Lately, every time I post something here that is spozed to kind of generate conversation, without too much of my madness inserted, I get these people popping up admonishing me about my lack of original content.
My fix on this is that I am in much better a position to direct y'all to good original content, than I am to invent it myself, but I shall defer to your wisdom, O Kossacks.
This is a crosspost from Daily Kos and Free Speech Zone.
I recently watched this TED talk by Jill Bolte, a brain researcher who had a stroke, a massive cerebral hemorrhage in her left brain. The talk she gives is about her experience while her left brain virtually shut down.
Severe water scarcity is a daily reality for many in Mexico, particularly the people of Tehuacán Valley. Facing a dwindling supply compounded by development, drought, and pollution one organization models a solution.
I've been working on giving stuff away via Freecycle in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I would never have guessed we even had one here, if a blogger friend elsewhere hadn't inclined me to look.
I've been thinking about this for awhile, since things are changing a lot now. Giving away my fruit trees.
I bought them last year. An apricot, a pear, a Braeburn apple, and a crabapple to pollinate the Braeburn and be beautiful in the spring. And a Stella cherry, because I always wanted to have a cherry tree, but they run forty feet tall and need another one to cross-pollinate. Stella cherries are dwarf cherry trees, only run fifteen feet or so I think. (post-publish edit; they are also self-pollinating)
Another reprint. Sorry. My source on this one says the trial is still being delayed.
These people got fucked to the wide, in case you find that of interest. I did.
John and Jackie Stower run the Manna Storehouse in LaGrange, Ohio. Last December their organic food coop and homeschool were raided by a SWAT team, who invaded their home with guns drawn, held them and their family captive for six hours, and confiscated a large amount of food. No charges were ever filed. The Buckeye Institute is helping the Stowers sue the The Lorain County General Health District, the Ohio Attorney General's Office and the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The trial will open October 8 and 9 at 8:30 am.
This is a crosspost from DK in response to fairleft's post about Haiti there.
We tell ourselves a lot of stories. There's nothing wrong with that; in fact we need them. But we should always be looking at what the story we're telling is, and what the underlying stories are.
I was surprised by people's reaction to the conclusion Michael Moore drew in, Capitalism: A Love Story, that Capitalism Is Evil. I thought people mostly knew that, or at least strongly suspected it, so the idea wouldn't be startling.
Of course capitalists don't think Capitalism is evil. But many progressives, too, were taken aback by Moore's blunt conclusion -- either disturbed by the potential implications, or, more often, apparently not having thought about it deeply enough to have a clear opinion.
But many more people than just Michael Moore have thought deeply about whether Capitalism is Evil, and the arguments and evidence, when laid out (as I will shortly do), demonstrate that Capitalism is indeed evil, by any reasonable definition "evil." In other words, Capitalism is not just evil, it is VERY evil -- or, we might say, Capitalism can be proved Evil beyond a reasonable doubt.
This is something I posted on DK last year about tarantulas, when South Texas was still in such a bad drought. Things are better now but drought is still a menace for all of us critters who require food and water and habitat to get on.
The United States says it's been granted rare permission to use Cuban airspace for aid and evacuation flights in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake.
"We have coordinated with the Cuban government for authorisation to fly medical evacuation flights from the US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Miami, Florida, through Cuban airspace, cutting 90 minutes off one-way flight time," the White House said in a statement on Friday.
Okay, first...the VERY first thing you do, is come in, in a way, that will catch people off guard. It helps to be confusing with a touch of humor. Get all that in the title. Follow the rules. Capitalize every word.
