Category Archives: four-leggeds

Fruits of Fukushima

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Where’s my fork…??

A picture speaks a thousand words….

It is so obvious to everyone but those in a position to do something that nuclear radiation caused this food to be deformed.

Wonder what it’s done to the animals, birds, insects, and the no-see-ums (microbiological growth in a normally healthy soil).

Wonder how this will show up with the women reproductively?

How many have now been diagnosed with either thyroid cancer or low thyroid or thyroid nodules?

Well, I did a little search and found this.  Good Grief, forty-three percent!!

They’ve found butterflies with abnormalities here.  Note that the scientists say insects are rarely affected by radiation.  This is significant.

I couldn’t find a specific animal they had observed for abnormalities, but I’m sure they’re out there.

Bill Gates hasn’t destroyed public education yet….

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…but damn,he sure is trying with everything he’s got.

<sigh>  I was all ready to rip into Gates once again… but I’m halfway through the article of Chronicles of Higher Education….and this one sentence that Gates “just wants to get more people through the system with college degrees so that it will lift them out of poverty…”

bwahahahaha.  That’s rich.

Then, further down, they disclose that Gates Foundation is supporting the Chronicles of Higher Education financially.  I think I’ve already read that somewhere, but alas, the brain didn’t bring it up…the article is clearly a promo by Gates…so yeah….

So…I’ll have to refer to previous blogs on Gates…

Here.

Here. Silencing teachers.

Here. Supporting Brookings Institute that dismissed Diane Ravitch

Here. Not content with just controlling education, but the food supply, as well.

Here.

Food is….Life…and Love…

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I love this!  Instead of encouraging women to break the glass ceiling in the corporate world, here is an article about them breaking into farming–traditionally viewed as a man’s work.  (Although anybody who knows farmers know that the the entire family helps and that women had traditionally helped in the fields, along with taking care of the household.  You know the old tale that great grandma gave birth in the morning and plowed the back forty in the afternoon…)

Farming means independence in so many ways–owning your own land, growing not only your own food, but earning bucks selling to others, playing in the dirt is always fun :), and just being out in the fresh air uplifts the spirit.   During the last Depression, folks were very poor, but they could still feed themselves if they had enough land to grow food.  This time around, things have changed….making people more dependent on food stamps, IMO.

When I worked on the farm that summer a few years ago, it was such a great experience.  I could be planting, when a butterfly floats by…or a grasshopper hops past…we would see clouds rolling in and wait until the last possible moment to make a run for it.  If it wasn’t lightening out, we would just continue to work (as long as it wasn’t a downpour).  Just being out in the fresh air away from office cubicles (and office politics) is so freeing.

And if you needed to, you could bend the farm schedule around the family needs.  And then there is the sense of community that is a part of farming–farmers know one another and will help another out.  I’ve heard stories of a farmer being injured and unable to get the crop harvested, which would mean losing the crop, their income and their farm…and the other farmers would come to his aid and harvest the crop.

And the wonder of watching a seed planted grow and eventually produce food is nothing short of a miracle.  You never know when drought will occur, when torrential downpours will wash things out, or when overbearing heat will scorch the plants….and on…farming is not for the faint of heart.  It’s an art. A craft borne of experience.

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Here is a neat story on a man from Bangladesh whom now calls the U.S. home.  He started his own restaurant and began growing fresh food to supply the restaurant.  He wanted to expand that with emphasis on food justice and found it with the help of Julia Nerbonne of the HECUA (Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs).  This ambitious project seeks to have fresh food brought to restaurants from nearby farms…and I love the idea of rickshaws bringing it to market.  As the story states, though, winter is the hard part–not only the end of growing season, but difficulty in transporting food to the restaurant.  It’s an interesting idea that I hope grows and takes hold.

Here’s to good food! And the farms that do it sustainably!

 

 

Growing concern over super bugs and super weeds

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common dreams has this link up on the octopus of GMO corn and the emerging super bugs that are resistant to the pesticides….

…and of course, their answer is to….throw more pesticides after them.

We all saw this coming, so why are Monsanto and Syngenta still allowed to market this monster?

Congress, can you hear the American public that you love to  *quote*  all the time?  Can you hear us above the *clink* of money in your pocket? (Be sure to click on the media link and its pathetic and sometimes belittling coverage).

Vilsack, can you cut your ties with Monsanto and do what is right for the environment and our health?

Here’s a report about GMO’s in the waterways in my own backyard.  This is a freaking nightmare.

As a side note, here’s an article on aerial spraying and untested chemicals.  Gees-o-pete, does anyone stand up to the chemical industry??

Oh beautiful…

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…for spacious skies…

It was a wonderful summer morning for a bike ride here in Hoosierville…

Peaceful….not too many cars.

Several SUV’s pass me with canoes attached. …every single one of them was in a hurry to go….canoeing.  Something of an oxymoron, isn’t it?  I mean, canoeing is about the most peaceful, slow-paced thing you can do, and here they were speeding around this bicyclist to get where they can take a lazy ride on the wonderful river….(if you have never been canoeing, I highly recommend it.  It will blow you away.)

Biologists say that if you see many different species within a certain area, it’s an indication of the health of that area–the more diverse, the better the ability to sustain life.  For instance, I’ve seen many cranes flying overhead, in addition to the usual Blue Jays, Robins, Turtle Doves, Redwing Blackbirds, buzzards, deer, ground hogs, coyotes, etc.  Today, I got to see two beautiful birds that must be related by their similar black wings…but they had different colored bellies–one had a striking yellow, and the other had a striking blue.  They flew the same, too, with quick flutters.  They reminded me of finches, but when I tried to find them, the stupid search engine was showing blue birds from the search words of “yellow bellied birds”.  (Um, yeah, computer geeks, your search engine sucks.)

I got to see an old spot that I loved when here last—a quiet spot over the river, with a small country bridge spanning  it.  I hopped off my bike and just stood there, watching the river flow quietly.  I see a leaf from a tree slowly follow the river currants.   Birds sing in the overhanging trees.

After awhile, I switch to the other side of the bridge, and there a huge tree has fallen from the bank and hangs there on an improvised mini-island where mud and branches and leaves have gathered.  I noticed something on the mini-island….is it a snake?  Yes, it is, coiled up to get warm in the sun.    I think this may be it–hard to tell since I was twenty feet above, but it looks very similar.   I continue to survey the island and see two more snakes close by, sunning themselves.  As my eyes follow the fallen tree, I notice it has become a host for renewal, as plants have begun to sprout from its decaying trunk….out of death, comes life….I looked more closely at the plants and see yet another snake hidden among the greenery.  I look back at the first snake, and…it’s gone.  I keep looking in the area, thinking I missed it….but no snake.  It had silently slipped into the water…

As I ride along the country road, I see where three poor baby frogs have met their demise.  Gees–o-pete, they have deer crossing signs, and duck crossing signs….why not frog crossing signs?  Yeah, I know, people aren’t likely to slow down for them, either….but at least you can see deer coming at you….froggies…eh, not so much.

Continuing the nice ride, I go past houses that have been torn down.  I wonder what happened to the former owners.  One is just a crawl space…..a shell of what once was.  Another is a platform that formerly housed a mobile home.  A hibiscus still stands as a testament of someone whom once lived there that loved flowers.

Dogs bark, but fortunately are tethered….well, except a pair of huge hounds that barked at me and started to come towards me as I peddled past, but stopped at the property line.

I figured I was safe….must have one of those electric fences.

Ha.

When I turned around to go past again, this time I had two things against me—I was getting tired and I had to pedal up a small hill to get past the dogs.

First rule of bike riding–never get so tired that you can’t out pedal a fast dog.

So….I’m only slightly apprehensive as I’m beginning to pedal faster to get up the hill and not antagonize the dogs.

They were waiting for me on the porch this time….

And, yeah, they weren’t as restrained…as one came out of the yard and barked and got right next to my exposed leg….I’m waiting for it to try to take a bite…

Fortunately, today wasn’t my day to see how good their homeowners insurance was…:p

He got right up to me, but didn’t take that fateful bite.

Whew.

The nice thing about being on a bike versus walking or jogging past is that you can reasonably pedal fast enough to get away.  I did this with a white german shepherd once, too.  Talk about your heart in your throat….

Wonderful morning.  I feel closer to the Great One when I’m out riding bikes or just walking…connecting to something bigger than me…

Hope you’re all having a good day, too.

The dirty nine

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Nine state legislators were flown on a chartered flight and…well, you can read the rest here.

From the article:

The tar sands of Alberta are estimated to be the third largest reserve of crude oil on the planet. But the process of turning the tar-like bitumen into a refined product that can be used as fuel is extremely energy intensive and highly polluting. The former NASA scientist James Hansen, warned that the extraction and use of Canadian tar sands would mean “game over” for the climate. TransCanada is the operator of the proposed KXL pipeline, which would carry the tar sands to Texas for processing and likely for exports to markets abroad.

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I think it’s really important to highlight NASA scientist James Hansen’s statement on this because most folk think that folks who believe in climate change are “fringe” liberals, when they’re not.  Dr. Hansen is a prime example of that.

More:

TransCanada, which is a member of ALEC, sponsored ALEC’s Spring Task Force Summit in Oklahoma City in May 2013, alongside other corporations with tar sands interests including BP, Devon Energy and Koch Industries. TransCanada’s Vice President Corey Goulet presented to legislators at the conference during a session called “Embracing American Energy Opportunities.“

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Dimon stayed in touch with Adams’ office over the proceeding months, providing his staff with further materials about Keystone XL, including a set of talking points stamped with the TransCanada logo.

By February 14, Adams had an updated draft that had been reviewed by the Ohio legislative service commission, the non-partisan body that assists legislators with drafting legislation. Adams staffer Ryan Crawford sent this language to Rob Eshenbaugh, a lobbyist with Ohio Petroleum Council, the state affiliate of the American Petroleum Institute. “Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,” Crawford wrote to the lobbyist. Eshenbaugh responded with some requested changes, which Crawford then incorporated into the bill.

 

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So…yeah….pretty glaring examples of not so subtle bribery.  Unethical. Unethical. Unethical.

I have something of a quibble with the story saying that the XL has become a national issue….where were you when Enbridge was getting the northwest Indiana pipeline approved even though it runs near Lake Michigan and other sources of water?  Does anyone know why Indiana is ignored?    I’d like to know why we don’t matter….somebody tell me, please.

 

 

 

 

Using sense

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I wasn’t going to blog on this, but after giving it some thought…

Today I was watching the Daily Show with John Oliver (taking over for Jon Stewart for the summer), and they showed a video that was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen to date.  I couldn’t believe that they would air something as bad as that.  I’m not going to link to the site nor even describe what it was about, only to say that it involved two dogs.

Good God, what were they thinking?

Goliath is winning…

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….this is not good….we have third generation bee farmers who are giving up because of the genocide of bees. (buzz-a-cide?)

From the Chicago Tribune link:

Die-offs of bee populations have accelerated over the last few years to a rate the U.S. government calls unsustainable. Honeybees pollinate plants that produce roughly 25 percent of the foods Americans consume, including apples, almonds, watermelons and beans, according to government reports.

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I’m afraid that they will wake up too, too late….and it won’t be until the crops have died and the fields are empty.  God help us then.

Deer infected with neurological disease

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CMD also reports of a neurological disease in Wisconsin deer that is like mad-cow disease.    The DNR reports that there have not been any documented cases where the disease has been transferred to humans….but they’re not exactly testing for it, either, according to this report.  I did a quick check of Indiana’s DNR website, and they have not reported the disease in the state.  Yet.  But the report is from 2008, so they may be stricken in the last five years.

It just blows my mind that they are so lackadaisical about it.  They’d much rather deny your eating raw milk (that has beneficial enzymes) than deny you venison.

Just think about the recent reports of horse meat being served as beef in restaurants…yeah, you get the picture.  And we have poor folks who are probably harvesting road kill in order to eat.  Not saying that I have actual knowledge of this, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn this has been going on.  Poor people without health insurance are not going to go to the doctor.  They would end up in emergency rooms —who would know to look for the disease?

The biggest question of all–why are they now becoming so sick?  It seems that since 2006, it has rapidly climbed.  Why?

I know you all are going to groan, but with the gut affecting the neurological function, I have to think it’s related to the gut….and there might be a connection between GMO’s and the deer now suffering so much neurologically.  Deer love corn.  Corn is now all GMO (unless specifically grown organically, but as we have explored before, GMO corn is pollinating organic and non-GMO corn–from this excellent blog on how serious genetic manipulation is:

Another concern is the natural cross-breeding of crops in adjacent fields, resulting in the transfer of transgenes into organic and conventional (non-genetically-engineered) crops.

Sadly, farmers who become the victim of natural crop cross over are often subject to lawsuits: Monsanto has repeatedly filed patent infringement lawsuits against farmers who may have inadvertently harvested GM crops mixed into their non-GM crops. Farmers insist these crops are the result of cross-pollination from GM crops planted a field or two away; Monsanto claims the farmers obtained Monsanto-licensed GM seeds from an unknown source, and mixed them into their seed sources without paying royalties to Monsanto.

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Another recent blog on GMO.

So…think they’ll test these diseased deer for a) Celiac-like gut inflammation; and b) GMO infected gut flora?  Nah.  That would make too much sense.

Moyers on ALEC

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Center for Media and Democracy has this up on Bill Moyers covering the dirty dealings of American Legislative Exchange Council.  It states that this was all over the nation on PBS stations this weekend.  If it was on my local station, I saw no advertisement of it, so I missed it.  (Boy, do I miss FW, which has such a kick butt public radio station, and three PBS stations, as well. )

Luckily, there is a link here to watch the show online. Also, there is a link for finding out which of your own state’s representatives belong to ALEC.  I found a couple of surprises, there, such as Win Moses, who was the former mayor of Fort Wayne, and John Gregg, the guy who just ran for governor.  Mike Pence was not listed, but yeah, he seems to be doing their bidding:

mikepence.com/newsletter/pence-hires-atkins-policy-director

See…this exposure of ALEC is a double-edged sword–you’re getting the word out and people are paying attention, but they (ALEC)  will find ways around it by people who are off in the wings, such as Atkins.