AliveAndKickN

What Message Are We Sending?

This week, due to budget constraints, NJ transit funding will be cut by 30%, causing a reduction in staff, bus routes, and train schedules.  This all means that more and more people will once again return to their SOVs (single occupancy vehicles).  Just a few years ago, when gas was $4/gallon, a bunch of people left their SOVs and switched to public transportation.  Those who could afford it, stayed in their cars.  Those who couldn't, switched, and so far haven't gone back.  But now when we need it most, Trenton won't raise gas taxes to compensate for the shortfall even though NJ has the one of the lowest gas taxes in the country and hasn't seen an increase in decades.  Trenton won't put taxes on sin "foods" such as soda and fast food even though the federal government is subsidizing cheap food anyway.  Raising tolls or putting tolls on other major highways is unacceptable.  I've recently heard a commercial stating that "cruising was a God-given right." 

However, alternatives to raising taxes on gas to raise revenue include installing gambling in the Meadowlands.  How about this - install video gambling on seats in buses and trains?  Lose your money while commuting!!  I'm sure the gaming companies would install the systems for free and share the profits with NJ Transit.  Every challenger politician claims the incumbent is to blame for companies/people leaving NJ.  Think about the math.  NJ is the 40th largest state yet has the 10th largest population.  Mathematically, there's no where to go but down.  And just imagine if you have a distribution business.  The cost of electricity in NJ is 3 times the cost of Pennsylvania (and every other state in the coal belt).  Move your distribution across the Delaware into PA, fill up on gas in NJ each time, and there you go.  No tolls on Route 80 or 78, so it's free to deliver to the NY border.  Meanwhile, the trucks beat up on the highways, and the NJ taxpayers pay to fix them. 

Once again, I don't accept the double standard.  Pissing away your hard earned money on gambling is ok.  Polluting is ok.  Gay marriage is unacceptable????  If you want to jump start the economy, let gay people get married.  My wife does invitations, and I can't remember one invitation created for a "civil union."  People spend tens of thousands of dollars on weddings, providing income and jobs to a host of industries.  Oh, and if you want to reduce waste in healthcare, go to a healthcare conference and walk the exhibit hall.  If more than half of the vendors are selling the same type of product, chances are pretty good that the margins from Medicare are way too fat.   

Somehow They Can Afford It

How is it that a bankrupt company can manage to pay $1.8billion in fines for environmental infractions?  I guess we should be happy about the Asarco deal, but it goes to wonder how Exxon can't manage to pay for their infraction in Alaska.  Chevron won't pay for 30 years of abuse in the Amazon.  In Ecuador, they've created a unique proposal - charge the world NOT to produce oil.  By keeping the rainforest pristine instead of drilling, a huge swath of biodiversity is preserved.

I took a tour of the Community Blood Services operation locally.  Starting in high school, and going up to tumor #1, I gave blood frequently.  After being tumor-free for five years, I started donating again.  While trying to donate, I found out about tumor #2, since my iron count was so low that they wanted to give me a transfusion instead of taking.  Anyway, the operation is amazing, and unfortunately a symbol of what can go wrong in government.  Every year, new mandates are given for blood testing, and each time, the technology upgrades cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  When the number of donors (both in blood and money) doesn't offset the amount spent, it becomes a deficit (sorry, I'm not the MBA in the room, but you get my point).  So how do you offset the additional costs?  Hospitals can't afford to pay extra for the blood services, as blood is a commodity, and the hospitals are in bad shape.  This leaves the fine art of fundraising, and guys like me are in short supply, pun intended.  But how many non-paying projects can a guy afford?  As I've said previously, life sometimes gets in the way of making a difference. 

An article came out this week, indicating that fast food was safer than school food.  While the article may seem persuasive, I think the title is misleading.  If school food is tested, and deemed safe, it should be ok.  Just like putting 10 foot fences on every overpass to keep one idiot from tossing a frozen turkey onto traffic is wasteful, going to umpteen lenghts unnecessarily is just that.  If we really wanted to make the food safer, we'd de-centralize the processing of food.  By consolidating the entire country into only 30 or so meat processing plants, the chances of widespread outbreaks are considerably higher.  Of course centralizing is the key to profits at ConAgra and Cargil.  And no one seems to be paying for the negative effects industrial farming is having on the environment (see paragraph 1).  

Wrong Fish, Wrong Time

First snow came today, so like any good parent, I rushed to the supermarket.  You can never be too prepared.  As I unpacked my half-price frozen shrimp, my neighbor stopped by with a gift from her trip to Atlanta, and the Georgia Aquarium.  Most people get a t-shirt or maybe a bottle of liquor.  No, I get a brochure on sustainable seafood and the best ways to keep our oceans clean.  Well apparently, I didn't do a good job of checking the label, as my frozen shrimp was from Malaysia, which falls under the category of seafood to avoid (along with common seafood such as Chilean sea bass, Atlantic cod, shark, grouper, red snapper, and imported swordfish).  US swordfish is listed as "good," along with canned albacore tuna, wild clams and oysters, Pacific cod, and US shrimp.  "Best" seafood includes US farmed or wild caught catfish, Alaskan salmon, rainbow trout, spiny lobster, and my Louisiana favorite, crawfish.  So, besides shopping for the right seafood, we can do some steps to keep the oceans clean - less cleaners, fertilizers, and pesticides used in and around your home.  All that stuff runs down the drains, and into our tribtaries, and into our oceans.  I'm going to try some of the homegrown cleaners instead of the store-bought stuff. 

19 years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, and spilled several million gallons of oil into Pugeot Sound, no money has been paid, and oil is still prevalent in and around the various bays affected.  Seeking a break, I watched Food Inc, which mainly discusses meat and agriculture.  Ironically, fish are eating corn now, which explains why certain farm-raised fish don't make the list as well.  It's a modern-day "jungle" by Upton Sinclair.  Is industrial food the example of using technology for the wrong reason?  And without the subsidies, what's the true cost of cheap food?    

At the craft fair today, my in-laws bought my kids Smencils, one of those items like snuggies and chia pets, that people buy just as a joke.  I can't sell energy efficiency when electricity prices and incentives are at their highest points ever, and these companies make money.  Go figure.    

Work and Life Sometime Get in the Way

For the last few weeks, the business has been working on the new product line launch.  As with anything new, it's time-consuming.  Throw in an election, and I haven't had time to spend on my favorite sites.  Being a Saturday afternoon, and not having a soccer game to coach during the day, I was able to check a few of my faves.  Dot Earth had the video from two EPA lawyers talking about stuff elected officials can't - Cap and Trade only hits the edges, and in the end. won't really do anything except create new "shock doctrine" industries.  Sustainable is Good had the article about Energy Star products tending to be misleading, especially for companies that self-verify.  Re-Nest presented a Pew survey results showing what people think they need now, as opposed to years ago.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest applauded the new FDA for appearing to follow-through on threats to companies with either misleading advertisements or unsafe practices, including a potential ban on alcoholic-energy "drinks."  Tonic launched the end of the decade salvo with a 7-minute abridged video of the past 10 years. 

The bottom line - people still act in the own self-interest.  Leaders need to be the change and voices of reason. 

Why does it always come down to food?

It's a leisurely Sunday afternoon, and I'm relaxing in front of the tube watching sports and enjoying a fire on an autumn day.  Eldest's team fared ok this weekend (tied one, lost the other by one to the first place team), but as is usual, I'm proud of his effort, as well as his mates (especially the younger ones playing a grade higher).  It was also a long week, but a good one for the business.  Our new manager and I hit the ground running with the new product line, and the reception has been positive. 

The campaign for Governor continues to suck, even the Lieutenant Governor campaign sucks.  One side harping on the candidate's weight.  The other side harping on an economy in shambles nationwide, not just in NJ.  In my opinion, there are 3 issues in NJ - property taxes, the environment, and equal rights.  The increase in property taxes is almost unconstitutional, but definitely unconscionable.  There's simply no option.  The house you bought years ago, now has tens of thousands of dollars more in taxes than before.  If you need revenue, tax the discretionary stuff.  You want the extra car, boat or summer home, fine.  You want a closet full of shoes and clothes, so be it.  You want a gas-guzzler, it'll cost more at the pump.  Environmentally, we've been the northeast dumping ground for too long.  From the Passaic River down to the Chesapeake Bay, there's just too much crap (legally and illegally) dumped in the water system.  Every vehicle heading from DelMarVa to New England (and vice versa) goes through Jersey.  Even the reclamation of the Meadowlands wetlands hits a snag, since too many birds would interfere with our airports.  Seriously?  We have the worst air quality of any state, and several thousand superfund sites.  As for rights, let everyone get married, have abortions when necessary, and legalize marijuana (no, I don't smoke).  As I listen to the rhetoric, I can only imagine what someone from an area like Somalia would think of our issues.  That area has been hit so hard by drought, that even camels are dying.  Those there with knowledge of climate change feel that industrialized policies elsewhere have contributed to their plight. 

Being that I was curious, I tried to find the carbon footprint of NASCAR.  I'm not really a fan of driving in circles, so maybe I'm biased, but I couldn't find it anyway.  According to the blogs, it appears that NASCAR is no worse than any other event where a hundred thousand people jam into traffic and gorge themselves on meat and alcohol.  So, unless you take away the grub, the carbon footprint won't be reduced anytime soon.   

Moove them Doggies. How about Overseas?

On September 30, the NY Times displayed an article indicating that there are too many milk-producing cows currently in the US, and as such, over 250,000 have been slaughtered in order to keep the price of milk within a somewhat liveable range.  Unfortunately, genetically modifying has allowed scientists to ensure 90% of new calves to be female, meaning another 60,000 milk-producing cows are about to enter the foray, which could drive prices down once again, in many cases, below production costs.  On October 1, the Head of Heifer International was on Oprah.  Heifer helps people overcome with hunger and poverty by not providing money or food, but a means to create more money and food - a cow or a goat as an example.  Anybody see a solution, or as the business people would say, a synergy?  Based upon the selection at the supermarket, I'm pretty sure we have enough meat in this country.

On a different note, although one of my favorite issues, it appears the Obama camp has sided with the EPA on mountaintop removal.  Coal is pissed.  Let's see if it lasts.  As I watch the PBS series on the National Parks, I find the whole concept "mountaintop removal" utterly inconceivable. 

Waterwise Finally?

The other day, the Wall Street Journal showed up at the house again.  I still didn't order it, and obviously I don't pay for it, but hey, reading material is reading material.  Amongst all of the teaparty healthcare nonsense articles, I found article about desert and sunbelt states finally getting water conscious.  As someone who doesn't water the lawn ever, I still find it unfathomable to have grass in the desert, but it's obviously there.  Of course, as in any scenario, when one industry is faced with looming cuts in profits, they fight it, regardless of the virtuosity, in this case Scott's.  Is it true that the financial industry really hasn't changed much since last year's meltdown?  Amazing. 

The Obama administration is finishing a project initialized during the Bush administration creating a federal oversight of ocean conservation.  Recently, I posted that I thought the amount spent on space exploration should be spent on our oceans.  Considering 50% or more of the global population lives on a coastline, it might be important to preserve it.  Of course, just like the healthcare debate, the water debate is hinged on big food as well.  Our drinking water will continue to take a hit from the factory farms producing more "material" that can safely be applied as fertilizer or even turned into energy.  And with the amount of usable water going towads big food farming, it will continue to be an issue unless changed.    

 I've been asked to present to this year's leadership group on local politics.  I'm not sure why I was asked, but I'll see what I can do.  Realistically, I don't live in a town with a lot of controversy or issues.  Maybe that should be the topic.  Maintain order and everyone's happy, sort of.   

Mullett? Yah fer sure!!

The family and I took a 10-day holiday to Vancouver, mostly Vancouver Island, spending time in Victoria, Tofino and Campbell River.  Whales, salmon, mountains, beaches, seals, eagles, bears, surfing.  I was hoping to get to Alaska, but apparently the distance from Vancouver to Alaska is like Jersey to Florida.  My states visited count remains at 45.  Aside from the usual joy of taking three boys on a 6-hour flight and 5 hotels, I of course had to take in the surroundings.  Lots (dare I say oodles) of old growth and new growth trees, biodiversity, and wildlife blended within the population.  Everything was clean.  Most of the cars and houses were smaller, and the 5-year old couldn't keep up with the amount of buses.  You saw more recycling containers than individual pieces of litter, and there was definitely potential for abuse.  With all of the fried food/coffee house/donut shoppes, Vancouver could easily be as polluted and overweight as anywhere USA.  Cigarettes were prevalent however, as was beer (more expensive, but higher alcohol content).

So how was it like the USofA?  Although my media following was minimal, it appears their political and economic issues are similar.  Revenue and therefore tax collections are down, so it's easy to blame the other guys, whoever they may be.  Mills, car dealers, retailers closing as overspending stops.  Soldiers overseas.  Hockey all over the sports, even in August.

On the flight back, we had 6 hours of clear daylight to see the earth below.  I skipped 17Again and Confessions of a Shopaholic and read The Family and more of Atlas Shrugged.  The story in The Family flat out scares me.  American politics as a holy war for several decades?  I hope not.  The view was amazing - Great Lakes and Rockies still inspire.  Forests and lakes of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are impressive.  Plains states look like jigsaw puzzles of crops separated by highway.

Came home to Jersey and rotator cuff surgery and a guvernatorial election with two qualified men reduced to mud-sligging.           

Lead by Example

Last Friday, Bill Maher, one of my favorite commentator on politics, gave our President a hard time about some of his recent habits, seemingly in order to seem more like most Americans.  He started eating at burger joints and playing golf.  And if someone is going to lead by example, our President should continue his habits from before he got elected - eat right, and play hoops, both of which are good for you (never mind the cigarettes for now).  Maher's point, and I agree, are that both golf and industrial food are bad for the environment.  One recent habit seems to have caught on however, visiting National Parks.  While out west pitching the healthcare reform package, the President visited Yellowstone, among other sites.  This year so far, 4.5 million more people have visited national parks than 2008.  Of course, our local congressman was against making the Great Falls in Paterson, the second highest waterfall on the east coast behind Niagara, a national park this year.  Amazing.

Renewable Energy World was pleased to report how utilities are in the process of solar installs on a significant basis.  Duke, PSEG and Southern California Edison are leading the way.  Assuming they are successful in goals - cost/watt produced, etc., the rest could join the fray shortly thereafter.  Of course one of the biggest problems is the cost of electricity in the coal belt.  At such a cheap cost of electricity, it doesn't matter how much energy is saved, it doesn't always have the quick enough ROI. 

Today, I launched my first fundraising effort on behalf of the Bergen Volunteer Center, where I just became a Board Member.  We'll see the result.  Hopefully I'm successful, as the Volunteer Center, as with every NFP, could use the money in these lean times. 

Is it ever simple?

I apologize for being away.  I was interviewing to be part of the Obama administration death squads who would be the ones deciding euthanasia.  Based upon the nonsense coming out in the media, I can think of a few good places to start if I get the job.  As always, who wins and who loses in these types of debates, and are they even debates if the goal is to simply make the other guy lose, regardless of the outcome?  Anyway, for a change of pace, Mrs. Semicolon decided to have her appendix out at the last minute, and 24 hours later, after laporoscopic surgery, she was home resting uncomfortably.  I somehow managed to switch gears and cook and clean, filling my husbandly role.  Speaking of simple, I made what turned into an awesome vegetarian chili - 2 cans of red beans, leftover corn kernals, can of crushed tomatoes, chili powder/sugar/salt to taste, herbs from the garden to taste and slow cooker for as long as you want.  Tres bien!!

Shark Week is in full tilt on Discovery.  As always, use terror to attract viewers and show the plight of the shark.  Eco-tourism for shark viewing is now impeding on surfers.  Chum is being used to attract sharks for the tourists, drawing sharks off Africa into waters with people.  People occasionally lose.  This still doesn't make up for the gazillions killed annually for shark fin soup.  What a waste, and burden on our ecosystem.  Thankfully, I had the Joan Rivers roast on Comedy Central to switch to.  It's amazing how much humor can be achieved from one person's face.  With any luck the Michael Jackson funeral will continue to hold court as well.  I miss the headlines.  

I couldn't help but notice that the Birther Movement has the same initials as another movement.  But after a bowel movement, at least one feel's relieved instead of having more anxiety.  Maybe Fox and Lou Dobbs will pick up this movement?  The product placement tie-ins would certainly be better financially.  Think of all of the cereal advertisers who'd jump on the opportunity.  Someday, I hope Coney Island counts as part of the United States.  If I ever become important, I don't need the controversy.  

Is America stupid, as Bill Maher says?  Do we really not know a lot - branches of government, what are the Bill of Rights, belief in snopes such as Bush knowing about 9-11 beforehand,  Amazing.