Newsflash - Locavore Named Word of the Year

Check it out at link.

How Strong is Our Commitment to Streams?

Photo by Jim Clark - www.jimclarkphotography.com

Is it strong enough for us to join the folks at Kentuckians for the Commonwealth on Valentine's Day? They are having a rally in Frankfort that day for folks like us who think there is something very wrong about coal companies being allowed to blow the tops off mountains and, in doing so, bury the headwaters of the sorts of mountain streams where we like to stand while waving a nine foot long stick. Read more about it here.

I think we ought to go. According to the site linked above, our legislators think this is no big deal because there is no general concern from the public on this matter. I say we help them reverse that trend. What say ye members of our little cabal?

At Least It Was Not in Kentucky

But it certainly could have been. Heaven help us...

Nobel winner's speech at Montana high school canceled over global warming controversy
BY MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
updated 4:34 p.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 17, 2008

BILLINGS, Mont. - A climate scientist's speech to high school students was canceled because members of the rural community were concerned the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's message on climate change would be "anti-agriculture," the superintentent said Thursday.

Choteau schools Superintendent Kevin St. John said school board members pressured him to bring in someone with an opposing viewpoint to speak to the school's 130 students, and he thought canceling the speech was the reasonable and neutral option.

"Nobody wants to believe in science and promote science more than we do," said St. John, who is in his first year running the school district. "It was my decision to bring him in and it was my decision (to cancel him.)"

University of Montana scientist Steve Running said he had never before been canceled in any venue, by any organization. "I think there's a faction of society that is willfully ignorant, that they just don't want to know the facts about this," he said.

Running is a member of the U.N. science panel that shared last year's Nobel with former Vice President Al Gore for raising awareness of global warming and its impact on the Earth.

Some critics are concerned that whatever steps are taken to combat global warming will harm the agriculture industry.

Choteau is a ranching and farming community of about 1,800 at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in central Montana. Members of the school board declined to comment, referring questions to St. John.

The evening of the canceled school speech, Jan. 10, Running spoke in Choteau at the invitation of an environmental group, mostly to a crowd of adults. St. John said many students were attending a basketball game at that time.

The cancellation prompted several people to write to local newspapers to denounce the district's actions.

Choteau High School senior Kip Barhaugh questioned school officials for "spoon-feeding" students information on climate change.

"With this single act, some members of the Choteau School Board not only denied its students access to valuable information about the future of our planet, but they demonstrated their short-sightedness," Barhaugh wrote to the Great Falls Tribune.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22716304/

Great television programming abounds

If you really use the power of the program guide that comes with your digital set top box, you can be amazed at what you can find. For example, have you ever paid any attention to VH1 Classic Rock? There is an outstanding program or two on there. Of late I have become really thrilled with Classic Albums. This hour long program features the story behind the great classic albums of our time. Tonight I am watching the story of The Band and how they created the album of the same name which I consider to be one of the best albums of all time.

So I was just looking through what is coming up next and find that on Tuesday January 22 at 4:00 Classic Albums will be covering the story behind Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon! You got to watch that! Right after that at 5:00 will be the story of Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. This is must see stuff!

Michael Pollan Rocks

Well, at this point it looks like we might not get to attend Michael Pollan's interview and dinner in Louisville on Friday because it is sold out! I must say that creates quite a set of mixed feelings. First, I am very disappointed that we are going to miss out on this opportunity to see and hear an extremely thought provoking author right here in the Commonwealth; but, on the other hand, I am pretty thrilled that an author of this caliber with a message that seems a bit outlandish by Kentucky standards, can sell out a venue in Kentucky! Perhaps there is reason to hope!

All is not lost even if we discover that he sold it out because there were only fifty seats available because KET is taping the event and it will be on KET2 on Tuesday February 5 at 9 p.m. (that is channel 23 on EPB cable). You also need to click hereand see the many wonderful resources and copies of articles Michael has written on the subject of our food abyss over the last few years. We can likely learn as much here as we would have by actually seeing him.

Some of these need to go with us on next trip...

This morning's Courier Journal had this nice article about a guy making great cigars right here in the Commonwealth. It has been years since I smoked one of my collection, but this gets me interested again. You can get them at Chuck's in BG and several places in Louisville. Here is a link to their website.

Is the sun coming up in the west this morning?

Maybe not, but something big is happening out toward Iowa! While I am not yet a big Obama supporter, I see some interesting things in yesterday's caucuses there. Most interesting is that massive amounts of money by candidates like Romney and Clinton did not produce winning votes! Can there be anything more exciting? Could this mean that we are capable of liberating our Commonwealth from the likes of McConnell and Bunning?

You know these guys. They are the ones who just helped ram the Senate version of this year's Farm Bill through even though everyone on the planet outside of the corporate wags of Cargill and Archer-Daniels Midland, etc. are against it. This bill continues to dole out heaps of money to big corporate farmers who are already rich beyond our imagination. The fact that they are already reaping such huge profits that even all-out corruption and tax fraud cannot hide the profits is not even considered in this bill. It aims to heap up additional subsidies for them as if our nation is suffering from over production of revenue and out of places to store it!

There is a great amount of information about the most corrupt of this group at this link I urge you to go there and see who is stealing our money and laughing at us night and day. If the folks in Iowa can ignore the massive media campaigns that big money buys, is there hope for the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky? I sure hope so.