by Lo
Dandelion Salad
19 June, 2010
photo by Dandelion Salad
Hi Everyone!
At Ariel Ky‘s suggestion I thought I’d start an open post here for you, the readers to discuss whatever you’d like to discuss.
Any thoughts or concerns about the environmental disaster?
Suggestions for preparing for the future?
Whatever you’d like to have a conversation about.
I’ll put a link to this post on the blog so you can find it easily, too.
Thanks, in advance.
Cheers!
***
Update: July 19, 2010
Renaming this post to Open Forum on Dandelion Salad.
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Filed under: Blogging, Dandelion Salad Featured Writers, Dandelion Salad Posts News Politics and-or Videos 2, Updated Posts on Dandelion Salad, DS editor posts
Thanks dandelionsalad for your points. I have read the links. I have been writing on your private blog and private forum about how the inner levels in people are misused and not respected of others and used as a public property . This blog is your private property and I will respect that from now on. I have to admit that I am a beginner in this computer-blog world. Thank you for the teaching. We are all learning a lessons in live.
Thanks for understanding, gud.
This particular blog post is an Open Forum, which means any topic may be discussed. I started it so readers have a place to talk about issues that may not be on any of the other blog posts.
Hi dandelionsalad. Pleace tell me is there not freedom of speech in this open forum. Is the naked thruth bad for the Word press business. Or is the naked thruth to personal to handle. The whole world need to warned when massive silent invisible violence is going on on the inner levels of people man made that concern human rights.
There is no freedom of speech on blogs. I moderate all the comments for a number of reasons, including being off-topic, trolling, leaving too long of a comment, etc. I specifically ask for brief comments.
Please read: http://cnreviews.com/life/society-culture/internet-freedom-of-speech-not-guaranteed_20090426.html
http://www.urbanscout.org/censorship-vs-rewilding/
If you want a platform for your freedom of speech, start your own blog. It’s that easy.
Hi Dandelion Salad. I was reading Hemp Versus the Status Quo by Rand Clifford. And because he talks about Jesus in the Temple. I want people to know that when Jesus ( the Prince of Peace ) ran the ” money changers ” out of the Temple with a whip : he was also talking symbolic to us the people who are walking on the earth today. Dont forget that our inner levels is our Holy Temple in us. Greedy people are trespassing that holy place in targeted humans. So money changers, business men and women, corporations, computer companys, politicians, hollywood stars, scientists ,presidents and all kinds of people are participants in a war that is going on, on the inner levels in targeted humans with technique that some people call immortal technique ( because of the human electrons and human atoms that is used in it). The message from me to others is that haulocost is going on, on the inner levels of targeted humans made by greedy people that are by doing it without mercy and harming others to make profit, are selling Dark forces their souls. So please wake up everyone.
Thanks for your comment. Here’s the link to Rand Clifford’s article: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/hemp-versus-the-status-quo-by-rand-clifford/
gud , good insight. krishna warns arjuna in the gita of ”dark inertia”. since Christ is the light of the world then and in us now if we follow him , it is important to know that the reason he drove them out of the temple was that they were selling blood money sacrifices of all sorts of animals for people to use to God to atone for sin and wipe out karmic debt.
why was this a problem in the eyes of Christ? because it was exploiting a holy sacrifice thru commerce. they were not to be sold. if we think vertical ( man to God ) on this one , then it makes sense. he also did it as a sign that when he was to sacrifice himself as the lamb of God as the greatest love for all , that grace is something that cant be bought or sold . it is a gift. that is the good news.
I couldn’t find the reply link… but yea, thats what I was trying to say!!
The “nesting” only goes so deep before the reply button is eliminated as the columns get too narrow for new replies.
True sir, I have for sure noticed you do participate…. and you must forgive me but I didn’t want to single anyone out simply, because there may have been someone that took offense. Again, please forgive my not being more specific…Chenier
I know this may or not be the place, but I have about another sixty tomato plants coming up!! The jasmine is blooming, the mint is growing, ah spring, what a great time to be alive. Did I mention my grandkids are looking at me with complete disdain?? I love those little workers!! Who else is putting up gardens this year?? Tell us what you’re doing…My dear friend I know where to go to what you’re doing, just have to be patient as to when you have the time eh??
Thanks, Mike. This is the perfect place to talk about your garden. Maybe others will join in and share their garden stories, too.
I traded 2 raspberry bushes for 2 beautiful flowers that I have no idea what they are. I’ve taken photos so I will upload on my Flickr page soon asking if anyone knows the name of these beautiful flowers.
Ok, I’ll begin…. I did it again my dear. Yep, got seventy five tomato plants about 2ft. high!! I swear I was just gonna do a few but I got paranoid and thought.. “what if?” so I did a few more and..Also thirty bell pepper plants,watermelon, cantaloupe, and oh so delicious foot long green beans from Honduras! I barely have time to do anything else and like I said, can’t ya just hear the violins?? Ahhhaa I love it!! Haven’t had a chance to go see your pic site just yet, but you bet I will!
Meanwhile does anybody else have anything to share about gardening? I would really like to know what everybody else is doing.
The Cilantro and Basil are growing by leaps and bound.. too bad for all the upcoming flooding though. Did I also mention the forty bell pepper plants?? Also, new this year worm composting!!
DS, you must forgive me but being this is an open forum, why aren’t more people taking advantage of it?? I mean, the same problems are here as when you first opened it, how is it that with so many writers in your sphere, more aren’t making comments or opinions?? I personally would love to read many different opinions!!
I mean also that soon to be one of the largest corporations of all time has an attraction of millions and millions by presenting silly little games that have no value what-so-ever, yet here is an intelligent, informative blog that is cutting edge and the responses are so few!!
Many comments I have made are after the fact, but you know why, pacemaker and such, but, promise I hope that many people might feel guilty for not taking advantage of this forum.
People prefer to make comments on Facebook. I have a difficult time getting them away from there to here on a daily basis. Thanks for putting a link to it on your Wall. Maybe some of your friends will join in the conversation here.
Wouldn’t it be so sadly hilarious if one day we found out F.B. was nothing more than a tool of the N.S.A. to gather intelligence on people?? Why?? Oh Why, did a country which started out with so much hope come to this??
It is used to gather intelligence. I suggest to everyone not to have any personal info on your Facebook pages.
Facebook is being sued for releasing info on millions of people according to an article on slashdot org.
you might as well do all your posting directly on the cia website as facebook because they are one and the same!!!my advice ,avoid fbook like the plague!! now as far as this country “starting out so well”,the genociding of 10million or so natives while stealing their land&kidnapping black africans to use&abuse as slaves is a horrible way to begin the socalled”greatest country’ ever and makes it very clear why we are dealing with the same evil,corrupt,murderous running our country now,as then!!!!! ho ka hey/it is a good time to live!!
Lo has created a very well organized and great site and posts relevant articles on some of the most important issues facing this country and the world. And yet, there are so few comments or debates. I know some political web sites in some other countries, on which numerous heated debates and comments are posted, after the articles are published. Writers of the articles also participate in those comments and debates. The result is that the concepts and positions of the articles are modified, clarified, refined, and further developed. In this country, I have noticed that writers of the articles have developed a culture of aloofness and rarely participate in the comments or debates about their own or others’ articles. I myself have been affected to some degree by such behavior. It seems to me that the primary purpose of such political sites is to present truthful, factual, and in-depth information and analysis to the public to counteract the lies, distortions, and shallowness of the mainstream media for the purpose of raising the level of political and environmental consciousness. This cannot be done by merely reading the posted articles. Active interactions and dialogue between the writers and readers and between the readers themselves is most important in this regard.
Mr. Fazal, I couldn’t agree more… it is the very response you wrote that I am seeking.My buddy has some outstanding writers and I am always interested in the pros and cons of any subject. I mean open forum, thats like a blank check! perhaps we can ask some of the writers to indulge us with some of their ideas and fears, and even hopes, kind of like a real moment! The writers report on a days events and about the government and such, what I would like is to actually hear their opinion on postings and articles they don’t write!
every article i have written i have done my best to respond to every one who responds . one must be able to defend ones position who writes something. i cannot for the life of me understand those who write good articles and dont ever respond.
the only time i dont respond is if i know that i am dealing with a troll.
Please forgive again, since when I responded to your comment I was on one of those (track where ever you go!) smartphones, and there was just no room to work.
But I did respond sir, and Thank You for that. Lo and I are just trying to get some of the writers or readers into the forum for the sake of exchanging everyone’s views.
The main problem however, seems to be the Data Miner F.B!
Being of a Socialist nature I welcome all opinions and ideas, unless of course there is no value for the greater good. Chenier
Mike, what does FB have to do with the Open Forum here?
Well, perhaps if as you stated more people would visit and respond on this site, rather than spending time on F.B. then the more the merrier No??
Of course, everyone is welcome to post comments on Dandelion Salad and on this particular post. People are going to spend their time doing what they like to do, whatever it may be. Facebook is an entirely different type of website and I’m not in competition with them or any other site for that matter. As far as getting info out to the public, I believe having a blog is the way to go vs posting links on FB. Unless someone very popular on FB reposts a link to a post on DS on their FB Wall, I generally receive about 3-5% of total views from Facebook. That means that 95-97% of the views come from elsewhere. I do appreciate those who do repost links on FB or I wouldn’t post links there at all.
I do ask my FB friends to post their comments on the actual blog post instead of or in addition to the FB link because that gives the writer(s) a chance to respond. Now to get more writers to respond to the readers’ comments.
Thanks, Fazal. I also wish the writers would follow-up their articles with responses to the readers’ comments.
I couldn’t agree more…. but maybe as Mr. Fazal pointed out, the writers have just become aloof to the idea of discussing their articles or posts! Shame, the readers make the effort to read their articles, its only fair that they seek an active engagement with their readers.
How is it possible that the people in our great nation are so ignorant and complacent to allow nuclear plants to continue to operate near the great lakes? What will it take for Americans to wake up? Every day we come closer to the great catastrophe. Even after Japan’s tragedy nobody seems seriously concerned. We are a despicable bunch.
It amazes me, too. Short-term profit generally supersedes in our capitalistic society.
I’d like to respond to that as I have some small experience in those things… They are built so close to water because if a meltdown would happen it would take enormous amounts of water to cool the reactors down. Not only our natural lakes are used, but also man-made lakes as well.. and sadly the sea. Many are built on our coastlines. They are so dangerous since the water to be used will become radioactive and it needs to be stored. (1) storage capacity, (2) equipment damage, most reactor equipment would be too radioactive and contaminated to use. (3) personnel productivity in and around radioactive and contaminated sources. And these are the immediate horrors of these… The long term is to simply fill them up with cement and place security on them till we live for about 20,000 years!! DS is so correct, while they may cost billions to build, the investment usually returns in about five years. But the consequences of selling stock in a utility is far from worth it.
DS,simply must Thank You for that link to Layla Anwars blog… she really hits hard doesn’t she??
Dear Lo After a long and very cold winter in the UK, we have the most marvellous blossom out in all varieties. We also have an amazing crop of dandelions on the road verges, on spare ground and anywhere else where they have seeded. A really cheery sight amidst the horror of the news.
Mary
Mary.. be sure to save some roots and all as Dandelion makes a fine herbal tea…. the roots are especially healthy. Just dry them out and chop fine and let them steep about 30 minutes. I especially like to mix the tea with horehound.
Thanks, Mike. Great idea. Dandelions are quite healthy for us and can be used in all sorts of ways.
Wonderful, Mary. Yes, we do indeed need to enjoy Spring and all the lovely flowers to keep our perspective on life.
I’ve been teaching English in China for more than three years now, and I’ve been considering a return to the U.S. There are even some openings for ESL teachers, but those positions were never secure. It seemed like I was Charlie Brown forever being taunted by Lucy to come kick the football before she yanked it out as he kicked. So now that I’ve been promised jobs several times, just to have them shortly disappear (and any ESL teacher knows what I ‘m talking about), I’m reluctant to return to teaching in the U.S. It looks as though the hourly pay has gone up in some places, but the nonexistent job security is still operative.
Not that it’s ideal here in China by any means. But I just know that if a teaching position gets canceled last minute in the U.S., nobody will be the least bit concerned about what will happen to me. It’s happened to me time and again.
If anything, matters are worse in the U.S. now. Other professionals are finding out how easily they can be out of work. Job security is practically a thing of the past. Employers no longer even pretend to care about the lives of their employees.
We are all told a thousand times over in a thousand different ways that we are just ever so replaceable cogs in a machine when it comes to our work.
My son claims that I’m being a defeatist. I told him, no, I’m being a realist. Nothing has changed for the better in the employment market in the U.S. From everything I’ve been hearing, it’s far worse. Every time the U.S. has started a war (at least a dozen times in my work career), it has destabilized the country and changed the job picture. For a long time, the only new jobs were companies that won defense contracts. If you didn’t want to work for the military, you had a hard time scratching to find a decent job. Today’s economy in the U.S. is more about military contracts than it’s ever been. So what do ambitious young people do who want a good job? They go into intelligence. I just finished watching a movie about life in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell, “The Lives of Others”. What kind of life does a person have who makes a living gathering intelligence on other people? Is that even a real life? I worked at P&G a few years at Corporate headquarters in Cincinnati. I’ll never forget an attorney dragging a huge heavy mailbag down the hall. When I asked him about it, he said, “Don’t tell anybody, but these are employee e-mails that we’ve printed out and have been reading. People forget that their email isn’t private when they’re using the Internet at work, and they reveal all kinds of things.” It was just one incident among many that decided me against staying in the corporate world. But the billions of dollars being spent on spying on people boggles the mind. And that’s all we can offer our young people for employment, unless they actually want to go fight in a war, of course. Or make drones in a factory that you know are going to be used to kill women, children, old people, usually at weddings or funerals or some kind of celebration or sacred ceremony. Yeah, that’s a real feel good way to make a living, I’m sure. Then there’s all the people working in the prisons tucked away everywhere across the countryside out of sight in rural areas and mountains, people ashamed to tell others how they make their house payment, working as security at the local prison.
How does this get turned around? I don’t know. I just know that an economy based on dominance, control, fear, intimidation, force, warfare, security concerns, exploitation, oppression… well, it’s not a great place to work.
I’m coming to the conclusion that I think I’d rather teach in China. With all of its problems, and there are many, I’ve really come to love China as it’s feeling its way and trying to meet the needs of its people, despite corruption, despite being a developing country, despite rampant pollution, despite the many obstacles it faces. I think I may just be ready to adopt it for myself. The irony of all this is that there are still so many Chinese who think the U.S. is the golden land of opportunity and freedom, and perhaps, for some, it still is. For me, though, the freedom has been illusory, and the only way that I could see to enjoy any job security at all was to sell my soul. I know that’s what many Americans are doing today, selling their soul to keep the money coming in, food on the table, to keep a family together, to survive. They’re not going to challenge the people in power and maybe lose their job. I know that full well. It’s such an easy way for people in power to stay there; just make life so insecure for people that they’re all caught up in scrabbling for survival.
yeah , selling ones soul is soooooooooooooo common here. we are just mired in this illusion of materialsm . when i bring it up to people they just look at you like you are an enemy . which in truth , those who dont buy into the game here in the American Empire really are the subversive elment that the Empire seeks to silence .
T.V ,. THE HALF HOUR PIZZA DELIVERY, AND VIDEO GAMES REMAIN THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE .
Peacevisionary: Thank you for your informative input. It integrates personal problems with the general socio-economico-political ones, in which the former are rooted. It would be useful if you inform the Chinese about the reality of US society. There is a great English and Chinese language web site in China, 4th Media: http://en.m4.cn/. They copied and published an article that I wrote on the Dandelionsalad. Its Chief Editor wrote to me and asked for submission of more articles. His name is Dr. Kiyul Chung, Ph. D., Editor in chief, The 4th Media, Beijing, China. Please consider submitting an article to him on the issues that you have raised here. You may tell him that I referred you to him. My name is Fazal Rahman.
to toss a good salad, one must first remove the rotten no good vegatables, clean off the dirt, cutout the blemishes, and throw away the gar-baggage(incumbents).
Crapitalism, has ruined what made this country great!
FREE ENTERPRISE, when a human beings(U & I) could makes something out of nothing and keep the fruits of our labor.
Today, one must work for the slavery minimum wage(a tax windfall for uncle, every time it is increased) at the Multi-Nationalisms outlets, complete with withholdings tax’s, savings tax’s, spending tax’s, excise tax’s, and many other vice tax’s.
Don’t forget the fees, fines and levies, imposed by your local self serving public officials.
Smile darn ya smile. ?
Just created this video for the American Monetary Institute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxXb0hsYfZo
Thanks, Chad.
Anyone use StumbleUpon regularly?
Thanks to whomever who has posted links to Dandelion Salad posts on StumbleUpon. If you are on this site, please follow me and I’ll follow you, too. Thanks!
http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/Dandelion-Salad/
I came here from the SU-site!
I like your posts! You’re an intelligent guy with a good sense for justice and the essence of the themes!
Thanks, Kreuzberg-Jakob. All the credit goes to the wonderful variety of writers who submit their work to me to be published here.
Hello everyone:
I have this driving thought in my mind: to go to the Gulf and see with my own eyes what is REALLY going on down there. An act of civil disobedience if necessary. I believe that we are daily being lied to through the teeth of the people who have perpetrated this ecological disaster. Someone from outside needs to bear witness to this unprecedented event, regardless of authority, if not for “We the People”, then for the Earth herself.
Since I literally am broke, I am asking for willing folk to donate the cost of a round-trip flight to Louisana. Never mind about bail ().
“There is something rotten in the state of Denmark”, as the great Bard put it, and we all feel it and some of us know it in our bones. The photos of dead sea turtles, seabirds mummified in oil in situ, the befouled coastline(s) give me chills, and make me sob uncontrollably each and every day. If others would like to join me, all the better, but if I can get there, I solemnly swear to look, see, find everything that I can about what is going on down there, on behalf of all of us. Americans have the constitutional right to know what is really going on in their own land(s), and it is an outrage that so many of us sit in front of TV’s or the Inet and watch, but do nothing. Basically, if I could, I would call for a million-person march to the Gulf Coast!! That is what we need to do, but even one person can make a difference. This is not under the auspices of any organization, but on my own and personal initiative. I keep wondering: where is the outrage, and how can we all participate in our Democracy (no jokes please) if we do not unearth the truth. Please help, please join me, please pray for our Mother Gaia and that the BP’s (British Petroleum and Bad Politicians) are successful in stopping this well. And of course, if you would be willing to support this kind of action, please help me to raise the funds to get there. If I cannot raise the funds, then I think I must walk there, because the oxymoron of using petroleum products to fly me there are obvious. If I do have to walk from Upstate NY to Louisana, then this will be my version of Gnadhiji’s Dandi March.
I may be daft, but I feel this is called for. Blessings to one and all.
Very Drooly Yours,
Morgana
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
“Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart” – M.K.Gandhi
Thanks, Morgana. If you do go, and anyone else, please take precautions for your health.
See this post, too:
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/the-grass-roots-movement-to-stop-the-burning-in-the-gulf-by-steve-windisch/
Praying is exactly what the masters want that you shall do!
– Please, don’t misunderstand me – I don’t want to diminish or advice you!
But :
You use the baseless speeches of Gandhi!
This is the same as the religious rules:
“Ps.37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. ”
Everybody knows, that the contrary is true! If the US-Americans were Christians – they say they were – America would still belong to the native people!
Sitting hungry in the land, that is owned by some masters will lead to our death! Mental are a lot of people here already dead.
If Gandhi had sit a decade on the street without food and made tons of salt, and if he had die by hunger – this may be written at the 3rd side “odd and weird news”: the UK left India because they had a new plan. Colonialism was old fashioned. It was expensive. And the corporations were big enough to rule the world without the help of any government ! Although they used the military widely. The USA began more than 130 wars since 1838 to protect the big corporations, who are ruling the most parts of the world (Coca-Cola, United Fruit / Chiquita, Energy, mining and chemical Corporations).
The media tell us from dawn till midnight about “peaceful” revolutions, the orange one, the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Iron Curtain, that was made by carrying candles every Monday evening around the Leipzig Thomas-Church!
And David Hasselhoff sang “Looking for freedom”!
So it was made!
There is no one, who’s afraid of prayers, candles, flags or songs – besides marching and fighting songs, sang by thousands, marching in lockstep …
but this is impossible!
In Western Europe because the lot of police and police-like troops. In the US …
I saw the US army after “Katrina” helping the people …. poor, frightened, helpless, suffering people!
Outraged people will be killed immediately!!
There is no way out – besides the Shockwave Rider – possibly …
one must pray and also act. orthodoxy , and orthopraxis. there is a saying ”you are so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good ”. but that saying is not grounded in real change. it should be inverted ”unless you are heavenly minded you are no earthly good , and your revolutions are just power changing hands ”.
make no mistake about it Jakob, prayer is a form of resistance. look it how the non violent Christians undermined the roman empire in the first century by being martyrs in public view in the arenas. they changed the paradigm .
even Edward Gibbon;’s ”Decline and fall of the Roman Empire ” admits that.
this salad needs tossing. ;D lol
Hi Evan. Any thoughts on any particular topic? What do you think about some of the topics Natureboy brought up? Or your thoughts on the BP disaster?
I know its a bit late Dawlin, but living in Louisiana gives me somewhat of an advantage… truth be said it has been expected for a long time!! Those of us who have worked the refineries and oil fields see first hand the incredible destruction caused by oil extraction. Pretty much all the major refineries are just plain too old, modifications aren’t performed as they should be, for the sake of profit!! We have seen our marshes and coastline disappear thanks to the oil industry. The marsh simply because of all the channels that were cut to move equiptment in and out of the Gulf. It is called salt water intrusion and it sounds as if the process would be so natural, far from it, it is a direct result of big oil raping the land!! The magnificent cypress swamps are disappearing at almost 64 sq. miles a year, we had the nations largest fisheries. The B.P. disaster which we Louisianians knew was coming devastated a New Orleans economy based on our food. Now it is being discovered that there are oil deposits floating around in the deep gulf, which may take years to see what will happen. We also have Shell oil, Exxon Mobil, Texaco, and several smaller processors down here and at best their plants won’t blow up a whole town! At worst we have the example of Katrina whereby entire neighborhoods were ABANDONED due to release of toxic carcinogens into the ground and as of this writing are still there. Lo, it breaks my heart to look at the marshes and beauty of the swamps just being exploited when there are so many other alternatives to cleaner energy, but then big oil has enormous PAC funds too…..
Thanks for the update, Mike. So very sad, indeed.
[...] by Lo Dandelion Salad 19 June, 2010 [...]
I was wondering about a few topics that I find of import, to varying extremes, that seem rarely addressed, perhaps some of your contributors might take them on:
Racism disproved: It seems genomics shows that this species of hominids from which we arose, were almost eliminated, cut back to some thousands of individuals. Several migrations from Africa ca 17,000 years ago. The origins of ‘white people’ having to do with groups following prey north, and those too dark actually dying out of rickets, the lighter surviving (yet does anyone ever mention what it means to die of rickets?) This from an excellent UCTV lecture I can’t easily find). It seems that ethnicity involves such small portions of genome, localized adaptations to environmental circumstances from recent migrations. Asian darkness for example a re-adaptation to tropical climes from former migration, etc. But all immaterial to diversity, racism disproved. So I’m like, why aren’t we having a world celebration of the disproval of racism day?
Circumcision: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? People are still mutilating male infants, do they have any idea what they are taking, why are they doing this, why is it considered acceptable, is this scripture again? In olden days or places lacking water, perhaps a technique to prevent infection, but now the excuse? Do they have any idea what they are taking away? What right do they have? If an individual has some strange superstition about circumcision and scripture and decides later to do so, that’s a personal choice. But to do this to an infant, this is a crime. It must be brought to the fore, so that people do not continue to automatically mutilate the genitals of their male infants without their consent.
Conservatives, tea-party tax maniacs and the war budget: The WRL Pie Chart– Not a single one of them has responded. What is up with that?? How can you complain about taxes, federal bailouts and not mention this fundamental fraud?
Just a couple of topics that are missing, and which we need journalists, media, students, etc. to focus on.
I stand amazed..
At amongst so many things these days..
But how is it that BP, is never ever referred to in context, seemingly by any media outlet?
I would love to hear a news report, every news report that correctly contextualized the company (companies) at fault as “B.P., owner of ARCO Gasoline, and formerly named British Petroleum and before that, ‘the Anglo-Irani Oil Company”
Where is the context? Why are there still people lined up to buy gas at the ARCO station directly across the street from Pacifica Radio flagship station, KPFK 90.7 FM/LA?
The ‘piped in’ music blasts across the street, over traffic noise and bounces off the outside walls of KPFK all day and night, drawing the , (m)asses to a pennies-off gas “bargain” like moths to a flame and to a fiery death.
Every time that a Left-leaning uses the Corporate-crafted word “Foreign-Oil”, we die a bit more. We continue to let the radical right-wing choose our words for us. All oil is bad, not just the foreign stuff, just Iraqis.
Healthcare “Reform”? No problem, here’s mandatory insurance and limitless corporate profits.
Immigration “Reform”? You got it, Drone-gunships on the borders, RFID chips in your passport and “Papers, Please” as the official US greeting.
Let’s take back our language and take back our movement.
As for me, I’m a “Liberal” and not afraid to say so!
I’m not even posting item on the BP attack on earth …. just posting a link to DS. All the best pieces are up before I can find them anywhere else!
I think the whole Atlantic Ocean s in danger. It’s already FULL of plastic.
I have had it with capitalism.
Thanks, flyingcuttlefish. Good point on the plastic trash in our oceans worldwide.
Nah!! keep replying on B.P. I live in Louisiana and we can use all the help we can get finding nasty articles on them. The Gulf is not doing so well these days…
what do i think of the gulf disaster? well , people thought that this president could walk on water , lets see him walk on oil .
what i think is this –deregulation is coming home to roost , and even some of the most ardent libertarians are admitting it . Nader 2012.
Thanks Lo for all that you do. This oil spill should be a wake up call to all of us who are concerned that the regulators are more protective of the investor’s assets than they are of the natural resources, and human lives affected. The responsibility lies with more than BP. BP is more a lease holder than an operator. It is very likely that the oil leak is much more expansive than we’ve been led to believe, and the solution more complex than portrayed. Lets hope that resource conservation and protection and ecological and human heath are given higher priority than profit and assuring that oil prices stay high.
Thanks, Chris for your input.
I would have preferred gasoline prices to have been high about 30 years ago (maybe $5 a gallon in 1980) then perhaps our society would have moved more quickly to alternative fuel sources as well as better and more mass transit available. The only problem with high gasoline (and other fuels) is that it hurts the poor. Oh, and maybe we would have designed truly improved automobiles that didn’t have to be gas-guzzlers.
That was the way it was in EU, they had mini-minors when I was a kid in italy. But raising the price of gas would be a boon to BP and their ilk, they say ‘cap & trade’ will get passed onto the consumer, as repulicorp’s Mr. Mitch today reminds on State of the confederacy.
You had it too good for too long, there was the money. People need to look for that money. It was there, never was there more, ever, where did it go? is it gone? What did they spend it on.
Everything could have been fixed with that kind of 10+ trillion$ economy for decades. The feds AND the STATES took it from your payroll, for your jobs, jobs, jobs. Where is it?
Follow the fraud.
Of course, I believe that the oil resources belong to the people, not the Big Oil corporations. Nationalize our resources!
Cap and trade is not the answer. I’ve posted many articles on that topic. Although for different reasons, the far left and the far right agree on this. Cap and trade will benefit Wall St and corporations, what else is new?
Don’t understand your last point about taxes?
Didn’t mean DS, of course, the greater u.
Taxes meaning the vast revenue wasted, i.e. on war, even fossil fuels for war, that could have fied everything for the greater good. Anyway, it was a deletable comment, sorry.
Whole-heartedly agree with you my dear… can you imagine nationalizing our resources?? Having our say on how much Gasoline would cost, how much coal to burn? Of course any movement of this type would make The Guantanamo Milton (sic) a terrible vacation spot. I would also daresay that Col. Blackwater and his special Ops. would be around for the demonstrations.
But, can you Imagine??
Oh, oh…It was only Lo and Ariel when I began my writing…and lo and behold, the topic had become the oil spill specifically by the time I posted it.
Also, I apologize to you, Ariel, for addressing you by your last name. I like both your names, and I have particularly enjoyed your contributions to DS.
Annie
When I was attending meetings of Beyond War, begun at Stanford U many years ago, I learned it takes only 5 percent of a total population to effect change. I’d say the emergence of the Tea Party is a good example of how a very few have usurped attention throughout this country. The Tea Party is not officially, really, a “Party” as we have traditionally thought of a Party. To many of us, the Tea Party are as some pundits have coined, “a group of wingnuts.” But, there they are–referenced by just about everybody while lacking, really, any cohesive doctrine.
I think we ARE being moved into a new way of conduct as a species, the invitations pretty obvious, if not scary. At the event level, it’s a messy process, yes, as the changed paradigm evolves. Change includes breakdown as well as creation. I’m seeing evidence of both.
“Changing worlds” and/or “changing the world,” happens more amorphously than writing out a prescription (even though that, too, is employed by the mind). The painfulness of it ail is is that we desire/need “immediate fixes,” while simultaneously we are being brought into awareness that “quick fixes” are at the root of the problems!
In the Sixties, when I was an emergent young professional (field of psychology), I perceived the U.S. as in its adolescence, having all the ear marks of that “stage” in human growth and development. Using that model, we are having a mid-life crisis–a transformational moment.
And, it is no accident there are overlapping generations of experience being human upon this planet. I see young children as wide-eyed and open and trusting to life as ever children were. I communicate with those in their 20′s and 30′s who have ideals and ideas just as I did in those years. I share with men and women years older than I am, some of whom having let go the battle to those younger, others a source of great exchange of views. And crossing the ages, I meet those already embracing an environmentally integral lifestyle. I myself have not lost sight of my own ideals and prompts into expression.
The Native Americans use the expression “All my relations,” which includes all animal forms, plants. and even, the stars. The Mayan greeting is “You are another me.” And many fight over interpretations of one book or another.
I guess the beginnings and endings are always present.
Thank you, Lo and Ky, for this opportunity.
Annie
P.S. I enjoyed the challenge of inventorying my own”political disposition” (relative to popular political groupings) at this site: http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
If you don’t want to read the first page, click to “Take the Test” on the left. NO PERSONAL ID IS ASKED by the sits.
Thanks, Annie. Good point about change and the Tea Party and it will be interesting to see if they actually make a real Party of it. One of the writers here, Steve Jonas wrote a fictional book set in the future several years ago that he is posting a chapter each month that goes into this area of how it only takes a small percentage of the population to take control. See: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/the-15-solution/. We can learn a lot from this book, imo.
Good suggestion to take the “test” over on The Political Compass. Here’s the post on DS with my chart and those who ran in the 2008 Presidential Primaries/Elections.
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/political-compass-survey/
Thank you for the link to Steve Jonas’ book-in-progress.
Hehehe, the Dandelion Salad is wonderful the way it is . I think i will change the wine i drink with it, though ;)
Thanks Lo for all you do for us.
Regarding the Gulf Disaster, i believe there are ways to stop it but it requires much more resources and “energetic response” than we are seeing… That’s why i agree with Sen. Nelson’s plea to let the Navy take over there (and the bill can later be presented to BP). I usually don’t agree with Nelson on stuff (he’s basically a “war hawk”), but in this case it is important to note, he was already the enemy of Big Oil for continually blocking offshore drilling in Florida waters… So he is one of the few not in their pocket (lol even if he is in military contractors’).
The obvious way to solve this is to drop a very heavy containment device “funnel” over the prime leak, such as, as is my idea, a modified Main Gun Turret from a “Missouri” class World War 2 battleship. Such a very heavy armored thing will allow containment of the up to 70,000 PSI that is estimated to be behind the flow at the ocean floor. Multiple strong hoses leading from the turret to tankers will collect the oil… Then, after the deluge is stopped, we can work on removing the huge underwater plumes also using hoses (floating at the proper depth) to tankers and barges. In fact, if need be, an entire very heavy battleship can be sunk over the associated cracks as containment vessels for later pumping (there are least 4 of these ships available.. and it would be a noble end for these old warships built with taxpayer money in the 1940′s).
But whatever the solution, it needs to be taken away from BP: We do not allow arsonists to put out fires, or rebuild the homes they burn.
Thanks, jibbguy! Great idea there and what a good use of our military. I especially agree with your conclusion, BP must be not be in control. I do fear about the safety of all who are working on the clean-up.
Thanks, Lorri. My concern about the oil gusher BP unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico, is whether there actually is any way to contain it. Is this like nuclear power? We developed the capacity to generate nuclear power before we had figured out that there wasn’t really any safe way to store the radioactive uranium after it’s been used.
Is this another case where we just plowed ahead with new technology just because we could, without taking into consideration of the outcome of our actions, without proper safety measures? Perhaps there is no way to contain the oil spewing into the Gulf. Perhaps we really are looking at the end of life on our planet, as we’ve created yet another dead area.
What does it take for us to realize how interconnected we all are with nature? What does it take for us to slow down and reflect before acting? Does anyone else think humanity is doomed if we cannot break out of our profit driven model of money coming first? Is anyone else concerned about providing a viable future for the next generations?
The path we are on is suicidal… for everyone. We are committing suicide as a race. Ignore the facts at your risk. But the greater the difference between the reality and attempts to continue on the same trajectory (as though business could ever again continue as usual) will drive people mad.
I believe there is a way out. I believe in genesis. We can create a different operating paradigm. We can do it almost overnight. It’s time.
Thanks, Ariel, and thank you for suggesting a forum for the DS community. I do believe in “more heads are better than one”.
We, humans are part of Nature whether we like it or know it or not. Hopefully there will be some “good” to come out of this tremendous disaster and we as a whole will place more emphasis on our environment and sustainability.
Good analogy about nuclear power technology. How anyone can suggest that as an alternative to oil hasn’t thought it through. See the excellent video of Helen Caldicott explaining in detail what nuclear does to people and the environment: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/nuclear-madness-interview-with-dr-helen-caldicott-video/