Happy New Year

Happy New Year

from

Constable Crab, Tanya, Tomasito

and Maggie the Part-time Cat!


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Israel vs Gaza

Bloody Snowflake (Tomasito photo)


The angry young men in Gaza
led by their usual old fools
have prodded with their rocket attacks

the armed young men in Israel
led by their usual old fools
with their air force and tanks

into another war--

which is

business as usual in the middle east.


Tomasito, 2008

Miner's Lettuce

( Tanya Photo )

Miner's Lettuce

It has been raining as it is supposed to do here in Northern California in December. There is snow on the hilltops and on the mountains we can see from the Sacramento River Trail.

It is cold enough for parkas and long johns, heavy gloves and woolly caps.

But when the sun comes out as it occasionally does--it is pretty nice. The spring plants--the mosses and the lichen and now the leafy things--are making their annual comeback!

One of the best--that we look for every year when we are in this climate--is the good old Miner's Lettuce--and it has never let us down!

Pictured above, this little leafy plant is a tasty edible!

It won't last long--but while it does--yummy!

It especially good with cold morning raindrops right on the little green leaf for sauce!

Tomasito, 2008


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Bestest Christmas

No! (Tomasito photo)

Merry Christmas !

Tomasito, 2008


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Christmas Eve Grampus Observed

Grampus Observed in America. (Tanya photo)

This Forest Grampus was recently observed and photographed at the Turtle Bay Arboretum in Redding California.

A Forest Grampus is seldom or never seen unleashed and without his usual caretaking spirit, Saint Nickolaus.

The origin of the Grampus is believed to be the Schwartzwald or Bavarian portions of Germany.

It is not known if this Grampus is in America to stay--is an alien--or if it has applied for the usual USA Fairy-tale Citizenship.

Tomasito, 2008

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Merry Solstice!

A couple of days we had the shortest day of the year: December 21, also known as Winter Slstice. Our ancestors celebrated solstices and equinoxes a great deal more than we do. perhaps, they still felt the affinity with nature and were more attuned to the grand universal scale of things of which the change of seasons is the most obvious.

Perhaps we should start with changing our calendar: divide the seasons accordong to the solstices and equinoxes.

So let us celebrate the winter solstice. After all, it means we shall have three holidays in the row instead of two. The jolly month of December.

Keswick Dam

Keswick Dam on the Sacramento River. (Tanya photo)

Creepy Electric Generation

Here's a photo of one of the humongous dams on the Sacramento River just a bit upstream from Redding CA--dams which are supposed to provide cheap electricity for local residents.

I use spooky colors to emphasize the creepy nature of these dams (Shasta Dam and Keswick Dam) which have messed up the environment of this area so thoroughly.

This area was also pretty much wrecked by placer gold mining a few years earlier--the top soil was pretty much washed away to get at the gold in them thar hills. (And by the way the tap water in this town still has a bit of arsenic in it left over from the mining days --just for flavor.)

You know--considering what terrific damage was wrought by our granddaddies around here--it is amazing that any of us can still live here!

Apparently greed has always been central to the way of life for the European-American folks in Redding, CA.

Tomasito, 2008


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Fungus

Fungus! (Photo by Tomasito)

Fungus!

The weather here in Redding, CA has been COLD and WET!

Not too good for humans like us, renting all electric apartments, who can't afford the high price of electric heat--but GREAT for the native plants we pass almost every day on the Sacramento River Trail.

The rain has started the wonderful annual sprouting of bright green grasses and plants and has brought back to life some almost dead forms like the fungus in the photo above.

It is almost the shortest day of the year--but lots of local life forms are springing back to life--again!

Tomasito, 2008

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TEST

Greed in Redding CA

Electric power from Shasta Dam a few miles north of Redding, CA. (Tanya photo)


Greed in Redding, CA

The Trend is still Greed in Redding, CA.

From the Internet comments on the local newspaper article concerning the 15% price increase by the local power company--I have discovered that the company claims that residents of Redding use twice as much energy as those served by PGE--the energy company which serves much of the rest of California.

Why should Redding people use twice as much energy as people in other towns!

One thing we have noticed is that we pay twice as much but use far less electricity than we used in other towns we have lived in which were served by PGE.

There is obviously some serious lying going on in high places in this little town!

As I understand it--energy prices were always supposed to be LESS here because most of the power comes from the generators at the Shasta Dam a few miles north of town.

Instead we pay far more than the customers of PGE.

But there doesn't seem to be any way to stop this gouging!

Greed will get you nothing good City Council of Redding CA.

Tomasito, 2008


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Raise Price of Electric Power

Brrraak! Redding City Council Decision!

I am sorry to report that the "Trend of the Day" here in Redding CA is Greed as Usual.

The Redding city council voted yesterday to raise the price of electricity 15 %--seven and a half starting in January 2009 and seven and a half in January of 2010--and they took this unfortunate action after listening to the angry complaints of residents against the raise for a couple of hours.

The man in charge said that if another California energy company (PGE) was providing the electricity, it would be 60% higher. Oddly enough, when we moved here last year from a town served by PGE, we were shocked by the difference in price--but we were shocked because the price here is the highest we have ever paid in California for power!

This seems to me to be a very lousy time for the huge increase in price.

Unemployment is already very high here and businesses are failing right and left.

It is very certain that things will get much worse here in Redding.

People need a little hope right now instead of another slap in the face!

Bad news, bad news, Redding City Council.

There will be fewer residents here to pay your extortion very soon.

Tomasito, 2008


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Mr. Coffee Pot

Chinese Mr. Coffee

Small appliances seem to last about a year and then go haywire these days.

Our electric coffee maker stopped making coffee or anything else a couple of weeks ago.

Since we haven't been making money for a year or so I thought maybe we could tough it out boiling cowboy coffee in a stew pot--since our electric stove still works--but the java was not pretty good.

I would forget to turn the heat off and the coffee would boil down to syrup and then I would add tap water and the brew would taste pretty weird.

So a couple of days ago we went shopping for a new electric coffee pot.

"Mr. Coffee" is a good name for a pot and the price was under twenty dollars so we splurged and brought it home.

When we unwrapped it I noticed that it was made in China as almost everything else is these days.

Before Nixon went to China--nothing in the USA--was made in China. Then there was a trickle of Chinese wicker baskets--and NOW everything!

By golly--EVERYTHING is OUTSOURCED!!!

No wonder there is no work for us!

The American manufacturers have exported all our jobs!

And kept the money right in the ownership class!~

I can still remember when "Made in the USA" on a coffee machine or dishwasher or a screwdriver or car--meant "QUALITY".

People in other countries admired "American Know-how".

We had better get back to that old ethic mighty quick--or there is going to be a long dry time in this country!

Because that Chinese "Mr. Coffee" pot makes real good coffee!

Tomasito, 2008



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Defining Bush Jr. Presidency

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UAW will not budge

Better BUCKLE UP! Bumpy Road Ahead! (Tomasito photo)

UAW Won't Knuckle Under!

(NEWS ITEM: The United Auto Workers union will not give up anything!

They insist on continuing on the way they are now and want the US government—the taxpayers--(car owners or not) to “bail them out” with billions of dollars to continue their current lifestyle.)

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Oh, UAW!

WON'T you knuckle under?!

All of your American auto workers are going to have to change their ways soon anyway—and you union leaders, you abject spongers on the real workers—are going to have to change your lavish lifestyles too.

You WON'T knuckle under and you'll kill the auto industry in the country where it all started—the Good Old USA!

Well, nothing lasts forever and the American auto workers, the envy of working stiffs around the world for their wonderfully high salaries, nice vacations with pay, cushy retirements and their excellent medical benefits --(Oh, won't their doctors be sorry to lose all that MONEY?!)-- will have to learn to do with less in their lifestyles.

Oh the MALL closures! The acres of stuff unbought for lack of funds! The tons of junk left on the store shelves! The Chinese merchants wondering why the Americans are not buying their poorly made, guaranteed to wear out quickly, rubbish!

Oh, the HOUSE foreclosures! And the ballooning credit card debt and the...oh, my!

I guess American workers, even pampered auto workers. are going to have to realize that they are not so very special after all.

The working stiffs of Guatemala and India and Korea, Mexico, Thailand and possibly even Switzerland are all just about alike. Sort of like you and me.

We might as well get used to the idea.

Tomasito, 2008

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The Value of a House

The Value of a House

-or-
Bailing Out a Leaky Boat

What is the value of a house?

I am not talking about the advertiser's cozy "home" that so many people are being evicted from because they can't pay their incredible mortgage.

Poor people.

Or ARE they?

Most of these home owners bought their home for a hugely inflated price with the intention of SELLING it to some other fool for a HIGHER price in just a few months!

These things NEVER were "homes"--they were just temporary expensive doodads to live in until their "owners" could unload them for a BIG PROFIT!

Reread the GET RICK QUICK books being cranked out by HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN REAL ESTATE maestros of the real estate bubble era if you can without throwing up.

Abject lessons in GREED they are.

A house is a HOUSE! Not a "home"!

A house is a shelter--hopefully well enough built to keep you dry in a rainstorm and warm when the snow piles up around you.

The McMansions these weeping "homeowners" are being evicted from by the thousand were never meant to be lived in--they were built to be sold for a profit as often and as quickly as possible.

Do we HAVE to feel sorry for these greed-driven nincompoops?

They are only experiencing their karma--as they must in this life. And as all of us will anyway!

Bail 'em out?

Some foolishness cannot be "bailed out" and SOME leaky boats WILL sink.

Tomasito, 2008



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Medical Greed Operation

Tomasito (Tanya photo)

Operation for Medical Greed?

Of all the greed-driven jobs in this greed-driven land, I believe the job of the "medical professional" takes the cake.

Traditionally, American used car sharks were the prize winners--but for the last dozen years or so, doctors and their minions have surged ahead.

This morning President-elect Obama sort of made it an official pronouncement when he said that the economic recovery of the country could only be solved by sorting out the "crisis in health care" first. (Whatever that means.)

First of all--it is NOT "health care" that IS the problem. It is sickness care.

Doctors, in their present form, have almost nothing to do with health.

They have everything to do with money.

Sickness workers expect us (the common herd) to bow, kiss their feet, respect their extravagant needs and, most of all, to PAY for their exalted life-style.

In every town and village in this land, the house on the hill is the domicile of The Doctor. The local country club and the golf course simply could not survive without the patronage of The Doctor.

And for sure, YOU cannot PAY your medical bills without buying INSURANCE!

INSURANCE which INSURES that the DOCTORS will continue to live as they should--at the tippity-top of society.

And if the citizen tax-payers of this land are only taught to pay for their medical insurance with their TAXES--the doctors will have everything their education, dignity and greed requires: the power, prestige and money of the US government to support their cosy "health care" racket.

Tomasito, 2008


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Gasoline Prices Again

...Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas...


Gasoline Prices--The Great "WHY?"

I am still wondering WHY the gasoline prices, which were climbing ever higher a month ago and which over the summer months had reached over four dollars a gallon around here (Redding, California) have SUDDENLY crashed!

No one I have read about or talked to has any reasonable idea about WHY this bizarre turnaround happened.

Now that the prices are lower again--no one seems to want to remember or even CARE about the prices of last summer!

Too many of the businesses in this area raised their own prices--not by pennies, but by 25 or 30 per cent--with the excuse that the "energy prices" which they had to pay--forced them to raise their own prices to stay in business. Well, the gasoline prices are lower again--but none of the businesses that raised THEIR prices (in self defense) have lowered them--instead they are just counting their nice profit!

This kind of greed is probably going to cause us more and more trouble until we learn not to be so much so.

Tomasito, 2008


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Letter from Ireland

Castlebaldwin donkey, Ireland

I recently received the following letter from an old friend in Ireland.

It brought home to me--more strongly than ever the global scope of the economic disaster:

Hi Tom,

Ireland is no longer the Ireland you knew.

Massive building of both houses and industrial/retail estates everywhere but particularly in the West. Now many are abandoned--no money left to finish and many of those finished are unoccupied.

The housing boom was very damaging all round as of course many others rode on the back of the wave, naively believing it would continue forever.

The Irish government along with many individuals have been extravagant, irresponsible and even downright crooked, frittering money before putting in a good infrastructure.

Yes, many roads have been improved and not all changes
are bad, but it was as if there was no understanding that one day the
bubble would burst and everything would come crashing down around us.

In the EU Spain and Ireland are suffering the worst now, simply
because they had the biggest building booms over the last ten years.
Ireland also got used to massive hand-outs from the EU and now it's
our turn to hand out to lesser well off States in the new EU, there's
a lot of groaning and begrudging.

Our unemployment rate is rising rapidly too - and don't forget the
weather is AWFUL! Seems to me Saudi and China are currently on top
and I would watch out for Brazil - a huge country loaded with natural
resources that the rest of world may just be wanting in the not too
distant future (just my assessment!).

It is definitely a time for re-organizing and re-thinking the greed and thoughtless pursuit of the false security of wealth--at the cost of all other human needs.

Tomasito, 2008

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Twitter

I finally understood what twitter is all about. It's basically cross between a chatroom and forum: you tell the world what you are doing and they comment on it. You can have discussions with your friends too and you can update your Twitter as often as you want. Good idea but unfortunately not of much use to me at my present stage. I am not very good at socializing.

Looks like the latest rage now. Though you can always use Skype or even a Yahoo messenger. I guess we are going to see the new stuff coming up all the time even if it's a basic equivalent of the old things.

Anyway. Do not follow me on Twitter.

Human Resources

"David" by Michaelangelo

Human Resources

When I returned to the USA from a long stay in Russia and Europe I went looking for work.

I had chosen San Diego as a residence because I had good memories of the city from my childhood.

When I was a boy my family from Albuquerque would visit my Uncle Cal's family in San Diego and I remembered the fun of exploring the tidal flats and wetlands and playing in the sand at La Jolla Beach.

I had not visited San Diego much since—and was I ever surprised when I got there!

The mud flats were gone—dredged and built up into high-class neighborhoods and one big park!

La Jolla Beach was a crowded zoo of hotels, fast food cafes, tee-shirt and “beach wear” shops and people.

LOTS of people.

I had been a teacher long before in Northern California and I had been teaching at a university in Vladivostok so I thought it would be a simple matter to find work teaching.

I took a bus to San Diego State University and went looking for the “Employment Office”.

Someone directed me to the “Human Resources” office.

I had been working in other things than teaching for years in America—little things like fixing leaky roofs and minding horses—and I had never heard the term human resources before.

I thought it was some kind of a joke—so I introduced myself to the secretary in the office as a “human resource”.

No laugh. No smile. No reaction at all.

I was a human resource to her!

I had always thought that humans were some kind of special thinking creature—something with spiritual and social value—but here I was in the very heart of higher learning—The University of California—discovering that human beings like myself—maybe especially like myself—a nobody off the street—were considered “human resources”.

I had always thought “resources” were the materials you used in a factory like coal in a steel mill or trees in a paper mill—but never human beings!

Human beings—even the dumbest of dumbquots—were human beings after all! A little less than angels perhaps but certainly more than sand for cement!

I was disgusted then and I am disgusted now—especially now since there are no jobs for anyone—skilled or unskilled.

I may be unemployed, and just another grain of sand on the beach--but I am not just a “human resource”!

I am a human being.

Tomasito, 2008

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Connections

Spring Madrone: Tomasito photo

Connections

I depend on you; you depend on me,

They depend on us, for their reality.

We depend on them, as land depends on sea,

As light depends on dark, as stone depends on tree.

All together, we, in clear dependency;

I depend on you—you depend on me.

Tomasito, 2008

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