Kevin has fun with Underwater Video Camera

"The Gondi"

Today Zach and I went to the top of the Mammoth Mountain (11,053 el.), while Kevin and Tasha and Dodger stayed at the bottom, (Zach really wanted to go but Kevin said it hurts his ears too much)   The great mountain looks a lot different in the summertime.

Mono Lake

We all went to Mono Lake today and had a great time.  We had a one hour tour from a forest service guy, and the tour was good.  Kevin and Zach held up pretty well and wanted to go into the lake themselves.  Dodger also went into the lake a few times, but she didn't like that the water was salty.  Mono lake is a very unique place, 95 percent of all california sea gulls are born in an island in the middle.  Also the lake contains so much salt and alkali that no fish can live in it, in fact the only life there is brine shrimp, and alkali flies that hang out on the edges.  

In the early part of the century William Mullholland diverted the source of the lakes water to fuel Los Angeles Water demand.  Subsequently the Lake began to drop, and probably would have died had not a group of fisherman sued the city of LA and won.  In 1994 they agreed to raise back the level of the lake, and by 2014 it will be back to a good level, but still not as high as it once was.  The lake is a favorite haunt of photographers, as it looks almost otherworldly, it photographs best during magic hour in the evening.

Independence Day

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Happy 4th everybody!!

Crush the Cell

(Columbian Jungle)

There is a big lesson that can be learned from the dramatic hostage rescue of three Americans and others that were held in a columbian jungle for over 5 years.  If you haven't read the news lately, the Columbian national military undertook a massive undercover op to infiltrate the Columbian rebels that were holding the hostages.  They tricked the rebels into letting the hostages board a helicopter and then talked two of them into putting their weapons down.  The "good guys" then broke cover and subdued the two rebels...and instantly told the hostages the words they had been longing to hear for so long..."We are the Columbian National Army, and you are free."  The Americans are now home with their families.  

The lesson learned is the value of good old fashioned Human Intelligence or "Humint" With the creation of homeland security we have had a lot of sucess since 9/11.  We have thwarted a few plans, and disrupted a few cells.  And we have not been attacked by Al Queada in almost seven years.  They have hit 3 times since, the club in Indionesia I think, the madrid bombing, and the London bombing.   

After 9/11 billions of dollars was spent to create a gigantic new bureauacry.  The agencies have more money now than they know what to do with.  This is good and bad.  Some of the money has certainly been wasted, and no senator can dare vote against any new spending bill for homeland security, regardless of the merits of the money allocation, for fear he or she will be branded as "soft on terror" 

Before 9/11 an american misfit named John Walker Lind (The American Taliban) who was a well to do kid in the bay area, actually met Bin Laden a few times.  And we have the traitor Adam Gahan from Orange County, who I hope will be killed or captured soon.  If it is possible for Americans like this to get this kind of access, why not send over the NOC's  (Non official cover)  These are the covert operatives who are the bravest of the brave, exceptionally talented and smart dedicated patriots.  We should streamline the CIA and the DIA and focus on infiltrating the small Al Queda cells throughout Europe and here in America.  I am sure we are already doing this to some extent, but I wish we would do more, we should focus a great deal of our Intelligence towards continuing to do this, until all Al Queda cells are crushed.  Focus on the infiltrating the cells, train more operatives at Langley.  Bring the Israeli Mossad to help train us.  Focus resources in a smart manner.  And hopefully no American will ever have to put up with what happened to us that morning in September again.

Summer in Mammoth

Summertime in Mammoth is almost as fun as wintertime.  The best part about summertime is the myriad of places to hike and explore, something you can't really do in the wintertime.  Also if you like fishing, apparently they have some of the best fishing there is up here.  Almost everyone brings their dog up for vacation, and we are no exception, Dodger will be our faithful companion the whole time we are here.  We are going out now to hike to the pond...better pictures soon.

Happy Birthday Dodger!!

In the summer of 1997 in the months of bliss following our marriage, Tasha and I wanted to get a dog.  We were living in a house in Chico and it had a big enough backyard.  So Tasha and I found an ad in the paper for Chocolate Labrador puppies in the town of Durham.  We drove out there to look at them and as soon as we saw the puppies bounding towards us it was game over.  There were a few females and we picked out the one that was the least hyper.  We wrote out a check for 200 dollars, and we took home our new puppy.  That was almost eleven years ago and Dodger is still with us today.  She has lived in Chico, Ventura, Bakersfield, and now Valencia.  She is a natural retriever, loves the water, and running around.  I would say her highlight is the four year span we lived in Ventura.  She got to go on constant walks and run around in the surf with no leash.  Now she is happy here, and even though she is a bit slower and older we still let her into our pool every so often.  

Happy 11th Birthday Dodger Dog!!!