Would that it were so

Kudos to AFLCIO president and former UMWA leader Rich Trumka for calling for serious discussions about climate change and the future of coal. Of course, I don't expect political leaders in the Mountain State of Denial to pay a lot of attention, but every little bit helps.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, climate change may  make reptiles smarter.

NOT ONLY ARE CORPORATIONS NOT PEOPLE, but America isn't one either.

LOOKING AHEAD, Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz sees a rough year in 2012.

HAS ANYONE NOTICED that I've gone a week without mentioning zombies?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

One more (zombie) thing

OK, for the record, I never swore off blogging about zombies. I just said I planned on cutting back a bit. And I have, mostly.

But a friend sent me this item about how Delaware County Ohio health officials used volunteer “zombies” to help with a hazardous materials decontamination drill. When the call for zombies went out, people came from as far as 100 miles away to join in. They were given instructions for makeup and those who needed it  got help in that department. There was even a “best zombie walk” contest.

Fortunately for the volunteers, they were decontaminated with a fire hose and candy rather than having their brains whacked.  But some zombiephobes, including no doubt my over-educated daughter, would want to remind the public that real zombies won’t go down that easy.

(Said daughter also has a thing about bears…which makes me wonder about the possibility of a zombie/bear alliance.)

GEARING UP FOR THE SOCIAL JUSTICE FIGHTS OF 2012? Click here.

ARGUMENTATIVE TEENS may not be such a bad thing.

APOCALYPSE NOW? Maybe not.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Stars

Image courtesy of wikipedia.

(Editorial note: Apparently I got up so early yesterday morning that I thought I posted the following but didn't. My bad. On the bright side, this fact relieves me from having to think of something new for today. Just to be safe, I'm scheduling this in advance lest I sleepwalk again through the morning. If anything really bad happens between now and then please accept my condolences.)

A while back a friend visited Goat Rope Farm at night and commented on how bright the stars were. I guess one thing about living out is that you get kind of spoiled about certain things--like having bright starts. My friend, however, lived in a major city where light pollution makes the nightly light show dimmer if not invisible.

It reminds me of something Emerson said in his essay Nature:

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!

I guess we take things for granted.

IT CAN BE DONE. Student activists have just won a major fight against sweatshops.

HUNGER hit a 14 year high in the US.

JOBS. Here's a call to action for serious action on un- and under-employment.

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Here's a look at 2012 hysteria.

RACIAL DISPARITIES. A new report found some major ones between whites and African Americans in Kanawha County, WV.

THOSE DARWIN FINCHES are at it again on the Galapagos Islands.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED