Fair MY Royal Hinie, Rose Quartz, and Pretty in Air Pollution

First off --
The Fairness Doctrine is back and if we don't stop it and stop it now the only news you will get online or off will be under hard fisted censorship. If you think it's outrageous that all the mainstream media is now is a huge private advertising campaign, how do you think you'll like it when blogs (um...like this one) get zapped because they say something we aren't allowed to say - not allowed to know. There isn't anything fair about this doctrine - just another fancy, sweet, comfy name to disguise the stench and venom of a Fascist rule. This is it. Stop it now or forever hold your peace - or go to jail if you aren't good at keeping your real thoughts out of print or off radio waves. If you don't know who to contact in your state, go to http://www.congress.org and you can find out who all your state representatives are and their contact information. This is important stuff people - we need EVERYONE to stay free, not just a few who you think can do it for you.

Okay - on to the stuff the rockhounds and green zoners want to know.

With the sun shining and temperatures soaring to the high 40's it just seemed right to get my daily dose of Vitamin D on the mountain tops North of town yesterday. I've only been here (Wenatchee, WA) a bit over a month and we've had snow most of the time so I haven't gotten to do a lot of rockhounding yet and everything here is new territory to explore.

It was awesome on the mountain. Still a bit chilly but not freezing. A bit muddy, too but dry enough to be walkable. Munch and I (Munchie is my pet rot and best pal) strolled around the top where it's more like walking gentle hills than climbing mountains - getting there is a heck of a haul though. This mountain (Burch) is practically made of quartz from what I can see. Not one drop of agate, jasper, or crystals that I could find but I did pick up a few real nice chunks of rose quartz. To be honest I've seen better ones - none compares to the rose quartz in S. Dakota, but this was nice so I brought a couple of chunks home. At least I got to bring something back even if it only makes it to the rock garden out front. Not bad for winter in the North. There are metal flakes in the quartz in some places, too. Some of it's mica, but there's also pyrite so I'm in the mind that somewhere in the streams downhill there might be some gold. There is gold in this area - I live about a mile or two from the old gold mine.

While I was on top I also had one awesome view of the town below. It's not that large of a town, maybe 40 thousand at the top of the numbers, but more likely closer to 30 thou. The layer of smog coating the town was astounding though........and, yep, oh yeah - here comes the rant.........

How the heck can anyone with one drop of sanity worry about C02 - which is not a pollutant, but a natural gas that is actually necessary for plants and protects them during times of warming - when there is so damned much other crap in the air? This town is a canyon/valley so the crap gets trapped, but it's still in our planetary air once it gets blown off. . Factory soot with god knows what in it - carbon monoxide, which IS a pollutant and a very toxic one at that, for just a few examples. Fortunately for us, it only collects like this once in a while when it's real cold; there's a lot of people who live in that crap 24/7.

It' really makes me wonder what people are thinking when they live in or go to cities where the air is like that all the time and then they talk about not wearing make-up because it's not good for their skin. Got big news here - make-up is a lot better for your skin than that crap presuming you are using the right make-ups without any hardcore toxic chemicals in it. You wouldn't catch me out dead without make-up walking around in that pollution.

Sure, yeah, make-up can choke your pores - but I'd rather have a bit of talc in my pores than that black gunk in the air choking them. I know the ingredients in my make-up and they are non-toxic. I know the chemicals in that smog are toxic. It isn't bad enough that the smog will coat your skin -some of it can soak in and cause some major damage. I'd much rather have that stuff coating a protective layer of non-toxic make-up than my skin where it can process me into a facsimile of someone auditioning for a spot in a California Raisins commercial.

So if you are running around being green by not wearing make-up you better think twice about the condition of the air in your area. If you wipe your face when you come home and your washcloth has black on it, you'd be doing yourself one fine favor to go grab yourself some nice non-toxic, cruelty free (not tested on animals) make-up. It will protect you from the poison while making you look alluring...uh...if you apply it right. Some of it can even protect you a bit from sun rays so you won't be tempted to slap any of that highly toxic sunscreen all over yourself.

If you are worried about make-up clogging your pores, rest assured, it won't clog them any worse than the toxins in the air. The trick is washing it off. You need to wash it off well. I can't tell you anything further about that because it's in my skin care guide and, darned it, call me greedy, but I am not giving away ALL of my secrets free. The main point, anyway, is that it's good to be green, but still need to use some common sense about it. The earth has become a toxic waste dump and you need to think about whether what you are doing for yourself is really as productive as it might seem to be on the surface.