Now that I have my other blogs sorted out, it's clear that my Vox space remains pretty empty. What should I drop in here? I'm thinking that I don't really have a place for general political story links and my reactions to them. I don't usually talk politics out in the world. Most of my other blogs have political content, but it's more focused on environmental politics, political psychology, institutionalized racism, and the crossroads of politics and religion.
I think for now I'm going to make this my blog for generic politics -- rantings and ravings, political issues and ideas that interest me, Tennessee politics, the political South...that kind of stuff.
I was exploring the politics and news section of Vox today and found some really interesting posts by other bloggers, for example, Angry Young Dem's take on the Brazilian Olympics, Bol's video share of What's the State of the Black World, and David Horton's post on Australian politics, Cui Bono.
I set up this VOX blog originally as a place to post quick links to articles I found to be of interest in connection to my TypePad blog, the Daily R-r-ribbit. I had a link called Earth Newsbytes back to these VOX posts which, at the time, were much quicker to do than going all the way into TypePad "compose" areas.
Now TypePad has a Quick Post feature that you can place on a tool bar and use it for a hassle-free quick post from anywhere on the Internet. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and have posted a number of links and short blogs to all three of my TypePad blogs with no hitches.
So, after a huge experiment with ping.fm and all kinds of cross-posting configurations between my blogs and social networking accounts, I find myself reconfiguring the way I post and share my stuff -- one more time!
I'm not sure how I will use VOX now, since TypePad's new way of doing things allows me to do easily what I wanted to do with the R-r-ribbit in the first place. Guess I'll have to explore VOX a little more for possibilities.
That means coal ash is dirty, too, and if the industry insists on reusing it for construction or mine reclamation, it must do so very carefully…
It would be great if recycling coal combustion residues for construction of roads and golf courses was a good idea. We have more that 120-million tons of it to work with every year. Even as I write, the Tennessee Valley Authority is scrambling to find enough places just to stash the load of it that blew out into the Emory River and nearby communities in Roane County, Tennessee last December. It looks like they are trying to buy some old landfills and mined lands to get rid of it.
If TVA, essentially a quasi-governmental power utility, has not already scared you to death by its handling of fly ash (a common term, along with coal ash, often used instead of coal combustion residue), consider what Dominion Virginia Power just got caught doing. http://ping.fm/efokK
TVA #coalash #coalbs goes on; plz don't forget the people impacted; bookmark @http://ping.fm/h5yHe & read often.
Southern Appalachian Mountains Stewards (SAMS) and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit opposing the permit being considered by the US Army Corps of Engineers for a mine that would include valley fills at Ison Rock Ridge in southeastern Virginia. Communities in this area have been pounded by mountaintop removal coal mining, and activities such as intensive logging that strip watersheds of protective ground cover before the mountaintop mining finishes the job of whole mountain demolition. Read more at http://ping.fm/a7KNJ
Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club summarizes actions taken during the first 100 days of the Obama Administration that move us toward elimination of coal-fired power plants and the disruptive practice of mountaintop removal mining. http://ping.fm/96aVE
