Roger Doiron has done it again with another great graphic displaying the agriculture situation in America, when compared to the White House garden.
Check it out here.
It’s a really great example of how what people need to eat, and should eat for their health, is not respected as such by the government and where they put their dollars. Very little of what is subsidized is actual food grown for human consumption, which the graphic shows is great detail.
I don’t agree with every single things he says, but for the most part he is spot on.
Fantastic writing.
Posted in Global action, Investing, Peak Oil, Politics
I trust you all have had a nice Christmas, maybe gotten some things you wanted and seen some family. I don’t have much to say really other than to just mention that I know I haven’t been posting much lately. I’m not sure why. Part of it, I think, is that I’ve spent so much time and energy trying to keep up with what all is going on in the world around us that I haven’t had the energy to put out any writings. Part of it is making Christmas gifts. Part of it is just laziness. Some too can be placed at the feet of Facebook and my new attention in that direction.
(by the way, if you’re a member look me up. I go by Matthew though.)
A commenter today asked how I felt about Obama’s appointments. Well, disappointed. I almost feel like it’s Clinton #2. I have no doubt that Obama will do a better job of leading the administration than Hillary, or McCain, but if he choose the same messengers wont’ the messengers tell the same message? I have been inspired by his list of objectives as he hits office running, although I disagree with him on how to accomplish some of his objectives. Love it or hate it, the stimulas package seems to be coming. At least he is not just tossing out money but directing it to some useful purposes. Infrastrucure is good, as long as it’s used to say upgrade electric transmission lines, sewer lines or get some kind of green energy infrastructure up and running. Not so good if it will be wasted on bridges and roads. Trains, water ways, canals, etc would be great.
My big concern is debt, debt, debt. The government keeps piling up more debt. They are paying back debt with debt (and have been for a while). That’s kind of scary. Now they are talking about him being sent a bill for $800B – $1T for Obama’s stimulus. What if it goes back to Congress? Will they take on another $200B like they did with the TARP bill? It sure seems possible. While I initially thought an infrastructure bill would be good for the economy I’m not so sure now. I would be all for this is we weren’t having to borrow so much. But by having to do that we are really shooting ourselves in the foot. Not so much now, but sometime in the near future we’ll feel it. The Automatic Earth has been doing a great job following all this so make sure to check them out.
I don’t know about you all, but I didn’t think my stores had that much less business. However, there was the same sales for the big retailers that other people were seeing, even though we aren’t having the layoffs like other areas, yet. We did good with our spending although I did go overboard for my wife’s birthday. Probably shouldn’t have, but this might be the last time for a decade or so. We’re anxiously watching some of the store flyers for heavy discounts to pick up items we think we might need in the next few years. Extra clothes, shoes, blankets, tools and other utility items.
That’s all for now. I’m glad I forced myself to sit down and do this. I’m going to try to figure out how to e-mail post and maybe then I’ll be able to get more things up. I can just shoot them off from work!
It’s official, Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. I’m pretty excited about the future, but perhaps for a different reason than most.
The media has been focused on his victory as a triumph for black people, and how he is the final culmination of all the effort put forth by those great Civil Rights leaders in the past. And they’re right, sort of. It is a great moment for race in America, if you think race matters in America. I for one, don’t think it does. Maybe that’s because I’m white and I haven’t experienced race issues, but for all the talking I’ve done, reading I’ve done and people I’ve listened to I’ve only heard race mentioned in this Presidential race by 2 kinds of people; The Media and people I would term as a little bit country (personified by a white guy of about 60 with a drawl and usually some stubble on his face).
No one else gives a shit about race.
The thing I found the most inspiring about Obama’s victory last night was that it was a victory for the little guy. It can best be summed up by the first three words of the Constitution. We the People.
We the People took back our political process from lobbyists and corporate interests.
We the People beat back the GOP and Clinton political machines.
We the People voted with our feet, our volunteerism and our small checks that WE were ready for change.
We the People said NO MORE! Our country will not be controlled by those with the deepest pockets. We WILL NOT ALLOW this to happen anymore.
We the People decided that we had hope. Hope for our future. Hope that we could take back our country. And Hope that we would be victorious.
WE were. WE ARE.
We the People need to make sure this fruit doesn’t die on the vine. We need to feed and nurture it make it grow. We need to make it grow so future generations don’t have to go through what we’ve gone through in the recent past, and what we’ll be experiencing in the near future.
Ben Franklin was asked way back in 1787 as he left the Continental Congress if we had a republic or a monarchy
“A republic, if you can keep it” he responded. A republic, if you can keep it.
America, it’s time to keep it. It’s time to stay involved. It’s time to earn it. WE have to pay back these founding fathers now with our action. Don’t let this enthusiasm die. Feed it and make it grow.
Together, WE CAN. Together, WE WILL.
Posted in Politics
Senator Sanders of Vermont has a poll on his webpage about the financial situation of our country. If you are interested in voting in it follow the link below. He’s a pretty smart guy (especially for a politician) and he sends out a pretty good e-mail if you want to give him your e-mail address.
Fiscal Cat 5 Warning via MEOW
Economics 101 via Mises
Good intro primer on Peak Oil via The Energy Bulletin
This pictures was orignally on my Truth to Power e-mail, but thought it deserved a show here as well. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t think it’s funny.
I especially love the “here be dragons” line. Hilarious.
Click here to go to their site and see the video. (I can’t get the embed function to work either) This video is from the Colbert Report and I saw the link on the Zahn Zone.
Click on the link to go to the Pile of O’Melays blog where they feature a clip from SNL this week. I guess SNL will have to be required viewing this election season.
Don’t forget this video of Senator Sanders of Vermont proposing an amendment for the recent bailout…err..financial rescue plan.
And lastly, a video of a speech from the House by Representative Sherman of California. This is the short version, but if you want to watch a longer version there are plenty of choices on the right hand side of the screen.
Interesting stuff.
You may be wondering where the heck I’ve been for the past month or so. Hard to say. Things are just moving and I’m trying to keep up with the flood. Been busy putting up food, even though I look at what I have and it seems completely inadequate, although at least twice what was there last year. The freezer is a lot more full than last year, and about to be really crammed when the cow and pigs come home, so to speak.
I was afraid that this Sat would be the last farmer’s market of the year but I see they go on until late Oct this year, so I still have time to pick up a few more squash and apples. Picked up 100 lbs of taters the other day for $50. Felt like I should pay her at least $70 but she wouldn’t take more. (Probably because I buy some of her really overpriced tomatoes early in the year) I buy quite a bit of stuff from her.
Overall I was pleased with how much food we ate from the garden this summer, although the spring was a lot better than the late summer and fall. Tomatoes were down this year with the cool weather. I didn’t get any squash this year (didn’t plant any so that makes sense) and most of my potatoes and sweet potatoes were flooded, so I was forced to buy them, but that’s not so awful, well couldn’t buy sweet potatoes because no one has any. Didn’t get as many beans as I would have hoped this year, but mostly because one of my packages was mislabeled and by the time I realized it the pole beans were going and making a big mess in the garden and I didn’t have much energy to wade through it and sort them out, so they weren’t picked as much as you would hope.
My harvest totals seem small, but I did the best I could to keep them up to date with all the stuff I have going on. Perhaps I should just give up on that. I’m never ever to keep it up. Been delivering a mad amount of food for the food kitchens, but haven’t put the last couple up. Maybe I can find them and get them up. I’ve already delivered the totals to the farmer and unless I have the e-mails they will be gone. I’ve been happy to be involved with doing that this year. A lot of food was put to use that would otherwise be wasted and we’re going to step it up with some planning meetings this winter to do even better next year.
I’ve been so impressed working with her that I’m going to sign up for a CSA share next year with her. I haven’t done that in the past because I’ve always felt like I wouldn’t get enough for my money, but seeing what she gives out if we get half of what is distributed she is still giving out too much. She doesn’t charge organic prices either for most of her food items.
I’ve been following the financial markets very, very intensely. Been spending some time managing money for ourselves and others to try to stay a step ahead of the market. Sad to see it appears that the Senate is going to push through this bailout…er…financial rescue plan (ie a turd sandwich) even if their citizens don’t want it to happen. And now they’ve added all kinds of other crap to the bill to bribe enough people to vote for it.
We’ve also, for some reason, been spending a fair amount of time entertaining ourselves. Having friends over, going clubbing, going on a few trips, etc. I’m not sure where this is coming from, except perhaps an understanding that this will probably happen less in the future so maybe we should get some of it in now. Don’t know? Maybe because our kids, and our friends kids, are finally older and now we can do more things as humans instead of just care giving machines.
Obviously starting up another school year and all that entails can be quite challenging. I wonder sometimes about homeschooling the boys, but by the time I think we can do that financially it will be a few years and by then do I want to pull them away from school and their friends? I don’t know. I do know that I could do a much better job of teaching them, at least so that they learn a bigger variety of information, but the energy it would take and removing my salary (which isn’t large but is big enough) from the income stream is a big step. We’ll see how it goes.
That’s all for now. Make sure to talk to your Congress people about the bailout package. One section of it specifically details how foreign companies will be allowed to sell their bad investments to the Treasury so all us taxpayers can pay for bad decisions made by the finance people in other countries. Good times.
Posted in community action, Eating Locally, Gardening, Politics
Fat Guy on a Little Bike 