Who was that masked man?

As Senator John McCain sashshays to the left to distance himself from Bush and Obama sidles up to the religious right to emphasis that he has the right moral values it is getting more and more difficult to tell the cat from the raccoons. Or this election from any other.

Wasn't this one suppose to be about change? Didn't us Democrats vote for Obama over Hillary because he was for change and she seemed a bit like the old guard? Wasn't this year the Democratic party was at last going to give us some hope?

Well, I'm not feeling it. In fact I have not blogged here for several days because I was just too stunned at what I was watching happen to all that hope for change. Now McCain is talking about change. But then he was so wonderfully positioned in Columbia when at last the hostages were rescued. Not unlike Bush reading to a kindergarten group during 9/11?

OK, I am a cynic. Seems like I have seen this same song and dance before. But now it seems this may well be our last dance. Because if something does not change one of two things may well happen: 1) we get taken over by another country after we crumble or 2) we finally wake up and riot in the streets.

Any opinions out there on that? Or are we all suddenly silent because we cannot believe what is happening yet again. Well, if it gets down to only a choice between age and beauty I am going for beauty. Got to feel good about something.

Stepford Wife? Or Barbie Doll?

Must be a quiet week on the political front because everyone is talking about the wives of the candidates rather than them.

I like Michelle. She seems very real. And commanding as well. Her girls seem well adjusted and it would seem that she and Obama have a good relationship. However, I just cannot get a handle on Cindy McCain. I find myself thinking back to the officer wives I knew when my father was an Air Force Officer. They usually excelled in cocktails and bridge and standing just behind their husbands.

Words like plastic and Barbie Doll and Stepford come to mind every I see here beside and slightly behind her husband. I liked this photo because her hair is messed up a bit. Something you don't see often.

The Internet rumor mill has her being the other woman in McCain's first marriage. They had a sordid affair after McCain returned from Vietnam to find his wife very altered by a horrid car crash that left her disfigured and handicapped. Remember when presidential candidates could not be divorced let alone remarried to their mistresses?

I guess times they are a changing but I had hoped they had moved away from the plastic, perfect little wife forever at her husband's side like an appendage. Her father is rich. Maybe that is her one redeeming trait. It certainly is not morality.

They Haven't a Clue

After all the scare over tomatoes they now say they don't think that was the source of the salmonella. Or is it that they could not find out where the tomatoes came from?

Their guess at the moment is a local favorite salad called Pico de Gallo or rooster beak salad. It contains tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro. The ingredients are finally chopped and mixed together. How can they tell which of these ingredients is the carrier of the disease?

Certainly if it was the onions there would be a lot more illness sweeping the country. They think it is not the tomatoes only because people are not eating them and yet the spread of the salmonella continues. So cilantro? Or jalapenos? And if they could find which could then then find the source of the contagion? Somehow I doubt it.

The Federal Food and Drug Administration hasn't a clue. And one of the reasons is the lack of labeling of country of origin. And NAFTA. It is time to call a halt on free and open borders. It is time to label all products and enforce the labeling and inspections of products at our ports. It is time for all American citizens to be safe. And buy American products. Oh, but if we only could. But all our manufacturing companies have moved overseas. And food products from Mexico and Canada are not clearly labeled or monitored. We should be outraged. We should be marching in the streets.

On the upcoming 4th of July we should renew our pride in America and American products. Buy nothing this week from any other country. Then maybe we can get their attention and they will start doing their duty.

Bottom of the Food Chain

I think artists are at the bottom of the food chain. Art is the one thing all consumers feel they can delete from their budgets in times of economic upheaval.

So we are frequently the first to know the economy is not strong like GW maintains. And the last to see the effects of any turnaround. I personally think everyone ought to give up ESPN before art.

At this last weeks big New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair there were a moderate amount of viewers but a dismal amount of buyers. Which means that us artists are returning home with empty fuel tanks, plenty of inventory and doubts about whether or not to continue to create.

We spent much of the slower moments of the show talking alternatives to art shows as a way to peddle our wares and other things to do to make money. Most of us have day jobs we have not quit but they are generally marginal and getting more so. I am thinking of putting on some workshops in my new studio. But do people have money to pay for art lessons and, heaven forbid, art supplies?

So I returned home to make an agonizing appraisal of expenses, delete two other possible shows from the calendar, and hope the next show is better.

I suppose any plea I made here to support your local artist would fall on deaf ears. But it is not just artists. Think of what you are deleting from your expenses and the people connected with that. I am not getting the house stained because of the poor show so the painter is probably not putting any money toward his kid's college fund. It is the trickle down theory at work.

Someone call Bill Gates and tell him to go out and buy art and have his houses painted.

Consumer Confidence?

I think maybe consumer confidence is an oxymoron. I certainly have very little.

My confidence in the foods I buy at the market has reached an all time low. Admitted it has been eroding for some time. In 1981 I discovered rather painfully and almost fatally that the ingredient sulfur does not have to be mentioned on a product label because it is not added to the final product deliberately.

Sulfur, which an alarming number of people are deathly allergic to is a "hitchhiker" on any corn byproduct. It is used on corn to prevent it germinating while it is waiting to become corn syrup or corn starch, etc. And it does not go away in the processing. The incident of the emergency ward alerted me to this little known fact. There has been a very strong lobby to try to get it listed for decades now. Until then I and millions others like me just simply avoid products with corn in them. And dehydrated fruits, and artificial creamers, some sugar substitutes, etc.

I had become used to this process when I discovered a sensitivity to petrochemicals. Also obliquely named on product ingredient labels. Sun block gives me sun blisters of mega proportions. Hand creams cause rashes not heal them, etc. Then came pet food. After losing my aging cat at about the same time my other two got put on an organic diet. The dogs are on the only dog food that has not been named in a recall. I avoid lettuce and spinach in plastic bags and have devoted part of my sun porch to a green house for tomatoes.

When beginning my spring garden this year I discovered the problem with seeds. Burpee and other seed companies are treating their seeds so not only do they not germinate for longer than the one season for which they are purchased but the plants grown from these seeds are sterile. Does this sound like we are painting ourselves into a corner? I live in an area where Anasazi beans discovered in pre-Columbian pottery can be planted and they grow. Now we have genetically altered plants and animals that cannot reproduce.

I am growing my own lettuce, spinach, chard and herbs as well as the tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. I am looking for a good general hunting rifle and have plans with my neighbor for a deer hunt this year. I am also splitting a pig or lamb with her grown by one of our animal raising neighbors. I have my eye on a little chest freezer and thankfully never got rid of the pressure cooker. Back to canning I think. What I don't raise myself I can get from the local farmers' markets. And I buy organic any product I cannot get locally like milk and cheese.

Oh, yeah, they could be mislabeling organic products. But I did read that there is a higher likelihood that organic products will be produced locally. Translate that to mean not Mexico or China. I urge all food producers in Canada and USA to label their products clearly as to point of origin. I find this raises my level of confidence in the product. And I avoid any highly processed food because that increases the chances of some ingredient coming from China or Mexico which does not have any product controls or safety, nor any EPA oversite. That is why the companies moved there to manufacture. It is not all because of low cost labor. Well, I'm not buying.

Now what are you going to do? I am shopping local and shunning global.

Where did my poison come from?

One of those little side agreements that came with the many free trade deals G.W. Bush has been engaging in without congressional oversight is the elimination of point of origin labeling.

Probably not a big deal since his administration has also totally stripped the Food and Drug Administration (and the Environmental Protection Agency too) but now with poisoned tomatoes in 17 states we haven't a clue where they came from. Ergo nobody is buying tomatoes period. Which is a shame as there are some United States suppliers of this wonderful fruit/vegetable that have proven clean of any contamination. But they are having to trash their production for lack of markets.

My personal guess is that the tomatoes came from Mexico. Like to blame China but that is a bit far for a ripe tomato to travel. And the first states where the suspect food showed up were Texas and New Mexico. Right along the Mexico border. But proving that is darn near impossible because of that no point of origin labeling. And if NAFTA gets its way and they allow trucks from Mexico to just roll across the border with no unloading to US trucks we will really be lost. Poison tomatoes can go straight through to Canada.

So since I do not know where the produce in my market comes from I am not buying any of it. Growing my own lettuce and tomatoes and waiting for the farmer's markets for everything else. So if you are a United States producer of vegetables and fruits put Grown in the USA in large letters on it. If I don't see that I will assume Mexico. Not a good assumption. I want to know what I am eating and where it is from.

Changes

As I sit here this morning debating the necessity of making a 50 mile round trip into Taos I realize how times have changed. This was once a twice a week routine.

I belonged to a gym in Taos. I had friends there I met for lunch. I did almost all my shopping there except for the trips to the more distant Santa Fe with a Sam's Club, a Lowe's and a Home Depot. Now I seldom go to Santa Fe and only a couple times a month to Taos. And that usually with a friend so we can share gas expenses.

I live in a rural community which depends upon tourism for its livelihood. That is down and the resort has made layoffs. Because of that the tax base for the village is down and they have made layoffs. I have a rental unit which is seldom empty, but it is now. So are lots in the area which once had a shortage of affordable rental housing. So my income is suffering there. And I am an artist. Less art being sold these days.

It is not a new story for many people and yet a CNN news poll said that 3% of the country still felt the economy was strong. G.W.Bush has to be one of those 3% and I would assume his cabinet the rest. And isn't the margin of error on most polls 3%?

What hit me this morning as I looked at the must get list which has been growing beside my computer is the gap between the forced shopping local and the local stores being able to accommodate our needs. They are getting better but not quite there yet. All the little retail stores switched to bare essentials when the big box stores in bigger towns sprung up. Now they are having to reconsider their market needs. The grocery store here is doing a pretty good job of it. So is the local hardware. Can't always get it when you want it but they can order it in for Thursday.

And there are the friendships. I have quite a few friends in Taos. We met rather routinely when I was over there for errands. We did lunch. Now that I am there less frequently my list grows to the point that lunch just isn't possible time or money wise. So once close personal relationships are now e-mail affairs. Taos and Angel Fire used to be neighbor cities and now we are rapidly becoming strangers. With the help of blogs I have closer connections to friends in Australia. We have not quite gotten it that the high price of gas is changing not just our economy but our friendships. It is difficult to think regionally let alone globally.

I definitely don't have any warm and fuzzy feelings for the oil companies or OPEC or the current administration. I remember being in this place in the 70's and everyone talked of solutions that obviously nobody put into effect because of the huge political clout of Exxon, etc. I certainly hope this time will be different but somehow I doubt it. That 3% that think the economy is solid are the ones pulling all the strings.

Oh, and I am having a difficult time even feeling sorry for the rest of the country with the announced $4.00/gallon prices. We have been over $4.00 for weeks.