So... I'd just about decided to give up on this enterprise. It's one of those 'what's the point' situations. It does sometimes make me feel better to rant, but the world for the past month has been so crazy I had no idea which way to go.
I just don't get my fellow men and women. Nobody seems able to connect the very important dots. The horrific climate events... the floods, droughts, tornadoes... why don't people see their own behavior in those events? Isn't there a minimal ethical level that we all share... a level that indicates that some compassion for our fellow sentient beings is required?
What baffles me most, I guess, is the failure to adjust our personal entitlements. We know we're killing our planet. We know we're dooming our children to a hell we can't even imagine. Climate change is upon us. And what got me back to this site is the fact that I simply can't believe that people won't change for the sake of their children and grandchildren.
So... we know flying in airplanes is possibly the worst thing we can do, in terms of adding big quantities of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Yet we fly as much (or more), flying for vacations, flying for pleasures that are NOT ENTITLEMENTS. And driving... we think nothing of driving, of dumping those horrendous poisons into our atmosphere. Susan just told me about a hiking group that will drive to the coast (at least a 140-mile drive, round trip) to take a nice walk on the beach. What are we thinking?
I guess the truth is that we won't change, and that we'll just have to adjust to the new climate. But that, I think, is easier said than done. I think it's going to get real hard to grow food anywhere,
Just ran out of steam. No more rants. No energy for rants... Once again, I think this effort has ended. We'll see. Namaste. Kirk
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Frankie Lappe
We went to the Frances Moore Lappe lecture at OSU last evening. Came home and got out our copy of Diet for a Small Planet. Yikes! Inscribed on the inside of the cover is 'January 10, 1973. For Kirk and Susan. Frankie Lappe'. We think sister Leslie must have gotten the book for us when she and husband Val hosted Ms. Lappe at Colorado College. Anyway, the book is fascinating... reading it post-lecture (and hungry) brought back all those delicious hippie-standard casseroles... all the brown rice and fresh veggies and cheeses, baked for half an hour, making the house smell delicious every time. I won't forget those feasts, those Lappe-inspired treats baked in the woodstove oven (remember that Star Bride?), with a group of friends/kids on cold winter nights, the fireplace blazing? Good times. And good food. The Lappe book, combined with some of the stuff from Moosewood, inspired most of our diet in those days. And the act of getting the food... collecting and aging the manure, feeding the Earth, planting and harvesting and preserving... those were acts of love that so few can experience these days. And much more too... getting the food for the chickens so we could have those wonderful big brown eggs, hauling the truckloads of leaves from suburban yards in November (always a race to beat the trash trucks which seemed determined to put every leaf in the landfill)... the whole complex system fed us and nurtured us. Good times.
We were happy to see that many in the audience arrived by bike. Lots and lots of bikes. And, of course, too many cars. We managed to use the bus, combined with a nice walk across a beautiful campus both coming and going. Caught the last bus home... happy to see 24 other passengers who joined us for the journey in the dark.
Back to Ms. Lappe. She wasn't nearly the professional we expected. Seemed a bit nervous, more than a bit scattered (mixing up her notes, skipping slides), always on the move on stage. Her message has evolved from the Food Issues to a less-focused forum based on personal empowerment: You have the resources to solve these problems... all you have to do is find the correct course of action. It's actually a very Buddhist approach to the situation. She claims responsibility for all the problems, and claims she can muster the power to solve them. All she needs is for us to acknowlege our own responsibility, and for us to take charge of finding the solutions. It's 'Be the change you want to see in the world' (Ghandhi) writ large. She has a new book coming out in September (her 18th): EcoMind: Seven Thought-Leaps for the Planet. She touched, tho didn't dwell, on Climate Chaos (her take on Climate Change, and fed recently by the severe weather that includes droughts, floods and tornadoes) and on Living Democracy (as vs. Normal Democracy, where one goes to vote every four years and that is it). Her 'Living Democracy' is my thing too... stay informed and perform a political act every day. Write a letter, call a politician, go to City Hall for answers, question Authority every day... be a pain in the ass. She didn't hint as to the Seven Thought-Leaps, but I'll bet they'll be fun to read.
Her first action on stage was to ask her audience (a full house, mostly grey-haired, a few students): Are you scared? Virtually everyone said yes. Are you scared? I am.
Namaste.
Kirk
We were happy to see that many in the audience arrived by bike. Lots and lots of bikes. And, of course, too many cars. We managed to use the bus, combined with a nice walk across a beautiful campus both coming and going. Caught the last bus home... happy to see 24 other passengers who joined us for the journey in the dark.
Back to Ms. Lappe. She wasn't nearly the professional we expected. Seemed a bit nervous, more than a bit scattered (mixing up her notes, skipping slides), always on the move on stage. Her message has evolved from the Food Issues to a less-focused forum based on personal empowerment: You have the resources to solve these problems... all you have to do is find the correct course of action. It's actually a very Buddhist approach to the situation. She claims responsibility for all the problems, and claims she can muster the power to solve them. All she needs is for us to acknowlege our own responsibility, and for us to take charge of finding the solutions. It's 'Be the change you want to see in the world' (Ghandhi) writ large. She has a new book coming out in September (her 18th): EcoMind: Seven Thought-Leaps for the Planet. She touched, tho didn't dwell, on Climate Chaos (her take on Climate Change, and fed recently by the severe weather that includes droughts, floods and tornadoes) and on Living Democracy (as vs. Normal Democracy, where one goes to vote every four years and that is it). Her 'Living Democracy' is my thing too... stay informed and perform a political act every day. Write a letter, call a politician, go to City Hall for answers, question Authority every day... be a pain in the ass. She didn't hint as to the Seven Thought-Leaps, but I'll bet they'll be fun to read.
Her first action on stage was to ask her audience (a full house, mostly grey-haired, a few students): Are you scared? Virtually everyone said yes. Are you scared? I am.
Namaste.
Kirk
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
a lecture and a tree
Our plan is to attend a lecture this evening on the OSU campus. The talk... "Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want"... is by Frances Moore Lappe, author of 17 books including Diet for a Small Planet (3 million copies in print). She has helped start 3 Earth-centered organizations, including 'Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, and the Small Planet Institute, plus the recent Small Planet Fund. Quite the human! We're excited about hearing her.
So how to spend the day leading up to this event? I decided to be an observer... and chose our dwarf apple tree in the back yard as my subject. The tree predates us on this bit of Earth... as a dwarf, it's hard to tell how old it might be, but a guess would be 10 years. I've severely pruned it to conform to a modest trellis, so it's only 7' tall with a branch-spread of 8' and a thickness (the east-west dimension) of 24". I've left 3 main branches on each side (the north-south dimension), with one major center shoot. All seven branches are bushy, and the result today is an amazing display of blossoms... fist-sized bunches of between 4 and 7 perfect white blooms, each with 5 petals streaked with several tiny reddish veins. There are about 80 blossom clusters altogether.
The most remarkable feature of the tree today, if you approach softly, is the hum... the entire tree seems to vibrate, to hum, with life. And it is life... the fruits which we will enjoy in October are being pollinated today by a variety of varmints from ants to bees. There are about 15 honeybees... our most common pollinator... helped by 3 varieties of what look like bumblebees, though none are any bigger than the honeybees, and each has a distinctive outer jacket over the abdomen (varied stripes of yellow on black). Then there are two kinds of wasps, two kinds of ants (one big and slow, another tiny and hurried), and one tiny bee that doesn't resist when I ask it to sit on my finger. All are determined to visit every blossom before sunset and evening cool.
So this beautiful little tree is a very active community today. The combination of pollinators and sunshine and warmth and all those dreary rainy days of winter and spring will bring us, with luck, several buckets of glossy reddish apples. Picked ripe, they make a sauce that needs no sweetener, and a pie that is ... well, American!
It's fun to spend a few minutes looking at the anatomy of an apple blossom... all those long-forgotten terms from 10th-grade biology (petals, corolla, stigmas, pistils, pollen, anthers, stamens and more) come back and, unlike when you were 15, they actually are interesting. Ruby and I spent a few minutes appreciating the blossoms this morning... at eleven months, her attention span is pretty short... she liked the fact that just the slightest touch makes a delicate snow of white petals.
We're all wrestling with the concept of how to achieve the ' World we really want' these days. We're addicted to so many comforts and habits that are devastating the Earth, not so much because of us as because there are so many of us (early July will bring the seven-billionth human!). We're struggling with redefining our needs and our wants, and differentiating between our benign entitlements and those that are crippling this Small Planet. So complex, and different for each of us. My tree today was another lesson... we've been warned that that hum of our local pollinators will not survive 'climate change' intact. It's my greatest fear, I think: That my grandchildren might one day stand where I did today, admiring the blossoms on that perfect little tree, and not hear the hum. And not get the apples. And not have all that I have had. They deserve the same Earth-blessings I have had, and we must change to assure that that happens.
We'll take the bus to the lecture, and probably walk home. Three-plus miles, dark, stars. I love the hum of an apple tree on May 4th! And I love my grandchildren!
Namaste.
Kirk
So how to spend the day leading up to this event? I decided to be an observer... and chose our dwarf apple tree in the back yard as my subject. The tree predates us on this bit of Earth... as a dwarf, it's hard to tell how old it might be, but a guess would be 10 years. I've severely pruned it to conform to a modest trellis, so it's only 7' tall with a branch-spread of 8' and a thickness (the east-west dimension) of 24". I've left 3 main branches on each side (the north-south dimension), with one major center shoot. All seven branches are bushy, and the result today is an amazing display of blossoms... fist-sized bunches of between 4 and 7 perfect white blooms, each with 5 petals streaked with several tiny reddish veins. There are about 80 blossom clusters altogether.
The most remarkable feature of the tree today, if you approach softly, is the hum... the entire tree seems to vibrate, to hum, with life. And it is life... the fruits which we will enjoy in October are being pollinated today by a variety of varmints from ants to bees. There are about 15 honeybees... our most common pollinator... helped by 3 varieties of what look like bumblebees, though none are any bigger than the honeybees, and each has a distinctive outer jacket over the abdomen (varied stripes of yellow on black). Then there are two kinds of wasps, two kinds of ants (one big and slow, another tiny and hurried), and one tiny bee that doesn't resist when I ask it to sit on my finger. All are determined to visit every blossom before sunset and evening cool.
So this beautiful little tree is a very active community today. The combination of pollinators and sunshine and warmth and all those dreary rainy days of winter and spring will bring us, with luck, several buckets of glossy reddish apples. Picked ripe, they make a sauce that needs no sweetener, and a pie that is ... well, American!
It's fun to spend a few minutes looking at the anatomy of an apple blossom... all those long-forgotten terms from 10th-grade biology (petals, corolla, stigmas, pistils, pollen, anthers, stamens and more) come back and, unlike when you were 15, they actually are interesting. Ruby and I spent a few minutes appreciating the blossoms this morning... at eleven months, her attention span is pretty short... she liked the fact that just the slightest touch makes a delicate snow of white petals.
We're all wrestling with the concept of how to achieve the ' World we really want' these days. We're addicted to so many comforts and habits that are devastating the Earth, not so much because of us as because there are so many of us (early July will bring the seven-billionth human!). We're struggling with redefining our needs and our wants, and differentiating between our benign entitlements and those that are crippling this Small Planet. So complex, and different for each of us. My tree today was another lesson... we've been warned that that hum of our local pollinators will not survive 'climate change' intact. It's my greatest fear, I think: That my grandchildren might one day stand where I did today, admiring the blossoms on that perfect little tree, and not hear the hum. And not get the apples. And not have all that I have had. They deserve the same Earth-blessings I have had, and we must change to assure that that happens.
We'll take the bus to the lecture, and probably walk home. Three-plus miles, dark, stars. I love the hum of an apple tree on May 4th! And I love my grandchildren!
Namaste.
Kirk
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
mourning losses...
For those of you who believe Osama Bin Laden is dead, I offer the following statement from Dr. Martin Luther King: "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that".
Namaste.
Kirk
Namaste.
Kirk
Monday, May 2, 2011
news on the wrong day...
The news business is weird. Like today... the store where I shop for most of our groceries gets a wide variety of papers, from the Times to WSJ to about 10 Oregon papers. It was a trip to stand in front of the rack this morning... virtually every headline (the Times the exception, because it was printed too early): BIN LADEN DEAD. Then, just slightly smaller, "Justice has been done", quoting Obama. Justice... doesn't that mean like a trial, like capture and charges and juries and judges? Seems to me if you decide a guy is guilty, and then go and kill him, it's a stretch to call it 'justice'. Anyway, the guy is dead (if you believe the US Government). Now we should be braced for some real action against Americans. Burning Korans was a bad idea. Killing Bin Laden may be a far worse idea. Stay tuned...
Two very good articles on page 1 of the NYTimes today. The first is "Another Side of Tilapia, the Ideal Farm Fish", by my favorite, Elizabeth Rosenthal. She writes from Agua Azul, Honduras. I'll do a few random quotes:
You're aware, I think, that fish is often promoted as 'healthy' food. "The American Heart Association recommends eating fish twice a week". But "... farmed tilapia contains a less-healthful mix of fatty acids (the reason fish is recommended) because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia".
And "... environmentalists argue that intensive and unregulated tilapia farming is damaging ecosystems in poor countries with practices generally prohibited in the United States". I quote Dr. Jeffrey McCrary, an American fish biologist who works in Nicaragua: "We wouldn't allow tilapia to be farmed in the United States the way they are farmed here, so why are we willing to eat them? We are exporting the environmental damage caused by our appetites".
Think about that. It's exactly the same as all those imports from China... we don't make that stuff here because the costs, if we follow all the required environmental rules, would be prohibitive. So how are fish different?
And from another viewpoint... the global dispersal of tilapia "was maybe not the best idea because the fish is one of the most invasive species known and very hard to get rid of once they are established." Wild tilapia have squeezed out native species in lakes throughout the world with its agressive breeding and feeding. Many biologists worry that the big business of tilapia farming will outweigh caution, leaving dead lakes and extinct species.
And "For United States shoppers picking up tilapia from China or Honduras or Nicaragua or Ecuador, there is little official guidance. It's such a complicated job for consumers to decide what to eat, with aquaculture production expanding so rapidly", according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's popular Seafood Watch, an independent consumer guide to buying sustainable fish.
I happened to read this article this morning while sitting in the cafe of Market of Choice, a new upscale grocery here in Corvallis. So I walked back to the fish section. Sure enough, the label read "Fresh Honduras Tilapia". The guy behind the counter knew about some of the issues, and was willing to admit the Honduras fish is not their first choice, but that domestic supplies are essentially nonexistent. They refuse to buy fish from China... too polluted.
The issue is important. Our consumer choices affect the environments of those poor countries... the Central Americans and others who have been seduced by the American appetites. The dead lake in Nicaragua (Lake Apoyo, which is without fish or plants since a tilapia farm which existed from l995 to 2000, polluted the lake and killed everything, including the farm) is a harbinger of more troubles. An important article, and principle.
Also on page one today, "Gulf Spill is Casting a Shadow Over Shell's Plans in Alaska", from Savoonga, Alaska. About Shell's efforts to get permission to drill in a 'forbidding region' of extreme weather and deep waters. "Shell's application will pose a test for Obama, who promised to put safety first after the BP spill in the Gulf". And this issue would be a no-brainer, I think, (drilling up there is just too fraught with potential for disaster), except for one fact: "Alaska once accounted for a third of this nation's production, but its fields are now in steep decline. The decrease in production threatens the continued safe use of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, also know as TAPS, which requires a steady flow of oil to avert corrosion and spills".
So... the pressures of our addiction (and our behaviour in the oil business is entirely addiction-driven) and post-peak oil (all the easy stuff has been found and burned) will probably force Obama to approve this very dangerous drilling activity. Susan and I are working 24/7 to end our addiction. We drove our car less than 50 miles in April, and we're hoping for even less in May. Then maybe we can finally get rid of our car. It takes some life-style adjustment, so priority changes, but we think it's doable. We'll never be entirely free of the oil-based economy (just look at the bananas and oranges in the fruit bowl), but it's certainly worth some effort to gain more freedom. The tornadoes last week were partly our fault, for which we apologize.
Not an easy time to be a Buddhist. Again, I'll recommend "A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency", published by Wisdom Publications in Boston, edited by three well-known Buddhist scholars (Heidi has worked with one of these guys, and our copy of the book was a gift from her). Well worth the time it takes to read this enlightened series of essays by articulate men and women. Not an easy time to be a Buddhist.
From Ato Rinpoche: "I think everybody including political and religious leaders should discuss global warming. Everybody has to take responsibility. Everybody needs to work together and then something positive can result."
And from Hozan Alan Senauke: "Act mindfully and correctly, irrespective of results. Do things because they are the proper things to do. Our national moral authority flows from a willingness to make personal sacrifices. The world is what you make it...".
Namaste.
Kirk
Two very good articles on page 1 of the NYTimes today. The first is "Another Side of Tilapia, the Ideal Farm Fish", by my favorite, Elizabeth Rosenthal. She writes from Agua Azul, Honduras. I'll do a few random quotes:
You're aware, I think, that fish is often promoted as 'healthy' food. "The American Heart Association recommends eating fish twice a week". But "... farmed tilapia contains a less-healthful mix of fatty acids (the reason fish is recommended) because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia".
And "... environmentalists argue that intensive and unregulated tilapia farming is damaging ecosystems in poor countries with practices generally prohibited in the United States". I quote Dr. Jeffrey McCrary, an American fish biologist who works in Nicaragua: "We wouldn't allow tilapia to be farmed in the United States the way they are farmed here, so why are we willing to eat them? We are exporting the environmental damage caused by our appetites".
Think about that. It's exactly the same as all those imports from China... we don't make that stuff here because the costs, if we follow all the required environmental rules, would be prohibitive. So how are fish different?
And from another viewpoint... the global dispersal of tilapia "was maybe not the best idea because the fish is one of the most invasive species known and very hard to get rid of once they are established." Wild tilapia have squeezed out native species in lakes throughout the world with its agressive breeding and feeding. Many biologists worry that the big business of tilapia farming will outweigh caution, leaving dead lakes and extinct species.
And "For United States shoppers picking up tilapia from China or Honduras or Nicaragua or Ecuador, there is little official guidance. It's such a complicated job for consumers to decide what to eat, with aquaculture production expanding so rapidly", according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's popular Seafood Watch, an independent consumer guide to buying sustainable fish.
I happened to read this article this morning while sitting in the cafe of Market of Choice, a new upscale grocery here in Corvallis. So I walked back to the fish section. Sure enough, the label read "Fresh Honduras Tilapia". The guy behind the counter knew about some of the issues, and was willing to admit the Honduras fish is not their first choice, but that domestic supplies are essentially nonexistent. They refuse to buy fish from China... too polluted.
The issue is important. Our consumer choices affect the environments of those poor countries... the Central Americans and others who have been seduced by the American appetites. The dead lake in Nicaragua (Lake Apoyo, which is without fish or plants since a tilapia farm which existed from l995 to 2000, polluted the lake and killed everything, including the farm) is a harbinger of more troubles. An important article, and principle.
Also on page one today, "Gulf Spill is Casting a Shadow Over Shell's Plans in Alaska", from Savoonga, Alaska. About Shell's efforts to get permission to drill in a 'forbidding region' of extreme weather and deep waters. "Shell's application will pose a test for Obama, who promised to put safety first after the BP spill in the Gulf". And this issue would be a no-brainer, I think, (drilling up there is just too fraught with potential for disaster), except for one fact: "Alaska once accounted for a third of this nation's production, but its fields are now in steep decline. The decrease in production threatens the continued safe use of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, also know as TAPS, which requires a steady flow of oil to avert corrosion and spills".
So... the pressures of our addiction (and our behaviour in the oil business is entirely addiction-driven) and post-peak oil (all the easy stuff has been found and burned) will probably force Obama to approve this very dangerous drilling activity. Susan and I are working 24/7 to end our addiction. We drove our car less than 50 miles in April, and we're hoping for even less in May. Then maybe we can finally get rid of our car. It takes some life-style adjustment, so priority changes, but we think it's doable. We'll never be entirely free of the oil-based economy (just look at the bananas and oranges in the fruit bowl), but it's certainly worth some effort to gain more freedom. The tornadoes last week were partly our fault, for which we apologize.
Not an easy time to be a Buddhist. Again, I'll recommend "A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency", published by Wisdom Publications in Boston, edited by three well-known Buddhist scholars (Heidi has worked with one of these guys, and our copy of the book was a gift from her). Well worth the time it takes to read this enlightened series of essays by articulate men and women. Not an easy time to be a Buddhist.
From Ato Rinpoche: "I think everybody including political and religious leaders should discuss global warming. Everybody has to take responsibility. Everybody needs to work together and then something positive can result."
And from Hozan Alan Senauke: "Act mindfully and correctly, irrespective of results. Do things because they are the proper things to do. Our national moral authority flows from a willingness to make personal sacrifices. The world is what you make it...".
Namaste.
Kirk
Sunday, May 1, 2011
May Day
May Day. Impossibly perfect here in Corvallis, with the clear sky, near-70 temperature, soft breeze. Quickly chases the months of drear and dread. Here's a part of my wondrous world today:
Our little apple trees, bursting with clusters of white-pink blossoms.
The barrels of tulips and pansies, crowds of flowers on the deck. Tulips all around, including the north terraces... reds, yellows, combinations.
A happy gathering of solomon's-seal stems, blossoms promised, looking as if they'd been bunched and washed and combed.
The over-wintered greens, the bluish kales, the rainbow chards.
The first of the rhodo blooms, impossible pinkish creations from tight buds, and the pair of jays assigned to protect this part of the garden. And the shock of thumb-sized asparagus stalks, promised as tomorrow's supper. And the last of the daffodils, remnants of a weeks-old civilization past its prime. And the grape vines, more promises, fat buds to become summer afternoon snacks.
And the delicate first strawberry blossoms, the ones I told Ruby about... how she'll have to get there before her brother. Ditto the blueberries.
And the reds and pinks of the new-growth roses. And the carpets of sky-blue lithadora encroaching on every path.
And the pots of mints, fair game for breakfast tea. And the hyperactive pair of towhees, tiny red-black chickens searching for the elusive treasures in our raised beds.
And the view... the bluish layers of hills-to-mountains, each promising a secret passage to the Pacific.
In that near view, our oaks, moss-laden and solid, again promising shade on our rare hot afternoons.
We do live in a paradise of sorts, a daily feast of beauty. My paradise includes the time to partake of that feast. And that is my May Day.
"Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are a part of the natural scheme of things." Pema Chodron
Namaste.
Kirk
Our little apple trees, bursting with clusters of white-pink blossoms.
The barrels of tulips and pansies, crowds of flowers on the deck. Tulips all around, including the north terraces... reds, yellows, combinations.
A happy gathering of solomon's-seal stems, blossoms promised, looking as if they'd been bunched and washed and combed.
The over-wintered greens, the bluish kales, the rainbow chards.
The first of the rhodo blooms, impossible pinkish creations from tight buds, and the pair of jays assigned to protect this part of the garden. And the shock of thumb-sized asparagus stalks, promised as tomorrow's supper. And the last of the daffodils, remnants of a weeks-old civilization past its prime. And the grape vines, more promises, fat buds to become summer afternoon snacks.
And the delicate first strawberry blossoms, the ones I told Ruby about... how she'll have to get there before her brother. Ditto the blueberries.
And the reds and pinks of the new-growth roses. And the carpets of sky-blue lithadora encroaching on every path.
And the pots of mints, fair game for breakfast tea. And the hyperactive pair of towhees, tiny red-black chickens searching for the elusive treasures in our raised beds.
And the view... the bluish layers of hills-to-mountains, each promising a secret passage to the Pacific.
In that near view, our oaks, moss-laden and solid, again promising shade on our rare hot afternoons.
We do live in a paradise of sorts, a daily feast of beauty. My paradise includes the time to partake of that feast. And that is my May Day.
"Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are a part of the natural scheme of things." Pema Chodron
Namaste.
Kirk
Saturday, April 30, 2011
connecting some dots
The media is filled with horror stories from the states blasted by a record number of huge hyperenergized storms this past week. The statistics are sobering... not just the numbers of tornadoes, but the fact that so many had winds over 200 mph. One story I recommend is 'What the Wind Carried Away' (James Braziel, NYTimes Op-Ed, 4-30). Braziel describes finding papers in his yard carried over 100 miles by a storm that barely missed his suburb of Birmingham, AL.
There's another aspect of the reporting that is being challenged by an increasing number of ethicists: It is immoral and unethical to report these remarkable weather events without mentioning, at the very least, the fact that humans... that's you and me... are without any doubt at least partially to blame for the rapid increase in such events around the globe. In ethical terms, it's called 'connect the dots'. Scientists refer to the physics of the situation: Warm air holds more moisture, enabling the violence that more and more frequently plagues human settlements.
You may have read my several references to Heidi Cullen's latest book on climate change. These storms in our mid-South follow exactly her predictions of increasingly violent and bizarre weather events. The fact that Texas is now on fire is entirely predictable... and the drought in our Southwest is predictable as well. So it is without exaggeration that Dr. Braziel ends his op-ed piece: "And if you were not in Pratt City, if you did not see where all the debris had come from, you would be left with only those tiniest of pieces, wondering what happened and how fast and how far, if next time it would be something of yours".
Connect the dots. Everything is interconnected. Every action affects every other action. It's time for each of us to look at our entitlements a little more closely, keeping in mind the 300+ dead in our South. "If the next time it would be something of yours".
We're going to have dinner with friends this evening. We'll walk.
Namaste.
Corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
There's another aspect of the reporting that is being challenged by an increasing number of ethicists: It is immoral and unethical to report these remarkable weather events without mentioning, at the very least, the fact that humans... that's you and me... are without any doubt at least partially to blame for the rapid increase in such events around the globe. In ethical terms, it's called 'connect the dots'. Scientists refer to the physics of the situation: Warm air holds more moisture, enabling the violence that more and more frequently plagues human settlements.
You may have read my several references to Heidi Cullen's latest book on climate change. These storms in our mid-South follow exactly her predictions of increasingly violent and bizarre weather events. The fact that Texas is now on fire is entirely predictable... and the drought in our Southwest is predictable as well. So it is without exaggeration that Dr. Braziel ends his op-ed piece: "And if you were not in Pratt City, if you did not see where all the debris had come from, you would be left with only those tiniest of pieces, wondering what happened and how fast and how far, if next time it would be something of yours".
Connect the dots. Everything is interconnected. Every action affects every other action. It's time for each of us to look at our entitlements a little more closely, keeping in mind the 300+ dead in our South. "If the next time it would be something of yours".
We're going to have dinner with friends this evening. We'll walk.
Namaste.
Corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
men in cages?
Jason Leopold of Truthout writes about 'Guantanamo Detainees Stage Hunger Strike to Protest Confinement Conditions'. These guys are in cages, some since 2002. That in itself is a remarkable statement about our America: We have kept men in cages for almost 10 years, with no criminal charges against them, no trials, nothing. Feed them, make sure they don't kill themselves, and everything is good. Well, actually, not that good, if you're used to living without the cage. And, as Jason says, part of the incentive for these caged men to stop eating is that our president, Barack Obama, has signed an 'indefinite detention' order for all prisoners still at Guantanamo. In other words, they can be kept in those cages for as long as the American people will allow. Is that unbelievable, or what?
Equally hard to believe is that men like Shaker Aamer, a former UK resident and 'enemy combatant' and who has been seriously tortured and kept in solitary confinement and has never been charged with any crime... these men are force-fed by US military personnel in what DoD calls 'a lawful and humane manner'.
Lawful and humane force-feeding? "In January 2009, Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program, sent a letter to Robert Gates (Sec of Defense) calling for an end to the force-feeding policy (then, 25 men were on a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention), which requires guards and medical personnel to strap a detainee into a chair and secure his head to a metal restraint."
Then they put a tube down his throat and pour in stuff.
Dakwar said, in his letter, that such 'force-feeding is universally considered to be a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment' and cited a UN report that considers force-feeding to be "... a matter of grave and distinct human rights concerns."
So, my fellow Americans... is this something that we should worry about? Actually, I think it is. The fact that Obama signed the 'indefinite detention' order is horrendous. Add to that the regimen of force-feeding hunger strikers... even after they've been held, without hope, for 9 years... if you treated you dog like that, you'd be jailed. But we can catch men on the streets of Pakistan or Afghanistan and put them in cages for... well, as long as we like. Seems to me like we need to get loud about this situation. That is my plan. I hope you'll join me.
Namaste.
Kirk
Equally hard to believe is that men like Shaker Aamer, a former UK resident and 'enemy combatant' and who has been seriously tortured and kept in solitary confinement and has never been charged with any crime... these men are force-fed by US military personnel in what DoD calls 'a lawful and humane manner'.
Lawful and humane force-feeding? "In January 2009, Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program, sent a letter to Robert Gates (Sec of Defense) calling for an end to the force-feeding policy (then, 25 men were on a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention), which requires guards and medical personnel to strap a detainee into a chair and secure his head to a metal restraint."
Then they put a tube down his throat and pour in stuff.
Dakwar said, in his letter, that such 'force-feeding is universally considered to be a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment' and cited a UN report that considers force-feeding to be "... a matter of grave and distinct human rights concerns."
So, my fellow Americans... is this something that we should worry about? Actually, I think it is. The fact that Obama signed the 'indefinite detention' order is horrendous. Add to that the regimen of force-feeding hunger strikers... even after they've been held, without hope, for 9 years... if you treated you dog like that, you'd be jailed. But we can catch men on the streets of Pakistan or Afghanistan and put them in cages for... well, as long as we like. Seems to me like we need to get loud about this situation. That is my plan. I hope you'll join me.
Namaste.
Kirk
Friday, April 29, 2011
biogas motivations
An interesting article today in the Register Guard: "Dairy Dynamos: Lochmead cows produce power". The story follows the construction of a major new biogas facility at an Oregon dairy farm. In essence, the biogas plant captures carbon dioxide and methane that normally would be released into the atmosphere and compresses it in a series of tanks, then burns the gas (biogas) to power a generator that puts electricity into the grid. This particular facility captures the equivalent of 3,500 metric tons of gas (that is 3,500 tons not in our atmosphere) and will produce 1.5 million
kw per year, or enough electricity to supply 300 homes. The capture of the biogas also is the equivalent of taking 700 cars off the road for a year.
An incredible win-win for all of us!
The cost to the dairy is zero dollars. Investors have financed the entire operation, with promised returns from the sale of the electricity as their rewards for the investments in Earth. They also get carbon tax credits to sell, and valuable soil additives (mulch and compost) as byproducts to put back into the land owned by the farm.
So the production and consumption of biogas at dairies really is a win-win for Earth and those of us who depend on her.
Which brings up a baffling and confusing issue for me: Why does Oregon State refuse to do the same? The university has the cows (a rather pathetic confinement operation... but that is another subject), and thus has the manure. As of today, the OSU facility is producing huge quantities of methane that simply floats off into the atmosphere. I have been urging (sometimes not very politely) the OSU dairy to follow the biogas path for sereral years now, with no signs of progress. Wherein lies the part that baffles me: Why doesn't the university have any people who are invested in doing every last thing they can to head off the climate catastrophe headed our way? My impression was that universities (particularly those billed as 'research universities) were filled with energetic creative people who would be at the head of the line in creating schemes like the one just completed at the Lochmead dairy. What is wrong with the OSU community? Why are there not incentives in place for creativity? Is it because it is run by an ego-crippled academic who really can't see the real world as a place bigger than the OSU campus and the next Civil War football game? That is my guess: The people are in place, but the leadership somehow discourages innovation. What a shame. So many good minds, so much energy, so much cowshit... yet nothing but freely-released methane. Guess I better relight the fires under the administration, using the Lochmead example as proof that we can do better.
I could use help. The ego-cripple is Ed Ray. You can reach him at
ed.ray@oregonstate.edu. You're welcome to mention me if you thing that'll help.
Namaste.
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
kw per year, or enough electricity to supply 300 homes. The capture of the biogas also is the equivalent of taking 700 cars off the road for a year.
An incredible win-win for all of us!
The cost to the dairy is zero dollars. Investors have financed the entire operation, with promised returns from the sale of the electricity as their rewards for the investments in Earth. They also get carbon tax credits to sell, and valuable soil additives (mulch and compost) as byproducts to put back into the land owned by the farm.
So the production and consumption of biogas at dairies really is a win-win for Earth and those of us who depend on her.
Which brings up a baffling and confusing issue for me: Why does Oregon State refuse to do the same? The university has the cows (a rather pathetic confinement operation... but that is another subject), and thus has the manure. As of today, the OSU facility is producing huge quantities of methane that simply floats off into the atmosphere. I have been urging (sometimes not very politely) the OSU dairy to follow the biogas path for sereral years now, with no signs of progress. Wherein lies the part that baffles me: Why doesn't the university have any people who are invested in doing every last thing they can to head off the climate catastrophe headed our way? My impression was that universities (particularly those billed as 'research universities) were filled with energetic creative people who would be at the head of the line in creating schemes like the one just completed at the Lochmead dairy. What is wrong with the OSU community? Why are there not incentives in place for creativity? Is it because it is run by an ego-crippled academic who really can't see the real world as a place bigger than the OSU campus and the next Civil War football game? That is my guess: The people are in place, but the leadership somehow discourages innovation. What a shame. So many good minds, so much energy, so much cowshit... yet nothing but freely-released methane. Guess I better relight the fires under the administration, using the Lochmead example as proof that we can do better.
I could use help. The ego-cripple is Ed Ray. You can reach him at
ed.ray@oregonstate.edu. You're welcome to mention me if you thing that'll help.
Namaste.
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Thursday, April 28, 2011
a letter and some weather
The Gazette-Times printed my letter! They used the headline: "Send 'tough love' message to city and reject the levy", which is fine. The letter:
"Adults understand that ignoring problems does not make them go away. Corvallis has serious fiscal problems and faces a multi-million dollar deficit this year. Even larger deficits loom over 2012 and 2013.
Rather than take tough measures to correct the fiscal deficiencies, our local leaders are attempting to blackmail us into paying more property taxes: "Either give us more money or we'll shut the doors on your favorite activities". This action comes despite the fact that Oregon voters have passed three measures (5, 47 and 50) in an effort to limit property tax increases.
A quick count of Oregon local-levy efforts similar to our 02-74 shows that over 700 such initiatives have been defeated since Measure 5 was passed in 1990.
Corvallis citizens do not need higher property taxes. What we need is a city management/council with the same restraints we all face as members of families. We need to look at our income (very predictable, in this case) and limit our expenses to that amount. Sitting on the sidewalk, begging for loose change, is no way to run a city. Blackmail is even worse. Voters need to send a tough-love message to our leaders by voting no on 02-74. It's the only way to achieve a sustainable fiscal situation in our very nice city."
Please vote NO on 02-74. Thank you.
The news about the weather in the mid-South this morning is horrifying. Incredible destruction. You may have seen my comments about a new book, "The Weather Of The Future" by Heidi Cullen, a climatologist who has focused her research on likely climate effects of climate change. So for some, these storms come as no surprise. And we can certainly expect more of the same. It'll be very interesting to watch the hurricane season this year. Could be some excitement?
Namaste.
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
"Adults understand that ignoring problems does not make them go away. Corvallis has serious fiscal problems and faces a multi-million dollar deficit this year. Even larger deficits loom over 2012 and 2013.
Rather than take tough measures to correct the fiscal deficiencies, our local leaders are attempting to blackmail us into paying more property taxes: "Either give us more money or we'll shut the doors on your favorite activities". This action comes despite the fact that Oregon voters have passed three measures (5, 47 and 50) in an effort to limit property tax increases.
A quick count of Oregon local-levy efforts similar to our 02-74 shows that over 700 such initiatives have been defeated since Measure 5 was passed in 1990.
Corvallis citizens do not need higher property taxes. What we need is a city management/council with the same restraints we all face as members of families. We need to look at our income (very predictable, in this case) and limit our expenses to that amount. Sitting on the sidewalk, begging for loose change, is no way to run a city. Blackmail is even worse. Voters need to send a tough-love message to our leaders by voting no on 02-74. It's the only way to achieve a sustainable fiscal situation in our very nice city."
Please vote NO on 02-74. Thank you.
The news about the weather in the mid-South this morning is horrifying. Incredible destruction. You may have seen my comments about a new book, "The Weather Of The Future" by Heidi Cullen, a climatologist who has focused her research on likely climate effects of climate change. So for some, these storms come as no surprise. And we can certainly expect more of the same. It'll be very interesting to watch the hurricane season this year. Could be some excitement?
Namaste.
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
books or an e-reader?
So the issue this morning is one we've talked about since we watched our fellow travellers reading books on e-readers on the beach in Mexico:
In the interests of lowering our carbon footprint, should we buy an e-reader?
When I took the bus to Nayarit last fall, I carried two small packs. One had my clothes, meds and such. The other was filled with books... mostly used paperbacks purchased for a dollar or two from one of our great used-book stores here in Corvallis (oh yea... also my HP Netbook). It seemed a bit crazy, carrying all those books (there were 13 of them, and I still ran out before the end of the Mexican sojourn). So we were impressed by the numbers of folks who arrived with Kindles. Each would extol the virtues of the readers, claiming to have downloaded 20 or 30 books from the library before departing from home. Turning a page is as easy as tapping the screen. The machine remembers where you are in the book.
So why not just bite the bullet and get one? As usual, such decisions are not so simple. We needed to look at all the 'unintended consequences': Do we really want a world without real paper books? Do we want to put our wonderful used-book stores out of business? And what about the actual footprint of the devices? So I learned that, if you take a hard look at the footprint of the average e-reader, you find a trail that equals about 330# of carbon dioxide per machine (that includes the mining of all ingredients, manufacture, shipping etc etc). The average book (new, paperback) has a footprint of about 16# CO2, but then you have to look at the other consequences: the millions of trees cut, the fact that 11% of all fresh water, including some fossil water, is used to produce paper, and the fact that the paper industry produces 153 billion gallons of highly-contaminated water each year.
So... what to do? We're leaning toward getting a mid-range Kindle. It'll mean encouraging our local library to do more for folks who want to bypass the trips to the library (another carbon savings). It'll mean fighting over the thing when we travel. Or maybe reading aloud? The jury is out... no clear decision on the future of reading in our family. We'll keep asking questions and weighing pros and cons. And don't forget to keep your dog indoors at night... we're waffling on the issue of vegetarianism too.
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Kirk
In the interests of lowering our carbon footprint, should we buy an e-reader?
When I took the bus to Nayarit last fall, I carried two small packs. One had my clothes, meds and such. The other was filled with books... mostly used paperbacks purchased for a dollar or two from one of our great used-book stores here in Corvallis (oh yea... also my HP Netbook). It seemed a bit crazy, carrying all those books (there were 13 of them, and I still ran out before the end of the Mexican sojourn). So we were impressed by the numbers of folks who arrived with Kindles. Each would extol the virtues of the readers, claiming to have downloaded 20 or 30 books from the library before departing from home. Turning a page is as easy as tapping the screen. The machine remembers where you are in the book.
So why not just bite the bullet and get one? As usual, such decisions are not so simple. We needed to look at all the 'unintended consequences': Do we really want a world without real paper books? Do we want to put our wonderful used-book stores out of business? And what about the actual footprint of the devices? So I learned that, if you take a hard look at the footprint of the average e-reader, you find a trail that equals about 330# of carbon dioxide per machine (that includes the mining of all ingredients, manufacture, shipping etc etc). The average book (new, paperback) has a footprint of about 16# CO2, but then you have to look at the other consequences: the millions of trees cut, the fact that 11% of all fresh water, including some fossil water, is used to produce paper, and the fact that the paper industry produces 153 billion gallons of highly-contaminated water each year.
So... what to do? We're leaning toward getting a mid-range Kindle. It'll mean encouraging our local library to do more for folks who want to bypass the trips to the library (another carbon savings). It'll mean fighting over the thing when we travel. Or maybe reading aloud? The jury is out... no clear decision on the future of reading in our family. We'll keep asking questions and weighing pros and cons. And don't forget to keep your dog indoors at night... we're waffling on the issue of vegetarianism too.
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Kirk
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
a book review...
Looking for a good read? Try 'Time to Eat the Dog', by Robert and Brenda Vale. It's a real-life guide to sustainability, and is stuffed with references to footprints, embodied energy, and finite resources. It is, of course, a bit tongue-in-cheek at times, but they're serious about eating your dog. Did you realize it takes 2 acres of productive land to produce the food a dog (admittedly, a big dog... labs and such) eats in a year? And that's if he/she is a vegetarian. If it eats meat, the acreage zooms up. So when you combine that acreage with the number of acres it takes to grow the corn to produce the ethanol for your car... well, you are very very far from sustainability, and, with the 7 billionth human about to be born (July 1st), it's little wonder we have about half a billion food-challenged humans sharing this finite planet with us. That's a lot of kids going to bed hungry, and a lot of small brains not developing properly. It's very clear: You must eat your dog, or you will soon go to Hell. Simple, no? I'm sure Heidi can send everyone some recipes from her neighbors.
Seriously, though, it is something to think about. It's another of those pesky 'entitlements' that we need to rethink in ethical terms...in 2011 terms, instead of 'when I was a kid...'. Is it okay with you if those 2 acres it takes to feed your dog means some family in Guatemala or Nigeria will go to bed hungry? We've decided not to get a dog.
I've made placenta stew a couple of times. I'll be glad to try the same recipe with your dog. Let me know how many will be there for dinner.
Namaste.
Kirk
Seriously, though, it is something to think about. It's another of those pesky 'entitlements' that we need to rethink in ethical terms...in 2011 terms, instead of 'when I was a kid...'. Is it okay with you if those 2 acres it takes to feed your dog means some family in Guatemala or Nigeria will go to bed hungry? We've decided not to get a dog.
I've made placenta stew a couple of times. I'll be glad to try the same recipe with your dog. Let me know how many will be there for dinner.
Namaste.
Kirk
Monday, April 25, 2011
a wild Monday
Yep... wild. Wind, dense hard rains, periods of blue skies and fluffy white-grey clouds, then back to the rain. Exciting walking with my garden cart... good with tailwind coming home, but very tough getting down there, and especially tough crossing Circle and Walnut Sts. Can't trust the drivers to see me, even tho I have a very very bright yellow rain jacket. Drivers don't seem to see me, no matter the weather. Adds another element to the sport of organic gardening!
Enough sunshine today to open many of the lilacs along my walking routes. That single factor is enough to get me out there. To bury your face in a newly-opened lilac is simply heaven. Maybe that's what we'll find when we arrive in heaven, fresh off the bus? A comfortable chair in a thicket of blooming lilacs? Add a cold Dos XX cerveza and I'll sign up today.
A Book
A book you might want to look for... "100 Places to Go Before They Disappear". By a Danish guy, Gaute Hogh, who ..."was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe would be forever altered by climate change".
"The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change," Hogh says. "If we don't do anything, we'll lose some of these beautiful places."
So you get photos of 100 places... London, Manhattan, the Wadden Sea (Denmark), Brazil, Argentina and Chile, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and on and on. And of course, he's focused on sea-level rise. He could just as well have taken photos of the Pakistani floods, the Texas fires, the Australian droughts/floods.
Do we have an obligation to do something? I think so. I hope you'll look at the book and agree that Business As Usual is a death sentence for Earth. And for humanity, and all sentient beings. Namaste.
Again... comments at corvallisgadfly@gmail.com. Or find me on Facebook! WhooooHoooo!
Enough sunshine today to open many of the lilacs along my walking routes. That single factor is enough to get me out there. To bury your face in a newly-opened lilac is simply heaven. Maybe that's what we'll find when we arrive in heaven, fresh off the bus? A comfortable chair in a thicket of blooming lilacs? Add a cold Dos XX cerveza and I'll sign up today.
A Book
A book you might want to look for... "100 Places to Go Before They Disappear". By a Danish guy, Gaute Hogh, who ..."was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe would be forever altered by climate change".
"The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change," Hogh says. "If we don't do anything, we'll lose some of these beautiful places."
So you get photos of 100 places... London, Manhattan, the Wadden Sea (Denmark), Brazil, Argentina and Chile, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and on and on. And of course, he's focused on sea-level rise. He could just as well have taken photos of the Pakistani floods, the Texas fires, the Australian droughts/floods.
Do we have an obligation to do something? I think so. I hope you'll look at the book and agree that Business As Usual is a death sentence for Earth. And for humanity, and all sentient beings. Namaste.
Again... comments at corvallisgadfly@gmail.com. Or find me on Facebook! WhooooHoooo!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Brad Manning again...
So... the issue of Brad Manning won't go away. Michael Nagler writes recently for Truthout (the title of the essay is Bradley Manning: Whistleblower or Scapegoat). I quote: "There is such a thing as moral progress. That is why the suicide rate among combatants has steadily increased with Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan... because the moral awareness that war is a very wrong thing to do is increasing. As the social evangelist Kirby Page said in the simplest terms at the beginning of the last century, "War is a sin. It is the greatest social sin we are responsible for." Our refusal to come to use that awareness becomes steadily more problematic, throwing us back onto progressively more outmoded forms of coping. War is becoming an outdated institution. So is scapegoating. The more outdated, the more destructive they become.
Some praise the likes of Manning and Julian Assange for their courage, while others hate and fear them. Both reactions are understandable. But if, as a society, we scapegoat them, we are only trying to shift our own burden of guilt onto their shoulders, and to think we can get away with that for very long is a dangerous delusion."
This subject fascinates me. Who has been involved in the program of torture that Manning has endured? Is it coming from the top? Obama? Biden? Gates? I think we'll know someday, but not soon. In the meantime, please keep your politicians aware of your dissatisfaction with the torture of a national hero, Pfc. Bradley Manning. I see few signs of moral progress in my immediate environment.
Also... you may comment on this blog by writing to
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Kirk
Some praise the likes of Manning and Julian Assange for their courage, while others hate and fear them. Both reactions are understandable. But if, as a society, we scapegoat them, we are only trying to shift our own burden of guilt onto their shoulders, and to think we can get away with that for very long is a dangerous delusion."
This subject fascinates me. Who has been involved in the program of torture that Manning has endured? Is it coming from the top? Obama? Biden? Gates? I think we'll know someday, but not soon. In the meantime, please keep your politicians aware of your dissatisfaction with the torture of a national hero, Pfc. Bradley Manning. I see few signs of moral progress in my immediate environment.
Also... you may comment on this blog by writing to
corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Kirk
after a break... one day in Mysore
Mysore...
I spent a fascinating few hours (four, as I recall) following one of the 'holy cows' on her morning rounds in Mysore, a medium-sized city south of Bangalore. She was a pretty thing, clean, mostly white with some red. I first saw her as she was being milked by a young woman who was equipped with a 3-leg stool and a red plastic bucket. The cow and the woman were friends.
So I watched from a position maybe 50 feet from the milking scene, doing my best to blend in with the chaos of the alley... the dogs in such places don't like strangers, so it wasn't easy to just hang out. But soon I was wandering behind my new cow friend, curious as to why she made the choices she made... and I wondered, again and again, whether this was a regular route or if she liked some variety in her wanderings. Anyway, after 45 minutes of what seemed like deliberate choices she ended up in the cemetary of the huge stone Presbyterian Church in the south-central part of Mysore, grazing happily among the tombstones of long-forgotten English soldiers and colonists. After following her for almost two hours, my conclusion was that she had several such 'pastures' available to her, and that she had a very good life. I assume she went home after eating her fill among the stones in the churchyard.
So a few days ago I followed another 'sacred cow' for an hour or so. Yes, it was here in Corvallis. This 'cow' was a United States Postal Service vehicle, one of those squarish white gas-powered things the mail deliverers spend their days in. The woman doing the work was youngish, maybe 30, wearing shorts despite the chill of the morning. Her routine was consistent: start the vehicle, pull up maybe 100 feet, shut the engine off, sort some mail, hop out, put the mail into the box by the front door, walk across the yard to the next house, mail into that box, back to the vehicle, repeat. And repeat again. And again. After two streets like this, she came to Elder (our street, in a sense), where her life was simplified... we have mailboxes at the curb. So she kept the engine going and just went box to box, down Elder, across to Hazel, U-turn at the top of Hazel, back down and across to Elder, back to 23rd.
So I got to thinking... is this for real? Do we really still do this, in every neighborhood in America? Every day? It doesn't seem possible that this relic of our culture still exists, but I had proof. Too much proof for me. I came home and looked at some post-office statistics. Holy Cow!
Anyway, that cow in Mysore was incredibly efficient. She costs her owner nothing, I think, and yields milk daily (probably twice daily). On the other hand, we have the USPO... hardly efficient. Nearly 600,000 workers, 220,000 vehicles (averaging 10.3 mpg in 2010), and with a net loss of $8.37 billion in 2010. That loss is covered by our so-generous taxpayers... or, more accurately, by our children and grandchildren, since the federal government now borrows 42 cents of every dollar it spends. The postal system is an unaffordable relic of times past. Their competitors... mostly UPS and Fed Ex, plus DHL... make money. Why not just end the monopoly on mail and let the for-profit sector do the work? We simply must face the fact that we cannot keep borrowing such huge quantities of money, and the post office would be a great place to start the efficiency campaign. Obama, are you listening?
I spent a fascinating few hours (four, as I recall) following one of the 'holy cows' on her morning rounds in Mysore, a medium-sized city south of Bangalore. She was a pretty thing, clean, mostly white with some red. I first saw her as she was being milked by a young woman who was equipped with a 3-leg stool and a red plastic bucket. The cow and the woman were friends.
So I watched from a position maybe 50 feet from the milking scene, doing my best to blend in with the chaos of the alley... the dogs in such places don't like strangers, so it wasn't easy to just hang out. But soon I was wandering behind my new cow friend, curious as to why she made the choices she made... and I wondered, again and again, whether this was a regular route or if she liked some variety in her wanderings. Anyway, after 45 minutes of what seemed like deliberate choices she ended up in the cemetary of the huge stone Presbyterian Church in the south-central part of Mysore, grazing happily among the tombstones of long-forgotten English soldiers and colonists. After following her for almost two hours, my conclusion was that she had several such 'pastures' available to her, and that she had a very good life. I assume she went home after eating her fill among the stones in the churchyard.
So a few days ago I followed another 'sacred cow' for an hour or so. Yes, it was here in Corvallis. This 'cow' was a United States Postal Service vehicle, one of those squarish white gas-powered things the mail deliverers spend their days in. The woman doing the work was youngish, maybe 30, wearing shorts despite the chill of the morning. Her routine was consistent: start the vehicle, pull up maybe 100 feet, shut the engine off, sort some mail, hop out, put the mail into the box by the front door, walk across the yard to the next house, mail into that box, back to the vehicle, repeat. And repeat again. And again. After two streets like this, she came to Elder (our street, in a sense), where her life was simplified... we have mailboxes at the curb. So she kept the engine going and just went box to box, down Elder, across to Hazel, U-turn at the top of Hazel, back down and across to Elder, back to 23rd.
So I got to thinking... is this for real? Do we really still do this, in every neighborhood in America? Every day? It doesn't seem possible that this relic of our culture still exists, but I had proof. Too much proof for me. I came home and looked at some post-office statistics. Holy Cow!
Anyway, that cow in Mysore was incredibly efficient. She costs her owner nothing, I think, and yields milk daily (probably twice daily). On the other hand, we have the USPO... hardly efficient. Nearly 600,000 workers, 220,000 vehicles (averaging 10.3 mpg in 2010), and with a net loss of $8.37 billion in 2010. That loss is covered by our so-generous taxpayers... or, more accurately, by our children and grandchildren, since the federal government now borrows 42 cents of every dollar it spends. The postal system is an unaffordable relic of times past. Their competitors... mostly UPS and Fed Ex, plus DHL... make money. Why not just end the monopoly on mail and let the for-profit sector do the work? We simply must face the fact that we cannot keep borrowing such huge quantities of money, and the post office would be a great place to start the efficiency campaign. Obama, are you listening?
Saturday, April 16, 2011
another wet Saturday
Short and sweet: The United Nations Special Rapporteur, Juan Mendez, requested a meeting with Pfc. Manning. Manning was arrested because someone in the US government thought he was the guy who leaked some of the Wikileaks information. He has not been charged with a crime, nor has he been given a trial date (he was arrested last May, and has been held in solitary confinement in the brig in Norfolk, Va. ever since). Several people who have had access to Manning have claimed he is being tortured by the US Military. Thus, the UN appointment, which is normal operating proceedure when accusations of torture are made. What's new here? It is us, folks... you and me... who are paying Manning's torturers. It is America! How low have we gone when we refuse an international observer an opportunity to investigate whether or not we're torturing a prisoner? I am disgusted by this action, but more important, it scares me. If they can refuse Manning an audience with a UN official, what happens when you or, heaven forbid, I am arrested? Do we have any rights? I think not... and that is really scary stuff. Are we the next Libya? Algeria? What's to keep Obama from keeping control of the White House for 30 years? We obviously don't follow the old rules... so why should we worry about stuff like torture?
Another quick note: Obama refused to sign the international pact that outlawed the manufacture and use of 'cluster bombs'... the same bombs that Mr. Qaddafi is using today (see 'Qaddafi is using Cluster Bombs in Civilian Area, NYTimes, page A1, 4/16). These horrendous weapons have been used by the United States in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and in Yemen in 2009. Obama has refused to sign the international Convention on Cluster Munitions. Libya also refused to sign. So what's the difference, in human rights terms, between Obama and Qaddafi? I see no difference.
I quote the director of Human Rights Watch: "It is unconscionable that Libya is using these indiscriminate weapons, especially in civilian populated areas. Cluster munitions are inaccurate and unreliable weapons that pose unacceptable dangers to civilians." So Obama refuses to ban their use in Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen, and he refuses to ban their manufacture in the United States. How can we go lower? He's making Qaddafi look good.
Namaste.
Another quick note: Obama refused to sign the international pact that outlawed the manufacture and use of 'cluster bombs'... the same bombs that Mr. Qaddafi is using today (see 'Qaddafi is using Cluster Bombs in Civilian Area, NYTimes, page A1, 4/16). These horrendous weapons have been used by the United States in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and in Yemen in 2009. Obama has refused to sign the international Convention on Cluster Munitions. Libya also refused to sign. So what's the difference, in human rights terms, between Obama and Qaddafi? I see no difference.
I quote the director of Human Rights Watch: "It is unconscionable that Libya is using these indiscriminate weapons, especially in civilian populated areas. Cluster munitions are inaccurate and unreliable weapons that pose unacceptable dangers to civilians." So Obama refuses to ban their use in Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen, and he refuses to ban their manufacture in the United States. How can we go lower? He's making Qaddafi look good.
Namaste.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
future of our city government
Here's a letter I sent to the GT yesterday. Will they publish it?
"To the Editor:
Findings published in the GT by Rolland Baxter and others are predictable and consistent: Corvallis city government costs have spiraled out of control. The costs of workers, both union and non-union, are unsustainable. Corvallis costs far exceed those of similar cities in Oregon.
In May Corvallis voters will be asked to approve another property tax increase, over and above the state mandate of a 3% increase annually. This 'levy' has been touted by city management as necessary to support city services deemed essential by most residents: library, senior center, aquatic center. In fact, as Mr. Baxter has shown, city revenues have increased at a regular and predictable rate over the past three years, even as the private-sector economy has faltered. Most private-sector workers are paid less today than they were at the beginning of the current recession.
Our problem is not decreasing revenues. It is unsustainable cost inflation, virtually all in the public-sector worker category. This is a failure of the current city administration, and will likely continue through the labor negotiations being conducted now.
A vote against the levy will state that we are tired of the failures of the city administration, and will require the city to finally confront the unsustainable city-worker pay and benefits. A NO vote on the levy is a vote for a responsible and sustainable city government.
Kirk Nevin
Corvallis
An important issue, I think. For those of us on fixed (and by no means guaranteed) incomes, another tax increase, on top of the three imposed on our water bills this year, is just not possible. Unfortunately, the city has calculated the number of people who will directly benefit from this 'levy', and it is probably enough voters to swing the thing. Any reasonable (or not) suggestions as to how we can manage to defeat this monster will be gladly accepted. corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
"To the Editor:
Findings published in the GT by Rolland Baxter and others are predictable and consistent: Corvallis city government costs have spiraled out of control. The costs of workers, both union and non-union, are unsustainable. Corvallis costs far exceed those of similar cities in Oregon.
In May Corvallis voters will be asked to approve another property tax increase, over and above the state mandate of a 3% increase annually. This 'levy' has been touted by city management as necessary to support city services deemed essential by most residents: library, senior center, aquatic center. In fact, as Mr. Baxter has shown, city revenues have increased at a regular and predictable rate over the past three years, even as the private-sector economy has faltered. Most private-sector workers are paid less today than they were at the beginning of the current recession.
Our problem is not decreasing revenues. It is unsustainable cost inflation, virtually all in the public-sector worker category. This is a failure of the current city administration, and will likely continue through the labor negotiations being conducted now.
A vote against the levy will state that we are tired of the failures of the city administration, and will require the city to finally confront the unsustainable city-worker pay and benefits. A NO vote on the levy is a vote for a responsible and sustainable city government.
Kirk Nevin
Corvallis
An important issue, I think. For those of us on fixed (and by no means guaranteed) incomes, another tax increase, on top of the three imposed on our water bills this year, is just not possible. Unfortunately, the city has calculated the number of people who will directly benefit from this 'levy', and it is probably enough voters to swing the thing. Any reasonable (or not) suggestions as to how we can manage to defeat this monster will be gladly accepted. corvallisgadfly@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Earth Day
So Earth Day is coming. Why can't every day be Earth Day?
Yesterday was an Earth Day for me. I had coffee, then begged (they're used to this) for the accumulation of grounds under the counter. Yield: Two big bags, maybe 50 pounds total. And it was delivery day at Starbuck's, which meant lots of folded-up cardboard boxes... maybe 30# or so. I walked over to our house on Elder St., got my Burley trailer, and picked up the coffee and cardboard (the coffee was destined for the landfill, the cardboard to a recycling facility). Both are excellent additions to the Earth on Elder Street, adding tilth to the soil and nutrients to feed the huge worm populations. The cardboard discourages weeds, too.
I then walked the Burley down to the local garden center, where I got a 60# bag of organic planting mix plus some seed potatoes, some broccoli starts, celery starts, and summer kale starts. I took a break at our wonderful First Alterntive Co-op and had a cup of tea (in my cup, which I always have in my pack) and enjoyed watching the crowd of shoppers on the monthly Owner's Day... discounts on all purchases, so the place was jammed with cost-conscious shoppers.
So...my Burley and I, navigating the maze of streets between the garden center and my plot at the community garden. A long and very pleasant hike, broken by a stop for a banana and some water and a chat with a friend (he apologized for driving... wants to get himself a Burley and leave the car in the garage)... the decorative trees in Corvallis are at peak right now, and a sunny day is totally spectacular on some streets. Plus it's been cool enough and wet enough that the daffodils and tulips are also at peak, so the yards... especially those that have done the 'lawn-be-gone' trip... are colorful enough to invite passers-by to stop and stare. We do, though, need a few days that are warm enough to get the pollinators into active mode... otherwise we'll be wondering where the cherries, apples and pears are. Honeybees, our best helpers in this respect, are not evident yet, tho some of the smaller bees have been at work. Such a complicated system.
My beds in the garden are raised enough, after four years of plentiful amendments, that I was able to get the starts and potatoes into the ground. Much of the garden is still sodden and sporting puddles. And this day is perfect for the new plants and sets... cool, wet, slow. I had company while working yesterday... a pair of bluebirds were busy discussing the possibility of raising a family (or two?) in the box I put at the northwest corner of the plot. They were very busy, and not the least bit shy... he stood on the top of the box, she went in, they chattered (I have cleaned the box, so I hope they weren't criticizing my cleaning skills), she came out, he went in, back and forth, chatter nonstop... finally the pair retired to the pin oak that will shade the box and continued their intense discussion. I've had great luck with this box for several years, with about 25 +/- babies fledged. Some clown banded the female two years ago (a drawback to having too many scientists in town), so I had no tenants last year, but I'm very happy to see they're back. I hope the person responsible for the banding can refrain from this activity this year... the birds are totally perfect without jewelry. I did't see a band on the female yesterday.
So I walked home and had lunch and enjoyed the sunny warm afternoon (not warm enough for the bees, tho). Earth Day lived. I tip my hat to all who live for the Earth every day... all who walk to the store, who bike to work and play, who consume organic products, and on and on. We have an obligation to be conscious of the consequences of our choices. And we have an opportunity to make every day Earth Day.
"The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favorable". Matthieu Ricard
Yesterday was an Earth Day for me. I had coffee, then begged (they're used to this) for the accumulation of grounds under the counter. Yield: Two big bags, maybe 50 pounds total. And it was delivery day at Starbuck's, which meant lots of folded-up cardboard boxes... maybe 30# or so. I walked over to our house on Elder St., got my Burley trailer, and picked up the coffee and cardboard (the coffee was destined for the landfill, the cardboard to a recycling facility). Both are excellent additions to the Earth on Elder Street, adding tilth to the soil and nutrients to feed the huge worm populations. The cardboard discourages weeds, too.
I then walked the Burley down to the local garden center, where I got a 60# bag of organic planting mix plus some seed potatoes, some broccoli starts, celery starts, and summer kale starts. I took a break at our wonderful First Alterntive Co-op and had a cup of tea (in my cup, which I always have in my pack) and enjoyed watching the crowd of shoppers on the monthly Owner's Day... discounts on all purchases, so the place was jammed with cost-conscious shoppers.
So...my Burley and I, navigating the maze of streets between the garden center and my plot at the community garden. A long and very pleasant hike, broken by a stop for a banana and some water and a chat with a friend (he apologized for driving... wants to get himself a Burley and leave the car in the garage)... the decorative trees in Corvallis are at peak right now, and a sunny day is totally spectacular on some streets. Plus it's been cool enough and wet enough that the daffodils and tulips are also at peak, so the yards... especially those that have done the 'lawn-be-gone' trip... are colorful enough to invite passers-by to stop and stare. We do, though, need a few days that are warm enough to get the pollinators into active mode... otherwise we'll be wondering where the cherries, apples and pears are. Honeybees, our best helpers in this respect, are not evident yet, tho some of the smaller bees have been at work. Such a complicated system.
My beds in the garden are raised enough, after four years of plentiful amendments, that I was able to get the starts and potatoes into the ground. Much of the garden is still sodden and sporting puddles. And this day is perfect for the new plants and sets... cool, wet, slow. I had company while working yesterday... a pair of bluebirds were busy discussing the possibility of raising a family (or two?) in the box I put at the northwest corner of the plot. They were very busy, and not the least bit shy... he stood on the top of the box, she went in, they chattered (I have cleaned the box, so I hope they weren't criticizing my cleaning skills), she came out, he went in, back and forth, chatter nonstop... finally the pair retired to the pin oak that will shade the box and continued their intense discussion. I've had great luck with this box for several years, with about 25 +/- babies fledged. Some clown banded the female two years ago (a drawback to having too many scientists in town), so I had no tenants last year, but I'm very happy to see they're back. I hope the person responsible for the banding can refrain from this activity this year... the birds are totally perfect without jewelry. I did't see a band on the female yesterday.
So I walked home and had lunch and enjoyed the sunny warm afternoon (not warm enough for the bees, tho). Earth Day lived. I tip my hat to all who live for the Earth every day... all who walk to the store, who bike to work and play, who consume organic products, and on and on. We have an obligation to be conscious of the consequences of our choices. And we have an opportunity to make every day Earth Day.
"The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favorable". Matthieu Ricard
Saturday, April 9, 2011
time flies!
Time does fly! Where does it go? Where will it go? This spring is shaping up as the best ever. We're getting some pretty consistent non-rainy weather. Days with multiple hours of sunshine, or near-sunshine, and many consecutive hours when the sky isn't leaking. The temperatures are very gradually rising, tho we did have a soft frost yesterday. Our last frost date is May 11, so we're still a month from being safe.
Safe? Did I say that? How can anyone be safe when John Boner is still running loose? A cute comment about him yesterday: The chief Republican negotiator, John Boner, is looking more orange than usual today. He is orange. Why?
Anyway, the federal government won't shut down... not that anyone would have noticed. Are we relieved? No. The whole mess is still hugely disfunctional, and the usual suspects still run the show. I think we've all lowered our expectations to the point where the bar is lying on the ground. Better not to have hope. Yes We Can!?
Portugal has joined Ireland and Greece on the welfare list in Europe. Bummer. I have to wonder how much of the trouble is the result of the activities of our favorite investment bank, Goldman Sachs? Lots, I think.
Corvallis continues to wrestle with budget issues. The problem, in a nutshell, is that our city management is in bed with the unions. This is no surprise, and it would be surprising, in fact, if it were any other way. After all, our city manager is a very nice guy who hates controversy. And he has to work with the unions every day, year after year. Why not be friends? Why not avoid issues whenever possible? But in terms of the city's fiscal status, this attitude has gotten us in some very hot water. Based on some very generous assumptions about the outcome of our current labor negotiations, we're in the red about $3.1 million. If the city had hit hard on the negotiations, if they'd come to the table with a (very reasonable) demand that all city employees take a 4% pay/benefits cut, then the budget would have balanced... no need to close the library on Sunday, no need to remove the portable toilets from busy city parks, no need to blackmail the citizenry with threats (very specific threats) that, unless voters approve a 'levy' that will increase our already heavy burden of property taxes, draconian cuts in city services are assured.
And blackmail is the right word. "An act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation and/or threats; an attempt to influence actions of a person by pressure or threats". So when a city official tells us we have a choice: pass the 'levy', which will reduce the city deficit to something around $1.2 million, or defeat the levy and watch as the library, the city pool, and the senior center suffer big cuts to their hours, with full closing possible for the pool and senior center. That is blackmail by any definition.
Why isn't this recognized by the city council, and the mayor? Why aren't they screaming? Why have they bought this horrendous situation? They, too, like smooth labor relations. They want to trust the city manager (who, I believe, has proved to be untrustworthy). Why hasn't the city demanded a better, more realistic outcome from current labor negotiations? I don't know. I'm not sure we'll ever know. But, since one of the results of the current blackmail scheme will likely be higher pay for non-union city employees (that includes the city manager, retiring in a few months but still eligible for a higher pension, and the chief negotiator for the city, the assistant city manager, who presumable will be staying on the city payroll)...well, the entire proceedure sure stinks of corruption and malfeasance. Bad, bad way to run a city. Makes you think of Bell, CA.
And the crazy thing is that people (non-city employees) don't seem to recognize that they're being blackmailed. They did see thru the last scheme this team cooked up... the so-called Downtown Corvallis Urban Renewal fiasco, which was soundly defeated by these same voters. The problem this time is that so many of the voters stand to gain by the blackmail... so many are city employees, or relatives of employees, or friends of employees... they will gain economically, which I think is what makes this ballot issue different from the failed Urban Renewal attempt.
So my only hope is that enough people can see through this nasty scheme that we'll manage to defeat it. We'll see...because time flies, and the election will soon be upon us. Cross your fingers! Say no to official blackmail! Send Jon Nelson packing with another defeat!
Namaste.
Safe? Did I say that? How can anyone be safe when John Boner is still running loose? A cute comment about him yesterday: The chief Republican negotiator, John Boner, is looking more orange than usual today. He is orange. Why?
Anyway, the federal government won't shut down... not that anyone would have noticed. Are we relieved? No. The whole mess is still hugely disfunctional, and the usual suspects still run the show. I think we've all lowered our expectations to the point where the bar is lying on the ground. Better not to have hope. Yes We Can!?
Portugal has joined Ireland and Greece on the welfare list in Europe. Bummer. I have to wonder how much of the trouble is the result of the activities of our favorite investment bank, Goldman Sachs? Lots, I think.
Corvallis continues to wrestle with budget issues. The problem, in a nutshell, is that our city management is in bed with the unions. This is no surprise, and it would be surprising, in fact, if it were any other way. After all, our city manager is a very nice guy who hates controversy. And he has to work with the unions every day, year after year. Why not be friends? Why not avoid issues whenever possible? But in terms of the city's fiscal status, this attitude has gotten us in some very hot water. Based on some very generous assumptions about the outcome of our current labor negotiations, we're in the red about $3.1 million. If the city had hit hard on the negotiations, if they'd come to the table with a (very reasonable) demand that all city employees take a 4% pay/benefits cut, then the budget would have balanced... no need to close the library on Sunday, no need to remove the portable toilets from busy city parks, no need to blackmail the citizenry with threats (very specific threats) that, unless voters approve a 'levy' that will increase our already heavy burden of property taxes, draconian cuts in city services are assured.
And blackmail is the right word. "An act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation and/or threats; an attempt to influence actions of a person by pressure or threats". So when a city official tells us we have a choice: pass the 'levy', which will reduce the city deficit to something around $1.2 million, or defeat the levy and watch as the library, the city pool, and the senior center suffer big cuts to their hours, with full closing possible for the pool and senior center. That is blackmail by any definition.
Why isn't this recognized by the city council, and the mayor? Why aren't they screaming? Why have they bought this horrendous situation? They, too, like smooth labor relations. They want to trust the city manager (who, I believe, has proved to be untrustworthy). Why hasn't the city demanded a better, more realistic outcome from current labor negotiations? I don't know. I'm not sure we'll ever know. But, since one of the results of the current blackmail scheme will likely be higher pay for non-union city employees (that includes the city manager, retiring in a few months but still eligible for a higher pension, and the chief negotiator for the city, the assistant city manager, who presumable will be staying on the city payroll)...well, the entire proceedure sure stinks of corruption and malfeasance. Bad, bad way to run a city. Makes you think of Bell, CA.
And the crazy thing is that people (non-city employees) don't seem to recognize that they're being blackmailed. They did see thru the last scheme this team cooked up... the so-called Downtown Corvallis Urban Renewal fiasco, which was soundly defeated by these same voters. The problem this time is that so many of the voters stand to gain by the blackmail... so many are city employees, or relatives of employees, or friends of employees... they will gain economically, which I think is what makes this ballot issue different from the failed Urban Renewal attempt.
So my only hope is that enough people can see through this nasty scheme that we'll manage to defeat it. We'll see...because time flies, and the election will soon be upon us. Cross your fingers! Say no to official blackmail! Send Jon Nelson packing with another defeat!
Namaste.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday on Earth
Good news, and bad. Good first: Sunshine in Corvallis! I walked out the front door this morning and was treated to a brilliant clear black sky accented with stars! Living in the Northwest, one has a tendency to forget that there's more to the sky than light and dark greys. Such a treat to see the snowy Cascades being back-lit by the dawn sun! Is this a harbinger of better days ahead? Our new (and dubious) record, set in March: 29 days of measurable precipitation. Susan and I came back from Mexico in late February to a 4" snow. That was the beginning of a remarkable string of rainy days. Let the good times roll!
Noam Chomsky, one of my favorites, has a new essay floating on the net: Libya and the World of Oil. Totally disgusting facts about how our addiction to oil (particularly oil from West Asia) has warped our foreign policies. Think about this when you start your car again.
Here's one that might need the attention of our friends in DC: "USAID
Administrator Rajiv Shah told Congress Thursday that Republican plans to cut funding for global health programs could kill at least 70,000 children abroad, according to ABC News. The proposed spending bill, HR1, could cut or eliminate funding for malaria control programs, tuberculosis treatments and food distribution, among other humanitarian aid programs. Shah said that cutting disaster relief 'would be, really, the most dramatic stepping back away from our humanitarian responsibilities around the world in decades.' Without immunizations and treatments for numerous diseases that affect children in third-world countries, Shah said, 'we estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that HR1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying.' Important to note: We're spending about $2,000,000,000 (two billion dollars) per day in Afghanistan. Plus many millions in Libya and Iraq. Are we pretty sure we've got our priorities in the right order here? Time for some calls and letters to our friends in DC? (The quote is from a TruthOut article).
Interesting statistics: One Wall Street exec made $4.9 billion last year. 25 top hedge fund managers made a combined $22.07 billion... and, at $50,000 per job per year, it would take the salaries of 441,000 American workers to match that sum. Are we in trouble? Ask the banksters.
Those guys held in cages for the last 10 years in eastern Cuba... they're to get fair and timely trials, beginning pretty soon. Call the Pentagon for details. Oh... ask about Brad Manning too. His trial should start before 2020, if he's lucky.
Nice to hear that our 'retiring'Corvallis school superintendent, Dawn Tarzian, won't be loafing for long. She moves to a new job as superintendent of Washougal School District in Washougal, Washington on July 1st. So she'll suck up a huge pension from Oregon while she earns a fat salary (and more pension credits) from another district. The double-dipping thing is incredibly bad in these times when over 15% of Americans are un- or under-employed. So... in my humble opinion, Dawn Tarzian is just another greedy public-sector PIG! Just another pig by any standards.
"It is by striving ceaselessly to change our emotions that we will succeed in changing our temperament." Mathieu Ricard
"Do not take lightly small good deads,
believing they can hardly help.
For drops of water, one by one,
In time can fill a giant pot." Patrul Rinpoche
Namaste,
Kirk
Noam Chomsky, one of my favorites, has a new essay floating on the net: Libya and the World of Oil. Totally disgusting facts about how our addiction to oil (particularly oil from West Asia) has warped our foreign policies. Think about this when you start your car again.
Here's one that might need the attention of our friends in DC: "USAID
Administrator Rajiv Shah told Congress Thursday that Republican plans to cut funding for global health programs could kill at least 70,000 children abroad, according to ABC News. The proposed spending bill, HR1, could cut or eliminate funding for malaria control programs, tuberculosis treatments and food distribution, among other humanitarian aid programs. Shah said that cutting disaster relief 'would be, really, the most dramatic stepping back away from our humanitarian responsibilities around the world in decades.' Without immunizations and treatments for numerous diseases that affect children in third-world countries, Shah said, 'we estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that HR1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying.' Important to note: We're spending about $2,000,000,000 (two billion dollars) per day in Afghanistan. Plus many millions in Libya and Iraq. Are we pretty sure we've got our priorities in the right order here? Time for some calls and letters to our friends in DC? (The quote is from a TruthOut article).
Interesting statistics: One Wall Street exec made $4.9 billion last year. 25 top hedge fund managers made a combined $22.07 billion... and, at $50,000 per job per year, it would take the salaries of 441,000 American workers to match that sum. Are we in trouble? Ask the banksters.
Those guys held in cages for the last 10 years in eastern Cuba... they're to get fair and timely trials, beginning pretty soon. Call the Pentagon for details. Oh... ask about Brad Manning too. His trial should start before 2020, if he's lucky.
Nice to hear that our 'retiring'Corvallis school superintendent, Dawn Tarzian, won't be loafing for long. She moves to a new job as superintendent of Washougal School District in Washougal, Washington on July 1st. So she'll suck up a huge pension from Oregon while she earns a fat salary (and more pension credits) from another district. The double-dipping thing is incredibly bad in these times when over 15% of Americans are un- or under-employed. So... in my humble opinion, Dawn Tarzian is just another greedy public-sector PIG! Just another pig by any standards.
"It is by striving ceaselessly to change our emotions that we will succeed in changing our temperament." Mathieu Ricard
"Do not take lightly small good deads,
believing they can hardly help.
For drops of water, one by one,
In time can fill a giant pot." Patrul Rinpoche
Namaste,
Kirk
Monday, April 4, 2011
a normal April Monday?
From Livescience.com: "Chinese researchers say they have genetically engineered dairy cows to produce milk akin to human breast milk. The key is a particular protein... called lysozyme... that is abundant in human breast milk". What are we to do with that information?
So once again the theme: Why is life so confusing? Is it just me? Or we all a bit confounded by the world as it hurtles past us?
Not confusing, I admit, was yesterday. A really wonderful day here in Corvallis (mostly, that means it didn't rain). First, our daughter and her kids came for breakfast. Fun and more fun! Both kids were at their best... energetic, hungry for Grandpa's French toast, playful and fun to be with. We had a ball, and everyone seemed very relaxed and happy and healthy (well, there are a couple of runny noses... but what's new?). Then we attended a Blessing Ceremony at our son-in-law's church... a blessing of a beautiful new 42-panel array of photovoltaic panels on the roof of the church! What a totally positive thing for a progressive church to do! Brian, the son-in-law, provided much of the energy needed to convince his church community that this was a good investment. As the preacher said, it gives the entire congregation, and the community, an example of what can be done with very limited resources, and an incentive for each of us to do more to reduce the potential effects of climate change. Yea for the church! Good job! Yea, Brian! Then Susan and I hiked for an hour and a half... west on a system of trails, then up Bald Hill for a very pleasant picnic. We sat on a bench facing south and could see virtually the entire Willamette Valley and much of the Coast Range and the Cascades (still lots of snow on both sides of the valley). A really fine Sunday!
And then... Donald Trump is considering a run for the presidency of the United States Of America. "I'm very very serious. I'm thinking very, very hard and long about it." He has released a copy of his birth certificate as a first step toward the coveted office.
The State of Palestine is seeking UN membership. A vote is expected in September. Go, Palestine!
The French Chess Federation has accused 3 of its members of using computers to cheat during tournaments. Is nothing sacred?
John Boner, our House Speaker, cried a little bit during a press conference about budget cuts. Think about that for a moment.
A quote from the New York Times Sunday wedding announcements: "The bride is a grandfather, on her father's side, of Charles Lanier Lawrance, who designed the engine for the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927". She is 32 years old. Two comments: First, isn't it incredible what some of these kids accomplish in their short lives? Second: I think the Times has reached the point where a further reduction in gross numbers of editors will be counter-productive.
A note on the state of ecotourism: It is reported that several of the remaining African gorillas in the wild (there are 786) have died of respiratory diseases contracted from ecotourists.
And the Travel Section of the Times yesterday featured an article by Paul Theroux: "Why we travel". So I'll suggest the counter-point: Why we have an obligation, in the Age of Climate Change, to stay home. And be happy with what we have.
I mentioned a book in an earlier posting: The Weather of the Future, by Heidi Cullen. Dr. Cullen is a climatologist. She devotes her professional time to connecting the dots... the relationships between extreme weather events and our climate-changed Earth. The whole book is a powerful statement about entitlements and how our wealth (relative to the other human inhabitants) has allowed us to ignore the age of 'climate refugees' now beginning. The most powerful chapter is 10, about the situation in Bangladesh. Holy Cow! She talks most persuasively about the factors which are causing so many of the world's most humble people... the farmers of Bangladesh... to lose their lands to a combination of extreme flooding from the major rivers of the region (a result of more powerful monsoons and repidly melting glaciers in the Himalaya) and salt-water incursion from the rising sea. The results are the 'climate refugees'... millions of people fleeing to the city (Dhaka, in this case), living lives of misery we cannot imagine. One result: India is building a fence along the 2500-mile border it shares with Bangladesh. India is dealing with an estimated 5 million refugees from Bangladesh.
To add perspective, I'll give you a couple of quotes from the chapter:
"The most widely used estimate of how many people around the world could become 'climate refugees', a term heavy with political and moral overtones, is 200,000,000 by 2050. To put that into perspective, about one million Irish immigrants came to the United States because of the potato famine during the late 1840s."
"Most of the migration in Bangladesh right now is internal. People are moving from coastal and rural areas to cities such as Dhaka."
"By 2050, the population of Bangladesh will have grown from about 162 million to more than 220 million. Dhaka will go from 13 million today to 40 million".
So... we humans have a problem. Our activities that increase the carbon content of the oceans and the atmosphere are causing climate change (a general warming, more pronounced in some regions than others) need to be changed. Can we do this? Can we accept the fact that our 'entitlements' are harming others, and that we have an ethical and moral obligation to change to a lower-impact lifestyle? Better question: We know how our choices (driving, travel, big warm houses) are ruining the lives of marginal farmers in Bangladesh. Will we have the strength to change, to lower our impact on Earth and the Bangladeshi farmers? Stay tuned... and think good thoughts about Brian's church!
Namaste.
Kirk
So once again the theme: Why is life so confusing? Is it just me? Or we all a bit confounded by the world as it hurtles past us?
Not confusing, I admit, was yesterday. A really wonderful day here in Corvallis (mostly, that means it didn't rain). First, our daughter and her kids came for breakfast. Fun and more fun! Both kids were at their best... energetic, hungry for Grandpa's French toast, playful and fun to be with. We had a ball, and everyone seemed very relaxed and happy and healthy (well, there are a couple of runny noses... but what's new?). Then we attended a Blessing Ceremony at our son-in-law's church... a blessing of a beautiful new 42-panel array of photovoltaic panels on the roof of the church! What a totally positive thing for a progressive church to do! Brian, the son-in-law, provided much of the energy needed to convince his church community that this was a good investment. As the preacher said, it gives the entire congregation, and the community, an example of what can be done with very limited resources, and an incentive for each of us to do more to reduce the potential effects of climate change. Yea for the church! Good job! Yea, Brian! Then Susan and I hiked for an hour and a half... west on a system of trails, then up Bald Hill for a very pleasant picnic. We sat on a bench facing south and could see virtually the entire Willamette Valley and much of the Coast Range and the Cascades (still lots of snow on both sides of the valley). A really fine Sunday!
And then... Donald Trump is considering a run for the presidency of the United States Of America. "I'm very very serious. I'm thinking very, very hard and long about it." He has released a copy of his birth certificate as a first step toward the coveted office.
The State of Palestine is seeking UN membership. A vote is expected in September. Go, Palestine!
The French Chess Federation has accused 3 of its members of using computers to cheat during tournaments. Is nothing sacred?
John Boner, our House Speaker, cried a little bit during a press conference about budget cuts. Think about that for a moment.
A quote from the New York Times Sunday wedding announcements: "The bride is a grandfather, on her father's side, of Charles Lanier Lawrance, who designed the engine for the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927". She is 32 years old. Two comments: First, isn't it incredible what some of these kids accomplish in their short lives? Second: I think the Times has reached the point where a further reduction in gross numbers of editors will be counter-productive.
A note on the state of ecotourism: It is reported that several of the remaining African gorillas in the wild (there are 786) have died of respiratory diseases contracted from ecotourists.
And the Travel Section of the Times yesterday featured an article by Paul Theroux: "Why we travel". So I'll suggest the counter-point: Why we have an obligation, in the Age of Climate Change, to stay home. And be happy with what we have.
I mentioned a book in an earlier posting: The Weather of the Future, by Heidi Cullen. Dr. Cullen is a climatologist. She devotes her professional time to connecting the dots... the relationships between extreme weather events and our climate-changed Earth. The whole book is a powerful statement about entitlements and how our wealth (relative to the other human inhabitants) has allowed us to ignore the age of 'climate refugees' now beginning. The most powerful chapter is 10, about the situation in Bangladesh. Holy Cow! She talks most persuasively about the factors which are causing so many of the world's most humble people... the farmers of Bangladesh... to lose their lands to a combination of extreme flooding from the major rivers of the region (a result of more powerful monsoons and repidly melting glaciers in the Himalaya) and salt-water incursion from the rising sea. The results are the 'climate refugees'... millions of people fleeing to the city (Dhaka, in this case), living lives of misery we cannot imagine. One result: India is building a fence along the 2500-mile border it shares with Bangladesh. India is dealing with an estimated 5 million refugees from Bangladesh.
To add perspective, I'll give you a couple of quotes from the chapter:
"The most widely used estimate of how many people around the world could become 'climate refugees', a term heavy with political and moral overtones, is 200,000,000 by 2050. To put that into perspective, about one million Irish immigrants came to the United States because of the potato famine during the late 1840s."
"Most of the migration in Bangladesh right now is internal. People are moving from coastal and rural areas to cities such as Dhaka."
"By 2050, the population of Bangladesh will have grown from about 162 million to more than 220 million. Dhaka will go from 13 million today to 40 million".
So... we humans have a problem. Our activities that increase the carbon content of the oceans and the atmosphere are causing climate change (a general warming, more pronounced in some regions than others) need to be changed. Can we do this? Can we accept the fact that our 'entitlements' are harming others, and that we have an ethical and moral obligation to change to a lower-impact lifestyle? Better question: We know how our choices (driving, travel, big warm houses) are ruining the lives of marginal farmers in Bangladesh. Will we have the strength to change, to lower our impact on Earth and the Bangladeshi farmers? Stay tuned... and think good thoughts about Brian's church!
Namaste.
Kirk
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
our priorities
I'm in the middle of a rather amazing book: The Weather of the Future, by Heidi Cullen, a climatologist. She is one of many scientists trying to pin down the changes we can expect as our atmosphere absorbs more CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) and our Earth warms. Her life work is about trying to explain the relationships between humans and our environment... the subtitle of the book being "Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet". The planet being our Earth.
So I was fascinated to read that a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that Americans ranked a list of 'concerns' in the following order, in terms of national priorities: the economy, jobs, terrorism (thanks much, George), Social Security, education, energy, Medicare, health care, deficit reduction, health insurance, helping the poor, crime, moral decline, the military, tax cuts, environment, immigration lobbyists, trade policy, and global warming. In that order.
The author goes on to discuss psychological explanations for that Pew list, and the fact that we all have a 'finite pool of worry'. "It's impossible to sustain concern about global warming when other worries, like an economic collapse or a home foreclosure, dive into the pool".
"In essence, we aren't fully capable of processing global warming in the traditional human way. So we need to find a new way to look at it, a new way to look at it and break it down." Amen.
This is how we're able to justify our sins: Since it's not a threat we can see, or smell, or hear, or feel, then we naturally (and this is basically our hard-wiring from generations of experience and survival) ignore anything that doesn't present an immediate threat. And so we go about our lives with a business-as-usual attitude: We drive our cars, we fly in airplanes, we turn up our home thermostats, we buy flowers from Ecuador and lamb from New Zealand. It's all good.
Except that it's not all good. It's all bad. The final two-thirds of the book is dedicated to 'the weather of the future' in seven areas of our Earth: The Sahel, Africa; the great barrier reef, Australia; the central valley, California; the Arctic, in two parts (Canada and Greenland); Dhaka, Bangladesh; and New York, New York. Her job is to take the science of warming and translate that to likely weather events. As you might imagine, the results are not pretty.
Corvallis, Oregon is not one of her chosen focal points, but it could have been. We've just experienced the wettest March in history (that is, as long as weather records have been kept). And this is likely to be our future: wet, warm, occasional Monster Storms, hot dry summers.
What to do? That is a very personal issue... each of us must decide what we can change, how we can act to reduce our footprint. Obviously, if we're to have any chance of avoiding the 12-degree temperature rise predicted for the northern hemisphere in the next 90 years, and the one-meter sea level rise, we must change, we must abandon the 'business as usual' attitude, the 'I'm entitled to live this way because I can afford to do so' attitude. That just isn't going to work, for us or for our kids and grandkids. It's something for each of us to think about, and work on. I highly recommend Heidi's book as an exercise in potential ethical responses to the climate dilemma.
Namaste.
So I was fascinated to read that a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that Americans ranked a list of 'concerns' in the following order, in terms of national priorities: the economy, jobs, terrorism (thanks much, George), Social Security, education, energy, Medicare, health care, deficit reduction, health insurance, helping the poor, crime, moral decline, the military, tax cuts, environment, immigration lobbyists, trade policy, and global warming. In that order.
The author goes on to discuss psychological explanations for that Pew list, and the fact that we all have a 'finite pool of worry'. "It's impossible to sustain concern about global warming when other worries, like an economic collapse or a home foreclosure, dive into the pool".
"In essence, we aren't fully capable of processing global warming in the traditional human way. So we need to find a new way to look at it, a new way to look at it and break it down." Amen.
This is how we're able to justify our sins: Since it's not a threat we can see, or smell, or hear, or feel, then we naturally (and this is basically our hard-wiring from generations of experience and survival) ignore anything that doesn't present an immediate threat. And so we go about our lives with a business-as-usual attitude: We drive our cars, we fly in airplanes, we turn up our home thermostats, we buy flowers from Ecuador and lamb from New Zealand. It's all good.
Except that it's not all good. It's all bad. The final two-thirds of the book is dedicated to 'the weather of the future' in seven areas of our Earth: The Sahel, Africa; the great barrier reef, Australia; the central valley, California; the Arctic, in two parts (Canada and Greenland); Dhaka, Bangladesh; and New York, New York. Her job is to take the science of warming and translate that to likely weather events. As you might imagine, the results are not pretty.
Corvallis, Oregon is not one of her chosen focal points, but it could have been. We've just experienced the wettest March in history (that is, as long as weather records have been kept). And this is likely to be our future: wet, warm, occasional Monster Storms, hot dry summers.
What to do? That is a very personal issue... each of us must decide what we can change, how we can act to reduce our footprint. Obviously, if we're to have any chance of avoiding the 12-degree temperature rise predicted for the northern hemisphere in the next 90 years, and the one-meter sea level rise, we must change, we must abandon the 'business as usual' attitude, the 'I'm entitled to live this way because I can afford to do so' attitude. That just isn't going to work, for us or for our kids and grandkids. It's something for each of us to think about, and work on. I highly recommend Heidi's book as an exercise in potential ethical responses to the climate dilemma.
Namaste.
Obama at dinner for Obama
I get more and more confused every day.
The Times reports (Obama Returns to Harlem to Attend a Lucrative Fund-Raiser) that our President of the Unilateral War Declaration 'returned to Harlem as the nation's first African-American president, and for a $30,800-a-person fund-raiser'. The party was held at the Red Rooster restaurant, so we assume everybody got some grub for their trouble. This guy... this first African-American president... is rapidly becoming an embarrassment. His failure to protect Brad Manning from the tortures being inflicted daily is the last straw for me. And I still think he's impeachable for his role in getting us into another war without the consent of Congress.
Good News! I'm looking out our dining room window, south, and I see blue sky! Bright white clouds! A walk out onto the porch proves it... it's not raining! Now I'm sorry I threw out my sunglasses. I'll be at RiteAid to get sunscreen as soon as they open this morning.
More from the Times...the best op-ed piece they've run in a long time. Mark Bittman writes 'Why We're Fasting'. An explanation of why he has joined '...around 4000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget cuts in programs for the poor and hungry'.
Mark is/has been a food critic/chef. As he says, "I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living". But he nails it in this column... questioning the sanity and humanity of people who can cut WIC and Food Stamp funding, knowing that 18,000,000 million Americans, including millions of children, already suffering the stresses of poverty and social humiliation, will now go to bed hungry as well. And Obama spends $500,000,000 million to bomb Libya?
Are we making sense here? I hope you'll read Mark's column, and then channel your outrage in a constructive manner. It's our only hope.
"The ordinary mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning; the masters liken it to a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstance". Sogyal Rinpoche
Namaste.
The Times reports (Obama Returns to Harlem to Attend a Lucrative Fund-Raiser) that our President of the Unilateral War Declaration 'returned to Harlem as the nation's first African-American president, and for a $30,800-a-person fund-raiser'. The party was held at the Red Rooster restaurant, so we assume everybody got some grub for their trouble. This guy... this first African-American president... is rapidly becoming an embarrassment. His failure to protect Brad Manning from the tortures being inflicted daily is the last straw for me. And I still think he's impeachable for his role in getting us into another war without the consent of Congress.
Good News! I'm looking out our dining room window, south, and I see blue sky! Bright white clouds! A walk out onto the porch proves it... it's not raining! Now I'm sorry I threw out my sunglasses. I'll be at RiteAid to get sunscreen as soon as they open this morning.
More from the Times...the best op-ed piece they've run in a long time. Mark Bittman writes 'Why We're Fasting'. An explanation of why he has joined '...around 4000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget cuts in programs for the poor and hungry'.
Mark is/has been a food critic/chef. As he says, "I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living". But he nails it in this column... questioning the sanity and humanity of people who can cut WIC and Food Stamp funding, knowing that 18,000,000 million Americans, including millions of children, already suffering the stresses of poverty and social humiliation, will now go to bed hungry as well. And Obama spends $500,000,000 million to bomb Libya?
Are we making sense here? I hope you'll read Mark's column, and then channel your outrage in a constructive manner. It's our only hope.
"The ordinary mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning; the masters liken it to a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstance". Sogyal Rinpoche
Namaste.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
pema wisdom for a rainy day
"Not causing harm requires staying awake.
Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.
The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice." Pema Chodron
William Rivers Pitt (www.truth-out.org/the-new-American-dream68847) does an interesting essay... it's another way to define the 'them and us' that is happening despite my best efforts. "If you are wealthy, you are living in the Golden Age of your American Dream, and it's a damned fine time to be alive. The two major political parties are working hammer and tong to bless you and keep you...." Worth a few minutes to consider just how badly we've gotten off track in this country.
Speaking of off the track... It's time to impeach Obama. He unilaterally committed us to another war. No consult with the Congress, which is one of those little things the constitution requires of the American CEO. What is it about that job that drains common sense from otherwise good people? We've spent half a billion dollars in Libya (mostly for missiles and stuff), and the tab runs up at maybe $50 million per day. And when will we see the first of the American casualties? So now the Times will list deaths in 3 categories... Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Who's next? Yemen? What an unholy mess we are, and Obama is certainly not helping with his ego-driven madness. Thus I've recommended his impeachment, which I hope happens soon. Joe, get ready to Man Up!
Some advice for Obama from Shantideva:
When one intends to move or speak,
One should first examine one's own mindd
and then act appropriately with composure.
I'm not much for prayer, but a few more rainy gloomy days like this one and I may start. Namaste.
Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.
The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice." Pema Chodron
William Rivers Pitt (www.truth-out.org/the-new-American-dream68847) does an interesting essay... it's another way to define the 'them and us' that is happening despite my best efforts. "If you are wealthy, you are living in the Golden Age of your American Dream, and it's a damned fine time to be alive. The two major political parties are working hammer and tong to bless you and keep you...." Worth a few minutes to consider just how badly we've gotten off track in this country.
Speaking of off the track... It's time to impeach Obama. He unilaterally committed us to another war. No consult with the Congress, which is one of those little things the constitution requires of the American CEO. What is it about that job that drains common sense from otherwise good people? We've spent half a billion dollars in Libya (mostly for missiles and stuff), and the tab runs up at maybe $50 million per day. And when will we see the first of the American casualties? So now the Times will list deaths in 3 categories... Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Who's next? Yemen? What an unholy mess we are, and Obama is certainly not helping with his ego-driven madness. Thus I've recommended his impeachment, which I hope happens soon. Joe, get ready to Man Up!
Some advice for Obama from Shantideva:
When one intends to move or speak,
One should first examine one's own mindd
and then act appropriately with composure.
I'm not much for prayer, but a few more rainy gloomy days like this one and I may start. Namaste.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
notes on the enthusiasm gap + A B O
You see it here first: A B O. That stands for Anybody But Obama. For our next election. Remember how much hope we had? How hard we worked to get Obama elected? How depressed we had been by the Bush antics for 8 years? Well folks, I hate to say it, but there really ain't much difference between the two. Okay... Obama has about 50 IQ points on Bush, and about 9 years more education, and he's 231 times as articulate as Bush. But the real differences? Not so many. We're still very much in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Libya... the most recent war being started exactly as the first two, except that Obama forgot to even mention the involvement to Congress, which makes his action (bombing Libya) very much like those of Mr. Ghaddafi. So I've started the campaign... yep, it might be Sarah! But if it's Sarah (my Dream Team is Sarah/Arnold)... well, at least she'll be honest.
What got me started on this? Take a minute to check out HuffPost Green... click on the Bill McKibben essay about his experience bringing one of the solar panels (the original panels put up by the Carter admin and removed as one of RR's first presidential actions) back to the White House last September. Ugly ugly ugly. About as bad as politics can get. Or worse. And this is Obama! Anyway, the essay is entitled 'Notes on the Enthusiasm Gap', and it's worth a few minutes to learn a bit more about how politics work in DC. (No, that's not direct current... in fact, very far from it). It is pathetic, but it is the Obama reality... he's been bought, big time, by Big Oil, Big Banksters, Big Weapons and War, and more and more. He was for sale, and he sold himself to the highest bidders. Another gut-wrenching example was his choice of the GE CEO to play a role at the White House... the same GE that made $14 billion last year and paid not one cent of income tax. Let's hear it for Obama! (NOT)
What got me started on this? Take a minute to check out HuffPost Green... click on the Bill McKibben essay about his experience bringing one of the solar panels (the original panels put up by the Carter admin and removed as one of RR's first presidential actions) back to the White House last September. Ugly ugly ugly. About as bad as politics can get. Or worse. And this is Obama! Anyway, the essay is entitled 'Notes on the Enthusiasm Gap', and it's worth a few minutes to learn a bit more about how politics work in DC. (No, that's not direct current... in fact, very far from it). It is pathetic, but it is the Obama reality... he's been bought, big time, by Big Oil, Big Banksters, Big Weapons and War, and more and more. He was for sale, and he sold himself to the highest bidders. Another gut-wrenching example was his choice of the GE CEO to play a role at the White House... the same GE that made $14 billion last year and paid not one cent of income tax. Let's hear it for Obama! (NOT)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
an exciting idea...!
You may have read my post suggesting that our public library is no longer affordable, and that we need to get busy on realistic alternatives. My prayers are answered! A NYTimes op-ed piece today..."A Digital Library Better Than Google's" by Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library... suggests that we (the American public) should "... build a digital public library, including all the books published in the world (both past and future), which would provide these digital copies free of charge to readers." What an incredible asset that would be! More quotes: "A number of countries are also determined to ...scan the entire contents of their national libraries". Example: The National Library of the Netherlands is trying to digitalize every Dutch book and periodical published since 1470; Australia, Finland, France and Norway are undertaking their own efforts, according to Darnton.
This, friends, is the kind of idea that will enable us to survive the threat of climate change. This is what is possible with current technology. This is what we can do to lower our collective carbon footprint to a point where we avoid the scientific 'tipping points' that we're so rapidly approaching. Imagine: In one fell swoop we could close every public library in the country. How many times have we driven to the library to pick up some books? Our grandchildren will marvel at that idea.
Another recommended read: On page 100 of the April 2011 National Geographic magazine, an article about The Acid Sea by Elizabeth Kolbert, my favorite environmental writer. Excellent, and very very sobering.
Sunny and 84 in Corvallis today. Not! Not! We're about to set a record for most rainy days in March... 28! Not fair! Not fair! (I miss my Mexican beach town).
Namaste.
Kirk
This, friends, is the kind of idea that will enable us to survive the threat of climate change. This is what is possible with current technology. This is what we can do to lower our collective carbon footprint to a point where we avoid the scientific 'tipping points' that we're so rapidly approaching. Imagine: In one fell swoop we could close every public library in the country. How many times have we driven to the library to pick up some books? Our grandchildren will marvel at that idea.
Another recommended read: On page 100 of the April 2011 National Geographic magazine, an article about The Acid Sea by Elizabeth Kolbert, my favorite environmental writer. Excellent, and very very sobering.
Sunny and 84 in Corvallis today. Not! Not! We're about to set a record for most rainy days in March... 28! Not fair! Not fair! (I miss my Mexican beach town).
Namaste.
Kirk
more on unintended consequences...
I'm fascinated by the global scale of 'unintended consequences'. Our choices are important. Here's an example:
The U.S. imports about 90% of the nuclear fuel we use in our nuclear-powered electrical generating plants. Some of that fuel...quite a lot in some years... comes from the Ranger Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia. There is a publication, updated monthly, entitled 'Issues at Operating Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia'. In the issue dated March 11, 2011, there are several very sobering headlines, including but not limited to:
Water level in Ranger tailings dam nears limit.
Processing at Ranger uranium mill suspended for 12 weeks due to high water levels in tailings impoundment after heavy rainfall.
Yellowcake truck gets stuck in Kakadu National Park (a World Heritage-listed nature reserve.
Traditional Owners of Ranger uranium mine site alarmed by new spills into Kakadu National Park, call into question mine expansion project.
Since this last one is particularly fascinating in an 'unintended consequences' sense, let's look at a quote:
"Millions of litres of radioactive water from the Ranger uranium mine have flowed into internationally acclaimed and World Heritage-listed wetlands in Kakadu National Park. Traditional owners say they will oppose plans for a huge expansion of the 30-year-old mine by Energy Resources of Australia, unless the company upgrades outdated environmental protection procedures.
The Rio Tinto-owned ERA has tried to play down an alarming and unexplained spike in contamination in water flowing from the mine into Kakadu's Magela Creek between April 9 and 11, 2010, The Age can reveal. About 40 Aborigines live downstream from a site where a measure probe recorded up to five times the warning level of electrical conductivity, which is a measure of contaminants including uranium, sulphate and radium. Environmental group Environment Center Northern Territory has been shown evidence showing the spike, which ERA representatives said had originated upstream from the mine and was not ERA's fault. But, asked about the contamination, ERA admitted the source "could not be determined and investigations are continuing". "It is possible that these have come from the Ranger operations," it said. ERA's handling of the spike and other environmental concerns about the mine have strained its relations with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr traditional owners.
In another unreported mishap at the mine, in December 2009 a poorly-engineered dam collapsed, spilling 6 million litres of radioactive water into the Gulungul Creek, which flows into Kakadu."
So... does it matter? Does that population of 'traditional owners' matter? The report goes on and on, and includes a description of plans for an expansion of the mining operations to meet global demand for processed uranium yellowcake; those plans include "...a heap leaching plant, a tunnel under flood plains, a 1000-person accomodation village, 650 evaportation ponds and a one-square-kilometer tailings dam. The expansion would extend the mine's operation to at least 2021".
From a Buddhist perspective, there's only one possible reaction to news like this: Live off the grid! As long as we're sucking down electricity made from nuclear power plants, we're responsible for the degradation of the precious wetlands that sustain those natives in the national park. More later.
Namaste.
Kirk
The U.S. imports about 90% of the nuclear fuel we use in our nuclear-powered electrical generating plants. Some of that fuel...quite a lot in some years... comes from the Ranger Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia. There is a publication, updated monthly, entitled 'Issues at Operating Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia'. In the issue dated March 11, 2011, there are several very sobering headlines, including but not limited to:
Water level in Ranger tailings dam nears limit.
Processing at Ranger uranium mill suspended for 12 weeks due to high water levels in tailings impoundment after heavy rainfall.
Yellowcake truck gets stuck in Kakadu National Park (a World Heritage-listed nature reserve.
Traditional Owners of Ranger uranium mine site alarmed by new spills into Kakadu National Park, call into question mine expansion project.
Since this last one is particularly fascinating in an 'unintended consequences' sense, let's look at a quote:
"Millions of litres of radioactive water from the Ranger uranium mine have flowed into internationally acclaimed and World Heritage-listed wetlands in Kakadu National Park. Traditional owners say they will oppose plans for a huge expansion of the 30-year-old mine by Energy Resources of Australia, unless the company upgrades outdated environmental protection procedures.
The Rio Tinto-owned ERA has tried to play down an alarming and unexplained spike in contamination in water flowing from the mine into Kakadu's Magela Creek between April 9 and 11, 2010, The Age can reveal. About 40 Aborigines live downstream from a site where a measure probe recorded up to five times the warning level of electrical conductivity, which is a measure of contaminants including uranium, sulphate and radium. Environmental group Environment Center Northern Territory has been shown evidence showing the spike, which ERA representatives said had originated upstream from the mine and was not ERA's fault. But, asked about the contamination, ERA admitted the source "could not be determined and investigations are continuing". "It is possible that these have come from the Ranger operations," it said. ERA's handling of the spike and other environmental concerns about the mine have strained its relations with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr traditional owners.
In another unreported mishap at the mine, in December 2009 a poorly-engineered dam collapsed, spilling 6 million litres of radioactive water into the Gulungul Creek, which flows into Kakadu."
So... does it matter? Does that population of 'traditional owners' matter? The report goes on and on, and includes a description of plans for an expansion of the mining operations to meet global demand for processed uranium yellowcake; those plans include "...a heap leaching plant, a tunnel under flood plains, a 1000-person accomodation village, 650 evaportation ponds and a one-square-kilometer tailings dam. The expansion would extend the mine's operation to at least 2021".
From a Buddhist perspective, there's only one possible reaction to news like this: Live off the grid! As long as we're sucking down electricity made from nuclear power plants, we're responsible for the degradation of the precious wetlands that sustain those natives in the national park. More later.
Namaste.
Kirk
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
please take a few minutes...
Those of you who see the New York Times regularly will recognize the 'Names of the Dead' column. I quote the entire column from page A14 of the Tuesday, March 22, 2011 paper:
"The Department of Defense has identified 4,430 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war and 1,493 who have died as part of the Afghan war and related operations. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans recently:
Iraq
HINKLE, Michael J II, 24, Senior Airman, Air Force; Corona, Calif.; 28th Communications Squadron.
Afghanistan
ACOSTA, Rudy A., 19, Pfc., Army; Canyon Country, Calif.; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
McDANIEL, Mecolus C., 33, Staff Sgt., Army; Fort Hood, Tex.; First Infantry Division.
MEIS, Christopher S., 20, Lance Cpl., Marines; Bennett, Colo.; Second Marine Division.
MICKLER, Donald R. Jr., 29, Corporal, Army; Bucyrus, Ohio; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
TOMPKINS, Travis M., 31, Staff Sgt., Army; Lawton, Okla.; 10th Mountain Division.
No comment necessary.
Kirk
"The Department of Defense has identified 4,430 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war and 1,493 who have died as part of the Afghan war and related operations. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans recently:
Iraq
HINKLE, Michael J II, 24, Senior Airman, Air Force; Corona, Calif.; 28th Communications Squadron.
Afghanistan
ACOSTA, Rudy A., 19, Pfc., Army; Canyon Country, Calif.; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
McDANIEL, Mecolus C., 33, Staff Sgt., Army; Fort Hood, Tex.; First Infantry Division.
MEIS, Christopher S., 20, Lance Cpl., Marines; Bennett, Colo.; Second Marine Division.
MICKLER, Donald R. Jr., 29, Corporal, Army; Bucyrus, Ohio; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
TOMPKINS, Travis M., 31, Staff Sgt., Army; Lawton, Okla.; 10th Mountain Division.
No comment necessary.
Kirk
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
fun Tuesday, with some cops for company
The day started with a beautiful walk. Dark, misting gently, a little early at Starbucks (they don't open until 5). Michael, a regular, explained in some detail how he's studying happiness... learning all he can before he begins to grow his prospering machine-tool company. He thinks happy people, or people who think of themselves as happy, will make the best employees. His job is to find those happy people. We talked a bit about the Bhutanese GHP, or the measure of national Gross Happiness Product. Imagine if our GNP was GHP? Susan suggested The Art of Happiness, A Handbook for Living, by the Dalai Lama. The jacket says, "Nearly every time you see him, he's laughing or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling". It's true, I think... despite a remarkably difficult and frustrating career, he does convince his audience that happiness is inevitable and that "the very motion of our lives is toward happiness". I think Michael will enjoy the book.
Then home for some breakfast (a quarter of a strawberry/blueberry pie!), a quick trip over to Elder to deliver Lyle to school, and... here's where it gets fun!... a journey to the Radiation Center on the OSU campus. Yes, fun! My poster says, on one side: Kill the OSU Nuke! and on the other side, Before It Kills Us! It was cold to be out there, and lonely... until the cops started doing their drive-by stuff. It took about 5 minutes for the first one to show up. An Oregon State Police guy in one of those nasty black growling muscle cars. He drove by at minimum speed, eyeing me and my potential to be a pain in the ass... mid-block he grabbed his mike and had a chat with somebody. Turn around, slowly slowly past me again. The nuke building is a 60s-era nondescript building directly across 35th St. from the EPA Oregon headquarters. Not much to look at. With a sidewalk running the full length of the south side, parking on the east, parking on the north, and 35th on the west. I was just pacing slowly, turning my sign for the traffic to see both sides, eyeing the cop. He drove off. Five minutes, another cop... this one from the campus police. Slowly slowly, talking on the radio, down to the corner, around again, slowly slowly past me again. Meanwhile, I'm speeding up a bit... too cold to be so slow. Sure enough, here comes another cop... full uniform, including hat, but in an unmarked car. Maybe this is why nukes are so expensive? A few people showed up for work, all on bikes (this is, after all, Corvallis). They read my sign and went inside. I lasted a bit more than an hour... then decided it was too cold to continue. I needed hot coffee, which I had hoped one of the cops would bring me... alas, they didn't think of it. Bummer.
You might ask why I was out there wasting my time. Good point. It's the ethics of the thing... the fact that the nuclear-reaction process, the heating of all that water to make electricity, leaves behind a waste that will be potentially deadly for thousands of years! What kind of legacy is that to leave for the next few hundreds of human generations? And they will have no choice in the matter. If they do not deal with our nuclear waste properly, they will die. They will rot. This is the reason we (Susan, Liv, Heidi and I) were at the Peach Bottom Atomic Station on April 7, 1988 to protest the re-starting of the two nuclear reactors located there... just 23 miles east of our farm in Norrisville. Those two reactors, by the way, were the same design, and roughly the same vintage, as the troublesome plants in Japan today. Anyway, we spent a day carrying the protest signs, and we went home, and they fired up the nukes. Ack!
An aside on the OSU nuke: A week ago I made two public-records requests... one for a copy of the building permit issued to OSU for housing the nuke (a fairly new technology in the early 60s, and one that must have confounded the Building Code guys in the city offices), and the other for a copy of the final sign-off papers on the completed building. No response yet from the city... but they're on deadline, and must respond this week. Ha!
The afternoon was warm (56!) and sunny, so we hiked the Old Growth trail just north of us in the Coast Range foothills. An afternoon devoted to Green... green mosses, green ferns, green trees, green leaves on the few spring wildflowers blooming this early. Ya just gotta love the greens of spring!
Kirk
Then home for some breakfast (a quarter of a strawberry/blueberry pie!), a quick trip over to Elder to deliver Lyle to school, and... here's where it gets fun!... a journey to the Radiation Center on the OSU campus. Yes, fun! My poster says, on one side: Kill the OSU Nuke! and on the other side, Before It Kills Us! It was cold to be out there, and lonely... until the cops started doing their drive-by stuff. It took about 5 minutes for the first one to show up. An Oregon State Police guy in one of those nasty black growling muscle cars. He drove by at minimum speed, eyeing me and my potential to be a pain in the ass... mid-block he grabbed his mike and had a chat with somebody. Turn around, slowly slowly past me again. The nuke building is a 60s-era nondescript building directly across 35th St. from the EPA Oregon headquarters. Not much to look at. With a sidewalk running the full length of the south side, parking on the east, parking on the north, and 35th on the west. I was just pacing slowly, turning my sign for the traffic to see both sides, eyeing the cop. He drove off. Five minutes, another cop... this one from the campus police. Slowly slowly, talking on the radio, down to the corner, around again, slowly slowly past me again. Meanwhile, I'm speeding up a bit... too cold to be so slow. Sure enough, here comes another cop... full uniform, including hat, but in an unmarked car. Maybe this is why nukes are so expensive? A few people showed up for work, all on bikes (this is, after all, Corvallis). They read my sign and went inside. I lasted a bit more than an hour... then decided it was too cold to continue. I needed hot coffee, which I had hoped one of the cops would bring me... alas, they didn't think of it. Bummer.
You might ask why I was out there wasting my time. Good point. It's the ethics of the thing... the fact that the nuclear-reaction process, the heating of all that water to make electricity, leaves behind a waste that will be potentially deadly for thousands of years! What kind of legacy is that to leave for the next few hundreds of human generations? And they will have no choice in the matter. If they do not deal with our nuclear waste properly, they will die. They will rot. This is the reason we (Susan, Liv, Heidi and I) were at the Peach Bottom Atomic Station on April 7, 1988 to protest the re-starting of the two nuclear reactors located there... just 23 miles east of our farm in Norrisville. Those two reactors, by the way, were the same design, and roughly the same vintage, as the troublesome plants in Japan today. Anyway, we spent a day carrying the protest signs, and we went home, and they fired up the nukes. Ack!
An aside on the OSU nuke: A week ago I made two public-records requests... one for a copy of the building permit issued to OSU for housing the nuke (a fairly new technology in the early 60s, and one that must have confounded the Building Code guys in the city offices), and the other for a copy of the final sign-off papers on the completed building. No response yet from the city... but they're on deadline, and must respond this week. Ha!
The afternoon was warm (56!) and sunny, so we hiked the Old Growth trail just north of us in the Coast Range foothills. An afternoon devoted to Green... green mosses, green ferns, green trees, green leaves on the few spring wildflowers blooming this early. Ya just gotta love the greens of spring!
Kirk
Monday, March 21, 2011
corvallis ungovernment...
I've been neglecting the local issues... the days seem to be so filled with news from Asia and Africa. But... act globally, act locally... is that what they advise? Anyway...
The main local issues right now, the ones needing immediate attention, are two-fold: The infamous Nelson Levy and the new Nelson 'fees' tacked onto our water bills. The feds, by the way, don't include local tax increases in their calculations of 'inflation'... if they did, our inflation rate would be impressive.
The fees are dumb, and should be rescinded. Especially the 'free bus' thing... if ever there was a service that begged for a 'user fee', this is it. Some of us choose to use the Corvallis bus. Great. Keeps cars and bikes off the road. But to expect everyone to pay my way to downtown... that ain't right. My advice to our very wise and intellectual City Council... rescind the so-called 'sustainability fees', let the bus riders pay for their ride, let us go back to the original situation regarding sidewalks and trees. The fees are dumb, unnecessary, and were not voted on by those of us forced to pay them. Taxation without representation... didn't that same trick start our last revolution? Is it time for another?
And the levy. The Nelson Levy. It will pass, I think, simply because so many of our fellow citizens stand to directly gain from the 'levy'. In another post, I suggested the fair and democratic approach would be for all city, county and school employees to burn their ballots. Let those of us who will pay the bills vote on the issue, and exclude the ones whose paychecks are directly affected by the Nelson Levy. The Nelson threats to shutter the aquatic center, the library and the senior center are just flat incredible. What a way to run a democracy! Dang! This Nelson character never in his life ran for office, yet he feels compelled to ruin our lives. Dang! Is that democracy?
Speaking of... I've requested information regarding the carbon footprints of the institutions in question. Back to user fees... why should everyone have to pay to keep the pool open? You want to swim... pay the fee and swim. The carbon footprint of the aquatic center, by the way, is pretty huge... haven't added the numbers, but it looks like some thousands of tons (again, thousands of tons) of carbon dioxide annually. Is that a good thing in a city that has pledged to make itself carbon neutral?
The solution: Sell the aquatic center to the highest bidder. Let it be run by a private-sector entity as a for-profit business. Take the money from the sale and invest it to pay for the operation of other city business... like, our beloved library. The City of Corvallis should never have gotten into the pool business, and it's time to admit that and move on. Meantime, we must defeat the Nelson Tax by whatever means it takes.
Note that there are two other pools in the city... the Timberhill pools(you want to swim? Pay and swim!) and the OSU pool (built for competition... so the teams that now swim at the city facility could just go up the hill and use the OSU pool, which is also a public facility). A win-win for all!
So my new motto: Sell the Aquatic Center. I'll write to the GT with the idea.
The library is an interesting subject. I don't have the carbon footprint yet, but I suspect it's horrendous (on an annual basis) with all the heating and air conditioning. Can we think outside the box for a minute? Let's sell the library too! First, consider the fact that there's a great library just up the hill, the Valley Library at OSU. For a dollar a year, you can use that library... read the periodicals, check out books, read 80-year-old PhD theses. Whatever. Please note: E-books are the future of publishing, and of reading. They're everywhere. You can carry 35 books on one little tablet (like the Kindle) in your bike pannier. Sit at your desk, download the book of your choice, read it and erase it (or the library, or the publisher, might erase it). Listen... if we're talking carbon footprints and climate-change, which I think we must, then 'the library' needs to evolve.
One important factor that would be missed in that plan is the books for kids. They're important. A comfortable kids' library is essential for our quality of life. So...sell the existing library and use the funds to establish a trust fund to finance and operate a kids' library in downtown Corvallis. There are lots of potential empty spaces available for very little money. Make the space kid-friendly (visit the Toy Factory for ideas), give the downtown a permanent economic boost (those kids and their grandfathers will be buying treats at New Morning and books at Grass Roots), and eveybody is happy! Think about it, please. I know change is difficult. I also know we must do some pretty radical stuff if we're to avoid the 'tipping points' that climate scientists are saying are right on our horizon. Let's get radical!
I'll address the Senior Center after I get the carbon-footprint data.
Enjoy this beautiful spring evening in Corvallis!
Namaste.
Kirk
The main local issues right now, the ones needing immediate attention, are two-fold: The infamous Nelson Levy and the new Nelson 'fees' tacked onto our water bills. The feds, by the way, don't include local tax increases in their calculations of 'inflation'... if they did, our inflation rate would be impressive.
The fees are dumb, and should be rescinded. Especially the 'free bus' thing... if ever there was a service that begged for a 'user fee', this is it. Some of us choose to use the Corvallis bus. Great. Keeps cars and bikes off the road. But to expect everyone to pay my way to downtown... that ain't right. My advice to our very wise and intellectual City Council... rescind the so-called 'sustainability fees', let the bus riders pay for their ride, let us go back to the original situation regarding sidewalks and trees. The fees are dumb, unnecessary, and were not voted on by those of us forced to pay them. Taxation without representation... didn't that same trick start our last revolution? Is it time for another?
And the levy. The Nelson Levy. It will pass, I think, simply because so many of our fellow citizens stand to directly gain from the 'levy'. In another post, I suggested the fair and democratic approach would be for all city, county and school employees to burn their ballots. Let those of us who will pay the bills vote on the issue, and exclude the ones whose paychecks are directly affected by the Nelson Levy. The Nelson threats to shutter the aquatic center, the library and the senior center are just flat incredible. What a way to run a democracy! Dang! This Nelson character never in his life ran for office, yet he feels compelled to ruin our lives. Dang! Is that democracy?
Speaking of... I've requested information regarding the carbon footprints of the institutions in question. Back to user fees... why should everyone have to pay to keep the pool open? You want to swim... pay the fee and swim. The carbon footprint of the aquatic center, by the way, is pretty huge... haven't added the numbers, but it looks like some thousands of tons (again, thousands of tons) of carbon dioxide annually. Is that a good thing in a city that has pledged to make itself carbon neutral?
The solution: Sell the aquatic center to the highest bidder. Let it be run by a private-sector entity as a for-profit business. Take the money from the sale and invest it to pay for the operation of other city business... like, our beloved library. The City of Corvallis should never have gotten into the pool business, and it's time to admit that and move on. Meantime, we must defeat the Nelson Tax by whatever means it takes.
Note that there are two other pools in the city... the Timberhill pools(you want to swim? Pay and swim!) and the OSU pool (built for competition... so the teams that now swim at the city facility could just go up the hill and use the OSU pool, which is also a public facility). A win-win for all!
So my new motto: Sell the Aquatic Center. I'll write to the GT with the idea.
The library is an interesting subject. I don't have the carbon footprint yet, but I suspect it's horrendous (on an annual basis) with all the heating and air conditioning. Can we think outside the box for a minute? Let's sell the library too! First, consider the fact that there's a great library just up the hill, the Valley Library at OSU. For a dollar a year, you can use that library... read the periodicals, check out books, read 80-year-old PhD theses. Whatever. Please note: E-books are the future of publishing, and of reading. They're everywhere. You can carry 35 books on one little tablet (like the Kindle) in your bike pannier. Sit at your desk, download the book of your choice, read it and erase it (or the library, or the publisher, might erase it). Listen... if we're talking carbon footprints and climate-change, which I think we must, then 'the library' needs to evolve.
One important factor that would be missed in that plan is the books for kids. They're important. A comfortable kids' library is essential for our quality of life. So...sell the existing library and use the funds to establish a trust fund to finance and operate a kids' library in downtown Corvallis. There are lots of potential empty spaces available for very little money. Make the space kid-friendly (visit the Toy Factory for ideas), give the downtown a permanent economic boost (those kids and their grandfathers will be buying treats at New Morning and books at Grass Roots), and eveybody is happy! Think about it, please. I know change is difficult. I also know we must do some pretty radical stuff if we're to avoid the 'tipping points' that climate scientists are saying are right on our horizon. Let's get radical!
I'll address the Senior Center after I get the carbon-footprint data.
Enjoy this beautiful spring evening in Corvallis!
Namaste.
Kirk
And... furthermore...
There is much good writing and thinking coming out of Japan these days. I'd like to quote Dr. Satoru Ikeuchi, a Japanese astrophysicist:
"Humans have become increasingly arrogant, believing they have conquered nature. Scientists and engineers have forgotten their larger responsibilities to society. Our excessive consumption of energy has somehow become part of our very character; it is something we no longer think twice about. We have fallen into the trap of being stupified by civilization".
'stupified by civilization'. That's a translation, of course, but I suspect it's very close to what he was intending to say. For a long time, I've felt that the arrogance of the scientific community was a very dangerous thing. It is next to impossible to criticize a scientist without some pretty nasty feedback... they seem to be threatened when we (the peasants) dare to complain about any scientific position. And this, I believe, is why Al Gore has failed with his climate initiative... the scientific community has no way to defend itself against critics except to say "hey, get outta my face. We're tellin' ya what is...". And so often time allows for changes in the 'scientic consensus', further casting doubt on the entire field. A damn shame.
Interesting proof of these doubts: We've heard from how many experts over the past week that there 'is no chance there will be negative health consequences for Americans from the Japanese nuclear situation'? The same theme... don't worry, be happy... as the plume spreads globally. Try this: go down to your local pharmacy and try to buy a batch of the stuff that is supposed to help us when we're exposed to the nasty (and invisible) products of the nuclear meltdowns. I called our local drugstore. They laughed at me. I asked where I might get some. "Try the web... but you're gonna pay a pile". So for any scientists out there: You folks need to put less energy into designing chemicals and more energy into finding ways to get the 7,000,000,000 non-scientists on Earth to believe in you and your work. Your lack of credibility is hurting all of us.
On an up note: Take a look at the NYTimes Travel section, Sunday, 3/20. The title is 'Asia Up Close 2011'. It's worth a look, even if you have no plans to be in Luang Prabang next fall.
Namaste.
Kirk
"Humans have become increasingly arrogant, believing they have conquered nature. Scientists and engineers have forgotten their larger responsibilities to society. Our excessive consumption of energy has somehow become part of our very character; it is something we no longer think twice about. We have fallen into the trap of being stupified by civilization".
'stupified by civilization'. That's a translation, of course, but I suspect it's very close to what he was intending to say. For a long time, I've felt that the arrogance of the scientific community was a very dangerous thing. It is next to impossible to criticize a scientist without some pretty nasty feedback... they seem to be threatened when we (the peasants) dare to complain about any scientific position. And this, I believe, is why Al Gore has failed with his climate initiative... the scientific community has no way to defend itself against critics except to say "hey, get outta my face. We're tellin' ya what is...". And so often time allows for changes in the 'scientic consensus', further casting doubt on the entire field. A damn shame.
Interesting proof of these doubts: We've heard from how many experts over the past week that there 'is no chance there will be negative health consequences for Americans from the Japanese nuclear situation'? The same theme... don't worry, be happy... as the plume spreads globally. Try this: go down to your local pharmacy and try to buy a batch of the stuff that is supposed to help us when we're exposed to the nasty (and invisible) products of the nuclear meltdowns. I called our local drugstore. They laughed at me. I asked where I might get some. "Try the web... but you're gonna pay a pile". So for any scientists out there: You folks need to put less energy into designing chemicals and more energy into finding ways to get the 7,000,000,000 non-scientists on Earth to believe in you and your work. Your lack of credibility is hurting all of us.
On an up note: Take a look at the NYTimes Travel section, Sunday, 3/20. The title is 'Asia Up Close 2011'. It's worth a look, even if you have no plans to be in Luang Prabang next fall.
Namaste.
Kirk
spring!
Just what we expect for the beginning of spring... the perfect mix of cloud and sun, the gently-leaking sky, the happiness of daffodils and bluebirds and little kids on bikes. And... special treat for me... I got to deliver my grandson to school, complete with the very cool rocketship he and his father made! Always a joy to see this boy, his school, his work. Being a grandfather is just the best!
Important note: The recent 9.0 quake in Japan bent the tip of the 1093' Tokyo Tower, a 50s-era skyscraper intended to celebrate the success of post-war Japan (the tower was built in the mid-50s). Could be a nasty job to straighten it?
We've all read about the wonders of quinoa. Virtually all quinoa is grown in Bolivia, that very poor land-locked South American nation that we hear very little about. Anyway, quinoa is unique in the plant world: an unrivaled balance of proteins and amino acids. It is not a grain; it's a member of the spinach family. Anyway, the reason we've heard of it is that it's a very cool food, easy to cook and to digest. We have a jar of it on our kitchen counter. We love it. So... guess what! As always, there are the unintended consequences... as demand (from rich Westerners like us) rises, the Bolivians are pumping nearly 100% of their production into the export market. Prices have soared, naturally, and so has the average income of the Bolivian grower of quinoa. But... hold your hat... chronic malnutrition has become a cultural plague as families substitute things like pasta and rice for the traditional staple in their diet. The poor kids are literally starving because their parents are selling their quinoa to us. Is this a complex world or what?
We're in another war today.
A bill passed by the New Hampshire House would reduce the per-pack of tax on cigarettes from $1.78 to $1.68. The effort is to increase sales, thus increase state tax collections. Is there something wrong with this thinking?
Time for my nap.
Kirk
Important note: The recent 9.0 quake in Japan bent the tip of the 1093' Tokyo Tower, a 50s-era skyscraper intended to celebrate the success of post-war Japan (the tower was built in the mid-50s). Could be a nasty job to straighten it?
We've all read about the wonders of quinoa. Virtually all quinoa is grown in Bolivia, that very poor land-locked South American nation that we hear very little about. Anyway, quinoa is unique in the plant world: an unrivaled balance of proteins and amino acids. It is not a grain; it's a member of the spinach family. Anyway, the reason we've heard of it is that it's a very cool food, easy to cook and to digest. We have a jar of it on our kitchen counter. We love it. So... guess what! As always, there are the unintended consequences... as demand (from rich Westerners like us) rises, the Bolivians are pumping nearly 100% of their production into the export market. Prices have soared, naturally, and so has the average income of the Bolivian grower of quinoa. But... hold your hat... chronic malnutrition has become a cultural plague as families substitute things like pasta and rice for the traditional staple in their diet. The poor kids are literally starving because their parents are selling their quinoa to us. Is this a complex world or what?
We're in another war today.
A bill passed by the New Hampshire House would reduce the per-pack of tax on cigarettes from $1.78 to $1.68. The effort is to increase sales, thus increase state tax collections. Is there something wrong with this thinking?
Time for my nap.
Kirk
Sunday, March 20, 2011
confusion not in short supply
Yesterday was devoted to another march... one of how many over my lifetime?... this one to mark the 8th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraqi war. In those 8 years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed by the American military effort. I have been a part of the problem: I have paid taxes to a government that has no conscience, and has killed in my name, using my money. For that I take full responsibility. I have not done enough to end this tragic chapter in our lives. I vow to do more for the children who have survived our rape of their country.
This need was stated, very very clearly, by Zahra Alkaabi, an Iraqi woman currently living in Portland and the founder of Save Refugees. She is dedicating her life to helping the victims of American aggression in her country. She spoke eloquently about the tragedy of so many civilians killed in the name of 'democracy'... estimates vary from 100,000 up to a million, and a large portion of those killed have been women and children. We've killed thousands of children in Iraq. Repeat: We have killed thousands of women and children in Iraq.
Ms. Alkaabi gave postcards to us, the marchers, preaddressed to Iraq and with space to "... write your apology and seek forgiveness for the destruction of the nation of Iraq." Wow.
I carried a cardboard coffin from the Corvallis Central Park to the Corvallis National Guard headquarters. It was about a mile. The coffin was draped with an Iraqi flag. Painted on the flag was the name of an Iraqi child killed by us. That was one long mile... about an hour (many halts for traffic because the march had not been sanctioned by 'official Corvallis)'. An hour to consider the complexities of being an American, being governed by wealthy people without the need for conscience. Who cares about Iraqi kids and women? Certainly not Obama... he has had more than two years to end the slaughter, yet we still have 50,000 combat troops and maybe double that number of paid ( thmercenariesey call them 'contractors'), more than a dozen huge permanent bases (specifically banned by congress), and the most impressive Embassy on Earth. We are guilty as charged by Ms. Alkaabi.
Fascinating to hear her start her talk. She gave us holy hell... couldn't believe that a city of 55,000 people could only muster 100 marchers, most the 'usual suspects' in Corvallis... retired, grey hair, the same crowd you see at every event. There were two young moms with kids, but it was cold and windy and I didn't envy them their situations with the babies. Tough. The march was well promoted in the local paper. Too much other stuff to do, I guess. We are a busy people, for sure. The Iraqi speaker wasn't looking for excuses.
So I was a total mess by the time we reached the guard armory. I put my coffin on the lawn and headed home... another two miles or so, enough time to consider the moral dilemmas involved with being an American. Damn, it's complex! But the walk was good, and I made it home without doing anything too dumb.
Part of the daily dilemma now is the Japanese nuclear crisis. Just for the hell of it, I dug out a couple of photos/articles from April l988. We (the four of us) were feeling threatened by the proposal to reignite the two reactors at the Peach Bottom nuclear facility in Delta, about 20 miles east of our farm. We had had a horrendous experience in March 1979 when the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant caused us to escape for a few weeks. Peach Bottom was even closer than TMI... very close, in fact, to the kids' schools... and the plant had been closed for a year because the night-shift control-room guys were caught napping, playing cards, and (maybe) smoking some kind of funny weed? The restart was frightening. So there we are, protesting with our signs ('Peach Bottom is the Pits'), engaged once more in a futile effort to change our world for the better. I quote one of the nuclear officials: "I can assure you that we will not seek permission to restart (the Peach Bottom reactors) until we are completely satisfied that the plant can be operated without presenting a safety risk to you, the public, or to our employees who will operate the plant".
Exactly what the Japanese heard up until last week.
I'll quit now. Oh... my book of the day yesterday was a classic Pearl Buck, 'The Big Wave', a beautiful description of how a Japanese community reacted to a tsunami. It really is a wonderful tale, told by a master and filled with hope and joy. And deep sadness, of course. Highly recommended. It's in the library under 'juvenile fiction'.
Kirk
Posted by corvallisgadfly at 11:15 AM
This need was stated, very very clearly, by Zahra Alkaabi, an Iraqi woman currently living in Portland and the founder of Save Refugees. She is dedicating her life to helping the victims of American aggression in her country. She spoke eloquently about the tragedy of so many civilians killed in the name of 'democracy'... estimates vary from 100,000 up to a million, and a large portion of those killed have been women and children. We've killed thousands of children in Iraq. Repeat: We have killed thousands of women and children in Iraq.
Ms. Alkaabi gave postcards to us, the marchers, preaddressed to Iraq and with space to "... write your apology and seek forgiveness for the destruction of the nation of Iraq." Wow.
I carried a cardboard coffin from the Corvallis Central Park to the Corvallis National Guard headquarters. It was about a mile. The coffin was draped with an Iraqi flag. Painted on the flag was the name of an Iraqi child killed by us. That was one long mile... about an hour (many halts for traffic because the march had not been sanctioned by 'official Corvallis)'. An hour to consider the complexities of being an American, being governed by wealthy people without the need for conscience. Who cares about Iraqi kids and women? Certainly not Obama... he has had more than two years to end the slaughter, yet we still have 50,000 combat troops and maybe double that number of paid ( thmercenariesey call them 'contractors'), more than a dozen huge permanent bases (specifically banned by congress), and the most impressive Embassy on Earth. We are guilty as charged by Ms. Alkaabi.
Fascinating to hear her start her talk. She gave us holy hell... couldn't believe that a city of 55,000 people could only muster 100 marchers, most the 'usual suspects' in Corvallis... retired, grey hair, the same crowd you see at every event. There were two young moms with kids, but it was cold and windy and I didn't envy them their situations with the babies. Tough. The march was well promoted in the local paper. Too much other stuff to do, I guess. We are a busy people, for sure. The Iraqi speaker wasn't looking for excuses.
So I was a total mess by the time we reached the guard armory. I put my coffin on the lawn and headed home... another two miles or so, enough time to consider the moral dilemmas involved with being an American. Damn, it's complex! But the walk was good, and I made it home without doing anything too dumb.
Part of the daily dilemma now is the Japanese nuclear crisis. Just for the hell of it, I dug out a couple of photos/articles from April l988. We (the four of us) were feeling threatened by the proposal to reignite the two reactors at the Peach Bottom nuclear facility in Delta, about 20 miles east of our farm. We had had a horrendous experience in March 1979 when the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant caused us to escape for a few weeks. Peach Bottom was even closer than TMI... very close, in fact, to the kids' schools... and the plant had been closed for a year because the night-shift control-room guys were caught napping, playing cards, and (maybe) smoking some kind of funny weed? The restart was frightening. So there we are, protesting with our signs ('Peach Bottom is the Pits'), engaged once more in a futile effort to change our world for the better. I quote one of the nuclear officials: "I can assure you that we will not seek permission to restart (the Peach Bottom reactors) until we are completely satisfied that the plant can be operated without presenting a safety risk to you, the public, or to our employees who will operate the plant".
Exactly what the Japanese heard up until last week.
I'll quit now. Oh... my book of the day yesterday was a classic Pearl Buck, 'The Big Wave', a beautiful description of how a Japanese community reacted to a tsunami. It really is a wonderful tale, told by a master and filled with hope and joy. And deep sadness, of course. Highly recommended. It's in the library under 'juvenile fiction'.
Kirk
Posted by corvallisgadfly at 11:15 AM
Friday, March 18, 2011
a good read...
I'm in the middle of a fascinating book: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. I quote:
"Indeed, what constitutes life? Day after day, we put up the brave struggle to play our role in this phantom comedy. We are good primates, so we spend most of our time maintaining and defending our territory, so that it will protect and gratify us; climbing... or trying not to slide down... the tribe's hierarchical ladder, and fornicating in every manner imaginable... even mere phantasms ... as much for the pleasure of it as for the promised offspring. Thus we use up a considerable amount of our energy in intimidation and seduction, and these two strategies alone ensure the quest for territory, hierarchy and sex that gives life to our conatus. But none of this touches our consciousness. We talk about love, about good and evil, philosophy and civilization, and we cling to these respectable icons the way a tick clings to its nice big warm dog".
"She's one of those who think that knowledge is power and forgiveness: If I know that I belong to a self-satisfied elite who are sacrificing the common good through an excess of arrogance, this liberates me from criticism, and I come out with twice the prestige."
"Henceforth, philosophy will claim the right to wallow exclusively in the wickedness of pure mind. The world in an accessible reality and any effort to try to know it is futile. What do we know of the world? Nothing. As all knowledge is merely reflective consciousness exploring its own self, the world, therefore, can merrily go to the devil."
As I said, I'm in the middle (or would that be 'muddle'?). The quotes come from the two primary subjects. Somehow it's hard to imagine where she goes with another 200 pages of this. Stay tuned...
The Japanese situation continues to worsen. As for the survivors of the quake/tsunami, I just cannot imagine how they go on... the cold is fierce, the shortages huge. And they will survive, mostly. I'll go light another candle. With all things interconnected, perhaps my candle will warm them. I sure hope so.
Heidi reports on a (perceived) shortage of salt in China. A run on salt! Her friend Wang managed to get two bags yesterday, despite long aggressive lines. What will be next? The 'famine' mentality runs deep in that culture, and will for generations more.
They're planning 10,000 more wells in the Delaware Basin to extract fossil fuel (mostly natural gas). The extraction companies will use the 'fracking' technologies. Unless we stop them. A good issue to learn about and actively oppose. Just Google 'fracking'... no shortage of reports and descriptions regarding this process.
Notice the lack of news about the NASA satellite dumped into the Pacific? Why no news? My conspiracy theory becomes more real with each passing day.
The daffodils are at peak. Grape buds fat, as are the blueberries and cherries. Another Spring! How blessed are we! Kirk
"Indeed, what constitutes life? Day after day, we put up the brave struggle to play our role in this phantom comedy. We are good primates, so we spend most of our time maintaining and defending our territory, so that it will protect and gratify us; climbing... or trying not to slide down... the tribe's hierarchical ladder, and fornicating in every manner imaginable... even mere phantasms ... as much for the pleasure of it as for the promised offspring. Thus we use up a considerable amount of our energy in intimidation and seduction, and these two strategies alone ensure the quest for territory, hierarchy and sex that gives life to our conatus. But none of this touches our consciousness. We talk about love, about good and evil, philosophy and civilization, and we cling to these respectable icons the way a tick clings to its nice big warm dog".
"She's one of those who think that knowledge is power and forgiveness: If I know that I belong to a self-satisfied elite who are sacrificing the common good through an excess of arrogance, this liberates me from criticism, and I come out with twice the prestige."
"Henceforth, philosophy will claim the right to wallow exclusively in the wickedness of pure mind. The world in an accessible reality and any effort to try to know it is futile. What do we know of the world? Nothing. As all knowledge is merely reflective consciousness exploring its own self, the world, therefore, can merrily go to the devil."
As I said, I'm in the middle (or would that be 'muddle'?). The quotes come from the two primary subjects. Somehow it's hard to imagine where she goes with another 200 pages of this. Stay tuned...
The Japanese situation continues to worsen. As for the survivors of the quake/tsunami, I just cannot imagine how they go on... the cold is fierce, the shortages huge. And they will survive, mostly. I'll go light another candle. With all things interconnected, perhaps my candle will warm them. I sure hope so.
Heidi reports on a (perceived) shortage of salt in China. A run on salt! Her friend Wang managed to get two bags yesterday, despite long aggressive lines. What will be next? The 'famine' mentality runs deep in that culture, and will for generations more.
They're planning 10,000 more wells in the Delaware Basin to extract fossil fuel (mostly natural gas). The extraction companies will use the 'fracking' technologies. Unless we stop them. A good issue to learn about and actively oppose. Just Google 'fracking'... no shortage of reports and descriptions regarding this process.
Notice the lack of news about the NASA satellite dumped into the Pacific? Why no news? My conspiracy theory becomes more real with each passing day.
The daffodils are at peak. Grape buds fat, as are the blueberries and cherries. Another Spring! How blessed are we! Kirk
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