First I have some unburdening to do and it won't be pretty. Best to go on to a friendlier blog if you've got no time for a harangue, 'cause this one's a doozie.
I haven't been here posting much. I don't like writing when I'm riled (that's Tennessee lingo for worse words), for many reasons. However, I began this blog as a chronicle of our real lives rather than for any entertainment factors for others, despite how much I really love everyone who stops by. (Thanks!)
Because chronicling our reality, rather than a narrower topic, is the theme here, I don't have to be politically correct or necessarily write only about the garden, cooking, etc. And I have to say...I'm sitting on a quiet rage right now. In fact, there have been moments I've been about ready to air some of them in a way that would immediately lose this blog its G rating, and me my resolution to not indulge in some bad language.
I hate what is happening to this country.
I like to stay far away from subjects like our economy, civics, etc, except for some things I've posted in the past related to farming and food rights...and I posted enough of those that now I don't do so much any more...I've seen enough other blogs that are raising awareness that I've backed away here.
And I'm "going there"...I'm going to step in it now in a big way....I'm giving some thoughts on politics, maybe even religion, so if that's not what you're wanting to read here and it'll ruin your day, please X out my page...truly. Because this may make EVERYbody mad.
I didn't like President Clinton, I didn't like President Bush, and I don't like President Obama. I am an Independent and not party-loyal.
I am delighted above most average folks that our country finally FINALLY got to a point where a black man can become President, and where a woman almost did. I'm glad she didn't, though, because I don't like Hillary, either. (Yeah, I'm really making friends by the second by typing this, right?) :)
But enough about things I cannot change.
I've been sick a while, and it was strangely a welcome reprieve even from the very limited exposure I have to the news (we don't have TV service).
But here's some perspective as I am freshly regaining my mind back...I hate what I see and where we're headed. For the first time EVER, I feel like I have NO impact on the direction my government and country are headed...none. I do not feel hopeless. I am not powerless. I'm not a pessimist by nature. I'm not a political armchair quarterback.
But I'm also not a lemming, a zombie, or a moron.
I am watching ALL our freedoms being affected, and the rate they are being bandied about has increased exponentially in the name of Change and Progress and Reform.
EVERYone is playing the blame game. And I'm pissed. (That's my crude word for this post)
I'm PISSED because I've been careful MOST OF MY LIFE to pay my bills on time, NOT declare bankruptcy (yeah I know some people have to, but a lot don't), and eat tuna/beans/macaroni more years than I can count when times for us were tight DURING what others considered "boom" times economically...I had to economize to the bone BACK THEN.
Why do I need to pay everyone else's debts, too?? This Is Not a Communist State, last I heard.
The debt we are now paying off for my family is tiny compared to most folks' and that's because I did not buy the new sofa/bedroom suite/vacation/cute haircut/favorite restaurant meals/latest electronics/Kitchenaid Mixer/William Sonoma products I love/really cool clothes/gadgets for my child/private schooling for her/finishing college for myself......and so on and so on. The point is, I didn't think of myself as a martyr. I did pout for a while, but then sucked it up because THAT's LIFE and I'm beyond wanting to be up with the latest anymore...I've learned to be comfortable with a little and that that stuff's temporary anyway...blah blah blah.
I grew up with feast or famine. For anyone dependent on a family where Get Rich Quick mentalities rule, the promise that "our ship will come in someday" holds no charms. It's like a gambling addiction to some people...they have to have the Always Something Better, Just A Little Bit More mentality because they've never learned to be content. And even when the ship occasionally DOES come in, they've got to shoot for a bigger gamble the next time around. It wasn't the doing without I minded as much as the build-up...the strange light in a parent's eye when talking about a fresh "sure fire" scheme that'll be secure, all based on statistics and possibilities that are sure to be winners, but there's hardly any food in the fridge and your idea of a splurge is having milk for something besides just cereal.
The problem with the spin a salesmen use is that any data can be massaged, somebody else is the bad guy if something malfunctions, and if it can fuel Need and turn it to Greed, enough is never enough.
That's where our country is now. Enough is not going to be enough, and there is that hoo-rah hype that ANY good salesman can recognize...cook the facts to please your audience and hype people who are tired of the status quo or are in desperate need of solid answers, and GAMBLE IT QUICK before the opportunity passes...that's seriously the same weird light I recognize from childhood.
The sales pitch has that glazed-over desperate sort of false optimism, and it's been going on a LONG TIME, but is now frenetically bombarding our country when it's most vulnerable.
When people need relief (I know this from experience), they'll go to unusual lengths for it if they feel panicked and emotional. It's nearly impossible to stay focused and objective. I felt panicked years ago when I was stupid enough to CALL the IRS and ask what my penalty amount was for not having filed one year we were in hardship (dont ever call and ask them). If I hadn't called, I could have fixed it through my accountant the next spring, but since I HAD called them, they said Hey thanks...you owe this much and by the way since you alerted us to it, it's due in ten days...in its entirety. That was back in the day before there was any other option in repaying them. So we felt we had to turn to a loan shark. Oh they were so happy to "help" us. At 25% interest and a lot of other ridiculous "necessary" fees.
The same thing happened the time a vendor didn't cash a check I'd written.......for a YEAR. By then, I'd forgotten about it, and I was a single mom. And the bank put the check through and boingggg went all those bills (repeatedly because I didn't know it was happening for a few days) that I was paying so steadily monthly. So I thought my only option then was to go to one of those loan places that take what you owe out of your next paycheck...at some other ridiculous interest rate.
Etc etc.....I did crazy stuff when I panicked. That's what I feel like our government is doing right now.
Dear Government Bureaucrats........STOP SPENDING.......PLEASE. A couple billion may not seem like a lot to YOU, but I don't NEED the extra debt YOU'RE putting on me in order to help some people ditch their old cars for new ones. That's not recovery, it's throwing money away. Ultimately, it's going to be better if you STOP encouraging people to take on more debt, and I guarantee you those car buyers ARE taking out loans for the balance on those new cars.
The government is not only out of control...it's taking control. Does anyone see this??
Follow the money trail...it leads right back to Washington and the big Corps/Banks. That is, if you can even find the money trail (how about the stats on the whereabouts of the money given to those banks...huh, huh?) Does anyone realize that by handing the goverment control of ANY of these things, we are no longer a democratic republic?? Are we really willing to be THAT powerless?
Does anyone remember why we LEFT ENGLAND to begin with? Why is it ok to be idealizing nations we tried to flee in order to have freedoms in the first place??
And when did we start believing rhetoric as long as it promises change change change??
I DON'T BELIEVE the reports that we've finished hurting yet and that jobs are on the rise. They aren't around here. I heard a leading economist admit that the "recovery statistics" they're crowing over show we are not declining as fast as expected...since when is a slower decline equivalent to an upward swing??
Why do I have to be shackled to a huge national debt that I have no say in when we're doing our all to get out of our tiny tiny debt by working jobs most people would turn up their noses at...because they aren't our chosen careers (we lost those three years back.)
I don't even have a doctor, and I can count on one hand the times I've gone to a doctor/clinic in the past 5 years...where I PAID for services even though the price is high. And now I'm hearing that I won't even have THAT choice, or I may be REQUIRED to have health insurance???
HEALTH INSURANCE is not a human right. I'm speaking as an under-insured person. It is not wrong for medical care to be competitive. Boy have we lost it. And no, I'm not willing to pay for other people's. I'm sorry to be a B-word about that, but I'm diabetic, overweight, work at barely over minimum wage to help put food on the table, and am having to save for months to have a regular women's health exam I should have had 4 years ago. (I'm trying to participate in my own health recovery and better these things as I'm able) And NO, I don't want it handed to me.
Why??
Because I am as yet FREE to make my own choices. When we cease to have choices other than ones made for us, we cease to be free.
I don't want a Big Brother or a Big Daddy being more informed about or involved in my life and choices, no matter how insecure things might seem. I moved out of my parents' home when I became an adult, and that came with a new set of responsibilities. I don't need any other "parents" for the sake of some supposed security.
I want those choices as I age or become disabled. I'm not thinking like other folks that being helped by the government is a fundamental right. In fact, thinking of the government being in CHARGE of my aging and healthcare is terrifying. They will kill old people and sick people because they will no longer "have worth" when it's all about numbers and data. It's only mere steps away from Population Control, and if we don't believe that, just look what happened with Roe V Wade. It was said that it was ONLY to protect rape victims. No, it was a door that once opened allowed any number of other factors to swallow the original intent.
We are become a socialist nation, and I spent my younger schoolage years hearing about how we are a great nation because we're NOT a socialist nation....
...unless, I guess, till we're up against the wall and thinking in that Loan Shark as Savior mentality.
I'm not generally an angry person, but how much is a trillion anyway? No one is wanting us to save instead of spend.
THEY ARE TELLING US TO SPEND SPEND SPEND without END.
And oh yes, massage the data so that hey everyone, the Emperor's not REALLY naked....it's just a dirty rumor promoted by (name the partisan opposition of the day)...see? I didn't realize that Monopoly money he's holding up is considered clothing now, hmmm
I'm NOT going to spend. I'm NOT going to buy into ANY program. I'm not going to cooperate any more with "reforms." Until the SPENDING STOPS, I will break the law if I have to to NOT cooperate with the loss of our freedoms.
Nope, I'm not talking violence. I'm talking about uncooperation. This has become a moral dilemma for me.
I don't believe in usury....I'm being forced to pay for the consequences of other people's abuse of usury and our goverment's determination to perpetuate an economy that's become reliant on it.
I don't believe in handing control of my freedom to a Big Daddy goverment...and neither did our founding fathers. But it's being forced on me.
I don't believe in socialism. I'm opposed to it. But it's being forced on me.
I do believe that everyone who plants vegetables is probably at heart taking back some of that freedom, but bully on anyone who tries any more to tell me I don't have the right to have control over what food I raise...IN MY OWN BACKYARD. I'm done with it. What happens to the squeaky wheels? Grassroots organizations do produce some change...I'll be a part of that. They also get special attention from the government...it's come down to that. Attention meaning becoming potential targets. As are some farmers.
There's almost an underground language needed now...how dare someone offer pure milk to another person...it must be "pet milk" for animals only, and in some places must be dyed black...just to make sure. Because a whole generation or two can't remember milk comes from something called an udder, rather than a plastic jug in the supermarket.
And can I mention industry and manufacturing in the same sentence with Recovery? It used to be that WARS meant a boom at home...when WE made the things WE need right here. Now it's China. Freaking China. The leaders in devaluing human life, the earth, and the food stream for a buck. (Think it comes with no consequences? The Plague just popped up there, no joke) It chaps me that we even have dialogue with murderous governments at all, much less making ourselves DEPENDENT on them (thank you WalMart). Sanitize the lingo, but WalMart is a traitor to its founder and the American Public.
And along those same international weirdness lines, just when did we call people like Hugo Chavez "amigo"??? Try to negotiate ANYTHING with Iran's maniac, or Kim Jung Il? Raoul Castro is now our ol' buddy ol' pal ???(what a sellout to the dissidents IN Cuba as we speak) Since when did we bloody apologize to three other continents for being Americans?? (Clue: The U.S. just lostany remaining semblance of internation respect and is now in the same category as My Little Kitty) HOW did it become protocol to bow before Arab leaders? Why do we feel we have the RIGHT to demand that Israel NOT RETALIATE for the 10,000 plus attacks against it...and where do WE come off trying to negotiate other nations' disputes??
During the last decade or so, I've been feeling towards our bureaucrats like a woman feels when married to a husband who refuses to be financially responsible and makes really stupid decisions without including me in them. I used to think marriages like that were unfortunate but that the women were bound by promise to stay in the game no matter how ruinous, manipulative, gambling, cheating, falsely conciliatory and truly abusive the husband was. Not so any more.
The world is ready to stick it to us, and apparently we are applauding the process of sticking it to ourselves. That's a serious case of unmedicated Bipolar.
Well, now that I've probably lost ALL my friendly co-bloggers due to this rant, I'll call it a day.
I'm encouraged that we, my husband and I, will plod onward with our personal plan and the necessary changes. But as concerns paying for Big Daddy's gambling habit, empty promises, usury dependency, and spending spree, I'm going to conscientiously fail to cooperate whenever possible.
The Emperor is still Naked, he is. And he's still printing Monopoly Money and using it for spending sprees.
I opt out of participation in the National Lemming Cliff-Diving Olympics.
And the Koolaid.
No, folks, unity is not the way to go when it comes to this sort of collective national destruction.
(It's official. I'm SO seriously OVER this. OVER OVER OVER. When good is called bad and bad is called good, I'm just going to be a bad girl...and probably feel a whole lot better about life in general)
I've heard that whether you're a rebel or a patriot all depends on which side you're looking from. Now being patriotic is for rebels. Hmmm. OK, so I'll NOT CHANGE and be called a rebel. So what?
My mother predicted this would happen, but I rather suspect it began in earnest the day I switched from margarine to real butter
(deep cleansing breath.....)
Alrighty then. All better now... sorta
Shabbat shalom :)
Showing posts with label Think for Yourself and Dont Drink the Koolaid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Think for Yourself and Dont Drink the Koolaid. Show all posts
Friday, August 7, 2009
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Immediate Action Needed --The NAIS and School Lunches
You may have read about this already. I just received this in my email inbox from the Weston A. Price Foundation -- (I've put certain sections in bold print)
ACTION ALERT: Mandatory Requirement for NAIS in School Lunch Program Put in House Agriculture Appropriations Bill. CALL NOW!
The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee has included pro-NAIS provisions in the Agriculture Appropriations bill for 2009. According to the press release, the bill would require USDA to purchase meat products for the School Lunch Program from livestock premises registered with National Animal Identification System beginning in July 2009.
This is a back-door method for mandating NAIS through the power of the purse strings. The bill also provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million or about $4.8 million above 2008.
We must stop these provisions from going any further! The full House Appropriations Committee will meet about the Agriculture Appropriations bill this Thursday, June 26. Sometime after that, it will go to the full House.
We also need to contact our Senators now, to keep them from doing the same thing.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
1) Call or fax your US Representative.
You can look up who represents you at www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-340-9281.2)
2.) Call or fax the members of the House Appropriations Committee who come from your State. The members are listed at: http://appropriations.house.gov/members110th.shtml When you see a member who comes from your state, click on his or her name to get contact information.
3) Call or fax your Senators. You can look up who represents you at www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-340-9281.
With each person, ask to speak to the staffer who handles appropriations. If you get their voice mail, leave the following message, or something in your own words that makes the same points:
MESSAGE: My name is ____. I am a constituent [or live in your state, if you aren't in their district].
I am calling because the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee has inserted language requiring the School Lunch Program to only buy meat from farms registered in the National Animal Identification System.
I am against NAIS, and I do not want it to be tied to school lunch programs.
NAIS, which tracks live animals, will not improve food safety because most food safety problems start at the slaughterhouse and food processing facilities.
Funding for NAIS, particularly any mandatory NAIS, needs to be stopped.
Please call me back at _____ to let me know where the Congressman/woman stands on this issue.
When you talk to the staffer, be sure to make the same points as in the message, and expand on them with some of the talking points below. For more information, contact the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance at info@farmandranchfreedom.org or 866-687-6452.The press release, from Chairwoman DeLauro (D-CT) is available at http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DeLauroSubMarkup06-19-08.pdf
MORE TALKING POINTS - state your concerns in your own words
* This bill uses the government's power to economically coerce farmers into NAIS. That is not a "voluntary" program.
* This bill throws good money after bad, supporting a program that is not sound economically or scientifically.
* USDA has presented no science to back up its claims that NAIS will address livestock diseases.
* The USDA has never completed a cost/benefit analysis to show that NAIS is worthwhile.
* NAIS will not improve food safety. The massive Hallmark/Westland beef recall this past year was caused by the slaughterhouse employees' failure to follow existing regulations for handling "downer" cows. Mandating NAIS on cattle producers will not make anybody obey the laws we already have.
* NAIS will not help Americans compete in the world market. If it is mandatory, or even adopted by most producers, those who participate will not get premiums for their meat.
* Pouring more money into the program is a waste of precious tax dollars that could be better spent on safety inspections at packing and processing plants, where most food contamination occurs.
* Using the school lunch program to force farmers into NAIS undermines the growing farm-to-school program, which helps children get fresh, local, and sustainably raised foods. Local farmers should not be forced into an unpopular program that has nothing to do with food quality or safety in order to provide food for our children.
* The claim that USDA has achieved 33% of its Premises Registration goal is wrong. USDA computes its percentage of premises registered based on farmers who answer the agriculture census. Hundreds of thousands of additional horse owners, families with a few chickens, suburbanites with a pet pot-bellied pig, and others like them are technically covered by NAIS, but USDA ignores them when it reports its supposed successes to Congress. The vast majority of people who will be impacted by NAIS either oppose it or are still unaware of it!
* NAIS has never been specifically approved by Congress. This massive program, which will impact millions of people, should be addressed through full and open debate, not snuck in through appropriations.
ACTION ALERT: Mandatory Requirement for NAIS in School Lunch Program Put in House Agriculture Appropriations Bill. CALL NOW!
The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee has included pro-NAIS provisions in the Agriculture Appropriations bill for 2009. According to the press release, the bill would require USDA to purchase meat products for the School Lunch Program from livestock premises registered with National Animal Identification System beginning in July 2009.
This is a back-door method for mandating NAIS through the power of the purse strings. The bill also provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million or about $4.8 million above 2008.
We must stop these provisions from going any further! The full House Appropriations Committee will meet about the Agriculture Appropriations bill this Thursday, June 26. Sometime after that, it will go to the full House.
We also need to contact our Senators now, to keep them from doing the same thing.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
1) Call or fax your US Representative.
You can look up who represents you at www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-340-9281.2)
2.) Call or fax the members of the House Appropriations Committee who come from your State. The members are listed at: http://appropriations.house.gov/members110th.shtml When you see a member who comes from your state, click on his or her name to get contact information.
3) Call or fax your Senators. You can look up who represents you at www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-340-9281.
With each person, ask to speak to the staffer who handles appropriations. If you get their voice mail, leave the following message, or something in your own words that makes the same points:
MESSAGE: My name is ____. I am a constituent [or live in your state, if you aren't in their district].
I am calling because the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee has inserted language requiring the School Lunch Program to only buy meat from farms registered in the National Animal Identification System.
I am against NAIS, and I do not want it to be tied to school lunch programs.
NAIS, which tracks live animals, will not improve food safety because most food safety problems start at the slaughterhouse and food processing facilities.
Funding for NAIS, particularly any mandatory NAIS, needs to be stopped.
Please call me back at _____ to let me know where the Congressman/woman stands on this issue.
When you talk to the staffer, be sure to make the same points as in the message, and expand on them with some of the talking points below. For more information, contact the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance at info@farmandranchfreedom.org or 866-687-6452.The press release, from Chairwoman DeLauro (D-CT) is available at http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DeLauroSubMarkup06-19-08.pdf
MORE TALKING POINTS - state your concerns in your own words
* This bill uses the government's power to economically coerce farmers into NAIS. That is not a "voluntary" program.
* This bill throws good money after bad, supporting a program that is not sound economically or scientifically.
* USDA has presented no science to back up its claims that NAIS will address livestock diseases.
* The USDA has never completed a cost/benefit analysis to show that NAIS is worthwhile.
* NAIS will not improve food safety. The massive Hallmark/Westland beef recall this past year was caused by the slaughterhouse employees' failure to follow existing regulations for handling "downer" cows. Mandating NAIS on cattle producers will not make anybody obey the laws we already have.
* NAIS will not help Americans compete in the world market. If it is mandatory, or even adopted by most producers, those who participate will not get premiums for their meat.
* Pouring more money into the program is a waste of precious tax dollars that could be better spent on safety inspections at packing and processing plants, where most food contamination occurs.
* Using the school lunch program to force farmers into NAIS undermines the growing farm-to-school program, which helps children get fresh, local, and sustainably raised foods. Local farmers should not be forced into an unpopular program that has nothing to do with food quality or safety in order to provide food for our children.
* The claim that USDA has achieved 33% of its Premises Registration goal is wrong. USDA computes its percentage of premises registered based on farmers who answer the agriculture census. Hundreds of thousands of additional horse owners, families with a few chickens, suburbanites with a pet pot-bellied pig, and others like them are technically covered by NAIS, but USDA ignores them when it reports its supposed successes to Congress. The vast majority of people who will be impacted by NAIS either oppose it or are still unaware of it!
* NAIS has never been specifically approved by Congress. This massive program, which will impact millions of people, should be addressed through full and open debate, not snuck in through appropriations.
Monday, June 16, 2008
My Green Ideal
...is to learn to do the best with what we have...naturally. The Dervaeses at Path To Freedom are my heros in this respect. They are my ideal of Being Green.
Remember this song?
No, it's not always easy being Green... :)
In my last post, I spoke of not labeling myself with particular labels. "Green" has come to mean many things in many different contexts. Our (my husband's and my) focus is to be gentle consumers within a natural framework, and to cut out the middle man between the ground and the table. We are lovers of nature. We feel a keen sense of responsibility in doing this sustainably, our ideal being that there would be no waste that's not converted back into a cycle of regeneration. Our goal is also simplicity.
We're spoiled to modern conveniences, but would rather innovate and find ways to retain some of those conveniences rather than do completely without, or do everything from scratch. This will allow us to focus on the things we most WANT to be hands-on with...because we can't be masters at every skill. We also see relying on others' skills in areas we're not gifted in, and doing the swapping of services, or bartering items for such.
Path to Freedom is one of the first sites I ever found when looking online for resources on sustainability, urban farming, and homesteading. They are still a daily read.
This recent post of theirs details many of the techniques they've been practicing and had success with for many years. For us, this family's success in using what they have and living gently...and abundantly...right where they live, is a high-water mark for us. Please check out the post, and their site, if you haven't already. It's always informative, as well as encouraging!
I didn't want to leave a false impression that my family is not concerned with being "green." It's a label that can be so broad, much like the term "health nut." If you hear someone is a health nut, it can mean anything from eating well, to being focused on running marathons, to fasting regularly, to going bra-less and living in a treehouse...heehee. There are some things perceived as being Green that I'm not on the same page as. I don't want to pay carbon taxes, ever. I don't want to give up any of my constitutional, or personal, freedoms because someone else determines they're don't serve a "green" agenda. I'm not ready to give up toilet paper. I love my ovaries and if they ever serve to grant my husband and myself other children, I do not feel irresponsible and like that is taxing the world population. I don't ride a horse to work, and can't afford to buy another vehicle that uses less gasoline. I eat meat...just less of it till the day when we can raise our own. I don't see cows as the bane of the world food balance...I see Big Ag as such. Grassfed animals are at the top of my preference list as far as agricultural systems, and I won't ascribe to the humble cow or sheep the crowding out of wildlife and the bane of overgrazing...I ascribe that to the people who mismanage them.
I could go on and on, but in some ways, I'm greener...or maybe could be called weirder...than most folks I know. Some of my green views come from sources other than back-to-the-earth movements. Our family follows the instructions in the Torah, and there are many instructions there that we're not used to embracing...but want to. There is a prohibition against mixing "types"...as in breeding a zebra with a camel. We find this an instruction of great import in a day in which pig DNA is being combined through genetic mutilation directly into broccoli or any other number of animal/plant combinations. That is a mixing of unlike types. How can we practice not eating those, if they're not labeled? We must grow our own pure DNA foods. This is ancient "green" principle that, for my family, is a command we must keep.
Another prohibition is against mixing types of clothing materials. Strands of unlike clothing materials are not supposed to be woven together and worn. A lot of synthetic materials are made from the fusing of unlike materials, such as plant based and petroleum based. That of necessity tends us towards using natural fiber materials. Since trying to rid my closet of the synthetic things, I've found I have mostly cotton and linen clothes now...which my body really appreciates! When I have to wear my work uniform, which is to a large degree polyester, my body feels like it's screaming...it's not natural. To some, this is a really weird thing, and does it fall under the category "green"? I have no idea, but to me, it is.
In being green, I don't subscribe to a mob mentality. There is a lot of integrity within the category "green," but there are also politics and specific agendas in different arenas. I can see some things being abused in the name of Green, and one of the ones that most concerns me is eugenics. Eugenics, or the "selecting out" of those things that are weaker or diseased for the supposed survival of the masses or the "greater good," is something of great concern to me. I've heard these sometimes grouped under "green" agendas. That troubles me. Limiting the freedoms of families to determine for themselves how many children they have is another of my concerns. I understand the arguments for and against these issues, which have often been lumped under the greater category "green" when discussing worldwide issues...but those are where I exit the label. When Green becomes a religion, buh-bye. My voice is just as important in the green movement, and my concern is the preservation of individuality within our fragile yet resilient world. It's a revolution that's about returning to basic freedoms, not promoting the loss of them.
I see true "greenness" as being the earning of privilege. It's a privilege to live on this earth...it's not a throw-away resource that can be gobbled like a can of Pringles and then tossed to the curb. The domino-effect on our health and society has been rapid since the rise of Big Ag as "the answer"...um, what was the question?? We believed the propaganda, and didn't remember that "Green" to Monsanto means greenbacks/dollars, not an Eden of plenty.
Watch out for "green" as a proganda trend for the mega-corporations. They are NOT driven by a heart change..they are driven to repackage those items from China in a more palatable-to-the-conscience way. It helps their bottom line to put just enough of these items in their stores to ease the conscience of the consumer who is still for the most part still unaware of exactly what their food contains and where it came from. Watch out for these corporations because they still are a law unto themselves. They still are under-the-table dealing with impunity. We need our justice systems to work for accountability beyond the walls of lawyers these big guys can afford. It is important to hold everyone to the same standards of justice...even the megalopolies and the Monsantos...so that Green can be something not fringe, but a fundamental element of our society and its relationship to the earth that sustains its populations. It needs to be a living community as diverse as the community we find here online, where we can agree or disagree, but still work to better our world and our own square of dirt or cement. At that point, many of us who're on the fringes of an out-of-control mainstream society will not be the outsiders, but the leaders and teachers.
Green, if it was not already, is becoming a necessity for many of us, now. Hopefully, it will be an individual expression as well as a thriving community. We're in that muddle where Green is still being defined, and there are growing pains and still a lot of Goliaths for shepherd boys to face down. So, we embrace being Green. But don't pass us any Koolaid ;-)
Remember this song?
No, it's not always easy being Green... :)
In my last post, I spoke of not labeling myself with particular labels. "Green" has come to mean many things in many different contexts. Our (my husband's and my) focus is to be gentle consumers within a natural framework, and to cut out the middle man between the ground and the table. We are lovers of nature. We feel a keen sense of responsibility in doing this sustainably, our ideal being that there would be no waste that's not converted back into a cycle of regeneration. Our goal is also simplicity.
We're spoiled to modern conveniences, but would rather innovate and find ways to retain some of those conveniences rather than do completely without, or do everything from scratch. This will allow us to focus on the things we most WANT to be hands-on with...because we can't be masters at every skill. We also see relying on others' skills in areas we're not gifted in, and doing the swapping of services, or bartering items for such.
Path to Freedom is one of the first sites I ever found when looking online for resources on sustainability, urban farming, and homesteading. They are still a daily read.
This recent post of theirs details many of the techniques they've been practicing and had success with for many years. For us, this family's success in using what they have and living gently...and abundantly...right where they live, is a high-water mark for us. Please check out the post, and their site, if you haven't already. It's always informative, as well as encouraging!
I didn't want to leave a false impression that my family is not concerned with being "green." It's a label that can be so broad, much like the term "health nut." If you hear someone is a health nut, it can mean anything from eating well, to being focused on running marathons, to fasting regularly, to going bra-less and living in a treehouse...heehee. There are some things perceived as being Green that I'm not on the same page as. I don't want to pay carbon taxes, ever. I don't want to give up any of my constitutional, or personal, freedoms because someone else determines they're don't serve a "green" agenda. I'm not ready to give up toilet paper. I love my ovaries and if they ever serve to grant my husband and myself other children, I do not feel irresponsible and like that is taxing the world population. I don't ride a horse to work, and can't afford to buy another vehicle that uses less gasoline. I eat meat...just less of it till the day when we can raise our own. I don't see cows as the bane of the world food balance...I see Big Ag as such. Grassfed animals are at the top of my preference list as far as agricultural systems, and I won't ascribe to the humble cow or sheep the crowding out of wildlife and the bane of overgrazing...I ascribe that to the people who mismanage them.
I could go on and on, but in some ways, I'm greener...or maybe could be called weirder...than most folks I know. Some of my green views come from sources other than back-to-the-earth movements. Our family follows the instructions in the Torah, and there are many instructions there that we're not used to embracing...but want to. There is a prohibition against mixing "types"...as in breeding a zebra with a camel. We find this an instruction of great import in a day in which pig DNA is being combined through genetic mutilation directly into broccoli or any other number of animal/plant combinations. That is a mixing of unlike types. How can we practice not eating those, if they're not labeled? We must grow our own pure DNA foods. This is ancient "green" principle that, for my family, is a command we must keep.
Another prohibition is against mixing types of clothing materials. Strands of unlike clothing materials are not supposed to be woven together and worn. A lot of synthetic materials are made from the fusing of unlike materials, such as plant based and petroleum based. That of necessity tends us towards using natural fiber materials. Since trying to rid my closet of the synthetic things, I've found I have mostly cotton and linen clothes now...which my body really appreciates! When I have to wear my work uniform, which is to a large degree polyester, my body feels like it's screaming...it's not natural. To some, this is a really weird thing, and does it fall under the category "green"? I have no idea, but to me, it is.
In being green, I don't subscribe to a mob mentality. There is a lot of integrity within the category "green," but there are also politics and specific agendas in different arenas. I can see some things being abused in the name of Green, and one of the ones that most concerns me is eugenics. Eugenics, or the "selecting out" of those things that are weaker or diseased for the supposed survival of the masses or the "greater good," is something of great concern to me. I've heard these sometimes grouped under "green" agendas. That troubles me. Limiting the freedoms of families to determine for themselves how many children they have is another of my concerns. I understand the arguments for and against these issues, which have often been lumped under the greater category "green" when discussing worldwide issues...but those are where I exit the label. When Green becomes a religion, buh-bye. My voice is just as important in the green movement, and my concern is the preservation of individuality within our fragile yet resilient world. It's a revolution that's about returning to basic freedoms, not promoting the loss of them.
I see true "greenness" as being the earning of privilege. It's a privilege to live on this earth...it's not a throw-away resource that can be gobbled like a can of Pringles and then tossed to the curb. The domino-effect on our health and society has been rapid since the rise of Big Ag as "the answer"...um, what was the question?? We believed the propaganda, and didn't remember that "Green" to Monsanto means greenbacks/dollars, not an Eden of plenty.
Watch out for "green" as a proganda trend for the mega-corporations. They are NOT driven by a heart change..they are driven to repackage those items from China in a more palatable-to-the-conscience way. It helps their bottom line to put just enough of these items in their stores to ease the conscience of the consumer who is still for the most part still unaware of exactly what their food contains and where it came from. Watch out for these corporations because they still are a law unto themselves. They still are under-the-table dealing with impunity. We need our justice systems to work for accountability beyond the walls of lawyers these big guys can afford. It is important to hold everyone to the same standards of justice...even the megalopolies and the Monsantos...so that Green can be something not fringe, but a fundamental element of our society and its relationship to the earth that sustains its populations. It needs to be a living community as diverse as the community we find here online, where we can agree or disagree, but still work to better our world and our own square of dirt or cement. At that point, many of us who're on the fringes of an out-of-control mainstream society will not be the outsiders, but the leaders and teachers.
Green, if it was not already, is becoming a necessity for many of us, now. Hopefully, it will be an individual expression as well as a thriving community. We're in that muddle where Green is still being defined, and there are growing pains and still a lot of Goliaths for shepherd boys to face down. So, we embrace being Green. But don't pass us any Koolaid ;-)
Monday, April 28, 2008
Venturing Into the Land of Curative Medicinal Herbs
I'm an herb geek at heart, but have not had the opportunity to put it to much practical use...yet. Other than teas and some basic spicing up of foods, my herb knowledge is lying fallow as far as practical application in my family's life.
That is one area we're trying to gradually change.
Some folks really don't consider medicinal herbs much more than snake oil remedies, while others see the term "herb" and assume anything "herbal" is safe to take for anything, in any quantity.
We've learned through a process of trial and error over the years that we still have much to learn. Many herbs' benefits have been enjoyed in their native habitats by populations indigenous to those locales, many of whom still practice time-honored remedies using the herbs at hand. In western society, change has come slowly..."progress" in "medicine" meant a societal replacement of traditional wisdom with the "modern" convention of man-made copycat pharmaceuticals.
It's our innate belief that anything man-made will never be as suitable for the human body as its natural counterpart, if that can be discovered...or recovered.
We have some physical health conditions that warrant a closer look at natural solutions for things we now take pharmaceuticals for.
Let me briefly interrupt this to say that I am NOT one of those folks who advocates that people with precarious or fragile health conditions throw caution to the wind and dump their pills down the toilet. I'm also not the sort that believes that all pharmaceuticals are mind-altering and that if we just have faith in God we can believe ourselves into better health, do or die. As much as I believe we can restore our immune systems so that they can withstand the stresses of today, I'm also grateful for the discovery of penicillin and the polio vaccine. As cautious as I am about the use of widespread vaccinations of our children, I also see the benefits and understand the difficulty of making viable choices for ourselves and our families.
We have to use wisdom and a lot of attention to detail, and it's nice that the internet can open doors of inquiry into many of the plants, seeds, roots, leaves, bark, etc that are in the natural world that can be used to support, mend, and heal our maladies.
I like actually handling things that are mild, work over a longer period of time, and are usually gentler, (most herbs fall into this category) and applying my own problem -solving to our health problems and our future as we age. The medical community cringes when they hear individuals trying to come up with their own remedies. There is some foundation for this, as we shouldn't consume or practice health-related things with ignorance of our bodies and a diagnosis. But ultimately, WE care about ourselves differently than a doctor or health practitioner does...we simply live with ourselves daily and can become intuitive about certain things long before a physical is done in an office.
We are dealing with hypertension, diabetes, and needing to lose weight. We are working toward implementing foods that are more anti-fungal and that lend support to our "inner world" of digestion and healthy bacteria...things such as certain fermented foods and nutrient-rich foods such as "live-bacteria" yogurt and kefir (to name only a few) that will build up our immune systems and reduce our susceptibility to allergies and asthma. Raw milk products are touted to be a positive contributor to this sort of recovery, and we're trying real milk-related things and testing it out as we go.
We've had a very very positive response to the Caspian Sea Yogurt. Our bodies feel lighter, and better...it's hard to describe, but it's very real. We've lost much of our cravings for breads and sugars, except the occasional dense whole grain food and fruits. We've almost completely eliminated processed foods, especially anything with preservatives and food coloring. Getting off of processed flours and sugars continues to be a goal.
In searching for plants AND in searching for gentle herbal support for some of our health concerns, we've found some that overlap. Our gardening goals have expanded to include a wider number of herbs and medicinal plants, and we've found that many of the plants we have on our gardening list for foods, nectar, or forage also have mutiple uses in salads, teas, fertilizers, or medicines. Incorporating these things, and growing them ourselves are current goals.
So we are searching out specific plants for medicines, and in doing so have begun compiling a list...one that is growing longer and longer. I'm amazed at how many plants are available in herbal pill form but are not grown here in the States. Many of them are widely grown in Asia or India, the African continent, or South and Central America...but not here. So the search cuts a worldwide swath.
We experienced this sort of fun when beginning a search for natural home-friendly soaping plants (saponins), many of which have been used by native populations in different geographical situations all over the globe. Indigenous to the U.S. was the soapberry tree, and I'm happy to report that our little soapberry twigs that looked so dead are now leafing out with a vengeance, loving the heat that's already bearing down on us here in Florida. Soapnuts (from the Ritha tree) were another experiment, and are very slow growing, and reputedly hard to germinate, but we're trying, just for fun...the little seeds get daily moisture and warmth outside in a protected area. No signs of life so far, but we'll keep waiting. The soapnuts themselves, the sort used for washing clothes with, can be bought retail...we were just searching for the source so we can grow our own. That search took us all the way to India, as did a more recent search for plants used to help with diabetes-related concerns.
Yesterday, we found mention of the plant Gymnema Sylvestre, described here, which has been used by some populations for many generations to assist diabetics. It's available as a supplement through herbal suppliers, and we're in the process of seeking a source from which to purchase the plants or seeds.
We know better than to just go crazy popping any sort of medication, herbal or not, without a lot of discrimination and care as to amounts, but I'm going to try (slowly, carefully) the bottled pills of this herb in hopes of easing my body off its dependency on the higher doses of synthetic medicines, while working to lose weight, eat the right things, etc. There were several herbs we found mention of that actually seem to provide pancreatic support, even some that encourage regeneration of healthy pancreas tissue, so it's definatly worth a look...and some deliberate tracking and care as to the results. This is a longer-term project, and is only one of the ways we're trying to become less dependent on "things elsewhere." Medicine can be a drain on our resources, as can doctor visits. I still have not given up hope that my Type 2 diabetes can be reversed with weight loss, eating right, exercise, and other supports. It just has to be gentle and gradual, because the ol' blood sugar goes crazy with any sudden changes :)
I'm in the process of compiling a list of the medicines we want to grow. These are as simple as white willow, the bark of which is the source of aspirin, and can be make into a tea drunk rather than taking an aspirin...and willow twigs soaked in water a few days are said to be an excellent root stimulator for starting garden and tree cuttings, too. We'll see! Jack is trimming some willows this week and we want to see if we can start some Moringa trees from cuttings.
As much as we'll devote our time and energies to cultivate open-pollinated organically-grown heirloom vegetables, indigenous trees and plants, and seek to satisfy our food needs ourselves this way, we'll also be paying attention to plants that are good at keeping ourselves and our animals and plants in top health. Everything from nectar-rich plants for bees, native grasses/seeds/forbs for grazing health, diversity in field and hedgerown plants, and collecting traditional (and sometimes "exotic-to-us") seeds, fruits, and plants...those PLUS educating ourselves about how to use plants as healthy nutritional and medicinal support are VERY much becoming our passions :)
As we have some successes, they'll be reported here, as will the flops. We look forward to years to follow in which we have surpluses of seeds and cuttings to share for free for anyone else who might want to add them to their homesteads, too!
It's so fun...it seems the plants to be discovered are endless...
That is one area we're trying to gradually change.
Some folks really don't consider medicinal herbs much more than snake oil remedies, while others see the term "herb" and assume anything "herbal" is safe to take for anything, in any quantity.
We've learned through a process of trial and error over the years that we still have much to learn. Many herbs' benefits have been enjoyed in their native habitats by populations indigenous to those locales, many of whom still practice time-honored remedies using the herbs at hand. In western society, change has come slowly..."progress" in "medicine" meant a societal replacement of traditional wisdom with the "modern" convention of man-made copycat pharmaceuticals.
It's our innate belief that anything man-made will never be as suitable for the human body as its natural counterpart, if that can be discovered...or recovered.
We have some physical health conditions that warrant a closer look at natural solutions for things we now take pharmaceuticals for.
Let me briefly interrupt this to say that I am NOT one of those folks who advocates that people with precarious or fragile health conditions throw caution to the wind and dump their pills down the toilet. I'm also not the sort that believes that all pharmaceuticals are mind-altering and that if we just have faith in God we can believe ourselves into better health, do or die. As much as I believe we can restore our immune systems so that they can withstand the stresses of today, I'm also grateful for the discovery of penicillin and the polio vaccine. As cautious as I am about the use of widespread vaccinations of our children, I also see the benefits and understand the difficulty of making viable choices for ourselves and our families.
We have to use wisdom and a lot of attention to detail, and it's nice that the internet can open doors of inquiry into many of the plants, seeds, roots, leaves, bark, etc that are in the natural world that can be used to support, mend, and heal our maladies.
I like actually handling things that are mild, work over a longer period of time, and are usually gentler, (most herbs fall into this category) and applying my own problem -solving to our health problems and our future as we age. The medical community cringes when they hear individuals trying to come up with their own remedies. There is some foundation for this, as we shouldn't consume or practice health-related things with ignorance of our bodies and a diagnosis. But ultimately, WE care about ourselves differently than a doctor or health practitioner does...we simply live with ourselves daily and can become intuitive about certain things long before a physical is done in an office.
We are dealing with hypertension, diabetes, and needing to lose weight. We are working toward implementing foods that are more anti-fungal and that lend support to our "inner world" of digestion and healthy bacteria...things such as certain fermented foods and nutrient-rich foods such as "live-bacteria" yogurt and kefir (to name only a few) that will build up our immune systems and reduce our susceptibility to allergies and asthma. Raw milk products are touted to be a positive contributor to this sort of recovery, and we're trying real milk-related things and testing it out as we go.
We've had a very very positive response to the Caspian Sea Yogurt. Our bodies feel lighter, and better...it's hard to describe, but it's very real. We've lost much of our cravings for breads and sugars, except the occasional dense whole grain food and fruits. We've almost completely eliminated processed foods, especially anything with preservatives and food coloring. Getting off of processed flours and sugars continues to be a goal.
In searching for plants AND in searching for gentle herbal support for some of our health concerns, we've found some that overlap. Our gardening goals have expanded to include a wider number of herbs and medicinal plants, and we've found that many of the plants we have on our gardening list for foods, nectar, or forage also have mutiple uses in salads, teas, fertilizers, or medicines. Incorporating these things, and growing them ourselves are current goals.
So we are searching out specific plants for medicines, and in doing so have begun compiling a list...one that is growing longer and longer. I'm amazed at how many plants are available in herbal pill form but are not grown here in the States. Many of them are widely grown in Asia or India, the African continent, or South and Central America...but not here. So the search cuts a worldwide swath.
We experienced this sort of fun when beginning a search for natural home-friendly soaping plants (saponins), many of which have been used by native populations in different geographical situations all over the globe. Indigenous to the U.S. was the soapberry tree, and I'm happy to report that our little soapberry twigs that looked so dead are now leafing out with a vengeance, loving the heat that's already bearing down on us here in Florida. Soapnuts (from the Ritha tree) were another experiment, and are very slow growing, and reputedly hard to germinate, but we're trying, just for fun...the little seeds get daily moisture and warmth outside in a protected area. No signs of life so far, but we'll keep waiting. The soapnuts themselves, the sort used for washing clothes with, can be bought retail...we were just searching for the source so we can grow our own. That search took us all the way to India, as did a more recent search for plants used to help with diabetes-related concerns.
Yesterday, we found mention of the plant Gymnema Sylvestre, described here, which has been used by some populations for many generations to assist diabetics. It's available as a supplement through herbal suppliers, and we're in the process of seeking a source from which to purchase the plants or seeds.
We know better than to just go crazy popping any sort of medication, herbal or not, without a lot of discrimination and care as to amounts, but I'm going to try (slowly, carefully) the bottled pills of this herb in hopes of easing my body off its dependency on the higher doses of synthetic medicines, while working to lose weight, eat the right things, etc. There were several herbs we found mention of that actually seem to provide pancreatic support, even some that encourage regeneration of healthy pancreas tissue, so it's definatly worth a look...and some deliberate tracking and care as to the results. This is a longer-term project, and is only one of the ways we're trying to become less dependent on "things elsewhere." Medicine can be a drain on our resources, as can doctor visits. I still have not given up hope that my Type 2 diabetes can be reversed with weight loss, eating right, exercise, and other supports. It just has to be gentle and gradual, because the ol' blood sugar goes crazy with any sudden changes :)
I'm in the process of compiling a list of the medicines we want to grow. These are as simple as white willow, the bark of which is the source of aspirin, and can be make into a tea drunk rather than taking an aspirin...and willow twigs soaked in water a few days are said to be an excellent root stimulator for starting garden and tree cuttings, too. We'll see! Jack is trimming some willows this week and we want to see if we can start some Moringa trees from cuttings.
As much as we'll devote our time and energies to cultivate open-pollinated organically-grown heirloom vegetables, indigenous trees and plants, and seek to satisfy our food needs ourselves this way, we'll also be paying attention to plants that are good at keeping ourselves and our animals and plants in top health. Everything from nectar-rich plants for bees, native grasses/seeds/forbs for grazing health, diversity in field and hedgerown plants, and collecting traditional (and sometimes "exotic-to-us") seeds, fruits, and plants...those PLUS educating ourselves about how to use plants as healthy nutritional and medicinal support are VERY much becoming our passions :)
As we have some successes, they'll be reported here, as will the flops. We look forward to years to follow in which we have surpluses of seeds and cuttings to share for free for anyone else who might want to add them to their homesteads, too!
It's so fun...it seems the plants to be discovered are endless...
Friday, April 25, 2008
We Don't Know What We're Missing
When I moved down here to join my husband four years ago, there had just been back-to-back hurricanes that decimated the area. As you might imagine, housing of any sort at that time was at a premium, since there were so many displaced families whose homes had been damaged beyond the point of live-ability. At that point, you had to pay expensive rents for the most basic four walls and a roof, and our first rental was a good example of that.
You see, I'd had the cutest of small cottages for a house in Tennessee, with walls painted in warm ochres and buttermilk shades, large vintage poster prints, bookcases with books everywhere, and open cabinets in the kitchen with neat stacks of dishware, a comfy armchair, fireplace, and a tiny dooryard garden brimming with perennials and regular hummingbird visitors. A red front door and trailing vines up the brick walls...an elderberry bush entwined with a white lilac were right outside the dining room picture window just next to the birdfeeder and its flat platform tray that had a constant entourage of mourning doves pecking for seed.
And my dog, Shadow. The best dog I ever had...ever. The most intuitive and loving and gentle part-black lab mix Heinz 57 dog, whom I still miss to THIS DAY. He would ring the string of camel bells that hung from the inside doorknob of the front door when he needed to go outside. He would sleep in the hall between my bedroom and my daughter's bedroom doors at night, our protectors. I miss Shadow!!
Shadow was one of the hardest parts of the move, the other being leaving the one place I'd lived the longest...for 14 years. After the hurricane, the ONLY place we could find to rent did not allow any animals. We appealed to the landlords for an exception, but they wouldn't budge. And the shelters in Florida were so overburdened with animals at that point that finding a temporary adoptive family for a Tennessee dog was impossible in our situation. I had to leave my dog to an adoptive family in my Tennessee town. I won't even go on further about that...it was a hard decision, and I'm still sad.
I'm not sad I joined my husband here...where he is is my home. The rental unit we found was the most run-down place I'd ever lived, but Jack did a lot to get it in order before the big move...you should have seen it before. It was a tiny, squat square of concrete blocks, painted over some decade past but not since, and the exterior looked like someone had sneezed on it...it was dingy greyish-white with huge smears of pinkish and greyish mold streaking the sides, especially anywhere the roof water ran down. The interior was not much better. The roof and fascia were infested with termites. The front windows and door were those moveable strips of glass that open outwards, but couldnt because the hardware was stripped, but still managed to leak any cool interior air right to the outside. They were a safety hazard, too...very easy to break into. The back door was a few strides from the front door, and was an ill-fitting sliding glass door, again, with broken track and easy-to-break-into latch. The kitchen cabinets and bathroom were indescribable, except to say that the only thing I've seen worse so far were the outhouses in Romanian campgrounds in 1985. These at least flushed :)
Well, Jack got in there and bleached everything, and painted many coats of fresh white paint. He repaired doors simply so they'd close, or the holes someone had put their fist through would now be filled and sanded flat and then painted. The fronts of the kitchen cabinets were so rotted, the laminate was blistered loose and hanging in strips. The insides of the cabinets were murky, sticky, filthy, and rotting. The stove had one eye that worked and the oven was burned out and had loose wiring hanging from the inside. There was a tiny sink, just enough room to put our table and sit 2 or 3 people if you didnt scoot your chair out too much, and two tiny bedrooms.
We did do the best we knew how to with it. Off came the cabinet door laminate, everything got a coat of white paint (or two or three), including all the interiors of the cabinets, and everything was fumigated. The police were out every night to the neighbor across the street who aired her romantic grievances publicly with a loud and repetitive vocabulary usually starting with the letter F, standing in her driveway throwing out the latest boyfriend. There was a pit bull chained in an empty lot directly across from us. Our front door had no doorknob and had to be pulled shut and locked each time with a key just to keep it closed.
This was our honeymoon suite :) heehee
We knew it would be temporary, and we lived there about a year.
During that time, we opted for no TV...after all, where would we put it?? The only few square feet where equipment would fit housed our computer and the paperwork for our small home business.
Living there was good for us. It taught us a lot about scaling down our possessions, and using what is most necessary. It also taught me how much I adore having a place to do laundry in my own house...now. And having a stove that works, and an oven that works, and trees to look at from the windows that DO close and a door that DOES have a doorknob :)
All that to say that an unexpected thing happened related to the TV. We kept our TV because we enjoy watching movies. But during that first year, we had no TV service because we kept thinking of that place as temporary and didn't want to get cable service hooked up until we moved elsewhere. And we couldnt get reception without cable service. Then we moved a year later to a much nicer, very clean and spacious rental (yay!), and we had become used to going without any TV reception. We opted to forgo it a bit longer, and kept using the TV just for a monitor to watch DVDs and videos now and then. That lasted a year.
Then we moved here and again, the same thing...we just don't like seeing ourselves being nickled and dimed in so many areas of our budget, and TV was one of those nickle and dime parts of our budget. So we've been without TV reception for four years now, and have seen no programs on either standard TV or cable at ALL. We have found we can check out DVDs for free from the library and get a lot of the awesome PBS documentaries and dramas as well as every sort of movie, how-to video, or musical production that way. They even have some television series...some are old re-runs and some are contemporary...all without commercials.
We haven't tried Netflix yet, simply because we haven't exhausted all the good stuff we can check out for free at the library here. We are not non-TV watchers, if you count the TV as a monitor only rather than getting regular reception. But when we want to watch something, it's deliberate...we put something in when we want to watch that specific thing.
What I didn't realize was that I'm not being brainwashed to buy products, to think of myself as "deserving" of this and that consumer retail item, to eat fast food or restaurant food, to compare my body to those of airbrushed supermodels, to buy certain brands of trendy toys/foods/healthcare items/gadgets, and I don't have any idea what the cutting edge is in fashion or home decor.
When we want the news, we listen to radio and look for ourselves at any newspaper in the world on the internet.
We miss the constant barrage of these things...though I'd never have thought of them as such:
1. fear-mongering
2. manipulation of the news facts
3. vulnerability to trends...be it economic, fashion, healthcare, travel, consuming
4. being told to buy buy buy certain products
5. being told we're deprived if we don't buy those things
The constant stimulation to buy things came SO often through the TV! And now that it's missing, I marvel that I'm so much more resistant when I do hear the advertisements...after all, it's so constant on things such as the TV that we often tune them out but don't recognize how automatically those repetitious product-hawkers replay in our heads...the catchy jingles and slogas and visual images DO effectively advertise....EVERYTHING.
I'm very very sobered by what's happening in the world. We are taking action in small ways, and sometimes bigger ways, for our own family in response to those. But there's a big BIG difference in now and THEN
I realize that the constant barrage we used to have, mostly through the TV but also from other places, produces a REACTION rather than a thoughtful responsive action. There is a difference.
It just dawned on me today that we don't know what we're missing, and that's why we don't feel like simplifying, reducing, becoming wiser in the ways we work or spend or buy or create or interact or recreate...any of these things...are something extraordinarily "abnormal." We turned off the noise. Now we can think. Even if we don't think MORE than we used to, we're not distracted by all the "noise" of advertising, of suggestion. We have underestimated just how effective that noise was. When it was turned off, we didnt lose our ability to unwind by snuggling up on the couch with a good movie...we lost the voices telling us we were discontent and needed something better or something more, or told us WHAT something we should consider.
I think the constant barrage of all that noise, not only from advertisers on TV but also the frenetic pace of the corporate world and its set up of disconnects, is an overload. When in any area it is quieted for a length of time, things sort of settle into a peacefulness (not complacency) that comes as a sense of relief. Even with all the other demands and deadlines, removing one or two major contributors of that constant advertising or other "urgency" can bring some balance.
I realized today I have no idea what the trendy toys are...you know, the ones everyone HAS to have for holidays or birthdays or because the updated one just came out. I have NO idea what is even on TV! I can't really be an informed small-talker in conversation when it comes to these things...I never saw a single episode (or sometimes even HEARD of) most of the TV programs that are on now. For example, I Googled favorite TV programs, and here's the list of the ones they consider the most popular:
One Tree Hill Don't know this one.
America's Next Top Model Never seen, but surely it's self-explanatory.
Dancing with the Stars Same here.
Gossip Girl Never heard of. Went through enough dramas like this when my daughter was in junior high...no appeal to me now, ha!
Big Brother 9 George Orwell? Haven't heard of this one.
American Idol This was around before we went no-TV-reception. I sometimes watch youtube clips.
Biggest Loser I'm aware of what this one is. Wish I could be on it! Not sure I'd want a million people watching me get on a scale at ANY weight, though :)
Grey's Anatomy Never seen. Have heard of.
High School Musical 2 Never heard of, never seen.
Rock of Love This one has me mystified. Alcatraz has built some honeymoon cabins? A fundraiser concert for third world hunger?
NCIS No idea what this is.
House A lot of folks I know like this. I still don't know what it is.
Lost Saw the pilot a few years back. Then I moved to Florida and any further recollection of this show is...lost :)
Hannah Montana I have no idea. Is this the 2000's answer to the "Blossom" of the 90s?
Smallville The opposite of Megalopolis? Never seen.
Before you feel sorry for me and write me off as a culturally-deficient freak (which I may be! :)), remember...
I haven't known what I'm missing!
The only reason I know what tapas is is because I sometimes read foodie blogs. But because I haven't been TOLD what I should think is the latest and greatest thing to read/drink/eat/watch/listen to/buy/believe I also have an interest in learning to cook some dishes that are Moroccan, Mexican, Native American, fermented, Middle Eastern, Indian, raw, juiced, local, heirloom and open pollinated, unprocessed, and without packaging. I want to learn to cook flatbreads and grind my own grain for bread I knead myself. And to make my own butter.
And these are some of the things on my Wish List...which I may or may not get someday, but if I do it'll be because they're something that'll be thought out and be a nice "fit" for our family over the longer-term, and not end up in a yard sale six months later, or thrown away.....
1. Chickens
2. A few hand garden tools
3. Tons and tons of poop ...for tons and tons of compost!
4. A worm bin and worms
5. A top bar beehive
6. A whole ginormous plot of heirloom tomatoes
7. Red clover sown everywhere nothing else is growing
8. Bee plants, tucked in everywhere
9. A canner and pressure canner
10. Sheep
11. A Welsh cob
12. A farm dog or dogs
13. Herbs for our health
14. Homemade soap
15. A clothesline of clean laundry
16. Some canvas and paints, to get back into painting
17. Lots of visits from friends to cook for and enjoy!
18. Two milk cows
19. Some beef cattle
20. Did I mention chickens?? :) :)
oh and
21. LAND, any amount small or large, that allows us to have chickens, cow, and bees.
and possibly, if miracles ever occurred
22. have children with this husband I adore; yes, even at this age :)
(That's up to God. I havent been able to have any more children since my daughter was born two decades ago)
Anyway, we've gained by not being told what we're missing.
What we NOW think we're missing has changed to what better represents our own individuality, need, and contents us best. We desire skills, time together, and the lasso tightening to draw all our efforts home rather than dispersing us.
Maybe be not being told what we're missing, we now know that what we have is sufficient, and we are happy keeping it that simple. Sufficiency is a vital and living thing...not deprivation or poverty mentality. Change is constant, and we need to change many things. Now we can think more clearly about what those should continue being, without the distraction and constant interruption. We can be a vital community member, connected to each other in many ways, and still nurture a quietness of mind a little bit freer of marketing/advertising overload. Things become clearer, and we can ponder solutions and not be so wearied by the frenetic. And we can think for ourselves, because we should. We don't have to rely on a steady diet of being told statistics of how everyone else thinks, buys, and lives.
OK, this has run long...too long!
I am missing a couple hours of sleep on this, my day off...so I'm off to collect 'em while I can! There's a whole To Do list for the busy, busy afternoon...
I have really been enjoying reading so many of your blog posts recently...SO enjoyable! I appreciate the other bloggers and readers "out here" so much...thank you!
You see, I'd had the cutest of small cottages for a house in Tennessee, with walls painted in warm ochres and buttermilk shades, large vintage poster prints, bookcases with books everywhere, and open cabinets in the kitchen with neat stacks of dishware, a comfy armchair, fireplace, and a tiny dooryard garden brimming with perennials and regular hummingbird visitors. A red front door and trailing vines up the brick walls...an elderberry bush entwined with a white lilac were right outside the dining room picture window just next to the birdfeeder and its flat platform tray that had a constant entourage of mourning doves pecking for seed.
And my dog, Shadow. The best dog I ever had...ever. The most intuitive and loving and gentle part-black lab mix Heinz 57 dog, whom I still miss to THIS DAY. He would ring the string of camel bells that hung from the inside doorknob of the front door when he needed to go outside. He would sleep in the hall between my bedroom and my daughter's bedroom doors at night, our protectors. I miss Shadow!!
Shadow was one of the hardest parts of the move, the other being leaving the one place I'd lived the longest...for 14 years. After the hurricane, the ONLY place we could find to rent did not allow any animals. We appealed to the landlords for an exception, but they wouldn't budge. And the shelters in Florida were so overburdened with animals at that point that finding a temporary adoptive family for a Tennessee dog was impossible in our situation. I had to leave my dog to an adoptive family in my Tennessee town. I won't even go on further about that...it was a hard decision, and I'm still sad.
I'm not sad I joined my husband here...where he is is my home. The rental unit we found was the most run-down place I'd ever lived, but Jack did a lot to get it in order before the big move...you should have seen it before. It was a tiny, squat square of concrete blocks, painted over some decade past but not since, and the exterior looked like someone had sneezed on it...it was dingy greyish-white with huge smears of pinkish and greyish mold streaking the sides, especially anywhere the roof water ran down. The interior was not much better. The roof and fascia were infested with termites. The front windows and door were those moveable strips of glass that open outwards, but couldnt because the hardware was stripped, but still managed to leak any cool interior air right to the outside. They were a safety hazard, too...very easy to break into. The back door was a few strides from the front door, and was an ill-fitting sliding glass door, again, with broken track and easy-to-break-into latch. The kitchen cabinets and bathroom were indescribable, except to say that the only thing I've seen worse so far were the outhouses in Romanian campgrounds in 1985. These at least flushed :)
Well, Jack got in there and bleached everything, and painted many coats of fresh white paint. He repaired doors simply so they'd close, or the holes someone had put their fist through would now be filled and sanded flat and then painted. The fronts of the kitchen cabinets were so rotted, the laminate was blistered loose and hanging in strips. The insides of the cabinets were murky, sticky, filthy, and rotting. The stove had one eye that worked and the oven was burned out and had loose wiring hanging from the inside. There was a tiny sink, just enough room to put our table and sit 2 or 3 people if you didnt scoot your chair out too much, and two tiny bedrooms.
We did do the best we knew how to with it. Off came the cabinet door laminate, everything got a coat of white paint (or two or three), including all the interiors of the cabinets, and everything was fumigated. The police were out every night to the neighbor across the street who aired her romantic grievances publicly with a loud and repetitive vocabulary usually starting with the letter F, standing in her driveway throwing out the latest boyfriend. There was a pit bull chained in an empty lot directly across from us. Our front door had no doorknob and had to be pulled shut and locked each time with a key just to keep it closed.
This was our honeymoon suite :) heehee
We knew it would be temporary, and we lived there about a year.
During that time, we opted for no TV...after all, where would we put it?? The only few square feet where equipment would fit housed our computer and the paperwork for our small home business.
Living there was good for us. It taught us a lot about scaling down our possessions, and using what is most necessary. It also taught me how much I adore having a place to do laundry in my own house...now. And having a stove that works, and an oven that works, and trees to look at from the windows that DO close and a door that DOES have a doorknob :)
All that to say that an unexpected thing happened related to the TV. We kept our TV because we enjoy watching movies. But during that first year, we had no TV service because we kept thinking of that place as temporary and didn't want to get cable service hooked up until we moved elsewhere. And we couldnt get reception without cable service. Then we moved a year later to a much nicer, very clean and spacious rental (yay!), and we had become used to going without any TV reception. We opted to forgo it a bit longer, and kept using the TV just for a monitor to watch DVDs and videos now and then. That lasted a year.
Then we moved here and again, the same thing...we just don't like seeing ourselves being nickled and dimed in so many areas of our budget, and TV was one of those nickle and dime parts of our budget. So we've been without TV reception for four years now, and have seen no programs on either standard TV or cable at ALL. We have found we can check out DVDs for free from the library and get a lot of the awesome PBS documentaries and dramas as well as every sort of movie, how-to video, or musical production that way. They even have some television series...some are old re-runs and some are contemporary...all without commercials.
We haven't tried Netflix yet, simply because we haven't exhausted all the good stuff we can check out for free at the library here. We are not non-TV watchers, if you count the TV as a monitor only rather than getting regular reception. But when we want to watch something, it's deliberate...we put something in when we want to watch that specific thing.
What I didn't realize was that I'm not being brainwashed to buy products, to think of myself as "deserving" of this and that consumer retail item, to eat fast food or restaurant food, to compare my body to those of airbrushed supermodels, to buy certain brands of trendy toys/foods/healthcare items/gadgets, and I don't have any idea what the cutting edge is in fashion or home decor.
When we want the news, we listen to radio and look for ourselves at any newspaper in the world on the internet.
We miss the constant barrage of these things...though I'd never have thought of them as such:
1. fear-mongering
2. manipulation of the news facts
3. vulnerability to trends...be it economic, fashion, healthcare, travel, consuming
4. being told to buy buy buy certain products
5. being told we're deprived if we don't buy those things
The constant stimulation to buy things came SO often through the TV! And now that it's missing, I marvel that I'm so much more resistant when I do hear the advertisements...after all, it's so constant on things such as the TV that we often tune them out but don't recognize how automatically those repetitious product-hawkers replay in our heads...the catchy jingles and slogas and visual images DO effectively advertise....EVERYTHING.
I'm very very sobered by what's happening in the world. We are taking action in small ways, and sometimes bigger ways, for our own family in response to those. But there's a big BIG difference in now and THEN
I realize that the constant barrage we used to have, mostly through the TV but also from other places, produces a REACTION rather than a thoughtful responsive action. There is a difference.
It just dawned on me today that we don't know what we're missing, and that's why we don't feel like simplifying, reducing, becoming wiser in the ways we work or spend or buy or create or interact or recreate...any of these things...are something extraordinarily "abnormal." We turned off the noise. Now we can think. Even if we don't think MORE than we used to, we're not distracted by all the "noise" of advertising, of suggestion. We have underestimated just how effective that noise was. When it was turned off, we didnt lose our ability to unwind by snuggling up on the couch with a good movie...we lost the voices telling us we were discontent and needed something better or something more, or told us WHAT something we should consider.
I think the constant barrage of all that noise, not only from advertisers on TV but also the frenetic pace of the corporate world and its set up of disconnects, is an overload. When in any area it is quieted for a length of time, things sort of settle into a peacefulness (not complacency) that comes as a sense of relief. Even with all the other demands and deadlines, removing one or two major contributors of that constant advertising or other "urgency" can bring some balance.
I realized today I have no idea what the trendy toys are...you know, the ones everyone HAS to have for holidays or birthdays or because the updated one just came out. I have NO idea what is even on TV! I can't really be an informed small-talker in conversation when it comes to these things...I never saw a single episode (or sometimes even HEARD of) most of the TV programs that are on now. For example, I Googled favorite TV programs, and here's the list of the ones they consider the most popular:
One Tree Hill Don't know this one.
America's Next Top Model Never seen, but surely it's self-explanatory.
Dancing with the Stars Same here.
Gossip Girl Never heard of. Went through enough dramas like this when my daughter was in junior high...no appeal to me now, ha!
Big Brother 9 George Orwell? Haven't heard of this one.
American Idol This was around before we went no-TV-reception. I sometimes watch youtube clips.
Biggest Loser I'm aware of what this one is. Wish I could be on it! Not sure I'd want a million people watching me get on a scale at ANY weight, though :)
Grey's Anatomy Never seen. Have heard of.
High School Musical 2 Never heard of, never seen.
Rock of Love This one has me mystified. Alcatraz has built some honeymoon cabins? A fundraiser concert for third world hunger?
NCIS No idea what this is.
House A lot of folks I know like this. I still don't know what it is.
Lost Saw the pilot a few years back. Then I moved to Florida and any further recollection of this show is...lost :)
Hannah Montana I have no idea. Is this the 2000's answer to the "Blossom" of the 90s?
Smallville The opposite of Megalopolis? Never seen.
Before you feel sorry for me and write me off as a culturally-deficient freak (which I may be! :)), remember...
I haven't known what I'm missing!
The only reason I know what tapas is is because I sometimes read foodie blogs. But because I haven't been TOLD what I should think is the latest and greatest thing to read/drink/eat/watch/listen to/buy/believe I also have an interest in learning to cook some dishes that are Moroccan, Mexican, Native American, fermented, Middle Eastern, Indian, raw, juiced, local, heirloom and open pollinated, unprocessed, and without packaging. I want to learn to cook flatbreads and grind my own grain for bread I knead myself. And to make my own butter.
And these are some of the things on my Wish List...which I may or may not get someday, but if I do it'll be because they're something that'll be thought out and be a nice "fit" for our family over the longer-term, and not end up in a yard sale six months later, or thrown away.....
1. Chickens
2. A few hand garden tools
3. Tons and tons of poop ...for tons and tons of compost!
4. A worm bin and worms
5. A top bar beehive
6. A whole ginormous plot of heirloom tomatoes
7. Red clover sown everywhere nothing else is growing
8. Bee plants, tucked in everywhere
9. A canner and pressure canner
10. Sheep
11. A Welsh cob
12. A farm dog or dogs
13. Herbs for our health
14. Homemade soap
15. A clothesline of clean laundry
16. Some canvas and paints, to get back into painting
17. Lots of visits from friends to cook for and enjoy!
18. Two milk cows
19. Some beef cattle
20. Did I mention chickens?? :) :)
oh and
21. LAND, any amount small or large, that allows us to have chickens, cow, and bees.
and possibly, if miracles ever occurred
22. have children with this husband I adore; yes, even at this age :)
(That's up to God. I havent been able to have any more children since my daughter was born two decades ago)
Anyway, we've gained by not being told what we're missing.
What we NOW think we're missing has changed to what better represents our own individuality, need, and contents us best. We desire skills, time together, and the lasso tightening to draw all our efforts home rather than dispersing us.
Maybe be not being told what we're missing, we now know that what we have is sufficient, and we are happy keeping it that simple. Sufficiency is a vital and living thing...not deprivation or poverty mentality. Change is constant, and we need to change many things. Now we can think more clearly about what those should continue being, without the distraction and constant interruption. We can be a vital community member, connected to each other in many ways, and still nurture a quietness of mind a little bit freer of marketing/advertising overload. Things become clearer, and we can ponder solutions and not be so wearied by the frenetic. And we can think for ourselves, because we should. We don't have to rely on a steady diet of being told statistics of how everyone else thinks, buys, and lives.
OK, this has run long...too long!
I am missing a couple hours of sleep on this, my day off...so I'm off to collect 'em while I can! There's a whole To Do list for the busy, busy afternoon...
I have really been enjoying reading so many of your blog posts recently...SO enjoyable! I appreciate the other bloggers and readers "out here" so much...thank you!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Raw Milk Restrictions, Raw Nerve
Here they are. Here are the villains at Organic Pastures Dairy. Remember, it's a crime to provide clean food straight from grass to cow to consumer any more. It's a crime to drink a glass of untampered milk.
Also remember that everyone else wants a piece of the pie, especially all interests "protected" by the FDA and to get that, well...you need to legislate the dickens out of any bovine operation focused more on knee-deep pastures than bureaucracy. Well, that, and the fact that for some reason, too many Americans have swallowed the brainwashing that everything, yea everything that gets consumed in our slickly-marketed and commercialized world HAS to be processed, or something is just...well...not normal, right?
...Ahem...
In 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1735 into law. This was a blow to consumer choice in his state, relating to raw milk.
See a video protesting that move (below)
Recently, it would appear the raw milk dairies are under a concentrated and stepped-up attack from government authorities who "milk" this opportunity for all it's worth to prey on the public's ignorance of the role of healthy bacteria and raw foods on human health -- and the endemic modern disconnect/ignorance of the progression of any of our basic foods from pasture to dinner plate.
We need to wake up and insist upon our own right to determine what goes on our plates and how it is raised. It's more than a red flag waving when government regulation insists on being the decision maker FOR us, and criminalizes we the public for exercising our own basic human right to choose and control our own foods.
We can NOT let this one go, folks. If we allow any bureaucracy to make these choices FOR US, it's no longer our government, but rather our Big Brother.
The raw milk issue is just one of many important issues. Yet it is fundamental. We must not allow the system to self-perpetuate a runaway algae bloom of legislation designed to feed the corporate interest machine, at the expense of losing our individualism and innovation (not to mention independence and Yank ingenuity).
Here is a good article from the Boston Globe about this issue. Anyone who has experienced the joy of unadulterated foods, including raw milk, knows that we must preserve our right to raise them, AND purchase them freely.
If you have a local dairy providing sumptuous pasture and producing a superior raw milk product, befriend them! They are likely good folks who are quietly and steadfastly swimming against the tide of mass agribusiness and its hydra clones.
Here's Greenwood Farms website, a Missouri farm page I ran across during a web search. They, like many other dairies, have responded to the consumer demand for raw milk. Those look like some really contented Jersey cows!
Mmmmm... now I'm craving a creamy glass of cold milk :)
Also remember that everyone else wants a piece of the pie, especially all interests "protected" by the FDA and to get that, well...you need to legislate the dickens out of any bovine operation focused more on knee-deep pastures than bureaucracy. Well, that, and the fact that for some reason, too many Americans have swallowed the brainwashing that everything, yea everything that gets consumed in our slickly-marketed and commercialized world HAS to be processed, or something is just...well...not normal, right?
...Ahem...
In 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1735 into law. This was a blow to consumer choice in his state, relating to raw milk.
See a video protesting that move (below)
Recently, it would appear the raw milk dairies are under a concentrated and stepped-up attack from government authorities who "milk" this opportunity for all it's worth to prey on the public's ignorance of the role of healthy bacteria and raw foods on human health -- and the endemic modern disconnect/ignorance of the progression of any of our basic foods from pasture to dinner plate.
We need to wake up and insist upon our own right to determine what goes on our plates and how it is raised. It's more than a red flag waving when government regulation insists on being the decision maker FOR us, and criminalizes we the public for exercising our own basic human right to choose and control our own foods.
We can NOT let this one go, folks. If we allow any bureaucracy to make these choices FOR US, it's no longer our government, but rather our Big Brother.
The raw milk issue is just one of many important issues. Yet it is fundamental. We must not allow the system to self-perpetuate a runaway algae bloom of legislation designed to feed the corporate interest machine, at the expense of losing our individualism and innovation (not to mention independence and Yank ingenuity).
Here is a good article from the Boston Globe about this issue. Anyone who has experienced the joy of unadulterated foods, including raw milk, knows that we must preserve our right to raise them, AND purchase them freely.
If you have a local dairy providing sumptuous pasture and producing a superior raw milk product, befriend them! They are likely good folks who are quietly and steadfastly swimming against the tide of mass agribusiness and its hydra clones.
Here's Greenwood Farms website, a Missouri farm page I ran across during a web search. They, like many other dairies, have responded to the consumer demand for raw milk. Those look like some really contented Jersey cows!
Mmmmm... now I'm craving a creamy glass of cold milk :)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Real Milk
On Wednesday, February 2008, I had my first glass of real unadulterated milk.
I did not contract a dread disease, nor drop dead. I drank it to the last drop. My family drank the whole container to the last drop. I can say that we are still hale and healthy, and perhaps even a tad healthier.
Just letting you know.
Now I'm ruined for any other sort.
I did not contract a dread disease, nor drop dead. I drank it to the last drop. My family drank the whole container to the last drop. I can say that we are still hale and healthy, and perhaps even a tad healthier.
Just letting you know.
Now I'm ruined for any other sort.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Can't Get Around It
NAIS.
Genetically modified plants.
Transgenic and cloned animals.
Nationally mandated personal "smart chip" I.D. cards for all citizens.
Chicken meat with human DNA.
Sheep milk with pharmaceuticals genetically engineered into it.
There arises a common denominator...... ETHICS. Our world has become less gentle and we cannot gently withdraw from the encroaching issues. They directly affect us all.
No matter who we are, what our faith, what our lifestyle, sooner or later (now, sooner)...something we touch or eat or drink or breathe or wear or use will require our awareness....and our ethical choice.
There is an interesting phenomenon with all this supposed broadening of new "advances"...the parameters of our choice and voice in relation to those "advances" are narrowing.
Follow the money. Where there is pharmaceutically-engineered DNA milk (or whatever the official word for that is), there is a pharmaceutical company, with "research," and with hands tightly clasping the mainstream medical community, and big buck lobbyists.
BEFORE buying the "this will help Granny live to age 150," or "this will regenerate limbs," or "this will wipe out (name the terminal condition)," don't we need to look at who's shouting loudest...you know, the ones BEHIND the REAL people being sold the "sure cure" arguments? It infuriates me that victims of horrible illnesses are being used for mad science to peddle arguments for cures to the public, when really it's really all about engineering a whole new market and marketplace for the BIG MONOPOLIES.
It's not the little guy who's benefitting here. And despite the promises of a medical Utopia, does the chance at manipulating this symptom and that condition justify creating an environment resulting in resistant-strains and super-plagues that could wipe out whole populations? And confusing the purity of animal and human DNA by crossing the boundaries built in to begin with?
Ethics is not just a college course or the domain of seminary students. Somehow, there has to be right and wrong, and a right WAY and a wrong WAY.
What happens when these altered genetics begin filtering through the entire creation as we know it??
We have to decide what our standard is, and how it is to be interpreted for our day. It's not a matter of theory. It's a matter of our survival.
We believe, we act. We live according to a code, a standard, a defining point...even having no code is its own code.
I'll be looking in the Torah to see what it says about these things. We're seeing what happens when some of the most basic boundaries are transgressed deliberately by man's arrogance. I need to study more, and see the instructions in the texts specific to these issues. When it says the instructions in the scriptures are life-giving, I'm beginning to understand just how much that's not just a convenient metaphor.
Genetically modified plants.
Transgenic and cloned animals.
Nationally mandated personal "smart chip" I.D. cards for all citizens.
Chicken meat with human DNA.
Sheep milk with pharmaceuticals genetically engineered into it.
There arises a common denominator...... ETHICS. Our world has become less gentle and we cannot gently withdraw from the encroaching issues. They directly affect us all.
No matter who we are, what our faith, what our lifestyle, sooner or later (now, sooner)...something we touch or eat or drink or breathe or wear or use will require our awareness....and our ethical choice.
There is an interesting phenomenon with all this supposed broadening of new "advances"...the parameters of our choice and voice in relation to those "advances" are narrowing.
Follow the money. Where there is pharmaceutically-engineered DNA milk (or whatever the official word for that is), there is a pharmaceutical company, with "research," and with hands tightly clasping the mainstream medical community, and big buck lobbyists.
BEFORE buying the "this will help Granny live to age 150," or "this will regenerate limbs," or "this will wipe out (name the terminal condition)," don't we need to look at who's shouting loudest...you know, the ones BEHIND the REAL people being sold the "sure cure" arguments? It infuriates me that victims of horrible illnesses are being used for mad science to peddle arguments for cures to the public, when really it's really all about engineering a whole new market and marketplace for the BIG MONOPOLIES.
It's not the little guy who's benefitting here. And despite the promises of a medical Utopia, does the chance at manipulating this symptom and that condition justify creating an environment resulting in resistant-strains and super-plagues that could wipe out whole populations? And confusing the purity of animal and human DNA by crossing the boundaries built in to begin with?
Ethics is not just a college course or the domain of seminary students. Somehow, there has to be right and wrong, and a right WAY and a wrong WAY.
What happens when these altered genetics begin filtering through the entire creation as we know it??
We have to decide what our standard is, and how it is to be interpreted for our day. It's not a matter of theory. It's a matter of our survival.
We believe, we act. We live according to a code, a standard, a defining point...even having no code is its own code.
I'll be looking in the Torah to see what it says about these things. We're seeing what happens when some of the most basic boundaries are transgressed deliberately by man's arrogance. I need to study more, and see the instructions in the texts specific to these issues. When it says the instructions in the scriptures are life-giving, I'm beginning to understand just how much that's not just a convenient metaphor.
Monday, January 21, 2008
A Whole New Meaning to the Phrase "Radio Programming"
I've heard it now multiple times, and that's saying alot since we're very media-minimalist around here...we don't get TV broadcasts and seldom listen to the radio except when in the car.
Even so, now I've heard this multiple times. Remember the good ol' "public service announcements"? Something critical it was timely to air via radio waves for the public good??
Who out there besides myself has heard the recent "public service announcement" (that's what they're calling it!) called "a Bio-genetic Minute"??
A man's soothing voice introduces the topic of bio-genetics by reassuring The Public that genetic altering has been happening now for thousands of years, and that the recent "advances" in science have allowed for remarkable strides in producing foods that are resistant to all those baaad badddd things out there. Biogenetics good! Resistance to Progress bad!!!
SHEESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It infuritates me!!!
THAT on top of the announcement I heard yesterday that just this week The U.S. food regulator this week sanctioned cloned foods (See article HERE)
GROSS.........
This is the SUBSTANCE production from cloned matter born of chemical soups, and transgenic animals (Transgenic animals, i.e., engineered to carry genes from other species)
I'll elaborate more soon, but our futuristic nightmares compound daily. Exponentially out of control.
Something has to be done. Is it too late??
One thing we can do. We can be the resistance who refuses to participate as much as possible, mostly by taking control of our OWN consumption and production by getting our hands on our OWN food and growing it ourselves. Until that becomes somehow against the law...
Even so, now I've heard this multiple times. Remember the good ol' "public service announcements"? Something critical it was timely to air via radio waves for the public good??
Who out there besides myself has heard the recent "public service announcement" (that's what they're calling it!) called "a Bio-genetic Minute"??
A man's soothing voice introduces the topic of bio-genetics by reassuring The Public that genetic altering has been happening now for thousands of years, and that the recent "advances" in science have allowed for remarkable strides in producing foods that are resistant to all those baaad badddd things out there. Biogenetics good! Resistance to Progress bad!!!
SHEESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It infuritates me!!!
THAT on top of the announcement I heard yesterday that just this week The U.S. food regulator this week sanctioned cloned foods (See article HERE)
GROSS.........
This is the SUBSTANCE production from cloned matter born of chemical soups, and transgenic animals (Transgenic animals, i.e., engineered to carry genes from other species)
I'll elaborate more soon, but our futuristic nightmares compound daily. Exponentially out of control.
Something has to be done. Is it too late??
One thing we can do. We can be the resistance who refuses to participate as much as possible, mostly by taking control of our OWN consumption and production by getting our hands on our OWN food and growing it ourselves. Until that becomes somehow against the law...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Black Market Hay
What the hay??
Is this the beginning of the great "Hay Underground"?? ( sheesh, wish that were funny)
I just learned that the ol' 'voluntary" NAIS has been successful in certain locales in stepping things up in myriad ways to enforce the "VOLUNTARY" registration of premises IDs...this time by dangling the tantalizing (er, survival-ensuring) prospect of hay to those areas severely affected by last year's drought...TO..you heard it right...ONLY farms whose premises are registered. Uh huh.
Don't think these are harmless regulations. It means you DON'T get the hay UNLESS you register your farm premises. That's sort of like having to show your drivers license to buy food with cash, isnt it? Except with your drivers license they can't pull up a data base with a list of all the animals you own and all your movements on and off your property with said animals, tracking them by microchip. Yet.
You can't have hay for your animals unless you MANDATORILY sign up VOLUNTARILY???
Read Phelan's article about this here.
And if you have some hay for sale, see if any of your unregistered farming neighbors could use it...
Is this the beginning of the great "Hay Underground"?? ( sheesh, wish that were funny)
I just learned that the ol' 'voluntary" NAIS has been successful in certain locales in stepping things up in myriad ways to enforce the "VOLUNTARY" registration of premises IDs...this time by dangling the tantalizing (er, survival-ensuring) prospect of hay to those areas severely affected by last year's drought...TO..you heard it right...ONLY farms whose premises are registered. Uh huh.
Don't think these are harmless regulations. It means you DON'T get the hay UNLESS you register your farm premises. That's sort of like having to show your drivers license to buy food with cash, isnt it? Except with your drivers license they can't pull up a data base with a list of all the animals you own and all your movements on and off your property with said animals, tracking them by microchip. Yet.
You can't have hay for your animals unless you MANDATORILY sign up VOLUNTARILY???
Read Phelan's article about this here.
And if you have some hay for sale, see if any of your unregistered farming neighbors could use it...
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Of Meat Labeling, Red WalMart, and the NAIS, or Why I Don't Understand Politics and its Various Permutations
The Country of Origin Labeling Issue:
Consumers are demanding to know the origin of their meats, rather than accepting imported product from countries not identified on the packaging. This isn't a bad thing. We should be able to read a label and be informed, without having to blindly "trust" the middleman, especially the larger ones, such as WalMart, who do NOT "buy American" to the degree promised in the eighties. The 2002 Farm bill proposed country of origin (COOL) labeling for the sake of consumer awareness. The 2007 Farm Bill was supposed to have decided the particulars, yet it lingers in legislative limbo now till sometime in 2008. There is currently a lot of debate about this issue and its implications, since it's directly related to marketing rather than simply being a food safety issue. A bit more on this later in the post...
Buy WalMart...Buy Chinese
WalMart cares. About how consumer perception affects their bottom line. Sometimes.
Maybe not, though, in the meat labeling debate. You have to ask yourself WHY would they want to stand in the way of something as elemental as knowing the origin of that package of meat?
Let's talk about their consistency of message ...if that phrase can be applied at all.
I'm continually disenchanted with the proliferation of the WalMart empire and its departure from its earlier promises of "Buying American." WalMart makes no apologies for being one of the biggest suppliers of products "Made in China." I defy anyone to visit any aisle of WalMart and tally foreign-made goods against domestic ones.
I question why a company that superficially purports to be free-trade and America-friendly is one of the biggest customers of communist Red China, hardly an American ally. Isn't this a type of sleeping with the enemy? Why would our government allow this, and what with the ongoing human rights violations such as child and slave labor in China, again, why are companies like WalMart allowed to help perpetuate such a system? These are DIRTY DOLLARS.
I'm not particularly liberal. I am a regular citizen sickened by the greed machine. Since when do we BENEFIT by buying as cheaply as possible from countries that are committed to our demise?? (Hello, when did China become our best friend? Hello, aren't we supposed to be protecting ourselves even more in this era of vulnerability?)
And can someone remind me why, WHY we cannot be manufacturing our OWN consumer goods right here, where JOBS ARE NEEDED? Why are we fostering a dependence on other nations at the expense of our own citizens? This makes no sense to me. Therefore, I do not understand the politics of it. I know the answer is related somehow to money. I just can't figure out why it can't be protected...to center around American jobs and manufacturing rather than outsourcing. Why can an American housewife not hire a housekeeper, nanny, or landscaper to work below a certain wage and yet we will feed the WalMart machine to the tune of pennies an hour for child labor? Like I said, I don't understand politics.
Is a cheap set of frying pans and a drawerful of gym socks TRULY worth CHEAPENING our own workplaces, forcing out specialized and local business, and supporting a communist-based regime that flaunts ALL the international human rights laws regularly? Where is the return for this enormous sell-out? All I see 17 years later is that it's a joke even to WalMart itself to pretend its objectives are even remotely similar to those of the 1980s.
Oops. Soapbox. Back to the labeling dialogue.
Here's a little excerpt from WalMartWatch.com about the COOL issue:
So What Does This Have to do With the National Animal Identification Issue?
I'm not exactly well-versed these things, but in reading about the debated COOL amendments to the Farm Bill, the word "cost" seems to be what's under negotiation. In answer to the question, "Just how much could it possibly cost to slap an accurate Country of Origin label on a package of meat?" we have to look at how they want to determine its origins. Does any of this sound familiar?
For the complete article, go here
Like I said, I'm not savvy as an issues commentator. But doesn't this seem to be directly connected to the push by the government to register farms and identify all animals? Wouldn't this issue directly affect the push to make such a system mandatory? Wouldn't it potentially tie the hands of non-registered farms when it comes to marketing and selling their products, if the NAIS regulations are instituted and enforced in conjunction with the proposed Country of Origin Labeling changes?
I'm all for knowing the country of origin for the meat and fish we buy. I don't want WalMart multinational mystery meat, because I don't trust WalMart and their like. I also don't want to stump for a change that will be used as a convenient platform to cement NAIS regulations and seem to make it mainstream and "necessary", removing it from voluntary to mandatory status.
Just thoughts...
I wish I had a more politically savvy brain on these issues. Every issue seems to have its complexities with different groups trying to smuggle aboard their own pet special interests.
Not sure how to reconcile these simple thoughts:
WalMart...bad.
Labeling packaged meat's country of origin...good.
Using mandatory labeling of packaged meats as a means to mandate national identification regulations...ugh.
Are these really related? Any thoughts?
Consumers are demanding to know the origin of their meats, rather than accepting imported product from countries not identified on the packaging. This isn't a bad thing. We should be able to read a label and be informed, without having to blindly "trust" the middleman, especially the larger ones, such as WalMart, who do NOT "buy American" to the degree promised in the eighties. The 2002 Farm bill proposed country of origin (COOL) labeling for the sake of consumer awareness. The 2007 Farm Bill was supposed to have decided the particulars, yet it lingers in legislative limbo now till sometime in 2008. There is currently a lot of debate about this issue and its implications, since it's directly related to marketing rather than simply being a food safety issue. A bit more on this later in the post...
Buy WalMart...Buy Chinese
WalMart cares. About how consumer perception affects their bottom line. Sometimes.
Maybe not, though, in the meat labeling debate. You have to ask yourself WHY would they want to stand in the way of something as elemental as knowing the origin of that package of meat?
Let's talk about their consistency of message ...if that phrase can be applied at all.
I'm continually disenchanted with the proliferation of the WalMart empire and its departure from its earlier promises of "Buying American." WalMart makes no apologies for being one of the biggest suppliers of products "Made in China." I defy anyone to visit any aisle of WalMart and tally foreign-made goods against domestic ones.
I question why a company that superficially purports to be free-trade and America-friendly is one of the biggest customers of communist Red China, hardly an American ally. Isn't this a type of sleeping with the enemy? Why would our government allow this, and what with the ongoing human rights violations such as child and slave labor in China, again, why are companies like WalMart allowed to help perpetuate such a system? These are DIRTY DOLLARS.
I'm not particularly liberal. I am a regular citizen sickened by the greed machine. Since when do we BENEFIT by buying as cheaply as possible from countries that are committed to our demise?? (Hello, when did China become our best friend? Hello, aren't we supposed to be protecting ourselves even more in this era of vulnerability?)
And can someone remind me why, WHY we cannot be manufacturing our OWN consumer goods right here, where JOBS ARE NEEDED? Why are we fostering a dependence on other nations at the expense of our own citizens? This makes no sense to me. Therefore, I do not understand the politics of it. I know the answer is related somehow to money. I just can't figure out why it can't be protected...to center around American jobs and manufacturing rather than outsourcing. Why can an American housewife not hire a housekeeper, nanny, or landscaper to work below a certain wage and yet we will feed the WalMart machine to the tune of pennies an hour for child labor? Like I said, I don't understand politics.
Is a cheap set of frying pans and a drawerful of gym socks TRULY worth CHEAPENING our own workplaces, forcing out specialized and local business, and supporting a communist-based regime that flaunts ALL the international human rights laws regularly? Where is the return for this enormous sell-out? All I see 17 years later is that it's a joke even to WalMart itself to pretend its objectives are even remotely similar to those of the 1980s.
Oops. Soapbox. Back to the labeling dialogue.
Here's a little excerpt from WalMartWatch.com about the COOL issue:
To read their full article go hereCountry of Origin Labeling
Wal-Mart is no longer an All-American Store.
In the 1980’s, Wal-Mart prided itself on its “Buy American” campaign, but the
company abandoned this ideal in 1985. Reluctant to acknowledge the fact that
most of its products are now made in foreign countries, Wal-Mart’s opposition to
Country of Origin Labeling is only the company’s latest attempt to disguise its
true nature.Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) was passed as part of the 2002 farm bill. It is law. However, when it came to be authorized and implemented, it has been consistently held up and delayed. It is expected to be passed in the 2007 farm bill again and implemented. But continuing opposition from companies like Wal-Mart could lead to further delays.
Click here to listen to "Too Big, Too Bad," a radio
announcement addressing Wal-Mart's stand on Country of Origin Labeling
So What Does This Have to do With the National Animal Identification Issue?
I'm not exactly well-versed these things, but in reading about the debated COOL amendments to the Farm Bill, the word "cost" seems to be what's under negotiation. In answer to the question, "Just how much could it possibly cost to slap an accurate Country of Origin label on a package of meat?" we have to look at how they want to determine its origins. Does any of this sound familiar?
Experts in the industry say the program comes down to a record-keeping verification program.
"The House reaffirms the labeling from the 2002 farm bill law that any domestic product to be labeled as U.S. has to be born, raised and processed in the U.S," said Derrell Peel, an Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University. "That implies that we still have to have information back to the cow-calf level."
The House version says record keeping is simplified, but Peel said he can't see where.
"Even though the House version talks to simplified records, I'm still referring to the proposed rules by AMS, which make it clear each sector has to maintain records and tie those records to the previous sector and the subsequent record," Peel said.
For the complete article, go here
Like I said, I'm not savvy as an issues commentator. But doesn't this seem to be directly connected to the push by the government to register farms and identify all animals? Wouldn't this issue directly affect the push to make such a system mandatory? Wouldn't it potentially tie the hands of non-registered farms when it comes to marketing and selling their products, if the NAIS regulations are instituted and enforced in conjunction with the proposed Country of Origin Labeling changes?
I'm all for knowing the country of origin for the meat and fish we buy. I don't want WalMart multinational mystery meat, because I don't trust WalMart and their like. I also don't want to stump for a change that will be used as a convenient platform to cement NAIS regulations and seem to make it mainstream and "necessary", removing it from voluntary to mandatory status.
Just thoughts...
I wish I had a more politically savvy brain on these issues. Every issue seems to have its complexities with different groups trying to smuggle aboard their own pet special interests.
Not sure how to reconcile these simple thoughts:
WalMart...bad.
Labeling packaged meat's country of origin...good.
Using mandatory labeling of packaged meats as a means to mandate national identification regulations...ugh.
Are these really related? Any thoughts?
Monday, October 29, 2007
NAIS Update and How to Take Action
Phelan says it better than I can...see her latest update on this issue.
Here is an update of the update:
Here is an update of the update:
Head's up.Vsurance, Inc. Acquires Animal Tracking Technology,
Animal-ID
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
This Could Be Your Cup of Milk
...if you live in North Carolina or Georgia.
It's a raw deal.
Meaning it's meant to target raw milk consumers in these states, and others to come. It's not just a health debate, but a fundamental and ideological one.
That's right folks -- lest the front page (or nearly any page, for that matter) of your local news doesn't give you enough get steamed up about, you're about to see a good many squirt-squirts of black dye in your raw milk in days to come.
Supposedly it's a "protective measure" for the consumer...(which reads to me rather like the propaganda doublespeak of world dictators when referring to bullying their neighbors, as having "liberating" them) I believe it is moreso about the infringement of our right to decide for ourselves what we will eat, our involvement in where it came from, and how the farms we farm or buy from are restricted from having basic freedoms to raise their animals organically and sustainably, using traditional farming methods rather than mass-produced industrial ones.
For a more thorough read, here is a sampling of some great posts you can use as a springboard for your own research, decision-making, and hopefully action.
1. Laurie at slowly she turned
2. Pattie at Food Shed Planet
There are varying opinions about the benefits of raw milk, and it's the subject of hot debate. But despite your conclusion or personal preference, it's our constitutional right to decide what goes on our own plates without any government agency or ruling being the heavy. Some would say it's our HUMAN right, despite any geographic locale at all.
Shall cut this post short, before Opinionated Robbyn begins a soapbox...
heh heh ;-)
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