Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Natural Gas, So clean, Not.

On the anniversary of the Gulf Oil Disaster...This answers one of those questions that people never think to ask...what are the hidden environmental costs of supposedly 'green' friendly fossil fuels? Saying natural gas is the 'pollution free' answer to the fossil fuel crisis is a little like saying that just because it doesn't dump crude straight into the ocean, the Alaska Pipeline is totally clean. Remember, the pipeline ends at VALDEZ.

Natural Gas Well Blowout Spills Thousands of Gallons of Fracking Fluid

Friday, January 28, 2011

Super Crops = Super weeds!

My friend Carrie has become a great source of fodder (that's an alfalfa pun, haha) for my blog, of late.

I think I did a post on this subject before...or maybe I just thought about it. Or posted a link to an article without adding any extra thought.
Personally, I think that proper management of your soil can go a long way towards eliminating weed problems without having to resort to dangerous chemicals. Not a big fan of chemicals. If not for chemicals I might have had another older sibling. If not for chemicals and other latent toxins in our modern world, ADD and autism might not be mysteriously on the rise. Things like this seriously make me half afraid to eat anything I haven't grown myself. I'm eying the apples on the counter with suspicion right now. Not to mention those nefarious bananas in the bowl on the kitchen table...God's only know what was in that preservative-laden fruit cup I just ate!

Anyway, if you shop at Whole Foods or any of these other supposedly 'organic' markets who are bowing to the weed killer charlatans, you might think about writing them a letter and expressing your opinion about that.

P. S. I like the term 'greenwash'.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronnie-cummins/the-organic-elite-surrend_b_815346.html

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Everyone sidesteps responsibility for starving horses

I must really be missing something to not understand why no one has done anything more about this situation when they've known it was going on for so long. I know horses are thought of differently out west than we do here in the east, and they are expected to forage on open range and do all right by themselves, but it seems to me like you could argue that Mr. Stovall is holding Mr. Leachman's horses illegally. Honestly, I can't even begin to figure out how you solve this situation, aside from starting by letting the locked up horses loose and humanely destroying any that are injured or too far gone to help. All I know is that this situation is just WRONG, and its worth more than 5000 dollars and five years of jail-time for whoever is found to be responsible.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/article_6d566364-3c43-5661-b6a7-7e113a13972c.html?mode=story

Friday, January 21, 2011

USDA = Mass Murder?

http://www.naturalnews.com/031076_USDA_bird_deaths.html

It does make you wonder a bit about other mass deaths, like elk and big horn herds that graze where ranchers want to...hmm.
Perhaps I'm just becoming a conspiracy theorist in my paranoid old age.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Wolf populations a "State of Emergency"???

I'm having a 'sphincter says what?' moment, because that is exactly what I think the Idaho state legislature is full of. Check this out:

http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2010/HCR043.pdf

Um. What? Kay folks, who's going to let me know who to send all the wolf-hater hate mail to? Should I go with just the government of Idaho, or the entire American chain of command? Who has a petition for me to sign that says "Save wolves and tell the Idaho Government that they are RETARDS!"?

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Keep pushing to stop Wild Horse Roundups!

First post in a LONG time! Its a copy-paster, but a good'un, ya'll! From the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign:


Our voices are making a difference for America's wild horses, and now is the time to keep up the pressure!

In the last two months, after receiving well over ten thousand public comments in opposition, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has postponed two scheduled wild horse roundups in Utah's Confusion Mountains Complex and eastern Nevada's Eagle Herd Management Area. The agency even admitted that the tremendous public opposition to the roundups influenced its decisions.

And on February 5 -- several weeks early and 500 horses short of its 2,432 horse removal goal, the agency halted the intensely controversial Calico roundup. 39 horses lost their lives due to the helicopter stampede and capture, and an additional 25-30 pregnant mares spontaneously aborted. Equine veterinary experts consulted by AWHPC dispute BLM's claim that the miscarriages were due to poor nutritional condition of the mares, citing the stress and trauma of the roundup and capture as a more likely cause.

Now we need you to act again to oppose the massive removal of more than 3,300 wild horses from two BLM herd management complexes in California and Northeastern Nevada.

I've already missed the comment deadline for one of these, but here is the other:

Twin Peaks Complex in California: Comments Due March 5BLM is accepting public input on the proposed roundup and removal of 1,800 wild horses and 180 burros from the Twin Peaks HMA, northeast of Susanville, Calif. In keeping with the BLM practice of setting arbitrarily determined and artificially low "appropriate management levels" for horses and burros, BLM is claiming that this 798,000-acre public land area can only sustain 448-758 horses and 72-116 burros. Customize and email the sample Twin Peaks letter below today!

Two additional protest sscheduled: - Las Vegas, NVWhen: Thursday, February 18,, 2:00 pm, for Secretary Salazar's and President Obama's visit. Where: on the court house steps. - Washington, D.C. When: March 24, 1:00pmWhere: in front of BLM's offices

SAMPLE TWIN PEAKS LETTER To: twinpeaks@ca.blm.gov Dayne_Barron@blm.gov

Subject: Public Comment for preparation of Twin Peaks Herd Management Area Preliminary Environmental Assessment

Dear Mr. Barron,

I oppose the current proposal by the Eagle Lakes Field Office to roundup 1,800 wild horses and 180 burros from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA). BLM has been found repeatedly to arbitrarily set Appropriate Management Levels for Wild Horses at numbers so low they often defy common sense. Such is the case with BLM's contention that 798,000-acre Twin Peaks public HMA can only sustain 448-758 horses and 72-116 burros.

BLM's proposed massive removal of wild horses and burros from the Twin Peaks HMA and the warehousing of these animals in government holding facilities violates the intent of Congress and the will of the American people that our wild horses be managed on the range in a humane and minimally-intrusive manner that preserves their wild and free-roaming behavior.

As a result, I urge the field office to consider the following measures to improve management of the wild horses in the Twin Peaks HMA:

Re-evaluate and increase the Appropriate Management Level (AML) for wild horses for this 798,000-acre complex;

Utilize BLM's discretion under 43 C.F.R. 4710.5(a) to close or limit livestock grazing in the Twin Peaks HMA and/or or designate this area to be managed principally for wild horse herds under 43 C.F.R. 4710.3-2

Offer any ranchers grazing livestock in the Twin Peaks HMA the option to retire cattle grazing allotments or convert cattle grazing allotments to wild horse allotments to promote ecotourism activities;

Implement and expand the current proposal of fertility control treatments to allow more horse to remain on the range'

Implement range improvements and water enhancements that will benefit all animals, including wildlife and horses, living in the Twin Peaks HMA.

Further, any environmental assessment conducted for this capture plan must include objective evaluation of the above mentioned items, as well as an detailed economic analysis of the costs associated with the capture, removal and warehousing of these horses, and a full consideration of the impacts of capture, removal and warehousing on the horses taken from the range.

Please use this opportunity to implement a humane and progressive management program for the Twin Peaks mustangs and burros and reject the plan to massively round up and warehouse these free-living animals.

Thank you for your consideration.

For more info on the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, go to their website:
WildHorsePreservation.com