Motley Blogtag:www.motleytools.com,2018:/blog//12018-09-30T01:05:17ZFor the Greater Good of Every Individual
The Blog of Douglas TooleyMovable Type 3.35COMMENTARY: Food Desert in a Ski Town?tag:www.motleytools.com,2018:/blog//1.15892018-09-28T15:51:33Z2018-09-30T01:05:17ZMy subject today is the lack of affordable, healthy, food in the resort town of Telluride, Colorado. I've talked recently about the failure of our new regional transit authority, SMART, to provide usable transit to nearby affordable housing and how...
failure of our new regional transit authority, SMART, to provide usable transit to nearby affordable housing and how poor wastewater planning is limiting that housing.
The food issue goes to these same decent living points in an elitist town.
Telluride is not a food desert in the typical urban, inner city, sense- quality food is available here, but the cost is prohibitively high for many and the comparison, though not exact, is relevant.
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We're trying to be more inclusive, create all these opportunities for affordable housing and, you know, we're making it more exclusive. So it's a delicate balance of how we are effecting change, where this money is coming from. Yes, there's money there we could get, but this is not, I believe, the right way to go about it.
I don't think this philosophy, or the analysis, are appropriate for the Market Manager. Healthy food should not be something only accessible to the 1%.
Healthy food does cost more and adjusting our priorities is part of the solution. The average US consumer spends less than 7% of their income on food while France and Italy are around 14%, more than double.
Part of the reason unhealthy food is so cheap is the reliance on environmentally destructive oil and gas whose real costs are being passed onto future generations. We are not only poisoning ourselves with cheap food, we are poisoning the planet.
Mountain Village, which a few years ago did not have a grocery store is addressing the problem.
TMVOA, the Town of Mountain Village Owners Association, has commenced eviction proceedings against the Mountain Market, for failing to meet affordability provisions.
Even better, Michelle Haynes, the Planning and Development Director for Mountain Village has created a subsidized CSA, Community Supported Agriculture program which brought healthy food to some 40 Mountain Village residents, mostly in VCA.
This program is run under contract by the new Norwood Food Hub which is also just now starting regular Telluride area delivery service.
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CRAZY TOWNtag:www.motleytools.com,2018:/blog//1.15872018-08-21T21:51:57Z2018-08-21T22:33:11ZJonathan Thompson, arguably the most prominent Journalist in SW Colorado, recently visited my current home town, Telluride. At 8750', Telluride is most definitely a hypoxia suffering 'crazy town'. This particular short piece, originally published in the High Country News in...
https://www.hcn.org/articles/is-altitude-causing-suicide-in-the-west
Crazy Town
Jonathan Thompson
February 16, 2015
Recent research suggests that living at high altitude can affect brain chemistry in such a way as to induce either euphoria or depression. Lack of oxygen to the brain, or hypoxia, might explain both your “Rocky Mountain High” and the Interior West’s high rate of suicide.
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Smoke and Raintag:www.motleytools.com,2018:/blog//1.15882018-07-07T20:34:22Z2018-09-27T20:46:36ZSMOKE AND RAIN Through the smoke and rain, lightning struck into the mountain's box canyon. A canyon become smoke stack. The smoke was not from some industrial pit of Mordor, or from the mines of yesteryear, but wildfires to the...
SMOKE AND RAIN
Through the smoke and rain, lightning struck into the mountain's box canyon. A canyon become smoke stack.
The smoke was not from some industrial pit of Mordor, or from the mines of yesteryear, but wildfires to the Southwest, burning for weeks.
But still our homes were tainted, a slightly stick breath restricting malignancy.
With the summer monsoon comes the Southwest wind, carrying the smoke straight here. And the promise of rain.
A promise in light, in lightning, corroborated in thunder.
Followed by a potent silence under sublime gray skies pierced by gray topped mountain ridges.
Still, the smoke.
It begins to rain, hard.
The gray of dusk takes the sublimity to black.
The smoke is gone, but still the malignancy lingers.
It will for awhile.
Ah, the Rain.
The Tool, Neil Gorsuch, and Post 2008 Property Rightstag:www.motleytools.com,2017:/blog//1.15862017-02-01T12:50:59Z2017-02-01T15:16:44ZI've never met the Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, but I have been before the Federal Tenth Court of Appeals on three separate occasions. The Court - based in Denver and serving Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah, and New...
post foreclosure crisis camping ticket which violated my constitutional rights, and, equally, was used to justify the confiscation of my personal property maliciously and without due process. This property right precedent is important.]]>
appealed to the Supreme Court, but was not heard.
The particular forms of continuing legal retaliation this now disabled victim of these practices has experienced is all the more telling. This Colorado history curiously also includes witnessing, and objecting to, the 'field engineering' practices authorized by Colorado Senators Gardner and Bennet used prior to the Gold King Mine disaster.
The author broadcast a Community Radio commentary on Trump's Supreme Court January 20 on KOTO.]]>
A Good Quotetag:www.motleytools.com,2016:/blog//1.15852016-12-14T18:25:55Z2016-12-14T23:05:59ZAt Robert Kennedy's funeral his brother Edward quoted from a recent presidential campaign speech of his: All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to...
All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort.
The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.
Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live.
Thanks to Stephen Pinker and his 2002 book 'Blank Slate'.]]>
THE PARTIES VERSUS THE PEOPLEtag:www.motleytools.com,2016:/blog//1.15832016-07-15T18:49:04Z2016-07-15T19:11:39ZThe Parties versus the People How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans By Mickey Edwards 2012 Mickey Edwards spent 16 years in congress starting with the Reagan years and in leadership during the Gingrich takeover led by many Reagan...The Parties versus the PeopleHow to Turn Republicans and Democrats into AmericansBy Mickey Edwards2012
Mickey Edwards spent 16 years in congress starting with the Reagan years and in leadership during the Gingrich takeover led by many Reagan era College Republicans. In this book he analyzes the crisis level problems of partisan politics and proposes detailed solutions in a compact and easily readable tome. My only critique would be his omission of the legal profession in the partisan context, including the large numbers of that profession occupying our national legislature.
Political parties are not inherently bad - citizens of common disposition will naturally seek each other out and combine to seek out agreed-upon ends. But when the pursuit of party power becomes the end goal and not merely a tool for achieving a better society, it is democracy itself which is laid beneath the guillotine's blade.
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ElectoralEstablish Open Primaries
Non-Partisan Redistricting
Reduce the need for money in electionsGovernmentNon Partisan congressional leadership and committees
Stop Majority Party obstruction including via Rules Committee
Arrange the chamber floor based on seniority, not party
Stop one-party White house meetings.
RESPECT THE CONSTITUTION OVER SPECIAL INTEREST PLEDGES
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HILARY CLINTON, FEDERALLY EXPERIENCED SINCE 1992tag:www.motleytools.com,2016:/blog//1.15822016-06-17T16:46:06Z2016-07-07T19:38:01ZAlthough Hilary Clinton is clearly winning the Presidential battle in the corporate media it is the sad truth that she is every bit as corrosive and divisive to America as is her competitor, Donald Trump. Yes, it is a different...
Although Hilary Clinton is clearly winning the Presidential battle in the corporate media it is the sad truth that she is every bit as corrosive and divisive to America as is her competitor, Donald Trump. Yes, it is a different demographic segment - the traditional American middle class as opposed to the threats posed against traditional minorities by Trump.
Most disturbing is her corruption of feminism and female professionals by establishing legal precedents that abrogate constitutional rights via accusations of harassment, etc - without due process or fact - the rule of gossip, not law.
Certainly Donald Trump represents this same legal standard towards minorities, but the takeaway fact is that our narrow and divisive electoral system has committed corporate treason and constitutional rape against all of us under the color of law and the propaganda of the corporate media.
Although Hilary is the most experienced candidate, the roots of her experience documents this problem clearly.
<iframe width="448" height="352" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K5kUITklALQ" frameborder="0"
The Historical Record of the Iraq Wartag:www.motleytools.com,2016:/blog//1.15812016-05-29T20:18:56Z2016-05-29T21:02:50ZI have been attending the documentary film festival, Mountainfilm, in Telluride, Colorado and have watched the premieres of two films that portray different products of the Iraq war - 'The Age of Consequences' on global warming and 'Almost Sunrise' on...
The Age of Consequences' on global warming and 'Almost Sunrise' on the damage done to our veterans in a war that is perceived by many to be unjust. Both films are resonating strongly with me, each upon its own merits; all the more so in their synergy.
Almost SunriseDirected by Michael Collins
Starring Tom Voss and Anthony Anderson2016
Almost Sunrise tells the deeply personal story of Tom and Anthony, two Iraq veterans damaged by the unjust Iraq War and their journey to healing via a cross country trek. The film advances the diagnosis of 'Moral Injury' and alternative treatments as opposed to the current VA based medication paradigm. Almost Sunrise is both a challenging critique of the Iraq war and an effective salve for its injuries - not the least of which is the community which it is inspiring.
The Age of ConsequencesDirected by Jared P. Scott2016
The Age of Consequences is not your typical global warming documentary, presenting the under publicized analyses of the military on the subject in an easily accessible and thorough risk analysis framework. The summary conclusion comparing the dangers of global warming to full blown nuclear war is one of the big take away's and the positive economic benefits of restructuring our energy system into alternative methods another. The hiring of vets to do this work is also crucial
I personally would extend this climate change analysis to a critique of our Middle East policy since George H.W. Bush - we have spent trillions of dollars defending strategic oil interests whose continued consumption is the biggest threat to the entire world's public safety - not to mention destroying thousands upon thousands of human lives.
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The Profiteerstag:www.motleytools.com,2016:/blog//1.15802016-05-17T21:12:50Z2016-05-29T20:31:35ZThe Profiteers Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World By Sally Denton 2016 The Reagan era history is just now being compiled and 'The Profiteers' by Sally Dentonis a solid contribution into the emerging canon of the period. The...The Profiteers
Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World
By Sally Denton
2016
The Reagan era history is just now being compiled and 'The Profiteers' by Sally Dentonis a solid contribution into the emerging canon of the period. The 'Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein and 'Subersives' by Seth Rosenfeld among others outline the international and domestic control strategies of these modern masters. The privately held Bechtel corporate 'person' is first among these oligarchs and their corporate socialist no bid construction business did, in fact, build the world from their American West roots.
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Review.]]>
Visiting the Dinetah, the Navajo Homelandtag:www.motleytools.com,2015:/blog//1.15792015-05-05T18:02:41Z2015-05-05T18:25:03Z Largo (Canyon) School Ruin Looking North Dine' is Navajo for 'the people' and the Dinetah is where the tribe has its origins. The Navajo, as a 'formal' tribe, is historically recent coming together in the aftermath of the Pueblo...
Largo (Canyon) School Ruin Looking North
Dine' is Navajo for 'the people' and the Dinetah is where the tribe has its origins. The Navajo, as a 'formal' tribe, is historically recent coming together in the aftermath of the Pueblo revolt at the end of the 17th Century SouthEast of what is today Farmington, New Mexico. This history is fascinating, though not fully documented.
The 'pueblitos' of this area were built largely for defensive purposes and it is believed that they were for defense from raiding Utes coming from the North, not retaliatory Spaniards coming from Santa Fe further SouthEast.
This is predominately oil and gas land which means plenty of roads, but all of these sites would be difficult to visit under wet conditions. For more info see the BLM Website.
'44' Panel in Crow Canyon
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A Harvest of Reluctant Soulstag:www.motleytools.com,2015:/blog//1.15782015-04-25T22:41:57Z2015-05-05T17:58:34Z'A Harvest of Reluctant Souls' By Fray Alonso de Benavides 1630 Translated by Baker H. Morrow 1996 The history of the New Mexico area is the longest in the US - the first European to come through the area was...'A Harvest of Reluctant Souls'
By Fray Alonso de Benavides
1630
Translated by Baker H. Morrow
1996
The history of the New Mexico area is the longest in the US - the first European to come through the area was Cabeza De Vaca sometime after 1527 in his eight year journey from a Florida Coast shipwreck to Sinaloa. The Puebloan cities were the source for the legend of the 'Seven Cities of Gold' which inspired Coronado to invade the area with Montezumaesque visions. Juan de Onate woud lead the first settlers to the area in 1598 and the long standing capital Santa Fe was founded in 1610.
This book was published in 1630 (15 Years after the 2nd Volume of Cervante's 'Don Quixote') by the Franciscan de Benavides from a fundraising report to the Pope. Its historical accuracy is certainly questionable, but it is also a very accessible authentic document of the period.
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The Conversion of the Apaches de Navajo
Leaving then this province of the Gila Apaches we proceed in the same direction along the western border of the settlements. Bearing north 50 Leagues (aprox. 150-200 miles), with the country full of the tiny hamlets of Gila Apache we come to the province of the Navajo Apaches. Although these people are part of the same nation as the Gila people, they are the subjects of another primary captain.
They have a distinct way of life as the others have never done any planting and sustain themselves solely by hunting. Nowadays we have planted a series of fields for them and taught them how to plant. And these Navajo are great workers, that's what 'Navajo' means - 'big planted fields'.
This province is the most bellicose of the entire Apache nation, and the place where the Spaniards have shown their greatest courage. This cordillera runs another 50 or 60 leagues, all of which is filled with alum deposits (used to fix dyes). The settled tribes and Christians, who are all inclined to dyes, need alum to dye their clothes. This is only found in areas where 2-3 thousand of the Pueblo indians will gather at a time to collect it.
The Navajo Apaches make war on these mineral collectors in defense of their land. A tremendous number of deaths will occur unless the collectors show up when the Navajo have gone off hunting in some other part of the iron deposit country.After they find people have been collecting their minerals they quickly band together and come to make war on the Christians. This is in revenge for people having entered their lands without permission.]]>
Ideologytag:www.motleytools.com,2015:/blog//1.15772015-03-23T19:12:11Z2015-03-23T19:16:27ZGrowth for the sake of Growth alone is the ideology of the Cancer cell. -Edward Abbey (Author of Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang) My corrolary- Wealth for the sake of Wealth alone is the ideology of the Cancer...
Growth for the sake of Growth alone is the ideology of the Cancer cell.
-Edward Abbey
(Author of Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang)
My corrolary-
Wealth for the sake of Wealth alone is the ideology of the Cancer cell.
Gay Marriage in Utah and the Legal Algebra of 'Equal Justice'tag:www.motleytools.com,2015:/blog//1.15762015-02-20T21:29:07Z2015-02-20T22:50:48ZKudos to Utah based Federal Judge Robert J. Shelby for striking down that state's ban on gay marriage. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Utah Curiously though this decision may have an impact on another aspect of marriage practice for which the State is even more...
Kudos to Utah based Federal Judge Robert J. Shelby for striking down that state's ban on gay marriage. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Utah
Curiously though this decision may have an impact on another aspect of marriage practice for which the State is even more famous - the historical practice of polygamy.
Aside from the completely evil practices of pedophillic sexual slavery engendered commonly within polygamy is there any difference, fundamentally, between that practice and gay marriage? My answer, very clearly, is no. Both involve non-typical forms of marriage between consenting adults, do they not?
And, FWIW, it would also be completely legal to establish a contractual relationship outside of civil marriage laws between multiple individuals, would it not?
God and the Dialectical Processtag:www.motleytools.com,2015:/blog//1.15752015-02-06T19:51:05Z2015-02-06T21:46:16ZSelections from the book: In Season Out of Season an introduction to the thought of Jacques Ellul Madeleine Garrigou-LaGrange 1982 I became conscious, as I worked and thought, that I needed to interpret all things in a dialectical manner. Marx...In Season Out of Season
an introduction to the thought of Jacques Ellul
Madeleine Garrigou-LaGrange
1982
I became conscious, as I worked and thought, that I needed to interpret all things in a dialectical manner.
Marx is one of those that led me to this realization, but I was much more attracted at first by his economic interpretation than by the philosophical aspect of his thought. Much later I was to realize that Christianity and biblical thought are dialectical.
I want to clarify that the dialectic presupposes history. It is not enough to pose a positive factor and a negative factor (good and evil as dialectical forces). There has to be a passage of time for the two contradictory factors to come into relationship.
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Mankind or nature, neither is sufficient for the foundation of a critical method, nor are they the (dialectical) counterpoint of all powerful 'Technique' (Ellul's unique definition of technology). The latter is an all encompassing whole that includes mankind and nature. For there to be a chance for change, for a dialectic, there must be a force completely outside the system. This force that the system is incapable of absorbing can only be god, a transcendent God.
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I do not mean to say that God will intervene directly with Technique, as at the tower of Babel, to cause it to fail. But with the help of God's biblical revelation we can find the lucidity, courage, and hope that will enable us to intervene with Technique. Without these we can only let ourselves sink into despair.
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I cannot except a communist society or a technical society (Russia of 1980 or America of 2015?) because they are totally lacking in flexibility, and their is no play in their mechanism.
(paraphrasing) Ossification is not only the supreme evil, it is the evil: it is paralysis, entropy, repetition, identicalness, unity, duplication.]]>
University of VIRGINia @ Fergusontag:www.motleytools.com,2014:/blog//1.15732014-12-11T20:08:34Z2014-12-11T21:41:27ZRecent developments in the University of Virginia http:// http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html?postshare=221417802737104rape story are very disturbing. Perhaps most disturbing is http:// http://www.npr.org/2014/12/08/369402100/fallout-from-rolling-stone-story-changes-conversation-at-uva NPR's coverage, lead by the 'tag-team' of Audie Cornish and Jennifer Ludden which, upon the discovery of these facts decry not...
http:// http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html?postshare=221417802737104rape story are very disturbing.
Perhaps most disturbing is http:// http://www.npr.org/2014/12/08/369402100/fallout-from-rolling-stone-story-changes-conversation-at-uva NPR's coverage, lead by the 'tag-team' of Audie Cornish and Jennifer Ludden which, upon the discovery of these facts decry not the false allegations, but on continuing unsubstantiated hate mongering about college rape.
As they say, rape is not about sex, but about power, control, and violence. I submit, dear reader, an alternative theory for this case - the 'rapists' in this case are NPR, Rolling Stone, and the Hillary white female lawyer establishment, including Obama's DOJ.
Certainly, the blacks of Ferguson, MO are being, in this sense, raped by their police force. Perhaps this has even been a core element of 'policing' under Judeo-Roman law ever since Christ?]]>