I wouldn’t figure out all the problems articulated in “I don’t really know what I’m doing” this Saturday though. So be it. Didn’t want to. Just wanted to chill.

Since Saturday the 14th I’d been go-go-go. Enough. Here on some random campsite, that only locals know about, the Merced River flows through a golden-chaparral canyon and hums constantly with rapids and ripples. The sky was so perfectly blue. The temperature was so perfect. Thus, I’d not drive anywhere today. I’d just let time pass, and see what happens.

Got up at 6 am. Made coffee. Typed my journal. Then I read…

Now, someone very dear to me sent me a book by Bill O’Reilly. It’s another one of his “Killing” series. I’ve read four of them. This would be my fifth one.

Killing Patton was outstanding as it paints poignant facts that evince a deliberate plot to murder General George S. Patton, though, its explanation of the motives behind murdering Patton are wanting. (The Patton Papers wonderfully evince how he could have shined the light on the cockroaches’ plans for deliberately setting up the Cold War.)

Killing England was written with the flare of an engrossing fiction novel, and that is an outstanding way to write historical non-fiction because the actors of times past certainly were whipsawed with emotions that make for great reading. The hell and triumph George Washington went through all Americans should know.

Killing the Mob was fascinating. It brought to light just how powerful a cultural force the Mafia was during the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, which I was not alive to see. Once upon a time in America, the Mafia was all the buzz. However, O’Reilly I believe failed miserably in explaining how much the government and mafia worked together. The money of the black market was just too much for bureaucrats to pass up.

Killing Crazy Horse was ok. There were many colorful episodes of Indian Wars explained, particularly the Creek Wars in Alabama in 1813. However, one thing I’ve come to see is that the Evil White Man version of history, which this book furthers, is an inaccurate portrayal of history for the specific purpose of undermining American culture. I certainly could know more about all that was done to the Red Man – and there were atrocities for sure – but, my knowledge of Navajo and Apache wars alone makes me question the one-sidedness of this book.

Killing the Killers, which is what I spent four hours reading by the river, is O’Reilly at his most deceptive. It is O’Reilly at his loudest shilling for war. It’s O’Reilly giving legitimacy to the Government Narrative of 911 and the consequent War on Terror by illustrating various episodes from it like the government narrative of the raid to get Osama bin Laden, the government narratives on the beheading of journalists, the government narrative on the creation of ISIS and… many other narratives whose reality I question considering the sources come from treacherous institutions that love war and money above all things

I will finish this book though.

But four hours was enough. I then went on a bike ride on a road that winds along the Merced. It would be cool to take a kayak all the way to… wherever the river leads.

Then it was 3 pm. Then it was time to begin reading a book by Murray Rothbard who stands as one of the archetypes of Austrian School of economic thought, that school essentially articulating the most powerful justification for free-markets, and therefore freedom itself. A man named Ron Paul was a great reader of the Austrian economists, and that helped empower him to shine the light against excess and corruption of the federal government during his terms in Congress. (Of course brainwashed Americans didn’t listen to him.)

This Rothbard book is called A History of Money and Banking in the United States. It’s a series of Rothbard’s essays printed as a book which, as the title says, covers the evolution of money and banking within America, from its days as little colonies in the 1600’s to just after WWII when the Almighty Dollar became the reserve currency of the earth. It can be technical, dry and boring. However, as the introduction by Joseph Salerno makes clear, it’s an indictment against the covert attempts by plutocrats of America and Europe to take control of the economic destiny of the United States of America by controlling the banking industry, and thus, the money supply. I’m sure it articulates with precision that most powerful force under Satan – the banking industry – that funds America’s literal evisceration.

Frankly, I’m excited as hell to read Rothbard’s insight.

But then the sun set over the mountain. Then I was exhausted. Much study wearies the body as Ecclesiastes 12:12 says. 100% true.

The rest of the day I spent playing solitaire on the phone. No signal and thus no mindless scrolling along the Merced.

Well, I did stare at maps a little. The thought of traveling to Oregon swooned me a little. I’ve never been there before. New highways. New mountains. New skies. Then there’s the coast!

It is seeming more and more likely I’ll make my way up to I-90 in Washington State, and then head east to Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and, ultimately, New York, before heading back to Arizona. But I reserve the right to change my mind.

By 9 pm my eyes were shut. Good day.