Colder Than a Snowman's Pecker

Unfortunately, it looks like waking up and finding frost on my tent and bicycle is going to become more of the norm rather than the exception as I continue to advance southward. I purchased some new heavy-duty socks in Arequipa for when I am asleep in my tent. I wear three layers of socks when it is real cold. I have been blessed with sunny weather all the way from Arequipa to Puno where I am now. All in all, I would take the sunburned face from the nose down and the chapped lips over having to ride through cold rain and hail. At higher elevations the U.V. rays are noticably stronger as I have to wear my sunglasses to prevent snow-blindness and cover my body more to prevent sunburn. Despite the sunny days, it still freezes at night. I rewarded myself for reaching Juliaca with a nice warm hotel room and I intend to do the same here in Puno. A fun fact: I always thought it was strange how my Army Field guide to survival recommends to always have matches in a waterproof container rather than a lighter. I have since discovered that lighters barely function if they function at all at higher elevations. My theory is that the thinner air does not provide enough oxygen for the combustion reaction.
Recently President Obama rejected yet another call for legalization of marijuana from an internet forum. The person who posed the question, unfortunately, only reinforced the popular image of the idiot stoner. He suggested that legalizing marijuana would be some kind of panacea for our economic woes. President Obama was right to ridicule this line of reasoning but he is wrong to reject the call for the legalization of marijuana. I have read a somewhat dubious statistic in Foreign Policy Magazine that 60% of the Mexican cartels revenue comes from marijuana smuggling. I don't believe this statistic because almost everyone I know who smokes weed smokes hydroponic weed with an American provenance. Nonetheless, legalizing marijuana would remove a major revenue source from the Mexican cartels, not to mention, empty our jails and free up law enforcement resources to focus on real crime. I think, as more and more states face potential bankruptcy, that marijuana will become more or less decriminalized as a fiscal measure to free up prison space especially in local and county jails as there are over 700,000 arrests every year for marijuana possession. Currently, all these people have to spend at least one night in jail. The illegal drug industry is one of the few truly recession-proof industries so people will keep buying these drugs.
I was pleased to discover, after leaving the wilderness, that gay people can marry in Iowa now because of a new court ruling. It pleases me that the Christian right is losing the culture wars in the U.S. In the last ten years the percentage of people that claim to be atheist has risen from 5% to 15% of the U.S. population. I only hope this trend will accelerate in the next ten years. I envision an atheist majority like in Germany. For the record, I do not consider myself atheist or agnostic but I am definitely not Christian. You could say that I am an animistic pantheist. The Incas worshipped the sun. Since the sun melts the frost off of my tent and warms me, I would say that I am a sun worshipper, too. I strongly dislike the Christian church and I would say that I have declared open war on Christianity after a Brazilian archbishop recently excommunicated a nine-year-old rape victim and the doctors who performed a life-saving abortion on her but not the pig of a stepfather who continually raped her. I can't wait for the next pair of proselytizers to come and knock on my front door. I am going to tear them a new asshole.