Astra & Brisa go face first into the feed bag whenever they get the chance.  Brisa has had a sudden growth spurt this week, and no longer looks like the runt— she's caught up with Astra (whom she has her "arm" around).

Health insurance is a pet peeve of mine.  The so-called "free market" allows insurance companies to decline me as an individual (thanks, GOP), while federal regulation prevents the creation of groups outside an employment relationship (thanks, Dems).  In short, neither party has had my best interests at heart.

I've been skeptically optimistic as the Obama administration moves its health care agenda through Congress: optimistic because Obama has the momentum and political capital to get something done, skeptical because in general Obama has favored an employer-based health plan.  Such an approach would do little for small businesses except either leave them uninsured or force them out of business.  And the public cost of the ideas bandied about— trillions more dollars we don't have— is more than I believe our indebted economy can handle.

So it was with some interest that I read reports of a proposed Senate bill that offers some faiurly interesting solutions at a miuch lower price.  It would:

• Create a public health insurance system to compete with private insurance (either government-run or non-proifit cooperative).
• Prevent health insurance companies from denying policies or increasing premiums based on pre-existing conditions.
• Fine (tax) those who failed to buy health insurance.
• Fine (tax) large employers who fail to offer health insurance.
• Provide additional Medicaid for the poor.

It's an interesting mixture of market interventions.  On the one hand, it forces insurance companies to treat all insureds equally regardless of prior history.  Ordinarily this would be expected to raiswe rates across the board.  However, forcing private insurance companies to com[pete with a nationwide non-profit option would help prevent that from happening.  (Kaiser, where available, provides generally excellent care for far less money than the insurance companies.  If Kaiser was available here, I'd dump Humana in a flash.)

This is clearly a move toward socialized medicine.  Yet I no longer argue that medicine shouldn't be socialized— if we as a society can afford to pay for it.  One of my doctors charges $80 for a 10 minute appointment.  That's almost $500 per hour.  And that's obscene.  

Markewt control should bring lower administrative costs.  Much of doctors' overhead comes from billing insurance companies anbd collecting from the uninsured, and much of the health insurance companies' overhead comes from processing and denying claims.  Those should both decline, reducing the overall cost of care (to us and our public and private insurers).

As the health care market becomes more controlled, there will be complaints.  (Kaiser is "the one everyone loves to hate.")  Still, I'm reminded of the view of health care expressed by some of my British friends— they love to complain about how bad their socialized medicine is.  But when they need care, they get on a plane and fly home.

We have a new "Flea & Farmer's Market" in Parowan, just eight miles from us.  It's too early yet for local growers (our growing season just started three weeks ago), so at present it's more of a flea market.  One vendor was selling essential oils, the rest had a collection of used goods for sale.  But one of the vendors says she's growing vegetables that will be ready in a couple of weeks.  This will also be our first venue for selling our goat cheese once it has aged enough to be legal.

Our climate is harsh for agriculture, but there are microclimates nearby in which fruit trees thrive and tomatoes have been growing for some weeks,  I look forward to buying the local harvest as soon as it's available— because there is nothing like a home-grown tomato.

(NorthDevonFarmer photo.)

The current issue of CreamLIne (No. 37-38) has an anecdotal survey of how artisan cheesemakers have been affected by the recession.  It may surprise you to learn that for many, business is good!  Here's a sampling of the responses:

• "No negative impact...  cheese sales at record levels... will contnue to operate at 100% capacity"
• "Sales are down 6% and feed costs are up 25%..."
• "We have only increased in sales [over prior periods]..."
• "I am now $700 over my best [farmers market] last season!"
• "We still cannot make enough to keep up with our demand..."

Compare this with retail sales, which are down 12% from a year ago.  Clearly, despite the economic challenges, people are still willing to pay for good quality, local food.

Henna, now 6-1/2 months old, is almost as tall as Suellen!

A new produce stand opened in Cedar City for the summer.  Intended as an outlet for Utah produce, already they're selling cantalope and watermelon from Leeds, just south of us, and cherries from Payson to the north. 

Of course, to fill their shelves this early in the season, they also have corn from Fresno, California, apples from Washington, and pineapples from who-knows-where.  They're not doing this on principle, they're doing it to make a profit.  Still, it's nice to see that we'll have a full range of Utah-grown produce as the summer progresses.

There's nothing quite like a field-ripened cantalope.  They are so good, it's enough to make you forget about the cardboard ones they sell at the grocery store!

Sharif Abdullah is one of the members of the team I worked with in Sri Lanka.  His insightfulness and clarity of thought often astounded me.  He writes,

Over the years, I have learned a lot from my international work, in Sri Lanka, in Cuba, in Argentina, in Russia, in Venezuela, in many other places in the world.  I have understood what makes societies work, and I’ve learned when and how they fail.   I've learned what it means to be alive in the beginning of the 21st Century, and what it's going to take to create a world for all beings.

I have also been searching through over 100 distinct cultures, looking for the common spiritual threads that unite humanity and connect us with the Divine.  And, I’ve found them.

Based on all this, I have been moved to write a new book.

My working title is: SPIRIT ON EARTH: AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR A SPIRITUAL SOCIETY.  Our challenge: to practically apply our spiritual values in the world, in a realistic way that we can save humanity and save the Earth.  I am articulating what I call the “Relational Operating System”, as the replacement for (and antidote to) “Breaker” systems such as capitalism, communism/ socialism and any other human system based on separation and exclusivity.  I intend this to be the “skeleton” upon which concepts and movements like ecology, sustainability, empowerment, justice and other aspects find mutual coherence.

What I need from you is three things:  spiritual support, networking support, and financial support.

1. Spiritual Support:  One of the things that I learned from Sarvodaya: focused spiritual activity can shift the “psychosphere,” the field of human thought.  All it takes is focused will.  Through your prayers, affirmations and meditations, you can help me to establish this one thought: “IT IS TIME FOR US TO LIVE OUR VALUES”. That will help prepare the ground for “Spirit on Earth”.

2. Networking Support:  Each of you is part of a network.  Some are obvious, like Facebook or MySpace.  Others are less obvious (and more “human”): your church group, your school groups, your neighbors (including the “crazy” ones).  By seeding the question – “WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR US TO TRULY LIVE OUR VALUES?” – you will be helping me to prepare the ground for what I hope will be a major dialog on our future as humans on this planet.

3. Financial Support:  I have already received a few generous donations, totaling over $1,000 toward my goal of $8,000 to complete “Spirit on Earth” by mid-July.  This money will keep Commonway going, as well as allow me to hire a page editor, cover designer and other behind-the-scenes people who turn a collection of ideas into a BOOK.

For more details and to donate to the book project: click on this link to view my full statement on my blog.  Then, click on this link to donate to the “Spirit on Earth” book project on the Commonway website – donate buttons in left-hand column.  (Please send me an email to let me know you’ve made a donation for the book project.)  Or, you can donate via paper checks made out to “Commonway Institute” and mailed to:

 COMMONWAY INSTITUTE
P.O. BOX 12541
PORTLAND, OR 97212

Please go to the full writing, then donate if you feel moved to do so.  Spiritual energy, networking energy and money energy: everything helps toward the goal.

This is an eight-gallon batch of Brie and Bucheron— the main difference is the shape of the mold.

We set up our cheese room primarily for hard cheeses— cheddar, gouda, and the like.  These get pressed and then go to the cheese cellar for aging, requiring relatively little space in the processing room. 

Now our informal market research is suggesting that people want semi-soft cheeses: whites like Brie and Bucheron, and blues, and perhaps a combination like Cambozola.  These take more space to process, because instead of going into a cheese press, they drain under their own weight in a series of wider, shorter molds.  We didn't plan for that!

Now the challenge is to expand the workspace in a room already packed with equipment...

(Booking photo.)

Iron County drastically increased its arrests in the past 48 hours, apparently in a sweep of folks who haven't kept up with their payments to the court.  Of the 18 people arrested, 17 were arrested in a 25-hour period, and 14 of those were for unpaid fines.  Two others were arrested for DUI and public intoxication, one was for theft, and the last was for passing a bad check.

Of the fourteen arrests for unpaid fines, I'm personally familiar with two.

• One man has been in a residential drug rehabilitation program for the past few weeks following his arrest and convistion for DUI.  He was released over the weekend.  Last week, anticipating his release, he called the jail to check on the status of any outstanding warrants for unpaid fines.  He was advised to come in and make arrangements.  We he arrived at the jail, they arrested him.
• Another man went through the same residential treatment program last year.  He recently celebrated a year clean and sober.  In this bad economy, he was unable to find a job for months.  He has successfully completed everything the court has asked him to do— except pay the fines.  He finally found a job two weeks ago and received his first paycheck yesterday.  Today he was arrested— at work.

Clearly these men have a responsibility to pay their fines.  However, it is equally clear that they can't do so while they're sitting in jail.  No doubt the judge will make arrangements for them to make payments (or else).

But here's the irony: Compare the 17 arrests in the day with the 2008 average of 4.5 (adult) arrests per day.  They've arrested more people than the court can process.  Sources close to the men involved tell me that neither of them will go before a judge until at least tomorrow, perhaps the day after.  And if they don't get in on Thursday, they may have to wait until Monday.  Will the second man still have his job when he finally gets out?

Yet well I ken the banks where Amaranths blow,
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye Amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! —Samual Taylor Coleridge

We're growing Hopi Red Dye Amaranth this year. It seemed an appropriate choice, since pigweed (also an amaranth) grows untended. So far, so good: the amaranth's red stocks are yet small, but healthy.

As the name suggests, the bright red foliage was once used for making dye.  The leaves can also be added to salad, cooked greens, or (from the seeds) flour.

We're glad to find a plant that grows well in this cliamte, since our tomatoes and peppers are so far pretty pitiful.

At nearby Parowan airport they fly gliders all summer.  We often see these unmotorized aircraft being towed up, soaring overhead, or coming in for a landing.  I went up in a glider many years ago— the exhilaration of soaring is unbelievable.



Today we got a reminder that what goes up also must come down— and not always in a controlled manner.  A glider crashed in a field about a mile from our home.  According to a Sheriff's deputy, the tow plane had trouble and had to let loose the tow rope.  The glider, for whatever reason, immediately stalled and came down nose-first.  The pilot was killed on impact.

There is debris scattered on the road and through the field.  For the time being, the Sheriff's deputies have our road closed.

A similar incident occurred Friday in northern Utah— the tow plane had to release the cable and the glider crashed.  In that accident, the pilot suffered minor injuries.

My friend Marty Overly composed this song and performed it Friday night for his wife-to-be (and the rest of us), the night before their wedding.  I think the video came out pretty well, considering I filmed it with a Canon digital camera (PowerShot SD1200IS).

My computer tech used to tell me it was more energy efficient to leave my computer on than to shut it down, because "It takes more energy to start it up."  He was wrong, of course.  But it does take energy to boot a computer.  Did you ever wonder which is more energy efficient: leaving your computer in standby mode or powering it back up and shutting it down completely?  I decided to find out.

Most modern computers have three shut-down modes: stand-by (or sleep) mode, which shuts down power to everything but the RAM; hibernate mode, which saves the RAM to a hard disk and shuts down all power, and shut-down, which (as the name suggests) shuts down the operating system, clears the computer's memory, and shuts off all power to the system.  (Although, as I found below, it still doesn't shut down all power draw.)  Many laptops offer all three options on the shutdown menu, but desktops often only offer "sleep" and "shut down."

In the interest of saving energy, it's helpful to set your computer to go to sleep after a certain period of non-use, say ten minutes.  Hence the question arises: at the end of the day, when your computer is asleep, do you wake it for shutdown or leave it be?

Here are some measurements I took using our 3-year-old desktop running Windows XP (SP3), a Kill-A-Watt power consumption monitor, and a stop watch.  These measurements consider only the computer, not the monitor or other peripherals:

• When completely shut down, the computer draws 3 watts.  (Go figure: hence it;s good to shur off the power strip when shutting down the computer.)
• When in "standby" or "sleep" mode, it draws 6 watts.
• When operating normally, it draws an average of 145 watts.
• During startup and shutdown, it also draws an average of 145 watts— no difference.
• It takes 1 minute 34 seconds to boot to the point that work can be accomplished.  (It's still loading programs in the background.)
• It takes 33 seconds to shut down.
• It takes 10 seconds to go to sleep, and 10 seconds to resume after being asleep.

So, which is more efficient? 

Waking the computer and shutting it down requires two steps that would not be required by leaving it asleep: shutting it down, and booting it for the next work session.  That's a minimum of 127 seconds at 145 watts, or 5 watt-hours.

Leaving the computer asleep consumes 6 watts, or 6 watt-hours per hour.  For an eight hour period such as one might retire at home for sleeping, that's 48 watt-hours.  For a 16-hour respite, such as leaving the office for the night, leaving the computer in standby mode would use 96 watt-hours.

The verdict: for a computer like ours, the break-even point is 1 hour 12 minutes.  at anything less than that (like your lunch break), it's more energy efficient to leave it (or put it) in sleep mode.  For anything greater, it's more energy efficient to wake your computer and shut it down.

So when you're done for the day,  don't leave your computer on standby— shut it down!

I'm making cheese today, sweltering in the cheese room while it tops 97 degrees outside.  Okay, we've had enough rain— but did we have to hit summer so abruptly?

"The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on earth." - John Muir.

(But for smog, maybe so.)

Idyllwild is one of three unincorporated townships sprawling along the western flank of 10,804 ft. Mt. San Jacinto, the second tallest mountain in Southern California.  Lying to the west of Palm Springs, the mountain rises from sea level (or slightly below) — making its height the more impressive.

We drove up just to look at it — not to partake of any of the offered activities, which include hiking, climbing, fishing, camping, shopping (heavy on souvenirs & pastel renderings of the scenery), and attending services at creepy-looking churches. (Since when is a church camp surrounded by barbed wire?  Are they rehabilitating the unwilling errant?)  Lots of real estate agents' offices, with fliers in their windows offering short-sale cabins.

It is the cleanest forest I've seen.  Everywhere neat piles of de-barked pine logs were waiting for removal, victims of a recent beetle infestation.  There have been a lot of forest fires recently in Southern California — so underbrush has been cleared away as a prevention measure. 

The view is excellent (we imagined) if you can catch it after a rain.  We stopped at Indian Point vista turnout and looked out at at a bank of smog being sucked into the Mohave desert through San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs.

Not much water, like most of Southern California.  Seasonal brooks, now dry.  A tiny lake, stocked with rainbow trout, where we found small kids fishing and gangsters lounging.  They gave Bob the "what you takin' pictures of?" hairy eyeball, so we hurried away.




Lake Fulmor.  Look at it and fish.

We asked a woman tending a tea shop how she liked living in Idyllwild.  She said it is great for kids — good schools, lots of activities, relatively safe — but adults have little to do, "except maybe hang out at the liquor store."  The closest college is in Hemet, down the mountain and 24 miles away.  She works two jobs to stay busy, so she doesn't have to think about how much she hates it.  

.

In the Bible the role of faith in salvation is ambiguous. Some sects of Protestant Chrstianity have adopted the doctrine of sola fide, or "faith alone."  This comes from a passage from Paul's letter to the Romans: "[S]ince we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (5:1)

Yet this passage— actually a partial passage that does not fairly represent Paul's point— taken by itself conflicts with the body of Jesus's teachings in the Gospel, and indeed the whole foundation of Judeo-Christian morality in the Old Testament, which is justice for the poor and the oppressed.

James, the brother of the Lord, wrote,

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." —James 2:14-17

The Gospel of John says,

"If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me." John 10:37

So is Paul wrong? By no means. Paul's discussion distinguishes between justification through the law and justification through faith, or as he puts it another way, faith versus "deeds of the law." He writes,

"We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law." (Romans 3:28)

And that is the key: merely following the law is not sufficient. And merely having faith is not sufficient. For Paul continues,

"Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." (Romans 3:31)

So his distinction could be rephrased as "deeds of the law" versus deeds of faith.

This would also be consistent with the Old Testament— an important, though not definitive, consideration.  The prophet Isaiah, himself concerned with lack of justice by the rulers of Israel, nevertheless points to the insufficiency of deeds:

"I will concede your righteousness and your works, but they will not help you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!" —Isaiah 57:12-13

The influence of Greek philosophy (and our national psyche) demands neat, dualistic interpretations of the Biblical texts.  But the Scripture itself is comfortable with paradox.  The answer to the dilemma is not "faith or works," but rather "faith and works."  For the Scripture, taken as a whole, suggests that the two are inseparable.  John the Baptist said,

"“No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven." (John 3:27)

And John later quotes Jesus as saying.

"[T]he Father who dwells in me does his works."  (John 14:10)

Therein lies the real catch: if we do works because we believe we're supposed to do works, we set ourselves up as the source of justice in the world— rather arrogant considering the record of human governments. Yet saying we believe and doing nothing is what one might call the "easy road"— not the path Jesus called us to. Faith demands action, for without action we cannot be citizens of the Kingdom.

My friend Slavin David, once a fixture of the Venice Boardwalk, cleaned up his act and is still alive and kicking.  Here's a video of him last year, performing the "Late Night Drinking Blues."

(AbsentMindedProf photo.)

Yahoo Tech offers an article entitled, "PC makers race to comply with China's Web filter."  The Chinese government says the filter prevents children from viewing porn, but according to those who have examined it, the filter also blocks users' access to websites the Chinese government finds politically objectionable. And, starting July 1, it's required on all computers sold in China.

"China is important to PC suppliers both as a major manufacturing site and a fast-growing market. It accounts for up to 80 percent of world production and sales that state media say rose to 147 billion yuan ($21 billion), up 12.8 percent from 2007."

So is it morally acceptable to help a government repress its people just because there's a lot of money to be made? I think not— else selling guns to North Korea (or Nazi Germany or Iran) would be morally acceptable. Sure, blocking web access is less bloody than shooting, but prohibiting freedom of information may actually be more insidious.

Yet Dell, HP, and Acer are all scrambling to comply. There is, after all, a lot of money to be made— and morals are apparently secondary. 

Remember the boycotts of companies that did business with South Africa during apartheid? Perhaps reviewing our business relationships with these computer manufacturers would also be in order.

Here's Astra, Brisa, Dawn & Kerry at play.

Priceless!

Wayward "mylar" balloons that landed in our yard.

It's fun to let helium-filled balloons go and watch them rise up into the air until they're out of sight.  But did you ever wonder where those balloons end up?  The Moon?  Floating endlessly in the outer stratosphere?  Unfortunately, no.

There's less air pressure at higher altitudes (that's why jet planes require pressurization).  So the balloons rise until the difference in pressure between the inside and the outside exceeds what the balloon can hold.  Then it bursts— and, with no helium left inside to lift it, begins to drop.  Meanwhile, the prevailing winds carry it westward, so a balloon released in Los Angeles may fall in the next state— or two or three states over.   In fact, some of them end up at our house.

When they land, abandoned balloons cause serious problems, including power outages and wildlife deaths.  And they take centuries to decompose.

When you're done with your balloons, please make sure to deflate them and put them in the trash.  Or better yet, reuse them.  Here's a website with lots of ideas.  The environment will thank you, and so will we.

While Republicans howl that the energy bill on the table will be a job killer because of its enourmous cost, the Wall Street Journal cites EPA figures:

"households would pay between $98 and $140 a year through 2050 for overhauling the country’s energy landscape."

AP quotes Congressional Budget Office figures, saying,

"The poorest households actually would save $40 a year while those in the highest income category would face a net increase of $245 a year..."

Though WSJ also says, pointedly,

"“overhauling the energy landscape” might be a stretch. The amount of renewable energy, nuclear power, hydropower and natural gas in the electricity system would be pretty much the same in 2020 whether the bill is passed or not. The only difference is that coal’s use would shrink under the draft bill."

In my book, $140 a year is a bargain. Consider: in 2007, the Fed paid out over $16 billion in energy subsidies, with the largest portion going for fossil fuels ($5.4 billion).  In 2007, there were 74 million individual tax returns filed.  That's $224 per year for each taxpaying family to do what we're doing now— keeping gas prices low on the backs of the taxpayers.

For $140 a year we can cut our global warming emissions by 20%?  It's a bargain— especially if we make that up by cutting the subsidies we currently pay to promote fossil fuel use.

"Long before he had white hair and wore his famous white suit, Mark Twain was touring the country - and the world - entertaining packed houses every evening with his wit, wisdom, and musery... Twain's humorous, wise, and slightly irreverent counsel is as needed today as it was then....... perhaps more."

This is a Google Video from Mark Twain Talks, a sampler of the actor's work. (Full disclosure: Bern Budd is a cousin of mine.)

Wiki photo: A Confined Area Feeding Operation (CAFO). Do these look like happy cows?

"Since 2005, a handful of giant factory farms, each milking thousands of cows, have been accused of skirting strict federal organic regulations and creating a surplus of cheap 'phony' organic milk flooding the market and driving down profit margins for legitimate industry participants. The Cornucopia Institute estimates that as much as 30-40% of organic milk is now coming from giant industrial operations, .milking as many as 7,000 cows each."

So says a press release carried in the Cream Line small dairy newsletter (Issue 37-38, pp. 26-27).   It quotes the Institute's Mark Kastel as saying that when Cornucopia called violatiosn to the attention of USDA,

"Either the USDA refused to investigate or, when they actually found violations, they have allowed illegal activities to continue."

Aurora Dairy has threatened to sue not only Cornucopia, but also the Organic Consumers Association and the Center for Food Safety, alleging "false, disparaging statements" about the company. 

Can a Confined Area Feeding Operation (CAFO) qualify to produce organic milk?  You'd think organic herds would be pasture-fed— and indeed the USDA requires it— but that's not the case for some of these big producers.  And whether within the law or not (and in some cases they have been warned for not being within the law), factory-farmed milk is not what consumers believe they are getting when the buy organic.

By the way, Cornucopia offers a score card for organic milk producers, ranking them by how well they conform to the spirit (as well as the letter) of organic farming.  Small, family-owned farms get more points (100) than investor-owned corporations (60) for example.  Cull rates, milk sourcing, and pasture availability are also considered.  Rankings were 0-5 cows based on a possible 1,200 points, where five cows is the best rating.

By Cornucopia's score card, Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, and Western Family all ranked one cow.  Altadena, Aurora, Horizon, and Rockview all ranked zero cows for refusing to participate.  Of the five-cow brands, Thistleworks Farm and Butterworks Farm are national or regional brands, and many smaller producers ranked five cows as well.  Greenfield Farms, Organic Valley, and Whole Foods all ranked four cows.

The good news is, you can choose to buy real organic milk.  Almost every state and region has local producers.  So before you put that big-brand milk in your cart, think: shouldn't organic mean no CAFOs?

Here's a video showing how Sam has adjusted to his life without sight.

(Image source.).

"Presented with a choice between comfort, convenience or the environment, 38 percent of those questioned said they’d choose their convenience, 36 percent comfort and just 26 percent the environment."

So says a survey posted on Cellular News. The surveyers comment,

"We're all basically saying, 'I'll be green as long it doesn't make me uncomfortable or inconvenienced.'"

And if you think the number of people unwilling to give up their iPod is bad, even fewer would be willing to give up their air conditioning (14%), TV (13%), computer (7%) or car (6%).

By now we can't claim ignorance: we know that climate change is raising sea levels and causing droughts and severe weather.  It is killing some and forcing others to flee their homes.  And it's not that we don't care— it's just that we apparently care more about our own comfort and convenience than about other people's lives.  

I'm reminded of that quote by Leo Tolstoy:

"I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that i am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible....except by getting off his back."

Where do I stand on these? No iPod, no air conditioning, and I'd give up my car if there was a reasonable alternative. And we've cut our household CO2 emissions nearly by half in the past 18 months. 

As to my computer, well, you can pry it from my cold, dead fingers...

I loved Billy Idol's "White Wedding" video when it came out in 1982. Here's a "literal" version of the video that had me ROFLMAO (rolling on the floor laughing my ass off)!

Here's a better photo of our new goat, Sugar, taken while she was in the milking stand last night.

(AP photo via Los Angeles Times.)

The Los Angeles Times published an article last week that once again quotes the bogus (and now debunked) claim that 90% of the guns used by the Mexican cartels originate in the U.S.  This continues the disinformation campaign that now incliudes Jamaica. It appears to me that the media has an agenda. 

For the record, 90% of the traceable guns seized originated in the U.S.  But that only represents about 36% of the total guns seized, because most of them aren't traceable.  They originated somewhere else and aren't in ATF's system.

The Times's bias aside, the GAO’s criticism appears valid– we should know how many siezed guns were headed for what destination. That’s just common sense (something our government too often lacks).  On the other hand, traditionally each nation is rersponsible for enforcing its own laws.  Mexico has point of entry inspection stations where it searches incoming vehicles, just not often or effectively. I'm not opposed to the U.S. assisting them in policing their own borders, but it is their responsibility and not ours, just as halting the flow of drugs and illegal workers into the U.S. is our responsibility and not theirs.

This once again points out the fallacy of border control as a means to stem the flow of– well, just about anything. I have often said that if terrorists were as energetic as those smuggling illegal workers and drugs, we’d be inundated with Al Queda. The border is just plain porous.  Which suggests that a different approach is required, if effective results are to be achieved. 

Where is the root of this problem? It is prohibition of drugs in the U.S. This is simple supply-and-demand economics. Enforcement reduces the supply of drugs. When demand exceeds, supply, the price goes up. When the price goes up, competition increases. Without regulation, the competition engages in actions that we find unacceptable. This doesn’t sound too much different than the sub-prime mortgage crisis, does it?  Prohibition and deregulation both lead to similar results.

Yet once again, we as a nation adopt our Puritan “moral blinders,” and pretend that the simple truths of economics don’t apply because, well, drugs are bad. And they are bad.   But that doesn't mean they're exempt from economics.  Unilaterally pronouncing that the drug trade shouldn’t exist is ineffective, and is killing people on both sides of the border.  It's like legislating that pianos that fall out of windows over crowded streets won't fall.  It's a nice idea, and in the public interest— but it's not realistic.

By the way: the photo in the article (shown above) is a collection of German-made WWII Walther P-38 9mm pistols. They qualify as a “Curio & Relic” in this country. And they sell for about $1,200 in guns stores in California. The one in the middle appears to be a Luger, probably worth much more.  Were these really seized from drug cartels?  Because these aren’t tactical weapons– they’re expensive collectibles. You can buy much more modern weapons for far less money.

Tip: Polizeros

(Chris Davis photo.)

"The false notion that modern patriotism is a noble principle, that it is more honorable than any other, or all other, sentiments,—that every opposing obstacle is to be prostrated before it, might be worthy of a heathen government, but is inconceivably disgraceful to a Christian people.  Where it exercises uncontrolled domination, the voice of the gentle virtues cannot be heard.  The ear of the boasting patriot is closed against the demands of justice, and the cries for compassion may be yrged in vain.  If the sufferer cannot bend to the crooked dogma that one's own country is everything and others' nothing, he must be cut off unheard and unpitied." —The Panopolist and Missionary Herald (Vol. XVI, April 1820.) [emphasis added.]

As part of my research, I've been reading The Panopolist, the monthly publication of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which was the missionary arm of the (then prominent) Congregationalist and Presbyterian Churches.  I'm finding that many of the issues we face today were equally important nearly two hundred years ago.  In other words, we haven't changed that much.

There is one major difference: in 1820, the publication of a much-respected mainstream religous congregation could claim patriotism as a heathen value without being targeted as communists or left-wing wackos.  Today I'm not so sure that would happen.  Indeed, our local United Methodist Church calendar last year had the image of the American flag on every page.

(Image source.)

As banks across the country struggle— and failures continue— Goldman Sachs has returned from the brink of bankruptcy to what may become the company's "most profitable year ever."  They even repurchased $10.4 billion in shares issued to the Treasury under the TARP program. 

How did they do that?   Well, half that money came from a stock offering, in which $5 billion was raised from selling more stock in the company.  And of course it received payments from the Fed to reimburse it for funds owed by insolvent insurance giant AIG— payments that, though not reflected as income because of hedges and other complex transactions, surely helped Goldman's cash position.

But the rest came, apparently, from doing business when others couldn't.  Says the article,

"The surge in projected profit can be attributed to a lack of competition and increased revenue from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products..."

According to the company's quarterly report filed with the SEC, it earned $9.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter 2009— up from $8.3 billion in 1st quarter 2008.  Roughly 2/3 of this revenue came from Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities (FICC), with interest income the largest single source of revenue.  According to the report,

"FICC operated in a generally favorable environment characterized by client-driven activity, particularly in more liquid products, and high levels of volatility."

In other words, Goldman made money because there was an insufficient supply of credit.  I can't say I understand the complexities of Goldman Sachs's business, but this appears to confirm that no matter how bad things are, there's someone in a position to profit from it.  

So let me get this straight: the Fed borrowed billions it didn't have (deficit spending) so it could bail out the banks, including Goldman.  That tightened credit markets, which were already tight to begin with.  Goldman took the Fed's money and loaned it out at an enormous profit.  Then they paid it back and kept the profit.  Such a deal! 

Our unusually wet spring has also given us an unusually healthy crop of Western Salsify (aka Goat's Beard, appropriately enough).  Western salsify is a weed with a yellow flower that puffs out into seed clusters like a dandelion— only much bigger.  This one was nearly four inches in diameter!

And yes, the goats love to eat it.

AP reports that most of the guns used in Jamaica's violent crime come from America.  Or do they?  The headline reads, "Guns from America fuel Jamaica's gang wars."  The article tells us that "With arsenals to rival police firepower, the gangs are blamed for 90 percent of the homicides in Jamaica — 1,611 last year, about 10 times more than the U.S. rate, relative to population."

But here's the statistic it quotes, "[O]f those [guns] whose origin can be traced, 80 percent come from the U.S..."  [emphasis added]. 

So, what percentage of the guns can't be traced?  We don't know, because AP doesn't tell us.  But the Jamaica Observer says, "The majority of these weapons are garnered through the illegal trade of drugs and other supplies between Jamaica and countries such as Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua."  No doubt many of the weapons purchased in Central America did originate in the U.S.— but not from gun stores in Florida.

Earlier this year, proponents of gun control claimed that over 90% of the tracable weapons recovered in Mexico came from the U.S.  That was true as far as it went, but it turned out to be a much smaller fraction of the total number of guns recovered.  (The numbers touted by opponents of gun control were almost as fallacious.) 

The Jamaica report sounds awfully similar.  I'd be much less suspicious if the article mentioned what percentage pf weapons can't be tracked, but it doesn't.  This speaks of a concerted effort to twist the numbers to fit an ant-gun agenda.

Let me be clear: if there's a problem with illegally-purchased U.S. guns flooding other nations, let's fix it.  But I'm tired of people who have an axe to grind using the media to feed us bad data.  Give us the facts, not half-truths and innuendo.

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"[T]he Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” —Matthew 16:27-28

I used to work with a man who attributed nearly every development in the world news as an inexorable step toward Armageddon, as (according to some) predicted in the Book of Revelation. "The end is near," he said.

That was in 1986.

My co-worker wasn't the first to predict (inaccurately) the end of the world. Even in Jesus's time, there were people who understood the passage from the Gospel of Matthew to mean that the world as we know it would soon be ending.

An article in The Panopolist and Missionary Herald (Vol. XVI April 1820, p. 155ff) considers 2 Peter 3:11 ("Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness...?"). The author says,

"[T]he present state of the world, and the passing events of the age, are suitable monitors of the final dissolution of the material system, and of our duties as immortal beings."

Among the events cited are the French Revolution, the spread of revolution across Europe, the rise of Napoleon, and widespread suffering on earth. He writes,

"Such examples of fallen greatness... conduct [the contemplative Christian] forward in imagination to the final catastrophe, which will finish the action of this world's drama, and subsequently lead to the consideration of himself in some of the scenes... From events, which take place in his own nation, will be drawn a similar conclusion. Here, nearer home, he sees the struggle for power, the inquitous acts of legislators to increase the strength of a patrty, at the expense of an icalculable mass of human suffering."

Ah, yes: it is obvious that the end is near.

Fuad Sha'ban, in his book For Zion's Sake (London: Pluto Press, 2005, pp. 210-211) lists two full pages of Protestant world-ending predictions, including:

1689 (Benjamin Keach)
1736 (Cotton Mather)
1763 (Geeorge Bell)
1780 (In response to severe weather in New England)
1794 (the Shakers, also Charles Wesley)
1814 (Joanna Southcott)
1820 (John Turner)
1830 (Margaret McDonald)
1836 (John Wesley)
1843, 1844 (William Miller)
1846, 1849, 1851 (Second Adventists, followers of Miller)
1855-56 (Many believed the Crimean War was the Battle of Armageddon)
1890 (Joseph Smith)
1891 (Joseph Smith)
1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994, and others (The Watchtower, a publication of the Jehovah's Witnesses)
1936, 1972, 1975 (Herbert W. Armstrong)
1950 (Henry Adams)
1951-52 (Billy Graham)
1957 (Mihran Ask)
1967 (Jim Jones)
1969 (George Williams)
1973, 1986 (Moses David)
1981 (Church Smith)
1982 (Pat Robertson)
1988 (Edgar Wisenant)
2000 (Lester Sumrall)
1988 (Hal Lindsay)

Perrhaps the world as we know it is ending constantly. Or perhaps it is in the nature of some people to desire the end of what we know. In any case, it is clear that those predicting the end of the world are both common— and inaccurate.

On the other hand, they only have to be right once.

Liam Lynch's "My United States of Whatever" may not be an American classic, but it did express the views of a generation— and it spawned some delightful satire.

George W. Bush Whatever Remix

My West Hollywood Lifestyle Whatever

It's nice to be reminded from time to time of past humor that, in some cases, literally made people fall out of their chairs!

Since I began this blog in September 2006, it has been my goal to write three posts a day on diverse topics such as peace, justice, and climate change— as well as frequent posts about our life here on the ranch.  Lately, though, the number of posts has fallen off. 

This diminishing volume is due in part to an unreliable internet connection, but even more so to other demands on my time.  Serving my accounting clients, plus making cheese twice a week, along with other chores and volunteer service, don't leave much time for my blog.  I used to spend at least an hour each day writing posts.  With my flaky internet connections, sometimes it takes three hours to write the same volume of posts.  Unfortuinately, I can no longer spare that much time.

I will continue to post what I can, when I can.  I also continue to invite posts from my readers (see "Contact Me" in the left sidebar).  Or if you have a topic for a post that you'd like me to write, please feel to send it.

Thanks to everyone for your support.

 

"In our country all literary employments are thrown into the shade, by the inextinguishable passion for wealth...  the thirst for rapid gains has explored every corner of the commercial world, and left few articles untouched from which the keen eye of speculation could hope to see a gainful exchange." —The Panopolist and Missionary Herald, Vol XVI (January 1820) p. 13. 

Sound familiar?  Apparently we have always been a nation of materialists consuming to excess, while at the same trime decrying materialism.

Astra rests in a box while Brisa looks on.

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First there was Alicia Silverstone doing the "first-ever naked vegetarian testimonial." Now there's Lydia Guevara, Che Guevara's granddaughter, doing a mostly-unclothed ad campaign to be released this fall.

Does sex really sell vegetarianism?  (That doesn't say much for the ethical commitment involved!)

Congress today passed the Cash for Clunkers bill, which would give government subsidies for people to turn in their old gas guzzlers for a new car.  The subsidies are at far more generous levels— $3,500 to $4,500— than that envisioned when the bill was proposed ($2,500).

How does it work?  According to Edmunds: If you've got a car that gets 18 mpg or less and buy a car that gets at least 22 mpg, and if you agree to limit your trade-in to the amount of the voucher, the government will give the dealer $3,500 on your behalf if the new car is at least 4 mpg better than the old one, and $4,500 if the new car is at least 10 mpg better than the old one.  For a light truck or SUV, buy one that gets 15 mpg or better and if it gets at least 2 mpg more than the old one you get $3,500; 5 mpg more and you get $4,500.

There are some catches, of course: work trucks must be older than 2002.  Cars and light trucks must be newer than 1984.  You must have owned the trade-in for at least a year.  And it only makes sense of your old car is worth less than the voucher amount.

The bill "limits" the number of vouchers to 1 million, meaning this bill could cost the taxpayers as much as $4.5 billion.  But Edmunds suggests that there won;t be as many takers as Congress expects.  Edmunds CEO Jeremy Anwyl notes,

"The only people who qualify are those willing to take no more than $4,500 for their current car and immediately buy a new one — quite a narrow profile."

What will the effects really be?  We can find clues by who supports it and who doesn't.  Mazda (manufacturer of high mileage cars) applauded the measure.  And why not?  It should boost the Japanese carmaker's sales at the taxpayers expense.  The United Auto Workers Union supports the measure, under the assumption that it will boost employment.  (But will people really buy cars made in Detroit?)  The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association opposes it, perhaps because it woyuld (1) remove older cars that require more aftermarket auto parts and (2) those cars will end up in scrapyards where their parts (aside from engines) will be available used, reducing the market for new aftermarket parts.

And let's look at the environmental impact.  The old cars are supposed to be shredded and recycled, so disposal is not much of an issue.  But let's say you have an old sedan that gets 18 mpg, and you trade up to 22 mpg.  If you drive the average 12,000 miles per year, you'll save 122 gallons of gas, or about $305 per year, and reduce your CO2 emissions by just over 1 ton. 

But what if you sold your 18 mpg sedan to someone who drives an old Dodge pickup that gets 12 mpg, and who can't afford to buy a new one even with the voucher?  With your old sedan, that person would save 333 gallons of gas per year, or $833, and reduce their CO2 emissions by 3-1/2 tons!  But because your old sedan is getting junked, that person will continue to drive his old truck.   By taking that 18 mpg sedan off the road, Congress may actually be limiting the reduction of CO2 emissions— and spend up to $4.5 billion of our money doing it.

(Markus Spring photo: Refugee child in Sri Lanka.)

For those unfamiliar with UTHR(J), they are a group of former professors, Tamils all, which has been critical of both sides in the Sri Lanka conflict— one of the few relatively unbiased sources of information and analysis on the conflict.  They have strongly criticized both LTTE and GOSL, resulting in the assassination of one of their founding members by the LTTE in 1989.  They have lived in hiding since then in fear for their lives. 

Rajan Hoole, leader of the group, is the author of The Broken Palmyra (available for viewing online) which is, along with Sinhalese author T. D. S. A. Dissanayaka's War or Peace in Sri Lanka (Volume II), one of the finest books on the origins of the conflict.

Now UTHR(J) has released a report on the closing days of the war based on interviews with witnnesses.  It includes this disturbing report:

"Desperate attempts to surrender by Nadesan and Pulidevan of the LTTE’s political wing have been documented by Andrew Buncombe [3] in the Independent (19th May 09) and by Marie Colvin[4] in Timesonline (24th May 09). They involved contacts between the LTTE’s international support group, Chandra Nehru Jr. MP, the UN, ICRC, Norway’s Environment Minister Eric Solheim and from the Government, President Rajapakse, his brother Basil and Secretary to the Foreign Ministry, Dr. Palitha Kohona. It was agreed that they would be safe if they hoisted a white flag, walked towards the Army and surrendered. Nadesan had said he had 300 people with him, some of them injured... After speaking to Chandra Nehru about 6.20 AM on the 18th, the party went with a white flag in a group of about a dozen men and women. Colvin quoted a source, who said, the army started firing machineguns at them. Nadesan’s wife, a Sinhalese, yelled in Sinhalese at the soldiers: “He is trying to surrender and you are shooting him.” She was also shot down. All in the group were reportedly killed." (1.4.1)

The report also concludes,

"Given also persistent stories of a massacre from within the Army itself, an important task of an inquiry should be to lay bare the fate of those injured in the last week and what really happened from the 17th May evening to the 18th morning when the fighting ended." (1.4.2)

In Section 1.6, the report notes that even some of the military's own publicly-released photographs includes evidence of the slaughter:

"Some of the victims [depicted in the photos] had been executed by shooting into the ear. One wonders what made the Defence Ministry take pride in displaying these pictures."

Previously, GOSL has maintained that victors are always pardoned for their sins. But did the U.S. and the Allies massacre captured soldiers when WWII ended? Or the alleged terrorists it captured in Afghanistan and Iraq? The analogies used by the Rajapakse administration don't hold water.

This report suggests that GOSL went far, far beyond the bounds of necessity or decency, not only violating the Geneva Conventions and its contract with the Sri Lankan people, but reaffirming its own role as terrorists in Sri Lanka.

From the left: Nisha, Minnie, Luna, Little Guy, and Christy, with a partial view of Kerry in the lower right.  Here you can clearly see the pregnant bulges of Nisha and Luna, who are due to give birth sometime in the next two weeks.  (Humorously, Little Guy looks almost as pregnant as they do!)

Miron

Harriet

Charles

In the course of my research, I've been reminded that what we consider "hard times" our ancestors would have considered quite pleasant.  Consider the case of Miron and Harriet, who went as missionaries to Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) in 1819 when he was 30 and she was 23.  I've found no complete record of their family history, but have pieced together the following from memoirs and letters:

Their first son, Charles, was born to them in 1821.  Then came daughter Harriet in 1822.  A third child was buried without a name about 1823, apparently born dead or died shortly after birth.  And they had a son George, who was probably born in 1824.

In 1825, Miron and his wife Harriet took Charles to India where Harriet hoped to recover her health.  In their absence, young Harriet stayed with their missionary friends who also had a daughter.  During a cholera epidemic, both girls took sick on the same day and died within a few hours.

Their son George died in 1828.  At the same time, Charles took sick, and Harriet feared she might lose both her sons at the same time.  But Charles recovered, much to their relief.

In 1826, they had daughter Joanna, another daughter in 1830, and another Harriet, “Little H,” in 1831.

Eldest son Charles was sent to America for his education in 1832, but there was a great storm and Miron and Harriet feared his ship had been lost.  It took months for mail to make its passage, while they could not know whether their son was live or dead.  

In October 1832, they finally learned that Charles had arrived safely at Philadelphia in May.  The next letter they received infiormed them that a few days after his arrival in America, Charles had developed a fever.  He had been treated by a doctor, who used bloodletting, still a common treatment throught the Eutopean-influenced world at the time; witnesses said this relived Charles's symptoms for a while.  Charles died on May 14, 1832, a mere ten days after his arrival in America.

Learning months after the fact that her first-born son had died, Harriet went into a depression and took sick.  By January 1833, she too had died. 

As for Miron, he packed up his three remaining daughters and returned to America.  Later he would return to South Asia with another wife— a practice he would repeat several more times.

Harriet lived to the ripe old age of 37.  Of her seven children, only three survived her. 

And we think we have it rough?

Henna at six months old.  And she still hasn't grown into her feet!

A Los Angeles warehouse blanketed with more than 60 solar panels, providing an estimated 10 Kw capacity.)

John Robb, author of Brave New War, notes that centralized enmergy production is more efficient than localized production.  But he argues that we will inevitably turn to local production anyway, much as computerization has been local even though mainframes are more efficient.  Here's why:

• New alternatiove energy technology must develop rapidly, which means that large investments will have a short lifespan.
• Centralized energy production requires huge amounts of distribution infrastructure.
• Centralized energy requires government subsidies on a scale not likely to be available.

But Robb takes this a step further: he argues that investment in local alternative energy will provide a better return than investment in the financial markets— and it will offset what will become an increasingly large expenditure for most families.  By becoming a local energy entrepreneur, an investor can get a return of, say 3.9% (seen that in the stock market lately?) and reduce or eliminate the cost of electricity.

That is of course consistent with his security concerns regarding reliance on centralized energy.  But it's also consistent with "buy local" and community empowerment.  As Robb notes, we were once a nation of entrepreneurs.  Now most of us work for "the man."  But it doesn't have to be that way.

We expected to have ten goats this year: five milking, four doelings, and our wether and pack goat, Little Guy.  But we lost Wind, so that left us with only nine.  (Luna and Nisha have yet to give birth, but we've already got four baby girls this year; it's optimistic to expect more females.)

Still, we weren't really in the market for another goat... until today.  The postmistress mentioned that one of the women who lives in town has been too sick to care for her goat and needed to sell her.  The goat is a papered Alpine female, and is milking.  We went over to take a look.  And came home with her.

Her name is Sugar, and her father comes from the same bloodline as Minnie.  In fact, they look like they could be sisters: the same age, same coloring, similar build.  Sugar, on the left, has less-regal features, more white on her face, and a fuller beard than Minnie— but at a quick glance it's hard to tell them apart!

We were concerned that Sugar would challenge our other goats for a place at the head of the herd.  She and Christy spent a few minutes butting heads, but then Sugar accepted her place as number two.  Minnie, who was number three before Wind died, isn;t too crazy about her demotion, but no one is overly miffed.  Except, oddly enough, Little Guy, who usually gets along with everyone.  Maybe he's jealous...

We've heard a lot about snakes in Utah, but in five years we'd never seen one.  Until today.  I found this guy sunning himself on the crushed rock of the driveway.  Near as I can tell, he's a gopher snake, probably a Great Basin Gopher Snake.  They're harmless to everything we have, mostly eating small rodents (of which we have plenty).  I took him across the road and let him go.

"Juice box shoulder bag takes recycling to a fashionably new level! Strips of juice boxes are woven into a colorful, eye-catching bag, then lacquered for shine and protection. It's funky and fun, as individual as the person carrying it." 

It sells for $50 on PotpourriGift.com. Says the reader who submitted it, "I thought this bag cool but not that cool..." 

I bet a "crafty" person could make one for themselves.

This afternoon, I rode up into the hills once again, still looking for access to the summit we can see from our home.  I didn't find it today, but I did find another summit on the back side of the hills that looks north into the Beaver Valley.  With the passing thunderheads, all of which gracuiously bypassed me, the skies and the view were simply stunning.  I never get tired of the scenery here!

In my first-ever edited video, Rabbi Cal describes the process of creating the whole person as "spiritual farming."