On the Banks

Chaos Garden

 

 

It's this garden, with a few months and a little neglect added. If anyone has any tips for preventing the broccoli from bolting, I'd love to hear them. I was expecting that from the salad greens but they were actually pretty well behaved. It turns out you can't turn your back on broccoli though. 

What wasn't in the previous picture, in front of the winter garden: Carrots, beets, ecinacea flowers, a lone daikon radish, and some young tomato plants.

 

 

Here's What I'm Making, BTW:

 

 

Paleo Coconut Cream Pie. And yes, that's a layer of chocolate at the bottom. Now are you hungry?

 

UPDATE: Here's my attempt:

 

Yes, it looks a lot messier, and my lighting isn't as nice. But I promise it was incredibly yummy. Kind of like a giant paleo chocolate chip cookie with coconut pie on top. We'll be doing this one again.

 

 

If You Can't Find Me, I'm Probably Over Here...

 

...at my new favorite website ever.  It's called:

 

 

I've just put my first effort from this site into the fridge to set.  I will update here with the results.  Maybe even a picture if I can take one before I've eaten it all.  

Take a look at some of the images here and you'll understand why I'm going to be spending quite a lot of time over at this blog.

 

 

 

How Fossil Fuels are Greening the Earth

 

I found this great video from Matt Ridley, while researching a short video I'm making:

 

 

From his talk:

"Because of the burning of fossil fuels, we're making the planet greener... despite doubling the population, we've got more food to go around... and yet the Earth is getting greener... so there's something wrong with the model that says that economic growth comes at the expense of resources, at the expense of the environment."

 

 

 

Anti-Bank Flamenco Flash Mob

 

 

This. Is. WONDERFUL.

I'm sure their analysis of the economic situation is completely messed up, but man these people can dance!  And what a great protest (can you imagine what would have happened to them here in the Land of the Free?)

Flamenco is damned hard to do, by the way.  I took some classes when I lived in NYC and I can tell you that it is damned hard to do.  Imagine tapping out a nine-count rythm with your feet while doing a seven-count rythm with your hands.  Hell, just imagine doing a seven-count rythm.  And doing it intuitively, not even thinking about it because you're doing this whole intense, demanding dance at the same time. So, even if their economic analysis is messed up (they are supposedly protesting the "financial system" - but I don't see them at the central bank, rather commercial ones), these people are absolute geniuses in the world of dance.

 

 

"This Is Not America" T-Shirt

 

I figure this is a pretty good time to plug my T-shirt:

 

A Beautifully Done Website

 

 

Congratulations to My Dad

 

 

...he's going to be on the academic board of the newly launched Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. 

From the Institute's website:

Many still believe each four years that if only their candidate – with the newly-minted and freshly-printed slogans – is elected, we will finally be led to a new springtime in America, to peaceful and prosperous days ahead. But regardless of party, with only cosmetic differences the same policies are being pursued.

Those disgusted by the wars pursued by the Bush Administration, based on lies and manipulation, eagerly waved signs welcoming "change" and voted for new management. But the new manager turned out to be just as bad as the previous one, and in many cases even worse.

...

It is time for us to stand up for peace, a peace that is intricately connected to justice, shared human values, and prosperity. A peace that leaves us safer than the empty lies of the warmongers. A peace that leaves our economic future with some glimmer of hope, that leaves our next generations with some glimmer of hope. A peace that frees up the economic resources that can prevent our children from being slaves to the impoverishing imperial ambitions of those directing our current foreign policy.

...

This is an historic moment. The era of the neo-conservative control over our foreign policy is passing. Those pushing authoritarianism at home are being challenged and rejected. The American people are turning away from a foreign policy of empire because they understand that they cannot afford it, that it does not make us safer but rather the opposite; that the price of empire abroad is a police state at home, and that throughout history all empires fall and fall in a catastrophic way. We can avoid this terrible fate if we stand up together.

Please, join us. Support our efforts. Become involved in our mission. Peace and prosperity.

 

 

Fear and Flying - Mea Culpa

 

Honestly, this little piece started out as a personal reflection. I did not intend for it to end up as "political" as it did, but there it is. As I said below, it is harder than I thought it would be to write about practically anything (with the possible exception of beluga whales and baby elephants) without it becoming political. So... Mea Culpa, I've strayed from my New Year's Resolution not to write "political" articles. I will endeavor to be more careful in the future.

UPDATE: A few readers have already written in, chiding me for not calling for an all-out boycott of the airlines. Lately, I've been really down on humanity, and Americans in particular, for being so mindlessly enamored of the state. So these readers can have no idea how much it cheers me to be called out for not being radical enough.  Anyway, here's my position on boycotting the airlines:

I DID call for a boycott of the airlines.  For several years, I DID boycott the airlines. My friend George Donnelly organized the We Won't Fly movement, and I was very supportive of that effort. But unfortunately it didn't have much of an impact, other than getting some attention for our position. And I think the reason it did not succeed is that the vast majority of Americans value things like family vacations, business opportunities and productivity at work more than they value liberty - or even just plain common decency. This is very depressing to me. And it raises the larger issue: How do we (libertarians, anarchists) change things for the better when we don't have much of the wider population on our side? When we are surrounded by - OK, I'll say it: idiots - who believe that the state exists to make all of our lives better?

I do believe it can be done, and I am not opposed to boycotts. However I think we need to look beyond tactics that rely on our having the support of vast numbers of people in order to succeed. I'll be saying more about this, and offering some specific suggestions (most of which are not my own, but are things people are already doing) if I ever get to writing that follow-up piece to this one. It could be a while though - I'm trying to stay focused on creative projects now.

 

Cute Baby Elephant Videos

 

REMINDER: If you don't care about things like cute elephant videos, pictures of me playing with cetaceans, family vacation pics, etc. (and why should you?), just click on "Punditry" and/or "Stuff I've made" to filter out all of the personal posts.

These are a couple of videos I took at the Portland Zoo, of one of their newest additions: Lily the baby elephant:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and a Beluga Whale