They never learn

 Countries that have tried (by force or election) socialism, have failed.

Countries that have tried (by force or persuasion) Green Energy have failed.  

Biden promised, and will we become Sri Lanka, Ghana, the Netherlands or France?  He's pushing the USA into third world territory, and he's lying about the shortages.  9,000 permits means nothing if you've blocked every avenue to produce it. We could be producing enough fuel and food for the whole world, but Biden and his Green-goes are ghouls.

Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Promises Resignation After Protestors Stormed Capital | 

Will ESG Reform Capitalism—or Destroy It? - Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)

How Business Insider and other dishonest left-wing media outlets desperately LIED to cover up the embarrassing truth about AOC’s “Green New Deal” fiasco (climate.news)

‘This is life and death’: AOC re-introduces Green New Deal with Ed Markey (yahoo.com)

How have we let this bartender who does make up videos control the future of the country?

Americans are becoming serfs in their own country.

Bill Gates is the biggest "farmer" in the country--owns millions of acres of farmland rented to other farmers. Controls the seeds.

Four food processing corporations own 80% of our processing ability, the "food chain."
Four financial institutions are buying up all the affordable housing and eventually we'll only be able to rent.

 
Big Tech and Big Pharma silence free speech and research about the global pandemic, putting our lives in danger.

 
A major, left of center podcast (Darkhorse) has been shut down for daring to suggest Ivermectin can be a tool, not a cure, not a vaccine, just like other safe medications.

 
Big Tech colluded with Democrats to shut down the only president of either party, to bring new ideas and a fresh look at the power of our intelligence agencies (CIA, NSA, FBI) that are spying on Americans and particularly conservative organizations and non-profits. He called out our "allies" to pay their fair share, and protected our Bill of Rights and Border. How scary was that for the moles in government!

Democrats in Congress are encouraging crime in black communities through defund police efforts, slogans and street riots,, assisted by a flow of illegals to take their futures, as well as encouraging death to their next generation through abortion.

 
Academe has become completely a left wing think tank for Marxists in the government, and the gatekeeper for who teaches and who gets in, after convincing generations they couldn't succeed without a college degree.

‎Bret Weinstein | DarkHorse Podcast: COVID, Ivermectin, and the Crime of the Century: DarkHorse Podcast with Pierre Kory & Bret Weinstein on Apple Podcasts

https://youtu.be/PQTbpJl2-Ho  The meat mafia, Glenn Beck

Report | Food and Power: Addressing Monopolization in America’s Food System — Open Markets Institute

Monopolies in Meat: Endangering Workers, Farmers, and Consumers - The American Prospect

Corporations are buying houses — robbing families of American Dream (nypost.com)

Why Bill Gates is the largest private farmland owner in the United States - Vox

If You Sell a House These Days, the Buyer Might Be a Pension Fund - WSJ

Urban farming

Currently, estimates are that 15 percent of all food in the United States is produced in a metropolitan area, said Mike Hogan, educator with Ohio State University Extension in Franklin County, Ohio. That includes food grown in home and community gardens, urban farms, and even urban aquaculture facilities.

Hogan will be speaking Monday, November 16, at Ohio State at 109 Physical Activity and Education Services – PAES

PAES was completed in 2006 and replaced Larkins Hall which was built in 1931.  According to the contractor’s website (Gilbane) it was estimated at $152 million, and has 650,000 sq. ft. The complex which I believe includes RPAC  includes a seven pool aquatic center, basketball, volleyball, badminton, racquetball and squash courts, more than 27,500 SF fitness and conditioning space, student wellness center, synthetic turf gymnasium, as well as a climbing wall and outdoor adventure center.

If you’ve ever wondered why college costs are so much higher than when you attended, even accounting for inflation, PAES type buildings are part of the reason, along with expanding faculty and administration staff.

Support family farms, says the poster

I hope that little guy is in the driver's seat just for the photo. Looks about 8 years old.

Small family farms, averaging 231 acres, make up 88 percent of farms and 48 percent of total acres. Large family farms, averaging 1,421 acres, make up 3.9 percent of farms and 13 percent of acres. Very large family farms, averaging 2,086 acres, make up 4.6 percent of farms and 23 percent of total acres.

Farm and ranch families are 2% of the population and produce 262 percent more food with 2 percent fewer inputs (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.), compared with 1950. 15% (21 million) of American workers produce, process and sell the nation’s food and fiber, but if you add in restaurant industry workers that's another 14 million. So it still takes a lot of people to feed America--and that doesn't include those Americans who have gardens for feeding their families.

Not sure what "support" means in this poster. The so called "food bill" of USDA is about 1 trillion and 80% goes to social programs not to farming--nutrition programs, energy assistance, rural housing assistance, changing our eating habits to make us less fat, more sustainable programs, etc.

About that kid on the tractor: On average, 113 youth, less than 20 years of age, died annually from farm-related injuries between 1995 and 2002. In 2011, 108 youth died. 33,000 children have farm-related injuries each year (OSHA). However, compared to sports related injuries for children, that's low. In 2009, an estimated 248,418 children (age 19 or younger) were treated in U.S. EDs for sports and recreation-related injuries that included a diagnosis of concussion or TBI. (CDC)

The Pelosi Pole Vault

Nancy Pelosi has promised (Jan. 28) that the health care bill written by lobbyists and leftists that Americans don't want will be snuck into other bills.

"We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit."

This is not new--think of all the times social programs or other pork have been tacked onto troop funding. She's being honest about what she thinks of the American people for once in her life.

Recently we've seen the EPA just go right around our elected Congress to do their own pole vaulting for Cap and Trade, a boondoggle that will probably give us a higher tax bill than "health care reform." I have difficulty reading the research articles in JAMA, but the social and political stuff isn't too hard. In the January 13 issue (Vol. 303, no. 2) there is an interesting article on "Human, animal, ecosystem health all key to curbing emerging infectious diseases" (p. 117-118). Yes, the 2006 spinach e coli outbreak can be tied to global climate change (OSU researchers found E coli in domestic and wild animals linked to unusual weather conditions contaminating irrigation systems). So at a November conference hosted by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council it was recommended that we must have new strategies locally, nationally and globally because our surveillance system is inadequate.

Keep an eye on cross fertilization of your tax health dollars and regulations among US Department of Agriculture (USDA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID, the National Institute on Environmental Health Services, wildlife management, all universities and research dealing with veterinary medicine, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and "global effort." Cha-Ching. Of course, compared to billions and trillions, an initial investment in this system of $800 million is a drop in the government bucket which has a hole in it. It's those 12 recommendations that came out of the conference that include the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Office International des Epizooties and the goal of creating a funding stream that worries me. That and Nancy's pole vaulting skill.

New shoes and voting advice

This morning I went to Kohl's (15% off for seniors) to buy a replacement for my Nikes. This would be my third pair in 2009--having discovered that the way to combat hip pain in the middle of the night is to make sure I'm wearing sturdy shoes when exercising or walking during the day. So I did find an exact match for what I bought in the summer, Nike Steady VI, "Nike Steady VI Leather Women's Training Shoe, with textile upper and satin webbing detail." What attracted me to this shoe is its simplicity. It doesn't blink or bling, is plain white and relatively trim. Why women wear ugly fat purple and black shoes, I have no idea. If I do run an errand after exercise class I'm not embarrassed to walk into the grocery store. In fact, until I saw the photo, I didn't even realize the Nike logo was in grey--I guess I can't see it when I'm wearning them.

When I got to the check-out, the beautiful, young cashier noticed my "I voted today," sticker and asked me about the issues, because she was going to vote later--her first election. I told her there were 3 constitutional changes on the ballot, all unneccesary, and I specifically told her about Issue 2, because that's the one that has everyone confused by the conflicting ads. Is it pro-agribusiness or pro-animal rights? Or neither. I advised her (since that's what librarian types do) to vote no on all 3 because regardless of their merits or faults, it wasn't necessary to change the constitution to do what laws or regulations could do. The people in line behind me chimed in and agreed. They were in Columbus from a confluence of two other states that do have casinos (issue 3) and were vigorous in their condemnation of what happens, regardless of what money it brought to the state. Gambling always gets a foot in the door by pleading a good cause--like the lottery was going to solve all our education funding problems--but it's like opening the door to let out a fly, and bats, bees, and burglars come in.

I took a different route home because of the road construction in front of our house and you don't want to have to turn left going or coming. I passed a shopping center I used to frequent in my working days and was amazed by the changes, including a restaurant that is now under another name where my colleagues and I went many times.

Today's new word--less unaffordable

What ever happened to "affordable?" Now it's "less unaffordable"

"It is well known that the largest percentage losses in house prices occurred early in the housing bubble in inland California, Sacramento and Riverside-San Bernardino, Las Vegas and Phoenix. These were the very southwestern areas that housing refugees fled to in search of less unaffordable housing in California’s coastal metropolitan areas (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose).

Yet now the prices in these hyper-expensive markets are beginning to fall. Once considered widely immune from the severe housing slump, the San Francisco area now has muscled its way into the list of biggest losers. The newly published first quarter 2009 house price data from the National Association of Realtors indicates that prices are down 52.5 percent from the peak. Only Riverside-San Bernardino and Sacramento have experienced greater losses out of the 49 metropolitan areas with a population of more than 1,000,000 for which there is data (see table below). Other metropolitan areas that have seen prices drop more than 50 percent include Phoenix, Las Vegas and, for very different reasons, that rustbelt sad sack, Cleveland." Housing downturn update

We may have more relatives in California than Illinois--so we keep a close watch, and don't like what we see.

And of course, we like to eat, too. Environmentalists along with Mother Nature seem to be conspiring to bring down the agriculture industry in California. Governors of either party are helpless and hopeless. That's higher priced food for the rest of us, shipped from a "country" that won't use its own energy resources.

This is rich

Obama has noticed the rich farmers getting government subsidies. Duh! Line by line he's going through the budget. Maybe he'll notice how much of the food support for the "hungry people" is actually welfare for farmers and the food industry?

"President Bush actually sought a $200,000 annual income cap on subsidy payments, but Congress couldn't bring itself to vote on anything below $750,000. And even that got killed by the likes of Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, who as it happens helped Mr. Orszag get his current job running the Congressional Budget Office. The Members ended up passing a $300 billion bill in which nearly every crop, from corn to sugar, won subsidy increases. Mr. Bush vetoed it in May but was overridden.

The vote in the Senate was 82 to 13. Mr. Obama missed the roll call, issuing a campaign statement saying that the bill was "far from perfect" and would have preferred "tighter payment limits." However, he added that "with so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good." And he then went on to rake Mr. Bush and John McCain (who opposed the bill) for "saying no to America's farmers and ranchers, no to energy independence, no to the environment, and no to millions of hungry people." In other words, given the chance to support cuts in farm subsidies for the rich, Mr. Obama chose instead to attack his Republican opponents for doing precisely that." WSJ Nov. 26

Now that he's going to be president, he'll have to leave that empty suit in the closet and show up for votes.

The summer of 1929

The Great Depression is generally dated as beginning with the crash of the stock market in the fall of 1929, but as I've mentioned before, for farmers it had already begun. In a desperate attempt (in my view as a non-farmer) to salvage their heavily mortgaged farms, my grandparents who owned several farms in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska (and possibly Kansas) decided to fatten cattle on the plains of Nebraska, then ship them back to Illinois. Today we think of land as wealth, but when it is mortgaged for more than it is worth, being taxed, and you can't sell it, it's much like today's housing market when the bubble burst.

When I was a little girl I heard many stories about this summer of 1929, because Mom was in high school and for her the summer in Nebraska was sort of an adventure, although she was a rather studious, sober child and I think she knew they were in serious financial trouble. Today I received a letter she wrote in August 1929 from Caldwell, Kansas. Without sharing the personal "girl talk" with her friend here's her account--very much the way I remember her telling me over 50 years ago as we would do up the dishes after dinner. I haven't changed anything--spelling or sentence structure.

"I have been riding around in the car and sleeping and working all summer. The reading that I have done could be put in a thimble along with your finger. I have missed the piano lots but I haven't had any time for music at all. [This did surprise me a little because I rarely saw her play the piano--only the cello.]

Muriel and I go riding every day on our horses. I sure will miss my dear Blackie this winter. I have grown so very fond of her. [As a child I was horse crazy and would just be distraught at the thought that she had to leave her horse behind.]

On Sundays we generally go about the country. One time we visited the Indian mission on the Rosebud reservation just north of us in Dakota. It was a most interesting excursion. Another Sunday we set out for the forest and game preserve, but got lost in the hilly country around the Niobrara River (a most beautiful place).

Pa had to come to Caldwell so we all packed up and came along. We left Ted [the dog] at the tenants and the canary at Brills our nearest neighbor. The tenants have so many small children that we thought the canary would be safer where there weren't so many children and love of pets.

We have been here in Caldwell since Sunday evening. We started Friday morning about eight o'clock and spent the night in a tourist cabin at Humphrey. On Saturday we stopped at Lindsborg to see Mr. ------- [this must have been a former resident of their home community]. We found both Mr. and Mrs. at home and very glad to see us. It is very difficult to tell which of Mr's eyes is glass. It is his left one. He looks and talks just like he used to. They have a very nice home there and intend to settle permanently, I believe, as Mr. is very well liked.

We had some very bad roads after we got farther south and had to fight mud till we got within 40 miles of Wichita [paved roads would not be common for another decade]. Cars were sliding all over the roads and as we were all in the same fix everybody was friendly and lent less fortunate travellers a helping hand. One fellow had taken off his shoes and stockings and had rolled up his pant legs and was helping push their family car up a steep grade. He looked so awfully comical because he was fat and his clothes were very good, but he took it good humoredly one car pushed another one up the hill on his bumper. [It's possible that my Uncle Clare was with them to help with the driving, but I think he was with Grandpa to drive the cattle to Illinois. Grandma was thoroughly modern, and in those days loved to drive--although I never saw her drive a car.]

We stopped Saturday night at McPherson. They have wonderful cabins there, so nice and clean, toilets and hot and cold shower baths. Sunday we drove the remaining distance of 125 miles and stopped for a while at Wichita at the air fields. We watched a cabin plane go up many times with passengers. The fare was $2.50. [No mention is made of them taking a ride as I suspect the price was too high. It's another reason I think Clare was not with them--he was crazy about airplanes and died in one in 1944 in WWII.]

We have been house keeping in two upstairs rooms of the dairy house so as not to be a bother to the tenants, as they already are taking care of a woman and three of her children. [There was no plumbing or electricity in this building, which wasn't a house.]

We cook on our little Camp Kook [I think this is a cast iron dutch oven on legs to use over a fire]. It has been so handy. We bought a little cook stove for the ranch house at Crookston which we use for baking, washing and heat the rooms when it is chilly and it is chilly quite often.

I love the hills at Crookston, but it has become almost a relief to see level plains again, although I think the Nebraska climate up in the hills can not be beat, at least by Illinois.

We will go back to Crookston tomorrow and then start for Home (Franklin Grove, IL) the middle of next week and probably get home a week from this Sunday. But it depends on how long it will take Pa to get to Crookston with a carload of cattle, as we won't leave till he gets there too. We are anxious to get home a week before school starts so as to get straightened around."

Mother in 1929

Thursday Thirteen

A week ago we returned from a fabulous trip to Ireland, the ancestral home of about 45 million North Americans. Here's a few of the things I saw in Ireland that were new, unfamiliar, or unexpected.

1. Laundry drying on the clothes lines--rural and urban communities both. In many U.S. neighborhoods this is against zoning or neighborhood regulations. You don't realize it has disappeared until you travel where it is common.

2. Unusually large windows, even in modest homes--there used to be a "window tax" in Ireland, but they're over that now! Glass enclosed entry ways for front doors of homes and town houses so the house can be open but not exposed to the weather.

3. Very strict no-smoking rules. Fines for public places could be over 3,000 euros (over $4,000).

4. More auburn and red-haired people in one location than I'd ever seen in my life, and I married a red head. Even so, most are brunette with very pale skin and light eyes. Recent DNA testing show the Irish are probably not Celtic at all, but descended from an area of Spain from which they migrated after the last glaciers melted in Ireland (earlier global warming). When the Celts arrived from Europe, the native Irish absorbed them and took over their culture.

5. Dark skinned, head covered nannies pushing prams of chubby, pale Irish babies on cobble stone and brick walks. The Celtic Tiger has spawned 2 income couples with few or no children.

6. Immigrants from many countries--Eastern Europe, Africa, middle east, far east, Pacific islands, even the U.K. and Germany. They were working primarily in the tourist industry (I'm guessing strict unions keep them out of the skilled trades), so that's who the tourist from America sees. Looks just like home!

7. More Mercedes and BMWs than I've ever seen in Central Ohio, even in our wealthiest suburb, Dublin. However, there are one-car garages attached to the most upscale, newest, elaborate homes. There might be 4 or 5 luxury cars in the drive-way, but the building space is being used for the house, not the automobile. A welcome change from our pattern where the garages often dwarf the main house and the cars are still in the drive-way.

8. Platters of food with mashed potatoes hiding under the fish, and roast potatoes mixed with either parsnips or rutabagas on the side.

9. The most beautiful large, healthy grass-fed animals I've ever seen--the soil is very thin and rocky but extremely nutritious. Pastures are ribboned in stone fences, with cattle lying down, calves frolicking, and horses grazing.

10. Brightly painted stucco homes of yellow, maroon, blue and red in the city and white stucco houses on the farms. An artist's dream (except for the barns which aren't very attractive) when found on curving streets and gentle hillsides. Our Midwestern climate has such extremes that stucco is not a good finish building material--Ireland's climate is very mild with few extremes.

11. Public toilets in Ireland are very clean and modern with ample t.p., but with the same long lines for women as we have in the states. Separate spigots for hot and cold in the sink; every toilet is water-saving, which means you flush 2 or 3 times. Yes, Ireland like all the EU is very "green."

12. Very exotic landscaping. Some yards looked like postcards from Florida or Hawaii. Fabulous flowers, especially roses.

13. Bill Clinton is Ireland's newest saint. He is revered everywhere for helping to broker the current peace in the North. That achievement abroad and welfare reform at home (forced on him by the Republican Congress in the 90s) should be enough legacy for any 2-term President, without the need to be First Laddie, and we can all be proud.

3823

We're fat, lazy and addicted, but we can control the climate

This morning I was listening to a radio interview with Governor Strickland (Ohio) who gave a rah-rah presentation about what a boost bio-mass energy sales are going to be for an agricultural state like Ohio. This was prefaced by the usual blah-blah about the seriousness of global warming and what we're going to do about it, because we, the human race, can turn it around.

And the thought occurred to me:

We can't do the right thing for the one body we actually do control--we eat too much, full of bad stuff and don't exercise; we smoke, drink and use drugs, legal and otherwise, all of which we know are bad for us; but we claim not to be able to stop these bad habits. To top it off, we teach our children that a minuscule loop of latex will protect them from the most vicious and voracious bacteria and viruses in history. And we're going to stop global warming by putting corn into gas tanks, mercury into light bulbs, buying phony carbon exchanges and gazing at the moon on Earth Day?

Where's the tooth fairy when you need him?

3623

Visit to a stinking, smelly town

The rush to biofuels is quite foolish in my opnion because to use an even more precious commodity that none of us can live without--water--plus grain which will raise the price of food for everyone, seems like the epitome of foolishness when stored fuel from vegetation is in the ground in coal and oil. The Greenies aren't interested in saving the planet or even giving us cleaner air--unless they can kill the people in the process so it returns to . . ?

But here's an article by Linda Devore, a local reporter from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who traveled with a group to inspect the successful ethanol plant in Lexington, Nebraska. Her town wants to get on the new cash cow for rural areas. Upon arrival she's almost knocked down by the horrible odor, primarily from the Tyson plant. She writes about the four essential needs for ethanol to work: water, corn, rail and roads.

"The Lexington plant is able to buy all of its corn locally. It comes in by the truck load--about 100 a day--all day long.

Water. Lexington sits on the largest natural aquifer in the United States. They use about a million gallons of water per day and their used water is processed through the city's expanded waste water treatment plant across the road.

Rail. The plant sits within a few hundred yards of the main east-west rail line running through Nebraska, and has built its own rail yard where a couple of dozen tanker cars sit--that is also being expanded.

Roads. Lexington is on I-80 and the industrial park where the plant is located has wide highway roads connecting to I-80 about 2.5 miles away.

The Cornhusker Lexington people were shocked--and remain puzzled throughout the evening--by two things we told them about E85's plans to build a plant in Fayetteville. First of all, they couldn't believe that it would be built so far away from the corn supply used to keep it running continuously 24/7. It was clear that they take great pride in the scheduled arrival of trucks throughout the day--every day--from local corn growers. It is a major logistical concern and critical to the plant's efficient operation.

The other thing that caused them to nearly burst out laughing was E85's plans to build as many as ten ethanol plants at one time. Understanding that the Vogelbusch Technology people from Austria, who also supplied the distilling technology for Lexington, is only the beginning of the plant construction process and project engineering firms must be hired to oversee the process--they will be talking about that one in Lexington for months. They don't believe it can or should be done. They said it can't be done--the resources don't exist and even Frucon--the large project management group that E85 says they will use doesn't have the resources. They found their plant severely strained the resources of their project management people.

More on those conversations later--so much more. But just briefly, when we returned to our hotel that evening and stepped out of the car we had another big surprise. Apparently the meat processing plant was doing their nightly cleanup and had stopped producing awful smells. Instead, we smelled brewery--ethanol. Maybe mixed a little with the other industrial smells of the area--but clearly ethanol. 2.0 miles from the plant site. Air was still--very little wind. 37 degrees--COLD.

Next morning, breakfast at the local diner--spoke with more local residents. A theme developing. Everyone agrees the whole town smells, but as to the ethanol: woman say it STINKS like stale beer and men say it SMELLS like beer. The guys don't think it's so bad. Women like it less."

A million gallons of water a day; a hundred trucks a day--all for a small plant that employs 37 people. We've already got people trying to drain the Great Lakes to supply water for agriculture and drinking in the west. Do we really want biofuels?

NIMBY!

3549 A common error

Today I was reading a book I keep in the bathroom for just such occasions and came across the sentence, "By applying the techniques we've discussed in this book, I was able to enjoy this bell-weather year." Huh? Does she mean bellwether as in a leading indicator of a future trend, or is she thinking "belle" as in beautiful or pretty. A wether is a castrated male sheep, and a bell was tied around his neck and he led the sheep. So a bellwether is a leader.

This leads me to my favorite (next to the words "snogging" and "Oreo Cowkies") bit of trivia from the Veterinary libary. There are about 55 English words for sheep--not breeds, but words for the ages, sex and use of the animal itself. (Yes, I know I told you this about a month ago.) I can't seem to track down a list but the ones I remember are buck, dam, ewe, ram, wether, hogg, hoggett, lamb and shearling. I'm not sure poll and jumbuck were part of the list although I've seen those words in sheep descriptions. Anyone from Australia or New Zealand out there who can help me out with directions to a list? I know the list was in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, and I've checked the ones on-line, but didn't find it.

Update: Sort of poetic, isn't it?
Buck, dam,
Ewe, ram,
Wether, hogg,
Hoggett, lamb--
Waltz Matilda, waltz!

3507 Deere John

Earnings are up at John Deere--a wet finger in the wind senses alternative fuel--which means new demand for large farm equipment (which can be used only on huge farms, with huge government subsidies). You've got to hand it to the greenies and tree huggers. They pave the way for new technology and profits for business. Located in Moline, IL, John Deere's focus on ethanol probably makes the unions, big-ag and investors rejoice.

The company started in Grand Detour, Illinois, where the river takes a mighty turn, or detour. Deere found a way to open up the prairie sod with a better blade to cut through the deep, matted roots of the grass. I think my grandparents were living on a farm there when my dad was born (and the doctor never filled in his name on the birth certificate so he found out at age 65 when applying for Social Security that he was "baby boy" in the county record.) We used to take our children to the John Deere Museum in Grand Detour (between Dixon and Oregon) in the 1970s.

3487 My agenda for the green groups

In June, I outlined the changes I'd like to see so we could have a cleaner, healthier, more productive environment. Now that the green groups are going to invest in the global warming bandwagon at the expense of their usual causes, I thought I'd rerun my list. I particularly liked #13, allowing squatters to have gardens on the estates of celebrities.

1. Cleaner burning coal and safer mines.
2. Drilling for oil in Alaska, which is what Alaskans want.
3. Don't allow western and southern states to drain the Great Lakes so they can farm non-agricultural land.
4. Rebuild the barrier islands while restricting coast-line communities--even for the rich. Or the poor.
5. Don't allow mega-Casinos by Indians or Cajuns or Hispanics or the Mafia or people of any special interest in coastal-tourist areas. Work on developing "real" jobs that produce something.
6. Restore the fence rows in the Midwest so the birds can eat the bugs and less pesticide will be needed, plus it is just prettier and more colorful. Encourage living snow fences to protect soil from erosion in winter.
7. Get rid of welfare for farmers (price supports) which encourages mismanagement and misuse of the land and creates ever larger farms.
8. Strict enforcement of keeping out agricultural and waterway pests. (Actually we do a better job of restricting harmful bugs that hurt our economy than we do illegal people who do it by stealth.)
9. More solar power; forget wind turbines--looks ridiculous, kills birds and changes air currents which will have long term bad effects on agriculture.
10. More bicycle paths and set asides for parks. More sidewalks for walking. Discourage culs-de-sac to reduce congestion on feeder roads.
11. Give small, efficient cars a tax break instead of trucks, or eliminate it all together.
12. Reduce the government's dependence on oil by cutting gasoline taxes at the pump.
13. Have Hollywood's falling stars let squatters use their land for gardens for the poor.