Dakota Today

**Rainbow at the end of a dream

One of the residents of Tripp County has been around here a lot longer than I have. Recently he took a photo of a rainbow and an old homestead house that has seen better times.

We haven't come up with quite the right words to describe the photo, but it seems to symbolize the conflict between dreams and the real world. To homesteaders, there appeared to be a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. For some it was, but for many it was a time of mental and physical agony and depression.

So take a look at the photo, and if you have a comment for labeling or naming the photo, let us and readers here know.

Click image for a slightly larger version. Original resolution of the shot was low and I did a sloppy edit to get rig of a number of raindrop on the lens blotches. But, let us know what you think anyway.

A few year ago, I woke up after dreaming my deceased parents had just walked through the door. Dreams die harder than the lives they led. Something like that probably applies to the photo too.

**Stay tuned even if homesteading is nearly forgotten history for most of us--- Doug Wiken

**Another reason not to drink alcohol

Alcohol is tolerated and taxed. Even so it generates a multitude of unnecessary social costs. Beyond the obvious are the health impacts and the added medical expense often dumped on the rest of us.

For women, there is one more risk beyond the obvious one of drinking while pregnant and turning their child into a fetal another fetal alcohol syndrome child.

Alcohol a cancer risk for women Published: September 18, 2007 Women who have more than two alcoholic drinks a day double their risk of endometrial cancer compared with those who drink less, a new study finds.

Researchers examined a multiethnic group of 41,574 postmenopausal women, following them for an average of eight years and using questionnaires about diet and drinking habits. In that time, the team found 324 cases of endometrial cancer, the type that forms in the tissue that lines the uterus. According to the National Cancer Institute, the United States has 40,000 new cases of endometrial cancer a year and 7,400 deaths.

After controlling for variables, including body mass index, age, hormone therapy and whether they had been pregnant, the researchers found that women who had less than two drinks a day had no increased risk of endometrial cancer. But those who had more than two drinks a day had slightly more than twice the risk. It made no difference whether the women drank beer, wine or hard liquor.

The exact mechanism is unknown, but alcohol raises estrogen levels, and it is well established that prolonged exposure to estrogen increases mutations and DNA replication errors, predecessors of cancerous growths.

"Relatively few studies have examined the relationship between endometrial cancer and drinking," said Veronica Wendy Setiawan, the lead researcher and an assistant professor of research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "If this is a true association, that's one more lifestyle change women can make."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/18/arts/snvital.php?WT.mc_id=rsshealthscience

http://tinyurl.com/3a4hws

And, if that is not enough, just what we need is new more virulent bacteria...or don't promiscuously kiss your local astronaut. Just heard that bacteria in space mutates apparently in response to the lack of gravity and pressure perhaps and the resulting mutations are much tougher for humans to resist.

Just what we don't need from space...meaner, nastier viruses and bacteria.

**Stay tuned and ....well don't drink. Do yourself a bigger favor than you can even imagine..but don't dance off in joy hopping barefoot across the grass to kiss an astronaut who parachutes into your yard--- Doug Wiken

**Solar power cheap enough to not need subsidy?

Our local REA, Rosebud Electric, sends out a small monthly newsletter. The last edition had a column by a guy who was pretty sure that the only cost effective way to collect "solar energy" was indirectly with ground source heatpumps. Certainly not a bad idea since nearly constant ground temperatures make for some mighty efficient heating and cooling systems that can work 24 hours a day. The sun on the other hand, at least for this part of the country is only ablaze for a few hours per day. The article then presented the rather depressing economic payback offered by high priced solar electric systems.

But, today I read the article below which indicates a significant new way to convert solar energy to electric energy directly at low cost. The main idea is below, but the whole article is worth reading.

New Low Cost Solar Panels Ready for Mass Production Colorado's State Univ.'s panels will cost less than $1 per watt. Compiled By Adrienne Selko Sept. 10, 2007 -- Colorado State University's method for manufacturing low-cost, high-efficiency solar panels is nearing mass production. AVA Solar Inc. will start production by the end of next year on the technology developed by mechanical engineering Professor W.S. Sampath at Colorado State. The new 200-megawatt factory is expected to employ up to 500 people. Based on the average household usage, 200 megawatts will power 40,000 U.S. homes.

Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity and could power homes and businesses around the globe with clean energy for roughly the same cost as traditionally generated electricity.

www.industryweek.com/
http://tinyurl.com/2yufjr

HOTLINK for the rest of above story

And, at the local level, we have had some roller coaster weather temperature changes. The first day of Autumn is starting off a lot cooler than the last days of summer.

**Stay tuned even if you think LET THERE BE ELECTRICITY is heretical---- Doug Wiken

**Private investors in Nursing Homes fail their patients

The hairs on the back of my neck kind of standup when I start hearing the glories and efficiency and cost reductions possible by converting government functions and similar operations into profit-making ventures.

Such pre-transfer propaganda turns out to be inapplicable libertarian cant or outright lies once the transfer is irreversible. Something in the same neighborhood is happening when Nursing homes for the elderly and infirm, are purchased by private investors. I heard a report on NPR this morning. The Mudville Times blog has already done a good report on it. An excerpt below, but take a look at the site and read the whole Mudville story.

Mr. Whitman appears to be saying that the free market can't provide even inferior care for Grandma and Grandpa without complicated legal structures to hide its failings from legal scrutiny. I think Adam Smith said something about that: if the free market can't do the job, society has a right and duty to do the job through its government.

Today's New York Times article gives a good example from one specific subset of the health care industry of why blind adherence to free-market theology in health care without at least strict regulation, if not full funding and control, by the government leads to immoral treatment of our fellow citizens at the hands of profiteers.

Madvilletimes.blogspot.com/

http://tinyurl.com/38p2k4

HOTLINK for the above story from Madville Times Blog

**Stay tuned, but right now I have got to get my butt off the computer chair...don't want any sores---Doug Wiken

**Meanwhile back in the SD Blogosphere..Games Politicians play

Ah, the games politicians fiddle around with as Iraq burns. At Badlands Blue, we find results of another vote besides the one I noted in the previous post. Thune and Johnson voted for the other one, but only Johnson voted for this one noted by Lowell.

Why Would John Thune Vote Against This?

by: Lowell --Thu Sep 20, 2007

Can anyone tell me what could possibly be controversial about this?

Boxer Amdt. No. 2947; To reaffirm strong support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and to strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization.

A total of 51 senators voted for this -- 46 Democrats, 2 Independents, and 3 Republicans (Hagel, Specter, Stevens). Tim Johnson voted for it. But for some reason, John Thune voted against it, as did 44 other Republicans. Bizarre.
Lowell -- Why Would John Thune Vote Against This?

http://www.badlandsblue.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=251

http://tinyurl.com/3chae6

Meanwhile over at a NATION blog, more ire at our Washington Waffles with one wet finger in the wind.

BLOG |Ari Berman| Posted 09/20/2007 @ 9:52pm

Democrats Stab MoveOn in the Back

Memo to Democrats: you control the Congress. That means you can decide what bills come to the floor for votes--and what don't. So why, in a week where Republicans blocked the restoration of habeas corpus, voting rights for DC and adequate rest time for our troops between deployments, did you allow Republicans the opportunity to score a cheap PR stunt by approving a resolution condemning a week-old newspaper ad by Moveon.org--on the same day Republicans once again voted to keep indefinitely continuing the Iraq war?!

It boggles the mind. I have no idea what Harry Reid was thinking. Does he think that by repudiating Moveon.org suddenly Fox News will like him? That Ann Coulter will take back all those nasty things she said? That Republicans will stop trying to blame the Democrats for losing this war?

MoveOn has been one of the most effective and persistent voices pushing for progressive change inside the Democratic Party. They helped elect politicians like Jon Tester in Montana and Jim Webb in Virginia, who today stabbed the group in the back. MoveOn didn't start this war. George Bush did. And General Petraeus is keeping it going. They've only been in the majority for nine months, but you'd think by now Democratic leaders in Congress would be able to comprehend the obvious.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/?pid=235143

http://tinyurl.com/2z8xao

HOTLINK for Above...Check the comments at Nation Too

How many US soldiers died in Iraq and how many $millions disappeared in the Iraqi winds while our congress critters were screwing around with this bullshit?

***Stay tuned even if you need Pepto Bismol to read about Bush and the Senate these days---Doug Wiken

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**Sen. Johnson returns to save the day..or why Democrats are so discouraged about Democrats in DC

I doubt it happened this way, but we can use our imagination a bit and visualize Sen. Tim Johnson back in the US Senate. His electric wheel chair racing around corners... batteries almost smoking as he races like Mighty Mouse to save the day....to vote "Yea" on what to do to save the world?

Well, NO. It was a resolution attacking MoveOn organization for daring to tell the truth about Gen Petraeus and his performance testifying in support of the liar in the White House. Too many Democrats turned themselves into Little General BackStabUs.

Do we really owe respect to the military just because it is the military brass when they lie through their teeth with jaw set resolutely and fixed under nearly unblinking eyes above a chest of permanently shiny medals and bright ribbons...and do it for a commander in chief with all the integrity of a botched cross between a rattlesnake and a cockroach? What the hell is wrong with these Democratic Senators? Gen Petraeus had good news and bad news. The war news was all bad. The good news was he almost recognized what a dreadful mess Bush, Co and and the US military have made in Iraq.

In the continuation are the vote records and some other comments from blogs and news. Immediately below is a letter sent by the poster known as "Helen Wheels" at Salon Table Talk to Democratic senators. Prettty well says it better than I can right now.

Helen Wheels - 11:44 am Pacific Time - Sep 20, 2007 - #6053 of 6070 War is sell.

OK, here's what I sent [to Senators]:

Your "yea" vote on the resolution condemning MoveOn.org is curious to me. How did you vote on the resolution to condemn the Swiftboat Veterans for their outrageous, defamatory ads? Oh, there was no such resolution? Why not?

In the absence of a similar vote condemning the Swiftboaters, I have to say that I am very disappointed and offended that one group should be singled out, and not another. Singling out one organization for selective condemnation of their expression of freedom of speech is hypocritical.

Furthermore, the MoveOn ad was phrased as a question, while the Swiftboat ads were posed as accusations, an important distinction, in my mind.

Focus your efforts on getting our troops out of Iraq, and promoting a diplomatic solution to the problems in the Mideast, not on defaming Americans who are getting sick and tired of your inaction on the issues we sent you to Washington to resolve.

You could solve our healthcare crisis if you stopped wasting those billions on a militarily lost cause. You could solve our transportation infrastructure problems if you spent the money here instead of in a place where it gets blown up as quickly as it gets shoddily built. You could solve our education problems if you were as willing to put us in debt for our own children as you are for funding George W. Bush's ego-war.

Instead you waste your time, and our money, keeping our military in harm's way, and condemning outspoken Americans for expressing publicly what we are all thinking.

http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?7@@.773b7c13/6067

A hotlink may take you to Table Talk as a visitor, to find the context of the above post, but you will have to be a member of Salon to post there..probably worth the $29 considering the loot that comes with it.
LINK--Salon Table Talk--Discussion on Pink TuTu Democrats

We understand how the Republicans in the Senate are using their obstruction powers, but there is more than that in the disgust that the strongest Democrats have for the waffling double talk nonsense coming from gutless Democrats with all the courage of melting ice cubes.

**Stay tuned...Check the vote Info etc in the continuation..and keep wondering why SD Republicans were so upset about Tim Johnson not being able to vote during his dreadful surgery and illness--- Doug Wiken

**Photos made near Chamberlain, SD Sept 16, 2007

As indicated in previous post, we wasted some time at Chamberlain and took time for a few photographs. Usually Chamberlain, SD is one of those towns you drive past on the interstate or if you drive on the old highway through town...and if you aren't very careful right through one of the poorest placed stop signs on any highway in South Dakota. But, there is some scenery around there and this year the grass is still green and not burned brown by blistering sun. First is a photo of the first wind generators I have seen in South Dakota. They are just north of Chamberlain.
Click on the image for a larger version. Free to use for bloggers writing about wind energy in SD.

And, if Chamberlain has nothing else, it has a set of bridges. The railroad bridge, the interstate 90 bridge, and the old bridges stuck together to go across the dam-widened Missouri river. One of the old steel bridges I believe was the Wheeler, SD Bridge and was moved up the river to Chamberlain. Still also a few concrete piers remaining from a past bridge. And, having only to do with the past when there were no bridges, my grandfather who for a short time homesteaded west of Pierre, SD near Sansark, told stories of swimming strings of "mustang" horses across the river...or walking over the ice in the winter near Chamberlain. The west is a lot easier to get around on these days whether or not we really think to appreciate that.
Click on the image for a larger version.

And, last for now is a view of the Missouri River/reservoir looking north from the little park called "Roam Free Park" with signs saying to watch out for rattlesnakes and don't walk on the cracks. Also some signs with information related to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Well, so much for our little Sunday jaunt to Chamberlain. We also wandered around Al's Oasis for a few minutes. My wife likes dishes, cups, mugs, etc. Some were interesting, but all were made in China. Not really much of a reminder of South Dakota in that case. Stopped at a convenience store later when we were thirsty and bought a couple bottles of 30 cent Dr. Pepper for only $2.78 supposed to be cold, but by the time we were two miles down the interstate, were lukewarm. The kind of thing that makes me think the great state of South Dakota needs to mandate any business along the interstates must provide a water fountain with free distilled water. Of course, they would not be mulcting sales tax out of every drop of sugar-laced soft drink then.
***Stay tuned for tree butchering in the tree city--- Doug Wiken

**The politicians sham solution to the health insurance catastrophe

Below is a short commentary I heard this morning on public radio.
Sounded like it made a lot of sense when I was still half asleep...good enough I actually remembered the website address anyway. Other information on the site is worth looking at as well.

TEXT OF COMMENTARY

Doug Krizner: Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton presented her plan for health care yesterday. Her promise is to provide universal coverage without creating new bureaucracies. Among other things, the Clinton plan requires all Americans to have health insurance.

For Commentator Jamie Court, making health insurance mandatory is not a solution.

Jamie Court: What do Mitt Romney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hillary Clinton all have in common? They all support the government forcing the middle class to buy a private health insurance policy -- but none want to limit how much insurers can charge or spend.

And that's the problem. Mandatory private health insurance proposals are all stick and no carrot.

The average health insurance premium for a family of four is just over 12 grand per year. What middle-class family making, say, 60,000 bucks per year can afford that bill?

What we need is the carrot of affordable health care. That means government standardizing charges by insurers, doctors, hospitals and drug companies. No more $6 Tylenol in the hospital.

The reason health insurance is so unaffordable today is that no one is watching the costs. With standardization, insurance would be cheaper and people would want to buy it -- not have to because the government is threatening them with a tax penalty.

Oh wait, I can hear the plaintive cry of the free market. You can't tell a doctor, insurer, hospital or drug company what's reasonable to charge. That's socialism. Well, how reasonable then is it to tell every American you have to buy a product whose cost is obscene if you want to be a U.S. citizen? Isn't that corporate socialism?

Mandatory health insurance is a government bailout of a free market that's failed its customers. Fewer people and employers are buying private health insurance because it costs so much more and delivers so little.

So rather than let customers demand a new and better product, politicians are forcing us to buy it. Whatever happened to creative destruction?

There's a business plan of course. Mitt, Arnold and Hillary each received six or seven-figure campaign contributions from the insurance industry. The plan is insurers send the bill and we have to pay it.

Jamie Court is president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/09/18/forced_health_care_wont_curb_insurer_costs/

http://tinyurl.com/348eq7

LINK--Market Place Commentary Sept 18, 2007

We will be barraged with a bunch of smoke and mirrors designed to give the appearance of making health care affordable, but which will actually make huge salaries of insurance and health care administrators even more lucrative and will continue to suck the life out of the economy and stifle new business startups. And as the commentary above indicated make it possible for ever larger political contributions to politicians so they can spread more smoke and mirrors when their previous proposals fail to deliver anything significant.

Time to say goodbye to a private health insurance system that has failed and hello to a single-payer system that is efficient.

***Stay tuned, but don't expect a lot of Brittany and OJ news here--- Doug Wiken

**South Dakota Photo ..Why they call the White River White

The wife decided we needed to go for a drive whether or not gas costs $3.00 a gallon and we drove up to Chamberlain, SD yesterday. Below is a photo we took yesterday on the return trip. Heading south to the White River Bridge NE of Hamill, SD. A few hundred feet of the White River bed was visible. The white clay gives a pretty good indication of why it is called the White River when it is actually running fast and high after a rapid spring thaw or major thunderstorm up river.

Click on the image for a larger view. The White of the White River also indicates it is dumping a lot of silt into the Missouri and the reservoir now. It would seem that that the federal government should be doing a lot more to reduce silt deposition and in the long run that might help our energy reserves more than any operation in Iraq ever will.

***Stay tuned for a few photos taken near Chamberlain, SD--- Doug Wiken

**Sunday Morning This and That

Some miscellaneous stuff. The Sunday ARGUS had a 50 cent price on the cover, but it still cost $1.50 at the convenience store. The Rapid City Journal announces that it is increasing price of newstand and vending machine papers from 50 cents to 75 cents for the daily paper.

We better get the computer ink computer "books" such as those from Sony into a size and format for newspapers pretty soon. The Journal gets more expensive and the ARGUS has become little more than a shopper to hold all the ads and filler stuffed into it. They really should be thinking about printing it in a bag format to hold the instant trash.

More seriously, what is going on with Israel and Syria? It seems that Israel launched a mysterious raid a few days ago against a mysterious target in Syria. A few links below, but other than these, I have no real information.

ISRAELI air attack forces have reportedly wiped out a Syrian nuclear installation 80km from the Iraqi border.

Speculation about an Israeli incursion into Syrian territory has been intense since an alleged raid almost two weeks ago.

Andrew Semmel, a senior US State Department official, told the Times newspaper Syria might have obtained nuclear equipment from secret suppliers, and added that there were a number of foreign technicians in the country.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22428043-5012750,00.html
LINK to Above-- Israel Coy about Air Strike

http://tinyurl.com/2bsnge

And a couple of responses form Syria:

Syria warns of US 'lies' over Israel air violation

AFP
Sunday September 16, 2007

An official Syrian daily warned on Sunday that US "lies" over nuclear cooperation with North Korea could serve as a pretext for an attack on Syria following an Israeli violation of its airspace.

"Members of the choir have started up a new song that is full of hostility, this time about Syrian-Korean nuclear cooperation," Ath-Thawra said. "This is a big lie... Syria is used to having to put up with such lies."

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/160907Syria.htm

LINK--Syria Warns US --Read the rest of the Article
http://tinyurl.com/2ektgd

And Meanwhile back at the United Nations.

Syria Issues Formal UN Complaint about Israeli Air Attack

United Nations, September 12 (RHC)-- Syria has formally complained to the United Nations about a raid by Israeli aircraft over its territory. The Syrian ambassador to the world body, Bashar Jaafari, said Israeli fighter planes had dropped munitions after crossing Syria's border last Thursday. Jaafari described the incident as a flagrant violation of Syrian airspace.

http://www.radiohc.cu/ingles/noticias/sept07/sept12/notimundo2.htm

LINK--Cuban English version Radio --Read the rest of it

http://tinyurl.com/2dv385

You may notice the sources above are not the New York Times or the Washington Post or even the Omaha World Herald.

**Stay tuned for the fallout--- Doug Wiken