Glass Beach – The Dump You’ll Want to Visit

Published December 20, 2012 | By Iowadawg

Before you say anything about the content of this article, I hate people who litter. I’ll judge you if I think you’re too lazy to recycle. I hate pollution and the death of our fragile ecosystems and all the rest. But- with that disclaimer out of the way- Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California is the incredible result of human wastefulness and the resilience of nature. I’ve been trolling around for lesser known landscapes to road trip to and explore, and stumbled across this chunk of multicoloured west coast paradise. These days, Glass Beach is a protected part of MacKerricher State Park, but in 1949, it was the site of an unrestricted dump. For 18 years, people drove out to the scenic expanse of ocean cliffs, marveled at the beauty of the natural world and the majesty of the depths, and then threw all their shit in.

Eventually, California realized that dumping automobiles, appliances, toxic substances and razor sharp shards of glass into the water was probably a bad idea, and looked elsewhere for a dumping site. The beaches under the cliffs lay polluted, cluttered and ruined, and were basically treated as a forgotten ‘mistake.’ Despite our obviously brilliant handling of the situation, Mother Earth had a few tricks up her sleeve, and spent the next 30 years tumbling away the jagged edges of our insensitivity and leaving behind brilliant pebbles of polished glass. As the shores grew into glimmering beaches, the state realized that people were visiting to collect the glass and to see the rainbow sands reflecting the sun, and quickly annexed it into a national park. The result? We finished up what nature graciously started, spent a few years cleaning up rusting metal hulks and all sorts of wonderfully dangerous debris (nothing says sandcastle fun like getting tetanus from a lead-filled 50s throwback), and Glass Beach is now a protected treasure that I’m dying to visit. While I can only imagine the sight of the colours of translucent glass turning in the sun and turbulent surf, I’m thinking I might just keep my shoes on.

Go for more pictures, etc. HERE.

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Barack And Michelle Cost FAR More In Upkeep Than Britain’s Royals!

US taxpayers spent a staggering $1.4 Billion (yes, with a B) on the Obamas, according to author Robert Keith Gray in his new book PRESIDENTIAL PERKS GONE ROYAL!

Compare that to only $57.8 million the Brits shelled out for their royals, and you have to ask what is going on with President Obama. Now word comes that he and first lady Michelle, their two daughters, and Dog Bo will be spending an extended holiday vacation in Hawaii that will cost us taxpayers more than $4 million dollars. Double whammy, wow, over the top, beyond the pale, way too much vacation time, and much more.

But not to worry about the looming fiscal cliff, high unemployment rates, a constipated Congress, and a confused and hurting electorate. “The locals and other Americans will be paying for their vacation,” says The Hawaii Reporter. A large security team including US Secret Service, Coast Guard, Navy Seals, drivers, attendants and God knows who else will command a total of 22 vehicles. A commenter details the following list of costs: The US Air Force has listed the cost of travel as high as $181,757 per flight hour for the nine hour trip for a one way total of $1,635,813. A cargo plane will fly Obama’s 22 vehicles back and forth at another cost of $258,000, and locals are estimating that Oahu’s local security outlay could run as high as $250,000!

Where America’s Royals are staying will involve these vehicles having to wind through narrow one lane roads, further inconveniencing the population. But no matter: the President doesn’t have to worry about campaign rigors any more, and the first lady can relax after her exhausting, earlier vacations.

Can’t get much better than taking all of those trips on the taxpayer’s dime unless, of course, you happen to BE one of the lowly taxpayers. Spend now, spend a bunch, and let someone else pick up the tab describes Barack Obama’s idea of retail therapy as the nation stares headlong over the fiscal cliff. And taxpayers can undoubtedly expect big hikes in the coming year. Each citizen carries $150,000 of indebtedness as a result of Barack and Co’s trillion dollar per year spending spree. And gee, we can’t even call his holiday a Christmas break anymore. Kwanza anyone?

From HERE.

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In the US, mass child killings are tragedies. In Pakistan, mere bug splats

Barack Obama’s tears for the children of Newtown are in stark contrast to his silence over the children murdered by his drones

“Mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts … These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.” Every parent can connect with what President Barack Obama said about the murder of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut. There can scarcely be a person on earth with access to the media who is untouched by the grief of the people of that town.

It must follow that what applies to the children murdered there by a deranged young man also applies to the children murdered in Pakistan by a sombre American president. These children are just as important, just as real, just as deserving of the world’s concern. Yet there are no presidential speeches or presidential tears for them, no pictures on the front pages of the world’s newspapers, no interviews with grieving relatives, no minute analysis of what happened and why.

If the victims of Mr Obama’s drone strikes are mentioned by the state at all, they are discussed in terms which suggest that they are less than human. The people who operate the drones, Rolling Stone magazine reports, describe their casualties as “bug splats”, “since viewing the body through a grainy-green video image gives the sense of an insect being crushed”. Or they are reduced to vegetation: justifying the drone war, Obama’s counterterrorism adviser Bruce Riedel explained that “you’ve got to mow the lawn all the time. The minute you stop mowing, the grass is going to grow back”.

Like George Bush’s government in Iraq, Obama’s administration neither documents nor acknowledges the civilian casualties of the CIA’s drone strikes in north-west Pakistan. But a report by the law schools at Stanford and New York universities suggests that during the first three years of his time in office, the 259 strikes for which he is ultimately responsible killed between 297 and 569 civilians, of whom at least 64 were children. These are figures extracted from credible reports: there may be more which have not been fully documented.

Continue reading HERE.

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