Since WC graduated from high school, there have been more civilian deaths from firearms in the United States than the combined combat death tolls in all the wars in United States’ history. Tragically, nearly 1,300 of those annual deaths are children aged 0 to 17. In all, about 19 children die or are wounded each…
You can summarize the Alaska State Senate Republicans’ fiscal strategy for Alaska in a simple paragraph: Slash the budget, but make to Governor decide where to cut, thereby aggravating the deepening recession, wrecking the present. Fund the budget deficit by spending irreplaceable principal balances in the reserve and permanent funds, wrecking the future. Hope the…
In addition to driving on stupidly dangerous goat paths, WC spent the weekend in the deeply dissected volcanic rock of the Mahogany Mountain Caldera, in the southeastern corner of Oregon, near the Idaho state line.. Leslie Gulch is actually inside that 15.5 million year old caldera, which is some 15 kilometers wide and 20 kilometers…
Commentary / Geology / Idaho
On a map, it looks like a nice way to get from Succor Creek Road over to the Owhyee Reservoir in southeastern Oregon. Even on Google Earth it looks pretty straightforward. It’s not. Don’t drive Fisherman Road. Maybe it was the August 2016 Cherry Road Wildfire, which burnt much of the area that Fisherman Road…
WC thinks that this is the week when, with the benefit of hindsight, President Donald Trump’s resignation or impeachment became inevitable. Historians will look back on mid-June, 2017 as a turning point. The Washington Post has broken the news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation has turned to possible obstruction of justice by the President. What’s…
WC has had a flurry of questions lately, focusing (heh) on his bird photography. WC will attempt to answer some of them here. Why birds? Why not landscapes, or mammals, or macro? WC is a birder. That’s the influence of Mrs. WC, who is a pretty extraordinary birder. And birds are endlessly fascinating. Combine WC’s…
Arrowrock Dam is one of three major dams along the course of the Boise River. It’s the oldest of the three, completed in 1915. At 348 feet tall, Arrowrock was the highest dam in the world at the time. It’s primary purpose is irrigation; it holds the winter’s rain and snowmelt so that water is…
WC can’t claim to have known Grace Schaible well. Before she retired from her law practice, there were a few cases, usually involving wills and estates. We shared tables at some social functions. WC was a guest in her condo. We were co-panelists at a couple of Alaska Bar functions. She was infallibly charming, generous,…
Before Comey had even finished his appearance before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, the right-wing pundits were frantically spinning his testimony. Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump activist notorious for his amateurish sleuthing into red herrings like the “Pizzagate” hoax and other conspiracy theories, wrote on May 17 that former FBI Director Comey had “said under oath that…
Lightfoot looks a bit cadaverous. He’s 78 years old, which seems impossible. His voice has weakened from that deep, easy baritone of the 1970s to a reedy tenor. He joked about, indirectly, explaining he now played a lot of the songs in the key of C. But it was a fine show. He has a…
The Western Snake River Plain is a desert now. Sagebrush, bitterbrush and rabbitbrush growing on layers of ash and loess, which in turn lie on thousands of feet of basalt, congealed lava. It’s a desert, and a few minutes there in the summer will remove any doubts you might have that it is a desert.…
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. . . . . . And what rough beast, its hour come at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? – William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming,” Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) Yeats was writing about the period after World…
