St. Croix melee

There are lots of issues out there so i've decided to write about diverse topics in small doses.

Refinery on St. Croix everyone is aware that the Senator's voted against the deal with Hovensa but the melee on the local radio and the fear mongering in the community has gotten out of hand. Here is my take for what it is worth.

1. Aquifer pollution...if you go to the EPA site and read the report 95% of the contamination has already been cleaned up. No one is drinking ¼ cup of oil in their water.
2. Sale of the refinery...the cancelled agreement put off the inevitable. Hovensa didn't want to sell but was being forced to by the agreement. Legally, they could not be forced to accept any offer and i think they would have stalled until the 18 months were up which would put us back to where we are today.
3. WAPA and some gas stations are already making arrangements to get their fuel from other sources. Puerto Rico is ninety miles away... our fuel costs may go up but we will be able to get fuel delivered here just like all the other islands in the Caribbean do.
4. Jet Fuel i know one of our local purveyor's supplies jet fuel to planes flying in. His business is going to be adversely affected by the plant closure just as many others have been.  But maybe if he wants to stay in business he needs to invest in building more storage tanks.  The sky isn't falling. Planes can refuel in Puerto Rico. We may be impacted by fewer flights and less available jet fuel but keep in mind it is available just a short hop away.  The sooner those doing business in the aviation world start thinking for themselves the sooner we can move forward.
5. The refinery is not reopening and the sooner we deal with this...like they did in Aruba...the sooner we will be on the road to recovery.

Syria i'm with Juan Cole...a few Tomahawk missile strikes will not affect the course of the civil war in Syria and it just may involve us in one more quagmire. Civilians are going to continue to suffer until the parties involved are brought to the bargaining table.

The Rim Fire in California has been raging for over a week. Close family members and some friends have been suffering smoky skies and evacuation orders. One of the leading edges is 6 miles from the family cabin and all eyes are watching this monstrous fire. Its 23% contained and the fire fighters have been doing a phenomenal job.

Swimming this morning was beautiful. A little Green turtle floated right up to me and let me touch its carapace. The light was flickering everywhere and you could see Peacock Flounders 40 feet down. A huge Lobster was out of its hole and walking across the coral towards another Green turtle who tried to hide when she saw us hovering above. We missed the three Dolphin who were swimming through the bay but one fellow swimmer enjoyed watching them pass by. It was one of those mornings when you just didn't want to get out of the water.

See ya next week.

Privacy...not an option

Yesterday Pamela Jones claimed “there is now no shield from forced exposure.” Privacy is a myth, the rule of law has been compromised and she can no longer write on line.

Pamela Jones, a blogger, that focused on writing about legal aspects of the tech world, has shut down her site. She has joined the e-mail service's Lavabit and Silent Circle who have also shut down. 

Pamela Jones has enjoyed numerous awards for the work she has done on line at Groklaw but she claims:

"And the simple truth is, no matter how good the motives might be for collecting and screening everything we say to one another, and no matter how "clean" we all are ourselves from the stand point of the screeners, I don't know how to function in such an atmosphere. I don't know how to do Groklaw like this."

Unfortunately the sad reality is that everything coming into and out of everyone's e-mail servers are being monitored. Everything you do on line is tracked not just by companies trying to sell you something but also by your government. This has a chilling effect upon anyone who posts on line and because of this she found she could no longer write and has shut down her site.

My take from all of this is deep sadness that another person or company has been silenced by the surveillance society we find ourselves living in. For that is exactly what our government wants you to do...go quiet. 

How many more will go quiet rather than risk having their on-line presence be intimately monitored by their government? How many viewpoints that don't toe the line will have their voices go unheard because their government could label it subversive? The effect upon journalists, bloggers and independent minded people all over the country is chilling to say the least.

Where is our so called “free society” and will an underground one be the only recourse? Do we really want to censor everything we say and do? What do we have to look forward to? Is it those Sci Fi scenarios, will they become the future reality? i don't know and although disheartened going silent is not an option.

See ya next week

Photo day

A lovely place to bird

What a mess, sometimes i wish i was one of those people who can ignore the violence taking place in other parts of the world. Egypt is on meltdown, the military peaked and decided to use force to disperse the Morsi protestors. Baradei has resigned and autocracy is rearing its ugly head. i'm not going to write about this except to say i had hoped they would avoid military aggression but today it is obvious that they are returning to the way things were. It is disheartening when a country that had displayed such promise goes backwards.

On to other things...we missed the meteor showers as our skies were covered in the typical patchy clouds which made viewing difficult. Oh well, there will be others. This piece today is going to be more photo heavy.

Such a sweet little church

The things we look at while driving along

 Gotta have a rainbow

Those sweet Grey Kingbirds have successfully finished building their nest, the Thrasher's don't know as yet because its babies are driving it NUTS.

 Gotta have clouds...they make this place

I love this tree...a view from the other side.

and some old dead coral

Know where this old place is?

And a sunrise

See ya next week
 

I just love St. Croix today, yesterday and every day

This morning was another of those “i just love St. Croix” days but so is every day, especially when the air is clear, the lighting is magnificent, the wild life interact and the woodlands just glow.

All of us have great stories about interacting with nature and how it affected our mental states. Swimming with dolphins definitely tops my list along with seeing big turtles, finding Hope the Whimbrel, or just looking at that cool dragon fly or cricket that landed close enough to really see it in all its glory.

i get such a thrill watching a bird nest through the entire process from building to fledging, i'm like a kid easily entertained for weeks at a time. Maybe it's not St. Croix but just nature that really trips my trigger. A pair of Grey Kingbirds are building a nest just off the deck again and i already feel like i know them. The male is a bit of a slacker but that female just yells and yells at him to get him moving and quit dropping the sticks.

Not a Kingbird or Thrasher nest

The gang went out swimming this morning and when we got to the Off the Wall Buoy there was this big old crusty male Green turtle cruising slowly looking for a mate. He had had it rough and was missing most of his tail. White meat was showing on his front two flippers but at least he still had them. He looked at us, deleted us from his curiosity bag and kept on moving towards the wall. We weren't what he was looking for and he wasn't wasting time with us.

Just as we were going to take off another large male, Hawksbill this time, appeared close to the surface. His curiosity bag was overflowing and he hung out with us even going so far as to let me touch him when he swam right next to me. i wondered if he was the male from a few years ago that had come in and bonked his beak against my mask because he got that close. It's easy to hope that an old friend has reappeared but the likely hood of that is pretty slim with nature. Just getting that close was a treat in and of itself.

Hawksbill Turtle

Anyway we left him alone and went on our way only to have one of the gang stop to point out a shark following a turtle very close. i missed that one but hope the turtle got away unscathed. There were large schools of wrasse, dorgons, and yellow tailed snapper along the edge. The sun beams were doing their dance under water and even though it wasn't the clearest of days the wild life was accommodating.

At home while eating breakfast on the deck looking out over a glorious sea and a teeming woodland an adult Red tailed Hawk out showing its juvenile the ropes hushed the screaming Pearly-eyed-Thrasher chicks. We've got so many thrasher nests around here that have been successful it just breaks my heart when i see the Grey Kingbirds once again trying to build a nest in their territory. i wouldn't cry if a hawk nailed a few of those darn Thrashers.

The Kingbirds like to nest in the West Indian Cedar's and its always a treat to see a flash of bright green when an Antillean Crested Hummingbird decides to come get some nectar from the same trees flowers. The Green Caribs seem to like the hibiscus and papaya flowers better. Underneath the cedar the Zenaida Doves peck away at the dirt looking for grubs. A lot is going on around those native trees if you take the time to look.

One thing that has been puzzling me for years is why do i see Magnificent Frigates predominantly flying east. In the morning, mid-day and in the evening they are always heading east unless we have a hurricane coming and then that is the only time i see them flying west. i must not ever see the same ones. i'm sure now that i've put this in writing i will only see them flying west.

Squid above the fern

Monday while out there swimming we had 16 Squid which are one of the coolest things you can watch in the water. They change color, blink, try to hide, group up then split to get you away from the group. When they do that its hard to know which to follow but if you stick with one it will eventually lead you back to the pack while giving you a light show you won't soon forget.

This island is so beautiful, so many cool things out there for anyone to observe. i wish there was some way to always accentuate the positive. i guess what i wish for everyone that lives here is to take a few minutes and really connect with the life all around you. All it takes is five minutes of really observing any where you are on the island. Even the dump and the oil refinery have their own unusual beauty when the light is just right.

See ya next week

Whistleblower's

My mom used to keep a list of sayings that she hated and although i don't have a list that i have written down and actually look at like she did i do have some idiom's that really rub me the wrong way.

“The Real America” does that mean Yosemite, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, Statue of Liberty, the Heartland, Golden Gate Bridge what...what is the real America and is there any such thing?

“Real Americans” must mean Native Americans...right... or does it mean God fearing conservative Christians who love the baby Jesus...it couldn't mean all of us could it?

“The Liberal Media” what the hell does that mean...if it really was the liberal media we wouldn't be in Afghanistan, Guantanamo would be closed, Bradley Manning would have his sentence reduced to time served, Snowden would be here in the US fighting his case in the open, and the nations infrastructure would be tended to.

“Are you a Patriot” it used to be someone who loves their country and supports it but wouldn't follow blindly along supporting whatever the government gets itself into. “Today its someone who blindly follows and lacks the ability to think for him or herself.” Urban Dictionary

Just had to get those off my chest.

i'm just wondering if anyone here is familiar with the first whistle blower law that was passed July 30,1778?

" It is the duty of all persons in the service of the
United States, as well as all other the inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds or misdemeanors committed by an officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge."

Bradley Manning tried alerting his superiors but was told to shut up so he went to the press.

Chuck Grassley a Republican senator and Carl Levin a Democrat yesterday proposed a "National Whistle Blower Appreciation Day" on the same day the original was passed.

Kohn the executive director of the Whistleblower's Center had this to say about it.

“The Senate Resolution calls attention to the fact that our nation’s Founding Fathers strongly supported whistleblowing, even in time of war, and even when the whistleblower allegations threatened to embarrass high-ranking officials. The action of our Founding Fathers sets a benchmark for evaluating how our current leaders treat whistleblowers,” 

Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden have exposed and embarrassed the US government with the wrong doing they have revealed to the nations citizens and the world.

So how does the government deal with this embarrassment? Instead of jailing Manning the government should stop being afraid of the citizenry. The revelations were necessary to check government over reach. Government should learn and correct the mistakes that were made in the past. They should question why we haven't lived up to our principles? The embarrassment is over as far as Manning is concerned but it doesn't mean that the government can't learn from this. We can always improve.

For Manning i think he should get off with time served. He probably saved people's lives around the world with his revelations.

For Snowden the government in all branches are going to have to do some real soul searching. The population is not happy with the intrusive surveillance.

If they do incarcerate Manning for a lengthy term then President Obama should commute his sentence and that's just my opinion.

See ya next week.

Headlines

i read both sides of the political spectrum and it is interesting to look at the opinion pieces that grace web sites dedicated to one ideology or the other.

You really don't even need to read the contents of the pieces as the text grabbing head lines are so similar on both sides. Some of them are the same but many take opposite poles. On the liberal side workers rights and how they don't have them, climate change and the end of the world, surveillance(both sides are amazingly together on this) and womens rights and the lack thereof predominate, while on the conservative side a large number of the articles every day just focus on Obamacare hammering away at how awful it is, gun rights and how you need them, abortion and the killing fields, and big government. Its hammered in day after fracking day... no wonder conservatives hate liberals and visa versa. Both sides totally demonize the other and it is sickening and really boring.

i think the worst part is how ingrained the propaganda is on both sides. 

i'll use Alternet(Liberal) and Town Hall(Conservative) as an example of what i mean and label them with capital A's and T's to represent the different sides. i'm sure which ever side you are on you will agree with the headline.

A(L)...The United States is Awash in Public Stupidity, and Critical Thought is under Assault

T(C)....Too many Opinions not enough Knowledge

A(L)...Recession forever...10 reasons American workers are screwed.

T(C)...The pension you never owned.

A(L)...America is on a Path to turn America into Detroit and Republicans are Cool with that

T(C)...Conservatives should point and laugh as Detroit Dies

A(L)...When was the last time someone made a case of justifiable homicide for a white kid smoking pot

T(C)...Fire created and stoked by the Left

A(L)...Blacks who stand their ground are often imprisoned.

T(C)...Stand your ground critics personify European pacifism, not American Values

A(L)...Republicans are sabotaging Obamacare by keeping the public in the dark about Benefits

T(C)...Don't fall for Healthcare Hard Sell

A(L)...CEO pay went up 15% last year to $15 million, how much did yours go up?

T(C)...Wall Strreet Journal condemns OECD proposal for global tax.

A(L)...Shocking things Wall Street Financiers say off the record about their bloated, corrupt industry

T(C)...Revolting Bankers of Obama

A(L)...How the temp workers who keep huge corporations running are getting crushed

T(C)...What's the bigger threat to workers, Unscrupulous Employers or Greedy Politicians

A(L)...A Presidential speech Won't solve Climate Change...It's going to take Activism by the public.

T(C)...Why is Obama lying on climate change

A(L)...Obama uses major climate speech to cheer lead for Natural Gas Industry.

T(C)...Obama's climate action plan...emphasize what won't work, penalize what works.

A(L)...I was supposed to end up alone according to the peddlers of the dangers of hook up culture...they were wrong.

T(C)...The new brainwashing...women like hookups

All these articles can be found at the sites i mentioned...i'm not putting in links because it is bad enough just to read the crappy headlines and you can find them if you really want to. 

My question is when are we as a nation going to sit down and just talk about reality instead of alarmist crap? Are you sick of being manipulated?

See ya next week.

Fourth Amendment "effects"

Have you ever thought about the act of typing a sentence, texting or making a call on a cell phone?

Could typing a sentence, texting on a phone, or verbalizing an idea be considered an effect that we should have control of? Are those outcomes we created effects?

i've been thinking of the word effects as used in the Fourth Amendment. Dictionary searches for the meaning of the word “effect” bring up such things as the power to produce results or something that is produced by an agency or cause.

Typing these words has the “effect” of displaying them here for me to do with as i choose. i can delete the sentence i just wrote or i can revise it or i can leave it as is and post it. But the real question is do i really own it once i place it here on my blog or do i only have ownership while it is in my computer at home. What if i e-mailed it to one select person instead of putting it here?

My understanding is that the blog is mine...only i have access to it and only i post articles here. i understand that my posts are no longer private and can be read by anyone in the world but that is a choice i make. i choose to make it accessible, i choose to have it disseminated i choose to make it public.

But what about in my private life? What about all the things i type that only go to one person, that i have no intention of making public? What about those phone calls are they effects or are they no longer private?

We all know none of us can transmit anything without a physical apparatus that we either own or borrow. Our cell phones, computers, i-pads etc. are all items that we have either in our possession or that we pay or sign up to use. We think we own them even if temporarily.

But here is a question...do we own the effects we create on our on line accounts, on our home computers, or on our cell phones? Are they ours or do they belong to some one else? Are they fair game for the government to collect? Are those words i typed into the e-mail an effect that i own? Are the words i speak on my cell phone effects that i own? Is my Amazon account really mine, are my e-mail accounts mine and would they be considered effects every time i used them? Or is everything fair game for anyone wanting to access them. i don't really know....but i would like to know.

The idea of privacy in regards to the 4^th is one that has been debated in our courts many times over the course of our history. Research on my part(limited research) only turned up two rulings regarding privacy outside of work that has anything to do with electronic communication. They are narrow in scope but appear to conflict with each other.

On March 11, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled, in Rehberg v. Paulk, 598 F.3d 1268, that a person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in an e-mail once any copy of the communication is delivered to a third party.[91]
On December 14, 2010, in United States v. Warshak, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his emails and that the government violated Warshak's Fourth Amendment rights by compelling his internet service provider to turn over his emails without first obtaining a warrant based upon probable cause.[92]

i think most of us expect a certain level of privacy in our e-mail, texting and cell phone use but i wonder how everyone feels about those communications being saved by government agencies? How do you feel about them being read, stored or forwarded by any one other than those you thought they were intended for?

Question...Has privacy become a redundant word in our technologically focused world or should it be resurrected ? Do we want to have anything private any more? Has it gone so far that we accept the mass collection of data by our government as normal?And what does the word effects really mean in the 4th Amendment?

i kind of think of it this way...if you are OK with a physical person standing in your house 24/7 listening to your conversations, watching you, recording you and storing it you are OK with your government collecting all your electronic communications.

What exactly does privacy mean? And when are we in this country going to address it? i put the Fourth below in case you haven't read it recently.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[1]

See ya next week.

A short one

Chantal was a non event that we in the Virgin Islands are very thankful for. She brushed past our shores dusting us with the smallest of squalls from her outer rings and seas that stayed relatively moderate. Thank you for sparing us.

Today the birds are all back to their nosy chatter unlike yesterday when they had become quite silent. The power stayed on and the only real change to every day life was the what ifs. We went swimming this morning in water that was relatively clear...seeing turtles, rays, loads of fish and not one shark.

Now we wait for the next one.

 This and That

i was reading about a small internet company in Utah of all places that has refused to hand over access to their customers accounts without a warrant spelling out what the probable cause is. Instead of handing over bulk info on all his subscribers Pete Ashdown of XMission has been protecting his patrons by not responding to requests for information that wasn't accompanied by a specific warrant.

Ashdown was apparently influenced by his Danish mother in the same way i was influenced by my English mother. World War II and the Nazis created enough instability in both our mothers lives that they drilled it into us what to look for. His mother provided him with a foundation of knowledge about the excesses of authoritarian governments, enough so that he knew to fight back when government was over extending.

Unfortunately there are too few like him in this country, but it is nice to know that there are some out there that aren't cooperating with the surveillance state. Its unfortunate that our media isn't reporting this and i had to find it in the Guardian.

When rights are lost it is very difficult to retrieve them.

Polls say that most citizens across the country view Snowden as a whistleblower not a traitor...and there is still no evidence that he has given any sensitive information to China or Russia. In fact he told Greenwald yesterday that neither country has had access to his computers. i'm in the whistleblower camp where do you stand?

See ya next week.

St. Croix's Mango Melee

Yum, yum...Mangoes are my favorite fruit but i'm allergic to them. i discovered this when i first moved to St. Croix and was standing under a mango tree helping to harvest. Within a few hours of all that collecting and eating i was a horrible mess. Unbeknownst to me the poison ivy like symptoms were caused by the mangoes and their sap. i discovered that unfortunately i was one of those people that couldn't indulge to excess during season.

Never one to let a little allergy control my life i subsequently discovered that if i didn't touch them and just popped chunks into my mouth the suffering was limited to superficial scratching and small bumps in my mouth. This i can handle for about a week every year during mango season.....and this is why Mango Melee is such a great event to go to for i can taste loads of mangoes at the tasting table and only suffer a little. Hope you enjoy the pics.

The display tables had so many mangoes of different varieties it was like going to the states after a long absence and having to walk out of the stores because you were too overwhelmed by all the choices. i couldn't quite file all the many types into my brain and figured i'd look at all the pics more closely at a later time. It really does boggle the mind....all that variety, size, color and taste and all so delicious.

 Outside the hall the vendors were doing a brisk business.

And the food smells were heavenly.

One stand had other fruit besides mangoes.

and another stand had mangoes, coconut, and breadfruit.

Outside its always nice to walk around the Botanical grounds and check out what is growing.

 Limin

and waiting to be rung.

Chantal is on the way and i thought we may not have power for a while so i'm putting this on early. My phone already has a hum so bad you can't hear anything...if we get more rain it will surely be toast.
See ya soon.