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“Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth,” writes Richard Whately.

Often times, I feel exactly this way as I sit down to write a message to you. It’s not that I doubt what I write; rather, it’s that I doubt you agree with what you read.

Time and again I’m inspired by something I read, saw or heard and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on the subject. But after sharing them with you, my words seem to fade into nothingness – forgotten, ignored or missed.

As one friend put it on Facebook, after I posted a You-Tube video of a young man being treated as a criminal during a sobriety check point stop: “What rights are being taken away from assholes who drive even slightly impaired. Shame on you, when so many people from our area are killed or impaired because of drunk/ impaired driving!”

She missed the point and felt obliged to respond: “The driver wasn’t asked if he had been drinking. So by not following what the intent is of a ‘sobriety check,’ the officer violated his own standard of action. Furthermore, the driver in this case was neither drunk driving or violating any laws.”

My question is this — if you’ve done nothing wrong, why are you allowing yourself to be treated as criminal? That’s why I doubt you.

There are two headlines showing an attack on our religious freedom is underway. This isn’t about any one faith, rather  it’s about our civil liberty.

• “TSA Allowing Muslim Passengers to Carry Prayer Beads and Whisper Prayers on Flights.”

• “College Employee Asks Student to Remove Cross Necklace at Sonoma State University.”

They have this in common: How faith is to be or not to be expressed. And both instances violates our U.S. Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” reads the First Amendment.

Simply stated — no one can tell you or me how to express our faith and get away with it legally, unless we refuse to do anything about it. Remember, what violates your neighbor’s rights, violates yours and it violates mine.

Henderson, Nevada police arrested a family for refusing to let them use their home during an investigation into their neighbors in 2011. Now, Anthony Mitchell and his parents Michael and Linda Mitchell are suing the Henderson, its Police Chief, six of its officers and North Las Vegas and its Police Chief in Federal Court.

Although plaintiff Anthony Mitchell was lying motionless on the ground and posed no threat, officers, including Officer David Cawthorn, then fired multiple ‘pepperball’ rounds at plaintiff as he lay defenseless on the floor of his living room,” reads the complaint. “Anthony Mitchell was struck at least three times by shots fired from close range, injuring him and causing him severe pain.”

Officers then arrested him for obstructing a police officer, searched the house and moved furniture without his permission and set up a place in his home for a lookout. The family’s claim includes the ‘Third Amendment’ violation: “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

This is what the ‘police state’ looks like — and if you don’t start protecting your civil rights, now — it’ll only get worse.

The bear statues at each end of the Klamath River Bridge on U.S. 101 in Del Norte County were cast to replace the original ones that formerly stood at the ends of the G. H. Douglas Memorial Bridge, which washed out during the December 1964 flood. These statues represent the grizzly bear, California’s official state animal.

The contract specification for the replacement bear statues called for them to be exact  replicas of the statues once on the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. Each eight-ton bear was cast by the Maurice Lafayette Company of San Francisco in 1965.

While the four bear statues currently welcome visitors to Del Norte County, the original bears from the Douglas still exist. Two continue to stand guard on what remains of the old Douglas Memorial Bridge on the south bank of the Klamath River, while the other two are at the south end of the new Klamath town site.

The statues, at one point, even served as the inspiration for Klamath’s Margaret Keating School’s ‘Golden Bears’ mascot.

BOSTON — National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19 by elements of a Para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices.

The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order. The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.

Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.

One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”

Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily armed extremists who had been tipped off about the government’s plans.

During a tense standoff in Lexington’s town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists.

Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange. The local citizenry blamed government forces and not the extremists for the civilian deaths.

Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.

Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.

A number of extremists remain at large.

This is how the American Revolution began on  April 20th, 1775. 

A friend sent this to me and he doesn’t know who wrote it — but  it’s a great lesson.  Remember — if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it.

Happy 237th Independence Day, America!

Spike Milligan is quoted as saying, “Money can’t buy you friends, but you do get a better class of enemy.”

This was before cyberspace, hard drives and Facebook. We now know it costs $630,000 – at least that’s what the U.S. Inspector General claims.

That’s what the U.S. Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) spent on two Facebook campaigns to increase its followers. The campaigns must have been successful as the IIP picked up 2 million new followers for each page — up from 100,000.

At last check, the actual number of likes for their page is somewhere between 70 and 75.  Most of those people who ‘like’ the IIP have names I can’t even pronounce.

That’s taxpayer money well spent.

The best way I can describe how it felt was like a heavy, wet, statically charged blanket rushing over, falling on, in and through me. At the time it not only frightened me, it left me instantly sick to my stomach and depressed.

After searching the Internet and asking a few locals about what they knew about Six-Mile Canyon’s history, I’ve heard only one story that fits in with what happened to me. That’s about Andrew Jackson “Big Jack” Davis, who owned a stable in Gold Hill, where business was good – but where being a bandit was better.

Captured after holding up a train near Verdi and jailed for five-years, he gained his released early because he didn’t participate in an escape from the Nevada State Prison, where 29 inmates busted out. That breakout remains the largest in Western history.

Shortly before being killed during a stage hold-up, “Big Jack” is said to have buried several thousand dollars in gold coins in Six-Mile Canyon.  As the website ‘Legends of America’ writes, “… legends abounds that the treasure is protected by the ghost of Jack Davis who appears as a…screaming phantom to scare the hunters away.”

Then there’s this from the magazine ‘Cowboys and Indians,’ August 2012 issue: “Among the legends chronicled…is that of Big Jack Davis…Shot in the back while robbing a stagecoach, Davis still protects his earthly treasures as the ‘Bandit Ghoul of Six Mile Canyon.’”  This story appears in ‘Haunted Old West: Phantom Cowboys, Spirit-Filled Saloons, Mystical Mine Camps, and Spectral Indians,’ by Matthew P. Mayo.

So go ahead – laugh, chalk it up to aliens, hysteria or sun-stroke – others are. Besides, I’m starting to find some humor in it myself.

Let’s be done with it. I’ve been trying to think of how to say this and not sound like I’m completely off my rocker, but I think I was attacked by a Spirit in Six-Mile Canyon near Virginia City.

After parking my truck, I walked in further, following an animal trail. My intent was to snap a few photographs of the rugged terrain as the sun began to disappear.

The first time I realized I wasn’t alone was when I saw a shadow move over my head. I saw it out of the corner of my left eye and turned to my right to watch it fade behind a grouping of rocks.

My first thought was that I was simply imagining things; my second thought was perhaps a mountain lion. So, I stood there for a couple of minutes to see if the big cat would reappear.

It didn’t, instead I heard the clattering of stone behind me. I turned to where I thought the noise had come – and was met instead by a large, black mass that overwhelmed me.

It struck so quickly, that I had no time to react to it. Instead, I fell backwards and down the small pile of tailings I’d been standing on.

Contact with this mass left me feeling sick to my stomach, sad and very afraid. I didn’t wait for it to come back – I simply got to my feet and took off running back down the trail I’d jus’ come from.

By this time my panic was overwhelming me and I was fumbling with my keys. I could also hear whatever it was behind me – not only did it sound like it was running after me, it also make a shrieking like I’ve never heard.

Once in my truck, I fired the engine up and backed out of the area as far as I could; only turning around when I thought it was safe. I was very happy when my truck-tires found the surface of State Route 341’s asphalt.

Only when I got home and started downloading my pictures to my computer, did it come to me that I had taken jus’ one picture while in the canyon. That was of a bunch of obsidian shards, left I supposed by Indians years ago.

Maybe I dragged something along with me from the Virginia City Cemetery, which I had jus’ finished photographing. While I’m still not sure what happened to me, I do know this– I won’t be returning anytime soon.

It’s a disappointment to know that the media is so focused on destroying Paula Deen, while ignoring the Obama administration. The same same-stream media has also given a free pass to Alec Baldwin for his homophobic rant on Twitter.

”Put my foot up your f**king ass, George Stark, but I’m sure you’d dig it too much,” he tweeted after Stark, a UK reporter, made some sort of allegations about Baldwin’s wife. Silence from Progressives’ speaks for itself.

Using the same standards it did on Deen, Wal-Mart should pull all the CD’s of rap-artist that use the same word Deen used in the 60’s. But it won’t.

Furthermore, Capital One should have cut it’s ties with Baldwin as should NBC which airs the TV show, “30 Rock.” Again silence from the Progressives.

Homosexuals should be outraged at Baldwin’s comments — but they don’t seem to care.

It appears the real cost of Obamacare is catching finally catching on. Texas Senator Ted Cruz introduced a letter to the U.S. Senate from Alan Tharp, Chairman and CEO of Old England’s Lion and Rose, LTD in San Antonio.

“Because of this law,” Tharp writes, “I have been forced to cut back every single hourly employee in each of my companies to no more than 28 hours a week.”

Ouch!

And I mean that personally, as I’m experiencing the same situation at my job. The broadcast company I work for cannot afford to have full-time hourly employees because they have a bottom-line to meet.

Under Obamacare – ‘full-time’ is defined as 30-hours or more.

So to avoid getting fined for not signing employees up for the federal healthcare program, they are forced to cut back on work-hours. It’s either that or pay the minimum penalty of $95 per person beginning in 2014 in 2014, the first year that the law will require individuals to obtain coverage.

That amount will rise to $325 in 2015 year and once fully phased in by 2016, the minimum amount jumps to $695 per person. And don’t forget the ‘tax’ increases each year beginning in 2017 because of inflation.

With 5,500 full time employees across the country, the company I work for is looking at a start up cost of over $500,000 next year. When it’s fully implemented the cost skyrockets to nearly $4,000,000 annually.

So in jus’ under six and half year’s time – I’ve gone from 40 hours a week to a paltry 28 hours. I take solace in knowing I’ll not be alone though, you’ll soon be joining me – if you haven’t already.

What’s a workaholic to do?