I admire those bloggers who put up new, interesting, thought
provoking and often funny posts frequently.
No matter how much I tell myself that I will strive to post more often,
I consistently fail in that goal. For
that, please accept my apology.
It certainly isn’t due to the fact that I don’t have
something to say about a lot of things.
It may be that there are just too many things that grab my attention. At
this time it is mostly politics. The problem,
however, is that I wouldn’t be satisfied with X = BAD and Y = GOOD. It’s not that strictly opinion pieces are
inherently faulty or bad, it is that personally I feel the need to support my
opinion with relevant references. I
attribute that to my scientific background and the importance of citations when
presenting a “theory.” For me, putting
up my viewpoint in a blog post is much like a debate of one. If you, the reader, are to accept my point
of view on a certain topic you deserve more than just my opinion. It is important that you understand how I
arrived at that opinion. Finding those
sources isn’t always easy, even with the internet and it takes time, which I
don’t always have.
The internet is full of unfounded accusations, conspiracy
theories based upon little or no proof, along with ongoing memes that won’t die
even though they are clearly ridiculous to me.
Unfortunately it has become common for too many people to limit their
information sources to one or two people, one network, one news source or a
specific blog. I certainly understand
that people are busy, they may not have access to the technology necessary to
do their own investigation and/or they simply aren’t curious enough to dig a
bit deeper on some or many subjects. And
recent studies have shown that human nature is to listen to those with whom we
agree. That, in turn, keeps us away from
alternate perspectives and, in many cases, limits additional pertinent information.
There are certain people in the media whose veracity I
trust. They include the Nobel Prize
winning economist, Paul Krugman, along with former Secretary of Labor, Robert
Reich, Charlie Pierce, the Politics Blog columnist for Esquire magazine, both
Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris Perry who anchor their own shows on MSNBC and
linguistic professor George Lakoff. The
one federal politician that I consistently listen to is Senator Bernie
Sanders. Of course, my informed life,
along with a good bit of laughter, wouldn’t be complete without Jon Stewart and
The Daily Show.
The blogs I turn to on a regular basis include Alternet, Treehugger,
Vox Felina and Sky Dancing. These blogs
cover politics, the environment and cats (especially issues relating to feral
cats). For humor and common sense
wisdom, The Eco Cat Lady Speaks can’t be beat, IMHO. I read other blogs, along with news articles,
but not as regularly as I check in on the above mentioned sites.
Right now Florida is back in the headlines. There are three big stories that have brought
focus on my state once again. The
Republican National Committee (RNC) will be holding their presidential convention in Tampa, Florida beginning tomorrow, August 27th. Due to the tropical storm, Isaac, which is
now between Cuba and the Florida Keys, the RNC has postponed the kick off of
the convention to Tuesday afternoon.
Tampa sits directly on Florida’s west coast and concerns about high
winds, storm surge and possible flooding have elicited concern for the attendees. And the third attention grabber? Florida’s former Republican governor, now an
independent, Charlie Crist has endorsed President Obama in the upcoming
election. It seems that Florida’s public
relations team is doing a bang up job keeping our state on the national and
international radar. For me, however, my
main concern is when and where Isaac will make landfall.
The news will cover the human lives and homes
impacted. What is generally missing from
these natural disaster stories, however, is the impact on the environment and
the wildlife. That is the coverage I care
about the most. Another blog that I
check in on from time to time is Barrier Island Girl (http://barrierislandgirl.blogspot.com/2012/08/countdown-to-isaac.html)
. The author lives in Pensacola Beach,
located on Florida’s Panhandle. She is a
wonderful photographer and a volunteer turtle observer. Storms this season have already destroyed a
number of sea turtle nests, preventing the eggs from hatching. Now there is the possibility of losing the
remaining nests.
All species of sea turtles, throughout the world, are
critically endangered (find out more about sea turtles here: http://www.conserveturtles.org/) . The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico two
years ago killed 613 turtles - that is the
official count (http://dailydeadbirds.com/).
That official number doesn’t include those turtles who weren’t counted because
they didn’t wash ashore or when they did they went uncounted.
Most hatchlings don’t survive under normal
conditions, so when the populations have been so severely impacted due to human
causes, the survival of each and every hatchling becomes all that more
important. From past experience, I feel
certain you won’t be reading any stories about these losses should higher tides
due to Isaac inundate the coastline bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Frankly, I could care less if a bunch of
Republicans get wet or have to stay inside their hotel rooms. My thoughts are on those beaches and turtle
nests imperiled by the coming storm, along with all of the other non-human
animals whose lives and homes are in Isaac’s path.
UPDATE - 08/26/12 3:56 PM EST - 3 nests hatched last night. DJ of Barrier Island Girl got a message from one of her blog followers & headed to the nest. Those nestlings were shepherded into the Gulf by 9PM last night. Two other turtle volunteers were at the other 2 nests last night. Isaac is projected to increase the tides on Tuesday night. Fingers crossed more nests will hatch today and tonight.
