The Climate, She be a'Changin'

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted a rant. Certainly not because I've had nothing to rant about; the beat goes on regarding injustice, ignorance, cruelty, greed, and more. Today I am ranting about climate change or global warming or whatever you want to call it.

One has only to look back, way back, to understand this. Our earth's climate is changing every minute. Here in north Florida, it can be cold one day and warm the next. Big shifts take so much longer, eons, to be evident. The weather service has been collecting data only since the mid-1800s, but our ancestors often wrote about too much rain or not enough rain. Crops failed. People and animals starved.

Have humans caused changes in the weather or is this strictly a natural process? I think it is some of each.

Way, way back, humans foraged for food, moving their clan as the plants and animals were depleted and as the seasons changed. Or they worked hard to gather and preserve enough food to last through the winter. When humans began to farm - clearing plots of land, diverting streams, domesticating animals - they began to subtly change the climate. These changes were small, much like the beating of a butterfly's wing or the ripples in a lake caused by a pebble. Over time, the human population grew because there was a reliable source of food most of the time and as long as the weather didn't interfere with a drought or flood or some other disaster.

Our brains grew and our thoughts turned to ways to grow more food for the burgeoning population. But all the time we were helping our planet change - moving dirt, hacking away at the forests, impounding water. We imitated nature in little ways. And then our fabulous brains led us to what we call the Industrial Revolution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution). We began not so much imitating nature as trying to control nature in a BIG way.

If sacrificing a goat or doing a rain dance didn't end a drought then sending an airplane to seed the cloud would be the ticket (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding). Building massive dams allowed a lot of people to live where they previously could not (think Las Vegas and Los Angeles). We blast away mountains to build roads. Not all progress is good.

This is only my opinion and a simplistic one at that. I think I'm presenting a common sense argument. Common sense is sorely lacking in the climate change debate over whether humans are causing the climate to change. That our actions over thousands of years have exacerbated the earth's shifting climate must be considered. Changing our actions will not stop these changes, but we can slow them down.

How can it be denied that glaciers are melting? How can we turn a blind eye that the seas are rising and coastal cities are flooded more frequently? The argument should not be over the causes but what we are going to do about it. Building higher seawalls in Miami while development is not only allowed but encouraged while more water is being pulled from the aquifer is a short term fix but NOT a solution.

So do your part. Get rid of your lawn, Stop using herbicides or anything with 'cide in its name (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-cide). Stop buying and throwing away stuff. Stop wasting water. Start protecting our natural resources. Do your part.

Well, that's my rant of the moment for now.

Sun-dried Clothes

The other day I posted on Facebook that I'd dried bedsheets on my clothesline and they would smell like sunshine. Someone asked what sunshine smells like. Hummmm. Well, it is not an easy fragrance to describe. It smells like heat but not the heat from a woodfire or from a hot coil in a space heater. It's the heat from the sun. It does not last long. By the second night of sleeping on sun-dried sheets, the scent is gone. This fragrance cannot be captured in any bottle no matter what the makers of detergent and fabric softener say.

I went through a brief period of using these products but the perfumey odors assaulted my nose. I figured that was not a good thing so I went to unscented soaps and gave up softener except for cleaning paintbrushes. There are times when I have to use a clothes dryer but I'd rather use the clothesline. A few years back I read an article about how clothes dryers literally erode clothing. Every spin breads down the fibers and eats away at the integrity of the fabric. Clotheslines are not only cheaper to use but clothing lasts longer.

But using a clothesline takes time: time to hang out the clothing, run out to grab them off the line if a rain shower springs up, take them in before evening when rising humidity makes them feel damp again. Some people complain that sun-dried clothes, especially towels, are stiff. Use the dryer for a few minutes to 'relax' the wrinkles before hanging out the clothes and that takes care of the stiff-as-a-board problem.

As a child, I used to hide in the clothes hanging on the line never realizing that my mother could clearly see my legs and feet and knew exactly where I was. She didn't like me dong this because sometimes I pulled the sheets loose from the line so they fell on the ground. Few people use a clothesline today but young children probably still hide in clothing racks in stores. It drives parents crazy.

Besides the cost of the clothesline - less than $100 or build your own for less - the sun is free.

No more "it is what it is"

I'm fed up and more than tired of inequality for all and by all I mean humans and our environment. There is absolutely NO room for the phrase "it is what it is" in our vocabulary any longer except for the weather. Would you care to hear "it is what it is" regarding slavery? Women and African Americans not being able to vote? Literally beating cart horses to death to leave them die and rot in the streets? Having a landfill built next to your residence?

I think not.

We MUST reverse our complacent apathetic attitudes. But I know it is not easy - it's much easier to not rock the boat, just let it go and not do anything. Will that solve a problem? No. Will the problem continue? Yes.

Do your part. Join a group. Give your time. Your actions do matter.

We have these rights in no particular order:
* to feel safe in a movie theater, a restaurant, our place of work and worship, our schools, driving down the damn road.
* to know what is in and on our food AND if it has been genetically modified
* to drink clean water and breathe clean air
* to love and/or marry who we want
* to have LOTS of wild spaces to enjoy



We have these responsibilities and obligations to:
* care for each other
* ESPECIALLY not to do anything to someone we would not want done to us
* to raise our voices against things that are wrong and fixable
* to speak with our actions because our actions are LOUDER

I'm just one person but if you speak and act and others speak and act we will be heard. 

Glad that is solved

I don't always rant. Sometimes I have saner, more calm moments. Lately I have been thinking about what I want to be when I grow up and I've decided I, like so  many, don't really want to grow up. I tried. I got married and divorced and then decided not to marry again. Long ago I decided not to have children because they are a real commitment. You can't divorce a child and you can't exchange them. They are yours! Well, some people have abandoned or abused their children but that is not how the relationship is supposed to work. So, if you don't think you can live up to the rules you should not have children. But you can try marriage and if that doesn't work you can get divorced. I'm a responsible adult. I work, I vote, I pay taxes, sometimes I even obey speed limits, but I wish I had the sense of adventure and happy-go-lucky-ness that I had as a kid. I wish I didn't know about all the things in the world that really hurt us.

Glad that is solved.

So now I'll address this issue of gay marriage and maybe this will be one of my quiet rants. Love is hard enough to find and who knows what brings love between two people, what makes it last, and what makes it work, so if you find the right partner and both of you want a legal union why not? I cannot see how two people of the same gender who marry can erode or threaten or destroy the man - woman marriage ideal because from what I see it is not always ideal. Sometimes love goes bad whether it's man - woman, man - man or woman - woman. Nor can I believe that a child raised by a gay or lesbian couple will turn out to be homosexual. Maybe but maybe not. I just think that love is hard to find and keep so if two people want to share life together they should be able to do so without being ostracized.

Glad that is solved.

Then I saw this today in the Huffington Post: "The Abstinence Education Reallocation Act, brought forth by Reps. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) and Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) on Valentine's Day, seeks to award $550 million in Affordable Care Act grants over five years to programs that provide teenagers with abstinence-only education." I think maybe some education about sex and birth control, vaccinations for diseases, condoms, etc would be a lot better than abstinence education. I was a teenager. I know the biological urge to have sex is pretty darned strong. I have to wonder if any of the men sponsoring this bill practiced abstinence or if they just used a rubber. Really? Just say no? Really?

Glad that is solved.

And now I'll leave you with this thought and I might offend some people with it but that's the chance I take in writing and you take in reading. I read those signs in front of churches. Sometimes they are quite clever but the one that says Pray to Jesus because he answers prayers? I just want to say, to all of you who are praying for war and famine and drought and blizzards and floods and hate, please stop!

Good night.

Civics Lesson

Sequestration. Government shut down. President Obama isn't going to send out Social Security checks! And you WIC (Women, infants, and children food assistance program) deadbeats, we're cutting you off too because you all have TVs and drive Cadillacs and buy drugs with that welfare money. Out of control spending. No big government! Blahblahblah. TV, radio, print media, e-mails, and Facebook repeat this drivel until our brains are saturated. Thinking prevents saturation.

I'm pretty sure the average American is incapable of thinking. I think a lot and some might say I think too much but at least I THINK!

The Republican conservatives lay our current problems at the feet of President Obama.

The other side places the blame on Congress - and the Republican Party.

Well, it all started long before Obama took office. Probably this country has never been out of debt. The Revolution cost a chunk of change to this start-up nation who had hardly anything in the bank. Some of my ancestors who fought for the American side were paid, not in money, but in land if only they would move and settle it. Seemed like a good idea at the time. "Say, Peter Wickerham, why don't you move the little wife and kiddies out to Kentucky and prove up some land there. Oh, sure, there are Indians, but they'll move off when enough white people move in and if they don't, why just shoot 'em." I think (hope) Peter lived a peaceable life and got along with all the neighbors and never shot anyone.

Well, Peter sold his land in Kentucky and moved to Ohio around 1800. He built an inn on the Zane Trace, considered to be the first brick building in Ohio (it's still standing) and applied for a liquor license. Peter made out pretty good.

But the U.S. Government wasn't formed the day that the British surrendered. Many growing pains. Many fights among friends. Many hours of run-soaked haggling in smoky tap rooms in Virginia and Philadelphia ensued. Our government was meant to be steady but somewhat flexible. When the Constitution was written no one ever thought some wingnut would enter a school with a high-powered rifle and start killing people. For one thing, they didn't know what a high-powered rifle was.

Anyway (finally), here is the Civics Lesson. Anyone remember Civics? They don't teach it much any more. Civics is about how government works, or how it's supposed to work. My high school civics class took a field trip from Tampa to Washington to see government in action. That was back when education really was an education and not some downsized lessons geared to a standardized test. I was glad to go on the trip and excited to visit all those old buildings but politics never really interested me because I'm a girl and politics was a man's game. Well, times have changed and now we have Michelle Bachman, a woman who could screw up thawing a frozen Sara Lee pound cake

So here we go - three branches of government - can you name them? Hint - Look at Articles 1, 2 and 3 of our constitution.
Executive

Legislative
Judicial

Know what they do? Each branch has separate powers. The main thing is to be a check and balance on each other so no one branch gets too much power. 

Executive: Comprised of the president, vice president and the cabinet departments and members. The president implements and carrys out the laws passed by Congress. He chooses the heads of the federal agencies (including his cabinet). The agencies and cabinet are responsible for law enforcement and administration, according to WhiteHouse.gov. The executive branch can write a bill and propose it as a law to the legislative branch. Congress can choose to accept or reject the president's bill. Likewise, the president has the power to veto a law passed by Congress. The President and Vice President are elected by the American people.

Legislative: The lawmaking branch made up of the House of Representatives (435 member) and the Senate (100 members).  Members are elected by each state. Also known as the Congress. Congress can legislate and declare war, confirm or reject appointees of the president and has the right to exercise considerable investigations. Congress makes the laws that govern us, NOT the president. Representatives and Senators are elected by the American people.

Judicial: Members of the judicial branch are chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate, according to WhiteHouse.gov. The judicial branch comprises the U.S. courts system and interprets and rules on the law.  The highest body in the judicial branch (and the country) is the Supreme Court. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life but can be impeached and removed by Congress. There are nine justices but Congress has the power to decide how many justices are on the court.

This is a simple explanation but it explains why the President does not absolutely rule - that would be a monarchy.  But it does appear that Congress has the most power. So when you say Obama do this or don't do this understand that he can't without the backing of Congress. This is why is it so important to elect intelligent people to be our representatives and senators and not a dunderhead like Steve Southerland.