and then...

I'm finding it hard to write the next post.  Probably for all the reasons you can imagine.

It's an incredibly tangled mess out there- getting rapidly worse.  I'm afraid Sharon's worst imaginings may not be bad enough.  Which is definitely depressing.  Which is one of the reasons I'm having trouble writing.

But there is humor available- abundant, indeed.  While all the major economic indicators point down - the stock market keeps going up.  If I had 2¢ in the market, I'd sure get out.  And the illustration is here; in a spectacularly clueless article on the world oil supply in today's New York Times.  I read it with my jaw dropped.  Goldman Sachs just got worried??

Analysts at Barclays Capital said last week that non-OPEC supplies were “seemingly dead in the water.” Goldman Sachs raised similar concerns last month, saying that growth in non-OPEC supplies “can no longer be taken for granted.”

We can take comfort that our nations economic experts are so consistent!

Gallows humor, alas.

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I'm not quitting on the hunger speculation thing- but in the long run, I cannot be the front figure.  I've already got 4 of my own icebergs - one of them already having to do with hunger- that desperately need my attention.  We need some folks who are willing to take on long-term leadership in the fight to get food speculation halted.

We haven't achieved the critical mass here- most of the journalists in this country are still writing about the typical causes- all except speculation.

There is, at least, a reasonably broad effort at coverage this week in The Washington Post; Global Food Crisis is a substantial feature, running all week- lots of attention, lots of places to comment.  Even some good journalism.  Lots of very grim stories.

Your assignment- get your comments up in these venues- ask why speculation is not mentioned- and then do it again.  Send them to the Spiegel article- which is one of the best summaries available still.

Other actions that can be fruitful- your college alumni association is a great place to hit, aiming eventually at pushing for "divestment" by college endowment funds of the corporations involved in food speculation.

That was a  noisy, and somewhat successful, strategy in the fight to end Apartheid in South Africa.

Start making a list of those companies.  We're going to want it.  Send me the names.

Keep plugging.  I'm working on pulling my depressed self back into shape.

Life continues.  Whether you're angry, depressed, ready or not.  This morning- Spice and Smidgen went out to the THWASPCO, for the normal purposes- and the potty house was functioning in one of its less obvious modes- as a wildlife blind.

A doe, on the other side of the little valley- dropped hard to her knees as Spice was watching- and started to give birth.

No kidding.  They zoomed back to get me- and the binoculars.  Smidgen got to see a 30 second old fawn, through the noculars.

Has to mean something.

Of course, our deer tick population is up about 400% this year, too.  Hard to know which way to jump.