 (July 4th and FibArk being over) and as usual this freaked the fish out bigtime. For one day. The bigger fish hunkered down in their deep holes worrying about just how low the water would drop and the wee fish were having fun investigating the recently new shallows. I told the lads just wait, tomorrow or the next day this river will be absolutely perfect. Was it ever! The fish were very hungry after fighting the snow melt's high water and this coincided with a proliferation of the bug population with warmer weather. Under these conditions it's not uncommon for a moderately skilled fly-fisherman to catch 15-20 trout in a couple 2 or 3 hours by wading the shoreline, tying on a #14 or #16 adams wulff or yellow humpy and drifting it naturally through any fishy looking run. On the Ark, there will almost always be trout where you think there will be (assuming moderate skill at reading water...) and you'll get a few attempts to catch em before spook-off. If after 3 or 4 casts there is no take, move upstream 5 yards and repeat the process. Your arms will soon be tired of hauling in very frisky trout.

The fish count on the Arkansas between Howard and Salida must be phenomenally high. As usual, nothing real big (16" is kinda "big" on the Ark), but who can complain with dry-fly action of 12-16" trout all day long? These boys are fighters too - very healthy and strong fish.

Since the onslaught of whirling disease decimated the rainbow trout population the Arkansas River has been (and very much still is in my opinion) predominately brown trout water. Brown trout naturally reproduce and sustain themselves in the Ark with no stocking required. But the rainbows are a different story. I think they have a harder time with the warm water season on the Ark and I already mentioned the whirling disease problem that started in 1987. I've had summers where I fished the Ark for a week or two and caught no rainbows at all or maybe just one or two. But the rainbows are making a nice comeback thanks to the introduction of crossbreed between the German Hofer and the Colorado River rainbow. The German Hofer is very resistant to whirling disease and breeding it with the Colorado River rainbow gives it the smarts to adapt to living wild in the Ark. If you ask me the plan is working. I caught 7 rainbows one morning and they were all aggressive strikers and real fighters. A couple went 14-15 inches. What an unsuspected treat that was! THe Hofer crossbred rainbows are more silvery than deep green and red. Most of the rainbows I landed appeared to be Hofers.

A Hofer Crosbred Rainbow from the Arkansas River

Colorado River Rainbow from the Ark

Another Hofer

Besides being easy to wade (in lower water season) I also like the Ark because like the Fryingpan river road, U.S. Hwy 50 between Howard, CO and Salida, CO runs on the "right" side of the river. That is, for a right handed (casting) fly-fisherman you simply step out of your truck and you are on the "right" side of the river. You casting over the river without worrying about getting hung in trees and willows. This is unlike the Conejos river in which both CO Hwy 17 and Platoro road are on the "wrong" side of the river for its entire length. This is no problem during low water or where there is access...but as you'll see later...it can have its consequences during high water flows.

All this said, the main fly-fishing action on the Arkansas River continues to come from the brown trout. Here's a few pictures of the typical Ark brownies. Man, what fighters and what quantity!

I was very much looking forward to fishing the run below Swissvale one morning...and got there early to claim my spot. I was fishing downstream of the main run...waiting til 9am or so when the sun would hit the rocks and really get the bugs on the move before fishing my favorite stretch. I looked up on the cliff and some guy waves to me. I wave back to let him know I am "there" and sat down on a rock to change flies. I could not believe it when seconds later I saw him and his wife come scrambling down the cliff and jump in right in front of me! Spin fisherman. Grrrrr. Worse yet, the guy inserts his wife between he and I so if I objected (as he knew I would...), I'd have to argue with a woman. Plus, I could tell by the look on her face she knew they were in the wrong and she was quite embarrassed. Obviously their move was not her idea. I just left...but I was steamed. I didn't argue, but I did slam my tailgate a couple times extra hard and spun out when I left. Talk about ruining an excellent morning! So, bunghole, if you're out there and reading this - mind your manners will ya! You should never jump in directly in front of a fisherman...especially a fly-fisherman working his way upstream and especially on a river that has miles and miles of nice wadable water full of fish! Anyhow, I drove into Salida and treated myself to a nice breakfast at Pancake Patio.

It was hot this year and fishing for 4 or 5 hours in the sun was wearing me out. Luckily, downtown Salida has real nice piece of water for swimming and man will it cool you off! One trip across the river and back will give you some inkling of what the life of a trout must be constantly dealing with swift currents.

Here are some various pictures of the Arkansas River near downtown Salida at the water park. What a great place to spend some time and take a cool dip in the river! One swim across the river and back will give you some idea of a trout's life constantly battling the current.

Oooo-la-la

Back at the ole Sugarbush campground, I was making coffee one morning and had s sneaking suspicion someone or something was watching me. These velvet bucks let me get close enough to snap off a photo. Nice as they are, they are nothing like the monster buck that came bounding through the campground a couple years back. That sucker had 2' high christmas trees on each side of his head!

Velvet bucks (Click on Picture to Enlarge)

This year I began dropping a small nymph (#16 prince or stonefly) about 16" off my dry fly. I was definitely catching more fish than years past, and hooking some bigger fish. In the picture below the river is coming around a bend from the right and pushing alot of food over to the left bank.

Looking upstream, you can see an island just taking in the morning sun and a bolder to the left of it with a nice run of water between. I had hooked a big guy there a couple days before and came back to see if I could fool him again as I never got a good hook set on him. I tried first with an orange stimulator and he rose but didn't take (sheee-it!). I threw it a few more times so that he would think that's all the action I had. Then, I sat on the back and tied on a nymph dropper. First cast, he swirled and hit the nymph and I got a good hook set. Oh he was pissed and headed to the current in the middle of the river and downstream in a hurry. I was ready for this and was bolder hopping to keep up. I was like OK big boy, now it's time for you to jump and just as I thought this he did - about 2 foot high! I kept my line tight and thought I did everything right when my line suddenly went slack. FUCK. I just continued fishing and tried not to dwell on the monster just lost. After 4 or 5 cast with hits and no hook-up, I inspected the nymph and was just flabergasted to find a broken hook!! It wasn't surprising to me that such a large fish was capable of breaking a hook. What is surprising, though, is that the weakest link in my setup was the hook and not the 3lb 5x Maxim fluorcarbon tippet which I used to drop the nymph off my dry fly. I suppose that is a ringing endorsement for Maxim's 5x tippet material!

I continue to find new and inventive ways to hook, and lose, really big trout. Nobody is better at it than yours truly.

Trappers Lake

2010-07-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

The "Chinese Wall" overlooking Trappers Lake
(Click on Pictures to Enlarge)

Trappers Lake is in the Flat Tops Wilderness of Colorado and is about 9,500 ft. It was the birthplace of the U.S. Wilderness Area system after Arthur Carhart, a surveyor for the U.S. Forest service, proclaimed the area simply too beautiful for private ownership and that all peoples of the world should be able to experience the place. It is also known for its native Colorado cut-throat trout. Trappers used to be the only source of native Colorado cutthroat brood stock, but I hear this has changed and now some Colorado hatcheries are being used. Only artificial flies and lures are allowed on Trappers but motorized boats are not.

The area had two big fires in 2002 and is slowly recovering. I can just now being to see seedlings taking root. It will take many years to get back to its previous splendor. Meantime, one has to be *very* careful of falling trees especially when the wind is blowing hard.

I usually fish the Scott's Bay section of Trappers. I intended to hike up to Little Trappers Lake but got too caught up in trying to fool the trout in Scott's Bay. For 3 days!

Part of Scott's Bay
I Literally spent Hours by that log....

The weather at Trappers this year was very windy and stormy. Usually the lake is quite calm and glassy. Not this year. The wind blew and blew and white caps on the main lake were the norm not an exception. The waves were blowing toward Scott's Bay, and causing a swell by that log. In that swell were many cutthroat trout..most between 14 and 20 inchers with an occasional cruiser even larger. These fish were rising to something so small, it was practically invisible. I mean I was standing right there, withing 3 ft, watching them rise and I could not for the life of me see what the hell they were eating. Thus, the challenge. Thus the madness of not being able to catch them! In 3 days of fishing I bet I only caught 12-14 fish. That said, I think they are very pretty fish. I hooked one whose entire underbelly was a bright reddish orange. Unfortunately he wiggled out of the net and I got no pic. But I did get some pics, and here they are.

There's "the log" ... spent many minutes sitting on that log tying tippets and flies...and precious few minutes photographing cutthroat trout!

This last fish I remember well. He was particularly brazen and beneath the water looked very dark compared to the other fish. I had seen he for a couple days. On July 4th he lost his independence to me, at least for awhile until I released him back. I could not catch him on a dry fly, and just as I was about to give up I tied on a olive and black woolly bugger, threw it behind him and stripped it as fast as I could. He struck instinctively. He also instinctively knew he made a mistake and I could tell by the way he was looking at me in the net that he could not believe he let me catch him.

Most of the other fish were taken on flies I tie: my red/orange attractor nymph followed by a #20 zebra midge dropper. I don't use a strike indicator, I cast, let them sink (count to 6) and slowly strip them in. Last year the midge caught the majority of the fish. This year it was about half-and-half.

I thought I had figured everything out when I caught a cutthroat on a #22 BWO (blue winged olive) which I had bought for the Pan hatch. I was surprised to see the fish had another BWO in his mouth that had been snapped off by a previous fisherman. It looked exactly like the one on the other side of his jaw from my line. But he was an anomaly and I just could not catch these fish on dries. It would help if I could see what the hell it is they were slurping!

The night of July 4th it rained like hell and a strong wind came out of the north. Next morning I arose to find my coffee pot (well, the pot I boil water in) frozen to the top of my Coleman stove.

I thought well, I'll get some well water and pour it over the pot to thaw it out. I went to open the door of my Toyota and all the doors were frozen shut. I guess I could have forced them open, but I was worried about the rubber seals inside the door or breaking a handle. So, I spent a half an hour pouring well water on the doors, windshield, and pot and stove just so I could get coffee made and hit the road. Coffee never tasted so good. It was probably mid 20's with a north breeze. 3 hours laster I was in New Castle and it was 80.

Last Day into No Name

2010-07-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to hike into No Name for a third and final time in 2010. The weather was once again perfect and the river was starting to drop a bit regardless of the previous days' rain upstream. Conditions were perfect. I caught a few nice fish but it was clear they remembered me (and my flies) from a couple days prior. I missed another huge cutthroat down in the "canyon" as I call it. It is just impossible to land 20-25" cutties that weigh anywhere from 4-6 lbs in current that fast with a 3lb tippet. That said, I keep trying year after year and who knows, one of these days perahps luck will shine on me.

I caught only one non-rainbow or cut-bow: this frisky little No Name brook trout.

No Name Brook Trout
Click to Enlarge Pictures

I had to work a bit harder today to fool the fish and did not catch as many as my first couple times in. They were looking over their shoulder a bit more on rises. One fish in particular fought like hell and I believe it was a rainbow rather than a cut-bow.

No Name Rainbow

Caught a nice cut-bow that was just too fat to hold in my hand. Thought I got a nice picture of him in the water, but it didn't turn out too good - but here he is anyway.

Fat-boy Cutbow

It was a great year on the No Name. I must admit feeling very melancholy as I made the hike back to the campground knowint it would be at least another year before I was to visit this dirt and this water again.

The Fitzman and a Trout

Flat Tops' Trout

2010-07-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

Fishing the "No Name" river in the Flat Tops Wilderness is always a special treat. This year river and weather conditions were absolutely perfect. I was eager to strap on my hiking boots and mount my backpack for a trip into some of the best dry-fly fishing anywhere. So it began as it always does with the hike. Hiking is part and parcel of fly-fishing. A fly-fisherman spends alot of time on his feet in order to gain access to nature's bounty of trout. I used to get anxious and try to rush a 3 or 6 mile hike. You can try in your mind to rush a hike, but the truth is a long hike simply cannot be rushed. It should be embraced and enjoyed. I have learned patience and also recently discovered the benefits of a bandana. Not sure what took me so long, but nothing can cool you off on a long hike like a bandana soaked in a cool river and wrapped around your neck. On the start of the hike the bandana was around my neck but still dry as the morning was quite cool. Leaving the campground, I made good time through the flat water area, through the aspen meadow, and up to the boulders where I jumped a big velvet buck. He was lapping up water pooled in natural bowl in the boulders after the previous days rain. I guess it was easier than going all the way down to the river or to the nearest creek. Anyhow, I scared hell outta the elk, and his eyes got even bigger as he tried to take off quickly and spun out on the smooth and slippery rock. Once off the boulders he bounded high and fast away from me. Before jumping the elk, I had to wait patiently on the trail for a Ptarmigan mother and her chicks to cross. She was all puffed out as I approached but relaxed somewhat after I spotted the chicks and realized she was making a trail crossing with her pride and joy. I saw two or three chicks cross and then was like, ok mom, I need to get going here...move on. She was obviously agitated and looked about nervously while keeping one eye on me. Finally she and I both spotted the struggling laggard chick which was fumbling helplessly through some think brush. The mother lost her temper and went over and gave the chick some much needed help while at the same time dressing down her slo-mo. I enjoyed the entire show but was glad to stride onward.

Ptarmigan
Click to Enlarge Pictures

I did not take this picture but downloaded it from the web. These are summer colors as I saw the bird. Ptarmigans turn mostly white in the winter.

Once I climbed up and past the shoots I was in prime dry-fly territory. So I unloaded all my fishing gear from the backpack, changed from my hiking outfit into my fly-fishing garb, and stashed my un-needed gear in a safe spot. Wading into the No Name river with fly-rod in hand is a *great* feeling. It's very peacefull and relaxing yet at the same time can be a vigorous workout holding expectations for plenty of action. It didn't take long. A well presented dry fly floating naturally on top of the water soon produced dramatic takes by cut-bows averaging 14-18". Wham - let the air show begin! Ah, it's great to be alive.

A Typical No Name Cut-bow Caught in Awesome Water

Not sure why, or what it says about the health of a river, but this year I caught no smallish fish. Usually, I catch many 8-12" trout. This year, out of say 50 odd fish caught over 3 days, I caught only one fish under 10". I am not complaining of course, just curious is all.

Every year the river is very different yet every year it's the same. Fish are always found in the same places yet those places have new wrinkles. On No Name, there is a run where the river is very dull...flat and shallow with no outstanding features. However, on the opposite bank of the river near the start of this dull water, under a low hanging tree, there is always a pool about 2 feet deep downstream of a nice piece of rippling water which must churn out the nymphs from the rocks. There, in that hole, you will always find a nice fat fish. Every year. Without fail. The trick is to catch the biggest fish first before catching a smaller one that spooks him. On day one, I caught the smallest fish first - as I have done in years past. When this happens all you see is a big silver and red streak as the large fish swims for safer pastures. On day three, I went back, determined to put the fly such that the big fish would get the first shot at it. I succeeded and landed the bad-boy. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do justice to either the fish or my 4 wt bamboo rod which made the cast. But here it is anyway.

Same hole, new resident

Beautiful day and perfect water.

Time to get out of the river and hike back to my backpack for lunch. I learned years ago not to bring my lunch, it being the reward and incentive to hike back (and find!) the hidden pack. Not to mention I have fallen in before and soaked my lunch. So I left the river for the trail and on the way back found a hunter's camp complete with mattress still laying under the lean-to. I pocketed a rather nice switchblade found stuck one of the trees the lean-to was built on. Anyone who can identify this knife will get it back, but you have to pay the postage. Otherwise, it will join the treasure trove of findings I have made over the years while hiking.

Hunter's Refuge

My refuge is a bit classier, but not much bigger. It was good to be "home" after a perfect day on a perfect river. Heaven on Earth it is for me. It's my church. It's my revival. To quote A River Runs Through It, "I am haunted by waters". And I am grateful for every day of my life I get to spend on them.

My Home for 4 days on No Name

Meadow Creek Lake

2010-07-07T14:45:00.001-07:00

Evening on Meadow Creek Lake

Well I am back in civilization after 2 weeks in the schtank. Hot showers and wi-fi should never be taken for granted!

The trip this year started off at the Fryingpan River. Little Maud campground was closed with more water problems. Funny, ever since the Forest Service put the water system in (under lock and key I might add....grrrr....) we've had water problems there. I never had a problem with the old well water which was always fine to me and everyone else. No matter, I now get my water down below at mi 11 or so where the best spring water in the world is just off the River Road. Anyhow, I stayed at Little Mattie campground for the first time which has no water at all but was "only" $16/night which is great for me. There I met Carol and her great-grand daughter Nyah. By the way, I am told Little Maud will be opening again this week.

Carol and Great-Grand Daughter Nyah

Not sure how we got on the subject, but as Carol was telling me her life story (and how she lived out of the camper on her Dodge for 25 years), she mentioned she had been celibate for 15 years. I told her I had been celibate (not by choice, but simply lack of access) for nearly 2 years. And she said, oh, nice looking young man like you? I said, well, it's not so bad, but I just don't sleep as well. She said you don't? I said, nope, it's not natural for a healthy man to be single. Anyhow, later that night she came by with some cookies to "help you sleep". I said really, since when do cookies help you sleep? And she winks and says, well, you'll see...I have become very fond of cookies in my older age. (Use your imagination on the ingredients!). What a panic.

Anyhow, I fished the Pan for a couple days. The flow was up, but very fishable. I hit a couple of my favorite spots down below and did ok, but nothing special. Got skunked just below the damn looking for glory and a big whopper. Nothing new there. It's still relatively early and I always do better on the Pan in late July.

From there it was on to Meadow Creek Lake which is around 9,000 ft in elevation. It's a convenient place to stop off the New Castle to Buford shortcut to the Flat Tops Wilderness. Plus, it's a good place for me to further acclimate to the higher elevations before beginning hikes in the FTs. So, I had a relaxin couple days at the lake where I fished and got used to camping again. There was an old man named Blair camping up there. I would guess he was in his late 70's or early 80's. He was happy as hell all alone and listening to the Colorado Rockies baseball games on his transistor radio, splitting wood for his fire, chasing the coons off, and just sitting there enjoying the scenery.

The fishing at Meadow Creek Lake was also a bit slow because the two creeks feeding it had already come way down. Too bad - when the creeks are flowing all one has to do is stand between them with a fly-rod and the fish pretty much jump on your hook. So, I had to work a lil harder but soon caught my share of rainbows who were all too happy to go airborne and sometimes put on quite spectacular shows of jumping ability.

A Meadow Creek Lake Brook Trout

The only notable fish was a quite handsome brook trout I caught which was, despite its smallish size, one of the bigger brook trout I have caught. Then it was off to the Flat Tops Wilderness!

The Saga of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (Better known as BP)

2010-06-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

BP - Big Problem

That’s right – BP was originally called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It adopted the name British Petroleum in 1954. The story of BP is really the story of British aggression and imperialism. As in India, Hong Kong, Ireland, Singapore, and America the British had their imperialistic eyes on the Middle East. In fact, it was a British civil servant that drew the borders of Iraq and Kuwait and other countries in the region with no regard to tribal history but with all regards to exploiting oil. As in India, Ireland, and elsewhere the rule was always “divide and conquer”. Religion was a very useful tool for the British. More often than not the peoples of whatever country being economically devoured would fall prey to this tactic.
But religion never mattered to the British. All they were after was the loot. And this is exactly why BP is responsible for the largest ecological disaster in U.S. history. But before I explain how and why, let us take a brief look at some oil history.

My grandfather was a New York state oil producer in the early 1900’s. My Grandpa was able to remain a proud and independent oil producer despite Rockefeller buying up the railroads and cornering the means of getting the oil to the refineries in Erie and Cleveland. My grandfather pumped oil wells in 10 degree below zero weather while suffering from the flu. He had at least one man working for him during the great depression who was paid with a bag of groceries every week. As a result of this hard work, my Grandpa invested in two great American energy companies – Amoco and Atlantic Richfield (ARCO).

Fast forward to 1998 and we see that President Clinton and the U.S. government allowed BP to purchase Amoco. That worked so well, BP was then allowed to swallow up Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) in 2000. At the time I was amazed the U.S. government would allow a foreign company (especially the British) to takeover two strategic domestic energy companies. BP quickly became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the United States.

The “special relationship” was certainly alive and well. I guess Clinton must have been well-schooled during his time at Oxford University in England. I’ve always wondered why Americans consider the relationship with England “special” in a good way. As an Irish American, perhaps I am more in tune with Britain’s history of rape, pillage, and plunder. I would encourage anyone wishing to learn more (i.e. a non-western account) of England’s imperialism to read Nehru’s Glimpses of World History. This book is a collection of letters Nehru wrote his daughter from jail – imprisoned by the British for having the unmitigated audacity to fight against British oppression for his country’s freedom. Only by knowing the history of British corporations can one fully understand the Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams would have a much different view of America’s “special relationship” with the British.
After BP’s purchases of ARCO and Amoco my family’s stock in American energy companies became BP stock. As an Irish-American, this greatly concerned me. However, the dividends came, and the stock went up, and all was seemingly right with the world. But I was always nervous about BP. As the years went by I became complacent. I even bought BP for the dividend. I bought into the lie myself. With that as background, now let’s look at Horizon.

A friend of mine works for a major oil services company in Houston. I called and asked him what the skinny was on Horizon. He told me it was a disaster waiting to happen and everyone in the business knew it. The oil well was hitting pockets of natural gas and kicking hard almost from day one. Apparently BP employees, especially the British ones, have a well established reputation in the Gulf region of unearned arrogance. In fact, I was told that Schlumberger (SLB) workers advised BP to kill Horizon because it was too dangerous. BP responded by saying they were not going to kill the well and that they should get back to work. The SLB guys said we’re getting off the rig. BP responded by saying, no you’re not, there’s not another chopper scheduled to come to this rig for 5 days. The SLB guys phoned headquarters in Houston and told their management to chopper them out immediately because the rig was dangerous. They wanted off. The next day the chopper arrived and the 5 SLB employees got off the rig. The next day, Horizon exploded and sunk.

What struck me was my friend’s obvious disregard for BP. All this talk about BP’s technology is incorrect, he said. BP hires technology. From drilling, to submersibles, to energy services – everything is contracted out. All BP has is the money and since they are the largest oil lease holder in the Gulf of Mexico, no American company speaks their mind publicly about BP’s lack of management skill or their focus on profits at all costs. It is common knowledge heir regard for human life and the environment is certainly below profits. Several recent incidences before Horizon proved this to be true.

Tony Hayward is right when he says the Horizon disaster never should have happened. I doubt it would have happened if any American company had been drilling that well. Here are some questions for Tony:

1) Why was only a single pipe used? Standard operating procedure for these deepwater wells in the Gulf is to use two pipes. BP cut corners by sinking a telescopic pipe near the ocean floor which then tapered down to a final single pipe which went all the way to the reservoir. Why? Cheaper.

2) Why BP more responsive to the obvious warning signals wasn’t this well was sending? Kicks, loss of control, problems all around from day one. The workers on the rig certainly knew it. There was an ominous feeling on that rig. BP obviously was aware of this. Why didn’t they take steps to beef up safety procedures? Why? Money.

3) Considering the single pipe decision and the warning signals the well displayed, why didn’t BP pay more attention than usual to the operation of the blowout preventer and perhaps even a redundant safety system? Why not? Money.

4) Why did BP not follow the advice one of the most respected energy services companies (SLB) and take appropriate actions? Why? Again, money.

5) Once the disaster happened, why did BP lie about the leak rate? Money.

6) Once the disaster happened, why did BP not deploy serious oil spill technology to mitigate the damage? There are supertankers with powerful suction pumps that have been used by Royal Dutch Shell to surround oil spills and suck up the oil as soon as it hit the surface. Why not? Money.

7) Why is BP not “making right” the claims of those Gulf Americans who have been put out of work or suffered financial hardships as a result of BP’s negligence?

Following the history of British imperialism, BP’s management of the Horizon well was all about the money. Their concern was not, and is not now, for the American people or for the environment. The almighty pound rules the roost.
America is not without fault. Despite thinking President Obama is somehow different than Bush, those of us who know energy policy know there is absolutely no difference whatsoever – the same people are still turning the power knobs in Washington: oil, coal, the military, and the AIPAC. Bush lowered the royalty rates on deep water drilling – pushing operators into deep water because the profit margins would be higher. This royalty give away specifically benefited BP since the company is the biggest lease holder in the Gulf. Not surprising since Bush is a direct descendent of King Henry “Longshanks” of the movie Braveheart fame. Making matters worse, the Obama administration appointed a former BP exec in charge at MMS. So, BP was given a free hand to drill in deeper water for higher profits and without adequate environmental safety oversight. The government allowed BP to exploit our country’s oil wealth for maximum profit. After all, the British are “special”.

So here we sit with my former home state’s coastline destroyed, its seafood industry in tatters; workers and businesses in distress and very little relief coming from BP. Congress and Obama are once again exposed as being incompetent and impotent. Despite the two biggest environmental disasters in U.S. history during Obama’s reign (the TVA coal fly-ash disaster at Kingston, TN and the Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf), Obama, Energy Secretary Chu, and Congress keep their oil and coal centric energy policy firmly in place. The environmental purists in America assist them by buying into Obama’s oxymoronic “clean-coal”/electric car architecture as though that somehow has a chance in hell of reducing foreign oil imports and toxic coal consumption. Meanwhile, the only domestic energy resource capable of significantly reducing foreign oil imports (natural gas) is completely ignored. Natural gas is abundant, clean, and cheap! I guess it is easier to put natural gas into the “bad fossil fuel” category rather than to actually THINK. Reason? It would reduce profits at companies like BP and reduce the need for the U.S. to put military troops in the Middle East to both acquire oil and presumably to protect Israel. These ridiculous energy and foreign policies are as much to blame for the spill as BP itself. American energy policy actually instigated and enabled this disaster. Perhaps the natural gas eruption on the Horizon well was the fuel’s way of responding at being neglected by American energy policy “experts”. Meanwhile, we witness every day how American foreign policy is failing in the Middle East and how Israel’s security (let alone standing in world opinion) is slipping day-by-day. I am baffled by how driving up oil prices and enriching Israel’s Arab enemies and by weakening their sole protector (the U.S.) by forcing it to print money out of thin air to pay for foreign oil and its imperialistic military policy can possibly be good for the long-term survival of Israel. It certainly is a world of oxymoronic “logic”. WIth this as background, can one doubt that U.S. and British "strategy" will next include an attack on Iran? If so, how ironic that British Petroleum would no doubt be a big winner and go back to its roots by exploiting oil resources in Iran.

But I am straying. Back to BP.

This disaster hurts me in my bones on so many levels. It hurts me to have to deal with owning the stock of a British company responsible for such a mess and that was not originally invested in by my family. It hurts to see my former home state in such turmoil. And it hurts to see my country’s government so totally taken over by industrial power. After all, is this not the definition of fascism? My Grandp and John Adams must be rolling over in their graves. It pains me greatly to see yet another American water resource destroyed as the Tennessee River system was by the TVA's coal fly-ash spill. Both disasters will take at least a generation to recover. Both will never be the same. Both will greatly impact American's health in a negative way.

I really wonder if there is not a serious effort by the U.S. government and its many agencies (primarily the EPA and energy agencies) to completely destroy and pollute every single body of water so that no American family can safely fish, or shrimp, or crab and or any of nature’s bounty without grave risk to their health. It appears to me this must be their ultimate goal – make the American people totally dependent on buying unhealthy food in stores in the pure hope and blind faith that it may be better than the polluted food from our waters. No wonder the U.S. has the highest cancer rates in the world.

There are many conspiracy discussions taking place. Some say the rig’s leak was intentionally allowed in order to push forward the power elite’s new “environmental policy”. As I have already explained, this is not as much about the environment (obviously) as it is about controlling the American people and exploiting profits for the coal and oil industries. Some say BP’s lack of environmental response is a conspiracy to weaken U.S. food supply as we head into an era of competition for food resources and thereby, again, allowing more control over the American people. Some say it was intentionally allowed in order to devastate the strong group of people in Louisiana that own boats, and industry, and technology along the coast. That is, to weaken the power of the people by economic destroying their lively hoods and forcing them to relocate. Again, U.S. policy always seems to be to weaken the middle class of American as opposed to strengthening it. Who knows if there is any truth to these theories? I can say this much – the oil experts in Houston were, and are still, completely baffled by BP’s management of this well - but pre and post spill.
One thing is for sure – Congress must insure that Americans are fully reimbursed for their losses as a result of BP’s negligence. My friend in Houston said if the truth is allowed to come out in a criminal probe, there will be BP employees behind bars. This is fine with me.

The U.S. government’s refusal to adopt a strategic long-term and comprehensive energy policy like this one:

http://thefitzman.blogspot.com/2008/08/strategic-long-term-comprehensive-us.html

can only mean continued reliance on foreign oil, higher oil prices, and much more coal consumption. These are sad but undeniable facts.

A Perfect Day on the Caney Fork

2010-06-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

A Blue Heron Wings over the Caney Fork
Click the pictures to enlarge

Yesterday my buddy Jim and I floated and waded the Caney Fork river in search of trout. It was a very auspicious day - no wind, cloudy, low 80's, and a nice cool breeze coming down the river canyon from the cold water releases from Center Hill dam. The water was low, and there was not another planned release until 3pm. We were in good spirits and happy to be on the water again.

Jim's boat, equipped with a new motor, took us upstream of the Happy Hollow landing. The fishing was slow so we tried a run farther up. Still slow. Jim suggested a spot farther up the river. Once there, we tied up the boat and waded in the river. Jim caught two fish on a #18 soft hackle. I had a few strikes on my zebra midge, but no hook-ups. I waded downstream and soon found a slot in the middle of the river where the rainbows were stacked and hungry. This was around 2:45. I was fishing a #16 BH rainbow prince (as an attractor) with a #20 zebra midge dropped about 14 inches below the attractor. Bam! Bam! I worked the slot downstream for about 50 yards and it was great fun. Jim was back in the boat and floated downstream while riggin up his zebra midge. Downstream from me I saw Jim make several hook-ups and he seemed to be doing equally well if not better. He came back, picked me up, and we floated the run several times, catching a multitude of trout. At the end of the day, we both had caught triple plays (rainbow, brown, and brookie) and I am sure if the river had any cutthroat in it we'd each have hit a home run. The biggest fish I caught was a 15" rainbow. All the fish looked very healthy and fought like hell. I guess after fighting all the heavy releases from the dam, the fish were very athletic. Jim caught one rainbow that twice jumped a foot out of the river.

I was fishing a nice 4-5wt bamboo rod Jim lent me. The rod cast like a 4 wt, but was as stout as a 5wt with a fish on. We both lost many fish. The fish would "sip" the midge and just about every hook-up was in the very front of top teeth ridge. The small hook on the midge combined with it being set in the toughest part of the fishes mouth - well, we just lost alot of fish. But the action was more or less non-stop and alot of fun.

We saw a deer, an otter, blue heron, and something that looked like a mink.

Unfortunately, I took no pictures of fish. We practice catch and release, so there are no stringers. Next time, I'll get some action shots..this time, it was just too much fun to catch fish to consume time with picture taking.

Captain Jim Beasley: Master Bamboo Rod Maker & Fly-fisherman

You can see the #20 zebra midge nymph just to the left of my hand on the rod's fly hook.

The "reflective fish" came back once again (see below). He was only there for one day and gone again....

Spring Fast

2010-05-04T07:11:00.001-07:00

I first began fasting about 15 years ago. In the beginning I was an amateur. Now I do a 3 day fast every Fall and Spring. I just finished my Spring fast. While I am very glad it's over, I'm also very glad I did it. Some will ask, why fast at all?

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (a Fasting advocate)

Many of history's greatest thinkers and philosophers fasted: Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Gandhi to name a few. Just call me "Mahatma Mike". Their reasons for fasting were spiritual, mental, physical and/or even political. Irishman Terence MacSwiney, Mayor of Cork, went on a hunger strike after being imprisoned by the British for having the audacity to press for Ireland's independence. His fast lasted 75 days before the British had to carry his dead body out of the prison. Some say this was an "unsuccessful" fast, but he was one of many men to give up his life for Irish freedom. His name is legendary to this day as he energized the entire country to fight against British tyranny. Gandhi also fasted for political reasons. When Muslim and Hindu factions resorted to violence (once again we find the British strategy to use religion as a means to divide and conquer) Gandhi almost perished because he refused to take food until the violence stopped. It did, and Gandhi lived on.

Mostly, the old sages fasted for spiritual reasons. My motivation is mainly physical. That said, there are certainly mental and spiritual aspects to fasting and that is all icing on the cake for me. Physically, the purpose of fasting is to flush out all the toxins in the body due to exposure to modern life - denatured food, pesticides, air and water pollution, and a more toxic environment in general. In addition to flushing out the toxins, a fast is a great chance to cleanse the colon. During the fast, I take Yerba Prima Psyllium Husks twice daily (with lemon in the water). Psyllium has no nutritional value, but allows the colon to cleanse itself more easily.

Yerba Prima Psyllium Husks
Be sure to buy the "Powder" form.

In fact, you will enjoy an evacuation that can only be described as a coiled up python. It can be an absolute sensational masterpiece. Purging the bowels eliminates the source of poison, thereby permitting blood and energy to regenerate in a natural way. By cleansing the bowels, we repair the body. We enable the colon to be an efficient sewer as opposed to a backed up cesspool. America has one of the highest rates of colon cancer in the entire world - mostly due to poor diet and denatured food. Constipation is a major problem (not for me, but for the country in general).

Fasting is the world's most ancient and natural healing mechanism. All animals (except modern man) know to fast instinctively when sick. Within 24 hours of fasting, enzymes stop entering the stomach and travel instead to the intestines and bloodstream where they gobble up toxic wastes, dead cells, and all kinds of pollutants. All the organs get a much deserved rest during which their tissue is rejuvenated and purified. The body's immune system is put on overdrive and the bloodstream is purified and allowed to cleanse the kidney, liver, and lungs. Fasting turns on a "search and destroy" mission against toxic invaders. Fasting has been used very successfully to cure cancer. In Russia, they employ enemas while fasting and follow the fast with a diet of only dark purple grapes. The grapes attack cancer cells which have been weakened by the fast, and the body's immune system destroys the cancer cells. This treatment has been very successful and certainly one I would consider prior to chemo or surgery.

Those are some of the benefits. The downside? Fasting is *hard*. A 3-day fast is not recommended for the unhealthy or beginner. Instead, it would be wise to work your way up by doing a 1-day juice fast. Then a one day fast (nothing but water with a bit of lemon and psyllium husks). If a one day fast has been successfully conquered, move to a 2-day and then 3-day. Some people fast 1 day a week and execute 7-day fast (or more) twice a year. A 3-day fast twice a year very beneficial and challenging enough for me. It takes alot of discipline and will-power. I rank it up there with the discipline needed to quit smoking as two of the hardest things I've ever done.

The 2nd day of a 3-day fast for me is the most difficult because I usually feel just lousy. My head hurts, I sometimes feel a bit feverish and even nauseous. However, this means the fast is *working* and the bad feeling is because the toxins are being eliminated. So, just keep drinking water and don't give in to the temptation to eat! Even a small dose of food ruins the fast. Just drink plenty of water and flush the system. On the 3rd day, for me, I begin to fantasize about food...dream about food....and my senses (touch, smell, even sight) are heightened to the max as the body's survival instincts are in full gear. It's quite amazing. The first sex after fasting is indescribable (although I haven't experienced it in years, I still remember!). Due to the lack of energy, it is wise not to engage in any very physical tasks. Walking and staying outside are good. Resting in the shade or in your favorite rocker reading a book are good ways to past the time. One should never fast when the temperature is too hot or too cold, which is why I fast in Fall and Spring.

The reward is breaking the fast! One must break a 3-day fast slowly and carefully and ease the body back into normal mode. I usually break a fast with half a grapefruit or a few slices of pineapple. This year my first food was pineapple and I can honestly say one has never completely tasted a pineapple until popping a few fresh slices in the mouth after fasting - it is simply magical and a taste sensation! After the pineapple, I waited half an hour and had a piece of toast with peanut butter. An hour after that I had a bowl of granola with banana and soy milk and a cup of coffee. I was in heaven man! Even better than the resumption of eating is the way you feel after a fast. You have much more energy, feel much healthier, and your face will have a rosy and energetic glow. You will also have a grand feeling of satisfaction for having done one of the hardest things you just may ever do in your life. As he years past, it becomes easier and easier to fast and is just something you'll do automatically because you're certain of the benefits.

Spring 2010 - Texas White Bass Run

2010-04-10T06:05:00.001-07:00

The River

NOTE: Pictures courtesty of Brett and Kobe-san (click them to enlarge) as numbnutz here brought a camera full of dead batteries.

After years of droughts and floods and other interruptions, it was once again time to visit the Hill Country of Texas for the annual white bass run. The "run" is when the white bass leave the relative safety of the deep water Lake and head up the river to spawn in the shallow and fast running waters. So, I packed up the Toyota and headed out Saturday for Plain Dealing, LA (love that name) to stay over at Brett's: it's a good halfway point and who makes better crawfish etoufee?
We headed to Bass Pro Shop on Sunday and got a dusting of snow while in Shreveport. Among other supplies at BPS, I grabbed a 3-pack of "Red Head" socks (I can't get any of the real, so I might as well buy the socks...) on sale, and so did Brett. Later at the house, Brett was checking out all his gear on his bed when he discovered the socks he grabbed were low cut. "Shit, I didn't want the low-cuts!" I said well, you could always play golf in them (knowing full well Brett is not a golfer), at which point I was on the receiving end of a look no one but Brett can deliver. At this point, his son says "I'll take them - give em to me Dad!" and Brett replied why the hell should I give them to you? And Keelan says well, at least split them with me." And Brett, being the ff he is and without skipping a beat says, "OK son, I'll take three and you take three." Pause. Much laughter.

We headed out to the river Monday morning. The spring breakers had left, the campground was mostly vacant (and beautiful), but it was also readily apparent the spawn was coming off a little late this year due to colder weather (or at least that seemed to be the consensus of us "experts"). So, we were a little early and the fish were smallish and still down in the deeper water. This made them a bit harder to catch on a fly-rod and I struggled (compared to past years) the first couple days.

Will showed up on Tuesday with venison sausage and birthday beer in tow (thanks bill!). Kobe showed up Wednesday with more venison sausage so we fired up the skillet and had some for breakfast Thursday morn.

Breakfast at the River: Eggs, potato, onion, venison sausage, corn tortilla, hot sauce, and cold beer.

Wednesday evening a norther blew through and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in 30 seconds (I kid you not). Kobe-san, Will and I hit the trucks and I yelled out to Brett (who was inside his new Kelty tent) "hey bud, you might want to ride this one out in the truck!" He either didn't hear me or (being his first trip here) may have underestimated the potential of the storm. Anyhow, all hell broke lose for awhile with lots of rain and lightin but not so much wind. I had the Irish foresight to grab one of the bottles of Jameson's off the picnic table and was high and dry in the truck listening to the Grateful Dead. I noticed at the height of the downpour Brett had his flashlight out and was meticulously following every seamline on his tent. I was like, uh-oh, leak city? After a half hour or so the rain slowed to a drizzle so I jumped out to check on Brett:

"You OK in there Brett?"
"Yeahhh mannnnnn, I'm fiiiiine."
"You need a lil snort of Jamesons?'
"Noooo Miiiiike, I got a bottle with me riiiiight here."
"So how was your first storm at the river?"
"Well, except for a few involuntary sphincter contractions when those lightening bolts and thunder claps hit, it was really pretty cool."
"You have any leaks in the Kelty?"
"Nope, every seam is dry."

Good action. I on the other hand, was thinking the river water would be muddied by the rain and that the cold weather would put the fish down. So much for my expertise as the water actually cleared up by morning and we busted the shit out of some white bass and limited out (25) by 10:30am. The fish were still rather smallish compared to years gone by, but the action was great. Even had a few occaisions where, after throwing the hook back into the water to string a fish up, you'd find another one on the line as soon as you picked up the rod tip.

Kobe's Beautiful Stringer

The small males typically leave the Lake and head upstream first. Then the bigger males. Finally the females come and church is out! As usual, the females control everything and when they are ready to go, it's gone. Anyhow, usually the small males this time of year will squirt all over ya when you're taking the hook out. I've had years when the front of my waders were completely white. I've had em squirt in my eyes before. This year, they weren't even squirtin yet so I knew it was early. Plus, I wasn't catching many females at all in the shallower water. But, we caught alot of fish and, for once, I retied my clauser minnow fly every 8-10 fish and never lost it. I bet I caught 100 fish on that one fly.

My well used Clauser Minnow fly.

Hard to beat non-stop white bass action on a bamboo fly-rod using clauser minnows. I had Beasley took off the last 4 inches of the bamboo "trout" rod I made (that couldn't land a dry fly without scaring off every trout within a tri-state area) and it now makes a great white bass rod!

Caught a bunch Thursday night too and on Friday morning we again limited out in no time and the fish were starting to get bigger. Saw the first signs of tailing on Friday. Up at the cleaning tables Brett said he had to head back; Kobe-san and Will had already left, so, I left too (begrudgingly). I could have easily stayed another week and next time I won't keep any fish until the day before I am ready to scram. But, my cooler was full to my limit and it was time to hit the road. Love this place.

A note about the picture at the top of this post. Kobe took it, and said some religious folks had moved in. Sure enough if you zoom in on that photo, you will see a woman in a long dress out in the middle of the river. I am reminded of Bill Maher's comment: "whenever you see women dressed in Little House on the Prairie costumes, you can bet there is some weird shit going on". That said, there's nothing weird about wanting to catch white bass on this beautiful river. On the far right of this pic, on the opposite bank, is area of the ledge we fished. Saw some wild goats over there too.

At the ol cleanin table. Wish I had a nickle for every white bass I've cleaned at these tables.

Small - but ohhh so tasty!

When I got home, I was doing some springtime chores when I noticed this reflection on the door to the upstairs. It came bouncing off three different windows and converged into the pattern below. It came and was gone in just a few minutes. I noted the time, and checked again the next day (sunny as well). It did not reappear then, and I haven't seen it since. I can only conclude that this is a figure of a white bass, and that the fishing gods are with me this year...

A Reflective Fish? (click to enlarge)

"Glimpses of World History" by Nehru

2010-03-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

I recently read "The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria is a native of India and has a very healthy and clear-headed view of the world today. If only someone like him ran the U.S. State Department! Regardless, the book is a good read and in it Zakaria highly recommends a book by a fellow Indian author: Nehru - "Glimpses of World History". My local library was able to produce a copy and I was suprised to discover the book is a collection of letters Nehru wrote to his young daughter while in jail(s) for the "crime" of fighting against the British for his country's freedom. Nehru's writing appear to be motivated by the guilt he suffered as a result of being absent from his daughter's formative years. I can relate. His solution was writing her everyday and sharing his life's knowledge and experience. Nehru's perspectives on world history are unique, and very cool. The fact he wrote this book without access to a library or any reference material is impressive. It's a thick book, but for those still experiencing the winter that won't end (it's snowing here yet again today!), perhaps a snort of Jameson's, a warm fire, and Nehru's "Glimpses of World History" would not be such a bad way to pass the time.

18 days til spring...

Ancient Chinese Proverb

2010-01-11T09:19:00.001-08:00

"He who splits his own wood heats himself twice!"
Doug "Tao-tze" Fitzsimmons

The wood pile

This is especially true when splitting red oak with an 8-lb maul. Had I fully comprehended the ins-n-outs of chain-sawing and wood-splitting, I probably would have bought the next larger size wood stove. That said, I love my little Lopi Patriot stove. Since I insulated the attic, added interior doors to partition the house, and installed a small gas heater in the bedroom, the amount of wood I am burning now has been much reduced over years past - not to mention my house warms much faster now. Get this: my bills last month (December) were $28/gas and $36/electric. I'd bet money those are two of the lowest bills in town! Of course it's alot of work, but I rationalize the effort by telling myself it keeps me in shape and helps fund my fly-fishing addiction. Meantime, I count the days until my pensions will come through - only 5 more years to go!

Sure thought I had enough wood for this year and next (not all is shown in the picture). But the extremely frigid start to 2010 has really bitten into my reserves. It has not gotten above freezing yet this year! Not to worry though, I have a nice white oak I need to take down soon so that my garden gets a bit more sun next year. So, I'll kill two birds with one stone on that job. That said, it has painted me to burn so much of the nice hickory I had stacked up. I was hoping to keep some for next winter!

A Lopi Patriot Woodstove fire a burnin

Book Review: "End the Fed" by Ron Paul

2009-12-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

Texas Congressman & American Patriot Ron Paul.

Gold is trading over $1200/oz. The Federal Reserve is holding Interest rates at 0% in an attempt to re-inflate the economy. President Obama is continuing and expanding the Bush administration’s policies of deficit spending, corporate bailouts, and war. What better time to review a book that explains it all and recommends a solution? Ron Paul’s book End the Fed does just that: abolish the Federal Reserve and go back to a hard money standard based on gold and silver.

Paul’s book begins by explaining why all Americans should care and why abolishing the Federal Reserve is a good idea:

· It would bring an end to dollar depreciation
· It would prevent the funding of continual unnecessary wars
· It would enable real freedom and protect our liberties
· It would stop the skyrocketing growth of debt
· It would force government to live within its means
· It would end the ability of the Fed (and the government) to control the
people through a monopoly on money and credit
· It would stop the Fed from serving the interest of the elite (executives of
AIG, Goldman Sachs, etc.) while enacting a sinister tax on the middle class
by diluting the value of the dollars they save.

Paul explains how Ben Bernanke and the Fed can print trillions of dollars and distribute them to its cronies with absolute no oversight by Congress. It is not only unconstitutional, it’s immoral.

Paul then gives a very interesting historical perspective on the history of the Federal Reserve and its record: a U.S. dollar today that is worth $0.05 compared to its value when the Federal Reserve was created. The Federal Reserve’s policies are a form of financial socialism for the rich and powerful.

A discussion follows about Paul’s childhood experiences with money, his main influences (Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard among others) and Austrian economics. Paul explains how the Fed’s ability to print money out of thin air has enabled wars and empire building. If the government had to pay for these wars by taxing its citizens and living within its means, Paul doubts the American people would be so willing to support unnecessary, unproductive, and economically corrosive wars.
Paul points out that after every major crisis, be it America’s many wars, 9-11, the dot-com bubble, or the meltdown in 2008, the response has always been more monetary expansion and more power to the Federal Reserve. He contends that it is impossible to solve the economic and political problems by turning to the unconstitutional institution that is most responsible for creating all the problems in the first place.
How ironic it is that a supposedly “free market capitalistic” country like the U.S. has a central bank setting interest rates? Paul contends this is a form of price-fixing and central economic planning. Only the Federal Reserve can create new money out of thin air, inflate the currency, in complete secrecy, and totally without oversight or supervision. Indeed, Karl Marx’s Fifth Plank of the Communist Manifesto states:

“Centralization of credit in the banks of the State, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

In other words, authoritarian rule is enabled by control of money by an institution like the Federal Reserve. Lenin was reported to have said the best way to destroy capitalism is to debauch the currency. Further, the Federal Reserve corrupts politicians by allowing them to substantiate themselves (and their egos) with unbridled spending, bribery, and immorality. Who can forget December 16, 2008 when Bush rationalized his bailout plan for corporations and their executives by proudly announcing “I have abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” Paul says this is astounding and preposterous! I say we call it what it is: fascism. And the Federal Reserve enables it and supports it, all in complete secrecy and with no Congressional oversight and no transparency.

The U.S. Constitution is clear on the matter. Article I, Section 10: “No state shall …. make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” Paper money is therefore unconstitutional. Period. Further, the Constitution is quiet on the matter of a central bank. However, the Tenth Amendment states: if a power is not “delegated to the United States by the Constitution,” it doesn’t exist. Since the Federal Reserve is not mentioned, logically its existence and power is unconstitutional. Even if it was, it still could not legally repeal the legal mandate for gold and silver coins. There is nothing “Federal” about the “Federal Reserve”, and there is surely nothing in “Reserve”. The term “Federal Reserve” is an oxymoron. Paul also notes how the Supreme Court has consistently bowed to political and corporate pressure by misinterpreting the Constitution on this very straightforward and important issue. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and the Federal Reserve has absolute power. Is it any wonder that Greenspan and Bernanke are men with extraordinary egos? They are more powerful than the elected President.

Paul explains how and why gold was chosen by men (not governments) to be money because it possessed all the qualities desired to enable commerce and trade. Gold was naturally selected by the people and was used in trade exchange for more than 6,000 years. In 4000 B.C. the Egyptians were using gold bars as money. The Byzantine Empire thrived for six centuries on a gold standard. Then, Nicephorous III Botaniates reduced the amount of gold in then the world’s most used coin in order to fight a war with the Turks. The war was lost and so were the Byzantine Empire and its currency. Historically, fiat currencies (like the paper U.S. dollar) have always failed as money. Gold has always prevailed.

Paul then presents several cases to support a gold money standard:

· the philosophical case (morality and the moral hazard of the Fed)
· the constitutional case
· the economic case
· the libertarian case (why real money protects freedom and liberty)

Each case alone is very compelling. Taken together, how can one not agree that the Federal Reserve is simply a dysfunctional, unconstitutional, and dangerous entity which merely serves a small group of highly powerful, unsupervised, and very secretive select few at the expense of the middle class?

Unfortunately, the last chapter of the book, “The Way Out” is too short. To abolish the Federal Reserve in today’s world will be challenging. Since the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency (at least for now…), transitioning to a monetary standard backed by gold and silver will be a delicate maneuver, although it must be done to preserve American liberty and freedom and prevent authoritarian rule. Americans wealth must be fairly preserved during the transition and Paul is light on the details.

Paul may have also pointed how America’s addiction to foreign oil has exacerbated the problems of the Federal Reserve. The two major financial crises (now and in the late 70’s early 80’s) were preceded by high oil prices that strained the trade deficit and therefore required more money being printed, inflation, and U.S. dollar depreciation.

I’m also surprised Paul didn’t focus more on the major individual players in this fiat money façade. Paul adequately explains how Greenspan and Bernanke are completely over their heads and incompetent. He also correctly identifies how promoting Geitner to Secretary of the Treasury after Geitner was wrong on everything for the previous15 years proves the system is totally corrupt. However, Paul doesn’t touch on an obvious coincidence: it seems a very small group of people are over represented not only in the making U.S. economic and monetary “policy”, but also appear to be over represented in benefitting greatly from these same policies. Greenspan, Bernanke, Milken, Madoff, Shapiro(head of the SEC and “dear friend” of Madoff), Greenberg(AIG), Benmosche (AIG), Lloyd “doing God’s work” Blankfein (CEO, Goldman Sachs), Gensler (CFTC), Feinberg (the so-called “pay czar”), and many others. Is this mere coincidence or is there something more sinister afoot here? How ironic that the fascist policies now dominating the U.S. economic landscape are apparently being developed by people who should be most familiar with Nazi fascism and its dire consequences? It’s very hard to understand.

In conclusion, Paul makes a clear and convincing case the U.S. must abolish the Federal Reserve and go back to money standards based on gold and silver. For those who agree, you must contact your elected officials and insist they support Paul’s legislation to audit the Federal Reserve. This is a first step toward the transparency so desperately needed: how much money is being created, who gets it, and why? Without this transparency, the great American democratic experience is doomed to failure. The time is ripe for change as the American people are sick and tired of a dysfunctional government, a dysfunctional economy, and seeing their hard earned dollars being devalued and eaten up by inflation. On the other hand, shinning a light on the Federal Reserve’s inner workings will bring about reform and a shift to real hard currency money. Paul and his supporters should work harder on explaining and publishing exactly how this transition should occur in order to insure a smooth transition. It will certainly be a challenge given today’s realities. However, if Paul is going to promote the cause of “Ending the Fed” (which I certainly agree with), he needs to do a better job of outlining and explaining exactly how to go about it without exacerbating the current economic turmoil. Regardless, this is a fascinating and very informative book. I highly suggest any patriotic American read Ron Paul’s End the Fed. He will certainly get my vote the next time he runs for President!

Update: Audit the Fed – HR 1207 and S 604 has
317 Co-sponsors in the House
30 Co-sponsors in the Senate

This is great news: House and Senate members are (finally) paying attention!

Making a Compost Box

2009-10-24T11:09:00.001-07:00

Finally got around to building my compost box and thought I'd post it since there is a lack of decent plans (at least frugal plans...) available on the internet. This design worked out well for me: 3' wide, 3'tall, and 2'wide. This means all you need is:

2 2x4x6 (4 legs, 3' long)
8 1x6x8 (12 3' front and back, 12 2' sides)
1 small box screws

Be sure to use pressure treated wood rated for exterior applications. Also, screw the sides to the 2x4 legs (do not nail). Use double-dipped or galvanized screws or they'll rust in no time and you'll be re-building the box a second time. I made the front and back portions first (be sure to use a square). Look at the pictures closely wrt how the slats attach to the legs: be sure to leave an overhang on the ends of the front and back so the side slats will fit in snugly. No need for a cover since the box is deep enough to generate good heat without one, plus an open top gives ready access to rain and oxygen, both of which accelerate decomposition. Do not screw the bottom slat on the front because you'll want to shovel out the good schtank from that access point. Also, I left an inch or so around the bottom so that water can seep out.

After you load the box say a quarter full with leaves and whatknot, be sure to put a couple shovel fulls of good dirt in to add the healthy micro organisms which are necessary for proper decomposition. I put my box outside my back door and close to the garden. This allows me to easily recycle kitchen scraps as well as garden material. After I put the spent broccoli, cabbage, and squash plants in the box, I will fill the rest up with leaves, leaving a few inches on top for kitchen scraps. Decomposed leaves are basically potash, and there's not a better/cheaper way to keep your garden and plants well fed. The compost box should be turned occaisionally for uniform decomposition.

Total cost for the compost box was $24.70 - but I already had the screws. Still, the total cost should be under $30 for anyone.

Siding Job is Done, Broccoli Cometh

2009-10-17T04:17:00.001-07:00

The good news is after playing hide and seek with the rain for the last 2 weeks I finally finished siding the section of the house which I've been toiling on. The bad news is less than 1/4 of the house is finished. Ever start a job and the idea sounds so good only to realize you're in for a whole helluva lot more work than you envisioned? I bet it takes me another 2-3 years to finish siding the entire house. I could probably finish it next summer if I didn't like fly-fishing so much, but that ain't gonna happen. This section was the worst in that it had six windows and framing the windows really slows you down. However, two of the other sections go two stories high and I still have not figured out how I am going to do those sections without building some sort of scaffolding. All that said, I am very happy with the way the siding looks and it is an air tight seal and ready for whatever winter throws at me this year. The combination of the siding and the insulation I laid down in the attic should mean I burn alot less wood in the ole wood stove this year. Let's hope so! By the way, the gutter in the picture looks screwy because i stuck a couple pieces of wood behind it so she wouldn't fall down when the rain came (and of course it was coming...). The brackets have since been installed.

All the rain we had a couple weeks ago plus the lack of any sun really put the ka-bash on my squash and output has fallen dramatically. However, the broccoli is thriving. We have a slight freeze coming this weekend, but my buddy tells me the brocolli will do ok and slight freezes actually make it sweeter. Him and his wife dip their garden broccoli in Ken's Sweet Vidilia Onion salad dressing. Any worms you may encounter are added protein ;) I still have hope for the cabbage, but unlike the broccoli, it seems to need a little more sun which is something we haven't had much of this year. I sure hope it's not a rainy dreary gray winter!!

A Simple Plan to Fix America

2009-10-07T18:10:00.001-07:00

In this post I will lay out a campaign platform for anyone wishing to run for the House or Senate willing to fix our broken "capitalistic democracy". No country can be strong without a strong middle class and a strategic energy policy. So, the central theme in this strategy is to strengthen the middle class by:

1) Becoming less dependent on foreign oil.

2) Reindustrializing America by leveraging its abundant, clean, and cheap natural gas reserves in the transportation sector and implementing a strategic, long-term, comprehensive energy policy like this one:

http://thefitzman.blogspot.com/2008/08/strategic-long-term-comprehensive-us.html

3) Implementing a flat income tax. No loopholes, lawyers, or accountants. You make it, you pay it. You make a $25 million dollar reward bonus for bankrupting your company, you pay the tax man. You have 3 kids and make $50k, you don't.

4) A consumption based sales tax. You buy a $2 million dollar yacht, you pay. You buy a $300 canoe, you don't.

5) Pay down the debt by intelligently setting rates on items 3. and 4. such that the very wealthy pay their fair share, and the middle class are not overburdened.

6) Institute term limits in Congress.

7) Campaign Finance reform. Kick all lobbyists out of the halls of Congress when it is in session. We must keep corporate money out of legislation (or at least TRY to).

8) Abolish the Federal Reserve and go back to a gold and silver monetary standard.

9) Break up the NYC/Wall Street Financial "inner circle" that controls both regulation and regulation enforcement. Seek jail terms not only for those outside the government, but those inside as well.

10) Bring the troops home! Stop fighting oil wars and wasting the country's wealth abroad. Scale down defense expenditures abroad and instead strengthen our home borders, ports, and infrastructure.

That's it. That is all there is to it.

Squash, Schrooms, and Siding

2009-09-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

Only one month after planting the fall garden, I harvested it's initial offering on the first day of Fall: a fine yellow squash. By the looks of things, I will be swimming in squash. It's amazing how quickly these plants took off considering all the rainy and cloudy days we've had this fall.

The broccoli plants are large but there are crowns yet. The cabbage plants are also large and beginning to form the heads. Each cabbage plant yields only one head, which was news to me. Not sure the cauliflower plants will yield, but we'll see.

The Hardiplank siding work continues. Although glad to begin the job, I will be very happy when this job is complete and hope to get it all painted before winter sets in. I'd be done now if not forced to play hide-n-seek with the rain. However, with so many places on the planet suffering from heat and drought, I suppose one shouldn't complain. That said, I'd much rather be on the Caney Fork with a fly-rod in my hand.

The rain, clouds, and cool condition have caused a multitude of mushrooms to sprout int the yard, some of which I'd never seen here before.

My friend and master gardener Reid showed me his secret spot on the Obed River. We caught alot of smallish fish - sunfish, bream, small mouth bass, and Toosa bass. The river was very shallow (according to Reid, the shallowest he's ever seen it) which is amazing considering all the rain we've had this year. Perhaps it's the raising of the Holiday Hills dam? Perhaps dams in Fairfield Glade? Regardless, the water was low and very warm and the larger fish all seemed to be resting in the deep cool holes. Had a nice muskrat visit me when I waded a bit to close to its home. It's a beautiful small stream, and I cannot wait to fish it next spring.

Bob Fitzsimmons Triva from West Texas

2009-09-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

My buddy MikeK from frigid Austin, TX sent me this very interesting bit of trivia on about boxer Robert Fitzsimmons:

Click on the picture to enlarge and read the story.

Bob Fitzsimmons was one of the first boxers ever to appear on video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhljVYJ9NKQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOFdL5VkcQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5clfV1gZV0A

From Wiki:

Robert James "Bob" Fitzsimmons (May 26, 1863 - October 22, 1917), an Irish boxer, made boxing history as the sport's first three-division world champion. He also achieved fame for beating Gentleman Jim Corbett, the man who beat the great John L. Sullivan. Nicknamed Ruby Robert or The Freckled Wonder, he took pride in his lack of scars, and appeared in the ring wearing heavy woollen underwear to conceal the disparity between his trunk and leg-development.

Irish Boxer Robert Fitzsimmons

Fitzsimmons (Jezu), the youngest of 12 children, was born in Helston, Cornwall in the UK. His father was James Fitzsimmons, born in County Armagh, Ireland and his mother was Jane Strongman born in St Clement, Cornwall. Bob emigrated to New Zealand at the age of nine along with his parents, brothers and sisters. His family settled in Timaru and Bob became a blacksmith in his brother Jarrett's smithy.

The birthplace of Bob Fitzsimmons in Helston, Cornwall

Between 1880 and 1881, Fitzsimmons reigned as champion of the Jem Mace tournament in New Zealand. Some say he officially began his career as a professional boxer in New Zealand later in 1881. Records remain unclear whether he received payment for a bout in which he knocked out Herbert Slade in two rounds.

Fitzsimmons had six fights there, two of them bare-knuckle events. He won one and lost five, it remains unclear whether any of those bouts involved payment.

Boxing record-books show that Fitzsimmons officially began boxing professionally in 1883, in Australia. He beat Jim Crawford there by getting a knockout in three rounds. Fitzsimmons had his first 28 definite professional fights in Australia, where he lost for the Australian Middleweight title (rumours spoke of a fixed bout), and where he also won a fight by knockout while on the floor: when Edward Starlight Robins dropped Fitzsimmons to the canvas in round nine of their fight, he also broke his hand and could not continue, therefore the referee declared Fitzsimmons the winner by a knockout.

By this stage Fitzsimmons had established his own style. He developed a certain movement and caginess from one of the greatest bare-knuckle fighters, Jem Mace. Mace had encouraged Bob to develop his punching technique and he revolutionised this, drawing on the enormous power he had gained from blacksmithing. Fitzsimmons delivered short, accurate and usually conclusive punches. He soon built up a reputation as by far the hardest puncher in boxing.

Winning the Middleweight Title

Moving on to the United States, Fitzsimmons fought four more times in 1890, winning three and drawing one.

Then, on January 14, 1891, in New Orleans, Fizsimmons won his first world title from Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey. Fitzsimmons knocked out Dempsey (from whom the later Jack Dempsey would take his name) in the 13th round to become the world's Middleweight champion. Fitzsimmons knocked Dempsey down at least 13 times, and by the finish left him in such a pitiable condition that he begged him to quit. Dempsey would not do so, so Fitzsimmons knocked him out and then carried him to his corner. On July 22, police broke off his fight with Jim Hall after he had knocked Hall down several times.

Fitzsimmons spent the next two years fighting non-title bouts and exhibitions until giving Hall a chance at the title in 1893. He retained the crown by a knockout in round four. He spent the rest of that year doing exhibitions, and on June 2, he had scheduled a two-way exhibition where he would demonstrate in public how to hit the boxing bag and then how to box against a real opponent. Reportedly, two freak accidents happened that day: Fitzsimmons hit the bag so hard that it broke, and then his opponent of that day allegedly slipped, getting hit in the head and the boxing exhibition was cancelled.

After vacating the Middleweight crown, Fitzsimmons began campaigning among Heavyweights (the light-heavyweight division did not exist at that time). Wyatt Earp, the famous lawman, refereed one of his fights, against Tom Sharkey. Fitzsimmons battered Sharkey and had him on the verge of a knock-out, but when he hit him with a body-and-head punch-combination Earp declared him the loser on a disqualification because he had hit Sharkey while Sharkey was down. Earp, according to a widespread belief, had involvement with gamblers who had bet on Sharkey.

Winning the Light Heavyweight Title

Fitzsimmons challenged for the world's Heavyweight title in 1897. On March 17 of that year he became World Heavyweight champion, knocking out Jim Corbett in round 14. This constituted a remarkable achievement, as Corbett, a skilled boxer, weighed a stone (14 lb) more than Fitzsimmons. He out-boxed Fitzsimmons for several rounds, knocked him down in the sixth round, and badly damaged his face with his jab, left hook and right hand, but Fitzsimmons kept coming and Corbett began to tire. In the 14th round Fitzsimmons won the title with his "solar plexus" punch. Corbett collapsed in agony. Fitzsimmons' "solar plexus" punch became legendary, although he himself may never have used the phrase.

Fitzsimmons spent the rest of 1897 doing paper runs.

In 1899, Fitzsimmons and James J. Jeffries succeeded in boxing in New York without the police intervening, probably at an underground club. Most people gave Jeffries little chance, even though at 15 st (95 kg) he massively outweighed his opponent, but Jeffries lifted the world Heavyweight crown from Fitzsimmons with an 11th-round knockout.

In June 1901 Fitzsimmons took part in a wrestling match against Gus Ruhlin. He lost, and went back to boxing. He then enjoyed legitimate (boxing) knock-outs of both Ruhlin and Sharkey.

In 1901 he published a book Physical Culture and Self-Defense (Philadelphia: D. Biddle).

In 1902, he and Jeffries had a rematch, once again with the world Heavyweight crown at stake. Fitzsimmons battered Jeffries, who suffered horrible punishment. With his nose and cheek-bones broken, most would have sympathised with Jeffries had he quit, but he kept going until his enormous weight advantage told and Bob suffered a knockout in round eight.

Winning the Light-heavyweight Title

September 1903 proved a tragic month for Fitzsimmons, as his rival, Con Coughlin, died the day after suffering a one-round knockout at the hands of Fitzsimmons. But less than two months later, Fitzsimmons made history by defeating world Light-Heavyweight champion George Gardiner by a decision in 20 rounds, thus becoming the first boxer to win titles in three weight-divisions.

Soon after, he went back to the Heavyweights, where he kept fighting until 1914, with mixed results. He boxed Jack Johnson, and film historians believe that his fight with Bob KO Sweeney became the first boxing-fight captured on film.

Retirement

Although Fitzsimmons became a world champion in each of the Middleweight, Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight divisions, historians do not consider him the first world Light-Heavyweight champion to become world Heavyweight champion, because he won the Heavyweight title before winning the Light Heavyweight belt. Michael Spinks counts as the first Light-Heavyweight world champion to win the Heavyweight belt as well. In 2003 Roy Jones Jr. joined Fitzsimmons, Michael Moorer and Spinks as the only men to have won world championships at both Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight.

Fitzsimmons's exact record remains unknown, as the boxing world often kept records poorly during his era, but Fitzsimmons said he had had more than 350 fights (which could have involved exaggeration on his part).

He died in Chicago of pneumonia in 1917, survived by his fourth wife. His grave lies in the Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. Having four wives, a gambling habit and a susceptibility to confidence tricksters, he did not hold on to the money he made.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame has made Bob Fitzsimmons a member in its "Old Timer" category.

In 2003 Ring Magazine named Fitzsimmons number eight of all time among boxing's best punchers.

Kudos to R.L. Winston Rod Co.!

2009-08-25T04:27:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what would happen if you broke your Winston fly-rod? Rest easy my friend. I mailed my 10 year old 8'9" 5-piece Winston LT-4wt fly-rod to the Twin Bridges, Montana company on July 31,2009 to repair a broken tip section. I felt like a young mother sending her first-born off to the first day of kindergarten! Anyhow, the rod came back yesterday August 24, 2009 via UPS. The new rod tip is absolutely flawless! Not only was the cool green color of the rod matched exactly but the tip fits the ferrule perfectly. The new tip has the rod's serial number on it and Winston even replaced the worn O-ring on the tube. I was charged a $50 shipping and handling fee.

Winston's rod repair service is a high quality operation worthy of the rods themselves. I am one happy camper! I can't wait to get back on the water with this rod and catch more trout like the one below. Thank you Winston!

http://www.winstonrods.com/pdf/LT01KudoAwardFRR.pdf

Colorado Trip 2009 - Stats

2009-08-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

June21-July26: 35 days
Total Miles Driven: 4300 miles
235 gallons of gasoline, 18.30 mpg
Total gas bill: $629.58 ($2.68/gallon average)
Total Camping Fees Paid: $579.00

Waters Fished:

MeadowCreek Lake
Trappers Lake
Beaver Ponds in Flat Tops
White River Tributaries
Arkansas River
Conejos River
Fryingpan River

Captured Booty:

Henckels Stainless 6" Serrated Knife (stuck in tree at MeadowCreek Lake CG)
Book on Colorado Wildflowers (found on Flat Tops hiking trail)
Golf practice whiffle ball (Arkansas River)
Fish Net (Fryingpan River - in the schtank)
Three flies: PMD and two nymphs (tree limb over Fryingpan River)
$0.38 (under park bench in Basalt)
$0.60 (paper machine change in Salida)

Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills,
One man gathers what another man spills.

Saint Stephen,Garcia/Lesh

Casualty List: Winston XL 5 piece 4 wt Fly-Rod

My Beloved Winston 6-piece Fly-rod (Used to be a 5-piece)

The R.L. Winston company was very quick to respond to my email inquiry regarding fixing this rod. I packaged it up and mailed it off (insured) last week. Can't wait to get this baby back!

I've had several emails about the flies I used on the upper Fryingpan River and why not mysis shrimp imitations. I have nothing against mysis shrimp flies - I just didn't have any and was too cheap to go buy some. I usually stick to dry flies and the lower Fryingpan River. However, I did have some orange attractor nymphs and some zebra midges that I tie for use in TN and ARK. I wanted to see how those would fair on the Pan tailwater. Samples are shown below.

Flies used on upper Fryingpan River (click photo to enlarge)
Orange Attractor: #18, gold head, bright orange body
Zebra Midge: #22, silver head, silver wrap, black thread body
Dry Fly: turns out this was not a PMD as I said earlier, but instead a #18 olive body with grey wings. This was the only dry fly I caught fish on on the Upper Pan.

The most productive setup was the orange attractor (5X), weighted, with about 16" of fluro-carbon tippet (6X) to the zebra midge, with another weight about halfway to the midge to let it drift more naturally. I had some larger midges, but the smaller the better. Also I had some midges with gold heads - no strikes, use the silver #20 or #22. I suspect most of the big fish (that I lost..grrrr) were hitting the zebra midge, as all fish I landed were on the midge except the one brown that very agressively hit the orange attractor. Alot of guys there were using 7X tippet.

I also suspect the dry fly would have done better had it been #20 or even #22.

July on the Fryingpan River - Part Two

2009-07-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

Thursday July 23, 2009 : Adversity Strikes Again

For whatever reason I awoke before sunrise and big fish fever dragged me out of bed to boil water for coffee. Very chilly with some breeze, but the coffee was enough to motivate me to roll down the road to the upper Pan. On the river before 7am with dreams of grandeur. Not a strike, not a whirl - except for the wind which was blowing hard and constant down the canyon. It was not long before I could not feel my toes or my fingers - I was cold! Stuck it out for another half hour before I finally realized I was getting no action and freezing. So, went back to the truck with my tail between my legs and hit the thermos of coffee I brewed up earlier. While talking to new arrival, I tried to take my 5 piece Winston rod down but couldn't separate the pieces..any of them. This has happened before and all that is needed is some cold water on the ferrels which the man offered. I said, naw, that's ok, I'm gonna have a hot breakfast back at camp and fish the rod later downstream. So, I broke my RULE and put the rod in the truck sticking out the back window. You can guess what happened...on my way back to the camp, still cold as hell, I decided the cold breeze through the windows was too much and rolled the window up - breaking the tip on my Winston rod. What a friggin drag. First busted rod in over 10 years. I kinda got over it, figuring that's a long time without breaking a rod - especially considering the amount of fishing I do and my bushwhacking style. Oh well, at least I have 3 more rods in the truck to use. Get over it. Once back at the camp, I decided I needed a pick-me-up and figured I'd go back to the lower Pan and attempt to catch the large fish I missed back on Monday (see July 20 post). Worked my way up the same run just as before, catching nice bows and browns along the way. But I was always looking upstream toward the rock and wondering if the big fish was still hanging there.

When I finally got to "the rock", I checked my knots, my tippet, and tied on a new fly. "The rock" was a perfect place for a big fish to hang out. Fast and deep water on the right side with shallow and smooth water on the left to which many flies were landing and falling out of the willow bushes that also kept things a bit shady and cool. The hole behind the rock was about 4 feet deep. Perfect setup. When I hooked the fish on Monday, I made a nice cast to the hole, sweeping my line to the slow water on the left side in order to get a nice drift. The plan was the same, and though still a bit breezy, I was able to make a decent cast. Wham! Damn...a brown came up and agressively took the fly. I worked him downstream but was worried the action spooked the big bow if indeed he was still hanging out there. Released the brown, dried off the fly, and worked my way back up to the rock. Made a nice cast, the fly drifted perfectly over the hole...but no take yet..not yet...not yet..oooohhhh....I was just about to lose the drift when Wham! the big bow hit it. I was ready, got a solid hook set, and anticipated the jump I knew was coming. The fish did not dissapoint, and he jumped just as before. Somehow, I kept the line tight without snapping it and held the fish. He then headed straight for the fast water but I was ready for this too and I followed him downstream about 20 yards, falling over boulders and making a helluva racket. He was still on. He headed downstream another 20 or so yards, and I followed with my rod tip high. He finally stopped in a hole and just sat there. I was out of breath, and figured maybe he was tired after the big jump and the fast water fight. I know I was exhausted! I reeled in my line and got up next to the fish. He just sat there not moving an inch. I finally got an idea of the size of this fish because I could see where my line went into the water, and I could see his tail downstream. This guy was big, just as big as he looked when he jumped. I have learned in the past that fish always seem to look bigger when they jump - their gills are flared, mouth usually open and shaking, colors bright, and I dont know - in the past I have sometimes been surprised how much smaller the fish are once landed than I originally thought. Not this guy, he was as big as he looked. Released my net's clasp and I tentatively bent down in an attempt to net the fish. It finally dawned on me that this fish was roughly twice as long as the opening in my net, or somewhere in the 30" range. And this on the lower Pan! A shiver of excitement went through me, but suddenly I had a negative thought: is this monster really going to let me net him? Just as this thought sped through my synapses, the fish took off like a raped ape toward the fast water again. Having the rod in my left hand and the net in my right, I had to rely on my drag which had worked well up to that point. Anyhow, the fish hit the fast water, sped upstream and suddenly the line went slack as he switched directions and went downstream. At this point, with about a foot of slack in my line, the fish jumped completely out of the water, about two feet (not an exaggeration) and shook his head viciously. My fly came out, landed close to my knees, and assumed a perfect drift downstream. I was heartbroken. I still am.

I can't describe the depression that set in after missing this fish after breaking my Winston earlier in the day. I just couldn't shake these events, and like a life threatening accident, the fish scenario kept playing through my mind over-n-over in slow motion. It was agonizing. The only thing that made me feel better (for a short time) was calling my friend MikeK and learning that his wife "caught" him emailing a woman named Victoria (of all names...) in which he was found to say marriage was like "jail" to which his wife wanted a full explanation. Well, that got me to laughing but as soon as we hung up..well, my mind went back to the fish. I headed to the Roaring Fork around Woody Creek thinking new water would get my mind off my troubles. Caught 3 nice browns on a stonefly nymph, but couldn't shake my depression. I gave into the urge and pulled over at the Woody Creek Tavern and started drinking. The bartender there got another smile out of me when I could see he delighted in asking his female customers if they'd like a "doggy-style", which was a beer they were serving on tap. The look on the women's faces was priceless, but after once or twice even that novelty wore off and I was back to thinking about the fish. Jeez - will I *ever* friggin land one of these large fish that I seem to be able to hook on a fairly regular basis?? What good is a fisherman if he can't land big fish once he hooks them? Not much I guess.

Friday July 24, 2009

Skunked on the upper Pan, and decided to stop fishing and go to Central Market in El Jabel to get groceries and have some of their awesome sushi (no kidding, in El Jebel of all places). Sat under a tree next to the parking lot drinking a Guinness stout and eating sushi with chopsticks. People were looking at me, but all I could think about was that friggin fish. Drove back to the lower Pan and decided to take a hand bath in the river. The water felt great, and boy did I need to wash the ole bod, but I couldn't wash the fish off my mind. It was about that time I met "the sisters" two beautiful and very friendly girls from Ft. Collins 25 and 23 yrs old. One was fly-fishing, and showed good form but was fishing in a quite technical run with a dry. I suggested she come downstream to some smooth water where I noticed trout rising. Long story short, I got out in the water with her, she caught her first fish on a fly-rod (8" bow) and was totally stoked about it. She kept yelling at her sis, are you getting pictures? You better be getting pictures! It was great fun and took my mind off my troubles until I realized that I really wanted to take both of them to Woody Creek Tavern but was definitely old enough to be their dad. I didn't even ask, and went about my business after thoroughly enjoying my first good conversation with females in weeks. I definitely need to get out more. Anyhow, i got enthusiastic about fishing again after hanging with Britney for awhile, and decided to try dries on the upper Pan. Had no luck at all til just about sunset when I remembered the #20 PMD I had found in a tree limb a few days earlier. Tied that fly on and immediately caught two fish, both browns, right at last light. I set the hook on sound and the swirl as I could no longer see the fly. I love the way this brown is glaring at the camera.

Saturday July 25, 2009

Snapped off three flies on the upper Pan all on really nice fish. Sound familiar? Caught one fish this day, and if I come back next year he might be 8". Stupid man. Stupid stupid stupid little man.

Sunday July 26, 2009

After 6 weeks, the cooler's a mess, my body is tired and sore, and I am still not over the fish or the broken Winston. Also ran out of white gas for my Coleman stove. All signs are to go home. Decided to pack up, drive the Teardrop down the river road to "the rock" and try the big bastard one more time. Caught fish all along the way, just like the previous two times with my eye on "the rock". About 50 yards from the rock I got a big surprise when the big bastard stayed right where I left him last time, hit my fly, and caught me unprepared with slack in my line. Terrible hook set that did not survive the jump I knew was coming and that he made. That was it, I was done for 2009. I headed off the river and decided I didn't want it to end like that, and decided to catch one last fish. Fittingly, it was a cute little brown (last picture below). That was it. My Colorado 2009 trip was over. I'll never forget the big fish I missed, or how much fun I had this summer in my search for trout. Good luck in your searches - whatever they may be for. Cya, Fitzman.

Hope Springs Eternal

2009-07-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

One of life's simple pleasures on the Fryingpan River is easy access to some of the best drinking water on earth. This spring (shown above, click to enlarge) are tested every season by the Forestry service when they test the campground waters. Normally, the water quality reports come back with parts-per-million (PPM) listings of impurities. Not so with this water, so I have been told by multiple sources. This water is 100% H2O, with 0 PPM of *anything* else. That's quite amazing when you think about it. Anyhow, I use this water for all coffee and drinking and of course to fill up the water bottle on my fly-fishing belt. Nothing better than getting off the river on a hot sunny afternoon than to stop by the springs and drink some of this cold and very tasty (as in no taste really) water. A delightful pleasure which filled every jug I had for the trip back home.

July on the Fryingpan River

2009-07-29T11:43:00.001-07:00

Monday, July 20, 2009

After an "off day" at the Sugarbush campground in which I did laundry, took a shower, attached new leaders to all my water logged fly lines, and participated in the "pie-fest" by showing up with my fork in hand, I drove over Independence pass, through Aspen and down to Basalt where the Fryingpan River meets the Roaring Fork. As usual, I was so excited to be back on the "Pan" I could not even drive the 15 or so miles up the river road to the Little Maud campground at Ruedi Reservoir. So, I pulled over, Teardrop trailer and all, to fish a stretch of the lower Pan. Within minutes I quickly discovered why I hate store-bought leaders - they snap off real easy and I lost two fish and two flies until I broke down and did what I knew I had to do: cut off the last 3 or 4 feet of the leader and engineer it with my normal setup: 6lb, 5lb, 4lb, and 3lb Maxim tippet material (2x -> 5x). The 3 lb 5x tippet seems to work well with the dries I throw, and is way stronger than the supposed 3lb strength of the store bought leader. Of course the other factor involved here is hook setting: after leaving the Arkansas where I catch many smallish quick hitting brown trout, here on the Pan the fish are generally bigger and the first rise I had didn't even budge when I attempted a rather excitedly strong hook set. So, less coffee, no sugar, and more beer. Much more beer...

Anyhow, once the blood knots for my leader were completed I was soon hooking and landing what I came for: Fryingpan River rainbow trout. Here's my first Fryingpan Rainbow of 2009:

Not to be outdone, the brown trout wanted me to know they too would challenge the Rainbows for my dry fly:

Note the bright red spots on this brown. I challenge anyone to show me brown trout that have brighter red spots than those found on the lower Fryingpan River. Notice the red spots on the hind dorsal fin as well. Friggin gorgeous fish. Click the picture to enlarge and check out that awesome trout water! I miss the river already. Anyhow, my first outing on the Pan was a success (if one disregards losing the two rather large fish and associated flies due to the snapped off store bought leaders...) and I landed 11 fish total, all on dry flies, including 4 browns. Oh, the session ended with the hooking of a rather large rainbow which jumped out of the water 2 feet (no kidding), shook his mouth furiously, popping the "new and improved" leader. More on this fish later.

So, I headed off to Little Maud Campground to setup camp. Later that evening, I took out the 5 wt bamboo rod I made and tried my luck on the upper Pan, which I define as upstream of the bridge just below the Ruedi dam. I have not had much success on this stretch of the river in the past. My plan this year was to nymph my way to success and weight the nymphs so as to get them down to the fish - thus the 5 wt rod which I use for large dries, woolies, and weighted nymphs, as opposed to the Winston or Beasley bamboo (both 4 wts) which I use exclusively for smaller dry flies. Anyhow, one would think that the earlier experience would have taught me the need to retie the new store bought leader on the 5 wt fly line. But noooo, the Fitzman was in a hurry to get a spot on the river and too impatient to retie an entire leader with 3 or 4 blood knots. The result was quite predictable. I tried a new presentation (at least for me) on the upper Pan: an attractor nymph (in this case, bright orange with gold bead head), weighted, to which I then dropped off a #20 zebra midge which I have begun using on the Caney Fork River back in TN. I tied both flies myself and used about 16 inches of fluro-carbon tippet for the midge dropper, and set the weight about 8 inches above it allowing it to drift more freely. Considering my past performance on the upper Pan (using mostly dry flies being the dry fly bigot that I am), I was not prepared for what soon happened. I got an immediate and powerful strike which, quite predictably, snapped off. Both flies lost. Do you think I would retie the leader now? Of course not - several fisherman saw the strike and started edging toward "my" hole. You must understand the fly-fishermen of the Pan are not "normal"... they will horn in on "your" territory without thinking twice and to sit down for 10 minutes and retie a leader is to lose your position on the river. Standing and tying the knots is no longer an option for me can't I am losing my eyesight and need to take off my glasses to tie the damn knots. So, I tied on another attractor and midge and promptly lost those two flies as well, this time I at least saw the fish (a big bow) and played him for all of about 5 seconds before he popped off. At this point, it's getting dark, I finally retied the leader, and hooked a nice dark brown trout right as light was failing. I had the net out but lost the fish when the fly simply popped out of his mouth. At least I got to see what fly he hit: it was the zebra midge. Overall, the action was encouraging (at least I am getting strikes on the upper Fryingpan), but overall it was an idiotic performance which cost me 4 nice flies and perhaps two really nice rainbow trout.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Fished the upper Pan again right after sunrise and missed two strikes on the attractor/midge combo. Action slowed, so I went downstream to one of my favorite stretches of river for dry fly action. This is one of my favorite slots to fish because I wade across the river and fish under the shade of some trees in full view of the road. The result is alot of action, and many car honks as passerby's (mostly fly-fisherman) acknowledge a bent rod. However, in this section the current is fast and even a 14" fish can give quite a battle which passerbys probably assume must be a larger fish. This particular day was, as often happens, frustrating for those on the opposite bank. "What fly are you using?" "What's your tippet?" they ask - the "they" being 4 guys all within about 25 yards of each other pounding the water over-n-over with casts while standing out in the hot midday sun. I converse politely but it is amazing they can't see the obvious: one, they are fishing water that gets alot of pressure. Two, they are standing in the sun. Three, I am fishing the other side of the river in the shade. Oh well, I must admit it's kinda fun to be watched like that and hearing things like "damn, he's hooked another!". Bar har har. Of course, I am sure these guys would get a similar kick out of watching me lose all the big fish I have been losing lately. Grrrrrr....

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Started at the upper Pan again where I had developed the big fish fever affliction affecting so many Fryingpan River fisherman. It was an all too familiar story as the Fitzman hooked a nice rainbow (I would estimate 24" and a football figure) on his now new and improved leader. The Fitzman hung on and survived a vicious leap out of the water, and then began calmly walking toward the fish thinking, ah, now I've got you now you son-of-a-bitch. About this time the fish too recognized he was in trouble and did what every living thing does when distressed - he went home. Home happend to be under a rock which I had seen days earlier, but apparently had not studied closely enough. The rock was embedded on a ledge, and there was a large hole under it. Worse, the part of the rock toward the center of the river was overhanging and outcropping. All those are excuses for the fact that the fish dove under the rock, my line stopped moving (to my absolute dread...) and I soon found my attractor fly hooked on the rock and the midge was gone. I let out a scream that reverberated against the walls of the Fryingpan Canyon, soon to be followed by the knowing chuckles (and outright laughter!) of fly-fisherman up and down the river. I did manage to catch and land a respectable brown (on the midge). He was starting to grow some manly shoulders. However, apparently the earlier "battle" spooked the river, and action slowed. So, I headed downstream to fish dries for the afternoon and despite the nice brown, left the upper pan with a very empty feeling in the old gullet.

The highlight of the afternoon outing was getting hung up in a tree(seriously). Not wanting to lose my fly, I stood tall on a rock (at some physical risk I might add), grabbed a limb of the tree, and pulled in the section to which my fly was embedded. I soon found a number of lines and realized I would bust my ass if I didn't get off the rock, so I broke off the entire limb and headed to the safety of the bank where I found not only my fly, but a BWO and two nymphs. Not bad. Obviously someone else was trying to make the same tight cast to a rising fish - possible the same fish as I was. I did not manage to catch that fish nor to even get him to rise to my fly. I did catch 4 trout, and met a nice local named Norm. Norm gave me two green drakes tied by none other than A.K. Best himself. So, Norm, if you're out there bud, thanks! I gave Norm one of my zebra midges and told him the story of the big fish earlier in the day. He was sympathetic as only someone on the Pan who had lived a similar experience.

Gold Prospecting on the Arkansas River

2009-07-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

This year saw a noticeable jump in gold prospectors on BLM land bordering the Arkansas River and of course in the river itself. I counted 6 miners along a stretch of river I used to fish and whose willows were home to the infamous super beaver story of a few years back. Some were just panning, others had gasoline pumps set up on the hillside for pumping river water uphill and then gravity feed their sluices. One elaborate rig was a self contained floating unit, complete with pump and sluice. Wish I had had my camera for that contraption - it was really something. Pictured above is a man from Missouri who travelled all the way to Oregon this year to prospect for gold. He is using the small creek at the Sugarbush campground to set up his sluice because he could not proper water current speed in the big river. Apparently the Sugarbush creek is flowing at just the right speed. So, he brought back two buckets of "gold dirt" and is pouring it into the sluice to be filtered out. Next he will take apart the sluice and pan the remaining minerals the old fashioned way. He is headed to Georgia next where apparently the purest gold in the US exists and the site of the first gold mint in the US (according to him).

While in Oregan, this man's wife learned a trick from an 84 year old woman: you use a turkey baster to suck out the dirt behind large rocks in which there is fast current on both sides and slow water behind. Then you pan that dirt for gold. Apparently, it works quite well.

It is still possible to stake claims on BLM land. From conversations I had, it is not required to post the land but I don't know if it is illegal to do so. Apparently, if you are prospecting, you had better know where you are and if there is an existing claim. Also, panning is free, but you need a permit for a gasoline powered pump as there are some use requirements. I think the permit is like $20 or and can be purchased in Salida.

With gold over $930 an ounce and a US economy on the rocks, it's not surprising more and more Americans are becoming interested in prospecting for gold. I am going to try my luck on the Arkansas next year.

New Role Model

2009-07-19T14:29:00.001-07:00

Meet Bob from Kansas, yet another interesting Kansan I have met at the Sugarbush campground this year. Bob and his girl Ruthie were out everyday either shooting the Arkansas river rapids or mountain biking all over the territory. Last year, they biked across the US. Ruthie is a bigtime Tour de France fan and knows more about the riders and teams than I do. She even signed up for cable just to get the Versus network so she could watch the stages. Bob on the other hand - you'd never guess he's a retired banker - owns no computer, no cell phone, and no cable TV. He says "I get along just fine without 'em!" Bob's Toyota Tacoma is only a year older than mine but he already has over 200k miles with no trouble at all (mine is pushing 100k miles).

I can only hope I am as spirited and full of adventure as Bob when I am 69 years old! I realize now that I have been limiting my biking to my immediate neighborhood (hill sprints) just due to my fear of a hit and run accident that could be financially devastating. Bob and Ruthie are motivational people and I realize now I need to buy a health care plan and get back on my roadbike and get my endurance and fitness in tip-top form once again!

The Fly-Fisherman's Blues

2009-07-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

The lower Conejos river (downstream of the Hwy 17 bridge) is noted for great fly-fishing...and it is also famous for lousy fly-fishing. Sometimes you'd swear ther are no trout in the river at all. I caught my first trout here nearly 15 years ago. It was a very plump 16" rainbow full of eggs. I greatly regret eating that fish now that I understand rainbows are having a hard time reproducing and competing with the browns. Anyhow, I stopped at the Mogote CG to fish my favorite spots for a couple days. Bad idea....

July 13, 2009

My morning attempt was to fish above Sanders bridge (the Coleman cabin property) where it was quickly apparent the 4th of July crowd had thoroughly fished the run. There were footprints everywhere, and few fish (only caught 3). For the evening session I decided to fish right there at the Mogote CG, which is famous for large browns. First the wind came up. Then the angle of the sun made it impossible to see my fly. Then a storm brewed up and I had to sit on the bank for 30 minutes waiting for the threat of lightening to subside. Then no strikes. Thinking they are feeding down low, I put on a dropper (prince nymph) and almost fell asleep waiting for some action. When my dry-fly indicator finally did go down, I was in somewhat of a daze and raised my rod to find a *big* brown on my line. I didn't get a good hook set, he turned sideways in the current, opened his mouth, glared at me, and the next thing I knew I not only lost the fish, but my dry fly/dropper combination was now 20 feet up in the pine tree behind me. I lost both flies. Even more painful were the 3 guys sitting under a shade tree drinking beer watching this display. One was taking pictures of me. They were laughing alot, no doubt some of the time (all of the time?) because of me. But I persisted in hopes a hatch would come off near sunset. It never did. The sun was now down, I could barely see, and just about the time I was going to call it quits I heard the old "toilet plunger" sound I last heard on the Fryingpan River last year while fishing blind after dark. It was a nice plump rainbow and I landed it. Of course, the guys taking pictures weren't around when I finally caught a trout.

July 14

My morning session was characterized by NO fish and by being run off the river by mosquitos. The mosquitos were so heavy you had to breath through your nose and even then the buggers would go up your nostrils. When I got back to the truck, they were swarming all over me. I broke down my rod into two pieces, through all the gear into the truck, and jumped in (waders and wading boots still on) and drove down the road at 60 mph with all the windows down. Whew! Found a turn off and pulled over to gear down put my fly-rod away properly. I no sooner got my boots off when the mosquitos found me again. I mean I had two coats of deet on and they still were eating me! I swear one got a needle in right through my 3mm neoprene waders. A guy back at the campground (where the bugs were just as bad) joked that Mogote was Spanish for mosquitos. It is not, a mogote is a geologic structure found in the area. The evening session was even worse. I again fished at the CG waiting for the infamous stonefly hatch to come off, thinking since it didn't last night, it must tonite. That part was correct - the stoneflys not only came off, they were friggin huge. When their wings were beating, they were about the same area as a golfball, with body centers the size of crickets. These flies were *big*. Not only that, there was also a caddis hatch and a mayfly hatch. The river was covered in bugs. But no rises. None. I finally caught a small brown, but turned in. The only thing good about this day was the 43 degree nightime temps and reading myself to sleep: "Heisenburg Probably Slept Here", a book profiling 10 of he world's greatest physicist, given to me by billm. Excellent book. You gotta love Feyman. After having an argument with some students that urination was a strictly gravitational driven event, he proved them wrong by standing on his head and taking a leak.

July 15

Screw it - left Mogote for Salida and the Arkansas river. Stopped at Milagros for coffee and to view the babeage.

July 16

I sucked. Wind was up. No risers. Will I ever catch another trout??

July 17

Good day. Caught over 20 trout, but missed the 5 big ones. Here's how:

1) lost the biggest one (brown) because I was on the bank and got my fly-line wrapped around my boot. The headed downstream in the fast current, and when I figured out what was going on, my rod tip went down into the water and I looked on with trepidation as the leader popped and my fly was gone (and so too the fish).

2) Lost another nice fish because I was watching my fly and it simply dissappeared. No swirl, no movement, no nothing - just vanished. By the time it took me to think "what the fuck Alice?" I set the hook but it was too late. I saw a big silver streak (rainbow) headed toward the fast water and I just knew the hook wasn't set well - and this guy was large. After a very brief fight, ping! He was gone. At least I got the fly back.

3-5) All large fish, all got off due to slack in the line because of the howling wind ripping through the canyon. There is a reason fly-fisherman say "tight lines bud!" instead of goodbye.

July 18

OK, the Fitzman is in a slump. Just like last year, the very windy conditions here on the Arkansas have given me the fly-fishing blues. Losing *all* the big fish yesterday has taken some of my spunk away. Today merely confirmed I am not having fun fighting the wind and the non-cooperating trout. To make matters worse, I hiked down into a gorge for the morning session only to find I had left my anti-glare glasses and my net back in the truck. Then I ran out of 3lb tippet. My left thumb has lost the top 4 layers of epidermis due to all the line stripping and fish de-hooking. It bleeds a little while I am fishing, but I never feel it while I am on the water. Later, it bothers me. As always, click to enlarge the picture and see a miserable looking thumb. Isn't this exciting reading?.

This is a replay of so many years: fly-fishing burnout on the Arkansas river. Hot, windy, hard to cast, water-lined fly-lines after so many days of continuous fishing. Why aren't I enjoying the British Open on TV? What happened in the Tour de France today and boy would I love to watch the Lance and Contador battle once they are in the Alps. And boy, do I miss a refrigerator... Last year after a day like today, I reached up to grab a rock to help me up out of the river and I had a premonition NOT to grab the rock. I subsconciously puled my hand back, looked down, and saw a rattlesnake coiled to strike just below the exact rock I was going to grab. I took a picture of the rattlesnake which you can see here:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_j_4lwjoSt0w/SIeYqn4ShWI/AAAAAAAAAJc/gbdkJ1pPyfo/s1600-h/snake3.JPG

That was my signal to leave and I headed back to TN the next day. Today, things were a bit different. I still suffered the mid-summer fly-fishing blues like last year, but in a more serene and accepting way. Today while releasing a small rainbow, I again had a premonition someone or something was watching me. I turned around to find a big-horn sheep staring at me from the opposite bank. He was a majestic beast and I waded over to the shore to get the camera out of the ziploc bag in my fly-fishing vest. I quickly took a picture in case he bolted, but decided I needed a closer shot, so I waded across the water toward him. He had alot of attitude. Hard to describe, but walking toward him took a few minutes, and he was like, yeah doode, I am a big-horn sheep and you are a human. But it isn't hunting season, and you are a fly-fishing nut, so you're not a threat. Then he'd eat a bit, or take a sip of water. Then he'd look at me as though, by-the-way, at the look of things, I can probably fly-fish better than you too. He was truly magnificent. Anyhow, I got pretty close before the water got too high and I was scared of going downstream with a wet camera.

Big-horn Sheep (Click to enlarge)

It's Called Dry-fly Fishing

As I said earlier, my biggest problem now is water logged and old fly-lines. After non-stop fishing for a month now, my lines are worn out and I am too thrifty (stupid? cheap??) to buy new ones. Water logged lines lead to heavy landings, which the trout "feel" and very quickly evacuate the vacinity. You can see big dart streaks taking off to the deeper fast current. Especially when the water is low like it is here now and was on the Conejos. Even if you are lucky enough to make a good cast, the fly itself usually lands with a "thud" and scares the hell out of any fish within the same zip-code. Plus, the flies themselves then retain more water because they are not floating as they should. All this is of course why they call the sport dry fly fishing. The objective is always to land the fly like a feather, have it float on the surface of the water like a real fly does, and keep as natural a drift on the current as possible. Old worn out fly lines prevent this. A bamboo rod is great, but if your line suck, so will your fishing. So, I string up the lines, dry them out, and dress them with Cortland XL cleaner. But old lines are old lines, and after 10 or 20 cast in fast water they are once again water-logged. So, my strategy then is to increase my leader length to 9 or 10 feet, adding much more 3 lb tippet at the end. This works pretty good...until it gets windy (like it is here now) in which case your problems are magnified by such a long leader.

Like I said, I have the mid-summer fly-fishing blues.

But, like 59 year old Tom Watson at the British Open, who faced adversity and Irish Sea wind on the front 9 at Turnberry and lost his lead, only to make two birdie puts (one 45 feet and one 60 feet!) on the back 9, the Fitzman is going to fight through this adversity. So, one more day here to do laundry (and perhaps try fishing once more) and it is on to the Fryingpan River, which is probably the hardest of all rivers to fly-fish from a technical perspective due to the amount of fishing pressure and the age and wisdom of the trout in the river (all catch and release for rainbows). However, I will enter the arena. I will participate and I will try to match wits with the trout on the Pan.

Solar Power for the San Luis Valley

2009-07-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

The San Luis Valley in Colorado is the largest alpine valley in the world covering more than 8,000 sq miles at an average altitude of around 7.500 feet. I travel through the valley every summer on my way to the Conejos river and stop frequently in Alamosa for a cheap breakfast at the lil restaurant next to the Lamplighter motel, a visit to Milagros coffee shop (internet access), the bookstore, the Conoco station, and to buy groceries. Sometimes I'll lunch at the Adam's State campus or in the city park along the Rio Grande river. It's a cool little town and the people are very friendly.

Anyhow, solar power has come to the San Luis Valley. Just outside Alamosa off Hwy 17, SunEdison has constructed the largest solar PV plant (8.22 Megawatts) in the United States supporting substation loads for a major public utility. Xcel Energy will buy renewable energy credits and the solar power generated by the Alamosa plant for 20 years. There are plans to build an additional plant with a 16 MW capacity. Combined, the two solar plants will be able to power over 7,000 homes in the valley.

In addition, I read in a local rag that Tri-State (the local electrical co-op) plans to build a solar power plant in northeastern New Mexico with a half-million state of the art photovoltaic panels that will generate 30 MW - enough to power an additional 9,000 homes. They are also investing in a 51 MW wind farm in eastern Colorado. I have heard this farm will be in the La Junta area. Both of these facilities should be in operation by the end of 2010.

It's great to see alternative energy really taking root in this area. It's good news for the San Juan Wilderness and for the trout in the Conejos and Rio Grande rivers and tributaries.

Now, the San Luis Valley is noted for its UFO sitings. Several books have been written on the subject and there is even a UFO themed campground near the new solar plant. Now the locals are saying the new solar plants will invite yet more frequent visitations. I have personally shared breakfast with two older gentlemen who swear they saw a UFO in the upper Rio Grande area. They were camping (and drinking) and about 1am saw a small object that hovered over them and lit up the entire valley with beams of light. I asked if the alcohol may have had something to do with the encounter, and they both got very serious - they admitted to drinking alot, but the fact that both of them saw it at the same time means it really happened. Anyhow, while I was passing through town there was a rumour that a bald headed alien in some kind of silver looking vehicle was spotted in the Conejos river valley. Hey, don't laugh...when the aliens come down, they will look favorable on all the bald headed men first. "Take me to your leader"

Coffee, Cane, and the Conejos

2009-07-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

July 7-12, 2009

I caught 9 browns at Swissdale (on the Arkansas River) including the first brown of the summer (shown below).

First Brown Trout of the Year (Arkansas River).

It's pretty amazing that I have been in Colorado over two weeks and only now catching a brown. That said, it's easy to stay in the Flat Tops and catch nothing but cutthroats, rainbows, and cut-bows. Nine trout isn't bad, but the Arkansas was flowing high and fast and it seemed that it was time to go to the Conejos, my "home river" so to speak. On July 7 I drove to the Conejos from Salida stopping in Alamosa for supplies. With the 5 day cooler Mom & Dad bought me, and with a few towels and waders stacked on top, I can now get 7 days out of my cooler and this is a big deal considering the time and distance for ice and food.

July 7:

After setting up the Teardrop at Lake Fork CG, the first fly-fisherman I met told me the story: it had rained nearly every day in June, Platoro Reservoir was at a 30 year high (after being at a 30 year low just a few drought years back), and the Conejos had been running high and fast all spring until just before the 4th of July weekend when they cut back the flow out of Platoro for the fisherman. And the river dropped bigtime. Now, even though the Conejos is fed by the dam at Platoro, it really fishes more like a free-stone river. That is, it's length (over 25 miles long), number of tributaries (Elk Creek, South Fork, etc.), and varied terrain (from meandering meadows, to great pocket water, to gorging canyons) makes it appear to fish more like a freestone river (ala the Cache la Poudre in northern CO) than a tailwater fishery. Low water excited me as I felt I could wade across the river and work the opposite bank. Being a right-handed caster, this is a big plus - not to mention the opposite bank doesn't get as much fishing pressure as most wussies don't dare cross. So, I headed out about 6pm to fish a place downstream from the campground where I caught an awesome green drake hatch this time last year. Sure enough, the river was low, I waded across and busted some trout using my Beasley Perfectionist (4 wt bamboo) fly-rod and a #12 orange stimulator. And sure enough, just about when the sun was going down (and blinding me to where I couldn't see my fly), the green drakes came out and I ended up catching 12 fish in about 2 hours including some below. Love the Conejos and man do I know how to fish!

Nice to be catching Rainbow Trout again on the Conejos.

First Brown Trout on the Conejos. All day long....

July 8:

Got cold as hell last night and the hot coffee this morning was the highlight of the day. Went upstream to a favorite section of river and could do nothing right. Hung up, tippet screwed up, fly landing like a 747 on the surface of the water and scared all the fish back up to Platoro. By the time I fixed my leader and rig, the wind came up and was blowing the fly 20 yards from its intended landing zone. What am I doing up here all alone? What about that girl back at the bookstore in Alamosa...or the one that helped me pick out wine at the liquor store. I don't know how to fish, so why am I trying to catch trout on this river??

July 9:

Decided last nite to climb Mt. Conejos today since I obviously no longer no how to fly-fish. However, when I awoke the sky was overcast and darkening clouds (very unusual - it's usually clear as a bell in the mornings) and I didn't want to get caught on Conejos Peak if it was gonna get nasty. So, I decided to fish but wanted none of the wind of the upper canyon so I went downstream further then ever before and tried a new stretch of river. Bam! Caught a trout on the first cast and caught trout non-stop from 8am-2pm. What a difference a day makes. The day was topped off by catching 3 fish on 5 casts from the same slot in the river. For once, I was patient enough to take all the right measures. When I saw this slot in the river, I knew it was big trout territory. I fixed a wind knot in my tippet I had been ignoring, and actually broke off some limbs of some bushes so that I could not only cast to the slot, but also form a path of retreat as I knew a big fish would head for the fast water and take me downstream. With all this preparation down, with a swig of water and a mouth full of sunflower seeds...I headed in and made the first cast. BAM!! A big brown swallowed my fly wholesale and headed for the fast water. I gave his some line, retreated deftly over the boulders and down to some calmer water where I wore him out and netted him. The Fitzman is baaack! :) Took a pic, revived and released the fish, and headed back to the slot for more. Another cast...no strike. Another cast a foot farther upstream - BAM!! Carbon copy of the first fish...fought the same, took the same route downstream, landed the same, looked the same, same coloring, same size, coudda been brothers. After releasing...I headed back in again. A fourth cast to the slot...nada...a fifth cast a foot further than before and BAM!! A triplet brother! I swear all three fish could have been brothers, all 17-18" and just beautiful browns. Here's a picture of the biggest (I think) of the "brothers":

The mosquitos love this hole in my old fly-fishing shirt.

A beautiful and productive run on the Conejos River

Overall on this day, I landed about 20 trout and had numerous other battles where the fish won out. Good news in that among the 20 odd fish were 4 rainbows. Last year, I didn't catch a rainbow all year on the Conejos and they have been in decline since the browns have taken over. The cutthroat in the Conejos are all but gone - being somewhat slow and bashful, they cannot compete with the browns. Despite all the reputation of cunning, I have found browns to be very agressive and will not let a rainbow or cuttie or brookie take a fly before himself. Anyhow, it's good to catch bows on the Conejos again.

July 10:

Wind is up again - shit! I don't know how to fish. Caught two fish all day - the biggest one being 7 inches long. What on earth am I doing here? I bet the girl at the bookstore is at Milagros having a nice cup of coffee and flirting with some guy on a fly-fishing vacation while I am out here throwing my arm off for no reason at all....

July 11:

Went further downstream to Trail Creek trailhead and hiked down the gultch to the river. Hmm..bear tracks...not too fresh...no big deal...just keep an eye out. As I get closer to the river I'm in willows over my head and can't see 10 feet. I start being quieter and real stealthy like so as not to spook the fish and all of a sudden I look up and notice a big black animal and a little black animal. My first instinct (incorrect I might add..) was to run like hell! I somehow kept myself from doing that and my second instinct was to beshit my knickers (or in this case, my waders) but it is a good thing I did not. Just two cows who had gotten separated from the rest up on the mesa. Whew. Boy, that will get yer ole heart pumpin at 8am on a cold morning in the wilderness! Long story short - this was a great day of fishing and about 25 fish were landed. None over 16", but all fun and the scenery was awesome as usual. Orange stimulators, caddis, adams wulff - you name it, they all worked. What a river. Do I know how to fish after all? I can't decide.

July 12:

There was the coolest electrical storm over the continental divide toward Platoro last nite. I got up to take a whizz about 3am and I kept thinking someone was taking my picture..then I thought I'd gone crazy..I finally just stood there and looked up at the sky and it was fantastic. The quickets flashes of the brightest white you have ever seen in your life filled the canyon up-river. No sound at all - just flashes of brilliance.

After 5 days at Lake Fork, I was ready for a new campground. Especially after I fixed the CG hosts' waterpump in his RV for which he was very grateful. I kinda thought he'd give me a free night's stay ($14/night) but the offer was not made and I did not suggest it - though I thought strongly about doing so. Oh well, it still felt good to help someone out.

So, I packed up and headed to where I didn't know. On the way back down the dirt road, I pulled over to look down at the river from the infamous "Pinnacles". The Pinnacles if famous for a few things:

1) Hardest section of the river to fish due to the very steep drop down to the river.
2) Hot and heavy pocket water fishing.
3) Big trout.
4) A *very* big grunt back up the mountain after the fishing is over.

For these reasons, I'd never found the time to fish the Pinnacles before. Today however, I felt the water being really low - at least there was no risk of a big hike to unfishable water. I wished I had a companion for this venture, but what the heck. I pulled over (Teardrop and all), suited up, and hiked down to the river. Well, the reputation was correct - it was steep and a bit of work. But worth it - the river was gorgeous and the trout were receptive. That said, I was a bit dissapointed in the size of the fish - nothing bigger than I had been catching. I did catch one rather fat 17" brown, but of course the camera batteries were finally kaput (they had been "not working" for some time, but all I had to do was take them out, warm them in my hands, scratch around the contacts a bit, and I could always get one more picture. Well, not today. So, not only did I not get a picture of the fat brown trout, but I got none of the beautiful river down there either. Take my word though, it was spectacular and wild country. On the way out after catching 7 or 8 fish, I was lucky enough to find an old abandoned road. It looked like the original road to Platoro it had telephone lines strung next to it and the poles looked really old. Anyhow, this made the hike back downstream to the original route down the mountain much easier. Then the grunt up. Let's just say the Fitzman was looking for any shade tree on the hike up for which to rest under. Whew! What a workout. But I'll do it again next summer...later this summer??

The picture below didn't turn out as cool as I had hoped. Yes, the fish is small, but he was rising under that rock and the cast was just perfect and he nailed it! Just imagine me not in the picture and you too will see a beautiful little slice of the Conejos flowing under that rock.

The Kansas Kontingent

2009-07-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

July 4-5, 2009

Rick and Hammer - click on the photos to see the beards.

This year the Sugarbush campground was full of Kansans, including my biker neighbors Hammer and Fauna, and from across the creek Rick the BBQ expert. Hammer was pulling a small trailor on his Harley that I must admit got more attention than the old Teardrop. Rick had a big rig that was designed to haul toys in the back - in his case a couple of 4-wheelers. Once these were taken out, an air mattress was put in and the compartment was a bedroom for his two girls.

I met the two girls first. They were playin around the creek's big hole and I said how's the water? They said cold. I said cold?? I thought you country farm girls from Kansas were 'posed to be tough. Just jump right in! They looked at me in disbelief, so I turned back to whatever I was doing. Then I hear splash! Both are in the water and soon covered in mud. It got real serious when one of them said "not in the face, not in the face" and the other was making mud balls and baking them in the sun to ripen...

Rick and the girls.

Big rig!

It was the first time I can remember hanging out with people from Kansas, but I hafta say they were some generous and kind folks. The first night, Rick made a trip over from the cabin down the road (in the family for generations) to bring over some 10-12 pounds of beef brisket he'd been smokin all day. Rick owns a BBQ place in Elkhart, KS. So, I get back from town and Hammer and Fauna are like don't cook dinner Mike, we've got you covered - check out what Rick brought us. Well, I don't have to tell you that after being in the Flat Tops for two weeks, this news was heaven sent. So, we pigged and drank beer. Half way through the meal, it dawns on me that Rick didn't provide any BBQ sauce, and I mentioned this. Well, Fauna, never one to hold back a thought, says you ungrateful so-n-so - here the guy brings you all this great smoked brisket and you are complaining about no BBQ sauce! After she calmed down, I explained that most guys I know that are proud of their BBQ (especially those who own their own restaurant) are *very* proud of their sauce and I just thought it was interesting that Rick did not bring any over with the beef. Fauna and Hammer were both of the opinion I should just let this oversight slide in view of his generousity. The next day, I was over bs'ing with Rick and getting the tour of his rig and of course thanked him profously for the brisket. Then I said, hey, Rick, not to look a gift horse in mouth, but I was surprised you didn't bring any of your BBQ sauce over with the beef - aren't you proud of your sauce? Well, he got this very concerned look on his face and said, you know, I forgot! I've got some over at the cabin and I'll bring some over later. Well, later on he comes over with a BBQ pork sandwich (with bacon) and says Mike, this has my sauce on it - what do you think? Well, it was delicious and I said it was some of the best BBQ sauce I'd ever had. Now, this was different. Do you have a secret? Without hesitating (unusual for cooks...) he says, yup, wasabi! I said wasabi, in BBQ sauce? Well, turns out his wife was enamered with a ranch dressing they tried at TGI Fridays that had wasabi. They talked the owner into selling them a 10lb tub which they were sure would go bad before they could finish it. Not to be - they loved it and put it on everything - carrots, celery, sandwiches, etc. etc. During one of these ranch/wasabi lovefest, Rick's wife said hey, why not in your BBQ sauce? Rick says his diner's success is solely due to his wife's tinkering with the menu, so when she suggested this addition to his BBQ sauce, he jumped on it and the rest is history. If you are thinking this is all bullshit, just visit Rick-n-Roll BBQ in Elkhart, KS (Hwy 56 East) or visit http://ricknroll.net/ (under construction).

Then Rick says, so, you like wasabi huh? Be-right-back and he bounds into the inner sanctum of his trailer to return with a can of, can you believe it, Blue Diamond Almonds - BOLD with Wasabi and Soy Sauce! Ohhh man, are these almonds good! Try them out - you can pick em up at Wal Mart and there is no way you won't finish the can as long as yer beer holds out.

Rick's son Ricky is a born businessman. Came right by to look over the Teardrop, asked me if I go through Kansas on the way to Tennessee and I said why sure. Hands me his Dad's business card and says this is the best BBQ you've ever had (this was before we feasted on it) and tells me just how to get there from the main road. Later, I found out that Hammer got a stack of business cards from Ricky, and I told him I guess I didn't rate - I only got one. Hammer said no, the kid realized we live in Kansas and you are in Tennessee. Good point!

Rick's son Ricky.

The morning after the BBQ feast, I wake up and hear my neighbors cookin up breakfast so I start my morning coffee routine when Fauna says, Mike - don't be making any breakfast - we've made too much omelet. I said no, no, I really do have food - you guys from Kansas don't have to feed me for every meal. She said nonsense, we didn't make it FOR you...we just made too much - so come over and get you some or we'll just have to throw it out. So, I wandered over with my coffee and here was an omelet of all omelets - hash browns, onions, peppers, pork, chicken, eggs and cheese. Zow-eee was it tasty! Best omelet I ever had (no lie). What a way to start the day and how they hauled all those tasty vittles along with that camper on a Harley I will never know. Anyhow, Hammer and Fauna were great. Tom (the campground host and owner, great guy) was giving the girls hell for playing in the creek and Fauna looked him straight in the eye and said "you're a crusty old bastard aren't ya?" Well, I just about busted a gut and fell in the friggin creek. Hammer was telling of coyote huntin stories where they go out in the winter to the prarie - no trees for miles, just small elevation changes. He and his buddy sit back-to-back as you never know which direction the coyotes will come from and sometimes they'll be 20 or 30 of em coming at you with their tongues hangin out. So, they position themselves and their rifles and start making rabbit calls and whatknot. Now, he says you can't move an eyelash when they start comin or they will break off and leave. So, you just have to be still while they come from all directions straight toward you (thinking you're a meal..). Then you blast them. White snow turns fast and it's blood on the highway. Hammer wears an UnderArmour shirt that looks like his arms are tatoo'd in camo. I thought so, and so did one other guy. I think Hammer delights in rolling up the sleeve after questioned about it. He also told a story about taking his grandmother to the doctor's office in Colorado Springs one day. He was helping her out of the car when a couple in a Mercedes dropped their jaw thinking his old grandmother was being rolled by a biker. He told his grandmother what was happening, and of course she played it up bigtime and pretended to fight back. Of course the young couple in the Mercedes sped away fast and Hammer and his grandma had a good laugh over it.

Anyhow, lots of fun with the folks from Kansas this year.

Hammer and Fauna.

Ready to Roll!

C-ya.

Another guy from Kansas, I forget his name, nice as could be. He was notable for his refusal to call the Arkansas River by anything other than the "R-Kansas" River. Cracked me up.

As usual, I never even thought about taking pictures til everyone was packin up to leave on July 5th. But I did get a few shots and they're shared here.

As far as all the trailor competition goes - despite all the nice units at Sugarbush this year, I'll stick with my old Teardrop. Even all covered in Flat Top's mud it's still perfect for the Fitzman. The fender shown had even been cleaned off by a couple whizzes, so imagine what the one on the opposite side looked like ;)

The Flat Tops Wilderness

2009-07-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Typical Flat Tops Country

June29-July2, 2009

The Flat Tops Wilderness is one of my all-time favorite places to camp and fly-fish. Its remote, rugged, wild, and less visited than most. This year there has been abundant rainfall - it has rained almost every day this spring. The trails are muddy and sometimes a bit difficult. The plus side of mud is good tracks - you can see who (or what) has been on the trail before and after you, assuming one knows his or her's own boot print. The usual critters where there again this year (deer, elk, bear, coons, skunks, etc) with one exception - I never saw a mountain lion print this year. However, rumour has it that the large "dog" prints on the trail were actually wolf prints. The old lady up at the cabins swears she had wolves round her house on a couple of occaisions early this spring. I googled "wolf print" and gave them a good look in comparison to dog prints, and I am still not convinced the prints on the trail were wolf, That said, I am not convinced otherwise either. Regardless, I never saw a wolf.

I realize now that I never take pictures of the trails into my favorite river. I take lots of river pictures, but in truth, the trail makes just as big an impression on me. It's the trail that must be hiked in to the real good fishing - the farther you hike away from the campground, the better the fishing. Two miles..OK...three miles...pretty decent...four miles in - fabulous fishing. Anyhow, the trail is always on your mind - what to pack-in, what not to pack, how much time to hike in/out, and at some point every year the question comes up - do I give up catching nice fish to beat the storm that is brewing, or, do I keep fishing and risk getting caught on the wrong side of the "boulders" at sundown. The "boulders" is a term some of us use to refer to the mountain top full of big boulders and rock that must be negotiated to get back to the campground. If the storm has lightnin, and they usually do, you don't want to be caught on the "boulders" with an aluminum frame backpack (like mine) and a fly-rod tube sticking up in the air (not to mention a bald head). I got caught on the wrong side of the boulders once. The lightening show was spectacular - actually striking some of the rocks on top of the mountain. I was wet cold and it was after dark when I stumbled back into the campground where Alan and crew were already organizing a search party. Amazingly cool since I had only met them a couple days before.
Anyhow next year, I am going to take many pictures of the trail to document its various sections: up hill to deep pools, narrow/muddy/buggy/flat, nice meadow, open aspen meadow, uphill to boulders, "the shoots", uphill again, straight and narrow, open meadows, and finally the cabins (at 5mi in). After four or five days hiking this trail, it leaves its imprint on you and you get to know it well. This year, the wild flowers were amazingly bright and colorful.
One man gathers what another man spills. So far I have found a Henckles knife at MeadownLake CG (very nice!) and a book on Colorado wildfires which I found on the trail.
The river was high this year but I found some good fishing including one day that was nothing less than inspirational. Here are some pictures from that day.

A nice fat cut-bow (rainbow/cutthroat hybrid).

This rainbow was a 19 incher.

Another cut-bow.

Another couple cut-bows.

The river was high and fast due to all the rain. It was hard to get good drifts with the dry flies I like to use. Also quite difficult to land a big trout as they usually run straight for the current. So, you have a choice - use 4 or 5 lb tippet and catch many fewer fish (fly doesn't drift as naturally), or use the lighter 3lb tippet and hook more fish, but lose some flies when the big ones take off on you. I lost quite a few flies...
Of special note this day was "the log". As I worked my way up the river I saw a big tree which I was too lazy to negotiate. On the other side of the tree was a real nice piece of water where I knew some trout would be hanging out.

Casting into this sweet draw from below the log, it became apparent that hooking a nice sized fish would be difficult if not impossible to land. About the time that thought went through my mind, I got a powerful strike from a medium sized rainbow. He of course headed into the current and downstream. I thought I'd lose him and my fly, but I worked him as best I could and eventually, with my rod and on the upstream side of the log, actually netted the fish underneath the log on the downstream side. I hope you can visualize this. Anyhow, after netting the fish for some reason I started laughing out loud as I was quite amazed I pulled it off. I ended up catching 3 more the same way until a whopper didn't feel like playing my game, took me downstream, and popped the orange stimulator off my line. So, I eventually got what I deserved, but it sure was great fun for awhile!

I had to string up this rainbow (just under 20") to revive it after a classic well fought battle. He lived, and I had a Kodak moment.

Native Colorado Cutthroat Trout

2009-07-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

Small stream fishing with a bamboo fly-rod.

(June 23-27, 2009). I stayed on some BLM land the first night in Colorado to save some campground fees. As I primed the pump on my now 25 year old Coleman Stove for the first time this season it squeaked as usual. It dawned on me that its squeak sounded like a small elk or perhaps an animal in distress. The thought no sooner flew through my mind than coyotes all around me started howling away. Colorado blows my mind sometimes. The next morning when I exited the Teardrop, I was greeted by a cow elk and her young calf. I took a picture, but you have to click on it and blow it up to see them.

Elk cow and calf (click on the picture to enlarge).

There is no better way to start a summer fly-fising excursion than to head up to Trappers Lake to catch some native Colorado Cutthroat Trout. Due to all rain this year and cooler than normal temperatures (it snowed 3 inches just the week before my arrival), fising in the big lake was a bit slow this year. I caught a few, but didn't catch any of the really red spawning trout that I was after (after failing to catch a brilliant red the year before). So, I headed inland a bit and found a system of beaver ponds whose outlet was a small creek that flowed down into the main lake. It was far enough away from the lake to keep from breaking the regulations, so I tried my luck and lo-n-behold finally caught one of the bright red spawning trout that are, in my opinion anyhow, one of the most beautiful fish in existence. You would think the trout would be easily spooked in such a small stream. However, I could have caught as many 10-14 inch trout as I wanted. Since the fish were spawning, when you catch one and it goes haywire, I got the feeling the other fish just looked at the victim and think to themselves - wow, look how that guy 'does it', and you cast your fly back out (a #14 Adams in this case) and readily catch another one. I quickly felt guilty catching them 'in the act' and spent the rest of the day just watching and trying to take pictures of em in action (a voyeur as it were). The pictures did not come out too good this year, but there are a few here to document the trip anyhow.

Is there a more beautiful fish than a Colorado Cutthroat in full spawning colours?

The Trappers Lake area is slowly recovering from the massive fire of a few years ago. I would guess it will be a good 50-60 years before tree growth is anywhere near the way it was before the fire. There is abundant greenery now under the burned out trees and all the rain is a good thing in the long run. After going through the drought years, we can complain about the rain but it is never a bad thing to get rain in the west these days. Still pretty dangerous hiking when the wind is blowing strong, as you hear cracks and trees falling, hopefully not too close to you! Each tree has hundreds of knives (branches) that are a grave threat indeed. I think you can still see some burned trees in a few of the pictures.

I was dissapointed not to see the two bald eagles I spotted last summer, however there were many deer, a few very friendly snoe-show hares, and the couple camping next to me were fortunate enough to take a hike and spot the cow moose and her calf everyone was talking bout round the campfires at night.

One day I was completely rained in by a torrential downfall and spend the day in the Teardrop starting and finishing "River of Doubt", a book my sister gave me a few years ago about Teddy Roosevelt's exploration of an unmapped tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. I can highly recommend this book as it was fascinating! Among the interesting facts was the origin of the name "Amazon" itself which comes from the Greek 'a-mazon' meaning "no breast". This name came from the original Portuguese explorer of the river who ran into a group of fierce Indians. He noticed that these warriors were actually women who had cut off their right breast in order to be better archers and more deadly with their poison tipped arrows. So, all those times of my youth when we were in clubs and a buddy would say, wow, look at that "Amazon" (pointing to a tall and very well built woman), it was an obviously erroneous comparison as the woman had two fully developed breasts. Another interesting discussion in the book was how plants and animals had evolved over millions of years to thrive in the rain forest. One fish, for instance, is called "four-eyes". Over time it has developed two sets of cornea and retina. It then floats on the river so that one set of eyes can view low hanging tree limbs for potential victims (or predators) and the other set searches below the waterline for food. What a panic! Great book, thanks sis! By the way, the Brazilian government renamed the river "Theodore".
Here are a few pictures of some typical cutthroat from Trapper's Lake.

An Irishman Grows Potatos

2009-06-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

I planted my red potatos on April 18 despite that fact that there were still two more trees shading the garden plot that needed to come down. Being a relative newbie at gardening, I was shocked the plants even came up. Low-n-behold after 3 weeks they were thriving - nice and green, very healthy looking, and no pests at all (it's a completely organic garden). They were quickly taking over the lettuce and spinach plants which I obviously rowed too close to the spuds. You can imagine how shocked I was on Tuesday of this week (June 16) when seemingly overnight the plants went from being very green and healthy to yellow and withered! I was really bummed out! There was no way those potatos should be ready for harvest after only 8 weeks and a garden that was barely getting 4 hours of sunlight a day. On top of that, we've had a very wet and cloudy early spring. Welp, nothing to do but dig 'em up and see what they looked like. What a surprise! Potatos everywhere...they kept multiplying in the ground like a rabbit orgy. Woo-hooo! Five or six plants yielded over 30 potatos, albeit some of them were very small. That said, some were bigger than at Krogers. They all looked very healthy except for one small one that had an insect burrowing into it. The dirt was really rich, lots of worms, and very few bugs.
I am ready to declare my first spring garden a success! The spinich was very tasty, the lettuce delicious, and the potatos - ahhhh, the potatos - Every Irishman's dream. I won't mention the radishes which I planted 6 inches deep. When they didn't come up, I reread the label and the "spacing" was supposed to be 6" and the depth was 1". Next year. Meantime, I am going to make the best potato, egg, and cheese omelet the world has every seen for breakfast tomorrow.

"Clean Coal" is an Oxymoron - Chu Should Go

2009-05-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

US Energy Secretary Chu
The Noble Prize Winner Should be FIRED

Question: How can someone so smart act so dumb?
Answer: Bought and paid for.

From Wikipedia:

An oxymoron (plural oxymora (greek plural) or, more often, oxymorons) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy ("sharp" or "pointed") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron. Oxymorons are a proper subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. What distinguishes oxymorons from other paradoxes and contradictions is that they are used intentionally, for rhetorical effect, and the contradiction is only apparent, as the combination of terms provides a novel expression of some concept, such as “cruel to be kind”, “team of mavericks”, or “simply complicated”.

----------------------

Rhetorical effect is right. President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu have uttered the "clean coal" oxymoron so often they now believe it is actually possible. It is not. Here's why:

1) Simply mining the coal out of the earth degrades the environment.
2) Capturing and pumping into the Earth (coal "sequestration") tons of CO2 emissions from coal-fired combustion is neither economical nor practical.
3) Even if sequestration were possible, it ignores an inconvenient truth about burning coal: the toxic wastes. Burning coal produces the following pollutants: mercury, arsenic, copper, sulfur-dioxide, cadmium, barium, chromium, thallium, and lead, among others.

To read about one of the biggest environmental disasters ever to take place in the United States, which occurred in Kingston, TN on December22, 2008, check out this site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_fly_ash_spill

Clean coal is a myth. For a sitting US Secretary of Energy (who holds a Noble Prize in Physics) to come out in support of "clean coal" is proof of his incompetence. To follow up this oxymoronic stance with his recent statements that he is "agnostic" about natural gas transportation is more evidence that Secretary Chu simply has not got the backbone to stand up to powerful and entrenched coal advocates. For these reasons, President Obama should immediately call for Secretary Chu's resignation. If he does not comply, Obama should fire him.

To support "clean coal" by ignoring the fact that natural gas has half the CO2 emissions of coal, and none of the toxic particulate by-products of coal-combustion, Chu is both technically and morally corrupt. We need an Energy Secretary that understands the most powerful weapons the US has on the war against foreign oil dependence and environmental degradation are:
1) abundant supplies of clean and cheap natural gas
2) a 2.2 million mile natural gas pipeline grid connecting every major metropolitan area and 63,000,000 homes where over 130,000,000 vehicles reside and which could be refueled with natural gas every night while their owners sleep soundly.

Secretary Chu needs to go!

An Open Letter to John Podesta

2009-03-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

(Mailed on 3/2/2009)

Mr. John Podesta,

Although I applaud the wind, solar, battery, and electric grid initiatives in the recent Obama administration’s stimulus plan, I was very disappointed in the lack of strong natural gas transportation policies. With all due respect to you and the President, you can do better.

America’s reliance on coal and oil are leading to economic contraction, environmental degradation, and geopolitical tension that not only threaten to destroy our way of life as we know it today, but all of civilization in the process.

Natural gas is the only domestic fuel that can be economically and technically scaled-up over the next 20 years so that America can significantly reduce foreign oil imports and reduce CO2 and particulate emissions. Prioritizing natural gas vehicles, the associated refueling infrastructure, and natural gas exploration and production would not only create millions of new jobs, but would rival past government projects such as the railroads and interstate highway system in terms of paying back dividends to US tax payers for decades to come. Natural gas infrastructure also paves the way for the cleaner and potentially cheaper hydrogen economy of the future. This is all very clear.

So, imagine my surprise as I recently read your quote at the beginning of Robert Hefner’s book The GET: Grand Energy Transition. Reading your quote, it would appear as though you understood Hefner’s case for natural gas transportation and agreed with it. Yet, where are the robust legislative initiatives needed to follow through?

Is the neglect of natural gas transportation initiatives due to Obama’s ties to the Illinois coal industry? Please say this isn’t so. “Clean coal”, coal sequestration, and coal-to-liquids are not economically and technically possible. You are smart enough to know this. So, let’s adopt policies reduce oil and coal consumption and transition the American people over to natural gas, wind, solar, and hydrogen. In this transition, natural gas transportation must play THE pivotal lead role in reducing foreign oil imports and CO2 and particulate emissions within the next decade.

If you allow the environmental “purists” to focus your policy strictly on electric cars, wind and solar, we will NOT significantly reduce neither foreign oil imports nor greenhouse emissions over the next 10 years. This failure would have catastrophic consequences. The Obama team must take action to make natural gas vehicles available, to make conversion to natural gas vehicles happen, to make home natural gas refueling appliances available and more affordable, as well as to build out the natural gas refueling infrastructure. It’s imperative.

If President Obama has not yet read Mr. Hefner’s book, and is not yet familiar with the GET mindset, it is in the country’s best interest if you bring the book to his attention immediately as well as to other key policymakers. Your administration will ultimately be judged by your energy policies. You are making some good progress, but bold action is required to significantly reduce American addiction to coal and oil. I hope you will be bold. A well articulated nat gas transportation policy would rally Americans behind you, strengthen the US dollar, and send a message to the other nations of the Earth that the US is serious about energy. After 8 years of George Bush, there is ZERO time to waste. Thanks for listening.

Best regards,

Mike Fitzismmons

Fixing America

2009-02-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

There are three main policy areas that must be competently addressed to fix America’s current and future economic troubles:

1) Financial Policy
2) Domestic Policy
3) Energy & Foreign Policy

Energy and foreign policy were grouped together because, unfortunately, energy drives US foreign policy. Before describing the fixes, some background is necessary.
True freedom can only be obtained by economic freedom. Debt is therefore the enemy of free people. Consider the origins of the word “mortgage” which comes from the Latin root “mort” and means “death”. In earlier European times having a mortgage on your property meant being a serf or slave to the land owner for your entire life.
As our political leaders wave American flags and casually use the word “freedom” as though they actually know what it means, the US is sinking deeper and deeper into debt. This is exactly what the richest 1% desire. Since they already own 80% of the world’s wealth, what better way to maintain this economic status quo than insuring the majority of Americans stay in debt or close to it? Is it any surprise that pensions are going away? Is it any surprise US citizens are being prepared for the day when their social security will be taken away? Is it any surprise we don’t have universal health care in America? Yet, look at the number of people without adequate health care coverage that have been conditioned to cringe at the mere mention of “universal health care”. Ironic, isn’t it?
Yet the wealthiest Americans apparently have nothing to worry about. There are no demonstrations here. Unlike France and Great Britain (which both have very successful universal health care systems), people still protest in the streets. When segments of society feel wronged, they hit the pavement with signs, stopping traffic and protesting with abandon. The governments there are concerned about their citizens and cognizant of their moral. After all, the French gave us the guillotine – a device which chopped the heads off some of the wealthiest French men (and women) during the French Revolution. Anyone watching Bill Maher’s “Real Time” closing monologue last Friday night can see that at least one person “gets it”. At least one American realizes something had better be done soon to turn this tide. Yet here in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, it seems as though people are afraid to demonstrate and protest. That is exactly how the wealthiest in control want it to be. Be scared, be intimidated, and accept the dysfunctional governmental and financial policies that exist today which do not favor the middle class in the least.
You see, there is a reason the rich want Americans to hate the French. The French have health care, pensions, generous vacations, and a more relaxed and higher quality of life. The French, in general, have the philosophy of working to live. What’s not to like about that? Yet in America it is the reverse. That is exactly why the French are vilified in the American press and by American politicians. If Americans began to expect the same quality of life as the French do, the 80% of the wealth that the wealthiest 1% own would begin to be redistributed in a much more equitable fashion. So, they make fun of the “socialist” French “frogs”. Well my American friends, the joke is on us. The French are laughing all the way to their health care facility, the beach, and to their vineyards.
But this article isn’t about the French. It’s about how to fix America. It’s about how to bring real freedom (that is, economic freedom) back to America by adopting more fiscally responsible financial, foreign, and domestic policies. In order to keep the article brief and to the point, very short or no explanation at all will be given for many of these policy suggestions. That said, the solutions presented are not complicated and are indeed fairly self-evident.

Financial Policy Fixes
Firstly, Americans must have their faith in the financial system restored. They watched their 401k savings disappear while at the same time they’ve seen their tax dollars go to pay bonuses for the thieves who brought about this crisis as they bankrupted their firms. (Where are the demonstrations?). Middle class Americans need to feel as though their government, if not on their side (we have been conditioned to believe that is not at all possible), is at least somewhat fair. Foreign countries such as China and Japan also need to see real financial reform. After all, they not only hold trillions of dollars in US debt obligations, but continue to bankroll current US deficit spending. They must be reassured their existing holdings are secure and that future US obligations will be met. Therefore the US should, in a very controlled, logical, and transparent way, do the following:

• Shut down the three existing bond rating agencies S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch. Without their fraudulent AAA ratings assigned to repackaged sub-prime debt, most of the existing calamity would not have been possible. A new “Bond Rating Commission” will be established to rate US bond offerings. The BRC will consist of private and government employees. It will be closely regulated and its “high commissioner” will report to the “Department of Finance”.

• Banks and businesses must be allowed to fail. There are too many banks in the US! Canada has 14 domestic banks. The US has 9459 banks with over $100 million in assets (or did have). The US is bigger, but not that much bigger. The US will have far fewer and much stronger banks. The US banking system will be regulated by the “US Department of Finance”.

• The “Federal Reserve” as it exists today will be abolished. The “US Department of Finance” will have an “Interest Rate Policy” board which will determine the interest rate structure of US banks.

• The “US Department of Finance” will consolidate all financial market regulatory agencies under its one roof.

• The “US Department of Finance” as discussed in this section will report to the Secretary of the Treasury and will have Congressional oversight. Major financial policy changes will therefore be voted on by the House & Senate.

• The President and US Congress will operate under balanced budgets restraints.

• Taxes will be raised on the wealthiest Americans. A graduated flat tax will be imposed on all income above the following levels. No loop holes, no fancy accounting.

$350,000 : 45%
$500,000 : 50%
$750,000 : 55%
$1,000,000 : 60%

The goal will be to roll back these taxes when and if the country gets its finances back in order.

• It will be criminal for any US tax-payer money to go for bonuses of financial, insurance, and banking executives of any company, let alone bankrupt companies requiring US tax-payer money to stay afloat. This practice has been an abomination and we should be rioting in the streets.

• The new “US Department of Finance” will work with the Department of Justice and begin prosecution of financial fraud. Harsh jail sentences should not be the exception.

Domestic Policy Fixes
US citizens need to force their elected officials into adopting policies for the benefit of the middle class as opposed to policies for the wealthy. Why do you think Rush Limbaugh gets paid $1,000,000 a day to take heroin and push his views onto the airwaves? One reason is because Limbaugh is highly successful at bamboozling middle-class Americans into supporting policies against their own interest and thereby maintaining the status quo (1% of the people keeping 80% of the wealth).

Have “Republicans” traded Lincoln for Limbaugh?
While Limbaugh talks about “freedom”, isn’t it ironic after 8 years of a President that Limbaugh fully supported we have seen the nationalization of the banking, insurance, and financial services industries? We have seen the US fiscal debt doubled - and that doesn’t even count the military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have seen more erosion of our Constitutional and Civil Rights than we have seen in the prior 200 year history of our country. Yet, boy-o-boy, don’t the poor middle class folks just love to tune into Limbaugh and hear the latest jokes about the “liberals”, “greenies”, “gay marriage”, those “spending Democrats”, and any other handy label Limbaugh can use to instigate fear and anger in his listeners. But the joke has been on those middle class folks. As they laugh and howl and are whipped up into an angry froth their standard of living has dropped sharply, they are in more debt, their taxes were basically stolen and transferred to the wealthiest Americans, and they are losing their health care and their pensions. China, Japan, and countries in the Middle East own their countries debt. This isn’t “freedom”. It’s hypocrisy and theft and is at its core where the wealthiest draw their true power - economic power. Just imagine if Bush had succeeded in his grand scheme to privatize social security and invest that money in the “markets”? This was yet another policy initiative designed to weaken the middle class and transfer the country’s wealth to the already wealthiest Americans. Imagine having social security taxes taken from your paychecks for decades and then watch your benefits get flushed down the toilet in the recent market crash. It could have happened, yet there is no fundamental reason why it should.
So, here’s what middle class people should demand from our government:

• Universal health care. Every major advanced western power – England, France, Canada, Sweden, etc all have very successful universal health care. Americans not only spend much more on health care, they are falling behind in almost every meaningful health care statistic. It is disgraceful.
• Pension benefits, once promised by an employer must be fully funded and paid by that employer. This is non-negotiable.
• Social Security must be fixed and secured. This is non-negotiable. Period. No excuses. Other countries can do it, we can too. We’ve been conditioned to believe it is not possible. It is. After all, even the French can do it, and we are superior – right?
• End the insane war on drugs and use the billions of dollars saved for education and health care.
• Secure the borders and adopt common sense immigration reform.
• Increase testing of food and water supplies for quality. Levy large fines when necessary.
• Initiate programs to make frugality cool, and waste unacceptable.

Foreign and Energy Policy Fixes
Well, I finally got around to my favorite topic. Faithful readers are aware of my belief that energy (oil) is at the root of America’s economic decline. American policymakers keep attempting to fix a commodity problem (oil) with financial policy and this simply won’t work. Likewise, the Pentagon/petroleum relationship could quite likely do us all in.
Recently, America announced it was sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. At the same time, Brazil’s Petrobras just announced the Chinese finalized a $10 billion line of credit in exchange for guaranteed future oil supplies. China also signed a $25 billion financing deal with Russian oil producer Rosneft and pipeline company Transneft in exchange for building a pipeline from the East Siberian oil fields to China and the associated oil that will flow through it. This pipeline will deliver 300 million metric tons of Russian oil to China over two decades. Now, I ask you, which foreign policy is more effective?
We now all know that the war in Iraq certainly was not about 9/11. We also know it wasn’t about “freedom” either. If it was, why is the US working with Uzbekistan president Karimov instead of overthrowing him as well? He makes Sadam Hussein look like a boy scout. It was about oil, plain and simple. For any doubters out there, please read Lutz Kleveman’s fascinating book The New Great Game. Anyhow, it certainly wasn’t about American freedom. As I said before, real freedom is economic freedom. All the war in Iraq has done (beside the very sad deaths of a great many Americans, Iraqis, and others) has been to put the US in debt. The US is in Iraq building schools, road, hospitals, power systems and infrastructure when we have high unemployment and badly need the same infrastructure here! It’s madness. The US military is paying money every day to Iraqi tribal leaders for their support when we should be using that money at home for health care, education, and national security issues (among of litany of other needs). Now we’re headed over to Afghanistan to do the same thing? Why? Well, it is hoped we can pound the Taliban into submission in order to build oil and natural gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea region through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. You see, that is the only way the US can get the quantity of oil it needs out of the region without first traversing Russia and Iran. Good luck with that one! Meanwhile, China continues to gobble up precious oil assets all over the world.
So, here is what the US should do:

• Bring the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan home. All of them. Do it sensibly, but do it.
• Use the money saved (from decreased military spending) for the following:

- Increased US border security
- Increased US port security
- Low cost loans for a trans-Canadian Alaska/lower-48 natural gas pipeline
- Build out of the natural gas refueling infrastructure on the US interstate hwy system.
- Incentives to build and purchase natural gas/electric hybrid vehicles.
- Build out wind and solar electric generation along with the transmission lines needed to deliver the energy from source to consumer.
- Invest in electric car battery research, development, and manufacturing.

• Adopt a more fair-handed diplomatic policy wrt the Israeli – Palestinian issue.
• Adopt a common sense approach with Russia. Bush’s threat to put missiles on Russia’s border while at the same time supporting the idiot President in Georgia was insanely ignorant and completely backfired. Russia has made it clear then can close the BTC pipeline any time they want. We should be engaging with Russia, not antagonizing them.
• Adopt a more common sense approach with Iran. Iran is not Iraq.
• Most importantly, adopt a strategic long-term comprehensive energy policy like this one:

http://thefitzman.blogspot.com/2008/08/strategic-long-term-comprehensive-us.html

Of course these policy suggestions were painted with big broad strokes, and one can quibble about the ins-and-outs of the particulars all night over many bottles, cans, glasses or cups of your favorite beverage. However, in general, this is what the US needs to do. I can hear it now, but Fitzman, you want the government to takeover everything – you’re a friggin socialist pig! Hello – the government took over everything in Bush’s last year in office – were you not paying attention? They’ll say, but Fitzman, how can we afford all these things? And I’ll say, well, Bush ran up $10 trillion in debt and what do we have to show for that except a lot of war and some very wealthy (and incompetent) bankers, insurance and financial services executives. Of course those executives are laughing at me calling them “incompetent” when they have all the money. Touché.
Americans need to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh and start paying attention to their own financial interests. We need to start demanding more of our government, not more deregulation so that the wealthy can rip us off (again). A country is only as strong as its middle class, and the middle class has been severely damaged.
Most importantly, American needs to completely change its energy policy from one of conflict and war and dependence on foreign oil to one of self-reliance, pragmatism, and realism. Fighting oil wars is simply not the way forward. It’s not working. Switching a significant portion of our transportation over to NGV’s and natural gas / electric hybrids is a national security and economic imperative. Long term, the US simply must transition away from foreign oil and rely on its own natural gas, wind, solar, and yes nuclear energy for its transportation needs.
The only way to rationalize long term investment in US equity markets is for US financial, domestic, foreign, and energy policy to be crafted for the benefit of the middle class instead of the wealthiest Americans. This will take some time. Meanwhile, buy gold.

Incompetent to the Last

2009-01-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

The last second, the very last nano-second of the Bush administration (the swearing in of Barack Obama as the new President) again displayed the incompetence we have come to know and expect from a Bush appointee. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts blew the Presidential Oath of Office. It's no surprise, however, as the Presidential Oath of Office is contained in Article II, Section I of the US Constitution and of course it is well known the contempt at which the Bush administration has held the US Constitution over the past 8 years. You can watch and listen to the screw-up here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Yff-_9MZs

Was it planned by the neo-Cons as a parting shot? Who knows. I doubt it... more likely it is just another reminder of Bush administration incompetence that has landed the country where it is today. Luckily, unlike so many Bush administration mistakes, this screw-up was later redone correctly.

Good news: our 8 year nightmare is over.
Bad news: it will take the country years, perhaps a decade or longer to recover from the damage done. Of course, that assumes we begin tackling the problems facing us directly, logically, and pragmatically. Time will tell if Obama has the chops....

Alan Abelson's Bush Summation: A Classic Quote

2009-01-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

Speaking on the subject of Cheney coming out from underneath his rock, and Bush himself hitting the talk show circuit to spin his legacy, Alan Abelson wrote in this week's edition of Barron's magazine, and I quote:

"His message was straightforward, consistent and clear: Thanks to his vigilance, this nation was spared a terrorist attack after 9/11. And so it was, for which we are all profoundly grateful. And only the most vehement Bush-basher would sniff that the real reason for the absence of an attack was that Mr. Bush did such a thorough number on the country all by himself that the terrorists figured, why bother?"

This is one of the most profound (and funny) words I've ever read in Barron's. I wish I had written them myself!

Along with congratulating himself on preventing another terrorist attack, Bush feared (and scarily almost implied) another attack is coming...real soon. Leaving office as he began ("fear" being the key word here) those of us who believe Bush and his buddies had something to do with 9/11 wish the earlier investigations on the attack had been allowed to conclude unimpeeded. We'll never know the true story of the flight the Bush White House authorized and organized for the Saudi Arabians to leave the country during the air-space lockdown after 9/11. We'll never know exactly who was on that plane, nor what their connections were to the Saudi hijackers (that's right fans, the hijackers were Saudi, not Iraqi). We'll never know the true story about the big money that sold short on the S&P500 and S&P Transportation indexes in the 4 days prior to 9/11 (and thus made billions when the markets reopened sharply to the downside), the volume of which was exponentially higher than normal. That is, someone new about the attacks and profited handsomly. Bush initially refused to investigate. When the widows of 9/11 protested, he appointed some buddies and began an investigation on the matter. In spite of his buddies, when the investigation started to lead toward the Carlyle Group (among whom the largest shareholders were Bush senior and his buddy the King of Saudi Arabia), the investigation was halted and covered up. We'll never know who made those short sales and how much money they made (no wonder Bush was in such a hurry to get the NYSE open after the attacks, the shorts had to unwind in order to reap their profits). One thing for sure, had we hired a special prosecutor for those cases, and had the American press and Congress pushed the issue as they should have, Bush would have been impeached and all the misery that followed perhaps avoided.
So, goodbye George W. Bush. And good riddance.
Funny how adding a middle initial to a name is supposed to be make the person more impressive. Never worked on me with Bush. I hear "W" and I just cringe. I was much more impressed with plain ole Bill Clinton (no initial).
So, if the perpetrators (including bin Laden, supposedly...) got away with the first attack, it wouldn't be hard to strike another blow. In spite of all the red ink that the American government bled under Bush, we have nothing to show for it (that is, no secured borders and ports). My question now is, given the state of the US economy and our financial turmoil, what would the impact be of another terrorist attack on the equity markets now? By playing straight into the bin Laden's hand after 9/11 and declaring war on Iraq (kind of like the US attacking Australia after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor for all the logic involved), not only is the US much less safe now than we were before 9/11, our economy and financial markets are now in a much weaker state to recover from a terrorist attack of substantial magnitude. Besides, if the Carlyle Group and other "inside" people really were responsible for the 9/11 attack - how can that be stopped if they decide to do it again? Since they weren't investigated after the first attack, it appears that Congress has given "them" the go-ahead for a repeat performance.
And if that isn't enough to worry you, peak oil is looming in the background. The problem there, of course, is that current low oil and gasoline prices encourage more oil addiction.
But enough of Bush all my worries. Let's give Obama his day in the sun and feel sorry for the man as he steps in to clean up yet another Bush family's disastrous policy and economic legacy (as Clinton had to do for Bush #1). Lest anyone believe I won't criticize Obama, let me just say that I am totally disgusted with his pick of Ms. Shapiro to lead the SEC. Also, if Obama doesn't put a major emphasis on US natural gas powered transporation in his infrastructure and stimulus plan I'll be all over him. For now though, welcome Barack Obama, Mr. President. Good luck!

2008 Economic & Political Summary & Review

2009-01-07T09:11:00.001-08:00

2008 Year End Metrics:

DJIA -33.8 %
S&P500 -38.5 %
Oil -54.0 %
Gold + 6.0 %
US$ + 8.0 %

(returns from the year-end edition of the WSJ)

What a year. The numbers above tell the story in black and white. There was no place to hide but US Treasuries. As far as my advice from the beginning of the year, I was spot-on about oil for the first 6 months, but had no idea a financial crisis was in the works which would cut the legs out from under oil demand such that oil would fall as far and as fast as it has. As such, energy and energy services investments, my favorite pick at the beginning of the year, enjoyed a wonderful first 6 months and then just got hammered as a result of the financial crisis and subsequent drop in oil demand. Hopefully, anyone listening to me didn't have to raise cash and sell these investments (except for perhaps tax reasons), as I still believe the long-term prospects for energy related investments are bright. Despite $145/barrel oil, supply never got much above 86 million BPD. Production at the top 3 oil majors (XOM, CVX, COP) was down year over year. The precipitous drop in oil prices have already led to a big decline in oil investments going forward. This will lead to an even large price spike the next time (assuming the world economy survives the current crisis). See my Seeking Alpha articles for more on this sector. I have shown a 2008 oil price chart below.

2008 Oil Prices

The other big story of the year was the financial turmoil caused by (imho) years of unregulated financial markets combined with low interest rates and fraudulent lending practices. As a result we saw a plethora of US finanical and insurance related businesses bite the dust: Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Washington Mutual, the list goes on and on. Tax payer bailouts were used to fund government takeovers of the financial and insurance industries. The US government now controls or has major stakes in companies controlling 80% of the US credit card market. All this happened under the so-called "conservative republican" president Bush. The country moves closer to fascism at a rapid pace. Now that our civil liberties are gone (wire tapping, "patriot act", detaining without the right to a lawyer, torture, etc. etc.), the government is now hard at work on two fronts: stealing tax payer money, and contolling citizens' finances. Look for more abuse and fraud at this level. At the same time $700 billion was handed over to Paulsen with little to no restrictions on where the money would go (you guessed right - it went to the salaries and bonuses of the Wall Streeters and bankers that caused the crisis to begin with), the comparatively small amount to bailout the US "little three" automotive companies caused a firestorm. I suppose in addition to sending $700 billion dollars a year out of the country for foreign oil we'd be better off having to buy our electric and hybrid vehicles from asia as well. Sure, Toyotas and other foreign auto manf. have plants in the US, but we'll still be trading in our addiction to foreign oil for an addiction on foreign batteries...and those will be made in asia if the US doesn't wake up.

My suggestion to remain out of the S&P500 was a good one, as that index is still under water for the last 10 years, badly so after inflation and the fall in the US dollar are taken into consideration. The future for the broadest measure of US economic performance, the S&P500, continue to look terrible in my opinion. If not for the inclusion of energy companies like XOM, CVX, and COP the S&P500 index over the past decade would look simply abysmal. Stay out of it.

I was right wrt gold. It was one of the few investments to remain in the black for the year. I continue to favor gold for US investors. That said, my advice to put some money in Vanguard Precious Metals, which looked like a genius call until mid-year, turned out to be a disaster as the deleveraging we saw in the 2nd half of the year just crucified this fund. Wish I had had kept my VGPMX money in gold coins instead. Gold hit $1000 during the year, but backed off as it was sold to delever and position for the deflationary period people expect as the economy contracts big-time. Same with another gold pick I made: Fidelity Select Gold, which got clobbered, but has been coming back as of late. That said, continuing financial instability, and the opinions of many that the US dollar is a fiat currency (which I subscribe to), has kept the price of gold falling significantly. A 2008 chart of gold is shown below:

2008 Gold Prices

The US dollar made a fool out of me as did US Treasuries. I still cannot understand their strength. The financial mismanagement of the country has all but guaranteed long-term bankruptcy for the country. Current low yields on US Treasuries tell me to stay away as they have no where to go but up. You want safety? Buy gold coins and take possession of them. If you have to buy US debt securities for safety and diversification, buy I-bonds. The ones I bought back in 2002 are yielding 5-6%, tax free (until i sell em). In today's market, those safe returns are a blessing. Even today, I-bonds should be considered. Yes, the fixed yield portion of the I-Bond is down to 0.70% for the current period. But, when oil comes back, and it will, inflation will rear it's ugly head, the economy and the markets will take another tumble, and these bonds will start yielding. So, why buy a standard US Treasury that yields close to 0% when you can buy an I-bond? US dollar index is shown below.

2008 Chart of US $ Index

The zero coupon bond fund (BTTRX), my main suggested hedge against deflation, did very well after the leverage unwinding and flight to "quality". It gained nearly 40% toward the end of the year, but I sold it this week after it went down 7% in 2 days as people finally realized long-term treasury yields have no where to go but up (and the price down). The 2008 chart for BTTRX is shown below:

2008 Chart of American Century BTTRX Fund

Some of my picks and their 2008 performance:

XOM: -14.8 %
CVX: -20.7 %
COP: -41.3 %
BP: -36.1 %

Returns above do not include dividends. Not too awful considering the S&P returns.

As expected, XOM faired the best during the financial turmoil. However, at one point in the crisis even XOM traded down to $56/share(!) at the height of fear. XOM continues to benefit from its pristine balance sheet and operational efficiencies. Chevron performed admirably, but BP got hammered over the failed Russian venture, and COP (my #1 big oil pick) got penalized for making more big investments at the top of the oil price peak (middle east ventures and the big australian nat gas purchase). That said, COP is currently trading at valuations where the dividend yield is roughly equal to the trailing PE ration (4). This stock is a steal at current prices.

Looking ahead in 2009, I continue to see very hard times for the US economy. Unemployment will pick up, profitability for the S&P50 will continue to sink, and I just cannot understand why the US dollar has not tanked with Paulsen and Greenspan printing money as fast as they can and giving it to the same old inner circle of thieves.

The big picture is this: as long as the US government continue to attempt fixing what is structural commodity problem (our addiction to foreign oil) with monetary and fiscal policies, the outlook is bleak. After 8 years of military imperialism to gain access to Middle Eastern and Caspian Sea oil (see my latest Seeking Alpha post), we are bankrupt, with nothing to show for the money spent. No trans-Canadian pipeline to bring Alaskan nat gas to the lower-48. No natural gas refueling stations on our interstate highway system. No social security funding. No health care funding. The Bush administration doubled the entire US debt in 8 years and we have nothing to show for it. NADA.

The only structural fix for the US economy is adoption of a strategic long-term comprehensive energy policy (see my policy by clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner of this blog) combined with excellent execution and financial discipline.

Despite current low oil prices, we *still* are importing 70% of the oil we use.
If the US does NOT adopt a comprehensive energy policy, the debt will continue to balloon, the currency will (at some point) sink like a rock, the S&P500 and equity markets will continue to suffer, and US savors and investors will lose their wealth and watch their standard of living erode.

The big oil interest in Washington, DC...while hating Muslims and Arabs in one breath, continue to spout out energy policies which do nothing but transfer American wealth into the pockets of these same people, terrorists, and countries such as Russia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, and Venezuela. How ironic that the big tough pro-oil guys are simply enriching the people they hate so much. How typically "American". At times, I am ashamed to be one myself.

For the year ahead, I continue to advise US investors to:

1) stay out of the S&P500 and all broad market averages.
2) buy XOM, CVX, COP, and BP
3) buy I-bonds instead of US Treasuries
4) buy (but not all at once) and take possession of gold coins

I sure don't envy Obama. That said, we have a chance for quite possibly the worst president in US history to be followed by one of the best. That said, I am not impressed with Obama's rhetoric wrt windfall profits taxes on US oil companies. I am not impressed with his stimulus policy which appears to be lacking in the natural gas transportation infrastructure that we so badly need to build. I am also extremely dissapointed in his pick to head the SEC. Michael Milken, Madoff, the principals of Long Term Capital Management. For Obama to appoint Ms. Shapiro to lead the SEC, a woman who once hired a Madoff family member, is not a good sign at all, imho. What we needed was someone *outside* the SEC with a background at the FBI or CIA. The SEC hasn't caught one significant fraudulent operation since it began. It's a bit like the fox watching the chicken coup - at US taxpayer expense. Disgusting.

Anyhow, I hate to end on a down note, but at this point I am tired of typing. All the best for you and yours in 2009. I sincerely hope it will be better for all of us than 2008. At least George Bush will be out of the White House. Not that is ending on an up note!!

How Soon They Forget

2008-12-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

Joe Kernen
For some years now I've been having an ongoing email debate with CNBC anchor Joe Kernen with respect to oil prices and oil supply and demand. Being a believer that worldwide supply will simply not keep up with worldwide demand, I have been a strong proponent of US energy diversification away from oil. Joe has strongly disagreed and said that the high price of oil was mere speculation. Back when oil topped $90/barrel and I told him it would go much much higher; he said poppycock and suggested that we should get two barrels of oil for $90.

Friday I got an email from Kernen declaring victory. Oil hit $45/barrel and that was his "two-for". He implied that "Einstein" (me) was wrong and that peak oil believers were badly mistaken. I wrote back and told him that after four years it was about time he was right on something as even a clock is correct twice a day. Didn't get a reply to that one.

Kernen conveniently forgets some facts. First of all, I've always said we'd never see low prices on oil again unless we suffered a severe worldwide recession or depression. Hello. That said, even I am surprised by the precipitous drop in oil demand and prices. I never in my wildest dreams expected the extent of the current "financial crisis". More importantly though - the peak oil crowd was absolutely right. Oil was up 500% in a very few short years due to strong worldwide demand from emerging economies in China, India, Russia, and the Middle East. Even with oil prices at $145/barrel, worldwide oil supply never got much over 86 million barrels a day, and it took digging in the dirt (oil sands) to keep us at those numbers. So, yes Joe, you were right on your two-for $90 call, but on the bigger picture you were wrong for so many years. In other words, oil prices have declined not because of new supply (or adoption of a sane energy policy), but due to huge demand destruction caused by the economic policies that Kernen and his fellow CNBC "goldilocks economists" have been supporting these many years.

Unfortunately, politicians, the media, and investors are making the same mistake as Joe. You would think the oil crisis that hit us this year (after all, it was only 6 months ago that oil was over $100 and gasoline over $4/gallon) would have taught even the Washington crowd something. However, in all the talk of auto bailouts there are some glaring omissions:

1) the CEO's of GM and Ford should resign in return for bailout money. They have proven their incompetence over-and-over again with respect to fuel-efficient vehicles. Not to mention they come to Congress asking for $25 billion without so much as a plan or presentation? (I remember once giving a 2 hour powerpoint slide presentation just to beg my bosses for $45,000 in engineering software!). If this isn't incompetence, what is?
2) Chrysler should be allowed to fail. Cerberus, the privately held investment group which owns Chrysler, has lots of money - why don't they pony-up?? Private investors are now going to be bailed out with my tax-payer money? This is an abomination. Of course, the $700/billion going to Citi, AIG, Bear...etc. etc. amounts to the same thing I suppose.
3) why aren't natural gas powered cars and trucks being discussed?
4) why doesn't Obama's "infrastructure stimulus plan" provide funds for building natural gas refueling stations along the interstate highway system?

The good news on this front is that the American driver has definitely got the message and won't be fooled again by lower short-term oil prices. Any car or truck that is not fuel efficient will have a shrinking pool of folks willing (able?) to shell out cash for them.

Despite an S&P 500 that is negative over the past 10 years (taking into account inflation and US dollar decline) Joe Kernen, the rest of the goldilocks economists on CNBC, and American policy makers still don't seem to "get it". Any country that imports 70% of their oil (can you spell U-S-A?) must adopt a strategic long-term comprehensive energy policy:

http://thefitzman.blogspot.com/2008/08/strategic-long-term-comprehensive-us.html

Low short-term oil and gasoline prices are a obviously a direct threat to implementation of such a plan. However, now is exactly the time to begin filling the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to the brim and to enact a graduated gasoline tax ($0.02/gallon in 2009 increasing to $0.20/ gallon over 10 years) with this revenue going directly to fund alternatives to gasoline powered transportation (only).

The US economy, has two broad problems: oil and the destruction of the middle class. I have already addressed oil with the energy policy. Equally disturbing for investors (not to mention he middle class itself) is that war has been declared on the middle class. During the 8 Clinton years (while, I might add, the fiscal budget was balanced) 23.7 million new jobs were created and median family incomes gained by $7,500. During the 8 Bush years (while the fiscal deficit doubled from $5 trillion to over $10 trillion, and that was *before* the bailouts...) there were only 2.3 million new jobs created and median family income actually declined. During the Bush years, this income decline was felt even more severely as the value of the US dollar dropped while gasoline and inflation rose. Is it any wonder the S&P500 is down for the last 10 years? Given recent economic policies, are mutual fund management companies like Fidelity and Vanguard really so sure of their advertisements about investing for "the long term"? They certainly are having a much harder case to make...

No country can be economically sound if the middle class is weak. History is a great predictor of what happens to countries when wealth is concentrated in the hand of a very few people. Yet, that's exactly what is happening in the US today with our unregulated financial markets and a tax-and-spend policy that favors multi-millionaires, billionaires, and the well-connected over the hard working middle class. Some people have called me a socialist or worse yet a communist. I am certainly not a communist. However given a choice between say Canadian of Scandinavian style socialism or the "socialism for the wealthy" (fascism?) as implemented by the Bush crowd in the US, I would certainly favor the prior over the latter. All that said, what we really need is fair government that implements capitalistic policies for the benefit of the many, not of the few. Only with a strong middle class will equity markets in the US be a place to invest for the long term. Otherwise, the destruction of wealth, investment, and the middle class will continue in the US accompanied with a corresponding decline in everyone's standard of living. If the US does not adopt a strategic long-term comprehensive energy policy, all of this will happen (and is happening now) regardless of any other economic policy regardless of it being socialist, capitalist, or fascist. Ironically, it is the most wealthy that have the most to lose. Americans, especially wealthy Americans, appear to be in as much denial about Bush political realities as they are about their addiction to foreign oil. More accurately I suppose is their denial about the consequences of these realities. One only has to look at history to see how the wealthy faired in countries that dived into huge debt to back unwise militaristic policies. History shows economic decline is inevitably followed by a reduction in civil liberties as the government begins to exert more control in an effort to position itself for civil unrest. These reductions in civil liberties have already taken a huge leap forward under the current Bush administration.

The headline in the Economist magazine last week asked "Where have all your
savings gone?". The answer is "bye-bye". The same place where all our money goes for foreign oil. And if they don't get the auto bailout terms correct, we'll be sending all our money to Japan and Korea for purchasing fuel-efficient cars and trucks too. Of course that assumes we have a surviving middle class to purchase such vehicles. That appears to be a big "if". Now at least we have Obama up to bat as opposed to a continuation of the policies that got us here to begin with. We may have a fighting chance assuming he stays healthy. That said, he is the biggest threat to the fascist military industrial complex since Kennedy and we know how that ended.

So what is an investor to do in these times? The lack of a US energy policy combined with the withdrawal of investment dollars in the oil patch and alternative energy market due to the current economic crisis means the next oil spike will be an even greater super-spike than this year's. Governments the world over are reducing interest rates and flooding the market with liquidity in hopes to jumpstart economies. Although the banks are currently hoarding this cash, one of two things are going to happen:

a) monetary and stimulus policy will succeed in bringing back the economy
b) monetary and stimulus policy will fail and the recession is long and deep.

In case a), you want to be invested in oil when the demand comes back. COP, XOM, BP, and CVX are all large, well capitalized oil companies that pay good dividends and are in great financial shape. In case b) you want to be in cash with some gold in case things really get bad. Stick with gold coins and take personal delivery of them. That is, if you can even find them! Kitco and AMPEX still seem to be having problems finding US gold eagle coins to sell. See my earlier SA article
on this issue:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/103817-gold-coins-are-in-short-supply-so-why-doesn-t-their-price-rise

Georgia Tech Beats Georgia 45-42

2008-12-04T16:21:00.001-08:00

Running Back Jonathon Dwyer

In Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech may finally have a coach to engineer a return to football glory. After years of suffering under former and habitually underachieving coach Chan Gailey, 2008 was a breakout year for the Jackets. Georgia Tech tied for 1st place in the ACC Coastal Division but more importantly beat the University of Georgia 45-42 for the first time in 8 years. The game being played in Athens,GA made the victory even sweeter. The Georgia Bulldog players and their fans appeared stunned losing to Tech. It certainly was a far cry from Georgia's expectations after beginning the season as the nation's #1 ranked team. As it is now, the Jackets are one spot ahead of Georgia in the BCS standings at #15.

First year coach Paul Johnson and his patented triple-option offense was surely the reason for the turnaround season and the victory over Georgia. The Jackets finished the regular season at 9-3 and today accepted an invitation to the Chick-fil-A Bowl to be played in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome. The bowl is played between top ACC and SEC teams and has a combined payout of $6.01 million dollars (3rd highest payout after the BCS bowls).

Meanwhile, the awards keep coming. The ACC today named Paul Johnson the ACC Coach of the Year. In addition, CBSSports.com picked Johnson as the national Coach of the Year. The awards don't stop there. Jonathon Dwyer, Georgia Tech's running back and the main threat on their option, was named ACC Player of the Year. Defensive tackle Darryl Richard won the Jim Tatum award for being the outstanding student-athlete. Eight Jacket football players made the 2008 All-ACC honors.

Johnson's cerebral triple-option offense has potential to get much better. After all the attention, surely the other ACC coaches will be studying up on the Jackets' otion. However, the Jackets had a young team this year, and most of the key players will be coming back. If the Jackets can improve on their passing game, get more comfortable running the option, make better reads, and keep their solid defense, the YellowJackets could be serious contenders next season. Meantime, we'll get to watch the Jackets on New Year's Eve in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. welcome back Georgia Tech and Goooooooo Jackets!!

Maher, Bush, and Obama (The Great White Hope)

2008-11-10T06:16:00.001-08:00

Bill Maher had a couple great quotes the other night in his monologue:

"Yeah yeah, things have changed. Yes we can. But not for the Bush family. Once again they will call in a black guy to clean up a mess."

"Did you see the Obama's first news conference as president-elect? Wasn't it a great to see an adult at the podium?"

good stuff. the thing that struck me most about this US election (other than Obama's margin of victory was so great the normal republican election theft mechanisms weren't able to overcome the numbers) was the reaction around the world. from Europe, to Singapore, to the Middle East, to Sydney Australia and to Obama, Japan (Obama in Japanese means "little shore") the celebrations were on! i believe the joy shown round the world was based on three major themes:

1) that the worst US president in history, and his party, were thrown out of office
2) that the American people finally wised up and voted issues instead of stale (and hypocritical) ideology (perhaps they figured out that fascists are generally not good for the middle class)
3) that the powers that be actually allowed Obama to win

yet, Obama's challenges are vast. i don't envy him as he has been dealt quite possibly the worst hand of any President save Lincoln. speaking of Lincoln, i worry about Obama. note that in history it's always the good guys that get assasinated: Lincoln, JFK, MLK, Lennon, Ghandi, and Rabin ... one could go on and on. it's never the evil guys like Bush and Hitler. it's a sad fact of human history.

regardless, we are optimistic because we have a situation where Bush, the worst president in American history, has a chance to be succeeded by a man who has the potential to be one of the best president's in the history of the US: Obama. the big question is: has the US, under George W. Bush, travelled so far down the road to fascism that it cannot be turned around? what a burden for obama to shoulder...

i said earlier that Republican ideology was stale and hypocritical. when my family moved from upstate NY to Louisiana in the 1960's, i was the only Republican kid in my school as the "solid south" back then was Democratic through and through. the Republican Party was the party of intelligence, pro-business, and small government. Now the "solid south" is solidly Republican. wow did this happen. Hypocrisy, lies, double-talk and a big dose of good old religion and "family values". Not to mention racism in the form of payback to LBJ for passing civil rights legislation. Let's summarize the hypocrisy of the Bush "conservative Repuplicanism" and why I am no longer a supporter of that party:

- small government: Bush increased the Federal payroll to its largest ever after Clinton had reduced the size to JFK era levels

- fiscal responsibility: Bush double the fiscal deficit from under $5 trillion to over $10 trillion in 8 years. and this doesn't even count the current bailouts and future obligations due to war

- freedom: Bush gave us the "Patriot Act", torture, and wants to intrude on the bedroom. basically, the US Bill of Rights and the US constitution were thrown out the window.

- military policy: the US invasion of Iraq turned back the page on 50 years of US military and foreign policy

- sepration of church and state: McCain once said that "religious influence on the US government was an abomination". then he morphed into mini-Bush and appointed an ignorant Pentecostal far right "conservative" religious whacko as his running mate. He got that solid south vote, but he lost most of the Clinton women voters that he was trying to scoop up.

- prudent government: the justice department judges scandal, the outing of a CIA agent whose husband didn't agree with Bush on Iraq, the lack of follow through on the 9/11 investigation of those who placed large short positions on Wall Street in the days prior to the attack, organizing an escape plane for the Saudi Arabians in the US (with ties to the 9/11 group) during the air-space lockdown after the attacks, lack of action on climate change, and most seriously lack of action on a strategic, long-term, comprehensive...i could go on and on. Bush should have been impeached in his first term. Congress (including the Democrats...) didn't do their job and now here we are.

i was watching TV the other day and they were playing re-runs of Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin. what a panic. i left the room for a few minutes to make some coffee and came back to the TV where I continued to watch Sarah. i was laughing to hard i almost spilled my coffee and thought Tina Fey was great. ust then, I realized, they had switched back and i was laughing at the real Sarah Palin. How far indeed the grand old Republican party has fallen.

George W. Bush and the End of Capitalism: or, Osama bin Laden Wins

2008-10-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin predicted the eventual downfall of capitalism. In the words of Marx, "if you give a capitalist enough rope, eventually he will hang himself." This week, their predictions came true. So too did Osama bin Laden's prediction that US capitalism would fail. Osama bin Laden has won. George Bush and his "new world order" cronies have achieved their objectives as well. The big losers are the American people. In order to substantiate these opinions, one has to prove a) that "free market capitalism" is indeed dead and b) that George Bush's policies were responsible.

The US stock market has crashed before. This is nothing new. What is different this time is the reshaping of the entire US financial landscape as a result of the financial "crisis". Recently, the US government has taken over Bear Stearns (a publicly traded investment firm), nationalized the nation's mortgage system, and is now in the process of taking over the entire banking system. AIG is now owned by The Federal Reserve (which, by the way, has no juristiction over insurance companies - but after you throw out the Constitution, I suppose anything goes). In addition, the Fed has unilaterally endowed itself the power to acquire equities through its "special new liquidity facility". United States Secretary of Treasury Paulsen has demanded middle class taxpayers purchase ill-liquid open-ended securities from the likes of his former employer - and these securities are so toxic that "free markets" cannot even price them.

It is logical to ask "how did we get to this point?" How on earth did socialism (albeit socialism for the rich, or, as I prefer to label it - fascism) take firm root in the US during George W. Bush's (a self-proclaimed "conservative republican") reign in office? (Note: "reign" as in King).

The problem is hypocrisy: George W. Bush is NOT a "conservative republican" from Texas. I should know this, I am a REAL conservative repubican. George W. Bush, has been, and is, a blue-blood skull-and-bones Yankee from Connecticut and the most radical president in the over 200 year history of the United States. He, like his father, are British subjects whose first allegience is to the crown of England, the powerful European Oligarchs and the Illuminati. Consider:

Conservative republicans are supposed to believe in small government. Yet, after President Clinton trimmed the size of the federal payroll back to the size of the Kennedy years, Bush has ballooned the size of the US government payroll to its largest size ever. Doing so, Bush doubled the US fiscal debt in just 8 years from $5 trillion to over $10 trillion. What is "conservative" about big government?

Conservative republicans are supposed to believe in a strong currency. The US dollar has dropped close to 40% since George Bush took office. If devaluing the currency was the road to financial success, Weimar Germany would still be around today. Instead, Germans in those time burned the currency to keep warm in winter. What is "conservative" about massive currency devaluation?

Conservative republicans are supposed to believe in the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and in protecting individual freedom (as opposed to just giving speeches about "freedom"). Yet, in supposed knee-jerk reaction (i say supposed, because it was planned years prior) to the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration crams the "Patriot Act" through a republican controlled House and Senate. Nothing in the history of the United States has submarined the US Constitution and Bill of Rights more than the "Patriot" Act. John Adams and George Washington must have rolled over in their graves. What is "conservative" about taking away freedom and individual rights?

Conservative republicans are supposed to believe in military action as a last resort. Yet, in another wrong-headed supposed knee-jerk reaction (again I say supposed, because it too was planned prior) to the attacks on 9/11, George Bush declared war on Australia. Errr, I mean Iraq. Might as well have been Australia for all the sense it made. The hijackers of 9/11 were mostly Saudi Arabians with a few Egyptians thrown in. Why attack Iraq? One reason: skull & bones wants American troops on top of high quality easy to produce and refine Iraqi oil. Yet, for the money spent in Iraq, the US could have had a world-class health care system for all Americans and a real energy policy to prepare us for the post cheap oil world. Instead the US is piling on yet more debt building schools, roads, hospitals and infrastructure in Iraq while its own citizens back home go without these same improvements. Meanwhile, Iraq sells its oil and has $90 billion dollars in the bank. What is "conservative" about irresponsible militantism and oil empire building?

Conservative republicans are supposed to respect the US military and intelligence agencies. Yet, after 9/11 Bush's first priority was to organize an airplane to fly his Saudi Arabian buddies out of Florida back to Saudi during the supposed airspace lockdown. These Saudis were known to have had contact with the hi-jackers, yet they were not vetted by the FBI or CIA before being airlifted out of the country. Further, when the media questioned Bush on this issue, he first *lied* and said no such flight took place. At a press conference the following day, Bush admitted the flight indeed did take place, but admitted this fact only after evidence was presented by reporters that proved it had. Bush then explained that he was worried about the safety of these people (!?). Can you say treason? Can you say impeachment? What is "conservative" about these actions? What is "conservative" about outing a CIA agent because her husband warned about the administration's wrong-headed policy of attacking Iraqover the excuse of WMD's? What is "conservative" about allowing torture? What is "conservative" about paid contractors like Blackwater carrying automatic weapons, flying military style aircraft, and killing Iraqi people with no direct reporting structure into the US military command? Isn't this similar to the British "Black and Tan" thugs that terrorized the Irish people for years? These are not "conservative policies"! This is a most *radical* departure from previous US presidents and from any moral obligation to uphold the US Constitution.

Conservative republicans are supposed to be for fiscal prudence and balanced budgets. Yet, the Bush economic plan cut taxes for the ultra-rich, while effectively raising taxes on the middle class. The result has been a concentration of wealth at the upper end, the erosion of the middle class, and further fiscal deficits. What is "conservative" about massive fiscal irresponsibility? Even Warren Buffet, a man who benefited more than any other from these idiotic policies, adamantly spoke out against them.

Conservative republicans are supposed to be for less government red-tape and regulation. On this issue, George W. Bush gets an A+. However, what has been the result of the Bush administration's particular implementation of the de-regulation of the financial industry? Although both political parties deserve their fair share of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacles, two very simple mechanism have led to the downfall of the these two government agencies and the current financial turmoil: the non-regulation of hedge funds, and the "AAA" debt ratings of repackaged sub-prime loans by the 3 major ratings agencies (Moodys, S&P, and Fitch). To non-regulate financial entities with the size and power of the hedge funds was simply ludicrous. Lay on the tax breaks which most of them operated under (basically, the hedge funds paid no taxes) as well as the lack of any leverage limits, and we had a situation ripe for abuse. But, they needed a free source of funds. That's where the three ratings agencies (Moodys, S&P, and Fitch) stepped in to provide the gunpowder. Some financial genius figured out, hey, if we take 10 sub-prime loans and repackage them, the chances of default are much reduced and therefore we can slap a "AAA" rating on them. Well, now we have "legal" way to make sub-prime loans, collect fees, and *trade* them to bond funds and foreign investors to remove the liability from the loan originators. Worse yet, the hedge funds were able to pile leverage on the higher interest rates these "AAA" rated securities yielded. If you don't believe this statement, consider the numbers being thrown around for the "bailout", and divide it by the total numbers of homes in the United States. The math doesn't work out. Now, was the Bush administration aware of this fraud and its consequences? Yes, absolutely. Bill Gross of PIMCO said on CNBC that he personally went to the Bush administration, and both Greenspan and Bernanke, as early as 2004 and 2005 and explained his concerns. Bush and his cronies knew all right. This was the mechanism that allowed Bush and his buddies to rape the wealth of the US Treasury, put it on the backs of the middle class taxpayer, and use the "crisis" to allow implementation of the "new world order" his father first spoke of years ago: consolidation of the US financial system by the US government, develope tighter financial links with other major foreign countries, and therefore move ever closer to the "new world order" in which, you guessed it, the skull and bones crew that turns the financial control knobs are in complete and total control of the financial system, energy, and food production and distribution. Welcome to 1984 in 2008. What in the world is "conservative" about this? Meanwhile, as Bush and his buddies implement socialism for the rich, or fascism, paid lackeys like Limbaugh and the talking heads on TV tell us we should be worried about Obama getting elected because he would turn the US into socialists!? Hello!! It is happening right before you eyes today under Bush!

Despite the wonderful work of paid hacks like Rush Limbaugh and the talking heads on CNBC, George W. Bush is not a "conservative" republican. Bush is the most radical president the US in the over 200 year history of the United States. His administration will be remembered for putting the final nails in the coffin US capitalism and transforming the United States from democratic (well, semi-democratic....) capitalism to dictorial fascism.

Osama bin Laden proves correct. Osama wins. Bush and his cronies achieve their objectives and win. America, its Constitution, and the world lose.

We face a future in which the fascist leadership of America will bump heads with Communist China in the final show-down for world domination. This will happen in a post peak-oil world. I hate to say it, but I put my money on China. Why? First, China has better long-term strategic thinkers and planners running their show. China is run by engineers instead of professional (and greedy) politicians who simply sell their souls to lobbyists with short term profit motives rather than what is best for the country. Secondly, China owns huge mounds of US debt. China can crater the US any time it wants by simply selling all the US Treasury notes it holds all at one time. This would cripple the US currency and the US government. China won't do this now, because currently it would hurt China as much as the US. But in the future? Don't count out this scenario. I predict China will use its US dollar holdings as a threatening lever to obtain oil from OPEC and Russia by devaluing the US dollar, and thereby making it more advantageous for the oil producers to sell to China instead of the US. The biggest downside China faces is environmental. That said, the US has pretty much destroyed it's waters and much of its air, so I don't think the US has any particular advantage on the environment. In fact, the majority of American states don't have one single lake, river, or stream in which fish can be eaten safely due to the high mercury levels after years of burning coal in the most dirty way possible (that is, cheaply) despite technology being available to do so relatively cleanly. But, we must make sure the utility executives get as big a bonus as possible. You see, it's all about money in America. Money and greed.

In the words of Star Trek's Mr. Spock "The good of the many out weigh the good of the few. Or the one". Not in America. Not any more. For me, I'd rather have socialism in the way of Canada or Scandanavia than the Bush style socialism for the rich. That is simply FASCISM.

Meanwhile, the drop in oil prices due to short-term demand destruction brought on by the financial crisis will be bad news for the US if it get seduced by lower gasoline prices (again) and stop making progress on the transition away from oil based transportation. (Don't count on GM's Volt as it appears GM will be going bankrupt...)As I said a few paragraphs ago, China holds alot of US debt instruments, and will use these to their advantage when push comes to shove on who will get the oil each country will so badly need. Unfortunately, the legacy of financial devastation left behind by the Bush administration will put the good ole USA behind the black oil 8-ball.

A Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

2008-08-16T11:56:00.001-07:00

A Natural Gas/Electric Hybrid Vehicle

Updated on 9/12/2009 The energy policy below is updated from time-to-time and includes my thoughts, feedback from my blog readers and from SeekingAlpha.com readers. Significant revisions were made after reading Robert Hefner III's book The GET: Grand Energy Transition. Hefner's book is required reading for anyone interested in energy and 21st century energy policy. You can get more information on ordering The GET here:

http://www.the-get.com/

STEP 1: Acknowledge the Problem

· Acknowledge the problem. No difficult problem can be solved until it is first acknowledged. US government and media need to honestly inform and educate the American people and policy makers at every level about the threat worldwide oil supply/demand realities pose to the US. The US uses 25% of worldwide oil supply, yet owns only 3% of the world's proven reserves. The US imports 70% of its oil, enriching unfriendlies such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran. We are going bankrupt in the process not to mention funding both sides of the "war on terror". Our currency is weak. Our addiction to oil and coal have led to three intolerable consequences: economic contraction, environmental destruction, and geostrategic tensions. These are the basics of the energy challenge facing America. The energy crisis needs to be attacked with realistic information and wise policy decisions. A strategic, long-term, comprehensive energy policy must be adopted, publicized, and executed. The basic components of such an energy policy are listed below.

· The basic top-level energy strategy can be summarized as: we need to use less dirty and expensive solid and liquids based energy (coal, imported oil) and more cleaner and cheaper US domestic gas energy (natural gas, wind, solar, and hydrogen).

· Create a National Energy Council to develop and speed the implementation of the top-level energy strategy stated above. The director of the NEC should report directly to the President as a member of the Cabinet.

· US energy policy must recognize the fact that natural gas is the only domestic fuel supply capable of being scaled-up within the next decade to meaningfully reduce American's foreign oil imports and CO2 emissions. America should become the world leader in CNG vehicles.

STEP 2: Conservation and Energy Efficiency

· Increase fuel-efficiency standards substantially and immediately.

· Increase gas guzzler green taxes and encourage non-gasoline powered vehicles via increased tax rebates.

· Impose a top speed limit of 60 mph nationwide.

· Adopt four-day workweeks wherever and whenever it makes sense.

· Conservation and efficiency guidelines should be issued by federal, state, and local governments.

STEP 3: Transportation Initiatives

· Have at least half of all American cars and trucks running on CNG by the year 2015.
This will be done by retrofitting existing vehicles to run on natural gas, and by increased production of CNG vehicles. Tax credits should cover conversion costs.

· Encourage and adopt natural gas/electric hybrid vehicles as the single best solution to reducing foreign oil imports and emissions. See the Toyota concept car above.

The "Phill" Home Garage Nat Gas Refueling Appliance

· We should focus on natural gas home refueling appliances like the "Phill" to enable home garage refueling of NGVs in the 130 million vehicles already residing in homes on the existing natural gas pipeline grid. Tax credits should cover the installation costs of a CNG home refueling appliance.

· Tax credits should be given to all gas stations on or near the existing natural gas grid so that these stations are required to provide natural gas refueling. Tax credits should also be available to businesses such that their employees can refuel with natural gas while at work.

· Substantial government assistance for US automakers to tool-up CNG and CNG/electric hybrid vehicle production. This government assistance will extend to the production of home refueling appliances in order to bring their costs down.

· Tax credits to build out natural gas refueling stations along the nation's interstate highway system.

· All government vehicle fleets should switch to NGV’s. Encourage local municipal use of natural gas (refuse pickup, buses, mass transit, etc). Develop the natural gas conversion kit market to convert existing gasoline powered vehicles to cleaner cheaper natural gas.

· Develop electric and natural gas powered mass transit for people and goods.

· Place a green tax on all imported oil and all coal usage. The revenue generated will go *only* toward building the natural gas, wind, solar, and electrical infrastructures needed to move toward a gas based energy society. The taxes should be ramped up over a 5 year period to allow for economic planning and adjustment.

STEP 4: Prioritize and Invest Sustainable and Green Energy Sources

· Abolish federal subsidies for the oil and coal industries.

· Abolish biofuel and ethanol mandates. They cause major distortions in the food chain, inflation, and impeed development of other more economic alternative energy sources.

· Eliminate the construction of any new coal power plants. Replace existing coal plants with more distributed natural gas electrical generation.

· Construct a trans-Canadian natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower-48.

· Begin a government sponsored “battery technology” program (similar to the successful Sematech organization for semi-conductor technology) in order to insure that the US is not only the leader (we are way behind now…) in battery research and design, but also in battery *manufacturing*.

· Invest in wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, and tidal energy generation to power non-gasoline powered transportation solutions described in STEP 3 above.

· In order to use the power generated from the above non-oil sources to power automobile solutions, the natural gas & electric grid infrastructures must be updated and its capacity increased dramatically.

· The government must deem electric transmission lines a matter of national security and thereby invoke eminent domain in order to construct them as needed to deliver solar and wind energy from source to consumption.

· Wind and solar power generation of hydrogen via electrolysis as a storage mechanism for calm and cloudy days. Hydrogen power generation needs encouragement.

· Streamline the permitting and construction of LNG terminals on both US coasts.

· Streamline the permitting and construction of latest generation nuclear power plants.

· Open the continental shelf and Alaska to natural gas drilling. The royalties on these resources will help fund other components of this energy plan.

· Abolish import taxes on Brazilian ethanol.

· Increase funding for hydrogen fusion research and development.

STEP 5: Social Iniatives

· Encourage local sustainability in energy generation, food production, and transportation.

· Encourage population control through education.

· Encourage green power education, business, and industry.

· The US voting public should demand energy accountability by its political leadership.

Irishman Padraig Harrington Wins the PGA!

2008-08-11T07:21:00.001-07:00

Irishman Padraig Harrington won back-to-back majors by taking the 2008 PGA Championship by closing out the tournament with a pair of weekend 66's. Harrington's putter was simply too much for Sergio Garcia, who once again failed to make the best of a major opportunity. Garcia gave his Ryder Cup teammate the cold shoulder when shaking hands on the 18th green.

Harrington has now won 3 of the last 6 majors. He is the first European to win the PGA Championship since Tommy Armour did so in 1930 and is the first European to win the British Open and the PGA in the same year.

Harrington is the first European to ever win two consecutive major tournaments.

The tri-colour was waving proudly in Ireland and no doubt the Guinness flowed freely. Cheers to Paddy!

The Opinion the Wall Street Journal Refuses to Print: A Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

2008-08-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

Despite $120/barrel oil, an S&P500 that has returned 2.8% over the last 10 years, an annual inflation rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 8%, a financial system that is being nationalized by the so-call "conservative" Republican administration, an economy that could be described as anemic (at best) and a US currency that has dropped by 50% since Bush got elected, the US political leadership and media remain in "oil-denial". The Wall Street Journal, while publishing an article on the "Opinions" page critical of Boone Pickens' wind and natural gas energy strategy, refuses to print the following "opinion", which I have sent to the editors 3 times now. Why?

The US Must Adopt a Strategic, Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

The debate is not about peak oil theory, or global warming, or the role of speculators in the price of oil. The debate should not be about windfall profits taxes on big oil or suing the oil producing nations. For a country that consumes 20% of worldwide oil production and imports 60% of it, has seen oil double in the past year and quadruple over the past 5 years, the question is a very simple one: what rational policies can the US adopt to prepare and protect US national security and its economy from an environment where worldwide oil supply cannot keep up with worldwide oil demand? It's a simple question. A common sense question.
The energy crisis of the 1970's was marked by soaring energy prices, runaway inflation, rising unemployment, and economic uncertainty. Yet the energy challenge facing the US and the world today will make the 1970's look like a walk in the park. Then, the energy crisis was a political crisis based on US Israeli policy and an Arab oil embargo. It ended when the embargo was lifted and Saudi turned on the "spigot". Today, there is no "spigot" and worldwide oil supply will not be able to keep up with demand. There will be no "end" to this energy crisis. Despite the skeptics, it truly IS different this time.
The only solution is a comprehensive long-term energy policy. This is extremely urgent, and we need to get it right the first time. The energy challenge confronting the US and the world is so daunting every economically viable source of non-oil based energy will be needed. Here are the basic features of such an energy policy:

· Acknowledge the problem. No difficult problem can be solved until it is first acknowledged. US government and media need to honestly inform and educate the American people and policy makers at every level about the threat worldwide oil supply/demand realties pose to the US. This is the root of the energy challenge. The energy crisis needs to be attacked with information and wise decisions.

· The nature of the energy challenge is so immense the US government will have to play an important and central role.

· Increase gas guzzler tax penalties and encourage gas sippers via increased tax rebates.

· Increase CAFE standards. "Open fuel standards" autos should be incentivized.

· Conservation guidelines should be issued by federal, state, and local governments.

· Impose a top speed limit of 60 mph nationwide

· Adopt four-day workweeks wherever and whenever it makes sense.

· Government encouragement and tax incentives for development of non-gasoline powered transportation.

· Huge investments are needed in wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear energy to power non-gasoline powered automobile solutions.

· Wind and solar power generation of hydrogen via electrolysis as a storage mechanism for calm and cloudy days. Hydrogen power generation needs encouragement.

· In order to use the power generated from the above non-oil sources to power automobile solutions, the electric grid infrastructure must be updated and its capacity increased dramatically.

· Construction of a trans-Canadian natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower-48.

· Permit and construct LNG terminals on both coasts. Now.

· Open the continental shelf and Alaska to oil and gas drilling. Now.

· Research and development of clean coal-to-liquids and coal gasification.

· Increase the federal gasoline sales tax gradually over time.

· Develop electric mass transit for people and goods.

· Biofuels should be encouraged by not at the expense of runaway food inflation.

· Abolish Ethanol mandates. They cause major distortions in the food chain.

· Abolish import taxes on Brazilian ethanol.

· Food production and transportation methods in a non-oil based world should be investigated and results published.

· Encourage local sustainability in energy, food production, and transportation.

· Encourage population control through education.

· The US voting public should demand energy accountability by its political leadership. We need policy by engineers and scientists, not Rush Limbaugh and Larry Kudlow.

In conclusion, the economic and social implications of remaining on our present oil-based economy will be very unpleasant. We need to take action now. The US is capable of successfully confronting the energy challenges but can only do so by rationally acknowledging the problems and solutions. We can usher in a new age of economic prosperity based on non-oil based energy solutions but we must begin the transition now. We are running out of time and should begin a massive build out of a non-oil based energy sources, transportation solutions, and infrastructure today. The only way to achieve solutions to the economic challenges posed by the energy crisis is adoption of a well crafted, long-term, comprehensive energy policy as shown above. Failure to do so will mean continued US currency devaluation, equity investment destruction, reduction in the US standard of living, and eventually social unrest and huge economic and social dislocations.

Bye Bye Colorado

2008-07-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last Day Fishing - A Pretty Little Arkansas River Cut-Bow

After 9 magical days on the Conejos River I returned to the Sugarbush campground in Salida for a much needed hot shower and a taste of civilization. I was also looking forward to some easy dry-fly fishing on the Arkansas River. The hot shower was grand, but it turns out the wind popped up on the river along with the afternoon monsoon activity. Fishing was hard, and I soon realized how tired and worn out I was after my Conejos River adventures. I was suddenly yearning for the comforts of home ... making coffee without boiling water on a Coleman stove...enjoying ice from the refrigerator...hot showers...the British Open golf tournament and the Tour de France on TV. All that said, I also remembered last year driving back to TN, being there one week, and then wishing I was back in CO. So, I went out fishing one last time to see if I could work myself out of the tired rut I was in. Well, it was another windy morning and the fly-fishing was tough - hard to land a dry fly lightly when the wind is blowing like hell. I did find a nice bend in the river and tucked in out of the wind. I caught a few fish including a pretty little cut-bow (see picture above) which, out of perhaps 150 Arkansas River fish, was one of only two non-brown trout (the other being a rainbow). I fished awhile longer and eventually found alot of trout in a shallow grassy bottomed stretch of river and had some fun. Eventually I lost my fly on a fish (too lazy to re-tie the fly after catching 10 or 12 fish with it), the wind came whipping up again and I decided that was it. I was done. Finished! I was tired of fly-fishing and camping. Yes, it IS possible, especially after 5 weeks, much of it in wilderness areas.
As I was about toexit the river and climb up onto the bank out of the waste high water, I reached up to grab a rock to help pull me out. Suddenly I had a premonition that I shouldn't grab the rock. I have no idea why I had that feeling...I just did. I paused, glanced down, and there about a foot from my arm, was a coiled rattlesnake which was absolutely motionless except for its tongue darting in and out of its mouth. Yikes! I have no idea why he didn't strike as I was about to grab the rock right above him. I backed off slowly and waded downstream a bit. I took a couple pictures. Click on them to make the pics larger as the snake is kinda hard to see. Anyhow, that was it. I took it as I sign that my trip was over and I would head home the next morning. A great summer for sure, but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end, and this summer trip to Colorado was over. . Time to jump into my old reliable truck and grunt it back to TN.

Click to enlarge these pictures. THe rattlesnake is hard to see.

Mount Conejos

2008-07-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

Although not a "14'er", and not in the top 100 peaks in the state of Colorado, at 13,172 ft Mount Conejos is higher than any mountain in Montana or New Mexico. It's a relatively easy climb since forest road 105 can take you to within an hours hike of Tabacco Lake, and it's only another hour to the Conejos peak from the lake. Well, it was an hour for me on that day...but could easily be 2 hours for some hikers due to the altitude and steepness of the peak's slope. By this time, I had been in Colorado for over a month and was acclimated to the altitude.

Tobacco Lake is a moderate hike from the trailhead. For the third time, I was not able to catch a fish in Tobacco Lake even though I could see the nice, big, fat cutthroat trolling the shoreline. One of these days I'll figure it out. I got some light strikes on a wooly bugger, nymphs, and an emerger - but no takes and I still wonder how those fish get so big and fat feeding on the small black knats they appear to prefer over anything else. Perhaps next year.

Since I wasn't catching any fish, I figured the day wouldn't be a total loss if I climbed Conejos Peak, which I did not do last year because of my knee injury. It was a great hike, with minimal snow crossings due to it being mid-July. It was the first time ever I was on Conejos Peak and the wind wasn't blowing. Completely calm and beautiful on the peak.

The jelly-jar that was put on the peak years ago with a note inside is now almost completely full of notes and various writings. I was going to leave a root-beer barrel in the jar, but decided a critter might sniff it out and break the jar or roll it down the mountain, so I just ate it instead.

On the way down, I stopped at Tobacco Lake to try fishing again, and then the afternoon storm blew up, it began to rain, the temperature drops very quickly, and I froze my ass off before I got back to the truck. Overall however it was a great day and a beautiful hike. There is something very spiritual about Conejos Peak.

Tobacco Lake with Conejos Peak in the background:

Gaining on her...the peak is upper right.

Ahhhhhh, the Mt. Conejos peak!

View from the peak.

Much easier on the way down!

The ultimate skid mark: