Yesterday I attended the National Park Service Women Life Guard Tournament. Although I was asked to go with the idea that it would be a nice opportunity for me to spend a day at the beach in Sandy Hook N.J. to enjoy the sun ,the water and watching pretty girls bathing in bikinis, I could not help but pick up my camera and become apart of the action. And action was what all these girls were about.
I just read an article in the March 10th addition of Newsweek Magazine about the late William F. Buckley Jr. I have to be honest and say I did not really know much about this man except that he was the editor and chief and owner/publisher of the National Review and a staunch conservative. In fact at one point in my adolescent life, I thought of him as the embodiment of evil personified as wealthy no neck elitist. Ahhh…. how wrong I was to think that I was so different in my ways of thinking to this man’s. Only in my ignorance. As I read through this article I could not help but kind of admire him. In fact, congruous to mine, this article mentioned many thoughts and positions Buckley promoted in it’s thesis that claims him to be one of if not the key architect of the modern American conservative agenda. Buckley’s route ideals to be that of individualism and a pluralist freedom over the liberal collectivism and it’s dogma that is used to promote discontentment and water down American constitutional freedoms. A battle that I can not avoid as I negotiate the liberal streets of NYC. And I think it’s too bad that I did not pay closer attention to this man’s point of view for armament. Now not without my true form of incredulity, do I think that Buckley was impervious to fault of ignorance and manipulations or that his point of view and influence was too used promote agendas in direct conflict to his own. His life as been that of privilege and fortune however, well spent.
R.I.P. William F. Buckley Jr.
This time at my mother’s, in the Poconos I woke up no later than 8 AM. The day after my arrival we had a premature snow storm delivering about a foot of snow. The following days it melted quickly as the temperatures rose quickly producing a tranquil fog. I took this shot in my pajamas. If got dressed I thought conditions would change and I would miss my shot.
These are the foot prints of a young bobcat that came to visit my mothers garden. We were very fortunate to experience such a sighting. As I stood up in thought of retrieving my camera, our friends sagacity caught my movement through the windows of the glass room causing him to quickly recede into cover.
The sign reads, “TRAIL CLOSED due to big game hunting season.”
The schedule for hunting season varies according to the type of game you are allowed to hunt. This day was one of the three days of the season you are allowed to hunt bear. I think that this sign serves more as a warning to would be hikers rather than a restriction. However, one should always be cautious trekking in the woods alone. Last year in PA there were 46 total reported hunting accidents. 44 were non fatal which leaves 2. Wow, not very many. Of the two fatalities one was self inflicted and the other by someone else. However, there are many things in life that we engage in that are dangerous but in the woods hunters or no hunters, wildlife can be dangerous too.
As a proponent of our second amendment right which I believe was written under the idea that the United States was created from a pluralist ideal, The term “militia,” and “people” clearly refers to the plural form of “a free and individual citizen.” At the time written, there clearly was no debate about it’s interpretation. And as advanced and modern a society we think we are, let’s not be so silly to think that they had no imagination of the possible advancement of the firearm. Now if you try and claim that the term “arms” in it’s definition, does not include an assortment of personal weapons from a dagger to an assault riffle. I hope that you will suffer a life of enslavement because you clearly do not want to except the responsibility that comes with individual freedom. As you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to decline gun ownership. However, being that you resign to exercise your right does not mean that I should have to give up mine. This is why it’s an inalienable right. You see above, I do not have a gun. But more importantly you should see that I am being responsible for my own safety.
Although I do not own a gun because of the laws created by the useful idiots that make up the majority of New York City. A city that probably has stricter gun laws than Soviet Russia, I still was able to hunt and this is what I shot.
Isn’t our country beautiful?