A Commodity of Errors.

 2 weeks ago Kansas state Senate (R) passed a resolution that committee’s debating energy policy could not use “climate” or controversial  words… yesterday Ted Cruz (R) got the US Senate to censor the term “Change in Climate” in the resolution supporting International Women’s Day. 

WTF?  1984?

Donald Trump got a nasty tickle under his kilt this week.  The offshore wind farm he spent millions fighting will be built right in front of his fucking zillion dollar Scottish golf course and hotel.  Scotland said piss off.  That thing on his head vowed to keep fighting in court.  What is that thing?

Obama announced new lower sulfur rules for gasoline.  Refiners and oil men are pissed.  Shale oil, and tar sands oil is packed with sulfur, tons of it, second only to hydrocarbons, to get it out increases efforts at the refiner and takes a little of the profit out of these dirtiest oils.  Car manufacturers are partially behind this rule,  they (you) don’t want that sulfur in your engine anyhow, we sure as hell don’t want it in our air.  Ever smell rotten egg?

Ever wonder what MPG the semi-trailer blowing oily mist on you gets?  5.5 to 8 MPG.  Cummins and Kenworth have a joint prototype project for a super mileage truck, improving aerodynamics, low rolling resistance tires, engine and drive train upgrades got it over 10 MPG.  That is hugh, hundreds of millions of gallons, dollars and pollution saved.  Mercedes in Gemany did the same thing last year with even better results.  Some of these features will show up on new trucks soon.  I still hate trucks.

The anti-renewable energy lobby has a great new claim.  We cannot build more wind mills because they block the wind from one another.  Disaster approaching they cry.    Your bullshit alarm should be screeching like a guest showering at the Bates Motel.  Don’t you think the guys investing hundreds of millions to build them know how close they can put them, you know, like by studying wind patterns and using science stuff.   Arithmetic too.

Better than that, the climate deniers discovered science.  In the last few days I ran into a number of posts with a bizzaro world approach.  Climate deniers claiming solid and majority of science is on their side and those wanting clean energy hate science, want to ruin it in schools and take science out of the discussion.

See first paragraph, repeat as necessary.

A must read, at Green Eagle

For $59 you busted your hump.
http://largegreenbird.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-only-story-that-counts.html

Hey Joe, where you goin with that gun in your hand?

Who are these Joe's?  The largest group in each sector of the population is: White. Male. Over 50. Some college didn't graduate.  Midwest or Southern state. Republican or wingnut.

In the last 15 years the number of hunters has fallen, and so the gun industry to make up sales has turned to weapons for killing people rather than rabbit.  The number of buyers of all guns is way down.  The sales of guns is way up.  The most likely buyer already owns 12 guns.
I have two friends who own 20 or 30 and are shopping for more.  One guy told me he has thousands of rounds of ammo, and is plugged into the rumor mill that ammo shortages are rampant and Obama is doing it.
Wyoming is the easiest state to get a gun, Mass. the toughest.  Suicide by gun is higher in Wyoming by 7 times.  You can grade states by suicide and see which are the easiest to buy a gun.
The myth is blacks are doing most the killing and dying.  Truth is the largest group dying by guns are white men over 50, and the killer is either friend or family or their own hand, the gun is almost always from their own household.   You can't tell that from the news, suicides never make it, and white on white murders don't have enough fear and staying power, one or two days in the paper and that's usually it.  So, it seems like all the brown black red and yellow people are killers, in fact few of them own guns.

Pass that guy a Braniff barf bag!

Every few months the news puts out a breathless story of another solar panel maker closing.  Tree huggers wheez with anxiety the future is fading, while the climate deniers and fossil fuel dicks howl with delight at proof clean energy will die, and the fucking hippies with it.

Get a little reality dude!

In the early 1900's there were about 150 motor vehicle builders in the US.  When I was a kid there was still several, today there's 3 and no one can make a case that currently their market share isn't robust.  Most new technologies have a hugh swell of brands in the early years.  Innovation and competition winnows it down over time.   There use to be dozens of tractor makers, now it's John Deere and a couple others.   This is the normal progression of most market sectors.  Rather than being seen as an industry in failure and collapse, these events signal a maturing of the industry.   A strange way to see it but that historically is what it means.  I don't like it, but I understand it, and when next we hear of another solar or wind company closing don't hyperventilate, or blow chunks.

Keep screwing with it, and the earth will destroy us.

“How can we be so arrogant? The planet is, was, and always will be stronger than us. We can't destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing. Why don't they start talking about not letting the planet destroy us?” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone

That's really it.  When we have pushed the atmosphere and the oceans out of the narrow band of chemical and temperature tolerances known to them for millions of years, the earth will be unfit for most of the current plants and animals.  The 3rd great extinction.  The anthropocene will peter out in an empty concrete lined urban riverbed.

Picture above: dust storm, Arizona, 2012, once rare, the last couple of years have seen a number of them.  Can you say harbinger? 

thar she blows

Wind at 09:00 eastern.  Wind energy opponents love to talk about the wind going calm without warning.  Forecasting how much snow will fall, or the chance of rain is very difficult.  Forecasting wind is not, if you've ever seen an isobar chart you know where the wind is going to blow hard for the next few hours.  Likewise in the display of current wind it's safe bet to say from the rockies to the Atlantic the wind looks reliable for the next several hours.  Wind farms are in fact rarely caught in the myth promoted.
Starting in the next few weeks, transmission line operators will be selling use of their piece of the grid in 15 minute blocks.  Currently it's hourly.  Following a calm wind period this will let wind (and solar) suppliers get on the grid sooner when the air moves, letting utilities "back down" their coal plants sooner.

Salmonella in Chicken & Turkey: Deadly But Not Illegal | NutritionFacts.org

Salmonella in Chicken & Turkey: Deadly But Not Illegal | NutritionFacts.org

Make your home more saleable in a weekend.

The housing market is hopping again. Thinking of selling the old homestead?  Resale of existing homes is driving prices up and sales in some markets are closed a few days after the sign goes up.  I read the top 3 things buyers are looking for.  Safe clean neighborhood, 2 bathrooms and a good floor plan, low utility bill history.  The first you can't fix, the second maybe, and with much expense, but the last is easy.  What you need is some (the more the better) low utility receipts you can hang in a plastic folder where the agent and potential buyer will see, maybe next to the thermostat.
One sure fired way to cut energy use is CFC or LED lights, you can pull a lot of money out of lighting bills if you add them to your most used fixtures.  Check your water heater and fridge, you may be able to back it off a few degrees without impacting food safety or comfort.  Same with moderating the thermostat, a sweater around the house instead of shorts and tshirts will cut the bill immediately.  A few dollars of calking and weather stripping helps too.    

After this, Fox will look like a democrat run network

Rumors abound that the Koch brothers Koch Industries from Wichita Kansas will buy Tribune.  
23 Tv Stations in major cities, one of the nations biggest radio stations, and a raft of newspapers in English and Spanish including the major ones below. 

Chicago Tribune Los Angeles Times RedEye (condensed version of Chicago Tribune) Baltimore Sun South Florida Sun-Sentinel Orlando Sentinel

The Hartford Courant The Morning Call (Allentown, PA) Daily Press (Newport News, VA) Hoy (newspaper) El Sentinel (Orlando)

I never saw a better argument for canceling the paper.  

The Chamber of Commerce opposed American Revolution

"1776" by David McCullough, 2005, just finished it.  Amazing what the real events were.  Not so pretty.  After a few years of bar fights in 1775 the fighting started, with at least a couple of small wins.  1776 was a string of disasters followed by another worse one.  The public was only barely for telling the King fuck off.  And in Boston and New York (the only ones it's noted) the Chamber of Commerce was well over half against the rebels.  Shit, I didn't know the Chamber was trying to fuck us up that far back.
Spys everywhere, many called it a civil war at some point during the conflict, war of independence was not used early on to describe it.  Troops were inept,  many ran off, panic retreats leading to slaughter was common, drunkeness was epidemic, even in campaigns, it wasn't uncommon for part of the force to stop advancing and get stonecold drunk if any stores of booze were discovered.  More than once this resulted in capture of troops and further failures.  Misunderstood orders and captured messages was an everyday happening.  Washington couldn't convince his troops to stay clean, disease from poor sanitary habits killed thousands, the British were amazed at the ill health and stink of the Americans.

From Christmas 1776 to a few days into January 1777 Washington accidentally had some victories, as their attacks near Trenton were met with a blizzard and the German hired troops they attacked were caught in their shelters during the storm.  Still the victories were tiny compared to their losses at New York.  The war drug on 6 years longer, until mid 1783.  25,000 dead, 1% of the population, only a few small victories, mostly losses.  They could never have won without France and Holland joining the fight at sea and the French financing it which eventually led to their bankruptcy and the revolution killing most all who had helped us.  The war for the most part was not popular even here, most businesses wealthy were against it.

From other readings I want to comment on the Boston Tea Party.  They myth has nothing to do with it. This was a group of merchants who hired some guys to throw tea off a ship to protest a monopoly of tea importing.  Tea was taxed, one of the only things taxed, so there is the connection, the guy that imported it "was" with each sale collecting tax for the king.  The real gripe was the King had given this one company exclusive rights to sell tea to the colonies as a favor for a loan to the crown a few years earlier.  It was not the principled people of Boston fussing about tax so much as it was a fucking business grudge.

Have you read about Chinese citizens abused by companies and politicians for speaking up?

Dryden New York is in court today fighting off a lawsuit by gas companies, the drillers brought suit because the citizens organized and fought against fracking, stalling the township from approving fracking.
In Maine a number of citizens are named in a suit brought by Nestle.  Nestle came to town and wants a 45 year contract to run the city water department, hands off, they run everything.  The water board loves the idea, the citizens not.
An Arkansas women has been giving out information warning parents and schools about caffeinated drinks sending thousands of children and teens to emergency rooms, at least one died from complications with the kids weak heart conditions.  The maker of one of these drinks is threatening a suit unless she repeats her efforts but handing out info saying she was wrong, the drinks are fine.
Home builders and developers in a number of states sue people who organize when they can't get satisfaction from crap housing they bought or promised parks never built.
Did you know gun makers are exempt from product safety law suits or charges.  If you gun fires while on safety (one popular rifle has a history of this, killing several people) or explodes, tough shit.

By the way, in South America a number of cities gave/sold the water department to industry.  The company then forced the city police to arrest people who would not stop getting water from wells, collecting water in barrels off the roof.  Prices became very high.  There have been riots, in a couple of cases the company was attacked, employees driven out of town, the contract was finally ended.

Another win at the buzzer against deniers

update Kansas: ALEC, Grover Norquist, Heatland, the Kochs, Coal and Gas, we fought them to a draw again.  A temporary victory perhaps, but we won, they lost.
These pricks offered a ready to vote law to make it less attractive to build new wind energy farms.  With money, and lies, they fed gullible legislators, and GOP sheep, the false idea rates would jump $640 or more.  The most recently installed wind farms are actually lower than conventional sources.  More wind will instead moderate, perhaps lower our rates, and these numbers came right off the states own records from the corporation commission and rate commissions filings.  Boy nothing gets a state senator pissed off faster than when I set in his office and showed him the numbers,  suddenly the argument was government telling the industry what to do and we should let the market decide.  Fine I said, with these numbers the market will build more wind, it's cheapest, as long as you don't pass this law which will make it less likely.  Of course he and I both know that is it's purpose, to stall, give coal another decade.  Instead we stalled them when by all count they had the votes this time, another win at the buzzer.

3 weeks ago farmers, industry, wind operators, treehuggers, jerks like me, rallied and the senate defeated it, lower house pulled it, passed a rule that no discussion of climate change or global warming could occur during new hearings and a rewrite.  Yesterday the house committee, in a room full of movie cameras and interested parties, and a shower of emails and calls, tabled it.  Most likely it's dead, but we are posting a death bed watch just in case.  Schwartzenager and some documentary makers came in to record the fight for a movie on global warming.

Sportsmen tell elected officials global warming is really happening

American Fisheries Society
American Fly Fishing Trade Association
Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society
Ducks Unlimited
Izaak Walton League of America
Quail Forever
Pheasants Forever
Trout Unlimited
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Wildlife Management Institute

If you belong to one of these fishing or hunting groups, you may have, or soon will, be ask to write your representatives in Washington and in the state you live or travel to for sports. Identify that you are with the group.  Tell them you believe in global warming, you are seeing it in your trips to the field.  Tell them you expect them to take immediate and real action to curb greenhouse gasses and pollution.  
--------below, from thinkprogress.org/climate-------for info only, credit to same.

Science put 12 men on the moon and got them back, science eliminated smallpox, science put massive computing power in the palm of your hand, and science saved the ozone layer with its just-in-time warnings of the dangers of CFCs (that people heeded). Science builds a beautiful edifice on a solid foundation.

Anti-science delayed action on smoking regulations, delayed or rolled back environmental standards, and, now, is working over-time to stop or slow action on carbon reductions needed to prevent needless suffering for billions of people and countless future generations. Anti-science destroys life, by suffocating it in a “foundation” of quick-sand.

Worst socialist ever

Stock market booming to new highs.  Housing prices rebounding.  Car sales up.  Consumer spending up.  Wealth of the top 53% increasing like crazy.  Corporate profits skyrocketing.  Employment increasing.  Industry production increasing.  Number of corporations nationalized, zero.  Government employment, down.  Consumers and workers in court against corporations, corporations winning.  Union battles in court and state houses, unions losing.  Mass gun confiscation, none.  Restriction on movement, assembly or association, none.  Jack-boot thugs intimidating legislature, no.  Press members murdered for stories against administration, none.  Demands the church align with administration, no.  Proclaim it legal to run for additional terms, no.  Place picture on exterior of public buildings and city squares, no.  Publish pocket size book of slogans, nope.  Trade suit for military uniform, nope.  Make appearances on balconies with shotgun or sword, no.

I don't think he's worth a shit as a socialist.  His healthcare plan involves insurance companies collecting premiums, if that counts it's pretty dim.

My excellent adventure in the Kansas capitol building

Yesterday I attended a meeting in the big house in Topeka, sponsored by Kansans for Wind Energy.  2 weeks ago bill 2241 was poised to undermine the attraction of wind energy in the state that ranks in the top 5 for potential and for actual projects and for some of the lowest prices due to the frequency of generation (how much it blows).  Thanks to a group of farmers who profit from it, towns and counties who profit from it, local and national tree hugger groups, and a few people who understand it is actually a good deal, it was defeated in the Senate and the house pulled it.  Ah, success.  Nope.  It’s coming back next week, and it looks like it will pass.  How can that be?  Who are the opponents?  

Almost all opponents of wind energy in Kansas are from out of state and all of them are think tanks and political action groups backed by coal, oil, and the uber wealthy, ALEC, Norquist and his various groups, Koch sponsored groups.

The energy companies attended the meeting.  They oppose 2241, but are reluctant to lobby for it, but they did attend and answer questions about their newest wind contracts and these costs are lower than conventional sources.  The new language when 2241 comes back to the floor will (apparently) cause the utilities to do a study (not sure yet what) but the utilities say this will cost a lot, it will be passed on to users.  The proponents of making wind less attractive appear to be on track to raise utility rates through increasing expense to utilities and by slowing the growth of low cost energy.

One person spoke who is involved in a wind farm that is beginning construction next month, the wholesale contracts for this power is going for 2.2 to 2.4 cents Kwh.  That is another new low for energy, only a few months ago contracts for the newest system sold for 3.5 cents turning heads across the country. 

After the meeting I visited some state congressmen and senators.  All republicans, Kansas is 70%+ red.  They tell me this time it will go through, those who voted against it last time don’t want another round of abuse.  One told me not enough will buck the agenda, don’t get on the list of readers and thinkers, just vote with the herd and keep moving.  

As I said most the oppositon to wind comes from out of state.  Some even suspect Nebraska, there are some huge wind farms in the planning stage to ship energy to cities in the east, and Nebraska wants them, the income to the local economy is incredible, royalties, construction, then jobs to maintain it.  But the real weakness is in Kansas it’s self.  There are some under the dome which are fanatical against it.  Some think it’s part of the global warming hoax and they have to fight it somehow, if they can keep a smokestack huffing and stop a windmill then do it.  Many object to the production tax credit from the federal government.  With one I visited he went on and on about this, I finally told him, that’s interesting, but that is not what you can vote on, the PTC is federal not state, your vote is a question - will you support construction, counties and land owners opportunity to harvest profit off the wind and benefit the state as a whole.   He ask me could I benefit if they put a turbine on my property, I said yes if it ever happens, he then barked “we shouldn’t be voting to benefit anyone”.  Shit, that’s all he does and he knows it, but… OK I don’t think I turned him, still as I left the office I thanked him and ask him to vote against 2241.   Then there are those who think wind is raising their rates, they just go with the bullshit misinformation ALEC and the committee heads tell them, as I noted above the prices are falling. 

But the whole thing is surreal, Pope Brownback is for wind, has said he will protect it, knows full well it provides millions of cash ever week into local economies and thousands of jobs statewide.  Will he veto it?  Some say yes, some say no it’s too expensive politically to be seen as a tree hugger.   If this passes, it won't halt wind energy development here, but it will slow it, and counties trying to lure business here say the big corporations have green energy on their shopping list, if we put up a hurdle, other states have the advantage in recruiting.

Least you think they don’t do anything, while I was there they did the following: **Pass a teacher can have guns in the school, guns can go into any state building, state colleges cut additional 10% (after 3 or 4 years of 5% cuts each), **illegal to deduct union dues from paycheck or bank transfer union dues from payrolls,  **cut income tax (2^nd cut in a few months) ((I don’t pay income tax now, farm income exempt, small business income exempt, both my sources, I’m a frigg’n job creator you can’t expect me to pay for a new bridge, let the workers pay), **raise sales tax,  **eliminate mortgage deduction on house keep it on rental property.  They also continue to work on the 3^rd or 4^th laws this year to complicate and restrict abortion.   

An excellent adventure.

first impression of Pope Francis I

I really like him, I am not catholic though have I slept with many of their finest.  This is the first Pope who ever impressed me.  The first.  I think he is going to focus on the poor, sharing wealth, social fairness.  I hope his influence will take the sharp edges off some of my catholic business associates and off the politicians who want to serve the rich and ignore the rest.

Motherfucker, now there is another Romney too

You think your done with one of these Bush's or Romneys and they throw some more at you.  Mitts sister is going to run for Carl Levin's seat.  She says she has met some women who suffer from the economy.  Yea, like who hasn't been to a restaurant or hotel.  You think those women are hiding money in Caymans?  Duh, they are suffering from low wages and no insurance.  What a fucking disaster, another snot with kids in private school is going to tell us the dems are hurting the poor with Obamacare.  Whats next, the not gay Cheney girl for President?

Motherfucker! There is another George Bush

It's like cock roaches, they just keep coming out of the walls.  Another George Bush, one of Jeb's boys, is running for office in Texas, next year, a little office, but one that is extremely powerful in that it rubs elbows with oil every fucking day.  Commissioner of Land or something like that is the target, so important the campaign for it is already launched.  I understand over the history of Texas a number of the governors started by winning this office, after that, all the oil money backs you.

I may have to send who ever is running against him a 20 dollar bill.  Sonofabitch!  Will the Bush's never stop fucking up this country?  Save your change, we may need to pool it and send the opponent some money.  I'll back anyone thats not currently in jail.  Someone send that family a book on baby names, how many Georges are in that fucking clan.

Top Secret, tax exempt laws for fossil fuel

Starting in 1980 oil and gas companies just needed to add the word "depletable natural resources" in the description of business activity when filing their incorporation papers, and sha-zam, they don't pay corporate income tax.  Never heard of it?  But do you get it?  NEVER PAY TAX.  NEVER

Depletable does not apply to renewables.  Solar and wind are never depletable.  Thats the beauty, they just keep on coming.  This word, depletable is the tax free fortress the Kochs of the world fight from.

The oil coal and gas industry love it, love it love it.  And they don't boast about it either, instead they whine the "green energy" guys are the ones making off with subsidies and tax credits and gifts and all manner of socialized anti industry anti american welfare.  It just ain't so.  World wide fossil fuel got government breaks and support of almost $1 trillion last year, "green' got less than 5% as much.  

To correct this, either close the fossil fuel break or give it also to the "greens", the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act is trying to do this, it's knocking around the Congress with a little bipartisan support, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Ted Poe of Texas recently joining.  

Next time you get that old shit about wind being too expensive if not for gov. help, remember the info above.  Also, ask your congressman and senator to get on board.

Chemistry lesson, take notes

Easy huh, burn coal or wood, oil or gas, gun powder or the evidence of your crime, and your releasing carbon to settle in the ocean as acid which eats calcium based shells and structures.  I don't think shrimp  or oyster can live without shells.

The fatigue of supporting freedom, if your not tired your failing.

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

check out Sierra Club wind issue

Sierra Club magazine current issue has a number of articles about wind energy.  The newest wind farms going up are now the lowest cost energy sources available.  Their is a hugh publicity campaign saying the opposite, which is a lie, and this lie is being parroted by republican politicians on the take from oil, coal and gas companies.
This is a short article touching on a group of farmers who built their own wind farm, pretty interesting, it's the lowest price power in the nation.  You will encounter a variety of numbers on the cost of electricity, these are not easy to understand unless you educate yourself on them.  Suffice it to say there are a variety of ways to state costs, and no matter the method used, the latest models of wind turbines wind are making cheap energy.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201303/wind-power-turbine-technology-clean-energy.aspx

Among those who do not want to accept this, the first thing up is, it won't run all the time.  True, and still it doesn't matter because as a lower source with a flat cost (no fuel cost) every time it can be used the coal burner is turned down saving fuel, this averages the utility costs lower.

we don't need no stinking grids

north of Lancaster

Lancaster California passed a new building code, effective Jan. 1 2014 all new residential construction must include solar PV's enough to provide much of the daytime load.  There is an exception, you can avoid the panels by signing up  for wind or solar energy sources from the utility.

Lancaster is a booming city 70 miles from LA, home of Edwards AFB, with much of the local office holders Republican. Why did they break the heart of fossil fuel?  The GOP mayor has pushed through a number of other laws speeding the area to energy independence.  If the grid goes down, much of the city can still operate.

Met a Viet Nam vet that was in on the ground floor so to speak

Today I met this old guy, 73, big tall, big shoulders, well due to his age he moves real slow but you can see he was once a real bull.  He was telling me he was in Viet Nam, I said well you must have been older than the rest of the guys, thinking late 60's or 70's.  Nope he said.  I was there in 1959, left in 1963. I looked it up, in 59 it was mostly a special ranger group, a few hundred at first but it kept growing all the time.  63 saw a big build up from a few thousand it jumped to 16,000.
A jolly guy he is, I didn't pry, I don't know what he did or any more than that.  I did read that some of the guys in 59 were sent in in civilian clothes, no uniforms, they were army but working for CIA.  Pretty interesting.

Obama, withdraw 20 medals of honor given for an atrocity

No Medals for Massacre -- Justice for Wounded Knee Killings of Native Americans!

7,500

5,618

5,618 signers. Let's reach 7,500

Why this is important

February 10, 2013 -- This week President Obama awards the Congressional Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha, for conspicuous gallantry in battle during his service in Afghanistan. We too honor the heroic actions of Sgt Romesha and those of many other recipients of this nation’s highest award for military service—however, we strongly believe the award itself needs to represent true American values, and that medals honoring an American massacre of Native people over a hundred years ago are a stain on that honor. 

To proud members of the Lakota nation, and descendants of the Lakota people who were present, wounded or killed during the massacre that American History has wrongly referred to as “The Battle of Wounded Knee”, the Congressional Medal of Honor will remain meaningless. Until the medals are stripped from the soldiers who participated in the brutal killings of hundreds of unarmed women and children … Until the tragic truth is told of the execution of my great-great grandfather Chief Spotted Elk, their elderly leader, too ill to stand, lying beneath a white flag of surrender at Wounded Knee in 1890 … Until the “Battle” streamer legislatively tied to these illegitimate medals is removed from the United States flag (seen as recently as the 2013 Presidential inauguration), then the Congressional Medal of Honor itself is not worthy of the heroic deeds of men like Sgt Clinton Romesha, Lakota Master Sergeant Woody Keeble or any of 25 other Native American recipients of this award.

There is no honor in massacre and it is incomprehensible that 120-years later, this remains unresolved. What happened at Wounded Knee was not worthy of this nation's highest award for exceptional valor. 

According to the rules governing the Medals of Honor, "The deed of the person must be proved by incontestable evidence of at least two eyewitnesses; it must be so outstanding that it clearly distinguishes his gallantry beyond the call of duty from lesser forms of bravery...” But the historical record shows that what happened to our people at Wounded Knee was neither an example of gallantry nor of bravery. General Nelson A. Miles wrote in 1917 that, “... a massacre occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Big Foot, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prarie [sic] were hunted down and killed.”

In the previous twelve years only ten Medals of Honor have been awarded to US soldiers who’ve served in Iraq or Afghanistan—yet almost twenty Medals of “Honor” were awarded to soldiers who brutally massacred women, children, even infants, in the cold snow of South Dakota. How can this be? It’s time to right this wrong so that future generations can live in truth and heal from senseless tragedies like this one. It is time to rescind those medals now, soaked in blood and given in egregious error, and restore the full honor of the Medal once and for all. Daily, Americans pledge allegiance to the U.S. Flag that still waves that “battle” streamer and that is supposed to represent liberty and justice for all. But there has been no justice and without truth and justice, how can we heal the open wound of Wounded Knee?

The healing process takes time but through prayer, acceptance, awareness and forgiveness, it is possible. For many of us, acknowledgment of what happened is at the root of our healing. Many Americans, especially in South Dakota, still hold false beliefs that this was a battle, making true reconciliation between our people very difficult. I pray that something will finally be done and we can reconcile differences through truth, compassion and forgiveness. This call is a first step toward meaningful reconciliation—please sign the petition and share with everyone. Let’s fix this once and for all.

For more information visit: www.facebook.com/NoMedalsForMassacres

This is a true incident, look it up on wikepedia if you doubt it.  Go to Avaaz and sign the  petition.  http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/No_Medals_for_Massacre_Justice_for_Wounded_Knee/

foodopoly

I think it's the name of a book.   Today it cam a bit more true.  Conagra, the company that owns Iowa, and much of the rest of the seed, grain, and food animal world to day bought the largest flour milling company in the country, name not important, you never heard of it, it's not a household name.
Now they own it from the seed, some of the chemicals poured on it, the grain market (futures and so on) all the way to turning it into flour, they even have their hands in some baking operations.
Consumers are going to pay the price thats guaranteed, but now with much of the seed/grain stream owned from end to end by one player, farmers may be facing the chicken shit model.  Chickens were once raised by all farmers, now almost none, instead Tyson and others own the chicks, deliver them to a farm, sell him the food, pick them up when they hit a target weight.  For his service, the farmer is paid what they want to pay him, ask for more, use another food, your toast.  The barn down the road gets the next load of chicks, you don't get shit.

120 scientific satellites are looking at the world

From a few hundred to 20,000 miles above us, 120 devices gather data for scientist.  They are looking at hundreds of different subjects, weather patterns, wind, water temperature, soil temp, pollution by dozens of different chemicals and sources, tectonic plate movement, fires, clouds, forest cover, algae blooms, crop growth, CO2, humidity, air borne particles, crop diseases, lightening, ice thickness and it goes on and on.

The Germans have two satellites that pass over Greenland and part of the Arctic 3 times a day, one a hundred miles behind the other.  With radar and gravity sensors triangulating between the two, they weigh the ice on Greenland a thousand times a year.  Argentina has a satellite that measures the salinity of the oceans, passing over every surface every day.

Most of the US birds are old, it is expected about half of them will die within 6 years.  At that point, the rest of the world will continue to learn about global warming and tectonics and the changing earth.  The GOP has tried and failed to defund some of this "crazy science stuff", time and gridlock is on their side.  Oh, emerging nations like Brazil and China and India will own the info soon, maybe they will share it, or maybe they will use it to their advantage.  We should be down to 6 weather birds within 6 years, it's not back to the future, it's onward to the past.

Arab Spring due to Global Warming

Freedman had a piece this morning I liked.  He sites the reason for the Arab Spring as being global warming.  The summers of 2009 - 2011 saw multiple and in some cases sustained drought and heat induced crop failures in China, Russia, Australia, Canada, USA, and Syria.  Grain prices skyrocketed as the middle east nations are for the most part unable to feed themselves, rely on imports, which became oppressively expensive, people are spending 25 to 35% of their wealth on food, while developed nations spend 8 to 12%.
Climbing grain prices in these countries put stress on the economy, and society, resulting in exactly what the US military, the Germans, and other nations predicted.  Climate induced collapse of governments and rule of law.  In Syria a localized and devastating drought in the last 3 years destroyed agriculture in some regions at the cost of wiping out 800,000 families wealth.
Hunger and descent into poverty was the gasoline of the mideast revolutions.
______and elsewhere in the news--------
My neighbors, the Koch brothers now have 34 billion each, rank 6 and 7 worlds richest.  Overall the billionaires of the world gained another 3% of the worlds wealth this year.
The stock market hit another all time high today, it's gone up over 200% since Obama took office, corporate profits are at an all time high, the rich pay less tax than ever, union busting marches on - yet, the rich wring their jeweled hands they can't succeed due to rules, regulations, OSHA, EPA, oh it's just awful how this nation treats it's wealthy patriots.
Reality is growth is nearly flat, the reasons are listed above, when all the money flows to a few corporations and people, when main street is shut down by the wallmarts and budwisers, real and durable growth at a human and neighborhood level may be impossible.

Light bulb trials and tribulations.

Lights are changing fast.  I have the CF's in most of my lights in the house.   Love it.  They save me tons of money, and I hardly ever have to climb up to change one, they last for years.

When they came out a few years ago some of them hummed a little, and didn't come on for a fraction of a second which in todays world seems like a whole second.  Most were just a little more yellow than incandescent.  Today when you buy them look for "instant on", and I haven't found a hummer for ages.

Color though can be an issue.  Lowes and the big competitors have displays demonstrating color of the light, plus it's on the box.  For the most part, it won't matter to you, I like soft white which is close to the incandescent color.  Where it can drive you nuts is if you have a bathroom fixture with multiple bulbs, you'll need to get them all the same color or it looks like crap.  

I bought a LED spotlight for a ceiling "can" light to try out.  It's odd.  To me it doesn't give off as much light as the standard 65W, close but just a little less, but if you are where you can see the bulb, it's a bit  piercing.  It is not very pleasant to see the surface of this particular bulb I purchased.  This "can" is over the fireplace, tilts away from people in the room, so it works just fine, but I have "cans" in the kitchen and I think it might be like a pin in the eye there.   Well, the good news, the prices are falling fast, and the bulbs keep changing for the better, I'll try again in a year.  My brotherinlaw is an "energy use" engineer for a utility in Illinois, he changed all his bulbs with CF, said his electric bill went down 30%.

WWII vets, not many left, on either side.

I have a friend in Germany, 84, I have known him since I was in the Air Force and later worked in Germany late 60's and early 70's.  A well positioned guy in the local town, with a nice family.  I knew some of his kids a little bit.  I was not a perfect specimen in those days.  Years later I learned he, and another family that I knew well, had shielded me from a planned police raid looking for illegal smoke, they would not have found any.  Never kept it in the house, but in a rock wall on a hiking trail, I got a lot of hiking done in those days.
I have since seen him a couple of times, last was about 6 years ago, and about once a year hear from his daughter.
My friend was a child soldier during WWII.  During the last year they allowed, I'm not sure maybe they even drafted, boys under 18, some stories report 14 year olds.  Luckly for him, he was in the smaller army, the one facing the Americans and Brits.  Most the German units, about 4 to 1, faced the Russians,  if they survived that meat grinder, only about 10% survived surrender and camps.
He was in less than a year before surrendering in France and put into a French POW camp.  He told me it was hell, the French abused them badly, revenge, he's not a lover of the French.  One day a group of American officers visited the camp.  He could speak English, so he burst in among them and begged to go with them as an interpreter.  They were impressed and the next day a jeep came for him.  For the next few years he worked for Americans as they set up bases in Germany after the war, first as a POW, then hired to continue.  He is very proud of this work, loves Americans, belongs to a  German/American friendship club.
The man is a jewel. I wish him well.