I'm starting a new facebook group, "Not made in China: My children and grandchildren, all of my tools, my nursery, plants, and my wood stoves", to help create awareness in the unaware and reinforce the awareness in others that we Americans need to begin making things here . We need to vote with our dollars here. I grow my own vegetables. When I cannot, I buy them from local farmers. I grow all the North American Native Plants from seed I collect here or in other parts of the United States. I order recycled pots or have local potters make them.

This article was published for Tom Kruzen.

Published on Truthout (http://www.truth-out.org)
________________________________________
Totalitarian Democracy

Richard Lichtman | Friday 18 March 2011

What follows is clearly not a thoroughly articulated perspective, but a call to others to present their own understanding of the situation we face.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, over 20 local restaurants and bars in Fayetteville are offering organic items and Local Specials during the week of April 17-24! See the full menu at : http://ozarkslowfood.org/ed40.htm

Seed Swaps

2nd ANNUAL OZARK SEED SWAP TO PRESERVE
AND DISTRIBUTE TRADITIONAL SEED VARIETIES

This is a brief introduction to a new coal burning power plant proposed for eastern Oklahoma. Shady Point II: (It is "Shady" that's the Point). Shady Point and Panama are two small towns in Oklahoma about 20 miles south of I-40 near Arkansas.  They are home to a 330 megawatt coal burning power plant owned by AES (Shady Point I).  AES is seeking permits to build an additional plant in the same location (Shady Point II).  The additional plant would be 630 megawatts. 
 

Electric utilities throughout the Ozarks are presently using a combination of herbicides to kill the native plants, trees, and shrubs that grow beneath the power lines throughout our region. Thousands of miles of Right of Ways (ROW’s) are being sprayed, causing harm to a wide range of species. Chemical residues from herbicides wash into area creeks, ponds, springs, wells, and groundwater.

Full Moon Flood

Continuous Lightening
Keeps me Attentive
Waters Rise
Quickly - Swiftly
Changing the Course
of Land and Life
I Submerge Myself
In the Full Sap Moon
Rescue Daffodils
Pull the Boat up to Higher Ground
Loose Attachment to Items
Carried Downstream
To Another Collector

The Wind Changes
and Suddenly
I am Stunned
by the Glinting Rays of Sun
on the Reckless Water

Marla Bird 2008

CALLING B.S. ON THE IDEA OF 'MARIJUANA ADDICTION'

The U.S. government believes that America is going to pot --
literally. Earlier this month, the U.S. National Institute on Drug
Abuse announced plans to spend $4 million to establish the nation's
first-ever "Center on Cannabis Addiction," which will be based in La
Jolla, Calif. The goal of the center, according to NIDA's press
release, is to "develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis
and treatment of marijuana addiction."

Not familiar with the notion of "marijuana addiction"? You're not

Well, it's finally here, in a big way. According to the Forest Service EA, they're planning to allow 16 wells per section to be drilled in a 5700-acre area of the Big Piney Ranger District in Pope County.

Let's do the math on that:

A section of land is 640 acres. There are about 9 sections in 5700 acres. So, at 16 wells per section, we'll have about 144 gas wells in that 5700-acre area. Besides all the nastiness that is associated with the drilling process, we're going to have 144 new permanent openings from which the native vegetation has been irrevocably removed.

Ugly.

The U.S. Forest Service's Revised Land and Resource Management Plan for the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, calls for burning up to 120,000 acres every year for the next 10 years. The Ouachita National Forest Plan calls for burning up to 200,000 acres/yr. The National Park Service and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission also conduct large-scale burns, often burning several hundred to several thousand acres of forest at a time.