Almost mirror finished bowls for Freeacre for Christmas present.
from Murph
SOMETIMES I AM SPEECHLESS
The last post by Freeacre has generated a plethora of comments that got my attention. Ok, ok, Freeacre has been taking up the slack in writing posts lately. I have been speechless lately at what I am reading and experiencing to the point of wondering what words can possibly comment on the goings on in this world and this nation, and, at the local level of government.
We got a copy of the revised edition of Charles Smith’s “Survival +” book in hopes that could shed some more light on the observable crazy shit that is happening. It does help, and is an excellent book for an analysis on what is transpiring in the economic world and how it affecting people and societies. But it does not explain a lot of the craziness I am reading about. I had downloaded his first book when it was available for downloading, went through it, and it is excellent all by itself. I haven’t gotten through the “Survival +” updated book yet. Next on the list.
Not leaving me speechless, this is worth a hoot from ‘The Onion’ if you haven’t seen it..
http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_dont_even_want_to_be_alive
For instance, dig this little tidbit;
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/bush-hunters-convention/
Now is this article pointing out crazy shit or what? This penchant to hang dead animal parts on a wall is something I just don’t understand. I am impressed with their drive to kill every living thing out there, except themselves I suppose, and then brag about it. Unless of course it is Cheney and a lawyer. Uggg. Lawyer parts on a wall?
By now we have all heard about Pfat Roberthem and his ‘god is responsible for Haiti’. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/13/pat-robertson-haiti-curse_n_422099.html Line feed says; “Haiti cursed by pact with devil”.
Our local county government is pushing to let developers put up more destination resorts in the county. Now does that make sense? The country is in a depression and they want more expensive resort areas built? IMO its pure craziness.
Ok, here is another;
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Avatar.Balcer.negative.2.1412100.html
This is one of the articles slamming “Avatar” movie. Notice the reasons for putting it down. Good lord, it’s even anti Christian.
This one may be a bit of a stretch for speechlessness and craziness, but I am sure you have seen this one.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/75119-irs-commissioner-doesnt-file-his-own-taxes
For those that are curious about conspiracy theories and how they are debunked, dig this
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585 The entire paper has a download link at the site. Interesting reading.
I presuppose that all of you are familiar with the new Supreme Court decision lifting any restrictions on what corporations can buy in the political bull shit arena. Now this is scary in my opinion. We thought we had the best government money could buy? Now it is going to be up to the highest bidder for sure, foreign and domestic. Want to make a lot of money, go into politics. This bit of news literally leaves me speechless. They also lifted the limit of individual political donations. All this in the category of free speech. We are doomed, I tell you, doomed!
Joe Bageant has a real rant focused on a letter to him from Jan 24th. I get the feeling that he is sick and tired of people writing him bull shit.
I went to the feed store a few days ago to pick up some rabbit food and got in a conversation with the owners wife. Turns out she gets the majority of her ‘news’ from the morning “700 Club” show on TV. She expressed the opinion that Obama had rescinded almost all of Bushe’s advancements in the government. I asked her to tell me what these were. She couldn’t. I said he hadn’t repealed the Patriot Act and she thought that was good. I asked if she meant the restriction on our freedoms. She said that was a good thing for national security and to catch the people that want us all to die. Sigh. I was able to restrain myself and not laugh at her. I told here I would rather have my freedoms, thank you. Come to find out I ran across some other people that also listen to the 700 Club. Talk about a disinformation move by the evangelical churches.
We recently got a copy of Mike Rupperts new book “Confronting Collapse” that put all of his conclusion and a lot of his data together into a rather precise analysis. Some new stuff in the book that is interesting. Worth the read.
I’m about half way through James Wesley Rawles book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”. He is the guy that started http://survivalblog.com/ that indeed has a lot of useful information. His listing of what we need to survival is downright daunting and would take a millionaire to supply, but the listing is very interesting about what he conceives we should be working toward and why.
Since it is getting close to seed starting for the garden, we have made our seed order and gotten some of them already. I have been pouring through loaned books from friends on multiple ideas for growing food locally.
I’ve finally finished the jobs in the shop/garage that demanded I keep it heated. Burned up over a cord of wood doing them. At current prices for pine burning wood ($150/cord, split) it was reasonably expensive projects. Freeacre had a couple of myrtle wood bowls with beautiful graining that had gotten a bit beat up over the years. I had decided I would do a mirror finish on the two of them for Xmas presents while I was also doing a mirror finish on a rifle stock for a guy. After Freeacre informed me that we didn’t have anyplace to display mirror finished large bowls and was going to use them, I quit short of an absolute mirror finish after 8 weeks of working on them. I’ve found that mirror finishes are really difficult to do, even with practice over the years. To complicate it, I did them in tung oil. At least I’m now freed up to work on some other projects I have in mind, especially ones that don’t involve fancy finishes until we get to the planting stage in the weather.
I can’t tell you of the number of retired folks I am acquainted with that express boredom since they don’t have a regular job to go to anymore. Bored? Hmmm, how is that even possible? I guess TV and jawing with friends must constitute most of their time wasting. We can’t seem to generate enough time to do what we want to get done. Talked to an older retired guy at the Grange meeting. He expressed that his garden was all set to go. I blinked. It is winter in Oregon after all. Upon questioning him, seems he was referring to his decorative garden and planting of bushes and flowers, etc. When I expressed my thought that he was referring to a vegetable garden he laughed and said he doesn’t do vegetable gardens, too damned much work. I said that when and if the trucks stopped running or the grocery store got too high priced the vegetable garden that was too much work would suddenly be valuable. We quit talking about it about then. People standing around nodded in agreement.
People at this site have periodically expressed how hard it is to talk to people about the coming bad times, the being treated with contempt/disbelief/skepticism etc. And yet, in this area, rural Oregon, there is a surprising number of people that also believe it’s not going to get better any time soon. Difference in opinion of how it will play out and how bad it will get, but not with a whole lot of optimism. Then of course there is the ultra right people that blame everything on those damned ultra left liberals and figure if we can get Sarah Palin elected everything will go back to normal. I don’t indulge much anymore in conversations that start out that way. They are stuck in a political ideology and aren’t about to listen to a counter opinion and data. After all, I do listen to what they have to say, but if I contradict anything, their voices gain considerably in volume and they begin to wave their arms and would prefer I just shut up. Critical thinking seems to be a lost skill in the general population.
Now that this rant is finished, I can become speechless again.
94 comments:
Maybe Obama's State Of The Union bit tonight will give you more to be speechless about Murph :-) To me he is just the " Friendly Face Of Empire ". Like you said Murph, we were doomed before, and now with this new supreme court decision where double doomed!
On another subject completely my brother, and a bunch of other people from all over the place are heading down to San Diego in late February to do some protesting, etc at a meeting of various world scientist discussing geoengineering as a solution to global warming. My Bro,s friend Mauro has a relatively new website up: geoengineeringwatch.org/
and he has been getting the word out about this upcoming event and is getting many thousands of hits daily. My brother wanted me to mention it to the Trout Clan folk. There are updates at the site about the dates, etc of when and where everybody will be meeting down there.
Well Obama's speech is just hours away. I better get a pile of shoes ready to throw at the TV :-)
Oh yeah, great job on those beautiful wooden plates Murph!
Being a fellow woodworker and manager of the largest woodworking retailer in USA i say tremendous bowls. Gave up trying to defend my simple lifestyle. Got tired of being told I wasn't very partiotic. I have something for old Sarah P. it resides inside my jeans. However it hiding for the winter.
Scrap Wood
some fine lookin work murph. and there's another aspect to this craziness your pointing out. some of these web sourced stories are comment capable. ever read any of em? kinda goes with the wv i see in front of me as i type this... pests!
pejoritive? nope. i figure its being generous.
SW... speakin of wood, it can be gotten here... http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/store.asp
that is if its the sort of thing that blows yer skirt up or drops yer drawers like it does me. highland is our local pride 'n joy. amazing place... p
Here are a couple of excerpts from Carolyn Baker's latest entry:
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1486/1/
YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT IN OBAMA IS YOUR TEACHING MOMENT
.......Last week's Supreme Court ruling lifting limits on campaign financing by corporations was truly the last nail in the coffin of democracy and sealed the fundamental definition of fascism attributed to Mussolini which was simply, "the corporate state." Abramoff rules, and politicians no longer have any reason to function other than corporate whores. As a friend suggested to me a few days ago, members of Congress should now dress themselves in NASCAR uniforms indicating which corporations own them so that we don't need to bother researching the facts but can see them wearing the information on their bodies.....
And this
..... Visionaries such as Buckminster Fuller, E.F. Schumacher, and Herman Daly have demonstrated that global challenges are most effectively addressed on the local level, where pragmatic responses and options can be created as an alternative to investment in the fantasy of global solutions. That is to say that in the 21st century, "global" is synonymous with "corporate" and therefore guaranteed to exacerbate rather than grapple with the daunting issues confronting the earth community.
Some individuals argue that focusing on re-localization forces us to ignore the global corporatism of an international ruling elite. My response is to ask why we must do one or the other. It is crucial in my opinion to be aware of the powers that be and their machinations, but I must also ask, what realistically, any of us can do to alter or avert their agenda? The answer is nothing; however, there is much we can do to protect ourselves and our communities from it by becoming self-sufficient and resilient.......
Which speaks to the idea that for the most part what we can do realistically to prepare for the coming great changes will have to come from our efforts, in the various areas we are residing. I think one of the big lessons from this year alone is that " global solutions " to the multiple dire problems of our time won't be forcoming. Copenhagen was a perfect example of this.
FB, awe c'mon—I just wan't to try it ... please.
Alright, I'll admit I'll say anything to stop the wars. Not faulty where it matters! The ends justifies the means, don't you agree? JUST MAKE IT STOP—IF YOU HAVE THE POWER, just do it! --ok
~~Larissa here:
I know just how you feel of course. I even used the same word to describe the news of the Supreme Court ruling regarding campaign contributions--"Doomed."
http://lucretiasheart.livejournal.com/658416.html
As disappointing and frustrating as the world is just makes me more appreciative of finding voices of sanity in the morass. Finding and meeting you and freeacre was such a gift. I am making arrangements to have every other weekend off from my job so as to see you 2 again later this year (after the passes have melted a bit more, we're winter travel wimps!)
So much to do to be prepared for what we see coming down the road, and I just hope and pray for each month that passes buying us more time. I know it's all going to give soon, so being stuck in an apartment on the edge of a major metropolis is frustrating.
SIGH!!
A day at a time, a day at a time-- I'm stuck saying mantras to myself from AA meetings because gosh, our country is addicted to oil wealth but bad and withdrawl will be a BITCH.
From Belgium
Yeh Baz – OK (smiley winky thing), and p, on the grounds that Protestants and Catholics have more issues with each other than with atheists and Communists and Trotskyites have more issues with each other than with fascists I am going to agree that we are generally on the same side and not do a point to pointer over here on the new post – I hope this is ok with you. I do say I won’t do this stuff but I can resist anything except temptation.
It is a strange business this politics. Years ago, people were prepared to the job for free just to serve their countrymen but now it is a position that has to be tendered for. Back in the days when I was a lad (ah), politicians wore grey suits and bored each other to death. You could always tell which side they were on though; the Conservatives were urbane and the Socialists always smoked a pipe and looked thoughtful. That was until the Socialists became Conservatives and the Conservatives had nowhere to go. I remember one time in British politics at a frosty time in the cold war when the Russians were rattling their spears and there were dramas on the box about what it was like to live through a nuclear winter. The Socialists suddenly realised that they were not going to get elected if they maintained their ‘Ban the Bomb’ stance so they all agreed that as from the following Monday morning they were going to embrace the bomb and stop with this wussy beatnik image. That’s when I realised that policy had nothing to do with principles or even that principles had nothing to do with policy.
I always contrasted the ways that politics was taken away from the forefront of peoples thoughts on each side of the Atlantic. In the UK it was all dry discussion and made as boring as old boots. In the US a candidate was revered like Mother Theresa and greeted like Father Christmas. It was made into such a banal circus that enquiring minds shrugged their shoulders and walked away. Either way the politicians were left alone to do whatever they wanted.
At least during the Cold War we could all identify the bomb as the ultimate weapon of destruction, it was something physical that could be touched. Now it is more or less obsolete; that’s why the US gave it to India and why the Iran situation is just another Cold War in a different place. We now have beam weapons causing tsunamis and earth quakes together with weather modification wars. Because they cannot be touched or felt it is as though they are not there. Likewise with the War on Terror, it is amorphous weapons used against an amorphous enemy. There is another World War being fought out and no countries citizens are aware of it.
Yeah, nobody wants to hear the truth if it upsets their rosy world view or cherished ideology.
I think a bias toward optimism is built into people as a survival mechanism. After all, if you have a grim outlook on the future, you're not going to make as much of an effort to survive and reproduce, and reproduction is our primary reason for existence. One might say that optimism keeps us from giving up.
My primary hope is that the collapse will eventually result in some positive changes: less government, more self-reliance, strengthened interpersonal relationships, less corporatism, and so forth.
I have no illusions, however, that the road between here and there will be a smooth one.
Dave - Erstwhile Urban Wanderer
P, Belgium, HSW, Freeacre, et al;
As Belgium implied, we in the US are encouraged to believe that thermonuclear weapons represent the ultimate evil threatening mankind.
But what I've read of Tom Bearden's scares me even more than kinetics. And Belgium, I do believe you are correct in your assessment that we indeed are well into undeclared world war.
Check out this site. I'm saving it to my alt news archive, for future reference.
http://thepowerhour.com/news4/haarp_deleted_records.htm
Bearden has an interesting piece about the plane crash in Gander, Newfoundland years ago. If you're at all interested in learning how some of this coming technology works, it's an informative piece.
Or, maybe it's just a scary story, concocted by a fear-monger with a sick desire to dupe gullible peasants. Anyway, you can read it here, if you want.
http://www.cheniere.org/books/gravitobiology/dc8.htm
For a fiction writer, he has a good sense of detail, and he's not afraid to mention names.
Well, I got a link sent to us from survivalacres that is interesting. An incident that took place in 2004 that I had not heard of before. Now here is a frustrated guy that took a 1 1/2 years to get his revenge.
Another interesting synchronicity.
http://www.moneyteachers.org/Rockefeller.htm
Murph,
You gonna share that link?
rockpicker,
lol I didn't notice that I hadn't included the link.
So here it is.
this is the 3rd time trying to put in this link.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~hofmann/Granby/Granby.htm
Larissa - that would be great if you could visit when the passes clear. We will look forward to it!
Rockpicker - that was a scary Bearden story. Man, we so don't know what is going on. But, as long as we are delving into the Twilight Zone, take a look at all these pictures of weird sky anomalies...
http://thealienproject.blogspot.com/
The site is chock full of fruitcake, but some of the stuff is way interesting.
wv "fruitob" ha! I feel like a fruitob sometimes...
I take that wv as confirmation from U.
Comment at Kunstler's site:
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/01/-a-lot-of-things.html
ozone | January 25, 2010 2:18 PM |
I'm noticing that JHK is getting more and more succinct as the crash approaches. The same themes appear, because they DO bear repeating! Although no one is listening now, the denial will be crushed soon. (I'm predicting 'round about June/July the actual "general public" is going to find out the jig is up, and no amount of B.S. is going to cover up the fact of total institutional bankruptcy. The numbers for the 4th quarter 2009 will shamble forth this March, and then it'll take 3 or 4 months for "the folks" to finally lay down their false hope and face the awful truth. It's gonna take 3 or 4 months of privations for this to sink in. By then, those that have the resources and the "inside scoops" will have long made away with their ill-gotten gains... and left the rest of us to sink or swim.)
This part kinda gets the ol' snort-of-the-cynic:
"I hope our constitutional law professor president turns his attention to proposing a legislative act that will sharply reign in the putative "personhood" prerogatives of corporations." -JHK
Now hooooold on there Baba-looey: Mr. Obama was specifically installed to let these kind of things flow under the bridge, and give away the entirety of "the store" (the Treasury) to the sociopaths (then feign outrage after-the-fact). One can easily identify the villians by the campaign contributors listing. I was greatly puzzled why people thought he was going to do anything other then let the robberies continue apace. It has already been accomplished; it must run its' inevitable path of depraved destruction and self-immolation. There really isn't much to do but stand aside and get VERY local. Political activism, as well as charity, begins at home. Those in the swamp of the Potomac are gonna have to find out the hard way that their hubris and blather (I like that one too ;o) ) are no longer required by people who've got the survival of their children foremost on their minds.
hey everyone,
sorry i've been gone awhile. i've been busy, and my gf has been really sick. she's doing better right now but they're still not entirely certain what's wrong.
i've been speechless myself for a while -just speechless. the only things that have been enough to make me coherent this month are the supreme court ruling last week that, alas, corporations are more important than people, and the SOTU this week. To be exact, the republican response. That 'fun-size' (Jon Stewart's term) SOTU they held left me muttering and shaking my head. They have literally set themselves up as an alternative government-within-a-government. This is a direct analog to the fractionating of the Roman world in the late empire. It won't be long now.
On another subject entirely, I got a rather large gift card to Barnes and Noble recently and I got some GREAT books with it. Among them:
Depletion and Abundance, by Sharon Astyk
The Ecotechnic Future, by John Michael Greer
When All Hell Breaks Loose, by Cody Lund
and, Where There Is No Doctor.
The last is an AMAZING basic health care book that I think we should all have in our libraries for when TSHTF. It was only $12, and it has two counterparts I intend to get ASAP -Where There Is No Dentist and Where Women Have No Doctor. You can get all 3 for $40.
Finally, I'm sorry I missed the population essay because I have a lot to say on that issue. i studied it in-depth for sociology a few years ago. if anyone wants, i can go ahead and post my thoughts.
sorry for the long comment. those bowls are incredible, murph!
"I hope this is ok with you."
SATS, certainly.
RP... Bearden... it's an informative piece.
fer sur. did you click the link at the bottom of the piece? the good the bad and the ugly!
the ugly... http://www.cheniere.org/books/gravitobiology/p484950.htm
i think he's dead on with this analysis. which begs the question, what now?
the bad... The Death of the Arrow DC-8
scaler weaponry. essentially he's talkin about turnin life back on itself. the only real problem i had with the piece wss his stmt that "Americans were none the wise" to the truth behind the arrow shot. iow, the russians. this was 20 years ago and he may have changed that pov since but the reason i have a prob with the stmt is tesla. bearden was quite aware of the tesla story at the time and ought to know better than to make a stmt like that. unless he knows it was the russians that hijacked tesla's works and not some arm of the u.s. shadow.
the good... http://www.cheniere.org/books/gravitobiology/p45464748.htm
shoot, the man's talkin not only about how U works but how manifestation into physical form works. and i'd say he's probably pretty close to right. some earth shakin stuff in this peice. ie...
"species bio-quantum-potential... everything intracommunicates and intercommunicates via hidden EM energy".
i especially agree with that.
" Let it be strongly pointed out here that we are talking physics, not mysticism."
amen!
"The development of the bodily form of the members of a species thus can undergo jumps from greater "impulsive discharges" rather than just slow gradual change."
good news that one. especially in todays particularily scarry and questionable times. it inspires hope. and suggests we can actually do something about what may appear for all the world to be a hopeless fate playing out. not only that its saying major shifts can happen in very short periods of time relative to the coalescence of the energies involved. my own subjective experience validates the possibility. when one can literally go from being, for 27 years, trapped in the prison of obsession where there is no such thing as control or choice to freedom from that prison in one night? well, thats all the evidence i need folks.
its quite interesting to read this piece again in the context of clif's piece on Time, Travel, Over Time, Gnawing linked up near the end of the last thread. we find some interesting parallels as well as perpendiculars between them.
such as? go to pt 2...
in the case of the former, both are arguing creationism. and further, waves vibrating and interacting. and several more parallels as well.
as to the latter, in clif's case everything except consciousness is illusion. he didn't say everything but thats the implied conclusion in the piece the way i read it. iow, consciousness is the only 'thing' thats 'real' including the illusion it creates AND the perception of reality it creates. which is to say the illusion. as well as time. whereas in bearden's case physical manifestation IS 'real'. and, says he, can be scientifically proven. along with a whole lot more. clif implies when it comes to creation, consciousness is everything. carrying bearden's Mechanisms For Evolution, Gaia, and Morphogenetic Field a step further its clear he's suggesting there's a whole lot more going on in the mechanics of creation than consciousness. i would agree!! iow, the answer to the question i posed above - what now? - may well lay here.
though i agree with many of clif's stmts i have servous reservations about others and wrote a comment to that but opted to not post it. to be blunt i think his analysis of how U operates is skewed by necessity. one that has to fit into his heavily-influenced-by-eastern-philosophies interpretations as a first priority over objective analysis of the way U operates. one question i would pose to him rises from his stmt that 'consciousness does not change' nor is it 'affected by time'. then there was the stmt...
That we have consciousness persisting beyond a single burst pulse/pause event demonstrates that consciousness is outside of, and is not affected by, material reality.
"outside of" follows in context of his argument. "not affected by"? perhaps. but i doubt it. and certainly not necessarly in context of his argument. couldn't it just as well be the pluse/pause event is taking place inside of consciousness? iow consciousness may exist outside of the event but that doesn't preclude the possiblilty of the event from being inside of consciousness. included in the event is the space/time (what he called the past) between the start/stops. is this inside of consciousness as well then?
just what the hell is this thing we call consciousness? some would say, awareness. and go on to say awareness implies "i am". i am implies a self. most eastern philosophies deny the self to one extent or another.
then there was this stmt by bearden... "At the death of the individual animal, a relatively impulsive communication again occurs between the cells of the dying body, the dying organism, and the animal's species bio-quantum-potential. " there very well could be some correlation between bearden's conception/death dynamics and clif's continous creation/destruction model. well, ok yes, it does appear to be quite a dif between 22 trillion times a second and a lifetime. but hey, time is just a preception eh?)
bearden... "In the ghost forms existing in the vacuum potential, the form for that wing definitely exists, as does the ghost form for anything else that can be imagined"
iow, the 'stuff' of anything and everything already exists as potential. then through specific bio-quantum intra and inter- communications on an energetic level the dynamic of differentiation within the one as well as manifestation into reality(ies) takes place. especially including corporal ones. in context of the whole piece, the "state" energy is in has everything to do with outcomes. or discharges as bearden puts it. an argument i've been forwarding ad nauseum.
anyway, some really interesting parallels and perpendiculars in these 2 works... p
opps... i see i got some links messed up there.
"the ugly" see... The Unsuspected Deadly Nature of Internal EM Pollution...
http://www.cheniere.org/books/
gravitobiology/p484950.htm
"the bad" see.. Death of the Arrow DC-8...
http://www.cheniere.org/books/
gravitobiology/dc8.htm
"the good" see... Mechanisms For Evolution, Gaia, and Morphogenetic Field...
http://www.cheniere.org/books/
gravitobiology/p45464748.htm
sorry folks.
post script... i think we all agree there's plenty of crap going on to render us speachless and its going in the direction of even moreso. but that don't mean we're helpless or hopeless. i don't know anyone answering the call any better than murph and FA and others around the fire here. and in ways that include critical thinking. to quote clif, "The data sets from the SpaceGoatFarts entity had been filled with the notion that TPTB and their minions would be working over-time (LOL) to ‘poison’ the ‘truth movement’ with disinformation. It therefore is in the observers interest to maintain a healthy skepticism toward all ideas presented"... p
just what the hell is this thing we call consciousness?
let me put it this way... without the dynamic of manifestation into form (physical bein just one of many) consciousness would be no more than a wet dream! ... p
Hello to all....
I found an interesting article, not sure if it quite fits in this particular OP, I do know that in ways it has been tossed around the fire if not one but on different occasions..
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread539389/pg1
Ely
Here is an interesting and cleverly written article of interest.
http://wakeuplaughing.com/news.html
Ely, Which article at the site are you referring to? I scrolled down to the first full article and comments and I consider the conclusions to have more holes than Swiss cheese.
Murph..sorry about that but...
I'll be darned they moved the topic I was looking at....
It was called
ATS Dump - Rant With No Steam
found it again under the heading of Top Topics, I will post the link again http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread539389/pg1
hope it gets you there.
Just an article on how things have changed, how we as a society are more materially structured for lack of a better phrase, more things but less happiness etc.
Been thinking about this a lot over the last while and along comes an article that kind of gathers those thoughts and gives me pause that I am not alone in thinking them.
Hope this helps
Ely
Ely
I did read that link. Think the guy has a point, but also consider it shallow thinking IMO. Here is why;
People have always been bombarded with propaganda but it really accelerated into the 20th century and in the last 50 years it has dominated our lives in many aspects, television being one of the main purveyors. Now we have the internet to deal with also. Overcoming that propaganda is difficult at best, impossible for most.
The essay does not deal with Bernai (cousin to Freud) and the tremendous effect he had on the world around propaganda and manipulation of peoples emotional state.
I also often indulge in dreaming of the past life, how much simpler it was, etc. But, look at our youth in comparison to our grandparents time, or great grandparents time. Large societies always go toward more complexity, always, so there is always the nostalgia of simpler times. After a while, with sufficient complexity, the society collapses, principally from diminishing returns from the complexity and consequent overreach. At least that is how I am seeing history.
If someone is really disgusted with their life and what they see going on around them, why not do the simplest thing, withdraw from it all. The problem there is giving up all the conveniences and supposed pleasures we derive from the the complexities. Of course, having kids raised in this environment makes it doubly difficult.
The authors ending statements I find ludicrous. "
Maybe I am being too hard on my generation. Maybe we have given our children a chance to do better than us because they are going to have to live with a little less." If our situation in this life continues to deteriorate, "a little less" will become an oxymoron statement. Read or see the movie "The Road", or "The Postman" or any other medium that examines these kinds of questions. Demitry Orlov talking about what happened in the Soviet Union is a real life starting point and not a movie. Notice the comments at the end of the essay, almost all nostalgia of times past.
Awww hell, curmudgeon day for me.
I was watching a segment of Thom Hartman on Free Speech TV today and he was talking to a guy who is going to be what he termed the " designated human " to represent a corportation " Murry Hill ". This corporation with their " person " status is going to run for congress using this man as their " DH "!
The name of the man who is actually running for the postition is Eric Hensal. As Thom was interviewing him Eric actually stated at one point that " people just get in the way " implying that we the people just muck things up, and that corporations in the positions of power would make things run much more smoothly!
Eric also said it will be much more efficient for corporations ( especially now ) to not bother with the extra trouble of buying off politicians with their enormous financial clout, and that they should just go around this " middle step " and just put their money into gaining the actual political postitions themselves!
This is exactly the kind of crap that we will be seeing alot more of now that the supreme court has given the green light to corportations to completely " own " the government. They mentioned a website:
http://murrayhillincforcongress.com/
, or you can also google " murray hill inc for congress " and find various entrys for this.
At the address listed above it says this:
.....Murray Hill Incorporated is Running for Congress
Corporations are people too!
Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals. But today, thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. It was their dream to build the best democracy money can buy.
That's why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy's next step — running for Congress. Join us and build a vision for the future we can all be proud of. Vote Murray Hill Incorporated for Congress!......
It seems so ridiculous that it strikes me as a spoof but as far as I understand this recent supreme court ruling this to me is exactly the kind of thing they are able to do now. Thom Hartman was treating it like it was a real thing they were trying to do.
If the corporations go about it this overtly maybe it won't fly with the general voters, but on the other hand, I was talking to my mom about this subject last week and she thinks this decision of the supreme court is a good thing in her opinion, citing that " why shouldn't the corportaions have a voice too! ". I love her but man she's clueless to what this really means.
And at the address I listed check out the " press release " link, which has stuff like this:
.....Murray Hill Inc. agrees. “The strength of America,” Murray Hill Inc. says, “is in the boardrooms, country clubs and Lear jets of America’s great corporations. We’re saying to Wal-Mart, AIG and Pfizer, if not you, who? If not now, when?”
Murray Hill Inc. plans on spending “top dollar” to protect its investment. “It’s our democracy,” Murray Hill Inc. says, “We bought it, we paid for it, and we’re going to keep it.”....
and this:
......The campaign’s designated human, Eric Hensal, will help the corporation conform to antiquated “human only” procedures and sign the necessary voter registration and candidacy paperwork. Hensal is excited by this new opportunity. “We want to get in on the ground floor of the democracy market before the whole store is bought by China.”
Murray Hill Inc. plans on filing to run in the Republican primary in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District. Campaign Manager William Klein promises an aggressive, historic campaign that “puts people second” or even third.
“The business of America is business, as we all know,” Klein says. “But now, it’s the business of democracy too.” Klein plans to use automated robo-calls, “Astroturf” lobbying and computer-generated avatars to get out the vote......
This sounds like some kind of stunt the Yes Men would do, but if its real, and it works, then its welcome to America, home of the Corporations and land of the Designated Humans!
And this from Rice Farmer:
http://www.ricefarmer.blogspot.com/
Sovereign Debt Panic
In a bid to goose their economies, governments are spending with abandon, and now — even before any appreciable effects have been realized — they suddenly realize that they have spent themselves into a corner. Now, wallowing in debt and with unprecedented debt-to-GDP ratios staring them in the face (see previous post), everyone is starting to panic. Privately at least, they are asking: What if we can’t pay off all this debt? I’ve made no secret of my belief that all that debt cannot be paid, because that would require some really hot economic growth worldwide, which in turn would necessitate a copious supply of cheap energy and resources.
So, it appears that panic is setting in. Japan is ready to implode, and deflation is proceeding apace. The US too is a basket case. And we all know about Greece and Spain. Spain has embarked on making huge cuts everywhere in a desperate effort to stop the bleeding. Greece’s situation is so critical that the IMF is on standby and says that Greece must slash its budget (this article says that this year Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio will reach 120%, but that’s just sovereign debt). In the US, President Obama says that “it is critical that we rein in the budget deficits we’ve been accumulating for far too long.” You bet!
At Davos, “audience participants voted electronically, with 50.7% declaring sovereign debt to be the top candidate for the cause of the next global crisis.” That got by far the most votes.
And then there’s China. Everyone is raving about its economic growth, but China has been pumping up a really big bubble. If it deflates suddenly (good possibility), it will be more like an explosion than a pop. There is a colossal amount of non-performing real estate assets in China (vacancy rates in Shanghai’s Pudong district are as high as 50%), and a mountain of debt piled up because obviously real estate developers have borrowed heavily to build all those office buildings and condominiums.
So, amigos, it’s about time people started to panic. Keep a watch on the situation and have an emergency bag packed at all times.
This Murray Hill thing is really provocative. Maybe it will actually wake people up to what a really monstrous abomination it is to give corporations the status of citizen. It's like the Skynet takeover in Terminator or when Hal in 2001 takes over control of the ship and kills the crew. Corporations, after all, especially financial corporations like Goldman Sachs, are run by algorithms and almost incomprehensible financial formulas. Those cold, relentless formulas, driven by a prime directive to make profits at any cost, created a monster. That monster has just been given life by the Frankenstein Supreme Court. And, like the Terminator, it will not stop. It doesn't feel pain, it has no allegiance to any country, and it is incapable of compassion.
I predict that the politicians will be jockeying for position to represent the corporations so as not to loose their place at the trough. There will be the Good Senator representing Walmart, McDonald Douglas, Z (or whatever Blackwater is calling itself today), Monsanto, the pharmaceuticals, and the banks. I mean, it's almost to that level today, but now it will be straight up. The people will be kicked to the curb.
We'll no longer have Rights, but "Benefits" and Bonuses - IF we are compliant and productive. I can practically hear the sound track of "Outer Limits"... "Do not attempt to adjust the sound. We control the screen. We can make you believe anything that we can imagine..." Do do do do DO....
The Gang of Five of the Supreme Court who enabled this abomination should be shunned like the loathsome legal lepers that they are. They should be reviled at every turn, hung in effigy, pelted with stinking produce and goo, and surrounded by crowds demanding their impeachment.
Our hope is that the corporations and banks really have overplayed their hand, and the whole thing blows up in their foul faces. If the dollar really tanks, perhaps there is a chance that we can pick up the pieces and, in time, make something new. The Matrix is held in place by the twin elements of money and electronic media (supported by military muscle and natural resources). But, maybe we have reached Peak Complexity and the new paradigm will manifest.
There is a new paradigm in the works. The whole world knows it. We've all been watching the same movies - from Star Wars through Avatar. Regular people want to be nestled in the arms of our Mother, the Earth. We want peace and freedom. We want to be at home here. We want all these things that the corporates can't even imagine. Their inhumaneness is their dominant feature. Soon, I think, it will become apparent to all - even the reptilian Supreme Court.
There is a new idea catching on that change can happen in a flash... that big shifts can and have occurred not over eons, but in leaps. I'm really hoping for those leaps.
fark—someone say WW3 is well underway .. and no-one told me, already !?
“Secure the parameter Col.”
“Quack quack sir.”
“Remove all lids to deadfall traps. Enable triggering mechanisms for freefall traps.”
down periscope ... aahh, can watch BayWatch now ! or M.A.S.H.—repeats, yeah
wv: skitini—haha
Even here in Mongolia (yep, I am in Mongolia) I run into thoughtful folks who totally agree that SOMETHING is about to break loose globally, systemically, etc. Call it what you will (the singularity, TEOLAWKI, the big crash, the big change, whatever), as far away as the central Asian steppe, its in the wind, so to speak. To be an aware consciousness, whether an intuitive ~ who FEELS it coming, or a judgemental ~ who, having run the numbers, has CALCULATED that it is coming, one is still all too aware that this foreknowledge puts one in a rather small category of folks who share such an awareness. This is not "End of the World" craziness (other than with the caveat "as we know it today"), but rather an acute awareness that we, as a species, are close to filling the petri dish of life, and that die off of some sort is the pending consequence of that status. Overshoot is the ecological technical term, and Bruce Catton (if I recall correctly) wrote a great book with just that title a couple of decades ago. So, as those who have some foreknowledge, and are making such preparations as we can, we have self selected ourselves into a category most likely to be a remnant. Thoroughly Biblical concept, although much, much earlier than that, of course, with tales of survivors being some of the earliest stories passed down by humanity. Floods and such like. But how one reconciles personal foreknowledge that the ship is about to hit the sand, with seemingly obtuse lack of awareness on the part of so many you run into can indeed cause some degree of distress. As you noted, the conversation just sort of stops at some point, due to that lack of shared awareness. So be it. There frankly isn't much one can do. Only a handful have been "told by God" to support the remnant (and your blog is doing a nice job in that respect, so kudos), while the rest of the remnant is basically busy building arks, corralling animals, stockpiling feed, etc. (Figuratively, and in many cases, literally.) Point is, that really is what the need is, and if most other folks don't get it, well, there were a lot of folks outside the ark as the water rose (so to speak). We do what we can, and try not to let it all get to us. Best of luck for the upcoming year.
It's very gratifying to hear from you, inmongolia. Sure would like to know how you found our campfire. Somehow this self-selecting tribe seems to have been drawn from all over. It never ceases to amaze me. Welcome, at any rate, and thank you for your kind thoughts. Murph and I were talking today about how we expect that this will be a pivotal year in terms of figuring out what to do. Fight or flight? Natural catastrophe or financial or political - or all at once? Damn hard to figure. To make it worse, we don't seem to be living with the same reference of time as most people. So, things that we think are immanent happen about three years later.
Keep us posted from your vantage point. And, good luck to you as well.
You know, societies don't have to collapse, not if they're built along sustainable or fairly sustainable principles. Look at ancient Egypt -they maintained cultural continuity for over 3000 years and the reason they finally collapsed was due to the invasion of Rome. I don't like the social system of Egypt, of course, I'm just saying -it has happened. Japan (ancient, not modern) is another example. But we've made the wrong choices, and it's time to pay the piper.
Welcome anonymous from 2:53 AM.
Mongolia is a few steps away from central Oregon for sure.
I guess I missed out on Bruce Catton's book. Don't remember even hearing the title name. I have a rather continual stack of reading material on my desk at any one time. As fast as I get through it, more shows up. Have to see if I can find that book and see what it says. There is so much well done work out there to try and absorb.
He he, I've got a short story to tell you. When I started college back in '59', I was naive enough to make the decision to learn everything that there was to learn. The college I started at had one of those huge encyclopedia collections, you know, the 150 volume in onion skin jobs and each around 3" thick. I started with 'A'. I got to 'D' before I figured out this was not going to work, I could spend my whole life in this pursuit and never finish the project. Besides, working at getting laid and learning to be a good bridge player was eating up too much time. I had to give it up. I Concluded; You spend your whole life ATTEMPTING to learn everything and will never succeed. There is just too much. Then along came computers and the world wide web. Almost anything I wanted to know was now only a keyboard and connection away. Then I started to notice the number of sites for any thought of subject I inquired about. Instead of 150 volume's to go through, I had 1-10 million references to look at. Kind of daunting. So we struggle through whatever sources we can manage to come to conclusions.
As far as TEOTWAWKI, I came to the conclusion in the late 70's-early 80's that something was very wrong and we were heading for disaster. Nothing that I have observed or heard about has changed my mind. It's a matter of when, not if, there will be some kind of world wide upheaval and big change in how humans live on this rock. I consider it unfortunate that better minds than mine haven't been able to make the change without all the tragedy and suffering we see around us. We only hear about ideas, not the actions. So it appears to be throughout recorded history that we have available. I do however come to the conclusion that humans, globally, have finally managed a tipping point of no return. It's happened before to empires long gone now, but this one is global I think. What will emerge is open to a lot of fun speculation, but I do think there is going to be some really big changes coming up relatively soon. Just hope I can (or am allowed) stick around long enough to see their nature.
It amazes me how clueless 99% of the people are clueless. I deal with the public 50 hours a week and I here things quite like "everytime that guy in washington speaks the Market tanks" or "things will get back to normal, but it will take some time." I get to the point where I just want to shake these people.
I would like to think there are smarter people somewhere but generally speaking most are not going to give up on the system we have now. They are so afraid. I mean look at the comments to this post 38 and most are 10 people making 3 or more comments. We are such a minority. Nobody really gives a fuck.
This post probably makes little sense and for that I apologize. I just wanted to blow off some steam with my friends here at TCC
Scrap Wood
Scrap Wood - Makes perfect sense to me. That's what we are here for.
"You spend your whole life ATTEMPTING to learn everything and will never succeed. There is just too much."
Murph, this sounds a little like Clif describing how, because of U vibrating at 22 trillion pulses per second, and us operating at 30-60 frames, (of conscious awareness/second,) we can never, ever like in the 'now.' We're always perceiving something that's already occurred.
Murph you wrote, " Welcome anonymous from 2:53 AM. ". That would be 1:28AM :-) Interesting to hear the thoughts of the poster from Mongolia. The more perspectives working on the understanding of these great changes in progress the better in my opinion.
Funny Murph in my younger days I tried doing the same thing, about your starting to read a complete set of encylopedias. I didn't even make it as far as you before I figured I'd best find another means to gain the knowledge I desired. I see this little laptop before me as a truly amazing window into the world but one really needs to focus their search or else become overwhelmed for sure.
I know for myself I've been through a whole lot of info in recent years, internet, DVD documentaries, Link and FreeSpeech TV, progressive radio broadcast, etc. If you were to read all the info just by itself that I've listed under the SC heading at my blog and going all the way back to the beginnings of " SC " at the Deep Creek Hot Springs Forum where I started it you would be seeing just a small part of the written material I have gone through, since I only highlighted what I thought to be the more important stuff under SC.
So now I'm concentrating on doing fast paced skimming of headlines at the many sites I visit regularly, looking for the newer big trends that will be affecting us all. Like alot of you also already here there's no sense going over stuff we are already familiar with.
People that are realatively new to these things will naturally need to spend time getting up to speed doing their own research. At times I try to help some folks I come across get a better insight into the precariouness of what were facing, but more and more I'm not inclined to waste to much time with those who clearly are not going to ever get what I'm trying to tell them about. It just bogs me down to much since new developments are coming at a quickening pace.
Like Scrap Wood expresses in his recent post, the majority of folks out there are definitely of mindsets that hold completely foreign ideas to what we think, regarding the realities of whats really going on as far as developing world events. There is just so much of this stuff I understand now that I could not just go and talk to just anyone I might meet, as they would think I was off my rocker in most instances. Thankfully my brother and I are almost completely on the same page across the board. We compare notes regularly.
Its like my Mom, I've tried to tell her about this stuff but basically its like trying to talk to Shaun Hannity at Fox News. I did get her to read The Long Emergency and she is buying that we are headed for big energy scarcity problems so thats at least something I was able to get her to accept. I do however have fairly regular talks with her and still in a light manner give her what I think straight up, even though she usually finds some excuse to get off the phone after she's had too much :-)
Well I've appreciated time and again the many thoughts shared here at the Trout Clan and try to add some ideas in to the mix as well. I feel like if I find some new aspect to the developing world situation that seems important that this space is a good place to come to broach the subject and hear other intelligent thoughts from others about their feelings about it.
I really respect Murph and Freeacre, with their consitstently considerate manner, thoughtfullness, and wise thoughts on the many subjects we discuss. I'm looking forward to others coming along and joining the conversations too, on all these important issues that will be, and are now, dramatically changing our world.
Wizard,
I also appreciate you attendance at this site. I do look forward to your comments. In actuality, both freeacre and I look forward to all the comments at this blog. We find them sometimes funny, most are thoughtful and always intereting.
Yup, I somehow read the wrong time for anonymous. Hate it when I do that stuff. Must be my age showing.
Posted links are very often interesting to pursue. So many here at the fire are constantly looking at information and I think all of us try and share what we think is important that we come across.
Singapore guy has been sending me a lot of email lately on the invasion of Iran. He is going by opportune times in relation to when they put the reactor up and running toward the end of this month. If they wait till it is operating, he figures it is too late for bombing it out of existence because of radioactive poisoning. Typically, for those familiar with Singapore guy, his apartment must be full from floor to ceiling with stuff for TEOTWAWKI. A long time ago he commented with 3 pages of his survival gear several times. I've got to admit that we sat with our mouths hanging on the floor at his lists.
By the way, I just finished Rawles book on how to survive TEOTAWKI. It is a useful read. Freeacre and I will be going over our supplies pertaining to that, spurred by his book. Frankly, it would take a hell of a bunch of money to do everything he suggests, and a bunch of skills that would take some real practice to get good at them. It's all good stuff, but whew, I could spend the next 5 years learning all the skills that he suggests knowing and being good at. Sure wish I was 30 again. lol I wish, I want, and oh fuck it, I do what I can as fast as I can. There are so many scenarios that no matter how much prep you do, it won't be enough. I mean, like how can you really prep for drastic radioactive poisoning of vast land areas, Or in our case, volcanoes going off, or huge earthquakes, or planet X for that matter. I have to prep for something less drastic that that stuff. Anyway, it is a good read and worth while IMO.
Next project is absorb "Survival+".
His short version download was excellent, this ought to be even better.
We just saw a documentary called "The Cove" about how some segments of the Japanese fishing industry is butchering the dolphins at a really alarming rate, like over 25,000 per year. It is quite an eye opener. Their methodology is in secrete and a long way from anything I would term humane. To top it off, they are selling the meat for mandatory school lunches and dolphin meat is way loaded with heavy metals due to ocean pollution, mercury is a big time problem for this. A documentary worth seeing.
Jerome David Salinger 1919-2010.
In the sixth grade, the Boys' Vice-Principal threatened to suspend me from school unless I stopped carrying around The Catcher in the Rye I think because it had the word "fuck" in it.
For the 5% of you who haven't read it, the main character of the book, Holden Caulfield, tries to erase the f-word off the wall of a New York City school. He doesn't want little kids like his sister Phoebe to see it, that somehow it would trigger an irreversible loss of her childhood innocence: I thought Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them—all cockeyed, naturally—what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days.
Salinger's Caulfield, pushed to the edge of his own youth and directed to prepare himself for the job market, could see for himself only one career: as a catcher in the rye. He imagined a bunch of kids playing away happily in a rye field, but a field on a cliff's-edge. Every time a child, lost in their game, would drift toward the edge, Caulfield's job would be to catch them before they fell.
Then we fell over the cliff.
There's no way to wipe the fuck off this smeared planet. I'm supposed to try. I'm an investigative reporter, meaning I have a professional commitment to the childish belief that if I shout loud enough, I can warn people away from the cliff's edge.
You stand on the cliff edge and there's no one left to catch.
http://www.gregpalast.com/
kvetcher-in-the-rye/#more-3308 ...p
Thank you, p, for posting that excerpt from Catcher in the Rye. I loved it as a kid when I read it, but I had actually forgotten what the Catcher in the Rye meant. Years later, when I was in high school, my boyfriend actually put himself between me and the word "fuck" on a wall so my eyes would not have to see it. (Boy, have sensibilities changed.) I think I will read it again.
That's a good definition of what we are doing here, just as Greg Palast is, and Mike Ruppert, and Nina, and Survival Acres, George Ure, Charles Smith and the others that we read. I know Scrap Wood expressed frustration that more people don't read this blog site and so many seem disinterested in what is going on. I get frustrated all the time, too. But, we are privy to more information from the stat site. More people than you would suspect actually are reading our blog. We are approaching 70,000 hits. People from over 26 countries are reading our thoughts. We have between one and two hundred people per day that look in on this site. Some of them are here because they are looking for trout fishing tips, unfortunately. If I ever figure out how to put in the right keywords, maybe I can remedy that situation. But, I have to believe that our thoughts are getting out there and that they are having ripple effects. So, take heart. If we had hundreds of people posting comments, we'd lose much of the intimacy that we maintain with less people anyway. So, I think we are good.
"... my boyfriend actually put himself between me and the word..."
in that day such acts were still regarded as chivalrous. today, frivalous. gone over the edge of the cliff, rye and all. its been said by some salinger was of malevolent mind. sometimes i feel like i'm right there too. stuck in some damn twilight zone between morality and immorality. the more i read history the more machinacious becomes monastic man. thing about it is we might be able to manage such dichotomy if we'd just cop to it... p
wv meister (or is it monster)... comedog
I think we are mostly good.
Comment at Kunstler's site today:
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/02/the-jive-economy.html#more
Kurt Cagle | February 1, 2010 4:07
Jim,
Creative and well wrought as usual. Your skills as a wordsmith continue to impress.
We're in the twilight zone now. Something that few people appreciate is that the 5.7% GDP increase was an annualized increase - the quarterly GDP was about 1.425% or thereabouts, with almost all of that being due to government-based stimulus moneys (mainly cash-for-clunkers and the mortgage rebates) rather than business related activity. Politically, the will for that is fading, especially as all kinds of stimulus are now being equated by the sheeple with the TARP bailout.
Starting now, we are leaving the eye of the storm as sub-prime and alt-A mortgage resets for the most part have occurred but ARMs are about ready to balloon - the second half of the economic hurricane which will last until mid-2012 at the earliest. Add into this the massive CRE defaults, muni-bond defaults, the possible downgrade of both US and UK credit, the roiling debacles of sovereign defaults in Greece and the Balkans in Europe and California, Georgia and New York in the US, and the increasing scrutiny being paid to "back-door" bank funding, and it is very likely that by the time the winds finally pass there will be very little left standing.
The interesting thing about hurricanes is that it is very seldom the first part of the storm that's so damaging - it's the second. The first weakens structures, but when they enter the eye, the buildings, trees, etc., don't usually spring back. However, with the second part, weakened structures are stressed in the other direction, and the peak of the storm waters surge then withdraw. This second go-round is usually what causes weakened structures to be pulled off their foundations, turned into kindling, and otherwise demolished.
We're looking at 18 to 24 months of harsh economic winds and storm surges. My guess is that the Dems will lose Congress (and any ability to set the agenda) in 2010, meaning that it will become almost impossible for government to do much of anything, good, bad or indifferent, thereafter. This will mark the start of the real conflicts in this country.
And the internet is alive and jumping with the headlines...
"Obama aide says Iran may lash out at Israel"
"Israel threatens Iran with 'heavy price' "
"After test failure, US warns Iran over defensive missiles"
"Strengthening US 'Defense' In Gulf A Step To War"
"Secret CIA-Mossad meeting, preparation for new war?"
... and many more!
So, are we looking at a new war in the near future? If not, then WTF?
It's terrible, but I'm really rooting for Russia and China to muck-up ours and Israel's war plans. They're probably the only ones that can save us from ourselves.
-Randy
Trout Clan my daily thoughts for the day. All of us this is interconnection.
Scrap Wood
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/799.html
The creditor and the plastic duck junkie
This just in:
"...As such, it appears that we are dealing with an "organism" that transcends the structural existence that has been defined for life itself. The Morgellons condition appears, by the best information and analysis to date, to be an orchestrated synthesis that crosses the lines of the three established Domains of life on this planet. It is very difficult to envision, at this state of knowledge, that this "organism" (for the sake of discussion) is the result of any "natural" or "evolutionary" process. This hypothesis, if accepted, forces us to consider the very real prospect of deliberate and willful indulgence in the arena of genetic engineering. This could certainly explain, at least in part, the deliberate and willful lack of disclosure and honesty on the issue to the public. We may also ask what was the motivation for the "ordained" mis-diagnosis of 'delusional parasitosis' that was promoted so negligently and that has now failed so prominently? Disclosure and full honesty will reclaim their rightful positions in the end, regardless of the machinations of our own species.
The more appropriate "term" for this condition may evolve in like order to that which has been described for science in general; I will not confuse the issue with additional nomenclature at this time. What has happened here is that the term "Morgellons" now encompasses a broader context than that which has been previously understood. I shall always correct my ways if a straightforward address of the issues reveals that everything after all is amazingly simple, and that we can get on with our ordinary business of taking yet another pill to alleviate the symptoms. The evidence and history thus far does not project such an innocent and gleeful outcome, and in the meantime we must prepare ourselves for the heinousness that has been unleashed, by whatever means, upon us..."
Clifford E Carnicom
Morgellan's: A New Classification
http://www.carnicom.com/morgobs8.htm
Another good Brasscheck this a.m.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/800.html
Bageant has a great piece out about the SOTU:
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/01/the-annotated-obama.html#more
From Belgium
Hi Guys, I am going off topic for this comment. This is for Freeacre Caroline and anyone else who rattles the pans in the kitchen. I am seriously thinking of buying a pressure cooker. The thought process went like this: At the moment I have about 50kg of various sorts of rice around the place and even putting a bit of cooling oil in the water the results are a bit hit and miss, definitely not like it comes from the Chinese restaurant. So I thought why not buy a rice cooker but I didn’t take it any further than that. Then the local big box store offered one for €20 so I checked the type out on the internet and found it was practically useless. It was just like an aluminium cooking pot with a loose glass lid and a basket inside. The main problem with this type as I understand it is that the vent hole in the lid gets clogged up with starch during the cooking and then the lid lifts giving uneven cooking of the rice which then sticks to the pan. The type where the lid is hinged from the body and can be clamped down is better. So I thought this a little bit along the lines of a pressure cooker I will check the internet and see if this is possible and lots of people say it is and gives good results. Then I thought there are lots more things you can do in a pressure cooker than just doing rice. Vegies are supposed to taste better and not loose so many vitamins and you can do stews and what would normally be called a casserole in them. I have done a bit of checking up and found the things to look for. Stainless steel is much better than aluminium; it must have two pressure settings and 15psi is a must. It must have an easily controllable steam vent and long handles are desirable as are a modern safety locking features. A sandwiched base of different metal types gives a more even heat distribution. Some people, particularly the ones who use gas like I do use a metal heat spreader plate between the cooker pan stand and the pressure cooker base.
That is as far as I am now, One I have seen on the internet which does all of the above at a reasonable price is the Fagor Duo but I cant find a supplier in my area so if I don’t I am thing of going for one of the new range from Fissler which seems much the same but a bit more expensive.
The reason for this long winded explanation is to see if any of you cooks out there have experience of using them and what are your thoughts. Are the benefits worth the outlay?
A pressure cooker for rice? Never heard of it. Seems like it would turn it to mush in no time. I have just used a simple sauce pan and lid all my life with no problems until recently. I've gotten so distracted by the internet, etc. and I have been eating more brown rice, which takes longer to cook. So, I started burning the stuff up, leaving a blackened char at the bottom of the pan that the Murphinator has to practically use a blowtorch to remove. So, I got one of those cheap rice cookers (less than $15 as I recall). Had to adjust the amount of water for this altitude and white or brown rice, but after playing around with it, it has worked just fine for me. Maybe you should experiment with different types of rice to get the kind you want. Long grain, short or medium grain, basmati, Jasmine, or Japanese sticky rice all have differing textures.
Pressure cookers can be real good for speeding up pot roasts, canning and other long term projects, I guess. They scare me, so I don't use one normally. But, that's just me. I just use a cast iron Dutch oven pot in the oven or a crock pot and cook stuff long and slow. There's no accounting for taste, I guess.
What's going on with the stock markets and gold today? $46 loss on gold so far! Over 200 points down on the market. Yikes! They must not have read Rockpicker's link on gold... which was brilliant, BTW.
Randy,
This is passed just for you and all the good people in Utah
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1125919467?bctid=63259762001
From Belgium
Fa, yes I already have a few cast iron pots, 2 x 8”; 1 x 9.5”; 1 x 11” and a 9” with a dimpled self braising inner lid designed to go in the oven. I have a couple of crocks too but one is too big to fit in the combi oven I generally use.
The thing I saw that got me into the idea of a pressure cooker was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWJaANMDNiE
Also got a stock of Basmati, Thai Glutinous; Thai Jasmine & Risotto types. Risotto is always good but you do tediously have to stand over it for half an hour. I love risotto. Anyway we shall persevere. I also have about a kg of black rice for mixing in to make white rice look a bit more interesting but don’t use it that often.
Murph—quick note, gotta fly: been resisting saying this, but arghh damn the torpedoes—flashbacks: beautiful woodwork. I'm more of a wood-butcher myself—haha. Beautiful finish, even if they do remind me of a sandstorm outside Kabul.
FB, sometimes used pressure-cooker to cook possum—blows the meat right off the bone! Just grab them right off the tree—by the tail. Carrots, garlic, red wine, turnips—acquired taste :-)
Something I picked up in me travels— “The secret to success is not to keep your success secret.”
Murph -that was EXCELLENT! Is this spot slated for airing during the Super Bowl? I hope "The Church" doesn't ban it -the bastards.
-Randy
The latest from John Michael Greer:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
Endgame
......State governments are the canaries in our national coal mine; their tax receipts are one of the very few measures of economic activity that aren’t being systematically fiddled by the federal government. The figures coming out of state revenue offices strike a jarring contrast with the handwaving about “green shoots” and an imminent return to prosperity heard from Washington DC and the media. Across the country, every few months, states that have already cut spending drastically to cope with record declines in tax income find that they have to go back and do it all over again, because their revenue – and by inference, the incomes, purchases, business activity, and other economic phenomena that feed into taxes – has dropped even further. Now it’s true that state budgets get hit whenever the economy goes into recession, and keep on hurting even when the recession is supposed to be over, but compared to past examples, the losses clobbering state funding these days are off the scale, and a great many programs that have been fixtures of American public life for as long as most of us have been living are facing the chopping block.........
........What this means, if I’m right, is that we may have just moved into the endgame of America’s losing battle with the consequences of its own history. For many years now, people in the peak oil scene – and the wider community of those concerned about the future, to be sure – have had, or thought they had, the luxury of ample time to make plans and take action. Every so often books would be written and speeches made claiming that something had to be done right away, while there was still time, but most people took that as the rhetorical flourish it usually was, and went on with their lives in the confident expectation that the crisis was still a long ways off.
We may no longer have that option. If I read the signs correctly, America has finally reached the point where its economy is so deep into overshoot that catabolic collapse is beginning in earnest. If so, a great many of the things most of us in this country have treated as permanent fixtures are likely to go away over the years immediately before us, as the United States transforms itself into a Third World country. The changes involved won’t be sudden, and it seems unlikely that most of them will get much play in the domestic mass media; a decade from now, let’s say, when half the American workforce has no steady work, decaying suburbs have mutated into squalid shantytowns, and domestic insurgencies flare across the south and the mountain West, those who still have access to cable television will no doubt be able to watch talking heads explain how we’re all better off than we were in 2000........
.......I may be wrong – and to be frank, I hope that I’m wrong – but it looks increasingly to me as though we’re in for a very rough time in the very near future.
And more finacial mayhem:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/our-debt-time-bomb-is-ready-to-go-ka-boom-2010-02-02?dist=beforebell
20 reasons Global Debt Time Bomb explodes soon
......1. Federal Budget Deficit Bomb. The Bush/Cheney wars pushed America deep into a debt hole. Federal debt limit was just raised almost 100% with Obama's 2010 budget, to $14.3 trillion vs. $7.8 trillion in 2005. The Congressional Budget Office predicts future deficits around 4% through 2020. Get it? America's debt at 84% of GDP will soon pass that toxic 90% trigger point.
2. U.S. Foreign Trade Bomb. Monthly deficits actually dropped from $50 billion per month to roughly $35 billion. But the total continues climbing as $400 billion is added each year. Foreigners now own $2.5 trillion of America, with China holding over $1.3 trillion in Treasury debt.
3. Weakening U.S. Dollar as Foreign Reserve Currency Bomb. Fear China and other currencies will replace dollar as main foreign reserves. The dollar's fallen: The main index measuring dollar strength has gone from 120 at the Clinton-to-Bush handoff to below 80 today.
4. Cheap Money Bomb: Credit Ratings Down, Rates Up. Economists at S&P, Fitch and Moody's were totally co-conspirators of Fat Cat Bankers, misleading investors before meltdown: Soon, debt up, ratings down, interest rates soar.
5. Global Real Estate Bomb. Dubai Tower, new "world's tallest building" is empty. BusinessWeek warns that China's housing collapse could be worse than America's. Plus the U.S. commercial real estate bubble is now $1.7 trillion, a "ticking time bomb" bloating 25% of bank balance sheets.
6. Peak Oil and the Population Bomb. China and India each need 500 new cities. The United Nations estimates world population exploding 50% from 6 billion to 9 billion by 2050: Three billion more humans demanding more automobiles, exhausting more resources to feed their version of the gas-guzzling "America Dream."
7. Social Security Bomb. We have no choice; eventually we must either cut benefits or raise taxes. Politicians hate both, so they'll do nothing. Delays worsen solutions. Without action, by 2035 Social Security and Medicare benefits will eat up the entire federal budget other than defense.
8. Medicare: A Nuclear Bomb. Going broke faster than Social Security. Prescription drug benefit added an unfunded $8.1 trillion. In 5 years estimates rose from about $35 trillion to over $60 trillion now.
9. Health-care Insurance Bomb. Burden increasingly shifted to employees. Costs rising faster than inflation. Recent Obamacare plan would have cost $90 billion annually, paid to Big Pharma and insurers.
10. State and Local Government Budget Bombs. Deficits of $110 billion in 2010, $178 billion in 2011on top of more that $450 billion in underfunded state and municipal employee pension funds.
continued
11. Underfunded Corporate Pensions Bomb. From $60 billion surplus in 2007 to $409 billion deficit in 2009. And a whopping 92% of the pension plans of companies are now underfunded. Defaults are guaranteed by taxpayers.
12. Consumer Debt Bomb. Americans are still living beyond their means. Even with a downturn, consumer debt rose from about $2.3 to $2.5 trillion. Fat Cat Bankers love it -- yes love making matters worse by gouging cardholders and mortgagees, blocking help in foreclosures and bankruptcies.
13. Personal Savings Bomb. Before the 2008 meltdown savings rate dropped from about 10% in the early 1980s to below zero. Now it's increasing, slowing retail recovery. Today, government's the big "unsaver."
14. War and Military Defense Deficits. Costs of Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- $200+ billion annually, $3 trillion minimum, with massive long-term costs for veteran medical care, equipment renewal, recruitment.
15. Homeland Insecurity Bomb. Security at airports, seaports, borders, vulnerable chemical plants all increase budgets.
16. Fed/Treasury Bailout Bombs. Tax credits, loans, cash and purchase of toxic assets from Wall Street banks estimated at $23.7 trillion as new debt was shifted from too-big-to-fail Fat-Cat banks to taxpayers.
17. Insatiable Washington Lobbyists Bombs. Paulson, Goldman, Geithner, Morgan and Wall Street banks, through their lobbyists and former employees working inside now have absolute power over government spending. Democracy and voters are now irrelevant in America's new corporate-socialism.
18. Shadow Banking: The Derivatives Bomb. Wall Street wants no regulation of this $670 trillion, high-risk, out-of-control casino that's highly leveraged versus the $50 trillion total GDP of all nations. We forget that derivatives almost destroyed global economies in 2008-09, finally will by 2012.
19. Dysfunctional Two-Party Political Bomb. Polarized partisanship increasing: Every day both parties show zero interest in cooperating for the public good. Instead they fight viciously, resisting everything and anything proposed by opponents. Only goal: Score political points, make the other side look bad.
20. The Coming Populous Rebellion Bombs. Nobody trusts anyone in authority. For good reason. So immediate gratification, short-term betting and a lack of long-term perspective wins for individual investors, consumers and taxpayers as well as Washington, Wall Street and Corporate America CEOs. Today: "Doing what's right for the common good and country" is just empty political rhetoric......
Think I'll cut the soles out of my shoes, sit in a tree and learn to play the flute.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17384
The Pentagon Runs Amok
.....The budget line for defense stands at $708 billion, 53 percent of discretionary spending, eight times more than the next largest item, health and human services. Does that reflect America's priorities? Is that who we are?....
You Bet! Now thats change we can believe in. And of course the Military Industrial Complex will be getting more of what they want in the way of increasingly gargantuan funds on into the future ( until the US collapses that is ), because of the supreme court decision which will allow corporations to fully own our politicians.
There's not a doubt in my mind that Obama is a willing participant in all of these things. His Dog and Pony show about change has been pure BS from the start. Its just more of the insanity that is the reality of our US War Loving Empire!
Who needs food, health care, education, a job, a future for you children, etc when you have the most shiney missiles and military bases in the whole dang world, all providing for our security of course!
Hey, Baz. Did you feel this one?
MAP 5.1 2010/02/05 09:48:47 -44.783 167.375 5.0 SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
Amen, Hotsprings, the only ethical action is to STARVE THE BEAST.
Resist. Obstruct. Frag the machinery until it stops chewing us up.
From Belgium
Apologies to rockpicker. He sent me a link by e mail over a week ago re the global collapse and I have been waiting for it to appear on the blog but so far – niks. I think it is quite an important measure of how far things have gone, so with respect to rp here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXATSV8S3-M
It describes the Baltic Dry Index (or BDI) which is a record of how many dry goods cargo ships are at sea at any one time and what is available for hire in what part of the World. This is a measure of a factual circumstance and unlike financial markets it cannot be fiddled by such techniques as short selling or capitalising assets etc. It appears from this that it has fallen 93% - 94% from its position about four months ago. In other words there are only 6% - 7% ships on the seas doing useful things that there were in October November time. There are in excess of 100 Cape size ships sitting idle and many hundreds of smaller ships also, Antwerp harbour is very quiet. Either sellers haven’t got anything to sell; buyers can no longer finance their deals or their banks won’t support them or customers have given up on consumerism (if only). It seems that when whatever is on the shelves now, disappears and is not replaced, people will come to a deep realisation.
Wow! That is a startling statistic! Coupled with the other "bombs"that Hot Springs Wizard enumerated, it looks as if the collapse is very much underway. Our local political group had a guest speaker this morning from a local food awareness group who stated that our community only has a four day food supply at any one time, and how we should be working on localizing our food supply. (REALLY? Where have I heard that before...?) And, it seemed like there was a real consensus in the room that it has finally become something that people can get behind. None too soon. Now we have to write letters to the politicians once again, and tell them to protect local farmland. They, of course, are wanting to get rid of local farms and ranches to make way for more tourist industry. There seems to be no limit to the depth these people can achieve when sticking their heads up their ass.
there aren't many indices that look forward instead of back. the BDI is one of them and is as SATS presents - a measure of a factual circumstance and unlike financial markets it cannot be fiddled by such techniques as short selling or capitalising assets etc.
however, and with respect to both RP and Sats, the vid is a year old. thus the chart is a year old and thus we're looking back. so what's gone on in the meantime? here is a current page from IT... http://investmenttools.com/futures/bdi_baltic_dry_index.htm#freight_rates showing a bounce off the dec, 08 low when hardly anything was moving worldwide. i use the word 'bounce' with all due caution!
what circumstances of extenuating nature might be involved in the 2 spikes we see on the chart and subsequent fall from the cliff? namely china contrasted by the rapid decline of global growth. and then there's the pirates. the rapid decline in the face of continued demand from china raises a question in my mind. according to wiki finance the spike culminating in late 07 is primarily attributed to.... "Chinese demand for industrial precursors to production and its shift from coal exporter to importer. There was also a shortage of supply for dry bulk cargo ships and a large backlog at shipyards. The combination of these two factors caused a nearly 200% gain in the index."... http://www.wikinvest.com/index/Baltic_Dry_Index_-_BDI_(BALDRY)
the piece gives no explanation for the "recovery" in the first half of 08 that i could find. as to the subsequent fall... "From June through October 2008, the index lost 85% of its value as demand for shipping plummeted. This is due to a simultaneous convergence of several factors. Chief among these is the rapid slowdown in the "global growth" phenomenon. In addition to this, credit has been nearly impossible to get for the purchase of goods and the payment of time charters on the vessels."
the way i understand it nothing leaves port without a letter of credit from the other end. well, that begs the question... if china represents the demand and they have plenty of buck-os, just what the hell is going on?
take the wiki piece with a grain of salt cuz it also sez this about winners and loosers... When the BDI decreases, every other consumer/producer in the global value chain wins. Since the BDI measures procurement costs, when these costs go down, producers benefit from increased margins, and consumers benefit from lower prices for finished products.
HA! where've i been? i had no idea we're soooo well off!
so to what might be attributed to the current 'bounce'? well, the beat certainly does go on in china. read import of raw materials. not to mention they're experiencing one of the worst colds in history and coal is a primary heat source.
and then there's this... "An aggressive policy regarding ship demolitions and cancellations of new building contracts could allow for a new balance in the shipping market and the return of freight rates to acceptable levels in a relatively short period of time, said National Bank of Greece (NBG) in its latest report about the shipping industry. " ... http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65511&Itemid=31
lotta very interesting data on the IT link perhaps giving clues as well... 1/12/10 (Reuters) Dry bulk ship owners are insisting vessels go via the Cape of Good Hope on voyages from South Africa to Mediterranean ports to avoid pirates in the Gulf of Aden - adding 10 days to shipping times.
time is money? aye matties! we're a'gettin to 'em!! ...p
Rumor has it that there is an enormous collection of warships cruising the Gulf of Aden right now, including India, China, Germany, Australia, US, Iran, France, you name it.
My guess is there are old pirates, and there are bold pirates, but there are no old, bold pirates.
wv thort
thorta thilly
Quake depths at Yellowstone becoming shallower. Drum roll, please.
Well, if the volcanoes go off and the poles shift, we all may be wishing we were pirates at sea, Maties!
... greedy, self-aggrandizing corrupt ole bastards ... but, that's how we roll, homies.
Just pay the price amerikans—war solved
------------------------ < + > -------------------------
“There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.” ~
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
There's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on, but it's only Elvis ~ uh—huh
Well, at this point we can all swap horror stories 'til we just want to puke and die.
I'm glad you started out with the bowls - beautiful work. What sort of finish do you use? That's what I'm concentrating on lately. The stuff I can actually do. It's all that will really count.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17449
Sovereign Debt Fears Signal New Stage of Global Crisis
Stock markets in Europe and Asia fell sharply Friday in the second day of a near-panic selloff fueled by fears that the debt crisis facing weaker European economies will throw the world economy into a “double-dip” recession.......
.......Signs of mounting resistance by the working class in these countries are playing an enormous role in the tremors rippling through the global financial markets. There is a growing sense in governments and board rooms around the world that a major confrontation with the working class is coming, with potentially revolutionary implications.
The banks and the media are demanding that heads of state and parliaments demonstrate the “political will” and “political consensus” necessary to impose historic attacks on the working class. These phrases are euphemisms for a degree of ruthlessness that implies a readiness to employ state repression. However, the financial markets are at once skeptical over the willingness of political leaders to employ the required measures and anxious over the outcome of such a confrontation.......
.......As in every other industrialized country, the American state responded to the financial crash of 2008 by taking on the debts of its banks and essentially bankrupting its treasury in order to preserve the wealth of its financial elite. The Obama administration, no less than the governments of Europe, is demanding that the cost be borne by the general population in the form of sweeping cuts in basic social programs and a reduction in consumption—i.e., a permanent and dramatic decline in working class living standards.
Unlike in previous international financial crises, such as the Asian debt crisis of the 1990s, the United States cannot play the role of lender of last resort. The United States has irretrievably lost its previous position as the dominant world economic power, and its decline is reflected in growing challenges to the role of the dollar as the world reserve and trading currency.
At last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, French President Nicolas Sarkozy in his keynote speech said he would use his upcoming presidency of the Group of 20 nations to push for a new international monetary system in which the dollar would no longer be the primary reserve currency. And on Wednesday, Moody’s Investors Service warned that the United States faces the loss of its triple-A sovereign credit rating unless Obama moves to slash the federal deficit by carrying out more draconian spending cuts than he has thus far announced.
It is the erosion of US economic power and solvency that lends to the sovereign debt crises in Greece, Portugal and other European countries such an explosive and universal character.
The recent rise in the dollar is the result of a “flight to safety” by investors who fear a collapse in world asset bubbles and consider US Treasury bonds, along with German government debt, to be a temporary haven. In important respects, the short-term reversal in the dollar’s decline is an expression of a deepening of the crisis on world financial markets.
As a number of economists warned last year, the US policy of flooding financial markets with cheap credit on the basis of near-zero interest rates and the electronic equivalent of printing a trillion dollars—designed to prop up the major US banks and enable them to record bumper profits despite double-digit unemployment—fueled a huge wave of speculation on risky assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies. These economists predicted that a major rise in the value of the dollar would pull the rug out from under this speculation, which was based on the assumption of a continued decline in the dollar, and force a rapid and destabilizing selloff of inflated assets.
It now appears that this collapse in asset bubbles has begun.
diazepam 10mg diazepam 5 mg and pregnant - buy valium online without rx
buy generic valium no prescription buy valium without no prescription - valium drug forum
buy generic valium purchase generic valium - valium white pill
ambien 5 ambien drug drug interactions - ambien side effects on pregnancy
buy generic ativan ativan side effects throat - 1mg lorazepam compared 1 mg xanax
zolpidem no prescription zolpidem side effects alcohol - zolpidem tartrate peach yellow
buy diazepam online diazepam carpuject - diazepam uses side effects
valium no prescription valium drug dependence - cheap valium sale
order xanax online xanax overdose vomiting - xanax g3720
ativan online medical uses ativan - ativan effexor withdrawal
buy diazepam diazepam dosage for dogs - what drug category is diazepam
buy ativan ativan j code - ativan unlabeled uses
buy ativan online ativan 0.5 mg uses - cheap ativan online
buy xanax online xanax headache - what does 1mg generic xanax look like
ambien online pharmacy ambien cr and pregnancy - ambien cr 2 pills
buy valium roche can you buy valium turkey - drug interactions valium seroquel
where to buy valium online valium dosage 5 mg - buy valium with paypal
generic diazepam size of valium pills - buy valium with paypal
Post a Comment