Cheers and Jeers
This format has been on my mind for a few years and now I've forgotten most of what I wanted to say. But an article on the environmental score card of local politicians spurred me into action. Another reason is that I occasionally volunteer to help the ODFW and the Coastal Conservation Association fertilize Rogue River tributaries with excess dead adult salmon from the Lost Lake hatchery. The benefits to the stream ecosystems, especially the baby salmon and steelhead are obvious, but I haven't heard a peep from any of our leaders or the media on this selfless program. And I'm sure this one compendium isn't all that I have or will find of interest around here.
Cheers; to the people who are working to extend the removal of invasive plants infestations along Bear Creek. The creek is a premier recreational area, including the paved bike path that extends from Central Point to Ashland, mostly along Bear Creek. Very few places allow you to walk down to the creek to look for spawning salmon or just sit and enjoy the motion and gurgle of a liquid, living vein of Southern Oregon.
Jeers; to Rep. Dennis Richardson who scored 17 out of 100 on environmental issues. Rep. Sal Esquivel - 12, and Sen. Hermann Baertschwiger - 0. All three have voted to permit biotech company GMO plantings in the Rogue Valley to the detriment of all the small family farmers. These small farmers make up 95% of the agriculture related purchases at the Grange Coop, for instance. Not to mention U.S. Rep. Greg Walden who also scored 0 on the environmental report card.
Cheers; to Sen. Alan Bates MD who scored 87. It's men like him that have created the outdoor paradise we all enjoy here in Southern Oregon. But I can't ignore the fact that he is vastly outnumbered and now has a challenger for his position, one who just cites 'job creation', that famous buzz word. It wouldn't be so bad if some concrete action was cited, but most job creation is by small business and that is now being largely accomplished to a large degree by older people with health insurance. Thanks to State Sen. Alan Bates' considerable work in the Oregon health care arena.
Jeers; to the land owners on Evans Creek who have refused to dismantle dams on their property. They block salmon and steelhead passage to their former habitat in the miles upstream from the unused dams.
Cheers; to the Jackson County Fuel Committee and all the volunteers, mostly in Ashland, who provide split firewood for free to needy folk.
Jeers; to the folks who stole my kids' firewood supply. They are in wheelchairs and can't cut their own. The thieves also swiped their garden hose and weed whacker for tending the producing garden.
Cheers; to all the hard working folks who are improving so many of our roads around the Rogue Valley with minimal disruption to traffic.
Jeers; to the contractor who didn't pave the shoulder of the road on N. 10th Street in Central Point so my kids had to drive their electric chairs out in traffic. And now can't access Central Point from their new house because of the cluster that is supposed to be access to E. Pine Street from N. Hamrick, keeping them isolated from their own downtown.
Cheers; to all the people who worked to take out the three dams on the Rogue River that were so detrimental to rebuilding the runs of salmon.
Jeers; to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife guy who talked the Fall Chinook Advisory Committee members into accepting a norm of only 50,000 fish where the run had been averaging around 100,000 fish. Lots of estimates put the historic run size at many times the size of recent runs. What's with the low expectations when everyone else is shooting for lots more. If the river had a semblance of it's former glory when outdoor writers and Presidents fished the Rogue, we'd have economic development galore. One king salmon is estimated to be worth $300 to the economy.
Jeers; also to the Legislature for not making the water rights holders on the Rogue put small enough screens on their intake pipes to keep out the small outmigrating salmon and steelhead.
Cheers; to the Affordable Care Act and the Service Employees International Union for now providing my kids' caregivers with health care coverage and a three dollar an hour raise. And to the local Division of Disabilities Services folk who orchestrate these changes into reality for my kids' hard working staff, which translates into better care for Alicia and Morgan and all other disabled Southern Oregon citizenry.
Cheers; in regards the 'fish tosses,' especially to a couple of Coastal Conservation Association officers, Chuck Fustish, the ODFW Volunteer Program Manager, and the staff of the Lost Creek Dam hatchery .
Cheers; to the GMO Free Jackson County organizers and volunteers for getting the word out about the importance of the organic agricultural sector of our economy. Some of which have had to plough under crops that got contaminated by crops of a foreign biotech corporation who secretly started planting genetically modified crops in the Rogue Valley.
Jeers; to our Jackson County Commissioners who are sitting on the fence on this issue, and even dodging the issue by saying they need more information. I would say organic farmers ploughing under valuable crops because of contamination by a foreign corporation's crop, is information enough. Not to mention the 'officially' unknown affects on human health and the unofficial known deleterious effects. You could say some folks have lost their minds, but like in Canada where this kind of thing is rampant, it was a slow clever infiltration by the ethically challenged. This is not a Dem. vs Republican issue, other parts of the world have their Gengis Khan types and their Golden Horde is sometimes large and sometimes small.
Cheers: on a much happier note, the downtown restaurant and wine tasting establishment called 'Capers,' in the old Woolworth Building, is now serving wild caught Alaska Copper River king salmon. A culinary peak has been scaled for the first time in the Rogue Valley. Of course I'm from Alaska and urged them to go for the best. In their tradition of winning the culinary contests in Downtown Medford recently, they have now arrived in my very marine slanted book. For my birthday in September I did have the best meat and potatoes of my life though, and I told Ron so.
Jeers; to a unnamed restaurant in Medford that served me Alaska trawl caught turbot that posed on the menu as sole. Turbot has a chemical in it that turns the flesh into mush no matter what you do before it's frozen. The Fisheries Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak has been trying for decades to solve the riddle. I guess the big processors just thought they'd foist them on the market anyway. I was good and kept my mouth shut at the restaurant for my wife's sake, even when the cook came out and asked me how I liked it. They knew they got duped, just didn't know exactly how.
Just like the folks in China having things stir-fried in 'gutter oil,' or Americans getting disease from eating the 'new wheat,' GMOs, and other such 'gutter foods.' Let the buyer beware. Oops, can't do that, at present there is no way to tell, even in this most 'advanced' country of ours. One Chinese man being interviewed for the video on 'gutter oil' said it can't be helped because everyone is out to scam everyone. Give them a few more years and they will have 'advanced' scammers like in the U.S. and not just scoop up the offending food from the city drains, but make it in labs and call it progress. Or you could couch it in terms of 'the bigger the lie, the easier it is to get away with it,' and with big money behind it, just that much easier.
It's easy to follow the money trail, but follow the scammer trail and it takes you through WWII Germany, author Ayan Rand, etc. And you have lots of folks dropping smoke bombs on the scammer trail, like 'the gov'mnt did it.' Notice the biggest smoke bombs are dropped by folks IN the government.
Cheers; to the people who are working to extend the removal of invasive plants infestations along Bear Creek. The creek is a premier recreational area, including the paved bike path that extends from Central Point to Ashland, mostly along Bear Creek. Very few places allow you to walk down to the creek to look for spawning salmon or just sit and enjoy the motion and gurgle of a liquid, living vein of Southern Oregon.
Jeers; to Rep. Dennis Richardson who scored 17 out of 100 on environmental issues. Rep. Sal Esquivel - 12, and Sen. Hermann Baertschwiger - 0. All three have voted to permit biotech company GMO plantings in the Rogue Valley to the detriment of all the small family farmers. These small farmers make up 95% of the agriculture related purchases at the Grange Coop, for instance. Not to mention U.S. Rep. Greg Walden who also scored 0 on the environmental report card.
Cheers; to Sen. Alan Bates MD who scored 87. It's men like him that have created the outdoor paradise we all enjoy here in Southern Oregon. But I can't ignore the fact that he is vastly outnumbered and now has a challenger for his position, one who just cites 'job creation', that famous buzz word. It wouldn't be so bad if some concrete action was cited, but most job creation is by small business and that is now being largely accomplished to a large degree by older people with health insurance. Thanks to State Sen. Alan Bates' considerable work in the Oregon health care arena.
Jeers; to the land owners on Evans Creek who have refused to dismantle dams on their property. They block salmon and steelhead passage to their former habitat in the miles upstream from the unused dams.
Cheers; to the Jackson County Fuel Committee and all the volunteers, mostly in Ashland, who provide split firewood for free to needy folk.
Jeers; to the folks who stole my kids' firewood supply. They are in wheelchairs and can't cut their own. The thieves also swiped their garden hose and weed whacker for tending the producing garden.
Cheers; to all the hard working folks who are improving so many of our roads around the Rogue Valley with minimal disruption to traffic.
Jeers; to the contractor who didn't pave the shoulder of the road on N. 10th Street in Central Point so my kids had to drive their electric chairs out in traffic. And now can't access Central Point from their new house because of the cluster that is supposed to be access to E. Pine Street from N. Hamrick, keeping them isolated from their own downtown.
Cheers; to all the people who worked to take out the three dams on the Rogue River that were so detrimental to rebuilding the runs of salmon.
Jeers; to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife guy who talked the Fall Chinook Advisory Committee members into accepting a norm of only 50,000 fish where the run had been averaging around 100,000 fish. Lots of estimates put the historic run size at many times the size of recent runs. What's with the low expectations when everyone else is shooting for lots more. If the river had a semblance of it's former glory when outdoor writers and Presidents fished the Rogue, we'd have economic development galore. One king salmon is estimated to be worth $300 to the economy.
Jeers; also to the Legislature for not making the water rights holders on the Rogue put small enough screens on their intake pipes to keep out the small outmigrating salmon and steelhead.
Cheers; to the Affordable Care Act and the Service Employees International Union for now providing my kids' caregivers with health care coverage and a three dollar an hour raise. And to the local Division of Disabilities Services folk who orchestrate these changes into reality for my kids' hard working staff, which translates into better care for Alicia and Morgan and all other disabled Southern Oregon citizenry.
Cheers; in regards the 'fish tosses,' especially to a couple of Coastal Conservation Association officers, Chuck Fustish, the ODFW Volunteer Program Manager, and the staff of the Lost Creek Dam hatchery .
Cheers; to the GMO Free Jackson County organizers and volunteers for getting the word out about the importance of the organic agricultural sector of our economy. Some of which have had to plough under crops that got contaminated by crops of a foreign biotech corporation who secretly started planting genetically modified crops in the Rogue Valley.
Jeers; to our Jackson County Commissioners who are sitting on the fence on this issue, and even dodging the issue by saying they need more information. I would say organic farmers ploughing under valuable crops because of contamination by a foreign corporation's crop, is information enough. Not to mention the 'officially' unknown affects on human health and the unofficial known deleterious effects. You could say some folks have lost their minds, but like in Canada where this kind of thing is rampant, it was a slow clever infiltration by the ethically challenged. This is not a Dem. vs Republican issue, other parts of the world have their Gengis Khan types and their Golden Horde is sometimes large and sometimes small.
Cheers: on a much happier note, the downtown restaurant and wine tasting establishment called 'Capers,' in the old Woolworth Building, is now serving wild caught Alaska Copper River king salmon. A culinary peak has been scaled for the first time in the Rogue Valley. Of course I'm from Alaska and urged them to go for the best. In their tradition of winning the culinary contests in Downtown Medford recently, they have now arrived in my very marine slanted book. For my birthday in September I did have the best meat and potatoes of my life though, and I told Ron so.
Jeers; to a unnamed restaurant in Medford that served me Alaska trawl caught turbot that posed on the menu as sole. Turbot has a chemical in it that turns the flesh into mush no matter what you do before it's frozen. The Fisheries Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak has been trying for decades to solve the riddle. I guess the big processors just thought they'd foist them on the market anyway. I was good and kept my mouth shut at the restaurant for my wife's sake, even when the cook came out and asked me how I liked it. They knew they got duped, just didn't know exactly how.
Just like the folks in China having things stir-fried in 'gutter oil,' or Americans getting disease from eating the 'new wheat,' GMOs, and other such 'gutter foods.' Let the buyer beware. Oops, can't do that, at present there is no way to tell, even in this most 'advanced' country of ours. One Chinese man being interviewed for the video on 'gutter oil' said it can't be helped because everyone is out to scam everyone. Give them a few more years and they will have 'advanced' scammers like in the U.S. and not just scoop up the offending food from the city drains, but make it in labs and call it progress. Or you could couch it in terms of 'the bigger the lie, the easier it is to get away with it,' and with big money behind it, just that much easier.
It's easy to follow the money trail, but follow the scammer trail and it takes you through WWII Germany, author Ayan Rand, etc. And you have lots of folks dropping smoke bombs on the scammer trail, like 'the gov'mnt did it.' Notice the biggest smoke bombs are dropped by folks IN the government.
posted by Alaskacafe at 11:04 AM
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