Tag: consumerism

Know Your Farmer

Oh, okay. Well, does this AP story bother anyone else? Makes you want to know your farmer. If you think you might like, you can read the FDA draft and then make public comments for the next couple of months.

And as a refresher, you can read labels on your produce too to see if you are consuming genetically engineered food.

Just so you know how this came to my brain, I was reading Nature Moms Blog and this item was mentioned in one of the comments. I followed the story to get to an “unbiased” news source.

Buy My Friends’ Way Cool Stuff

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My pal Tracy is selling at auction this silvery cheeked hornbill and macaw feathered, white buckskin with detachable seed beaded handle, peoyte pow wow fan. Maybe I didn’t sell it right, but the part that’s the best is that Tracy is nothing if not practical. Therefore, this fan moves air. She will custom bead the darn thing too! Tracy is a member of the Caddo Tribe in Oklahoma and my algebraic bff from back in the day when we ignored equations in favor of geometric applications to friendship bracelets. Finally, without being related to anything, she has shampoo commercial hair and crystal clear skin.

Oh, but Tracy isn’t my only gifted artist friend. I have tons, and another one selling her wares is Anneliese. The girl has an etsy store. She’s also a friend from high school, but she did real math and was even a member of Mu Alpha Theta. Of course, it did nothing to cure her of her quirky greatness.

If you’ve been following, and I presume you haven’t, I am pro-handmade gifts. I’m not prepared to make, give, or sell my own goods, so I have to do some searching. I found this Indie Collective that may help expand my shopping sources of handmade goodness.

ON EDIT: Tracy gets her fan handles from waste at new home and remodel construction sites. She sells them just like that too. Her feathers are naturally molted and cruelty free. So, see? Way cooler than I expressed. And she has photos of herself with her grandmother and a table of fans.

Can I have a napkin, please?

Once or twice a year we go to the mall to see a first run movie on Jesse’s insistence. Though I protest publicly, I secretly think Jesse is correct that my miserly, hermit-like ways will deprive my kids of what little joy there is in Generamerica. If I had a show like this waiting for me, we’d go to the mall for more than just $9.50/person air conditioning and $7 popcorn.

Public displays like this, which Cassandra brought to my attention, may very well be the answer to our sluggish economy. Dinner and a show at the mall (Dinner in the sense of noon-day meals and not this “lunch” stuff, right my fellow Oklahomans?) might keep me around for a goo-gaw purchase as well. OH! Maybe the stores could stock stuff I’d feel good about buying then I’d get multiple goo-gaws. That would be totally awesome, for sure.

Who’s Funding this Reportage?

My plan to blog about my peaceable kingdom must defer to my annoyance at dot gov. They must be kidding me with this report. Why is the focus on revenue for road maintenance? Less traffic means less wear and tear on the road. Less traffic means there’s not so much of a need for road expansion. With costs like those decreasing, the need for revenue decreases. I’ve been trying not to obsess, but I can’t help it. Why take the encouraging news that we could be a less oil/gas dependent country with cleaner air and turn it into crap? Even the Today Show took the baited hook this morning!


(About 2 min 30 sec in)

Having nested next to a busy road where people routinely drove their vehicles right up the curb and into our wall, living with the noise and particulate poisoning, cleaning road grime from inside my home, I think the fewer miles driven are a blessing. Perhaps kids living near highways will have less asthma, attention deficit, and whatever else comes with miserable traffic. You could google innumerable articles on it, but common sense would tell us not to suck on a tailpipe unless death is the goal.

Plus, the oil and gas companies are running a bunch of “you must be a dufus” ads. “You think you don’t own a gas company? You do if you have any sort of financial investments.” In between the lines they say controversial drilling and imported (stolen?) gas will put money in your pocket. Also, are we really supposed to think the warmth created by gas pipelines that attracts caribou is a good thing? I might be convinced that some off shore drilling is needed or even that we need to open up ANWR, but you have to give me a better argument that what I’ve heard so far. Cheap gas isn’t convincing because you get what you pay for.

Sign of the Times

I know those of you who are parents will appreciate the educational impact of this new toy and those of you who are still in touch with your inner child will appreciate how Playmobil has kept up with current events. In any event, you must take a gander at this new toy. Don’t fail to read the reviews as they are equally HI-larious!

Playmobil Security Checkpoint

Consumers Cut Off

When our economy began to tank we saw a downturn in the economies of several other countries who rely on our consumerist behavior to support them. Consequently, we want to rush through a stimulus package that borrows money from China, maybe, to buy Chinese goods. That’s great for us, because we’ve come to expect a certain lifestyle that is slightly beyond our means. What would happen if at the national, state, local, and individual level our credit was cut off because we had a “higher than acceptable risk profile” and we were forced to reevaluate our values versus spending habits?

A banking company in the UK has cut off the 7% of their credit cards with just that sort of spending to payment history. The story reads as though the bank is Big Brother saving consumers from themselves. My feeling is that with the economy trending down these folks will have difficulty making payments and the bank will have to eat it when those people finally go belly-up from their “support of the economy”. This bank is saving it’s ass and maybe the by-product is that 160,000 Brits will have to apply for a card elsewhere or hopefully make better choices.

Would American banks do this to Americans who have been ordered by the president to spend money to the extent that it’s ingrained in our psyche and part of our identity? The mall is a shared American Experience! Even more interestingly, would the U.S. get cut off and therefore have to make more difficult decisions about what we do with taxpayer dollars? Perhaps we have forever status with our creditors. But what if our balance were due and we had to say no to ourselves? My mother-in-law sent me this YouTube video that asks a similar question. Where are American vales? Do we support the mission in Iraq? Do we reinvest in our corporate structure? Do we refocus our funds on children?

decorative

Trick? or Treat?

What do you think they stock the wet bar of a Prius limo with?

Limousine liberal is the pejorative term referring to rich lefties who spend little of their time, talent, or treasure with poor folks. I thought George Wallace coined the term, but whatever. Maybe it was Mario Procaccino. Anyway, what I wouldn’t give, on occasion, to be a limousine liberal in a stretch Prius in my fair trade, organic silk, onion dyed ball gown!

My diamonds would be from Canada or Arkansas. I’d be dripping with them. I’d have a completely edible facial treatment daily. Since my food must not be shipped over 100 miles, I’d fly to Hawaii for pineapples. I’d buy a house and level it for the landfill so that I can build a totally green house with those swirly light bulbs.

So, what is the point of a Prius limousine? Is it awesomely tricked out or to be treated like an absurdity? Would it be a treat to drive around or a trick to make us think we are good people?