These Things Are Clues

The sun is rising a bit south of due east and setting slightly to the south of due west. More and more deer are showing up close to the house. Jars of tomato sauce and jelly are piling up on my kitchen counters. Black walnuts are crashing down all around. And the sidewalk is covered with hickory nut husks. Think it's the end of summer?

I'm kind of in denial 'cause there's so much to do. Clean the chicken coop and add straw. Turn compost and add horse manure. Raise the beehive up off the ground and replace the rotting bottom board. See if they have enough honey for the winter and offer them a shallow super to fill with goldenrod honey for me. Find a way to stop the roof leak over the tool room. Spread the woodchips around the fruit trees and on the woodland garden path. Dig the Gladiolus bulbs. Put fencing around the shrubs that deer are likely to eat. Move the firewood into the shed. Tractor engine maintenance and replacing the mower deck with the snowblower. Oh,dear. I just can't think that far ahead. I know it's going to be a long, lovely autumn.

Obama and the Media

I wish news coverage of Barack Obama's speech in Iowa focused on what he said and not on speculation about his 2008 candidacy. And I wish that more reporters had actually heard the speech. The speech was televised. You can see it here. (Fast forward to about 23 minutes to hear the section quoted below.) How hard would it be to write an original article about it? Yet dozens of newspapers and TV and radio stations carried the AP story with the headline "Dems Need Tough Security Stance" and the quote "What Democrats have to do is to close the deal." And dozens more carried the Chicago Tribune article with the headline, "Obama greeted like a rock star in Iowa" ('though the Tribune's headline was "Iowa Democrats see contender in Obama.")

The New York Times at least picked up the line that caught my attention. Obama says, "I don’t think that George Bush is a bad man.” He goes on to say that Bush and Republicans "believe in different things” and to underscore the party’s agenda by explaining the variety of ways Americans have “had enough” of Republican and Bush administration policies.

(cross posted at Dryden Democrats)

Had Enough?

In case you don't have time to listen to Barack Obama, here's part of the speech:

I don’t think George Bush is a bad man. I don’t. I think George Bush wants to do right by America. I think he’s a patriotic person. I don’t think the people who work for him are stupid people. I think a lot of them are smart - in their own way. I think the problem is that they’ve got a different idea of America than we’ve got. They believe in different things.

They have a sense that, in fact, Government is the problem, not the solution. And that if we just dismantle government piece by piece, if we break it up in tax cuts to the wealthy and if we make sure we privatize social security and we get rid of public schools and we make sure that we don’t have police on the streets, we have private security guards and we don’t have public parks, we’ve got private parks, if we just break everything up that, in fact, everybody’s going to be better off. That we don’t have obligations to each other, that we’re not in it together but, instead, you’re on your own. That’s the basic concept behind the ownership society. That’s what George Bush and this Republican Congress have been arguing for, for the last six years. And it’s a tempting idea. Because it doesn’t require anything from each of us. It’s very easy for us to say that I’m going to think selfishly only about myself.

That I don’t have to worry about the fact that 46 million people don’t have health insurance. I don’t have to make any effort to deal with the fact that our children don’t have opportunity to go to college because student loans have been cut. I don’t have to worry about the guy just who lost his job after working 30 years in a plant because his plant’s moved to Mexico or out to China, despite the fact that he has been producing profits on behalf of that company this whole time and he’s lost his health care and he’s lost his pension as a consequence. I don’t have to worry about those things.

But here’s the problem. The problem is that that idea won’t work. Because despite the much vaunted individual initiative and self reliance that has been at the essence of the American Dream the fact of the matter is that there’s always been this other idea of America. This idea that says we have a stake in each other. That I am my brother’s keeper. That I am my sister’s keeper. That I’ve got an obligation. Not just for my self, not just for my family, but also for you. That every child is my child and every senior citizen deserves
protection.

That simple notion is one that we understand in our churches, in our synagogues, in our mosques. It’s an idea we understand in our own families, in our own blocks, in our workplaces. But it also has to reflect itself in our government.

You know, nobody here expects government to solve all our problems for us. We don’t want government to solve our problems. What we do expect is that government can help. The government can make a
difference in all of our lives. And that is essentially the battle that we’re going to be fighting in this election. It is a battle about education, it is a battle about health care. It is a battle about energy. But it is also a battle about what America is going to be about, America’s future, about how we relate to each other and how we understand our place in this world.

Now the fact is, if you look at the record of the last six years, we shouldn’t have a problem in this election. I know, Tom, you wouldn’t normally hear this quoted at one of your steak fries. But, you know, the other day I heard Newt Gingrich speak. I don’t normally quote Newt Gingrich – at least at Democratic events. But I’ve gotta say Newt caught my attention. ‘cause folks were asking him, you know, given all the problems Republicans have had managing the country, managing the economy, managing the war in Iraq, what do you thinks going to happen in this election? And Newt Gingrich said to the commenter, “If I was advising the Democrats, I gotta admit I would just use two words to campaign.” And the reporter said “What are the two words?” and he said “Had enough.”

Had enough! And I don’t know about you. But I think old Newt’s on to something. Because I’ve had enough…

Of Drug companies writing the prescription plan….
Of Oil companies writing the energy bill…
Of A Bill like no child left behind that left the money behind…
Of a do nothing, not even trying, effort to deal with the health care crisis that every single American is affected by…

And let me tell you something else I’ve had enough of. I’ve had enough of using terrorism as a wedge issue in our politics. I’ve had enough of that.

Cross posted at Dryden Democrats

Constitution Day

It's Constitution Day again. Thanks to Senator Byrd's 2004 amendment to a spending bill, Constitution Day is an educational event. So, some celebration events will be held on Monday - including the reading of the Preamble by Colin Powell - at 2:00 PM EDT.

We The People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I don't really understand the pledge of allegiance. But I do understand the preamble (with the possible exception of the word "ordain") and I wish this was the thing we say in public to declare our loyalty. For one think, it starts with "We" instead of "I." Can't you just imagine standing up at a football game and saying "We the people..." Wouldn't you like to hear the US House of Representatives start each day's business with "We the people.." Wouldn't it be good in both these situations to emphasize that we're all in this together - we're all trying to solve the same problems?

Last year I wrote about C-SPAN coverage of the Constitution. Whatever criticism I may have of cable/satellite TV, I thank the industry for creating and funding C-SPAN. I wish there were more commercial-free channels carrying similar quality educational programming in other topics. There's PBS. And The History Channel and The Discovery Channel with commercials. Why no special channel for literature? Think of the possibilities.

But I, for one, would like to see a channel about logic, ethics and semantics. This would add up to an exercise in clear thinking. I'd be the first to admit I could use some practice. And I think there are lots of people who need it more than I do. And I think that, on the imaginary level playing field, people with knowledge and skills in logic, ethics and semantics have a huge advantage. On the other hand, it would take me a long time to prove that.

Friday Cat Blogging

For years, the cats have feigned disinterest in the goldfish. They drink from the goldfish tub apparently unaware of the fish. The fish, on the other hand have been openly curious about the cats, particularly their tongues. But lately Magda's adopted this Snoopy vulture pose. She sometimes makes a swipe at the water resulting in a wet paw and sometimes motivating that quick fishy maneuver that splashes a half a cup of water on the innocent bystander - usually me, not Magda.

Every other day or so one of the eggs is a regular large size rather than the mini pullet size. I thought it was just that one of the hens was bigger. But it turns out that the larger ones are double yolk. Two of the three eggs I broke this morning were twins.

Apples and Clouds

If you're thinking of adding a crabapple to your landscape, look for a Dolgo crabapple. The apples are an inch or more in diameter and intensely flavored. We picked a couple of bushels yesterday. I'm going to use some for applesauce. Bill's making jelly. But the bulk of them are going to Greg for cider!

These are the kind of clouds you usually only see from the window of an airplane. But yesterday they were rushing by to the north accompanied by some pretty serious thunder.
We never got more than a few big drops of rain, but the clouds were great to watch.

Weekend Events

This just in from my sister: WNGD. Saturday is World Naked Gardening Day. I've always been glad I live where I can make clothing optional in my yard. It's going to be harder for my sister in suburban New Jersey, but her garden has some secluded areas, too.

Here in Tompkins County, Saturday is the day for the Freeville Harvest Festival and the Ellis Hollow Fair. The Freeville Harvest Festival, 9:00 - 4:00 will have lots of activities for kids. The Ellis Hollow Fair, noon 'til 4:00, is well-known for its pies. I like it for the used book sale and flea market.

[Ed 9/7/06. Thanks for the reminder,Dave. The 16th Annual Etna Commuinity Yard Sale will be going on Saturday from 9:00 'til noon at Houtz Hall.

Note that breakfast sausage and eggs will be available all day at the Freeville Festival in addition to chicken Barbecue after 11:00AM. An Auction is scheduled for 11:30 as well as White Elephant Sale, Farmer's Market and Bake Sale.

Also consider taking a look at the renovations to the Dryden, Freeville and Cassavant Elementary schools with the Community Walk-Through at all three schools Tuesday, September 12 4:00 - 8:00PM.]

Book TV

CSPAN's Book TV was a goldmine last night. Ron Suskind is an incredible speaker as well as an outstanding writer. New York Times Book Review says Suskind's book, The One Percent Doctrine "...sheds new light on the Bush White House's strategic thinking and its doctrine of pre-emptive action." Talking about the book, Suskind describes both chilling terrorist scenarios and the bizarre responses to them from the White House. I'm rushing right out to buy the book, not only for the topic, but because I remember the excellent writing in his last book The Price of Loyalty.

Next was First Sergeant Daniel Hendrex's book, A Soldier's Promise. Hendrex describes the events surrounding the appearance of an Iraqi boy at Dragon Troop's headquarters on the Syrian border. The boy was asking to be arrested and claimed to have information about insurgents, including his father. At first, officers doubted they could use the boy's information. But his information proved true and extraordinarily helpful in targeting insurgents. Americans questioned the boy's motivation 'til he told them about the day his father laughingly showed him a picture of a badly beaten man, a local shopkeeper. His father said "This is what happens to people who help Americans." The boy questioned why his father had told him that Americans were bad because they hurt and kill Muslims and couldn't reconcile why his father was laughing and proud of having beaten this Muslim man. You have to wonder where a child got moral logic like that.

I watched Michelle Malkin for a while just because it's so astonishing to see how nasty she is while whining that people who don't like her are racist.

Vali Nasr, talked about his book, The Shia Revival, and about Iran's role in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

And Stephen Kinzer in his book, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq acknowledges that regime change is sometimes necessary and describes how badly it turns out for both the country where regime change takes place and for the United States manipulating the regime change.

Incidentally, Book TV page has a link to President Bush's Summer Reading List, Provided by the White House Press Office. No kidding. Take a look.

Bill in India

This is my friend, Bill Dilger, in India during World War II. Last year I posted a picture of a Myna bird Bill painted while he was in India. Maybe he wasn't the only person who carried watercolors in his knapsack throughout the war, but I'll bet there weren't many. Charles Lowe, who left a comment yesterday, served with Bill in India. Charles, I know Bill would love to hear from you. He doesn't have email - doesn't even have a computer. But please email me (FiveWells at aol dot com) and I'll put you in touch.

New in the Garden

The tomato plant labels have long since been obscured by the tomato plants themselves. So I was surprised by these pale tomatoes at the end of the row. They're Snow White cherry tomatoes. I remember getting the seed as a bonus sample with something I ordered last year. I'm glad I had room to try them this year. They're very juicy, kind of sweet and, face it, the color looks nice in a mix. The orange tomatoes on the left in this picture are Sun Gold, our standby cherry tomato. And the darker red ones on the right are Sweet Millions.

I'm often surprised by plants Bill gave me years ago. He brings me treasures when I'm too busy to think about them and I stick them in the garden wherever I can. Labels get lost. Growth happens. Years later, voila, I'm asking, "Bill, what is this?" This is Scilla chinensis. I have no recollection of planting it. Actually I only vaguely remember ever seeing it before. But it's a nice touch at this time of year.

Kathy Purdy, at Cold Climate Gardening, has been summarizing responses to a series of questions she asked to celebrate the fourth year anniversary of her blog. What do you think has caused the proliferation of garden blogs in the last year? I know that for years I wondered why there were so few gardening blogs. Anyway, I'm glad there are lots now. And thanks to Kathy for keeping up a Garden Blog Directory.

Cowboys

Time's cover article a few weeks ago was The End of Cowboy Diplomacy. And more recently a reader wrote to the editor to complain:

"Using the word cowboy as a term of derision is insulting to most Americans. Cowboys have always been the good guys, no matter what the European press or some folks on the East coast of the U.S. may think."

Is this the latest in PC-ness? I don't read the word "cowboy" as derisive. It has a specific meaning - a loner with a certain lack of regard for rules. American Heritage says: "An adventurous hero. A reckless person who ignores potential risks."

On the other hand, in the August 7 issue, a Time interviewer said to Willie Nelson: "The Dixie Chicks got in trouble for their views on the President, but your politics are pretty liberal too. Nelson's reply:

"I'm surprised I didn't get in trouble a year before that when I was at a press conference overseas and they were asking me about our wild Texas cowboy President. I said 'He's not from Texas and he ain't a cowboy, so let's stop trashin' Texans and cowboys."

"Wild Texas cowboy" could go either way. If you're talking about, you know, a cowboy from Texas, it sounds vaguely admiring. If you're talking about the President of the United States it would sound inappropriate except that it is an image Bush has cultivated. East coast stuffed shirt that I am, I'm glad it's being toned down.

In the meantime, I think we could be more careful with the literal meanings of words, less quick to attribute unintended judgements.

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that the hens have started laying eggs. Seven lovely, tiny little eggs - one and a half ounces each.

The bad news is that the evil
rooster really nailed me yesterday. I thought I was winning by keeping a sharp eye out for him but I had to laugh when I went out yesterday and realized I was sneaking out the side door, tiptoeing and looking over my shoulder. When I got home I was keeping an eye on him. He was twenty or thirty feet away as I got out of the car. Being cautious, I went around to the passenger side, putting the car between me and him. I looked away from him for a second to reach in and get my things out of the car and WHAM! He hit my shin with his spur. I'm really limping today. But wait. There's still good news. The evil rooster is now in rooster-jail.

And in further good news, the garden is just bursting with goodness. Yet more blueberries - three pints. About a pound a day of pole beans. Damn, I forgot to put them in the picture and they're really gorgeous. Another quart of cherry tomatoes, half a dozen paste tomatoes and a couple of slicing tomatoes. A pile of cucumbers - I guess I'll have to make some relish. Three summer squash. I don't know what's going to become of them. And these amazing carrots. In May I saw a magazine article with a beautiful photo of various colored carrots. I was inspired and ran out to buy seed. These are, Purple Haze, Danvers and Yellowstone. I wonder if they'll taste as distinctive as they look.

Crop Circles

This isn't a digital graphic design. It's a photograph. It's an aerial photo of Oregon farmland. I don't fly very often, but I remember being amazed by this geometric view from the air more than twenty years ago.

I found the photo on Earth & Sky's Human World page. It links to Robert Anex's description of the impact of agriculture on the earth. Anex says that while cities, roads, dams and such cover 1% of the earth total land area, cropland and pasture cover 40%. In Iowa, where Anex lives, 89% of the land surface is farmland. The impact of deforestation and increased nitrogen fixation and release of methane is undeniable. Anex says he is "cautiously optimistic that we CAN maintain agricultural production while improving the environment." I'm more cautions than optimistic.

Harvest

This is the really rewarding part of vegetable gardening. What you can't really see under those beans and cucumbers are three pints of blueberries. We have five bearing blueberry bushes and we've been picking blueberries for a month now. I have ten pounds in the freezer and we've had many desserts and unlimited breakfasts with blueberries. If you don't have blueberries in your garden yet, get some. If you don't have room in the vegetable garden, find a place in the landscape for them. They're very attractive shrubs - lovely in bloom and great fall color.

I put in these ten foot bean poles for kind of a Jack in the Beanstalk effect. I can barely reach the beans at the top even with the ladder. I garden in raised beds and pole beans rule for yield in a small space. The quantity of beans has surpassed my ability to eat them daily, so I've got to find room in the freezer for some.

For pounds per square foot, it's a close race between beans and tomatoes. I had the first tomato sandwich of the season last night. Tomato sandwiches always remind me of grad school. At lunch seminars everyone else had those pathetic sandwiches from the machines while I was slurping on these juicy, fragrant garden fresh tomato sandwiches. Here are the ripening Big Boys for sandwiches and San Marzanos for sauce. We are also growing heritage Brandywine and Oxhearts, Classica paste tomatoes, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes and Sweet Million red cherry tomatoes.

Maggy Has a Very Bad Day and Lives to Laugh About It

It's a sad day that goes by without at least one thought worth writing down. And it looks like I've had quite a few lately. But my quiet days are a blessing compared to Maggy's bad day. Note that #7 of the nine bad things that happened that day was getting hit by a cab. And it gets no more emphasis in the bad day story than the bad hair and new office phone system. At the time she didn't think she was hurt enough to see a doctor, but, of course, when her body had time to think it over it rebelled and her leg and hip are giving her a pretty bad time now.

So I was delighted to see her sense of humor return in her blog post this morning. In case you have a slow dial-up connection like mine and are not inclined to click on links, I'm going to cut and paste here 'cause this made me laugh out loud and it may brighten your day too:

"So, I had to get into work early this morning. Not too much of a problem (aside from the fact that the mouse family gets annoyed when I get up early, apparently). I throw together an outfit, I hop on the subway. I hobble to work. I greet our speakers, take them to the meeting and decide to reward myself with a super coffee from Starbucks. You know, the EXTRA caffeinated kind, because I need it.

So I order my grande iced vanilla latte, light ice, light vanilla and then I realize I can't remember how to ask for the extra shots of espresso that make it extra caffeinated.

And I say, "Also I need the thing, you know the stuff with the extra, the thing that makes it more, the caffeine is more inside, the thing that makes it more awake for me?"

I kid you not, the entire Starbucks stopped. [ed. I'm trying to imagine how loud and desperate she may have sounded at this point.] And I said "You know? The thing?" And they all laughed. I think they may actually rename the extra shot "The thing that makes it more awake for me."

The bright side of this is, I got a triple shot of espresso for free. But it's only 9 am, and I'm not sure how long that will last..."

Prudhoe Bay

CNN reports:

Gov. Frank Murkowski imposed a state hiring freeze Wednesday because of the millions of dollars in revenue Alaska is losing as a result of the Prudhoe Bay oil field shutdown...The expected loss of 400,000 barrels per day at today's oil prices means the state is losing about $6.4 million a day in royalties and taxes...The state receives 89 percent of its income from oil revenue; Alaska has no state sales tax and no personal income tax.

This is an interesting way to have people, not just across the country, but around the world fund Alaska's infrastructure and services. Oil companies are paying $2.8 billion in royalties and taxes to Alaska which, of course, is passed on to consumers. (Incidentally, the next largest portion of Alaska's revenue is the tax on alcohol and cigarettes, followed by the tax on salmon and seafood.)

"Murkowski questioned why BP abruptly shut down the entire Prudhoe Bay field after finding a leak of only four to five barrels." The better question is why it wasn't shut down in March following a spill of 6,400 barrels (more than 200,000 gallons). Anchorage News. Quatar

According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Protection (there's an agency with a tough job) there were an average of 409 spills per year in Prudhoe Bay between 1996 and 1999. Trustees for Alaska reports that nitrogen oxide emissions from Prudhoe Bay oilfields were more than 70,000 tons in one year (June 1994 to June 1995), twice the total emitted in Washington D.C and exceeding all other Alaska sources combined by more than 20,000 tons.

I'd like to think that this evidence of destruction in Prudhoe Bay will strengthen our resolve to preserve ANWR. But I fear the shutdown in Prudhoe Bay will increase calls to open ANWR, although exploration in ANWR will do nothing to ease the crisis caused by the shutdown of Prudhoe Bay.

Iridescent Clouds

Late this afternoon, we saw this incredible cloud. The photo on the left is unedited.

Adjusting the light levels makes it look like this:

The rainbow is in the cloud.

Belinda found a name and explanation for this and another photo at NASA.

"They're called iridescent clouds. A relatively rare phenomenon known as iridescent clouds can show unusual colors vividly or a whole spectrum of colors simultaneously. These clouds are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size. When the Sun is in the right position and mostly hidden by thick clouds, these thinner clouds significantly diffract sunlight in a nearly coherent manner, with different colors being deflected by different amounts. Therefore, different colors will come to the observer from slightly different directions."

I don't know how you feel about it, but I don't find this explanation really helping much. I guess it's the "nearly coherent manner" that's throwing me off. Luckily the NASA site has a link to this site at the University of Wisconsin. I was a little discouraged by the introduction:

"To understand this phenomenon let's review the four basic theories of light. Each theory was derived at a different point in time and each has its advantages and disadvantages. None of the theories are completely satisfactory in that they can easily explain all the behaviors of light."

The article goes on to describe The Corpuscular Theory of Light, The Wave Theory of Light, The Electromagnetic Theory of Light and The Quantum Theory of Light. It turns out that iridescent clouds are best explained using Wave Theory. This is good 'cause it's the only one of the four that I know anything about.

I understand constructive and destructive interference, when two wave lengths are in-phase or out-of-phase. And I remember diffraction from high school physics.

"To summarize--light bends around objects (diffraction), how much it bends depends on the wavelength, white light is composed of all colors and each color has a different wavelength and therefore is diffracted by a different amount. When the light from the sun interacts with cloud droplets diffraction occurs--the light bends around the edge of the cloud droplet. Different colors are diffracted by different amounts and are therefore in-phase (and out-of-phase) at different distances from the sun. The color bands result as different colors are removed from the sun's light due to destructive interference, while other colors are enforced due to constructive interference."

So, as I understand it, diffraction (different wavelengths bending differently) makes the colors visible and constructive interference (when are in sync) makes the colors bright. I might be able to repeat this explanation tomorrow, but I hope I don't have to actually explain it to anyone.

Friday Cat Blogging

I like to think everyone has a space in the house that is less well organized than they would like. This is one (of three) such spaces in my house - the place where I fail to file the mountains of reports I get from and for the Town Board. There's Tang in the back of the drawer that's never closed.

There is no Friday chicken blogging, but here they are anyway. Looks like they're waiting for the tea party to begin.

There's also no Friday garden blogging and there really should be. Here are my exuberant Glads, better this year than ever. That yellow one is over my head, as are the tomatoes in the background on the right. In fairness, I should say they have a six inch headstart in the raised beds.

Ask a Woman to Run for Office

When I ran for the Town Board last year, I was focused on becoming the only Democrat on the board. Halfway through the election when a newspaper reporter asked me what I thought about becoming the only woman on the Board, I was momentarily stumped. Here in the Ithaca area, we're a tad further along the road to enlightenment than some others places. Women's issues were not uppermost in my mind.

Recently Irene Stein, from the Tompkins County Democratic Committee, invited me to participate in Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Campaign School. I felt like I'd been invited by Eleanor Roosevelt herself and I jumped at the chance. We met tonight for introductions.

The training, designed by people at Emily's List, is designed to encourage pro-choice, Democratic women to run for office and win. Emily's list was started in the 1980s at which time no Democratic woman had ever been elected to the US Senate in her own right. EVER! In fact, of 1,889 people who have served in the US Senate since its inception in 1789, only 33 are women. Of 10,546 members of the House of Representatives, 203 are women.

Why so few? According to a Brown University study (pdf) "women are significantly less likely than men to view themselves as qualified to run for office. In addition, women are less likely than men to receive encouragement to run for office from party leaders, elected officials, and political activists."

Does it matter? Well, more than half of eligible voters in the US are women. 15% of the 109th Congress are women. Let's find out if women can make a difference. People at Emily's List and the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee are working hard to recruit qualified women and support their campaigns. If you're a woman, think about running for office. If not, donate to Emily's list and ask a woman you know to run.

Seriously, find out who your local, state and national representatives are and when their terms expire. If you need help with this, email me. Find your local Democratic Committee. Go to a town board, city council, county or state legislature meeting and see what they do. It's hard work but its not rocket science. So, run! Or help someone run. Really. We need you. Get going!

(Cross posted at Dryden Democrats )

That's the way it's supposed to work.

When Wal-Mart CEO, Lee Scott, speaks people listen. From Wal-Mart Facts:

“By working together, we can help each other save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pass the savings on to our customers. Sustainability is good for the environment, and it’s also good for business.”

I know. It may be a publicity thing. But I'm okay with that as long as it's producing results like this. Natural Resources Defense Council reports on Wal-Mart's plans to increase the efficiency of Wal-Mart's trucking fleet by 25 percent over the next three years and to double efficiency by 2015.

"...using more efficient tires, reducing drag by installing windshields and by narrowing the gap between cab and trailer, and offering incentives to drivers who follow fuel-saving acceleration techniques and drive at the most fuel-efficient speed (for large rigs, that's often just above 60 miles per hour). Improving Wal-Mart's fleet-wide efficiency by just a single mile per gallon could save the company $52 million a year."

Someone smarter than me can do the math and report how may gallons of diesel and tons of carbon that represents.

From the US Department of Energy: Wal-Mart Launches Second Energy-Saving Store in Colorado.

The new store, located in Aurora, Colorado, draws some of its power from a 50-kilowatt wind turbine, 134 kilowatts of solar power, and six 60-kilowatt gas-fired microturbines. The store also incorporates evaporative cooling with a low-flow displacement ventilation system. For heating, waste-oil boilers provide hot water for radiant floor heating, and a solar wall preheats ventilation air, reducing the store's use of natural gas for heating. The store's energy efficiency features include daylighting and a variety of energy-efficient electric lighting technologies.

And from Wal-Mart's own site:

"...by reducing the size of the cardboard packaging on just one line of our own-brand toys last summer, we saved more than 5,000 trees and 1,300 barrels of oil that would have gone into making the packaging."

Yes, green practices make good business sense. This is one issue where the private sector can easily get ahead of government regulation. If Wal-Mart's doing it, can others be far behind?