Palin Gets Stranger

I was extremely critical of Sarah Palin at the beginning of last September, but her resignation speech today makes me think I was too kind to her. That was one weird event, and the transcript only makes it stranger. Not sure I want to think anymore about it, except to wonder if any other young governors besides her and Mark Sanford are going to offer us a public meltdown this summer. What is it with these two? They make me wonder just how self-indulgent my generation has become.

“USDA Organic” is Not Organic

From today’s Washington Post piece about the USDA “Organic” label:

Under the original organics law, 5 percent of a USDA-certified organic product can consist of non-organic substances, provided they are approved by the National Organic Standards Board. That list has grown from 77 to 245 substances since it was created in 2002. Companies must appeal to the board every five years to keep a substance on the list, explaining why an organic alternative has not been found. The goal was to shrink the list over time, but only one item has been removed so far.

I don’t understand why such a list was authorized in the first place. One twentieth nonorganic taints the entire product. Sure, it might be “better than nothing,” but that should be for the consumer to decide. The organic label should mean more. Fortunately, there are other independent and state certifications, but I am having a hard time finding a guide that explains the differences.

One way around this is to get food locally and know how it is grown. Buying raw food and processing it yourself can also cut out whatever additives agribusiness lobbies sneak in under the cover of the USDA “Organic” label. It saves money too, making it so you don’t have to choose between quality and price, since most of the cost of food in the supermarket arises through food processing, packaging, and marketing.

Washington Post Selling Access?

I was startled by this morning’s lead story on Politico to the effect that The Washington Post was selling access to Obama officials in private gatherings at the publisher’s home. Before I go further, let me underline that this was a Post scheme, not an Obama administration one. That was never a question. What startled me was that the Post would not see the ethical conflict. I can’t find the original story on Politico, but the updated one shows that the Post has cancelled its planned “lobbyist event.” Good. Meanwhile, the Post’s Ombudsman is right to call this “a public relations disaster.”

This situation might be specific to the Post, since traditionally it has enjoyed excellent access with government officials; however, the story also underlines the financial troubles the newspaper is having. I’m just wondering how they thought these events would make up for the lost advertising revenue resulting from yet more cancelled subscriptions. I’ve already been wavering, because they have shrunk their comics beyond readability, and comics are the first thing I like to check out.

The Destruction of Stoddard Park

Across the street is Stoddard Park with woods on my end, a school, small recreation building, and playground in the middle, and a softball field on the other end. This park is the heart and sole of the community. In the early morning there are the dogs. Sometimes near dusk too. During the day there are the softball games. There are also children who use the playground and people who lay around and sunbathe or picnic. In other seasons there are little kids learning soccer or bigger ones playing football. People sometimes wander through the woods too, and I have seen deer there. But no more.

In its infinite wisdom, the city has decided to block off all the park and most of the woods in order to build a big recreation center that this privileged neighborhood does not need. Besides, there is already a big recreation center not a five-minute walk from here. Rumor has it that many of the trees will make way for more parking spaces too. The fences have gone up. The park has been shut down. We have had no word of explanation from the city, no notices in our boxes. We can merely await the destruction of the trees and the endless noise and bad air from the construction vehicles. This part of Glover Park, as the neighborhood is called, will become like any other part of the city, no longer a little backwater with everything it needed in the first place. This is not what summer in Glover Park is supposed to be about.

Generous Farm Share Yesterday

Our weekly farm share feeds two people with room to spare, and often it works okay for three. There is less diversity than at the grocery store, because we eat what is in season, but a lot is in season in the summer. Yesterday’s share was particularly amazing: Asian greens, salad mix, spinach, kale, spring onions, cauliflower, beets with greens, zucchini, broccoli, kohlrabi, and turnips. These items from our farm were supplemented with cous cous, black beans, maple yogurt, shell peas, and blueberries. Yummy!

Yesterday morning was my turn to help count out and set up the food for something like 200 CSA members. It was hot, so I don’t remember the exact number, but it was a lot. Still, five of us (including my wife) managed to get the bulk of the work done in something like three hours. Of course, this does not count all the organizational and logistical work to get the food there in the first place, or the work done on the farm.

The results are fantastic. High quality food that is good for the earth at affordable prices, and I get to work with good people too.

Noteworthy on Iran

In the New Yorker: Online Only, Laura Secor offers not only a trenchant comment on the “Burning Silence in Iran,” but also a useful insight on what seems to be going on in that country. I found her piece via The Lede, a news blog at the New York Times that is offering a constant stream of interesting stories on Iran from a variety of online sources.

If that is not enough, Global Voices has special coverage of the 2009 Iranian elections. While this outlet is always important for offering perspectives often overlooked by the mainstream media, its importance has grown during the current crisis, during which authorities have cut off traditional media from firsthand knowledge of the streets. Also interesting are the Iran Updates on the Iranian-American site, Tehran Bureau. They include reports from inside Iran.