The Things We Dare Not Say

I have been frequently approached, especially in recent weeks since the Sandy Hook shooting, by folk talking about the relationship of the electorate to the government. One person has been considering the formation of a local militia for the purpose of having a ready force available to support the sheriff in the eventuality that it may be necessary - essentially a trained 'posse'. Of concern to him - and a legitimate concern which I share - is that this militia not morph into what he considers an 'anti-government' outfit. He referred to Constitutionalist militias as such. My question to him was if a militia (or person) is standing ready to fulfill the oath we have shared to protect and defend the Constitution, then how can it be anti-government? I would consider that a pro-government individual or outfit and any opposition to it would come from an entity that was not a legitimate government, but an illigitimate regime, as the 2nd Amendment clearly states that a well-regulated (properly functioning) militia is necessary for the defense of the republic and the freedom to exercise the natural rights of the citizenry the republic was formed to protect.

Last night a network ran a report on the Danish individual who was instrumental in the assasination of Anwar Al-Awlaki, one of several American citizens (including his sixteen-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was specifically targeted and assasinated two weeks after his father) who have been assasinated by the Obama regime. This story prompted a 'spirited' discussion between K and I concerning the rights of the people to replace a "government" which is not performing its duty to protect the natural rights of the citizens, but rather is engaging in a state of war against its citizens.

These principles are detailed in our Declaration of Independence - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.*" These principles are based on the natural rights argument, primarily from John Locke's 2nd Treatise on Government, in which he discusses the circumstance in which a "government" embarks upon a 'state of war', with the people: "... whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence. ... [Power then] devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty, and, by the Establishment of a new Legislative (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own Safety and Security, which is the end for which they are in Society.**"

I will elaborate on these thoughts in subsequent blog posts - my question for today is multi-fold: 1)What is the legitimate response to government to "speech" which advocates putting into practice the right of defense which the citizenry inherently possesses, being a natural right from our Creator? Is the proper response to assasinate that citizen with a predator drone or a CIA kill team as was done to Imam Al-Awlaki (assuming the hypothetical that the extent of Al-Awlaki's offense was running a website in which he advocated for violent Jihad against the "Great Satan")?

2)Does the right of free speech and a free press extend to this discussion and is this blog post itself an "alternative press" (alternative to the main-stream media which is admittedly being used as a propaganda tool of the regime)?

3)By initiating this discussion should I expect to have my door kicked in some dark night by a CIA/DHS kill team or might a predator drone vaporize me as I am innocently brushhogging the north 40 some fine spring morning?

Please join me in considering these important issues as the regime is assasinating American citizens at will and discussing how best to limit our ability to exercise the "common refuge against force and violence" Locke describes as the appropriate response to the slavery inherent under a regime exercising arbitrary power...if you dare to do so...and if you don't dare to discuss this - is this an acknowledgement of fear of government to exercise the very natural rights I discuss here?

The Terrible Two's and Mass Murder

I spent the weekend with two-year-olds - my grandchildren, Emma and Ian. Wonderful children, mostly a joy to be around - until a 'terrible two' tantrum arrives. It's that age when they must deal with the fact that the world does not revolve around them. I remember when my oldest was that age - I had just returned from a tour in Okinawa and while I was gone she had transformed from a little baby who kept you up at night to a beautiful little girl intent on tyranny and still keeping me up all night. She and her mother had been living with grandparents while I was overseas and when I returned we got a little apartment, I got a job and started college. But she didn't have a whole lot of sympathy for my sleep schedule and would stay up till all hours, creating chaos about the house when I needed to sleep. So, after observing all this for a few nights, I told her mother I thought she needed to have a bedtime, possibly an hour or so before mine. Her mother laughed and said, "oh, she wont go to bed". I was in a state of disbelief - the child couldnt weigh 20 pounds and I topped 180 or so - I felt pretty sure I could keep her in bed until she went to sleep and I went to slay the 'terrible two dragon'. After a few hours of screaming, with me laying in bed with her, physically preventing her from getting up, she eventually wore down and went to sleep. Maybe that's not the way the child psychologists recommend, but it didnt take more than a few nights of this and she figured out that when Dad said it was bedtime, there was no negotiating the matter and she enjoyed getting a story read to her and going to bed more than screaming herself to sleep.

This is not an easy thing to do and I observed with the more "energetic" of my grandkids that this had not been established in their house. The one whose nickname is Adderall Annie obviously had Daddy's number. "Dammit, you're writing all over me with that marker!" (Daddy takes marker) Adderall Annie, "(insert deafening screams)"...Daddy, (gives back the marker). Hmm...not to compare children to dogs, but the training is not too much different, except that dogs actually want to please, while children wish to tyrannize. If that were my dog, I would be going through life barefoot, I think.

I think this is the primary issue with these mass shootings. While I hate to jump into the pop-psycho-babble fray, it just seems impossible not to consider these things a disease whose symptoms are brought on by a society in which the terrible two's are just never dealt with. Setting aside for the moment the plausible conspiracy theories that these shootings are not what they seem to be and taking what we have been told at face value (self imposed naivete, I know), we have in most cases with these shooters all-too-common profiles: white youths, teens or young adults, raised by single mothers, "addicted" to video games, etc., etc. At the risk of outing myself as a "kids these days" old codger, I see the same "terrible two's" behavior in the Occupy protests. "The system is screwing us" - check..."the oligarchs own the politicians who run the system which is screwing us" - check..."we have no voice in this system which is run by the oligarchs who own the politicians who design and implement a system which is screwing us"...check again (tell me something I don't know - welcome to life, I am thinking at this point)...then..."so we need government to have more power over society so we can stop getting screwed over"...wha-a-a-t??? Your solution to a problem caused by politicians screwing you over for the benefit of their true clients (the oligarchs who fund their campaigns and control the media brainwashing the people into thinking their "solutions" will solve their problems) is to give EVEN MORE power to the system??? What's THAT all about???

It seems to me this is the convoluted thinking of people who have never been cured of the terrible two's. "I am owed success (after all, I got trophies throughout my little league t-ball/soccer/whatever "career" although I never scored a goal and my team didnt win a championship - hell, we werent allowed to keep score!)". "When I threw a tantrum (likely seeking the attention my overwrought, overworked single mother could not provide) I was given a magical fix of ritalin/adderall/whatever instead of a good old fashioned ass-whooping". "I am addicted to video games, which provide instant gratification in the form of moving to that higher level, too often in the form of the same type of first-shooter game which the military uses to train killers". "I have been conditioned through a lifetime of watching death, murder and mayhem to observe people being killed in the most horrendous ways, then getting up and getting myself a snack".

Both Lanza and Holmes, I have read, wanted to join the Marines, but the mothers refused to allow it because they didnt think they could handle it. Now, this is likely the case, but as the child of a single mother who went to boot camp as a 17-year-old over my mothers objections, I think, "Lanza was a 20 year-old living in his mothers proverbial basement - mothers "objections" be damned, if you think joining the Marines will provide you the real life challenge you so obviously needed, what is preventing you from heading off to Parris Island, son???"

So, I know this is a terrible over-simplification of a terribly complex societal problem. I know that all children of single mothers who have grown up getting "participation trophies", having their sense of morality dulled by the viewing of endless murders and being conditioned to kill by the same video games we use to dull the senses and heighten the capabilities of soldiers being sent to kill are NOT going to wind up gunning down innocent theater-goers or mere babies in a kindergarten classroom.

But putting that child to bed at a reasonable time and ending the terrible two's at the age of two rather than seeing them act out a "terrible-two tantrum" with a gun in their hands and innocent children in their sights might be a start.

Or maybe I am just a "kids these days" old codger.

Ice, dead batteries and the racism of progressives

Had our first big ice/snow event so I am making the changeover from my summer truck (2wd Silverado) to my winter truck (4wd Dodge Ram). Neither of the batteries are too hot so I am charging this battery and jumping that battery and realized I am the stereotypical redneck whose most important pieces of essential gear are jumper cables and a battery charger. Which led me to consider the inherent racism in the fact that it is okay to mock hillbilly redneck "red staters" clinging to their guns, their Bible, and of course, to their jumper cables and battery chargers. All the stereotypes have to do with the fact that we are poor, essentially. We have multiple cars in our driveways/yards because we can never seem to find the extra couple hundred bucks to replace that starter/alternator/master cylinder. If we did, we would probably be driving with no plates or insurance for the same reason. Now if I were black or Mexican I would have the same issues for the same reasons - lack of funds. But if you comment on the guy in the ghetto or the barrio who carries jumper cables for his own vehicle you are a racist - but not the trailer trash guy. Why is this? I maintain that it is because if you are white and you have these issues, it is your own fault...but if you are black or latino, it is not your fault...consider the racism here... One of our own race is an embarrassment, but a minority needs affirmative action and income redistribution, etc. So...why are the progressives so racist, I wonder???

Considering the Amish “Communitarians”

Anyone who knows me knows I am fascinated by the Amish. Not their religion, particularly, although the authoritarian form of their religion may be a necessity for the success of their economic system, which is what really interests me. They have a system of private ownership of property, in which one's hard work will result in a benefit for your own prosperity and to pass on to future generations. But they also work in a cooperative fashion in order to gain the benefits of scale, yet eliminating the siphoning off of their labor in payroll and income taxes. They pay their taxes on the profits of their labor, but in addition to foregoing income and the resultant tax by helping their neighbor they forego (after fighting for the right to the Supreme Court on religious grounds) the government social welfare system and neither pay into nor receive social security and medicare taxes/benefits. I have read studies on this "share labor system" of the Amish and it is considered their primary economic benefit over the "English" way, as we are known to the "Simple Folk".

In addition to these advantages, there is considerable peer pressure to trade within the Amish community and to always produce a surplus, individually and as a community, both by their hard work, but in their frugal, sustainable, self-reliant ways. They cooperate voluntarily to solve issues seemingly insolvable in 'English' society, such as medical care costs. Pretty much all the Amish wish for is to be left alone. Which makes me a fellow traveler with the Amish.

I wonder if their principles are transferable to rural 'English' communities which are, as my friend Greg Maize recently described it, "living amidst the ruins of a dead civilization", which is an apt description. But I wonder if that is a necessary situation and I look to the Amish as inspiration. If a community, such as any small town in this part of Missouri, or any of an untold number of similar communities around the country, were to form a cooperative – a corporation of some sort, in which to create a market for their own goods and services. They have the cash flow, in the form of the government payments that are now the lifeblood of economic activity in our rural communities, which is a sad state of affairs. So, if the building of wealth is a matter of producing more than one (or a community) consumes, then obviously a poor community has a production problem, as they are likely not consuming that much in the first place. Poverty seems to have a way of limiting over-consumption, funnily enough.

Your issue then is likely a lack of capital and a lack of a large enough market within your community, which makes either bringing money into the community or exporting from the community to the larger market a necessity. I don't think these are insurmountable issues, but the solution will be a bit different for each community, given that communities particular assets. For instance, the community I live in might focus on producing natural, organic food for export to communities in St Louis which focus on processing and shipping our products to the larger market of grocery chains. Both communities have the tools for the job, the market exists and I see no reason a community could not exploit their natural advantages in a way to be communities which produce more than we consume, meaning thriving communities building wealth rather than communities living on the fragile life support system of printing counterfeit currencies living amidst the ruins of a failed civilization.

This is the conversation I wish to have as my part of the 'national conversation' and what I wish to discuss here on this blog and in a forthcoming website which is under development. I think that my community has the tools to lead the way out of the national morass allowing the nation's "elites" to drive the ship has brought us to. I think a philosophy of 'Communitarianism' can unite a divided country and build a sustainable economic system. I also don't think it will be embraced by (and possibly not tolerated by) the status quo, but I do think that if people will work together at the grassroots, community level, we can slowly change the national landscape. And by thinking "my community can lead the way", that does not mean I believe my community is unique in that quality. I believe that any community that could follow very simple principles of consumption and production can eventually find a new way that will insulate it from the failure of the greater system, but can evolve into a new system of interconnected, thriving communities which define a thriving nation. I don't have all the answers for a nation, but I believe I can work in my community to make it a better place and if that is happening around the nation – we'll pull through this situation the "elites" have put us in.

Making Spaghetti Sauce

I've been busy processing a large pile of homestead grown produce for use in various sauces. The best method I have found requires some freezer space, so it is helpful to manage your butchering to accommodate the homestead schedule. So, for this time of year, you should be getting close to seeing some shelves in your deep freeze(s) which you will want to fill with produce as a safety valve against a deluge of garden goodness that threatens to overwhelm you to the point food starts going bad either in the garden or in your kitchen/processing area.
Peppers, especially, are simple. You merely have to cut them into strips as you core and seed them (wearing gloves) and pack them in zip lock bags. Simple enough. There they are, ready for use in a salad, on a pizza, or to use in a sauce, which is where mine are destined. If you have the freezer space (I do not this year, which is a good problem to have), you can just wash your tomato's, remove the stems and any bad spots and freeze them. When you want to use them for a sauce you run them through a food processor, then through a colander (not a strainer, a proper colander with a crank handle) in order to remove the seeds, if those are a problem for you. The cone shaped device with the wooden pestel is also a good implement for removing seeds.


The seeds in a sauce or chili, etc., do not concern me, but they do some folk, especially those with false teeth, where the seeds will get under them and cause a lot of discomfort. Regardless of whether you go to this extra step of removing the seeds or not, my method certainly eliminates the unnecessary and laborious process of blanching tomato's to remove the skins. Again, if that's what you want to do, you don't need my permission, but it seems senseless to me when the food processor turns the skins into puree, but, whatever. To each his own. The recipe I use, which is from the Ball Blue Book of Canning, calls for various amounts of tomato's and peppers, onions, etc. Their recipe mixes the requirements for tomato's by weight and the rest by cups, chopped. But by weighing out various product, it seems to me the general amount for this recipe is 4 parts tomato to 1 part 'something else'. That something else may be a combination of peppers, onions, garlic, what-have-you that you think might be good in spaghetti sauce or that your garden is throwing at you in such quantities that you are desperate to find a use. Maintaining this proportion is important as I will have to pressure can my sauce and this requires a combination of pressure for a certain period of time and varying the recipe causes changes in the weight/time calculation of canning and it's best to keep it simple. So I prepare a large variety of recipe items that will go well in marinara sauce (50 qts/year/2 person family), chili (25 qts), or sloppy joe mix (25 qts). Then, as the tomato's come off, I can process the tomato's, grab the proper amount of onions, peppers, etc. that I want in my sauce, put in the spices and pressure can the whole tomato output of a day in one step.
So goes life on the homestead today. Happy saucing.

Foxes in the Henhouse

I heard a story about a young preacher once that comes to mind as I watch the antics in Washington D.C. It seems the young pastor took his first charge – a country church in Kentucky. His first sermon was a fiery oratory on the evils of gambling. He noticed many in the congregation getting pretty fidgety in the pews and thought, "They must be going to 'the boat'" and pumped up the oratory even higher. After the service an elder came to him and said, "Pastor, I know that's church doctrine but about a third of your congregation owns racehorses. Remember this is Kentucky."

The next week the young man gave another pulpit pounding sermon on the evils of drinking – all according to church doctrine and again he saw folks fidgeting. After the service, the same elder pulled him aside and said, "Pastor, I warned you to remember this is Kentucky. Half these folk work at Jack Daniels down the road!"

The next week the Pastor raised the roof with a sermon on the evils of violating offshore shrimping limits. The elder said, "Great sermon, Pastor. You'll do well here."

It seems to me that most political discourse today (and perhaps this is nothing new), consists of some variation of partisanship for nothing more than the sake of partisanship itself. There are areas of agreement where one can't go because a politician is beholden to whatever interests and cannot govern according to any principles whatsoever. But I'm not criticizing the politicians here. If you find a fox in your hen house you can't really blame the fox – that's what foxes do. No, you run the fox off with some lead and you secure the hen house.

Well, the fox was run off in the 18^th century and they secured the hen house with the Constitution. It's our own fault we allowed the fox to worry the boards loose with various changes to the Constitution, (the 16^th and 17^th Amendments come to mind) and semantical sleights of tongue such as the "Living Constitution" theory of judicial review which winds up with ObamaCare in the present and a totalitarian nightmare in the future when followed through to its logical end.

Yet, we have the kneejerk reactions to the stimulus they provide to the point that no agreement on basic issues can be reached if it is in opposition to the status quo. People seriously argue that it makes sense for the executive to have weekly assassination meetings with his assassination Czar and has an attorney general who argues that the executive has the authority to assassinate anyone in world, anywhere in the world, American citizens included with no legislative or judicial oversight. We have two presidential candidates who agree with this. Yet, the electorate is so beholden to the government or the status quo that we can't agree this is not America and will vote for one.

People will seriously argue that it is necessary for national defense to garrison troops all over the world, spending nearly half of ALL global spending on military issues, six times that of China and equal to at least the next 16 countries. We REALLY need to be doing this? Yep. A third of the congregation is working at the defense department funded distillery down the road so you better "support the troops, pal".

It is past time for those who believe in the America that is our birthright to run the fox out of the hen house and fix those broken boards.

My Views on the Revolution

I think it is probably prudent to state my views on violent revolution from time to time, if for no other reason than to have available as evidence, assuming I am allowed a lawyer and they have judges in the Gulag. I believe we have a right and a duty to engage in a revolution, but I believe that if the conditions were present for a successful revolution, then those same conditions would make violent revolution unnecessary. Such is my possibly misguided, optimistic and naïve view of the inherent goodness of the American people. The same may be true of people everywhere – that there is an inherent goodness in them. But my view of American exceptionalism is that there would be no such thing but for the wisdom of our founders. But it may be that only a limited and fortuitous series of events gathered such men of political talent and love of freedom and country in one place and time and therefore ours is not only an exceptional system of governance but also one that is uniquely possible. Some may go so far as to say that this was not simply fortuitous but miraculous and divinely inspired. And I would not feel it necessary to attempt an argument or to do anything but give thanks to God myself.

So, I don't think there is an unlimited tolerance of abuse to those privileges bought so dearly in the collective American psyche. I am surprised that psyche has not reached the tipping point yet, but I have faith that it is there somewhere. I know that it is beyond my threshold. But…and this is an important but…in my mind the difference between a terrorist, a criminal, and a true patriot freedom fighter is that the patriot honors the threshold of the collective psyche of the people even when it has not yet been reached. Samuel Adams did not take his Boston 'mob', form guerrilla units and begin blowing up British garrisons. He was an agitator and the "Boston Tea Party" was admonished by Benjamin Franklin and others and John Adams defended the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre, along with another prominent pamphleteer. These were lovers of freedom in favor of declaring independence from Great Britain but they did not begin an attack against the established government. They operated openly, holding elections and attempted to solve their grievances with the crown peacefully. They also knew the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters.

They also did not attack the British troops garrisoned in their independent colonies until the British moved to seize their stores of powder and weapons. They waited until their natural right to the means to defend themselves was threatened. If the regime were to announce a general seizure of weapons from 'we, the militia', I would also consider that a provocative act that was a bridge too far, irrespective of the general collective psyche of the American people. My weapons are necessary implements of my lifestyle, the same as my tiller and tractor and I have a natural right to possess the means to live and to defend myself against varmints, two-legged or four.

For a revolution to be successful, it is necessary to be a partisan with the support of the populace. If one considers himself a potential freedom fighter, it's also prudent to study guerrilla warfare and revolutions. I have the background to have already studied these subjects from the point of view of the 'counter-insurgency', which means I already knew a lot of tactics, etc., but not from the point of view of the partisan. To my ex-military potential revolutionaries, I very much encourage you to do as I do and to study revolutions in history from the perspective of the partisan insurgent. I try to persuade people to prepare for any eventuality by stockpiling food, fuel and ammo. This is not only to deal with the inevitable breakdown of the distribution system that would occur in a major economic, monetary or civil crisis for oneself, but you will now also have security concerns with which to concern yourself with that "the system" has always taken care of. These folk will not be available to assist with the necessary food production/survival needs of the community so their provision must be addressed. This mindset is a necessary factor of a successful revolution and will not exist without the support of the collective psyche for the revolution as described above. And I believe that collective psyche will express itself at the ballot box, even in the face of the corporatist media propaganda, etc.

If I am wrong…well, I keep my sniper skills up also. I hope they are never needed for anything but the occasional four legged varmint and meat for my table.

Happy Independence Day! Of course, this is a misnomer. On this day in 1776 we announced to the world we would not be ruled by a monarch - but Great Britain had other plans and we had to go through a long and brutal war to achieve independence - it was not until Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown that the individual states were free of the rule of King George. And even that was not the 'birthday' of a nation, as I often hear Independence Day referred. We were not a nation, we were a Confederation of independent former colonies. To create a nation required much work and compromise until finally we had a Constitution and were a nation in reality. The story is that Benjamin Franklin was stopped by a lady after the final vote by the states on the Constituion and was asked what system of government the new nations representatives had given the people. Ben replied, "A Republic, ma'am - if you can keep it."

It appears old Ben's concerns were warranted. The Constitution they so revered that they required all public officials, servicemembers, etc. to swear an oath to uphold is now considered an irrelevant and dusty old museum piece. Its main original purpose - preventing this new federal government from seizing all the power reserved to the people and the states - is no longer considered to be valid by most in DC, including now a majority of the Supreme Court.

Today, my prayer is that somewhere between the hot dogs, the beer and the fireworks, we remember the sacrifices made through the years to maintain the hard-fought freedom bequeathed to us by our ancestors and ask ourselves if we are really doing our duty as citizens to pass that freedom on to our children and grandchildren. Will they be free and able to pursue their vision of happiness unhampered by a tyrannical Federal despotism? I think we are on the precipice of the honest answer being no. It is not hopeless if the American people will wake up and take personal responsibility for our duty to posterity.

I pray this Independence Day is the day the alarm clock rings.

Honestly...or 'just sayin'

In the past few weeks I have heard President Obama and Governor Romney on the campaign trail saying this election is a time for the country to choose its path. Surveys show most Americans thing we are on the wrong path - I am one of them. While doing this, the first thing Americans need to come to terms with is the ability to be honest with itself about itself. We are so wrapped up in partisanship and nationalism that we fail to view the full picture, being in denial of the truth, and living in an echo chamber of propaganda indoctrinating into us a viewpoint, at times with no basis in facts.

Consider the two recent cases of 'creative editing' at NBC. The first was the George Zimmerman 911 tape, in which NBC purposely advances the narrative that Zimmerman was stalking the hated colored man and shot him down like a rabid dog. The more recent was portraying Mitt Romney as an out of touch elitist, amazed by the touch screen menu at a WaWa's. Yet the next evening I found myself watching Brian Williams and pretending with the rest of America that I was watching news rather than a puppet show.

We need to be honest, even when it hurts. We have a retired George Bush and a sitting Barack Obama who are war criminals. We have a young man, Private Manning, locked in a military prison for exposing war crimes.

We have an attorney general and a president who seem to be complicit in running an illegal gun operation to arm the Mexican drug cartels which resulted in the murder of a border patrol agent. Memo's indicate this was done in order to build support for suppressing our constitutional right to bear arms.

We have a president who has circumvented the constitution he vowed to uphold numerous times, the most recent being his vote buying overturning of Congressional action on the Dream Act, implementing it by dictatorial fiat.

We have a congress and president preparing the tools and legislation for a totalitarian police state, from the Patriot Act, in its ever-more-intrusive form, a president picking terrorists to be assasinated on a weekly basis and claiming the authority to do the same to American citizens here in the US. And, along with a complicit congress, is preparing to fill the skies with 30,000 drones to conduct surveillance and who knows what else here in America.

We need to have a conversation, but it needs to be an honest conversation.