Sunday, 25 August 2013, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK - First and foremost our hearts go out to all living beings threatened by the Yosemite National Park blaze including any and all scattered landowners grandfathered or otherwise in the vicinity of the historic park first named as a "National Monument" by President Theodore Roosevelt. The fire has been deemed enough of a threat to the water supply of San Francisco stored in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that California Governor Jerry Brown had at last reports available to the Ninth Amendment log called a state of emergency.
Hetch Hetchy Dam was constructed in the early years of the 20th Century over the lifelong protestations of naturalist and foremost friend of the Earth John Muir who as chronicled in an outstanding PBS (yes another bane of the "Modern" Republican Party) television documentary recounting the historic visit of Theodore Roosevelt (himself a Republican) to Yosemite Valley at which visit he eschewed his planned state dinner at the Ahwautaukee Lodge and instead spent the night speaking with and sleeping in sleeping bags beneath the great rock walls of Yosemite Valley beside the great naturalist John Muir.
This story is here revisited from an earlier post a couple years back on this log which recounts the great coup of President Theodore Roosevelt which followed. Apparently completely in awe of the natural wonder to which he awoke President Roosevelt experienced a cathartic moment in which the realization overtook him that the transcendent natural beauty of the land of the country, his and John Muir's country that he saw stretching in all directions was not something to be conceptualized as some transitory possession as might be consistent with the prevalent robber baron views of the time.
What stood before the two men was the representation of a sacred trust they held not just to a few or perhaps even the citizens of a single country, but rather an enduring timeless part of the Earth to which they held a sacred duty to preserve for all peoplekind. In any case the "coup" which unfolded in the furious following months was unparalleled in history. The emboldened and inspired President Theodore Roosevelt returned aglow to Washington, D.C. and in a some might call sleight of hand that bordered on the magical or mystical convinced the United States Congress to bestow upon the President alone the power under the enacted "National Antiquities Act" to with maps of the United States in hand with the stroke of a pencil (we believe he however used a pen) "suggested" a remarkable collection of "National Monuments" to forever be preserved and saved from the petty and transitory destruction of commercial pillage.
Before the United States Congress knew what had hit it President Theodore Roosevelt had used the presumably modest powers of the Act to mark off reasonably restrained preserves around the country the President instead with the guidance of John Muir and others had with great strokes of his pen forever (one hoped) marked off wide swaths of land in places near and far and encompassing the most spectacular lands of the Country for designation as National Monuments which later were to become the very heart of this Nation's National Park System.
Alas John Muir did NOT succeed in his one greatest quest to save Hetch Hetchy from being dammed and the valley which the naturalist described unbelievably as being even MORE breathtaking, spectacular, and beautiful than its parallel Yosemite Valley was indeed dammed to satisfy the commercial interests of the burgeoning city of San Francisco. John Muir is said never to have recovered from this most terrible blow and to have then carried for the relatively few more years that he survived to his grave. To this day people still speak of undoing the damage and removing the damn.
The agricultural and other interests say impossible. Curiously to this day San Francisco is said to waste far more precious pristine Sierra Mountain water each morning just watering Golden Gate Park with virgin water than ALL such water (carefully reclaimed) used by its supposedly rapacious neighbor to the south, Los Angeles, the City of the Angels.
Well darn the Ninth Amendment editorial board has really wandered afar this time. To those readers who have held on the past couple of days and nights we have been in the midst of a GRAND EXPERIMENT. Rather than merely an onslaught of algorithms, keywords, megatrends, search optimizations and so on of which we know, well, very little at this point the Ninth Amendment Log instead has attempted to attract a growing readership (somewhat disturbed shall we say by untoward events of recent weeks past) amongst its worldwide audience by presenting merely a bit of hopefully decent and interesting writing.
Surprise! The scheme in the past days would appear actually to have worked as amidst some of our usual digressions we have stuck more or less faithfully to the interesting and even to some intriguing secrets of the profession of Private Investigator. With neither compensation nor remuneration of any kind we have shared as "fair comment" portions of "The Private Investigator's Handbook" by Chuck Chambers, P.I. So after all this it only seems fair that we continue on here for those still with us with a few tidbits from Chapter Eight, "How To Shake A Tail". Particularly as Mr. Chambers seems to have specifically connected these bits to his concern for the safety of women. To wit (per Mr. Chambers):
o Number of reported stalking cases in the United States each year: 1,006,970
o Number of women battered yearly: 6,000,000
o Percentage of murdered women each year killed by a current or former spouse: 52
o Percentage of clients who come to me because they want to avoid being followed: 3
Readers of the Ninth Amendment first are referred to previous posts of the past couple days which by inference clearly suggest certain ways to shake a vehicular tail.
- The first Make a U-Turn readers may remember is to head for the nearest four-lane highway and make a u-turn there. "After a short distance, maneuver to the left lane and look for the first available break in the median strip where you can safely do a u-turn. Naturally you're looking for any vehicle that makes the same u-turn behind you". As Mr. Chambers says the other car faces a dilemma, and either you've made the tail and/or discouraged them for today.
- The second readers will remember is to Head for a Dead-End, one of the "best methods" according to Mr. Chambers unless of course one thinks "there is any element of danger involved". Once the tail follows you into the dead-end street, go into the last residence and pull into the driveway. You now have the tail in a bottleneck and can put your car in reverse and head back out the street. "At this point, you're in a position where you can either confront the person or you can fall in behind him or her and take their tag number. The predator has to pass within a few feet."
"Your tail knows the jig is up, and with the tag number you can identify who the driver is. If the tag comes back a licensed PI" call your lawyer.
- Technique three is Residential Turns which requires paying attention. "If you make three consecutive turns in a residential area and the same car is still behind you, the chances are you're under surveillance. Make a u-turn to shake the tail."
- Techniques four, five and six we will simply name and leave to our readers to pursue should they wish. They are: Left Turns, For Sale Sign (Get Ahead Out of Sight Pull Into For Sale Driveway Lie Across Front Seat And Let Tail Pass Which Will Make Most PIs Give Up After About Ten Minutes, next is The Yellow Light which we will bet our readers can figure out if they can gauge their speed then leave the tail at a red, next is Look For A Second Tail, and Finally Is Collect Evidence Of A Tail When Safe To Do So.
Finally finally from your editorial board at the Ninth Amendment the recently repeated reminder has of late unfortunately become important again -- young women DO NOT STOP for apparent police marked or unmarked lights or no lights up top on dash whatever in ANY kind of an isolated area. Proceed to a nearby police station if you know where one is otherwise calmly continue until you are in a VERY WELL LIT AND VERY OCCUPIED PLACE. When in doubt ALWAYS USE YOUR CELL PHONE FOR 9-1-1 IN OR OUT OF YOUR SERVICE AREA, YOU WILL BE CONNECTED AND NOT HAVE TO PAY.
Remember keep your car moving until you are sure as sure can be you are safe, and never, ever, let anyone get you off of the street into a vehicle. Tear out their eyes and scream bloody murder. Did we say that? Well we must have meant it.
Now let us continuing growing the audience readership, what do our readers say? Sorry but at this point we will just keep those extra keywords in the title until next times, when there are always more topics to turn to, always more stories to tell, always more things to learn. Knowledge is power. POW!
Stick around here, and we are going to tell our readers how to get the best education money can buy, absolutely for free. Promise. God Bless America where anyone can still go to the Best Boarding Schools, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the Best Law Schools, yeiks they really can, and we will tell you how we did (without even getting arrested -- in most cases!) Or readers can spend a trillion dollars for a bunch of airplanes. If anyone would care to fly them, that is.9
Copyright 2013 Big M All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim as to copyrighted material)
Hetch Hetchy Dam was constructed in the early years of the 20th Century over the lifelong protestations of naturalist and foremost friend of the Earth John Muir who as chronicled in an outstanding PBS (yes another bane of the "Modern" Republican Party) television documentary recounting the historic visit of Theodore Roosevelt (himself a Republican) to Yosemite Valley at which visit he eschewed his planned state dinner at the Ahwautaukee Lodge and instead spent the night speaking with and sleeping in sleeping bags beneath the great rock walls of Yosemite Valley beside the great naturalist John Muir.
This story is here revisited from an earlier post a couple years back on this log which recounts the great coup of President Theodore Roosevelt which followed. Apparently completely in awe of the natural wonder to which he awoke President Roosevelt experienced a cathartic moment in which the realization overtook him that the transcendent natural beauty of the land of the country, his and John Muir's country that he saw stretching in all directions was not something to be conceptualized as some transitory possession as might be consistent with the prevalent robber baron views of the time.
What stood before the two men was the representation of a sacred trust they held not just to a few or perhaps even the citizens of a single country, but rather an enduring timeless part of the Earth to which they held a sacred duty to preserve for all peoplekind. In any case the "coup" which unfolded in the furious following months was unparalleled in history. The emboldened and inspired President Theodore Roosevelt returned aglow to Washington, D.C. and in a some might call sleight of hand that bordered on the magical or mystical convinced the United States Congress to bestow upon the President alone the power under the enacted "National Antiquities Act" to with maps of the United States in hand with the stroke of a pencil (we believe he however used a pen) "suggested" a remarkable collection of "National Monuments" to forever be preserved and saved from the petty and transitory destruction of commercial pillage.
Before the United States Congress knew what had hit it President Theodore Roosevelt had used the presumably modest powers of the Act to mark off reasonably restrained preserves around the country the President instead with the guidance of John Muir and others had with great strokes of his pen forever (one hoped) marked off wide swaths of land in places near and far and encompassing the most spectacular lands of the Country for designation as National Monuments which later were to become the very heart of this Nation's National Park System.
Alas John Muir did NOT succeed in his one greatest quest to save Hetch Hetchy from being dammed and the valley which the naturalist described unbelievably as being even MORE breathtaking, spectacular, and beautiful than its parallel Yosemite Valley was indeed dammed to satisfy the commercial interests of the burgeoning city of San Francisco. John Muir is said never to have recovered from this most terrible blow and to have then carried for the relatively few more years that he survived to his grave. To this day people still speak of undoing the damage and removing the damn.
The agricultural and other interests say impossible. Curiously to this day San Francisco is said to waste far more precious pristine Sierra Mountain water each morning just watering Golden Gate Park with virgin water than ALL such water (carefully reclaimed) used by its supposedly rapacious neighbor to the south, Los Angeles, the City of the Angels.
Well darn the Ninth Amendment editorial board has really wandered afar this time. To those readers who have held on the past couple of days and nights we have been in the midst of a GRAND EXPERIMENT. Rather than merely an onslaught of algorithms, keywords, megatrends, search optimizations and so on of which we know, well, very little at this point the Ninth Amendment Log instead has attempted to attract a growing readership (somewhat disturbed shall we say by untoward events of recent weeks past) amongst its worldwide audience by presenting merely a bit of hopefully decent and interesting writing.
Surprise! The scheme in the past days would appear actually to have worked as amidst some of our usual digressions we have stuck more or less faithfully to the interesting and even to some intriguing secrets of the profession of Private Investigator. With neither compensation nor remuneration of any kind we have shared as "fair comment" portions of "The Private Investigator's Handbook" by Chuck Chambers, P.I. So after all this it only seems fair that we continue on here for those still with us with a few tidbits from Chapter Eight, "How To Shake A Tail". Particularly as Mr. Chambers seems to have specifically connected these bits to his concern for the safety of women. To wit (per Mr. Chambers):
o Number of reported stalking cases in the United States each year: 1,006,970
o Number of women battered yearly: 6,000,000
o Percentage of murdered women each year killed by a current or former spouse: 52
o Percentage of clients who come to me because they want to avoid being followed: 3
Readers of the Ninth Amendment first are referred to previous posts of the past couple days which by inference clearly suggest certain ways to shake a vehicular tail.
- The first Make a U-Turn readers may remember is to head for the nearest four-lane highway and make a u-turn there. "After a short distance, maneuver to the left lane and look for the first available break in the median strip where you can safely do a u-turn. Naturally you're looking for any vehicle that makes the same u-turn behind you". As Mr. Chambers says the other car faces a dilemma, and either you've made the tail and/or discouraged them for today.
- The second readers will remember is to Head for a Dead-End, one of the "best methods" according to Mr. Chambers unless of course one thinks "there is any element of danger involved". Once the tail follows you into the dead-end street, go into the last residence and pull into the driveway. You now have the tail in a bottleneck and can put your car in reverse and head back out the street. "At this point, you're in a position where you can either confront the person or you can fall in behind him or her and take their tag number. The predator has to pass within a few feet."
"Your tail knows the jig is up, and with the tag number you can identify who the driver is. If the tag comes back a licensed PI" call your lawyer.
- Technique three is Residential Turns which requires paying attention. "If you make three consecutive turns in a residential area and the same car is still behind you, the chances are you're under surveillance. Make a u-turn to shake the tail."
- Techniques four, five and six we will simply name and leave to our readers to pursue should they wish. They are: Left Turns, For Sale Sign (Get Ahead Out of Sight Pull Into For Sale Driveway Lie Across Front Seat And Let Tail Pass Which Will Make Most PIs Give Up After About Ten Minutes, next is The Yellow Light which we will bet our readers can figure out if they can gauge their speed then leave the tail at a red, next is Look For A Second Tail, and Finally Is Collect Evidence Of A Tail When Safe To Do So.
Finally finally from your editorial board at the Ninth Amendment the recently repeated reminder has of late unfortunately become important again -- young women DO NOT STOP for apparent police marked or unmarked lights or no lights up top on dash whatever in ANY kind of an isolated area. Proceed to a nearby police station if you know where one is otherwise calmly continue until you are in a VERY WELL LIT AND VERY OCCUPIED PLACE. When in doubt ALWAYS USE YOUR CELL PHONE FOR 9-1-1 IN OR OUT OF YOUR SERVICE AREA, YOU WILL BE CONNECTED AND NOT HAVE TO PAY.
Remember keep your car moving until you are sure as sure can be you are safe, and never, ever, let anyone get you off of the street into a vehicle. Tear out their eyes and scream bloody murder. Did we say that? Well we must have meant it.
Now let us continuing growing the audience readership, what do our readers say? Sorry but at this point we will just keep those extra keywords in the title until next times, when there are always more topics to turn to, always more stories to tell, always more things to learn. Knowledge is power. POW!
Stick around here, and we are going to tell our readers how to get the best education money can buy, absolutely for free. Promise. God Bless America where anyone can still go to the Best Boarding Schools, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the Best Law Schools, yeiks they really can, and we will tell you how we did (without even getting arrested -- in most cases!) Or readers can spend a trillion dollars for a bunch of airplanes. If anyone would care to fly them, that is.9
Copyright 2013 Big M All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim as to copyrighted material)
