Spring chores on the family homestead have been overwhelming my blogging efforts this week... before I get off into my rant I want to give a plug to the folks at scythesupply.com
I have been experimenting with ways to bring fresh grass, clovers, and weeds to my pigs (and goats when I confine them early in breeding season). I have tried raking up after my lawn mower, a rotary line cutter, an old-fashioned weed whacker, and now a scythe. The scythe wins hands down. In about 10 minutes of quiet and peaceful scything I have a wheelbarrow full of freshly cut green matter that I deliver to my hogs and chickens. I do this because I want all of my livestock to be as "grass fed" as possible. This is easy with the goats and cattle - just leave them out on the pasture - but not so much with confined poultry and hogs. However, with a scythe this process has now become infinitely more pleasant.
I am reading an excellent book, "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frasier (it was made into a good movie, too... but the book is simply excellent). I highly recommend it. In it there is a great deal about the need for knowledge when providing for oneself, and in particular a passage about how without ground working equipments - plows & harrows - nothing much beyond a kitchen garden is possible. I can tell you that that is quite accurate. Besides a huge vegetable garden we have several acres of corn, beans, and sunflowers planted for feed for next winter, as well as for corn flower - wheat will be next years project - that would not have been possible without equipment. If you are serious about homesteading, its either tractor or animal pulled ground breaking and clearing equipment... or failure.
---------------------------------------------
Now to my rant... I will get back to my "wider view" oil post soon, but some things have been bugging me lately... specifically the idea that our Federal Law Enforcement and Military personnel are currently being deployed to protect American Freedoms.
What a bunch of Bull Sh#!!
I love being an American. I love the idea of being able to vote for our president AND my local sheriff. I love our Constitution (with all of its wrinkles and warts from the stain of slavery). I F**king HATE when I am told that the above mentioned forces are being used to protect me and my rights. I have nothing but respect for our military personnel - but they are being placed in harm's way to PROTECT THE ECONOMIC INTERESTS of America's elite. They are not being used to protect The People and serve the Constitution. Iraq??!! Are you f***ing kidding me??!! And Af-stan? Perhaps somewhat more supportable than Iraq (and then again, perhaps not)... but now that we have figured out how to maul al-Queda at will, isn't it time to bring our military personnel home? And now that every federal official with a pulse knows that America's oil importing days are extremely numbered... under what pretext are we still fighting over Oil? So that America's elite can maintain their illusory wealth for a couple extra years.
Bin Laden deserved what he got. What about the group of men killed in Af-stan 8 years ago by drone strike because the U.S. thought one of the men was Bin Laden? Nobody even remembers this missile strike (except the dead men's family and friends). Turns out they were a completely innocent group of human beings going about their lives... Where is the outrage about their murder? Is collateral killing in "The War or Terrorism" somehow higher minded than those that killed on 9/11? NAFC. Worse, it gives incentive to a whole new generation of angry men bent on revenge to harm Americans (which is what a certain part of the establishment wants, no doubt, so that they can keep their outrageous budget's funded).
America's commander-in-chief(s) have not used American military forces to "support and defend the Constitution" in generations. That's the oath sworn by U.S. military personnel, and "preserve, protect and defend" for the president. Law enforcement officials take a similar oath. Where, exactly, in the Constitution is it written that these people have been empowered to protect the economic interests of The Corporations? Of The Pensions? I want to know, because that's what our military personnel have been killing and dying for.
Why are my fellow Americans only too willing to send young people off to war and prison? We have forgotten how to exercise our right to nullify stupid f***ing laws while serving on juries, as well as to nullify the budgets of the very agencies that cause what the CIA colloquially refers to as "Blow Back" (pissing off people to the point where they are willing to swap themselves for an opportunity to mass murder innocent Americans).
Why?
Because our economic system is all about enslaving people. We have given up our Constitutional rights in this plague we call the War on Drugs. Said war hasn't been won, nor even a single battle, and now our prisons overflowith. The establishment fears that addictions would keep the masses from the appointed rounds at the f***ing salt mines (well, that and we love our prison industrial complex... how else can a lawyer make several million dollars per trial unless the sentences are brutal?); its not your health and well being that concerns them.
Look at this asinine waste of resources that is known in the media as this generation's great "insider trading" scandal. What a f***ing joke. Do you know when these laws regarding insider trading were enacted? Back when we were still using rotary phones (if you are not over 50 you might not even know what that is). In the age of instant communication why not deregulate the flow of "insider information" both civilly and criminally? There would be NO WAY to gain the upper hand in that environment - the data would be out on the Web on thousands of blogs, wire services, news aggregators, etc... instantly. That would make things INFINITELY fairer than they are now.... but fair IS NOT what the establishment wants... what they want is to put people in prison and maintain their budgets at the SEC, FBI, and the rest of the alphabet jagoffs running around D.C. You think the U.S. Attorney's office in New York is filled with high-minded Dudley DoRights? Bull Sh#! That office is full of future defense attorney's interested in polishing up the resume and gaining a little experience before working for the other side - and the 7 figure per trial compensation. You think these guys want SANITY in the rule of law? NAFC. What they want are looooooong prison sentences and arcane rules so that the guys in the poke will be willing to write some serious checks to get off the hook.
Anyway, so these Dudley DoRight's have harpooned their whale. And nobody gives a second thought that this is silly and scientifically unsupportable law, and that the system just spent ten's of millions of $$ enforcing something that would not exist if it were handled otherwise, but handled as is will go on forever more. We have hungry children and illiterate adults as far as the eye can see, and an energy crunch looming that will make most of it moot... but the Mob wants blood.
When in Rome...