my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘news’ Category

I am glad I’m not a “normal weight” person, because, apparently, being a little overweight means I’m going to live a little longer.

A few extra pounds can add years to your life: study
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Carrying a little extra weight may actually be good for you, according to a Canadian study that showed a few pounds appear to protect people from an early death.

Researchers found that while underweight and extremely obese people die earlier than people of a normal weight, people who are slightly overweight actually live longer than those of a normal weight.

For the past couple days, people have been emailing me about a new search web site called cuil.com (cuil is supposed to be pronounced “cool” btw), so I checked it out.

Yep, it’s a search web site.

I don’t know what else to say. Except maybe this: I claim first coinage props for making cuil into a verb, as in, I cuiled my bike taxi business and found a ton of hits.

I spoke to a good friend of mine last night, who made me aware that today marks the deadline the chocolate industry set for itself of putting an end to the use of slave-produced cacao beans for chocolate.

Here’s a quote from an article in the Time magazine about it: …in Cote d’Ivoire, which produces some 40% of the world’s cocoa, tens of thousands of children are forced to work on plantations, many of them in virtual slavery….

More info is online at wikipedia.org: “Of the 200,000 children working in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry, a maximum of 6% (12,000 children) may be victims of human trafficking or slavery.” (Wikipedia links to this article.)

Here’s another article.

And here’s another article.

Today, I’m going to try to find a local store that sells chocolate that is not made from cocoa beans grown by slaves. My friend is asking everyone he knows to buy two such chocolate bars: One to keep, and one to give to someone else, to spread the word about the slave conditions, but also to show people that there are alternatives to slave-made chocolate.

UPDATE: Here’s a PDF for you.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is reading THIRTY-FIVE articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush, live on C-SPAN right now.

Kucinich’s long list of Bush’s violations of his oath to protect the Constitution is amazing, and very detailed. War crimes, etc. You’ll have to read it when they publish the transcript.

I’m sure it’s because the microphone is so good, but there is no noise whatsoever in the background. It’s almost like the Capitol is completely empty.

I can’t find the transcripts (yet), but here’s a news article I found:

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich defied his party leadership on Monday by calling for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the Iraq war — but his move was not expected to go anywhere.

The Ohio representative outlined his intention to propose more than two dozen charges against Bush on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kucinich, a former presidential candidate, accused Bush executing a “calculated and wide-ranging strategy” to deceive citizens and Congress into believing that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said she opposes trying to remove the Republican president who leaves office next January because such an attempt would be divisive and most likely unsuccessful.

Kucinich, an outspoken Iraq war critic who has consistently voted against funding the war and led anti-war efforts in Congress, offered a resolution to impeach Vice president Dick Cheney in April 2007. That also failed to move forward.

Many Democrats and civil liberties groups have accused the Bush administration of providing misleading information before the 2003 Iraq invasion as well as violating the rights of U.S. citizens with its warrantless surveillance program. The White House denies the charges.

But, sadly, no matter how valid Mr. Kucinich’s case may be, Congress isn’t going to act on it. For example, I found this quote online at upi.com: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other leading House Democrats have said Congress will not pursue impeachment of Bush. During the 2006 election campaign, Pelosi told CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ impeachment was ‘off the table.’”

Thirty-five articles of impeachment. Wow.

Since the articles are ONLY about 20 pages, maybe they stand a chance of being read by other members of Congress (unlike the USA Patriot Act, which no one read, not even AFTER they voted for it).

When I first read that New York State is going to close the Developmental Center on East West Road in West Seneca, my first thought was that there will be a rush of private developers to their friends in the government asking for the land. This 439-acre piece of land sits on relatively high ground, and still retains a slightly rustic feeling, despite all the new houses that have been built nearby. Developers with the right friends in government stand to make a fortune building new homes here.

I found one statistic online that says the average home price in West Seneca is about $118,000. If they divide the land from the developmental center into 1/2-acre lots (which is larger than the average lot in West Seneca), that land is worth more than $100 million in homes. The town of West Seneca would stand to take in a huge amount of property taxes, so the town may want to see the land developed into new homes, too.

But I have a different idea. Of course–all my ideas are different, ha ha. Those of you who have read my blog before might recall that I’m interested in history, preservation, and the local economy. Real estate development is not necessarily contraindicated by those values, so don’t misread me. In this case, I think that the state ought to not help the developers make a ton of money and keep the town’s taxroll the same as it is now.

Why? What could be more important than new homes and a greater taxroll?

History, that’s what. What’s more, Education (with a capital E).

What I think they should do with the 439 acres is build a village. Not a modern village, though, a historic village. Have you ever been to the Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY? It’s not far from Buffalo, but it is far enough away that it is justifiable to build one closer to home.

I’m not suggesting we just copy whole-cloth what they’re doing in Mumford, but what they’re doing in Mumford is an excellent model. Here’s a couple paragraphs from their web site:

Spend a day within a 19th-century country village. As you stroll among the 68 restored and fully furnished buildings, you will see how a log cabin settlement grew into a bustling community of stores, shops, schools, churches, and fine houses. Take a tour and visit the Village Homes, the Businesses, Shops and Professions Buildings, the Public and Religious Buildings in the village, and the Village Gardens.

Experience vivid impressions of 19th-century American country life — the aroma of soup simmering over an open hearth and bread baking in a brick oven, the ringing of the blacksmith’s hammer, the calls of barnyard animals — and the friendly voices of villagers and craftspeople.

I’m sure it’s already too late, because if I am reading about this in the news, then the real estate developers have known about this for years, and they likely have already drawn up the plans to split the profit.

But if it isn’t already too late, I hope someone besides me likes this idea.

If Buffalo and Western New York are running out of manufacturing jobs, and all we really have left is service, education, and health care, it would sure help the region if we started thinking seriously about developing our tourism resources.

Buffalo and Western New York have a history that will soon be paved over at the rate we’re sprawling out. If we already have enough housing, why keep spreading it out? Why not make the investment into a historic village–a few years from now it would be one of several reasons to travel from outside of Western New York and stay for a week.

It is exceedingly rare for a piece of land this size to be made available for a new purpose, so if we miss this opportunity, there may never be another one.

<wink wink> I have a plan for most of Western New York, if they would just give me a chance. </wink wink>