No Fly Zone

Just thought you might like to see this "saddle" I made for one of the hens. She's missing some feathers from being a "favorite" of the rooster, so I made her this protective shield. Needs some work...

This is a high iodine meal, just to increase the levels so one doesn't absorb the radioactive kind... vegetable/venison soup with kelp strands and biscuits with kelp butter. Good ol' peasant food.

by freeacre

Well, I just spent about 45 minutes searching for the latest news on the pending extension of the odious Patriot Act. Has it been extended? Got me hanging. I searched several 'progressive” news sites – Capitol Hill Blues, Huffington Post, Crooks & Liars, Alternet, etc. and couldn't find an answer. Ron Paul seems to be the only one who gives a rat's ass, since we received an e-mail message from him recently asking us to contact our Senators regarding extending the bill. But, now I can't find that either. Funny how in this “information age” I'm having such a hard time finding out details on extending the Patriot Act, the most startling example of the demolition of our civil liberties in the history of the United States of America.

What prompted this frustrating search was an article on cryptogon this morning about a former Marine who finds himself on the No Fly List due to e-mailing a Muslim cleric regarding how to raise his children in a mixed religion marriage. He's a dog trainer now, married to a Christian, and when he tried to fly to another state to train a dog, he was unable to get on the plane. When he protested, he was investigated by the FBI. They would take him off the list, if he would be a snitch for them. He refused, so he's on the list indefinitely. Just one more example of the outrageous infringement of our liberty since the fascist Patriot Act was enacted.

Then there is the story, on cryptogon and others, that China is dropping cell phone calls on anyone who uses certain words, like “protest” in their conversations. The calls are being monitored in real time, and apparently being dealt with by some humongous computer program triggered by certain unacceptable words. Of course, if they can do it there, they can do it anywhere. Here, for instance. One of these days, we are probably going to attempt to go out of the country for either medical or dental care. I doubt we will be allowed to get on a plane.

Ah, well, no sense dwelling on these indignities. At least that's what my health practitioner told me the other day when I went in for a routine blood test to get my prescriptions renewed.

“You sound pretty negative,” I was told.

"Well, yeah. After suffering chronic pain for 8 years and trying everything I can think of to get better to no avail, it tends to catch up with one at times. Anyway, you asked.."

“Have you tried 'The Secret'?”

"You mean, “The Secret,” like on Oprah? Well, as a matter of fact, as a student of metaphysics for the majority of my life and a Science of Mind practitioner for twelve years, I practically could have written the fucking book myself."

“Well, why aren't you following it now, then?”

"Because, Brenda, I got sick of what I consider to be an unconscionable disregard for the planet and the consequences of all this “abundance consciousness” that it engenders. I mean, $2,000 weekends to learn firewalking or some bullshit, after which all these Yuppies can sit around and enjoy their mahi mahi lunches. But, nobody is concerned about the fact that they have killed 90% of the large fish in the oceans and their kids will be slurping up jellyfish in the future. I think it's stupid to manifest parking spaces at the Mall, when you're there to buy toxic products made by slave labor and disenfranchising the working class. It makes me sick."

“Well,” she says, “Ignorance is bliss.” “I just don't think about it.” I'm a little surprised that she didn't attempt to put me on Prozak.

That's the problem in a nutshell with trying to convince the general population of anything rooted in reality. They don't want to hear it. Period. It's too painful. Too much of a downer. Let's just pretend that everything is OK. Things will bet better. We're Number One. All our problems are due to the Muslims. And Obama is a Muslim. Yeah, that's got to be it...

On a more positive note... well, maybe not positive, but at least intelligent and insightful, Chis Hedges wrote a memorable piece lately on the demise of the Liberals that still haunts me. The essay is entitled “Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand.” It was on truthdig.com on March 14. He wrote, in part,

“The liberal class has busied itself with the toothless pursuits of inclusiveness, multiculturalism, identity politics and tolerance—a word Martin Luther King never used—and forgotten about justice. It naively sought to placate ideological and corporate forces bent on the destruction of the democratic state. The liberal class, like the misguided democrats in the former Yugoslavia or the hapless aristocrats in the Weimar Republic, invited the wolf into the henhouse. The liberal class forgot that, as Karl Popper wrote in “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” “If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”

This is another “inconvenient truth” that hardly anyone wants to face. Much like the burgeoning bullying problem that seems to have taken off after the big push in the last several years for well-intentioned programs on “conflict resolution,” so favored by the limp-wristed. Sounds good. Too bad it doesn't work. The Chinese took another tack. When housewives were bullied by their husbands, they got together and went to the home of the abuser, dragged him outside, and collectively kicked his ass. And, it was sanctioned by the State. Amazing.

Well, if the earth changes chronicled on The Big Wobble and The Alien Project, Half Past Human, and even the USGS volcano and earthquake sites along with the sun information on spaceweather.com, come to pass, we may all be getting our butts handed to us real soon. Maybe we shoulda left some of those dolphins and fish in the ocean, not poisoned the corrals, not cut down the rainforest, sucked up the water in the aquafirs, poisoned the lakes and streams, ruined the topsoil, destroyed the Gulf, etc.

It seems the Earth is fighting back. And, it ain't about some lame committee suggesting that we be nice. She's kicking our ass.

HOW BIG AN EMERGENCY?

Freeacre's desert dish last two nights. Rice and ? pudding. I can't remember what the yellow fruit is and she just left so I can't ask her. Maybe put it in later.

from Murph

Before I get into some other weightier thoughts, while reading the morning news and opinions at my regular site visitations, I had some musings to share with you.

I wish to commend and thank the regular readers of this site. It sure appears to me that most of the regular readers and comments indicate a high degree of inquisitiveness and desire for understanding events as they unfold about us. The sharing of information and sources by individuals here is awesome. In some respects, I have a sense of amazement that this blog has endured so long. There are other writers, blogs and web pages out there with very authoratative backgrounds and sources which I do not have. Even the precursor to this blog (Cyclone) had connections and sources of information that we all drew from. I do regret the loss of some regular participants to this blog over time. Why they withdrew I do not know. But it is with fondness that I remember their participation.

While I do a fair amount of reading these days, I don’t do as much as I used to. Maybe it’s something to do with getting older. Plus, to a large extent, a lot of what I’ve been picking up lately seems distorted, has way too many assumptions within it and often what sure appears to me as just outright lies, untruths, and spin concerning the main thesis. I think I’m getting tired of being hyped in my effort to find kernels of truth. I’m finding myself being drawn to playing bridge to while away some of my time not demanded for other endeavors.

Let’s see, where was I? Oh yeh. Emergency.

I am making the assumption that the readers are pretty much up to speed concerning the disaster in Japan. I am picking up snatches of information that imply that the Japanese government is hedging on the extent of their disaster, in particular, the nuclear reactors failure. Of particular concern of course, is the danger of radioactive contamination of our country by this fiasco, and most particularly, the west coast area where we live. Yesterday, Freeacre tried to find anything in Iodine available. It’s all gone but more is ordered. That would indicate to me that a whole bunch of people in our area also are concerned. Freeacre did find some dried kelp and made up a concoction last night that was a bit of an effort to force down my gullet. But what the hell, I reckon every little bit may help.

This danger of radioactive poisoning, right now as of writing this, is looming to be more and more a possibility. Oh goodie. As if we didn’t have enough on our plate right now. We were talking about this last night, and now we are wondering just how much effort we should be putting into getting ready for the summer efforts for food production. How much effort should be put into various community activities that we are involved in. Will there actually be community activities this summer? Or will other serious concerns take precedence?

To a large degree, if the Japanese reactors actually do melt down and spew huge amounts of radioactive stuff into the jet stream, it will affect the whole country to a greater or lesser extent, depending on wind patterns. I can’t help but ask the question whether this is the beginning of the great American die off? And not even a nuclear war is taking place. So much for the utter and complete safety of GE nuclear plants. The long range safety of these installations has been questioned for a long time, and the disposal of the waste product has never been solved. And yet, human kinds crazed demand for cheap power is such that we keep making these questionable and dangerous installations with the reassurance that they are completely safe. Read an article yesterday by a Nuc proponent that pointed out that the installations that blew up in Japan were 70’s vintage and technology has made them much safer, plus the American installations were way overbuilt for safety in comparison to the Japanese ones. So, no need to worry folks, we have it covered, move along now, nothing to worry about here. That’s when I start to duck and cover when I’m handed these reassurances. If these engineers and proponents of nuclear reactor power plants had any doubts, would they tell us? HELL NO!! Too much money and stockholder bite to do that. Only a very few whistle blowers are going to get in on the question and they, of course, will be shut down, marginalized and in some cases shut up by various means to keep us all clamoring for more cheap power. And, the movement of more power and money keeps going to the upper elites.

Perhaps indeed there is a source technology for abundant cheap electrical power floating around, but unless the elites can anticipate a windfall of profits and control, we will never see it. At least under the present political and economic paradigm we are operating under. As I have iterated many times before, it sure appears to me that changing this paradigm will not be easy or without massive casualties.

This possibility of national radioactive contamination and all the consequences involved are very real. If it indeed happens, it’s a whole new ball game and one I don’t really wish to participate in.

Let’s take a look at some scenarios. Suppose this radioactive cloud is extensive enough and has plutonium and is deadly enough to force evacuation of a great deal of the west coast habitable areas and extends far inland. Our personal choice is whether to evacuate or not. To what end? I sure look forward to being homeless, having to live in a refugee camp for the rest of my life since that contamination will make it impossible to ever go back home for the rest of my life. If you have doubts about this, read up on the long term affects of the Chernobyl disaster and what happen to areas of high radioactive contamination of large areas of land.

Or suppose it is determined and advertised that the contamination is short lived iodine isotopes and the danger to human health is short lived and the evacuation would only be temporary. Should I believe anything that the government says? If we get a plutonium contamination, it will definitely not be short lived. And that is a distinct possibility from what information I have gotten a hold of. If it is a radioactive iodine contamination, it will be short lived. In which case, evacuation would not be necessary if proper precautions were taken on an individual basis. Would the government tell us the truth of the situation? We have all been lied to so much could we believe anything the government tells us, particularly in a national emergency? Remember Katrina? Great job Brownie? Or the “too big to fail” fiasco?

The potential for the Japanese catastrophe affecting us directly is very real. Maybe it won’t happen that way, but I am not taking bets on it. What about you?

A side note from Freeacre;

I find these days to be painful. In addition to mind-boggling and heart-rending stories and pictures of the destruction and suffering of the people in Japan, we find ourselves bombarded by financial, political, cosmological, environmental, military, and health threats of all sorts. Sometimes I feel like returning to bed, assuming a fetal position, and pulling the covers over my head. Somewhere I hear p with his message that we are all energetic beings at our core, and that this is basically an "energy" issue. I don't exactly know how to respond to that. Somewhere I sense that there is a place in my self that contains a peace beyond understanding. I'd like to cultivate that sense of peace and empowerment to help get through this stressful time. After all, it is not helpful to be either hysterical or paralyzed with fear and loathing, regret, despair, or thoughts of vengeance. But how? I am open to suggestions. And, if I find any myself, I will share them with you. Right now it feels as though the camaraderie of our little cyber tribe is what keeps me going.
aho

MIRRORS AND REFLECTIONS

"Shrimp, avocado and quinoa salad. Gluten free. Avoiding gluten provides a whole new dimension to food storage preparations."

from Murph

In the last number of months, there is an overload of articles in printed material and digital stuff on the internet describing some problem and who to blame for it. Many of these are excellently written, good analysis in a prose that is easily digestible.

Which raises again the question in my mind, “Are institutions, governments and businesses a reflection of involvement and agendas of the general population, or is the population a reflecting the businesses, institutions and governments agendas?” I suspect that the preponderance is located at the institutions reflecting the agendas of the citizenry. If we had had vast citizen involvement from the git go, even our constitution would be different than it is now. Most of our country's citizen involvement in decision making is by small fractional groups with their own agendas and has nothing to do with national consensus. When the decision was made to switch to a strong central government instead of a Federation of States, much of the debate on this issue was done behind closed doors with little non elite input into the process, and the few non elites that did take part left in disgust and they sure didn’t sign it. The infant propaganda machine went into overdrive at the time to convince the various states to ratify the new document, and at the state level, there again, was little input from the non elites of the time. So, we ended up with what we now have as a covenant between the citizens and a strong central government. Even the preamble to the constitution was thrown in as a piece of sarcasm to placate the masses, (We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America), and how the Bill Of Rights was worded in such a way as to be able to bypass any legitimate intent of them. Notice how the Bill of Right’s statements are constantly being challenged and bypassed today.

As in any discussion of these issues, we have the problem of talking about what to do about the perceived problems. Arguments over ideas to cure the problems abound. Take a look at all that is written and discussed concerning energy. The plethora of cures is incredible, from the fantastic woo woo stuff to the far more practical consideration. So, someone concerned about this issue begins to wade through all the information they can find on this issue. I’ve spent considerable time on it, probably incomplete, but I have spent time looking at this information. The whole topic seems to want to revolve around a concept we call GREEN ENERGY or sustainable energy, (for the most part an oxymoron, similar to "sustainable growth"), in an attempt to supply substitute sources of energy for what we call fossil energy so that we can continue society in the same paradigm as we do presently, free use and very consumptive use of energy from whatever source. I have concluded this is another financial scam and bubble. It ain’t gonna fly. Your conclusion may be different. This does not take into consideration the concept of abiotic energy sources of which I cannot find absolute and uncontroversial support of it. Plus, even if true, I can find no information concerning field refreshment rate. It is alleged that if we have the technology to extract oil from extreme depths., there is a never ending supply. I haven’t seen financial figure on the cost of that technology yet either. We do know that oil extraction from deep sea reservoirs is very costly and has a good probability of screwing up the environment, ie. the Gulf disaster. I have also seen what seems to me to be ample evidence the natural gas extraction by “fracking” is of enormous detriment to the environment on multiple fronts. So much for technology trying to solve the energy problem and is instead producing other expensive, multiple and severe problems for human life.

So, after that little overview on the energy problem, what is to be done? It appears that trying to change how things are done by working within the system, public demonstrations, and voting, are mostly ineffectual. If that worked, we would not be where we are. The SYSTEM has just about everything locked up to prevent really mass support for anything. The SYSTEM has managed to fragment this society to an extreme degree, thus preventing consensus on any issue. This was done with full intent and malicious forethought. The old "divide and conquer" concept. There is no way that I can see where the general public can be made aware of what is/has been done to them at this time and most of that kind of information would be rejected by most people anyway. The only means I see to have significant change of some kind is for so huge a proportion of the populations in abject misery and hopelessness that they unite against the SYSTEM: that is called a revolution. Even if that takes place, a demi god will likely appear, representing the elites of course, to make “changes we can believe in” and there will be a shuffling of the power seating chairs and personnel and we will have some form of extreme control established over our lives anyway. Remember Napoleon after the French revolution or our own from English rule for that matter. We immediately stepped into a hierarchical form of government, with Washington at the head, an elitist if there ever was one.

In my opinion, until the mass of people realize that the elites ARE the problem, the essentials will not change. Otherwise, we will just go through the old shuck and jive that we have been subjected to for generations, with a few bones thrown over their shoulder to pacify the dissenters.

Is this change in perception likely to happen? Again, in my opinion, I am not optimistic about it. Not that I think it is 0% probable, just not very high probability. Of course that is a rather fluid dynamic and so some miraculous situational change could take place, principally in people’s attitudes about elite control of their lives. Around this, we have the predictions that this change is about to take place. Stay tuned, the universe may wink at us again.

That brings me back again to the title of this post. In my view of how things work, until a significant mass of humans do have this rather extreme change in perceptions, nothing will change for the better. The vast amount of humans on this planet will still be subject to exploitation, abuse, manipulation and torture to enrich the elite classes. I’m sure you have heard the defense of the elites and their vast wealth. It seems to center on the idea that they are the ones that supply jobs for us all to survive on. It is a bull shit argument, in my opinion, and hardly worth replying to. My god, whole societies have existed for thousands of years without that kind of wealth focus. Of course, the European mindset has wiped out most of these societies over a long periods of time and the non Europeans starting in pre biblical periods to the best of our written records. The whole top down hierarchy (coupled with patrimony) with the elites at the top is not a new idea, it is very old, and I suspect started with formalized religion, although I recognize that could be contested.

You may ask why I would write a post that is so general and broad, an overview. There is so much detailed information out there on any subject, masses of books written on any given subject, essays and commentaries abound, that my diving into any of these issues with a micro view is self defeating. I have a tendency to want to look at the macro view anyway. It gives me more information that has the potential to get myself and other people through the bad times that are coming by figuring what the bad times probably will look like instead of a complete focus on a single issue.

So I periodically put up posts of this nature hoping that someone new will read it and the following comments, so that those that have not been exposed to such thoughts before just might say “Eureka I get it!” and begin to investigate to determine validity. If you can stand the heat, keep holding the mirror up to peoples faces, some of them will get it. And of course, heat you will get. People have a fantastic ability to deny a reality that contradicts what they prefer to see and believe and often violently. Invariably, these perceptions and beliefs are to their own and most other peoples disadvantage. Sort of like the destruction and burning of the library of Alexandria, again, instituted and propagated by the elites of the time.

Archeologists are constantly turning up evidence of complex and large civilizations that have existed before the Sumerians, pre biblical stuff. It seems that our concepts of linear progression of human beings needs to be revised, and our whole time scale of events appears to be flawed. Of course these revelations tend to be viewed with derision by the biblical fundamentalists. Instead, for some reason I simply cannot comprehend, they like viewing god as the great trickster tempting us away from the faith. I am completely befuddled as to why god would do that, but whatever….. And here I thought Satan was the great trickster and tempter, ie. Taylor Caldwell, (sighing). Perhaps these folks just became a bit confused about who to blame. I find it rather amazing how politics and religion are so much the same. The strict adherence to a doctrine and ideology in the face of contradictory evidence, historically and immediate. Ok Palooka, back in the saddle on the horse of denial.

Charles Smith has two excellent articles pointing out the contradictions and hypocrisy of the liberal and conservative doctrines and ideology in his last two posts. Have to get to the archives from this month to see the first one. And, of course, there are volumes written concerning the hypocrisy and contradictions in religious doctrine. All of which point out the state of denial concerning the reality with which we are surrounded. Of course, as expected, when these points are made to adherents of such doctrines, they are vehemently denied and sometimes violently. Bringing into focus the famous line, "You can't handle the truth". And, of course, the field of what we call "science" gets mixed up in all of this too. Instead of "science" discovering and explaining the complexity of our lives and environments, it all to often creates complexity to prove an assertion.

I am going to presume this post might stimulate a bunch of links and comments on the subject. Go for it. Somebody new may just stumble across this little blog site and gain some insights.