Can Farming in the City Feed Us?

I live in Philadelphia. The urban gardening movement is strong here. Just like London. I am inundated with Roma Plum Tomatoes from one plant grown in my tiny backyard. I am giving them to neighbors.

In other news, City Farmer News has received another award for their coverage of sustainable and urban agriculture and related urban planning. Greenys interested must go there for good information about the subject. And try this site too. 

The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article about urban agriculture helping the working urbanite to fresh food self sufficiency. And the photo below is part of an excellent slide show that helps us understand the vastness of our food chain. Do you know that 60% of the apple juice sold in the US comes from China?

Could city farming be a solution for Bangkok’s urban poor?

A group of nutritional experts say the trend could be harnessed to improve access to food for Thailand’s growing numbers of urban poor. 

By Flora Bagenal, Correspondent / August 10, 2013

The garden was set up in 2003 by a group of janitors who decided to use empty space on the building’s roof to grow food to take home to their families. In the 10 years since, it has blossomed into a fully functioning urban horticulture center, complete with trellises crisscrossed with vines and rows of potted herbs and spices. It covers an area roughly 4,000 sq. meters (about 4,300 sq. feet), that otherwise would be an expanse of unused concrete.

The guerrilla garden is one of several small city farms dotted around Bangkok. And now, a group of nutritional experts say the trend could be harnessed to improve access to food for Thailand’s growing numbers of urban poor. 

Political Sign of the Month - August - You choose from a surfeit of riches.

These signs come from the USA and around the world.

From Egberto Willies

"In Mozambique, women face a similar challenge. The current penal code, a remnant of colonial rule, prohibits the provision of abortion services regardless of circumstances. In the 1980s the Mozambican Ministry of Health passed a decree stating abortions could be performed in central-level hospitals to save the mother’s life, but did not revise the old penal code to reflect this. These conflicting regulations, similar to those in Ireland, mean women and their providers are often unclear about when abortion services are permitted, and where they can be received. 

Political Sign of the Month - May - Tea Party

May seems like a most political month of the year given all the Cinco de Mayo celebrations. I had a hard time deciding which sign to choose for this month because so many seemed appropriate.  

Then I saw  this article about the modern Tea Party resurgence and my  decision seemed inevitable and unavoidable. Have fun with THIS LINK. I sure did.

IRS Targeting Scandal Fuels Tea Party Resurgence

Is the tea party getting its groove back? Shouts of vindication from around the country suggest the movement's leaders certainly think so.

Note:  Definition of teabagging from The Urban Dictonary:

teabagging

1) Repeated insertion of ones testicles in another's mouth.
2) Continiously crouching on a dead body in a video game.\

1: Dude, I don't think teabagging is a good prank, man.
2: dude stop teabagging, it's bad sportsmanship
by Verdigris June 25, 2016

Dirty Deeds

Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.
Benito Mussolini

Corporations privatize profit and socialize waste and damage. The public is left with the cleanup and the cancer. My Nonno left Italy to get away from the Fascists in 1900s. And yet here the MoFos are again.

Do you think I am being too harsh? Go to the links and read about this shit for yourself. Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you think maybe there is a secret oil pipeline under your house the EPA in your state and your legislatures did not tell you about?

Arkansas Residents Sick From Exxon Oil Spill Are on Their Own

Friday marks one week since an ExxonMobil pipeline burst in the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, spilling thousands of barrels of toxic tar sands. Town residents say they are being kept in the dark over compensation and the cleanup by Exxon.

The Rule of Law - Updated

Update: 
Texas -  it is the new Bangladesh. Unless you vote and vote intelligently, this atrocity will be coming to a town near you. Owners of the building in Bangladesh are being held criminally liable -- how about the owners of the Texas fertilizer plant? Rick Perry said this cartoon is "disgusting." I think it is right on time. Hit the link in the photo caption to go to the Bee.

A Jack Ohman cartoon from the Sacramento Bee

Okay, the event I expected has come. A corporation has committed depraved indifference homicide. Corporations are people says SCOTUS. Who is going to jail for years? The CEO, the Board, the owners/shareholders? Who is going to pay for this crime? The taxpayers? Only the victims?

Somebody better go to jail. Or We the People might just as well rob our local bank, because being law abiding will not be and cannot be a sane strategy in the USA anymore. Form yourself into a corporation or business entity and you can commit any crime with impunity evidently. Go to the link for stunning coverage of this event. Texas is asking for aid from the Feds, even though they voted against Sandy aid, of course. Somebody needs to piss on their cowboy boots. 

Fertilizer Plant Explodes in Texas: 'This Town Is Hurt Really Bad'

A raging fire, followed by a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in North Texas has devastated a small community. The plant is located in West, Texas, a small town of about 2,800 people, 18 miles north of Waco. As many as 60 homes and local businesses, including a nearby nursing home, were "severely damaged," with some residents killed or tapped inside. The explosion is also believed to have claimed the lives of several firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders who were on the scene to battle the initial blaze. The current estimate of casualties is pegged at 170 wounded and 5-15 people killed, although those numbers could rise dramatically. The federal Chemical Safety Board will look into the cause of the explosion, despite recent revelations that  it's still tied up looking at the BP oil spill.

Asshats on Parade - Evil Women Edition - Charles Van Zant, Grand Marshal

Women Legislators walked out of a debate on a new anti abortion bill in Florida.

"A debate in Florida's House of Representatives over a Republican-sponsored ban on race- and sex-selective abortions became extremely heated Thursday, causing several black women lawmakers to walk out in protest. 

House Bill 845, sponsored by Rep. Charles Van Zant (R-Keystone Heights), would make it a third-degree felony in Florida to perform an abortion based on the race or gender of the fetus. Van Zant accused Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers of intentionally targeting black people. "The fact is, 80 percent of abortion clinics nationwide are located in minority neighborhoods where 43 percent of all black babies are aborted," Van Zant said, according to the Tampa Bay Times." - Laura Bassett, Huffpo

Van Zant

I gave Van Zant the AssHat Award for this sentence alone. Van Zant stated "In America alone, without the Naxi holocaust, without the Ku Klux Klan, Planned Parenthood and other abortionists have reduced our black population by more than 25 percent since 1973. This is called discriminatory targeting."

The premises Van Zant is arguing here are:

Evil women have abortions for evil reasons at the request of evil organizations. Everybody knows that. A black woman is a potential Shoah just standing there in her shoes and must be specially provided for by House Bill 845.

One citizen of Dumbfuckistan cannot imagine why the 
Black women Legislators walked out and chimed in "How is it racism if they don't want black babies to be singled out for abortions?"

I got questions for the DumbFuck and AssHat Van Zant.

Is all this sheet* going to come down on black women who abort black babies only? What if a black woman is having a white baby? Does she get to have her abortion then? And what if a white woman is having a black baby? Or a red or yellow baby? Womb as Color TV. You got special probes for that? 

How will this law be enforced? What are you willing to do to women, Van Zant, to enforce this law? I sent this to Van Zant. Think I will get an answer? AssHat. 

* Yes, this is a pun and I intentionally committed it. 

This comment is from Prion at JoeMyGod - S/He Speaks to My Condition

Prion • 8 hours ago

-We can't stop giving tax dollars to insanely profitable oil companies.

-We can't effectively regulate Wall Street or indict any of those responsible for the 2008 economic collapse.

-We can't stop corporations from off-shoring profits to avoid taxes.

-We can't do anything to correct our horrific income and wealth inequality (but we're pretty good at making it worse).

- We can't effectively regulate the monopoly-based telecom industry which continues to rip off millions of Americans every day.

-We can't do anything to significantly reign in our huge military spending.

-We can't hold accountable any of the politicians who lied us into an illegal, unnecessary, bloody and costly war with Iraq.

-We can't hold accountable anyone responsible for violating US and International laws against the use of torture.

--- We can't possibly be a democratic republic.

The illustration is the cover of an excellent book Revolutionary Mothers - Women in the Struggle for America's Independence by Carol Berkin. I am in a Revolutionary FemiNazi state of mind. 

Political Sign of the Month - April 2013

Advertising is the greatest artform of the 20th century. - Marshall McLuhan. 

I had a difficult time selecting the best Political Sign for April. I found the fabulous Political Loudmouth political sign website. You can go there and select your favorite. This one is my favorite because it is fiery. I am thinking it needs to be a Tshirt. 

The word sign has a number of meanings. The Oxford Dictionary says that a sign is

An object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else.

Given that definition, I am going to propose that this House is really a Sign. I am not April Fooling. "The medium is the massage/message." -  Marshall McLuhan. 

Shaming and Blaming

Being an Anarchist and a generally Odd Person is trying on a regular basis. I say the Serenity Prayer a lot. And I need to . . . God grant me . . . 

My natural and instinctive response to North Dakota's new abortion laws is to fantasize burning the North Dakota State House down. These bills will kill women and harm families. 

Sanity came back when I read the Editorial in the Fargo-Moorhead Forum. The last paragraph in the editorial says it all:

The governor’s decision to sign the bills is more than a disappointment. He has unnecessarily put the state into a costly and losing legal struggle. More importantly, his deference to legislative malfeasance dismisses women’s rights and undermines best practices of medicine in North Dakota.

Be a terrible sin and shame to harm such a beautiful Art Deco building. And going to jail like the Cheryl Sullenger  filth is beneath me. Crazy person that I am, I am no terrorist.

So, having read the excellent editorial in the Forum, I was all kool and feeling reassured that there are sane folks in North Dakota, until I went to a message board and read this comment. And then I got upset all over again.

"These same politicians want to ensure that effective and efficient birth control is not available and they see abortion as birth control. It's not, but there seems to be no way of convincing these "folks" of that."

A big part of the oppressive control of women is shaming and blaming. I know this is a good pro choice person who sees herself as enlightened. And indeed, she is that. And yet, she is apologizing for women who do or might use abortion as birth control. She is apologizing because ultimately, in some obscure corner of her psyche, she feels shame about abortion. And that shaming is the only argument Forced Birthers really have, when I think about it. This is stupid counter productive pearl clutching. 

So I say, take a good hard look at reality, shall we? Anthropologically speaking, Homo Sapiens has three strategies for birth/population control - contraception, abortion and infanticide. These strategies are in use currently around the world.  Ipso facto. 

Those who restrict contraception and abortion make infanticide inevitable. That is immoral by any standard. My evidence? Ceausescu's Romania and the murder of street children in Central and South America and in India. Am I the only one who sees this?

Up Your Giggy, George W. Bush, Sideways

Wish George W. Bush a Happy Iraq War Day: Here is His Private Email Address - from Gawker

As we mentioned earlier, a hacker calling himself (or herself) Guccifer has penetrated the electronic worlds of George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and a number of other political figures. Screengrabs of various email conversations that Bush, Clinton, and others have participated in have been floating around the internet. And it has come to our attention on this, the day of the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on the orders of George W. Bush, that one of those screengrabs credibly displays Bush's private email address. 

It is: gwb@ogwb.org. Please let him know that you're thinking of him today.

http://gawker.com/5991411/wish-george-w-bush-a-happy-iraq-war-day-here-is-his-private-email-address?post=58405543

Frosting the Turd with UPDATE

The Republicans are making no plans to change their ignorant sexually repressive platform. They are aware that Tod Akin might as well have entered the national parlor and left a turd on the rug. So they are going to deodorize it as outlined in the Roll Call article I excerpt below. If you missed the event, I provide the video in question. 

Inside the NRSC's Comeback Strategy

• By Kyle Trygstad

• Roll Call Staff

• March 4, 2013, 6:53 p.m.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee plans to expand its press operation to train campaigns earlier in the cycle on how to better handle the kind of candidate missteps that have plagued its party’s nominees. The goal? To avoid what’s become known in GOP circles as “Todd Akin moments.”

“The campaigns that jumped off message not only infected themselves, they infected all the rest of the campaigns,” said Rob Collins, the new NRSC executive director, in his first extensive interview on the job. “So in this age of fractured but continuous, three-dimensional communication, we have to constantly plan for that and train for that and build for that.”

UPDATE:   The Growth and Opportunity Project  Report has been released. The Report evaluates what the GOP must do if they want to win elections. The report suggests that Republicans communicate their values to minorities more effectively. I excerpt part of the Report's recommendations for Women. 

5. Republicans should develop a more aggressive response to Democrat rhetoric regarding a so-called “war on women.” In 2012, the Republican response to this attack was muddled, and too often the attack went undefended altogether. We need to actively combat this, better prepare our surrogates, and not stand idly by while the Democrats pigeonhole us using false attacks. There are plenty of liberal policies that negatively impact women, and it is incumbent upon the party to expose those and relentlessly attack Democrats using that framework. 

There is not one mention of "legitimate rape" bills. No mention of attempts to relegislate Roe v. Wade and defund Planned Parenthood. We all saw that with our own eyes. They plan to language it all away. I find Republicans "scary" too: 

Now that we know their play (Frost the turd with yummy chocolate before they try to make us eat it again.), we must never never never give them credence or power again. Why? This is their playbook: 

“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” 
― Joseph Goebbels

Political Sign of the Month - March 2013

Bless this Woman just standing there in her blue hat. Bless all the women and the photographer too. A special shout out to the guys way in the left and right corners of the photograph. Way to go, Dudes. God love prochoice men just standing there in their socks. I know S/He does.

Protesters opposed to legislation requiring women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound demonstrated outside the Idaho Capitol in Boise on March 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessie L. Bonner)

Rabid Racism and the Voting Rights Act

Eclectablog, the premier Michigan events and politics blog, brings us the story of two Black Nurses suing for racial discrimination in the workplace. 

2nd nurse sues Hurley Hospital for complying with racist’s demands; original lawsuit goes to federal court

A second nurse has joined Tonya Battle in filing a lawsuit against Flint hospital Hurley Medical Center. Carlotta Armstrong claims that ... she was subjected to racial discrimination when administrators complied with a blatantly racist father’s demand that no African American nurses care of his baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

What a fricking mess. In my opinion, this racist man presented a serious security risk for the whole hospital. White supremacist racists cannot be regarded as rational and must be thought of as dangerous given the bomb found at a MLK Day parade. 

The hospital had a big problem that was really scary. And by law hospitals cannot decline to treat someone for having an unfortunate or frightening political opinion. And the hospital is responsible for safety of everyone in the hospital. 

Unfortunately, the hospital chose a top-down solution. They put up a sign instructing Black nurses not to handle the racist's baby. All the nurses went ballistic. Professional dignity alone would demand nurses object, never mind respect for colleagues whatever their race, religion or politics. 

The smart way to deal with it would have been to call a meeting of the whole nursing and security staff and give them input into the decision making. And honor that input. The whole staff might all very well have decided to humor the scary man. No doubt in my mind that is the best course of action. That group decision would not have been imposed upon black staff. Democracy works. Maybe we should all give it a try. 

The Voting Rights Act of 1964 is up for renewal. I was in High School in the early Sixties. I had a friend who was a great artist. He also happened to be black. Nobody is pinker than me and I had red hair. One day I exuberantly took his hand while we were walking down the street. Traffic stopped. Catcalls began. We were engaged in shocking unacceptable behavior. Just ambling along. 

Two coffee houses, the Trivia and the Capri, were shut down because students from the High School went there to hear Beat poetry and play chess. No alcoholic beverages. Black and white folks together. Unacceptable. It was a "friend" of mine who reported the fraternization to high school authorities. And the Trenton Suits shut that whole thing down. 

Alabama, did you say? It was Trenton New Jersey in 1960. Race relations in this country were bad news for everyone. I do not want to go back to that. Once was enough. We cannot do without the Voting Rights Act. Especially in light of the voter suppression billboards that mysteriously appeared in minority neighborhoods this last election. 

I love you, America

Fuck the Koch brothers with Sheldon Adelson's dick. I was so afraid of Citizens United. All that corporate and foreign money pouring in to influence our election seemed unbeatable. And then we WON.

Here is what you rich Dumb Asses accomplished. You energized the American people. I used to read articles decrying how few people vote. Now you Authoritarians are reduced to using dirty tricks to stop Americans from voting. 

You also showed us that all the money in the world cannot buy or bamboozle real Americans. Folks waited in lines for hours to give you the finger of doom. Patriots every single one of them. 

God bless you my fellow Americans. You make this nasty Old Lady very happy. 

O lands! all so dear to me--what you are, (whatever it is), I become a part of that, whatever it is; . . .  - Walt Whitman

Just goes to show that all the money in the world will do you no good if you choose to live in Dumbfuckistan. 

Note: I did not make any Cock jokes. It would have been too easy. 

Asshats on Parade - Humiliation Version or Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar

Narcissus by Caravaggio

Narcissus was the beautiful youth in Greek myth doomed to gaze enraptured at his own reflection forever.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings.

This, from his blog, is the Testimony of Cardinal Mahoney regarding his sin and crime of aiding and abetting the secret rape of hundreds of children in his diocese.

"Given all of the storms that have surrounded me and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently, God's grace finally helped me to understand:  I am not being called to serve Jesus in humility.  Rather, I am being called to something deeper--to be humiliated, disgraced, and rebuffed by many.

I was not ready for this challenge.  Ash Wednesday changed all of that, and I see Lent 2013 as a special time to reflect deeply upon this special call by Jesus.

To be honest with you, I have not reached the point where I can actually pray for more humiliation.  I'm only at the stage of asking for the grace to endure the level of humiliation at the moment.

In the past several days, I have experienced many examples of being humiliated.  In recent days, I have been confronted in various places by very unhappy people.  I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage--at me, at the Church, about injustices that swirl around us.

Thanks to God's special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them."  

The rape of children in Mahoney's diocese is all about his suffering. The anger of their parents is Mahoney's apotheosis, a special sign from Jesus. 

Mahoney is the victim. But, like Christ, he will forgive us. I do not know whether to laugh, cry or vomit. God save us from the mad priest. 

Egg Money in the Sustainable Farming Universe

Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post

It is not so easy being a Chicken farmer. This young woman is doing it. Shelby Grebenc has been raising chickens for both eggs and meat at her family's Adams County farm. In this 2011 photo, she holds Chipmunk, one of her Americana hens.

You may be tired of reading about Chickens and sustainable agriculture but I am probably not going to stop writing about it. Hey, it is my Blog.  

My Babcha helped raise a family of six with her chicken and egg money in the early 1900s. All they had was an acre in the country. I think I really may get some Hens. Ever had a fresh country Egg? Delicious. 

Ms. Shelby has plenty of peppery and wise things to say about Life, Salesmanship and Chickens like this quote below. Go to the article at the Denver Post if you want to know more:

"If you want sustainable, wholesome, pasture-raised organic, hormone- and antibiotic-free food, you have to support it. You can not get these things by talking about it and not paying for it. The next time you shop at a farmers market, think about what it cost me to grow it. Don't ask me to take less and then tell me you can get it cheaper at a big-box store. I know you can — but it will not be as fresh or as good as what I have, and you won't make me cry."

Asshats on Parade - Rape Edition - Cathrynn N. Brown

Several political professionals are trying to teach Republicans how and how-not to talk about Rape according to Media-ite:

“This is actually pretty simple,” said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. “If you’re about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop.”

 Marina Ein, a crisis communications specialist, said Republicans need “sensitivity training” to succeed in the next elections. "It all boils down to whether or not the Republican Party thinks this is a problem,” she said. “If they want to make inroads with women, then they need to subject every one of their candidates to sensitivity training — not to mention reality training.”

Cathrynn N. Brown

I submit House Bill 206 as an example of how intelligently and seriously Republicans have taken excellent and expensive advice. Yes, it is a real bill. Read it and laugh. Or weep. 

That old Republican magic = Poof! You are now an evidence locker. Hard to believe that a lady this cute could be so pea picking corn snorting dumb and inhumane is it not? And Ms. Brown is an attorney. Let that sink in for awhile. 

HOUSE BILL 206

51ST LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Cathrynn N. Brown

AN ACT

RELATING TO CRIMINAL LAW; SPECIFYING PROCURING OF AN ABORTION

AS TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE IN CASES OF CRIMINAL SEXUAL

PENETRATION OR INCEST.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1.  Section 30-22-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1963,

Chapter 303, Section 22-5, as amended) is amended to read:

"30-22-5.  TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE.--

A.  Tampering with evidence consists of destroying,

changing, hiding, placing or fabricating any physical evidence

with intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or

conviction of any person or to throw suspicion of the

commission of a crime upon another.

B.  Tampering with evidence shall include procuring

or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another

to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of

criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to

destroy evidence of the crime.  

C.  Whoever commits tampering with evidence

shall be punished as follows:

(1)  if the highest crime for which tampering

with evidence is committed is a capital or first degree felony 

or a second degree felony, the person committing tampering with

evidence is guilty of a third degree felony;

(2)  if the highest crime for which tampering

with evidence is committed is a third degree felony or a fourth

degree felony, the person committing tampering with evidence is

guilty of a fourth degree felony;

(3)  if the highest crime for which tampering

with evidence is committed is a misdemeanor or a petty

misdemeanor, the person committing tampering with evidence is

guilty of a petty misdemeanor; and

(4)  if the highest crime for which tampering

with evidence is committed is indeterminate, the person

committing tampering with evidence is guilty of a fourth degree

felony."

SECTION 2.  EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the

provisions of this act is July 1, 2013.

- 2 -

.190749.3

"Rice is the best, the most nutritive and the most widespread staple in the world." - Escoffier

 There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.    Benjamin Franklin

I wonder about the world food supply and the effect of global climate change on agriculture. Our corn harvest in the USA is seriously affected by sustained drought.  About 80 percent of our agricultural land is experiencing drought. I wonder what this will do to the price of milk and eggs. Global climate change is a bread and butter issue. 

I found this press release from the United Nations comforting.

19 November 2012, Rome - Global rice production for 2012 is forecast to outpace consumption in 2012/13, resulting in an upward revision of 5 million tonnes in 2013 closing inventories, according to a new forecast by FAO's  Rice Market Monitor issued today. 

"Compared to last year, world rice carryover stocks are expected to rise by 7 percent, or 10 million tonnes, to a new high of almost 170 tonnes, marking the eighth consecutive year of stock accumulation," says the RMM. "As a result, the world rice stock-to-use ratio is forecast to rise from 33.6 percent in 2012 to 35.5 percent in 2013.

I wonder how many rice farmers in Africa are beautiful women.  I love Rice. So this is good news to me. There certainly is lots to think about. So I am going to keep thinking "aloud" about it and relaying what I find. I am particularly interested in urban farming.

Learn how to cook rice and get rice recipes with pictures and directions for the beginning cook at this this wonderful blog: