Next Letter to the Editor

Thanks Dina for the nudge.

I was reading the local newspaper yesterday and came across a letter to the editor from a community parent, who I know quite well. Our kids went to school together, and our kids played sports together. Here is my reply.

Debi S. sent in a letter on August 29th questioning the emotional and radical content of left leaning letter writers. Debi, you refer to numerous letters written by "radical" elements that offer up apparently hollow reasoning. An even handed effort on your part could have easily brought attention to numerous "drive by shooting style" conservative based letters.

That said, I too prefer to see even handed, balanced type of dialogue in our community. I find myself in a quandry. I believe I possess far more conservative values than liberal values. I live in a very conservative community. Whenever we discuss politically related topics, I find myself being asked "how do YOU people intend to vote?", as if anyone not on the far right, is all the same type of voter. Honestly, I don't know what conservatives really stand for anymore. Conservatives are supposed to be fiscally conservative, yet I hear nothing from my conservative friends about about National Debt getting more than doubled in Bush's term in office. I hear nothing about literally tens of billions of dollars spent in Iraq reconstruction lost or unaccounted for. I hear nothing about about the treasonous activities of War profiteers. I hear nothing about about the very principlies this nation being founded upon, being shredded before our eyes. Loss of habeous corpus. Use of torture. The 911 comissions report being largely ignored. The bi-lateral Iraq study groups findings being ignored. The shameful lack of protective armor for our troops. The placement of totally incompetent crony's in crucial jobs domestically and abroad. I could go on an on, yet all I hear is silence.

Americans have to unite on common values, and demand changes. Debi, if you are a true conservative then get your friends together, and let's stand together and demand answers from our national leaders.

Harvest 2007

I think we all need a little diversion. The weather has really been different this year in the Sierra Foothills. The humdity seems way down. Even on the hottest of days, we have had very cool nights. This supposedly really helps grapes develop well rounded flavors.

I have a huge crop this year. I'm getting to be a much better farmer. We haven't had as much heat this year, so my harvest will be a little later this year. Right now, the Brix range (sugar content) of my grapes ranges from 15 - 19. I always try to harvest right around 26 Brix.

On average given some consistent sunny days, brix will move roughly 1.5 points a week. This means I could start harvest as soon as 5 weeks from now, or as late as 8 weeks from now.

We'll see. In the interim I'm ordering grapes from growers that probably will be processed before my grapes are ready. I'm making a white wine for the first time this year. Vermentino, and grape native to Sardinia, is my choice. That will probably be ready in about 3 weeks. In addition, I am buying some Syrah, Barbera, and Petite Sirah grapes.

Childs Play

II and I (that's three eyes mind you) had a rigorous discussion about our troops a while back. We both feel strongly we need to get the troops out of Iraq, however our ideas about doing so, differ. We are both strong critics of the supposed "War".

Here's the problem. Critics of Bush's Iraq war treat pro-war advocates as intellectual equals, or try to anyway. Then these critics are puzzled when factual discourse gives way to personal attacks. This is how a child fights. What critics ignore is that pro-war propaganda is simple and childishly deceptive for good reason. The Republican noise machine knows that its base doesn't know much about Middle East geopolitics, so if you mention Iraq and 9/11 together enough times they will assume that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. If you say we can't leave now because we're winning, they will believe that, too. Josef Goebbels once said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." Bush's advisers count on ignorance; ignorance about the history of the Iraq conflicts, ignorance of the historical "Great Game," ignorance about Bush's hidden agenda for the Middle East, and ignorance about the NeoCon philosophy of hegemony and the "Noble Lie." Bush's public statements always refer to "our enemy" or "they," never defining who "they" are. For many pro-war propaganda consumers the logic is childishly simple: "they" attacked us first, so we get to attack them back. Few ever question why "they" decided to attack us in the first place. These war lovers couldn't grasp the truth. The Bush administration made its case for war against Iraq not with explicit reasoned arguments but with carefully crafted and deliberately vague rhetoric designed to trigger fear and hatred. This is why well-reasoned political discourse has given way to unsupported opinion and vitriolic name-calling. Dumbed-down Bush-hawks respond to simplistic emotional diatribes, not to logic or reason, and certainly not to hard facts. By using “support the troops” as a rhetorical mainstay, the militarist right is essentially hiding behind the soldiers to avoid a serious discussion of the real reasons for and goals of the Iraq war. It’s an act of moral cowardice, pure and simple.