We're slowly getting all the equipment together so that we can start doing something very important to our health. We've been planning over the past several months to start an indoor vegetable/fruit garden, using Hydroponics, a 1000 Watt Metal Halide bulb, and lattices for plants such as tomatoes to help them stay upright.
The Hydroponics systems we are going to use will be homeade deep-water culture systems. They are seriously easy and inexpensive to make and operate. The grow lights are about 250 bucks to get, but that gives you the ballast, the bulb and reflector, all you do is hang the light, plug it in and it's on.
The reasons we've decided to grow the majority of our fruits and vegetables indoors is because we unfortunately live in an Urban environment, and I don't care to eat anything that comes from the soil we have here. With the Hydroponics, we should get insane yields, far better than we would get with soil, and it will be plants with all of their nutrients in them, like they should have, thanks to the organic hydroponic mixture we will be using.
We've been talking alot lately about the values of our parents, and one of the things all of our parents did was they grew food, and canned it and froze it, to store away for a rainy day. And I have to admit, I miss just going out to the garden and picking the vegetables I am having for dinner that night.
Our parents really had it right. Growing up, McDonalds was a HUGE treat for us, just ask my brothers and sister Heidi. We rarely got it, because they were located so far away, and we didn't really have alot of money. Now people are eating McDonalds like crazy, and we as a Nation are getting fatter and more unhealthy everyday. I would know, because I was one of them.
3 years ago, I weighed in at nearly 340 LBS, and had a 56 inch waist. My blood pressure was a sustained 190/130 or so. It's a wonder I am still breathing to this day. I let the depression from the knee surgery, and all the injuries I've had, to take over. All of a sudden, I was drinking Coke's by the 2 Liter bottle sized, every day, as well as eating entire bags of candy bars, and entire large pizzas to myself in one sitting. In short, man was I killing myself. Why would I ever do that to myself?
I think alot of that could come from me feeling so disconnected to the land anymore. Growing up, my elders gave me a very important gift. That was to love the land, work it faithfully, respect nature, and you will know it's bounty. I grew up being able to sit out in the sun on a beautiful summer day, out in Northern Idaho, which to me is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and oh man do I miss it. Life was so simple then. It felt so good to sit under an apple tree and feel the cool earth between my toes. So much of that life was so carefree, so close to nature, so full of love and awe at what the Earth can provide us. Now I live in a world of concrete, and steel, exhaust fumes instead of the dust of a dirt road on a warm summer afternoon, pollution, noise, danger, and unfortunately all too often, violence.
Those thoughts have been on our minds alot lately.
Today, I weigh less than 270 Lbs, and have a waist size of about 39 inches, a huge improvement. I don't want to leave this world young, I want to live my life surrounded by those I love.
So Amber, Lici and I have made a decision, we are going to begin to return to the ways our parent's lived, in as much as we are able to. We will be not only canning food, we will also be purchasing a food dehyrdator, we already have the vacuum sealer. We have a goal of getting away from the Urban life as soon as we can, returning us to a much quieter, simpler life.
Growing up, I couldn't wait to get the hell away from Idaho, now I wish like hell that I could go back, this very day. I want to tube the Clearwater River again, go hunting in the fall, fishing for steelhead, grow my garden, raise my chickens, maybe a cow or three, and a couple of horses. I want my family to live someplace where people still wave to eachother when driving down the street. Where friends gather for coffee for a few hours on a Saturday morning. Where I don't have to concern myself with stupid crap like drive-by shootings.
So our experiment is going to be a bit long lived. It will be a sustained effort to try to get some of that back, and to begin to move towards home once more. Eventually, more and more, it looks as if we will eventually go back to Eastern Washington/Northern Idaho. Living in an urban environment has put far too much stress on us. I think the key in life is to live a simple one, to be happy and free, and to be thankfull for the gifts you have. To be charitable to those in need, to encourage the next generation to live such a peacefull life, enriching their existance, and making our world a much much healthier, happier place.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Where does the lunacy end?
I was just checking my facebook, and a very dear friend of mine had posted a link to a facebook page urging the Federal Government to set up a National Registry for Animal Abusers. All I could think of is wow! Do our people really not know that much about our Constitution and most importantly our Bill of Rights?
The jist of the post was that we need the USDA to do this for us to "keep our neigborhoods safe". My thought is, you want to start keeping your neighborhoods safe, start by learning the document that is supposed to be the highest law of the land, and START exercising those rights for God's sake! This, just like stupid bullshit like the Patriot Act, is NOT good! Think about this for a minute folks. When you start asking that the government take rights away from a group of people that you don't happen to like, you are nothing more than a Nazi in 1938 Germany. In short, you are a facist. But what some people don't seem to realize is, once you start to allow your government to erode away at Civil Liberties, what makes you think you will not eventually be the one in it's crosshairs?
As a matter of fact, I am sick of the argument "well he doesn't deserve those civil rights, he's a criminal and a monster to boot". Who the hell is anybody to think they can take those rights from someone? Those aren't rights that are secularly given. Those rights are given to EVERY SINGLE person that's ever been born, by our Creator (whatever name you want to call him/her/it). How arrogant are we to think that we know more than the universe?
Violating someone's civil right's is the highest crime one can commit in my opinion, because that is a crime against the very fabric of humanity. You might as well kill that person, as you have dehumanized them completely, and that is not something somebody recovers from very easily.
And on to the next part of this rant. Where in the bloody hell do these people think they will find the money to implement this attack on our Civil Liberties? Have you not stayed informed? Or do you get all of your news from FOX News, CNN and MSNBC? Here is a clue folks, our government is BANKRUPT! Had our government been a privately owned business, it would have been liquidated years ago. Who the hell is going to pay for this so called registry program? I know I don't want my tax dollars going to such an egregious attack on the Constitution of the United States.
You know, when I was growing up, our community had the safety of it's members in mind at all times, we took care of eachother, and made sure our neighbors had the things they needed to survive. We ensured the safety of our own, we didn't rely on a bloated, tyrranical government to nannie us to death.
I'm sorry, but I think I know what is best to see to the safety of my family, not some idiot in DC that has no clue who I am, and further more, could care less about me.
People, wake the hell up! Stop trying to turn us into a Socialist paradise, because it doesn't exist! Stop holding your hand out for entitlements from the bloody government all the time, learn to take care of yourself and your loved ones. It saddens me to see that our people no longer know how to do these things. They instead rely on somebody else to take care of their every need.
23 years ago, at the tender age of 17, I swore an oath that still sits with me to this very day. Part of that Oath stated "I will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, both foreign and domestic". Part of me upholding that oath is not to stand by while people dismantle this nation. Both politcal parties need to wake up, and start doing what they are supposed to do. Represent us responsibly, and to protect us from those people who would destroy our Constitution and what it means.
I sincerely hope the friend that put that up on Facebook takes the time to read this and learn a little from it. I really care for her, she's been a friend for quite a few years. That being said though, I don't care who you are, I don't care how much I love someone, I will never stand by while they help to desecrate my freedoms. And I hope they would do the same for me in return.
Learn from our history, or you will be doomed to repeat it. Alot of the things our elected officials are doing is illegal, immoral, and un-Constitutional. I do not care to live in an Empire, give me back my Constitutional Republic please.
The jist of the post was that we need the USDA to do this for us to "keep our neigborhoods safe". My thought is, you want to start keeping your neighborhoods safe, start by learning the document that is supposed to be the highest law of the land, and START exercising those rights for God's sake! This, just like stupid bullshit like the Patriot Act, is NOT good! Think about this for a minute folks. When you start asking that the government take rights away from a group of people that you don't happen to like, you are nothing more than a Nazi in 1938 Germany. In short, you are a facist. But what some people don't seem to realize is, once you start to allow your government to erode away at Civil Liberties, what makes you think you will not eventually be the one in it's crosshairs?
As a matter of fact, I am sick of the argument "well he doesn't deserve those civil rights, he's a criminal and a monster to boot". Who the hell is anybody to think they can take those rights from someone? Those aren't rights that are secularly given. Those rights are given to EVERY SINGLE person that's ever been born, by our Creator (whatever name you want to call him/her/it). How arrogant are we to think that we know more than the universe?
Violating someone's civil right's is the highest crime one can commit in my opinion, because that is a crime against the very fabric of humanity. You might as well kill that person, as you have dehumanized them completely, and that is not something somebody recovers from very easily.
And on to the next part of this rant. Where in the bloody hell do these people think they will find the money to implement this attack on our Civil Liberties? Have you not stayed informed? Or do you get all of your news from FOX News, CNN and MSNBC? Here is a clue folks, our government is BANKRUPT! Had our government been a privately owned business, it would have been liquidated years ago. Who the hell is going to pay for this so called registry program? I know I don't want my tax dollars going to such an egregious attack on the Constitution of the United States.
You know, when I was growing up, our community had the safety of it's members in mind at all times, we took care of eachother, and made sure our neighbors had the things they needed to survive. We ensured the safety of our own, we didn't rely on a bloated, tyrranical government to nannie us to death.
I'm sorry, but I think I know what is best to see to the safety of my family, not some idiot in DC that has no clue who I am, and further more, could care less about me.
People, wake the hell up! Stop trying to turn us into a Socialist paradise, because it doesn't exist! Stop holding your hand out for entitlements from the bloody government all the time, learn to take care of yourself and your loved ones. It saddens me to see that our people no longer know how to do these things. They instead rely on somebody else to take care of their every need.
23 years ago, at the tender age of 17, I swore an oath that still sits with me to this very day. Part of that Oath stated "I will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, both foreign and domestic". Part of me upholding that oath is not to stand by while people dismantle this nation. Both politcal parties need to wake up, and start doing what they are supposed to do. Represent us responsibly, and to protect us from those people who would destroy our Constitution and what it means.
I sincerely hope the friend that put that up on Facebook takes the time to read this and learn a little from it. I really care for her, she's been a friend for quite a few years. That being said though, I don't care who you are, I don't care how much I love someone, I will never stand by while they help to desecrate my freedoms. And I hope they would do the same for me in return.
Learn from our history, or you will be doomed to repeat it. Alot of the things our elected officials are doing is illegal, immoral, and un-Constitutional. I do not care to live in an Empire, give me back my Constitutional Republic please.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
What do I think would make up the perfect United States of America
So Amber and I were sitting here this morning chatting after she helped me get some medical cannabis in me so that I could walk a little and sit up fairly straight, and she gave me a suggestion. She wanted me to write up a blog post on what I think the United States of America should be like. It's an awful big issue, but here goes nothing.
If we had continued along on the path that our Forefathers started for us, things would likely be much different today. You see, our founding fathers set up a Constituional Republic for us, and it is my opinion that we have moved away from it, we are now an Empire much like the Roman Empire shortly before it's fall.
Let's start with the powers that the Federal Government was supposed to have. Their job was to 1. Facilitate international trade 2. See to the common defense, and 3. Safeguard the liberty of the people.
So let's start with number 1. Their job is to facilitate trade with foreign countries. How should they do that? By keeping this a completely free market economy. The Federal Government, according to the Constitution of the United States, is not given the power to enter into organizations such as NAFTA, the WTO, or anyother United Nations sponsored agenda. So a perfect America would include us leaving these other trade organizations and finally working to facilitate foreign trade in a proper manner.
2. They are to see to the common defense of the country. What that means boys and girls is, when the bad guy comes a knockin at our door wanting to conquer us, the Federal Government is supposed to stop them. To do that, we honestly do not need a massive military presence, and we certainly do not need all these bases that are overseas. They do nothing more than continue our Empire building ways. And make no mistake about it, they are costing us over $1 trillion dollars a year just to maintain that Empire. America operating as a Constitutional Republic would keep a small full time military, with very little presence in foreign countries. The rest of the defense needs would be structured around a large, well trained and well equipped part time militia. Now you folks might be asking yourselves, how would shrinking the size of our military help protect us? Well because if you aren't involved in all this Nation building stuff that's actually illegal based on it not being Constitutional, you simply don't need a massive military. If another Nation were stupid enough to try to invade us, it wouldn't take such a massive military, because the people would rise up as well to repel them. We no longer involve ourselves in foreign wars, and we no longer invade and kill hundreds of thousands of a country's citizens based on the remote possibility that they are hostile to us and would like nothing more than to do us harm.
And 3. This is a big one folks in my opinion. The Federal Government is supposed to work to protect your civil liberties, and should the Feds fail in this and they become a tyrranical government much like we have today, then the individual states are given the Constitutional authority to protect it's citizens from that as well. That where the whole "Against all enemies, both foreign and domestic", comes into play. For instance, that means the Federal Government should not be raiding medical cannabis dispensaries in California for example, so long as they are complying with State laws. Now here is the rub of it folks. According to the Constitution of the United States, the State is legally bound to protect you from an out of control government. To me, that means, when the DEA raids a medical cannabis dispensary in California for example, the local Law Enforcement agencies actually have a duty to not only stop them, but to also arrest them for violating State law in their presence. Instead, they all too often help the Feds. Here is something alot of folks don't really know. The entire War on Drugs could not be fought by the Federal Government without the help of the individual states. They simply do not have the resources. You see, when the DEA wants to raid something, they don't just send in DEA agents folks. Local LEOs will go on loan to them all too willingly. I have had the pleasure of knowing a few men that are part of the Drug War. They are local Law Enforcement, but they have been known to help the Feds out from time to time, by assisting them in raids. They always were bragging about what a rush it is to go through that door with flashbangs going off, men screaming obscenities to get down, all the noise and confusion and violence. So, we're funding a group of people's adrenaline rushes. And they are getting that rush by victimizing it's own citizens. The Federal Government bribes these local law enforcement agencies with money to help them along. The drug warriors out there don't want the war on drugs to end because then they have to go from locking up the peaceful potsmoker, and go after truly dangerous criminals. We currently spend nationwide over $50 billion per year on prohibition. That's money that could be used for things such as drug treatment, education, medical care, and housing, bringing an untold level of prosperity to America.
In a perfect America, the people are free. Free to pursue their dreams, free from persecution, and protected by it's government from anything that wants to take those things from us. We don't have a peaceful protest being turned into a tear gas hazed bloodbath. The police are actually there to help you, and they ensure that we are truly safe. The Constitution is once again the law of our land. We no longer have a gigantic national debt, because the government has ended the Federal Reserve, bringing some very rich, evil men to justice finally for looting the American people. Instead, our Government now prints the money. The Government is now living within it's means. We have a free market, with healthy businesses growing and becoming successful, while business ventures that are failing are allowed to fail. People have jobs again, and they have stopped holding their hands out for "benefits" from our "Welfare state" Federal Government.
Thanks to all of the money we have saved from ending foreign wars to ending the Fed, our streets are clean and safe, our children have a good education, and we are at peace. There are people out there that say this is all a pipe dream, that this is just too perfect, thus it's impossible to achieve. I counter by asking, "what have you done to help bring us back to a free society?" This is only impossible right now because people would rather sit in their homes watching TV while they tell themselves "I'm sure glad those people are here to help defend our Civil Liberties. I really hope they succeed." Instead, they should really start researching this topic, and becoming educated. They should start to speak out. They should start to demand their rights. In a healthy, functioning United States, the people would do things like that. In a healthy America, the men and women who are supposed to be our leaders and have broken the Oath, are prosecuted and brought to justice. The false flag operations would be a thing of the past. We would have withdrawn from the United Nations, and evicted them from the land in New York that they have taken from the people. We would no longer have foreign military personell on our soil in any sort of operating capacity. By the way folks, this is happening now, without your knowledge and consent. In a healthy America, our government operates as transparently as possible, secrects are generally not a good thing when it comes to governance in my opinion. It doesn't spend money it doesn't have. The Feds answer to debt has been to to allow the central banking system to engineer our economic crash so they could continue to buy up all of our Nations wealth with our own tax money. In a healthy America, that doesn't happen because of free market principles. Why was our national treasury looted for over $1 trillion? Where did that money go to? Nobody in government seems to officially know where it is. That's not a bookeeping error guys, that's robbery.
In a healthy America, things such as poisoning our environment with horrible amounts of pollution has ended also. Huge corporations can no longer just poison the environment around them because they can't operate efficiently.
In short folks, a perfect America would be one where the people are what our leaders concentrate on, and not the profit margins of the huge corporations that bankroll them with bribes. It would be one where my children and grandchildren are safe and happy, and they are thanking people like me for safeguarding their liberties by being educated about the issues, and active themselves.
If we had continued along on the path that our Forefathers started for us, things would likely be much different today. You see, our founding fathers set up a Constituional Republic for us, and it is my opinion that we have moved away from it, we are now an Empire much like the Roman Empire shortly before it's fall.
Let's start with the powers that the Federal Government was supposed to have. Their job was to 1. Facilitate international trade 2. See to the common defense, and 3. Safeguard the liberty of the people.
So let's start with number 1. Their job is to facilitate trade with foreign countries. How should they do that? By keeping this a completely free market economy. The Federal Government, according to the Constitution of the United States, is not given the power to enter into organizations such as NAFTA, the WTO, or anyother United Nations sponsored agenda. So a perfect America would include us leaving these other trade organizations and finally working to facilitate foreign trade in a proper manner.
2. They are to see to the common defense of the country. What that means boys and girls is, when the bad guy comes a knockin at our door wanting to conquer us, the Federal Government is supposed to stop them. To do that, we honestly do not need a massive military presence, and we certainly do not need all these bases that are overseas. They do nothing more than continue our Empire building ways. And make no mistake about it, they are costing us over $1 trillion dollars a year just to maintain that Empire. America operating as a Constitutional Republic would keep a small full time military, with very little presence in foreign countries. The rest of the defense needs would be structured around a large, well trained and well equipped part time militia. Now you folks might be asking yourselves, how would shrinking the size of our military help protect us? Well because if you aren't involved in all this Nation building stuff that's actually illegal based on it not being Constitutional, you simply don't need a massive military. If another Nation were stupid enough to try to invade us, it wouldn't take such a massive military, because the people would rise up as well to repel them. We no longer involve ourselves in foreign wars, and we no longer invade and kill hundreds of thousands of a country's citizens based on the remote possibility that they are hostile to us and would like nothing more than to do us harm.
And 3. This is a big one folks in my opinion. The Federal Government is supposed to work to protect your civil liberties, and should the Feds fail in this and they become a tyrranical government much like we have today, then the individual states are given the Constitutional authority to protect it's citizens from that as well. That where the whole "Against all enemies, both foreign and domestic", comes into play. For instance, that means the Federal Government should not be raiding medical cannabis dispensaries in California for example, so long as they are complying with State laws. Now here is the rub of it folks. According to the Constitution of the United States, the State is legally bound to protect you from an out of control government. To me, that means, when the DEA raids a medical cannabis dispensary in California for example, the local Law Enforcement agencies actually have a duty to not only stop them, but to also arrest them for violating State law in their presence. Instead, they all too often help the Feds. Here is something alot of folks don't really know. The entire War on Drugs could not be fought by the Federal Government without the help of the individual states. They simply do not have the resources. You see, when the DEA wants to raid something, they don't just send in DEA agents folks. Local LEOs will go on loan to them all too willingly. I have had the pleasure of knowing a few men that are part of the Drug War. They are local Law Enforcement, but they have been known to help the Feds out from time to time, by assisting them in raids. They always were bragging about what a rush it is to go through that door with flashbangs going off, men screaming obscenities to get down, all the noise and confusion and violence. So, we're funding a group of people's adrenaline rushes. And they are getting that rush by victimizing it's own citizens. The Federal Government bribes these local law enforcement agencies with money to help them along. The drug warriors out there don't want the war on drugs to end because then they have to go from locking up the peaceful potsmoker, and go after truly dangerous criminals. We currently spend nationwide over $50 billion per year on prohibition. That's money that could be used for things such as drug treatment, education, medical care, and housing, bringing an untold level of prosperity to America.
In a perfect America, the people are free. Free to pursue their dreams, free from persecution, and protected by it's government from anything that wants to take those things from us. We don't have a peaceful protest being turned into a tear gas hazed bloodbath. The police are actually there to help you, and they ensure that we are truly safe. The Constitution is once again the law of our land. We no longer have a gigantic national debt, because the government has ended the Federal Reserve, bringing some very rich, evil men to justice finally for looting the American people. Instead, our Government now prints the money. The Government is now living within it's means. We have a free market, with healthy businesses growing and becoming successful, while business ventures that are failing are allowed to fail. People have jobs again, and they have stopped holding their hands out for "benefits" from our "Welfare state" Federal Government.
Thanks to all of the money we have saved from ending foreign wars to ending the Fed, our streets are clean and safe, our children have a good education, and we are at peace. There are people out there that say this is all a pipe dream, that this is just too perfect, thus it's impossible to achieve. I counter by asking, "what have you done to help bring us back to a free society?" This is only impossible right now because people would rather sit in their homes watching TV while they tell themselves "I'm sure glad those people are here to help defend our Civil Liberties. I really hope they succeed." Instead, they should really start researching this topic, and becoming educated. They should start to speak out. They should start to demand their rights. In a healthy, functioning United States, the people would do things like that. In a healthy America, the men and women who are supposed to be our leaders and have broken the Oath, are prosecuted and brought to justice. The false flag operations would be a thing of the past. We would have withdrawn from the United Nations, and evicted them from the land in New York that they have taken from the people. We would no longer have foreign military personell on our soil in any sort of operating capacity. By the way folks, this is happening now, without your knowledge and consent. In a healthy America, our government operates as transparently as possible, secrects are generally not a good thing when it comes to governance in my opinion. It doesn't spend money it doesn't have. The Feds answer to debt has been to to allow the central banking system to engineer our economic crash so they could continue to buy up all of our Nations wealth with our own tax money. In a healthy America, that doesn't happen because of free market principles. Why was our national treasury looted for over $1 trillion? Where did that money go to? Nobody in government seems to officially know where it is. That's not a bookeeping error guys, that's robbery.
In a healthy America, things such as poisoning our environment with horrible amounts of pollution has ended also. Huge corporations can no longer just poison the environment around them because they can't operate efficiently.
In short folks, a perfect America would be one where the people are what our leaders concentrate on, and not the profit margins of the huge corporations that bankroll them with bribes. It would be one where my children and grandchildren are safe and happy, and they are thanking people like me for safeguarding their liberties by being educated about the issues, and active themselves.
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