| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
You are Cordially Incited to Activism: “Healthy Forests”? Define Healthy! More like healthy corporations at the expense of the commons. Marie at Blog Baby brings to our attention yet another piece of Republican-sponsored legislation (HR 1904) which works against the environment and our rights. This bill serves to undermine the rights of individuals and the public as consumer of our nation’s forests, while not ensuring any real measure of health for the same woods and our watershed. Per the bill’s sponsor, Scott McInnis (R-CO): "The exploding threat of large-scale catastrophic wildfires and massive insect and disease epidemics combine to pose the single largest challenge facing federal land and resources managers today," said Congressman McInnis. "The Healthy Forests Restoration Act is a balanced and comprehensive measure primed to take this daunting task head on, by empowering our land managers with the tools needed to address this threat to our air, water, wildlife and forest ecosystems." What a nice line. He’s been practicing this one for quite a while. The problem is that this bill will remove the public’s ability to object to the method of action that foresters take to restore forested lands to some undetermined measure of so-called health. Some sportsmen support this bill under the guise of “conservation”, as clear cutting land creates more habitat for hunting. How wonderful for hunters and the corporate interests who sell hunting equipment. What a shame they are not the only parties with interests in these commons. Corporate harvesting could run amok since this bill removes much of the public’s right to protest. The timelines are also extremely tight to the point of being unrealistic. Many environmentalist and conservation groups are fighting this bill, with good reason: Richard Compton, director of the White River Conservation Project, said he is "extremely wary" of the bill on two fronts. Per Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife: "The Bush administration and Rep. (Scott) McInnis continue to try to pin the blame for wildfires on public participation and environmental laws rather than the real cause: poor forest management." The Republicans are trying to force through this legislation, using the fear spawned by last year’s wildfires. Fear, not rational evaluation, is once again working to the benefit of corporations. Rational evaluation would see that corporations do not act in the best interest of the public, but in the interest of owners and shareholders; public feedback would assure that public interests are met. Rational evaluation might also reveal that removal of underbrush in many cases versus complete deforestation through tree harvest may be far more helpful and less damaging to the watershed. There's more to this bill that's not entirely right. See Marie’s plea this week at Blog Baby, part of which is reprinted here. Please support the rights of the public by asking your Congressperson to vote no. Please call your Representative at 1-800-839-5276 and tell them to vote NO on HR 1904, the "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003." The "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR 1904) will: 1. Cut the Heart out of NEPA. The McInnis bill allows the Service to conduct large-scale, environmentally damaging logging projects without considering any alternatives, including the "no action" alternative or their relative environmental impacts. 2. Remove the Public from the Process. The McInnis bill eliminates the statutory right of citizens to appeal Forest Service logging projects . 3. Log the Backcountry rather than Protecting Communities. The McInnis bill promotes logging in threatened and endangered species habitat, allows logging and temporary road building in roadless areas, and gives the Secretary "sole discretion" to log in old growth areas and old growth fire resistant trees -- all under the guise of protection of communities from fire. 4. Interfere with the Independent Judiciary. The McInnis bill seeks to restrict a core principle of our democracy -- the right of Americans to seek redress in the court for grievances involving the federal government. The bill limits preliminary injunctive relief to 45 days, and forces any U.S court to render a final decision on the merits of a case within 100 days. Finally, the bill seeks an astounding change in American legal standards by requiring courts to give deference to agency findings regarding the balance of harms in deciding whether to enter a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, or a permanent injunction in ANY court challenge where the agency claims the action is necessary to "restore fire-adapted forest or rangelands ecosystems." 5. Create New Insect Categorical Exclusion. The McInnis bill creates a new Categorical Exclusion from the National Environmental Policy Act on all Department of Interior and Forest Service lands by authorizing an unlimited number of projects (up to 1,000 acres each) for all lands that the agencies claim are at risk of infestation by certain insects. 6. Provide New Logging Subsidies. The McInnis bill would authorize $125 million in subsidies to the biomass industry to log our National Forests. Ask your Congressperson to consider sponsoring other, better legislation that will really ensure the health of our forests without compromising our rights.  comment []North of Spring -- Update Photo taken early this morning, looking NNE out over When my mother sent this pic, she said the wind switched, moving the ice back into this bay from the open waters of the lake. She wants me to come up on vacation in a month. Damn. comment []
Young love and romance sont morte Dead. As a door nail. Toast. If lovers resort to using on-line love letter generators or repositories, the blush is off the rose. Or there never was a rose. It’s beyond my ken that anyone would even think of using such a resource to woo their lover. If a lover ever did this to me, I’d kick them to the curb in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t take much for me to ferret out a plagiarized love letter; I’ve been inexorably drawn to engineers and other geeks who have fewer gifts in the written language. You can imagine the quaint-but-real, word-chary love letters I’ve received (fabulous flower arrangements from these types, though, I must say!). Now I suppose someone will confess they’ve used resources like these to draft an e-mail or a comment to me. Agh. Tell me it isn’t so, in your own words! comment []
Butt-kicking in progress I’m about to get kicked down a notch in the Rankings by Page-Reads, from number 23 to number 24. WYWWHSWY is about to blow by me at number 23, having already eaten Driver 8’s lunch this week. Mr. Pollard provides a very nice overview of Salon blog rankings and how to stimulate one’s readership. Helpful, but he’s forgotten one valuable point: SEX SELLS. Granted, neither Reverse Cowgirl nor Julie at WYWWHSWY post purely adult content/content about human sexuality; a substantial portion of their blog posts are unrelated to sex. But the fact that Pornographer’s Picks remains consistently in the daily and all-time top 20 among Salon blogs, without any new content or updates in months, confirms this truth handily. My spouse congratulated me recently on making it to the top 25; he encouraged me to keep going up the ladder. I pointed out to my spouse that I’ll never make the top 10, that I’ll have to be content with top 20 at the very best. My content is broad, but not as broad as some of the news aggregator-blogs, nor focused enough to win any media attention. So why don’t you write about sex, he countered. Eeewww. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it as much as the next human being, but sex is private, like my lingerie drawer. I simply won’t let you peek in there; it’s just too intimate, like letting you under my skin. (You've already seen quite enough of me and my life, haven't you?) What would my close friends think or feel? They do visit here, they know me well enough without having me air out this kind of personal detail. It just violates the separation between the intimacy I have with my spouse and the intimacy of friendship. Not to mention the separation between blogger and reader. No veil piercing here, thank you. Nor am I a “professional”, someone who’s education, training or wealth of experience permits them to be a much-sought sage on the topic. What could I possibly have to say on the topic that would be new to you or of any real help? So, let the ass-whupping commence. I’ll have to go and dust off my #24 that I’d put away, polish it up and put it back on in about 24 hours. Who knows, maybe I’ll stumble on the best GoogleSlut story of all time, propping my readership numbers back up a few more notches. Yeah, right, irrational wishful thinking – what GoogleSlut story would outsell sex? comment []REMINDER: THE MAY DAY PROJECT -- TOMORROW, SATURDAY 10 MAY 2003 
"The May Day Project is about collecting glimpses into people's lives through photographs. Whether they be self portraits, landscapes or macros, candid or posed, snapshots or something more creative - we want to see what your day was like Are you ready? Make sure your batteries are charged, or that you've got spares nearby!! (Speaking of which, I'd better go put my batteries in the charger...) 9:11:15 AM comment []
Movies: The Fast Runner Stunning. Hypnotic. Breathtaking. Compelling. I cannot recommend this film enough. Thank you, Real Live Preacher; you were absolutely on the money. Some folks feel this was slow-paced; I disagree entirely. It’s not an action film; it’s an incredibly realistic depiction of indigenous culture, which has its own pace in a world before/without contemporary technology. There was only one scene, a shot about 10 seconds long of the northern sky, which one might say was redundant. It serves a valuable purpose; it’s a natural pause, a place to catch your breath. If you watch this movie, stop it at this point, go get more popcorn, and come back. If you’re thinking about renting this, go read Real Live Preacher’s feedback and other comments at his site before making this decision. They said it all. This one is well worth buying for my personal collection. comment []
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
