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Saturday, October 23, 2010

On The Origin of Leeks

We all know that Joe The Plumber hates leeks about as much as Todd Palin does, or about as much as Poppy does.

There are many large businesses who pay their people well to suppress leeks in many ways, including programs using large volumes of music, video, comforting desserts, authorities, and the like, to draw attention away from the food value of the lowly leek.

Some serious, concerned professionals who have looked into the leek problem, are now revealing much we did not know about leeks:
"The leek probably has been cultivated throughout history. As for the Mediterranean origin of the leek, this does not seem true to the nature of the plant.

Leeks are one of the hardiest vegetables. They can be left in the ground all winter as long as the temperature does not drop below 10 degrees. Leeks also are less resistant to heat.

In colder climates leek seeds can be planted in autumn or early winter. They will survive the cold and grow in the spring. Leek plants can be put in the ground two months before the normal date of the last spring frost.

Leeks often are planted in shallow trenches, like asparagus, and the soil is heaped up around them to blanch the long root — its most delicious part. However, if they are buried too deep where it is warm, they may rot.

With all of that information, it is readily assumed that leeks did not originate in the warm Mediterranean climate. But where did the leek come from?

There is an Irish legend about its origin. St. Patrick was consoling a dying woman. She told him that in a vision she had seen an herb floating in the air, and that it had been revealed to her that unless she ate it she would die. The saint asked her what kind of herb it was. She told him that it looked like rushes. Thus St. Patrick transformed some rushes into leeks; she ate them and was cured.

You might not want to believe this legend, but the Irish regard leeks as their own vegetable. However, on the opposite shore of the Irish Sea, the leek is the national emblem of Wales. On St. David’s Day, Welshmen wear bits of leek in their buttonholes in memory of the victory of King Caldwallader over the Saxons in 640 A.D. In this battle the Welsh avoided striking the wrong fighters by wearing leeks in their caps as an identifying badge.

The cult of the leek in Wales also goes back to the annual spring plowing festival. On this occasion each participant contributes a leek to the communal stew, which is served at the festival."
(Plugging the leaks about leeks). Who knew, especially since even Google Scholar sometimes has them in its midst?

The next post in this series is here.

Eat more chickin leeks:



Friday, October 22, 2010

A Methanol Economy Way Out Of Here - 3

In this series of posts we have been pointing out that there is no one solution to the resource problems like peak oil or the oil induced global warming and climate change.

The more likely-to-succeed approach is to use all available renewable resources to counter the mounting problems.

Methanol was used in Indianapolis 500 race cars for decades, because it is powerful.

It can be made from "thin air" by removing carbon dioxide, it can be modified for use in diesel engines, and it is water soluble, as our prior posts show.

But it, like ethanol, is only one of many solutions we have at our finger tips already.

One of the mounting problems is extinction:
Most of the 17 imperiled species are mammals - the Arctic fox, polar bear, caribou or reindeer, muskox, and Pacific walrus, as well as four whales - gray, beluga, bowhead and narwhal. Four ice seals are also at risk - the ringed, bearded, harp and ribbon seals. The report names three seabirds in jeopardy - the Kittlitz's murrelet, spectacled eider and ivory gull; and also finds the sea butterfly, a species of plankton, to be at risk of extinction.
(Polar Ice Loss Accelerates Again, see also). A long list of human caused extinctions was pointed out in the post On The Memorial Daze, which evidently will see no end until civilization ends.

New research shows that carbon dioxide is the prime factor in the atmosphere which has a controlling position in the causes of the global temperature, even though it is cited by deniers as having zero effect on global temperature.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post is here.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Glorious Addictions - War & Oil - 2

In the first post of this series, Glorious Addictions - War & Oil, we touched upon the national addiction to oil and war.

It is true according to various officials that America is addicted to both of these two.

I would hasten to modify that notion, when it comes to oil, to include all of the nations in our current civilization.

No nation is not a junkie in that sense, when it comes to oil addiction.

In this post I do want to focus on the U.S. version of the addiction, because it is a different addiction when compared to the addiction that manifests in some of the other nations.

The U.S. does seem to be the most addicted to war, in as much as we spend more on war and the military that produces it, than the other nations combined.

That much is clear when you include all of U.S. expenditures in that regard.

Dredd Blog uses MOMCOM to refer to the entire complex that makes up the whole of the addiction scenario.

The Military, Oil, Media Complex (MOMCOM) is the full description of that realm.

One interesting thing about this is that these entities are addicted to each other.

The military is addicted to oil, the media is addicted to the money it takes to construct the interface between the military, big oil, and the citizenry.

Tanks, ships, rockets, and the whole host of combat vehicles must have oil to work their mayhem and destruction.

The media must have money to exist, big oil needs to advertise how good it is, and the military must sell glory, so each one leans on the other to supply a need.

A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA shows us how the citizenry is captivated to be included in this complex configuration and drama that plays like a gang drug war over turf.

Where they all merge is explained in The Peak Of The Oil Wars series, which shows that we are fighting other nations for the "stuff" of the addiction, oil, as it also shows how the media covers all this up, giving new meaning to "news coverage".

The ultimate dichotomy is that the oil & war addiction is not saving us or making us secure, as the media claim on behalf of oil and war.

The opposite is the case.

The massive reaction to the warnings of scientists about what oil is doing to the Earth, the ecosystem, is to urge the citizenry to believe global warming and climate change are the greatest hoax of all time.

This is an attempt by the greatest hoax to divert attention from themselves.

Either way MOMCOM plays its cards, it will destroy civilization in the process.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The States of War Budgets - 2

In the first post of this series (The States of War Budgets) we took a gander at the effect the oil wars were having on the economies of the 50 states.

That post runs parallel with another post with a theme that seems to describe the current state of mythological affairs concerning the midterm elections.

That is, the media says that the wars are not considered to be an election issue, but the economy really, really is.

Therefore, it is probably time to take another look at the post (The U.S. Mythology Trance - Free Wars), because we seem to be influenced by economists who feel that wars are free, i.e., that they don't cost us anything.

Dredd Blog knows that is a falsehood of monumental proportions.

In this post, therefore, we take a look at how the real costs of endless wars effect the pensions of citizens of the states.

Specifically, notice that the citizens of the states are in dire straits as a result of voodoo economics:
#1 Illinois
Year pension fund runs out: 2018
Bill in the following year: $13.6 billion
Share of state revenue: 32%

#2 Connecticut
Year pension fund runs out: 2019
Bill in the following year: $4.9 billion
Share of state revenue: 27%

#3 Indiana
Year pension fund runs out: 2019
Bill in the following year: $3.6 billion
Share of state revenue: 17%

#4 New Jersey
Year pension fund runs out: 2019
Bill in the following year: $14.4 billion
Share of state revenue: 34%

#5 Hawaii
Year pension fund runs out: 2020
Bill in the following year: $1.7 billion
Share of state revenue: 24%

#6 Louisiana
Year pension fund runs out: 2020
Bill in the following year: $4.3 billion
Share of state revenue: 27%

#7 Oklahoma
Year pension fund runs out: 2020
Bill in the following year: $3.7 billion
Share of state revenue: 30%

#8 Colorado
Year pension fund runs out: 2022
Bill in the following year: $7.8 billion
Share of state revenue: 54%

#9 Kansas
Year pension fund runs out: 2022
Bill in the following year: $2.5 billion
Share of state revenue: 23%

#10 Kentucky
Year pension fund runs out: 2022
Bill in the following year: $5.3 billion
Share of state revenue: 35%

#11 New Hampshire
Year pension fund runs out: 2022
Bill in the following year: $1.0 billion
Share of state revenue: 30%
(Yahoo Finance, see also The Economist). The only reason the populace would think that war would have no effect on their lives is that they have been mentally impaired by the deceit machine Dredd Blog calls MOMCOM.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

It Has All Gone Poll-itical Now

To the polls, to the polls they chant as they form a picture of the future election rapidly moving our way.

Five Thirty Eight is a polling site that had incredible 100% success in the presidential election of 2008.

But a presidential election and a congressional election are two different breeds of cat the pollsters say, making their job more difficult.

One of the solutions is:
With only 15 days to go until the election, we’re going to be upping the frequency of our forecast updates somewhat.

Today, we’ve re-run the numbers for the Senate, and they show little change in the overall likelihood of a Republican takeover. The model gives Republicans a 17 percent chance of winding up with at least 51 Senators after Nov. 2. That’s essentially unchanged from our previous update, from last Wednesday, when they were given an 18 percent chance.
(Senate Dems Favored, emphasis added). The story is different for the House according to that polling site:
FiveThirtyEight’s projection for the U.S. House shows little change from last week. Republicans are given a 73 percent chance of taking over the House, up incrementally from 72 percent last week. During an average simulation run, Republicans finished with 227 seats, up from 226 last week; this would suggest a net gain of 48 seats from the 179 they hold currently.

However, there is considerable uncertainty in the forecast because of the unusually large number of House seats now in play.
(Consensus Points to 50-Seat G.O.P. Gain in House, emphasis added). So we enter the final lap of the 2010 mid-term elections with considerable uncertainty.

Seems like so many things are uncertain these days.

Monday, October 18, 2010

American Freak Show

Brat Pukecannon is no longer the big star of the four star general morning java show.

The American Freak Show stars Blind Willie McTell, Jo Jo, Meeker, and The Barn Oracle.

That show is a "Brand" of Momma Freak, who always aims to turn your lights on or put them out, cause she don't mind, she don't mind, she don't mind, cocaine.

This post will get into the details of the show a bit more in a minute.

But before getting into that, lets focus on what a real journalist says about the show:
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I travelled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
(Blind Willie McTell, Bob Dylan). The Dylan Meister had an eye, a pen, and a penchant for crystal clear reality concerning the show:
You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, “How does it feel
To be such a freak?”
And you say, “Impossible”
As he hands you a bone

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
(Ballad of a Thin Man, Bob Dylan). Blind Willie McTell does not know that The Freak in Chief controls the High Priest In Chief, who makes the puppets for the American Freak Show to shoot down as cover.

Some other journalists from the land of the down unders (where you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows) were also very well aware of the show:
Jo Jo was a man who thought he was a loner
But he knew it couldn't last
Jo Jo left his home in south Pensacola
For some Barn Oracle grass

Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged

Sweet Meeker now thought she was a woman
But she was another Blind Willie McTell
All the girls around her say she's got it coming
But she gets it while she can

Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, Freak Show
Go home

Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged

Oooh ... Yeah ...
(Freak Lyrics). Now that journalism has morphed into pabulum entertainment, no one can sing the red, white, and blues for the American Freak Show like Blind Willie McTell.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Open Thread



Your turn again ...




Climate Change / Global warming deniers will be mad at scientists again. Scientists have recently determined that carbon dioxide is a / the main player in the greenhouse effect.
In the courts the plantation mentality on the rise ...