Monsanto revolving door
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Deep thoughts
http://lewrockwell.com/berwick/berwick53.1.html
I ordered a steak and was given a metal fork and a black plastic picnic knife…I noticed across from me sat a man with a “Don’t F*&k With Texas” t-shirt on who was also trying to cut his steak with the same utensil…As I labored to cut my own steak with the ridiculous plastic knife I thought, they already f*&ked with Texas and no one even seems to notice.
The Ecotechnic Future by John Michael Greer, page 219
Human limits, not human power, define the situation we face today because the technological revolutions and economic boom times that most modern people take for granted were a product, not of science or such impressive intangibles as “the human spirit,” but simply a brief period of extravagance in which we squandered half a billion years of stored sunlight.
Economics
True economics is not a quantitative discipline. Properly understood, economics is the study of individuals’ subjective valuation of competing uses of resources under condition of scarcity, along with comparisons of those subjective valuations among persons as evidenced by voluntary market transactions.
Most of what passes for economics these days is actually politics, which is the study of how decisions regarding competing uses of resources among persons are made by coercion.
Elephant holocaust
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2012-05-31/reversing-desertification-livestock
“In Zimbabwe we subsequently shot some 40,000 elephants, only to see the problem become worse!”
Heuristic: Beware of anyone who offers killing animals as the solution to any perceived problem.
Bill 78, Rule of 78
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Rule_of_78
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bill_78
Neologism
Fleanoia: After you’ve experienced a flea infestation, the feeling that every movement on your skin must be a flea.
Mary Alice Divine of White Bear Lake
In response to an article about Atina Diffley and her memoir Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works, Mary Alice Divine of White Bear Lake seems to think that the only way land changes hands in the U.S. is by way of voluntary transactions (see http://atinadiffley.com/turn-here-sweet-corn-dialog-on-urban-planning/#more-2245).
LOADED LANGUAGE: Developers can’t build unless landowners sell
While I appreciate those who are passionate about organically grown food and enjoyed reading the profile of Atina Diffley (“Soil sister,” April 18), I think it does a disservice to those who build our homes when a reporter writes that “bulldozers are the villians” and that the Diffleys “lost” their farm to suburban development as bulldozers “strafed the land.”
Bulldozers don’t just come over the horizon and take people’s farms. Somebody has to willingly sell their land to a developer. Then that developer (provided the property is zoned for housing) builds the homes we live in.
I don’t know the particulars of this family’s decision, but I do know that no developer, no city, no bulldozer made them sell.
MARY ALICE DIVINE, WHITE BEAR LAKE
If Ms. Divine is interested in facts rather than mythology, she would do well to acquaint herself with eminent domain and the ad valorem property tax, which are just two popular ways of involuntarily taking property away from people in the U.S. She might also look into the system of sewer and water assessment liens apparently used in the Diffley case, the ultimate effect of which was indeed to make the family sell.
Grape vines
I finally pulled the trigger and ordered wine grape vines. I got 16 each of Traminette, Chambourcin, NY95.0301.01, Corot Noir, and Noiret. That means I’ve got alot of work to do in May getting them planted and trellised. That also means we’ll be enjoying some handcrafted, no-sulfite-added fine wine in about 5 years. Cheers!
Neologisms
sin-law or sin-laws, noun. Relatives of the person with whom you are sleeping. I spent Christmas with the sin-laws. My brother-sin-law is a hoot.
ruburbs or ruburbia, noun. Location that is between suburban and rural. To the left of my house is my neighbor’s house, and there is a cornfield across the street. I’m less than a half-hour’s drive to the city. I live in ruburbia.
surural or ruburban, adjective. Having to do with the ruburbs or ruburbia. Our living way out here must seem surural to city folk.
whoreiffic or whoriffic, adjective. Very good in terms of whore-ish behavior. That girl was whoreiffic in bed.
Will Matt Smith eat your dog?
Matt Smith is a journalist and podcaster at Latrobe University. I read Mr. Smith’s article at http://m.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/pooch-pie-on-the-menu-if-we-dont-cut-ecological-pawprint-20101124-187bh.html. The premise of and statements in the article comparing the environmental impact of a dog and an SUV seemed preposterous to me. Even if their original source is the Vale’s book, Mr. Smith seems to accept them.
A google search for time to eat the dog debunked took me to http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2009/11/06/dogs_vs_suvs_vs_the_earth_debunked, which took me to http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2009/11/02/dogs-vs-cars. It seems like I’m not the only one who find these dog vs. SUV claims of the Vales and of Mr. Smith ridiculous, and not just based on a hunch, but rather on an analysis of facts.
I think Mr. Smith does himself and the world a disservice by spreading this idea, especially without providing information about his independent analysis of the facts. Having some rough idea of the relative environmental merits and demerits of various activities is becoming of ever greater importance to us all. I don’t think Mr. Smith’s article helps us in this respect. I hope that Mr. Smith puts more critical thinking into his future environmental essays. It seemed to be missing in this one.