When you look at the civilization in which we are supposed to be members, like some sort of huge fraternal brotherhood of the human species, it always makes me ask what do we really think we are doing within such an arrangement? Whether we want to or not we are included in reforms and regulations, wars and hustles, when we actually reject them on the grounds of common sense, but have to go along with the hype anyway because its everywhere. You'd think if you see something everywhere, its got to be good for the species, right? And its your own lameness, laziness, ignorance or diverted attention that blinds you to the greatness of the supposed altruistic thing that is "everywhere"? You'll think maybe you were not paying attention and must be flagellated for refusing to kneel at the wonderments cascading down upon the brotherhood. Surely that punishment will catch up with you in its own time, we know that as the trickle down effect ... but it won't make you kneel, it will just make you work harder to unravel yourself from the brotherhood. What are they doing for YOU? Or your children? Or your loved ones, your friends and your treasured aquaintances? You'll want to say nothing or at least, not much, but that's not how it works when its working, as opposed to living large. Like blades of grass subject to the winds, we are bent this way today and that way tomorrow. And with each tornado a little more life is taken from each of us who are just going about the innocent business of living, producing and dying, all we were ever meant to be we are already, but according to the destructive winds of change that is never enough. There is always more heavy weather on the way. No matter how well you think you prepare, are you really a match for the Mob? Its a religion to end all other religions in which they see themselves as the creators.
We are asked to see the evil in our lives. We are made to bear the guilt for crimes in which we had no participation. Years after the fact we bear scars we didn't deserve that will never heal. We could say that the evil and crimes impacting us are designed with that effect in mind, as springboards for more of the same. After all, what is grass for anyway but to be trod upon, mowed down, grazed and consumed?
As the Earth's population explodes, so does the Mob proliferate. This gives us history on which to reflect that in less populated times, governments kept lower profiles, there were not as many of them and we experienced less trauma. My how things have changed.
Or have they? Maybe its us who have changed. A whipped and beaten people made deliberately stupid would change if only to avoid paying for their own demise.
We have come to expect anything to happen at any time. How many of you live like this? Drive like this? Walk like this? Question your every action wondering on the outcome and how it will be interpreted by complete strangers? It becomes habit. If it hasn't, you know it should be habit by now.
I am fond of my late Father's remark on these things, "F--- 'em, let 'em take a number." Recently, watching the film The Changling, I've also come to appreciate the line "F--- you and the horse you rode in on." I'm not the kind of person that would say these things offhand, but our world has changed. All credit to those who invented the lines I quoted, for they knew what we are just getting around to seeing.
We are totally on our own now in every respect. Orphan citizens. Wipe clean all your thoughts of how things were and start anew as if you never went to school or read a book or viewed TV. The catastrophes we've been expecting have already happened and we are in the aftermath acknowledging the mess. It appears too big to fix. Bernie Madoff ain't got nothing on the Mob or the winds of change, in fact, that was likely his downfall. Now in his cell, eyes wide open pondering his new friends from OZ, does he heel to the call of Patsy?
Since everyone who reads here also reads many of the sites on my blog list, you won't need links. You will recognize today's howl as a long comment that could have been made at any one of those locations. And made as well in sympathy with some few sites that do not have comments or have so many comments it is impossible to try to be a coherent voice in the anguished I's, me's, excuses and justifications, imaginary personas, hackers, wingnuts, lobbyists and so forth.
Its in the bloodlines now. You see, its not "When are they going to get it?" rather it is they are programmed to enslave.
76 comments:
That was wonderful, Nina. Haven't been here in a few months. The "summer stress" & the usual problems with the economic meltdown and too many deaths. What is it with Virgos? There was a cluster of us who grew up together with birthdates in the third week of september and two of us are now dead. I soldier on, at 55. Give up meat and paying taxes to the death machine and grow your own food and maybe you can live forever? My great grandparents and grandparents did, without Hell Care, and they made it into their nineties.
Hell Care. Heh. I got a thing for Virgos.
thanks Nina.
Things are gettin' crazy out there. Pure economic warfare!
I'm saving seeds, getting books, trying to learn techniques.
Guess what my child's mother is doing: we bought a 26" HD TV, and I've been told that I must keep up my debt payments, or I'll threaten her credit rating. She doesn't believe me that credit ratings, although still potent swords of Damocles for most, will soon be meaningless. Just like foreclosure is soon to be meaninglessness, because the banks have too many foreclosed homes to process.
I loved your line about forgetting school and all the books and movies you consumed. I'd had that though recently, too. I feel I need to start over with a blank slate. I almost wish Spock could do that trick he did to Kirk, making him forget everything about a recent trauma, so that he wouldn't suffer the pain. I almost want that, but I realize that the pains and defeats ARE a part of me. Would I willingly cut off my arm?
I'm finding out the truth of the fact that anxiety and worry decrease one's ability to learn, focus, and observe. I'm finding it is possible to observe and acknowledge the reality of our predicaments, while not getting all worked up about it. I have a friend who is unemployed, and he can't focus... the sense that he is losing it is taking over his ability to function.
Despite the so-called religiosity of Americans, they have little faith. They are like the natives of a "primitive" island, easily fooled by tricks and trinkets, spending the rest of their lives trying to resurrect the Cargo Cult of their youths.
Time to give it up. Get real. Shut off the electronic sewer pipes. Gather wood now for the winter to come. No time to spend in worry and ranting.
Time to get some good Japanese wood-working and gardening tools, and put them to use. Don't get the new video game in which you are a woodworking expert.
I admire rattlesnakes: they really just want to be left alone.
I should add that I think that technically HD resolution is great... I put my foot down at getting cable. I'll never fund that beast. So our only sources will be free TV, mainly PBS through the airwaves, and movies. I kind of look forward to exploring movies again: Bergman, Tarkovsky, the French and Italian greats... anyone have any recommendations? Has anyone here seen the original Solaris by Tarkovsky?
I'm gonna start experimenting with small-scale solar if anyone here wants to compare notes. My idea is to combine solar with custom-made LED lighting to radically reduce the amps needed, thus cutting down the costs of the system. And I'll keep most of it DC, instead of wasting energy in an inverter...
Also, if Baz is out there, I plan to start some urban hunting for squirrel and such. Any hints on cleaning small wild game like this? See, I want to focus on the most practical elements of existence, instead of worrying about the abstractions and conspiracies. Let the conspirators whisper to each other. I'll be busy.
Thanks Nina.
Bernie is probably with some that will fall for his confidence eyes. Scamming the Man seems to give high marks in Scamville, in or out of jail.
My anvil, blacksmith vice and tool kit are ready for the gates to the gardens to open. The Mob has their thing to do, I got mine.
The gates were never locked. I just took a detour and forgot the password.
Password: Stewardship.
Best, turey.
That's an interesting line from your lovely consort Publius. Credit ratings are like racial divides without the anthropological ethnicities. She's right, but who knows for how long? Is there anywhere on the horizon a Jimmy Carter of finance who is going to blow the whistle? And if there was such a person, would he/she be heard?
Ages ago, Visible posted a fabulous list of films which I cannot find now, but Charles is very good in this area too. More, I get the idea that Freeacre is a film heavy as well. Try contacting all of them to get your library going.
Turey, I had not thought that far on Bernie, but you've definitely got something there. Oz is ripe for his kinda scheme. No doubt a match made in hell.
"Confidence eyes", excellent! Like trick eyes, hunh.
Also appreciate your clever separation of church and state. State of mind.
Publius, if you and Baz start skinning animals in here I'm gonna puke. I put up with it at home because I know one day living with a hunter could well be our survival, but as a vegetarian it would just be too much for the blog. I'd have to direct you both to a place where you can freely talk mankind's dominion over all.
I know how meat eaters think, they seek utilitarian purpose in everything, whereas I really don't. If I had chickens, they'd be my friends. :)
Nina, this Virgo hasn't much to say anymore, but "thanks" always seems appropriate.
Publius, I'd be happy to loan you a copy of "Idiocracy". A modern classic, it is.
Squirrels??? Much better to get any meat from the supermarket where it is made, rather than contribute to any animal suffering.
Oh, and credit ratings are overrated. Ask me how I know.
Z
I felt shame over revealing the fact that we had purchased the invention that Farnsworth later regretted inventing (the TV). Now I feel even worse about myself for being a meat eater!
I have to admit that I am more and more ambivalent about the whole meat-eating thing, and eat less and less of it. My thinking, though, is that it might be useful to learn the skills. And even vegetarians, my dear Nina, often wear leather shoes! Perhaps I'll send you a squirrel-skin hat or coat someday... but seriously, I empathize with ethical vegetarians, and at the very least, want to be an ethical eater, hunger-gatherer, and gardener.
And I am not actually very utilitarian: just trying to be more so. And I certainly don't think mankind should have dominion over all! :)
My wife is the one who wants me to preserve my credit-rating: I am the cynical skeptic, but don't feel like rocking the boat right now, as it would just be too diverting.
I almost remember a certain feeling I had when I was a child - the amazing wonder of the world, of existence, of exploring. I'm starting to see "failure" to adapt to the reigning paradigm as a way to find a way back to wonder. Imagine, I used to be more interested in the life to be found in a drop of water in a pond than I was in the life of society.
Jose Ortega y Gasset was a wise philosopher. He saw the Baroque period of any culture as a sign that it is near its end: the complexities, the crazy absurdities and customs and laws: the complexity becomes overwhelming, and people yearn for simplicity and relief. IF/when that happens, nobody and nothing can prevent the "collapse," as when the Roman Empire in the West just kind of disappeared. Nobody showed up to keep in running. I really need to read more history: fascinating stuff.
Awww Z, I always knew there was something ...
I'm starting to see "failure" to adapt to the reigning paradigm as a way to find a way back to wonder.
Let us take time out for Visible's frequent Buddha quote: "All suffering is cause by false desire."
Do we need proof? Not anymore. I'm hearing the same story everyday in different words. How we got there doesn't matter, its what we find when we arrive empty and alone that is the beauty of the experience of Now.
"This Virgo hasn't much to say anymore..." I'm an original Digger, honey, and you'd better believe what I say. That was 40+ years ago. I lost it all, in the trappings of lucre and all that. But I'm regaining it, slowly and painfully, and even these cats and chicks and twenty somethings on this website illuminate me with things I lost during the three decades I was drugged, bugged,and unplugged.
Before your readers eschew the Diggers & their Virgos.... We had a long tradition, mind you. I was an original, of the sixties diaspora... and then I got into Lucre and all of that. Now I am returning, and the fascinating stuff your twenty-somethings have to offer illuminate me... like my son. Go on, sons and daughters of the collapse, I am all ears and eyes!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers
Publius said: "I admire rattlesnakes: they really just want to be left alone."
What a perfect summation to your post - itself a work of art.
Publius also said: "I plan to start some urban hunting for squirrel and such. Any hints on cleaning small wild game like this?"
None. But your question forced me to remember a reoccurring character in Carl Hiaasen's books - a tall, one-eyed, scraggly, scary-looking character who was the only honest man to ever become Governor of the state of Florida. He quit mysteriously and without explanation to intentionally disappear into the still-wild and ever-shrinking undisturbed back corners of still-undeveloped and un-paved Florida, from where he only steps out onto the roads to scavenge for the animals killed by the always-increasing highway traffic. He skins and eats them to sustain himself so that he can avenge the helpless, whether they be animal, vegetable or human – those things and people who have been destroyed by the overwhelming greed and avarice of Floridian, (and by extension, all of the western world's), depraved and disturbed humanity.
"Stormy Weather" is one of his books featuring this hero/anti-hero.
For anyone looking for a hilarious view of the madness of our modern world, I can't recommend Carl Hiaasen's writing highly enough.
Let's face it - we all need to laugh - and who better to laugh at than the sociopaths who appear intent on destroying everything but themselves?
I didn't mean to leave you with the impression the ex-Governor had always looked like he does in Hiaasen's books. When he was Governor, he looked like a Governor.
I suppose its hard to keep looking like a Governor when you're living off road kill and washing in swamp water.
Tex? Izzat you? You're a woman! Yes, the Diggers were hip, they pretty much singlehandedly kept many people from starving. Have you read
Thaddeus Golus? I keep his greatest work in my Free Never Overdue Library on the home page. You of all people might find it healing and timeless.
Diggers. I love it. I must study them.
Word verification: bully
Yes, "bully."
Am I a bully? It's an ironic dig at me by Google. For most of my life, I've been the un-bully, a pushover, an easy mark. It's been difficult to stop being an easy mark, but quite liberating. But now Blogger/Google/the Matrix is calling me a bully for daring to not be a calm little pushover Miss Manners victim.
I ain't gonna fall for it, sir. We're not bullies on this blog, just because we don't expose our necks for you to slice and dice. We're not blood sacrifices for Moloch and Madoff.
Hahahaha, you know they mock us.
Happy Birthday to Anonymous 9/16 @ 8:12PDT, Zoner and Tex.
Did you make your wishes yet? Many happy returns. To the better side of life, to perhaps, SHAMBHALA!
Nina, you know it is so weird, how some of us come out from the outer links and the hicktowns and all... I dont know how to put that, twilight zone? You look at Buddy Holly, Rocky Erickson, Artur Rimbaud, they came out of the most
provincial hick places yet "they got it." Clicked. It was just so bizarre, figuring out Rimbaud in Charleville.
Chances? One in a million. Conclusion? Revolutionary poetry. And then it clicked. That's why. That's why we are recruited from hick towns!
Tex, I was just doing a little search to flesh out your thought and came up with this List of people widely considered eccentric , what a weird and incomplete grouping for someone to have dedicated so much effort to avoid seeing we are one, a species, intelligent plants. I wouldn't be surprised to find that list was auto-generated or beamed-in from Planet Psychopathia.
Also, what you are saying reminds me of Visible's essay The Budget Economy and the Deluxury Package Deal. The quest for more begins very early, at the point you realize something is off with the arrangement.
hey—someone invoke my name? Jesus—haha! You sure you can handle ... truth? Nina wuz a little too quick to jump in with the censoring about the skinning or whatever ... and nyet she encourages ramblin'—said so before, just as long as it wuz on topic—haha, if I'm correct. Justify. But, like she says, she loves ducks or whatever. Hell, I love ducks too! Fried, sauterned, fricaseed, roasted, barbecued, marinated in honey-soy sauce—mmmmm—muh ... MEAT is GOOD!
Which leads me to my next thought—Vegetarians are probably the most neurotic group of people I've ever met in my LIFE ... sitting there, on their computers! tap—tap—tap, Chain-smokin'—puff—puff—puff, completely ignorant of the damage, the leveraged excise tax on the pack of their precious cigarettes causes. WHAT BAZ? Now you've freakin' done it—you can't kick our comfy cushions shielding us from the real world. For chrissakes, go and crawl back under a rock, or where-ever it is you came from. Ahh—I love the smell of a cover-up! Kind of like napalm in the mornin' [itch—itch]
Now I'm no economist, but then neither are them freakin' geniuses either—you know, the goddamn Einsteins runnin' the country. Telling us all how to live, what to think—even how to think it. Got us all so confused we don't know up from down—fomenting civil disquiet—unrest. So they can eventually step in and save us from beating the crap out of OURSELVES. Well, that's so they can control us all. Tell us what to do. Render us all into carrots and cabbages. Neurotically passifried. Ah, probably diversifying—now.
Yeah, a single pack of cigarettes will pay for 1 combat soldier's salary for a day, (as meagre as it is)? This will enable him to kill as many as ... say 50 innocent civilians, maybe 1 or 2 enemy combatants, rape an 11 year old, maybe a 9 year old. And if he's up for it, torture some passer-by, that looked funny—all in a days work ! This knowledge is purposely kept from the average civilian. Too well, civilians don't need to know, do they? They couldn't handle it anyway ... their own partnership / complicity, financing atrocities, all perfectly concealed from them. Too dumbass to even see it ! Puff—puff—puke.
Westerners can be so disconnected—their brains from ... everything ! Publius, still run my laptop straight-off a 12 volt system employing a DC auto adapter, charged from simple small solar set-up. Fuck the Power companys. I've bought self-Sufficiency / survivalist books for as little as a buck—fifty from second-hand bookshops. Info, no—not info-tainment—real information. The buck—fifty one, enabled me to live for months at a time in the bush ... cut-off—haha from bullshit civilisation. While posers all sit around holding hands discussing how it can't be done, worst—expecting you to tip their dumb asses! Plenty with diagrams / illustrations. Step by step instructions, 1 2 3 easy. Just take your time. Savor the act. Most spiritual thing I know. 1st one always takes a little while. Then you're an expert!
Baz, on this thread at least, I've got your back.
...even if I am almost a vegetarian. LOL
Aaargh, Avast ye hearties. It be "Talk Like A Pirate Day" arrgh.
Aye, the spread between the eccentric and the just plain crazy being the eccentric were notable for being paid. Well, for somebody collecting the booty for their time before the mast.
They be none more rummy than those peculiar "vegan" folk what refuses the good lords meat, the maidens milk and the hen's eggs.
Well, blimey. I'm off to ARRgh some landlubbers while there's still sand on the watch.
v'word: lists
Hard a lee, sir. Land ho off the starboard bow and a fair sight it 'tis.
As you were saying about the eccentrics, ain't they jolly now not to be cast in irons below these hallowed decks! Aye, but they earn their tuppence well, never the plank to see their raiments, aye sir? The briny deep be spared the revelers, m'lord, but sirens call them still in the dark and lashing seas when gold and ruby run aground.
VW: graterie, a cheddar chest... lol
Baz, can you recommend a good "survival" book or a book on how to live off the biological parts of the world that one's neighbors don't know exist or how to utilize?
I already have the SAS Survival guide among other titles.
My son loves pirates. He wants to be a pirate... he may get his wish. I am at least trying to instill in him the spirit of rebellion and independent thought. He's only three, but he likes to help in the garden. He can identify and pick Bittersweet Sorrel, which is more than most adults around here can do.
For Publius's son and the rest of you kids: I was born In Kingston, across the harbour from Port Royal where the pirates would spend their treasure and be pirates. My Grandfather brought me home Peices of Eight and whole silver 8 Reales from downtown Kingston where they were still found in the 50's.
Some of the American mountain folk probably talk more like pirates than I do.
The treasure coming out of Kingston now is the lyrics of di yout dem. Like it or not, it's their real story told raw to a raw beat.
turey.
IRY ITES turey!
Talk like a pirate day is one holiday that should be at least twice a year. Once a month would be great. Imagine going into town to do your shopping at the feed store, etc. and engaging the personnel on deck. Heh.
Thanks and praises to Pangolin for the reminder.
arthur, please explain what you meant when you commented you have "Baz's back"? Were you suggesting the committed vegans would get all out of sorts to be in the company of a skinner? I recognize that Baz practices historical survival methods, but he would never eat Mr. Bumbles, the goose that guards his garden. This means that his skinning/bleeding philosophy has a soft spot in it.
Were you worried I'd send him away? I still might have to search for a cannibalism site to recommend as I said initially, but I just haven't had the heart to perform such a search. A better suggestion would be for Baz and Publius to email the gory details between themselves.
You and Baz might note in my caution to Publius I ended that comment with a smiley face.
Also, you mention you are almost a vegetarian, what is holding you back? You see, its personal, isn't it.
I don't want to hear that you make exceptions for poultry.
Nina asked: "arthur, please explain what you meant when you commented you have "Baz's back"? Were you suggesting the committed vegans would get all out of sorts to be in the company of a skinner?"
In a word, yes. I've seen it happen more times than I can count. I've lost friends over this issue...Can you believe that?!?
Nina also said: "Also, you mention you are almost a vegetarian, what is holding you back? You see, its personal, isn't it.
I don't want to hear that you make exceptions for poultry. '
Nina, it's nothing so calculated - my almost vegetarianism. It has more to do with my long term health problems (diverticulitis) than it does with ideology.
Humanoids were designed to eat all kinds of things, meat amongst them. I don't think its my business to dictate what is food, good, bad or otherwise to anyone. All I can do is caution those who do anything dietary to extremes to be more circumspect. I have had over-eager vegetarian friends who have had to be hospitalized because they didn't provide themselves with enough protein and I've seen the results of people eating too much modern factory assembled meats for me to be comfortable with that too.
Of course, nowadays we know better the role legumes can play in supplementing our protein needs, don't we? Meat doesn't necessarily have to be the be all and end all, protein-wise.
Someone who shares my condition recommended a book written by Sherri Brescia called "Great Taste, No Pain" to me just in the last year. It has been a life saver for me - literally.
It explains how certain foods should not be combined because of the negative effects those combinations have on our digestive tracts and ultimately on our overall health. And it also suggests combinations that have a salutary effect on our health.
And since I've been following the rules laid out in her books I've found I have less and less of a desire or need to eat meat - not because my ideology has changed but because I simply don't miss it.
At the heart of things I'm a pragmatist. So as long as this works for me I'll keep on the straight and narrow path Ms. Brescia has laid out for me - a path that seems to suggest I'll be eating less and less meat as time goes on because the food combinations I'm eating taste even better than what I was used to in my other culinary life that ended 9 months ago.
Simple really.
word verification: lurnian - how's that for coincidence?
It all about the iron. "Hemme", Greek I think, iron is blood iron, from meat. As you say, legumes have the protein, which is actually the iron, we require. We increase it by cooking with cast iron pans. A common mistake is to supplement dairy, especially cheese, for our iron needs. That will end in a heart attack, or for the fortunate who get themselves tested regularly, blood transfusions and a month or more of iron supplements twice daily until one has educated themselves on vegetable iron sources and either returned to hemme iron or learned to calculate their vegetable iron intake exactly as an overweight person dieting would calculate daily calorie intake.
There is a lot of denial involved with being selective. We have a monstrous quantity and variety of foods available to us, but to stay alive and healthy we have to be very technical about our personal choices. For example, dairy has no place in the adult diet, but to see the ads of celebrities with milk moustaches and the miles of walls of glass encased refrigerated dairy products you would think it was a requirement. I read the labels, dairy has 0% iron.
I work on keeping an open mind. If people want to sustain their bodies with hemme iron and dairy, that's their business, I have enough on my hands with a fairly strict macrobiotic diet. I love to cook anyway, its just more art, and prepare whatever other people want regardless. But I won't kill anything.
Our civilization has become addicted to the long detour into convenience, did we ask for it or was it thrust upon us? It goes back to what we see as our beginnings, but even that period might turn out to be only recordable beginnings. I think it is these recorded beginnings, images of cave people making weapons, that made it acceptable, desirable even, to kill other species and lies at the heart of our worst problems, killing off each other in war, in anger, in revenge or under the the influence of intoxicating substances.
Our minds have been lost to this phase in human history likely because our diet has abated our natural spirituality.
We don't have to go along with it anymore. We should not be stuck with digestive diseases and transfusions and forced into patterns that age us early and cut us off from active, energetic, spiritual living. This could be just a phase in the development of humanity. Two hundred and fifty million years later that phase created unnecessary needs requiring medical specializations and fosters a global drug industry which keeps us in never-ending aggression against all Earth's species. Besides, our mental health overall is obviously depreciating when we could be making a lot more use of our inate intelligence.
I know a better world is possible and attainable where the other 90% of our brains are activated. I also know very few see it the way I do, if any. Like, so what... but we have huge human-caused disasters every now and then in which millions of people at once are forced into change overnight, the Dustbowl being an example, only 75 years ago. Climate Chaos will put us in the exact same awakening to our entire way of civilized life in general. The propaganda of western civilization is propaganda designed to enrich a mere few and exploit everything else. Enough of that, its time to get on the main road again.
Thanks for your excellent comment arthur. I've been doing a lot of looking at big pictures since you left it.
ahoy!—bedeviled wenches and whores aplenty off the port and aft stern. Vulnerability broadside, we fuck—'em up pretty rudder'n'tiller domain aye sir! Stern rake—maneuvering in battle 'till she yields top-side in the gallery—HAHAHA—shud ree'ly be out thar killin' sumit—but all these talk of pirates—haha, almost wrote pilates! Too many goddamn infomercials—Joan Summers and her tight butt, but alas, I digress—
Some learn of pirates from children's fairy tale—books, others ... through pillaging and plunderin'. Not the lifestyle I would recommend, even in fantasy to teach children, lest they never grow up.
Publius, very good book (lots of illustrations / diagrams, 1 2 3 easy) which I've used for preparing rabbits, pheasants, pigs, is 'The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency': John Seymour, with a foreword by E. F. Schumacher author of 'Small is Beautiful'. This book is packed with a life-time of a complete range of Sufficiency stuff. It's english so I've adapted it for New Zealand enviroment. All those aforementioned game were imported anyway from England so what-the-hey! Stuff in there on snares, even a smattering on alt-energy. I'm onto the making wine section!
Look I'm old-school, so all my books were perused the old-fashioned way. I've never bought anything on-line, sight unseen. I've also an old dog-eared SAS Manual quite useful for hunting, which has excellent illustrations—bivouacs, campfires (undetected) etc. which I've employed in National forests—hahah when the occasion has arisen! Some useful stuff in there for killing people also should the occasion arise, or at least rendering them in-operative. Or if nothing else, the knowledge of how they might best kill you.
Other books on this subject might include Confucius, Sun Tzu, The Bible ...
How to live off the biological parts of the world that one's neighbors don't know exist or how to utilize?—John over at survivalacres.com, I recall smiling at a while back now, has in his archives fairly extensive research on this very topic! Remember looking at it and thinking, so there's at least 1 other Apache out there who knows.
There's a kind of lostness with all the writing in the Blogosphere. Nina oftens / probably the only thing she ever examines / questions—What are we all doin'? A desperate tone, frantic at times—Orphan citizens—deliberately stupid—Or have they?—programmed—today's howl as a long comment—Patsy?—lying vampires. How are we supposed to cope with the deluge of information? Some hugely conflicting, yet thoroughly embraced by otherwise seemingly intelligent people, just as easily seen by those they denounce as nonsense? Is everything personal? Probably unavoidable. e.g. 290 million american'ts can't be diagnosed collectively. As a hive they'll simply ignore anything uncomfortable personally. The herd rejects / refuses childlike what it doesn't want to understand—hence the difficulty of the coherent voice in the anguished I's, me's, excuses and justifications, ... and so forth.
Am I making sense? It constantly amazes me how many animals and people, vegetarians ignorantly kill with their miles and miles of macrobiotic wheat fields, soybean fields, palm oil for bigger tits—huh? Excluding themselves. And even though Nina's only concerned whether Arthur has got my back rather than how many animals / people she has inadvertently / knowingly killed—personally, or in collaboration with U.S. combat troops ?
Nina_Some of us, especially men, have too much heme in their systems. Hemachromatosis is pervasive, crippling and deadly. I think the gene was actually protective at one point but like some other, sometimes positive, mutations can backfire. It's one of those things that I suspect contributes to my issues but is very hard to prove because doctors won't perform the proper tests. I'll spare the "your average M.D. knows shit for nothing" rant right now.
I'm so there with you on the bit about dietary choices but the preparation of food becomes problematic as we isolate socially. Cooking for one or two people is horribly wasteful of time, energy, skills and food. I can cook a meal for one in one hour and the same meal for fourty in four hours. Sharing of food creates family and community bonds that we lose at our peril. A peril we now experience deeply.
Baz, thank you for the reminders that every beet grown in a garden starves a critter that was using that space for grazing land. Riding home last night I encountered some mule deer on a midnight raid of some roses. They were not amused by my bicycle and stood their ground briefly before springing over fences back to the thicket. The big buck of the herd had four points in velvet. I was glad for my bike light that he had time to spring away rather than charge me.
Sun Tzu, Confucious, Lao Tzu, Gilgamesh, Homer (did you know that you can BUY intoxicating lotus online?) we keep coming back to source. I have a computer, an ash staff and an obsidian hand axe. We need to tell our stories. We need to hear others REAL stories and not the manufactured ones that fog the world. I am real, I am not real, all is illusion except herb and blood and pain and light of the dawn
Gate, gate, paragate, parasam gate bodhi, svaha
Tat tvam asi
v'word: sallyan
from Walden, "Higher Laws":
I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect. I have tried it again and again. I have skill at it, and, like many of my fellows, a certain instinct for it, which revives from time to time, but always when I have done I feel that it would have been better if I had not fished. I think that I do not mistake. It is a faint intimation, yet so are the first streaks of morning. There is unquestionably this instinct in me which belongs to the lower orders of creation; yet with every year I am less a fisherman, though without more humanity or even wisdom; at present I am no fisherman at all. But I see that if I were to live in a wilderness I should again be tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest. Beside, there is something essentially unclean about this diet and all flesh, and I began to see where housework commences, and whence the endeavor, which costs so much, to wear a tidy and respectable appearance each day, to keep the house sweet and free from all ill odors and sights. Having been my own butcher and scullion and cook, as well as the gentleman for whom the dishes were served up, I can speak from an unusually complete experience. The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth. Like many of my contemporaries, I had rarely for many years used animal food, or tea, or coffee, etc.; not so much because of any ill effects which I had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my imagination. The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live low and fare hard in many respects; and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination. I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind. It is a significant fact, stated by entomologists — I find it in Kirby and Spence (4) — that "some insects in their perfect state, though furnished with organs of feeding, make no use of them"; and they lay it down as "a general rule, that almost all insects in this state eat much less than in that of larvae. The voracious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly ... and the gluttonous maggot when become a fly" content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet liquid. The abdomen under the wings of the butterfly still represents the larva. This is the tidbit which tempts his insectivorous fate. The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination, whose vast abdomens betray them.
Well, I let Thoreau speak. Now for my own defense for my desire to hunt:
It's not so much that I want to eat meat, which I do to some extent anyway, if less than I did. I agree with the health and ethical reasons to go vegetarian (keeping in mind the nutritional needs and ways to do it right).
There's another reason to hunt, at least for me: I want to get out of the cocoon of over-civilized wussieness that I've been in for so long.
Once, when I was thirteen, I shot a grouse with my .410 shotgun. I cried... I was not proud of that kill. My brother was, and is, the big white hunger.
Look what happened to all the aboriginal peoples throughout the earth. No matter how spiritually wise or in balance a culture is, or a person, they are and will be confronted with evil, with devouring, gluttonous, vile, greedy, murderous evil.
I want to hunt, so that I am more aware of the edge. The Razor's Edge? Because I suspect that many of us, including people who visit this blog, may be faced with difficult choices and decisions and necessities.
I may need to hunt, so I am choosing to relearn it now, while it's a choice. And those who are aware of the collapse and who want to undertake a successful transition might consider gaining some familiarity with the tools of hunting, as there will be plenty of desperate ghosts wielding whatever comes to hand.
Thoreau loved Homer's Iliad. Maybe there's a lesson there.
Baz, I've had a question for you I've been meaning to ask for a while now, did you ever live in the US?
"everything you were meant to be you already are". so liberating. this reminds me a bit of our missing conversation at the gallery. i have gotten pretty comfortable with the carnal equine coloquialism (okay i know thats misspelled but you know what i mean)
i try not to do anything that does not advance my goal of being as free of the expected structure as possible. some other artists think it devalues art to sell it out of the back of the pick up truck. ha! cash is king (or at least for a little while) and bartering for food isnt bad either.
the rains have finally ruined everything i planted for fall.
thanks for posting your shed! its charming. i love it. thats much nicer than what i have planned...i hope i can afford an 8x10. im going to spend a few days trolling for materials.
Don't pay any attention to the naysayers Chickory. They already labeled you when you spoke your first word to them. Its in the eyes, the indirect scoff. We cannot change who we are. We cannot go back into time and recreate the person, the history, the experiences, it isn't possible.
Even if you could, you wouldn't.
These storms drenching the southeast, see any one of them, bad news, dangerous, take heed. Waterproof your artwork. Get out if the water rises further. Be prepared to leave on a moment's notice... before the roads are closed.
Arr Baz, I don't see how brown rice and peas killed anything. I'm down on the tofu lately because GM tofu isn't fermented. Off almonds too since they have to be pasteurized, by law. It seems that rice and peas farmers are making a living, not a killing. Animals don't graze rice paddies.
Maybe if I don't eat meat, you would have me eat nothing?
I like you anyway, you are delightfully funny and talk like a pirate better than me. I saw all your pictures and that handsome guy in the waders couldn't be bad. Although the boar's head was over the line.
Publius, I am always interested in your take. The Walden inclusion was wonderful. Thank you. You write enough like Thoreau I was halfway through before I realized it wasn't your words.
And arthur, we are very busy learning all about your health issues today. POA is sure he has something like it, er, at least when he isn't concentrating on the Sybil situation. I hate to think of you suffering. My mom had the same thing and had to really cut down on her favorites, especially green peppers!
Baz, you don't need me to watch your back - you're doing fine all on your own.
I want to thank you for pointing out the threat to wildlife that large scale grain farming represents. I've never considered that. (Shows how dumb-assed I can be.)
Has anyone done any serious research into this issue - the costs to the wild animal kingdom?
An abrupt, perhaps rude, change of subject:
You would not believe the cookies your site downloads onto my computer when I access your comments section, Nina...
I discovered this info just now when I went into Tools, selected Options, and then clicked on "Show Cookies" after coming to your site immediately after signing onto the internet through Firefox.
amazon.com
blogger.com
gmodules.com
feedjit.com
deepintoartlifewest.blogspot.com
s49.sitemeter.com
google.com
Several of the other blogs I access download their own individualized cookie, nothing more.
So what gives? Is it the hosting service profiting from yours and our contributions to online discourse?
amazon.com
blogger.com
gmodules.com
feedjit.com
deepintoartlifewest.blogspot.com
s49.sitemeter.com
google.com
Amazing. Why Amazon?
Blogger is this blog, but it doesn't seem necessary with the blog's own name having a cookie. No one else has that.
Feedjit and gmodule /google translator are now deleted permanently.
I think any visitor counter will have a cookie. I'll look tonight.
They are all gone now, except for DITALW blogspot. I saw what you saw and was made really angry when I checked.
All these cookies means we have to be even more rigorous in cookie deletions. What do they want anyway, I don't have any ads here... and never will.
Let me know if you start getting customized ads on your sign-on page.
Vword: weadboa (snake in the grass)
Okay arthur, you asked for it. Its time for the big guns now. Here's one of the greats on our very subject. Baz, Publius, Pango Pango, Zoner, Turey, Tex, listen up. Chickory already read it, but its worth a triple, quadruple read.
Michael's masterwork, Domestic Animals vs Vegetarian Agriculture
This is the scene in the samurai movie where the protagonist, injured in battle, stumbles through a storm into the countryside. He fall exhausted in the burn hollow of a giant tree where he is found the next morning by the lovely but plain country girl that takes him in and nurses him to health.
Ok, next good rain I'm whacking myself on the head and stumbling off....
Wish me luck.
v'word: torses
Some fortunate ones will design it just that way. Playing both parts. Which is how we'll be doing it, many already are.
Vword: hurinari
Let me take this moment to plug the timeless FREE NEVER OVERDUE LIBRARY. Everything listed there was linked for anyone seeking material of solace, interest, facts and reason, sound mind and sound body.
Also, Publius, thanks for checking on Chickory, I saw she had not returned to her computer as of yesterday midday. Any news yet today?
... palm oil for bigger tits—huh?...
No, no, no, its coconut oil - which I can make myself, learned from the best. It serves a multitude of purposes. Turey ought to be able to back me up on this. Its hard to make in the US, easy and natural, normal in fact, to make in the jungle. It takes a lifestyle to do it right and use it properly.
And what this bigger tits thing? I can't get behind this at all... another mystery brought on by the Illusion.
At yer service Nina!
We use raw coconut oil whenever we get it or have time to make it. The world of rush has touched even our little heaven and offers us refined and bleached oils.
Yu bad! Not all know how to boil coconut oil.
Breasts like wheat germ oil. Especially after breast feeding.
Irie, turey.
wv: villatio...hmmmm.
I use coconut oil in the winter to keep me warm. A tablespoon in my morning chai will get my body producing internal heat. I can feel it when it wears off in mid-afternoon and I start to get chilled. Still, it better not be giving me bigger tits unless they come with a girlfriend attached; unlikely. I'll have to investigate that 'make your own' stuff.
I did some research for you, Nina, and all I could find was this:
Mel C has started eating specialist Japanese cookies in an attempt to make her breasts bigger for the Spice Girls reunion tour.
Sporty Spice, who has the flattest chest in the group, is attempting to boost her bust for the tour by eating Japanese 'F-Cup cookies'.
Mel told BBC Radio 1: "I'll be a guinea-pig for them, can you imagine if my boobs got bigger suddenly? That'd be great!"
The cookies, with a calorific value of 68.7 each, contain trans-fats which are sent directly to the breast area, as well as 50mg of "breast-enhancing herb" Pueraria Mirifica.
Manufacturers claim women can expect to see their breasts increase by at least a cup-size if they eat two cookies a day.
My guess is that this is some kind of regression to "primitive" fertility cults, where large-breasted female figures signified divine Mother, etc. etc.
I'm not sure, though. American culture seems to fetishize big everything: houses, cars, TVs, breasts... the liberal-progressive-college-overeducated demographic where I live tends to shun such things, and the cult is more related to perceptions of quality and political correctness. For example, hardwood floors are admired, and wall-to-wall carpeting is an embarrassment to be shunned here. Large-breasts are also more likely to be reduced in breast-reduction surgery in my neighborhood, whereas in the surrounding suburbs, breast-augmentation surgery is more common.
Very strange
Thanks for the link, Nina. I enjoyed it. Lots of good thinking going on...
But it didn't address the question triggered by Baz's post - to wit: What happened to all the wild animals that used to graze on the millions of acres now devoted to grains and legumes?
word verification: mytie (Is that anything at all like a cocktail? Or are we talking about office wear here? lol jes kiddin)
arthur says: What happened to all the wild animals that used to graze on the millions of acres now devoted to grains and legumes?
I thought you'd like that link. My observation is the animals are victim to habitat destruction. As are the sea animals. They work so hard to make meddling with nature altruistic, but its genocide just the same. Whaat is habitat control? Try ethnic cleansing. I often wonder, what if the tables were reversed? WE certainly would have problems losing our food sources, and we will - in the not too faraway future with Climate Chaos. Note how today the MSM is showing pride we are latching on after 17 years. My gawd. Its too late.
Its like the last days of Pompeii
every day, between the safe house of state secrets and the faux jobless recovery. Dime novels, pulp porn paperbacks curling in the 130 degree stench. Every man for himself.
Just because the TV says its wonderful really doesn't mean jacks--t.
Vword: huril (well awrite!)
Vword#2: ebousla - a deadly virus in elay?
Thanks for your research Publius. While it is a strange phenomena, the people indulging are even stranger. They will be fortunate never to "see" themselves and just live out their lives in fantasy. Otherwise we'd be seeing nervous breakdowns on every corner.
HAHAHA—Yes, only to confirm my increasing apprehension concerning knowledge and it's availability to the bewildered masses. Over-specialization and a dizzying array of choices offered to the unsuspecting and brain-washed consumer only compounds the problems further. The standard duplicitous operating practices concealed by commercialization and endorsed by the FDA! Yes, yes myths and fables promoted by HUGE VEGETARIAN Franchises raking in billions of dollars from duped fools. Of course Pharmaceutical conglomerates often working in conjunction if not the very same issuers stand likewise to benefit from the successful marketing strategies waiting in the wings to address health deficiencies created purposely to fill further niche markets—hah
To say nothing of murdered indigenous peoples cleared from their homes occupied for thousands of years until this new and improved western lifestyle required they all die. Oh, and some animals too with no alternative habitat. New and improved breast implants for self-consumed North Amerikaans. The use of silicone filled implants has now been discontinued in the United States in all cases except for breast reconstruction necessitated by mastectomy for cancer treatment—in view of the safety problems presented by silicone. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a breast implant filled with a completely non-toxic material—the use of a triglyceride such as peanut oil or sunflower seed oil, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, and mixtures thereof as a filling for a breast implant—contained within a polymer, typically silicone, sac—and anxiety over the implant is reduced. Well thank God for that!
Oh, and if ya'll wish to excuse yourselves by smuggly stating it all happened yesteryear. NO, try today, then tomorrow, and the day after. God I hate vegetarians and their fake tits.
Hahahaha, ah listen Baz, could you please post a link to Mr. Bumbles' picture?
Implants must be all the rage among vegan New Zealanders? Maybe I am not getting your point in full, but how exactly, are you associating implants with vegetarians?
Or perhaps you are a "breast" man who manages to tie implants into any conversation?
I could see it in the rare medical circumstance following a single mastectomy where a woman might want to appear "balanced" with a padded bra AND follows a vegetarian program to improve her chances of living cancer free. Otherwise, "implants" and "a vegetarian diet" are polar opposites.
Also, what you are saying about big agra conglomerates owning organic subsidiaries is correct, I've seen the company profiles. Authentic vegetarians do not eat substitutes anyway and that's what they're fond of promoting - tofu cheese, grain hot dogs, eeyuck! And who can afford organics! And who would even buy prepackaged anything anymore but an ignoramus! We all must make our own food, nothing can be taken for granted unless you share the kitchen and know exactly what goes in the pot.
duh!—they're made from vegetables same as their brains, and all those poor rabbits have to die hideous wasteful deaths needlessly just so some self-obsessed NORTH AMERIKAN bored neurotic housewife can impress the pool man. She could intelligently give the ozone a break and take up bonsai, but no, the poor-sap pool man has to die once the hit-man hubby finds out 'cuz he's secretly got the whole house under covert surveillance. Answer in full.
The hunter-gatherer pre-'agricultural revolution' —'fruit from the garden .. of earthly delights'.
Mr Bumble guards the beans, strawberries and salad stuff. Not even I can get to it!
Mr Bumble (no 's'), variously known as The Colonel. Nice ahh, breast.
Agree about the pot.
WV: picat ?
Thanks, my regards to the Colonel.
speaking of the free never overdue library ..i went to the site that the guy closed down- the one who said blogging was a waste of time? i followed a link either in the body of a post or the sidebar that took me to this amazing video. im not even sure what it was about. sacred geometry was part of it, the other was like the unified field of self actualization or something like that. does that ring a bell to you? it had all these scenes about false religion and why we are in wars and that the species was going to make this transition (maybe) ...i just searched for it on youtube and cant find it. damn damn damn why didnt i save it to my favorites?
anybody?
thanks for worrying about me. i think i am going to grow a cover crop now that it is so late to start again for fall, and try some winter flowers, and prepared my compost for spring and build the shed. thats my game plan.
Entered the Fire Teachers shed and visited Chickory.
Thanks for linking me with good people Nina.
WV: funin..let the pary start!
who can deny beauty and dance.
The last anon was turey.
Ites.
Chickory, I think you may be talking about the world energy sentiment dot meter? We'll ask Rick, he will know exactly what you saw. RICK, oh Rick, come in.... come in...
Also see Pirate Rick's homepage for all 3 blogs and more
Come to think of it, you two would get along very well. Hmmmm.
Vword: bilizona - the Fed's private bar?
Iry, if the I had not revealed I-self to I, the sweetness of Jah would not shower over I&I bredren and sistren. The true blessings of this life are those given back by them. It is a lovely ting to spread Jah love. It is I who thank and praise the I.
Ras-ta-far-i, Eeteeo-pia
WV: 'seak-el' "Seek The Creator"
Far out a white Ras Sister in the Boonies. Respect.
I'm dread but comb. Some call me Ras and some Rass.
I'm called to serve Livity and am happy to be among some that are in sympathy with this.
Hello wonderful Nina and friends.
Dire family medical emergency forces a trip westward sooner than anticipated, so If I may be so bold to ask, if you are so inclined, please keep the Z clan in mind and prayer as we jump in the car and wing it across the country.
I will post any pertinent info on my blog and appreciate any invisible assistance offered. I hope that all of you are well-tended and deeply value what all of us do here and elsewhere in this virtual family as we try and navigate whatever it is we are doing here.
The kid's first road trip isn't going down quite as we expected, but off we go.
Love to all,
Z
wv; prateoff. Are you effin' kidding me???
Good luck, Zoner... may the journey be fulfilling, even if difficult.
Z, can you be a little more specific about your destination? Is this the real thing or a temporary journey? Of course YOU and your peeps are in my thoughts and heart, please keep us posted, please, you will be well received wherever you go, Jah Guide.
Vword: billi - the unisex salon for congressional bouffants
The Fireteacher, my companion, took some dawn Elk photos today. Baz, everyone, do have a look in the Gallery if you are not too busy.
And Ras turey, the I is channeling our day ... Mon dieu! Praises.
"He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment." - Meister Eckhart
I got this great quote from a Libertarian's blog, no less! But he's a good guy, with some great insights into our current energy & economic dilemmas:
http://americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com/
travel safely Zoner.
nina, no it was a you tube video. there was a part one and two. i wish i could describe it better - but i cant im not sure i fully understood it.
have a great weekend with your Elk friends.
Two blogs closed: After Armageddon and Survival Acres blog (not the store). From which site did you link to the YouTube vid? If you can tell me which, we can get you there.
Vword: ovolo - an opera scored by Voles
Thank you for the kindness and well-wishes, kind readers.
We are currently in Casper, WY, with our ultimate destination Jackson, CA where my wife's father is currently hospitalized. Hopefully, we will be taking him home to Carson City, NV, but we still have little solid idea of what exactly he is facing.
The kids dig the scenery, specially the wildlife (Antelopes everywhere!), and liked the "mountains" (heh).
Rockies tomorrow, but not the biggies. We'll have to take another route on the way home to see some different sights. I can't imagine getting all the way to Cali and NOT taking the kids to see the ocean, and my wife's hometown of Half Moon Bay. My mother-in-law hates me anyways, so I wouldn't be missed if I split for a couple days.
If we are here for a number of weeks, I may have to venture North and visit some other folks up in Humboldt County. Good thing I don't know where you live, Nina and Pangolin, I'd be tempted to drop in just to say "Hi" and put an end to this limited "virtual" friendship with a handshake and a big friendly smile.
This is NOT the trip we have been planning, but is a good warm-up.
Time to sleep. Thanks again for the positive vibes.
Hi chickory,
Not sure if any of these were the videos you are talking about. Now I really regret having deleted the blog as I did not realize how many people had linked to items I had posted and were depending on them always being there. I need a little more info to go on. If you can remember anything else that you have not previously mentioned it might help jar my memory. In any case if the links below are not it they still have a lot of interesting information. If you want to email me use the address under my blogger profile or else ask nina for my gmail address.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Drunvalo+Melchizedek+&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=greg+braden&hl=en&emb=0&aq=1&oq=greg+br#
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=34053867
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