It Would Be Funny, If It Weren't So Damned Pathetic

Boy, I can only imagine the contempt our forefathers must view us with. According to a report published in the Washington Post, the Tea Bag protests didn't go so well because... because... well, because the protesters didn't have proper permission slips from the government to protest.



Until Next Time...

Ah, The Benevolence Of Obama...

"Obama to Lift Cuba Travel Restrictions"

The government never had the right to disallow travel there in the first place.

I understand exactly why there is so little time spend in public schools teaching students about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, the Federalist papers, etc. After all, it simply wouldn't do to have a thinking populace, one aware of why government should be limited and to what degree.

Now, people think the State is the answer to everything. It is not. Personal responsibility and voluntary association are far better solutions to any problem.

Look at what we have today in Washington. Look at how our royalty live. Career politicians signing bills they don't even read. Legislation of private affairs and interactions. The idea that the government should have the right to interfere with travel is absurd, yet another example of what people have allowed to be taken from them. A no-fly list of over one million names, decided in secret, with no effective recourse for those listed, typically without reason.

What a weak people we have become.

Imagine What Could Be Accomplished With A Conscious Tax Revolt!

According to data I found on the Calculated Risk Blog:

"For March 2009, receipts were off 27.9% compared to March 2008.

For individual income taxes, receipts were off 27.3%.

For corporate income taxes, receipts were off 89.6% (from $32.6 billion in March 2008 to $3.4 billion in March 2009)."

Most of that is due to a faltering economy. Imagine how much less money those thieving bastards would have to dole out to their bankster buddies and other cronies and pals, to say nothing of what they funnel into their own pockets if we all refused to pay. Imagine how many forms of government harrassment would stop as money for implementation and enforcement dried up.

If we refuse the fund the State, it will crumble.

Until Next Time...

Woman Executed In Front Of Infant By Cops

Last I heard, in the United States, traffic infractions and even failure to stop, was not punished -- in a court of law -- by the death sentence.

In fact, if memory serves correctly, California police have very specific directives in these sorts of situations. And, those directives do not include executing the perp in the street.

Until Next Time...

Don't Let This Warning Pass You By...

Reuters ran a story titled Fed says plan now to avert inflation.

Inflation is the logical outcome to the money creation we are witnessing now. In fact, hyper-inflation is a logical outcome. These billions and trillions that the government is promising? The government doesn't have that. The government borrows everyday just to keep going. Other nations are not going to keep extending credit forever. The printing presses will go into overdrive. It is inevitable.

Right now, we see deflation in many areas, though prices are starting to creep up. Inflation is coming, perhaps even hyper-inflation. Preparation is smart.Non-perishable foods, bought today rather than later when it may take twice as much or more cash to buy the same items, and assorted other household goods are good investments in your future. Inflation decreases the purchasing power of your money. Often leaving it in the bank results in losing money as the rate of inflation consumes any paltry gains made via interest and more. It's far better to have the goods in hand to make it through a period of economic struggle, especially if the result of the government's fiscal insanity/looting of the nation is hyper-inflation.

And what do you think follows hyper-inflation?

Until Next Time...

What Orwellian Bullshit! Shame On You, Obama Administration!

With thousands of American soldiers dead, tens of thousands wounded, and well over a million Iraqis dead -- including a huge number of women and children -- they prefer that it no longer be called a war.

The Orwellian bullshit phrase they want us to use now:

"In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' "

So that's what the Obama campaign promises to stop the war meant? Simply to stop calling it a war???

Change we can count on all right.

Until Next Time...

For Those Unfamiliar With The Mechanics Of It All...

Because of the type of research and writing I do, I've become pretty familiar with the mechanics of our current economic collapse. However, a lot of people aren't.

Rolling Stone just published an excellent article that breaks it down very nicely.

Matt Taibbi did a superlative job with this piece, very skillful use of language and wonderfully easy to follow description of what happened to bring us to the "it's over — we're officially, royally fucked" point in our economic history, perhaps even in our overall national history.

Some excepts from this must-read article:

"People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout.

The mistake most people make in looking at the financial crisis is thinking of it in terms of money, a habit that might lead you to look at the unfolding mess as a huge bonus-killing downer for the Wall Street class. But if you look at it in purely Machiavellian terms, what you see is a colossal power grab that threatens to turn the federal government into a kind of giant Enron — a huge, impenetrable black box filled with self-dealing insiders whose scheme is the securing of individual profits at the expense of an ocean of unwitting involuntary shareholders, previously known as taxpayers."

As the article makes clear, in addition to money moving between the two groups -- politicians and the financial industry giants -- so, too, do people. Corporate leaders move from the world of business to the world of government, implementing the policies of those with whom their loyalty lies... and it surely doesn't lie with the people. Ha! Our partners in the government, indeed.

Fascism is not Nazis and swastikas. Hitler's expression of fascism was his spin on the basic model. Mussolini correctly said that fascism would be more accurately called corporatism. Indeed, it is the melding of the corporation and the state. In earlier times it was called mercantilism.

We are witnessing a huge transfer of public money to private corporations. The trillions of dollars which will come from the taxpayers and from the bank accounts of the people, via inflation as the dollar is further degraded, providing less and less purchasing power to its holder, are not being funneled into anything that benefits the people -- it is not being spent on health care, education, etc. and so on (though, honestly, I don't think there is good in having the government provide these things anyway, but that is another issue). Instead, the government is shifting trillions of dollars in debt to us, our children, and our grandchildren in order to take that money and give it to private corporations.

Because American culture and education system has become so intellectually lazy and shallow, most people don't even recognize what is right in front of their face. Any semi-serious student of history can see clearly dictionary definition fascism occurring before us on a grand scale. Many prefer to remain in absolute denial... at least, as long as they still hold onto the fragments oftheir lifestyle and its creature comforts or the hope that they can, one day, reach that level, they prefer it.

But... just wait until the credit card no longer works, the cable goes out, the repo man is rolling away the SUV... the lender threatening to foreclose on the home... and people are forced to stumble around in the smoldering embers of the destroyed economy that the Masters of the Universe left behind, AKA The Greater Depression, trying to figure out a way to feed, clothe, and shelter their families. If you think that time ain't comin', then you're just not paying attention.

And, that is how we'll be fucked with fascism, too. People just aren't paying attention, and by the time they do... the political problem will be much more difficult to resolve.

Until Next Time...

"You S'posed To Be Fed Up By Now..."

"...only two choices, be a rebel or a slave."

A bit of perspective:

I forget where I read this, but:

"U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently put the $1 trillion number into perspective by saying, "If you started spending $1 million a day at Jesus Christ's birth and continued through today, you still would not spend $1 trillion."

Tim Yeager, finance professor at the University of Arkansas, verified the statement, saying it would take one million days with $1 million per day in spending to reach the $1 trillion level. The past 2,008 years and two months equal only about 733,000 days, Yeager said."

The big numbers are tossed around so much these days -- billions, trillions -- millions don't even make the list, 'cause they seem so small now compared to the amount of money the government is devoting to bailing out banksters and associated assorted criminals... It's easy to fail to perceive just how much a trillion is.

Once just how much a trillion is is realized, the next thing that needs to be understood is where exactly these trillions that are going to these banksters (financial gansters, fiscal mafia) and the rest of the criminal cronies crew are coming from.

A bit more perspective, first:

"Bound by debt and obligation, the serf of old eked out his living, toiling long and hard for the basic necessities of life, having little to show for his work beyond making it through another day, another week, another month. In the medieval era, his debt and obligation were inherited by the next generation, who would also toil in serfdom. Today, too, in the 21st century, many are mired in debt – mortgages, credit card debt, consumer debt, etc. However, it is not only their own debt that they have to contend with. The lords of our manor, the president and congress, have run up and foisted upon us a debt so vast that it will be inherited not only by our children, but also our children’s children. Welcome to 21st century serfdom."

Furthermore:

Serfdom has been described as "a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe... Serfs were labourers who were bound to the land." While the lord of the manor couldn't sell individual slaves, if he sold the land upon which they worked, the serfs went with the land. They did not have freedom of movement because, aside from the fact that they were not freemen, they did not have the resources for liberty, far more important than a designation of freeman or not. Just because they call you free don't make it so. A serf's "work for his lord coincided with, and took precedence over, the work he had to perform" in his own interest, i.e., in order to support himself and his family (as did the labor of his family, who also were bound to labor for the benefit of the lord of the manor). In addition, there were an assortment of fees and taxes that a serf was obligated to pay from his scant earnings.

Translate that into today.

Mired in debt? Check

Supporting the fine lifestyles of our 'lords'? Check

Restricted freedom of movement? I'm gonna check that... though the myriad of ways are a whole topic of their own, one for another day.

Bound to the land? I think it may be safe to put a check here, too, because many are today... or, at least think they are, unable/unwilling to -- forgive the cliche -- think outside the box. With the bursting of the housing bubble and the mortgage and lending meltdown, all hell broke loose in the housing market, particularly for those who bought at the peak of the housing bubble, when prices were crazy inflated. With home values now in free fall mode with no end in sight, many people owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Right now, 1 in 5 homeowners are in this position nationally, and if home values fall another 5 percent, that number is expected to rise to 25 percent. Those national numbers, however, don't really portray the degree to which certain regions are affected. Detroit, for example, is fucked, with homes valued so low they can be bought with a credit card. I found these numbers for a recent article I wrote, “the states with the highest percentage of negative-equity borrowers are… Nevada (55.1%) and Michigan (40%), Arizona (31.8%), Florida (30.3%) and California (29.5%) round out the top five.”

With the market simply flooded with foreclosed homes being sold by lenders and homeowners desperate to get out of homes they can no longer afford, many find themselves trapped -- bound to a home they can't sell, no money to move, etc. If they ruin their credit rating by failing to keep up with payments and falling into foreclosure, when they finally get free of the home and try to get into something more affordable, they may not be able to get another mortgage in today's tight credit markets. Of course, that is inside the box thinking. They could just walk away, as some are starting to do, and say fuck their credit rating.

Complicating the matter further is the increasing rate of unemployment. Many feel bound to a region because of their jobs, seeing entire industries shedding workers and rampant shut-downs throughout the nation. Many live in fear of losing 'benefits' that they are allowed to pay for through their place of employment, such as health care, such that it is. (Though much of that care is less about health and more about lining pharmaceutical company pockets... and ensuring a continuous flow of income to the profiteers in the health care industry)

OK, on the the next item on the serfdom list.

Generational debt obligations? CHECK!!!

And, here we arrive at who will be paying these trillions that are being handed over to the banksters, banksters who privatize profits and socialize losses. Why the fuck should you, your children, and your grandchildren pay for the losses these banksters earned through high-risk behavior (knowing from past experience that the government will just force the taxpayer to pay for their losses)? When is the last time you received a check in the mail with your share of their profits? Yeah... that's what I thought. Profits are always private.

By what right does your government take your money to give to these private corporations? Are your children serfs, born into this world owing thousands of dollars, a debt taken on as they draw their first breath? Are you a serf, that the lord of your manor has the right to place a debt obligation on your grandchildren, forcing them to pay for the handing over of TRILLIONS of dollars to PRIVATE CORPORATIONS? PRIVATE, PRIVATE, PRIVATE!!!

This is outright theft.

This is wrong.

Do not give them your money.

Stop paying taxes now.

Because they get their tax-payer paid salaries by figuring out ever more ways to empty our pockets of the fruit -- money -- of our labor, there are taxes for just about every possible occasion. Some can't be eluded, such as property tax (assuming you want to keep your property, freedom, and life), but many, many, many taxes can. Income tax -- keep "official" earnings low enough. Cash is king, barter can be better. Sales tax -- do you really need it? Can you buy it used or from a private person? Can you make it, grow it? Can you trade for it? Get creative. Depriving the government of money can be fun. And, even if sometimes it is not fun, it is always satisfying... unless you've settled for serfdom.

The Revolutionary War was fought for far less tax abuse.

Does revolt have to be violent? Sometimes. But it is, to my mind, better to exhaust all other options while protecting and making liberal use of the Second Amendment.... just in case.

I like the concept of non-cooperation, refusing to cooperate with government on any and every level possible. Not just by refusing to give them money, though that may be the most important thing of all, but also by refusing to serve on any level, refusing to make their tasks easier on any level, by stepping out of any government associated system as much as possible. By refusing to provide information about yourself or others, by handling your own problems, by organizing voluntary collectives -- as opposed to coercive models where participation is mandated and enforced by legislation and the threat of incarceration and violence -- to address broader social and community issues.

In the very rare event that I have to fill out government related paperwork -- i.e., the first hospital that I went to for my youngest daughter refused to allow you to pay cash until you'd been denied coverage through social services, so in order to continue treatment beyond the emergency room, filling out the papers was mandatory if you wanted to see a doctor there again -- I always check the box that says I am not a citizen.

I do that because I am free. I choose not to accept the designation of citizen because I do not believe that simply because I happened to be born in one place rather than another that I am obligated to subject myself to the rule of mass murderers (how many innocents have your taxes paid to kill in Iraq? Well over a million by now.), liars (didn't Obama tell us the troops would be coming home if he were elected? That's not what he is saying now, is it?), and thieves (doesn't matter which party, because it's really just one party... oligarchy quickly shifting to open fascism, which Mussolini rightly said would be better called corporatism, in order to maintain power.... corporatism: the melding of state power and corporate power. Glaring example -- politicians promising trillions of dollars that they'll take from the people one way or another to private corporations), nor do I believe I am born with the obligation to accept being forced turn over the fruits of my labor to criminals.

Serfs take food from the mouths of their children and place it in the hands of their overlords.

He's right... there are only two choices. Be a rebel or a slave.

Until Next Time...

A Man After My Own Heart...

See the whole letter. It pleases me to see so many people coming to the same sorts of conclusions, people of various backgrounds and incomes, of different generations and upbringing. It gives me a glimmer of hope for the future.

Here's an excerpt:

"March 5, 2009

To: Treasury Secretary Timmy Geitner

Fr: Craig J. Cantoni

cc: Barack Obama

Hey, Timmy: You, your boss, and your IRS agents are chasing me, but none of you will be able to catch me, because the faster all of you go, the slower I’ll go.

I’m not referring to a foot race. I’m referring to slowing down my work and taxes. No, I’m not cheating on my taxes as you did. What I’m saying is that the more you tax me, the less I’ll work. The same holds true for millions of people like me.

I have cut my income by two-thirds over the last decade to get into a lower tax bracket and to reduce how much my fellow Americans steal from me."

Until Next Time...

...Paul Harvey, Good Day... Yep, I'm A Geek

Paul Harvey has passed away, at 90 years of age, and I'm gonna miss him. Radio legend, they call him... and he was.

Sound Familiar? Think: Sub-Prime Mortgage Meltdown, Foreclosure Wave, Tax-Payer Funded Bank Bailout, Economic Depression

"If the American People ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered..." --Thomas Jefferson

Until Next Time...

$500-a-day fine for posting Constitution

This is the type of thing that happens when you permit petty people to ascend to positions of power and provide and encourage a flurry of petty legislation that is so far removed from the constitution and intents of the founding fathers.

Pathetic that people have been reduced to tolerating the whims and abuses of power crazed, petty little public officials, forgetting that these are public servants, not public masters.

Until Next Time...

I Have To Wonder Sometimes...

... about the the relationship and balance of choice and fate.

Many times in my life I have structured my way of living in such a manner as to avoid chaos, had a solid plan for a particular direction and yet...

Through some odd, outside force I can only think of as karma-fate, I find my fairly calm and simple life struck by some inexplicable, often completely random event that results in abrupt and significant change.

Sometimes the event is outright and obviously good. Other times, it seems like a completely hellish thing, yet later on, it becomes clear that while it seemed negative at first glance, it led to changes that brought better things to me. As I said the other day to someone that I used to know... well, thinking about that, perhaps it would be more accurate to say someone that I pretended to myself that I knew while ignoring what I really in my gut knew about him...but back to what I was saying... as I said to someone de mi pasado the other day, my luck tends to fall into the chaotic good category... thankfully. It usually does turn out for the best in the end...

But, I still can't help but wonder sometimes... about the source of such changes... like how that all works... the blend of free choice, yet the sense of being born to a particular path, irregardless of the choices that are supposedly freely mine to make. Does free choice even exist? Is it just something we tell ourselves so that we feel as though we have a semblance of control... Or does free choice come in as we are choosing how to react in the various situations we are fated to encounter? Meaning that despite the situation, we can choose to try to live up to what we envision our best selves to be... or not, choosing instead to behave in ways that are selfish, shortsighted, perhaps even careless or cruel. Hmmm... maybe that's it... our freedom of choice lies in how we choose to be and what we choose to do in the situations and circumstances that karma has dictated.

Through an odd series of events, I find myself in a completely different place, a place I had no plans or intentions of being. Leaving the desert, my relatively quiet life with its regular little rhythm and predictable people, was not even remotely in my mind.

Yet here I am.

The Beast Is Starving... And, I Do My Best To Do My Part

As news stories abound on the topic of government on all levels starving for cash, including states -- and maybe even the Fed at some point -- considering taxing mileage driven by motorists, as gas taxes are not producing the desired degree of revenue, it becomes increasingly apparent that the beast is getting desperate to feed further on the income of the classes they depend on to fund their power and privilege. New taxes and fees are popping up all over the place, as the political class seeks new and better ways to suck even more money away from the people and into their grasping, greedy maws.

After all, in addition to pork barrel politics and better lifestyles than most Americans can dream about (including Cadillac health care of the very best quality), there are politically connected corporate cronies that have huge losses that need to be socialized, that need to be shifted onto the backs of the taxpayer, even though the profits are always private. Bail out these bastards?? When's the last time they sent you a check, sharing their profits?

The Revolutionary War was fought for less tax abuse than we face right now. My youngest brother tells me it took only 16 determined percent of the population to set that whole deal in motion. But, I digress, I guess.

I no longer take any real pleasure in acquisition, though I do enjoy nice things when they come my way. My pleasure now comes from the avoidance of buying anything that I have to pay tax on. I feel absolutely pleased with every penny I can not give the government in taxes. If I can make it, I do, if I can buy it used from a private person, I do. If I can trade or barter, I do. But, if I have to buy it retail with the knowledge that a portion of my money will go to feed the beast, I think twice.

Hardcore gardening and food preservation is a part of the plan for this year, as is getting some chickens and increasing the number of goats that I have. Naturally,improving my energy system is high on the priority list as well.

The End Of The World As We Know It And I feel Fine... Welcome 2009

Samuel Adams in 1776:
"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."

I Learned My Lesson(s)

I have bad habits, some worse than others and some that are made worse by others. My worst, in terms of health – I smoke cigarettes, I drink coffee, and I have poor eating habits. In other words, if I’m rushing towards a deadline or am involved in a project, I’ll smoke cigarettes and drink coffee, and won’t eat properly. Careful attention to nutrition could help mitigate the affects of the smoking, as well as the matter of sleeping less than I should… and, of course, better nutrition would increase energy levels, etc. I know these things logically, and I use that knowledge in planning the children’s meals, but I do neglect myself frequently.

Well… I just went through a hellacious health event. I lost a filling a while back. The tooth wasn’t hurting and I did plan to have it fixed. However, there were a few things that I needed first. And then a few more… like a generator and refrigerator, which I have now. I’d planned to get 550 gallon water tank and a 60 watt solar set up (to complement the one my brother in AK recently sent, so that we can run the satellite modem and the routers without the generator and its gas), and then make the 160 mile round trip, pass through the ‘friendly’ local border patrol station, and get the tooth fixed.

I’ve been working hard and eating poorly, always in a rush, skipping breakfast – as I have for decades – as that morning blast of caffeine makes me forget that I should be hungry, maybe nibbling at something I can hold in my hand and eat as I write during the day, and having dinner with the kids in the evening, eating lightly if I am deadline stressed or drank too much coffee that day to really be all that hungry… i.e., that late afternoon cup to give me the energy to deal with the evening stuff – making dinner, etc.

My tooth started bothering me. I did the usual things, salt, over the counter pain relievers… and decided to move that tooth repair up on the list of financial priorities. Just a few more articles in this set to write, then I’ll get paid and fix the tooth…and then there was a dramatic increase in the level of pain, which made writing almost impossible. As if that wasn’t bad enough, all of a sudden my face swelled up to my eyebrow with a raging infection.

As a single parent and freelance writer, receiving no child support and never on welfare, I’ve waited to deal with a tooth before and I’ve dealt with the occasional tooth flare-up during that waiting period. I’ve even written about managing it. However, this infection went insane, a ravaging invader raging at breakneck speed, bent on pure pain and chaos production.

Just before my tooth flared, I noticed that I had two cuts, more like scratches or nicks, on my hand that also got badly infected, like something I haven’t seen since I got blood poisoning as a child (that’s what they call that red line that comes out of an infected cut and starts moving towards the heart… don’t know the real name, if that’s not what it’s really called). On my hand? In and out of wash water all the time? I never get an infected cut there, it’s not even logical. On my foot maybe, though rare, but my hand?

I am usually ridiculously healthy, all things considered. So, with multiple unusual infections striking at once, I think that I had an immune system failure due to poor nutrition. I've been particularly focused, time stressed, caffeine fueled, eating without tasting and without appetite during recent times... Now that I have got some hardcore anti-biotics from the dentist and some oh so welcome pain pills, the infection is receding, the pain decreasing, and the swelling is going down. And, I learned my lesson. Root canal, immediately, number one priority. The other stuff is just gonna have to wait. Much more attention to my own diet and nutrition. Deadlines, housework, projects… they’ll still be there after I’m done eating.

Goodbye, Google Video Ad...

...I've tried to make you work far too many times. I wanted it to work out. I really did. I am removing you now. Maybe when the bugs are worked out, we can try this again.

Until Next Time...

Sunday Morning... An Auspicious Day For Beginnings

Another Sunday morning in the desert. The birds have been singing a while, since 3 AM. They do that out here, as it's so hot during the mid part of the day, that there's not much singin' goin' on. I know they were up at 3 Am, because that's when I was settling down to go to sleep. I was up late working. One of the articles is published here and the other should be published tonight or tomorrow some time.

I also started work on a fairly big project of my own, which I expect to complete in phases over the next couple of years. I started with this and this, which are part of a larger whole. I've been researching, thinking, and writing on a few topics extensively during the past few years and am now ready to start pulling that together into books. We live in interesting times, as the old Chinese curse says.

I, too, have been living in interesting times, though I say that in the nicest possible sense of the phrase. During the past few years, I think my political, social, and economic understanding has definitely matured, particularly concerning the role of the State and the responsibilities and liberties of the individual. Since being here, I've been having adventures and learning much. I'll be writing of those things as well. I feel pretty excited and very enthusiastic about the whole thing, as I know exactly what I want to do, and more importantly, I know exactly how I want to do it.

I read an interesting post on how to manage things during our clearly arrived period of economic turbulence and the assorted related challenges to come. I spend a lot of time in conversation with old timers, those of an age to remember the Great Depression or to have heard first hand from their parents of their experiences during those times. I meet the coolest people down here in the desert, so much practical know-how and, amazingly, I find that often, though decades and generations separate us, we have remarkably similar world views and basic philosophies.

Once we get the water situation under control -- meaning relying more on water cachement than buying and, perhaps even a well -- and a wind turbine or two or three set up, a bit more solar power going, and some focused gardening, we'll be in good shape, come what may. There is a wonderful community down here, looseknit, but tight. I love the way it sort of rests upon mutual obligation entered into via voluntary association.

For example, my sister, brother and I did something yesterday that wouldn't be on our list of things to do, and when we all had other pressing tasks to attend to, at the request of my water guy. My water guy does a lot of stuff above and beyond the call of water duty, and has become a great friend to the whole family. So, when he made the request, we did go to the function he wanted to see us at, as a demonstration of our appreciation and respect. He was very happy to see us arrive, and I ended up having a good time. My brother also helps him with heavy work from time to time, not for pay, but because the water guy invests a lot of energy in seeing what he can do to help us get settled and set up here. It's just really cool to see it all unfold.

And, with that, I must get about the business of the day... articles to write, my own projects to work on, yard work to do, some housework... and I want to play dominoes with the kids later on.

Until Next Time...

My Brother The Master Fix It Man...

... has repaired the generator, thanks to the wonders of the Internet. He happed to casually enter the search term "generator won't start" and came up with the solution. In addition to spitting out the choke and the bent choke plate, the oil sensor was stuck. That's why he couldn't spin start it with the ratchet, as we have to do with the other generator. I have a refrigerator again, a joy out here in the desert. I can work at home and charge at home, rather than having to go down to my sister's. What a wonderful convenience! Thanks, Dave! You did it yet again!

JG8D69D

Damn. Best Laid Plans Part 2

My stupid Chinese cheap ass plastic and soft brass parts generator broke, totally blowing my carefully constructed schedule out of the water.

My talented, genius brother worked on it for a while. He has experience with these Chinese generators and their crappy plastic guts -- hidden carefully from the casual observer, as nobody would willingly buy such crap! He's had to fix mine once already, the clutch came out of its cheap soft plastic place. Mind you, mine is just weeks old. The first one I bought, down running the modem and stuff in their area, he's had to deal with repeatedly. It runs now because he's performed miracles with zip ties, paper clips, duct tape and a pony tail holder.

He had to break from mine as dark was coming, but he will contemplate it and return tomorrow.

The Best Laid Plans....

So, I didn't rise with the sun this morning as I'd planned. I had high hopes, but it just didn't work out that way. I was awake, but every time I tried to move my still nursing baby would wrap her arms around me for a few sleepy sips and snuggles, and then, naturally, all warm and cuddly, I dozed... That I was up crazy late last night didn't help either, of course... but I did accomplish stuff.

A super-cool thing happened over the weekend, but I don't want to hex it by talking about it before it is a definite. What I will say is that it is a much desired editing gig that could evolve into an even more desired writing gig.

But, even with my late rising, I'm moving right along and getting things done. Hit one of the day's deadlines already and, when done here, I'm heading for another... the economic news is full of suspense and drama these days. Lots to write about.

Reuters is reporting that, unsurprisingly, " IndyMac Bancorp Inc customers lined up outside a branch at the company's headquarters on Monday, hoping to withdraw their money after regulators seized what was once one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States." According to the story, there were hundreds of people there at 4 AM, hours before the usual opening time. The LA Times says that "home equity lines of credit issued by the bank would be frozen pending a review of each account."

So much for earlier reports that indicated most customers would experience the failure as a non-event, because it wouldn't have any real, direct affect on their finances.

Early reports indicate that the rally on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stocks was but a moment, the stocks are struggling despite government rescue plans.

Yep, times get more interesting every day.

Confidence

A lot of things large and small don't inspire me to confidence.

A small thing... the Apple IPhone. My kind and generous neighbor -- the one who, barely knowing me, let me use his Internet connection when he was away -- has been here twice in the past three days because his IPhone crashed and he needed to use something or other of my brother's to bring it back. I'm not buying all the market hype about how good it is... from what I've sen, I am not inspired to confidence.

IndyMac crash and burn... Wow, the second largest bank failure in US history. Doesn't inspire much confidencia in the official it's gonna be fine economic reports from the government, now does it?

The dollar sinking doesn't inspire much confidence in the future in terms of food for the world. Speculators and investors, looking for a safe place to put their money are shifting into commodities and one of those commodities is food. That is helping to push prices higher and higher and helping to push people into hunger.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... the protestations that fears of a crash are easing do not inspire confidence. After all, what else are they going to say?

And the list goes on...

But does that mean I have little confidence in the future? No. Not at all.

That's because I am working towards having as many aspects of my future as possible under my own control.

Alternative energy -- solar, wind, methane, ethanol -- are on my list, as are water cachement and food production. I know how to do a lot of stuff. I can cook, sew, am knowledgeable about herbal and alternative medicine, I understand nutrition... and the list goes on. I've cultivated many of the skills necessary to reduce my dependence on external resources and I continue learning every day.

And, that inspires great confidence in the face of the clearly visible socio-economic challenges on the horizon.

What's Been Goin' On...

Life in the desert... it's been good to us. I've met some wonderful people, some incredibly interesting and kind people.

Been a bit busy, been a bit distracted... which made being busy a bit more difficult.

Distraction number one... a bit of surprise -- and rather odd, all things considered -- e-mail back and forth with someone from my now distant past... not really a good thing, made me feel a little... it's hard to find the right words exactly... sad isn't quite right, as I know I made the right decision when looked at from a strictly logical, reality-based perspective... maybe restless is the right word or perhaps distracted will just have to do... whatever, it wasn't really pleasant... sort of like drinking, it may feel good while you are doing it, but you know it ain't gonna feel good the morning after. Ha, ha, ha... as I think about it, that phrase pretty much sums up the whole deal, start to finish...

Distraction number two... I hurt my back a few weeks ago... agonizing pain, first time ever in my life for such an experience. As in I had to lay as still as possible for three days, eat 6 over the counter motrin tabs in anticipation of having to do the most basic things for the kids -- cook, etc. -- which bought me about an hour and a half of slow-moving, groaning in pure pain movement. I got so behind in all sorts of things... tasks that it doesn't pay to get behind on, deadlines, just everything... which led to serious stress.

Distraction number three... the feeling playing catch up anxiety.

Distraction number four... money issues. Those are finally righting themselves as I catch up with stuff. Had to get an emergency loan or two from my youngest brother to make it through though...

Distraction number five... an assortment of petty, irritating issues... nothing to write about here, I guess... but enough to suck up time and attention I should have spent writing.

Though perversely, those petty issues and irritations ended up being pretty motivational. I got a lot of stuff done today.

Time management... sigh, the endless battle, ha ha ha. I'm improving, however. I have a more desert type schedule in mind and have established that as my goal. I'm making progress towards that goal, and it feels good.

So much going on in the world.. It is almost overwhelming for me to see it all... to watch so much of what we -- my family and tight peoples -- have been discussing during the past couple of years come to pass. That, to tell you the truth, makes me feel sad. Deeply. I'd much rather be laughing together about our silly paranoias... than seeing what's been goin' on... the slide into the Greater Depression (not my phrase, that's an apt phrase from a writer whose name I can't remember)... oil, food, war, politics... falling into fascism, faster every day... and so many people so oblivious to what is going on right before their very eyes.

What else to do, but write and prepare?

Shorpy -- I am addicted

Check out my new favorite site. Simply magnificent!!

Last Night's Desert Adventures

Oh what adventures I had last night! Before getting -- at last -- the Internet at home here in the Chihuahuan Desert, I wasn't up late night much anymore, despite being a long time night owl. Not a lot to do in the dark, lol. However, last night, since I have satellite and a generator, I was able to return to my standard routine of getting a few hours work done after the kids settled for the night.

So, there I was, sitting in the doorway of my currently humble abode, in the glow of my laptop screen, doing some research for an article I'll be writing today (about new attempts to regulate payday loans). I heard rustling in the bushes nearby. Focused on my work, I sort of just mentally registered it. I heard it again and then again. I looked up and saw a set of glowing red eyes. I have 5 Great Danes, so at first it didn't set off the alert system in my head... Then it registered -- those eyes are not in the right spot to be my dogs!!!

Coyote!! Sneaking in so quietly to steal dog food that my boys and girls didn't even wake up. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with that, except for the fact that one of my dogs and two of my sister's have come home with significant mysterious injuries. I suspect the coyotes, though my brother did have a mountain lion cross right in front of his car while he was getting water the other day.

So, I quietly -- as to not wake up the baby and end my work time -- scared him off and returned to my work. A little while passed and then I heard crunching. I looked up and there he was, just 15 feet from where I was sitting, munching some dog food that my daughter spilled while feeding ours. About the size of a small German Shepard, this coyote has clearly been pretty successful with his scavenging, as he wasn't overly lean. Nor is he particularly afraid of people. He didn't back up too much when I started shouting at him. My sister heard me yelling at him and came running with her flashlight and chased him a ways back.

With that over, I continued with my work, with moths and odd whistling beetle type bugs dive bombing the glowing screen and the night time cleanup crew -- ants, etc. -- working around me in the desert sand. I was very focused on a very interesting article that compared the interest rates of the short term payday loans with the overdraft fees of banks (you know the ones, you use your card for a purchase, and instead of refusing if there isn't enough to cover, the bank extends you the "courtesy" of making up the difference and charging you a hefty fee. I've paid $28 for 7 cents and $32 for a dime. Those bastards! I'd prefer to be denied, but they refuse to do that, too much money to be made). The rates of banks are FAR more abusive than those of payday loans when you run the numbers.

Anyhow... I was intently focused on the article I was reading. And then I saw it. Fighting back a surge of pure panic, my arachnophobic self watched a tarantula just a shade smaller than my computer's mouse crawl across my computer screen. As I deep breathed through the horror of seeing the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life, it walked across my screen and then off of my laptop and out into the desert.

My work was done for the night.

If There Were Any Courage In DC...

Excerpts from a story by Ted Rall:

"George W. Bush has publicly confessed that he ordered torture, thus violating the Convention Against Torture. He, Cheney, Rumseld, Rice and the other Principals must therefore be arrested and, unlike the thousands of detainees kidnapped by the U.S. since 9/11, arraigned and placed on trial.

There is, however, a person who could begin holding Bush and the others accountable for their crimes.

She is Cathy L. Lanier, the 39-year-old chief of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department. Chief Lanier, take note: you have probable cause to arrest a self-confessed serial torturer and mass murderer within the borders of the District of Columbia. He resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Go get him.

History is calling, Chief Lanier. Your city, and your country, needs you."

Speculation And The Next Bubble To Grow And Burst -- Food?

Unpleasant truths from Black Agenda Radio:

Read and weep.

Hear and sob.

After destroying the housing market and leaving the banking and lending industries teetering on the brink of failure, investors move to the commodities markets, pushing up the price of food through wild speculation. Waves of foreclosures may soon be complimented by hordes of hungry... right here in the supposed first-world. In the developing nations, already people are homeless and starving while we still pay farmers not to grow and divert food crops to run automobiles. I shudder to imagine the karmic repercussions.

With Thanks From Liberty Tree Quotes...

"The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it’s profitable
to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive
to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the
curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see
the brick wall at the back of the theater."
-- Frank Zappa
(1940-1993), Musician
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Frank.Zappa.Quote.5060


"You can be up to your boobies in white satin,
with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles,
but you can still be working on a plantation."
-- Billie Holiday
(1915-1959) American Jazz Singer
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Billie.Holiday.Quote.BD1E


"I freed thousands of slaves.
I could have freed thousands more
if they had known they were slaves."
-- Harriet Tubman
[Araminta Ross] (c.1820-1913) African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the U.S. Civil War. After escaping from captivity, she made thirteen missions to rescue over seventy slaves using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Harriet.Tubman.Quote.578C

And, I'm off on another busy day... blogs to post to, articles to write... a busy freelancer, a happy freelancer. I've got new stuff all over... here's a couple from my new gig, here and here. The first one was smooth, before the editor roughed it up, sigh. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Day Two Of Working At Home Again

In addition to attending to my writing duties, I was able to squeeze out some time to make tortillas. After posting this, I'll be making some salsa to go with the tacos I've been simmering beans for all day. I posted photos at this blog of my tortilla making adventure. I got a couple cool gigs today, both clients looking for a long-term writing relationship. Very nice and good rates, too! I'll have that solar panel to run the modem pretty quick at this rate!

Until Next Time...

And, Finally... I Write From Home Again!!!

It's been an adventure. First, it was a 60-mile round trip to a cafe with Wi-Fi. Then, a 20-mile round trip to a generous neighbor's home-in-progress. And, now, finally... after a customer service nightmare (one that still has not ended, by the way), I have satellite service at home. I checked e-mail with my morning coffee. I worked right here with kids and dogs running around. I took breaks and did stuff with the kids. It was wonderful.

I wrote for new clients and old clients. It feels great to be really up and running again.

Until Next Time...

America and The Food Crisis

I've been watching the food crisis edge its way into mainstream news for a couple few weeks now. I even saw the use of the phrase "peak food" enter the MSN lexicon. However, this story in the New York Sun came as a bit of a surprise to me.

Excerpt:

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

I tell you, I'm sure we made the right move at the right time. To me, after watching the global economy for a few years now, as well as the associated socio-political factors, it looks like we are headed into another depression... a writer, one whose name I can't recall right now, used the apt phrase The Greater Depression. That's what really inspired me to make this move, to tell the truth. I wanted to be sure that we would have space to grow food and a means of providing ourselves with energy... basically, my goal is self-sufficiency to the highest degree, because I think we're going to need it.

And with that, I must be off... I am -- thank God -- drowning in deadlines.

Wrapping My Mind Back Around Finance

With all that was involved in traveling here -- motor home, 6 children, 10 dogs, 4 cats, 2 birds, and a turtle -- and getting set up and accustomed to life along the frontera, I took a bit of a vacation from writing. That was, of course, helped along by the lack of Internet at home.

Now, however, I am back to work for real, which involves rapidly catching up on what is going on in the realm of personal finance and that of the global economy. Absolutely stunning the things that are going on...the American economy about to crumble under the pressure of high oil prices, rising food costs, a falling dollar, the mortgage and lending meltdown, the credit crisis, and mounting consumer debt... major exporting nations banning the export of wheat and rice!! It seems peak food may go hand in hand with peak oil.

I am deadline pressed, so I must go. I do have a couple of new articles up here and here, in addition to the content writing I've been doing for various clients.

Until Next Time...

Oh, The Changes... My NY Days Are Over, Part Of A Now Distant Past

Hola... It's been a while and so much has changed. Now instead of shivering in NY, yearning for the precious few weeks of fine weather alotted to those in the Great Northeast, I enjoy the luxury of a February tan, of warm winds and April nights warmer than April days back in cold NY. And, sunshine!!! Warm sunshine, hot sunshine... I am wealthy in sunshine and feel so good.

The photo was taken by my brother. It is our dinner hour view.

While life here in the borderlands is... is... is... I don't even have words for how wonderful life is here, all I can say is that I've never been happier. I step through my doorway and stand with my feet in one nation seeing clearly into the next... but, wait, I've wandered away from what I was saying. While I do love it here, there are certainly some challenges. Getting a landline and Internet has -- and continues to be -- quite a challenge. The satelite company, although it has sent the equipment, doesn't seem to be able to pull itself together sufficiently enough to get someone out here into the wilds to install it. The telephone company just informed us that they have to add to their already lengthy wait-time of 3 months... Construction is now scheduled to be complete in late August.

Fortunately, people out here are wonderful. I have a neighbor -- lol, 10 miles away -- who generously allows me to use his Internet connection and telephone, both of which, as a freelance writer, I needed desperately. So, thanks to the kindness of my good neighbor, things are falling back into place businesswise and all is good.

And, with that, I'm off to deal with my deadline pile-up...

Boston Tea Party Participants Spin In Graves

NY Senators want to spend $1 Million on a Woodstock memorial/museum!

Nice to know your tax dollars are so well spent. Elderly people and families going without to pay their taxes and Clinton and Schumer want to spend that money on this kind of bullshit? WTF?? If Woodstock fans want a memorial or museum, let them pass the hat among themselves and collect money for it. The Boston Tea Party participants must be spinning in their graves... as must be those who fought a revolution against the British, a revolution that was, in part, inspired by tax insanity.

Thank You, Mos Def!!

Cindy Sheehan Refuses To Submit To The Illegitimate Power Of The State!!

I'm not a great fan of Ms. Sheehan politically, she's a bit too State-oriented for my taste. In other words, she believes in building a better State, rather than the concept that the State is, in fact, the problem. With that said, however, I have tremendous respect for her as a person and for all that she has accomplished in publicizing and protesting this illegal and immoral war. I respect all that she has lost and sacrificed in her journey.

I was thrilled to see her reject the concept that this State (even though it was limited to this State, not the State) has authority over her and to see that she is publically stating what it in fact is that we are facing -- fascism.

Just Who Exactly Do We Think We Are?

When I looked at this story, Senate Endorses Plan To Divide Iraq, I was shocked, just shocked, to find out that it was not a report jam-packed with the glorious details of all the freedom and self-determination that Our Fuher, Herr Bush, is always talking about for Iraq. I was stunned to see that it was us, our US Senate, endorsing a plan to divide Iraq "into three semi-autonomous regions."