Watertiger!

Obviously it is going to her all time favorite charity, The Palin Family Grifter Fund.

oooooo catty watertiger tonight — my favorite type

excellent question

I’m sure Mooselini can be counted on to donate all that money to her very favorite charity…herself.

Might have known I’d end up buying drinks with an obvious one like this. What’cha having?

Just sayin’, Suz!

I’ll buy round 2 for you and the good Doctor both. Ya stole me fonts outta me fingers.

It’s “educational”!

hehehehehe the grifta from wasilla ain’t gonna like wet kittahs no more

Bushmill’s rocks is nice.

piper needs a new gucci backpack for home schooling?

I think WT has probably been on La Palin’s shit list ever since that Trig-as-Hypnotoad Photoshop job a few months back.

Yes, it is. Have one.

piper needs a new imitation gucci backpack for home schooling?

Fixed it.

i’m sure the quitta was hoping everyone was gonna forget about that pledge.

just like the pledge re her r-bought wannabe veep clothes

Hey watertiger, the West Side Story reference in the title of your recent LN post dawned on me after you’d left. When you’re a piranha you’re a piranha all the way from your first cigarette to your last dying day…

to be fair, that wasn’t my shoop. And twolf came up with the one where she’s holding a salmon.

/runs out of the room

:-)

You would have gotten it sooner if it had been spelled right…

some people are actually keep track

kinda says it all…

Spelling, Senate Comity, and Bipartisanship are ALL THAT MATTER!

Geez, how often do I have to say that?

Is she being homeschooled?

And whatever became of that wardrobe?

and keeping President Lindsey Graham happy. Don’t forget that one.

i think so

?

I jetted over to have a look, the title is spelled right, the url is still “ahn.” Anyway, it’s not our fault if them damn ugly critters don’t spell their name right.

another excellent question — iirc it was going to be donated to charity

ooo. I haz bipartisan FAIL!

LOL! We corrected it . . . mid-stream . . . if you will.

i’m so confused — i thought miss lindsay was AG

Howdy aquacat and pups…

Didn’t Rush or somebody predict the $1.4 million would be used to purchase solid gold rims for the presidential limo?

Btw, Obama also contributed to The Central Asia Institute, Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea…!

From MSNBC…

He will give $100,000 to the Central Asia Institute, which promotes education for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

That will build a few schools in AfPak…! 8-)

Yeah. Little Lindsey ain’t never satisfied, unless it’s with a Jiltin’ Joe and Big Mac sandwich.

Obviously projecting again.

I did hear he was not fond of the Filet O’Fish.

Just checkin’ Mac’s bearings… Mmmm, still salty.

Probably. Rush is, after all, a royal asshole. Besides, it’s what he would have done.

The youth of DR would probably chase after a car like that.

Btw, If anybody is interested I posted an Iraqi Election update…! ;-)

Never heard a follow-up on that, though, far as I know. Maybe the RNC is holding them for a giant ebay sale, but more likely, Palin still has them. At any rate, she should have hired the person who dressed her for the campaign to dress her for her book show.

Booty bait.

Good choices, all.

gotta crash – later, youse!

What, you mean, Karzai won there too?

Nite!

g’nite wt

Aloha, WT…!

that would have required her to spend *gasp* her own money so she did it on the cheap

g’nite watertiger

Spoiler alert!
Colbert Report, Karl Rove, and a ham…

Same reason she goes to Canada for socialist health care.

I can only imagine!

Oh, and SURPRISE!!! Monsanto seeds have gone up dramatically.

Don’t miss it!

Huh. That might be related to this cryptic email I got from my cousin that her dad is probably going to sell the farm up in WY.

*heh* Did you know that the Ahmadinejad and Karzai meeting usurped, Gates ‘unannounced’ appearance in Afghanistan…! ;-)

Yeah, I saw that. We give to them as well.

Actually, now that we’re not giving to Obama or any of the Democratic organizations [like we did in 2008], we’ve got more of our modest sum to spread around.

Okay, here is how it will go.
“Why isn’t the Messiah giving this Nobel prize money to the American people?”

They never are satisfied.

Time for me to toddle off. Take care all.

I’m no farmer, but I don’t understand why serious farmers don’t have their own seeds from the crop they sold. Hold 1%?

Or “why isn’t the Messiah giving this Nobel prize money to reduce the National Debt“?

night, dd. and you’re no doubt right, spocko.

i think monsanto changed the seeds so that ya don’t get a reliable additional crop — so that you have to buy more seeds from monsanto

i can’t remember where i read this…. but they have forked it up so the farmers are reliant upon them for seeds for their crops…

Because virtually all commercial seed used today produces sterile hybrids that won’t grow anything.

It’s not alot of money. The symbolic gestures of giving it to these charities is worth more, so it’s good to see that. But receiving the original nobel itself at the beginning of the term is still a stretch or premature imo…whether it was for being a President or for being a civil rights leader. The results are not yet evident.

That’s right. The gen mod crops don’t yield fertile seeds; in the case of wheat, they’re mules.

g’nite dr (pause) dick

Read this, Loo Hoo:

i’m thinking that maybe dr kirk did a monsanto post and that is where i remember it from….

and that it is getting harder and harder to find non-monsanto seeds that are not genetically modified

And who cares about Palin. Why keep playing into that Republican distraction. What is the benefit. Does being smarter than Palin make Obama a good President. Not a very high bar.

Well, it’s important to have priorities. Anyway, Gates was only there to top off his stash.

He did, Suzanne! Monsanto bought up all the feed stores. And I put a link to the VF article at Loo Hoo’s 67.

That’s right, suz and dd. I think I read that too.

G’nite Dr. Dick and Dr. Smoke.

Yep, there are hardly any seed houses that aren’t genetically modified.

In the case of my cousin’s place, it’s feed corn. The farm up there is alfalfa and feed corn, winter wheat, and then cows. A common arrangement up in Gillette.

It’s really a bit sad and a bit of a shock that that place won’t be there anymore, even though I’m not exactly welcome. It’s been occupied by my family for 140 years. Strange to contemplate.

it is sad kelly.

Meeeeeow!

Not so fast, spocko — Obama did run on a platform that negotiating with America’s enemies was more productive than bombing them.

Not a single republican vote — now that’s what I call effective negotiating!

thanks.

For centuries—millennia—farmers have saved seeds from season to season: they planted in the spring, harvested in the fall, then reclaimed and cleaned the seeds over the winter for re-planting the next spring. Monsanto has turned this ancient practice on its head.

Started with Reagan.

Well, most of those kids up there have had to enlist in the military already.

Monsanto, war, whatever, the place has obviously been going to go away for quite a while. But it’s still a bit strange and sad since that fact is now real and immediate.

Say — is that the talking dog from Men in Black?

when my grandparent’s farm in kentucky was sold, it was painful. they were able to get the family cemetery excluded from the sale so that will always be family land

Really sad.

at least there are Victory Seeds.

!

i have my non-modified survival seeds == open pollinated and no monsanto mutations

You meeeowed, I McDonalded.

We bad!

I remember reading this (I love VF) and soon after, Dr.KM did a post. Just despicable!

It is hard. I’ve been watching it all shrink since I was a kid. This is the last 80 acres of about 400 just before I was born.

I heard the Monsanto monopoly on NPR this week — designing agricultural crops so that they bear but fail to create plantable seeds has led to seed prices tripling. I swear, they won’t stop until they’ve killed every productive activity in America’s real economy.

It’s the anti-Borlaug green devolution.

Not sure about Granny Paylin, but Bristol certainly knows a thing or two or three about the “ins and outs” of Levi’s 501cPeePees. Perhaps Little Miss Abstinence could advise Granny on how best to accept a “donation?”

Bristol: “Mother, pucker…”

LOL!

Maybe we should save all seeds…

Don’t worry about the Palins — they’ll be going up against the Osbornes on Takin’ out the Trash pay per view.

Just the vehicle to launch her 2012 presidential fundraising campaign.

Now just like her teaparty appearance fees and Fox News commentator compensation, she won’t really be running for office — just collecting money as if she was. Makes us all proud to be real Americans, don’t it.

I’ll expand on Dr. Dick’s explanation, Loo.

Most crops today are grown from hybrid seeds. Agronomists discovered a characteristic called hybrid vigor in the 1920s or so. What we grow today are (mostly) crosses between parent strains. When you allow the hybrids to produce seed, the progeny are second filial generation crosses. What you get is Gregor Mendel’s garden gone insane.

Just for fun, I held back tomato seed one year and grew it the next year. No two plants were anything alike. Most of the fruit was tiny — the size of grapes. I did not grow cherry varieties the previous year. What I got was a reassortment of the traits of the parent plants.

The hybrids don’t breed true to type, unlike seed held back from nonhybrid crops. What hybrids get us are Green Revolution yields. Corn is to all intents and purposes 100% hybrids: the amount of corn produced by open pollination and holding back seed is negligible. Corn yields before hybrids ran 50-60 bushels/acre in a good year on irrigated land. Yields for hybrid corn in a good year can easily run four times that — in excess of 200 bushels/acre.

The crops that I know have high penetration of hybrid varieties are corn, grain sorghum, and tomatoes. Onions have had some penetration of hybrid varieties, but it’s difficult to tell because most onions are grown from sets rather than seed. The last time I looked, peppers do not have much in the way of hybridized varieties. Fruit crops are not grown from seed (often) and have little penetration of hybrids.

Heirloom varieties are all open-pollinated and breed true. As long as you’re not working with something that promiscuously outcrosses (peppers are a case in point), you can hold back seed of heirloom varieties and reasonably expect them to breed true.

Hybrids give us monstrous yields, but there is a price that sometimes has to be paid. Corn genetics are so similar that what we have across the Corn Belt is essentially a monoculture. If some insect or disease breaks out, there won’t be any stopping it because everyone’s growing essentially the same corn plant.

The patents that Monsanto are holding closely (or trying to) are on genes that confer resistance to certain Monsanto herbicides (in soybeans). This array of genes allows farmers to use herbicides that would ordinarily kill weeds and beans (RoundUp). In corn, the gene array produces the toxin made by Bacillus thurigensis. The genes are expressed in the stalk and knock down corn borers nicely for now. What happens when corn borers develop resistance to Bt toxin is an open question. The Bt genes are also expressed in the pollen, and it’s claimed that this has decimated butterfly population in corn growing areas. Monsanto disputes this claim. Color me unconvinced by Monsanto’s arguments.

We have to bring back the Victory Garden. Seeds, plants, whatever. Here in Cleveland, we have a wonderful Ohio market with all Ohio products. My man who sells me tomato plants, won’t sell them to me unless I promise to plant them the same day. I love his Brandywine tomatoes!

the seeds can store frozen for 10 years and would still be viable

Today March 11th, is the 20th anniversary of Lithuanian Independence Day from the old Soviet Union. Also:

More Notable Events on March 11:
1997 Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry are launched into space
1997 Beatle Paul McCartney knighted Sir Paul by the Queen
1982 Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat sign peace treaty in Washington D.C.
1974 Mount Etna in Sicily erupted
1918 Save the Redwoods League founded

Evenin’, all-
I think a seed bank of seeds guaranteed to be un-modified is a wonderful idea. Anybody know how to set one up?

I read that there is a seed bank, in Europe.

This is an open secret in Nebraska. Everybody knows about the pine grove that died in the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, as they were monoculture pines.

But the corn….

Here’s a link to NPR’s story about the Seed Vault in Norway.

http://topics.npr.org/article/08059hbcj8a3X

Wow! Thanks, BC. You really are an expert. Diary??? ‘Tis growing time almost.

Thanks.

I’ve never had brandywine tomatoes…sounds like a treat!

Any vege seeds?

the seeds in my survival seed packet are all veggie — click on the link in my 84

It started a long time before Reagan. The first field demonstrations of hybrid corn took place around 1917-1920. Farmers adopted hybrid varieties because the yields were much higher and the disease resistance was better. Well, disease resistance was better for the diseases they bred against.

Oh Loo Hoo,
This charming little old man, I just love him! He swears that Brandywine tomatoes are the best, and I have to agree. Perhaps that I grew up on the Brandywine Creek makes me love them more?

I hadn’t ever heard of this, thanks, Suz.

And a lot of it, at least out here in the West, has been about water too.

The genmod seeds have short/less water fruitfulness built into them in many cases.

Sure, if there’s interest I can write up a diary. The thing to remember about plant breeders is that they are responding to their market. It’s really not an evil plot…

Well, Monsanto’s behavior might be an evil plot. The whole idea behind RoundUp resistance in soybeans was to increase sales of RoundUp. That crap is getting into our groundwater, and Monsanto wants to increase sales. That’s an evil plot.

Hi Ron. There was an old guy in Carlsbad who sold seeds for a living. Charles B. Ledgerwood. I used to buy my seeds from him until he died about ten years ago.

He had everything, and the BEST of everything. He’d take out a labeled metal box and use a scoop to put the seeds on a balance scale. Then he’d put them in a little envelope packet that he’d hand-written the seed’s name on.

This was in the 80′s, and I’d felt like I stepped back in time bout 100 years.

Check out a PDF on the first link to see a picture of him with the containers of seeds behind him.

“It’s a hybrid, Kentucky Bluegrass and California sinsemilla. The best thing is you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, go home and get stoned to the bejeezus belt that night.”

Dark heirloom varieties are the best — Black Krim, Purple Cherokee, Brandywine, etc. I raise 10 to 15 different tomatoes every year.

Aunt Toby needs some competition! Joking. Your info sounds more academic, where hers is more practical.

i’d love to read that diary bct

100! Congrats.

Then there was Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug in the 1960′s & 1970′s — the Green Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug

I would like to read that diary as well.

i would say there *is* an interest in that diary bct :)

“Nail Biter” does that equal peace and prosperity of democracy?

bbiab

Ron,

There are quite a few seed banks set up around the nation and around the world. They tend to specialize, because you do have to grow out the seed periodically and generate new seed to store.

Plant breeders also keep their own seed banks.

All this talk about seeds, anybody got any popcorn?

NY Fed Under Geithner Implicated in Lehman Accounting Fraud Allegation

Which is to say, our Treasury Secretary may have abetted fraud.

I’ll have to try them. Thanks.

Thanks. Don’t really know enough, so don’t know what questions to ask, but I can appreciate the importance.

I’ll put it onto the to-do list, Suz.

excellent bct. my lln is upstairs

Nicely done…thank you.

Totally pesticide will destroy the whole biosphere from the bottom up it has progressed. The major rivers that dump into the oceans have produced giant dead zones.
Eat organic or no pesticides they are made to be deadly and are poison.
Great info.

Lot of organic seed companies on line.

Financial Times reported today Europe is pissed at him for opposing regulation of hedge funds.

Talk about Palin Derangement Syndrome! You liken Obama’s undeserved, cynically given, arrogantly accepted $1.4 million Nobel prize to Gov. Palin’s speaker’s fee? What nonsense. She is not accountable to hysterical lefty bloggers, anyway.

She doesn’t hold herself accountable for much. On that, I guess we’d agree: she’s a no account.