Well, I can not hide the fact (especially since I mentioned it last week) that I was really looking forward to seeing the latest Pixar Studio creation, Wall-E. This is of course, a double edge sword. On the one hand (and I have no problem admitting it), I am a Pixar fan. They have completely redone animation, and made it not about creating a cartoon, but about using the animated medium to tell real stories, with solid plotlines (much to the chagrin of some that can’t seem to get past the fact that the story is animated and I guess would prefer a mindless slapstick piece instead.)

On the other hand with high expectations, comes the potential for a monumental disappointment. I mean, Pixar hasn’t thrown a clunker (in my opinion) since A Bug’s Life.

So, this weekend I piled the family into the car and we headed off to see the latest installment.  The one thing that concerned me, and I did not fill in TheWife and LatteGirl in on ahead of time, was that the first 1/2 hour or so of the film has absolutely no dialog, and I wasn’t sure how this would play out.   We also had the issue that LatteGirl was uncertain about going to see this movie.  Her friends had already tagged this a “boys film” because it deals with space and robots.  So, she was leery to begin with, and was the complete opposite of my “highly anticipated” vantage point, and I thought would or could pose an interesting alternate views of the movie.

I won’t hold out any longer to let you know.. I loved this movie.  Pixar once again showed, that not only are they masters at animation, they are excellent story tellers.  But what did the skeptical 8 year old think?  She loved it even more than I did.  How much?  Well, before we actually got home from the theater, she asked if we could go see it again next week, and even offered to use her birthday money to pay for everyone to go again.

It really didn’t take long for me to get past my original complaint about how Wall-E looked like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit.  I completely forgot about it very quickly and just saw the new character.  The graphics in this film looked a bit more… I don’t know… “cartoony” than some other Pixar films, but that was probably a conscience decision as it really fit the scenery and futuristic theme and feel of the movie quite well.

There were some message’s in this film that people who are so dead set against having a clean planet that any message along those lines is a battle cry of  “subversive,” “anti-consumer,” “anti-corporation” and other such non-sense.  It is true, there is certainly a stance being shown, how we need to care for our planet and care for ourselves.  But, only if you are so hell bent on being “anti-human” does it really affect your movie experience.  (I could go on about this for some time, but this is about the movie, so I will stop here on this particular matter… for now)

I am not going to try and break this film down.  One, I never do “spoilers” and two, there is just no way (without the spoilers) I could do this any justice, other than to say this.  For those with “boys”  (I put that in quotes, because I am sure there are some girls that enjoy this stuff as well) there is space and robots and slap-stick comedy.  For the “girls,” there is the pre-adolescent sort of “chick flick” love story angle.  For everybody, there is a good time to be had.  Load up the family and take ‘em all to see Wall-E.

Do you have an adorable pet? Do you think others would think so to? Enter a photo of you pet in the Bissel MVP (Most Valuable Pet) Pet Photo Contest. The winning pet’s picture will be put on the new Bissell Pet Hair Eraser vacuum , and donation of $10,000 will be made to the charity of the winner’s (well winner’s owner) choice. Plus the top vote getter each week will win one of the Pet Hair Eraser vacuums, and the top 5 vote getters (getters?) will move into the finalist group. Grab your camera, snap a picture of your pet and send it in.  (Contest ends 04/30/08)

Why I hate people from Alaska – You remember Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska), of “The Internet is a series of tubes” fame?  Well, he is at it again, along with apparently equally dimwitted Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Senator Olympia Snow (R-Washington), who have introduced a bill to outlaw the already illegal practice of phishing.  Sounds a bit like yet another Bridge to Nowhere.  Of course I can’t but wonder, if it doesn’t pass if Stevens will throw another one of his hissy fits and threaten to quit the Senate.  Of course, I can always dream.

Your rights trampled in the name of profits – It seems Monsanto is on a tear again, pushing for lawmakers to get rid of your right to select milk not tainted with synthetic growth hormones.  Whether or not you believe or care about the rBST/rBGH controvery or not, you should care about your rights, as this is not the only product that is being targeted by large companies to get labeling stripped to keep the consumer in the dark.  Contact your representatives, and tell them, you have a right to know.

Emeril going green – Emeril is coming to the Discovery Channel with a new eco-friendly food show.  The show reportedly will be set in Whole Foods Markets and will feature organic, free range and natural foods.

And how about now? – Yes, I know I can understand if you are tired of me mentioning TheMeatrix, and Sustainable Table, and other food “activist” type things, because how could farms possibly be as bad as it is show in that little animated movie… right?  Well what about this video?  That is not fiction!  That is not “a demonstration” or even a theoretical re-enactment.   No cute little animation here.  This is the actual goings on that lead to the single largest recall of beef (to date) in the United States. [Via Sustainable Table Blog]

Last year, LatteGirl rather than allowing me to throw out a little sapling that had begun to grow in the cracks of the patio, decided that we needed to save it, and I discover that I have a Treehugger in the Making.  Well, those plans got screwed up a bit when TheWife was cleaning out her annuals, saw the little tree sans leaves in the fall, and figuring it was dead, threw it out.  Needless to say, LatteGirl was not please with this and despite repeated apologies from TheWife.

Fast forward, to this spring, once again, we have started a new sapling tree, pulled from the same little crack in the patio block.  As we were cleaning up the yard, and TheWife was putting some dead annuals into the compost, LatteGirl stopped her, took her over to her little tree and said:

“Now Mommy, don’t forget this year.  This is a tree.  The leaves fall off of it in the Autumn.  That is why it is also called ‘fall’.  So please do not forget this and throw away my tree again!  Can you do that for me, please?”

I am not much joining “movement” days typically, but when I ran across Blog Action Day, I knew there was no way I could not join in. After all, I am sure by now many are tired of reading my rants about using Compact Fluorescent Bulbs, or recycling. Your sick of seeing me link to things such as, The Meatrix, or the Sustainable Table Blog even though you probably know they are worth checking out. And it is hard to say whether I have gotten anybody to go grab some coupons to check out products from companies like Seventh Generation or Sun and Earth.

But, on the other side of the coin, not yet enough is being done. It of course doesn’t help when a funded arm of Exxon is offering $10,000 for a scientist to publish something that is anti-global warming. I sometimes can’t blame people for not doing more, I mean when you have the President offering a “Clean Skies Initiative” that does nothing but loosen regulations on the worst polluters, when you have supposed political “leaders” like the morally bankrupt Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), calling global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” without a single thing to back up his idiocy, it is easy to see how people just take a “who knows” approach and just throwing up their hands and giving up.

What I guess I fail to understand is, why even if you do not believe things are as dire as some predict, that that the truth is “probably somewhere in the middle” between the two prevailing ways of thinking. So what? Is it so back to switch to CFL’s and save some money and be better for the environment, even if we don’t need it to stave off things in the next “20 or so years” isn’t it enough to just want to do better by the planet before we hit that stage? Do we want to just “pass the buck” to our children or grandchildren and say “You figure it out”?

You know, until I started this post, I hadn’t realized that it was over a year ago, that TheWife and I really learned that Kermit was wrong, and it really isn’t all that difficult to go green. And to be honest, in that time, not once I have complained about missing one of the products we gave up.

It is not about being a Wheat grass drinking, hemp wearing hippie any more.  Though maybe if we just paid a little more attention to them as well as those old Keep America Beautiful ad campaigns, maybe the situation wouldn’t be so bad today.

You don’t have to “go crazy” to make a difference.  If you feel uneasy about going Carbon Neutral, and don’t trust Carbon Offset companies, then by all means, be wary or don’t go that route.  As I mentioned, using Compact Fluorescent Lights is an excellent way to start (but not in lights with dimmers for the record), not only would you be doing something good for the environment, but you get the added kicker of saving money, as these bulbs no longer cost as much as they did in the past, and save you both on electric costs, and the fact that they last (approximately) 5 years, you save on replacements as well.  Trade in those toxic Dryer Sheets for something a bit more earth (and skin, and respiratory) friendly liquid.  It may not be the same money saver up front (at least not obviously), but the money you save on doctor’s visits, or dryer repairs (Dryer sheets leave a residue on your lint filter rendering it less useful and more prone to clogging).

And by all means, and this may not seem to fit, when election time comes around again VOTE!  It is time that those that are more worried about the Exxon’s EPS than the environment, are tossed out.

I know I have harped on this before, and some of you may be sick of hearing about it.  However, I think it really worth repeating, and besides, I have this awesome picture of cows taken by Erin over at Family Circus and I can’t see letting it go to waste.  Here we see cows and newborn calves.  They are happy, healthy and free to roam and graze in the field.  This is of course how we imagine all the cows that provide us with milk and meat comes from.  But that is of course just simply not true.

If you haven’t done so yet, Go over and Check out The Meatrix I.

Back?  Good.

The fact of the matter is, that in many instances, what is depicted here is not how it is done today thank to Big Agri-Business over-running the local farms, raising animals in deplorable conditions, using (at best) questionable practices such as debeaking chickens, over use of anitbiotics, keeping animals in cages where they simply cannot move, using rBGH/rBST in cows to increase production despite the potential health effects to both the cows and humans that consume the milk produced by cows injected with these synthetic hormones.

I will once again be raising money for Farm Aid, which helps small farmers survive (and try to thrive) in this world that is sadly slanted towards the Big Corporate Entities.  Hopefully, the wonderful people, (and perhaps a few new ones) will again join me in attempting to raise money for this worthwhile cause.

It really can’t be stressed enough, when you want to take into consideration your health, the health of your family, and even the health of your community and the world, supporting your local farmers is good way to get good tasting food, get it from a source your know, keep the money in your local area, and all while helping to reduce carbon emmission that are inevitable when food is shipped from around the world.  Now of course not everybody has everything naturally grown close to home.  I know I am sure as heck not giving up my coffee and other products that aren’t grown around here.  But when it comes to the things, the fruits, the vegetables and where possible even some meat, I will find a local source or shop at the local farmers market.

We will all be happier and healthier… even the cows.

I have spoken before about the benefits of supporting a sustainable culture when it comes to food.  I am not talking (necessarily) about Organic.  Because while yes, certainly buying organic has virtues also, they do not (necessarily) always translate well into sustainable.

As a matter of fact, if you check your area, you will probably find farmers that practice good sustainable (and “nearly” organic… the big problem being the the expense and paperwork involved in getting that seal which can be prohibitive to a small local farmer).

Now of course we all know that it benefits the planet if your fruits, vegetables, and so on do not need to be trucked or steam shipped thousands of miles to your grocer.  Few will argue the benefits to the local economy of keeping those dollars closer to home that you spend.

But until it becomes news, few really pay attention all that closely to the fact that regulations and laws governing food, are lax or non-exitent in many of these countries that many big agri-business source from for cheap goods.   And even then, most of it goes by the wayside.

I mean, most people are(were) aware of the e.coli outbreak as laid out in this  SF Chronicle article,  and I certainly hope everybody paid attention to the Peanut Butter recall, but how many people started thinking twice about where their bananas came from, even after Chiquita Bananas was fined $25 million dollars for paying known terrorists protection money to guard their farms in Columbia?  And while, unless you have been living under a rock, you have no doubt at least heard about the recall of Pet Food, but how many paid enough attention to the story to stick around and hear that animal feed has caused a quarantine of at least one farm where melamine was found in the urine of animals meant for human consumption?

With the warm weather upon us, we are going to try and make an effort to not only shop locally and sustainably, but even hopefully visit a few farms, where not only can we get some great fresh food, but we can actually talk to the farmers, and hopefully teach a lesson or two to LatteGirl about where are food comes from (or should).

Want to find sustainable farmers in your area?  Then check out the Eat Well Guide over at Sustainable Table. Visit your local Farmer’s Markets when and where available.
Ask questions.  Build a better relationship with the food you eat, and your body just may thank you for it.

I have been meaning to do this for a while, but have been putting it off for reasons, that at this time escape me.  Now, many things you read, emphasize the need to try and schedule a family dinner together.  To get the family in one place at one time in an effort to open communications.  And I am not going to knock that concept as I think it is a good one.  But I have been working on one that has been more easily incorporated into our family schedule.  Sunday Breakfast.

Fortunately, Sunday mornings are a break from our usual hectic schedule.  Nobody needs to be at work, at practice, at a game, or other activity under usually after noon.  (I can only assume it is to make sure that everybody has been to church first).  So Sunday mornings are as close to a lazy time as we usually get.  But that still didn’t always mean we sat around the table for breakfast together.  LatteGirl usually wanted to have breakfast while watching the Disney Channel, the wife usually opted for corn muffins and the Sunday paper.

But that all changed when I picked up a Mickey Mouse Waffle Iron.  With only a bit more effort than I was already doing, I turned Sunday morning breakfast into an “event.” I serve the Orange Juice in a Carafe, I will sometimes cut up some strawberris as a garnish to color the plate, make our special “Minnie Mouse Pancakes” (* LatteGirl, being the girly girl she is, always insisted in calling them Minnie Mouse insted of Mickey, and I use pancake batter, instead of Waffle Batter, so the come out softer like pancakes, rather than hard crusted like a waffle).  A little whip cream around the edges of the plate and we have something that looks more like you would get at Disney World.

For my girls, it is like having breakfast “out” at a restaurant, or like at the places we eat when we are on vacation.  So now everybody looks forward to having breakfast, and I get a “family meal” out of it, where we can sit and talk.

As an additional bonus, since LatteGirl is not a very good morning person, and tough to get to eat on schooldays in the morning. I started making a larger batch of pancakes than we need on Sunday.  The extras get put in freezer bags, and can be pulled out and microwaved indivudually for a quick breakfast.  It is cheaper (and healthier) than buying store bought pancakes or waffles, and she gets a “special” pancake for breakfast anytime.

I have for many years skipped over attending any of the popular Earth Day gatherings.  The last one I attended many years ago in Central Park annoyed the ever living heck out of me, as a celebration that was meant to show how we are supposed to respect our planet and natural resources, left the park looking like a garbage dump, with plastic containers, bottles and wrappers everywhere.

So, instead, we packed our lunches, and headed to Bushkill Falls, to hike and spend the day with nature.   We opted for the long Red Trail, so it really did wind up to be a full day adventure.

Saturday, I found an Ice Cream Maker at a local rummage sale.  We had been talking about getting one for a while now, and this seemed like a great opportunity.  Lessons of every sort abounded for everybody in the family.  LatteGirl, learned how to make the ice cream, and while I tried to explain to her why it was so much better to have Ice Cream made from Fresh, rBGH free, locally farmed milk, she really wasn’t paying much attention to amything more than… “Is it done yet?”  TheWife, at first complained about the cost.  Since I bought a bag of ice and the cream from the corner store, making ice cream costs more than actually purchasing it at the store.  For her I did get to point out the benefits both in terms of it not having to be shipped to our local grocers in refrigerated trucks from hundreds of miles away, plus that since our homemade ice cream is not pumped full of air, while the “size” of it was equal to about a quart of store bought ice cream, it actually weighed twice as much, since it is not pumped full of air to “fluff” it.

We are not the perfect green family… but we try to do what we can.

Well, I guess in a way that it is only appropriate that the Garden State be selected for the new home of the Live Earth concert to raise awareness of Global Warming.

Although the wise-ass in me would have loved to have seen it be moved to somewhere in Oklahoma, just to drive Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) absolutely batty. Of course the fact that Inhofe can still call Global Warming a hoax after the recently published IPCC Report, proves that he is already batty.

Over 130 countries have participated in the IPCC’s fourth report, which has involved over 2 500 scientific expert reviewers, 800 contributing authors and 450 lead authors.

In this country a handful of officials at the Department of Justice can’t keep their stories straight long enough to cover up the fact that they fired 8 U. S. Attorneys for purely political reasons, and Inhofe thinks that this hoax could be carried out with this many experts, authors, scientists? Heck, even the few scientists paid off by Exxon to dispute Global Warming, can’t keep their mouths shut long enough for people to actually believe that they came to their conclusions independently from the $10,000 reward offered by AEI (a thinly veiled “think tank” funded by Exxon) offered to try and counter the reports.

But of course, such a stunt would only prove to be a distraction as we watched Inhofe go into convulsions, so it is ultimately better off here in New Jersey (where we can paste posters for it all over the refineries along the New Jersey Turnpike )

Snark finally aside (I think), I am proud to have the event here in New Jersey.

The one thing about having Tivo is that I sometimes get a bit lazy, and don’t keep up with some of my shows as much as I would like. This leads me to post about some things well after the fact. The good thing is, that if I still feel it is worth posting about a week later, it might be a bit more long term important than would otherwise be the case.

Now that I am done explaining… John Kerry was on The Daily Show recently, promoting a book he wrote with his wife called This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future.  Now as Jon Stewart noted, some people may be put off by the fact that it is 250 pages with “no pictures.”  Now, I was of course immediately impressed with the fact that this goes beyond some of the more standard environmental issues, as Senator Kerry points out (albeit the message got a bit lost), an example of how Factory Farming affects our water supplies and such.  I will be picking up the book this weekend and reviewing it… soon. (No Honestly… I will find some time for it.)

It really was a decent interview.  And it was fun as Stewart points out that obviously Kerry and his wife were working on this project for quite some time, and pokes fun of the fact that “Gore got there first” with An Inconvenient Truth, and sort of makes Kerry appear as a “me too” kind of add on to the environmental cause, but that it simply isn’t true.

For those that didn’t see it, the Interview is below the fold.

From the department of I ate What? - We all know we want our kids to eat healthy, but will on occassion cave in to the desires for fast food, typically something like a kids meal. Want to be able to never cave to the pressure again? Do you want to be able to never allow your child (or yourself for that matter) to ever consider consuming another McNugget? Then just go ask yourself, what really is in a Chicken McNugget? Directly off the desk of “Duh” – Researchers concluded after a study, that hormones may explain teen moodiness. Perhaps if we throw a few million in grant money at them, they can determine that the sun may explain why some people get sunburn in the summertime.

Back to school – So Tony Snow seems to think that Congress has no oversight responsibility over the White House. Seems to me they need a copy of Schoolhouse Rock! sent over there… quickly. (I must tip my hat to Shakespeare’s Sister had the same idea of how to teach them the Constitution, since not only did she post this idea first, she included diagrams for them to follow)

This was no accident – Some in the government, are trying to push through laws that helped the richest of the rich avoid Estate Taxes or so called “Death Taxes,” and at the same time, under the guise of reining in the budget, last year made it so that pharmaceutical companies could no longer offer deep discounts to college students, and so as of this year (when the law took effect), the cost of Birth Control on campuses have doubled and in some cases tripled. I fail to understand at times how these clowns can sleep at night.

Give us your poor, your… no not those, I want them – Bill Gates is seems is a big supporter of Immigration Reform. Well at least as long as it will get him some more cheap programmers for his company. I guess he has enough low skill labor to manicure his palatial estate, because he was quote by Bloomberg saying,

“Any country should make it easy for people with high skills to come in,” Gates said in answer to a question during a news conference in Mexico City. “I’m hopeful there can be some immigration reform. Hopefully, it would be something that provides predictability and as much freedom of migration as possible”

Of course this is not anything new for the Microsoft Chairman. When he recently spoke in Washington, according to IT Business Edge:

To hear Gates tell it, even 115,000 won’t be enough. The U.S. should have access to an “infinite” number of skilled foreign workers to fill IT posts, he told the committee. During the dot-com days, the annual H-1B visa cap was as high as 195,000.

Yes, I remember those “Dot Com days”  I distinctly remeber towards the end, as the salaries were leveling off, and then the ensuing bust of not being able to find any jobs at a reasonable wage.  And that was before they really started shipping so much work outside the country.  So, I can only imagine what happens to this market if they give Mr. Gates what he wants.  But of course, with all the money he saves, I’m sure he will be able to live comfortably again, as I am sure the slow moving Microsoft stock price has really made him have to tighten his belt. (But I’m not bitter).

What part of personal privacy don’t they get? – It is always with the “best” intentions that lawmakers seem to come up with the most awful ideas, particularly (or at least so it seems) towards women.  Here in New Jersey, an influential lawmaker is proposing a law that would create mandatory HIV testing for all pregnant women.  Of course, it is a wise move to test if you are pregnant, and current State law already requires the availablity of the test to those that wish to take it, but apparently Mr. Cody has decided that he is going to make the decision for women now.  This really should go down in a ball of flames, but Cody has the political muscle to push through stupid laws, and has done so before, so I will be keeping an eye on this as it progresses.

 I just wanted to end on a fluff piece – The evening news always (or almost always) ends with a “fluff piece” and since I started doing these bits on Friday, I have started to understand why, as you look at what you are posting and ask, “Do I really want to end it on that note?”  So I vamp along waiting to find one.  Today I did not, but while the article is quite serious, I can’t help but be amused at the title of this article from the LA Times, If only gay sex caused global warming.  If only we could generate that same sort of homophobic rage into global warming, we could probably solve this problem in a week.

Global warming is a hoax, created by the “looney left,” right?…er… Correct? So, I guess now you can add the Pentagon to the list of “wackos” that say global warming is real.

The Guardian Unlimited

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

[...]

Climate change ‘should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern’, say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

It is not being argued in this document that this is something to think about, or an eventual problem, it is saying that this is a problem now and could be catostrophic within 20 years.  Now, I know a vast majority of readers (I’d at least 2 out of the 3), have small children.  Think about it, your son or daughter (or both) will be in their 20′s (or maybe thirties).  This is something that is having and will continue to have a direct effect on the lives of your kids.

The days of laughing off this issue as something brought on by Wheatgrass drinking, home-made hemp clothes wearing flower children (not that there is anything wrong with that) are over.  This isn’t a political issue, though some in their selfishness would like to make it one, for their own profit and gains.  This isn’t even an issue that can simply be taken care of any longer simply by people doing the right things (although, recycling, using earth friendly products and more are still wise choices).  It is something that needs to be changed on a global scale and needs to change immediately. This can’t be talked away with the oil companies trying to bribe scientist to author papers that say it doesn’t exist.  I mean, when the time has come that even Wal-Mart is begging the Administration to do something on Global Warming, we have obviously reached a serious tipping point.

But even if the threat isn’t quite as imminent or horrific a scale as these projections claim, what is the problem with cleaning up our air, our water, our environment?  People who are against fixing this problem are also (often) the same people that want to return to the “good old days” (I’ll save that issue for another post).  Well in the good old days, we had clean air, and clean water.  We washed dishes, and not everything was disaposable and plastic.  Want to go back?  Fine.  But we have to do something about all this pollution to get back to that.

Want to continue to be pigheaded?  You have every right to do so.  But, if you don’t want to think about it for yourself.  Think about the effects it may have on your kids, this isn’t someday, this is something that effects them.  Directly.  I am sure you have insticts to protect your children.  They need help and protection from this as well, now when they are unable to do or change this for themselves.

Another great resource I happened to run across for projects and information geared towards kids can be found at EEK!  EEK! is the Environmental Education for Kids website created by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  While it naturally leans towards information for people from Wisconsin (like Ice Fishing information, and what winter birds are native to the Wisconsin area) it has a treasure trove of information informational for both kids and Teachers (or parents that want to teach their kids).

For example I stubled across this site while looking for information on creating a bird feeder out of an old milk container.  (The “science projects” this year my daughters first grade class has to be done by “recycling” a used product to a new use).  It is a great website to make enviromental issues and concerns interesting for kids.