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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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