As a general rule, I try to avoid discussion of political topics on my blog. It's not because I'm apolitical - far from it - but because I know that you can find political commentary anywhere else; and this is why I usually try to confine my discussion of topics to what I see and experience, along with making the occasional obscure literary, musical, or sci-fi references that pop into my brain. But, when I was on Shasta this year, I did notice something that caught my attention – a large-ish pool of water atop the Whitney Glacier. For my readers who are not avid mountaineering buffs, the Whitney Glacier is one of the permanent glaciers on Mt. Shasta, and is the only valley glacier in all of California.