The Kill-Joys Are At It Again

On Tuesday, NewsMax reported that the Biden administration has denied the request of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to celebrating the Fourth of July with fireworks at Mount Rushmore.

The article reports:

After the administration rejected Noem’s permit request for fireworks last year, the state in September applied to hold fireworks at the national memorial this year. The request was denied.

“We are not going to be able to host those fireworks this year at Mount Rushmore. I am suing [President] Joe Biden and the White House over not allowing us to move forward with that. The fact is that they’re violating federal law by not letting South Dakota celebrate our independence over that great monument,” Noem said on “The Chad Prather Show.”

“One of the reasons that they are doing that, I think, is specific to punishing South Dakota, but they claim lots of other reasons but they’re ignoring federal law by denying us that permit.”

Noem added that the state’s tourism business, South Dakota’s second largest industry, will suffer because of the administration’s decision.

…The National Park Service (NPS) — citing the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfire risks, opposition from tribal partners, environmental concerns, and ongoing construction at the federal landmark — denied Noem’s permit request for 2021.

NPS in March denied Noem’s permit application for 2022 fireworks, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported.

The state’s permit application was submitted through the South Dakota Department of Tourism and requested a “special event” to occur at Mount Rushmore from between June 15 to July 10, according to the rejection letter.

The article concludes:

The NPS letter also cited conflicting schedules, as the agency plans to host a “patriotic Independence Day celebration in 2022,” unreasonable interference with visitor services – basically, the closing to the public of the Memorial and possible damages to the park because of the increased fire threat, according to the newspaper.

Basically we are only allowed to celebrate July Fourth at Mount Rushmore when we have a Republican President. That should give everyone cause for thought.

Frustrating, But Not Surprising

The Conservative Daily Wire reported Friday that the National Park Service has denied a request from South Dakota to put on a fireworks display at the monument on July 4.

The article reports:

Now in a letter to the South Dakota Department of Tourism, Michelle Wheatley, superintendent of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, cited concerns such as potential pollution, wildfire risk, visitor restrictions to the park for the event and offense to tribal groups in the area to bar the display this year.

“After careful consideration, the NPS has determined that we are unable to grant your request for this permit to hold a special event with fireworks at the Memorial,” the March 14 letter stated.

“Based on the information provided in the application, we have determined that multiple such criteria are present for the requested event, each of which would be independently sufficient to deny the request for a permit,” it added.

Of course, no prohibition of anything enjoyable would be complete with the requisite nod to how it would further oppress marginalized groups.

“Fireworks are viewed by multiple Tribes as an adverse effect to the traditional cultural landscape,” Wheatley stated, citing a Tribal Cultural Survey conducted in May 2021 that revealed “ample documented opposition from the Tribes to the 2020 event.”

The NPS also claimed fireworks “present a clear and present danger to the public health and safety” — though the 2020 display went off without injury — and “result in significant conflict with existing uses” of the park.

This is the second time in as many years that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was denied a permit to hold the fireworks display at the iconic location.

The article concludes:

Perhaps, this aversion to Independence Day festivities also stems from a decade-old Harvard University study that suggested people who participate in July 4 celebrations as children are more likely to be Republican adults.

No, it’s just too much to risk — as revelers could walk away with hearts swelling with pride for their county that provides prosperity, opportunity and liberty for all who want it.

It’s dangerous when they stop resenting their fatherland and start seeing America for what it is — a land of imperfect people protected by the nearly flawless founding documents that prevent tyranny and the predations of power-drunk rulers.

Whatever the official reasons, there’s no doubt that seeing the rockets’ red glare illuminate the faces of the great men who built this country is too much to bear for people who hate America — especially when it threatens to cause an outbreak of love for this great nation.

I wish that all of those in power who believe America is a horrible place would have to live a year in a country whose government they admire. Would the elites enjoy being subjected to a social credits system?

Whoops!

The Daily Caller posted an article on Friday about some signs that were quietly removed from Glacier National Park. It seems that those in charge of the park had bought into the extreme reports of imminent global warming.

The article reports:

The National Park Service (NPS) quietly removed a visitor center sign saying the glaciers at Glacier National Park would disappear by 2020 due to climate change.

As it turns out, higher-than-average snowfall in recent years upended computer model projections from the early 2000s that NPS based its claim glaciers “will all be gone by the year 2020,” federal officials said.

The article explains:

“Glacier retreat in Glacier National Park speeds up and slows down with fluctuations in the local climate,” the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors Glacier National Park, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Those signs were based on the observation prior to 2010 that glaciers were shrinking more quickly than a computer model predicted they would,” USGS said. “Subsequently, larger than average snowfall over several winters slowed down that retreat rate and the 2020 date used in the NPS display does not apply anymore.”

NPS updated signs at the St. Mary Visitor Center glacier exhibit over the winter. Sign changes meant the display warning glaciers would all disappear by 2020 now says: “When they completely disappear, however, will depend on how and when we act.”

Get over it, people. We do not control the climate. The computer models were wrong because the data put into the computers was either wrong or incomplete. We are not in charge. We do have an obligation to do everything we can to keep the air and water as clean as possible, but we do not have a major impact on the climate. One major volcanic eruption puts more junk in the air than a million people driving around for years. I was living in New England when Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991. We didn’t really have a summer that year.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported on the impact of that eruption:

Nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide were injected into the stratosphere in Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions, and dispersal of this gas cloud around the world caused global temperatures to drop temporarily (1991 through 1993) by about 1°F (0.5°C). The eruptions have dramatically changed the face of central Luzon, home to about 3 million people. About 20,000 indigenous Aeta highlanders, who had lived on the slopes of the volcano, were completely displaced, and most still wait in resettlement camps for the day when they can return home. About 200,000 people who evacuated from the lowlands surrounding Pinatubo before and during the eruptions have returned home but face continuing threats from lahars that have already buried numerous towns and villages. Rice paddies and sugar-cane fields that have not been buried by lahars have recovered; those buried by lahars will be out of use for years to come.

As people, we really don’t have the power to impact the climate to that degree.

Common Sense Comes To The Park Service

The Washington Free Beacon posted an article today about a recent decision by the National Park Service.

The article reports:

The National Park Service told the Washington Free Beacon it is no longer providing funding for a controversial project “honoring the legacy” of the Black Panther Party after outrage that the agency would spend taxpayer dollars to memorialize a group that murdered a park ranger in the 1970s.

The Free Beacon revealed last month that the Park Service gave roughly $100,000 to the University of California, Berkeley for a research project on the Marxist extremist group to “memorialize a history that brought meaning to lives far beyond the San Francisco Bay Area.”

“Committed to truthfully honoring the legacy of [Black Panther Party] BPP activists and the San Francisco Bay Area communities they served, the project seeks to document the lives of activists and elders and the landscapes that shaped the movement,” the National Park Service stated in the grant awarded for the project.

A captain in the Black Panther Party murdered National Park Service ranger Kenneth Patrick while he was on patrol near San Francisco in 1973. Patrick was shot three times by Veronza Leon Curtis Bowers Jr., who is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Patrick left behind a widow and three children.

In 1997 David Horowitz published a book called Radical Son. The book details Mr. Horowitz’s experiences as a 1960’s radical and details his involvement with the Black Panthers during that time. He details the story of the murder of a friend of his that he had recommended as a bookkeeper for the group. Shortly after she began asking questions about the books she was keeping and the financing of the group, she was murdered. This is not a group that needs to be either memorialized or celebrated.

A Chilling Thought

On Friday, John Fund posted a very interesting article at the National Review Online. The article deals with the behavior of the National Park Rangers during the shutdown. On Wednesday the House Oversight Committee began an investigation into that behavior.

The article reports a very obvious question asked by Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina:

Gowdy wanted to know why Jarvis had allowed “pot-smoking” Occupy Wall Street protesters to camp overnight illegally in Washington’s McPherson Square park for 100 days, yet put up barricades to keep veterans out of war memorials on the first day of the shutdown. By not issuing a single citation to the Occupy campers, Gowdy argued, the Park Service was treating them better than the nation’s military veterans. “Can you cite me the regulation that required you to erect barricades from accessing a monument that they built?” he demanded.

…Representative Darrell Issa was equally stern with Jarvis, noting that, since the Park Police weren’t furloughed during the shutdown, “an open-air monument was guarded by the same number of people to prevent Americans from getting in as would allow them to safely go in and out.”

The article goes on to list some of the more bizarre closings during the government shutdown. Please follow the link above to read the list.

The article concludes:

But now that the shutdown is over, it’s important for Chairman Issa and others to figure out how it was manipulated politically. Because if the Park Service can become a pawn in the Obama administration’s political wars, does anyone doubt that the integrity of other even more vital agencies wouldn’t be at risk in any future budget showdown?

The fact that the signs closing the parks appeared so rapidly (have you ever tried to get the government to do anything quickly?) and the way the Park Rangers behaved convinces me that this was a planned event by the Obama Administration. Frankly I think the shutdown was used to manipulate the American people, and we fell for it. Hopefully many of us will begin to ask why the Park Rangers followed the orders to make the shutdown uncomfortable for average Americans and how the signs appeared so quickly. I think we were played as fools.

 

 

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What Sort Of Vindictiveness Is This?

On Saturday, CNS News posted an article explaining how the government shutdown has impacted C&O Canal National Historical Park (Chesapeake and Ohio Canal). The canal was chartered by President James Monroe and opened in 1828.

The park rangers have removed the handles from the 40-some public water pumps and closed restrooms in the park. However, the cyclists who use the park have simply responded by bringing their own water bottles and by using the woods for other personal needs.

The article reports:

“The State of Maryland requires the park to monitor 40 public wells for contaminants every two weeks,” he (Michael Nardolilli, president of the non-profit C&O Canal Historical National Park Trust) told CNSNews.com. “When the park was shut down on October 1st, they furloughed the park employees who do the testing,” and the park was “not in compliance with Maryland water quality standards.”

Nardolilli added that C&O is home to “1,300 historical structures, more than any other unit in the National Park Service,” and “60 rare or endangered species.” He said there are currently “no eyes and ears to protect these resources” because the “handful of Park Police still on duty” are too busy patrolling the entrances to the park’s 15,000 acres in a futile attempt to keep people out.

Taking the handles off the water pumps is just petty. It is another example of the use of the government for partisan political purposes. This can be stopped at the voting booth if Americans educate themselves as to its source and vote accordingly.

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Americans Need To Be Concerned About Protecting Their Rights As Citizens

There have been a number of very disturbing stories coming out about the impact of the government shutdown on private citizens who are in no way involved in this dispute. Private organizations renting government land have been closed by the government, private businesses in national parks have been shut down, and now, private citizens are being evicted from their homes because of the shutdown.

Today The Examiner posted a story about 60 families kicked out of their private homes on Lake Mead.

The article reports:

Some 60 families have been kicked out of their privately-owned homes on Lake Mead by National Parks Service personnel as a result of the partial government shutdown, Newsmax reported Sunday.

“They are all vacation homes and everybody who lives in them are considered visitors,” said Lake Mead Recreational Area spokeswoman Christie Vanover.

“If anybody needs to gather their personal belongings, we’re not going to deny them access. They can go do that. They just can’t spend the nights there or have barbecues during the day,” she added. They need to get in and get out.”

This is disturbing.

The article further reports:

On Friday, we reported that a Park Ranger admitted being ordered to make life as inconvenient as possible in order to punish Americans during the shutdown.

“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can,” an angry Park Ranger told the Washington Times. “It’s disgusting.”

Across the country, Park Rangers have been doing exactly that, closing down parks, roads, and even scenic bypasses on a whim.

Obama, meanwhile, fomented violence against Republicans Saturday when he called them kidnappers who “demand ransom” and “hold our democracy or our economy hostage.”

This is not acceptable. We need too find out who gave these orders and remove them from power. This is the government fighting the people of America. This is not the way America works.

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This About Sums Up Where We Are

On Wednesday, Investor’s Business Daily posted an article giving their impression of how President Obama is dealing with the government shutdown. It’s not a pretty picture.

The article reports:

So the administration decided instead to put barricades around various other popular open-air Mall monuments to score political points in the budget shutdown standoff. That required, in turn, posting freshly printed signs explaining why they’re off limits, and a police presence to guard the barricades.

“The Obama administration is going out of its way to erect barricades and have people manning them in order to keep people out,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. In other words, Obama is expending more resources to close these monuments than they require to stay open.

Incredibly, this includes the Mall’s World War II memorial, which prompted a group of WWII veterans to force their way past the barricades — risking arrest — to pay homage to the fallen heroes of that war.

In case there’s any doubt as to who’s to blame for this outrage, a spokesman for National Park Service said the White House Office of Management and Budget ordered up the blockades.

Do you suppose they will try to stop people from driving on the streets of Washington, D.C.?

These are the actions of a petulant bully. He will be in office for the next three years, but as Americans we can make him less effective by electing people to Congress who refuse to be bullied. Let’s do it!

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This Is Ridiculous

Breitbart.com is reporting today that the federal government has closed the ocean due to the government shutdown. Yes, you read that right.

The article reports:

Just before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was “closed” due to the shutdown. Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown.

The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban. ..The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business.

…Apparently, according to an anonymous Park Service ranger, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

Please remember that the President is the one who determines where money is spent during the shutdown.

 

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Absurdity In Government

The Washington Free Beacon posted a story today about the shutdown of the Claude Moore Colonial Farm. The shutdown is supposedly the result of the stalemate over the budget.

The article reports:

According to Anna Eberly, managing director of the farm, NPS sent law enforcement agents to the park on Tuesday evening to remove staff and volunteers from the property.

“You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don’t have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money,” she said.

The park withstood prior government shutdowns, noting in a news release that the farm will be closed to the public for the first time in 40 years.

Please note: the government spent money to close down a park that operates without government funding and does not cost them any money.

The article further reports:

Farm staff repeatedly asked the NPS to allow the farm to remain open. “Every appeal our Board of Directors made to the NPS administration was denied,” Eberly said.

She called the decision “utter crap.”

“We have operated the Farm successfully for 32 years after the NPS cut the Farm from its budget in 1980 and are fully staffed and prepared to open today. But there are barricades at the Pavilions and entrance to the Farm,” Eberly explained.

Previous federal funding battles have threatened the farm’s operations. A group of citizens in 1980 formed the Friends of Turkey Run Farm, established a $500,000 endowment for the farm, and negotiated a 30-year no-fee lease.

This park is on federal land, but has no relationship to the federal budget. It is small and petty to shut it down.

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When Common Sense And Government Part Ways

I love flowers and shrubs. I don’t have a green thumb, but I keep planting, and the strong survive. I do try, however, to keep things in perspective. I think most of us do. But then, there is the government.

Yesterday CNS News posted a story about moving a bush as part of a highway renovation project. Doesn’t sound like much–all of us occasionally move plants around our yard, right? Well, when the government gets involved, strange things happen.

The article reports:

The bush—a Franciscan manzanita—was a specimen of a commercially cultivated species of shrub that can be purchased from nurseries for as little as $15.98 per plant. The particular plant in question, however, was discovered in the midst of the City of San Francisco, in the median strip of a highway, and was deemed to be the last example of the species in the “wild.”

Prior to the discovery of this “wild” Franciscan manzanita, the plant had been considered extinct for as long as 62 years–extinct, that is, outside of people’s yards and botanical gardens.

So I guess it doesn’t matter what the plant is–it matters where it grows. Since the plant was in the “wild,” various federal agencies needed to be consulted (not to mention scientists and other concerned organizations). Before this story was over, it involved comments by and information from the Department of Interior, Dr. Daniel Gluesenkamp, a botanist who was then the director of Habitat Protection and Restoration for Audubon Canyon Ranch, a  biologist from the Presidio Trust , the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the California Department of Fish and Game. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was developed for saving this one bush from the highway project, for which ground had been broken in December 2009.

The article further reports:

While the MOA did not detail all the costs for moving the bush, it did state that in addition to funding removal and transportation of the Franciscan manzanita, Caltrans agreed to transfer $79,470 to the Presidio Trust “to fund the establishment, nurturing, and monitoring of the Mother Plant in its new location for a period not to exceed ten (10) years following relocation and two (2) years for salvaged rooted layers and cuttings according to the activities outlined in the Conservation Plan.”

Furthermore, Presidio Parkway Project spokesperson Molly Graham told CNSNews.com that the “hard removal”—n.b. actually digging up the plant, putting it on a truck, driving it somewhere else and replanting it–cost $100,000.

The MOA also stated that Caltrans agreed to “Transfer $25,605.00 to the Trust to fund the costs of reporting requirements of the initial 10-year period as outlined in the Conservation Plan.”

Please read the entire article to get the detailed picture of moving this plant. The article states that the cost of moving this plant was at least $205,075 in 2010. It was partially funded by the stimulus program. I’m glad to see that Vice-President Biden was keeping a close watch on how the stimulus money was spent.  

 

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The American People Need To Educate Themselves And Take A Stand On This

Flight 93 stone memorial of an American Flag w...

Image via Wikipedia

I consider myself fairly well informed on the dangers of the Islamization of America, but I still have a lot to learn. I think most of us are just beginning to understand that there are people in the world who hate us just because we are Americans and we are free. The hard part of understanding that is beginning to understand that while we don’t seem overly concerned about the fact that they hate us, radical Islamists are making plans to change the things about us that they hate (our freedom, our way of life, our ability to worship the god of our choice). That is why what is going on with the memorial to Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is so disturbing. It’s hard for most of us to understand what has happened.

John Hinderaker at Power Line reported yesterday on the plans for the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial.

The article shows pictures of the design and states the following:

Announcement of the winning design by the National Park Service provoked a torrent of outrage. The result was that the Park Service had the design changed (I believe by the architect who created the original Crescent of Embrace, Paul Murdoch) so that it is now a circle–a “broken circle,” as it is described–rather than a crescent. The difference is at best a subtle one, and opposition to the project continued, led by Burnett and Alec Rawls. Rawls has a site called Crescent of Betrayal that contains a great deal of information about the Park Service’s design for the memorial. These images show how the revised design on the right is really the same as the original crescent, except that a grove of trees has been added to create the “broken circle” motif:

Unfortunately, the whole memorial is built around the central theme of Islam. This is an affront to the people on that plane who died that day. I strongly encourage you to follow the link to the article at Power Line and read the entire article. After that, please tell a friend, write a letter, or make some noise. This needs to be stopped before it is built.

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