Is Our Children Learning?
I'm sure that quite by accident, George W. Bush nailed the essential question (quoted in the title) that should be used to evaluate any educational system. Of course, Bush and the Republicans went on...
View ArticleJehovah's Parcel Service
This is probably one of those diaries that pushes the really good diaries off the list, and I don't know that there's much point to this, but it just made me feel good. So a few minutes ago I pull into...
View ArticleBeer or blogs
What should you do if you live in a society where the press is beholden to and only parrots the party line of those in power? What if you live in a society where years of legal and constitutional...
View ArticleFrederick Clarkson on Fresh Air
dKos poster Frederick Clarkson will be one of two guests on NPR's Fresh Air tommorow. The other guest will be theocrat D James Kennedy. According to the blurb on the website: "May 18 · Is the division...
View ArticleAbsence of Leadership
This is a mostly pie-free diary (although that got me thinking). 10 years ago, I could name a lot of the leaders of the women's movement. Today I can't name any that wasn't on the list 10 years ago and...
View ArticleA Winning Democratic Strategy
There have been a number of diaries lately about what Democrats stand for, or should stand for. Some of those have pushed negative positions criticizing Bush and the Republicans, which is certainly a...
View ArticleWA State I330 - Thank you Dems!
I get regular email from the WA State Democratic Party, and for a long time I've been complaining that the emails are uninformative and that all they do is ask for money. Tonight I got an email from WA...
View ArticleIs Thinking Destroying Your Life?
(I didn't write this, but I thought this inspirational email I received might benefit many kossacks) It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- to loosen up.
View ArticleYour DCCC $ at work in IL-06
There is a contested Democratic primary in IL-06 between (among others) Christine Cegelis, who nearly beat 30 year GOP veteran Henry Hyde in 2004 and Tammy Duckworth, who was imported into the district...
View ArticleFree Energy $2000 Wienie Roast
My wife and I consumed about $2000 worth of energy this week and in the end, all we got out of it was a wienie roast (but a damn fine wienie roast!). However, what we actually spent on the $2000 worth...
View ArticleFewer Cars on the Road?
Where I live, my conception of "traffic" is one other car on the road, "heavy traffic" is two cars, and more is probably a funeral procession. But both Sunday and today I drove from North Central...
View ArticleEnvironment: Playing with Fire
One major issue in the Western US, and probably increasingly in places like FL, TX, and maybe even the Midwest and Appalachia, is forest fire or wildfire. In past years within a 50 mile radius of my...
View ArticleAngelides' commercial sucks?
I happened to be channel surfing past an LA station (on satellite) the other night, and saw a commercial for Phil Angelides. I thought it was one of the worst political commercials I've ever seen. I...
View ArticleUnrest in the Forest
Unrest in the Forest could refer to the seemingly eternal triangle formed by environmentalists, timber companies and US Forest Service (USFS) in the Western US. It could also be part of the opening...
View Article60 hours without power
I couldn't tell you if anyone has diaried this, because I've been without electricity for 60 hours (I did search and didn't find anything). Thursday night/Friday morning a severe windstorm passed...
View ArticleWal-Mart bait and switch fails
This is a story about how Wal-Mart conspires with small city government to impose itself on a small community and threaten the community's thriving small businesses.It's also a story about how a small...
View ArticleGlobal Warming TV Ad
While not watching the Super Bowl tonight, I ran across a global warming ad on TV, sponsored by Environmental Defense (formerly the Environmental Defense Fund) and the Ad Council, who produces a lot of...
View ArticleFools to do your dirty work
In today's Midday Open Thread, Miss Laura provided a link the this article in The Nation. The takeaway quote from article is:It would be easy to blame the entertainment industry for the invisibility of...
View ArticleMagic Bus (PHEB)
Our local school district has just taken delivery of one of the first (if not the first) plug-in hybrid electric school buses (PHEB) in the nation.You can read about it here or here, see pictures here...
View ArticleForest fire - Burning Down the House
I have to take issue with the recent diary Firebombs in the Forest: Slashpiles Fueled Angora Fire Destruction by FUSEE. There are some conclusions in the diary which, while they may sound reasonable,...
View ArticleHow to Build a Forest
In 1891 Gifford Pinchot, later to be appointed America's first Chief Forester by Teddy Roosevelt, visited the Kaweah Colony, a utopian Socialist community situated in a grove of California's Giant...
View ArticleHillary's Deceptive Ads
If you thought that the Clinton campaign's planted questions were bad, wait til you read the latest news item concerning the deceptive nature of Clinton's campaign ads.s
View ArticleAn Ecological Nutcracker Suite
This is an ecological ballet, as most ecosystem descriptions are. Instead of a young girl, a weird uncle, a decorative kitchen utensil with a sword, and armies of mice, its corps de ballet includes...
View ArticleA Disturbing Diary
I live in Washington State because late in the 19th century, a doctor told Adelbert Lorenzo Kool he had only a few months to live. Mr. Kool was a paymaster for James. J. Hill's Great Northern Railroad....
View ArticleSmall World
[Voice over - delivered in a staccato semi-monotone by an omiscient narrator.]NARRATOR: Two men, two colleges, two continents, autumn, 1760.[split-screen]NARRATOR: On the left: tall, thin-skinned, shy,...
View ArticleReal Progressives and War
Once upon a time, a Democratic President wanted to take us into war, and he was opposed by Republican Senators. Not only did those Republican Senators oppose the war, they did it at a time when the...
View ArticleScam Capitalism
I'm not a socialist, although my Political Compass score says I think like one. I'm not even anti-capitalist - in fact I am a capitalist by profession.I drove to town today, so I got to listen to the...
View ArticleWho Killed Colorado Forests?
Most people are probably aware that mountain pine beetles have been decimating Colorado's lodgepole pine forests, affecting over 2 million acres of woodlands. Google the subject and you can find dozens...
View ArticleBiopower Coming to the Northwest
While I was standing in line at the library the other day I noticed a magazine from Washington State's Public Utility Districts. Public Utility Districts (PUDs) are county government units that own...
View ArticlePac NW Has Renewable Energy - Now
About a week ago, I diaried a new agreement which will bring biopower to the Pacific Northwest.Driving around Washington State and Oregon this weekend, I saw more examples of how the Pacific Northwest...
View ArticleMedical misinformation misinformation - doxycycline
This diary on the rec list today contained the following assertion:The way that the Lyme bacteria disperses itself through the body causes a significant immune response that, in some people, continues...
View ArticlePolitics and the English Language
The title of this diary is stolen from an essay by George Orwell, and I don't pretend this short piece is as profound as Orwell's essay.I read Lakoff's original book on framing quite a while ago (I...
View ArticleRare Earth - Ecology
If you thought the title referred to an album by a white 1970s band signed to the Motown Label, you're wrong. Sorry.Rare earth elements are that odd series on the periodic table (the lanthanides,...
View ArticleClearing the Smoke - Forest Fire and Climate Change
What do you think you know about the effects of global warming on forest fires?For example, you probably believe that global warming has been going on for a decade or more - so do I. But do you think...
View ArticleBeetle Mania
Do you find that just the sound of Rush Limbaugh drives you mad? If so, you're not alone. Even the bark beetles that are killing western pine trees in large numbers won't put up with the sound of...
View ArticleIf we can put a man on the moon ...
I love to hear someone say "If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we ..." It used to be a more popular complaint, but at some point it became unfashionable, seen as a weak or irrelevant argument....
View ArticleRebuilding: Welcome to the Machine
Just like a lot of people here, I've been wondering how to rebuild the Democratic Party. It's not a small task, and like businesses that fail because they only look towards the next quarter, rebuilding...
View ArticleWalker wants to kill my life insurance
The title is not hyperbole - buried in Walker's odious budget bill is the dismantling of the State Life Fund. It's a totally self-financed agency of the State of Wisconsin that sells life insurance -...
View ArticleLightfoot, Einstein and me
In September, 2002, Candian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot (Sundown, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald) had such severe abdominal pains that he was airlifted to a hospital. After emergency...
View ArticleWhy Scott Walker is Governor (and Kloppenburg might lose)
I imagine everyone has a theory about why Scott Walker is Wisconsin's governor, but there is one simple reason for it: Democrats don't vote, Republicans do.A quick investigation into election totals...
View ArticleWolves: Don't Murder Me, I Beg of You
In the timbers above Cle Elum, the wolves are running 'round.In fairy tales and Grateful Dead songs, wolves are most often symbolic of death, destruction or murder. But irony rules, destruction and...
View ArticleThe Glass is Greener ... [updated - sources]
When my wife's sister and her husband were running a 5-star hotel (a swimming pool in every room), they came to visit us for a few weeks. Being used to a bottle or two of wine themselves with every...
View ArticleFire science in Colorado
There is actually a large body of scientific information, from scientists who actually understand forests, insects, fire ecology and why houses burn in wildfires. You wouldn't know it from reading the...
View ArticleLife in the Time of Fire (updated)
In Eastern Washington State, we like to think that fire season ends on Labor Day, because usually it does. It's been a hot, dry summer, with the last rain in early July and the last significant rain in...
View ArticleThe Kindness of Beavers
I have a sometime neighbor I'll call Jack. It's not his real name, but short for Jackass, which is an accurate description of him. He lives in Seattle, but has a cabin along the creek in our canyon in...
View ArticleNice job you got there ...
Nice job you got there - too bad it won't last.If you think I'm not talking to you, you're mistaken. I don't even have to know what your occupation is. I can think of at least five trends that threaten...
View ArticleWA and OR: Save up to 75% On Prescription Drugs
I try to stay informed about local issues and politics - I scan the Seattle PI website every morning, and look at other sites - but until a few weeks ago, I didn't know about this program. Even when I...
View ArticlePrescription Drug Savings Program
I've been posting diaries here since 2004 - I don't know how to title this so it doesn't look like spam. It isn't spam - trust me.Friday I posted a diary about a little known program in WA and OR that...
View ArticleSomething to watch with LED lighting
There's potentially a problem with LED lighting that I wasn't aware of until a friend sent me an article on the subject. It's something you probably should be aware of if thinking of switching to LEDs...
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the final word.... from Badgers wife
AFTER DINNER WALK FALL 2013 Badger passed away on Sunday July 13th. In his home as he wished, to Monty Pythons video from the Life of Brian “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. I wish I could put...
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