Blog Hopping, Politics, and other random things

I have neglected this for a while. Not intentionally. I just go through silent spells when I just seem to have nothing to say. However, some rambling thoughts do come to mind.

Marian at Elderwoman put up a new post asking why more people aren't going green and why those who have made a stab at it aren't getting greener? Good questions. I can think of a number of reasons. One major one is simply inertia. We get into habits and don't easily get out of them. When I was a kid my father would constantly tell us kids to turn off lights. I am no longer a kid and haven't been for many many years but Mom still reminds me to turn off lights. We buy things because we have always bought them and continue to buy those same items without thinking. We do what we have always done without exploring the alternatives. We just don't expend the energy.

Marian described an encounter with another woman which rang some bells with me. The woman complained that a local food store was going to close but all the while she clutched a plastic bag full of food purchased at a large chain store. She never connected the dot between her own shopping and the demise of an alternative store. I have seen the same thing myself several times over the last few years. In one case, I worked at the store that closed. Over the three years that store was in business, I marveled at the number of people who visited the store, raved about our service, prices, and selection and then walked out never to return. Were they being just polite? If they meant what they said, why did they not come back? Others loved our service and selection but complained about the prices. They were the Wal-Mart or Dollar Store 'gals.' They never connected the low prices at Wal-Mart with the lack of selection and service offered at Wal-Mart. During the 'going out of business' sales we saw many of those people come to take advantage of the sale prices that were still above the Wal-Mart prices. It was all I could do to remain civil.

Granny Geek has a couple of really nice pictures of miniatures her sister-in-law creates. I especially like the one that is an office, compete with antique Coke machine and computer in an empty computer monitor. My own hobby is needlework but I love to see what other people do with their hobbies.

Barbara Ehrenreich has a post which notes that the official definition of what makes a recession has very little meaning for the ordinary Americans who are hurting in these times of economic uncertainty and hardship. You will have to scroll back a bit. I noticed that she just has a new one I will have to read when I am done here.

Ronni Bennet has a new Time Goes By post which should terrify anyone who is getting on in age and is without close friends and relatives. She tells the story of a 73 year old woman who went into the hospital with a broken ankle expecting to go home after a short stint in a re-hab hospital but never got out. Instead, she is a prisoner in a nursing home with a radio anklet that alerts the nurses if she sets foot out of the building. She was committed as mentally incompetent even though she had a long history of managing her own affairs on the terse and illegible diagnosis of a doctor that was not even her primary care physician. This frightens me far more that anything Al Qaeda could do. This is terrorism aided and abetted by law and social prejudice.

On the environmental/political scene, I found a nice article on Grist which tries to deal with the issue of urban sprawl, transportation policy and our current silly season (aka presidential primary season.) Bill Richardson mentioned it once during the debates and it has been since forgotten like so much else in the primary races where the focus has been on personality clashes and non-issues. I would give you a link but haven't figured out what is the matter with the address I have. I will try this again some other time.

I think I will call it a day. I am going to have to start taking better notes so I can link to the right articles more easily. I wish I knew of an easier way to do it than typing the address each and every time. Oh, well!!!