Loose Leaf Notes

1. It was a good week. I killed a poisonous snake and had more than one  date.

2. My son Josh, who has a composting outhouse on his North Carolina property, makes a good point when he says that future generations will balk when they hear that we used such a valuable resource as water to flush human waste.

3. My dharmacratic friend Will thinks we should move away from the gold standard of measuring wealth and replace it with a “pure water standard.”

4. The growing global economic disparities,  the corporate infiltration into our political system and the increase of disastrous events attributed to climate change have prompted me to come up with a new rallying cry in preparation for when “The Shift Hits the Fan.”

5. More reasons to repeal the tax cuts on the richest 1% of Americans and why there is protest on Wall Street: “The income gap between the nations richest and poorest is the most powerful indictor of a functioning healthy society. Why should all Americans care? As income disparity spikes so too does rates of homicide, drug use, mental illness, anxiety, teen pregnancy and high school dropouts.”

6. “Much of the sloganeering at “Occupy Wall Street” is pretty silly — but so is the self-righteous sloganeering of Wall Street itself. And if a ragtag band of youthful protesters can help bring a dose of accountability and equity to our financial system, more power to them.” ~ Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof from Bankers and the Revolutionaries

7. Kristof also reported that the protesters have been ordering pizza online from a pizzeria that quickly added a new item to its menu: “the Occupie special.”

8. Another good slogan that someone else came up: We are the 99%. The video HERE. The Song HERE.

9. At Floyd’s Jacksonville Center for the Arts recently I noticed that that parking lot was full and that something looked out of place. All the cars were new and clean, unusual for our rural county. I walked around and noticed license plates from Maine, Illinois, South Carolina and Massachusetts and wondered if maybe it was THESE guys.

10. Driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Roanoke on a recent morning to babysit the boys, I didn’t see a single car but saw so many deer that I felt like I was playing a virtual video game, the goal of which was not to hit deer but to miss them.

11. “Ladybugs kill bugs and they saved the town.” ~ My 3 year old grandson Bryce.

12. Seen on Facebook: Try organic food, or as your parents called it FOOD.

13. On the well funded and politically connected efforts to mine uranium in Virginia: “I am sorry I referred to it as horse-shit before. That is doing a disservice to the horse and it’s shit.” ~ a Keep the Ban supporter

The 13 Thursday headquarters is HERE.