One Size Fits All

From husband’s email:

Under Tiberius, the Roman Emperor, there was a financial panic.

This was caused first by Tiberius seizing property for "crimes against the state". Then he took the money from the treasury and used it on orgies.

Taxes were high. He spent little money on public works.

Interest rates on loans were limited to 1.5%. People ignored the rule. Tiberius ruled that they were to uphold the law and he gave people 1.5 years to get their books in order. The result? People called in their loans. Why loan out money for so low interest. Since all loans were called in at once, there was a panic. There were limited coins.

Land prices went almost to nothing.

Tiberius had to rescue the bank by loaning it 1 million coins at 0% interest to pay out to borrowers to exchange securities for land.

 
Edit: Here is some more info from what looks like an excerpt in The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome by William Stearns Davis.

I’ve been reading Hope, Human and Wild by Bill McKibben. Its not too bad. But I wanted to write about my thoughs on Kerala…often brought up by environmentalists (including McKibben) as the golden standard to aspire to.

I’ve been in a very pessimistic mood lately, so this post is going to reflect that pessimism. This post is also poorly written. So please put your grammer rules aside for now.

I am very familiar with Kerala - a state in India. For one, I was born there. I’ve also lived in a small town in Kerala for a while. But I hated the place. Yes the food was lovely, the resource consumption is as low as everyone says it is. The weather was tolerable despite the heat and humidity, mainly because of all the trees that make the place liveable. And the water is delicious! But the people…well its what makes a place. And for the most part its the people that made me despise the place.

While I realize that the norms and customs of a community is what makes up a community I dislike the notion that an outsider or someone who deviates from those norms and customs can be ostracized, burned at the stake, etc, etc. While I’ve only become mildly obnoxious in the last few years, in general I am not a rebel. I like to follow the rules and overall am an all round do-gooder.

One of the reasons I like the U.S. is because people in general tend to leave you alone. This is coming from my experience of living in a city, suburb and the country.They chalk up your eccentricities as eccentricities. But there isn’t an overall pervasive negative vibe following you everywhere you go if you’re slightly odd. If you speak English with a slightly different accent you aren’t mocked. You’re just asked to repeat yourself (and occasionally treated like a special exhibit at the zoo). You can wear almost type of clothing anything and not be bothered about it for the most part. Your neighbors won’t come over and call you a slut for wearing shorts in 100 degree weather (and you are wearing shorts in your own house…not walking around town with it). 

I am not quite sure how to put this. But, everytime a white person walks around in India they are treated as a god (one reason my husband is quite eager to visit India). White skin is prized. So I can’t imagine a white person having a terribly negative experience in a place like Kerala.  Maybe they might wind up as victims of theft or pickpocketeers…but their attitude and behaviour won’t be mocked. But if those same attitudes were somehow part of someone’s personality (say…me)…then life will be hell. Speaking the native language with a slightly different accent will get giggles and mockery every single time. Wearing jeans will be seen as a huge act of rebellion that will need to be curbed.

I can’t remember what else made my life a living hell seeing as I have a terrible memory. But I wonder if its worth it to live in a community with a very low rate of resource consumption and give up any semblance of a personality in order to fit in.

I recently commented on Penelope Trunk’s blog that my blog was an intersection between ethics, money and the life. So I was very pleased when I encountered a passage in Secrets of the Temple that shed some light into the relationship between money and food from a historical perspective.

My current knowledge of the U.S. food system begins in the Dust Bowl era as described by Timothy Egan in Hard Times. But I wondered about what the food system was like before the dust storms became a regular feature of the midwestern landscape. The excerpt below gives me some insight into that question, along with the reasons behind  why people from the southern states still bear resentment toward northerners or other outsiders. The excerpt also sheds light on why the Civil War is still a hot button topic for many. Reading arduous’ recent post on perceptions by rural people and/or southerners reminded me to post this excerpt:

Across the cotton states, small farmers existed in a state of virtual peonage, their everyday lives held in bondage by the crop-lien system, an American version of the medieval usurer. In every hamlet, the "furnishing merchant" provided farm families with staples and supplies and took a lien on the farmer’s cotton crop as security. If a farmer bought something for cash, he paid one price, but if he purchased on credit, he would pay 25 to 50 percent more. At the end of the season, when his crops were sold and his account settled, the "furnishing man" would add another 33 percent or so for interest. The real interest rate, thus, approached or exceeded 100 percent. There was nowhere else to turn; other merchants or banks would not extend credit to someone who was already indebted. With falling cotton prices, it was impossible for farmers to "pay out," and so the merchants took notes against the farmers’ land. As the debt mounted and forfeiture was inescapable, tens of thousands of farmers - eventually millions of people - "decended into the world of landless tenantry," as Lawrence Goodwyn wrote. They became hired hands, sharecropping on the farms they had once owned, or displaced immigrants who streamed to the cities. This wholesale liquidation was entwined in the South’s bitter memory of Reconstruction, the legacy that led Populist legislators, once they had gained power in places like Arkansas, to write stringent prohibitions of usury into their state laws and constitutions.

Usurious lending also afflicted farmers in the Middle West, though less dramatically, as they struggled to stay ahead of falling prices. The age of mechanization was opening and farmers were advised that the only way to maintain their income levels was to increase their efficiency - to produce greater yields from the same land and labor. The new machines they purchased on credit typically carried annual interest rates of 18 to 36 percent - chattel mortgages they would have to pay off in steadily appreciating dollars. When the farmers went to ship their grain, the railroads squeezed them further with arbitrary freight rates. "The farmer in the West," Goldwyn wrote, "felt there was something wrong with a system that made him pay a bushel of corn in freight costs for every bushel he shipped."

That’s all I am going to type for now. But the chapter goes on to say how farmers had to obtain loans from local financial organizations which then asked banks and financial organizations (investment houses?) on Wall Street to back their loans. Since the currency in existence was backed by gold (Chile recommended this short documentary that is well worth watching to get the general idea of currency backing), any sort of loan guarantee had to have backing in gold as insurance…even though collateral was often taken from the farmers in the form of land. Since it was banks in NYC that made or broke the farmers in rural areas, there was a growing resentment that has never quite gone away. In fact the ongoing subprime crisis stems from decisions made from lower level flunkies all over the globe to the higher level paper pushers sitting in Wall Street firms again affecting millions of people including those living in rural areas. So I can see how one can be resentful toward those at Wall Street.

I believe a commenter on Boston Gal’s Open Wallet had recommended "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country". I started reading this book a few days ago since its due back at the library next week (I’ve already renewed it past its limit). The book is over 600 pages along but its a fantastic and very informative read. The author, William Greider, describes the spiritual malaise that usually precedes a huge change. Karen Armstrong also wrote about this general discontent that more or less led to the founding of the religions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. According to Secrets of the Temple, many people are suspicious of the motives of the Fed primarily because its a large, secretive body that has a great deal of influence over a wide variety of people. This lack of control and knowledge causes some to come up with…some sort of idea (however bizzare) to explain this entity. An excerpt that explains the theories of these people:

To modern minds, it seemed bizarre to think of the Federal Reserve as a religious institution. Yet the conspiracy theorists, in their own demented way, were on to something real and significant. Economics was the essence of scientific rationalism; the Fed’s analytical techniques were the opposite of metaphysical speculation. But the Federal Reserve did also function in the realm of religion. Its mysterious powers of money creation, inherited from priestly forebears, shielded a complex bundle of social ritual, transactions so powerful and frightening they seemed to lie beyond common understanding.

I think people seem to want a few things in life whether they are able to articulate it or not: happiness, cleanliness (as described by George Carlin) and some semblance of order and control over their own lives. When these desires are in any way threatened people try to regain those desires in a manner that makes sense to them.

Coming with ideas and believing them without a context of history seems a bit foolish. I don’t know what to think about the Fed. I have no idea what it is they actually do. Its seems a bit silly to be fearful of an entity if their presence has been a constant in one’s own lifetime. I can see fear coming arising from new things or developments…but something that is old?

I’m in a foul mood today. This is probably due to all the "news" I’ve been reading since yesterday. Warning: negativity and pointless pontification ahead.

There are many claims and even studies showing the correlation between educated women and delayed pregnancy.  So I’ve been very curious on how much my education played a part in me not wanting to have children (although, after yesterday’s bus ride I don’t even want to be in the same vicinity as anyone under 20…but that’s a different story). I’ve had sex education classes twice: the first one was on the mating of frogs given in biology class when I was 13 and second one had to do with humans, taught when I was 15. The frog sex class was a snooze fest and has probably played a huge role in why I’ve never liked studying biology in an academic environment. The human sex-ed class was given  under the watchful eye of a nun, who I thought looked like a cow (it was how she was depicted in my cartoons of her).

The sex-ed class taught me only one method of pregnancy prevention (in addition to abstinence), the rhythm method, also called the calender method. But I never relied on it because I couldn’t keep track of when it was safe for me to have sex: Is it before my period? After my period? During my period? I decided the safest method was just to avoid it altogether and thus escape the stigma associated with a teenage pregnancy. I was 19 when I discovered the pill and unless I am sterile, it was 100% effective.

Depending on the hour, I sometimes feel like a genius or a complete idiot. So one of my biggest fears regarding pregnancy was cash flow: how do I provide for the kid if the dad is a dud? How do I provide for the kid if the kid has developmental problems? Not having money or a reliable support network is one of the reasons I kept putting off my child rearing abilities. Did this decision come about because I am educated? Or because I am sensible and have the ability to think about the future? Are they related? From what I know, my gene pool isn’t particularly spectacular and there are plenty of over educated people in this world that are related to me and are missing some light bulbs. Does sitting in a classroom listening to some bore drone on and on put a hamper on one’s desire to mate without contraceptives? If someone has any papers to recommend that address these questions, I’ll be happy to read them.

I’ve known women who have had no formal education (can’t write their name in any language, nor have been told about contraceptives or the calendar method) and are attractive and self-confident and have chosen not to have kids. These women were/are working low paid service jobs. Did their decision to not have kids come about because of their common sense or because of education?

The reason I am having these thoughts is because when I read stories and see pictures of women and their kids starving in Africa or whereever…I wonder, didn’t they think before they decided to have sex and get pregnant? Its not like they were living luxurious lives before they encountered food shortages. What is with this drama of selling kids to ensure that they have food? Why didn’t they think before they got pregnant? Would sex-ed have helped?

My husband says that one reason some cultures might be resistant to sex-ed lessons could be because of previous problems arising from listening to…lets say Western Society. So there is some fear and/or doubt involved with it. And it might be hard to seperate fact from BS and one example I can think of is…listening to someone tell you to use condoms vs. listening to someone telling you not to buy cheap U.S. subsidized grain that is GMO laden. And I am sitting here with access too all sorts of reading material so I have no way of really understanding what some of these women are going though. Okay. But still…it really bothers me to see starving kids…if I were living amongst rampant malnutrition I would ensure that I have razor blades in certain holes so as to prevent unneccesary accidents. Or punch myself repeatedly if my belly started to bloat up. I have friends without kids who echo my sentiments, and ones with kids that think I am some sort of monster. I am incredibly money minded…so all my thoughts revolve around it. But I’m still wondering why aren’t these women thinking about the future at least for a little while. I wonder if consensual unprotected sex has stopped in areas right now where there is water shortages, food shortages or random violence. I guess I’ll know in nine months.

I’m currently reading Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage by William L. Rathje and Cullen Murphy. To claim that the book is  compelling would be an understatement. 

Yesterday evening I read the section on two U.S. food shortages, beef and sugar, that occured in 1973* and 1975. The garbologists found a very odd occurence resulting from the shortages…that more food was wasted during the shortages than before. An excerpt:

In the months after the beef shortage ended, the rate of beef waste (cooked and uncooked, but not counting fat or bone) amounted to about 3 percent of all the beef bought. During the months of the shortage, in contrast, the rate of waste was 9 percent. In other words, people wasted three times more beef when it was in short supply than they did when it was plentiful. 

This conclusion seemed perverse, but the data, when checked, seemed solid. Eventually a Hypothesis was put forward to account for the odd behavior: the practice of crisis-buying. When confronted with the widespread and sometimes alarmist coverage of the beef shortage in the local and national media many people may have responded by buying up all the beef they could get their hands on, even if some of the cuts were unfamiliar. Of course, they didn’t necessarily know how to cook some of those cuts in an appetizing way. More important, they didn’t necessarily know how to store large amounts of meat for an extended period of time. The inevitable result in either case: greater waste.

The general proposition drawn from the findings about red meat — that wastage of a food increases when that food is scarce — was unexpected, but in the context it seemed reasonable. The reaction among nutrition educators and home economists when this result was reported, however, was somewhat muted, their criticism being that the hypothesis was probably not broadly applicable to a wide range of foods.

 

Fate smiled on the Garbage Project in the spring of 1975 by unleashing a sugar shortage. As the price of sugar and high-sugar products doubled, the wastage of those items in Tucson’s garbage tripled. Because Tucson is only sixty miles from the U.S. border with Mexico, where the price of sugar had remained stable, many Tucsonans stocked up with sugar that they bought south of the border. Mexican sugar, however, is not as highly processed as American sugar; it is browner, and it turns hard quickly. Before long, hard, brown bricks of Mexican sugar began appearing in the garbage. Some Tucsonans began buying Desserta and other unfamiliar products made from sugar substitutes, such as cyclamates; the reviews were plainly evident in the form of unconsumed discards.

Also prominent in the trash were items containing sugar that had crystallized during the course of long-term hoarding. In sum, the behavior of people in the midst of the sugar shortage corroborated the findings about red meat. The sugar shortage, more sharply than the beef shortage, also drew attention to the role that unfamiliarity with a food plays in the wasting of that food.

From the information garnered during the beef and sugar shortages the Garbage Project developed the First Principle of Food Waste: The more repetitive your diet — the more you eat the same things day after day — the less food you waste. In hindsight the First Principle seems simple and obvious. The waste in garbage from the standard sixteen-ounce and twenty-four-ounce loaves of sliced bread that every household buys regularly is virtually nonexistent — at most, crusts and ends; this is because common sandwich bread is used continually, meal after meal.

 So I wonder how much rice is being wasted in the U.S. today. When I first heard about the big box stores limiting how much rice one could buy, my first thought was: since when did Americans start eating rice? I thought Americans ate flour: doughnuts, cookies, pasta, bread, cakes, etc. I thought rice was more of an Asian staple. I am also confused on whether there is actually a rice shortage…I thought the governmental mandates pushing for ethanol would increase the cost of corn. Is ethanol somehow affecting the price of rice? Are rice fields being cleared to make way for corn? I am slowly making my way through the WaPo’s series of articles on the "Global Food Crisis" and I have no way of knowing how much of this is just manufactured and how much of it is real. I imagine floods and other natural disasters do disrupt any food route…but I can’t figure out why this is global. Additionally I am not entirely sure my food bill has increased from previous years. I have more or less stopped going to any brick and mortar grocery store. My purchases at local food sources such as the farmers’ market have gone way up since last year. Currently the only things I am buying from a brick store are: coffee, nuts and some herbs like cilantro which is not in season yet. Other foods (like flour) not available at a farmer’s stand is being purchased in bulk from online vendors. The per pound cost of the organic flour we use is less than $1. The rice bags I buy are purchased from the Indian grocery store where the price was the same as it was a year ago. I’ve never been to a Costco so I don’t know if rice was something that was sold there previously. I’m very curious on finding out if food waste in the U.S. has gone down because of this "crisis"…because wasting food is wasting money.

* The year 1973 is very interesting for very many reasons. For one, U.S. experience its first oil crisis due to events resulting from the Yom Kippur War. The Bretton Woods system also came to a close in 1973. So many things happened that year that changed so much.

Not sure if I am inspiring people or not but….

• My neighbors have started drying their clothes out in the backyard. The adult male rides his bike (I see him all the time arriving or going somewhere on a bike) everyday

• Friends are talking about buying worm bins for composting and baking their own bread

• Friends are also either starting to bike or biking more

I was looking for info on lead. I wondered if the presence of lead in soil could get into fruits and vegetables growing in them and then give me brain damage at age 40.

A few google searches later I found that:

•  "Soil naturally has small amounts of lead in it, about 50 ppm. 200-500 ppm of lead is commonly found in city soil. 1,000 ppm is a high amount of lead in soil and is defined as hazardous waste."
• "In general, vegetables that are grown in soil containing lead do not absorb much lead. Soil with lead is more dangerous to children who play in it than to children who eat vegetables grown in it."
• One way to reduce lead in soil is to add compost or lime to it.
• To minimize absorption of lead by plants, Maintain soil pH levels above 6.5, Add organic matter to your soil, Locate your garden as far away from busy streets or highways and older buildings as possible.
• Some states have testing centers where one can send soil samples to test for lead content. There are also kits to test for lead at home.
  

Last year I tried many new fruits and vegetables that I’d never had before. While there has been studies on the time it takes for people to adjust to new foods, the asian pears I had from North Star Orchard was….unbelievably delicious! I didn’t need to convince my taste buds that they needed any "adjusting". North Star Orchard’s, Lisa Kerschner is featured in a Newsweek article titled "Farming as a Labor of Love". An excerpt:

Additionally, farmers are not always looked upon very highly. In some circles, announcing that your husband - or, worse yet, you - are a farmer is often met with looks of incredulousness. I’ve had a number of people ask why I choose to farm rather than do something more lucrative and be able to have a few vacations a year.

Last winter at a farmers-market meeting, I was asked this question by one of the market’s board members (who happens to be a banker). He had been astounded to hear about farming’s hardships year after year, both at the meetings and when he shopped at the farmers market. He emphatically threw down his pen and notes and said, "I just can’t take it anymore! Why, for gosh sakes, do you folks keep doing this?"

We all looked at each other, and one by one the various farmers in the room spoke up. Without fail, every one of us stated some version of this: "We love growing food for people."

I finished reading Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli. Margonelli made a point in the epilogue that really stuck with me…that when she gets very pessimistic she recalls that that over 150 years ago, it was the environmentalists that were decrying the whale oil industry which was leading to whale extinction. And it was the discovery of oil underground that led to an entirely new industry that changed how the world operates and continues to operate  today, thus sparring the poor whales. If I recall correctly, one of my idols, Hetty Green (aka, the Witch of Wall Street) owed much of her family wealth to the whaling industry.

Today, environmentalists are decrying the fossil fuel industry and oil executives now aware of the end of oil (and possible deaths of polar bears) are now looking to invest in alternative fuels which is leading to rainforest deforestation and high food prices. I guess this will reduce biodiversity and get cars to leak out water instead of toxic fumes and probably result in fewer people suffering from lung infections. But…I shouldn’t try to predict anything.

This is all so…interesting. I don’t know what to make of all this. On one hand, I could argue that nothing has changed in the last 500 or so years. On the other, I like to believe as did people before me (I’m sure), that change is possible for the betterment (and happiness) of everyone. According to the life expectancy calculators found online, I am expected to live to the ripe old age of 95. I’d like to believe that I’ll see a lot of good before I die.

This past weekend, we walked over to the nearby stripmall to buy some stuff. We needed garden lime for our compost bin and shipping tape to mail paperbacks via paperbackswap.com. I don’t count these purchases as part of the Buy Nothing Challenge because:

a.  I didn’t want my worms to die and

b. I’m getting rid of our stuff in preparation for our move.

While at the strip mall, I decided to buy sandals. My pair from payless broke several months ago and I spent most of last summer walking around in shoes and socks which were uncomfortable. 

We walked over to the shoe store and once inside the store realized that every single pair of sandal was made in China. They also had non rubber soles which means every step I took would be squeaky. I decided to buy my sandals online from a vendor that made sandals in the U.S.

While browsing the links on Still Made in USA,  I read that Chaco’s sandals are no longer being made in the U.S.. Below are some Q&A regarding the same:

 "I’m a 9 year customer and I’d like to know WHEN the move to Chinese manufacturing will happen."
We began producing sandals in China 5 years ago. Our fastest growing product lines have been built in China since they were introduced. These styles include Hipthong, Zong, Wrapsody and all our flips. None of these products were ever built in the US because the labor involved would have made them prohibitively expensive. It is the Z series of sandals that will transition to Asia midyear in 2008.

"Chinese workers are treated very poorly, and often work in unsafe conditions."
It is absolutely true that there are many factories in China with poor working conditions. Choosing good vendors is vitally important and works to raise the standards of all foreign factories. Chaco has partnered with one of the 32 footwear factories worldwide that has met the stringent requirements of SA8000 certification. This independent, third party certification applies the same standards for factories worldwide. More can be learned at: www.sa8000.org.

"Your decision to move saddens me greatly. However, I want to know for how much longer I can get USA made Chacos. My first pair, from 1998, is finally wearing into the footbed and the straps are fraying. I’d like a couple replacements so I can continue to have the shoes I love."
Any of our Z/1, Z/2 or ZX/1 sandals purchased before July 2008 will have been made here in Paonia. Stock up all you want. All Chaco products have always had a lifetime guarantee on materials and workmanship. This will not change as long as I am the majority shareholder. Regardless of the country of origin, Chaco products will continue the tradition of high quality and we will bet our reputation on it by continuing with our lifetime guarantee.

We’ve been using baking soda (also called bicarbonate soda, a base) to brush our teeth for the past 2 months (I mix table salt with baking soda in equal parts and a bit of tea tree oil for flavor). We also floss daily and so far I’ve haven’t noticed any change in our teeth or gums (bleeding, sensitivity, or formation of cavities). I started using baking soda because I wanted to eliminate the plastic packaging that comes with tooth paste. My decision to use baking soda to brush my teeth has nothing to do with fluoride that is often found in toothpaste which is apparently a touchy subject for some people.

I decided to read more about the use of baking soda and its effects on oral care and whether it was actually a good idea to use it for oral care. I also wanted to see what flouride actually did to one’s teeth.  

Our teeth are constantly undergoing remineralization and demineralization based on what we eat.  Fluoride serves to protect our teeth enamel which can decay quickly if exposed to too many acidy foods (lemons, vinegar, tomatoes etc)[1]. Additionally, our mouth is naturally a bit acidic and saliva is a base that neutralizes it. Most people in the US drink water that contains fluoride whether they want it or not. You can check here to see how much fluoride is in your water supply. After reading about fluoride, I think the fear of fluoride comes from the fact that too much can be poisonous. Here is a paper stating some facts about fluoride, including how much is necessary at various ages. For adults the amount required is between 3.0 to 4.0 mg per day.

So essentially good oral care means ensuring that the teeth enamel is not exposed to too many acids because it would break down the enamel which will cause pain and expensive dental bills. So using baking soda to brush my teeth means that I’m using a base to neutralize the acidity in my mouth. Thus, baking soda does not harm one’s teeth. 

I know that the poor in my home country use wood ash to brush their teeth. I’ll bet that wood ash also serves to neutralize the acids in our mouth. So using wood ash is super eco-friendly for those with access to a wood stove.

Hmm…it just occured to me that we could use wood ash to decrease the acidity in our composter instead of buying garden lime.  

EDIT: Husband has a chem degree so he had this to add:

F₂ (Pure Flourine) is the most reactive gas known to man. It will corrode nearly all metals, etch glass, and cause paper to burn upon mere exposure at room temp.

F-, however is an ion that can only be found in water solution and will kill bacteria that cause tooth decay, but is not known to harm a human in any way.
Note, F2 is similar to Cl₂ (Chlorine) in properties. Cl₂ was used in WW I was a chemical weapon. It is now banned.
Cl- is an ion that is critical to life. If you got rid of all Cl- in your body you would die instantly.

Basing any opinion of an element based on what that element can do in a much different environment is not science. It makes no sense in anyway except for a dream like associative way.

But, you know, people would rather eat food with a small amount of toxins in it rather than hear a chemistry lecture…

[1] One method we use to check our food content’s acid level is by watching our worms. If our worms turn white we know we’re composting too much acid based foods. You can also just try the PH paper method to figure out acidity levels, but worms are so much more fun. 

I am currently reading Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli. Every page in the book so far has had quotable passages and new (to me) information. Its a fascinating book where Margonelli follows the flow of oil backward: from the pump to the ground. I generally am not a very obsessive person, but the subject of oil fascinates me. I don’t think any other earthly resource has affected life on earth to such a tremendous extent.

I am at the point in the book where she is at BP’s oil refinery in Long Beach (satellite image on google maps). Long Beach is another possible location we’re considering living in since it borders LA county. After witnessing a minor problem at the refinery Margonelli encounters Sue Sharp, an environmental manager working for BP.

Sue says she was attracted to environmental engineering because she likes its "gray areas," and in L.A., with its combination of smog and tough politics, she has found a big gray area. Sue describes the regulations here as "the most stringent in the world."

The amount of pollution a refinery emits depends partly on where it is, partly on who’s regulating it, and partly on how hard they’re trying. Los Angeles has become a leader in emissions regulation, a place where activisits push the boundaries to make changes across the United States. "It’s a trickle-up approach," says Julia May, who spent seventeen years are a staff scientist at the environmental advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment. "We get regulations adopted on refineries here with the local agencies. There’s always a huge fight But once you show it can be done these regulations spread across the country."

Although my husband is attracted to LA for the weather and the beaches and the Southern California lifestyle, I’m attracted to LA because it seems to be a city that is on the forefront of many environmental activism among other reasons.  

I just learned about the Choose to Save website. From their about page:

Financial security is one of the most important issues for most Americans. Whether it’s putting kids through college, saving for an emergency, buying a house, or saving for retirement - having enough money for life’s demands is among our biggest concerns. And yet, many Americans have not taken even the first steps toward a secure financial future.

The Emmy and Telly award-winning Choose to Save® national public education and outreach program is dedicated to raising awareness about the need to plan and save for long-term personal financial security.

As part of its mission, Choose to Save® develops user-friendly, multimedia materials to help individuals plan and save for their financial future, including:

• Public service announcements (PSAs) using humor, powerful images, and compelling information to encourage viewers (and listeners) to take charge of their financial future.


• ChoosetoSave.org- a Web site completely devoted to financial education. It includes free savings tools such as the Ballpark E$timate® retirement planning worksheet, over 100 online calculators, brochures, savings tips, links to related resources, and other tools to help individuals and their family manage their finances. Visitors can also view and listen to the PSAs from the Web site.


• A variety of free savings tools and brochures focused on topics such as Saving for Your Family’s Future, Just Starting Out, The Magic of Compounding, Maximizing Your Company Savings Plan, Why Open an IRA, It’s Never Too Late to Save, and much more.

 

They have videos and some sort of superhero of saving called…Savings Man (quicktime video where Savings Mans warns you about the Credit Card Guy Villan).

I was finally able to articulate my views on animals and turned it into a comment at Crunchy Chicken’s blog. I am putting it here to I remember how I feel about animal rights issues.

On a poll that Crunchy was running to figure out how her readers felt about animals and human consumption of those animals, I originally said:

I picked the last option: "People should be able to eat whatever they want regardless of how it was raised or dispatched (this includes hunting wild animals)".

I am mostly vegan (and eat meat when its offered) but I don’t care what people eat. I sort of actively dislike all animals - don’t like them, but don’t mind them either. I am upset about the latest downer cow incident…but am honestly not upset enough to do anything about it. Animal issues just don’t rank very high for me. I personally will avoid causing them harm (except for mice) but don’t think I should decide how people ought to behave toward them.

My views are clear to me but am not sure I articulated them well here.

 A few people agreed with me on not being particularly attached to animals, but one person did get a bit upset:

I cannot believe there are people like Beany who say that they actively dislike animals. It makes me feel sick, and understand why our country is in the state that it is in. Not to pick on just one person, the same feelings were hinted at by many. But if animals rights are so low on the priority list, what’s to say that soon children won’t fall off there, or the elderly. For me, there is no real division between people and animals when it comes to ethics. Suffering is just not allowable.

Then again, I can see by the health statistics how Americans are treating themselves, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised how they would treat something they actively dislike. Yuk.

Greenpa speculated that I was afraid of animals:

 

I think; I’m guessing- that in most cases the reality is they are AFRAID of animals. For many reasons, but 98% of the time this includes growing up in a city, with very little happy animal contact.

So I decided to articulate what I was having trouble articulating to myself:

 

To explain why I dislike (do I explain opinions? Seems a bit silly) animals…I have grown up around them (domesticated cats, dogs, chickens, goats, cows, elephants)…I just don’t like them…the best I can explain this dislike is that some people love cilantro (me), and some people absolutely hate it (people I know).
I feel alot of empathy toward animals and their suffering and it really bugs me…but animals rights don’t rank very high up as I have to prioritize. My big concern is overpopulation and oil consumption. I do take care of feral and stray cats that doesn’t mean I’m going to cuddle up with one. Also can I get points for being a vegan? How many vegans dislike animals?

Sorry greenpa…my feelings have nothing to do with fear actually. Also I think that in an urban environment its somewhat impractical to own cats or dogs because of the lack of space and problems involved with having one(using plastic for scooping poop for example). I think its cruel that people own large dogs in the city.

——

O also to be clear. I dislike kids and old people. I’m child free by choice and avoid contact with anyone over 40 (with some rare exceptions). Actually on some days I dislike every one and every thing.

But…I read blogs by parents that post baby pictures and watch the latest exploits by junior on youtube. I like to enjoy the good parts of parenthood without actually being one. I love baby sitting toddlers. And there are many people over 40 whose share their thoughts and opinions that I really value.

I guess I am saying that I am a very complex individual. And I’m very cheeky

I also had something mean in there (not directed at anyone on the comment thread…I don’t think), but removed it. I am trying to be a nice person so it wasn’t very nice to type that in.

 

And yes there are wonderful dog parks, and pets provide much companionship, etc, etc…but that is not my view.