Here’s a great review of Food Inc …

Food Inc. makes two points very well that are worth repeating and then I’ll shut up. One: wherever and whenever, try to know or find out the source of your food. And two: every time you buy food, it’s a vote for more of that food; if it’s excellent, you’re asking for more; if it’s shitty food, you’re asking for more.

I can’t embed, but please take 2 minutes to watch the YouTube movie trailer.

But I just opened my monthly mailing from Senator Mike Crapo and about spewed my tea reading his “survey” this month. This is what I wrote (via his email form) in response:

Sir:
I just wanted to ask what sort of numbskull in your office devised this month’s “survey”? I’m sure the results are terribly (un)informative since the answer options are skewed to a limited field — bad job!
Just for the record, I am *not* unsure. What I want and what I *know* that this country needs is single payer. Of course that won’t happen because it’s too efficient and logical and there’s not enough money in it for all the greedy hands.
As a second choice I want a public option.
Please look for a letter from me in the near future. Thank you in advance for your response.

The letters to the Idaho delegation (for what good they’ll do) and Pelosi and Reid and as yet undetermined others are going out next week.

And in another allied arena, here’s UC Irvine developing a treatment for tinnitus (from which I suffer chronically). I don’t look for aid in the near future, but I’m glad work’s being done.

But I’d get headaches for a bit after I’d done it. Made me wonder. So about four months ago I was at the Co-op (sort of a local one-up Whole Foods, I guess; been around since the ’70s when it really was a co-operative and you had to put your time in weekly with the bins of bulk grain, etc.). And I asked what they’d recommend (beside the henna track).

I ended up with a couple of shades of Naturcolor. Two boxes (5N, 5R), two bottles, I used one set to mix up for one session and another for the next session. It’s nice. No stink. No scalp burning. No headache. And the color isn’t flat; it seems to pick out individual strands to color different shades. My hair seems fuller and not so traumatized.

I don’t even need to use the whole amount, so I think I’ll get a dye brush and pot and use just half a portion each time. That’ll mean the price is less than or comparable to the grocery store prices.

Then there’s the cost factor. Money can buy a moderate amount of crap food or a smaller bit of good food that makes for more “life, experienced, now” moments. Who knew parsnips were so sweet? I mentioned the garden, right? Reminding myself a watched seed doesn’t germinate. It’s a process. Anyway, I really enjoyed this article at Salon by a woman who answers the question “Can we afford to eat ethically?” by which she means sustainable, local, organic. Some good links in the article as well.

One stupid mistake yesterday: I dropped one of the pots of leek seedlings. I may’ve saved most of them; we’ll see.

On the other end of things: for a bit of perspective, who was dead at your age?

Wonder if this will really be a “go” in January 2009? Think I’ll ask around.

Units of Length
1 kilometer = 2 li = 0.621 miles
1 meter = 3 chi = 3.281 feet
1 nautical mile = 1.852 kilometers = 3.704 li = 1.150 miles

Units of Area
1 square kilometer = 100 hectares = 4 square li = 0.386 square miles
1 square meter = 9 square chi = 10.764 square feet
1 qing = 100 mu = 6.6667 hectares
1 mu = 60 square zhang = 6.6667 ares

Units of Weight
1 kilogram = 2 jin = 2.205 pounds

Units of Capacity
1 liter = 1 sheng = 0.220 gallons

Hmm. How to pronounce. A pinyin helper.

The article is pretty comprehensive. Things you don’t think about. Like how did this whole thing with illegal drugs (because there are plenty of legal ones still around; let’s not kid ourselves) evolve? The article focuses mostly on marijuana. Turns out the reasons are mostly in the familiar strains (let’s hum that tune): race issues, corporate profit, manipulating average citizen’s fears.

Here’s my take. I think the whole drug war thing is a huge rip-off. It solves nothing. It’s going nowhere. It pads the pockets of a lot of people in a lot of places who have no interest in it ending because their paychecks would be gone then, too. It has precious little to do with angst over human misery.

Do I think illegal drugs are blanket, across the board okee dokee? Nope. But neither do I think that legally prescribable drugs bring no problems in their wake. And, hello!: alcohol and cigarettes? They’re legal. Why? I’ve had friends who’ve gone awry from getting out of whack with all three classes of drugs (illegal, legal, and the “non-drugs”, alcohol/cigs.)

I don’t have several hours to articulate my thoughts on this topic, and no rare visitor to these pages is going to take the time to read it in any case.

If I had to put it all in a nutshell, this would be it. What’s being done isn’t working and never will. There should be a measured move toward legalizing “illegal” drugs (and start with marijuana), and tax the hell out of it. And take those funds, a dedicated minimum amount, a generous dedicated minimum amount, and set up rehabs all over. There sure as hell aren’t enough resources now for people with problems that do want to quit.

People have been getting high since before Adam and Eve and aren’t going to stop any time soon. Some people don’t let it ruin their lives. Some people do. What idiocy and waste and arrogance to think that’s going to change.

Find what works. Do that. Repeat.