America's own Taliban -- Al Jazeera English

We have some of these strange people in Wyoming. They advocate the destruction of Native American religious artifacts. Go to America's own Taliban - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Don't be a Know Nothing -- Read!

From Shelf Awareness:

For Banned Books Week, which will be held September 24-October 1 this year, readers, booksellers and librarians around the world can participate by posting videos of themselves reading from their favorite banned books on a special YouTube channel. Excerpts may be up to two minutes long, and people who talk about battles defending banned or challenged books make speak for up to three minutes. 

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is encouraging booksellers to film their customers as part of this effort and will provide instruction on how to create the videos. Booksellers can send the videos to ABBFE, which will edit them, add store names and logos and post them. The videos will be tagged so that stores can put them on their websites, blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. 

ABFFE is also helping booksellers participate in more traditional ways: its Banned Books Week handbook offers tips on promotions, including making displays, as well as listing posters that can be downloaded and reproduced at copy shops. The American Library Association has promotional information, too.

Oregon tests "solar highways"

So Oregon, which has about half of the average annual sunlight as Wyoming, is turning one stretch of interstate into a "solar highway." You might wonder why Wyoming can't do something that Oregon can. For one thing, Wyoming produces most of its and the nation's energy the old-fashioned way, by burning coal. The coal and oil and gas lobbies would never stand for it. Second, Wyoming is running out of highway funds, so it is concentrating its road efforts more on patching the holes than on rebuilding infrastructure or trying new things. Third, Oregon's a blue state with progressive environmental policies and Wyoming isn't. Maybe Colorado, another sun-drenched Rocky Mountain state, will pick up on this idea.

From Grist:

Okay, we know YOU ride your bike everywhere. But the country’s 4 million miles of roads, and 50,000 miles of interstate highway, probably aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Isn’t there anything productive we can do with this giant car playground? Well, we can cover it with solar photovoltaic panels, so it’s at least providing some energy.

Oregon's already testing the idea, installing panel arrays along highway shoulders. Others want to embed the solar panels directly into the road surface, and have already received funding to test the idea. California wants to try it along parts of Route 101. 

 If you think about it, roads are a perfect place to put solar: They're already public land, they've already been cleared and graded, they're adjacent to infrastructure like towns and power lines, and they're super accessible for repair and upgrades. Also, they’re already sitting out in the sun all day. 

Poll: More trust Obama over Republicans in Congress on debt, deficit issues

Listen up, Wyoming Sen./Dr. John Barrasso and Sen. Mike Enzi -- the clock is ticking on your Radical Right agenda: Poll: More trust Obama over Republicans in Congress on debt, deficit issues - The Hill's On The Money

Vertical Harvest @ The Roof in Jackson

Very cool project to build a vertical greenhouse  on the south side of the downtown parking garage in Jackson. The big launch is Thursday, July 28, on the top floor of the garage. Lots of local food and music and beer from the good folks at the Thai Me Up Brewery. Try the Brother Ted Dubbel or the Dopplebock. FMI: http://verticalharvest.wordpress.com/.  

Defy the Hate Open Shoot, Frontier Days version, takes place July 27 at Atlas Theatre

Defy the Hate Open Shoot will be held on Wednesday, July 27, 1-5 p.m., at the Historic Atlas Theatre in downtown Cheyenne. Celebrate Cheyenne Day in a slightly different way by making a statement. First get shot, then go party. While at the Atlas, you can buy tickets for the Old-Fashioned Summer Melodrama.

Here’s info from Matthew Angelo:

It is that time of year for Cheyenne Frontier Days. So in honor of that, we need you to Cowboy Up and make a stand against bullying and hate, but with a western twist. That's right, break out the Wranglers, white t-shirt, and yes the cowboy hat (not a requirement). Let’s show the tourists who come to Cheyenne, that Wyoming won't sit back and let their kids be bullied or hated in any way. 

Roy Zimmerman offers a satirical antidote to Red State weirdness with a Sept. 1 Cheyenne concert

The Unitarian Universalist Church in Cheyenne hosts Roy Zimmerman on Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m. Below is some information about Roy and there is much more on YouTube or his web site.

“Live From the Starving Ear” is 90 minutes of Roy Zimmerman’s wickedly inventive satirical songs.  The Tea Party, the economy, same-sex marriage, Socialism, Creationism, guns, taxes, abstinence and yes, Obama, all come under tuneful scrutiny. “There’s a whole new political landscape,” he says, “painted by Jackson Pollock.”

In twelve albums over twenty years, Roy has brought the sting of satire to the struggle for Peace and Social Justice.  His songs have been heard on HBO and Showtime.  He has recorded for Warner/Reprise Records.  He’s been profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and he's a featured blogger for the Huffington Post.  Roy’s YouTube videos have garnered over six million views and tens of thousands of comments, many of them coherent.  And yes, he has a website: http://royzimmerman.com/

The Los Angeles Times says, “Zimmerman displays a lacerating wit and keen awareness of society’s foibles that bring to mind a latter-day Tom Lehrer.”

Tom Lehrer himself says, "I congratulate Roy Zimmerman on reintroducing literacy to comedy songs. And the rhymes actually rhyme, they don't just 'rhyne.'"

Joni Mitchell says, "Roy's lyrics move beyond poetry and achieve perfection."

Watch one of Roy's YouTube videos at http://youtu.be/qNi1sevKNd0

Daily Kos: A New Literary Movement from the Mountain West (And Why it Matters)

Posted yesterday by nonnyidaho at Daily Kos was this intriguing piece about a new artistic movement taking root in eastern Idaho and northeren Utah. Using the name "Parkwood Kind" after "Parkwood Acres" near Rigby, Idaho, these young people are abandoning their LDS upbringings to explore Buddhism and Liberal politics. Their explorations come in the form of poetry and music.

...by using the medium of art, and by appealing to the humanity (not the ideology) of those willing to listen to them. The Parkwood Kind is relevant today because their approach to this polarized political atmosphere could teach all of America a lesson. They are preaching a revolutionary concept: following our own consciences, despite the political or ideological repercussions.  And their consciences, as expressed in their works, are most often proponents of a progressive, environmentally friendly society where individualism, sustainability, and equality are supreme.

Haven't read or listened to the work yet so can't speak to that. But it's always good to spread the word about something positive coming out of the usual depressing dreck that issues from the Tea Party-influenced neighborhood of ID/UT/WY. My neighborhood.

Go to: Unlikely Generation: A New Literary Movement from the Mountain West (And Why it Matters)

Cheyenne's people are not exactly retiring types

Typical Cheyenne volunteers

In my previous post, I was a bit unfair to both AARP The Magazine and Cheyenne The City. Cheyenne is a great town with many amenities. Yes, it has low taxes, which makes many retirees happy. But it also has the 115-year history of Cheyenne Frontier Days, not only a Western tradition but one that depends almost entirely on volunteers.

Not every century-old event can say this.

I am a volunteer at the Old-Fashioned Melodrama, now in its 55th season. It's the summer offering of the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, now in its 85th year. Easterners used to counting events and buildings and neighborhoods in centuries might scoff at the idea of anything in two figures being a tradition.

But just think about how tough it is to get an organization up and running -- and then to keep it running. I've been a member of organizations that have disappeared after a decade. I've participated in events that start with a bang but end with a whimper a few years later.

So, a 55-year-old volunteer-run event is a thing of beauty.

Yesterday evening, my wife Chris and I were part of a melodrama volunteer corps at the Historic Atlas Theatre. I was house manager and Chris ran the box office. Jim the retiree and Lexie the high school girl ran the concessions. An Air Force retiree and an attorney and a computer guy staffed the bar. Carol ran the 50/50 raffle table. She took a tumble recently and is using a walker. There is nothing on heaven or earth that will interfere with Carol's volunteer time at the melodrama. That includes cancer, which she's been battling bravely for years.

The sheriff is a high school teacher who also coaches the speech-and-debate team. His deputy is a Cheyenne native, brilliant actor and waiter at a local bistro. Jim the emcee works for the state and Jenny the card girl work full time and also is in the melodrama cast. Cast members are teachers and students and entrepreneurs and government employees. All volunteers.

That's what it takes the make this big event work. We represent only a few of the many hundreds who run the parades and night shows and rodeos and pancake breakfasts. We get a lot of fun and satisfaction from our activities. Hey -- CFD is one cool party. But civic pride is also at work. Speaking of work, our police and sanitation workers and firefighters and EMTs all work over time during this ten-day period. And some, in their very spare spare time, volunteer for other things. Officer Colby White is on stage every other summer as a melodrama emcee. There are many others.

Takes more than no income tax and low taxes and conservative politics to make a city appealing to young people and retirees alike.

It takes people who care.

Baby Boomers are juvenile to think that low taxes make for a great retirement

Cheyenne Frontier Days

AARP The Magazine has named Cheyenne one of the ten most livable cities in the U.S.

This could be seen as a compliment. Until you examine AARP's criteria.

"Cheyenne meets many of the criteria for what Baby Boomers are looking for in a place to live."

What are those criteria? Great coffee? Lots of arts and entertainment venues? Fantastic restaurants? Lifelong education venues? Community service opportunities?

No. They are:

Low cost of living.
No state income tax.
No tax on pensions.
Low sales tax.
One of the lowest property taxes in the nation.

What is this, St. Petersburg, Fla., in the 1960s? Really? Low taxes, early-bird buffets and 24-hour shuffleboard?

I am a Baby Boomer in good standing. Born in 1950. I am looking forward to retirement in a few years. But what kind of retirement?

For one thing, I'm going to get as far away from golf courses as possible. And Republican golfers. I have nothing against either. But the lowest circle of hell is reserved for people whose only conversational topic is golf. If I knew that my final years would be spent with golfers, I would request an immediate execution.

My guess is that we've moved beyond golf and shuffleboard and even retirement communities when we talk about retirement.

Here's what I'm going to do in retirement. Read every day. Write every day. Grow some of my own food. Work for the arts, either as a volunteer, a grant writer or an event coordinator. Spend time with my wife and my kids and maybe (some time in the future) my grandkids. Think about the future. Talk to young people about the future. Drink good beer.

And when I complain about the gubment, have some suggestions about how the gubment can do things better.

I think that it's juvenile to be a senior citizen depending on Social Security and Medicare and other retirement income but pining for a place with low taxes. Juvenile and stupid.

"Red Hawaii" for Wyoming state legislators

Wyoming legislators are off to Hawaii!

I'm not one to begrudge anyone a business trip to the Aloha State. I've been looking for a Hawaii junket for decades but just haven't been in the right place at the right time with the right budget.

This morning's Cheyenne Tribune-Eagle reported that one-third of the state's legislators will be attending the Council of State Governments-West Conference in Hawaii. One-third of 90 is 30. There are 14 Democrats so I estimate that as many as five Dems will accompany 25 Republicans. Let's hope my political party is not being cut out of the surf-sand-and-suds action.

I agree with Rep. Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne, when he says this:

"They are a beneficial way to talk with other state legislators and find out what is happening in their states. You can't do anything in a vacuum."

Sen. Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, said that out-of-state

"conferences allow state leaders to share ideas, such as successful legislation, and develop regional partnerships."

Attending national gatherings is crucial for people working in a rural state such as Wyoming. We need to compare notes with our peers. They, in turn, often need to hear from us about what works successfully in Wyoming. This exchange of ideas is healthy for everyone. You could also file it under the heading of "professional development." Each job carries with it room for improvement. Judging by the most recent legislative session, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Which brings me to my point. The Governor's office has requested cuts in state employee travel budgets. State employees have been told that in-state travel must be crucial for their jobs. As for out-of-state travel, well, that must be beyond crucial into absolutely g-d necessary. Even then, much paperwork must be submitted and special dispensations requested.

Meanwhile, our state legislators are hitting the beach at Waikiki.

Something doesn't add up.

Grants Farms Store celebrates 30 fruitful (and veggieful) years in Cheyenne

My daughter has worked at the Grant Farms Store in Cheyenne and I have purchased many of my seedlings and seeds there. Great place. Happy birthday:

Thirty years ago in early August, Andy Grant opened this store to sell the veggies from the farm. The store has evolved over the last 30 years and is now a beautifully eclectic home and garden store with bedding plants and some of the most beautiful flowers out there! 

Come out on August 6 from 10-7 p.m. to celebrate with us. Entrance is free. There will be music, dancing, food, beverages, and good times for all!

2120 East Lincolnway
Cheyenne Wyoming
(307) 635-2676
August 6th
10:00AM-7:00PM 

Call for Talent
Do you have a band, or know of someone you would love to see play at our 30th Anniversary Celebration? Email amy@grantfarms.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

President Obama declares a "major disaster" in Wyoming due to flooding

File under "That Darn Federal Gubment:"

President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Wyoming because of spring and summer flooding.

The action means the federal government will help the state pay for costs incurred from damaged roads, highways and other infrastructure.

Seven people have died in Wyoming this spring and summer in waters running high from heavy rain and melting record snowpack.

The state's response included deploying Wyoming National Guard members and low-risk prison inmates to several areas around the state to help fight flooding.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated damage to public infrastructure at $4.2 million. The number is expected to go higher. Agriculture losses are being assessed separately.

Rivers and streams continue to run high throughout most of the state.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_9dd67751-8c60-5aaf-9028-c4454b042d93.html#ixzz1Su4f2KDg

Wyomingarts on the road this week to take the pulse of the state's art scene

My pal, Wyomingarts, is on the road this week taking the pulse of the state's arts scene. Go here to read His/Her/Its communique from Jackson at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/suzanne-morlocks-work-is-popd-from.html. Pinedale at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/must-be-something-in-that-sublette.html

Ligorano/Reese "temporary monument" illustrates plight of the melting middle class

On June 18, 2011 artists Ligorano/Reese presented a temporary monument in the garden of Jim Kempner Fine Art in NYC called "Morning In America." The installation was witnessed by hundreds and lasted a total of 8 hours throughout the hot day.

...A THOUSAND CUTS is a timelapse video of the event. The soundtrack was inspired by an excerpt from Senator Bernie Sanders 8 hour filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor against the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the effects on the middle class. It is orchestrated to music by composer/violinist Michael Galasso.

Special Thanks
Dru Arstark, Anthony Caputo, Dan Walworth, Okamoto Studio, Postworks NY

The entire text of Senator Sanders speech is available as a book, published by Nation Books, The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class,

For more information about Michael Galasso's music and soundtrackshttp://michaelgalasso.com.

For more information on the artists, see http://ligoranoreese.net

This video is licensed under Creative Commons,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thanks to Brooklyn artist Nancy Bowen for tipping me off to this project.

Richard Wall urges CFD to return to its morally pure past

As promised, local Radical Right activist Richard Wall blessed us with the second of two columns today in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

Some promises really should be broken.

He hammers away at Cheynne Frontier Days for its links with the Susan. G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

He doesn't think that CFD cowboys and cowgirls are "tough enough to wear pink."

In the course of his 750-some words, Wall provides not a shred of evidence that Komen supports abortion services through Planned Parenthood or embryonic stem cell research.

"Some local residents have defended the CFD-Komen link by saying that no money from our rodeo has gone to Planned Parenthood or embryonic stem cell research. 

"But even if true, that fact is irrelevant. Cheyenne's local Komen group still is affiliated with the larger Komen organization."

That's the problem with moral purity as practiced by Wall and others of his ilk. If the facts don't fit, call them irrelevant or just make them up. This, of course, will satisfy his followers who get their world-view from Morally Pure Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and/or Tea Part rallies.

Rumor has it that Mr. Wall plans to run for the state legislature in 2012. If so, he will be answering the call by anti-abortion group WyWatch to purge the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) from the Wyoming Legislature, those representatives of the people who did what the people asked and voted down bills that would force pregnant women to watch videos of their fetuses before going through with the procedure. Another morally pure bill would have enforced biases against married LGBT citizens. Even my freshman Republican state senator voted against the governmental intrusion authorized by these bills.

One more clue that Mr. Wall is more motivated by Radical Right political purity than factual accuracy: Obamacare. You only have to say it once to prejudice yourself, Mr. Wall. It's called the Affordable Care Act. Maybe you didn't research this part of your presentation. You can do that here.

On the same op-ed page today is long-time Wyoming newspaperman and columnist Bill Sniffin. Mr. Sniffin is a moderate Republican from Lander. He once ran for governor. In the long run, common-sense moderate Republicans such as Sniffin and Sue Wallis and Cale Case and Al Simpson will determine the future of Wyoming. Democrats won't be able to do it in my lifetime -- they are too few and too disorganized. That hasn't stopped us -- and the Dem 14 in the legislature -- from plugging away.

One thing that Democrats can do is speak out loudly and strongly when they see Wyoming principles being sacrificed. We can also ally ourselves with sensible legislators, no matter the political party. And we can write letters to the editors. Lots and lots of letters to the editor. People like me and you still read newspapers.

BTW: Great op-ed page today WTE. Wall, Sniffin, Rodger McDaniel, funny editorial cartoon and a great staff editorial calling on the City Council to grant one of its available liquor licenses to a downtown establishment, notably the Cheyenne Depot Museum. It says that retail liquor license,s the most valuable variety at the city's disposal, "be used as tools for economic development." Since a vibrant downtown is crucial to the city's future, one of these licenses needs to go downtown.

Let 'em buck -- but don't dress 'em in pink!

Local Radical Right scold Richard Wall writes an op-ed in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

What is Richard incensed about now, you might ask?

I already knew, since his anti-Susan G. Komen letter to the CFD has been circulating for a week. It was first illuminated among the local blogosphere by the always-alert Jeran Artery at Out in Wyoming.

Mr. Wall's op-ed skills are quite good. He takes his time working himself into a lather over the real message. Condom posters in Frontier Park restrooms! Public drunkenness! Scantily clad photos of Miss Frontier and her Lady in Waiting! Dogs and cats, living together!

Forget the last one. I just had a "Ghostbusters" flashback.

Wall's main target is the relationship between Cheyenne Frontier Days, "The Daddy of 'Em All," and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. CFD works with Komen to promote the fight against breast cancer. To that end, Thursday's CFD activities carry to motto "Tough Enough to Wear Pink."

There were lots of cowboys and cowgirls wearing pink for cancer research the last time I attended the CFD rodeo. They looked pretty tough to me riding buckin' broncs and racing steeds around barrels at breakneck speeds.

Wall objects to Komen's alleged ties with Planned Parenthood and stem cell research. He contends that "25 percent of the money raised by its local affiliate go to Komen's national offices, which permits or takes part in these abuses." He is not clear what those abuses are, but he does say that it involves those "who respect all human life... must steer a wide berth around the Komen organization."

"Respect human life?" Code words for the anti-abortion movement. When they say "all human life," they mean "fetuses."  Once that fetus is actually born, they wash their hands of its fate unless its 80 years later and that sick and aging person is on life support (like Terry Schiavo) and should never be taken off to end the suffering.

These same people support the death penalty and pointless wars that kills innocent civilians including pregnant mothers and their fetuses. They also want to do away with the government's social safety net that prevents starvation in mothers and children. Every sperm is sacred!

They don't like gays either, dressed in pink or not.

How I do go on.

Please read Mr. Wall's screed and let CFD know that they shouldn't cave in to to the Radical Right, especially when our 115-year-old tradition carries such a proud legacy of supporting local causes.

O.K., CFD isn't perfect, especially if you're a vegan or a PETA member or Sheryl Crow or you just don't like mainstream country music. But if we're going to apply a purity test to CFD or any of our organizations, none will come up smelling like a rose. We Lefties are goofy on this too. We have shows such as "Portlandia" and numerous blogs to remind us how strangely human we all are.

Wall is human so give him a break, eh? I would, but he's attempting to insert his narrow-minded agenda into a place where it doesn't belong. Let him talk and write op-eds. But let's not let him bully our CFD.

Some dirty deeds afoot this summer at the Old-Fashioned Melodrama in Cheyenne

"Dirty Deeds at the Depot" is the Cheyenne Old-Fashioned Melodrama for this year.

Cheyenne Little Theatre presents the 55th Annual Old-Fashioned Melodrama with "Dirty Deeds at the Depot." Return to the glory days of the Depot with our Heroine, Lacie Camisole, the dastardly Professor Thaddeus Mack and the kind Station Master, Justin Tyme. Enjoy a taste of the old west with CLTP!

Produced in cooperation with www.heroandvillian.com

Directed by Barb Jalonen

Atlas Theatre

July 14-17, 2011 @  7:00 p.m.

(Frontier Days) July 21-23, 25-30 2011 @ 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m., July 24 & 31, 2011 @ 7:00 p.m.

August 4-7, 2011 @ 7:00 p.m.

I write about this event because I'm a volunteer, both in the front of the house and on stage. On Saturday, I will be the show's emcee while my wife Chris works the box office. Summers in Cheyenne are made for volunteering and many people do just that. Hundreds of them. Many of them serve as ushers and parade marshals and clean-up crew for Cheyenne Frontier Days. Others are emcees or olio entertainers or barkeeps for the melodrama. Pick your poison -- lots to do, and much fun to be had.

In reality, it takes hundreds and maybe thousands of people to make a city work. It takes everyone.

Question of the day: "Has the G.O.P. gone insane?"

From Paul Krugman's excellent column in yesterday's NYT:

A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask.

Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.

Republicans want to get back to the imaginary past as fast as possible

WY Rep. Cynthia Lummis? Thanks to my pal Meg at Cognitive Dissonance for sharing this image