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Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted Nov. 15, 2006 at 1:05 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
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75 Comments
Ok this one is good, I work for Wal-Mart and I am the first to admit that it is not all surfy like the commercials. But this one falls into the “You need a hobby” area. It seem that the rumor has started that Wal-Mart has given a leading Gay and Lesbian organization a huge discount on their purchases.The fact is that the Gay& Lesbian organization is a member of a group that is like a camber of consumers. Along with among others, fourteen hundred religious organizations. Every member get a 5% discount of their purchases.With all that is going on in the world, why would someone want to make a big deal out of this?I still remember reading how a Catholic organization was calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart for selling the morning after pill. At the same time that Planned Parenthood was calling for a boycott against Wal-Mart for refusing to sell the morning after pill!
Shoot I am still waiting for the downfall from the Southern Baptist conference’s call to boycott Wal-Mart for selling Disney products over five years ago!
For the record, it wasn’t that Planned Parenthood was boycotting Walmart because they wouldn’t sell it, it was because the policy is that if the pharmacist has a problem selling it, they’re supposed to get another pharmacist that will.
I’m tired of the religious right dictating what others should do and passing moral judgement for their own decisions. There is a time element to that, every second that ticks away means those morning after pills might not be effective, resulting in the patient winding up at Tiller’s clinic instead. Morning after pills do NOT cause abortions, they have to be taken before the sperm meets the egg.
Birth control is a moral issue for many, no one should have to go against their values to appease another. If someone doesn’t want to dispense the morning after pill, then they probably shouldn’t work in a pharmacy, but if someone owns a pharmacy, it is their right not to sell it if they believe it’s immoral.My father had a grocery store the whole time I was growing up, he would sell magazines because he didn’t like the content of some of them. He was told that he couldn’t pick and choose which ones to sell, that it came as a package deal, therefore he refused to sell any. People may have wanted to buy them, but it was his right not to sell them.There are plenty of places that will dispense the morning after pill, no one should be forced to against their will. If you don’t want someone shoving their beliefs down your throat, then don’t try to do it to them.I believe in the morning after pill and would have no issue with dispensing it, and I think birth control is the best thing since sliced bread, but my elderly Catholic aunt disagrees, and that’s her right.
PS, what are you doing up so early, PM?I’m getting ready to go do a flu clinic, have to be there at 6:45, yuk!
Getting ready to leave for work. Sorry you have to work the flu clinic, that is yuk!
Flu clinic? Free flu shots? Where / When?
DAY 2127
Presidency held hostage:797 Days left.
Congress held hostage:52 Days left
HAVE A NICE DAY
New York Times:
EditorialWhat’s Right With Kansas
It would be remiss to finish the election post-mortems without noting a major shift in the nation’s heartland. Kansas — lately considered the reddest of red states — emerged from the election as a bastion of moderation.
Just two years after President Bush carried the state by 25 percentage points, Kansas voters rebelled against continued domination of the state’s politics by the sharply conservative state Republican Party. The Democratic Party posted major gains, including some by former Republicans who switched parties.
The moderate Democratic governor, Kathleen Sebelius, received a whopping 58 percent of the vote to secure her re-election. Three moderate Republicans holding statewide jobs also won easy re-election, two of them after beating back conservative challengers in the primary. And two of the four people elected to the House of Representatives were Democrats, a result that would have seemed inconceivable not too long ago.
Victories by moderate Democrats and Republicans ended conservative control of the Kansas State Board of Education, which tried to replace evolution with creationism in public school classrooms.
And for us, one of the most satisfying results was the resounding defeat of Attorney General Phill Kline, an anti-abortion zealot who gained national notoriety by misusing his office to further his ideology. He tried to force health care workers to file reports on the sexual activity of teens, and to seize women’s confidential medical records. That gross assault on privacy and legal rights was a major issue in the campaign. The 58-to-42 landslide that elected a former Republican, Paul Morrison, was a victory for moderation and the rule of law.
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/1016/040.html?partner=yahoomag
Hedge funds have gotten rich from credit derivatives. Will they blow up?The downfall of Amaranth Advisors, the hedge fund that lost $6 billion in a single week by betting on natural gas, was a special case. There was no domino effect taking down energy traders generally, no meltdown of an industry. But if you want to fret over the next financial catastrophes, turn your gaze away from energy futures and focus on something far more obscure: credit default swaps. Hedge funds are neck-deep in these derivatives, and if something goes wrong, the pain will be widespread.
A credit swap is an insurance policy on a bond, often a junk bond. The fellow selling the swap–writing the policy, that is–collects a premium. If nothing goes wrong, he pockets the premium and looks like a financial genius. But if the bond defaults, the swap seller has to make good. The notional amount–the aggregate of bonds, loans and other debt covered by credit default swaps–is now $26 trillion. This is a staggering sum, twice the annual economic output of the U.S.
Hedge funds account for 58% of the trading in these derivatives, says Greenwich Associates, a financial research firm. Selling protection has been a big moneymaker for funds like $23 billion (assets) D.E. Shaw and $12 billion Citadel, say market participants, and for specialized outfits like Primus Guaranty (nyse: PRS – news – people ) in Bermuda, which took in $57 million in the first half of 2006 selling protection on $1.6 billion in debt.
Prseident Bush signed documents that guided CIA torture practices (including waterboarding).http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/14/news/intel.php
No wonder they wanted to give immunity to everyone who was involved in torture in the Military Commmissions Act. He was covering his ass! Can we PLEASE impeach now?
…and might I direct you all tot he front page of the Salina Journal today?
http://www.saljournal.com/
There is a most excellent article about how the Kansas Water Office, under the leadership of governor leaderships political lackeys, overestimated how much water could be sold from Kanopolis before it went dry.
Seems like the Post Rock Rural Water District wants to sell the Russell ETHANOL plant more water, now from Kanopolis, since Russell and Hays are well on their way to successfully draining Cedar Bluff and robbing the region of all those recreation and tourism dollars.
After that little Democrat political gang rape at Cedar Bluff, they are now turning their sights to Kanopolis to quench their never ending thirst at the ethanol plant.
heheheh. And the Kansas Water Office, under the leadership of governor leadership’s own darth cheney, the bastid formerly known as Joe Harkins, they MISCALCULATED how much water could be SOLD from Kanopolis before it went dry?
Incompetence and corruption doesnt just reside in D.C. apparantly. It also resides in Topeka at the Kansas Water Office.
And talk about circular logic. The reason Kanopolis is going dry? No flow in the Smoky. Why? Um… because Russell and Hays are already sucking the water out of the river BEFORE it gets to Kanopolis. And now they want Kanopolis?
Oh, they also blame irrigators out west who are draining the aquifer. Irrigators like Steve Irsik? Ya know him? Governor Leadership’s political appointment to lead the Kansas Water Board. And a MAJOR political contributor to her campaigns.
Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
S let’s review… sebelius’s campaign contributors and bureucratic buddies are draining the aquifer, sucking all the lakes along the Smoky dry, and doing it with the blessings of Joe Harkins and Steve Irsik?
stay tuned for the rest of “as the water turns” in kansas.
Will the Russell/Hays evil axis EVER have enough water? How many lakes, and the associated economic boons, have to be drained BEFORE we wake up and realize that irrigation, water pigs, and ethanol plants and their associated corn growing buddies are draining the last drop of water from the state?
Sigh. Someone’s gonna hafta go thirsty before this state wakes up to the political rape of it’s water resources.
With most everyone in this blog concentrating on everything that is negative, if the news was the only source of information, I wouldn’t want to live in the U.S. either.
I guess we might as well cancel Thanksgiving, as no one has anything to be thankful for.
An interesting Fox “News” internal memo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/11/14/fox-news-internal-memo-_n_34128.html
I’m VERY thankful that the republicans are out of power in both houses of congress….
I am very THANKFUL that phillllll lost the election….
I am even MORE THANKFUL that bonbon is gonegone….
And I am ecstatic that susan “I own bingo parlours but you cant vote on gambling” wagle will NOT be the next lite gov….
heheheheh
Oh yeah. BIG turkey at my house this year!
Oh, and did I mention how happy I am that Ted Haggard and the little ayatollah, terry fox, have been exposed for what they are?
And how really thankful I am that bob corkins will soon be gone now that sanity has SOME chance of returning to the KBOE?
Now, my holiday wish is that bias boy, the shill formerly known as values boy, would disappear from the WE? At least from the editorial page? Why not put him and Cal “I’m finally completely unhinged” Thomas on the official “whacko” page of the WE?
heheheheheheh
One person’s negativity is another person’s reasons to be thankful. It’s called perspective JM. Ya ought to try it sometime.
The torture thing; if Bush lied about it, then he should pay the price, but aren’t you guys tired of being held to a different standard?
How do you think the terrorists treat our POWs? Can you remember the US being in a war or “Police Action” where our soldiers weren’t tortured and murdered?
These butt wipes are blowing up kids daily on purpose, but should we hit the wrong building or there is collateral damage, we are just horrible.
The freakin Germans and Russians were selling, installing, and supporting GPS scramblers at the beginning of this war. Our smart bombs were driven off course by these devices. The world went up in arms because we bombed the wrong building. Why didn’t the world rise up against the CAUSE. The Russians and Germans?????
I say to hell with it. If you are going to CUT THE HEADS off our troops, don’t even think about whining about water boarding.
Bias boy= values boy. Got it. Pass it on.
I haven’t read Cal yet. Anybody notice he went completely nuts after he shaved off his moustache?
Thankful? More so this year than last. Personal and political reasons.
Junior Eats Shit, Calls Poppy For Help… AgainBob Cesca
Anyone who continues to live under the delusion that President Bush is a competent, strong leader who stands on his own skill and talent needs to seriously re-evaluate his or her concept of strong leaders who stand on his or her own skill and talent. And for these remaining 31 percent who believe President Bush continues to do a heckuva job, I strongly recommend they carefully place corks on all their forks before hurting themselves… and others. That’s not to say they’re idiots, but this sort of continued support despite the myriad of facts to the contrary is, at best, dangerous.
Read the rest of it at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/junior-eats-shit-calls-p_b_34059.html
heheheh RD
I think the betting line now is whether the boy king will step down out of boredom or frustration, or if he will simply stop showing up for work, again, out of boredom or frustration.
I mean, you know. Kinda like he did with his National Guard stint?
He just stopped showing up and poppy’s cronies covered up the tracks in the litter box.
Deja Vu anyone?
Strange days.
The whole Rumsfeld thing told me we were into new territory.
What was that? “Sorry I screwed up! Here I’ll put a bullet in Rummy and all’s well ok?”
?
I have no luck asking for threads. But a thread with the Newsweek cover of bush and his daddy BEGS comment!
“With most everyone in this blog concentrating on everything that is negative, if the news was the only source of information, I wouldn’t want to live in the U.S. either.”
JM I don’t understand knowledge is power if you view the exchange of knowledge and information as a negative thing than let me be the first to apologize for bringing you down.
Sorry!
HaHaHa, what a joke, new and improved congress, my backside!
By Kurt Nimmo
Lest we forget who runs Congress, consider the following “briefing” posted on the AIPAC website yesterday:
“AIPAC reached nearly every lawmaker elected in Tuesday’s mid-term congressional elections as part of its effort to educate political candidates on the value of the U.S.-Israel relationship. During the campaign that ended Tuesday, nearly every viable candidate met with AIPAC professional staff members and submitted a position paper summarizing his or her views on U.S. Middle East policy. A non-partisan organization, AIPAC has for decades worked with Republican and Democratic members of Congress to strengthen the ties between the United States and Israel.”
Translation: Nearly every lawmaker, except the few stragglers hiding out in bathroom stalls or the cloakroom, was told he or she best tow the AIPAC-Israel line, or suffer short tenure in Congress. Part of this process is obviously the forced submission of a “position paper summarizing his or her views on U.S. Middle East policy,” that is to say the targeted politico must state in writing that he or she will enthusiastically support Israel killing Palestinians, stealing their land, and running those able to run off, in short a nod and a wink in the direction of ethnic cleansing.
Finally, AIPAC let us know they are “non-partisan,” that is to say they have both Democrats and Republicans in their pocket.
Meet the new Congress, same as the old Congress.
Full articlehttp://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=10744
V.L.R.B!!
KFG, DAMN, I sure wish I could be there for the big turkey.I’m POSITIVE that voting the bums out was POSITIVELY the right thing to do.
The politicians are afraid of the Jewish vote. Both sides. If you sever ties with Israel, then you forfeit the Jewish vote and get ostracized by everyone afraid of the Jewish vote.
We need to either get the Israelis shit together or wean them off the tit. They are dragging us down with them. The Islamics equate Israel with the US.
hee hee hee Tracy.
Cornbread stuffing and fresh cranberry relish. Green bean cassarole and buttered corn. Sweet potatoes with lots of butter and brown sugar. Mashed potatoes with real butter and cream. Oceans of gravy, and the obligatory apple and pumpkin pies. Oh yea, and yeast rolls too!!!!
Friday night is Mexican night at the restaurant. Hopefully, by then, everyone will be tired of turkey and will NEED to get the family out of the house. heheheheh
The title of this article is “more of the same? Not this congress”.
We can only hope.
heheh. And Ian should love that it is written by Jesse Jackson….
http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/134858,CST-EDT-jesse14.article
“These butt wipes are blowing up kids daily on purpose, but should we hit the wrong building or there is collateral damage, we are just horrible.”
What part of two wrongs don’t make a right do you not get, Devo?
We don’t control the insurgents. Our tax dollars don’t fund them. Our leaders don’t send them into a war zone.
Just because they are horrible butchers does not justify our being equally horrible or even somewhat as horrible.
Duh.
Would you argue that a leftist should be able to blow up Fox News because right-winger Tim McVey blew up the Murrah Building in Ok City?
Get a clue.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. OK so we fight with our hands tied around our balls while the terrorists have a field day. Shut the fuck up. That’s what got our asses kicked in Viet Nam.
What does all this valiancy get us? We’re still scorned by the world.
If we go out there and just kick the living shit out of the “bad guys” as viciously as they attack us, then who would have the canastas to mess with us again?
sol – is that why we invaded the country of origin of the hijackers – Saudi Arabia? OOPS! We didn’t do that.
I’m not saying we invaded the right country. I’m not saying that Bush did ANYTHING right. I am saying I am sick and tired of the US being held to the highest of standards while our enemies use the most horrific strategies imaginable.
I’m tired of Russia helping the terrorists and we get blamed for the result of their actions. Same with Germany. I am tired of our kids being tortured and murdered while we get harassed about the treatment of the POWs.
The double standard really sucks you know? Why should we abide by the Geneva convention when our enemy doesn’t.
Sol,
We helped those terrorists, too. We put some of them in power.
So just who IS the good guy in this? Or is there one?
Sol – so, other than resisting our presence in their country, just how are Iraqis attacking us?
By the way, we trained and armed many of the insurgents. They are factions of the Iraqi Security forces.
“resisting our presence in their country”
That is such an eloquent way of describing an IED removing body parts from a soldier.
We went to Iraq, dismantled their government, put another government in place, and unleashed a civil war that has been brewing for decades. OK. That was a fuck up on our part.
What remains is that we have soldiers engaged every day. I bet they don’t really give a shit about the politics of this when they are being fired upon.
Who are the “bad guys”? The mother fuckers trying to kill our troops. I’ll quote someone from earlier “DUH”.
I’m betting there isn’t one Marine or Soldier over there that gives a shit that we trained some of these assholes or that we put some of them in power. I bet they just want to see dead zealots and the bullets to stop flying.
Sol – and just what would YOU want to do to an occupying army in OUR country? Give the coffee and chocolates? Or might you consider them to be the “bad guys”?
BushDaBum has put our troops in harms way in a very bad manner.
So, I guess the only answer is to exterminate the Iraqi population?
I hope kfg cooks 2 turkeys, 1 for her fat self and 1 for her guests and family. Pray for her kids they will need it.
tomturkey,1. KFG has been insulted by better people than you so don’t even bother.2. She doens’t have any kids but she’d be an excellent mother if she did.
What’s a rayroser?
Gosh, thanks Julie. And Tracy.
And to tom… heheheheheheheheheh
We are amused, and we do encourage you to try again…..
Oh, but the right side of the blog is oh so civilized. hee hee hee hee
It’s nice to have readers.Must be a soap opera thing.They’re not sure wich one of us they hate the most, but just can’t quit watching. HA.
You stay in the car Tracy, I can handle the hatred……
I just did a bonedig for any relevant post or original thought from poster tom.
Uh….I didn’t find anything.
Aw, come on girl.I want my fair share!Guess I could argue with Nathan some more….naw, boring.
so… I see the WE finally caught up with the Salina Journal today about the Kansas Water Office’s little “boo boo” regarding Kanopolis. A little late for the WE, but better than never I guess.
I especially like this part of the article about the GIANT miscalculations by both the Kansas Water Office and the Army Corp of Engineers.
“The Water Office acknowledged Tuesday that it might have misjudged the amount of water available from Kanopolis, after an analysis by The Salina Journal showed that a 2002 study greatly overestimated that amount.”
Well, DUH!!!! In a word, politics? Water being used as political currency? Say it isnt so…
Oh, and BTW, do ya think politics might have caused the KWO and Wildlife and Parks to make a similar GIANT mistake about how much water Russell’s ethanol plant and the city of hays could draw out of Cedar Bluff Reservoir before IT fell below the freakin’ DEAD POOL level?
I’m tellin’ ya about this sebelius administration’s “rumsfeldian” level of incompetence and chicanery regarding water policy.
Hear me now, believe me later.
Hope you arent too thirsty to talk by then… heheheheheheheh
Devo–
Okay, I thought you were capable of rational thought.
My bad.
The military had nothing to do with our loss in Vietnam. We lost 58,000 men and we killed some 2 million enemy combatants, way more than 10 to 1, 20 to 1, more like 35 to 1.
No enemy–German, Jap or Russian ever took casualties like the Vietnamese took them.
Vietnam was lost for one simple reason–no South Vietnamese gov’t capable of leadership.
And why? Because after we killed Diem for refusing to be enough of a puppet, nobody really wanted the job.
They WERE good at salting away US taxpayer money in secret accounts however . . .
Oh, and did I mention, the water that Steve Irsik, (sebelius campaign contributor, head of the Kansas Water Board, and irrigator of the most aggregious magnitude) pumps out of the aquifer, comes mostly from… wait for it…
The Ark River Basin?
Ya know, the same one Wichita uses for most of it’s water? And the Circle C Ranch, governor leadership’s payoff to buy out hays and russell from their GIANT mistake of buying it, lies in the
wait for it… ARK River watershed?
Heheheheh. Steve irrigates and runs the water board while wichita worries about the future of its water supplies? And russell’s ethanol plant sucks the water out of western kansas?
Do you know how many OTHER ethanol plants are on line to be built in the Ark Basin? At least one by Dodge City, and two others in SW kansas.
Heheheh. Hays and Russell bought the Circle C, under the leadership of John Bird, Hays city attorney and governor leadership’s buddy.
They bought it BEFORE they realized ya cant, under Kansas water law, transfer water from one basin to another. Like from the Ark basin to the Smoky basin, which the Circle C debacle would have done.
Smart move, eh? And now, the gov and mikey hayden want to bail out their stupid asses by letting the state BUY the Circle C ranch, at a price at least one million dollars over its current appraised value?
If I got my water from the Ark Basin, I’d damn sure learn the lessons from Hays’ and Russell’s rape of the Smoky Basin.
Those who dont learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Better fill yer canteens now…
Meanwhile, in the world of 5 and 6 year old pee wee football, a coach allegedly assaults and batters an 18 year old referee:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/nfl/11/15/youth/index.html
CNN.com reports that former HHS secretary Tommy Thompson is viewing entering the 2008 race for president.
KSFARMGRRL: THANKS FOR BRINGING US AN UPDATE ON THE SEVERE WATER PROBLEMS FACING KANSAS AND WICHITA.
WE HERE IN WICHITA DO HAVE A POWERFUL DRINKING HABIT — WE LIKE TO HAVE A GLASS OF WATER FROM TIME TO TIME … AND A BATH!
I WONDER IF SEDGWICK COUNTY SHOULD CONSIDER BUYING THE CIRCLE C RANCH TO GUARANTEE IT’S UNDERGROUND AQUIFER WATER REMAINS IN THE ARKANSAS RIVER BASIN?
BUT SEDGWICK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PROBABLY WOULDN’T BE INTERESTED BECAUSE THEIR REDICULOUS PRIORITY IS TO BUILD AN UNNEEDED, UNWANTED WHITE ELEPHANT DOWNTOWN ICE HOCKEY ARENA FOR $250,000,000.98 (A 1/4 BILLION DOLLARS PLUS SNACKS FOR SUPPORTERS). THE PRESENT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (UNTIL DECEMBER 31ST) AREN’T INTERESTED IN INVESTING IN ANYTHING THAT IS ACTUALLY NEEDED SUCH AS DRINKING WATER.
PRIORITIES ANYONE?
Well said, Jwink (although the all-caps will probably put some people off).
I feel more secure about the water supply in my community. . .in the middle of a desert. . .
Rage: Thanks for your comments. My question is, which desert? And from where do you get your drinking water? JWink
Water in Kansas……
Well folks I will tell you this.
I’m a fairly intelligent, inquisitive, studious person.
Until I met my friend kansasfarmgrrl I was TOTALLY unaware of this issue.
Now, what does that tell us?
Well I think it says that on the high side of better than 95% of people in the state have no knowledge of the gravity of this issue. That’s scary.
I’m not lucky lately calling for threads. Do we think this subject warrants an occasional thread? My vote is yes. But like I say, I’m just one voice the editors don’t seem to hear.
What say you bloggers? Water in Kansas?
I vote for a Water in Kansas thread.
Local issues are just as important as global/ political ones as they hit close to home.
What exactly is wrong with the water in Kansas? Are we talking pollution or a lack of water?
Will
Go back and re-read.
The issue is lack of water and bad water management.
Thanks for the vote.
I have also appreciated ksfg’s reporting on the water issue. It has hopefully brought this real issue to the attention of those who read and think, and may have heretofore been ignorant of the problem.
It is not a surprise to me; I have been wary of the so-called “water policy” for many years. I, however, will state my being unaware of the situation being as bad as it appears to be.
Yes, a water thread might be helpful; I’ll vote for it. However, unless or until those in a position to affect the policy get serious, we can post all we want, and nothing will change.
“However, unless or until those in a position to affect the policy get serious, we can post all we want, and nothing will change.”
No hurry VT, governor leadership has four.more.years to waste and try to duck out of the issue before she runs for something else and let’s it be THEIR problem?
Anyone for a quick game of pass the buck?
She personally and WILLFULLY allowed hays and russell to rape the Smoky. You think she wants to own up to that? Her position on Clinton reservoir is exactly opposite to her stated position on Cedar Bluff. Why is that?
A little town called hays and a little attorney named john bird, backed up by a hack named john montgomery and rubber stamped by a guy named joe harkins?
All democrat political operatives lined up at the trough for payoff? WITH YOUR WATER?
You dont think her POLITICAL appointments could stop it? Stop the NEW ethanol plants and reign in the Russell one?
They could. They should. They dont want to. THEY WONT.
Why should they? She cant afford to lose the dem bastion of hays and its little dog russell.
I vote for a water thread too, but it would be nice if I wasnt the only poster.
Wanna bet we get it over the weekend when I cant post?heheheheheheh
ksfg, if we get one, I’ll be posting too (unless it’s on the weekend, when generally I can’t post either, due to myriad reasons).
It is rather unsettling to realize that so many folks have no idea that there is a water problem (both quantity and quality). Perhaps my take on this is colored by growing up on a farm, the effects of the 50s drought on family business, etc., but people, we have a problem here in Kansas, and, so far, I haven’t seen too many real efforts to address it in any meaningful way.
“so far, I haven’t seen too many real efforts to address it in any meaningful way.”
Some of us out here have tried. Look at the votes cast for governor leadership out here in 2002, and then in 2006. She lost ground out here big time. Not that she gives a rat’s ass. She doesnt need us, and in fact, her former chief of staff personally told me there arent enough votes in western kansas to matter.
Problem is, a lot of your water is eaten up out here by the water pigs before it ever reaches you. Water runs down hill, remember?
No, you wont see this addressed in any meaningful way until governor leadership leaves office. And until all the water pigs have been paid off. Using YOUR water as currency.
Or until more people in the east go thirsty.
Wanna bet which one happens first?
From a friend’s blog.
One perspective from Ellsworth about the Kansas Water Wars.
I wonder what mike hayden DID tell the water officials meeting in Great Bend.
WE? Any chance on us reading something about it tomorrow? Or will we have to wait for Linda at the Ellsworth paper or someone at the Salina Journal?
http://www.kansasprairie.net/blog1/blogindex.htm
ksfg, I, too, would like to know what Mike Hayden had to say. What about it, Eagle? Or did you even send a reporter?
Regretfully, I suspect it will be those in the Eastern part of the state going thirsty that will provide the political impetus for something to change. The shift of population almost dictates this result. Hopefully, there will be some water left to argue about then.
“My question is, which desert? And from where do you get your drinking water? JWink”
Tucson, AZ. Most of it is groundwater, but there’s also CAP water from the Colorado River. Sustainable? Hardly. But at least our leaders (both Pima County and municipal) are well aware of the issues, and are working on it. They stress conservation constantly, and use non-potable water for tasks that don’t require it to be drinking quality.
To be fair, when you live in a desert, a mentality that cherishes water is more likely to develop than in the Great Plains.
But one would think that the dwindling of Wichita’s only existing water supply would get someone’s attention. . .
IIRC, on early maps of the continental United States, the part of the continent labeled as the “American Desert” included at least what is now Western Kansas. Perhaps those folks knew something that has been forgotten in the subsequent centuries.
Exploration of appropriate uses of nonpotable water needs to occur, as does emphasis on conservation, or we are going to be very thirsty, sooner rather than later.
Vaughn: Unknown to those early explorers of western Kansas — under western Kansas and Nebraska and portions of Oklahoma and eastern Colorado — there existed underground in the sandy subbase, a huge aquifer of ancient water. This underground aquifer known as the Ogallala Aquifer is said by geologists to have contained as much water as Lake Superior.
I can’t recall now when this vast underground aquifer was recognized but I would guess by 1880. Of course, it has been pumped incessantly for over 100 years since. I don’t know if anyone knows how much water remains but most geologists think not much. Just like oil, it will run out sooner than later.
Can we get along without drinking water and flushing toilets?
Another little known problem is salt getting into our fresh water central Kansas Rivers (Arkansas River, north and south Ninnescah branches, and the Chikaskia River)somehow leaching up from the salt layers below ground.
Can we afford to allow industrial companies to take our remaining water for the many ethonal plants being proposed and built in Kansas?
Rage: Is there enough space around Tucson, Arizona, for 150,000 Wichitans who are OPPOSED to the unwanted, unneeded $250,000,000.98 white elephant downtown ice hockey arena that is being foisted off on the us here in Wichita? As you might or might not know, two of our county commissioners who supported the arena were voted out of office this week!
Now if remaining county commissioners, Dave Unruh, Tom Winters and Tim Norton would resign in abject shame, Wichita would be so much better off.
JWink, have been aware of the salt leaching issue for some time. For whatever reason, this, too, is greatly ignored/unknown to policy makers, among others.
For sure, we cannot afford the proposed ethanol plants’ effect on our water supply. As ksfg has pointed out on multiple occasions, this does not resonate with our EcoDev folks.
Re your comment on the water in the Ogallala Aquifer being depleted, much as oil has been; this is the reason that the IRS, about 20 – 25 years ago in a Private Letter Ruling, IIRC, approved a taxpayer taking a deduction for depletion for water usage. I don’t know if that policy statement still is in effect; but, at the time, it was greeted by tax professionals of my acquaintance as a long overdue recognition of reality (not to mention its favorable effects on their clients’ income taxes D)).
As I have bored readers of this Blog with in the past, our younger daughter attends Colby College; they have recently completed one new building, and are completing another new building, which have been designed (and in the case of the completed building, certified) to be Environmentally Responsible. One of the features of both: holding tanks for “grey water”, which is then used for toilet flushing. These are things more entities, public and private, need to take into account in future construction.
The Dakota aquifer contains brackish water; as the overlying Ogalalla is sucked dry it can migrate upwards. Hays is already having to deal with this. Another salt problem is a big plume in the Equus coming from improperly disposed brine from oil production.
Thanks, hmmm, for filling in a blank I left originally concerning the effects of improper brine disposal from oil field drilling and operation on the Equus Beds.
Vaughn Tolle: Kansas City, Missouri and Johnson County, Kansas, get most if not all of their drinking water from the Missouri River. Johnson County found the Kansas River to be unreliable in volume so ran a transmission line across Wyandotte County to the Missouri River.
K.C., Missouri’s water department distributes its water to many of the suburbs on the Missouri side. Bottom-line is their drinking water comes from the Missouri River so is minimally influenced by the drawing down of the Ogallala aquifer.
On the other hand, I suspect that Manhattan, Topeka and Lawrence do draw water from the Kansas River or from wells into the Kansas River underflow. The western Kansas portion of the Kansas River tributaries might receive some water from the Ogallala, I don’t know.
I would like to see some expert geologist’s comments on this Kansas water situation.
Ben is our geologist science guy. He seems to be on vacation this week.
I will try to call for a water thread again when he and kfg can be present. A Tuesday or Wednesday start would be good as kfg is very busy on the weekends.
So ethanol/water doom and gloomers, what are your alternative energy solutions?
Cow udders are much more efficient Kolkossalli.
It would be my guess that Kolkossalli is a paid spammer. :)
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Format A4, z 2 ozdobnymi listewkami + sznurek do zawieszenia + folia dekoracyjna.
“Opinia publiczna powinna by? zaalarmowana swoim nieistnieniem. Stanis?aw Jerzy Lec (pierw. de Tusch – Letz, 1909-1966)”