Haloscan

...has gotten on my last nerve. I've uninstalled it, at least for now, and reverted to the original Blogger commenting.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I bet it's not half as inconvenient for you as trying to get the ORIGINAL FREAKING COMMENTING SYSTEM working again has been for me. If there are any complaints, I'm very likely to suggest that you all "Talk to the hand".

Which wouldn't be very nice, I know. So I should probably just go and grumble quietly offline for a while.

Messing with code does this sort of thing to me sometimes.

P.S. If you do find the change disturbing, maybe making your own lolcat style image can help you relax. Here's one I did earlier.

Happy Caturday

From Wikipedia:

Lolcats, a compound of lol and cat, are photos of cats with humorous captions. They are a type of image macro, and are thus also referred to as cat macros. Lolcats are created for the purpose of sharing them with others on imageboards and other internet forums, especially on Saturdays ("Caturdays").

(By the way, that mousepad is in a separate basic store--our main Cafe Press store is here.)

Alternate link for comments

Scotts sues eco-friendly startup

Originally posted at the Independent Bloggers' Alliance

Demetrius told me about this story a few weeks ago, but I never got around to reading the whole thing for myself. On break yesterday, I saw a story in the Business section of the Columbus Dispatch:

Scotts' turf war

Miracle-Gro brand sues tiny startup over packaging, eco assertions

And after actually reading the story for myself, I really wanted to see it get wider attention.

The makers of garden products Miracle-Gro and TerraCycle are as different as mature plants and seedlings.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is a $7 billion global business with broad brand recognition, a 59 percent market share and Roman columns framing the entry to its corporate headquarters. TerraCycle Inc. is a fledging startup with $1.5 million in annual sales, an infinitesimal share of the market and a graffiti-covered warehouse with used tires on the lawn where the rose bushes were before someone stole them out of the ground.

But Scotts sees similarities between the two plant-food makers. So, the Goliath of plant products sued late last month, accusing TerraCycle of copying its look and falsely asserting that its organic products are better than synthetic ones such as Miracle-Gro's.

"I don't think their claims are valid," said TerraCycle Chief Executive Tom Szaky, a 25-year-old Hungarian-born entrepreneur who dropped out of Princeton in 2003 to create an eco-friendly company. TerraCycle's products are made from worm waste and packaged in used plastic bottles and jugs.

"They're claiming that (the colors) yellow and green are theirs," he said, referring to Scotts.

He added, "Miracle-Gro has sued us over advertising. I've never bought an ad."

...

TerraCycle, which has yet to turn a profit, has created the TerraCycle Defense Fund through its Web site to help defray legal costs.

Click here to read the rest of the article, and here to check out TerraCycle's web site. Visit Sued By Scotts to donate to the TerraCycle Defense Fund, to find a store near you, or to purchase TerraCycle products online. (There are also links to PDFs showing other lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels.)

Alternate link for comments

Something Is Not Always Better Than Nothing

Also posted at Disabled Americans for Democracy

Note: You can still leave comments in the "Remembering Douglas Adams" thread.

In a TruthOut Report yesterday, Matt Renner discusses HR 811 (the Holt bill), an amendment to the Help America Vote Act. Voted out of the Committee on House Administration on Tuesday the bill, with its two committee-passed amendments and its 212 cosponsors, is expected to come to an early vote in the full House.

MoveOn and Common Cause, together with People For The American Way, an organization to which this blogger has been known to donate, supports this bill, on the premise that something is better than nothing. Some improvement to current voting technology must be gotten into the pipeline now, in time for the '08 elections. David Becker, PFAW's senior counsel, is quoted in the report as saying "This will not be the last piece of election reform passed in history. It is urgent that a [any?] reform bill be passed now or else it will not be ready by November, 2008."

So, apparently PFAW, who helped draft the legislation, is of the "something is better than nothing" school. Well, this voter is not. In the case of verifiable voting (as in a growing list of other cases), I'm tired of lesser weevels. If Congress is going to act, then it should do something substantive, not just wave its hands, say "Abracadabra," and pretend the problem has been magically solved.

A large and ever-growing body of evidence, amassed by Black Box Voting and others, shows that electronic voting machines in general, and DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) voting systems in particular, are vulnerable to hacking, physical tampering, simple computer failure; in short, the thousand ills that data flows are heir to. BBV has reported on human unscrupulousness with regard to the physical security of voting machines as well as the malfeasance of voting machine software manufacturers. Moreover, as Renner reports, MIT and CalTech have performed a study that shows that voters are "very unlikely to recognize errors on the paper record after their electronic ballots were completed." Somehow, I doubt that hanging signs in polling places admonishing voters "to check the paper records for errors after they complete their ballots," as mandated by the Holt bill, will cut down very much on computer-related voting problems.

Sometimes, lower tech is better. If Congress wants to institute verifiable voting, it should mandate the system used in my home town, Springfield, MA. Here, we mark paper ballots and feed them, under the watchful eyes of poll monitors, into an optical character recognition (OCR) machine to be counted. This system works admirably. It does not address the understandable desire of disabled voters to vote independently, which is a drawback. Overall, however, this system has it all over the electronic voting machines I've been reading about for years now.

I am disappointed that the organizations named above have adopted the "a solution now is preferable to the solution a little later" view on the matter of voting verifiability. This reminds me strongly of the NFB and AAPD position on accessibility; namely, security and verifiability that might be built into systems later can - and indeed should - be sacrificed for accessibility now. In the case of NFB and AAPD, they are cozy with Diebold and other manufacturers. Knowing this, and perhaps being just a touch cynical, I can't help but wonder what's in it for Common Cause, PFAW and MoveOn that they're in such an all fired hurry to get this particular legislation on the books.

Something is not always better than nothing. In this instance, it is not. Secure, accessible, verifiable voting shouldn't be fudged, or rushed. If Congress is going to do it, they owe it to the citizenry to do it right. At the same time, those organizations, and legislators, who have ties to or are otherwise influenced by the voting machine companies have an obligation to state these connections clearly, so voters know exactly where every voice in the debate is coming from.

It may be that PFAW and the others have no strings leading back to Diebold et al, and are acting in good faith. After all, it is true that action on voting systems can't wait. But, if so, they and all other organizations with an interest in such matters, like NFB and AAPD, should cooperate and collectively support a thorough, lasting solution to the problem. A stopgap measure such as the Holt bill, like HAVA itself, wil simply generate further problems and further inadequate patches.

Alt Comment Link

Remembering Douglas Adams

Six years ago, I was greeted with the shocking and entirely unwelcome headline that Douglas Adams had died. Don't know why I always remember that date, but I do, automatically, every year. So I'm going to go ahead and post a sort of mini-tribute to my favorite author.

Picture of Douglas Adams via this post at synaptic disunion, where you can listen to an audio clip of Douglas Adams reading a bit of Last Chance to See.

Save the Rhino International has an annual Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture. (Douglas was a Founder Patron of the organization.)

Towel Day is coming up on May 25.

Finally, if you're able to view a YouTube video, you can see Douglas Adams reading a section of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe at a lecture by Richard Dawkins here:



Alternate link for comments

Interview with (fired U.S. Attorney) David Iglesias

From My Left Wing:

Jeff Huber: We have the privilege today of speaking with Mr. David Iglesias, who is famously known for a number of things, one of which is [that] during his time as a Navy JAG lawyer, he was the real life model for the Tom Cruise character in the movie A Few Good Men.

More recently, and perhaps more famously, he has been caught up in what some folks are calling "AttorneyGate". He is one of the eight U.S. Attorneys fired by the Bush Administration in 2006, for supposedly performance related issues, that it turns out, appears to most of us to have actually been a politically motivated issues.

Click here for the rest.

P.S. Haloscan is screwed up, I know. I tried a couple times to post "new thread", but ran out of patience.

Alternate link for comments

Desmond Tutu on global warming

This is worth reading and sharing:

The melting of the snows on the peak of Kilimanjaro is a warning of the changes taking place in Africa. Across this beautiful but vulnerable continent, people are already feeling the change in the weather. But rain or drought, the result is the same: more hunger and more misery for millions of people living on the margins of global society. Even in places such as Darfur, climate change has played a role. In the semi-arid zones of the world, there is fierce competition for access to grazing lands and watering holes. Where water is scarce and populations are growing, conflict will never be far behind.

Click here for the rest.

Alternate link for comments

Open Thread . . . .

Talk amongst yourselves. (As if there were ever any other directive, lol!)

Alternate link for comments

Make Your DemocracyFest Reservations Today!

Have you reserved your DemocracyFest lodging yet?

The Wayfarer Inn, location of the 4th Annual DemocracyFest, is providing our discounted block of hotel rooms until May 15, or until they sell out! Don't miss out on a great rate for a room in the heart of the action!

Their regular rate is $130/night, but as a DemocracyFest guest, they are offering you a discouted rate of $87/night! To reserve your room, you must call the Wayfarer Inn at 603-622-3766 and tell them you are attending DemocracyFest.

The 4th Annual DemocracyFest is being held June 9- 10 near Manchester, NH. Get your event tickets today before they sell out! (You don't want a hotel room without an event ticket

www.democracyfest.net

The DemocracyFest Incorporated Team
Charlene, Ellen, Jessica, Liane, and Quintus

Alt Comment Link

Green Is Good for the Hungry

Organic food has long been considered a niche market, a luxury for wealthy consumers. But researchers told a U.N. conference Saturday that a large-scale shift to organic agriculture could help fight world hunger while improving the environment.

Crop yields initially can drop as much as 50 percent when industrialized, conventional agriculture using chemical fertilizers and pesticides is converted to organic. While such decreases often even out over time, the figures have kept the organic movement largely on the sidelines of discussions about feeding the hungry.

Researchers in Denmark found, however, that food security for sub-Saharan Africa would not be seriously harmed if 50 percent of agricultural land in the food exporting regions of Europe and North America were converted to organic by 2020.

While total food production would fall, the amount per crop would be much smaller than previously assumed, and the resulting rise in world food prices could be mitigated by improvements in the land and other benefits, the study found.

It's about time this sort of argument was made out loud. What's good for Monsanto et al is not necessarily good for the planet. And, we need to realize that before it's too late -- assuming it's not already too late.

Click the title to go to the full article.

Alt Comment Link

In the garden of Eden, honey...

In one of her comments yesterday, anniethena introduced me to the marvel that is The Brick Testament. Clearly, the creator of the site has shown real dedication to his craft, and I have only just scratched the surface of what the site has to offer. But already, in the first part of Genesis, the site has revealed to me something new. I'm not quite sure what it means yet, but I have a feeling it must have great theological significance.

Here is the depiction of Adam and Eve "before the fall"--naked, but unashamed.

Here they are immediately after partaking of the forbidden fruit and realizing they were naked--the caption says that they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Eve seems to have gotten a little something "extra" in the bargain, hasn't she? What an astounding discovery--why didn't I know about this before? And what does it *mean*?

Off the top of my head, I think it's symbolic of the fact that, once in a state of sin, Adam and Eve were no longer in harmony. Eve's cleavage is a symbol of the "otherness" they now experience when they look at each other.

Or maybe Eve just sewed herself the world's first Wonderbra.

Alternate link for comments

Planting a seed

A post by Subway


Back in 2003, someone had an idea for a get together called "DEANSTOCK," which was billed as "Three days of music, fun and Howard Dean." This crazy idea later morphed into DemocracyFest, and although I didn't get to the first one, this year I'm going, and I'll be performing at The Blogger's Breakfast.

Last night I ordered the T shirt pictured above for the event and I hope that it will plant a seed in the minds of the party activists: Put these two men in the White House for eight years and America has the chance to reclaim it's rightful place in the 21st Century.

That would be a Deaniac dream come true.

Alternate link for comments

Standing up (and sitting down) for justice

I got a letter from my church this week, in advance of B.R.E.A.D.'s upcoming annual assembly, reminding me of what an appropriate choice it was to call this the Nehemiah Action Assembly. At last year's assembly, in his opening reflections, Rabbi Howard Apothaker provided an excellent (and, at times, humorous) retelling of the story of Nehemiah calling an assembly, including what, for me, was the most memorable line:

G-d does not just want us to do justice. G-d is *waiting* for us to do justice. G-d is *expecting* us to do justice. G-d is saying, "Get off your tuckus and do justice!"

Since one of the main issues being addressed at this Monday's assembly is predatory payday lending, the Nehemiah reference is quite fitting. From the letter my rector sent:

The fifth chapter of Nehemiah tells the story of how the governor of Jerusalem, Nehemiah, calls a great assembly to deal with a situation that is jeopardizing the rebuilding of the community. The situation has to do with the charging of interest to those resettling Jerusalem at such rates that people are sliding into poverty and slavery. Nehemiah, though governor, does not have enough power to make the nobles and officials of Jerusalem stop this blatant practice of usury. This is why he calls the great assembly. Confronted by the people, the moneylenders and the governing leaders, who allowed this debilitating practice, change their minds.

The parallels to predatory payday lending are so many that I can only list a few here. Interest rates that can exceed 390%. Fees tacked onto fees tacked onto fees until a $500 loan can only be retired by a payment of $3000. There are few regulatory statutes over payday lending in the State of Ohio. What B.R.E.A.D. is asking is not the end of payday lending but a just interest rate that cannot exceed 36% and the passage of regulations that would bring payday lending institutions into line with accepted banking and lending rules. The Nelson-Talent Amendment, passed by the United States Congress, that exempts military families from the worst excesses of payday lending is what we are seeking.

This is a statewide issue and B.R.E.A.D. has already begun meeting with state representatives and others who may be helpful in passing some new statutes. Payday lenders, though, are well financed and well represented by lobbyists in the legislature. We will need a great assembly on May 7 if we are going to use our people-power to combat the injustice of predatory payday lending. That is where you come in.

And the letter goes on to say that the only offering that is being asked of us is our time. With the kind of hours I've been working for the past few weeks, my time is a rather precious commodity. Yet I am mindful of the fact that powerful people are only able to get away with this sort of usury because ordinary people don't stand up. Heck, often we don't even *know* these things are going on, because we're so busy trying to keep our *own* heads above water.

But things like this are important, so I'm gearing up for a drive to the other side of town after work on Monday, to once again be "packed like sardines for justice". Because, well, I gotta. In a recent essay, BrimStone was explaining why the God of Fred Phelps and Randall Terry sucks. And I was thinking, mine doesn't suck, but s/he sure can be a bit of a nag sometimes. Always calling us, again and again to, "Get off your tuckus and do justice!"

Alternate link for comments

Cinco de Mayo/Kentucky Derby Day

I had no idea the Kentucky Derby was today--but that just means I know as little about horse racing as I do about every other sport. But after visiting the official Kentucky Derby web site, I now know what's actually *in* a Mint Julep. I've never had one, but evoked the image of some sort of frothy blender drink. Possibly green. Um, no...

The Early Times Mint Julep Recipe

* 2 cups sugar
* 2 cups water
* Sprigs of fresh mint
* Crushed ice
* Early Times Kentucky Whisky
* Silver Julep Cups

Make a simple syrup by boiling sugar and water together for five minutes. Cool and place in a covered container with six or eight sprigs of fresh mint, then refrigerate overnight. Make one julep at a time by filling a julep cup with crushed ice, adding one tablespoon mint syrup and two ounces of Early Times Kentucky Whisky. Stir rapidly with a spoon to frost the outside of the cup. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

And today is Cinco de Mayo, which I also don't know a whole heck of a lot about, except that it gets the Pico de Gallo song by Trout Fishing in America in my head.

Except, having just visited their videos page, My Hair Had a Party Last Night has taken that song's place as the tune playing in my head over and over and over again.

Unrelated to Cinco de Mayo or the Kentucky Derby, but something I wanted to be sure to mention on the front page that I have added a widget for the Pretty Bird Woman House shelter fundraiser. Click here to read about the battered women's shelter in South Dakota and efforts to save it.

Alternate link for comments

Pajama Party with Hillary

Originally posted at the Independent Bloggers' Alliance. Bringing it here this morning because I thought it would be preferable to another open thread quite so soon. (Today is, incidentally, the last Saturday I will be working for a while.)

The other night on Daily Show, I saw a clip of Hillary Clinton's appearance on The Insider.

Hillary: Those are the greatest shoes!

Host: I got them on super sale at Sax.

Hillary: Boy do they look fabulous!
...
Hillary: I am the woman on more diets that don't last. ... Ration your chocolate so you don't go overboard...

Omigod! I totally want to have a pajama party with her! We can talk about boys, and share secrets, and do each other's hair...

In all fairness, I didn't see the whole interview. Nor am I likely to, so I'll just allow that it's possible the interview also contained some non-gag-inducing moments. But from what I saw there, I've got to think this was part of an attempt on HRC's part to connect with voters as "one of the girls".

And maybe that was an effective way to connect with some women--but it sure doesn't work for me. I haven't worn high heels in almost a decade. I do *not* use the word diet, as I am trying to raise my daughter to see a balanced, sane view of eating and exercise as the norm--rather than *expecting* to forever be on diets.

Oh, and Hill--you know what would really help me connect with you as a woman?

You not acting like such a freaking hawk! That's something that matters to me as a woman...as a mother. One who is trying to help teach the next generation that there are better ways to solve problems than with violence and threats. And, as much as it would be nice to finally have a woman president, I'm willing to hold out a little longer until we can have one who shares those values.
---
But I loved Jon Stewart's response to the clip...

Jon: Oh my God--Hillary Clinton is running as Cathy.

I guess that explains her new slogan: Aack!

"I can't put on a bikini--AACK!"

"Oh my God, we've been attacked by Syria--AACK!"

Alternate link for comments

Kicking the "war on terror" habit

I saw this headline a couple days ago while on a break at work, but didn't get a chance to look for the story until now. Thought this was worth sharing--from Time Magazine...

Edwards rejects the "War on Terror"

At last month's Democrat (sic) debate in South Carolina, moderator Brian Williams asked the eight candidates: "Show of hands question: Do you believe there is such a thing as a global war on terror?"

Senator Hillary Clinton's hand shot up. After hesitating noticeably, Senator Barack Obama joined her. Edwards did not, even though he has used the phrase himself and a policy paper on his Web site refers to "winning the war on terror." And now, in his first interview to explain his turnabout, Edwards tells TIME that he will no longer use what he views as "a Bush-created political phrase."

It's about bloody time. More like this, please, Dems? 'K thanx.

Alternate link for comments

Open Thread

Seemed like about time for a new thread.

Some new story links in my shared items here.

Nighty-night.

Alternate link for comments

Predatory Payday Lending

That's the issue that B.R.E.A.D. (our local church based social justice group) is taking on at next week's meeting. According to George, our rector, this is the first issue the group has taken on where there are actually lobbyists working against us.

Unfortunately, because I'm working these 10-hour days this week, I don't have time to research and put together a good post about the issue. Hopefully George will find the time to e-mail me the sermon he gave about this issue a couple weeks ago, because that was a good summary of what we're dealing with, and why it's important.

In the meantime, the Wikipedia page on payday loans has a good overview of some of the controversy around these businesses. There is also an overview on the Center for Responsible Lending web site and more information at Policy Matters Ohio.

Alternate link for comments

From the candidates

Originally posted at the Independent Bloggers' Alliance

These links provided as a public service, because you shouldn't have to shop at Blogmart to hear from the candidates.

From the Obama campaign, by Joe Rospars: Our MySpace Experiment

From the Edwards' campaign, Watch the ad: We the people by Tracy Russo

From JohnKerry.com: Fight the veto

He's not a candidate? We'll see. He certainly seems to be acting like one...

Please feel free to e-mail me at ohiorenee(at)gmail.com if you see a post on a candidate blog that might be of general interest. A lot of us are not ready to support a candidate just yet, and don't care to be added to yet another mailing list, but, as politically active and aware citizens, would like to be kept up to date nonetheless.

Alternate link for comments

The "main thing"

Originally posted at My Left Wing on Sunday, and I would have posted it here too, but we really didn't need a new thread at the time. And then I got kind of busy and it slipped my mind. But I still think it's worth sharing, so here you go...

The other day, as planned, I attended the ordination and consecration of Bishop Thomas E. Breidenthal. Well, I didn't attend all of it--sort of left at "half-time". But I was there to see them "do the deed", as it were. Having attended the youth event, where Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was a special guest, the night before, I didn't really think I needed a whole ordination on top of that. Bottom line, I was tired, and I needed some "sabbath" in my weekend.

But I stayed long enough to hear the sermon, and that's been on my mind today as I think about the goings-on in this corner of blogtopia. In particular, Rev. Epting talked about the tension that sometimes exists between doing justice and maintaining unity. Sometimes those principles seem to be at odds with each other, but they are both part of the vows our new bishop was about to take--and they're part of the baptismal vows of all Episcopalians as well.

Now, I know that we vary here in our beliefs, and it's sometimes a challenge to convey the essence of some truth without the actual words I choose managing to obscure my meaning. But there are some commonalities that I think go beyond labels--at least the labels we're used to using. Maryscott, for example, does not describe herself as a person of faith, while I do. And yet, there is something we have in common. You know what I think it is? I think it's that we're both "believers". We don't believe in all of the same things, but we believe in something, and that something is more important to us than just "winning elections". So, I'd like to share an excerpt from the sermon

The important thing to remember, my dear brother Tom, and my dear sisters and brothers, is to try to keep the main thing the main thing. Try to keep the main thing the main thing in the midst of all our busyness and our confusion and even sometimes our near-despair, nothing must get in the way--

Okay, that wasn't the best place to cut that sentence, but it got pretty explicitly Episcopalian at the end of that sentence, and I didn't want those words to become the focus. Rather, I wanted to point out the similar struggle we sometimes deal with--in fact, we could pretty much use the same words. From the sermon:

We often hear said, "You're sacrificing justice for unity!"

Hmm...yes. I have heard something like that--but not just in the church. We've also struggled with this issue in the world of political activism. Calls for "unity" are sometimes used in an attempt to silence any criticism of the current Democratic leaders. Yet we often feel that we must make these criticisms when we see that someone or some group is being denied justice.

Tonight, I don't really have a conclusion, but wanted to put this out there for reflection. What is the "main thing" for you? And how do you keep from being sidetracked by petty crap, or from getting too discouraged?

Alternate link for comments