CHASING ILLUSIONS IN VERMONT, TOO?

Two contrasting opinion pieces in today's Burlington Free Press about a Vermont that's going, going, gone? What kinds of values are important to you? You decide.

Burlington's Oasis Diner has been sold to new owners who want to make it a New York-style deli; the author bemoans the city's gentrification and its growing class divide.

I love Burlington and Vermont in general because it is unique, and it loves to be so. Or so it seemed. There is a trend making its way through Burlington and Chittenden County. It has culminated with the sale of the Oasis Diner. I began thinking about how when Oasis closes there will be no place in Burlington to get an old-fashioned, blue collar breakfast. No place where the waitresses still call you "sweetheart," or "dear" no matter how old you are or how well they know you.
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The problem is, Burlington itself is undergoing the same transformation. Burlington is being sold to the highest bidders and being turned into a New York-style city. From the palatial homes popping up all over South Burlington to the Boston-area condo prices in Burlington itself, the city is transforming into a pale version of what it was.

It is becoming more and more difficult to live here on a modest salary. The diversity of people that made Burlington so unique and captivating is quickly thinning. High housing costs are pushing many people to the outskirts of Chittenden County. This is all fine if you don't mind Burlington becoming another Boston suburb like Andover, or like White Plains in New York.

The writer might want to consider supporting the
World Citizens Party of Burlington, Citizens for a Liveable City, and Waterfront Watchdogs.

On the other hand...

A flatlander transplant writes a bare-knuckled rant about nudity in sin sick, soul-less Brattleboro and its effects on his Vermont family values.

Just over a month ago my wife and children came home from a ride to Brattleboro and told me they saw something strange, a naked man on a bike. I thought they must have been mistaken but I was assured by my children that the man was in fact naked. And then the newspaper and television reports come to find out it's legal to be naked in the city of Brattleboro. Maybe it's just how I was raised, (which to my kids is known as the olden days) but running around naked in the streets in public would have landed you a free ride to a hospital for some psychological evaluation when I was a kid in Connecticut. But not today in Brattleboro, where I witnessed for myself on Friday in a Burger King parking lot a naked man get out of his car in broad daylight and walk to the trash can and throw a minuscule amount of paper away.
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I always thought that someday I would move to Vermont, then in 2000 I bought some land in Grafton and started to build our family home. But with judges letting convicted child abusers and pedophiles out after serving little or no time because of the lack of rehabilitation available in our prison system for them, and the state of Vermont being one of four states left not to pass Jessica's law, seemingly without a single care about our children and the victims, and the sick little city of Brattleboro and it's people who allow this, and its City Council members who condone this, I used to think being called a flatlander was insulting, but now I could not be more proud of it. I am sick of the state in which we live.

The article has received quite a few comments already. One person correctly writes that public nudity is completely legal in Bratt and ... in the whole state. Another's is..

Brattleboro is simply getting a clue and realizing there's nothing "indecent" about the natural human form, and is trying to catch up with reality. A reality which most of Europe realized long ago. They laugh at our insanely puritan and conservative view on the human body. And our hypocrisy... since it's ok to show blood and guts and people getting their heads blown off, but show so much as a nipple and somehow our children's eyes are burned out and they're going to hell.

The Politics of Stem Cell Research

Linda Glenn, a contributor on the Women's Bioethics Project Blog, alerted me to this video - From USA Today:
"Hollywood figure, filmmaker Jerry Zucker, is trying to influence the [stem cell] debate with his own video, this one a slickly produced spot posted on youtube.com.

A lavish welcome indeed

As my dear, departed former rector down in Houston - Clax Monro, former rector of St Stephen's - used to say, God's grace falls lavishly, like the rain, on the just and unjust alike. That includes society's most outcast & marginalised.

Liz Kaeton over at MadPriest, wrote - And, wasn't it Gracie Allen who said, "Never put a period where God has placed a comma"?

Best Living Will Ever Written

I've adapted this living will from an email I received today from a friend -

I, JAYV, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means. Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it, or lawyers / doctors interested in simply running up the bills. If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for at least one of the following:

Glass of wine
Chocolate
Margarita
Chocolate
Vodka Martini
Cold Beer
Chocolate
Chicken fried steak
Cream gravy
Chocolate
Mexican food
Chocolate
Artichoke
Chocolate
Asparagus
Chocolate
Ice cream
Cup of Darjeeling tea
Chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate

it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes, and call it a day.

Time for Impeachment, Mr Welch

Attention grabber, innit, Mr Welch?














As fucking if our esteemed Congressperson Welch (and his D cronies - independent Sanders is a member of the Democratic congressional caucus - in the Vermont delegation) should listen up.

Mr Welch, why don't you have the cojones to get on board with your colleague, Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)?





Thanks to RickB/Ten Percent for the transcript of the video --

Rep. Dennis Kunich (D-OH)- My fellow Americans. We are in an interesting condition in this country, where we are told to take impeachment off the table, and keep on the table a U.S. military attack against Iran.

This really calls for a new thinking. It calls for us to reconsider very deeply the moment that we’re in – where our Constitution is being trashed, where international law is being violated, where our hopes and dreams for the education of our children, for the health of our people, for housing, for our veterans, are being set aside as we go deeper and deeper into war.

We need a whole discussion in America. And with your help, we’re about to have one.

This past week, in the Congress of the United States, I noted that the administration has threatened aggressive war against Iran. This is a violation of the UN charter. Charters are treaties. Article 6 of the Constitution of the United States says that treaties are the law of our land, the supreme law of our land.

It’s illegal to threaten aggressive war against another nation. Iran has no ability to attack us. And they do not have the intention to attack the United states.

We are at a moment in human history where we have to make a decision whether we are going to go deeper into war, or whether we are going to take a stand on behalf of peace.

I determined a long time ago to take that stand on behalf of peace. And I want to enlist you and enroll you in taking that same stand.

We cannot let this administration go any deeper into this journey, into destroying democratic governance, trashing our Constitution, forgetting the very purpose of this nation. America was never meant to be a nation forever on the warpath. It was meant to be a nation which also had the capacity to “Promote the General Welfare.”

We need to reevaluate the direction of this administration by looking at its conduct in office, by determining whether it has faithfully followed the laws of our nation.

I’m prepared to start that process. I began this week with a speech on the floor of the house, which warned the administration that its actions toward Iran already constitute a case to ask the question about impeachment.

So I’m asking you, what do you think? Do you think it’s time?

Relatedly, Dem Leaders Nix Iran Provision To Focus On Iraq Withdrawal Bill

Thanks to RickB at Ten Percent for the go girl photo.

Naked fitness!

A new NL blog I've discovered - 24oranges - files this as "weird" - What the hell do they know? I've done naked yoga! I call it body freedom!