Comments on: FRIDAY SHORTS 29 Feb 08

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:44:24 +0000

This article described how Dems received the vast amount of “soft money”:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_21_55/ai_109186910

“The center found that all of the top five soft-money spenders during its study period, which began in August 2000 and ended this summer, were affiliated with the Democratic party. First was the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which spent $37,990,064. Others included Emily’s List and the Sierra Club. In fact, nine of the top ten organizations are Democratic, the only exception being the Bush-Cheney 2000 committee, which spent $13,820,764 during that election. For the top 527 groups, the ratio of Democratic to Republican spending during the study period was a bit more than 12 to 1.” – Center for Public Integrity

I have views on a broad range of issues, but I, like most others, will choose a candidate that is most closely aligned with my top 1-3 issues.

By: fred

fred — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:28:14 +0000

Are you talking about the chemicals that go in the soil around individual trees or into the trunk OR a pesticide sprayed widely over forests? Bees would have no reason to aggregate around hemlocks of course, there being no flowers for them. Do you know which pesticides are suspect?

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:22:33 +0000

The area I just moved from has been slowly losing its hemlocks to the woolly adelgid, so many have treated their trees with pesticides. They’ve also started seeing many cases there of the Colony Collapse Disorder, so there is some speculation that there is a link between the pesticides used against the woolly adelgid and the Colony Collapse Disorder. We had hemlocks at our house, and we struggled with whether to use the pesticides or the more organic methods, which unfortunately weren’t as effective. We didn’t want to lose our hemlocks, but didn’t want to lose our honeybees either!

By: fred

fred — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:49:03 +0000

I couldn’t find supporting evidence for your “top five Dem supporters” re the Sierra Club. Where did you find that information? Center for Public Integrity? I’ll have to see what their world view is based on and judge the credibility of provided “facts” with that in mind.

Of course I never intended to vote for McCain, you have been a Fragments reader long enough to make that prediction, of course.

And environmental record is high on the list of qualifications for someone I’d vote for, but I would hope to not fall into the single issue category as so many of my evangelical bretheren have for the past several elections.

I think it is a waste of one’s imagination to play “if McCains enviro record…” Not gonna happen, except as it impacts the health of the larger oil conglomerates (what percentage Dem vs Rep and why?)

I am a strong 30 year supporter of the National Resources Defense Council and haven’t been a Sierra member for some while.

Collective rights over individual rights? That’s the basis for your choice? Sounds like single issue decision making to me.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:33:11 +0000

I understand McCain to have a mixed environmental record supporting global warming, clean air and water, as well as bio research and preservation initiatives. His LCV scores have ranged from the 20’s to the 60’s. But this year is different because he has been campaigning and thus spending much of his time on the road.

What’s interesting to me is that politics could be the reason his opponents (Clinton and Obama) missed only 25% of the 15 key environmental votes in 2007 as they are counting the Greens as their constituents. If McCain had the same or higher rating than Obama or Clinton, who do you think would garner the environmental votes? Let me put it this way, the Center for Public Integrity found that the Sierra Club is one of the top 5 funders of the Democratic Party. So my question is, are you providing your suggestion with the intent of voting for the candidate with the best environmental record, or did you never ever have any intent on voting for McCain?

On a related or at least personal note, I recently cancelled my Sierra Club membership in response to their politics. I responded to a NJ Sierra Club newsletter that the group should not alienate that portion of their base that were Republicans as they provided the vast majority of donations for their cause. When I pointed out the Sierra Club’s politically charged anti-Republican propaganda to a fundraiser, she dismissed my claims with a laugh and said that Republicans have all the money and power and therefore, they should donate the most.

Needless to say, the Sierra Club will no longer receive my support, nor can I bring myself to vote for a party that values collective rights over individual rights.

By: fred

fred — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:04:48 +0000

All aflutter over this (yawn) list of outliners? Well here's another page-ful: of PIMS (Personal Information Managers) to sort through in your never ending quest for Perfect Order in a world of increasing cerebral chaos and static.

By: fred

fred — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:45:32 +0000

Here’s that long list of “outliners” and other data-gathering/writing utilties for the Mac from my buddy Jeremiah. Let me know if you find or know of something here you’d recommend.

nteresting info from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliner

Mind Mappers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mind_Mapping_software

OmniOutliner
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/

NoteBook
http://www.circusponies.com/pages.aspx?page=products

NoteTaker
http://www.aquaminds.com/

StickyBrain
http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/sb_product.html

DevonThink
http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/overview.php

Curio
http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/

Deepnotes
http://amarsagoo.info/deepnotes/index.shtml

Opal
http://a-sharp.com/opal/

MacJournal
http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/

MyMind
http://www.sebastian-krauss.de/software/index.html#mymind