tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77268577909004278552024-02-07T21:52:20.115-08:00Paths on the Tree of LifeClick on the links in colored print to take other paths. Text, Music, and Illustrations Copyright 2015, by Jim Robbins.
Tarot Cards by Pamela Coleman Smith (in public domain). Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-16846879244118782342017-10-29T14:25:00.001-07:002017-10-29T14:25:43.974-07:00SAVE THE GORGE<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="935" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0UZr8ViVaAJBs5nn66lKETCE9en4uslZvrVnEXsb835bxmCUatMQQtbOKhI0MuZD5FJ5ie9_aCItz99obb29WjorX5ga4jLjoK04MrayFbjWwYSbMxFsMiLURQGFHT2WHh05FtKasrYG/s640/7.jpg" width="528" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/savethegorge"><i>SAVE THE GORGE</i> </a>Video Book</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">A CHANCE TO SAVE THE GORGE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Imagine for a
moment that influential people have proposed building a dam in Yosemite Valley
due to persistent drought conditions. Their argument is essentially that
farmers do not have enough water, which is causing them to overdraft the
groundwater supply. And when farmers do not have enough water, they are forced
to lay off their workers, which is causing families in the Valley to suffer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> This is such a compelling
argument, on the surface, that everyone sympathizes with the farmers and the poor
working families. Soon, Yosemite Valley is brimming with water. From the vista
point below the tunnel, people can now view Half Dome and El Capitan reflected
in a new reservoir as waterfalls spill into the lake and speedboats pull water
skiers around the valley. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Sound far-fetched?
What I have described is about to happen to the San Joaquin River Gorge, which
is public land near Auberry, CA, about two hours away from Yosemite Valley via
Wawona Road. The San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area is
a majestic public park that, unfortunately, does not have the same public support
as Yosemite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have created a
video book to show what the public will lose if a dam drowns the gorge, with
photographs showing the inundation zone of the proposed land—as well as music
and an in-depth discussion of the issue. A few of the main problems:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">No more water rights on the San Joaquin River are available.
Water rights on the river have already been overallocated by 861%, which means
that the corporations and landowners with the water rights will benefit.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Eight other dams on the San Joaquin River already divert all
of the river’s flows. The vested interests with the water rights can claim any
new water that a dam at Temperance Flat might create.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The public will pay billions of dollars to destroy its own
majestic park—without compensation in the form of a new park on the river—for the
benefit of a few corporations and landowners.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Despite over a thousand dams in California, farmers have
been over-pumping the groundwater for decades to irrigate unsustainable crops
such as almonds, cotton, and rice in a desert. Aquifers are collapsing and land
is subsiding all over the Valley.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Below the dams, many rivers are dead due to water
diversions. The San Joaquin River is one of the most endangered rivers in the
United States due to existing dams and water diversions.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It is critical
now that people who oppose the dam contact the California Water Commission
because the San Joaquin Valley Water Infrastructure Authority recently filed an
application with the agency for Proposition 1 state water bond funding to pay
for Temperance Flat Dam. Even if you don’t buy the video book, please go to <a href="https://cwc.ca.gov/Pages/Contact.aspx">https://cwc.ca.gov/Pages/Contact.aspx</a>
and submit a comment opposing the dam at Temperance Flat. It will only take a
moment to write a short note.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Buy the video book <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/savethegorge"><i>SAVE THE GORGE</i></a> at Vimeo on Demand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Other video books by me at Vimeo on Demand:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/clairesmusicaljourney"><i>Claire’s Musical Journey</i></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/30yearsofmarriage"><i>30 Years of Marriage in 14 Songs</i></a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-23361581983405698072017-10-24T19:52:00.001-07:002017-10-24T19:52:47.659-07:00BLOGGING FOR DOLLARS<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSGgiePSbpGndJCQ3BnfRnS07w1EgK2vAj3Wf3otwu1v15W_CUl3ZYeZJsdsCWnTepBduArv-KkoKEhpZG55gq9OZlOr3mcH0JJL3OsvLYEix-KHVIBmaa-56Chx7b79uYiGBF8ee_bgv/s1600/history+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1588" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSGgiePSbpGndJCQ3BnfRnS07w1EgK2vAj3Wf3otwu1v15W_CUl3ZYeZJsdsCWnTepBduArv-KkoKEhpZG55gq9OZlOr3mcH0JJL3OsvLYEix-KHVIBmaa-56Chx7b79uYiGBF8ee_bgv/s640/history+2.jpg" width="482" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/L9SM9F_4jQI"><span style="font-size: large;">Go to YouTube Trailer</span></a></td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">STARVING ACTIVIST?</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Over the past few
years, I have created an online suite of my music, nonfiction articles, fiction,
poetry and illustrations, and I have invited everyone to enjoy it for free. Now,
unfortunately, I am too sick to work regularly due to a chronic illness, and I no
longer have a stable income. On top of that, my wife of thirty years recently
left me to rekindle a teenage romance, a turn of events that still remains a shock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Instead of
crawling into a black hole, I have decided to be proactive about my survival. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I have
established an account with <i>Vimeo On Demand</i> to sell video books containing my music,
writing, and illustrations. So far, I have created over a dozen video books
ranging from children’s stories, nonfiction articles, short stories, poetry,
and a short novel. I plan to release a new video book every week, which I will
feature on this site. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> This week, I am
featuring a video book with vocal music that explains the reasons for the break
up from my point of view, called <i>30 Years of Marriage in 14 Songs</i>. I have
provided a link to a trailer of the work on <i>YouTube</i> under the illustration at
the top of the page and another link to <i>Vimeo On Demand</i> at the bottom of this page. This week
only I am also featuring a children’s book called <i>Claire’s Musical Journey</i> on a
<a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">companion blog</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I plan to sell
each video book for $25.00, which I believe is a fair price since I have spent
countless hours over many years working on the music, text, and illustrations. Some
of you know that I have been an environmental activist for over thirty years
and an artist in one way or another since I could pick up a pencil. It is
obvious to most, I’m sure, that a person cannot be an activist, writer,
composer, painter, photographer and blogger if he doesn’t have any money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I am not asking
for charity. The video books that I have created are of the highest quality and
I can say without boasting that they are unique. No one else to my knowledge
has created works of art containing their own original music, writing, and
illustrations. They are worth checking out—and worth the price.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"> Support the arts.
Support involvement in the democratic process. Check out the video books ….</span><a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/30yearsofmarriage" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Link to vimeo.com</a></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-53077583133372469882017-08-29T09:51:00.002-07:002017-08-29T10:09:39.099-07:00STRONG POLITICAL WINDS<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBo4m9Q11aAUdok1Uzdi9wcs83Q9RPfsIWRJW0XObpZwxrxzLG0x6XeapbIoiCT3QS1sPA51wkDUMeSaLnhcs2xAKraaK7WAqp-_VHhBRY-5K0vFmhwpusEeajwFRb3DvlG1xuMVHhsS4N/s1600/blui.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="1511" height="586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBo4m9Q11aAUdok1Uzdi9wcs83Q9RPfsIWRJW0XObpZwxrxzLG0x6XeapbIoiCT3QS1sPA51wkDUMeSaLnhcs2xAKraaK7WAqp-_VHhBRY-5K0vFmhwpusEeajwFRb3DvlG1xuMVHhsS4N/s640/blui.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Baby Blue Eye: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size: x-large;">POLITICAL WINDS OR HOT AIR BEHIND THE SAILS?</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I would love to believe that local newspapers
are a bastion of truth, but what do I usually find? <i>The Fresno Bee</i> is a
purveyor of falsehoods time and again. If Donald Trump were truly concerned
about truth and journalistic integrity, he would be pointing at <i>The Bee</i> every
other day and shouting, “Fake news, fake news!” McClatchy takes full advantage
of its monopoly power to promote corporate interests, not the public interest,
and does not hesitate to print lies that benefit the top few percent. No longer
just a local newspaper, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McClatchy_Company">McClatchy Company</a> has grown into a powerful
octopus over the past few years, controlling 29 newspapers in over 14 states—while
the quality of its product and its integrity have all but vanished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> For instance, <i>Fresno
Bee</i> reporter Lewis Griswold hardly even makes an effort to present the
appearance of balanced, unbiased reporting in a recent front-page article on
Temperance Flat Dam (Thursday, August 24, 2017). He had the opportunity to
reveal catastrophic weaknesses in the dam proposal but chose instead to omit
facts and allow dam supporters to perpetuate lies—in ten times the space that
he allotted to people who oppose the dam. He ended up writing what amounts to an
advertisement for the dam, most of which was—tellingly—printed next to a
half-page drug advertisement that contains statements that have not been
evaluated by the FDA. The one person who got to mention anything in opposition
to the dam, Ron Stork, senior policy advocate for <a href="http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/TFD-Fact-Sheet-5-6-2016-with-ref-tgd.pdf">Friends of the River</a>, is
quoted as saying that the dam has “never been constructed because it’s costly
and doesn’t develop more water.” This one sentence, if explained effectively in
a fraction of the space granted to prevaricating dam supporters, would poke a
hole so big in the dam proposal that all efforts to support the dam would
collapse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Allow me to
explain in one short paragraph.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The dam would not
develop more water because the holders of water rights already have a claim on the
water: The State Water Resources Control Board has determined that no more
water rights are available on the San Joaquin River. Moreover, according to a
recent study, the water from the river has been over-allocated by a whopping
861%. And very little new water will be created because other dams
already capture and divert almost all of the river’s flows. The trickle of new
water that would be created by the dam would be channeled to landowners
and corporations with the water rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Instead of
presenting these simple facts, <i>Bee</i> reporter Griswold allows the dam supporters
to peddle their snake oil. Despite the fact that the dam is costly and doesn’t
develop more water, dam supporters claim that a new dam at Temperance Flat
would work wonders, <i>miracles</i> even. Salmon on the lower San Joaquin would thrive
due to the cold water provided by the dam, and water from the dam would also be
delivered to wildlife refuges. Water from the dam could be used to recharge
groundwater and meet the goals of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The
dam would help farmers on the east side, the west side, and in the south. Recreation
and ecosystem improvements would be “gained”—even though the dam would destroy
5,000 acres of a majestic public park and destroy a stunning river ecosystem. Obviously,
dam supporters can say whatever they want, no matter how absurd, and The Bee
will print it without making an effort to present the other side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The lies go on
and on, but the one that always tugs at the heartstrings the most is about the
family farmers who have to fallow their land and the agricultural workers who lose
their jobs because water runs dry during the Valley’s abiding droughts. According
to Assembly Speaker Rendon, “you never forget those faces.” Imagine their faces
when they realize they’ve been duped into spending billions of tax dollars and sacrificing
a majestic park so that landowners and corporations with the water rights can channel
a little more water to their land. Imagine the faces of urban users when they
realize that the water will go to many unsustainable crops that should never be
grown in a desert, such as almonds, the dominant crop in the valley. (Much of
the land has been fallowed due to over-drafting of groundwater that has been used to irrigate
crops unsuitable to the region.) Imagine the faces of the people who love the
San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area when they see the canyon
drowned under hundreds of feet of water. Imagine the faces of the poor when they realize this is a land and water grab meant to benefit the top few percent. Imagine the faces of voters when they
realize they have been lied to over and over about the miraculous benefits of
this dam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Ron Stork, senior
advocate for Friends of the River, also mentions that the dam obviously “has
the political winds behind its sails.” We
can thank <i>The Bee</i> for these political winds because of all the hot air it has printed
about this dam bamboozle. Again and again, <i>The Fresno Bee</i> has revealed that it has no journalistic integrity. One way of sending <i>The Bee</i> a message is by hitting McClatchy
where it hurts—its profit margin. I have cancelled my subscription to <i>The Bee</i>,
and I encourage everyone else, especially wherever <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Ridder">McClatchy</a> has a monopoly, for </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">instance
in California's Central Valley, to do the same.</span></div>
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-3541536290681157152017-08-18T08:17:00.000-07:002017-08-18T08:17:56.380-07:00WHO IS THE HUCKSTER AND WHO IS THE FOOL?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK9ZmFcYMwqXv-5592pWrbC6LLrfvJudVQT-BmrIsGhaLRI7iHoDEj2qTI_RMHDzdwcUGaRpxCPPUJLVKLMPWGsUufRVvTjfbBxoALueGBm9prQS620EgC5PHs0tlohvLbJDH8OW4BT_sd/s1600/P1015940+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK9ZmFcYMwqXv-5592pWrbC6LLrfvJudVQT-BmrIsGhaLRI7iHoDEj2qTI_RMHDzdwcUGaRpxCPPUJLVKLMPWGsUufRVvTjfbBxoALueGBm9prQS620EgC5PHs0tlohvLbJDH8OW4BT_sd/s640/P1015940+%25283%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Ithuriel's Spears</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">HUCKSTERS AND FOOLS</a></span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> It should be
crystal clear now to anyone paying attention that politicians who support a dam
at Temperance Flat have a keen disregard for the facts. They are carrying the
buckets for agribusiness, not protecting the public interest. Dr. Joaquin
Arambula, who represents the 31<sup>st</sup> District of the California Assembly,
is one of a cadre of lawmakers who coauthored an op-ed piece published in <i>The Fresno
Bee</i> in support of the dam. At best, these lawmakers are uninformed or merely disingenuous.
At worst, they are hucksters hustling for the vested interests who got them
elected. The list of lawmakers includes Jim Patterson, Frank Bigelow, Adam
Gray, Devon Mathis, Heath Flora, Rudy Salas, and Anthony Canella. They all deserve
to be voted out of office for being shamelessly deceitful, willfully ignorant,
or just plain corrupt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Here’s why.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> They claim that a dam at Temperance Flat will “directly
and positively” affect the environment of the San Joaquin River, an outright
lie that could only be told with a straight face by the most shameless of con
men. They do not mention that the dam will wipe out a pristine riparian ecosystem
and 5,000 acres of public land. They do not mention that the San Joaquin River
is at the top of the list of the most abused and endangered rivers in the U.S.—because
of the numerous dams already blotting out its ecosystems. They do not
mention that the public will pay billions of dollars to drown our majestic land
for the benefit of a few people with water rights: Taxpayers, in other words,
will pay an arm and a leg to destroy another stretch of the river to provide socialism
for the wealthy vested interests of the <a href="http://www.lloydgcarter.com/">hydraulic brotherhood</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> They claim that “aging
[dam] facilities don’t have the capacity to keep up with our state’s population
growth.” They do not mention that almost every drop of new water will go to the
people who already have the water rights, not to growing urban populations. They
do not mention that the State Water Resources Control Board has determined that
there are no more water rights available on the San Joaquin River. In fact, according
to the <a href="http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/TFD-Fact-Sheet-5-6-2016-with-ref-tgd.pdf">Friends of the River Fact Sheet</a>, water rights on the river have been
over-allocated by a stunning 861%. Our politician friends, in other words,
do not mention that these property rights (in the form of water rights) would have to be
taken away from established users before new users would see any new water. Yet
these politicians claim that this trickle of new water will benefit so many
different interests, from communities suffering from undrinkable groundwater,
to environmentalists and resource managers, to farmers with depleted aquifers, and on and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Our politician
friends claim that “Temperance Flat Dam will nearly triple storage capacity
above Friant Dam and deliver water from the San Joaquin River to farms on the
west side, ensuring higher and more reliable flows, and restoring the San
Joaquin back to the levels and flows that once occurred naturally.” They do not
mention that very little new water will be created by the dam, mainly because numerous
dams along the river already capture and divert most of the water. According to
the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the Central Valley Project (in other
words, the agency that would oversee Temperance Flat Dam), only 21,000 thousand
acre feet of new water would be created in dry years (drought being the normal
condition in the Central Valley). Compare this 21,000 acre feet to the <a href="http://www.modbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/mike-dunbar/article145019849.html">300,000 to 600,000 thousand acre feet lost</a> in the drought from aquifer collapse due to
over pumping of groundwater in the South Valley, and the 7 million acre feet produced
annually by Reclamation’s Central Valley Project. In uncommon wet years, about
60,000 to 90,000 acre feet of new water will be available to miraculously
restore the flows of the San Joaquin River and deliver water to the west side,
in addition to providing water for the users with the water rights on the east side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Oddly, these politicians claim that the dam will play a key role in groundwater recharge
when there is so little new water and no new water rights are available. This small
amount of water will go to farms on the east side <i>and</i> the west side <i>and</i> restore
the river back to flows that once occurred naturally <i>and</i> solve the groundwater
crisis. These promises are on par with an attempt to sell a nonexistent
bridge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> They also claim
the dam will enhance flood protection downstream, but I can picture a different
scenario. Three dams in a row, with a new dam right between two other major
dams, enhances the chance for <a href="http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/list_of_dam_failures">catastrophic dam failure</a>. If an aging upper dam fails,
the others could fall like dominoes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We are being
shamelessly lied to by people who should be representing the public interest.
Instead they prevaricate for the top few percent, which is especially sad in
the age of Trump when there was once still a glimmer of hope that our local
politicians might not feed the public bold-faced lies on behalf of vested
interests. With outright lies, with the omission of facts, with alternative
facts, and with sheer make-believe, these politicians are selling the
public a bill of goods—without even making much of an effort to sound truthful.
They apparently believe that there is a sucker born every minute. Mr. Arambula,
the good doctor, stepped forward to take most of the credit for this shabby attempt
to trick the public. Obviously, just because a man is a doctor doesn’t mean he
isn’t also either a fool or a liar. Unfortunately, the other lawmakers who support
this con also fit into one of those two categories. Heed their names: Whether
fool or liar, each one should be kicked out of office at the next available
opportunity.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-8436299578790134202017-04-21T09:09:00.002-07:002017-04-25T18:45:51.608-07:00MR. DUNBAR, THE WATCHDOG<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWChAz7WLOyCuC842SsV6lyKd0fev7N2tygzfkjeD8OZhZhpfBEziFvg1RHVJDT1HPZH-XjUxldhdQJXTn0ouZxNIQB7yrV2KEZ1FohO8zWiXcfhKr1xngWev76w2SPslwxOZKcyeHMzeC/s1600/P1015787+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWChAz7WLOyCuC842SsV6lyKd0fev7N2tygzfkjeD8OZhZhpfBEziFvg1RHVJDT1HPZH-XjUxldhdQJXTn0ouZxNIQB7yrV2KEZ1FohO8zWiXcfhKr1xngWev76w2SPslwxOZKcyeHMzeC/s640/P1015787+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Fiesta Flowers and Ithuriel's Spears</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size: x-large;">WILL MR. DUNBAR BE OUR WATCHDOG?</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> A person who has
a weak argument often attacks the opposition about unrelated issues. Mike
Dunbar, editorial page editor and columnist for the <i>Modesto Bee</i>, does just that
in a recent <a href="http://www.modbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/mike-dunbar/article145019849.html">editorial</a> (printed with “Enviros say dams bad—until they need cold water” as the title in <i>The Fresno Bee</i>). First,
you’ve got to love his cute nickname for environmentalists, “Enviros,” which sounds
a lot like “whackos.” And you’ve got to admire a columnist who, right off the
bat, shows his bias, announcing that he has no intention of presenting a
reasonable, balanced argument. Even I at first thought I was being too
sensitive, but, sure enough, in the third paragraph he lambasts an
environmental group for collecting $133 million dollars in contributions in
2015. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Imagine that! An environmental group that
raises enough money to be effective! They must be doing something right. I have
more trouble imagining a local newspaper these days that makes enough money to
stay in business and consistently issue a quality daily newspaper. Certainly,
in the last few years, <i>The Bee </i>in my neck of the woods has started charging
twice the price for half the quality. Alas, if only <i>The Bee</i> could be as
business-savvy and competent as an environmental group. To Mr. Dunbar, that is
unthinkable. He suggests that a large number of people are merely being duped
by a group of slick con-artists. That’s why enviros cynically attack farmers—so
they can keep “vast rivers of cash” flowing into their coffers. (Apparently,
the masses just love it when enviros attack farmers.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgGqh4U1LRMBi1n3SCLkekurbU4ugnuVKj3ZImxT35Ci1mpmVshHv8UgJZq7CAgaYmKzEkrqA-idW_xFcvSUHxmItU2R1MPMbdnzNm8WS6hZVr_8x2UP63scQfk0Rey3Z92rPbbuADN4Ww/s1600/P1015812+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgGqh4U1LRMBi1n3SCLkekurbU4ugnuVKj3ZImxT35Ci1mpmVshHv8UgJZq7CAgaYmKzEkrqA-idW_xFcvSUHxmItU2R1MPMbdnzNm8WS6hZVr_8x2UP63scQfk0Rey3Z92rPbbuADN4Ww/s640/P1015812+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pink Fairy Lanterns and Chinese Purple Houses</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I would love to
watch Mr. Dunbar go up against a powerful industry just to see how far he gets
without the help of these organizations. Oh, but then both he and Bill McEwan,
editorial page editor of <i>The Fresno Bee</i>, carry the buckets for big ag. (And gee,
it’s becoming pretty clear how to get a job as an editorial page editor in the
Central Valley….)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Mr. Dunbar’s main
argument is absurd on its face. He implies that enviros complain about dams
until they need cold water, which can be found only in deep pools behind dams, to
maintain salmon runs. Apparently, in Mr. Dunbar’s confused mind, dams have
created the cold water necessary for maintaining salmon populations. Need I remind
Mr. Dunbar that the salmon were doing just fine before the dams were built? Where
I live, dams completely wiped out a healthy salmon run, which will probably never
return. Dams and water diversions have essentially killed the San Joaquin River,
which runs dry northwest of Fresno most years. Yet Mr. Dunbar resents releasing
cold water from the reservoirs to enable conservationists to maintain salmon
runs in a few rivers. On the other hand, diverting eighty percent of the water for
agriculture and killing our rivers is just fine and dandy in Mr. Dunbar’s book.
If he has ever considered how dams have adversely affected other species or the
public, he doesn’t let on. And given the percentage of water used by farmers and his criticism of releasing water for salmon runs, Mr.
Dunbar’s concept of “shared use” is simply laughable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP37gc0M9KDR8BVBjkKEq20J76gG3S7jOgnSrlR9RQ7etpr0T11zdkR9QCW68NM5oVOu86VJ8ZUY9szmIHZQvDi525SDjJ4i6Z2WoY6C4oKfb1geBurxEOszAHx1SOTo_X2WQPezypy4R/s1600/P1015948+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP37gc0M9KDR8BVBjkKEq20J76gG3S7jOgnSrlR9RQ7etpr0T11zdkR9QCW68NM5oVOu86VJ8ZUY9szmIHZQvDi525SDjJ4i6Z2WoY6C4oKfb1geBurxEOszAHx1SOTo_X2WQPezypy4R/s640/P1015948+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.gemsonthetree.blogspot.com/">Ithuriel's Spears</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Let’s consider some
<a href="http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/TFD-Fact-Sheet-5-6-2016-with-ref-tgd.pdf">facts</a>. A Stanford study, according to Mr. Dunbar, “shows the South Valley lost
from 336,000 to 600,000 acre-feet of storage capacity during the drought” due to
farmers causing aquifers to collapse by over-pumping the groundwater. That’s
about ten times the new water that would be created by a dam at Temperance Flat
(60,000 thousand acre-feet) in a good year. In dry years, which are quite
common in the Valley, the dam would only create about 21,000 acre-feet of new water
annually. Mr. Dunbar also mentions that farmers pumped 10 million acre-feet of
water during the drought in the past five years. Based on his own facts, how
could Mr. Dunbar believe that current farming practices are sustainable? Another
dam cannot even begin to counteract farmers’ over-use of groundwater in the
Valley. Donald Trump may lie about most things, but he is right about one: “There
is no drought.” In the Valley, drought is the normal condition, yet farmers and
Mr. Dunbar want to live in a fantasy world where they can pretend that anything
can be grown in a desert (as long as more and more dams are built), even
almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cotton, rice, fodder crops, and on and on and on.
Mr. Dunbar has forgotten his history: The Central Valley Project (CVP) was
built in the mid-twentieth century in large part due to farmers severely over-drafting
the groundwater. Half a century later, the same problem is rearing its ugly
head, even with all the dams and the seven million acre-feet a year that the
CVP provides. How can Mr. Dunbar possibly consider this situation sustainable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Mr. Dunbar stakes
his hopes on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, which requires
all groundwater basins to become sustainable by 2030. As he says, “If no
sustainability plan is submitted by 2022, the state will impose one.” This is a
state that, unlike most other states, has avoided imposing groundwater
regulations for over a century on farmers due to the concentrated power of the
hydraulic brotherhood. Most people who are paying attention know there are
numerous ways to weaken regulations and enforcement rules and undermine the
best laid plans of the public and the government. Call me cynical, but as Mr.
Dunbar states, “In the Valley, where farming is a way of life and dependency on
our rivers and aquifers is a given, planning is well under way”—no doubt to
undermine the sustainability plan. Anyone who believes that this plan will have
teeth is a fool—that is, if there is not a well-organized effort by concerned
citizens to bird-dog the process every step of the way. A large group of
retired volunteers would be ideal, in other words, people who don’t have to
worry about being blackballed by a powerful industry—because, as Mr. Dunbar may
or may not realize, that is what our democracy is like here in the Central
Valley. Perhaps Mr. Dunbar would volunteer to be our watchdog, or maybe Mr.
Dunbar would be so kind as to politely ask the enviros with rivers of cash to
devote countless hours to making sure the plan is effective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxtHfQsyW0xWVUCPwag9GeeI825a_G3-xGDEWBn7LRq0yUSrb1aazaMc6jDNIPBSKx6DguqR5YVBAzOL9cJDZ203CDMF6_T2inqzYRGXCuDq1BpunGaPlTwxV8Z0VMp-rkgmuagItpxwN/s1600/P1015903+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxtHfQsyW0xWVUCPwag9GeeI825a_G3-xGDEWBn7LRq0yUSrb1aazaMc6jDNIPBSKx6DguqR5YVBAzOL9cJDZ203CDMF6_T2inqzYRGXCuDq1BpunGaPlTwxV8Z0VMp-rkgmuagItpxwN/s640/P1015903+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lupine, Poppies, Purple Vetch</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> If corporate
agribusiness is sincere in adhering to reasonable regulations, then we don’t
have to worry, or do we? Right now, there are farmers who are planting almond
orchards in the foothills and causing the water-table to drop 10 to 20 feet,
which in Mr. Dunbar’s words is “clearly unsustainable,” a “slow-motion
catastrophe.” Mr. Dunbar refuses to admit that the same slow-motion catastrophe
in the entire Valley might not be slow enough to avoid disaster before 2030.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> <i>The Bee</i>, in both
Fresno and Modesto, is incapable of presenting the truth about a dam at
Temperance Flat, almost as if some evil power has taken control of its word
processors and continually censors all the facts. Consider the following. The
state has over-allocated water rights on the San Joaquin River by 861 percent,
and the river itself is fully appropriated, meaning that no more water rights
are available. The river is already so over-used and abused that a dam will
create very little new water. This is a river, by the way, that continues to
maintain the honor of being one of the most endangered rivers in America. When is
the public going to put two and two together? The public will pay billions for
a dam that destroys public land mainly for the benefit of people in one
industry who maintain water rights—even though that same industry continues to
overdraft our subterranean lakes and kill our rivers and take land without
compensation that belongs to our children and grandchildren. Mr. Dunbar should
crunch the numbers: How much will each holder of water rights gain from a dam
at Temperance Flat? Whatever it is, the public will lose something beyond measure.
The public should be thankful that the NRDC and other environmental
organizations have enough cash and courage to stand up to the likes of Mr.
Dunbar and <i>The Bee</i> and agri-business, which is obviously still the most influential
industry in the state.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-86956432978524579042017-03-01T17:38:00.001-08:002017-03-01T17:38:28.848-08:00THE FRESNO BEE AND TRUMP WORLD<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBzMeORaQZAqdkMK9Q_perfMzkZXG8CkxMb5Tc_G5S5PlaIWJ3NYOL6wZbsp4nfrjMYJEr3BcUP4aM2cYdLQDLvC-6RMrCP86n2-JsG-M2zEVBOBn2cgDxDno7hqN15nWLiDzf1eZtYUg/s1600/P1013658.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBzMeORaQZAqdkMK9Q_perfMzkZXG8CkxMb5Tc_G5S5PlaIWJ3NYOL6wZbsp4nfrjMYJEr3BcUP4aM2cYdLQDLvC-6RMrCP86n2-JsG-M2zEVBOBn2cgDxDno7hqN15nWLiDzf1eZtYUg/s640/P1013658.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Ithuriel's Spears and Fiesta Flowers</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article118610848.html">IN THE RACE TO BUILD TEMPERANCE FLAT DAM, FACTS DON’T MATTER<o:p></o:p></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Let’s hope
someone out there still respects the facts. <i>The Fresno Bee</i>, which has
repeatedly trumpeted its support for a dam at Temperance Flat, obviously does
not. Sad, since in the San Joaquin Valley <i>The Fresno Bee</i> has maintained a monopoly on the news for
decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Reading the <a href="http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/TFD-Fact-Sheet-5-6-2016-with-ref-tgd.pdf">Friends of the River Fact Sheet</a>, you can’t help but notice that the proposal for Temperance Flat Dam is a
mess of uncertainties and unmitigated problems and that the dam itself would
not provide much new water, mainly because eight large dams and reservoirs
already divert most of the flow of the San Joaquin River, which often runs dry
northwest of Fresno. The San Joaquin River is fully appropriated, which means the
State Water Resources Control Board has determined that no more water rights
are available. Moreover, a recent UC Davis study found that the state has
over-allocated water rights in the San Joaquin River by an astounding 861%, which
remains an unresolved issue for any new dam on the river.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> In fact, <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/">The Bureau of Reclamation</a>, which completed a draft feasibility report and an
environmental impact statement for the dam, examined five different project alternatives
but was “unable to identify any preferred alternatives because of serious
unresolved issues and a number of project uncertainties.” </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">And even though the
dam would produce relatively little new water, it would cost state and federal
taxpayers billions of dollars, at a time when, </span><a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article133505404.html" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">according to <i>The Fresno Bee</i></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">, taxpayers
are currently looking at a bill of $52 billion to shore up already existing dams
and levees and another $57 billion in deferred maintenance for roads. Billions
more are needed for construction and maintenance for schools and universities
as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> One of the most
important points, which dam supporters, including <i>The Fresno Bee</i>, invariably
overlook, is that the dam would drown 5,000 acres of public land, a recreation
area known as The San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area (formerly known as Squaw Leap). Another point
they fail to mention: This land belongs to all of us, including our children
and grandchildren. Nevertheless, dam supporters insist that we, the public, pay
billions for the destruction of our own land even though the dam would not benefit farmers in the Valley as a whole very much. The water is spoken for, so the people
with the water rights are asking the public to pay billions <i>and</i> to give up our
land mainly for their benefit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> According to the
fact sheet, although Temperance Flat Dam could store up to 1.331 MAF13 of
water, the Bureau of Reclamation concluded that the new dam would increase
average annual water deliveries by only 61,000-94,000 acre feet (depending on
the emphasis of the operational scenario). The project alternative that stands
as the potential front runner is modeled to produce 70,000 acre-feet, 21,000 in
a dry or critically dry year. (To put that in perspective, Reclamation’s
Central Valley Project produces 7 million acre-feet. Statewide water use is 42
million acre-feet.) <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/ca-regional-water-supply-solutions-FS.pdf">According to the NRDC</a>, investments in water conservation and regional water supplies have consistently been far more cost effective and less environmentally damaging than investments in new, large reservoir projects in California.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> The Friends of the River fact sheet
does not mention other possible alternatives, such as recharge basins in the
Valley, water conservation, and the planting of sustainable crops. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> The fact
sheet also does not mention that an element of risk always exists with any dam,
which can be summed up by three little words: Things. Fall. Apart. The
immediate bill for the failing spillways of the Oroville Dam is in the hundreds
of millions. The incredibly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam_failure">long list of dams that have failed</a> in recent
history does not inspire confidence either. With three dams, Kerckhoff,
Temperance Flat, and Friant, all in a row like dominos, the failure of one dam
could lead to the catastrophic failure of one or more of the other two, which
could potentially have far worse impacts than the Oroville disaster, which so
far has included the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The San Joaquin River is among the most heavily dammed and diverted rivers in America. It
ranked </span><a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/water-and-drought/article71551747.html" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">number one on the list of most endangered rivers in 2014</a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">. In 2016, only one
other river system ranked higher on the list than the San Joaquin. Unfortunately,
there are not many pristine stretches of the river left for the public to enjoy. Why should the public give up so much for so little, especially when far more effective alternatives exist?</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> I know we are dealing with facts here, but I have just one wish. We are stuck with a president who doesn’t respect facts, but can’t
we just puh-leeeease have our local newspaper report the facts on this issue
for once?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-91614737254617228572017-02-19T10:03:00.001-08:002017-02-19T10:36:19.473-08:00THE FRESNO BEE CENSORS THE TRUTH<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRbXRERsJ_RRyUvaHK5g22_urqeNqFhq6nUfl3wfjQDzr50nRMOCzt3nVTdLU0B75v-6PdwefhyphenhyphenGLe_RrC7mqyUdeJV4_j4XD9qihNgFkW4_K6LdJRbJc49t7R4Nb39xxHpDyewI3wkBz/s1600/P1013282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRbXRERsJ_RRyUvaHK5g22_urqeNqFhq6nUfl3wfjQDzr50nRMOCzt3nVTdLU0B75v-6PdwefhyphenhyphenGLe_RrC7mqyUdeJV4_j4XD9qihNgFkW4_K6LdJRbJc49t7R4Nb39xxHpDyewI3wkBz/s640/P1013282.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Lupine and Poppies on Slope</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">THE FRESNO BEE CENSORS THE TRUTH</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> This letter to the editor, which was <i>not</i>
published by <i>The Fresno Bee</i>, challenges Nick C. Kazarian’s assertion in a
January 28, 2017 letter to the editor that a dam at Temperance Flat
will create a new recreation area:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Temperance Flat Dam will create a new
recreation area for all to enjoy? Wrong! Temperance Flat Dam will destroy the
most stunning public park near Fresno, known as the San Joaquin River Gorge
Special Recreation Management Area (formerly known as Squaw Leap).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> This park is our
land! Nick C. Kazarian tells an outright lie (letter, January 28), apparently
so that we, the public, will happily pay for the destruction of our own land, primarily
for the benefit of one industry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Paid for mainly by
the public, a new dam will obliterate a park that belongs to everyone—without
the state or federal governments bothering to replace it. A new dam? After
water diversions for the farmers have already killed our rivers? A new dam—as
farmers are exhausting our groundwater for water-guzzling crops that should
never have been planted in a desert?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Grow sustainable
crops. Build recharge basins in the Valley, but don't destroy land that belongs
to our children and grandchildren—for the benefit of an industry that once
again is showing no respect for the public.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> <i>The Bee</i>, which
has gone on record supporting a dam at Temperance Flat, is allowing an outright
lie to remain unchallenged while censoring the truth and opinions contrary to
its own. Abdicating its public trust responsibility,<i> The Bee</i> is supporting the
commercial interests of the Valley’s main industry over the interests of the
public. No wonder many members of the public, here in the Valley and in the rest of the country, remain furious with the news
media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>The Bee’s</i>
criticisms of Donald Trump for his lies, of Devin Nunes for not challenging
Trump’s lies, or of anyone else’s lies now stand as the height of hypocrisy. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-61180556364648329192016-12-29T15:14:00.000-08:002016-12-29T15:34:56.889-08:00HOSTILE CRITICISM?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihE88eVzxY8XI7_DQic6P2fESnbErd7NQd4S-0embxUMJASfKUY60QOHvkK6-86qv14vGEVNBHS-6c1JRqX4d6QYFZNaKDzmvtmj6YsSIqu8F354qiIQhS9g93qovyVineltndN5UmgKnJ/s1600/stump.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihE88eVzxY8XI7_DQic6P2fESnbErd7NQd4S-0embxUMJASfKUY60QOHvkK6-86qv14vGEVNBHS-6c1JRqX4d6QYFZNaKDzmvtmj6YsSIqu8F354qiIQhS9g93qovyVineltndN5UmgKnJ/s640/stump.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">Lupine and Poppies above Pine Flat Reservoir</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.gemsonthetree.blogspot.com/">OBJECTIVE FACT OR HOSTILE CRITICISM?</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> It's funny how the presentation of
facts can be interpreted as hostile criticism. Consider the
following:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> From time immemorial, snow melt
has coursed down the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, merging
with rivers that flowed out through the delta and the bay into the
ocean. The rivers periodically flooded the valley, overflowing into
wetlands teeming with life. Much of the water in the wetlands would
seep down into aquifers below, creating underground lakes of
fresh water.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Over a hundred years ago, farmers
began draining the wetlands and cultivating the land. In the early
twentieth century, farmers began over drafting the groundwater, so
the government built dams and canals that killed most of the rivers,
diverting about eighty percent of the water to farmers, who continued
to grow many water-intensive crops in a region with chronic drought
conditions.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Even with all of the dams in California (about 1,400), farmers continue to over draft the groundwater, and the land continues to subside.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Due to political clout, farmers in
California, unlike in most other states, successfully avoided
groundwater regulations until a few years ago. Wetlands are down to about four percent of their historical
levels. Tainted by toxic chemicals, irrigation water percolates into
the aquifers even as farmers did deeper wells to access what's left
of the fresh groundwater.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_IVXFWFIl4DeTXS3eIyLj0PcUMEw0y-Q-hl_7On8pHeIYFtDsIplbArhukuruoJxrBkiIn9a_qNjdFiDA9fhMrm-9YWDMpLMYIZZcrNeAzYejHEF8ITHMumdMczVl4cu21l1KhIkca25/s1600/sycakg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_IVXFWFIl4DeTXS3eIyLj0PcUMEw0y-Q-hl_7On8pHeIYFtDsIplbArhukuruoJxrBkiIn9a_qNjdFiDA9fhMrm-9YWDMpLMYIZZcrNeAzYejHEF8ITHMumdMczVl4cu21l1KhIkca25/s640/sycakg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Native American Village Site at Confluence of Kings River and Sycamore Creek:<br />Bottom of Pine Flat Reservoir in Drought Conditions</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> One vast ecosystem
extending from the foothills of the mountains to the San Francisco
Bay is gone, and many plants and animals are threatened or
endangered. Beds of ancient rivers have remained dry for decades even
as water streams through diversion canals. The groundwater is
becoming more and more polluted due to pesticides, herbicides,
fertilizers and defoliants. Many fields will be fallowed and some
farming communities will very likely become ghost towns in the near
future due to over pumping of groundwater.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In the mountains, dams have
destroyed many of the rivers' habitats. Near urban areas, few places
remain that allow public access to pristine stretches of California's
rivers. Due to over drafting of groundwater and the Valley's chronic
drought conditions, farmers in the past two decades have fought for more
dams on public lands. The public will pay the lion's share for them
if they are built even as the public loses public parks and access to pristine
stretches of river.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As an environmentalist, I realize
that this factual description can easily look like hostile criticism.
My goal, however, is to work for sustainable industries and
communities. When I began as an activist, I often witnessed how
elected officials at public hearings vilified environmentalists, calling them
anti-American or communist or anti-business, suggesting that
citizens working for sustainable communities were actually
nonconformist wackos, unpatriotic, irresponsible, unreliable and
unemployable.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In <i>Requiem
for the American Dream</i> (available on Netflix), noted linguist and
activist Noam Chomsky points out that in totalitarian societies this
strategy has often been used to demonize and marginalize anyone who
criticizes concentrated power. He states, “These concepts only
arise in a culture, where, if you criticize state power, and by
state, I mean, more generally, not just government, but
state-corporate power—if you criticize concentrated power, you're
against the society, you're against the people. And it's quite
striking that it's used in the United States. In fact, we're the only
democratic society where this concept isn't ridiculed, and it's a
sign of elements of the elite culture which are quite ugly.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5FXcLPxChcLW9b0JLzTKrLCdFOg-5xjbzcMhIiGSjZxnu3n50miz7P8s2vOwLGBwhP4H0riB6mdQMC3Bhe-H7q-bI2ODcmZhnmwgV2pI3l3LRo7rh4nCVaujqTxhPepp24ZLaeFRcVyD/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5FXcLPxChcLW9b0JLzTKrLCdFOg-5xjbzcMhIiGSjZxnu3n50miz7P8s2vOwLGBwhP4H0riB6mdQMC3Bhe-H7q-bI2ODcmZhnmwgV2pI3l3LRo7rh4nCVaujqTxhPepp24ZLaeFRcVyD/s640/12.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandthrones.blogspot.com/">No Man's Land: Pounding Stone in Friant Dam's Inundation Zone</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In a recent
editorial in The Fresno Bee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, and The Bee's editorial staff both
resemble in no small way commissars who vilify any citizen who
criticizes concentrated power. (Commissar: an official in a
totalitarian government whose duties include political
indoctrination, detection of political deviation and implementation
of punishment to make its populace conform.) According to The Fresno
Bee's editorial staff, Rep. Nunes in a “sophisticated” critique “cites
environmental groups' hostility to farming as being a factor in the
state's long history of failing to do the obvious and build more
reservoirs and dams to hold more water from the Sierra snow pack.”
Even as agribusiness maintains concentrated power through its
influence on politicians, The Fresno Bee lauds a politician for using
an ugly and distinctively unsophisticated totalitarian strategy to
demean and marginalize citizens' groups working for a sustainable
future. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Conservationists and environmentalist fight to protect what little is
left, not from hostility but for the common good. The Bee and Rep.
Nunes fail to recognize that there's a world of difference between
criticizing unsustainable practices and being hostile. At this
crucial time, the ag industry can maintain an openness to more
sustainable ways of doing business for everyone's benefit or perpetuate the same destructive
practices while, like many tyrants, relying on "commissars" to intimidate and villify people who disagree.
Unfortunately, both Rep. Nunes and The Fresno Bee have chosen to use
a strategy of the elite culture which is quite ugly.</span></div>
<embed autostart="true" height="15" playcount="true" src="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mp3/9sol.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" width="145"></embed>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-10868094036048060322016-12-11T13:59:00.000-08:002017-02-27T21:50:08.114-08:00THE CENTRAL VALLEY'S RACE TO THE BOTTOM<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvpzRybhyphenhyphenU5DsY9WfFyZ_3arVzah_EMGd2YhdZCmboOVThaauhx4x6yB8I9M1X38550rOcNTk2WkTTWmUuXBSyy31SqM-UdbfxLE8PhYA5amFQ203MJqiRy31P8UTyIjKCSGl8AOnDdFt/s1600/P1012416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvpzRybhyphenhyphenU5DsY9WfFyZ_3arVzah_EMGd2YhdZCmboOVThaauhx4x6yB8I9M1X38550rOcNTk2WkTTWmUuXBSyy31SqM-UdbfxLE8PhYA5amFQ203MJqiRy31P8UTyIjKCSGl8AOnDdFt/s640/P1012416.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">The San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">RACE TO THE BOTTOM</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Depressed at first by Donald
Trump's victory, I woke up last Sunday morning and realized that,
largely due to local media, I have spent most of my life in Trump
land—a domain where facts don't matter, where history is
manipulated by the hands of power, where you're not expected to
believe much, if anything, you hear. I decided that if I can survive
forty-five years in the San Joaquin Valley, in proto-Trump land, then I'm
pretty sure that we can survive the next four years (as long as
Trump's staff manages to keep the President's busy fingers away from
the nuclear launch codes). Then, sipping my coffee, I read <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article118610848.html">The Fresno Bee's editorial</a> supporting a dam at Temperance Flat and an editorial
on the facing page about how farmer's are protecting endangered
species—when farming is in fact the reason for most of the habitat
destruction. (See Letter to the Editor below.) The bald-faced lies, fallacies of logic,
and absurdities seemed even worse than before. After Trump's victory, I concluded, the editorial staff of <i>The Fresno Bee</i> has slid headlong into fatuity.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In true Donald Trump form, <i>The Bee</i>
claims that “People have short memories” while neglecting to
mention that the public in the Central Valley has already given up an
underground sea of groundwater to agribusiness, which has severely
over-drafted the aquifers. The public in the Valley has given up most
of its river resources to agribusiness as well: Riverbeds in the Valley have
remained dry for decades even as water continues to course through
diversion canals. The public has given up its land, wiped out by dams
in numerous places on the San Joaquin River and well over a thousand
other places in California. Now <i>The Fresno Bee</i> is all in favor of the
public paying billions of dollars to allow the annihilation of a
magnificent public park and the diverting of water resources for
agribusiness in a twisted form of socialism for the wealthy—under
the guise of recharging the aquifers. <i>The Bee</i>, unlike just about
everyone else, refuses to acknowledge that the writing is on the wall
due to unregulated groundwater pumping—Another reservoir, which
will hold some of the most expensive water in the state, will not for long keep farmers from putting themselves out of business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFASze8yR_lOWAZb5CLOUAjCo6qoYFDOfICPZSjm2EajL475lAJShpTDSooX1L2Kj1AO_3DBXZF7Y8HEk0TW2ux2bSnl-TSnx1cVjs_-25xjQZ3wEYhCLHJSbiNcDg4OYY2pPXbZmIUeK/s1600/P1012378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFASze8yR_lOWAZb5CLOUAjCo6qoYFDOfICPZSjm2EajL475lAJShpTDSooX1L2Kj1AO_3DBXZF7Y8HEk0TW2ux2bSnl-TSnx1cVjs_-25xjQZ3wEYhCLHJSbiNcDg4OYY2pPXbZmIUeK/s640/P1012378.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Trail into San Joaquin River Gorge, with Pounding Stone to the Left</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> <i>The Bee</i> relies on pure hyperbolic
fallacy, claiming that a new dam at Temperance Flat would be a
“linchpin” within the system of waterworks. A new dam will, quite
simply, not hold the various elements of the Central Valley Project's
vast system together as farmers race to the bottom to mine the
groundwater still within reach. Unlike other states in the nation,
farmers have succeeded in pressuring California to avoid imposing
groundwater regulations, which has led to a new water war
that pits neighbor against neighbor and farms against urban areas as
the aquifers run dry. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-groundwater-20150318-story.html">Unrestrained pumping of groundwater</a> for
unsustainable crops, not drought, which has always been a chronic
condition in the Valley, is the main cause. As farmers race to suck
up the last groundwater, the assertion that one dam is going to provide
enough water to recharge nearly exhausted aquifers on the Valley's
east-side, let alone throughout the Valley, is a ludicrous fallacy.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/29/california-drought-san-joaquin-valley-sinking-as-farmers-race-to-tap-aquifer/">Lisa M. Krieger</a> writes in <i>The
Mercury News</i> about the proliferation of new wells, “<span style="color: black;">The
rush to drill is driven not just by historically dry conditions, but
by a host of other factors that promote short-term consumption over
long-term survival — new, more moisture-demanding crops; improved
drilling technologies; and a surge of corporate investors seeking
profits for agricultural ventures....Now those forces are renewing an
age-old problem of environmental degradation: Decades ago,
overpumping sunk half of the entire San Joaquin Valley, in one area
as much as 28 feet. Today new areas are subsiding, some almost a foot
each year, damaging bridges and vital canals.”</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Have dams ever solved for
long the chronic<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0WAaUth0rZcaX3HpZGCxG6LmqCMNVZux6T7gYNIIbZBLMmGiM-7X1XMLSLNS05RUzSEXvAKJTgB_j_W3mhhyphenhyphenAvxU-RCaLX9IhC2TimuUAf8uFPbqqqkvVUeq0fQf4PhGsGjoWHTaseSH/s1600/P1012407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0WAaUth0rZcaX3HpZGCxG6LmqCMNVZux6T7gYNIIbZBLMmGiM-7X1XMLSLNS05RUzSEXvAKJTgB_j_W3mhhyphenhyphenAvxU-RCaLX9IhC2TimuUAf8uFPbqqqkvVUeq0fQf4PhGsGjoWHTaseSH/s400/P1012407.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.gemsonthetree.blogspot.com/">Bush Lupine near Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
problem of over-drafting groundwater? Even with all
of California's waterworks, groundwater makes up anywhere from forty to sixty
percent of fresh water consumed in California, according to <i>The
Sacramento Bee</i>. As <i>The Fresno Bee</i> mentions in its editorial, The
Central Valley Project was built in large part because farmers in the
early twentieth century were over-pumping groundwater at an alarming
rate, yet here we are again with the same old problem despite the
dams and water diversions. Despite fledgling groundwater regulations
that farmers could tie up in court for decades, no one can be certain
that farmers will stop over drafting our groundwater supply before
it's too late—even with a new dam.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Effectively fighting off water
regulations for decades and pumping as if there is an unlimited
supply of liquid gold, farmers are in the process of creating ghost
towns on the east-side of the Valley. Pending regulations are currently vague and in a state of limbo. According to <i><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article45802360.html">The Sacramento Bee</a></i>, uncertainties abound about the new California
groundwater regulations, including who will fund and who will manage
the agencies; how the water use will be tracked and how the violators
will be punished; how much water will be drawn overall and how it
will be divvied up; and whether or not zoning ordinances should be
used to limit new wells and the types of crops that can be planted.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Whether or not the
regulations have any teeth is the essential <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWtZnYCXokd9eK5Xv2sUl9czbkbHK3M5u5xc3Ma_-lN-h-UHn40K5Hcz1xo24qovndl6WDXFjUzLyjXxm6mfe0Du4VzuRXpEp7KPjOR1o00zzckqSo1MV2thNo3H2zklDMQRabcn2TYVs/s1600/P1012575.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWtZnYCXokd9eK5Xv2sUl9czbkbHK3M5u5xc3Ma_-lN-h-UHn40K5Hcz1xo24qovndl6WDXFjUzLyjXxm6mfe0Du4VzuRXpEp7KPjOR1o00zzckqSo1MV2thNo3H2zklDMQRabcn2TYVs/s400/P1012575.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/flat.htm">Lupine and Poppies by Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
question. Over the years I have
witnessed how industries do a run around regulations by pressuring
legislators to under-fund agencies, by getting representatives who
are hostile to regulation appointed to water-down rules and
enforcement policies, and by limiting citizen representation on rule-making
boards. Often industry members step gingerly through a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolving_door_(politics)">revolving door</a>
into rule-making positions. In a place where agribusiness has
successfully avoided regulation for the greater part of a century,
where even the word regulation can inspire farmers to run for their
guns, establishing effective regulatory agencies will be a task that would cause even Hercules to tremble.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Trump's choice of <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/309432-dem-senator-trumps-epa-pick-is-corruption">Scott Pruitt</a>,
sworn enemy of environmentalists, to head the Environmental
Protection Agency makes the future of the regulations even more
uncertain. Considering the bitter water wars of the past and the
political effectiveness of the hydraulic brotherhood, as a person who has been politically active for several decades, I have little hope that
the regulations will be effective enough to keep the farmers from
exhausting our water resources or from putting themselves out of
business. The farmers can always sell their land; the public,
on the other hand, will be left with no water in the well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The public has given up its river
resources and its groundwater and its park lands, and has </span><a href="https://mises.org/library/water-subsidies-and-shortages-american-west" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">paid a fortune to assist agribusiness</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, yet the problem of over-drafting
continues to rear its ugly head because of an unsustainable system.
In the Valley, farmers have continued to plant permanent,
unsustainable crops, including almonds, pistachios, and walnuts, and
water-guzzling crops, such as cotton and rice, that have no business
being grown in a desert. Farmers, like bankers on Wall Street, have
created a disaster waiting to happen. With the Temperance Flat
Dam proposal, they hope to benefit from the threat of disaster. </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">The
Fresno Bee</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, despite its public trust role, is all too happy to
provide the PR for them. If a dam is built at Temperance Flat,
unfortunately, the next great loss to the public will no doubt be the
Kings River Special Management Area when farmers provide the next
installment of disaster capitalism: Farmers have clamored to build a
dam at Roger's Crossing for years. California and the federal
government have yet to put the brakes on a system that is wildly out of control, and the public will continue to pay for it—with
hard-earned cash and the loss of even more public resources.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-NWg2WIoPKHq_eNCRomPa66koNN6MtgmKAHRfJTExrPvN_CMMwu9tQH-BwzEmz11X9slIW32GmQ8du4X6Kr4tjj5o3DgASbYPtxVSp-cFdlVlLMApsezxw85vu_06oaRgXb4l0wn_zXji/s1600/P1012403+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-NWg2WIoPKHq_eNCRomPa66koNN6MtgmKAHRfJTExrPvN_CMMwu9tQH-BwzEmz11X9slIW32GmQ8du4X6Kr4tjj5o3DgASbYPtxVSp-cFdlVlLMApsezxw85vu_06oaRgXb4l0wn_zXji/s640/P1012403+%25283%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/part1.htm">Trail Below Bluffs: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Despite the minefield of water rights and policies in California, our legislators have neglected one simple fact: Water does not recognize property
boundaries. Neglecting this fact is quickly leading to a day of reckoning. At some point, no doubt, the only farmers who survive
the exhaustion of ground water resources will be the ones who can afford to
drill the deepest wells, but even they will reach a point where it is
no longer profitable to drill deeper. Quite simply, California's system of allowing one industry unrestrained access to groundwater
and its kooky policy of <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-cap-drought-water-20150413-column.html">handing out five times more rights to water</a> than our rivers produce even in a normal
year has led to the draining of water resources by one industry,
resulting in one loss after another for the public, the loss
of rivers and riparian ecosystems and public lands and precious
groundwater. The loss of The San Joaquin River Gorge Special
Recreation Management Area, which would be wiped out by a dam at
Temperance Flat, would be just another tragedy in a lengthy list of losses.
Unfortunately, there is not much left for the public to lose.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> When it comes to who gets the
water from the new reservoir, even <i>The Bee</i> has acknowledged that much
of the water is spoken for. Despite all that the public has given up,
the people whose wells have run dry are probably not going to be
first on the list to receive water for recharging their aquifers. The
farmers are going to continue to receive the lion's share of the
water. Instead of addressing the public's needs, <i>The Bee</i> has decided
that the public should feel obliged to give up another arm and a leg
to perpetuate the unsustainable practices of a private industry, with the net effect
of destroying public lands and diverting the vast majority of river
water for irrigation even while farmers continue to suck up the
groundwater and pollute with toxic chemicals what should be treated
as a public resource. The public in the Central Valley is once again
the loser. The Bee, which should play a public trust role, is once
again twisting the truth for the wealthiest beneficiaries of
California's most precious resource.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article119962648.html">Letter to the Editor, <i>Fresno Bee</i>, December 10, 2016, by Gary R. Zahm</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Tony
Francois's statement (opinion Dec. 4) of the diversion of “water of
life” by federal water managers from endangered Valley wildlife
species for Delta smelt protection, is nothing but an emotional
fabrication of the truth.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Vernal
pools (filled only by annual rainfall) which host various species of
fairy shrimp, the California tiger salamander and unique compositions
of vernal pool wildflowers, and the associated grassy uplands
containing prime habitat for the San Joaquin kit fox are not
threatened by water diversions, but from the incessant conversion of
this unique foothill habitat for thousands of acres of new and
water-thirsty almond orchards.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-size: small;">The
California condor, which nests in remote rocky crags within forested
foothills, is not a water-dependent species, but receives its liquids
from dead carrion. It is also very doubtful that kayakers are
“regularly engaging in recreation” in arid kit fox habitat.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-size: small;">His
verbose bashing of federal water managers is just another verse from
a very overplayed song of unsubstantiated accusations.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<i>(Thank you, Mr. Zahm!)</i></div>
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-49553416190876299122016-11-07T17:03:00.000-08:002016-12-15T21:58:30.037-08:00ROUTE 99: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF CALIFORNIA<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaN0j4OudNglAU5TIUWnzV0pU2ntLNDEUey88t99ldsamw10NlWUU-KrbFYfKl3jU1VfhobplJI9L4ZNqHfjvn3kPhiVl2Q0nE0RiLXAVkXyTX1xlN8jMYBp0rzqgipcqdTPAPKOqbY5Q/s1600/P1012698+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaN0j4OudNglAU5TIUWnzV0pU2ntLNDEUey88t99ldsamw10NlWUU-KrbFYfKl3jU1VfhobplJI9L4ZNqHfjvn3kPhiVl2Q0nE0RiLXAVkXyTX1xlN8jMYBp0rzqgipcqdTPAPKOqbY5Q/s640/P1012698+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">The San Joaquin River Gorge: From Loop Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">A
NEW <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies">FALLACY OF LOGIC</a>?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> I
grew up in LA and moved to Fresno when I was eleven. I've always
thought that freeways in LA are far worse than Central Valley's Route
99, so to my surprise I discovered that according to <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441475/california-route-99-political-elitism-failing-address-everyday-problems">Victor Davis Hanson</a>, “The 99 is emblematic of a state in psychological and
material decline.” </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Save
me, Jesus! No wonder I've felt a bit diminished lately. I live near
99 (which is what the locals call it, not <i>the</i> 99), and since our pool
of maniacal motorists is far smaller than LA's, I've always believed,
mistakenly it seems, that our freeway isn't so bad. I guess I've been
wasting my time worrying about global warming, overpopulation,
habitat loss, species extinction, the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction, the concentration of wealth, the undermining of
democracy, looming economic meltdown, and other inconsequential
problems. Mr. Hanson has pointed out the real problem just down the
street from me.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Since
I have personally witnessed a number of major improvements on Route
99 in recent years, I concluded that this was just another example of
Mr. Hanson's fondness for logical fallacies—in this case the
<a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hyperbole">hyperbolic fallacy</a>, which <span lang="en">occurs
when something is stated much more strongly than facts and
observations support. Mr. Hanson is using a bad rating of Route 99 by
some animal that calls itself Valuepenguin as a way to prove how
political elites are failing to address everyday problems in
underserved areas like the Central Valley.</span></span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Route
99 has had more fatal accidents than other freeways recently, so this
relatively unknown, private consumer research organization has
labeled 99 the most dangerous freeway in the state. My personal
theory is that the freeways in major metropolitan areas have become
so congested that no one can go much faster than ten miles per
hour at any given time, a pace that dramatically decreases the fatality
rate.</span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I
would have ignored Mr. Hanson's hyperbole, but then he equates the
building of freeways and bridges with the building of dams and
canals, and I recognized yet another fallacy of logic: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence">false equivalence</a>. Freeways and bridges are not the same as dams and
canals. For one thing, freeways and bridges benefit anyone with a
car, whereas dams and canals, due to California's system of water
rights, primarily benefit agri-business. Freeways are conduits of
transportation. Dams provide water and hydroelectric power and flood
control. They have a different order of magnitude. For Mr. Hanson, however, what links these very different
structures is that they are shining symbols of human progress. Even though they are made of concrete and asphalt, to Mr. Hanson they are the
“lifeblood” of California.</span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> In
his self-appointed role as a critic of our times, Mr. Hanson has set up
a mythical golden age to compare to our flawed modern age. In his
golden age people with great knowledge and foresight designed and
built dams and canals and freeways and bridges, which allowed great
strides in human progress. According to Mr. Hanson, the elites
nowadays have their heads in the clouds (or elsewhere); they are more
concerned with building high speed rail and transgender bathrooms and
with protecting flower-loving flies and other insignificant
creatures. </span>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIL1kIQF0v0VDnSJvDA3pGBcE5oZU-x0RdENXtoouWHv4DKNscA66lLnoGZoQan5BzkjaxVvnhYh3tUzHHw8xDgpu3wqGFNSXp166Tztj_B-QqBZDRmBHgKn-bT7alJYy4WHk71KF4YhL/s1600/P1012823+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIL1kIQF0v0VDnSJvDA3pGBcE5oZU-x0RdENXtoouWHv4DKNscA66lLnoGZoQan5BzkjaxVvnhYh3tUzHHw8xDgpu3wqGFNSXp166Tztj_B-QqBZDRmBHgKn-bT7alJYy4WHk71KF4YhL/s640/P1012823+%25283%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Trail of East Side of the Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Dams
and freeways, ironically, are linked in a way that Mr. Hanson does
not discuss: They have resulted in extensive cultivation and in an
increase in urbanization that together have destroyed the ecosystems
of the Central Valley. Dams have also devastated numerous riparian
habitats in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Dams and freeways, in ways
never imagined by the members of Mr. Hanson's golden age, are now
forcing Californian's to make painful choices about development and
water use, choices that may seem easy for Mr. Hanson and the vested
interests who own the land and maintain the water rights, but not so easy for the rest of
us.</span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> Strangely,
ever since I moved here almost fifty years ago, Route 99 has
symbolized for me the tackiness and the crassness of Fresno. Only one
thoroughfare in Fresno, Blackstone Avenue, is uglier, in my opinion.
As a street, Blackstone is so garish and tawdry in its glaring
commercialism that God once sent His angels to destroy it, but they
discovered that they could not do anything worse to any city. Mr.
Hanson apparently prefers the ugliness of unfettered commercialism to
the splendor of nature, which is what people in the Central Valley
have lost due to the freeways and dams. </span>
</span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Before
you conclude that I am simply whining about the adverse impacts of
progress, let me make it clear that I am actually complaining about
the elites in the Central Valley. The elites with the land and the
water rights have left the rest of us with a subnatural and
substandard quality of life—and they continue to demand more, more
dams on public lands and more unsustainable development. They take
everything, by hook or by crook, but they don't give anything back.
In the proposal to build Temperance Flat Dam, for instance, they do
not include mitigation providing the public with a park containing
the same stunning natural values as the <a href="http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bakersfield/Programs/Recreation_opportunities/SJRG_SRMA.html">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a>—or any park whatsoever even though Fresno remains nearly at the <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article79974722.html">bottom for park acreage</a> within the top 100 cities in the U.S. In Fresno,
the majority of us face worsening blight as the rich flee farther and
farther north.</span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Lest
you think that I am trying to limit farmers' access to water, please
remember that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/04/03/agriculture-is-80-percent-of-water-use-in-california-why-arent-farmers-being-forced-to-cut-back/">farmers already receive eighty percent</a> of the water in
the state, about four times more than urban users. Yet farmers in the
semi-arid Valley continue to irrigate unsustainable crops like
cotton, rice, and almonds (the dominant crop in the Valley).</span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> A
dam at Temperance Flat, which Mr. Hanson wholeheartedly supports, is
a perfect symbol of what is happening to our region. Dams already
exist to the north and south of Temperance Flat's proposed inundation
area. A dam at Temperance Flat would bury a majestic public park
under hundreds of feet of water, filling up the entire space between
two existing reservoirs. If Temperance Flat were built, in other
words, three reservoirs like huge shadows would entirely blot out the
San Joaquin River ecosystem for many miles. People of the Valley would lose access to a nearby, pristine river ecosystem. To find anything similar they would have to travel to Mono Hot Springs--over three hours from Fresno--on a dangerous one-lane road that hugs the cliff side in many places. </span>
</span><br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZioNhNwz6Pcl4AboqODpA-B2WVR35d0B9Gh829RsNZzMK_N4aI9OQrk28J-EbqjJzXpki-Ur-T45OEvA_1TL7vgIJbj_hFaRsSZrnKeE6vuNODCdAQJF6Wm3IEoxywi8LozaxIjHbCnsd/s1600/P1012617.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZioNhNwz6Pcl4AboqODpA-B2WVR35d0B9Gh829RsNZzMK_N4aI9OQrk28J-EbqjJzXpki-Ur-T45OEvA_1TL7vgIJbj_hFaRsSZrnKeE6vuNODCdAQJF6Wm3IEoxywi8LozaxIjHbCnsd/s640/P1012617.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandthrones.blogspot.com/">Ceanothus next to Loop Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Numerous dams have already destroyed ecosystems elsewhere on the San
Joaquin River--the real "lifeblood" of the Valley that once supported a salmon run and replenished the
wetlands of the Pacific Flyway and flowed out through the delta and
San Francisco Bay. But due to water diversions (eighty percent for
agri-business), the river in the Valley dies at a
sinkhole. Mr. Hanson and the vested interests clamoring for the dam
want to take everything, in other words, without any meaningful
compensation to the public, without any real consideration for the
threatened and endangered species or for the integrity of the web of
life.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> To
support his fallacious belief in a golden age, Mr. Hanson once again
uses a fallacy of logic known as oversimplification. He implies that
a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16873058/ns/us_news-environment/t/peace-proposed-battle-over-endangered-fly/#.WCDGgC0rKpo">flower-loving fly</a> is less important than “damns” [sic], canals,
bridges or freeways. Flies serve an essential function within the web
of life, eliminating dead bodies that would pile up a mile high if it
weren't for their services. Given the choice between a dam, a
freeway, or a species of fly, I would choose the fly every time. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The
flower-loving fly sneered at by Mr. Hanson serves another significant function: It is a pollinator. As many have realized due to the
extensive loss of bees and butterflies in recent years, <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-and-extinction-of-the-bees/5375684">pollinators</a> are essential to
the survival of the human race. Hardly important, I guess, compared
to the bottom line of the elites.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> Mr.
Hanson once again flagrantly ignores the significance of the endangered
species list! Quite simply, an endangered species is an indicator of
great loss or damage to a habitat and the other creatures in it. The
pesky flower-loving fly, in other words, is emblematic of habitat
destruction due to over-development. It apparently has never occurred
to Mr. Hanson that the destruction of one link in a chain could make the chain fall apart. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Freeways
and dams are responsible for tearing apart the web of life all over
California, and species just about everywhere are now at risk,
whether or not they are listed as threatened or endangered. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/29/earth-lost-50-wildlife-in-40-years-wwf">Fifty percent of the wildlife in the world has disappeared</a> in the last
forty years, but that does not give Mr. Hanson pause: To Mr. Hanson,
concern about the extinction of one fly is just another sign of the
stupidity of “elites” in our time.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #252525;"> The
mythical wise ones of Mr. Hanson's golden age somehow didn't realize
that dams kill rivers or that freeways induce development. Strangely,
Mr. Hanson does not recognize the one true equivalence of dams and
freeways: Both are responsible for the large-scale destruction of
ecosystems. </span>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Along with Donald Trump, Mr.
Hanson is guilty of what I have concluded is a new fallacy of logic.
I call it the negativity projection fallacy, a combination of the
</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_projection_fallacy" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">mind-projection fallacy</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> and the hyperbolic fallacy. Donald Trump as a
politician and Mr. Hanson as a writer are so full of anger and fear that they project their negativity onto other groups, such as democrats or socialists, or other individuals, such as Hillary Clinton,
or other creatures, such as the flower-loving fly or the
yellow-legged frog. The projection, however, is a distortion of
reality. Instead of dealing with their negative emotions, in other
words, those who use this fallacy project their negativity
onto others, blaming them in exaggerated, distorted attacks.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The negativity projection fallacy can be
found in other articles by Mr. Hanson. In one article, for instance, entitled “<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440198/never-nevertrump-not-voting-trump-republican-suicide">The Republican Dilemma</a>,” Mr. Hanson resembles a snake that beats its
head on the ground after being run over by a car: How could the
Republican Party nominate Trump? As he writhes in agony, he
hallucinates, believing that even though Trump is bad, voters would be
suicidal to support Hillary Clinton.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Suicidal, really? Hillary Clinton, one of the most qualified and competent people
on the planet? Has Mr. Hanson swallowed so much Koolaid that he can't admit that
pay for play is not a fact of life among Democrats and Republicans
everywhere? Does Mr. Hanson believe, like Trump, that if Hillary were
elected, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/31/donald-trump-warns-that-650-million-immigrants-could-come-to-the-u-s-in-a-week-lets-do-the-math/">650 million immigrants would flood into the United States</a> in
her first week in office? The U.S., as most people know, only has a
population of about 319 million right now. It seems that Mr. Hanson
is so angry at liberals that he would support a dangerous ignoramus
for president.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The facts suggest the exact
opposite. Without distorting reality through hyperbolic fallacy
or projection fallacy or any other flaw of logic, many of us have come to the conclusion that electing thin-skinned,
combative, sexually assaulting, uncivil, lying, negative, ignorant
Donald Trump to a position where he is in possession of the launch
codes could result in nuclear annihilation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> This sense
of a golden age, of a once-great country that is now being destroyed
by crooked democrats, is a common theme for both Trump and
Hanson and has captured the imagination of a large number of people. It is an appealing coping mechanism that justifies
exaggerations and oversimplifications and distortions and outright
lies. It allows them to spew venom at anyone or anything that
challenges their dream of a world of perfect progress and harmony
where they no longer experience internal negativity. That promised
land will never exist, but a great many voters have
been seduced by this dream of a golden age. Unfortunately, in the real world
far too much is at stake to take it seriously.</span></div>
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-4766815326936197952016-10-27T18:35:00.000-07:002017-02-27T21:49:37.909-08:00THE BOGEYMAN<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBT23PlLpl93Xn9rr1ib2kcAlAJEkyBC7TH_h2OsqVAo1inhy-RQeGFFygySHaW-Qu88lmb1n2aDKr9mJIykcC7kETi7-JjR3FBLTEnSBYT2nbUJtPiLIEpp9XgAxw7MHy2KCBn2L6Sax/s1600/P1012728+%25284%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBT23PlLpl93Xn9rr1ib2kcAlAJEkyBC7TH_h2OsqVAo1inhy-RQeGFFygySHaW-Qu88lmb1n2aDKr9mJIykcC7kETi7-JjR3FBLTEnSBYT2nbUJtPiLIEpp9XgAxw7MHy2KCBn2L6Sax/s640/P1012728+%25284%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Inundation Zone of Proposed Dam: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>Note:</b> The <u>Fresno Bee</u> </i></span><i style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">coincidentally </i><i style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">stopped publishing my
letters to the editor around the time I started opposing a dam at Temperance
Flat, a dam that the <u>Bee</u> wholeheartedly supports, so unfortunately
every now and then I'm going to include what might have been a letter
to the editor in this space.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/"><br />
</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">MR. VANDERHOOF'S BOGEYMAN</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> According to <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article109193687.html">Fred Vanderhoof</a>,
chairman of the Fresno County Republican Party, a bully is going to
harass farmers, business men and pastors if Hillary Clinton is
elected, a bully with two terrifying faces: regulation and socialism.
This bully will tear our constitution and all of our cherished rights
to pieces.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I started to wonder what this
bully actually looks like. Perhaps Mr. Vanderhoof is referring to the
bully who prohibits child labor, sweatshops, job discrimination and
exploitation, the bully who puts the breaks on wall-street greed, the
bully who stops polluters and corporate malfeasance.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Could this bully also look like
police officers, firemen and teachers? These people, after all, get
paid by state and local governments, with hefty support from the
federal government. What about the soldier, the postal worker, the
social worker, and all the others who labor for the federal
government? Bullying socialists all?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I'm not sure exactly what Mr.
Vanderhoof means because Republicans often use a type of doublespeak
that contains one level of meaning for insiders and another for those
easily frightened by the bogeyman.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Mr. Vanderhoof wants to get
government off our backs, I guess. I'm also guessing that he means
that taxpayers should stop propping up farmers with subsidies and
businessmen with grants, and that the public should never provide funds
to build more dams (which primarily benefit farmers) on public lands.
We must stop socialism to make America great again!
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Sadly, one of Mr. Vanderhoof's
points is already moot: Water diversions are killing off
an offending species of fish—only one delta smelt was found in the
wild in a recent scientific survey. I'm sure Mr. Vanderhoof is aware
that most of the rivers in the Valley are dead, mainly because the
government built numerous dams, and eighty percent of the water is
diverted to the farmers. Someone should explain to Mr. Vanderhoof
that you can't kill a fish (or a whole species) more than once.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The government, if Hillary is
elected, will even bully our gentle pastors. How is this possible?
Mr. Vanderhoff doesn't say, possibly because the separation of church
and state effectively keeps religion and government away from each
other most of the time. Is this Mr. Vanderhoof's code for the
possibility that the "bully" government might allow gay marriage and
keep Roe v. Wade, even though this might offend some pastors? Or is
he concerned that the government might keep some fanatic pro-lifer
with Judeo-Christian beliefs from blowing up Planned Parenthood?
Unfortunately, Mr. Vanderhoof's language is incendiary but lacks
specificity.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9oD6Si4xXtZarJdkcgW42f4lm0wWtjVVz_tyuW5JaCw54hajDpxHrWzBLfahv2FDY5QoLsnvszJZoWwOFx4TFiPseWdI6OgRjkInxL-1kUAahx1f14us6EKz1OSQgUvwiW2VUPtV2Ag60/s1600/P1012816+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9oD6Si4xXtZarJdkcgW42f4lm0wWtjVVz_tyuW5JaCw54hajDpxHrWzBLfahv2FDY5QoLsnvszJZoWwOFx4TFiPseWdI6OgRjkInxL-1kUAahx1f14us6EKz1OSQgUvwiW2VUPtV2Ag60/s640/P1012816+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge: Temperance Flat Dam Inundation Area</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Do industry or business or
religion ever intrude into our lives? Wasn't it the unrestrained
greed allowed by deregulation that resulted in the recent economic
meltdown, which has made it harder for just about all of us? In Mr.
Vanderhoof's world, do businessmen ever rip people off or exploit
them? Do pastors ever intrude into our bedrooms to tell us how we
can love or what to do with our bodies? Haven't water diversions for
farmers killed most of the rivers and destroyed our ecosystems?
Haven't their chemicals polluted our water and air? Mr. Vanderhoof
can't seem to decide whether government is a bully or a cancer: Does
he ever see the need to regulate toxic chemicals that cause real
cancers and other health problems?
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Mr. Vanderhoof fails to mention
that the very people he wants to protect from “bully government”
have often created the need for regulation through their criminality,
their lack of civic responsibility, or their intrusiveness in our
lives. He also fails to mention that socialism has propped up many of
these same people in different ways, including subsidies and grants.
I hope voters can see through Mr. Vanderhoof''s deceptive, byzantine code and vote for Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, a man who has truly revealed himself to
be a bully.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-58289597407089333732016-10-15T21:11:00.000-07:002016-10-18T06:22:29.351-07:00MR. HANSON'S FLAWS OF LOGIC AND THE SAN JOAQUIN RIVER GORGE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXSnFP_EDqrvZ_APWVe-Kd99lTuu-GnnhlF6bsRJQ1N3pPZ5AV_ubkZ2aJrk213-pugBFdp9U8i-Mg5hBlQZDVwX6hcK-IrQovW8x_c7CA2k6xg06Pjyb1S7lHL1lSEJVFHvF_k1-Y4qT/s1600/P1012629+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXSnFP_EDqrvZ_APWVe-Kd99lTuu-GnnhlF6bsRJQ1N3pPZ5AV_ubkZ2aJrk213-pugBFdp9U8i-Mg5hBlQZDVwX6hcK-IrQovW8x_c7CA2k6xg06Pjyb1S7lHL1lSEJVFHvF_k1-Y4qT/s640/P1012629+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Bush Lupine and Poppies: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">MR. HANSON'S FLAWS</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“Even animals get in on the new
victimhood. To build a reservoir in drought-stricken California means
oppressing the valley elderberry longhorn beetle or ignoring the
feelings of the foothill yellow-legged frog.”</i> Victor Davis Hanson</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Flaws abound in the world of
Victor Davis Hanson, so many flaws in other nations and other people,
especially liberals. Alas, flaws, known as <a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/03/">fallacies of logic</a>, also
abound in his own writing.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Mr. Hanson, like so many
right-wing pundits with their sound bites and bullet points, is a
master of a fallacy of logic known as oversimplification, an
insistence on ignoring inconvenient facts, a flaw of logic common in
the English papers of flunking freshmen.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> For example, Mr. Hanson in a
<a href="http://victorhanson.com/wordpress/?p=9480#more-9480">recent article</a> goes so far as to suggest that the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-endangered-species-act?gclid=Cj0KEQjwp4fABRCer93Klpaki94BEiQAsXJMGsn_d-XeE5tJ1Hr7BcFAA1vDV9p0M8FmHi4UnS9hBTkaAmO08P8HAQ">Endangered Species Act</a> is part of a new sense of “victim-hood” for animals: He
implies that sensitive liberals feel so guilty about ignoring the
feelings of the foothill yellow-legged frog <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6Ncgs8_A4QLKVeN34NiLpz_VFb8_HNQzWmiGVSNcRAZcOHRQVDDv0naE9QH6ECF_oW-iRXMQNbCR3buLZN_6mUZvZ4Kt7FqOG-c86N4yxAHC3VQ1moLJ7tO3LAfGnHGod6054Ngyu8gy/s1600/P1012412+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6Ncgs8_A4QLKVeN34NiLpz_VFb8_HNQzWmiGVSNcRAZcOHRQVDDv0naE9QH6ECF_oW-iRXMQNbCR3buLZN_6mUZvZ4Kt7FqOG-c86N4yxAHC3VQ1moLJ7tO3LAfGnHGod6054Ngyu8gy/s400/P1012412+%25282%2529.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandthrones.blogspot.com/">Lupine, Goldfields, Popcorn</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
and about the oppression
of the valley elderberry longhorn beetle that these misguided
do-gooders insist on protecting the habitat of insignificant critters
even while in the real world of profit and loss farmers desperately
need more reservoirs. His assertion reveals an ignorance of history
and environmental law that I find extremely odd for a representative
of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and for someone who professes
to be an historian.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> If Mr. Hanson were to drive across
the San Joaquin Valley on most days, from Santa Nella to Bakersfield,
he would cross one dead river after another yet also find that most
of the canals still have water (diverted from the rivers and the
delta) in them.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> One primary source reveals how much
the Valley has changed in a century and a half. According to John
Muir in a <a href="http://www.muirrambleroute.com/muir_journal/IV.SJoachinValsyn.htm">letter written in July, 1868</a>, the San Joaquin Valley was
the floweriest piece of world he had ever walked upon. Those flowers,
as well as the wildlife, comparable even in Muir's time to the
abundance of wildlife on the Serengeti Plains in Africa, were wiped
out by cultivation and urbanization and the damming and diverting of
rivers, which had periodically overflowed to replenish wetlands and
aquifers—wetlands that have diminished to four percent of their
historical levels and aquifers that are now becoming exhausted due to
over-pumping of groundwater, which is causing subsidence of the land.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpoYFdBi2VC2NXKAYC97igXXpMKlUjOitR-W6cBXxdQgciiUHkYsjiRkV7dTsiJKGlP5uBKrXp1nly62x96zp0ujvWxmCGjSTUjrzJ9rd0jzoP-VDoZIKx6SYf05Tmqp-oJsIFd_UGm9Ua/s1600/P1012533+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpoYFdBi2VC2NXKAYC97igXXpMKlUjOitR-W6cBXxdQgciiUHkYsjiRkV7dTsiJKGlP5uBKrXp1nly62x96zp0ujvWxmCGjSTUjrzJ9rd0jzoP-VDoZIKx6SYf05Tmqp-oJsIFd_UGm9Ua/s640/P1012533+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/flat.htm">Owl's Clover: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now, even though dozens of dams
already exist on the San Joaquin River, farmers want to build another
huge dam just north of Friant Dam at Temperance Flat, using public funds to wipe public
lands, the San Joaquin River Gorge, off the map (as well as the habitat of endangered and
threatened species) primarily for their own benefit. All the while
this private industry refuses to change unsustainable practices, such
as irrigating cotton, rice, almonds, and fodder crops in a desert.
Mr. Hanson advocates the taking of public resources, which will
result in ecocide once again, for the benefit of the wealthiest top
percent in the Valley.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Even though he is a representative
of the Hoover Institution, instead of promoting private enterprise, Mr.
Hanson is instead promoting a bizarre form of socialism for the
wealthy. How has a classics professor and scholar of ancient warfare
turned into a spokesperson for such hogwash? Mr. Hanson is good at
stringing together the bullet points of the far-right elites. He
excels at liberal-bashing, in other words, not at providing an
accurate historical, economic, or political perspective.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As Mr. Hanson probably knows, a
species becomes “endangered” usually when so much of its
ecosystem has been <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiILB7MZ7XeWuW1vREfND7JcUCB95KWPjK8UbiHfxUfKX0ufbs-Em0stIECk2_mgbQt5LKKjtSVPGMWGTDuDab7nJhc3k5q9dUaT85TWy-d2GygVDhPYVO8XnzBE85DEaou1n6YVP0YQmQU/s1600/P1012511+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiILB7MZ7XeWuW1vREfND7JcUCB95KWPjK8UbiHfxUfKX0ufbs-Em0stIECk2_mgbQt5LKKjtSVPGMWGTDuDab7nJhc3k5q9dUaT85TWy-d2GygVDhPYVO8XnzBE85DEaou1n6YVP0YQmQU/s400/P1012511+%25282%2529.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/part1.htm">Owl's Clover</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
destroyed that it is driven to the edge of
extinction. It is not, as Mr. Hanson's flip comment implies, a
frivolous designation. Yet Mr. Hanson, with a cavalier attitude,
promotes the destruction of ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
for the benefit of a private, commercial industry. Mr. Hanson would
no doubt consider me a liberal for my views, but I am a conservative
in the sense that I am a conservationist, and I am at a loss to
explain how any conservative does not have species preservation, and
by extension, habitat preservation, at the heart of his
philosophy.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Instead, it's always “jobs vs.
the environment,” jobs versus one endangered species or other. Mr.
Hanson, as a spokesperson for the right, continues to present a <a href="https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/94/False-Dilemma">false dilemma</a>, which is another fallacy of logic. A false dilemma rears its
ugly head when only two choices are presented yet more choices
exist, or when a spectrum of choices exist between two extremes.
False dilemmas are usually couched in “either this or that”
language, but can also be characterized by the omission of possible
choices. Mr. Hanson does not, for instance, entertain the
possibilities of water conservation, underground water storage, or
the cultivation of sustainable crops as ways to protect both endangered species
and jobs. He has to rant about a culture of victim-hood to divert
attention away from a land and water grab by elites who wish to
maintain business as usual.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In holding up Victor Davis Hanson
as one of the leading voices of the right because of his academic
creds, <i>The Fresno Bee</i> and others are doing the public and Mr. Hanson a
disservice by indulging in a fallacy of logic known as “false
authority,” which is the false belief that a person who is an expert in
one field should therefore also be considered an expert in another. Mr. Hanson, in
other words, may be a classics professor and a scholar of ancient
warfare, but that does not make him an expert on modern U.S. domestic
and foreign policy or environmental law. Unfortunately, <i>The Fresno
Bee </i>and others keep publishing the right-wing tirades of a person who
is merely posing as an expert in order to bash liberals and “soft”
Americans.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhthYM0pflzsPdZv6shppnChCqDROuFzxHb2uUlvR3RQyWgqh66micPGu64t3ynUqHp23_xrhnwSA_dtagyDbgBthyyrFBFdwJvtI8QebFfXGZ3QWPGMul-08AhiqqKY0CaUunZ2di6-UC_/s1600/P1012692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhthYM0pflzsPdZv6shppnChCqDROuFzxHb2uUlvR3RQyWgqh66micPGu64t3ynUqHp23_xrhnwSA_dtagyDbgBthyyrFBFdwJvtI8QebFfXGZ3QWPGMul-08AhiqqKY0CaUunZ2di6-UC_/s640/P1012692.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/routes.htm">Bush Lupine by Trail: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In the above-mentioned article, Mr. Hanson
suggests that modern Americans don't understand that life is unfair
and tragedy falls on good people for no reason. If Mr. Hanson were in
touch with the lives of average Americans, he would realize that he
does not need to remind the vast majority of us about the lack of
fairness or the prevalence of tragedy. Worse, Mr. Hanson fails to
recognize that empathy often rises out of tragedy. Empathy can lead
to an attempt to lessen the pain of others, to keep bad from getting
worse, which is a type of heroism and nobility of spirit. Instead he
uses any excuse to bash modern Americans (read “liberals”) for
coddling the weak and for providing a voice to defend what has no
voice.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Mr. Hanson has advocated for the
show of military force often over the years, deriding liberals for
revealing weakness, in other words, for finding alternatives to
war—by using the negotiating process for solving problems, for
instance. It often seems that Mr. Hanson will not find peace until
the United States achieves full-spectrum dominance of the world.
Perhaps Mr. Hanson is a hawk 24/7 for another reason: War is a great
source of profit. <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/">The military received nearly 600 billion dollars</a>
from taxpayers in 2015, fifty-four percent of all federal
discretionary spending, as opposed to the six percent for education;
the three percent for energy and the environment; the three percent
for social security, unemployment and labor; the two percent for
transportation, and on and on. Military spending is an effective way
to channel money from the middle class to the elites. Sound familiar?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cYwhhzEHyLOXN8Q1E55m4gHpmuIHxdooCq8uug7P9Qp2hFzHhyj4CKUaoIDQa5kzelgmJMJIlN1v8WCs4N9r9soDzo_4KQeMN3ppqUnP98c3nIzt8c-jJwRm8e19QxVR1TXIs5wdA7tP/s1600/P1012652.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cYwhhzEHyLOXN8Q1E55m4gHpmuIHxdooCq8uug7P9Qp2hFzHhyj4CKUaoIDQa5kzelgmJMJIlN1v8WCs4N9r9soDzo_4KQeMN3ppqUnP98c3nIzt8c-jJwRm8e19QxVR1TXIs5wdA7tP/s640/P1012652.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Poppies and Lupine: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I doubt that Mr. Hanson would
continue to serve as a mouthpiece for the the right-wing elites if he didn't champion
their causes, one of which, of course, is accumulating even more
wealth.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Those elites are already
outrageously wealthy. <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/20-people-now-own-as-much-wealth-as-half-of-all-americans/">Twenty people now own as much wealth as half of all Americans</a>, according to <i>The Nation</i>. And these elites are not in
any hurry to trickle their money down to the rest of us. According to
the author of the article in <i>The Nation</i>, Joshua Holland, “The U.S.
is caught in a vicious cycle, with rising political inequality
driving an ever-rising concentration of wealth at the top.” Even
with this great income disparity, Mr. Hanson wants the public to stop
whining and pay for deadbeat dams and unjustified wars that
benefit those at the top. It is up to the reader to decide whether
Mr. Hanson is disingenuous or just plain deluded.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I remember Mr. Hanson beating the
drums for the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that
continue to create chaos in the middle east, wars that have arguably led to
even greater terrorism throughout the world, wars that demand more
U.S. military intervention in a progressively more unstable region,
wars that are responsible for unnecessary tragedy here and abroad,
wars that benefit the wealthiest Americans. The untold misery caused
by these wars is in itself a good reason for true liberals and
conservatives alike to remain wary of the flaws of logic common
in Mr. Hanson's editorials as well as in the bullet points of
right-wing pundits in general.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-69740668524036695342016-03-13T18:15:00.002-07:002016-12-15T22:00:46.456-08:00FOLLOWING THE LOOP TRAIL<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk010BBP9yjPQ_KlLoayzJc1w_RSEkm2HXG9GYgUH_iF1YJtci988mFMyPpgoIsTbx27yHdbAKwvDxnqIRicJXBdEeAd192zUbAV7QOnnuEZd0y_A5PuuiACVga1zp2SVHrelWMmvDCsee/s1600/0.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk010BBP9yjPQ_KlLoayzJc1w_RSEkm2HXG9GYgUH_iF1YJtci988mFMyPpgoIsTbx27yHdbAKwvDxnqIRicJXBdEeAd192zUbAV7QOnnuEZd0y_A5PuuiACVga1zp2SVHrelWMmvDCsee/s640/0.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">The Loop Trail above the San Joaquin River Gorge, March 8, 2016</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">WHAT WE LOSE</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I took a detour on my way to The
San Joaquin River Gorge, driving down Blossom Trail on the east side
of Fresno, passing orchard after orchard of the dominant crop in the
San Joaquin Valley: almonds. White blossoms clouded the air, with a
snow of <span style="font-size: small;"></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN72wzbzRMmSPwRsulbIFU9BSLhJv52x1yo6DQ_G6ZbVolfMwDci4g7Ie-G90azWD8P8wjV9sAZZtlAK4USquvMZCwvbwGrWJdF-RKcjabhsURRUL7P1C5x3hpG2HlT3Dh2f8sViY-7zEI/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN72wzbzRMmSPwRsulbIFU9BSLhJv52x1yo6DQ_G6ZbVolfMwDci4g7Ie-G90azWD8P8wjV9sAZZtlAK4USquvMZCwvbwGrWJdF-RKcjabhsURRUL7P1C5x3hpG2HlT3Dh2f8sViY-7zEI/s400/1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Trailhead</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span>melting blossoms in the furrows beneath the trees, each
almond, as just about everyone in California knows by now, taking
over a gallon of water to produce, row after row of blossoming trees
perpetuating the illusion that we can grow anything in the San
Joaquin Valley. To satiate the thirst of almond orchards and grapes and
other water-guzzling crops, influential farmers are fighting hard for
a new dam at Temperance Flat, a dam that would drown public land
above Millerton Lake known as The San Joaquin River Gorge Recreation
Management Area. Judging by comments in the media, the farmers seem
pretty sure they're going to get their dam.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieqpMoWwNQ4UpECRd4B3a332zVNH6dgYmCnF2uxfEAjY5C9DE_mKVShfd9ZbTNSODHBg4kVTYluI9bOHIbL7tiJZKXSwza5ffkwE_FLqVHzSTIQGKnOz41fQaOKBAQ5s6q7zzezJ-nR03j/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieqpMoWwNQ4UpECRd4B3a332zVNH6dgYmCnF2uxfEAjY5C9DE_mKVShfd9ZbTNSODHBg4kVTYluI9bOHIbL7tiJZKXSwza5ffkwE_FLqVHzSTIQGKnOz41fQaOKBAQ5s6q7zzezJ-nR03j/s640/2.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/frust.htm">Fiddleneck in San Joaquin River Gorge Campground</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Just north of Auberry, Smalley
Road winds about a thousand feet down into the river canyon to a
small parking lot. Often in early spring, fiddleneck and popcorn
bloom profusely near the trail head, with redmaids and stork's beaks
closer to the ground. About a</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFqzCP8jn7KsVWrwUdO2FPsS9DbLIgKPZqoMkJl4hT2BQ9U57WV5zpd_7qeKwLcM_w2DtcO5UnFDsMlatD8w8S9RAk2VVO6dIdnKLH7IBYOsmbwVKqiw4r0fC7NjwNRkam1LyN1TWggcJ/s1600/3+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFqzCP8jn7KsVWrwUdO2FPsS9DbLIgKPZqoMkJl4hT2BQ9U57WV5zpd_7qeKwLcM_w2DtcO5UnFDsMlatD8w8S9RAk2VVO6dIdnKLH7IBYOsmbwVKqiw4r0fC7NjwNRkam1LyN1TWggcJ/s320/3+%25282%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="goog_1815690387"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Baby Blue Eyes near Trail<span id="goog_1815690388"></span></span></a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">hundred feet from the parking lot, baby
blue eyes, like pieces of sky, often blanket the earth. After
crossing a rivulet, one often encounters blue dick, poppies and
goldfields. After passing through a gate, one finds more fiddleneck
and baby blue eyes and gets a whiff of pungent deer brush. Shooting
stars grow at the next rivulet, with fennel close to the trail, and
popcorn, like luminescent snow, dominates the slopes, crowned by blue
dick, and then one reaches the gorge. Bush lupine hovers over the
trail, with goldfields and owl's clover beneath. With a few
variations now and then, these flowers bloom every year within their
niche. As spring progresses, other flowers such as bird's eye gilia
and purple vetch and fiesta flowers join or supplant the others.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgncMeDHDfIUoxTjGE0fTZYetlA7EiHe5pEzn40d30CluZufA8OmOCsz3w8xffAmUBr3XpAAKv73cmaamPT0JnFaakmJf8MHFDFiYx6xLZ8JERYvrYdlVrAQ9h7IQ43rjUms8Dovo2XZO4n/s1600/12a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgncMeDHDfIUoxTjGE0fTZYetlA7EiHe5pEzn40d30CluZufA8OmOCsz3w8xffAmUBr3XpAAKv73cmaamPT0JnFaakmJf8MHFDFiYx6xLZ8JERYvrYdlVrAQ9h7IQ43rjUms8Dovo2XZO4n/s640/12a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Owl's Clover and Blue Dick by Trail, West Side of River</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As one continues down the trail,
one encounters more blue and gold and white on the slope. For untold
millennia, these species have blossomed, long before people of
European descent settled in</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fBTkxFWsH3FgrmREEZPS6W7q9fu3CAYQ2otw7IDN1hqrZIFSWnnwviPwiKg7Io525xPfy_EZ_-Q2OnmlDdxLjTtga6Ap4cCS3TXEa-64PcaWA4X1PPg-8LdU-XdSy1d8FIanFul7gCbU/s1600/3a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fBTkxFWsH3FgrmREEZPS6W7q9fu3CAYQ2otw7IDN1hqrZIFSWnnwviPwiKg7Io525xPfy_EZ_-Q2OnmlDdxLjTtga6Ap4cCS3TXEa-64PcaWA4X1PPg-8LdU-XdSy1d8FIanFul7gCbU/s320/3a.jpg" width="282" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/blaze.htm">Shooting Stars by Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">California, long before humans even
migrated to North America. This is one of the few places where the
public still has access to the San Joaquin River in an almost
pristine state. These flowers and oaks and gray pines and red buds
will no doubt soon be buried under hundreds of feet of water, but
even with this knowledge as I hike into the gorge, I can't help but
immerse myself in my surroundings. Simply breathing establishes a
connection with these trees and plants, which are woven together in a
web that extends throughout the world, and I can't help but feel a
sense of oneness with all things, a feeling that I never experience
in Fresno.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePFQ29YtYkCDN_A4o9ZfHKtdrZG7ybo6gKRf8dfn9ul9DK9qtrDwHS223wegqz-LDplHBVNk12cVJnimlj6OJhgalUmpyB83qNUw6WWhtoHkXwmtRbxHXdYj2cIWMu1AGIIYjJztZ62jK/s1600/13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePFQ29YtYkCDN_A4o9ZfHKtdrZG7ybo6gKRf8dfn9ul9DK9qtrDwHS223wegqz-LDplHBVNk12cVJnimlj6OJhgalUmpyB83qNUw6WWhtoHkXwmtRbxHXdYj2cIWMu1AGIIYjJztZ62jK/s640/13.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/temple.htm">Lupine on Both Sides of Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Driving through the San Joaquin
Valley, one encounters one small town after another where typically
one finds a street or two with large mansions near a few streets with
middle-class houses surrounded by small, run-down houses and shacks,
representing the closest thing to a feudal system still in existence</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">, except that money has divine rights and the
wealthy landowners do not honor a tradition of providing safety and
security for their laborers. Instead, the laborers in the
capitalistic version of the feudal system remain dependent on slave
wages. If water is not available, labor is expendable. Laborers and
their families suffer. Profits go down and farmers start demanding
more water to "keep the Valley" from suffering. We hear “People, not
fish” as farmers scramble to grab more water from rivers and the
delta. We see signs with “Dams, not Trains” all over the Valley.
We see <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article58167983.html">op-ed pieces in the newspaper</a> where powerful people accuse
activists, who are simply challenging an unsustainable system, of threatening our very way of life.
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
Make no mistake, this type of intimidating language is for the
activists' employers as much as for the general public, which
apparently doesn't bother the local newspaper, The Fresno Bee, one little bit.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmJoavVL4HqEVw-7tBl_S3Y5McRw77QdX1sQcysTGYTKOG6V5UeZul8TRDfAVgQNvsk5ecqwggW3k39o5_y7likEm4wn95zb8vbk-eUMHxBwBnLDW4C-OwdCG77koNLRJDwh-_PwgKUhL/s1600/8+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="542" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmJoavVL4HqEVw-7tBl_S3Y5McRw77QdX1sQcysTGYTKOG6V5UeZul8TRDfAVgQNvsk5ecqwggW3k39o5_y7likEm4wn95zb8vbk-eUMHxBwBnLDW4C-OwdCG77koNLRJDwh-_PwgKUhL/s640/8+%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/path32.htm">Fiesta Flowers and Fiddleneck by Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> On average, about ninety-five
percent of the water from the San Joaquin River is diverted at Friant
Dam, about eighty percent of which goes to agri-business. The San
Joaquin River, which used to <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUunjij3Sb9G2ZvNFjr56NtBbT0ZsFC6lknQNBGSWhA9YFWuLkmabLJoI80nrG4TlHqVlNAbPcZfSjSDvbedT3SbNSVw28M_C7LZGyTJnR1aArXIwHMuR3pWWnJsI54HuvU7Ejx77xZ5qR/s1600/P1012579+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUunjij3Sb9G2ZvNFjr56NtBbT0ZsFC6lknQNBGSWhA9YFWuLkmabLJoI80nrG4TlHqVlNAbPcZfSjSDvbedT3SbNSVw28M_C7LZGyTJnR1aArXIwHMuR3pWWnJsI54HuvU7Ejx77xZ5qR/s400/P1012579+%25282%2529.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.roomsthatdream.blogspot.com/">Mountain Jewel Flower by Trail</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
flood periodically and refresh aquifers
and wetlands and the delta, died bout seventy years ago thirty miles
below Friant Dam. Wetlands are down to about four percent of their
historical levels. Before the dam, from time immemorial, the San
Joaquin River flowed into the Delta, but now the Delta ecosystem is
collapsing due to water diversions and pollution. In a recent <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27918392/california-drought-delta-smelt-survey-tallies-one-fish">survey</a>,
the state Fish and Wildlife scientists found only one delta smelt in
the wild, revealing that farmers have essentially won the “People
vs. Fish” PR war. Land in the Valley is subsiding due to
over-pumping of aquifers. Farmers continue to grow unsustainable
crops in a semi-arid region—while demanding that the public pay for
more dams on public land, at places such as Temperance Flat and
Roger's Crossing. And farmers will have to continue asking the public
for more subsidies to make the water affordable.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI29aG7xu09ATVsJkwPkSPUkPe6QlPVqsSlCrw8bVUiX12Uupeae1VVYrymH9rEt7W25yeYJR_GYD8Z-D09E1gexbhog5tJcGJBR7AuHuBnsYny4-JQ57bNB7z7Oav61iY9PSdbZZc3Owv/s1600/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI29aG7xu09ATVsJkwPkSPUkPe6QlPVqsSlCrw8bVUiX12Uupeae1VVYrymH9rEt7W25yeYJR_GYD8Z-D09E1gexbhog5tJcGJBR7AuHuBnsYny4-JQ57bNB7z7Oav61iY9PSdbZZc3Owv/s640/14.jpg" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/amuse.htm">Fiesta Flowers and Bush Lupine by Loop Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As long as I can remember, farmers
in the Valley have used one of the strategies of “disaster
capitalism,” claiming that the economy will suffer severely and
perhaps not even survive unless the public continues to give up land
and resources for private use with the <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4bONFNWo5Zxypr50xU3YedPR1EwL6TolyC9wgE4PRn0HVxjAO5TqKiTs06rY7x4uK3IRwHEosdir1I84rZn_fyWZp0bBMMUI8SjgWUFs0AU2MrvICzk4R486lUkVIXDoHWSNL9B6XAf3N/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4bONFNWo5Zxypr50xU3YedPR1EwL6TolyC9wgE4PRn0HVxjAO5TqKiTs06rY7x4uK3IRwHEosdir1I84rZn_fyWZp0bBMMUI8SjgWUFs0AU2MrvICzk4R486lUkVIXDoHWSNL9B6XAf3N/s400/7.jpg" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">San Joaquin River, from Bridge</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
implied promise that
corporations and wealthy landowners will keep laborers from suffering
and associated businesses from going belly up. Politicians and
taxpayers continue to oblige farmers with a bizarre form of socialism
for the wealthy in a region that otherwise maintains the rawest form
of capitalism. The public continues to give agri-business what it
wants even though as private citizens we would never allow anyone to
take our property without compensation. Yet here we are once again,
about to provide billions of dollars to build a dam for the
farmer's private use, a dam that will destroy public land containing
priceless natural and historical resources—without anything even
close to adequate compensation. With numerous dams on the San
Joaquin River already, very little land not already submerged by a
reservoir is even available to replace the public park in the Gorge,
not that the corporations and wealthy farmers are even considering
that possibility. The public is, in other words, on the verge of giving a small group of people billions of dollars to take public land and water resources, instead of using the money for education or job creation or any of a hundred other worthy causes.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeryAiViG5LgjHCV2DJR7CLfguCS5CnXatgWdhCV8I9yCLGKDrC7tj0Z4G1kOsX6-NieRLMkKBNBUkgCtwGCJNjuAIUgs1FwA2HF7_MXB7r1TIs2SAncLh9qEavovhJYoUl-sA8CrSYN_l/s1600/P1012778+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeryAiViG5LgjHCV2DJR7CLfguCS5CnXatgWdhCV8I9yCLGKDrC7tj0Z4G1kOsX6-NieRLMkKBNBUkgCtwGCJNjuAIUgs1FwA2HF7_MXB7r1TIs2SAncLh9qEavovhJYoUl-sA8CrSYN_l/s640/P1012778+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/vow.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge, from the Loop Trail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The longer I follow the path, the
more I recognize the sentience within moss and ferns and grass and
flowers and trees. The more I see the various species coexisting in
different communities, and the more I experience their splendor, the
more I sense that the physical is a dense aspect of the spiritual, and
that I am connected spiritually to all things in nature. And the more
I see humanity's place in nature, the more I realize that a small
group of people, no matter how powerful, does not have the right to
destroy these communities for their own private gain.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span>Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-76195778855085547232016-02-27T19:01:00.001-08:002016-12-29T15:16:41.894-08:00THE PEACE WITHIN POPPIES<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6U3iYTYzysbaLr4O-95JV9E4pU0v53ZEplwQ60XPLXkLrhhWNbVyAa8o9PgLcwDNWXAEatXqnhiNGsSEjNMozHV_Rpn5y9gxjvem4Cu4pf7BcnYmxOKSwdwp-4D-Egaf-t7M3WhagR1oM/s1600/5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6U3iYTYzysbaLr4O-95JV9E4pU0v53ZEplwQ60XPLXkLrhhWNbVyAa8o9PgLcwDNWXAEatXqnhiNGsSEjNMozHV_Rpn5y9gxjvem4Cu4pf7BcnYmxOKSwdwp-4D-Egaf-t7M3WhagR1oM/s640/5.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">Poppies, Mid-February, Big Creek</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"></span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">POPPIES BLOOM AGAIN</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In mid-February in the foothills
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, poppies blanketed the hillsides even
though winter was still imprisoning the rest of the nation. At Big
Creek near Pine Flat Reservoir last weekend, I parked on a dirt road
and immersed myself in the poppies igniting the hillside, sensing
that my personality is like a perishable shell around the wild core
of my soul. Throughout my life, whatever is wild in me has connected
with the wildness in nature, allowing a hidden dimension of my self
to surface and experience the righteousness of beauty, what the
Qabalists refer to as Netzach, or Victory. Almost every time I have
experienced nature, I have realized that set beliefs about myself and
my status in the world obstruct direct experience with wildness. In
my early forties I was not surprised when, during meditation, after
my mind had dropped into the void, I unexpectedly began having
visions of a primal aspect of my psyche, the chakras within my subtle
body, which eventually led to an understanding of <a href="http://www.simonheather.co.uk/pages/articles/the_astral_body.pdf">the astral, mental,and spiritual dimensions of the self</a>. Perhaps because my father died
when I was a teenager and my world at that time fell apart, I am
still willing to let go of beliefs about myself, trusting that my
soul takes over, experiencing connection with the quiet grasses,
flowers, trees, rocks.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_87x0-iLqsSC2luvhyHX7gQJQV0f_4zPnbBE8jwFh2eJDEwbWVhA_rdZ8i_GxWmY6SMbFVn4WVpwg56qiwSJhfl3qNJw4qUewVbJTafm_IUYlwVZNM6yx7R2T6pt70t22aUlM15S17WH8/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_87x0-iLqsSC2luvhyHX7gQJQV0f_4zPnbBE8jwFh2eJDEwbWVhA_rdZ8i_GxWmY6SMbFVn4WVpwg56qiwSJhfl3qNJw4qUewVbJTafm_IUYlwVZNM6yx7R2T6pt70t22aUlM15S17WH8/s640/1.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm">Native American Village Site: Pounding Stone Lower Left, House Pits on Ridge</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> When my father died, I was
seventeen, no longer a boy but not yet a man, and I drove alone
without anyone else's knowledge several times into the foothills, and
once, I ended up at Big Creek. I slowly cruised across the bridge and
parked, strolling over a ridge to a small creek where I discovered a
pounding stone. I did not realize then that there were house pits on
a ridge on the other side of the stream, but I was amazed by the
poppies on the hillsides all around me. I found a barely discernible
trail and climbed ever higher into a peaceful fire. My grief and
misery vanished. Truth be told, my personality vanished, and amazed
that I didn't miss it, I felt part of a vast stillness, at the heart
of which is a peace beyond understanding.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcXk6GyM0qBlreo4BqMYO4urAJXOBWeoktzaIFG4tctY5MpvONHd1-afDSxWNuB3S5LPXKakXfuIib79ejxwKru4uAWoJ-t3uizekZXWnIyaOgg4oSpiDTTTfOqhvHX5-VJN6DwWClD7_X/s1600/7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcXk6GyM0qBlreo4BqMYO4urAJXOBWeoktzaIFG4tctY5MpvONHd1-afDSxWNuB3S5LPXKakXfuIib79ejxwKru4uAWoJ-t3uizekZXWnIyaOgg4oSpiDTTTfOqhvHX5-VJN6DwWClD7_X/s640/7.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Poppies and Blue Dick, Big Creek</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> How or why my poor heart ever
became separated from this peace I have never understood. Since that
day when I was seventeen, I have worked one job after another and
have striven to improve the community, but as a human being I
continue to experience a sense of separation most of the time. It is
perhaps the source of humanity's perpetual search for an Eden. I know
that the peace of paradise exists here in this world, but so often I have looked
for it in the wrong places. I have never found it in fame, or wealth,
or status, or power, only deep inside myself when I am not in nature.
Occasionally I feel it with my wife or children or hear it in music or experience
it in writing or see it in a painting. The yearning for it is not
some neurotic need for a parent's love or some laughable
sentimentality. It is a need to experience the core of who I am all
the time, not just once or twice a year or a few times over the course of a lifetime.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5HbVvxImklCGUqzE5mOCuK4zVqNEO65pqNNg0nTYSO2eeDy_RraaDKtMgfLx8LP-pvu72XaU3iD5cGFhFRP7lPBZXypSHkIExuSGtgYHYoWVpGlQH2bipIXPDIW-ZldVP4d6Q8sQ9795/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5HbVvxImklCGUqzE5mOCuK4zVqNEO65pqNNg0nTYSO2eeDy_RraaDKtMgfLx8LP-pvu72XaU3iD5cGFhFRP7lPBZXypSHkIExuSGtgYHYoWVpGlQH2bipIXPDIW-ZldVP4d6Q8sQ9795/s640/4.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/aquar.htm">Oak Trees in Poppies, Big Creek</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So I returned to Big Creek. And
the poppies were there again and so was the sense of peace, and I felt
like I had been gone for so long, forty years in fact, but that I had
never left, and I was afraid that I would never forgive myself if I
left again, but I knew I had to leave because my life was an hour and
a half away in a city boiling with trouble. I climbed once again up
to the poppies, knowing that pounding stones were next to all the
streams even high in the mountains, that we had abandoned another
order, our life in nature, just over a century ago, for some great
struggle, and would probably never return, at least not without some
great crisis or some collective gestalt. In stillness and peace I had
found sanity, but I am afraid that I would be considered by most now
to be insane.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibQKSb2fYJWpU3An4XdjAdkKCBHIOBq-dCOVxylKVH7s0X841hI4LMxSTXtEUcfbFqzkjFlK3OlPcbiWj5RzVZVeRE-p-OFYPKmxd0UsHNYg23S4fhyphenhyphen7HMk4kMfmYFgOWbF_ldzYBk4G6N/s1600/4a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibQKSb2fYJWpU3An4XdjAdkKCBHIOBq-dCOVxylKVH7s0X841hI4LMxSTXtEUcfbFqzkjFlK3OlPcbiWj5RzVZVeRE-p-OFYPKmxd0UsHNYg23S4fhyphenhyphen7HMk4kMfmYFgOWbF_ldzYBk4G6N/s640/4a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Mining Road above Big Creek</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Freshness in nature dissolves all time
and all thoughts. When I was with the poppies, who or what I am
didn't matter, only my connection with the peace that permeates the
earth. We need to be fed on all levels of the psyche: Wildness feeds
the soul. It gets us in touch with the sun, the source of all life,
and with the Sun behind the sun. It gets us in touch with the moon,
and the mysterious light that holds the symbols and archetypes behind
creation. At the heart of all is mystery. What are these poppies
anyway? Soft, fiery flesh? Peaceful, timeless fire?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-91911184871807653502016-02-04T14:31:00.001-08:002016-02-04T14:31:55.398-08:00FOLLOWING THE RIVULETS<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXF-Et2aiJi0aAh9ea9myxPaCVlomyBTRsiDmoe1Bgt0Yc3xV9JAqd9xpkT7NZySH5FRsT4Llut99K4dSxg2ZpcY_BCYxg3CfTcaxIq0KXvU_Z0yCkkrj035XxytVu5tHYXCaD9dszh0G/s1600/P1011338+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXF-Et2aiJi0aAh9ea9myxPaCVlomyBTRsiDmoe1Bgt0Yc3xV9JAqd9xpkT7NZySH5FRsT4Llut99K4dSxg2ZpcY_BCYxg3CfTcaxIq0KXvU_Z0yCkkrj035XxytVu5tHYXCaD9dszh0G/s640/P1011338+%25283%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">Confluence of Rivulets below Native American Village Site</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: x-large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">FOLLOWING THE RIVULETS</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"></span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"> Often my soul has to thaw before I can immerse myself in a forest, as though a layer of ice that holds all of the ideas of who I am, good and bad, has hardened around my core. Thanks to recent rains, I have had little trouble losing myself, sensing eternity in the oaks, grasses, rocks, moss, but I especially forget myself when I </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">encounter rivulets. Sometimes I follow the fledgling steams to their source, the rain fingering the slopes, seeping underground to surface from rodent holes as springs, or puddling and slipping, clear veins of water, through mountain channels (a few of which are segments of ancient Native American trails). Sometimes I follow them to the larger streams that meander through the woodlands and cascade down the slopes to join eventually with a river. If all the rivers around here weren't dammed and diverted, of course, the water would flow out to sea and begin again, but I still feel the eternal cycle as though it were part of my own circulatory system nevertheless.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhnK6-GLq_XUUZACAUk2kVuiDHvqauCbikiF7ND41D8a2XbK7azyz5yekfAjkubGa2nE8uMsrLUgYqOFbqCnbjr-wXbDNDBGqO6VlUUf1YXe6SqXs-BqXl81ja85TmUaAW9jsy1w1BUjjW/s1600/P1011314+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhnK6-GLq_XUUZACAUk2kVuiDHvqauCbikiF7ND41D8a2XbK7azyz5yekfAjkubGa2nE8uMsrLUgYqOFbqCnbjr-wXbDNDBGqO6VlUUf1YXe6SqXs-BqXl81ja85TmUaAW9jsy1w1BUjjW/s640/P1011314+%25283%2529.JPG" width="498" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Native American Path</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The magic of self-transformation begins with the dissolution of personality so that I experience every living thing as a form of light. In regular life I make a great many distinctions that separate me from this light in nature and other people, 1001 distinctions that create a hierarchy of importance that blocks the simple recognition that we are all united within this light that is usually so difficult for me to see. I weigh what is good and bad in myself and others, and too often the ideas become fixed, and I become enslaved by my own thought-forms, yet they melt away in the light as I follow the rivulets.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxDu13LLe2oVdl5TcZhL-wRIAMKnwfGV6meJgh62SyNYG9G-wGNvvgZQSjZq1xyJ2ejAGypeWPjHnk3_rnGxGUxhiFf5oRmKkjNKC-pIaUtQ3W32vX5ztXKm1UXUjTpSkp6Ps9AbZjgfB/s1600/P1011399+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxDu13LLe2oVdl5TcZhL-wRIAMKnwfGV6meJgh62SyNYG9G-wGNvvgZQSjZq1xyJ2ejAGypeWPjHnk3_rnGxGUxhiFf5oRmKkjNKC-pIaUtQ3W32vX5ztXKm1UXUjTpSkp6Ps9AbZjgfB/s640/P1011399+%25282%2529.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/path32.htm">Large Rivulet (or Small Stream</a>)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> It's no mistake that powerful rituals exist to banish both positive and negative influences. As I follow the rivulets, I lose both what I consider good and bad in myself and suddenly know the light within all living things and the Sun behind the sun. Don't get me wrong: I've been kicked in the face too many times and have seen the evil in myself and other people enough to understand that survival often depends on making some pretty hard distinctions. But there are spaces in the world and in the mind where the veils fall away, and all that is left is light, and I am happy if I can simply follow the paths of light all day through the mountains.</span></div>
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<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-14035894217296502552015-03-13T14:20:00.001-07:002016-12-15T22:02:18.388-08:00WAR AND PR<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhT34TejSXb33iZKLVVqLaEMBLbRyjDYHC6UQmYH3kpEyBZa0az5324NyShhozfoOYQHEz1ogZ57bDKEM03yGwWwSc54JZIVsjsGp3vXuxZ4ykWkp_ZREeDUBgDb7-rZzT4P_rpIHBuUBG/s1600/minifid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhT34TejSXb33iZKLVVqLaEMBLbRyjDYHC6UQmYH3kpEyBZa0az5324NyShhozfoOYQHEz1ogZ57bDKEM03yGwWwSc54JZIVsjsGp3vXuxZ4ykWkp_ZREeDUBgDb7-rZzT4P_rpIHBuUBG/s1600/minifid.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">Lupine next to Pa'san Ridge Trail:<br />San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/flat.htm">NO MAN'S LAND</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The Dumna and Kechayi Native Americans once occupied the San Joaquin River Gorge and surrounding lands. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Pa'san Ridge Trail loops around on the west side of the river--t</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">he word pa'san i</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">s derived from their language and means “pine nuts,” a food source that exists in abundance on the hillsides. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In spring the ridge trail provides an opportunity to experience a breathtaking array of flowering trees and plants: redbuds, lupine, poppies, fiesta flowers, goldfields, owl’s clover, fiddleneck and popcorn. At one point the ridge trail</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> forks south, dipping down to the edge of the inundation zone of Millerton Lake, where rotting flotation devices, driftwood and trash are strewn upon or near Native American pounding stones. In spring, baby blue eyes blanket the grass between the river and the trail near indentations, the size of house pits, in the ground. The small piece of level land at the bottom of the gorge is the only place where the Native Americans could have set up their huts and buried their dead. Across the river, rocks left over from the construction of a small hydro project rise on the slope like a barricade. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9n-xyBfgGQObYvm-pibC3hGol3slY3tkGD3hUXsLGC_vjfwLztZNHRcMkGJrRLyTYW_8fnKSKb1SpZFGGeOPxqTiGq_2qGj8zNaEEc_4ICi9NazCrNvA91Asqpr-QTL67aUTLrJe7UPkm/s1600/hydro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9n-xyBfgGQObYvm-pibC3hGol3slY3tkGD3hUXsLGC_vjfwLztZNHRcMkGJrRLyTYW_8fnKSKb1SpZFGGeOPxqTiGq_2qGj8zNaEEc_4ICi9NazCrNvA91Asqpr-QTL67aUTLrJe7UPkm/s1600/hydro.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">Pounding Stone near Hydro Project:<br />San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Sometimes under water, sometimes exposed, the ancient Native American site remains in a water-logged limbo where pristine public land transitions into wasteland. The conflicts related to water in California have often been described as a war--other than a dam, only a war could have created a no-man’s land of similar proportions. The denuded slopes of the gorge reveal the high water mark of Millerton Lake, the reservoir created by Friant Dam. Only a crop of cockle-burrs flourishes there. Reservoir water has destroyed the root systems of the native plants and trees, leaving unstable rocks and soil. Unlike a war zone, however, this no man’s land will not renew itself as long as Friant Dam stands.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zbONggMcJLM-UEnO8Z_VhsyJo_HDecOSh7yp69BW4k_s4kO0tupfIYFlg8IOIdsAp2g6dWo3hE00h6d8ua1GXVgj7u5EndNGkH2yo_TPSB-sSa9zyidjiAF2R0hVu-nBEt4mS6Hj8p80/s1600/pstone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zbONggMcJLM-UEnO8Z_VhsyJo_HDecOSh7yp69BW4k_s4kO0tupfIYFlg8IOIdsAp2g6dWo3hE00h6d8ua1GXVgj7u5EndNGkH2yo_TPSB-sSa9zyidjiAF2R0hVu-nBEt4mS6Hj8p80/s1600/pstone.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">Pounding Stone in Millerton Lake near Hydro Project:<br />San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The first time I found the Native American site, I felt betrayed. The ridge trail offered so many wonders that I expected to find myself eventually in some Edenic place far removed from the rat race. Instead I ended up at a Native American village site converted into a wasteland for an investor-owned utility and the ag industry. Every time I have returned since, the sense of betrayal has grown stronger: I feel that I have been duped for most of my life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now that the voters have passed a water bond that could lead to the approval of a dam at Temperance Flat, I see clearly how little Native American sites or the environment or our system of public lands actually means to those in power and how much the democratic process can be manipulated. Much more is at stake than just the loss of The San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area. Our whole system of public lands will remain in limbo as long as the people with power and money continue to buy the officials who represent our democracy and manipulate the masses through the media. I am convinced that this most recent assault on public lands serves as a test to see how much they can get away with.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixJlq1LZFtVduXYbUsmjsgQ8fq5e8wjB1sVRK_rG3hJSulC-5Eos4VSjHTWChlyKOipAyKd09Rqff6wk2VGy_7-ygtqkmsXbwSre275iDeV-xLHMg0WS-PNa-Hqk-1iRjUYN6lC-eT9jLe/s1600/pits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixJlq1LZFtVduXYbUsmjsgQ8fq5e8wjB1sVRK_rG3hJSulC-5Eos4VSjHTWChlyKOipAyKd09Rqff6wk2VGy_7-ygtqkmsXbwSre275iDeV-xLHMg0WS-PNa-Hqk-1iRjUYN6lC-eT9jLe/s1600/pits.jpg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">Possible House Pits in Inundation Zone</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">of Millerton Lake near Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Two dams already exist at both ends of the recreation area: Kerckhoff Dam above and Friant Dam below. The reservoir created by Temperance Flat Dam would fill up the space in between, drowning the canyon, and along with it, the recreation area and several hydroelectric projects. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_Flat_Dam">The Bureau of Reclamation notes</a> that construction of the dam and reservoir will have "unavoidable and/or disproportionately high and adverse" impacts on air quality, fisheries, aquatic ecosystems, botanical and wetland resources, wildlife, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, cultural resources, agricultural resources, noise and vibration, and visual resources. Local Native American tribes have identified 30 sensitive sites within the Temperance Flat study area, one of which was defined by the Native American Heritage Commission as sacred. The proposed Temperance Flat power system would only be able to replace between 81% and 91% of the power lost by flooding the existing hydroelectric plants. Moreover, if three dams of that size fail together, the entire river bottom area, which includes the town of Friant below Millerton Lake, could be wiped out, as well as parts of northern Fresno and towns downstream such as Firebaugh. These are just a few of the most obvious problems, and the media has avoided mentioning them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The current water war, like all wars in recent history, is accompanied by a public relations campaign in the media. In recent years, the <i><a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/about-us/">Fresno Bee</a></i> has often voiced support for a dam at Temperance Flat. From the beginning, the <i>Bee</i> has framed the issue in a way that favors agribusiness, avoiding discussion of negative impacts on the public or the environment. The <i>Bee</i> in its recent campaign, for instance, fails to mention that the dam will wipe public land off the map and that the public will end up footing a large part of the bill for the loss and destruction of its own resources while private interests benefit: The tragedy of the commons, in which the community as a whole loses out while one industry benefits, will be played out in epic proportions if the dam is approved. In eminent domain proceedings, at least, an offer to purchase the property is made to the owner in order to mitigate the property owner’s loss. In the case of Temperance Flat Dam, The <i>Fresno Bee</i> has avoided discussing the possibility of replacing the recreation area with one of the same quality and size somewhere else along the river. Numerous dams already exist on the San Joaquin River and one would be hard-pressed to find any land accessible to the public along an undammed stretch of the river north of </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kerckhoff Reservoir</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> all the way to Mono Hot Springs (a three-hour drive from Fresno).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/oriole.htm"><span style="font-size: small;">Ridge Trail: San Joaquin River Gorge </span></a><br />
<a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/oriole.htm"><span style="font-size: small;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></a></td></tr>
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The media, for the most part, has avoided discussing a connection between the dam and the use of its water to irrigate one of the most wasteful crops in the world: almonds, the Valley’s biggest crop. The <i>Bee</i> recently mentioned that journalists from other parts of the country have “parachuted” into the Valley to get the scoop on almonds, and that one magazine (<i>Mother Jones</i>) even points out that it takes over a gallon of water to produce one almond. The <i>Bee’s </i>suggestion that journalists from other parts of the country have to parachute into the Valley as though into a war zone to find the truth would be funny if it didn’t ring so true. Instead of supporting a dam, why doesn’t the media complain about the water guzzling crops, such as almonds, cotton, and grapes that have no business being grown in a semi-arid region, especially in chronic drought conditions? Why isn’t the media protecting the public interest instead of advocating for a vested interest that needs to do some serious soul-searching about its practices instead of maintaining the status quo at the public's expense?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The issue is framed as a public benefit for salmon: A dam at Temperance Flat might provide cold water downstream to revive a salmon run. However, The <i>Fresno Bee</i> has avoided mentioning that two dozen rare, threatened, and endangered species in the gorge will take a hit when the river ecosystem is wiped out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The media generally fails to mention the history behind the Central Valley Project. As <a href="https://www.c-win.org/news/another-water-project-could-divide-state-temperance-flat.html">Bettina Boxall of the LA Times</a> points out, aquifer levels in the Valley nose-dived in the years before World War II. The federal government came to the rescue with the Central Valley Project, the nation's biggest irrigation operation, erecting Friant Dam in 1942. Two canals diverted over ninety-five percent of the water from Millerton Lake. The Madera Canal ran north and the Friant-Kern Canal meandered south, filling the east side's thirsty irrigation ditches. The river's salmon quickly vanished and about 50 miles of riverbed downstream from Friant remains a desert in all but the wettest years.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYbYt11xkIdL-rFaeqgosfxemEv2wIWjorVrFoDTwAAqFhUcNTd3ztXa0FRu78VilnFbH8-jn0wV1On37mNe7FXKqS6TZOsjPUCUqKVIV-YngOxjdegKjmeRc7X04ii_Mx2cY-bxq55pcK/s1600/gldfld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYbYt11xkIdL-rFaeqgosfxemEv2wIWjorVrFoDTwAAqFhUcNTd3ztXa0FRu78VilnFbH8-jn0wV1On37mNe7FXKqS6TZOsjPUCUqKVIV-YngOxjdegKjmeRc7X04ii_Mx2cY-bxq55pcK/s1600/gldfld.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Goldfields and Bush Lupine: San Joaquin River </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Gorge </a><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I am still surprised to discover that many local people do not know that the San Joaquin River once flowed into the delta and eventually into the San Francisco Bay, suggesting another failure on the part of the media to inform the public. In wet years the river would overflow, replenishing wetlands (now down to four percent of historical levels) as well as groundwater supplies. Due to the diversion of so much water, environmental problems from Friant Dam to the delta continue to plague the Valley: Groundwater levels plummet, and fish populations in the delta teeter on the edge of extinction while farmers combine pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers with irrigation water that percolates down into the aquifers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In discussing Temperance Flat Dam, the <i>Bee</i> fails to mention an important difference between the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. In 1960, California voters approved a bond to build a network of dams and aqueducts, diverting water from the delta to cities in the south. The rate-payers of those primarily urban water agencies are repaying most of the bond for the State Water Project with interest while shouldering almost all of the system's annual operating costs. As Boxall points out, irrigators in the Central Valley Project have, in contrast, enjoyed the equivalent of a 60-year, interest-free loan. They have so far repaid about 19% of their $1.2-billion share of the federal project's capital costs. Under reclamation law, the government charges them no interest. Though the vast majority of Temperance Flat's releases could go to growers, they will no doubt have great difficulty paying for their share of the dam's costs. The <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dobegi/the_era_of_big_dams_is_still_o.html">NRDC</a> points out that the water coming out of Temperance Flat would "cost more than $1,500 per acre foot. Even with massive taxpayer subsidies, the Bureau of Reclamation estimates that water would cost more than $200 per acre foot for agricultural contractors (far more than these districts pay today, especially since the project would eliminate much of the cheap $10 per acre foot water that is provided in wet years)." Because the dam would destroy public land without what would be considered appropriate compensation in any other case, more taxpayer subsidies would simply add insult to injury. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Native American Village Site:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Pine Flat Reservoir in Drought Year</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Proposition One's allocation for new storage projects would increase the state's annual water supply by only a small fraction of California's total needs (<a href="http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/en/propositions/1/arguments-rebuttals.htm">as little as one percent</a>) but could win a huge chunk of state taxpayer funding. The Proposition sets aside <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/11/05/47846/californians-pass-7-5-billion-water-bond-now-what/">$2.7 billion</a> for unspecified surface and groundwater storage, but does not pay for all of a project's total cost. So dam backers would still have to turn elsewhere for money, most likely to the federal government or urban areas. The <i>Bee</i> fails to mention that cities will need to play a major role even though agricultural users, not urban users, will receive the lion’s share of the water.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As the argument against Proposition One in the <a href="http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/en/propositions/1/arguments-rebuttals.htm">Official Voter Information Guide</a> points out, "</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In a major historic departure for water storage projects, the costs
of these new dams and reservoirs will be paid from the state General
Fund, and California taxpayers will share the burden of paying off bonds
that will drain $500 million a year from the General Fund....</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It's an issue of fairness. The 1960 bond act that financed the State
Water Project directed that beneficiaries pay those costs through their
water rates. If private water users won't fund these projects on their
own, taxpayers should not be required to underwrite their construction,
and then purchase the water later at higher prices. Private water users
who are the beneficiaries, not taxpayers, should pay for the cost of
these projects."</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNC-mI_YpZr6NOH2nndREADnsoYcyE7VOj5zE-mERBRl9nZUViZIAkdXlniqwe4-jF_DkePUreiXMOwCL5BxcgvUupNk7aZPkGB33K65AivneHx6o9qeOxbJqwbfVE3Wc2Dwr0QpzntFi/s1600/wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNC-mI_YpZr6NOH2nndREADnsoYcyE7VOj5zE-mERBRl9nZUViZIAkdXlniqwe4-jF_DkePUreiXMOwCL5BxcgvUupNk7aZPkGB33K65AivneHx6o9qeOxbJqwbfVE3Wc2Dwr0QpzntFi/s1600/wolf.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/nocon.htm">Lupine and Red Clover</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/nocon.htm">next to Ridge Trail</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The <i>Bee</i> claims that by approving Proposition One, voters supported building more dams, such as the dam at Temperance Flat. The language of the legislation, however, does not specify any water storage projects. Ground water storage projects are another, and far superior option, but again, the local ag-industry is less certain to benefit from this type of project.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The San Joaquin River from the mountains to the San Francisco Bay was once the lifeblood of one vast ecosystem comparable to the Serengeti Plains in abundance of wildlife. The ag industry has drained the river dry for seventy years and the ecosystem has nearly vanished. But just when you think everything is gone, they find something else to take. The next to go will probably be the King's River Special Management Area, since the hydraulic brotherhood has also been clamoring to build a dam at Roger's Crossing for years. One lesson to be learned is that local, state and federal governments can change land use designations whenever expedient. That, combined with corporate influence on politics and the media, requires hyper-vigilance on the part of the public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bee's</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> outspoken support of the </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dam at Temperance Flat resembles nothing less than an all-out public relations campaign. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At best, the </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bee</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and other media are simply misleading the public due to an inability to delve more deeply into an issue. At worst, they are being controlled by corporate interests. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Funny, but I have always assumed that it is in the best interests of a newspaper to at least provide the impression that integrity is important. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At this point, I have serious doubts that maintaining journalistic integrity is even a consideration for the McClatchy Company anymore.</span></span><br />
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<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-63576782439467540972015-03-05T09:36:00.000-08:002015-03-05T09:36:23.245-08:00THE VISION OF HARMONY AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuSAJT0fU3c9HvLjNcqFzEIgWq_BzgkqguQllzp0hQ_a2sqWgTFcJf709tGEUpgzsyWCUqN2RpGFTtb6yBZoK652fZdx22IwyyRDeRgT2CzYVxBm8v2CJBa5hzRAACUrvZy1Jy1llRiy6-/s1600/fidpnd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuSAJT0fU3c9HvLjNcqFzEIgWq_BzgkqguQllzp0hQ_a2sqWgTFcJf709tGEUpgzsyWCUqN2RpGFTtb6yBZoK652fZdx22IwyyRDeRgT2CzYVxBm8v2CJBa5hzRAACUrvZy1Jy1llRiy6-/s1600/fidpnd.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Fiddleneck and Popcorn in House Pits near Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">POUNDING STONES AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have some faith in my feet, so I follow ancient trails in the mountains to wherever they take me, and often, wherever I find the most Edenic places, I also discover pounding stones. More often than not, these places contain a stream that provides a unique kind of freshness, a primeval sublimity. Often when I encounter one of these streams, I feel like I have stepped through an invisible door into an unknown paradise that harbors a primal intelligence, an Over-Soul that hesitates to welcome humanity. Yet I also sense a sympathy dwelling within the spirits of nature, as if they harbor a love of all creation that gives way to tolerance for any soul, even a human soul, that reveals the same reverence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> These feelings, of course, can be dismissed as mere fantasy. That’s fine: I am going to discuss a topic that probably will not be understood by those who have not seen the sun at midnight. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgfIA8-PuXJ-MrPGu0wh8CR5PgILBKtL-IB29SxA_i6rFyUTBia11Axd2-TR_GEGNHXwLosNg6swPiZUQkH7-5KT9VrBVGydrLzp_9qvQdMW1gMzhM7w4sA_HPjiMA-7Fgq-SdEbeuSvN/s1600/hollnd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgfIA8-PuXJ-MrPGu0wh8CR5PgILBKtL-IB29SxA_i6rFyUTBia11Axd2-TR_GEGNHXwLosNg6swPiZUQkH7-5KT9VrBVGydrLzp_9qvQdMW1gMzhM7w4sA_HPjiMA-7Fgq-SdEbeuSvN/s1600/hollnd.jpg" height="470" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/temple.htm">Pestles on Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> How do we reconcile the Vision of Harmony with unspeakable evil?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> In the Qabalah, the Vision of Harmony is a spiritual experience assigned on the Tree of Life to Tiphareth, the sphere of Beauty and equilibrium, also known as the Christ-center. The vision consists of recognizing that each life is a field of energy within infinite fields of energy, all connected in a living tapestry. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLudW9rF8sL1IHTxTnWYvDQPbrgE9nh4To-WFQWNc46PEBBoU7qwV5C3JjWPZtIjEVGi6yPMR-5aLhwWXLhS8MxBpxkcR_v6hi9y969kscIcGECovTu8bvFwP2w7ehZtFaWQcM0oLj1trN/s1600/Im061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLudW9rF8sL1IHTxTnWYvDQPbrgE9nh4To-WFQWNc46PEBBoU7qwV5C3JjWPZtIjEVGi6yPMR-5aLhwWXLhS8MxBpxkcR_v6hi9y969kscIcGECovTu8bvFwP2w7ehZtFaWQcM0oLj1trN/s1600/Im061.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/frust.htm">Pestle on Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Evil, on one level, is misplaced energy, or energy operating in a harmful context. Boiling water for food is good. Boiling water with your fingers in it is evil. Wood burning in the fireplace is good. Wood burning on the carpet is evil. Gasoline used to power a vehicle is good. Gasoline used to burn down someone’s home is evil. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries we have experienced misplaced and harmful energy on an unprecedented scale: industrial and technological energy that destroys entire ecosystems and races. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Most of us at some point ask how evil can exist in a universe created by a loving God and conclude that a God does not exist or is not at all loving. When I find a pounding stone in a pristine place, I feel the need to re-examine everything I’ve ever known. I sometimes can’t help but wonder how God could allow one race to kill off another. The very fact that I can roam freely in these pristine areas due to their designation as public lands means that the Native American descendents of the survivors of genocide cannot return to live permanently in their ancestral home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have lived just over half a century, the blink of an eye. According to historical records, the last encampments of the Native Americans in these hills occurred in 1917. In some of the more secluded areas of the mountains, where I find house pits as well as pestles still in the mortars of the pounding stones, I begin to suspect that small clans or individuals remained in secluded areas well into the twentieth century. Sometimes, because of the distinctness of the trails and the house pits, I even suspect that the last survivors of genocide disappeared from their home lands not long before I was born.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ojbikw49u7hV-i6F99Yhziw0qnnljamqwu0evNDOJ-cpl6fnaJrOzcsYhSssi7n2gaMXI8cdcQ5G67fvNkmt9WJs6IcoxpOvJyOQhKC-usmjLhMvO-EHi7n3btD5LI2DO1iQU1c9fgbg/s1600/page13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ojbikw49u7hV-i6F99Yhziw0qnnljamqwu0evNDOJ-cpl6fnaJrOzcsYhSssi7n2gaMXI8cdcQ5G67fvNkmt9WJs6IcoxpOvJyOQhKC-usmjLhMvO-EHi7n3btD5LI2DO1iQU1c9fgbg/s1600/page13.jpg" height="460" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm">Pestles on Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> World War II, which included the genocide of over six million people, ended fifteen years before I was born. My father and his brothers served during the great war; two of my uncles survived being shot down by Germans. If you have grown up knowing that you and the rest of the planet can be incinerated at any moment, you do not need to have experienced war or concentration camps to understand evil. Most of us are well aware that humanity is still capable of raining down total destruction upon the planet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> How is it possible that one can experience a spiritual emergence and continue to grow as a human being despite this evil? How is it possible that a person can still experience the magnificence, abundance and harmony of the human spirit despite all the suffering and fear and hopelessness? </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ-3YcB4HxHXxU02KEczC_PFvSPi7Xx2EvoyJShr8Jer_LoGE8HBm7puxx-L6EweuPiFxEQ-RHiAf_H-Rafq-_-ZtLO7_SIYVy39HnGpzkE9g2J-8vQa2i1iK1k9Biqso6qFaxIsge3c3t/s1600/bigpes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ-3YcB4HxHXxU02KEczC_PFvSPi7Xx2EvoyJShr8Jer_LoGE8HBm7puxx-L6EweuPiFxEQ-RHiAf_H-Rafq-_-ZtLO7_SIYVy39HnGpzkE9g2J-8vQa2i1iK1k9Biqso6qFaxIsge3c3t/s1600/bigpes.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">Pestle in Mortar</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As I have explained in previous posts, in my early forties, I unexpectedly experienced a spiritual emergence through meditation. Before that, I was a cynical agnostic who scoffed at any manifestation of spirituality. I believed that anyone who claimed to have a spiritual life was naive, deluded, or deceitful. I still occasionally shake my head in disbelief when I think about how much I have changed in the past decade.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> During meditation I was introduced to an ancient spiritual glyph known as the Tree of Life through visions of symbols associated with the Tree, before I ever actually encountered the great composite symbol itself. Used by the Qabalist as a map of spiritual terrain, the Tree of Life reveals on one level the evolution of the dimensions of the cosmos. Within the first dimension, known as Kether, which evolved from the unmanifest, total unity abides. As the other dimensions evolved, different polarities came into being. For purposes of illustration, imagine a pole with a rainbow spectrum of colors, with white at one end and black at the other. Each sphere on the Tree except for Kether contains such a pole with a spectrum of energy. All of the polarities manifest in the final sphere, the Kingdom, the physical universe.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UygO_ruagzzy8mUekFNa084c9rWDw1Oz0JhBBdqSf-XiHhYVTLxr0Gfvk9GPtrgQqQHN9tPYzR8ohqo9qHc7AxvhztufYKYM5cS0gIkVUZKeOwMLM7P-qORm40PQmvOSC9H6VpJktu6n/s1600/pounding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UygO_ruagzzy8mUekFNa084c9rWDw1Oz0JhBBdqSf-XiHhYVTLxr0Gfvk9GPtrgQqQHN9tPYzR8ohqo9qHc7AxvhztufYKYM5cS0gIkVUZKeOwMLM7P-qORm40PQmvOSC9H6VpJktu6n/s1600/pounding.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/part1.htm">Pestles on Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> On the Tree there is never any fixed duality of good and evil, just degrees within a spectrum on a pole of energy. A constant battle between God and the devil does not exist, only balance or imbalance within a range of possibilities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> We have evolved to the point where we can create like gods and destroy like gods, but the God of Creation seems absent. We see evidence of evolution everywhere in the physical universe but rarely entertain the possibility of evolution in other dimensions of the cosmos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Operating from first principles, the Qabalist recognizes the God of creation, the prime mover, the fashioner of the egg. God designed the laws of the cosmos and set evolution in motion. The archetypal laws abide throughout the cosmos, no matter the fate of one species. The Earth is but one miniscule planet within a universe containing hundreds of billions of galaxies and trillions of stars, and, as one mystic points out, the entire physical universe itself is merely like foam thrown upon the seashore. The Qabalist believes that the cosmic energies, including the potential for all of the polarities, also exist within each individual human being. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9YHV_Ims6BySMXwzKWaG3t1fVF5pZB20g8GDwoePvQQVCQEC51_zAtHdnXczk3Jzz5GfQvB-ViqzpMgFpNHg6pyJvszgpJ1mmcQuYwGXASFdZcSeVyhCSoDCYdtnnArqv766Q63w0Qrm/s1600/pounding41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9YHV_Ims6BySMXwzKWaG3t1fVF5pZB20g8GDwoePvQQVCQEC51_zAtHdnXczk3Jzz5GfQvB-ViqzpMgFpNHg6pyJvszgpJ1mmcQuYwGXASFdZcSeVyhCSoDCYdtnnArqv766Q63w0Qrm/s1600/pounding41.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Pestle on Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Life, including human life, as a whole tends towards balance. Throughout the entire cosmos, harmony prevails, or there would be only chaos. At times massive upheavals occur. Stars supernova and galaxies collide. If a species destroys a planet, the cosmos will continue evolving. Life will eventually continue again on that little planet when conditions are right. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The difference between the natural world and humanity is that people can choose whether or not to disrupt the balance of nature or society. Sometimes, of course, upheaval is necessary in oppressive societies where those in power employ harmful energies for their own benefit. Those who fight for greater balance and strive for the highest good are courageous in that context. Those who disrupt for their personal gain merely cause evil to breed.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xnafuWhohFsLGhC1Vy-m5sgewgAUldpys99DuiSAlHDNHGM4Bmk3bHtHr10awvzC4e0ddn2RjpNxOAZavvLPjOThgmz-uZD-Obcp4mGSBcOj907P8nWu_0DrBkHFdW1kFjELkNJxdzJi/s1600/pestle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xnafuWhohFsLGhC1Vy-m5sgewgAUldpys99DuiSAlHDNHGM4Bmk3bHtHr10awvzC4e0ddn2RjpNxOAZavvLPjOThgmz-uZD-Obcp4mGSBcOj907P8nWu_0DrBkHFdW1kFjELkNJxdzJi/s1600/pestle.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/daimon.htm">Pestles in Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Never has there been a time when a human being can be more distinctly individual while at the same time needing to act as though for the whole society. Because of our technological advances, opportunities for massive injustices and great evil within human society at this stage of evolution always exist. Each individual can only control his or her own personal sphere, but the fate of the whole species seems to rest on each individual’s shoulders: The more each person chooses a path of harmony and balance, the more likely others will do the same. The opposite, of course, is also true.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As a species, humanity, while creating or destroying, tends to learn slowly from its vices and virtues--a virtue being a harmonious, balanced use of a type of energy, and a vice being an unbalanced use of a type of energy. As I mentioned, polarities from each sphere, or state of being, on the Tree of Life manifest in the Kingdom. Depending on the situation, we can choose to manifest the virtue or vice from any sphere. With the energy of the state of being known as Geburah (Severity), which is associated with Mars, for instance, we can approach a problem with discipline, courage and vitality or with cruelty and destructiveness. With the energy of the state of being known as Hod (Splendor), we can deal truthfully or deceitfully with each other. With the energy of the state of being known as Tiphareth (Beauty), we can be loving and selfless or full of hate and pride. In other words, with the energy of each state of being represented on the Tree of Life, we can choose to manifest the highest good or the worst evil--or something in between.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTfsifnDSewth_4wsS79g0q2c3QWzzxV5dRlgZk_tHwsTNYVjOK9yXmQJYPiLXT_c4YxTkJfEkDsD4zXx8NVm-WzTTtulspXdXc-T0p1DCrAoE8OeuM3js1eszm2ShBuKIguXYurqlLi4/s1600/bgpst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTfsifnDSewth_4wsS79g0q2c3QWzzxV5dRlgZk_tHwsTNYVjOK9yXmQJYPiLXT_c4YxTkJfEkDsD4zXx8NVm-WzTTtulspXdXc-T0p1DCrAoE8OeuM3js1eszm2ShBuKIguXYurqlLi4/s1600/bgpst.jpg" height="640" width="526" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/oriole.htm">Grass Growing from Mortar:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/oriole.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I had a professor in college who claimed that due to the horrors of the twentieth century we can no longer believe in the magnificence of the human spirit. I have come to conclude that evil and good exist within different contexts and on different scales, but polarities don’t change even if humanity is truly being challenged as never before. The human spirit, which has the potential for great evil, also has the potential for greater magnificence the greater the evil becomes. As individuals, groups, and societies we must always choose either virtue or vice, balance or lack of balance, no matter how desperate the circumstances. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The spiritual experience known as the Vision of Harmony establishes an imaginative connection with all life so that we may understand polarities and strive for the highest good. It does not lead to a naive belief that harmony will always prevail in society but to a recognition that we can choose to use energy in a balanced or unbalanced way. Personally I would prefer to preserve the paradises that still exist and honor the magnificence, harmony, and abundance within the human spirit.</span><br />
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<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-74793417906708699912015-02-23T13:59:00.001-08:002017-02-27T21:49:09.648-08:00VENUS AND MARS ARE ALL RIGHT<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-d3hyphenhyphen-DP8F7_zg3cClfsvT-aaEHkEzeoUnS5plHQyNaFBwcFwVTrJrHICfCtsCgccDPekxuOMQXx9BxLLG8iIeKv1kh5O08a3BMIc3RvYjROp0Ko2Q2k4nBYhCXp3_k6H_sGRk4dxCF7/s1600/squawfeb15+112.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-d3hyphenhyphen-DP8F7_zg3cClfsvT-aaEHkEzeoUnS5plHQyNaFBwcFwVTrJrHICfCtsCgccDPekxuOMQXx9BxLLG8iIeKv1kh5O08a3BMIc3RvYjROp0Ko2Q2k4nBYhCXp3_k6H_sGRk4dxCF7/s1600/squawfeb15+112.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Baby Blue Eyes</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">San Joaquin River Gorge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">BABY BLUE EYES AND “THE POWER”</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">All photos taken February 21, 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>“For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> While the rest of the country is blanketed by snow, the first spring flowers are flourishing on the hillsides of the Sierra Nevada Mountains due to the unseasonable warmth here in California. Yesterday as my wife and I drove to the San Joaquin River Gorge, I was secretly hoping to find at least one baby blue eye flower amidst the blazing fiddleneck and pure white popcorn flowers carpeting the hillsides: When I first encounter a baby blue eye in early spring, my soul thaws in a rush of awe and gratitude. The tape in my head switches off, and, facing a piece of sky on the ground, I take a deep breath, feeling a sense of the sublimity of being. No one can possibly measure the sweetness, the simplicity, the stunning delicacy of the flower. To our great joy, we found numerous baby blues eyes along the trail down to the San Joaquin River--an unusual phenomenon in mid-February. We drove home feeling refreshed, as if the baby blue eyes had cleansed us.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Fiddleneck. </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">San Joaquin River Gorge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> On the way home, I mused about why I am so enthusiastic about the flower. One year, even though I am normally an extremely unsentimental man, I knelt before a baby blue eye and felt tears sliding down my cheeks. The flower immediately affects me on some subconscious level, an archetypal level, I concluded. It combines the freshest beauty with the severest simplicity in perfect proportion, a combination of two powerful aspects of the life-force, Venus and Mars. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As absurd as that may sound, it makes sense on more than one level. The flower has five petals. Geburah, “the Power” referenced at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, refers to the fifth sphere on the Tree of Life, which is associated with Mars and the number five. (Hence, the Pentagon as the nerve center of the military-industrial complex.) Another name for Geburah is “severity.” From the perspective of Mars, life is a severe test or trial, a crucible that can produce great beauty on the physical, emotional, moral, or spiritual levels.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">San Joaquin River. </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">San Joaquin River Gorge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Lest you have forgotten, Venus and Mars are lovers. On the Tree of Life, a path runs from Geburah (the sphere of Mars) through Tiphareth, the center of equilibrium, down to Netzach (the sphere of Venus). The ancients realized that the power of the life force manifests in great beauty in the sphere of ethics as well as in the sphere of nature through a severe discipline. As Dion Fortune points out in <a href="http://clerkhouse.tumblr.com/post/78394317793/the-mystical-qabalah-by-dion-fortune-free-pdf">The Mystical Qabalah</a>, there is a righteousness in beauty as well as a beauty in righteousness. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/blaze.htm">Tree of Life</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> (The glyph of the Tree of Life is, among other things, a flow chart of evolution, devised long before Darwin ever appeared on the scene.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Following the Pillar of Severity on the Tree of Life from top to bottom, Saturn, representing the basis of form, is Mars on a higher arc, and Mercury, representing thought (also a type of form), is Mars on a lower arc. On the other side of the Tree of Life, the Pillar of Mildness represents expansive force. The Pillar of Severity limits force physically, ethically, and intellectually so that it can manifest appropriately in The Kingdom, the physical universe. Mars, despite his reputation as the God of War, is a God of Karma, of Justice, of Ethics who establishes balance and perfect proportion on all levels, but especially in social affairs. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIDasMIza76VRgjIUlKLruFR3wrQgL4kXUZY291ePlNZgmSLa-iSsrn-UzESEyXGAc6xwUqIGQ8YHfYLOLeORRjXbgg9WAKDhox_6LLzfoLFHHGAOppKjQRZ3SAZlMD3ePgaAqM2Ap1Ee2/s1600/squawfeb15+103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIDasMIza76VRgjIUlKLruFR3wrQgL4kXUZY291ePlNZgmSLa-iSsrn-UzESEyXGAc6xwUqIGQ8YHfYLOLeORRjXbgg9WAKDhox_6LLzfoLFHHGAOppKjQRZ3SAZlMD3ePgaAqM2Ap1Ee2/s1600/squawfeb15+103.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">Pounding Stone by River (center).</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">San Joaquin River Gorge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We want our doctors and lawmen and leaders to be in league with Mars. We want our doctors to have no sympathy for disease. We want our lawmen (who often wear five-pointed stars) to have no sympathy for people who harm others. We want our politicians to protect us from internal and external threats. As workers we respect the manager who has no sympathy for those who don’t do their jobs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As a society we pretty much allow Mars free reign when it comes to matters of health, law, and business, yet in a strange but telling way we sometimes tremble when confronted by the archetype of Mars because the God forces us to come to terms with reality: Mars burns away denial of the truth, whether it takes five minutes or five hundred years. He uses the sword, and he is not at all delicate or subtle about solving problems or dealing with excess. The person who manifests Mars puts the fear of God into you. He is on the side of the underdog who fights for equality and justice and inspires you to do the right thing despite the personal risks involved.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT3eEiSwmf14Dkgf01LOT0rGWoAaNaHjni-Pc4QIYhn72xA5hEpADJy3RK86UE5_1mWlEOy2h4Wtd-4vWGtHXIDaBi4Q57zpx1Qprm76QZMjP9mjqpZzhQ-sYj9H5CI8b3BZ5FBIqM-3UT/s1600/squawfeb15+108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT3eEiSwmf14Dkgf01LOT0rGWoAaNaHjni-Pc4QIYhn72xA5hEpADJy3RK86UE5_1mWlEOy2h4Wtd-4vWGtHXIDaBi4Q57zpx1Qprm76QZMjP9mjqpZzhQ-sYj9H5CI8b3BZ5FBIqM-3UT/s1600/squawfeb15+108.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/oriole.htm">Bush Lupine below Bluffs.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">San Joaquin River Gorge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Recently, after many years of struggling with food allergies, I discovered that I have a full-blown case of celiac disease, which means that I experience heart palpitations and debilitating stomach problems when I eat a miniscule amount of gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Because gluten has eroded my digestive system over the years, stimulants, including coffee, chocolate, and alcohol, also cause irregular heartbeats. The only cure is a gluten and stimulant-free diet. Mars provides the strength and discipline to live within these strict dietary limitations. Thanks to Mars, I have recently discovered that there is a beauty in health that manifests on more than just the physical level.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As human beings we have to live within the harsh limitations of the environment and society, which means partly that we cannot allow one person or industry to use up all the resources. Mars is a corrective to the expansiveness and the excesses of Jupiter, the God who represents Chesed, the sphere opposite Geburah. Mars is the corrective to Jupiter’s vices--gluttony, bigotry, tyranny, and hypocrisy, which, as I pointed out in a previous post, are the vices of the American Dream. As I mused about the baby blue eye on the way home, I realized that when I gaze at the flower, I am inspired to save public land like the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area, where such flowers can be found in profusion. I cannot help being ravished by the beauty of Venus and also spurred by the power of Mars to fight an industry that is striving to bury the river gorge under hundreds of feet of water for its own benefit. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQbBdUYNxlubzS8lolBSOKYB-EE3xk9Wp_BpggU_gIyw9nfe9DK4ROxa5U2oNm7ld5RMpPfsDlvOLhWE2ufF8asVp_jg_abEnuIdqwmz3v099bnnGUB4s51LEwgsGqgZQfVXpjRtso2n2/s1600/squawfeb15+136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQbBdUYNxlubzS8lolBSOKYB-EE3xk9Wp_BpggU_gIyw9nfe9DK4ROxa5U2oNm7ld5RMpPfsDlvOLhWE2ufF8asVp_jg_abEnuIdqwmz3v099bnnGUB4s51LEwgsGqgZQfVXpjRtso2n2/s1600/squawfeb15+136.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandgems.blogspot.com/">Fiddleneck by Campground. </a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">San Joaquin River Gorge</span><br style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;" /><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Special Recreation Management Area</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In the San Joaquin Valley, the biggest crop is almonds, with grapes not far behind. As <i><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/california-drought-almonds-water-use">Mother Jones</a></i> points out, it takes over a gallon of water to produce one almond. In order to continue growing these unsustainable crops in a drought within a semi-arid region, farmers are demanding that a large part of the recently passed $7.5 billion water bond be spent to build a dam at Temperance Flat, above Friant Dam. In other words, farmers, for their own commercial benefit, want the public to pay for the theft and destruction of public resources. This fills me with the spirit of Mars: It is this kind of excess, call it greed or gluttony, that must be nipped in the bud.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> At the heart of the archetype of Mars is health and balance. As most parents will tell you, too much laxity results in spoiling the child. As any doctor will tell you, too much overindulgence results in disease. As any leader should be able to tell you, allowing systemic greed results in economic disaster and chaos. But also at the heart of the archetype of Mars is the sympathy that extends the beauty of righteousness into a desire to protect the righteousness of beauty.</span><br />
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-23317747927614449712015-02-13T10:29:00.001-08:002016-03-13T14:35:23.170-07:00AN UNEXPECTED RETURN<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItMge-O4u9ZjMsJ0E6OvEzK-mEAXi4W6nDKYbfrkArSlW_HyCNIr84SjyicGIjnfhdY1XEf0opedLe7tlKhz4hv2IlQ1aSm7HPJyuVURBT5uaqAE99QK3gOeTN1itZPtuJX2hbTVjzBx1/s1600/vista.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItMge-O4u9ZjMsJ0E6OvEzK-mEAXi4W6nDKYbfrkArSlW_HyCNIr84SjyicGIjnfhdY1XEf0opedLe7tlKhz4hv2IlQ1aSm7HPJyuVURBT5uaqAE99QK3gOeTN1itZPtuJX2hbTVjzBx1/s1600/vista.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/dam.htm">Fiddleneck and Popcorn:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/dam.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO WARD LAKE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Recently I drove over Kaiser Pass, edging along the treacherous, single-lane road that forces drivers to take turns hugging the cliffside. Feeling adventurous, I ignored the turn-off to Mono Hot Springs and came unexpectedly upon a small lake, no more than a pond really, where tules were flourishing next to the road. Across the lake a rock formation rose like the grandest, most formidable cathedral on earth. The place seemed eerily familiar, so I parked the car and stretched my legs. Suddenly, as I gazed at the lakeshore, I noticed a blue dragonfly, which transported me back to a moment in my childhood forty years ago. Whatever I was supposed to think or feel or be fell away, and, just like forty years before, I experienced pure being in a timeless place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As a child, I usually didn’t associate experiences with specific geographic locations, so I didn't know the name of the lake or its relationship to other places. I’m still surprised when childhood memories unexpectedly flood back to me after I encounter a creek or river or lake that I once haunted for a few hours. My father, in search of a fishing hole, had ended up at Ward Lake early one summer morning, a drive from Fresno of almost three hours. We must have left home during the wee hours because I woke up as he was parking the car, not long after sunrise. The first thing I encountered as I was dashing to the shore was a sapphire dragonfly hovering in the tules. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-h-0Fpy5vdZUqCLJt-VZ4FpSYn8zCCUxwC13NnpHqfVAHO6eebS3w5DBuOe6rj_VOCVLJVJEan3QjNJ3Z9ofd_iM1zbNWWtKVvEoaDWgDTbm1N6gQh7hSEx-Izm-WaSlAJZ6ZGjQLvkCL/s1600/grge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-h-0Fpy5vdZUqCLJt-VZ4FpSYn8zCCUxwC13NnpHqfVAHO6eebS3w5DBuOe6rj_VOCVLJVJEan3QjNJ3Z9ofd_iM1zbNWWtKVvEoaDWgDTbm1N6gQh7hSEx-Izm-WaSlAJZ6ZGjQLvkCL/s1600/grge.jpg" height="400" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/frust.htm">The San Joaquin River:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/frust.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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Like all twelve year olds, I had dreams that I was sure were going to come true. Almost all, of course, have since vanished. As I stood gazing at the dark lake as a child and as a man, I wondered uneasily why we choose not to stay in such a timeless place. I concluded as a child that human society must offer something better. As a man, I wasn’t so sure. A place like Ward Lake puts a lot into perspective.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The quiet lake and the huge trees and the massive rocks gave me the uneasy feeling that most of what we think and feel and believe and dream about is just noise, yet we play the same tune over and over as if the world depends on it. At Ward Lake the tune vanished, and for a moment I felt afraid. I longed to return to a place where I could hear the noisy tune of civilization. At that moment, the tree trunk that I was standing on reminded me only of death and chaos. I had a bizarre desire to clean up the humus and the fallen branches, to pull the dead, water-logged trees from the dark water. I sighed as I stared at the awesome rock rising high over the lake, its reflection extending deep into the water. I couldn’t imagine a way of making the rock less intimidating. I was faced with an “otherness” that I could not control.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkRduuRE4Q_532HF-er-YMVpbE0jdWCL6JczzuDoq8cJNxDmmPIXMe6vPsDjt5k6XiLcQmpOnuCAuuB1ZdeCit93DLRrhnh7ldY9xSG6s8u04-mJPjaUB50K5LxYW4TpfhEYc-4ckLcjk/s1600/gold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkRduuRE4Q_532HF-er-YMVpbE0jdWCL6JczzuDoq8cJNxDmmPIXMe6vPsDjt5k6XiLcQmpOnuCAuuB1ZdeCit93DLRrhnh7ldY9xSG6s8u04-mJPjaUB50K5LxYW4TpfhEYc-4ckLcjk/s1600/gold.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm">Goldfields and Popcorn:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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I realized then that I was having an irrational desire to manage an ecosystem that contained its own inherent order. I wanted to recreate the place in the image of humanity, to restart the tune that I understood so well. Yet in the quiet something inside of me said no, let it go, and once again I returned to a state of simply being. I felt complete. It seemed easy, as if all I ever had to do was make a conscious choice to let go of the fear of losing my identity, but I soon suspected that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that feeling for long. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The lake and the massive rocks and trees were imbued with a life that did not need humanity at all, which inexplicably troubled me. I strolled back to the tules where the blue dragonflies hovered and bobbed here and there. I remained still, conscious of my breath, letting go of the noise in my head, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">contemplating the otherness, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">as if I were meditating with my eyes open.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLMoLIsl5gYOVD0Ez0cpxSV3mMkwN8DwWyj5p2o5odHNBVk12cgPDYMHs-eBaZv8gWda5mIkF6Sy5lwZMwnR9NeCy9d3NooFQL-eGGuGJVCF5GgNV_eC2lGLA9RqRwYjsrAot5FLZbPs2/s1600/fiesfid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLMoLIsl5gYOVD0Ez0cpxSV3mMkwN8DwWyj5p2o5odHNBVk12cgPDYMHs-eBaZv8gWda5mIkF6Sy5lwZMwnR9NeCy9d3NooFQL-eGGuGJVCF5GgNV_eC2lGLA9RqRwYjsrAot5FLZbPs2/s1600/fiesfid.jpg" height="338" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Fiddleneck and Fiesta Flowers:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I remembered seeing dragonflies all the time when I was a child, sapphire and ruby red and shimmering green, and it occurred to me that I had not encountered one in many years. Suddenly I missed them terribly. Where had they gone? Were their populations decimated by cultivation and pesticides and urbanization or was I just visiting the wrong places? I felt a profound sense of loss as I gazed at a blue dragonfly hovering nearby. I wanted to snatch it and hold onto it. Then I remembered that my father had died about five years after our trip to Ward Lake.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Once again a sense of chaos and death and the unknown overwhelmed me. I felt like a Puritan at Plymouth Rock facing the dark forests of an unchartered continent. I wanted to cut down the trees and level the ground and create a safe, comforting, glitzy civilization where suffering and death could be hidden away and ignored. I wanted a city to spring up on the hill. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhce4dAwxatHa7guM9KKqEYYC2zcH1RNtxh6I5b3cd2Wm9VZBqff_-UGAwzvNVshCW-wqC9YACAs2BQumOSnzoNoX7xQ7duW7DljeZO7D2YraCbfC9VpMyKzgVi-GikYf2k5_vgaXmHajPy/s1600/popcrn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhce4dAwxatHa7guM9KKqEYYC2zcH1RNtxh6I5b3cd2Wm9VZBqff_-UGAwzvNVshCW-wqC9YACAs2BQumOSnzoNoX7xQ7duW7DljeZO7D2YraCbfC9VpMyKzgVi-GikYf2k5_vgaXmHajPy/s1600/popcrn.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/flat.htm">Popcorn Flowers below Bluff:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/flat.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Yet the sense of timelessness again enveloped me. I felt renewed, like I was a child again, like my father was still fishing somewhere by the lake. I wanted him to remain there in the brilliant sunshine, dwarfed by the magnificent trees and rocks, his shining line deep in the dark lake. Of course, I knew he wasn’t there, but because in my mind there had been no passage of time, he was standing there, his body a still shadow in the dark water, the lake even more sublime because of it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I was snapped back by the clock. I had to head home. I shook my head, suddenly feeling queasy, as if my inescapable need for human order was a chronic sickness that always eventually blocks any connection with nature. I wanted to silence the noise in my mind for good and just listen to the quiet lapping of the water and feel the timelessness and the sunshine and the breeze.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> At that point I realized that deep in my soul I needed the quietness and the sense of otherness, even if it was occasionally accompanied by a feeling of being out of control, but I also needed human order, the noisy song of civilization. I needed to strike a satisfying balance, and I hoped that my children wouldn’t lose the rejuvenating sense of pure being and timelessness and otherness. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> We need wild public lands near where we live, such as the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area, which might soon be buried under hundreds of feet of water if Temperance Flat Dam is approved. We need those places to rejuvenate us and help us maintain our sense of continuity and our connection with something beyond us--with something sublime.</span><br />
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-50428700426303050952015-02-01T21:51:00.002-08:002015-02-14T10:14:39.995-08:00THE AMERICAN DREAM AND THE TREE OF LIFE<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5kokvizKU6usQuZmakaSX2vX4PbTuy5QeaS90MBnR6Vh4AlZDOZSE6XWd6foG30vLZ8-FjjnHORZCaUhyPRa1aBi38Y8JzQ5nvx_ygTpV9JJAILopimOnVPLaKRfMaUKyU1CeQP5UIKeJ/s1600/sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5kokvizKU6usQuZmakaSX2vX4PbTuy5QeaS90MBnR6Vh4AlZDOZSE6XWd6foG30vLZ8-FjjnHORZCaUhyPRa1aBi38Y8JzQ5nvx_ygTpV9JJAILopimOnVPLaKRfMaUKyU1CeQP5UIKeJ/s1600/sky.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">Baby Blue Eyes and Fiddleneck:<br />San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">TEMPERANCE FLAT DAM</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">AND THE VICES OF GEDULAH, </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.misfitsong.blogspot.com/">“THE GLORY”</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Due to recent rains, green grass, hauntingly fresh, has sprouted again in the San Joaquin River Gorge, heralding the first flowers of spring: popcorn, fiddleneck, lupine and shooting stars. Soon the slopes will be covered by spot rugs of goldfields and baby blue eyes, owl’s clover and poppies. Once belonging to Native Americans, this land is currently public land, a remnant of the commons of America. Native American pounding stones can be found in many places within the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area, but the freshness of late winter and early spring obscures the tragedy of genocide. That very freshness makes the possibility that the land will be buried under hundreds of feet of water seem remote. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> We haven’t learned much from history. First the land was stolen from Native Americans. If a dam is built at Temperance Flat, the land will be stolen from the American public, a tragedy in which “common” public land and resources become the property of one industry at the expense of the community as a whole.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Recently, after I described the issue to a friend, she stated flatly, “That’s nothing new." She could not have been more correct, unfortunately. From a spiritual perspective, the pillaging of common resources by those in power is a vice associated with a sphere on the Tree of Life known as Chesed. From the perspective of the Tree, which is a composite symbol of the types of energies that have evolved within the manifested cosmos, the vice has existed since the beginning of time (as we humans know it). The vices associated with the spheres of polarity are the unbalanced aspects of the energies of each sphere or state of being that manifest in the world. Since humans contain the energies of the spheres represented by the Tree, each of us can manifest the virtues of each sphere as well as the vices related to unbalanced energy. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSXBMwI9pc7jvASmv2MJ8HLPWHfj2kjwY_e1g_-9ddceTY3i9nPXvqK2Pj9C6yu6q2tQtDkq-DYiHkXgNhsQYogmCbDHgLTp_7peOfnWS3jME7hPrdKNcqtVrVvqAd5rVLYfocFjZRAP2/s1600/cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSXBMwI9pc7jvASmv2MJ8HLPWHfj2kjwY_e1g_-9ddceTY3i9nPXvqK2Pj9C6yu6q2tQtDkq-DYiHkXgNhsQYogmCbDHgLTp_7peOfnWS3jME7hPrdKNcqtVrVvqAd5rVLYfocFjZRAP2/s1600/cards.jpg" height="640" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/path32.htm">The Tree of Life</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Also known as Gedulah, referenced as “the Glory” at the end of the Lord’s prayer, Chesed is the fourth sephirah on the Tree of Life, a sphere associated with Jupiter. Known by the Greeks as Zeus, Jupiter is the archetypal king, the consummate ruler and lawgiver, the great up-builder and organizer of civilization. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The spheres on the Tree of Life represent types of manifested energy, each of which has been personified throughout history as different Gods and hierarchies of Angels. In addition to their magnificent spiritual virtues, each sphere on the Tree of Life also contains vices because energy manifests according to the laws of polarity. Love is the opposite of hate. Heat is the opposite of cold. Where there is a virtue, there is a vice, except where total unity abides. The vices of the sphere of Jupiter relate to power: Tyranny, gluttony, hypocrisy, and bigotry, as opposed to its virtue, obedience to the law of love, an obedience that can manifest as spiritual magnificence, abundance and harmony.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The American Dream in both of its positive and negative aspects stems from the archetypal energies of Gedulah, the fourth sephirah, or state of being, on the Tree. At the heart of the American Dream is the belief that each individual is potentially a magnificent being who is capable of creating abundance and harmony and of determining his or her own fate. It follows that the individual who sincerely works hard and plays by the rules should prosper as long as barriers to this potential for prosperity are kept to a minimum. A person who succeeds through intelligence, good fortune and a strong work ethic deserves what he or she receives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> But the Dream has a dark side. Currently 80 people, the majority of whom are Americans, own the same amount of wealth as the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people, according to an <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/put_a_name_to_the_80_people_who_own_half_of_the_worlds_wealth_20150127">analysis released from Oxfam</a>. Four years earlier, 388 billionaires together held as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the world. Wealth is becoming concentrated in the hands of the few at an alarming rate. Those who control the wealth continue to accumulate as much wealth as they can, despite the terrible conditions experienced by innumerable people throughout the world. Not coincidentally, the <a href="http://freespeechforpeople.org/node/530?gclid=Cj0KEQiAuremBRCbtr-1qJnKi-4BEiQAh0x08K8zjRxE5mlZcDXlWKTO1G5HeR-OPn3l77YJTyZGgb4aAi_c8P8HAQ">influence of money in politics</a> is also undermining any semblance of democracy. Because democracy is for sale, the “tragedy of the commons” is becoming far too common.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">Baby Blue Eyes, Popcorn, and Fiddleneck:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> An economic theory by Garrett Hardin, the “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons">tragedy of the commons</a>” posits that individuals acting independently and rationally according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource. The term, taken from the title of an article written by Hardin in 1968, is in turn based upon an essay by a Victorian economist on the effects of unregulated grazing on common land.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> In 1833 the English economist William Forster Lloyd published a pamphlet which included an example of herders sharing a common parcel of land on which they were entitled to graze their cows. In English villages, shepherds had also sometimes grazed their sheep in common areas, and sheep ate more grass than cows. For each additional sheep, a herder would receive benefits while the group shared damage to the commons. If all herders made this economic decision, rational for themselves as individuals but detrimental to the group, the commons could be depleted or destroyed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Recently the "commons" has come to mean any shared resource, such as rivers, oceans, fish stocks, atmosphere, or even the office refrigerator. The concept is often cited in connection with the need for reasonable and sustainable growth.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">Squaw Leap: The San Joaquin River Gorge </a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> A dam at Temperance Flat will turn a majestic river ecosystem into a storage container for the top few percent in the San Joaquin Valley, the vast majority of the water going to one industry for private gain--much of the water irrigating unsustainable crops, such as <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/california-drought-almonds-water-use">almonds, in a semi-arid region</a>. There are currently over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_and_reservoirs_in_California">1,400 named dams and 1,300 named reservoirs</a> in the state of California, dozens of which already exist on the San Joaquin River. Each dam and reservoir has destroyed river habitat, but together they have not ended the water shortage for the farmers of California. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The vices of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream">American Dream</a> are the vices of Gedulah. Many people believe in limiting the barriers to prosperity. In other words, each individual should have the right to prosper in an unregulated or deregulated market, no matter the consequences to other individuals or society or the world as a whole, a belief resulting in a cultural fascination with the gangster and more recently in the near economic collapse of Western societies--including the United States. Of the vices, examples in America are glaringly obvious. Bigotry has led to slavery and genocide. Greed, another name for gluttony, is readily seen in the depletion of resources such as old-growth forests and wetlands across the continent, as well as indirectly in the inescapable pollution of air and water. Despite a professed belief in democracy, the tyranny of the bottom line dominates corporate life and numerous social relationships, and in competition for material success, <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypocrisy?s=t">hypocrisy</a>--in other words deceit, fraudulence, insincerity--is undeniably pervasive, in the classroom as well as the boardroom, in the church as well as the town hall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Belief in the American Dream is the main basis of loyalty for many of the citizens of the United States, and the positive elements of the ethos is drilled into the consciousness of the average American from birth to such a degree that the unbalanced aspects of the ethos are rarely examined. Instead, many unthinkingly accept that the American Dream, a facet of the archetype of Gedulah, means that organizing and building to create prosperity for <i>someone, somewhere </i>is always a form of beneficial progress. Consequently, dams and water works are still viewed by many as one of many great advancements of civilization. However, at the heart of the archetype of Gedulah is balance, which includes establishing sustainable communities that maintain harmony with nature. The destruction of an irreplaceable river ecosystem for the private benefit of the few is not a true manifestation of the virtue, which is obedience to harmonizing love, including love and respect for all creation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> A belief in prosperity at any cost continues to result in environmental destruction and economic disaster. Something has gone terribly wrong with our interpretation of the American Dream and our use of the energy of the archetype of Jupiter, the upbuilding, law-giving, merciful king of Gedulah. It’s almost in this country as if the vices of the archetype for many have become its virtues. The true virtue of “The Glory” is the internal magnificence, abundance and harmony of the human spirit, which does not necessarily result in material success, control, dominance, or power that is so often the manifestation of its vices. As a society we need to re-examination the American Dream in terms of the Tree of Life if we are going to revere the glory of creation and reestablish a balance with nature--in order to protect the "commons" and survive as a species.</span><br />
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-55998139967919493792014-12-06T16:19:00.002-08:002014-12-26T09:16:00.883-08:00BRAIN WAVES AND THE ANIMA MUNDI<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.childrenonthetree.blogspot.com/">Pounding Stone, San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>(Note: the following contains a mix of topics from previous posts in a different context. If you would like to hear a song cycle, otherwise known as a "concept album," beginning with a song about the dam, click on the title below.)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/dam.htm">INSPIRATION AND THE EARTH SOUL</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Recently I dwelt in the tranquillity of the Earth Soul in the San Joaquin River Gorge, which might soon be buried underwater by a dam at Temperance Flat. To me and many others, a dam that would destroy a stunning ecosystem on public land represents a personal and social tragedy, as well as yet another indication of the absence of an ethos of stewardship in the halls of power. While lounging on a pounding stone in the river bottom and pondering this lack of stewardship, I understood why the looming destruction of the planet is essentially a spiritual problem.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The concept of the Earth Soul, or “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi">anima mundi,</a>” is, unfortunately, unfamiliar to many. Known also as the “world soul,” the anima mundi has been described as an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet: “This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timaeus_%28dialogue%29">Plato, Timaeus</a>, 29–30).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The idea of the world soul has surfaced in many philosophies and religious systems in different cultures throughout history. The Stoics, for instance, believe that it is the only vital force in the universe. Similar beliefs exist in systems of eastern philosophy, such as the Brahman-Atman of Hinduism, the Buddha-Nature in Mahayana Buddhism, and in the School of Yin-Yang, Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The experience of the Earth Soul often begins as a feeling of peace that grows more profound as you immerse yourself in the frequencies of nature. The longer you are in nature, in other words, the more you naturally tune your <a href="http://www.brainworksneurotherapy.com/what-are-brainwaves">brain waves</a> to the frequency of the Earth. The Schumann Resonance (known as the "heart beat" of Mother Earth) is on the average 7.8 Hertz. Four accepted types of human brain waves occur at the following vibrations per second (Hertz):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Delta: 0.5 to 3 hz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Theta: 3 to 8 hz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Alpha: 8 to 12 hz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Beta: 12 to 38 hz</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Beta rhythm (also known as beta waves) refers to the frequency range of human brain activity between 12 and 38 Hz and represents an intense state of alertness, concentration, logical thinking, and memory. Since beta mode is the required mental state of the workplace, it is generally valued as the most productive state of modern human consciousness in terms of survival and success. Other brain wave rhythms, alpha, theta, and delta, associated with, among other things, imagination, spiritual connection, and intuition, are accessed through deep relaxation, meditation, daydreaming and immersion in the natural world. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Previously dismissed as 'spare brain noise,' researchers have also examined a fifth brainwave that is highly active in states of universal love, altruism, and higher-level functioning. Gamma brainwaves are the fastest of brain waves, occurring at high frequency, and they relate to simultaneous processing of information from different brain areas. In order to access these most subtle of brainwave frequencies, the mind has to be quiet. The presence of Gamma relates to expanded consciousness and spiritual emergence, and because Gamma is above the frequency of neuronal firing, how it is generated remains a mystery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> An individual during meditation can intentionally move beyond the beta rhythms of the surface mind to alpha, theta, delta and gamma brain wave frequencies. Alpha brain waves (generally considered 8 to 12 cycles per second), produced when a person is resting, meditating, or reflecting, indicate a state of relaxed alertness, good for stimulating imagination and inspiring powerful ideas. Theta brain waves (3 to 8 cycles per second), usually associated with the dream state, are produced also when a person is daydreaming, experiencing a flow of ideas, or performing a repetitive task. Theta brain waves are also associated with profound inner peace, mystical knowledge, symbolic visions, transformation of unconsciously held limiting beliefs, physical and emotional healing, inner wisdom, and psychic abilities. Delta brain waves (0.5 to 3 cycles per second), are produced usually during dreamless sleep, and during meditation can also include deep access to subconscious material and a sense of oneness and pure being. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The “heart beat" of Mother Earth, at 7.8 hz, is on the border between Theta and Alpha brain waves. In other words, The Earth Soul, Mother Nature herself, as well as meditation can induce a brain wave frequency where one experiences tranquility, intuition, visions, and wise inner voices. I have found this to be the case over and over in my excursions into nature. In fact, with regular meditation and experiences in nature, I have discovered that the subtle, psychic senses can open in a way that a mind stuck in surface consciousness and dominated by the media would find extremely difficult to believe. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/temple.htm">Lupine next to Trail: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> In the film Cold Souls, Paul Giamatti plays an actor burdened by nameless anxieties who has his soul extracted by the “Soul Storage Company.” His soul, it turns out, resembles a chickpea. Unlike the character in the movie, I believed for decades that I didn’t have a soul, extractable or otherwise, until I experienced a series of visions during meditation. My spiritual emergence occurred unexpectedly: I began meditating purely to relieve stress. I had no interest in ideas of God or the soul and no desire to have visions or to expand consciousness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> When I began meditating, I had a series of related visions. The first in the series was of a golden, equal-armed cross with an angel at each end. The second was of a golden plate and cup on a pure white tablecloth; floating in the cup a large pearl turned ceaselessly around and around. The third vision consisted of a plain, golden crown. Since at the time I was an agnostic with no interest in spiritual matters, my conscious mind took a long time to process what my subconscious mind was showing me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> By that point in my life, I had experienced enough treachery and deceit to make anyone cynical for several lifetimes. I did not have any reason to feel hopeful about the human condition. I was pessimistic to the point of despair--if I had fallen asleep during meditation, my subconscious mind was more likely to manufacture nightmares than glowing, golden symbols. During the meditations, however, I was totally awake, but in a state of consciousness that I had never experienced before. My subconscious mind in the visionary state tapped into a realm that transcended my limited personality, presenting symbols of what to me at the time was an inscrutable optimism about our essence, what many over the centuries have labeled the “soul.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have come to believe that the great tragedy of our time is a lack of understanding about the different levels of the psyche. I don’t mean to suggest that anyone will be damned for eternity for ignoring his or her own soul. That and other ideas about hell-fire and damnation have kept me and many others from even trying to understand and honor the psyche. I’m suggesting instead that we are losing valuable connections to the spiritual dimension, knowledge from within the timeless core of ourselves that transcends the limited physical senses and also provides opportunities for greater health on all levels of being. When I say, “honoring the soul,” I mean acknowledging all aspects of the psyche--which I have discovered is a far greater mystery than most psychologists would concede. Honoring the soul means acknowledging the vast potentialities of the psyche while recognizing that each one of us, when the veils have fallen, is essentially a magnificent spiritual being containing the inner seeds of abundance and harmony. Honoring the soul is also the first crucial step in honoring the vast, awesome web of nature and recognizing our place within it.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm">Fiesta Flowers and Lupine:<br />San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> My vision of the angels and the equal-armed cross has various esoteric meanings, but to me reveals the balance of elements and the integration of the individual personality resonating with this vast cosmic harmony. Water in the golden cup to me suggests spirit manifesting in matter. I have to confess that the pearl turning around in the water puzzled me for a very long time. Only after I reread the proverb about the merchant who gave up everything for the “pearl of great price” did I realize that the pearl in the vision symbolizes the soul in its various experiences within the material realm. In other words, the soul forms like a pearl around the divine spark, the core of the psyche, through an evolution, containing the essence of many incarnations, and, like the wheel of fortune, keeps turning as it experiences and reflects the multiplicity of life, both in the subconscious mind (the part in water) and the conscious mind (the part in air). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I finally understood the series of visions over all in the context of the last, simple vision. The crown symbolizes dominion and magnificence, the gold representing incorruptibility and purity. Together the visions reveal the spiritual magnificence, harmony, and abundance within the soul. These visions have a kind of simplicity that has taken me years to understand.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Imaginative Representation of Root Chakra</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> Human beings, in esoteric terms, are physical, astral, mental, and spiritual creatures. Whenever a person first begins moving into the subtle planes during meditation, the mind often reveals subconscious content related to the aura, which is the subtle envelope containing the invisible energy centers known as the chakras. The primary chakras correspond to the spine and usually turn clock-wise. If you hold a pendulum made from a paperclip and a thread over a chakra, such as the stomach or heart center, after a few seconds the paperclip will start spinning around. Within the aura, the chakras extend outward into the astral, mental and spiritual levels. I was surprised to find that I can mentally tell the pendulum to spin only in the astral or mental or spiritual level of the aura, and the chakra responds to the command, just like a hand responds to thought. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The lower chakras are linked with an individual’s preservation instincts, sex drive, and personal power, the higher ones with communication, imagination, and spiritual awareness. The heart center, besides being the center of sympathy and love, connects the lower centers related to the physical realm with the higher centers related to the spiritual levels. Each of these chakras is associated with a state of being that corresponds to a particular sheath or "vehicle" of consciousness within the aura. In other words, consciousness is not limited to the physical body. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As the mind becomes more adept at meditation (or ritual, if one prefers) the conscious mind becomes better at focusing on particular levels of the psyche. Complex color patterns are associated with the chakras in some traditions, but the subconscious mind responds to an arrangement of the chakras in a simple rainbow pattern, with red at the bottom representing the lowest chakra between the anus and genitals and violet representing the third eye chakra. Brilliant white, a combination of all the colors, is associated with the crown chakra, also known as the thousand-petaled lotus. These different vibrations are associated with the different levels of the subtle planes (besides space, the last frontier). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> In this stage of evolution, what we currently consider normal consciousness in esoteric terms is an astro-mental state flowing with emotions, ideas, and images, in other words thought-forms, or for lack of a better term, thought-complexes. We tend to create reality with the force of emotion and the forms of the intellect, in other words. The physical senses generally are not nearly as engaged as they used to be even a hundred years ago.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> During spiritual practices, an individual can experiment with the different frequency levels of vibration that correspond to the higher and lower levels, from plant and animal frequencies to the frequencies of the angels and gods. The more one moves in either direction, of course, the more one experiences vibrations beyond what the average person considers within the normal range of perception and consciousness--and the more one begins to recognize the true potentials of the psyche. The old maxim, "Know thyself," means far more, I think, than most modern humans suspect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> On a social level, frequencies other than beta brain waves tend to be associated with fuzzy head-in-the-cloud thinking and the inability to function properly in the real world, an attitude that has become a major obstacle both to connection with nature and to spiritual development. When not required to remain in beta mode by high stress jobs, people nowadays tend to slip into alpha and theta states under the influence of the mass media, which controls the flow of thoughts and emotions and tends to extinguish the potential for authentic spiritual experience. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I had the good fortune to experience the Earth Soul often on fishing trips when I was growing up. After practicing meditation for several years, I finally understood what it means to tune the soul to the heart beat of Mother Nature, explained by science in terms of the alpha and theta brain frequencies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> During meditation, I “drop into the void” for extended periods, and I have sometimes experienced a subtle order of existence that is “objective” in the sense that I envision what other seers have also experienced. Other visionaries, in other words, have also envisioned the symbols and archetypes of what Carl Jung has described as the “collective unconscious,” which to me is more accurately described as the “collective subconscious.” <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidNLEihG1tMCoRbGEpZKw8xddNVQfbEpyAvSsZKtCyUjbOD7c8HNM9aMp_wTwoLcOzOjQ652PjjP5p0bFkx1zo2NeGEtHVisauvh0OZCcmn6hZLBwqz4JVrAe0P6FJTDJIVl2fZIlpbx03/s1600/blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidNLEihG1tMCoRbGEpZKw8xddNVQfbEpyAvSsZKtCyUjbOD7c8HNM9aMp_wTwoLcOzOjQ652PjjP5p0bFkx1zo2NeGEtHVisauvh0OZCcmn6hZLBwqz4JVrAe0P6FJTDJIVl2fZIlpbx03/s1600/blue.jpg" height="476" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">Baby Blue Eyes: San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The Tree of Life is extremely helpful to the traveler into the unseen. Throughout history, cultures have created different pantheons of Gods and Archangels that represent the subtle forces. In other words, a God symbolically represents a force or power that exists in the subtle spiritual dimension of the cosmos--and inside each human being: “As above, so below.” One God might represent the force of expansion, another the force of restriction, another the power of thought, another the power of harmonizing love. Jesus, for instance, is a Savior that finds his rightful place in the sixth sphere of the Tree of Life, known as Tiphareth, along with other sacrificial Gods. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Each culture has similar Gods because the same forces have existed inside of people throughout history. Different forces have been emphasized in each culture based on its needs. One culture might emphasize the courage and energy and strength of Mars while another might emphasize the intellectual power of Mercury while another might emphasize the power of love and beauty represented by Venus. Whenever a person contacts a cosmic force fashioned symbolically into a God or Goddess, that person is actually contacting an aspect of the energy of a sphere on the the Tree of Life. Unfortunately most people do not realize that each individual, without a priest interceding, can access the cosmic force symbolically represented by a God or Savior, and each person can establish a channel or correspondence with that energy because the energy also exists within each individual: the microcosm (the individual) reflects the macrocosm (the cosmos).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> On the cosmic level, manifestation of all forms begins within the seventh sphere of the Tree of Life, a state of being known as Netzach, or "Victory"--a title which suggests the victory of natural forms flourishing in stunning beauty and diversity. Netzach is the sphere of the Goddess Venus. Dion Fortune, arguably the most influential Qabalist in recent history, once pointed out that any religion without the Goddess is "halfway to atheism." In common parlance, Earth is our "mother," and fortunately in much of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, at least, the Goddess undeniably still reigns, but many irreplacable ecosystems have already been destroyed or are in danger, like the San Joaquin River Gorge. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-JErMYFvZBN8E1WbvonQg5CKB8POQ6ACF6xG5jROK7-P2pis7vOEv-E_5gTcbm5VmhP5OR0y0ezrv2ZK_8-qHVNoeuWNIKCoTX9PmQ5heqPBv6RJzt9YnaJFchpHAJdDNv_bFz3UMeC_B/s1600/peak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-JErMYFvZBN8E1WbvonQg5CKB8POQ6ACF6xG5jROK7-P2pis7vOEv-E_5gTcbm5VmhP5OR0y0ezrv2ZK_8-qHVNoeuWNIKCoTX9PmQ5heqPBv6RJzt9YnaJFchpHAJdDNv_bFz3UMeC_B/s1600/peak.jpg" height="477" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/angels.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> On the Tree of Life, the sphere of the Sun is just above (or, in terms of evolution--before) Netzach. Known as Tiphareth, or "Beauty," the sphere of the Sun represents the Source of all life within the physical plane, and, because Tiphareth balances and harmonizes the energies of other spheres on the Tree, it also represents the cosmic Christ force. Imagine a prism held up before the sun, breaking up the light into all the colors of manifestation. This is the light of the Source, the One manifesting harmoniously and victoriously as the Many within the sphere of Netzach and the lower spheres.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> For me, spiritual emergence began with physical and mental purification. In many spiritual traditions, cleansing is a crucial step in the process of spiritual development. A person must eliminate negative energies from the body and the aura to progress on the path. Having many food allergies, intolerances, and chemical sensitivities, I first had to eliminate everything in my diet that made me ill or unable to think clearly. Then with a damp white cloth I mentally wiped away negative energies, revealed in various forms to psychic vision, in each one of my chakras while also forgiving myself and others. I felt purified after I dumped trash from my crown chakra for several hours, and I immediately had a vision of a many-petalled, brilliant white flower. I thought at first that it was a stunning white rose with innumerable petals, but a voice in my head said, “Lotus.” I went on-line and discovered that the thousand-petaled lotus is symbolically associated with the crown chakra.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Like Dion Fortune, I believe that there is no room for authority in occultism--or any other form of spirituality--but how I would have appreciated another soul explaining what was happening to me! I never once feared for my sanity, but I was many times deeply confused and fascinated to the point of fixation, only slowly piecing together an understanding through experimentation and by wading through many an arcane text. I do not claim to be an authority, but I have had enough experience to become knowledgeable about a subject that is foreign to most people in Western society.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4FGL4c7D_krwL4TPgIzkTE4y4vP1eubQUlo_-8YKTRrKh3Wmq31xpucBLIPJfJxX-53i5-BEZwbP-eJbYf1tikqZGugLPdJMkkApgYYObkJPaL5gweuJ1D72vzwhWdt1cFSeczp3fjNzt/s1600/fiesfid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4FGL4c7D_krwL4TPgIzkTE4y4vP1eubQUlo_-8YKTRrKh3Wmq31xpucBLIPJfJxX-53i5-BEZwbP-eJbYf1tikqZGugLPdJMkkApgYYObkJPaL5gweuJ1D72vzwhWdt1cFSeczp3fjNzt/s1600/fiesfid.jpg" height="338" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Fiesta Flowers and Fiddleneck:<br />San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> In terms of energy frequencies, whether viewed as brain-waves or chakras, through experience I have come to believe that, besides quieting the mind during meditation or contemplation, purification and exaltation of consciousness are the keys to spiritual development and connection to nature. I believe that cleansing the aura is essential in opening an awareness of the various vibrations of the psyche. Through experience, I have also come to believe that “following your bliss” results in the kind of exaltation and expansion of the mind that leads to spiritual emergence and enlightenment. For me, that means immersion in nature and the arts, both of which are associated with the sphere of Netzach on the Tree of Life. Others, of course, find their own path. Through experience, I have come to believe that exaltation, inspiration, and expansion of consciousness, associated with Gamma brainwaves, leads to the Vision of Harmony and opens up the state of being known as Tiphareth, the Christ-center, on the Tree of Life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Recently, in the fresh air and splendor of San Joaquin River Gorge, my mind relaxed. I recognized once again that we are surrounded by field upon field of interconnected, divine energy. My mind was tuned to the heartbeat of Mother Nature: The inspirations of the divine rise from the subconscious as much as from higher consciousness, from the Earth Soul as much as from heaven.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Lack of spiritual connection with nature could soon lead to the destruction of the stunning ecosystem within the San Joaquin River Gorge. Lack of understanding about our own psyche and our own connection to nature could lead eventually to the destruction of the planet. Many of those in power can only see the river gorge as a storage container for a certain number of acre feet of water that would benefit private, vested interests, their contributors. Our politicians and the media do not appear to care that the gorge contains an ecosystem of interconnected, divine energy that belongs to the Earth--and to the public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As an activist, I have come to take the long view. As much as it would break my heart, the San Joaquin River Gorge might not be saved. But due to experience I know that we are all connected on a subtle, spiritual level, and I believe that through psychic resonance, where on the subtle levels the few make it easier for the many to advance, the more each one of us honors the soul, the easier it becomes for others to do the same and the more likely that as a species we will then be able to honor the planet and ensure our own survival. </span><br />
<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-69463952280523004202014-11-10T12:34:00.002-08:002014-11-17T09:03:23.101-08:00ACTIVISM AND THE CHRIST FORCE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WDcgASzXNcRO7fFBOEIQZYZnfvmJDYYPenYSgvCQrbR34me2LyaUEGxsLO1Hs9cVFOqtPhrsqN0TiBINuuK2WCzdvkt1xrtOfsHK-uPgMDl_dk3imFprv1RL6Mbp88-gI1gj4hrYxPmM/s1600/a2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WDcgASzXNcRO7fFBOEIQZYZnfvmJDYYPenYSgvCQrbR34me2LyaUEGxsLO1Hs9cVFOqtPhrsqN0TiBINuuK2WCzdvkt1xrtOfsHK-uPgMDl_dk3imFprv1RL6Mbp88-gI1gj4hrYxPmM/s1600/a2.JPG" height="477" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/part1.htm">Creek near Native American Village Sites</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/seeds.htm">ACTIVISM AND THE HIGHER SELF</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have known a handful of activists who were unrelenting in their efforts to protect human and natural communities, no matter the personal cost. You could not find people more unlike each other in terms of background and lifestyle and philosophy, yet despite their differences, each was driven to accomplish his or her own personal mission. A few of them spoke truth to power and used the system so effectively that they ended up <a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/tanks.htm">blackballed or ruined financially by the powers that be</a>--and that did not even stop them. They cared little or nothing about power or status or money or any of the ideals associated with the American Dream. Malcontents or misfits in the eyes of many, some were poor, and getting poorer, but nothing would stop them. None of them ever talked about what motivated them, but I believe that I might understand at least a few of them now after my experiences in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Before I knew anything about Native American artifacts, I hiked all over the foothills searching for birds, a hobby that requires a heightened sensitivity to the foliage and the terrain. A flitter here or a hop there would make me whip out the binoculars in search of a rare or colorful flower of the air. Sometimes a stunning bird such as a bunting or a tanager or an oriole would wing right in front of me, unbidden, like grace. Other times I pushed through dense foliage, up steep mountain slopes, just to catch a glimpse of a bird I had already seen a hundred times. But even then the experience ended up being memorable because I had never witnessed the bird in those surroundings before or at that particular time of day. As I was searching for yet another bird, I came to know the flowers and where they grow, and over time I noticed that the plants are, from one generation to another, migrating a little every year over the land.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQtfzw3pnEg3R0tROW1vbCIg0ISprDaRIBKRv61lQXh4dkmamNSyd-VpEeh8CiroePeue1Y62dH8y5My9F_u-M-MHXR6iWZlRxXJc3xAE0NPBG2Gme1Oiltuma8LIRLzRmGSSi9Jf5otb8/s1600/a7a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQtfzw3pnEg3R0tROW1vbCIg0ISprDaRIBKRv61lQXh4dkmamNSyd-VpEeh8CiroePeue1Y62dH8y5My9F_u-M-MHXR6iWZlRxXJc3xAE0NPBG2Gme1Oiltuma8LIRLzRmGSSi9Jf5otb8/s1600/a7a.JPG" height="308" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Flowers near a Native American Site</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> I have followed numerous trails, whirling around now and then with binoculars in hand. Only after I became knowledgeable about the birds and flowers did I become sensitive to the human history in the mountains. Coincidentally, around the same time I was becoming more sensitive to the spiritual side of my own nature through meditation, which helps to explain the strange experience that I’m going to describe to you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> When I first started bird watching, I never thought about who or what had made the trails. I just assumed that cattle had made them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> One spring day, I followed a creek where three different types of swallows wove invisible loops around me and orioles scolded me and male tanagers scouted out suitable nesting habitat in the canopy above me. I was having an amazing bird watching day, so I kept trudging along even though my feet hurt and I had little water left. I finally plopped down next to a creek and noticed smooth cups in a Native American pounding stone. Lounging quietly in a cool breeze, I felt like my mind was part of an ocean of consciousness, and suddenly I heard the laughter of women right next to me. I looked all around, but found no one. Even though I had never been there before, at the same time I knew without a doubt that a trail was nearby that would lead me to another pounding stone.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwjFH7n2qAAibryY0OOHr9REymqlOf820Hay9RvctAE72Bp0vrgd9yI4_gqt7uXmt6GR_5XbiEMaSNHUO3rvZBXol9JRToClU5M3xuefPO6OW4mbQ892QeQqt2Z5PrHwiCeWGLcPhB1qsU/s1600/a3.JPG" height="400" width="298" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/lemnis.htm">Trail Connecting Pounding Stones</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> I scrambled up the slope and quickly found a distinct trail that led up the hillside. Without a second thought, I followed the trail and discovered a pounding stone about two hundred yards away on a ridge overlooking the creek. The pounding stone seemed familiar even though I had never been there, and for the first time I suspected that cattle had not made the trails. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Because the sun was going down, I headed back to the floodplain of the creek and rested on the pounding stone again before heading back. Feeling excited but uneasy, I waited a few minutes for something to happen, but nothing did, so I stood up and began the long trek back to my car. Suddenly I stepped into a current of cool air and experienced an intense rage as if something precious had been stolen from me. Up until that moment, I had been feeling only tranquility and fatigue. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5zB1nUGaT_ck9S2Z8AJpr3Xe9oLb4bGwnbQPlR-kUd7qq0IBSh36UbG_4LBSwSqtTSGq5WI9MsTlvHT1vHzhYSeSxMrVbBsz-4-9cINnUE_A73PBzx3TVDIV113dI5VXsZ2UbCDOLbtp/s1600/a1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5zB1nUGaT_ck9S2Z8AJpr3Xe9oLb4bGwnbQPlR-kUd7qq0IBSh36UbG_4LBSwSqtTSGq5WI9MsTlvHT1vHzhYSeSxMrVbBsz-4-9cINnUE_A73PBzx3TVDIV113dI5VXsZ2UbCDOLbtp/s1600/a1.JPG" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/cqueen.htm">Pounding Stone next to Creek</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> Perplexed, I whirled around to see if anybody was in the vicinity. I had not encountered another soul all day, but I had an eerie feeling that a powerful drama had at some point occurred there. I then had an overpowering urge to cross the creek and climb up to the ridge on the other side. As crickets chirped in the cool air, I hopped across unstable stones without getting my boots wet, and, vexed by the feeling that some memory was about to surface, I followed a faint path up the hill on the other side of the creek.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> When I reached the top, I found only a few oaks and dried cow droppings. After I stepped into a clearing, I could see across the creek to the ridge with the pounding stone. Then I peered into the floodplain below and noticed the pounding stone that I had first encountered that day. Exhausted, I paused in a shallow indentation in the ground, absolutely certain that I had discovered another Native American village site, but I could not find any evidence of it. By that point I could no longer postpone the journey back. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> After that, I searched for pounding stones as I hiked the trails, and I found them about everywhere I wandered in the foothills. I also began to find shallow indentations in the ground just about wherever I found pounding stones, and eventually I realized that they were pits where the Native Americans had set up their houses. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YGj5dSzgonASJqOAUc5_zF3vqgUPDgealT2uMFqVs1kWJ4PA3IqPYd2wJfO-y69yx2joRdZjGGN8nHx-LD1ZFXIbjqzFUUdsyu88xeXwBKb_SKKhgUzWpa1NOi3Mq46mU5cDVAZtRSvZ/s1600/a9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YGj5dSzgonASJqOAUc5_zF3vqgUPDgealT2uMFqVs1kWJ4PA3IqPYd2wJfO-y69yx2joRdZjGGN8nHx-LD1ZFXIbjqzFUUdsyu88xeXwBKb_SKKhgUzWpa1NOi3Mq46mU5cDVAZtRSvZ/s1600/a9.JPG" height="476" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/rosy.htm">House Pit near Pounding Stones</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I eventually returned to the ridge where I had stood at dusk in a shallow indentation, where I had felt a Native American presence, and realized that at the time I had been standing in a house pit. I then carefully searched the ridge again and discovered several pounding stones blanketed by leaves, one of which still contained a pestle in a mortar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “I live my life in widening rings," states the spiritual poet, Ranier Maria Rilke. I realize now that I have continued to open my heart and mind in nature as I have grown older, noticing relationships more clearly as I have evolved spiritually, and those relationships reveal correspondences and contrasts that lead to the recognition of unpleasant truths. For instance, the awe-inspiring remnants of history and biological diversity in the mountains place in stark contrast the almost total absence of history and biological diversity in the San Joaquin Valley. If past is prologue, the same cultural and natural devastation will occur in the mountains. More dams, more exhaustion of resources, more development. I would like to believe that as a species we have moved beyond genocide, but the current perpetuation of ecocide suggests that our rapaciousness does not yet end with the exploitation of nature.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0D-KwM_QCHw-Vq5_71HAmphibPHcKqhPVCiCgzZZ-9wlveAtBwh1WHXzNzoAS5WVbCzZjFN_aGGSMTaJWUVaCsIo_ge96JcbiGoOJSsf_Gnp6CwvBqPaxCAnev-gpabxPXHkLDBE1MWHu/s1600/a13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0D-KwM_QCHw-Vq5_71HAmphibPHcKqhPVCiCgzZZ-9wlveAtBwh1WHXzNzoAS5WVbCzZjFN_aGGSMTaJWUVaCsIo_ge96JcbiGoOJSsf_Gnp6CwvBqPaxCAnev-gpabxPXHkLDBE1MWHu/s1600/a13.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/ghosts.htm">Pestle, as I Found it and Left It</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> How much value does our culture place on aesthetic, ethical, and spiritual development? Through the ideals of capitalism and the dominance of media, our culture has come to worship youth and money and remains in a limbo of the perpetual present, with very little sense of history or natural diversity, stuck in the “surface mind” that values status and glitz and excitement over spiritual connection. I mention this only because I believe that each of my diehard activist friends at some point in their life activated a higher aspect of the self that enabled them to feel a bond of sympathy for all things, which continued to motivate them despite the beatings they received in the political arena. Most of them, I suspect, would never view their own motivations as spiritual in nature, yet this spark, I believe, was undeniably Christian in nature, from an esoteric perspective.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I returned to the Native American village site recently, ravished by the flowers that are flourishing despite the drought that our politicians claim will end civilization as we know it if we don’t build more dams, and I realized that this stream could just as easily be buried under hundreds of feet of water or bulldozed into a nucleus for urban growth. As I stood again in the house pit in the clearing, gazing at the ridge across the creek, I began to fear that only a core group of adults with open hearts and minds, who against the odds have developed themselves aesthetically and ethically and spiritually, would fight to save this place, perhaps at great personal sacrifice--and I remembered those activists that I haven’t seen in years. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxvVTxngrdxnC_nsRlKlXKLba9c4enPRkNolZQusyajyjzkjm1xVsj4nv0ABAmQpfR-xSR606mCx1Uycxm2OXtBcPPVNpbaJNODGL_RXjFqHlBOttckWG1vNHA1kysIQBB0TVaVDGwGKUH/s1600/a13a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxvVTxngrdxnC_nsRlKlXKLba9c4enPRkNolZQusyajyjzkjm1xVsj4nv0ABAmQpfR-xSR606mCx1Uycxm2OXtBcPPVNpbaJNODGL_RXjFqHlBOttckWG1vNHA1kysIQBB0TVaVDGwGKUH/s1600/a13a.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/blaze.htm">Pestle, Removed from Mortar</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> At the same time a few of the values of Christianity became clearer to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I haven’t attended a Christian church regularly since the fourth grade. I confess that for many years I suffered from a serious “Jesus allergy,” and I have never made any effort to be “saved.” For the majority of my adult life, Christianity has seemed authoritarian, rigid and damaging. After my experience with my activist friends, however, I believe that Christianity is crucial to our society--but not the type of Christianity that so many know. (I am approaching this subject from the perspective of a mystic who operates in the tradition of the Qabalah, which means that my interpretation of Christianity is esoteric. In the not too distant past, I am sure that I would have been burned at the stake for my beliefs.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> From the mystical perspective of the Qabalah, the Christ is a cosmic force that manifests as harmonizing love, spiritual inebriation, and sacrifice--not as one man who will come either to save us or condemn us. The principle of cosmic harmony has been personified throughout history as different gods and goddesses, not just as Jesus, and has had many names, such as “ma’at” in Egyptian culture. Gods of exaltation and sacrifice have also surfaced in different cultures. For instance, Apollo and Dionysus, sons of Zeus, symbolically personify the harmony and spiritual inebriation of the Christ force. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Because the Christ is a cosmic force, any human can manifest it, not just a savior or a priest. I believe that this force will not “save” anyone from a hell in the afterlife or ensure that a person enters a heaven. Instead, a person can choose to manifest the cosmic force in the here and now to establish and maintain harmony within his or her own personal sphere, just as a worshiper in Greece might have manifested harmony through a mystical connection with Apollo, who is, like Jesus, a symbolic representation of an invisible but very real force. Just as importantly, a person can experience the spiritual exaltation of the Christ force, which provides a permanent expansion of the personality, resulting in a greater sense of harmony, a stimulation of the ethical faculties, and a sympathy for all life.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK67NyrsC9gX9WXOZDzl8qT5k7JTqik2jvN_xnYqVTrGZpKBoSWuwNdbhDRLaSIDdJn6vUKSvHrPpQFo9o2E3SiKUM_JeFEF6h6j_y25ndMX0UQEy7SqFLaghm2SyCki3iTK8aA9I__S6W/s1600/a4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK67NyrsC9gX9WXOZDzl8qT5k7JTqik2jvN_xnYqVTrGZpKBoSWuwNdbhDRLaSIDdJn6vUKSvHrPpQFo9o2E3SiKUM_JeFEF6h6j_y25ndMX0UQEy7SqFLaghm2SyCki3iTK8aA9I__S6W/s1600/a4.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/temple.htm">Pounding Stone and House Pits on Ridge</a></span></td></tr>
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As a Qabalist, I am basing my understanding of the cosmic Christ on the glyph, or composite symbol, known as the Tree of Life. On the mystical Tree, the sphere of the cosmic Christ is the sphere of the Sun, the source of life, and is known as “Tiphareth,” or “Beauty.” The spiritual experiences assigned to this sphere are “The Vision of Harmony” and “The Mysteries of the Crucifixion.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The vision of harmony includes an understanding that each life is a field of conscious energy within fields upon fields of interconnected energy throughout the cosmos. The mysteries of the crucifixion include creating balance and harmony within the self and the community through sacrifice. Some people, such as my activist friends, for instance, have the courage to experience great personal sacrifice for the community. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> An extremely important concept relating to this sphere of balance and sacrifice is the concept of the higher self, an aspect of the self in touch with the principle of cosmic harmony and divinity. This higher aspect of the self, open to powerful forces, sometimes inexplicably knows things in a way that transcends the five senses. This connection, commonly known as intuition, is often associated with a guardian angel or “daimon" and is one basis of faith. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Only through the expansion of the mind, aesthetically, ethically, and spiritually, is the higher self activated. Since this expansion of mind normally takes years, it is extremely unlikely that a child would be able to view the world through the eyes of the higher self. In my opinion, a society’s obsession with youthfulness suggests an ignorance or rejection of the higher self. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjafMcnbMUwfgVt0AhqYqnHbRGtHK-sXDymFmI3D_Cfji6sF7K7bXKFue6KL10qTwn_LzLG8uubBxBgqie5cjKC_Ih1ECgch0Gb96CvFlhMTyLn1mwwCwoiNxMtJ7eDvLHfrMXwBVn_iwQX/s1600/a21.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjafMcnbMUwfgVt0AhqYqnHbRGtHK-sXDymFmI3D_Cfji6sF7K7bXKFue6KL10qTwn_LzLG8uubBxBgqie5cjKC_Ih1ECgch0Gb96CvFlhMTyLn1mwwCwoiNxMtJ7eDvLHfrMXwBVn_iwQX/s1600/a21.JPG" height="571" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">Manzanita near Pounding Stone</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The higher self strives for the highest good, even though this might require great personal sacrifice. Due to the profound vision of harmony, the individual understands that all energy is connected. Through this recognition, the individual develops sympathy for all things and embraces the physical world, with all of its harshness and suffering, instead of rejecting it as evil, turning to the natural world, and the spiritual forces behind it, as to a friend.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_vN5Ofhyphenhyphen1Ii52ETKMSVhsHCLedIdMJ_BUjBwYoC_mYxVwJwgAbuwd1-8Y0foBpYFswSjBtSPZTP7c0Fq3fGB9sdSnZ6nPGPsmEIQpFmQ1ny5vyZuV7YrXfahOhzhVmR4yBPR2yE2Wjzl/s1600/9wands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_vN5Ofhyphenhyphen1Ii52ETKMSVhsHCLedIdMJ_BUjBwYoC_mYxVwJwgAbuwd1-8Y0foBpYFswSjBtSPZTP7c0Fq3fGB9sdSnZ6nPGPsmEIQpFmQ1ny5vyZuV7YrXfahOhzhVmR4yBPR2yE2Wjzl/s1600/9wands.jpg" height="400" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/9wands.htm">Nine of Wands</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Each sphere on the Tree reflects the primary forces within both the cosmos and the individual, and each force contains extremes at each end of a pole of many degrees. As a sphere of equilibrium and the higher self, the Christ center on the Tree helps place the extremes of all the forces into perspective. Without the perspective of the higher self, in other words, an activist, like anyone else, can get out of balance, becoming merely combative, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">biased, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">or egotistical. Through the perspective of the higher self, an activist can move by degree to a state of harmony and an understanding of balance, remaining focused on the highest good for the self and the community.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> An activist might not realize that he or she is motivated by the higher self, but from an esoteric spiritual perspective a selfless striving for justice, equality and balance, despite the personal sacrifice involved, is one indication. The Sun in esoteric symbolism is associated with the higher self, and the Moon, which reflects the light of the Sun, reveals how that light over time changes in the lower personality. Few people can stay fully in the light all of the time. Once the personality has expanded to a certain degree, however, the desire for the Beauty of the Christ force--in aesthetics, ethics, and spirituality--persists.</span><br />
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<br />Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-22670171878284226352014-10-14T09:31:00.000-07:002014-10-31T13:41:58.481-07:00THE LIVING TAPESTRY OF MEMORY<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLOftD0ZdXraXuBrQPw7tH5Lqn06o1HAz_6NjRuUjwpVYmRSxE8sxNbs1t1n2ZE6QpLv_d9UY6AyT5BpC3nz3MyhUsbPblxNCgD5PYnCe_oT9bL9UnYDXO8rCY1ZThr68WsaCRM4-BPOk/s1600/bgpst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLOftD0ZdXraXuBrQPw7tH5Lqn06o1HAz_6NjRuUjwpVYmRSxE8sxNbs1t1n2ZE6QpLv_d9UY6AyT5BpC3nz3MyhUsbPblxNCgD5PYnCe_oT9bL9UnYDXO8rCY1ZThr68WsaCRM4-BPOk/s1600/bgpst.jpg" height="640" width="523" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Grass Growing from Pounding Stone:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium; text-align: start;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm"> San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">A RESPONSE TO THE TEMPERANCE FLAT DAM</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Many years ago I heard a version of a legend about how one of the bluffs overlooking the San Joaquin River got the name “Squaw Leap." In this version a squaw during a skirmish pulled a Spanish conquistador over the edge of the cliff. I didn’t think much of the story then, but one meaning of the story has stuck with me over the years: Some people will, without hesitation, give their life to protect a place and a community. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Over the years I have come to understand the natural, cultural and spiritual “significance of place” at “Squaw Leap” and other areas in the foothills. I know where to find different species of flowers and birds every year. I know where to find many of the ancient Native American village sites. And I have experienced profound spiritual revelations in the river gorge and elsewhere in the mountains. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZMBdhEKMd2fh-3WX3IKKJ8E17gFy2kTrlvx4HlvB-lETrmbBM-2Wbi7u5JDeCqy-WoeHeRpSI_Hqn7TZJDYjV_uUE_0wROgdl_UE3C3LV8AB8_ImqZGgHHg4tj2pokElFzCUiIeNYs07/s1600/feb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZMBdhEKMd2fh-3WX3IKKJ8E17gFy2kTrlvx4HlvB-lETrmbBM-2Wbi7u5JDeCqy-WoeHeRpSI_Hqn7TZJDYjV_uUE_0wROgdl_UE3C3LV8AB8_ImqZGgHHg4tj2pokElFzCUiIeNYs07/s1600/feb.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/seeds.htm"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fiddleneck and Popcorn: </span></a><br />
<a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/seeds.htm"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> For instance, almost every year in early spring near the parking lot of the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area, popcorn and fiddleneck flowers bloom profusely. In some years baby blue eyes blanket such a large area that you might think the sky has fallen to the ground. As you progress along the trail you find red maids and purple vetch and poppies and soon are overpowered by the cloying fragrance of deer brush. Next to a small stream that runs across the trail, shooting stars bloom. Storks beak and fennel grace the edge of the trail. Then you find spot rugs of baby blue eyes and goldfields, each stretch of trail providing a different array of flowers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> When I was a younger man, one day as I hiked down to the river all stress disappeared and my senses opened. I noticed flower after flower, each with its own stunning color and design. Feeling adventurous, I decided to stray just a little from the trail to explore the creek and discovered a pounding stone with one mortar. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mKT3SZ5saGoPi153evfWi5IJ8pq9SrB5-7ggDfzA_neOoeqnV-B6RyuPVWiviBuIF4T7gXcdVXG9Jo7ihh2RbkgpJ4H4NdZWNtoYoh4gbhYqvLAh4GgMa2Ik35xhdITf_QAzVMQQnqLn/s1600/aprilsquawleap+159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mKT3SZ5saGoPi153evfWi5IJ8pq9SrB5-7ggDfzA_neOoeqnV-B6RyuPVWiviBuIF4T7gXcdVXG9Jo7ihh2RbkgpJ4H4NdZWNtoYoh4gbhYqvLAh4GgMa2Ik35xhdITf_QAzVMQQnqLn/s1600/aprilsquawleap+159.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/sight1.htm">Pounding Stone next to River: </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/sight1.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> The place took on a completely new significance for me. I realized that another culture had dwelt there for thousands of years, perhaps sixteen thousand years or more. Our own culture, in contrast, has only settled the area in the past century and a half. In most of the mountains and valleys, a few trails and pounding stones are all that is left of once great cultures that spanned across the the entire continent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> What we did to those cultures was unspeakable, and what we continue to do to what they left behind and to the natural world that was once their home is also unspeakable. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have returned many times to the river gorge. If you have only been there once or twice, you cannot possibly have a true perspective of the place. You have not seen how the living tapestry has changed from one year to another. You do not know the different arrays of flowers that grow there given the varying weather conditions. You do not have, in relationship to this place, the living, changing tapestry of memory that is the basis for so much meaning in our lives.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzE6O4f4fIRwMYqJZ7K64w5kIZ0eJJHMP0F2vb65Ovb9bOa66QyKYYAJt1-yzVnB6ZyGlfNGt748DY8677bfZ-udrClsE5fyTs3OakJ8abUbvX_ZhH9uaEQHe2XfwwJ9U9pwrqpymFWA0/s1600/gorg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzE6O4f4fIRwMYqJZ7K64w5kIZ0eJJHMP0F2vb65Ovb9bOa66QyKYYAJt1-yzVnB6ZyGlfNGt748DY8677bfZ-udrClsE5fyTs3OakJ8abUbvX_ZhH9uaEQHe2XfwwJ9U9pwrqpymFWA0/s1600/gorg.jpg" height="302" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/daimon.htm">Lupine Bushes: </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/daimon.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Once, when I was hiking down to the river, I passed a lupine bush with numerous buds. That day at sunset when I returned back up the trail, I noticed that one of the buds had bloomed--perhaps the first bloom of spring in the gorge. The next year that I returned I searched for the lupine bush and discovered that its gray limbs were strewn upon the steep slope. The other lupine bushes and the goldfields that had jeweled the slope the previous year were blooming again in the sandy soil, but there was also much more miniature lupine and owl’s clover. I risk stating the obvious when I say that these little things weave together to form the living tapestry of memory.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> A little farther down the path, just south of the second gate, over the past twenty-five years or so I have occasionally encountered a pale yellow flower that I have never seen anywhere else in the foothills (and I have seen much of the foothills). It only blooms when the conditions are right. I have never found it in wildflower books, so I don’t know its name. It’s possible that the home of one of the last specimens of an entire species is right next to a path that will be buried underwater by the dam.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMBvEaa97UtVrS6PXRmp0mVvHqPNVQaZ9zNFtcEdOgc97d5ueDcfwGleSr0pVnEEAFV4sKX1ciV7tgq9ayVgXDimRG3QiF1ycSySp4M2VdvfrW80cgfPwi6AT58z-NMMkjammtdYLl44tj/s1600/popcrn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMBvEaa97UtVrS6PXRmp0mVvHqPNVQaZ9zNFtcEdOgc97d5ueDcfwGleSr0pVnEEAFV4sKX1ciV7tgq9ayVgXDimRG3QiF1ycSySp4M2VdvfrW80cgfPwi6AT58z-NMMkjammtdYLl44tj/s1600/popcrn.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/bugs.htm">Popcorn Flowers below Bluff:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/bugs.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> On that path I had what the Qabalists call the “Vision of Harmony.” I saw each life form, in the river gorge and the cosmos, as a field of energy within fields upon fields of living energy all harmoniously interwoven. But I cannot dwell on what kinds of spiritual experiences I have had or how or I have recovered from personal losses in the river gorge. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I know from experience that the jargon of an environmental impact statement often hides what is truly happening. This process is all about legality--essentially about what makes the destruction of this river gorge legal. However, what is legal and what is moral are two very different things indeed in this case.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> You cannot rip apart a magnificent tapestry thread by thread and hope to put it back together again. The habitat of the San Joaquin River Gorge is a majestic, sprawling tapestry in all its dazzling complexity and fragility. All the species, so interwoven and interdependent, have adapted to their own unique location and to each other over time immemorial. When you destroy an entire habitat individual “mitigation measures” become merely a piecemeal attempt to salvage the most threatened species. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQooN4W1f297MYyKZ7X8ki3ecidJj1ZntLuDz00EuF3aDMFYlpeDey35ZtYYQqsBzLxXbi-PkqmHxauOYHJ6OYa6Co0qr-epNwRePhBYxsUNmcL9qZJMCUa1F0lrUkxHuUTYz-2JASTTh/s1600/gold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQooN4W1f297MYyKZ7X8ki3ecidJj1ZntLuDz00EuF3aDMFYlpeDey35ZtYYQqsBzLxXbi-PkqmHxauOYHJ6OYa6Co0qr-epNwRePhBYxsUNmcL9qZJMCUa1F0lrUkxHuUTYz-2JASTTh/s1600/gold.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">Goldfields near Dead Lupine:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> Moreover, a habitat does not just consist of rare, threatened, or endangered species but of many interrelated species, all of which are significant. The loss of individual members of a “thriving" species due to habitat loss means a loss to the overall species as a whole, moving it closer to the “threatened" classification. Destruction of the entire habitat means dissolving the web of species that have adapted to each other within uniquely specific conditions that cannot be recreated anywhere else. You cannot hope to recreate the habitat ever again if you bury it under water--no part of the personal, cultural or biological significance of the habitat can truly be recovered or replaced. Mitigation measures become a pathetic attempt to save a few of the most fragile threads, not the whole tapestry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Once the water from the dam at Temperance Flat drowns the habitat, the threads of life that once tied the place together will be gone forever. The roots will die, the rocks and soil remaining unstable. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGrlKY1W0-NC84NLFJBfylAGG-MCHS6nwhe2c977-UMdtXpghEMrCZpeLbsy7KbkvtPiV-4ARUocWnNkFQYw687IKkFhOX2Tttvuvmkkw16_hRZ6tTIUQkwwRpw12V0KnHRKifwdd82ek/s1600/hydro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGrlKY1W0-NC84NLFJBfylAGG-MCHS6nwhe2c977-UMdtXpghEMrCZpeLbsy7KbkvtPiV-4ARUocWnNkFQYw687IKkFhOX2Tttvuvmkkw16_hRZ6tTIUQkwwRpw12V0KnHRKifwdd82ek/s1600/hydro.jpg" height="505" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/part1.htm">Pounding Stone near Hydro Project in Inundation Zone of Millerton Lake: </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/part1.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The dam will not only destroy an entire habitat. The water from the dam will bury the homeland of a Native American tribe under hundreds of feet of water, the last stage in a long, horrendous process of genocide. You cannot realistically mitigate the destruction of a Native American site, each of which is unique, each with its own cultural, historical and spiritual significance. You cannot move the pounding stones and house pits and burial sites and trails to some other place. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Despite all the discussion of mitigation in the environmental impact statement, adequate mitigation for ecocide or for the last stages of genocide is impossible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> Every stretch of trail in the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area contains personal significance to the people who have hiked or biked the trail with friends or relatives or alone. You cannot tear apart the living tapestry of memory within an individual or a community and hope to piece it back together. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cIgkiGvEvOoJBHp7ZEB4VFX14z6t7fLEE0UY3UsPPQdTCzLUdo3ivFWoOEVJELC1hElX-oiEZiRJOWIM95iB_iRqxsFPus-imI1ko9WP9wOWScf28VCyNif3LQWeLUceBuAG48ca-Obt/s1600/blutrl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cIgkiGvEvOoJBHp7ZEB4VFX14z6t7fLEE0UY3UsPPQdTCzLUdo3ivFWoOEVJELC1hElX-oiEZiRJOWIM95iB_iRqxsFPus-imI1ko9WP9wOWScf28VCyNif3LQWeLUceBuAG48ca-Obt/s1600/blutrl.jpg" height="400" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/cqueen.htm">Baby Blue Eyes next to Trail: </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/cqueen.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> If the dam is approved, the public will pay more than a billion dollars (perhaps billions) for the destruction of this habitat and former Native American homeland. The public will pay to destroy the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area. In other words, taxpayers will foot the bill for the destruction of its own land, essentially for private interests, such as the farmers on the east side of the valley.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Claiming that water for salmon is a public benefit, after Friant Dam destroyed the original run, is an insult to the intelligence. The greatest public benefit would consist of spending the billions for water conservation measures, which have already proven to be far more cost effective, far more efficient and far less damaging to the environment. Government agencies should already know about these conservation measures. If not, just a few minutes on the internet can be very enlightening.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> As a final insult, the burden of ensuring that mitigation measures are effective ultimately falls on the public. Too often, government agencies make a poor attempt to implement or “bird-dog” the implementation of mitigation measures. To continue with the analogy, the public is left with the task of ensuring that a few threads of a huge tapestry are woven back together in a way that resembles the original.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT-POi1bDM9TIMCAnePnSuZ_jHrNOY2DfSR_C3blW_365UybMufUBBu6CffsBYHZaTusbnBurKYYX-w_9S9QDS_whVD0SlhJFzPtdI_pymTtbQ6t4fzy1vyqTb2AemBBWY9nLOaf5TpPVX/s1600/aprilsquawleap+179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT-POi1bDM9TIMCAnePnSuZ_jHrNOY2DfSR_C3blW_365UybMufUBBu6CffsBYHZaTusbnBurKYYX-w_9S9QDS_whVD0SlhJFzPtdI_pymTtbQ6t4fzy1vyqTb2AemBBWY9nLOaf5TpPVX/s1600/aprilsquawleap+179.JPG" height="477" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/chp1.htm">Pounding Stone near Suspension Bridge: </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/chp1.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Regarding the loss of the San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area, the only adequate mitigation would consist of replacing these public lands with habitat of equal size and natural values. Without this one-to-one mitigation the public ends up a pathetic, hoodwinked loser, paying for ecocide and the destruction of its own lands and participating in the last stages of genocide, essentially for the benefit of private interests. A dam at Temperance Flat would remain an unconscionable violation of the public trust in the broadest sense. </span><br />
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-13648951310118023592014-09-03T09:48:00.002-07:002015-02-13T10:36:07.335-08:00A RIDDLE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBGMzOLM8_LTjVagCHm1adeoToJJbHaagNRHKfWxUiQslmw2S7YINCRgSYkLYF1H3lp0mVjSZlbRXVjpRNr8U49yX-4Zr-fdgKaV3wVdbxGrp-ZMooPJmQIm2lIttqhcFz7iUkdp0c9XP/s1600/antrail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBGMzOLM8_LTjVagCHm1adeoToJJbHaagNRHKfWxUiQslmw2S7YINCRgSYkLYF1H3lp0mVjSZlbRXVjpRNr8U49yX-4Zr-fdgKaV3wVdbxGrp-ZMooPJmQIm2lIttqhcFz7iUkdp0c9XP/s1600/antrail.jpg" height="477" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">Trail near Pounding Stone, San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/seeds.htm">ANOTHER DAM RIDDLE</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Voters could soon give the government the right to “take” property from a land owner and destroy it without either paying for it or providing the owner with comparable property as mitigation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Hard to believe, but the legislation requires the land owner to pay for the destruction of her own property--while a few people who control certain “rights” benefit from a valuable commodity found on her land.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The property contains Native American cultural resources, including pounding stones and sacred burial sites supposedly protected by law. The property contains environmental resources, including twenty-four rare, threatened, or endangered species, also supposedly protected by law, as well as a stunning river ecosystem. All of this could be lost if voters pass this legislation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Have you guessed who the property owner is?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzdjb27cp71ENB-m9rkLU3-nbYBw3UcgO_AxMtqPAwbJQcfvD3hO1PATIwgN9wBAukA5mNYUWstLaBRl24Wtfepd_hNAVqWTRGytr1kNy2LHx3xuyI13DoaUgMKa0VVmfcvlPHLUc5nYl/s1600/bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzdjb27cp71ENB-m9rkLU3-nbYBw3UcgO_AxMtqPAwbJQcfvD3hO1PATIwgN9wBAukA5mNYUWstLaBRl24Wtfepd_hNAVqWTRGytr1kNy2LHx3xuyI13DoaUgMKa0VVmfcvlPHLUc5nYl/s1600/bridge.jpg" height="477" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> This land is your land! If Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond, passes, Temperance Flat Dam might be built and a public recreation area, the <a href="http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bakersfield/Programs/Recreation_opportunities/SJRG_SRMA.html">San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area</a>, might be buried under hundreds of feet of water.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Let me be perfectly clear: The public could vote to destroy its own property for the private gain of vested interests who control the water rights. The supposed public benefit, with a price tag of $1.25 billion: Water for salmon! Dams have helped salmon so much, haven’t they? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> (Imagine what kind of uproar would ensue if the government took away a farmer's property and turned it into a public park....)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The hydraulic brotherhood, a cabal of farmers, lobbyists, and politicians, is hoping that the drought has scared the public into voting against its own interests. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Socialism for salmon? What’s next, welfare for delta smelt? Who or what will be sponging off of taxpayers next? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> According to <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dobegi/the_era_of_big_dams_is_still_o.html">Doug Obegi of the NRDC</a>, “</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">the federal feasibility study for Temperance Flat estimates that this project would cost nearly $2.5
billion and would yield only 61,000 to 76,000 acre feet of water per
year. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">" Obegi goes on to say that, "</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In contrast, the state has estimated that $1.4 billion in water bond funding for integrated regional water
management (IRWM) projects like water efficiency, water recycling, and
groundwater cleanup over the past decade leveraged $3.7 billion in local
funding and has helped save or create nearly 2 million acre feet per
year. Big new dams simply can’t compete economically with these
regional and local water supply projects."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> <a href="http://blog.sfgate.com/gleick/2010/01/21/where-to-find-one-million-acre-feet-of-water-for-california-an-advance-peek-at-a-new-assessment/">Peter Gleik</a> also points out that “400,000 acre-feet of water per year can be quickly conserved by urban users by replacing only some of the many remaining inefficient toilets, showerheads, commercial spray-rinse nozzles, and washing machines. These savings would require an investment of under $2 billion.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> That’s not even half of what we could save through conservation measures. According to Gleik, “Another 600,000 acre-feet per year of water can be saved by applying smart irrigation scheduling to 30% of the state’s vegetable and 20% of the orchard acreage, practicing regulated deficit irrigation on 20% of current almond and pistachio acreage in the Sacramento Valley, and converting 20% of Central Valley vegetables and 10% of orchards and vineyards to drip and sprinklers. These changes would save water at a cost of around $100 per acre-foot.”</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Why so much effort over the past decade to build Temperance Flat Dam even though conservation measures could save a lot more water for a lot less money? The farmers with the water rights in this region cannot as easily get a hold of this other water.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>The Fresno Bee</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> has admitted that “much of the new water” created by a dam at Temperance Flat “is already spoken for.” In fact, the government has already allocated water rights for five times the amount of water that exists in the state, according to the </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><u>Bee</u></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> and <a href="http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10999">others</a>.</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> What chance does the public have to benefit in any significant way if so much water is already “spoken for” in this bizarre system of water rights? </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">Baby Blue Eyes, Popcorn and Fiddleneck, San Joaquin River Gorge</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Some believe that building the dam might create a kind of “trickle-down effect.” The farmers, in other words, would receive more water, keep people employed and prices down. This is a kind of perverted socialism for those who own the land and means of production, a “socialism for the wealthy.” If the dam is built, taxpayers would once again hand over public resources, including money and land and water, to the rich, revealing again the attitude that some businesses are too big to fail. The price of the dam would be another subsidy that supports unsustainable, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/thats-nuts-almond-boom-strains-california-water-supply-n130586">water-intensive crops such as almonds</a>. Of course, with this subsidy farmers could continue to provide those cushy menial jobs that so many people covet! Without this subsidy, the public might refuse to pay for their expensive crops, forcing farmers to implement water conservation measures and grow crops more suited to the region. This is capitalism, after all. Isn't it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The NRDC also points out that the dam will create very expensive water: "</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">the water coming out of Temperance Flat would cost more than $1,500 per
acre foot....Even with massive taxpayer subsidies, the Bureau
of Reclamation estimates that water would cost more than $200 per acre
foot for agricultural contractors (far more than these districts pay
today, especially since the project would eliminate much of the cheap
$10 per acre foot water that is provided in wet years)." As so many continue to point out, the cost of water produced by new dams would be </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">far more than the cost of water generated from water recycling, storm water capture, groundwater storage, or water conservation projects.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> People are hurting. Those in favor of the dam point to the bread lines forming in the Valley, without mentioning how our economic system continues to marginalize workers, especially farm laborers. I feel great sympathy for the farmworker during a drought. Why don’t we create an effective safety net for the farmworker as well as the farmer?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> Remember the 1,400 dams and all the subsidies that we have already provided for the farmers? Remember that farmers use about 75 percent of the water in California?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The Valley is a semi-arid region, practically a desert, and we have suffered through many a drought without our civilization collapsing. The people who came before us somehow managed both to survive <i>and</i> preserve public land. Were they better at spotting corruption or simply more courageous? </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">According to the NRDC, “Importantly, the water bond does not earmark funding for Temperance Flat or any other surface storage project.” However, if the bond passes, this storage project will be eligible for development and, due to the feasibility study and draft environmental impact statement already completed, one of the first on the list to be approved. Given the numerous efforts by the hydraulic brotherhood over the past decade to build this dam, which I have witnessed, I suspect that they will use all of their influence to get the dam approved. The danger? If the dam is approved, only a handful of already over-extended activists will make any effort to stop it, especially since the San Joaquin River Gorge is not widely known.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> So let's review. A "yes" vote on the $7.5 billion water bond could mean that you agree that taxpayers should subsidize agri-business interests again with billions of dollars. And you agree that we should destroy public land for the benefit of private interests. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And you agree that we should spend more money for far less water than we can conserve. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And you agree to allow our legislators, and the vested interests they represent, to trample our laws regarding endangered species and Native American burial sites. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> You might not have ever visited Yosemite, but would you want to bury that gem of public land underwater, mainly for the benefit of a few private interests? You might not have ever visited the San Joaquin River Gorge, but like Yosemite, this majestic public park still belongs to you. In this case, your vote actually matters! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Our economy has survived every drought before now, and it will weather this one. We have time--time for the politicians who supposedly represent us to address our water woes in a way that truly benefits the public, not the top few percent.</span><br />
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726857790900427855.post-43410763428625950582014-08-03T15:31:00.001-07:002014-10-24T08:57:47.016-07:00RETURNING TO THE MEADOW<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY13zjSYj-yt_dEo5jTqDdj9fyrBgFPFgsJHF8TetwTaexrV-9GKMo3q4sIanMOEmQvD7ImU_2iVxnqzSL6mtnxvjkfF3CmW5WLsmQurHpZ1wZjEF6JpqNveKNHhDapL-P5JjuNEwbRLb7/s1600/tiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY13zjSYj-yt_dEo5jTqDdj9fyrBgFPFgsJHF8TetwTaexrV-9GKMo3q4sIanMOEmQvD7ImU_2iVxnqzSL6mtnxvjkfF3CmW5WLsmQurHpZ1wZjEF6JpqNveKNHhDapL-P5JjuNEwbRLb7/s1600/tiger.jpg" height="565" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/pg1.htm">Tiger Lilies, Arrow Leaf Tansy, Angelica, Columbine</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.pathsandroots.blogspot.com/">RETURNING TO THE MEADOW</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> When I was in college, one of my bar mates was an aspiring writer. Over french fries and libations, we would discuss weighty literary and philosophical topics. At one point, after a few beers, she blurted out, “You have to leave the meadow!” She sighed and chortled, believing that she had made another profound statement. I have to admit that I was impressed by the sentiment, having already imbibed a few, and I enthusiastically agreed. Having already lived in three different apartments in the El Dorado District, the most poverty stricken neighborhood in California, dubbed “Sin City” in the sixties, I had grown accustomed to the grittier side of life, the drugs, the criminality, the tawdriness. At the time, I believed she was implying that people cannot hope to understand art or literature without first questioning superficial middle-class values and losing their “innocence.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Now I realize that she might have also been poking fun at the sixties. I have to admit, however, that I have always secretly wanted to “get back to the garden.” Having experienced more than enough chaos, corruption, pollution, needless suffering, destruction and waste, I understand the universal longing to return to Eden. Born at the tail end of the baby boom generation, I have always been fascinated by sixties’ counter culture movements. I have since understood that returning to paradise is not simply a matter of taking the right drug, joining the right political party, finding the right yoga position, or sitting at the feet of the right holy man. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Columbine</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I have always believed that you must become as a little child to regain paradise, possibly due to my Christian upbringing. I now understand that this is true in a very limited sense but also very misleading. We long to return to a time before we had to repress emotions to survive. But in childhood we have not had time to develop our minds and learn to harmonize instincts and emotions. There is more than a little suggestion that “returning to paradise” means giving free-reign to all instincts and emotions, no matter how selfish or destructive. It is easy to see why many efforts to “get back to the garden” have failed, and why so many individuals in the counter culture in the sixties have become libertarians.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> A return to paradise can be made only if one expands consciousness through exaltation and mental development. In a life-long process of expanding and disciplining the mind, sincere efforts must be made to balance the emotions and to comprehend spiritual principles. Returning to the meadow is a return to the state of being known as Tiphareth, the Christ center, on the Tree of Life. Through an expansion of consciousness, one achieves an understanding of the spiritual principles behind natural forces and develops compassion for all things. The Vision of Harmony leads to an understanding of the need to strive for the highest possible good as a way to harmonize the aspects of the self, the community and the society as a whole.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Analyzing the symbolism of the Sphere of Tiphareth, Dion Fortune states in the Mystical Qabalah, “The Order of Angels of Tiphareth are the Malichim, or Kings. These are the spiritual principles of natural forces and no one can control, or even safely make contact with elemental principles unless he holds the initiation of Tiphareth....For he must have been accepted by the Elemental Kings, that is to say, he must have realized the ultimate spiritual nature of natural forces before he can handle them in their elemental form. In their subjective elemental form, they appear in the microcosm as powerful instincts of combat, of reproduction, of self-abasement, of self-aggrandizement, and all those emotional factors known to the psychologist. It is obvious, therefore, that if we stir and stimulate these emotions in our natures it must be that we use them as servants of the higher self, directed by reason and spiritual principle” (193).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpL1WRITHuorx1jbi9WKw9kD2HoRSny7koDP0NGJ0X6kDryzkDvduZTOEqClyBi8hAbdzs0Ipjmsf62PcobficuRsNMLWcilytQKfGz098LLg8GOINUWXLLjD7BhrZPk6_d6-D6AKY_msg/s1600/colum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpL1WRITHuorx1jbi9WKw9kD2HoRSny7koDP0NGJ0X6kDryzkDvduZTOEqClyBi8hAbdzs0Ipjmsf62PcobficuRsNMLWcilytQKfGz098LLg8GOINUWXLLjD7BhrZPk6_d6-D6AKY_msg/s1600/colum.jpg" height="280" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Columbine, Tansy, Angelica, Tiger Lily</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Regaining paradise, in other words, includes the understanding that if we “stir the emotions,” we must learn to channel them productively through reason and spiritual principle. Otherwise we might as well just continue to rely on the old tried and true methods of stifling emotion as a way to maintain social order. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> According to Fortune, we must “give ourselves wholeheartedly to the corporate life” (157); in other words, we must accept that we are members of communities, instead of merely rebelling against any type of order that stifles the instincts and emotions. The powerful instincts of combat, reproduction, and self-aggrandizement will lift their heads even above Tiphareth, like the many-headed dragon in the glyph of the Garden of Eden after the Fall, if the higher self does not bring them into harmony.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> We cannot escape the polarity of emotions and instincts, each of which has a positive and negative side. For instance, the powerful instinct of combat can lead to cruelty and destructiveness or to great courage and energy, to injustice or to justice. The instinct of reproduction can lead to lack of chastity and lust or to unselfishness and the production of beautiful works. The higher self harmonizes and channels instincts and emotions for the highest good, but this takes concentration, inspiration, willpower and experience. “Stirring and stimulating” the emotions can lead to lack of balance, resulting in what others perceive as mistakes in one’s personal life, while one is learning what it means to open the heart and use emotions wisely and productively. Learning to live in the higher self and regaining paradise is the “great work” of a lifetime, but in the process we understand the Power and the Glory, the Victory and the Splendor and ultimately the Beauty of the Tree of Life and the natural forces within us and the cosmos.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Camas and Shooting Stars</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>NOTE:</b> If you are wondering what has happened to the other essays that I’ve written for this blog over the past year, I have collected the ones I like and put them in what I consider the most effective order after eliminating mistakes and redundancy. If you wish to experience these superior versions, click on this link: <a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/range.htm">Exploring the Experimental Range.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>PLEASE ALSO NOTE:</b> Inspired by the topic of “returning to the meadow,” I have written a modest story (with illustrations) for a harp and piano concerto in four movements. If you wish to experience the story, music, and illustrations, click on this link: <a href="http://pathsandthrones.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/htm/meadow.htm">The Last Meadow.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All of my revised work can be accessed at this site: <a href="http://www.pathsandthrones.blogspot.com/">PATHS AND THRONES.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All text, music and illustrations Copyright 2014, by Jim Robbins.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Tarot cards by Pamela Coleman Smith (in public domain).</span><br />
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Jim Robbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950824062249227531noreply@blogger.com0