Month: April 2024

Addressing the housing crunch

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Last week, I cleaned our chicken coop. It was a dirty, dry, dusty deal. An intelligent person would have worn a mask. Me, I chose to land a sinus infection.

Why am I telling you this? I barely had enough voice to manage two segments of this week’s program. Thus, the other two segments are reruns: conversations about walking across the Mojave Desert, and why America needs another coast-to-coast march to address the twin perils of climate change and nuclear war.

I was glad to have architect Mark Clipsham as my guest during the first segment of this week’s program. One reason: It’s easy to get Mark to do most of the talking. That gave my voice a bit of a break.  Continue Reading →

Flawed study claims urban ag bad for planet

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Did you know that growing food in cities is more damaging to the climate than industrial farming? Six times worse, in fact!

That’s the absurd conclusion advanced in a recent study — and promoted by the mainstream media. So, city folk, quit trying to feed yourselves. You’re destroying the planet. If you gave an actual dang, you’d drive to Walmart for your trucked-in fruits, veggies, eggs, and meat.

THE STUDY. “Comparing the carbon footprints of urban and conventional agriculture” was funded by Springer Nature (more on them in a bit). It purports to compare the carbon footprints of urban agriculture and conventional agriculture.

WHAT’S “URBAN AGRICULTURE?” The study defines three types of urban agriculture: “urban farms (professionally managed, focused on food production), individual gardens (small plots managed by single gardeners) and collective gardens (communal spaces managed by groups of gardeners).”

The study examined 73 operations in the US and Europe. Apparently, only the first type is considered food production. I guess we home gardeners are just in it for entertainment.

WHAT’S A “CONVENTIONAL FARM?” Who knows! Incredibly, the authors never provide a definition. If by “conventional” they mean big and industrial, then we’re talking about all kinds of heavy machinery, tiling, confinement buildings, lots of energy to heat and cool buildings, massive lagoons for manure storage, society’s cost to clean up any messes, etc. No carbon footprint there, folks. Continue Reading →

Biden will lose if he fails to stop the genocide in Gaza

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Given the Israeli military’s atrocities against a civilian population and the mounting presence of widespread starvation, why won’t President Biden freeze military aid to Gaza? Great question. Let’s dig into it.

First, just how bad are things? Dr. Fozia Alvi, a Canadian physician who’s treated Palestinian children in southern Gaza, said, “This is not a normal war. The war in Ukraine has killed 500 kids in two years and the war in Gaza has killed over 10,000 in less than five months. We have seen wars before but this is something that is a dark stain on our shared humanity.”

On March 18, an Oxfam official reported that “the catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation in Gaza are the highest ever recorded in terms of number of people and percentage of the population.”

These horrifying truths make the words of Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI) even more appalling: “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.” Continue Reading →

Repealing hard-earned rights: How far will Republicans go?

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It’s heart-wrenching to see the governor and Republican lawmakers target the LGBTQ community with a barrage of hurtful legislative proposals — some blatantly biased, others more subtle. It’s encouraging to see most Democrats, some Republicans, and a lot of rank-and-file Iowans speak out against these proposals.

One such bill just signed by Governor Reynolds is the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” Really? Show me where there’s been a loss of religious freedom in America. I’m waiting. Tap, tap, tap.

So, what’s this bill really about?

As Heather Matson (D-Ankeny) points out, the bill “weaponizes religious beliefs to justify discrimination.”

No doubt. My deeper concern is that this bill, and others of its ilk, are part of an effort to establish a theocracy in America. Nothing could be more antithetical to the founding principles of our country than a government of, by, and for “the church” — meaning the narrowest, most biased interpretation of what it means to be Christian.
Continue Reading →