I'm serious, I think I might do this. I would love to be part of nature and to "live" forever as something that provides life giving oxygen to the planet.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Finally! An afterlife that I can believe in.
I'm serious, I think I might do this. I would love to be part of nature and to "live" forever as something that provides life giving oxygen to the planet.
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Some good science has recently shown that when things die - salmon and moose were studied - their DNA gets absorbed by the plants. You literally do, therefore, become a tree.
ReplyDeleteI like that idea. It's "going back to nature" literally. Not a bad prospect after a long life.
DeleteBeaglemom
O/T speaking of an "afterlife"
ReplyDeleteAn excellent review of Palin's CPAC speech and reality.
So when Palin thundered at CPAC that “Now is the time to furlough the consultants, and tune out the pollsters, send the focus groups home and throw out the political scripts, because if we truly know what we believe, we don’t need professionals to tell us”—it was a riff written by speechwriters and informed by all tools she tried to diss.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/29/palin-s-sarahpac-embarrassment-consultants-are-cashing-in.html
Anonymous3:34 AM
Deletepalin palin palin palin. Why do all roads lead to the palins?????????? I am SICK of them, they just won't go away.
They should be put away.
DeleteA much greener option is to find a cemetery that will bury an "raw" body. You still have to use a helluva lot of energy to burn up a body to fit it into an urn. This is no greener than scattering the ashes.
ReplyDeleteSo true. The "Close to Home" cartoon in my local paper had a funny with a biodegradable coffin but I assume the body would still have to be enbalmed.
Delete@6:09 no, the bodies do not have to be embalmed for that. They don't even require a coffin, a simple shroud will do. It is an option available here in Kentucky.
DeleteIn bush Alaska people are buried without any kind of embalming. They build the wooden boxes themselves and use wooden crosses as markers. Then the families decorate the graves themselves. Some of the cemeteries are quite beautiful.
DeleteJews are buried within three days because they are not embalmed. I see no reason why you have to be Jewish for this to be done to anyone that wants it.
DeleteI'd also think there are biodegradable coffins. Really cheap wood. Maybe even a basket. I'm not sure a coffin is even required. I imagine it can be anything you want. If you want to be laid to rest in a refrigerator box (that will decompose nicely) then why not.
The problem is the cemetery. I think the plots might be lined in concrete, but I'm not sure. And why would I want to fertilize the lawn at the cemetery?
I'd rather be cremated and sprinkled in a garden. Perhaps under the azaleas. That's what my Mom does with the ashes from the fireplace.
"buck up and run or stay in the truck"
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for all the Palin true believers who forked over their hard-won cash only to now find that the vast majority of it went into consultants’ coffers. It’s a reminder of Eric Hoffer’s immortal line that “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
But it’s really only fair to let Sarah Palin have the last word, aiming unintentionally at herself: “If these experts keep losing elections, keep raking in millions, if they feel that strongly about who should run in this party, they should buck up and run or stay in the truck.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/29/palin-s-sarahpac-embarrassment-consultants-are-cashing-in.html
Don't feel bad for them. They will explain it away and come out thinking even more highly of her.
DeleteIf that is your wish, you would be better served with a green burial. Cremated remains would add very little to the soil. The body having been consumed at 1600 degrees F, the only portion left are sterile minerals.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, did you see what your congressman said today?
ReplyDelete(Hint: He used a racial slur).
BUSTED! Sarah Palin YOU LIE.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin Bizarrely, Wrongly Takes Credit for Marco Rubio
In the new ad for ‘SARAH PAC’ released Wednesday, the former governor and Vice-Presidential candidate appears to take credit for several GOP stars’ election into office. And some conservative writers are repeating the ad’s claim that Palin helped place these half-dozen Republicans in office.
While Ted Cruz has largely credited Palin, her influence in electing the others mentioned in the ad is, well, not so clear.
Most noteworthy, the ad specifically mentions Marco Rubio when listing all the successful candidates Palin supported. In fact, look closely and, in the portion detailing conservatives’ need to scout out fresh new candidates, you’ll see the ad even threw in a quick image of the Rubio family:
But does Palin have any standing to take credit for Rubio’s election to the U.S. Senate? Short answer: No.
As Sunshine State News noted wrote yesterday in debunking the ad’s implication, it was actually “Rubio’s tireless grassroots campaigning around the state [that] is most often credited with his victory.”
And Tampa Bay Times‘s Alex Leary wrote today, in a piece wryly entitled, “Marco Rubio, you didn’t build that; Sarah Palin did”:
In a new video, her PAC takes credit for picking winners from Ted Cruz to Marco Rubio.
But anyone who follows Florida politics knows Rubio kept a distance from Palin and she only showed interest after he was surging.
From a Nov. 8, 2010, Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald story: Rubio had an opportunity to cozy up to tea party darling and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, but his campaign never emphasized her support. “Marco, keep up the good work. Call me. Can I help ya?” Palin told a conservative blogger who asked about Rubio at a conservative gathering in New Orleans in April. He never did. In the final stretch of the campaign, when it was clear he would win, Rubio showed up to a big rally in Orlando featuring Palin. But he left before she came on stage, denying opponents a photograph that could be used against him in the future.
Notwithstanding Palin’s (seemingly-endless) campaign of self-promotion, as she attempts to revamp her role within the movement, backing away from taking credit for Rubio’s success would be a sensible starting point.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/sarah-palin-bizarrely-wrongly-takes-credit-for-marco-rubio/
Palin’s SarahPAC Embarrassment: Consultants Are Cashing In
ReplyDeleteThe ex-governor and VP pick railed against political consultants at CPAC. But her latest FEC filings show they took millions of dollars from her in the last election cycle.
Sarah Palin attempted to relaunch her political career and her political action committee, SarahPAC, on Thursday with a Web video called “Loaded for Bear,” which presented the former Alaska governor as the new kingmaker for conservative populists in the GOP.
The video riffed off her speech at CPAC, in which Palin railed against “the big consultants, the big money men, and the big bad media.” But there’s an irony alert ahead: the current stated purpose of SarahPAC is to raise money ahead of the 2014 election—most of which will be spent on conservative consultants.
Don't believe me? Well, this is a perfect time to page through SarahPAC’s Federal Election Commission filings, which—helpfully enough—were just released yesterday.
Seen through the lens of the invaluable Center for Responsive Politics, Palin’s PAC spent $5.1 million in the last election cycle (more than it raised in that time period, raising some questions about Palin’s claims of fiscal responsibility).
But the real news comes when you look at how donors’ money was actually doled out: just $298,500 to candidates. The bulk of the rest of it, more than $4.8 million, went to—you guessed it—consultants.
That’s some seriously hypocritical overhead.
In total, Palin’s PAC spent $980,000 on campaign expenses, $1.3 million on administrative costs (including almost a million dollars on postage), and three-quarters of a million on fundraising. Hidden in all of this—amid the direct mail and the media buys—is consultants’ cut of every dollar spent.
She desperately needs to reload her donor dollars and so the Sarah Palin show is back online, trying to reassert her relevance. But don’t kid yourself—it’s all about the Benjamins.
These are the top-line costs of life in PAC era. But the devilish details in expense reports are what makes it really come alive. Palin’s chief PAC consultant, Tim Crawford, pocketed more than $321,000 this election cycle in direct payments alone, according to the documents. Aries Petra Consulting was taking in between $6,000 and $8,000 a month for speechwriting and “grassroots consulting”—something that sounds like an oxymoron, but ended up costing north of $160,000. C&M Transcontinental racked up $10,000 a month in management consulting, which is hard to imagine for a PAC whose job is simply to raise money and spend it on candidates. Inside SarahPAC, there were consultants for research and consultants for logistics and consultants for issues and on and on and on. It's hard to find any area where consultants weren’t employed.
So when Palin thundered at CPAC that “Now is the time to furlough the consultants, and tune out the pollsters, send the focus groups home and throw out the political scripts, because if we truly know what we believe, we don’t need professionals to tell us”—it was a riff written by speechwriters and informed by all tools she tried to diss.
Follow the money in politics and you get a glimpse of the truth. Sarah Palin wants to be a defender of the middle class while chartering $27,000 private plane flights and burning through enough cash on consultants to feed a small village for a year or two. As much as advancing a political cause, SarahPAC seems to be a lifestyle play, propping up an expensive ideological entourage.
Also buried in the report are signs of Palin’s decreasing popularity, which may explain the anxiety to raise a new round of cash now. Because
the vast majority of the money she raised for SarahPAC this cycle came in 2011, when there was still feverish expectation that Palin would run for president. When she retreated, the citizen spigot dried up. After raising nearly $6 million in the 2010 Tea Party cycle, Palin’s PAC is down to “just” over $1 million cash on hand. While that’s impressive for a former governor and VP nominee, it’s not the kind of cash flow that a real party leader shows. Now she desperately needs to reload her donor dollars and so the Sarah Palin show is back online, trying to reassert her relevance. But don’t kid yourself—it’s all about the Benjamins.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for all the Palin true believers who forked over their hard-won cash only to now find that the vast majority of it went into consultants’ coffers. It’s a reminder of Eric Hoffer’s immortal line that “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
But it’s really only fair to let Sarah Palin have the last word, aiming unintentionally at herself: “If these experts keep losing elections, keep raking in millions, if they feel that strongly about who should run in this party, they should buck up and run or stay in the truck.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/29/palin-s-sarahpac-embarrassment-consultants-are-cashing-in.html
SarahPAC Expenditures
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00458588
Administrative
Postage/Shipping
$957,385
Travel
$260,040
Supplies, Equipment & Furniture
$65,645
Miscellaneous Administrative
$27,191
Rent/Utilities
$14,252
Food/Meetings
$3,889
Campaign Expenses
Campaign Direct Mail
$520,456
Political Consultants
$391,485
Polling/Surveys/Research
$58,000
Materials
$7,114
Campaign Events
$1,789
Miscellaneous Campaign
$1,320
Contributions
Committees (Fed & Non-Federal)
$420,237
Candidates (Fed & Non-federal)
$293,000
Contrib Refunds
$7,000
Parties (Fed & Non-federal)
$5,000
Miscellaneous Contributions
$300
Fundraising
Fundraising Consultants
$338,049
Miscellaneous Fundraising
$204,402
Fundr Direct Mail/Telemarketing
$199,404
Media
Media Consultants
$62,535
Broadcast Media
$40,540
Internet Media
$14,461
Miscellaneous Media
$11,216
At almost $1,000,000. for posting and shipping, the US Postal Service should be in great shape. PACs like SarahPAC should be illegal. They serve no early purpose other than enriching the recipient. If people want to contribute to a candidate, they should contribute directly to the candidate or to the local, state or national party of their choice. Anyone contributing to SarahPAC is wasting his/her money.
DeleteBeaglemom
SarahPAC Contributors
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00458588
SarahPAC Contributions to Federal Candidates
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00458588
I like this urn idea. I have been advised that one can bury up to 3 cremated remains in a cemetery plot..Ohio. My husband and I will be eternally together...and room for 1 more to spare.
ReplyDeleteI already have my tree picked out, but in my case, it's an apple tree already grown old where the deer and bears come every summer/fall to eat the fallen apples. (I also have a kitten buried there.)
ReplyDeleteI saw this a few months ago - I love it!!! definitely this is the way to go
ReplyDeleteI don't think this thing is big enough to hold all your ashes. I'm not sure how much ashes the average person leaves but it doesn't seem big enough with the peat and dirt and all.
ReplyDeleteI would also think the ashes are a little too....alkalai? Or is it acid? as far as fertilizer goes.
My Dad wants to be scattered in the back yard under all of the fruit trees. It's illegal here (and plenty of other places so the biourn will have some problems) but no one is going to check the urn on the mantel to see if it's full or not.