checkmate?!?!!?!

if i told you that last night government airplanes crop dusted all of santa cruz county with a cocktail of synthetic chemicals known as 'checkmate', you would probably think that i've been living in santa cruz too long and the radical conspiracy theorists had gotten to me, but it is true.

in an attempt to eradicate an invasive pest, the light brown apple moth (LBAM), which to date has caused absolutely no damage to crops, the california department of agriculture sprayed down our entire county with a cocktail of chemicals called checkmate. first let me say that checkmate is a super creepy name. it mimics the pheromones given off by the female LBAMs. the idea is that the male moths won't know how to locate the females because the whole county smells like breading moths. this results in their inability to mate, and the eradication of this invasive species. this seems like a pretty good strategy; although from what i understand, previous attempts to eradicate a species through the use of pheromones have a 0% success rate.

anyway, it was pretty creepy last night when low flying planes started criss-crossing above us, distributing a class III toxic pesticide over our fair county (class III isn't too bad, but it's still creepy). santa cruz is a place where they don't even fluoridate the water because they are afraid it is a government mind control plot, so you can imagine how people are reacting to this. i must say, i'm none too comfortable with it either.

since the government shows no signs of caring about what its citizens want, i guess santa cruz is going to get carpet bombed by checkmate every 30 days for the next several years. i'm just hoping that my back pain, tingling finger tips, and the sour taste in my mouth are psychosomatic. just in case they aren't, think i know what i want for christmas.