Fireroast Mountain Cafe in Minneapolis

http://www.fireroastmountaincafe.com/


I stumbled upon this little cafe in south Minneapolis today as I was delivering "Vote YES for Kids!" lawn signs in that neighborhood. It was very opportune, as I was extremely hungry and ready for a cozy place to sit and have a hearty lunch. This cafe is not only adorable, but also they've got great food, much of it organic, and books and other amusements. I snagged a paperback John Grisham novel to gear me up for a little work on my law school applications -- nothing like a little inspiration! I highly recommend you check this place out if you're in the area.

Strong Schools Referendum on KARE11

This is a great spot on the referendum -- Courtney does a fantastic job getting the message out, and the classroom scenes are adorable! VOTE YES! And, hey, why not VOTE TODAY at your city hall!

A Tribute to Paul Wellstone

Tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of Paul Wellstone's death. This day always brings a certain sadness and a sense of great loss to my mind, but his memory and everything he stood for gives me hope. I see that reflected in Barack Obama -- our future president! Let's win this for Paul!

Michelle Bachman incites Powell's endorsement of Obama

Ok, it wasn't ALL her -- but note the reference to a crazy republican in Minnesota -- that's GOT to be Bachman he's talking about!

Letter from Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for 'The Vagina Monologues', wrote the following about Sarah Palin:


Drill, Drill, Drill


I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.


I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.


But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.


I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.


Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'


Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will
should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.


She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.


Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking.

From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.


Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.


Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when
war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.


I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.


If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.


Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?


Eve Ensler
September 5,
2008

Wendell Berry article from Harpers

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082022

At last, the full text of the article is now available for free online! "Faustian Economics" is a marvelous essay -- classic material from W.B. As always, it's about far more than it's title encompasses.

This man will save the world!

Did I mention he also invented the Segway? (Ok, not a "world saving" device by comparison, but instigator of hilarious comedy [see also, "Arrested Development"].)

It's funny because it's true...

Obama Leads in... Soda?

At www.campaigncola.com you can vote with your wallet, and land some tasty, "micro-brewed" soda pop (or just plain "coke" if you're from the south). Best part, it's made with pure cane sugar, none of that factory farm byproduct high fructose corn syrup. Oh, and Obama is wayyyy ahead. Psst... my birthday's coming up, ya'll!

Indecision 2008: The Update

As you may recall, I had been trying to make a big decision about my future recently. I was debating about taking a another volunteer position, this time with the Lutheran or Jesuit Volunteer Corps. As some of you already know, I have decided not to take either position, and I may not be going to San Francisco after all. What I have decided is that I'm going to take a much needed break after the completion of my VISTA year on August 10 (36 days to go... but who's counting?). I'm going to spend at least a month working on my law school applications and figuring out what I'm going to do for the remaining time I have before I start law school next fall. So, that means I'll be in the Twin Cities between at least the month of August and the end of September. From there, who knows? Maybe San Francisco, maybe Minneapolis, maybe some other totally random location. As long as I can get a job and an affordable place to live and be around friends (or people who would fast become my friends), anyplace sounds good to me.

Also, I got my LSAT scores back... I won't say what I got, but I will say that it's ok. Not great, but ok. I'm thinking about shelling out (or, rather, letting my mom shell out) several hundred dollars for a prep course this fall so that I can retake the LSAT in October and raise my score. I guess if I do that, I'll definitely be staying in the Twin Cities through October, so I don't know. It also seems kind of silly to me to spend that kind of money on preparing for an exam that I've already taken and done well enough on. I mean, the point of trying to get a better score would be to try to get into a more "elite" school, which is really about making more money when I get out of law school, which is fine but sort of conflicts with my ideas about "living simply" and my sense of class consciousness. The point of going to law school is not about walking away with some elite credentials to blow away prospective employers; the point is to learn the law so I can serve the under-served. Not to mention the inherit disparity in a system that rewards people who can afford to attend expensive preparatory classes to improve their scores on high stakes exams. Is this a system I want to perpetuate? On the other hand, maybe this is an opportunity to fight the system from within. I take the course, I score better, I get into a "better" school, and my enhanced credentials improve my credibility as I argue for social justice. That would be money well spent. After all, I just let my mom shell out $1500 to fix my car, which only serves me and my work site, and leaves me with a gargantuan environmental footprint (not to mention my gas expenses). And, there's one other minor detail: do I even want to take this course? It's going to be hard. Each classroom session is four hours long, adding up to 80 classroom hours in only a handful of weeks. Sheesh. Well, maybe it's good to prime the pump a little before law school -- see if I can still hack the academic rigor...

Stay tuned as Indecision 2008 continues...

Amy Sedaris + Bunnies = Love!

See Amy Sedaris and Office 2007 in Rabbit Rescue

This is actually a commercial for Microsoft Office, but it is adorable nonetheless. Kudos to Microsoft for making a truly great product -- this video!

Indecision 2008: What's Next for Ms. Kay-Z???

As some of you know, my current job is set to expire officially in mid-August, at which point I will have to find gainful employment (or gainful free-loading) elsewhere. What's the plan? Well, I don't rightly know, but I'm investigating a few options:

Plan A: Service Corps job with the Lutheran Volunteer Service or the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Basically, this would be very similar to what I've been doing, only I'd be doing it while living in a intentional community based on Lutheran or Jesuit spirituality (depending on which program I get accepted into). What's the upshot? I can live and eat in San Francisco for FREE! And, if I get my first choice job placement I could be working in legal aid, which might even help me get into law school next fall. Plus, it fits perfectly into the academic year, freeing me up to start law school in '09.

Plan B: Farm internship in California. A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the porch at WEI, drinking a beer and watching the clouds in the east turn from white to pink to grey as the sun set behind me and the songbirds sang their final notes and the bats began their noiseless insect hunt in the hastening twilight of evening, and I thought to myself, "damn, I love this." What more could I possibly want? So, I'm looking into doing another farm internship, this time in California, as close to San Francisco as possible. I might not be able to start work until next spring, but I could take a few months off to be a freeloader at home, which would give me a chance to study for the LSATs, work on law school applications and scholarship applications, and just generally reflect on my life. There's nothing sexy about living at home, or spending another winter in Minnesota, but still I'm liking this plan more and more -- I'm tempted to call this Plan A.

Plan C: Get a regular job in San Francisco. (See a theme? Yeah, I really want to go to San Francisco. Maybe I'll change my mind after I visit SF next week... but, I doubt it.) I'm considering a job as a campus organizer or administrator with U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). It's 40 hours a week, decent pay, an option to buy into their health insurance plan, and it's only for the academic year. I'm not sure I'm crazy about another community organizer job, but I'd be working on college campuses with people who are mostly my peers (read: potential friends -- omg, I could have friend again! and, a social life! wow.) And, I have lots of experience, and I'd probably be good at it. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I sort of like this. I'm anxious about not having the chance to play in the dirt for a whole year, but maybe I could volunteer somewhere, or I'm sure they have community gardens in SF, right??? If I can't get the PIRG job, there are lots of other food service or administrative assistant type jobs, the type that wouldn't make me ecstatically happy, but that wouldn't suck up all my energy for living, either.

Other ideas...
- I applied for a VISTA Leader job in St. Paul, and they offered me the position, and I haven't officially turned them down yet, but I think I'm probably going to. When I applied, I was thinking it would be sort of a "backup" option. First obvious flaw -- not in SF. Second, it only pays $1100 a month, and I'd basically be doing what I'm already doing (and I'm not real fond of that anymore). It was a confidence-booster, though, to get the job offer, but now I feel lousy for having to say "no thanks."
- Living at home at temping. The living-at-home part is loathsome, and doing temp jobs would probably be loathsome, too, but there's nothing like the offer of free room and board, and let's face it, I really like the T. C. I could do a lot of volunteering with my favorite orgs, like LSP, IATP, WEI, RTC, and that would more than make up for having a crappy part time job, and it might even make up for indignity of moving back with my mom... maybe. (Nothing personal, Mom. I love you. But, I'm turning 25 in August, and that's just embarrassing.) I also had this harebrained idea that I could spend more time on my fiber arts hobby, spin more, design some patterns, set up an Etsy.com store... A lady can dream, right? Well, probably this is what I would be doing during the winter if I go with Plan B, anyway.

So, there you go. There are pros and cons to all my plans, and I have to admit that I'm not really in control of what happens next. A lot of things will have to fall in place if any of my plans are to work out. C'est la vie.

Agriculture Bridge

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Wish this could have been around when I was a student! This short video talks about a new program linking agricultural researchers in the field with students to disseminate information about sustainable agriculture and encourage collaboration. Cool!

Spotlight on Lighthouse Farm

I received a lovely email from Lighthouse Farm in Princeton, MN updating me on spring happenings on the Mesko family's farm. They recently purchased two milk cows which they intend to milk by hand (I presume primarily for the family's consumption). One of the cows, Valery, has a damaged utter from when she slipped and fell at the commercial dairy from which she was sold. She could no longer be milked on commercial milking machinery, so they were going to send poor Valery to slaughter! Instead, the Mesko's are nursing her back to health, taking her off her diet of corn and putting her on a more natural diet of 100% grass, and they are still getting plenty of milk by milking her by hand. This is something that could only happen on a small family farm, and it is just a wonderful example of the kind of compassion that small family farms engender. (The photo above shows Valery -- on the left -- being milked.)

Please check out their website: www.lighthousefarm.com

Recession Impacts Americans, While Oil Companies Make Off Like Bandits!

Since 2001, the top five oil companies have increased their annual profits by an average of 500%!!!

Here are some good tips from the OCA on how to increase your vehicle's fuel efficiency:

1. Don't be a jerky driver: Jumpy starts and fast getaways can burn over 50 percent more gasoline than normal acceleration. Use cruise control once accelerated. (And, let's be honest, slamming on the gas doesn't really get you there any faster!)
2. Drive slower: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most automobiles get about 20 percent more miles per gallon on the highway at 55 miles per hour than they do at 70 miles per hour.
3. A well maintained car (oil change, fuel filters, tire pressure, alignment) gets an average of 10 percent better fuel efficiency.
4. Turn off your engine if you stop for more than one minute. (This does not apply if you are in traffic.) Restarting the automobile will use less gasoline than idling for more than one minute. (That's one I never knew -- I always thought it would be better to let the car idle...)
5. Decrease the number of short trips you make. Short trips drastically reduce gas mileage. If an automobile gets 20 miles per gallon in general, it may get only 4 miles per gallon on a short trip of 5 miles or less.

OCA Guide to Bodycare Products

When it comes to organics, what you put ON your body is just as important as what you put IN your body. (Remember, your body's largest organ is your skin!) Unfortunately, deciphering labels on body care products is much more difficult than reading food labels, and with all the strange chemical names it's difficult to keep straight what's safe and what's not. The Environmental Working Group has an excellent website that lists hundreds of brand-name products and rates them for safety, but when you're out shopping you can't exactly access that information. So, I was pleased to discover that the Organic Consumers' Association (OCA) has a one-page fact sheet to help customers figure out what to steer clear from. Next time I go shopping, I'll be sure to print this out and bring it with me. It's not just about your health, it's also about the environmental impact of chemical intensive farming to produce the "herbal extracts" that go into supposedly natural body care products.

Environmental Working Group website: www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

OCA's fact sheet on body care: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/CCad05.pdf

US Government Subsidizing GMO Corn in Minnesota

The federal government has struck a deal with the Monsanto Corporation, and for the first time in history, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is endorsing a specific company's seeds. In fact, U.S. farmers in four states, including Minnesota, will be given taxpayer subsidized price breaks on insurance premiums if they buy Monsanto's genetically engineered corn this year as opposed to other biotech, conventional, or organic seeds. According to Monsanto's New Business Development Manager, Tim Hennessy, the federal government's new openness to promoting and advertising Monsanto "opens the door for a lot of future opportunity". Learn more and take action: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11198.cfm

Racism and Politics -- an interesting new perspective...

I just finished reading this article in the New York Times Magazine:

"What's the Real Racial Divide?" by Matt Bai

Here's an interesting quote from the article:

"As Erica Goode wrote in these pages last year, Robert Putnam and other sociologists have, in fact, found that people living in more diverse areas evince less trust for others — no matter what their race."

What do you think?

My two cents: Since I've been living in rural areas for a while, I've begun to notice that for most folks out here, racial diversity is pure abstraction. I can sort of see how (were they inclined to vote Democratic, which most around these parts are not) they would vote for Obama irrespective of his race since race has little relevance to them. I wouldn't say this makes them less racist, or xenophobic. It's not uncommon to hear a rural person make a statement like "Africans are so violent" or "it's those Asians that are the problem at the farmers markets," but for them these seem like obvious statements that come more from lack of experience than animosity.

And, having lived in a very racially diverse city in France, I can also see the perspective of urbanites inclined toward racist thoughts and behaviors. Perhaps it's just human nature to scapegoat the racial or ethnic "Other" when resources are limited or scarce.

I'd love to get your comments on this interesting article!

Local Foods Website

I just discovered a new source of information about finding locally produced foods in Minnesota! It's call the Local Foods Partnership and it appears to be a project of the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships which is part of the U of MN. You can find all different kinds of products and it also links to the Buy Fresh Buy Local chapters. And, it's searchable!

Go to http://www.localfoods.umn.edu

Oprah Hosts Eckhart Tolle in Online Webcast

I recently read Eckhart Tolle's (pronounced TOLL-eh) popular book The Power of Now which has sparked a process of re-awakening to my spiritual journey. So, I was excited, and a bit surprised when I discovered that Oprah selected Tolle's newest book A New Earth for her book club. Not only that, she is also hosting Tolle on her website for a series of interactive webcasts to be held every Monday evening for 10 weeks. I missed the first live broadcast, but I was able to watch it on Oprah's website, and I found that I really enjoyed it. I don't think any of the ideas expressed during the webcast were particularly original, but Oprah and the audience tended to ask very practical questions that helped my own understanding of the concepts Tolle talks about in his books. Many of the questions were about how to fit Tolle's ideas into a more traditional Christian framework, which for me was useful in thinking about how to translate these spiritual and philosophical ideas into concepts that can be more easily understood by friends and family with more traditional religious backgrounds.

I'll be watching the next webcast TONIGHT at 8pm central. If you want to join me, you'll want to be logged in by around 7:40pm central. To participate, go to Oprah's Bookclub Website: http://event.oprah.com/videochannel/event/event_landing_2.html