fractalnavel

actually, that title is incomplete. that's because the content is so brief that it could have been a part of the title.  the gist:

• convene a constitutional convention.

dangerous, yet provocative.  such a convention has the power to rewrite the constitution, if they so wish.  oh, the problems they could solve - but are we up to it ? we could also commit egregious errors as well.  and if we cannot rely on our judgement well enough to confidently engage in such an undertaking, what does that say about us and our conduct in interpreting our current constitution ?

of course, this begs the question of why i would propose such a thing in the first place.  i think this has been alluded to in recent earlier posts.  alas, fatigue prevents me from actually presenting the case ;-)

i love this !  which is relevant to the discussion of looking for “flags” (red, orange, yellow) in this country, and deciding what to do about them.  i've been having that discussion off and on now for the past year, most recently with a few people on the recent shanty creek trip.  seems i'm not the only one, but perhaps i'm one of the early clear articulators of such concerns in bringing the subject to that level.

as in:

• what are the flags we should be looking for ? 
• when are they severe enough (likelihood and level of impact) to merit personal action ? 
• what action options do we have (proactive, reactive, avoidance, etc.) ? 
• how best should we prepare for such actions ? 
• what timing is best for taking the various actions ? 
• what are the consequences of taking these actions too late or not at all (eg, the openness of various other countries to expatriots - refugees)?
• how does the current period in history compare with others, and how can we learn from those periods in terms of the above items ?

and so on.  if it seems like an exercise in risk management, you are correct.  and if it seems like paranoia, think of the events leading up to world war ii, and other closed societies in recent - and current - history.

i am thinking that i will create a new blog category called “flags”, and i was thinking of using the much satirized homeland security alert level color scheme in rating such “flags”.  i spent some time mulling over the definitons for each level, but i need to spend more time on this.

also, i wish i had the flag category earlier on - there are a lot of things here to which such labeling could have been usefully applied.  oh well, it has to start somewhere.

as to the video in this specific instance, it may not be 100% completely fair and accurate, but it sure is effective at pointing out some real concerns. just as with psychological self-diagnosis, it is easy to come up with full spectrums of symptoms indicating just about any disease.  so care should be taken to put this in perspective.  yet generally speaking, i think it is far closer to the point than not, and so this will be the innaugural “flags” post.

a link from craig: pizza flash movie

view from sandy point state park, just before the snow closed in

home again - with broadband ;-)  much easier to post pics this way.

had a nice - long - ride home yesterday. well, not too long, twelve hours, as compared to the usual nine or so.  finally took us-50 back from neavitt to here.  well, sort of.  i followed it from easton, across the bay bridge (very windy), (with a stop at sandy point state park - where the snow started) and into downtown washington, then lost it in the snarl of traffic circles.  so i stayed on massachusetts avenue until i hit the beltway, then swung south and picked up us-50 from there.  us-50 actually goes by all the historic stuff in dc, crosses the potomac, then goes around the cemetary in arlington, then west.  so i missed all that, but i'll try again some other time.

eric's h28 at the dock;
i wish i had aimed just a bit lower...

outward from dc there are a lot of neat old historic towns, farms, parks, etc. old stone buildings, some little touristy places (like st. michaels back on the eastern shore, only less water).  it was interesting watching the historic marker dates become more and more recent as i traveled west, moving from revolutionary times to the civil war.  i didn't stop anywhere though - i still had mountains to cross.

close; the southern leg used us-50

after getting hung up again in the little town of winchester in the northern point of virginia and taking the wrong road out of town (522 north) - daydreaming, i don't know - i managed to get on track again (127 west - not on the map!), missing about 30-40 miles again of us-50.  the countryside up until this point was rolling hilly farmland, mostly.  the mountains were just up ahead.

that's when things got fun.  climbing into the west virginia mountains, i also found snow and white-outs.  jeep likes west virginia [cave man grunt here] ;-)  wonderful scenery, what i could see of it through the snow.  tight little switchbacks up and down the mountains.  streams begging for kayaks and rafts.  i don't care if it takes an extra hour or three, i'm using this route to maryland from now on ;-)  it'll be cool to see what this is like in the summer.  but i was happy that spring was still a distant thought in these mountains.  i suppose zipping around snow covered hairpins on mountainsides in whiteouts isn't for everyone, but i wish it could be there year round, someplace i could find winter whenever i need it.

the family home; such a cozy place

by this point, after driving through the wet snow and driving wind in maryland and collecting an ice shroud, then hitting the snow and cinders in west viriginia, jeep had this really interesting look going.  dark crusty fangs hanging off the front and sides, this bugger looked mean. good for grins.  happy jeep.  very happy jeep.  i think people saw me in their rear view mirrors and got out of the way ;-)

i passed by the routes that would have taken me north to wisp, or south to snowshoe.  skiing would have been fun, but after twelve days it was time to be home.  hit the ohio border at sunset, the fun was over, and after another daydream induced error, i stayed on us-50 until it split into us-32.  some day i'll have to take the full us-50 route through chillicothe, but after ten hours of driving and at that time being dark, there's not much point.

so there's a few little eastern sections still to do, including the end part from easton to the ocean.  then there is the long western end.  something to think about.  but my butt is still sore, after about 2000 miles in the last 12 days.  jeep didn't make the detroit to shanty creek trip, but my rear did ;-)