Response to Elle

Responding to elle:

The problems with being big in the trunk:

1. It's the food. Produce is at record lows for supplying us the nutrients that we need. That comes from mechanization and the horrible chemicals that we have permitted to be used in production. The soil of the midwest is not what it used to be.

2. It's the soil. The best farmland in our state (WA) is under the city of Kent and most of the valley. It is optimal for growing food for people. Their major industry now? IKEA and shipping. The whole freakin' valley sits in the shadow of one of the largest volcanoes in the country, and they produce good soil when they blow.

3. We can fix the parent not being at home problem. Real wages have decreased steadily since the 1980s. Minimum wage has been stagnant since the early 90s (we got our first increase this year). Oh, and before you go off on how that hurts ... the states with higher minimum wages have lower unemployment numbers.

It's not a difference between mom or dad being at home, it's about a parent being there to ignore, I mean, participate with the kids in their lives. Many people work a second job to cover their health insurance premiums, co-pays or other related expenses. For some, the second check goes to day care.

For many , two people working is not because of woman's lib or whatever (I happen to find Rush's term for the woman's liberation movement to be offensive, as offensive as his name being that of a band), it's been about survival. And, as is typical in the neo-right-wing-conservative movement, it is the people who are being victimized that they blame. In this case, it's the working family who is responsible for not having the money, time or ability to care of their children because their misguided ill-advised and all together poor voodoo economic policies, and not their greed.

Simple steps:

1. Join all other industrialized nations and put everyone into a health care system. Private care would still be offered. Our system now rations health care, and puts whomever can't afford their care into bankruptcy (been really, really close to there).

2. Offer Pre-K to Doctorate education to all citizens. Invest in your future, gosh darnit! The economic benefit of an educated populace is incalculable.

3. Health and economic security are just as important, if not more important, than other types of security we hear about there.

It has been thirty years of think tanks, brain washing and general movement towards this situation. And, it is up to America to take back ownership of itself. We are the government, it is not separate from us. And it has a big impact on our livelihood.

5 minute rant

The stopwatch is set.

I have five minutes to get this out.

It is scary and all oh so bad.

My wife and I started a garden this year. In hopes that the experiment will work out and we'll reap benefits of fresh veggies.

One thing that I did was save seeds from a few plants in the past year, in attempts to grow something from 'em.

This was mentioned on chickadee's blog, and elle responded with the scariest thing ever.

There are some seed companies who produce seeds that are only one generational. Meaning they have a suicide gene where they will produce for only one year, and the seeds inside the fruits are not good to create a second generation.

I just don't understand. These are the same corporate types that rail against "unnatural things" yet they tamper with the genes of our FOOD SUPPLY and could not care less insofar as people buy their seeds every year.

It's horrible. That means they control our food. Ultimately, if you control the food you can control whole populations.

I guess we can check the freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at the door. 'cause you ain't gonna be able to do any of those if you cannot eat.

Friday's thing

A brief bit of advice on this end-of-the-Fourth-of-July-week:

Flip your burgers only once, if that.

It keeps the juices in, and when you spice them, the spices mix with said juices. It's good.

Works the same in life.