Colossal political blunder

"Clinton Campaign in Talks With Obama About VP Slot, CNN Says"
By Chris Dolmetsch
"May 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign is in formal talks with Senator Barack Obama's campaign about becoming his vice presidential running mate, CNN reported, without citing anyone specific."

"The two Democratic campaigns are talking about ways for Clinton, from New York, to drop her bid for president that may include joining the Illinois senator's ticket, CNN reported. Talks are in a "very preliminary'' stage and are described as "difficult,'' the network said."
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Whatta disaster that would be!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

"Inconceivable!" I don't think that means what you think it means

Truer than fiction! When the weather disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow" came out it garnered a lot of attention. It wasn't only because of the special effects, which were impressive, but also for the seemingly improbable scenarios contained in the film.

New York flooded by a massive wave? "Inconceivable!" yelled reviewers. Really? The British Broadcasting Corporation documentary "End Day" posed exactly that scenario, based on a science release in 2001 indicating that if the volcano Cumbre Vieja erupted strongly enough that a future failure of the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja would cause a "mega-tsunami." The already tenuous landsliding mountain face will catastrophically fail in a massive gravitational landslide and enter the Atlantic Ocean a so called "mega-tsunami." A similar tsunami occurred in Lituya Bay Alaska back in the early 1960s, caused by the same kind of massive landslide. Damage can be seen to this day. So these kinds of tsnunamis are conceivable, and with Cumbre Viejo, only a matter of time.

Though the mega-tsunami depicted in the movie has not occurred yet, in another movie scene, snow falls in New Delhi. "Inconceivable!" the cry is heard again. But in January 2008, Snow blankets Jerusalem. And also in January 2008 "Snow Disrupts Life in India," with Babloo, a New Delhi Bus Driver quoted as saying:"I have come from Delhi. I am trapped here for the last two days and the snow is still falling.” Those were real happenings, their occurrences inconceivable, as it were.

Also in the movie, tornadoes are engulfing L.A.'s Capitol Records building. A movie reviewer says, "Tornadoes in Los Angeles? Only in "Tomorrow." Below, one photo is from the movie...the other is from last night's weather in southern California. "The Day After Tomorrow" inconceivable? As the inimitable Inigo Montoya said to Vizzini: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Prognosticating recap

The news the past couple of days has included a few articles about some farmers in Tennessee who have switched to mule-power for their farming needs. A Google news search for '+farmer +mules' yields 49 news results. I wonder how many news results there will be for those search terms in two months, after oil hits $200/barrel.

Farmer Trades Tractor For Mule Power
"McMinnville, Tenn. - A Middle Tennessee farmer is trading his tractor for another form of horsepower. Warren County farmer Danny Raymond recently bought two mules, Molly and Dolly. The mules will help rake hay, mow, and cultivate corn. Raymond said high fuel prices forced him to make the switch. "Oh it's been really tough. I mean you got your gas prices," he said. "Then gas prices cause the price of fertilizer to go up. It just makes more sense," he said about switching to mule power."

Searching for '+farmer +horses +plow' yields 12 news results. Here is one:

Horses help local farmers cut costs

"Jeff Johns had the horses. He had land that needed to be plowed. And he had worries that rising fuel costs would eat into his already thin profit margin. So he's doing what farmers did long before the tractor came along -- he's using his two draft horses to power a plow. And he's loving every minute of it."
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Exactly two months ago I posted a blog entry that noted indicators of an imminent unraveling of the normal cycle of things. The bank insolvency issue (not a problem that has gone away just because it's sunk off the news cycles), higher fuel costs, increasingly staggered food and commodity deliveries...will all accelerate in the coming months. Eventually, there will be a break point, I'd written, when those who failed to spot the inevitable and did not turn to simpler ways will be down on their luck, while the Amish will be in ascendancy. Why? Because we do not know how to generate our own power, live without electricity, farm using simple methods (successful farming means not going hungry), make soap, dip candles, kill a hog, or perform a myriad of other hand tasks. But the Amish do. They always have. For the Amish, no-technology and fuel free farming has been the only way. Who ya gonna call...when the grocery store is empty and we can't get a 1400 mile salad any more? The Amish/Mennonite community farmer's market, and other Christian-community living farms, that's who.

I wrote:
March 22, 2008:
"The US is now the world's largest debtor nation, and for a country with the world's largest economy, if (when) we default, the world economy comes with it. The cycle of things will stop. I don't know how to build a home, make a tool, grow some food, coordinate with my neighbors, create fire, or use a horse for transportation. But the Amish do."

Listen to the Watchman:

Ezekiel 33:3-6
If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

Jeremiah 51
12Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes:

The day of the Lord will soon come. Selah

lost parrot tells address to vet

TOKYO — When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said. He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said.

The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years. But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials.

"I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said.

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Now, that's no birdbrain!

Good among the not so good

Ted Kennedy has an inoperable, malignant brain tumor. That's awful. God bless you and I hope you get well real soon.

I heard somewhere (I think David Letterman) that Hillary Clinton's campaign at this point is like the world's most expensive fantasy camp. To the left is a summary of a Hillary surrogate's explanation of how Hillary can become President with the amount of races and delegates remaining. Actually, the picture is from a page explaining how the electors work.

As of April 21 2008 the presidential campaign's total receipts, including donations and loans from the three remaining major candidates were:

Obama: 240M
Clinton: 195M
McCain: 80M

It is extremely expensive to run for President. I don't think this is what the framers had in mind when they designed the Republic. Think of how all that money could help Americans in need, pay down our debt, or just plain put into non-borrowed reserves. George Ure, an economist at UrbanSurvival.com wrote this today: "the amount of money the banks have in reserve that is non-borrowed is at a fifty year low? In fact in 4 months since it entered negative territory (for the only time in the 50 years on record) it has exceeded 50 years of positive values by 50% on the negative side? Does this not mean that the banks are not only insolvent but underwater more than they were ever positive?"

The question mark punctuation does not indicate that his questions are rhetorical, they are there to infer incredulity on the part of the writer. The word aghast comes to mind. Also the comparison of the economy to the Hindenburg...thanks George, for being Debbie Downer today. Though facts is facts and it's good to know them and I appreciate the work on that website.

I am off to a luncheon with the team members with whom I worked in the Good News Club at Comer Elementary School. We're to eat at Dos Palmas in Athens on a gloriously humid-free, breeezy day! Good folks, good eats, good scenery, life is good!

I miss the beach!

I miss the beach! Lubec, Maine, the prettiest place in New England. I love the beautiful sunsets, and charming waves, and the soaring gulls, as much as anyone. But I also love the kelp and the low tide mud, and the rocks, and the bleached out shells.

This dawg won't hunt

Battle of the southern sayings...

"At an evening rally in Lexington, Clinton's husband portrayed her as the underdog who keeps coming back from the brink of defeat. "They've declared her dead more times than a cat's got lives," the former president told a raucous crowd of about 2,500 supporters."

He's from the South: Arkansas, and they've got their hillbilly sayings there, like the nine lives cats thing. Around here, in the deep south, we have our sayings too.

So when we read the following..."Clinton trails Obama in the delegate count by such a margin that it is mathematically unlikely for her to overtake him in the remaining primaries," ... down he-ah we say, "that dog don't hunt."

that dog don't hunt: An obviously faulty endeavor; also as ~ /won't hunt/, predictive of failure.

In the face of the Obama Mass, a gathering of over 75,000 swooning Oregonians listening to Obama speak at his latest rally, and in the face of Clinton's paltry rally of 2,500, we would have to say that for the Democrats at least, "it's a one dog town."

Whether things will end up Obama Messiah or Obamanation, time will tell.

Midday update

So before it got too hot today I cooked. What did I make, you ask? Some weird items, that is for sure! Not everyone has taste like mine but I'm happy with it.

Tofu pudding
Silken tofu, chocolate chips melted slowly in a pan, add a dash of vanilla and chill.

Green bean pate
Boiled green beans and tofu, blended in food processor or blender, add chopped boiled eggs and walnuts. Blend again, season to taste. I put it on hot toasted homemade white bread as a spread. Yum!

Mixed veggie hash
cabbage, onions, celery, mushrooms, sauteed. Add cooked rice and a can of peeled chopped tomatoes. Mix. Sturdy, instant meal when hungry NOW and prone to order a pizza instead.

Turnips
Those cutie-pie baby turnips I'd bought at the Farmer's Market Saturday? I boiled 'em up and mashed them with a bit of butter and salt and pepper.

Now I'm working on a collage, waiting for the pieces to dry before I add the next layer. So I had a few minutes to kill and thought I'd put up a mundane post, the past ones have been fiery and future ones will be just plain weird. So this is a respite for the 100 or so faithful readers who take the time to come here. Thank you, by the way. :) I am attending a wake tonight and tomorrow I'm making 30 pimento cheese sandwiches for the funeral luncheon. I am real proud the Ladies asked me to make something.

Anybody else vaguely disquieted by the Obama Mass? 65,000 in attendance and another 15,000 outside? Yikes. That's either a bit too much adulation or the best speaker since, well, ever. Hmmm.

victory garden vs. 1400 mile salad

"Food miles"

The majority of Americans participate in a complex national and global food system. Most of their food production and processing occurs far away from where they live and buy their groceries. It was not always this way; prior to World War II most of the agricultural production and marketing systems in the United States had a strong local or regional base, and farms supplied that base with a wide variety of crop and livestock products. Changes occurred rapidly after World War II as agriculture became increasingly specialized.

The introduction of new technologies allowed many states to focus their agricultural production on just a few crop and livestock enterprises in order to have an economic competitive advantage. As late as the 1950s there were 25 to 30 different crop and livestock commodities produced on at least one percent of the farms in the Midwest; by the end of the 1990s there were only 15 or fewer commodities produced on at least one percent of the farms in the Midwest. Today, most of the food for sale in grocery stores comes from farms in states or countries through a system that is, for the most part, invisible to the consumer.

I remember teaching first grade in an inner city in the 80s. I'd ask the kids where milk comes from. "The store!" they would invariably answer. Our field trip to the apple orchard was a revelation to them. They literally did not make the connection of food and the land until that moment when they saw the apple hanging from the tree. All they ever saw was cellophane wrapped items in a mini mart. The food production chain was invisible to them until the last stop.

Using fresh produce as an example, carrots grown in the San Joaquin Valley in California and transported to supermarkets in Des Moines, Iowa will travel approximately 1,400 miles. Chilean grapes transported by ship and truck to Des Moines, Iowa markets travel 7,270 miles. That's too many miles! We don't have the oil anymore to indulge in such extravagances as off season carambola fruit!

We need to grow our own food again. 'But I don't have acres of land!' you protest.

Almost half of all vegetables grown in the United States in 1943 came from victory gardens. A poster campaign ("Plant more in '44!") encouraged the planting of Victory Gardens by nearly 20 million Americans. Victory gardens were planted in backyards and on apartment-building rooftops, with the occasional vacant lot "commandeered for the war effort!" and put to use as a cornfield or a squash patch. After WWII though we reverted to trucked-in agricultural products until by the 1970s we relied on exotic foodstuffs as a measure of our wealth and position in the world.


And then there's this guy, sustaining himself and his family with food grown on his California suburban housing lot no bigger than one tenth of an acre... It CAN be done. And it should be. Soon will will have to. Get ready now, you will be happy you did.

Lystra Cemetery photos

Spooky spooky ancient cemetery. Home of vandals, a burned out church, and alleged hauntings. More photos at my flickr pages.