Vote you sons-of-bitches, vote.

I liked what Obama did today.  He ended the cowboy wars.

For too long the Presidents have acted, as is their right to react swiftly when needed, but has been misused in some events.  No longer can the congress set on their wallets and take little or no ownership of foreign policy.  For the most part left free to point fingers at waste when we won and place blame when it went sour.  Stand up you chickens and vote, let the public see what you will do, and take the abuse of history if it turns out we were on the wrong side.

The GOP has said for decades the dems are weak on defense, (see GreenEagle post today) appease tyrants, now they can vote to show us how tough they are, but can they, they have to oppose every Obama policy and he stated he wants to attack a baby killing tyrant, will the tea party let them?

I don't want to do this.  I also think the monsters of the world should be bashed somehow.  At the moment I could go either way on this.  Do we say ah shit, those kids don't matter, there are cities full of women and kids, the world doesn't miss them, they are no value, not human, OK Assad, choke the life out of another neighborhood we don't give a damn, there just poor brown people.   But........it's complicated.  For me let the congress vote on it is perfect, is it our right to punish a tyrant?  We are humans, isn't it how civilazation works, when someone becomes so dangerous to the people/tribe/nation/mankind he is killed, this is how mankind works from primitive to modern.  Yet, why does it have to be us?  Like I said I can go either way at the moment.  So give it to the Constitution, what ever way they will decide let the congress have it, it's not a cowboy war, vote you sons-a-bitches, vote.

food companies use food dies in US, not in Europe

Companies have two recipes, without dangerous dies for Europe, a poison one for your kids.

Also in this video see the results showing cleaning up the environment, in this case lead, lowers violence.  As the author of "Silent Spring" Rachel Carson pointed out, we did not evolve to process the cocktail of chemicals now being poured on us, why do you think we have 30% of the erectile dysfunction in the world with only 8% of the population, more stomach cancer than India, more diabetic cases, more attention deficit, more dementia, more asthma than any nation?   Drugs, chemicals, pollution, noise and absence of darkness at night, that's my list for a reason.  Add your own if you wish.

This corporate attitude is available in most states.

Stop thinking about young black men like that

Today in History:  50 years ago today.  This event was one of the most important in the nations history.  The march on Washington was a milestone in the civil rights movement, and politically.  Following defeat at most every turn, the racist democrats in the south would join the GOP within a year or two, the republicans would become the party of racist and change the political climate of the nation for 5 decades, maybe more.

We white folks, at least me and most my good friends, are comfortable with blacks in power, in jobs of importance, in command positions in the military, in the store,  I don't think we are racist, I think we are fair minded.  I want them to vote, to get into college, to have a good job, I like to see families in hotels and restaurants.  But the media, both entertainment and news have conditioned us to fear the young black man, especially if he is strong looking, has that walk, or is in a group.  The door locks click, people take a wide path on the sidewalk.

A recent study indicates this is not necessary.  Violence and crime against strangers by black men is down almost everywhere.  Guess what else is down almost everywhere blacks live?  Lead and mercury pollution.  As more old lead painted housing is replaced or destroyed, and with the elimination of leaded fuel (which settled lead on lawns and playgrounds) the lead and mercury in the blood of young blacks is lower than 20 years ago.  These two poisons are a cause of violent behavior, confused behavior, mental, learning and health issues.  Just cleaning up the environment and prohibition of lead in house paint and fuel,  mercury in a number of household products, is making us all safer and keeping more blacks kids out of jails and graveyards.  We have to stop thinking about (fearing) black men like this.  The news media and politicains and TV are conditioning us as sure as Pavlov's kennel had bells.  Try to stop this reaction.

I am not a pollyanna, I know the ghetto is dangerous, I know the gangs have got to be rooted out or starved of recruits,  I know there are dangerous people in our cities, but it is not so bad as we fear, and sometimes our reaction is insulting, we need to be more trusting.

The study found the same thing in poor hispanic neighborhoods, the environment is less polluted and violence among young males is on the decline, a direct link to the cocktail of chemicals we encounter harming our lives.

President Kennedy and President Johnson did something we have not seen the likes of since.  They did the right thing in actions and laws to install civil rights in law and in practice.  They did it facing down the racist in their own party, knowing they were dooming the Democratic party to future losses as the Southern states backlash swelled the Republican rolls.?

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that."  Martin Luther King Jr.

Good news, inflation is your friend, well, a little bit maybe.

Ever since Obama won in 08, most my business associates in manufacturing have decided not only are they constitutional experts, impeachment experts, but economic wizards too.  Inflation, thats the main thing they predict every time I see some of them, 5 years now still the same, as sure now as then that we are days off from runaway inflation. I am not sure about them, but I took some college classes, and I read a lot now, and here's what I think.

The last month or so the markets have been jumping around a bit scared because it looks like the Fed is going to stop some of the market support, much of which is in the form of buying our own bonds.  Like a company buying it's own stock to have more say or because it doesn't want to invest in R&D or expansion, the Fed has been buying some of our own bonds, a butt load actually.  Buying our own debt, thats a whole other lesson, later OK?  The result when it happens is interest rates may rise,  oh shit their right, inflation inflation........  Not really.  They didn't do anything yet the market is upset.  Here's some of what is going on, and may go on.

China, Russia, India, Brazil, BRIC, the emerging economic giants right now are bleeding money.  That looming Fed action means a rise in interest rates in the most stable large economy in the world, and therefore most the rest the world too.  In a month, trillions have been yanked from BRIC and sent to the US.  Businesses are forced to change what they are doing, they don't like that one bit, but when you can make almost as much money in the US as you can in a corrupt crooked poor BRIC, your advisors cave in and run for the doors, put it where it's safe now that the spread between safe and risk is closing.  

All this cash is now hunting for someplace to settle, it will go into our markets and if our bond rates go up some will go to bonds.  Now the big US corps have been setting on more money than God has since 09, they don't want to invest and help Obama, but now if rates go up they will invest.  I am saying a little inflation drives the economy.  Daddy Warbucks has millions, why risk it for a few percent to loan it for a house or factory, but if rates go up, he will chase the market with it, lust for profit demands it.  One of the things I have heard for 5 years is small businesses can't get a loan, if rates go up a couple percent you bet your ass they can find money, and they will borrow at higher rates, historically rates are usually higher than now, it will return more to normal.

The prediction from economist is for small growth, I suppose that is right, but with money moving from BRIC to the US, we will have growth that's almost a guarantee, and slow is fine, that's safer than fast growth.   

What does it mean for BRIC, their growth may slow, they may have to pay higher interest, they already did that so they will push up against a level of resistance.  For Russia it may be the hardest to swallow, they have been on a wave and poking a finger at us, they may still grow, but slower and we won't be standing still, they started far behind and this doesn't help.  India may be the worst shape when money leaves, their population can literally eat up the nations wealth if they hit a bump in the road.  And not only BRIC, but the GOP will have to deal with our growth and more money stuffed into the US, something they would have liked to see happen next time they have the WhiteHouse, good news came to soon.

My pals may see their fears come true, in moderation, small inflation, and with it perhaps the economy will grow.  Actually they will like that, they will get even richer, though it benefits Obama's legacy, something that galls them deeply.

the power of language

Rand Paul says food stamps are like slavery,

No.   Slavery is more like being forced to work from before sun up till dark at hard labor, get your ass kicked, spend the evening in near darkness trying to make yourself something to eat and sew the rags given into clothes, no ointment for your wounds, no sick days, get raped, get your ass kicked again, have your kids sold, live in filth, get caught with a hens egg get your ass kicked, watch those around you die of simple diseases brought on by poor nutrition and dirty water, get your ass kicked again, get sold, act to smart or like you can read and get your ass kicked again, live 10 or 20 to a 10 x 10 shack, freeze your ass in the winter, watch the horses get better care than you, look at a women or steal some food or talk back or run off get your ass kicked then hung.  Slavery ain't motherfucking food stamps.

Fuck Rand Paul

my rotten stupid car

Tail light burned out, little warning light tipped me off.  Couple screws and some yanking later I got the bulb in hand and on my way to the auto supply franchise chain store where,,,,the counter kid grinningly glides me to the bulbs which are,,,,all freaking in a nasty plastic and cardboard box of two for $8.  I need one, what the fuck do I want two for?  I politely rag on the kid about it but he can't change the fact the bulb maker and the chain store figured out how to force me to buy then lose half the shit I buy.  9 months from now, I can't find that bulb if needed.  They know that, they love that, it drives their sales volume double in this case with waste forced on the consumer.  Stupid cars.
The first time I ever saw a Pep Boys, couldn't see the garage doors, just the stupid sign and walk in door, I thought it was a gay bar, sorry gay readers, I did.

Your rotten stupid car

Turn you car off, put it in gear, get out, now push.  I am pretty sure you can't move it, even with cousin Earl helping.  On most cars it takes a couple more cousins to move it a few feet.  That is the gear train resistance, burning fuel has to overcome that first, next it needs more btu or calories to make it roll.

The average car is 85% inefficent.  Only 15% of your fuel is used to move you.  62% is lost to the engine.  Almost 6% is lost in the transmission and drive shaft.   2.2% is lost to accessories demand, radio, airconditioner, electric window, wipers.

Here are the things you would expect to be eating fuel, 3% is aerodynamic drag, 4% rolling resistance, 6% overcoming inertia and weight.

Hybrids overcome some of this by running a direct drive electric motor part of the time while turning off and disengaging the motor for portions of the drive time and completely at idle.  Electric cars cut even more of the traditional system waste.

Our centralized electric system is much the same, long transmission lines eat up vast amounts of energy.  Ever touch a large transformer on a pole or at a factory utility entry point, they are hot, because they are eating power, just like the electric cord on your vacuum, it's warm.  Distributed power, solar or wind at or near the point of use, new types of switchgear and cables and transformers are going to make us more energy efficient.  To get to it we need to shake the libertarians out of their current habit of siding with and defending giant utilities, fossil fuel and centralized power.  What could be more up their alley than freeing ones self from utilities that treat you like a ratepayer not a customer, who stacks the rate boards with cronies to bleed more from us at every interval allowed?   If you know these guys, ask them why they turn away from individual rights when the issue is energy and fuels.

wrong about the republicans

A lot of the blogs I read are really quite sure the 2014 midterm elections will sweep a lot of republicans out of the house and senate.  Based on the publics low approval ratings for congress, it seems logical.  I dearly wish it were so, but you people are stepping on rakes with this idea.  Congressional gerrymandering insures only small changes in the house one way or the other until near the next census.  Senate races overall do not look good for dems.  Nate Silver, the best election statistician in the nation in his earliest looks at the election gives a slight advantage to the party of the rich.  They may gain one or two overall, and allows it could even go red.  Long way off, but I don't agree with the preemptive glee of most of my friends.

My Lesbian and the low spark of high-heeled boys

I think it was on the drive back from a Chicago concert in Frankfurt the thought emerged,  Mi was her happy self and we were singing "Does anyone really know what time it is", then she switched to another of our favorites, Traffic's "the low spark of high heeled-boys".
(now start the video, it's a slow start piece so drag the cursor about 45 seconds into it, turn up volume and read on)

Mi was a pretty tom boy type, we took long hikes nearly every time we were together.  Up through the forests and vineyard in the steep sided Mosel valley, marveling at the views of the entrenched river and the sunsets.  We went hiking almost every time we were together, in all weather.  Often she found a tree that needed climbing, a good climber.  Sometimes we found a secluded sunny spot and lay nude under the sky for a few minutes.  Aside from posing nude together once, setting with our legs pulled up, chins on our knees, nothing could be seen but bare legs, we set skin to skin, other than our naked sides touching as we grinned at the camera clicking on automatic, aside from that time, our naked bodies would never touch.

Mi was a wonderful friend, I want to congratulate her for that.

Mi always wore t-shirts and jeans and hung out with the boys, adopting some of our habits.  So much so that on two occasions on blistering hot afternoons in my 3rd floor apartment overlooking the Mosel river, the unscreened windows thrown open, me without a shirt as we drank fruit juice and Reisling she casually took off her t-shirt and said "good, that's cooler".  On a second occasion we had smoked some Lebanese weed she brought, extremely rare as nearly all of it is made into hashish.  When she pulled off her t this time, in my smoky  relaxed state her breasts rose from under her t glistening and swaying as if radiating light, she was the sun.  I set stunned by this vision, she noticed my stare and said in a polite soft voice "I like your tits too".  The pleasure and humanity of that statement coupled with the beauty of the moment is indescribable.  Butterflies drifted in and out of the windows, a common summer benefit of that house, we danced our hippie dances wearing only our jeans, I can't recall the music playing but it could very well have been "the low spark of high heeled-boys", one of the finest afternoons of my life.

Mi lived on the opposite side of the river 10 minutes walk over the bridge, also in a house on the waters edge with her parents.  She came to the apartment to talk and spend time a couple times a week for the over 2 years we were pals.  Sometimes we had an evening out planned.  Scatted in the ancient villages along the river were a few clubs and bars, some utra-modern with D-jays and light shows, some rustic old world, we stalked them on a regular basis.  Our goals were much the same, find someone to dance with and try to get laid.  We devised a contest, who gets a girl first.  This was especially interesting and fun as a competition because we both liked the same kind, pretty feminine girls with movie star faces with either a very sexy developed figure or a slinky trim figure.  I was of the opinion I went into these contests at a disadvantage, young European women dance together and hold hands on walks, these are matters of customs, so her asking a girl to dance was not so unusual I argued.  She countered she had no advantage because this custom was for family and friends not strangers so she felt she started at the same place as I did.  OK, cut to the results, we won about an even number of these "get a dance" contests.  The get a snuggle or kiss contest I think I won more, the get laid goal as I recall never worked out for me on these particular visits, but I was told she would find her own ride home a time or two.  This with a sly grin and kiss on my cheek from Mi as I left alone wondering what if anything they would do.

One summer day she pops in all excited, she has a pattern for a pair of pants to sew, she took measurements and scaled it, in few days we had matching pants.  Pretty strange even for the late 60's and 70's.  Made out of white linen or percale, it seemed like I was wearing worn out sheets, thin, smooth, and skin tight, lucky for me back then I had a great body with a trim hard round butt.  These pants were low like the hip huggers, without belt loops with a low short front zipper.  In the back they were a bit higher, curved up higher at it rounded the sides then straight across the back, in the front, right below the belly button they curved down in a little arc dipping low where the zipper closed.  Did I say tight, you could see my junk, no hiding, your out there man, couldn't wear underwear or they showed up big time and looked really terrible.  We wore them once together on a walk through town, we didn't go unnoticed.  I wore mine to a club once, as happy as I was with the junk I had, having it out there while I elbowed for a place at the bar with a bunch of guys named Horst and Helmut, well it was not always enjoyable.

One of the last times I saw her she had a tiny studio apartment in Frankfurt and she offered I could stay the night.  I arrived late, we went to a little lowprice neighborhood restaurant then to the apartment.  We had slept together a couple of times over the years, but she slept in her clothes each time, I figured it would be something along that model again.  To my surprise our shared vision of a young women was in her apartment, pretty, slim, sexy.  We had some laughs and talked about my leaving for the US tomorrow and her job in Frankfurt and her girlfriend talked a bit about her job.  Mi also told me in very scary terms she had met someone in the BaaderMienhof gang, a communist German terrorist group, who had killed and bombed and evaded the police from 1970 into about 1990, in 1977 they caused a national crisis there, it was only a few people but intensely disruptive.  This was worrisome.  But Ok, back to the night in her apartment.  Mi prepared a place for me to sleep on the floor, inches from the bed.  She also told me in a whisper, that she and her friend might make a lot of noise during the night, stay on the floor and keep your hands to yourself.   To my dismay the apartment had typical German metal external window shades, with those and the curtains closed it is very nearly a total blackout at night.  I couldn't see a thing, I desperately wanted to, it was torture by eroticism.  What began as muffled giggling and whispering,  evolved into a little moan from time to time, then what sometimes sounded like a high impact exercise routine followed by intervals of rest with deep breathing, and hardest to take was the sounds of kissing while one of them whispered or huffed at the air in the room.

And what was I doing during all this?  Staring into blackness in erotic bliss.  OK, don't judge, you don't know what it was like in there.

The next morning they were up early for work, I had to leave in a hurry.  Mi talked to me like a lover  saying good bye.  She said I wasn't the only one listening in the dark last night, said she heard me, she hugged me and said "if you think about it, we had sex last night, we were naked, close together, we could hear one another, we helped one another climb the mountain".

I have never seen her again.  I am in contact with 6 people that knew her, including one in her family, the friends don't know where she is, and the family member only replies she is doing fine, they ignore my request for an address or phone number.  Every few months I listen to some of the music we liked, Eric Clapton, John Baldry, John Mayall, Faces, Cream, Traffic, Ten Years After, Moody Blues, Osibisi, The Band.   I would love to go on a walk again with her, from the rivers edge up through the wine fields and the broken castle, through the forest into the high meadows and stain our feet yellow on carpets of dandelions shining golden back at the sun. That would be a nice day.

If I gave you everything that I owned
And asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride
And strip me of everything, including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound
of the low spark of high heeled boys

My ethnolinguistic barber's story, he is a force.

I have a really cool barber.  Nice looking young guy of Peurto Rican descent.  His g.g. grand parents came to Wichita 150 years ago when the city was a few hundred people.   Laborers building the first railroad here, lived on the ground at the side of the track.  Buried in the oldest section of one of the oldest cemetery here.  
Most of his customers are tan and brown skinned men.  Last visit we got to talking about labels, not slang or insulting ones, the correct ones.  In case you are not aware here are the major ones.  Hispanic - people who speak (or their historic mother tongue is) Spanish, this includes people of Spain and Portugal (a Spanish related language).  Latino - people who speak Latin based languages but specifically it's current form of use here denotes those speakers from North, Central, and South America and Caribbean.  Chicano - Mexicans.  Mexicans - Mexicans.  My barber tells me some Mexicans resist the Latino and Hispanic label in favor of Mexican.  Chicano as an identity label was used widly in the 1960's and is less used now, the spelling is also Xicano.  If in doubt, use Hispanic, I don't think you will go wrong very often. 
This barber also works non stop to push his customers to register and vote.  He has a very interesting argument in a state 70%+ Republican.  It goes.....If we Hispanics run up our voting numbers, even in a loss, we garner more attention, and one, or maybe a few of the Republicans (he believes not all are pricks) will moderate toward our interests.  He also convinces them the total nationwide numbers matter.  Even in a losing state, the votes add to the legitimacy of democrats everywhere. In the Presidential vote he says the total US popular vote  is terribly important, though it seems our vote did not count since Kansas electoral vote went to Romney.  But, our democrat votes ARE counted and noted often in studies and publicans and provide the true legitimacy to the office, in his eyes the electoral vote is technical law, the moral law is the popular vote.  In this way he convinced quit a number of young Hispanics to vote.  I find this a very compelling example of using creative thinking to change minds and push people to action.  This guy is a force, without sarcasm or insult.

(I will delete any comment offering or using ethnic insults or derisive labels to this post)

Once I did a good thing.

 A few years ago I read about an eskimo village on the coast in Alaska raising money for a wind turbine.  They had a couple of big diesel generators roaring and smoking 24/7 and they wanted some relief and to save money.  Served by one very long twisting cold poor quality sometime impassable gravel road, the delivered cost of diesel was terrible.  If they could get a wind turbine, the wind blew there nearly full time, they could save money, and turn off those stinking screaming diesels.
The wind turbine was in the hundreds of thousands, and the price to get it delivered, erected and connected at earths end was almost as much.  I donated $50 I think.  A year or so later I got notice it was done.  The village got a loan for most of it and donations paid for most the delivery and install costs.  Now the diesel generators act as back up, not needed often.  The pictures I grabbed off the net, unlikely they are of my windmill, but maybe, maybe.

Bees, the next extinction?

Sarge (http://onedrunkenoldsergeant.blogspot.com/) gave me a Time magazine, Aug 19 2013 edition, when I visited him last week.  "A world without BEES" the cover story.  Interesting, I was aware of most of the problems causing colony collapse, one day the keeper goes to the brood and it's empty, all gone.  Some bee keepers are wiped out, totally.
There are a number of issues causing this, a variety of pesticides chiefly, along with a fungus, and a couple of imported microscopic bugs that live on bees.  Some of these chemicals cause them to get lost, unable to find the hive. This multiple layer of contributors gives chemical companies cover to claim it's not my product, it's something else.  The EU is so concerned they banned a family of sprays and treatments made with nicotine.  Why so worried about bees?  Well for one thing we eat honey, and some honey is testing at up to 20 different chemicals, you want to eat that?  If it killed bees when they ate a dot of it, what will it do when we eat a couple bottles of it?  But there is a another concern, all the rest of our food.  Sarge's gift to me included the following partial list of bee dependent foods by the percent production will fall without bees: Almond 100%, Apple 90%, Asparagus 90%, Avocado 90%, Broccoli 90%, Blueberry 90%, Onion 90%, Cherry 80%, Cucumber 80%, Celery 80%, Plum 65%, Watermelon 65%, Tangerine 45%, Lemon 20%,Cotton 20%, Peanut 2%, Grape 1%.

What can you do?  When possible reward organic farmers, buy their stuff.  Stop dumping this crap on your lawns and gardens, your going to lose a few plants to bugs, pick them off or let them go, we do, and we still get lots of vegis from the garden.  Include a line in your next rant to your congressman about this issue.

Thanks Sarge

To all the girls that kissed me, and let me see them naked.

Klansas, where the radical rich are safe from bankruptcy. Only Florida has more protection for the rich in a bankruptcy case.

Out of state for a while, come back to this kind of news:
1) Klansas Foster Care is flooded with thousands of new cases overwhelming the system this year.
Well if you just chop off families on welfare, food stamps, deny whole families welfare if any adult in the house fails drug test, closing health clinics, closing psychiatric hospitals and counseling centers, tax burdens have increased on the working poor then the kids WILL fall through the cracks.  And... adoptions have plummeted in this bible thumping state???
Pope Brownback's mouthpieces say these kids are flooding into foster care because their parents are too lazy to work, nothing to do with the "savings" he has made in these programs.

2) Klansas unemployment numbers are climbing when the nations are shrinking.
See item 1.
3) Klansas oil producers are crying that Obama is considering reducing the tax credits on the smallest of oil wells, those pumping on average 2.2 barrels a day.  The sky will fall the sky will fall.  After all they point out the oil industry already is taxed 90 billion a year and that is enough burden on the industry.
Never mind the 90 billion, most don't pay anything at all, and since when should their be a limit on taxes paid, lets see if I make so much profit then I should hit a cut off limit and pay nothing after that, and what's their usual meme, government shouldn't pick winners and losers, or, let the market place work and those who can't make profit shouldn't be gifted to stay in business.  Yesterday all the states congressmen and senators spoke in front of the oil industry lunch and vowed to protect that welfare and as a bonus to stop Obama care at all cost no matter what the cost.  You gotta love it that they would hang their dicks out in front of so many, they will fail on Obama care, the oil thing I don't know on that one.

Learn a little

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

blogger lost some pazaze

Did anyone notice you can't put a youtube video in blogger any more, seems it's no longer a choice.  Or am I missing something? update: it works, they changed the way it's done, HTML now, before they had a blogger icon to use. Thanks NAC and Tom

State fair = blue cotton candy puke

State fair time.  The much to short cut off jeans on people who don't have the figure for it and snot nosed crying worn out kids are about to make their annual migration throw and puke junk food off the ferris wheel, in the wind.
This year I will work a couple of days in a booth that promotes wind energy, water and energy conservation.  Not really a bunch of hippies, it includes a group of land owners, lots of county officials, power transmission line builders and operators, manufactures, trucking companies, and lots of people who want to see oil and coal pollution reduced and energy rates stabilized and lowered.  Only wind and solar can do that, with their long term flat contracts while oil and coal change daily.  Year after year the rates for new installations come in lower and competitive.  Sustainable energy sources are the fastest growing sector of the economy.
I don't know the ground rules yet for the booth, probably can't say environment or global warming, that  is the way to lose your audience here, most likely we will talk about the money it saves consumers and the money it makes all those companies and counties and land owners.  Hey it works, you have to do what works.

Survival of the Firmest: Erectile Dysfunction and Death | NutritionFacts.org

I'm back. Did you miss me? Do you still love me? How much?

Eleven or 12 days, can't be sure, 2,700 mile vacation drive, visit some relatives in Washington DC.  What a fantastic city, museums free everywhere, bikes to rent everywhere, monuments and parks and busses to jump and clean cut young people, good girl watching, fountains, water, sky, fun, universities galore.  I will not set quiet again while someone runs down DC, it is beautiful, steeped in history and culture, safe safe safe and it is our city, go there, see it.
Most shocking for me was the wilderness right in the city.  There are sharp little valleys winding all around in the city that have been left alone except for hiking trails through them.  You get down in these things and you can't see, nor hear (much) the city near by.  These wilderness trails connect to one another even out into the states around them some for a hundred miles.  My son jogs through one of these old groves along a stream up to his work, showers and changes into dress clothes refreshed, lots of people commute on these trails.  Just one of the fantastic unexpected things there.

Had 2 paths laid out for the return drive west to Kansas, finally decided on one that put me in Ron's (aka Sarge) hometown in southern Indiana.  Had'nt seen him since dirt was brand new.  Germany, USAF.  Short stop there, his family all works behind the bar at Hooters so we had to go, all those girls are his platonic cousins.  They take care of him it seems, nice bunch of girls.  I had a couple of actual beers, he had cold cat piss, they call it millers or something like that, it's why he cusses so much, cat piss causes that.  If you never met him I can tell you he can let lose with a flurry that is pure poetry, filth as an art form, he can cuss the paper off the walls sized or not, plus he can swing a cudgel like Babe Ruth reaching for the stands.  Well he took this picture of me while I was telling him how GD and Lockheed and Boeing keep loser defense contracts from being canceled.  Place a purchase order in as many congressional districts as you can, look under every rock for a supplier and machine shop or someone who will scream if their little contract is threatened, Not sure he was listening with all the tight shorts running around in there delivering oily hamburgers.
I see on his blog he wants to make you think I am some kind of stick man.  164 lbs, 5'9" & no pot belly.  Look at the health charts.  That is the correct weight, maintained on a near exclusive plant based diet.  Well that's all good fun, I am going to keep after Ron, and anyone who is of a rotund stature, cut that weight and give some relief to your knee feet back and heart.  I'm pull'n for him, and all of you.
Glad I stopped in Ron, thanks for the beers and the fun, now get busy writing.

Now, how about it, how much?

Here in America the last 3 years our CO2 output has declined, just a little, 1 or 2 %.  Good.  But we are now responsible for more, much more CO2 being released than ever before.  How?

We are digging up and exporting fossil fuel at a much higher pace.  Exporting coal to China, Diesel to Europe, refined gasoline to a number of countries, even liquid natural gas.  All this gets burned, it goes on their books as the source of global warming carbon, but it's ours, we are doing it. 

Reject Keystone XL

This ad has been turned down by a number of NBC stations.  I don't know why, during the elections there are scads of lying bullshit adds.  This one isn't that, it's sarcastic and truthful, the forbidden fruit in environmental politics.

stubborn horse

Haven't been doing much with my rocks for a while, slowly creeping up on this marble horse, not turning out at all like I had hoped, damn thing does as it pleases.  Not sure I will like it, may go into the pile of ditch fillers.  But it's not finished, might still be OK.  It's about 9" tall.

packing for a little vacation

You won't have the yellow fringe to kick around anymore.  (Nixon said it better)

Thursday it begins.  

I'm that guy,

the one that drifts away from the slight-of-hand acts and their suckers.

My congressman,

after meeting with fossil fuel industry.

American men have the worst dicks

Ladies, you are more than likely not getting what you should.  American men have the highest level of  erectile dysfunction in the world.

100 million men around the globe have dicks that bend at the wrong time.  30 million of those softies are in the US.  With less than 5% of the worlds population we own 30% of the weak willies.

Erectile Dysfunction, fear of standing, is caused by plaque build up in the tiny blood vessels in the love tool.  A heart attack of the mighty sword.  These little vessels are suppose to fill with blood and hold on to it till the party is over, inflate like a blow up doll.  Cholesterol from a meat, starch and sugar based diet forms plaque in the penis first because they are tiny tiny passages, so they clog first.  This is the one wake up call you get boys and girls (who care about boys).  WAKE UP, YOUR DICK DON"T WORK AND YOUR HEART IS NEXT.   It goes like this, it kills your peter, then kills you!

And the disease is hitting men younger all the time, 40% of 40 year old men (in US) now have E.D., it's diet, it's exercise, it's meat.  Those countries turning to our diet are also finding their peckers point at their feet instead of their lovers jewels.

Viagra works for a while, but most men keep getting more blockage until it won't help.  It also doesn't work if your dead from a heart attack.  OK, in case you wonder, I am as near to a vegan as you can get and still be disqualified, small serving of fish or poultry one or two times a week, no sugars, the only dairy is low fat yogurt.  We eat a lot of Indian food, man they know how to make vegies taste like heaven.  Oh, about droop and deflection around here, nope, think pipe gate on a hickory post.

Today, 7 former EPA chiefs, 4 Republicans, said Global Warming debate is over

Speaking with one voice they wrote/said: There is no credible scientific debate about the facts: our world continues to warm, the last decade was the hottest ever, the deep ocean is warming even faster than the atmosphere, sea ice is melting and sea level is rising.  The cost of inaction will be crippling and the window of time to act is shrinking very very fast.  (paraphrased and shortened)   These remarks were specifically directed at the GOP they indicated either act now or bear the blame of a climate that is very hostile to human life.

Elsewhere, a study by U of C Berkley and Princeton University concluded warmer temperatures drive up violence, more wars, more civil insurrection (Arab Spring), more crime.  Shouldn't be a surprise, every old police movie the sheriff worries about riots and lynch mobs when the dog days of summer set in.

Political and economic pressure can change things.  Find the clean energy promoting group in your state and sign up for emails, learn, speak out, they are backing an industry, green products, don't be stupid about that, but it is also clean air, lower temperatures, and in most cases lower energy bills.  I will post some of the state organizations as I find them.

up up and away in my beautiful balloon

Not one scientific organization in any nation in the world disagrees that CO2 and other greenhouse gasses are causing global warming.  Not one, none!  All agree, and all understand where these gasses come from.  Human activity.  Much of which could be modified in a short time if enough political and commercial pressure is applied.
This balloon graph represents emissions if all electric generation was from a single source.  It's very instructive to see this.  The illustration provides stark clarity of how damaging fossil burners are, and where the well lit path to a solution really is.  It's not possible to have a single source, but you can see shuttering fossil burners and using the small balloons* in combination would result in about 5% of our current emissions.
* if too small to read, the little balloons left to right in gigatons: wind 0.3, geothermal 1, hydro 0.1, ocean 0.2, solar csp 0.5, biopower 0.4, nuclear 0.4, solar pv 1.

Petcoke cloud from storm July 27 13, thanks Koch brothers, thanks Canada

This is Petcoke in Detroit, it's the left overs from refining Canadian tar sands.  It's owned by Koch brothers Marathon refinery in Detroit, right on the shore of the great lakes, just over the river from Windsor, Canada.  The shit is being stored uncovered without permits, it's toxic, high sulfur, heavy metals including high in vanadium a cancer causing toxin.  It is carried aloft in the wind, it runs into the great lakes when it rains.  Only this week did Koch apply for a permit, the state parroted Koch's line, it has not been proven to be harmful.  So why not take it home, use it in their drive ways, flower gardens, kids sand box!  Residents in the area complained of black dust in their houses some months ago, testing showed it was Petcoke.