Caucus, Valentine, Roses

“The caucus process is a total failure in Nevada,” is the answer I have come up with after attending my second one.  The fiasco of 2008 held a dark cloud over 2012, and only eight percent of those eligible managed to attend.  That is a disgrace, particularly for a country that goes to war, allows its own citizens to die in those wars, in order to spread the word about democracy.  The party bosses did a miserable job spreading the word about how a caucus works, why it should work, and what it should accomplish, none of which happened on February 4.  It’s time to return to the primary system of naming delegates to the national conventions.

And, of course, I represented my Libertarian views by standing for Ron Paul.  I am now a delegate to the County Convention, and hopefully, the powers that be will allow all the voices to be heard, not like the state convention four years ago.

That said and out of the way, it’s time to turn to more prosaic thoughts, like Valentine’s Day.  First, this word from our sponsor: my book, Out of the West, Tales of the American Frontier while not necessarily romantic, would make a fine gift for your loved one.  OK, now, Valentine’s Day.

History on this, like so many of our pleasurable past times is vague, but it is believed that St. Valentine was Roman and died in about 270 AD, but the celebration has a lot more to do with pagan pleasures.  A pagan celebration called Lupercalia, which involved the cleansing of homes for spring, a time of purification, if you will, may have been Christianized.

In areas of the world, not like the area known as Nevada, where spring actually does not begin to make progress until will into May, February begins to allow for the rebirth.  In and around Rome, the birds begin to mate in the middle of February, thus, a romantic holiday in the bleak month thereof.

Besides flowery poetry, badly written by men with stars in their eyes and bedrooms in their thoughts, roses are the physical symbol of the day.  Fossil evidence seems to say that roses have been around for about 35 million years but have been cultivated only for the last 5,000 years or so.  Cultivation was probably originated by those romantic devils that lived in China at the time.  Today, there are about 150 species growing.

They are the symbols of love, beauty, war, and of course, politics.  The English used roses to announce their politics.  During the “War of the Roses,” The red rose symbolized Lancaster, the white rose symbolized York.

I think I’ll give Patty a dozen roses for Valentine’s Day, and maybe bring a White and a Red rose to the county GOP Convention in March.

Have a great day, read good books, and stay regular.