Winning the War – Victor Davis Hanson provides five guidelines in the conflict against Islamic fascism

Rachelle, her parents and I spent Saturday afternoon in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I have posted some photographs from our day trip in my photos section.

We visited Cataloochee, which is in the North Carolina section of the park, in search of elk. In 2001 and 2002, two separate herds of elk were relocated from Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area to Cataloochee in an effort to re-introduce them to the national park. We did manage to see one of the herds.

This is not the first time Rachelle and I have seen elk. While we were visiting Yellowstone National Park in September 2003, we saw a male elk and his harem on a trail in the Old Faithful Area. We heard the elk bugle, and as we passed a wooded area between Geyser Hill and the Castle-Grand Area, we could see elk up in the trees. So we stopped and waited on the boardwalk, watching the elk through the trees. The male elk surprised us by walking out of the trees and pausing on the boardwalk for a few moments, about 12 feet away from where we were sitting.

I’d like to go back to Cataloochee in the fall to see if we can spot any elk during the rut, and to see the autumn colors. If you are planning a visit to Great Smoky Mountains, I’d suggest a stop in Cataloochee. It’s not as accessible as Cades Cove, so it’s also not as visited, but in many other respects Cataloochee and Cades Cove are very similar.

Our Not-So-Wise Experts – Victor Davis Hanson examines the policies of some of the critics of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. (Via Betsy’s Page)

Rachelle, her parents and I decided to enjoy the recent wonderful springtime weather by driving out to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in search of elk. In 2001 and 2002, two separate herds of elk were relocated from Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area to Cataloochee in the western/North Carolina portion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cataloochee is a relatively isolated portion of the national park, similar to the much more frequently visited Cades Cove in the eastern/Tennessee portion of the park.

The name Cataloochee is a corruption of the Cherokee name for the area, “Gadalutsi,” which means “standing up in a row,” and could refer either to the mountains which surround the valley, or the abundant trees which cover them. Cataloochee was comprised of two separate communities, Big Cataloochee and Little Cataloochee. We spent our time in Big Cataloochee.

Just after we entered the park, we pulled over at an overlook to take in the view.

From the same overlook, here’s the moon rising just over the tops of the trees.

This photograph was taken from the end of the parking lot. I’ve always liked photos like this one, where the road disappears over rise or around a bend. Makes me want to go down the road to see what lies just beyond. Which is exactly what we did, following the road down into the valley.

Like Cades Cove, the park service has maintained several of the buildings that formed this small community. We stopped at one of the homes, the Palmer House. The yellow building was the house proper, and the smaller white structure was built around 1924 to house a small dining area and kitchen operation that fed people who camped or stayed in the Palmer’s bunkhouse while fishing.

Visitors are free to walk both around and inside of the building. This photo is of one of the interior rooms of the main house. The main house is a two story structure. The kitchen building now houses a small museum of life in the Cataloochee community.

This is the floor covering in another room of the main house. It appeared to be something like wallpaper.

Big Cataloochee had only one church, Palmer Chapel, built in 1898. Services were held in this Methodist Church about once a month, when a circuit riding minister visited Cataloochee. Although, Sunday school was a weekly occurrence. Each year a reunion is held here, where friends and family of those who once lived in the valley gather to care for the cemeteries, and share a dinner at the church.

We continued on down the valley, passing by the Beech Grove School, and discovered several elk grazing along the tree line.

We pulled over on the side of the road to spend some time watching them.

After a few minutes we watched as more elk rushed into the field, and we wondered what had startled them. Soon our question was answered when two dogs came into view, chasing the elk around, and herding them into the open field.

Soon after the dogs appeared a park ranger showed up, and proceeded into the field.

At some point, before the ranger could get near the dogs, they stopped harassing the elk.

Finally, we watched as the elk disappeared into the trees.

One last photo of a creek which flows through the valley.

Earlier this weekend, I turned on the new design of my blog. The biggest change is that my blogs are now powered by WordPress. Also, I have moved my blog, Abstract Musings, to it’s own subdomain, blog.robbyedwards.com. I was aggregating the content on the front page of my old blog and it seemed a bit cluttered, so I wanted to clean the layout a bit while still sharing the content from my multiple blogs on the site’s homepage. Also, through the magic of .htaccess and Apache, all the links to the old Movable Type files should automatically forward to the new WordPress permalinks.

I also added header navigation for the main elements of the site. It is included on most of the pages and should make getting around the site a bit easier. One note, the ‘Archives’ link in the top navigation points to the Archive for the particular blog you are viewing, but other than that all the links go to the same pages regardless of where you are in the site.

I still have a bit of clean up work to do in a few places, but the new designs were mostly ready to go, so I decided to go ahead and make the switch. Let me know if you encounter any problems.

Make Tracks – Build and ride a virtual roller coaster. (Via A.E.Brain)

More good news from Iraq – From Arthur Chrenkoff

Meanwhile, Back in Baghdad – Dan Senor notes some changes in postelection Iraq. Via Betsy’s Page

The recent suicide bombing in the southern Iraqi city of Al Hilla was, sadly, nothing new. Watching the news here with Iraqi friends, I thought I knew what would happen next, since it had happened often enough before I left Iraq eight months ago, when the United States handed over sovereignty to an Iraqi interim government. Then, the Iraqis standing around the bank of televisions in our offices would have turned to me, the representative American, asking why we could not get security under control.

This time, however, the same Iraqi friends ignored me and instead participated in a protest: the first Iraqi-organized mass public protest, some 2,000 strong, in the 23 months since the fall of Saddam’s regime. “The Americans” were no longer an address for frustration or salvation. Welcome to postelection Iraq.

He goes on to detail five areas of dramatic change in Iraq:

1. Checkpoints and security

2. The Iraqi press

3. Women

4. Arab nationalism

5. Iraqi pride

Bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now.

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C.

(Via Xlrq)

Good News from Iraq – By Arthur Chrenkoff