A Mammoth Ceiling
The longest (known) cave system in the world is in south-central Kentucky. The Mammoth Cave – some 425 known miles of connected caverns – is now a national park. New passages are continuously discovered. Evidence of human activity within the cave goes back at least 5000 years. (37°11’13.0″N 86°06’04.0″W)
A body crushed by a large rock was discovered in 1935; the victim was a pre-Columbian miner. The cave environment appears to have been stable for thousands of years. The cave contains many ancient human remains and artifacts – most being hidden from the public.
The first Europeans visited the cave in 1797 when a hunter chased a wounded bear to the site. A saltpeter mine (potassium nitrate, a gunpowder component) was established in the early 1800s. The mining activity ended after the War of 1812 and became a tourist attraction using the owner’s slaves as tourist guides. Viewing the mine workings are still part of the visitor’s experience.
A tuberculosis center operated for a short while before the war; the thought being the cave atmosphere had curative effects.
Photos of the cave were produced after the war, increasing tourist interest. As the region is pockmarked with smaller caves, a “war” for tourists broke out in the early 1900s, increasing with the advent of auto traffic.
Land ownership was a contentious subject until the last of the majority land owners died off in the 1920s. Interested parties became interested in forming a park in 1924; the Mammoth Cave National Park Association was formed and led to the forced removal of a variety of land owners in the area under eminent domain. CCC camps were set up in the ’30s and ’40s; the government declared the formation of a national park in 1941.
The park is so popular that advance reservations to enter the cave are highly recommended.
One thing that sticks in my memory from the almost 40 years since I visited was southern-style Coca Cola in the 6oz bottles for 5¢. Tasted far better than the usual Coke. Doubt those are available anymore.
Quote of the Day
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Vox Day that is.
Sometimes he gets it right.
Like everything that inevitably falls apart on its own, conservatism is dying under the weight of its own inconsistencies and incoherencies.
Proclaiming “America First” while putting Israel first, waxing eloquent about the Constitution while never doing anything to defend the American Posterity, posturing about nonexistent principles, celebrating a capitalism that is built on a foundation of usury and fraud, and appealing to false histories and fake historical narratives, there is no reason to ever take conservatives and their gatekeeping seriously anymore.
They defend self-proclaimed democracy that violates the will of the people, enact injustice in the name of justice, proclaim an equality that has never existed anywhere, and in the process, conserve nothing.
They are worse than worthless even by their own chosen measure.
https://voxday.net/2025/11/20/no-more-gatekeepers/
America doesn’t exist anymore and it hasn’t a long long time. Politicians regularly toss about phrases like “America First” and wax eloquent for the Constitution but no one is privy to such. The big black tar baby that’s smeared everyone, but not me, is the 14th Amendment. In 1868 the politicians were finally able to bestow a category of citizenship upon the “freed” black slaves. They invented a secondary citizenship, the “U.S. citizen” in which they became a citizen of a corporation, not a real place, and this category was titled “United States of America, Inc.” and based in Washington DC. These U.S. citizens didn’t live in a real place such as Virginia, New York or Georgia but a corporate franchise titled VA, NY or GA. Their country exists only on paper and that corporation was declared bankrupt on March 9, 1933. It would be far better to proclaim KFC as your residence. At least that’s a solvent corporation and it provides a dozen secret herbs and spices.
The whole purpose of the 14th Amendment was to create forever and total tax slaves because the Constitution had such stringent limitations regarding taxation. The U.S. citizen has no claim to God-given Rights protected by the Constitution. Anything goes and boy has it! Mention “the Constitution” in a court room and you’ll be told to zip it or be jailed for contempt of court. Here’s what a judge wrote regarding this evil…
The reckless and dangerous nature of having TWO categories of American citizenship was expressed in dissension by Supreme Court Justice John Harlan in Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901). Justice Harlan wrote, “The idea prevails with some… that we have in this country substantially two national governments; one to be maintained under the Constitution, with all its restrictions; the other to be maintained by Congress outside and independently of that instrument…. if the principles thus announced should ever receive the sanction of a majority of this court, a radical and mischievous change in our system will result. We will, in that event, pass from the era of constitutional liberty guarded and protected by a written constitution into an era of legislative absolutism…. It will be an evil day for American Liberty if the theory of a government outside the Supreme Law of the Land finds lodgment in our Constitutional Jurisprudence. No higher duty rests upon this court than to exert its full authority to prevent all violation of the principles of the Constitution.”
In spite of the grave warning of Justice Harlan, the ill-conceived 14th Amendment and its creation of a second-class citizen unworthy and disallowed of unalienable God-given Rights protected by our Constitution is a virus that has spread until now almost every American has been enveloped and diseased; permanently cast down to the level of a recently “freed” slave. The founding fathers created the Constitution and Bill of Rights as a tight leash to hold our government servants in control. Through laziness and ignorance of the citizenry and the duplicitous maneuvers of our policy makers, the vast majority of Americans now find themselves powerless and tied on a leash wielded by our servants.
Don’t forget the additional effects of 1886’s “Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company”, (118 U.S. 394) – (treating corporations as “people” – letting corporate executives claim “that was the corporation’s doing, not mine), Woodrow Wilson, FDR, LBJ’s “Great Society” (Civil Rights Act in particular + 1965’s immigration legislation), and Barry Sotero’s on-going activities. The list is too long to place in a comments section. Nixon was an amateur.
The path to destruction of the Republic began with Lincoln and the Republican extremists of 1866 (abolitionists). This process continues. Does anyone doubt the DSA party will take the House in 2026 and presidency in 2028? Does anyone believe anything more than local elections in small areas mean anything? Or are “honest”?
Our most recent deterioration began in Reagan’s 2nd term when Daddy George took over. A steady deterioration except for DJT’s mere bump in the road. We can’t vote our way out of this even if the elections were honest. This – 2025 – may be the last remnant of the America that was.
At what point do the vast red regions in this country push back against the blue urban centers? Or, like the Republican Party, will the red areas prefer to be the group of “loyal opposition”? Reading of history suggests I’m not a cynic; that I see repeating patterns of empires occurring in the US.
Richard Pryor in a serious role, “Blue Collar”: “Plant [referring to auto factories] is short for plantation”
I thank God that I was allowed to live and survive the “best” days of the country – the 70s and 80s (though I often think the best days were 1890 – 1915); I don’t have children so I don’t have to fear for their future as I do for others my age that have children and grandchildren.
I don’t believe “prepping” is anything more than a bandaid on a major wound. Murphy is God’s right-hand man.
I don’t expect to live my natural lifespan; based on family history, I may have fewer than 10 years left – I may have 25 years left. God and the government may determine I have less than one day as far as I know though.
As someone once mentioned in Comments: “mellow DT, mellow”.
Off my soapbox now. Think pretty pictures …
Our house has a porch on all 4 sides, so you can walk all the way around it without ever stepping on the ground. The porch on the 2 sides are open decks with railings. The porch on the front is open deck with a railing and a roof. The porch on the rear has a roof (with another open deck on top at the 2nd floor) and is completely screened in and no railing and it is 8 feet above the ground.
Last week at twilight, about 6:30pm, I was sitting on the right-rear deck sipping dragon spit and staring into the woods just 20-30 feet beyond and lo and behold our favorite Barred Owl swooped in the stood on a low branch of a sugar maple 20 feet away from me. It knew I was there cause owls see everything and I had been there for at least half an hour.
That sugar maple is one of two that are about 15 feet apart and flank an opening we use frequently to go down into the forest. They are my favorite trees on our property and are more than 80′ tall and flame brightly in the fall. I have written about these 2 trees on Gerard’s site several times.
There is a low branch on this particular sugar maple and my wife has a large bird feeder hanging on it which she fills every day of the year with sunflower seeds and it gains a lot of traffic throughout the day.
The Barred Owl chose that particular spot to land because it is wise, as owls are. It knows that the ground below it has lots of field mice skittering about and thus, tasty nuggets for it’s supper. And, that owl is a frequent visitor to our property (or does it tolerate us on it’s property?) and is very familiar with us. That owl has watched and studied us and knows that we will never harm it. In the past I have walked to within 10 feet of it and it was not concerned in the least.
So I sat there sipping my nectar and watching this owl and thinking about stuff. One of the many things I thought of was that right now, at this very moment, one of my favorite memories is being created and I am realizing it. I knew that in the future I will look back at these fleeting moments and remember that I was alert to their making.
It was comforting, to be living right here and now, with a live piece of real nature living it with me. I belong here.
Reading the above comments (below?) by Tom and DT and me, it’s easy to slide into a gloomy state and be coerced emotionally. I realize the bus I am riding on is being driven by maniacs and there is nothing I can do about it. I must go where the bus goes. To some degree the driver(s) own me.
But they cannot and will not ever own my mind. Nor yours. These things are ours alone and not subject to the whims of others as long as we drive our own mental bus.
I sometimes find the physical world of today overwhelming and when it all gets to a certain point I must take refuge in my mind, on our porch. Our porch is my escape hatch to mental freedom. On our porch, and in my mind, I am all things and every thing. Everything is possible, on our porch. No barriers, for now, and everything else fades deeply into the background allowing me to focus on the things I enjoy. I dream while awake.
We know not how many days we have on this plane nor can we control the affects others may have on those days. But we can control how we respond to all of it. I prefer peace and will have it any way I can.
I have my “peace” places and sometimes – usually – this site is one of those places. But sometimes I need to rattle the cage. I rage against those attempting to disturb my peace, however remotely.
One of your best posts Ghost and you have many good ones.
For sure we all need an occassional rant, and often feel frustrated at the state of things, but we, at our age (assuming most here are over 50), can enjoy the memories of when this was a great and free place to live and still take joy in moments like you just described with the barred owl and other of God’s beautiful creations.
Well dude…. YOU started it! Got me rolling about how diabolical is the prison planet and the ghouls who keep twisting the screws. The wise words in closure, “we can control how we respond to all of it” is of course the only place to live. I can’t un-know what I’ve learned and have visited some deep rabbit holes… so dark, immense and cavernous than the Great Mammoth, and there’s nothing to eat down there but more red pills. So I swallow a few more and leap further down. Just a hobby of mine. Once I began reading the fine print I couldn’t stop. Every great sage has always said, “stop reacting, watch the mind, and this shit ain’t real”… words to that effect.
Always glad to hear your take, Tom.
This is good, too. Donald Jeffries is always worth reading.
https://donaldjeffries.substack.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-and-the-pedophocracy
“Schumer, Jeffries accuse Trump of calling for ‘execution of elected officials’”
yep – go for it. “against all enemies, foreign AND domestic”
and Schumer’s on that list
I thought this was pretty good. Several minutes of Scottish Neil Oliver describing the bombardment of unsavory info comparable to an unfortunate step into a puddle of toxic slime. I almost clicked the cc button to understand his brogue but managed to comprehend the message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXdsyOrTYs8