Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

 Sometimes we need to remember that not everything that we think we know is correct. Sometimes, huge numbers of people are supremely confident that they know something, but in fact they are flat wrong. So it is with the humble black walnut tree. Birds or squirrels or wood elves have been planting black walnuts all over our yard. An impressive feat, considering I've been unable to find such a tree within 200' of us. Why am I looking? Let me count the ways.  1. If you grow one for a few decades, the trunk's wood is worth thousands to woodworkers.  2. If you can get some of the ripe nuts (the squirrels are better and more persistent at it than we, sadly), they are really great, especially in ice cream ;) .  3. The mature black walnut tree is a great shade tree, and shade on your house can save you $1000s in eletricity cost over the decades, and help save the planet too (through less electricity use). 4. But today, for me, I need unripe green walnuts in order to make Noc...

  I keep wondering if we will see, this November, in some purple states like AZ and GA, whether the higher frequency of vax-denier COVID deaths results in some unexpected Democrat victories? Just asking in a neutral way; not gloating. I expect this November to be a disaster for the Dems...but when one side is killing itself off disproportionately and needlessly, we may see a weird voting pattern as a result, which actually favors the Dems. It will never make sense how the same Republican politicians who got the damn vaccine, nevertheless pooh-poohed the Coronavirus and encouraged their constituents to resist mask mandates and vax programs. Sure, that would make sense if the mask requirements and vaccines were flawed, but they weren't. The fax is 99.99% safe and incredibly effective at saving lives. The incredible arrogance of refusing to mask and refusing to get vaxxed, when the benefits are so plain, is astonishing. We had healthcare workers slaving away at all hours, to help us...