That’s right. Today, Independence Day, I took down the American flag known as the Stars and Stripes or Old Glory and instead I’m flying the Gadsden flag. Yes, I still love my country. You see the Gadsden flag is one of the first flags of our nation, having been designed by Colonel Christoper Gadsden and presented to Commodore Esek Hopkins, commander-in-chief of the newly formed Navy, in 1775. It is certain this flag flew above this nation’s Navy before the one crafted by Betsy Ross.
It is also the spirit of that slogan, “Don’t Tread on Me,” that drew me to it. In 1775, this nation was fighting for freedom from a tyrannical, overtaxing government. The overtaxing, wealth-redistributing, tyrannical, anti-Christian, welfare state that the United States has become has much in common with King George. The line spoken by my friend recently rings true with me: I love my country. I hate my government.
Barrack Obama and the Democratic Party won’t change this. John McCain and the Republican Party won’t change this. Nobody will change this until the people change their hearts and stop demanding favor and benefit at the expense of their brothers and sisters here and around the world. And then they must stand up and demand that their leaders return this nation to one that promotes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happeness instead of death, tyranny, and the pursuit of mediocrity.
So, to all current and future leaders and office holders, I say to you: Don’t Tread on Me.
I thought WildrLog readers would enjoy this clip of Les Stroud (Surviorman) describing his best story ever: being chased by a male moose during the rut. Enjoy!
While the rest of America fawns over American Idol, the Discovery Channel is airing new episodes of Man Vs. Wild, with (in)famous host Bear Grylls. Bear got in a little flap a while back for airing episodes cut to make it look like he spent days in the wilderness, when actually he was staying in town at night. The funniest take I’ve seen is the renaming of the show to “Man Vs. Hotel.” Anyway, yes, I know it’s most likely fake, just like wrestling. But I watch anyway because I want to be entertained on a work night. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, check out this video.
Doesn’t that look fun?
And lookie here.. turns out ole Bear has a blog… this should be interesting.
How would I describe Les? I’ll let Lee Ermey do it: “You could drop this guy off at the Arctic Circle wearing a pair of
bikini underwear, without his toothbrush, and tomorrow afternoon he’s
going to show up at your pool side with a million dollar smile and fist
full of pesos. This guy’s a professional, you got me?”
Seriously, Survivorman is awesome. Les doesn’t have a crew following him around, so he does his own camera work. That’s in addition to building fires without matches, building shelters, and doing everything else you need to survive for a week in the middle of nowhere on 3 cashews. To catch a preview of this season, drop in over at Les’ blog. Oh and you can order Season 1 on DVD as well!
We’ve all been waiting for it. I even pontificated on it back in February. A former consultant is confirming that portions of Discovery Channel show Man Vs Wild have been staged and Bear Grylls has stayed in hotels during filming of the survival show, instead of living in the backcountry as the show portrays. Apparently the Discovery Channel is confirming this and promising to re-edit shows to inform its viewers of the actual circumstances surrounding the episodes’ production.
But what do we expect? He’s got a flipping camera crew following him around the backcountry… how could Hollywood stay away?
I am in the middle of the wild Labrador woods. Behind me is a sparse forest of small black spruce trees and a few birch spaced out here and there. Underneath me is a green army sleeping bag. Underneath it is about 6 inches of balsam and spruce bows and then finally below that - about eight feet of snow. Three feet to the front of me is a fifty-foot long heavy chain with a dozen three-foot-long chains attached to it, about every five feet. On the ends of seven of those smaller chains are leashed up a group of traditional Inuit sled dogs. Up here they call them Labrador Huskies. I’m sleeping with the dogs tonight.
The final outdoor show that caught my attention this season (enough to warrant a Tivo Season Pass anyway) was another Discovery Channel series called Everest: Beyond the Limit. Another docudrama or extreme reality show, it follows the expedition team of world renown leader Russell Brice over many weeks to the summit of Mt. Everest. The Discovery Channel did an excellent job of capturing the expedition, with Sherpa cams and other such gear.
The Climbers:
Tim Medvetz is a large guy (6′ 5″ if I remember) in a sport that favors the little guy. He’s had a motorcycle accident and has enough metal in his skeleton for a few cases of Bud (aluminum cans of course).
Terry O’Connor is a medical doctor and the only doctor on the mountain during the expedition.
Mark Inglis is a double amputee and on this expedition is seeking to be the first to summit Everest. As a result of another climbing expedition in New Zealand over 20 years earlier, he got severe frostbite and both his legs were amputated below the knee.
Mogen Jensen is a chronic asthmatic seeking to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen.
Brett Merrell, a firefighter, is making his second summit attempt. He is determined to honor his fallen 9/11 comrades.
Max Chaya is seeking to climb Everest, as he has already summited the highest peaks on every continent and both poles.
Each of these guys forks over $40,000 just for the expedition, the permits, the Sherpas, the supplies. That doesn’t even get them near the summit at 29,035 ft above sea level! They train and put themselves at a place on earth where they can’t get enough oxygen and where their bodies prefer to eat their own tissue rather than metabolize food for energy. Talk about dedicated! Talk about passion!
This was shot during the early climbing season of 2006. Any of you that follow Everest know there was quite a bit of controversy and disaster that year and I won’t delve into that.
I thought the series was professionally done, as are most Discovery Channel productions. They definitely held my attention with intrigue and suspense. As I usually say about these things, how much of this is real and how much is staged? David Sharp’s last moments, caught on camera by the Discovery Channel, I’m certain wasn’t. But the drama of Medvetz not aborting the climb when commanded by Brice? Come on!
What’s your take on Everest: Beyond Limit? Let’s not turn this into a debate on the season or on Brice.
As I mentioned last week, I have just been enamored with survival shows lately. I wrote about Man vs. Wild last week. This week, my featured survival show is I Shouldn’t Be Alive, another aired by the Discovery Channel.
The show is a reenactment of events as told by the survivors of some really serious nightmares, such as:
A couple and their baby driving through a blizzard to reach a funeral, only to get stuck for days in a Wildlife Refuge that is closed for the winter.
A father and son go rafting in Alaska in late spring, only to discover the river is still frozen over… and they end up under the ice.
A hippo upsets a family’s boat on the Zambezi River. With crocodiles all around, they spent the night standing in the middle of the river.
A young man is flying a friend and their fathers to a fishing trip when their 4 seater plane gets caught in a freak thunderstorm. The pilot is able to climb out of the thunderstorm, and everything is fine until… the plane’s engine dies. They descend back through the storm, and crash into the Sea of Cortes, where they survive for days.
Three people shooting video over Kilauea are stranded in the volcano’s crater after their helicopter’s engine stalls.
First, this is a reenactment show, so it’s all very ultra-dramatic. I wonder how much of this is actually that big a deal. But I guess I can’t really argue much since I’ve never spent the night in the Sea of Cortes hugging an ice chest.
The narrator often stops in the middle of the story to explain what is happening to the persons body in simplistic terms. He does an excellent job of explaining dehydration, hyperthermia, frostbite and other common maladies to the non-medically trained. I really like this because it helps me anticipate them and ward them off.
All in all, I Shouldn’t Be Alive is a great show, usually climaxing in an unexpected rescue. The endings are at least somewhat happy… at least one person had to survive to tell the story.
Have any of you seen I Shouldn’t Be Alive? What are your thoughts? Does watching it help you mentally prepare for the unthinkable or is it merely entertainment? Is there another show I need to be watching?
Since November, I have just been hooked on the latest round of survival shows from the Discovery Channel. The first one I started watching was Man Vs. Wild. For each episode Bear Grylls, a former member of the British Special Forces, ends up being dropped from a plane in the middle of a different nowhere. His objective? Survive in the wilderness until he can find civilization. And survive he does, with nothing but a flint and a water bottle. And I’m simply hooked!
Now for a dose of reality… he has a camera crew following him around. So I wonder, how hungry is he really? And did he really squeeze the water from that elephant dung because he was thirsty, or was it merely for shock value? On the other hand, the editing process I’m sure compresses the timing of everything. It’s easy for me to critique a 3 day expedition from a one hour edit.
It is entertaining and while I’m not certain I would do everything he does, it does get me to thinking about survival. And I suppose that’s better than nothing.
Have you seen any of these survival shows? Leave a comment and let me know what you think of them!
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