I hope Disney doesn’t actually have their panties in a bunch about this. Disney has been raiding fairy tales and classic literature for years and trying to copyright it as their own, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, et al. Existing art is easy to prove and this ad is just funny.

Fiat currency versus metals standards versus specie is not a sexy subject for most people. However, a great deal of the financial and political problems that we have today have their roots in the federal government’s abandonment of the gold standard. One of the original reasons for printing paper money instead of coining hard currency in gold or silver was portability, a pocket full of paper weighs a lot less than a pocket full of Gold Double Eagles, but this is no longer an issue. Most of our transactions are electronic. It’s as easy to transfer metal electronically as it is paper. Politicians can’t just up and mint a trillion dollars in gold coins to ”stimulate” the economy, and therein lies the problem. 

In my book, The Light of Day, precious metals become the standard currency, as societies are rebuilt after the world’s governments move everyone underground to save the environment.

Yeah, I’m not sexy.

 This morning, 08/13/2009, there was a news report on your radio station concerning a former insurance executive. You reported that Wendell Porter believes that the insurance industry is behind the current healthcare protests. Mr. Porter is a former insurace executive, but he is also currently employed by The Center for Media and Democracy. You did report this fact, but you left out that it is a progressive left wing think tank.

 Reporting that someone has an opinion about something is not journalism. Everyone has an opinion. As jounalists and as a news orginization it is your job to verify or debunk the claims of Mr. Porter. If his claims are true, and you gave no evidence that they are, that is news. If he is lying and the Center for Media and Democracy is intentionally defaming the people protesting the healthcare plan, that is news. But to report Mr Porters opinion as if it is fact is shameful. I expect better from your radio station.

 In the interest of disclosure my wife has protested the healthcare bill and she has never been in contact with any insurance company.

Thanks for your time,
James Byrd

The Boy and I went camping this week to Vogel state park. Vogel is a beautiful state park located just inside of the Chattahoochee National Forest. You can paddle around the lake and watch the clouds  alternately reveal and obscure the peaks of the mountains that crowd together to form the park. There is trail access to the AT, Blood Mountain, Coosa Bald and Slaughter Gap. And in this 233 acre park there are more species of trees than there are in Yellowstone’s 2.2 million.

Now boy and I were in the Visitor’s center paying for our miniature golf when I hear this exchange from the other counter.

Visitor: “On the way in we saw these vines. They were covering the trees. Do you know what that is?”

Park attendant: “Probably kudzu.”

Visitor: “Why doesn’t somebody do something about it? Do you just not care? It looks like it’s going to kill the trees.”

At this point I ushered Boy out of the visitor’s center and stiffled my laughter.

Now those of you who grew up in the Deep South are laughing to yourselves, and the rest of you wondering why doesn’t someone do someting about it if its going to kill the trees. So in an attempt to edify, I am going to pass on some southern lore.

During the Great Depression the Federal Government of the United States paid workers through the Civilian Conservation Corps to plant kudzu to control erosion, it also subsidized the planting of kudzu by farmers. I suppose that if controlling erosion is thing you’re concerned with then the planting od kudzu was a success. However, in the south kudzu grows at an alarming rate, up to a foot a day, and is impossibly hard to kill. Herbicides have little effect, fire doesn’t kill it, it doesn’t freeze hard enough in the south to kill it, you can mow it but at a foot a day mowing is a full time job. So we do what we can, but we can’t get it all.

The moral of this story is: when you go somewhere new get to know the culture, before you get uppity with the locals. Oh, and it’s my understanding that they have the same problem with english ivy in the Pacific Northwest.

If you have a problem with elephant skin, first kiss my ass, then go here.