Yes indeed.

Right Wing Policy Shapers Get Desperate

That's my take on it - but here, judge for yourself . . .

New Federal Planting Map Reflects Warming

• Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.

• "People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the winter time," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack.

• He [sic] stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now."

So much for the repelican myth: there is no Global Warming . . .

Now on to the Vermont Legislature, which received death threats from some unknown source.

The Burlington Free Press article states:

"The email writer claims 'my team has been paid to assassinate you. I have every reason to carry out the contract, but I decided to give you a chance and save your family this pain.'

"It goes on to ask for $10,000 to help cover the assassins’ time."

The construct of the threat seems to make it utterly laughable, were it not for the fact that Middlebury College has had an attack of gastroenteritis, with 50 or more students having fallen ill. Gastroenteritis itself is a fairly mild if distinctly uncomfortable illness - and this event in itself is not that unusual.

Yet it should be noted that a former Vermont Governor is employed as an educator at Middlebury College.

One cannot claim with utter certainty there is a relationship between any of these events as they appear in the news. What one can say is that any recipient of threats like those received by the Vermont legislature may look at the juxtaposition in time of this gastroenterological event with some dismay, while the rest of society moves on undisturbed.

We cannot say with certainty that these two events have been designed for the purpose of impacting Vermont legislation - and in fact it seems unlikely in my view that were this the intent it is likely to succeed. The Vermont Legislature is filled with Vermonters, and very very few of them are repelicans, and therefore not as pliable in the face of such nonsense.

Given that these two incidents fall on the heels of the Entergy Decision and the fact that this court decision seems to leave Entergy and their Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant vulnerable to other avenues open to the State of Vermont as it seeks to shut them down, it is not at all unreasonable to speculate that perhaps indeed, Entergy officials are attempting to curb future efforts by the state to shut them down, without leaving any direct evidence of their efforts.

In such instances all that remains are whispers and an uneasy disquiet among those who have heard them.

They can kiss my ass.

If bleed we must then bleed we shall,

and upon their heads will rest that stain.

May that thread that permeates the universe

and binds us together in peace and in love

guide and protect all, and let us take great pride:

we are a secular nation. We are a progressive nation.

. . . . . . . . . We are not afraid. . . . . . . . . .

.

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UpDate:

News sources, including WPTZ report that on Thursday, January 26, 2012, the Vermont House Water Resources Committee voted 9-0 to approve a three year moratorium on fracking in Vermont:

• The full House is expected to vote on the measure on Tuesday, sending it on to the Senate.

• Gov. Peter Shumlin supports the moratorium.

  • "Vermonters don't want chemicals pumped into the ground," the governor said, adding he doubts there is much minable oil and gas trapped under the state.

Joe Choquette, a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, said he's urged lawmakers not to approve a permanent ban.