Gatlinburg Maintaining Its History?

Recently there was an article in our local newspaper concerning National Geographic coming to town, “All eyes on ‘Burg’ for ’07 jubilee."

The reporter quotes an individual “Gatlinburg is unique to (national park) gateway cities in that the original families are still here and for the most part still in control of the business community.” Another individual is quoted, “The fact that you all built Gatlinburg, not some outsiders, is part of the story … this survey shows that Gatlinburg was built by its founders … .”

Hmmmm, who purchased the Mountain View Inn, from the builder, and replaced that ugly reminder of the past with Fun Mountain and now lets Fun Mountain remain as an eyesore to the community? Could it be one of those descendants of one of those original families? Who continues to let them? Who sold Lucinda Ogle’s cabin to “outside developers?” I believe it was descendants of one of those original families. Who owns the properties that are T-shirt shops? Outsiders? No, those original families that control the business community are at it again. Don't forget the Greystone that is now the Aquarium. Who owns the property surrounding Gatlinburg Inn that is surely destroying the Inn with its noise pollution and all night carousing? Who owns the property crowding the Arrowmont School of Arts making it an island of history in the midst of what? Who owns the property and permits developers to remove the trees that draw the leaf-lookers then builds thousands and thousands and thousands of cabins? If those original families are still in control what business are they controlling it is certainly not an interest in Gatlinburg history.

I'm not sure where these Committee members came from but they see things that are not and think, cabin! I see cabins and wonder just what are they thinking.

In family owned companies it is generally the third generation who either bankrupts the company or takes it public. Gatlinburg is right on schedule.

Do those committee members really want to draw the National Geographic's attention to how Gatlinburg is maintaining its history?

Global Warming Debate Heats Up

The cause or causes of Global Warming may be debated but it is obvious to the even the most oblivious is that things have changed and are continuing to change.

Photographs of the Teton mountain range show there is less year-around snow in the mountains today than there was just twenty years ago.

Cruises now cross the Arctic area later into the season because the ice flows are smaller and do not extend as far as they have in the past. If you want to see something funny is to see a boat arrive in a town with 200 to 300 people and ask where the dock is located. There is no dock. The town does not have enough food and supplies to take them through the winter let alone sell some to a group of tourists. Tourists can be a bit testy when they don't get what they want.

The icy habitat of the polar bear is disappearing causing the continued existence of the polar bear in question. Polar bears spend most of their lives on floating ice in the sea. But that ice is melting, and polar bears have nowhere else to go. Bears do most of their hunting from ice close to, or attached to, the shoreline. There has been ice near the land for hundreds of years. Today, in one of the polar bear habitats in Canada the ice is melting four weeks earlier than it did twenty years ago and in places can be 200 miles from shore in the summer. Scientists say there has been more ice melt than normal in the last fifteen years. In the last six years, the melting has speeded up even more. At the present rate scientists estimate there will be no ice left in the Arctic within thirty-five years allowing for more cruises even later into the winter season. Polar bears can completely disappear by the end of this century.

There are many other examples so those who consider the concept a hoax should wake up and smell the roses. The question is, is the warming part of a cyclical warming and cooling thus being completely natural OR are the billions and billions of barrels of oil having a negative affect on the environment?

God said he would not destroy the earth until the end when it will burn away but He never said He would not permit his Creation to destroy itself.

Where're the Media and the Scholars

I am wondering why I do not hear more outcry from our scholars as well as our media concerning the military of the United States being committed to battles lacking a congressional Declaration of War upon the focus of our wrath? I hear no comments concerning our invading of a sovereign country; removing their army and police forces; removing the legal government; imprisoning the administration; turning their President over to his political enemies; and then watching while he was executed in a manner not tolerated within the United States. We are not the world’s police and have no legal right to do what we did in Iraq or any other country no matter how despotic their leaders.

With almost the entire world being against us George has more to worry about than Iraq. He as well as other "leaders" could very well be the focus of a War Crimes Trial. They may never be taken into custody but I suggest we should look for the Middle East countries to ask the World Court for such a judgment and for that request to be granted. Then things should really get interesting.

By not understanding the religious mind of the area we have created a monster from which we may never honorably extricate ourselves. They are not crazy and they have an agenda. They could kill our president, poison our waters, kill anyone anytime. We have finally run up against an enemy who wants us out of their countries and their hemisphere. Not unlike our not wanting them in our country or in our hemisphere.

Where're the Media and our Constitutional Scholars when you need them?

Is NASCAR Serious?

News reports would cause one to believe the NASCAR cheaters are kids who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and that boys will be boys.

Intentional cheating should result in the entire team being disqualified for the next race plus point reduction plus a dollar fine plus a substantial fine to the owner of the car. How about limiting the number of sponsors names on the car that cheated? How about a no decals for the race?

If NASCAR is serious they should get serious. A second violation of intentional cheating should result in disqualification for the entire season.

Ethics are ethics there are no business ethics, no racing ethics there are ethics.

If the fans cannot believe the results of a race it is professional wrestling.

On the other hand how about two races each season with no control over the car setup?

Pigeon Forge City Commissioners Vote for Industrial Zone

Recently our local paper had an article with a headline “PF city Commissioners vote for industrial zone” with a secondary headline, “Rezoning of property would open field for adult businesses, any type of industry.”

The reporter quotes one of the local commissioners as saying, “This is not putting a rubber stamp on adult businesses, this opens up that land for any type of business.” If it is not a rubber stamp what is it?

Unless the cost of locating in such a district is prohibitive the commissioners have just created a future slum where illegal activity of all sorts will migrate. If you doubt it look at any city with a district specifically zoned for “adult businesses and industry.” Most cities would like to eliminate such districts while Pigeon Forge is creating one.

People in large cities migrate away from such districts. Has anyone studied the likely affect such a district will have on the home owners across the street or are they not within Pigeon Forge so no on cares what the affect might be? Are we to look forward to smoke stacks belching out air pollution of all sorts? Will more police activity be required? If so has anyone looked into how that will affect that department?

If the concerns I mention are not relevant someone might want to clarify what is going on because at first blush it looks horrible.

At least we know where the casinos and the associated one-armed bandits will be located when they are eventually approved by our state legislature. If you doubt they are coming remember the lottery. How many years back did anyone believe Tennessee would have a Lottery?

Iraq a Major Miscalculation

Every “war” the United States has participated in since WWII has been political as well as unconstitutional. Our Presidents have committed our military without Congress declaring war as specified in the Constitution. If the President would have asked for a Declaration of War those “wars” would have been countrywide wars instead each was Republican or Democratic war. A non-binding resolution of support by our congress is nowhere to be found in our Constitution. Luckily we were able to get out of each of those debacles until Iraq. Except for those unfortunate enough to have died or been maimed for life.

We cannot win in Iraq for many reasons among them is the moral of the military, for which we are the blame. One of the soldiers upon his return said no one wants to be the last one to die for a mistake. You cannot win if you are not willing to die. Until we are ready to kill hundreds just to kill one we cannot win. As General Giap of North Viet Nam, until we are willing to lose ten of ours to kill one of theirs we cannot win. Military leaders such as Tommy Franks should have been run out of the service instead of being allowed to retire. He conspired with Rumsfeld to develop a battle plan that was a joke. The enemy should never be allowed to be in strength at your back. We send convoys on roads not secured and wonder why our people our killed. Franks put his men and women into a trap and then he left. He is an embarrassment to the history of great leaders in our history.

We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish when we destroyed the government in Afghanistan, a country giving refuge to those who attacked us, and installed a puppet President who previously resided within our borders.

We have accomplished what we wanted to accomplish in Iraq. We invaded a sovereign country; disbanded their army and police forces; removed the legal government; imprisoned the administration; turned their President over to his political enemies; and then watched while he was executed in a manner not tolerated within the United States. We are not the world’s police and have no legal right to do what we did in Iraq or any other country no matter how despotic their leaders.

Iraq never was a threat to the United States anymore than any other country in the Middle East as well as South America as well as the Far East. We picked on the one we thought we could beat and made a major error in judgment.

During our Revolutionary War we proved a small band of untrained badly organized group of patriots with the sometimes assistance of our enemies’ enemy could defeat the greatest army in the world. Similar to what is happening in Iraq.

With almost the entire world being against us George has more to worry about than Iraq. He could very well be the focus of a War Crimes Trial. He may not be taken into custody but look for the Middle East countries to ask the World Court for such a judgment and for that request to be granted. Then things should really get interesting.

By not understanding the religious mind of the area we have created a monster from which we may never extricate ourselves. They are not crazy and they have an agenda. They could kill our president, poison our waters, kill anyone anytime. But they do not. We have finally run up against an enemy who wants us out of their countries and hemisphere. Not unlike our not wanting them in our country or in our hemisphere.

We are on our own. We can no longer count on God’s help since we have expelled him. We just might be the Northern Tribes being carried off by the Assyrians.

The last “war” we won was a war where civilian leaders did not mini manage the military. Until our military is allowed to do what they believe right we cannot win. With a country such as we are today the outcome of WWII might well have been quite different than it was and we just might be speaking German today. A country without morals is a country without laws and is no use to anyone.

We Can’t Blame the White People Any Longer - Bill Cosby

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed.

Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands'; or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.