THIS UNNAMED GEOLOGICAL formation is the likely result of wind, rain and time eroading away surface material to expose what at one time would have lava (magma) that had cooled and solidified. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
COMING INTO OR out of the Chisos Mountains, this is the northwest view and is several miles south of Panther Junction and the headquarters for Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
THE CLARET CUP is covered in barbed spines and blooms a reddish, cup-shaped flower from about April to June or July in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
THIS VIEW FROM a formation called, “The Window,” looks out from the westside of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
INDIAN HEAD MOUNTAIN and its southern region offers this “leaning” wall of geology at the western boundary of Big Bend National Park. The rocks of the foreground are boulders ranging from man-sized on up. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
MASSIVE AND TOWERING, this wall of the geology is at least a couple of hundrend feet high and situated in the Indian Head area of Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
WIDE-OPEN PANORAMAS and mountainous terrain such as this are routine along roadside in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
THE SOUTHWEST SIDE of the Chisos Mountains, also known as the Chisos Mountain Basin and home to the lodge in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2011 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
A FALLEN TREE is an impassable barrier in an otherwise debris-free dry riverbed in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
INDIGENOUS TO TEXAS, New Mexico and Arizona, Javelinas in Big Bend National Park genetically differ from swine. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
LOST MINE TRAIL in Big Bend National Park, looking southward over Juniper Canyon, the Chisos Mountain’s Northeast Rim and into Mexico. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
A TREE SILHOUETTED against the night sky as seen from Chisos Basin in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
THIS VIEW EAST of a volcano is an illusion of the setting sun streaming through the Chisos Basin area behind Casa Grande Peak in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
WRIGHT MOUNTAIN in background at Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
A VIEW WESTWARD after sundown from the Indian Head area of Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.
A CAMERA COMPENSATION for the limited light after sundown provides this view westward from the Indian Head area of Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson/Camera One. All Rights Reserved.
SANTA ELENA CANYON after sunset, as seen from the Chimneys in Big Bend National Park. Copyright © 2010 by DL Tolleson/Camera One. All Rights Reserved.

DL Tolleson.com

Author, Photographer, Researcher, Artist, Adventurer and Buccaneer Extraordinaire

“Or at least that’s the plan each morning after coffee.”

Publication History: Fundamental Beliefs in a Nutshell. Copyright © 2009, 2019 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved. Excerpts from this work are permissible if author attribution is included. However, beyond this no part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

Tolleson, DL. “Fundamental Beliefs in a Nutshell.”
DLTolleson.com, 2009.
http://www.dltolleson.com/commentary/beliefs.php.

Tolleson, DL. “Fundamental Beliefs in a Nutshell.”
TheLighthousePress.com, 2016.
http://www.thelighthousepress.com/dltolleson.com/commentary/beliefs.php.

Description: Commentary » Political » General—400 words.

Commentary: This is a revision of an article originally appearing as a September 11, 2009 entry in The Great American Novel Blog on this web site. The original entry remains available in the 2009 Archive via the Compendium.

This article links to a feature entitled, Bargaining with Thieves, by Bojidar Marinov.

—DL Tolleson

FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS in a NUTSHELL
DL Tolleson

Every September 11th many of us look back and remember the deaths of over 3000 people: We look back and remember the citizen heroes who, by fighting back and dying in a field of wreckage, prevented the further loss of unimaginable numbers and devastation.

I certainly haven’t forgotten them or that surreal day.

But I will not reiterate here what so many others are able to do in more personal terms or in more gripping commentary. Instead, I’d like to focus on what has become of us since then—and more particularly—what has become of us recently. In doing this, I am going to refer to something my good friend Larry Farr once sent me. It is the text of an article feature entitled Bargaining with Thieves by Bojidar Marinov.

In this excellent article Marinov recalls being in Eastern Europe in 1989: It seems that when the morally justified citizens rose up against the communist political party for taking their lives, liberty and property, the communists called the protestors “extremists” that “refuse to come to an agreement,” didn’t want “constructive dialog,” wore “swastikas and brown shirts” and were “nothing less than fascists.”

Wow! That’s pretty brazen for communists.

But Marinov’s main point was that he saw the same thing happen here in the United States. This truly insightful article got me to thinking. The problem, when you get down to brass tacks, is one of fundamental beliefs.

Regardless of whether you have been conditioned by circumstance of poverty (needs), wealth (guilt), political office (power), ignorance (you don’t know history) or stupidity (you think you are better than history), you will have one of two mindsets: You either believe someone else should help and/or owe you OR you think that you are the only person responsible to help and/or owe you. If it’s the former, then you promote government that takes other people’s money and freedom on your behalf. If it’s the latter, you’re scared to death of people promoting the former.

With that as a yard stick by which to measure let’s now look at what Marinov wrote in 2009 and which is applicable as recently as 2019. It is how communists, socialists, and so-called “democrat socialists” attempt to control a narrative by commandeering language: Click Here For Bargaining With Thieves by Bojidar Marinov.