DL Ennis
D L Ennis is a freelance writer born in Yorktown, Virginia in 1952. Since then he has lived and worked in many places and done many things to make a living. D L worked as a musician until the age of 30 at which time he met his lovely wife, Dawn; they now live with their five dogs in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Music took him all over the United States, parts of Canada, and Mexico. Throughout his years as a musician, he was doing some freelance writing and photography. Since his marriage to Dawn, he has settled down making writing a full time endeavor. D L is published both in print and on-line.
D L has a B.A. in History and at this time he is working on three novels and writes and edits the Blue Ridge Gazette.
Music took him all over the United States, parts of Canada, and Mexico. Throughout his years as a musician, he was doing some freelance writing and photography. Since his marriage to Dawn, he has settled down making writing a full time endeavor. D L is published both in print and on-line.
D L has a B.A. in History and at this time he is working on three novels and writes and edits the Blue Ridge Gazette.
Contact Information
Articles by DL Ennis
October 11, 2006
With tougher sanctions hanging over the heads of North Korean’s—over its nuclear test—Pyongyang warned today that it will regard increased pressure from the United States as a “declaration of war” that will be met with “physical measures.”
This comes a day after the United States gained vital sup...
October 10, 2006
Virginia Sen. George Allen and former Navy secretary James Webb clashed over issues and character in a 60-minute debate, held in Richmond last night.
The candidates jousted over the war in Iraq, “…responding to a question from the moderator, Russ Mitchell of CBS News, about the 2,700 Americans ki...
October 08, 2006
As our imaginations go, so goes our future—if it is interesting or exciting enough to us. In the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s man dreamt of going to the moon, in the 1960’s we did. Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” (1870) was born of his dream (imagination) of exploring the depths of earth’s oce...
October 06, 2006
We were all recently reminded of the fraudulent and corrupt actions of the corporate heads of Enron with the sentencing of former Chief Financial Office, Andrew Fastow to six years in prison. However, did you know that George Allen has accepted thousands of dollars from Enron? Did you know that desp...
September 27, 2006
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where I live, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) made their first appearance on their migration south about a week ago. There are many butterfly bushes in my gardens that are still blooming and they have been covered in monarchs all week.
Eastern popu...
September 26, 2006
While I believe that Saddam Hussein needed to be removed as the leader of Iraq, and that he should be tried for genocide—as he is now—I do not think that going into Iraq after Afghanistan was the next logical move in the war against terrorism.
However, the fact remains that we did and nothing can...
September 25, 2006
New forms of highly drug-resistant tuberculosis are emerging and action must be taken soon before they become widespread globally, says an editorial in this week's BMJ-British Medical Journal.
According to the perspectives authors, it is urgent that effective tuberculosis control strategies are i...
September 24, 2006
“[I]t’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most...
September 21, 2006
Kids have been cheating in school ever since there have been schools—we all know that. We also know that college kids and young adults such as graduate students cheat. What’s disturbing about the report, that the following excerpts were taken from, is that these young graduate students think that it...
September 18, 2006
The waning days of summer have been wonderful here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The heat and drought of midsummer have given way to cooler temperatures and ample rain and the rivers and creeks have been up enough to make canoeing and kayaking interesting.
However, tourism has been down and I imag...
September 17, 2006
If Islam is a peaceful religion, its leaders and followers sure have a violent way of showing it. Muslims over and over again continue to show the world that they are an unforgiving and intolerant lot. They will never prove to the world that Islam is a worthy religion if they continue to respond to ...
September 15, 2006
Image: by D L Ennis, Litter is becoming a huge problem! In this image there are two water bottles thrown under the overlook sign on the parkway; there was a trash can, provided by the NPS, no more than 15 feet away. I’ve never, in 45 years, seen so much litter on the parkway as I see nowadays!
...
September 14, 2006
While President Bush would like us to believe, without coming out and saying it, that all of Islam is related to terrorism, Islamic extremist seem to be trying to recruit the entire Islamic faith buy preaching that the world is against them.
Just as the Christian right blindly follows Bush who...
September 13, 2006
“Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield…” These are the words of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.
Why does Wynne think this is a good idea?
"If we're not willing to use it he...
September 10, 2006
It is looking more and more, with each passing day that the US is without friends in the international community. With the EU in negotiations with Iran and claiming to have made progress, yet unable to show this progress in any article I have read, it’s looking like they are trying to secure their i...
September 09, 2006
It doesn’t matter if you are new to blogging or been doing it for a while, you've got to be careful about what you publish. Every day more stories come up about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other p...
September 09, 2006
Montebello means “beautiful mountain” and is, still today, a small community settled by the typical hardy immigrants which settled throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains in the late 1700’s. Nestled within the scenic beauty that is indisputable in this region of the United States.
In the mid to late...
September 06, 2006
How did the “Seminole Trail" along US Route 29 in Virginia, get its name? Good question and it will likely remain a mystery forever. We know that in 1928, Virginia's General Assembly voted to name route 29 the Seminole Trail. “Ann L. Miller, a Virginia Department of Transportation historian, said th...
September 04, 2006
I think it should be obvious by now that our two party political system, here in the United States, is broken. Republicans and Democrats alike have honed their skills of deception and manipulation, to the very edge of ineffectiveness and impudence.
They say what ever they think the majority of Am...
September 03, 2006
“Mr Annan said Iran was prepared to discuss its uranium enrichment programme, but would not suspend the work before negotiations.”
Does Mr. Annan really think that Iran is going to halt uranium enrichment after negotiations?
“European Union foreign ministers agreed on Saturday to give diplom...
August 31, 2006
While I am not in agreement with all aspects of US foreign policy these days, I am completely frustrated with the current administrations domestic polices! I am also befuddled—though I guess I shouldn’t be—and totally disgusted with all the political talk in America that the most important political...
August 31, 2006
Comparable to the Cold War years, the world finds itself on the doorstep of nuclear destruction. With constant changes in world regional power struggles, political divergence, and the turmoil of cultural and religious instability, there is a crisis of global instability and conflict. Also contributi...
August 29, 2006
“For all the differences between the sexes, here's one that might stir up debate in the teacher's lounge: Boys learn more from men and girls learn more from women," says a study prepared by Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College and visiting scholar at Stanford Univers...
August 28, 2006
“The Gaza Strip is in the grip of anarchy and Palestinians must stop blaming Israel for all their problems, a senior Hamas figure has said.”
The senior Hamas figure who said this was Ghazi Hamad, chief spokesman for the Hamas government. Is this a sincere plea or simply a ploy to have the Wester...
August 27, 2006
While the world sits idly by, worried about the criers (public opinion,) Iran is becoming the most powerful military powers in the Middle East. With the help of China and Russia, Iran is building a military Islamic power that will one day—if left unchecked—become a most formidable presence in the wo...
August 27, 2006
Gypsy moth larva, USDA Forest Service
Like many other pest introduced for the benefit of this or that, the gypsy moth is an example of an experiment gone horribly wrong. The moth was brought to the United States in 1869 in a failed attempt to start a silkworm industry. Escaping soon after, the gy...
August 26, 2006
Isolation and Outside Influences
In Appalachia, the isolation of living among the mountains made communication difficult, although the region was never completely cut off from contact with the outside world. Trade with nearby valley communities and seasonal work east to the lowlands, the delivery...
August 24, 2006
On the eve of Iran's formal response to incentives to end its nuclear program, they barred United Nations inspectors from an underground nuclear installation, breaching their obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
UN officials described as unprecedented the decision to block th...
August 21, 2006
There has been a lot of talk, in the past couple of years, about the inhumanity of the death penalty in the United States. Sure innocent people are imprisoned and some even executed, I know that that is outrageous thing to let happen, still most who receive the death penalty are guilty of crimes tha...
August 20, 2006
The United Nations has proven time and time again to be irrelevant, incompetent, and meddlesome to the point of appearing as instigators of instability in the world.
On the sfgate.com website this morning there is an article entitled, “Hezbollah night-vision gear was from Britain, Israel says I...
August 19, 2006
Starting a New Life
The people who settled the Appalachians were generally of three ethnic origins: Scots-Irish, English, and German .Primarily farmers and skilled craftsmen, they were used to hard work and not intimidated by the intense labor that was mountain life.
Many Ulster-Scots lef...
August 19, 2006
Born the son of a struggling couple, Ruth and Asa Sheffey (they separated soon after his birth,) Hayden was taken in by a foster family—Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden—and grew up in a Detroit ghetto nicknamed "Paradise Valley." The Haydens' continually contentious marriage, coupled with ...
August 18, 2006
In the Appalachians, you’ll find many adaptations of the ancient fiddle and banjo music of Virginia and North Carolina. This music can be traced to the meeting of the African banjo and the European fiddle in the Tidewater region before the US was a nation. You’ll also find older ballads and religi...
August 17, 2006
Many think that we saved the whales in the 1980’s, but Japan has been conducting “scientific research” on whales for years. Each year, the Japanese government slaughters 850 minke whales.
This year, they have announced plans to expand their “research” to kill 50 endangered humpback whales, and ...
August 16, 2006
If you are a smoker, and especially a heavy smoker—two or more packs a day—and you’ve ever tried to quit, then you know how impossible it seems. Take heart, help may be just around the corner.
Smoking has been blamed for killing 100 million people during the 20th century. It is said to be a lead...
August 15, 2006
Have you seen this headline around the internet? “The U.S. Government’s Secret Colorado Oil Discovery” There are people out there who trying to get people to invest and others selling “special reports.”
First, they will give you this free report, which is questionable in its accuracy! It goes so...
August 14, 2006
Bridges obviously serve a very important role in our ability to traverse over lakes, streams, rivers, roads, railroads, and a multitude of other obstacles. In our travels we typically drive across bridges and give little thought to what might be residing beneath them. But did you know that bridges a...
August 13, 2006
Montville defines victimhood as
...a state of individual and collective ethnic mind that occurs when the traditional structures that provide an individual sense of security and self-worth through membership in a group are shattered by aggressive, violent political outsiders. Victimhood can be cha...
August 12, 2006
The next time you feel the need to get away from the everyday worries of our sometimes fast pace world, consider a bed and breakfast. The beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is home to the much celebrated, Shenandoah Valley. The Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia is rich with history, beaut...
August 11, 2006
Image: by D L Ennis, Redtail Hawk
Beginning in early September extending through November, hawks and other birds of prey can be seen migrating from the northeast to the southwest to winter in Mexico, Central America, and South America.
Using the Appalachian Mountains and, to a lesser degree, t...
August 11, 2006
In accordance with immortal words of the great John Prine, “Blow Up Your TV” my wife and I took it to heart a couple of years ago and have had no regrets! Well, we didn’t actually didn’t blow up our TV but we did take the antenna—which never gave us any reception anyway—off the roof and canceled our...
August 11, 2006
The Burden of Poor Healthcare.
As indicated by a survey of almost 7,000 patients traversing Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA, not only do Americans pay much more for medical treatment than anyone else in the world but they also bear the brunt of the most m...
August 10, 2006
Ethics--1) Motivation based on ideas of right and wrong --2) The philosophical study of moral values and rules
"America should always be mindful of the ravages of poverty, for if we are not among its victims, its reality fades from us." - Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
T...
August 09, 2006
Music has always been at the center of life in Southern Appalachia. The people that settled in this region are descendants of Scottish-Irish, English, Welsh, German, and French, as well as people of African American and Native American heritage. An oral musical tradition came with these people, many...
August 09, 2006
While dialectical prejudice used to be quite prevalent in the United States, I don’t see or hear of it quite so much anymore. I can remember the time when, as a southerner, I used to be faced with this form of narrow-mindedness and was ridiculed by those who practiced it.
I grew up on the coast ...
August 08, 2006
How is it that the greatest military in the world cannot defeat insurgents in Iraq? How is it that the intense bombardment of Lebanon, by Israel, and the insertion of thousands of ground troops, has made little progress against Hezbollah?
Now another question: How is it that, for the most part, f...
August 08, 2006
The Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) is one of two species of the genus Glaucomys, the only flying squirrels found in North America (the other is the somewhat smaller Southern Flying Squirrel, G. volans). Two subspecies are found in the southern Appalachians, the Carolina Northern Flyin...
August 07, 2006
Leptospirosis is an infection that can affect both humans and animals. It is caused by bacteria called Leptospira. In humans it causes a wide range of symptoms. Some infected persons may have no symptoms. Others may have high fever, severe headache, and muscle aches. In severe cases, people may have...
August 06, 2006
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. At one time, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless.
There are two subspecies of bald ea...
August 06, 2006
Bonsai, I know you have all heard of “Bonsai”, but what do you really know about it? Bonsai, in Japanese, is translated as to mean “plant and tray” or “tray planting”. A congruent merger of the pot and tree, a single entity complimented by texture, color and shape, this is Bonsai. More art than hort...
August 05, 2006
The practice of serpent-handling began in some of the churches in Appalachia in the early 1900s and remains an observance in some places today, from Georgia to Pennsylvania. Its popularity has increased and diminished through the years. According to Ralph Hood, a professor of social psychology and ...
August 03, 2006
As a child, my parents started something that has stayed with me and my siblings through the years, and even though my wife and I have no children, we have helped my brother and sisters and their children keep the vacation traditions that my parents started alive.
What my parents did was simple; ...
August 02, 2006
Deep beneath the surface of our oceans, ancient forests of cold water corals, soft seapens, sponges and seawhips are in danger of destruction from a commercial fishing technique called bottom trawling. Throughout these ancient forest live more mobile animals such as sea spiders—lobster-like crustace...