Thursday, August 31

Clean bathtub tip

This is NOT one of those "important" posts, but I think about it *every* time I take a shower (which I just did) and then proceed to forget shortly after every one of them as well. LOL. I have not had to scrub the bathub/shower thoroughly with soap-scum detergent for several months. Why? Because after just about every shower, I use the scrub brush we keep in the shower and do a *quick* once-over of the tub. It keeps the tub nice and white with little to no effort. Just thought I'd share that tip with you in case you literally *hate* cleaning the tub and shower. *smile*

Rambleman

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Zoundry/Blogger issues

Okay, if this goes through, then the "advice" on the Zoundry forums was/is correct. Apparently Blogger is or was doing some changing to the APIs that blog posting uses. So, with Zoundry, all you need to do is add a new account, and keep clicking "NEXT" until it's set up. If you're on an e-list with me, or a friend who's not but gets this anyway, just ignore this post, okay? *smile*

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Clean woodstove. Chores done late. Garden preparing.

Okay, here we go again. I'm writing this with Zoundry, and will of course try to post it to my main blog - Ramblemans.blogspot.com, but I'm not holding my breath. Wouldn't be a good idea anyway, else I'd have a really hard time finishing this. LOL.

Got the woodstove cleaned thoroughly yesterday afternoon. And I mean I cleaned that thing from top to bottom, literally. What a sight I was after I finished. I looked like I had changed ethnic persuasions. LOL. After a shower though, I once again looked like my Caucasian self. *smile*

While I was doing the cleaning of said stove, Rain started the laundry. After I was done with the stove, I vacuumed that room (kinda had to though, cause I tracked ash on the floor). But we're ready for the cold, well, as soon as we get some wood we will be. *grin*

Daughter finally changed the litter in the litter boxes. She was supposed to do that Tuesday, as well as the vacuuming. I made a deal w/her yesterday that I would do whichever thing she liked doing the least, which was vacuuming. Well, Rain did vacuum the livingroom, I vacuumed the stove room yesterday, and DD was to change the litter boxes. Well, guess who "forgot" 'til late to do her chore. *sigh* Reminder her last night, and she said she'd do it "first thing this morning", but she didn't. And it wasn't until we reminded her about a half an hour ago that got her to finally do it. I forgive her, this time, though, because she bought us dinner/lunch at McDonalds today while we were in town to get smokes for Rain, M&Ms, and a newspaper. *smile* But still...

Okay, another thing I did was change the water filter in the pump-house. That took about 5 minutes. *smile* Then I put the last of the algae killer in the pool and turned the pool pump on. Don't think the kids will be swimming anymore this year since the night are dropping into the 50's-60's (F*), which means that water is cold, unless of course it get really, really hot during the day, which it hasn't for the last 3-4 days. All that just to say that I'm not going to worry about vacuuming the bottom any more until next Spring.

Next on the list is getting a T-Pole put in by the garden area, and then fencing it with the chicken-wire we have in the shed. Then we'll lay some cardboard down and cover it with grass that we'll be raking up and/or hay that we eventually purchase. Then put what little compost we have on top of that. Hopefully by next Spring it'll be ready to have some stuff planted in it. *fingers crossed*

Rambleman

P.S. Still couldn't post this using Zoundry. Will have to go to the Zoundry forum to see if it's Zoundry, Blogspot, or something that has glitched on my computer. *sigh*

Wednesday, August 30

News, breakfast, winterizing, psp downloads, qumana & lj, zoundry

Here it is half way through Wednesday already, and what have I got done? Let's see... I watched the rest of Family Feud when I first got up, then I watched the 2nd half of The Price Is Right after that. During the first half of TPIR I was reading email and blogs. I just got through watching Democracy Now, during which I cooked myself a hamburger and ran a Spybot and Ad-Aware scan on the computer, restarted the computer after each scan.

Rain and my DD just got out of bed (nap) a few minutes ago. Rain got up mostly because the chickens were making a lot of noise out back, so she went outside to see what she could see. Apparently while she was standing on the porch, a rooster came closer to the house and was making all kinds of noise. Shortly afterwards a bunch of chickens came flying (literally) from out back to where the rooster was, even the two ducks came up closer to the house in a hurry. Rain just walked out back carrying a big stick. I told her if she meets anything to start swingin. *smile*

I'm considering cleaning the chimney today, but haven't fully decided since it's somewhat windy out there. Not sure if I should risk standing on the roof, in the wind, pushing the steel brush up and down in the flue/chimney (it's a metal pipe), since I don't have very good balance. In fact, even standing up too fast is frequently causing me to get dizzy these days. The last time I was on the roof to unscrew the overhead/floodlight/compound light on the front of the house, I kept getting dizzy and had to kneel down on the roof a few times. Still, the chimney flue needs to be cleaned (didn't clean it last year), so I'll probably risk it. 

Speaking of Winterizing. We've decided that we're not going to fully shutdown the pool this year. Meaning we're not going to put the cover over it, or take the ladder out. We're just going to drain some of the water out so that it doesn't set in the hoses, freeze, and crack them. Don't really see any point in covering it up, only to have to uncover it again in the Spring, so we're not going to, unless someone can tell us a good reason that we should. We'll leave the ladder in, just in case a cat gets in and needs a way to climb out. We'll just be diligent on keeping the leaves out so as to keep the algae buildup down.

Know anyone who's looking for PSP downloads? I know where to get unlimited downloads for their PSPs, which would help us make a little extra money too. *smile* 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I downloaded the latest version of Qumana (3.0.0-b5) thinking they might've fixed it so that when you posted to LiveJournal the entry subject/title would show-up, but it didn't. It still said "no subject" after I posted. *sigh* So, for now, I'm sticking with Zoundry.

Rambleman

P.S. Is anyone else having trouble sending blog entries from Zoundry to Blogspot? Last night I had to enter them from Blogspot, but today I'm going to send them using Qumana. Then I'll switch back to Zoundry to post it to LJ. *sigh*

Tuesday, August 29

Monsanto Buys ‘Terminator’ Seeds Company

by F. William Engdahl

August 27, 2006

The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government's US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world's largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.

Relations between Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land and the USDA, on closer scrutiny, show the deep and dark side of the much-heralded genetic revolution in agriculture. It proves deep-held suspicions that the Gene Revolution is not about 'solving the world hunger problem' as its advocates claim. It's about handing over control of the seeds for mankind's basic food supply-rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, even fruit, vegetables and cotton-to privately owned corporations. Once the seeds and their use are patented and controlled by one or several private agribusiness multinationals, it will be they who can decide whether or not a particular customer-let's say for argument, China or Brazil or India or Japan-whether they will or won't get the patented seeds from Monsanto, or from one of its licensee GMO partners like Bayer Crop Sciences, Syngenta or DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

While most of us don't bother to reflect on where the corn in the box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes or the rice in a box of Uncle Ben's Converted Rice come from, when we grab it from the supermarket shelf, they all must originate with seeds. Seeds can either be taken by a farmer from the previous season' seeds, and planted to produce the next harvest. Or, seeds can be bought new each harvest season, from the companies which sell their seeds.

The advent of commercial GMO seeds in the early 1990's allowed companies like Monsanto, DuPont or Dow Chemicals to go from supplying agriculture chemical herbicides like Roundup, to patenting genetically altered seeds for basic farm crops like corn, rice, soybeans or wheat. For almost a quarter century, since 1983, the US Government has quietly been working to perfect a genetically engineered technique whereby farmers would be forced to turn to their seed supplier each harvest to get new seeds. The seeds would only produce one harvest. After that the seeds from that harvest would commit 'suicide' and be unusable.

There has been much hue and cry, correctly so, that this process, patented 'suicide' seeds, officially termed GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), is a threat to poor farmers in developing countries like India or Brazil, who traditionally save their own seeds for the next planting. In fact, GURTs, more popularly referred to as Terminator seeds for the brutal manner in which they kill off plant reproduction possibilities, is a threat to the food security as well of North America, Western Europe, Japan and anywhere Monsanto and its elite cartel of GMO agribusiness partners enters a market.

The rest of the sorted story...

Pictures: Ruth, Kilala, and Tea'

Today, just like yesterday, was pretty non-exciting, except of course for the color on the monitor going pink. Since then though, the only things that we've done are drive into town and get a small bag of cat food at one store, and stop at another and get a couple more lottery tickets, a bag of M&M's, a cupcake, and 3 candy bars. It's been cloudy all day, with dark clouds that looked like they were surely going to dump some moisture on us, but they didn't.

This is Ruth. So named from the *boy* dragon in Ann McCaffrey's 'Pern' books. He's also almost the exact opposite of Celebi, or black cat. Click the picture to enlarge

I have, in the past, taken pictures of single cats in boxes, but since there's two this time, I took another picture. *grin*

Monitor update

Just wanted to let you know, in case you were worried about us, LOL, that we luckily had another monitor that was for the kids computer. Well, when we were getting ready to move earlier in the year, we had put it out of commission in their closet until we were in our new place. Well, since we didn't move, it was still in their closet, and is now on *our* computer desk. <g> They weren't using it anyway, and were using their (daughter's actually) notebook computer :-)


Rambleman

Monitor going out

Everything *was* going pretty good today, that is until I got out of the shower and came over to the computer to check for email. What's wrong? You ask? Well, apparently our monitor has decided that a little over a year since we bought it, is long enough to be working at 100%. You see, everything is now PINK. *frown* I've tried shutting it down and letting it rest, but that didn't help. I've tried restarting the computer, no change. I've tried adjusting the color, it's not that. So, looks like we're stuck with pink. *sigh* it's not that I don't like pink, but I like other colors as well.

We plan, as far as I know, to drive into town and get a small bag of cat food, that'll get them through till Friday.

It looks like it may rain today. Well, it is getting increasingly cloudy with dark looking, possibly rain-clouds. It's a nice cool day because of that. WOO-HOO!

Take care of your monitors, they don't last forever!

Rambleman

Monday, August 28

Bye-bye ducky, August rain (so far)

A little sad today. Not just because one of our female ducks died though, but that was sad. She had been looking skinnier and skinnier the last few days, then today she could barely walk. Rain put her in isolation for a while, but she just laid at the front of the pen by the gate. Rain took her out and sat her in the duck pool, and she got out on her own. Then she just laid, still on her feet though, next to the pool (guess that would be sitting then?). Anyway, a couple of hours later when we went out to feed the chickens and other ducks, we saw her still by the pool, but she was dead :-( We think that the heat must've finally got to her, but don't know for sure. So we said a prayer to release her spirit, and built a funeral pyre for her and lit it.

Other than that bit of excitement, the rest of the day wasn't too exciting. We, Rain really, got about 5 lbs. of apples picked from the apple tree. The ones we ate were really tasty :-) The majority of them are going to be apple pie filling and apple sauce, some will be used to make apple cider vinegar, and some will be eaten of course :-)

Didn't get any rain today, but it still wasn't a hot day, in the mid 80's I believe. So far this month we've gotten 2.3 inches of rain - far below the average for the month of August. Okay, so I don't know what the official average for August is, but last year we got about 7.5 inches in this month :-)

I took a two hour nap this afternoon. Not as much because I was tired, but mostly because I was bored and a little down (before we found the duck). Not sure why, just was. Probably could've slept longer, but it was 6 o'clock and time to feed the birds.

Rambleman

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New Iraq Patent Law Will Make Traditional Farmers Seed Saving Illegal

* And yet something else the U.S. government is doing to ruin Iraq for 'the people' who live there :-(

* Rambleman

==========

http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/iraq111704.cfm

From: THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER
November 15, 2004, Issue #380
Monitoring Corporate Agribusiness
From a Public Interest Perspective

EDITOR\PUBLISHER; A.V. Krebs
E-MAIL: avkrebs@earthlink.net
WEB SITE: http://www.ea1.com/CARP/
TO RECEIVE: Send name and address

IRAQI FARMERS FARM-SAVED SEED AND FREE INNOVATION TRADITION NOW RULED ILLEGAL UNDER NEW CORPORATE FRIENDLY PATENTING LAW

FOCUS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND GRAIN, COALITION AGAINST BAYER, CBG NETWORK:
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities
has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This has been made illegal under the new law.

The seeds farmers are now allowed to plant --- "protected" crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction --- will be the property of the corporations. While
historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new U.S.-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds.

Inserted into Iraq's previous patent law is a whole new chapter on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) that provides for the "protection of new varieties of plants." PVP is an intellectual property right (IPR) or a kind of patent for
plant varieties which gives an exclusive monopoly right on planting material to a plant breeder who claims to have discovered or developed a new variety.

So the "protection" in PVP has nothing to do with conservation, but refers to safeguarding of the commercial interests of private breeders (usually large corporations) claiming to have created the new plants.

To qualify for PVP, plant varieties must comply with the standards of the UPOV Convention, which requires them be new, distinct, uniform and stable. Farmers' seeds cannot meet these criteria, making PVP-protected seeds the exclusive domain of corporations. The rights granted to plant breeders in this scheme include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the protected varieties.

These rights extend to harvested material, including whole plants and parts of plants obtained from the use of a protected variety. This kind of PVP system is often the first step towards allowing the full-fledged patenting
of life forms. Indeed, in this case the rest of the law does not rule out the patenting of plants or animals.

The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this variety without compensating the breeder.

This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds.

This is only half of the article. Read the other half here...

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Sunday, August 27

Drigger, no visit, Wildblue, Starband

This is DriggerThis is MY cat - Drigger :-) I would've wrote sooner, but at the time she was on my lap spinning and spinning. And whenever I'd put my hand on the mouse to open this program, she'd grab or try to nibble on my hand. I finally got her to get down, er, I mean she finally got down because she wanted to, lol, went to the table, and I took this picture. She is SUCH a silly cat! But I love her anyway. *grin*

I was also delayed because I have AVG set to scan at a certain time, and it never seems to fail that I try to open a program right after the scan starts. While the scan is in progress, everything on the computer goes at a slower pace. In order for the picture of Drigger to show-up on-line, I had to upload it to Ramblemansweb so that it could be hot-linked here. Since I have a page with most of the pictures that're on my blog on it, I just added it to that page and then uploaded the updated page, and that took a few minutes.

I'm kind of sad today, because I found out that the stupidly high gas prices that're keeping us from going to see our friends 2 hours away, are also going to keep them from visiting us tomorrow :-( I sent an email yesterday asking if the visit was still on, and she wrote back saying that they don't have the gas money to make it afterall :-( We understand though, because they had to spend extra, driving another friend with cancer back and forth to the doctor and hospital in Springfield. That friend is now home though, so maybe next month we'll get to see BOTH families. *crossing fingers*

I'm also a bit discouraged about high-speed Internet, specifically Satellite Highspeed. I was on-line the other day checking on pricing and availability of Wildblue Satellite service, only to find out "We apologize, but due to overwhelming demand, we are not currently performing installations in your area." So, we can't get DSL, and now we can't get Satellite broadband either, at least not right now, from Wildblue. *sigh* Anyway, I was reading a forum about Wildblue last night (to which I cannot find right now), and was dismayed that there are a lot of unhappy costumers. Mostly for the slow or non existent responses to phone calls and/or emails about problems, installations, etc. While searching just now, I found this thing about limitations on the amount of files you can download using WB. It's on this page. Now I'm REALLY unsure if I want to get WB. *sigh* But the writer did say that Starband has no such limitations and is only $50/month, so I'll look into that and see if it's available in this area, for when I can actually afford it, which I can't right now anyway. After looking at their pricing, it's going to be a while before I can afford it, if ever. *sigh*

I've been writing this forever, so I'm done. Must eat. Bye.

Rambleman (who's not even sure he needs to sigh his blogs)

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Saturday, August 26

Watada hearing succeeds in placing war on trial

During the August 17 Article 32 pre-trial hearing at Fort Lewis, the defense for Lt. Watada has succeeded in placing the war in Iraq on trial setting the stage for the court martial later this fall.

"We appreciated the opportunity to lay the groundwork to prove that the war in Iraq is illegal and that Lt. Watada, coming to this conclusion after much research, was duty bound to refuse to participate," Eric Seitz, civilian counsel for Lt. Watada said. "This case is really about the duty of individual soldiers to look at the facts and fulfill their obligation to national and international law," he said.

Read more...

Lt. Watada addresses national veterans convention

With over 50 members of Iraq Veterans Against the War standing behind him, Lt. Watada offered the following to the Veterans for Peace national convention recently held in Seattle:

"Today, I speak with you about a radical idea. It is one born from the very concept of the American soldier (or service member). It became instrumental in ending the Vietnam War - but it has been long since forgotten. The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it."

A few days later,the video of this statement was presented into evidence against Lt. Watada at his pre-trial hearing.

Read more...


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Food box, gas prices, boraxed carpets, plans for the day

Went and got our 25$ box of food. It was the first time we've done that church for it, and it was just like an assembly line. You take your box, put a tag on it that faces out with the number of the 'package' you paid for, and slide it down the line. Each person behind the tables puts an item in your box. Once you reach the end of the line, you're done, and you leave.

On the way there we noticed that all of the gas stations were selling gas at the same price. What ever happened to a little competition? Other than a couple of cents difference? *grr*

My plans for the rest of the day are pretty much up in the air. I did sprinkle some Borax over some spots on the carpet in the living room and in the kid's game/TV room that were darker than the carpets are normally. I'm not sure why they're discolored, but I imagine that at least a few of the spot are where a cat peed. *sigh* Well, once I vacuum, at least the air will hopefully smell a bit fresher. To be honest though, I don't notice it if it's not fresh smelling, perhaps because I'm used to it. Although, I didn't notice any unusual odors when we came back after being gone for an hour. I'm still perturbed at Peach, one of our female cats, because she pooped on the living room carpet right after I woke up. Actually, I had *just* got to the living room and was sitting on the sofa with my eyes closed when I heard a scratching-on-the-carpet noise. When I opened my eyes, Peach was standing there trying to bury what she had just done. *WTF?* She knows where the litter boxes are, as well as the doors. Damn cat!

I've got a load of laundry going in the wash machine. I'll be going and getting the full hamper of dirty clothes out of our room in a little bit. I may be able to fit all of them into one load, at least I hope so. I ran the dishwasher this morning, now it's waiting for the kids to unload it. Then later I'll take the trash out and burn it in the burn barrel.

Rambleman

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Friday, August 25

Food deal for the poor. Survivor

Howdy! Don't have much to say, as nothing has been happening since Don left. Although, we did get some rain today, and lots of thunder, and a little bit of lightening. Right now however, the sun is shining and it's around 80*F outside, at least that's what the little Weatherbug temperature display says. I don't know what the actual temp. outside is, don't suppose it really matters. I've been feeling kind of "blah" for two days now. Not really depressed, just like I'm not interested in doing anything, and nothing seems interesting. I've been tired. Don't know why really, probably because I don't feel like I have anything that needs to be done, so I'm feeling unproductive.

Oh, I suppose I could do a load of laundry. The kids did bring a full laundry basket out of their bedroom and put it on the dryer. It's about time to clean the chimney of the wood-stove, to get it ready for winter wood burning, but that doesn't *need* to be done until, probably October sometime. I'll probably get it done this weekend if it's not too hot.

Tomorrow we got to go to the Methodist church in Buffalo. No, we're not going to services. LOL. We have to go pick up the order of food we paid $25 for a couple of weeks ago. For that $25, we get...


Food Menu

Not a bad deal. Should last us at least a month.

In upcoming things to look forward to, we'll (hopefully) be getting a visit from a family that we haven't seen in FAR too long, over a year I believe, on Monday. Really, REALLY looking forward to that. Their visit is the main reason we wanted to have the snowcone flavorings, you know, some kind of treat for them, besides just our presence. *grin*

That's really all I've got to write about. The kids unloaded the dishwasher, Rain is making a loaf of bread, and you know where I am and what I'm doing. The cats are just lazing around, as is the dog. The chickens are probably just killing time waiting for us to come out and feed them. LOL. I swear they know how to tell time!

Rambleman

P.S. Found out today that the new season of "Survivor" starts on September 15th! Woo-Hoo! :-)

Thursday, August 24

Don's visit, Boonie seeds, Thoughts of a Goddess, Mind Freak/Criss Angel, chickens, duck

We had an absolutely LOVELY visit with Don B. yesterday afternoon and evening. He arrived here 'round 4 p.m. We stood outside and talked for a while, and when I got hot, we came inside. I offered, he accepted, and I gave him a bottle of water and we headed for the living room, where we again talked. *smile* The kids were watching a Yuh-GI-Oh! show when he first arrived, but when that was over, they came into the living room at met him. Rain was on the phone with a friend who has Thoughts of a Goddess, so I entertained Don as much as I could. *smile* Rain eventually was off the phone and all of us talked for a while longer. Eventually, around 5:30-6 p.m., he went out to his trailer and worked on some of the photos he had taken before he got here, and we fed the chickens and checked email and stuff. After a while I went out to invite him in for supper, and also to check out the inside of his road-home. It was pretty cool! I also met his two kitties (Sandy and Pandora). Sandy is the female version of our Simba, and Pandora is a tuxedo-cat :-) Then I came in to pound a few nails into the top of the kitchen window so Rain could hang two more planters with newly acquired "boonie pepper" seeds that Don gave her. She is very happy for those, because she's been looking for some seeds, but hadn't been able to find them. They're *very* hot peppers that're popular in Guam, ones that *I* won't be eating. *grin* Anyway, Rain started cooking the T-Bone steaks and I went out to Don's trailer and invited him in for supper. He came hungrily, and brought 2 beers in with him, which we shared while eating. Plus he brought in a bad of salad fixins that he and Rain ate. After supper we talked for a while longer, and around 9 he went out to his abode, and we checked email again and watched a bit of TV. I watched a show called "Mind Freak". It's a man who is an AWESOME/FREAKY-GOOD magician named Criss Angel (you need Flash to view it best). I got up at 7 this morning to feed the chickens and was surprised he was still here, but he wasn't for long, as I saw him pulling out of the driveway around 8 a.m. Von voyage, Don, thanks for the time! Hope the rest of your visits go as well as I believe this one did, and your driving is uneventful and safe. *smile*

After my morning nap, Rain made us scrambled eggs for breakfast. Once those were scarfed down, we went to Lebanon where we bought a pouch of tobacco and cigarette tubes for Rain at the Cig store, then went to the Wal-Mart Supercenter and got a *few* necessities to get us through 'til payday next week. Then we came home.

And because people seem to like pictures, here's one of some of our chickens, and one of a duck *smile*


Chickens in our yard :-)


Male Duck

Rambleman

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Wednesday, August 23

Ethanol mill in Rogersville?

Well, after reading about Ethanol mills using corn which only reduces possible greenhouse gases by a mere 13%, plus using coal (although not sure if this mill would) to fuel the mill, and the pollution from the coal being used, I'm not sure I want it being in Missouri AT ALL. And if you read the full story, you'll notice that it said the meeting they had to discuss it was NOT public. Hmm... wonder why... probably because they didn't want to hear any dissent.

Rambleman
==========
Fueling the rumor mill

Developers of the proposed facility held an informational meeting with city and county officials Thursday night, and confirmed details to South County Mail on Monday.

"We've been funded. We've got the money to build," said Charles Luna, vice president of Gulfstream Biolflex Industry, one of the presenters at the Thursday night meeting. "There are issues with the property that need to be resolved."

Luna said testing for water and soil conditions will take place in the coming weeks to "make sure there's not a cave out there."

The plant, which would convert biomatter (usually corn), would used 2,000 gallons of water per minutes, Luna said. Developers expect to dig to the Potosi layer to tap into the neccesary water supply.

"The city of Rogersville doesn't have that much water," he said.

The land in question is located just east of the city limits, at the northeast corner of Porter Crossing and U.S. Highway 60.

The property,145 acres, is owned by by William Larry and Linda Jo Porter, accordinbg to the Webster County Assessors Office.

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Tuesday, August 22

Green Fuel's Dirty Secret

Green Fuel's Dirty Secret

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13646

by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch
June 1st, 2006

The town of Columbus, Nebraska, bills itself as a "City of Power and Progress." If Archer Daniels Midland gets its way, that power will be partially generated by coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy. When burned, it emits carcinogenic pollutants and high levels of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Ironically this coal will be used to generate ethanol, a plant-based petroleum substitute that has been hyped by both environmentalists and President George Bush as the green fuel of the future. The agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, which it makes by distilling corn. ADM also operates coal-fired plants at its company base in Decatur, Illinois, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is currently adding another coal-powered facility at its Clinton, Iowa ethanol plant.

That's not all. "[Ethanol] plants themselves - not even the part producing the energy - produce a lot of air pollution," says Mike Ewall, director of the Energy Justice Network. "The EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) has cracked down in recent years on a lot of Midwestern ethanol plants for excessive levels of carbon monoxide, methanol, toluene, and volatile organic compounds, some of which are known to cause cancer."

A single ADM corn processing plant in Clinton, Iowa generated nearly 20,000 tons of pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds in 2004, according to federal records. The EPA considers an ethanol plant as a "major source" of pollution if it produces more than 100 tons of any one pollutant per year, although it has recently proposed increasing that cap to 250 tons.

Sulfur dioxide is classified by the EPA as a contributor to respiratory and heart disease and the generation of acid rain. Nitrogen oxides produce ozone and a wide variety of toxic chemicals as well as contributing to global warming, according to the EPA, while many volatile organic compounds are cancer-causing. Last year, Environmental Defense, a national environmental group, ranked the Clinton plant as the 26th largest emitter of carcinogenic compounds in the U.S.

For years, ADM promoted itself as the "supermarket to the world" on major U.S. radio and television networks like NPR, CBS, NBC, and PBS where it underwrites influential programs such as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Now, as it actively promotes its ethanol business, ADM has rolled out its new eco-friendly slogan, "Resourceful by Nature" which "reinforces our role as an essential link between farmers and consumers." Continued...

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Pictures: Acorns, Wild Plums, Fridge Eggs

Ya know, me and Rain were out walking around the perimeter of the place to let the coyotes, or whichever other animals might need to know, that we were there.

Wild Plums

That's we we got up front and noticed some plums on that wild plum tree that we hadn't seen in the past.






Acorns

Then we came to another tree with something on it that we hadn't seen there before, acorns, and big ones.







I took a bunch of other pictures, like one of some of the apples on our apple tree, one of our chickens, one of one of our 3 ducks, but I didn't want to completely slow the loading of this page down, so I'm just telling you about them. *evil grin* I did want to show you this one, of the cartons of eggs in our fridge, mostly because Whimsperation mentioned that after they bought eggs that the top shelf of their fridge looked like ours. So Here's ours.Fridge eggs..





Rambleman

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Death by Coyote. Flat twitch again. Zoundry. Traveling Don visit.

Okay, for the bad news first I guess. Rain saw a coyote as close as the pool this morning and went out and scared it off. Well, she was outside a little bit ago and found a dead hen. The coyote didn't carry it off like usual, so he must've gotten scared off before he could, but he did kill it. There were teeth marks all over it. *sigh* We were leaving the big shed door open because, well, we didn't think there was any real reason to close it. However, we've just decided that we're going to start closing it so that if a predator is chasing the chickens or cats, they'll have somewhere to hide (there's a small hold they can go in, in the bottom of the door).

On a more upbeat note, Rain took this picture of Twitch. She's trying to show just how FLAT the cat can be. *grin* It's pretty much just like the one that I showed you on 8-15-06, just from the other side. *smile*


Flat Twitch

I've decided to write my blogs using Zoundry, for now, because it's easier to cross-post to Live Journal. Although the writing is smaller (unless I adjust it here, but that's a pain because I have to do each paragraph separately), I figure that with browsers today, people can just enlarge the text size for themselves if it's hard for them to read. Fair?

We're going to have a visitor tomorrow, who's been traveling around the country for a while. Well, he finally landed in Missouri, and we're finally going to meet him. We have heard nothing but compliments about him from everyone we've seen write about their visits. We're pretty excited! WOO-HOO!! You can read about all of his travels on his journal site.

Rambleman

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Monday, August 21

McDonalds, snowcone flavors, and a ball of yarn

Not much going on today. We did run into town and have lunch at McDonalds. We even talked the kids into treating. *grin* Then we ran over to Woods (grocery store) bought two lottery tickets, and checked for snowcone flavoring. They don't carry it, but told us Wal-Mart does. So of course we drove over there to check. We had no idea where they'd keep it, so we asked (Rain asked, I didn't feel the need, being a man and all. lol). She told us if there was any left, it would be in the clearance isle, and that's where the last 3 bottles were, so be bought two of them. Apparently once kids go back to school, they no longer like flavored ice, or they have so much homework that they no long have time to eat it. LOL. I don't know, it's crazy. Apparently you should stock-up on the flavoring earlier in the summer if you plan on having snowcones passed August, even though it's still warm/hot enough at least partly through September. Oh yeah, and while we were there we got a "skein" of yarn. In fact, Rain just got through turning it into a ball of yarn, and a pretty good sized one at that. *smile*

I feel like I should write something more "news" worthy, but I gots nuttin'. *grin*

Rambleman

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Sunday, August 20

Mysterious boot print. Mom.

When I went to bed last night I told Rain that I probably wouldn't come right back to bed after feeding the chickens. That I would probably just fix a pot of coffee and go from there. However, when I was awoken at 7 a.m. to go feed the chickens, I was still a bit tired. I sat at the computer and responded to a few emails, but couldn't send them because my DD was on-line. Well, I decided that I was indeed tired enough to go back to bed, so around 8 a.m. I did. Thinking I would only sleep a couple of hours, I told my DD to get me up around 9:30 or 10. She came in at 9:30, woke me up, but Rain told me that I could stay in bed and she would get up, so I thanked her and dozed back off. The next thing I know, it's NOON! *guilty grin* Didn't really having anything I *had* to get up to do, so I didn't really feel that bad. However, after sleeping that long I almost always have LESS energy than if I hadn't slept so long. Plus, because I laid in bed so long, I had a back-ache, which in turn gave me a slight headache. After a few Ibuprofens and a couple of hours, I felt better.

Didn't vacuum the pool today like I had planned yesterday, when I was feeling motivated. *grin* Besides, I worked harder than usual for the two days prior to today, so I decided I deserved a break. I did get a few dryer loads of laundry hung-up and put away, so it's not like I did nothing.  *grin*

A month or so ago the kids were doing a workout routine that included jumping on the trampoline after dark, so I turned the light sensitive security light over the front porch on. Well, since I did that, they've only jumped on the trampoline once or twice. Today I turned it back off, because it doesn't need to be on at night if they're not going to be out there after dark. Besides, the light sensor needs changed, because it stays on all the time instead of only being turned on automatically after sunset/dark. Not being mad of money, we can definitely benefit from the savings on the electric bill when it's off. What I need to do is hook-up a light switch, instead of climbing up on the roof and unscrewing/screwing the bulb. Haven't got a round tuit though.

Called my sister this afternoon because my dad didn't answer his phone at their house. As it turns out, mom is still in the nursing home recovering from her post hip surgery fall, so dad spends all day visiting her. I'm glad I did call my sis though, because she told me that mom isn't doing well :-( She's never hungry, and when they convince her to eat, she can't hold it down most of the time. The doctors aren't sure if it's a medicine she takes causing that, or if something else is going on. Whatever it is, they need to figure it out soon. When I talked to mom back in April, when she first got to Colo., she was around 150-60 pounds. Well, as of right now she's down to 127 and looking really thin. I think she's around 5'6" or 5'7", so she won't die of starvation unless she loses A LOT more weight (Rain is 5'5-1/2" and feels best around 110-115), but still. I'm told that her clothes just hang off of her. I told my sister to see if she can get mom to smoke some pot. That maybe that would help give her a better appetite and help with the nausea (not to mention satifiying her compulsion to smoke *something*, since she quit cigs). She (sis) said she would talk to her (mom), but knowing how anti-drug mom is, I don't think she'll go for it, even though Colo. is a medical marijuana state. On the good news side, I did get to talk to my aunt that was visiting from Oregon, that I hadn't talked to in over 10 years. In fact I can't remember the last time I talked to her. I was good to hear from her. *smile*

Rain and the kids found a large boot-print out by the big pond this morning, but have no idea who it belonged to, and that kind of upsets my wife a bit. She said it's too big to be one of ours, and besides it's different than what our boot prints look like. Maybe a hunter? She said it looks like someone walked up the ravine to the mouth of pond. We know we do have deer that visit us, because we can see spots where grass has been packed down where they lay. Anyway, it's a mystery, not one we like either. We think we should get some purple paint for some posts, and a "no hunting" sign or three to put on the fence around the place.

Rambleman

Saturday, August 19

Cell - Stephen King. Diatomaceous Earth & ants.

I had a pretty good day, thank you very much. It all started after my wife woke me up from my slumber around 9:30 this morning. No, I did not get up right away. *grin* I did, however, get up about 15 minutes later. When I went to bed last night I had planned on running out to the pool right after I was woken-up, in my skivvies and getting a water-jolt first thing. That didn't happen though. Instead, I just came out to the living room and sat on the sofa and zoned-out on whatever was on the TV (can't even remember what it was). My son was on the computer playing games on the Neo Pet's site, so I knew it would be a while before I got a turn. But, I did tell him that at 11:30 it was *my* turn, and he agreed. By 11:15 I had eaten my usual breakfast (a hamburger) and taken my vitamins and prescription pills. I told him "15 minutes", and he said "okay". Since I had 15 minutes to kill, I decided to take that opportunity to read a little of my book (Cell, by Stephen King). Well, by 11:30 I was deeply entrenched and my son was still messing around at that site, so I just let him keep the computer. I did get to a breaking point about 12:30, and so I convinced him it really was my turn, and he finally gave it up. *smile* Since there wasn't very many emails to read and respond to, I blogged that article about the "Food virus '-additives". Then I created a link to my guestbook and feedback pages, and then I decided to do other stuff. But before that I checked the stats on my Google Analytics and Technorati pages. THEN I did other stuff not related to the computer. *grin*

I decided to put some Diatomaceous Earth along the outside edges of the house, to kill as many ants as possible. Especially around the bathroom window where the carpenter ants have gotten into the wood and are causing a LOT of sawdust. *sigh* We've tried everything else (ant killer spray, ant bombs in the attic, splenda and instant grits), and NOTHING has happened *permanently*. Whatever we've done has slowed them down for a while, but they've *ALWAYS* returned. *frown* Hopefully by sprinkling the DE along the WHOLE side and front of the house, and inside where we know they are in the window, THAT will stop them. *crossing fingers & toes*

While I was outside, I decided to de-weed around the pool. While doing that I noticed ants around there. There's a wood-border around the pool, and at least in a couple of spots the 4X4 boards are gone. I'm sure partly because of rot, and partly because of those ants. So, after I pulled the weeds, I sprinkled DE around there too. Then I noticed some ants crawling all over one of the trees close to the pool, so I sprinkled it around the base as well as on the tree as much as I could get it to stick. *grin* I also got another root with trees seedlings coming up, that was close to the pool, dug out. I spent most of the afternoon outside, and enjoyed pretty much every minute of it. I felt like a real homesteader. LOL.

Oh, and I found a hose in the big shed that only had one hole. Since I just happened to have one more connector to splice the pieces of hose together (after I cut a section with the hole in it, out), I did that. That hose has been in the shed for *6 years* and we never thought to test it for leaks. Just assumed it had leaks since it was in there when we moved in. Don't ask me why, okay? *embarrassed grin* Anyway, it's long enough to reach all the way to the pool, plus some, so we don't have to hook-up the extension to it to add water to the pool anymore. All we need to do now is take the sprayer off and stick it in. Which is of course what I did. Maybe I'll vacuum the pool tomorrow. I don't have anything else planned, except maybe doing some laundry. *grin*

Well, I need to pee. I also need to shave (already showered). Therefore I will let you get back to your life. Bye!

Rambleman

Feedback and Guestbook

Just wanted to let you know that I've added 2 links for my BlogSpot blog, on the right-hand side for *private* feedback and/or guestbook comments. That way if you don't want your comments to be public, you can send them JUST to me :-) Thanks.

Rambleman

Agency Approves First Use of Viruses as a Food Additive

Agency Approves First Use of Viruses as a Food Additive

http://tinyurl.com/znugs

Published: August 19, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (AP) — A mix of bacteria-killing viruses may be sprayed on cold cuts, wieners and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials ruled Friday.

The ruling, by the Food and Drug Administration, is the first approval of viruses as a food additive, said Andrew Zajac of the Office of Food Additive Safety at the agency.

<snip>

Consumers will not be aware which meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray, Mr. Zajac said. The Department of Agriculture will regulate the actual use of the product.

OK, I don't know about you, but I would WANT to be aware! This seems like a VERY GOOD reason to STOP buying cold-cuts and stick STRICTLY to meat we've raised and butchered ourselves. Oh wait, with NAIS being enforced more and more, and driving small homesteads out of the ability to afford to raise their own meat, they can DRUG the hell out of us whenever they want. *SIGH*

Rambleman

Friday, August 18

MO heat (105), Coyote, Wal-Mart, Public school stupidy

Didn't get much of anything done today. I did get a little mowing done, emphasis on *little* for two reasons. Well, really the only one that kept me from getting much done was the one where I ran out of gas in the mower. What kept me from pushing the mower from the wood-shed back to the shed I park it in was that it was 105*F, according to the thermometer we have mounted on the pole on our porch, which was in the shade when I looked at it. I waited until it cooled off this evening, around 7 o'clock when it was all the way down to 96*F, to ask my wife to help me. She did, and we came back inside where it was much cooler (only about 80).

I didn't mention it before because I kept forgetting, but  yesterday I had to run outside with the shotgun to scare off the coyote we saw out back looking longingly at our chickens. Must be pretty hungry to be out in the daylight, in the middle of the day, to be hunting.

I also forgot to mention that I'm mad at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lebanon for not carrying the snow-cone flavors now that the public schools have started back up (we're assuming).

Speaking of public schools, they had to send students from a couple of schools in Buffalo, MO home early, because of the heat. Apparently the schools are too CHEAP to install air-conditioning. Seems stupid to me that they make the kids and teenagers suffer *every* summer for NO GOOD REASON. If they just started school ONE month later, it would be much cooler and the kids and young adults could avoid possible heat-strokes. *sigh*

Rambleman

Ruling on NSA spying program. Vote.com. Successful surgeyr. SSD approval. Neo Pets. Rain wanted and needed!

Finally, a judge with the guts enough to rule this way...

"A federal judge in Detroit, Anna Diggs Taylor, has ruled (pdf) that Bush's NSA spying program is a violation of the Constitution." http://alternet.org/blogs/video/40478/

I'm sad to say that while at Vote.com there was a vote on whether or not congress should pass a law that would legalize the wiretapping, and 80% sad yes. In fact, on all but one of the questions I voted on, I was surprised (although I don't know why) at how willing people are to give up their rights. All I can say is "sheople" :-(

I got an email from a friend who's wife just recently had surgery, saying that the surgery went well, and that he couldn't find my phone number. So I called him and gave him my number. While talking he told me that the surgeon (or doctor) said that the surgery "couldn't have gone better", which is GREAT news! I also found out that his application for Social Security Disability was APPROVED! I am SO VERY HAPPY for him and his family. They DESERVE to receive SSD, although sadly his wife (the one who just had surgery) will more than likely be dropped from the MO Medicaid roll :-(

Our kids have been playing games on the Neo Pets site A LOT since last nite. They spent several hours last night, and my son played for a few hours this morning, which is why I haven't been on-line until now. And now he's bugging me again, but I don't know, I think Rain might want a turn on the computer before the kids take it over.

I wish we'd get some rain! It's 101*F right now!

Rambleman

Thursday, August 17

Brain picture, chocolate cookies, short hose

Okay, I know I promised you a picture of my brain, from my copy of the MRI results. I must warn you though, the one I'm going to show is pretty weird. LOL. But, this is me without my head-skin. *grin*

Rambleman's brain

Today we went and did some grocery shopping, but before we did that, we stopped at the bank, a store for lottery tickets, and a store for Rain's cigarettes. We made a deal after I quit smoking, and that deal is that every time she buys herself a carton, I get $5 dollars because I don't smoke. I just want to see how quickly it adds up. Well, I had $15 saved because of our deal, so I treated us to breakfast at Sonic. The only thing different than what we usually get was that Rain, DD, and I all got chocolate cokes, that were delicious. *smile* Then we went grocery shopping. Didn't get much, but got enough to hopefully get us through till it's close to payday, which is the beginning of September.

I have had an upset tummy all day -called diarrhea. I believe it's from the "generic" brand of chocolate oreo cookies that we had for supper last night. I obviously had WAY too many, and I paid for it DEARLY :-( I should know better! Well, I feel better now, and have sworn-off chocolate oreo-type cookies for a while (till we get the next package. lol).

I did manage to get the porch hosed off. Didn't get water added to the pool because the hose that I spliced and added to the chain of hoses we already had isn't long enough :-( And I gave away ALL the EXTRA hose pieces we had. *sigh* So, to get more water into the pool, we're going to have to fill 5-gallon buckets one at a time and dump them in. We're thinking we'll get a few buckets, then with all 4 of us working together, we'll do the "conveyor belt" thing to get each bucket into the pool. Hopefully it won't take long.

Rambleman

Wednesday, August 16

Proof of brain, Visit of friends, Google Analytics

Today was a good day. Went to the doctor and discussed the MRI results for the MRI I had done on July 17th. Basically, what he showed us is that I have no new lesions (also known as points of light) in my brain. I did buy copies of the MRI on CD, so I'll post one tomorrow night. Perhaps even in the afternoon, after I've had time to look at them myself and figure out what "view" to show you. *grin* I haven't looked at the CD yet, so I don't know what's on it. If it's the same (and it should be) as what he showed me on his computer in the examination room, then I'm sure I can show you a cool one. *smile*

After the visit at the doctor, we went and visited with Whimsperation and her family. We LOVED her/their yarden (garden in the yard). As usual, we forgot to take the camera with us, so I can't show you any pictures of it. Darn! One of these days I will remember to take the camera with me, but since we take so many pictures at home, I don't think to take them anywhere else (no, I have no idea why). Anyway, they are STILL a really COOL bunch o' people. The kids all played in their bedroom, and we sat and talked with K and Keebler. After they finally convinced us (reminded us really) that they had enough food to feed us with, they fried us some really good ham, and we all had a couple of sandwiches with all the fixins. *drool* Plus of course we had cola, which I'm sorry so say, made me go to the bathroom more times than I usually do in a few hours when I drink just water. *grin* I know, too much info., huh? LOL The bunnies are all really cute, friendly, and very, very soft. *smile* And the rats were all very, very cute too. Although Rain just can't handle the site of their tails. *grin* She said if it weren't for "the tails", they wouldn't be so bad. LOL. I thought they were cute anyway. *smile* We took some stuff to them that they had forgotten when they visited a couple of weeks ago, and took them 5 dozen farm-fresh chicken eggs. Now we've got a little more room in our fridge. *smile* But now they have to visit us after they run out, or get close to running out of eggs, to bring us our egg cartons back so we can send they home with more (unless our chickens continue to keep hiding their eggs). Or anytime before that would be cool too. *hint*

While there, she turned me onto something called Analytics that Google provides, that keeps track of people who link to your blog (or any page of your personal web site), and where they're from in the world. It even shows how many people have viewed your blog or web site, and how many/who has subscribed to the RSS feed.. I just signed-up a few hours ago, so don't have many statistics to look at... yet. *smile*

Rambleman

Tuesday, August 15

Four decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory

The 'twins' are obfuscating the REAL crisis in the Holy Land, a partial list [excerpted Aug. 14 WAWA blog] includes:

the twin crisis = smokescreen of the REAL Emergency
Posted by: wawa on Aug 15, 2006 4:21 AM

http://alternet.org/waroniraq/40341/  
1. Four decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory
2. Millions of refugees who are not allowed to return home and millions who cannot get passports to leave the 58 year old refugee camps, which are ghettos.
3. Over 100 unrecognized villages in Israel where Arab's have been given Israeli citizenship and pay taxes but receive no services; no electricity, no water, no medical, no schools, no respect, no human rights.
4. 4,170 Palestinian Homes which have been demolished without reason or compensation since 2000[http://www.ifamericansknew.org/]
5. A concrete wall/electrified fence that does not follow the Green Line and has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and must come down, but continues to grab Palestinian land, water and divides families and prevents farmers from tending their land.
6. 9,599 Palestinians prisoners are being held, many without charges and access to legal council, and many of these are woman and children.
7. 60+ new Jewish-only settlements have been built on confiscated Palestinian land between March 2001 and July 11, 2003. [IBID]
8. The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military and has furnished billions in weapons of destruction.
There would NOT be a militant Hezzbolah or Hamas if Israel had adhered to International Law, UN Resolutions, International Law and if USA had NOT been supplying billions in weapons of destruction that continues the occupation.
"We have seen the enemy and he is US" -Pog
o

"We Don't Do Body Counts" - Gen. Tommy Franks

The following one subchapter is excerpted from John Tirman's 100 Ways America Is Screwing Up the World (Harper Perennial, 2006). Read another excerpt here.

I got it from here, where there are two more excerpts (Getting High, and Torture)

Three ways America is screwing up the world:

1. "We Don't Do Body Counts"

When U.S. General Tommy Franks uttered those words in 2003, he was conveying the new sentiments of the American military and its civilian leadership, that counting the dead of "the enemy" was not necessary or useful. Franks, who may be remembered as the only general in the annals of American history to lose two wars, was simply repeating what his political handlers told him to say, as all active duty generals do. In this case, it was an attempt to deflect the moral consequences of a "war of choice," a lesson Frank's generation learned from Vietnam. But the "no body counts" policy reverberates around the Arab and Muslim world, to America's detriment.

The policy is an insult and a mistake for two reasons. First, it lends the impression -- or is it a fact? -- that the United States does not care about civilian casualties. In the autumn of 2005, in a fairly typical sequence, the military announced that a sweep of Anbar province in Iraq had resulted in the death of 120 "terrorists." No civilian casualties were reported by the U.S. government, or by the American press. Al Jazeera, the Arabic news organization, had firsthand accounts of dozens of casualties. And it is inconceivable that major military operations of that kind would not result in casualties of the innocent. This is an embittering legacy of the war: not merely the fact of large numbers of war dead, but the neglect of even acknowledging that this could be occurring or is important enough to investigate.

Second, it is bad for the war effort itself. The American people have a right to know what is going on in their name. Learning about things like Abu Ghraib and casualties from foreign news sources or NGOs makes the revelations all the more troubling, as they think they are being lied to by their government. (Which they are, of course.) And military planners themselves should understand what the effect of operations is on civilian populations. Family ties are strong in Iraq, with close extended kinship networks; killing of family members, especially innocent family members, is likely to produce more resistance -- and more terrorists. It is one of the seemingly inexplicable things in Iraq -- how could the insurgency grow when America is so clearly a liberator, where even Sunni Arabs will ultimately be better off if only they would lay down their weapons? The answer is not only that they are former Saddamites or jihadists. The far more probable answer is that the insurgents are driven in part by acts of defense, in effect, or vengeful honor.

A military officer told me around that same time that "rules of engagement" for U.S. troops were so broad that civilians even faintly suspected of being insurgents were routinely "blown away." Men talking on cell phones, for example, while a U.S. military convoy was passing were fair game for shooting. Many anecdotes of this kind circulate, but have stimulated little curiosity on the part of journalists.

Most take at face value the estimates of Iraq Body Count, a noble effort to count, via press reports, the total number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war. Their estimate by the end of 2005 was about thirty thousand, but their method was incomplete, as they readily acknowledge, since they count only those who are reported dead in two or more reputable news sources. That's like doing the census of the United States by counting everyone mentioned in the news media.

A more complete estimate was provided by a team of epidemiologists, led by American and Iraqi health professionals, and published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. Using a well-tested method of random cluster surveys, interviewing more than 7,000 people, their midrange estimate was 98,000 dead in the first eighteen months of the war, with 80 percent of those likely to have been killed by U.S. and U.K. forces.

That report was widely dismissed in the United States as politically motivated or flawed, though the secretary of state and many others used the same method to estimate casualties in other wars, such as the Congo. (The method, by the way, while widely misunderstood, is perfectly sound.) The violence, by most accounts, increased in the next eighteen months, and one can safely assume that the actual dead in Iraq now exceed 100,000 by perhaps tens of thousands more.

The real reason why The Lancet study is ignored, and the whole topic of civilian deaths downplayed, is because that scale of mayhem is just too sickening to accept in a news media that largely supported the invasion, and by politicians who would pay a price for even indirectly criticizing the conduct of U.S. troops who, after all, do the killing.

The moral consequences of war are always inconvenient. They are especially troubling when a war has a veneer of righteousness. This attitude afflicts the media elite as much as the political leadership. "We don't do body counts" could have been uttered by the editor of the Washington Post as easily as the general in charge. That they are both morally bankrupt on this issue is obvious for all the world to see.

King Celebi and Comfy Twitch, and stuff

King Celebi on his throan

I saw him sitting on this chair last night and thought, "Perfect! He looks like he's sitting on a throne." *smile* So of course I had to take a picture :-)

Twitch at her most comfortable

Pretty self-explanatory, but I'd just like to add that this is how she lays *most* of the time.

Well, the night before last I said to Rain, "I wish we could go somewhere tomorrow, I'm having an attack of cabin fever". So yesterday we went into town and got a couple of lottery tickets, a bottle of soda (that was suppose to be for the wasp trap, but we drank it all), a thing of pre-sweetened kool-aid for the wasp trap, candy bars for each of us, and some store brand chocolate oreo-type cookies, and came home. I just needed to get out, and felt better once we got home. *smile*

I got a couple loads of laundry done, the porch hosed off (got most of the chicken shit off of it) so that hopefully there won't be as many flies hanging around the door. I also hacked down a few weeds around the chicken coop. Also, I put a board over the hole that allowed access to the ceiling of the small shed. Had been leaving it open, but we had noticed one of the chicken trying to go broody in there. Well, she finally did, and hatched two chicks while she was up there, before we even realized she was up there. She's now in a broody cage with her two babies and doing well, and that won't happen again because of me. Muah-ha-ha-ha. Oh, did I mention I *finally* fixed the door to the chicken coop as well? I have now. *smile* It really wasn't a "big" fix, one of the door-support boards had come loose several months ago. And... while I was in "fix-it" mode, I also plugged the holes into the compost bin so the chickens can't get in there.

That's pretty much how I spent my day yesterday. Later!

Rambleman

Sunday, August 13

Cat-trapped. Hose-fix. Kids. Blog questions.

I don't have anything to say really, so I figured I'd show you the predicament I was in last night while sitting on the sofa. I was *thoroughly* trapped on the sofa by cats. Don't they look comfy? *grin* That's Mae (sp?) (pronounced: My) on my head, and Rocky on my lap :-)

Me, Mai, and Rocky

I did get a *little* bit done yesterday, and I do mean a little. I got a hose that had blown a hole, fixed. We had a couple of things that you can use to splice the pieces of the hose without holes, together. See, we're going to need to add water to the pool before I can vacuum it again, and we didn't have a long enough train of hoses to reach all the way to the pool, so now we do.  *grin*

The kids are doing really well with their learning. The 13 year old is getting really good at her cursive, and our 10 year old is doing really well with his multiplication. I'm really proud of them both.

I got a couple of questions for ya. If someone posts their blog to an email list, should you comment on the list, or at the blog site? Also, if someone comments on your blog, should you reply on your blog too (so they'll come back to check for a reply), or go to their blog to reply so they get your reply in an email (provided their settings are set to do that)?

Rambleman

Saturday, August 12

Chick & trap pix. Algaecide. Nicotine withdrawal

Good morning ladies and germs. *grin* I know, so cliche'. *sighing smile* So, what's up? Apparently you, if you're reading this, and me, because I'm obviously writing it. *smile* Went into town and got some chopped corn for the chickens and ducks.

Speaking of chickens, one of our broody hens is broody no more because 7 of the eggs she was sitting on hatched. They're so cute! :-) I suppose I could run out and get a picture. Be right back. 5 of the 7 chicks - click to enlargeAs always, click for an even LARGER view :-)

Remember me mentioning a wasp trap for our shed? Well, this is the first one we've made, which so far hasn't caught anything by a daddy long-legs. *sigh*Wasp trapI did however get the big nest knocked down and destroyed, plus a smaller one which I think was their practice nest, because it was empty. *grin* By the way, that orange stuff is Orange Cola, which on the Internet is supposed to be one of their favorite drinks. Apparently we've got smarter than average wasps, since they want nothing to do with it. LOL.

By the way, we did get some algaecide for the pool, but had to get it at the mini Wal-Mart in Buffalo, MO. *smile*

I was feeling *really* cranky last evening, and could not figure out why. That's when Rain mentioned that every time I've quit smoking, on about the one week mark I get that way. She says it's because every last little bit of nicotine is out of my system, and it's also when I begin talking about smoking again. Well, once she mentioned that, and I looked at the calendar and saw she was right (it was the 7th day yesterday), I did feel better. She also said that in a day or two I'll be "back to normal", and that gave me hope and incentive. In short, I'm *still* a non-smoker. *smile*

Rambleman

Thursday, August 10

Lunch. Wal-Mart. Rain. Weeds.

Our kids treated us to Applebee's for dinner/lunch today, and I'm STILL full. LOL. The reason they did it was because they said they are getting tired of "the 'm' place" (McDonalds). They're saving their allowance and chore money to buy a new Game Cube and game to go with it. They were nice enough to spend $50 of what they had saved just to buy us lunch. They're such good kids! *aww* :-)

We did some grocery shopping today at Wal-Mart. However, I'm pissed-off at them because apparently we're not supposed to need pool cleaning supplies passed July! :-( We need some algaecide to help keep the pool clean through August, and possibly part way through September. Well, hopefully the small Wal-Mart in Buffalo will have some. At any rate, we're going to need it for when we close the pool down in September. It's only MID WAY through AUGUST, for gosh sakes! <GRR!!>

We FINALLY got some rain to the tune of 6/10ths of an inch. WOO-HOO! After it rained and while it was still mostly cloudy, I went outside and trimmed some weeds around Rain's one-tire strawberry garden, and also around the rose bush, then threw the weeds into the compost bin. While I was doing that, the sun came out and it got HUMID real quick. So just walking around made me all sweaty. *grin*

Rambleman