Ethanol and The Dust Bowl

Lisa and I recently watched the Ken Burns' documentary "The Dust Bowl". It was very interesting, very informative and very moving. The stories featured told of the causes of that environmental catastrophe, the impact of the event on the people in the area and the fragility of the land. It featured a lot from Timothy Eagan's wonderfully written book on the subject "The Worst Hard Time" - I highly recommend reading it.


Today I read this article "The Secret, Dirty Cost of Obama's Green Power Push" which details how the EPA, Department of Agriculture and the White House have pursued pushing ethanol as a sustainable biofuel, when the evidence is more and more to the contrary.

There are several things stated in the article that brought to mind the Dust Bowl, but this one really stood out to me:

Investors from as far away as Maryland and Pennsylvania have bought thousands of acres in Wayne County, sending prices skyrocketing from $350 per acre a decade ago to $5,000 today.

One in every four acres of in the county is now owned by an out-of-towner.
Those who still own land often rent it to farming companies offering $300 or more per acre. Perkins could make perhaps $27,000 a year if he let somebody plant corn on his land. That's nothing to dismiss in a county where typical household income is $36,000.
But he knows what that means. He sees the black streaks in his neighbor's cornfields, knowing the topsoil washes away with every rain. He doesn't want that for his family's land.

This is similar to what happened in the 1920s when the cost of grain skyrocketed and the government expanded homestead settlement programs. Investors from the big city or even out of state would purchase acreage or pay to farm someone's previously untouched existing acreage. The land hadn't previously been planted with crops because it was unsuitable for that type of farming. The huge increase in demand and price led to a boom of converting prairie land to farm land. Yet the fact remained, the newly converted land was historically known as not being suitable for crops. When the unusually wet years turned back to the normal dry years, the ground dried out and the soil began to erode and blow. When the drought of the 30s hit the former prairie lands, there was nothing to hold the soil down and it literally took off with the wind.

It would behoove us to learn from past mistakes and not farm land that is not meant to be farmed. It would be wise for our government to eliminate subsidies for programs that produce little benefit, encourage a misuse of the land and place us in a position that could lead to another environmental disaster.

In short, it would be beneficial for us as a country to learn from our own not-too-distant history.

Jar Jar Binks Dies

This is wonderful:


The original deleted scene can be viewed here.
The fan edited version above is much better.
(HT: 22words)

Lincoln and Daniel Day-Lewis

There are several reasons why I am looking forward to this movie.
- I've heard good things about the book it is based on: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography, ‘Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln’. I hope to read it in the near future.
- I'm a fan of Spielberg. I hope to see how he captures this story.
- I think that Daniel Day-Lewis is arguably the greatest character actor of our time. The intensity that he devotes to studying and developing a character prior to setting foot on set is amazing. I simply cannot wait to see how he portrays the President.

I Don't Want to Hear You

This morning I thought of the following quote from the wonderful film Cinema Paradiso:

Alfredo: Get out of here! Go back to Rome. You're young and the world is yours. I'm old. I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I want to hear others talking about you. Don't come back. Don't think about us. Don't look back. Don't write. Don't give in to nostalgia. Forget us all. If you do and you come back, don't come see me. I won't let you in my house. Understand?
Salvatore: Thank you. For everything you've done for me.
Alfredo: Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt. 

Yes, there is a particular reason why this quote came to my mind, but I don't feel like sharing it.
If you have never seen Cinema Paradiso, I would recommend you change that.

If Gimli Succeeds

The Lord of the Rings goes like this:

(HT: 22 Words)

Inconsistency of All Human Characters

Lisa and I finished watching the 6 episode BBC created adaptation of Pride and Prejudice last night. The following quote is one that I find memorable:

"There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense."
— Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)

Fawkes Friday

"Remember, remember the fifth of November..."

He Must Have Done Something

In our small group at church last night, we were discussing Hell and various things about it. At one point, the thought of "how can people be sent to Hell when they have never heard of Christ?" was brought up. In our brief discussion, the following verses were mentioned:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." - Psalm 19:1

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." - Romans 1:20

One of the members of the group then mentioned that she was reminded of a scene from a movie where this was presented in a dramatic way. I immediately knew what movie she was talking about(Amistad) and wanted to post this scene today:

"Then He was born and everything changed."...
"But then something happened. He was captured. Accused of some crime. Here He is with His hands tied."
"He must have done something."
"Why? What did we do?"...
"But look. That's not the end of it."

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." - Isaiah 53:5

A Holmes for a New Millenium?

Evidently, Hollywood has decided that one of the things it will give to the world this year is what would appear to be a bastardized version of the great Sherlock Holmes. Between the ever-present sexual references and the testosterone filled fight scenes, I doubt that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would recognize his most famed creation.

Dark Knight Versus Transformers

Lisa and I made it out to see The Dark Knight last night. As we were approaching the theater, I recognized a young man I know from the college group standing outside. We talked briefly before entering the theater and something he said struck me as funny.

"They say that the Dark Knight is even bigger than Transformers! Can you believe that!?!!"

He was talking about ticket sales, but the thought occurred to me that for him this was a huge statement. It never occurred to me that Transformers might be a movie to be compared to and referenced as something being beyond incredible. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for the popcorn-summer-blockbuster that it was, but it didn't really do anything extraordinary in my book. In fact, I thought it was too long and drawn out...

Meanwhile, back in the theater, we sat through the obligatory 20 minutes of previews. The Watchmen looks like it could be really big (espeically if you are into comics, which I am not)and Terminator: Salvation has Christian Bale in it, so it should do well with the Batman crowd. The new Disney movie Bolt doesn't look like something I want to pay full price to see - Redbox maybe.

I found The Dark Knight to be entertaining and a much better plot than Batman Begins. The reviews that raved about not only Ledger's performance but the rest of the cast are correct. This movie is filled with some brilliantly acted scenes and there aren't many that don't add something to the story.

However, there were a few things in the movie that I found quite annoying. Batman, being a man in a high tech suit, should not be able to bend and break guns into pieces with his bare hands. Also, for being a highly educated, highly intelligent, high society businessman, it appears that when Bruce Wayne dons the Batsuit he can no longer speak clearly or in fluent sentances. I understand the "need" to disguise his voice while being the Caped Crusader, but it was quite annoying to try and interpret some of what he was saying. The rate at which certain characters from the series have been killed is startling and makes me wonder who will be next...

Overall, I enjoyed the film and would watch it again without hesitation. It did not seem to drag at any point for too long and I found some of the issues presented in the movie to cause me to think about them for a few moments. If you haven't seen it yet and have the time and money to spare, you most likely won't hate this movie.

I found this video this morning and it cracked me up!