short notes: will brady's ruminations

A blog adjunct to rondak.org [click on the globe] | Perspectives on: human rights; environmental concerns; life as a visual artist; 21st century feudalism; progressive politics; aboriginal culture; new urbanism; permaculture; sustainable technology; non-traditional families; achievable utopias

2005-01-22

WEATHER WARNINGS

Blizzard preparations | Bill and I went to two stores last night to do his regular grocery trip ~ one a discount place, the other more upscale | The stores were jammed with people | I checked to see which shelves were bare | The predictable ~ milk and bread were low | What I found interesting was that the upscale place had their greens shelves and the on-site bakery cabinets stripped | And while the picture here is from the internet, the carrots were pretty much untouched | Broccoli, mushrooms, beans and salad greens were decimated |
At the low-priced store, [where it appears to be basically the same brand-name foods but lower prices] the shelves seemed

adequately stocked | There were more people of color and folks speaking other languages than at the upscale place | We go there regularly, and the time was typical | It was more crowded than usual, and people's cart's were fuller, but outside of that, it didn't seem like a run on the groceries |
Tomorrow, if the weather forcasters are accurate, I can expect to wake up to something like the scene shown on the left, only with more snow |

Posted by: Will Brady / 08:35 (0) comments

2005-01-21

OTHER VOICES

billmon is back

Posted by: Will Brady / 23:49 (0) comments

WINTER FEASTS

Moodus Sportsman's Club
Game Dinner Season begins this weekend | Sorry, advance reservations only | January + February are already reserved | But it's a great spread we put forward |

Posted by: Will Brady / 09:53 (0) comments

COMMUNITY PLANNING

A new planning tool has been approved by Planning + Zoning, the Village District |
First authorized by legislation at the state level, the change allows for more comprehensive review of projects that might be developed in a unique, already devloped, locale, such as the Landings on the Connecticut River | The state's legislation allows for components of District Regulations to include:

# the building and layout of buildings and included site improvements shall reinforce existing buildings and streetscape patterns and that there ...is no adverse impact on the district;
# proposed streets shall be connected to the existing road district network, wherever possible;
# open spaces within the proposed development shall reinforce open space patterns of the district, in form and siting;
# locally significant features of the site, such as distinctive buildings or sight lines of vistas from within the district, shall be integrated into the site design;
# the landscape design shall complement the district’s landscape patterns;
# the exterior signs, site lighting and accessory structure shall ...be compatible with the surroundings; and
# the scale, proportions, massing and detailing of any proposed building shall be in proportion to the scale, proportion, massing and detailing in the district.

Changes in the district's zoning regulations will now allow for the development of the village to grow as an old New England village would have grown, albeit with more community resident input |

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT EAST HADDAM: Town website and Podunk's general information links

Posted by: Will Brady / 07:27 (0) comments

FOUR MORE YEARS

Once the "People's House"

And so, the roller coaster ride begins |

Posted by: Will Brady / 06:36 (0) comments

VOTE FRAUD
Newtopia presents the world with "18 Amazing (and largely Unknown) Facts About Voting in the USA" |

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator in a surprise upset, with votes counted by ES&S machines.
6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
8. Kenneth Blackwell co-chaired George Bush's Ohio election campaign. As Ohio secretary of state, he left no stone unturned to suppress the democratic vote.
9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

See the rest of the story and Newtopia's information backup links

Posted by: Will Brady / 02:39 (0) comments

2005-01-20

WEBSURFING
SpinCity shutting down | Effective yesterday, the easrtwhile factchecker will no longer be posting updates or new material | Spincity was active with checking on the dishonest but pervasive practice of polticians covering their verbiage tracks | They haven't been very active since mid-November, but they performed a valuable service while they were operating | Their absense is our loss |
Similar sites remain in operation including that Annenberg Public Policy Center FactCheck and Columbia Journalism Review's CJR Daily among them |

Posted by: Will Brady / 08:44 (0) comments

2005-01-19

INTERNET RADIO | COMMUNICATION TOOLS

Was quite taken aback when I saw Wilson's Almanac | The site is huge, yet interesting and navigable |
Off the top I was most taken by the pages devoted to Internet Radio, and it's extensive list of programming stations available online |
The other site I keep meaning to list here, and I have now so done this, is the translation service BabelFish, managed by Alta Vista | Glad to provide notice of both these helpful resources |

OTHER INDEPENDENT RADIO RESOURCES INCLUDE Radio Beam-V and BFBS Forces |

Posted by: Will Brady / 22:29 (0) comments

2005-01-18

HUNTING + FISHING UPDATES

Bowhunting Regs Change Proposed Connecticut | Not a good proposal, either | Written ~ perhaps ~ in haste to accede to the demands of an angry/upset constituent or two who aren't content to have law enforcement deal with the problem [i.e. in a case in November, a woman in the Ivy Hill section of Ridgefield found an arrow piercing the screen of the sitting room in her home | Coation of CT Sportsmen info indicates the arrrow was fitted with a field point (not used for hunting) although no info has yet been released by the PD as an "ongoing investigation"] or who lack any knowledge about bowhunting in general | FROM Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen

Moodus CT Fishing Derby | Sunday 13 February 2005 | Yeah | It's shameless self-promotion, but it is my website so why not? | Weather permitting we'll have a great time and there's good eating after the Derby back at the clubhouse | Click on this for an application form |

EcoTourism | Alaskan Bush Adventures for fishing, photogrpahy, or bear watching excursions | Operated and managed by a Connecticut man Jeffrey Epstein | His site notes that :Alaskan weather is unpredictable at best. Mid-summer temperatures may soar into the 80's. In contrast, during colder years we've experienced conditions more in keeping with the values represented on the table above. To maximize comfort and guard against the potential risk of hyperthermia, It is imperative to be prepared and dress accordingly. | I note that as I write this the temperature in Kodiak, Alaska is above freezing, while here, in Connecticut it is -17 degrees celsius [that's about 7 degrees Farenheight ~ compared to 35 degrees in Kodiak] ~ not indlcuing wind chill factor | GO TO Outback Kodiak for more information |

Posted by: Will Brady / 10:14 (0) comments

Posted by: Will Brady / 10:05 (0) comments

2005-01-17

MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr || 1929—1968, American clergyman and civil rights leader

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.

For More Info on Dr. King || Vernellia Randall's Newsletter on Race and Racism is a great place to start your reading today | Don't think you harbor racial prejudices ? Read Inkling's Consequential Angel before answering Tolerance.org's Hidden Biases Quiz || Finally, lest people fall into the mistake of believing that Dr. King's Crusade was only about race, see Martin Luther King Jr's Vision for Worldwide Economic Justice by Adetokunbo Adelekan | His visit to Memphis in 1968, where he was assasinated, was, after all, to show support for underpaid sanitation workers who were both white and black | He criticized the nature of capitalism and military adventurism | He was concerned about Social Justice, the problems arising from race prejudice being a significant but not the only part of his vision and mission | Finally, a short audio clip of Martin Luther King "...it seems that I can hear God saying to America: “You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power..." from The Institute for Public Accuracy

Posted by: Will Brady / 15:53 (0) comments

10 BOOKS - 1 DESERT ISLAND

Taking a prod from Bureau of Public Secrets I've put together my own 10 books for a desert island list | I'm kind of stumped on #1 but slant toward the practical apps stuff | When I get the final one figured out, I'll do an update | Difficult; so mcuh to choose from |
01- ??
02- Rockwell Kent An Anthology of his work by Fredrich Johnson
03- A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane
04- 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
05- Ancient Carpenter's Tools: Illustrated and Explained, Together With the Implements of the Lumberman, Joiner, and Cabinet-Maker in Use in the Eighteenth Century by Henry Chapman Mercer
06- The Art of Warfare by Sun Tzu [I'll get fussy; I'd want the 1993 Roger Ames translation]
07- The Wild Palate by Nancy and Walter Hall
08- The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy
09- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
10- Book One: Tactics for Camp and Portage by Beth and Dave Buckley

Posted by: Will Brady / 15:50 (0) comments

REBIRTH

Winter ~ a time for reflection
Preparation for renewal
Downtime / hibernation / withdrawl / reflection
   the meditative arts ought prevail
   we ~ resting to build our energies for Spring
Though the time be dark and foreboding
   there is much to do
   plan / cogitate / pupate / mature
   and grow

Why is it, then, I sit and listen to Porgy + Bess and singing of Summertime?

Posted by: Will Brady / 13:46 (0) comments

OTHER VOICES

War is the truest expression of the state, and its most powerful reinforcement.

Just as capitalism must create artificial needs for its increasingly superfluous commodities, the state must continually create artificial conflicts of interest requiring its violent intervention. The fact that the state incidentally provides a few “social services” merely camouflages its fundamental nature as a protection racket. When two states go to war the net result is as if each state had made war on its own people — who are then taxed to pay for it. The Gulf war was a particularly gross example: Several states eagerly sold billions of dollars’ worth of arms to another state, then massacred hundreds of thousands of conscripts and civilians in the name of neutralizing its dangerously large arsenal. The multinational corporations that own those states now stand to make still more billions of dollars restocking armaments and rebuilding the countries they have ravaged."