COLUMBIA RIVER GOLDY GETS HOOKED ON HANDOUTS

One time I jumped clean across the Columbia River, just so I could say I did it. The river starts 150 miles or so up in Alberta Canada north of the Idaho Montana border. There is a meadow, and a spot where a log helps span part of the little stream, making it a pretty easy leap, even when you have on your waders.

The native trout there are energetic and finicky about what they eat. They don’t fall for just any old fake bug floating down the stream. The fish up there eat plump, natural, bite sized salmon flies that emerge from the water in the afternoon on sunny days come June. Salmon flies are not an easy meal for even the best of fish to catch. Salmon flies are good fliers and don’t stay long on the surface of a stream. The fish are hearty, and good fighters as a result.

I love that kind of fishing! You can get up late and come home early.

Fisherman up there, drink pure Canadian whiskey. If they do water it down it is with water right out of the stream!

The water and people up there are clean, good, and pure, naturally!
Life springs forth the same way.

Just a month or so ago I went up on the Columbia glacier as close as a regular guy like me can get to the headwaters of the Columbia River. From that little spot the Columbia flows more than 1200 miles down hill to the Pacific Ocean. A lot happens in that effort. It invites, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah to add to its Canadian waters. The Kootenay, the Okanagan, the Wenatchee, Spokane, Snake, Deschutes, Willamette, Cowlitz, and the Lewis rivers all chip in to make the Columbia system drain some 259,000 square miles of the western part of North America.

Several kinds of anadromous fish make their living there. Salmon, Cut Throat and huge ocean going Rainbow Trout pass by great dams that have been put in their way. They swim through water that has been so dirtied that you can’t even see through it.

Up river fish and fisherman make their way through life like they ought to, wild, and free to be what they are. They live without much help or harm, from anything or anyone. It's uncivilized natural law, unfettered self-supporting, uncluttered, clean and real. No waiting in line to get what’s “left.”

Now, downstream is another thing altogether.
Eleven hundred miles downstream. One hundred miles up the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean is the big fat civilized city of Portland, Oregon.
Big city fish and folks don’t live quite so proud down there.

I live there in Portland Oregon. I try the best I can to be outdoors, to do what’s “right”.
I fish when I can, and do my best to make an honest living there.

One day I read an advertisement in the “Oregonian”, saw a television commercial on KGW, and heard a great song on “KINK” radio about drinking Sangria wine. I figured it was my time to try it.

What you do is you mix a bunch of store bought spices and frilly dilly stuff altogether with some cheap wine and as much 151 proof rum as you can stomach. Then you heat up the whole mess in a microwave or something to make it good to the taste. It ain't exactly the good pure beverage they drink upstream from here. Of course nether is the water. Things down here are civilized!

It was a real cold day the first time I drank Sangria wine. The eyelets on my fishing pole would have frozen solid had I been fishing. The more Mike and I drank, the more difficult it became to navigate the mighty Columbia to the marina in Portland Harbor. A good place to drink a whole lot of Sangria is in the city, at anchor in the wintertime. We dropped the anchor off the bow of the “TJ” and went below to see if perhaps we could find some good in the day and later some shut eye to clear up the confusion.

The Portland Harbor was known as the Columbia slough for the longest time till some developers decided to rename it and sell property along the banks to city people that didn’t know any better.

About 5 decades ago a whale swam all the way up the Columbia River some one hundred miles from home and turned right into the harbor slough, He languished there for awhile interested in all the free stuff the Portland people were throwing in the water for him to eat.
Finally the “good life” got to be too much for him. He almost died from the experience. So he turned tail and ran back to the sea having realized it was better to fend for himself than feed from the public slough, lose his self respect, dignity, and in the end his own life.

I woke up with an awful headache from that citified Sangria brew. My stomach was not happy with the mix and it volunteered to pitch what was left in me over the side of the boat.
When I let fly the mix, the chum that was created got a rise from some kind of city fish malingering below.

I guessed at first the fish was habituated to the flotsam and jetsam boats sent over board when they were stuck there unable to negotiate the entrance of the marina like we were.

It was still awful cold and the sun had not yet rose but there were fish to be had and I had an inside line on how to get them. I went below for my pole and an old rotten hot dog. I knew I still had one left in an ice cooler brought from Jantzen Beach about a month earlier.

I figured the chumming I did ought to be about enough to fool those fish into thinking something good and stinky was about to happen!
I hooked up the hot dog for bait the best I could without actually touching it. I hung a lantern on the life stanchion at the back of the boat. I sent my lash up a flying out into the dark, heard the bait plunk into the river, and settled in for the rest of the night to nurse the balance of my hangover.

In about a minute I felt a definite tug on the line so I began my retrieve. To my delight it was a great big five-pound fish! A great big fat old pale white fan tailed “gold fish.” Yep! a real live fan tailed gold fish.

You can win goldfish when they are real little at the Multnomah county fair by the Lloyd Center. If you pitch a ping-pong ball in their bowl just right they let you take them home for your mom to take care off. Somebody probably thought the little carp was dead or the kid forgot about him so they flushed him down the toilet and right out into the Columbia Slough.

The Goldy had made his home at the outflow effluent end of one of the many sewer lines that flow directly into the Columbia River. In Portland when you flush your toilet, depending on what part of town you are in you send a little bit of big city civilization right down the pipe and into what’s left of the natural world.

The big fat fellow did not fight at all. He just turned over, belly up and came on the boat without as much as a flop. Why should he try? He was a big city fish entitled to life as it is doled out.
Be damn the standards set by his unsophisticated small time upriver cousins.

Now; it may not have been the biggest fish I've ever caught, and it certainly wasn't the proudest moment I’ve ever had, but, one must admit it is a memorable event to catch and release a great big five pound FAN TAIL GOLD FISH!
We took a picture of it with a little Polaroid and kept the picture on board for a long time. By and by the shinny stuff that makes the picture wore off in the high humidity and cold weather and in the end all proof of it might have been lost all together.

It now exists in my head, as all good fish stories should.
A high-minded memory, better than a picture, and more rewarding for what was learned.

Every once in awhile we cruise a little too close to shore by the out flow effluent of the sewer pipe by the marina and we see him there enjoying his entitlements with the rest of the good citizens of the big fat City of Portland.

ALL THATS LEFT IS RIGHT

WELL NOW -------------------BLACK FRIDAY Nov 28th 2008

My right wing Republican friends in an effort to create a more perfect Socialist Party are bemoaning the loss of the recent presidential election.

WHILE

My left wing friends in an effort to create a more perfect Socialist Party are bemoaning the loss of rhetoric for the left and are watching Barrack Obama rehire the centrist Clinton administration with an emphasis on moving toward Reganomics or better stated OBAMANOMICS!
So far he seems to be honoring his campaign promises to include the tax cuts for 95% of Americans IE: the $250,000 a year earners, and it looks like he is going to allow Bush's tax schedule to continue till it runs out.
This will maintain cuts in income tax rates for the real productive $250,000 plus crowd.

Arianna Huffington warned Obama to not move to the right which she perceived he was doing along about July. Arianna told me Wednesday on public radio that a catastrophic economic disaster is a "terrible thing to waste". She called the Obama brand------------- "Obama zero"
George Soros seems to be warning his followers that Obama does not seem to be turning out to be "our man"!
"Move on" George. Arianna claims that "the right is wrong" accepting influences from the "lunatic fringe".

SO WHO ARE WE GOING TO FOLLOW TO "THE NEW WORLD ORDER" ?
(G. Bush Sr)

Republicans? or Democrats?
Which can lead us most quickly to the great socialist ideals of Karl Marx?

Recently some right wing Republican friends of mine very adamantly defended limited Socialism as developed by Governor Palin with regard to her Oil revenue redistribution policy and another bunch really liked Senator McCains advocating for public investment in many of our largest publicly owned corporations.

Here; this is from Merriam Webster defining the concept.
Socialism
Date: 1837
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

Now I had a wide number of contemporaries try to redefine this bit of historical record to justify actions of their favorite candidates. No amount of collective tyranny or peer group pressure could dissuade me from my basic belief in an individuals right to free commerce and personal freedom.

I don't know, maybe it isn't really Socialist if it is just a minor percentage.
Maybe 20 % doesn't even qualify. Just heading toward the concept of control by the state may not be Socialist by itself. At least some of my friends compliment me for my brilliance in considering this possibility if just momentarily. Maybe we need to measure by degree.

LETS SING -ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDERS ----or-----
THIS LAND IS MY LAND, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND to see if we can start the movement really rolling. Bruce Springsteen and Mike Huckabee could be national singers.
We could all sing it say four times a day. It could be pumped through loud speakers all over the country. Especially in the Big City States where we need a concentrated effort to harmonize.

Lets have WPA plans for the benevolent future run by our corporate heads to make sure they are as productive and successful as they possibly can be.
Lets have our cars designed by government guys because god knows the consumer sure as hell doesn't have the right these days to drive what ever he wants.
Be sure that the damn things are built by members of the AFL - CIO and the up to date management coolie's with the pencils and slide rules who watch to be sure they can turn real good to the left as they perform for NASCAR Republicans.

I am somewhat puzzled and am seriously asking for some guidance.
Refer me somewhere.
What party or group could I subscribe to that is intent on encouraging the widest possible distribution of commerce through private capital enterprise.

Both the Republican and Democratic Parties seem to be heading more and more to large publicly owned collectives with ever narrowing great power structures at the top.

The other day I heard that the government was encouraging the banks they gave the big loans to to use them to buy little banks to get them out of competitive markets.

Really is there someone or some group out there that remembers fifth grade social studies?

Don't misunderstand; I am libertarian but to a degree. But if you think I would have Ron Paul move in with me and marry my daughter.
"I wouldn't do it for all the farms in Cuba".
Bob Dylan- sort of

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CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS

IN OUR HOME WE HAVE THREE KIRBY VACUUM CLEANER ---MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
EACH ARE PLACED ON A FLOOR READY TO PERFORM WITHOUT MUCH TROUBLE OR GREAT FAN FARE.

EACH HAS ITS STORY.

MY FAVORITE MACHINE IS THE OLDEST. IT PLAYS THE THIRD FLOOR.

IT’S IMPRESSIVE BULK RARELY SITS IDLE. IT IS ABLE TO PLAY MUSIC!
WHEN YOU SET THE ADJUSTABLE FOOT JUST RIGHT AND RUN THE BRUSHES OVER THE CARPET PILE SMOOTHLY, YOU CAN EASILY MASTER THE SOUND MADE WHILE THE BEATLES PLAYED “HELTER SKELTER” OR ALWAYS A FAVORITE, “INSTANT KARMA”.

YOU CAN PLAY THE 20-MINUTE BRIDGE TO ICHY GOO PARK, BUT YOU NEED THE HOSE ATTACHMENT TO SPIN THE MUSIC AROUND YOUR HEAD.
I DON’T PLAY THE HOSE AS OFTEN. DIRT DOESN’T REST ON CEILINGS AND WALLS AS MUCH AS IT DOES ON THE FLOOR.

AFTER QUITE SOME PRACTICE, I AM NOW ABLE TO SET UP AND PLAY, WITHOUT ANY WARM UP------- BRUCE SPRINGSTEIN’S------

"WELL WE BURSTED OUT OF CLASS" try it (FORWARD MOTION HEAVY PILE)

HAD TO GET AWAY FROM THOSE FOOLS (BACKWARD MOTION LIGHT PILE)


WE LEARNED MORE FROM A THREE MINUTE (FORWARD MOTION MEDIUM PILE)
RECORD

THAN WE EVER DID IN SCHOOL (PUSH FORWARD LEAN HANDLE LEFT)



I WANT TO SLEEP BENEATH PEACEFUL SKIES
IN MY LOVERS BED
WITH THE WIDE OPEN COUNTRY IN MY HEART
AND ROMANTIC DREAMS IN MY HEAD
(A BEAUTIFUL HYMN TO HUM)






CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS PART TWO



THEY LIVE LIKE NEIGHBORS, GODLINESS AND CLEANLINESS.
EACH LIVING OUT THEIR LIVES SIMILAR.
SOMETIMES MIMICKING, SOMETIMES EMULATING, SOMETIMES MOCKING ONE ANOTHER. ONE INSPIRED BY THE OTHER.

DRIVE BY EITHER (GODLINESS OR CLEANLINESS) ON A SUNNY SATURDAY MORNING AND SEE THEM SHAKING OUT THEIR KIRBY BAGS AND RINSING SOAP FROM THEIR LATE MODEL CHEVY’S.

LISTEN TO THE HUM THEIR ROTARY MOWERS PRODUCE AS THEY CUT THRU THEIR LAWNS FRESHLY FERTILIZED. CREATING AND OUTDOOR CONCERT FROM THE ROTARY MOWERS FRICTION ON THE GRASS.

PLACE YOUR HANDS IN COMPOST AND FEEL THE WARMTH OF THE WORLD IN CONCERT.

EACH LOOKS AS THE OTHER.

ONE IS---------- AND ONE IS NOT------------

PERFORMING “HUM DRUM” WORK. NOT SO HIDDEN JOY IN SIMPLE TOILS.

AN INVITATION TO A GREAT BALL.

A DEMAND OF GOD TO SING AND DANCE



YOU CAN FIND THE KIRBY COMPANY ON THE INTERNET AT http://www.kirby.com/

OR WRITE TO : KIRBY COMPANY c/o
RICHARD A BAUMGARTNER
1920 WEST 114th STREET
CLEVELAND OHIO 44102



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"COLIN BLOW"

Sunday mornings, for me, is a time I take to read, to relax, to worship, and to watch informative panel discussions on the TV regarding how the world is and how we are doing.
The subjects that interest me are Religious, Economic, Political etc. These little intellectual pursuits are all conveniently packaged into this particular time.

The TV shows include Meet the Press NBC (Tim Russert-now- Tom Brokaw), Face the Nation CBS (Bob Schiffer) Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace) and This Week ABC (George Stephanopolis) Once in a while I'll linger a bit long and watch a little bit of some sports program. I like the one's Bryant Gumball hosts the most!

Today I noticed that the shows I like are all spread out till past 4:00PM or on top of one another on competing stations at the same time stuffed in between these extravagant Sports Events.

There are sport shows for Republicans that include Skiing, Auto Racing and Golf. Republicans like sports that reward the individual.
The sports for the Democrats include Baseball, Football, Basketball. Democrats tend to like sports that have a real strong leader and a loyal following of team players. You know Quarterbacks Pitchers Centers the like.

A notable exception to this generalized interest was the poster child for Democratic-Socialistic team play Adolf Hitler.
"Ad" was absolutely committed to Track and Field sports held in the state sponsored stadium in Berlin during the 1936 Olympics.

A simple footrace against another is clearly the celebration of the individual. Many of my left wing leaning friends and relatives like to think Hitler is a Republican type. I personnally think and history should show that he was hoping for victories among his Teutonic individuals to prove the legitimacy of his "master race".

Now look how we have been distracted from the very provocative title of this article by the discussion of sports. It is no big wonder why our stadiums and race tracks across this great country are subsidized by the Federal Government as they were back in Roman times.
Imagine the distraction! The Coliseum virtually teaming with simulated Army and Navy conflicts or individual gladiators competing to the death. The "opiate of the people". It still works!

Anyway John McCain's friend Colin Powell went on the record this morning in front of Sports, God, and everybody to reveal he was voting for Barack Obama for President!.

John McCain had been suffering a growing visceral pain in the gut over the last few months wondering if his friend of 2 1/2 decades and compatriot in the military Colin Powell would help him win the office.

Today it all got blown out on the TV screen. A virtual explosion of pent up crap came out on the "Meet The Press"show hosted by Tom Brokaw.

Powell said he thought both guys could make a great President, but he had noticed over the last two years of the campain race that John McCain had been making too many quick calls and was unwilling to change his mind after reviewing the play.
Powell noted that Barrack Obama demonstrates a more calm and comprehensive decision making discipline. So in the end he felt that the rookie was a quick study and had the judgement needed to be our next President.
Apparently John McCain's decision to have Governor Palin be his cheerleader and running mate was all the more Colin Powell could stomach. And so out came the "Colin blow"

So for me I hope next week I can watch my programs without all the sports shows in my way.

I hope and pray that his fellow, Barrack Obama, really can play the game we need played across the United Sates and through out the entire world.
Because from the cheap seats in the the nose bleed section where I sit it sure looks like he is the going to be our next President and head play caller.

YELLOWSTONE BANKS RECOVER RAPIDLY

Wolves in Yellowstone National Park have turned out to be the Rainbow Trouts best friend!
While the Government was paying out bounty on dead wolves all over the park and surrounding areas the Elk were eating all the easy to get aspen trees along the banks of the Yellowstone, the Gibbon, and the Firehole rivers to mention a few.

The aspen provide the much needed shade for the Trout to prosper.

Now the wolves are back and have retaken the area near the river banks. The aspen regrow and the shaded river returns to good habitat for the trout.

Get it Folks? The symbolism that is!

Here think of this then.

Hand outs to Bears.
Cars would drive by with little free handouts to the bears.
Two generations went by and they were so habituated they could not make it on their own.

Get it folks? The symbolism that is!

The Government used to put out every little fire and managed and regulated every little thing they could in the Nations first National Park.
The forest finally had had enough and went into a fire rage that lasted almost two years.
Burnt pretty much everything down.

Get it folks? The symbolism that is!


Please recognize that the the two guys we are considering for the Presidents job both want to run a bigger more invasive government.

Consider possible unintended consequences.
Things need to succeed while others need to fail.

There are dangers in messing with the natural order of things.
Handouts rob both sides in the transition of the dignity to be whole.
A lot of little failures keep a system strong. Big overbuilt failures are an abomination to all.



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"METOLIUS”

"METOLIUS”

IN INDIAN MEANS “WHITE ROTTING FISH”
PRETTY NAME FOR A NOT SO PRETTY IMAGE.

EARLY ON, THE RIVER HAD MIGRATORY FISH THAT SPAWNED THEN DIED ALONG ITS BANKS. INDIANS OCCUPIED THE AREA DURING THIS TIME TO GATHER THE BOUNTY.

A BUNCH OF GUYS DOWN RIVER AT THE PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY DECIDED IN A MEETING THAT NOBODY MUCH NEEDED OCEAN GOING FISH ABOVE THIS DAM THEY WANTED TO BUILD, AND SURELY NOBODY NEEDED ANYMORE GULLY WASHERS DOWN STREAM. BESIDES THE CITY FOLKS IN PORTLAND NEEDED "POWER".

NO ONE ACTUALLY ASKED THE INDIANS IF THEY COULD GET ALONG WITHOUT THE BIG OCEAN GOING CHINOOKS. THE INDIANS DID'NT EVEN LEARN ABOUT THE MEETING WHERE THE BIG DECISIONS WERE BEING MADE TILL SOMETIME LATER.

SHERMAN COUNTY FARMERS USED TO COME UP TO THE RIVER AND TRADE TINWARE AND KNIVES AND OTHER THINGS FOR SMOKED SALMON.
THEY WOULD THEN SELL OR TRADE THE INDIANS NATURE CANDY TO OTHERS THAT LIVED DOWN THE BACKSIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN FOR FARM TOOLS AND SUCH.

THE FARMERS UP THERE DID'NT HEAR ABOUT THE BIG MEETING EITHER CAUSE
THEY WERE BUSY EATING SMOKED SALMON AND FARMING, AND THEIR WATER CAME FROM A DIFFERENT RIVER ANYWAY.

“LAND LOCKED” SOCKEYE SALMON, INDIANS CALL “KOKANEE”, STILL COME UP AND DISCARD THEMSELVES ALONG THE BANKS OF THE RIVER ABOUT SEPTEMBER. SO LIFE GOES ON KINDA LIKE IT DID BACK THEN.


PINE TREES OF THE METOLIUS RIVER VALLEY SAVE ALL THE EVENTS, THOUGHTS, AND CONVERSATIONS THAT OCCUR THERE. THEY ARE THEN RELEASED THROUGH THE BREEZE TO THE CAREFUL LISTENER.


HERE'S ONE OF UM

WHITEY GETS HIS OWN
LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

I’VE FISHED WITH HIM MANY TIMES.
HE IS THE GRAND OLD MAN HERE. HE KNOWS THE RIVER WELL.

HIS GRANDFATHER BROUGHT HIM HERE TO FISH WHEN HE WAS
VERY YOUNG. HIS GRANDFATHER WAS A SHERMAN COUNTY FARMER WHO CONDUCTED COMMERCE WITH THE INDIANS IN EARLY FALL AFTER THE HARVEST. WHEN I LOOK AT WHITEYS HIGH CHEEKBONES AND WISE DEEP SET EYES I SOMETIMES WONDER ABOUT ALL THAT GRANDPA WAS ENGAGED IN.

THE FARMERS KEPT A BASE CAMP OVER AT THE LAKE. NO ROAD HAD BEEN LAID FOR WAGONS TO RUN ON YET, SO THEY WALKED IN TO THE RIVER LEAVING THEIR WAGONS BACK AT CAMP.
IT WAS EASILY WORTH THE TEN-MILE HIKE, JUST FOR SITES.

THERE WERE PLENTY OF OCEAN GOING FISH IN THE STREAMS IN THOSE DAYS.

IT WAS REAL EASY THEN TO TELL THAT LIFE HERE HAS MAGIC IN IT.
HERE YOU ARE ALLOWED A MOMENT TO REST AND GAIN AGAIN ALL THAT YOU NEED FOR BODY AND SOUL.

TIME IS THE RIVER. THEY LIVED IN A GREAT LANDSCAPE THAT STOOD PERFECTLY STILL.
TIME MOVED IN AND OUT AND ALL AROUND THEM TILL THE FUTURE FINALLY RAN THEM OVER.

WHITEY SAYS WHEN IT’S STORMING AT THE COAST THE SEAGULLS ARE DRIVEN INLAND BY THE WIND. I DON’T BELIEVE THAT--THEY ARE WONDERFUL FLIERS.

I AM QUITE CERTAIN IF THEY STAYED AND WORKED THE AREA WHERE THEY BELONG THEY WOULD DO JUST FINE.

THEY COME FOR THE EASY PICKINGS!

WHITEY AND I HAVE WATCHED IN HORROR WHILE THEY DIVE IN, SWOOP DOWN, ATTACK RAVAGE AND SCAVAGE THE FISH AS THEY LAY THEIR EGGS. “SEEMS LIKE JUST WHEN THINGS ARE GOING WELL, WHEN LIFE IS GOOD, AND PROSPERITY ABOUNDS SOME DARN FOOL GANG OF IDIOTS COME ALONG TO SPOIL IT”.

“FREE” IS'NT WHATS “FREE AND EASY”

SPOILERS UNITE, DIVY UP THE SCRAPS, AND CALL IT A GOOD DAY?

SO IT GOES!

I FOUND WHITEY FISHING DOWN AT THE LOWER END OF THE DOLLY HOLE ONE DAY WITH A WHOLE BALL OF BIRD FEATHERS TIED ON HIS HOOK. I LOOKED IN HIS TACKLE BOX AND HE HAD ABOUT TEN MORE BRIGHTLY COLORED GIANT FLIES IN THERE.
HE CLAIMED HE WAS CASTING “ARTIFICIAL BIRDS NOT FLIES”.
TO CATCH A BIG DOLLY VARDEN ONE NEEDS A MIGHTY BIG BAIT.

THINK ABOUT IT NOW:

THERE IS ALWAYS A TIME BEFORE SOMETHING IS, AND A TIME AFTER IT WAS.
BETWEEN THESE TIMES LIES A SIGNIFICANT EVENT.

SO HERE WHITEY WAS IN ONE OF THOSE TIMES.

THE POWER BOYS, FROM DOWN RIVER, STRETCHED AN ELECTRICAL LINE FROM THE ROAD ACROSS THE RIVER AND OVER TO A PUMP AT THE NEWLY BUILT WIZARD FALLS FISH HATCHERY. WHITEY HAD SPOOKED A FLOCK OF COOTS INTO FLIGHT AND ONE OF THEM HIT THE WIRE AND WAS STUNNED AND FELL TO THE WATER. NOTHING IN THAT TIME WAS ACCUSTOMED TO THE OBSTACLE YET.

THE POOR LITTLE COOT NEVER GOT ANOTHER SWIM BECAUSE ONE OF THOSE BIG DOLLYS JUMPED CLEAN OUT OF THE WATER AFTER HIM AND TOOK HIM UNDER LEAVING JUST FOR A MOMENT A LITTLE RIPPLE AND SOME FEATHERS ON THE SURFACE OF THE RIVERS WATER.

FISH, “FEEDING ON BIRDS”.

MORTAL ENEMIES: FISH AND BIRDS.

TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY. SO THE SAGES WOULD SAY.

POWER, OVER EVERYTHING ELSE, TEMPTING TIME TO TAKE THE ADVANTAGE.

WHITEY TOLD ME EACH YEAR FOR THE LAST FIFTY HE HAD “TRIED” TO CATCH A FISH ON ONE OF THESE MONSTER HAND MADE BIRDS.

I ASKED HIM HOW MANY FISH HE HAD BEEN FOOLED WITH THE MOCK UP.
TO MY SURPRISE HE CLAIMED NONE. NO FISH!
NOT A BITE------------------EVER-------------------FOR FIFTY YEARS!

A TESTAMENT TO THE WISDOM AND TENACITY OF THE FISHERMAN.

WHITEY WAS A PRACTICING CATCH AND RELEASE MAN WAY BEFORE ANYONE ELSE EVER THOUGHT OF IT.

HE THOUGHT THE FUN OF FISHING IS TO OUTSMART THE VERY DUMBEST OF THE DUMB FISH, AND THEN LET THEM OFF EASY.

“FREE AND EASY”.

NOPE; HE NEVER EVEN GOT A CHANCE RISE TO THE BIG FEATHERED FOOLERY!
IT'S THE ULTIMATE IN “EARLY RELEASE”.
"SOMETIMES THEY WAG THEIR TAIL TO YOU AS THEY SWIM AWAY".

“WHEN YOU RELEASE A FISH ----- THE JOY OF LIFE RETURNS TO YOU”

AS FOR ME, I SIT BY THE TIMELESS RIVER TRYING DESPERATELY TO SEE IT MOVE.

I KNOW IT IS, I AM DEVOTED TO SEEING IT.

OCCASIONALLY, I’LL PUT A FISH AWAY IF I DON’T THINK IT WILL LIVE, OR IF THERE ARE FOOLS BACK AT CAMP WHO THINK I’M NOT REALLY FISHING IF I DON’T EVER BRING ONE OF THE DUMB THINGS HOME.

THE DUMBEST FISH GET EATEN FIRST!

EACH YEAR IT GETS HARDER AND HARDER TO FIND A DUMB FISH TO CATCH.
IT IS AN ASCENSION OF FISH CIVILIZATION.

FISH ARE FOR EATING, FOR GOD’S SAKE.

FISH ARE GOOD, AND HERE FOR A PURPOSE. WE CAREFULLY DISTINGUISH OURSELVES IN THIS PROCESS AS DESERVING WHEN WE CHOOSE TO CATCH AND KEEP ONE OF THESE FISH.
IN THE WHOLE OF IT ALL WE PRAY THAT WE NEVER TAKE WHAT WAS NOT INTENDED TO BE GIVEN FOR THE BETTER.

MORE THAN THE HORDE, THE WORK OF THE SINGLE FISHER REMAINS THE KEY TO MOVE MANKIND.

GIVE A MAN A FISH AND HE WILL THE EAT FOR A DAY.
TEACH A MAN TO FISH AND HE WILL FEED HIMSELF AND THOSE HE LOVES TO THE END OF HIS DAYS.

THINGS I'VE HEARD OUT THERE ALONE----- WHILE FISHING

I BELIEVE CIVILIZATION IS A VOYAGE NOT A HARBOR.

I BELIEVE IN THE VALUE OF “SELF RELIANCE” AND THE JOY OF SIMPLE TOIL.

I BELIEVE USEFUL SERVICE IS THE COMMON DUTY OF MAN TO THE WORLD, THE RIVER, AND TO HIMSELF.

I BELIEVE THAT EVERY ONE AND EVERY LIVING THING IS OBLIGED BY NATURAL LAW TO BE HAPPY.

I BELIEVE NOTHING IS MORE SERIOUS THAN A SENSE OF HUMOR


AND FINALLY, I BELIEVE THIS,

MEN ARE IDIOTS AND ARE PROGRESSIVELY MORE SO THE FURTHER THEY ARE FOUND FROM THE VALLEY OF THE
METOLIUS RIVER.

EARS AND ARMS RACE

Bill Clinton was arguably the smartest fellow we have ever had in office.
He was caught in acts of oral outrage with someone other than Hillary Clinton his wife.

Other people had expressed dissatisfaction with Hillary as well but many people thought enough of her to let her run for the job of democratic nominee for President of the United States of America.

She ran as kind of a new age populist who promised to take money and power from all the "A" and "B" students who now controlled large publicly held corporations or worked for the pubic in the Federal Government. She promised to dole out money and power to the "C" "D" and "F" people in return for their votes.

I guess she was so mad at her husband that she had not paid much attention to the remarkable job he had done allowing big publicly owned business and government to collaborate so well with one another. The elitist mass aristocracy was having a hay day the way things were!

For example Bill Clinton had signed a bill that asked the "Fed" to relax regulation and guidelines enough to get about 60% of Americans to begin to participate in home ownership!
What you have to do to get a thing like that going is to kind of be real forgiving and optimistic that things will just keep getting better and better and that people will pay their bills even though they hadn't been good at it before being just average "C" or even "D" or "F" students.

Bill Clinton was a middle of the road democratic party President who balanced the budget and fixed up the welfare system and cut military spending and two or three other things that needed doing.
George Bush junior came along who is a way left of center Republican party member who grew the government by 40% and started wars with Iraq for having pretend poison and all sorts of other things including increasing this interest in letting everybody participate in home ownership.

Now the People who owed money to the banks for their new expensive houses could not pay.
So the banks could not pay money they owed to the likes of investment banks.
If investment banks could not pay the 2% or so back to the "Fed". So we the smart people with good "A" and "B" marks that are now running the government and big publicly owned corporations get all the monopoly money and property. Yea we win!
We the Collective People win it all we own little houses all over the board.
Oh, I hope the real Smart "A" and "B" kids will still help us run things.

We have two candidates for the Presidents job who find great ills in this present circumstance and are running little populist programs of their own. They want Hillary Clintons people to help them get the job as President, And they told us so in the great debate last friday.

One guy has arms he can't lift high enough to point out who the enemy is, but by damn if he gets in there he knows who they are and won't be swayed again from kicking their ass either abroad or right here in the corrupt government of the United States of America.

The other guy has big ears to listen to everyone who has a bitch about not getting their share and will appoint committees to be damn sure every body's getting something out of the United States of America.

I had hoped that maybe the smart guys and the average guys along with the really dumb guys would get eyes to see us working together to change the government to one that does not maintain a more powerful self interest. Work for one that does not seek more power to perform larger military or social functions.

Government works best when it governs least.
Maintain laws, roads ,and our well being yes, but stop this escalation of bigness.

This issue has been brought to you by "General Chow"a very fine canned food product.

They put the stuff in the can so you can dish it out.