It seems like the whole world is crazy, except for you and I, but some times I wonder about me. I’m to the age where I really shouldn’t give a rat-patooty which direction the economy is going, and, why should I care about the environment. I’m on social security, plus I can keep all the money that I feel like making on the side, so my earning years are fading into the past. I’m not going to be needing the environment as much as the kids that I see around me that can text 5,000 words per minute, with just one thumb, while driving down the highway at 70 MPH. However, it seems like they just don't pay attention, or they have swallowed the cool-aid that we are better off buying cheap offshore goods, just because they are cheaper.
We jumped at the chance to close the (potentially) worlds cleanest pulp mill. Our local people screamed bloody murder while the pulp mill operated, because of the “accidental” spills of pollution that they had. Did in occur to anybody that the mill was being run by the same Chinese companies that we now buy our toilet paper from. If we were so concerned about our environment that we forced the pulp mill to close, why are we so eager to buy the same toilet paper from them, that was manufactured without environmental restrictions, from their offshore, and dirty, pulp mill?
It almost seems like a plot… I believe in plots, maybe that’s why I seem crazy. But, wouldn’t it make sense for foreign markets to pump disinformation into our rather naive kids into believing that everything made in America is bad, and all semblance of industry has to be gone, to keep our air and waters clean, and our soil free from the dread genetically-modified produce.
These things are all honorable, I believe in all good things for the environment. But, it seems a lot like sweeping problems under the rug to push industry offshore. Why not force other countries to comply with our high standards, or their products be banned? Aren’t our kids tired of finding out that food from offshore is often polluted? Don’t they care about the fact that PCBs have been mixed with the food that they ship us? Don’t we care that toys are painted with lead paint? I could go on, but I don’t think that anybody is so naive and ignorant that they don’t know about that lack of standards on the products that offshore companies ship into the U.S. Think locally, act globally. Balance trade, we can't continue to buy more than we produce. Hint: we don't vote in China! Maybe we need to get better U.S. leaders... doncha' think?
The plot seems to be, to convince us that their products are worth the risk, because their products are much cheaper than we can make them. No matter how hard we try, they will always be able to compete, they have no employee benefits, they work as many as 12 hours a day, they have no standards to meet. They dam up the countries entire river system for free power for their factories. The big one; They manipulate the value of their money to always be less valuable than ours, that way their products will always be cheaper than we can make them. Go back and read that last sentence again, if you don’t understand how the American worker is being cheated out of their jobs, that is the key. Now matter how hard we work, it will never be hard enough to go around the fact that they cheat us!
Why are we closing and tearing down mills and factories that are the standard of non-pollution in the world? Our steel mills were cleaner, our textile mills were run by worker unions that had good employee benefits. Then to make matters worse, somehow we are convinced to instantly tear down our mills and factories to be shipped to China to be used as rebar re-enforcement in their dams.
Now, we are studying how to build a rail over the hill into the Sacramento Valley, to ship cheap Chinese goods inland. Call me foolish, but we already have a railroad, right-of-way and all, down the Eel River canyon. Why not repair it, in an environmentally sound way? Forget China, do it for America, and the north coast. Build it to passenger standards. Imagine the tourism possibilities. The rolling hills of Sonoma, not to mention the wines. Mendocino and the Ukiah Valley would be big. From there, through Willits and on into the scenic Eel river Canyon. A stop a Dyerville, or South Fork, where one of the worlds most outstanding forests exists. Building the railroad may cost less than a cruise ship, with some amazing possiblities that ships don’t have.
The rail could even continue into Eureka to take advantage of some of the worlds best seafoods. Have dinner, stay overnight and head back to San Francisco. The trip should last one week, the same as a world class cruise. Heck I would even sign-up for a trip like that. We would be the envy of the world. We already have these sights. Why not take advantage of them?
Now, watch the disinformation fly.
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16 comments:
Ernie, many of your thoughts and writing start out well enough but as you keep going they always end very amateurish, lazy and inept.
Gee Anon, I thought that my point was pretty clear that we need to stop disassembling America and sending our jobs to counties that we don’t vote in, we need better leaders, and we need to have a balance of trade between countries that we trade with. If we had all that, a world class, environmentally sound, passenger railway down the Eel Canyon would seem like a darn good idea.
How would you have said it to give it a punchier ending? I’m not criticizing what you said, but I just don’t get it. How would you end it?
Are you from this country?
you know ernie, i think your rail down the eel is a great idea and i think you know why. and if they could do it in the early 1900s why not now. if you go to england you can go anywhere on rail. its that way in europe as well. i just finished steve jobs biography and in it he says that apple has 700,000 employees and 30,000 engineers in china making ipads, iphones, and computers. when bret harte wrote about the chinee back the 1800s in northern california it was about the same thing, using foreign labor. california labor has a long hisotry of businesses using slave and foreign labor. this isn't a new development. blaming environmentalists for this is just an excuse that greedy businessmen use to disquise their lack of integrity, accountablity or responsibility to the american people for the priviledge of living and earning a living in their country.
If Anon wants to see an amature?He needs to meet me. I can't even Skin Cat!
Heck,I can't even put freon in a car anymore,they've changed the "fittings" on me,the last 25 years!
Come on Ross, anybody can skin Cat, some are just better than others. I was never that good myself. My biggest problem was keeping cousin Oregon from digging the hillside out from under me with his Cat. I hated that!
You can buy an adapter at the auto parts, the same place that you buy your freon. Just make sure that you only charge the low pressure side of of your system. (the big line side)that way you dont blow the can uup in your hand. Piece of cake!
I'm in Medford at a U.S.Cellular meeting with my wife. She bought me a new "tablet". It's pretty neat and a lot easier to use than using my smart phone to blog.
It's pretty neat, it runs on a full Windows 7 program. Plus it is touch sceen, or you can plug in a cordless keybord and mouse. It is wi-fi, cell, or cat 5 network. So, it can be used as a "tablet" or a full on "Windows 7" computer. It can be used as a Skype phone, it has a built in face view camera.
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I had a little trouble getting used to it's operating system at first because it runs a full on windows 7 program. It has a few touch screen buttons down the right side for downloads and computer functions. Once you get used to it, it is a dramatic improvement over a regular tablet.
Being an old guy, I took to it like a duck to water. I'm already used to Windows 7, and I have to learn something new every morning anyway, because every morning some kid developes some new technology that they think is going to change the world.
Most of the kids out there would probably have trouble adapting to a full on computer tablet, because they are used to the limited formats that their tablets provide. Having been though so many changes can sometimes be advantage!
we need to stop disassembling America and sending our jobs to counties that we don’t vote in, we need better leaders, and we need to have a balance of trade between countries that we trade with. If we had all that, a world class, environmentally sound, passenger railway down the Eel Canyon would seem like a darn good idea. - yep, very clear, and You are 100% right.
And here we are facing $5 a gallon gas, and all the price increases that will follow as the cost of food rises, and everything that has to be brought in becomes more expensive.
And we've KNOWN since at least the 70s. We had plenty of time to become self sufficient, with both drilling and alt technologies. And still we're captive to the Middle East. And at a time when so many are out of work, now prices rise.
It's time to step back through the portal into the real world. And 86 the predatory litigious orgs and worthless legislators who have put us in this mess.
i finally got that tablet you've been talking about and i am totally amazed. what a gift. i don't care what the anon's say about you, that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me, ever.
i used to go beachcombing with grandma nye at stinson beach and on various beaches in point reyes north of bolinas accessed by dirt roads on private ranches. even the north end of stinson beach was private in those days. we would be looking for shells and rocks for her tumbler and various art projects. i would usually be barefoot running along the shoreline back and forth with the ebb and flow of the waves and i would often hear her say, "be careful or the ocean will take you all the way to china." she had glass floats that she had found from china to proove it. so i was never worried about drowning, i was always worried about the riptide taking me all the way to china. so later when i started bodysurfing, i would never go out farther than where i could touch the ground. sometimes i was on my toes or later the tips of my fins, but to this day, i make sure i can touch the ground when i go out into the ocean. grounding myself in this way has kept be safe in the ocean for over 60 years. i've never been to china and and don't mind missing the waves outside that people like laird hamilton use technology to catch. as far as i'm concerned, some waves are never meant to be ridden. keep both feet on the ground and be grateful for the waves that come your way. and especially be grateful for the fact that the chinese don't surf.
Now, what I want to know is where to find some of the World's greatest sea food in Eureka...
Spyrock... The way they built the railroad back in 19? was to push all the dirt in the river... should have run it over Mail Ridge with a station in Fruitland... Could have run through Laytonville too...
As any rail proponent is quick to tell you, a loaded freight car takes four big rigs off the highway and a gallon of diesel can move a ton of freight over 400 miles.
As gas goes up in price, so do the chances that “she'll be comin' round the mountain,” someday.
this was the song we used to sing on the dirt road from 101 35 miles to spyrock or whatever it was. didn't know that this was a railroad song.
if laird hamilton can ride a 100 foot wave, apple can bring its 700,000 chinese employees over here
and cheaply rebuild it and let them have the dirt free since they will be owning america soon enough if corporate america has its way.
its real interesting to read frank asbill talking about the indians burning the forest every three years and us protecting the watershed as we call it creating a very dangerous situation for the houses we build there from forest fire. it seems like that with a railroad from humbolt to the rest of the world you could have some great lumber, wine, and pot making it's way to market. its sort of like that field of dreams movie, build it and they will go to market. of course you can continue spending the next twenty years trying to bypass all those old sacred redwoods instead like ya been doing for the last 40 years.
and don't forget about the great seafood
Ernie,Been to a few refrigeration schools back in the day!!! A litle bit of Auto-fridge courtesy of Union 76 about 1970. Did two weeks basic course with Thermo-King in Minneappolis about 1978. And I don't remember Squat!!! LOL!
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