Home on the Range

Our family enjoys camping and vacationing in the great outdoors. Over the years, we have had some great times around the fire circle. Of course, we’ve also had many learning experiences. We’ve only been beaten by the weather once, but three inches of rain in one hour can pack quite a punch! For those of you who have yet to tackle the outdoors, here are the basics that any family needs to know to have a good time.

Tents

The biggest challenge you will face is buying a tent. My advice here is that unless you are climbing Everest, your first tent needs to be the right size at the cheapest price. Think Wal-mart. I have an 8-person tent from wal-mart that is 10 years old now. Its only hole was shot in it by the little Indian in the camp site next to us while camping in the Smoky Mountains National Park. Camping is always an adventure!

This tent can be purchased for less than $100 here.

Buy bigger than you need. If you have a family of four, buy a six or eight man tent because you need room for your gear as well. The days of propping up poles while half the tent falls down are long gone. Get a free standing tent with fiberglass poles and make sure it has a rain-fly. Buy a tarp to go on the ground under your tent, as this will add many years to its life. Lastly, purchase seam sealer at the same time and apply it to all the stitched areas in your new tent before that first camping trip.

Sleeping

The best technology for family camping these days are air mattresses. This is not an option if you are back packing, but this article assumes that you are packing everything in the back of a pickup or minivan. Old blankets and bedspreads are just fine in the summer. But a sleeping bag keeps you warmer in the spring and fall, and also packs smaller. A basic sleeping bag will set you back anywhere from $30 to 50. Really nice sleeping bags start at $100 and go much higher, but again, we are assuming that you are not headed for the Canadian back forty.

The Kitchen

A little planning goes a long way here. The dollar store can supply you with reusable cups, plates, and forks. Use a plastic container to hold it all plus matches, paper towels, dish soap, salt, pepper, spatula, sharp knife, etc. Clean up your milk jugs in advance and use them to carry water. A family of four will need one or two gallons per day. Bring an iron skillet and a pot to boil water in. I like iron skillets because I can set them right on top of hot coals, or on a grill. Plan your meals in advance and keep them “camp friendly.” Hotdogs are easy, but don’t be afraid to bring steaks, brats, or cold salads. These days, I do most of our cooking on a Coleman portable propane stove. Don’t forget to bring some high calorie snacks.

The ultimate kitchen! Way more than you need, but fun to think about. See more here.

A large cooler makes for convenient food storage and a chair. Remember to put your food up at night. In some parks, the law requires that you put food up in your vehicle to protect you from bears entering your camp. In our experience, raccoons can open latches and we often place a bicycle on top of the cooler.

The Campfire

This is the main attraction of the evening. I recommend that you bring your own firewood and small twigs for starting a fire, but check with local laws before bringing firewood across state lines. Have some green sticks for roasting marshmallows and hotdogs. Bring a good book or some good stories to tell around the campfire. After dark, we often give each of the kids in our camp a glow stick to ward off night time heebee jeebies and allow us to keep a better eye on their whereabouts. After all, part of the fun of camping is meeting other kids and exploring the surrounding woods and fields.

First Aid

Remember the Boy Scout motto of “Be prepared.” Do not assume that there will be a corner drug store nearby. Pack a first aid kit and any medications you might need. Many of the places we have camped do not have cell phone coverage. I keep a roll of 2 mil plastic in the truck incase it’s needed for inclement weather.

Where to go and What to do

Most campgrounds in state parks have nice facilities and make great get-a-ways. Check online for references from people who might have stayed at the destination you have in mind. Most state and federal parks have maps, reservations, and information online for their campgrounds. I have gotten ideas and feed back here at GORP. If your destination is close by, make a day trip and picnic one Saturday before you commit the entire weekend to camping there. Also, most KOA Kampgrounds have great facilities, but you need to do your homework on their location. We have found that state parks offer the most remote settings; an essential ingredient for our family.

The best camping trips combine camping with some kind of outdoor activity. The most popular are hiking, biking, canoeing, and fishing. Many state parks have paved access roads where kids can ride in the evenings while you are preparing supper. Most camps have easy trails that you can spend half a day hiking. A low end canoe will set you back $350 but it is a great investment if you are close to a lake. We have car topped our canoe on sub compact cars, where the canoe was longer than the vehicle! The most important thing however, is just to get out of the house for a while, and turn the cell phone off!

Our rule for truck camping: if you can get it in the truck, you can bring it!

Climate Change (yawn)

This is the first of several articles on climate change. What most people take for granted as common knowledge is probably incorrect. If you learned about global warming in a public school, you need to re-study the facts, without any political influence. I am amazed at how far the hype has gone when the data has never changed. I’ll give away the ending now: what passes for science these days falls well short of the scientific method.

There are huge holes that have yet to be explained by those who claim that man impacts the carbon cycle, or if carbon actually matters in the context of earth’s warming and cooling. There is no consensus, and since when does that even matter in science? At one time, there was consensus that the earth was flat. There was even consensus that the sun rotated around the earth!

This article will look at how scientists determined what happened in the past with earth’s temperature. Any theories HAVE to explain the past, and this is where most anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming theories fail.

The Ice Age

One of the first questions that needs to be answered is, “How do scientists explain the warming that melted the sheet of ice during the ice age?” Scientists say a natural process created the ice, and then a natural process melted it. The earth cooled dramatically and then warmed up, without any influence by man. This process continues today, yet no one can tell you how much of a factor man contributes to this process.

Wikipedia has a nice summary of the causes of ice ages, or the causes of climate change using today’s spin:

“The causes of ice ages remain controversial for both the large-scale ice age periods and the smaller ebb and flow of glacial–interglacial periods within an ice age. The consensus is that several factors are important: atmospheric composition (the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane); changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun known as Milankovitch cycles (and possibly the Sun's orbit around the galaxy); the motion of tectonic plates resulting in changes in the relative location and amount of continental and oceanic crust on the Earth's surface, which could affect wind and ocean currents; variations in solar output; the orbital dynamics of the Earth-Moon system; and the impact of relatively large meteorites, and volcanism including eruptions of supervolcanoes.”

Read that paragraph again and consider the complexity of the theories involved in estimating how each one affects earth’s atmosphere and temperature. Which one impacts temperature the most? Can’t answer that? Neither can scientists, yet they expect us to believe that they can estimate man’s impact in 50 years to the nearest centigrade?

Earth’s Status Quo

How do we know change is taking place or what the status quo is? We need to establish a baseline and scientists have put together temperature models based on proxy data. Proxy data means that scientists use theories regarding data to create other data. In this case, the earth’s temperature record is recreated from sources such as ice cores, ocean and lake bottom sediments, glacial deposits and features, sedimentary rock analysis, and tree ring data. Here is a chart that uses proxy data from the surface temperature of the Sargasso Sea to model earth’s temperature:

From “A Global Warming Primer” National Center for Policy Analysis

We already know the temperature was much warmer during Medieval times than today. If you see temperature data that shows today warmer than the medieval period, you should be suspect of where that data came from. More than likely, it came from the thoroughly discredited “hockey stick graph.”

Hockey stick chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hockey_stick_chart_ipcc_large.jpg)

The “hockey stick graph” was created by using an algorithm that searched for “hockey stick shaped” data. The scientists who created it refused initially to release the data so that other scientists could replicate their results. Theories must be replicable, or they are quickly invalidated. Once the scientific community finally shamed them into showing their data, the jig was up. But many people unscrupulously continue to throw the hockey stick graph in your face as “science.”

This figure shows the Antarctic temperature changes during the last several glacial/interglacial cycles of the present ice age and a comparison to changes in global ice volume. The present day is on the left.

The summary from Wikipedia for this chart:

"The first two curves shows local changes in temperature at two sites in Antarctica as derived from deuterium isotopic measurements on ice cores (EPICA Community Members 2004, Petit et al. 1999). The final plot shows a reconstruction of global ice volume based on measurements on benthic foraminifera from a composite of globally distributed sediment cores and is scaled to match the scale of fluctuations in Antarctic temperature (Lisiecki and Raymo 2005)."

What is important is the cycle. The earth's temperature cycles back and forth through ice ages. It would be good to know for certain that carbon dioxide indeed warmed the earth because then we could pump out vast quantities to stave off the next ice age, which is apparently coming due.

Next: Carbon Dioxide

The earth’s temperature record has been reconstructed from various sources around the world. Bearing in mind that these are still based on theories, they are producing similar results; mainly, that the earth’s temperature cycles through dramatic highs and lows naturally. So why is there so much excitement over a process that has been going on for thousands of years? Because many scientists, although hardly a consensus, have decided that emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have warmed the earth by putting too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But is this really true? And how much does man contribute? Is there a causal relationship between carbon dioxide and earth’s temperature?

Scientists are still debating the answer to these questions, and there is yet to be a consensus. On the next Climate Change post, we’ll look at the carbon dioxide data. And no, Al Gore does not count as a scientist, but he could probably fill quite a few onion sacks.

France, the war, and taxes

James Gregory, heard on the John Boy and Billy Show Friday morning, April 17, 2009

We have the first amendment; it’s on shaky legs but the first amendment’s here (in America). Now if I was criticizing my country, if I was criticizing the military, and if I was saying something that was anti-American, not one person would say to me “You better watch your mouth, you’re going to get in trouble.” It’s only when I defend or criticize another nation or another group of people.

These people are not our allies. Pakistan is not our ally. We have no allies. We’ve never had any allies. The rest of the world has an ally in us. My big deal with France is, right now, in France, it has been since World War II, there are over 31,000 little, white, wooden crosses on French soil and they represent the 32,000 American soldiers who died on French soil saving their ass from Nazis. And all these years go by and we gotta tip toe around because France don’t like us no more? France can go to hell! Who needs France? I can get a bottle of wine anywhere else. Name anything else we need France for. Nothing; the hell with them!

The United States, and I know sometimes I’m referred to as a wacko, we are going to have to pick one country, and I don’t care which one it is because they are all the same. It can be Syria, it can be Pakistan, it can be Saudi Arabia – they’re not our ally; it can be Lebanon; we gonna have to go in there and bomb one of those countries back to the stone age. There won’t even be a cockroach left. And let that be the message to the rest of the Middle East. This is what you get if you threaten us one more time.

I don’t know what happened. I wish we had people that had the courage of people like a Martin Luther King Jr, who I’ve always said was probably one of the top 50 bravest men that whoever lived. See, even as smart as he was, and as dedicated as he was, and as passionate as he was, Martin Luther King Jr knew that he couldn’t walk over that bridge by himself and get anything done. He knew he couldn’t lay down and block traffic by himself. He needed 200,000 fellow citizens, he needed 300,000, he needed 400,000, and that’s what we’re gonna need. The American people have really gotta take this into their own hands. See, with enough help, I could seal the Texas border. But see I need about 300,000 - 350,000 of my fellow citizens. See I could shut Washington down and make them pay attention to us. We’ll show up in Washington for a rock star, you know, that’s what Obama is, to see somebody make a speech, then go back home. But we need… we’re losing our country, we’re losing our country.

And about taxes, you know about the taxes, oh we are just gonna raise taxes on the rich, of course the rich are anybody that makes more than $200 grand a year. But you’re seeing now what I talked about last fall. See, you’re talking about trillions of dollars. Forget raising the tax rate to 50 percent, suppose you raise it to 90 percent, or took it all. If you took all the money of all the millionaires in this country, all of it; it don’t come up to trillions.

The politicians will never let you go. They keep taking this money and taking this money and taking this money. Just because they don’t take it by income tax doesn’t mean you’re not paying. You’re paying more than your fair share and you’re going to keep doing that until we just say, “I’ve had enough.”

And these bastards in Washington, look what else they just did. In the year 2009, they just gave themselves a raise. 435 millionaires just gave themselves a raise of over $4,000 a year. Multiply that times over 500; there’s a few million dollars. It never ends for them. Now GM lays off, the banking industry lays off people; have you read in the paper yet where the government’s laid off anybody? Not one bureaucrat, not one civil service person has lost their job. Because see, anytime they want more money, they just confiscate more from us.

I am so sick of it, I am so sick of it. If I were to win the lottery, and had massive amounts of money and I didn’t have to worry about money at all, I swear to God I would put a wall around my 4 acres and I think I would just sit there with all my weapons loaded and I would truly be in a position to say, “Look, I don’t have to take it no more.” And that’s what it’s gonna take.

You can listen to the entire rant here.

God's Secret Agents

by Greg Laurie (originally published Friday, December 12, 2003)

It seems that Americans today are fascinated by the concept of angels, depicting them in everything from jewelry and Christmas decorations to movies and television programs.

A poll conducted by Time magazine in 1993 reported that 69 percent of American adults believed in the existence of angels, and 46 percent felt they had their own guardian angel. Also, 32 percent claimed to have felt an angelic presence at some time in their lives.

In addition, a 2000 poll conducted by the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California, found that 81 percent of adults polled said they believed that "angels exist and influence people's lives."

But is it correct to assume that angels are the non-threatening, loving beings that many people believe them to be? That all depends.

We find instances in the Bible when angels were sent to deliver specific messages from God. They often began their messages with phrases like "Do not be afraid," or "Do not fear."

But we also find instances in which God used angels to execute His judgment, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah and elsewhere.

Generally, God's angels operate undercover. They don't draw attention to themselves, but instead carry out God's assignments.

One reason we may not recognize the presence of angels in our lives is because they are doing their jobs properly. Angels are actively involved in the lives of the people of God, and even in the affairs of people in general. They have a specific function and ministry in the lives of Christians.

The Bible says in Psalm 34:7, "The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them" (NKJV). Hebrews 1:14 says of angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?" (NKJV).

It is even possible that you have personally met an angel. Hebrews 13:2 teaches, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels" (NKJV).

It is amazing to think that some of us may have communicated with an angel, but were unaware of it. Angels are nearer than we may realize.

If an angel of God were to appear before you right now, you would stand in awe because angels are very beautiful. When we read biblical accounts of people who encountered angels, they were often overwhelmed by the glory and beauty of them.

Still, angels remain invisible most of the time, except on very special occasions when God sends them on a unique mission or clothes them in human form.

Contrary to what some have been led to believe, angels are not deceased human beings who are trying to earn their wings. Also, when someone dies, their friends or loved ones may say that person is now an angel who watches over them. However, this is not true.

When people say that someone who has died now helps them or guides them or their presence is felt, it is not true. People who have gone from this life into eternity do not communicate with us. They do not comfort us. They do not guide us. Certainly, they do not turn into angels. Angels are an altogether unique group created by God.

Also contrary to what some people have attempted to do, it is incorrect to attempt communication with an angel, to try to pray to an angel, or to specifically develop a relationship with an angel. We find in Scripture that the focus is on praying to God, looking to God, and developing a relationship with God.

Yes, God does work through angels, but that is not the point. The point is that it is God who is doing it.

We don't know how many times angels have been working behind the scenes, how many times they have delivered us, helped us out of tight situations, or intervened on our behalf. Angels are all around us, taking care of us and ministering to us, even when we are not aware of their presence. This certainly gives hope in these troubled, dangerous times in which we are living.

When we think of all of the violence and chaos and danger in the world today, it is comforting to know that God's angels are watching out for us. They may not help you find a parking space or make your casseroles more flavorful, but you can be certain that angels are God's secret agents, powerfully and effectively doing the work He has called them to do.

Find more of Greg's sermons and teaching at harvest.org

Never Refuse Wine

P.J. O’Rourke is a conservative/libertarian journalist and satirist. His wicked and twisted sense of humor combined with his libertarian politics ensure that you can never know for certain what is going to flow from neither pen nor mouth. Personally, I think he has keen insight into the way the world works.

“You say we [reporters] are distracting from the business of government. Well, I hope so. Distracting a politician from governing is like distracting a bear from eating your baby.”

"The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take something and not pay for it."

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."

"These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper."

"Giving government money and power is like giving car keys and whiskey to a teenage boy"

"Man developed in Africa. He has not continued to do so there."

"Health care is too expensive, so the Clinton administration is putting a high-powered corporate lawyer -- Hillary -- in charge of making it cheaper. (This is what I always do when I want to spend less money -- hire a lawyer from Yale.) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."

"You can't get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That's all you need to know about communism."

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them."

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."

"One nice thing about the Third World, you don't have to fasten your seat belt. (Or stop smoking. Or cut down on saturated fats.) It takes a lot off your mind when average life expectancy is forty-five minutes."

"The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop"

"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."

"One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on."

"Politics should be limited in scope to war, protection of property, and the occasional precautionary beheading of a member of the ruling class."

"The free market is ugly and stupid, like going to the mall; the unfree market is just as ugly and just as stupid, except there is nothing in the mall and if you don't go there they shoot you."

"There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good with his own money -- if a gun is held to his head."

"The second item in the liberal creed, after self-righteousness, is unaccountability. Liberals have invented whole college majors--psychology, sociology, women's studies--to prove that nothing is anybody's fault. No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you'd have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers. A callous pragmatist might favor abortion and capital punishment. A devout Christian would sanction neither. But it takes years of therapy to arrive at the liberal view."

"Schneider has made a career of telling the public that the climate is going to change drastically any time now, and indeed every spring and fall he's been right."

"Never Refuse Wine. It is an odd but universally held opinion that anyone who doesn't drink must be an alcoholic."

"The founding fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take one hundred of its most prominent numbskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm."

"The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it."