June Exploits in the Mountains

It was a quiet Thursday afternoon when we decided to see how far back into the Blue Mountains we could go. We had been up to where the real road ends in order to place a Geocache or two, but we hadn't gone more than 1/2 mile or so. On Thursday, we left the house at 1400 to find where the road ends.

At 1445 we arrived at our lunch spot by our Geocache "Birdhouse in Your Soul" which sits on a little hill top up in the mountains. Most of the road to it is hard packed dirt and is passable by any regular car. It's bumpy, but nothing more than that. The last 1/2 mile to the cache site is a bit rougher, requiring at least moderate clearance and traction (Subaru Outback? Maybe, if you're REALLY good). The start of the 1/2 mile is relatively steep and has a significant "tire-eater" washout the switches sides, making the "straddle" technique harder to employ. The Commander doesn't even work getting up the hill.

Once on top, we had some sub-sandwiches for lunch and made sure our cache was still intact - it was. The cache itself is a birdhouse that is modified NOT to hold birds, but instead holds a little canister for do-dads, trinkets and log for others to sign. From the look of the cache, the birds were intrigued by the fake house and wanted in! Too bad, there was no vacancy.

Next, we started our trip back into the mountains. The trail varies from relatively wide (Jeep and a half) to narrow (barely a Jeep). As we climbed up through the forest, we startled a black bear wandering on the road. He did a double-take looking at the Jeep and then scampered off into the woods. The trail appeared to have been moderately cleared earlier this year and there were numerous trees cut in half to allow passage down the trail. Early on, we found a few mud-holes to splash in and placed a "protective coating" of mud on the Jeep. The trail went up and down through over the mountain ridges.

The terrain on the trail varied between packed dirt and mud slicks in the lower areas, to knotty root covered trails heading up the hills to sharp, loose rocks near the tops. The inclines and declines exhibited the same terrain variances, ensuring that we were never bored. At no time did we require 4LOW to get up or down anything, but we did employ it in order to save on the braking. Sometimes, the trees reached out to touch the Jeep and would often poke their branches through the open windows to say, "Hello."

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/3639997203_6daeaace83.jpg

Some of the turns were tight and had us feeling tippy, but we managed to get by without rolling over. After a couple hours of weaving through trees, around sharp rocks, and over roots, we arrived at the top of yet another hill. It was a nice place for a campsite, but we weren't planning on staying overnight. We planted a Geocache to bring challenge some of the local cachers and then continued on up and down the road.

The trail narrowed as we headed down into a valley and there were dead trees all around us. The area we were in had been severely burned many years ago and the dead trees were like pick up sticks around us. Some had fallen across the road and been cut in half, others hung precariously over us as we motored through. I think the majority of the users of these trails were ATV riders, because there were times when the cut trees were just barely wide enough to allow us through. Too often, the overhanging branches would catch on the bunjee cargo net in the Surco roof rack - note for future reference: remove cargo net before going out into the forest.

It was in this area we experienced our first bit of trail damage. One of the overhanging trees - four inches in diameter - managed to hit the Jeep at just the right spot to slip UNDER the roof rack instead of sliding neatly over like the rest. The crunching and cracking sound alerted us to the problem, but the damage was done. The thick tree branch had popped some of the securing plates of the roof rack out and pushed the whole thing at a funny angle. We stopped the Jeep and got out. It wasn't pretty. If we tried to back out, the branch wanted to scratch the moon-roof glass because of the pressure it was under. We had no choice but to chop it off. With the combat axe, it only took a few minutes to get halfway through the tree, which was also cracking on its own because of the pressure against it. I had to be cautious because I knew that once I chopped through it, it would spring back a bit - and that could be dangerous.

I went around to the other side of the branch so that when it broke, it would push away from me. While I did so, my wife decided to help out and began chopping at it. She only gave it a few swing before it broke free and sprung back at her. Only her lightning-quick reflexes saved her from getting knocked-out - at best - or seriously injured by the branch. It didn't just spring back a few inches, but rather about two feet. She managed to lean back just in time to watch the branch go sailing over her head.

Having narrowly avoided much pain, we removed the offending branch from under the roof rack and did our best to get it back into place and not rattling. At least two of the bolts holding the rack in place were bent almost in half. Nothing was broke too bad and it doesn't even rattle.

Not too much further down the trail and we climbed up a steep incline to arrive at the top of small knoll. The view was fantastic all around. There was another trail leading down the opposite side of the knoll, but it was about 1900 and we had no idea where it went - it could have taken us back into town, or it could have just wound us around the mountains some more. Without camping gear and more supplies - and with three kids in back - we couldn't risk not getting back to civilization and so we turned back the way we came.

If you look close, you can see snow capped mountains under the Jeep in the background.

The trail was easier on the way back, although some of the inclines were rougher going up than coming down. While we were trying to avoid another wheel-eating washout, one fallen log took a swipe at the Jeep, putting some new scratches on the rear passenger flare, missing the tire, but punching the plastic behind the tire all the way to inside the bumper. I had to use the ax to pry it back out of there.

We arrived back home at 2200 after our little exploration into the hills. Next time, we'll leave earlier and bring camping gear - just in case. In fact, my biggest concern wasn't ever getting stuck, but ripping out one of the tires with a sharp stick or rock. I only have one of the original Forteras for a spare for the time being.

More trail damage!

This afternoon, after hosing the mud off, I noticed that my "Signal Frog" antenna topper lost his antenna!

Recovering a Dodge 4x4 from Blue Mountain

It's been a long winter, and we were itching to get out and explore Blue Mountain. We also had some caches to check on, so we planned for today to go out, check on our caches and have some fun in the mountains (aka find some trails). We packed up a pic-nic lunch after breakfast and headed for the hills. Blue Mountain is just south west of Missoula, MT and so it didn't take any time to get to the bottom of the mountain. There are numerous recreational activities on Blue Mountain, like folf in the Summer and sledding in the winter, but those areas of the mountain are right near the bottom and are usually full.

The real fun starts further up past the observatory (about nine miles from the bottom of the mountain). Usually the gate to the observatory is closed, but when we came upon it today, it was open! We were excited to get up there, but were soon stopped by the ice and snow covered road. Normally, a little slipping and sliding would be no big deal, but when you only have three feet on either side of the trail to play with, you take fewer chances. We plowed through one snowy section and the rear end of the Jeep slid sideways so we didn't continue on, decided that discretion was the better part of valor in this case, and backed out. Then we continued up Blue Mountain road towards the Woodman Saddle, an intersection of dirt roads that are used by the Forest Service and utility companies to maintain their areas. We didn't actually make it to the Saddle.

A few miles beyond the Observatory turn off, we came upon another part of the road that was snow and ice covered, but the road was wide enough to plow through. Our adventure was detoured by the sight of a red Dodge 4x4 perched precariously on the wet, muddy, edge of the trail. We stopped a safe distance away and went to investigate the truck and to see if we could render assistance.



The truck was empty and there was no contact information visible. It was dangerously close to sliding over the edge and down the ravine. It wouldn't have slid TOO far (maybe 50 feet), but it very well could have rolled over a couple times on the way and made for a very bad day for someone. We looked around the Dodge, with "Got God" plates, and decided that without the owner there, we couldn't really do anything. We could stabilize it with the Jeep and Bulldog 9k winch, but we had no way of knowing when the owner would be back. It was a tough decision to make because the ground was getting softer and more saturated with water from the runoff and the Dodge was slowly (very very slowly) slipping down the embankment. While we watched it, we could see and hear that the rear driver's side tire was slowly lifting out of the mud and off the ground.







We had wanted to go around the Dodge, but decided that it was too dangerous. If the back end slipped, like it had before, we could have bumped the Dodge, sealing it to "Total Loss" insurance claim and a HUGE recovery bill. Instead, we went back down the mountain about one-half mile and found a nice spot for lunch on top of a small hill. I left a note in our Jeep window in case the Dodge owner came back and happened to see it. Then we went and found a Geocache nearby and returned to the Jeep. Just to be certain we couldn't help, we decided to go check on the Dodge before heading home.

When we got back to the Dodge, there was another truck nearby and some people walking back from imperiled Dodge. I got out of the Jeep to see if they were with the stuck truck - and they were. The first thing they asked was whether or not we could give them a hand with our Jeep and winch. We agreed to help and moved the Jeep into position on some clear (not icy and snowy, but still muddy) ground behind the Dodge and hooked the winch up. My wife pointed out that they should probably stabilize the front end of the Dodge to an uphill tree, but they decided not to.



When I started to pull the Dodge back, the front end started to slide. THEN they decided that it might be wise to stabilize the front end to an uphill tree with some tow ropes. The Dodge owner first attached the ropes to his truck onto something behind the tire ("A" bracket?). My wife told them it wasn't a good place to attach the ropes to, but again, they knew best. With the truck stabilized, we winched backwards a few inches and realized we needed to move the stabilization point because the tow rope was putting a lot of forward stress on the front driver's side tire. The frame didn't have any good spot to attach a hook to, but I had the tow cluster in the Jeep too and was able to use that to hook the tow ropes up to some holes in his frame. With the Dodge stabilized, we just started winching it back. The Bulldog worked like a charm and pulled the Dodge back up onto the road. The Jeep slipped a little, so we stabilized it too. It was a bit worrisome at some points because the Dodge seemed almost certain to be heading over the edge. I was also concerned that it might try and take the Jeep with it, but, there were no other options (and I was ready to put the winch in free-spooling if I needed to).







(My wife's "told you so" look when they decided to stabilize the front of the Dodge and there is a similar one when they moved the attachment point).


After some scary moments, we finally got it back on solid ground. It was able to drive down the mountain under its own power. Today the mountain lost a Dodge meal, and the Commander once again comes out on top.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster saves the day!


How'd he get in that predicament?
For whatever reason, he tried to go up the trail at midnight on Saturday. He got stuck in the snow and when we tried to back out he slid across the road and to the edge. I don't know how he got down the mountain.

Tax Exemption vs. Free Speech

This issue comes to light now as it appears that some churches (actually a VERY LARGE number) in California and the Mormon Church in Utah have taken great pains and made large contributions of money and man-power to support Prop 8 (Gay Marriage Ban) in California.  Also, throughout this campaign there have been church leaders supporting or opposing one candidate or another.  Now, there is an outcry of foul-play because churches that are tax-exempt are not supposed to be involved in political activities.

Some history on churches and taxes:
In 1953, Congress changed the tax code, specifically 501(c)3 to allow churches and other non-profit organizations to apply for and receive an exemption from paying federal taxes.  The IRS website gives this little summary of the relevant code:

"To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates."

It seems clear from the tax code that a church receives special benefits from the federal government (tax exemption) and, in agreeing to that benefit, agrees that is will not "attempt to influence legislation" and "may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates." 

Now we come to the crux of the issue - should churches that violate their agreement with the Federal Government by making themselves "action organizations" in a campaign or legislative action be put in jeopardy of losing that tax exempt status?  Or should the government look the other way - even though those churches have clearly violated their agreement?

There are numerous sides to this argument, and I'll lay out a few here:
1. Some people argue that 501c3 is simply a way for the government to silence churches.  They also argue that church speech is protected by the 1st Amendment and that the government should not be able to silence or inhibit its political speech with a tax code.
2. Others agree that 501c3 is a way for the government to silence the church but recognize that churches gain something by agreeing to it - tax exemption.  These people argue that churches SHOULD NOT register as tax-exempt organizations and therefore would not be subject to the political speech restrictions.  They also use the Bible to support this position with the "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" bit.
3. Still others argue that BECAUSE churches DO violate their agreement under 501c3, they should lose their tax exempt status.

After reading up on the arguments, I agree with both 2 and 3.  Churches that ask for special benefits from the government should be required to comply with the restrictions placed on receiving those benefits.  There is no requirement that a Church register as tax-exempt and forfeit its speech rights - it is completely voluntary.  Therefore, IF a church wants to go beyond its religious talk and venture into the realm of political influence and campaigning, it should not ALSO ask the government for tax-exemption. 

In Argument 1 the church wants its cake and wants to eat it too.  It wants the benefits of the tax-exempt money without strings.  The government has no obligation to support churches - at all.  If a church doesn't want to play by the government's rules for tax-exemption - then it shouldn't want to be tax-exempt.

Now That Your Candidate Has Lost...

To all of those of you whose candidate did not win,

Now that your candidate is out of the running and a new President has been elected by the States (because we all know the President is not elected by the people, but by the States), you all have a choice to make. Will you stand by your new President? Will you support him? Will you put aside all of your misgivings and doubts about the guy who did win and stand behind the leader of your nation?

Or will you continue to fight for your lost cause? Will you complain about how the election was stolen? Will you continue to post pointless slander about him and his character?

Now is the true test of your Patriotism. Your true colors will now come out. You can stand with your country, or you can stand against it. It's time for a fresh start, take the opportunity to find out what is GOOD about your new President and the direction he will take the country. Of course, you and I will never agree with him on everything he does, but we will always support his decision - because it is the decision of the nation. If we don't like what he does in the next four years, then we have the choice in four years to change it.

So, let's suck it up, move on, and make the best of what we have.

"The king is dead. Long live the king!"

Electoral College Time!

Usually, around election time, the big hubabaloo is about the "electoral college" and how it either IS or IS NOT democratic and un-American. Usually by now, I'm so tired of explaining and discussing it that I just give up. This year, however, there has been little talk about it at all! So, now I have to bring it up.

**For those that don't know, the electoral college is really how the President is elected - our poor little votes really don't mean much. What happens is this: Each State has its own system, but generally, each State takes the vote of its citizens and tallies them up to see which candidate gets the most votes. Then, that State turns around and sends its delegates to a National Convention and they cast the votes for the State. Each State is allotted votes by the population of the State. Now, sometimes some delegates get frisky and vote for the "other" guy, but generally that is considered a "no no" and is definitely a career-ender.

So, why does the electoral college matter? Although most citizens think that the US is a democracy where everyone's vote counts equally, its not - its a Representative Republic which means we vote for people to represent us - we don't vote directly for anything at the Federal level. This is actually a GOOD thing for those of us in States with small populations because without the electoral college our piddly little votes wouldn't mean anything. Now, instead of meaning nothing, they just mean VERY VERY little. If it weren't for the electoral college, the five biggest cities in the country would really by the ones to elect the President - because they have more votes than the rest of the country combined. If you weren't part of one of those cities, you'd be SOL.

So, rejoice that the vote of your State at least counts for something, because without the electoral college, it wouldn't mean diddly.

Fear Not! - (borrowed from some other blog - but couldn’t have said it better myself!)

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&blogID=443740961&Mytoken=FFC70260-86FF-4D0F-854990105D9FF1BB28576431

FROM INFIDEL:

"We are taught from our birth to fear - to fear the hot stove, the long fall, the big dogs, leaning back in chairs, putting things in our mouths - and most for good reasons. But, along with these reasonable fears, we have been taught to fear monsters, boogey-men, evil probing aliens, demons, devils, ghosts, and things that go "bump" in the night. Our parents play on these fear, and even reinforce them because they are physical consequences for bad behavior or not doing what we are told, "Go to bed, or the boogeyman will get you," and "Stay in bed or the monster under your bed will grab your foot," and "Don't go outside after dark, or (insert Monster XYZ) will get you and eat you!" Many parents use these fears to keep us away from harm or from doing things that are against our best interest. As we grow up, we grow out of most of these fears - we realize that the boogeyman doesn't exist, that there are no monsters under the bed, and those things that go "bump" in the night are nothing to worry about.

However, spiritually, emotionally, many people remain captive to fear - fear of Hell, fear of demons and "spiritual warfare," fear of Satan and his minions that roam free, causing death, destruction and pain. And who is the "parent" reinforcing these fears that should have been tossed out with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause? The "parent" is the church, a religious "holy" book, or childhood religious belief. And why do the leaders or beneficiaries of these religions continue to play to those irrational fears? For the same reason our parents did - to keep us in check or to get us to do something: tithe, be good, "witness," and whatever else they want you to do. Fear of Hell is no reason to believe in anything, fear of Satan is as irrational as fear of the evil witch in the spooky house down the street. Ghosts, demons, monsters don't exist - neither do the "big" monsters of god and satan. People need to grow up, emotionally as well as physically, and shed the cloak of fear that was placed over them as a child. Take responsibility for your own security, safety, and decisions and don't let some fictional childhood belief dictate what you do or give you something to blame for bad behavior.

Being free from the binds of religion and irrational belief leads invariably to a reduction in fear of life, allowing people to live more and fear less. Sure, there may be no god there to "save" you from anything, but honestly, he wasn't going to save you in the first place, so once you realize that no super-natural being is coming to the rescue, you can start to rescue yourself. On the bright side, because there is no benevolent god to protect you, there is also no mean, evil, powerful satan or devil out to get you. The "forces of evil" are in your mind and its never to late to let them go and start living without fear.

At one time, I believed in those scary irrational things, so I am in no position to judge anyone who still does. It took me all of 20+ years to rid myself of most of those irrational beings and forces that plagued my thoughts and strummed the strings of fear. Now, without those chords being played, I am more secure, more confident, and more capable in everything I do. I don't rely on any supernatural forces to come to my aid, and I also don't worry that any supernatural forces are working against me. Every encounter is on equal footing - mano a mano.

Instead of fearing what is waiting for us around the next corner, or worrying about what is silently sneaking up from behind, we can concentrate on the present situation, evaluate it rationally and make the best decision - not based on fear, but rather, based on our experience and understanding of capabilities. When we are weighed down with the beliefs of forces beyond our understanding and well beyond our power to affect, we become the prey - hunted by whatever we fear and stalked by the shadows that move around us. Prey attracts predators - and the REAL predators in the world recognize that fear and use it to their advantage. When we drop the fear, we have the choice to be the predator if we so desire, recognizing the fear in others, seeing who the prey are and either going after them, watching over them to render aid when its necessary (which they will probably take a sign from their god), or just letting everyone deal on their own. Because we are no longer the prey, we at least have the choice."

Caching Monday Madness!

Caching Monday Madness!
For awhile now, we've been heading out with friends on Monday after the kids are in school, and finding some local geocaches. Usually, we find about 7-10 on an average caching day. Today was no exception. Since we've been in Montana (since February), we've found MOST of the geocaches in the Missoula area. Now, we are having to go find some of the harder caches and ones that are further out from us because the pickings have become slim nearby. Today, we ventured to the south of Missoula, up Pattee Canyon to snag some caches that were cluttering up our maps.

The typical "finding" of a cache depends on what type and what kind of location its in - but generally its something like this:

"Out in the Woods Cache"
1. Drive as close as possible.
2. Get out and determine if the cache is a "park and grab" or one we actually have to go venture to. If its a park and grab, we park - and grab it - quick and easy.
3. If we need to venture out to get the cache, we determine if the cache is big enough to hold stuff or is just a micro - if big enough, we bring the cache bag - if not, we don't.
4. Once those things are determined, we grab the necessary gear (hiking sticks, bag, water, etc) and get moving.
5. Typically, the GPS is decent at homing us in nicely on the vicinity of the cache. Sure, after we get nearby, there may be a bit of drunken bee dancing, but not too much - and less now with the internal GPS compass.
6. We spot the typical cache hiding places, find the container, and sign the log.
7. Continue to next cache.

"In the City Cache"
1. Park nearby
2. Because they are micros, we leave the bag
3. Check everything metal for keyholder caches, and check everything else for velcro'd bison capsules.
4. Sign log and move on.

Today however, things were a little different. Our GPS's (ours and our caching friends') were extra-jumpy. From the get-go, they would generally point in the right direction, but would periodically jump around - giving us different directions to go, overshooting the cache areas, and just generally acting funny. Even after I calibrated the compass, mine still did it more often than usual. I was even beginning to get worried that something might be wrong with my GPS. But, the fact that it wasn't just my GPS indicated that perhaps it was something else - which was comforting. Towards the end of the day, we came up with a plausible idea that perhaps some solar flares had occurred and messed with the magnetic fields, throwing off the GPSs AND the compasses. We decided to check the Space Weather site to find out.

As it turns out, there were no solar flares today that would have interfered with the GPS satellites or compasses - in fact, there haven't been any sun spots for awhile now. But, interestingly enough, there WAS a situation that could have caused a disturbance in the magnetic forces. As it turns out, the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field shifted South a bit for a period of time, opening a hole in the protective magnetic field of the Earth from the constant solar winds and allowed some solar winds to get through - possibly screwing with GPSs and compasses. Now, with that in mind, consider the fact that the Earth is statistically long overdue for a polar magnetic shift - and what the implications of that are. But that is for another blog.

All in all, it was a great day of caching - we found everything we looked for and added another nine caches to the "found" pile! One of the caches today was a puzzle cache that required us to solve a Karuku - I'd never heard of a Karuku before this. i guess we learn something new every day. Woot! I love this sport. Now, we have to get rid of some nagging caches that are mucking up my pretty map of smilies. Also, we need to plant some caches up on Blue Mountain before the snow falls. busy busy busy.

Bad - in a good way.

So me and my beautiful wife were talking today about the upcoming election and how neither candidate is good for the country. She expressed the opinion that Obama may actually be good for the country in a bad way - which took my by surprise, but her reasoning makes sense and here I've tried to articulate her epiphany with my words:

I don't support Obama, but I support McCain even less. However, it has recently been made clear to me that Obama coming into office may in fact be the best thing for the country as whole - in the long run. I expect that Obama, with a heavy democratic Congress, will pave the way for a very liberal United States.

The US is set up to run slowly - not efficiently. The power is divided between three groups - the Congress, the President, and the Judiciary. Before anything can get done, every group has its own input and any of the groups can completely shut down the process - or at least slow it down quite a bit. This, coupled with the inherent turn-over rate in Congress and the Executive, keeps the country from becoming TOO MUCH anything. It keeps the conservatives from establishing a federal religion and it keeps the liberals from turning us into a socialist/communist state. For the last 200+ years, its worked, more or less splendidly. Now, the Democrats have the perfect opportunity to change all that!

The Republicans have done way too much to this country to stay in power. The Patriot Act, gas prices, national debt, and the economy are all death blows that will, almost without a doubt, sink their ship in this election. Now, the fact that Congress is already controlled by the Dems and that they are already planning to quickly use the Executive to move massive liberal programs into existence after January 20th, the country is in for radical changes in the next four years. 95% of the changes will be bad.

Which is great! Why? Because the American people, lazy little sheep that they are, have been fat and happy for far too long. They aren't paying attention to the election and they aren't paying attention to who is in power and what they are going to do to us. We should expect socialized healthcare, firearm bans, and numerous other programs designed to take from the rich and give to the poor - wealth redistribution (which leads quickly to socialism and communism). Gas prices will go up, liberty will go down, taxes will go up, and services will be degraded. And eventually, the country will feel the pain. Good.

The Republicans have already lost so much of the good will of the public that they are hemorrhaging uncontrollably and will (hopefully) not be able to recover. When the country gets stung by liberalism at its finest (Democratic President and Congress), it too will fall out of favor - leaving a political void that could be filled by a new party. Hopefully, that new party will redevote itself to the words of the Constitution and the founding ideal of the Fathers of this country - Liberty. Freedom to speak as we wish, freedom to believe in what we want or to not believe in anything at all, freedom to be free FROM religion - especially in any and all government agencies or government funded programs - and the freedom to be comfortable that "big brother" isn't listening or watching our every move.

Hopefully, the country can recover from the historical two-party system without bloodshed - and maybe, in an ironic way, Obama and the democrats could be the catalyst for that recovery - not through their liberalism, but through the cataclysmic failure of it.

Smells Like Desperation

Smells Like Desperation

Recently, (ok, for the past six months) I have been receiving numerous email about Obama and all the crazy shit he is said to have done or said. Among them:

1. Obama is a Muslim who won't recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Obama was sworn into office on the Koran.
3. Obama holding a telephone upside down.
4. Obama wants to change the National Anthem.
5. Obama is, or could be, the Anti-Christ.
6. Obama isn't a natural born citizen.
7. Obama hides his birth certificate.

A quick check on these stories clearly shows that there are blatant lies.

After awhile, I began to wonder why there were so many patently false anti-Obama emails and rumors going around and not nearly as many McCain ones. At first, I thought that it was just that the people who are my email contacts were conservative Republicans and would obviously not send anything that goes against their candidate. Then, I decided to dig a little deeper, thinking maybe people on the Democrat side were doing the same thing and I just wasn't getting them because I'm not on their contact lists. So, I went to Snopes.com - a fair repository for finding out the truth behind sooooo many email and internet rumors and falsehoods - and did a little comparison of rumors about Obama and McCain. Here are the results:

Obama
36 total claims about him
21 are 100% false
4 were classified as true
7 had parts that were both true and false
4 were of indeterminable veracity

McCain
9 total claims about him
4 are 100% false
3 are true
2 were of indeterminable veracity

A little analysis:

Obama has garnered 4x the number of rumors as McCain. Over half (21/36 = ~58%) of the claims made about Obama are flat-out lies. For McCain, less than half (4/9 = 44%) were lies. Only 4 of the 36 claims about Obama were true (~11%) whereas 3/9 were true for McCain (~33%).

It seems to me that the Conservative side of this contest is sensing defeat and has pulled out all of the stops to try and slow Obama and the Democrats down. Increased smear and slander tactics, whether approved of by the campaign or not, are tell-tale signs that the campaign in question is heading downhill and sees their loss on the horizon. It stinks of desperation and foul-play.

Some people have tried to convince me that if I vote for someone other than one of the two Party Candidates (McCain or Obama), I'm throwing away my vote because no on else has the chance to win. I will concede that the person I am voting for (Ron Paul) doesn't have the slightest chance in hell of winning. However, that doesn't make my vote for him irrelevant any more than any other vote for a candidate in a state where the result is practically a foregone conclusion (ie. Washington State which will most definitely vote for Obama). In fact, by this logic, anyone voting in New York State or California who doesn't vote for Obama has also "wasted" their vote. Logically, if "Voting for a person who cannot win = wasted vote; then voting for McCain in Washington State or California = voting for Ron Paul in Washington State or California because neither can win."

In reality, it is not a waste because I am voting for the best man for the office. I am voting based on my views in comparison with his views and I am voting in hopes that a future third party candidate will see that there needs to be a viable choice other than the Democrats and Republicans. We will never have other options unless we first make it clear that we WANT other options. Continually voting for the "lesser of two evils" only guarantees an "evil" outcome. Slowly, but surely we will choose the lesser evil into oblivion. Why not take a stand now for the "good" choice? Even if it means losing today, it at least holds out the hope of winning tomorrow. By voting for the best man, my conscience is clean, and my ideals were not compromised by voting for the "lesser of two evils."

Not much will change in America, regardless of who wins. If Obama wins (which I have a sneaking suspicion he will, based on the desperation being displayed by the Republican Party and its supporters) the Assault Weapon Ban will become permanent (until it is challenged in the Supreme Court) - so, get your assault rifles while you still can. If McCain wins, there will be little if any change from the way things are now. Honestly, the President has little to do with the ultimate course of the country. He has little power of his own and only acts to speed up or slow down the processes of Congress. So, do we want to get where we are going faster or slower? THAT is the question this election decides.