The Republican "Base"

The latest issue of the New Yorker had a description of the Republican base.  Just in case you missed it, the base is, and I am quoting exactly:

“an excitable, overlapping assortment of Fox News friends, Limbaugh dittoheads, Tea Party animals, war whoopers, nativists, Christianist fundamentalists, a la carte Catholics (anti-abortion, yes; anti-torture, no), anti-Rooseveltians (Franklin and Theodore), global-warming denialists, post-Confederate white Southrons, creationists, birthers, market idolaters, Europe demonizers, and gun fetishists....”

Let’s face it.  You might not agree with everything, but the Democratic Party is the adult party, the intelligent party, the reasonable party.  The Republican Party--at least its activist wing--is crazy.  You must have read or heard some of the strange things Santorum has been saying, and he almost won the Michigan primary.  It is mind-boggling--and scary.

The law on fracking in Pennsylvania

At a Carbon County Democrats for Change meeting tonight, attendees were given information on HB 1950, passed by the Pennsylvania legislature and signed by the governor.  Our own representative, Doyle Heffley, voted for the bill.  

Here is what the legislation does.  It allows drilling within 500 feet of a private well or home and within 1000 feet of a public water source.  (There are a number instances of wells being contaminated within 2000 feet of a well site, and a Duke University study recommends a 3000 foot buffer zone.)  All local zoning restrictions on drilling are overridden by the bill.

The bill requires drillers to release the list of chemicals that they use in the “fracking fluid,” but not if they are using a “proprietary” formula.  (All of the drillers claim to use a proprietary formula, so this clause is meaningless.)

The bill allows “affected” counties to impose a 2.5% fee.  (It’s not called a tax, because Governor Corbett said he wouldn’t impose new taxes.)  Texas has 5.4% fee and West Virginia has a 5% fee plus a tax on the sales of natural gas.  As you may know, Texas and West Virginia are not considered liberal states.

The fees, which are estimated to bring in $300 million annually, don’t kick in until 2013.  In the meantime, Pennsylvania is cutting aid to schools and libraries.  

Is it too cynical to wonder if the large contributions from the gas companies affected Corbett’s policy on this issue?  And why would our representative, Doyle Heffley, announce proudly that he supported this legislation? Is this something he is proud to support?  Really?

The Gardens at Monticello

Last Saturday Linda and I visited Monticello, Jefferson’s home near Charlottesville, Virginia.  I’ve always liked Jefferson.  I love the part of his Declaration that says when a government tries to reduce people under absolute despotism, they not only have a right to revolt, it is their duty to revolt.  What an inspiring piece of work.

Jefferson was a naturalist and a scientist.  The Lewis and Clark expedition was sent not only to stake out territory, but also to study flora and fauna and the Indians. Jefferson himself experimented with plants and grew hundreds of experimental varieties of vegetables and berries.  I bought some seed packets of melons and peppers he grew.

So why wasn’t I more awed to be standing in his house, walking in his garden?  I guess I can’t quite get past the slavery issue.  When Jefferson wrote in 1811, “No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden,” he was the master of about 140 slaves, and I’m pretty sure they planted the squash, spread the manure, hoed the corn, pulled the weeds, and picked the raspberries.  

When he wrote about yeoman farmers being the strength of the nation, he was hardly a good example as he sat in Monticello surrounded by thousands of acres.  And did he ever think of that phrase about “absolute despotism” when he had one of the slaves whipped as an example?

I am fully aware that you should not judge historical figures by current standards.  On the other hand, George Washington made provisions to free his slaves and provide care for the older slaves upon his death.  Jefferson’s slaves were sold off.  

Incidentally, the interpretative efforts of the Foundation that runs Monticello do not sugarcoat the issue of slavery.  The souvenir store has a whole table of material on Sally Hemmings and slavery in general, and reconstruction of the slave quarters is in the planning stages.

Protecting Industrial Agriculture

The Indiana legislature, the same group that recently passed a “right to work for less” law, is now turning its attention to aiding industrial hog farmers.  The Indiana House last week passed a bill on a 57-39 vote to force people who file “frivolous” lawsuits against agricultural operations to pay the legal costs of the defendants.

Indiana law already allows judges to impose such fees in cases of frivolous lawsuits.  In the past decade not a single lawsuit involving large scale agriculture has been ruled frivolous, so why the need for the bill?

Kim Ferraro, the water-policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, discussed the bill in the Feb. 25 issue of Lancaster Farming, “The idea is to intimidate, to make somebody be worried that they’re going to be on the hook for paying for a defendant’s attorney fees and costs.  It’s a chilling effect.”

By the way, Pennsylvania already has a law protecting farmers for normal agricultural operations.  If I spread horse manure on my garden, my next door neighbor can’t sue me for the smell.  (Horse manure doesn’t really smell anyway, but you get the idea.)  On the other hand, if I keep 1000 hogs in tiny pens, that might not be a “normal” agricultural operation.

Cooper tire update

Cooper Tire Company has reached a tentative settlement with its employees.  I thank the readers who supported the strike.  You can buy Cooper Tires with a clear conscience, but once again, public pressure had an effect.  Nice work.

The news from Newport News

I’m in Newport News, which I always thought was a strange name for a city.  It’s like naming a city Philadelphia Inquirer.  

The big headline in the Richmond, Virginia, newspaper announced that the “Personhood” bill would not be brought up this year.  For those of you who have been living in a cave, the bill defined a zygote as a person.  The bill required any woman who wanted an abortion to submit to an intrusive vaginal ultrasound.  Not kidding.

The important lesson to learn from this whole episode is that public outrage and public pressure worked to kill this legislation.  Remember that.

What happened to us?

In May 1943 the German forces in North Africa, almost 300,000 troops, surrendered to the Allies.  Thousands and thousands of those enemy troops were loaded on Liberty ships and brought to the U.S.  

By the end of the war we had about 500 POW camps in 45 of the 48 states.  The Geneva Convention on war prisoners was honored.  Prisoners were treated so well that some inmates stayed after the war and became American citizens.

Now we have Guantanamo.  In total 779 men and boys.  Now down to 172.  In May 2009 the Senate voted 90-6 that Guantanamo prison should remain open indefinitely, and none of the prisoners could be brought to the U.S.

In January 2011 President Obama signed a defense appropriations bill that had been amended to block funding for any transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. 

Home of the brave?  We sure have come a long way from the country that defeated Mussolini, Hitler, and Tojo, haven’t we?

Tear down this dam!

Just north of Yosemite Valley is another valley of breathtaking beauty, but you can’t see it.  The valley, known as Hetch Hetchy, is under water.  A dam flooding the entire valley floor was completed in 1923 to supply San Francisco with water.  The fight to stop the dam, led by John Muir, failed.  One result of that battle was the formation of the Sierra Club, still going strong.  I’m proud to be a member.  

Dan Lundgren, one of the more conservative Republican congressmen, has asked Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to determine whether San Francisco is doing enough to find other water sources such as recycling or using rainwater.  His district borders Yosemite.

Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, with whom I almost always agree, like the arrangement just the way it is.  On this issue, they are wrong. I’m also sure Rep. Lundgren is proposing this to embarrass San Francisco.  Whatever his purpose, I like his proposal.  Hetch Hetchy Dam should never have been built in the first place.  Restore the valley.  Tear down this dam.

WWJD

“Catholic Hospitals Expand, Religious Strings Attached” was the front page headline in todays’ New York Times.  The accompanying article detailed how Catholic hospitals merged with smaller secular hospitals and dictated what care could be given.  Many of the mergers took away contraceptive services previously available to women.  

One system, Catholic Healthcare West, owned a hospital in Arizona.  “One of its Catholic hospitals performed what it considered a life-saving abortion in 2009, but the local bishop in Phoenix disagreed, and the nun who allowed the procedure was excommunicated.”

That’s an interesting theological position.  Make the woman die in order to maintain church doctrine.  

What would Jesus do?

Creating a controversy

The effort to discredit climate teaching seems to have worked, at least with Rickie Santorum.  He was going on this past weekend about how global warming was a political ploy.

Documents leaked from the “Heartland Institute” revealed that the climate skeptics are planning a campaign to undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools.  The Heartland Institute did admit that some of its documents were stolen, and it apologized to the donors whose names became public as part of the leaked material.

Interestingly, the organization planned to spend over $600,000 to influence the outcome of the recall election in Wisconsin.  Among the donors to the “Heartland Institute” was  one of the Koch Brothers, noted for their support of right-wing causes.  

Those of us who are old enough to remember the fight against scientific evidence that smoking causes cancer know how this works.  Opponents claimed there was no absolute proof that smoking was harmful, and that this was a controversy best avoided.

It is depressing that approximately half the people of the U.S., including Republican candidates for president, are willing to reject scientific evidence on global warming.  We are rather quickly becoming a nation of stupid people.

Information on the leaks and the Heartland Institute was taken from an article by Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman in the Feb. 16 issue of the New York Times.  If you are a climate “skeptic” [i.e., dumb as a box of rocks], you already are of the opinion that the New York Times is a liberal propaganda mouthpiece, and you are already a Santorum supporter.

Best demonstration sign ever

At a May Day demonstration in London in 2001, one of the demonstrators carried a sign that said, “Overthrow capitalism and replace it with something nice.” 

Bayer launches campaign

One of the best things about the United States is the sense of humor Americans have about almost anything.  My friend Chris sent along an advertisement from Bayer Aspirin on the company’s new campaign for its birth control pill.  As you are probably aware, a Santorum fundraiser named Foster Friess said that when he was young, “...the gals put it [aspirin] between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.”  

You ought to see the ad.  Just go to <http://agendaproject.tumblr.com/>.  I think you will enjoy it.

On another subject:

I thought the most romantic movie I ever saw was “The Bodyguard.”  Kevin Costner spoke at Whitney Houston’s memorial service today, and when Linda was telling me about it she got all teary, making me all teary.  If I could only listen to five songs for the rest of my life, one of them would be Dolly Parton’s “I will always love you” sung by Whitney Houston.  Just beautiful.

The hottest place in hell

The hottest place in Hell should be reserved for fanatics who destroy other people’s religious art and artifacts.  This happened again in the Maldive Islands last week.  A small group of Muslim fanatics destroyed some 30 Buddhist statues, some of which dated back to the 6th century, in the Maldives Naitonal Museum.  One of the statues was a six-faced coral statue, another was a head of Buddha.  The men attacked the statues because they believed they were idols, not permitted under Islamic beliefs.

The Taliban did something similar in Afghanistan.  Huge Buddhas carved into the mountainside at Bamiyan were blown to bits.  When I say bits, I mean bits.  The Taliban deliberately turned the statues into tiny pieces that could never be restored.

Wrecking art work or archeological treasures in my view is worse than killing people.  People will be replaced.  In 100 years we won’t remember who was executed.  Destroying an art work, however, destroys it forever, and no future generation will ever experience it.

I am so tired of religious fanatics who think they have the only true god and know exactly what that god wants.  Actually, I don’t care if they think that.  Just butt out of the lives of the rest of us.  

Celebrating Darwin's birthday

Darwin’s birthday was February 12.  What a brilliant man he was.  Unfortunately,  not everyone shares my opinion.  Today I received my copy of Penn State Research, a magazine dedicated to publicizing findings by Penn State faculty.  I was most interested in an article by Michael Bezilla entitled “High school biology teachers reluctant to endorse evolution in class.”

Two Pol. Sci. profs, Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer, using data from a nationwide survey of nearly a thousand public high school biology students, found that 60% of teachers avoid teaching any evolutionary theory or teach evolution only at the molecular level, hoping to avoid controversy.  They also found that 13% of the teachers “explicitly advocate creationism or intelligent design.”

So here we are, 213 years after Darwin’s birthday, still pretending that scientific evidence doesn’t matter, and we can make up stuff based on biblical writings.  

Today's quiz question

Last year about 14,000 murders occurred in the U.S.  Yes, that is a large number.  Yes, that is more than died in the Gulf War and the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War combined.  Ok, here’s the question:  

Of the approximately 14,000 murders committed in the U.S. in 2011, how many were the result of Islamic extremism?

Ready for the answer?  It was zero.  

There was one attempted attack, though.  A former Marine Crops reservist pleaded guilty to firing shots late one night into a military building in northern Virginia.  No one was injured.  The would-be Muslim terrorist received a sentence of 25 years.  

This info comes from an article in the New York Times from Feb. 8 entitled, “U.S. Muslims Rarely Seen In Terror Acts, Study Finds.”  Someone should probably forward this to Rep. Peter King, the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, who held hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims.  

Homegrown evil

Tonight I saw “Safe House” starring Denzel Washington.  Early in the movie there’s a scene in which Washington is “waterboarded” by CIA agents.  I was ready to walk out.  I find that kind of thing hard to watch.    

On the way out, as I am wont to do, I made conversation with this obese guy who was sitting about three rows behind me.  I said, “There are three candidates for President who think waterboarding isn’t torture.  They ought to watch this movie.”  

The guy, also making conversation, says to me,  “They should f...ing torture them.  You picked the wrong f...ing guy.”  

I replied, “I thought America was better than that.”  

Fat guy:  “We should do f...ing worse.  Otherwise we lose.”

Me:  “If we torture people, I think we have already lost.”

By this time we were at the door, and the conversation ended. I must say, however, that I was not satisfied with my reply.  On the other hand, there’s probably nothing I could say to someone like that.  In every country and every society there are the brutes and thugs who become the Brown Shirts, the camp guards, and the waterboarders.  They are waiting for their opportunity.

Sucking at the federal teat

On Sunday the New York Times had a page of United States maps detailing the areas where people receive the highest level of government benefits.  Among the counties that rely least on government payments are Teton County, Wyoming, and Pitkin County, Colorado.  Teton County includes part of Yellowstone National Park; Pitkin County includes Aspen; and both have become enclaves of the rich.

Many of the counties with the highest level of government benefits are in the south.  Missouri, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama all have very high levels of government benefits.  The map is a composite of payments for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Unemployment Insurance, and Veterans Benefits.  

Here is the really strange part.  Among the 100 counties with the highest dependence on federal payments, 2/3rds voted for McCain. The county whose residents get more government payments than any other county in America is Owsley County, Kentucky.  Only 23% of the Owsley County voters supported Obama in 2008.  

I call upon the residents of Owsley County to reject these payments.  If you hate Democrats and support Republican ideology, you need to live up to your ideals.  You need to say no to federal funds.  You need to quit bellying up the the trough.  Exercise your independence.  Man up.   

By the way, eastern Pennsylvania was among the least dependent areas of the country.  

Hormel to phase out gestation crates

I’m think I’ll do at least one uplifting or positive posting every Sunday evening.  We need that.  Here’s the one for this week.

By 2017 Hormel Foods company-owned farms will eliminate the small metal crates that are used to confine pregnant hogs.  This is the second company to adopt the policy--Smithfield Foods Inc. already said it would stop using gestation crates six weeks ago.

The crates restrict the sows‘ movements and are considered inhumane by the Humane Society.  The Humane Society is absolutely correct on this.

Public pressure can work.  

Suppressing the vote

When Southern legislatures adopted laws mandating literacy tests for voting, they never said, “We are doing this to keep black people from voting.”  That was the real purpose of the tests, which were administered in such a way that illiterate whites could pass, but blacks with doctorates failed.  What those legislators said was, “We are doing this to insure that only informed voters can vote.”  It sounded so much better.

Now the Pennsylvania Republicans are pushing a  bill to require picture IDs in order to vote.  The bill has already passed the PA House of Representatives and is before the Senate.  We know that the bill will affect women (many older housewives do not have picture ID), poor people (many of whom don’t drive), and the elderly (many of whom have given up their licenses).  Every student of voting behavior knows that this bill will mean fewer Democrats will vote.  

Why hasn’t the Republican Senate acted yet?  The leadership is waiting until the last possible moment before the election.  That will make it so much harder for the Democrats to mount an effort to get picture IDs for their followers.

Will Republicans admit that this is a voter suppression bill?  Of course not.  They say it is a bill to prevent fraud, although there has been no evidence of the fraud they are supposedly trying to prevent.  Why can’t they just be honest and tell us the truth:  “We Republicans will stop at nothing to win elections, even it it means disenfranchising thousands of voters.  We don’t care about fairness.  We don’t believe in democracy.  We only care about winning, and we will do whatever it takes.  Screw you and your democracy.”

How cool is this?

Russian scientists have drilled down to a frozen lake in the Antarctic.  (And yes, my title was deliberate.)  The lake, named Vostok and discovered in 1996, is under about two miles of ice.  It is estimated that the water in the lake has been sealed off from air and light for somewhere between 15 and 34 million years.

The bore hole had to be filled with kerosene to keep it from freezing.  That won’t contaminate the lake, though, because the water was under pressure and pushed the material back up the bore hole.  It created an ice plug which has sealed off the lake.

Because the Antarctic winter is coming on, the Russians won’t get water samples until next summer.  Temperatures have already dropped to -50 degrees at the drill site.  

One of the things scientists will be looking for is whether or not life exists in a lake two miles below the ice.  If it does, it might also exist on some of Jupiter’s moons.

If you want more information, Google “Lake Vostok.”  It’s an amazing story.

Whack jobs

The T-shirt I wore to the FSA hearing said “Support Sustainable Agriculture.”  I was part of a group that developed a comprehensive plan for the municipalities in the Palmerton Area School District.  Linda and I have put thirteen acres of our land into the farmland preservation program, and we are in the process of adding ten more.  I support bike lanes and what planners call “smart growth.”

According to material the local “9/12” organization has distributed, all of the above actions play into the hands of something they call “UN Agenda 21.”  I’m quoting now from the handout:  “It is a plan that calls for international control & regulation  of virtually every aspect of human activity that might impact the environment, which is essentially EVERYTHING YOU DO--eat, drink, cook, drive, play, work and LIVE.”  [The underlines, italics, and caps are in the original.]

According to a report in the Feb. 4 New York Times entitled “Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot,” Tea Party groups are showing up at local municipal meetings to fight bike lanes and urban boundaries, seeing them as evidence of this U.N. conspiracy.

If you read the previous post, you will realize how preposterous this idea is even if the U.N. were pushing some worldwide agenda.  You don’t have to be an expert on international organizations, however, to intuit that people who see a global conspiracy behind preserving farmland or adding bike lanes have moved far beyond the realm of rational thought.

The U.N. explained

Tonight I will explain how the U.N. works.  Tomorrow I will explain why the Carbon County 9/12 group seems to have lost touch with reality with regard to the U.N., but first, let me walk you through the power of the United Nations.

Do you remember your history lesson about the Articles of Confederation, the document that governed the newly independent states after the American Revolution? All thirteen states had to agree on a policy before it could go into effect.  The central government had to ask states for troops, and it had no power to compel states to contribute.  The central government also lacked taxing authority.  

The government under the Articles did have some important accomplishments.  It opened up the Northwest Territory, negotiated a peace treaty with England, and made pacts with a number of Indian tribes.  Nevertheless, its weaknesses were apparent.  In a confederation the central government has only the power that the unit governments permit it to have.  The “Founding Fathers,” aware of the weakness in the Articles, called the Constitutional Convention and developed the federation we have today.

Back to the U.N.  It is a confederation.  It can’t raise troops unless nations volunteer them.  It can’t tax.  It can’t force countries to contribute.  There is no penalty to withdrawing from the U.N.  The U.N. has accomplished many things, and its peacekeeping operations have saved millions of lives, but it can’t coerce.  You get that?  It can’t coerce.  

Tomorrow I will explain the Carbon County 9/12 organization’s opinion with regard to the U.N. is outside the bounds of common sense and rationality.  Stay tuned.

The Hearing

Linda and I attended the hearing at the Big Creek Grange on the closure of the Farm Services Agency office in Carbon County.  The room was packed with about a hundred farmers, many of them middle-aged or older, most of them Pennsylvania Dutch, and all of them very angry.  

Sen. Toomey sent a staffer to act sympathetic, and Congressman Barletta had two aides there to talk to the farmers.  Toomey and Barletta, of course, are among the members of Congress demanding government cutbacks.  Unfortunately, most of the farmers in the room blamed the Administration for closing down the office.  About 15 farmers spoke, but I was the only one who pointed out that if corporations and CEOs paid their fair share of taxes, the Department of Agriculture might have more money.  What I didn’t point out, and am kicking myself for, is that the enabling legislation was passed during the Bush administration.

The decision on which FSA offices to close was not based on need or office efficiency.  If the office has two or fewer employees and is within 20 miles of another FSA office “as the crow flies,” it is scheduled for closure.  I thought the best comment was made by a dairy farmer who said, “I don’t have wings.”  Now local farmers, many of them older and all of them busy, must now travel to Bethlehem to discuss programs and issues with FSA staff members.  

Linda asked the moderator if the hearing was meaningful or just a symbolic gesture.  She was assured that a final decision had not yet been made.  Maybe Toomey and Barletta will save the office.  Their representatives certainly know the opinion of the area farmers.

FSA statement

In my previous post, I noted that a hearing would be held on February 6 at the Big Creek Grange in Franklin Township on the closure of the local Farm Security Office.  I prepared a statement, and I thought you might like a preview.  Here it is:

“Get big or get out.”  Farmers often said that was the motto of the U.S. Department of Agriculture after World War II.  Farms did get big.  Farmers did get out.  The number of family farms dropped across the country, and many farms that were not consolidated were turned into strip malls and subdivisions.

In the last twenty years, however, a new philosophy is growing in American agriculture.  Farmers’ markets are springing up, farm-to-consumer movements are taking hold, and many Americans want to know where their food is coming from.  Books like Michael Pollen’s In Defense of Food and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Mineral have publicized the trend toward locally-grown and locally-consumed farm products.  People are keeping backyard chickens, planting gardens, buying locally-grown beef.

This is not the time to be closing down Farm Service Agency offices.  Small farmers, new farmers, and boutique farmers need assistance at the local level.  While the trend toward farm-to-consumer agriculture is growing, it must also be remembered that the average age of farmers in Pennsylvania is over 50.  Why are we making those farmers, already busy and strapped for income, drive long distances to get to their FSA offices?

I know that there is a great hue and cry to balance the budget.  I would remind the Congress that there are two ways to balance the budget.  One is to cut programs; the other is to have a fair tax system in which everyone, including corporate entities and CEOs, pay their fair share.  I don’t see the necessity of balancing the federal budget on the backs of already over-burdened farmers.

FSA Hearing on Monday

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a list of 259 offices to be closed nationwide, including 131 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices.  Seven of those FSA offices are in Pennsylvania; one of them currently serves farmers in Monroe and Carbon counties and is located on Route 209 in Towamensing Township.

According to February 4 issue of Lancaster Farming, the closures are a result of the 2008 Farm Bill, which allows the USDA to close an FSA office if it is less than 20 miles away from another office and if it has no more than two employees.  Other factors, such as the number of farms, the acreage currently in farming, or the value of agricultural products, aren’t considered.  

A hearing on the closing of our local FSA office will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, at the Big Creek Grange. I’ll be there, but I don’t think I’ll have much luck keeping the office open.  First of all, the USDA has already cut Pennsylvania’s allocation by $2 million.  Secondly, the FSA office has already been closed in Lebanon County, and that county contains 1193 farms.  Thirdly, as Linda keeps reminding me, with 2 pet goats, 23 chickens, and a half-acre truckpatch, I’m hardly a real farmer.

Nevertheless, every time I have used the local FSA office, I have found the staff to be courteous and helpful.  I’d bet this has been the experience of all the real farmers in this county who use the office for all kinds of applications and programs.  

Easter Island

If I had to list ten books that most influenced my way of thinking, one would be Jared Diamond’s Collapse.  The author examines a number of cultures and their demise.  The collapse sometimes occurred within a few decades.  Among these cultures was that of Easter Island, familiar to us by the large stone heads that dot the island.  

At one time Easter Island was full of trees.  They were used for canoes for off-shore fishing, for habitat for birds that the Easter Islanders ate, for sap that was used to make wine and sugar, and for leaves to thatch the houses.  The trees were eventually all cut down, ending the Easter Island civilization.  When the first European explorer, Jacob Rogeveen reached the island in 1722, no trees grew taller than ten feet and no people were left on the island.

Diamond writes:  

I have often asked myself, “What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?”  Like modern loggers, did he shout, “Jobs, not trees!”? Or: “Technology will solve our problems, never fear, we’ll find a substitute for wood”?  Or:  “We don’t have any proof that there aren’t palms somewhere else on Easter, we need more research, your proposed ban on logging is premature and driven by fear mongering”?  Similar questions arise for every society that has inadvertently damaged its environment, including ours.

I think it is a great quote.  I would change one word in the last sentence, though.  I’d substitute “knowingly” for “inadvertently.”

Proud to be a Democrat

I attended a meeting of the Carbon County Democratic Party Executive Board in Jim Thorpe this evening.  The only people in the room were Democrats; no press was present.  Five candidates or their representatives spoke. We heard from congressional candidates and candidates for state senate and state house of representatives.  

What struck me was how positive the five speakers were.  There were no personal attacks on Republican opponents, no meanness, no bigotry, no sneaky attacks on religious or racial or gender minorities.  Immigrants weren’t scapegoated, poor people weren’t berated, Planned Parenthood wasn’t condemned, restrictions on voting weren’t called for, the environment wasn’t trashed, global warming wasn’t denied, gays weren’t denigrated, and sonograms weren’t demanded of women having abortions.

The candidates discussed a number of issues, including a severance tax on natural gas, funding for education, the Clean Air Act, constituent services, and property tax reform.  Everyone was reasonable, rational, and intelligent.  I don’t know why we aren’t in the majority.  Perhaps it’s because Republicans have more money; perhaps it is because they make voters afraid and appeal to their worst instincts.  In any case, I’m very proud that I am a Democrat.

Home-grown Taliban

The “Susan G. Komen for the Cure,” an organization that fights breast cancer, announced that it was cutting off its grants to finance cancer screening and education programs run by Planned Parenthood.  According to the New York Times, the cutoff will halt financing to 19 of Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates.  The cutoff came after a campaign by anti-abortion and right-wing organizations to pressure the Komen group from contributing to Planned Parenthood.

The President of Planned Parenthood noted that her organization’s affiliates provided around 770,000 women with breast examinations and paid for mammograms and ultrasounds for those who needed and could not afford further diagnostic services.  Her request for a meeting with Komen officials was turned down.

Will women die because of this decision?  Of course they will.  The anti-abortion forces will see this as a great victory.  For the Susan G. Komen organization to knuckle under to such people betrays a lack of principle and compassion.