For the past few days I have been haunted by the memory of Hurricane Katrina. August 28th marks the fifth anniversary of the storm that destroyed most of New Orleams and displaced one of the poorest sections of this country- the 9th Ward. I have never been to New Orleans but what happened in 2005 changed my life. Continue reading What Hurricane Katrina Taught Me
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August 24, 2010
Posted by Minnette Coleman in: Accountability, African-American, Business, Commentary, Community, Economics, Environment, History, Minorities, Morality, Native American, Recovery, Social Classes, Social Issues
 2 comments August 24, 2010
Posted by Carla René in: Accountability, Advice, African-American, Attitude, Biography & Memoir, Book Marketing Online, Book Review, Books, Business, Business Management, Cancer, Cap and Trade, Children, China, Climate Change, Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Communications, Communism, Community, Computers, Congress, Contributor's Audio/Video, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Diet, Economic Crisis, Economics, Education, Energy, Entertainment, Environment, Environmental Issues, Faith, Family, Fiction, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Freelance Author, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Global Warming, Governance, Habit Change, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Heroes, History, Homeland Security, Humor, Inspiration & Motivation, Internet, Internet Advice, Interview, Islam, Journalism, Latino & Hispanic, Legal, Life Experiences, Lifestyle, Literature, Marketing, Marriage, Medical, Men's Issues, Mental Health, Mexico, Military, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Music, Native American, Nature/Wildlife, Non-Fiction, Nutrition, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Philosophical Genres, Poetry, Politics, Publishing, Question of the Day, Recovery, Relationships, Religion, Republican, Rhyme, Satire, Self-Help, Sex, Short Stories, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, Sociology, Spirituality, Sports, Technology, Television, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, The Writer's Corner, Travel, Uncategorized, Website Instructions, Weight loss, Wellness, Women's Perspective, Women's Rights, Working Women, Workplace, World Issues, Writing Essentials
Leave a comment Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea… [...] August 5, 2010
Posted by Prentiss Gray in: Climate Change, Commentary, Environment, Environmental Issues, Global Warming
Leave a comment   PHOTO From NIKON SMALL WORLD Do you recognize this? Is it a beautiful jewel? A fancy bead? A slightly erotic representation? Yes and no. This little guy is microscopic, so tiny that most of us only know of them because the ocean is green. It’s a single Phytoplankton, the bottom of the food chain, even below Twinkies. Most everything in the ocean lives because of these. Without Phytoplankton very few things higher on the food chain (which is everything) would have anything to eat. They are earth’s simplest and oldest green veg and the basis for a great deal of life on earth. Which is why a recent study published in Nature startled a lot of people. The oceans are becoming less green. That’s because Earth has been loosing 1% to 2% of the population of phytoplankton since 1950. Right now we are down about 40%. I hate “scare” articles. So, let me tell you that the decline in phytoplankton has not been found in the North and South Indian Oceans, just everywhere else. Feel better? Continue reading Our friend phyto – planet killer August 3, 2010
Posted by Michael Crumling in: Advice, Climate Change, Commentary, Entertainment, Environment, Faith, Habit Change, Humor, Life Experiences, Satire, Social Issues, Television, The Media, Weight loss
Leave a comment I like background noise. It allows me to separate my thoughts. Occasionally, I find it a distraction, but most of the time it is just noise. The presence of the sound is somehow transformative. It sustainably enables me to marshal my thoughts and execute whatever it is I am doing, or it allows me to sleep despite any of the din outside. The volume matters sometimes. A loud television or stereo is interesting when you concentrate on it with interest. However, when you are no longer interested, they become a distraction… sort of like people in life sometimes. But, in both cases you will find that you can tolerate either, very well, if the volume has been reduced a good bit. We have all had that conversation. You’re really listening to someone, intent to hear what they are saying. When they hit a few sour notes, your attitude has changed, and you start to hear “blah blah woof woof……blah blah”. Continue reading A list of crap I no longer wish to hear about July 23, 2010
Posted by Michael Crumling in: Attitude, Creative Writing, Entertainment, Environment, Family, General Topics, Life Experiences, Lifestyle, Motivation, Nature/Wildlife, Non-Fiction, Personal Experiences
Leave a comment I arose from my tent early and found a mess left in the camp. The raccoons had found the cooler. They discovered that our breakfast of eggs could be found inside. Little hand prints were left as evidence of the burglary. The broken egg shells and disarray were not enough. The little marks noted their presence and also their prescience. They had no doubt watched us putting things away, or just somehow knew that they could find goodies in that box. I clean up then go about just sitting alone in my woodsy campsite. The kids are still sleeping, and so are the rest of the adults. You would think that I would be lonely without the company, but I am not. The breeze blows by my ears, my hair gently moving. The chirping of birds and bubbling of running water are comforting; downright relaxing. It seems that you see so much more when you take the time to just sit, put away your generated thought, and watch the world go by you. There are so many insects. Normally, I wouldn’t want them around, but they don’t seem to bother me so much today. Except for the flies, none are “on” me. On a boulder in the distance, I see a cardinal. It flits between rocks and gravel, in search of its’ daily sustenance. The red bird seems oblivious to anything not crawling on or under the dirt. He has identified his area of interest and actively pursues his objective. A few little pecks at the soil, and he flies into a nearby branch. It becomes obvious that he achieved his goal, a little breakfast du jour. Maybe a snack of flies would appeal to him? I suspect that he won’t get that close to me. At least he has had breakfast… Continue reading Wasting Time July 6, 2010
You may not be aware of this but shortly after 9/11 a movie was to be released called “Rats!”. It was about that yucky vermin taking over New York city. Someone brightly and bravely decided that the movie should not be shown for a long time. Didn’t matter though, NYC has a ton of rats. More rats than people. But some idiot somewhere in Albany decided to cut back on extermination efforts in the city. That movie, which I never saw, may soon become a reality. Continue reading Budget Cuts and Rats! June 28, 2010
So hot! That is all anyone says about this day. We have wanted summer all year long when the winter was cold, but not to cold. Just cold enough to complain about it. Now it is hot enough to complain about and no one has yet to thank Mother Nature for still working with us as we destroy our planet. Did you feel that pinch of winter blowing through here just now? So cool! Perhaps she is trying to clue us in with a little summer breeze. Continue reading Summer Breeze June 16, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Cap and Trade, Commentary, Current Events, Democrat, Energy, Environment, Governance, Opinion
3 comments Obama Asks America to Commit Suicide By Alan Caruba President Obama is one of the most articulate we have had in that office. His ability to deliver a speech or a short talk such as his first from the Oval Office Tuesday evening is impressive. He knows how to deliver an address. What he doesn’t know or doesn’t care about is the difference between the truth and a lie. His fifteen-minute address was the piling on of one lie after another regarding America’s use of energy and its needs for the future. Continue reading Obama Asks America to Commit Suicide June 8, 2010
The United States Gulf Coast is either bleeding to death or has a killer case of diarrhea thanks to British Petroleum. In either case, our precious Gulf Coast is dying. The animals (including humans), the plants, insects, fish and fowl are dying right along with each other and the end is no where in [...] May 26, 2010
Posted by georgepolley in: Book Review, Books, Environment, Environmental Issues, Faith, Religion, Spirituality, World Issues
Leave a comment To paraphrase something Thich Nhat Hanh once said, “Everything inter-is.” Everything in nature is interconnected, including humans. We are a part of nature, not separate from it, set apart from and above it to do with it what we will. Like every other species, we are deeply embedded in nature and dependent on it [...] May 3, 2010
Posted by Minnette Coleman in: Commentary, Environment, Family, Lifestyle, Motivation, Nature/Wildlife, Social Issues
9 comments They delivered the dirt mulch before the dirt. They delivered them two days apart. It came from a city sponsored program to help the trees that line our block. Two weekends ago I attended a workshop held in the basement community room of one of the co-op apartment buildings on our street to learn how to care for the trees you adopt. We were taught what needed to be done to ensure the beautification of our street and the health of the trees. While most block association meetings have low attendance, this meeting had a great turnout. There were children there interested in helping the environment, people who wanted to make signs to stop pet owners from letting their dogs pee on trees (its kills them, you know) and there were adults there interested in helping the street develop into a community. Continue reading Watching a Community Develop April 21, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Commentary, Energy, Environment, Environmental Issues, Governance, Opinion
Leave a comment The EPA Monster By Alan Caruba Among the legacies of Richard M. Nixon, famed for the Watergate scandal that forced his resignation, it should be noted that he created the Environmental Protection Agency. There was no vote in Congress. He did it with an executive order. Today the EPA has an annual budget of $9 billion and some 18,000 employees. Not satisfied with the authorized powers given it to ensure clean air and water, the EPA has never ceased to seek expanded powers, culminating soon with a battle over whether it can regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) as a “pollutant.” Labeled a “greenhouse gas”, in the eyes of the EPA it is an “endangerment” to the health of humanity in general and Americans in particular. CO2 is as vital to all life on planet Earth in the same way as oxygen. It is what plants consume in order to grow, much as oxygen is essential for life among living creatures that, in turn, are dependent on vegetation, crops, for their sustenance. It’s a neat little cycle that has existed since life emerged on Earth. Continue reading The EPA Monster April 21, 2010
My son asked me this strange question in the car this morning. “Have I ever seen a pig?” In some moods, as a father with a lot on his mind, I would simply have dismissed the question as ridiculous, as in “Of course, you have”. However, he caught me in a more ruminative state today and, when I had considered the question increasingly carefully and even started to rack my brains, I realised that the actual answer is probably stranger than the question. “Quite possibly not.” In my childhood, I saw pigs rooting around in mud enclosures as part of the countryside environment I went to school in. I suspect that in many lesser industrialised countries they turn up and snuffle and snort right next to you. However, in the industrialised West, they are usually hidden away in factory farm sheds. We have all smelled pigs from time to time, but I am trying to remember the last time I actually saw one myself. A wild boar conveniently dropped dead on the beach outside our house in France a few years back, and some even wandered around our garden in another house in France, so maybe it is easier to catch a glimpse of a wild boar nowadays than that of a domestic pig. Continue reading Have I ever seen a pig? March 23, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Commentary, Current Events, Economics, Environment, Governance, History, Military, Opinion, World Issues
2 comments America in Decline By Alan Caruba There are tipping points in people’s lives and in the life of a nation. More and more I am inclined to believe that America has hit a tipping point and that its decline has been in progress now since the end of World War II. How can that be? We were and are a superpower. While it is true that we have the greatest military power in the world, it is equally true that many of the planes being flown were brought on line in the 1950s, despite the extraordinary aircraft such as the stealth bombers. When Russia can put in a $40 billion bid to build refueling tankers after a major U.S. aircraft firm dropped out of the process, you have to ask yourself whether something is terribly wrong. Militarily, we have worn out our forces, many of which are National Guard units, with six years of conflict in Iraq and renewed conflict in Afghanistan. All the hardware needed to maintain our troops in conflict zones need replacing. And the President of the United States wants to sign a treaty to reduce our nuclear arsenal. Continue reading America in Decline March 9, 2010
Posted by Muhammad Cohen in: Business, Cap and Trade, Current Events, Energy, Environment, Environmental Issues, Foreign Affairs, Global Warming
Leave a comment Sustainable palm oil production shouldn’t be an oxymoron. [...] March 8, 2010
Posted by Minnette Coleman in: Commentary, Diet, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Health & Fitness, Uncategorized
3 comments The daffodils just phoned in a complaint. If they make an early appearance to the party they may die from the future cold. The birds sitting on my windowsill refuse to shut up. They are discussing their friends who flew south and are missing the fine weather. The trees have decided to wait to see how long this warm spell with last. Nature is being teased by a preview of spring in New York and we are all watching and waiting for the real thing. Continue reading A Tease from Spring February 24, 2010
Posted by Prentiss Gray in: Environment, Environmental Issues, Geopolitical Events, Global Warming, Habit Change
3 comments
Despite shrinking ice sheets, melting glaciers and Island nations disappearing under water, many sensible people still find climate change totally unbelievable. We’re not talking about some incomprehensible 3000 page theory here, we’re talking the disappearance of the North polar ice pack. You know, where Santa lives? Continue reading Climate change – Nah! February 7, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Commentary, Congress, Current Events, Economic Crisis, Environment, Global Warming, Opinion
One comment I Prefer Local to Global By Alan Caruba Perhaps it is just the product of the times in which I grew up and my experience with the events of the world. Or perhaps it is the spin that has been added to the word “global”, endowing it with an almost spiritual quality. Mostly, though, I think it is my utter disgust with “global warming”, having spent the better part of three decades striving to defeat this plot to enable all forms of governmental intrusion into people’s lives and choices. A bit of personal history; as a child I recall riding the train to and from the Jersey shore when it was filled with young men in uniform, all destined to fight in far-off places whose names even then seemed exotic to me; Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Normandy, and Sicily. It was the harsh geography of war, but to a youngster it only meant someplace far away. By the time I was a teenager, an older brother was already in Japan at the headquarters from which the Korean conflict was conducted. There were new names to deal with, Seoul, Incheon, and the Yalu River. By then the Cold War was well on its way. Continue reading I Prefer Local to Global February 3, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Commentary, Congress, Current Events, Democrat, Economic Crisis, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Governance, Opinion, Politics
2 comments The National Madhouse By Alan Caruba If you think that you are going mad, based on the statements out of the White House and Congress, let me assure you that you are sane, but those in charge of governing the nation appear to have lost their wits. The Democrat’s third-ranking House leader, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), during an appearance on Fox News asserted that “We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession.” It is his view that “We’re not going to save our way out of this recession.” So saving money is bad. Spending money we are borrowing at a rate of a billion dollars a day is good. If that sounds insane, you’re right. Continue reading The National Madhouse February 1, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Commentary, Current Events, Environment, Global Warming, Opinion
Leave a comment Global Warming Makes the Case Against Global Government By Alan Caruba The utterly baseless case for “global warming” is melting a lot faster than the glaciers in India’s Himalayas which, by the way, are not melting. It is time for the Nobel Committee to rescind the Peace Prize given to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is time for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences committee to take back Al Gore’s Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth”, an alleged documentary that became mandatory viewing for students in the U.S. and around the world. Purporting to “prove” that the Earth was rapidly warming due to the rise in “greenhouse gases”, it is a fraud. In the event the news hasn’t reached you, in mid-August 2009, after repeated requests for the Climate Research Unit’s raw data from which it calculated global temperatures, the CRU at the University of East Anglia (UK), a key element of the UN’s IPCC, announced that it had discarded the data, thereby making it impossible to determine if their assertions of rising global temperatures were accurate and true. Or not. In October 2009, in the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, it was demonstrated that the IPCC’s tree ring data from Russia that showed a cooling after 1961 had been disguised in its report (AR4) that, of course, asserted the Earth was warming. Continue reading Global Warming Makes the Case Against Global Government February 1, 2010
Posted by Bob Grant - Editor in: Comments & Discussion, Current Events, Environment, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Medical
Leave a comment Should there be a ban on smoking – if so – in what places or areas? We welcome your thoughts and comments. January 31, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Commentary, Current Events, Environment, Environmental Issues, Opinion
Leave a comment The Great Green Land Grab By Alan Caruba All across America, various environmental organizations have been engaged in schemes to deter development such as housing, new energy plants, or the horror of a manufacturing facility that might actually employ people. In some states, the attack has been on farms and ranches, finding ways to punish their owners for improving their land in any fashion such as digging a drainage ditch. Property rights were deemed so essential, so important to the economic future of America that the Founding Fathers wrote an Amendment to the Constitution to protect those rights, ensuring that private property could not be taken for public use “without just compensation.” As far as environmentalists are concerned, private property rights are an impediment to the “protection” of what they always describe as “pristine” forests, deserts, or some horrid wilderness such as the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve. ANWR is unfit for human habitation, but it does have countless thousands of caribou and several billion barrels of untapped oil beneath a “pristine” surface. Continue reading The Great Green Land Grab January 24, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Cap and Trade, Commentary, Congress, Current Events, Democrat, Economic Crisis, Environment, Governance, Opinion
One comment The Bill Comes Due for Socialism in America By Alan Caruba “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” — Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister It began as a beautiful cruise to a land of “hope and change”, but it has become a nightmare in which the ship of state is being deliberately steered toward a whirlpool of debt from which, if Obama is successful, the nation cannot escape. One of the primary reasons the U.S. economy has grown over the years has been the confidence in its innovation and productivity. It has generated investment from around the world from those who wanted to profit from our success story. There was a time when U.S. securities were the safest in the world, but that is no longer the case. On December 24, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to raise the ceiling of the government debt to $12.4 trillion, described by an Associated Press reporter as “a massive increase over the current limit and a political problem that President Barack Obama has promised to address next year.” On January 20, 2010, barely a month later, Senate Democrats “proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.” Continue reading The Bill Comes Due for Socialism in America January 19, 2010
My daily drive; today through pouring rain, Graffiti on walls and overpasses define the city climate Beggars crowd each corner light. January 19, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Commentary, Current Events, Economics, Environment, Governance, Opinion
2 comments Deadly Earth, Deadly Humans By Alan Caruba The earthquake in Haiti is a perfect example of the arrogance of environmentalists who are always running around crying “Save the Earth” or making claims that any or all forms of life are going extinct. For three decades we have listened to these charlatans claim that the Earth was heating up to a point where, if we didn’t cut back or replace all forms of energy, oil, natural gas and coal, it would become a vast desert devoid of life. Then, in 1998, the Sun began yet another of its eleven year cycles of low sunspot activity, a diminution of magnetic storms on its surface, and the completely predictable result was a new, perfectly natural cooling cycle, a prelude perhaps to a predictable new ice age. When I do radio, I like to remind listeners that Mother Nature has a message for humankind. It’s “Get out of the way. Here comes an earthquake, a volcano, a flood, a forest fire, a mudslide, a blizzard, a hurricane, et cetera.” In an excellent book, “Devastation! The World’s Worst Natural Disasters” by Lesley Newson, she starts by noting that “The Earth is a rocky sphere nearly 8,000 miles in diameter. It is surrounded by a shroud of gases more than 60 miles deep. Sandwiched in between is a fragile layer, only a few miles thick, where humans are able to survive. It is perhaps not surprising that in this tiny zone of life there are occasional upheavals that make survival impossible.” Continue reading Deadly Earth, Deadly Humans January 7, 2010
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China in Transition, Where did all that Pollution come from?
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hours now after four episodes. At times it is like a marathon with the people and parks running by you in a mind stream of sequences of people and events that you struggle to keep straight as the Juggernaut of Burnsian vignettes hits you. Still…you want more.
By Alan Caruba
America Goes Buggy Over Bed Bugs
America Goes Buggy Over Bed Bugs
By Alan Caruba
When The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and all other media in America begin to devote lots of space and time to the subject of bed bugs, you know America has a real pest problem.
Uniquely, I know a lot of pest control professionals because I have worked closely with the industry for a quarter century providing public relations services.
So let me say that I have the ANSWER to the nation’s plague of bed bugs.
It’s called PESTICIDES. Continue reading America Goes Buggy Over Bed Bugs