Angry Thoughts

I was driving along I-5 yesterday and saw a wonderfully professional billboard in blue and white demanding "Show Us Your Birth Certificate!" with e pluribus unum under that. Since when did e pluribus unum start to mean "We don't want a negro for President?" It did not mean that when we were in Latin class in high school. GRRRRRRRR.

There are still two wars going on, many lose health care daily and the economy, while gettting brighter still sucks, so I guess the birth certificate provide by Hawaii is just not enough. I cringe at the priority level of some people. "Diapers" Vitter calls Voinovich from Ohio a non-conservative in the background. Rove admits he had more to do with the attorney firing (as if we did not know) and Cheney tried to use the Army to arrest a terrorist cell in Buffalo in an attempt to destroy the Constitution on 9/11 and "Show Us Your Birth Certifacte" is the best they got. I would love to post a billboard up the road with the birth certificate and the words "Suck on This!" to the side.

Why, oh why, are some people allowed to breed? I almost hope Texas secedes so they can be spanked into the 21st century.

O yes, toone time! hee


rojo

Only in America!

Can rich boys play golf at a golf course that just so happens to be in a river basin. O yes, did we mention that the river is so allocated it does not flow? Of course, this allows a golf course to exist on what should be a river. O yes, and it was built upon a landfill. because we all know there are not enough places to golf.

except on landfills. maybe that is where madras shorts were mutated!

rojo

Honest Question

Is John Yoo the ultimate Dick Cheney toady, allowing by opinion that the military could effect an arrest on US soil? Or is he just a dumbass? who needs to be looking for work?

rojo

Things That Interest Me

Other than politics and reiki

Came across this article the other day and thought, not a bad idea for starters. Wastewater plants in the past have relied upon anaerobic digesters to take care of waste primary solids (big pieces de caca, corn that sinks, excess vegetables) that get past the initial screening pprocess. Why not expand that process to take restaurant wastes, using the same principle. Heck, in Milwaukee, they often take digester solids, treat it a little more and sell it as fertilizer (millorganite.) It could be done to food wastes. And if someone were really, really visionary, combine the wastes with collected green wastes (in CA they separate them) and comp[ost the whole shoting match and make high grade yard compost. It would be great. You know, though, that there would still be some swizzle sticks and straws in it, because people don't always really sort their wastes. Hint, that is why there are huge grinder pumps in wastewater plants to cut up primary solids. They can mash up old underpants, blankets, plastic bags and prophylactics so you don't know they are there. And after being in three commercial compost facilities in CA (don't ask), there are plenty of plastic bags left over in there that get sifted before the final product.

and here is an interesting, but simple approach to helping with CA drought woes. Collect rainwater and reuse it, before it goes to the sea. duh! Use it to recharge wells and for irrigation. When it comes to water reserves that are so stressed because they were designed for 20,000,000 less people than live here now, you think this would be simple stuff, but water planning in CA has always been, we can steal it from somewhere. see Chinatown. and now that the Colorado River is spoken for (it was easy for LA to take the extra water when Las Vegas was a burg and Arizona had no canal to siphon of their water rights), things like this, which seem so simple, need to be part of urban planning. Who knows, with appropriate planning the Kern River may again reach Bakersfield. Nothing like seeing a river walk and bike path with no river, except for holidays when they divert flow to make it joyous.

and maybe an expensive solution that would create jobs, but a practical one nonetheless. Upgrade irrigation practices so they can match the need. I have no room to talk as I did not finish my irrigation system this spring and have top water with a sprinkler, instead of drip irrigation, but this could save a ton. Match the needs to the crop instead of flood irrigation. Big difference. I can see flood irrigation next to the river when you grow rice, but in the middle of the desert, makes little sense. and why grow corn, that takes a ton of water, where you need to irrigate via long-distance canals. Maybe another less thirsty crop is appropriate.

and it seems like a toone is in order--



This young thing can play!!!!!!

rojo

Friday, Beer Thirty





and



Have a happy!

rojo

Overheard on the Radio

The Rude Pundit visited Stephanie Miller yesterday and they had a few gems I can paraphrase--

The hearings are kind of like Mayberry when a Puerto Rican comes to town...
Jeff Sessions is not used to the help talking back to him.
He kept waiting for someone on the judicial committee to break into Stick to Your Kind from West Side Story
When Lindsey Graham keeps say "I like you" he sounds like an old white guy in a gay bar.

I guess he is going to be a regular guest on that show on Monday mornings.

Could be fun. and probably not safe for work.

rojo

Toones!



They look a little young there

rojo

Another Day

and more "You are a frightening Latino woman" accusations. Can we get the charade over with, please?

Maybe it is time to govern instead of grandstanding.

rojo

Odds and Sods

Listening to the radio, watching TV news and reading the paper has given me grist for thought and chuckles. The chuckles started with Stephanie Miller and one of her mooks coining the adjective Massengillatude to describe the douchery of Jeff (racist) Sessions. That should be in the dictionary tomorrow.

One a more serious note, the San Joaquin Valley is going through ground water (well) depths lowering severely. It is causing the actually ground to lower. State Highway 158 or 152 (the one to Los Banos and Dos Palos) has dropped 4-6 feet. Other areas areas have subsdided more. The problem with this is that the dirt does compact and the aquifer, if were to ever receive water again does not expand. The aquifer keeps getting smaller the more the earth subsides. Another problem is the canals from Sacramento that feed the agriculture in the Central Valley are subsiding along with the ground and have developed low spots so they cannot carry as much water as their design calls for. Less water for LA and San Diego and the Central Valley. When will people think about the sustainability of practices, rather than how to USE the water as a MASTER of THE Universe. I mean,how big does your dick have to be? Do you want to bludgeon buildings with it? source Sac Bee

Another is the State Water Resources Control Board is finding that the rivers have too much pesticides washing down from peope's yards and it is killing zooplankton and miniature shrimp. The feature story of today's SacBee showed the drainage right behind my house a major source. I drive the state a lot and see planes applying pesticides to rice fields by the river and KNOW that they overspray and it gets in the water. Household owners overapply weed and bug sprays. Where do you think it goes? Into the river and people wonder why fish don't spawn here anymore. One thing of note in the story is that Stockton does not have these pesticides and herbicides in the effluent of their wastewater plant. It seems they settle out in the ponds or something. I wonder what the sludge has in it? It is probably composted, but the heat of compost will break these down. Iam sure no one has sampled the sludge or compost for that as it is not regulated. These compounds were not even a blink in the eye of regulators when sludge (biosolids) were being regulated.

Here is one that made me want to cry yesterday. The town that was flooded with coal ash is still inundated. And children are getting sick. Of course the Tennessee Valley Authority said everything is safe. The heavy metals in the coal ash are completely safe. Think! The TVA is the largest employer in the State. They produce the water and the power and they have billions of gallons of coal ash waste sitting there. Of course it is safe. They just don't know what to do with it and even if they did know how to get rid of the waste, the cost would be prohibitive. Do they think people are that stupid?

Also, gun sales in Sacramento are up 40+%. In other areas of CA, gun sales are up about 30%. Greatest cause when asked why--We are afriad of what Obama is going to do. (source, Sac Bee, yesterday) What????? Why are people so afraid? I don't get it. Maybe we should quit being so damned afraid. It is not easy, but why are people so afraid of the government? They are going to take my guns in the future so I better buy them now while I can still get them. Are you going to shoot urban deer with your handguns? Take on the army? I can see protection, but I can see myself upon hearing someone trying to break into my house, waking up in a sleep-induced mental fog, try to find my gun, aim it and not kill my houseplants, dogs or my wife as I save my big screen TV. Yes, I am afraid I will have to retire and live in a meth head trailer court with nothing to my name because of the recession. No question about it. But keeping my stuff just is not that high on my list to cause me to start packing in my house. Aside from that, I think if someone tries to break in, my pit bulls bark really, really loud! and scare people. Little do they know that they think they are lap dogs (at 60 pounds).

rojo

Toone for the Day

She died too young



rojo

Sunday Deep Thoughts

I think the only reason Billy "Fish Lips" Kristol and Newt are so much behind Sarah Palin as a Republican candidate is that they would like to do the Humpty Dance with her. I can see it now, Newt getting a divorce and being the First Man behind Sarah. What a team. BTW, did you see or hear of this?

and secondly, we now know Cheney asked for eight years of secrecy on a super-secret-unspeakable CIA mission. No one still wants to talk about it, or can't because it is so EVIL. What could it be? Assassination? internal probing of the opposite party? We probably need an investigation. and then prosecution. and it would tear at the fiber of this country.

and Jonathan Turley on Keth Olbermann on Friday stated the case only too well. I paraphrase. We now know George Bush and not just Cheney called for many illegal internal and international programs, including lying to get us into war, illegal domestic spying, unofficial CIA programs and worse. Do we have the political will to go after one or more of our leaders in an attempt to find justice not knowing what the outcome is?

Good and pertinent question. If this had happened after Iran/Contra instead of a broad brush forget-about-it, that's--all-water-under-the bridge pardon, Reagan would be known as the man who killed many people in an attempt to keep the commies out of Latin America. Oh yes, brought drugs to the ghetto. All those things. and even better, his accomplices would have been charged and there would have been less fecal matter to become the key components of the Bush Administration.

My opinion is we need to ferret out the corruption now and maybe people will think twice next time. Power does corrupt, as does fear and the past administration used both. But normally those are used for private gain. These guys were just mean bastards. Maybe they liked being sadists? Don't know or want to know, but wonder how any of the elections were even close? Does the majority of America really want to have a beer with a mean, ill read and ill bred sadist? Has this become the american dream?

rojo

Friday Fun






or



enjoy

rojo

Sunday Morning Thoughts

I mentioned watching a man in a wet suit win a $500 bet by swimming the Cuyahoga River recently. Here is an old documentary (1964) about pollution in the area.



What really strikes me about this is, that even then there was so much talk about pollution laws will kill all the business. Sound familiar. Green energy will cost too much. The Clean Water Act did cost money. Did it kill the way we lived? Why, no! Some of the pollution clean up costs were rolled into consumer pricing. Many wastewater plants and water plants were built with government grants, creating jobs, not losing them. duh, whodathunk?

So any time you hear these stoopid talking points, just walk away, like you would a preacher saying the world will end tomorrow. After a while, no one will listen to the stupids.

BTW, the dead fish the kid is kicking is a Carp or a Sucker, killed by pollution. I can still recall watching the river flow by, turning orange, neon green, red and then back to normal. And the silted up spawning beds mentioned by the fisherman are what allowed zebra mussels, a non-native filter feeder to establish themselves.

rojo

Friday Morning Energy Fix!




and one more if your feet aren't moving yet.



Zawinul Rules!

rojo

Is It Any Wonder?

This, from an article in Salon.com--

"Researchers spent a year approaching almost 14,000 fishery experts, including marine biologists, fishery managers and university professors around the globe, asking them to take an online survey in either English, French, Spanish, German or Portuguese about local fishing practices and policies. Almost 1,200 completed the survey from 243 countries and territories, including representatives from every country that borders the ocean. The survey asked the experts about their respective nations' scientific data about fish populations and ecosystems, and how they translated those scientific findings into regulations and enforcement.

The dismal results: Only 7 percent of coastal states did rigorous scientific assessments to generate fishing policies; a pitiful 1.4 percent have a participatory and transparent process for turning that science into policy; and fewer than 1 percent had strong mechanisms to insure enforcement with fishing policies."

You have to love that only 1.4% of the world's fisheries have done a scientific approach and asked what may be sustainable before making policy. It is my guess that the other 98.6% make policy by looking at tea leaves, scratching their privates, seeing how much they can make in graft and future investments, nod their heads sagely and either exceed to expedient requests or throw darts to make policy that governs one of the largest food resources in the world. And if you were to lok at enforcement of fishing policies, I am sure that the above order is changed so that graft is above nodding sagely and scratching privates. Just a guess. If the researched and projected date of 2048 for viable marine "harvesting" (great euphamism, that--shows little of the dignity of drag nets or bottom trawling, as if there were any to begin with), is correct; then, there really is little time to change a world culture.

and many, many people will then go hungry and the world will lose species after species.

a helpful guide.

rojo