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No luau for the cowgirl

On March 14, the Merced Sun-Star reported that the former Cowgirl Chancellor of UC Merced, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, was an unsuccessful finalist for a university administrative position in Hawaii,

according to Robert Bley-Vroman, the search committee's chair.

On March 15, the paper reported that The cowgirl said she'd dropped out before the final selection and is now thinking about going to Atlanta to be with her family and maybe get a job with the Carter Center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter.

The cult of Valley followership

“In order to fight each other, the chicks born from the same mother hen put colors on their faces.” -- Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of study centers and active in working for peace during the war in Vietnam.

"You don't know who's swimming nekkid till the tide goes out." -- attributed to Warren Buffett, NPR Marketplace, March 9, 2007

Wisdom

“My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a plane. His son will ride a camel.”
- Anonymous Saudi Sheik – 1982

March 7, 2007
CommonDreams.org
Ghawar Is Dead! The Wide-Spread Use of Advanced Extraction Techniques are Killing the Mother of All Oil Fields, by Matthew S. Miller

Death's pork barrel in a blonde wig

Having gone to a war that is ending up as "Vietnam in the desert," and getting ready to start another one that could end up being "Waterloo in the sand," against nations accused of thinking about developing weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration in collaboration with UC Lawrence Livermore and UC Los Alamos national laboraties is set to fund development of a new generation of nuclear bombs.

UC indemnified against security violations spreading low levels of radiation over several states

We presume that UC Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory would also be indemnified if deadly toxins escaped the biowarfare laboratory it is proposing to build at Site 300 outside Tracy, or if depleted uranium from its experiments with bombs on Site 300 contaminate the groundwater.

What does a million-dollar fine for security violations that endanger the population mean if the violator has an indemnification agreement that lets it get off without paying the fine?

Maybe it's a symbol or an allegory or a metaphor.

Badlands Journal

Too bad they aren't fish

Bringing back the population of the Bald Eagle from 400 to 7,000 breeding pairs in 40 years is a magnificent national achievement that justifies the early environmental struggle to save them. Now, developer attorneys say that without looking into the avian mind, clearly an impossibility according to mouthpieces for growth, builders and wildlife officials will be unable to tell if construction a gated community on the banks of the Potomac will "disturb" nearby nesting Bald eagles or not.

The old ways are the only ways

The theme of the "old regime" is much discussed on the blogs this week. For the best article on the subject, we refer you to the Tomdispatch.com, Feb. 22, 2007, Was 2006 a Turning-Point Election? On the Road to 2008, by Steve Fraser:

Why Does the Ancien Régime Die?

UC Merced environmental permit update

"It (UC Merced) is not a good neighbor with environmental sensitivities, and it has continued to show us they have no regard for the process ... They have relied on political clout to circumvent environmental rules, and they can only bend the laws so far before the regulatory agencies say no." -- Lydia Miller, president San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center.

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