ridealotwv

SM100

2010-09-09T08:57:00.001-04:00

ShenandoahMt 100: Mandi 14th woman, 10 hours 36 minutes. Overall she hung in there for a better than mid pack finish.

Me 52nd overall, 8 hours 42
minutes. I rode a fast somewhat party pace all day. Didn't want to dig to deep was more concerned about enjoying my day.

John Weber, 9:34! Awesome finishing time for a fella who only rides 3 times a week!!!

Team JBS got some great exposure at a national level event and we all had a great painful time.

Sunshine Everywhere!!

2010-04-05T20:46:00.004-04:00

Yes there is still a little snow up on Bickles Knob

Any ideas? Looks like I'm Going to have to get out my wildflower field guide

We dug some ramps for dinner and enjoyed them with tacos! YUMMY!

Shavers Fork River

Me preparing for a long climb up to Bickles via Baker Sods trail

One of the many climbs on South Haddix trails

More of South Haddix Trail

Goofy Mandi on Shingletree Trail

which way?

Another pic of my I think Joey need to give my the camera sometimes so I can see more of him.

Garden Hoops

2010-04-05T20:17:00.007-04:00

This week officially began our gardening season. We planted 2 pear trees, a bartlett and d'anjou,and Egyptian walking onions. Soon to follow will be onions:copra, red zepplin and candy.
Here is our hoop house awaiting seedlings that are a little too small yet. Soon the hoops will be planted with broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and maybe some lettuce. Then covered with an insect cloth to hopefully keep the nasties away. We also hope to extend our growing season this fall using our hoops with some heavy duty remay or plastic.

My favorite things are sunshine, playing in the garden, riding bikes with Joey and playing with the kitties. I had all these things last week. I hope this week is just as wonderful!

Almost garden time

2010-03-29T10:13:00.004-04:00

Starting seeds is my cure for the winter time gray. Last month I started most of our seeds. We enjoy raising all our vegetables from organic biodynamic open pollinated seeds. We order from Bountiful Gardens. I believe they are the best seed company around.
We also ordered two pear trees for the yard, I hope they produce enough to eat and preserve for winter.
Something new we are trying this spring is a raised bed with a hoop cover made of remay. This insect cover will provide a little frost protection but most importantly protect from the nasty pests. Maybe someday we will have our soil healthy enough where we won't have pests to deal with. More companion planting this year should also make a big difference.
I'll follow up with pictures as the hoop house takes shape.

Mandi

Get them while they last

2010-03-29T10:01:00.005-04:00

Get them while they last!

Green or Black
Tec Tees
$25.00

Email Joey at joeysbikeshop@hotmail.com to get yours.

Sorry for the lack of posts

2010-03-29T09:36:00.005-04:00

Since Joey is so busy at Joeys Bike Shop lately, I'm going to take over here. We'll see how it goes.
Here are a few pics for some of our latest rides.

America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away

2010-03-08T20:07:00.000-05:00

By: Kitty Werthmann

The author of this article lives in South Dakota and appears to be very active in attempting to maintain our freedom. Google Kitty Werthmann and you will see articles and videos.

What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history books.

I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.. I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.

In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn't want to work; there simply weren't any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30 daily.

The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.

We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn't have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group -- Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.

After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn't support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education - Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:

Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn't pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles," and had physical education.

Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

My mother was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn't do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun - no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn't exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home:

In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:

When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children.. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls:

Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna . After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn't meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

"Mercy Killing" Redefined:

In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps - Gun Laws:

Next came gun registration.. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

Totalitarianism didn't come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria . Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.

After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria . Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn't destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn't, paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians. This is an eye witness account.

"It's true..those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away "After America , There is No Place to Go"

Georgetown Rd to Mill Creek

2010-02-21T18:25:00.000-05:00

Pics from today

Fresh Greens from the cold frame in February! Yum!

What more do you need?

Stuarts Ski...

2010-02-13T20:01:00.002-05:00

The ski conditions right now are down right amazing!!!

Joey

Ski Pics...

2010-02-12T20:39:00.002-05:00

5 pics, two days, completely different conditions.

Sun-day: Cheat Mountain. Sunny. Air temp about 10 degrees. Real feel of 50! No kidding I
was roasting all day.
Wednesday: Bickles Knob. Cloudy and snowing. Air temp 12 degrees. Real feel -30. 50 mph wind gusts and sustained winds in the 20s.
Both days were awesome and made very thankful to be alive and able to do what I want to do when I want to do it. FREEDOM!

Joey

Recent Pics...

2010-02-05T16:17:00.003-05:00

The riding conditions lately have been down right miserable. But nothing has been keeping Mandi and I off our new Fuji bikes. The snow has been heavy and wet which makes for slow going and an awesome workout. This weekend looks as if it will be a wash for the riding so it may be back to the skis for a few days. Anything to stay of the trainer.

Joey

Shavers-Bickles Ski...

2010-01-15T10:35:00.002-05:00

First tracks on Bickles. No tire tracks, no footprints, no ski tracks(until we arrived). What a wonderful human powered day it was.

Peace, Joey

Marshmallow wonderland...

2010-01-11T10:00:00.004-05:00

The ladies sharing the road!?!

Marshmallow cream everywhere! Photo courtesy of Tommi

Not so Bald Knob. Camera froze up shortly after taking this picture.

I feel so relieved.

Mandi and the John.

My mug ruining an otherwise beautiful picture.

Saturday: Mandi and I went skiing at the Lammie residents(Mandi's boss) out near Mont-rose. The ridgeline powder was amazing! Four foot deep drifts. Just wonderful!

Sunday: Mandi, John and I headed up the the ultimate XC ski destination of Canaan Valley. We headed over to Whitegrass so John could rent some equipment. What a spectacular day! The conditions there are the best they have had in 4 decades. Snow up to your butt. We had an awesome day of skiing followed by some good food and fellowship.

This winter has been awesome, I hope it continues as it is.

Let it snow, Joey.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

2010-01-03T17:05:00.004-05:00

We skied for almost 3 hours today in sub 10 degree temps. It not as bad as it sounds. Once we got moving we stayed fairly warm.

We are so pretty.

Want to join the polar bear club.

Shavers fork of the Cheat is named after a distant relative to Mandi on the Shaffer side of her family.

Diner. Mandi's chili, homemade herb bread, salad.

Stay warm, Joey

Circus Cat...

2009-12-31T09:06:00.002-05:00

No electric prods or tazers were used in the making of this video.

2009-12-27T11:07:00.002-05:00

Life is so unpredictable and can change in the blink of an eye. This song makes me feel very thankful for what I have.

Happy Holidays, Joey

When the surreal becomes the news

2009-12-21T20:56:00.001-05:00

No job? No health care? Worried about your retirement? (i.e. ending up old, sick and broke)

No worries

The Department of Defense is hiring.

Why?

Because endlessly expanding war is America's new growth industry.

Here's Fox News shilling for the military, gushing about what a great employer it is:

* Confidential online mental health assessment.

* Free "stress reduction" programs for children at Fort Bliss?

* "If you love, travel this is definitely for you."

Is it just me...or is this the creepiest "news" story in the long time.

Big Snow of '09

2009-12-21T09:25:00.005-05:00

Saturday:

The snowmobile was completely covered.

Skied right out the bike shop door Saturday morning and...

...down to the rail trail. Were I broke tracks for Mandi so she could SKI to work. Her boss was ecstatic as she to is also an avid skier.

Sunday:
Skied right from the house. That has only happened a couple time since we moved to Elkins.

Monday:

Open for Business.

Big pile of snow just begging for a snow cave!

Happy Winter Solstice, Joey.

Wednesday

2009-12-18T09:40:00.003-05:00

Frozen ground...

Dusting of granular snow...

Awesome conditions.

I missed my que so you have to wait for it... its worth it.

Peace, Joey.

2009-12-14T13:44:00.000-05:00

Obama the Puppet: The World's Least Powerful Man

2009-12-08T17:22:00.000-05:00

By Paul Craig Roberts
Information Clearinghouse, December 1, 2009
Straight to the Source

It didn't take the Israel Lobby very long to bring President Obama to heel regarding his prohibition against further illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Obama discovered that a mere American president is powerless when confronted by the Israel Lobby and that the United States simply is not allowed a Middle East policy separate from Israel's.

Obama also found out that he cannot change anything else either, if he ever intended to do so.

The military/security lobby has war and a domestic police state on its agenda, and a mere American president can't do anything about it.

President Obama can order the Guantanamo torture chamber closed and kidnapping and rendition and torture to be halted, but no one carries out the order.

Essentially, Obama is irrelevant.

President Obama can promise that he is going to bring the troops home, and the military lobby says, "No, you are going to send them to Afghanistan, and in the meantime start a war in Pakistan and maneuver Iran into a position that will provide an excuse for a war there, too. Wars are too profitable for us to let you stop them." And the mere president has to say, "Yes, Sir!"

Obama can promise health care to 50 million uninsured Americans, but he can't override the veto of the war lobby and the insurance lobby. The war lobby says its war profits are more important than health care and that the country can't afford both the "war on terror" and "socialized medicine."

The insurance lobby says health care has to be provided by private health insurance; otherwise, we can't afford it.

Read the rest here...

Switch Backing

2009-12-08T11:00:00.003-05:00

Two Sundays ago. Mandi showing us how it is done.

Joey

Snowy Weekend...

2009-12-08T10:49:00.002-05:00

Saturday.

Winter is here!

Lunch time during Sunday hike. Should have went skiing at Whitegrass.

Outside: frigid, frozen,cold, numb.

Inside: verdant, succulent, nutritious, alive.

Winter seems to be here, for now. Rain, snow, sleet, repeat. I love snow. I hate cold rain and wintery mix. Lets pray for snow. Don't forget your vitamin D supplements.

Peace, Joey

What Would Jesus Buy?

2009-12-07T19:40:00.004-05:00

Buynothingforchristmas.com

It really burns me up when people buy stuff just to buy it. This coming from a guy who owns a retail business. Remember the true reason for the season is not rampant consumerism.

Joey

The best ever Craiglist personals ad...

2009-12-07T19:38:00.001-05:00

Let's escape from the Illuminati and start an intentional community!

Date: 2009-12-06, 8:01PM

Let's go find some land in a far off rural place, learn to grow food, save seeds, collect and distill water....
Make love, meditate, create amazing things with our powerful minds, spread the word and start a motherfucking revolution!!!

Location: DC
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Original URL: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/w4m/1498144123.html

Better than Dylan?

2009-12-06T10:21:00.001-05:00

There is a lot of truth in this here song. Does not get much better, to me anyway.

Joey

Flowing

2009-11-30T15:47:00.002-05:00

It was a tad snowy starting but once we got up high and in to the sun it was marvelous. Every weekend this month has been great. Warm, sunny and dry. I really hope it continues. Fingers crossed.

Peace, Joey.

Challenging Bush-Obama on 9/11

2009-11-27T15:16:00.001-05:00

2009-11-21T13:03:00.001-05:00

Well Said...

2009-11-19T11:42:00.001-05:00

I don't really know anything about UK politics, but I assume they have the same collection of wankers over there there we have here.

But man, I like the way these guys talk!

One thing I'll say for the UK, the Prime Ministers have to sit there and take it publicly.

Can you imagine the Imperial President of the Empire of the United States ever facing public criticism like this?

The UK may be the Nanny State, but at least it's not the Thorazine State.

Weekend in Davis...

2009-11-17T14:10:00.002-05:00

e

r

Saturday Mandi and I spent the entire day in Davis helping out and then racing in Blackwater Cyclo cross race. We were both very pleased with the way we raced. I am not sure were my legs have been all year but they did make a cameo appearance on Saturday for two races. I hope they come back and visit more often, not just once a year.

Sunday was so beautiful that we decided that we must head back up to Davis again. This time John tagged along. We did a nice very mellow techy ride punctuated with John ripping a nice big hole in his back tire.

Riding in November in Davis in shorts, who would of thunk it. And I for one hope that this wonderful DRY weather continues.

Peace, Joey

What You Didn't Know About The War

2009-11-11T18:34:00.000-05:00

2009-11-11T16:46:00.001-05:00

What's is it about?

Federal government employed psychologists being empowered to deny an individual the right to own guns based on a diagnosis. Not behavior. No criminal activity. A diagnosis.

Question: What sector of society has just been radically sensitized to the issue of "traumatized" people bearing arms?

You guessed it. The psychologists and psychiatrists.

You can almost hear it coming:

"If only he'd been diagnosed. If only the law had been used to take away his guns, Fort Hood would never have happened."

I can easily see a situation where returning combat veterans are tested, found to be suffering from PTSD, and stripped of their right to bear arms based on that diagnosis.

For the good of the country of course. Look at what happened in Fort Hood.

If a major with a degree in psychiatry could do something like this, anyone can.

This script could not have been better written by Hollywood.

War is a Racket...

2009-11-11T08:42:00.002-05:00

War is a racket. War makes rich men richer and poor men(boys)dead. In war the profits are calculated in dollars and loses in dead bodies.

Peace, Joey.

Beyond Treason...

2009-11-11T08:18:00.002-05:00

Happy Veterans Day. If any one out there is thinking about joining the military watch this documentary. And then ask yourself if being a strongman for the US government is the direction you want your life to go in.

Peace (please), Joey

North Forker...

2009-11-10T16:51:00.002-05:00

North Forked again and boy was it mighty beautiful up on that wonderful ridge on Sunday. A rowdy bunch we were: Mandi, John, Me and (gasp) Jason Cyr. It would have been the perfect ride if wouldn't have been for all my pesky flats. I guess 850 grams tires just are not tough enough for my 115 lb bee-hind. If you have never rode North Fork trail you shouldn't or maybe you should. It is up to you.

Peace, Joey

CFR: Vaccines No More Harmful Than Tuna Sandwich

2009-11-05T13:06:00.001-05:00

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
November 3, 2009

In the video here, members of a CFR symposium admit they are flummoxed by “crazy people” telling the truth about flu vaccinations on the internet. The CFR says it has to get its act together and dispense more palatable propaganda — for instance, that there is more mercury in a tuna sandwich than the flu shot.

When was the last time you injected a tuna sandwich directly into your bloodstream?

One has to wonder if the members of the CFR symposium actually believe this nonsense or if they are peddling it because they think it will sell vaccines to the sheep. The 1500 percent increase in autism since 1991 is directly related to thimerosal in vaccines, not the consumption of tuna salad.

It is not clear if the academics in the video got their shots. If they believe the vaccine is safe and we are crazy, they should grab their kids and rush down and ask for a shot from one of the multi-dose bottles of the H1N1 vaccine, which contain thimerosal.

In New York, all injectable versions of the shot will contain thimerosal.

We shouldn’t expect the CFR to tell us the truth about the danger of vaccines. For instance, the Norwegian Medicines Agency is reporting that people are suffering serious side effects from the Pandemrix vaccine. “Numbness, dizziness, loss of taste and sense of smell, nausea and watering, are some of the first reported side effects of the swine flu vaccine in this country,” Dagbladet, a Norwegian newspaper reports. The Norwegian Medicines Agency has received reports that 21 people have suffered serious or unusual side effects. “In addition Medicines Agency said that many patients have struggled to come forward with reports of side effects.”

In other words, the true number of people suffering from side effects remains to be seen. However, numerous cases of serious reactions to the vaccine are now appearing, although the corporate media plays these down as rare occurrences.

No matter. The CFR, the CDC, and the government expect you to play Russian roulette with your health.

Black eye Monday morning...

2009-10-26T15:20:00.001-04:00

Slaty ride...

2009-10-26T14:49:00.002-04:00

Corral? No, corral mushroom under glass.

John rode 30 miles in his dress shoes! That will teach him.

The pond but no beavers.

Peace, Joey

President Obama declares national emergency over swine flu pandemic, but why?

2009-10-26T14:43:00.001-04:00

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
October 24, 2009

According to the CDC, swine flu infections have already peaked, and the pandemic is on its way out. Peak infection time was the middle of October, where one in five U.S. children experienced the flu, says the CDC. Out of nearly 14,000 suspected flu cases tested during the week ending on October 10, 2009, 99.6% of those were influenza A, and the vast majority of those were confirmed as H1N1 swine flu infections. (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/)

Even though the H1N1 pandemic appears to have peaked out, U.S. President Barack Obama has now declared a national emergency over swine flu infections. The reasoning behind such a declaration? According to the White House, it’s designed to "allow hospitals to better handle the surge in patients" by allowing them to bypass certain federal laws.

Emergency powers trump the Bill of Rights

That’s the public explanation for this, but the real agenda behind this declaration may be far more sinister. Declaring a national emergency immediately gives federal authorities dangerous new powers that can now be enforced at gunpoint, including:

• The power to force mandatory swine flu vaccinations on the entire population.

• The power to arrest, quarantine or "involuntarily transport" anyone who refuses a swine flu vaccination.

• The power to quarantine an entire city and halt all travel in or out of that city.

• The power to enter any home or office without a search warrant and order the destruction of any belongings or structures deemed to be a threat to public health.

• The effective nullification of the Bill of Rights. Your right to due process, to being safe from government search and seizure, and to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination are all null and void under a Presidential declaration of a national emergency.

None of this means that federal agents are going to march door to door arresting people at gunpoint if they refuse the vaccine, but they could if they wanted to. Your rights as an American are no longer recognized under this national emergency declaration.

What emergency?

The declaration of this national emergency seems suspicious from the start. Where’s the emergency? The number of people killed by swine flu in the United States is far smaller than the number of people killed each year from seasonal flu, according to CDC statistics. People obviously aren’t dropping dead by the millions from H1N1 influenza. Most people are just getting mild flu symptoms and a few days later they’re fine.

So where’s the emergency?

The only emergency I can see is the emergency fabricated by Big Pharma to sell more vaccines. By declaring a national emergency over the H1N1 pandemic, Obama is playing right into their hands.

I find the timing of all this curious. Two days ago, New York gave up on its efforts to require mandatory vaccinations of health care workers. This was designed to defuse a large number of planned protests from health freedom-conscious people who don’t want government-mandated chemicals pumped into their veins.

The planned protests in New York would have fueled yet more resistance among health care workers across the country, and had it been allowed to continue, it could have resulted in a huge nationwide backlash against swine flu vaccines. By backing off the vaccine mandate and blaming it on a vaccine shortage (http://www.naturalnews.com/027313_N…), and then having Obama declare a national emergency, our state and national leaders have halted the protests and put in place a pro-vaccine Big Brother mandate that can be enforced at gunpoint.

Big Pharma must be pleased with all this. With these emergency powers in place, all that’s necessary to force vaccinations upon the entire population is a larger supply of the vaccines — and that’s coming in November.

Sully...

2009-10-24T09:21:00.003-04:00

If you are ever in the Elkins area and are looking for a killer road ride look no further. We call it the Sully ride you will call it tough.

Peace, Joey

Worlds Smallest Political quiz...

2009-10-24T09:18:00.001-04:00

HERE...

Take the quiz, you may be surprised by what you learn.

First snow...

2009-10-19T20:20:00.000-04:00

... in the mountains that is. We had few stray flakes floating around here in Elkins but no accumulation. Up above 3000 ft it was a different story. Most of the pics are from Dolly Sods near Lanesville. Mandi and I went for good hike up high and then headed down low to what seemed like a different world. White, browns and grays dominated the landscape on top, interspersed with snipits of colorful leaves. Down low: greens, reds, yellows a virtual cornucopia of fall colors. It was an awesome day to be outside enjoying what we have been blessed with.

Joey

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Attorney Reports Human Rights Abuses of GI Resisters

2009-10-16T13:23:00.001-04:00

by Dahr Jamail
October 14th, 2009 | Inter Press Service

Attorneys and veteran’s groups are alarmed by recent reports that two US Army soldiers imprisoned at the Fort Lewis Regional Correctional Facility (RCF) have been subjected to human rights abuses and violations of their constitutional rights.

Travis Bishop, who has served a tour of duty in Iraq and is now recognized by Amnesty International as a “Prisoner of Conscience,” resisted deployment to Afghanistan. The other soldier, Leo Church, recently went absent without leave (AWOL) from his unit in order to prevent his family from going homeless.

The civilian defense attorney for both soldiers, James M. Branum, told Truthout that both soldiers have been strip-searched while possibly being filmed. Bishop and Church have also been watched by female guards during strip-searches, while using the restroom as well as while in the showers. Both soldiers have been denied one in-person visit by their attorneys and all phone calls with their attorneys have been illegally monitored by guards.

Branum reported, “The Fort Lewis Brig is violating the constitutional rights of my clients, namely their protections under the Eighth Amendment (the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment) and the Sixth Amendment (the right to counsel). This mistreatment must end.”

Seth Manzel, a Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade veteran and executive director of the veteran support group G.I. Voice, said of the matter, “These techniques of sexual humiliation are far too similar to those practiced on foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan. Is the Army at Fort Lewis using enhanced interrogation techniques to break down American soldiers here at home?”

Manzel, speaking with Truthout via telephone, said his group wants people to know that these abuses are occurring against soldiers “who signed up to defend the country” and “the idea that we do this to our own soldiers demonstrates how amazingly barbaric this system is.”

Other attorneys and military veteran bloggers have long commented on reports of human rights abuses in the RCF, including the use of female guards to sexually humiliate prisoners. The reports include the 2005 case of Michael Levitt, who plugged up his cell toilet in response to reported sexual humiliation by guards, and was then chained to a “stress-chair” (with metal frames, but no seat) for 109 hours. Other war resisters, such as Sgt. Kevin Benderman and Spc. Suzanne Swift have been held at the Fort Lewis RCF.

Manzel, who also helps run the GI resistance coffee house near Fort Lewis, Coffee Strong, added, “We’re trying to raise awareness and give direct support to these two men. Ideally, we hope to pressure the leadership at Fort Lewis to respect their basic human rights, so that the leadership, courts, and other soldiers on base know that there is support out there for other soldiers who resist.”

On September 28, Truthout reported that both soldiers had been held incommunicado, which violated their Sixth Amendment rights.

The Sixth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts, and reads, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

According to Branum, guards are monitoring his conversations with the soldiers, in addition to the fact that the room at Fort Lewis where they meet is not soundproof.

“The guards say we don’t have the room set up yet, but the problem is they had the new brig as a grand opening in August,” he explained. “But the attorney room is not set up. So they need to be transferred to another building where we can have private conversations.”

“The last time I talked to Travis on the phone, he was telling me there was more issues of abuse, but he couldn’t go into detail with me since our conversation was not private,” Branum added.

Attorney LeGrande Jones, who practices in Olympia and was designated by Branum as the local counsel for Bishop, was also denied access to Bishop.

Branum said that the soldiers’ Eighth Amendment rights had been violated as well.

“The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment,” Branum explained to Truthout, “You can’t use sexual humiliation as punishment. In the civilian world, it would not fly to have female guards watching over men using the shower. There’s just no reason to use guards of a different gender to do this, particularly when the military is so male dominated. It’s really weird that they are doing this at Fort Lewis.”

Branum said that Leo Church had been strip-searched in a room while told that cameras were running.

Bishop is in the brig for having gone AWOL from Fort Hood, Texas, on the day of his deployment to Afghanistan to give himself “time to prepare for my application process.” He was away from his unit for about a week, during which he drafted his CO application and sought legal advice. He returned voluntarily and on his return to the unit he submitted his application, but was court-martialed even as the Army was still reviewing it.

Church was imprisoned for having gone AWOL, which he did in order to prevent his wife and children from becoming homeless. He tried to get help from his unit, but was denied, and received eight months prison time. Church was eventually forced by this ordeal to give his newborn son up for adoption. According to Church, “With everything that was going on, from me leaving, even though it was to care for my family, because I could find no support from the Army, Amanda and I had to place our son, Austin in a loving home through adoption. We did not want him enduring the strife that we had endured and for him to end up being fatherless, because I would be living in prison.”

Andrew VanDenBergh, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war and a G.I. Voice staff member, said of Leo Church in a press release, “He joined the Army, found out his family was homeless, wasn’t allowed to keep his children from living on the streets, went to take care of his family, had to give a child up for adoption and is now locked in prison and being abused. Being abused for what? For taking care of his children?”

Fort Lewis continues to be a center of controversy with the recent revelation that a civilian security employee has been spying on groups opposing the shipment of Stryker combat vehicles through local ports.

No Comment...

2009-10-13T15:25:00.001-04:00

Your joking, right...

2009-10-09T14:52:00.002-04:00

President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE (AP) – 5 hours ago

OSLO — President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama woke up to the news a little before 6 a.m. EDT. The White House had no immediate comment on the announcement, which took the administration by surprise.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation but recognized initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," said Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee.

Still, the U.S. remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office.

"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," said former Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate.

"This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said.

The award appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said Obama's award shows great things are expected from him in coming years.

"It's an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all," Tutu said. "It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope."

Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.

"The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given to someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said

More here...

Lets see: Under the Obama administration the US military has increased its presence in Afganistan. Removed a few troops from Iraq and then replaced them with contractors. Started a war with Pakistan, what you didn't know we have been bombing Pakistan on an almost daily basis since Obama took office. Bombed Somalia and Sudan. And the military just received its biggest appropriations budget ever. Am I living in a George Orwell novel. Since when did spreading "democracy" through the barrel of a gun become the same thing as making peace.

Peace, Joey

Max Keiser US Dollar is Finished

2009-10-08T17:21:00.001-04:00

If this kind of truth were to be portrayed in the US mainstream media, oh what a different world we would be living in.

SWAT raid on food storehouse heading to trial

2009-10-08T16:04:00.003-04:00

Family sues over confiscation of supplies, computers

Posted: October 06, 2009
8:29 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A lawsuit brought by an Ohio family whose children were held at SWAT-team gunpoint while their food supplies were confiscated is scheduled to go to trial this week.

John and Jackie Stowers are suing the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County General Health District over the raid on their "Manna Storehouse," an organic food co-op that operated in LaGrange.

The Stowers and their 10 children and grandchildren were detained in one room of their home for six hours while sheriff's officers confiscated 60 boxes of fresh farm food, computers

, phones and records, including USDA-certified meat from the children's mini-farm, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.

The state and county are accused of 119 counts, including unlawful search and seizure, illegal use of state police power, taking of private property without compensation, failure to provide due process and equal protection and a multitude of constitutional rights violations, including the right to grow and eat one's own food and offer it to others.

WND reported when the case developed a year ago.

At that time, a state agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture pressured the Stowers to "sell" him a dozen eggs, then returned with a SWAT team to detain the family's children and confiscate food supplies.

The case brought by state and local authorities against the Stowers came to a head Dec. 1, 2008, when police officers used SWAT-style tactics to burst into the home, hold family members, including children, at gunpoint and confiscate the family's personal food supply.

Two organizations, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and the Buckeye Institute's legal arm, the Center for Constitutional Law, initially started working to defend the family.

But now the family is on the offense, accusing the government agencies and their individuals of rights violations.

David Cox, an attorney for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, confirmed that nothing ever resulted for the family after the confiscation of the food.

There were no charges, "civil, criminal or otherwise," he said.

In an audio podcast posted online, Maurice Thompson of the Buckeye Institute said the family has run the Manna Storehouse, focusing mainly on organic supplies, for several years near Cleveland.

The confrontation began developing several years ago when local health officials demanded the family hold a retail food license to run their co-op. Thompson said the family wrote a letter questioning the requirement and asking for evidence that would indicate they were operating a food store.

The Stowers family members simply "take orders from (co-op) members … then divide up the food," Thompson explained.

"The health inspector didn't like the tone of the letter," Thompson said, and the result was that law enforcement officials planned, staged and carried out the raid on the family's home.

The "sale" of the eggs to the undercover agent was entrapment, the family's lawyers have contended, since the family members had told him they didn't sell food to the public and couldn't help him.

Eventually, when he refused to leave, the family gave him a dozen eggs to hasten his departure, Thompson explained.

The case goes to trial Thursday and Friday in Elyria.

Among other things, the case demands the return of the family's property, as well as an injunction prohibiting enforcement of any licensing requirements of the Ohio Uniform Food Safety Code upon the cooperative.

The case focuses first on the "paramilitary style execution of a search warrant against a peaceful family" whose only alleged crime was not getting a state permit. The second is a challenge to government claims the cooperative is a retail food establishment.

"Between the physical things they took and the emotional and spiritual trauma they caused in our lives, it's our hope we can somehow help others with this [lawsuit]," Jacqueline Stowers said.

In a video posted both on YouTube and on the Buckeye Institute's website, the couple explained how they just wanted to provide a resource for both farmers and consumers.

Officials with the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education non-profit, said several of their members had been participating in the co-op, but now their food supplies are disrupted.

Tour de Lilly...

2009-10-06T13:56:00.000-04:00

Tour de Lilly was a hoot this year. Roger and the crew at BWB know how to have a good time and put together a good ride.

Joey.

U.S., NATO Poised For Most Massive War In Afghanistan’s History

2009-09-29T15:40:00.002-04:00

Rick Rozoff
Global Research
September 26, 2009

Over the past week U.S. newspapers and television networks have been abuzz with reports that Washington and its NATO allies are planning an unprecedented increase of troops for the war in Afghanistan, even in addition to the 17,000 new American and several thousand NATO forces that have been committed to the war so far this year.




The Pentagon and the CIA worked hand-in-glove with Pakistan’s ISI from 1979 onward to subvert successive governments in Afghanistan. Photo: Zbigniew Brzezinski with Afghan “freedom fighter” in the late 1980s.

The number, based on as yet unsubstantiated reports of what U.S. and NATO commander Stanley McChrystal and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen have demanded of the White House, range from 10,000 to 45,000.

Fox News has cited figures as high as 45,000 more American soldiers and ABC News as many as 40,000. On September 15 the Christian Science Monitor wrote of “perhaps as many as 45,000.”

The similarity of the estimates indicate that a number has been agreed upon and America’s obedient media is preparing domestic audiences for the possibility of the largest escalation of foreign armed forces in Afghanistan’s history. Only seven years ago the United States had 5,000 troops in the country, but was scheduled to have 68,000 by December even before the reports of new deployments surfaced.

An additional 45,000 troops would bring the U.S. total to 113,000. There are also 35,000 troops from some 50 other nations serving under NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in the nation, which would raise combined troop strength under McChrystal’s command to 148,000 if the larger number of rumored increases materializes.

As the former Soviet Union withdrew its soldiers from Afghanistan twenty years ago the New York Times reported “At the height of the Soviet commitment, according to Western intelligence estimates, there were 115,000 troops deployed.” [1]

Nearly 150,000 U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan would represent the largest foreign military presence ever in the land.

Rather than addressing this historic watershed, the American media is full of innuendos and “privileged” speculation on who has leaked the information and why, as to commercial news operations the tawdry world of Byzantine intrigues among and between American politicians, generals and the Fourth Estate is of more importance that the lengthiest and largest war in the world.

One that has been estimated by the chief of the British armed forces and other leading Western officials to last decades and that has already been extended into Pakistan, a nation with a population almost six times that of Afghanistan and in possession of nuclear weapons.

Two weeks ago the Dutch media reported that during a visit to the Netherlands “General Stanley McChrystal [said] he is considering the possibility of merging…Operation Enduring Freedom with NATO’s ISAF force.” [2] That is, not only would he continue to command all U.S. and NATO troops, but the two commands would be melded into one.

The call for up to 45,000 more American troops was first adumbrated in mid-September by U.S. armed forces chief Michael Mullen, with the Associated Press stating “The top U.S. military officer says that winning in Afghanistan will probably mean sending more troops.” [3]

Four days later, September 19, Reuters reported that “The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has drawn up a long-awaited and detailed request for additional troops but has not yet sent it to Washington, a spokesman said on Saturday.

“He said General Stanley McChrystal completed the document this week, setting out exactly how many U.S. and NATO troops, Afghan security force members and civilians he thinks he needs.” [4]

The Pentagon spokesman mentioned above, Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, said, “We’re working with Washington as well as the other NATO participants about how it’s best to submit this,” refusing to divulge any details. [5]

Two days later the Washington Post published a 66-page “redacted” version of General McChrystal’s Commander’s Initial Assessment which began with this background information:

Read the rest here...

Sunday Ride Pics...

2009-09-29T15:37:00.001-04:00

Decided to skip the hypothermia fest that was the Revenge and did a big ride on Sunday. Mandi, John, The Viking and I did a loop on Shingletree and then headed across 219 and did South Haddix. All of which are in wonderful shape. Lots of yellows and reds. Get out and shred why the shredding is good.

Peace, Joey.

Wednesday # Who knows...

2009-09-17T13:07:00.003-04:00

Peeping through a leaf.

Douglas Falls. The orange rocks are so beautiful!

Yes, I got another new bike! I know, I know. What can I say I am totally schizophrenic.

Them there are some rocks!

Mandi and I rode up the Allegheny Highlands Railtrail along Blackwater canyon Yesterday. Then we headed up Canyon Rim road to Limerock trail. Limerock is so rough but totally worth the effort just to see the runs that cross it. It is worth doing once every four or so years. Sorry no Garmin map of the ride, I am so over that thing.

Peace, Joey

Charlie Sheen's Video Message to President Obama

2009-09-11T14:29:00.001-04:00

Eight Years Later and Still no Justice...

Zero: An investigation into 911...

2009-09-11T14:26:00.002-04:00

Dangerous Hicks Beer Cans of Death Stunt Bike jump

2009-08-28T14:03:00.001-04:00

Simply amazing. Pure genius all the way. I am not sure if these guys are acting or if they are serious, regardless there great.

Joey

Quarantine or $1000 a day fine for refusing the vaccine

2009-08-27T16:09:00.001-04:00

Some states like Massachusetts have raced to put legislation on their books to jail and fine anyone who does not obey orders regarding an epidemic, a flu epidemic, and a potential flu epidemic at that.

Let's see...

* Terrorism exists (incredibly rare as it is) - so the logical solution is to treat all Americans like potential criminals and shred the Bill of Rights

* Carbon exists (it's essential to life and part of human respiration) - so the logical thing is to tax it and treat it like a planet threatening toxin.

* Flu comes and goes - so the logical thing is to require everyone to submit to injections (the more the merrier) with imprisonment being the penalty for declining.

More money for the crooks in government and their private sector friends, less freedom for citizens. And the US news media band plays on...

Thursday morning pics...

2009-08-20T11:14:00.003-04:00

What a beautiful, humid, vibrantly yellow morning.

Joey

Oh Know I have Orthorexia nervosa!

2009-08-19T18:08:00.005-04:00

Healthy food obsession sparks rise in new eating disorder

Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder

Orthorexia nervosa sufferers like to focus on 'righteous' eating and have rigid rules about avoiding certain foods. Photograph: Getty

Eating disorder charities are reporting a rise in the number of people suffering from a serious psychological condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating.

The condition, orthorexia nervosa, affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated.

The condition was named by a Californian doctor, Steven Bratman, in 1997, and is described as a "fixation on righteous eating". Until a few years ago, there were so few sufferers that doctors usually included them under the catch-all label of "Ednos" – eating disorders not otherwise recognised. Now, experts say, orthorexics take up such a significant proportion of the Ednos group that they should be treated separately.

"I am definitely seeing significantly more orthorexics than just a few years ago," said Ursula Philpot, chair of the British Dietetic Association's mental health group. "Other eating disorders focus on quantity of food but orthorexics can be overweight or look normal. They are solely concerned with the quality of the food they put in their bodies, refining and restricting their diets according to their personal understanding of which foods are truly 'pure'."

Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out.

The obsession about which foods are "good" and which are "bad" means orthorexics can end up malnourished. Their dietary restrictions commonly cause sufferers to feel proud of their "virtuous" behaviour even if it means that eating becomes so stressful their personal relationships can come under pressure and they become socially isolated.

"The issues underlying orthorexia are often the same as anorexia and the two conditions can overlap but orthorexia is very definitely a distinct disorder," said Philpot. "Those most susceptible are middle-class, well-educated people who read about food scares in the papers, research them on the internet, and have the time and money to source what they believe to be purer alternatives."

Deanne Jade, founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, said: "There is a fine line between people who think they are taking care of themselves by manipulating their diet and those who have orthorexia. I see people around me who have no idea they have this disorder. I see it in my practice and I see it among my friends and colleagues."

Jade believes the condition is on the increase because "modern society has lost its way with food". She said: "It's everywhere, from the people who think it's normal if their friends stop eating entire food groups, to the trainers in the gym who [promote] certain foods to enhance performance, to the proliferation of nutritionists, dieticians and naturopaths [who believe in curing problems through entirely natural methods such as sunlight and massage].

"And just look in the bookshops – all the diets that advise eating according to your blood type or metabolic rate. This is all grist for the mill to those looking for proof to confirm or encourage their anxieties around food."

So a person can go to Micky D's everyday and stuff their face full of burgers and fries and believe that said food has no detremental affect on their health all the while suffering innumerable ill side effects from a poor diet. Or you can watch what you eat follow strict guidelines have no health issues, no bulching waste line and boundless energy and then be diagnosed as the one with the mental illness. WTF!!! Don't worry I am sure big Pharma will have a drug to treat Orthorexia nervosa by years end. Joey

Garden and Foraging update...

2009-08-18T16:13:00.003-04:00

Green beans post harvest pre-canning.

Post canning pre-digestion! We have canned about 30 quarts to date.

Squash! One of dozens. Every meal has some form of squash included.

Onions. This pile is only a small representation of what we actually harvested.

Black beauties! 2009 will go down as a stellar berry year. Black raspberries mid summer, black berries and elderberries now. Hopefully we have picked enough to satiate are berry desire through winter.

Apples are all but non existent this year. Late freeze, to much rain, not enough bees, are all reasons that I have heard for the lack of apples. Pears on the other hand are doing pretty well. I have been keeping my eyes on a couple trees in town and when the time is right I shall strike. Handy fruit picker in hand I will descend upon said pear trees under cover of darkness and stealthily pilfer those verdant beauties of there succulent goodies. Or I will just ring some door bells and ask permission.

Peace, Joey.

Huckleberry w/extensions...

2009-08-17T11:58:00.002-04:00

Dry fork road to Spruce Knob, to Judy Springs, up Bear Hunter(almost unrideable due to equestrian damage), to Allegheny trail, up through Grouse Management area back to camp. Followed by a little picnic and beer. "Fellas it doesn't get much better than this".

Ride can be seen here...

Peace, Joey.

2009-08-15T08:12:00.001-04:00

From David Icke

GOLDMAN SACHS ...

... IS THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

The bailouts were instigated by Boy Bush Treasury Secretary, Henry 'Hank' Paulson, who was chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs before he joined the government in 2006. As one article said: 'The Secretary of the Treasury, who used to be the Goldman CEO, just spent $85 billion to buy a failing insurance giant that happened to owe his former firm a lot of money. Does that smell right to you?'

No, it's crooked, because Paulson is crooked, a man spawned by a company that is based on crooked and controlled by the Rothschilds who could have invented the word.

Paulson appointed former Goldman Sachs vice-president, Neel Kashkari, to decide who got the bailout money as head of the Office of Financial Stability. Kashkari, in turn, appointed Reuben Jeffery, a Managing Partner at Goldman Sachs, as interim chief investment officer.

Other important players in the Treasury were Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C Forst, and Robert K Steel, all Goldman people. Goldman executives at the key New York Federal Reserve Bank were also involved in the bailout discussions, including Stephen Friedman (Rothschild Zionist), the head of the board of governors.

Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin (Rothschild Zionist), who did so much to prepare the ground for the collapse of 2008, was CEO at Goldman Sachs. Rubin, the Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, was also named in Obama's interim team.

Two of Rubin's 'protégés', Timothy Geithner (Rothschild Zionist) and Larry Summers (Rothschild Zionist), were appointed by Obama to decide his economic policy. Goldman Sachs paid Summers $135,000 for a single day's 'appearance' in 2008. Geithner, a former executive of Kissinger Associates and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, appointed Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson, as his chief of staff at the Treasury.

Who was the biggest single private donor to Obama's election campaign? Goldman Sachs.

Wednesday #12...

2009-08-06T14:01:00.002-04:00

Monday Night hike pic.

Mandi and I headed up to Cheat Mountain yesterday to do some riding. The trails on Cheat are some of the most technically treacherous trails is WV. Slippery rocks, lots of giant root formations and some nice big drops. If you are in to technically challenging trails and do not mind hitting the deck a time or ten give me holler and we can go ride on Cheat.

Peace, JOEY.

Massive US Terrorism Simulation Involving Foreign Agencies Begins Today

2009-07-29T08:33:00.001-04:00

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, July 27, 2009

A huge simulation coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun today with no mainstream media coverage at all.

The security exercise known as National Level Exercise 09 (NLE 09) will last for five days and will involve foreign security officials working in conjunction with the US military, as well as Federal, State, Local Tribal and Private Sector representatives.

According to a factsheet in the recesses of the FEMA website, the agency will host National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) on July 27 through July 31, 2009:

“NLE 09 will be the first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery,” the factsheet states. It is designated as a Tier I National Level Exercise, or TOPOFF, which are exercises conducted annually in accordance with the National Exercise Program (NEP), “which serves as the nation’s overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises,” according to FEMA.

NLE 09 “will focus on intelligence and information sharing among intelligence and law enforcement communities, and between international, federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector participants”.

The FEMA information sheet states that the exercise involves a scenario that begins “in the aftermath of a notional terrorist event outside the United States, and exercise play will center on preventing subsequent efforts by the terrorists to enter the United States and carry out additional attacks. This scenario enables participating senior officials to focus on issues related to preventing terrorist events domestically and protecting U.S. critical infrastructure.”

The exercise will also include agencies in Britain, Mexico, Canada and Australia, the Department of Homeland Security has said. The Navajo Nation will also participate.

“This year the United States welcomes the participation of Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom in NLE 09.” The FEMA factsheet does not explain why the participation of foreign officials is necessary, nor does it elaborate on the roles they will play.

Canadian federal involvement was today confirmed in a press release attributed to “Public Safety Canada”. The Press release also noted the involvement of the United Kingdom, Australia and Mexico.

An independent reporter from Oklahoma (or FEMA region VI) was informed that NLE 09 is not “media friendly” because it largely involves people looking at computer screens in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

After asking if it would be possible to sit in on the exercise, Andrew W. Griffin

of Red Dirt Report was told by Brook Arbeitman, the public information officer for the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security, that this was not possible and that the exercise is mostly decompartmentalized.

Arbeitman, interestingly enough, could not answer some more in-depth questions about NLE 09 because she is a role player in the exercise, playing – you guessed it – a public information officer for Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security and as a result “is not privy” to some of the specifics.

“We will be playing along with everybody to whatever extent the exercise” proceeds, Arbeitman said.

According to FEMA, the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, and State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a broad spectrum of component agencies, offices and commands will all participate in the exercise.

NLE 09 activities will take place at command posts, emergency operation centers, intelligence centers and field locations throughout the country, including federal headquarters facilities in the Washington, D.C. area as well as facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and California.

In our previous story on NLE 09, we noted that this exercise is a continuation of previous simulations under FEMA and the DHS that have involved the rounding-up and internment of American citizens labeled as “suspected terrorists”.

Under REX 84 and other operations, FEMA, in association with 34 other federal civil departments and agencies, has consistently trained to detain large numbers of Americans.

We also noted that several recently leaked Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and local law enforcement documents have stated that the focus of security operations should be “rightwing extremists” who support the Second Amendment and states’ rights and oppose abortion and open borders.

Watch Alex Jones’ previous analysis of NLE ‘09:

Ten things you're not supposed to know about the swine flu vaccine

2009-07-29T08:24:00.000-04:00

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(At least, not by anyone in authority...)

#1 - The vaccine production was "rushed" and the vaccine has never been tested on humans. Do you like to play guinea pig for Big Pharma? If so, line up for your swine flu vaccine this fall...

#2 - Swine flu vaccines contain dangerous adjuvants that cause an inflammatory response in the body. This is why they are suspected of causing autism and other neurological disorders.

#3 - The swine flu vaccine could actually increase your risk of death from swine flu by altering (or suppressing) your immune system response. There is zero evidence that even seasonal flu shots offer any meaningful protection for people who take the jabs. Vaccines are the snake oil of modern medicine.

#4 - Doctors still don't know why the 1976 swine flu vaccines paralyzed so many people. And that means they really have no clue whether the upcoming vaccine might cause the same devastating side effects. (And they're not testing it, either...)

#5 - Even if the swine flu vaccine kills you, the drug companies aren't responsible. The U.S. government has granted drug companies complete immunity against vaccine product liability. Thanks to that blanket immunity, drug companies have no incentive to make safe vaccines, because they only get paid based on quantity, not safety (zero liability).

#6 - No swine flu vaccine works as well as vitamin D to protect you from influenza. That's an inconvenient scientific fact that the U.S. government, the FDA and Big Pharma hope the people never realize.

#7 - Even if the swine flu vaccine actually works, mathematically speaking if everyone else around you gets the vaccine, you don't need one! (Because it can't spread through the population you hang with.) So even if you believe in the vaccine, all you need to do is encourage your friends to go get vaccinated...

#8 - Drug companies are making billions of dollars from the production of swine flu vaccines. That money comes out of your pocket -- even if you don't get the jab -- because it's all paid by the taxpayers.

#9 - When people start dying in larger numbers from the swine flu, rest assured that many of them will be the very people who got the swine flu vaccine. Doctors will explain this away with their typical Big Pharma logic: "The number saved is far greater than the number lost." Of course, the number "saved" is entirely fictional... imaginary... and exists only in their own warped heads.

#10 - The swine flu vaccine centers that will crop up all over the world in the coming months aren't completely useless: They will provide an easy way to identify large groups of really stupid people. (Too bad there isn't some sort of blue dye that we could tag 'em with for future reference...)

The lottery, they say, is a tax on people who can't do math. Similarly, flu vaccines are a tax on people who don't understand health.

Hope: Obama's Era of Change pt. 2

2009-07-27T12:34:00.001-04:00

Oh drat no change this time. Maybe in the next presidential election we will get some real choices, yea right. We need to break free of the left/right paradigm and realize there are some real choices for change out there if we all just open are EYES.

2009-07-24T15:41:00.002-04:00

Jay Rockefeller Can’t Deny His Connection to Modern Eugenics

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Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
July 22, 2009

Near the end of the video here shot by WeAreChange activists, the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller can only offer a telling smile when asked about the eugenics history of his family. “Go find somebody else to talk to,” snaps the West Virginia senator when politely asked to elaborate.




	WeAreChange confront Jay Rockefeller.

As briefly documented in the short video, the Rockefeller family essentially created the modern eugenics movement from scratch. As John B. Sharpless of the University of Wisconsin documented in 1993 after examining the files of the Rockefeller Foundation, the records of the Population Council, and the personal papers of John D. Rockefeller III, Rockefeller spawned foundations are responsible for a “nearly unanimous change in attitudes and ideas about population that occurred during the 1960s.” In addition to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Population Council, other foundations active in eugenics include the Ford Foundation, the Milbank Memorial Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Conservation Foundation.

The Carnegie Institution established a laboratory complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island in 1904 that stockpiled millions of index cards on ordinary Americans, as researchers carefully plotted the removal of families, bloodlines and whole peoples. “From Cold Spring Harbor, eugenics advocates agitated in the legislatures of America, as well as the nation’s social service agencies and associations,” Edwin Black wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003.

In the United States, key eugenic organizations funded by the Rockefeller, Harriman and Carnegie families included the American Eugenics Society, and its sister organization, the American Society of Human Genetics established in 1947, the above mentioned Cold Springs Harbor Experimental Station for the Study of Evolution, the Eugenic Record Office, and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.

It should be noted that J.D. Rockefeller and Averell Harriman were business partners of Prescott Bush in Brown Brothers Harriman. In addition to funding and promoting eugenics, they supported and funded the Nazi rise to power.

The Rockefellers funded the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany, ultimately responsible for Hitler’s mass extermination policy. In addition to supporting Alexis Carrel, who advocated the use of poison gas to get rid of useless eaters, the Rockefellers funded the program that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz where he became medical commandant and experimented on concentration camp inmates. These gruesome medical experiments included needles used to change eye color, work on infections and blood transfusions, the removal of limbs without anesthetics, sex changes, sterilization, and other unspeakable crimes. Countless people were murdered and their organs, eyeballs, heads, and limbs sent to the Rockefeller group at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.

The Rockefellers’ chief executive for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute was the fascist Swiss psychiatrist Ernst Rudin. Rudin and his staff, as part of the Task Force of Heredity Experts chaired by SS chief Heinrich Himmler, crafted Germany’s sterilization law. Dr. Alexis Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute and a Nobel Prize winner publically applauded Hitler for advocating the mass murder of mental patients and prisoners.

Rockefeller and his bankster cronies were up to their eyes in eugenics and mass extermination. “Under the Nazis, the German chemical company I.G. Farben and Rockefeller’s Standard Oil of New Jersey were effectively a single firm, merged in hundreds of cartel arrangements. I.G. Farben was led, up until 1937, by the Warburg family, Rockefeller’s partner in banking and in the design of Nazi German eugenics,” writes Anton Chaitkin. Standard-Germany president Emil Helfferich testified after the war that Standard Oil funds helped pay for SS guards at Auschwitz, the notorious mass extermination and slave labor camp.

After the war, the Rockefeller eugenics movement experienced a facelift to distance itself from the discredited Nazis. In the 1950s, the Rockefellers reorganized the U.S. eugenics movement and added population-control and abortion groups. The Eugenics Society changed its name to the Society for the Study of Social Biology — a mere two months after Roe was handed down. “The name was changed because it became evident that changes of a eugenic nature would be made for reasons other than eugenics, and that tying a eugenic label on them would more often hinder than help their adoption. Birth control and abortion are turning out to be great eugenic advances of our time. If they had been advanced for eugenic reasons it would have retarded or stopped their acceptance,” commented Frederick Osborn, who oversaw the workings of the organization at the time.

As documented by Rebecca Messall and others, Roe v. Wade “relies directly and indirectly on the work of members of the British and American eugenic societies and of eugenics-related groups and initiatives.” Abortion has nothing to do with “choice” or empowering women — it is about controlling the masses and culling the herd.

In his excellent study of the Rockefellers, Gary Allen explains that the “Rockefeller game plan is to use population, energy, food, and financial controls as a method of people control which will lead, steadily and deliberately, into the Great Merger,” a one-world government and global fascism. “Understand that … enforced infertility is not planned for India or Senegal, but for the United States, where zero population growth is already a fact.

But we are being led to believe that unless we give Big Brother total power over people’s rights to have children, we will all be ankle deep in human beings within a decade. Such august organizations as the National Academy of Sciences are helping to hawk this Rockefeller line… Curbing population growth is just part of the Rockefeller war on the American family. Abortion is another.

Jay Rockefeller may deny knowledge of his family’s intimate connections to eugenics and abortion — and direct involvement in Hitler’s genocidal rampage across Europe — but the record is out there for all to see. It is easily researched on the internet.

And maybe that is why Jay Rockefeller mused during a Senate committee hearing a few months ago that we’d all be better off if the internet never existed. Minus the internet and search engines, it will be far easier to lead the masses to near extinction if they go ignorantly blissful like lambs to the slaughter with little more resistance than a bleat.

Drastically slashing world population and reducing the remainder into obedient slaves is the final act of the global elite. Jay Rockefeller knows it and that’s what his knowing smile was all about.

You’re Appointing WHO? Please Obama, say it’s not so!

2009-07-24T10:04:00.000-04:00

The following is also available on Jeffrey Smith’s Huffington Post blog.

The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.

Here’s the back story.

When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply—the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods—secret documents now reveal that the experts were VERY concerned. Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried “Serious health hazards,” and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.

But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn’t going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.

Dangerous Food Safety Lies

When the FDA was constructing their GMO policy in 1991-2, their scientists were clear that gene-sliced foods were significantly different and could lead to “different risks” than conventional foods. But official policy declared the opposite, claiming that the FDA knew nothing of significant differences, and declared GMOs substantially equivalent.

This fiction became the rationale for allowing GM foods on the market without any required safety studies whatsoever! The determination of whether GM foods were safe to eat was placed entirely in the hands of the companies that made them—companies like Monsanto, which told us that the PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange were safe.

GMOs were rushed onto our plates in 1996. Over the next nine years, multiple chronic illnesses in the US nearly doubled—from 7% to 13%. Allergy-related emergency room visits doubled between 1997 and 2002 while food allergies, especially among children, skyrocketed. We also witnessed a dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders, and certain cancers.

In January of this year, Dr. P. M. Bhargava, one of the world’s top biologists, told me that after reviewing 600 scientific journals, he concluded that the GM foods in the US are largely responsible for the increase in many serious diseases.

In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine concluded that animal studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between GM foods and infertility, accelerated aging, dysfunctional insulin regulation, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system, and immune problems such as asthma, allergies, and inflammation

In July, a report by eight international experts determined that the flimsy and superficial evaluations of GMOs by both regulators and GM companies “systematically overlook the side effects” and significantly underestimate “the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others.”

The Fox Guarding the Chickens

If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s Vice President and chief lobbyist.

This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America’s food safety czar. What have we done?

The Milk Man Cometh

While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90’s, he also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST)—injected into cows to increase milk supply.

The milk from injected cows has more pus, more antibiotics, more bovine growth hormone, and most importantly, more insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a huge risk factor for common cancers and its high levels in this drugged milk is why so many medical organizations and hospitals have taken stands against rbGH. A former Monsanto scientist told me that when three of his Monsanto colleagues evaluated rbGH safety and discovered the elevated IGF-1 levels, even they refused to drink any more milk—unless it was organic and therefore untreated.

Government scientists from Canada evaluated the FDA’s approval of rbGH and concluded that it was a dangerous facade. The drug was banned in Canada, as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But it was approved in the US while Michael Taylor was in charge. His drugged milk might have caused a significant rise in US cancer rates. Additional published evidence also implicates rbGH in the high rate of fraternal twins in the US.

Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.

Taylor’s disclaimer was also a lie. Monsanto’s own studies and FDA scientists officially acknowledged differences in the drugged milk. No matter. Monsanto used Taylor’s white paper as the basis to successfully sue dairies that labeled their products as rbGH-free.

Will Monsanto’s Wolff Also Guard the Chickens?

As consumers learned that rbGH was dangerous, they refused to buy the milk. To keep their customers, a tidal wave of companies has publicly committed to not use the drug and to label their products as such. Monsanto tried unsuccessfully to convince the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to make rbGH-free claims, so they went to their special friend in Pennsylvania—Dennis Wolff. As state Secretary of Agriculture, Wolff unilaterally declared that labeling products rbGH-free was illegal, and that all such labels must be removed from shelves statewide. This would, of course, eliminate the label from all national brands, as they couldn’t afford to create separate packaging for just one state.

Fortunately, consumer demand forced Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell to step in and stop Wolff’s madness. But Rendell allowed Wolff to take a compromised position that now requires rbGH-free claims to also be accompanied by Taylor’s FDA disclaimer on the package.

President Obama is considering Dennis Wolff for the top food safety post at the USDA. Yikes!

Rumor has it that the reason why Pennsylvania’s governor is supporting Wolff’s appointment is to get him out of the state—after he “screwed up so badly” with the rbGH decision. Oh great, governor. Thanks.

Ohio Governor Gets Taylor-itus

Ohio not only followed Pennsylvania’s lead by requiring Taylor’s FDA disclaimer on packaging, they went a step further. They declared that dairies must place that disclaimer on the same panel where rbGH-free claims are made, and even dictated the font size. This would force national brands to re-design their labels and may ultimately dissuade them from making rbGH-free claims at all. The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association filed a lawsuit against Ohio. Although they lost the first court battle, upon appeal, the judge ordered a mediation session that takes place today (July 23, 2009). Thousands of Ohio citizens have flooded Governor Strickland’s office with urgent requests to withdraw the states anti-consumer labeling requirements.

Perhaps the governor has an ulterior motive for pushing his new rules. If he goes ahead with his labeling plans, he might end up with a top appointment in the Obama administration.

Wednesday # 10...

2009-07-23T13:31:00.002-04:00

Mullein.

Big Onions! We have an over abundance of sweet onions if anyone wants to buy some.

Mandi, John and I did a good ride yesterday. It can be viewed here.

Peace, JOEY.

Poison Rains Infect Small Town

2009-07-16T22:24:00.001-04:00

Whoever did this:

1. Had a ton of money

2. Access to a fleet of aircraft

3. The ability to shut block investigations into what happened

You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know who that is.

PS: the government does not love you.

Crude Impact: Oil, The Earth and Humanity

2009-07-16T22:13:00.001-04:00

Al Gore gets his knickers in a knot about global warming and carbon emissions, two propositions that are dubious at best.

He splices video of polar bears swimming in the Arctic as proof the world is melting down "due to carbon."

Well, polar bear populations are way up in some places and carbon dioxide happens to be food for plants.

But one thing that is indisputable is the calculated maliciousness of oil companies in Third World countries and the fact that crude oil and its fuel by-products are highly toxic.

No mystery here, except these particular "inconvenient truths" don't merit mention in the US news media or in Gore's documentary for that matter.

Could the fact that the Gore family owns a piece of Occidental Petroleum, a company that wants to drill elsewhere in Latin America have anything to do with that?

The Greenorns- A documentary film about young farmers

2009-07-16T12:45:00.002-04:00

GH_Peek in Progress from The Greenhorns on Vimeo.

Check it out our friends Joel and Katie are going to be in this documentary about young farmers. They are the ones about half way through with the outdoor oven baking all the bread.

JOEY

Wednesday #9...

2009-07-16T07:24:00.002-04:00

Little Black Fork.

I wasn't feeling very well so Mandi and I just went for a little ride in the morning. As soon as we got home we packed a lunch and headed to the river. We spent most of the afternoon basking in the sun on a rock like white lizards. We would jump in the water every once in while to cool off and swim a bit. It was nice relaxing Wednesday.

Peace, JOEY

How Politicians and the Media Change Our Minds

2009-07-11T08:34:00.001-04:00

Paul Murdock
Campaign For Liberty
Friday, July 10, 2009

Unbeknownst to us, our lives are filled with messages that have a profound effect on our emotions, beliefs, values, and behaviors. These messages can be as obvious as a tornado siren in Kansas or as secretive and stealthy as the viruses and bacteria that invade your biological organs. What is guaranteed is that, for good or evil, the message never ends, and its impact is powerful!

Psychologists and advertisers have long known the persuasiveness of words, images, and especially other people. Corporations big and small combine to spend billions in advertising to increase their market share and increase profits. Not only are corporations spending billions, but also nonprofit organizations have significantly increased their time and effort to grow their philosophies and promote social change. Some of these changes are admirable such as reducing overt and covert acts of aggression towards minorities. On the other hand, some political, economic, and philosophical agenda run counter to the Constitution of the United States and the moral and ethical principles that have propelled this country forward. No attempt will be made to highlight specific organizations; rather, the principles of social influence need be surfaced to highlight the hidden attack on the principles and values of political and economic freedom. Specifically, this article will address how individuals defer to authority and look to experts for guidance.

In 1971, basic principles of social psychology were brought to light following the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Phil Zimbarbo. This study randomly assigned participants to one of two conditions; prisoner or prison guard. Six days after the experiment started, it was stopped because prison guards became abusive and sadistic, and prisoners showed signs of mood lability and extreme distress. This study has important implications because it reveals how ordinary citizens quickly became domineering and hostile when placed in arbitrary positions of social power. More so, it is fascinating how participants assigned to the role of a prisoner quickly felt helpless and responded to perceived authority with unquestioning obedience. In support of this study, Stanley Milgram explored how individuals would act against their better judgment when pressured by an authoritative figure. Thus, it is vital to know how those in “power” today influence our minds and subsequent behaviors in order to maintain our values and make wise decisions.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Anthony Pratkanis, a renowned social psychologist, has analyzed and classified a variety of tactics humans use to manipulate and change the beliefs or attitudes of others. A few of these include using associations, controlling the flow of information, setting the agenda, and relying on social rules and taking advantage of our subjective feelings. One principle I would like to highlight is known as “social proof.” Studies have shown that individuals look for guidance by finding out what others think; especially those we perceive are experts or in authority. This principle becomes more influential when there is a perceived consensus and when the individual is faced with uncertainty and ambiguity. As a result, individuals are more likely to follow the “crowd” to maintain social acceptance and reduce our psychological vulnerabilities. Two quick examples that make us susceptible to social influence are global warming and the current economic crisis. First, the issues are complex and ambiguous, and society has largely relied on “experts” and political figures.

In the news, reporters have endlessly cited the United Nations climate panel, the Federal Reserve Chairman, Al Gore, and other world leaders to persuade individuals to support economic bailouts and drastic climate measures. Little information is provided as the basis for their actions and the science and “consensus” is never questioned. Thus, the average individual is left without the knowledge to make an informed decision. This uncertainty and lack of knowledge consistently leads individuals to defer to the group and authority figures such as politicians, professors, and the media. Moreover, in an effort to maintain ideal conditions for social persuasion, an opposing viewpoint is labeled “radical, far-right, and even conservative” to place the individual in the “out” group, thus destroying their potential influence on others.

Although most intelligent individuals recognize bias, the inundating messages unconsciously lead to helplessness, apathy, and eventually acquiescence. In other words, the totality of the messages eventually destroys most individual defenses! Even when we are aware! For example, if individuals are consistently faced with “supposed facts and experts” from the media, professors, politicians, and corporations, values, ideals, and behavior is subtly manipulated like a river that never ceases to erode its banks. It will eventually get deeper and wider.

What then can be done to minimize the persuasiveness of those in control? In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” Social control is dependent on providing one point of view and limiting knowledge and contrary viewpoints. The U.S. constitution became great because it was “the single greatest effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen” (John Adams). It is vital to openly debate topics, engage in fruitful discussion, and play devil’s advocate. Practice responding to propaganda, thinking rationally about the issues, attempt to understand the full range of options, avoid being dependent on a single news source, monitor your emotions, and be prepared to challenge the “group.”

So in other words stop being a "joiner", think for yourself, and turn OFF the TV. JOEY

Wednesday #8...

2009-07-09T21:54:00.003-04:00

Chicory

Eh goooaaaattt!!!

Amaranth?

Big foot. Probably belongs to the big one I saw up close later in the day.

Big ride Wednesday. Can be viewed here. Check out the climb between mile 17 and 27. That is right 10 miles and 2000 feet right here in Randolph county! Who needs Colorado? Felt good to get in a long one.

Peace, JOEY

Holiday Weekend riding pics...

2009-07-06T15:54:00.002-04:00

Former U.S. Congresswoman speaks from jail in Israel

2009-07-06T14:21:00.001-04:00

Saturday, 04 July 2009 12:13 Added by PT Editor Pal Tel Admin

Palestine, July 4, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - This is Cynthia McKinney, I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies and even toys and crayons - I had a suitcase full of crayons for the children.

While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give presents to the children of Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

At the outbreak of Israel's Operation ‘Cast Lead' [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day's notice and tried, as the US representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16's rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel's onslaught that Gaza had become Israel's veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.

The world saw Israel's despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water ... It's a miracle that I'm even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.

The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime ... I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids?

Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else's children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza's children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza's children could color & paint, that Gaza's wounded could be healed, and that Gaza's bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.

But I've learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it's incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream ... like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better ... The once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.

My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous.

I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn't cheap. Many of them represent their family's best collective efforts for self-fulfilment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel only after they arrived Israel told them "there is no UN in Israel."

The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a place of refuge and safety for the world's first Jews and Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.

The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle's detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and ‘yes we can' were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in.

It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel's marketing to the world. It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.

We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, for what they've done to others around the world.

What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people's children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I'm experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I'm lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?

Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do?

Let's change the world together & reclaim what we all need as human beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to the United State's Department of State to include the plight of detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people.

I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free Palestine, and to the women I've met at Ramle. This is Cynthia McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794.

---
Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman, Green Party presidential candidate, and an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice. The first African-American woman to represent the state of Georgia, McKinney served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1993-2003, and from 2005-2007. She was arrested and forcibly abducted to Israel while attempting to take humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to Gaza on June 30th. For more information, please see http://www.FreeGaza.org

I bet you have not heard this story on the Mainstream Media but everybody sure knows that a psychotic pedophile died in California. JOEY

Strange Martial Law via Food Control: HR 2749

2009-07-06T14:19:00.000-04:00

Not what the American people ordered – HR 2749, martial law and the enslavement of their farmers

By The Writers’ Collective

Source: Food Freedom

HR 2749 is a strange bill in many ways. While the other “food safety” bills have been around since winter, allowing for much public discussion on the internet, HR 2749 has only suddenly appeared. It is a mutant conglomeration of the worst of the other bills, with the addition of one very original part – martial law.

When it was a draft, it was Waxman’s bill. But once given a number, it became Dingel’s who already had a “food safety” bill, HR 759. So Waxman got none and Dingel got two. (Was this because Waxman, being Jewish, was a hideous choice to introduce a bill with Codex in it – designed by the Nazi pharmaceutical companies that funded Hitler, provided the gas for the gas chambers, experimented on prisoners with vaccines – and is expected to kill millions?)

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.”

[This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home or any pickup someone has eaten take-out in, so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. This is using food as a cover for martial law.]

Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area.

[This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.] See this DailyKos entry.

The bill is unusual, too, because slow as it was to appear. The little bugger of bill has made up for it since. It got a number on June 10, went to committee on June 17, passed instantly, and is headed for a vote on the floor of the House.

The first Patriot Act was passed using fear of terrorism. This Patriot Act is more coy, hiding under a cloak of “food safety” and but also using fear – fear of food contamination. Evidently, Americans are supposed to be so frightened by the slightest possibility of a terrorist or of E-coli, they would trade away all their precious, hard fought freedoms for the promise of safety. Or at least, that is what the trade-off has become. “Terrorism” and “contamination” are great bugaboos used to open doors to an end to the US Constitution. That is exactly what we are left with after those who wrote HR 2749 are done.

Who did write these bills? It seems Monsanto had not only a hand, but a “defining” influence. http://farmwars.info/?p=594

This redefining of reality is what seems to be underlying all the loss of freedom. Normal and free are disappearing into the maw of corporate definitions of reality. See this Yup Farming piece.

So, we begin with contaminated food from filthy corporate processors and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). And what do we end up with after that reality is ground up by corporate legal hands? Changes in the definition of risk so that natural things are treated as dangerous and toxic things are untouched, such that:

Healthy, normal farms are taken over by government as though they were run by criminals and contaminated corporate slaughterhouses are untouched;
The necessary freedom of individuals to live and grow food and be left alone are somehow suddenly destroyed, though they were never the source of any food contamination issue; and such that
The profit and control and power of corporations which were absolutely the source of the increasingly terrible food, is somehow suddenly vastly increased.

Thanks to corporate control over reality, our wanting to clean up corporate processors and feedlots and CAFOS and end up with farmers’ markets and local farms and organic food has become the industrialization and potential destruction of every healthy part of the food system and the triumph of the most contaminated and toxic part. And in the non-bargain, we lost all freedoms and they took all control. And “all” is not a hyperbole here, for one need only look at another provision of HR 2749 to feel how insane, how distant from all we ever wanted.

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers.

[What is missing in pointing out this astounding control, is that it opens the door to CODEX and WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will. There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it needs to be made clear where control will take us. And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?] See this DailyKos entry.

When we wanted not to get E-coli in processed meat, did we intend to put our farmers into corporate servitude? Did we plan to have our own lives straight-jacketed by a million new controls over our own gardens, our own desire to grow food, our own plans to start small businesses, our own dreams to have a small piece of land and farm ourselves? Who has the audacity to take our needs and grotesquely bastardize them in these ways, while giving the destruction and totalitarian control the sham name of “food safety”?

We wanted good food. We never wanted to trap our farmers into an industrial prison on their own land, afraid moment to moment of not fulfilling some monstrous set of instructions that never end – rules the farmers loathe, rules that have not only nothing to do with real farming but which are antithetical to it. Why have we ended up with HR 2749, an intense corporate nightmare around the most central and necessary aspects of a free country and of free human beings – farming and food?

American farming needs to be relieved of the burdens it has been under, not finished off by its corporate competition. It needs freedom to flourish again. Obviously – and Congress people who would think to vote for such absurdities, take note – the imposition of surveillance, monitoring, warrantless entry, taking of all records, licensing, fees, Codex and NAIS, in addition to massive penalties and prison terms (all without judicial review over even appropriateness and validity), are not how one thanks American farmers for holding together the only working part of our food system. See Literal Enslavement by Linn Cohen-Cole.

HR 2749 is the most vicious and insane bill one could imagine. Who treats our farmers in this way? Who believes that such police measures can provide for the rebirth of farming and the return of healthy food? Who wrote this bill that trashes the freedom of all our lives? HR 2749 was not what we ordered and it should be sent back the bowels of hell it came from.

HR 2749 is both insane and cruel. And the deceptiveness of hiding a Patriot Act in it and the brutal rush to slip it through Congress are ANTI-democratic.

Go here to tell Congress, “No.” http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php

Happy 4th...

2009-07-05T07:58:00.003-04:00

We still live in one of the freest countries in the world. But if we are not vigilant we will loose all of these freedoms endowed to us by our Creator.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday #7...

2009-07-02T13:23:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a weird Wednesday. Mandi and I went for a ride early before all the rain. We saw a weasel on the rail trail and no I don't mean a politician. A real honest to goodness weasel. First one I have ever seen. I also saw a bear and actually saw one on Tuesday mornings ride to.

In the afternoon we headed up to Sommerset PA to pick up the above pictured car. I "won" it on EBAY Sunday. It was sort of a crazy thing. I put forth a total low ball bid went hiking and then came home to find, that the 1996 Subaru Outback with 2.2 liter motor and 5 speed, was mine. This particular Subaru specimen is somewhat rare, '96 was the only year Subaru made the real Outback with a 2.2. I have been looking hi and lo for one and now it is mine.

Anyone looking to by a cheap truck?

JOEY

Sunday Hike Pics...

2009-06-30T14:29:00.003-04:00

Doo berry...

Burdock...

FLASHBACK: Obama Intimately Tied To Carbon Trading Scam

2009-06-28T21:18:00.001-04:00

President helped fund profiteers of carbon tax program he is now seeking to implement

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, March 30, 2009

A combination of interesting mainstream and alternative media reports reveal compelling links between president Obama and a privately owned carbon trading group, which also has direct ties with elitist groups such as the Club of Rome and the Trilateral Commission.

Judi McLeod’s excellent article for Canada Free Press highlights how years before he became president, Obama helped directly fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the proposed cap-and-trade carbon reduction program.

The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.”

Essentially Obama helped fund the profiteers of the carbon taxation program that he is now seeking to steer through Congress.

McLeod also notes that The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) has direct ties to both Al Gore and Maurice Strong, two figures intimately involved with a long standing movement to use the theory of man made global warming as a mechanism for profit and social engineering.

Gore’s investment company, Generation Investment Management, which sells carbon offset opportunities, is the largest shareholder of CCX.

While Maurice Strong, who is regularly credited as founding father of the modern environmental movement, serves on the board of directors of CCX. Strong was a leading initiate of the Earth Summit in the early 90s, where the theory of global warming caused by CO2 generated by human activity was most notably advanced.

How the markets really work

2009-06-26T21:48:00.001-04:00

This was a comedy routine performed in the
summer of 2007 - two full years ago - that
not only predicted the financial meltdown,
but also predicted the final outcome (bankers
win/the people loose.)

Question:

If two comedians knew what was coming, why
didn't all the geniuses on Wall Street and the financial news networks have a clue?

Peace, JOEY

ps: I love dry British humor.

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

2009-06-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

(NaturalNews) As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

Summary of claims and allegations filed with FBI in Austria on June 10, 2009

In her charges, Burgermeister presents evidence of acts of bioterrorism that is in violation of U.S. law by a group operating within the U.S. under the direction of international bankers who control the Federal Reserve, as well as WHO, UN and NATO. This bioterrorism is for the purpose of carrying out a mass genocide against the U.S. population by use of a genetically engineered flu pandemic virus with the intent of causing death. This group has annexed high government offices in the U.S.

Specifically, evidence is presented that the defendants, Barack Obama, President of the U.S, David Nabarro, UN System Coordinator for Influenza, Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, David de Rotschild, banker, David Rockefeller, banker, George Soros, banker, Werner Faymann, Chancellor of Austria, and Alois Stoger, Austrian Health Minister, among others, are part of this international corporate criminal syndicate which has developed, produced, stockpiled and employed biological weapons to eliminate the population of the U.S. and other countries for financial and political gain.

The charges contend that these defendants conspired with each other and others to devise, fund and participate in the final phase of the implementation of a covert international bioweapons program involving the pharmaceutical companies Baxter and Novartis. They did this by bioengineering and then releasing lethal biological agents, specifically the "bird flu" virus and the "swine flu virus" in order to have a pretext to implement a forced mass vaccination program which would be the means of administering a toxic biological agent to cause death and injury to the people of the U.S. This action is in direct violation of the Biological Weapons Anti-terrorism Act.

Burgermeister's charges include evidence that Baxter AG, Austrian subsidiary of Baxter International, deliberately sent out 72 kilos of live bird flu virus, supplied by the WHO in the winter of 2009 to 16 laboratories in four counties. She claims this evidence offers clear proof that the pharmaceutical companies and international government agencies themselves are actively engaged in producing, developing, manufacturing and distributing biological agents classified as the most deadly bioweapons on earth in order to trigger a pandemic and cause mass death.

Read more HERE...

Wednesday #6...

2009-06-25T11:00:00.003-04:00

Almost berry time! Probably by weeks end Mandi and I will start are every evening ritual of heading down to the rail trail and picking raspberries.

Thanks you Forest Service! This was a big one.

Fun Guy.

Nap time by the Shavers fork.

Morning ride followed by afternoon gardening followed by a trip to the river followed by evening gardening. I slept well last night.

Peace, JOEY

ps: Disturbing Facts:

The average child gets 5+ servings of pesticides in their food and water each day.
The pesticide Atrazine is so toxic it is banned in Europe, but it is used so widely in the U.S., that it is found in 71% of the U.S. drinking water.
Currently, over 400 pesticides can be legally used in the U.S. For example, apples can be sprayed up to 16 times with 36 different pesticides. None of these chemicals are present in organic foods.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, organophosphate pesticides (OP) are now found in the blood of 95% of Americans tested, and the levels are twice as high in blood samples taken from children. Exposure to OPs is linked to hyperactivity, behavior disorders, learning disabilities, developmental delays and motor dysfunction.

Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety

2009-06-22T16:36:00.001-04:00

The pharmaceutical industry employees one sales rep for every four doctors.

Research on drug effects has been virtually completely taken over by the drug industry.

The number of deaths caused by specific medications is often withheld by the FDA because it's considered a "trade secret."

Does this sound right to you?

Congressman Ron Paul on Healthcare

2009-06-18T21:36:00.001-04:00

A good analogy to explain how medical insurance works:
When you take your car in for a tuneup you do not use car insurance do you?
So if your going in for a cold why should you have to use health insurance?

Why are you going to the hospital for a cold anyway. You should instead head down to your local health food store and then over to the produce department of Krogers.

JOEY

Wednesday #5...

2009-06-17T17:49:00.004-04:00

I really like this bike! Whats a hardtail?

The DNR is hard at work on Pheasant mt harassing bears. No bear in this one. I should have shoved it over the hill but there was probably a game camera near by.

Fern Gully!

Doe a dear a female dear.

This Wednesday was a wet, working Wednesday. Got up real early to get a ride in before the trails got to packed (ha) only to be greeted by heavy rain. Mandi and I started our wet and muddy ride mid morning and felt pretty much like poo. So we just took are time, got rained on a couple times, I crashed twice on sticks hiding under 3 foot tall ferns. It is amazingly lush this year out in woods. The underbrush is super green and thick. It is going to be a great summer for fruit foraging.

After riding came the work part. Had to make a house call which is actually a lot of fun then I had to go to the bank and then go pay for insurance which is the opposite of fun. Now its time to go work in the garden. You know what they say "A hobbits work is never done".

Peace, JOEY

Change or More of the Same on GMOs?

2009-06-17T17:41:00.000-04:00

Tell Obama & Vilsack: Drop Bush's Pro-GMO Rules

Just before leaving office, the Bush Administration released a proposed rule that would significantly weaken the regulation of genetically engineered crops. The rule would increase contamination of organic and conventional crops and release the USDA from responsibility for taking action to remedy such contamination. Moreover, the rule would continue to allow the dangerous practice of producing drugs and industrial chemicals in food crops grown outdoors. Finally, the proposed rule would give industry the power to decide whether their new genetically engineered crops should be subject to regulation in the first place.

Tell Barky Obama and Dillsack what you think here...

Braileys Pond....

2009-06-15T16:36:00.003-04:00

Sunday Mandi, John and myself headed down to Braileys Pond to hit up some awesome Va riding. Braileys is just north of Staunton Va off of rt 250. We did a semi big ride taking in Hankey, Dowels, Bridgehollow and Braileys. The descent down to Braileys Pond ended way to soon and left me craving more of that carvalisious singletrack. The riding in Va is such a huge departure from most of stuff here in WV. Its long, carvy and somewhat smooth by comparison. The ride can be viewed here thanks to my new birthday present to myself.

Pease, JOEY.

Wednesday #5... aka my birthday!

2009-06-10T19:44:00.002-04:00

When Mandi asked me what I wanted to do today my response was RIDE. So ride we did. We hit up the home stomping ground of Shingle Tree and South Haddix trail. The USFS has done some work on Shingle tree recently and all the trees that were down are now gone with the exception of one that has fallen recently. It was a climbing extravaganza. The ride was followed by a dip in the river and then a trip to favorite town in WV, Davis. The reason for the trip to Davis was to go to lunch at the best darn burrito shop in the world Hellbenders. After consuming half a burrito, I could not get the whole thing down, we headed over to BWB to hang out with Roger and the gang for a few minutes. On the way home we decided to stop off for a little hike on loop rode to work off some burrito and to spend just a little more time outdoors.

All and all it was wonderful way to spend my b-day, riding my bike with my favorite person in the world.

Peace, JOEY.

Wednesday #4...

2009-06-04T20:33:00.003-04:00

Mobile bike repair...

...here.

Followed by an awesome ride.

Anyone know?

I will show you (fatbob29) the bark baskets as soon as I get around to finishing them. Ride, work, gardening, repeat that is all that Mandi and I have been doing.. Oh yea sleep to but not as much as I want though.

Peace, JOEY.

SECRET EXPOSED (RON PAUL)

2009-05-30T09:53:00.001-04:00

Unlike many presidential candidates who fade away when they don't win (Kerry, McCain, Dole, Dukakis etc. etc), Ron Paul carries on.

Maybe that's because he actually has a message and a commitment.

You don't have to agree with everything he says to realize this is one of the rarest of people: a US politician who actually cares about the nation's future.

We can't afford the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama program of endless war - and it doesn't do anything to make the country safer. Quite the contrary.

Cybersecurity: Obama’s Promise to Trash the Constitution

2009-05-29T17:20:00.000-04:00

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
May 29, 2009

During a speech today on “cybersecurity,” ">Obama told a whopper. He said the government’s effort to protect us from cyber bad guys “will not include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans.”

Is it possible Obama has never heard of Mark Klein, the retired AT&T communications technician who said years ago that the company shunted all Internet traffic — including traffic from peering links connecting to other Internet backbone providers — to semantic traffic analyzers, installed in a secret room inside the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco? There are similar rooms in Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego, all sucking up internet data.

Whistleblower Mark Klein

Klein explained that the multinational corporation is doing this at the behest of the NSA. It is “vacuum-cleaner surveillance” approach that grabs everything. “Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of [the Bush] administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA’s spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA’s charter or with FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act],” said Klein in 2006.

After the NSA showed up in 2002 at AT&T’s Folsom Street facility, Klein began connecting the dots. “You might recall there was a big blowup in the news about the Total Information Awareness [TIA] program, led by Adm. [John] Poindexter, which caused the big upsetness in Congress, because what Poindexter was proposing to do was draw in databases from everywhere — and this was in The New York Times — draw in Internet data, bank records, travel records, everything into one big conglomeration which could be searchable by the government so they could find out everything about what anybody’s doing at any time of day,” Klein told PBS. “And all this would be done without any warrants. This is how it was presented by Poindexter himself in The New York Times, and that caused a great upset, brouhaha, in Congress.”

On January 16, 2003, Senator Russ Feingold introduced legislation to suspend the activity of the Total Information Awareness program pending a Congressional review of privacy issues involved. In February 2003, Congress passed legislation suspending activities of the IAO (Information Awareness Office) pending a Congressional report of the office’s activities.

Congress acted after William Safire published an article in the New York Times claiming “[TIA] has been given a $200 million budget to create computer dossiers on 300 million Americans” (see You Are a Suspect, November 14, 2002).

Of course, the program didn’t go away. Legislators included a classified annex to the Defense Appropriations Act that preserved funding for TIA’s component technologies, if they were transferred to other government agencies. TIA projects continued to be funded under classified annexes to Defense and Intelligence appropriation bills.

“Total Information Awareness — the all-seeing terrorist spotting algorithm-meets-the-mother-of-all-databases that was ostensibly de-funded by Congress in 2003, never actually died, and was largely rebuilt in secret by the NSA, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Siobhan Gorman,” Ryan Singel wrote for Wired on March 10, 2008. “There’s been no real debate in Congress or in the press about whether the government should be allowed to track every Americans phone calls, emails and web browsing.”

Jon Stokes, writing for Ars Technica, notes that TIA technology is nothing new. “TIA-like efforts are still going on” Stokes wrote in 2005, and “the government has been trying to use new technology, like database tech and voice recognition, for domestic surveillance for a long time. And when I say a long time, I mean well before the current administration came into office.” It really got a boost under Clinton in 1995 when the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) was passed. “CALEA mandated that the telcos aid wiretapping by installing remote wiretap ports onto their digital switches so that the switch traffic would be available for snooping by law enforcement.” In other words, Mark Klein had but scratched the surface.

Truman created the NSA in 1952, supposedly to serve as “America’s ears” abroad, but the agency has long served as a secret Stasi-like organization dedicated to snooping on Americans. The NSA, writes Siobhan Gorman for the Wall Street Journal, “and other intelligence agencies were found to be using their spy tools to monitor Americans for political purposes.”

The NSA’s predecessor, the Armed Forces Security Agency, launched Project SHAMROCK in 1945. It obtained copies of all telegraphic information exiting or entering the United States with the full cooperation of RCA, ITT and Western Union. A sister project known as Project MINARET involved the creation of “watch lists,” by each of the intelligence agencies and the FBI, of those accused of “subversive” domestic activities. The watch lists included such notables as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Dr. Benjamin Spock, according to Patrick S. Poole, writing for Nexus Magazine in 1999. The FBI, the NSA, and other intelligence agencies were actively involved in creating the watch lists.

NSA has attempted to keep up on technology as the secretive agency continues to snoop on “subversives” and others the government considers miscreants. In February, trade publications reported the agency is offering “billions” to any firm able to offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic. Skype is particularity troublesome because it utilizes P2P networks, that is to say peer-top-peer (no central server owned and operated by a telecom required). The government and the corporate media may tell you they want to crack down on P2P — for instance, the vastly popular BitTorrent — because of copyright infringement, but a more practical reason is because the government has yet to figure out how to crack the file sharing protocol. Skype and BitTorrent account for a large amount of traffic on the internet.

If you think Obama will roll back the government’s massive and unconstitutional snoop program, think again. On April 3, the Obama Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss one of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s landmark lawsuits against illegal spying by the NSA. The DOJ demanded that the entire lawsuit be dismissed based on both the Bush administration’s claim that a “state secrets” privilege bars any lawsuits against the executive branch for illegal spying, as well as a novel “sovereign immunity” claim that the Patriot Act bars lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance (see the EFF press release, Obama Administration Embraces Bush Position on Warrantless Wiretapping and Secrecy).

In March, Obama’s coordinator for cybersecurity programs, Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, quit because he opposed the role of the NSA in the so-called cybersecurity initiative. Beckstrom said “the threats to our democratic processes are significant if all top level government network security and monitoring are handled by” the NSA.

“Obama’s moves drew praise from key lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who vowed to work with the president to implement new security measures as needed,” CQPolitics reported shortly after his “cybersecurity” speech. “Obama said his cybersecurity adviser — who will be a member of both the National Security Staff and the National Economic Council staff — will head a new office within the White House.”

“We applaud President Obama for highlighting the extraordinarily serious issue of cybersecurity,” Sens. Johns D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.V., and Olympia J. Snowe , R-Maine, said in a joint statement. “No other president in American history has elevated this issue to that level and we think him for his leadership.”

No other president so far has had the power to shut down the internet. The Rockefeller-Snowe bill, S 778, would grant Obama dictatorial power declare a so-called “cyber emergency” and pull the plug, or at least cripple networks deemed a threat. The U.S. government is not seriously worried about Chinese hackers or mischievous kids in Latvia (as Rockefeller cited as a danger) but rather fear free and unfettered speech and activism on the part of its own citizens.

Obama’s promise is merely an effort to string you along with a big fat lie. He has absolutely no respect for you or the Bill of Rights.

Papers Please...

2009-05-28T09:14:00.000-04:00

Watching the history of Socialist USA evolve in front of us

Letter Written by: Roy Wheeler
Date of Letter: 2009-05-27
Subject: Police State

My brother in law and I were returning home to San Diego from Phoenix after visiting a friend there, a trip I have made a number of times. And in that I have become accustomed to being stopped at the random checkpoints the Border Patrol has setup, in addition to the fact that I travel through the Pine Valley checkpoint on a regular basis. At these checkpoints I have a few different responses for the questions I get asked, most of those responses do not get good responses from the agents asking the questions.

This trip I had decided that trying to get these agents to understand the wrongs they are commiting was futile, and so I was not going to give any of my normal responses. But I also couldn't give into to their claim for authority which they do not have, so I decided to treat the situation as if a person on the street was talking to me at random, and I would give the responses I would for a conversation like that. Because in the end, that is what these agents are as far as I am concerned, a stranger on the street.

Going to Phoenix was smooth and uneventful, as was going through the California-Arizona border, however a few miles after the border was a random check point. I pulled and stopped for the stop sign, I do not stop for the agents, I stop because the rules of the road dictate that I obey traffic signs. When I stop an agent approaches the truck, with a man this close to the vehicle I can not proceed without endangering him. I personally think that they should not be standing in the middle of Interstate 8, or any road for that matter. He askes me what my citizenship is, to which I reply "California". You see we are citizens of the state we reside in, not of the fiction "The United States", our state is a member of that union, we are not citizens of it. The agent paused for second as he scrutinized my truck attempting to get a look inside the cab and the bed. He asked a second question," where are you coming from?" I looked back down the road, back up at him, back down the road again, and back up at him, and replied,"Arizona". I said it with a tone to insinuate, where else could I be coming from. He really did not care for that answer, so he asked another question,"where are you going?" I looked up the road in front of me, up at him, back down the road, and back up at him, and said, " California", again with the same indignant tone, to let him know that I did not care for his questions.

At this point the agent really didn't like my responses, and he wanted to exert his authority to make me answer the questions the way he wanted them answered. He turns from his truck bed inspection and leans towards the window, and asked," what were you doing in Phoenix". Now up until this point I was being tolerant, as I would any person on the street. But when asked what I was doing, that was too far, and I could not go along with it any longer. I told him that he had no right or authority to ask me what I was doing, or where I am going, or what I am going to do when I get there. He responded by telling me that he did in fact have the authority and that I had to tell him. I told him no he didn't, that with in the United states, I have a right to free passage, and I do not have to report to him what i am doing. He then tells me to pull into "secondary". I asked him " Secondary what?", He replies "secondary inspection". I ask him if I am being detained. He doesn't respond to my question, he just tells me once more to pull into secondary. I ask him if he has a supervisor. He says yes. I reply with " i am going to pull over there (pointing to the secondary area) you go get your supervisor, and lets play."

I pull into the secondary area, leaving my engine running, and wait. The agent quickly got his supervisors attention to come over and the agent approached the passengers side of the vehicle. When he was by the extra cab window of my ranger he asks me," do you have your immigration documentation?" I am dumbfounded for a split second, I find it impossible that he asked me that question. In that split second, his supervisor that was only a half step behind him, asks," do you have your travel documents?" At this I am completely blown away, i was never really expecting to hear that in my life time, basically, where are your papers. I said in a loud enough to be heard voice, that I don't have to have documents to travel down the interstate, that I have the freedom of passage granted to me by God, and protected by the constitution, and that I don't have to answer any of their questions. What the supervising agent said next made me want to rip something apart. And I quote agent R. Fink " This is the United States and you do have to show us documents, and you do have to answer all of our questions, and no you don't have the right to go from place to place anytime you want, .. we were bombed."

I was floored, at this declaration, given in a loud authorative voice, not only had I been asked where are my papers, I now have been informed that I didn't have any rights, and that I was subject to this mans authority.

I replied back in just as loud and authorative voice, " I have those rights sir, and I am not going to submit to your claim of authority."

By this time the agent R. Fink was up to the window and looking into the truck. The rest of the conversation was him trying to explain why he had to ask those questions, to catch smugglers, and other law breakers. And me telling him that I don't care why he thinks he has to be able to ask those questions, he doesn't have the right, and I don't have the obligation to tell him anything, especially after inform him that I was a California citizen.

In the end, he says," your not going to give an inch on this are you?" And I told him," absolutely not, your doing what you think is your job, and I am doing what is my job as a citizen". he nodded his head, and tells us to go on.

i was completely reeling after all that had gone on as I drove towards and through El Centro. As I approached the grade up the mountains into San Diego county, my brother in law saw something for a brief second, and asked if I saw it too. I didn't, but what he thought he saw, and what he told me he thought it said warranted me turning around.

It was a 30 minute round trip to go back to the exit before he saw the sign. And after seeing it for myself, I got off the freeway, onto a frontage road, and I parked below the billboard sign. It read,"DO YOU HAVE THE APPROAVED DOCUMENTS TO GET HOME". On the sides of those words were WHTI and the DHS symbol. I have included the sign in this letter.

I never wanted to be the generation that has to witness this metamorphisis, when a nation goes from a little bit pushy, to full blown despotism. But after reading that sign, I now knew that those agents have been trained to be ready to be able to ask those questions and demand answers. And that my rebellion to do so angered them, because they looked forward to having more authority, more power in their minds.

I looked up the WHTI and getyouhome.gov and the acts and legislation they drew their enforcablility from. I asked local police officers, and they knew of the new enhanced drivers Licenses with the RFID chip in them, and they liked them. And I then knew how ALL the governments of mankind became despotic over time, I understood how the agents, and police, and the servants of the government, made it all possible.

It happens as most things do, slowly, and without a firm line in the sand to gauge how freedom is encrouched upon, without something to be able to see how far we have come, you can't even tell your moving in that direction. And the people responsible for doing it, don't even understand what they are doing, all they know is that they want more ability to do what it is that they want to do. And right now it may seem good in their eyes, they may honestly just want to be able to dig into everyones lives to stop some bad thing from happening. And who could blame them for pursuing such a noble thing. But its how an unintentional person gets wrapped up into the tornado that is tyrany. A person who does not intend to purposfully understand and uphold freedom, and liberty, can unintentional destroy them both, and much else too.

The Truth about Facebook!

2009-05-28T07:15:00.001-04:00

Wednesday #3...

2009-05-27T22:11:00.003-04:00

Farm Country?

Rail Trail Cruising.

Little snapper.

Now thats a swimming hole!

"Chicken of the woods" mushroom (aka sulphur shelf, Laetiporus sulphureus) . I am going back with my panniers tomorrow I am going to bring this delectable treat home.

POOP!

This is why we bought a truck. We may have over done it a bit with this load of manure but we got home and nothing broke on the truck.

Making some bark baskets out of a walnut tree that I cut down this evening.

I will post up the finished baskets tomorrow.

All and all a very productive Wednesday.

Peace, JOEY.