Friday Phenomena

On a warm and mostly cloudy Friday, here are some things going on:

From National Review, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemns the Pentagon's decision to livestream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter.

From FrontpageMag, anti-Israel Jews learn that the left hates even anti-Israel Jews.

From Townhall, the person offered the job of White House press secretary has been announced.

From The Washington Free Beacon, Harvard University celebrates its anti-Israel Nobel Peace Prize winner.

From the Washington Examiner, the Republican gubernatorial nominee for my state is not seeking President Trump's support.  (Both chambers of Maryland's state legislature are dominated by Democrats.  Seven of our eight congresscritters and both of our Senators are Democrats.  Democrat presidential candidates have carried Maryland for decades.  But somehow we manage to occasionally elect Republican governors such as Bob Ehrlich and Larry Hogan.)

From The Federalist, in France and the U.K., multiculturalism is bringing about authoritarianism.

From American Thinker, the movement started by Trump must continue after he leaves office.

From NewsBusters, more on the new White House press secretary.

From Canada Free Press, "an unanswered question" about Canada and the WEF.

From TeleSUR, a magnitude-7.2 earthquake strikes Panama.

From Snouts in the Trough, how many economists are needed in order to destroy and economy?

From EuroNews, the U.K.'s former Prince Andrew receives £302,000 as compensation for surrendering his lease at the Royal Lodge.

From ReMix, Germany suspends naturalizing descendants of alleged Nazi victims, most of them Chinese citizens, due to suspected fraud.

From Balkan Insight, Montenegrin police arrest the two co-founders of a pro-Russia Telegram channel.  (What is this "freedom of the press" you speak of?)

From The North Africa Post, the NGO Human Rights Watch decries the Tunisian government's failure to supply adequate amounts of water and electricity.

From The New Arab, commuters in Cairo, Egypt wonder if its new monorail is worth it.

From NDTV, a party leader in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir calls a terrorist leader a "martyr".

From Gatestone Institute, confronting the lie of the alleged "genocide" in Gaza.

From The Daily Signal, the truth, the media, and a visit to Israel.

From The American Conservative, is U.K. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch reviving an old class war?

From The Western Journal, an illegal alien is arrested for allegedly exposing himself while canvassing for a Democrat congressional candidate in Pennsylvania.

From BizPac Review, CNN is shocked - shocked - that ICE agents are told to arrest illegal aliens.

From the Daily Wire, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) shows support for an criminal illegal alien as anti-ICE rioters attack police officers.

From the Daily Caller, the Department of Homeland Security redacts its deportation data.

From the New York Post, the highest-earning college degree in the U.S. is math at Duke University.

From Breitbart, Hollywood celebrities denounce the aforementioned plan to televise the execution of the Fort Hood shooter.

From Newsmax, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, China represents the greatest economic and military threat to the U.S.

And from ESPN, former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka goes to the gridiron in the sky.

Wednesday Wanderings For The End Of September

Now that I'm back from wandering around the southwestern U.S., on a warm and partly sunny Wednesday falling on the last day of September, here are some things going on:

From National Review, a pilot flying a FlyDubai jet full of Israeli passengers going to Tel Aviv stabs his co-pilot and attempts to crash the plane, but is thwarted by passengers.

From FrontpageMag, the aforementioned attempt to crash a plane just might be part of a pattern.

From Townhall, gun control advocates want no one of any age to own guns.

From The Washington Free Beacon, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's (D) strategy for protecting Jews gets denounced by Jews.

From the Washington Examiner, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signs a law banning ICE from using its shock gloves in California.

From The Federalist, senatorial candidate James Talarico (D-TX) is caught in a lie about his position in trans issues.

From American Thinker, the planned Mesabi steel plant in Iowa is President Trump's "tariffs in action".

From NewsBusters, are flock cameras a tool for fighting crime or a tool of mass surveillance?

From Canada Free Press, how to take back America by not outsourcing our minds.

From TeleSUR, millions of Brazilians attend a rally held by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Salvador de Bahia.

From Snouts in the Trough, is there yet more proof that U.K. police and judges are "enemies of the people"?

From EuroNews, the U.K. ends its "one in, one out" migrant return deal with France.

From Free West Media, why conservative politicians are regarded as more attractive.

From ReMix, data from Berlin shows that Europe's housing crisis is really an immigration crisis.

From Balkan Insight, tracing the cigarette smuggling through the mountainous borderlands of Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From The North Africa Post, the African Development Bank Group grants Morocco €270 million to modernize its airports.

From The New Arab, when in Oman, please refrain from riding the turtles.

From Gatestone Institute, the "America first" policy doesn't mean that Israel is last.

From The Daily Signal, gas prices put into perspective.

From The American Conservative, why a potential impeachment of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth terrifies Republicans.

From The Western Journal, accused murderer Lindsay Clancy's defense team screams at a black member of the media as they enter a courthouse for a retrial hearing.

From Fox News, Attorney General Todd Blanche announces voter fraud charges against 10 lawful immigrants in Minnesota.

From BizPac Review, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) claims that 100,000 Virginians were kicked off SNAP, but those people might not really be Virginians.

From the Daily Wire, a deadly drug can be found right next to the candy bars.

From the Daily Caller, the Senate votes down an insider stock trading ban.

From the New York Post, a Connecticut man gets 92 months in prison for trying to support ISIS.

From Breitbart, according to a study, fans of musician Taylor Swift aren't all that bothered by her use of a private jet.  (Apparently, producing carbon dioxide is OK when she does it.)

From Newsmax, according to Senator John Husted (R-OH), Democrats are blocking his Ratepayer Protection Act just to deny Republicans a victory on affordability.

And from the Genesius Times, the WNBA bans all of its fans from its game after one of them pointed at Las Vegas Aces player A'ja Wilson.  (Is she named after a certain Steely Dan album?)

Monday Mania

Now that I'm back from New Mexico, let's see if I can remember how to do my normal blogging.  On a mild and cloudy Monday, here are some things going on:

From FrontpageMag, a leftist passes for non-white.

From Townhall, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) creates a scholarship program, but not for her fellow Americans.

From The Washington Free Beacon, senatorial candidate Angie Nixon (D-FL) faces a criminal referral about allegedly concealing back taxes and student loans from the body she wishes to join.

From the Washington Examiner, Republican congresscritters demand that a lawyer for ActBlue testify over its foreign donor screening.

From The Federalist, a document on abortions for trans youth should be seen as a preview of California Governor Gavin Newsom's (D) potential presidency.

From American Thinker, middle class wages have risen faster during Trump's presidencies.

From Newsbusters, the MS NOW show Morning Joe tries to revive the Daniel Penny case.

From Canada Free Press, Americans voted for deporting illegal aliens.

From TeleSUR, Peru offers sustainable tourism.

From Snouts in the Trough, if you want a decent government pension in the U.K., don't ever get a job.

From EuroNews, Russian forces strike Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv.

From ReMix, after a 93-year-old woman is found dead in her house in Toulouse, France, police arrest an unclothed illegal migrant from Sudan, also found in the house.  (If you read French, read the story at La Dépêche.)

From Balkan Insight, Kosovo parliamentcritters express "deep concern" over the war crimes convictions of four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

From The North Africa Post, Morocco and Mauritania agree to upgrade a road between their El Guerguerat border crossing to the latter's capital of Nouakchott.

From The New Arab, Moroccans protest their country's deepening ties with Israel.

From Gatestone Institute, Palestinian Authority President Mahmood Abbas tells the U.N. that reforms carried out by his government are complete, but the evidence doesn't agree.

From The Daily Signal, according to an opinion column, President Trump is transforming the U.N.'s failures into American savings.

From The American Conservative, a quiet change to immigration enforcement is a quite significant.

From The Western Journal, Trump is set to announce the construction of what will be the largest steel production plant in the U.S.

From BizPac Review, singer and Trump supporter Nicki Ninaj tells young Americans to "vote red".

From the Daily Wire, five men are arrested for allegedly plotting to bomb a British air base hosting American forces, and then released on bail.  (The DW is allowing me to read this article without subscribing or registering, so I'm passing it on to you.  I hope that this will be their policy from now on.)

From the Daily Caller, FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey announces his resignation after one year on the job.

From the New York Post, NBA record holder LeBron James joins the Philadelphia 76ers in hopes of extending his records.

From Breitbart, according to a study, politically biased spam filtering by Microsoft and Google obstructed an estimated $117 million in fundraising for Trump and Republicans.

From Newsmax, more on the aforementioned new steel plant.

And from The Babylon Bee, Trump announces a plan to give Iran a yuge wooden horse.

One Last Stop

On my way back from Santa Fe to the Albuquerque airport, I stopped to see the Mormon Battalion Monument near a former trading post called Budaghers.  There's a small parking lot near the monument and a bench you can sit on, but not too much else that's very close.

Another Walk In Santa Fe

Today I've pretty much taken it easy, but I got in another walk, going to downtown Santa Fe.  The first thing I wanted to see was the Palace of the Governors, originally built by Spanish colonists in 1610.  Used during periods of Spanish, Mexican and American governance, it was designated as a museum in 1909.  This is the south side of the palace, seen from its west end, with its name above a window.  The section of the adjacent street, Plaza Avenue, in front of the palace is reserved for pedestrians.

More From The Road In Utah

With my visit to Natural Bridges National Monument complete, I retraced my course back to Utah route 95 and drove eastward to route 261 and went south.  This drive was uneventful until I reached the Moki Dugway, a three-mile section of road that includes a gravel surface, grades of up to 10 percent, and switchbacks; and excludes any painted lines.  Soon after the pavement gave way to gravel, I stopped at a pullout and took this picture of some nearby cliffs.

Natural Bridges National Monument

The farthest west I traveled yesterday was to Natural Bridges National Monument.  I continued westward on Utah route 95 and found route 275, which pretty much exists to connect the monument to the rest of the U.S.A.  The monument features three natural bridges and a set of Puebloan ruins, which all may be visited by following a one-way loop road.  For all three bridges, there are viewing points and trailheads along the road, which may be used depending on how much hiking you want to do.  The first bridge seen from the road is Sipapu Bridge, named after a Hopi word for a small hole or indentation in the floor of a kiva.

Mule Canyon Ruins

Further along Utah route 95, west of the Butler Wash Ruins, is the Mule Canyon Interpretive Site.  This site includes ruins that are much closer to the road than those of Butler Wash, which may be reached via a modern walkway.  The site is not actually in Mule Canyon, but on higher ground above and to the south of it.  A hiking trail about a mile long connects to a side road east of the interpretive site and leads into the canyon and a site called House On Fire.  The largest section of the ruins at the interpretive site are seen here.

Butler Wash Ruins

After I left Blanding, Utah, I continued south on U.S. route 191 and then west on Utah route 95 and found the parking area for the Butler Wash Ruins.  From there, a trail leads to a viewing place to see the ruins.  According to various signs, the relevant authorities want them to be seen from a distance.  Most of the ruins that I saw are in the upper right alcove, as seen here.

Edge Of The Cedars

As expected, I didn't arrive back in Santa Fe until pretty late last evening.  Thus, I processed my pictures earlier this morning, and now they're "submitted for your approval", as a certain TV host used to say.

My explorations yesterday took me around southeastern Utah.  My first stop was the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in the city of Blanding.  The park includes a museum building and ruins that were inhabited by ancestral Pueblo people from around 825 to around 1225 AD.  While waiting to pay my admission fee, I encountered a bunch of people on a Road Scholar tour, including a couple from my adopted home state.  If you walk out the back of the museum, you see the ruins, modern walkways, and an informational display.

Four Corners

As mentioned in my previous post, I went to the northwest corner of New Mexico.  This is where it meets the northeast corner of Arizona, the southeast corner of Utah, and the southwest corner of Colorado.  The Four Corners Monument is reached by a road that connects to U.S. route 160 in New Mexico, and is run by the Navajo Nation.  As you walk in from the parking lot, which is south of the monument, here is what you might see.  The flags include one from each state.

Salmon Ruins

Today I ventured away from my temporary home base in Santa Fe to the northwest corner of New Mexico - quite literally.  On the way, I stopped at the Salmon Ruins, which I first visited on an archaeological tour in 2005.  This site was built around 1090 AD by people from the Chaco culture, occupied later by San Juan Puebloans, damaged by fire, subsequently abandoned, and later homesteaded by a family named Salmon.  I'm pretty sure that unlike the similar word for a fish, the "l" in their name is not silent.  Part of their homestead is still here, protected by a metal structure.

A Walk In Santa Fe

This morning, I decided to take a walk and get some exercise here in Santa Fe, Mexico, which is now my disclosed location.  I went to a place called Historic Fort Marcy, but it doesn't have anything that looked like a fort, or remnant thereof.  It has a walkway leading up from this street-side entrance.

Salinas Pueblo Missions - Abó

After visiting the Quarai and Gran Quivira units of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, I returned to the town of Mountainair and proceeded west on U.S. route 60 to the Abó unit.  The main structure of the unit is the ruins of a church and adjacent pueblo ruins.  This is a view from the unit's parking lot.

Salinas Pueblo Missions - Gran Quivira

After visiting the Quarai unit of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, I got onto New Mexico route 55 and proceeded southward back to the town of Mountainair and then continued for about 25 more mile to the Gran Quivira unit of the monument.  A ramp leads from its parking up to a small visitor center and then to the large structure seen here.

Salinas Pueblo Missions - Quarai

Today I ventured out of my undisclosed location and visited all three units of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.  I started by going to the monument's visitor center in Mountainair, New Mexico, near the intersection of U.S. route 60 and New Mexico route 55.  Going north on NM 55 brought me to the small town of Punta de Agua and the Quarai unit.

I know that this post and others from this trip are very late in the day.  It's not just the time zone difference, but I took so many pictures that I had to recharge my camera before I could transfer them to my computer.  So please forgive me, or just go to bed and read these posts in the morning.  Anyway, here's the Quarai church, most likely built by the local natives under the direction of Spanish missionaries.

Greetings From New Mexico

Earlier today I arrived at my latest undisclosed location in New Mexico.  Like I did when I visited Taos 10 years ago, I flew into Albakoykee and then toyned left to reach Interstate 25.  I know this post seems late, but out here it's only a few minutes before 8 p.m.  Naturally, I plan to see the sights and provide reports.  See all youz soon.

Remembering 9/11, And Today's Stories

Today is the 25th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/2001, against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, by airplane hijackers from the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda.  Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center and another flown into the Pentagon.  A fourth plane was possibly intended for the Capitol building or White House in Washington, D.C., but due to the actions of the passengers, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Back then, I was working in Arlington, about a mile away from the Pentagon.  Along with my coworkers, I could see smoke rising from the Pentagon.  We heard reports of a nearby gas station being on fire, and of a fire on the Mall in D.C., but these turned out to be wrong.  Commercial air travel was grounded for several days just to make sure that no more planes would be used as suicide projectiles.

Memorials were eventually built in New York, in Arlington next to the Pentagon, and in the field near Shanksville.  I visited the Shanksville memorial in 2006, 2008 and 2012, and blogged my latest visit in September of that last year.  Have we learned anything from 9/11?  The answer is probably a matter of opinion.

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Today, as the warm and cloudy weather continues on a Friday, here are some things going on:

From National Review, how the U.S. has changed in the 25 years since 9/11.

From FrontpageMag, the miniseries about 9/11 that the left didn't and still doesn't want you to see.

From Townhall, what a reporter saw while going undercover at the Chicago Socialists Conference.

From The Washington Free Beacon, why the terrorists hate us.

From the Washington Examiner, speaking at the Pentagon, President Trump honors the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

From The Federalist, after 9/11, we needed a closed border but instead got spied upon and forced-fed halal food.

From American Thinker, revisiting then-private citizen Donald Trump's role as a champion for New York City after the 9/11 attacks.

From NewsBusters, when left-wingers attacked the unity of 9/11.

From Canada Free Press, "shadows from 9/11".

From TeleSUR, Chile observes the 53rd anniversary of the coup d'état that overthrew President Salvador Allende and installed dictator Augusto Pinochet.

From Snouts in the Trough, if you want to get rich, join the RNLI.  (The organization's full name is Royal National Lifeboat Institution.)

From EuroNews, the U.K. House of Commons rejects an assisted suicide bill for England and Wales.

From ReMix, a gay German man recalls his Muslim classmates beating him for being German and gay, in Wuppertal, Germany.

From Balkan Insight, authorities in the Bosnian canton of Tuzla indict seven people over a fire in a nursing home.  (Tuzla is the place where then-First Lady Hillary Clinton claimed to have been under fire, which she later retracted as being "exaggerated".)

From The North Africa Post, Royal Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa declares the the 2030 World Cup final soccer match will be held in the province of Benslimane.

From The New Arab, after a diplomatic break, Algeria bans the UAE from its airspace.

From Jewish News Syndicate, the president of the International Freedom Coalition recalls traveling on a plane to Washington, D.C. on 9/11.

From Deutsche Welle, German authorities indict seven suspected Hamas members for allegedly plotting an attack on Israeli or Jewish targets.

From Organiser, six minor Hindu girls are kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to Muslim men.

From Middle East Forum, what's next for U.S. counter-Islamism policy?

From The Jewish Chronicle, according to an opinion column, 25 years after 9/11, we still haven't learned anything and allow Islamist hate to flourish.

From Culture Watch, 25 years after 9/11.

From The Jerusalem Post, the attacks by Hamas on October 7th, 2023 show that agreements can mask the next attack.  (The last seven links come via The Religion Of Peace, which is now part of the Center for the Study of Political Islam International.)

From Gatestone Institute, the U.K. "no longer belongs to its own people".

From The Daily Signal, has American forgotten 9/11?

From The American Conservative, the generation made by 9/11.

From The Western Journal, newly declassified documents show the repeated warnings received by Presidents Clinton and Bush the Younger.

From LifeNews, Planned Avoidance Of Parenthood killed a Colorado woman in a botched abortion and was never held accountable.

From BizPac Review, a Nigerian chieftain allegedly defrauds California of $34 million.  (He's not a Nigerian prince, just a chieftain.)

From the Daily Caller, declassified CIA documents show warnings about a terror plot that preceded 9/11.

From the New York Post, a former CIA agent allegedly stashes $40 million in gold bars in his home.

From Breitbart, CBS Mornings host Gayle King is shocked to learn that the holdout in Lindsay Clancy jury is a black man.

From Newsmax, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth tells everyone to stay vigilant.

And from ABC News, the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority votes unanimously to rename Nashville International Airport after recently departed musician Dolly Parton.  (via Newsmax)

Wednesday Wanderings

On a very warn and sunny Wednesday, here are some things going on:

From National Review, three cheers for the TSA's "gateside" program, which revives a pre-9/11 tradition.

From FrontpageMag, Muslims plotted terror against gay "Pride" parades four times in five years.

From Townhall, did the nurses on accused murderer Lindsay Clancy's jury not follow their instructions?

From The Washington Free Beacon, the imam at the mosque attended by senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed rails about homosexuality and Jews teaching about Islam.

From the Washington Examiner, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accuses the party AfD for having an "ethnic cleansing" agenda and postpones a call to U.S. President Trump.

From The Federalist, the 9/11 attacks proved that we need less immigration from the Third World, but we got more instead.

From American Thinker, the choice of 9/11 as the date for an attack was not random.

From NewsBusters, according to a study, 60 Minutes aired five times as many liberal stories than conservative ones during the past six seasons.

From Canada Free Press, how much of anti-Israel sentiment is propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party?

From TeleSUR, Colombia aligns its foreign policy with American security objectives.

From Snouts in the Trough, illegal migrants were not in peril when they were at sea.

From EuroNews, Hungary takes one more step to normalize its relations with the E.U.

From Free West Media, did postal voting cost the aforementioned AfD an absolute majority in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt?

From ReMix, according to Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Hungary's expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats "will not go unanswered".

From Balkan Insight, Montenegrin opposition parliamentcritters move to oust Speaker Andrija Mandić for offering public condolences after the death of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić.  (My spellchecker has no problem with these men's first names, but objects to their last names.)

From The North Africa Post, the Swiss company Synhelion signs a memorandum of understanding with the Moroccan government to build a synthetic fuel plant in the province of Tan-Tan.

From The New Arab, at least 14 people are killed in an explosion at a weapons depot near Sarmada, Syria.

From Jewish News Syndicate, the U.S. war on terror is not over 25 years after 9/11.

From Organiser, Fulani terrorists in Nigeria abduct a Christian pastor, taunt his wife, and dump his body.

From Gatestone Institute, fusion energy will become dominant.

From The Daily Signal, a left-leaning news outlet edits a video of a professor asking her audience to "[bleep]-up" an ICE officer.

From The American Conservative, Trump's oil with Venezuela is a "big gamble".

From The Western Journal, three members of the aforementioned Lindsay Clancy jury accidentally admit that they wanted to acquit her based on wrong criteria.

From LifeNews, the Obama Presidential Center will host a fundraiser for Planned Avoidance Of Parenthood.

From BizPac Review, a researcher resigns from the company Anthropic and warns "do not underestimate the power of AI".

From the Daily Caller, the war with Iran roars back after weeks of relative calm, sending Brent crude oil above $100 per barrel.

From Breitbart, according to "unearthed" documents, the U.K. government planned to build a camp for 3,500 migrants next to a village with a population of about 350.

From Newsmax, Republicans open their first national midterm convention in Dallas.

And from the New York Post, a "superfan" of the New York Islanders hockey team made a sign just after 9/11, which still inspires today.

Hiking In Three States

Today I resumed my exploration of Pennsylvania, and also went into Delaware and the northeast corner of Maryland.  I started my hike in White Clay Creek Preserve in Pennsylvania, took a trail that leads to the tri-point marker where the three states come together, and returned via another part of the trail that swung into White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware.  I also was able to reach the Arc Corner monument, where the boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware goes from an east-west straight line to a circular arc that reaches the Delaware River.  My picture of the Maryland side of the tri-point marker was poorly focused, but you can still see the "M" for Maryland.