View from the Mountain

Bring home the bacon politics

I'm going to steal the image from early yesterday morning.  It's far less gloomy than the sunless gray of today.  Being able to see the mountain ridges in the distance pulls me out of my little neighborhood.

I'm concerned that as a people we have lost most of our vision that lets us see beyond our own patches and interests.  On top of that I'm not sure that we're willing to step up to the plate and address our own needs.  This is where government should be helping.  Yet the news isn't promising.

I read with interest the Washington Post article, "Stressing Pork, Not The Party," by E.J. Dionne.

What's interesting is the extent to which Allen and other Republican incumbents around the country are talking up how they brought big government's largess to their constituents.

It doesn't matter that they claim to be against that very same big government. Faced this year with a choice between running on their party's record and delivering pork, they'll take pork.

Now I don't think this is a purely Republican trend.  In fact I think it reflects an attitude which society seems to have embraced.  Current trends suggest we want to get as much out of government for our little patches as possible while paying in the absolute minimum amount.

In fact some people will tell you that would rather pay in nothing and get everything that they want.

I want to think that our schools are doing their job, and that the next generation realizes there is no free lunch.  I don't care how many free services you find in the world, whether it is Gmail or Mapquest, somewhere someone is paying for this stuff.  None of our government programs are free.  Someone pays for them.

My kids went to Cave Spring High School in Roanoke, Va.  I can still remember other areas of the county arguing that Cave Spring didn't deserve an athletic field of its own because it was in a rich area and had other advantages.  Perhaps one of those other advantages happened to be the kids having to go outside to get to their classrooms on time because the hallways were so crowded.

We finally got a new high school when Hidden Valley High was built.  Unfortunately my kids had graduated and all we got to show for it were higher taxes.  We pay the bills because we hope that a good education is important for everyone even those that don't have their own athletic field or aren't our kids.

All of us in Southwest Virginia want Interstate 81 fixed, but no one is willing to pay for it either in the form of user based tolls or higher taxes.

You don't have to drive many super highways to figure out that Interstate 81 has a far higher percentage of trucks than either Interstate 40 in North Carolina or Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia. 

I've heard all the truck lobby stuff about the high percentage of taxes that trucks pay, but clearly trucks which drive on Interstate 81 aren't paying more taxes than trucks which drive on Interstate 66.  Yet those trucks on Interstate 81 make it one of the most nerve racking Interstates to drive in our area.

Maybe we just need to collect a special tax on trucks that want to use Interstate 81 and use that tax solely to improve that one highway.

Now there are lots of reasons why this may or may not work, but this is the kind of debate we should be having instead of Senators bragging about how much bacon they have brought home.

We need to focus more on how to pay for things we want instead of how to get things at the expense of some other state or county.

We don't have a purely democratic system of government. Our Senators are supposed to rise above the pettiness of politics and do what is right for the republic.  Instead it is every Senator for himself with the hopes that they have brought home enough loot to achieve the one goal that they can all agree upon, re-election.

We don't really have problems that have no solutions.  We have people governing who aren't interested in providing anything but distracting candy to a population which seems to have lost its collective will to demand more of those entrusted with providing leadership to our country.

We have millions of Americans without health care.  Yet no one in government (except Massachusetts) seems to be interested in providing an option of health care coverage which is affordable. It can be done because the group of uncovered people is huge.  What's wrong with the idea of a national health care program where people are guaranteed the ability to purchase insurance?  Surely it makes more sense than the system we have now.

Yet is seems our politicians would far rather let the free market system cherry pick health care customers and let the ones who can't afford the higher rates just go without coverage.  This is the exactly the kind of situation where government needs to provide a real solution.

I am no longer interested in bring home the bacon politics.  I want real solutions to health care, roads, and retirement.  I really don't care how much you got for your local pet project.  I would like my politicians to focus on the real problems of the country, not just on how to get re-elected.

I would also like to see a few controls on a Presidency that seems more interested in changing the balance of power between our branches of government than in providing sustainable services to our population.  I think the NY Times editorial, "Read the Fine Print," pretty well covers the president's power grab.

Over 212 years, 42 presidents issued “signing statements” objecting to a grand total of 600 provisions of new laws. George W. Bush has done that more than 800 times in just over five and a half years in office.   

Somehow that seem a little out kilter to me.

I doubt the lapdog politicians will understand my view, which is that I'm not very interested in changing our form of government even if there are terrorists lurking in the woods.

Then again the view from the mountain is a little broader than the view from inside the beltway.

Supporting local fishermen

I don't think it's rocket science to suggest that the more we focus on local products, the better off we'll all be. 

Based on the crowd at the tiny seafood market in Swansboro, NC today, everyone in the area agrees.  Why eat imported shrimp when the local ones are better?

Visiting the Clyde Phillips Seafood Market is the best way to get great local seafood in the Swansboro, NC area.

Sometimes you will find as many asfour guys at the back cleaning fish without ever looking up.  We almost always get some shrimp, and it never ceases to amaze me when they take the heads off so fast and effortlessly.

Experience has shown me that the seafood does not get any fresher unless you catch it yourself.  The conversation is always minimal, usually limited to "Heads on our heads off," unless you are a regular.  Then it is okay to stay and chat a while.

The boys at Clyde's are true masters at cleaning a flounder or just about anything that swims or crawls in the sea.  There is usually a great selection.

I enjoyed taking home grouper of all types, red snapper, spanish mackerel, crab, and of course plenty of flounder and shrimp.

We have never been disappointed with any seafood that came from Clydes.

This I'll never understand

I guess maybe I'm just old fashioned.  I go to the beach to listen to the waves, feel the warm water, and smell the salt air.  Walking on a beautiful beach is one of the most relaxing things a human being can do.

People pay lots of money to rent places on the beach just so that they can amble out their door, walk on the beach and listen to the waves crashing on the shore.

So why would anyone wear an iPod on the beach and drown out the sounds of the waves with music you can hear in your own home far from the beach.  Perhaps youthful rebellion is the answer.

I certainly don't have an answer, but if you'll check the picture of the lady to the right, she definitely has an iPod with iPod buds plugged into her ears.

I guess we're a big enough country to tolerate iPods on the beach.

I read today that the NC legislature has an annual tomato sandwich day.  Now that's a legislature that is doing at least one thing right.

I won't start a campaign to outlaw iPods on the beach since I think most people have more sense.  Now if there were no waves crashing against the shore, that might be a different story.

Dining along the coast, Riverside Steak & Seafood, Swansboro, NC

I've been coming to the North Carolina coast for over five decades.  We also lived in Atlantic Canada, another seafood heaven for seventeen years. We have eaten seafood in Australia San Franciso, Seattle, Alaska, and in Europe.  I've gotten so that I prefer Icelandic Atlantic salmon when I can find it. I have been known to haul it from Northern Virginia to Roanoke, Virginia.  While I might not have seafood expert stamped on my forehead, I love expertly prepared fish.

I find that the closer you get to the salt water and the real fishermen, the better the fish usually tastes.  Recently I've been raving about some seafood restaurants in Beaufort, NC.

As far as I'm concerned, at least in "Grouper category," there is a new champion.  It happens to be Riverside Steak and Seafood in Swansboro, NC.

I recently had a piece of grouper there that I believe to be the best piece of fish that I've ever eaten in my life.  I enjoyed the "House Grouper" dish which is topped with lobster buerre blanc and two jumbo shrimp.  This picture doesn't do the piece of grouper that I was served justice since from the angle of the picture you can't appreciate that the grouper was between one and two inches thick.

It was absolutely perfectly cooked, moist, tender, and flaky.  Great fish like this doesn't happen by chance.  It takes lots of practice and care even with grouper.

The entree which included a salad and the house special sweet potato muffin was very reasonably priced at $21.95.  On top of the great grouper, the lemonade which I ordered to accompany my meal was exceptional.

Glenda, my wife, had a five ounce Filet topped with oysters in a Bearnaise Sauce.  It was also done perfectly.  Glenda claims the oysters were absolutely "delectable" and her meal including the salad was less than $19.

The Riverside Steak & Seafood is easy to find.  It's on the left on Highway 24 just before the bridge in Swansboro if you're headed east.  They're open year round and open each day at 4pm.  You can reach them for reservations at 910 326-8847.

It doesn't matter even if you're coming from the seafood mecca of San Francisco, you'll still be  exceptionally surprised at the food that John Kilgore (pictured on the left below) and his very pleasant staff put on your plate.

You'll find a great meal in pleasant surroundings with watchful service.  On top of that you'll be dining in one of the most naturally  beautiful and relaxing areas on earth.

That's a hard combination to beat. 

The empty pool

Recently when traveling it occurred to me that things have really changed.  I can remember taking our kids on trips in the early nineties.  The first thing on their minds after getting out of the car was to get into the swimming pool.

There was always tremendous disappointment anytime they couldn't have a game of Marco Polo before bed.  It was a great way for them to get exercise and burn off some energy after a day in the car.

In the fifties and sixties, I can remember a swimming pool at a motel being  heaven on earth.  When we got a chance we lived in the pools.  Being in the pool was part of summer, and often the only way to be in the pool was when you traveled. Once in while we might get out to play putt-putt if our skin was being to shrivel.

Our kids got to swim more than we did growing up.  We had local pools in both Halifax, Nova Scotia and Columbia, Maryland.  When we came to Roanoke, we joined a country club, and the kids took part in the summer swim team ritual.  Yet they still thrilled in finding a swimming pool when we were on the road.

Today hotel swimming pools of any size have become dinosaurs.  Yet on a recent trip to North Carolina's Crystal Coast, we found a great swimming pool.  It was actually big enough to swim short laps.

Much to our surprise we had the pool to ourselves one evening.  The hotel certainly wasn't deserted, but the pool was.  So where are all the kids?

A guess a swimming pool on a hot day can't compete with an iPod?

I have to say that things haven't changed for the better.