What a beautiful morning! The Goldfinches are just starting to change color from their winter camo to summer garish. We have two immature eagles chasing each other around. Oddly enough, the female seems to be the aggressor. (I knew it!) The book says it is time to start the spring plantings but we're still working on firewood for next winter. We are still cutting up storm downed hardwoods and I guess there is no way to use it all. Some of the trees are just too far back to get, but we'll stay warm enough as it is. Our house is not exactly solar all the way but it is designed to accept passive solar heating. On sunny days we have to remember not to throw more wood on the fire after about 9 am. The house will overheat if we do. I have to laugh at myself sometimes when I think about looking up and admiring my solar house from the warmth of my electric hot tub. I am not pure!
The SUV piece from the Union of Concerned Scientists drew a large response. Now I'll confess. We own five vehicles not counting the tractor. We live in a very rural setting. Well to be more honest we live a mile or so back in the woods. there is a rural setting back up the gravel road a bit. We have a 4 wheel drive pick up that does yard duty, a minivan that stays parked except for soccer transport and vacations, and three cars that do daily service. I wish there were some way around all these vehicles but there isn't at this point in America. We have chosen to go small as we can, use higher mileage cars and feel guilty. My personal car seems to average around 33 mpg and is still fun to drive. The thing is, I guess I can afford to drive whatever I want to but I don't. I have friends that I know are stretching it financially to drive Excursions and other beasts like that. Why do we do things like that? Here's the other kicker: The big ones are less safe, not only being more dangerous to everyone else on the road but to the people inside! Why would you knowingly choose to put your kids inside a more dangerous vehicle? I realize that the concept of global warming and environmental destruction is an abstract for most people but your children's safety should not be. Here's some feed back:
Steve-
I still think John Anderson (I think that's the right name.) had it right. A big part of his platform was to increase gas tax by 50 cent per gallon. Regardless of what W says, we cannot sustain current consumption levels, the current "American way". Either regulation or economics, in the form of taxes, need to come into play here. The true cost of gas is way higher than the current price at the pump.
Joe

Pat sends this one. It's a Kerry speech about the Republican atack on science. Nothing surprising here. Bush does the same thing to anything or anyone he doesn't like. Don't find WMD's? Get rid of Scott Ritter and David Kay. Don't like someone saying there are no "NUK-U-Ler" weapons in Iraq? Ruin his wife's CIA career. Don't like the General saying the Iraqi peace is gonna get a lot of American kids killed? Fire the General. Don't like the science? Rip up the text book and fire the scientists. Replace them with fundamentalists:
Written before the Union of Concerned Scientists report!

Click here: :: John Kerry for President - Remarks by Senator John Kerry Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center ::

And this one, which documents the distortion of science at the hands of George Bush:

1. There is a well-established pattern of suppression
and distortion of scientifi c fi ndings by
high-ranking Bush administration political
appointees across numerous federal agencies.

These actions have consequences for human
health, public safety, and community well-being.
Incidents involve air pollutants, heat-trapping
emissions, reproductive health, drug resistant
bacteria, endangered species, forest health, and
military intelligence.

2. There is strong documentation of a wideranging
effort to manipulate the government’s
scientific advisory system to prevent the appearance
of advice that might run counter to the
administration’s political agenda.

http://www.ucsusa.org/documents/RSI_final_exsum.pdf

Remember...Global warming doesn't exist, isn't happening, nope of course not...well maybe it is but it will be good for you. The Pentagon doesn't think so, neither does nearly every scientist on the planet, except for those working for the big oil companies and the Christian Coalition...and you know what? The ones working for big oil are getting scared too!

It is time for a top down change. Scientific research can not be compromised. We have to know the truth in order to be prepared to deal with what is coming for our children.

Brad sends this one:

This is a poll being conducted by American Family .So far, of the 17,000 people who have participated, 90 % favor John Kerry over GWB or Ralphy .
People who subscribe to American Family are typically pretty conservative . Interesting huh ? I am not certain if I should be surprised or not .

I'm not sure what this means, being a seriously non-scientific poll but I'll take good news where I find it!


Now! Just in case there are any of you who can sleep at night, try this one. I am no fan of Howard Stearn, by the way, and I cringe at what I hear in songs on broadcast radio. Howard Stearn isn't the point, however. Read down if you can and you'll find a good scary overview of the folks who want to take over your children's minds.

According to Newsweek, "As he prepared to run, in 1999, Bush assembled leading pastors at the governor's mansion for a "laying-on of hands," and told them he'd been "called" to seek higher office." And as Bob Woodward wrote in Bush at War: "The President was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God's Master Plan," wherein Bush promised, in the President's own words, "to export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil."

Now why doesn't everybody love America? Just because our President has promised Christians he will "export death and violence?" Christians want this? This is the Christian thing to do? Read on:

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/03/far04007.html

OK, lighten up, eh? At least we're getting some good jokes out of all this.

Courage folks,

Steve