Thursday, June 30, 2011

I know honey, he's bumm'n us out too.

Honey, I'll bet your dad is a swell guy.  But while he yanks you around to all these events to choke down  fried chicken and potato salad that set in the sun since 2, hardly anyone knows who he is.  I mean the race just started and he's already miles behind a women who has gotten out of more straight jackets than Houdini and a Mormon who thinks his sons campaigning for him is equivalent to serving in Iraq.  Jeepers honey, Ron Paul is ahead of him.  If the snowbillie shows up he will have to follow her too, and honey, there's one thing about sled dogs, if you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.  Maybe he'll quit before next summer, at least you can hope.  I bet your brother would like that too, and big sis, she don't look like she's into it either.  Good luck.

Is wind energy a danger? I'm rethinking it.


In The Know: Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Nancy mice, were all on the treadmill and know not where it goes

OK, I shared an apartment years ago in Baltimore with a gay ex-priest, nutten happened so get your minds out of the gutter.  We had a lot of fun, it was great, he used to photo my girlfriends nude, he had a nice camera.   I helped with the lights, I liked it, I liked it a lot.  He did a little of this for wanna-be models, he liked his camera, the girls liked the photos which I assume they used in their pursuit of modeling work.  Not what I wanted to write about although I could launch a 20 pager on it.

The national laboratory released a study on BPA, the chemicals in most plastic.  Boy mice exposed to it pay less attention to girl mice, and while other boy mice do the dance of ultimate cognition with the girl mice, they don't seem to care.
The fruit cocktail of chemicals we are exposed to is not within our bodies ability to deal with.  These things are impacting us in ways we cannot fully understand, some of societies pains may be due to this cocktail making us aggressive or stupid or who knows what.   Lawn chemicals cause cancer in kids, deck and wood treatments cause cancer in pets and kids, round-up causes birth defects, lining on cans was outlawed for health reasons in Europe and Japan while the industry here crys don't do it we have no other coating without it you eat squatting around a mud puddle then you die.

I'm just saying, there are ways to avoid this crap.  I stopped spraying around the house this year, and we are seeing fewer bugs than ever.  I use some organic stuff a few times on ants.  On the yard this year instead of fertalizer I used corn gluten, it also stops seeds from sprouting so we aren't spraying for weeds either.  We buy mostly fresh produce, stay off plastic, so far, I still like those girls pictures from Baltimore.  No, I will not post them.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Remembering a friend who didn't like her job interview

Years ago I had a friend who applied for a gardener's job at the local university.  At last, a call, an appointment, the interview.

Arriving on campus she discovered the convoluted parking restrictions, and so had to park a fair distance off and run through the campus lawns to make it on time.  Hustling into the building she spotted the office and was ushered instantly into the interviewers tiny cramped office.  As soon as the door shut, she was repulsed by oder.  The room reeked, and the lady scowled at her unpleasantly from the start.  My friend lost interest in the job and this women she faced within a few minutes, working for her, reporting to her in the stinking office she wedged herself into sounded like the worst job in the world.  How could the women live like this, didn't she ever bathe.  Within a few minutes it was over and she sadly walked out, a job she wanted of working outside on a beautiful campus, dead.  Back to the car.

Shut the car door, turn the key, fire up the radio and, wow, what the hell, that same stinking smell of shit.  Open the door and jump out, and there on the soul of her shoe, stuck into the tread and curled up on the sides, a champion size dog doo.  Somewhere in the lawn she raced over to that appointment the miasma had lay in wait for her

Stranger still, a couple of years later she got the job.  I guess no matter the offense, clearing the air helps.

Listen to the green dragon and you will burn in hell

I dig around in foreign news sites pretty often, many stories and views do not appear in the US media.  Censorship or ignorance?  A few days back I found a story about a minister in England who wants you to pollute for God.  He has a good sized following, and a couple of US ministers have picked up his sermons and are headed down the same rat hole.
Green Dragons.  That's right, green dragons are the enemy of religion, so stealthy that bible toten Christian's everywhere are unaware, some are even doing the Dragons evil work.  So this dipwad is going to lead them to safety.

Dominion.  Early in the book of Genesis, God grants man dominion over all resources, and directs him to use them and multiply.  The zealot in England claims that the movement to clean up the planet, conserve fuels, restrict pollutants, restore the environment, sustainable production, any and all of these are direct blaspheme.  The green movement is the most serious attack on the word of the Lord there has ever been, attacking the first directive of the Bible.  He claims anything we can get at must be used, dug up, burned, consumed, eaten, manufactured, thrown out.  God wants it so.  Do otherwise and you deserve hell.

Ok, I'm going out to burn the trash in the driveway.  Can you make the case for this view of Genesis?  Do you think the fossil fuel industry is about to find Jesus?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Bernie knows when rats are in the kitchen



Oh, they have something to say about the EPA too, and consumer protection, and tax rates. The Koch's are a full service corporation.

Prison for profit has a history

The US is number one in prisons.  1% of our people are locked up.  Burma, Libya, Iran, Syria, even North Korea cannot compete with this number.  How is it we are the greatest nation in the world and we have over 3 million in prison?  In the last 20 years, the state of California has built one new university, they built over 20 new prisons.  Other states fell short of California's numbers, most did not build new colleges.  Disparity in wealth distribution is the primary accelerant of crime, as the spread increases people steal, the ghetto's of Hitlers Poland offers a view of what people will do to feed themselves and children when they cannot find work and are restricted to live in poverty ridden enclaves.  At what point is it moral to feed a child by crime?  As a last resort, I think it occurs at a low threshold.  If my family was starving with no hope, I would break into your house today, sure thing, I'd do it for my kid, and so would you if you have a soul.

Prisons for profit last year made huge profits.  They also lobbied for tougher longer jail time.  Following the  civil war southern companies turned to the courts for workers.  Timber companies, paving, turpintine mills all went to local sheriffs and judges for help.  Loitering and petty crime suddenly increased in some cities as black men were shipped to the woods.  The public approved with gusto, they suspected the blacks were up to no good and eager police forces played to the idea with generous kick backs from business.  It was slavery.  The WallStreet Journal writers put together a book on this recently, "Slavery by another name", a depressing read of how we continued the destruction of Black families after slavery.

The current and our last two Presidents are known to "experimented" with drugs.  None were ever caught.  If they had been, almost certainly the black one would have seen jail time, the two pink ones very unlikely.  Study after study shows this to be true, and add onto it, crimes blacks do more often, such as crack carry a higher jail time than cocaine, LSD, and so on, even the penalty was set racially.

For profit jails, by the nature of the beast, an enterprise, it looks for customers, it adds to our jail problems by begging longer time, more bodies, I say it's immoral.  Add to that, where is the best colleges?  The best colleges are where the best professors are with the most resources.  Where would you expect criminals to learn a new scam, a new set of professors with resources for jobs when you get out?  The more we crowd bodies into our prisons, the more the drug gangs network expand, car thieves learn where to deliver, class is in session.  Unfortunately anyone looking to lower time for any crime you can name is labeled, the Willie Horton will emerge somewhere within the group to destroy him.  But it has to be done, we have to slow the inflow and cull the prisons down to a realistic number.  Northern Europe has very light penalties for almost all crimes, many can get out to go to funerals or for part time work.  The repeat offenders is low, the cost is low, in prison violence is almost non existant.  Were not doing this right, and corporate America getting more involved is adding to the problem.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Why would anyone give a Supreme Court Justice a gift?

SCOTUS Appointed for life or until they resign.  So, why would American Enterprise Institute give 15k US$ to Justice Thomas?  AEI has since the gift had 3 cases before the court.  Clarence did not recuse himself on any of those legal events, he voted in their favor.  Hmmmmmmmmm!  Now Clarence dines for free one or two times a month at the "family's" house a few blocks from his office, these are the GOP dudes who believe they are above the law of the land, and the bible as long as they do the Lords work, more than a few have been caught in adultry and tax trouble.  Count 3 of my indictment of judge thomas, he speaks often at Koch Industries functions for money, Koch also has great interest in many court cases on pollution, citizens united, to name just two.  



Reverse Mortgage, prying the remaining assets from workers

Americans are showing a shockingly ignorant inability to save and plan for the future for some, while low pay make it nearly impossible for others.  At the same time they vote in people who hate government and programs for the public good.  The road to disaster couldn't be any shorter.

Enter the Reverse Mortgage, for those who own their own home.  Someone pays you a lump sum, or says they will pay you so much a year for as long as you live there.  Leave for any reason including for assuming room temperature and they sell the place pronto.  I don't like it.  But, I suppose there are some who this is a good thing for since otherwise they either default on their remaining payments, or have to sell now and move out.

My main concerns are as follows.  They new mortgage owner is in most agreements suppose to maintain the property.  Developers and crooks are lurching to this business with the expected results, the house falls into such disrepair the former owner leaves earlier than they would have.  I had a friend in Milwaukee, his mother did this through a bank, when she died only a year after selling to the bank, the bank gave he and his brother a few months to try to sell it at an agreed price to recoup something on the lop sided deal, they made improvements but were unable to sell it, the bank ended up with a house dressed up for free.  The boys lost a family home, family asset, and weeks of work and more money, hindsight said they were foolish, but I never saw it, maybe it looked like it would work.

Met Life has just announced it wants to become the number one reverse mortgage company.  In their business plan they state, Ginny Mae (a hated gov. entity) will guarantee their mortgages, they will sell the mortgages.  So, you and I are on the hook if they give the old lady more than they can sell it for, and they will sell it to those developers and crooks who will most likely continue their current business plan of keeping these homes repaired.

If you, or a family member is thinking to enter into a reverse mortgage, I hope you can find a safe source, and do it before you get to old to understand legal contracts, in fact, if you don't get a lawyer involved in this your a dumb ass.  Enjoy the ride, as corporations find a new way to pry hard assets from workers.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Stay out of Aspen, those mountains are for the rich to enjoy

Rent a bulldozer and start pushing rocks off the mountain into the streams in the Poconos, Lake Tahoe, the Birkshires, in Aspen.  Dude your going to jail, and you may be shot off your machine.

Rich people have the right to enjoy vistas of graceful peaks and trees along mountain brooks, eating trout from clear waters.  Appalachia folk do not have these rights, and the sure way to make enemies of local businesses and law enforcement is to try to hang onto a piece of nature.

North Carolina just over rode a veto to cut it's EPA to a couple of people and a rubber stamp to protect mining.  Mechanized mining lays off people every year as they adopt and buy new methods and machinery, as they lay off they claim it's the EPA forcing it.  Truth is, it's bigger faster stronger machines, 90 men can remove a mountain top, a few years ago it took 400, in the mines it took a thousand.  But blame EPA and cripple it so they can dump more chemicals and plug more streams, kill more with pollution.

If you are a  poor person it's time you understood something.  You are surplus to the needs of the rich and modern business.  Mountain top removal is government sanctioned in your area.  Shut up, and stay out of Aspen.


Summer reading list update

May 20th I lined out my summer reading, a modest list, with simian focus.
1) The Spirit Level, Richard G. Wilkinson
2) Merchants of Doubt, Oreskes
3) The Rise And Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamod
4) Ape House, Sarah Gruen


1) One of the best reads in a long time.  The focus is on inequality, specifically disparity in income, and the disaster hidden within it.  When wealth and high pay is concentrated in the hands of a few many things suffer or shorten; education, life span shortens, mental health, happiness, even the opportunity of upward mobility.  The US is currently, with Portugal and Singapore the most lop sided nation in these respects, and within many of our lifetimes we have fallen from #1 to last among developed nations in many rankings, currently we are the least likely nation where a poor person can raise to middle class, or middle class to rich, if you want to change class, the US is not the best place for it.  An excellent book. It's not all depressing stuff.
2) Have not found it yet, it may be next.
3) Finished it last night.  Excellent, not for those who believe the world is 6k old.  My favorite class at university was anthropology, this is ever so slightly text bookish, but an easy read about humans, why we have big dicks and small balls compared to most other animals, why and how we do many things, mass murders, wars, language, but the most interesting was the last 3 chapters about how we are using up our resources, with history on the classical civilizations Persian, Greek, Roman, Spanish empires and how they took a forested land and stripped it bare of trees to make charcoal, plaster, cement, war ships, and altered the area to arid nude hot climes.  The Anasasi of the American Southwest did the same.  Chaco Canyon's apartment has 200,000 trees used in it's roofing and flooring, the area had been forested but within 300 years they were bringing firewood 50 miles, the water table fell and the desert moved in.  Maybe there are lessons for us. 
4) I read it, lumbered through it.  I never could find the there there.  Wish I had'nt stuck with it, should have walked off.


So, I am going to add another, Jarod Diamonds Collapse.  It is a further digging into the subject of governments making decisions good for now but bad for the long run, such as the destruction of massive forests in Spain, Middle East etc.  If you look at ancient art from the middle east, and north Africa, it was a forested landscape, not all of it desert.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Kentucky Bourbon Trail

My son and three Canadian friends are on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  Like touring Napa Valley, there is a circuit that can be made with stops.  At one they are signed up for the 1/2 day tour (I forgot which one) which includes trip to see the farms where they get grain, the woods where they chose trees for charcoal and so on, with discussions about what attributes they are looking for in each product.  They were starting out today from Louisville but got hosed by one of the guys caught up in the United Airlines screw up.  The plane Friday night was diverted to Cincinatti, United would not help them at all, said they will fly him to Lousiville in a couple of days, no help with car rental or anything.  So they had to drive up to get him in Cinc. before they can get going on this tour.  Oh well they have a few days.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Dems and Repubs agree on climate, but oil and coal want to be packaged with the social issues

Yale poll shows a near hand in hand shared view about the climate.
71% of Americans say global warming should be a very high priority for the president and Congress, by 50% of (R), 66% (I), 88% (D).
91% say developing sources of clean energy should be high priority by 85%, 89%, 97%.
82% say protecting the environment improves economic growth and new jobs by 76%, 74%, 94%.
68% would support forcing renewables on utilities if it cost them an extra $100 per year. 58%, 64%, 82%.

This indicates that the industry and it's ownership of the Congress and Senate and it's 5th column lackeys in  the regulating agencies are working against up to 91% of Americans when it comes to developing and switching to clean energy.  I would never have imagined it was anywhere near these numbers. With money and tying themselves to social issues, making it a package right wing issue of science doubt and abortion and so on, fossil fuel wins, somehow we have to strip this opportunity out of the social issue basket.

Any ideas, give me an idea, I will test the idea the next opportunity.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The rich will always be with us, everyone's got their burden.

Thank you GOP and farm state Dems.  Screw everyone else.  Farm subsidies were not cut.  Ethanol subsidies were not cut.  Your tax dollars, 3+ billions of them, will be (at lease a few cents) direct deposited to my account, cause I am an absentee farmer, don't even live out there in the dust and mud, shit no live in the city, ain't that a hoot.  Boy we dodged a bullet there didn't we.  The GOP mounted a last minute attack claiming cutting welfare, oh, I mean this support for the American Farm Family and Christian Way of Rural Life, AFFCWRL (pronounced af-cruel) was a tax increase on American Gothic it's self by freedom haters, unions, and gay guys like Newt Gingrich's sister.
Now the funny as hell part is that to offset these billions, they cut support to the poor, in fact some of it was direct food support.  Is that a stroke of genius or what?  Send farmers of corn, wheat, soybean, and rice money for just showing up alive at the bank, and take food off the table for the poor.  You know, you have to wonder, couldn't those stupid 'f'ers have planned ahead a little and bought a farm of their own, then they wouldn't be in this situation.  Some people just cant be helped.  Well wasn't it in the bible, maybe Jesus said it, the rich will always be with us.
Oh, don't skimp on paying your tax, I'm pullin for ya.  And buy more things that have high corn fructose syrup in it.  This is a wonderful age we live in.  All through history, only the rich were fat, the last 50 years everything changed, the better off people are more likely to be in good shape, now the poor are morbidly  fat, is that great or what?

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

2 apples work better than statins

 23% correction in LDL, the lousy cholesterol, is easily achieved with two apples a day.  Do you know how many billions of dollars we spend on statins and the side effects of those drugs which often cause more expense in doctor visits and more drugs.  It's insane.   BUY A BAG OF APPLES, and EAT THEM!

And apples take up space so you don't eat as much crap, leading to a few pounds of weight loss over a few months.  Eating wisely is more powerful that most any drug.  I am a skinny guy, but I had fat blood, from eating butter cooked foods, cheeese, lots of meat.  I had a blood test and it was like, wow your almost dead, here take these pills.  I told the doctor I will change my diet and exercise more, he said (and I believe him) almost no one can do that, I said I will. Four weeks later he told me he had never seen the drugs work so well, and so fast, he was might tell the drug maker about it.  Then I told him, "doc, I never took any of those drugs, I told you I would do it myself".

 Cholesterol (target below 160), Trigliceride (below 200), HDL (35 to 55), LDL (60 to 150)
1st visit      145                                  845                                  19                       31
+30 days   135                                   390                                 26                       81
+11 month 137                                  138                                 30                       72
+10 year    123                                  220                                  25                      70

I eat meat almost every day, but very small amounts, lean, fish 2/week.  Lots of vegis and fruit, nuts, whole grain, brown rice more than white, lintels, beans, canola, walnut and olive oil.  Yogurt, rarely cheese.  Rarely canned vegi's, normally we cook dried beans and buy fresh vegi's and fruit.  Potato and pasta in small amounts.  Least it sound like a twig and seed diet, I cooked in a French/German restaurant in Germany, it's not top chef, but I know how to make things taste, my hummus has the lebanese family down the street looking in the windows wondering who lives here.

Eat those damn apples then tell your doctor your cutting back on statins, eat like your screwing the drug company.

Grain prices are higher than ever, only an idiot or victim of global warming drought is not making money now.

Many republicans are framing the vote on farm subsidies or crop price support as a tax.  Those who do not want the welfare to farmers cut claim cutting it is a tax hike.  Did you get that twist?  Now, tangled up in all this is the ethanol.   We give welfare money to farmers who grow corn at a very high profit already, a food, they sell it to a distiller, who sells ethanol to the oil company who gets another welfare to mix it with gas, the whole thing ends up higher priced than gas even though it was subsidized by tax payers, it delivers fewer Btu of energy, harms old engines, consumes almost as much fuel in the total grow and distiller process as it produces, the definition of unsustainable.

To complicate things, this bill has some wrinkles in it only now coming to light, such as allowing more Brazalian ethanol into the US.  It's squirming like a jug full of ants, I can't see what's going on, I don't know if cutting the welfare to farmers and the welfare to refiners is a ruse for something more damaging or a better idea.  Koch wants the South American ethanol brought in, more hints the devil himself is stirring the ants.  On this one I give up, I don't have a clue.  But, I pose this question still;
If cutting farm payments is a tax increase on farmers, then why the hell is cutting welfare to poor families not fought over by the Republicans as a tax increase on families?   Why?

Farm payments should halt, either we are in a market economy or not, and foreign ethanol should not be increased.  Full disclosure: I own a grain farm, thanks for the tax dollars you send me, but we could get by without it if you would rather it go to the nations common good.

Monday, June 13, 2011

must see video


Isn't this what we are all doing with these gizmo's, stinking it up with our asthmatic implement, mostly unnecessary gadgets.

Friday, June 10, 2011

If you know someone who wants solar panels, heres a deal

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageNavigator/solar_bay.html
Sierra Club has worked a deal with this supplier, to give a good price to the buyer or to lease a system, and they get money too.  My house is mostly in heavy shade which saves my AC bill.  Until a storm blows the trees down, I can't go solar, plus I have to get approval for the change in appearance from the neighborhood committee, unlikely they would approve the standard panel. However there are some solar tiles coming out next year which might pass the look pretty test if ever the trees blow away.

85°F to 102°F in a few minutes at night, a heat burst

Thursday set a new night time record high of 102°F a few minutes after midnight.  20 minutes earlier it was 85°F.  The sudden collapse of a thunderstorm over Wichita delivered this rare event.

Large Thunderstorms feed on great vertical winds, hot air moving up, and near by, usually surrounding it,  cold air is moving down.  This creates a two way chimney of air, an engine of millions of horsepower in the open.  Hot air feeds the updraft off the earths surface and cold air from high altitudes sink feeding the downdrafts.  These engines can run for hours but eventually the fuel of air weakens or external winds disturb the chimney and the engine wears out slowly.  In a few cases the engine goes terribly wrong, wind shears so great or external pressures cut the engine up and the hot air which naturally rises so eagerly is forced down violently, the chimney reversed.  Called a heat burst, it's very rare, and it came with about 15 minutes of violent wind first from one direction then the other. Blew a limb about 15" thick out of the neighbors cottonwood.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

One of the rarest photo's

This picture of the space station with the shuttle docked was taken from the Russian space capsule.  By the rules, both the Russian and the American vehicles are not suppose to be near the station at the same time.  All about the odds of catastrophic events and so on, but, here they were and click, photo.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

CO2 levels back 800 thousand years in 3 minutes


Click on full screen or you can't read some of the explanations, no sound, 3 minutes, it pauses once or twice, don't give up.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Deutsche Bank wants investors to know this, this changes everything.

www.know-the-number.com

Our Climate is Changing!




Please download Flash Player.

Those stuck up French with their CO2 free electrons.

36 acres of graceful French progress, solar panels supply 8,000 families.  Mounted on posts, grass grows beneath them, a herd of sheep share the farm.  I saw this in Germany too, on taller polls, milk cows enjoy the shade and grass under the solar panels.

Our new solar clothes dryer

Yesterday it was 99°F,  predictions today the same, tomorrow 105°.  We got up late and put the sheets in the washer.  In the summer the dryer makes the room it is in so damn hot, I hate that, suddenly I saw this rack my wife has for drying delicates and sweaters and a light goes on.  I load this puppy up with the sheets weaving over and through it and stick it on the deck.  In 15 minutes they were dry, the machine takes the same time.  The house stayed cool, the air conditioner didn't struggle, I saved hundreds of dollars in electrizzity don't you think, wouldn't it be hundreds, sure hundreds.   Either way it felt like I was fucking a rich guy, oh that's good.

Next we did a load of jeans, they take longer on the rack but wow Solar Energy.   The neighborhood I live in has all kinds of covenants, no clothes lines is one, but a rack on the deck works just fine for us and it's right at the door.  Anyone else doing this?

auto dependent city = expensive, fewer small businesses, elderly suffer

If you live in a neighborhood with good public transportation, you save a lot.  Save up to $8,000 a year for a car and it's upkeep, or cut your transport cost from 25% to 9% of your total expenses.  If you have a choice, pick a city or area that is not auto-dependent.  Speak up for more public transport.

I live in one of those central plains cities that demands a car.  The city suffers a tyranny of developers always building further out stretching the infrastructure, a city of 330,000 depending on where you cross at we are 15 to 30 miles crosssection.  Big waste of farm land.   The only public transport is city bus, there are few routes, they pass only every 30 minutes, operation is from 6:30 to 6:30, Sat 7 - 6:30, Sunday - Holiday nothing.  There are large areas of the city that are 2 miles from a bus stop.  The service is so limited it is of almost no use, fewer ride each year, it doesn't go to any factories, by chance it only goes to a few schools, and shopping areas, so the city discontinues another section of service every year.  Bike paths, if you call that public transport, we have only a few miles and any discussion to add more are met with rage and predicton of crime and littering.  (how many gangs do drive by's on a Wall-Mart bike, who rides the city throwing McDonalds sacks and disposable diapers, it's the most insane shit you ever heard)

The cost of living in an auto-dependent city is huge, and a disaster for the elderly, handicap, poor.   Limiting sprawl would help, help move part of that $8,000 to local cafe's, grocers, churches, theaters, and a new wave of mom and pop stores providing work for some of the central residents.  Elderly can live independently many years longer in a neighborhood with public transport and more small stores, and increase foot and bike traffic lowers crime.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Dead Mitt walking

Mitt Romney made a very important statement these last few hours.  He said (approximately) humans are responsible for the global warming, and we need to fix it.  On this issue Mitt has more balls than Obama, who for the recent past has failed in any speech to use the words global warming, and rarely even mutters climate change or environment.  I don't know if I ever admired Mitt before this, sorry Mitt but the truth shall set you free, free of the possibility of winning.  Amazing to think there is a GOP (guardian of privilege) man out there who will say this, really a fine moment in that respect.

Aside from Sarah Palin sucking all the air out of Mitt's press coverage with her midnight ride of Paul Revisionism, aside from that, it's a death sentence self inflicted, the GW word.  No no no Mitt, there's no pardon available, industry and business hates you now, even your pets are hated may they be bagged and tied to an SUV tailpipe, the snowbilly grifter's path is clear now, executioner and king maker, deliver the boneheads to Paaaalenty, the magic underwear won't be enough.

Friday, June 3, 2011

think global, chug local

I am sure that Coors, Bud, Pabst, Michelob have not made one dollar off me over the last two decades, I never, never, fucking never drink corporate cat piss.  Damn Budweiser in the southwest states is owned by Cindy McCain, the wife of the moron who can't remember how many houses he has, the dipwad that saddled us with the snowbilly.

Since 1980 US beer drinkers began exploring the imagination and rich flavors lacking in the politically connected corporate made swill.  This search for the craftsman over the factory product has spawned 1759 local, mostly small, brew makers.  Where ever I go I ask, got anything local, almost always it's very good.  This trend put jobs in local sometimes out of the way places and small towns, and reducing transport pollution.   Higher price? Yea, just a little, but what do you care, 10 to 40 cents per bottle at the candy store, 50 cents maybe more at a bar.  If money is an issue maybe you should all the more consider buying from a local employer instead of aiding a far off entity exporting money from the community.  Drink the best, and one and done should be your goal.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Earth quakes caused by pumping oil

I hit that little button a couple days back, the one marked "next blog".  Boom, I land on this guys blog, I got the idea he was pretty young, it has only one entry a few weeks old.  It was wacky funny.  The guy says he has been thinking and thinking and it came to him what was causing earthquakes.
He says the earths mantel is suppose to be sliding around easily, lubricated nicely by oil, but we are pumping it out to burn.  Since we robbed natures grease, the plates grind and jerk along violently.  It was really funny, but the worst thing, I can't remember the blog name or address.

Normally this button takes me to corporate sites or Russian bloggers sites. I get a few visitors from Russia, maybe they follow me back from their stats.  Hi, Russia, I like your music, beets, and your research into soil types, you are the king of this research.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Business degree candidates for President, line up on the right.

Time again for the GOP to trot out the rich corporate horses for the race to the White House.   "Oh I had to make a payroll, I made the tough decisions, I created thousands of jobs, I have a business major".  The GOP wants to run the nation like a business for profit.  Nations have higher callings than pizza huts and insurance brokers and oil men.    Lets take stock at the kind of business they have delivered us in the last few years.

1. President Obama is the CEO.
2. The congress and senate are the board of directors.  We have well over half the board of directors who want the corporation to fail so as to make the CEO look bad.  They openly state this, and we see they will hold up, block and harm every attempt the CEO or the minority board members work for, no matter the harm to the company, and what work they do appears to be on behalf of the richest 10% of society to whom they work for directly if you examine who are the primary sources of their monies.
3. The public are at the same time the stock holders and the customers of this Republican fantasy corporate nation.  For the most part the stock holders do not know their job, try to educate themselves in their investment, and rarely if ever participate.  Worse a shocking number of them listen to the most shrill sources of information which often proves to be false.

This coveted business experience usually amounts to little more than either inheriting wealth and connections, or creating jobs in China.  The rest is crap, next time you think you want a corporation style government run by oil men, remember that during the Bush years, we erased a surplus, killed the middle class, and made the USA the least likely developed nation in the world where you can socially and financially climb from the bottom to the top.  Least likely, yea, do you think we need even more government run like a corporation?

Regardless of nations wealth, where Income Inequality is greatest

Life expectancy is lower.
Infant mortality higher.
Illegal drug use higher.
Mental illness the higher.
Prison population higher.
Student grades lower.
Union membership lower.
Most hours away from family and neighborhood (work/commuting)
Medical care lower.
Support for capital punishment higher.
Conflict is higher.
Political polarization higher.
Murder rate higher.
Consumerism higher.
Obesity higher.
Distrust of neighbors and strangers higher.
Empathy for those financially and socially below you is lower.
The belief you can win a violent fist fight against an unknown combatant is higher.
Belief in science when it finds danger in a favored lifestyle or business choice, lower.

In each case, at least 20 nations were compared, ranked on distribution of wealth and rights.  The USA ranked either 1, 2 or 3 worst positions in almost every example, Portugal and Singapore normally filled the other two slots, New Zealand got in a couple of times.  Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway generally filled the slots on the opposite end (the good end) of the scale.

Much of this same data has been gathered for states in the US.  With a few exceptions, the red states, those dominated today by Republican voters, have the greater inequality and fit strongly with much of the list above.

Isn't it time the rich pay taxes again, and unions helped reintroduce a middle class in America?  Equality breeds harmony, look at Japan where most incomes are within a factor of 4, even executives make no more than about 50 times the lowest worker in their company, in the US it has jumped to 500 times difference.  Correct this and everything in the list begins to correct it's self.  What do you think?