Sunday, June 10, 2007

excellent article for all average joes and janes

http://www.tompaine.com/print/taming_corporations_gone_wild.php

thanks again to tom for the link.

please read this article and do something to express your thoughts.

by posting on my blog i assume my agreement with it is understood.

Monday, June 04, 2007

the following is my comment in response to a series of comments at dan's blog. a person called blamin insists that it is impossible to feed the world using organic farming.

of course we could feed the world organically and less chemically (petroleum) intensively! it can be done and it will be done.

all we need to do is focus our society's energy on replacing the drug of choice, up til now petroleum, with a new drug, a new energy source. or perhaps our original energy source, the sun.

considering the advances in technology that we've seen in just the last twenty years, can you have any doubt that if we tried, as in man-on-the-moon type tried, we could become 100% renewably powered in twenty years? i know we can do it if we try. getting "us" to try is another story.

it seems to me that what we have now are fat cats milking obsolete resources dry and are delaying the inevitable at the public's expense. in terms of energy and in terms of organic farming. i don't blame them, the fat cats, that is. i mean afterall, they have the implicit consent of a frantic, paranoid, sleazy, cheesy, shopaholic, clueless population of the governed. and they have the ability. wouldn't you do the same? freedom for everyone, especially the ones with the most money and power to forever increase their share of the money and power!
(yes i'm being sarcastic)

is there any argument that industry lobbyists literally write legislation (ie, how to grab taxpayer money and/or re-write the laws to benefit them and their friends) in our US Congress?


blamin, we can try, indeed. i totally agree that having all the answers is not a worthy goal for me, or society. but we have to sort the wheat from the chaff. we must decide for ourselves as a society, many issues of immediate consequence in countless lives around the world. i don't grant the bush administration one ounce of credibility. the great w, bush II, emperor of babylon, why should i? after being lied to so many times, there comes a point that you don't take seriously anything that comes out of his mouth.

Friday, June 01, 2007

how can peace overcome war?

or perhaps more appropriately, how can the peace movement overcome the war establishment? the peace movement is a relatively dispersed diaspora whereas the war establishment is just that, firmly established in the world, in terms of infrastructure: buildings, plants, equipment, weapons, and of course the personnel and money. how many people's livelihoods does it really support?

but more in general, how does a non-violent society prevail over a violent one? its no surprise what the result will be when a conflict becomes escalated. the violent become violent and people die. the fact that the peace movement even exists is a victory worth celebrating considering the history of our great nation!

of course our strength lies in our numbers. i'd like to see a poll of americans who actually love war. who relish and delight in death, pain and misery.

war doesn't just happen. in this day and age, one person's decision can set into motion a mighty army of cabinet appointees, generals, lawyers, corporate executives and their legions, and an army of volunteer patriot soldiers who seem to be getting tricked into thinking that their sacrifice will guarantee membership in the club, or at the very least the best healthcare that the richest nation in the world is capable of.

thinking in terms of the eons that have passed in which humans have slaughtered each other, do we really have any hope of creating a lasting peace? sure, why not? having hope is as simple a choice you can make, either you decide to have it or you don't. but i really feel that considering all that people have thought up, in terms of technology and democracy, in particular, there is every reason to expect that humanity can begin an age in which war ceases to exist. we have proven ourselves to be a very capable species. lets focus now.

first solar dish of the season



well, its that time again folks! time to break out the solar oven and use the sun's rays to cook. since the solar oven is essentially a low(ish) temperature slow cooker, we're making chili (again). i keep saying one of these days i'll bake something, but so far it hasn't happened yet. i better go out and see if the angle is right.

maybe i'll even post a picture if i'm really industrious!