Is progressive Asheville Obama's vision for America? (unwashed hippies alert)

Christian Science Monitor ^ | 24 April 2010 | Partik Jonsson

[riri]

Ditto to Durango, Colorado.

[Ben Ficklin]

If you are talking about bike paths and hiking trails, you need to talk about Eisenhower, not Obama, because that all began with ike.

In order to get his Submerged Land Act passed, Ike conceived of and proposed a series of funding acts that would be paid for by OCS royalties. Since there was no money in the kitty at the time, these would be enacted after left office but he promoted them as ex prez.

The first act was the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the first trail built was the Appalachian Trail because Ike was a big fan of that.

The second funding act was the Urban Park Renewal and Restoration act that provides funds for those bike paths The third funding act was the Historical and Cultural Site Preservation Act in which money goes to preserve things like a lighthouse in New England, or the stockyards in Fort Worth, or the Lawrence Welk Museum in ND.

That was all in place for many years and decades until 2006 when the GOP Congress expanded the federal royalty sharing to be used for coastal mitigation and hurricane protection, except this money bypassed the treasury and Congressional appropriators and went directly to and only to the 4 oil producing gulf states.

Now, the Atlantic states who have indicated a desire to drill the OCS off their coasts, want the same deal that the 4 gulf states got.

[NCMom57]

No “real” hiker would wear those kind of outfits the king and queen are wearing. I hope they fell on their butts or that dog bit them.

I live south of Asheville. We were going out of town on Friday afternoon and had to travel I40 up to I240 through Asheville. Unfortunately we had no idea what the time the royals landed at the airport because they wouldn’t tell anyone and we got caught up in the resulting traffic jam. Thanks so much for not letting the locals know what time to avoid the roads. Just let us all stew in our hatred as we sat in traffic for over an hour to go 15 miles while they sipped champagne in their $800 a night hotel room.

We avoid Asheville like the plague. We’re hoping to be able to move into a more backwoods area when both our girls have graduated from college in 8 years. Gotta get out of this NE transplant mecca.

[rlmorel]

Now, this is a funny thread for me, given where I just came from yesterday.

I spent the last week touring Arizona with my wife (got home late last night) and we spent several days in Sedona.

Now, for those of you who don't know (because I didn't) Sedona seems like a place for wealthy hippie-dippy folks. Stunning beautiful, but there are places for crystal therapy, you see crusty looking hippie types with tie-dye and thousand yard stares from the Sixties (the brown acid after-effect!) and so on.

At the lodge my wife and I stayed at (a very nice lodge) I could tell I was a "just a bit of an outsider" judging from the Volvos, Obama stickers, etc. One of the attractions the lodge advertises is a labyrinth. Now when I heard that, I thought it was like a hedge maze, but it isn't. It is a bunch of rocks laid out in a pattern on the ground. It is supposed to offer some kind of meditative benefit. (Here is what it looks like...I did find it attractive from a landscaping perspective)

And here is what they say about this particular feature of the lodge: "...Almost hidden, the Lodge at Sedona's labyrinth offers its guests and the general public a unique on-site amenity. Constructed completely of local riverbed rocks, the labyrinth is classified as a " seven path classical labyrinth." a type represented in many indigenous cultures throughout the world. The design appears in Pima and Hopi Indian traditions in Arizona. The seven rings symbolize the seven sacred planets, the seven days of the week, the seven chakras of the body and the seven principles of the cosmos. The center of the labyrinth is often regarded as a place of meditation and prayer. The labyrinth was built by Taffy Lanser, an ordained minister who has constructed several labyrinths. On more than one occasion, guests of the luxury bed and breakfast inn have been seen during the early morning hours spending time in the labyrinth while still in their bathrobes. The labyrinth is open to the public every day from 11 am to 3 pm, free of charge..."

I will say, if I had gone out and seen some old hippies in bathrobes stumbling around that thing with coffee cups in hand, my wife would have had to give me a Thorazine injection to keep me from embarrassing her!

As it was, the day we left, there were five or six old hippie looking types navigating the maze, one with a Gandalf the Wizard style walking stick, all looking intently at the ground, stopping here and there to meditate.

I thought it was so funny I nearly began laughing out loud as we were packing our car!

Don't get me wrong, I think people can use all kinds of ways to find enlightenment (different strokes for different folks and all) but watching these old hippies was too funny. My wife had to keep shusshing me...:)

As a joke for friends, I am making a fake newspaper, complete with headlines to send to our friends, one of the sub-headlines in this is going to be this picture (which I just pulled off the internet when searching for "hippie") along with the title:

"Local Hippie Loses Self in Labyrinth"

"A local hippy reportedly lost her consciousness in a labyrinth on Saturday, after losing her train of thought once she reached the center. MoonJava Sunshine, who has been a resident since she stopped there while hitchhiking in 1968, described what happened: "Labyrinths are sacred places with only one way in to the center to total enlightenment, and one way out, the same way. Over the years, I had gained about 80% understanding of my "self" and was ready to take the next step. This labyrinth had a good reputation, but when I got to the center, I paused to scratch a bedbug bite on my leg and forgot where I was. When I came back out, I had lost all my enlightenment. It was all gone. I think their labyrinth is defective, and someone has to pay for my loss. This is bad karma, and I am very hurt by this." Sedona Police sources say a lawsuit is a possibility..."

[reformedliberal]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income

Note that Basic Income stipends are unconditional.

[ckilmer]

yeah mine are from that neck of the woods too. made the same run. ashville was run down. its a bit more upscale these days. but I believe the people who say bring your own job. great place to go if you have an internet business

[opentalk]

wonder if the reason for Obama's trip to Ashville had to do with pushing the advancement of Cap and trade bill.

Asheville’s National Climatic Data Center has been charged with manipulating data to achieve a desired global warming trend, according to John Coleman, founder of weather channel,

--from AP--– With growing consensus that the planet will be heating up in the next century, Asheville's economic prospects could be heating up as well, with new businesses emerging to cope with climate change.

[rlmorel]

Boy, reading that made me want to puke.

[Siena Dreaming]

And compared to other presidential vacations to tony Martha’s Vineyard

No mention of tony Kailua, Hawaii?

[reformedliberal]

Look at how far back in time it goes!

This has been a progressive goal for decades.

Another part of it is setting up some ratio, such as 10:1, that caps the highest level of earned income relative to the minimum wage.

[rlmorel]

Yep. Socialism is not new.

The book in my tagline deals with this concept as a main subject.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Thanks for the stuff about Ike, Ben, it’s interesting!
Explains some stuff.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Santa Fe, like Asheville used to be a wonderful city. Then the “beautiful people” “discovered” it. And of course, they just couldn't just leave it alone. It just didn't have all of the things they had where they were from - it was too provincial (hence it's original charm), so being stupid, they just brought it with them.

Now it's full of Californicating Trustafarians, “film people”, fags, and phony gurus that have insinuated their way into local/state/regional politics and turned it into another declining-economy (which doesn't matter when you have Daddy's money) liberal Mecca, run by idealistic idiots.

Ditto for Flagstaff,AZ. This used to be a neat little Southwestern town. Now it's ruled with an imperious fist by an arrogant bicycle cult of trustfund hippies. I hate having my property and wallet held hostage by goofy twenty somethings who've never held a job, paid taxes, or worked at anything harder than dealing dope and cashing Daddy's checks.

[riri]

but I believe the people who say bring your own job. great place to go if you have an internet business

And you better. We have a summer home outside of Durango. Everyone around us is a jack of all trades, PT realtor, handy man, deck builder, etc. Our neighbor (50 acres away) even got arrested for selling pot. That's why I said in my earlier post, these lifestyles are funded by corporate money which makes these jackasses complete hypocrites. They made theirs and now want to prevent everyone else from getting theirs.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

You obviously know Sedona, or as we locals call it “Pseudona”, well. I have a dear friend on the Sedona P.D.; “Please step away from the Bently, sir, and keep your hands where I can see them.” (The Bender has an Obama bumpersticker.)

[Bryanw92]

>>If you are talking about bike paths and hiking trails, you need to talk about Eisenhower, not Obama

I wasn’t talking about biking and hiking trails. I was talking about how every communist Workers’ Paradise always ends up where the workers can’t enjoy the paradise, but the Party elite always do. I was talking about how they want us to ride those bicycles to work (and to the market, and to church, and everywhere else) and all the fundamental changes to the American lifestyle that are necessary for their dream to become reality.

I enjoy biking and hiking trails, but I have to drive to get to them and after Cap’n Tax is passed, it may become too expensive (or even illegal) to “waste” the energy or carbon credits to go visit those trails. Under other ideas on the Progressive wish list, those trails might become off-limits to humans in their overzealous quest to “return” nature to Mother Earth and keep the evil humans away from her.

[rlmorel]

I know this just ain’t right, but every time I saw a sign for “Sedona” my mind kept seeing “Sodoma”.