'Jesus Guns': Two More Countries Rethink Using Weapons with Secret Bible References - ABC News

This is one of the oddest things I've read all week. Trijicon, a Michigan defense contractor, makes gun sights for the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army that include Biblical references. I'm all for providing good gun sights to our military. I have nothing against Biblical references, as long as they're kept out of the hands (and mouths) of hypocrites such as Pat Robertson and Republican senators. But in a gun sight? Don't you think that our Muslim allies might have a little problem with that?

"It's wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws," said Michael "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

"It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles," he said.

Weinstein, an attorney and former Air Force officer, said many members of his group who currently serve in the military have complained about the markings on the sights. He also claims they've told him that commanders have referred to weapons with the sights as "spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ."

He said coded biblical inscriptions play into the hands of "those who are calling this a Crusade."

Read the entire article at 'Jesus Guns': Two More Countries Rethink Using Weapons with Secret Bible References - ABC News

The hits just keep on coming

My Feedjit feed (see sidebar) keeps logging in hits for a two-year old post based on William Faulkner's quote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In it, I talk about the racism I experienced in 1960s Florida and what I saw during Obama's 2008 campaign in Wyoming. Racism is alive and well, I said in the summary.

I was wondering why it was showing up with such regularity. Then I recalled Martin Scorcese's acceptance speech tonight at the Golden Globes. He wrapped it up with the Faulkner quote. Since my post has been online for so long, it's at the top of the Google hit list. Near the top, anyway.

The post is especially relevant on the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day holiday.

To read the original: http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/for-faulkner-and-obama-past-isnt-past.html

Boulder museum stages "open wall" for artists

Saw this event promoted on Facebook. A twist on the open reading concept for writers and poets, although readings are sometimes followed by a book signing if any of us have books to sign. For this event, artists are invited to hang their work on the BMoCA's blank wall and then attendees bid on the art. The 50/50 split is also a great idea -- money for the museum AND the artists. I didn't see anything on the web site restricting entries to Colorado artists.

Here's more info from Elephant Journal:

Citizen Artists: If you would like to sell your piece, a silent auction will take place from 8-10 p.m. to raise money to support the museum… and to support you (a 50/50 split)!

Or, looking to purchase original, fine art? Our silent auction is a great way to support the museum and local artists, and uplift your walls.

Additionally, the museum’s upstairs gallery will feature elephantjournal.com’s selection of community artists. This specially curated space will also offer a grouping of eco-art pieces, complete with “do-it-yourself” tips for “greening” your studio.

The evening will include local music by Harper Phillips and her ukulele, as well as a cash bar. Admission is a $5 suggested donation.

Localarts. Localfunding. Localfun.

And, if we continue with the guidelines for local as locales within a 100-mile radius of Cheyenne, this probably counts. Boulder is 102 miles from Cheyenne. In some ways, "The Peoples Republic of Boulder" is a world away from home of the country's largest outdoor rodeo. In other ways, it's not. Artists and writers are always looking for new and interesting ways to market their work.

By the way, if you're looking for work by Wyoming artists, go to my WAC workplace blog at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/. On the right sidebar are links to the state's arts orgs, folk artists, visual artists, performers and writers.

BTW: Cheyenne artist Georgia Rowswell tipped me off to this Boulder event. See her art at http://www.artfulhand.org/.

Wyofile receives Knight Foundation grant

Wyofile is a great source for Wyoming news. It announced this today:

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced Jan. 13 that it has awarded the Lander Community Foundation a $122,000 grant for the Wyoming news and public policy website http://www.wyofile.com/ to expand coverage of critical state issues.

The award from the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge program adds to the $135,000 pledged to WyoFile.com by other sources. Major contributors include the George B. Storer Foundation Inc. of Saratoga, Wy.; Christopher Findlater, a Florida-based philanthropist with ongoing business interests in Wyoming, and the estate of the late Casper oilman, state legislator and U.S. Ambassador Tom Stroock.

“To increase the availability of information on complex state issues, this grant will support WyoFile.com , which examines Wyoming public policy and politics,” the Knight Foundation announced in a press release. “WyoFile.com will increase its staff and reporting budget to further engage Wyoming’s residents, lawmakers, educators and business people through an independent, alternative source.”

The Knight Community Information Challenge is a five-year, $24-million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

In an effort to supplement and support traditional news coverage in the state, WyoFile.com stories are offered at no charge as a public service to all Wyoming media.

“One of our goals in the coming year is to make it easier for state newspapers to use our stories, by offering shorter versions of our in-depth investigative reports and features,” said WyoFile editor Rone Tempest of Lander. “We will also encourage newspapers and other media to seek out help in covering important policy issues in their communities. The Knight grant will be a big help in this regard.”

In July of this year, WyoFile.Com applied to the federal government for non-profit 501 (c) (3) status with the Internal Revenue Service.

WyoFile’s board of directors are Anne MacKinnon (Chairman), Casper, a Western water policy writer, educator and former executive editor of the Casper Star-Tribune; Randall T. Cox, Gillette, an oil and gas attorney and bird wildlife author; Christopher Findlater, Miami, Fla., internet entrepreneur, co-founder and former CEO of NetQuote, an online insurance company; Kathyrn Hogarty, Laramie, attorney and Director of External Relations and Special Assistant to the Dean, Univeristy of Wyoming School of Law; and Jonathan Weber, Missoula, Mont., Publisher and Editor in Chief, NewWest.net.

A "Kangaroo System" documented in "Juvenile Justice in Wyoming"

This trailer is from a documentary by Laramie's Chris Hume.

AAUW: Rep. Cynthia Lummis is a zero

The Wyoming Democratic Party sends this:

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) one of the nation’s top advocacy groups for education and equity on behalf of women and girls, has given failing marks to all three members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation. In an annual report analyzing the Congressional voting record for 2009, AAUW rated Rep. Cynthia Lummis with a 0% and both Senator Mike Enzi and Senator John Barrasso earned a rating of 13%, respectively.

The delegation’s poor performance on issues important to women is extremely distressing, according to Wyoming Democratic Party State Chair Leslie Petersen.

“This report drives home the point that on issues ranging from health reform to equal compensation, Rep. Lummis, Sen. Enzi and Sen. Barrasso are out of touch with the needs of Wyoming people,” Petersen said. “The rights of women, minorities and families are being shoved aside in favor of special interests, big business, and destructive partisanship. It especially saddens me that our lone female representative would continue to vote against her own gender.”

The AAUW’s scores were calculated based on support of issues that would address social inequalities, end discrimination, and support women and their families, among other considerations. This legislation, which received no support from any member of the Wyoming congressional delegation, included:

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 – Reopens the courtroom doors to further progress towards pay equity. Takes action on a 2007 court decision which required employees to file pay discrimination claims within 180 days of their employer’s last discriminatory decision and requires claims to be filed within 180 days of their last discriminatory paycheck.


• Paycheck Fairness Act – Strengthens the Equal Pay Act by empowering women to negotiate for equal pay, deters wage discrimination by strengthening penalties, and prohibits retaliation against workers who inquire about wage practices or disclose their wages. The bill also creates incentives for employers to follow the law and strengthens federal outreach and enforcement efforts.


• Healthy Families Act – Would provide accrued paid sick and safe days for employees and would require employers with at least 15 employees to guarantee workers seven days of paid sick leave annually. These days could be used for treatment, recovery, and activities necessary to deal with an incidence of domestic violence.


• Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act - Provides local law enforcement with resources to address hate-based violence and added perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability to the categories protected under federal hate crimes law.

Contribute to Clinton Foundation for Haiti earthquake relief

Citizens and non-profits and gubment bring earthquake relief to Haiti

The always vigilant jhwygirl at 4&20blackbirds provides some great info on Haiti Relief. First, there's this Google link to donate to CARE and Unicef: http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/. Scroll down and click on Google Earth to view the Haiti devestation, just in case you listen to Rush Limbaugh and are an earthquake denier or a poverty denier or an Obama hater.

She also brings up the text messaging route. Text message “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts. Another org is Yonn Ede Lot, which works mainly with Haiti's rural poor. You can text message “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts. FMI: http://www.yonnedelot.org/.

According to today's New York Times, the Red Cross has collected more than $5 million so far via the texting method.

In other news, the U.S. government has entered the fray by pledging $100 million for relief, sending planeloads of supplies and dispatching an aircraft carrier loaded with helicopters and food and medical equipment. The Air Force's Special Tactics Squadron and its air traffic controllers have brought a semblance of order to the Port Au Prince airport. At the behest of the sitting U.S. president, two ex-presidents (still on the government payroll) are spearheading the public push for Haiti relief.


That darn gubment. Can't do anything right.

Wyoming GOP fires new executive director

The Wyoming GOP is all about change.

The Associated Press is reporting this:

The Wyoming Republican Party has fired its executive director after he served only about two months on the job.

Party Chairman Diana Vaughan says Randy O'Hara was fired on Friday.

Vaughan said Monday she could not comment on the reasons for firing O'Hara, saying it was a personnel issue.

But the Casper Star-Tribune reports that Vaughan said in an e-mail to Republican State Central Committee members that O'Hara's performance did not meet the party's standards.

O'Hara came to Wyoming from Utah where he most recently served as the political director of the Salt Lake County Republican Party in Salt Lake City.

Now who are they going to get? Dick Cheney has some times on his hands....

Study shows that highway stimulus funding does not reduce unemployment

Federal highway stimulus funding has been very, very good to Wyoming --

Nice map, courtesy of the WYDOT web site. Fetching color scheme.

Face it -- everyone likes good roads and bridges that don't fall down. So the Obama administration's highway stimulus funding efforts have been wildly popular among politicians, construction workers and -- once the construction is completed -- motorists.

But a new study shows that it hasn't made a dent in unemployment. The Seattle Times wrote about it today:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010762109_apusstimulusunemployment.html
Researchers from five universities compared unemployment stats in 700 U.S. counties that received these funds with 700 counties that did not.

No difference in the numbers.

What about Wyoming?

Between November 2008 and November 2009, Wyoming's unemployment rate rose from 3.1 to 7.2 percent, an increased of 4.1 percent. That's according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of that increase probably was in the oil and gas fields. But who knows? I'll keep looking for more stats.

The latest highway stimulus bill has already passed the House and will come up in the Senate later in January. I'm all for stimulus, but researchers say we need bigger and more expensive projects to move the employment numbers. High speed rail, for instance.

More later...

Hummingbirds are but a handy metaphor

Photo by twolf1 and plucked from Firedoglake

"Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air" premieres tonight on PBS. Any blog with the term "hummingbird" in it should be interested in this. But hummingbirds are but a metaphor to me. I like them well enough. Nothing like watching these birds flit around a summer mountain meadow. Now, if you replace the bird with a flitting brain, you have the "hummingbirdminds" metaphor, first coined by Internet pioneer and hyper-dude Ted Nelson.

Find out more about the making of the documentary and local air times at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjnc1kHMDDo

UPDATE 9:53 P.M. MST: Watched the documentary and it was very cool. One question: why did PBS air a parental warning at the start of the show? Because it showed unorthodox hummingbird mating habits? Because the it included verifiable evolutionary traits linking flowers and birds? Anyone know?

Act locally and "Move Your Money"

Add "bank locally" to the long list of what all of us should do locally -- eat locally, shop locally, create (and appreciate) art locally, etc.

Wyoming residents interested in investing locally should consider putting at least some of their assets in credit unions or local banks.

This is spurred by a new cause advocated by Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post. Called Move Your Money, the Facebook fan page is racking up big numbers. The web site has some great info, and included a photo of George Bailey ("the good ol' Savings & Loan") facing off against megalomaniac banker Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life."

I'm a long-time credit union member. I patronize my local credit union: First Education FCU

Here's a list of Wyoming credit unions: http://www.cuawyoming.com/

And a list of Wyoming banks: http://us1.irabankratings.com/MoveYourMoney/IRACommunityZip.asp?affiliate=moveyourmoney&zip=82001&submit=Search

Sen. Barrasso and I agree on transparency

I suddenly find myself agreeing with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso.

He wrote a letter to Sen. Harry Reid calling on more transparency in the upcoming debates over the merging of the House and Senate healthcare bills.

Let's forget for a second that the Senator's letter is politically motivated and has more to do with opposition to Pres. Obama that healthcare reform. Sen./Dr. Barrasso has opposed reform from the beginning -- and has said so endlessly on Fixed News. And we had so much transparency when Repubs ruled the Senate roost.

Yet, it's a good letter and worth reading. On Thursday night, Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" skewered Pres. Obama for this very same thing. Stewart showed clips of Obama's campaign promises contrasted with the reality of closing off the hearings to C-SPAN.

Come on, Sen. Reid. Let's see these hearings.

Here's part of Sen. Barrasso's Jan. 7 letter:

To ensure that the American people have the ability to witness the on-going negotiations between the House and Senate, we ask that any negotiations regarding a final health care reform bill be conducted in the light of day. The Chairman of C-SPAN, the network responsible for broadcasting the deliberations of Congress, has offered resources to cover all negotiation sessions live. We urge you to take him up on this offer.

Read all of it at http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=0e9dac58-01df-7453-3ed3-5646c3eb1e98

"Cognitive Dissonance" tonight in Laramie

Laramie rabble-rouser (let's face it -- progressive-minded rabble need rousing) Meg Lanker sends this info about tonight's on-the-air affair on KOCA-FM:

Come check out the Cognitive Dissonance back to class edition!

My sparkling self will be on the air from 10 p.m. to midnight playing the best indie rock and hip-hop offerings. We'll also have local band Blue Routes at around 11:30, fresh off their appearance at Coal Creek Coffee in downtown Laramie from 8-11 p.m. Blue Routes is comprised of Micah Wyatt, Jascha Herdt, and Phillip Cleveland.

Angry Malcontent will be back and d-baggery will be called out. Fundits will frolic. It shall be a marvelous end to break.

We'll also be talking about new shows premiering on KOCA - I guarantee it'll be a good time.

Got a request or d-bag nomination? Deadline is 5 p.m. on Friday. Post it on the wall. Come pre-game it from 10-midnight at KOCA!

Location: 93.5 KOCA studios, 365 W. Grand, West Laramie. Call or text 307-752-7460.

Is this Micah Wyatt of the Blue Routes the same Micah Wyatt who once shaped young minds at the Young Writers' Camp near Story?

More info at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155510164943&index=1

WPR: Gov. Freudenthal is not doing much fund-raising (2010-01-07)

WPR: Freudenthal's not doing much fund-raising

He's only raised a few bucks for a 2010 campaign. But won't he have enough time to do so even if he declares after the legislative session?

Stay tuned...

P.S.: Governor Freudenthal's Chief of Staff, Chris Boswell, will be the speaker at the Laramie County Democrats first meeting of the year on Monday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m. at the IBEW Hall in Cheyenne. Maybe Chris will drop a few hints as to "will he or won't he?"

Sea-bred vs. grass-fed oysters -- a Wyoming locavore's dilemma

I posted on Dec. 5 about my trip to the Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market. I said that I did all my Christmas shopping there, although I was joshing just a bit. I bought my wife Chris a homegrown and homemade gift from Sage Hill Fiber Arts in Chugwater and it has come in very handy since she unwrapped it on Christmas Day.

I shopped online for most of my other gifts. I did not shop at Wal-Mart, probably for the first time. I do not hate Wal-Mart for its success, as it brings more variety and lower prices to Cheyenne. However, I am trying to live my life as if Wal-Mart didn't exist. Not sure what to call this pursuit. It's not just about food but all goods. I want to buy locally and eat locally and politic locally and write locally and sell my books locally. That "local" may end of being a 100-mile radius from Cheyenne. It may be a wider circle. But my circle now is big as the entire planet.

During December, I bought a bag of frozen shrimp from Thailand. Defrosted Thai shrimp is also what they sell at the Albertson's Deli. Thai shrimp is nowhere near as tasty as Florida shrimp scooped out of the Gulf Stream and sold at Ponce Inlet or St. Augustine. But Thai shrimp is a quite a bit better than Wyoming shrimp which, when available, is in the form of fossilized rock from the ancient inland seas. Very crunchy.

We do have oysters in Wyoming, but I prefer my oysters sea-bred rather than grass-fed, if you get my drift.

My goal is to bore you endlessly with this topic in 2010. Be forewarned. Economics will enter into it. I know very little about Big Picture economics, so I'll call on experts for that. Small Picture economics focuses on my wallet. How can the average citizen afford to eat and shop locally? That is a huge question. Writers on the Range columnist Charles Finn from Bend, Oregon, tackled the topic in a December essay that appeared Dec. 27 on the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle op-ed pages. He was writing mainly about buying organic foods, but his conclusions hit home:

But once again it comes down to the bottom line. Sure, I value the homemade over the factory produced, the local over the imported. But I also value paying my mortgage and electricity bill.

And why does it always come down to this? Doing what it ethically right and better in terms of health compete against doing what I can afford. It makes me want to scream.

Argh!! I know what he means.

This is one reason among others than I support farmers' markets. So, when I received this e-mail from Cindy Ridenour, chair of the Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market, I decided to pass it along. It's about the physical market but includes a survey about a proposed on-line version.

Dear ________:

Thank you for making the Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market a great success with the community. The board is meeting next week to consider plans for next year.

Meanwhile, Wyoming consumers and producers may soon be able to participate in an on-line farmers market. The Wyoming Business Council is conducting a survey of consumers to determine your interest in an on-line market.

Please take a moment to take the attached survey (attached as a Word document). You may either highlight the answers and email it back to Kim Porter at kim.porter@wybusiness.org or call 307-777-6319 or mail it back to Kim at Wyoming Business Council, Attn: Kim Porter, 214 W. 15th Street, Cheyenne, WY 82002.

Please reply to kim.porter@wybusiness.org with your survey response. (I will forward your reply to her, if it comes to me).

Have a great winter, and we'll be in touch!
Cindy Ridenour
Chair, Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market

By the way, this is also a huge social and political issue, one that challenges know-it-all city dwellers like me to find out more about agriculture and to listen to what farmers and ranchers are saying and doing -- and learn from it.

Cheyenne library opens '10 with funny stuff

From Troy Rumpf on the LCLS blog at http://lcls.wordpress.com/:

We’re kicking the season off with something that really works well for all ages: Humor. While planning this, I was amazed at the bounty of humor-based materials that can be found at the library; I never thought about looking to mystery or sci-fi genres for anything funny or comedic, but oh how wrong I was. Actually, my personal preference for humor writing includes two of my favorite authors, David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs (and FYI – if you ever get a chance to see them in person, DO SO!), and my colleagues as well as some great Southern friends swear that Celia Rivenbark has made them laugh out loud more than any other writer. Apparently, this caused a bit of embarrassment for one of my friends with a not-so-silent snort she let out as while reading one of these books on a cross-country flight. But that’s another story…

This is my kind of theme. So many humor writers and books I admire. I do confess to a bias toward dark humor which, to my thinking, is true humor. Ha-ha funny is great. I like some stand-up comedians and TV sit-coms and jokes, especially so-called stupid jokes. Horse walks into a bar. "Why the long face," asks the bartender.

Ha!

But I have a long list of books that make me laugh out loud and feel and think.

Here they are in no particular order:

"The Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle. Because it's funny and outrageous and I get to laugh at pompous California Yuppies. For quick shots of dark humor, I turn to Boyle's short stories, such as "Sorry, Fugu" and "Descent of Man." Opening line: "I was living with a woman who suddenly began to stink."

We have to admit that Irish humor can be the most twisted and most fun. Boyle is a great example. As is Irish writer Flann O'Brien. Best book is "The Poor Mouth," in which the Irish tendency to wallow in poverty is satirized.

Irish treat satire reverently. Jonathan Swift and "A Modest Proposal" (Eat my baby -- please!). James Joyce and "Ulysses." One-time U.S. writer J.P. Donleavy ("The Ginger Man").

The Brits are no slackers in the humor department. The late Alan Coren is one of my faves. Read his essays "All You Need to Know About Europe" and try not to laugh at his biting comments of various Europeans. As for the Netherlands: "Apart from cheese and tulips, the main product of the country is advocaat, a drink made from lawyers."

Monty Python!

Enough about the Brits.

More humor writers whom I admire:

Mark Twain -- All the novels but especially like his takedown of the German language and "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"

Kurt Vonnegut's books -- all of them.

Joesph Heller's "Catch-22."

Grace Paley -- Her stories are masterpieces. "An Interest in Life" has one of the best openings in fiction: "My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn't right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly."

Flannery O'Connor --The humor in her stories comes from events bumping up against tragedy. When I first read "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the first few pages had me in stitches. Later on, I wondered if I was going to need stitches when The Misfit jumped out at me.

Woody Allen's short pieces in "Without Feathers" and "Getting Even" are terrific. Sure, I like most of his movies too, but how can you beat these lines from "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists:"

Mrs. Sol Schwimmer is suing me because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her ridiculous mouth! That's right! I can't work to order like a common tradesman! I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing, with wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like fire! Now she is upset because it won't fit in her mouth! She is so bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her! I tried forcing the false plate in but it sticks out like a star burst chandelier.

Ditto Steve Martin's short pieces in "Pure Drivel."

National Lampoon writers who went on to stellar careers: P.J. O'Rourke, Anne Beatts, Michael O'Donohue, etc.

All those passed-away New Yorker writers: S.J. Perelman, Robert Benchley, James Thurber, Ring Lardner, Dorothy Parker, etc.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez --For the writing and the humor.

Mystery writers Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Janet Evanovich and Jerome Charyn. Note the Laramie County Library: Order some Charyn books already.

Cheyenne mystery writer C.J. Box writes this great opening line in "Savage Run:"

On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activists Stevie Woods and his new bride, Annabel Bellotti, were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.

Gets better from there.

Some readers find Pete Dexter ("Paris Trout" and "Spooner") too violent. His humor lies within the violence and his incredible writing. In the tradition of Flannery O'Connor.

Geotourism center to address "social and natural" character of Yellowstone region

This sounds like a promising trend for the region.

Ben Cannon wrote this for Planet Jackson Hole:

The Greater Yellowstone Geotourism Center in Driggs, Idaho, believed to be the first of its kind, will be one part visitor center, one part interpretive facility, said Teton Valley Chamber of Commerce president Reid Rogers, who is heading up the initiative.

So called “geotourism” differs from ecotourism, or travel to pristine natural environs, in that the former incorporates historic and cultural aspects of a destination. Ecotourism also promotes sustaining, or even enhancing, a place’s character – social and natural.

The term was coined by a National Geographic editor, and the organization will lend its insignia, and some prime display items, to the new center in Driggs.“We’re tying to build an institution that represents the entire Yellowstone area,” Rogers said.

The concept evolved about five years ago, when National Geographic identified the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as one of the world’s important geographical areas, a place where communities grew amongst great natural character. Last March, National Geographic, working with a task force with representatives from Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, began publishing a map guide area. An online version of the map, available at http://www.yellowstonegeotourism.org/, allows for more comprehensive listings.

Rogers said the geotourism initiative happened to dovetail with plans to build a visitor’s center in Driggs. “I went to National Geographic and asked them if anyone has turned their theory of geotourism in a physical institution, a physical location to experience what it is you’re talking about,” Rogers said. “They said it was almost a perfect extension of what a community could do.”

There are probably some in the Yellowstone region cringing at this idea. National Geographic, of course, is a "Coaster" organization, with sprawling headquarters in Maryland. "Outside the Beltway," but close enough to the heart of federal gubment to be dangerous. It's also an international org, which may raise questions of outside influence by Euro-do-gooders in places like France and Luxembourg. You think the French are bad, wait until you meet up with cheese-eating enviro Luxies.

Wonder how this center will interpret to social and natural characteristics of the area. A tall order. The heart of the area's natural character is in the national park. But social? So many different kids of human habitations in the region. Jackson itself is such a study in contrasts. You got your punk snowboarders, aging Baby Boomer Liberals, Cheneyite Repubs, cyber-communing bankers, Cowboy wannabes, non-Indian Indian spiritualists, federal wildlife biologists, wolf-haters, slacker trust-fund babies, Hispanic resort workers, transient artists, not to mention the million tourists from around the world who troupe through town each year. Jackson fiction writer Tim Sandlin has spent his career writing about these conflicting social elements. But how to do them justice in an interpretive center?

And what about the other communities in the Yellowstone region: Cody, Dubois, Hoback Junction, Red Lodge, Alta, Driggs, Victor, West Yellowstone, etc.? Old-timers conflict with newcomers and -- fast as lightning -- newcomers become old-timers and grouse about the good old days.

Great example of nuke animation

As I was saying just the other day, there are not enough YouTube videos on thermonuclear annihilation:

Meg Lanker "wants to rock your face"

Laramie's Meg Lanker at Wyoming News Underground says that she "wants to rock your face! Tune into Cognitive Dissonance on 93.5 KOCA tonight from 8-midnight for the best indie rock, hip-hop, and my own sparkling wit. That's right, an extra TWO WHOLE HOURS! I'll have the Angry Malcontent, 1/2 the Fundits, & d-bag o' the week. I'm taking requests and d-bag suggestions til 6 p.m. Come... get over your New Year's hangover and welcome 2010 at 365 W. Grand."

That's the good news. Too bad we can't get the station over here in Cheyenne.

Tune in to Meg's show tonight if you're in the Laramie Valley.