Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
Want to Know How Putin Operates? Read These Pages: It’s all there!
“The Ghosts of Ukuthula” isn’t just any old historical fiction book. It deals with historical facts about Russia that continue to plague us even today. It shows us how our own inconsistent short term goal political system is beginning to fumble the world wide ball when met by the long term consistency of powerful dictatorships. The book revolves around a man very much like Russia’s current leader, Mr. Vladimir Putin.
Let’s use some quotes from the book to help us understand the differences. On p. 12, Russian Col. Victor Mikhail Petrov says: “Are you with us or not?” A direct question when faced with possible equivocation by a subordinate. Then on p. 34 we hear the pledge that his minions must follow: “If you are not for us, then you are against us!” A clear statement of how close to the party line one must stand. This is backed up by a very clear threat on p. 34 and 35: “…how many of you remember what happened on October 19, 1986…?” and “Ah Yes, I see that you all remember that tragic plane crash…”.
Obviously, Petrov is a man who knows how to deal in the ultimate currency of death and then also knows how to use just the threat of it in an effective manner to deal with politicians who step out of line with his way of thinking. Just in case you too have forgotten 1986?
History has already shown us the truth about Mr. Putin in this manner as well. You might want to read a couple of things to refresh your more recent memory: Connections to deaths attributes to Putin or Even a Russian ambassador is not safe if it furthers Putin’s goals.
In America our leaders couldn’t get away with this. Which is good for those of us who want to live in a free society with freedom of speech and that ability to express our thoughts about subjects we disagree with. But it does slow down the processes of dealing with problems that need immediate action.
Our American career diplomats, intelligence agents, and enforcement need to be shielded from the dictatorial powers of a leader who might decide to use lethal force to eliminate opposition or to use these agencies to further nefarious goals. Additionally, these protections need to be very clearly spelled out so that everyone in our country is aware of them and has no doubt that they are carrying out the laws of our country not the whims of one person or a secret committee.
You might be interested in reading about Intelligence Community Oversight in order to understand that we have the checks and balances that are needed to keep our intelligence agencies from being the pawns of one master as they would be in Russia.
American intelligence cannot afford to be jumping in and out of political trees. We need dedicated career persons filling these positions if we are to effectively run our intelligence agencies. Political Parties should not be the ones to be directing our long terms strategies every four years. See p. 28 in “The Ghosts of Ukuthula”: “We’re not paid to believe the party line, Abe. We’re paid to see through the crap and the spin.”
and now on p. 168: “…Every four years our government throws out any long term intelligence strategies for a new set of monkey bars. …We blink while Petrov’s focus doesn’t waver. That’s how it has been for the past thirty years.” Read the book! Learn about the opposition!
America needs to quit blinking and recognize a very human man who has come down through Russian history and who is now playing games with us, Mr. Vladimir Putin.
Wake-up Surprise on 48th Wedding Anniversary
One O’clock in the morning of 12 July, 2017. Our 48th wedding anniversary is about to begin. As I snore peacefully, my wife sneaks out of bed and lets the restless dog outside. A few moments later as she is headed back to cuddle in bed, she hears a growling noise from the dog and runs back in the room and wakes me up.
Roused from my deep slumber, I jump out of bed and grab my headlamp. Back outside I can see that our Welsh terrier, Rex is making mighty 4 ft. leaps up towards the lower branches of the plum tree. Shifting the light upward I get that great reflection that always comes when you hit “Eyes”!
Moments later I make out the shape of a giant raccoon, easily larger than our 30 lb. terrier. It opens it’s mouth and hisses at the dog showing a bunch of wicked teeth.
Now you have to understand, we live 6 miles out of town, have 5 ducks and 10 chickens, and have been having an ongoing battle with egg eating skunks and chicken/duck eating raccoons this year. Losses total about 50 eggs and three ducks and four chickens. You can’t live trap them and haul them away because skunks shoot streams of this yellow foul smelling scent that you don’t want anywhere near you, your house, dog, or car. raccoons are so smart, once they know people, they’ll either come back 20 miles to haunt you forever, or molest some other rural home.
Why this year? I have no idea, but we’ve had to dispose of 5 raccoons already and I just locked away my .22 rifle two days ago after killing the mother skunk who has been elusively roosting under my chicken house and nabbing eggs for her litter of at least 5 kids (I don’t know what you call baby skunks). Stinkers?
Anyway, I hand Jill the light and say, “You stay here with the dog and keep the light on him while I get the rifle.”
Off I go to the shop and grab the rifle and ammunition. Minutes later I’m back and we dispose of said raccoon.
By this time, Rex has been jumping up and down for almost 5 minutes and is so winded he can’t even bark when the coon comes out of the tree.
Then it’s off to bed for some raucous SLEEP! Happy 48th Anniversary!>))
McBee’s at the USA National Individual Orienteering Championships in Idaho
This year the US National Orienteering Individual Championships were held in Idaho June 23 – 25th and sponsored by COTC (City of Tree Orienteering Club of Boise) Check out their blogspot. As usual, the superb organization and excellent terrain for orienteering made this a meet to remember. Fortunately the scalding 100+F temperatures of Idaho summer held off this year. Two years ago – June 26-26, 2015 at their Western States Championship meet, we all nearly died after three days of running in the severe heat with the only relief being a long sit in the swimming pool of our camping site since we didn’t have an AC.
Our Club, CROC (Columbia River Orienteering Club) CROC Web site is based out of Portland and the environs including Hood River. Although we are a small sized club, we regularly have members place in meets around the US and have several members on the USA Orienteering and Bicycle Orienterring teams. Check out our “Home” CROC Home where you will see Ali Crocker of the national team in the scrolling pictures.
Jill and I compete in the 70+ categories of orienteering which although strenuous for our age group are nothing compared to the Elite 20 – 35 year old courses. Let me go through the men’s three courses for 70+ to give you some idea of what we do.
Sprint: Here’s the Boise State University Campus with the Brown Sprint Course, 70+ controls and my green dashed arrows showing my route through the building areas. On the lower left you can see some notes that I wrote in after the race with my times. The four minute control was the one that did me in on this race for any chance at a medal. It’s the time from #5 to #6. Follow the green line and notice the Brain Fart! I leave #5, cut out to the open area on the right and then for some unknown reason halfway down the 2 block section, I cut in and go to #7 – Duh! (Probably got my heart rate up above about 135 in that dash and that’s when the brain begins to go for those of you elders who get into this sport.) So then I had to go around the building to punch # 6 and of course then go back to #7 again anyway. I ended up in 8th place for the group of 12 men. I calculate my race speed here was 5.89 km/hr for the 2.2 km which is not fast enough for this kind of terrain. You can see all of the race results for the sprint at: Winsplits by Class – M70+
Long Course: The next day’s race was fortunately up at about 7000 feet near Stanley where Spring was just coming into it’s full bloom of flowers – Great! Cooler weather and forest. The course was on an old piece of Glacial Moraine near Trap Creek. Lots of boulders in among the knolls, depressions and dead-fall of Lodge Pole Pine Trees! Straight line running meant jumping and climbing over a lot of dead stuff, or trying to figure a route around it without losing the directions. This 2.9 km course was deadly if you lost focus or got disoriented at any time. Note the 10 ft. contour lines and note the green hash marks across especially the red line running from control 5 – 6 and again between control 8 and 9. Those were my bugaboo’s for this course because in fighting the timber I got off track just enough to then have to do a circular re-locate in the last 50 meters. My speed dropped to 3.6 km/hr, control 5-6 took me 14 minutes which is probably a loss of 4 minutes and control 8 to 9 took me five minutes which again is a loss of almost 2 minutes. But the course was tough on everyone else as well and on this race so I pulled myself up to finish 5th on the win splits:Long Race win splits for M70+ 
Middle Distance Race: The third day of races was again a challenging Glacial Moraine area near Dutch Lake. Again Lodge Pole Pine dead-fall and lots of mini-contours. In fact this course took us through 5 different depressions – very difficult features to locate in this woody overgrown country. Note the map and my route today was pretty much straight line with only one glitch between 8 and 9 where I knew better than to drift to the right, but did-so anyway and then had to do a circuit because of a great big dead tree across the path I thought I could take. That made this into a 7 minute leg between 8 and 9 with a loss of 3 minutes of messing around. But in this case, my other times were very good, being fast enough to stay ahead of the pack despite the error. My speed again was slow because of the rough terrain, but 3.3km/hr was sufficient to put me into 3rd place for a bronze medal to take home to CROC. Winsplits M70+ Middle Distance
So it was a good competition as always, and with 12 men in the competition for medals, made me feel really great that I had been able to improve so much over the three days and have clean runs with no mis-punches or major disorientation. With nothing nut a hand held compass and a map, this is a real test of one’s ability to focus. Next year I’m going back to try to better my ranking. The big question to me is, how come the men’s 70+ category is one of the largest groups competing? Maybe cell phones and GPS’s have drained a part of our brains that needs more exercise and practice. Have a great day!
Here’s my wife and me with our medals on the last day. Yes, she’s good: Three silver medals and one bronze in the women’s 70+ group so she keeps me hopping. Chiao until next time. 
Lest We Forget! Book Review: “Human Smoke” by Nicholson Baker
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Who would have thought that you could make a WWII book that was truly gripping by writing 475 pages of quotes or letters beginning in 1892 up until New Years 1942 in order to show the development of world thinking that led up and into World War II. Follow the thinking of Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt and many lesser known and in some cases forgotten persons through their letters to understand the Peace Movement in India, England and the USA during this period. Then contrast that with the call to war and the attempts at appeasement by non-hostile nations as Europe comes out of the depression and the first invasions by Hitler’s army begins. Read the letters of dissident German Army Officers, the notes of starving, brutalized Jewish refugees and prisoners and the changes in thinking by Churchill and Roosevelt as the war develops. See how the German’s solutions to what they classed as the “Jewish Problem” developed to ultimately become one of genocide of not only those persons, but of many thousands of Gypsies, Poles, and other minorities. Contemplate our modern day situation as we see world leaders mock, harass, demean and insult other races, cultures and religions and realize that we are not that far from the precipice of world conflict and genocide. An eye-opener, and one that should be required reading and discussion in our secondary schools: lest we forget!
Memorial Day Poetry – The Why We Celebrate!
Memorial Day
Today as we enjoy our friends, barbecues, beer and the beginning of summer we want to remember the reason for Memorial Day and give thanks for those it honors. I attended a great Hood River Celebration at the Idlewild Cemetery this morning, and as the wreaths were presented, I thought it important to reflect on the meaning of what we are doing on a day that seems to be losing it’s meaning amid a frenetic need to do-do-do or go-go-go in our society. Note this section of our small town Hood River News Paper: Hood river Memorial Day and Beyond
BUT WAIT! Don’t be alarmed. The paper also had this great photo and lead-in to today’s Celebration at the Cemetery which included serious speeches, a fly-over, the placement of wreaths and also a roll call of deceased veterans in Hood River in the past year: http://www.hoodrivernews.com/news/2017/may/27/memorial-day-service-may-29-idlewilde/
YES! I want to express my thanks to the organizers, sponsors, participants and attendees at the Memorial Day Celebration at Idlewild Cemetery.
So what’s it all about?
Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) was first declared a national day in 1868 by Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, General John A. Logan, it celebrated the remembrance of all who died while serving in the armed forces. It was and still is: a day of reflection by our leaders and our country about the grief caused by wars is important to help us understand the sacrifices our armed forces may have to make and why responsible leadership should utilize warfare only as a last resort in maintaining world order.
I would recommend thoughtful reading and discussion of poetry to enlighten your thoughts about:
- Where the Dead are buried by reading John McCrae’s Flanders Fields, or
- The impact that the Dead have on the living by reading Robert Service’s “The Convalescent” and
- The denial we all have of the Dead and horrors of war by reading Robert Service’s “The March of the Dead” as enlightenment about how we need to continue to seriously and respectfully honor those who paid the ultimate price for our liberties and relaxation on each peaceful Memorial Day holiday.
- Check out Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
We seriously need this day of reflection by our leaders and our country about the grief caused by wars is important to help us understand the sacrifices our armed forces may have to make and why responsible leadership should utilize warfare only as a last resort in maintaining world order. We all need to continue to seriously and respectfully honor those who paid the ultimate price for our liberties and relaxation on each peaceful Memorial Day holiday.
Give thanks with a grateful heart!
Book review: “The Nazi Officer’s Wife” by Edith Hahn Beer
The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn Beer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of those amazing books that allow you to understand a bit of what the person suffering through the entire Jewish pogrom era of Nazi Germany had to do in order to survive. I Edith’s own words we read what it was like to be in the slave labor farms, the factories and the streets of Germany as the Nazis took over, destroyed their society, went to war as victors and fell into the depths of hate and sin as a country with no moral guidance.
We can only imagine what it might be like to have everything that is part of your identity taken away from you. We can only imagine what being a slave to a dominant race must be like. We can only imagine what it must be like to eat the rats and garbage of others in order to survive. We can only imagine what it must be like to secretly marry an officer of the military that is destroying your life, religion and culture in order to survive and live through the holocaust of Nazi Germany.
This book will help you gain some of that insight. Read it. Ponder it for our own times as we see how others are willing to treat those who are only slightly different from ourselves in our own 21st century country. Realize how close to the brink you really are.
Book Review: Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
I was 7 or 8 years old and living in Montana during the time frame of this book. Even today I still remember the hay ricks and horse drawn forks in certain parts of the Gallatin Valley as we built our house out on Sourdough Road. Although this is fiction, it is so true to the era and the wide eyed blissful naivete with which we pursued life. The ability to ride the bus to another town, or even to meet a relative coming in on the train was an adventure. The hobos and bums who lived down near the dump and rode the trains were regarded as a fact of life but not persons to be feared, by our parents who themselves had been forced during the depression to fend for themselves on the road.
I am always amazed at Ivan Doig’s ability to tell a tale through the eyes of an adolescent in such a manner that we feel the anxieties, the amazement, the fears and the embarrassment of youth once more. This is a story well worth reading and as one who still has my grandmother’s signature book with many interesting ditties from friends and acquaintances, I at times long for the slower more thoughtful and more interconnected lives we led during those times. Enjoy!
African child
Source: African child
Let them in
Source: Let them in
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