Thursday, January 1, 2009

OH YES, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

from Murph

Yup, Christmas is over, the New Year has arrived; Obama and his crew are the next up to bat. The Democrats are already targeting the Bush administration for all the ills of our foreign and domestic policies, despite all of them being complicit. This leads me to suspect that things are not going to really change anytime soon.

Am I being overly pessimistic over the future? That depends on what I am looking at. For our country and most of the rest of the countries on this tired old earth, an attempt to continue in the manner that we have been for the last 150 years is an impossibility and of questionable benefit to all but a very few in the world anyway. All of the information I have been looking at for the last 5 years indicates our wasteful use of resources, particularly fossil energy, cannot continue because of geological constraints. The paramount question in my mind; is what will develop out of this condition? The population of this earth has overshot the earth’s capacity to feed and house everyone and it seems obvious to me there is going to be a rather vast population reduction. How fast and how extensive and in what manner this will be we can speculate on. But, it is going to happen. That realization alone is enough to get you into the extremist’s pessimistic camp for the new year.

Do I think there is a value to continue the human race? Yes I do. I guess that precludes some future changes to how existing humans organize themselves to maintain. Humans are simply going to have to change from the present paradigm to something else that is sustainable. I reckon that is an iffy optimism for the near future.

Which brings up the question for me as to why I would want the sad history of human existence to continue and to state it has value? Other than the egotistical satisfaction of having lived for some time, as human lifetimes go, and for a large part of it enjoying this existence, is there another value system for wanting humans to continue after my death? The first thing that comes to mind is of those a lot younger than me. I would want them to also enjoy the bounty of living on this planet and finding the enjoyment of doing so. Is that sufficient? I suppose if we want to answer that with a cliché we can say that it is coded in our genes to want to continue our species existence. And yet, so much of our behavior on this planet points to a death wish. Besides the destruction of our environment that we depend on for continuation, we do the whole war thing with attempts to exterminate ourselves with ever increasing war technology. It also includes the human capacity to exterminate those some particular group doesn’t like or that claim possession of something that is wanted, and that includes a large amount of the biota on this planet.

I find religion very unsatisfactory to answer these kinds of questions, and yet that is what religions are supposed to do. I find no universal panacea to make this easy.

So what do we have to look forward to in this new year? For me it is a hope that human beings on the whole wake up to the realization of how badly they have been conned, wake up to the realization of what they have done to the biosphere, wake up to how badly most people in this world live, wake up to the realization of how much negative impact we have had on nearly everything we have touched. Despite all of the advancements (if we can legitimately call it advancements) that have made a small proportion of the earths residents more comfortable and live longer and better than most, we are still not able to internalize the costs, understand how that came about. What we consider normal for living is only because we were born into it. Would the nomadic reindeer herders of the north consider their lives normal? Of course, and yet it is very different than our own, and in comparison, much harsher. For many residents of this world, their lives have been deliberately made brutish and unbearable due to the western countries looting and economically enslaving them.

So I guess I look forward in this new year to a revolt of some kind, rejection of the status quo, a changing of attitudes, and most definitely a shunning of the PTB and large government and institutions. Will it occur? Stay tuned, we shall find out.

I am dividing this post into two different subjects. This next is due to some comments on the previous post that I think needs to be addressed.

Freeacre gave a description of our rabbit harvest on New Years Eve on the last post. A comment on this expressed an inability to do the same. Believe me, I understand this. So I have a bit of self exposure on the subject.

I had been raised most of my childhood in some kind of country living to a greater or lesser degree. When I was considerably younger, being able to see my neighbor’s rooftop in the fall when the leaves were gone was close enough. As I grew older, every time I lived in a city I felt very uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get out and back to having more elbow room. Those of you who have been at this site some time know that I had taken my then family (some years ago) and done a semi survival trip in the Ozark Mountains. It was pretty much back country living. For the most part, if it was to get done, (whatever it was), you did it yourself. The really big event of the day was the mailman coming down the road. It was quiet, except in the summer when the frogs got active and nearly deafened you in the evening. I was in hog heaven in many ways. And this brings me to the subject matter, supplying your own food.

The ground in the mountains is generally pretty bad for growing gardens and crops. So, you also had to depend on animal products for food, including milk. It was a long haul to town, 30 minutes over single track mountain roads to a paved road and another 30 miles to a real grocery store. We didn’t go very often. Maybe once a month. So, we supplied much of our own food, which included garden produce, rabbits and milk/meat goats.

Unless you are a hard line vegetarian, (which I am not) this necessitates killing animals. I know there are a lot of people out there that have killed a lot more animals than I have for sport, food, plain old orneriness, out of necessity because of threats or destruction, and to end suffering of the animal. I’ve done my share for sure.

Here is where my confession begins. Every time I did kill, for whatever reason, I felt uncomfortable to a greater or lesser extent. Every time. That includes the butchering of rabbits that Freeacre talked about. In fact, on New Years Day we had a friend request that we show him how to butcher a rabbit. So we did. He was very thoughtful when he left, stating he needed to think about the experience and talk with his wife about it. We do hope he wasn’t too shocked by the experience.

In the raising of animals, from household pets to animals that supply at least some of my nutrition, I feel responsible for their well being. If I cannot supply that well being, I shouldn’t be keeping them; they are completely dependent on my largess. It is also not a matter of turning them loose to fend for themselves either when you can no longer provide for them. Most domesticated animals are completely unfit to survive in the wild if the environment has predators or conditions they are not suited to deal with. So the question arises as to whether it is more humane to kill them or turn them lose. Some animals become a real nuisance or outright dangerous when turned lose. Ever seen a pack of feral domesticated dogs or a bunch of feral cats? I have. I’ve lived where there is an annual hunt for them because they became dangerous. The import of rabbits to Australia was a total disaster. Some will always get lose and if there are few or no predators, they become a real problem. However, I am more concerned with those domesticated animals that don’t have the instincts or ability to survive if they get lose or are turned loose. In this area, we have a problem with people that are no longer able to take care of their horses and they take them out to the forest land and either kill them and leave them lay or just turn them lose. Generally, a lot of the ones turned loose die of starvation or are found by people that are willing to take them in. This part of the country is not conducive to their independent survival.

Raising animals for food involves butchering them. It is a messy affair, no argument. But, the question must be dealt with concerning how meat animals are raised and butchered commercially on the industrial farms which supply most of the meat in the Western countries as opposed to individuals doing it. The contamination of meat animals with hormone injections and questionable feeding practices and the horror of how they are dealt with in the butchering processes are awful. I can understand for that reason alone why someone would become a hard line vegan. I can also understand the difficulty for individuals unable to engage in this butchering activity. However, I think that in the not too distant future, it is again going to become more common for individuals to supply their own meat out of necessity. The question is whether it will be a humane quick death with reverence for the life you have taken or not? Will you give thanks for the sacrifice of that life form for your benefit or look upon it as a right and entitlement? Will you view that life with compassion, and understand that life has feelings and a desire to continue its existence? So Freeacre and I will continue to sage and give thanks for that life being extinguished for our continued well being. aho.

57 comments:

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Probably the future will hold some mixture of prediction and the totally unforeseen. Look at last year’s predictions and what didn’t happen. There was no war with Iran; that may well have been different id Dick Dastardly had managed to get his nukes off the mainland. There was no false flag operation on the west coast. The citizenry were not interned in the Rex Camps, just to mention a few. Some predictions will come about probably in unexpected ways so although we may ponder about an overview the details will probably be convoluted.

Personally, I have never killed an animal. I am one of those people who thinks that meat appears in the butchers shop or the supermarket without any previous event being involved. And this brings out sharply the difference between townies and country people who quite rightly have a more pragmatic approach to the life cycle.
Years ago I heard a story about a sort of half colleague who wanted a rabbit for the table but instead of going to the butchers shop he reasoned that you can’t get fresher than to buy it from the pet store. Having chosen the plumpest rabbit in the shop and having handed his money over, he then foolishly proceeded to stretch the poor animal’s neck in the shop. What followed was the shop owner chasing said colleague out of the shop and down the street, issuing curses and threats and certainly banning him from ever entering the shop again. I think this little tale exemplifies the dilemma outlined in the post.

Anonymous said...

That's a good story, Belgium. I have to admit that I worried that our garbage collector could get a peak into our garbage, see a bag with little rabbit heads in it, and call the police thinking that we had some sort of satanic rituals going on... oi vey. The guy in the pet shop must have been a cretin, though, by any standard.

Today, though, I am feeling very peaceful. I am reading "The LOng Descent" by John Michael Greer and really enjoying it. He looks at the bell curve of oil and reckons that we will have a slow descent back in time, as it were, as the use of oil is reduced. Today I made a really good loaf of crusty herb bread and a batch of chocolate chip cookies for Murph. And, between things, I was reading this book...and suddenly I felt a lot like I did when I was a kid in the late 50's. Life seems slower and simpler and, well, nice. Maybe that will be our legacy to our children. We can leave them with a simpler, more grounded lifestyle that actually lends itself to being happier than the frantic drive that the ruthless growth paradigm mandated. Today, at least, I am feeling optimistic.
Hope your moving renovations are going well.
aho

Anonymous said...

Belgium,

That last little story was indeed funny, and sadly exemplifies the disconnect from the realities of life and living. I remember back in the 70's seeing an interview with children less than teenage years that insisted that milk and eggs came from cartons in the grocery store. When I lived in Ark and had milk goats, my wifes oldest married daughter with a young daughter came to visit. When they got back home, teacher asked the kids what they did for the summer. The young girl said she went to visit grandma and slept in a tree and drank milk from a goat. The teacher called in mom and asked what in the world would give her daughter that idea. Well, I had constructed bunk beds from raw small trees and made the ladder to the top bunk our of the same, thus sleeping in trees, and mom showed teacher a photo of daughter drinking milk direct from the goats teat. Teacher was horrified, making statement that people don't live like that, it was a fantasy, photo not withstanding. Teacher refused to discuss the issue further and told mom to get real with the daughter. I guess it raised quite a commotion at the school.

I had other friends visit us there and just shake their heads a leave very shortly. Modern civilization is not conducive to believing such living is how most people in this world do live, and an impossible concept in America. Needless I took great glee in such incidences.

MoonRaven said...

Happy New Year to the Trout Clan...

I wish I could believe this would be the year that human beings woke up, Murph, but sadly I don't think that most people will wake up until they are forced to. As much as I believe in love and compassion and the goodness of everyone, I also think unawareness is too comfortable for most people and realizing how bad things are would mean they would have to make too many changes. So I don't expect any revolt, rejection of the status quo, major changing of attitudes, or real shunning of the powers that be, big business, or big government in the upcoming year. Some of that change may happen over the next decade, but I expect it to be gradual.

What do I expect in the new year? More of the same, actually. It will probably briefly get a little better as Obama gets in (he can't do worse than 'W'), but over the year things will go downhill, especially economically (no matter how good Obama is, there's not much he can do with that situation). I'm with JMG in expecting a long, slow 'Descent' (thanks for mentioning that, Freeacre--I will have to read that book this year). There will probably be a few more nasty surprises, similar to this year's economic tanking and the recent Israeli military massacre. At least one of the surprises will probably be another confirmation of worsing climate change (maybe the polar bears will disappear along with the Palestinians). Overall I don't expect things to suddenly get way worse, and I certainly don't things will get much better. Just more of the same, only less. Of course, I have no crystal ball--so who knows?

As far as rabbit harvests, I will offer no opinion other than to say that I have been a vegetarian for nearly thirty years and have recently slid over to being vegan so I will most likely not be participating in harvesting rabbits any time soon.

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to read Bill Herbst interpretation of Barack Obama's astrological chart. He is devoting Dec., Jan., and Feb. newsletters to an in-depth study of Obama. Bill's site is linked to ours on the home page. I know zero about astrology, but I like the way Bill thinks. I'll take his word for it any day.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Here is the trailer for a film on healthy eating which seems quite interesting. I’m afraid I will not be buying it for the usual reasons.

http://www.processedpeople.com/

Here is some of the hype.

Two hundred million Americans are overweight and 100 million are obese. More than 75 million Americans have high blood pressure. 24 million people are diabetic. Heart disease remains the No. 1 cause of death for men and women, followed by stroke and obesity-related cancers. Obesity has overtaken tobacco as the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the United States.

Over 50% of bankruptcies are caused by what has become known as “medical debt.”

Fast food, fast medicine, fast news and fast lives have turned many Americans into a sick, uninformed, indebted, “processed” people.

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Murph and freeacre,

I just found this post and bookmarked it. This summer I bought a place east of k-falls on the side of a little mountain. 2 acres and a rough cabin. It is gorgeous country but the elevation is about 5000 feet and the growing season is going to be short. How does this elevation compare to where you guys are located and what recommendations do have for growing here. Sorry for posting this here but I couldn't find an email address.

Thanks
Eric

Anonymous said...

Eric,

We are at an elevation of a bit over 4300 ft. in the high Sierras of N. Central Oregon. We have an average of 60 days per year where it doesn't go below 32 degrees at night. That makes gardening tough, but not impossible. Last growing season we had excess produce which we bartered and gave away and filled our freezer for the winter.

I am presuming that K-falls is Klamath Falls, OR? You can email us at Sunrise3@coinet.com

We have been on an ongoing campaign for 4 years here learning how to grow food in our environment and encouraging others to do the same as we think that it will become necessary. Frankly, it is quite a bit more work than in warmer climates further south or along the coast but it can be done.

Feel free to write and ask for more details of how we are doing it.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium

For me, this is a very interesting article in which a supposedly cranky Russian professor is predicting the break up of the USA by the end of 2010.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/518.html

It is not the content of the article which is interesting but the fact that it is being aired by CNN when most of us know that the world media is controlled by a handful of ultra right wing so called media moguls who have the ability to squash any news they believe will be to their own disadvantage. So what appears to be behind this piece? As was seen in those previous links on the legacy of Edward Béarnaise in a former post; people hang on to a simple idea which is neatly packaged for them. If you want to disguise the fact that the margarine your company makes contains 30% fat then you hammer home the fact that it is 70% fat free, which is a more appealing way of saying the same thing. It sure looks like the American people are being prepared for what is about to happen to them. This is not being presented as facts which will be brought about by politicians but as the curious notions of a nutty Russian professor who sees that after the occurrence of his predicted collapse the eastern states will join the EU; Canada will grab the northern states and Russia will take back Alaska etc. Expect future obtuse references to either the collapse, or the formation of the North American Union. People are being led in the direction of the bear pit.

Yesterday, fifty Moroccans, two with Molotov cocktails, were arrested in Antwerp protesting the latest in Gaza. This is just a local, to me, incident in a series of European wide Arab protests. I believe that few thing happen which are not planned and the mad dogs of Israel have been unleashed by the game players. It sure looks to me though that if the story of the break up of the USA has any foundation, then the Zionists will no longer be able to say “My dad can beat your dad” and Israel may turn from being the Holy Grail into the sacrificial lamb.

Anonymous said...

I, too, wonder about the "breakup of the US" stories and the many references to the report about expecting riots in America and the deployment of troops to quell the rebellious masses. CANADA dominating central US?? China and Europe dominating the West and East?? That's the biggest bunch of hoo haw I ever heard. The lamestream makes it sound like nobody has ever been broke before. I'm sure they'd love it if somebody started rioting or shooting banksters on Wall Street. Then, they could sweep in with assorted troops and buy a bunch of new gear (pain rays, Big Dog robots, itty-bitty dragon-fly surveillance drones, etc.) It would also give them a reason to further the North American Union trade agenda.
ON the other hand, if the working and middle classes just stayed cool and shunned the banks and Wall Street, stopped contributing to mutual funds, stopped putting money on credit cards, started growing their own food, working from their homes, and peacefully going as much as possible off the grid, they would bring our owners to their knees. Hopefully, Obama will create a bunch of new jobs that will be of lasting benefit to the country like the WPA did. Hopefully, we will pull together and figure out that the world-wide banking cartels and financiers are the culprits in this mess, and end the idea of making money on money instead of on production. If that happens, then the elites will have something to panic about. Turn the military on them. HA!
Regarding Gaza - did you see where Hamas has executed 35 El Fatah political prisoners just in case they escaped and helped Israel? Or that they are going house to house and shooting El Fatah supporters in the legs and crushing their hands? Hummm....this is making me take a second look at Hamas. Religious fanatics of ANY religion seem to be the real problem.

Palooka's Revenge said...

as always, excellent stuff murph. both parts. and oh, how well they do connect.

i was faced with my own dilemma recently and wrote about it on my blog in "me and mr mouse".

how do we weigh these seemingly contradictory notions... our own sustinance or safety, or survival even, at the cost of another life? a life perhaps meaningless from our view. or perhaps even a nuisance at the least or a threat to our own at worst? yet still just as precious to whatever is that other form that is the threat or the sustinance source to us as is our own life to us? one life form sacrificed to sustain another life form. i'll tell ya, its a mystery. an enigma wraped in a kanundrum. a real challenge to a particular aspect of the feeling side of us. now, the mind can find ways to rationalize and justify. but the feelings? as my daddy used to say... thats where the bear gets in the buckwheat. and anyone who feels those feelings knows it.

and then there are feelings that seemingly have no respect or compassion for life. how did this happen? is there some mysterious lesson here? some unrequited greater good to come from it all? seek and one shall find i 'spose. but damn, for how long? and then what will hope do if its ever resolved?

in the meantime we can acknowledge life. honor it for the sacredness that it is despite this enegmatic side to it. sacred! your harvest ceremony was quite moving for this one here. formal ceremony is a powerful rite.

i don't really know how to connect this up to what i want to do here but it does connect up to murph's post. at least from my view. and speaks to some of his questions. for it has to do with the challenges that lie before us and it has to do with taking our power back. for whatever thats worth. it goes like this.... couple mornings ago liz did her thing she likes to do which is to get into a zone and communicate with other forces that dwell amongst us. kinda like mf and the bug i'd guess. i mean, when the bug crawls up form the bowels of the kitchen sink and perches on the edge of a plate and procedes to speak to those curiosities that haunt us , what's a motherfucker to do but to listen eh? in liz's case somehow something somewhere knocks on her head. literally. and as an aside mf... the bug has been showing up in some of liz's morning woo woo circle muse dances. but thats another story. langosta apparently wasn't in the circle this particular morning or if so, wasn't speaking at least. so liz hit the zone about 9 and when she came back it was 11:30. what she came back with is posted on my blog. for whatever it might be worth to anyone you can read it here... http://theunseenroleofdenial.
blogspot.com/2009/01/
has-my-lizzie-been-to-mars.html

is it fate or folly? or just a bunch of hoo haw? or worse, the boogie man? whatever it is, it is, in the words of john prine... whatever you want it to be.

RAS said...

I too am pretty pessimistic about the future. I see things getting much, much worse before they get better. Lots of crap is going to hit the fan this year.

I may have the transportation issue worked out. Woo-hoo!

Anonymous said...

Yo! Happy New Year! How 'bout dem Utes, bay-bay?! Beat 'Bama pretty darn good didn't they? Woo-hoo!

Yeah, I'm a little late with the New Year's greeting, but my wife and I escaped Mormon HQ for several days over the holidays and I wasn't near a computer, which means I was totally in-communicado with every thing and every body (TV News? -ah, no friggin way!) Didn't know anything about Isreal's annialation of Gaza till I glanced at a newspaper while waiting to get coffee at a convenience store a few days after it started. I only glanced at it. I didn't read it. I didn't want anything to inturrupt my short escape from the world. Ignorance is totally bliss, man.

We went to Bryce Canyon, UT to hang with the Hoodoos -and I gotta tell ya, it was totally awesome. It felt liberating being there. There were very few people around to the point where it seemed like we had the place to ourselves. The snow on the canyon's formations made the scene seem totally silent. No other turistos with children to crack the quiet.

It's like.... we humans and our BS don't really matter much in the scheme of things on this planet. Granted, there's been a lot of really cool art and music created in the past couple thousand years, but the world and all of it's creatures probably would be much better off without us homo-erectuses destroying practically everything in our path.

One of the few movies I own is "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks. When I first saw it in the theaters I remember thinking to myself, -why would he want to get off that island? I mean, why would he want to get back to a job, car insurance, home insurance, health insurance, phone bills, electric bills, grocery bills, commutes, repair bills, politicians, government, taxes, mowing the freak'in lawn, assholes, etc., etc.?

Missing beer and getting laid? Yeah, ok. But there has got to be a better way of attaining beer and nooggie without all of the other crap! Right?!

Later-

Dude

Anonymous said...

" . . . But there has got to be a better way of attaining beer and nooggie without all of the other crap! Right?!"

Dude, I think you have just hit upon the existential question of our time.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Do you remember in the previous post I drew your attention to the financial shenanigans of American government at all levels and the difference between what is published for public consumption in the Annual Budget Report and the real information contained in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports? The CAFR is published but never mentioned let alone advertised so that if you don’t know it exists then you don’t know what to look for. Hiding things from the citizenry is not an American or even new concept, it also happens on this side of the Atlantic as well. Where this preamble is going is that I have just found the fascinating web site of Statewatch. This is the blog of the freedom of information lot who ferret out hard to find information that others, who have our best interests at heart, want to keep us from knowing.

http://www.statewatch.org/

One of their articles concerns privacy versus surveillance issues and is an interesting although difficult read since some legal issues and entities are talked about and you have to pick it up as you go along. For instance I always thought that the European Union and the European Community were alternative ways of saying the same thing but apparently they are parallel universes. The article explains how the US DHS has watered down European Human Rights, particularly in the area of privacy of personal information almost to the level they are in America.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/11/end-of-road-for-personal-data.php

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Dave, I wonce had beer and nooggie at the same time but old timers like me and mf have now fallen into days of warm romantic nostalgia. But as you reach the final chapters of the Book of Days then sometimes it is either but mostly it is neither. Now if only I could get a private island.

Sigh!

RAS said...

Dude, the main thing I remember about 'Cast Away' is how much he changes on the island -how he comes to realize that all that stuff is not important and when he gets back he no longer fits in. At the end, he pretty much goes on walkabout.

Someone gave me a car. Imagine that. I have a job interview tomorrow and wonder of wonders, a date on Saturday night.
I am now patiently awaiting the end of the world. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my homemade bomb shelter.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Ras! Perhaps the cosmos IS listening. I'd take it as an affirmation.

Yesterday's LATOC carried a story on Madoff that is well worth the read.
Belgium, it goes along with governments' penchant for hiding information right out in the open.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11488

Shame on you, Israel, you impudent ass!
Best pray, you are not turned to glass.

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Ras, I am so pleased things are finally looking up for you. From what you have told us here you have been through a rough patch in a number of ways and you deserve a bit of good luck for a change.

It is like Murph and to a lesser extent, me have been saying; you can make predictions about the bad stuff but the good stuff is unexpected and when it happens it hits you in the face.

I hope it is a good start for you in 2009.

Best

Anonymous said...

Hello Trout Clan,

In case you don't already know about this, I wanted to bring your attention to a group that is actively fighting evil corporations on their own turf, by attacking the value of their equities in the stock market. I will investigate this further, but it seems like it should be an effective tool to starve these cancerous growths of their oxygen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARROcrMq8EM&feature=related

anazuzo

Anonymous said...

Anazuzo,

I checked out that you tube video. What I heard the guy talking about is mass boycotting at specific targeted companies. I haven't seen it work yet.

Anonymous said...

Here is an interesting twist on the world as we know it. Mind blowing stuff for me.
Try it, you might like.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2832986272853534626&hl=en

Dimwit

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Dimwit,

Saw part two out last night and as you say it an interesting twist on how events are unfolding. The question I would have asked, had I been in the audience is that since knowledge that the consciousness can hold is increasing at an accelerating rate, as proposed, then what happens when a stage is reached where conscious knowledge doubles at a rate in excess of twenty four times per second; which must eventually take place if acceleration is continued infinitely? Does the mind go through a process of stress; fight or flight and then unconsciousness? Is unconsciousness the ultimate state to attain or have I missed the point. I also was a bit vague on how he managed to navigate from a state of unconsciousness to a state of intuition. These are rhetorical questions; I am not putting you on the spot for an answer. It was an interesting point of view, none the less.

Jacques de Beaufort said...

life is just death from the other side

Jacques de Beaufort said...

and in the event of my death from famine/war/etc, I hereby declare and devote my body to cannibals so that they might turn my death back into life

Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

That is another interesting concept Jacques. The problem is that if it catches on and becomes too popular it could unwittingly become an answer to the population problem - hmmm.

RAS said...

Jacques, lol. There are better ways. Like have a fruit tree planted over your body.
I can't abide cannibalism, myself. I just feel there are certain lines that shouldn't be crossed.
I read a paper on cannbalism once, and in the proper historical context it seems like it mostly happened as a ritual issue after destroying an enemy. Mostly, not always. Still. *shudder*

Anonymous said...

cannibalisms, ahhh now there's a subject I can sink my teeth into. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anonymous said...

I have read that many of the Tibetan monks who die direct their remains to be tossed out onto the plain to feed the vultures and other critters. This saves precious firewood that would otherwise be "wasted" on cremation of their bodies. Buddhists usually create small shrines in homes and temples to memorialize family members who have passed on rather than linking them to their former physical bodies. In our case, eating a regular human who spent a lifetime eating at McDonalds and out of a box from this culture would probably be the most toxic thing a person could eat. We'd probably make the vultures sick... I have plenty of fat, so maybe I could be turned into candles.
Somebody gave you a car, ras?? You know, I have been thinking of how so many of the crisis that our clan has experienced over the last year have ended up with good outcomes... the miraculous recovery of Belgium's beloved Chris, many of us getting through tough challenges, and so forth, the way this Grange Farmer's Market has fallen into my lap, etc. I am taking it as a vindication of the power of intention. As we hold out for a vision of the collapse of Wally World and a replacement with a more compassionate and sustainable one, it seems to come to pass, at least for us.
I am holding the thought for Right Action in all of our lives. Just the right books, people, information, money, and whatever just "shows up" in our lives, and we have the eyes to recognize it.

aho

PS Hope you have a pleasant date tomorrow, ras!

Jacques de Beaufort said...

There was actually a story recently about a plastic surgeon who used left-over liposuction fat as biodiesel.

That's pretty awesome when you think about it as a metaphor.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Does anyone remember that story from about 15 – 20 years ago about a plane that crashed in the Andes or Amazonia or wherever and the survivors who were stranded in remote country ate the ones who didn’t make it just to stay alive. Pretty spooky huh? It’s best not to dwell too long on things like that. I have said that when it is my time to go then someone can take me to the local container park and throw me in a skip but the guys who work there don’t like the idea because it encourages rats. I guess that proves that you can’t please everyone.

Chris is doing reasonably well although the cold weather is slowing her down a bit, minus 10°C tonight (14°F). Before her first operation we were told that we may need a wheelchair in the house and have to lift her on and off the toilet and there was a possibility that she may not even recognise who we were. Now she looks after the grand kids alone but her speech will take a year or two to come right. Not only that but we have been allocated an apartment owned by the local authority which is less than 20% of the rent we are paying now. There is a communal strip garden at the back which unfortunately I can’t dig up, with woodland behind and the natives are friendly. I even saw a green woodpecker on the grass, ferreting for worms, earlier this week so yes, things are looking up.

Congrats on the car Ras. How did you feel the interview went, positive or otherwise? And ditto for your social engagements, I hope it is not a concert or cinema though, unless it is someone you already know well.

Aho.

RAS said...

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone. The interview, well, frankly sucked. It turns out they're only hiring for 32 hours a week, no benefits, and they are only paying $8 an hour. (The job is worth at least 10, possibly 12.) Futhermore, I got there and first I had to fill out an application that contained 4 pages of essay questions. No joke. When I finished that, the interview (done by the secretary) was 2 questions: Why have you been unemployed so long? And, do you have any questions?
That was it.

MoonRaven said...

I'm with RAS on the burial and fruit tree idea. (See well above.) When I die, I'd like to be buried in something degradable and have a tree planted above my body so I could fertilize new life. I love compost and I am hoping I will become compost...

Anonymous said...

I'm partial to the reincarnation stuff.

It'd be cool, I think.

And I'd like to come back as a bird of prey, like a hawk or eagle. I'd sit up on some high tree or post, gazing out at my domain, looking for things to kill. Catch varmits with my talons, rip 'em to hell, snarf it down and then go on back to the crib to regurgitate the flesh and bone to my young. -Yyyummmyy!

Dude

Anonymous said...

Dude,

Hmmmm, not bad. I was thinking along the lines of top of the food chain, like a Great White shark. Seal blubber, ummm yum.

Anonymous said...

Yeah! A great white shark would be cool! Swim all day and night in beautiful terquoise blue water, bite and eat EVERYTHING, but seal blubber? Naw, I'd rather take a big-ass bite of Japanese ass -in revenge for shark fin soup.

Dude

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Jeez Murph, when you said top of the food chain I thought you wanted to come back illuminated, I’m so glad you picked the great white shark. That will teach me to anticipate. Mind you there is probably very little difference between the two.

On this reincarnation business nobody has suggested coming back as themselves or is that too boring? What about coming back as your mother in law and giving your spouse shit, lol. Of the raptors I am particularly fond of the falcons, I think the old practice of falconing is probably the least disagreeable of the blood sports particularly if the bird is only trained to take a lure. I think a peregrine or a kestrel would be a good idea. I think that swoop from a great height to take the prey must give a tremendous adrenaline hit.

Anonymous said...

I want to be a cuttle fish and communicate with light and color. . . maybe come to know the space aliens who might have bases in the ocean, and live in a world with no politicians, dollar bills or compound interest.

Anonymous said...

Dude;

If I ever see a hawk on a post with a can of beer in his talons, I'll cheer wildly and wave my hat at your successful passing and return.

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Firstly, Freeacre gave us the concept of stuffing Wally World into one of their own big boxes and letting them rot with the fruit and veg. Now this guy has escalated the concept one stage further; his plan is to stuff all the Jewish bankers into one of their own vaults and forget about them.

I have read his first two posts but others further down the page seem worth a read also. It is all interesting stuff – but can it work?

http://churchofnobody.blogspot.com/

RAS said...

I just want to come back as a person, and live several lives. I could be all kinds of things and do all kinds of things. Maybe I could go into alternate universes where some of my favorite stories are true. Maybe I could visit Oz!

The crap has been hitting the fan down here in a lot of ways in the past few weeks. First, there was that coal ash spill in Tennessee. That area looks like Mordor now if you haven't seen the pictures. It's going to take years to clean it up. There was another (smaller) one at Widow's Creek yesterday, whic is about 50 miles from my house.
One of our sheriff's just got arrested for starving his inmates. See, Alabama has this archaic law (and we are the only state in the country that has it) that says a sheriff can pocket any money he manages to save out of his budget. So, he fet the inmates corndogs twice a day and pocketed $212,000 over two years. A federal judge threw him in jail the other day. They should punish him by making him eat the slop he fed his prisoners. ;-)

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,,

Jacques,

Here is an interesting little conundrum in connection with your recent dalliance on the subject of cannibalism. It is an opinion poll which appears on the Liberal White Boy Blog.

http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/2009/01/hamas-and-desperate-people-of.html

Here is the question:

If the Israeli Defence Forces ate their Palestinian murder victims, would American news media report it?

YES - they would report it but only after justifying the eating of Palestinians in the Old Testament and with the assurance that fresh kills would have the kosher blessing of the proper rabbinical authorities.

NO – our Zionist media would believe that reporting the truth would provide an existential threat to the security of Apartheid Israel.

OK, the “If you don’t laugh you have got to cry” stuff aside, and notwithstanding the recent adventures in Gaza, which is a pretty big ‘notwithstanding’, has anyone else noticed the recent mushrooming of anti Zionist; anti Jewish Banking articles which are appearing all over the internet and not just from the loony blogger brigade but from some respected journalists also?

Anonymous said...

Belgium;
Don't know if this is one of those websites you've looked at, but the graphic description of the USS Liberty attack and the astounding enumeration of US officials holding dual US/Israeli citizenship is, I find, chilling to comprehend.

http://www.911missinglinks.com/

Alternet has an article up ridiculing critics of Obama's economic recovery plan, as if printing more money is any sort of solution.

Max Keiser and Peter Schiff, along with Bob Chapman, Gerald Celente and Paul Craig Roberts seem to have a keener understanding of the problems we're facing.

Unless we abolish the federal reserve and the income tax, we won't even begin to tackle the problems we face.

ps. Oh, btw, what's your natural gas situation like there, Belgium. You said Chris was having trouble with the cold. What's the weather been like? We had very cold temps, (minus 30 F) before Christmas. It's warmed considerably since then. Mucho snow in the mountains, (6-8 ft.) That's good, 'cause our irrigation water is dependent on that snowpack.

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

http://www.reflectionsofsouthbreeze.com/Pages/RealTalkingDogs.htm

consciousness is changing...can you feel it?

-rp

Anonymous said...

-and it will be an import, rockpicker.

Dude

Anonymous said...

Dude;
You'd better plan on coming back as a golden eagle if you're going to be toting growlers about.

How come NPR never interviews anybody angry, or radical or non-orthodox?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1NwI0EKdRLY

-rp

Palooka's Revenge said...

on reincarnation.... i spied a turkey buzzard sittin in a tree the other day. it appeared pre-occupied so i sunk in for a closer look. i wouldn't say it looked much like ed abby but i swear it did look like it was writin a book.

Anonymous said...

Oldensoul and I are watching Dr. Zhivago. 100,000 Spaniards are marching in the streets of Madrid, protesting Israel's madness. Pacific cumulus occludes the full wolf moon.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=04d_1231674275

-rp

Anonymous said...

Palooka;

Any sage comments on the web bot predictions for 2009?

-rp

Anonymous said...

That buzzard was just calculating the number of days the fed has left.

-rp

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Hi rp.

So long as we keep nodding and smiling at that nice Mr Putin and hiding the grimace behind the smile, we don’t have a natural gas supply problem. Trouble is that Chris lost a lot of weight after her illness and has had trouble putting it back on so she is more susceptible to the cold. It has gotten down to minus 18°C, about 0°F overnight and is hovering around 26°F – 40°F in the daytime. Last week there was snow which is only just clearing so she prefers to stay indoors and shiver by the radiators.

Here is a 50 min Video on the loss of the liberty.

http://brasschecktv.com/page/18.html

Here are a scattering of links to other anti Jewish articles which are by no means an exhaustive list:

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=9995

http://smokingmirrors.blogspot.com/2009/01/when-truth-is-anti-semitic.html

http://churchofnobody.blogspot.com/2009/01/islamic-banking-jewish-banking-and.html

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=9999
Scroll down to the nature of Zionism.

Here is an out and out anti Jewish site.
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-jewishbankingandfinancialmanipulations-folder.html

Although the dollar’s days may be numbered, don’t expect the perps to roll over and play dead. Remember that nothing happens without a reason.

Palooka's Revenge said...

rp... would u send me your email... offthewalls at bellsouth dot net.. p

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