Psalms 108.9
I see these guys every day and they scare the shit out of me. I work with many from Texas. or the Central Valley in CA. This clip from Rachel Maddow details their belief system. It is time to quit laughing at people on the fringes and castigate them as the crazies they are. I am about ready to hope Governor Perry secedes from the union so we can invade. People like Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin need to lose their fifteen minutes and be be sent to the corner of weirdness where they belong. When i grew up John Birchers existed, but were a fringe radical group. The extreme right needs to be treated that way once again by citizenry and the media. There is an American Christian far right movement that is the equivalent of the Taliban and they get way too much air time and not enough marginalization. I hope the FBI is tracking these crazies!
And for grins!!!! the University of Santa Cruz Banana Slugs!!!!!
rojo
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday Ramblings
some thoughts for this week. Okay, not many, but...
I listen to a lot of radio. Thank all that is holy for XM. It saves me from the ugliness of what AM radio is. But I have heard so much talk of the military and Afghanistan, I am glad someone is saying, "What are we doing there and how many troops do we need? Really? and why are we there?" Bush could have had Osama delivered to him by tribal leaders, but he wanted a fight. And then another fight. The Clinton administration had almost 9 months of talks that did not culminate in Osama's arrest. Time ran out. Yes, you could say that it was poorly planned by Clinton. You could also say that the Bush administration was more worried about getting money back to contributors than national security. These are safe statements.
What scares me is the growing fundamental Christian movement in the military. They feel they are crusaders. It would not surprise me if there were late night semi-drunken talks about a coup if Obama does not keep going after the Muslims (substitute nicknames haji, raghead, whatever--deragotory nicknames of our military. kind of like gooks in Vietnam, that really won us the respect of our allies. NOT SO MUCH.) The crazies think it is okay for the military to be a Christian militia. Do the research. See what happened in the past 10 years at the Air Force Academy. Naval Academy. See how many different ethinicities and religious beliefs are honored. Gotta love the Christian soldier postrs that filled the football locker rooms there. And the military directly or indirectly gets over 50% of the US budget. Who has the moxie, the balls to say, hey we can eliminate our deficit by cutting back on military. Do we need bases in Japan? Germany? Turkey?
If you do that you are unAmerican. Yet we can't afford health care. In Afghanistan, did we ever build schools after we got rid of the commies? No! You can spend billions against the ENEMY! You need an enemy to keep the spending up. Humanitarian aid just doesn't work as a rallying cry for hate! And whether we like it or not, America is an extremely belligernet and angry country. Why? Because everybody needs to be as pure as us. I just don't get it. We wonder why other countriues don't trust us. Well, we act like bullies. Not hard to figure, is it?
One other topic. The Stupak amendment. Just great. How does any woman even vote as a Democrat after that. Sure, it is okay to pay for someone's little blue pills so they can get a hard on. Covered in insurance and is a God given right. A hard dick is a sacred thing! even when it caused chemically becasue your body doesn't work anymore. End an unwanted pregnancy--nope. Why not help produce (mandate) more children in unwanted homes. Or let the mom's die in delivery. Hell, it won't affect the men, as a general rule. Republicans can have abortion coverage in their health insurance in the National Republican Committee, but publically, these women are baby machines. just don't touch our sex toys. We'll care for them. I am surprised there has not been more Bobbitizing along the way. Just remember--Money for hard ons, good. Unwanted pregnancies, not my problem. Its about time the women "have to hit a man, to make him know she's there, I swear." I am a guy and am embarrassed at the accepted double standard. Guys, women outnumber men in population, in the workforce and if they ever organize you may be sorry you were such sexist asses. The god thing is that work for 70% of the pay.
Just kidding.
rojo
some thoughts for this week. Okay, not many, but...
I listen to a lot of radio. Thank all that is holy for XM. It saves me from the ugliness of what AM radio is. But I have heard so much talk of the military and Afghanistan, I am glad someone is saying, "What are we doing there and how many troops do we need? Really? and why are we there?" Bush could have had Osama delivered to him by tribal leaders, but he wanted a fight. And then another fight. The Clinton administration had almost 9 months of talks that did not culminate in Osama's arrest. Time ran out. Yes, you could say that it was poorly planned by Clinton. You could also say that the Bush administration was more worried about getting money back to contributors than national security. These are safe statements.
What scares me is the growing fundamental Christian movement in the military. They feel they are crusaders. It would not surprise me if there were late night semi-drunken talks about a coup if Obama does not keep going after the Muslims (substitute nicknames haji, raghead, whatever--deragotory nicknames of our military. kind of like gooks in Vietnam, that really won us the respect of our allies. NOT SO MUCH.) The crazies think it is okay for the military to be a Christian militia. Do the research. See what happened in the past 10 years at the Air Force Academy. Naval Academy. See how many different ethinicities and religious beliefs are honored. Gotta love the Christian soldier postrs that filled the football locker rooms there. And the military directly or indirectly gets over 50% of the US budget. Who has the moxie, the balls to say, hey we can eliminate our deficit by cutting back on military. Do we need bases in Japan? Germany? Turkey?
If you do that you are unAmerican. Yet we can't afford health care. In Afghanistan, did we ever build schools after we got rid of the commies? No! You can spend billions against the ENEMY! You need an enemy to keep the spending up. Humanitarian aid just doesn't work as a rallying cry for hate! And whether we like it or not, America is an extremely belligernet and angry country. Why? Because everybody needs to be as pure as us. I just don't get it. We wonder why other countriues don't trust us. Well, we act like bullies. Not hard to figure, is it?
One other topic. The Stupak amendment. Just great. How does any woman even vote as a Democrat after that. Sure, it is okay to pay for someone's little blue pills so they can get a hard on. Covered in insurance and is a God given right. A hard dick is a sacred thing! even when it caused chemically becasue your body doesn't work anymore. End an unwanted pregnancy--nope. Why not help produce (mandate) more children in unwanted homes. Or let the mom's die in delivery. Hell, it won't affect the men, as a general rule. Republicans can have abortion coverage in their health insurance in the National Republican Committee, but publically, these women are baby machines. just don't touch our sex toys. We'll care for them. I am surprised there has not been more Bobbitizing along the way. Just remember--Money for hard ons, good. Unwanted pregnancies, not my problem. Its about time the women "have to hit a man, to make him know she's there, I swear." I am a guy and am embarrassed at the accepted double standard. Guys, women outnumber men in population, in the workforce and if they ever organize you may be sorry you were such sexist asses. The god thing is that work for 70% of the pay.
Just kidding.
rojo
Monday, November 09, 2009
What, Me Worry?
Or let them eat shit.
great article with a good interactive chart of the most polluted cities in the US.
rojo
Or let them eat shit.
great article with a good interactive chart of the most polluted cities in the US.
rojo
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Wyoming Football History and Racism
This is a very interesting article on racism in Western college sports in 1969. Makes you wonder how much still exists.
rojo
This is a very interesting article on racism in Western college sports in 1969. Makes you wonder how much still exists.
rojo
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Oversexed or at least Unethical
It must be in the water.
and one older one from Texas. Yup, screw me and your kid can get into my Christian Academy.
The one i was looking for was a Christian school keyboard, Bible, and science teacher who was using having sex with him as an initiation into a group he called the Order. Nice--Bible teacher, meet a priest.
I hate religions. I swear.
rojo
It must be in the water.
and one older one from Texas. Yup, screw me and your kid can get into my Christian Academy.
The one i was looking for was a Christian school keyboard, Bible, and science teacher who was using having sex with him as an initiation into a group he called the Order. Nice--Bible teacher, meet a priest.
I hate religions. I swear.
rojo
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Geeky Environmental Stuff
It has been so long since I posted anything other than a music post, I have a laundry list of environmental crap. The first thing that struck me yesterday was that Obama is starting to upgrade the infrastructure for the power grid in this country. It needs it! This may allow easier access for home power generators to make power and sell it back to the grid. Smart meters (Sacramento just got a huge grant to replace all electric meters) will help consumers actually check current usage and maybe run the dryer after the AC is running, cutting down on peaks. The electric grid was put in place in the 40s to now and is using technology from that era. Hell, even old cable lines are not up to the challenge in wet weather. We need new infrastructure. and this will help. O yes, it creates jobs, too.
Another good one. The Aral Sea is returning. It had been lowered by irrigation diversions and become very salty. By lowered, maybe hundreds of feet. Only one or two species of fish in what was a commercial fishing center were alive. Flatfish had to be imported because the water was so salty, the predominant local breeds (pike and carp--does anyone know how to cook carp so they are tasty? I sure don't)) did not live there anymore. Now, with the addition of a new dam, the water is freash enough and the level has risen 40 feet, that commercial fishing is back! Also, the winters and summers are more moderate. The desert will shrink again as the lake (okay, Sea) grows. It may never be back to its original size, but will grow more. The South Aral Sea may be too salty to save.
And this one is important. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are being found in wells. Well water is the source of water for maybe 80% of American households. These bacteria are not disease-causing, but the way bacteria cross breed, mutate, evolve and share characteristics, this could really be a big issue. And what does this say about our use of antibiotics. I was worried about antibiotic resistant bacteria growing in shellfish outside wastewater plant efflunets infecting a population. Now aquifers are affected. Heck, I was reading in a trade journal some real technical article about how ozone is gaining favor as a final disinfectant because it oxidizes, or uses oxygen, in O3 form, to break the chemical bonds, reducing compounds to simpler compounds and elements things like caffeine, ibuprofen, birth control hormones, acetominephen that are showing up in wastewater plant effluent. It is quite a stew we are making.
Oh, one last thing. San Diego was screaming they could not pay for a real wastewater treatment plant. It would cost too much. Their waiver for secondary treatment had been thrown out of court. Well.....they got it reinstated. So that means that whenver you flush your toilet in SD, think about what happens. It goes into a big pit, settles, gets chlorinated and discharged to sea with further treatment. Because the City Fathers are too cheap to do a good job being stewards. Remember that s your bacteria count raises on beaches and beaches close. It is your shit helping close the beaches. Man up and buy a 20th century treatment system. Maybe by the ned of the century you can buy a 21st century one.
rojo
It has been so long since I posted anything other than a music post, I have a laundry list of environmental crap. The first thing that struck me yesterday was that Obama is starting to upgrade the infrastructure for the power grid in this country. It needs it! This may allow easier access for home power generators to make power and sell it back to the grid. Smart meters (Sacramento just got a huge grant to replace all electric meters) will help consumers actually check current usage and maybe run the dryer after the AC is running, cutting down on peaks. The electric grid was put in place in the 40s to now and is using technology from that era. Hell, even old cable lines are not up to the challenge in wet weather. We need new infrastructure. and this will help. O yes, it creates jobs, too.
Another good one. The Aral Sea is returning. It had been lowered by irrigation diversions and become very salty. By lowered, maybe hundreds of feet. Only one or two species of fish in what was a commercial fishing center were alive. Flatfish had to be imported because the water was so salty, the predominant local breeds (pike and carp--does anyone know how to cook carp so they are tasty? I sure don't)) did not live there anymore. Now, with the addition of a new dam, the water is freash enough and the level has risen 40 feet, that commercial fishing is back! Also, the winters and summers are more moderate. The desert will shrink again as the lake (okay, Sea) grows. It may never be back to its original size, but will grow more. The South Aral Sea may be too salty to save.
And this one is important. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are being found in wells. Well water is the source of water for maybe 80% of American households. These bacteria are not disease-causing, but the way bacteria cross breed, mutate, evolve and share characteristics, this could really be a big issue. And what does this say about our use of antibiotics. I was worried about antibiotic resistant bacteria growing in shellfish outside wastewater plant efflunets infecting a population. Now aquifers are affected. Heck, I was reading in a trade journal some real technical article about how ozone is gaining favor as a final disinfectant because it oxidizes, or uses oxygen, in O3 form, to break the chemical bonds, reducing compounds to simpler compounds and elements things like caffeine, ibuprofen, birth control hormones, acetominephen that are showing up in wastewater plant effluent. It is quite a stew we are making.
Oh, one last thing. San Diego was screaming they could not pay for a real wastewater treatment plant. It would cost too much. Their waiver for secondary treatment had been thrown out of court. Well.....they got it reinstated. So that means that whenver you flush your toilet in SD, think about what happens. It goes into a big pit, settles, gets chlorinated and discharged to sea with further treatment. Because the City Fathers are too cheap to do a good job being stewards. Remember that s your bacteria count raises on beaches and beaches close. It is your shit helping close the beaches. Man up and buy a 20th century treatment system. Maybe by the ned of the century you can buy a 21st century one.
rojo
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Quarterly Book Club!
I just finished reading the book The Family. It took me forever. I got lost in some of the chapters about Jonathan Edwards, and too often In had to put the book down as I read how fundamentalism changed from a populist and giving movement to an elitist movement. It helped destroy organized labor in the Northwest as businessmen promoted themselves as benevolent fathers to the workers. Yes, trickle down lasts as long as there is benevolence and not greed. But in the "Jesus plus one" premise of the Family, as long as Jesus was there for you, you can act in any way you feel is valid. These religious anus-brains backed Pinochet, Somalia war lords and more because they shared prayers in the name of Jesus.
I am sorry. I studied comparative religions too long trying to find universals in human spiritual life to accept that. I have visited ashrams, done circle dances with communities, took part in Universal Unity events, lived in a quasi-nondenominational spiritual community, practiced reiki and so on for years and years and years. I also know that Christ said "Judge not, lest ye be judged." or something close to that. Well, I am going to judge that these dipshits in the Family do know that you shouldn't judge. and prayer cells with the ethical monsters of foreign or home grown ethical monsters is nice. and conversion and softening of haearts will take time in many cases. but, BUT!
certain assholes do not need to be coddled!!!!!!! I was so mad as I read how in Seattle the labor movement was crushed as certain preachers realized and rationalized that those with money have the ethics and the gift from God to be in positions of power I had to quit reading. They were memebers of the lucky sperm club and nothing more. I heard that crap at the last intentional community I lived in. That certain people were blessed by God and that is why they have such money. No, they have that much money because they have not opened their pocketbooks to their fellow brothers and sisters in the community and live in a completely different standard than others. and then because they have world-wiseness, they get to be on Boards and dictate how much of a dole others should get. They get $250,000 houses and others live three to a dorm room. and haver to schedule life according to the availability of the motor pool. If they can afford to go out. Yeah, fucking great.
Welcome to compassionate conservatism!
I did learn in the book the way that prayer cells and such are organized, which was news to me. and explains many of my co-workers actions.
It was a worthwhile read and I highly recommend it to others.
rojo
I just finished reading the book The Family. It took me forever. I got lost in some of the chapters about Jonathan Edwards, and too often In had to put the book down as I read how fundamentalism changed from a populist and giving movement to an elitist movement. It helped destroy organized labor in the Northwest as businessmen promoted themselves as benevolent fathers to the workers. Yes, trickle down lasts as long as there is benevolence and not greed. But in the "Jesus plus one" premise of the Family, as long as Jesus was there for you, you can act in any way you feel is valid. These religious anus-brains backed Pinochet, Somalia war lords and more because they shared prayers in the name of Jesus.
I am sorry. I studied comparative religions too long trying to find universals in human spiritual life to accept that. I have visited ashrams, done circle dances with communities, took part in Universal Unity events, lived in a quasi-nondenominational spiritual community, practiced reiki and so on for years and years and years. I also know that Christ said "Judge not, lest ye be judged." or something close to that. Well, I am going to judge that these dipshits in the Family do know that you shouldn't judge. and prayer cells with the ethical monsters of foreign or home grown ethical monsters is nice. and conversion and softening of haearts will take time in many cases. but, BUT!
certain assholes do not need to be coddled!!!!!!! I was so mad as I read how in Seattle the labor movement was crushed as certain preachers realized and rationalized that those with money have the ethics and the gift from God to be in positions of power I had to quit reading. They were memebers of the lucky sperm club and nothing more. I heard that crap at the last intentional community I lived in. That certain people were blessed by God and that is why they have such money. No, they have that much money because they have not opened their pocketbooks to their fellow brothers and sisters in the community and live in a completely different standard than others. and then because they have world-wiseness, they get to be on Boards and dictate how much of a dole others should get. They get $250,000 houses and others live three to a dorm room. and haver to schedule life according to the availability of the motor pool. If they can afford to go out. Yeah, fucking great.
Welcome to compassionate conservatism!
I did learn in the book the way that prayer cells and such are organized, which was news to me. and explains many of my co-workers actions.
It was a worthwhile read and I highly recommend it to others.
rojo
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Saturday Rant
I am so tired of Dick Cheney and his daughter spouting off about how if we only had more troops, we could win in Afghanistan. I have heard him say the same thing about Vietnam. What would we win? A country that is half-a-world away that is run by war lords when you are out of the capital city? How well did Vietnam work out for us after we committed American military might to that effort? Same situation, same result. Remember Britain trying to do that to the American colonies an ocean away. It falls apart eventually. Colonialism and long military supply lines do not work out to well when dealing with national pride.
Let's lay out some facts.
We had Osama (remember him, he organized the World Trade Center attack) in Afghanistan trapped and Cheney and Bush did not pull the trigger. They let him escape. Why? so they could have an enemy to mobilize American emotionalism against. Then direct that emotionalism towards Iraq. Attack there and follow the old plan 9PNAC plans) and try to divide up the oil. In fact this week, some conservatives were complaining that other countries were getting Iraq oil after America's efforts. The plan was to get the oil and have corporations profit from it. America did not matter. Or in some minds it was thought America would get all the oil and use that to pay for the war. That canard was used to justify keeping the war off of the books for years.
Why do people even listen to this bullshit anymore? That approach did not work in Vietnam. It will not work in Afghanistan!!!!! The end of the movie Charlie Wilson's War had him asking for paltry money to rebuild Afghanistan after we helped arm the insurgents against Russia and was shut down. Money for war is understandable. Defendible! Money for efforts that may win hearts and minds, not so much.
With that, I will leave with a song.
rojo
I am so tired of Dick Cheney and his daughter spouting off about how if we only had more troops, we could win in Afghanistan. I have heard him say the same thing about Vietnam. What would we win? A country that is half-a-world away that is run by war lords when you are out of the capital city? How well did Vietnam work out for us after we committed American military might to that effort? Same situation, same result. Remember Britain trying to do that to the American colonies an ocean away. It falls apart eventually. Colonialism and long military supply lines do not work out to well when dealing with national pride.
Let's lay out some facts.
We had Osama (remember him, he organized the World Trade Center attack) in Afghanistan trapped and Cheney and Bush did not pull the trigger. They let him escape. Why? so they could have an enemy to mobilize American emotionalism against. Then direct that emotionalism towards Iraq. Attack there and follow the old plan 9PNAC plans) and try to divide up the oil. In fact this week, some conservatives were complaining that other countries were getting Iraq oil after America's efforts. The plan was to get the oil and have corporations profit from it. America did not matter. Or in some minds it was thought America would get all the oil and use that to pay for the war. That canard was used to justify keeping the war off of the books for years.
Why do people even listen to this bullshit anymore? That approach did not work in Vietnam. It will not work in Afghanistan!!!!! The end of the movie Charlie Wilson's War had him asking for paltry money to rebuild Afghanistan after we helped arm the insurgents against Russia and was shut down. Money for war is understandable. Defendible! Money for efforts that may win hearts and minds, not so much.
With that, I will leave with a song.
rojo
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Budgetary Considerations!
Mary Landreau asks "Would you want the public option if ity bankrupts the government?" thoughtfully. Yes, did she ask that before we invaded Iraq? Afghanistan?
How bogus is that question?! Maybe we can move money around the budget to make ends meet. Jeez, maybe a new battleship is not needed. Maybe a new bunker buster bomb. Maybe a research project on arctic seals. Maybe we need thios and some fiscal responsibility.
Christ, what a red herring! Maybe government officials need to earn their pay by balancing the budget band doing the right thing.
rojo
Mary Landreau asks "Would you want the public option if ity bankrupts the government?" thoughtfully. Yes, did she ask that before we invaded Iraq? Afghanistan?
How bogus is that question?! Maybe we can move money around the budget to make ends meet. Jeez, maybe a new battleship is not needed. Maybe a new bunker buster bomb. Maybe a research project on arctic seals. Maybe we need thios and some fiscal responsibility.
Christ, what a red herring! Maybe government officials need to earn their pay by balancing the budget band doing the right thing.
rojo
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Friday, October 02, 2009
Vacation
Starts today! and guess what was recommended for me by You Tube. You just can't make this up.
and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is this weekend. I am going Sunday! Galactic and Little Feat for sure! Saturday features Jorma, the Duhks and Natalia Macmaster. Too many chores, maybe--but having second thoughts on the necessity of chores. The toilet can leak for another week or six.
In honor of Saturday, some Friday toones!
and
The Duhks
or
one from Galactic.
rojo
Starts today! and guess what was recommended for me by You Tube. You just can't make this up.
and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is this weekend. I am going Sunday! Galactic and Little Feat for sure! Saturday features Jorma, the Duhks and Natalia Macmaster. Too many chores, maybe--but having second thoughts on the necessity of chores. The toilet can leak for another week or six.
In honor of Saturday, some Friday toones!
and
The Duhks
or
one from Galactic.
rojo
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thoughts from Yesterday
Let's see--Obama was identified as a killer and an international menace by a member of Congress. Diaper David Vetter leads the moral indignation charge against ACORN. Munitions makers cannot keep up with the demand for bullets (many people do not think 10,000 rounds at home is enough for a coming revolution.) There is a poll calling for Obama'a assasination. The Republicans bitch because Obama is going to try to get the summer Olympics for Chicago and it is taking focus away from the war in Afghanistan. As if they did not botch that job themselves for the last 8 years. Who can forget Bush did not care where Obama was?
A Christian woman who runs interference for Phyllis Schafly's organization and heads a state for them calls for Obama's assasination.What part of insane am I missing? We enter into an unjustified war, but do get to strut our stuff as a country, kill maybe a million and have not set up a stable regime, go bankrupt, and start torturing--lose any moral high ground we ever had--and that is great. It shows we have BIG BALLS. Now we have a black instead of a Texas (yeah, sure) shitkicker, someone who can speak (no, I do not agree with his policies all the time, too centrist for me) who can do things by political dialogue and no blood, and at least 20% in the country wish they could kill him. Openly. Yes, I know there were closet poeples who wanted to kill the last administration. I read blogs. However, spoken openly and repeatedly. Not hardly.
Hell, the Denver Three were locked up for wearing T-Shirts and others were taken away from Presidential meetings because their cars had anti-war bumper stickers. Yet, Obama is seen as a Nazi.
I was shocked at the last set of teabagger videos showing people screaming about czars and how they were given fiefdoms already waiting for a communist takeover. After all, they stated czars were Russians and so were commies. They did not even realize the communists killed the czars. and became autocrats themselves. The irony of this is almost too much.
God help us, the President tells kids to buckle down, stay in school and dammit learn something and this is Democratic or Communist indoctrination.
What these people are are pissed that the world is changing. They handle change by anger against. They are easily manipulated, just like a high school football team being motivated by a coach to get their emotions to a fever pitch and then kill the opposition. Physiologically, there is a response to fight in over 25% of the population. That is how they are hard-wired. They make great fighters, short-term heroes, etc. Warriors and protectors of countries are needed.
However, these people are being manipulated by crass bastards who want power and others to do their dirty work, or who want money and need worker bees. The lack of media attention and real reporting on this crassness is getting crazy. The Fourth Estate used to be somewhat reliable to keep America from losing its collective mind. Now we have a lot of was it Father Joe? who used to scream about commies? and the Family talking about Christian brotherhoods to rule the world. and being succesful at above the scenes and behind the scenes manipulation.
I just talked to three men at a gas station in Kern County CA where they had six rifles turned into fully automatic weapons for the coming revolution. I tghink this country is losing its center and going nuts.
The question is how do we bring it back? Can it be brought back? Or will it become a police state, or a money corporate state?
rojo
Let's see--Obama was identified as a killer and an international menace by a member of Congress. Diaper David Vetter leads the moral indignation charge against ACORN. Munitions makers cannot keep up with the demand for bullets (many people do not think 10,000 rounds at home is enough for a coming revolution.) There is a poll calling for Obama'a assasination. The Republicans bitch because Obama is going to try to get the summer Olympics for Chicago and it is taking focus away from the war in Afghanistan. As if they did not botch that job themselves for the last 8 years. Who can forget Bush did not care where Obama was?
A Christian woman who runs interference for Phyllis Schafly's organization and heads a state for them calls for Obama's assasination.What part of insane am I missing? We enter into an unjustified war, but do get to strut our stuff as a country, kill maybe a million and have not set up a stable regime, go bankrupt, and start torturing--lose any moral high ground we ever had--and that is great. It shows we have BIG BALLS. Now we have a black instead of a Texas (yeah, sure) shitkicker, someone who can speak (no, I do not agree with his policies all the time, too centrist for me) who can do things by political dialogue and no blood, and at least 20% in the country wish they could kill him. Openly. Yes, I know there were closet poeples who wanted to kill the last administration. I read blogs. However, spoken openly and repeatedly. Not hardly.
Hell, the Denver Three were locked up for wearing T-Shirts and others were taken away from Presidential meetings because their cars had anti-war bumper stickers. Yet, Obama is seen as a Nazi.
I was shocked at the last set of teabagger videos showing people screaming about czars and how they were given fiefdoms already waiting for a communist takeover. After all, they stated czars were Russians and so were commies. They did not even realize the communists killed the czars. and became autocrats themselves. The irony of this is almost too much.
God help us, the President tells kids to buckle down, stay in school and dammit learn something and this is Democratic or Communist indoctrination.
What these people are are pissed that the world is changing. They handle change by anger against. They are easily manipulated, just like a high school football team being motivated by a coach to get their emotions to a fever pitch and then kill the opposition. Physiologically, there is a response to fight in over 25% of the population. That is how they are hard-wired. They make great fighters, short-term heroes, etc. Warriors and protectors of countries are needed.
However, these people are being manipulated by crass bastards who want power and others to do their dirty work, or who want money and need worker bees. The lack of media attention and real reporting on this crassness is getting crazy. The Fourth Estate used to be somewhat reliable to keep America from losing its collective mind. Now we have a lot of was it Father Joe? who used to scream about commies? and the Family talking about Christian brotherhoods to rule the world. and being succesful at above the scenes and behind the scenes manipulation.
I just talked to three men at a gas station in Kern County CA where they had six rifles turned into fully automatic weapons for the coming revolution. I tghink this country is losing its center and going nuts.
The question is how do we bring it back? Can it be brought back? Or will it become a police state, or a money corporate state?
rojo
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Salmon, Anyone?
Today starts a ten-year project to start a restored flow to 150 miles of a long-dried up river in CA. 150 miles have been dry for years. Little obstacles like moving a house that has been built in the river bed need to be accomplished. The hopes are to restore an annual salmon run. Salmon in Fresno? Who knew? details.
rojo
Today starts a ten-year project to start a restored flow to 150 miles of a long-dried up river in CA. 150 miles have been dry for years. Little obstacles like moving a house that has been built in the river bed need to be accomplished. The hopes are to restore an annual salmon run. Salmon in Fresno? Who knew? details.
rojo
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Environmental Issues
Yes, we take care of the defenders of liberty. Other details. with an explanation. All it needed to remove the carcinogens would have been a GAC (granulated activated carbon) system. These are used all the time. We operate two of them in CA alone. We can spend TRILLIONS on weapons but poison the soldiers. Grrrrrrrr!
rojo
Yes, we take care of the defenders of liberty. Other details. with an explanation. All it needed to remove the carcinogens would have been a GAC (granulated activated carbon) system. These are used all the time. We operate two of them in CA alone. We can spend TRILLIONS on weapons but poison the soldiers. Grrrrrrrr!
rojo
Saturday, September 26, 2009
I Wish I Were So Gung Ho As These Guys, not really
The following is a letter that I have written to the founder of an organization "In God We Trust America".
The following is a letter that I have written to the founder of an organization "In God We Trust America".
I came across your booth at the CA League Of Cities show. I was originally appalled that "In God We Trust" was replacing e pluribus unum as the national motto in the opinion of some. I had to do some research and found that it actually was the national motto. It came to prominence during the days of the Red Scare. I knew that "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance at that time, but was unaware of the change of the national motto.
I am very glad you made me aware of that. Now I will do my damnedest to return the national motto to the previous Latin one. It is embarrassing to think the national visionary approach to our great country is based in fear of communists and heathens, defeating the spirit of e pluribus unum. I see people tout this motto of "In God We Trust" and wonder in whose God we trust? Is it the Catholic God? the Protestant God? the Muslim God? The Deist Deity? the Buddhist One?
After seeing the fracturing of the current political landscape of the United States, where good will has taken a back seat, I am leery, if not frightened by a group who can further polarize the spiritual make up of this great country. I challenge you to prove to me that this organization is not an organization that marginalizes belief systems of others and includes them in an attempt to unify the citizens of this country. Prove to me that this organization does not breed contempt, but rather promotes a healing balm based upon the love exemplified in the New Testament. Then I could back this group.
If your group marginalizes or can be used to breed prejudicial judgment of various social and spiritual organizations, then you have taken a step backwards from the creation of this country.
e pluribus unum.
rojomojo
I am so tired of groups who claim to know how everyone else should believe. It exhausts me. I am reminded of why I don't like consensus government (yes, I lived in a variety of decision-making systems in communes). The one with "the loudest voice and the thickest skin" normally wins. Typically, in America, it is the one's with the funding. How sad.
rojo
I am so tired of groups who claim to know how everyone else should believe. It exhausts me. I am reminded of why I don't like consensus government (yes, I lived in a variety of decision-making systems in communes). The one with "the loudest voice and the thickest skin" normally wins. Typically, in America, it is the one's with the funding. How sad.
rojo
Friday, September 25, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
I read my daily water world news (Brown and Caldwell Water News) and just shook my head. First story was of a shallow lake that is filled with DDT and other chemicals. and, you guessed it! There is no money for remediation. The costs are either $12,000,000 to dredge the lake or $1,400,000 to cap it. I am sure the wildlife will love the latter alternative. Anyone remember when there was an EPA with Superfund clean up moneys? Just know that the Bush Administration closed down the tax to corporations to help fund those projects and there is no money. Thanks.
I see the news is not so good in England, too. Or upstate New York. The two latter instances are of the same problem. Sewage technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the past fifteen years. You can remove nutrients. In the future, you will be able to remove trace pharmaceuticals. Actually have pristine water. But, all this costs money. I work with so many Districts, cities and boards. They are manned by people who want to be elected. Some to do the right thing, others for power. One thing that is common is that you can't raise taxes or rates and stay elected. People like clean drinking water and swimming and water sports, but few want to pay for it. In England and in NY, you have wastewater systems that are outdated. The issue in NY is that when the collection sewerage systems were built, they combined the sanitary sewers with storm sewers. If you had a heavy rain, excess flow just goes out to the sea, lake or river. Yes, that includes the diluted pooh from everyone's toilets. In the western US and more modern systems that is not a problem. Imagine the difficulty of digging up a whole city to separate the two sewer systems. and the cost. It is no wonder that Obama wanted "shovel-ready" projects to start on. There are so many issues like this to deal with, and the solution is funding and political will. And with the world economy crapping out, it will take real planning (hint, don't elect those who don't want government to govern because they can't do it).
Here Florida is cited as having toxic public water. The whole NY Times is here. I have to love the one article where how much weedkiller (poison) is in your water glass. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside. and we wonder why cancer spreads. Many mutagenic changes happen at concentrations as low as 0.01 parts per billion.
and sadly, what happens when you dam rivers with disregard of the downstream population. As if the rape of their country were not enough, let's steal the water.
just a bundle of joy today.
rojo
I see the news is not so good in England, too. Or upstate New York. The two latter instances are of the same problem. Sewage technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the past fifteen years. You can remove nutrients. In the future, you will be able to remove trace pharmaceuticals. Actually have pristine water. But, all this costs money. I work with so many Districts, cities and boards. They are manned by people who want to be elected. Some to do the right thing, others for power. One thing that is common is that you can't raise taxes or rates and stay elected. People like clean drinking water and swimming and water sports, but few want to pay for it. In England and in NY, you have wastewater systems that are outdated. The issue in NY is that when the collection sewerage systems were built, they combined the sanitary sewers with storm sewers. If you had a heavy rain, excess flow just goes out to the sea, lake or river. Yes, that includes the diluted pooh from everyone's toilets. In the western US and more modern systems that is not a problem. Imagine the difficulty of digging up a whole city to separate the two sewer systems. and the cost. It is no wonder that Obama wanted "shovel-ready" projects to start on. There are so many issues like this to deal with, and the solution is funding and political will. And with the world economy crapping out, it will take real planning (hint, don't elect those who don't want government to govern because they can't do it).
Here Florida is cited as having toxic public water. The whole NY Times is here. I have to love the one article where how much weedkiller (poison) is in your water glass. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside. and we wonder why cancer spreads. Many mutagenic changes happen at concentrations as low as 0.01 parts per billion.
and sadly, what happens when you dam rivers with disregard of the downstream population. As if the rape of their country were not enough, let's steal the water.
just a bundle of joy today.
rojo
Sunday, September 20, 2009
End of Summer Thoughts
First, an environmental story. Apparently the government of China does help produce cheap stuff. And we all need more stuff. But you think that perhaps they might have learned from the Cuyahoga River burning, and disasters like that. The fact that cancer is way up is one thing. The other is that they know they are selling contaminated rice. Makes you fell good inside. yeah.
And, if it isn't global warming, what could it be? Even if it a short-term cyclical climactic change, we is going to have issues. The question then becomes, what do we do? If the coral reefs die, there goes the basis for the marine life cycles. And many people rely on that for food. That is the one thing I don't get. Who cares if it global warming or a cycle? One can be forestalled with stewardship. Both need major changes in our food chain. What we do now is unsustainable.
And I saw my first roller derby game live last night. One of my ex-apprentices does that in her spare time. The score was Denver 319 to Sacred City (Sacramento) 12. OW! The women of Denver were ready and able. Better coached and in way better shape. It was very much fun to watch. Athletes having at it.
The description was something like this in the program--
"there are basically 5 chicks skating at a time. There are four blockers and one designated jammer. The pack starts skating at the whistle, A second whistle is blown twenty seconds later and the jammers start. They have to get throught the blockers and lap the pack. Once they lap the pack, they score points by passing members of the opposing team."
Damn, it was fun to watch. The Denver team is used to either the Coliseum of the Fillmore, where they perform to groups of betweee 2500-5000 fans. Here in Sacto, there were maybe 350. My ex-protege is a 6 foot woman who is just a tad buff. Used mostly as blocker, but twice as a ajammer where she uses her strength more than her speed. But a bit of a ham. As she laps the hapless opponent she goes into crouches, doing one skate variations, skating backwards and doing hand signs like Beavis and Butthead while rocking out. and if blockers got in her way, instead of evading them, she often hip checked them. The crowd loved it. It was effective enough she had to do the action shots for about 20 people with digital cameras after the show. What a hoot. and to think she is the one who helped me clean digesters and stuff.
BTW, the only beer served was PBR. That and vodka shots. More tats in the audience then I have seen in a while!
and as summer comes to an end
rojo
First, an environmental story. Apparently the government of China does help produce cheap stuff. And we all need more stuff. But you think that perhaps they might have learned from the Cuyahoga River burning, and disasters like that. The fact that cancer is way up is one thing. The other is that they know they are selling contaminated rice. Makes you fell good inside. yeah.
And, if it isn't global warming, what could it be? Even if it a short-term cyclical climactic change, we is going to have issues. The question then becomes, what do we do? If the coral reefs die, there goes the basis for the marine life cycles. And many people rely on that for food. That is the one thing I don't get. Who cares if it global warming or a cycle? One can be forestalled with stewardship. Both need major changes in our food chain. What we do now is unsustainable.
And I saw my first roller derby game live last night. One of my ex-apprentices does that in her spare time. The score was Denver 319 to Sacred City (Sacramento) 12. OW! The women of Denver were ready and able. Better coached and in way better shape. It was very much fun to watch. Athletes having at it.
The description was something like this in the program--
"there are basically 5 chicks skating at a time. There are four blockers and one designated jammer. The pack starts skating at the whistle, A second whistle is blown twenty seconds later and the jammers start. They have to get throught the blockers and lap the pack. Once they lap the pack, they score points by passing members of the opposing team."
Damn, it was fun to watch. The Denver team is used to either the Coliseum of the Fillmore, where they perform to groups of betweee 2500-5000 fans. Here in Sacto, there were maybe 350. My ex-protege is a 6 foot woman who is just a tad buff. Used mostly as blocker, but twice as a ajammer where she uses her strength more than her speed. But a bit of a ham. As she laps the hapless opponent she goes into crouches, doing one skate variations, skating backwards and doing hand signs like Beavis and Butthead while rocking out. and if blockers got in her way, instead of evading them, she often hip checked them. The crowd loved it. It was effective enough she had to do the action shots for about 20 people with digital cameras after the show. What a hoot. and to think she is the one who helped me clean digesters and stuff.
BTW, the only beer served was PBR. That and vodka shots. More tats in the audience then I have seen in a while!
and as summer comes to an end
rojo
Monday, September 14, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
You Can Lead A Whore to Culture
But You Can't Make Her Think!
Little did i know when I moved to CA I was moving to the Wild West. I thought Wyoming was weird enough. Where men are men and sheep are nervous. But no, you get to CA, and Congressmen who profess family values and say the gays are ruining marriage not only have affairs, but brag about it on tape in session. Yes, gays made him have those affairs.
They had nothing to do with the fact that she was an energy lobbyist and he was on some sort of Energy Committee. Let's see, want votes, boff the Pillsbury doughboy blind and see if he votes in your favor. Wait, isn't that called prostitution? and then he is a john. Yes, we have comer a long ways since Miss Kitty's. I mean, we can't really buy votes with a night with a lobbyist, can we?
I am reminded of a business trip to Pahrump, NV to see the progress on the construction of a water plant. We were short $4Mill and the first thing the constructor did was take me to the Chicken Ranch and offer me anything on the menu.
Run Away!!! Run Away!!!! Yes, we lost our ass on the deal. oooops.
And looking at Rep. Duvall, I am reminded of the Joe Jackson song--"Pretty Girls Going Out With Gorillas on My Street..."
rojo
But You Can't Make Her Think!
Little did i know when I moved to CA I was moving to the Wild West. I thought Wyoming was weird enough. Where men are men and sheep are nervous. But no, you get to CA, and Congressmen who profess family values and say the gays are ruining marriage not only have affairs, but brag about it on tape in session. Yes, gays made him have those affairs.
They had nothing to do with the fact that she was an energy lobbyist and he was on some sort of Energy Committee. Let's see, want votes, boff the Pillsbury doughboy blind and see if he votes in your favor. Wait, isn't that called prostitution? and then he is a john. Yes, we have comer a long ways since Miss Kitty's. I mean, we can't really buy votes with a night with a lobbyist, can we?
I am reminded of a business trip to Pahrump, NV to see the progress on the construction of a water plant. We were short $4Mill and the first thing the constructor did was take me to the Chicken Ranch and offer me anything on the menu.
Run Away!!! Run Away!!!! Yes, we lost our ass on the deal. oooops.
And looking at Rep. Duvall, I am reminded of the Joe Jackson song--"Pretty Girls Going Out With Gorillas on My Street..."
rojo
Monday, September 07, 2009
Happy Wealth Stealing Day, Part 2
And whay is the government paying for this instead of the "wealth creator" class? O yes, because that way, they get to keep their wealth. Thank god for socialism and government handouts.
rojo
And whay is the government paying for this instead of the "wealth creator" class? O yes, because that way, they get to keep their wealth. Thank god for socialism and government handouts.
rojo
Happy Steal the Wealth Day!
from an article by Michael Lind on Salon.com--
"Today is Labor Day, when we celebrate the wealth destroyers – at least if the libertarian right is to be believed.
from an article by Michael Lind on Salon.com--
"Today is Labor Day, when we celebrate the wealth destroyers – at least if the libertarian right is to be believed.
According to many free-market conservatives, economic growth is almost exclusively the result of investment decisions by a small number of rich individuals – the "wealth creators." The wealth creators, according to the conservative press, are constantly being threatened from above by government, which seeks to destroy wealth by taxation, and from below by workers, particularly those organized into unions, who threaten to destroy wealth by insisting that capitalists share a decent amount of their profits with employees. The entire basis of conservative "trickle-down" economics is the idea that the economy will grow faster if the supposed wealth creators keep more of the profits of private enterprise, with less going to taxes and worker compensation.
If you believe this theory, then Labor Day should be a cause for national mourning. We should all pause to mourn the loss of capital that might have gone to a fifth or a sixth mansion or a private jet, but instead was conscripted against its will to pay for a public school or higher wages in a factory.
We should weep for the capital that might have given its life for high-end caterers but instead was forced by government to be spent on public hospital nurses. And we should grieve for the dollars that were wasted on public police protection, when they might have gone instead to private security guards in a gated community.
But maybe instead of mourning we should celebrate. Maybe Labor Day should be replaced by a new holiday to celebrate the tiny number of brilliant investors who, more or less single-handedly, are responsible for long-term economic progress. We should abolish Labor Day and replace it with Capital Day – a festive time when we, the majority of parasitic wealth destroyers whose income comes from wages rather than investments, can give our collective thanks to the small number of people who have most of the money."
rojo
Sunday, September 06, 2009
JFC!!!!
So we have a Sarah Palin who was part of a secession party and now this. It is a must read for those who wonder about things in this world.
rojo
So we have a Sarah Palin who was part of a secession party and now this. It is a must read for those who wonder about things in this world.
rojo
Why, oh Why?!
Here I sit and know that school children can opt out of a presidential address that is supposed to accentuate the need for effort, academic excellence and other things of that ilk. Yes, they can opt out because of clauses that education that may be objectionable like sex education may not be forced upon their delicate belief systems. In school systems in Weld County, CO the address will not even be shown because of the possibility of indoctrination into Democratic ideals.
I am horrified that such topics as hard work and excellence are seen as possibly detrimental to the well-being of students. And that people can opt out of it. Yes, let's remain insulated and stupid. While I actively disliked the swaggering election stealer, Curious George Bush for his ham-fisted approach to diplomacy and leadership ("Bring It ON!" and "Mission Accomplished" will always resound to me as remarks more fitting from a beauty pageant loser than a world leader. and wearing a flight suit codpiece looking like a character from Clockwork Orange is always classy.), I never said no one should listen to him. In fact, would have wanted my kidlettes to listen to him and then do research to pick apart or agree with his arguments.
I am reminded of the three monkeys hearing, speaking and seeing no evil. Sorry, the world is not that way. There is weird shit out there and you better learn how to discern what is bullshit and how to obviate the consequences of the bull. This is education for the world stages. How far afield was Rumsfeld's statement of WMD being somewhere North, South, East and West of Tikrit. He should have been so ripped badly for that, he could no longer show his face in public. Hell, Hitler is somewhere North, East, South or West of Sacramento. And the fish logos on the back of cars show the way to the largest used car dealership in the nation. And Ashcroft covering Lady Justice's breasts because he fantasized about suckling from them so much it disturbed his good judgment was unbelievable, but better than Gonzo trying to get him to sign paperwork just out of surgery and under the influence of anesthetics and painkillers. Real class there. You have to learn to sense bullshit in the world and not be influenced by it. But also to know how to interact with those you disagree with so that discourse can be established and changes wrought. Or how to walk away and start something constructive on your own if the gulf is too large.
Protecting children so they can be innocent and untouched by Democratic indoctrination is as bad as the dude in Antioch, CA who abducted a young female and held her in his backyard, had children by her and kept them all away from TV, school and doctors, so they could be perfect innocent mates. And listen to his word of God. Oh yes, he was a preacher too. Teaching them the Word of God according to him. In fact, that was how he got caught after 15 years of this double life. He brought his daughter with him to UC Berkeley to ask for a prayer meeting permit. And the security guard thought "What is wrong with this picture?" and did research into him.
I am very sensitive to issues such as this after living in a commune that really was cultic in its belief systems. The guys there thought there dicks were magical conduits of God's energy. They were rationalizing their importance as messengers of God rather than that sex was really fun and a good outcome of the human condition and potential. and divine in nature, by its very existence. Not that there wonderfulness in the sight of some God somewhere was being channeled through their magic Dicks. Hell, Magic Dick was just a hell of a harmonica player (J Geils), not a bodily and spiritual function.
Being secluded does not guarantee innocence. Stupidity does not guarantee cultural purity. It is a crime to let children opt of of the Presidential address to keep them from being indoctrinated. Teach them to think and participate. Any less than that breeds monocultural nightmares where "Peace is War" can be ideologically achieved as a truism. It is a form of abuse.
rojo
Here I sit and know that school children can opt out of a presidential address that is supposed to accentuate the need for effort, academic excellence and other things of that ilk. Yes, they can opt out because of clauses that education that may be objectionable like sex education may not be forced upon their delicate belief systems. In school systems in Weld County, CO the address will not even be shown because of the possibility of indoctrination into Democratic ideals.
I am horrified that such topics as hard work and excellence are seen as possibly detrimental to the well-being of students. And that people can opt out of it. Yes, let's remain insulated and stupid. While I actively disliked the swaggering election stealer, Curious George Bush for his ham-fisted approach to diplomacy and leadership ("Bring It ON!" and "Mission Accomplished" will always resound to me as remarks more fitting from a beauty pageant loser than a world leader. and wearing a flight suit codpiece looking like a character from Clockwork Orange is always classy.), I never said no one should listen to him. In fact, would have wanted my kidlettes to listen to him and then do research to pick apart or agree with his arguments.
I am reminded of the three monkeys hearing, speaking and seeing no evil. Sorry, the world is not that way. There is weird shit out there and you better learn how to discern what is bullshit and how to obviate the consequences of the bull. This is education for the world stages. How far afield was Rumsfeld's statement of WMD being somewhere North, South, East and West of Tikrit. He should have been so ripped badly for that, he could no longer show his face in public. Hell, Hitler is somewhere North, East, South or West of Sacramento. And the fish logos on the back of cars show the way to the largest used car dealership in the nation. And Ashcroft covering Lady Justice's breasts because he fantasized about suckling from them so much it disturbed his good judgment was unbelievable, but better than Gonzo trying to get him to sign paperwork just out of surgery and under the influence of anesthetics and painkillers. Real class there. You have to learn to sense bullshit in the world and not be influenced by it. But also to know how to interact with those you disagree with so that discourse can be established and changes wrought. Or how to walk away and start something constructive on your own if the gulf is too large.
Protecting children so they can be innocent and untouched by Democratic indoctrination is as bad as the dude in Antioch, CA who abducted a young female and held her in his backyard, had children by her and kept them all away from TV, school and doctors, so they could be perfect innocent mates. And listen to his word of God. Oh yes, he was a preacher too. Teaching them the Word of God according to him. In fact, that was how he got caught after 15 years of this double life. He brought his daughter with him to UC Berkeley to ask for a prayer meeting permit. And the security guard thought "What is wrong with this picture?" and did research into him.
I am very sensitive to issues such as this after living in a commune that really was cultic in its belief systems. The guys there thought there dicks were magical conduits of God's energy. They were rationalizing their importance as messengers of God rather than that sex was really fun and a good outcome of the human condition and potential. and divine in nature, by its very existence. Not that there wonderfulness in the sight of some God somewhere was being channeled through their magic Dicks. Hell, Magic Dick was just a hell of a harmonica player (J Geils), not a bodily and spiritual function.
Being secluded does not guarantee innocence. Stupidity does not guarantee cultural purity. It is a crime to let children opt of of the Presidential address to keep them from being indoctrinated. Teach them to think and participate. Any less than that breeds monocultural nightmares where "Peace is War" can be ideologically achieved as a truism. It is a form of abuse.
rojo
Monday, August 31, 2009
Another Day, Another Gun
There was a story in the LA Times yesterday showing that one section of American manufacturing is going gangbusters. Hooray for recovery. The firearms and munitions firms just cannot produce enough to keep up with the accelerated demand since Obama was elected. The NRA (I know they are just hunters, and no Catholic boys ever masturbated, too) has many actions committees and sponsored websites that basically state that since Obama has come to power, all YOUR GUNS WILL BE TAKEN BY THE SOCIALIST STATE!
This is just one the things most progressives don't get, in my opinion. There is a real ground swell of paranoia out there that we are going crazy socialist. Some of the crazies who believe all this are those who "Don't want the government to fool with their Medicare!" They logically don't know that Medicare is a government program. And these folks are buying so much guns and ammunition that manufacturers just can't meet the demand.
We have crazies shooting police in Pittsburgh becasue the cops may come and get his guns. You know, if you did not fetishize your guns, they wouldn't give a damn about you. There have been at least four instances of authority killings this year alone that were fueled by crazy paranoid fantasies. If this were to keep up, then their prophecies would be self-fulfilling.
The fact remains they got the guns.You notice the raging far right was not this active with Bush/Cheney in office because he was their guy. Strutting in flight suit, saying "Bring it on!" and then torturing people. It is frustrating to realize that this faction is about 25% of the American population, so all the conservatives need is to influence another 20% to win elections. The rabid right will come out to vote.The passion they bring is seldom matched by the liberal end of the equation.
I saw Kerry and Hatch on some newstalk thing yesterday. Kerry made logical nice comments about how torture was wrong. When Hatch went on about its virtues, did Kerry ream him a new one? Nope. Just said it was illegal. AAArrrggghhh! I fear we are getting past reason in this country and the debate will be won on emotionalism that is so illogical (see the Medicare comment above) your jaw will drop repeatedly. And Health Care could be the Waterloo. I hope someone is playing multi-dimensional chess, but if the Admnistration pooches this one, the majority in the Congress may be lost.
BTW, Bobby "Exorcist" Jindal said that the Obama adminstration is doing more for New Orleans in the short time they are in charge than the Bush boys ever did. Did that make the front page anywhere? Competency does not fuel that raw emotionalism. I found it on the bottom of page 8 in the SacBee.
rojo
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Long and About Water
Actually, I have as long as I need. I just had a really busy week where I drove 1600 miles for work this week. That is a lot of windshield time, considering I had at least 5 hours of meetings every day. To say the least I am tired. And I have not kept up on journaling or anything else.
I did take 20 minutes and go through the water museum or exhibit at Pyramid Lake outside of LA. There, they have more or less models of the California water system with all its canals. It is worth the stop just to see what the history of water diversions has been in CA. The pictures of the Sacramento-San Juan Delta region before all the diversions are amazing. There are only a few, but it gives you an idea of the raw beauty there.
I had the heartbreaking site on the ride down to LA from the north of dead orchards. Miles of them. There is no water for them in natural form and the water rights that were used to obtain water for these trees were junior rights (meaning that in drought they weren't available and being planted in near desert conditions they died) or the water rights were sold to developers so they could build more subdivisions around LA. Just yesterday an orchard sold the water rights that had been used for 2200 acres of fruit trees to developers in LA county so they could have water. It is sad to see so much dead wood. But I have to ask, is it worse to have dead trees or a mall where neither should be in the first place.
The Central Valley in CA is a very fertile place, when there is water. You just have to pump it from somewhere else. Look at a map and see how far it is from Sacramento to LA. That is how far the water is pumped, and over at least two mountain ranges. I just found out that much of the water for the coastal cities, like Santa Barbara, also comes from Sacramento in another diversion.
CA is so weird about water, it dries up lakes, moves rivers, kills all native wildlife just to move water for farming. Right now there are signs all up and down the state that say "Congress Created Desert!" This means that CA is trying to keep water flowing to the Delta, just to keep a salmon population alive. It has dropped by almost 98% in the past few years. It is simplistically put as pitting farmers and their needs against fish. More realistically, it is farmers needing water in near desert conditions against fishermenr and the global food chain. Or global food chain versus cities. LA and San Diego could not exist without the water from the Delta and the Colorado River. The Colorado River used to reach the ocean in Mexico. It barely does now and is so saline it has little life in it. The whales that used that bay to mate and raise young cannot go there any more because it is a mudflat. Almost no water gets there! The US had to build a desalinization plant on the river to guarantee fresh water to mexican residents. The salt comes from irrigation. Water used for irrigation pulls the salts from the soils and deposits them back into the river when it flows back to the river.
There is a need for common sense here. CA (maybe the world) has outdated water thinking. There is only so much to go around. And what are the available stores in a drought condition. What is sustainable? A Dutch water geek came up with a term "virtual water" that makes sense. Trouble is it can change national economies. Why grow corn in Phoenix? Wheat in Egypt? when it is more water-wise to ship it in from a moist place? In Colorado, water law has gotten to the point that if you take water out of one river system, you have to return it to that system in clean enough form to be reused in drinking water and for wildlife. Water rights are determined in acre-foot units, meaning in drought time or times of low snow pack you may only get a percentage of an acrefoot, depending on availability. CA has no such restrictions. They do not monitor well pumping in CA either so wells are being pumped so hard, the ground in some areas is dropping one foot per year. Other states monitor well withdrawal to disalow ground compaction and sink holes.
Another area that I saw signs raling about current conditions is that Sacramento and Stockton discharge sewage to rivers that becomes irrigation water. Hey, no kidding. The issue is not that this exists, it exists all over the world. The Boulder, CO wastewater outfall is upstream from the Louisville water intake. The issue is that there are not tight discharge standards for wastewater. The excess nutrients discharged from wastewater plants can cause water degradation. This is a new topic for the EPA to address nationwide. This causes real big dead spots in waterways. You know, areas where algae grew so thick because of excess nutrients, when the algae dies (at night, no light to keep it growing) it sucks up all the oxygen in the water and everything there suffocates. period. Most fish kills are caused by this. Again CA is way behind the curve. There was one sign of hope last week as San Diego now has to treat their sewage to secondary standards before discharging iot to the ocean. Until now, they had allowed settling and chlorination. Think of what goes down your toilet, mix it up real good (use your imagination) and let it settle and then think if this is what you want sent out to the lake or river next to you, knowing that the settled goods will only settle maybe 60-75% of the debris. YUCK!!! and people swim in that. San Diego was so surprised they have no real contingency plan. They thought they were immune because they were too big.
One other item that has come up is that small amounts of herbicides are more dangerous that what was previously thought. It is becoming obvious that weedkillers are overused and make their way into the waterways. And they can cause cancer and mutagenic changes at much lower doses than previously thought. Nice.
Another bright note, though, is that CA is ahead of the EPA in regulating Chromium 6 in drinking water and has come up with standards. There are no federal standrards to date. This is a pollutant made famous by Erin Brokovich.
So much for water musings over one week.
Let's Dance. Even Sir nose has to dance when hit with the Bop Gun! Turn up the Bass!
rojo
Actually, I have as long as I need. I just had a really busy week where I drove 1600 miles for work this week. That is a lot of windshield time, considering I had at least 5 hours of meetings every day. To say the least I am tired. And I have not kept up on journaling or anything else.
I did take 20 minutes and go through the water museum or exhibit at Pyramid Lake outside of LA. There, they have more or less models of the California water system with all its canals. It is worth the stop just to see what the history of water diversions has been in CA. The pictures of the Sacramento-San Juan Delta region before all the diversions are amazing. There are only a few, but it gives you an idea of the raw beauty there.
I had the heartbreaking site on the ride down to LA from the north of dead orchards. Miles of them. There is no water for them in natural form and the water rights that were used to obtain water for these trees were junior rights (meaning that in drought they weren't available and being planted in near desert conditions they died) or the water rights were sold to developers so they could build more subdivisions around LA. Just yesterday an orchard sold the water rights that had been used for 2200 acres of fruit trees to developers in LA county so they could have water. It is sad to see so much dead wood. But I have to ask, is it worse to have dead trees or a mall where neither should be in the first place.
The Central Valley in CA is a very fertile place, when there is water. You just have to pump it from somewhere else. Look at a map and see how far it is from Sacramento to LA. That is how far the water is pumped, and over at least two mountain ranges. I just found out that much of the water for the coastal cities, like Santa Barbara, also comes from Sacramento in another diversion.
CA is so weird about water, it dries up lakes, moves rivers, kills all native wildlife just to move water for farming. Right now there are signs all up and down the state that say "Congress Created Desert!" This means that CA is trying to keep water flowing to the Delta, just to keep a salmon population alive. It has dropped by almost 98% in the past few years. It is simplistically put as pitting farmers and their needs against fish. More realistically, it is farmers needing water in near desert conditions against fishermenr and the global food chain. Or global food chain versus cities. LA and San Diego could not exist without the water from the Delta and the Colorado River. The Colorado River used to reach the ocean in Mexico. It barely does now and is so saline it has little life in it. The whales that used that bay to mate and raise young cannot go there any more because it is a mudflat. Almost no water gets there! The US had to build a desalinization plant on the river to guarantee fresh water to mexican residents. The salt comes from irrigation. Water used for irrigation pulls the salts from the soils and deposits them back into the river when it flows back to the river.
There is a need for common sense here. CA (maybe the world) has outdated water thinking. There is only so much to go around. And what are the available stores in a drought condition. What is sustainable? A Dutch water geek came up with a term "virtual water" that makes sense. Trouble is it can change national economies. Why grow corn in Phoenix? Wheat in Egypt? when it is more water-wise to ship it in from a moist place? In Colorado, water law has gotten to the point that if you take water out of one river system, you have to return it to that system in clean enough form to be reused in drinking water and for wildlife. Water rights are determined in acre-foot units, meaning in drought time or times of low snow pack you may only get a percentage of an acrefoot, depending on availability. CA has no such restrictions. They do not monitor well pumping in CA either so wells are being pumped so hard, the ground in some areas is dropping one foot per year. Other states monitor well withdrawal to disalow ground compaction and sink holes.
Another area that I saw signs raling about current conditions is that Sacramento and Stockton discharge sewage to rivers that becomes irrigation water. Hey, no kidding. The issue is not that this exists, it exists all over the world. The Boulder, CO wastewater outfall is upstream from the Louisville water intake. The issue is that there are not tight discharge standards for wastewater. The excess nutrients discharged from wastewater plants can cause water degradation. This is a new topic for the EPA to address nationwide. This causes real big dead spots in waterways. You know, areas where algae grew so thick because of excess nutrients, when the algae dies (at night, no light to keep it growing) it sucks up all the oxygen in the water and everything there suffocates. period. Most fish kills are caused by this. Again CA is way behind the curve. There was one sign of hope last week as San Diego now has to treat their sewage to secondary standards before discharging iot to the ocean. Until now, they had allowed settling and chlorination. Think of what goes down your toilet, mix it up real good (use your imagination) and let it settle and then think if this is what you want sent out to the lake or river next to you, knowing that the settled goods will only settle maybe 60-75% of the debris. YUCK!!! and people swim in that. San Diego was so surprised they have no real contingency plan. They thought they were immune because they were too big.
One other item that has come up is that small amounts of herbicides are more dangerous that what was previously thought. It is becoming obvious that weedkillers are overused and make their way into the waterways. And they can cause cancer and mutagenic changes at much lower doses than previously thought. Nice.
Another bright note, though, is that CA is ahead of the EPA in regulating Chromium 6 in drinking water and has come up with standards. There are no federal standrards to date. This is a pollutant made famous by Erin Brokovich.
So much for water musings over one week.
Let's Dance. Even Sir nose has to dance when hit with the Bop Gun! Turn up the Bass!
rojo
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Nail on the Head, Alfredo!
Robert Reich on executive compensation--
"Comparable" pay is a ridiculous standard to begin with, and the argument that $10 million, or even $7 million, is necessary to keep talent is absurd on its face. I needn't remind you that over the last several years Wall Street has exhibited a truly astonishing lack of talent. So why do any of Wall Street's big banks have the audacity to offer this sort of pay? Because the Street is back to the same, relentlessly untalented tactics that made it lots of money before the meltdown -- which also forced taxpayers to bail it out, caused the world economy to melt down, and tens of millions of people to lose big chunks of their life savings. Goldman Sach's chief financial executive asserted recently that its business model hadn't changed one bit from what it was before the meltdown. Goldman is making big money again, but its business model got it into such deep trouble it needed a multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailout as well as a bailout of AIG, which owed it money. Without these bailouts, there'd be no "talent" because there'd be no Goldman, no Citi, no Street.
Even if you believe Wall Street needs "talent," I suspect that firms such as Citi can get all the talent they need for far less than an average of $10 million each. Maybe even $1 million? The whole system of "comparable" pay is propped up by a zero-sum self-perpetuating competition in which the price of so-called "talent" is determined by how much every other bank is willing to pay for "talent." If every bank decided to pay $1 million, that would be the "comparable" price of talent on the Street. I mean, it's not as if this economy has so many other $1 million-a-year positions begging for Wall Street executives and traders.
There's a more basic issue here. The fact that these big banks have been judged "too big to fail" means their top executives and traders know they can take even bigger risks now, because we taxpayers will bail them out. So inevitably part of their firm's earnings, based on such risk-taking, now come as a result of this public insurance policy. When risks pay off, as many are doing now that the stock market is showing signs of life, they reap large rewards. When the risks turn really bad, you and I and other taxpayers will pick up the pieces.
back to me. This is absolutely correct. Why pay outrageous sums for those who failed? It is the same stupidity that elects a deserter for President and calls Kerry a war criminal and faker. In order for them to get the big money, the government had to interfere, give them cash and then gets castigated for interfering. Note this only happened on Wall Street. For car manufacturing, CEOs were let go (with huge bonus packages), companies were scuttled, downsized or sold. But Wall Street is too big to fail. If the same practices were followed we would give meth addicts money and then be surprised when they got high again.
Bang my head on the wall. Bang my head on the wall.
Part of me just once wants the chance to to ruin a multi-national corporation just for the platinum parachute. Then I can run for politics like HP destructor Carly Fiorina, or whatever her name was. Going for the Senate against Boxer. Wow! Just what we need, another failed leader who kisses business' ass.
rojo
Robert Reich on executive compensation--
"Comparable" pay is a ridiculous standard to begin with, and the argument that $10 million, or even $7 million, is necessary to keep talent is absurd on its face. I needn't remind you that over the last several years Wall Street has exhibited a truly astonishing lack of talent. So why do any of Wall Street's big banks have the audacity to offer this sort of pay? Because the Street is back to the same, relentlessly untalented tactics that made it lots of money before the meltdown -- which also forced taxpayers to bail it out, caused the world economy to melt down, and tens of millions of people to lose big chunks of their life savings. Goldman Sach's chief financial executive asserted recently that its business model hadn't changed one bit from what it was before the meltdown. Goldman is making big money again, but its business model got it into such deep trouble it needed a multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailout as well as a bailout of AIG, which owed it money. Without these bailouts, there'd be no "talent" because there'd be no Goldman, no Citi, no Street.
Even if you believe Wall Street needs "talent," I suspect that firms such as Citi can get all the talent they need for far less than an average of $10 million each. Maybe even $1 million? The whole system of "comparable" pay is propped up by a zero-sum self-perpetuating competition in which the price of so-called "talent" is determined by how much every other bank is willing to pay for "talent." If every bank decided to pay $1 million, that would be the "comparable" price of talent on the Street. I mean, it's not as if this economy has so many other $1 million-a-year positions begging for Wall Street executives and traders.
There's a more basic issue here. The fact that these big banks have been judged "too big to fail" means their top executives and traders know they can take even bigger risks now, because we taxpayers will bail them out. So inevitably part of their firm's earnings, based on such risk-taking, now come as a result of this public insurance policy. When risks pay off, as many are doing now that the stock market is showing signs of life, they reap large rewards. When the risks turn really bad, you and I and other taxpayers will pick up the pieces.
back to me. This is absolutely correct. Why pay outrageous sums for those who failed? It is the same stupidity that elects a deserter for President and calls Kerry a war criminal and faker. In order for them to get the big money, the government had to interfere, give them cash and then gets castigated for interfering. Note this only happened on Wall Street. For car manufacturing, CEOs were let go (with huge bonus packages), companies were scuttled, downsized or sold. But Wall Street is too big to fail. If the same practices were followed we would give meth addicts money and then be surprised when they got high again.
Bang my head on the wall. Bang my head on the wall.
Part of me just once wants the chance to to ruin a multi-national corporation just for the platinum parachute. Then I can run for politics like HP destructor Carly Fiorina, or whatever her name was. Going for the Senate against Boxer. Wow! Just what we need, another failed leader who kisses business' ass.
rojo
Friday, August 14, 2009
Les Paul is Dead!
He was still playing two nights a week in New York until this June. His most notable accomplishments were inventing the solid body electric guitar and multi-track recording. Try to imagine Yellow Submarine recorded on a single track! Or Electric Ladyland. hee. Oh yes, he started giving Steve Miller guitar lessons when Steve Miller was 5.
So without further ado--
rojo
He was still playing two nights a week in New York until this June. His most notable accomplishments were inventing the solid body electric guitar and multi-track recording. Try to imagine Yellow Submarine recorded on a single track! Or Electric Ladyland. hee. Oh yes, he started giving Steve Miller guitar lessons when Steve Miller was 5.
So without further ado--
rojo
What We Didn't See
Whenever I hear people state that racism is not an issue anymore and don't understand black anger, I cringe. Normally that person is white. I saw people being led out of Claire MacCaskill's event and did not understand the furor. The video they used on CNN sucked. You never knew what happened. Like bad sports reporting (did I mention that the Broncos play tonight, sports season is starting!!!!!), the reporters caught the second foul. Here is a more detailed video. and it is too important to miss.
No racial issues in Missouri anymore. And I am not singling out the police. They missed the white dude ripping up the poster. He caused the problem. Then came the random enforcement. This wouldn't happen if this were a Bush rally. Google the Denver 3 and see what you get. They were arrested for wearing shirts. Democracy requires strength and vigilance. Look beyond bad reporting.
rojo
Whenever I hear people state that racism is not an issue anymore and don't understand black anger, I cringe. Normally that person is white. I saw people being led out of Claire MacCaskill's event and did not understand the furor. The video they used on CNN sucked. You never knew what happened. Like bad sports reporting (did I mention that the Broncos play tonight, sports season is starting!!!!!), the reporters caught the second foul. Here is a more detailed video. and it is too important to miss.
No racial issues in Missouri anymore. And I am not singling out the police. They missed the white dude ripping up the poster. He caused the problem. Then came the random enforcement. This wouldn't happen if this were a Bush rally. Google the Denver 3 and see what you get. They were arrested for wearing shirts. Democracy requires strength and vigilance. Look beyond bad reporting.
rojo
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Frist Spouting Off Again!
I was riding the bike last night and watching CNN (the gym occasionally puts on MSNBC) and they had Frist, Dr. Weil, a doctor from the Cleveland Clinic and somebody else, along with the de riguer conservative blonde in some type of animal print top (maybe it was geometrics, who cares). Thye were discussing health care. Senator Frist tried to come off as the middle-of-the-road, easy-to-love Republican; spouting I know health care is broken, we need to fix this and that in the insurance industry and make sure all 10,000,000 who don't have insurance get government insurance. Truly a well-respected and well-mannered villager. Dr. Weil and the doctor from the Cleveland Clinic went on a tear! Apparently Cleveland Clinic among their own employees were able to drop their health care costs 50-75% by starting wellness care. Dieticians to help you lose weight, workouts, drinking classes (to give you alternatives to stress relief), meditation, yoga, quit smoking help. They paid for it all and their costs dropped significantly. Then he went on about acid reflux. Change your diet, take supplements, why prilosec? which was developed as a short term fix until a patient can change his diet, etc. That did not go over well with Frist. Cutting meds, what? Dr. Weil then chimed in and said preventative care, good. and insurance needs to cover supplements and alternative healing modailities.
Frist then went on a ramble. We can't make people be healthy if they don't want to be. We can't make them chnage their habits. We can't legislate that! If they want to smoke and drink and eat fast foos, we can't help that...and we can't legislate helping people be healthy, we can't make them wear seat belts. He was well-modulated in voice. The utmost in respectability and reasoableness. No one metioned the seat belt inclusion. Thanks, Wolf! Of course we can and did legislate seat belts and it was a great success.
Remember he was the guy who could tell from video that Terry Sciavo's brain was functioning and her eyes were tracking lights, even though her brain was seen to be no more than guava jelly later. Also, he owns a hospital corporation worth $15-$45 million annually and had to pay $1,700,000,000 (yes, that is BILLION) for criminal penalties for defrauding Medicare. Yes, defrauding the government and we let him speak. Great. What a reasonbable voice for the villagers.
He doesn't want people to get well or try alternative healing modalities because he can't BILL for them.
rojo
I was riding the bike last night and watching CNN (the gym occasionally puts on MSNBC) and they had Frist, Dr. Weil, a doctor from the Cleveland Clinic and somebody else, along with the de riguer conservative blonde in some type of animal print top (maybe it was geometrics, who cares). Thye were discussing health care. Senator Frist tried to come off as the middle-of-the-road, easy-to-love Republican; spouting I know health care is broken, we need to fix this and that in the insurance industry and make sure all 10,000,000 who don't have insurance get government insurance. Truly a well-respected and well-mannered villager. Dr. Weil and the doctor from the Cleveland Clinic went on a tear! Apparently Cleveland Clinic among their own employees were able to drop their health care costs 50-75% by starting wellness care. Dieticians to help you lose weight, workouts, drinking classes (to give you alternatives to stress relief), meditation, yoga, quit smoking help. They paid for it all and their costs dropped significantly. Then he went on about acid reflux. Change your diet, take supplements, why prilosec? which was developed as a short term fix until a patient can change his diet, etc. That did not go over well with Frist. Cutting meds, what? Dr. Weil then chimed in and said preventative care, good. and insurance needs to cover supplements and alternative healing modailities.
Frist then went on a ramble. We can't make people be healthy if they don't want to be. We can't make them chnage their habits. We can't legislate that! If they want to smoke and drink and eat fast foos, we can't help that...and we can't legislate helping people be healthy, we can't make them wear seat belts. He was well-modulated in voice. The utmost in respectability and reasoableness. No one metioned the seat belt inclusion. Thanks, Wolf! Of course we can and did legislate seat belts and it was a great success.
Remember he was the guy who could tell from video that Terry Sciavo's brain was functioning and her eyes were tracking lights, even though her brain was seen to be no more than guava jelly later. Also, he owns a hospital corporation worth $15-$45 million annually and had to pay $1,700,000,000 (yes, that is BILLION) for criminal penalties for defrauding Medicare. Yes, defrauding the government and we let him speak. Great. What a reasonbable voice for the villagers.
He doesn't want people to get well or try alternative healing modalities because he can't BILL for them.
rojo
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Random Thoughts on a Sunny Day
I have been staying away from political posts lately as the country tears itself apart on a medical debate. No, our system is not broken. It is fine. Fine! We only spend twice as much as any other country for a lots less results. I think we are on a par with Costa Rica and the Czech republic. A demonstrator in NH shows up with a gun at a Presidential Town Hall. Hopefully he does not know how to breed. That would be like showing up at a feral dog support rally with T-bones attached to your neck and then trying to pet the feral dogs. He did not understand why his second amendment rights to bear arms caused such a kerfuffle. At another town hall, protesters had signs that stated "Keep Your Government Hands of my Medicare." Obviously, that the government is providing health care to him was lost on him. The fact that many protesters (or yellers) are seniors is not lost on me. Maybe we should go free market totally and take away Medicare from them. See if they get angry. As an aside, I can see people wanting unlimited free market power as they are young in hopes they can make it big and be one of the priviliged. But as you get older or retired, you have to wonder if maybe your time to make it big is past and social inequities would become more apparent. Like how big was your severance from GM, probably as big as the ex-CEOs, I am sure. What did he get $27,000,000. I am sure that is what every retired line guy got. Wasn't that detailed in Roger and Me?
One of the big topics was that we are becoming a Stalinist Socialist state. Stalin was a very powerful and cruel dictator. He sent millions of Armenians to Siberia to make sure they never organized and became powerful. Armenians?! He killed a whole bunch of the Russian citizenry. He made Saddam Hussein look like a grammar school teacher. And Americans equate that cruelty and government interference with socialism. I wish they taught history, civics and political theory once again in schools. Maybe then people would understand that socialism was really a benevolent theory that was created to fight ubercapitalism of the type that has been seen in the past twenty years or so. And people buy that government health care will create a Stalinist state without realizing social security, medicare and medicaid are socialistic programs run by the government. I really fear that there will be more right wing grass roots terrorism coming up, much like Timothy McVeigh. Our country basically has a racist, Bircher TV station and Lou Dobbs is right up there as a "news" bloviator preaching mistrust, emotionalism, fear and anger on another.
This frenzy is uneducated emotionalism. What do you expect from people who cannot pay for schooling through taxes, or fight over whether creationism deserves as much time as evolution. That the earth is really only 6,000 years old and that evolutionists are faking it. All right, I will confess, I planted all those fake plaster of paris T-Rex bones outside Grand Junction with other college students in Dinosaur National Park just to confuse people. Our covert cells did the same in Siberia, planting mastadon carcasses or in the Midwest, planting fake ferns remains. And I wonder why America just gets dumber. Could it be many of our school text books are printed according to Texas state standards where creationism ranks higher than the three divisions of power as defined by the American system of government? I was shocked to see that well over 30% of Amerians do not know there are three branches of governemental power creating checks and balances. And we wonder why Executive Privilege as defined by Nixon and Bush were not big public outcry issues?
Speaking of which, it looks like Karl "Dough Boy" Rove may have actually had his finger on the firing of US Attorneys. Check out the released emails. Now the question is does anyone have the political and ethical will to make him meet Bubba in a cell. He is guilty and they are really criminal charges, if not treason, subverting the American form of checks and balances in government. The judicial is no good at all if it is afraid of being fired by the President's Brain. If you have to agree to keep your job, you might as well be Brown shirts! Otherwise, you, too, can be cleansed. To hell with the rule of law. This may have been themost damaging aspect of the last eight years.
rojo
I have been staying away from political posts lately as the country tears itself apart on a medical debate. No, our system is not broken. It is fine. Fine! We only spend twice as much as any other country for a lots less results. I think we are on a par with Costa Rica and the Czech republic. A demonstrator in NH shows up with a gun at a Presidential Town Hall. Hopefully he does not know how to breed. That would be like showing up at a feral dog support rally with T-bones attached to your neck and then trying to pet the feral dogs. He did not understand why his second amendment rights to bear arms caused such a kerfuffle. At another town hall, protesters had signs that stated "Keep Your Government Hands of my Medicare." Obviously, that the government is providing health care to him was lost on him. The fact that many protesters (or yellers) are seniors is not lost on me. Maybe we should go free market totally and take away Medicare from them. See if they get angry. As an aside, I can see people wanting unlimited free market power as they are young in hopes they can make it big and be one of the priviliged. But as you get older or retired, you have to wonder if maybe your time to make it big is past and social inequities would become more apparent. Like how big was your severance from GM, probably as big as the ex-CEOs, I am sure. What did he get $27,000,000. I am sure that is what every retired line guy got. Wasn't that detailed in Roger and Me?
One of the big topics was that we are becoming a Stalinist Socialist state. Stalin was a very powerful and cruel dictator. He sent millions of Armenians to Siberia to make sure they never organized and became powerful. Armenians?! He killed a whole bunch of the Russian citizenry. He made Saddam Hussein look like a grammar school teacher. And Americans equate that cruelty and government interference with socialism. I wish they taught history, civics and political theory once again in schools. Maybe then people would understand that socialism was really a benevolent theory that was created to fight ubercapitalism of the type that has been seen in the past twenty years or so. And people buy that government health care will create a Stalinist state without realizing social security, medicare and medicaid are socialistic programs run by the government. I really fear that there will be more right wing grass roots terrorism coming up, much like Timothy McVeigh. Our country basically has a racist, Bircher TV station and Lou Dobbs is right up there as a "news" bloviator preaching mistrust, emotionalism, fear and anger on another.
This frenzy is uneducated emotionalism. What do you expect from people who cannot pay for schooling through taxes, or fight over whether creationism deserves as much time as evolution. That the earth is really only 6,000 years old and that evolutionists are faking it. All right, I will confess, I planted all those fake plaster of paris T-Rex bones outside Grand Junction with other college students in Dinosaur National Park just to confuse people. Our covert cells did the same in Siberia, planting mastadon carcasses or in the Midwest, planting fake ferns remains. And I wonder why America just gets dumber. Could it be many of our school text books are printed according to Texas state standards where creationism ranks higher than the three divisions of power as defined by the American system of government? I was shocked to see that well over 30% of Amerians do not know there are three branches of governemental power creating checks and balances. And we wonder why Executive Privilege as defined by Nixon and Bush were not big public outcry issues?
Speaking of which, it looks like Karl "Dough Boy" Rove may have actually had his finger on the firing of US Attorneys. Check out the released emails. Now the question is does anyone have the political and ethical will to make him meet Bubba in a cell. He is guilty and they are really criminal charges, if not treason, subverting the American form of checks and balances in government. The judicial is no good at all if it is afraid of being fired by the President's Brain. If you have to agree to keep your job, you might as well be Brown shirts! Otherwise, you, too, can be cleansed. To hell with the rule of law. This may have been themost damaging aspect of the last eight years.
rojo
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Wowee!
Can this be true? Is it sandbagging or a breakthrough? Or is this a last ditch attempt to be relevant and stay in business? I am betting the mileage will be less, but I also believe in American ingenuity and creativity in the automotive field. At least as much as bad business models and bean-counter engineering that brought GM down in the first place.
They have access to the best and the brightest, maybe they are unleashing them.
rojo
Can this be true? Is it sandbagging or a breakthrough? Or is this a last ditch attempt to be relevant and stay in business? I am betting the mileage will be less, but I also believe in American ingenuity and creativity in the automotive field. At least as much as bad business models and bean-counter engineering that brought GM down in the first place.
They have access to the best and the brightest, maybe they are unleashing them.
rojo
Friday, August 07, 2009
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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
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
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
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
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, July 17, 2009
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
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
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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
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
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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
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, July 10, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
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
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, July 03, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Cleveland Rocks!
I came across this article on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland in the Sacramento Bee today. I know it sounds very weird, but that river actually burnt! I can remember drinking beer watching a man win a $500 bet by swimming the width of the river in a wetsuit. Randy Nueman wrote a song about it. We can owe much of our environmental regulations at the nationwide disgust at the way the industrial corridor in the Akron/Cleveland area treated the river. Sewage plants dumped barely settled sewage into the river and its tributaries!
As a kid, we were not allowed to play in the river or any of the creeks that fed it. I can remember a storm sewer burning and discharging an oily goo into the area we played ball and picked raspberries. Fish did not go up the river to spawn from Lake Erie for over 18 years, and then it was clean enough for one pike and one bluegill. Now, my little brothers catch steelhead trout, salmon (both transplanted breeds) on the river and its tributaries. They can catch fish in Lake Erie and keep the little guys with less mercury (coal-fired power plant gifts) to eat. Now there are 40 species of fish! It is pretty cool.
and silliness from today's paper--
rojo
I came across this article on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland in the Sacramento Bee today. I know it sounds very weird, but that river actually burnt! I can remember drinking beer watching a man win a $500 bet by swimming the width of the river in a wetsuit. Randy Nueman wrote a song about it. We can owe much of our environmental regulations at the nationwide disgust at the way the industrial corridor in the Akron/Cleveland area treated the river. Sewage plants dumped barely settled sewage into the river and its tributaries!
As a kid, we were not allowed to play in the river or any of the creeks that fed it. I can remember a storm sewer burning and discharging an oily goo into the area we played ball and picked raspberries. Fish did not go up the river to spawn from Lake Erie for over 18 years, and then it was clean enough for one pike and one bluegill. Now, my little brothers catch steelhead trout, salmon (both transplanted breeds) on the river and its tributaries. They can catch fish in Lake Erie and keep the little guys with less mercury (coal-fired power plant gifts) to eat. Now there are 40 species of fish! It is pretty cool.
and silliness from today's paper--
rojo
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sextoy Chappedass
OMG, I was listening to Saxby Chambliss on Hardball tonight just before bed. He stated that absolutely the people in Iran do not hold it against the U.S. that the CIA overthrew their democratic government in 1953. Has he forgotten that the Ayatollah was the end result of the revolution to overthrow the remnants of the government we installed? I am sure that no one in Iran remembers that. And this hairbrained asshole is a Senator. on committees. And he kept talking about some Iranian named AmyJinnyDad. The last DAD had two syllables. Nice respect. Maybe learn the President of Iran's name. He might consider it disrespect if on national television I called him Sextoy ChappedAss all night.
What a tool.
rojo
OMG, I was listening to Saxby Chambliss on Hardball tonight just before bed. He stated that absolutely the people in Iran do not hold it against the U.S. that the CIA overthrew their democratic government in 1953. Has he forgotten that the Ayatollah was the end result of the revolution to overthrow the remnants of the government we installed? I am sure that no one in Iran remembers that. And this hairbrained asshole is a Senator. on committees. And he kept talking about some Iranian named AmyJinnyDad. The last DAD had two syllables. Nice respect. Maybe learn the President of Iran's name. He might consider it disrespect if on national television I called him Sextoy ChappedAss all night.
What a tool.
rojo
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