(GMD thanks Amy McCrobie of Harrisonburg, VA for the graphics work on the banner.   – promoted by kestrel9000)

This made the local paper:

So it’s been an interesting week or so.  I do not seem to be any healthier than before– me eyes are giving me trouble and I can’t start treatments until I get my labwork in, and I’m having trouble understanding why it takes more than ten days to get the results of a blood test, but there’s not much I can do about that.  

But there’s something about being pushed and constricted in your activity that can push you to do better with what you’ve got.  So I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with photography.  

I think I’ve been successful.  

This may be the single best hummingbird photo I’ve ever taken:

And I don’t even know what to say about this one:

Ruby-throated hummingbirds:

Fireworks:

Baltimore Orioles:

Cabbage White:

These are smaller versions.  There are larger versions at my web site.  If you’re using IE9, you’ll see a bunch of code that I’m working to eliminate, but scroll down and you’ll still get the photos.

The final round goes to the Governor whose letter of July 28 indicates that he knew of our issues with Mr. Luneau before re-appointing him and still stands by that appointment. I will add the letter to “comments” and urge everyone to diligently monitor Environmental Commission appointments in your own districts.

If Mr. Luneau has some science background I am unaware of that makes him particularly valuable in this capacity, I’d really like to know.

If not, it is difficult to escape the impression that he is being appointed repeatedly, despite local complaints, purely for political reasons.

______________________________________________________________

I quietly stewed over that non-response from the governor until today, when I sent yet another letter to Peter Shumlin, quoted below in “comments.”

………………………………………………………………………………………

Well, the squeaky wheel sometimes just gets put away in the closet.

I got my response from Peter Shumlin in this morning’s mail. I’ve added the text to the comments so you can judge for yourselves whether or not my concerns were addressed.

______________________________________________________________

I wrote to Governor Douglas a couple of times and, perhaps predictably, never got a response.  

I didn’t really expect that the Governor would, himself, take the time to write, but it seemed entirely reasonable to expect that someone in the office was responsible for replying to correspondence he received from the people of Vermont.  

“But that was Douglas,” I thought, confidently.  Peter Shumlin would be more engaged.

A few months ago, I got to thinking about whom the new governor might appoint to the District 6 Commission to review Act 250 applications.  On the Natural Resource Board website, the terms of the current members were posted, and two had been scheduled to expire in January of 2011.  As there was no update, I assumed no action had yet been taken and quickly sent off a concerned question about this in the “Ask the Governor” interface on his website.  In my haste, I made the erroneous assumption that this was the one-and-only way to contact the Governor electronically, because It  had been so when I attempted to e-mail Governor Douglas several years earlier.  

It was only after I hit “send” that I discovered this interface was soley for questions Governor Shumlin could answer by video, and a conventional e-mail was provided elsewhere on the site.   Nevertheless, I felt confident that whoever screens those e-mail questions would have the good sense to forward it to the appropriate reader or quickly shoot me a redirect reply.

With other fish to fry, I forgot about it for a few weeks.  Then I checked on the NRB website again and discovered that new appointments had already been made to the District 6 Commission, including the re-appointment of Dan Luneau, about whom I had specifically raised conflict of interest concerns in my e-mailed question.

Allowing the benefit of the doubt to the Governor, since I had expressed my concerns in the wrong electronic medium, I wrote the following letter and posted it by certified mail on May 31:

Dear Governor Shumlin,

It was with mixed feelings that I read the new roster for the District 6 Environmental Commission.  

While I applaud the inclusion of Julie Wolcott, whose professional credentials well-qualify her for this service, I am surprised and disappointed that Dan Luneau was reappointed as Chair.  Several weeks ago, I submitted an e-mail on the Governor’s website to express my concerns that  1) an environmental science background be represented among the three commissioners; and 2) Mr. Luneau, specifically, has family business ties that represent a conflict of interest with regard to development at Exit 20 of I-89.

The issue of Mr. Luneau’s conflict of interest has already been raised in the high-profile case of a permit issued to build a Walmart in that location.  Attorneys representing those opposed to the permit raised this concern in a timely manner before the proceedings began, but Mr. Luneau refused to recuse himself on that occasion.  

That permit is currently under appeal at the Vermont Supreme Court. Because more compelling arguments existed, the question of Mr. Luneau’s possible bias was not specifically raised in the SCOV filing.  Nevertheless, that potential conflict of interest remains a concern since Exit 20 continues to be the focus of large-scale development plans in Franklin County.

I encourage you to reconsider Mr. Luneau’s appointment, as his service in this quasi-judicial capacity will very likely lead to more challenges to Act 250 permits, engendering additional cost for all sides, including the State.

Thank your for your attention.  I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

I’m still waiting for a reply.

One would think that, before re-appointing a District Chair, especially in a development-sensitive district, the Governor would check to see if any issues had ever been raised about said appointee.

After reviewing uncontroverted evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell gifted Entergy with a nicely wrapped State of Vermont package (glowing?) with a fat green ribbon tied in every direction.

The deceit perpetrated against our elected representatives, Vermont ratepayers and public safety official is now safely bundled into a spent fuel pool. At the same time, the old adage — that there is an inverse relationship between the size of a Corporation’s wallet and the likelihood of accountability for its wrongdoing — has been enriched.  

This morning, Dr. Morton Reingold, from the office of the Chief Coroner of the City of Toronto rang us up on our Pink House Studios phone.  Assuming that he was calling about a death-mask or some other forensic assistance, I immediately interrupted Mark from another call to speak with him.

Moments later, I was summoned back to the phone to help identify a piece of sculpture Dr. Reingold seemed concerned about.  It was then I learned that our friend, and Mark’s principle Toronto collector, Billy Jamieson, had passed away. Dr. Reingold wouldn’t answer our questions about the circumstances of Billy’s death but was anxious to learn something about one of Mark’s sculptures he had come across in Billy’s condo.

Now, it has to be explained that Bill Jamieson was no ordinary collector, specializing as he did in Egyptian mummies, antique shrunken heads and all sort of bizarre ethnographic art and artifacts.  His condo is literally filled with human skulls, bones and macabre ecoutrements.  With a long history of supplying the bizarre tastes of rock stars and celebrities,  his company, Jamieson Tribal Art, had recently been working on a television series for the History Channel featuring items from his collection and his adventures as a collector.  Let’s just say that he has definitely led the life-less-ordinary and leave it at that.

He has also been collecting Mark’s artwork for a number of years now, having first encountered it when he visited the Isaacs Gallery as a Toronto high school student back in 1972.  Consequently, he has some of Mark’s best known pieces like “The Incurable Romantic,”  “Armistice,” and “Thawing Out;” some of which figured in high profile censorship cases in the 1970’s.

The Coroner told us he had come across something in Billy’s house that seemed to be a male sprawled upright inside a white box with the door open.  The back of the box was signed “Mark Prent,” so he Googled that name and found the same image with contact information for Pink House Studios.  When I learned that this had something to do with Billy, I quickly recognized that Dr. Reingold was referring to “Thawing Out.”

He soberly said that he needed to know if it was a real person in that white box!  We told him it was just a sculpture made of polyester resin and fiberglass, way back in 1972.  

After a moment or two of silence, he soberly commented to Mark, “You know you are very good!”

We await further information, but are confident that Billy would have approved.

Well, it’s the Fourth of July and here is a link to a story of a Harvard study which analyzes childhood participation in celebratory patriotic events. It finds a connection to this and future political belief patterns.  

Now I grew up in a small town, in a house on the parade route and watched a parade of parades go by in the course of my childhood but I remain fairly certain I am not Republican.  

The study focuses on the years 1920-2008 and notes: "The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century."

…the results indicate that Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation’s political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party.  

The pair researched previous studies, finding that July Fourth participation divides along political lines with  a) Republicans viewing the historic anniversary as more important than Democrats do,   and b) Republicans attending July Fourth celebrations more consistently than Democrats do.

These are all smaller versions of the photos.  Clicking on them gets you to full-sized versions.

Embezzlement.

The official State Auditor is Tom Salmon