Moosterious Interlude, or Strangers In The Right

Sorry for the delay. Production issues arose. And the trip to Wasilla and Willow will have to wait another nonce. Because events have overtaken us. Titanic events.

Moosylvania quakes this day.*

Central Moosylvania

[* No, not the second-most tectonically-active spot in the USA, home to the 9.2 magnitude 1964 "Good Friday" quake in Anchorage, which I feel duty-bound to mention, since I wrote about the MOST tectonically active spot, the Salton Sink, in "The Doomed Land" and the "The Sinking Land" on June 8 and 9. Anchorage lies at the OTHER end of the same tectonic plate, but that is not why Moosylvania quakes.]

And let me be clear:  by “Moosylvania,” I mean the Anchorage/Wasilla complex geographically — where 2 out of 3 Alaskans live — and Sarah Palin, psychologically. Moosylvania is ultimately a state of mind, and no aspersion is cast on the many decent and fine Alaskans who exist elsewhere in the state, and even in the Greater Moosylvania Metro Area.

The Anchorage Daily News reports* :

North to Alaska: Moose of Darkness

All photos by Hart and Jayne Williams © 2010, except as noted *.

There she was, Myth America.

Because, finally, the selling of Sarah Palin (and before that, Wyoming Cowboy Dick Cheney, Texas Cowboy George W. Bush and before that, Ronald Reagan in his Death Valley Daze) is based on American Mythology. About the mystery and majesty of places that you’ve never been, but have been hearing tall tales about for your whole life, if you were born in the USA, or even if you weren’t.

*

Myth Alaska (and before that, the “cowboy” mythology) is based on the indispensable notion of the self-made man, the rugged pioneer, the indomitable mountain man, The Noble Savage.

So, Who’s Next on the Rovian Guillotine?

Note: Moose of Darkness will appear tomorrow.

Dave Weigel, recently hired by the Washington Post, “offered his resignation” over comments made on a listserv group founded by Ezra Klein being gleefully pushed by Fishbowl DC‘s gossip columnist Betsy Rothstein and Jonathan Strong of The Daily Caller (Tucker Carlson’s new figurehead blog/online zine). Strong’s piece is a perfect case study in smear. He cherry picks quotes, and then places them in “context” by carefully introducing each quote shorn of context, but with the context that Strong desires — an act tantamount to carefully smearing a cherry farmer by starting with a maraschino cherry on top of a decadent dessert and reverse-linking the concepts so that the cherry farmer is intentionally creating massive heart attacks in consumers of said dessert.

It’s worth a critical read.

Weigel offered an apology, but, as we know, those only work for Republican senators caught with hookers, caught paying off mistresses, or soliciting sex in a notorious men’s room at a Minnesota airport. For journalists?

North to Alaska: Into the Belly of the Moose

We were going to BE in Wasilla, Alaska for a day or two ANYWAY.

Downtown Wasilla, according to “Akmuckraker” at Mudflats, blog on 29 Aug 2008

Business dictated that we see someone in Willow, Alaska, and, by virtue of travel times and the convenience of the motel, we would spend the night in Wasilla, and had a day to kill the next day before checking into our airport hotel in Anchorage after 3 PM.

Wasilla — as all news junkies know — is a hardscrabble Alaskan hamlet, with only one bar in the center of town, and mostly dirt roads, except for the highway from Anchorage to Denali and Fairbanks. A mythic Alaskan pioneer village, redolent with brave and hardy mountain men and fishermen, the constant menace of grizzly bears and, of course, mooses.

Back From AK 2: Moosylvania is Saved

In part i, yesterday, we talked about how a place like Wyoming could have a dual, parallel and contradictory history: the reality and the myth, with most souls subscribing to the myth.

Anchorage and municipally-contained Fire Island. Fire Island (foreground) is currently abandoned, now owned by Cook Inlet Region, Inc. with a proposed  wind farm in the works via Chugash Electric. (Wikipedia)

ii. Moosylvania

True story: Once upon a time, Jay Ward — creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle — bought an island near Lake of the Woods and named it “Moosylvania.”

North to Alaska, or, Back From AK

There he is, Myth America …

Ted Stevens International Airport is the place you land when coming into Anchorage, the largest city in the most populous part of Alaska. Ted Stevens is the disgraced former Alaska Senator (going back to Statehood in 1959) who famously said:

The Sinking Land

In part i, “The Doomed Land,” we talked about the origins and the geology of the Salton Sea. Now, we discuss the destiny and current state of the “accidental ocean.”

v. the ugly future

In other words, in a powerfully crazy geological zone, with the Pacific Ocean knocking at the door, and a stretching and falling drumskin over a pool of magma, the Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea are ripe for a catastrophe of Katrina proportions on a much larger scale. All it would take is one big earthquake. Water is patient. It erodes entire mountain ranges. It cuts a mile deep through hundreds of miles of solid rock (i.e. the Grand Canyon).

East Shore of the Salton Sea

In a wrestling match between human engineering and the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Ocean is always going to win. Guaranteed.

The Doomed Land

Five score and five years ago (105), an ecological crisis hit the Teddy Roosevelt Administration that dragged on for nearly two years. And the country watched helplessly as the disaster progressed, creating the Salton Sea.

Bombay Beach at the Salton Sea

i.  The Doomed Land.

So Who IS the White House Commission on Remembrance?

Good question. In the June 1 post ["WH Commission on Remembrance Forgets Civil War on Memorial Day"], you will recall, the ‘White House Commission on Remembrance’ carried out its mission of the national “Moment of Remembrance” by putting a link to its Facebook page, which managed to forget the Civil War (and the Mexican War of 1846) but remembered the Boxer Rebellion — in which the US only played a minor role.

Missing in Action: Civil War, Mexican War

So who are they?

Well, according to the Library of Congress’ Thomas search engine, they were authorized under public law 106-579. (The “106″ prefix comes from the 106th Congress, which passed it.) Some of the other laws passed around the same time include:

The Grand Kleagle, er Canyon State

All manner of tunes most loony. Here’s a new license plate for them:

Arizona’s Snazzy New License Plate

I guess they can’t help themselves.

From the Arizona Republic (via Wonkette):

Howie Rich’s ALG Director Larry Marchant in Sex Scandal

Welcome Crooks and Liars readers.

Nikki Haley, South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary candidate

The Sex Scandal in the South Carolina GOP governor’s race has taken a new twist. According to the Charleston, South Carolina’s The Post and Courier [emphasis added]:

Bauer campaign adviser asked to resign

BY ROBERT BEHRE
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Andre Bauer said today he has asked for and received the resignation of a political consultant for “inappropriate conduct” but would say little more.

Lt. Gov. Bauer announced that adviser Larry Marchant gave him his resignation at noon today.

Bauer said he had become aware of a situation several days ago, and reached the conclusion that decisive action was dictated.

His news release contained no specifics. “We asked for and received the resignation,” Bauer spokesman Hank Page said in an e-mail. “Beyond that, we will have no further comment.”

Read more here later and in Thursday’s editions of The Post and Courier.

Larry Marchant. Hmm. Why does that name ring a bell?