http://www.statesman.com/search/content/life/stories/books/03/30/0330bobbitt.html
Yet again, the psychopaths who would rule the world have distracted me from my studies in Arthurian Romance, etc. and compelled me to spend my meager book-acquisition-funds on Neoconservative Apologia...The better to refute, as well as understand the dangerous growth of Fascism in our once great nation. For that is what this is:Fascism. A union of Corporate and Government interests at the expense of all the rest of us. And this guy is a law proffessor, at UT, no less!!!
Rule by corporation has worked so well these past 8 years,after all... surely we can entrust these immortal fictions with our Natural Rights in order to save us from the scary terrists.....
Not!!!!!
What a pathetic fearful lot we have become.
I hafta go order this book, now, then stick my finger down my throat at the thought of contributing to this shill's retirement.I will report back when I've read it.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
On Education...
Now that my Wife is almost done w/ college and will soon be gainfully employed (if the world,as we know it, doesn't go down the crapper...)... I'm exploring an online degree for myself.
I figger if I can't hardly walk and 'dislike' the general public, I can't be a Chef, anymore.It's time, perhaps, that I make myself employable.
It's an expression of hope for the World that I am even contemplating this. I detest institutions and I hold in little regard the opinions and requirements of our contemporary culture.
However, if things don't fall apart, I need something to do.
I'm thinking a double major in History and Theology, then a masters in Anthropology or Philosophy, then eventually some kind of Doctorate. The only job around here that even remotely apeals to me, aside from Hermit/Philosopher, is teaching History, Government/Economics at the highschool. The fella who does it now has been there forever and is one of the worst Right Wing nutjobs I have ever encountered. My tax $ are paying him to force Fox news on unsuspecting kids and pontificate on the Evil of Liberalism, the Triumph of Xianity, and How The Republicans Saved Civilisation. (!)
For me to replace him would be Poetic Justice in the extreme.
I'm not sure how much freedom I have in "building" a degree. Don't know how this works.Esp. above BA.
I'm interested in Civilisation and Mythology and how they're connected viewed through the lens of Philosophy.
So, I want to be a 'Doctor of...?"... what?
If I had $, time and mobility, the College of St. Thomas More, in Ft Worth, appeals to me. As does Oxford.
But, with 2 kids, no $, living in my enclave in the Wilderness, I have to settle for what's within reach.
We'll see.
" Not failure, but low aim, is crime."-James Russel Lowell.
"Life is about failing at greater and greater things."- Goethe
I figger if I can't hardly walk and 'dislike' the general public, I can't be a Chef, anymore.It's time, perhaps, that I make myself employable.
It's an expression of hope for the World that I am even contemplating this. I detest institutions and I hold in little regard the opinions and requirements of our contemporary culture.
However, if things don't fall apart, I need something to do.
I'm thinking a double major in History and Theology, then a masters in Anthropology or Philosophy, then eventually some kind of Doctorate. The only job around here that even remotely apeals to me, aside from Hermit/Philosopher, is teaching History, Government/Economics at the highschool. The fella who does it now has been there forever and is one of the worst Right Wing nutjobs I have ever encountered. My tax $ are paying him to force Fox news on unsuspecting kids and pontificate on the Evil of Liberalism, the Triumph of Xianity, and How The Republicans Saved Civilisation. (!)
For me to replace him would be Poetic Justice in the extreme.
I'm not sure how much freedom I have in "building" a degree. Don't know how this works.Esp. above BA.
I'm interested in Civilisation and Mythology and how they're connected viewed through the lens of Philosophy.
So, I want to be a 'Doctor of...?"... what?
If I had $, time and mobility, the College of St. Thomas More, in Ft Worth, appeals to me. As does Oxford.
But, with 2 kids, no $, living in my enclave in the Wilderness, I have to settle for what's within reach.
We'll see.
" Not failure, but low aim, is crime."-James Russel Lowell.
"Life is about failing at greater and greater things."- Goethe
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
DiosMio
I'm already in a FUNK, b/c of this javascript:sendarticle('sendEmailLink', 'Global Gridlock: How the US Military-Industrial Complex Seeks to Contain and Control the Earth and it%E2%80%99s Eco-System ');
if that didn'tt work, see lower post or global research
So I'm already in a funk and had a couple of guiness' ....and the StinkEye from my Wife....
doesn't matter... go read th article.
Serpents lick my eyes...
I'd rather THEY engage in an all out6 nuclear war....
If you run the theme in this article out to it's fruition, you get HellWorld.
Unending Uber-Fascism. Worst of all possible worlds....
and with no effective recourse~
Bring on peak everything, sooner, rather than later///
Collapse is the only thing I can see standing between us and the Terrible Darkness that would result from the fruition of plans loke this...
If there is a God, May He save us.
if that didn'tt work, see lower post or global research
So I'm already in a funk and had a couple of guiness' ....and the StinkEye from my Wife....
doesn't matter... go read th article.
Serpents lick my eyes...
I'd rather THEY engage in an all out6 nuclear war....
If you run the theme in this article out to it's fruition, you get HellWorld.
Unending Uber-Fascism. Worst of all possible worlds....
and with no effective recourse~
Bring on peak everything, sooner, rather than later///
Collapse is the only thing I can see standing between us and the Terrible Darkness that would result from the fruition of plans loke this...
If there is a God, May He save us.
the borg and world domination
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8499
What a dystopian world they would create.And we do nothing.
The mere fact that they're thinking of such things is evidence enough that they no longer work for us.A worst case scenario, almost too horrible to contemplate. Could this be why the Terminator movies play repeatedly on basic cable?
Where does such will to power originate?Were they abused as children? Abandoned? Raised by wolves?
To concieve of and to actively work towards such a global controll system is bordering on non-human.
How would one fight such a regime? Hubris does carry it's own achilles heel, but I have not identified it.
The desire for such Godlike power should deeply offend evryone on the planet, especially those who call themselves Christians. Remember the Tower of Babylon? And this brought to the drawing board by 2 administrations , and using OUR money. We are to pay for our own inescapeable prison!
Hopefully the sleeping sheep will awake in time, ....
I'm not gonna hold my breath.
What a dystopian world they would create.And we do nothing.
The mere fact that they're thinking of such things is evidence enough that they no longer work for us.A worst case scenario, almost too horrible to contemplate. Could this be why the Terminator movies play repeatedly on basic cable?
Where does such will to power originate?Were they abused as children? Abandoned? Raised by wolves?
To concieve of and to actively work towards such a global controll system is bordering on non-human.
How would one fight such a regime? Hubris does carry it's own achilles heel, but I have not identified it.
The desire for such Godlike power should deeply offend evryone on the planet, especially those who call themselves Christians. Remember the Tower of Babylon? And this brought to the drawing board by 2 administrations , and using OUR money. We are to pay for our own inescapeable prison!
Hopefully the sleeping sheep will awake in time, ....
I'm not gonna hold my breath.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Nekkid
More anomalous behaviour.
I like to fish naked.Canoe naked. Garden naked. Hang out naked.
Luckily neighbors at the end of the road are not so observant...
I've never understood what the big deal was, in our society about nudity.To equate a state of undress exclusively with sex, or even perversion, is in itself perverse.It indicates just how sick and disconnected we are as a people.
When I could still walk purty good, I'd kayak down the river, buck naked, Stop to fly-fish, or maybe hike up a little side creek. There's nothing like being naked in the wilderness. Best meditation... Aware. Really a part of one's environment. To condemn such activity ... well, that just blows my mind.
One of the main, root problems with folks today is our disconnectedness from nature. This springs directly from monotheistic dualism; the idea that we are somehow separate, apart, from this world.
I know... there I go , raggin on religion....but refute, please.
From Augustine and Origen to Dobson and Fallwell, the 'flesh', the material, is viewed as separate and Evil.
Taken to it's (il-)logical extreme, this stance advocates destroying the only world we know, objectively, exists in order to make way for some (imaginary, un-proveable) "new heaven on earth".
Perhaps, if we could cast aside dogma and learn to think we would have no need of some new , improved heaven and could be satisfied with the one we have already been given.
Fish Naked!
I like to fish naked.Canoe naked. Garden naked. Hang out naked.
Luckily neighbors at the end of the road are not so observant...
I've never understood what the big deal was, in our society about nudity.To equate a state of undress exclusively with sex, or even perversion, is in itself perverse.It indicates just how sick and disconnected we are as a people.
When I could still walk purty good, I'd kayak down the river, buck naked, Stop to fly-fish, or maybe hike up a little side creek. There's nothing like being naked in the wilderness. Best meditation... Aware. Really a part of one's environment. To condemn such activity ... well, that just blows my mind.
One of the main, root problems with folks today is our disconnectedness from nature. This springs directly from monotheistic dualism; the idea that we are somehow separate, apart, from this world.
I know... there I go , raggin on religion....but refute, please.
From Augustine and Origen to Dobson and Fallwell, the 'flesh', the material, is viewed as separate and Evil.
Taken to it's (il-)logical extreme, this stance advocates destroying the only world we know, objectively, exists in order to make way for some (imaginary, un-proveable) "new heaven on earth".
Perhaps, if we could cast aside dogma and learn to think we would have no need of some new , improved heaven and could be satisfied with the one we have already been given.
Fish Naked!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Political Hybrid
Why do we persist with this Left-Right dualism?I'm as guilty as anyone. Just finished this:http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=303630
I love this woman and usually agree with most of what she says , but I reserve my caveats.
After years (decades) of the Right's accension and the deregulation, 'free-market' frenzy, it will take just as long to repair the damage. Massive investment in infrastructure, health and education is required... and the Neo-Fascists will fight to the death and srceam"communism!!!!". I agree wholeheartedly that we should begin to take our country back.
However, the Left is still milking the teat of the Right's sacred cow.
Cornucopian , Corporate 'Capitalism' and self censorship lest they get tarred with the ' Pinko" label.
Where is the dicussion of Peak Oil? where is the talk of dismantling the corporate state?
In my own experiance with entrepreneurial endeavors, it's the regulations that apply to the smallest of us as if we were Walmart that are a fundamental problem. For regulation to work it has to be enforced equally, but with wisdom. As an organic farmer, I was inspected and bothered about every damned detail. My gigantic competitors had lawyers and consultants and staffs to deal with this, as well as money for campaign contributions and lobbyists , and enough scale and market-share to set prices. Low prices worked for them, and against me in a world of stagnant wages and hidden inflation. The industry standards, arbitrarily set by the biggest players, not because it was better (it wasn't) but because it was one more straw on the backs of small, local growers. Standards for manure and compost handling in the national organic rules are next to impossible for small organic growers.
The point is, I'm all for regulation, and Free Enterprise, but we have to talk about how the Big Boys have stolen our means of taking care of ourself. How they have rewritten the law and the rules to outlaw self sufficiency and self-employment. There is no reason to coddle corporations at the expense of little, local business, unless you believe in Cornucopia.Efficiency is used to justify the rise of big business. No print is given to the idea of a finite world or uncommodified quality of life.
It's not just Farming...
I talk to local Democrats . When I talk about getting 'the government out of our business', they equate that with all the corporate 'deregulation' nonsense of the past 30 years. Of course, I am not Exxon Raytheon or Cargill. The big ones have been deregulated at our expense. We have been regulated into a corner where the entrepreneurial spirit has been starved out of us and we will line up for a 'job' at Mcdonald's.
Ther is some recessive gene in me that expresses itself in not being able to function in a corporate 'environment'. I'm too smart to ignore inefficiencies and stupid, wasteful, low-quality ways of doing things.
This means trouble in corpworld where one is expected to do as one's told. This has infected what 'small' enterprise still exists.I'm speaking from experience in food-service. Quality goes out the back door in order to 'compete' w/ the giants.One has to cheat at every opportunity. And go into massive debt.
This is unsustainable and need to be adressed , where is this argument from the Left?
As usual, objective reality and the mythical reality are diametrically opposed.
The myth says that quality wins in the marketplace.
With the current upheavals on Wall street, does anyone truly believe this?
Perhaps in the long run. But for too long, malfeasance and avarice and willful denial has won, at the expense of all our quality of life.
I love this woman and usually agree with most of what she says , but I reserve my caveats.
After years (decades) of the Right's accension and the deregulation, 'free-market' frenzy, it will take just as long to repair the damage. Massive investment in infrastructure, health and education is required... and the Neo-Fascists will fight to the death and srceam"communism!!!!". I agree wholeheartedly that we should begin to take our country back.
However, the Left is still milking the teat of the Right's sacred cow.
Cornucopian , Corporate 'Capitalism' and self censorship lest they get tarred with the ' Pinko" label.
Where is the dicussion of Peak Oil? where is the talk of dismantling the corporate state?
In my own experiance with entrepreneurial endeavors, it's the regulations that apply to the smallest of us as if we were Walmart that are a fundamental problem. For regulation to work it has to be enforced equally, but with wisdom. As an organic farmer, I was inspected and bothered about every damned detail. My gigantic competitors had lawyers and consultants and staffs to deal with this, as well as money for campaign contributions and lobbyists , and enough scale and market-share to set prices. Low prices worked for them, and against me in a world of stagnant wages and hidden inflation. The industry standards, arbitrarily set by the biggest players, not because it was better (it wasn't) but because it was one more straw on the backs of small, local growers. Standards for manure and compost handling in the national organic rules are next to impossible for small organic growers.
The point is, I'm all for regulation, and Free Enterprise, but we have to talk about how the Big Boys have stolen our means of taking care of ourself. How they have rewritten the law and the rules to outlaw self sufficiency and self-employment. There is no reason to coddle corporations at the expense of little, local business, unless you believe in Cornucopia.Efficiency is used to justify the rise of big business. No print is given to the idea of a finite world or uncommodified quality of life.
It's not just Farming...
I talk to local Democrats . When I talk about getting 'the government out of our business', they equate that with all the corporate 'deregulation' nonsense of the past 30 years. Of course, I am not Exxon Raytheon or Cargill. The big ones have been deregulated at our expense. We have been regulated into a corner where the entrepreneurial spirit has been starved out of us and we will line up for a 'job' at Mcdonald's.
Ther is some recessive gene in me that expresses itself in not being able to function in a corporate 'environment'. I'm too smart to ignore inefficiencies and stupid, wasteful, low-quality ways of doing things.
This means trouble in corpworld where one is expected to do as one's told. This has infected what 'small' enterprise still exists.I'm speaking from experience in food-service. Quality goes out the back door in order to 'compete' w/ the giants.One has to cheat at every opportunity. And go into massive debt.
This is unsustainable and need to be adressed , where is this argument from the Left?
As usual, objective reality and the mythical reality are diametrically opposed.
The myth says that quality wins in the marketplace.
With the current upheavals on Wall street, does anyone truly believe this?
Perhaps in the long run. But for too long, malfeasance and avarice and willful denial has won, at the expense of all our quality of life.
Friday, March 21, 2008
On being Bipolar...
Manic Depression sucks!It does explain a lot about my life,tho.
Sucks the most when I'm in a mental frenzy and can't walk from the damned arthritis. When I can go putter around in the barn, or whatever , it's alright. But when I'm stuck in my chair, or (worse) in bed,and there's crap on tv, and I can't read when i'm manic, ....well, it just sucks.
I've been trying to tell myself that I'm 'allergic' to alcohol. It affects me differently than anyone else I've ever known. I surmise that I've been self medicating all these years when I was on my way up into mania. I'll stay up as long as there's alcohol available!!
Real jekyll and hyde.
I've managed to get it down to once a week, or even 2; but it's very hard. I prefer Weed, but it's so hard to find.... everyone has been "compromised" by law enforcement.
I've resisted medication.
I have a PDR in my library, and am an information junkie, and don't trust Big Pharma as far as I can throw them... "Deregulation" and all....
Frankly, the drugs indicted look worse than the illness. I'm just not ready to go there.
I've joined a Webring(upper right, I think) in the hopes that someone out in the ether will see this. It gets dicouraging shouting down a well. I know I bitch and moan a lot., but I'd still like to be heard. .
The variety of Bipolar I have, as near as my shrink and I can tell, is rapid cycling. Seems like the " garbage-can" diagnosis to me, where they put you when you don't fit anywhere else. It figures, Like I've said, I'm an anomaly.
Any way, thanks for the forum and howdy-do to y'all on the ring...
"Life is about failing at greater and greater things."_ Goethe
Sucks the most when I'm in a mental frenzy and can't walk from the damned arthritis. When I can go putter around in the barn, or whatever , it's alright. But when I'm stuck in my chair, or (worse) in bed,and there's crap on tv, and I can't read when i'm manic, ....well, it just sucks.
I've been trying to tell myself that I'm 'allergic' to alcohol. It affects me differently than anyone else I've ever known. I surmise that I've been self medicating all these years when I was on my way up into mania. I'll stay up as long as there's alcohol available!!
Real jekyll and hyde.
I've managed to get it down to once a week, or even 2; but it's very hard. I prefer Weed, but it's so hard to find.... everyone has been "compromised" by law enforcement.
I've resisted medication.
I have a PDR in my library, and am an information junkie, and don't trust Big Pharma as far as I can throw them... "Deregulation" and all....
Frankly, the drugs indicted look worse than the illness. I'm just not ready to go there.
I've joined a Webring(upper right, I think) in the hopes that someone out in the ether will see this. It gets dicouraging shouting down a well. I know I bitch and moan a lot., but I'd still like to be heard. .
The variety of Bipolar I have, as near as my shrink and I can tell, is rapid cycling. Seems like the " garbage-can" diagnosis to me, where they put you when you don't fit anywhere else. It figures, Like I've said, I'm an anomaly.
Any way, thanks for the forum and howdy-do to y'all on the ring...
"Life is about failing at greater and greater things."_ Goethe
Thursday, March 20, 2008
on being pro-dope in wingnutland...
When I was in 5th grade, they started in with the srary stories about drugs, including Pot. Images of addled, violent miscreants competed in my mind with Jack Kerouac's road buddies and the Beatles. After 5 years and further reading, I smoked my 1st joint. Not scary at all.(!) Could it be that They lied?!
Research confirmed that they did, or at least cherry-picked the information.My Mom was attending a well known CJ college(for Art...) at this time, so I utilised their extensive section on drugs in the library. Clinical studies, galore.
Conclusion: lies. And about more than just Pot. Halucinogens, it turned out, could be utilised to expand one's mind, if used properly and with care.
What a world opened up to me in those days.
This was also what got me on my skeptical track. If they would lie, repeatedly, about something as relatively harmless as Pot, what else would they lie about? I haven't trusted gooberment, or any other establishment organ, since.
I know most of my posts end up as an anti-rightwing screed....
But the sky IS blue...no matter how many people they put in jail for saying it.
I've come around to the belief that the whole War on Drugs is a scam, a controll mechanism.It's designed to divide us, make us fearful of the other, and thus allow the PTB more power over us. The cops make lots of money off this ruse, and lobby hard to escalate it. I've seen it bandied about that the PTB is actually making $ from selling dope, laundering $, etc. It is curious that wherever we 'pacify' turns into an opium farm,no?
Just another example of the authoritarian's War on Reality.
Who you gonna believe, your Leaders, or your lying eyes?
I consider this long, failed "effort" like a practice run for the new War on Terror. A new, equally nonexistant "enemy" that we are to FEAR. And because of that FEAR, we willingly give up what's left of our sovereignty to those who would Rule.
"What luck for the rulers, that men do not think."- Adolf Hitler.
Research confirmed that they did, or at least cherry-picked the information.My Mom was attending a well known CJ college(for Art...) at this time, so I utilised their extensive section on drugs in the library. Clinical studies, galore.
Conclusion: lies. And about more than just Pot. Halucinogens, it turned out, could be utilised to expand one's mind, if used properly and with care.
What a world opened up to me in those days.
This was also what got me on my skeptical track. If they would lie, repeatedly, about something as relatively harmless as Pot, what else would they lie about? I haven't trusted gooberment, or any other establishment organ, since.
I know most of my posts end up as an anti-rightwing screed....
But the sky IS blue...no matter how many people they put in jail for saying it.
I've come around to the belief that the whole War on Drugs is a scam, a controll mechanism.It's designed to divide us, make us fearful of the other, and thus allow the PTB more power over us. The cops make lots of money off this ruse, and lobby hard to escalate it. I've seen it bandied about that the PTB is actually making $ from selling dope, laundering $, etc. It is curious that wherever we 'pacify' turns into an opium farm,no?
Just another example of the authoritarian's War on Reality.
Who you gonna believe, your Leaders, or your lying eyes?
I consider this long, failed "effort" like a practice run for the new War on Terror. A new, equally nonexistant "enemy" that we are to FEAR. And because of that FEAR, we willingly give up what's left of our sovereignty to those who would Rule.
"What luck for the rulers, that men do not think."- Adolf Hitler.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Sex,Ignorance and Hysteria.
So, let me first get the "closet" part over with... I'm Bisexual. I lust after women, but am opportunistic about men. I consider Try-sexual to be a good , underutilised descriptor.
Whew!
Our culture is sick.
We don't say a word to our kids about anything sexual till they're 20, if at all, then condemn them for finding out on their own. The Church forbids priests an approved outlet for what is ,arguably, God's greatest gift, and then wonders why they resort to sordid sex with minors. We rain down judgement on masturbation, and sex education, and nudity, and premarital sex; mystify and cloud the whole subject, then wonder why we have rapists and pdophiles and all the other sexual predatory behaviour.
A 4000 year old book of unknown authorship makes vague allusions to various sexual practices and we base our law, mores, and post-enlightenment social constructs on it.
Sex is, biologically, the "Prime Directive". It is a part of being Human. To deny our own Nature is to invite disaster and hysteria.
The Right (again, with them...) has driven us back to the bad old days. Ignorance, fear and hatred rule the day.Their own fear and guilt are projected onto society as a whole and God help those who don't subscribe to their narrow world view.
Gay marriage will, somehow, in their eyes, lead to pedophilia and bestiality and the demise of marriage, itself.(!) Their methods of repression and enforced ignorance sure seem to be working on those fronts.Look around. Perhaps it's time we tried another approach.
Perhaps we should educate kids, whenever they become interested, about the facts of life...
That masturbation is safe sex and a good way to get to know about one's body..That sex can lead to pregnancy and STD's and that there are ways to prevent both of these.That the Human body is beautiful in all it's variety and love and affection take many forms...
Perhaps we could "legalise" and "destigmatise" consenual behaviour between adults...Like the Pagan Imperative:"Harming none, Do as thou wilt."
I'm sick of the moralising, hypocritical posturing. This is a major reason I ultimately rejected Christianity...
I couldn't believe in a God that would ,presumeably, create me as I am, and turn around and condemn me for being as I am.
War , Sex and Drugs are the biggest businesses on the planet. It's who we are.Maybe, if we softened up a bit on the latter two, we would have less of the former.( I'll get onto Dope later...)
Something called the Dove foundation called me out of the blue.Wanted my support to "fix" tv.I said great!
Then they started in about sex and nudity....and profanity. I told them I thought it was stupid to excise the word"fuck", a womens breast, or nonpornographic representations of consensual lovemaking and leave in images of folks getting cut in half with machine guns!
They hung up on me.
Wasn't what they wanted to hear, I guess.
Whew!
Our culture is sick.
We don't say a word to our kids about anything sexual till they're 20, if at all, then condemn them for finding out on their own. The Church forbids priests an approved outlet for what is ,arguably, God's greatest gift, and then wonders why they resort to sordid sex with minors. We rain down judgement on masturbation, and sex education, and nudity, and premarital sex; mystify and cloud the whole subject, then wonder why we have rapists and pdophiles and all the other sexual predatory behaviour.
A 4000 year old book of unknown authorship makes vague allusions to various sexual practices and we base our law, mores, and post-enlightenment social constructs on it.
Sex is, biologically, the "Prime Directive". It is a part of being Human. To deny our own Nature is to invite disaster and hysteria.
The Right (again, with them...) has driven us back to the bad old days. Ignorance, fear and hatred rule the day.Their own fear and guilt are projected onto society as a whole and God help those who don't subscribe to their narrow world view.
Gay marriage will, somehow, in their eyes, lead to pedophilia and bestiality and the demise of marriage, itself.(!) Their methods of repression and enforced ignorance sure seem to be working on those fronts.Look around. Perhaps it's time we tried another approach.
Perhaps we should educate kids, whenever they become interested, about the facts of life...
That masturbation is safe sex and a good way to get to know about one's body..That sex can lead to pregnancy and STD's and that there are ways to prevent both of these.That the Human body is beautiful in all it's variety and love and affection take many forms...
Perhaps we could "legalise" and "destigmatise" consenual behaviour between adults...Like the Pagan Imperative:"Harming none, Do as thou wilt."
I'm sick of the moralising, hypocritical posturing. This is a major reason I ultimately rejected Christianity...
I couldn't believe in a God that would ,presumeably, create me as I am, and turn around and condemn me for being as I am.
War , Sex and Drugs are the biggest businesses on the planet. It's who we are.Maybe, if we softened up a bit on the latter two, we would have less of the former.( I'll get onto Dope later...)
Something called the Dove foundation called me out of the blue.Wanted my support to "fix" tv.I said great!
Then they started in about sex and nudity....and profanity. I told them I thought it was stupid to excise the word"fuck", a womens breast, or nonpornographic representations of consensual lovemaking and leave in images of folks getting cut in half with machine guns!
They hung up on me.
Wasn't what they wanted to hear, I guess.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
preacher
So Obama's preacher got him in hot water with his 'sermons' about us foreign policy and it's consequences.Obama is, of course, all over it, rejecting, denouncing, condemning. The MSM consensus seems to be that this is an 'extremist',"radical' opinion. They just can't get their head around how anyone who doesn't hate america could believe that 9-11 ,etc. could be a result of our imperialist meddling in other people's business.
I have lots of problems with this. For one, it is a sacred tradition in this country to call out our government whenever it behaves badly.They are supposed to be our servants and should be held accountable and made to answer such important charges.
For another, it is no secret that the CIA, et al, have been busy , for 60+ years, doing horrible things in our name. Coups, assasinations, kidnapping, fomenting revolution, subverting Democracy , all over the world.And theres the 'soft' power, employed most recently by Clinton, thru the IMF, WTO, etc.... ruining economies of countries that don't roll over for us corporations.
And yet, in America, we can't discuss this? The lunatics and warmongers get a free pass?
On 9-11-01, once I realised what was happening, the first thing to enter my mind was that this was retaliation for our CorpGov's meddling around the world. " chickens coming home to roost..."
The right wing has so poisoned the American mind that we can no longer think!(see alternet, sara robinson has a great series on how they did it...)
It's just like the 'discussion' about Israel.( Let me say, 1st, that I have roots in Bohemian Jewdom.) When someone, like me, now, calls a spade a spade, and says that the Israelis are behaving like Nazi's, suddenly I'm an antisemite!
It doesn't matter one whit if it's objectively true. Even Jimmy Carter was eviscerated for speaking the plain truth. The list is long... Ward Churchill, Chomsky, etc.etc.
I'll go even further and say that it looks to me that at least elements of our government perpetrated 9-11.(Heresy!) This is where the facts and inconsistencies lead me and I am unapologetic.
Bin Laden was , after all, a CIA asset in Afghanistan against the Russians.
It becomes increasingly difficult to determine the shape of the world as ideology trumps reason and the water is systematically muddied and any dissent is condemned as treason. We are expected to be turnips... falling anew off the truck each day, into a brand new world in which what has gone before is what they tell us has gone before. A clean slate.A blank page. No thought, no memory, and no hope.
I have lots of problems with this. For one, it is a sacred tradition in this country to call out our government whenever it behaves badly.They are supposed to be our servants and should be held accountable and made to answer such important charges.
For another, it is no secret that the CIA, et al, have been busy , for 60+ years, doing horrible things in our name. Coups, assasinations, kidnapping, fomenting revolution, subverting Democracy , all over the world.And theres the 'soft' power, employed most recently by Clinton, thru the IMF, WTO, etc.... ruining economies of countries that don't roll over for us corporations.
And yet, in America, we can't discuss this? The lunatics and warmongers get a free pass?
On 9-11-01, once I realised what was happening, the first thing to enter my mind was that this was retaliation for our CorpGov's meddling around the world. " chickens coming home to roost..."
The right wing has so poisoned the American mind that we can no longer think!(see alternet, sara robinson has a great series on how they did it...)
It's just like the 'discussion' about Israel.( Let me say, 1st, that I have roots in Bohemian Jewdom.) When someone, like me, now, calls a spade a spade, and says that the Israelis are behaving like Nazi's, suddenly I'm an antisemite!
It doesn't matter one whit if it's objectively true. Even Jimmy Carter was eviscerated for speaking the plain truth. The list is long... Ward Churchill, Chomsky, etc.etc.
I'll go even further and say that it looks to me that at least elements of our government perpetrated 9-11.(Heresy!) This is where the facts and inconsistencies lead me and I am unapologetic.
Bin Laden was , after all, a CIA asset in Afghanistan against the Russians.
It becomes increasingly difficult to determine the shape of the world as ideology trumps reason and the water is systematically muddied and any dissent is condemned as treason. We are expected to be turnips... falling anew off the truck each day, into a brand new world in which what has gone before is what they tell us has gone before. A clean slate.A blank page. No thought, no memory, and no hope.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
crashing,finally...
i've reached a new low . i love everything chris cornell has hever done....
boujoulais? red wine. puking out the window.
totaly alone in my mind.
have i done this to myself?
could it be that i need ......others?
where should i find them??
feels like i'm too strange.
and i am a strange one.
when the shit hits the proverbial fan, i expect the ,litteral, pitch-forks and torches.....
i expect them to come for me, eventually...
cassandra in a coal mine...
serpents licked my eyes....
and i'm cursed in that noone wants to hear about the END of their most comfortable life....
boujoulais? red wine. puking out the window.
totaly alone in my mind.
have i done this to myself?
could it be that i need ......others?
where should i find them??
feels like i'm too strange.
and i am a strange one.
when the shit hits the proverbial fan, i expect the ,litteral, pitch-forks and torches.....
i expect them to come for me, eventually...
cassandra in a coal mine...
serpents licked my eyes....
and i'm cursed in that noone wants to hear about the END of their most comfortable life....
Thursday, March 6, 2008
On being a Freak
I've been a strange duck for my whole life. My preferred words are 'freak' and 'anomaly', depending on context.I was born unusually intelligent. I could read at 3 years and have found I have a high retention rate. I rarely forget something I've read. I can be absentminded, thinking about things. This seems to be percieved as aloofness.
It's hard to be smart in America, today. Texas, at least. I was dissapointed with higher ed. Where I had expected a Salon-type environment I found the two extremes of 1) balls-to-the-wall partying and 2)narrow, career-track grubbing w/ facile 'net-working'. These two overlapped, somewhat, but overall university was a gigantic disappointment. Some part of this , I think, was due to choice of schools; some due to the times. High-school with ashtrays is how I've characterised my college experience.
Moved to Austin after college, and it's still the only city I would even consider moving to, short of Paris.
Still, I couldn't find the intellectual things I was looking for. Expectations were, perhaps, too high.
The press of humanity grew oppressive and I seized the opportunity to get out , into the Wilderness.
Over all, it has been a positive thing... meeting my wife, having kids, and being so close to Nature. But there is definitely something missing.
I am a lonely, cynical bastard. I am filled with contempt for most folks I know, and that seems like a rational position. My wife says I'm too hard on folks, that I expect too much, that it's unrealistic to expect anyone out here to be intellectual or open-minded.
Perhaps she's right.
But it doesn't help with the isolation.I plunged ,headlong, into the society I found. My honesty and forthrightness were met with either blank, empty looks or, more rarely, outright contempt. I was rumored to be some kind of cult-leader.(!) All for being unorthodox and thinking for myself.
I think that part of this can be attributed to the times, the mood today. But most of it is a long-term trend of anti-intellectualism. From where I stand, folks just don't like to think. The local library, tho it's remarkably comprehensive is it's variety of materials, is used for access to the latest Nora Roberts or Dean Koontz. Nothing wrong with that, that's not my point.It's that noone I know seems interested in understanding the world they live in.And that's what drives me. I've encountered no curiosity , no critical judgement.
It bothers me to no end to have noone to discuss things with, without falling into superstitious certainty or uncritical acceptance of official culture.
I've always been a lurker on the Web. I retain some hope for this and other fora; but so far this looks like just a fancy way of talking to myself. Do I offend? It is not my intention.
It's hard to be smart in America, today. Texas, at least. I was dissapointed with higher ed. Where I had expected a Salon-type environment I found the two extremes of 1) balls-to-the-wall partying and 2)narrow, career-track grubbing w/ facile 'net-working'. These two overlapped, somewhat, but overall university was a gigantic disappointment. Some part of this , I think, was due to choice of schools; some due to the times. High-school with ashtrays is how I've characterised my college experience.
Moved to Austin after college, and it's still the only city I would even consider moving to, short of Paris.
Still, I couldn't find the intellectual things I was looking for. Expectations were, perhaps, too high.
The press of humanity grew oppressive and I seized the opportunity to get out , into the Wilderness.
Over all, it has been a positive thing... meeting my wife, having kids, and being so close to Nature. But there is definitely something missing.
I am a lonely, cynical bastard. I am filled with contempt for most folks I know, and that seems like a rational position. My wife says I'm too hard on folks, that I expect too much, that it's unrealistic to expect anyone out here to be intellectual or open-minded.
Perhaps she's right.
But it doesn't help with the isolation.I plunged ,headlong, into the society I found. My honesty and forthrightness were met with either blank, empty looks or, more rarely, outright contempt. I was rumored to be some kind of cult-leader.(!) All for being unorthodox and thinking for myself.
I think that part of this can be attributed to the times, the mood today. But most of it is a long-term trend of anti-intellectualism. From where I stand, folks just don't like to think. The local library, tho it's remarkably comprehensive is it's variety of materials, is used for access to the latest Nora Roberts or Dean Koontz. Nothing wrong with that, that's not my point.It's that noone I know seems interested in understanding the world they live in.And that's what drives me. I've encountered no curiosity , no critical judgement.
It bothers me to no end to have noone to discuss things with, without falling into superstitious certainty or uncritical acceptance of official culture.
I've always been a lurker on the Web. I retain some hope for this and other fora; but so far this looks like just a fancy way of talking to myself. Do I offend? It is not my intention.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
On the Culture of Fear and Self Censorship
(still getting the fonts,etc. figgered out..)
I'm finding that I enjoy this blogging. It's cathartic. I've got a lot to say, and no local forum in which to say it. I became so tired of trying to explain myself , of giving a class every time I wanted to utter my two cents, that I gave up entirely and receded into my mountain fastness. I spend a considerable amount of time conversing exclusively w/ my 2-year old son. I love him, and his elder brother, dearly, but it is not exactly an intellectual outlet...
I've been a House-Husband for almost 3 years, now; part-time before that to avoid day-care for my oldest.
It feels like a vacuum. The wasteland of daytime TV offers no respite.
I've been aware of my tendancy to piss folks off for a long time. It usually seems to be about misunderstandings on their part or my ignorance of social conventions. I seem to have an inordinate amount of talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Add to this situation the post-911 world we find around us, and it looked like the prudent course to remove to the farm and speak only with bird and turtles.There has been great upwelling of Anti-Enlightenment sentiment of late.
I , of course, blame the Right wing lunatics who have hijacked the country. Read Leo Strauss and one finds the philosophy behind it. Strauss , and his 'intellectual' heirs, hated and feared everything liberal ( in the actual, classical, dictionary sense). In their view, the Enlightenment was the worst thing that ever happened.Democracy? Liberty? All men created Equal? Horsefeathers!!!
In his insane interpretation of Plato's Republic, Strauss found justification for his most Elitest sentiments. The great, unwashed masses (that's us...) are too stupid and shortsighted to be trusted with governing themselves,or anything else. What the masses need, and unconciously want, is a Ruling Elite: those precious few , born into the best families, who can best manage the world.Macchiavelli could have done no better than this, and is ,indeed, very popular among the Junta we know and love today.This bunch believes, fervently, in The Noble Lie; the system of myths that keep the masses busy and content, leaving the Rulers to do what's good and necessary.
When I think about this kind of thing, or try to explain my thinking to my wife (long-suffering, patient woman.)the Matrix serves as a handy allegory. The Noble Lie is "..The world thats been pulled over your eyes to hide the Truth...".
Anyhoo,, our zietgeist of the past 7-8 years has had the effect of encouraging me to shut my mouth.
I got involved in local political activity for the 2004 election, volunteered for the Dem's.(we're a Red county). It seemed so futile, after a while. The "Liberals" around here,20 years ago would have been considered Conservatives. And the Conservatives!!! What a nest of vile , backstabbing, self-serving hypocrites.
I realised that I'd soon get myself killed if I continued to take part.My world-view was/is just too far outside the norm to be parading around in front of these yokels. In fact, once, during a "debate" at a local watering hole,drunk to a man, a pseudoFascist actually tried to strangle me when I suggested that Bush was THE WORST president EVER and should be IMPEACHED and JAILED forthwith!
Free Speech , it seems will not be tolerated in the Reich.
Add to all this, the pronouncements from on high that we should be terrified at anything "out of the ordinary" while we Patriotically Shop and Big Brother surveilling the Web and the phones and the mail and meetings of antiwar groups and Quakers(!) and it was obviously time to become a Hermit.
Blogging is reasonably anonymous, although I have no delusions of being untraceable.So far, it seems just another for of shouting at the mountain out back or arguing with the goats and donkeys.Soon, I expect to have geese to wrangle with, as well.
And maybe, maybe the tide is turning on the mood in this country.One must reserve a measure of Hope.
I will continue to be a curmudgeon and I will give my honest, unvarnished opinion when asked. Perhaps The great tradition of cynicism and tirades against the status quo will have a renaissance. Judging from the nightmare of the 1st decade of the 21st century, I'd say it's about time.
I'm finding that I enjoy this blogging. It's cathartic. I've got a lot to say, and no local forum in which to say it. I became so tired of trying to explain myself , of giving a class every time I wanted to utter my two cents, that I gave up entirely and receded into my mountain fastness. I spend a considerable amount of time conversing exclusively w/ my 2-year old son. I love him, and his elder brother, dearly, but it is not exactly an intellectual outlet...
I've been a House-Husband for almost 3 years, now; part-time before that to avoid day-care for my oldest.
It feels like a vacuum. The wasteland of daytime TV offers no respite.
I've been aware of my tendancy to piss folks off for a long time. It usually seems to be about misunderstandings on their part or my ignorance of social conventions. I seem to have an inordinate amount of talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Add to this situation the post-911 world we find around us, and it looked like the prudent course to remove to the farm and speak only with bird and turtles.There has been great upwelling of Anti-Enlightenment sentiment of late.
I , of course, blame the Right wing lunatics who have hijacked the country. Read Leo Strauss and one finds the philosophy behind it. Strauss , and his 'intellectual' heirs, hated and feared everything liberal ( in the actual, classical, dictionary sense). In their view, the Enlightenment was the worst thing that ever happened.Democracy? Liberty? All men created Equal? Horsefeathers!!!
In his insane interpretation of Plato's Republic, Strauss found justification for his most Elitest sentiments. The great, unwashed masses (that's us...) are too stupid and shortsighted to be trusted with governing themselves,or anything else. What the masses need, and unconciously want, is a Ruling Elite: those precious few , born into the best families, who can best manage the world.Macchiavelli could have done no better than this, and is ,indeed, very popular among the Junta we know and love today.This bunch believes, fervently, in The Noble Lie; the system of myths that keep the masses busy and content, leaving the Rulers to do what's good and necessary.
When I think about this kind of thing, or try to explain my thinking to my wife (long-suffering, patient woman.)the Matrix serves as a handy allegory. The Noble Lie is "..The world thats been pulled over your eyes to hide the Truth...".
Anyhoo,, our zietgeist of the past 7-8 years has had the effect of encouraging me to shut my mouth.
I got involved in local political activity for the 2004 election, volunteered for the Dem's.(we're a Red county). It seemed so futile, after a while. The "Liberals" around here,20 years ago would have been considered Conservatives. And the Conservatives!!! What a nest of vile , backstabbing, self-serving hypocrites.
I realised that I'd soon get myself killed if I continued to take part.My world-view was/is just too far outside the norm to be parading around in front of these yokels. In fact, once, during a "debate" at a local watering hole,drunk to a man, a pseudoFascist actually tried to strangle me when I suggested that Bush was THE WORST president EVER and should be IMPEACHED and JAILED forthwith!
Free Speech , it seems will not be tolerated in the Reich.
Add to all this, the pronouncements from on high that we should be terrified at anything "out of the ordinary" while we Patriotically Shop and Big Brother surveilling the Web and the phones and the mail and meetings of antiwar groups and Quakers(!) and it was obviously time to become a Hermit.
Blogging is reasonably anonymous, although I have no delusions of being untraceable.So far, it seems just another for of shouting at the mountain out back or arguing with the goats and donkeys.Soon, I expect to have geese to wrangle with, as well.
And maybe, maybe the tide is turning on the mood in this country.One must reserve a measure of Hope.
I will continue to be a curmudgeon and I will give my honest, unvarnished opinion when asked. Perhaps The great tradition of cynicism and tirades against the status quo will have a renaissance. Judging from the nightmare of the 1st decade of the 21st century, I'd say it's about time.
On Health
I've mentioned that I consider myself a cripple. Perhaps some elucidation is in order. When I was 20, I had a wreck. Hit a tree at 90mph in a nissan centra. The sweetgum tree survived, as did I.
We both, however,were broken. My left ankle was turned to gravel; right hip bone,,severed at the femoral neck; both knees "jammed" from locking legs onto brake pedal; and left 1/2 of skin on forehead scraped away by the windshield.
With remarkable endurance and tenacity, I learned to walk again and went back to work. Chef,musician, student, farmer.
3 years ago, the pain in hip and knees finally got to me. Avascular necrosis in hip, I expect the joint to collapse any time. No cartilage to speak of in either knee.(& eyelashes that grow backwards, into my eye!) Arthritis has spread to my right wrist, elbow and shoulder (my cane arm...), both thumbs from a fall when I was learning how to walk.
I feel low-pressure systems from thousands of miles away (leading me to speculate on all sorts of esoteric subjects, as this is clearly "extra-sensory " perception).
As a result of all of this I , for all my anti- government sentiment and fierce independance, have applied for disability. It's been almost 2 years.
It irks me to no end that I'd have a better hope of getting a new hip and knee in Cuba.
The only pain medication I've found that 1) is effective and 2) has minimal side effects is Vicodin, which I am puposefully miserly with to avoid addiction and to prolong it's effectiveness. However, due to DEA meddling in the field of medicine, doctors are reluctant to prescribe this schedule III drug. So for 18 years I've weakened my alimentary canal and probably my liver with acetominaphen and a whole range of other NSAIDs.
Even the Vicodin is mostly acetominaphen, ostensibly to discourage abuse.( this must be because we're a Xian nation ,since the Warrior Chist was obviously anti-drug...)
The current regime has decided that blowing up sandy, backwards countries who happen to sit atop 'our' oil, and turning the US into the Fourth Reich is more important than healthcare for the poor. In Right-wing-land, it's my own damned fault that I don't have insurance or a rich uncle. Perhaps God is punishing me for being a borderline Socialist or bisexual.
I felt bad, almost immoral, when I finally applied for disability. It goes against my Libertarian streak. Then I remembered Wulf Zendik (google it) who said "Dropping out is a Revolutionary act."
To justify myself< I've gone further:"Becoming a drain on an unjust system is a Revolutionary act."
We both, however,were broken. My left ankle was turned to gravel; right hip bone,,severed at the femoral neck; both knees "jammed" from locking legs onto brake pedal; and left 1/2 of skin on forehead scraped away by the windshield.
With remarkable endurance and tenacity, I learned to walk again and went back to work. Chef,musician, student, farmer.
3 years ago, the pain in hip and knees finally got to me. Avascular necrosis in hip, I expect the joint to collapse any time. No cartilage to speak of in either knee.(& eyelashes that grow backwards, into my eye!) Arthritis has spread to my right wrist, elbow and shoulder (my cane arm...), both thumbs from a fall when I was learning how to walk.
I feel low-pressure systems from thousands of miles away (leading me to speculate on all sorts of esoteric subjects, as this is clearly "extra-sensory " perception).
As a result of all of this I , for all my anti- government sentiment and fierce independance, have applied for disability. It's been almost 2 years.
It irks me to no end that I'd have a better hope of getting a new hip and knee in Cuba.
The only pain medication I've found that 1) is effective and 2) has minimal side effects is Vicodin, which I am puposefully miserly with to avoid addiction and to prolong it's effectiveness. However, due to DEA meddling in the field of medicine, doctors are reluctant to prescribe this schedule III drug. So for 18 years I've weakened my alimentary canal and probably my liver with acetominaphen and a whole range of other NSAIDs.
Even the Vicodin is mostly acetominaphen, ostensibly to discourage abuse.( this must be because we're a Xian nation ,since the Warrior Chist was obviously anti-drug...)
The current regime has decided that blowing up sandy, backwards countries who happen to sit atop 'our' oil, and turning the US into the Fourth Reich is more important than healthcare for the poor. In Right-wing-land, it's my own damned fault that I don't have insurance or a rich uncle. Perhaps God is punishing me for being a borderline Socialist or bisexual.
I felt bad, almost immoral, when I finally applied for disability. It goes against my Libertarian streak. Then I remembered Wulf Zendik (google it) who said "Dropping out is a Revolutionary act."
To justify myself< I've gone further:"Becoming a drain on an unjust system is a Revolutionary act."
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
corporate persons
In my long search to try to determine the real shape of the world, one of the craziest things Ive come across is the idea of corporate personhood.(even spellcheck balks at that one...).It is amazing to me how powerful these creatures have become and how effective the Right wingers have been at muddling, rather, short-circuiting any debate on the matter.The manipulation and pseudo-arguments are widespread. From equating anything remotely resembling populism to Communism to to opening up the flamethrowers on anyone who questions the idea of unregulated greed as the highest possible good, the Right has succeeded mightily in shutting down all opposition to the corporate agenda. Express concern for the environmental or labor consequences of unmitigated avarice, well you must be a pinko. Too many examples to choose from, but you get it. Eh?
It's now expanded, this meme of branding and shouting down opposition, to encompass every aspect of public life. The Coulterisation of public "debate", the violent hysteria over any criticism or dissent.
Even I, the obstinate asshole from the fringe, proudly flying my Freak-Flag, have found myself keeping a low profile and self-censoring my comments.(Hence, this blog. I don't really care what anyone says, anymore)
The treatment of Cuba for the last half-century(!) is a case in point. As near as I can tell, given the mud and disinformation peddled by our 'free press' and gooberment mouthpieces, Cuba has been a sucess, in their own way. Perhaps Noam Chomsky was right . Perhaps their success at an alternative way of life to our 'free-market' is the reason the ptb had to keep them down. I find it interesting that i'm 'allowed' to go to Iraq, and even North Korea, to see for myself... but not Cuba. What are they afraid that I will see? Happy Cubans?
The history of corporations is a sordid one,wich I won't go into here.Go look it up.
However, the idea that an immortal legal fiction has come to be the dominant 'species' on this planet is abhorrent to me.Our creatures are the overlords of their creators. It reminds me of the Butlerian Jihad portion of the Dune series, the 'time of the titans.'
I fear that if we don't wake up, soon, it will be too late to remedy.
Corporations are NOT persons. They only "deserve 'the "rights" we afford them. We are their Masters, if we would only remember our proper place.
sigh.
It's now expanded, this meme of branding and shouting down opposition, to encompass every aspect of public life. The Coulterisation of public "debate", the violent hysteria over any criticism or dissent.
Even I, the obstinate asshole from the fringe, proudly flying my Freak-Flag, have found myself keeping a low profile and self-censoring my comments.(Hence, this blog. I don't really care what anyone says, anymore)
The treatment of Cuba for the last half-century(!) is a case in point. As near as I can tell, given the mud and disinformation peddled by our 'free press' and gooberment mouthpieces, Cuba has been a sucess, in their own way. Perhaps Noam Chomsky was right . Perhaps their success at an alternative way of life to our 'free-market' is the reason the ptb had to keep them down. I find it interesting that i'm 'allowed' to go to Iraq, and even North Korea, to see for myself... but not Cuba. What are they afraid that I will see? Happy Cubans?
The history of corporations is a sordid one,wich I won't go into here.Go look it up.
However, the idea that an immortal legal fiction has come to be the dominant 'species' on this planet is abhorrent to me.Our creatures are the overlords of their creators. It reminds me of the Butlerian Jihad portion of the Dune series, the 'time of the titans.'
I fear that if we don't wake up, soon, it will be too late to remedy.
Corporations are NOT persons. They only "deserve 'the "rights" we afford them. We are their Masters, if we would only remember our proper place.
sigh.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Farmers Arise!
Alrighty... best I could do is a links list(below). An op-ed in the new york times (google it, i guess)talks about yet another way corporations and "our" government are colluding against us. Gooberment is supressing any would-be competition to giant agribusiness.Your tax dollars at work!
Back home, in the '80's, we were the 1st in the houston area (or anywhere outside of California, as far as I know), to grow and market organic fancy lettuce. Mesclun. Field greens.
Sold it to high-end restaraunts.
Years later, when we moved to the Hill country, we built a 10x30 cold frame and ran a test market. Great success with cafe's and whatnot w/ in 60 miles of here. Started selling to the big corporate(still local,tho) grocers.Produce guys loved it , encouraged us to expand. Long story short, I built a 3000 sq.ft. greenhouse and went into production.in the 6 months it took me to do this, someone must have mentioned us to California. Suddenly, there were million $ insurance policies to get and the vendor # was increasingly elusive..(finally obtained one after I gave up on them)
Point is these corporate grocers, (both are international now), strung us along made promises then threw up roadblocks.... and went instead with an inferior, non-local product.The last straw was the change in "industry standards" to a special giant ziploc type of bag.The cost was prohibitive and(!) the only company I could find as a source for these bags shared a parent corporation with one of the big california growers.Amazing!
Now, in the face of Peak Everything, we need more than ever to shorten our supply lines. Yet we are prevented from doing so, or the bullshit we have to wade thru is so deep as to make it unprofitable and/or unpleasant.
Try to produce your own ethanol,legally, to run your lawn equipment.The federal and state requirements remove any savings you might glean.
These folks that I've linked to are revolutionaries, and there needs to be more of them if we are to get out from under corpgov controll and live as free, independant humans.I suspect that the ethanol regulations are less about keeping us sober ( their stated aim) and more about protecting exxon,et al's monopoly on liquid fuel.
Free market my ass!
The local ( small corp) grocery store will only accept local produce if you take it 350+ mile to their warehouse in Houston...so it can be put on a truck to follow you back home.
Hydraulic despotism doesn't have to be about water.
Back home, in the '80's, we were the 1st in the houston area (or anywhere outside of California, as far as I know), to grow and market organic fancy lettuce. Mesclun. Field greens.
Sold it to high-end restaraunts.
Years later, when we moved to the Hill country, we built a 10x30 cold frame and ran a test market. Great success with cafe's and whatnot w/ in 60 miles of here. Started selling to the big corporate(still local,tho) grocers.Produce guys loved it , encouraged us to expand. Long story short, I built a 3000 sq.ft. greenhouse and went into production.in the 6 months it took me to do this, someone must have mentioned us to California. Suddenly, there were million $ insurance policies to get and the vendor # was increasingly elusive..(finally obtained one after I gave up on them)
Point is these corporate grocers, (both are international now), strung us along made promises then threw up roadblocks.... and went instead with an inferior, non-local product.The last straw was the change in "industry standards" to a special giant ziploc type of bag.The cost was prohibitive and(!) the only company I could find as a source for these bags shared a parent corporation with one of the big california growers.Amazing!
Now, in the face of Peak Everything, we need more than ever to shorten our supply lines. Yet we are prevented from doing so, or the bullshit we have to wade thru is so deep as to make it unprofitable and/or unpleasant.
Try to produce your own ethanol,legally, to run your lawn equipment.The federal and state requirements remove any savings you might glean.
These folks that I've linked to are revolutionaries, and there needs to be more of them if we are to get out from under corpgov controll and live as free, independant humans.I suspect that the ethanol regulations are less about keeping us sober ( their stated aim) and more about protecting exxon,et al's monopoly on liquid fuel.
Free market my ass!
The local ( small corp) grocery store will only accept local produce if you take it 350+ mile to their warehouse in Houston...so it can be put on a truck to follow you back home.
Hydraulic despotism doesn't have to be about water.
Stormy Monday
Big line of storms heading this way, tho it looks like the worst is to the north.
Anyhoo...Weve been saddled by this band of criminal lunatics for 8 years;here in Texas,is it 14? Seems like a long time. Too early to think about numbers...
The right-wing has finally got their wish... the country is destroyed and I can see the pasty old white men, sitting around at the country club saying,"It's broken. Let's let the nigger have it..."
I can't help but be inspired by Barak Obama... but I have little hope that he can fix anything, much less survive his first year in office.We have tooo little to work with, materially, spiritually,intellectually.Things are ripe for a Dark Age, and I'm afraid there's nothing even the PTB can do about it. I look around me and see a lot of scared-shitless, ignorant children. All that's missing is pitch-forks and torches...and a suitable scapegoat.
Will they blame the ones who tried to wake them up? Probably. Us Cassandras are so near to hand, almost as easy to lay hold of as queers and brown people.And the xenophobia and general fear of unorthodoxy are being fed and fertilized.I've long expected a sort of balkanization in America...
The Mundanes would, of course, be justified in stringing up the Elite.I just don't see that happening except in limited circumstances. Of all the prior dissolutions of Empire that have gone before, the example of Rome is most apt, I think.But even that analogy has it's difficulties.
I think about Rome a lot.Read a book,"How the Irish saved Civilisation"(don't remember who wrote it,but a good read...).
Got me to thinking that I need a Hobbit-Hole.(handy for these storms,too). Bury the Library. I'm a Feral Librarian, collecting classics and current events and text-books and how-to.
I fear the ignorance and potential for violence of my countrymen.Bookburnings have a long history.
Won't take much, I think. The Herd senses something is amiss(at long last!).
It's maddening, watching the slow-motion train wreck unfold. The dissonance between what one sees on the TV news and what's in the foreign press is staggering.It's like I've been living in 2 worlds.Plato's Cave, and all that.
The PTB have known for 30 years that this was coming. Instead of preparing for a rational, egalitarian and humane response, they threw mud into the water and glued the accelerator to the floor.Fought tooth and nail to outlaw any kind of humane population reduction.Purposely dumbed down the public so that critical thinking is a rare quality.Suppressed any rational energy alternatives and relocalisation of infrastructure, including food production, so that we are ill prepared, indeed.
In every instance I can think of, They have chosen the irrational. Power and hegemony and profit have been the all important criteria, and the survival of the Human race be damned.
How else to explain the actins of Ptb over the last 30 years, and especially over the past decade. They knew it was unsustainable and had to fall apart.So now, at the very cusp, everything's ready for some kind of NeoFeudalism and a violent culling of the Herd.
What a sad,sad end to Humanity.
Anyhoo...Weve been saddled by this band of criminal lunatics for 8 years;here in Texas,is it 14? Seems like a long time. Too early to think about numbers...
The right-wing has finally got their wish... the country is destroyed and I can see the pasty old white men, sitting around at the country club saying,"It's broken. Let's let the nigger have it..."
I can't help but be inspired by Barak Obama... but I have little hope that he can fix anything, much less survive his first year in office.We have tooo little to work with, materially, spiritually,intellectually.Things are ripe for a Dark Age, and I'm afraid there's nothing even the PTB can do about it. I look around me and see a lot of scared-shitless, ignorant children. All that's missing is pitch-forks and torches...and a suitable scapegoat.
Will they blame the ones who tried to wake them up? Probably. Us Cassandras are so near to hand, almost as easy to lay hold of as queers and brown people.And the xenophobia and general fear of unorthodoxy are being fed and fertilized.I've long expected a sort of balkanization in America...
The Mundanes would, of course, be justified in stringing up the Elite.I just don't see that happening except in limited circumstances. Of all the prior dissolutions of Empire that have gone before, the example of Rome is most apt, I think.But even that analogy has it's difficulties.
I think about Rome a lot.Read a book,"How the Irish saved Civilisation"(don't remember who wrote it,but a good read...).
Got me to thinking that I need a Hobbit-Hole.(handy for these storms,too). Bury the Library. I'm a Feral Librarian, collecting classics and current events and text-books and how-to.
I fear the ignorance and potential for violence of my countrymen.Bookburnings have a long history.
Won't take much, I think. The Herd senses something is amiss(at long last!).
It's maddening, watching the slow-motion train wreck unfold. The dissonance between what one sees on the TV news and what's in the foreign press is staggering.It's like I've been living in 2 worlds.Plato's Cave, and all that.
The PTB have known for 30 years that this was coming. Instead of preparing for a rational, egalitarian and humane response, they threw mud into the water and glued the accelerator to the floor.Fought tooth and nail to outlaw any kind of humane population reduction.Purposely dumbed down the public so that critical thinking is a rare quality.Suppressed any rational energy alternatives and relocalisation of infrastructure, including food production, so that we are ill prepared, indeed.
In every instance I can think of, They have chosen the irrational. Power and hegemony and profit have been the all important criteria, and the survival of the Human race be damned.
How else to explain the actins of Ptb over the last 30 years, and especially over the past decade. They knew it was unsustainable and had to fall apart.So now, at the very cusp, everything's ready for some kind of NeoFeudalism and a violent culling of the Herd.
What a sad,sad end to Humanity.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Intro, continued
Some expiramentation with the format, text-size is necessary.
More about me and where I came from...
I was reared in east Texas, 70 miles north of Houston, when it was still somewhat Wild.
Spent my formative years running through the woods, riding trains, and being a hellion.
That area, now , is over-developed... wall to wall humanity. My woods are logged and morphed into subdivisions and strip-malls. The right-wing nastiness nacent in my youth has blossomed into a Christo-Fascist hell-world, with a cop on every corner, massive prisonlike schools,and millions of holier than thou uber-conservatives rushing around,pell-mell, in their suv's.The honkytonks have been replaced with corporate fast-food and yet more churches so the aforementioned nutjobs can pray that noone find out about the girl in the basement or that the new addition was payed for by selling crack to the darker,poorer side of town.I hate going back. But my brother and Grandma still live there.
I see the deevolution of my hometown as a scale model of the changes that have happened in America in my lifetime.It's just worse and more stark there.The rise of the Right, for 30 years, has been the subject of intense study, on my part, for the past 7 years.
I was not all that shocked when Lil' George took the White House; I had been more surprised when he became Governor.His presidency is just what I expected,only much worse. The actions (and inactions..) of his administration since 9-11 sent me off on a research-frenzy. After the invasion of Iraq, I said" What the fuck are they doing?"
I had always had a soft part for conspiracies, finding them entertaining....
So I had heard of Peak oil. It went in the "insufficient data" box along with Aliens and Atlantis.
Then one day, I had an insight! I put a blue pin on the map wherever there was oil, a white pin wherever there was drugs, and a red pin wherever there was the US military.
Eureka!
This sent me to reading Leo Strauss, Thucydides, Plato, Macchiavelli, etc etc.
as well as news and opinion from all sides(rigorously)...
All of that research and resultant deep thought led me to develop a worldview.And make projections based on the trendlines that presented themselves. These projections have been bourne out by subsequent events.
himgs are very bad, indeed....
more when I get time, big storm coming.
More about me and where I came from...
I was reared in east Texas, 70 miles north of Houston, when it was still somewhat Wild.
Spent my formative years running through the woods, riding trains, and being a hellion.
That area, now , is over-developed... wall to wall humanity. My woods are logged and morphed into subdivisions and strip-malls. The right-wing nastiness nacent in my youth has blossomed into a Christo-Fascist hell-world, with a cop on every corner, massive prisonlike schools,and millions of holier than thou uber-conservatives rushing around,pell-mell, in their suv's.The honkytonks have been replaced with corporate fast-food and yet more churches so the aforementioned nutjobs can pray that noone find out about the girl in the basement or that the new addition was payed for by selling crack to the darker,poorer side of town.I hate going back. But my brother and Grandma still live there.
I see the deevolution of my hometown as a scale model of the changes that have happened in America in my lifetime.It's just worse and more stark there.The rise of the Right, for 30 years, has been the subject of intense study, on my part, for the past 7 years.
I was not all that shocked when Lil' George took the White House; I had been more surprised when he became Governor.His presidency is just what I expected,only much worse. The actions (and inactions..) of his administration since 9-11 sent me off on a research-frenzy. After the invasion of Iraq, I said" What the fuck are they doing?"
I had always had a soft part for conspiracies, finding them entertaining....
So I had heard of Peak oil. It went in the "insufficient data" box along with Aliens and Atlantis.
Then one day, I had an insight! I put a blue pin on the map wherever there was oil, a white pin wherever there was drugs, and a red pin wherever there was the US military.
Eureka!
This sent me to reading Leo Strauss, Thucydides, Plato, Macchiavelli, etc etc.
as well as news and opinion from all sides(rigorously)...
All of that research and resultant deep thought led me to develop a worldview.And make projections based on the trendlines that presented themselves. These projections have been bourne out by subsequent events.
himgs are very bad, indeed....
more when I get time, big storm coming.
Hello
Hello,
Let me start out by introducing myself and stating a few assumptions that I feel have been established to my satisfaction.
I am an autodidactic polymath hippy.I'm crippled, antisocial,and ornery.I try my damnedest to be brutally honest and rigorous and have little patience with willful ignorance or purveyors of flame and ad hominem attacks.
I like naked fly-fishing, philosophy, comparative mythology,most science, classical literature and poetry.
I , after surveying the world, have concluded that it is at an end. At least in the form that we are used to.The emergence of climate disruption(warmer?cooler?who can tell?),resource depletion (esp. oil),and economic exahaustion have all combined to create the proverbial perfect storm.Our cherished free press has forgotten to report this, although of late they have been compelled by circumstances to at least begin to lift the veil.
I was encouraged to begin a blog by my shrink. She says that I am bipolar/rapid cycling, and am lacking an outlet for my great intelligence. I agree. So here I am. Here to regale whomever cares to read with my venom and bile and whatever insights and inspiration I can muster.
I have a lot to say. Sadly I live in a Wilderness area devoid of thinking people(at least to my knowledge).I am aware of how I come across. I sympathise with Socrates in that I am perplexed, and consider my perplexity to be my greatest asset. I have determined that the world I was presented with as a boy does not exist. I have become somewhat bitter about this, and have endeavored to construct a working model of reality that makes more sense.
Comments are encouraged.
Thank you for the forum.
Let me start out by introducing myself and stating a few assumptions that I feel have been established to my satisfaction.
I am an autodidactic polymath hippy.I'm crippled, antisocial,and ornery.I try my damnedest to be brutally honest and rigorous and have little patience with willful ignorance or purveyors of flame and ad hominem attacks.
I like naked fly-fishing, philosophy, comparative mythology,most science, classical literature and poetry.
I , after surveying the world, have concluded that it is at an end. At least in the form that we are used to.The emergence of climate disruption(warmer?cooler?who can tell?),resource depletion (esp. oil),and economic exahaustion have all combined to create the proverbial perfect storm.Our cherished free press has forgotten to report this, although of late they have been compelled by circumstances to at least begin to lift the veil.
I was encouraged to begin a blog by my shrink. She says that I am bipolar/rapid cycling, and am lacking an outlet for my great intelligence. I agree. So here I am. Here to regale whomever cares to read with my venom and bile and whatever insights and inspiration I can muster.
I have a lot to say. Sadly I live in a Wilderness area devoid of thinking people(at least to my knowledge).I am aware of how I come across. I sympathise with Socrates in that I am perplexed, and consider my perplexity to be my greatest asset. I have determined that the world I was presented with as a boy does not exist. I have become somewhat bitter about this, and have endeavored to construct a working model of reality that makes more sense.
Comments are encouraged.
Thank you for the forum.
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