Adding to my previously expressed suspicions on the safety of the natural environment in 'public' (as meaning, government) ownership, I recently saw brochures in the Whittier Public Library and signs on homeowners' property protesting a city council plan to open protected land in the Whittier Hills (the city's part of the Puente Hills, and, apparently, at least underground, some unincorporated county land usually called or thought of as 'Whittier') to drilling for petroleum by Matrix Oil Corporation. It has been suggested that no competitive bidding was involved. La junta hopes the city's cut - numbers such as 30% royalty and/or one fifth of the day's barrel-load take have been mentioned - would end its financial crisis. But the turnover of the hills to the protection of the city was particularly that there should be no new oil exploration.
Here's where you can get further info:
http://www.whittierhillsoilwatch.org/
http://us.forestle.org/en/search.php?q="drilling%20for%20oil"%20Whittier%20Matrix ~of which these are especially good:
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_8553946 ~Whittier Ponders Drilling for Oil (Whittier Daily News)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124096173407165939.html ~The Derrick Next Door: Suburb Explores a Crude Solution to Its Budget Woes (Wall Street Journal)
http://www.topix.com/business/oil-gas
I also went deeper in studying the very curious history of gummint protecting humans and other creatures in the Channel Islands of California (see earlier LAND GRAB post, especially the Santa Rosa Island links), and strongly suggest you go to and then to the articles on the individual islands. (God bless you, messrs Wrigley and Stanton!)~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands_of_California
And then, there's this local nasanasty, from the same roots that once told us about Tang being better for you than orange juice or other natural stuff, and that the Peaceful Atom / nuclear fission and Better Things Through Chemistry were the salvation of the world!
Searching "complaints about Downey" (Forestle about 55 pages) wondering if I cold find anyone else complaining about the way they lock of the river bikepaths, and suspicious things on their side of those paths, n'stuff, got to these: "Downey Flu" - Forestle about 252. Especially:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/02/business/fi-ct-downey2
=coff coff!!=
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
(Wishful) Withering of the Overclass
http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9608/public.html
The first section, "Farewell to the Overclass" obviously (since it was written in 1996) was among the better motivated flowers of intellectual wishful thinking, still worthwhile as a combination of hope-nostalgia and hope for the future. Ah well!
The first section, "Farewell to the Overclass" obviously (since it was written in 1996) was among the better motivated flowers of intellectual wishful thinking, still worthwhile as a combination of hope-nostalgia and hope for the future. Ah well!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Rim of the Valley: Wildlife Corridor or Land-Grab?
Consider these elements:
1. ( From http://www.whittierdailynews.com/)
Forest Service to start study of massive Southern California open space protection plan
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer Posted: 06/04/2010 08:27:07 PM PDT
PASADENA - U.S. Forest Service officials announced Friday the beginning of a five-year study of an open space that stretches from the Santa Monica range to the San Gabriel Mountains.
The Rim of the Valley Corridor includes private and public land from the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susanna Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills.
The Forest Service wants to bring the lands under federal protection and would study the possibilities of trail development, land acquisition and preservation of wildlife corridors that connect different sections of open space in the area.
Failure to preserve the lands will have negative consequences for local wildlife, as well as for outdoor recreation, said Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, whose legislation has led to the study.
"These are incredible wild areas that are loosely connected corridors that allow for wildlife to pass through," Schiff said Friday at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. "If the areas become disconnected we lose those corridors."
The study will start in August with a series of public meetings meant to help define the scope and ambition of the project.
Improving the trail system, recreational opportunities and protecting wildlife habitat are some of the major topics that will be discussed in developing the plan.
The study will cost $500,000 and will be finished in 2014, at which time it will be presented to Congress with recommendations.
Though the plan could result in a new national recreation area or other Forest Service protections, it will not likely mean a new national park in L.A.'s backyard, said Jody Noiron, forest supervisor for Angeles National Forest.
It will mean that the Forest Service will be looking to acquire lands from private owners who currently hold title.
But the Forest Service will not use eminent domain to take land from property owners, Schiff said.
"Whenever you are dealing with the Forest Service some people will always say it is a land grab," Schiff said. "This is not a land grab ... we only want to deal with willing sellers."
Among those who are labeling it a land grab is the Washington state-based American Land Rights Association.
Chuck Cushman, a spokesman for the group who grew up in Southern California, said members will be participating in the public process, opposing development of the plan.
He said that he is not convinced the Forest Service will stick to its promise to avoid eminent domain. Additionally, he said, there are other people with interests in the area who could be threatened by the plan.
"There are a whole bunch of people with cabins in the area, who lease the land but don't own it," Cushman said. "There are people with mineral rights ... if the park service takes over the area all those people are at risk."
dan.abendschein@sgvn.com
Read more: Forest Service to start study of massive Southern California open space protection plan - Whittier Daily News http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_15231347?source=rss#ixzz0q021sTq2
~~~~~~~
I am ALL FOR wildlife corridors (and pedestrian corridors! -for the feetsies of wildlife, humans, domestic animals under human & humane responsible control, and gently used, quiet, non-polluting small wheels), and as 'GREEN' as anybody...Which, history has shown, can be a lot more green than guvmint enviro-honchos [such as the abominable Let It Burn, no-reservoirs, erosion-loving, crack-brained worshippers of fire and death, and those who have infiltrated the system only for the sake of getting payola and power-fixes by exercising 'Public Domain' which is almost always in the interest of the Military-Industrial Complex, porkbarrel contractees and pol-buddy developers, not the real general PUBLIC - let alone non-voting, non-taxpaying, non-workerbee Nature's Children], so let' give a note to the opponents, who are, for the most part, Not Cheneyesque At All:
~~~~~~~
http://www.landrights.org/OCS/CARA.cushman_testimony.99_6.htm
(Looking up a particularly shameful steal I remenbered, by example):
http://us.forestle.org/en/search.php?q="Santa%20Rosa%20Island"%20"land%20grab"
A big YES for genuine wildlife corridors, a big NO to totalitarian Trojan Horse ways of having them!
1. ( From http://www.whittierdailynews.com/)
Forest Service to start study of massive Southern California open space protection plan
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer Posted: 06/04/2010 08:27:07 PM PDT
PASADENA - U.S. Forest Service officials announced Friday the beginning of a five-year study of an open space that stretches from the Santa Monica range to the San Gabriel Mountains.
The Rim of the Valley Corridor includes private and public land from the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susanna Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills.
The Forest Service wants to bring the lands under federal protection and would study the possibilities of trail development, land acquisition and preservation of wildlife corridors that connect different sections of open space in the area.
Failure to preserve the lands will have negative consequences for local wildlife, as well as for outdoor recreation, said Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, whose legislation has led to the study.
"These are incredible wild areas that are loosely connected corridors that allow for wildlife to pass through," Schiff said Friday at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. "If the areas become disconnected we lose those corridors."
The study will start in August with a series of public meetings meant to help define the scope and ambition of the project.
Improving the trail system, recreational opportunities and protecting wildlife habitat are some of the major topics that will be discussed in developing the plan.
The study will cost $500,000 and will be finished in 2014, at which time it will be presented to Congress with recommendations.
Though the plan could result in a new national recreation area or other Forest Service protections, it will not likely mean a new national park in L.A.'s backyard, said Jody Noiron, forest supervisor for Angeles National Forest.
It will mean that the Forest Service will be looking to acquire lands from private owners who currently hold title.
But the Forest Service will not use eminent domain to take land from property owners, Schiff said.
"Whenever you are dealing with the Forest Service some people will always say it is a land grab," Schiff said. "This is not a land grab ... we only want to deal with willing sellers."
Among those who are labeling it a land grab is the Washington state-based American Land Rights Association.
Chuck Cushman, a spokesman for the group who grew up in Southern California, said members will be participating in the public process, opposing development of the plan.
He said that he is not convinced the Forest Service will stick to its promise to avoid eminent domain. Additionally, he said, there are other people with interests in the area who could be threatened by the plan.
"There are a whole bunch of people with cabins in the area, who lease the land but don't own it," Cushman said. "There are people with mineral rights ... if the park service takes over the area all those people are at risk."
dan.abendschein@sgvn.com
Read more: Forest Service to start study of massive Southern California open space protection plan - Whittier Daily News http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_15231347?source=rss#ixzz0q021sTq2
~~~~~~~
I am ALL FOR wildlife corridors (and pedestrian corridors! -for the feetsies of wildlife, humans, domestic animals under human & humane responsible control, and gently used, quiet, non-polluting small wheels), and as 'GREEN' as anybody...Which, history has shown, can be a lot more green than guvmint enviro-honchos [such as the abominable Let It Burn, no-reservoirs, erosion-loving, crack-brained worshippers of fire and death, and those who have infiltrated the system only for the sake of getting payola and power-fixes by exercising 'Public Domain' which is almost always in the interest of the Military-Industrial Complex, porkbarrel contractees and pol-buddy developers, not the real general PUBLIC - let alone non-voting, non-taxpaying, non-workerbee Nature's Children], so let' give a note to the opponents, who are, for the most part, Not Cheneyesque At All:
~~~~~~~
http://www.landrights.org/OCS/CARA.cushman_testimony.99_6.htm
(Looking up a particularly shameful steal I remenbered, by example):
http://us.forestle.org/en/search.php?q="Santa%20Rosa%20Island"%20"land%20grab"
A big YES for genuine wildlife corridors, a big NO to totalitarian Trojan Horse ways of having them!
Monday, May 31, 2010
USE Arundo
My friend Lindenfir, who has even more trouble with his TypePad blog than I have with this one (& that's sayin' sompin!), wrote the following to the California Invasive Plant Council,
http://www.cal-ipc.org/ and copied to me.
Good ideas as usual, and applicable far beyond California:
Just read your article on Arundo donax/Giant Cane, then read up on the species elsewhere. I am dismayed and alarmed by MONSANTO and the idea of introducing foreign species (not counting Angora goats, as long as they're competently herded) to "take care of" Arundo or any other invasive. Monsanto is about as benign to our world as staphlococcus, and the history of trying to combat one noxious invasive by introducing its predator has generally been one of disaster.
Since Giant Cane has so many uses, including as a biomass fuel source and probably for pulp, fiberboard, wood polymer product material. bamboo-like flooring and panelling, etc., and since trying to rip it out can destroy habitat and cause erosion, IT SHOULD BE HARVESTED.
Imagine boats and land vehicles equipped with cutters that could "give a buzz cut" to stands. The canes, sans seed-heads, could even be left fallen (some perhaps staked or palisaded) in crushing heaps over the stumps, and this serve as a base for an overlay of soil that might be planted with native willow, alder, ash, maple, sycamore, walnut, elder, lodgepole pine, dogwood, etc., and smaller fare like native rushes, berries, oxalis and ferns, Jussiaea, Duckweed, wild grape, etc. This sort of method might also work in cases of some other alien invasives, like Tamarisk. I'd bet that, given this sort of chance, willow and wild grape could give a really good fight against the bully invaders! In damp places with North-facing canyon walls or other protection from sun and wind, good-sized native (or even not quite, like the magnificent Ahuehuete) Taxiodiaceae might even be planted.
I also wonder about things like harvesting water hyacinths, ivy, and kudzu for biomass (they have other little-exploited values, as well), and whether "beheading" milk thistle and dropping native seed - or even commercial grain - into their wet, hollow stems could serve as a moist "nursery" for those seeds to put forth roots and take over.
http://www.cal-ipc.org/ and copied to me.
Good ideas as usual, and applicable far beyond California:
Just read your article on Arundo donax/Giant Cane, then read up on the species elsewhere. I am dismayed and alarmed by MONSANTO and the idea of introducing foreign species (not counting Angora goats, as long as they're competently herded) to "take care of" Arundo or any other invasive. Monsanto is about as benign to our world as staphlococcus, and the history of trying to combat one noxious invasive by introducing its predator has generally been one of disaster.
Since Giant Cane has so many uses, including as a biomass fuel source and probably for pulp, fiberboard, wood polymer product material. bamboo-like flooring and panelling, etc., and since trying to rip it out can destroy habitat and cause erosion, IT SHOULD BE HARVESTED.
Imagine boats and land vehicles equipped with cutters that could "give a buzz cut" to stands. The canes, sans seed-heads, could even be left fallen (some perhaps staked or palisaded) in crushing heaps over the stumps, and this serve as a base for an overlay of soil that might be planted with native willow, alder, ash, maple, sycamore, walnut, elder, lodgepole pine, dogwood, etc., and smaller fare like native rushes, berries, oxalis and ferns, Jussiaea, Duckweed, wild grape, etc. This sort of method might also work in cases of some other alien invasives, like Tamarisk. I'd bet that, given this sort of chance, willow and wild grape could give a really good fight against the bully invaders! In damp places with North-facing canyon walls or other protection from sun and wind, good-sized native (or even not quite, like the magnificent Ahuehuete) Taxiodiaceae might even be planted.
I also wonder about things like harvesting water hyacinths, ivy, and kudzu for biomass (they have other little-exploited values, as well), and whether "beheading" milk thistle and dropping native seed - or even commercial grain - into their wet, hollow stems could serve as a moist "nursery" for those seeds to put forth roots and take over.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
General Butler's WAR IS A RACKET
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket (go to this link for Wikipedia's in-line hyperlinks & more). ~snips:
War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, in which Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests have commercially benefited from warfare.
It contains this key summary:
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
In another often cited quote from the book Butler says:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." *
See also:
Arms industry
Military-industrial complex
Perpetual war
Free online text: http://www.warisaracket.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
Curiously, I came to these things after reading overwraught scorn against overwraught allegations at:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/05/26/smedley-butler-rides-again/ huh!
*p.s. By way of folk of these sort, the PBS documentary on last night, The Legend of Pancho Barnes, suggested that Barnes and other 'Powderpuff Derby aviatrixes' believed they may have sabotaged by oilman Erle Halliburton.
http://panchobarnesfilm.com/film/index.php ; more cool stuff at:
http://panchobarnesfilm.com/film/links.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Halliburton
War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, in which Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests have commercially benefited from warfare.
It contains this key summary:
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
In another often cited quote from the book Butler says:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." *
See also:
Arms industry
Military-industrial complex
Perpetual war
Free online text: http://www.warisaracket.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
Curiously, I came to these things after reading overwraught scorn against overwraught allegations at:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/05/26/smedley-butler-rides-again/ huh!
*p.s. By way of folk of these sort, the PBS documentary on last night, The Legend of Pancho Barnes, suggested that Barnes and other 'Powderpuff Derby aviatrixes' believed they may have sabotaged by oilman Erle Halliburton.
http://panchobarnesfilm.com/film/index.php ; more cool stuff at:
http://panchobarnesfilm.com/film/links.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Halliburton
Monday, May 24, 2010
Don't Go Where They're Out To Get You!
Today's news has featured Americans beguiled and beleagured by drug-gang rule in Mexico and Jamaica, and 'DETAINED' in Yemen and Iran. Three chums, two guys and a girl, imprisoned in Iran tried to hike across the Iran-Iraq border a couple of years ago and were imprisoned on suspicion of espionage. You can blame Iran for a lot, but I can't see blaming them for this. At least they were giving these kids credit for some kind of mental sanity. The trio did not claim to be on a humanitarian or archaeological mission, nooooooooooo, they were hiking. Because there are no good hiking places in North or South America, Europe or the Antipodes? Because they were already living in Syria? Now we find that two of the three want to get married and the other boy will act as best man. Awwwww..........$#! They want to get out and 'start a family' . What would this world be if all those who had more dollars than sense - or just, the awesomely STUPID - were 'spayed or neutered'???
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Carlsbad's Trails
I got onto this after seeing the delightful Huell Howser* (that invaluable resource and California's Golden Guy) piece, recently, on The Leo Carrillo Ranch State Historic Park - not to be confused with Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu. I'm old enough to remember Leo Carrillo as an actor and generally beloved celebrity, but hadn't known till now much of anything of the great deeds and accomplishments of Mr. Carrillo himself, or of his vast mingled pedigree of California pioneer aristocrats. For some Carrillo & family info, try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Carrillo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Californios
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/index.htm
~But here's the link that will take you to a page giving out Carlsbad's admirable efforts and venues for nature-strollers and such:
http://www.carlsbadca.gov/services/departments/parksandrec/trails/Pages/default.aspx
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huell_Howser
Enjoy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Carrillo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Californios
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/index.htm
~But here's the link that will take you to a page giving out Carlsbad's admirable efforts and venues for nature-strollers and such:
http://www.carlsbadca.gov/services/departments/parksandrec/trails/Pages/default.aspx
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huell_Howser
Enjoy!
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