I love C-SPAN!

No jangling graphics. No yelling pundits. No crass commercials. Just unadulterated uninterrupted government.

I've been watching the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee deliberations on what to do with the delegates in Florida and Michigan. Those two states jumped the line and held primaries in their states early, in direct violation of the DNC Rules and were warned that any delegates arising from those primaries would not be seated.

On a day that has outside temps at 87 degrees right now, I am cool and comfy in my air conditioned apartment watching democracy go thorugh the saugage grinder. Yay!

Who said it? A Quiz

Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition.
--Che Guevara
--Karl Marx
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
--Barack Obama

"Socialists are very concerned about the injustice and social ills in the world today—hunger, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disease, war, the exploitation of workers, the oppression of nations, races, women, and gays, the destruction of the environment, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Socialists obviously don't have a monopoly on compassion, however. What distinguishes socialists from other socially concerned people is that socialists do not view these problems as normal, natural, eternal, or an inherent feature of the human condition. They believe that these problems are historically and socially created and that they can be solved by human beings through conscious, organized political struggle and change."

Another quiz: What is The Global Poverty Act? And who is promoting it?

"Socialist Action argues that the problems of exploitation and oppression in the world today can ultimately be solved by first replacing the capitalist system with a socialist system. The chief means of production should be socialized, that is, taken out of the private hands of the capitalists and put under public ownership, that is, government ownership."

"The Global Poverty Act" would require the U.S. to initially direct .7 percent of the GNP of the United States into the United Nations coffers for distribution as they see fit, for food to third world nations. Under earlier agreements this would evolve into a national tax on the U.S. with the UN attempting to levy this on all first world nations. The U.N. would have the power to increase this rate of taxation. The U.S. would be required to surrender some of its sovereignty over foreign aid by putting it under UN control. The bill would force the U.S. to sign onto the U.N.’s Millennium Declaration, which would commit us not only to "banning small arms and light weapons" but many other collective acts. In other words, the very act of voluntary charity would then be under the control of government ownership.

Whenever I hear words like "collective" and "global" I think 'socialism.' And do you know from when I hear these ideas the most lately? From the answer to our quiz: Barack Obama. If you want a Socialist in the office of President of the United States, then vote for Barack.

PS: And one clarification: individual salvation does not depend on collective socialism. It depends on Jesus Christ. Using messianic words to further personal political ambitions betrays a poverty of the soul.

Tornado trends graph

Oy. And just when I moved down here. Pray for all the folks in the middle of Tornado Alley. Looks like this is already rough season ...and it's not over yet.

There's no need to be lost

Sunset Over the Primaries

Barack Obama
Pledged: 1661
Superdelegates: 320
Total: 1,981

Hillary Clinton
Pledged: 1499
Superdelegates: 283
Total: 1,782

Delegates Needed to Win: 2,026

Obama: eyes victory over Clinton next week
Hillary: "I AM big. It's the primaries that got small."

Out of oil. What next?

I read an interesting take on the oil situation. We all feel the pressure. We all see the heights that the price per barrel are attaining. But where is the break point? I asked that question of myself and mentioned it to friends just the other day. In January I had bought a bike, and I mapped out distances and routes to the two small towns I live between. But as gas hits $3.89/gal, I'm still driving, though a lot less. But at what price do I abandon my car for the bike? $4 per gallon? $5?

This guy asked the same question: "How big is the problem? Multiplying production (barrels per year) times the oil price (dollars per barrel) gives a total cost in dollars per year. It's an enormous number; tens of trillions of dollars per year. To put a scale on it, the three thin curves on the graph show the oil cost in contrast to the total world domestic product; the annual value the goods and services added up for all the world's countries. The three curves show the oil cost at one percent, two and a half percent, and five percent of the total world economic output. At $130 this morning, we are at six and a half percent."

"Oil production obviously cannot consume 100 percent of the world's income. My intuitive, uninformed guess is that it cannot go above 15 percent. If we see oil at $300 per barrel, we will be looking out over the smoldering ruins of the world's economy."

That's an interesting take. Comparing the total amount of money available in the world economy to the price of the commodity. At some point we run out of money before we run out of need. What happens then? I dunno. I've never seen a smoldering economy but I think I will. And soon.

Big word of the day

protopathic

"(of a sensory nerve) That detects the presence of a stimulus without determining its location."

This word has personal meaning for me.

Nobody here but us chickens!

Scene at the 4-way stop in Comer on Memorial day weekend. Ahhh, The Quiet Life

Are you a tinfoil hat person? Or just crazy like a fox?

According to Wikipedia, "A tin foil hat is a piece of headgear made from one or more sheets of tin foil, aluminium foil or similar material. In theory, people wear the hats in the belief that they act to shield the brain from such influences as electromagnetic fields, or against alien interference, mind control and mind reading. The idea of wearing a tin foil hat for protection from such threats has become a popular stereotype and term of derision."

Ohhh, so that's what it means. I had heard the term bandied about for years but was never sure. The world is increasingly unstable, with natural disasters such as the midwest tornadoes and the China earthquake; man-made disasters such as the Florida fires started by an arsonist and the California fires difficult to put out; the dollar's decline and US likely economic collapse; food price increases; and stocking up (or 'hoarding' if you are a tin hatter). If all that's not enough to make you think the world is coming to an end, I don't know what will.

Some tin hatters go deeper. There's the 9/11 Truthers, the "New World Order/Illuminati" conspiracy theorists, the "Whole World is Turning Into a Police State" conspiracy, or "Obama is a Secret Muslim ," and "Reptilians Run the World" conspiracies. These are real conspiracies that people believe.

But...when mainstream newspapers publish articles about grandmotherly women selling everything and living in survivalist mode, and actually include the phrase: "maurading hordes" then it's time to rethink things, I think! What do you believe the world is coming to?

Terra cotta

I have real terracotta pots on my deck that hold my plants. My landlord lent them to me, she was not using them. I love terracotta. Ever since I went to Italy the first time and stayed in a real castle! I fell in love with this type of material for roofing. This Old House guys says of ceramic roofing:

"Ceramic tile roofs are found throughout the Mediterranean and Levant — and of course in the Mediterranean-Revival-influenced architecture of Florida and California. Barrel tiles, the most common type of ceramic tile, resemble half cylinders about 16 inches long. In the old days they were individually made by hand, their tapered shape achieved by forming the clay over the top of the thigh."

"Tile roofs are quite heavy, so the roof framing must be stout enough to support the load. Waterproofing is achieved via a waterproof membrane laid directly on the roof sheathing. Then the clay tiles are laid one by one in a pad of mortar. Tiles turned upside down form a trough, which is then covered by tiles laid right side up. The whole process is quite labor intensive, which makes an authentic tile roof quite expensive -- about $1,000 per 10x10-foot square, or about three times the cost of a standard three-tab shingle job."

"In addition to barrel tiles there are a number of variations of clay roof tiles. Some are shaped like thick shingles, some like slates. A high-quality tile will be hard-fired and will not absorb moisture that could fracture the tile when frozen. Thus such tiles are suitable for northern climates. All high-quality tile roofs are expensive, both in terms of the material and the installation, and so clay tile roofs are fairly rare."

"Yet in the long run the most expensive might be the most cost effective, since you can expect to get 60 to 80 years or even more out of a well installed tile roof."

Below, Spannochia, the castle I stayed in while on an Earthwatch archaeological dig. I had never seen terracotta tiles before.





Though my wide-ranging travels are over, I still think about Italy a lot. Looking at these terracotta pots on my deck remind me just a little of the gentle Tuscan hills dotted with farmhouses and castles built in another time.