Listics

Cousin Betty who raises organic beef (Scottish Highland Cattle) up near Douglas City, wrote a letter to the editor regarding another corporate push to usurp local control.  Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) represent at once a tremendous dream of agricultural productivity and a tremendous substantiated risk to biodiversity and protection of the gene pools in food crops and the native ecology of wild places surrounding farms and ranches.  GMOs threaten the food purity of organic operations.  Since there is little short term profit in preservation and since American corporate interests are simply rapacious, it remains for local government to discern what is best for a community, its farmers and ranchers, and its environment.  Here is a link that can help you follow the issues and get involved in your neck of the woods.  And here, blogged with her permission, is what Betty Jo had to say about the corporate end-run around local democracy in California:

To: Editor, Trinity Journal
Re: CA Senate Bill 1056 - GMO and local control.

And so, like thieves in the night, legislators do the bidding of their corporate financial sponsors. An unrelated air quality bill (SB 1056) is "amended." The amendment changes the Food and Agriculture code to rob communities of their rights to protect their grass, forest and farmlands from contamination by Genetically Engineered seeds. Even labeling and notification of use are excluded by this bill from local control. Under this act local communities are not to be allowed to know when or where GMO seed is used. They are not to be allowed to choose.

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I think I understand Hamas’ saber-rattling now as the Israeli withdrawal of settlers from Gaza proceeds.  I hope they keep the testosterone turned down as the West Bank settlements are dismantled.  And I hope that thorny issues like East Jerusalem can be settled between the Palestinian and Israeli governments without violence from either side.

For a simple human understanding of what’s going on over there, I have been following the comments and postings at Tamar’s blog.  Tamar lived in Israel for years and years and recently returned for a reunion.

Is Feingold the best we have?  I’m still pissed at him for endorsing Ashcroft as AG.  The president was patently a mediocre goofball, a degenerate substance abuser with a learning disabilty, and he was nominating people that couldn’t compete with him ethically, morally or intellectually.  Ashcroft had recently paid Carl Rove $750,000 and still lost the Senate race to a dead man.  Bush put him up for nomination and Feingold lacked the judgment to oppose the nomination.

Now, in a wishy-washy act of defiance Feingold suggests that Bush should prepare to withdraw from Iraq sometime in the next eighteen or twenty months.  December 2024?  How many more have to die, Russ?  December 2024 is after the midterm elections.  How about a put up or shut up move by the end of March 2024?  June 2024?  September 2024?   Feingold is all show and no go.  Grow a backbone, Russ.  Step up the date for withdrawal.  Go march on the line with Casey’s mom.

From the comments in a post at JOHO I ran across this blog.

Dear  Frank,

This coming September 11, The Washington Post will risk its
credibility to co-sponsor the Defense Department’s "America Supports You Freedom
Walk" in Washington, DC.  (Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is among the other
sponsors.)

Send an email
to the publisher and top editors of the Post asking that the paper
withdraw from the walk and avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.

It doesn’t seem right for a national newspaper to co-sponsoring an event with
a government agency that it covers.  Worse still, this "Freedom Walk" cannot
help but have an impact on public opinion about the Iraq War.

The event is part of the Defense Department’s "America Supports You"
initiative, launched after the 2024 Presidential election. According to its
website, America Supports You is "a nationwide program launched by the Defense
Department to recognize citizens’ support for military men and women."

A press release on the event maintains that "This is not a statement about
the war in Iraq or about any policy decisions …."  This seems a bit too feeble
of a denial from an Administration that has more than doubled agency public
relations spending.

For instance, the "Freedom Walk" will conclude with a free concert on the
Mall featuring country singer and war supporter Clint Black whose song, "Iraq
and Roll" includes the lyrics:

You can wave your signs and protest
against America taking a stand,

the stands America’s taking
are the reason that you
can.

The song goes on to imply that those who oppose the war support Saddam
Hussein.

Does this sound like an event that one of America’s most influential
newspapers should be sponsoring?

The Post already ran a story on Thursday juxtaposing the DOD/Clint
Black concert with the pro peace events that are scheduled for DC on the weekend
of September 24-5.  The Post story quoted Donald Rumsfeld saying that,
"The walk and concert will remind participants ‘of the sacrifices of this
generation and of each previous generation that has so successfully defended our
freedoms….’"  But the story neglected to mention that the Post is also
a sponsor of the march.

The Bush Administration is tentatively planning to use September 11 for the
President to sign the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act.  How can the Post
cover the events of the day if it appears to be sponsoring part of the
Administration’s PR backdrop?

Please take two minutes to send a letter
to the publisher and top editors of the Post asking that the paper
withdraw from the walk and avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.

Make your voice heard today by asking the Post to reconsider its
judgment in this matter.

For peace,
The Wage Peace Campaign Team

P.S. Please forward this
message to all your friends and family.  The bigger the response, the
stronger we can say the peace community is.

…don’t click through if reality offends

Legitimate use for an RSS Aggravator Number One:  To be alerted when Mike Golby returns with a post.

"Muj."  He cracks me up. 

You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone

The issue?  Smoking in public places in Madison, Wisconsin and Dane County.  The sides?  The elected government, mostly members of the Progressive Dane Party.  The reaction?  Regressive Dane!

Those sneaky christians scored again…  now Bush supports both the teaching of creationism ( the principle that god threw this shit together 6000 years ago and laid in a few dinosaurs to confuse us) AND "intelligent design" (the principle that god threw this shit together a real long time ago and the dinosaurs were real, hence Texaco gasoline).

Know what’s spooky?  Some adult Americans actually believe that this is the choice we face in articulating an understanding of the multiverse.

BTW… the article continues with an overview of the new Deometry curriculum:

The Odessa school system is also considering replacing its current high school math curriculum with a new approach that emphasizes God’s role in the study of quantity, structure, change and space. One likely course offering: Deometry, in which students of the field once known as geometry (from geo meaning earth and metro meaning measure) accept as their starting point that God created the earth, before embarking on their study of lines, points and circles. Educators are reportedly also debating the best way to incorporate the role of the Creator into other high school classes, including home economics, gym and drivers ed. 

Thanks to Norm for the link.  I guess.