July 08, 2008
Don't Be a Purple Petunia
Senator Jesse Helms has done this nation a favor by kicking the bucket in the first place, and, in the second place, by having his funeral land precisely on July 8, thereby postponing the FISA vote in the senate until tomorrow, so that his colleagues will be free to attend thus showing him the respect that he doesn't deserve.
This gives you an extra day to email the traitorous Barack at My Barack Obama and register your protest, as well as contact your own senators - find them, and what to say at The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Finished? Now you get to watch the movie. Daniel Ellsberg--- remember him from the Pentagon Papers, no? well you should -- speaks eloquently to the issue of FISA and telecom immunity. If you're interested in continuing to live in a democracy it would behove you to devote a few minutes to preserving it.
Photo note: Twisted bunting and pansies - oops they're petunias, but if they were pansies, this would be a metaphorophoto
July 07, 2008
The Fourth of July
Our new camera
comes complete
with a fireworks
button especially
for the Fourth
of July
too bad there
were no fireworks
until the Sixth
of July
due to
perpetual
inclemency
then we couldn't
stay to shoot
this was
a drive-by
a happenstance
way off in the
distance in
some other town
shot with our
new apparatus
you will be
pleased to
note that
we're not having
even one iota of
separation anxiety
this time around
we're actually shooting
up a storm
and most of it's
in focus
that's what happens
when you buy a
camera with
a fireworks
button pre installed
and a button
for almost
everything
else too
where you
can find it
Photo note:View larger image if you want to see just how out of focus we can get now
July 03, 2008
Garlic Scapes
Much to our delight, we encountered a new vegetable taste sensation yesterday at the Farmer's Market - garlic scapes. We were drawn to their snake pit likeness, imagining them plated next to a tofu portion. However. at six dollars a pound it did seem an extravagance. When we mentioned to the dashing young farmer (they're all dashing these days, if you haven't noticed) that the scapes didn't seem to be selling like hotcakes, he said it was because the impact of the New York Times feature on garlic scapes was dying down. That did it. We sprang for a half pound.
For purposes of culinary purity, we decided on a simple saute in olive oil. The resulting vegetative experience proved to be rather like eating those tough blades of crab grass one pulled from the lawn as a child, and strung through one's front teeth. Not entirely unpleasant, but for the money, artichokes would have been a better investment. Perhaps making the more time consuming soup would have been a better choice, since overall chewiness was definitely a problem.
Our only regret is that we didn't take more raw pictures, since garlic scapes will be out of season momentarily and we'll have to wait for next year for some more artful shots
Photo note: Garlic scapes on first sighting
July 01, 2008
Shriveling Hope
There's a new term floating around out there, which we're sure you would never want applied to you-- It is: "the low information voter"
In order to avoid becoming one, you had best read about the FISA legislation immediately -- Glenn Greenwald is a good place to start, or, if you are unable to concentrate on the written word Keith Olbermann, has made a video for your perusal.
Finished? Now send Barack an email before Monday to let him know how betrayed you feel by his "centrist" switch supporting immunity to all those telecommunications companies that let George W. Bush and god knows who else read your email and listen to your phone calls to their hearts content. It doesn't matter whether you were sharing state secrets, simple beliefs about preserving the environment can get you on a list somewhere that you simply do not want to be on these days.
Photo note: Curling up into something unrecognizable - a metaphorophoto
Addendum: how to get off a government watch list
June 28, 2008
Stunting Solar
The New York Times reports that the federal government has, once again, put its head where the sun don't shine (forgive teh reference):
Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”
Ah, but it makes perfect sense if you want to deed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to your oily friends before you leave office. The last time Bush worried about an environmental impact was when he fell off his bike in '04.
We aren't the only ones to smell something repugnant
CleanBeta has discovered an internal study conducted by the Bureau of Land Management in 2003 that describes the enormous potential for concentrated and photovoltaic solar energy production on BLM lands in the same six states where it froze today’s projects. The study (attached below) recommends that BLM rapidly increase the number of solar energy projects on these public lands. In fact, this is what BLM did. In the five years since the document appeared, the Bureau began recruiting solar energy projects to select sites on federal lands, which led to the dramatic increase they are now using as an excuse to shut the project down. The document raises serious questions about the Bureau’s reasons for freezing the solar energy projects located on federal lands. Please read the document — Bureau of Land-Management-Solar Energy on Federal Lands Assessment
If you're not disheartened enough take a look at this
On a cheerier alternative energy note, the Boston Globe staff held their first annual Prius rally. The winner rolled into the final stop at the Humvee dealership registering a whopping 63 miles per gallon. We have, with maximum concentration, and many irritated drivers lining up behind us, managed 45 miles per gallon in the silver bullet . Practice makes perfect.
Photo note: All the solar energy panels you're going to see for awhile.
June 26, 2008
Dairy and Other Issues
Since all of us here at Dakota spent precious blogging time composing a complaint letter to the town engineer concerning a foot high asphalt obstacle that appeared across the entire front of the cot by the sea, increasing the possibility of broken bones sustained on the property by 90%, we have little steam left for other important governmental commentary today. We suspect the town engineer is avoiding us, since he hasn't returned even one of the twenty phone calls we have placed since Monday at 7AM. The first nineteen were scrupulously polite
We were so upset that we would have sought solace in food, if it weren't so shockingly expensive. Instead, we had to make do with the food videos, "Yogurt" and "Mayo"
To be honest, we did have a miniscule scoop of raspberry Cyclops Frozen Yogurt (highly recommended, available at Whole Foods, made in New Zealand from Greek yogurt) even though it has a price tag as large as it's carbon footprint. Since it's probiotic, we felt it would it serve a medicinal purpose.
Photo note: In keeping with the theme, organic eggs, a mere $5.00 a dozen from Natural Way Farm where the chickens eat blueberries and are treated like queens. Natural Way is a horizontal, rather than a vertical farm