Just this month Forbes called Monsanto heroes.

(hack, cough, cough) Balderdash. I try not to use stronger words, but they would certainly apply.

I should probably post this link on my long-neglected organic gardening blog and, after I post it here, I might just do that.

But this blog gets somewhat more traffic and I think that this video, about the effects of chemical farming in India is instructive. I know that your time is valuable. I’m asking for 30 minutes of it with the promise that I will not waste that 30 minutes. Start by viewing the film for the first 26 minutes.

Click here to read on, my friend.

I just had a really good day that I am thankful for. It was busy, productive, included good friends, a couple of laughs and some cookies.

What’s not to like about a day like that?

Click here to read on, my friend.

My goal of returning this Jaguar to showroom quality is complicated by the need to drive it, at least temporarily, modest funding for the project, general lack of cluefulness and cold weather with no place to work on it indoors.

It also wouldn’t hurt if I had a hoist and a machine shop in my garage and all that other junk out of it. Hmm … maybe if I kill my lawn I can get rid of the mower, string trimmer, lawn vacuum, rakes, shovels and so on. Oh … and that Geo Metro I keep promising myself to fix up.

Nah, I think you have to put the hoist in when the foundation goes down … and, besides which, I’ve only got about a 7’ ceiling in the garage.

I can foresee some awkward conversations with the insurance company if I raised the hoist high enough to work under — and with the chiropractor if I didn’t.

Click here to read on, my friend.

I just ran across a compilation of the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. in their audio form (mp3 format) and I thought you might have an interest in listening for yourself.

ML King was a great man, but in the end – as an assassin’s bullet proved – he was no less mortal than any of us. And that makes the risks he took, the challenges he faced and the victories he won all the more precious as an example of what it means to be an adult of any race in any nation in the present day.

Click here to read on, my friend.

When I was a kid I sorely coveted a Jaguar. Most of my friends did, too, even if we realized in our heart of hearts that we would probably never own one. Even if we were still saving for a used rust-bucket deluxe so we could get a better job delivering pizzas instead of mowing lawns. Even if we more likely to die of pimples than raw horsepower.

Well, I finally got one. A Jag, that is. I already had, and lived through, pimples long ago.

Granted it’s not the same model I originally craved: this is the Vanden Plas sedan. It’s an old man’s car, but it is a Jaguar. Says so right there on the name plate.

Recently I also did the gas pedal test and yup: it’s got the heart of a Jaguar beneath that tamed exterior.

I had originally lusted after an XKE with a dozen cylinders, long hood and legendary chick-magnet powers. I first saw one up close on a side street near the New York Central Yard Office in Wyandotte, MI.  The interior was mostly rubbish and the paint had definitely seen better days. It looked like a failed ‘fixer-up’, but I wanted it. I wanted to carry the banner forward, complete the fixing-up and drive a racing green XKE with more power and speed than any young male not in the Air Force should ever have access to.

Click here to read on, my friend.

There is a conundrum when setting a goal: set it too big and failure looms large in the headlights but set it too low and interest wanes almost immediately.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Source unknown. If you can help me give proper credit, please do.

Is what the United States has done in the name of its citizens STILL justified? Was it EVER justified? The little solid evidence Americans have would lead them to believe that this is a trumped up war for the enrichment of the already rich at the expense of the already poor.