A trip up Grassy Mountain to see a Landmark in Shambles.

I have not been up to the Lookout on Grassy Mountain for some time, but it has always been one of my favorite places. So when the opportunity presented itself this past week, I jumped on it.

We took the backroad up, a road which to my knowledge I have never traveled. The road was very rocky and unforgiven. Honestly it was so ridiculous in places I craved something I rarely do, big tires and a lift kit. Nope I did not get those extra bad places as I was too busy trying to keep metal from scraping :P

We took our time, even getting out in places to walk the road, to see how much farther we had.
Mind you, the road was not horrible, but it was bad enough I was a bit worried about a bent Rocker Panel or drive line.
We climbed, crawled and spun as we churned up the hillside, occasionally getting a glimpse of the wonderful view into the Pintlers, something every person on earth should get a chance to see.

We careened on up the road, finally stopping to call a friend who is six cans short of a six pack and mountain bikes up this ridiculously high road. I needed to see how much farther I was, I suspected not far but I had broken one of my cardinal rules on Gas, always going into the woods on a full tank, yet here I was hovering at the quarter of a tank, which is what I used to get this far :O
He would confirm that we indeed were not far, so we went forward. We were at the last bad spot so the final rocks to crawl over were all that was left to a spectacular view.



The Mountain itself lives up to its name, windswept and grassy. It was logged Barren during the days of the Anaconda Smelter and now suffers from some ridiculously high wind as a result. Since this lookout like most others no longer needed in the US is uncared for, I was a bit surprised to see it partially collapsed. I remember standing inside whne I was younger, able to Imagine what the lookouts saw for months at a time on their station.
It was sad but it is what it is. Like so many of Americas land marks, it has feel by the way side while Government Agencies pick and choose what to care for. |
It is indeed sad, as I would have loved for my Children to have had the same experience I did, to stand inside this, and other magnificent lookout towers and look upon incredible 360 degree panoramic views.

In the end, the person with me got to see what I had been pining about, and while he had previously tried to talk about going up here, he admitted even what was left was pretty damned cool.

We would make it out and back to town to get gas in the event you are wondering. I was really not worried provided I made it back to the highway anyhow. I had ran out of gas in the same area a long, long time ago, and using the doors of the truck as a sail we had.... well that is another story.

Freedom, it is time to talk about what it means, especially in the American sense.

We hear it all the time, over and over again how we are the "Land of the Free" but very few stop and think what that actually means.

It does not mean you are free in the Anarchy sense, it means we are a nation of laws, both for prosecution as well as protection, the later is often forgotten.

Here are the three primary areas of the word freedom, at least in the American sense for the first two, the later for the world.

I guess I shall start out with the first aspect of American Freedom which comes to mind, Free from the Rule of the British.
The founding fathers had lots of Grievances which were listed within the Declaration of Independence, with our casting off the chains of British Rule, we became "Free" from their rule.

Next which comes to mind is Free from Religion. Religion was a big sticking point in our founding fathers who were primarily Agnostic in their views. They strongly disliked being told how to worship, if indeed at all. We also know that at the time of our Revolution the bulk of the people were Atheist. This is actually known from Church records themselves, where Churches kept track of those "Heathens" who needed to be converted.

Last is arguably the most important, a voice of the people in the name of Democracy. As I stated earlier, the Declaration of Independence laid forth grievances against the British rule, having a say in how your government functioned as well as how it treated the people was arguably the crutch of the entire argument against the red coats. This was accomplished by giving the people a chance to vote for Representatives which could of course represent the people of said area in a manner they felt befitting.

There are of course other areas to cover, however all those are listed within your Constitution, which you all should take seriously.
I often see posts about "Well that judge got this wrong, and hands up follow orders" Sorry ,those are not arguing for freedom, they are arguing against it.

Please, please take the time to look into your rights, read your history and most importantly think about those issues of the time, and how they can relate to today.

In the end it comes down to the Golden Rule, "Do unto Others as you would have Done unto You" Being free from false judgment goes a long, long ways to prosperity.

A Call for Socialized Medicine

In order to have a strong society one fundamental right needs to be addressed, and that is our health.
When a society is healthy it is able to pursue other goals, Science flourishes, commerce is strong, and the over all happiness and well being the norm.
I have made it clear that I am not a fan of Obamacare at all.
However the indication that thousands of people on a single day try to sign up for health insurance aught to tell everyone in government that people are tired of being treated like ass in this country.
Our Medical system is broke, broke to a point that I do not know if it can be repaired.
Corruption is rampant, greed the norm, and apathy common.
Yet the ACA does not address this, nor does anyone with the law seem intent on taking this on.
People in America are held hostage by our Medical system and indecision from our politicians.
We deserve to be treated like human beings, Nobody should go bankrupt because an insurance policy found an exemption. Nobody should be forced into bankruptcy because a medical community is charging bloated rates.
Its time for this country to look around and see what other western countries are doing right. Its time to make the absolute best medical system in the world, and to make ours the envy, not the joke which it currently is.
Many cry socialism when reading this, and they would be correct, I indeed am advocating it in this regard.
There are aspects of socialism which are good, we enjoy common roads, water ways and other things which make our life better, so why not, I ask you, why not where it matters he most?