Plainville Turkey Phony

Mark Bitz, the owner of Plainville Turkey Farms, sold his family business to a large multinational conglomerate for an undisclosed, but presumably substantial, sum.

This is the same Mark Bitz that got up on a soapbox and cried that the dysfunctional NY State government was ruining his business and endangering his ability to pass the business that had been in his family for six generations onto his children.

Well, under this terrible NY State government, Plainville Farms doubled its sales in the past four years and seems poised to grow even more. The key to Plainville Farms success was not political reform, but being part of the lucrative niche maket of organic/ no hormone/natural foods–something that is becoming more popular as factory farming procedures continue to threaten the purity of our food and our nation’s health.

Now Bitz blithely remarks about his suddenly booming business: “The capital requirements have been really heavy duty,” Bitz said. “It isn’t a business any more that you just say to your children, ‘Here it is, see what you can do with it.’ “

Another 9/11 Casualty: The E.P.A.

The Missoula (Montana) Independent newspaper has published a fascinating article on the connections between the environmental casualties in both the mining community of Libby, Montana and the WTC in NYC. Not only did some of the asbestos that rained out over lower Manhattan on 9/11 come from the vermiculite mine in Libby, the two communities are both embroiled in battles with the E.P.A. over how to respond to asbestos poisoning.

Libby, Montana’s main employer, the giant W.R. Grace Co., is arguing that the E.P.A. should impose less stringent regulations on the clean up of Libby, based on the E.P.A.’s politically-motivated decision to declare the air safe around Ground Zero in the aftermath of the collapse of the WTC buildings.

Officials in NY are arguing that the much more stringent regulations that were being imposed on Libby, Montana by the E.P.A. prior to 9/11/01 should govern the clean up in N.Y.C.

Due to the Bush administration’s political manuevering after the 9/11 tragedy, the E.P.A. now has two incompatible positions on asbestos poisoning: “The discrepancy also reveals an EPA of two minds about asbestos cleanup, and the mind that prevails—for better or for worse—could set regulatory precedent for a whole host of toxic baddies.”

(9/11 Environmental Action>>SoHoJournal>>Gotham Gazette)

Bruce Tour Bypasses Syracuse, Again

Syracuse continues to suffer from its Bruce drought. Bruce has not played Syracuse since a November 13th, 1996 show at the Landmark Theatre on the Ghost of Tom Joad solo acoustic tour. Bruce played the Dome on November 13th, 1993 with a pick-up (non E Street) band for the Lucky Town/Human Touch tour. There has not been a full Bruce/E Street Band concert in Syracuse since January 27, 1985, the second of two Dome concerts on the Born In The USA tour.

The closest Bruce comes to Central N.Y. on his recently announced tour in support of the new album “Magic” is November 15th at the Times Union Center in Albany.

Trade in these wings on some wheels and head east down the Thruway! Tickets on sale soon.

My Saturday At The NY State Fair

My Saturday At The NY State Fair

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Dickey Betts: Dual lead guitars working out on the jazzy/bluesy “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.”

My Saturday At The NY State Fair Pt. 2

My Saturday At The NY State Fair

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

The Outlaws: The Florida Guitar Army cranks up the anthemic “Green Grass & High Tides.” Much woo-hoo ing, hook ‘em horns sign throwing and air guitar playing on my part. Free concert, right up front, Dinosaur BBQ feast before show. A perfect night in C.N.Y.

Spin The “Magic” Black Plastic, A Week Early

Springsteen will release his new album Magic on vinyl a week earlier than the CD release, apparently to make the deadline to be considered for the 2007 Grammy awards.

So, do I go out and buy a turntable or do I wait a week?

Ahhh, the irony. I was a vinyl holdout into the 1990’s. It became increasingly difficult to even find vinyl during that time. In fact, the inability to buy Lucky Town and Human Touch on vinyl (and being forced to suffer through pre-recorded cassette versions) was what finally convinced me to buy a CD player.

Now my vinyl is all hermetically sealed and stored away. My turntable is dead and buried . . .and buying Bruce on vinyl is hip again.

Red Sox: America’s New Home Team

The lead article in today’s USA Today says it all:

“Now it really is a Red Sox Nation. Boston (sorry, Yankees) has become baseball’s top attraction.”

Sell outs at home since May 2003, top attraction on the road, best record in baseball, World Series champs in 2004. Soak this in. The Red Sox are baseball.

(Now if we could only get some run support for Dice-K!)

It’s The Owner, Stupid!

Just recently I posted about the threat to enact
breed-specific (ie: anti-pit bull) legislation in Syracuse.

Today an excellent article about the demonization of the pit bull, “Pit Bulls Are Innocent”, has been posted on Salon by author Ken Foster. As he writes: “State proposals to ban pit bulls reflect society’s worst fears and prejudices. As the Michael Vick scandal has made clear, it is humans and not the dogs who are the criminals.”

Ex-Episcopal Minister Is A Rapist

Over at NYCO’s Blog (sporting a hip new design, by the way), is a reference to the case of the Episcopal minister, J. Edward Putnam who molested kids in 1992 while he was the rector at St. James Church in Skaneateles.

In a letter to the Post Standard, the former minister tries to pull off an amazing piece off sophistry. The ex-minister claims of his abusive behavior in 1992: “by 2007 standards, my engagement in these sessions is seen as falling within the lower end of a wide range of sexual misconduct.” He clearly wants us to believe that in 1992 such activities weren’t so clearly proscribed.

In his essay “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell wrote that the decline of our civilization and the decline of our language is inevitably linked:

“Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.”

That is the problem with modern discussions of “abuse.” The word hides the true nature of the act. This former episcopal minister wants us to believe that there is a whole range of abusive acts, some not so bad as others. Sometimes abuse is even discussed as a syndrome, part of a continuum of abused and abuser, further pushing the crime into the background.

The minister in question used his position of authority to coerce minors into having sex. There are any number of phrases which would make the situation clearer and not allow the disgraced ex-minister to downplay the heinous nature of his activities, but the best and clearest is this: he raped these children.

A dollar and a dream.

A dollar and a dream.

Given to me as change today.