Stalking the Vegetannual | by Barbara Kingsolver | Orion Magazine March-April 2007

Fred First pointed a link at this article. Thanks Fred. The entire article is worth the read but I found the last paragraph very important... 

Locally grown is a denomination whose meaning is incorruptible. Sparing the transportation fuel, packaging, and unhealthy additives is a compelling part of the story. But the plot goes beyond that. Local food is a handshake deal in a community gathering place. It involves farmers with first names, who show up at the market week after week. It involves consumers who remember that to be human is to belong to a food chain, wherever and whenever we find ourselves alive. It means remembering the truest of all truths: we are what we eat. Stepping slowly backward out of a fuel-driven industry of highly transported foods will alter more than a person’s grocery list. Such small, stepwise changes in personal habits aren’t trivial. Ultimately, they will add up to the story of who we were on this planet: what it took to keep us alive, what we left behind.

Source: Stalking the Vegetannual | by Barbara Kingsolver | Orion Magazine March-April 2007

The View Out My Window

As I sit this morning at the laptop this is the view out the window beside me. As you can see from the image, the predominate color has to be called Spring Green.

Looking around my yard you will still find the Pecan Trees and the Hackberry Trees leafless. Even the Redbud Tree in the front yard is now showing leaves and not the flowers of last week.

If the weather continues like this the Bluebonnets should be putting on a great show next weekend. If the weather holds I try to get some shots from the road to Austin.

Sunday Funnies - I don't think so!

I am reading my emails this morning and when I saw the title of George Will's rant of the day, "Anger Is All The Rage", I could see where it was going. But, I really found the final paragraphs classic Will...forgive the rant on a Sunday morning

The politics of disdain -- e.g., Howard Dean's judgment that Republicans are "brain dead" and "a lot of them never made an honest living in their lives" -- derails politics by defining opponents as beyond the reach of reason. The anger directed at Bush today, like that directed at Clinton during his presidency, luxuriates in its own vehemence.

Today, many people preen about their anger as a badge of authenticity: I snarl, therefore I am. Such people make one's blood boil.

I am sorry George Will, but I take pride in my anger at George W Bush. It predates his run at the White House by a good number of years. It isn't partisan, I am an equal opportunity hater. My hate for George Bush goes back to the very first time I heard him insult my intelligence by trying to spin the past I knew into his own version of reality. As he has continued the spin, I have continued the hate. Call it a mutual dis-respect compact...I'll quit hating the man the minute he shows me enough respect to quit lying to me.

So George Will, if you think I do this for show you've missed over a decade of the show, because that's how long it has run...ever since Karl Rove spread his brand of political smear in Texas to get George W elected Governor. I found it hateful then and I find that same behavior hateful now. As the old saying goes...You reap what you sow. And if there has ever been a political party that deserves the harvest of it's own sowing it is the Republican's. Who but the Republican Party has run on issues that are nothing but hate...from gay marriage to flag burning, from school prayer to abortion the republican party of the past 15 years has done a memorable job of farming divisive, hateful issues. Let them continue to reap the harvest they have sown. Just don't try to blame the liberals for the taste of the crop...

Source: George F. Will - Anger Is All The Rage - washingtonpost.com