Evidence on the Water

After finding our phone lines had been intentionally cut on Friday, we felt an epic hike would restore our understanding of why we work so hard to protect Whites Creek in the face of people whose "fun" destroys things they refuse to understand. Today was another day where one is called to go outside. We needed some restoration and renewal.

The visual symphony of the gorge is well documented photographically on this site, but there's always something new to discover or see in new light. We've been working on the trail up to this table rock and my photography can't begin to tell you what it's like to walk around behind the pedestal as you think about the massive sandstone rock supported over your head by the seemingly fragile stack of sedimentary rocks your hand is touching. Some of them are obviously loose.

The cliff above this level is the edge of the gorge. I believe it has the best view of any overlook for miles around, high enough to view Laurel Branch cut on the Rhea County side but still below the level of the traces of humanity on the far side plateau. You'll have to come out and see for yourself because the photos don't do justice, mine anyway.

Under the edge of the cliff is a huge overhang with the remnants of a stone shack. We've heard various stories about it. Whther it is the draft dodger's hide out from wars in the last century or a moonshiner's shack, it is in a magnificent south facing location worthy of the Anasazi on a smaller scale. The cliff side is home to a plant that John Muir paid notice to on his walk through Tennessee in 1867. This is the "round leaf catch fly" honoring us with a late season blossom. It is in the same family as "Fire pink" which blooms in the spring, and is carnivorous, catching midges and such in the sticky hairs on its leaves. This allows it to gather nourishment from the air, as it were, and survive on this otherwise inhospitable ledge.


Nature takes its course in the world, whether we like it or not. Descending from the rim of the gorge some 500 vertical feet above, I saw this downy white clutch of feathers floating in a leaf lined pool of water. Unreachable, even with the stick I was carrying to beat back the blackberry canes from my path, I wondered what bird they could possibly belong to?

Looking around the path I saw the answer, unusual as it was. One of the large hawks, probably a young redtail, had entered the food chain on an unfortunately lower rung than what it usually occupied.

A shrill "scree" call echoed through the gorge from above the trees as I studied the feathers and the fresh blood that told me this was a very recent death and possibly the mate of the bird circling and calling repeatedly above me. What predator could make this kill and devour the 3 to 4 pounds of hawk as well as the hawks kill that had held it vulnerable on the ground? I'm guessing coyote, and maybe more than one.

It's tough out there.

Peace,

Steve

Walk on November 5

These are views that few of my friends will go with me to see. It takes a 400 foot vertical hike to get to these spots but it's well worth it. The first is Rhea County seen from a rock outcrop in the back yard. Whites Creek can be seen at the lower left, some 600 feet below. The Sequatchie Nuclear plant at Soddy Daisy is on the far horizon but only shows as a small bump in this shot, thank goodness.

I see land advertised as "lake view" so I guess mine qualifies. That part of the lake is the main channel nine or so miles away. On a clearer day the Smokies sit on the horizon about 80 miles away.

This Morning's Walk

I was sitting on one of the house sized rocks on the edge of the creek when I noticed this sun bow. It's times like that in which I wish I was a real photographer with the skills and equipment to really capture the light. You'll have to make do with this for now.

This is the reflection of the intense morning sun at flat rock pool. I stared at this for way too long, meditating on things I will share with you later. The short version is that our efforts to protect Whites Creek and share it as a private natural area for everyone to experience are under attack by some very selfish and short sighted people. There are legal issues that keep me from saying more at the moment but I may need your help if this goes any further.

You can see larger versions of these shots by clicking on the images.

Scary Story

Lots of things keep me awake at night. Here's one that should keep every American restless until we fix it.

You know all those expensive fighter jets, missiles, smart bombs, attack drones, satellites, and other electronic equipment that the United States military relies on to fight battles and protect America? The computer chips that make them all do what we tell them are mostly made in Asian factories.

98% of the integrated circuitry inside American Military equipment is not made in America. This means that we don't have total control over what internal program can be built in to the chips. We are susceptible to the modern equivalent of the Trojan Horse, secret programming that can take over the equipment when triggered.

“Maliciously tampered integrated circuits cannot be patched,” General Clark wrote. “They are the ultimate sleeper cell.”

So our failure to Buy American has rendered our military vulnerable by allowing the possible takeover of our Military might by a foreign power.

But this is just a scary story and nothing like this has ever happened right?...Right?

A recent White House review noted that there had been several “unambiguous, deliberate subversions” of computer hardware.
“These are not hypothetical threats,”

Starting to worry yet? The obvious thing to do is contract with American owned and based facilities to build what we need at home, right? Buy American, right? Anyone against this has to be a traitor to America supporting America's enemies, right? Wanna take a guess who vehemently opposed to the very idea of "Buy American"?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The slogan "Buy American" makes good sense during a time when America is digging its way out of a recession that took 8 years to create. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has lost sight of who they used to represent, so they are spending millions to make sure that Americans ignore the slogan, "Buy American." The U.S. Chamber has hired Madison Avenue PR firms to discourage any "Buy American" trend

So has the US Chamber of Commerce been taken over by anti American sympathizers? Corporatists?

Is there any other conclusion that can be drawn by a rational person? I don't think so.

It's time to call upon our elected officials to protect us from all enemies, foreign and especially...Domestic.

Steve

PS: It should be noted that non-open source software in our electronic voting machines makes our elections as unsafe as our military equipment and far easier to tamper with. One must ask why the Tennessee Republican Party is so adamantly refusing to provide a paper ballot to prove how votes were actually cast in a recount?

Pick Your Side and Let's Fight

In the United States of America we treasure free speech in an odd way...We allow people and corporations the freedom to lie. This gets us in all sorts of trouble. We started a war in the Middle East on the grounds that weapons of mass destruction were moments from being fired at us, we have museums that show humans riding dinosaurs, a sacred book says that evil was introduced into the world by a talking snake, and a massive ad campaign that claims there is no such thing as human caused global warming. All of these statements have no basis in fact, though they do have a basis in belief created by the marketing department. Why do we, not only allow people to lie to us, but protect their ability to do so even with the obvious destructive consequences smashing us in the face every single day?

(Before some of you go off on me for that talking snake quip I ask two things...One: Open your bible and read the appropriate text word for word. Two: The mainstream church that I was raised in taught that many of the passages in the Bible were parables and metaphors, not necessarily hard fact.)

Now...

We have health insurance companies paying politicians (why do we allow this?) to sanctimoniously lie about a "government takeover of medicine" which no one in Congress has proposed. There are proposals for government takeover of insurance but that's different and I personally approve. Since the early 1990's the private insurance industry has quadrupled its financial burden on the American GDP and yet the average life expectancy of Americans has actually dropped when the effects of anti smoking campaigns are factored out. We're paying four times as much and it is not doing a damned bit of good on the whole left to the private insurance sector. Maybe you believe that the "Government can't do anything right" but I'll contend that the private sector has done far worse and is headed worser. If our system did not allow corporations to pay politicians to lie with impunity we would have a completely different medical system already.

My vote for greatest injustice to America is the systematic attack on the Scientific Method's most beautiful child, Critical Thinking. Science makes no moral judgement because it can't. Darwinian Theory is accepted by every rational scientist on the planet, not because it is a beautiful and elegant work, but because it has withstood every single critical attack ever launched by reputable scientists, who know that should they succeed they would be instantly elevated to the highest annals of human achievement and history. The H1N1 virus was not created 6000 years ago by magic. It evolved from its predecessors as predicted by scientists, warning us to get ready, well before it actually showed up in human populations. H1N1 is one of those successful mutations that Darwin told us about. The Scientific Method is giving us the means to combat it. This is fact.

Another thing that the overwhelming majority of scientists have predicted is Global Warming. This has been predicted and warned about since the middle of the last century as scientists noticed that industrially produced greenhouse emissions began to make up an increasing percentage of our atmosphere. They also noticed that free Oxygen, the one element in our atmosphere that we require for our immediate survival, is being reduced. No sane scientist wanted the greenhouse effect to be real. It was with hope against hope that the phenomena were scientifically evaluated with the awful truth emerging from every direction...We are killing our planetary ecosystem's ability to support human civilization in any form that currently exists. Scientists have also told us what we need to do in order to save our planet and ourselves. We have the vaccine under development at this very moment. The vaccine to protect us from unthinkable world Armageddon is so simple that we don't seem to be able to accept its reality. We can stop creating greenhouse gases.

Continuing on our current path will leave to our grand children and great grandchildren a vastly different planet Earth, upon which they may not be able to survive. This is what the scientists tell us. Currently the primary greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) makes up 390 parts per million in our air. This is too high for our planet to remain at its current average temperature and predictions are that it will go much higher under our current industrial path. In order to stabilize our planet we need to stop the increase in CO2 emissions and reduce them so that the ppm returns to a safe level of around 350 ppm. Anybody who tells you different is lying to you. The liars consist of mostly the energy cartels and their hired lackeys. Their hired lackeys consist of certain news organizations and certain politicians.

The question must be asked, "Why do these people want to wish Armageddon upon their blood descendants?" I think it is because not only are they lying to you and me...They are lying to themselves. It is because when normally rational human beings come together in the group think of a corporation they leave their souls and consciences outside the door. They sit around the Big Coal corporate table looking at each other and say, "Stopping this Global Warming thing will make us go bankrupt so let's pretend it isn't happening." No one sitting at that table whose country club membership and floor level basketball tickets are at stake will state the obvious..."But we'll destroy our planetary ecosystem!" They can't because they have abrogated their humanity and turned their soul over to a corporation which has none of either.

So look to see who tells you the truth about this. We can save ourselves and our children but we can't save the corporations who lie to us. Worse than that...It is us or them. The solutions are easy.

We will eventually run out of coal if we survive long enough to burn it all, but that is suicidal. The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of rocks. Humanity found a better way to make its tools. It is an ugly metaphor but fact that in America the people who relied on stone were over run by people who had moved on to iron. There are technologies, efficiencies, and conservation methods that could immediately cut our energy use in half. Solar energy has arrived and is actually now cheaper than coal if all of coal's externalized costs are added back in. Batteries need some work but are extremely promising. It is time to move away from coal and we can. We will have to choose this path. A a consequence this will destroy coal companies and energy companies who choose coal as their power source. It will greatly diminish the fossil based fuel and energy sector. Some very rich people will lose some money. It will save the Earth and its peoples.

Pick your side and let's fight. As for me...I choose fact and the side that reveres fact and rejects lies. I choose science and the side that studies science over ignorance. I choose Life for my children!

Courage,

Steve

350.org

Whoops there goes another Mountaintop

What is a mountain worth? And the clear clean streams that flow off its slopes, when the prize is the coal that is killing our planet?

Fall 09

Taken this afternoon in grey light. The creek is showing the limestone blue when the sun shines but it hasn't done that much these last few days.

I may post a few more shots later. It was a good day to hike and see the world. I love the light after storms.

"All Americans Should be Proud"

May I Introduce To You, Helen Philpot

I was going to write something witty about Republicanism and how they can't stand for someone else to be well thought of. I remember a well to do kid in the 8th grade who would stomp on your new shoes just to mess them up when you wore them for the first time, while bragging about his own shiny new ones then running away. This is kind of what is happening with Republicans and the Nobel Peace Prize. The last three sitting and former presidents who have won a Nobel were Democrats. The last Republican President got a shoe thrown at him. This is all observation and not particularly witty.

So I will merely take the lazy way out and suggest you go read this 80 year old lady's acerbic foray into wit and possibly keener observation.

I am not sure when it happened but the base of the Republican party either got lazy or stupid or both… or maybe they always were. It took me only a few minutes of research on the internet to learn that America spends more on healthcare than any other wealthy nation and yet we don’t live longer or have better health outcomes. So unless we just enjoy making health insurance companies rich, all those tea party morons need to use the internet for something other than ordering their penis enhancement pills.

Helen Philpot

Peace,

(Prize),

Steve

TVA tour

Southern Fried

What does a food editor for the NY Times know about Southern Fried Chicken?

Southern fried chicken is usually seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper. Once that fabulous crust is gone, it’s hard to ignore that the big hunks of breast are often as dry and woolly as fiberglass insulation, and the moister parts have a caul of flabby skin under the crust.

In the South I grew up in for a woman to cook "dry" fried chicken was a sin slightly less egregious than infidelity, which secretly engenders a certain clandestine envy. Not so the cooker of dry fried chicken who is universally looked down upon. A Certain food editor needs an invite to supper but I don't think it's going to happen after that crack.

From our "Why is it the Comedians who we turn to for Truth?" Department...When David Letterman was threatened with extortion he went to the authorities, came clean publicly, and somebody got arrested. This writer says the extortionist should have hired a lawyer to perform his blackmail so it would be completely legal.

Yep, I said legal.

Former President George W Bush told a sold out crowd in Sevierville that his strong Christian faith guided him during his presidency. On the same page as that headline is a story that notes the Afghan war is now 8 years old. I think I know W's problem. If we check that bible he claims to read (yeah, right) all the time I think it will be missing the New Testament and a few commandments, probably the ones about not lying and killing.

Peace,

Steve

60

Conservative Bible Project to Cut Liberal Passages...Bye Bye, New Testament

Jesus' life was spent improving the welfare of the poor and oppressed. He was against the death penalty. He provided free medical care for the poor. He was a pacifist. He associated with drunks and social outcasts to help them become better people. He forgave adulterers and prostitutes (but not so much the johns). He liberated women. He gave free food to thousands. He worked on the Sabbath. He railed against the money changers and usury and demanded that rich people give their money away for the common good, saying it would be impossible for them to get into Heaven in one piece otherwise.

Jesus was a huge Liberal. I mean...Who could follow a guy like that?

Some on the Right are apparently disturbed by the teachings of Christ and want him censored.

A Christian Evangelical Minister from Tennessee says Jesus was a staunch Progressive Liberal.

There...That should stir things up.

Peace,

Steve

The Lie Machine

For once it's not the comedians who tell America the truth...It's the magazine dedicated to Rock. You want the hard hitting truth on the Tea Baggers and the GOP you don't go to mainstream media, you go to Rolling Stone...

GOP operatives are running a secret campaign to kill health care reform, and it's based on Karl Rove's old playbook

...Conservatives for Patients' Rights, has direct connections to the health care industry. Its founder, Rick Scott, is the former CEO of Columbia/HCA...

"The Lie Machine"

Be sure to read up on the Frist Family connection to all this. Remember Columbia Health Care?

Quote of the Day

We asked for signs, and the signs were sent
The birth betrayed, the marriage spent
Yeah, the widowhood of every single government
Signs for all to see

I can't run no more with that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud
But they've summoned up a thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen

Sunday Reader

Quote of the day...

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda (You thought it was Karl Rove, didn't you?)

Here's another one...

"The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort the social processes it is intended to monitor."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/nine-myths-about-public-s_b_298664.html

That should get everyone stirred up.

Peace,

Steve

Monster on the Lawn

I found this monster on my office lawn just now...

A slightly less frightening view of the monster...

A Jolly Old Eft

This little guy looked fake when I first noticed him. The bulging belly tells me that the rains have brought excellent feeding for terrestrial salamanders. This one is almost large enough to make the transition from this eft stage into the adult newt colors and return to the water. They will begin mating just after mid winter. I've seen them swimming under the ice in river side pools.



Below is another local terrestrial, a red salamander. Unlike the young eft above, this guy is a great great granpa, maybe 15 years old or more.

Quote of the Day Part 2

"Politicians may be scared to push for radical reductions in emissions because some of the necessary changes to the way we live won't please voters," said Dr Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of the BMJ. "Doctors are under no such constraint. On the contrary we have a responsibility as health professionals to warn people how bad things are likely to get if we don't act now. The good news is that we have a positive message - that what is good for the climate is good for health."

Quote of the Day... South Park Edition

"I play myself, meaning the son of Satan, the spawn of evil," Rove said.

Remote Area Medical Care for Impoverished Third World Community

Nope...Not Rwanda in Africa. Rwanda has Universal Health Care, America doesn't. So where in the world will Stan Brock's Remote Area Medical organization bring their volunteer medical staff and equipment so that people who can't afford decent medical care can see doctors and nurses and get taken care of?

..That Would be Roane County, Tennessee.

Remote Area Medical

And go read this interview after you're through the initial shame of how we've turned over our country to big corporations. And while you're at it, think about the fact that you've learned this from me instead of your local big media outlets.

Think about that, will you?

Steve

Our Health Care Situation as it Stands Now

Quote of the Day

Knowing how right wing the Republican Party has become, my only bad moment with Barack Obama during the campaign was when he said he was going to be post partisan and I got post-partisan depression because I knew that that meant dealing with these people.

Who else but Barney Frank

The President and the Republican Money Ho

I was outraged and sickened when I heard Joe Wilson R-SC yell at President Obama last night as he spoke to the joint session of Congress.

This is a man doing his best to destroy civil discourse in America. His actions are un-American and anti- Democracy. I would be interested in seeing his donor list, wouldn't you? I suspect there won't be many people on it that have lost their jobs and their healthcare insurance along with it. I suspect there won't be many people who have had to file bankruptcy because of mounting medical bills caused by a catastrophic illness. I suspect there won;t be many people who thought they had insurance coverage only to get sick and find that their policy got cancelled on a technicality, even though they had paid their premiums for years. I suspect his donor list will not include the many people who have a job but want to improve themselves by advancing to another company but they can't because they have a pre-existing condition and will lose their insurance if they try to move. I suspect Wilson's donor list does not include anyone who is working but can't get insurance because they have a medical history. I suspect Joe Wilson's donor list will show that he is a whore for the insurance and healthcare industries.

And it does!



In calling the President "Liar" live on national television, Congressman Joe Wilson proved two things beyond any doubt...First, Joe Wilson is the liar. The President's statement that healthcare reform does not cover illegal immigrants is easily fact checked and absolutely true. More damning is the other thing that he proved last night...Joe Wilson does not represent the people of his South Carolina Congressional District...

He represents the MONEY!

Courage,

Steve



Here is the executive summary of the plan President Obama supports:

The President's Plan for Health Reform

“It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance.
It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care
for our families, our businesses, and our government."
– PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

If You Have Health Insurance,
the President's Plan:

• Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.
• Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age.
• Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.
• Caps out-of-pocket expenses so people don’t go broke when they get sick.
• Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money.
• Protects Medicare for seniors.
• Eliminates the “donut-hole” gap in coverage for prescription drugs.

If You Don’t Have Insurance,
the President's Plan:

• Creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.
• Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance.
• Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees.
• Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.
• Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national “high risk” pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created.

For All Americans,
the President's Plan:

• Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront.
• Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized.
• Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.
• Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.
• Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine.
• Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of reform.

Quote of the Day...Guess Who and Guess When

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

The Speech that Un-patriotic Un-American Creeps Don't Want Your Child to Hear

This whole "Be afraid of our President" thing disgusts me.

I'm disgusted, not because of the garbage that these right wing Republican creeps just make up (I expect as much), but because the American Media has completely failed us in the process and not only letting them get away with the lies but by carrying and amplifying their idiotic claims. This is an attack on public schools. This is an attack on America! This is a failure of the constitutional role that the Press is supposed to fulfill in our democracy. I'm tired of it.

Rather than point out the inaccuracies and absurdities and laugh at this idiocy, the Press allowed themselves to be played by right wingers, and used as a megaphone for outrageous claims. "The President is going to brainwash students with his speech." "The President should not be allowed to preach socialism to school children." Well thank you, American Media, for your contribution to freedom. "

Here is the speech that anti-American right wingers are afraid for their children to hear.

The real reason they are so afraid of President Obama's speech is that if their children actually listen to Obama they may realize that he is an intelligent, rational, thoughtful, coherent, voice telling them to work hard, study hard, stay in school, and that there are no excuses for failure.

A dangerous message, that!

Courage,

Steve

Quote of the Day

Only in nutzoid America can the president of the United States propose telling the nation's schoolchildren about the importance of a good education, encouraging them to study hard and resist drugs - only to have "concerned" parents and educational authorities try to silence him.

Sam Venable

Morning Walk

This is the view from the bottom of the cliff that is Walden's Ridge, the edge of the Cumberland Plateau.

I don't have a clue what this is. It's about a foot tall growing on an exposed cobble bar. I keep going through my book and just can't pick it out.

(update: Steve, the first one figures to be monkey flower (Mimulus alatus) but very blue. The second one could be shortleaf sneezeweed. That's quite rare in TN. It is known from the Obed area. Could you send a picture showing the whole plant including the lower leaves. Also check on the hairiness of the stem... Larry. I'll get new and better shots Tuesday afternoon. Second update...new shot of whole plant)

This looks like a short leaf sneeze weed, but I wouldn't put money on it.

I have to start taking my Nikon on these hikes. The fall wildflowers are going off and the little camera I keep in my pocket just can't get it done when I walk up on several Diana fritilary butterflies feasting on Joe-pye weed. Here's a couple that did work well enough.

This running fern. It does a great job of covering clay banks if they are moist enough. I plan to try to transplant some in a few weeks to see if it will cover one of the big cuts we had to make when we put in the fire trail.

We have been joking about this plant. It's a goldenrod that is, so far as we can tell, undescribed to science but it grows everywhere in the bottoms along Whites Creek. When a new species is described to science the discoverer also proposes a name for it. Botanist Larry Pounds identified it so we call it "Solidago Larryensis", although "Larry's Rod" has been suggested as the common name.
Larry's rod grows as a lush ground cover with the bloom stalk coming out of a rhizome instead of the leaf bunch.

Quote of the Day

art by R.J. Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch

"There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea.

But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be."

Ted Kennedy's oft spoken toast.

Who was Edward Kennedy and why do we care?

...in the end, moving eulogies and teary speeches are insufficient to truly honor the memory of the man. Ted Kennedy isn't worthy of all this praise simply because he was a nice guy, or because he'd been in the Senate for nearly 50 years, or because he was able to get along with Republicans, or even because he was a Kennedy. No, Kennedy's death hits home as hard as it does because of his unparalleled work to ensure that the basic social compact of his generation -- the generation which came of age in the New Deal -- would continue to be honored, even after the depredations of Reagan and Bush. That simple compact, which is as American as baseball and hot dogs, and which resonates today despite every attempt by the reactionaries to kill it, pledges: if you work hard and play by the rules in America, you have earned a decent life for you and your family.

There are a shocking number of people in America today who don't believe in the terms of that compact. They are heirs to an ancient tradition that the New Dealers and the Kennedys sought to extinguish, but which survived and reseeded and grew roots under Reagan and flowered in its majestic hideousness under Bush. And their compact is simple, too. Its terms are: "I've got mine. You get yours -- if you can, since I've got my boot on your throat." And the emptiness of so many of the words being spoken about Ted Kennedy today is highlighted by the fact that so many of them have emitted from people who fervently embrace this latter, soulless compact, rather than the humane compact which Ted Kennedy lived every day of his public life.

This piece is the best of several I've read, and that is its core. Please read the rest when you can.

But there is another quote of the day that we must take to our hearts, not just for today, but for all days...

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, and the dream shall never die"

Ted Kennedy

From our "Mainstream Media has Failed Us Miserably" Department

This is what the Sunday talk shows should actually look and sound like. Note the mainstream media guy, Chuck Todd, winds up seething for being called out as a wimp...

Todd was rather upset at being swatted around.

This almost makes me want to buy the HBO package to see Maher. Still..We have to ask why Face the Nation isn't this honest?

A Short Sermon on Healthcare Reform as a Moral Imperative

Roger Ebert, yes that one, is a cancer survivor. He delivers a beautiful essay on healthcare reform and why a moral society would ban together and push for the American Plan to provide basic medical service to every American. It ends with this quote...

...for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me."

Then they also will answer, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?"

Then he will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me."

This story goes badly for the folks who did not provide universal care.

Thank you Mr. Ebert

How can anyone support a Healthcare system where CEO's make more money when More people die?

You wouldn't leave fire protection in the hands of private bureaucrats who get to decide who lives or who dies based on how much money their CEO is going to make. So, why would you do the same in health care coverage? No, it is an essential duty of the government to protect the well-being of their citizens.

The best read yet...Just in time for Lincoln's Town Hall meeting

But At Least I'm Immature

One of those, you know, birthdays is coming. It's a big number. It's a sign of that big number that Bruce Springsteen is on the cover of AARP magazine. I am resigned to a number of things, including the fact that Springsteen is going to have a long career in rock and roll and I'm not. I am younger by a month, so nyah, nyah, nyah.

Americans in general live to the pitifully low age of 78, though none of the men in my lineage lived even that long. At this point in my tender young life I've lived longer than my father, grandfathers, and great grandfathers. The causes of death are mostly related to smoking, alcoholism, and gunshot wounds, and poker was involved in at least one case. The women of my ancestry lived a very long time, at least the ones who didn't smoke or play poker. I know they all drank, even if it was the secret nipping kind appropriate to country women raised in a fire and brimstone church. Gramma Ada kept an everlasting supply of moonshine and peppermint candy in the "frigidaire" for cough medicine and Grandmother Scarborough constantly baked bourbon balls for special occasions, which seemed to include such obscure holidays as Tuesday. According to current research these women were on to something.

The people who live on a Greek island of Ikaria live a long time. One third of them apparently have non pharmaceutically aided sex lives in their 90's. This has gotten my attention. I have vowed to adjust my lifestyle.

Ikarians drink herb teas, drizzle olive oil on everything and eat a lot of whole grains, fruits, and locally grown vegetables. They also stay up late, party a lot with an extended social network of friends, and take naps. So far, I'm totally in.

Cows are out. They mainly eat goat meat, some small amount of fish, and they drink goat's milk. This could be a problem. I have never milked a goat and don't think I want to. I will have to make up for that by going heavier on the sourdough bread which Ikarians smear with Greek honey. We're having trouble keeping bees going locally but we're working on it.

One other thing the Ikarians are big on is religious ritual. I'm not much on the religions I have looked into so far. I have difficulty with some of the concepts like holy communion, in which we are supposed to ritually eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus. I have that one filed under "Maybe....maybe not." The philosophical foundations of Christianity are wonderful, though... Love, forgiveness, renewal, caring for each other, and best of all, the imperative "Come...Let us reason together." What great stuff! Even if humans actually seem mostly incapable of reasoning together, it's a worthy goal. Why can't religious rituals be built on critical thinking games where we teach and practice reasoning together? Then after that we could stay up late partying and take naps the next day. I think it is time to found a new religion.

The major tenets of this new religion will involve staying up late, partying, and taking naps. On holidays we'll eat sourdough bread smeared with honey and ritually milk a goat. There will be six or seven official religious holidays each week on which we will bake bourbon balls and study cough prevention.

Works for me!

Peace,

Steve

Goons against Healthcare..."I know this script. I helped write it."

Frank Schafer apologizes for his part in creating the evangelical pro-life shock troops that are now being turned upon the very foundations of America by the Healthcare Industry. Is this how our march to fascism is going to go?

FreedomWorks represents a top-down, corporate-friendly approach that's been the norm for conservative organizations for years. How do I know this is the norm? Because I used to have strategy meetings with the late Jack Kemp and Dick Army and the rest of the Republican gang about using their business ties to help finance the pro-life movement to defeat Democrats.

I know this script. I helped write it.

Exactly!

Steven Pearlstein at the normally leans right Washington Post nails the tea bagger terrorists and their orchestrated disruption of town hall meetings on healthcare reform...

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems

.

Shark Week

Call 'Em

Busing in a mob to shout down other people's honest political discourse is not the tactic of a reputable political party with a plan to help restore America to its principles. Shame on the GOP!

This is what they've become...A tool of the worst actors in our corporate world, fanning the flames of racism with gross exaggerations and outright lies to maintain the exorbitant bonuses of the healthcare moguls.

Proud of yourselves, Republicans?

Fear and Loathing

Personally, I do not believe the rights provided by the Constitution of the United States of America should go to anything other than a person. I don't believe that at any point in American history we decided that corporations should be people. I do believe that every person in the United States should have the same amount of constitutional rights as everyone else. I consider it a serious flaw in the current manner of executing civil freedoms that we have allowed activist conservative judges to try and make Corporations into People with equivalent rights. A case currently before the Supreme Court of the United States would do just that.

I believe in limiting campaign contributions, period. I think that political campaigns are too costly and out of reach of many very good people who cannot serve in political office because they lack the massive financial backing necessary to win enough votes to their cause. The people who do get financial backing too often achieve that by becoming tools of money. Great piles of money reside with corporations in far greater amounts than with actual people...even the freakishly rich people such as billionaires. Corporations make annual profits in the tens of billions equal to the entire net worth of even our richest moguls. It is this corporate money that has made a mockery of that silly old phrase, "Government Of the people, By the people, and For the people."

If I had my way I would assign each citizen in the United States a certain amount of money that could be allotted to political campaigns. It would be rather small by current standards, say $2000.00 total. Spend it any way you like to promote your candidates. Some folks don't have $2000 to spare and some have $2 Billion. This way they would be more equal in the eyes of the Constitution, though not exactly. As it stands now, a person is limited to what they can give to a candidate and so are corporations, though the very fact that corporations and pacs can give any money to a political candidate offends me. These are not people. These are artificial creations that have no consciences. They have none of the human obligations to humanity that allow them to make moral decisions, and yet, conservatives want them to be able to donate as much money as they want to political candidates. This would allow them to game the system even more than they already do and destroy the last vestiges of humanity and morality that exist in politics. I agree there's not much left but it's all we got.

Until corporate entities grow consciences and responsibility to the greater human good...Until corporate entities can serve in our armed forces and die for their country...Until corporate entities can be jailed for crimes and executed for murder...Corporate entities must not be allowed to destroy our nation by crossing the palms of those Judases who would serve the corporate bottom line while nailing We the People to a cross standing upon the malevolent morass of fascism.

Corporate lackeys are even now disrupting town meetings, shouting down the free speech of others with venom and misplaced cries of 'socialism" in service to the corporations of industrial healthcare who feed on the people's misfortune, and at the very same moment they are crying "socialism" in the face of free speech, they are arguing the virtues of Fascism before the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

"The integrity of our legal system and future economic growth are at stake when law is for sale to the highest bidder, whether directly or indirectly. If the Supreme Court radically reinterprets the First Amendment to ban states and the Congress from regulating corporate campaign spending, our freedom - and the future of our market system - will pay an enormous price."

As Senate Republicans try to make the absurd case that Maria Sotomayor should not be approved to the Supreme Court because she will be an activist judge, they are applauding, at the same time, the potential actions of the worst of activism from the bench...Rewriting the Constitution to give corporations unlimited propaganda rights in the name of human free speech.

I loath those who would make this so. I am afraid of this. It will mean the end of America.

Courage,

Steve

Birthers...Traitors? Or Merely Fools?

If someone intentionally tried to thwart the workings of the United States government by fake documents and misinformation, we would normally call them “espionage agents” and try them for treason if they were exposed and caught. So what about the people who have several versions of a fake Obama birth certificate that purports to prove he was born in the Republic of Kenya and therefore can’t serve as President? Isn’t that treason?

The best of these forgeries has several versions, some better Photoshop products than others, but the funny thing about all this is that they are all so bad that they can only fool fools. The real Obama birth certificate has been released, examined, vouched for by hospital officials, and verified by birth announcements published in the local Hawaiian newspapers in 1961, a really nice touch that would be impossible to fake. So the question is not whether “Birthers” are fools, but whether those who are manipulating them should be tried as traitors to the very nation they claim their brand of virulent “patriotism” to?

Most of the websites that have sprung up surrounding this idiocy spew verbiage intended to support the birther premise and nothing to the contrary is allowed. Here is one that takes a critical thinking approach to the movement and not only blows it out of the water but makes the entire birther movement, including Lou Dobbs at CNN, look like morons.

http://nativeborncitizen.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/third-obama-birth-certificate-appears-in-court/

Rather than dwell on these easily manipulated suckers, I want to know why we aren’t going after the people who are trying to destroy the Presidency of the United States of America by producing fake documents, albeit stupidly and badly done documents?

The bigger problem with American journalism is only partly that a bleached toothed tool like Lou Dobbs is what passes for a legitimate journalist in today’s media. The real problem is that real journalists, who believe in their Constitutional obligation to deliver truthful investigative reporting, have been eclipsed by bleached toothed tools who are willingly manipulated by traitors.

This is why such an obvious movement for the greater good of all citizens, such as Heathcare Reform, is having such a difficult time becoming reality. If there such a thing as Truth Police and they had the power to stop the lies, we would already have a robust public option with everyone in the United States of America having basic health care insurance. Are those who are funding the anti health care reform propaganda traitors, or just insurance industry tools? Even more to the point…Is there a difference?

Peace,

Steve

Howard Dean nails the Health Care Opposition

More espionage in opposition to Climate Change legislation

Quote of the Day

"If only STUPID were Painful."

Whites Creek Palooza

Yesterday was the second annual play slash biological survey day in Whites Creek Gorge.

I lifted these images from Conservation Fisheries biologist Pat Rakes' camera. We had good water clarity but the big gar wouldn't hold still for their portrait. They constantly cruised around us like a swarm of attack subs with big teeth. This one is about three feet long but there were some that were much larger. I'll post more as I get time but for now, see how many of these you can identify..

Raising Money for the Fishes

A fine tasting!



Sorry you guys missed it. What a Hoot!
The Hackensaw Boys don't need to be plugged in to rock the house!

The Shady Grove Meadery was kept hopping as we tried to drink Mead like Vikings.

Cigna Exec: "Everything in Sicko is true!"

Read this next sentence, think about what it says and read it again, because it states in plain language what is wrong with America on so many levels:

"A Cigna executive says everything about Canada and England that was reported in Michael Moore's Sicko was true and that they made a costly and concerted effort to derail the message of the movie."

Now go watch this Bill Moyers interview on PBS...

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

Treason

The Whites Creek bald eagle babies have left the nest and are being coaxed from tree to tree by mom and dad. There's a lot of screeching and complaining from the babies and a lot of whistling from the parents. Some things are constant in the universe.

My walk last Thursday with a TVA botanist was fascinating. I was concerned that in rebuilding the access trail I might destroy one of the rare plants he has located but my fears were allayed. It's funny that the rare plants usually turn out to be rather abundant in the areas where they still have habitat, as is the case in Whites Creek Gorge. The goldenrod that may be so far undescribed to science grows all over the place. You can't go anywhere without stepping on some of it.

The big concerns I have are worries over water quality. When we have rain one of the larger tributaries, Piney Creek, has that old familiar smell. For now the creek can handle it but what if the problem increases in the future?

When we first moved into the gorge back in 1992, the creek was too cold to swim in comfortably until August. Now it's warm by early June. There is no one who lives in the country who doesn't have their tale of climate change. It's obvious to those who live their lives in touch with the land. I don't understand anyone who doesn't accept that things are changing seriously fast and not for the better. Paul Krugman steps out in public and says what has to be said about politicians who deny global warming because they get more campaign contributions that way. Krugman calls this an "Act of Treason."

...if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.

...Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual?

Yes, it is — and that’s why it’s unforgivable.

The rest of Krugman's essay

Perhaps "peace" isn't the correct closing after that,

Steve

To Fathers on Father's Day

Are you a biological Father, or are you a Dad?

"Let's admit to ourselves that there are a lot of men out there that need to stop acting like boys; who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child."

"Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."

"We need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what's going on in their lives.

"

Barack Obama

Waddyadu When U Ain't Gotta Job

And you graduated Cum Laude in the worst job market in 35 years?

You go kayaking!




O'Be Joyful Creek in Colorado.

Quote of the Day

A journalist looks at newspapers and why they are losing journalists...

...if Google can successfully sell ads based on a mere list of headlines, shouldn’t newspapers be able to sell even more ads based on a database full of the best local reporting to be had in a given monopoly newspaper market?

Except that the nitwits running America’s big newspaper chains laid off or ran off many of their best local reporters weeks, months or years ago, you know, to cut costs.

Bob Dunn

The Prophet

Obama spaketh, and it was good: "We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains," he proclaimed.

...Even as the people rejoiced at this good news, coal barons trembled in their temples of black gold. For a decade, these mighty extractors of wealth had been allowed to accumulate unto themselves enormous profits by exploding the tops off the peaks in Appalachia, the oldest mountain range in all the land. With the top third of these awesome, forested mountains reduced to rubble, the barons used giant machines to strip out seams of coal, and then they simply shoved the rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, burying the valleys and streams below. It was a desecration — but the love of mammon made it the law of the land

Hightower

Weekend Reading Assignment

Government agencies are what we make them be. Anyone who watched the Tennessee State combined hearing on the TVA ash-valanche would have been astounded to see the main line of questioning from our elected officials: "Why didn't TDEC regulations prevent this?"

TDEC is a state agency charged with enforcing the regulations passed by the State Legislature using the budget that the state Legislature gives it. You want Tennessee's environment to be healthy? Tell Dennis Ferguson and Ken Yager...Well, Ferguson anyway. Ken is bought and paid for.

This same situation holds true at the Federal level. We get the EPA that we demand...

Reading assignment

Devil's Beating his Wife

That's what we used to hear when it was sunny and raining at the same time. For the next two months the sun will set directly up Whites Creek gorge in order to make up for dipping behind the far ridge at 4 in the afternoon in the winter. This gives us a nice side light for late afternoon showers.

Honor those who Serve

I am touched by the respect and honor shown by these photos. They were banned by the Bush administration. We weren't supposed to see them. 

As it is, you and I must come to terms with the realization that we failed these fallen warriors by allowing ourselves to be mislead into an unjust war. That we failed them, however, does not diminish their valor. May we accept their gift to their country and consecrate their sacrifice with renewed vows to heal our world and protect it from the misuse of our own power. 

TVA Ash update

TVA skyline taken from Swan Pond Road...

Not having much luck out there...

Remember Swan Pond?

Everything is going great. Fish are even returning to Swan Pond. Here is a nice carp feeding in the crystal clear waters of a drainage ditch alongside Swan Pond Road. (Taken while the nice TVA officer was telling me I couldn't do that. I'm not exactly interested in talking to a TVA officer when I'm walking along a Roane County road, when he has his cruiser parked in the middle of it and telling me I'm blocking traffic. )

Sunday Funnies

A figurine found in the Danube valley in Germany may be the oldest representational art  found to date. It proves that 35,000 years ago humans, at least one of them anyway, had a thing for....

 Boobies. What else?

Industrial Solar?

This is a good thing and a bad idea, all at the same time. 

Governor Bredesen has announced a 5 Megawatt solar farm to be operated in conjunction with TVA and UT Knoxville, and will be funded by $30 million of stimulus money. 

The good part? It's a strong move into solar power production. 

The bad part? It's a continuation of the wrong kind of thinking where energy is concerned...Centralized production and distribution over a grid controlled by energy conglomerates. 

Half of the electricity produced in big facilities is lost before it gets to its end use point. What other countries have gone to is end point generation. Call it roof top solar. An efficient house can run quite well on 4 kilowatts of electricity. That takes a 240 square foot panel array (10 feet by 24 feet) which easily fits on most roofs. The excess is fed into the power grid and the power grid feeds the house in the traditional way when the sun isn't shining. A big solar farm means more power lines, more transformers, and more wasted electricity. 

So the purpose of the stimulus money is to generate dollar flow in our economy. Ask yourself is that purpose is best served by giving the money to a big corporation to build a generating plant so they can sell you electricity? Why wouldn't using the money to subsidize residential solar installations be the best of both worlds? Jobs would be created for installers and the suppliers of residential solar. The need for more giant powerlines would be averted. And frankly, a lot more electricity will be delivered to the end user with a decentralized generating array. 

We are seeing the bubbling to the surface of the struggle of big centralized power generating companies against residential wind and solar electricity generation. Remember in all this that efficiency, conservation, and protecting the environment are the enemy from the viewpoint of power companies. 

I'm with the enemy!

Courage,

Steve

Swine Catch Human Flu

The Canadian pork industry may be devastated by pigs that caught swine flu from a human...

It had to happen.