The summer before leaving for university, I decided to take a pack trip; you could call it my senior trip, except I had never been in a formal classroom. My goal was to visit my cousins and their gold mining ventures in the Yukon Territory. University didn’t really appeal to me and if the truth was known, I was only attending to fulfill the wishes of my father. If I liked gold mining and there was opportunity in the Yukon: why waste four years in school?

My father agreed to the trip, reluctantly: he maintained I should take a pickup and drive straight there without the possibility of disappearing forever in a thousand miles of bush and mountains, never to be seen or heard of again. I assured him I felt way more comfortable on a horse than in a vehicle and persuaded him that a horse was more my style and it might be the last chance I would ever have to really see the wild country. I promised to start home in the second week of July and to keep a journal, so not to lose my famous sense of time.

That spring we had heavy rains with heavy snow melt, the rivers and creeks were raging between the high water marks of their banks, and I was lunging in the traces while waiting to leave. Crossing rivers and creeks while they are in flood stage is suicide, so I waited in the agony of expectation of an exciting pack trip. I loaded up 40 hot rounds for my 8mm Mauser; they were hot, because I wouldn’t fire my weapon except to kill the odd animal for meat or to bail myself out of a Grizzly encounter. I’d pack a 22 rifle for shooting ptarmigan and grouse, sport wing shooting was out of the question, head shots from 30 feet was the order of the day, my apologies sportsmen, but this was a question of survival and eating well on the trail. Read the rest of this entry »

The trappers of the Peace river country knew each other fairly well, some were teenagers like myself and others were in their eighties and there were many in between. It was nothing for a trapper to stop in at a cabin and make himself at home until you showed up. The rule was simple, replace what you used, if someone came to the cabin in an emergency and was barely alive, he didn’t want to find a twenty dollar bill and a thank you note.

There was always kindling, matches, flour, sugar, coffee, tea, beans and rice; most trap cabins had enough emergency rations to keep a man alive for at least a month. It was a code that worked well among men who knew no law except for the law of hospitality.

These were men with the bark on, they would be considered dangerous if you saw one in the city: if you were in trouble in the mountains, forget the tree hugger, you better hope a trapper finds you.

Most lived a solitary life without women, there were a few who had Native wives and a few Metis who had Metis wives, these were women who knew no other life. For there were seldom women who wanted to live the life of solitary exclusion that was the trapper lifestyle. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Obama is sounding the death knell for many Congressional Democrats, he now intends to deliver to deliver the proverbial coup de gras with the immigration bullet to the back of their heads. He is now pushing for a ‘pathway to citizenship’ for the ten to forty million illegal aliens residing in the United States. In an unprecedented move, he has said, they will be expected to pay a fine, pay taxes, and obey the law. These harsh moves will surely be met with opposition from immigration reform proponents who will view the requirements as an imposition to illegal aliens working here illegally and drawing heavily upon the welfare coffers of states like California who supports one third of the welfare population in the United States and the illegal alien population occupies one third of the prison population of the US. Read the rest of this entry »

Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, is blaming older Whites of the Right, particularly those from the South for Obama’s difficulties in establishing his Socialist agendas and for working against Obama so that he will be a one term President; primarily he maintains, because the ‘White Right’ doesn’t like having a Black Man in the White House. Using his self proclaimed divine status for the justification of his role, not as “a prophet for that is too cheap a word. I am a light in the midst of darkness.” He now urges Obama to improve the lives of Blacks and the downtrodden in America.

Farrakhan delivered a four hour speech to Black Members of the Nation of Islam in Chicago. Much of the speech was recounting a psychedelic type experience in Mexico, where he claims to have conversed with the deceased founder of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, in 1985. Apparently Elijah invited him aboard a space ship called ‘the wheel’ and listened as the great leader gave him direction. Wearing white sailor suits and white skirts with hijabs, the crowd of 20,000 repeatedly screamed “Allah Akbar”, the phrase the radical Muslim Major Hassan used as he killed American soldiers at Fort Hood.

Farrakhan, who embraces black nationalism, asserts, “It ain’t ego, it’s my love for you.”

Dressed in ornate creme robes, he addressed the president directly: Read the rest of this entry »

America has been denied in its thirst for a leader. We are experiencing trying times, engaged in two wars, several states on the verge of economic collapse, a banking system that has a peculiar relationship with our federal government, staggering unemployment, an Executive that is preoccupied with a Health Care Plan that America has rejected, a domestic security departmet that has targeted American Vets and political opposition rather than Terrorists and has told us the system works when a terrorist on an airplane has a failed detonation, an Attorney General who refuses to prosecute obvious election felonies against members of his own race, an illegal alien problem with an un-enforced border that is not being addressed, bizarre and unprecedented nationalization of automakers, a stimulus program that enriched fat cat bankers and union bosses while leaving america with staggering debt and no detectable benefit, and with every foreign policy initiative our President leaves us feeling that our National interests are being pre-empted for a vague notion of International Socialism.

America is reaching out with desperation for leadership: like unfulfilled lovers we are left with the unappealing, sterile, and chaste meanage a trois of Pelosi, Reed, and Obama. Shakespeare portrayed America’s emptiness in its need for a leader and the emptiness when those leaders are unable to fulfill the basic fundamentals of leadership with the example of ‘Venus And Adonis’ and the illustration of unrequited love.

In one of the most sexually loaded poems of English Literature, Shakespeare’s goddess is like a beast in heat and unleashes sexual innuendos at the object of her erotic arousal, Adonis, a teenage boy; while she is in a perpetual state erotic arousal and oozing with desire, Adonis is oblivious to her passion and remains obsessed with himself. Read the rest of this entry »

If you swear in the capital there will be a jar there for you to deposit coins. California is not only setting the stage for further implementation of a Nanny State, but has come up with their only budget reducing plan so far.

SACRAMENTO — Feeling a little salty, Californians? Better get it out of your system while you can.

Amid the ongoing — and occasionally tense — debate over how to clean up California’s budget mess, lawmakers are trying to tidy something else, almost as unmanageable: our language. Thursday morning, the Assembly approved a ceremonial resolution turning the first week of March into “Cuss Free Week.” Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama is desperately trying to convince Americans he is not a Socialist. For Canadians, this becomes a confusing paradox, or a statement that is logically unacceptable, senseless or a self-contradiction. Canada has a rich history of Socialism and Social Democracy. The platform of Socialism is widely known and accepted as a legitimate force in Canadian politics: wealth redistribution, central planning, nationalization of industry, elitism among the political class, national health care, the favoritism toward trade unions, the embrace of International Socialism as opposed to National Socialism (the experiment that failed so miserably in Germany) and control of energy and natural resources have been and always will be benchmarks of the International Socialist Movement. A Canadian must ask of Obama, why does he hide the nature of his convictions or does he lack the courage of his convictions?

In Canada, during the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939, (1929 to 1942 in the US, because of FDR’s New Deal), the Communist Party of Canada had a period of popularity and influence.

In 1935, 1,448 Canadians were recruited by the Communist Party of Canada to fight for the Communists in the Spanish Civil War against Franco. Designated the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, they fought alongside the International Brigades including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the US. The Canadians fought heroically and had at least 721 men killed in action. Read the rest of this entry »

It was the late 80’s or early 90’s, I don’t remember exactly; I was at the top of my field with enough strength and testosterone to take on the world. I was working in Europe and all over North America, my hubris had not caught up with me and I thought I would live forever. It would take twenty years before I would realize my own mortality; but at this time, there was no one in the world who could stand against me, no one.

I could buy two ranches in one year, I drove the most expensive automobiles and had an office with several women to keep me pointed in the right direction; in other words, I was a complete fool and played the role to the max.

It was mid-winter and I was on the road East of Merritt headed for Calgary. I was driving an S series Mercedes and fueling up at a truck stop. A young cowboy walked up and asked if he could ride with me into Calgary.

His hair was a little too long and his clothes were nearly worn out, it wasn’t a fashion statement, it was from work on a ranch. He wore moose hide moccasins with rubber over shoes, his belt and rodeo buckle were older than he was.

In a matter of seconds, I took a measure of the boy using the same skill that I use to size up a horse, a skill has kept me alive with thousands of horses.

“Do you smoke or drink?” I asked.

“I don’t smoke, but if you want to have a drink, I’ll drink with you”, he answered with a smile.

I grinned and thought to myself, he was the real McCoy, a spitting image of myself almost twenty years earlier. “Throw your tack in the trunk, we leave in a few minutes”, I told him. Read the rest of this entry »

The Commandant of the Marines Corps, General James T. Conway, has said no to Obama’s plan to allow gays to serve openly in the Marine Corps.

“My best military advice to this committee, to the (defense) secretary, and to the president would be to keep the law such as it is.”

Conway’s public rejection of his commander-in-chief’s stance is sure to fuel debate in Congress on the issue and reflects apprehension among some senior military officers about changing the 1993 law.

The chiefs of the US Army and Air Force also expressed doubts about lifting the ban at congressional hearings this week, saying they were concerned about putting the military under further strain in the midst of two wars. Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama has decided to repackage his failed Health Care Bill by calling on bipartisanship when his own Democrats rejected the bill. The bipartisanship is merely a masking agent of aromatic odor to try and sell this bill to the American people.

He has now told the American people and the Senate that he will push the bill through with an extortionist technique called reconciliation, a measure that is normally reserved for emergency passage of budgets that only requires a 51 vote majority.

The issue of bipartisanship has become Obama’s Ambergris. Ambergris is a substance from the gut of the Sperm Whale found floating upon the ocean or washed up on beaches. Ambergris, sometimes confused with the amber that is washed upon beaches, is completely different; amber a yellow clear substance is the ancient sap of prehistoric trees: Ambergris is a grey substance produced in the bowels of a sick Sperm Whale that is easily mistaken for whale crap. The Turks use it for cooking, the French use it for perfume, it has been used for various medicinal purposes from treating migraines to hemorrhoids, during the Bubonic Plague it was thought to ward off the disease, it has also been used with varying success as an aphrodisiac: yet the most consistent proponent of Ambergris is its pungent odor that resembles whale crap. Read the rest of this entry »

“There are indeed certain Liquors, which being applied to our Passions, or to Fire, produce Effects the very Reverse of those produced by Water… Among these the generous Liquor called Punch is one.”
Henry Fielding: Tom Jones ¬~ 1749

My Friend Barb Wire Johnny kept a 1940 Chevrolet pickup at the home ranch. I don’t think he ever drove or had a license, but his mother drove before her dementia began to set-in. After that, Johnny couldn’t trust her to be alone while he trained horses or went out on the trap line: he was forced to have her committed to the old folks home in Dawson Creek.

I inherited the job of chauffeur; a fourteen year old, unpaid, and unlicensed (no driver’s license, it was a different era) chauffeur. Every three or four months, I would drive Johnny to mile One O One on the Alaska Highway, turn South towards Fort St John and continue South on the Alaska Highway to Mile Zero at Dawson Creek, so Johnny could visit his mother. It wasn’t really a chore, I enjoyed being with Johnny, he was a magician with a horse and he taught me many of the mystical and spiritual relationships that can exist between men and horses, things that I still use on a daily basis.

My dad, a taciturn man who seldom shows emotion, had a soft spot for Johnny and his mother. They were handsome people who had wandered off the Reservation years earlier. I have always suspected that my departed mother, a beautiful Indian Princess type, who made men literally stumble over each other and push each other out of the way to be the one to open a door for her, was related to Johnny and his mother. All the local natives called each other cousin and they probably were, for all I could make sense of their family relationships. Read the rest of this entry »

Obama denies being an ideologue or a Bolshevik, why? Is he ashamed of his heritage and convictions, are just intent on keeping his motivations covert until the right time to spring his true nature upon us. Or is there a technicality that we need to grasp?

Perhaps we should analyze the term Bolshevik. Historically, the Bolsheviks were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), founded by Vladimir Lenin, they split from the Menshevik faction in 1903, during the Second Party Congress. They eventually gained control during the October phase of the Revolution in 1917. Bolshevik means majority or large and the nick name resulted from having the majority rule in a crucial vote. Later on after gaining complete control, Lenin maintained that since there was no opposition, there was no longer the need to call themselves the majority party or Bolsheviks, thus they named themselves the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Eventually, Lenin died and Stalin gained control of the party, Trotsky was exiled and wrote extensively condemning Stalin’s ‘incorrect’ version of Communism by referring to it as Bolshevism, a derivative of Bolshevik, in apposition to Leninism. Consequently the term Bolshevik developed negative connotations for the ‘pure’ Communist; perhaps this explains President Obama’s displeasure at being called a Bolshevik. He like many others must feel the sting of those who are critical of Stalin’s regime. Read the rest of this entry »

A conman always has a pleasing personality or else they couldn’t make a living. During my career as a horseman, I have known many of these two bit hustlers, they are pathetic specimens always on the lookout for someone who will fall for a story and be willing to lay their money down like a fool.

Conmen, short for confidence men, have a method of endearing themselves to you and inspiring confidence in their abilities and character; yet in terms of reality, they are frauds, empty vessels without honor or integrity; who will let you down every time and leave you feeling foolish for having trusted them.

I trusted one such man and it nearly cost me my life.

During the mid-60’s, my friend Knarley Manners and I were guiding two Grizzly hunters in the Omineca Peace area near the Divide. Now I have enjoyed many of the hunters I have guided, some of them are just out for a holiday away from the city and their family. They are usually good humored and seem to care less whether they see game or not. They are there for the camaraderie and they are usually fun to be around. There are serious hunters, who have hunted all over the world and can tell you about hunting puma in Argentina, Kodiak in Alaska, and Cape Buffalo and elephant in Africa. They are often capable hunters and can often be helpful on a hunt. Read the rest of this entry »

The Left has always had a cavalier attitude toward death. Identified by Sarah Palin as Death Panels in President Obama’s Health Care Legislation; the concept relates to much earlier times in the Leftist philosophy.

From the writing of Chairman Mao, who is a hero of Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom within the Obama Administration, we are left with keys to his much admired Democrat philosophy concerning death for the commoner as opposed to death for the “Great Heroes”, a designation he and most upper level Democrat leaders seem to ascribe for themselves.

Mao, “Human beings are endowed with the sense of curiosity. Why should we treat death differently? Son’t we want to experience strange things? Death is the strangest thing, which you will never experience if you go on living… Some are afraid of it because the change comes too drastically. But I think this is the most wonderful thing: where else can we such a fantastic and drastic change?

We love sailing on a sea of upheavals. To go from life to death is to experience the greatest upheaval. Isn’t it Magnificent?” Read the rest of this entry »