Remembering the siege

The whole 'eccentric religious community meets militant federal response and over eighty people die' thing that happened in 1993 in Texas (aka. 'The Waco Seige') holds personal significance for me. I'd been working a number of sales gigs—telemarketing, 'Billy Mays style' live product pitching, and more—over the preceding five years or so (after graduating High School) and it likely led me to be particularly conscious of 'spin' when I watched reports of the standoff on TV and read accounts in newspapers. Regardless, for whatever reason, at one point I noticed distinctly how narrowly limited and repetitiously phrased the various reports I was seeing were. Especially the exclusive use of the word "compound". Always "The Branch Davidian compound", never "community" or "center" or any other more neutral/less militant term. This led me to feel deeply concerned that something was dangerously amiss and in fact express such to some of my friends at the time. Well before the military tanks showed up and it all went up in flames. As the ashes cooled, I actually wrote some "I thought this sort of thing only happened in other countries" themed letters to some of my state legislators. A first for me.

While I'd been a card carrying Libertarian Party member for a year or two a few years earlier (something I've since grown out of) and read a few alternative 'zines on occasion, up until the Waco debacle I'd still held on to core patriotic beliefs that 'my' government was ultimately a largely trustworthy and positive force. The PR spin/smear campaign interlaced with excited federal agents leading the use of military hardware against civilians ... leading to ... flaming death ... left me achingly disillusioned. I had seen the fnord and having done so found that for me it could not be unseen.

With a sigh and a heavy heart,
—Kevin Jones—

bitches gotta eat: i'm taking my dead dad on vacation.

bitches gotta eat: i'm taking my dead dad on vacation.

Stardust to stardust

In the long run I think we just need to ensure that enough folks get off planet (leave behind the eggshell and yolk sac) to ensure that a functional level of genetic, memetic, and technological diversity can travel on. The rest of the (us) dipshits are pretty much just afterbirth at that point. Encourage yo' kids to develop skill sets attractive to early colonization efforts. A good blend of technical savvy, practical skills, and an ability to play-well-w/-others in confined habitats. Then point 'em towards the stars, slap 'em on the ass, and tell 'em to get the hell outta' Dodge.

"There oughtta' be a law"

If a person chooses not to educate their children in a manner consistent with regulations of the state then officers of said state may come upon them armed with guns (and tasers, pepper spray, and/or with a slew of any number of other lovelies at their disposal) to haul them off to a cage before presenting them before other representatives of the state. Often ones wearing black gowns and sitting on high chairs.

The gun is present in all matters of law in the U.S. as all police (the hands-on enforcers) have them. They are the 'force' in enforcement.

The fact that declaring something a law concurrently initiates a process of force is unfortunately (IMHO) often overlooked.

Threat of imprisonment by armed agents of the state backs even the most trivial law. If one feels they were within their rights to have acted contrary to a given statute and refuses to comply with demands to adapt their behavior and/or to concede to fines being extor... err... levied against them then the state reserves the privilege to send armed mercenaries to seize person and property with deadly force.

What would it take for most of us to pick up a gun and walk over to a neighbors house and demand that the neighbor make some change to their behavior? Or to organize an armed posse of neighbors to collectively do so?

And yet think about how freely many throw around the phrase "there oughtta' be a law" without realizing that they are essentially making the same proposition. Except that the 'dirty work' gets outsourced to specialists. Those that hire a hitman do not have to scrub the blood from under their nails, and yet society chooses to regard them as murderers. Perhaps it would serve us well to think twice before saying "there oughtta' be law". And thrice, and ...

When something which was once taken seriously* comes to appear trivial due to familiarity I think it's worth asking to what extent what has changed. The 'thing' or us?

*[In this case cautious use of the power of law and state force. Does 1776 ring any bells? The government was much less extensive and intrusive and yet found by many to be intolerable. Enough so to enact a change. Things were much more wild then I suppose. Now the farm rabbits of 'Watership Down' come to mind.]

Piece & Dove

Something else bubbling around my brain ... On a general tack of emotional responses disconnecting with present understanding of an ecosystem in public debate about wildlife management policy.

I'm recalling how a number of years ago there was a big fuss going around as to whether or not to allow a dove hunting season in Ohio. I was young and still in process of discovering that many of my professed views might actually have more to do with exchanging cues of group 'tribe' coherence than anything I'd really thought out independently. My peer group mostly centered around a large university district and it's satellite neighborhoods and a litany of artsy-fartsy and academic urban intellectual 'progressive' boilerplated ideas/ideals. Anyway, it was an article which broke things down citing figures from the DNR and graduate studies that really ended up making a big impression.

I'm gonna' make up arbitrary numbers for convenience, but the relevant pattern should still hold true.

Let's say there are 100,000 doves in a given region in the fall after the breeding and raising seasons. However, records show that the region only ever supports 30,000 – 50,000 over the winter. In other words, a max of only about 40,000 ever make it to the next spring, regardless of the size of the population in the fall. If the fall population is regularly say 90,000 – 110,000 doves then 30,000+ of them could be harvested annually by human hunters without any noticeable impact on the year to year dove population. As long as thought/study was given to understanding what percentage of doves that were getting 'naturally culled' were dying of starvation and disease vs. predation. If predators were relying on a significant portion the numbers could be adjusted to reflect such. The point being that what was being demonstrated by boots on the ground research was that some folks going out with shotguns every fall and harvesting doves was unlikely to affect the doves collectively as a species much if at all. Other than sparing some of them a slow demise to hunger and cold.

Folks opposed to having dove hunting generally not only did not refute the figures but actually refused to address these figures at all. Generally making unsubstantiated (well, scientifically unsubstantiated) pleas to emotion. The vast majority of these folks had no qualms about eating commercially farmed chicken and turkey products (i.e. birds someone else killed for them). So what was the big deal with doves? They weren't up-in-arms about pheasants, wild turkeys, or water fowl? Or crows for that matter. Why doves?

What seemed likely to me was a theory put forth that doves had iconic associations in people's minds with peace, love, and bibles and that it was bleed over from their use as symbols which was interfering with some folks accepting their use as food.

Going off on off-grid

Saw this ...
http://csglobe.com/florida-makes-grid-living-illegal/
... posted on Facebook and responded thusly:

I read some of the local news reports back when this story first broke.  Much of the issue came down to her property being hooked up to the municipal sewer but not having an active municipal water account hooked up. The sewer system there gets financed via a portion of the municipal water fees. Kinda' like gasoline taxes that go towards highway expenses. She has said she no longer uses the municipal sewer connection, but gave the impression that—at the time of the initial complaint—she had been (presumably by filing the toilet tank manually) .

An elegant solution might have been to come up with an ad hoc sewer line fee and move on, rather than escalating, but gov't bureaucracies generally are unable to muster up such flexibility. Easier to interpret and respond as 'defiance' as there are known familiar protocols in place for such. Responding to special needs/context would call for a level of creativity that was clearly lacking. And unfortunately, allowing officials creative flexibility in enforcing stuff has slippery-slope double-edged-sword implications to consider.

Anyway, while the OP csglobe.com article pushes in the direction of my personal bias—having subsistence living completely off grid within a property allowed*—I still feel compelled to point out that their piece comes off to me as blatant highly spun PR trash. I endorse their goal, but condemn the way they've chosen to go about it. I find the woman's situation plenty interesting without having to turn it into a completely polarized PR caricature. I encourage folks to consider how they would react if they came across a piece written in the same style but about something they opposed or were even just neutral about.

*[Something I like to give thought to at times when musing about off-grid living is that there's a 'money grid' in addition to the typical power, food, and water and such to be considered. Namely relating to the idea of 'alloidal title' as property taxes (like utilities with no opt-out option) require one—by law—to interact with Federal Reserve credits (i.e. money, $$$s). There's an element of bondage in being prohibited from setting up a completely neutral-impact balanced subsistence existence on a property—perhaps with a few friends—and then never touching currency again. I could see some level of direct service requirement perhaps, but as is one must interact with mercantile middlemen in some way to generate Federal Reserve tokens and then take what's left after various parties have skimmed their bits in order to pay gov't rents and fees. At the very least, allow folks to negotiate a fixed rate when purchasing a property so that folks on fixed incomes don't get pushed out just because some absentee developer builds a subdivision or shopping complex across the road hence giving tax vultures an excuse to reappraise the hypothetical/future resale value of one's property to raise one's real/current taxes.Oi!]

</end rant>

I was a card carrying Libertarian

 I was a card carrying Libertarian at some point in my late teens/early twenties.

While I still value things I learned from that phase (e.g. law is inherently an initiation of force), I now find some libertarian ideals to be like the simplistic Newtonian physics models I was presented with at first in High School. Beautifully elegant and self consistent but lacking in many real world practicalities like friction, and such.

I now find some libertarian ideals to depend too much on the hypothetical existence of ideal libertarians. This does not mesh with my real anecdotal boots-on-the-ground experience with humanity. Nor does much of it fit with modern scientific understandings (socio-psych-neuro) of human responses and motivations.

No matter how beautiful, logical, and robust a rational proof may be. It comes tumbling down if it's discovered to be built upon false prepositions. Upon flawed suppositions about human social primates.

I may be a Vulcan hybrid myself, but I am no longer so naive as to expect everyone else to think/behave like one.

A Coyote Rabbit Tail

A Facebook friend's inquiry about trickster stories brought this one to mind. I didn't find an 'official' version online right off so I recreated it from gauzy memory and solid pixie dust ...


Coyote and Rabbit were hanging out and wondering about the mysteries of women. Like what did the local hotties think of Coyote, and such. Coyote decides that disguising himself and sneaking into the women's sweat lodge ought to do the trick. Rabbit points out that a wig and an outfit might get him to the door but that Coyote had a prominent feature that might throw things off when it came time to go in. So Coyote takes off his penis and asks Rabbit to hold on to it for him during the reconnaissance mission.

[I think I first heard a version with it being a dance rather than a sweat ... maybe it was both ... anyway ...]

After passing as an old lady and quizzing the ladies, prodding for clues, and general listening in Coyote returns to the clearing where he had left Rabbit—with his penis—and there's no one to be seen. Aaiieee!

Coyote sets off on an angry/scared/desperate search for Rabbit. Coyote searches the night through and when Moon has gone to bed while Dawn is lightening the sky Coyote collapses next to a thicket in a dejected heap. Aaiieeeooo!

... And hears giggling and rustling coming from the thicket ... as a handful of broad smiling young ladies, in various states of dress, bust out of the thicket and disperse to the Four Directions while making breathy exhalations along the lines of,
"Wow, who'd have thought such a little guy would have such a ...".
 Coyote plunges in to investigate and finds a very satisfied looking languid Rabbit reclining in a small clearing at it's center.
"Rabbit I trusted you with my penis!!!"
roars coyote.
"But Coyote,"
replies Rabbit,
"It has been well cared for."
"While you danced and cajoled the ladies at the lodge your penis and I have pleasured five maidens—multiple times over ..."

"Well, there is that .."
says Coyote as Rabbit proffers him the penis. Looking down as he receives it, he adds,
"Well, at least someone had a good night ."
And returns Rabbit's broad grin with his own smile and laughter.

But that's not the end of the story ...

Five Spice Pickled Tea Egg Musings and Sweet Banana Roti Memories

Hmm, I'm playing with a bit of brainstorming ... I wonder if one might be able to adapt Tea Eggs with vinegar (and maybe a bit of sugar)  into a sort of Five Spice Pickled Eggs which could be sealed shelf safe in Mason jars for later use.

Could filter (cheese cloth, coffee filter, etc.) the crockpot liquid the eggs were steeped in and then add vinegar and sugar. Perhaps dilute the Tea Egg liquid with water first if concerned about over seasoning or over coloring.

I assume it's best (probably in fact necessary) to remove the shells prior to canning as the vinegar (acid) would react with the eggshells (calcium) over time dissolving shell and weakening acid. I figure safe and savory vinegar ratios can be derived from traditional pickled egg recipes.

I'm thinking with a low enough pH (i.e high enough acidity) simple water bath canning would suffice. Although, perhaps with high temp pressure cooker canning some sort of straight Tea Egg (rather than vinegared Pickled Egg/Tea Egg hybrid) might be safely stored. Touch of calcium chloride (or similar agent) might be added as a sequestrant and firming agent to increase shelf stability if needed. Hmm, I'm slipping into minutia ...

Back to 'Five Spice Pickled Eggs' ideas—a simplified method (alas discarding the crackle patterning) would be to hard-boil a bunch of eggs, peel 'em, and then can  in Tea Egg inspired/flavoured pickling solution.

I'm imagining could either simmer peeled eggs in bulk in seasoned solution and then transfer to jars or simmer in jars via water bath from the 'get go'. If the later, would likely want to steep seasonings (spices, zest) with the tea to infuse into liquid or simmer before adding to jars.

It might be stylish to make a base liquid (tea, vinegar, salt, sugar) and then add whole spices to the jars. Envisioning piece of cinnamon stick, some peppercorns, slice of ginger, a few cloves, piece of star anise, and some curls of citrus zest swirled in jars of eggs. [I might be inclined to add a hot chili pepper or two]. Give 'em an extra long boil in the water bath and then let the 'em rest a coupla' weeks in the sealed jars to get well infused. Ya' know, throw a little printed fabric under the canning rings and ya' got a novel housewarming gift, etc., yada-yada ...

To sugar or not to sugar — one could likely come up with something quite nice with none at all, but I'm thinking a little would round things out and smooth the edge of the vinegar a bit. Alternatively, one might go 'full on' and take a cue from Sweet Gherkins, Candied Dills, Watermelon Rind Pickles, and such. But Tea Egg flavored instead. I'd be curious to find out how/if a high sugar pickling solution affects egg texture.

A sweet hard-boiled egg may seem counter intuitive to some, but consider sweet egg custard, and eggy batter  foods like crepes, waffles, cream puffs, french toast. I suspect it might be quite good.


... Sweet and w/ egg musing has led me to reminisce ...

When I grabbed a copy of "Let's Go Southeast Asia" and went to Thailand some years ago there was a divine treat called "Banana Roti" available from the occasional street vendor. Setup was generally a modest cart with a large round somewhat concave steel griddle. The vendor would work a small ball of dough into a disc—like starting a personal size pizza—and then give a good squirt of cooking oil onto the griddle and then lay in the dough to sizzle. Once the bottom had browned a bit they'd flip it and then crack an egg onto the dough circle and use their spatula to break the yolk and mix it up a some. Then they'd take a banana and use their spatula to swiftly rough dice it over the egg and dough. Then the dough would be folded to center from four sides to make a sealed envelope which would be turned a few times to further brown and cook through. When golden perfection had been achieved, it was pulled to a cutting board, cut a few times along width and length to make bite size squares, and then deftly slid 'en masse'  into a cardboard 'boat' (like fries and such come in sometimes). It was then drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and given a light sprinkle of granulated sugar. The vendor would then jab a bamboo skewer into one of the pieces as a utensil and serve it to you with a smile. Pure roadside nirvana.

When a roti cart come through the residential neighborhood in Chieng Mai—where the guesthouse I stayed at was tucked away—we reacted like a little kids running to an ice-cream truck.

I was surprised at how much I liked it at first, but when I broke it down ... egg, banana, milk, sugar, toasted wheat crust ... pretty much a banana custard which had been assembled a bit differently.

Regardless, yum, yum, yum, nom nom nom :  }

Crackle Fractal Cackle

crispy crinkle

rustling 

~

the wind 

walks through

The green necessities of space ...

I've got a personal theory that in addressing some (many?) of the challenges absolutely necessary to achieve multi-generational human life beyond the confines of our home planet ('the Earth', Sol 3, Gaia, Terra, Mother Earth, 'here') we would learn things that directly address issues which are confronting us here on 'spaceship Earth'.

To set up long term space stations, Moon bases, Mars colonies, asteroid harvesting, etc. one directly and urgently needs to address recycling (and recyclability), moderate use of most resources, and employ non-fossil fuel based power sources. Also, non-petroleum fabrication materials as well. Oh, and in an enclosed environment pollution would also be a prime concern.

(Re)developing the social structures to thrive in semi-independent largely self sufficient groups seems likely to be culturally beneficial as well. High tech tribes?

It's hard to get much more 'off grid' than mining ore in the asteroid belt.

And that's just thinking in terms of our present solar system. Multi-generational ships headed farther afield would have even higher demands for economy and self sufficiency.

IMHO, The green necessities of space will serve the green concerns of Earth.


------------------------


And besides, it's kinda' fun to think of the planet as a big egg sac waiting to hatch. :  }

hmm, parallels might be drawn between fossil fuels and egg yolk ...

Maybe a cell division metaphor might be better, one where both parts live on ...

 hmm ...

Anyway, the South Park boys teamed up (posthumously) with Alan Watts to bring us this:

Alan Watts "the Earth is People-ing", Animation

Nick Spits Ernie K-Doe

A bit manic, the energy, dancing about like fireflies at low frame rate. Attention flitting like the gaze of a nervous bird. Cocked my head to pause the maelstrom. Listening, feeling, breathing. Waiting to open.

A sinuous slow shake of spine starts at the head and neck and echoes down the spine rippling shoulders as it bounces back.

A toe taps as music soaks into the sway.

Come on white boy ...

quick brown lazy dog

words upon a page flow from fingers
tendon puppet threads tangle back to little gray cells
choreographed by ???
well that's the question isn't it?
spirit and soul.
words to fill the role.
water in a hollow bowl.

A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back.

Dogma Runs Rampant, aka. "Yo', Son, Leash That Bitch!"

On Facebook, a friend who self identifies as a libertarian activist complemented, and shared a video excerpt from a interview with Russel Brand. A friend of his swiftly commented, "A far left tyrannical redistributionist is your new hero?" and they then proceeded to defuse the challenge and reaffirm their relationship by jointly constructing an interpretation which better fit within the bounds of accepted group dogma.

It's hilarious to me at this point how swiftly and judiciously some folks police any indication that one of their perceived peers may have drifted from the fold of pre-approved orthodoxy. Even within groups which like to claim distinctions of superior rationality. For instance, I find if one turns down the volume or ignores the words to focus on tone and body language, fundamentalist Atheists are pretty much indistinguishable from fundamentalist Baptists ... or Muslim fundamentalists or Hindu fundamentalists ... fundamentalists et al.

Tribal social primate formulas. One can plug in most any philosophical stance or 'cause' they wish. Regardless of the specific terms, the formula—the patterns, the relationship of the variables— stays the same. 

And people wonder why anyone other than engineers and such should wish to learn algebra? 

Sharp Tip

Checked this out from the library as a kid. Took me from from inept to shaving hair off my arm with my Boy Scout knife within minutes of finishing the book. Freehand.

The book suggests some gadgets to up-the-ante a bit if ya' wanna' get extra tricky, but—unlike the author—I don't bother to check my edges with an electron microscope. The basic method requires nothing more than a pair of grindstones. One fairly course, the other quite fine.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Razor-Edge-Book-Sharpening/dp/096660590X

GMOverkill

Personally, I'm not so concerned about the safety of GMO foods for human consumption as I am about the collaborative corporate/government relationship surrounding them.

It's been little reported that before more recent hubbub over whether to require labeling for GMO foods, that the GMO industry lawyers won cases (California?) preventing others from stating the simple fact that their products were GMO free on relevant labels. The court decided that the mere possibility that consumers might infer something about GMO products from this statement of fact warranted legal intervention.

Also, that the WikiLeaks files exposed that U.S. Ambassadors were officially directed to act as lobbyists (and extortionists) on behalf of GMO producers internationally doesn't sit to well either.

I suspect people would be less likely to leap to fearful conclusions if the industry had been more open to start with. Shady arrogant shite doesn't seem to have done much to build trust.

Oh, and then there's the patenting lifeforms and attempting to corner the market on food issues...

Forcing family farms to destroy heirloom seed stocks ... while conversely patenting every existing strain they can ...

Something life threatening seems to be going on, it just might not be the foods themselves.

Prison Economics

I came across something/someone... not even recalling if it was text or vid at this point... Anyway they listed a number of things currently made in prisons and the associated market shares. All military uniforms for instance, and much more day-to-day military equipment. The stereotypical example of license plates got mention as well.

It struck me that almost everything on the list was stuff that it would be politically prohibitive to defer to an offshore company. But were all items of the sort which in other circumstances often would be outsourced. I can't imagine folks tolerating contracts for Army uniforms being given to a sweatshop in Bangladesh. Or license plates being subcontracted to a firm in Mexico. Yet, these very same items are being produced by incarcerated individuals paid sweatshop wages here at home. A few dollars a day.

Perhaps a prison labor movement is needed to draw attention to this. In areas in which prison labor accounts for more than 50% of production strikes would be immensely powerful. And the situation lends itself to a strong 'two pronged' approach as well in that groups outside the prisons have direct economic interests involved as well. Having low wage prison workers suppresses jobs and deflates wages for those on the outside. And deprive external entrepreneurs and corporations an opportunity to freely get a share of the respective markets.

It may be effective to focus on motivating Americans to give more attention to our prisons through addressing the money issues first and foremost. Other moral concerns would piggy-back on such attention. Much simply by sharing the spotlight of increased focus and wider awareness.

Reflection

I've heard that 'world as a mirror' is a favorite metaphor of Sufism... hmm, Something to RUMInate on perhaps... ;-)

911 Musings

I remember tiring of the media blitz and walking the bike path along the river with two friends and a frisbee.

The uninterrupted sky—devoid of air traffic—cast a layer of serene peacefulness over the urban greenspace below.

And over us as well.

The wanderers who made their way through tree shadows and sunny grass fields.

Alive.

----------------------------------------------------------------

A little while ago a friend posted [on facebook]...
"i just saw "let's start a new kids game, cowboys n muslims" ugh. please take 3 steps back mankind."[sic]
...on another thread.

hmm, ...
"let's start a new kids game, cowboys n muslims"
...is a doozy.
Multifaceted in its reflections upon the American zeitgeist.
As it brings to mind the range of xenophobia, self interest, and generally warped impressions that shaped the conflicts leading to that which it references. i.e. 'Cowboys-n-Indians'.

I've heard it said that those who are aware of history are doomed to watch those who aren't repeat it.

It's interesting, to me, how despite regularly tacking on rational qualifiers what carries through to most—through the jingoism that's been swirling around for over a decade—is 'cowboys-n-MUSLIMS'. Not 'cowboys-n-Al Queda' or any such more specific version. Details and fine distinctions seem to be a challenge for mass minds. The original 'Cowboys-n-Indians' lumped a quite diverse range of peoples into one convenient target as well. [Funny that I don't recall ever hearing any major news outlets refer to "the SAUDIS who attacked the World Trade Center..."]

It's so much easier to avoid introspection when an amorphous 'them' lurks in the shadowed corners.

I'm imagining a movie scene in which a despot's regime hires caricature artists to draw life size paper images which are then placed in front of people as they are brought before a firing squad. Defendants made to wear masks throughout a trial. And so on. [hmm, could be a blank mask and then have the competing attorneys take turns drawing features upon it... but I digress...]

Sigh...

It's sad that many lives were intentionally destroyed simultaneously September 11, 2001. It's sad that many lives have been intentionally destroyed before and after.

It's encouraging that there are heroes willing to rise to the occasion—often risking life and limb—to pull survivors through the aftermath of tragedy.

Would heroes exist without tragedy and villainy? Or are they two sides of a single coin. Inexorably bound?

Sigh...

I don't know...

I don't know...

Do you?

Peace y'all.

-Kev-

Land Lines & Ether Nets

'We're all connected...♪ ♫'
Info injections
And trans-fusions
Meta memes
And transhumans
Brilliant sparks
And Mass confusions
Literary devices
And delusions
Silly bits
And allusions
Race on squirrel tracks
Supported by woody protrusions