The perfect storm and the perfect GOP ticket

Thing's are really getting strange. I've seen Mike Huckabee on Jon Stewart's Daily Show a few times and he (Mike) always comes across as a pretty reasonable guy; I'm not going to agree with him on very many issues, but hey! That's the world we live in. Then...
Then I listened to him on several of his Rupert Murdoch's sanctioned fOX nEWS broadcasts, and Man! He (Mike, again) was swinging for the fences! Such a cHRISTIAN demeanor! Mike's not even trying to be reasonable, or fair (the fOX logo); he's just opening his mouth, saying anything that comes into his mind, and THEN, later assessing what he thinks his base will believe in. (The old canard: the general is sitting in a cafe as a mob runs by; he leaps up. "Where are you going?" Asks his friend, "There go my troops; I must lead them!" he answers).

Joe Kline, in News Week did a wonderful job of documenting Huckabee's recent mouthings. I rarely do this but, to paraphrase only slightly:
"Mike Huckabee has said that President [I ADDED THE HONORIFIC, President, Mike didn't] Obama... was raised in Kenya, sympathized with Mau Maus' anti colonialism all because he wasn't a boy scout and there were no Rotary Clubs there, only madrasahs...". Wow, Mike that's amazing! The facts are: President Obama was raised in Hawaii, not Kenya. He was raised by his (WHITE) Kansas Republican grandparents. He was a boy scout. There are plenty of Rotary Clubs in Hawaii, and as for anti colonialism sentiments; The Tea Party folks, one assumes, also sympathize with anti colonialism; last I heard, that's what The Original Tea Party was all about. But never mind the facts; make up stuff if it serves your purpose.

What we, the rationally thinking people, must remember is that; 51% of rEPUBLICANS don't believe that Obama is an American citizen. And, some 50 % of the GOP voting public don't believe in evolution, or planet earth more than 6,000 years old, or likely that the earth is a sphere that circles the sun in a galaxy in an immense universe.

I can't imagine where the GOP's votes are coming from. Apparently, their dream ticket is an amalgam of Huchabee's truthfulness, Gingrich's family values, Ann Coulter's compassion, and Mitt Romney's consistency (health care and abortion) and religion [sorry, Jesus just did not walk around Utah, ever]. At some point these kinds of beliefs have to matter, at least unless you're willing to disregard all religious belief.
That's something that I fervently wish we could do. After all, any and all religions are equally ridiculous (See: http://somelightsomeserious.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-you-think-that-belief-in-god-should.html). But oh boy, can they cause troubles for us all.
I give up.

WAR WITHOUT END

The other night when I came home and learned that "we" had invaded Libya, I ranted (my poor wife). I couldn't really believe it. I ranted because sometimes it's impossible for me to express my dismay thoughtfully; especially when my government has become too stupid to believe. Especially with respect to my gOVERNMENT's response to Libya.
It is hard for me to fathom the domestic widely heald belief that the "United States of American" is a peace loving nation. This nation is involved in THREE Middle Eastern Wars. All of them against Muslim countries (Jerry Falwell, the cHRISTIAN bigot, is so happy in Heaven [if it exists]). And at least two out of three of the wars are against countries with lots of OIL (Dick Cheney is so happy where ever hypocrital oil billionaires hang out). Maybe, if we hadn't STARTED two out of three (and some might argue that it's three out of three [at least after the initial "payback part" was over]) of these wars... AND maybe if any of these wars were against any of our geographically nearby neighbors (who might conceivably have actually transgressed against us in any substantive way)..... Just maybe, one or two of these three wars might be justified on some insane level. But really, think about it; probably not even then. There really aren't any good wars anymore.
I've always said; If it's fossil fuels YOU (spelled U SA) want; we should invade Canada and Mexico. Both countries have plenty of fossil fuel energy resources. And we can take those countries easy (I believe that we already have). These countries are NOT 9,000 to 12,000 miles away. I could WALK to the border of Mexico and/or Canada and shoot as many people as I want to with a hand gun (if I so chose). Compare that to flying a C 137 halfway around the world just to get there; before you get to shoot at somebody. We have spent more than a trillion dollars in the Bush/Cheney/Oil War in Iraq and what do we have to show for it? Libya, apparently. Not counting 5,000 dead American service people, 50, 000 more of our veterans who are now missing some numbers of arms, legs, eyes, faces and other (personally) important body parts. And not to mention (but I will) tens of thousands of sanely functioning human minds and psyches that can and will integrate into a non war society.

I'm at a loss. I thought that I wanted to live out my life in these western Virginian scruffy Appalachian mountains. But I'm beginning to wonder if that isn't really a viable plan for me. My gOVERNMENT seems to be insane. It is embarked on a path to WAR WITHOUT END. It is apparently the official USA Government policy. How many other countries have been at war against non neighboring countries in your life time? There seems to be a downside to being the "only global super power". It's the only power that can't be at peace. The USA is the most war like country in history.

If you think that you will ever see your country not at war, if you think that your children will ever see their country at peace; if you think that your grandchildren will ever see this country not at war; then you are deluded.

I am thinking about moving to.... GOD! I DON'T KNOW WHERE I MIGHT GO!

Power to the People By popular demand, another guest post

By Chris Bolgiano (originally distributed by: Bay Journal News Service at http://bayjournalnewsservice.com/Power.html.)

It's a gorgeous day full of singing birds and sunlight. Beautiful, streaming sunlight. Soon the photovoltaic system that added some aggression to my passive solar house in the mountains of western Virginia will be one year old, the time of reckoning.
Getting off the grid has always been Nirvana for 1970s Back-to-the-Landers like me. With net-metering - a 21st century update of the dream - I am still connected, selling excess electricity in summer when the sun is high, and buying electricity at night and in winter. The grid has become my battery, although my home system includes batteries for three or four sunless days of essential services if the grid is knocked out: water pump, stove, freezer, and playing old movies through the storm. In rural Appalachia, self-sufficiency is the traditional way of doing things.
Electricity has become a beacon of hope in the smog of our energy crisis. With President Obama's promise to get plug-in cars on the market by 2015, homegrown electricity could help wean Americans from foreign oil, which is largely used for transportation.
But our largest source of electricity is coal, which is also the largest culprit in environmental damage of all kinds, from mountain top removal mining to acid rain to carbon caused climate change.
Nuclear plants have waste issues, huge costs overruns and terrorism target potential. Natural gas plants are better but not by much. Even renewable sources can have unacceptable impacts: Industrial wind plants in the East destroy forests, while industrial solar arrays in the West destroy deserts. Even when well-sited, the thousands of miles of new transmission lines needed to transport power from green sources destroy everything in their path. What can a compassionate conservationist support?
Distributed generation, that's what.
On-site production of electricity (called distributed generation, or DG for short) is the cheapest, quickest, fairest way out of the energy conundrum. Site specific generation from small-scale solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels installations, combined with the new administration's energy conservation/efficiency programs, offers virtually unlimited resources for stimulating local jobs aimed at literally empowering local communities. From the widespread interest expressed in my own solar system, it seems that there is enormous pent-up consumer demand.
The paradigm of centralized power plants has been rendered obsolete by technology and terrorism. Consider how much stronger our nation would be against disasters both natural and criminal if schools, hospitals, community centers, businesses, nursing homes, farms, mobile homes, houses and apartment buildings across the country made enough electricity to, at the least, pump drinking water and refrigerate food.
Americans haven't enjoyed that kind of independence since they drank from dippers and packed pond ice in sawdust for the summer icebox. Decentralization of electricity brings a new perspective to the old rallying cry of democracy, "Power to the People!"
It will mean redesigning distribution lines and decoupling fixed costs from electricity rates to entice utility companies, traditionally hostile to DG. It will take new tax incentives, interconnection standards, building codes, and educational programs for electricians, builders, businesses and homeowners. It will take fleets of people at town, county, state, and federal levels all conspiring to allow consumers to take control of power sources. All home grown workers.
What better use of stimulus money could there be?
Maybe I'm not the one to be talking about economics, which is based on the idea that people always act in their own best interests. My solar system contradicts that basic principle. At current electric rates, it will take me 45 years to pay it off. My own personal back to the land trip will likely be well over by then. Rates will undoubtedly go up, but buying this system was economically unsound and I'm proud of it, because I love to confound economists. And you've got to spend your money somewhere unless you're planning on dying with it.
Taking responsibility for one's own environmental impact is what much of the talk about "greening" is really about. Studies show that when people see direct consequences of their actions -say, turning off a computer for the night -- they change their behavior and use significantly less energy.
It happened to me. After my new system was installed I checked the meter often for the fun of watching it run backward. And it did, through spring and summer. Now, it's showing 820 kilowatt hours used from the grid in eleven months -- roughly what an average American household uses in one month. At the end of a year, my utility company will pay me for any excess production. I don't really care about that, but I do want the meter to reach zero by next month to give me 100 percent solar electricity for the year, so - I'm powering off, goodbye!
Chris Bolgiano is the author or editor of five books. Chris Bolgiano, Mildly Amusing Nature Writer: www.chrisbolgiano.com

Why Shout At the News Paper?

I believe that I have finally broken my habit of writing letters to the editor of our local news paper, The Daily News Record. Sometimes the simplest opinion will elicit a most vociferous response. For example, we all know that the Solstices and Equinoxes move about in the calendar due to the asymmetry of the earth's orbit. Since the velocity of earth increases as it approaches perigee, the rate of the change in day length due to the angle of the sun also increases (plus we all remember that 12:00 noon moves back 14 minutes and forward 16 minutes within the "clock day" between February 10 and November 5...). This causes the ANALEMMA, the figure eight produced by the shadow of the sun at precisely 12:00 noon (CLOCK NOON), to be asymmetrical as well. The earliest sunset was way back on the 7th of December, the latest sunrise isn't until January 6th.

And this all proves that rationalists and evolutionists are the Devil as was pointed out to me recently in a letter to the editor of our local news paper.

FRACK YOU Isn't just for science fiction anymore.

FRACKING: A NEW "F" WORD ENTERS THE LANGUAGE (OED are you listening?)

I didn't write this one, it's by Chris Bolgiano; (I did add a few parenthetical observations). This version includes the last sentence that was cut from the column as published by Bay Journal News Service http://bayjournalnewsservice.com/ to avoid offending too many newspaper editors. They didn't see the joke, and they don't watch Caprica either.

A new “f” word has entered our language that has nothing to do with sex but everything to do with exploitation. From New York to Tennessee, above the gassy geological formation called Marcellus shale, people are debating the practice of fracking.

Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from shale. It involves drilling a hole a mile down, then thousands of feet horizontally, and pumping down millions of gallons of water laced with sand, salt and chemicals to crack the shale. Gas is forced up, along with roughly 25 percent of the contaminated wastewater, often hot with radioactivity.

Shale gas fields are called ‘plays’ but developing them is serious business. Since 2005, when Congress approved the so-called Halliburton Loophole to exempt fracking from federal standards for clean water, companies from Oklahoma to Japan have spent millions of dollars to frack rural communities innocent of any knowledge about the practice.

By some estimates, fracking Marcellus and other shales across North America could satisfy our desire for gas for the next 45 years

Fracking is ongoing in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. Now Texas-based Carrizo Company wants to frack Bergton, Va., long famous as one of the most idyllic pastoral communities in the Shenandoah Valley, where I live.

At first the attraction between gas companies and communities is mutual: landowners, often poor, gain income from leases, stores gain business, counties gain tax base. The industry courts communities with assurances that the chemicals used compose only one part per hundred of the fracking fluid, are environmentally friendly, and will be treated at the local sewage plant. (One part per hundred is 10,000 parts per million, the standard used by EPA and the FDA when measuring toxic chemicals).

For global warming worriers, the sexiest aspect is the reduction in greenhouse gases emitted by burning natural gas compared to oil; for others, it’s the fact that gas is domestic, reducing our bondage to hostile foreign countries.

For many, the romance quickly pales. Fracking chemicals include formaldehyde, benzene, and others known to be carcinogenic at [proprietary and unknown levels]. Municipal plants can’t handle fracking wastewater, and it’s stored in open pits until trucked elsewhere. If enough fresh water can’t be sucked from streams on site, trucks haul it in.

Eighteen-wheelers rolling 24/7 pulverize country roads and cause accidents, like the one that spilled 8,000 gallons of toxic materials into a Pennsylvania creek last year. And they emit enough carbon to seriously shrink the greenhouse gas advantage of fracked gas.

Explosions are occurring from causes similar to BP’s Gulf debacle. In early June, a blowout at one of the thousand-plus fracking wells in Pennsylvania spewed flammable gas and polluted water 75-feet high for sixteen hours. One of our most recent local headlines reads, “W.Va. Gas Well Blast Injures 7; Flames Now 40 Feet.”

Fracking’s impact on surface and groundwater outlasts any explosion. People from New York to Texas complain that their wells deteriorated after fracking started nearby. Pennsylvania officials ordered Cabot Gas Corporation to pay fines, plug wells, and install treatment systems in 14 houses where methane contaminated drinking water. [The companies all imply that they're working "way down there" thousands of feet below your wells and springs - no problem! The BP well was MILES down there and all that fluid wants to come up here due to billions of pounds of rock sitting on it.]

New York state officials see fracking as so risky that they imposed far stricter environmental regulations within watersheds that supply ten million people with drinking water. They feared an outright ban would provoke lawsuits from landowners eager to sign leases.

Landowner rights are sacred in Appalachia, but the recent request by a company that transports gas in Pennsylvania to be declared a “utility,” which would give it the power to condemn property for pipelines, puts a new twist on the issue. And what about my right to continue drinking clean water from my well on my property?

The likelihood of leaks of toxic materials into waters is enhanced when drilling occurs in the 100- year flood plain, as is proposed in Bergton. In 40 years here I’ve seen many disastrous floods, and the mountainous Bergton area is always among the hardest hit. A flood would sweep a well pad with containers of chemicals, fuels, and open wastewater pits into the headwaters of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, and ultimately into the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay.

Given the risks, fracking seems to me merely to prolong our addiction to fossil fuel, when renewable energy is within reach: solar panel costs have fallen by half (cheap enough even for me), and offshore wind turbines offer huge energy efficiencies.

But history insists on repeating itself. For centuries, Appalachia has been raped by outside interests wresting iron, timber, and coal from these mountains. Once again, people from elsewhere are taking huge profits and leaving a pittance and a lot of ugly pits behind, while politicians stall efforts to repair the regulatory loophole. They are risking through accident or carelessness the poisoning of water for millions of people, generations into the future. I SAY FRACK'EM.

Chris Bolgiano is the author or editor of five books. This commentary is distributed by Bay Journal News Service

Phonerudity

Why be helpful to rude people? Why encourage them to continue their behavior? I am just tired of going to the trouble of walking across the room to answer a ringing phone and have the caller say; "Who is this?"

If you don't know to whom your call has been directed, why is it my job to help you out? I'm the one who walked across the room of my home at your instigation. What else do I owe you? Help you find your socks? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? AND WHAT'S IT TO YOU WHATEVER THE ANSWER IS? WHY SHOULD I EVEN ANSWER? YOU CALLED HERE!

Or often the caller says: "Is Flaksflkai there?" or even, the correct name; "Is Ralph there?" Not much better if I don't recognize your voice. Anyway, the answer is; "It depends." I don't want to be rude so I don't say any of these things. I propose that every phone call that doesn't start with the words:

"Hello, My name is *****, may I please speak to ######?" (###### being the correct name of the owner of the residence where the phone has just rung) be answered by the shouted words;

"WHAT? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" *CLICK*

I have on occasion said instead; "Excuse me, To whom am I speaking?" And upon an answer; I've sometimes said; "Didn't your mother teach you any manners?" But this has always led to massive confusion on the other end of the line wherein the caller has tried to understand what I just said. And why. Again, It's not my job. So why should I be helpful?

If everyone used the; "WHAT? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" *CLICK*, things just might slowly get better. Or not. Who knows? It's worth a try.

Now, I have to think about robo calls. There might be something better than my current strategy. I never hang up on them. Why do that? At least while they are talking to the air in my house, they're not calling your house. It's their dime and time so I always let them waste it.

Vote With Your Wallet

Dear Sirs: (Add the company of your choice APPROPRIATE DATE )

It has often occurred to me that many people in the media who have been given a platform will say the most outrageous things just to stir things up and get attention (and therefore exposure), even though many of these things are demonstrably false, or slanderous, or just plain mean and hurtful: O'Reilly screaming at the son of a 9-11 victim "that I'm [O'Reilly] going to punch you out..." Lou Dobbs saying that the "Birthers" opinions "certainly ...are...views... that can't be discounted." Saying that "These questions will not go away." And his CEO admitting : "This... story is dead." Ann Coulter saying that she is being abused by the mothers of the dead in Iraq because the mothers have a "hidden" agenda. Then there's Glenn Beck, saying that Obama is a racist and a fascist and that he hates white people (and then 30 seconds later saying that the President doesn't hate white people. But, (he) Beck is a true patriot, and Democrats are fascists or communists or EVIL. Beck just opens his mouth to see what comes out. Free speech, yes, but maybe with consequences. It is my opinion that Beck is screaming "FIRE" in a crowded theater.

I have always wondered, who is paying these people? Why, it's YOU, Mr.Advertiser.

So the other night when I happen to catch Beck making one of his ridiculously inciteful (not to be confused with insightful) pronouncements; I thought that I'd make a list of his sponsors so that I wouldn't make the mistake of ever patronizing any of their products. I recorded every advertiser during his program (I didn't have to watch and listen to the crap; isn't Tevo grand?). You Mr. Advertiser are on that list of sponsors. Are you proud of your position among the liars?

I am sharing these observations and the information I have recorded with as many people as I can; as often as I can. I will never spend a penny on any of the goods or services supplied by these businesses. And I will encourage everyone I meet to do the same. I will vote with my wallet.

Sincerely, (REDACTED; feel free to copy any part, print and send to your "favorite" sponsor. A hand written name after "Sirs:" and a note added after "Sincerely," adds weight to any communication. P.S. I signed my letters, you should too.) The following are some of the sponsors of the Glen Beck program:

Jos. A. Bank, P.O. Box 1000, Hampstead, MD 21074-4000.
Charles Binder, Binder & Binder® National Headquarters, 33-00 Northern Blvd., Suite 7A, Long Island City, New York 11101, Telephone: 800.742.9696, Fax: 718.512.2424
Carbonite, 334 Boylston St - 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02116, 617-587-1100, Toll Free: 877-665-4466
Direct TV, (this was almost impossible to get: (1 800 531 5000) I get the feeling that they don't want to hear from you unless you're going to give them money.
Goldline International, 1601 Cloverfield Boulevard, 100 South Tower, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Lear Capital, Inc., 1990 S. Bundy Dr., Suite 600, Los Angeles, CA 90025 Phone: (800) 576-9355
Phone: (310) 571-0190 Fax: (310) 571-0194
Lend America, 520 Broadhollow Rd, Melville, NY 11747
Liberty Medical, Medco, Inc., (I could only find a web site e-mail address media@medco.com)
Merit Financial, 1300 4th Street, Suite 303, Santa Monica, CA 90401, Phone 310.394.7577
Metastock, Equis International, 90 South 400 West, Suite 620, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
New Max Magazine, P.O. Box 20989, West Palm Beach, Florida, 33416
Pearle Vision Luxottica Retail, 4000 Luxottica Place, Mason, OH 45040 1-800-732-7531
Sears Holdings Corp., Edward Lampert
Regions, 1-800-734-4667
Roseland Capital, 429 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 450, Santa Monica, CA 90401
Target, Corporate Info. # 1.800.440.0680
Wall St. Journal, 200 Burnett Road, Chicopee, MA 01020
Zero Technologies, LLC., 4510 Adams Circle, Unit G, Bensalem PA 19020