Yeah, that’s right, I said, "Take a hike!" No, wait, don’t go!!! I don’t mean it that way. I mean, seriously, Take a Hike! Aw, c’mon when’s the last time you got out and enjoyed the Great Outdoors??? Me? I get kinda stir crazy if I go too long with out a trip to the mountains somewhere, but I’m getting ahead of myself...yeah, gotta get all the perfunctory Rules and Disclaimers yadda yadda yadda out of the way first:
WELCOME TO MOJO FRIDAY!! - Reahti’s Not-So-But-Kinda-Semi-Official Substitute Edition (TexDem asked me to fill-in, honest!)
If you remember last week’s Mojo Friday, our host with the most—the charming, the handsome, the old geezer (oops did that slip out?)...um, I mean, the distinguished and beloved TexDem (heh!) told us about some heart troubles he’s been having—a lot of us think it’s just because he’s got such a big and generous heart workin’ overtime (and gettin’ a little help from the MF ladies, no doubt!), but the Docs say it’s somethin’ called A-Fib , so they’ve got him on meds and such and...oh, this is a really long damn way of sayin’ TD’s got a Doctor’s appointment this morning and he asked me to fill in. So, I guess that means I’m more or less in charge, even if I am still kind of a newbie, so you kidz better behave (which in this place, means misbehave, but play nice! I don’t want anyone goin’ and givin’ the big guy any more heart troubles!). Ahem, so without further ado...here are the obligatory ground rules (yeah, I’m getting them out of the way first because I know you all play first and THEN come back and read the diary):
Mojo Friday Guidelines
- If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to recieve mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
- Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
- You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
- You don't have to comment to recommend.
- You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen)
- Please, no pictures or YouTubes until after 300 comments
- Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo
Mojo Friday Goals
A. at least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
D. At least 200 diary recommends. 300 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun. (I said FUN dammit!)
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Show by goffnews. And don’t forget to give Goff some love too! Let’s see if we can get the Postgame Show on the Rec List this week!!
G. (New) Have at least 30 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips from MKinTN).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 100 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it. But as Empress of Mojo Friday this week, I may certainly choose to ignore it! </ Reahti>)
So, now, let’s get on those hiking boots and take a stroll with me on some of my favorite hikes – starting with just a few days ago in the Shenandoah National Park. I met up with some folks from the Sierra Club and the Appalachian Mountain Club for a dinner and a sunset hike on one of the many trails in the Shenandoah National Forest (no, I don’t remember which one and I’m too lazy to look it up!). It was great to get out of the city (I live inside THE Beltway), the temps were roughly 12 degrees cooler, and we had a great group of folks. On the hike we saw deer (too tame from feeding stupid tourists!), an owl, bear scat (tho no bears), and an endangered Peregrine Falcon (beautiful bird). It was a rather hazy day, but here are a couple of decent shots:
Hopping across the pond--the Atlantic Ocean, that is--another great hike was one I did with my family in May in the Orkney Isles. While these were really more like romps through farmland, we covered quite a bit of ground (one was around 12 miles) and were treated to some spectacular views—cliffs, all kinds of sea birds, and on this particular hike, lots of bunnies! That trip was such a great change of pace too and can I say I have never seen nicer or more plentiful public restrooms in my life?!?! Let me just say that in this part of Scotland, at least, they know how to take care of their natural resources—in contrast to the U.S., but more on that in a minute. Oh, right, pictures:
Another family trip a few years ago involved a 4th of July hike on Mt. Rainier, which my mom certainly will never forget because we had to cross over this one snow-covered ledge that terrified her (and my brother too b/c he’s afraid of heights), but we all survived and had a wonderful day. Temp at the top of the hike was around 40 degrees (on the 4th of July!!!) and we were lovin’ every minute of it. I had to dig around a bit to find these, but here are couple of shots from that trip.
(look carefully!)
So, yeah, I LOVE the outdoors. Now, I’m probably not the best environmentalist (though I try to do my part), but these wild, natural spaces, particularly the mountains mean a LOT to be. Although the first National Park (Yellowstone) was established by an Act of Congress in 1872, it wasn't until President Teddy Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act in 1908 that significant amounts of public land (240 million acres!) were set aside for protection. President Woodrow Wilson helped establish the National Park Service in 1916 under a newly created Department of Interior.
The National Park Service now oversees 390 protected areas across the country (and including U.S. Territories), covering —from the Everglades in Florida to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park that includes parts of Tennessee and North Carolina (the first National Park I remember visiting) to the Grand Canyon, to Yosemite in California—and that’s just naming a few of the more well known. These parks truly are a national treasure, which is why, among all the other things that piss me off about the Bush Misadministration, my blood boils when I think of how they have been neglected over the past 8 years. To be fair, the neglect started before that, but under Bush, the National Park Service has been even more woefully underfunded and the parks opened up for exploitation in new ways. Here’s just a snippet from the Sierra Club:
Despite their far reaching benefits to the economy through tourism and recreation, today National Parks and Monuments are subject to a host of threats, including: chronic underfunding; noise and air pollution; development pressures; destructive off road vehicle(ORV) use; and oil and gas drilling.
Threats to Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument:
* Secretary of Interior Gale Norton's new interim management policy opens the Monument to off-road vehicle travel on user-created tracks.(destructive new trails)
* Revised grazing policies further compromise already overgrazed pronghorn and desert tortoise habitat.
* More than 950,000 acres of potential Wilderness in Grand Canyon-Parsashant and Vermilion Cliffs are now deprived of protection under a Bush moratorium on Wilderness designation.
Threats facing Great Smoky National Park:
* The park has an annual operating budget shortfall of $11.5 million and needs an additional 108 full-time equivalent employees to supplement the current staff of fewer than 300.
* Pollution from coal-fired power plants and other sources degrades air quality at the park-ozone often reaches levels harmful to humans, animals, and vegetation, and acid deposition affects both the land and water.
* Over the last few decades, average visibility in summer months has shrunk from 77 miles to 15 miles.
* Maintenance backlog is approaching $170 million.
Threats Facing Yellowstone
On February 20, 2003, the Bush Administration announced its proposal to lower standards for the protection of Yellowstone National Park. The decision would allow continued snowmobile use in the Park. The Administration's move to allow continued snowmobiling overturns an earlier decision by the Park Service that sought to phase out the machines all together in order to fulfill its legal responsibility of protecting our country's oldest national park. The only way to safeguard visitor health, wildlife protection and the overall safety of Yellowstone is a gradual phase-out of snowmobiles.
Specific snowmobile threats:
* In the 1990's, the highest carbon monoxide levels measured in the United States were found at the West Yellowstone park entrance. On an average weekend, snowmobiles pour out more pollution in Yellowstone than automobiles emit in the park in an entire year.
* The whine of snowmobiles penetrates up to 10 miles into the wilderness surrounding Yellowstone's winter travel ways making it virtually impossible for the average visitor to escape the roar of these machines.
* The combined noise and pollution also poses a threat to the Park's wildlife.
In addition, the National Parks Conservation Association tells us that the Bush Department of Interior is considering changing current regulations to allow guns in National Parks and that additional regulatory changes at EPA (through the infamous "Clean Air Act") mean that coal-burning power plants may be able to set up shop closer to National Parks, allowing more air pollution in national parks and wilderness areas (including my beloved Shenandoah National Park!).
The good news is that the clock is ticking on the Bush Misadministration, but the bad news is that the clock has been ticking on our National Parks for many years now. Since I hope to have many more hiking days ahead of me, I want to have beautiful places still to hike in and I want my country to invest in and preserve its natural treasures for future generations (and those are just the selfish reasons on top of the inherent environmental importance of these sites and the ecosystems they support). So, why don’t you join me in making a contribution to the National Parks Conservation Association or visiting their website to TAKE ACTION by writing a letter for one of their current advocacy campaigns.
Now, only 171 days til we can finally tell BushCo to TAKE A HIKE!!!
Okay, okay...now, MOJO ON!!!
Pea Ess - I won't have too much time to woman(!!) this ship today because I've got LOTS of work to do (no, really!!!), but I'll still have my eye on all of y'all - so play nice! And yes, that means NO WINE FLINGING!