KILLER NATION

• It's been a busy week with my chores inside and outside our intentional community.  I've also been occupied with some writing I promised to do for a New Zealand environmental publication that requested an article linking Obama's "pivot" into the Asia-Pacific and the resulting impact on the environment.  They seemed to be happy with what I sent them.  Once I get a link to the article I'll post it here.  Today I drafted a news release for the Save Jeju campaign about the World Conservation Congress coming to Jeju Island.  I'll post it on the blog in the morning.  Be sure to check out the brand spanking new web site for the Save Jeju campaign here
• Tomorrow I will do a TV interview with Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein who is in Maine for the next few days.  I'm going to ask her about her foreign policy positions.
• No question that Obama has been good for the military industrial complex.  The New York Times ran a story on August 26 entitled U.S. Arm Sales Make Up Most of Global Market and reports that in 2011 weapons sales by the U.S. tripled to a record high of $66.3 billion.  In second place on the global market was Russia with sales totaling $4.8 billion.  In 2010 the U.S. sold $21.4 billion worth of killing products.  What does it say about the soul of our country that weapons are our #1 industrial export product?  "We are a killer nation - we can kill them fast or we can kill them slow," says Sr. Ardeth Platte from Jonah House in Baltimore.