Attack of the Killer Whales

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Something odd is happening in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Portugal and on into the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea - and also Europe from Africa.   Yachts are being sunk in that area, and not by pirates or terrorists, but rather by Orcas, an extremely large type of dolphin, black and white in color, who resemble whales and are often referred to as "killer whales."  Orcas and whales are both beautiful sea mammals which can pose serious threats to humans, but orcas, which have teeth, are generally regarded as more likely to be aggressive toward humans than whales.

This past Sunday morning a couple were peacefully sailing their yacht through the Strait of Gibraltar when they felt a sudden thumping to their vessel.  They soon discovered that their luxury vessel was under attack from a pod of orcas who were relentlessly pounding the ship's hull with their bodies.  A leak developed at the rudder which could not be fixed, and the couple radioed for help.  They were eventually picked up by a passing oil tanker, and their yacht sank.

Score one for the killer whales.

Actually the killer whales have a long list of victories in that particular area of the world.  The attacks began four years ago this month when just a few orcas started attacking smaller vessels, and gradually the number of participating orcas increased, as did the size of the vessels that they were attacking.  People who study the behavior of animals have come up with multiple theories to explain the aggressive behavior,  from the attacks that were originally generated were revenge for some misdeed done to the orcas by humans, to  the attacks were originally play behavior that has since been copied and built upon.

Researchers are reporting as many as 700 incidents between orcas and sailing vessels in that area since May of 2020, most with little or no harm or damage, but five vessels have been sunk as a result of attacks by the sea mammals.    Fortunately there were no deaths reported with those sinkings.   People manning smaller vessels, like sailboats or yachts, are being encouraged to shut down their engines if they encounter a pod of orcas in that region, and to quit manning their rudders.  Taking those actions apparently cause the highly intelligent creatures to lose interest in the boats.

But for those intent on puttering their million dollar status symbols through the Strait of Gibraltar, just know that a pod of killer whales will not be as in awe of your wealth as you are.  To them your big boat will be nothing more than an afternoon's entertainment.

And I'm okay with that.

Too Much of a Bob Thing

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Apparently twenty-eight individuals are still listed as candidates for governor of Washington state in the upcoming August primary elections.  I say "still" because two others dropped out of the race this past Monday, the last day on which candidates could withdraw.  Both of those two had only been in the race over the weekend, since late on the preceding Friday, the last day in which they could have filed and gotten their names on the ballot.  In addition to filing at the last minute for the same office, and dropping out at the last minute, the pair had one other thing in common:  they were both named "Bob Ferguson."

There is also another "Bob Ferguson" who is still in that race, the state's current attorney general who had filed early in the final week of filing.  When two more candidates with the exact same name as him filed a few days later, the attorney general of Washington and gubernatorial candidate smelled a pair of rats.  He reasoned, quite reasonably, that the other two Bob's might just be on the ballot to interfere with the election by causing confusion among the voters.

All three Bobs were running as Democrats.

The state of Washington has a statute covering that particular issue.  It states that a person can be guilty of a class B felony for filing for public office using "a surname similar to one who has already filed for the same office, and whose political reputation is widely known, with intent to confuse and mislead the electors by capitalizing on the public reputation of the candidate who had previously filed."

The campaign of Attorney General Bob Ferguson threatened legal action if the other two did not withdraw by the deadline of 5:00 p.m. this past Monday.  Both of the other Bobs withdrew, and both were vocally unhappy with what they regarded as being forced off the ballot.

The Bobs who withdrew had been represented by the same campaign manager, a local conservative activist.  Coincidence?  Probably not.

(I can't help but wish that southeast Missouri had a few more Jason Smiths who were interested in politics!)

What's in YOUR Spam Folder?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I received an email from a Missouri politician this morning, a man that I actually support, and he was worked into a lather over the fact that Google shuffles some of his fundraising emails off into people's spam folders.  

(Today's email began with the politician promising that he would not be using this particular correspondence to ask for money, but there was, of course, a "Donate" button at the end of the missive.)

I know that Google's email service, Gmail, is one of the most popular in the US because all of my friends and most of my family members use Gmail accounts.  The politician's email today began by saying that over half the email in the United States is now generated through Gmail.  That's a very significant, and concerning, share of the market.  As my correspondent pointed out, it is concerning because Google controls what makes its way into my inbox as well as what gets shuffled off into my spam folder.

The politician further explained that two years ago Google instituted a "verified sender program," a blue check service that ensured political campaigns which complied and got verified, would have all of their emails delivered to the inboxes (and not the spam folders) of the individuals to whom they were addressed.  The politician who wrote to me about this issue, a gentleman of the populist persuasion, said that guarantee helped to considerably increase small dollar donations to political campaigns.

(If campaigns could reach you, they could get their hands in your pocket, but if Google shuffled them off to spam land, donations suffered.)

This year Google has apparently dropped its "verified sender program," and small dollar political donations have also dropped.  My correspondent lamented:

"When emails are blocked, and small-dollar donations dip as a result, politicians begin to rely more heavily on those shady mega-donors and massive corporations who’ve made it their business to muck up our political process. And we already know how dangerous that is for our democracy."

I routinely empty my spam folder and trash folder every couple of weeks because someone told he that will help keep the speed up on my very slow internet connection, so when I went to my spam folder this morning to check, there were only fifty-some communications, all unread.  One was from the politician who had warmed me that Google was filtering away things that I might want to know.  There were, of course, several obvious scams of which I was glad that I had not had to waste time, and an assortment of other ads that were of no interest to me.  Basically, it looked as though Google had done a fairly good job of sifting through the garbage.

But I still understand the politician's point and his concern, and it concerns me that one of the largest corporations in America has the power to pick and choose what reaches me on my desktop.  The politician asked that I help make others aware of this corporate ability to censor what we see in our email, and I have just done that.  

And from this point forward I will check my spam folder before deleting.  I should have been doing that anyway.

Forewarned is forearmed.  If the dictatorship arrives, we are going to need every communication tool that we can muster, and they should be fully operational.

Check those spam folders.  Make it a habit!

Being Armed While Black Can be a Deadly Offense

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There has been another awful story in the press about a police shooting of a young black man. It happened a week ago last Friday afternoon in the Florida panhandle.

Roger Fortson was a twenty-three-year-old senior airman with the United States Air Force, and he was at home in his apartment in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, participating in a video chat with his girlfriend when someone knocked at his door. 

"Who is it?"  he asked.  

When there was no response, he walked to the door and stared through the peephole, but could see no one outside, so he went back to where he had been sitting and resumed the call.  Then there was a louder, more forceful knock.  At that point Airman Fortson picked up his legally-owned pistol and was walking back to the door when an officer with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department burst in.  The officer, seeing the young black man holding a pistol that was pointed downward toward the floor, immediately opened fire without issuing any warning and pumped four rounds into the airman's chest.  When the victim was on the floor and bleeding, the deputy said "Drop the gun."

Airman Fortson replied, "It's over there.  I don't have it."  The officer called for emergency medical services and the young shooting victim was taken to a local hospital where he died.

The police had been called to the apartment complex by another tenant who reported a couple fighting in one of the apartments.  When the responding officer arrived, she led him to the area where she had heard the commotion and gave the officer Fortson's apartment number.  There was no one else in the apartment at the time of the shooting, leading the Fortson family attorney, Ben Crump, to speculate that the woman mistakenly directed the officer to the wrong apartment.  

The officer involved in the shooting of Roger Fortson had his body camera on during the entire incident, and Airman Fortson's girlfriend also maintained her open video chat the shooting and the follow-up police search of the apartment.  The shooting is being investigated by the state of Florida, and there should be plenty of first-hand evidence from which to make a determination as to the cause of the young man's death.

Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child, was shot and killed by a 26-year-old white Cleveland policeman in 2014 as he was carrying a displaying a toy gun.  The officer was later fired for failing to report that he had been released by a previous police employer for being "an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty,"  and his current employer had failed to adequately check the young policeman's background.

Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black man was out for a drive with his girlfriend in St. Paul, Minnesota in July of 2016 when he was pulled over by the police during a routine check.  He told the police that he had a license to carry a gun and had one in his possession.  He was shot and killed by police as he was reaching for that license.  His girlfriend live-streamed in shooting on Facebook.

In March of 2020 police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, used a "no-knock"warrant as justification to break down the door of the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a black, 26-year-old emergency room technician.  The police were looking for evidence related to drug sales at another residence in which an ex-boyfriend of Ms. Taylor's and been involved.  She and her current boyfriend were in bed when the police used a battering ram to open the door, and the current boyfriend managed to reach his gun and fire one shot which hit a policeman in the thigh.  The police returned fire, and the young medical professional was killed.  It was later determined that police had lied as part of the justification for the warrant.

A 2020 study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that black people were more than three times as likely to be killed by police during an encounter than white people.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson never pointed his gun at the intruder and he would have probably been safer without it.  The NRA tells us that guns make us safer, but by "us," they only mean "some of us."

Being armed while black can be a deadly offense.

Chicago Rising

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Years ago when people wanted to know the news they went primarily to radio or television and tuned into stations that offered fairly consistent coverage from network-to-network or station-to-station.  People like Huntley and Brinkley and Cronkite told us what was going on, and we could rely on them for honest coverage.  Every school library, doctor's office, and many private homes also had copies of dependable news magazines like 'Time" and "Newsweek," and all average-sized cities and even many small towns also and their own daily or weekly newspapers.

That all went to hell in a hand basket a couple of decades ago with the advent of the agenda-driven Fox News Network and the arrival of the internet with its ever-increasing multitude of news sources.  Today news is fragmented and sources vary greatly with most having a particular slant or interest designed to appeal to a particular segment of the public.  When people want to see or read the news, they have many choices and can select ones whose views on the world make them feel most comfortable.  And wallowing in one's comfort zone, which I tend to do, leaves the news consumer with news that has been primarily selected or designed to fit his or her already-existing world view.

My "news" comes from a variety of left-of-center choices through internet news sites as well as a couple of political podcasts.  From those sources I have heard, repeatedly, that the presidential election this year will be very close, but the Joe Biden will manage to pull out a victory.  We should all be aware and concerned, and we should definitely all vote, but don't panic and put the house on the market before the election because sanity will win out in the end and Biden will prevail.

Stay calm.

Yes, my news sources admit that immigration issues and border security are a big deal and a solidifying factor for some Trump supporters, especially the ones who haven't worked in years and feel the Mexicans are coming here to steal their jobs.  The Democratic Senate and Joe Biden had a bill that would have eased the border situation, but Donald Trump told the House to turn it down because he needed chaos at the border as a campaign issue, so the House killed it.   The border is now officially Trump's problem, and Jim Bob down the road from where I live is going to understand the subtlety of that and change his vote to Biden.

Right.

All of my news sources feel confident that the issue of abortion will rule the day, and that it will be particularly devastating for Republicans in states which manage to have any abortion-related issue on the ballot in November.  Abortion, they argue, is such a political hot potato that even Trump is trying to distance himself from it.  There is plenty of anecdotal evidence - from the results of abortion-related ballot measures since the Dobbs' decision - that lefty news sources may likely be right on the major impact of abortion on the presidential election of 2024 - but will it be the tail that ultimately wags the dog?

The survival of democracy should be a pivotal issue in 2024, but it's not.  Trump's betrayal of the Constitution  through his trying to stay in power in January of 2021 by instigating an uprising should have resulted in his never being allowed to run for public office again, but the Senate failed in its duty to hold him accountable for the acts of insurrection.  Now he is talking in terms of becoming a "dictator on day one" of his next administration, and people just disregard him - like they do his continuing flow of bull excrement.  Trump may be lazy and inattentive to the needs of the country, but he surrounds himself with people who are very, very dangerous.

Another issue is the age thing.  Biden will almost be eighty-two on Election Day, and Trump will be seventy-eight.  The average life expectancy for a white male in the US is 76.3 years, so both Biden and Trump are well passed their use-by dates.  Biden's press, even on left-of-center sites, is that he is old.   Trump's press, at least lately, is that he was banging a porn star.  Age is not the predominant issue right now, but if it does come to be the dominant issue, Biden will lose.

The Israeli war on Hamas and the indiscriminate attacks on the Palestinian civilians in Gaza will be another important issue in the upcoming campaign.  Joe Biden hopped on Israel's war bandwagon on October 7th with a full-throated endorsement of the counter-offensive, and he is now seen by many as a part-owner of the horror and carnage that ensued.  Now Biden is stuck between his political left-flank who are shocked and angry about the plight of the Palestinians, and the Republicans who are egging him on to do more to support Israel.  And Bibi Netanyahu, the leader of Israel who has actively interfered in every US Presidential election since 2008 - is doing everything he can to use the US political situation to hold Biden in check.

Many young people could choose to stay home on Election Day.  They are principled and obstinate - just like Joe Biden.  If young people stay home, Biden loses.

Of course many of America's college youth have already had their day in the sun with regard to Israel's brutal treatment of the Palestinians.  Demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of Gaza occurred on university campuses across the US this spring, and Republicans tried to make political hay from the demonstrations by characterizing them as proof of Biden's weakness and affinity for radicals.

But the war in Gaza drags on, and American demonstrations against the war are likely to drag on as well.  This past week there was a lead article on the internet news site, "Politico," by Jonathan Martin entitled "The DNC Is Preparing for the Worst in Chicago - Without the Help of the City's Mayor."  Chicago will be the site of this year's Democratic National Convention, and it brings back memories of an earlier Democratic convention that was held there fifty-six years ago.

Young people protesting the US involvement in the Vietnam War filled the streets of downtown Chicago during the Democratic Convention of 1968, and the city's megalomaniac mayor, Richard J. Daley, loosed the city's police on them with deadly force, and the resultant visuals played on the television newscasts across America and helped to send Republican Richard Nixon to the White House in that year's election.

Martin's piece in "Politico" said that Democratic officials this year fear an attempt by youthful protesters to again turn the convention into mayhem much like the protesters did in 1968, but this year, instead of having an authoritarian mayor to rely on to help beat the protesters into submission, the current mayor, Brandon Johnson, is more apt to be politically aligned with the protest movement.  

Democratic officials will run the convention, and the mayor runs the city.  The people inside of the convention have begun work to limit opportunities for protesters to be active.  They are working to make it as "virtual" as possible with limited public involvement, and to have the floor of the convention managed by politicians who are adept at crowd control.  And instead of relying on the mayor for support, they have turned to the state's Democratic governor, J.B. Pritzker, to stand in the wings and be ready to respond if needed.  Pritzker has indicated that he could send in the National Guard if the Chicago police request assistance - a move that seems to be aimed at circumventing the mayor.

Some might argue that Democrats have not learned any of the lessons from their overreaction to the protests in 1968, and that they are setting the stage for a repeat of that political fiasco - in fact, I might argue that!

It should be a very close race his November between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but if the Democratic Party gives the young people of Chicago and America no choice but to rise in revolt, you can stick a fork in Joe Biden because he will be done.

Florida Teen Turns Down Free Week in Milwaukee

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I mentioned in this space yesterday that eighteen-year-old Barron Trump, the 6'7" son of Donald and Melania Trump, would be one of four Trump children serving as delegates from Florida to the Republican National Convention which will be held in mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  It now turns out that when the Florida GOP made that announcement, they had failed to clear it with Barron, or at least with his mother.  Melania's office put out a statement yesterday saying that her son "regretfully" declines the invitation to be a Republican delegate to the convention because of "prior commitments."

Palm Beach or Milwaukee?  It's such a tough choice!

It is unclear at this point whether "prior commitments" is Slovenian for "up yours" or not.

Surely a bright, energetic eighteen-year-old who is preparing to go to college in the fall will have more important and fun things to do this summer than trying to steer clear of the drunken, pervy Republicans who will be stumbling around the streets of Milwaukee.

Smart move, young man.  Have a great summer!

Pests

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The cicadas are already climbing out of the ground in the Midwest and making themselves known by their horrendous noise as they seek partners for purposes of procreation.  This year there are more cicadas and more noise than usual as two major broods, those that emerge every thirteen years and those that emerge every seventeen years, are all appearing at the same time - the first time that has happened since 1803.  As soon as all of the jar flies are sexually sated, the females will burrow back into the ground and lay eggs - and, in my area - a new generation will dig their way out of the ground thirteen years later in 2037.

Our big dog, Gypsy, has developed a taste for cicadas, which she considers a crunchy treat.  She spends most evenings frolicking outdoors capturing the noisy insects in her scoop-shovel mouth, and then munching contentedly until long after dark.  It's a dog's life!

But the cicadas aren't the only pests that will be invading the Midwest this year.  The national Republican Party will be convening in Milwaukee in mid-July and the Democrats will unpack their show in Chicago in August.

In addition to the Republicans coronating King Donald the Flatulent for the third convention in a row, the party will also be shining the bright lights of adoration on many Trump family members.  Donald will be there, of course, bloviating about migrant "animals," Crooked Joe, corrupt judges, and anyone else who fails to heap near constant adoration upon him.  Melania, Donald's wife and the former First Lady, should also be in town, and, depending on the local shopping scene, may appear at the convention as well.  

Laua Trump, Donald's daughter-in-law and the person whom Donald ordered to be named as the co-chair of the Republican Party, will be at the convention in Milwaukee, ostensibly to help run things, and certainly to do whatever is necessary to keep the focus on the glory of her father-in-law.

Yesterday the Florida Republican Party announced that Barron Trump, Donald and Melania's kid who is eighteen-years-old and about to graduate from high school in West Palm Beach, will be an at-large delegate from Florida to the Republican National Convention.  Other members of the Florida delegation will include Eric Trump (Lara's husband and Donald's son by Ivana), Donald Trump, Jr. (also the spawn of Donald and Ivana), Kimberly Guilfoyle (Don Jr's fiancee), Tiffany Trump Boulos (Donald's daughter by Marla Maples), and Michael Boulos (Tiffany's husband).

The cicadas will probably wind up being less annoying and easier to deal with than the Republican delegation from Florida!

Will Trump Be Safe in Jail?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

(Note:  The title of this blog posting, "Will Trump Be Safe in Jail?," was borrowed from an article in The Daily Beast, an internet news site, by Justin Rohrlich, which ran three days ago on May 6, 2004.  It was a speculative piece exploring the possible consequences for Donald Trump if Judge Juan Merchcan ultimately makes good on his threat to "consider" jailing Trump if he continues to flaunt the gag order imposed by the judge in Trump's New York "hush money" trial.  The speculation from this point forward is my own.)

In the event that Donald John Trump is ultimately ordered to spend some actual time incarcerated in a jail, will he be safe?   That's a silly question.  He's a celebrity who will be dragging along a very professional, taxpayer-funded, private security detail.  We should all be so safe!  That's not to say that I believe it will ever happen, because I do not, but if it did, the day or two that Trump would be required to spend on the inside would be a circus of secret service agents, lawyers, make-up artists, food vendors, food tasters, celebrity visitors, and God knows what all.

A better question would be:  Should Donald Trump be safe in jail?  Or, perhaps:   Shouldn't everyone be safe in jail?  Or:  Why should one old, tired, and gaseous politician with lots of money and power be treated any differently that some eighteen-year-old black kid who was sent to prison by a racist judge in Missouri, Oklahoma, or Mississippi for failure pay a court fine?

If our courts and our prisons treated everybody with fairness and basic human dignity to the point that only real criminals faced incarceration - and even they were safe - then celebrity safety would be a non-issue.

A multi-tiered justice system is, by definition, unjust.  If celebrity criminals were required to spend their time in real prisons rubbing elbows with the least among us, things would begin to change in a hurry.

A Bag of Snakes

 

by Pa Rock

Former Air Traveler

My first thought upon seeing the headline "Bag of Snakes Found in Air Passenger's Pants" on an internet site this week was that I had just come across a new (to me) collective noun, such as:  a herd of cattle, a murder of crows, and now, a bag of snakes.  Either that, or it was some unit of measure that had eluded me during my long and shameless education.  "Yes, I'll take a fifth of whiskey, a gross of M-80's, and a bag of snakes.  No, wait, I left my checkbook at home.  Better make that just a half-a-bag of snakes."

The story didn't amount to much, just a couple of paragraphs which seemed to intentionally lack specifics - and left people with sordid imaginations, like me, plenty of room to begin developing movie scripts worthy of some Hollywood action hero.

A man had been stopped at the Miami International Airport when it was discovered that he had a "bag of snakes" concealed in his pants.  The snakes had subsequently been turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

That was the complete story in the initial news release.  The man's name and fate were not revealed, nor were there any specifics given on the snakes:  type, size, quantity, or whether they were venomous or not.  Just a "bag of snakes."  It was just a titillating headline designed to draw people to the news site.  

Within a few days the journalistic mud began to clarify.

The "bag" was a small, draw-string, sunglasses bag, and the "snakes" were two, a pair of skinny, whitish reptiles each about a foot long.  (Photos began appearing on the internet, but, as of yet, I have not come across information on their breed or level of venomousness.)  

The story had been released in drips and drabs in order to lure in readers and fuel more "clicks" on the internet, while giving the news sites better figures with which to attract sponsors.

It turns out the guy not only lost his snakes, but also was barred from boarding the plane.

And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.  The news sites posed a greater annoyance to the public with their crap headlines and lack of details than the actual snakes did.

(Could this be the opening salvo of a new collegiate fad?  Snakes - in a bag - in your pants!  It would probably be more exciting than swallowing goldfish!)

Another Dinosaur Refuses to Leave Jurassic Park, DC

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Eighty-two-year-old Bernie Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont who is the second oldest individual currently serving in the United States Senate, announced yesterday that he would be seeking a fourth six-year term in the Senate this November.  

Of course he did.

Bernie, the man who made wearing mittens cool again, will turn eighty-three this September and will be a mere sprout of eighty-nine when his next term ends - if he hasn't been elected President by then!

I like Bernie Sanders and have been a fan of his for years - and years - and years, and I certainly sympathize with his need to feel relevant in a world ruled by hoary old white men who are younger than he is.  I would caution, though, that he should begin thinking about retirement.  Two more terms will bring 'the Bern' up to ninety-five, and the one after that will put him over one hundred - an age at which even a senator should think about packing it in.

In the meantime, Bernie, keep a toe-tag in your pocket and enjoy your days shuffling around Jurassic Park, DC.  I'm sure it beats the hell out of Shady Pines in Montpelier!

Boone at a Quarter of a Century

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

My oldest grandchild, Boone Macy, is twenty-five years old today.  Boone was born during the last year of the previous millennium in West Plains, Missouri.  I had the honor of holding him on the day he  was born.

Boone lives with his maternal grandparents in southwest Missouri.   He is a college graduate with a bachelor's degree in elementary education.  Boone has recently been working as a tour guide in one of Missouri's premier tourist caves, and seems to be developing an avid interest in the spelunking arts.

In addition to caving, Boone also has an interest in music.  He taught himself to play guitar by watching YouTube videos, and he has been featured in music venues close to where he lives.

As Boone and I both age, it seems as though we see each other a lot less than we used to, a situation in which we both have ownership because the road between our houses runs both ways.  But I do keep up with my grandson and am very proud of all that he has accomplished!

Boone, your birthday card from me will be late this year.  I know that because I am headed to town right now to buy it - and it will not be going out until this afternoon.  Fifty-one years from now when you are the age I am today, your gears will probably be slipping, too.  Have a wonderful birthday - and stay in touch!

Tales from Soggy Bottom

 

by Pa Rock

Mowing Fool

I have already mowed twice this year, and the yard is in desperate need of a third cutting.  The mowings four weekends ago and two weekends ago were relatively easy affairs because we had experienced a dry winter and spring - which meant that overall the grass was dry, not overgrown, and easy to cut.  But not too long after the last mowing it began to rain, and it has rained at least some on most of the days in the interim.  Yesterday was the day that I should have begun the current round of mowing, but this area was under a threat of rain all day, and finally in the early evening the skies ripped open and dumped a heavy shower on our already soaked rural landscape.

A realtor would describe my yard as "plush," "green," and possibly "verdant," but as the homeowner whom society expects to keep the place presentable, I see the yard more in terms like "overgrown," "ragged," and "soggy."  

Alexa is warning to expect thunderstorms today, but she is holding out hope that tomorrow and Tuesday might be mowable.

I have a gnome feature in the front yard, twenty feet beyond my typing window, in which eight gnomes guard a circle of white rocks from which arise plant and bird-feeder stands as well as a birdbath.   Strands of grass have broken through the rocks which need pulling.    Perhaps I can get to that later today if the storms hold off.  The invasive grass has gotten so tall with all of the recent rain, that the gnomes now resemble a patrol of colorful misfits making their way through a jungle.

There is a lavender floribunda rosebush outside of the front door that has never done especially well, but it is currently supporting twenty-five full blossoms and looks amazing.  It is obviously a fan of rain.  But I have several other rosebushes, also in the front yard, that have yet to bloom at all.  The young trees in the yard - a pear, two oaks, five dogwoods, and a holly - all seem to be loving the rain.  I also have a nice patch of young paw-paw trees that are doing well, as are a handful of young sassafras trees.

The net effect of all the rain has been positive for the plants in the yard, but nevertheless, this tired old typist would still savor a day of sunshine!

More Dirt on Human Composting

 

by Pa Rock

Compost in Waiting

After penning yesterday's blog posting which centered on the current state of human composting in the United States, I decided to do a deeper dig into two of the Washington-based companies that were featured in the Rolling Stone article:  "Recompose," and "Return Home."  I wanted to know if they are accessible from the midwest, do they have pre-planning that would allow payment in advance, and what are the options with regard to the compost created in the process.  (I had learned from the magazine article that approximately one cubic yard of compost would be created through the process - or roughly a pickup load.  One of the websites that I visited indicated that could be anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds of compost.)

David Browne writing in Rolling Stone had described the price structure as ranging from five to eight thousand dollars, a price range that is below what I have personally experienced with regular funerals where grieving families pay for embalming services and a fancy box and cement burial vault along with anything else the funeral homes can shove off on them.  "Recompose" lists their price on their website as $7,000, and a representative from "Return Home" told me over the phone that they charge $4,950.  

For those of us who live beyond the Seattle catchment area for funerals, there would be, of course, an added cost of having the body shipped to the west coast.   I learned through my inquiries that is  coordinated with a local funeral home, and that the body must be shipped unembalmed, of course.  (I suspect that anyone who approached a local funeral home in my area with that sort of request, especially if they were to reveal the reason why they wanted their body shipped to Seattle unembalmed, would be the subject of intense conversation at every local coffee shop for weeks on end!)

Both companies had prearrangement payment plans, and each had a local nature-friendly area where compost could be deposited or scattered in the event that the family did not want it for their own uses.

Composting appears to not only be a better option for the earth and the environment than either traditional funerals or cremations, it also seems to be more economical - even for those of us who reside in the middle of the country, an area that is constantly late in experiencing the future.

I am quickly becoming a fan of the idea.   My future may well be as compost!

Human Composting is Gaining Acceptance

 

by Pa Rock

Friend of the Earth

The art of reducing organic matter to soil has been practiced in farm settings for decades, and many amateur gardeners now have compost piles or manmade composters that they use for turning table scraps, garbage, leaves, and other organic matter into compost which is then spread into gardens and flower beds.  Farmers and ranchers have also learned over the years that is is simpler and more productive to compost dead farm animals than it is to try and burn or bury the carcasses.  

Now, just within the past five or six years, a movement has been growing in the United States promoting the composting of human bodies.  

I first wrote of this phenomenon in this blog on May 23, 2019, in a piece entitled "Composting Gramma," in response to Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington, signing a law allowing the composting of human remains.  Washington was the first state to take that bold step.  Then, more than three years after that, on September 29, 2022, I wrote a second posting on the same subject entitled "Ashes to Ashes, or Guts to Dirt?" which discussed the human composting option after the process had been up and running in Washington with some actual experience to draw from.

This past week David Browne, writing for Rolling Stone, published an extensive essay on human composting entitled, "It Smells Like Earth:  Inside the Eco-Minded World of Human Composting."  Mr. Browne's article recapped the process and its benefits to the planet, and he used interviews with personnel from three human composting companies in the Seattle area as the "bones" of his story.  The article is a fascinating read and readily available on the internet.

The professionals refer to the process as "natural organic reduction (NOR)," but its common moniker remains "human composting," and it is a topic that leaves many feeling ill-at-ease.  Each of the companies discussed have their own special "recipes" for assisting bodies to decompose, but basically the process is this:  bodies are placed individually in large tumblers (sometimes called "vessels") along with a mix of organic matter (special combinations of things like wild flowers, sawdust, wood chips, alfalfa straw, and other vegetative matter) that will assist in the decomposition process.   Air is also occasionally pumped through the tumblers.  After thirty days or so the tumbler is opened revealing about a pickup load of compost,  The bones are removed, ground up, and added back to the mixture, and the compost is removed and delivered to relatives or to whatever place the deceased intended for his or her compost to be used.  

If the deceased or the family wanted a stone to commemorate the departed, there is no reason that they can't have one in a cemetery or wherever they would like, and the compost can go to any special family projects, such as a memorial garden or tree plantings, and some of the composting companies have special areas such as parks where the compost can be deposited.

Today most bodies are embalmed (pumped full of poison which eventually seeps into the earth) and buried, or cremated, a burning process that takes an inordinate amount of energy and then only produces ash which has no value to the planet.    Composting is proving to be an option that is especially popular among the younger generations.  It is opposed by the traditional funeral industry as well as some religious groups - like the Catholic Church - which sees a religious need for a body to somehow connect to the afterlife (although cremation offers no such conduit).

The movement has spread since Governor Inslee signed that first bill in Washington in 2019, and today the process is legal not only in Washington, but also in Oregon, New York, Vermont, Nevada, Arizona, and soon in California (2027).   Currently the only operational facilities for Natural Organic Reduction (human composting) are in Washington and Colorado, but the service is expanding quickly.

We are living in a brave new world, and the option of turning our mortal remains into nutrient rich soil is on the horizon for all of us.  It is an option that I find intriguing and personally appealing.  It would be comforting to know that I might be of benefit to the planet after I am gone, instead of just being pumped full of formaldehyde and left moldering in the ground.

Perhaps in the next life I could reach to the skies as a mighty oak!  I would like that.

Iron Heel Comes Down on Columbia, UCLA

 

by Pa Rock

Free Speech Advocate

It has been a difficult and noisy couple of weeks on many American campuses as students rallied in generally peaceful protest demonstrations to help insure that the arc of the moral universe actually will bend toward justice - in spite of Bibi Netanyahu's war on the Palestinian people.  As certain US politicians rushed to paint the protesters in broad strokes as being antisemitic and the dupes of foreign operatives, university administrators struggled with finding ways to retake control of their campuses short of calling in the police or the military and overtly trampling free speech.

Tuesday night, after losing control of one of their campus buildings, Columbia University officials invited a police takeover of their campus in order to end the student protests once and for all.  I was out being entertained at a Kansas City theatre venue when the second police assault on Columbia took place, but a friend (a college political activist from the 1960's) called after the play and recapped the news of the evening for me.  She described the NYPD's aerial assault on Hamilton Hall as "breathtaking."

(I don't care if the went in on a flying trapeze, they should not have been there!)

Today the Los Angeles Police Department is apparently storming UCLA and tearing down their encampment.  

Columbia and UCLA:  two big wins for the establishment and the status quo - at least for the time being. We'll see what happens in the fall if the slaughter in Gaza is continuing.

Brown University, an Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, took an entirely different approach to dealing with student protesters and ending the encampment on their campus green.  In a meeting this past Tuesday, Brown University administrators agreed to let five student protesters meet with five members of the university's governing board this month in order to present their case for the school to divest funds from its endowment that support companies which are benefiting off of the war in Gaza.  The five board members will then make a recommendation to the full board in the fall for a final decision on the matter.   In the meantime students have agreed to end their protests for the current school year.

Brown University treated the student protesters like the adults they are instead of stomping them down with the iron heel of authoritarianism.  A smart move.  Universities are smart places - they should employ smart moves.

(Personal note:  I understand that my grandniece, who is a student at Barnard - the sister school of Columbia - and has been active in the protests, was not among those arrested on Tuesday night, but did spend the night outside of the police station in support of her friends who were inside under arrest.  Lauren, Uncle Rocky is damned proud of you!)

Feed Me, Seymour!

 

by Pa Rock

Theatre Fan

My son, Tim, and his family invited me to their home near Kansas City this week to see another fine theatrical production at the KC Rep Theatre on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City.  The musical "Little Shop of Horrors" had a "pre-opening night" performance at the Spencer Theatre, the place where our family heads each winter to see the KC Rep's holiday presentation of "A Christmas Carol."

Last night's show was flawless and fun.  The cast, several of whom had regional and national credits including Broadway, knew how to tread the boards, belt out songs, and engage the audience in what was a heckuva fine performance.  The set was brilliant, and the special effects and puppetry were first rate.  Just watching Audrey II slowly devour the cast is well worth the very reasonable price of admission - she is a true theatrical treasure!

"Little Shop," as interpreted and performed by the KC Rep, is an extremely good production and one that theatre-goers in the Kansas City area definitely should not miss.  The musical runs through May 19th.