Pears
Real beauties.
Homemade all organic apple pie courtsey of Mandi's Kitchen.
GRRR!!! Karl guarding the apples. Peace, JOEY
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
More picking going on...
Pears Real beauties. Homemade all organic apple pie courtsey of Mandi's Kitchen. GRRR!!! Karl guarding the apples. Peace, JOEY
Monday, September 29, 2008
Farm Day...
Alpacas
More Alpacas
Check this gals teeth, she must be British.
Mandi making friends right before they spit on her.
And once again more alpacas.Mandi and I went checked out an open house house at an alpaca farm on Sunday. Not because we are necessarily interested in purchasing some alpacas but because there soft and fun to pet. Besides there pretty pricey. You buy like 100 sheep for the price one alpaca but it wouldn't have the same micron count. Its all about the micron count.
Peace, JOEY
Revenge recap...
Andy the A$$hole.
Mandi right ahead of Mike BoYes.
Why thank you very much Matt!
Jason accepting his big money.
The Revenge went fairly well. Mandi won the womens open class with very impressive sub 5:30 time. She even had nice hard wreck shook it off and continued on. I had a good race. I won the SS class which was cool but I also took a wrong turn which cost me about 20 minutes. Should of had my head up looking for the turn off and not looking at all the apples and the dogs chasing me. I love riding in the Davis/Canaan area. Definitly the best riding in the world! Yes in the world. I said it, its official.
Peace, JOSEPH
US Homeowners Soon To Be Evicted By Chinese Police Under New Law
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
| |
Russian economists are expressing shock today over a new
These powers are specifically being granted to China’s State Security Police who operate under the Ministry of State Security for the Peoples Republic of China by the United States as a precondition for the Chinese Governments continued purchasing of US debt as the Americans continue their desperate actions to avert their total economic collapse.
China had previously ordered its banks to halt all lending to the United States, an action that would totally cripple the American banking system, and as we can read as reported by the Reuters News Service:
Not being understood by the American people is that China is the holder of over $1.4 Trillion of US debt backed by the mortgages on the homes and property of tens of millions these people which, in essence, makes the Chinese one of the largest holders of land in the United States, and which the Chinese government has stated they will protect ‘at all costs’.
In rapid response to China’s demands that they be granted immediate access to their American properties to protect their ‘investments’, the United States is enacting a new law titled the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, and which in Section 101, Paragraph 7:3 chillingly states:
The United States Federal Reserve has further notified the China Development Bank, the second largest bank in Asia and the main holder of US mortgage debt instruments, that they will be designated by the US Secretary of the Treasury as one of the financial institutions protected by this extraordinary new law, and which, according to these reports, will empower Chinese policing authorities the right to act as law enforcement officers in the United States including granting them the right to evict American citizens from homes whose mortgage debt is held by China.
Unfortunately for these American people, their own public officials have totally abandoned them as the American Center for Responsive Politics has reported that the staggering amount of $2 Billion has been paid by the perpetrators of this Global financial crisis to US Lawmakers, of both political parties, to sell out their fellow countrymen as virtual economic slaves to the all powerful International corporate cartels who now rule over them.
Even worse for these people is that the plan instituted and carried out over these past 40 years to erase their true history leaves virtually none of them today with the full, and monstrous, century old plan to destroy their Nation, and which began with almost the exact same economic crisis they are experiencing today, and was called the Panic of 1907, and of which we can read:
So shocked were the American people by the Panic of 1907 that they allowed for the first time since their Nations founding, their lawmakers to begin the process of establishing a Central Banking System, and of which one of their founding fathers, and writer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, warned all future generations of Americans:
Today, and sadly, the World is now witnessing these prophetic words of Thomas Jefferson coming true.
Even worse, these American people, whose ancestors laid the foundation for what was once the greatest and freest Nation on Earth, have now been reduced to what is now commonly referred to as “sheeple”, “a term of disparagement, a portmanteau created by combining the words "sheep" and "people." It is often used to denote persons who acquiesce to authority, and thus undermine their own human individuality. The implication of sheeple is that as a collective, people believe whatever they are told, especially if told so by authority figures, without processing it to be sure that it is an accurate representation of the real world around them.”
It goes without saying, of course, that these Americans do not see themselves in this most truest of lights as they continue living their lives in near total ignorance of the greater catastrophes soon to befall them, all of which they have been, and are continued to be, warned about. But, they continue to laugh off, and spurn, these warnings as they continue to believe the lies being fed them by their propaganda media organs they never seem to realize are nothing but the mouthpieces for the fascist corporate forces delivering them to the slaughterhouses they will come to know all too soon.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Let's Play
Represenative Kaptur tells it how it is. The fat cats should suffer and the common people should be "bailedout"
JOEY
New Camera...
Mandi prepping banana peppers before canning them.
The new kitty, Johnson. We just can't say no. 
Sunset 9-25-08
Finished compost pile.
New compost pile. 
Carrots are ready.
Nothing like fresh lettuce.
We have an over abbundance of banana peppers.
A 700 Billion Bailout With No Review or Oversight Whatsoever
Bob Chapman
The International Forecaster
September 25, 2008
The unbelievable breakdown in American lending standards, market instruments no more than a worthless pile of paper, note how market elitists are using the market crash to put pressure on Congress, the plan to bail out fraudsters, the vicious circle of printing more and more currency, more wiled speculation to come after a bailout,
We are dumping more dollars into the world economy, devaluing our currency, and therefore the value of all these foreign-owned US treasury bonds. Imagine what will happen when 700 billion dollars, in cash, is dumped into the fraudster system.
As it turns out, all the foreign nations holding dollar-denominated foreign exchange surplus reserves in the form of treasury paper realized that we were going to inflate them into oblivion, what with all the bailouts and such, and it appears, well, that they all ran for the door at once, if you catch my drift. We wore out all the printing presses trying to cash in their bonds for them, and all we had left was a huge pile of treasury paper, which we decided to throw out of my helicopter instead of cash. They’re in pretty big denominations, so the people should be quite impressed. In any case, we couldn’t print any more Federal Reserve notes on account of the printing press issue, and besides, the notes wouldn’t have been good for anything but heating fuel, "furnace fodder" if you will, so why go through all the expense to print more? We have to be fiscally responsible, you know. MM: Yeah, right. Gee, I know this may sound odd, but now that your helicopter’s engines have shut down, I could swear that I hear — could it be — the sound of marching jackboots, doing a goose-step, in the background?
read the rest here...
The International Forecaster
September 25, 2008
The unbelievable breakdown in American lending standards, market instruments no more than a worthless pile of paper, note how market elitists are using the market crash to put pressure on Congress, the plan to bail out fraudsters, the vicious circle of printing more and more currency, more wiled speculation to come after a bailout,
We are dumping more dollars into the world economy, devaluing our currency, and therefore the value of all these foreign-owned US treasury bonds. Imagine what will happen when 700 billion dollars, in cash, is dumped into the fraudster system.
As it turns out, all the foreign nations holding dollar-denominated foreign exchange surplus reserves in the form of treasury paper realized that we were going to inflate them into oblivion, what with all the bailouts and such, and it appears, well, that they all ran for the door at once, if you catch my drift. We wore out all the printing presses trying to cash in their bonds for them, and all we had left was a huge pile of treasury paper, which we decided to throw out of my helicopter instead of cash. They’re in pretty big denominations, so the people should be quite impressed. In any case, we couldn’t print any more Federal Reserve notes on account of the printing press issue, and besides, the notes wouldn’t have been good for anything but heating fuel, "furnace fodder" if you will, so why go through all the expense to print more? We have to be fiscally responsible, you know. MM: Yeah, right. Gee, I know this may sound odd, but now that your helicopter’s engines have shut down, I could swear that I hear — could it be — the sound of marching jackboots, doing a goose-step, in the background?
read the rest here...
Five Dangerous, Disastrous Things About the Proposed Bailout and What You Can Do to Help Stop It
By AlterNet Staff, AlterNet. Posted September 23, 2008.
You can help stop the economic hijacking before it's too late.
Tools
The Bush era has been a period of one outrage following the next, but the administration's bailout of Wall Street's wheeler-dealers is the most outrageous yet!
Bush's parting gift to the fat cats who twice filled his campaign coffers to the brim -- when they weren't busy playing fast and loose with the American economy -- is a huge pile of tax dollars that will get them out of the problems their recklessness created, while leaving Main Street high and dry and at risk of foreclosure.
Here are five things about the crisis -- and the Bush-Paulson Plan -- that we just can't believe our officials would even have the nerve to contemplate, as well as something you can do to help stop them …
1. They're Making Longtime Wall Street Honcho Henry Paulson Into an Emperor!
We just can't get over this little tiny section in the Bush-Paulson plan. Just 32 words long, it says that the whole thing is up to Paulson's "discretion" and "may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." That's like burning the Constitution! What happened to the separation of powers -- to checks and balances?
2. They Want the Fox to Guard the Henhouse: Wall Street Brokers Will Decide Which Wall Street Brokers Get a Piece of the Pie!
Believe it or not, Henry Paulson, who was a key player in creating this mess in the first place as the CEO of brokerage giant Goldman Sachs, wants to "outsource" the buying and selling of all these junk securities to Wall Street money managers. Remember, there are no restrictions on what they can do -- their actions can't even be reviewed by the courts!
3. They Want to Establish American Socialism for the Richest, and Dog-Eat-Dog for the Rest of Us!
Another thing that's sticking in our craw is that this outrage is being pushed by the very same politicians who passed the horrible bankruptcy "reform" bill in 2005. That law actually made the mortgage situation worse, because it kept ordinary people from getting out from under a pile of consumer debt, and many more ended up losing their homes as a result.
When Bush signed the law, he said, "America is a nation of personal responsibility where people are expected to meet their obligations," but that only goes for the Little Guy -- the Big Boys get to make a mess and take no responsibility for it at all!
4. Nobody Knows How Much They'll Really End Up Pilfering From the Treasury!
The headlines all say that it's a $700 billion bailout. But the plan that Bush put together only says that Paulson can hold onto $700 billion in bad securities at one time! He can buy some, sell 'em at fire-sale prices and then buy some more. Even worse, nobody knows what the final bill will be, because nobody knows what all those bad mortgages are worth.
5. They Want to Borrow All This Cash to Give to Wall Street, and Foreign Banks Too!
And, remember, the government doesn't have that kind of money lying around -- it'll all be borrowed cash, sending the deficit through the roof.
When Bush came into office, he had a budget surplus. Then he got us into a trillion-dollar war in Iraq and at the same time gave all these huge tax cuts to the same people who are most responsible for this mortgage mess. He was set to pass a half-trillion-dollar deficit to the next president -- now, it'll be even higher! If the bailout passes, our children will still be paying for it for decades to come.
And Paulson says he even wants to let foreign banks get their snouts into the trough as well. It's crazy!
This is certainly the greatest outrage yet, and we've got to stop it.
The following appeal from the Campaign for America's Future is a great way to add your say to the snowballing resistance to this attempt to steal hundreds of billions from the public purse.
Within the next 24 hours, we expect that Congress will make a historic choice to address America's financial crisis: Cut the Bush administration a $700 billion blank check for Wall Street, OR demand sensible public checks and balances in the $700 billion bailout. Write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: No $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street.
In the next 24 hours, Congress could shape America's financial well-being for decades to come. Exploiting the financial crisis, the Bush administration is strong-arming Congress to give Wall Street $700,000,000,000 more of our taxpayer dollars -- with no strings attached and no say from us.
Write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: No $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!
Legislation could be on the floor of Congress within 24 hours. With the Bush administration stoking panic and pressuring Congress, citizens must speak up now to push back and demand common sense.
We need to fix this financial crisis, but giving $700 billion to Bush's Treasury secretary to spend as he wishes is over the top. The Bush administration is basically holding a gun to Congress' head and saying, "Give us the money immediately, or the banks will blow up the world economy."
If steps must be taken to keep the economy from failing, common sense must not be thrown out the window. Write Congress now and demand 3 basic principles to protect the public:
1. No Taxation Without Representation. If our tax dollars are going to buy bad assets from irresponsible bankers, the American people must get something for it. Equity in bailed-out firms. Strong regulation so this doesn't happen again. Stern public oversight. And, no golden parachutes for CEOs with our money.
2. No Help for Wall Street Without Help for Main Street. To truly get our economy back on track, we must aid the victims, not just the predators. Freeze foreclosures. Renegotiate bad mortgages. Create jobs generating clean energy and modernizing infrastructure. Prevent cuts in local police, health, road and school budgets. Extend unemployment insurance and food stamps.
3. No Insider Dealing. Wall Street can no longer be allowed to write its own laws. Legislators should refuse campaign money from Wall Street PACs or executives. We need a "time out" on contact between paid Wall Street lobbyists and elected officials while the crisis is addressed. Any congressional meetings with Wall Street officials must be immediately posted on a single Web site for complete transparency.
The next 24 hours will likely determine whether these commonsense solutions prevail, or whether the Bush administration gets $700 billion more of our money to do with as it pleases.
Write now and demand that Congress ensure sensible checks and balances when dealing with hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars. Write now and tell Congress: No $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!
You can help stop the economic hijacking before it's too late.
Tools
The Bush era has been a period of one outrage following the next, but the administration's bailout of Wall Street's wheeler-dealers is the most outrageous yet!
Bush's parting gift to the fat cats who twice filled his campaign coffers to the brim -- when they weren't busy playing fast and loose with the American economy -- is a huge pile of tax dollars that will get them out of the problems their recklessness created, while leaving Main Street high and dry and at risk of foreclosure.
Here are five things about the crisis -- and the Bush-Paulson Plan -- that we just can't believe our officials would even have the nerve to contemplate, as well as something you can do to help stop them …
1. They're Making Longtime Wall Street Honcho Henry Paulson Into an Emperor!
We just can't get over this little tiny section in the Bush-Paulson plan. Just 32 words long, it says that the whole thing is up to Paulson's "discretion" and "may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." That's like burning the Constitution! What happened to the separation of powers -- to checks and balances?
2. They Want the Fox to Guard the Henhouse: Wall Street Brokers Will Decide Which Wall Street Brokers Get a Piece of the Pie!
Believe it or not, Henry Paulson, who was a key player in creating this mess in the first place as the CEO of brokerage giant Goldman Sachs, wants to "outsource" the buying and selling of all these junk securities to Wall Street money managers. Remember, there are no restrictions on what they can do -- their actions can't even be reviewed by the courts!
3. They Want to Establish American Socialism for the Richest, and Dog-Eat-Dog for the Rest of Us!
Another thing that's sticking in our craw is that this outrage is being pushed by the very same politicians who passed the horrible bankruptcy "reform" bill in 2005. That law actually made the mortgage situation worse, because it kept ordinary people from getting out from under a pile of consumer debt, and many more ended up losing their homes as a result.
When Bush signed the law, he said, "America is a nation of personal responsibility where people are expected to meet their obligations," but that only goes for the Little Guy -- the Big Boys get to make a mess and take no responsibility for it at all!
4. Nobody Knows How Much They'll Really End Up Pilfering From the Treasury!
The headlines all say that it's a $700 billion bailout. But the plan that Bush put together only says that Paulson can hold onto $700 billion in bad securities at one time! He can buy some, sell 'em at fire-sale prices and then buy some more. Even worse, nobody knows what the final bill will be, because nobody knows what all those bad mortgages are worth.
5. They Want to Borrow All This Cash to Give to Wall Street, and Foreign Banks Too!
And, remember, the government doesn't have that kind of money lying around -- it'll all be borrowed cash, sending the deficit through the roof.
When Bush came into office, he had a budget surplus. Then he got us into a trillion-dollar war in Iraq and at the same time gave all these huge tax cuts to the same people who are most responsible for this mortgage mess. He was set to pass a half-trillion-dollar deficit to the next president -- now, it'll be even higher! If the bailout passes, our children will still be paying for it for decades to come.
And Paulson says he even wants to let foreign banks get their snouts into the trough as well. It's crazy!
This is certainly the greatest outrage yet, and we've got to stop it.
The following appeal from the Campaign for America's Future is a great way to add your say to the snowballing resistance to this attempt to steal hundreds of billions from the public purse.
Within the next 24 hours, we expect that Congress will make a historic choice to address America's financial crisis: Cut the Bush administration a $700 billion blank check for Wall Street, OR demand sensible public checks and balances in the $700 billion bailout. Write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: No $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street.
In the next 24 hours, Congress could shape America's financial well-being for decades to come. Exploiting the financial crisis, the Bush administration is strong-arming Congress to give Wall Street $700,000,000,000 more of our taxpayer dollars -- with no strings attached and no say from us.
Write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: No $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!
Legislation could be on the floor of Congress within 24 hours. With the Bush administration stoking panic and pressuring Congress, citizens must speak up now to push back and demand common sense.
We need to fix this financial crisis, but giving $700 billion to Bush's Treasury secretary to spend as he wishes is over the top. The Bush administration is basically holding a gun to Congress' head and saying, "Give us the money immediately, or the banks will blow up the world economy."
If steps must be taken to keep the economy from failing, common sense must not be thrown out the window. Write Congress now and demand 3 basic principles to protect the public:
1. No Taxation Without Representation. If our tax dollars are going to buy bad assets from irresponsible bankers, the American people must get something for it. Equity in bailed-out firms. Strong regulation so this doesn't happen again. Stern public oversight. And, no golden parachutes for CEOs with our money.
2. No Help for Wall Street Without Help for Main Street. To truly get our economy back on track, we must aid the victims, not just the predators. Freeze foreclosures. Renegotiate bad mortgages. Create jobs generating clean energy and modernizing infrastructure. Prevent cuts in local police, health, road and school budgets. Extend unemployment insurance and food stamps.
3. No Insider Dealing. Wall Street can no longer be allowed to write its own laws. Legislators should refuse campaign money from Wall Street PACs or executives. We need a "time out" on contact between paid Wall Street lobbyists and elected officials while the crisis is addressed. Any congressional meetings with Wall Street officials must be immediately posted on a single Web site for complete transparency.
The next 24 hours will likely determine whether these commonsense solutions prevail, or whether the Bush administration gets $700 billion more of our money to do with as it pleases.
Write now and demand that Congress ensure sensible checks and balances when dealing with hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars. Write now and tell Congress: No $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Weekend...
This weekend Mandi and I didn't do any riding. Saturday we both had to work and then go and volunteer at the Elkhinge Music Festival. We collected money at the gate in exchange for a portion of the proceeds to be donated to the Allegheny Highlands Trail Foundation. We got to raise money for a good cause and listen to some killer music. Sunday we made a trip to camp. Camp is a small camper up near the Sinks of Gandy on Dryfork Road. Mandi and I helped her dad and mom build a roof over the camper. It turned out pretty well only needing the tin to be applied to be completed. I am learning, the more help and the more I do the more I learn about carpentry work. Someday I hope to put all this knowledge to use on my own big project. Monday was apple picking day. We finally found an apple picker at southern states. We rode 8 miles out on the rail trail and the worked are way back. We hit five apple trees in three and a half hours. We started rolling home way after dark. Good thing we know the rail trail well. We harvested about 50lbs of apples! That should last us about 2 months:) None of the apples are perfect but they are just as God intended. No wax, no pesticides, no genetic modifications.
Peace, JOEY
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Hey there...
Sorry for the lack of "real" blogging lately. Our good digital camera finally pooped out and I do not like writing up a blog unless I can include pictures. I broke out the old stand by fuji last night for the ride and now I remember why we got a new camera. It is slow, eats batteries and the pics are super fuzzy. Anyway Mandi and I went and did our favorite close to home MTB ride last night. We call it the Pheasant Mountain loop. It includes a forest service road off of pheasant mt road which leads to some doubletrack and then eventually to South Haddix Trail and singletrack. We got a bit of late start for such a long ride but we couldn't resist it was just so beautiful yesterday. There are apples everywhere! We ended up pick up a couple dozen good eating apples just from the rail trail on the way home. I sm going to ACE today and buying an apple picker. Hopefully Monday evening if we have the time we will be able to go put it to use and get us enough apples to get us through the next year.
Peace, JOEY.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands
Wayne Madsen
Online Journal
September 16, 2008
WMR has learned from a senior Democratic congressional source that the Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.
The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.
The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients.
In 2004, under pressure from Abramoff and the White House, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jim Gibbons (R-NV) shepherded the passage of the Western Shoshone Distribution Act, which was quickly signed by President George W. Bush. The act settled federal violations of the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 with the Shoshones and compensated them a mere $135 million for 24 million acres of Shoshone land illegally seized by the federal government in Nevada, California, Utah, and Idaho. The Shoshones cried foul, saying their land is rich in gold reserves. Gibbons, who is now governor of Nevada, instantly moved legislation to privatize the former Shoshone lands. Reid, Gibbons, and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), all received lucrative cash contributions to their campaigns from Abramoff clients.
Bush White House official Jennifer Farley urged passage of the bill claiming that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were personally interested in its enactment, further adding that the legislation was considered “hot.” Cheney paid a visit to Nevada as the Senate voted to pass the bill.
The Washington Post reported that Farley and Karl Rove were recipients of sporting event tickets from Abramoff’s assistant Kevin Ring, arrested and jailed this past week for his involvement in the Abramoff bribery scandal. Farley termed tickets as “fruit” in her conversations with Ring. Abramoff, already serving a prison sentence for a guilty verdict from a Florida case, received an additional four years in prison last week for his role in the scandal, which has tainted a number of Republicans in Congress, as well as senior members of the Bush administration. Tony Rudy, another Abramoff assistant and a former deputy chief of staff to former Texas Republican Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty in the bribery scandal.
WMR has also learned that the Bush administration ordered a number of California and other Western state forest wildfires purposefully set with the intention of damaging and destroying federal and state forestlands, thus making them ripe for exploitation and sale to private interests. California Republican Representative John Doolittle, also under investigation in the Abramoff bribery scandal, promoted the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which permitted national forests to be purposefully thinned by timber companies to make them less susceptible to the fires, exacerbated by global warming, that were being set by others within the Bush administration. The purposeful destruction of federal forests was carried out with the knowledge of top officials of the Interior Department under both Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne.
In 2003, California law enforcement concluded that a number of devastating fires that destroyed 718,000 acres in the state were the result of arson. Some within the Bush administration suggested that “Al Qaeda” terrorists could be behind the blazes. It now appears that it was the Bush administration that was the actual terrorists in carrying out the arson to enrich their friends in the real estate, Indian gambling casino, mining, and other exploitation industries.
In Florida, under both Governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, the St. Joe Company, a firm that has close financial ties to both Jeb and George H. W. Bush, has steadily encroached on lands adjacent to state and federal wildlife management preserves, state forests and parks, and national forests.
Online Journal
September 16, 2008
WMR has learned from a senior Democratic congressional source that the Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.
The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.
The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients.
In 2004, under pressure from Abramoff and the White House, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jim Gibbons (R-NV) shepherded the passage of the Western Shoshone Distribution Act, which was quickly signed by President George W. Bush. The act settled federal violations of the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 with the Shoshones and compensated them a mere $135 million for 24 million acres of Shoshone land illegally seized by the federal government in Nevada, California, Utah, and Idaho. The Shoshones cried foul, saying their land is rich in gold reserves. Gibbons, who is now governor of Nevada, instantly moved legislation to privatize the former Shoshone lands. Reid, Gibbons, and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), all received lucrative cash contributions to their campaigns from Abramoff clients.
Bush White House official Jennifer Farley urged passage of the bill claiming that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were personally interested in its enactment, further adding that the legislation was considered “hot.” Cheney paid a visit to Nevada as the Senate voted to pass the bill.
The Washington Post reported that Farley and Karl Rove were recipients of sporting event tickets from Abramoff’s assistant Kevin Ring, arrested and jailed this past week for his involvement in the Abramoff bribery scandal. Farley termed tickets as “fruit” in her conversations with Ring. Abramoff, already serving a prison sentence for a guilty verdict from a Florida case, received an additional four years in prison last week for his role in the scandal, which has tainted a number of Republicans in Congress, as well as senior members of the Bush administration. Tony Rudy, another Abramoff assistant and a former deputy chief of staff to former Texas Republican Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty in the bribery scandal.
WMR has also learned that the Bush administration ordered a number of California and other Western state forest wildfires purposefully set with the intention of damaging and destroying federal and state forestlands, thus making them ripe for exploitation and sale to private interests. California Republican Representative John Doolittle, also under investigation in the Abramoff bribery scandal, promoted the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which permitted national forests to be purposefully thinned by timber companies to make them less susceptible to the fires, exacerbated by global warming, that were being set by others within the Bush administration. The purposeful destruction of federal forests was carried out with the knowledge of top officials of the Interior Department under both Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne.
In 2003, California law enforcement concluded that a number of devastating fires that destroyed 718,000 acres in the state were the result of arson. Some within the Bush administration suggested that “Al Qaeda” terrorists could be behind the blazes. It now appears that it was the Bush administration that was the actual terrorists in carrying out the arson to enrich their friends in the real estate, Indian gambling casino, mining, and other exploitation industries.
In Florida, under both Governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, the St. Joe Company, a firm that has close financial ties to both Jeb and George H. W. Bush, has steadily encroached on lands adjacent to state and federal wildlife management preserves, state forests and parks, and national forests.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by: Dr. Gregory Damato, Ph.D.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024128.html
(NaturalNews) Codeath (sorry, I meant Codex) Alimentarius, latin for Food Code, is a very misunderstood organization that most people (including nearly all U.S. congressmen) have never heard of, never mind understand the true reality of this extremely powerful trade organization. From the official Codex website (www.codexalimentarius.net) the altruistic purpose of this commission is in “protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations”. Codex is a joint venture regulated by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Brief History of Codex
The history of Codex began in 1893 when the Austria-Hungarian empire decided it needed a specific set of guidelines by which the courts could rule on cases dealing with food [1]. This regulatory set of mandates became known as Codex Alimentarius and was effectively implemented until the fall of the empire in 1918. The United Nations (UN) met in 1962 and decided that Codex should be re-implemented worldwide in order to protect health of the consumers. Two-thirds of funding for Codex emanates from the FAO while the other third comes from the WHO.
In 2002, the FAO and WHO had serious concerns about the direction of Codex and hired an external consultant to determine its performance since 1962 and to designate which direction to take the trade organization [2]. The consultant concluded that Codex should be immediately scrapped and eliminated. It was at this time that big industry realized the full monetary potential of this organization and exerted its powerful influence. The updated outcome was a toned down report asking Codex to address 20 various concerns within the organization.
Since 2002, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has covertly surrendered its role as an international public health and consumer protection organization. Under the helm of big industry, the sole surreptitious purpose of the new codex is to increase profits for the global corporate juggernauts while controlling the world through food. The implicit understanding of their philosophy is that if you control food, you control the world.
Codex Now
The most dominant country behind the agenda of Codex is the United States whose sole purpose is to benefit multinational interests like Big Pharma, Big Agribusiness, Big Chema and the like. At the latest meeting in Geneva, the U.S. recently became the chair of Codex which will facilitate an exacerbation of the distortion of health freedom and will continue the promulgation of misinformation and lies about genetically modified organism (GMOs) and nutrients while fulfilling the tacit population control agenda. The reason the U.S. continues to dominate Codex is because other countries falsely believe the U.S. possesses the latest and greatest safety technology when it comes to food and hence, whatever the U.S. asks for, its allies (E.U., Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore) follow suit nearly every time.
Many of the countries who wish to participate and want to voice their opinions are not allowed to attend the Codex meetings as the U.S. denies most visas for these representatives whenever they feel like it. Many of these countries (South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Sudan, Nigeria) realize that Codex has been altered from a benevolent food organization to one that is fraudulent, lethal and illegitimate. The fact that Codex meetings are held all over the world is also no accident and allows the U.S. to maintain its tight grip on the Codex agenda as the less economically viable countries are not able to attend.
The Real Threat
While the esoteric agenda of the media is busy driving fear into the hearts of the world by focusing on terrorism, global warming, salmonella, and food shortages, the real threats are clandestinely becoming a reality. Soon every single thing you put into your mouth (with the exception of pharmaceuticals, of course) will be highly regulated by Codex Alimentarius, including water. The standards of Codex are a complete affront to the freedom of clean and healthy food, yet these regulations have no legal international standing. Why should we be worried? These soon-to-be mandatory standards will apply to every country who are members of the WTO (World Trade Organization). If countries do not follow these standards, then enormous trade sanctions will result. Some Codex standards that will take effect on December 31, 2009 and once initiated are completely irrevocable include [2]:
* All nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are to be considered toxins/poisons and are to be removed from all food because Codex prohibits the use of nutrients to “prevent, treat or cure any condition or disease”
* All food (including organic) is to be irradiated, removing all toxic nutrients from food (unless eaten locally and raw).
* Nutrients allowed will be limited to a Positive List developed by Codex which will include such beneficial nutrients like Fluoride (3.8 mg daily) developed from environmental waste. All other nutrients will be prohibited nationally and internationally to all Codex-compliant countries [2].
* All nutrients (e.g., CoQ10, Vitamins A, B, C, D, Zinc and Magnesium) that have any positive health impact on the body will be deemed illegal under Codex and are to be reduced to amounts negligible to humans’ health [3].
* You will not even be able to obtain these anywhere in the world even with a prescription.
* All advice on nutrition (including written online or journal articles or oral advice to a friend, family member or anyone) will be illegal. This includes naturalnews.com reports on vitamins and minerals and all nutritionist’s consultations.
* All dairy cows are to be treated with Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone.
* All animals used for food are to be treated with potent antibiotics and exogenous growth hormones.
* The reintroduction of deadly and carcinogenic organic pesticides that in 1991, 176 countries (including the U.S.) have banned worldwide including 7 of the 12 worst at the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pesticides (e.g., Hexachlorobenzene, Toxaphene, and Aldrin) will be allowed back into food at elevated levels [4].
* Dangerous and toxic levels (0.5 ppb) of aflotoxin in milk produced from moldy storage conditions of animal feed will be allowed. Aflotoxin is the second most potent (non-radiation) carcinogenic compound known to man.
* Mandatory use of growth hormones and antibiotics on all food herds, fish and flocks
* Worldwide implementation of unlabeled GMOs into crops, animals, fish and trees.
* Elevated levels of residue from pesticides and insecticides that are toxic to humans and animals.
Some examples of potential permissible safe levels of nutrients under Codex include [2]:
* Niacin - upper limits of 34 mcg daily (effective daily doses include 2000 to 3000 mcgs).
* Vitamin C - upper limits of 65 to 225 mcg daily (effective daily doses include 6000 to 10000 mcgs).
* Vitamin D - upper limits of 5 μg daily (effective daily doses include 6000 to 10000 μg).
* Vitamin E - upper limits of 15 IU of alpha tocopherol only per day, even though alpha tocopherol by itself has been implicated in cell damage and is toxic to the body (effective daily doses of mixed tocopherols include 10000 to 12000 IU).
The Door is Open for Codex
In 1995, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created an illegal policy stating that international standards (i.e, Codex) would supersede U.S. laws governing all food even if these standards were incomplete [5]. Furthermore, in 2004 the U.S. passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (illegal under U.S. law, but legal under international law) that requires the U.S. to conform to Codex in December of 2009 [6].
Once these standards are adopted there is no possible way to return to the standards of the old. Once Codex compliance begins in any area, as long as we remain a member of the WTO, it is totally irrevocable. These standards are then unable to be repealed, changed or altered in any way shape or form [1, 2, 7].
Population control for money is the easiest way to describe the new Codex which is run by the U.S. and controlled by Big Pharma and the like to reduce the population to a sustainable 500 million - a reduction of approximately 93 percent. The FAO and WHO have the audacity to estimate that by the introduction of just the vitamin and mineral guideline alone, at a minimum 3 billion deaths (1 billion from starvation and another 2 billion from preventable and degenerative diseases of under nutrition, e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes) will result.
Degraded, demineralized, pesticide-filled and irradiated foods are the fastest and most efficient way to cause a profitable surge in malnutrition, preventable and degenerative disease which the most appropriate course of action is always pharmaceuticals. Death for profit is the new name of the game. Big Pharma has been waiting for this opportunity for years.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024128.html
(NaturalNews) Codeath (sorry, I meant Codex) Alimentarius, latin for Food Code, is a very misunderstood organization that most people (including nearly all U.S. congressmen) have never heard of, never mind understand the true reality of this extremely powerful trade organization. From the official Codex website (www.codexalimentarius.net) the altruistic purpose of this commission is in “protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations”. Codex is a joint venture regulated by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Brief History of Codex
The history of Codex began in 1893 when the Austria-Hungarian empire decided it needed a specific set of guidelines by which the courts could rule on cases dealing with food [1]. This regulatory set of mandates became known as Codex Alimentarius and was effectively implemented until the fall of the empire in 1918. The United Nations (UN) met in 1962 and decided that Codex should be re-implemented worldwide in order to protect health of the consumers. Two-thirds of funding for Codex emanates from the FAO while the other third comes from the WHO.
In 2002, the FAO and WHO had serious concerns about the direction of Codex and hired an external consultant to determine its performance since 1962 and to designate which direction to take the trade organization [2]. The consultant concluded that Codex should be immediately scrapped and eliminated. It was at this time that big industry realized the full monetary potential of this organization and exerted its powerful influence. The updated outcome was a toned down report asking Codex to address 20 various concerns within the organization.
Since 2002, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has covertly surrendered its role as an international public health and consumer protection organization. Under the helm of big industry, the sole surreptitious purpose of the new codex is to increase profits for the global corporate juggernauts while controlling the world through food. The implicit understanding of their philosophy is that if you control food, you control the world.
Codex Now
The most dominant country behind the agenda of Codex is the United States whose sole purpose is to benefit multinational interests like Big Pharma, Big Agribusiness, Big Chema and the like. At the latest meeting in Geneva, the U.S. recently became the chair of Codex which will facilitate an exacerbation of the distortion of health freedom and will continue the promulgation of misinformation and lies about genetically modified organism (GMOs) and nutrients while fulfilling the tacit population control agenda. The reason the U.S. continues to dominate Codex is because other countries falsely believe the U.S. possesses the latest and greatest safety technology when it comes to food and hence, whatever the U.S. asks for, its allies (E.U., Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore) follow suit nearly every time.
Many of the countries who wish to participate and want to voice their opinions are not allowed to attend the Codex meetings as the U.S. denies most visas for these representatives whenever they feel like it. Many of these countries (South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Sudan, Nigeria) realize that Codex has been altered from a benevolent food organization to one that is fraudulent, lethal and illegitimate. The fact that Codex meetings are held all over the world is also no accident and allows the U.S. to maintain its tight grip on the Codex agenda as the less economically viable countries are not able to attend.
The Real Threat
While the esoteric agenda of the media is busy driving fear into the hearts of the world by focusing on terrorism, global warming, salmonella, and food shortages, the real threats are clandestinely becoming a reality. Soon every single thing you put into your mouth (with the exception of pharmaceuticals, of course) will be highly regulated by Codex Alimentarius, including water. The standards of Codex are a complete affront to the freedom of clean and healthy food, yet these regulations have no legal international standing. Why should we be worried? These soon-to-be mandatory standards will apply to every country who are members of the WTO (World Trade Organization). If countries do not follow these standards, then enormous trade sanctions will result. Some Codex standards that will take effect on December 31, 2009 and once initiated are completely irrevocable include [2]:
* All nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are to be considered toxins/poisons and are to be removed from all food because Codex prohibits the use of nutrients to “prevent, treat or cure any condition or disease”
* All food (including organic) is to be irradiated, removing all toxic nutrients from food (unless eaten locally and raw).
* Nutrients allowed will be limited to a Positive List developed by Codex which will include such beneficial nutrients like Fluoride (3.8 mg daily) developed from environmental waste. All other nutrients will be prohibited nationally and internationally to all Codex-compliant countries [2].
* All nutrients (e.g., CoQ10, Vitamins A, B, C, D, Zinc and Magnesium) that have any positive health impact on the body will be deemed illegal under Codex and are to be reduced to amounts negligible to humans’ health [3].
* You will not even be able to obtain these anywhere in the world even with a prescription.
* All advice on nutrition (including written online or journal articles or oral advice to a friend, family member or anyone) will be illegal. This includes naturalnews.com reports on vitamins and minerals and all nutritionist’s consultations.
* All dairy cows are to be treated with Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone.
* All animals used for food are to be treated with potent antibiotics and exogenous growth hormones.
* The reintroduction of deadly and carcinogenic organic pesticides that in 1991, 176 countries (including the U.S.) have banned worldwide including 7 of the 12 worst at the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pesticides (e.g., Hexachlorobenzene, Toxaphene, and Aldrin) will be allowed back into food at elevated levels [4].
* Dangerous and toxic levels (0.5 ppb) of aflotoxin in milk produced from moldy storage conditions of animal feed will be allowed. Aflotoxin is the second most potent (non-radiation) carcinogenic compound known to man.
* Mandatory use of growth hormones and antibiotics on all food herds, fish and flocks
* Worldwide implementation of unlabeled GMOs into crops, animals, fish and trees.
* Elevated levels of residue from pesticides and insecticides that are toxic to humans and animals.
Some examples of potential permissible safe levels of nutrients under Codex include [2]:
* Niacin - upper limits of 34 mcg daily (effective daily doses include 2000 to 3000 mcgs).
* Vitamin C - upper limits of 65 to 225 mcg daily (effective daily doses include 6000 to 10000 mcgs).
* Vitamin D - upper limits of 5 μg daily (effective daily doses include 6000 to 10000 μg).
* Vitamin E - upper limits of 15 IU of alpha tocopherol only per day, even though alpha tocopherol by itself has been implicated in cell damage and is toxic to the body (effective daily doses of mixed tocopherols include 10000 to 12000 IU).
The Door is Open for Codex
In 1995, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created an illegal policy stating that international standards (i.e, Codex) would supersede U.S. laws governing all food even if these standards were incomplete [5]. Furthermore, in 2004 the U.S. passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (illegal under U.S. law, but legal under international law) that requires the U.S. to conform to Codex in December of 2009 [6].
Once these standards are adopted there is no possible way to return to the standards of the old. Once Codex compliance begins in any area, as long as we remain a member of the WTO, it is totally irrevocable. These standards are then unable to be repealed, changed or altered in any way shape or form [1, 2, 7].
Population control for money is the easiest way to describe the new Codex which is run by the U.S. and controlled by Big Pharma and the like to reduce the population to a sustainable 500 million - a reduction of approximately 93 percent. The FAO and WHO have the audacity to estimate that by the introduction of just the vitamin and mineral guideline alone, at a minimum 3 billion deaths (1 billion from starvation and another 2 billion from preventable and degenerative diseases of under nutrition, e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes) will result.
Degraded, demineralized, pesticide-filled and irradiated foods are the fastest and most efficient way to cause a profitable surge in malnutrition, preventable and degenerative disease which the most appropriate course of action is always pharmaceuticals. Death for profit is the new name of the game. Big Pharma has been waiting for this opportunity for years.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Its over sorta...
Mandi and I competed in the final WVMBA race of the season this past weekend. It was held at the beautiful Barboursville Park down near Huntington. The same park that I try to plant my self into the ground at last year. Mike BoYes, Andy the asshole, Dwayne Walters and the rest of the H-town crew had the course packed hard and rolling fast, to fast. Definitly not the best SS course. A long drawn out road start followed by a fast, flat river trail left the SSers at the back of the Expert pack. I was jocking with folks I normally do not see in race. It was kinda fun but also very frustrating. I chose to race with one gear so who am I to bitch. I was going pretty well for a while caught all the other SS crew except for Juan Martinez. I was closing the gap to bird boy when things went sour. Right at the end of the first long lap my stomach got all twisted and started cramping. My legs started locking up and I started loosing all forward momentum. Chris McGillicuty came around and disappeared. I slowed way down and went into survival mode, trying to maintain third. I held on almost to the end and then was sneak passed by Joey Boyle. He came out of no where. I threw in a surge with about 15 minutes to go but I couldn't reel the other Joey back in. I finished forth 10 seconds back of Mr Boyles. Mandi had a "great" day. She said and I quote "This is not a very good SS course. My feet hurt. I want gears next year. It was a lovely day in the park". Mandi finished the season up second overall in the "very competative"(sarcasim) womens expert class. Where are all the ladies? I didn't finish in the top five in any class this year. I did some catagory jumping and generally raced with very little enthusiasm this year. I will consider this year a recovery year.
One more to go, The Revenge of the Rattleysnake. We are planning on racing as long as it doesn't rain. I am most looking forward to some awesome fall riding all of which I missed out on last year.
Peace, JOey
One more to go, The Revenge of the Rattleysnake. We are planning on racing as long as it doesn't rain. I am most looking forward to some awesome fall riding all of which I missed out on last year.
Peace, JOey
Monday, September 8, 2008
Culture Shock: The USA vs. South America;Fiction vs. Reality
September 8th, 2008
http://www.naturalnews.com/024064.html
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 by: Mike Adams
(NaturalNews) I recently spent a month in Ecuador, and when I returned, I couldn’t get over the culture shock. Not the culture shock of being in Ecuador, mind you, but the shock of returning to the United States! In this article, I’ll reveal the mind-warping weirdness of the United States of America that only becomes apparent when you go somewhere else for a while, then come back. And we’ll start with the Department of Homeland Security, of course.
Upon returning to the U.S., I arrived at the Miami airport and proceeded to the immigration chamber where I and about a thousand other American citizens were told to wait for an hour and a half just to have our passports stamped for entry. The temperature in the hall was way too hot, and there was no water available anywhere. After about half an hour, the crowd grew unruly, and at one point they started shouting at one of the immigration officers who threatened to close a line. That’s when an overweight cop appeared and pointedly said something to a few of the protestors. The message was clear: Shout again, and you might be hauled off to jail.
Welcome to Police State USA. This is how the United States treats its own citizens returning from abroad. Imagine how it treats non-citizens!
By comparison, the immigration line in Ecuador required no more than six minutes of waiting. It was an organized line, with a zigzag rope pattern so that you didn’t have to worry about getting stuck in a “slow” line. But in the U.S., there was no such thing: You had to pick a line, and some immigration officers processed people three times as fast as others. At one point, they opened up a new line, and a mass of 100 people or more stampeded over to a new line. It reminded me of the airports in Peru.
I thought I had returned to a third-world country! The U.S. was starting to resemble Peru!
Ecuador was far more advanced than the United States in terms of processing passports and getting you through the airport in a timely manner.
Buying Food Indoors
The next culture shock element concerned the acquisition of food. In Ecuador, you see, I had been eating out of my garden for 30 days. I hadn’t visited a grocery store once, and I got used to the idea of going OUTSIDE to get my food. That’s where food really grows, after all. Outside, in nature.
In the U.S., you have to go INDOORS to get your food. Because food is sold in buildings, where it’s old, dead, processed food wrapped in plastic or packaged in cardboard.
Even going to Whole Foods felt like a massive downgrade from eating fresh out of the garden, and the prices were outrageous: $2.50 for a head of cabbage. $4 for a bunch of beets. $2 for a few ounces of organic cilantro. I had been growing all these (and much more) in my garden in Vilcabamba (www.VilcabambaHomes.com) for a fraction of that cost, and eating them fresh each day. Coming back to the U.S. and realizing I was going to have to pay top dollar for organic product that was DAYS OLD was downright depressing.
Whole Foods, which I used to think was a Mecca of fresh produce, now looked like a disturbing downgrade. Pay more, get less. Welcome to America.
In Vilcabamba, by comparison, I was drinking fresh greens juices, just minutes out of the garden, three times a day. It was all 100% organic, living food. The best in the world. By comparison, Whole Foods seems like a meal at Denny’s.
Artificial Florida
Then there’s the outdoors in Florida, where I’m staying at the moment. Compared to Ecuador, Florida is artificial and dead. On the San Joaquin ranch in Ecuador, life was abundant: The night sparkled with lightning bugs, the bamboo forests sang with crickets and insects, and taking a simple walk meant seeing a thousand different plants, all with their own flowers, leaves and seeds. It was an abundant, biodiverse ecosystem full of life.
Florida, by comparison, is homogeneous and dead. Everywhere is the same: Herbicide-treated grass and palm trees. Nothing is real, nothing is natural. Not even a single dandelion in the whole city. There are no lightning bugs, no crickets, no natural plants anywhere. It’s like sleepwalking through a fabricated reality, invented by a moron with no imagination but lots of herbicide.
Compared to Ecuador, even the most pristine resort areas of Florida are dull, dead and boring. After just one day in Boca Raton, Florida, I longed for the natural environment of South America…
Living Indoors in America
Another thing took me by surprise: In America, everybody lives indoors. Almost nobody spends any real time OUTdoors. This is especially true in Florida, where I was driving through a neighborhood and saw a dozen cars parked at a neighborhood entrance. When I asked what they were doing, I was told they were moms waiting for their kids to arrive on the school bus.
Apparently, Florida moms are horrified at the idea that their children might breathe OUTdoor air for more than a few seconds. They must be shuttled from their air-conditioned schools to their air-conditioned busses, then to their parents’ air-conditioned cars and into their air-conditioned homes. It’s an indoor life for people who have completely lost touch with reality.
I actually saw a group of kids get off the bus and run to their parents’ waiting cars. They were pale, unhealthy looking children, all of whom no doubt suffered from severe vitamin D deficiencies due to spending all their time indoors.
What’s happened to America society today? Have parents become so overprotective of their children that they can’t let them walk two hundred meters from the bus to their house? When I went to grade school, I walked a couple of miles every day, and in high school, I rode my bike five miles or so each way. Today’s parents would be horrified at the idea that their children actually have to walk somewhere. It’s all part of a society of laziness and artificiality, where the idea that a child might experience contact with nature is terrifying!
In Parkland, Florida, by the way, there’s actually a sign near the road that points to a small forest and says, “Natural Area.” Hilarious. The city is so artificial that they actually have to put up a sign reminding people what a “natural area” looks like. And in reality, the only reason it’s still natural is because it was too swampy to build on.
Mindless Spending in the USA
The South American economy is run on cash. Nobody uses credit cards there, and most establishments don’t even take credit cards. So when you buy something, you spend cash.
Surprisingly, this is a very good way to control your spending. If you have to buy a large water tank for $350 (as I did), you actually have to count out $350 in bills and hand it to someone. This is an important reminder of what you’re really spending.
In America, on the other hand, there’s no real money: It’s all just numbers on a piece of paper where you sign away your future earnings to some dishonest credit card company. The American system of credit card spending encourages mindless spending. There’s no reality check on how much money you’re actually handing over to someone, and even worse, you can spend money you don’t yet have!
That idea is considered ridiculous in South America. You only spend what you already have, not what you might have in the future. This encourages responsible consumption and spending.
But in America, the mindless credit card system encourages lifelong enslavement to the financial institutions. Trapped in hopeless credit card debt, many Americans try to spend their way to happiness, further deepening their financial woes and making them lifelong slaves to some big bank.
America’s financial system is based on pure fiction. It’s a complex network of leveraged debt, where consumers, banks, states and even the federal government are all limping along in a state of never-ending bankruptcy. Unrestrained spending combines with worthless paper currency to create a recipe for financial disaster, and that’s exactly where the U.S. economy is headed.
Coming back to America made it immediately obvious to me how fake and fragile the whole system really was. Ecuador may be a lot less wealthy, but it’s based on reality, not a fabricated delusion of wealth.
Disconnect with Reality
Speaking of reality, it became immediately clear to me upon returning to the United States that the American people have little connection with reality. They live in their fake particle-board-and-drywall homes, they spend money they don’t have, they eat fake food made in a factory somewhere, they take fake chemical medicines; their lawns are fake, their neighborhoods are fake, their parks are fake and even their boobs are fake.
Ecuador, in contrast, is based on reality: The homes are made of mud or concrete blocks, the food is grown in gardens or small farms, the water comes out of the ground near your property, businesses buy and sell things using cash, the trees are wild, the grass is wild, the insects are wild, and the government gets thrown out of office every couple of years by the People, who make a habit of marching in the streets every time some political jerk tries to trample on their prosperity (try that in the U.S. and you’ll get sent to Guantanamo Bay…).
In the U.S., your water comes out of a tap, and it’s contaminated with fluoride and chlorine. In Ecuador, it comes out of the GROUND, and it’s contaminated only with living microorganisms. That’s LIVING water vs. DEAD water.
In the U.S., your cheese is pasteurized, homogenized and fabricated in a “cheese food” factory. In Ecuador, it’s real cheese made from fresh milk taken from cows that roam the grasslands. I don’t even eat dairy in the U.S., but I eat some cheese in Ecuador (and ONLY Ecuador!).
Even the poverty is real. In the U.S., you’ll find obese people holding signs that say, “Need food.” In Ecuador, the people who need food are skinny. That’s because they really are starving, not like the “fake” starving people in the U.S. (We’ve done work to help many of these people, by the way, so I’m not making light of their situation, but I am pointing out that the whole idea of starving in the U.S. when you’re obese is quite ridiculous.)
Even the physically-impaired beggars are more real in South America. In the U.S. a street corner beggar holds a sign claiming he’s a veteran, and displaying the obligatory “God Bless America” message, but he’s got shoes, a shirt, and most of his teeth. Beggars in South America have two teeth, one arm and no legs, and they’ve got a 7-year-old child with no shoes and deformed toes, blind in one eye and beating sticks on a dirty drum with his one good hand. That’s REAL need. Beggars in the U.S. use most of their money for booze, drugs and hookers. But beggars in South America actually buy food.
By the way, there are relatively few homeless, crazy people roaming the streets in Ecuador. American cities, on the other hand, have thousands of crazy people running around. And if you go to Washington D.C., you’ll find they’re all gathered in one place: The White House!
Children Don’t Know the Real World
A recent study in the U.K. revealed that children have virtually no connection with the real world. Astonishingly, most could not identify common plants, animals or insects native to their own country!
I suspect this is also true in the U.S., where kids have virtually no connection with the real world anymore. They don’t know what lightning bugs are, they’ve never seen animals except in zoos, and they have no clue where food really comes from. (Taco Bell?)
In Ecuador, kids grow up close to nature. They know seeds, insects, animals and plant. They play in the dirt, and they walk in the rain.
In the United States, kids grow up in a fabricated, artificial reality. They know Xbox and Playstation. They would never even be allowed to play in the dirt or walk in the rain. They’re over-protected, over-medicated and under-nourished. They lack sunshine and exposure to living microorganisms that might boost immune function. Instead, they’re vaccinated with over a hundred vaccines by the time they reach age 13, at which point many are already obese and diabetic due to their consumption of factory-made processed foods.
In Ecuador, most families are too poor to buy McDonald’s. (And there’s hardly a fast food restaurant to be found anyway.) They eat rice, vegetables and free-range meat. Sure, they WANT more Pepsi and Coca-Cola, but most can’t afford it, so they end up eating bland diets of unprocessed foods that are actually good for them.
I fear for future generations of Americans. Our nation’s children are being brought up without any of the skills they might need if the real world descended upon them. In America, if the water stops, or the food stops, or the electricity stop, most people are absolutely clueless. They become instant victims who have no sense of what to do to survive outside their fabricated cities and complex supply lines.
But in Ecuador, losing water, food or electricity is no big deal. People are extraordinarily resourceful, and because they’re already living close to the Earth, they can get by. They’ll bathe in the river, eat the tropical fruits growing like weeds in their yards, and light candles at night. Getting back to basics is commonplace in Ecuador, and if the entire global infrastructure failed, they’d be fine. They can live much like the Incas did, and the Incas didn’t need air conditioning.
Imagine what would happen in a typical U.S. city if the infrastructure failed: Total chaos! Without food, water, electricity and internet access, most Americans would freak out. They have no idea how to survive in the real world. (NaturalNews readers, of course, are the exception. You folks are already closer to the Earth than most people, and you have a lot more skills for living off the land, if needed.)
An Artificial World vs. the Real World
The bottom line to all this is that America has, in many ways, become an artificial world. It’s not necessarily obvious if you live in America. You actually have to leave the country for a month or so and then come back. Only then will you notice just how fabricated American society really is.
North America is the land of living INdoors, isolated from nature, where you exist in a fabricated reality prone to collapse.
South America is the land of living OUTdoors, close to nature, where you have contact with the real world.
I’d rather live in the real world than a fabricated world. How about you? Of course, you give up the shopping malls, the Wal-Mart, the drive-through pharmacies, the live rock concerts and the fear-mongering cable news networks. If you’re into fake food, fake elections and fake boobs, you’ll miss the United States.
Of course, Ecuador is becoming more fake as it chases American culture. The Ecuadorian people strive to be more like North Americans, who they perceive as being wealthy and cool. But they miss the whole point: North American fashion, hamburgers and cosmetic surgery may look cool, but it’s an illusion. Real abundance is found in the land, the sun, the water and the seeds. Ecuadorians already live in a genuine paradise, with sustainable food and a safety net in case things go wrong in the world. Most just don’t realize it.
When crops fail in the U.S., or a pandemic is unleashed, or the water dries up in the American Southwest, the people of South America may come to realize just how wealthy they really are. It’s not about the size of your home, or the make of your car, or the bling around your neck; it’s about whether you can wake up to the sounds of nature, eat real food from your own land, and live in harmony with the symphony of life all around you. It’s about being close to nature, finding peace and happiness in the land of plenty. Isn’t that why our ancestors came to America in the first place? They looking for peace and abundance, too. They left Europe and came to America. Today, generations later, people are leaving America and heading to South America for the exact same reasons.
The soil is rich, the sun is abundant, the life is diverse and the world is real. Land is affordable and labor is low-cost. Medicines grow everywhere around you, and if you get into the right community, your neighbors are like-minded folks from first-world nations who are into natural health and natural living.
If you want to join me in the real world, come to Vilcabamba: www.VilcabambaHomes.com
By the way, there’s a lot to like about America. I still love America for lots of reasons. I love the creativity, the (relatively) free speech and the anti-smoking laws. I love the vehicle emissions controls (which don’t exist in South America) and the convenience of buying books from Amazon.com. America is a great place, but it just doesn’t offer the connection with the real world that you’ll find in South America. Hawaii may be the closest you’ll come to that. Hawaii’s great, but very, very expensive, and it’s still part of the American empire (until it declares independence someday, of course). Ojai, California is another paradise in America, but it’s also insanely expensive. Unless you’re a multi-millionaire, you probably won’t find a natural living paradise in America that you can really afford. South America is the obvious choice, and that’s why so many people are heading there right now.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Morning Ride...
Thick as pea soup.
Giddy up.
Breaking through to the other side.
Hope he had a good night of hunting.
Mandena.Sick of it all...
Both mainstream political parties are full of SHIT! McCain or Obama, its just going to be four more years of the same stuff. There is barely a dimes worth a differnance between the either of them. We are no longer voting for president we are voting for a king, the leader of an empire that is growing at a dizzying rate. If Americans really want a change they need to change the way they think. We need to break free of this left/right paradigm and realize that this entire political system evolved just as means to divide and conquer. We all need to think outside of the corporate cage, turn off the tvs, lay down the cell phones and really pay attention to what is going on in this country. The USA is heading for hell in hand basket but it can be stopped. Did you know that there are several other way more deserving candidates running for president? What about Chuck Baldwin? Cynthia McKinney? Ralph Nader? And then there is the modern day Thomas Jefferson, Ron Paul. Ron would have made one hell of of a president. He is founding father material. In conclusion the two party system sucks. Both parties are corporately sponsored and they are always going to do the bidding of there corporate puppet masters. Both "candidates" our also members of the Council on Foreign Relations. A group whose number one stated goal is the destruction of all countries sovereignty and the installation of a world government. Ok, rant over, go back to sleep America everything is alright. Go back to watch your 30 channels of American Gladiators and drinking your aspartame feeled diet soda.
Peace, JOEY
Peace, JOEY
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Recap...
Lets see. What have we done lately. Last week was Mandi's b-day. To celebrate we headed up to the Purple Fiddle for some good eats and good music. We saw a hippy girl from NC that Mandi likes, Utah Green. Utah is great musician and an amazing songwriter. Before heading over to the Fiddle we went to Blackwater Falls state park and went for a little walk. Its been a little while since we have seen the falls. Their still there. Done a little bit of riding. Couple long SS suffer fests one of them which included Bickles Knob. Bickles is the highest point in Randolph County and it is one hell of a climb. It is 6ish miles long and damn steep. I like to climb, no I love to climb and I hate Bickles especially on a SS. The reward is Middle Point trail. It is a knarly, rooty, rocky, Pacific Northwestesque, technical treat. Picture Huckleberry Trail with more roots and lots of really slick moss. The trail is eventually a fall line trail that gets ultra steep right at the end and pops out into nice big high mountain field. The rest of ride was on Bakers Sods trail. A mellow meandering almost all downhill singletrack/doubletrack. It takes you through Bakers Sods, imagine that. It is a rather large clearing in the middle of the woods with hundreds of blackberry bushes, dozens of appletrees and in the spring, thousands of yummy ramps. Bakers sods drops out on the lower cheat road from there we headed home. If you ever find yourself in Bakers Sods remember just follow the ribbons, you will eventually pop out the other side.
Peace, JOEY
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