Save St Lawrence Basilica

The City of Asheville has scrapped plans for a park across from the beautiful and historic Basilica of St Lawrence, and a hotel is being planned instead. I don't know where they are going to put a hotel the size of which they are considering, including retail areas and parking. (Are they serious?)

The Basilica was built in 1905 by renowned architect Rafael Guastavino, who designed the "tile arch system" used in parts of the New York subways. The same tile arches are inside the Basilica, designating it an historic landmark.

The proposed retail-hotel development will completely overshadow the Basilica (one of my favorite places in the world) and cut off access from downtown Asheville. Also, after construction, I don't think you'll be able to see the Basilica from I-26 at all.

This is why we need landmarks preservation, folks.

More from Democratic Underground, AshevillePARC.org, and Mountain Xpress.

They seem determined to ruin Asheville.

~*~

Save the Basilica!

Odds and Sods - the smashing edition

From my Upstate SC photoset on Flickr.







West Asheville co-op faces eviction; calls community meeting
by Brian Postelle, Mountain Xpress
April 6, 2009

The Haywood Road Market, which has a history of financial struggles, now might have to leave its location of six years.

April DeLac, president of the co-op’s board, said the market received an eviction notice from Bledsoe Building owners West Asheville Development in late March after the market had been late on paying February’s rent.

DeLac noted that the co-op’s money woes stretch back further than two months.

“We’ve been a struggling co-op for a long time,” she said. “There’s been financial issues almost the entire history.”

Those financial issues include not only late rent payments but also a series of personal and business loans extended over the years to try to help the market reach a sustainable level, says WAD partner and West End Bakery co-owner Krista Stearns.

“This has been years in coming,” Stearns said. “And it was a very hard decision to make.”

Stearns’ husband Lewis Lankford, also a member of WAD, said the co-op’s poor payment history led to the decision not to renew the market’s lease in January, switching to a month-to-month status, and eventually to the eviction notice, which is effective the end of May.

But Lankford, himself a founding board member of the co-op, said that empty shelves and declining business also gave a dim forecast of the market’s future.

“The decision was reinforced by going in and seeing the condition of the store,” he said. “It didn’t have the feel of anything except something that was going away.”

For DeLac, however, there are still options on the table (granted, those options include moving or closing shop for good). The co-op will hold a member’s meeting — with the public invited — on Tuesday, April 21, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bledsoe Building to try to figure out the next step.

Thinking fondly back to my own co-op days; I wish you the best of luck for the continuing success of your endeavor.

I now live in a community with no food co-op, and feel the lack significantly. Starting a food co-op in this area proved to be an impossibility, but at least I got to meet cool folks like Ted Christian in the process.

Nonetheless, it is one of those things I didn't get accomplished, and any mention of co-op failure and/or disinterest, just plain makes me sad. :(

~*~

Lately, Cripchick has been inspired to write more, and her poetry soars through the stratosphere, way into heavenly terrain. She is very gifted. Check out her wonderful poetry!

Also, you might want to visit the First Asian Women's Carnival!

New to my blogroll is YouTomb--an extremely-welcome free-speech project tracking one of the most maddening modern phenomena of Blogdonia (often fussed about in extremis here at DEAD AIR), the removal of videos from YouTube:

YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation.

More specifically, YouTomb continually monitors the most popular videos on YouTube for copyright-related takedowns. Any information available in the metadata is retained, including who issued the complaint and how long the video was up before takedown. The goal of the project is to identify how YouTube recognizes potential copyright violations as well as to aggregate mistakes made by the algorithm.

This is one of those hypnotic websites, so be careful. You can get lost in data over there.


Count me in as one who adored the First Lady's fabulous J Crew cardigan, worn during her trip to London this past week. (photo at left)

She looked SMASHING (as British broadcasting legend David Frost always enthused about his favorite female guests).

Not at all surprising that the press is glued to her every fashion move. She is beautiful and radiant.

And when she spoke proudly of her working class roots, she made me proud, too.

Breast-feeding protest at West Asheville Denny's

At left: Breastfeeding mother Crystal Everitt of Asheville, asked by West Asheville Denny's restaurant manager to cover herself or feed her 1-year-old son in the bathroom. Everitt declined and quoted the North Carolina law, which protects the rights of mothers to breastfeed in any public or private location. Denny's responded by calling police. Photo from Mountain Xpress.


Nurse-in ends in standoff
Mountain Xpress
February 22, 2009
by Jason Sandford

A group of about 25 protesters, including several breastfeeding mothers and chanting supporters, held a nurse-in outside the Denny’s restaurant off Patton Avenue in West Asheville on Sunday afternoon.

Outside the restaurant, a Denny’s official apologized to organizer Crystal Everitt regarding an incident two weeks ago that sparked the protest, but Everitt said his statement wasn’t enough.

Everitt says she was in the restaurant two weeks ago breast-feeding her 1-year-old son when she was asked by the restaurant’s manager to cover herself or move to the bathroom. Everitt says she declined, citing state law, which protects the rights of mothers to breastfeed in any public or private location.

Rick Pate, regional director of operations for the Asheville Denny’s franchise, said Denny’s “responsibility as a family restaurant is to provide a nonoffensive environment for all of our valued guests. Obviously, if any behavior or any practice that happened two weeks ago while she was in the restaurant — specifically us asking her to cover up — offended her in any way, we’re sincerely sorry for that. We apologize for that,” Pate said.

“My goal today was today was to come out and speak to everyone that was here to protest, with a desire to have them come in my restaurant and have lunch with us today,” Pate said, adding that breast-feeding mothers are always welcome.

Everitt said Pate’s statement wasn’t good enough. She said that the statement, which matches a statement she received from Denny’s corporate office, leaves it up to the discretion of the restaurant to determine what is nonoffensive.

“They’re putting in a discretion clause, and they might as well not have a policy at all,” Everitt said, while standing outside the restaurant and nursing her child. “Who is it that determines if I’m being discreet or not? ‘Discreet’ should not even be in there.”

“Their policy is not in line with the law, so it’s absolutely not OK,” she said. “They need to guarantee that moms will not be harassed.”

Standing alongside Regent Drive off Patton Avenue in a bracing wind, the group of protesters held signs that read “Breast feeding is not shameful” and chanted, “Breastfeeding’s not a crime. Why won’t you let babies dine?”

In South Carolina, they probably would have actually taken her to jail!

Video of protest-organizer Everitt:



Comments? Are you shocked by public breast-feeding, or do you consider such laws sexist, as I do? What are the breast-feeding laws in your state or area?

SC Bill would increase premiums on obese workers

At left: In case you needed any more proof that R. Crumb could predict the future. (from Zap Comix, several eons ago.)



In our sordid state news today:


SC Bill would increase premiums on obese workers
The Associated Press • February 10, 2009

COLUMBIA — Obese public employees would have to pay an extra $25 monthly for their state health insurance under a bill up for debate in South Carolina.

The measure sponsored by GOP Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken is on the agenda Tuesday in a Senate subcommittee. It would tie the surcharge to employees' body-mass index, a weight and height measurement.

The proposal follows a vote last August to increase health insurance premiums of public workers who smoke. The smoking surcharge is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2010. It was approved by a five-member board that oversees the state budget.

Smokers called it an unfair increase, since smoking isn't the only bad habit that increases health care costs.

South Carolina has among the nation's highest rates of obesity and diabetes.

As always, South Carolina loves to be first in all things. You've undoubtedly noticed by now!

~*~

More from recent Blogdonia excursions:

Lauren's post on class and feminism, titled Context.

Our state bird is disappearing. From TreeHugger: Is It Still a Carolina Wren If It No Longer Calls Carolina Home?

Attention local folks! (Upstate SC and Western NC) Please help save the Burton Street neighborhood, currently in the corporate cross-hairs as bureaucrats haggle over how best to expand I-26 in Asheville. Mountain Xpress has been doing a bang-up job of covering the proposed "Downtown Master Plan" for Asheville. (((applause for excellent work)))

Please, please, please do not ruin Asheville!

And finally...

Antiprincess's precious littlest patriarch, Wolfgang! Beware adorable baby picture!!! YOU COULD DIE FROM THE CUTE! (((makes gurgly grandma noises)))

Thank God for Evolution

...is the title of a book by "evolutionary evangelist" Michael Dowd, whom I have just read about in Mountain Xpress. Dowd was a born-again Christian when he met Connie Barlow, an atheist scientist. (What do you get when you cross...?) And now, the two of them have taken their act on the road:

The couple are now full-time “evolutionary evangelists” who live on the road—in a van emblazoned with a Jesus fish and Darwin fish in a lip-lock—preaching the good word. “Our goal is to inspire people of all ages and theological orientations to embrace the history of everyone and everything in personally and socially transforming ways,” Dowd writes.

His enthusiasm for the subject is obvious from page one; his excitement contagious. Chapters cover many facets of science ("Thank God for the Hubble Telescope!,” “Lessons from Evolutionary Brain Science” and “Furry Li’l Mammal to the Rescue") and religion ("Experiencing God versus Thinking About God,” “God or the Universe: What’s in a Name?” and “Genesis in Context") but the book really comes into its own in later chapter where Dowd explores the place of evolution in expanding spirituality. There’s more than a hint of Zen philosophy and nods to psychology. Yet, even as the author continues to expend his scope via the discussion of evolution, he continues to return to religious—mainly Biblical—ideology. For readers who are either uninterested in or uncomfortable with Christian doctrine, this may be a deal breaker (just as many ideas that Dowd posits in regard to evolution may be deal breakers for fundamentalists). The author does traverse this mine field with impressive delicacy, however. “For me today, the interpretation of the Gospel that lives most vibrantly is this: “Jesus as God’s way, truth and life” means that to the extent that I live in evolutionary integrity, as Jesus lived, I am living God’s way, manifesting God’s truth and bringing God’s vitality and life-enhancing service into the world,” he writes.

Over on the web site, there are some fascinating FAQs:

Why are you so enthusiastic, even evangelistic, about evolution?

I see sacred views of evolution as the Good News (the ‘gospel’) of our time, personally and collectively. I thank God for the entire 14-billion-year epic of cosmic, biological, and human emergence, because an inspiring interpretation of the history of everything and everyone builds bridges, provides guidance, and restores realistic hope for individuals and families, for humanity, and for the body of life as a whole.

How do you see evolution ‘building bridges, providing guidance, and restoring realistic hope’?

When I say that a meaningful view of evolution “builds bridges,” I mean that it reconciles head and heart, reason and faith. It also harmonizes a variety of religious perspectives—and these with nonreligious points of view, as well. More, it helps people not just tolerate differences, but actually value the diversity. I have found that individuals whose families suffer from internal religious discord are especially grateful to take on a sacred view of evolution—precisely because this perspective really can build bridges.

When I suggest that an inspiring evolutionary worldview “provides guidance,” I mean two things. First, a sacred view of evolution offers a more grounded and widely acceptable basis for ethics and moral instruction than ancient texts could ever hope to offer. This is a crucial realization. Second, a ‘holy view of deep-time’ shows how our way into the future is clear and unambiguous. Or to use religious language, it reveals how ‘God’s will’ is obvious and universal.

Finally, once we grasp that a meaningful view of cosmic history actually can build bridges and does provide important guidance, a third reason for thanking God for evolution becomes apparent: it “restores hope.” A sacred view of evolution restores realistic hope because—whatever our different beliefs about an afterlife or possible supernatural intervention—we can see how our way forward in this world becomes clear—and realistically possible.

Can you say more about how you see evolution restoring hope?

Religious zealotry that slides into violent action now threatens a whole new threshold of danger for the simple reason that exceedingly destructive weapons are now small enough to conceal and within the realm of possibility for motivated individuals and groups to obtain. For this reason, anything that bridges faith and reason and helps reconcile opposing religious viewpoints surely restores hope. Moreover, in chaotic and uncertain times, like now, when things seem to be getting better and better, and worse and worse, faster and faster, anything that provides practical guidance for moving into a just and thriving future, personally and collectively, restores hope too.

On a more personal level, a sacred evolutionary worldview restores hope because it offers a deeper, truer understanding of human nature than non-evolutionary approaches possibly can. It’s no longer a mystery why we (and our loved ones) are tempted by the things that we’re tempted by, why we struggle with the things we do, and why staying in integrity for any length of time typically requires growing in humility, authenticity, responsibility, and serving a larger purpose, with the support of others. Understanding the religious implications of evolutionary brain science and evolutionary psychology is truly empowering. Evolutionary spirituality, which is informed by these disciplines, offers lasting freedom from troublesome habits and addictive thoughts and behaviors. And it does so not by rejecting earlier ways of speaking about ‘our inherited proclivities,’ or ‘our unchosen nature,’ (such as ‘original sin’) but by validating such traditional language and reinterpreting ancient insights in light of what has been, and is still being, revealed through the empirical sciences.

Okay, I admit it, I like this guy.

----------------
Listening to: Uncle Tupelo - Looking for a Way Out
via FoxyTunes

STOP PARKSIDE!

Left: Anti-Parkside signatures were collected at Bele Chere, last month in Asheville, NC.

~*~


The people of Asheville, North Carolina, continue to battle the Parkside Condo Development, as I stated in my Bele Chere post. A day ago, protesters connected with the Mountain Voices Alliance received a notice from developer Stewart Coleman, that the blockaded Magnolia tree was coming DOWN within 35 days.

Meanwhile, the development continues to divide the community in Asheville.


Left: The entrance to Malaprops.

Emoke B’Racz, the owner of one of my favorite bookstores in the world (and the first place I go when I get to Asheville), Malaprops, tells Mountain Xpress she is worried her business may not survive the development:

“What I hear from our customers is that they love downtown Asheville because it’s different—because it doesn’t have high-rises, because it has small businesses you don’t see anywhere else in the country,” she says. “We’ve worked hard for 27 years to make [downtown] viable for the emerging artists, writers, musicians, galleries and bookstores. Why we think we’ll make Asheville better by having a Tiffany’s store is beyond me. If the small businesses can’t afford to stay downtown, we’re changing what this town is—and it’s not going to be attractive to tourists. Period.”

B’Racz doesn’t know whether Malaprop’s would still be in business by the time the Haywood Park construction finished. “I hope we could handle it, but I’m not 100 percent sure, in all honesty, that we would survive,” she notes. “Speaking from my experience of the six months we had construction on Haywood for the water pipes, that was a really hard time. This development is two years, and how much do you want to bet it’s going to take longer. No small business has the funds to stay open for three years without sales coming in—and why would [customers] come down here if there’s dust and explosions everywhere?”

And now, demonstrators against Parkside are preparing for the worst. Mountain Xpress reports:

Parkside protesters demand eminent domain, plan demonstration training

by Brian Postelle
Mountain Xpress, August 7, 2008

Responding to a letter from Parkside developer Stewart Coleman, protesters beneath the magnolia tree adjacent to City/County Plaza are planning “direct action” workshops and demanding that either the city of Asheville or Buncombe County declare eminent domain to return the property to public hands

“There is nothing left but eminent domain,” said Elaine Lite, one of several who spoke before a crowd of about 50 people at a noon press conference held at the site.

The conference was called in response to a letter delivered Tuesday to protester and Coven Oldenwilde high priest Steve Rasmussen in which Coleman spelled out his intention to cut down the tree “sometime after 35 days from today’s date.”

The magnolia and the Hayes and Hopson building stand on property sold by Buncombe County to Coleman in 2006. Over the past few months, Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners have each repeatedly appealed to each other to correct the situation. Meanwhile, it appears that Coleman is ready to move forward with his condominium project, saying in his letter that he is applying for a demolition permit to tear down the Hayes and Hopson building.

Rasmussen’s wife, the coven’s high priestess Dixie Deerman, is one of several protesters who has been camping beneath the tree for the past month. Reading from a prepared statement, she said that “we reject Stewart Coleman’s ultimatum and vow to peacefully prevent the destruction of Pack Square’s beloved magnolia tree and the historic Hayes and Hopson Building.”

As part of that protest, the activists announced a “Direct Action Workshop” on Sunday, Aug. 16, to train potential demonstrators, and will conduct nightly “Tree Watch Orientation” sessions.

The spokespersons were vague on actions planned for future protests.

“Coleman’s not revealing all of his strategies, so the less we say about that, the better,” Deerman said.

Tree Watch Orientations will take place at 7 p.m. nightly. The time for the direct-action workshop on Aug. 16 has not yet been announced.

Click here to view a video clip from the rally.

STOP PARKSIDE!!!

----------------
Listening to: Grateful Dead - Jack-A-Roe
via FoxyTunes

BELE CHERE!!!!!!!

I used up my Flickr account for the month, bah. Thus, I labor onward with Picasa.

I do not enjoy how Picasa doesn't let you copy and paste the photographic alignment. Or rather, there is probably a way to do this, but my puttering and muttering can not unlock the key to the magic GRAPHIC DESIGN GENIE that will impart this arcane knowledge to me. Harumph! And so, apologies for the horizontal (and decidedly uncool) layout below.

More photos available on my Flickr page.

~*~

I love Bele Chere with a passion!!!! This is Asheville, North Carolina's 30-year-old street fair, which (yes, I realize!) has been corporatized, blah blah blah, unlike Comfest, the similar street festival I grew up with in Columbus, Ohio. There are people passing out dog food samples and Sensodyne and trying to sell you cell phones. I try to ignore the annoying capitalism, hawking wares everywhere. The wonderful part of Bele Chere is seeing the People Like Us come out of the woodwork, the offices, the mountains, the cities, wherever we are. The invasion of flower children and hippies is something to behold. I want to kiss everyone I see.

And speaking personally, I love seeing a profusion of older white women with LONG HAIR, a rare and exotic species to which I belong. (Cultural note: Older Latino and Asian women are obviously allowed long hair, but I first started getting harassed to cut my hair and "do something with it" when I was about 20 years old. PS: I have done something with it, and this is it!) It is GREAT to see so many transgressive, menopausal women who have similarly dug in their heels. I LOVE YOU, DEAREST LONG HAIRED LADIES!!!!!!! And their equivalent, the old guys with ZZ Top beards and braids in the back. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Asheville, like Austin, is fabulous, liberal and tolerant. They recycle with a vengeance, and I am NOT the only vegetarian on the block. The bad news? Rich people want to live there, thus intrinsically changing the basic nature of the place. Authentic hippies can't afford it anymore and have moved over to West Asheville. There is a brawl taking place over the center of town, and like Greenville, the infestation of MILLIONAIRE CONDOS is imminent (see below*). Let's hope they don't turn the place into a hippie-theme park, but that is the fear many locals have.

Meanwhile, I loved it, as I always do. I partied and danced in the streets with everyone else.



First, we drive up the Blue Ridge Mountains to get to Asheville. It's beautiful and calming, like a pilgrimage.















*As noted above, the condo developers are at the gate. The Mountain Voices Alliance collects signatures of folks opposing the downtown Parkside project.
















The Lee Boys kick out the jams!













Beautiful women dance to the Lee Boys.














Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, as close as I could get.







And the crowd, from a distance, rocking to the Booty Band.









And now, a word from our sponsor!










The Grascals, bluegrass band.















A beautiful, graceful mime.


























Menage, or two of them, anyway, at the Mountain Xpress folkie stage.















Butterfly mural















There is always one unhappy person. He proudly posed for the picture, and then (very politely, calling me ma'am) supplied me with a Jack Chick comic! Nothing but the best for Bele Chere! (The music, people and food are all top-notch, so the Jesus-tracts are similarly at the forefront of excellence.)












Your humble narrator

Hanson's walking tour in Asheville

Left: Photo by Jonathan Welch for Mountain Xpress.

~*~

As some of you know from my David Cassidy post, I'm fascinated with teenage idolhood in all of its multi-faceted, fun permutations. And I can't resist sharing this story:

Hanson’s big welcome

by Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt on 05/05/2008 for Mountain Xpress

Flocking to Asheville from Maine, New York, Virginia, Tennessee and across the Carolinas, Hanson fans are willing to travel great distances to see their musical idols up-close. More than 400 screaming fans — the majority being young women between the ages of 27 and 18 — gathered in front of the Orange Peel this afternoon for a chance to join the pop band Hanson on a one-mile barefoot walk through downtown Asheville. This is the band’s 66th “Walking Tour” since September of 2007, an event that aims to raise awareness on issues of poverty and AIDS in Africa, while empowering young people to stand up for a cause that they believe in.

But traveling great distances is not the only thing Hanson fans are willing to do to show their support, as Xpress learned when talking to the crowd of Hanson fans.

Michelle Brochon of Long Island and her best friend Katie Harris of Bowdoin, Maine, traveled 18 hours straight to have a front-row view of Hanson at their sold-out Asheville performance.

“It’s a special show because it’s my birthday,” said Brochon, who had been camping out at the Orange Peel since 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (two days before the concert). Brochon, despite sleeping on the streets, enthusiastically told Xpress that Hanson’s music means the world to her because, “They’re my age and they’re easy to relate too. They could have stopped making music, they could have sold out, but they didn’t and they keep making music on their own terms.”

Brochon and Harris were two of the five people who camped out for two-nights at the Orange Peel, and were joined by 60 others on Sunday night.

Along with camping gear, Hanson fans sported hand-made signs, one of which read: “We’re Walking A Mile W/ No Shoes On … What Are You Doing Today?” Other fans proudly displayed their tattoos inspired by the Hanson logo and by lyrics from their songs. One fan had the phrase: “Don’t lose yourself in your fear” tattooed on her forearm.

When the three Hanson brothers emerged from inside the Orange Peel, they were welcomed with ear-shattering screams and a cheer that seemed to ring through the city. They walked from the Orange Peel to Pritchard Park, where Taylor took out his mega-phone and began sharing stories about “The Walk” and the impact it’s made on raising awareness and energy in their generation. “We are the army of hope,” Taylor proclaimed. “We are not an underestimated generation, we have the capacity to make a difference.”

Needless to say, Hanson received a warm welcome from their local fan-base here in Asheville.

-— by Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt, Mountain Xpress.

----------------
Listening to: Uncle Tupelo - Looking for a Way Out
via FoxyTunes

April is the Cruelest Month

Falls Park, Greenville SC. Photo by your humble narrator.

~*~

From Mountain Xpress comes the following:

How much is that nuclear plant in the window?
by Nelda Holder on 04/30/2008

The N.C. Utilities Commission has decided that Duke Energy will not have to disclose cost estimates to state residents in preparing for a proposed nuclear-power plant to serve North and South Carolina customers, according to a report today by The Raleigh News & Observer. The twin-reactor plant is proposed for construction in Cherokee County, S.C. — just south of the N.C. border. Most of the customers served would be in North Carolina, however, where the Utilities Commission has now agreed with Duke Power that state law protects the cost estimate as a “trade secret.”

“Customers would ultimately pay for any new power plants through their monthly rates,” the article states, noting that some estimates for a single reactor run in the $9 billion range. Duke Energy argued that revealing cost estimates would affect vendor and contractor negotiations and keep the company from getting the lowest cost.

A South Carolina decision on the question of disclosure is anticipated in May, according to the article.

Meanwhile, a public hearing concerning the same proposed plant — which would be located some 60 miles southwest of Asheville — has been scheduled by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Thursday, May 1, at 7 p.m., at Gaffney High School, 149 Twin Lake Road in Gaffney, S.C. More information is available through Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League or by contacting Mary Olson with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service at 675-1792.

— Nelda Holder, associate editor, Mountain Xpress.

~*~

Left: traditional holy card of St Joseph Cottolengo of Turin.

It is the traditional, liturgical Catholic feast day of St Joseph Cottolengo of Turin, one of the Vincentian saints who counseled us to care for the poor. In keeping with that, I wanted to share a great blog entry from Parkside Q, titled Biting the hand that feeds me. Parkside linked me a view days ago, and then I went to snoop and found this fabulous entry. (And isn't that the way it works?)

I admire the self-awareness of the author, as he honestly describes his discomfort in encountering a homeless man on the subway, begging for spare change:

I've only been here a few months, but I can already feel myself becoming calloused toward that man, and the 5% of New Yorkers that have been walking miles in his well-worn shoes. But this time, I genuinely felt bad that I have been so caught up in my life that I've been ignoring others' suffering. His main concern on that train was trying to find his next meal; my biggest problem was trying to find reception for my next text message. Kind of puts in perspective what's really important, huh?

Read the whole thing!

~*~

Also see Content Regulation and Porn Laws by Renegade Evolution... don't forget to guard those pesky Civil Liberties they keep trying to yank away from us!

And finally, Treehugger notes that US Consumers "Get the Cheap Stuff":

We had a faint hope that the rise in food prices might lead people to buy more carefully, perhaps cook more from scratch instead of buying prepared food, or even cut back on meat and eat more vegetables. No such luck; according to the IHT, Americans are just buying more crap, because the cheap calories come from the most processed, corn-based foods.

While they keep telling us to lose weight! (Is there a problem here?)
----------------
Listening to: Grateful Dead - Eyes of the World
via FoxyTunes

Asheville activists arrested at Cliffside power-plant construction site

Left: Activist holding sign at Cliffside construction site, from Mountain Xpress.



I wish I could have been there with all of you, but I don't think I can handle an illegal occupation and subsequent arrest as well as I could have as a youngun. My love, prayers and best Deadhead vibes are with all of you wonderful folks. I'll be sure to reprint everything you do here!!! (((kisses))) Thank you for caring so deeply about our home, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and our mother, planet Earth. Godspeed!

The following is from Mountain Xpress, by Rebecca Bowe on 4/01/2008:

As the sky grew light this morning out at the Cliffside power plant construction site in Rutherford County [North Carolina], half a dozen activists chained themselves to the heavy earth-moving equipment that was parked there. Among the 20 or so people who were initially gathered there were at least three Asheville residents, who had traveled out to Cliffside to join others from across the state in staging a protest against Duke Energy’s recently permitted, 800-megawatt coal-fired facility. The activists roped off the construction site with tape that read “global warming crime scene,” and held banners with the slogans, “social change, not climate change” and “coal fuels climate change.”

Within half an hour of their arrival, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office responded, and eight people were arrested on charges of trespassing. Some faced additional charges of resisting arrest. Records showed that those arrested were David Elliston, Brittany Cusworth, and Clare Rappleyea of Asheville, and Matthew Wallace of Hot Springs. Also arrested were Christine Irvine, Attila Nemecz, Joseph Monteleone and Evan Webb.

“The new plant will increase greenhouse gas emissions substantially — which we can’t do,” said activist Liz Veazey, a native of Morganton, who spoke with Xpress outside the Rutherford County Jail. “We need to reduce our emissions 80 to 90 percent, James Hansen and other scientists are saying. So we’re here to say that we have to stop that and all fossil-fuel projects.”

Veazey described the scene that unfolded at the plant at daybreak: “People [were] locked down with lock boxes around some of the machinery,” she said. The activists had appointed a liaison to communicate with law enforcement, she says. “We had a police liaison, and people were standing along the side of the street with signs, and we were taking pictures. The police liaison got arrested really quickly. Then our photographer got arrested.” Veazey asserted that tazers were used during the arrests, and said she’d heard people screaming while they were locked down.

According to Rutherford County Sheriff Jack Conner, tazers were used as stun guns, but the nonlethal weapons were not used to deploy the full electric current. “It’s just like sticking it right up against them and stunning them, like a stun gun,” he explained. “The actual tazers were not used, just the stun position.” One week ago, Duke Energy held a groundbreaking ceremony and tour at the construction site, which straddles the Rutherford and Cleveland county lines. The Division of Air Quality granted approval for the plant in January. Since then, legal appeals have been filed by grassroots environmental organizations from across the state.

The day after the arrests were made, Avram Friedman, executive director of the Canary Coalition, issued a statement supporting the activists. “Eight courageous, young non-violent protesters were brutally arrested at the construction site of Duke Energy’s planned new Cliffside coal-burning power plant in Rutherford County yesterday,” he wrote. “Two of these people of conscience were tasered for no apparent reason by police. The police, whose salaries are paid for by taxpayers, not by Duke Energy, arrested the wrong people. The protesters chained themselves to bulldozers to prevent a crime.”

In a letter sent March 25, NASA climate expert James Hansen urged Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers to abandon the project. “It would be a tragic mistake for Duke to proceed with plans for new coal-fired power plants in Cliffside, North Carolina and Edwardsport, Indiana,” Hansen wrote. The new coal-fired generator would emit some 6 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger painted a much different picture of the controversial project. “The Cliffside permit is a legal permit, and the project is a good project for North Carolina and the environment as it continues forward,” she told Xpress. As for this morning’s protest, she noted, “Clearly, people were trespassing and causing some illegal activity on Duke property, so the local law enforcement was handling that, and we appreciate their support in that situation. At Duke Energy we have zero tolerance for illegal activities.”

“The activity this morning had no impact on construction or plant operations,” she added. Conner, the sheriff, echoed her statement, and said, “Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office will do whatever is necessary to protect that plant, along with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office.”

Veazey, who was not arrested, said the protest was organized by Rising Tide, a network of grassroots organizations dedicated to “fighting the root causes of climate change.” According to a press release sent out shortly after the event, this was one of more than 100 protests worldwide that were planned for today, which Rising Tide has dubbed “Fossil Fools Day.”

When asked what the central message of the protest was, Veazey responded, “No more fossil fuels, and no more fossil fools – like Jim Rogers of Duke Energy, who likes to say good stuff like energy efficiency is good and we need a carbon tax. But he can’t really mean that if he’s going to build a coal plant at the same time.”

The message seemed to have gotten across to Sheriff Conner. When asked if he knew what the protestors’ objective was, he replied, “The only thing that we can determine is, their objective was ‘no coal.’ No coal, and ‘earth first.’ That’s basically what we noticed on some of the units that they were using to hold onto around the equipment. They said, ‘no coal’ and ‘earth first.’”

--by Rebecca Bowe, contributing editor, Mountain Xpress.

Video of the bust:

Tell Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers to cancel Cliffside!

Save the libraries!

Left: Graphic by Aaron Louie.

From Mountain Xpress, here is Ileana Grams-Moog, discussing an ongoing, national issue--the continuous, rapid depletion of public library collections. She is describing the process in Asheville (NC) but it could just as easily have been anywhere:

From my time working as a librarian, I know that all libraries cull their collections on an ongoing basis. But what’s happening now is apparently a permanent downsizing. Nor is it only fiction that is disappearing. Science, history, biography, psychology, cooking, gardening, crafts: Every area is being depleted. Many—indeed, most—of the books being sold are out of print and therefore not easily available elsewhere, if at all. This is especially deplorable in areas where old books contain information not available in new ones. In cooking, gardening, crafts, yoga, poetry, history and even in science, in fields such as animal behavior and paleontology, old books contain detailed, lively information that’s no longer covered in more recent ones. To get rid of these books is the equivalent of deliberate, collective amnesia.

I was told that the criterion used is how recently the book last circulated. I just bought, for $2, a book that I took out about a year ago (and that cost the library more than $30 when acquired).

The other issue is storing the books, if they are not discarded. The public appears willing to pay for libraries, but not usually willing to spend tax money to build warehouses for old books that no longer circulate. (What's to become of the thousands of old, dated books, if indeed they are kept?) There are thousands of volumes discarded every year, everywhere. Most municipalities have periodic book-sales, and if you have ever been to one of these, you know some really fantastic, unique books are culled from local collections, constantly.

And what about the user-atmosphere of the libraries themselves? In larger cities (and increasingly, in small ones, too) homeless people sleep in libraries during the day, use the restrooms, panhandle when security guards aren't looking, etc. Have Borders and Barnes & Noble become the new 'library'--as educated, suburban readers prefer not to deal with the riff-raff that is the general public?

For an entertaining and informative take on the library biz, check out Blogging Librarian.

And I can only add, with considerable vehemence, SAVE THE LIBRARIES!!!!!!
----------------
Listening to: The Volebeats - Radio Flyer
via FoxyTunes

Highway blogger found not guilty

Left: Asheville, North Carolina, photo from PerformerMag.com.

~*~

From Mountain Xpress by David Forbes on 03/06/2008

Jonas Phillips, the West Asheville man arrested for holding an “Impeach Bush/Cheney” sign over the Haywood Road/Interstate 240 overpass in August — a form of protest known as highway blogging — was found not guilty today on charges that he was obstructing the sidewalk and endangering motorists.

District Court Judge James Calvin Hill said that the prosecution had insufficient evidence to prove its case, as none of the arresting officers had observed any pedestrians being blocked by Phillips’ actions, and that he did not believe reactions from motorists who honked their horns was enough to prove his sign a dangerous distraction.

“I’ve been listening to both sides for clear signs that his actions were causing a significant problem for pedestrians and motorists,” Hill said. “Based on what I’ve heard, I can’t find that they did.”

Phillips’ attorney, William Auman argued that he was simply exercising his right to free speech and was targeted for the content of his sign. He said plenty of other legal activities are just as distracting to motorists.

“His activities were no more distracting than cell phones or bill boards,” Auman said. “They [the prosecution] didn’t even bring the sign to court, which could have given us a better idea of the situation. Their evidence clearly falls short.”

Assistant District Attorney Meredith Pressley countered in her closing argument that “the problem was not at all with his content, but his method of delivering it. He [Phillps] said that he chose this method because it gets a lot of attention, which distracted drivers from what should have been their primary duty of operating their vehicles. We’re not saying Mr. Phillips is a bad person, the officers said he was polite, but he did obstruct the sidewalk and endanger drivers at a busy time.”

Donations, many of them from local activists, paid the entirety of Phillips’ legal fees, which amounted to $750. Several sat in the court room, holding miniature American flags that they planned to cover their mouths with if Phillips was found guilty. Instead those flags ended up briefly waved in celebration when Hill announced his verdict.

Outside the courtroom afterwards, Phillips stood with his wife, Kendra Phillips, and their 7-year-old daughter, Oona.

“I’m very, very happy. This has been hanging over us for 7 months,” he told Xpress.

He said he intends to resume highway blogging in the future.

Glad to see they have not dampened his spirits!

----------------
Listening to: Etta James - The Love of My Man
via FoxyTunes

Hands off Asheville!

From Mountain Xpress comes the following:

Irresistibly vegan, or just some lame-ass squares?
by Rebecca Bowe on 11/08/2007

SuperVegan, a Web site and blog devoted mostly to informing readers about vegan restaurants in New York City, spotlighted Asheville after it was voted most vegetarian-friendly small city by GoVeg.com.

Food critic and blogger Laura Leslie dined at downtown Asheville’s the Laughing Seed, Rosetta’s Kitchen and Early Girl Eatery before turning up her nose up and concluding that she’s glad to be a spoiled New York City vegan.

While she did have praise for the Laughing Seed (it “totally rocked,” she wrote), she was less-than-impressed with the peanut-butter tofu at Rosetta’s. “Damn those hippies and their tofu cubes; I didn’t know anyone out there still ate like this,” she laments. “Nothing makes up for those lame-ass tofu cubes.” Nor was she pleased that the Early Girl doesn’t crumble the soybean curd in their tofu breakfast scramble, and wondered “on what planet does this count as scrambled?”

Does the critique signify a blow to Asheville’s vegetarian-friendly reputation? Or shall we just shrug it off and wonder, “On what planet would we actually care what some spoiled NYC vegan writes in her lame-ass restaurant review?”

----------------
Listening to: Nina Simone - Do What You Gotta Do
via FoxyTunes