Ski Bum Poet

We all learned about the Bill of Rights in school, the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. Some of the Bill of Rights are more complicated and harder to understand than others, thus easier to forget. But the simplest to remember and apply is our freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.

That said, how can a Vice Presidential Candidate NOT KNOW when her First Amendment rights have been violated!?

No satire or questionable statistics with this post, just facts. And here they are…

ABC News’ Steven Portnoy reports:

In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by “attacks” from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama’s associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate’s free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”

Remember, this isn’t the first time she’s displayed her ignorance of the Constitution on a national stage.

Furthermore, the Constitution guarantees freedom of association.  Thus, by Sarah Palin’s own reasoning, when the media (or Palin herself) criticize Obama for his associations, they’re actually threatening his constitutional rights. Hmmmm….

SO I’ll ask the question again. Do the McCain supporters really feel comfortable with this woman a (72 year old’s) heart beat away from being our President? A ski bum would know better than that!

Since we’re all having so much fun lately here and here, I’m passing on another email I received this morning. I must say, BTW, it’s great to actually get comments on my blog for once! Thank you all!! Hehe.

Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment purposes only. Stop reading now if you’re going to take it personally, or as anything more. Not sure of the author on this one, either…

Dear Red States:

We Blue States have decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all of the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of the Blue States of America.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, Utah and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.

We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single parents.

Please be aware that the Blue States of America will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once.

We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech, Cal, University of Michigan and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent say that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you believe you are people with higher morals then people from the Blue States.

In light of the recent spirited political debate we had, I can’t resist posting this (just had it emailed to me this morning by a friend). BTW, I’m not sure who to credit for this, so if it’s yours let me know and I’ll give you the credit you deserve!

Jeff gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Jeff gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Jeff’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Jeff reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Jeff dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation.

Jeff begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Jeff’s employer pays these standards because Jeff’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.

If Jeff is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Jeff needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Jeff’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Jeff’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Jeff has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Jeff and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Jeff also forgets that in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Jeff is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.

The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Jeff wouldn’t have to.

Jeff gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Jeff enjoys throughout his day.

Jeff agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

Well it was quite the flurry and debate with the last post on SBP, but sadly, it’s time to move on. I do want to thank family and friends for spending so much time expressing their opinions and views. It is such a blessing for all of us to be able to do that freely.

Now on to more important business, powder skiing & AltaCam. It’s just about November, and the 3rd annual Ski Photo Contest is getting started. This year, another sponsor has come on board for the contest. And it’s none other than Alta Ski Lift Co. themselves! Now, in addition to a $100 gift certificate from Backcountry.com, Alta is throwing in something prestigious as well for each winner. Not sure what that’ll be yet, but Connie said it will be cool.

Additionally, all winners will also have their photo and web site link (if they have a site) featured on the homepage of AltaCam.

Reminder, the contest is monthly. But you can submit all your photos at once. The AltaCam guys will pic three finalist each month, and then the ski forum community will have 72 hours to vote in a winner. Contest runs November-April.

Click here for info on how to submit your photos…

Yep, great headline. Since there are still people out there drinking the Palin Kool-Aid, here’s another tidbit of news to reinforce her worthiness…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Mavericks rule!

Read full article Yahoo! news…

Feral defined: Having returned to an untamed state from domestication.

NINE DAYS ROAMING THE UINTAS!!! ..and she was waiting on porch when we returned from a weekend trip to Amalga.

“She has a nice gash on the inside of one of her back legs, and is hobblin’ a bit. But other than that she seems just tired, and hungry. What an amazing sight pulling in the driveway, and seeing her run up to the truck…”

Click Here for more pics and a vid clip of the homecoming… Praise Jah and Saint Anthony of Padua (especially invoked by Catholics for the recovery of things lost) and every other Godly figure we prayed to all last week

“Man, Halloween sucks this year…Don’t you guys think?”

Our beloved Kuvasz, Adah, went missing on Friday morning (10/10/08). And since this is a blog about Utah skiing, and it’s likely there are a lot of Utahns reading it, we’re asking that folks please keep an eye out for her. She wandered off from Timberlakes, in Lake Creek Canyon. And it’s my firm belief that if she’s ok still, she’s looking for us in the rugged canyon, as hard as we’re trying to find her.

If she got herself lost, and not hit by a car, shot by a hunter, or torn up by a Cougar; she’ll either surface in Woodland/Kamas area, or somewhere west of our development in Heber Valley. Thanks, all…for watching out for our lost dog. The flyer below is up around the area…

[Click Photo For Larger Version] and PLEASE CALL 435-785-8067 if you’ve seen her

Ok, so the other day I did a Google search for “SkiBumPoet” and started checking through the SERPs. I’m always curious about who’s linking to my sites, and (aside from some other suggestions in Google’s webmaster resources) this is a good way to find out.

I was amused to say the least that I found one site that tagged SBP as one of “Utah’s Best Blogs“. Ha. Even more amusing, they had me listed under the category of “Politics Blog”. Double Ha! (I didn’t even have a Politics category, until today) But I guess [semi-retired] ski bums and poets can be pundits, too. So does this mean I should post again about politics? Alrighty then

People who know me well, know my thoughts on the Iraq war. It’s no secret that I want it done with. Over. Ended. Period. Should not have ever been there in the first place. However, that said I’m not against a stepped up presence in Afghanistan. I think it’s only sensible to go after the people who actually attacked us in 2001. This whole deal in Iraq has been a complete and utter disaster. And if you don’t think that the war in Iraq has anything to do with our current economic situation, think again. But that’s not the point of this post…

What I thought to share was a Yahoo! news article I just read about how McCain alienated many thousands of scientist around the country during the debate when he stated the following about Obama’s earmark spending:

“[Obama] voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?”

Turns out, a lot of people think we do. This is no ordinary overhead projector from your 5th grade classroom. As the Yahoo! piece points out “Alan Boyle’s Cosmic Log has a great summary of the uproar”. Whoa. Pretty significant blunder on McCain’s part, if you ask me. Further more…the Adler Planetarium issued a statement about that comment from the debate:

“To clarify, the Adler Planetarium requested federal support — which was not funded — to replace the projector in its historic Sky Theater, the first planetarium theater in the Western Hemisphere…. To remain competitive and ensure national security, it is vital that we educate and inspire the next generation of explorers to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.”

Nice work Maverick.

I admit Barack Obama’s policies aren’t perfect or ideal, but they are much less imperfect than “that other one” we have to choose from right now. During the primary season I was ready to write in Ron Paul on election day, but now I plan to support Obama.

Yikes… Glad I never had any money to invest in the Stock Market. My money has always been better spent on avalanche safety gear, ski passes and Volkl Gotamas. Patiently awaiting the pow, and the winter where Ellie get’s to ski with us in her Kelty pack.

Gotta give credit from Ed @ ABestWeb (a community i’m active in for my job) for this image! Not sure where he got it, but I grabbed it from this thread: Dow Dropping Like Crazy