Mendocino County Today: Monday, Feb 15, 2016

• Dead Baby Rumor
• Cat Food
• Fossil Fuel Bill
• Albion Mystery
• McEwen Note
• Quack Addiction
• Dangerous List
• Bern v Hil
• Manners Change
• Mack Nabbed
• Rapist Bagged
• Jack London Contradictions
• Hangin'
• Library Events
• I Am The Atman

UNSETTLED TIMES, HIGH AND LOW. At the low end, the other day we fielded several breathless messages telling us a dead baby, probably murdered, had been found in Ukiah. (A breathless message, incidentally, is an excited voice on the telephone. In print, a breathless message is heavy on caps and exclamation points.)

THE UKIAH PD soon announced that they'd searched the area of Brush and Orr with a police dog and found nothing but dead trash and faint memories of the Buddy Eller Center. The whole show turned out to be based on the vaguest of vague rumors that may or may not have begun with a homeless person.

ATTENTION TABBY AND MUFFY. Tell your owner that according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife autopsies of "107 mountain lions killed last year legally under provisions of special depredation permits," found "52% percent were found to have eaten cats, dogs or other domestic animals." Only 5% had eaten deer, which are supposed to be their favorite prey, but are harder to catch, often involving a lot of running, and mountain lions are only good for relatively short sprints. Cat-on-cat, however, Tabby is a quick and easy meal for her much bigger brothers and sisters.

THE HUFF has teamed up with 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben and a bunch of enviros to introduce the “Keep It In the Ground Bill." Sixteen other Congresspeople have signed on, but our very own rep, Congressman Jared Huffman, wrote the thing. McKibben put it this way: "The legislation would prohibit new leases for coal, oil and gas on all federal lands and waters, halting new leases for offshore drilling in the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico and permanently protecting the Arctic and Atlantic coasts.

"ANYONE who does the math of climate change knows we need to keep most fossil fuel underground,” said McKibben. “Public lands — as multiple presidential candidates have pointed out — are the logical place to start, and this is even more obvious in the wake of the Supreme Court stay on the president's Clean Power Plan. In a record hot world, let's hope Congress acts on this at record speed; we will do all we can to make it happen."

WAFTING IN OUT of cyber-space this interesting question: "Does anybody know anything about this small (pygmy sized) pond, bandstand, picnic ground and island on Albion Ridge, west of “J” Road. It is artfully carved into the middle of the pygmy forest. Who owns it? What has it been used for?"

COMMENT from the District Attorney’s facebook page regarding last week’s piece by Bruce McEwen about Mr. Watkins, who had been arrested for marijuana transportation, but who also had a serious criminal record.

(https://www.theava.com/archives/52611)

“For those who aren't Anderson Valley Advertiser subscribers, it is worth noting that Bruce McEwen, the author of this article, is not an anti-marijuana crusader; in fact, in recent years he took a sabbatical from the newspaper to work at a grow in Humboldt County. Bruce is merely someone who believes in telling the truth as he sees it.”

— Josh Rosenfeld, Mendocino County Deputy DA

MENDOCINO’S QUACK ADDICTION

Editor,

I was alarmed at Mendocino’s quack addiction. Especially after watching a Kemper Report. Finding that over 15,000 minutes of mental health services had been reportedly provided there last year. By faith-based quacks.

So I shot ‘em an email the other day. According to their agreement with Ortner Management Group, they promised to get a license. But never did. My email was brief: ‘Are you in compliance?’ Their response was even briefer: ‘Yes we are.’ Then they directed me to Ortner Management Group’s chief compliance officer. A lady named Connie Drago. Which is funny. Because Ms. Drago isn’t an attorney. Nobody at Ortner is. Ms. Drago’s a lowly nurse. Which is fine if you’re running a temperature. Otherwise, she’s a quack too.

The street folk who got all that quack therapy might not be too happy about that right about now. Especially the dangerous ones. Like that old Apple Computer ad said. Imagine the possibilities! Which takes us back to the Hospitality House. And their attorney. It’s easy to see how much they spend on legal advice. By looking at their tax returns. Over the past five years, what did they pay for that? A whopping $73. Yeah. But it’s better than Ortner. They spent nothing. Then I realized something. This is a problem that’ll solve itself.

Hospitality House got themselves into this. Along with all their church-going, property-owning board members. A class action lawsuit is the least of their worries. Board meetings are now public. Held at 9:00am on the third Thursday of every month at the Old Coast Hotel. Which isn’t convenient for working people. But ideal for unhappy clients. Especially when all those meds wear off.

Scott M. Peterson
Mendocino

PS: You can see more nonprofit nonsense at my weekly video comic strip, Mendopia.

EUREKA? A DANGEROUS CITY?

by Oliver Cory

What’s this? A list of the “20 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES IN CALIFORNIA” from some website called Home Security Shield. Yikes! And Eureka is number two. Uh-oh, we better let people know. Let’s just check the date on this. September. Ok, it’s a little old. 2014. Wait, what!?! It’s almost a year and a half old. Why is this on our Facebook feed now?

That’s what went through our heads earlier. This “listicle” has been making it’s way around Facebook locally.

Well, we did a little digging, and this story was dealt with a long time ago. LoCO’s Ryan Burns pointed out when the list came out that the stats used are misleading. For one, the stats are from 2012, and the system treats everything from petty theft to first degree murder exactly the same.

The truth of the matter is that back in 2012 Eureka had a high property crime rate, while several other cities ranked above Eureka in violent crime.

We did a quick Google search for the “most dangerous cities in California.” The first thing that popped up is called “These Are The Ten Most Dangerous Cities in California.” It’s from October of 2015, and Eureka isn’t even on that list.

Now, we aren’t going to claim that Eureka isn’t dangerous. We’re just going to point out that the FBI says these ranked lists made from their data are misleading.

Why do stories resurface on the internet months or years after they’ve lost their relevance? We may never know. But remember, don’t trust everything you read on the internet and check your freakin’ dates.

(Courtesy, KymKemp.com)

* * *

Eureka (Misleadingly) Named Second Most Dangerous City in California

by Ryan Burns (September 11, 2014)

So the website for Home Security Shield, a company that sells security systems, alarms and cameras, today published a list called “20 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES IN CALIFORNIA.” Oakland tops the list, surprising no one. But take a look at second. It’s our very own county seat, Eureka

“Your chance of becoming a victim of a crime in Eureka?” the site rhetorically asks. “One in 13.”

To quote our good pal Shaggy:

Maybe we should all invest in the Premium Protection Plus plan, a steal at just $53.99 per month.

But hold on a second, Scoob. Let’s look a bit closer. The stats used to compile this list come from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most recent “Uniform Crime Reports,” which show the most recent available data (from 2012). Fine. But Home Security Shield’s list is still extremely misleading.

Here’s why: The ranking system treats all crimes as equal: First-degree murder is the same as petty theft, danger-wise. Forcible rape is equivalent to getting graffiti on your fence. Nonsense, right?

That said, there is a reason why Eureka wound up No. 2. Namely, among cities with a population of at least 20,000, Eureka has the highest property crime rate in the state. We’re No. 1. (Sad face.)

Eureka’s total crime rate for 2012 came in at 77 per 1,000 residents. Of those 77 crimes, 71.2 were nonviolent property crimes. Only 5.8 were violent crimes. Oakland, by contrast, had nearly 20 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, fully earning its “Most Dangerous” title.

Stockton had nearly triple Eureka’s violent crime rate and yet it ranks below Eureka on the dubious danger list. In fact, literally dozens of cities have higher violent crime rates than Eureka’s — Alturas, Clearlake, Compton, Merced, Richmond, San Bernardino and San Pablo are a few of the highest ranked.

But Eureka zoomed up the security system company’s rankings on the strength of its property crime rate. So you could maybe say that Eureka is THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN CALIFORNIA — for your stuff. You personally, on the other hand, are relatively safe.

The FBI itself warns against such ranked lists, noting that “they provide no insight into the many variables that mold the crime in a particular town” and “lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions … .”

But I bet they sell plenty of security systems.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

In the mounting, panicky attempts of elites to derail the Sanders candidacy, one strand dominates.

You find it woven through every sage piece from the old-school pundits of the Times and the hip insider websites like Vox. Yes, they say, he’s saying some useful things. But he can’t really make them happen. He’s talking “puppies and rainbows.” Real “reform is hard.” The Times editors, in their endorsement of Hillary Clinton, managed a matchless condescension: His ideas about breaking up the banks or guaranteeing health care for everyone, they intoned, “have earned him support among alienated middle-class voters and young people. But his plans for achieving them aren’t realistic.” Wait ’til you’re older and richer like us, and then you’ll understand how change happens.

In fact, these pundits couldn’t be more wrong about where change comes from. And neither could Hillary Clinton. Here’s how she put it a few months ago, backstage at a tense and fascinating little confrontation with Black Lives Matter activists:

“I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate.”

That sounds sensible, grown-up, wise. It’s what Washington pundits always say — they said it over and over again when we launched, say, the fight to stop the Keystone pipeline. But in fact it’s completely backwards.

Change comes precisely when you do change hearts — and once that change has come, then the laws and the “allocation of resources,” and the “way systems operate” follow pretty easily.

Look, for instance, at gay marriage, which I’m pretty sure that President Obama will be holding up as one of the accomplishments that happened on his watch. And it did, but not much thanks to him. It came from a big, impassioned movement that cleverly changed the zeitgeist: that introduced Americans to their gay neighbors, that won a few court cases and then used that progress to show that the world wouldn’t fall apart with gay marriage, that argued in a series of referendum votes for the new right. By the time that Obama (and Clinton) came on board (a decade or two after Sanders), the battle was mostly won. There was mopping up to do, but the change had come, and it had come from changing hearts.

Or look further back in American history. LBJ’s the favorite example for this “effectiveness” argument, and indeed he was the legislator that twisted the final arms to get landmark civil rights legislation in place. But it was only because people had spent a generation building a movement that he had an opening. The hard, desperate part was changing the zeitgeist, which involved changing enough hearts. The Voting Rights Act didn’t propel the civil rights movement; it was the other way round.

By this token, Bernie Sanders has already changed the world more than Hillary Clinton, despite all her vaunted years of experience. She manages process, but he moves the argument. Because of him there’s a reasonable chance now that the TPP trade agreement will fail (he’s already moved one of its authors, Hillary, into opposition). He’s made it necessary to take inequality seriously — he’s the next stage, after Occupy, in moving the issue to the center of the stage, and the longer he lasts and the better he does the more attention it will get.

No, none of his plans will pass Congress intact. (Nor hers — see, for instance, her badly mismanaged effort at health care reform in the first Clinton administration). As the Prussian chief of staff once remarked, “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” Instead, what survives is momentum, trajectory. Movement. If Sanders can keep building a movement, then he has a far better chance of changing history than she does. Hillary promises constantly that “I’ll be there every day, fighting for you.” Bernie’s slogan is #NotMeUs. There’s all the difference in the world.

Now, you could argue that a manager is better suited to the presidency. We’ve had one the last eight years, and he’s done a good job of cleaning up after the mess he inherited; the country, by and large, has been well run. So if you think that there’s already enough momentum around issues like inequality and climate change, then it makes sense to elect another manager president. Washington pundits like the world pretty much as it is; it’s working pretty well for them.

But younger people and poorer people may not see the world the same way. They may sense an urgent need for change. I mean, we’ve just broken the planet’s temperature record two years in a row. If you think that we need a leader who will push to change the way we see the world then it makes perfect sense to imagine Bernie as the realistic candidate, the one who will get things done.

My guess is that the establishment pundits actually understand that, and I think they fear it a little. The polls in Iowa showed that rich people were backing Hillary while poorer people — who can’t endure much more of the status quo — came out for Bernie. That should make you think.

— Bill McKibben

SO LONG, MANNERS

Editor:

I have no problem with people saying "no problem" instead of "thank you." The culture we live in is constantly changing. Language and manners are no exception. Not that long ago, girls were expected to curtsey and men remove their hats, and of course they were wearing one, everyone did. Women were never referred to as "Ms." Smoking at the dinner table, in a car with the windows rolled up, on an airplane or in the waiting room at the doctor's office was considered normal. One day not too long from now, someone will be wondering, as Socrates did 2,000 years ago, why the upcoming generation is so ill-mannered and why in the world doesn't anyone say "no problem" anymore.

Bill Hildebrand, Sunnyvale

MACK NABBED

On February 8, 2016, at approximately 9:47 p.m., Officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department were dispatched to 717 Cedar Street for the report of a residential burglary. Upon arrival Officers discovered that a young white male suspect had kicked in a window of a vacant residence on the property, and then entered the structure. The suspect then continued through the residence and out the back door. The suspect began to collect items from the property before being confronted by the tenant at 717 Cedar Street. After being confronted, the suspect dropped the items, and fled eastbound from the location. During a search of the area, Officers located a male subject fleeing from a vehicle that he had just entered and taken property from. After a brief foot pursuit, Officers detained Donald Mack in the area of Florence Street. In addition to the burglary at 717 Cedar Street, the investigation that followed revealed Mack had also committed a burglary at 228 North Harold Street. After leaving that location, Mack continued with entering unlocked vehicles, and removing property from them. Mack was arrested on several charges, and later transported to the Mendocino County Adult Detention Facility in Ukiah, where he is awaiting arraignment.

(Fort Bragg Police Department)

NO BAIL FOR WILLITS RAPIST

On 2/13/2016 around 08:45 AM Deputies responded to the 24000 Block of Birch Circle in Willits in regards to a sexual assault call. Upon their arrival they contacted the 21 year old victim who reported the suspect assaulted her, against her will, over an approximate 5 hour time frame the previous evening, in her home. The victim indicated the suspect was an acquaintance who was visiting her residence. The victim stated the suspect made threats towards her and her family while committing numerous sexual assaults against her. The suspect left the location upon the arrival of another member of the victim's family. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Detective Unit conducted the investigation and interviewed the victim and witnesses. They ultimately identified and located the suspect, Jedidiah Jones, a 36 year old male also from the Willits area. At the time of the assault the suspect was on felony probation for cultivation of marijuana with the Mendocino County Probation Department. He was subsequently arrested and charged with the above listed violations. Jones was booked into the Mendocino County Jail and held on a "No Bail" status. Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Detectives Division via the Mendocino County Tip Line at 707-234-2100. Charges: Rape by Force, forced Oral Copulation, False Imprisionment, Violation of Probation, Crimanal Threats, Penetration with a Foreign Object.

V.I. LENIN, JACK LONDON & ME

by Jonah Raskin

When I was in college, I learned about ambiguity by reading the novels and the essays of Henry James, the Anglo-American author who was born in New York and who died in London, England in 1916, the same year that Jack London died in Californa. Almost all of my professors — Thirties lefties who become Fifties conservatives — adored James and expected that their students would adore him, too. I did that for a time — I also became an anglophile — and learned to love ambiguity. A crucial essay in my own education was Edmund Wilson’s “The Ambiguity of Henry James.” After I immersed myself in Wilson, I saw ambiguity everywhere I turned in fiction and poetry. I even wrote a thesis about Henry James’ ambiguity.

Then the Sixties of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and radical protest came along and my sensibilities (to borrow a Jamesian term) shifted. From V. I. Lenin and from Mao, I learned to appreciate “contradictions,” which was once a word and concept used almost exclusively by and on the left, but that has now been taken over by authors and thinkers on the right and in the so-called center. That’s a story in and of itself.

Lenin’s surprisingly insightful essay, “Tolstoy as the Mirror of the Russian Revolution” opened my eyes not only to Tolstoy and his work, but also to Lenin and Leninist literary criticism. “The contradictions in Tolstoy’s views and doctrines are not accidental; they express the contradictory conditions of Russian life in the last third of the nineteenth century,” Lenin wrote. That was a valuable lesson: to see that the contradictions contained in the work of an individual writer might reflect the larger contradictions of the era in which he or she lived.

Lenin read London, especially his collection of essays, War of the Classes. Moreover Lenin’s wife, Krupskaya, read to him from a collection of London’s short stories, at least one of which he enjoyed, while another, “The Seed of McCoy,” he dismissed because it expressed “bourgeois morals.” Lenin died two days later. Literary Russians are familiar with the connections between Lenin and London; few American scholars are. That’s our loss; we tend to be focused on our own little world and exclude the rest of the world.

Over the years, ambiguity and contradiction have served as tools for my own critical thinking and literary analysis. I would not and probably could not do without them. They are so ingrained in my habits of mind that to give them up would require brain surgery or at least a fundamental restructuring of my brain waves.

But recently I’ve heard readers, teachers and critics use the terms to avoid coming down on one side or another of an argument or divide. Or so it seems to me. I can understand the reluctance to chose sides, condemn a writer or critic and take an unambiguous stand.

I have often hailed Keats’s notion of “negative capability” a term that he defined as a state of being and thinking “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Then, too, I have borrowed from F. Scott Fitzgerald who noted that, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Then, too, there’s George Orwell’s notion of “doublethink” when someone is unaware of any contradiction, as for example in the slogans from the novel 1984, including, “Love is Hate” and “War is Peace.”

In the last year or so, I’ve thought deeply about biographers and literary critics — Jay Williams and Cecilia Tichi come to mind — who habitually refuse to acknowledge what might be called Jack London’s belief in white supremacy and his almost instinctive anti-Semitism, or to see that he was a profoundly divided writer who scorned the working class as much as he identified with it. Read The Sea-Wolf carefully. London describes the sailors abroad the Ghost as exploited workers who are easily besotted with alcohol and diverted from any desire to protest or mutiny against their boss and captain, Wolf Larsen.

For the most part, the clubby London critics who praise one another’s work don’t begin to appreciate Lenin’s approach to Tolstoy or apply it to London. They seem unwilling and or unable to recognize that London’s contradictions express the contradictions in American society from about 1900, when he broke into print, until he died in 1916 at the age of 40. Indeed, they’re too eager to turn London into a heroic figure who had no contradictions at all and who stood firmly on the side of truth, justice and the American way. What they write might be called hagiography. Since 2016 is the one-hundredth anniversary of London’s death there has been an outpouring of work about him.

In Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902, Jay Williams describes his hero as an academic writer, a Christian socialist, a bohemian, and more but says nothing about his allegiance to white supremacy, his muddle headed thinking about class, race and sex. Williams takes a Freudian approach and concludes his book with a discussion of London’s contract with the Macmillan publishing company and the start of a relationship with his long time editor George Brett. “He had finally found a father and a home,” Williams writes. Not really. He soon abandoned Macmillan and found another house to publish his work.

In Jack London: A Writer’s Fight for a Better America, Professor Tichi portrays the author as a “progressive” who “set the stage” for the New Deal and specifically for the Social Security Act of 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. She begins her book by describing London as “the great American public intellectual” and does not see fit to explore the work of other America intellectuals active in the same period, including W.E.B. Du Bois, the author of the pioneering The Souls of Black Folk. Henry George and Thorstein Veblen, two significant thinkers from the same era who might be considered “great American public intellectuals,” are mentioned only in passing in Tichi’s work.

Reaching conclusions about London can be challenging. After all, he wrote 50 books. He changed his mind over the course of his life; one can comb through his work and find expressions of contradictory statements about all kinds of subjects and issues. Still, if one examines, weighs and judges all his work, unambiguous conclusions seem unavoidable. Namely, that he believed that there were inferior and superior races and classes. London insisted that Anglo Saxons were superior to Africans, Asians and Latin Americans. He thought that the American worker was superior to all other workers.

Yes, he was of his time. Social Darwinians expressed many of the same ideas that he expressed. However, other notable thinkers and writers — including Mark Twain and William Dean Howells — held more enlightened views than London did. They transcended the jingoism and the chauvinism of their own era and condemned American empire building and imperialism. The London faithful might include critical thinking in their scholarship.

They might not circle their own literary wagons and defend their favorite writer against anyone to challenges conventional thinking. They might read Lenin on Tolstoy and see that Lenin’s ideas about contradictions can help to understand London life, work and times. Indeed, you don’t have to be a Leninist to appreciate Lenin’s literary criticism. And please no hero worship or demonization, either, of the father of the Bolshevik Revolution. Contradictions infuse the life and the work of Lenin himself.

LIBRARY EVENTS

Teen Tech Week 2016

(March 8^th - March 12^th)

• Zine-Making Workshop, Tuesday, March 8^th 3-6 pm
• Minecraft Build-Off, Wed. March 9^th 2-6 pm
• Wii-U Gaming, Thursday, March 10^th 3:30-5 pm
• Texting Challenges, Friday March 11^th 3-5 pm
• Teen Lock-In, Saturday March 12^th 6 pm -12 am

Local teens will be tuning in at the library as Mendocino County Library celebrates Teen Tech Week™ [March 8^th - March 12^th]. They join thousands of other libraries and schools across the country who are celebrating this year’s theme, Create It at Your Library, to raise awareness about how Mendocino County Library creates a space to extend teens’ learning beyond the classroom where they can explore, create and share content.

Zine-Making Workshop - On Tuesday, March 8^th from 3-6pm, we’ll be learning how to make our own zines (pronounced “zeens”). Zines are cut-and-paste, self-published magazines that are reproduced on copiers and can be distributed to friends and others in your community.

We’ll present a Minecraft Build-Off for Young Adults (aged 11-18) on Wednesday, March 9^th from 2-6pm. The build-off will incorporate STEAM learning methods through playing and building in Minecraft. Registration is required: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

* * *

First Friday Art Walk Featuring Artist Volkhard Sturzbecher

Friday, March 4th – 5:00 p.m. through 7:30 p.m.

Come and enjoy visions of the starry sky from around the world at the Ukiah Library. There will be a hands-on surface-tension experiment throughout the evening and an artist presentation at 6 p.m. showing the Vitamin C molecular structure as it grows and compacts. There will also be a Friends of the Library book sale. This event is for all ages and free of charge.

For questions, please contact Roseanne at (707) 463-4490 or wetzelr@co.mendocino.ca.us. Sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

* * *

A Wacky Cat People Party!

Caturday, February 27^th – 3-5 pm

Adults are invited to don their ugliest cat sweaters & join us at the Ukiah Library for a Wacky Cat People Party. Cat lovers of all stripes can share cat stories, watch cat videos, challenge their friends to cat trivia, meet adoptable shelter cats & kittens c/o Sage Mountainfire & Ukiah’s local shelter, and make cat-butt coasters. We look forward to seeing you there.

For more information, please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us Sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

* * *

Catapults & Trebuchets

On Friday, February 26^th from 3:30-4:30, Ukiah Library is offering kids from 7-11 a chance to build catapults and trebuchets. Once we have completed our models, we’ll test our machines and fine tune our designs.

Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult and adult participation and assistance is encouraged.

This event is supported by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

* * *

Ongoing Chess Night on Thursdays from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. This event is open to children and teens.

Want to learn how to play chess? Then this is the club for you. We are looking for hands-on participants who want to learn the ancient game of chess. And for those who would like to learn other games, Chess Night coincides with our Game Night, so there are lots of other games to play, and checkout with the family.

For questions, please contact Richard Fourzon at 707.328.2827 or email him at docrf@sonic.net or ukiahchess.com.

* * *

Seed School in a Day

A Seed Saving Workshop

At the Ukiah Library

Saturday February 20th, 10:00-4:00pm

Seed School in a Day will offer a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the science, business, and craft of seeds. This course is for gardeners, farmers, and anyone interested in rebuilding a vibrant regional seed system for our community. This event is appropriate for teens and adults.

Space is limited and pre-registration is required by February 17th

Call 707-463-4490

This free event is sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

* * *

The second meeting of “The Lunch Bunch,” Ukiah Library’s new Cook Book Club on Friday, February 19^th at noon.

On Friday, February 19^th, at noon, the Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting the second meeting of The Lunch Bunch, a new cook book club.

During this meeting, we’ll be sampling and critiquing g the recipes we chose at the January meeting, and discussing and choosing new recipes from popular cookbooks for our next meeting in March. Join us in the Meeting Space in the Northeast corner of the library at noon. If this is your first meeting, prepare something from a new recipe to share with the group.

The Lunch Bunch is supported by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

AND WHAT'S VISHNU WITH YOU?

How to Succeed in Environmental Direct Action without Really Trying

On Sunday February 14th, Swami Tattwamayananda lectured on the Mahavakyas, at the Northern California Vedanta Society new temple in San Francisco. He focused on the Mandukya Upanishad, and precisely the fundamental Vedic teaching: "I am the Atman". In great detail, he explained that the meaning of this is that the Atman, or divine spark within everybody, is essentially identical to the spiritual Absolute. Further, the yogic practice recommended by the ancient Rishis, is to concentrate the mind within at its Source, or Atman; and then, one will realize one's true nature, afterwards going where one needs to go, and doing what one needs to do, in a continuous effortless flowing movement. This is the key to success, insofar as anything environmentally activist related is concerned. In sum, the Vedantic approach is to center the mind within at its Source, and when it is anchored, live from there! All of one's thoughts and actions will flow properly, and effectiveness in the defense of Mother Earth will happen automatically, by following the authentic way of the ancient Vedic Rishis. NO COMPROMISE IN THE DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH!

Craig Louis Stehr

EMAIL: CraigStehr@inbox.com