A Sickening Feeling part 2

I'm sad to hear that "Top Kill" didn't do the job of stopping the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.  Not too surprised however.

Someday a child somewhere will say to his parent "Dad, why did they kill the Gulf of Mexico?"  Maybe he will have read about it in a book about man-made disasters such as Chernobyl and Bhopal.

Dad will try to explain it, and maybe also mention why the state of West Virginia no longer has any mountains and streams.

"You see son, companies have to make money to keep the shareholders happy and so they can give it to politicians who will then create laws that help them make more money, some of which they will give to politicians again.  It's kind of like the photosysnthesis cycle, but without anything good coming from it."

Dad and son will have plenty of time to talk over these matters, as dad will not have a job and the son will be on a school furlough, caused by continued funding cuts to public education.

But this is OK, because politicians will keep collecting campaign contributions and getting re-elected, so everything's cool, y'all.

Oh, and remember that unions are bad.  And gays will ruin the military.  

I can't help feeling lately that we're doomed.  Hope I'm wrong.

Peas!

Remember when I was so worried that the sugar snap peas were taking forever to germinate?
Look:

And here is a weird new plant this year: Eryngium or sea holly:

What's Wrong with Amos?

I don't know what is wrong with Amos, as one reader has asked, but I do know what is wrong with Moses, pictured above in a photo taken today, after some of his hair has grown back.  He had surgery several weeks ago to remove a big fat blob of what turned out to be fat only, and not some horrible cancerous growth as we feared.  Moses is running up quite a tab, what with his ear surgery last year and now this.  He seems to be a high maintenance dog.  A big ticket dog, I guess.  But very sweet and loving.  We should sell that space on his side for advertising, like a billboard.  Would that be wrong?

Happy Anniversary

On May 25, we celebrated our 35th anniversary.  We agreed ahead of time to not exchange gifts.  However, I thought Paul would enjoy a special treat, so I ran the vacuum cleaner to remove (or scatter) the large mounds of dog hair that had collected on the first floor of our home.  There was so  much hair on the chicken rug in the hallway that the chicken was no longer visible.

To reciprocate, Paul cleaned up all the dog poop in the front yard.

And there you have it folks, the secret to a long happy marriage.  It's not rocket science.

The poop machine at work

Also, and the real reason for this post, Paul made a special video celebrating our anniversary, which can be viewed at this link:

http://tinyurl.com/32s2ld3

Ain't Capitalism Great?

Tonight while I prepared a healthy meal for my man (I'm having cake), the TV news told me that the amount of oil flooding the Gulf of Mexico (shouldn't it be sent back to its own country now?) was much much greater than BP has acknowledged.  Folks, cut those people some flack, they've been busy assembling a huge squad of top-notch lawyers and really haven't had time to study the video of the oil gushing out unabated.  I bet they are totally bummed out at the idea of all those lost profits.

So, after the report ended and we went to commercial, a big bottle of Dawn dish detergent showed up on the screen.  Then people washing oil-coated birds.  Then happy talk and music showing how easy it is to clean an oil-slicked bird with Dawn.  Great stuff.  Let's all run out and buy some just in case oil-coated birds was up on the shores of the James River.  Or maybe they want us to send Dawn care packages to the Gulf coast states.

It's good to know that the American profit machine rolls on.  Make hay while the sun shines.  And the oil flows.

Vegetable Blogging

I bet you'd like to have some of this delicious looking broccoli but you can't cause we ate it all up tonight along with home-grown arugula, lettuce and spinach.  Man, think what we could do with a greenhouse.  We wouldn't have to make a special trip to the store to buy tomatoes.

A Sickening Feeling

I haven't been reading closely any details of the effects of the oil spill overtaking the Gulf of Mexico.  It's not that I don't care about it.  Quite the contrary.  I feel helpless and hopeless thinking that maybe our country will never find the will to change course on energy policy.  Eleven people were killed when the oil rig exploded; I'm sure many were injured gravely.  This catastrophe follows closely the coal mine explosion in WVA where 29 miners were killed.  There must be a better way to make engines run and create electricity.  Why can't the richest, smartest country in the world find better ways to make things run?  I feel like we've been hoodwinked into believing there are no better ways to make energy than by sending people way down into the earth's gas chamber, or punching holes in the earth's crust to withdraw a highly volatile and toxic substance.  When you don't have other options for a decent-paying job, risking your life to support your family seems like a reasonable trade-off.  So long as unions don't get in there to mess things up.  No sir, we wouldn't want that.  Making their crazy demands for a safe work environment.  That'll wreck a profitable business in no time.

Here's something cheery from The Guardian in the UK.  You can tell it's British cause of the "bn" for billion.  And the date: it's tomorrow over there.  Read it and weep.

Gulf oil spill at Deepwater Horizon threatens $8bn clean-up and an ecological oil slick disaster for the US

This was the catastrophe that BP insisted could never happen. Now they call it 'unprecedented'

• Robin McKie
• The Observer, Sunday 2 May 2010

The prospect of oil pouring into the gulf for such a period could have horrifying effects on wildlife, added Frid. "That part of the gulf's coastline consists of a sedimentary shore with lots of muddy inlets. The oil will penetrate into the mud, and because it contains no oxygen the oil will not biodegrade. For generations, any disturbance of the sediment will bring oil back to the surface and that will happen over a very large area."
Similar fears were also stressed by Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, after she took part in a conference call with the governors of the gulf states on Friday. "There is very deep concern about what is happening," she added.
To date, most efforts to deal with the growing slick have failed. Rough seas and strong winds have blocked efforts to burn off the oil or hold it in check with inflatable booms strung along the coast. Louisiana officials have opened gates in the Mississippi river in the hope that a flood of fresh water would drive oil away from the coast, but the high winds also thwarted that plan.
Meanwhile the Pentagon has deployed two C-130 cargo planes to spray chemicals on the oil, while the Louisiana National Guard has been deployed to help local communities.