Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Recipes for the Collapse, part I

By freeacre

Assuming that you have escaped from the mental commercial feedlot that we are herded into by our dumbed down public school system and the global corporatist-controlled media, you probably recognize the fact that you, your family, country, and world are at great risk. Hopefully, you began to read Mike Ruppert a few years back on his “From the Wilderness” website. Ruppert wrote, taught, and ranted for years about Peak Oil, resource wars, the manipulated stock market, the complicity of the CIA with the drug trade, global surveillance of the internet, etc. and is now burned out, sick, and hopefully recovering in Canada or somewhere. Maybe you now go daily to the Breaking News on Matt Savinar’s site, “Life After the Oil Crash,” Kevin’s “Cryptogon,” George Ure’s “Urban Survival,” Carolyn Baker’s “Speaking Truth to Power,” James Howard Kunstler’s “Clusterfuck Nation” rant each Monday, or any of the excellent sites dedicated to following the political, economic, and resource debacles that are going on, and you have already begun to get out of debt and put aside some supplies for the impending emergencies.

Or, maybe not. Maybe you just lost your job because it was one of those that relied on housing, and now the housing industry is tanking. Or, maybe someone in your family has gotten sick and you have no insurance that will cover the expenses and you are in soul-sucking debt. Or maybe you retired after working your butt off for most of your life. You did everything you were supposed to do, and you just thought you could live to relax for a few years before you die, but now the money has devalued through inflation, and you find that you can’t make the ends meet. Or maybe you are young, just starting out on your own, and are finding it impossible to maintain the standard of living that your parents had at your age. Or, even worse, let’s say you are a working class black, white, or Hispanic veteran just out of Iraq, unemployed, your family just got dispossessed of their home due to the sub-prime mortgage rip-off, and your neighborhood is starting to look like Baghdad all over again…

All these scenarios are painful and challenging, but believe me, things can and will get worse. The world is on the brink of Peak Everything – oil, climate change, top-soil depletion, water, natural gas – even coal and uranium are in diminishing supply. The world as we know it, with “plenty” of exploitable resources and a bright future of happy motoring, is about to end. That is what is driving “the slow crash.” The “fast crash” would be initiated by natural disasters such as earthquakes, pandemics, fires, floods, volcanoes, an asteroid hit, or a man-made nuclear war.

So, what do we do? Prepare. Prepare on many levels. I don’t have all the answers. But, Murph and I have been preparing for collapse for about five years. We have and will continue to share some ideas that are working for us. If we pool our knowledge and pull together, we just might be able to survive in a style that is more satisfying and sustainable than our miserable, cruel, toxic, ignorant leaders who have been lying, manipulating, exploiting, betraying, and killing us from our first breath to our last, have been dictating that we do.

What I propose is to lay out some general areas of concern and some recipes for coping. What I’d like you to do, is expand upon my ideas in the Comments, so that we can share the experiences we have had – things that work, things that have not worked. The preparedness scheme involves the main elements of:

1) Getting free of or avoiding debt servitude.

2) Securing sustainable housing.

3) Stocking up on food and supplies for both an acute crisis and a long-term collapse.

4) Cultivating robust health and a sustainable trade or skill.

5) Reaching out to your community to promote localized food and trade.

6) Creating new and fun things to do that don’t feed “the man” including new ways to relate to our planet and its lifeforms.

What I am realizing is that covering all these aspects of preparedness is going to take a series of posts, not just this one. So, let’s start out with avoiding or getting out from under Debt Servitude:

Debt didn’t used to be particularly associated with servitude, once share-cropping and the “company store” fell out of vogue. A person went into debt to invest in a business that manufactured some sort of product. The product was sold, the debt was re-paid, and it was all good. Or, a person saved up for a down-payment for a home, qualified for a loan, took out a fixed-rate mortgage that required about one-fourth of his paycheck, and bought a home for the family in which to live for the foreseeable future. That was, of course, back in the day when jobs were listed in the classifieds under Male and Female, the money was backed up by gold, it took only one paycheck to raise a family, and Hershey bars were a nickel.

Then the banks began issuing credit cards. As long as you paid them off each month, servitude didn’t yet enter into the equation. That’s what we need to get back to. Now, however, the programming for debt servitude begins almost at birth. Degrees are given in Marketing to people who stay up nights just thinking of ways to convince you buy things you have never needed. .. until now. “ Buy it now, and avoid the rush!”

Babies listen to advertisements while nursing at their mother’s breast. The children’s programming is simply a vehicle for marketing toys, clothing, food, activities, and whatnots – all to build an identity based on what they own. The more the better. These little material mutants are then taught to query their anxious parents about their investment portfolios, diversification of assets, retirement plans and insurance coverage. Being a parent anymore has all the thrill of Mao’s Long March. You have to pay for child care or get prosecuted for neglect. You have to purchase kid paraphernalia like backpacks, car seats, soccer lessons, birthdays at Chucky Cheese, class trips to New York, iPods, cell phones, designer jeans, and sneakers, etc. etc. If you don’t, your darling offspring is considered a loser, lame, out-of-it, un-cool - destined for a career in the fast food industry or the video store. The pressures of both childhood and parenthood today are nothing less than brutal. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying through their teeth.

This would be bad enough by itself, but along the way, both parents are always in great danger of losing their jobs because the company is “cutting costs,” or moving to the Yucatan, or has just merged into some sort of conglomerate. The pressures of this societal gauntlet make a happy, supportive, loving, stable marriage almost impossible to maintain. Half the people divorce. Then it’s single-parenthood or merged families – bankrupting the emotions as well as the bank account. Now it’s time for the prescriptions for anti-depression medication, and, gee, high-blood pressure and heart disease are beginning to set in as well…

All the better. Big Pharma is waiting for you, Buddy. They’ve got it all planned. Hike up the costs of everything from doctors visits to surgeries, chronic illnesses, long-term care, medical tests, chemotherapy, absolutely no end to the procedures designed to leave us in chronic ill health and debt. This, of course, makes it very difficult to tell an employer to stick it where the sun don’t shine and quit your crappy job, because then you’ll lose your insurance. And, once it’s lost, you can’t get it back if you have a pre-existing condition, or are too fat by then. That’s the servitude part. And, don’t make waves, join a union, smoke pot, demonstrate in the streets, or in any way question the authority of the corporate overlords, or your job (and your health care) will be terminated, Butthead.

Meanwhile, your kids have somehow grown up and are going to college. From the time he or she graduated from high school, they were targeted by the banks. Deluged by credit card offers, mandated to pay exorbitant college tuitions and books and housing fees, the student trying to get ahead starts out $30 to $60 thousand dollars (in some schools double that) in the hole by the time they get out of there. Even more if they go to graduate school. Miss a payment on anything and the interest rates on all your cards go up to heights that only the mafia used to charge. Usury used to be illegal. Now it’s normal. The Mafia offspring grew up to become bankers, lawyers, insurance executives, and judges.

Why? Because debt itself now drives the economy. Just as the Service Economy requires servants, Debt requires debtors. That’s you and me, Marge. We serve the economy at the pleasure of the banks. Those loans formerly taken to bankroll manufacturing businesses now provide “liquidity” for financial “vehicles” because we don’t make anything here anymore. Our mortgage and credit card debts are bundled, and sold, then re-bundled and re-sold as “derivatives”. At each sale, fees are tacked on and extracted. Loans are made to enact the sales. Banks only have to carry a small percentage of reserve money to cover the loans. The dollars keep increasing because the Federal Reserve (a bank, neither “federal” nor holding our “reserves”) keeps printing more as the bankers need it, and charging us interest on it! This all adds up to Debt, Beavis! “Structured finance.” Huge, minimally taxable end of the year bonuses for the morally vacuous hedgefund managing ballsacks and financial pocket pool pundits to spend on private jets, second mansions, and off shore accounts. They’ve been drinking Champaign and dancing on the back of our necks since the Reagan era. What do we get? Inflation, Homer. Now your pension ain’t worth shit.

“Resistance is Futile” is the message from Wall Street.

Well, “Fuck that!” is what I say.

Resist! Resist! Resist! Resist the temptations of marketing malfeasance. Stop buying stuff on credit that you don’t have money to pay for all at once. Do not pay any interest payments to the frigging banks. Stop defining yourself or others by what you own.

But, wait. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Escaping from debt servitude requires a radical change in consciousness as well as lifestyle. You need to have the universe on your side. You need to become powerful. The way to do that is to be in integrity. Do not lie or bend the truth, even on your resume or tax forms. Do not say you’ll be someplace, then not show up and not call. Pay your bills on time, or call your creditors and make arrangements to pay them late. If things are going to turn around in your life, people need to be able to trust you and respect you. Your word becomes powerful. You know that you are worthy. Therefore, your self-image is no longer dependent on what you own or the envy of others. That’s for openers.

Now, make money while the sun shines, and reduce your expenditures so you can pay off your debts. The window of opportunity that Murph and I took advantage of (thanks to Michael Ruppert’s sound advice) is pretty much closed for the time being. We re-financed the home that I was buying in Tahoe, put the money into making it more marketable, and sold it at a profit before the rate adjusted and while the real estate market was sending prices sky-high. Then, we went to Central Oregon and bought the cheapest property available for cash money. It’s not the most beautiful part of Oregon (but it is the least expensive to live in) and it’s not the most beautiful home, either. But, it is cozy and paid for, so it feels very good to me. We began composting right away, put in a new septic and well. By spring, we had a garden started and in the fall, we purchased a greenhouse on sale. It’s taken awhile to figure out how to make this place sustainable, but in the two years hence, we’ve improved the soil organically, added seven chickens and now we’ve got a season’s worth of vegetables frozen and a years worth of food and supplies stored up. Optimally, I think one should attempt to store up enough food to last you until you can harvest your own.

How did I buy the original house in the first place? We got the news that my late husband was dying the week before we signed the final papers on the house. He had no life insurance. We had no savings. I was bringing home about $700 every two weeks – and the house payment was $1,250 a month. How could we buy the house? We took in boarders, rented rooms. Housemates can really help to cut costs whether one is buying or renting. It also provides ample opportunities to cultivate social skills and cheap entertainment. (I apologize for re-telling this story, to the ones who already know it.)

There are many, many tips on how to cut costs.

* Buy bread flour when it is on sale and bake your own bread. That cuts the costs to about half, depending on how fancy you get. A bread machine is a godsend. Often, you can buy one at a Goodwill Store. Be creative with recipes, it’s fun.

* Don’t buy anything in a box. Make cakes, pasta dishes, rice dishes, casseroles, from natural items. It’s cheaper and you won’t be poisoning yourself with additives. Buy ingredients at a discount Grocery Outlet or Costco or the equivalent (not Walmart, the pigs).

* Buy bulk teas and use a metal tea strainer that lasts forever. Celestial Seasonings, Bert’s Bees, Ben & Jerry’s, and other formerly cool alternative food companies have mostly been bought out by the mainstream corporations, and they overcharge.

* Do your own nails, color your own hair.

* Cut your own hair or your husband’s hair. I started doing this in Jamaica, where a white guy couldn’t get a haircut when we lived there.

*Stop drinking soda pop and diet drinks. Bad for health, waste of money, and uses up oil (plastic) and hurts the environment.

* Pack lunches. Don’t eat fast food – same reasons as above.

* Give spouses and friends massages – for free!

* Shop the thrift stores first for household items, clothing, gifts.

* Make homemade goodies for presents. Cheaper and more personal than retail.

* Get an espresso machine at a Thrift Store. You can make your own and it won’t cost $3.00 a pop for a late’.

* Get rid of your cell phone. Good God! They tether you to your job, hound you wherever you go, are obnoxious to others, dangerous when driving, cost like hell, and may give you brain cancer.

* Stop paying for cable or satellite TV. Get an antenna and put up with shitty reception, or just do without one. You don’t really want to watch that corporate programming and bullshit anyway. You can order movies and documentaries and your favorite HBO shows on Netflix a lot cheaper.

* Send the money you save from the cell phone and the satellite, and donate it to good sites on the Internet. Donating helps you to cultivate a sense of plenty and helps the people who support your well-being.

* Grow your own salads, vegetables, fruits, herbs, and whatever you can, depending on the growing conditions. Even apartment patios can grow an amazing amount if you put your mind to it. Can your jams and jellies. Smoke your own jerky – yum!

* Save on the cost of books and movies by going to the library.

* Eat out only on special occasions. Make good healthy meals at home and invite friends regularly for potlucks. Saves money, and is fun.

* Drive as little and efficiently as you can. Use a bicycle when feasible, or a moped or a motorcycle. Saves gas and money.

Well, you get the idea. And, more tips will be forthcoming on the Comments. The idea is to live frugally so that you can use your liberated money to pay off your bills and set yourself free. The money you save should partially be converted to gold or silver coins. Watch the Kitco.com charts for dips in the price. This is to stave off inflation, which is gonna get ever more brutal. (Disclaimer: This is not financial advise. It’s just the story of what we did.)

Remember – Your REAL VOTE is your money! You strengthen and encourage all that you put your money towards. Resist the corporate agenda that is impoverishing and poisoning you and the world by withholding your money. Fight back at the banks that want you to be a 21st Century serf! Do not pay them interest. Buy nothing on a revolving account. Watch the fallacious financial freaks fall into the dirt, for once. They have it coming.

OK, that’s it on getting out of debt. My next post will be on securing sustainable housing. One step at a time, folks, we will work to get our dreams fulfilled and deal with the challenges ahead.

aho

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

FA,

I raise my fist with you!

Anonymous said...

Freeacre,

I picked this up on LATOC. War and Geopolitics, introducing an article about the Pakistan-Afghanistan connection. Since you mentioned Ruppert, I figured you'd be interested to see how important others think all that opium might be to the US economy.

"Editor's Note: remember, the vast majority of the profits from Afghanistan's booming heroin industry are laundered using highly-sophisticated money-launering techniques, then deposted in the Anglo-American financial system. If the crisis in Pakistan cuts off fuel supplies to the U.S. military, those capital streams will dry up and we can look forward to a massive financial crash.

For those who haven't figured it out yet, the U.S. is in Afghanistan to protect the narcotics cartels that pay their cut into the proper banks and to blast those who don't. While you may find the entire arrangement distasteful, (to put it lightly) the value of your pension funds, 401Ks, and bank accounts is largely dependent on the continued flow of massive volumes of narco-dollars, whether you realize it or not."

Anyone who doesn't believe it should read Rubicon. Ruppert gives the numbers to calculate how massive these profits are. And they're staggering. Without that infusion, Wall Street will be like a comatose patient whose life support tubes are "yanked."

Anonymous said...

Rockpicker,
Yes, I read that piece with great interest. Catherine Austin Fitts, the former head of HUD, outlines how our stock market is dependent on the narco dollars. When she asks people weather they would choose to end our complicity in the drug trade (and all the ruined lives that entails) once they understand how dependent the economy (investment class)is, nobody comes up and says they'd push the button to end it all.
The hypocrisy is just staggering, considering the bogus "War on Drugs" and all the people who suffer behind these policies, and all of our tax dollars that get spent on it. And, the sanctimonious senators and congressmen who are complicit. I say, "throw them all out!" They ought to take the places of the prisoners in there for drug-related crimes.

Anonymous said...

Oh, another great site today is
www.ranprier.com. Ran's site has great commentary on the current collapse in Phoenix, preparedness, thoughts on what the crash looks like. Very topical and lots of thoughts out of the box. He is very much into permaculture. Too bad fruit trees won't grow here where I am. Rats.

Anonymous said...

FA,

I read that last night. Thanks for including Prieur's link. 95,000 homes for sale?

Hey, check out ProjectCamelot for a pretty good synopsis and analysis of the missing nukes story. This could be very big if people would get behind it.

Anonymous said...

Everyone,

Here is an article that has so much information and documentation it makes my head spin. It is well worth the read and is a good explanation of world happenings at this time.

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/
war-with-iran.php

Anonymous said...

i haven't checked this out yet but one of my guys called and said the alt-currency liberty dollar people were raided by the feds today.. p

Anonymous said...

Yup. Here's the link, from LATOC:
http://www.rabidquill.com/?p=17
They took it all: gold, money, computers, Ron Paul dollars, inventory, all records - everything. Now they are out of business and have no records to compensate people or anything. Guess they didn't want people turning to a currency that had any innate value. This can't be legal, can it?

Anonymous said...

Ah, another straw.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Freeacre, Sorry to start on a diversion, I will get back to your post forthwith.

That was some interesting article you provided the link for Murph and quite timely too. Now the question to ask is would you raid and close down some soap box crank case who was just hurling verbal stones. I would either ignore him or in some way make him look ridiculous, but to mount a state led frontal attack only adds weight to what they were saying. I guess the authorities were over sensitive and not feeling as though the truth would set them free.

Can I be boring and remind everybody of what I commented in the last post re the exposé of the Iran situation by Leverett & Mann.

“Tehran has promised the following:

To dump its nuclear program

To dump Hamas and Hezbollah

To fully recognize Israel

To stop interfering in Iraq

To help Stabilize Afghanistan

With the help of Saudi Arabia, to sort out the Palestine situation

All of these things have been flatly turned down by the White House.
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the US is determined to have a war with Iran, no matter what it takes”

Well I guess that if none of this solved the problem the answer must lay somewhere else and the article in question could have struck a nerve.
It is strange, this usury business was mentioned in the Money Masters video but I never made the connection with Iran. This could be coupled with the thoughts of that economic strategist from about 150 years ago whose name I cant remember that said that whoever owns the world’s biggest land mass, the Eurasian Continent would control the World. This is a double reason for wanting Iran out of the way.

On a separate issue, I read recently that Russia was applying to join the World Bank. Firstly, I thought they were already in but if they are not why would they want in now. Surely they can’t want to compromise their position of relative strength by borrowing money, especially knowing what they do about them. Could they just be playing the part of the dark skinned ethnic youth amongst the collection of fossil fuel?

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Btw, I have a copy of said article in my browser cache. If anybody wants it just let me know.

I will bet the IMF is smiling through clenched teeth at those Latin American countries that used their oil revenue to get out from under their debt burden. Especially now they have seen which way the wind is blowing and attempting to set up their own rival Latin American banking system, so they will never be caught again and moreover having friendly ties with Iran.

Maybe the first chink in fallibility?

Anonymous said...

I was dumbfounded when I read that article that explained that Iran is attempting to set up a financial system that is not based on compound interest. No wonder the banks want them gone. Perhaps that is the real basis for the potential crusade.
A reader on Urban Survival made a couple of useful suggestions for saving money: freeze your leftovers from meals, then put them together to make soups or casseroles. Also, if you keep chickens, save individual yogurt containers to crack extra eggs into. Stir them up and freeze them. Can be used for baking and scrambled eggs later, when the egg production slows down.
It took about ten minutes yesterday for me to make a very nice face cream from coconut oil, fresh aloe vera, and a little olive oil. Whipped it up with a Braun hand-held mixer thingy, but could even have whisked it. For foot creme, start with the face cream, add some Vicks Vapo Rub and some tea tree oil and a couple of drops of peppermint extract.Cheap, nice, it doesn't experiment on animals, and doesn't load you up with toxic chemicals.

Anonymous said...

good tips fa. have you tried freezing and then taste testing the eggs yet?

speaking of tips, i was reading joe bageant's (thx murph) site the other day and he featured a letter from a reader who has a blog called... http://afterarmageddon.blogspot.com/

its run by an x-pat named rick now living in sweden i think. anyway, some good tips on the site... see page left. and some of those are to other sites with extensive info... p

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Freeacre, p was just kidding about taste testing the eggs, unless you like holding your tongue under the hot water faucet that is.
Since Vicks vapo rub has come into the conversation, here is something that a doctor in NZ found. If you have a child that can’t sleep because it is continually coughing then do a thick smear of Vicks on the soles of its feet, then put socks of to prevent it being rubbed off. Within five minutes the child will be asleep for the rest of the night. This is only supposed to work 100% of the time and the best medical brains haven’t got an explanation for it.

Anonymous said...

B.... got me!! : - ) and oh ya, da vix on da feets? works cuz da foot bone connected to da cough bone.

all... below is the link to a copy of the latest email sent out by bernard von nothaus of liberty dollar... p

http://www.libertydollar.org/ld/legal/raidday1.htm

Anonymous said...

Well, I must have read the same article, Belgium, because I spread Vicks on the soles of Murph's feet when he was coughing while we were quitting smoking. Very soothing, so that's why I added it to the foot creme (anti-fungal properties as well).
Another thing I am trying is to plant switchgrass all over the property to feed the chickens. Been researching it on the net. Seems the more plants they eat like switchgrass, the more Omega 3 there is in their eggs. Plus, once it grows here, it's free to feed to them. Can feed it to rabbits and goats or whatever as well. Commercial feed may be expensive and hard to get pretty soon. Also, switchgrass provides food and sheltering habitat for wild birds, like quail and doves, etc. All the better! Oh, yeah, we feed our chickens table scraps and salad parings, etc. They really go for cooked butter beans - dive in and get it all over their faces! Really funny.

Anonymous said...

Great post FA,it occurred to me as i was reading it on things to relax into such as staying alive, that,..i had to laugh as if doing these things was to be a shitty burden upon the mind and soul of the individual attempting to do the impossible.As holy fuck how can i do WITHOUT these things that make my life what it is? Which is?
The fucking irony of it all....
The habitual responses, the absolute killers that is the habitulators,, and the world that is being destroyed because of those habits is what we call what? We are lazy mother fuckers and scared shitless of any change. no matter how important it is and the more important it is the least likely it is for any ending of said habits.
Right?
i see it in my self, i see it all around me i see it in its essence.
The ending of this world will not be a smart bomb it will be a habit.
My brother is dying of prostrate cancer and drinks two six packs of beer (good beer,the healthy kind,not Budweiser for gods sake)and a pack of smokes each and every day,the all natural kind of course. And this i think is about as good as it gets for the change to a bright and glorious future for the human race, and the world. What do you think? is this off the wall? if not that then what?

i think this is old hat but son of a bitch when i finally quit smoking after 18 wonderful lung killing years of poisoning my beautiful healthy pink breathing devices,it was not an intellectual decision it was because i could not breath!!
Every one says "gee i wish i had that kind of resolve"!!!
fuck me, what resolve?
it was quit or die, well that worked for me but that solution is unviable for most i am afraid, and i cannot tell you how much i admire people that can just drink one beer or smoke one cigarette.
i get addicted to EVERYTHING THAT COMES ALONG!it seems.

for this one the quickly approaching door of physical death is mostly the only deterrent that interrupts the wonderful flow of habitual behavior and at that point it is a clean break, sometimes.
Because once health is resumed the idea pops up as a response to whatever and away we go,...wheeeee,down the road again!!!
As an obsolete experiment we are about to reap the rewards of said experiment, all i think except for the fortunate?

we here at the house of light and the slayers of darkness that live among us may be of a mutant arrangement suggested by the spirit says langosta,my dream spirit and as a bonus paid me a physical presence in the garage last evening as i was putting the finishing touches on a new generator assembly to be used for whatever,backup for emergency power or survival construction in a remote area,who knows?
She loved the color (it is mostly red) dont laugh you weren't here.

Plus i smoke other world connecting herb later on before lights out.

Other great news!! with the help of other survival minded comrades we secured a large heavy duty constructed green house (21ftx36ft) complete with heating appliance and long lasting sunspot solar flare up resisting plastic sheathing for a mere $500 pesos!
includes also all the shit that goes inside one. very excited.

On the other note, the vote for city council was 22 to 56 in the incumbents favor so,this is going to free up much needed time to actually do something as apposed to sitting around with a bunch of entrenched good ole boys and some really mean bitches and getting nothing done about anything.
My problem in this adventure was in retrospect one of which i was not really known,as i do not go to church, the bar, the senior lunches,or any other meeting coagulations, and the votes i got were (from what i understand were from former drinking buddies that thought that i would implement a rule that open containers would be legal on mean street.)what is a mother fucker to do? i ask you?
so upward and onward, the FM radio station we are going to purchase and broadcast on has been highlighted , also a village newspaper is being mind worked also and an open forum website is being created as we speak and will be,...
will get back on that later for exact if anyone is interested

so,Freeacre all that your post speaks of is most excellent to me and i think that the info is generally the path that most that inhabit this sacred council travel.
and look forward to more of these excellent ideas for the coming fiasco and in which i feel we are about to witness the good the bad and the ugly in spades.

so much to report put im on my way to refill the bird feeders,and by the way coincidently they for some strange reason reappeared the next day after i filled the feeders for the coming winter!!Hummmm.

peace fellow swimmers
and prosperity to all
aho
mf

ps what in the fuck happened to RAS?

Anonymous said...

Oh ho! Nice to hear from you, Montana. So cool about the greenhouse! They'll probably vote you in next time by acclimation after you get the website and newspaper going - and by then, you might not want to do it anyway. Good going!
I know what you mean about the habits and addiction making us stupid as shit. I've told the Murphinator more than once, that if the comet hits, the first thing I'm gonna do is buy a frigging pack of cigarettes! ...put about five of them in my mouth and light them all up at once.
There's a GREAT article on Carolyn Baker's site the outlines the many different ways people deny bad news like the collapse and the atrocities of the government: she calls it Panglossianism. Really entertaining and profound article:
http://carolynbaker.net/site/
content/view/216/
Guess our main hope is to liberate the "mutant" within. You seem to be leading the way, Montana!
aho

Anonymous said...

Good question. RAS, where are you? How about the others from Cyclone's site that have not checked in yet... Eli, Singapore Guy, Sean, Reality, Lilac,Comrad Simba, others? Hope you make it thru by the time the snow fills the passes.

Listen for the drums. Or, if anybody has their e-mail addresses, give them a holler, OK?

And, any new folks looking in and want to sit in the council - join us! There's plenty of room.

stoney13 said...

Freeacre,


Great post! Loved ever word!

Tea tree oil is probably the best thing to come out since "Purple Horse Medicine"! I use it on cuts, scrapes, road rash, and for putting on a splinter before you yank it out! Good stuff! On top of all that, the "Melafix" I use in my aquariums is based on Tea Tree Oil! The stuff cures ever pathogen that a fish can catch, but it doesn't affect the plants and micro-organisms that a healthy aquarium needs to live!

Anonymous said...

Freeacre;

Congratulations on getting this latest post published on Carolyn Baker's web site. Cool!

Anonymous said...

Good ol' peroxide is good for lots of things, too. Mix it with baking soda and brush teeth (not every day), use as mouthwash,heals infections in cuts, kills germs on surface areas, etc. Colloidal silver is also good for a lot of systemic things. Simple apple cider vinegar for digestion. The white kind for cleaning. All these are good cleaners or remedies that are effective, cheaper, and don't add a bunch of chemicals to the body and groundwater or torture animals in the manufacture. I keep an aloe vera plant in the kitchen window for quick medicine for burns, sunburn, itches, and skin creams. It's HUGE by now. I just explain why I need some juice and thank it for helping me make medicine when I cut a limb of it off. Then I water it and wipe the dust off it and stuff and think good thoughts to it. Continues to thrive.

Palooka's Revenge said...

mf... i hear comedians use self deprecation so they don't come off as arrogant. you have a real talent for it they would envy. i mean that as a compliment and we at this campfire are blessed with your wisdom. and you style. the self hatred that fuels our demons is so profound we can only take a little at a time and it definitly needs some counter tactic to behold eh? the irony of it is chilling!! and likely FA is right... Guess our main hope is to liberate the "mutant" within. You seem to be leading the way, Montana!

right on both counts i might add : - ). self deprecation notwithstanding, someone needs to lead the way here and i don't iknow anyone who can put it quite like you. i know i can't. all i can do is put it from my view... that you are dead right my friend. we need to try to prepare for this because this is where our own personal, deepest denials lay.... in our self hatred. and, boy howdy, do i know what you're talkin about when it comes to the attack on me by me ownself. somebody with alot more expertise than i once said we either act our tramas outward upon others or we act them in upon ourselves. i can look at my own behavious, habits, and addictions and find culpability in both scenarios. in the latter case i'm my own perp. thats hard to even imagine but the reality should be un-deniable in the face of a lifetime of evidence of self destruction. yet i do.

we evolve when we learn the lessons and we're left to such as long as we don't go too stupid instead. so stupid that life and the planet are in dire jeapardy now. when we go this far past the balance point the greater cosmic forces, which are always seeking balance, must interveen... which is what earth changes of "biblical" proportion are always about imo. and i suspect denial is the operative dynamic in imbalance. so universe triggers the deepest denials in an effort to expose them and clear them and shift the movement back toward the balance point.

here, they say to me, take a good look at this shit!! remember? do you choose life or death? do you choose love or no love? which feels best to you? within which is your right place? the choice is yours. but remember this, no matter what you choose, you are going to be confronted with everything that is yours that you have shoved out into universe or down into that red shithole of yours. it might kill you because obviously, thats what you've been trying to do. much that has been so lost for so long is moving to come inside of love now. the best you can do is move with it and bring inside of love that which is yours that is ready to come inside of love and ask the great ONE to move that which is not yours, or that which is yours that does not seek love at this time, to move it to its right place in the universe. the only way you can know this is to feel it. and the only way you can feel it is to vibrate it. feelings give movement to creation. without feelings, there is no desire and without desire, vibration would stop. vibration is life and so it follows that you must have desire to have life.

well damn!!! and i thought all i needed was some food, lotsa ammo, and a whole lotta luck. what am i gonna do now, shoot myself??

likely there are no "fortunates" immune. thus i suspect the greatest threat to my own survival is my own denials and probably my denied self-hatred is the worst of it. realizing this is the first step. hopefully!!

great catch on the greenhouse. i just ordered a copy of mike oehler's EARTH-SHELTERED SOLAR GREENHOUSE BOOK and his HIPPY SURVIVAL GUIDE TO Y2K which, from what i read, has lotsa tried and true tips still relavent today. probably even moreso. anybody familar with oehler?

btw... it doesn't surpirse me that langosta's fav color is red. thats the color of the root, aka survival, chakra ain't it? and the color of the shithole where i shove everything detested. no coincidence there! maybe thats a clue for me.

RAS said...

Ras follows her own path and sometimes flies off on interesting diversions.
My spirit guide is the hawk, after all.

I've been busy with school and other things and just trying to survive in this crazy messed up world.

This was a good post, Freeacre. I would say that getting out of debt by paying it off might not be an option for many at this point, however, especially in any time frame that matters. Bankruptcy -while it's still available -might be a better option.

What I'm trying to figure out for myself is how to come up with the money to buy some land, even an acre or two. But that will first necessitate getting a job which I have thus far been unsuccessful at.

Freeacre, what do you mean fruit trees won't grow where you are? There's bound to be some fruit that will grow there. Some variety of fruit will grow in nearly any climate, right up to near deserts (in the case of olives and figs). What's you climate like?

Anonymous said...

Good to hear from you, RAS!
The only fruit that grows here for sure is currants. We are at 4,200 feet and there are only about 30 nights a year that you can count on that don't freeze. It can go from 90 degrees in July to 28 at night anytime! The soil is volcanic ash for 35 feet, and acidic due to the pine trees. It is also semi-arid. The fact that we were able to grow vegetables here at all has our neighbors, scratching their heads.
I'm glad that you questioned the tactics of getting out of debt. I think bankruptcy is definitely an option for a lot of people. Like those who took out subprime mortgages as investment opportunities. But, you have to watch out that you don't go through the whole procedure and still wind up in a world of hurt. I did it years ago because we had over $200,000 dollars of medical debt from my step-son's cancer. Lost the house, car, etc., ruined our credit for ten years - and still had to pay 40 % of the bill! Worked 3 jobs for 5 years and came out of it with a case of financial stress disorder. But, if you ARE going to cut up the credit cards, might want to stock up on the survival supplies first. I'm not sure what the new rules for bankruptcy and credit cards are - seems you can't walk away so easily now.
Anybody else know?

Anonymous said...

“But, wait. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Escaping from debt servitude requires a radical change in consciousness as well as lifestyle. You need to have the universe on your side. You need to become powerful. The way to do that is to be in integrity. Do not lie or bend the truth, even on your resume or tax forms. Do not say you’ll be someplace, then not show up and not call. Pay your bills on time, or call your creditors and make arrangements to pay them late. If things are going to turn around in your life, people need to be able to trust you and respect you. Your word becomes powerful. You know that you are worthy. Therefore, your self-image is no longer dependent on what you own or the envy of others. That’s for openers.”

Wow! In one paragraph you summed up my attitude. I don’t cheat on my taxes, not because I care about the government’s finances or respect the government anymore, but because I respect myself enough to play by the rules, no matter how objectionable they are. When I tell people things, I mean it. I don’t tell people nice things to make them feel good. When I tell people I’ll do something, I do it, even if after telling them that I’d do it I wish I hadn’t. I’ve never exaggerated on my resume. I’ve always paid my bills on time, except when I’ve forgotten. And, as you say, I know who I am and like who I am. I don’t need anybody to reinforce my self esteem. (I wrote about this very thing in my own essay titled “Why Are Americans So Fearful?” (http://dave.eriqat.name/DE_Fearful_Americans.html).

I have also independently adopted many of your suggestions: I’ve eliminated all debt and gotten rid of all my credit cards; everything I own, including my house, is paid for (I had to move from expensive California to rural Kentucky to do this, but it was worth it); I’ve pared my cost of living to the bone; I’ve stockpiled food, water, supplies, and even motor oil and gasoline; I’m planning to grow most, if not all, my produce on my own lot; I exercise regularly and eat healthily as an alternative to health insurance; I make my own bread and cook all my meals from scratch; I cut my own hair; I roast my own coffee beans, which is much cheaper than pre-roasted beans and tastes far better; I don’t have cable TV and don’t watch TV; I have a prepaid cell phone for emergencies; I work at home, so I drive my car only once or twice a week to go the grocery store or the hardware store (my old house needs lots of maintenance); I ride my bike for exercise and errands (today I rode to the Post Office and the bank). My one indulgence is Internet service, but it’s more than an indulgence because it’s my lifeline to the outside world, and my tool for paying bills and managing my money, and for downloading wonderful free software such as Linux and OpenOffice, rather than paying greedy Microscum for its crap.

I’ve been urging others to follow my example (sort of hubristic, I know), but I’ve had little feedback to indicate that people are doing the same thing I am. It’s sort of exciting to know that other people, such as yourself, are on exactly the same page as me. I look forward to the day when people like us can hook up and form new communities based on shared principles, and reject the corrupt present system.

Dave

Anonymous said...

Well, all right, Dave! Very good to have you at our campfire! I was just thinking how this seems more like Hanukkah than Thanksgiving - because the light still burns though the oil is gone. People seem to not be noticing. And, now we hear from a fellow traveler. I'm inspired to get some unroasted beans and learn to roast my own coffee.
Integrity in the way we live our lives is central, I believe, in making a significant change. Just surviving by whatever means necessary is not enough. That way, there is no assurance that the survivors would develop anything sustainable that would also support the rest of the planet. We need to form tribes, and co-ops - not gangs and alliances of privilege or muscle.
I remember the Seinfeld series. After awhile I couldn't even watch it because all the humor was based on lying, or discounting each other, or making false judgments based on shallow, materialistic crap - and then trying to cover it up and pretend that they didn't do what they just did or some other clueless thing. It was offensive, and disgusting role-modeling to young people thinking they were cool.
The Golden Rule needs to be revived: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Know that what comes around, goes around. If you steal, you will be stolen from. If you are honest and respectful and helpful, it will come back to you. (If one is dealing with a robot or a corporation, however, one may have to switch tactics.)
Being in integrity builds personal strength and the power of your Word. That's one thing we have going for us at this council. We may not always be "right" but we are always honest. Welcome.
aho

Anonymous said...

Dave,

Looked at your website, read some of your essays. Right on man.

One thing that you and Freeacre talk about is playing by the rules, living in integrity. I have some problems with this, and Freeacre and I argue about it intermittently.

When you "play by the rules" there is an implied assumption; namely that the other players also play by the rules that we have all agreed on. In that respect, 'playing by the rules' makes a lot of sense. However, in dealing with institutions that do not play by the same rules that we are expected to play by, I personally feel absolutely no compulsion to play by the rules they have handed down to me. These rules are one sided, and can be changed by authority on a whim, and are guaranteed to almost always make you lose, for the gain of the authority.

An example, paying taxes. There is a completely different set of rules for you and I as in comparison to Bill Gates. To deny this is so is ignoring what the wealthy are able to get away with in terms of tax structure, penalties and percentage paid, and most important, the ability to challenge whatever they do not wish to abide by in the rules, which of course, for you and I is an impossibility because we don't have a lot of money to begin with.

Lets look at an even more explicit example. In any kind of hierarchal society, the rules by which the society is run is dictated by the elite of the top of the hierarchy. One of those rules is the restriction on who can use force. If you look at just our society, you will notice that the top of the hierarchy has declared for itself the sole dispenser of who gets to use force for their advantage. At the bottom of the hierarchy, us, if we use force we get the shit end of the stick, but if a law enforcement officer uses force to keep us obeying the rules that we don't agree with, he gets promoted.

So, I think the obeying of rules is a mind set put out by the authorities to keep us in a position to not be able to forcefully rebel, and of course I quite oppose that. I can obey rules that I and everyone else has agreed to obey, but when that is no longer true, then it is questionable for me as to the ethical decision to keep obeying those rules.

Anonymous said...

Murph,

You took the words right out of my mouth.
The working poor and the shrinking middle class are expected to shoulder the tax burden to pay for moronic neocon and neoliberal adventurism. The upper classes, who always profit from military voyeurism, figured out how to get the poor to not only do the fighting, but to pay for it, as well. This is our legacy to our children. Endless war, perpetual debt and institutionalized guilt for having the audacity to be born here, you societal burdens, you.

When did 'patriotic chore' morph into 'debt to society?'

Guess what. We who opposed the war from the Gitmo, ah, get go,
feel no compunction to now pay for, for the rest of our natural born days, the overarching stupidity and waste of this incompetent, and illegitimate, administration.

Integrity requires fairness, as Murph so eloquently points out.

"Pay unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."

Okay.

What is Caesar's? And what do I owe?

Caesar makes all the fucking currency to begin with, right?
When Caesar wants to wage war, he just prints more fiat currency.

Right?

So, if Caesar owns the presses, and he claims that deficits are not a problem, as Dick Cheney claims, well, I say, let us all drink to Caesar's decree! Bottoms up, puerees, and let the presses roll!

I'll be goddamned if I'll beat the shit out of rocks, and my own damaged joints, to pay incomprehensible bills on unconsionable aggression waged by government officials I did not elect. And the ones I did vote for who will not represent me, and the 'progressive' voices who keep the language and instruct us as to 'civility' and what is 'sane', if you will not do your duties to your selves and your country, then who will keep you from your deserved fate?

I'm all done writing.

Writing was for a more genteel age, anyway!

Anonymous said...

I don't think we have an argument here, guys. Civil disobedience is honorable, in integrity, and lends itself to personal power. Look at Nelson Mandela. His word is probably one of the most respected in the world. Moral compromise diminishes one.
My question regarding ethics is one that Dimitri Orlov posed when he wrote about the collapse of the USSR. He said that people who couldn't overcome their inclination to be fair and honest and didn't barter and trade things that they got from their jobs or in other questionable ways, starved or suffered badly. This would be especially difficult if one had dependent children or parents or a spouse.
We are going to find ourselves in a variety of situations and at differing developmental stages of life. Where one may chose an graceful exit, another will be compelled to do what it takes to help those who are weaker. Hopefully, we will let love rule our lives and that may manifest in a lot of different ways. Even righteous anger has a place. Look at the archangel, Michael, or the Samauri monks. We need warriors, too.

Anonymous said...

I'll just stand off in the corner, there. Don't worry about me.

Anonymous said...

There are two documentary CD's out that are a Must See. "Maxed Out" and "In Debt We Trust." Both excellent. Netflix has them. Other places may as well.

Anonymous said...

I Am Inman, Walking Home


I am Inman, walking home.
I've seen the best minds of my generation
blown into seeping heaps of blood and bone.
Don't lecture me. I can load, fire, and load
again before you articulate one worthy desire.

I am a child raised upon stolen land.
It was some forgotten race's oak and ash
we cut and split four generations later
to barter and implant for temporary needs.
Can't remember, now, one necessary deed.

I am Inman, weary and disgraced,
wanting only to arrive and to be loved,
to be fed, embraced, not vilified
for what I could not end. Isn't it
the laughter and the loving we defend?

Like a flag, a nation's demand unfurls.
We marched past balconies of girls
on the hard clay of our resolve. We joked,
'bout how all this would be poked at
by us old men, smokin' on porches, day's end.

Then came the Big One, to end 'em all.
But y'all didn't seem to catch on at all.
Fredricksburg, Gallipoli, Verdun, et al,
ya'll don't seem to get it, at all.
It's the little mad men you salute,
with unsyncopated drum, and a toot.

Anonymous said...

Freeace,

I must thank you for your patience and your great good will. I am so angry right now and so fucking ready for the war to begin, I do need your quiet hand upon my shoulder, and your mouth in my ear, because what I hear are murmurs of "why do you wait? Your enemies gain strength while you debate silly proposals."

And I need to be reminded of the gentle and sublime, from this space/time we all find ourselves in, cowed and off-guard, swords at our throats, barred from speaking truth.

Some of us are spared.

Let us share this sky of stars and laugh.

Anonymous said...

Rockpicker,

Get the hell out of the damned corner and get cozied up to the fire. Besides, I need someone to poke with a twig once in a while.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, yeah, this is good:

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't clear what McClellan meant in the excerpt. "The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information," she said.

Plame issued a statement saying the opposite.

"I am outraged to learn that former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan confirms that he was sent out to lie to the press corps," Plame said. "Even more shocking, McClellan confirms that not only Karl Rove and Scooter Libby told him to lie but Vice President Cheney, presidential Chief of Staff Andrew Card and President Bush also ordered McClellan to issue his misleading statement."

Anonymous said...

Throw another log on the fire...

Anonymous said...

I will come to you
and that crazy Cherokee
who speaks to insects
even as the hunters' moon
infuses our night
for twigs and paint
to mask my own great
good wanting, for I am
ashamed and I need to hide.

So dip your quills and sticks
in colors deep and thick enough
to cover my shame. Let the Great Spirit receive me as one more who comes humbled, and with the good sense to fail.

Very soon, all of us must choose.

We shall rejoice with each other on the other side.

aho

Anonymous said...

Ok. Ok. Let me get this straight.

Students on some American college campus are paying $40,000 to hear Alberto Gonzalez tell them more lies, personally,
in real time? I don't fucking believe it!

Doesn't anything mean anything anymore?

Fuck!

Anonymous said...

freeacre: How funny! I detest Seinfeld too, because the show lauds the most disgusting traits of humans and is mean-spirited while trying to be funny. I thought it fitting that the final episode – yes, I had to watch that one – had them all in jail!

For green coffee beans and roasting equipment visit Sweet Maria’s (http://www.sweetmarias.com/). They are a fantastic, family run company. I believe Maria is the wife and Tom is the husband.

murph: What others do is not my concern, as long as they are not harming me. If they choose to not play by the rules they will eventually suffer for it. I’ve seen plenty of people who thought they were being clever by cheating other people and such. But it seemed that eventually they became victims themselves. You have a good point regarding authorities that don’t play by the very rules they create. We are pretty much at their mercy because they control the laws, the courts, the police, the military, etc. They have all the power; it seems we have none. But I think we do. We can avoid playing their rigged game as much as possible. Home school your kids, grow your own food, minimize your taxes; sales, property, income; avoid giving money to corporations. There are lots of legal means to avoid feeding the present corrupt system. If we set a positive example like this for others, over time more and more people will voluntarily mimic our actions and the corrupt government-corporate system we suffer under today will become increasingly irrelevant and, more importantly, will gradually be starved of funds and wither away. I have deliberately reduced my cost of living so I could reduce my income and my income taxes. I live in a cheap house to lower my property taxes. I canceled all my credit cards so I can avoid paying interest to greedy banks. I have no health insurance in large part because I refuse to fund the insurance industry. I resent that the state forces me to buy automobile insurance. (By the way, that corporate lackey, Hillary, has already proposed forcing us to buy health insurance. If she succeeds, I’ll work to reduce my income below the threshold at which I have to buy my own insurance and let the government buy it for me.)

Dave

Anonymous said...

RP.... you words at 6:24... especially...

We who opposed the war from the Gitmo, ah, get go, feel no compunction to now pay for, for the rest of our natural born days, the overarching stupidity and waste of this incompetent, and illegitimate, administration.

and....

I'll be goddamned if I'll beat the shit out of rocks, and my own damaged joints, to pay incomprehensible bills on unconsionable aggression waged by government officials I did not elect. And the ones I did vote for who will not represent me, and the 'progressive' voices who keep the language and instruct us as to 'civility' and what is 'sane', if you will not do your duties to your selves and your country, then who will keep you from your deserved fate?


ELOQUENT!!! i share your rage.

but these words...

... for I am ashamed and I need to hide.

i share your shame my brother. i can only speak for me. to me. but be my witness brothers and sisters who share this sacred fire...is it my rage that will take me down? is it my rage that is so unloving or my judgement that my rage is so unloving that fuels the fires of the hellions of hades? i forgive myself for having judged and having believed for so long that my rage is unloving...p

Anonymous said...

Taking the comments on this post as a Whole, my heart is full, my eyes, moist. Our clan is what I am most grateful for this Thanksgiving.
Now, to make some pie!
aho

Anonymous said...

Dave,

Thanks for the reply. You mentions something that is part of what Freeacre is talking about. How do we live after things fall apart, whenever that is. Unless you chose to live pretty much isolated from other people, ie, way out in the sticks, how others conduct themselves is going to affect you, and often very directly.

We live in an area that is very low population density. For the most part, the natives of the area are live and let live people, don't mess around with the neighbors. However, a large amount of people moving to the area look at their house as an investment, not just a place to live. So they spend a rather enormous amount of time making their place spiffy and show case pretty in case they decide to sell it or someone comes along and offers to buy. Now, these people like to form neighborhood associations, or get active in one, and their attitudes and ideas on how to live do affect the rest of the people in the area most directly. It's a good thing we don't have one of these evil ass groups where we live. They would be fussing and threatening us all the time and I would be armed 24/7 all the time. It's so tiring to carry all day long. sigh.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday coming home from Kalispell,i noticed that it seemed that we had somehow been transported to Washington state,these were people headed to points north to be with their appointed duty of celebrating the mandatory eat a bird and get drunk with people you would never see if you had a choice. the family.
Not everyone of course.
On the way back, stopped to gas the guzzler and in the next lane there was a giant of a pickup truck costing as much as a small house i think and tied up in the back corner the head and rack of an eight point buck sticking up for all to witness the mighty hunter displaying the size of his dick by proxie.the eyes of this beautiful once powerful relation was glazed over and i knew that the head was to be nailed to a chunk of wood and attached to the wall so his DNA crippled offspring could admire and brag to the other kids what a superior father they were blessed with and would someday be just like him.
i can tell you this much if i saw the mother fucker that shot this honorable creature split open gutted and stretched over an open campfire my good and wonderful peaceful heart would burst with joy!
if this is upsetting to anyone i could give a shit less.
some of the brothers and sisters have crossed over to dark side and god help them when it comes their time because there is no escaping the waiting internal cleansing that WILL take place,

ok i have saved the two day old letter and will with hopeful tolerance by my fellow councilors post it,
i just cannot block the tears that flow with such ease when confronted by such denial.

RAS,good to hear from you,i tend to worry about the young ones when they stay out late,i think its natural and i guess its a good thing.
Anyway about your situation,some of the roots of this generation came from the days of "eat the rich" and it still applies as far as i am concerned, even though i'm reasonably sure you would end up with bad breath.
i have no mercy on a corporation that in itself is composed of mindless hogs at the trough of our bloods existence.
This seems to me to be the embellishment of some of the detachment that is guiding the destruction of our mother earth.
And after all it is us ain't it,we are the ones that refuse to live with the frugality that once was alive and beautiful and left barely a foot trace on our fragile home.
Yes we partake and Wallyworld grows exponentially like a cancerous mushroom dripping all the flavors of a ruined planet, but what the hey, its mighty tasty,in as much as it is an acquired taste, thanks to the drivel blasted forth from the blood sucking tube of death,"ain't the new wall to wall flat screen purdy honey"...actually trying to make one size fit all is so common, and this one is guilty as hell with it also.
But i digress,if folks lived as FA suggests things would be different one is led to believe but would it?
One thing for sure that has occurred in the sense that living among a bunch of long haired hippies in commune style brought with it much joy and a delight in going out,searching for substance and bringing it home to celebrate our lives together.We actually once robbed a train for dog food. another time it was a plumbing supply store for tools to rehab a delapidated three story unoccupied abandoned junker in which about thirty of us lived in one winter, over in spokane washington.there were kids,dogs,cats,...one guy insisted upon living on the top floor because he had pigeons.this guy was a giant of a man and loved those birds but kept them in cages, well some of us free spirits decided for him to let those critters loose, so while he was gone somewhere we took the cages to the front yard and let them go, they flew off into the wild blue yonder,except for one which had an unnoticed fucked up wing,well to make a long boring story,short it was immediately snapped up and eaten by one of the dogs, this was a big big problem,, for which one of us was going to get his or her ass whipped when the big guy got home,it did not turn out that way (i mean this guy was huge).
upon hearing the news he simply started crying and went to his room and his spirit was so bent, it was just horrible. THIS WAS A LESSON.
He later died in a car crash.

langosta told me that older folks were good for at least two things, one was to tell boring stories about the past and the other was to give unwanted advice. i said thats fucked and anyway what does a bug know?
she plays with my peanut sized brain pan and i ignore her.
RAS, someone the other day was asking how to acquire a spirit guide and i did not know how to answer,however in trying to explain something that is intrinsically unexplainable, a few thoughts emerged as rusty tools on the road to coherence,see if this fits in your passion, a listening that is beyond listening,translates as sometimes a feeling without words,a picture without form, a voice without sound,a dance with out music or none of the above,?
i think it just happens to those with intentions, of fervor, a desire for understanding after being subjected to a lifetime of bullshit and non understanding?
i do not know these things,they are only mouthed as dew on the grass,and a question that must be asked.
langosta has become so much a part of my life that her voice which usually comes through as a murmur through a cloud of clutter,, and it is quite and peaceful to the restlessness of a mind overburdened by everything.

a friend of mine of whom talks of thought catchers and seems like a kook to me (imagine that?) but it brings to mind maybe she has something, what would a thought catcher look like and what would you do with one after you caught it? and why would you seek to catch one anyway?
catch and release? hummm.
not to bad if your a fish,and are we not fishers of a dying planet? seeking refuge from the storm?

ok that was two days ago and things have happened when i was not looking here.

rockpicker you ole hound,you know we stand in and of your corner,your writings and the music they portray are such a blessing to the ears of this one and i am sure the rest of the brothers and sisters here will agree, the anguish i hear is a common thread to us but you supply the voice to express the not so hidden rage of futility we must carry,for it is our gift, that we will not go quietly to the gallows that have been built for us by the money that we have given to build the son of a bitch and paid the mother fuckers that tie our hands and bend us over for the head shot!!

p, i stand with you brother and i feel also that which i think is a common thread among us,,the undeniable denial that facilitates the fractured part of us that is in its last stages of healing,can you not feel that this is true?
we were not meant to languish under a bridge in a cardboard box for all time, for we were given or maybe better,have inherited our own work,we brought it with us p, don't you feel that,it has not come easy and i think that the project that lands us in our rightful place in the land of the spirit,our mind home,where all the denial that has surrounded our existance has been examined for what it is and let go of.

as fishers of men and women i say let us catch and release,sounds pretty good to me,

dave, good to see you here,bring your friends along to,and i just wonder how many bashful people come here and think they have nothing to say, please speak up if this is you.you are safe here among friends and your words would be much appreciated regardless of what you have to say about whats on your mind, right guys?
we have come so far and the day is so rich with possibilities.

i am a turkey and i refuse to be eaten..unless,
peace to all this day
may your dreams manifest
may your heart be its home
may you be loved in love
and surrounded by your light
aho
mf

ps mrs p where are you?

Anonymous said...

MF... can you not feel that this is true? aho! absolutely!! the smoke rises from the haunting and all that is flies on the wings of the universe as its energies seaking the lessons that lead to the warm fires of home. listen for the wisdon on the wind. some wise one somewhere once said if you love something set it free. only then can it fly back to you.

speaking of smoke rising, let us stand together around in circle and pay homage to the slaughtered majestic one upon which the masses gorge fart and belch this day. hold the feather high in mourning in the smoke of the sacred sage rising and hope for a better fate for twisted traditions.

Anonymous said...

You people are a bunch of raving lunatics! Where have you been all my life?

Palooka's Revenge said...

anon... we been right here in da crazy bag all along. but as willie said, it keeps us from goin insane.

and as someone else said, takes one to know one. so where you been?? ...p

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, lololo. If you are comfortable reading our ravings, we'll just welcome you as a long-lost relative. You must be one of us.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

To address the conflict of opinions between Freeacre and Murph, IMO you are both right and both wrong. The Batista regime, for instance, would in all likelihood, not have put a clinic on every street corner in town and within walking distance everywhere else. They would not have raised the status of farmers above that of engineers to ensure that their people were always fed and they would not have given the Cuban people a cohesive sense of identity. Castro has achieved all these things and more. If appropriating a few fields and castles along the way, as Laughing Lennie puts it, is Caesars due, it is not as it should be but I for one don’t have a problem with it, especially if you compare this with the situation in Chile under Pinochet which was heading up to be Cuba’s fate also. Most realise that if Castro had gone like Oliver Twist with his bowl to Batista’s door and asked for a bit more the two scenarios would have had a similar outcome. The problem for the people is judging the leaders intent before the event. It could have gone the other way and he turned out like Mugabe. Mugabe, for instance played by the rules and won a democratic election (albeit a Bush type election); Castro, didn’t play by the rules and wrested power by force. Zimbabwe is bankrupt and thousands of starving flee over the border each day. Cuba is relatively prosperous and has a National Identity. Although Castro is a dictator he is a populist leader and not many want to overthrow him. In this respect it doesn’t matter what you are so long as the people feel right with it.

In a more tribal setting, including peoples like the Amish, where everybody has a direct voice, then Freeacre is right that the will of those who are part of making the decisions should not be overthrown.

Rockpicker

Remember the truism that the pen is mightier than the sword. Everybody does what they can in the avenues which are best open to them.

Freeacre

You are quite right that everybody has the right to demonstrate against their grievances. To a degree some demonstrations have been partially successful. G8 and WB summits have become so routinely ugly that they have been shortened from the former week’s jamboree to usually two days. This is probably because this the maximum protection riot police can deliver on a 24 hour basis in the numbers that are required. Now meetings are mostly to get everybody in the same room to ratify pre made decisions.

I say to a degree and partially successful, when I think on the demonstrations which have taken place across the USA to call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. The unfortunate thing that not many of the organisers realise is that the success of these demonstrations is measured in terms of turnout and not in effectiveness in achieving their goal. These protests follow a familiar pattern, everybody does the march and listens to the speeches, the day finishes in a gymkhana atmosphere after which everybody retires to the nearest bar and they tell each other that they sure showed those fuckers in Washington a thing or two today. Then life goes on as normal. All that results from this type of full frontal attack is that the perps are caught on camera and their images are filed. Apart from anything else, full frontal attack is what the West does in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, we never seem to learn the lesson that this just does not work. Keeping Big Arms turning however is to the definite advantage of the PTB. The alternative, guerrilla warfare is known to be effective by the decision makers but effect is not a desirable option. Cell structures similar to the French Resistance in WW11 where any member knows the identity of a maximum of say five others is much more effective and relatively safe (torture proof), leaving others unscathed to follow the cause. This brings us full circle to the top of the comment on the best way of achieving desired popular change.

Anonymous said...

anon,11.36.
the fact that you found this place in the first place is an indicator of the energy that flows from here.
the peculiar and the fortunate are the first ones to know i think,.. that this world is a plaything for migratory birds of a feather.and the independent musings that collect here contain something of which im not sure of.but dwell upon anyway just in case one of the three cells left after all the infusion of LSD eons ago still have some degree of function.
so Welcome,our campfire is warm and even though some of us are embarrassments to the group (not me of course) there is an abundance of courage that travels this pathway to god only knows where,and who cares anyway,its fun.
being among brothers and sisters all with similar or many of the same concerns there is much to be learned here, at least for this one.and i know i get pretty out there sometimes because i have been told that,. and i do not know if others have experienced this but sometimes i will write something i think is really right on and look at it the next day and say "WHO IN THE FUCK HAS BEEN PLAYING WITH MY COMPUTER!" at that point i know the meds have really kicked in big time, and head for the medicine cabinet for one of grandpaws little helpers.
so welcome to the funny farm of love.
thanks mucho p, you really raise my outlook on the denial thing.
catch and release

peace to all
aho
mf

stoney13 said...

Anon,

We don't suffer from insanity! We enjoy every minute of it

Anonymous said...

Gawd. I just watched the lamestream media "news." It really is disorienting. I'm all caught up in planning for collapse, thinking how to save money, etc. and then the main story both locally and nationally is "Black Friday" People camping out Thanksgiving night to be the first ones in line at Best Buy. People stampeding through the doors of Macy's and entrepreneur's getting rich selling video games from their homes. A woman, breathless with the task of buying $2,800 worth of electronics...it makes me sorta sick.
Are we on the same planet?? What happens in March when they are still looking at endless payments on the credit cards and the gas has gone to $5 per gallon and it's a bad year for heat, and on and on.
But,then, maybe it will be a light winter, the 3rd world countries that can't buy oil anymore will reduce the demand, so the price will fall and people will tell me how dumb I was to be worried about it. Crisis? What crisis? This "shopping season" is gonna be grim. Whatever happened to the Holiday?

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the late response. (I was otherwise distracted).

Yes, I am definitely one of you. I too have enjoyed insanity most of my life. The community here seems tight. We will most assuredly need community in the dark days ahead.

buzzard