Roberts for the Rich

The Roberts Supreme Court, another painful legacy of the Cheney-Bush era, is turning out to be the most dangerous Supreme Court in history.

First, Roberts, Inc. gave citizens' rights to corporations, allowing them to spend their billions freely to populate government with their purchased patrons. Who suffers most? The common working folks.

Next scotus constricts the rights of the accused by - get this - making a person verbally express his right to remain silent. How's that for a Catch-22? You have the right to remain silent, but you have to break that silence to access your "right". Justice Sotomayor saw the lunacy in this twisted logic. What other rights that you thought you had will you now be required to publicly ask for each time you wish to exercise them? Does anybody else see the slippery slope?

And now the kangaroo kourt is stripping away public funding for political candidates who opt not to be bought by the rich special interests. Have you noticed how many gazillionaires are buying their own elections these days? Matching public funds are (were?) the only real available mechanism for the non-wealthy to compete. And whose interests do you think the gazillionaires are looking out for? Yours and mine? Yeah, sure.

Are you paying attention, Tea-Partyers, to your right-wing compatriots on the Court as they shred the rights and freedoms you profess to espouse? Cheney-Bush and the other conservatives - and I used to be a conservative until I realized the damage they were doing - decry an activist court at every opportunity. But the Roberts train wreck raises judicial activism to another level.

John Roberts was the least controversial Court nominee in recent memory. Supposedly he was so smart and so well qualified. But he is turning out to be the worst appointee. How can that be? Is he bought and paid for? It makes you wonder.

Prediction: Next up for the Roberts Court, reaffirmation of the Dred Scott Decision. Everyone's invited to the cross burning afterward! Bring a dish to pass!!

NYSGA 2008

Colgate University hosted this year's meeting of the New York State Geological Association held in Lake George, New York. The event was a co-meeting with the Friends of the Grenville. As usual, the field trips were outstanding. Bruce Selleck from Colgate led Sunday's field trip looking at the Potsdam Formation (Potsdam Sandstone) in the eastern Adirondacks around Lake George and Lake Champlain. The Potsdam (520 Ma) constitutes the basal Cambrian unit overlying Proterozoic gneisses of Ottawan age (1070 Ma) or earlier. The unconformity between the two represents 550 million years of missing geologic record.

Bruce Selleck explaining the outcrop at Stop 1 of the field trip, just north of Lake George village. William Kelly (New York State Geologist) is on the right.

Glacial striae on top of the outcrop at Stop 1.

Bruce pointing out a remarkable example of a dolomitization front in Grenville marble just below the contact with the Potsdam. Mg-rich hydrothermal fluids flowing along and either side of the contact altered the (white) calcitic marble to (dark) dolomite. The fluid pathway in the form of a fracture is visible cutting vertically through the dolomite. This is at Stop 2 along Route 22 north of Whitehall, NY.


Geologists loving life at Stop 3. Bruce Selleck is in the center distance (just to the right of the yellow hard hat). Alan Benimoff (College of Staten Island and NYSGA Executive Secretary) is wearing the yellow hard hat. Dave Franzi (SUNY-Plattsburgh) is on the far left next to the outcrop.

Reddish ferroan dolomite in Potsdam sandstone at Stop 3.

Students looking at typical marine-facies Potsdam (Selleck's 'lower stratified unit') at Stop 3.



The 'Great Unconformity'. Massive Potsdam sandstone overlying vertically banded Proterozoic gneiss. A conglomeritic lens is visible in a trough at the base of the Potsdam. Stop 5.


Ripple marks in Potsdam sandstone used as building stone. A lot of interesting rocks, like this one, were used to build the hydroelectric plant on the Lachute River in Ticonderoga, NY. Stop 6. The Lachute River drains Lake George into Lake Champlain.

Nice fall colors...

Buck Mountain

Hiked up Buck Mountain on the east side of Lake George last Saturday. It was overcast and very humid after an all-day rain on Friday, which brought the mosquitoes out, but otherwise not too bad a day. The 2.3-mile route up from Hogtown Road is a typical Adirondack woods walk, but rather unremarkable. A few small streams are crossed and the trail goes past a couple attractive moss-covered rock ledges, such as the one in the photo, but there are no views or striking scenery until you reach the top. Hiking time, with stops for photos, was about an hour and a half up and an hour and a quarter down.

Reportedly the trail up from Pilot Knob has more views and is more popular. This became abundantly clear when I reached the top and found a crowd of 40-50 people most of whom had hiked that route. On the trail from Hogtown Road I passed only one couple on their way up and a lone hiker on her way down.

The summit has views to the north and northwest from one open ledge, and to the southwest from the main summit. On this day there was a lot of haze and the views were only so-so.

The view past the crowd in the photo at right is to the southwest. Lake George is in the distance. The photo below is looking north toward Sleeping Beauty Mountain (on the right), Shelving Rock Mountain (the hump in the middle distance), and the Tongue Mountain Range in the distance. Lake George and Northwest Bay of Lake George are in the distance on the left.














And finally, an artsy shot from the trail on the way back down.

Franchi 48AL Deluxe

Last September I bought a Franchi 48AL Deluxe in 28 ga. for hunting grouse and woodcock here in upstate New York. I bought it because I was looking for an autoloader, but one that was fast and light. All the reviews said the 48AL's long recoil design was a reliable, tried-and-true system, although considered 'old-school' by some.

But from the first time I used it, the action did not feed shells correctly. Most of the time the fired shell would eject, but the next feeding shell would jam. I tried a number of things to correct the problem, including shooting different brands of ammunition and changing the orientation of the friction ring (something you have to do with 48AL's depending on the shotshell load being used). Nothing worked and I began to think of the 48AL as a very expensive single-shot shotgun.

Finally I took it back to the dealer and he shipped it off to Franchi USA in Accokeek, MD for warranty service. Weeks turned into months and the entire long New York grouse season passed as I checked back regularly to see if my repaired or replaced shotgun was returned (fortunately, I still have my old Winchester Model 1300 to use). Each time I was assured that it would be in 'soon'. After six months, though, even the dealer had given up hope that it would be returned any time soon. The last word he got was that Franchi couldn't 'find' my gun so he replaced it on his own with a new one.

So far I've fired 30-40 rounds through the new gun at a shooting range and it has operated flawlessly. We'll see how it operates in the field. I'm excited again to use this gun after the initial disappointment. It's a beautiful gun, super light, carries like a dream, and it fits me perfectly. I hope it lives up to its reputation. And I hope I can hit birds with it...