CHEWING ON NUTS

* I'm sort of going nuts this morning trying to find a church in the Lewiston-Auburn part of Maine where the peace walk can have a pot luck and sleep on the floor when it passes through that community on March 25. So far no luck and it's one of the few communities in Maine where the peace movement has very few active folks. Argh!

* I had my annual physical yesterday and all seems well. My doctor, who always talks politics with me for the first half-hour in his office, came in the door yesterday and asked me "OK, what do you think about Obama?" The doctor is very frustrated with Obama on health care "reform". A couple years ago he told me that virtually every patient he has supports single-payer - Medicare for all. He ended the exam by saying he wasn't going to charge me for the full exam - a contribution "for the cause," he said.

* I taped my latest public access cable TV show on Monday. My guest was Amory Weld from the Transition Town movement. They are the folks who are trying to get us to begin planning now for the severe impacts of peak oil, climate change, and economic collapse. I think it was an interesting discussion and should be loaded onto the Internet in about a week. Check the small TV set just below on the left side of the blog for many of my recent shows. The show is now into the seventh year.

* Today I will join an Ash Wednesday vigil for disarmament outside of Bath Iron Works (BIW)here in town. A group of Christian activists will hold the vigils each Saturday all during Lent. These Lent and Advent vigils have been held at the shipyard for more than a decade. BIW builds the Aegis destroyers that are now being outfitted with "missile defense" systems. There will also be peace vigils in front of the offices of our two Maine members of Congress at noon today urging them to stop voting for $$$ for endless war.