The Day They Shut The Water Off

Back when I was in college I supported myself with a great part-time and summer job; bus driving.  In fact I actually drove bus for two companies, Greyhound and Grand Island Transit.  And since I was driving from Buffalo, New York, one of my frequent charter destinations was nearby Niagara Falls.

At some point during the trip around the falls I would tell the people on the bus that they were lucky to be there during the day, “…because they shut the water off at night.”  That usually got a big laugh, but then I would go on to explain that it was true.

Unknown to most people, after sunset the water intakes upriver from the falls are opened and about 40-percent of the water is diverted to the Robert Moses Power Station on the American side and the Sir Adam Beck Station on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. Of course, the decrease is hardly noticeable at night, even with the colored lights on.

However, there was a time when the water was intentionally shut off to the American Falls, the northernmost one and Bridal Falls, the small one near Goat Island. (And you thought there were only two waterfalls at Niagara)

From June to November in 1969 the American Falls were dewatered.  That is, there was a coffer dam built upstream from the shoreline to the upper end of Goat Island which kept all but a trickle of water from flowing over the brink.  The diverted water was shunted over the Horseshoe Falls or through those huge water intakes to the power plants.

The US and Canadian power companies and the US Army Corps of Engineers performed a joint operation to examine the riverbed rock formation.  There was talk of possibly removing some of the rock fall at the base of the American Falls, but that proved too expensive so it never happened.  The project did help to prevent some erosion of the falls, however, so it was worth the money and the effort.

During that five-month time span, the company I worked for, American Airlines, had a promotional gimmick to obtain new passengers that I took part in.  One Saturday we had a 727 aircraft and crew assigned to fly flightseeing flights up to Niagara Falls at a height of only a few thousand feet.  Believe it or not, tickets for the flights cost $5.00 and the round trip was about 30 minutes.

Of course we sold out all six flights, but I got on one of them.  What an experience! Not only did I get to see the falls from the air, but I saw them when the American Falls was dry. 

Somewhere, buried in some packing boxes, there are some 35mm slides that I took while on that historic flight, but I haven’t seen them in years, and have no idea where they are anymore.  However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot see what the falls looked like in its dewatered state.  Here are some pictures I borrowed from the linked article, which you are encouraged to read when you finish this column.

 The engineers could walk across the brink almost without getting their feet wet.

 Note the small fall of water in the center.  The rock could not be allowed to completely dry or it would have caused further cracking and splitting of the riverbed.

The fallen rock is not very far below the brink, but clearing it would have probably caused more of the cliff face to fall. It was left intact as it remains today.

The last picture is what the American Falls looked like the following summer.  It still looks similar today, though some erosion has occurred in the 43 years since the project.

The New Crime - TWD

Unless you have fallen asleep like Rip Van Winkle, or recently came from another planet, you can’t have missed the latest “crazy craze,” texting while driving.  Hardly a day goes by when we don’t see a news item or e-mail picture of some fool who got distracted by inputting and sending text messages while operating a vehicle.

The above picture purports to show a Corvette that went under the rear end of a semi due to a distracted driver who was apparently sending a text message.  The phone was found in his hand when they cleared the wreck.

My wife and I just drove home from Kansas City to Augusta, Georgia.  We saw and read several billboards and many of those roadside DOT signs that have light boards to spell out messages. The message on all of them was the same – “Don’t text while driving.”

I wish I could report that drivers were paying attention and heeding those messages.  Well, I can’t!

On one stretch of I-24 between Paducah, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee we had two close calls and both involved TWD.

In the fist incident a car went zooming round us at around 10-15 miles above the speed limit of 70mph.  Then it pulled in ahead of us and slowed down to about 60.  We were on cruise control, so we immediately checked for traffic on our left and pulled out to pass the fool.  As we did so I looked over and watched a woman driver resting her arms on the steering wheel while she manipulated her smart phone – certainly the phone was a lot smarter that she was – to type out a message. It must have been terribly important.

Several miles further down the road we were passing a slow moving car when it suddenly swerved into our lane, nearly sideswiping us.  Sure enough, the driver was in the act of texting.  It wasn’t the same car and driver, so at least two “textperts” were being distracted by driving while typing out that “all-important” message.

I have some questions for which I have no answers: 

1. What the heck is wrong with these people?
2. Is there a way for the highway patrol to monitor texting activity, like they do speeding with radar guns?

It is always tragic when we lose loved ones because either they or someone else commits the ignorant act of texting while driving. It gives new meaning to the term, “defensive driving,” because unfortunately this isn’t always a victimless crime.  Too often it is the innocent person who happens to be in the vicinity that winds up in the hospital or morgue.

Please, please, if you fit the description above, GET HELP!  You have a very dangerous addiction to your cell phone, and you will eventually pay for your sin.

Same Name, New Definition

Note: This column was already written and ready to publish before the shooting incident in Aurora, Colorado last Thursday. Instead of rewriting it, I’m going to send it as is and let you add your own post scripts…

For the past year or so there have been a rash of YouTube videos circulating that show people congregating in public places to entertain with song and dance routines that appear to be completely spontaneous.  Of course they aren’t, but are completely rehearsed and polished before the group assembles. The group entertainment is known by the name, “flash mob.”

Recently the term took on a new meaning.  Last Saturday evening a group of around 300 people converged on a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida.  What ensued was a riot that caused untold damage to the store and the theft or destruction of over $1500 dollars worth of merchandise.  The flash mob turned into a trash mob.       

The whole thing was caught on video and made the online circuit.  A local Jacksonville television station broadcast a report  including the video and referred to the action as a “flash mob.”  The report did not at any point refer to the fact that the vast majority, and possibly the entire mob was composed of one race – Blacks. But even if it turns out that someone can find a few token whites or Hispanics in that mob, the culture is there.

The Jacksonville incident is not unique.  It is only one of many attacks that have been perpetrated on people and property in recent months.  Is it mere coincidence that these attacks started about the time that the Occupy Movement commenced? I think not.

With no end in sight, and very little response from public safety officials (a.k.a. police), it is highly likely that we are headed for a full-fledged civil war, and this one won’t be anything like that one that occurred 151 years ago. It was a skirmish by comparison.

If there is one fact we can count on it is that the new genre of flash mobs are likely to be armed and dangerous.  They have been incited to riot by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and the culture has been created by the Rappers and Gangstas, so we know that THERE WILL BE BLOOD!        

Is this scary enough for you?  Well, you haven’t heard the rest of the story…

Within the next few weeks Hillary Clinton will be signing a United Nations treaty for arms control, which has the full backing of our president.  The Arms Trade Treaty is supposed to control the spread of weapons to “the wrong people,” but it could also have the effect of revoking the 2^nd Amendment of the United States Constitution because it calls for full registration of all firearms, always the first step to eventual confiscation.

You might counter this possible outcome by citing that any treaty is subject to the ratification of Congress and the acceptance and signing by the president before it can become a done deal.  Let’s examine that premise.

We already know that President Obama is in favor of the U. N. Small Arms Treaty, so his acceptance is a foregone conclusion.  Well, that’s one hurdle that it clears, but then there’s that pesky senate, which has (at last count) 58 Senators opposed to the Arms Trade Treaty.  However, in order to pass or fail the Senate approval it has to be voted on, and President Obama has an ally in the Senate in Harry Reid.  All the Senate Majority Leader has to do is keep the treaty from ever reaching the floor for a vote, something he has proven very adept at. 

There is another treaty that the United States signed and ratified known as the Vienna Convention.  It reads that any signed treaty will remain in force unless it is either rejected by the Senate, or renounced by the president. However, if neither of those events occurs, it becomes de facto law. (Funny thing, treaties that don’t become effective by ratification are still fully effective by non-rejection) Don’t believe it? Watch this video.

If you own a firearm, you had best “lose” it.  I’m not going to counsel you on how to do that, nor am I going to give you my thoughts on what precautions to take to ensure that you won’t have your weapon taken from you. 

I can only warn you that the other side is going to remain well armed, and they never registered those Saturday night specials.  You can draw your own conclusions and plan your own defense. The overt actions we’ve witnessed in the past six months are only a prelude to total chaos and disaster if we don’t make a stand.

Are you really scared now? Well, you had better be.

A Quick Lesson in Self-Defense

This is another one of my columns that expands on an idea that was forwarded to me earlier this week.  It isn’t the first time I’ve seen it either, and I’ll bet you’ve seen it too.

The message I received concerned self-protection for those who don’t or won’t have guns in their house.  There are a lot of people who, either because of fear for small children on the premises, or their own fear of guns, will not keep any weapons in the home.

The solution for those people is to keep a can of wasp and hornet spray handy, not for killing the flying pests designated on the can, but for warding off intruders into your private living space.

The highlight of the message is that you can use the directional spray up to 20 feet to incapacitate the possibly armed and dangerous interloper by spraying it in the eyes or at least the face.  It is also somewhat more effective than a pistol, since you can spray it continuously while adjusting your aim.

Neat suggestion, and I took it to heart and went out and bought one of those large cans of wasp and hornet spray.  That stuff doesn’t come in small cans.  I guess they figure you need a lot of it once you rile those critters up.

Anyway, I now have a huge can of spray in the house, so if you plan on coming over uninvited, be forewarned!

No, that isn’t what I wanted to convey at all.  After I bought the can and realized what a task it might be to actually use it on a B&E would-be burglar, I decided to do a little more research.

What I found—well, I had some help from my cousin who is a retired lawman—is that there are pepper sprays—equally effective if not more so—that come in the shape of a gun with trigger and all.  Now you might be able to scare the nasty guy off by just pointing it at him. But in the more likely event that he detects that it isn’t a real gun, you can do great harm to him with it.

What’s more, you don’t run the risk of pointing the damn thing backwards and spraying yourself with it, a very real possibility with those big old cans of hornet spray.

The gun-shaped pepper sprays aren’t cheap; so don’t expect to get one for less than $40.  However, if it gives you peace of mind it’s worth every penny.

Oh, and one other thing that my cousin advised… If the other guy has a gun and you don’t, don’t be a hero.  If you can’t get away and you can’t spray him before he gets that gun out and pointed at you, then peacefully submit and take your lumps. 

However, that says a lot for having the right caliber locked and loaded to begin with. Make him the one staring down the barrel of a .45!

Have a nice day. :-)

Skeletons In My Closet

My nephew is a genealogy fanatic.  I hesitate to label him an extremist, but he is kind of like my grand-puppy, Abby, a ferocious (yeah, sure) daschund who gets her doggy toy in her mouth, shakes it around furiously and chews on it until she breaks that squeaker.  Dan just loves to research names and lineages back through history.

If Dan is to be believed—and I admit that he is really good at his hobby—we have some pretty well known and famous personages in our family tree.  I’ll get to that in a moment.

One of the factors that got Dan started in genealogy is that my great aunt, whom we always called Grandma because she adopted my mother after Mom's biological mother died in childbirth, was descended from one of the so-called Salem Witches.  Of course, it was later revealed that none of them were witches, but that didn’t prevent them being hanged for the alleged crime.

Grandma McKeever even wrote a short book about the Salem Witch trials. I have a copy of it, and it is pretty scholarly for a book written by a self-taught lady in her late seventies when she penned it.

Dan got the bug several years ago and started asking all kinds of questions of his mother and aunts and uncles.  But in general, Dan did a lot of online research and library work. He has now taken our family line all the way back to the Eleventh Century. In the process he has found some knights and quite a few others whose names you would recognize if you took your world history in school at all seriously.

As an example of the work Dan has accomplished, he informed me last week that my 21st great grandfather was named Ralph deCromwell, who held the title Lord of Tattersall and lived from 1342-1398.  If that name seems vaguely familiar, yes, he was related to Oliver Cromwell who is also found somewhere in the tree, though probably not a direct ancestor of ours.

Some other names you might recognize are General John Hathorn, a Revolutionary War general and related to Judge Hathorn of the Salem Witch Trial fame.  And of course that brings up the name of a famous writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who added a couple of letters to his surname to escape the stigma of being related to the hanging judge.

Now I cannot swear to the accuracy of all this, but I do know that Dan is a dedicated and very creative researcher, so I tend to believe his results.  Moreover, what comes to mind is that we really are probably all related to one another in some fashion all the way back to Adam and Eve, or at least to Noah if the story of the ark is to be believed. 

In another stunning and convoluted explanation, Dan used a whole bunch of big numbers to arrive at the conclusion that our ancestors at any given time in earth’s history far outnumber the population of the earth at that time.  Which, I suppose, proves my theory that we are really all related, but I don’t have any idea how the difference in race comes into that equation. If that makes you uncomfortable, too bad, Bro’, we all be bruddahs and sistahs unner 'da skin.

So that begs the age-old question, “Why can’t we all just get along, children?”

Do We Celebrate The Wrong Independence Day?

This is a repeat of the column I ran at this time last year.  I cannot ignore our coming holiday even though I already had written a column. So this is a week when I write two columns, one for everyone, and one for those who won’t be “offended” by a political opinion. You can read it right below this one if you want to see what a conservative thinks about recent events. I hope you will.

We in America all receive numerous email messages around this time of year relating to our celebration of the 4^th of July, or Independence Day.  I received one this week that stood out, not because it was more patriotic than the others, but because it seemed to contradict them.

The email message was titled, “John Adams writing about the 4^th of July.” Of course, John Adams, our second president was a very important figure among the Founding Fathers. Therefore, any of his writings had to be important and sacrosanct.

Here is the exact quote from a letter to Adams’ wife, Abigail:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

I don’t know about you, but I did a literal double take when I saw that date at the beginning of the quote. Why would John Adams consider July 2, 1776 to be our Independence Day? So I did some research and here is what I found.

It turns out that the above quote was taken from a letter John Adams wrote on July 3^rd, after the Continental Congress voted in the affirmative on a resolution by Richard Henry Lee calling for independence from Great Britain. That vote took place the day before on July 2^nd. 

Here is his resolution of July 2, 1776:

Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

After the vote tally, a committee was appointed to draft the actual statement.  It consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. They in turn appointed Jefferson to draft the document.

While John Adams was penning his letter to his wife, Abigail, Thomas Jefferson was penning a more important document that would eclipse the events of July 2^nd.

He was drafting the Declaration of Independence, which he presented the following day for reading and signing.  Thus July 4^th became the true day of independence. 

Richard Henry Lee, the person who first wrote and proposed independence, wasn’t even present two days later when the Jefferson document was signed.  He had gone back to his home in Virginia. He did, however, sign later.  Eventually he became the president of the Second Continental Congress and later a senator from Virginia in the United States Senate. His name has never been closely associated with the Declaration of Independence and he faded into obscurity in history.

As to the true date of our independence, I can understand why it became July 4^th instead of July 2^nd.  It’s a lot harder to say “The Second of July” than it is “The Fourth of July.” The latter expression just kind of rolls off the tongue.

So now you’ve had a history lesson that I hope will motivate you to think about the true meaning of Independence Day and how far we’ve come from that fateful day 236 years ago.

God bless America!

Brilliance at the Supreme Court

Now that the Supreme Court has finally ruled on the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) there is a great deal of either jubilation in the streets or hand wringing and grief.

When I learned of the decision I was one of the latter and, frankly, it ruined my whole day.  I was even coining a new term for the SCOTUS, the Kow-towing Kangaroo Kourt. Yes, that translates to the acronym KKK, but it signifies a different kind of Klan.

But then I started using the right side of my brain—not right in the political sense, but right in the literal sense—to parse the true meaning of the ruling.  After all, one of my heroes, Chief Justice John Roberts, had just apparently come down on the other side of the aisle in joining the four liberal justices on the court.

Here is what I’ve determined based on all the facts I now have.

The Honorable John Roberts just turned the election season on its head!

Here is why I opine that result:

1. One of the key campaign issues for President Obama was going to be the mean-spirited Supreme Court that took away your affordable health care and he, Obama, needs a second term to change the balance of the court. That issue is now a dead one. Justice Roberts upheld the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.
2. The Supreme Court Ruling clearly specifies the mandate is a tax, which is exactly what President Obama claimed it is not.  Therefore, upholding Obamacare as constitutional means that Democrats have just levied one of the most onerous taxes in history on all Americans, estimated—and we all know that Federal estimates are always low—at two-and-a-half trillion dollars.
3. Mitt Romney now has a whole new campaign platform to run on, repeal of the new law. He can also now accuse Obama of going back on his promises and raising everyone’s taxes.  Is it mere coincidence that Romney’s campaign fund gained over four million dollars on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruling?  I think not!
4. Democrats can no longer use the Commerce Clause in the Constitution to force a mandate for Americans to buy anything.  I’m not being racist here when I use the cliché, “call a spade a spade.”  Justice Roberts made it perfectly clear that the mandate is a TAX.  

So, if you were, like I was, saddened and disheartened by the turn of events on Thursday, take heart.  This is just the beginning of a new chapter.  A lot has changed in the past week, and it isn’t all bad news.  We still have four months to take back this country.

Oh, for those of you who are Democrats and/or Obama supporters, I don’t apologize for informing you of the fight you have ahead of you.  If it energizes you in the opposite direction to read this, then you too have benefited from it. 

Don’t worry. Be happy!