Bailout: A Bad Idea

There is no shortage of talking heads out there opining about the current market crisis. I'm posting this one because of who the head belongs to: Jim Rogers, one of the most respected and successful international investors for the last several decades. He believes the American government's bailout plan, and now that of the G7 nations who are convening in Washington, is being ignored by the markets—and says why. Watch the video here.

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More Reasons to Move to Asheville

There is a new movement in Asheville, NC, to promote the local food scene. Growers, chefs, markets, restaurants, and community are all gathered under the banner of FoodTopianSociety.com. Asheville keeps creating more good reasons to live there or nearby. The Appaliachian Sustainable Agriculture Project was the first of these "umbrella" movements supporting sustainable food production, and the FoodTopian Society is following in that same vein.
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Meat, the Prostate, and Big Pharma

A new Oxford University study has found that a diet containing meat and dairy may lead to increased likelihood of prostate cancer in men.

Because the connection between animal fat and prostate cancer has been established before, I've thought about it every time I've seen a current commercial running on TV. It's for Flomax (get it? MAXimum FLOW of urine, not constricted by an enlarged prostate?), one of the popular drugs to reduce the symptoms of BPH (swelling of the prostate). It pictures these guys who are all happy now that they can get in and out of the bathroom quickly -- and they're all standing around a grill at a cookout!

Imagine -- a drug company that sells a prostate-shrinking drug showing men at a cookout preparing to consume the very foodstuffs that are bad for the prostate. It's part of the do-whatever-you-want-and-then-take-a-pill mentality that Big Pharma has sold the American consumer.

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Hide Your Private Stuff

Check out the clarity of this first picture taken by the new Google-sponsored satellite that is now circling the earth, snapping pix of the globe. These pictures will, in due course, begin replacing the images now seen on Google maps, etc. This is a picture of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, taken from 423 miles above the earth:

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What Goes Around . . .

Very interesting article written by Dean Reynolds, veteran CBS News correspondent who has spent the last 12 months on the road covering both the Obama and McCain campaigns. His article is about the differences between how the two campaigns operate and how they treat the press: one of the campaigns is friendly toward reporters, one is not; one of the principals is friendly to the reporters, the other is not; one of the campaigns is extremely organized when it comes to letting reporters know about schedules, travel, etc., the other is not; one of the campaign's plane is cramped and smelly, the other is clean and accomodating.

Reynold's final paragraph is insightful:

"Maybe none of this means much. Maybe a [campaign] that is focused solely on victory doesn't have the time to do the mundane things like print up schedules or attend to the needs of reporters.

"But in politics, everything that goes around comes around."

Banks Down, Brewers Up

From Agora Financial's 5 Minute Forecast:

Just out of curiosity this morning, we sought out the best and worst performing sectors over the last 12 months:

Worst: Dow Jones U.S. Mortgage Finance Index, down 95%.
Best: Dow Jones U.S. Brewers Index, up 17%.

That pretty much sums it up, eh?

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Right or Responsibility?

In the presidential debate last night, one question illustrated the clear difference between Obama and McCain. If I didn't have any other reason NOT to vote for Obama, his answer to this one question would have been enough:

Brokaw Question: "Is health care a right, a privilege, or a responsibility?"

Obama Answer: "A right."
McCain Answer: "A responsibility."

Obama's answer is the same answer that created the sub-prime mortgage mess: Every American has a RIGHT to own a home whether s/he can afford it or not. That belief was engineered by Democrats and translated through Fannie and Freddie and we are reaping the results. Separating rights from responsibilities (and privileges -- such as home ownership) is fundamental.

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Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture

This past August, a group of well-known activists for healthy food and sustainable agriculture (Wendell Berry, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, et al) released a draft Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture -- a 12-point statement intended to influence the next iteration of the always-lamentable federal Farm Bill. Several hundred thousand people already have signified their support by endorsing the statement at the Declaration's web site. I would encourage you to go to the site, read the (brief) declaration, and add your endorsement.

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Avocado Transplants

Here are the six avocado trees I transplanted from the flower beds into the side yard. The row of four borders my neighbor's property line but he was fine with having them there; the two on the left could be problems being so close to the driveway. The jury is out on whether any of them will make it -- one of the six looks a little pale this morning. We'll see.

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Figs and Books

Went to Home Depot this morning to get potting/planting mix for transplanting the avocado trees (pix tomorrow -- too dark when I finished) and spied a great Brown Turkish Fig tree -- actually, the one I got has two trunks growing out of the same pot, even better. I bought some Brown Turkish Figs at the store the other day -- $.79 each. The price wasn't marked and the checkout person thought they were $.79 for the bag instead of $.79 each. Needless to say I haven't bought any more at that price, but a bag for $.79 was nice. And they were delicious -- as big as golf balls. So when I saw the fig trees at Home Depot I grabbed this one. The card that came on the tree says they can get 40-50 feet wide and tall, so I put it on the open space on the side yard.

Digging this hole was like chipping concrete:



All tucked in with a mix of mushroom compost, composted cow manure, potting soil, and organic fertilizer:





These look just like the ones I bought at the store -- huge:





On the way to Home Depot I stopped in the Matthews Public Library book sale that began today and runs all this week. A nice stack of hardbacks for four bucks:

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