LOVELY ART AND WHORES OF A CERTAIN ILK

POLITICIANS AS WHORES

cases in point coming up

but first-something nice

 Talent

   A moment of personal pride as we see Lana at work on her most recent series, California Grown. Here work is being done, appropriately, in California sunshine.

   The series hangs through October at Windward Vineyard and Winery in the Paso Robles westside region.

   To see more of the California Grown series link to

Lana's blog here.

 Bottles at Stolo

  In a nice coincidence, Lana's Bottles Beaucoup series hangs on the gallery walls at Cambria's own Stolo Family Vineyard and Winery.

   We note the series are in distinctive styles and both are diversions from her award winning plein air work. 

WHERE MONEY IS POISON

   Big money and politics is trouble. With apologies to prostitutes around the world, money in electoral politics is turning candidates into whores. Too much legislation is essentially purchased and written by financial contributions.

   Could this be a case in point? Laurel Rosenhall of the Sacramento Bee reports since tobacco companies have dumped big money on California politicians the legislature has rejected legislation aimed at smoking, including bans on public school campuses, at start parks and beaches as well as tax increases on tobacco. As Rosenhall writes "anti cancer advocates say it is no coincidence…" In California alone Altria and RJ Reynolds have invested  $129 million since 2000. 

MAYBE THERE IS A PLACE FOR BIG MONEY

    If corporations and special interests really must spend on public issues, why not invest the billions they spend on electoral politics instead where it does some good, helping to rebuild our aging and decaying infrastructure, or to improve operations at the VA, or to fund improvements in public schools, or etc? Money that ends up as annoying commercials and direct mailers or in the the politicians pocket could make a huge difference in the quality of American life.

    And to conclude this rant, it would be the right thing to do to outlaw the ability of members of the house or senate to establish leadership PACs. In case you are unaware, that is where the money can flow to the individual and be spent as they wish and can follow them out of office.  There was a time in America when we'd call that a slush fund. Sadly it is accepted and sanctioned by the very perpetrators. That's crazy, it should be criminal and PACs are, in fact, slush funds. How long will we tolerate this abuse?

 tough
dedicated to persistence and tenacity

  California poppies seem to thrive anywhere.

    as well as these drought tolerant succulents.  

   See you down the trail.

BAD MONEY &THE DECISION TREE

BAD MONEY
Big money in politics is wrong.  Wrong
whether it comes from billionaires, 
corporations, labor unions or any other
form of special interest.
The so called Super PAC's have
revealed who their backers are
and this renewed my fervor.
Regardless, it is a kind of buying of favors.
We will not see a significant improvement
in the quality of governance in the U.S.
until we take big money out of 
electoral politics.
Too much time and effort is spent on raising
money and with the money comes expectations.
The big dollar game of politics today
makes the comment from the old
cynic and iconoclast H.L. Mencken
all the more true.
"Every election is a sort of advance auction
sale of stolen goods."


FACES OF THE DECISION TREE

     Over the mountain, in the Paso Robles wine region

a tree stands as a reminder of the day we decided to move

to California. We call it the "Decision Tree."

     We had made several trips to the area, weighing all of the
factors that would be engaged in such a decision. Moving
across the country to an area where we knew no one, selling and buying a home, leaving friends and family and starting over combined to create multiple questions and all of them lead to the big one-should we do it?

     We had spent several days exploring, thinking, talking 
and knew it was time for a resolution.  We packed a picnic
lunch, drove to see Marc and Maggie, who we had been
introduced to by a mutual friend.  We visited their winery
and drove to a spot along a vineyard, stopped, picnicked under an old tree as we looked over wine country.  Lana and I love old trees and we reasoned this would be a good a place to decide as any.  

     And, so it was here we made the decision to make the move.  Since, we've called it our decision tree.  Well,
a few months ago as we were chatting with Marc and Maggie, who have become friends, we learned that as they debated
weather or not to leave Southern California and buy land to 
create winery, they did the same thing- picnicked under the same tree, what they told us they call their decision tree.

     There's a good view from the decision tree.  Wisdom seems to abound here. Clarity happens and the future seems bright.

See you down the trail.