Sweet Purple

The near-miraculous blueberry.

By Constance Casey
Posted Friday, July 28, 2006, at 2:06 PM ET

The near-miraculous blueberry

We should all stand (or sit, open-mouthed) in awe at the great difference between a cold blueberry and a warm blueberry. Think of blueberry pie. We owe much to the person, probably a native North American in what we now call Maine, who first cooked the fruit.

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Goodbye History, Hello Wal-Mart?

Hartford Courant, WILLIAM MORGAN July 16, 2006

Wiscasset is one of the most attractive towns along the scenic midcoast of Maine. A white-columned meeting house and a brick courthouse overlook a common; narrow streets lined with cottages and Federal period mansions amble down to the banks of the wide Sheepscot River. History is palpable here, where two centuries ago a thriving maritime economy built and sent wooden ships around the globe, briefly making Wiscasset one of the wealthiest towns in America.

Like so many once-prosperous Yankee seaports, Wiscasset's architectural patrimony survived because its economy languished. Jefferson's 1807 trade embargo hurt the New England states so much that they seriously considered secession. By the time the War of 1812 was over, Wiscasset had been mortally wounded. Huge schooners continued to be built on the Sheepscot, but they carried unglamorous cargoes such as lumber to Boston and New York; the mansions built by the West Indies trade remained, but the glory days were gone...

Ed Note: Wiscasset was founded as a Catholic community, the only one in Maine

Secession Meeting Turns Nasty

PORTLAND, Maine -- The initial round of secession negotiations between Peaks Island residents and the city of Portland turned heated Thursday evening, as secessionists refused to sit at the negotiating table.

A majority of islanders voted last month to sever ties with the city, but the City Council voted against the plan, opting instead for mediation.

Rest of the article: News 8 WMTW 7/21/2006

eXile: Why Britian Should be banned from the G*

July 2006

38. Even the Welsh want out of UK England's clearly on the decline when even Wales has got an independence movement. You heard us: the Welsh don't want to be associated with the English. That's like if Tula tried to secede from Russia. The Brits thought setting up a National Assembly in the 90's would placate them, but they wuz wrong! Plaid Cymru, the biggest single Welsh political party, wants to break free of England's change and form a new country. If they manage, that'd leave Prince Charles without a realm to rule over. Now's the time to do it, too. What with the British Armed Forces tied down in Iraq, it'd be up to the Territorial Army to try to stop 'em.

LRC: SVR mention

7/19/2006 LRC
The Left Is Pro-Empire
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

...There were once some people on the left who were genuinely skeptical of the federal government and favored political decentralization. A few can still be found – Kirkpatrick Sale, for example, and some of the people behind the Second Vermont Republic. But they are a small minority. If radical decentralization is off the table, what does the rest of the left suggest? From what I can see, the left’s plan is to keep the federal government as powerful and irresistible as it is now, but just hope it behaves responsibly in foreign affairs....

LRC to the North: The case of Canadian 'libertarians'

LRC, Michael Cust, 7/17/06

Canada, by contrast, was slower to develop its welfare state. During the Great Depression, Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett attempted a Canadian version of Roosevelt’s New Deal, including a minimum wage, a maximum number of working hours per week, unemployment insurance, health insurance, an expanded pension programme, and grants to farmers. The provinces fought him legally on his changes arguing that welfare is a matter of property and civil rights and hence as per section 92 of the British North America Act – Canada’s constitution – provincial jurisdiction. The case made it to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, at the time Canada’s highest court. The court agreed with the province’s argument and struck down most of Bennett’s welfare programs. This is not to say that Canada did not have a welfare state, it did. There were a few welfare benefits, a monopoly wheat board, and several crown corporations (government-owned businesses). This welfare state was expanded upon in the 1940s and 1950s.

Our own Lee Shelton on antiwar.com:

July 3, 2006

'Conservatives' Condemn Freedom of the Press

by Lee Shelton

The folks at the Weakly Substandard have joined the ranks of "conservatives" calling for a crackdown on journalists who "leak" national security "secrets." In an essay entitled "Leaks and the Law," Gabriel Schoenfeld tries to make "the case for prosecuting the New York Times":

Exiles Eternal, Bill Bonner

LRC July 8, 2006

...Ol' Cap'n Earl used to live out on a pier in the West River. He had built himself a rickety cabin over the water to get away from his wife. He would sit outside, drink his beer and throw the cans into the water. In the summer, after work, when the river smells rose up so strong they were almost overpowering, men would gather out on the pier with him. They would talk. And drink. Sometimes they would pull a crab up out of the water. And the hours would pass.


But then some agency showed up. His cabin was condemned by about 12 different government agencies. Cap'n Earl, an old man by that time, was moved onto dry ground and died soon after. And then, the sailboats came, owned by Washington lawyers. They were soon so thick on the river that you could walk from one bank to the other, hoping from boat to boat...

Study sees decline of young, educated workers in N.E.

By MARK JEWELL, Associated Press
Thursday, June 29
BOSTON -- ...Most New England states can expect declines in the percentage of young workers holding bachelor's degrees or higher, with the steepest drops expected in Massachusetts and Connecticut, researchers conclude in a study commissioned by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

The "New England 2020" report attributes the decline primarily to population growth among young minorities outpacing gains by majority whites, and a widening education attainment gap between minorities and whites, who are more likely to complete college continued...