There is something about the Super Bowl … something other than the hassle of getting through store checkout lines this past week … that grinds me.

In this supposedly Christian nation, every year millions of people go nuts over a violent game played in body armor by absolutely huge men who make their stupendous livings by knocking other men down. There seem to be extra points points awarded for tackling the smallest guy on the field. Well, technically, they go for the smallest guy in a player uniform – brownie points are lost for tackling the guys in the striped shirts.

Some are of the opinion that the game is not violent. But this quote “"It’s an interesting theoretical question, but I don’t think anybody would consider playing NFL football without a helmet,"* would seem to argue otherwise.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Jehovah’s Witnesses were nearly crushed in 1918 when the bulk of their Governing Body was arrested on false charges and sentenced to long terms in prison. Their spiritual Brothers were not yet well equipped to carry on the work without strong leadership and the barely-begun work faltered, stumbled and appeared to have been extinguished.

That was, in a sense, a good thing; as it made patently clear that this work was not going to be the work of man alone, but if it was to succeed at all, it would have to be the subject of heavenly direction. Click here to read on, my friend.

Every once in a while I stumble upon that most fascinating of web pages … a quotes page. I’m in a generous mood today, so I’m going to share this one with you. The quotes seem selected with just a hint of an edge to them, a tiny scent of an acid wit and come accompanied by linocuts which you can purchase, if you so wish.

The link above is well into the middle of the site … be sure to scroll backwards as well as ahead.

Here’s a teaser:

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

- George Bernard Shaw

After this has been up a few days as an ordinary post, I think that I’ll make it permanent page and every Friday pass along the best quote I’ve encountered during the preceding week.

I suppose by now that you are hoping I will leave off the rants for a while … and in a while I intend to do so.

But not yet.

Click here to read on, my friend.

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 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.

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.

Just a very brief post today.

Like I often do, I was using Wikipedia several times today to research a small point. Sometimes it is for a book I am working on, sometimes for “pay the rent” college papers, sometimes just to get my facts straight before writing an e-mail or, even more critically, before answering a question from my wife.

Married men: do not underestimate the value of Wikipedia!

The point is, I use Wikipedia a lot and I’m willing to guess that you do too.

Today, in the banner area, there was a request from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, for financial support. You can probably guess where I am going with this, can’t you.

This won’t be the first time I have donated. I have a keen appreciation of the value of what amounts to an encyclopedia that is kept up to the minute. If things change … and I know of the change … I can even make the needed edit myself.

Yeah, just makes me feel warm all over.

That’s Jimmy below. Look at those sad little puppy dog eyes. He’s not getting rich off this; the poor man is going gray and can barely afford to shave. Open your wallet.

They are asking for a minimum contribution of $35 … so are the guys alongside the road with those cute signs about ninjas and kung fu lessons. When I get done paying this months bills, maybe this time I’ll pop ‘em $35-$50. Or, maybe I’ll just slide ‘em the same $20 I’ve been passing along all these lean years. They’ve never complained … and they’ve never shut my subscription off.

Here’s where to go when you leave this blog today. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Support_Wikipedia/en

Oh, and if you make a donation of at least $100, the founder of eBay will match it … turning your $100 into $200 with no pain to you (or him, either … the guy is loaded!) Moreover, this donation is tax deductible for you and for him).

I tutor a young man in the English language. I attempt to cover grammar, composition and so on. With his Dad absent, we talk about the ‘and so on’ fairly often*. We get along okay, even though I’m not always convinced that the time is well spent.

This past Wednesday, as part of an exercise demonstrating viewpoint, I asked him why he thought I tutored him.

Click here to read on, my friend.

As a gardener, I know that my wife and I are held ransom to water. Rain, dew, pipe, irrigation, drip, flood, spray, weep … if the water doesn’t reach our garden somehow – or if there is too much of it or it is timed poorly – our plantings are doomed. If we were counting on that food for our own survival, as much of the world does, things could be bleak indeed.

In many, many places, there is a thick layer of dust and doom spread over the landscape. What water is available is often polluted beyond use, too salty, a vector for horrible diseases or too deep underground to retrieve. Global climate trends have forced people off formerly arable land squarely into the lap of aid agencies. Even if the aid agencies operated in some sort of idealized state – and they do not – living from handout to handout is hardly humankind’s proper state of existence.

Enter, stage left, the incredible synergy of water projects and micro-finance loans.

Click here to read on, my friend.