Roots and Radishes – OR — Help! What do I do with a daikon radish!

Posted on May 8, 2012 by webkeeper

Even though I’ve been around the Oklahoma Food Cooperative from the beginning, I am continually amazed and delighted at the progress of our developing local food system.

This month I am seeing lots of roots and radishes, and different kinds of radishes too.

When it comes to radishes, I think a lot of us are in a rut.  We think about cutting them up and putting them in a salad. We might trim them and put them out with a dip, but that’s it.  The idea of actually cooking with a radish is foreign to many of our home cuisines. Well, I’m telling you right now, if you haven’t had fried radishes you are missing some great eating!  I like mine at breakfast, and I also like them at dinner, and I like them also at supper. Last night we had fried radishes to go with our Oklahoma tenderized round steak.  To fry radishes, I slice them thinly, and then fry them with just a bit of onion and garlic, and of course, as I always do, crushed red pepper. I fry them well done, to the point where they are just starting to caramelize.

You know you need five servings for veggies every day.  So why not substitute fried radishes for potatoes at breakfast?  They are LOW CARB — which is important if (a) you are trying to lose weight and/or (b) you are diabetic. Radishes keep really well. I typically trim the greens and then refrigerate them.

Try this — baked radish chips!

Don’t forget to order some daikon radishes, which are available in COPIOUS quantities this month. What is a daikon radish you say? It is a large white root.  Daikon means “large root” in Japanese. It is a staple of Asian cuisines and is tasty and very healthy, loaded with vitamins and only ONE CARB per serving (about a 2 inch chunk).  15 calories.  No sodium.

What to do with a daikon radish? Let us count the ways. . .

Eat them raw. . .

  • Cut into sticks like a carrot,
  • Slice them thinly crosswise into rounds, soak in water, and they curl into crispy little chips,  serve with a dip.
  • Julienne them and add to salads,
  • Mix some thin slices of daikon and cucumber and onions (use red onions for a nice flare). Dress with a sweet and sour dressing (vinegar and some honey) or with vinegar and olive oil. Add some crushed garlic. Let marinate for a while.
  • Grate it finely and add some soy sauce and hot chili sauce, use as a side relish for fish.
  • Devil it, by grating it coarsely, adding some finely minced onion and celery, sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper, add mayo and dijon mustard.
  • DO CHUA! (Pronounced Do Choo-wa.) Make PICKLED DAIKON!  If you’ve been to the Ban Mi Bahle Vietnamese sandwich shop in Okie City, or a similar establishment elsewhere, you’ve encountered the famous Vietnamese daikon pickles.  Here is a recipe to easily make your own — Vietnamese Daikon and Carrot Pickles .  Here is another recipe, from a Vietnamese publication, which notes that Do Chua should be kept in the refrigerator.  Viet World Kitchen Recipe There is a big difference in these two recipes in terms of the amount of sugar, so I suspect it is “to taste”. As with any pickle, the longer it sits, the more sour it gets. You could try honey, molasses, or a bit of fruit butter instead of the sugar if you are avoiding refined sugars (as we all should be, lol).
  • Make Daikon slaw! Use your favorite coleslaw recipe, substitute shredded daikon for all or part of the cabbage.

Ways to serve COOKED daikon. . .

OK, that should be enough to give you some ideas.  Eat what is available, is one of the most basic rules of a local food system. So why not expand our ideas about what to do with radishes food-wise, and add the delicious and versatile daikon radish to our tables this month!  Pair these with any of our great meats and other delicious foods, and you have healthy and nutritious meals that taste good.  What’s not to like about this!

Y’all bon appetit, you hear?

 

Posted in food, garden, Local Food Systems, Oklahoma Living, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Be Careful What You Ask For, Okie City

Posted on May 7, 2012 by webkeeper

As I predicted in my blog post of May 2nd, OKC has the most amazingly stoopid transportation planning, OKC Code Enforcement was out bright and early this AM writing me up for the dastardly code infraction of not having street numbers on my house. Actually, I do have street numbers on my house, and you can see them from the street, but not from all angles, due to my love for edible foliages.

The inspector, who was very nice, said I had been reported for three infractions, but “two of them are bogus”, so she only wrote me up for the street number sin.  She suggested that I put them on the street.

I would like to publicly announce that with the assistance of a good friend who is a somewhat noted local artist, I will most certainly comply with the absolute letter of this law.

But I think that Okie City should be careful what they ask me for. Lol.  Or maybe I should say, Bwahahahahahahahaha.

PS. I would also like to state that I do not accuse OKC Code Enforcement of reading my blog and then reacting. I think that person(s) unknown who dislike my politics are abusing the code enforcement process and using it as a means of political harassment.

Posted in Good and Frugal Government, Environmental Sustainability, garden, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Living, Peak Oil, Permaculture, Social Justice | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

OKC has the most amazingly stoopid transportation planning.

Posted on May 2, 2012 by webkeeper

This post is guaranteed to get me another code violation, lol.

Sometimes I think those responsible for transportation planning in central Oklahoma should receive an award for the “Most Amazingly Stupid Transit Planning Anywhere”.

When I take Amtrak to Ft. Worth, I get off at a multi-modal transportation center that has everything!  Amtrak, Trinity Rail, Ft Worth City buses, taxicabs — AND the Greyhound Bus.

You’d think, with all of the Texas Envy that is so popular with our ruling aristocrats, that they might take a clue or two from the Dallas-Ft Worth regional transportation system, but I guess they just envy the no-income-tax schtick.

Comes now the news, Bus Station Buyer Pays $2 Million, in the Oklahoman, that the Greyhound Bus Depot has been sold, and the Greyhound and other inter-city buses that stop in Oklahoma City are headed east, to MLK/Eastern and East Reno, to set up shop in an empty restaurant building.

During the destruction of the most obvious place for a multi-modal transit center — our original Union Station, whose rail yard now sits under 10 lanes of concrete freeway –  there was some talk about spending multiple millions of dollars to build a “multi-modal” transportation center somewhere.

Well, I guess this article makes it crystal clear that said “multi-modal center” might be at most bi-modal (Amtrak and the new streetcar system).  City buses will not be welcome, and obviously the Greyhound Bus won’t be welcome either, since this article says that the plan is to relocate the Greyhound Bus Depot to MLK/Eastern and East Reno.  Obviously, at some point, the Greyhound Bus people were told, “You won’t be welcome at our new transit center”, so they decided to go elsewhere.

TWENTY-SIX buses a day stop at Oklahoma City. You’d think that would be worthy of some attention from our transportation planners and local politicians, but if you think that, you are obviously wrong.

The City’s transit center for the bus system is at NW 5 and Hudson.  The Amtrak station is at 100 S. E.K. Gaylord.  And speaking of that station. . . I doubt that there is an uglier Amtrak station anywhere in the nation.  Could we please get some decent lighting in the cavernous dark tunnel that connects the tracks with the parking lot?  At our old Union Station, all the tracks were at ground level. At the OKC Amtrack/Santa Fe depot, you have to go up and down a long flight of stairs (or use a sloooow elevator).  The dark parking lot can also use some light and AND SOME SECURITY LIKE A POLICE OFFICER.  It would be nice if the stained concrete was cleaned or painted. If first impressions count, the first impression of Amtrak travelers of OKC is not good. But we had to pave over the Union Station rail yard with ten lanes of concrete thus ending its potential forever as a multi-modal transit center. Sure, that was a state thing, but the OKC Council did ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING to stop that from happening..

Now the inter-city buses are headed east to MLK/Eastern and East Reno.

I care nothing about the closing of the existing depot, nor the plans of the developer who bought it to “preserve” it.

What I care about, as a customer of Greyhound Bus, Amtrak, and the city bus system, is transportation planning that makes sense, such as they have in Ft. Worth.  I swear, sometimes I am tempted to move to Dallas-Ft. Worth, especially when I see such stoopidity at work in our transportation planning and execution. But I’ve invested too much in the dirt of my property in the Gatewood Neighborhood to pull up stakes and move elsewhere.

So go ahead and send the code inspectors out to write me up, Oklahoma City goobermint.  It won’t make a damn bit of difference.

It won’t change the fact that we have the Most Amazingly Stoopid Transportation Planning.  And we are paying good money, tax money, for this incompetence.

Oops, I forgot.  OKC government doesn’t really care all that much about people who ride city buses and the inter-city bus system. So this is probably a deliberate central planning ploy so that the aristocracy with access to the new street car system won’t have to mingle with the hoi polloi riding the buses.  God save us from nouveau-riche white trash with political power.

Posted in Good and Frugal Government, Peak Oil, Social Justice | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Rebellious elderberries need new homes!

Posted on April 25, 2012 by webkeeper

It looks like my elderberry patch, in FLAGRANT and OBVIOUSLY ANARCHISTIC defiance of code enforcement, is attempting to re-establish itself and there are all kinds of elderberries rising up in defiance of the Oklahoma City TWO FOOT RULE which says that if you are critic of OKC government, you can’t have anything growing taller than 2 feet within 25 feet of a corner or 20 ft of the driveway.  See “That Didn’t Take Long” for details of the Original Encounter on the subject of the City’s view ordinance.

Brave elderberries need good homes.

Here is a picture two of the brave and rebellious elderberries who need a yard to occupy.  This is YOUR opportunity to get some free elderberry plants. Please call me at 200-8155 to arrange a time for you to come by and dig your own plants. I do not dig them for you. You need to bring your own containers, a paper grocery bag is fine. But the points are — you bring your own container and you do your own digging (there was some confusion about that last year, lol). You need to come and get them quickly, because I have another code infraction for “tall grass and weeds” and so everything has to be nice and trimmed by Monday May 7th. Also that area is slated for some new raised beds, and that work is creeping that way.  Note to any code people reading this blog: the beds within 20 feet of the driveways and 25 feet of the corner will grow STRAWBERRIES, thyme, and other low-growing herbs. So there won’t be any view infractious plants with the code folks.

SO please come and help SAVE BOB’S VALIANT AND UPSTANDING elderberry plants.

My corner is one of the few corners in the entire Gatewood neighborhood that complies with the law.  I have been doing some walking, and in fact have walked every street in Gatewood, both sides.  For fun and to keep myself occupied, I decided to count the code infractions.  Alas, I counted so many that I decided to count the houses without a code infraction.  There are about 100, and I think there are 1400 addresses in Gatewood neighborhood.

Personally, I think if the laws are so strict that only 100 out of 1400 addresses in a typical neighborhood are in compliance, that the law is too strict.  Talk about the Nanny state run rampant.

If this ordinance was enforced uniformly in Gatewood, the neighborhood would be deforested, and that is not what I want.  What I want are sensible laws that are uniformly and consistently enforced.  But then, we all know that I am an impractical idealist dreamer, right?

The Belle Isle shopping center is also in violation,EXCEPT that there is actually a legislated ordinatial exemption for them and other big box stores, so THEY can landscape on either side of their driveways and corners with vegetation of ANY height and the city thinks that’s fine. You’d think sauce for the big box stores would be sauce for little bobby max in the Gatewood neighborhood but that’s not the way Oklahoma City works.

I obviously need an attitude adjustment, lol.

Anyway, I know this about Belle Isle because shortly after my original run-in on the view ordinance last year, I was driving by there, noted the non-conforming uses, and so I called in a code violation on WAL MART, lol. But the code enforcement officer called me back and explained that they weren’t in violation because the ordinance permitted that. You’d think that would be grounds for me to get a variance but somehow I don’t think so.

I despair of change in code enforcement short of a lawsuit forcing a change. It may come to that, God only knows I have been sorely tempted. Legal problems with our code system include –

  • The system is based on anonymous complaints, which makes it easy to distort the code enforcement system on behalf of political vendettas,
  • If you don’t comply with their demands, a court hearing will be held — which the homeowner will not be invited to — and a court order will be issued mandating work on the property. A contractor for the city does the work, the city bills you and puts a lien on your property. This sure seems to me to be a taking without due process of law, since the homeowner never receives a notice of the hearing and has no opportunity to counter the claims of the City to the judge.
  • Code enforcement officers are not well trained in the rules, they make up rules as they go along and every code officer has a different interpretation of the ordinances.

It could be a very fertile field for legal action and it could end up costing the city a lot of money.

BUT in the meantime, we have the short-term emergency of Brave Elderberries Needing Homes BEFORE May 7th (actually, by the first of May to give time to finish work in that area of the lawn.)  Call me at 200-8155.  You can also have some walking onions (a/k/a Egyptian onions), and our mulberry harvest is flooding in so feel free to pick some elderberries while you’re here.  If you want to harvest a good amount, bring two people with you plus a sheet (two people hold the sheet, the third person shakes the branch, mulberries are caught on the sheet, then pour them into your bag.  We don’t keep a lot of paper bags on hand so bring your own. Here is my recipe for mulberry cobbler.

Posted in Good and Frugal Government, Economic Prosperity, Environmental Sustainability, food, garden, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Living, Permaculture | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Two Party System is about dead in Oklahoma

Posted on April 23, 2012 by webkeeper

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated my rants, but given that my day job is director of music at the Catholic Church of the Epiphany of the Lord, I get pretty busy around Easter.  And then I have to recuperate.  I’ve been managing a few FB updates, though, since they don’t take much time.  If you don’t follow me on FB, you can do so at http://www.facebook.com/bobwaldrop .

One of the events of the last few weeks was the candidate filing period for the 2012 general election here in Oklahoma. The results of that fiasco are clear and evident: The two party system is about dead in Oklahoma.

In other words, “Rest In Peace”, two party system in Oklahoma.

It’s not unheard of for political parties to die.  It used to happen all the time.  Political parties have to meet the test of the political marketplace every two years. But these days, it is next to impossible to organize a new political party.  It is all but illegal in this state.  Of course, the Legislature doesn’t do anything so crass, or unconstitutional, as enact an actual ban on new political organization. Instead, they simply say that for a new political party to get on the ballot, it must collect tens of thousands of signatures.

So while one of the “two major parties” in Oklahoma is in its death throes (that would be the Democrats), there is no new group coming up from the grassroots to replace them, because it is virtually illegal for this to happen.

This wasn’t always the case.  For most of its history, it only took 5,000 signatures to qualify a new party in Oklahoma.  Then George Wallace and his American Party came along and the Democrats got seriously spooked, and upped the signature requirement to the point that it is much easier to get a new political party on the ballot in Russia and all of the countries of the old Soviet Empire than it is in Oklahoma.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, write-in voting is illegal in the state.  Yet, even under communism in Soviet Russia, write-in voting was legal.

The Republicans presently dominating the state aren’t about to change this, they like one party government. The similarity of their party’s position on electoral freedom to that of the Bolsheviks in Russia doesn’t cause them a moment’s discomfort.  Their ideology is certainly more important to them than something as retro redneck as political freedom.  The Republicans are no more interested in a robust democracy anymore than the Oklahoma Democrats are, so the situation is what it is.

It’s part of the general creep of the entire nation towards the ash heap of history.  People are waking up and understanding that the system does not work for their benefit. It is designed to benefit the powerful at the expense of the people, to destroy the common good by pandering to the special interest. So it’s not a surprise that people are losing interest in politics. Energy always follows the pattern laid out for it, and so I’m not upset about this at all.  Voting simply encourages the delusion that there is a difference between the two major parties.  It is far more important to “vote with your body and your dollars” in terms of how you live your life and where you spend your money.

 

Posted in Good and Frugal Government, Campaign News, Oklahoma Living, Social Justice | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

That didn’t take long.

Posted on March 30, 2012 by webkeeper

It didn’t take the urban vandals in charge of Project 180 long to do the deadly deed to the historic trees at the Oklahoma City Civic Center. They are all gone.  Steve Lackmeyer has a photo up at his OKC Central blog documenting the devastation.

What a monument to the nouveau-riche white trash at work spending our tax dollars. Let’s not forget that those tax dollars were taken from the schools, the libraries, and the public health department, at the behest of a rich oil man, Larry Nichols, who wanted a nicely decorated downtown for his new 50 story monument to the greed of his oil company.

Posted in Good and Frugal Government, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Living, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

One year ago today. . .

Posted on March 9, 2012 by webkeeper

One year ago today about this time I was miserable.  It was Ash Wednesday and I had for the umpteenth time quit smoking.  But here I am, one year later, and not one cigarette in the past year.

I started smoking when I was 16 years old. My father was a smoker, and so I was addicted to nicotine even before I actually smoked a cigarette.  He smoked Winstons, so I smoked Winstons because he bought them by the carton and it was easy for me to steal a pack for my own use.

I smoked for 39 years (I took a 3 year hiatus in my early 20s but fell back on the fell habit). Towards the end, it was two packs a day. I loved smoking. I thought it was something I did just for me, that was special. Cigarrettes were my friend. For all of the good times and bad times of those 39 years, the one constant was tobacco smoking.

But it was an abusive friendship, no doubt about that.

I am pretty sure I tried and failed multiple times at all the various forms of tobacco cessation. Let me count the ways I tried and failed –

  • Hypnotism
  • Neuro-linguistic programming
  • Patches
  • Gum
  • Lozenges
  • Drugs (Wellbutrin)
  • E-cigarettes (they look like a cig, but deliver nicotine via water vapor as you “puff” them)
  • Cold turkey
  • Phase down (cut back 1 cig per day every 4 day)
  • Counseling (in person)
  • Counseling (phone)

Whenever I would do Cold Turkey, my favorite method of quitting, the pattern went something like this.  I would do fine for a day or two.  So fine in fact that I would decide to reward myself with “just one cigarette.”

The next day I would be doing so fine that I always figured I should have TWO rewards.  Then on the third day, well, I could certainly be “OK” with five cigarettes — one in the morning and evening, and then one after each meal. Surely I could keep to that schedule and that would be better than two packs a day.

But then on the fourth day, it was ten “rewards” and within a few more days, I would be back at two packs a day.

Never underestimate the power of delusional thinking when it comes to addiction.

So how did I finally quit?  I learned one simple lesson.  Anyone who wants to quit smoking must learn and follow, for the rest of his or her life, this one simple lesson.  AND if a person does do this, he or she will never again be trapped in the habit.

You Can’t Smoke Just One Cigarette.

Not One Puff Ever!

Not much of an acronym for the first line — YCSJOC, unless we threw in a few vowels to make it YoCaSJOC, but the second is easy — NOPE!

Why?  Because if you smoke Just One Cigarette, you are right back on track to two packs a day, or whatever your most immediate level of nicotine addiction was.

When I went cold turkey last year, I took as much time off from my job as I could.  I had to be there for Ash Wednesday and the following weekend, but the rest of the time I pretty much just stayed home and ate anything I wanted. I slept a lot. I felt sorry for myself.  Oh woe was me, never has the world seen such misery, lol.  But at the time, I was in mourning.  I had killed my abusive friend. Never again would I smoke a cigarette.

Two websites were particularly helpful to me.  The first was the About.com Tobacco Cessation website, with (among other pages that could be cited), it’s summary of the benefits of quitting smoking – After the Last Cigarette.  This shows the health milestones you achieve at 2 days, 2 weeksto 3 months, one to nine months, one to two years, five to 15 years.  They also offer a free e-course.

The second was Smoking Cessation Through Faith and Prayer, a program maintained by a Catholic psychologist. In particular, I used his description of Progressive Muscle Relaxation to deal with the body aches and pains and mental stresses, and his prayers and litany for stopping smoking.  He has a PDF of a prayer card that you can print and carry with you.

It’s not an accident that they call the first week hell week because it isn’t easy.  But within just a few days, I was feeling better. You work your way through the physical addiction in that first week, and after that, its psychological.  Yes, cravings continued for a while, but they lessened in their intensity and it was easier to dismiss them.  When I got cravings I would either prayer or repeat mental statements like “I love myself, I will not kill myself with smoking.” Or I would call someone who had encouraged me to quit and say something like, “Remind me why its important that I not smoke.”   I also called the Oklahoma Tobacco Cessation Help Line and spoke with one of their counselors a couple of times, and that was helpful.

A year later, I do not live a life of craving for cigarettes. Smoking is part of my history, but the emphasis is on history, lol.  Every once in a while, I’ll get a little urge, but it’s hardly even noticeable.  The desire to smoke has been replaced by a fear of smoking — I worry that if I smoke Just One Cigarette, that I will be back on track to the two pack a day habit and I do not want that. I devoutly don’t want that.  Why?  Because I feel so good.  If I had known how good I would feel, I would have quit 20 years ago.  I had not realized how much stress smoking was causing my body. All that stress is gone and my bank account certainly does not miss that expense.

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Rolling Stone debunks the fracking bubble and ABC reports PINK SLIME in hamburger

Posted on March 8, 2012 by webkeeper

The March 15, 2012 edition of Rolling Stone magazine has  an excellent debunking of the fracking bubble and the myth of 100 years of natural gas — The Big Fracking Bubble – the Scam Behind the Gas Boom.

Here’s a little snip to whet your appetite. . .

Fracking, it turns out, is about producing cheap energy the same way the mortgage crisis was about helping realize the dreams of middle-class homeowners. For Chesapeake, the primary profit in fracking comes not from selling the gas itself, but from buying and flipping the land that contains the gas. The company is now the largest leaseholder in the United States, owning the drilling rights to some 15 million acres – an area more than twice the size of Maryland. McClendon has financed this land grab with junk bonds and complex partnerships and future production deals, creating a highly leveraged, deeply indebted company that has more in common with Enron than ExxonMobil. As McClendon put it in a conference call with Wall Street analysts a few years ago, “I can assure you that buying leases for x and selling them for 5x or 10x is a lot more profitable than trying to produce gas at $5 or $6 per million cubic feet.”

According to Arthur Berman, a respected energy consultant in Texas who has spent years studying the industry, Chesapeake and its lesser competitors resemble a Ponzi scheme, overhyping the promise of shale gas in an effort to recoup their huge investments in leases and drilling. When the wells don’t pay off, the firms wind up scrambling to mask their financial troubles with convoluted off-book accounting methods. “This is an industry that is caught in the grip of magical thinking,” Berman says. “In fact, when you look at the level of debt some of these companies are carrying, and the questionable value of their gas reserves, there is a lot in common with the subprime mortgage market just before it melted down.” Like generations of energy kingpins before him, it would seem, McClendon’s primary goal is not to solve America’s energy problems, but to build a pipeline directly from your wallet into his.

Aubrey McClendon himself himself was quick to respond:

Which brought forth this “Point Counterpoint” –  Rolling Stone Responds to McLendon’s Response

THIS JUST IN — as I was ready to publish this blog post, I received an email reporting that SEVENTY PERCENT OF SUPERMARKET HAMBURGER CONTAINS PINK SLIME!  Yum.

The “pink slime” is made by gathering waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat so the fat separates easily from the muscle, and spinning the trimmings using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria. The process is completed by packaging the meat into bricks. Then, it is frozen and shipped to grocery stores and meat packers, where it is added to most ground beef.

The “pink slime” does not have to appear on the label because, over objections of its own scientists, USDA officials with links to the beef industry labeled it meat.

Sounds like a good  reason to join the Oklahoma Food Cooperative and buy local ground meat.

Posted in Corporation shenanigans, Economic Prosperity, Environmental Sustainability, food, Local Food Systems, Oklahoma City, Peak Oil | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Avoiding Food Pollution

Posted on March 7, 2012 by webkeeper

Food pollution is a problem.  Pesticide and herbicide residues are common on non-organic supermarket produce.  While testing data isn’t available, since most processed foods use commercial non-organic vegetables, it is likely that pesticide residue is a problem for processed foods too.

The best data on pesticide pollution of vegetables and fruits is from the Environmental Working Group.

The best solution is to grow your own or to buy organic or all natural vegetables. vegetables.  The problem with the “buy organic vegetables” advice, however, is that access to organic vegetables is uneven.  People often cite price as a factor too, but even people using food stamps to purchase food can afford organic vegetables if they are not buying much in the way of prepared foods and are making meals from basic ingredients using a carefully planned menu.  OK, not everybody has the skills to do that either.

So as with most things, there are good, better, and best choices.  The best choice is to buy or grow certified organic vegetables or all natural vegetables from a reputable source (like alocal farmer).  But if that best choice is not possible, avoid the so-called “Dirty Dozen” (as identified by the Environmental Working Group).  Actually, looking at the data, it looks to me like we should avoid a “Dirty Twenty” — these are ranked by amount of pesticide residues found on samples of non-organic supermarket pesticide, with the first on the list being the worst:

•    Apples
•    Celery
•    Strawberries
•    Peaches (and stone fruit in general)
•    Spinach
•    Nectarines
•    Imported grapes
•    Bell peppers
•    Potatoes
•    Domestic blueberries
•    Lettuce
•    Kale/collard greens
•    Cilantro
•    Cucumbers
•    Grapes – domestic
•    Cherries
•    Pears
•    Domestic nectarines
•    Hot peppers
•    Green beans

These fruits and vegetables in their non-organic form are drenched with pesticides residues. Peaches and apples run a race for first of the worst, with testing showing combinations of as many as 57 pesticides on peaches and 56 on apples. Strawberries and domestic grapes tested positive for 14 different pesticides. 96% of celery samples tested positive for pesticide residue – and 91% of potatoes were pesticide positive. Hot peppers had been treated by as many as 97 (!!!) different pesticides and greens with 66.

Besides fruits and vegetables, Team Planet Green (affiliated with The Learning Channel) warns against non-organic rice, since 40 different pesticides are used in its production.

Non-organic baby food is also a big issue, since babies are much more sensitive to food pollution than adults (given the small size of their bodies and the immaturity of their immune systems).  The best solution with baby food is certainly to make your own.

Pesticide residues can be extremely toxic to human health and the environment. U.S. and international government agencies alike have linked pesticides to nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone system disruption and IQ deficits among children. http://www.ewg.org/release/prenatal-pesticide-exposure-linked-diminished-iq

Pesticides, while designed specifically to kill certain organisms, are also associated with a host of very serious health problems in people, including neurological deficits, ADHD, endocrine system disruption and cancer,” said Andrew Weil, MD, Founder and Director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and a renowned medical expert on natural health and wellness. “My advice to consumers is to whenever possible avoid exposure to pesticides, including pesticide residues on food.” (quoted from the Environmental Working Group website) See http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/faq/ for more data on pesticide risks.

The Environmental Working Group has identified a “Clean 15″, where pesticide contamination is zero or very minimal. The first on the list is the cleanest:

•    Onions
•    Sweet corn
•    Pineapples
•    Avocado
•    Asparagus
•    Sweet peas
•    Mangos
•    Eggplant
•    Domestic cantaloupe
•    Kiwi
•    Cabbage
•    Watermelon
•    Sweet potatoes
•    Grapefruit
•    Mushrooms

The third list is the “In-Betweens”.  From highest pesticide residue to less pesticide residue, that list (which starts with #20 on the Environmental Working Group’s list), is as follows:

•    Carrots
•    Imported plums
•    Imported blueberries
•    Raspberries
•    Imported green beans
•    Summer squash
•    Oranges
•    Broccoli
•    Green onions
•    Bananas
•    Cantaloupe imported
•    Honeydew melon
•    Cauliflower
•    Tomatoes
•    Papaya
•    Cranberries
•    Domestic plums
•    Winter squash

Following this list come the Clean 15, already listed above.

This month, the Oklahoma Food Cooperative has plenty of non-pesticided produce available, including lettuces, greens, and celery.

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The big picture on the income tax debate and the coming defenestration of the economic aristocracy.

Posted on March 6, 2012 by webkeeper

It’s not an accident that abolition of the state income tax has come up at this juncture of history.

Because of the economics of scarcity, and the on-going slide of our nation onto the ash heap of history, people understand that there isn’t enough to go around anymore. We can no longer afford business as usual.  Radical restructuring of government and the economy is necessary to embrace an economy of abundance. We can’t continue to lavishly shift resources to the powerful economic aristocrats and fund the necessary functions of local, regional, and state government. With or without the income tax, that’s not happening.

But instead of doing what needs to be done to support the common good, the political goal of the Republicans in the present instance is to accelerate the flow of wealth to the already rich and powerful by abolition of the income tax.

If rats are placed in a confined area, and  the resources available to them are restricted, the biggest and strongest rats will get most of the limited resources.  That’s what we see right now writ large in our debate on the income tax and “core functions” of government.  Not only are we cutting funding for the poor and low income, a major squabble has erupted among the  economic aristocracy concerning who will continue to get corporate welfare checks from the State.

Thus, tax credits for film makers and wind generation are out the window, while the oil and gas and manufacturing tax credits stay. Money to fund GED classes for high school drop-outs? No way.  At the federal level, we saw this going on when Lehman Brothers was fed to the sharks, while Goldman Sachs and Chase Manhatten were rescued.

Notice also that no one is talking about extending the sales tax to advertising sales, legal fees, or newspapers.  So the rest of us pay more so that powerful media companies and lawyers can pay less. Nice work if you can get it, eh?

The abolition of the income tax is a deliberate political decision to throw some people behind for the wolves to devour. Who? The not-strong and not-powerful. Which is to say. . . kids in foster care. The elderly whose taxes will increase significantly under the present scheme. Education. Prisons. People in rural areas. Non oil and gas energy initiatives. In other words, just about everyone who isn’t an economic aristocrat.

This is what happens as we reach the limits of growth and bounce back while our government is under the control of economic gangsters without compassion or decency who do not hesitate to continue to loot the public treasury for their private benefit.  This is what Peak Oil and the Decline Years look like. This is why we need a defenestration of our aristocracy.

According to Wikipedia — Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de- (down or away from) and fenestra (window or opening). Likewise, it can also refer to the condition of being thrown out of a window, as in The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch.

A more rational approach would be to fund the common good and defenestrate these economic aristocrats, but alas for us all,  Oklahoma government is not about protecting the general welfare, it’s about rewarding the friends and punishing the enemies of the controlling political factions in the Legislature and the Executive.  It’s a zero sum game of looting the public to benefit the one percent.

So what to do? The list I compiled as the crises of 2008 came upon us remains good advice for today — 20 Resilient Responses for Troubled Times.   The first one is particularly important during this election year –

Close your ears to the lies of politicians and corporations. . . The government will make the situation worse. Politicians will distract you from important actions that are necessary to save your family and community from this crisis.

So we continue to do what we are already doing.  We understand what the economic aristocrats are doing and help others to open their eyes and see what’s happening to them.  We build alternatives amidst the collapsing ruins of the old.  We protect ourselves from the thefts of the economic aristocrats by doing as little business with them as we can. In other words –

  • we choose a locally owned burger instead of McDonalds or Burger King,
  • we plant a garden or shop at a farmers market or the Oklahoma Food Coop instead of buying pesticide drenched produce at Wal Mart,
  • we chop up our credit cards into tiny pieces and we NEVER use a credit card again,
  • we take our money out of the big national bank system and do business with a credit union instead.

These and many other similar actions are revolutionary deeds in support of a better future.

We should also be loud in our protest of the actions of the economic and political aristocracies who steal from the general welfare for their own corrupt purposes. This is a time to write letters to the editor, to meet personally with politicians and call them — loudly — to account for their actions. Indeed, demonstrations in front of the homes and boycotts of the businesses of certain legislators would be helpful.

One detail in our favor is that the economic and political aristocrats in control these days are as clueless as the Romanovs in 1917 or the French aristocracy in 1789-1793.  They will do much of the work to bring about a revolution of justice and sustainability just be being who they are. If you have any doubts about this, just review the legislation submitted for consideration during this session.

The day will come when the movement for sanity, justice, and sustainability reaches a critical mass.  It’s not today, and it won’t be next week. But it is coming, just as sure as gun is iron. Our job is to  get there the firstest with the mostest to help people understand what is happening so they can make their own transitions from economic slavery to a life in freedom and justice.

So let us all look forward to the day of the defenestration of our political and economic aristocracies. It’s about time to throw them out the window and onto a pile of manure.

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