Sanders and Illuzzi

Vince Illuzzi (R), Vermont State Senator

On August 29 I attended a luncheon given by Bernie Sanders, Senator of Vermont, at the Barton Senior Center in the Barton Memorial Building. It was a very hot day, and the room was crowded. The Senior Center folks cooked the lunch and included food from their garden, which is behind the library.. Vince Illuzzi, above, introduced Sanders. Illuzzi is a Republican State Senator. Sanders votes with the Democrats in the U.S. Senate. Both are good speakers.

Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont.

I regret not posting these photos back then but I am very slow editing photographs. And in December, when John and I moved the server from the porch to the living room (so that the porch could be transformed into the kitchen), the server "died." It was only fixed last week, but that is another story — a very embarrassing story. So these photographs were locked up inside the unreachable server for months. But this August lunch was a great afternoon full of information about health care and military spending.

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No, No, No

Signs such as this sign on a private association beach on Long Island Sound litter the Connecticut shoreline. Legally, all people have rights to be on public beach, which is defined as the area below the mean high tide mark. This area is marked by debris, driftwood and seaweed. There is dry and wet sand.

The Connecticut shoreline is nearly all privately owned. The landowners are well-to-do. For ages they have blocked access to the intertidal zone and trespassers were prosecuted. Inner city kids couldn't experience the beach without paying exorbitant fees. They could go to the crowded and commercial state beaches that were not free. In the 1970s Ned Coll, a political activist in Hartford, agitated and won access to the public beaches by walking the high tide mark from Stonington (on the eastern end of the Connecticut shore) to Greenwich (on the western end).

Yet forty years later, there are still squabbles about how one is able to get to these public lands. A July 2009 article, Public access to the shorefront not always easy, in connpost.com, explains the various ways different shoreline towns restrict access to public land. The State of Connecticut makes the law very clear in the Connecticut Coastal Access Guide. Yet it is nearly silent about how one should get down to the public land.

Signs such as the one I photographed show that the conflict is still going on. I am old enough to remember the court fights and Ned Coll's march. I am so disappointed with the hostility and exclusivity that this sign represents.

A Weekend in Old Saybrook Set

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Pi Day III

House Resolution: 3-14 is Officially Pi Day

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The Youth Inaugural Ball

Andrew and Dan went to the Youth Inaugural Ball, for those people 35 years of age and under, on Inauguration night in Washington, DC. MTV was there with cameras. The Ball began too late on a school night so we taped it on TV. In these three photos, I found Andrew!

On historic days like January 20,
Washington is a wonderful place to live!

Technorati Tags: Youth Ball, Washington DC, inauguration day
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Worth A Look: Byrningbunny’s Challenge Page

Worth A Look: Byrningbunny’s Challenge Page
Follow Byrningbunny's link to the most excellent article with the facts about this campaign. I'm too old to be seduced by oratory. I'm also too old to tolerate these antics by men. The following quote from Hilary Rosen's article on the Huffington Post speaks for me:

Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she's the best qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I support her because her progressive politics are as strong as her proven ability to withstand what will be a massive right-wing assault in the general election. I support her because she's refreshingly thoughtful, and I'm bloodied from eight years of a jolly "uniter" with ejaculatory politics. I needn't agree with her on every point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are identical with Obama's — and the few where hers are both more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I support her because she's already smashed the first-lady stereotype and made history as a fine senator, and because I believe she will continue to make history not only as the first US woman president, but as a great US president.

Byrningbunny is correct when she writes, "this is well worth the read for anyone who is a woman, loves a woman, knows a woman or was given birth to by a woman. Please click on the link above to see this article."

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The Portland Montreal Pipe Line

::Portland Montreal Pipe Line:: About us

BG, a kind gentleman from Maine, e-mailed me about the Portland Montreal Pipe Line, whose warning sign I blogged about yesterday.  He sent me this link to the PMPL site. It's full of fascinating information: the pipeline opened in 1941 and is approximately 236 miles (or approximately 380 km) long.  It sends oil from Portland, Maine ("the largest oil port on the US East Coast") north to Montreal. It was built because of the need, during World War II, "to safely transport vital oil when enemy warships interrupted tanker traffic bound for refineries in Canada." I haven't heard of any problems with this pipeline. But when a problem happens, it will be a dozy. This is crude oil, and it's dangerous stuff. 

According to a Petroleum Administration Defense District map, this seems to be the only pipe line in New England.

Now I'm wondering if a hike along the pipeline (to Portland going south or to Montreal going north) is possible. Sounds interesting. There's a lot of history in this pipeline. Below is a very crude map, provided by PMPL, of the route the pipeline takes:

Thank you, BG, for the information.

Technorati tags: Portland+Montreal+Pipe+Line+Corporation crude+oil
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Wal-Mart and the Battle of Vermont - The Boston Globe

A mask from the Bread and Puppet Museum, Glover.

Wal-Mart and the Battle of Vermont - The Boston Globe

Half the play is set in 2037, when only armed guerrillas from Vermont, led by dictators Ben and Jerry, are opposing the Wal-Martification of the United States. Instead of teaching children to watch television at School-Mart, a rebellious Vermont teacher instructs his charges how to make puppets, and so on.

I got a kick out of the reference to the Bread and Puppet. A few details of the history of Walmart in Vermont are wrong but it's interesting. Some folks are trying to get a Walmart into Derby so that we can get our underwear locally instead of in New Hampshire or Quebec.

It would be a crime for them to succeed. Why? Read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Technorati tags: Walmart Derby+Vermont Bread+and+Butter
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Keep The Leaders In

New Zealand cartoons by Garrick Tremain, Tom Scott, Murray Webb and Jim Hubbard on Stuff.co.nz

For Robyn and all the other Australians.
I found the link to this delight on WebWeaver's World in the comment by Johnny-johnny.

Technorati tags: Tom+Scott Australia cartoon APEC
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VDB: Why Does George W. Bush Really Fear Vermont?

Vermont Daily Briefing: Why Does George W. Bush Really Fear VT? Let VDB Count The Ways

also

Seven Days Blogs: Freyne Land: Vermont Gets Noticed...Again "He's sure saved a doozy for last."

technorati tags: George+Bush, Vermont

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The Rev. Chuck Currie: High Point Church: Only Buries Non-Gays

The Rev. Chuck Currie: High Point Church: Only Buries Non-Gays

Also, please read "What Happened to 'Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged?'" from Street Prophets blog.

Rev. Currie provides a link so that you can e-mail the church and request that they re-consider this horrendous action. I did:

I am so dismayed by the actions your church took on the memorial service for Mr. Sinclair. Above all else, Christ wanted us to love each other. He commanded it. Yet more and more in this country and in parts of the world, there is hostility, hatred and judgement.

Please please reconsider for the sake of the family that is suffering so deeply now. Mr. Sinclair was a child of God and deserves our love.

Technorati tags: LGBT faith religion

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Hiroshima Day

Ben of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream
and of True Majority Action.org

The movie opens in a new window. Just close the
movie window when you are done so that you can return here.

In honor of Hiroshima Day, we'd like to take a minute to reflect on just how absurd it is for America to maintain 10,000 nuclear bombs. Defense experts say that many simply aren't needed, and by reducing the nuclear arsenal our country could save $14 billion dollars -- more than enough to save the lives of six million kids who die of starvation in impoverished nations each year.

Technorati tags: True+Majority.org Ben Ben+&+Jerry's Hiroshima+Day

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Island Writer - Journal - - Dear Mr. President

Island Writer - Journal - - Dear Mr. President

Please please go watch this video that Island Writer has posted.

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