ex-lion tamer

NOTE TO NRDC STAFF: If my posting this alert is an unacceptable violation of your copyright, please notify me immediately and I will take it down. Thank you.

The government-sanctioned massacre of wolves is now under way.A mere 30 days after the Bush Administration stripped Yellowstone’s wolves of their Endangered Species protection, the Northern Rockies have been turned into a killing field.

Thirty-seven wolves are already dead. Hundreds more are being targeted by Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, which have waited years for this chance to put their plans for extermination into action.

But today there is reason for hope: America’s best wildlife legal team is riding to the rescue.

Our partner organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) — and 11 other groups — filed suit this week in federal court to stop the killing and restore the wolf’s desperately needed Endangered Species protection.

The court action comes not a moment too soon. Eyewitness reports of the latest wolf-killing rampage have been heartbreaking to people all over the world who care about wildlife.

On the very day that these wolves lost their Endangered Species protection, a crippled wolf named “Limpy,” one of the most photographed wolves in Yellowstone’s famous Druid Peak pack, was shot to death when he ventured outside the park.

Another wolf was stalked for over 35 miles by snowmobile before being overtaken and shot. Another was found dead on the side of the highway, his still-warm body torn apart by bullets.

And, tragically, at least four female wolves have been killed just prior to the denning season, which could doom some of the region’s wolf pups.

Wolves simply cannot outrun these relentless attacks. Their last, best hope now rests with the life-saving reprieve that NRDC is seeking in federal court.

As NRDC presses the legal fight, we’ll continue working night and day to broadcast the wolf’s plight and mobilize America against the Bush Administration’s heartless, wolf-killing policy. You can help by telling Congress to ban the poisoning of gray wolves and other wildlife: send your message now.

In the meantime, I’ll be sure to keep you informed as events unfold in the historic courtroom fight to save America’s wolves.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
NRDC Action Fund

P.S. If you would like to help fund our ongoing fight to save wolves from the Bush Administration’s relentless attacks, please click here to donate.

april fool’s!

yeah, i know it’s not funny.

[H/T: Konagod]

here are some of the highlights of 2007, as if you really wanted or needed to be reminded:

my first bout of esophageal spasms due to acid reflux disease;

employment after almost 2 years of non-employment;

scooter’s guilty verdict;

…f?!? it, i’ll have to finish this next year.

don’t drink and drive people!

maranatha ‘n’ shit,

“r”

as a follow-up to this post and the comments thereof, i would like to put up here an email response i sent to duncan, whose comment i found to be engaging. it is my sincere hope that i didn’t come off in the email like such an insufferable windbag that he deleted the email before finishing it, although that would be entirely his prerogative. i respond in emails to maybe 1 out of 10 of my commenters [not that i have 10 commenters...], so it’s a relatively rare and possibly slightly interesting conversation.
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at Feministe: What color are the holes in your parachute?

# for almost all of us, insurance comes through employment
# for almost all of us, COBRA payments are more than we can manage on umemployment benefits
# even if we have insurance, it comes with a “usual and customary charges” clause
# even if we have insurance, it comes with a maximum lifetime benefit
# and if we are unfortunate enough to have a medical condition, it can be literally impossible, at any price, to obtain private health insurance

Ok? That is our insurance backdrop. For our international readers, this is health insurance in the United States. Fun, isn’t it?

sometimes you have to get away from all the crazy bullshit and just talk about ordinary stuff, to keep from going crazy.

so here’s the ordinary stuff i’m going to talk about [and this is going to be very brief]:

what the fuck is it with this guy bringing back MEMBERS ONLY JACKETS??!!??!!??!!

okay, that’s it for today.

courtesty of diy.despair.com.

from paul craig roberts, the truly alarming recipe for destruction that is bushco’s latest foreign policy fiasco in the making.

• US Navy aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran.
• US Air Force jets and missile systems are deployed in bases in countries bordering or near to Iran.
• US B-2 stealth bombers have been refitted to carry 30,000 pound “bunker buster” bombs.
• The US government is financing terrorist and separatist groups within Iran.
• US Special Forces teams are conducting terrorist operations inside Iran.
• US war doctrine has been altered to permit first strike nuclear attack on Iran and other non-nuclear countries.

really, how the flying fuck do these people really expect this to turn out? after trolling the military policy discussion boards - and none of those people are what one would reasonably describe as “doves” or “peaceniks” - it seems a lot of people on all sides are very uneasy about this. the problem is, how do we unify ourselves under one purpose to stop this madness?

it’s unclear also whether we can expect any kind of full-scale revolt by upper echelon brass against the executive push for this invasion - there is unprecedented dissent within the ranks of the upper-level military, but it’s still not more than half as far as i can tell.

the other thing to keep in mind is that while we were never able to find WMD’s in iraq, surprise surprise, we’ll have no trouble finding them in iran………..the hard way.

this whole business is enough to make one go out and stock up on cardboard, paint and duct tape…….

ADDENDUM:
Larry Johnson is a very good source of intel on this subject as well as many others.

a friend emailed me a link to the yahoo! news article this morning.

Gourmet coffee guru Alfred Peet dead at 87

by Dana Ford Sat Sep 1, 3:36 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Coffee legend Alfred Peet, creator of Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc., a forerunner to Starbucks Corp., has died at his home in Ashland, Oregon, his company said. He was 87.

Peet, known as the grandfather of the specialty coffee movement in the United States, taught the tricks of the trade to the founders of Starbucks and sold them their first year’s supply. He passed away on Wednesday.

“He had this great love of coffee,” said Jim Reynolds, roast master emeritus of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, who worked with Peet in his early years.

“He was so helpful to many people in the business. When Starbucks was getting going, the founders of the company really needed help. He let them work in his store and taught them about coffee,” said Reynolds on Saturday.

Peet was born in Holland, the son of a coffee and tea merchant. He learned the trade in Amsterdam, London, Indonesia and New Zealand before moving to the United States in 1955. Peet opened his first shop in 1966 in a rundown neighborhood in Berkeley, California that was later dubbed the “Gourmet Ghetto.”

The store flourished and Peet soon opened additional shops in the San Francisco Bay area. Peet sold his business in 1979 but stayed on as a coffee buyer until 1983, and as a consultant after that.

“Up to the time he started, the quality of coffee in the U.S. was really poor,” said Reynolds. “But he developed a market for those types of coffee.”

The gourmet coffee trend in the United States started on the West Coast and moved east. Peet was known for using high-quality beans and a roasting method that produces a distinctively deep flavor. His company, which went public in 2001, continues to use his techniques today.

[- used entirely without permission. send cease and desist orders here]

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a real beaut from the master of imagery [link courtesy of kalilily]

When I started meditating, I was filled with anxieties and fears. I felt a sense of depression and anger.

I often took out this anger on my first wife. After I had been meditating for about two weeks, she came to me and said, “What’s going on?” I was quiet for a moment. But finally I said, “What do you mean?” And she said, “This anger, where did it go?” And I hadn’t even realized that it had lifted.

I call that depression and anger the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. It’s suffocating, and that rubber stinks. But once you start meditating and diving within, the clown suit starts to dissolve. You finally realize how putrid was the stink when it starts to go. Then, when it dissolves, you have freedom.