I'll need a good rope, a hunting knife, and a soft piece of leather.

Ick. Monday.

I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July. We took our annual drive up the Columbia Gorge to Cascade Locks to picnic and watch the fireworks. We shot off a few of our own. No serious burns. Stop, drop and roll and all that.

Liberality reminds us that the Declaration of Independence isn't the only thing we should be thinking about for the holiday. I love the Constitution but have a major crush on the Declaration. Who wouldn't love a document that at it's core is nothing more than a kick in the nuts to the establishment?

The establishment could use a good kick in the nuts once in a while. The tree of liberty has to be refreshed from time to time with a steel-tipped boot to the gotchas. You can quote me on that.

Of course if we elected Wall-E the president all of our troubles would be solved. I'm not sure he'd be that interested. He's already spent quite a bit of time cleaning up other people's trash.

Apologies for the randomness of this post. (Or "randal-ness" if you will, although I'm nowhere near as bright as Mr. Graves.) I've only had two large cups of double-black coffee this morning so I'm nowhere near as caffeinated as usual.

Have a great rest of the week and remember: watch out for bears.

Let's give that son-of-a-bitch bear a run for his money!

Stephen Colbert is right. Bears are not our friends.

It seems there have been a rash of bear attacks including one within a couple of miles of my house here in Oregon.

"I believe all God's creatures have a soul — except bears, Bears are actually Satan's children." - Colbert.

Of course there's a good reason the bears are pissed. If you had to listen to years of the constant nay-saying and harping of this guy you'd probably go a bit nuts yourself.

But Yogi, the Ranger's not going to like it.

Wild bears of the D.C. wilderness with their Latin names.