There’s a bumper crop of worry over dry conditions

Sam Brizendine waters his garden spot in the Parks and Recreation gardening plats in the former Cedar City area. He says he has to soak them thoroughly about every other day in this dry weather. Immediate forecasts do not call for rain, nor does it look like any is on the horizon. Photo by Julie Smith.

By Jeff Haldiman

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Today marks the first day of summer, but it feels like it started a month ago in Mid-Missouri.

“The first day of summer brings a lot trepidation for produce farmers,” said James Quinn, regional horticulture specialist for the University of Missouri Extension Office.

“A lot of fruit crops are advanced,” he said. “Blueberries started at the end of May and normally aren’t ready until mid-June. Peaches came out in early June, and they’re usually not out until the end of the month. Blackberries, raspberries and strawberries started coming out in mid-April, and they’re usually not out until May.”

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linoge 11 months ago

We can live with drought and crop failure. What we cannot stand are those darn liberals and their talk about global warming and climate change.

JCLifer 11 months ago

God is punishing this sinful country. Until we turn away from ain and decadence, we will continue to feel His terrible wrath.

TickledPink 11 months ago

What about decadent brownies ... do I have to turn away from those? That might be a deal breaker.

tonto_goldberg 11 months ago

If you are concerned about the baked food brownies, think you would be ok as long as you don't have ice cream and chocolate syrup with them.

If you are concerned about the little girl brownies, they are part of the Girls Scouts USA. (OoooOOOOoooH!) The United States Roman Catholic Bishops and the Tea Party have denounced the Girl Scouts for their failure to toe the (imaginary) line against all the sex education, birth control, abortion, lesbianism, and other forms of deparavity they see in Planned Parenthood. So - to get right with the bishops and the teabaggers, you need to turn away from those monstrous little cookie peddlers.

You have been warned!

JCLifer 11 months ago

Does the Girl Scouts accept gays?

tonto_goldberg 11 months ago

I think they would need some surgery first. Ask a silly question.....

tonto_goldberg 11 months ago

Seriously, you need to think through the definition problems inherent in your question. A boy living as a girl, dressing as a girl, is a lot more than just "gay". A boy who is gay but still living as a boy might not be accepted.

JCLifer 11 months ago

God loves all the children, no matter their preference. He makes gay people and He don't make no junk.

dokeus6 11 months ago

God gave up on us a long time ago. He left it up to us to find him ourselves.

deboldt 11 months ago

Strangely enough, as a functional atheist and pagan, I find myself in agreement with JCLifer. Of course we would disagree on the definition of “God” and “sin.” In the 70s there was a series of successful 30-second Chiffon Margarine commercial that popularized the expression “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.”

In terms of Earth’s environment the only “sin” I see is “fooling” with Mother Nature. Our carbon footprint, population growth, the decimation of habitat and extinction of Her creatures, depletion of natural resources, clear-cutting of old-growth forest, mountain top removal, exploitation and degradation of indigenous and third world peoples, etc, etc, etc, all are sins against God, the Goddess and Mother Earth. Unless we puny hairless apes give up these “sins” we will continue to feel His or Her terrible wrath.

"As ye reap so shall ye sow!” This universal truth is recognized by nearly all religions as well as climate scientists. It’s message seems lost on our politicians however.

Paroquet 11 months ago

Real evidence points to other causative agents. Be they cyclical, or contrived. There's nothing supernatural about it.

You might as well say satan is winning because god is weak or miscalculated. It's just as valid an argument. Or that shiva is now dancing in our destruction. Or the Maya were right about 2012.

You do, however have one way of finding out for sure...

jeffcitygirl 11 months ago

Yes Linoge, because humans can do no wrong, right? Just think of how much industrialization that has occurred in the last 200 years, how many natural habitats have been destroyed for roads, buildings, factories that produce, think of all the chemicals released into the air that that didn't exist 100 or even 50 years ago? What about all of the trash that never existed until modern times, such as plastic soda bottles and diapers? How self absorbed are we as humans to think that all of this will have zero effect on our planet and climate? Look at pictures of what America looked like just 200 years ago compared to now...highways and huge cities where there was once nothing but trees, fields, and plains? How can anyone dispute that humans are not impacting the environment?

dokeus6 11 months ago

What's the planet going to be like in another 100 years with population growth expanding at a rate it is now?

asb 11 months ago

At the present rate? Likely free of civilization, but otherwise just fine without us. A lot different weatherwise for a long time, but indifferent in the long run. The Earth does not care about us, it has no feelings, it will fail us, we'll fail as a civilization, and there will be adjustments by both. How long can we sustain the present rate of growth. That depends on the rate of population growth, the rate of economic growth, and primarily the rate of consumption of resources and carbon energy. The better we control the consumption of resources and carbon energy, the more of us the Earth can accomodate, and for a longer time..

deboldt 11 months ago

linoge would have us believe we can “live” with drought and crop failure (and presumably hurricane and tornado destruction, rising sea levels, the slowing of the ocean current and other disastrous effects of man-made global climate change). I’m not sure he would recognize that “life” (as he would define it) in what Bill Mckibben describes as "Eaarth" (his world for the new planet we will have to learn to live in). I know for certain linoge would not like or want to live in this degraded new world we are creating.

One of the fallacies of asserting that global warming and climate change are some sort of Liberal agenda is that it ignores the objective non-partisan conclusions of climate scientists. The only error scientists have committed is perhaps being too conservative in their assessments. Nearly all their predictions have proven to be worse than models anticipated and occurring sooner than predicted.

I think it is more accurate to divide proponents and opponents in the climate change debate, not into Liberal and Conservative, but into proponents of objective science and those “scientists” who work for the big energy companies.

JCLifer 11 months ago

I only need this planet to hold togerher for another 20 years and then i am out of here. The young kids are smart. They will figure out something.

Sequoia 11 months ago

And that's the wasteful mentality that got us here. Just like ol' Bush said when asked how he thought history would judge his presidency. "We'll all be dead." Just a selfish, short sighted mentality that says we have a "right" to consume as much as we can, do what makes us feel good, get far richer than we need to be to live, and who cares what kind of world we leave behind for the next generation. Like Lifer, we'll all be dead. It will be THEIR problem.

Conservatives always harp on how leaving a huge debt behind is not fair. Isn't it also unfair to deplete resources in a wasteful, greedy manner?

Again, I keep making this point over and over: A lot of people who call themselves conservative do not seem to want to conserve anything.

JCLifer 11 months ago

You are imagining many things. I am not wasteful or destructive to the environment. I live modestly (unlike your champions Al Gore, etc.

deboldt 11 months ago

I am not blaming you. I am blaming us. I drive a car. I buy the products of what amounts to slave labor; I help my fellow Americans squander more than my share of the Earth's non-renewable resources; my taxes support the drones killing children in Pakistan. If you can't see yourself as part of this problem (in spite of your modest life style) then blame me.

Sequoia 11 months ago

We're all wasteful. I was commenting on your implication that wastefulness is no big deal.

Given that we live in an unsustainable economic model of consumption and debt, it is almost impossible not to be wasteful.

But it is important that we recognize the problem. Simply put, economies based on the perpetual growth of consumption can't last forever. It may last until you're dead, which makes the problem easy for all of us to shrug off.

linoge 11 months ago

The people behind this global warming myth are a bunch of commie pinkos trying to get Al Gore elected president. These are the same people who believe that smoking cigarettes causes cancer. These people must be stopped before it is too late. Mark my words, these Fabian socialists will see to it that Russian will become our mother tongue. It will be taught to our grandchildren in kindergarten class.

dokeus6 11 months ago

You mean smoking cigarettes doesn't cause cancer? Wow, are you a member of the American Lung Society or are you secretly the Surgeon General of the United States? Because they say it does and you know what. I think i will stick with the science on this one.

asb 11 months ago

Doke, you need to recognize when you're being pimped . . .

Sequoia 11 months ago

I think the term the kids use is "punk'd."

Do kids still say that?

spelchek 11 months ago

Kool aid is good.

dokeus6 11 months ago

I was trying to be sarcastic. I was not going to come out and just say that someone who still believes that cigarettes do not cause cancer is still in the stone age. I am trying to change my image. Graceless and spelchek have brought out the worst in my personality in the last several weeks and I don't like that. I get irritated with people who won't listen to reason.

dokeus6 11 months ago

Has anyone watched the documentary titled "Ethos"?

Check out this website it has more information on the documentary. Very informative.

ethosthemovie.com/

linoge 11 months ago

I knew a man who started smoking when he was thirteen years old. He smoked all his life and died of a heart attack. Doctors at the Phillip Morris Cancer Center said he had the lungs of a 20 year old. So there you have it. Definite proof that smoking does not cause cancer. Same thing goes for global warming and all this other liberal propaganda.

asb 11 months ago

And, let's not forget, the Weather Channel is behind all of this . . . so we'll all tune in and watch the specials, plus the fatherly and matronly experts fill time between commercials . . .

deboldt 11 months ago

I guess lionoge didn’t get the memo. The current boogeymen Americans are supposed to fear are al-Qaeda and Muslims. Commie-pinkos, Fabian Socialists, the Russian fifth column and McCarthy’s Red Scare haven’t been current with the extreme right in forty years. I know Lieutenant General Boykin is still preaching these doctrines—but he seems somehow wandering alone, lost in time with only the really mentally disabled among the fundamentalist Christians paying attention or taking him seriously.

I would respectfully suggest lionoge read up on the principles of the scientific method. It becomes increasingly difficult to read his material with a strait face.

BTW we already elected Al Gore President of the United States. Just like Kerry, he refused to serve. I already documented these facts elsewhere on this site. Check it out. And please... try to keep up.

JCLifer 11 months ago

Do you mean a George Strait face?

deboldt 11 months ago

linoge knew a man who started smoking when he was thirteen years old. He smoked all his life and died of a heart attack when he was aged 19 years.

Doctors at the Phillip Morris Cancer Center That sounds like obesity reduction dietitians who work for McDonald's University.

linoge 11 months ago

After reading the opinions being posted on this website for several months, I reached the tentative conclusion that (with the exception of a few clear thinkers out there) whomever begins the thread controls the thread. To test this theory, I donned the cloak of a radical right-wing conservative and posted the most arrant nonsense that I could concoct on short notice. Sure enough, within a short time I had a host of people voicing their indignation over the way our environment is being negatively impacted by human activity. Tomorrow, I will lecture on the need to elect Mitt Romney as our next Commander in Chief. That should help create some free advertising for the Obama campaign

tonto_goldberg 11 months ago

As long as you communicate the proper attitude of EXTREME URGENCY, you might have a little fun.

viktorkowski 11 months ago

have you seen the reverse psychology marketing tactic used by a community library. great stuff. perhaps the fire department here should try it out. youtube.com/watch?v=nw3zNNO5gX0&feature=channel&list=UL

deboldt 11 months ago

Thanks.

I'm not sure linoge's little experiment in deception accomplished all that much except to make me resolve to abandon my attempts at a dialog on this forum. Call it bad faith.

I once had the idea of perpetrating a similar sort of fraud myself but abandoned the attempt because, try as I might, it was impossible to satire the religious right and indeed even the Republicans. The craziest most arrant things I could ever think of expressing had already been incorporated into the Romney Republican platform nonsense and are being preached every Sunday from pulpits across the nation.. I decided that all I would be doing would be advancing THEIR cause. Besides linoge's comments were really not all that clever or inventive.

I wish to thank linoge's little fraud for finally giving me enough reason to stop posting to the News Tribune comments and blog pages. Thanks linoge, for keeping it (un)real!

Bob Boldt

JCLifer 11 months ago

Do the Girl Scouts accept gay girls?

tonto_goldberg 11 months ago

The Girl Scouts are strong supporters of GLBT persons, so yes they do. Anyone who can so easily infuriate the Bishops of the Cathloic Church and the right-wing talking head community has my support as well.

JCLifer 11 months ago

Well, that's good.

Wonder why they don't change their name to the "Person Scouts"?

deboldt 11 months ago

Dear News Tribune Comments Moderator, This is to suggest you reprimand linoge or otherwise let him know that the put-on he pulled and his recent admission that he misrepresented himself as a right-winger are of questionable value and indeed can seriously jeopardize the sense of fair play and honest representation of ideas and opinions valued in an free and open exchange of ideas. I can appreciate a truly clever ruse like the famous Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” There was nothing all that clever about linoge’s comments. Neither was there any way anyone could tell his comments from those of the typical Republican fundamentalist Christian. I took a fair amount of valuable time framing a response to his bogus post. Had I known his post was a ruse I would not have replied at all. I feel put upon and made fun of by his games. Actually his post was not that obvious a put-on as I know any number of right wing fundamentalists who would eagerly agree with his pretend “arrant nonsense.” As I mentioned, I have no interest in participating in forums where I am unable to tell if I am responding to real opinion or a stupid charade.

viktorkowski 11 months ago

I can't tell the difference between a liberal or a "right winger". They all look the same to me.

JCLifer 11 months ago

Don't get your panties twisted too tight. It is just Al Gore's internet. Take a chill pill and relax. It will be OK.

online_editor 11 months ago

It can be difficult to judge what is satire and what is trolling, between honest opinion and spoofing. In general, satire has some value in making a point to all readers; trolling has value only in giving an emotional rise to the perpetrator. The first few posts seem like satire of positions to me, not to be taken too seriously, but perhaps some of the later tongue-in-cheek posts turned into a bit of baiting of those who reacted seriously. Trolls usually don't confess they're trolling so quickly, so I tend to see the intention as satirical rather than trolling in the traditional sense, but that's a judgment call either way. Nevertheless, let's not make this experiment a habit or else it will become an act of solely trolling if repeated endlessly. Meanwhile, who's to say there was no value in what was written in response, especially if it focused on issues instead of personal insults? If you use what other people write as a springboard to let us know what your observations and opinions are, and use any back-and-forth discussion as a vehicle to express your points of view (rather than, say, trying to "win" an argument), your posts have value to readers regardless of what someone else writes, debates or gigs you about. Likewise, if you laugh off or react rather nonchalantly to any jabs, the offender has little leverage. We moderators try to dampen blatant abuses (again, a judgment call), but there's also a certain amount of rolling with the punches inherent in participating in Internet forums.

deboldt 11 months ago

OnLineEditor,

I agree with your assessment. That is why I didn't ask to ban linoge totally. Had his posts been clever, satiric put-ons I would have had less of an issue. His confessed experiment seems to me to be mostly adolescent behavior. Thanks for trying to clear things up. I may stay on the forms -- but only on a less active basis.

viktorkowski 11 months ago

where can I find out about those garden lots. The wife has destroyed my lawn for the last time. now she is talking about filling in the pool so she can put in a greenhouse

online_editor 11 months ago

See www.jeffcitymo.org/parks/northjeffersoncityrecreationarea.html#gardenplots

JCLifer 11 months ago

Call JC Parks and Rec. The community gardens are a really great service offered by the city.

Interestingly, about half of the gardens are neglected after the weather turns warm. Folks are real excited at first and do a whole lot of work putting in their gardens, but then they seem to forget about them.

asb 11 months ago

The gardens are great. your annual contribution is small and gets you free water. There's an annual lottery for newcomers. The plots are variable in quality so check before you jump. Some are classic river bottom gold mines and others are relic Cedar City parking lots, but most are very productive and with included water, there's no limit to what you can accomplish . . . well, the city WILL pull up any, um, volunteer pot plants they find or hear about, the industrious little busybodies . . . :)

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