Merry Christmas to All

We're in the land of the Kea, a gorgeous and overly inquisitive bird.

This is one of the more common flightless birds in New Zealand called a Weka. This one was eating road kill and dodging cars at the last second like it was no big deal.

Arthur's Pass looking up the Otira river. The flowers are one of the Foxgloves, I think.
This is the Devil's Punchbowl falls, my first hike in NZ if you don't count the Christchurch botanical gardens.

Pororari river walk on Christmas morning...

I'm not used to looking up and seeing ferns as big as palm trees. There are some Hobbits in there somewhere.

The NZ Christmas tree grows all over the place. I don't know if people plant them in their yards or just leave them in place when they build the houses. There's no need to plant exotic ornamentals when the weeds look like this.

Merry Christmas from all of us. We wish you were here...And so do you!

Santa...Bad Role Model

Santa Claus is the only fictional character in the world with a higher recognition factor than Ronald McDonald. Children love him and dream of his visit to their home in the wee hours of Christmas.

In many cultures snacks are traditionally left for Santa. These can be cookies and milk or they can include a small snifter of brandy along with a few carrots and celery sticks for the reindeer. After a night of house to house careening around the planet and pounding brandy to stay warm, Santa is probably totally toasted as he sits in the driver's seat. Think about the structural soundness of your roof and the possibility of a drunken fat guy crashing a team of reindeer through your attic.

Santa is an obvious communist as well. I know of no more entrenched wealth redistribution system than his lavishing billions of dollars worth of merchandise upon children who haven't paid a dime for any of it, and thanks to those danged Liberals and their child labor laws, it is not even legal to make them work to earn that new play station, even though it was probably assembled by children in some Asian nation with sensible worker protection laws, like say China. Elves, you say? Yeah right. Santa wears a lot of red, have you noticed?

Santa's fat and proud of it. At least he hides one of his worst habits from the kids. He still smokes. You only catch him with his pipe on older traditional cards but we know it and he should own up to it. He rides around shouting at his poor reindeer drinking, feasting, and spreading the wealth like a madman, and what's with all the ho's?

I'm guessing that like so many other wives of celebrities, Mrs. Claus stays with the old coot for the good of the elves. There's no other reason.

All in all, except for that junk food thing of his, Ronald McDonald might be the better role model. Except he hangs around with puppets and children and no adults. Hmmm?

Cheers,

Steve

PS: There's even some research

"I Am Your Enemy"

Understanding brings a certain sadness and realization about the cowardice of those we elect and how our country works. It is a continuing theme of mine that we are being constantly lied to and that these lies are abetted by a disabled media whose main duty is to praise Pollyanna for emptying the chamberpots. Today's reading assignment is an insider's dish on why, in the fight for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way," It is the Joker who is winning.

I am your enemy. That you don't know this is understandable: after all, people like me prefer it that way. But until you understand just what you're up against and why, you're going to continue to lose, and look like fools in the process

.

No One is Going to Save You Fools

Since the Liberal Media Didn't Bring you This...

Just last week, Republican leaders in the House summoned more than 100 key lobbyists for the financial industry to a "pep rally," and urged them to redouble their efforts to block meaningful financial reform. Not that they needed the encouragement. These industry lobbyists have already spent more than $300 million on lobbying the debate this year.

You knew all that, right? That was a quote from your President, after all. As near as I can tell, our President is a kind, thinking, literate, bad ass dude, and a great leader. If only he had some courageous people to lead!

Yeah! I'm talkin' to you! I'm talkin' to you!

US Government Report: China's #1 Export to the USA...Unemployment

Want some scary stories to read? This will frighten you as much as anything ever. This is from a report by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission and frankly tells us where our jobs have gone...

China has consistently used the value added tax as an instrument of industrial policy, applying the VAT selectively to penalize imports and to encourage exports. The VAT, which has been adopted by 140 countries, including most industrialized countries other than the United States, is applied to manufactured goods at each
stage of production. China levies a 17 percent VAT on the value of most goods. However, this 17 percent rate is rebated selectively on exports and applied to all imports.

Ugly stuff and why have we stood around and let this happen?

Export-led growth policies pursued by China and other industrializing nations have inevitably led to excess capacity in many products, notably steel and automobiles, which has contributed to declining manufacturing jobs and production in
many market-oriented countries, including the United States. Problems arise for China’s trading partners as China exports its excess capacity at prices that the rest of the world cannot match. For example, in 2008, China accounted for 38 percent of the world’s crude steel production (about 500 million tons), compared to only 7 percent for the United States, and China’s excess capacity of steel is
greater then Japan’s entire yearly output.352 Such exports also exacerbate the global economic downturn, as China essentially exports unemployment

...

This is a long and wonky report but essentially says what the USA needs to do to turn around our employment picture:

Quit letting China steal our lunch!

The Report

And then there's this:

China’s Cyber Activities that Target the United States, and the Resulting Impacts on U.S. National Security

• The Commission recommends that Congress assess the effectiveness of and resourcing for law enforcement, defense, and intelligence community initiatives that aim to develop effective and reliable attribution techniques for computer exploitation and
computer attacks.
• The Commission recommends that Congress urge the administration to develop measures to deter malicious Chinese cyber activity directed at critical U.S. infrastructure and U.S. government information systems

.

Geez! There's report after report at this US Government web site that both scares and angers me. Pick a subject and read for yourself. We don't need to have a jobs summit. We need the gumption to do the obvious. Quit sending our manufacturing strength and jobs to China.

Dammit!

Steve

And now here's more scary topics posted at the links I gave you:

Among the topics addressed in the 367-page Report are:

China’s increasingly aggressive espionage efforts to obtain U.S. secrets and technology for the benefit of China’s military and its economy.
China’s stepped-up cyber espionage and cyber warfare capabilities that constitute a growing threat to U.S. computer networks.
China’s extensive use of foreign propaganda and China’s efforts to influence public opinion and policymaking in the United States.
China’s detailed industrial policy designed to attract foreign investment and production and to create “national champions” to compete on a global scale.
China’s use of subsidies and other trade-distorting measures in violation of its international commitments.
China’s role in the creation of the economic imbalances that that helped produce the global financial crisis.
The expansion and modernization of the Chinese navy and its effects on U.S. access to the waters around China and Taiwan and the likelihood of a maritime arms race.
The use of new and more sophisticated methods by Chinese authorities to control the Chinese news media and the Internet.
China’s activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia.
Mainland China’s increasing influence in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The effect of China’s policies on the economy of the upstate New York region.

Thought for Today

On a day when a peer reviewed scientific publication notes that Miami, Savannah, Charleston, and New York City will be underwater in before this century is done, and conservatives have come out with pro rape and anti abortion votes in the Senate as another 30,000 combat troops are being committed to Afghanistan, the number one news story in America is, "Tiger Woods Got Women...Lots of 'em."

I don't play golf. It seems like a stupid game to me. There's no defense and everybody gets their own ball. It's sort of a grandiose version of pitching pennies combined with a drinking game.

The highest endorsement players over the last few years have been Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who are seen as the good guys, and John Daly, seen as an out and out party boy, womanizer, and drunk. Tiger is undergoing a slight image modification at the moment. He's in trouble for getting caught using his driver in the rough.

Every day it seems another stunningly attractive bimbo pops up in front of the cameras playing a voice mail message from golf's golden boy. It remains to be seen how this will affect Tiger's billion dollar revenue stream of purses and endorsements. Publicly, sports and news pundits are "Tsk, tsking" about Tiger, but I've seen golf carts, and I know that they have spots for two golf bags and four beverage containers. You can try and tell me that male golfers as a whole are disappointed with Tiger but I know differently. They're thinking, "Dang! I've got to get me some of those clubs."

And I know danged well that Tiger's Nike golf shirts are flying off the shelf. That would be the ones with the slogan that says...

"Just Do It!"

Cheers,

Steve

Disclaimer: No Golf cliches were harmed in the making of this bog post.

Sunday Sermon from the Ministry of Truth

A caring message to the Conservatives sheep ...with sympathy: "Why don't you stop doing Satan's the Big Bad Wolf's work for him."

(I wish I had written this!)

We are sorry that you don't want your kids learning certain things. We are sorry that you are afraid and confused. We are sorry that you are angry and scared. We will try to make it better but it only works if you stop fighting us like it was good versus evil, because, dear Conservatives, liberals are on YOUR side, not the Pharisee establishment who couldn't pass through a needles eye.

We are sorry that you live in a separate reality, dear Conservatives, and we are doing what we can to make things better. Fortunately for all of us, there are some adults in the room now, people who don't fear monger with death panels and terror strikes, conspiracy theories and misinformation. The world WILL make progress, and we can't afford to do it without you. We can't have you fighting us tooth and nail anymore either. We can't afford to wait for you to figure it out, dear Conservatives, so we may have to go on without you, because our future is too important to screw up, and right now, you're not helping.

And that's just some of the punch lines. I invite you to read the rest.

Noble Bird

I got up a couple of hours before dawn to get this dinosaur going in the smoker. Four more hours and we'll be feasting.

Walk Over Williams Mountain

I'm afraid I don't get the ORV experience. Why would you want to ride a noisy machine right by tons of really cool things when you could walk and listen and experience them on every level? I was unhappy at seeing the ORV tracks that led down to this spring head. There are extremely rare plants that live in these micro ecosystems and one trip on a 4 wheeler could destroy all of them in one pass. This is the spring head on Williams Mountain above Whites Creek. My botanist friend has asked me to be on the lookout for a rare orchid that grows in spots like this.

This is the Williams Cemetery. I have no idea how that circle was drilled onto the rock headstone. In every one of these old remote cemeteries I always see the headstones that are spaced only a few feet apart. They lost a lot of children in early times. And by early times I mean less than 100 years ago. My maternal grandmother gave birth to 5 babies but only raised 3 children in deep rural Georgia. In parts of Tennessee, like Williams Mountain, it wasn't any better. There are four headstones in this photo and seven more of the small ones just out of the frame to the right.

You've Been Warned!

Gore brings The Crazy.

Slacker!

In his first ten months President Obama has miserably failed to live up to the accomplishments of his predecessor. He has allowed not a single foreign based terrorist attack on US soil nor has he cleared any brush on a fake ranch. In fact, Obama has only taken one week of actual vacation since he took office and he still conducted official duties during that time so does it really count? He has had several date nights with his wife, however, so maybe that should count for something, and he did build a swing set for his daughters on the lawn at the White House...But other than that, what has he actually done, besides personally meet with more leaders of foreign countries in his first six months than any other President in history?

Sure there's that restart of the nuclear proliferation talks, cutting the bogus star wars missile defense thing that would work just fine if our enemies would only put GPS transmitters on their nuclear ballistic missiles aimed at the USA. And well, he has upgraded the body armor for our troops from the lousy stuff they've had to use for 7 years, increased their pay, changed policy to pay the expenses of the families of our fallen warriors, ordered the government to start complying with the Freedom of Information Act, put restrictions on future lobbying by his staff after they leave, restricted lobbyist access to the White House, opened White House visitation records to the public, re-engaged in talks to protect the Arctic, engaged in climate change initiatives, re-committed to treaties to protect the Antarctic, worked to end the practice of providing tax incentives to companies who offshore American jobs, lowered drug costs for seniors, ended the policy of no bid contracts, ended the practice of having White House aides re-write scientific reports to support polluters, paid for redecorating the White House living quarters out of his own pocket, and ended the Bush war on medical marijuana. Sure there's that, but really...What has he actually done?

Has he announced that he plans to pull out of Iraq? Well yeah, and he fired the generals in charge of Afghanistan and ordered the new ones to go away and come up with a new plan that might actually work or a plan to withdraw if not. And then he may have actually prevented the collapse of America's financial system, but other than that, what?

Come on, I'm waiting...

This man is an obvious slacker who deserves his low approval rating by the American people of over three times that of Congress. I mean has the national economy showed positive growth yet? Well sure but only about 3.5% so far, what kind of turn around is that after an entire year of negative growth?

I mean when is Barack Obama actually going to do something?



Peace,



Steve


Lots of this was taken from here and there's plenty more than what I've mentioned.

Enemies Domestic

...energy and natural resources companies have lobbied Washington to the tune of $300 million in the first nine months of this year, above the pace of last year’s $387 million. Oil and gas companies and electric utilities accounted for more than two-thirds of the spending. Their lobbying to keep fossil fuels burning without any care for the planet swamped the lobbying by alternative energy concerns, which so far this year amount to $23 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Chamber of Commerce, America’s single-biggest lobbyist, spent $35 million in the third quarter alone and $65 million for the year, fighting meaningful climate change and health care legislation.

Enemies Domestic

How to Teach Difficult Ideas

This is a magical confluence of musical talent, intellect, and digital technology from Melodysheep.

It is a WOW moment for me...

More (and maybe even better)

Symphony of Science

It was 40 Years Ago Today...

Big stars for 25 years now, is it time for these two monsters of the screens big and small to come out??

They share a room, and a bedroom, if not a bed. They bicker like husband and wife. They frequently break out in song. One has a curious obsession with his rubber ducky.

To answer that burning question our cracked research team here at Whites Creek Journal has delved into tthis scandal and can now lay to rest a persistent entertainment industry rumor: Bert and Ernie, regardless of what Jerry Falwell's ardent followers might think, are NOT gay!

The proof is evident when one watches them perform in rehearsal. They cannot have sexual preferences of that sort because they cannot have sexual preferences whatsoever. The truth of the matter is that Bert and Ernie are puppets. They have no naughty bits. They simply do not exist from the waist down.

...the sexuality of other cartoon characters has come into question over the years. Anti-gay groups have accused SpongeBob SquarePants and Tinky Winky of the "Teletubbies" of harboring a homosexual agenda...

The fact that these characters are complete fiction seems to be lost on certain folks who still harbor the delusion that one may be recruited into a particular sexual lifestyle by reading the wrong comic books or watching TV a little too early on Saturday morning. Yes it's true that Batman spends more time with Robin than with Batgirl or Catwoman, even, but what does that prove?

Pee Wee Herman has a girlfriend as does Oscar the Grouch, though Oscar does live in a trash can with his pet worm, but hey...What does THAT prove? I'm pretty sure Oscar's girl friend was a sham. Happens all the time in Hollywood. Why do some people have lives so small that they even care? They should focus on the really big issues like instant replay in football and that floating pile of plastic the size of the USA in the Pacific Ocean. The personal persuasion of a fictional creation has about as much relevance to the state of the world as the real meaning of what those dark bits in Moose Tracks ice cream are supposed to represent. These questions are not for a child's world and Henson knew that. Instead he gave us characters with differences and empathy and taught us to love them. Stepping back and reviewing the body of work one has to accept that Jim Henson's creations are as great a force for the acceptance of our differences as any on this planet. It is a monumental force for good.

At any rate, today marks the 40th anniversary of the Muppets and I wish Jim Henson could be here to enjoy it. The creativity brought forth by the puppeteers has been marvelous and uplifting at times and raucously funny at others. If you have never taken a child to a Muppets stage show your life is the poorer for it. It's not too late. What a gift to the world.

Thank you , Jim Henson. Thank you, puppeteers.

Good night Ernie. Good night Bert. Must be fun to get through life and never have to wear pants.

Peace,

Steve

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?