jabmyeyes.com

—————————————————————————————————————————————————— The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)  passed through both houses and was recently signed by President Obama. The Act allots $662 billion, “for the defense of the United States.”  This defense involves military health care costs, counter-terrorism, military modernization, as well as establishing economic sanctions against Iran and refocusing the strategic goals of NATO towards energy security. The part that is being hotly opposed is the counter-terrorism part and it’s detainee laws.

The entire Bill can be read if you copy and paste the link below.  Careful, there is also some really graphic stuff about sexual misconduct.  Scroll down to sections 1031 and 1032 to read specifically about the new detainee information.  

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s1867pcs/pdf/BILLS-112s1867pcs.pdf

The military is required, through the passing of this law, to detain those thought to be tied with al Qaeda.  “ For foreign nationals accused of being members of Al Qaeda, military detention is mandatory; for U.S. citizens, it is optional. This section does not exempt U.S citizens from the presidential power of military detention: only from the requirement of military detention.”

The death of Anwar al-Awlaki involved a decision made by President Obama to kill an American citizen without a trial.  There was much discussion about the legal aspects of killing an American citizen accused of being an al Qaeda operative.   Doctrines and previous supreme court judgements deemed it permissable to kill him if capturing him was not feasible.  Another American named Sam Khan was also killed but was not targeted.  He was “collateral damage”.  Mr Khan’s family is petitioning a law suit.   Awlaki and Khan were killed by a missile strike in Yemen.  The Yemeni government secretly gave permission to the United States military to do so.  This secret permission was revealed by wikileaks. 

So there are sound reasons congress and the President might seek the ability to detain, capture or kill persons tied with al Qaeda.  They would like to be able to stop people like Awlaki before the bomb gets on the flight to Detroit or the car bomb is discovered in a SUV in Times Square.  They would like to be able to detain people like Awlaki who are plotting, but are currently protected by the rights of being an American. They want to take these people out before they take more innocent lives.  This is a good thing eh?

The concern is that this ability will be abused.  Where will the definition of al Qaeda activity begin and end?  If I wrote a book or a magazine highlighting stories about people who enjoy Taliban rule would I be considered an al Qaeda loyalist and therefore a terrorist?  Would I be an enemy of the state if I wrote such a story?  Does anyone enjoy the Taliban’s rules? –> why?   My sitting here in my American home writing my free American thoughts, could I be deemed supporting terrorism?  Could I be detained? 

This is the concern of many Americans.  Does this new law take it too far?  The President should be concerned about taking a life especially an American life without first considering whether the information he’s been given is factual and not just hateful.  Awlaki probably needed to be dead and I think the President made a good decision as did the Yemeni government in assisting that decision.  Maybe the Yemeni government wanted him dead, maybe the arms dealers wanted him dead, maybe the oil barons wanted him dead?

If  we let the dirty deeds of the bad guys destroy our free American life then the bad guys win.

So, I was in a thrift store where all the proceeds go to charitable causes.  This thrift store was right next door to a store called “Tuesday Morning”.  Tuesday Morning has knick knacks and stuff coming out of boxes labeled Made in China.   They also sell laundry soap without phosphates that gets my clothes remarkably clean which is why I go there.  Anyway, I overheard a conversation where a customer was stating that the thrift shop next door won’t bargain down their prices, “I’d rather shop here where everything is new”.  I thought to myself –>  isn’t it better to buy from a store where the result of your buying benefits locals rather than buying from a store where the result of your buying benefits Chinese factories?  (I had a trunk full of beautiful crystal finds from that very same thrift store.)

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and another thing…

What is with some politicians and their big oil and coal bedmates?  I met a very nice young man.  He plans to take his brand new engineering degree to Mexico and work for an oil company.  My heart sank.

If he’s excited about living in the tropics why doesn’t he take that brand new degree to Costa Rica and work for a geothermal company?  Geothermal, solar, wind, biodiesel, and other renewable sources of energy aren’t at the Universities recruiting these brilliant young minds.  They don’t have the federal funding for that.  Oil and coal receive federal funding and they use much of it for recruiting.

Meantime, we’re building tired old SUV’s in our auto plants and wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t want them.  Because the rest of the world has young brilliant minds too.  They are being recruited into the renewable energy industry and making fast and powerful cars that run on batteries and biodiesel.

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one more thing…

Why are we giving up our waterways and aquifers to industry and agriculture and the bottled water industry?  If we didn’t use tax payer money to clean up their messes, we wouldn’t have the beautiful country we have.  We’d have birdless skys and choked waterways and putrid lakes without the EPA and environmental groups bringing tragedies to their attention.   Taxpayers carry the brunt of expense to clean up after them.  We fine them, but, they don’t pay.  Instead they pay for politicians who cover for them or razzle dazzle the public with birthers to take attention away from the real issues.

Trickle down economics isn’t causing that drip you hear, its drool.  Who cares what S&P thinks?  Except, “after the Dow Jones Industrial Average,  the S&P 500 is the most widely followed index of large-cap American stocks.”

We should all be listening to Fred.  The news is full of Standard and Poor (S&P) credit downgrade of the US’s borrowing worth.  I say, OK, so lets not borrow from them.  Lets revoke their use of ratings as a political weapon. I’ve read and read and read and can’t really find an answer.  Numbers, economics, and resources all seem to play a part.

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It may be disturbing to some to find out that not all good comes out of the wealthy corporate interests represented by the S&P’s 500.  Japan is pulling themselves out of their natural and man-made financial woes.  How?  Innovation.  It also helps that they don’t have a tea-party or christian fundamentalists standing on their drowning heads.  OK, with that sentence, I’m guessing I’ve lost about 25% of you.

Economics is nothing more than realizing that all the Earth’s resources are scarce and the study of Economics is how those resources get allocated amongst people.  A comparison of 1961 to today was made that sparked more research.  I asked my smart friend Fred  If our tax rate were the same as it was is 1961, would our deficit get payed off quicker?

and like a true economics guru he gave this reply…

Your question about the tax rate being what it was in 1961 would eliminate the deficit is a good one. The math is correct but ignores what has happened to the dollar since 1961. The top tax rate today is 35% on $357,500 of taxable income. In 1961 it was 34% on $8,000 and went as high as 91% on $200,000, $400,000 joint filers.  See http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/federalindividualratehistory-20080107.pdf for historical rates.

Reagan fixed inflation and brought us trickle down economics, which did not work, by the way. (It just brought a lot of drooling)

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Bush jr brought us cheap efficient wars, which do not end, by the way. (Cheap and efficient?  Fred, I believe your stabbing at humor here.)

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Harmonic Convergence

Harmonic Convergence is a globally synchronized meditation for peace.  Adherents believe that signs indicated a “major energy shift” was about to occur, a turning point in Earth’s collective karma and dharma, and that this energy was powerful enough to change the global perspective of man from one of conflict to one of co-operation. Lets try again…

http://www.zenmoments.org/on-the-toss-of-a-coin/

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Steve Jobs delivered an inspiring commencement speech to Stanford University in 2005.   Here is the link and a few of my favorite parts.

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

No one wants to die.  Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.  Death is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by Dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

We all know this, but, do we really do this?  We hear advice such as “stick to your own guns”,  “paddle your own canoe”, “find your passion”,   “a job worth doing is worth doing well”  You can’t seem to find your destiny or passion or calling? It must be understood that a job is not a life it is simply how we pay for a life. We are dust rolling around and collecting into what we become.  No dots may get connected and yet a life can be enjoyed .

Hospitals can be humbling.  A 34 year old patient lost her life to cervical cancer.  No pain, no nausea, just quietly and quickly slipped away.  She gave $60 to a friend to go get her sister out of jail.  The sister made it to her bedside before she died.  Did they choose this life?  Was it a fun carefree life or an irresponsible life that somehow became tragic?

Steve Jobs said, that he dropped out of school in order to take the courses that he wanted rather than the ones he was required to take.   Without a degree in something many of us might flounder or find ourselves unable to feed our children. Education is wonderful if you don’t know how to make computers in your garage. Nurses, doctors, scientists, teachers, some of our favorite people are the result of a good education.

Others live a carefree life and they share the fish they catch.  Living a carefree life can be great as long as it isn’t irresponsible.  Then again living a structured life can be great as long as there is  gentleness and spontaneity thrown in.  Living a life surrounded with people  love.  If there are no dots to connect and no passions to pursue than just live a life worth living.

“Peace does not come through prayer, we human beings must create peace.” — Dalai Lama

After performing an internet search for the “Fourth of July”; recipes, clothing choices, and table setting ideas were the first things that were listed.

A bit more inquiry enhanced the celebration of freedom.   The Fourth of July that we celebrate here exclusively in the United States is about freedom.  What freedoms do we enjoy and why do we celebrate them?

In 1776, the American Colonies declared their freedom from the British with the Declaration of Independence.  The King of England was sent this…

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

The American Revolution was the beginning, not the conclusion.

The Constitution of the United States was put to paper and became an example to the world that democracy can uphold freedom and peace.  Amendments to the constitution added to those freedoms.

The 1st amendment established freedom of religion. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

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The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments abolished slavery, and allowed all men of all colors to vote as citizens born in the US.

The 19th Amendment allowed women of all colors to vote as well.

The 26th Amendment allowed all men and women to vote at the age of 18.  In 1971 Congress decided if men and women had to die for their country they should be allowed to vote.  Prior to 1971 you couldn’t vote until you were 21.

All human beings are free to choose what they value.  Not all countries allow their citizens to follow their own sets of values.  In the US we embrace individual freedoms and values.  We must not let those freedoms decay.

Freedom can not be implied, it must be lived.

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.

~Erma Bombeck

Mandatory arbitration is a part of every credit card and cell phone contract that you sign.  In so signing you agree to not take the card company or cell phone company to court.  Did you know that?   Tort reform makes it so companies are not found liable for harm.  They use the term frivolous but includes third degree burns and death.  An example of State mandated caps–> in West Virginia  miners are often killed in mining accidents their families can ask for and win millions, but the cap is about $10.000.   Susan Saladoff’s film “Hot Coffee” is effective and makes these confusing terms easy to understand.   Who would think the US government would allow this kind of abuse to happen to citizens of the USA?

This prompted some inquiry into lobbying groups who support arbitration, caps and tort reform.  Then you look up the politicians those lobby groups support and you realize why the government has allowed this abuse.

Two lobbying groups were made the focus–>Americans for Prosperity supported by Charles and David Koch and the US Chamber of Commerce which was created by US president William Howard Taft as a counterbalance to organized labor in  1912.  You may not realize that the US Chamber of Commerce is not a government agency it is a private astroturf  lobby.  (I’m not talking about football fields)

The term astroturf is the billionaire version of grassroots.   Astroturf coalitions are created and funded by corporations and industry trade associations.  They fund lobbying groups who’s job is to win over the middle class and manipulate facts.   Many describe (or disguise) themselves as public relations groups like Bonner and Associates.

In 2009, Jack Bonner and his Associates were working for the  American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) and were caught forging letters to Representative Tom Perriello. The letters were supposedly from true grassroots groups, like the  NAACP — urging him to oppose the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill.  Perriello is one of the co-sponsors of the Clean Water Protection Act. The Coal industry didn’t want this Act signed because it would slow the practice of Mountaintop removal.

Jack Bonner had his company design a fictitious web calculator.  This calculator convinced users the cost of fuel would rise exponentially if legislators signed the Kyoto treaty; while accusing real scientists of being eco-wacko.  They have pulled off the same brilliant shenanigans for pharmaceutical companies, Mobile oil, US tobacco, Citicorp and so forth. The Kochs love these guys and have them working for them through “Americans for Prosperity” and probably many others.

The US Chamber of Commerce seems to have morphed into a completely self-serving machine.  It is a private lobbying group funded by 45 billionaires.  Their common denominator is a dislike for public education and healthcare reform.  These billionaires love funding tort reform and judicial races.  The US Chamber of Commerce helped to shield AIG from liability lawsuits, funded the Tea-party in the 2010 midterm elections, distributed books on energy to children, funded the fight against SCHIP (healthcare for poor kids),  and so forth.  They are drooling over social security money and wanting to legally manipulate it by lobbying for social security, medicare and medicaid to be privatized.  They are funding politicians who get behind this agenda with their pens.  Rick Scott has quickly signed legislation to privatize medicaid in Florida.

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They are the conductor, we are the band.  If you don’t like the music, make your own.  Look up stuff and find out the truth.

Wind and solar farms,  can have severe impacts on wildlife and their habitats when they are built as huge corporate owned farms.  Solar panels on the roof of a home or business does not hurt any being.   Wind turbines installed on roofs much the same as the roof vent type does not hurt any being (see wind-belts).  Net-metering and Feed-in tariffs are wonderful ways many countries and 11 of the states within the United States are successfully providing energy.  So why aren’t feed-in tariffs and their success embraced wholeheartedly within the US, especially the southern states where the Sun is so abundant?  If you have an answer, please share.

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A feed-in tariff, offers small-scale producers of solar energy long-term contracts (usually at above-market rates) for the electricity they sell.  Net-metering allows anyone, whose solar or wind system is producing more electricity than they need, to sell the excess back to the utility in turn reducing or eliminating their electric bill.  But once their bill falls to zero, the homeowner gets no more money from the system, although some grids will give credit.

Using Florida as an example:  The Governor of Florida and Florida Power and Light (FPL) are trying to pass legislation that is being marketed to the voters of Florida as forward thinking and green.  Large utility companies would control the renewable energy industry in Florida.  Smaller businesses would still have to pay exorbitant utility rates.  This would cause them to bring their business to feed-in tariff (FTI)  states where they can have their own solar, wind and/or biofuels for their business.

There exists a trend in which consumers are looking for USA made products that are made in a low carbon impact way.  Florida and it’s constant sunshine should be the forerunner of this trend.  Instead Florida’s Governor and Florida’s privately run FPL are interested in increasing the surcharge on their customers’ bills. Who benefits from this?  Compared with neighboring states, Florida’s industrial utility rates already are 52 percent higher and residential rates are 20 percent higher.

Florida could do both utility owned and privately owned alternative energies.  FPL can put algae ponds around its current Coal fired power plants.  The algae is used to make biofuel.  Algae needs massive amounts of CO2 to grow, coal fired power plants are thought to be evil in part because of their massive amount of CO2 emissions.  Talk about a win win!!

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/print/article/2009/06/blooming-biofuel-how-algae-could-provide-the-solution

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Meantime, manufacturing and big box stores and private homes and associations of homes can have their own solar panels (if they so choose).  Small solar wind and biofuel companies will flock to Florida for the substantial need and abundance of resource.

PS: “Conservation: addition by subtraction
Even though this doesn’t technically generate electricity or transfer energy, we have to mention this;  one dollar worth of energy conservation can save three to five dollars in energy generation equipment costs; if you can use what you have more efficiently, there’s no reason to spend more to make more. While designing for efficiency is the best way to achieve high levels of energy conservation, there are lots of retrofits in insulation and efficiency upgrades that can help cut back on demand.”  Colin Dunn

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/generating-off-grid-power-3-ways.php

see also http://www.jabmyeyes.com/2009/12/17/net-metering/

Back in the days of the Renaissance the lords of the land (the folks in the castles) owned the land and the mill.  Serfs (the folks in the huts) paid the Lords for leasing the land to grow grain, they then took the grain to the mill and paid the Lords to have their grains milled.  This same concept is all I can think of that keeps states from allowing homeowners to provide their own energy and get credit for excess energy.  The governor of Florida Rick Scott seems to want to be Lord and we  the beholden serfs.

If you have ever seen the term “Fair Trade” on labels, you may have wondered what that meant.  I would like to explain.

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It is a marvelous system of guaranteeing the buyer that the product they are buying is not harming people or the planet.  For example: In Papua New Guinea the farmers grow cocoa on land they own.  The cocoa was sold to middle-men that in turn sold it to chocolate makers who in turn sold it to us.  The farmers profits were miniscule in comparison to the middle man.   Logging Companies wanted to buy these lands from the farmers and since the farmers weren’t making much money growing cocoa they were willing to sell.  The Nature Conservancy came along and explained to the farmers that the sale would be a short lived income.  With Fair Trade certification their profits would be greater and last as long as they were willing to farm sustainably.    Keeping their lands to sell Fair Trade cocoa will provide income forever (or until we stop loving chocolate).

The farmers were granted the fair trade certification after a long (three years I think) and arduous process of sustainable growing and marketing education.  The middle man was removed so they had to find their own fair trade buyers.  You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find buyers for this wonderful cocoa; it helps to understand these farmers have limited sources of communication and funds for travel.  These photos might help explain.

An email being passed around included a photo of a white man on a motorcycle  and his thoughts.

he rambles on in the e-mail about being white, conservative, tax-paying, gun-owning, and patriotic.  He also states that America is for him and those like him and the rest of us need to shut up or leave.

so I wished him well and went on to read another e-mail.

The beautiful small town of Eureka Springs Arkansas celebrated another weekend of hugs and love.   This photo was included…

See the guy with the Rebel Flag? He is protesting the diversity weekend celebrated in Eureka Springs, Arkansas three or four times per year. Some attendees are gay and this guy thinks they are against God’s rules and rebel rules and the north should never have infiltrated the south. Not sure really what his message is but he is allowed to peacefully sit among the happy hugging and sign carrying revelers to present it.   No one is telling him he needs to go live somewhere else.  Although a few kids were creeped out when he “pet them”.

Many conversations involving politics in America end with someone telling someone to go live in a different country; which is an unacceptable response for one American to propose to another American. Loving this country involves a respect for what our founding fathers created and the subsequent Amendments that uphold their ideals. Our freedoms are for all people of all ethnic backgrounds and religions, including but not limited to Christian white men.

When people disagree with your love of the planet and each other–> wish them well and go on your way.

If they keeping taking from the middle class the American dream will cease to exist.

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We’ll exile ourselves to places like  Costa Rica, Italy, Germany and Norway for the same reasons our forefathers came to America.  Us worker bees will leave the tyrannical hedge fund managers and their big oil buddies to play with their –  own 401k’s.

It might be a good thing — no one left to fight their wars.  Perhaps they’ll stop booting out the illegal aliens;  who may be needed to clean their mansions and perform CPR on their stressed out hearts?