UPDATES AND DISCUSSION

Part of the fire damage

From Murph

For those that are not aware of it, we had a devastating fire over a week ago at our place.   I would compare the mental state similar to not being home and someone coming in and stealing all of the stuff that is valuable to your life and never recovering it.   The fire destroyed the garage/shop, greenhouse and 4 other out buildings including an uninsured 20 ft travel trailer.  Every single one of my power tools burned up and a whole lot of other stuff also, a stash of tools collected over 50 years.   The house came close to burning down too.   All the animals didn’t have a problem.   It could have been much worse I suppose.  

I have been involved in a fire once before back in the 80’s when I then lost a whole bunch of custom made tools and equipment.   If you haven’t had a major fire in your life or a loved one hasn’t either, it is difficult to comprehend the physical and emotional loss.   For us, because of our chosen life style, it is huge.   Plus, we were underinsured to begin with.   We know that, at least eventually, we will make a decision about what we will do in the future.    For right now, we are devastated and somewhat out of equilibrium and we find it difficult to make decisions.    

Because of the insurance companies loses due to arson fires to collect insurance, it is not easy to get reimbursed by the companies.   Everything is now dragged out for what seems an excessive length of time while the company dithers about and does not make a decision.   They want to make damned sure that it wasn’t set deliberately to collect from them.   So cleanup keeps getting delayed.   Hopefully, it will be resolved this week.  

Nina, had a neat post up on the 19^th of April about life’s tests:  http://deepintoartlifewest.blogspot.com/.  

I reckon we got ours big time.  Due to our age and what that entails, starting over seems to be a monumental and impossible problem.   Enough so that we have decided not to do a food garden this year.   Just too much on our plate to deal with it.   I do not currently have a place to put anything salvageable or purchased to get it out of the weather and I can’t do anything about it until the cleanup is done.   Neighbors, friends and organizations we belong to have offered help in the cleanup and maybe some of building if there is enough money from the insurance to do so.   Our paying forward in the community for the last 8 years does have some dividends. 

Here is a link of video after the fire

 http://youtu.be/NfF9Aj7ColM 

OK, enough on that subject.

It has been a while since I have done any opinion writing on this blog.   It seems that we are continually bombarded with information much of which can be legitimately questioned, principally, information from the government concerning economics and demographics.   I know that there will be strong disagreement with some of my more generalized statements on such subjects, but I still think there is strong arguments made for concepts like; world overpopulation, rapidly decreasing inexpensive resources, overt and extreme contamination of the environment, poisoning of the food sources, damaging extremism in every quarter, a general decrease in living standards in the western countries, lying to their populations by all governments, the financialization of everything, (I wonder when there will be a tax on breathing), climate change and the list goes on and on.  I make an attempt to keep up on the counter arguments for all of this.  Because I am not an insider on anything going on in the list, all I can do is take in the information that different folks present on these kinds of subjects.  Because I find the “expert information (opinions)” is often highly suspect I cannot depend on them for accuracy.  It appears to me that the best we can do is take in as much information as we have time for and then reach tentative conclusions, and I emphasize the term TENTATIVE.   I say this, because over time we may find that our conclusions were wrong by the evidence of events that actually take place, and that depends on how accurate the reporting is of those events because we aren’t there in person observing it.  

For instance, the major events in the last 10 years or so starting with 9-11 indicate to me that we are experiencing major big time government false flag manipulated events designed to keep the majority of the population fearful and insecure.   These show up in what appears as an escalation of absolutely crazy types of behavior that are very destructive on life and property.   Folks on the scene or folks that bother to do in depth research into such events are casting extreme doubt on the official explanations of what actually happened.   And, of course, their information can be highly suspect also.   Sandy Hook and Boston bombing are two such examples.   It has turned out that photographs and videos are no longer proof of much of anything anymore, too easy to doctor or outright falsify them or make incorrect assumptions on what they show by selective release of them.   

We also need to throw into these observations the personal bias that each of us has.   This controls to a large extent how we view contradictory information and what we choose to believe is true.   For me, it is the distrust of authorities and questioning anything they do or say.   My life experiences have not been particularly positive concerning authorities control (or attempts at control) over my life.  

Another concept that can be thrown into the mix is the vast increase in the complexity of our lives.   Voluntary compliance with all the complexity is nearly a full time job now days.   It didn’t used to be that way.    I’m a grumpy old fart and I have a strong tendency to resent and push back on all of this complexity.    I want my life to be fairly simple and the push to make it complex I find immensely irritating.   This is one reason that we don’t use social media, cell phones, and an overwhelming amount of other supposed “conveniences”.  To me, they have far over reached a point of diminishing returns wherein I would spend way more time dealing with these “conveniences” than getting done what I need and want to get done.    This applies to gathering information, principally from the web.   I do not want pop up news bites when I go on the web similar to the news bites on the popular TV news sites.    The selectivity and headlines are much more propaganda than real news for me to ponder.    So to simplify my information gathering, I have selected sites (biases) that I frequent that seem to me to be reliable and informative without the propaganda, and I realize that there is the possibility of inaccurate information, invalid opinions and status quo shills writing what I read or producing the videos that I take the time to view.   In other words, I take with some grains of salt what I come across or what is sent to me.    All to frequently, cross checking of information for validity is way too time consuming and/or impossible to validate.  

I consider the financial reports as falling into these kinds of categories.   The government consistently puts out data on all kinds of stuff that directly has internal contradictions and interpretations that appear contradictory to real life observations.   The employment figures are a prime example.   So is the reliance on stock market indicators as an indication of the health of the economy.    Frankly, I think that we have been lied to so much that none of it can be taken at face value.   None of this is new.   It was also going on during the last great depression.   Historically, it has been going on in every government since we have records of it.   In essence, those in power and have great wealth have bull shitted us for our whole lives and their mixture of facts and fiction leave us confused as to the actual situation.   On a personal basis, our hassles with the insurance company over this fire is another example.   We have conflicting goals.   The company wants to pay out as little as possible and we want max payout to us.   The consequence is that they are stonewalling us and hope we will get desperate and take a cash-out as settlement.   Sigh.  

I’m sure most of our readers have similar stories. 

Poetry

Rockpickers Cattle Dog, Colleen

It is darkest at the new moon. Now there is just a sliver of light. We are assaulted on all sides by possible disasters - collapse, tyranny, famine, disease, earth changes, war. Or, are we carriers of an apocalypse meme transmitted like a virus through generations? Sometimes it is hard to tell. We need to take stock of ourselves. We need to come to terms with our experience. We draw our attention away from the seductive outside matrix and turn within to the intense present, attempting to make some sense of it, assimilate it, perhaps heal it.

To our good fortune, we have at this campfire one who wields words as deftly as he does stone. A master craftsman, he builds each poem word by word like a wall with each stone fitting perfectly to another. Rockpicker generously shares his cultivated perceptions with us along the path we walk. I have asked him to collect his most recent poems, that they may be read as a collection. 

I figure that there are plenty of subjects covered here to renew the conversation once again.

freeacre

The following is all Rockpicker ....

After An Ice Storm On The Allegheny Plateau

Beyond the sumac tangle, where a thinning father saws,
a grandmother shagbark hickory sags with loss.
Split limbs scrape like clay shards tied in wind.  Wind
the sawyer knows and ice conspire some bad years
to open crowns and let a good son in.  He revs
his Stihl.  Green pulp sprays from kerfs and sticks
to boots, consecrating snow like scattered ash.

You stand a distance off and dream the taut trunk limber.
Remember a girl, smart, green as whip?  You loved her.
This ancient snag, lithe in youth, was left by men
long dead for shade.  You like to think she chose her ground,
bolted free of gloom so deep a bright moon hurt, and ran,
breaching walls to reach this mid-field stance.  You're
confused.  The figure you remember kept running.

Some bad years snap the stoutest dreams like twigs.
Cures fail.  Stunned villagers inter a shining son.
A wife says 'leave.'  Once each life thin fathers
flesh-out plans to restack stones, slash brush
and honor the old delineations.  Buck up the knotted way
life doesn't go.  Toss rounds to boys who still trust dreams
and cart your grief like cordwood home in snow.





Stopping For Pelicans On A Summer Evening


Driving the Road to the Buffalo home,
Oldensoul, over my shoulder, spots
a  helix of featherworks bursting
the cloudless blue near where
roads and waters merge.  We pull off.
Low over yellow grass, black wings
work the yellow grass for what
it's worth, unaware, or perhaps,
unimpressed, by the grace overhead.

Flashes of winged bodies appear
out of nowhere unencumbered in air.
They flare white, a hundred points
of light, a flock of blossoms,
each banked turn when sun hits right.
Up and up they climb, uninstructed,
free, repeating explosions of ecstasy.
It takes our breath.  They bloom,
fade and bloom again, delirious

anarchy on zazen wind.
This whirling is a public mirth, a stirring
of rapture, loosed of earth.  And isn't
this coming together of a green day
with affirming moon and the scent
of new-mown hay a way to sing
our love song back to a black-winged world?







Waiting For The Signal

These pages that bring us together
are the fire in the cave above the stream,
no dream we move in and out of, faceless,
expendable, waiting for a burst of wings
to spill our pooled bones like coins
over the chilled and silent ground
we fell in love with so long ago,
singing the green hills home
under that shovel-shouldered sun.

Fatigue works grim the stone of souls.
No talk is needed to believe the bleeding
will be ours all too soon. Needled dust,
that settled itself in honest lungs, cut
with each rasp, yet the bleeding
wasn't stemmed. Quick, black tongues
flicked from windows, floors below dustified
slabs, while the Street slumped with peanuts
and a beer, cheering each new diversion.

In our rush of voices a stream curses
the murmur of pines. In our names,
what we begged for never to be done,
is done with no shame. And the day
drags its blindered self to toil. Night trades
whiskey pete for oil, while down slope,
death-drummer birds with blazing eyes
ascend the holy crags to raze dissent
before we waking innocent arise.



NDAA, 2012


I'm waiting empty in a cold house,
with shamrocks, the dog and favored books,
listening for the old tread of new boots
gunning to kick- in this loose-hinged heart.

The grasping hands of those with much
to lose, I imagine, close on me.
They drag me, incendiary,
into their unmooned night.

Half a shot of Tullamore on the table
is how my neighbors find me gone.
No bloated stench. No skeletal sneer.
Only a storm door banging mad in wind.



A Question For The Commander-in-Chief

When a bunker buster
falls in the desert
and no one
shows you photos
of the shadows
of little bodies
etched
on concrete walls,
are the screams
of insane mothers
drowned out
by the drone
of empire?

-for FP




White Lies Over The Passamari


Since oxygen and hydrogen combine
when kerosene is incompletely burned
at thirty thousand feet in crystal air
to form a gaseous water we can't see,
but know it's there because it changes
state, cooling in the rarefied minus seventy degree
Montana sky to first, (briefly,) liquid, and then to ice,

fine particles, yes, but solid enough
to refract a wan sun. " Contrail,"
we say, looking up over garden walls,
over the ridgelines of  neighboring houses.
We follow the silver bird, and its vapor,
across the sky, the two small enough
to hide behind raised fists

because ice reflecting sunlight
takes on heat and changes back
to states we only dream.   So what gives
with these spreading trails in tick-tack- toe?
Is it rocket science I'm not allowed to know?
White skies replace our deep blue days.
Shouldn't we expect a little say?







Sky Collapses On The Passamari

Winter sky drapes the land, like a canopy
dropped by unseen hands upon a cage.
Farm ground blurs between houses
at an imprecise place, over the creek, 
beyond my neighbors' spruce.  Past
what we can see spreads
the topography of an uncertain age.
Fence posts pitch and lose themselves
in fog, like stick men heading off
to evening chores, or the dutiful poor
marched off to kill the poor in forgettable wars.
What I took for granted and thought I knew
when sunbeams slanted through
transparent pain, seems now
untenable and untrue.  Still, rockslides
and dying forests loom, like deficits
we must assume in this obscuring air.
The looted vault gapes,  a victim's mouth.
Herefords steaming under willows
birth their calves.  The little town rubs
its knees beside a flame and tunes
its set for a prompted reassurance.
I kick the empty streets in muffled gloom.
I bounce solid hopeful notes off walls
of unsold homes.  Kept birds balance
in dim rooms, each night, a new deception.
With sky this low, could it be more clear?
What we need to know we musn't hate or fear.
On the Passamari, the dog star fluxes, red
to green, whether occluded or seen.





Fukushima, Passamari, Spring

Bow-legged two-legged, leaning on his hoe
peers for garlic,  late,  beneath the plum.
Shirt cuffs splay like stalling wings in wind.
He veers a stretch of sky between limbs
and bed, tallying spears as if a golden
gauging hares.  Planes his friends insist
don't spray poison for many good reasons
and returning geese persist against
the pelt of fronts.  A neighbor's tom
deserves his adulation.  Clouds decay
to cumulus and haze when no fields burn.
A fat mouse dies without a kick in yellow grass.
Orach cotyledons pool in paths like blood.

Early spinach vernal under hog fence hoops
and plastic from the dump needs safe water
from the county's deepest well.  Still, rain
threatens,  at a hundred counts per minute,
not him so much but kids who play next door.
When did the world's backup generators seize?
The missing witness, shoeless on the tape,
muttering, stumbled- on by mistake
in a landfill heap.  And this newest war,
when were there debates?  He leans on stone
to sort intrusive roots from wanted stock.
One wind whips the town's flags all directions.

Doves weight air a gray he shoulders
like a bar.   Admitting defeat so late and far
from sanctuary waves, snow geese argue
security measures all the way to straw.  Truth
is north and hurts worse faced head on.
Land a million peasants hoed subsides
while dying aspens turn silver he can't save
and nations crash in gardens like the sea.
Aerosol merges white in ionized sky
when sun unwinds in tongues that peel his ears.
Teetering worlds lose bearings like bickering geese.
He takes the dog whose eyes yearn for a walk.
She shows him when you turn you're halfway home.




Cowdog Passing

I came down in the morning
to find her, eyes open, stiff,
and let her lay in her blankets
against the sofa until mid-day.
When late- winter sun transcribed
the bare limbs
of the old Chinese elm
into inscrutable lines
on softening ground,
I laid her facing east
into her new day, covered her
with earth in the raspberries
and drove away.
The short trip to the dump
never seemed so long,
the muddy truck seat so empty,
as it did that day.




Magnetic Ribbons and the Yellowcake of Faith


When we wake puking shame
at last, and know the dream
for sham, embraced en masse...
When bells that rang victorious
hang mute, their tarnished claims
ignored in disrepute, and
bitter sons, having been all they
could be, can't wish back innocence
or the leg below the knee...

(This brash regime's  trimmed reason
from its ranks, its black guard
in the street, protecting flanks.)

...then will we heed the schemers'
gloating leer? "There's no future,
for dissidents,  here."
Row on row, with hand
in trembling hand, it's come to this:
We dreamers need to stand.

THE CANNIBAL CABAL

Google Images

from  freeacre

Is there no depth of depravity too low for the scumbags in government, finance, and media? Apparently not. On every front, we are continually assaulted by new atrocities. We read articles reporting that cancer and AIDS and hepatitis, killer flu, Alzheimer’s, autism, and god-knows-what-else is spread by mandated vaccines – and yet it continues unabated. Our food supply is contaminated by known carcinogens and gender-bending pharmaceuticals, and the regulators that are supposed to guard the safety of our foods are the same corporate wankers who develop and market them. Our country has become an empire relying on unending and undeclared resource wars to secure diminishing supplies of oil, water, natural gas, farmland, and whatever else the corporatists feel entitled to. Our money is created from a decision by the Federal Reserve to create electric zeros in a computer, then lend them to the government with interest, putting us in indentured servitude for generations, while the fat cats get mind-bendingly rich. Then this financial debt abomination is used to prop up the stock market because, for them, debt is money.  Rights defined “inalienable” as citizens of this land have been first compromised and now repudiated. No more right to a fair trial. No more right to assemble or free speech. “Whistle-blowers” are incarcerated and tortured (read the Rolling Stone article this month about Bradley Manning) or renditioned or killed. Our attorney general just admitted that the president has a hit list and pretty much anyone can be on it. Objecting to this outrageous turn of events can lead to being considered a “terrorist.”  Hugo Chavez just died from cancer (or a heart attack) and the world wonders if we didn’t just kill him. Why not? We admitted to trying to kill Castro. Hell, even our own President Kennedy was assassinated and the culprits never identified. To say nothing of 9/11.  So, no. There are no depths of depravity too low to go.

Why not?

On my recent trip to Portland I picked up a wonderful little book, “Make Gentle the Life of this World,” by Maxwell T. Kennedy. I had lost it years ago and was delighted to find it again. It is a homage to his father, Robert Kennedy, and filled with quotes from his father and quotes from his father’s personal collection. What strikes me in reading it again, is that it is a book that could not have been written today. It’s too gentle. Too compassionate. Too beautiful. I doubt that it could get published now. Not in this competitive celebrity driven culture in which we find ourselves suffocating.  Watch Chris Hedges recent speech on our carnal celebrity culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=EHnjc1gde8c&feature=endscreen

What is happening to humanity? It appears that the world is being taken over by psychopaths. Here is the definition from Wikepedia:

“Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/^[1][2] is a personality disorder that has been variously characterized by shallow emotions (including reduced fear, a lack of empathy, and stress tolerance), coldheartedness, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity, criminality, antisocial behavior, a lack of remorse, and a parasitic lifestyle. However, there is no consensus about the symptom criteria and there are ongoing debates regarding issues such as essential features, causes, and the possibility of treatment.^[3]
While no psychiatric or psychological organization has sanctioned a diagnosis of "psychopathy" itself, assessments of psychopathy are widely used in criminal justice settings in some nations and may have important consequences for individuals. The term is also used by the general public, in popular press, and in fictional portrayals. This popular usage does not necessarily conform to the clinical concept. According to the Scientific American, although psychopathy is associated with and in some cases is defined by conduct problems, criminality or violence, many psychopaths are not violent, and psychopaths are, despite the similar names, rarely psychotic.”

So, what is the cause of this condition?

Paul  Levy on Reality Sandwich (http://www.realitysandwich.com/greatest_epidemic) writes of “wetikos,” a native American word for those suffering a sort of psychic virus manifesting in people who can’t get enough.

"this disease, this wetiko (cannibal) psychosis, is the greatest epidemic sickness known to man."[vii] We, as a species, are in the midst of a massive psychic epidemic, a virulent collective psychosis that has been brewing in the cauldron of humanity's psyche from the beginning of time. Like a fractal, wetiko operates on multiple dimensions simultaneously -- intra-personally (within individuals), inter-personally (between ourselves), as well as collectively (as a species). "Cannibalism," in Forbes's words, "is the consuming of another's life for one's own private purpose or profit."[viii] Those afflicted with wetiko, like a cannibal, consume the life-force of others -- human and nonhuman -- for private purpose or profit, and do so without giving back something from their own lives. One example that symbolizes our self-destructive, collective madness is the oil companies' destruction of the Amazonian rainforest, the lungs of our planet. This is literally a full-bodied revelation showing us what we are doing to ourselves. Another literal example that is symbolically illustrating the wetiko complex in action is Monsanto genetically engineering terminator seeds that do not reproduce a second generation, thus forcing farmers to buy new seeds from Monsanto for each year's new crop. This makes survival for many poor farmers impossible, which has triggered a wave of suicides among farmers, as Monsanto grows richer from the process.

Forbes writes, "The overriding characteristic of the wetiko is that he consumes other human beings, that is, he is a predator and a cannibal. This is the central essence of the disease."[ix] Predators, "full-blown" wetikos are not in touch with their own humanity, and therefore can't see the humanity in others. Instead, they relate to others either as potential prey or as a threat to their dominance. As if a different breed who is more animal-like predator than ordinary human being, someone fully taken over by the wetiko psychosis consumes others' lives, physically, emotionally, psychically and meta-physically, beyond just the material body and physical possessions to the level of meaning itself. Wetikos are the "anti-artists" of our culture, embodying the opposite of what creative artists do. Unlike an artist (please see my article "The Artist as Healer of the World"), who creates life-enhancing meaning and enriches the world without robbing others, a wetiko takes and consumes without giving anything back, continually draining and impoverishing the planet of resources.

We are currently in the midst of "the greatest epidemic sickness known to man" (please see my article "Diagnosis: Psychic Epidemic"). Many of us don't even realize this, as our collective insanity is so pervasive that it has become normalized. Our collective madness has become transparent to us, as we see and interpret the world through it, rendering our madness invisible, thereby unwittingly colluding with the collective psychosis that is wreaking incredible death and destruction on our planet. Being "trans-parent," our madness is beyond its mere appearance, which is to say, "beyond being apparent," i.e., not visible. Our collective psychosis is invisible to us, as it expresses itself both in the very way we are looking, as well as all of the unspoken ways we have been conditioned not to perceive. Due to its cloak of invisibility, we don't see our madness, a psychic blindness which makes us complicit in the creation of our madness.

Many of us can't fathom the level of evil to which full-blown wetikos have fallen prey, and of which they are capable. Our lack of imagination of the evil existing in potential in humanity is a direct reflection of a lack of intimacy with our own potential evil, which enables the malevolence of wetiko to have nearly free rein in our world (please see my article "Shedding Light on Evil"). In our psychic blindness we are complicit in the spreading of the evil of the wetiko psychosis, a systematic evil whose depth is beyond the capacity of words to fully describe.”

Ok  I’m back now.   Whew!

Does it spring from the “reptilian” part of our brains left over from natural evolution processes or some actual alien reptile influence?  http://www.examiner.com/article/conspiracy-theory-returns-november-7-to-trutv?cid=db_articles

At any rate, changing the minds or appealing to the non-existent hearts of these malefactors, is not going to be easy. Maybe it is impossible. Perhaps we are into cycles described by the ancient Hindus or Mayans who see long cycles of birth, progress, deterioration, death and re-birth as being just how the universe is wired.
When I was young I thought that hearts and minds could be changed by exposing them to facts and appealing to their consciences. Like, to end the war in Vietnam or to get rid of racism and injustice or to promote health or the well-being of the collective humanity of which we are all a part. Well, you can see how well this has worked out. …

Scum has risen to the top. Most of the ones in charge really don’t give a fuck about us, as George Carlin used to rant (bless his heart). Of course there are noteworthy exceptions that attempt to swim against the tide of greed, power, privilege, convenience, and selfishness. But, it seems to be a losing battle so far. From our last post comments, I know that our own dear p, feels that we are all one – even the wetikos. Once we embrace that shadow that is in all of us and deal with it instead of denying it, there is hope for empowering the sacred within us all as well. One hopes.

Meanwhile, we are like the little marsupials that scampered around the Jurassic period trying to survive without getting stepped on or eaten by the dinosaurs. Happily, the asteroid came along that wiped out the reptilian monsters and set the rest free. Maybe history will repeat itself.
 

ONCE MORE ON SUSTAINABLE POWER SOURCES

Folks, instead of posting a picture I am posting a link to read that is about this post subject material. 
http://www.aweo.org/problemwithwind.html
While I see some problems with some of the content of this site, I do think that overall it outlines some problems over this renewable energy that most aren't aware of.

From Murph

I’m sure most of the readers on this site are quite familiar with all the hype concerning sustainable/green power being pushed by various sources all over the news and internet.   I have written about them periodically over the years and I’m going to hit on it again today.

First, some things that I think we can agree on concerning the basics of this.   Everyone of the schemes for nearly free power also demand the use of non renewable resources, everyone one of them, from nuclear to wind to solar power to the touted free power from the ether or the magnetic characteristics of our universe.   To build the machines to harness those power sources takes non-renewable resources, at least in human lifetime measurements.  

Secondly, we need a working definition of “sustainable”.   In the absolute sense, which, seemingly, no one wants to talk about, it means that resources are not used up faster than they can be regenerated.   I can understand the reluctance to look at it that way because everything that is renewable in human life time terms is based on sunlight, including, lumber, farming, water critters we eat, drinkable water and breathable air.    That does not include the vast amount of substances we mine out of the ground.  They are renewable but on a scale of time that makes them meaningless in terms of human societies.   So, excluding what might as well be termed as non renewable resources what is talked about in sustainability is how long those non renewable resources can last and under what conditions and scale of usage.  

If we try to produce all the electricity needed by the use of the “green” technologies, we also have to look at how much of the non-green technologies and resources also have to be used.   It appears to me that the amount of non-renewable resources to do this would be incredible and that does not include the cost of infrastructure to utilize it and the cost of maintenance and repairs.   The current big buzz is of course solar and wind power.  

I am going to assert that from an economic and resource position, neither of these sources are viable.   

Take wind power.   I presume all of you have looked at these huge wind turbines that are mainly being built in China.  They are gigantic and take a huge amount of infrastructure and non-renewable resources to build, install and maintain.   Plus, I have mentioned before, there is a very simple problem with physics here.  It is called the law of conservation of energy and the laws of thermodynamics.   Simply put, if you remove energy from one place and convert it to another form of energy, you have inherent losses but the amount of energy stays the same, just at a lower lever.   We all know that the movement of air (wind and currents) controls what the weather is at any particular location and time.   The energy to move air around is controlled by many other factors but one of the largest factors is the sun, heating and cooling areas of the earth and causing wind.   So, putting up a windmill pulls energy out of the air movement and converts it to electricity.   The result is less energy in air movement to some amount.   If enough of these huge wind turbines are built and installed, the question comes up as to whether they will have an ultimate effect on the movement of air, ie, the weather.   Now I realize we are talking about a huge artificial system compared to the even larger ecological system we call weather.   But, I have seen no studies concerning what can/probably happen if we build enough of those huge turbines.   I rather suspect and assert that there will be a large influence on weather patters if enough of them are put up.  What amount of changes and the observable effects is not being investigated as far as I know and what the tipping point would be.  Is this just another example of ignoring the consequences of our actions? 

Virtually the same observations also apply to solar power.  If enough of the sunlight hitting the earth is converted to electrical power, what happens to the weather patterns influenced by the heat of the sun?   Again, I find no research on this subject.

The standard retort concerning this is that the ecological system is so huge and the amount of energy it contains is so big and the amount of energy we could possibly drain from the system is too small to make a difference.     This point of view is touted by folks with little or no training in the sciences, mostly by the political class but not limited to them.   

IMO, it is a mute point.   I do not think that we have the resources or the ability to make sufficient investments to get to the point of unforeseen consequences.   But, government and private business is going to try.   The amount of damage they can inject into the ecological system and society by trying is going to be severe I think.   

On to the “free sources of energy”.   There is lots of information on the web concerning these schemes.   I have no idea concerning their validity.  However, for the same reasons above, there ain’t no such thing as “free energy”.  To use the purported electromagnetic properties of our universe takes non renewable resources in the form of rare earths and oil and mined metals.   I am going to assert that there isn’t enough of these resources left at a price that is affordable to make either home units for everyone or scaled up devises to feed the electrical infrastructure we have or could develop.  

Now, in contradiction to all of this, I will admit that I would produce my own electrical power for my own usage if the cost benefit ratio made it worthwhile.   I also admit that I would ignore that ratio if the cost came down enough where I could handle the out of pocket cost.   What it comes down to is being able to continue to use electrical power in the advent of the grid having prolonged outages or just plain going away.   Home generators can handle short-term power outages.   It’s the longer term ones that I would invest the money in for our use.    But, currently, to run our household on personal generation of electrical power is not feasible.   I suspect this is also true for most homeowners in this country.   What I can do is put in, relatively speaking, enough generating capabilities to run essential elements of modern life, namely, preservation of refrigeration and water source and maybe even cooking.   Heating would still be a problem since we have a central electrical furnace.  (The codes involved to put in a wood heater present an even larger outlay of money)   A friend who lives nearby has put in a small system to run the essentials with some success.   To put in something similar would cost me in the neighborhood of $1500-$2000.  This might be doable, will take some more investigation.  

I am all for individual homeowners being able to continue operations at home in the event of a cut-off of power from the grid.   I am also in favor of finding a way to produce power that is not so destructive of the environment and is affordable.   However I think that the present directions of this push are a blind alley.  In the end, I think we are all going to have to learn how to live without access to continuous multiple power sources that are needed to keep us comfy and uninvolved in the events taking place around us.  

Picture from "Django Unchained"

 2013 Now What?

Here it is – the first week of 2013. I find myself crawling out from my emotional bunker as I realize that I have survived the much-anticipated assorted disasters of 2012.

Now what?

 We still seem to be facing the same challenges to our well-being: the globally orchestrated financial debacle, the corruption of the government, the burgeoning police state, the deterioration of the environment, never-ending resource wars, the failure of our healthcare system, disarming the citizenry, and on and on. I read a report recently that said if we add up all the governmental debt and include all the social security and Medicare obligations that have already been squandered, each man, woman, and child would owe over $180,000 – with interest. That puts us and our progeny in the “indentured servant” category. Slaves, essentially, since it is an amount that can never be re-paid.

We are living in a concentration camp without walls because they don’t need walls anymore. Our owners have drones, militarized police, unlimited surveillance, and have abolished our right to a free trial everywhere in the country. You can’t even characterize it as a reservation, since, even nominally, there is no place we can call our own. Much like a plantation in some areas, with the one percent living in the Great House, and the rest of us wage slave/consumers doing our obligatory debt shopping, while the old and disabled are fleeced by the medical and pharmaceutical industries. What the hell happened?

Charles Eisenstein has a good take on this progression in his essay on Reality Sandwich entitled “The Space Between Stories.” He writes,

“Sometimes I feel intense nostalgia for the cultural mythology of my youth, a world in which there was nothing wrong with soda pop, in which the Super Bowl was important, in which the world's greatest democracy was bringing democracy to the world, in which science was going to make life better and better. Life made sense. If you worked hard you could get good grades, get into a good college, go to grad school or follow some other professional path, and you would be happy. With a few unfortunate exceptions, you would be successful if you obeyed the rules of our society: if you followed the latest medical advice, kept informed by reading the New York Times, and stayed away from Bad Things like drugs. Sure there were problems, but the scientists and experts were working hard to fix them. Soon a new medical advance, a new law, a new educational technique, would propel the onward improvement of life. My childhood perceptions were part of this Story of the People, in which humanity was destined to create a perfect world through science, reason, and technology, to conquer nature, transcend our animal origins, and engineer a rational society.
From my vantage point, the basic premises of this story seemed unquestionable. After all, it seemed to be working in my world. Looking back, I realize that this was a bubble world built atop massive human suffering and environmental degradation, but at the time one could live within that bubble without need of much self-deception. The story that surrounded us was robust. It easily kept anomalous data points on the margins….”

Eisenstein says that we are between cultural stories. We are living through the dissolution of the story that we were telling ourselves about our reality and creating a new one. Hopefully, it will be a more sustainable one.
  
Unfortunately, our public educations do not include much history about the coping mechanisms people who were slaves used to survive. We have the enduring legacy of music –  the Blues, the dances, the slang terms used so the “massas” couldn’t understand what they were talking about. We have the eloquent prose of Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth. We also have the wisdom of the American Indian leaders of the day. It wasn’t all about picking cotton.

Today, as our collective consciousness is coming to terms with our vanishing liberty, a new movement out of (all places) Canada has emerged. Calling itself “Idle No More,” it is beginning to catch the imaginations of people all over the world. Here is an excerpt from an essay entitled “The Wild Fire of Idle No More” by Morgan Maher on Reality Sandwich.com, 

“…Naomi Klein commented: “The #idlenomore round dances taking over shopping malls during xmas rush r the most subversive actions I've ever seen “
Klein's excellent article for the Globe and Mail succinctly maps the vast, complex details that fuel Idle No More
" … the time for bitching and moaning is over. Now is the time to act, to stand strong and unbending for the people, places and principles that we love.

… the Idle No More movement – its name at once a firm commitment to the future, while at the same time a gentle self-criticism of the past. We did sit idly by, but no more.
During this season of light and magic, something truly magical is spreading. There are round dances by the dollar stores. There are drums drowning out muzak in shopping malls. There are eagle feathers upstaging the fake Santas. The people whose land our founders stole and whose culture they tried to stamp out are rising up, hungry for justice. Canada’s roots are showing. And these roots will make us all stand stronger."
Idle No More is spreading like hurricane wildfire throughout the world. Canada, USA, Europe, Australia, Egypt, Palestine, Colombia... the list goes on.

I am wondering the escalation of the neo-con efforts to dominate and control the global masses, is leading to our recognition of our combined slavery whether we are on the “left” or the “right.” We are beginning to react in a way that encourages a more indigenous and human reaction to the despicable reptilian corporate abuses.

Whether one is by nature a warrior, a teacher, a healer, a techie, or simply a concerned parent or comedian,  seems to be a place for each of us in the generalized resistance.

Check out some of these links and let me know what you think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

http://www.realitysandwich.com/2013_space_between_stories
http://www.realitysandwich.com/wild_fire_idle_no_more
http://www.ishtarsgate.com/forum/showthread.php?3810-2013-The-Rebirth-of-Venus-and-the-Return-of-the-Divine-Feminine&p=20529#post20529
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/insider-report-dhs-was-created-to-to-fight-americans-not-protect-them_12282012

THE LATEST INSANITY

4th of July parade of the horse mounted deputies.


THE LATEST INSANITY from Murph

Our last post was November 4. Way too long in between, but neither Freeacre or I have had blocks of time to spend on it, and we also are again feeling tongue-tied. I was really reluctant to write on this latest insanity but succumbed to the temptation. We had around 12” of snow the other night, finally got the essential areas cleared, working outside is nearly impossible, so lets see what we come up with.

Highlighting the news, of course, is the latest shooting spree at a school that left a bunch of grade school kids dead and several adults. I have been reading a whole bunch of contradictory stories about what happened during and after the killings. We’ve been warned that any repeating of non-official information was punishable by jail time. Mainstream reporters typically aren’t doing their jobs in checking up on the facts of the case or calling out officials that seem to be giving out deliberately misleading and out right contradictory information. And of course, the hue and cry for gun control is going viral on the net. Every liberal I know about is screaming at the top of his lungs for gun control and even some of the more conservative folks out there in the Disney land concept of living.

I am going to postulate that we are watching extreme insanity at work, taking over citizen’s common sense and proposing all kinds of draconian remedies so this never ever happens again. These remedies include;

1. Hardening the public schools so that no one unauthorized can enter the premises. Of course they do have a tendency to completely minimize the cost of this, and, they seem to think that making schools even more prison like than they already are is a good thing.
2. Taking all assault types of weapons away from all civilians
3. Limiting clip fed firearms to a max of 10 shots clips
4. Various schemes for completely disarming the civilian population in total. Australia and New Zealand are their favorite examples
5. Making the acquisition of a firearm more difficult, to the point that you would have to prove that you need one.
6. Advancing the idea that if we can save just one child from such a horrendous fate, regardless of the cost and effort, it is worth it.

There is more, but this seems to be the worst of the lot that I have come across so far. And, of course, there is the deliberate avoidance of dealing with many of these crazy mass killings that were the result of stolen firearms, not purchased ones.

New advocates of trashing the second amendment are writing furiously for a variety of reasons. And, of course, government officials are screaming in a high-pitched voice that we have to do something, right now, as if that will cure the problem that has definitely not been defined. All they want to talk about is how bad guns are, across the board.

There are some folks out in writers opinion land that are advocating a bit more of a rational approach to a problem of crazies doing crazy things. They include;

1. Arming teachers and school officials. Personally I like this one.
2. Examining how we are dealing with individuals that are exhibiting psychopathic tendencies.
3. Examining our legal drug culture and its affects on the brain and what people do around being on the drug and what they do when they get off, for whatever reason.
4. Taking a good hard look at statistic and comparing government mass killings as opposed to the crazies mass killing.

American culture for a long time now has increasingly progressed toward dependency on the government to solve all problems. Personal responsibility does not enter into their observations, and freedom definitely does not. Throughout our history, every time a citizen says, “there ought to be a law” for or against something, we loose another bit of our freedom. Now, do to the rash of crazies shooting up some folks, they want even more government control. Of course, they discount the loss of American lives in wars that were started from lies, nor do they consider that the 9-11 tragedy and the official version was also a lie, and they definitely don’t want to deal with the wholesale death by government bombs and troops on the civilian populations in those illegal wars. After all, our government is right and we must not question that rightness, and besides, those folks aren’t good American white folks and, they are over there and we are here.

Very few of the writers on this subject are dealing with the fact that there have always been a certain number of folks that do crazy things, like mass murder, or the bankers and financiers stealing citizen’s money, or out of control governments that do whatever they want to regardless of the damage to the population.

Another observation. Notice that most of the rampages and killings happen where there is no one to oppose them, gun free zones and lots of folks around to target in on. Mon. and Tues Carl Denninger made some pretty interesting comments on this. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3091627
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3090416
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3090111

Most of our population likes to talk about our freedoms, except when it threatens their lives or livelihoods, they’re being wards of the nanny state. In essence, we are a nation of irrational dumbed down hypocrites.

Currently, according to stats I have seen, there are on the order of 300,000,000 firearms in the hands of civilians, getting pretty close to one for every man, woman and child in the country. Of course, many folks don’t have firearms, so some folks have a bunch of them, mostly in the hands of collectors and preppers.

Now those folks that are advocating the complete collection of firearms from civilians don’t seem to understand how massive and expensive an undertaking that would be even if the government takes only a certain classification of firearm, you know the drill, we’ve been through it before. The “assault type of rifle”, all full autos (for which there is a nation wide, hard to get, and expensive license for them), large capacity semi auto pistols and god knows what else they would want to take. Maybe all knives over 2” blade length and all other edged battle weapons too. Coupled with the large percentage of corrupted police departments I would suspect that their gun and edged weapons collections would increase substantially. Hell, it happens now without wholesale confiscation.

Of course there is the argument that a disarmed citizenry is helpless to aggressive states, governments and genuine outlaws that could give a shit about laws to begin with. Statistics abound concerning how disarmed countries are much more peaceful and don’t have these kinds of incidents of mass killings, with guns of course. Most of these stats have some serious problems. I’ve been looking at civilian gun violence for years now and what I am hearing on the MSM is flat our wrong. And additionally, the gun banners don’t want to deal with where these mass killings take place; Where guns are banned and nobody is going to shoot back.

The gun banners don’t really like to deal with the mass confiscation of guns (and other weapons) that have taken place and the results of the like of Hitler and Stalin. Pre gun periods (Japan) where there was a state ban on civilians having battle weapons resulted in other means of civilians fighting the state powers, most of them lethal too. What’s this with China banning sales of any knives last weekend?

Only in novels have I seen an honest appraisal of what happens in a society where everyone over a certain age has the right to be armed, primarily for personal and loved ones defense against those that choose to be aggressive and end up killing folks. IMO, history has shown that those with the inclination to do mass killings or just individual assaults are going to do it regardless of laws. And, while disarming the civilian population would perhaps reduce, to a small extent, the incidents of mass civilian against civilian killings, it would never eliminate it. Our police are not able to protect against these mass killings, only to catch and punish the culprit. For me, I want the ability, freely given, to protect myself, my loved ones, my friends and innocent bystanders from these kinds of attacks. I guess I’m just an anachronism living in a society of mostly woosies.

This will probably be the last post for 2012. Both of us wish for you all to have a pleasant holiday period, and we are looking forward to 2013 continuation of our relationships. In our view, 2012 was a pretty tough year for a lot of folks and quite frankly, don’t think next year will be any better. Keep, through the holiday season, some prayers and thoughts for the folks that through no fault of their own, are having a really tough time of it. There but for the grace of God ……….

"Oh, Momma, Is this really the end?"

By freeacre

"Oh, Momma, could this really be the end? To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again?” - Bob Dylan

I have close to twenty doom movies, but I am not a collector. I don’t have ceramic cows or turtles or a glass menagerie. I guess they are like books on survival subjects. They vary in production value, acting, direction, and plausibility. But, I’ve got to admit that I’m hooked on the drama. Whether it’s a cheesy portrayal of FEMA’s response to “quantum” electrical grid surges, or tear-jerking heroics of Robert Duval in “Deep Impact,” or sensational battles between aliens and humanity In “Independence Day,” they’ve got me. Dealing with the assorted threats of coronal mass ejections from the sun, colliding asteroids, invading aliens, nuclear war, robotic take-over, contagion, radical climate change, earthquakes, and zombie attacks is compelling. And, all together, they are somewhat amusing. But, that’s just me.

It helps me get my mind around the end times. Keep in mind that we have, and have always had, an expiration date for this incarnation. There is no way around the fact. So, I guess I find some comfort in the knowledge that we were born into these intense times. I could have been born in some dusty village somewhere and carried water on my head every day of my life, and died of exhaustion and boredom. That would really suck.

But, none of those movies so far deals with the current science that indicates that the solar system is heading into the galactic center and through a cosmic “fluff cloud” that is giving off some sort of energy that is making significant changes already. Carbon 14 readings, for instance, are no longer as reliable. Time may be literally speeding up. A second sun and its associated planets and debris may be heading our way. Therefore, and as recorded in the geologic record, the magnetic polarity of the earth may switch. The magnetic force that our earth protects us from gamma rays with has been weakening for many years. The neutrinos in the earth’s core may be heating up, loosening the continental plates, or making the earth expand. All these things appear to be cyclical. And they seem to be happening again at this time.

Many traditions have referred to the End Times. Many tell tales of destruction and eventual renewal. In fact, the Archdruid writes in “Apocalypse Not” that there has hardly been a generation since Zorathustra that hasn’t thought that the end was near either due to The Rapture or some other type of Judgment Day.

These long cycles seem different, to me, though. The crustal plates do seem to be breaking up, NASA has announced that there is a BIG asteroid heading our way (since redacted), and earthquakes are getting more frequent. We are probably not helped by all the thousands of fracking wells being drilled all over the place as they mine for natural gas.

As if this weren’t enough to provoke an anxiety attack by Christmas, back on earth, in real time, the news is filled with potential financial collapse, Europeans are committing suicide when faced with evictions and unemployment, masses are fighting in the streets, there's a possible break-up on the European Union. Let’s not forget the wars in the Middle East and the potential ones ahead.

Here at home, we’ve got the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. The massive failure of our decrepit electrical grid and the difficulty in fixing it in short order, and thousands of families still suffering. The money we need to fix things here at home so the whole damn place doesn’t look like Detroit has been spent and re-spent. Now we work with loaned money that we can’t repay. Since we have given our financial sovereignty over to the central banks of the world, they’ll probably decide that the only thing to do is start over with a new global currency and one world government. Yada, yada, yada…

Oh, then there is the horrifying glimpses into the worlds of pedophilia, torture, human trafficking, military renditioning, drone strikes, cyber-surveillance, the Patriot Act, and the tyranny of the advancing corporate police state. In comparison, it’s making the greed-heads on Wall St. seem less sinister. Fuck. I thought they were bad.

I find myself more sympathetic to those of us who keep the aperture of their awareness pretty well shut to what is going on around us all. I think it is maybe not so much due to indifference, but self-defense. It just may be that knowing these things and the suffering of those around us is just too much of a heart-breaker to bear. I, for one, sometimes feel like wrapping a bungee cord tightly around my head so it doesn’t explode.

For those of us who, for some damn reason, have our eyes wide open, how do we cope with this set of bizarre circumstances? I hearken back to being grateful that I am not carrying water on my head, even though I feel guilty for those who do. I’m also grateful for my friends and my tribe. I am happy that my husband is also my best friend. I go ahead and order a calendar for next year, even though I am not sure there will be one. I continue to go to civic meetings and plan for the holidays. I’m not waiting for anything special to use the good silverware. I’m trying to be as compassionate and forgiving as I can be. I am cultivating confidence that our children will not perish, but prevail, and transform this reality into something better than we have wrought. I believe some things just because they are worth believing in. I remember that I have never made a plan for beyond Dec. 21, 2012. I have just wanted to live long enough to see what, if anything, would happen by then. So, if we make it through this year, I guess I’ll have to write a new script. Maybe it will be like “The Road.” Or, maybe it will be “Murph and freeacre’s Excellent Adventure.” Either way, it won’t be long now.