Daily Loaf

It wasn’t easy for me to resist the temptation to gush happily in print over our President’s visit to DeSoto county last week; but what struck me as I watched the event on TV were the paradoxical images –

Consider this: a utility company executive delivers accolades to the President for his leadership on sustainable energy production. Is this an anomaly? Maybe, but FPL Group’s CEO Lewis Hay, belongs to an exclusive club. Its members are forward thinking business executives readying their companies for a new green economy.

Granted, Mr. Hay’s exuberance may be due to the $200 million of stimulus funding FP & L is about to receive. But you have to admit, it does take chutzpah for him and his activist executive buddies to visit Washington in support of climate change legislation. They gathered as the Waxman/Markey bill was coming up for a key house vote back in June, even taking out a full page ad in DC newspapers. Acknowledging the paradigm shift to sustainable, clean power production so many others deny, they see the legislation as good for business. Whoa, did you hear that, Chamber of Commerce? Jokingly, Obama noted that people get nervous about change, relating Hay’s comment “especially utility executives” to which the crowd, largely made up of utility contractors and employees, laughed heartily.

Or this image: Juxtaposed against gleaming hi-tech solar panels, straw cowboy hats perched atop the heads of men in the first row bobbed up and down nodding in agreement with the President’s words. Thirty years ago this would be a scene in a sci-fi flick, and for some in the Deep South it would have been a horror flick. An African American President telling a rural Florida farming community: Boys, we’re gonna be installin’ some special equipment out here in these pastures, we’re gonna start harvesting sun rays. Yeah, sure ya are, and I just got done putting a trailer hitch on my spaceship to Mars. Oh by golly, farming sure has changed. No horses corralling cattle; no tractors in the fields, no worry of drought damaged crops.
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Sat. Sept. 26. VIP Dungeon Party. The first ever VIP Dungeon Party is an exclusive event for 250 fetish enthusiasts. X-rated performances by StrykerVawn. In addition to the fetish equipment already set up in the Castle’s dungeon room, there will be a Roman cross, suspension spreader, padded kneeler, and a coffin cage. $15. DJ Rob Givens. The Castle 2004 N. 16th St. Ybor 33605.

Sat. Sept. 26th. Ride ‘Em Cowgirl Swingers’ Party. Come dressed in your hottest cowboy or cowgirl outfits and scoot your boots on the dance floor! Ladies, feel free to take a ride down the happy trail in the “Sybian Saddle!” There will be a hottest Badonkadonk (Smokin’ Hot Ass) contest and Sensual Swingers will be providing prizes. 9pm-?. Visit Tabooswingers.com Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Steps to becoming greener: Reducing your waste, reusing and recycling: Joshua Poll gives some useful tips for ways to start reducing, reusing, and recycling things you thought you could just throw away.

Genetically engineering cows that will produce less methane, reducing greenhouse gases: Geneticists in Canada are trying to engineer a cow that produces less methane, resulting in less greenhouse gases, reports Brian Roberts.
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This post is partially a retraction and a correction. I have reported previously on how cow farts are filling up the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane. Apparently, its not the gas from the tail end of the cow that’s the problem. Its the belching. My bad.

Either way, it sounds like a premise for a bad episode of Captain Planet and a chain of visual images that eventually ruins lunch.
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Have you ever heard the Vietnam-era quote, “war is not healthy for children and other living things?” It is a staunchly obvious and painstakingly reasonable appeal that cuts to the ethical core and casualties of war.  I read an article this week that reminded me of it, but instead of war, the murderous culprit in this story is climate change.

A new report by the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) says that global warming already kills about 300,000 people a year.  If that projection is not startling enough– or if you have more of an economic mind, and are not much swayed by stacks of human figures—the report also says that climate change costs around $125 billion in economic losses annually.
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Jeff Strand, who has a cult following among horror aficionados, will be having a launch party for his first mass market paperback with a major publisher, Pressure, on Sat., May 30 from 7-9 p.m., at the Barnes & Noble in Carrollwood. Already optioned for film, Pressure breaks the molds and pushes the boundaries.

Here’s a quick summary of the plot:

They first met in boarding school: Alex, shy and nervous, and Darren, constantly scribbling in his journal. They became best friends in college. Alex always knew Darren was a little odd…

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