Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Bats
Late Summer evenings push a lot of folks inside for their entertainment.
There's so much to see and hear outside, though, this is a great time to forsake the temptations of the wide screen and sit in the evening air and just listen.
It's buggy here and the price of tiki lamps has dropped to 2 for ten bucks. I don't actually think citronella works as a repellant but the smoke and fumes seem to confuse the various insects that dare to put me below them on the food chain. At any rate, with the lamps burning, there's a bit of light and fewer bugs.
We were hoping to hear the wood thrush but I didn't expect much since it had rained late in the afternoon. I heard a few calls from a distance but nothing close enough to really wrap my ears around. What I did notice were the insects themselves. Not biting but singing.
The annual cicada is the ubiquitous buzzing from the trees but there are lots of other insects that sing to us through out the day. The woods are never quiet and there are any number of songs, yes they are songs, playing accompaniment to our yard work. Even the folks who use pesticides can't kill 'em all. (We aren't purists but pretty close...a bug stands a pretty fair chance around our house) As we listened to the crickets, grasshoppers, and other singers, I watched the sky as the last of the birds flew back and forth over the creek and then saw the bats.
We have bats year round and the most common one is, I believe, the little brown bat, but I'm not to be trusted on my identification. In the winter we find them in the wood pile, but in the summer, they're everywhere. Tonight there were more of them than I can remember, and at times I can see over a dozen at once. Some of them fly within yards of me.
I can tell when they get something large as they bring their feet forward and curl up as they fly for just an instant. The back feet used as hands to stuff the morsel into a bat mouth, and then normal erratic flight resumes.
Eat well, boys and girls (Are there so many because the babies are flying now?...They only have one baby a year and can live longer than ten years, just so you know)
Watching them dart around, there seems to be plenty of food up there yards above the tiki lamps. I like bats.
Peace,
Steve
There's so much to see and hear outside, though, this is a great time to forsake the temptations of the wide screen and sit in the evening air and just listen.
It's buggy here and the price of tiki lamps has dropped to 2 for ten bucks. I don't actually think citronella works as a repellant but the smoke and fumes seem to confuse the various insects that dare to put me below them on the food chain. At any rate, with the lamps burning, there's a bit of light and fewer bugs.
We were hoping to hear the wood thrush but I didn't expect much since it had rained late in the afternoon. I heard a few calls from a distance but nothing close enough to really wrap my ears around. What I did notice were the insects themselves. Not biting but singing.
The annual cicada is the ubiquitous buzzing from the trees but there are lots of other insects that sing to us through out the day. The woods are never quiet and there are any number of songs, yes they are songs, playing accompaniment to our yard work. Even the folks who use pesticides can't kill 'em all. (We aren't purists but pretty close...a bug stands a pretty fair chance around our house) As we listened to the crickets, grasshoppers, and other singers, I watched the sky as the last of the birds flew back and forth over the creek and then saw the bats.
We have bats year round and the most common one is, I believe, the little brown bat, but I'm not to be trusted on my identification. In the winter we find them in the wood pile, but in the summer, they're everywhere. Tonight there were more of them than I can remember, and at times I can see over a dozen at once. Some of them fly within yards of me.
I can tell when they get something large as they bring their feet forward and curl up as they fly for just an instant. The back feet used as hands to stuff the morsel into a bat mouth, and then normal erratic flight resumes.
Eat well, boys and girls (Are there so many because the babies are flying now?...They only have one baby a year and can live longer than ten years, just so you know)
Watching them dart around, there seems to be plenty of food up there yards above the tiki lamps. I like bats.
Peace,
Steve
Monday, July 30, 2007
The flute in the woods
A friend asked if I heard wood thrushes at my house and I said I didn't think so. Then, at a supper here in the gorge right at dusk, she said "There's one!"
Conversation stopped for a bit and we listened to the bird do its thing.
It was a familiar song that had simply never had a name for me and now it does.
A wood thrush.
Each individual male wood thrush has his own song and it can sing two notes at the same time. I've been listening more intently to the songs...The vocalizations are fast, multi octave warbles. What a wonderful thing it is to be capable of self harmony. It is the pan flute of the Midsummer Night's Dream and it is common, but the next few weeks will hear it ending for this year, since the males will stop calling once their second brood of the year are completely fledged, from what I've read. And the boys don't seem to like rainy days all that much.
The wood thrush calls at first light and last light, causing one friend of ours to wear earplugs in order to sleep late with the window open. These are friends with houses close to the woods. Even suburbanites have wood thrushes, but I wonder how many ever hear the song?
Or how many, like me, have heard it all our lives and taken joy in it without giving it a name?
Peace,
Steve
Go here and listen to it sing. it's a Flash file so you have to click and click again.
Listen
Conversation stopped for a bit and we listened to the bird do its thing.
It was a familiar song that had simply never had a name for me and now it does.
A wood thrush.
Each individual male wood thrush has his own song and it can sing two notes at the same time. I've been listening more intently to the songs...The vocalizations are fast, multi octave warbles. What a wonderful thing it is to be capable of self harmony. It is the pan flute of the Midsummer Night's Dream and it is common, but the next few weeks will hear it ending for this year, since the males will stop calling once their second brood of the year are completely fledged, from what I've read. And the boys don't seem to like rainy days all that much.
The wood thrush calls at first light and last light, causing one friend of ours to wear earplugs in order to sleep late with the window open. These are friends with houses close to the woods. Even suburbanites have wood thrushes, but I wonder how many ever hear the song?
Or how many, like me, have heard it all our lives and taken joy in it without giving it a name?
Peace,
Steve
Go here and listen to it sing. it's a Flash file so you have to click and click again.
Listen
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Iraq Wins!
Champions of half the world...Now if only...
Celebratory firing of weapons was prohibited. NRA objects.
Celebratory firing of weapons was prohibited. NRA objects.
BAGHDAD -- Defying orders from authorities, revelers fired celebratory
gunshots and poured into the streets after Iraq beat Saudi Arabia to clinch its
first Asian Cup soccer championship on Sunday.
Mosques broadcast calls to
stop the shootings, which killed at least four people.
The Most Important Day In Iraq History
The Asia Cup is big!
It makes the Super Bowl look like a cheap publicity stunt. Rather than determine a championship between sports teams located in different cities in the same country, The Asia Cup determines a championship involving more than half the human beings on this entire planet.
The Iraqi Soccer team defeated South Korea and faces Saudi Arabia today, July 29, 2007, to determine who holds the Asia Cup for the next year. There are two possible outcomes...One of them could rock the very foundations of Iraq.
After Iraq defeated South Korea in the semifinal game, scores of people were killed and more wounded by two car bombs set off in the midst of celebrants. A few more were killed by random bullets joyously fired from the AK 47's that every man in Iraq seems to carry.
If you want to see what the NRA Gun Utopia looks like, here's a good example. In Iraq, They shoot people when they're mad...They shoot people when they're glad.
"I'd like to congratulate all my people in Iraq for this great victory," Goalkeeper Noor Sabri told reporters. "We know we are struggling inside Iraq..."
"Tonight was a huge victory for Arab football," said Brazilian coach of the Saudis, Helio Cesar dos Anjos. "I hope it will bring peace and happiness to the people of Iraq and also in Saudi Arabia."
Me too! I hope it will bring peace and happiness. Whatever happens, I guarantee somebody will get shot.
In the Middle East for this day, here is what really matters.
AS for George W. Bush, he can point to one thing and one thing only that is the sole good to come of his stupid stupid war...The Iraqi Soccer team got a new coach.
Peace,
Steve
It makes the Super Bowl look like a cheap publicity stunt. Rather than determine a championship between sports teams located in different cities in the same country, The Asia Cup determines a championship involving more than half the human beings on this entire planet.
The Iraqi Soccer team defeated South Korea and faces Saudi Arabia today, July 29, 2007, to determine who holds the Asia Cup for the next year. There are two possible outcomes...One of them could rock the very foundations of Iraq.
After Iraq defeated South Korea in the semifinal game, scores of people were killed and more wounded by two car bombs set off in the midst of celebrants. A few more were killed by random bullets joyously fired from the AK 47's that every man in Iraq seems to carry.
If you want to see what the NRA Gun Utopia looks like, here's a good example. In Iraq, They shoot people when they're mad...They shoot people when they're glad.
"I'd like to congratulate all my people in Iraq for this great victory," Goalkeeper Noor Sabri told reporters. "We know we are struggling inside Iraq..."
"Tonight was a huge victory for Arab football," said Brazilian coach of the Saudis, Helio Cesar dos Anjos. "I hope it will bring peace and happiness to the people of Iraq and also in Saudi Arabia."
Me too! I hope it will bring peace and happiness. Whatever happens, I guarantee somebody will get shot.
In the Middle East for this day, here is what really matters.
AS for George W. Bush, he can point to one thing and one thing only that is the sole good to come of his stupid stupid war...The Iraqi Soccer team got a new coach.
Peace,
Steve
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Apparently So
1. Vice President Cheney will have the electrical device that makes his heart work replaced today.
Is there a pacemaker that can be installed in the soul?
(Oddly, people close to the Veep claim his personality changed after he got his pacemaker in 2001...let's hope the new one fixes whatever went wrong)
2. A man stole a city truck in California and took off while being chased by the police. Tragically, two rival TV news helicopters collided while trying to video the chase. Authorities say they now plan to charge the truck thief with causing the deaths of the four men who died in the crash.
I guess that means we should charge Paris Hilton when photographers following her screw up and wreck their cars too?
Who do we charge with the murder of the more than 100 reporters who have been killed in Iraq. By the reasoning above, there are several suspects.
3. "When I look at today's world I have a worrying feeling about the growth of world disorder," former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev says.
He also says it's America's fault.
"I don't think the current president of the United States and his administration will be able to change the situation as it is developing now -- it is very dangerous," he said.
Gorbachev also says that this administration is wrong because it doesn't follow the will of it's own people.
We need a Russian leader banned in his own country to tell us that?
Gorbachev
Sometimes the journalists can't say it without getting mauled, but cartoonists can lay it right out there.
Saturday Funnies at Slate
Is there a pacemaker that can be installed in the soul?
(Oddly, people close to the Veep claim his personality changed after he got his pacemaker in 2001...let's hope the new one fixes whatever went wrong)
2. A man stole a city truck in California and took off while being chased by the police. Tragically, two rival TV news helicopters collided while trying to video the chase. Authorities say they now plan to charge the truck thief with causing the deaths of the four men who died in the crash.
I guess that means we should charge Paris Hilton when photographers following her screw up and wreck their cars too?
Who do we charge with the murder of the more than 100 reporters who have been killed in Iraq. By the reasoning above, there are several suspects.
3. "When I look at today's world I have a worrying feeling about the growth of world disorder," former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev says.
He also says it's America's fault.
"I don't think the current president of the United States and his administration will be able to change the situation as it is developing now -- it is very dangerous," he said.
Gorbachev also says that this administration is wrong because it doesn't follow the will of it's own people.
We need a Russian leader banned in his own country to tell us that?
Gorbachev
Sometimes the journalists can't say it without getting mauled, but cartoonists can lay it right out there.
Saturday Funnies at Slate
Friday, July 27, 2007
All America
Sitting in a conference room on the 17th floor in Nashville, I was listening to a presentation by a couple of builders who are producing energy efficient housing.
"For a 3-5% increase in up front cost, we have houses that use 40% less energy than what is currently being built in Tennessee." Then he laid the clincher on me..."They never run out of hot water...never!"
Ok, sign me up. ...Although now that both boys are older and have "serious" girlfriends their showers are much shorter and there's hot water for the Dad.
Payback on these energy efficient homes is less than 5 years, even on the ones that go to extremes to save energy. The first 40% is easy though and fairly cheap, with a 3 year payback. So if you build a house to last 30 years, why wouldn't you go with one that saves you money for the last 25-27 years of that?
We saw a graph of historical petroleum demand since the 1920's and noticed the only two downturns in usage...one driven by the OPEC oil embargo when we as a nation decided to conserve energy and one when the original CAFE mileage standards went into effect, when we as a nation decided to conserve energy.
So here's the bottom line...There is no oil shortage. it is artificially created by the marketing department and oil lobbyists. if we as a nation decide to conserve energy again, the price of gas will drop back to a buck fifty fairly fast.
If everybody goes out right now and inflates their tires to the proper pressure, gas drops to Two bucks in the next 60 days, unless Bush bombs Iran.
So I have come up with a new campaign slogan for presidential candidates. We should "Fight 'em over here" so we won't have to "Fight 'em over there."
So you know those air machines at the gas stations? The ones where it costs you 75 cents to air up your tires? I say pass a law making air free and rip those babies out and replace them with the good old American classic "Free Air" pump, and while we're at it...
How about let's bring back water fountains? Buying water in a plastic bottle for $5.16 a gallon seems to be the greatest of all American stupidities.
Peace,
Steve
For those interested in learning more, here is the nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for low energy homes. I'm thinking it's time for us to take this matter into our own hands.
"For a 3-5% increase in up front cost, we have houses that use 40% less energy than what is currently being built in Tennessee." Then he laid the clincher on me..."They never run out of hot water...never!"
Ok, sign me up. ...Although now that both boys are older and have "serious" girlfriends their showers are much shorter and there's hot water for the Dad.
Payback on these energy efficient homes is less than 5 years, even on the ones that go to extremes to save energy. The first 40% is easy though and fairly cheap, with a 3 year payback. So if you build a house to last 30 years, why wouldn't you go with one that saves you money for the last 25-27 years of that?
We saw a graph of historical petroleum demand since the 1920's and noticed the only two downturns in usage...one driven by the OPEC oil embargo when we as a nation decided to conserve energy and one when the original CAFE mileage standards went into effect, when we as a nation decided to conserve energy.
So here's the bottom line...There is no oil shortage. it is artificially created by the marketing department and oil lobbyists. if we as a nation decide to conserve energy again, the price of gas will drop back to a buck fifty fairly fast.
If everybody goes out right now and inflates their tires to the proper pressure, gas drops to Two bucks in the next 60 days, unless Bush bombs Iran.
So I have come up with a new campaign slogan for presidential candidates. We should "Fight 'em over here" so we won't have to "Fight 'em over there."
So you know those air machines at the gas stations? The ones where it costs you 75 cents to air up your tires? I say pass a law making air free and rip those babies out and replace them with the good old American classic "Free Air" pump, and while we're at it...
How about let's bring back water fountains? Buying water in a plastic bottle for $5.16 a gallon seems to be the greatest of all American stupidities.
Peace,
Steve
For those interested in learning more, here is the nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for low energy homes. I'm thinking it's time for us to take this matter into our own hands.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Hunting Witches
"If the White House does not allow the Justice department to enforce these citations, we can try them in the Senate, which I think could be very productive."
Harriet Miers is in contempt of Congress, you say? Just because she refused to show up and testify before a Congressional committee when she was subpoenaed?
Doesn't everybody know that Democrats can't subpoena Republicans? It's unAmerican.
It's all just a partisan Democrat charade to embarrass the President, as that quote above clearly demonstrates...Except for one thing...
It is from a Republican Senator.
"House Judiciary Committee ...have drafted for a vote Wednesday a resolution citing Miers and Bolten with contempt of Congress, a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and a one-year prison sentence."
Harriet Miers is in contempt of Congress, you say? Just because she refused to show up and testify before a Congressional committee when she was subpoenaed?
Doesn't everybody know that Democrats can't subpoena Republicans? It's unAmerican.
It's all just a partisan Democrat charade to embarrass the President, as that quote above clearly demonstrates...Except for one thing...
It is from a Republican Senator.
"House Judiciary Committee ...have drafted for a vote Wednesday a resolution citing Miers and Bolten with contempt of Congress, a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and a one-year prison sentence."
Peace,
Steve
Broadband For the People!
Nationwide Broadband is a big deal. Regardless of what Comcast and AT&T want. every citizen of this country must have access to a certain level of broadband internet and the sooner the better. I liken it to TV 60 years ago...Suppose the broadcast networks had said we're only going to broadcast to homes that pay us. The rest of the homes will be kept in the dark with no news or football.
No one would have gone along with that. We got to have our soaps, right?
Even third world countries are getting ahead of us in the broadband department with several concentrating on the various wireless systems which don't require hard connections to each house, and the latest systems can connect through walls.
So in Tennessee, we have 17% of the population who has access to broadband internet service, and don't bother to mention satelite service...so far it is totally unacceptable. 83% of us are in the dark.
Literally, as far as access to broadband. This is a travesty and something that could be easily corrected. Here is an open discussion, hosted by Open Left and Senator Dick Durbin, who says,
"Those who have already begun the discussion are already debating issues of broadband competition, as well as how we should define broadband. Others have raised the problem of states that have limited the ability of localities to provide their own service when the market doesn't. And there's a great deal of concern about consolidation in the broadband realm."Join the discussion at Open Left.
Peace,
Steve
No one would have gone along with that. We got to have our soaps, right?
Even third world countries are getting ahead of us in the broadband department with several concentrating on the various wireless systems which don't require hard connections to each house, and the latest systems can connect through walls.
So in Tennessee, we have 17% of the population who has access to broadband internet service, and don't bother to mention satelite service...so far it is totally unacceptable. 83% of us are in the dark.
Literally, as far as access to broadband. This is a travesty and something that could be easily corrected. Here is an open discussion, hosted by Open Left and Senator Dick Durbin, who says,
"Those who have already begun the discussion are already debating issues of broadband competition, as well as how we should define broadband. Others have raised the problem of states that have limited the ability of localities to provide their own service when the market doesn't. And there's a great deal of concern about consolidation in the broadband realm."Join the discussion at Open Left.
Peace,
Steve
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Half a Bucket
Tom Friedman may be the highest ranking political writer who hasn't the slightest clue about how the world works. I've given up trying to make sense of anything he puts out because it's mostly misleading blather with the emphasis on things that have no effect on the fate of the world. The sentences sound good but the ideas are vapid at best. He has become a joke in the serious world, with the well known "Friedman Unit" as the mystical time frame in which everything will be resolved. What he predicts never comes to pass but will, just as soon as another Friedman unit goes by...and then another...etc.
What puzzles me about Friedman, is not his deplorable lack of perception but that he doesn't seem to have much of an agenda except to keep his job. He doesn't serve the forces of evil, like say, Tucker Carlson, Novak, or any of the conservative columnist minions. Friedman is just plain wrong. I figure his actual purpose is lip service to the fair and balanced myth of modern journalism.
Problem is that you can't balance a bucket of crap on one side of the seesaw with a half a bucket of crap on the other.
Tom Tomorrow tells the story
Peace,
Steve
What puzzles me about Friedman, is not his deplorable lack of perception but that he doesn't seem to have much of an agenda except to keep his job. He doesn't serve the forces of evil, like say, Tucker Carlson, Novak, or any of the conservative columnist minions. Friedman is just plain wrong. I figure his actual purpose is lip service to the fair and balanced myth of modern journalism.
Problem is that you can't balance a bucket of crap on one side of the seesaw with a half a bucket of crap on the other.
Tom Tomorrow tells the story
Peace,
Steve
Monday, July 23, 2007
Getting back
Sitting on I 40...stopped. Slowly we moved up to the cause of the slowdown. Three State Highway Patrol cars were stopped in the middle of two lanes behind a semi that was in obvious distress. One trooper was talking to a man I presumed to be the driver while the other two stared at the truck. Three lanes of Sunday afternoon traffic were left to fend for themselves.
There were the usual jerks who jumped in front of everyone, making their own space by daring the other drivers to bend metal in the "three lanes down to one" melee. Then I realized what was going on...Instead of the troupers turning around and directing traffic around the wreck, they were watching a dogfight.
Fighting chickens and dogs is ugly business but it darned sure goes on all over this country, though more so in certain places and less in others. ( I just said that to be politically correct and give myself an out in case some irate chamber of commerce type confronts me, I've dealt with way too many Chamber types in the last week to feel good about them but why cause myself more problems, right? For you Chamber types who read this blog...I didn't mean you, silly..)
So the troopers, who never watch chickens attalck each other in seedy little tin roof and board pits down in Rhea County have turned to traffic events for entertainment. Wonder why it takes four of them to write a ticket for a headlight being out? They like to block up a couple of lanes and watch the fights break out.
Little old lady's will flip off a pro wrestler in certain situations, Sunday afternoon on I 40 with three lanes of cross country traffic trying to slither through one lane is perfect... guaranteed to provide hours of fun for a State Trooper on a boring summer day. No reason whatsoever for the two troopers who are chatting each other up and laughing to turn around and help referee a perfectly good game of interstate chicken.
As I sat there I noticed that the dash board thermometer had gone from 78 degrees to 89 and the radio told me that the oil in Iraq reserves has gone from being worth two trillion dollars at 17 bucks a barrel to 9 Trillion at 70 bucks a barrel. So why is Bush so reluctant to load up and leave? I switched to bluegrass as I waved to the troopers and got back up to highway speed.
An hour later, a hundred yards before the driveway, a bird flew up from the road and veered back and forth in front of me. I looked for the wing bars of the chuck will's widow and though about how large these night birds are. Turning up the hill onto the gravel drive I rolled into home as the last light of the day faded, fed the dogs the remnants of my road food supper, and wandered into the house for a few hugs. I'll check on the garden tomorrow morning.
There's a glass of wine and some conversation waiting inside the house.
Peace,
Steve
There were the usual jerks who jumped in front of everyone, making their own space by daring the other drivers to bend metal in the "three lanes down to one" melee. Then I realized what was going on...Instead of the troupers turning around and directing traffic around the wreck, they were watching a dogfight.
Fighting chickens and dogs is ugly business but it darned sure goes on all over this country, though more so in certain places and less in others. ( I just said that to be politically correct and give myself an out in case some irate chamber of commerce type confronts me, I've dealt with way too many Chamber types in the last week to feel good about them but why cause myself more problems, right? For you Chamber types who read this blog...I didn't mean you, silly..)
So the troopers, who never watch chickens attalck each other in seedy little tin roof and board pits down in Rhea County have turned to traffic events for entertainment. Wonder why it takes four of them to write a ticket for a headlight being out? They like to block up a couple of lanes and watch the fights break out.
Little old lady's will flip off a pro wrestler in certain situations, Sunday afternoon on I 40 with three lanes of cross country traffic trying to slither through one lane is perfect... guaranteed to provide hours of fun for a State Trooper on a boring summer day. No reason whatsoever for the two troopers who are chatting each other up and laughing to turn around and help referee a perfectly good game of interstate chicken.
As I sat there I noticed that the dash board thermometer had gone from 78 degrees to 89 and the radio told me that the oil in Iraq reserves has gone from being worth two trillion dollars at 17 bucks a barrel to 9 Trillion at 70 bucks a barrel. So why is Bush so reluctant to load up and leave? I switched to bluegrass as I waved to the troopers and got back up to highway speed.
An hour later, a hundred yards before the driveway, a bird flew up from the road and veered back and forth in front of me. I looked for the wing bars of the chuck will's widow and though about how large these night birds are. Turning up the hill onto the gravel drive I rolled into home as the last light of the day faded, fed the dogs the remnants of my road food supper, and wandered into the house for a few hugs. I'll check on the garden tomorrow morning.
There's a glass of wine and some conversation waiting inside the house.
Peace,
Steve
Friday, July 20, 2007
More Cafe
There's no reason on this Earth for Congress not to do what is right this time on CAFE standards for mileage. Let's push them to pass Markey-Platts, and not some wimp version of a bill that bends over for Big Oil and Big Auto...
here's the NY Times Op-ed
Here is a link to the National Environmental Trust’s webpage on fuel economy. http://www.net.org/fueleconomy/
Thanks so much for your help.
Marsha Blackburn
www.house.gov/blackburn
Jim Cooper
www.cooper.house.gov
David Davis
www.house.gov/daviddavis
Lincoln Davis
www.house.gov/lincolndavis
John J. Duncan Jr.
www.house.gov/duncan/
Bart Gordon
www.house.gov/gordon/
John Tanner
www.house.gov/tanner/
Zach Wamp
www.house.gov/wamp/
here's the NY Times Op-ed
Here is a link to the National Environmental Trust’s webpage on fuel economy. http://www.net.org/fueleconomy/
Thanks so much for your help.
Marsha Blackburn
www.house.gov/blackburn
Jim Cooper
www.cooper.house.gov
David Davis
www.house.gov/daviddavis
Lincoln Davis
www.house.gov/lincolndavis
John J. Duncan Jr.
www.house.gov/duncan/
Bart Gordon
www.house.gov/gordon/
John Tanner
www.house.gov/tanner/
Zach Wamp
www.house.gov/wamp/
Friday Bird
The swallows seem to like this guy. He's sitting on a sailboat about a hundred yards from where I'm typing.
Baby you can Drive My Car...But not very far
When I was a kid (some say I still am) I always heard that good old American know how...Knew how. Or could figure it out, given the least little bit of time and resources. So why did I have to look at foreign made cars to find one with the combination of amenities that I deserve in my old age, and gas mileage that planet Earth deserves or actually "has to have" real soon in order to survive?
Well the reason is that the unholy alliance of Big Oil and The Big Three wants it that way.
I understand why Big Oil wants to fight anything that might conceivably lessen the obscene profits the oil giants are wallowing in today. Exxon Mobil is now the 500 pound gorilla loose on the streets of the world...Or rather it is the first 500 Billion Dollar corporation, now the largest on this planet. That is a Half a Trillion Bucks of capitalization, folks. In my book, that's real money. The oil companies are in our pockets and will do what they can to stay there...Until we run out of oil, anyway.
The Big Three is another question all together. Why do General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler want us to allow them to keep building gas guzzlers? I don't get it. Thirty years ago, they railed against raising the CAFE standards for mileage because they said it would be "unfair" and hurt workers because the foreign car manufacturers had an unfair advantage in mileage.
Glad to see General Motors looking out and caring so much for the workers, aren't you? (Pensions? What pensions?)
Anyway, a lot of folks in America have finally come around to doing something about CAFE mileage standards by raising them up little by little to 35 mpg by the year 2020. The model of car I drive will have to get one more mile per gallon to comply. So will the wife's new car, which is far more luxurious than mine, but that's one lousy MPG sometime in the next twelve years.
It ain't magic...It's engineering and America should have the best on the planet, but GM and Ford, and whoever owns Chrysler right now, are trying to tell us, "America can't get the job done."
I don't believe it.
Republicans and Democrats jointly passed a reasonable CAFE bill in the Senate and a bipartisan bill called Markey-Platts is in the House ready to go, but the forces of Moving America Backward have two other bills that mess all this up, with industry loopholes, attacks on states' rights to set pollution standards, and, most disgusting of all, making it against the law to set higher mileage standards.
Why should it be against the law to set high gas mileage standards, I ask you? it's time for us to get involved.
Urge your House member to support the Markey-Platts bill and to oppose any legislation, such as a current proposal by Representatives Baron Hill (D-IN) and Lee Terry (R-NE)
Maybe GM can't get the job done...But America can!
Peace,
Steve
Well the reason is that the unholy alliance of Big Oil and The Big Three wants it that way.
I understand why Big Oil wants to fight anything that might conceivably lessen the obscene profits the oil giants are wallowing in today. Exxon Mobil is now the 500 pound gorilla loose on the streets of the world...Or rather it is the first 500 Billion Dollar corporation, now the largest on this planet. That is a Half a Trillion Bucks of capitalization, folks. In my book, that's real money. The oil companies are in our pockets and will do what they can to stay there...Until we run out of oil, anyway.
The Big Three is another question all together. Why do General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler want us to allow them to keep building gas guzzlers? I don't get it. Thirty years ago, they railed against raising the CAFE standards for mileage because they said it would be "unfair" and hurt workers because the foreign car manufacturers had an unfair advantage in mileage.
Glad to see General Motors looking out and caring so much for the workers, aren't you? (Pensions? What pensions?)
Anyway, a lot of folks in America have finally come around to doing something about CAFE mileage standards by raising them up little by little to 35 mpg by the year 2020. The model of car I drive will have to get one more mile per gallon to comply. So will the wife's new car, which is far more luxurious than mine, but that's one lousy MPG sometime in the next twelve years.
It ain't magic...It's engineering and America should have the best on the planet, but GM and Ford, and whoever owns Chrysler right now, are trying to tell us, "America can't get the job done."
I don't believe it.
Republicans and Democrats jointly passed a reasonable CAFE bill in the Senate and a bipartisan bill called Markey-Platts is in the House ready to go, but the forces of Moving America Backward have two other bills that mess all this up, with industry loopholes, attacks on states' rights to set pollution standards, and, most disgusting of all, making it against the law to set higher mileage standards.
Why should it be against the law to set high gas mileage standards, I ask you? it's time for us to get involved.
Urge your House member to support the Markey-Platts bill and to oppose any legislation, such as a current proposal by Representatives Baron Hill (D-IN) and Lee Terry (R-NE)
Maybe GM can't get the job done...But America can!
Peace,
Steve
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
Well not the Bay actually, but a tidewater creek. I'm working my way up to Fredericksburg for a board meeting and have landed in Cobb's Creek, VA for some time with the Mom in law. Could be worse.
I'm sitting near the steps down to a dock watching fish jump, gulls pester things, and ospreys fly around. There are a few crab lines set out but I didn't see them get checked this morning so the waterman must only come by every few days this time of year.
In this creek estuary, you don't need a weather report to know when a storm is coming because it will fill up with sailing yachts well before anything threatens to hit. Some of the boats are beautiful but they just seem to sit there, getting cleaned and varnished. One has folks living on it, which is against the rules, and the boat squatters also have an electric cord run to a vacant dock slip so they can steal power, which is against the law.
The home owner's association is all in an uproar, which they usually are anyway but this time they have a reason. The folks causing the problem don't seem to care. I guess they'll poach their electricity and space until someone runs them off and the they'll go poach somewhere else.
There are old houses spread out along the water here, and trees, and flag poles. Last time I was here all the flagpoles had American flags at the top. This morning only two of them are flying the colors and one of those has a Confederate flag just below the stars and stripes...
Nothing quite says, "Hey, Yall, Lookit' the bigot!" like the Stars and Bars.
As a child of the deep South, nothing surprises me in this regard, but I wish I could take away the fear that runs that flag up the pole. That fear comes from the same place that the fear of "terrists" comes from, and it serves certain powerful people very well. Oddly, though, that fear ultimately cripples those people who fly the flags of fear, whether that flag is just below the Stars and Stripes on a pole in the yard, or worn on a bumper as a "Fight 'em over there" sticker next to a yellow ribbon.
Peace,
Steve
I'm sitting near the steps down to a dock watching fish jump, gulls pester things, and ospreys fly around. There are a few crab lines set out but I didn't see them get checked this morning so the waterman must only come by every few days this time of year.
In this creek estuary, you don't need a weather report to know when a storm is coming because it will fill up with sailing yachts well before anything threatens to hit. Some of the boats are beautiful but they just seem to sit there, getting cleaned and varnished. One has folks living on it, which is against the rules, and the boat squatters also have an electric cord run to a vacant dock slip so they can steal power, which is against the law.
The home owner's association is all in an uproar, which they usually are anyway but this time they have a reason. The folks causing the problem don't seem to care. I guess they'll poach their electricity and space until someone runs them off and the they'll go poach somewhere else.
There are old houses spread out along the water here, and trees, and flag poles. Last time I was here all the flagpoles had American flags at the top. This morning only two of them are flying the colors and one of those has a Confederate flag just below the stars and stripes...
Nothing quite says, "Hey, Yall, Lookit' the bigot!" like the Stars and Bars.
As a child of the deep South, nothing surprises me in this regard, but I wish I could take away the fear that runs that flag up the pole. That fear comes from the same place that the fear of "terrists" comes from, and it serves certain powerful people very well. Oddly, though, that fear ultimately cripples those people who fly the flags of fear, whether that flag is just below the Stars and Stripes on a pole in the yard, or worn on a bumper as a "Fight 'em over there" sticker next to a yellow ribbon.
Peace,
Steve
Monday, July 16, 2007
Mystery
"I think they are carp," said the lady on the left as she looked into the water.
"That's not a carp," said the other one, "It's a tadpole"
"No it's not," said the first, "too big!"
I stood at the edge of the small lake in Montreat, NC admiring a fine crop of bull frog tadpoles happily munching the algae on the concrete walls of the dam.
Frankly, I've seen smaller carp.
I tried to get a short hike in on the Grey Beard trail but there was no place to park and I didn't have time to walk from the lower parking area a mile lower on the road. The activity at the parks around Montreat was entertainment enough.
"I still think they're baby carp," said the lady on the left, as I smiled at them and walked away. They had their mystery and who was I to take it away.
Peace,
Steve
"That's not a carp," said the other one, "It's a tadpole"
"No it's not," said the first, "too big!"
I stood at the edge of the small lake in Montreat, NC admiring a fine crop of bull frog tadpoles happily munching the algae on the concrete walls of the dam.
Frankly, I've seen smaller carp.
I tried to get a short hike in on the Grey Beard trail but there was no place to park and I didn't have time to walk from the lower parking area a mile lower on the road. The activity at the parks around Montreat was entertainment enough.
"I still think they're baby carp," said the lady on the left, as I smiled at them and walked away. They had their mystery and who was I to take it away.
Peace,
Steve
Friday, July 13, 2007
Crap on America
Ah yes. I see that once again, Florida is leading the way in reserving its legal system for the important things society needs to be saved from.
So if you crap on the American flag, you face a year in jail and a $1000 fine. But if you crap on America, the president commutes your sentence?
What this guy did was ugly. But to jail someone for dissing the flag of a country with a president who advocates breaking the law in order to continue to get away with, well, breaking the law...seems sort of out of whack with reality, doesn't it?
Our media serves up a never ending stream of crap like that. I say keep it on that little rack next to the checkout line where it belongs where the headlines read "Madonna adopts Alien Baby", instead of on what should be legitimate news programs.
Our evening news should not be about perverted sex.
I joke about republican sex lives but there's more to it than sex.
Actually, what I joke about is the hypocrisy of republican sex lives.
Hypocrisies like Senator Vitter speaking on the Sanctity of Marriage while paying hookers to bang him.
You bet We got video just for you "alien baby" people.
But I think republican puppetmasters choose screwed up people like Vitter to run for office for a sinister reason...Normal healthy people with normal healthy sex lives are much more difficult to manipulate into doing corrupt things from a position of power. If you're screwed up and Karl Rove has the goods and he calls you for a favor...What do you do?
Karl Rove will ruin your life.,,or he'll make you rich and get you millions in corporate campaign donations...An honest person would have trouble with that moral delimma...Someone like Senator Vitter (Cunningham, DeLay, Santorum, George Bush...yeah, him) is pretty easy to control.
Do the our dirty work and we'll make nice to you. Like this:
That comes from a well written expose of what Corporations mean to the American Political process and how Senator Vitter keeps getting enough money to pay for all those hookers. It's from Scholars and Rogues in a piece called "Forget his Penis, follow the money."
I think this is like the republican red herring strategy of "Look! a shiny object" while voting their friends massive federal contracts. Only this time the press is going "Look! A Penis!"
The truth of this matter is that immoral people do immoral things. Is perverting the American system of government by diverting tax payer money to your friends better than frequenting hookers? How about continuing to support an immoral and disasterous war? How about the lying under oath, standing in contempt of Congress, and perjury?
I say it's worse!
So who are the real criminals? The guy who craps on the flag?
Or the Republicans like Vitter who crap on America?
Peace,
Steve
So if you crap on the American flag, you face a year in jail and a $1000 fine. But if you crap on America, the president commutes your sentence?
What this guy did was ugly. But to jail someone for dissing the flag of a country with a president who advocates breaking the law in order to continue to get away with, well, breaking the law...seems sort of out of whack with reality, doesn't it?
Our media serves up a never ending stream of crap like that. I say keep it on that little rack next to the checkout line where it belongs where the headlines read "Madonna adopts Alien Baby", instead of on what should be legitimate news programs.
Our evening news should not be about perverted sex.
I joke about republican sex lives but there's more to it than sex.
Actually, what I joke about is the hypocrisy of republican sex lives.
Hypocrisies like Senator Vitter speaking on the Sanctity of Marriage while paying hookers to bang him.
You bet We got video just for you "alien baby" people.
But I think republican puppetmasters choose screwed up people like Vitter to run for office for a sinister reason...Normal healthy people with normal healthy sex lives are much more difficult to manipulate into doing corrupt things from a position of power. If you're screwed up and Karl Rove has the goods and he calls you for a favor...What do you do?
Karl Rove will ruin your life.,,or he'll make you rich and get you millions in corporate campaign donations...An honest person would have trouble with that moral delimma...Someone like Senator Vitter (Cunningham, DeLay, Santorum, George Bush...yeah, him) is pretty easy to control.
Do the our dirty work and we'll make nice to you. Like this:
"Sen. Vitter serves on the Committee on Environment and Public Works and its Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety. Energy PACs gave him money. Duke Energy gave him $10,000 for his Senate campaign. Centerpoint Energy gave him $3,500. El Paso Corp., which owns North America’s largest natural gas pipeline system, gave him $6,500. Entergy Corp., which seeks a revival of the nuclear power industry, gave him $7,000. Overall, the oil and gas industries have given him $459,085 and the electric utility industry $110,666."
That comes from a well written expose of what Corporations mean to the American Political process and how Senator Vitter keeps getting enough money to pay for all those hookers. It's from Scholars and Rogues in a piece called "Forget his Penis, follow the money."
I think this is like the republican red herring strategy of "Look! a shiny object" while voting their friends massive federal contracts. Only this time the press is going "Look! A Penis!"
The truth of this matter is that immoral people do immoral things. Is perverting the American system of government by diverting tax payer money to your friends better than frequenting hookers? How about continuing to support an immoral and disasterous war? How about the lying under oath, standing in contempt of Congress, and perjury?
I say it's worse!
So who are the real criminals? The guy who craps on the flag?
Or the Republicans like Vitter who crap on America?
Peace,
Steve
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Desperation Time
When religious nut jobs in the Bush Justice Department covered up the bare breasts of the Blind Justice statue, most people had to think it was weird. We were wrong...They're nuts!
The sexual perversity of conservatives is exceeded only by their hippocrisy, railing at gay marriage while soliciting prostitutes of every persuasion. When the layers of hippocrisy are pealed back, we see nothing but a concerted and malignant operation designed to do nothing more than keep defective and incompetent people in positions of power.
Blind Justice is a metaphor hated by Republicans. If all people were treated equally under the law it would mean the end of the Republican party as we see it today...dominated by corrupt corporatists, incompetent at serving their country as a whole, but fiercely dedicated to maintaining power at all costs in order to protect their inner circle from exposure and prosecution.
This is why the Bush Justice department has been subverted from a noble American institution, into a diseased vehicle for bringing false charges against "Their people" and sweeping heinous crimes against America under the table, and when that fails, there is always the commutation or pardon for those whose crimes are too blatent to ignore.
This has come to a historical moment.
I believe that yesterday's erratic testimony and refusal to testify, by fomer Justice Department official, Sarah Taylor has brought things to a head. Harriet Miers is supposed to testify before Congress today, but there's this from an AP story via Huff Po:
"President Bush ordered his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to defy a congressional subpoena and refuse to appear Thursday before a House panel investigating U.S. attorney firings."
The response is a very clear threat aimed back at the White House:
"...the courts have made clear that no present or former government official – even the President – is above the law and may completely disregard a legal directive such as the Committee’s subpoena. ...
"...A refusal to appear before the Subcommittee tomorrow could subject Ms. Miers to contempt proceedings, including but not limited to proceedings under 2 U.S.C. § 194 and under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives...."
Over half of Americans already believe it is time to impeach Dick Cheney, and almost half believe the same thing about President Bush. If Harriet Miers is forced to testify, or barring that, a public airing of the real reasons she was ordered...ORDERED...by George W. Bush NOT to testify, it will bring down this President.
It will come not a moment too soon.
Peace,
Steve
The sexual perversity of conservatives is exceeded only by their hippocrisy, railing at gay marriage while soliciting prostitutes of every persuasion. When the layers of hippocrisy are pealed back, we see nothing but a concerted and malignant operation designed to do nothing more than keep defective and incompetent people in positions of power.
Blind Justice is a metaphor hated by Republicans. If all people were treated equally under the law it would mean the end of the Republican party as we see it today...dominated by corrupt corporatists, incompetent at serving their country as a whole, but fiercely dedicated to maintaining power at all costs in order to protect their inner circle from exposure and prosecution.
This is why the Bush Justice department has been subverted from a noble American institution, into a diseased vehicle for bringing false charges against "Their people" and sweeping heinous crimes against America under the table, and when that fails, there is always the commutation or pardon for those whose crimes are too blatent to ignore.
This has come to a historical moment.
I believe that yesterday's erratic testimony and refusal to testify, by fomer Justice Department official, Sarah Taylor has brought things to a head. Harriet Miers is supposed to testify before Congress today, but there's this from an AP story via Huff Po:
"President Bush ordered his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to defy a congressional subpoena and refuse to appear Thursday before a House panel investigating U.S. attorney firings."
The response is a very clear threat aimed back at the White House:
"...the courts have made clear that no present or former government official – even the President – is above the law and may completely disregard a legal directive such as the Committee’s subpoena. ...
"...A refusal to appear before the Subcommittee tomorrow could subject Ms. Miers to contempt proceedings, including but not limited to proceedings under 2 U.S.C. § 194 and under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives...."
Over half of Americans already believe it is time to impeach Dick Cheney, and almost half believe the same thing about President Bush. If Harriet Miers is forced to testify, or barring that, a public airing of the real reasons she was ordered...ORDERED...by George W. Bush NOT to testify, it will bring down this President.
It will come not a moment too soon.
Peace,
Steve
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)