Category Archives: community

The ingenuity of organic farmers

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So…one of the members of the organic farmers group posted about an onslaught of bugs eating his plants–he petitioned for help.

The suggestions made me smile at their ingenuity:

–one suggested using grass clippings for the bugs to munch on so they would leave the good plants alone.

–adopt a lizard.

–put up birdhouses in the surrounding area (great idea!)

–spray a mixture of honey/sugar and lard/oil over the ground near the plants to attract wasps, hornets, and ants that are predators.

–another suggestion was leaving rotting vegetation around (straw, hay, grass clippings, wood chips) so the bugs would eat that instead, and if all else fails with an infestation…get out the dustbuster. Haha.

Finally, a member commented that one of the “pests” –-a pill bug — ate heavy metals….so there you go–nature taking care of the bad stuff.  Another mentioned that they are great soil builders, so you really want them around–you just need to provide something else, like the rotting vegetation, for them to munch on.  They prefer it over the new plants.

Just thought I’d pass this along for anyone else wanting to get away from the toxic chemical solution–

Teachers, the wage gap, and the nearly homeless

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Diane Ravitch has a blog up on one of the teachers involved in the Vergara case.  Ms. McLaughlin had replied to the “witch hunt” charges that she was a bad teacher…made by a student who also said there were five bad teachers and only one during her education–the one that wanted revenge apparently for being let go.

As I read the comments, the one by Chi-Town Res made me cry:

Yeah, and just wait until he hits retirement age and realizes that teachers with no union protections like me are exploited terribly. We are very low paid (and often hourly workers), don’t make enough money to get by on, let alone to save, have no pensions and are expected to live on about $900 per month from Social Security when we retire.

I could go live in a ghetto, since I will officially retire next month, because I can’t afford to continue living where I’ve been (renting) for the past 15 years, but I have no money to move. (Yes, homeownership was never an option for me.) Anyway, that’s the kind of income that even poor people in the ghettos can’t survive on in my area.

The reality is that I’m in arrears on my rent due to a further decline in my already low income and a high increase in my rent. I have applied to many places but I’ve been unable to find additional work. SS won’t actually start paying me until mid-September, my job put limits on our income and wouldn’t give me work for July, and I don’t qualify for unemployment compensation. I won’t get paid my measly wage again until the end of August. My landlord will not wait to be paid, and anyway I won’t get paid enough money then to cover back rent. I’ve been fighting becoming homeless for about three years now but, at this point, I have no more resources or anyone to turn to for help, and absolutely no one cares. So I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will lose everything I own and be put out on the street and homeless before the fall. The only thing that could save my life now would be winning the lottery, but that is an intolerable hope.

The truth is that I could never afford to really stop working either, but SS has a limit on the amount of income I can earn. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. No one fully appreciates the “I’m living on a fixed income” cries, because the elderly are not revered in our society. No wonder the suicide rate for seniors is high.

As problematic as unions can be, not valuing the protections that unions provide workers is extremely short sighted.

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Also noted in the comments was that one of the plaintiff’s lawyers was Ted Olson, who ended the vote recount and handed George W. Bush the presidency, against the American public’s wishes.  Blood is on his hands, as well, for the wars and the economic mess Bush left us in.

Be sure to click on the link for Diane’s original post on Ms. McLaughlin.  Really stunning to see how she is “witch-hunted” by those with their own agendas.  She seems to be an outstanding person with true caring about her students, as a good teacher needs to be.

From the link:

“Indeed, this whole Vergara trial was like something out of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” in China during the 1960′s. For those not acquainted with this, here’s primer: zealous students, under party leaders’ directions, would persecute their teachers. Kids would get their jollies as they put their teachers on a stage, put dunce caps on them, then screamed at them while forcing their teachers to bow their heads, kneel down, and confess their “crimes” and on and on…

These kids—appointed and empowered as “Red Guards” by Mao’s henchmen— would parade their former teachers through the streets…

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Diane has also put up a link to a short film clip on the red army of children that illustrates the terrible time.

(A side note~I got this weird message that Diane Ravitch’s site was “untrusted”.  Say what??  It’s on a wordpress platform…why would I get that message?  Is someone trying to interfere with the traffic to her site??)

 

The Onion: Charter Schools Lottery

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(hat tip Diane Ravitch)

The Onion has their usual satirical take on the Charter Schools lottery “system”.

“Between small class sizes, longer school days, individualized instruction, and superior college admission rates, charters provide amazing opportunities for students who don’t enter a convulsive state, fall into a coma, stop breathing, and cease all bodily functions during the admissions process.”

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bwahahahahahahaha.

Spot on.

It’s really sad that the article hits Charter snobbery at its heart….and the kids suffer most of all.

Fracking wastewater being pumped into wells

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Have these people completely lost their minds?

One New York state study found radioactivity in fracking waste water at 267 times the level considered safe for human consumption. Other studies found several cancer-causing contaminants in fracking waste water. The report cites arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, barium, chloride, sodium, sulfates, boron, benzene and radioactive agents.

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You might remember hexavalent chromium…it was the stuff used by PG & E featured in the movie, Erin Brockovich. 

It, as well as benzene, are known cancer causing agents.  Arsenic and lead, of course, are heavy metals that cause neurological damage and in enough amounts–death.

It is just mindboggling that the fracking proponents look the other way at the damage caused by the fracking process.  All that matters to them is getting the gas out of the ground, no matter the consequences.  Well, it has a way of coming back on you…quality of life goes down…healthcare costs go up…and each generation suffers more DNA damage.

IVAW statement on making VA political

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Iraq Veterans Against the War has this up on the republican-wrap-themselves-in-a-flag manipulative political game they’re playing.

When that stunt didn’t work the GOP blocked the passage of a bill that would have opened up 27 new VA health clinics, strengthened one of many health programs like sexual trauma care and gone far in reducing the benefits backlog. These are just a few of the many opportunities to improve the lives of veterans that political gamesmanship squandered.

“Why would Congressional members put Iran sanctions into a bill meant to care for so many veterans? The answer is that in the end members of Congress like Mitch McConnell don’t actually care about healing veterans.” said Matt Howard, Marine veteran and Communications Director of IVAW.

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Sickening, isn’t it?

And from the not-too-distant past, George W. Bush speaking out both sides of his mouth towards Veterans healthcare.

We have never gone to war without taxing the rich to support the war….so one has to ask why they were not taxed?

Blackfish backlash

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Members of Congress have paid attention to the orca documentary, Blackfish, and are now asking Secretary Vilsack for updated guidelines on marine mammals in captivity.

Well…it’s a start…but I would much rather see the whole practice abandoned entirely.  It is inhumane to take these animals from their natural habitat for our entertainment.

It’s sad to see that the Sea World employee lashing out at people speaking out against Sea World.  It was troubling to see Dawn Brancheau’s family speaking out against them, too.  Mindboggling.

My other posts on Blackfish and orcas.

Puget Sound group helping orcas.

 

 

CNN explores the backlash of Elliot Rodger’s misogyny

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Well, now…CNN still has some chops:

The former video of Elliot Rodger has been made “private” now, so one cannot view his rant on how deserving he is of women’s attention and sex.  One cannot see the blatant sense of entitlement. Nor his viewing women as objects for his personal pleasure.

I love that CNN explored this topic–one that women deal with on a daily basis, but has been ignored by mainstream media…well, ANY media, be it liberal or conservative.  Women’s concerns, up to now, have been ignored or if any attention is given to it, their concerns are belittled to be insignificant.  Elliot Rodger is a product of the rape culture–I’ll take what I want if she won’t give it to me willingly.

My other posts on rape culture:

Pamela Anderson

A father is harassed after his daughter is not only raped, but bullied afterwards.

Promoting rape culture in popular media.   And...joking about raping others….

The police ask “why didn’t you try to get away?” when she is beaten within an inch of her life.

In Steubenville.

In India.

In France.

In Australia.

Native American women, who, until very recently, could be raped without retribution.

Boasting about rape on social media.

They’re only raping prostitutes…

The alleged abuse of Terry Richardson….and how he’s allowed to get away with his predatory behavior by those that employ him and even praise him.

Lastly, the alleged abuse of Dylan Farrow by Woody Allen.