Hey Toby!

Yeah – sun and wind sound good here.

“Carbon based energy not worth it” said it all!

As bad as the Gulf situation is (and it is horrific), I want people to know that there is no such thing as ‘not in my backyard’ in terms of carbon based energy. Every place these companies operate or want to operate, your health, your kids’ health, the health of the environment, and the future are all in ‘durrance vile’.

…drilling fluids…

Like the stuff they pumped in the Gulf?
We are running out of ways to wreck the joint.

Yes, please, would be fine with me.

The Green Party in Germany has my admiration – they gave energy subsidies directly to each household – to put solar applications to each roof. That is how you break with Big Oil.

Exactly – and then there is that old ‘wake up one morning, turn on the tap and flames coming out’ thingy. A BIG hit locally.

Who cares about this?
Wait, I mean, who is in a position to do something about this, who also cares?

Toby!!

NBC Dateline doin’ the Gulf Oil Massacre

In Europe, they tend to view things differently in terms of what is considered ‘a public good’. Here, we have this boneheaded idea that companies that operate in an industry somehow are experts in all aspects of the operation. As we’ve seen from BP and Cabot, that is a fallacious position since they are basically clueless about everything except for the part a bout sticking a hunk of metal into the ground and smashing stuff. Very primitive.

CO2 pumped into the atmosphere in China affects us here. Oil gushing out of a hole in the Gulf of Mexico WILL make it around the globe eventually. We only have one planet. The nearest known exoplanets are over 20 light years, (>180 TRILLION miles), away and none of those are habitable. When do the profits of a few fat cats become less important than a habitable environment for the remaining 6.7 billion of us?

http://bgladd.blogspot.com/2008/04/00143.html

Well. up here in “Shale Town” there are basically two groups of people who care: The people who can’t make a dime on farmland and have been made a big offer for rights/local government who believe that there is some sort of economic development involved. The other group are people who live in the area who are worried about environmental issues and tax issues dealing with all the costs associated with having the drilling companies there, like their messing up the roads with their equipment. The one outside group that is actually pretty powerful in NYS is the NYC DEC – they have an injunction on permits and drilling because their priority is protecting NY’s water. They are very powerful – they virtually control everything that happens in the counties that have their reservoirs,

I’m watching Rachel Maddow interview Thad Allen and I honestly think this guy is angling for a job with BP for when he retires.

:(

Oh, gosh, Peg, it’s Friday night. Been a rough week. So with that context, how ’bout when hell freezes over?
I heard a radio interview today in which it was said we need to change the habits of our hearts. And, amen to that.
Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but there are people who not only are not aware of the immensity of this situation, but even if you sat them down and tried to explain it to them, they still wouldn’t care.

That’s part of the problem – there’s a guy on Massey’s board of directors who has been using the revolving door from the mining Safety Commission twice. Should not happen. At all.

IIRC, he postponed his already-announced retirement to deal (or not) with the Gulf.

Yes – there are a lot of people in this country whose only interest is getting cheap energy and they don’t care whose lives or health is compromised for that. They do not care that no matter where coal is mined, oil is drilled, or shale is fracked, the earth gets messed up, the water supplies are ruined, and people are maimed and killed. “Not my problem”. The next time they bite into some Atlantic whitefish and it has this funny flavor, they will know it IS their problem.

I still say that one of the answers to this is to use the recent Supreme Court decision about Corporations being ‘persons’ and prosecute management and directors of organizations such as BP, Massey, Cabot, etc. for criminal negligence and get some convictions. Having some of these guys, especially directors, do ‘the perp walk’ and do some serious time would have a salutary effect on their developing some long range thinking.

Yes, Toby. But, I’m talking about knowing people who never watch the news. Aren’t even aware of what we’re hearing on Rachel Maddow right now. It’s hard to imagine, from our purview, but, unfortunately they’re out there. Totally clueless. Hey, the kids have the tv on, watching cartoons or playing video games. I’m serious. It’s worse than what you said.

“Not my problem”

And that’s just it, isn’t it? These barons KNOW that they are wealthy enough to live out their lives in health and comfort, completely unaffected by the damage they are forcing the rest of us to live with. Until there are real consequences for these people, there is no incentive for them to change their ways. Relying on them to care enough about their own offspring to behave responsibly is just stupid. Sociopaths don’t care about anybody, related or not.

Thanks, Toby. Hard to picture drilling near Binghamton – although, of course, Pa. gave us the first oil well in history (Titusville, for those who’ve forgotten) and got us started on this road.

I fear trying to live in this (Tex) climate w/o air conditioning, and am grateful that I don’t have to collect firewood or make charcoal or gather dried buffalo chips for fuel every day. But there must be a better way.

I call those the “wantonly ignorant” and there are few groups indeed for whom I have more plain old contempt.

That’s why I think that being prosecuted for criminal negligence and doing time would be very good for their characters — they need this, especially the directors, who show up for the monthly or quarterly meetings, suck up the free food and cocktails, slap one another on the backs and get driven back to the airport for the private jet ride home. They need to understand that Director Liability Insurance will NOT cover them for what they do — or what they fail to do, or fail to think about, or fail to consider. The way they incent management encourages this short term, ‘not my problem’ put the money in my pocket thinking. The only way I know to make it stop is to convict them of criminal negligence and make them do some serious time in a place where they don’t get to play handball, golf or tennis.

I agree. Without serious consequences for THEM personally, no sociopath will ever change.
Still watching Maddow and even her show’s primary sponsors are people who extract and refine the black sh*t and then people who manufacture machinery that runs on the black sh*t. This is a perfect illustration of just how far we have to go to adjust our thinking as a society.

Si, Si, Si, Senorita Margarita. Aka, other blondie.

Folks – I appreciate your coming out – I’ve got to go cuddle up with an ice bag for my shoulder. Carry on!

Take very good care of yourself and thank you, Toby.

Take care of that shoulder Tobytoes! :-)

Oh Toby, and if we paid attention to you, who in the U.S. would finance elections. For shame.

BTW did you see my swarm?

Bye, Toby. Take care.

I meant to go out and do some exercise to clear my head, but it’s now dark. Watching Maddow – the scenes of the beaches and the birds….and Kent’s end-of-show “light” piece on Haley Barbour’s idiot statements on the “news coverage” ruining Mississippi’s tourist business actually collected the scenes and the idiocy in a truly stinging, depressing way.
Did y’all see the split scene from yesterday’s TRMS of the same beach, showing “globs” of oil/tar yesterday, and simple beach covered in all oil today….Jeeebus. I can’t bear it. Dunno what to do about it.

Holy crap!
Are they healthy this year?

You betcha. That is the second swarm from my hive. Great year for amateur honeybees!

That is so cool. What’s the next step?

Carbon-based Energy Not Worth It

Unless you live on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, which may have living kritters.

Titan is potentially complex enough to support some exotic form of life, and in 2005 two scientists theorized microbes could in fact live in these lakes if they were able to breathe hydrogen gas and consume the organic hydrocarbon acetylene. This process is a bit like certain kinds of anaerobic respiration used by bacteria and microbes on Earth, which also use hydrogen in place of oxygen.

That’s a lotta bee’s knees. And, there you are! Quite daring of you.

Very impressive, eCAHN! So, is that you holding the swarm? Still think that’s very brave. Hope you get a great honey harvest. So neat that you’re contributing to preserving honeybees.

(And thanks for giving me little shot of optimism)

WooHoo eCAHN! Nice! :-)

Dunno what to do about it.

Dunno what we can do about it other than demand real change. There are a bunch of coordinated protests in a couple of weeks I think. Aren’t you in SA? Is there a protest scheduled there?

After the pic, my beekeeper shook them into another hive. So now I have 2 and they both seem to be doing well. Queen Victoria (my original queen) took off with the first swarm, so presumably they found a home somewhere in the wild, more’s the better. Queen Vicky (Victoria’s first daughter) rules over my old hive, and Queen Alice (Victoria’s second daughter) rules over my second hive. Both are short of youngun’s as so many queens were competing for the workers, but the weather is good enough that both hives should survive just fine.

Two of them came inside with me on my sleeve which I saw when I went to the bathroom. I told them to stay on my sleeve and I would take them back out to their new home, but like our wayward sons (though they were probably girls), they chose not to listen, and perished somewhere. Still, something like 14,998 left.

Not at all brave. You don’t know my DFH beekeeper. No one would be afraid after watching him with them. I just do what he tells me to do.

You should name the next one Killer Queen. :-D

Yep, I am in SA. Haven’t seen anything yet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean thtere isn’t something.
Are you in Austin? Feel like I should remember your location, but can’t.

I’ve signed the petitions etc., but am not sure what direction is best to go next.

And, of course, I am once again job-hunting. Sigh. Of course, this sort of excuse (trying to hold one’s life and family together taking up all one’s time) is a major reason our population is so ignorant and tends not to vote. My humble opinion, of course.
I think it’s time to eat some more ice cream (HEB has Ben & Jerry’s on sale!). BBL

Most life-reinforcing thing I’ve done in the past year. Quite emotionally rewarding. You can tell by the grin.

Clapping!

Um, no. Nothing killer about them. They are quite docile, as you can plainly see.

Gots to love the girls! Speaking of the waywards, I left a message, yes daring of me, for mine to please return, as my mister is acquiring yet another organ for the household tomorrow morning and I was asking for “help”, please. Eh! I’m moving the dining room table to the garage to make space for the additional organ. What’s a girl to do? I love the music, and we have a spacious kitchen with a large table there.
When life gets dicey and dicier, what’s there to do but to make music? And, love bees.

Um, exactly what kind of ‘organ’ are you talking about? *g*

Ha! Showed the pic to mister and he said, wow, she’s brave, and I said, hey she had her beekeeper taking the shot and I’m sure she pays him enough to trust him. *g*

BP is only partly to blame for this accident.
We are as much to blame as any one else, if the demand for this stuff wasn’t so large they wouldn’t be taking the risks they do.
Maybe the spill in the Gulf will finally get peoples attention and prompt them to make the necessary changes.

My home is Austin. :-)

But obviously you’re not a Queen fan. It’s a song. :-)

Funny you should ask – just got a MoveOn email about an “Oil Spill Vigil” for Tuesday. But that doesn’t sound like the “couple of weeks” coordinated events you mentioned.
I’ll have to do some research.

Ah, well may you :-). “Liberal” demos here tend to be rather small and ineffectual.

Oh, just stop blaming the victim. Oil consumers are just responding to the straightforward economic signals, i.e., low prices, high marketing. It is up to the policy makers to change the economic signals if it is not in the long run interest of the U.S. to consume oil, mainly owing to externalities which individuals cannot be expected to react to. Put the blame where it belongs.

OMG! I’d LOVE to have some Ben and Jerry’s. Cherry Garcia is my favorite and not just because of the name.

I wouldn’t have a clue. I’m a pop culture moran.

Wow eCAHN that is one heck of a picture. Hope all the little bees are doing well.

Oh I dunno. I know a LOT of liberals in SA. :-)

It’s that time of year for swarming . I get about a dozen calls each year from panicked homeowners who find swarms in the trees their yards.

I tell them they will fly off on their own when they’re ready

Yeah, I figured by your response. Here ya go.

The guitarist is Brian May, widely acknowledged to rank up there with Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhodes, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc. He’s also a PHD in astronomy, having dropped out of Cambridge to join the band in the seventies, he returned and finished his degree a few years ago.

Karamel Sutra is my choice.

I certainly pay my beekeeper, but he is not getting rich. I’ve watched him for nearly a year, which is much more important than the $$. He is absolutely wonderful about how he handles them, very gentile, but someone at his demo this past Sat asked how often he gets stung, and he said about once/month. For me, it’s been once in the past year, and only because I blew on them to clear them from the supplemental feeder, after which I learned that they don’t like human breath smell. (Their smell organs are verrry sensitive.)

Oh, You! You know we have a Hammond B-3 already here. This one is a classical organ. A Rodgers Trio.
Picture in link. Oh, brother. Just wait until Kelly Canfield sees that!
We also have an old upright piany. Me? I got a puny little flute.

Yes, for healthy hives. If you know a local beekeeper, call him/her to collect the swarm & put it in a hive. Honey all around!

Gonna have to try that one someday….

I’ll take my ‘puter out to the hives tomorrow & see if they resonate!

I picked up a 3 bar pack of these, so there’s one left over. Not a fancy name, but they just might be nummy.

Here’s an improvement: The New York Times is reporting that Israel is willing to allow relief supplies into Gaza if they have “International Inspection” I won’t link to the NYT but you can go over to Crooks and Liars and then follow their link if you wish.

Those are tasty! mmmmmmmm Chocolate…….
I had a boyfriend once give me a refrigerator magnet that says “Give the dangerous bitch her chocolate”. It’s still my favorite.

Nice. I didn’t know that. Organ is my favorite instrument. St. Ignatius Loyola has the best sacred music concerts I’ve ever attended.

So eCAHN you don’t think we bear some responsibility for this crisis? We have known for several years now the problems associated with the use of oil. But how many of us actually did anything about it? Sure some folks might have but the majority of people out there just go on as usual and don’t make any effort to change. So the guy driving the Hummer or the Ford extra duty pick-up isn’t partly to blame.
Some folks may be influenced by marketing than others but falling back on that excuse is like saying ,it ain’t my fault they made me do it.

F Israel.

We have a mag that says Drink Coffee. Do stupid things faster.
You really are a delight.

WooHoo! Dunno if bees will respond but they move my feeties!

Drink Coffee. Do stupid things faster.

LMAO! I LOVE that!
And so are you. :-)

Ah….sacred music. The best part of sacred. Ethereal. Whew. Spelled it right the first time. :)

How about as a start, in order to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, we start a “public” automobile company which mass produces an electric car similar to what was done with the Volkswagen Beetle in 1938. Obviously we would need a major backer who believes in alternative energy to get things going. AND, don’t hire previous automobile or oil company executives to run the company. All of the managers must firmly believe in alternative energy sources. I still believe, if we build it, they will come.

By the way, why hasn’t the EV been reintroduced?

Come on down! Although, I got Phish Food and Cheesecake Brownie.

No, I think that humans are mostly economic animals (as well as other complex other mixes.) But as for economic signals, I do not expect humans to respond with any evidence to externalities. That is strictly in the realm of policy makers, who are totally in the pockets of campaign contributors.

My models of how the system works. Includes bottom up responding to their own concerns (what else would you expect) and top down, responding either to their own concerns (campaign finance) or to society’s concerns. Not sure how to get them to respond to the latter, other than near revolution. Chompsky averred on DN a month or two ago that were it not for the Commies, New Deal never would have happened. As there is no real “left” in the U.S. anymore, think the PTB won’t respond appropriately to negative externalities of carbon consumption. But one thing is clear, without leadership, consumers certainly won’t. Nor should you expect them to.

What are you close to in SA?

Oh, for heaven’s sake. I know that song! Didn’t know the title, though.

Of course you do! It got a lot of radio air play back in the day. Queen was my favorite band. I’ve seen them live five times and those include in fact, the very first and the last concert I’ve been to, (though not the only band I’ve seen in concert)
Oops. Strike that. I saw Smash Mouth a couple of years ago and I’m not counting the Kerrville Folk Fest.

Night all.

Interesting —-I’ll think on it
I’m still wondering though if there isn’t more we can do regardless of any policy or lack of one

Girlfriends, Bees, Freaks of all varieties, I’m going to go soak with my latest book. Hugs and Wishes for sweet dreams to all of you.
Peace Out. And, let’s keep the faith.

Night eCAHN!

Laters demi!

I’m going to bail too I guess. Hope everybody has a good night.

North Star Mall, Quarry Market, junction of 410/35. I love the location; inside the loop; easy to get almost anywhere.

Plus my ex was a Queen fan. But he didn’t usually announce titles as they played. ;)

Night, all departing.

Saw Queen in 1979 in Providence RI had 4th row seats . There was a runway that ran out about 30 feet from the stage so I got a real close up look at the band. Freddie Mercury kept throwing roses into the crowd and being so close several landed near me. At one point, a screaming teenaged girl leaped over the back of my seat and into my lap to grab a rose that had landed there.
The concert itself was so-so they were promoting the Jazz album ,not one of my favorites

We went Solar and we are tickled we did!!!!!

Good night eCAHN Demi and Margaret

Love to do that ,but the $$$$ !

Nitey nite, Billy Boy.

We need a thread for this one:

http://wonkette.com/415809/arizona-school-demands-black-latino-students-faces-on-mural-be-changed-to-white

Their own students’ faces. People were screaming racist threats at the school because the mural depicted ***gasp*** black and brown people. So now, they’re being whitewashed.

I’d expect it in Alabama or Mississippi in the 50′s. It’s half a century later and the racists are screaming at schoolchildren again.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294680

Our government is MIA:
Israeli commandos murder Americans on the high seas – that’s OK with America.

British oil conglomerate destroys the fishing industry, tourism and shatters economies in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond – that’s OK with America’s rulers.

States institutionalize racism – that’s OK with America’s rulers.

Multinational banking investment houses rape the economy – that’s more than OK with America’s rulers – America bailed them out.

Auto manufacturers create cars people won’t buy – that’s more than OK with America’s rulers – America bailed them out, too.

But, help for the middle class? Not a priority.
Universal health care? Nope. A mandate to buy private insurance, instead.

Care for our coal miners? Nope. Violations continue as the industry understands they’ll only get a slap on the wrist from the Chamber of Commerce … I mean, America’s rulers.

An end to wars for resources and profit? Nope. Not in America’s rulers’ best interests.

But, we have many assets!
We export fraud.

We export war.

We export racism.

We export religious intolerance.

We export capitalist fanaticism.

We export greed.

Of course, there has to be a spoilsport downside:
We import everything else, including every drop of oil extracted from the Gulf of Mexico, which is sold internationally for oil company profit.

We don’t plan for the future, choosing instead to pander to the basest elements in society – those guaranteed to vote with their emotions instead of their brains.

We refuse to act to curb global warming, for our criminal corporate haven wouldn’t have it any other way. There are companies eagerly anticipating the chaos guaranteed to ensue as this unprecedented disaster unfolds. Drooling, even.

Hell, our baseball commissioner won’t even reverse a blown call the entire planet knows was a blunder on what would have been the last play of an otherwise perfect game. I presume that would be disrespectful of the noble, steroid-charged, monopoly-free business of baseball, the perfect game.

What in the hell is the matter with the people in this country that they can’t recognize a criminal class has taken over the government, turning its back on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or even simple morality? What possesses people to scream epithets at a mural of actual children who attended that school? THEIR LEADERS.

“We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars,” Wall said. “We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).”

Why in God’s name is BP ordering reporters around, declaring beaches off-limits, and employing OUR GOVERNMENT TO ENFORCE THEIR WHIMS ON OUR LAND which THEY ARE POLLUTING MONTH AFTER MONTH?????

This isn’t a country any more. It’s a collection of cynically-written laws creating a haven for every corporate criminal on the planet, with us as their designated victims.

This has been building steam my entire lifetime. I’d love to have my country back, if only it ever existed in the first place.

Mkore & ore Solar companies are offering no $$$ down and then a lease on the equipment & for us it was a no brainer… save us about 200 a month.. just look aroud BB!
By the way hey dood ☺ ☺

now now demi what is this Billy Boy stuff???

Nahant!!! See ya some other time. See my #67. Getting yet another instrument. We’ll talk later. Hugs. Really going now. Bath’s ready. :)

I haven’t been around much lately , just the occasional drive by.
How ya been these days?

OK and you? My sister was just out here visiting her son & grand kids..
Hows things back there Billy with you & yours?

Not much new here , just the daily grind. This is bug season , so those carpenter ants have been keeping me busy

My sweeties X would be jealous… he IS a great organist… did offstage B3 work for Journey in the Day!! He puts his fingers on the ivory’s and sweet music flows from his fingers from Blues to R&R… he is a natural B3 player…-

Which carbon-based energy is not worth it? For centuries, native-growth switchgrass covered the plains, not water- and petroleum-intensive corn and beans. And that same switchgrass could provide millions of acres of highly efficient carbon-based energy in the form of biofuels. Yet the enviro-obstructionists get in the way with their whiny “alternative land use” objections. That Luddite way of thinking is going to play into the hands of cretinous greedheads like the ones who run the fossil-fuels industry, as well as misogynistic sources of terror like the Saudis. A not-very-clear-on-the-concept friend of mine plaintively asked, “Won’t it take a lot of gas and diesel to harvest and process the switchgrass?” Sure, I answered. It will take biofuels to power that effort. Think about it, folks. Real long-term planning would jam billions into biofuels research and production along with alt-electro like wind and solar.

And as for Louisiana (and Mississippi and Alabama and Florida and the rest of Red State/Tea Party/Neo-Klux strongholds), I’m wondering if this Gulf disaster isn’t the Karma That Dare Not Speak Its Name. I have no idea as to the voting patterns of any one individual shrimp fisherman whose livelihood is gone, but as a demographic, voters in these states have been all for the drill-baby-drill approach for decades. And they voted in droves for the sorts of politicians who took money (wads and wads of it, cf., Landrieu and Jindal) from scum like BP and Exxon and Shell and Halliburton. To that pencil-neck Jindal excoriating Obama over all this makes me hope he dies of cancer of the dick, very slowly, for his hypocrisy. Back on point, on an individual basis, I’m willing to reach out and embrace any one shrimper whose generations-of-family profession is now dead. And even take a tax hit to finance a real prosecution of claims that would compensate them for their losses. Yeah, that’s gonna happen. But as a group, their demographic voted for all this, election after election. That’s the real tragedy here. Karma really is a bitch.

That are a lot of Vietnamese fishermen down there, too. We haven’t heard anything about them.

BP is seeking to pump more pollutants into the Great Lakes from the oil refining process. Murphy Oil wants to fill in 400 acres of wetlands in Superior, WI that presently filters water (and life) flowing into Lake Superior, in order to expand refining capacity for Canadian tar sand. This refining process (if permitted) needs to evaporate millions of gallons of Lake Superior water to work (don’t have the link in front of me). Pipelines from Canada to Superior, WI, and then on to Chicago are pretty much a done deal already.

With excavation and projected water use for Alberta, Canada oil shale mining, much of the pristine boreal forests in that area will become desert. Perma-frost is expected to melt and the subsequent release of methane will cause further degradation to our environment, and this is all before that product is even consumed by all of us. I say enough is enough.