Word Games

As a follow-up to my post of a few days ago, here is some more wisdom about how words are used to deceive and rob us. This is an email that was sent out by Harmon Taylor from Legal Reality down in Dallas Texas. He often comments very astutely on the chicanery of legalese and here is a very clear example of how it affects you and me. He is commenting on an article by Associated Press reporter Joan Lowy concerning yet another tax scheme that the Federal government is trying to put into affect. The article is included below his commentary.




29 April A.D. 2009


Word games.

Word games.

Word games.

We've learned something if we see the horrific error in thinking committed by JOAN LOWY. (Whether it's deliberate misleading or ignorance is unknown at present.)

Note the difference between the term in the Subject line ("vehicle") and the terms in that very first paragraph ("cars" and "trucks").

A "vehicle" is something used for "transportation," which is a line of commercial activity that involves the removing of people and/or goods from here to there for profit or hire under a choice of law of the "place" called "this state."

A "vehicle" is something made "transportation ready" via the scam by which we're suckered into trading a "full title" (the MSO) for a "legal title only" (the "certificate of title"). In other words, no STATE may/can compel us to put our otherwise private property into use/service as commercial property. THAT transaction has to be 100% voluntary. And, it is, because it's evaluated by the "objective standard" associated with "this state" (a body of law that is counter-intuitive to us) rather than the "subjective standard" which is associated with the Law of the Land (the body of law that is intuitive to us).

A "vehicle" IS something that may very well be subject to regulation by the state/federal regulators, because it's "commercial property" that may be "in use" for "transportation" activities.

A "car" or a "truck" is private property.


No state or federal agency has any authority to regulate private property. But, they may/can regulate property in which they have an ownership interest, which happens every time we trade the "full title" (the MSO) for a "legal title only" (a "certificate of title"), which transactions happen because "we" have been "taught" to think that the STATE may regulate whatever it wants to regulate. Thus, we are purposefully distracted from the legal reality, which is based, fundamentally, on using our signature against us.

STATE may/can regulate "commerce." But, STATE may never compel us into "commerce," and STATE may never compel us into any agreement. So, if "we" have "voluntarily" put our "car" or "truck" into trust, which is what happens when we "voluntary" trade our MSO (which most people never even knows to exist) for the "certificate of title," we've "voluntarily" made our otherwise and formerly private property into "transportation ready" property in which STATE has an ownership interest (as a beneficiary).

And, it's ONLY the "transportation ready" property, in which STATE has an ownership interest, that STATE may subject to this "mileage/use tax." And, then, ONLY if the "use" of that "transportation ready" property is actually that of "transportation."

Let's put this series of transactions together to get our mind around what the "legislative" bodies from coast to coast have suckered us into, with full compliance by the auto manufacturers (around the world, that is, not just domestically, but around the world). When the car/truck is manufactured, it has a "full title" document, typically called the Manufacturer's Statement of Origin (MSO). When we buy that car/truck from the dealership, we "never" see the MSO. We're simply charged for "tax, TITLE, and license," and we pay the money. That MSO, which we "never" see, is the best evidence of our full and complete ownership of the full and complete title to that car/truck. When we trade that away, along with paying a fee for having someone else process the transaction, what we do is set up a trust. We retain the "legal title," and the "equitable title" ends up in some STATE agency or other. For purposes of this discussion, let's call that STATE agency the DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, or DOT. In reality, on a state-by-state basis, it may or may not be the DOT, but to illustrate the point here, we'll call the beneficiary by the label of DOT. What we get back from DOT is a "certificate of title," which proves very little more than the fact that a "full title" exists somewhere. And, by this transaction, evaluated under the "objective standard" in/of the "place" called "this state," which means that about the only thing that matters is our signature, we set up a trust. And, then, because we're the fiduciary of that trust, we can't "use" that trust property for our purposes without abusing the beneficiary. So, for the fiduciary to use the trust property, the fiduciary has to "rent" it. And, where the fiduciary uses the trust property for the purposes of the trust, here, as a "vehicle," i.e., in that line of commerce called "transportation," then the beneficiary may expect a distribution from the trust.

In a nutshell, to see the legal reality is to see that we've being suckered into giving away our private property, in trust, so that the benefit of the commercial use of that formerly private property goes to the STATE.

We can then drill down even further into these trust-based scams, which are VERY British in nature (they are the masters of the dirty tricks campaigns the world over), to see the Scriptural side. To whom is owed the "first" duty in a trust relationship by the fiduciary? Right, the beneficiary. Where the beneficiary is STATE, where, then, go one's "first fruits?" Right, again, to STATE. Here, reflect mightily on the "image" shown to Daniel. It's of a "man," which "man" symbolizes the "government" set up by man to be worshiped by man as a substitute for worshiping God. And, here we are.


A trust is a form of ownership by which the "full title" to property is split. That's the purpose/consequence of setting up a trust. The "full title" is split. There are then two "owners." There's a "legal title" owner, who is called the fiduciary (or the trustee), and there's an "equitable title" owner, who is called the beneficiary.

Where DOT is the beneficiary, DOT has an "ownership" interest in that car/truck. That, in and of itself, does NOT make that car/truck a "vehicle." What makes that car/truck a "vehicle" is its USE for "transportation," which is that line of commerce in which people and/or goods are removed from here to there for profit or hire under the choice of law of the "place" called "this state." This is mentioned just to say that for STATE or "the feds" to collect that "mileage tax," the claimant is going to have to prove up both (1) it's ownership in that car/truck AND (2) it's "commercial" "use" in the specific line of commerce called "transportation."

Word games.

Word games.

Word games.

All details matter.


The best solution is to have "full title" to the car/truck. There is never a question as to its intended "use" that way. Those in a position to articulate the difference between "commercial" "use," in particular in the area of "use" for "transportation," are the ones in the position to make this one work.

Next best is to work toward the best solution by learning the "commercial" terms and what they mean. Key to the commercial terms is that we cannot be compelled to agree that the property is being "used" for "transportation" purposes. If you're not in the business of removing people and/or goods from here to there for profit or hire under the choice of law of the "place" called "this state," then changes are quite HIGH that you don't really have a "vehicle," but only a "car" or a "truck." If you don't have a "vehicle," and if you are comfortable you know how to articulate the difference, then even if your "car" or "truck" is already "transportation ready" (i.e, owned in trust, which is best evidenced by the existence of a license plate/ tag), then it's still not a done deal for the "tax collectors."

It's not the "mileage" that is at issue, but "the USE of the car/truck" for those miles that is at issue. And, since the "tax" will apply NOT to "cars" and "trucks," as so incompetently asserted by JOAN LOWY, but ONLY to "vehicles," what STATE or "the feds" will HAVE to prove is "transportation" "use" of that "transportation ready" (but not necessarily "used for transportation") car/truck.

Here's an analogy. Let's say that someone goes to visit family. Let's say that this someone is a "taxpayer" and regularly files a 1040 with the standard, normal deductions. Let's say that this someone takes a mileage deduction for those miles traveled to visit family. Let's say that there's an audit. What result? You know instantly what result! "NO MILEAGE DEDUCTION!" Why not?! Because those are note even "commercial" (business) miles, much less "transportation" business miles. Those are "personal" miles. So, "NO DEDUCTION!"

Let's reflect on this from another angle. Where there is not even "commercial use," whatever the line of commerce, there is no factual basis for any mileage deduction. So, looking at this going the other way, where there is no mileage deduction allowed, there is not even "commercial" activity at issue.

In the logic analysis, we're talking about the contrapositive.

Statement: If commercial USE, then tax deduction allowed.

Contrapositive: If no tax deduction allowed, then no commercial USE.

Applying that to this "VEHICLE mileage tax" concept, we see this. On the one hand, the car/truck "legal title ONLY" owner is being "taxed" on ALL miles traveled. BUT, as we just identified, there'll be no deduction for non-commercial use miles. It's this "non-commercial" use concept that is the key. If the car/truck is NOT used "commercially enough" to justify a tax DEDUCTION, then it's ALSO NOT used "commercially enough" to qualify it as a "vehicle," for a "vehicle" is not only "commercially used," but also specifically used for "transportation" purposes, which means used in removing people and/'or goods from here to there for profit or hire under the choice of law of the "place" called "this state."

Thus, a "transportation ready" car/truck that is never used in the "transportation" business is never a "vehicle." Thus, on the one hand, there's no "tax deduction" available, because all that the car/truck has been used for, in the eyes of "this state," has been "travel." And, where there is no "tax deduction" due to the non-commercial "use" of that car/truck, then there is 100% confirmation that we're not talking about any "vehicle," at all.

Word games.

Word games.

Word games.

Where there is no "vehicle," there is no "mileage tax." Period.

A "car" or "truck" is not even "transportation ready" property, so it's legally impossible for any "car" or "truck" to be subjected to this "vehicle mileage tax" concept.

Now, where there IS the existence of the license tag (the sending back of which does NOT terminate that trust, by the way; where one transaction creates the problem, it takes another transaction to fix the problem; returning the license tags MAY be sufficient evidence of "non-commercial," and more to the point, "non-transportation," "use" of that car/truck, which evidence of intent MAY BE sufficient for some purposes, but the mere returning of the tags does NOT terminate that trust), thus, where the IS evidence that the car/truck is "transportation ready," that is nowhere near the end of the legal or factual analysis, here. WHAT MATTERS IS THE "USE" of that car/truck. IF that car/truck IS being "used" for the purpose of removing people and/or goods from here to there for profit or hire under the choice of law of the "place" called "this state," THEN there's a "USE" subject to the "vehicle mileage tax." Otherwise, there is no "vehicle;" hence, no factual basis for any "vehicle mileage tax."

To readdress the full scenario, we have this. We're suckered into placing the car/truck into trust, by which that car/truck is made "transportation ready." Then, if we "USE" what could have been our very own private property for "transportation" purposes, then we're subject to a "vehicle mileage tax." What is that "tax," really? It's "rent." You see, a fiduciary can't "use" trust property for his/her own purposes. That's a very common basis for claims of fiduciary abuse and trust mismanagement and even willful misappropriation. The fiduciary conducts himself and manages that property at all times for the benefit of the beneficiary. So, for a fiduciary to "use" trust property, s/he has to compensate the trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries. Thus, in short, we're being suckered into putting our otherwise private property in trust so that we can then "rent" it from that trust. And, where the property is used for the purpose of the trust, then the beneficiary may expect a distribution from the increase to that trust if that's what the terms of the trust call for.

Pretty cool scam, huh?!

On a related matter, those "Tea Party" events were very popular. Now, who would like to hazard a guess as to how many commercial transactions were successfully corrected by means of those political activities?!

We are not dealing with political problems. We are dealing with commercial problems. We've been "taught" to engage and pursue political activities for the specific purpose of allowing "venting" that ends up having little to no affect on the policy-makers. While we're investing all that time, "money," and energy into those political activities, we're not studying into the commercial realities of these various forms of vexation. Those commercial problems are based on heavily doped-up, biased, slanted, legal terms; hence, the word game problems we face.

JOAN LOWY is in wonderful company, and she doesn't "get it," yet. There is a manifest difference between "vehicle," which IS subject to regulation, because it refers to something "used" for "transportation" purposes, and a "car" or a "truck," which are labels used to describe private property.

STATE cannot compel anyone to turn private property into commercial "use" property.

STATE cannot compel anyone to go into the "transportation" business.

To turn private property into commercial property is a purely voluntary act, in the eyes of the law of the "place" called "this state."

To engage oneself in the "transportation" business is a purely voluntary act, in the eyes of the law of the "place" called "this state."

To learn the word games is to learn how to defend oneself against this ever-growing menace called "government." This thing called "government" stops growing when it is no longer "fed." It is no longer "fed" when we learn how to stop paying it to control us and our property.

This "vehicle mileage tax" concept is a very good "test case" by which to learn how to stop paying "them" to control us and our property.

Word games.

Word games.

Word games.

They use their words for a reason. If we agree to their words, we've hosed ourselves, which is their very plan. Just ask the Kelo family how this works out. That's a land issue based on this same "word game" platform.

Harmon L. Taylor
Legal Reality
Dallas, Texas

Life is going to get more complicated and expensive for those in "this state."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/28/national/w113551D21.
DTL&feed=rss.business

Top lawmaker wants mileage-based tax on vehicles

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
 

(04-28) 11:57 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

A House committee chairman said Tuesday that he wants Congress to enact a mileage-based
tax on cars and trucks to pay for highway programs now rather than wait years to test the idea.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage
tax. He said he sees no point in waiting years for the results of pilot programs since such
a tax system is inevitable as federal gasoline tax revenues decline.

"Why do we need a pilot program? Why don't we just phase it in?" said Oberstar, the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman. Oberstar is drafting a six-year
transportation bill to fund highway and transit programs that is expected to total around
a half trillion dollars.

A congressionally mandated commission on transportation financing alternatives recommended
switching to a vehicle-miles traveled tax, but estimated it would take a decade to put a
national system in place.

"I think it can be done in far less than that, maybe two years," Oberstar said at a
House hearing. He was responding to testimony by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who
recommended that the transportation bill include pilot programs in every state to test
the viability of a mileage-based tax.

Blumenauer said public acceptance, not technology, is the main obstacle to a mileage-based
tax.

Pilot programs "would be able to increase public awareness and comfort and it would hasten
the day we could make the transition," Blumenauer said.

Oberstar shrugged off that concern.

"I'm at a point of impatience with more studies," Oberstar said. He suggested that Rep.
Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee, set up a meeting
of transportation experts and members of Congress to figure out how it could be done.

The tax would entail equipping vehicles with GPS technology to determine how many miles a car
has been driven and whether on interstate highways or secondary roads. The devices would also
calculate the amount of tax owed.

"At this point there are a lot of things that are under consideration and there is also a
strong need to find revenue," Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard said. "A vehicle miles-traveled tax
is a logical complement, and perhaps a future replacement, for fuel taxes."

Gas tax revenues — the primary source of federal funding for highway programs— have dropped
dramatically in the last two years, first because gas prices were high and later because of
the economic downturn. They are forecast to continue going down as drivers switch to fuel
efficient and alternative fuel vehicles.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ruled out raising gas taxes to make up for the funding
shortfall, and the White House has rejected a mileage-based tax. They have not offered an
alternative.

"The funding of the highway trust fund is a complex issue that will require consultation with
Congress and consideration of a number of creative ideas," said Transportation Department
spokeswoman Jill Zuckman. "The secretary looks forward to working with Chairman Oberstar and
others as they consider how to keep the highway trust fund going."

A mileage-based tax has been unpopular in some states where it has been proposed. Critics say
it unfairly penalizes drivers who live in rural areas and intrudes on privacy.

"When we can solve the equity issues to a majority's satisfaction in the Congress, when we can
solve the privacy issues to the satisfaction of the American people, we can look at moving
forward, but I just don't think we have the data or the experience right now to say we can set
a timeline or a deadline," DeFazio said in a recent interview.

Don't squash me bro'

During one summer of my childhood I used to pour drops of 3 in One oil into ant holes in my front yard. Why did I perpetrate such a heinous crime against nature you may ask? Well I had ordered one of those Ant Farms during the winter and when it arrived the ants were either frozen to death or about to expire. I was extremely disappointed that they were only able to tunnel about an inch into the sand before they expired. So my unsatisfied curiosity about ants is what lead me to committing this atrocity. I just wanted to see what they would do! And to my great delight I could sometimes get the big fat queen to evacuate her throne. How else was I going to get up close and personal with a queen ant? So that is my confession and my justification. That's just exactly how I'm gonna explain it to God on judgment day just before he squashes me with his big loving godly thumb. Actually god is getting me back for my sin by populating my kitchen with an endless trail of ants all summer long.

So I brought up this story from my past just to show how much better I have gotten in regards to my treatment of bugs. Even though I had decided that killing is wrong when I was very young I found it very hard to apply that ethic when it came to bugs, most especially spiders. I mean Everybody Knows that you are supposed to kill spiders before they kill you. It's self defense! Who doesn't remember their Dad taking off his shoe to kill a spider on the living room wall. And now what do you do if your wife hysterically demands that you kill that big ugly itsy bitsy spider that is hanging out on the ceiling over the bed. Well if you want to be considered a real man you gotta protect your little women and squash the little bugger or you will never hear the end of it. Last year I decided that I just couldn't do it anymore. No matter how much I loved my wife I was no longer going to kill on command. Live and let live was going to be my motto from now on. If she wanted the spider dead she would have to do the deed herself. Well after a few dead spiders started weighing heavy on her conscience she adopted a policy of relocation to the great outdoors instead of squashing. So things are a lot safer around here for our arachnoid buddies these days.

I have one final spider anecdote to relate to you while I try to figure out what the point was supposed to be for this essay. A week or so ago I was cleaning a bathtub and tile enclosure and there was a spider on the wall. I told him that he had better stay away from the tub and tile or he might be carried away in the flood and I didn't want to be responsible for his untimely demise. Of course he didn't listen to me and ended up crouching in the corner where the tile walls and the tub come together. Now at this point I would have been within my rights to send him off into oblivion with a sweep of my sponge. He had disobeyed a direct order and clearly put himself in harms way. But then I though I heard a wee small voice in my head saying "Don't squash me bro' ". So I stopped what I was doing and got a piece of paper and managed to tickle his toes with it enough to get him to climb on. I was then able to carry him safely outside into the garden. As I set the paper down on some small shrubbery the little guy appeared stunned by the beauty laid out before him. Here was a guy that was probably born and raised indoors, perhaps in a dark ugly place, suddenly confronted with a whole new green world and a chance for a whole new life never before dreamed of. He hesitated for a moment, then turned to me with a nod of thanks and took off on all six legs into his new life of adventure. I'd done good. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. God was smiling down upon me.

Imagine my surprise when a little while later I hear on the radio that I can now be considered a terrorist threat. No, not because of anything having to do with spiders, but simply because I believed in the united States constitution and I was opposed to Federal intrusion into peoples lives. Yes the government had released a memo that indicated that anyone who didn't like the federal government and thought the constitution should be the law of the land should be regarded as a potential terrorist threat! EXCUSE ME!!! I just saved a fuckin SPIDERS life! Just who am I supposed to be a threat to? Granted I have killed plenty of bugs prior to changing my ways but even in my most foul and nasty mood I've never included a politician in my list of victims.

Well since I can now be considered a terrorist there is no reason for me not to post this latest video from this well known Islamist. Don't squash me Big Bro'. Peace be with you, Allah Akbar and all that shit...

This is not what I had planned to say...

So I haven't posted in a while partly because I have been busy reading other peoples blogs and I am such a slow writer(and typer) but also because things are getting so fucked up in this world that I am finding it hard to concentrate on just one thing. I started writing what was going to be my next post the other day but didn't get to finish it. And then I came across this video presentation.

The subject presented in this video is something that I have been aware of and been studying for quite some time. It is also something that is very difficult to explain, not because it is tremendously difficult to understand but because it so goes against what "Everybody Knows" that people cannot confront it. You try to explain it and most people will think you are bloody nuts and won't even listen. This knowledge cuts to the very core of what people believe about themselves and their relationship to the "society" in which they live.

In the past Americans were fat and happy living high on the hog of credit and rising home values. They weren't about to think deep thoughts about what was really going on, as long as they were benefiting. Well times have changed and perhaps now they will be more interested in finding out where all their freedom and fortune went.

At this point in time England is a bit further down this road of pain than we are. The Big Brother police state is pretty much complete there. When you can get fined for placing your trash bin at a slightly improper angle or having your trash weigh too much I don't think there is much freedom left in that society. They have more surveillance cameras per square mile in London than in any other city in the world. Yet it is against the law for a person to film a police officer. England used to be famous because their policemen, Bobbies as they were known then, kept law and order without carrying guns. Now the people have no rights to own any guns and the police are armed and armored to the gills. So some people in England are starting to wake up and realize something must be done.(Those who are not lobotomized by psychiatric drugs or mesmerized by the telly or just plain dumbed down into submission by the standard educational processing.)

While America and Americans are larger and a bit harder to get a handle on than the relatively small, not so "Merry Old England", the pressure is building and the noose is tightening here at an almost exponential rate. So if you want to know how we went from a free people to a docile, obedient herd of sheeple being shorn and led to slaughter, these videos explain it rather succinctly and clearly, if you can get past the speakers "English"accent.

This is the system, be it in England or America or any other "civilized" country. It is a system that robs, rapes and pillages and even kills by the use of words. And the only reason they get away with it is because the people don't comprehend these words.

So if you want that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach to go away and you can't be bothered with something so inconvenient as the truth, take a handful of blue pills and go squat back down in front of the telly. Hurry up, you might be missing Dancing with the Stars!

If however you are an active, enthusiastic participant and supporter of this system, then perhaps you should take some time to consider what it means to be human and decide whether you really want to be one or not, but please stop the deceit.

But if you are hungering for a bit of truth and are sick and tired of that feeling of having been played for a fool, then I invite you to press play....

Required Reading

The internet is a wonderful thing. All these brilliant minds available to you at a click of your mouse. I keep thinking of different subjects I'd like to write about, but then I always find someone on the web that has already covered it more thoroughly and more eloquently than I could. So today I will keep my words to a minimum.

The lovely and talented Nina over at Deep into the ArtlifeWest http://deepintoartlifewest.blogspot.com/
posted this link and I'm going to repost it and urge all you wonderful people to click on it and read this "reality" shattering essay by Joe Bageant. http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/04/escape-from-the-zombie-food-court.html

Kill your television!

The Crisis Deepens

Crisis, what crisis? Nothing to worry about mate, it's just the natural cycles of boom and bust and it'll boom all over again, just you wait and see. Everything will be alright, you only have to trust your leaders and just keep payin' your taxes, and most importantly, keep consuming! And don't worry because if things don't pick up soon we will just start another world war and then everybody will be employed.

Actually right now I'm more concerned with my existential crisis. The powers that be want us to fixate on this grand drama that they are putting on for us, they encourage us to play our part in it because without a paying audience the lights in the theatre go dark. So we continue to watch and be mesmerized and we continue to pay for the privilege with our money, our labor and our blood and in the end our very souls. Everything has been laid out for us. Everybody knows that this is the way it is. This is the only show in town. You're either with us or against us. So pay attention! And so I did.

Now I sit here, out on the ledge at the edge of reality, holding in my hands the realization that I have been had. I've been played for the fool that I was. Looking down into the depths of time I can now see that everything I had been taught to believe, everything I knew to be true, everything I struggled and died for, all the great achievements of the past going back to the dawn of civilization have not only all been for naught but have in fact been highly destructive to the planet and every soul unfortunate enough to have landed here, because they have all been based on a lie. A lie so powerfully intoxicating that it has caused an entire species to commit treason, against not only itself, but the whole planet on which it resides and all the life forms contained therein.

Now that I know, how can I any longer pretend to be part of this? How can I tell my kids that all their plans and hopes and dreams for the future are all based in a lie? How can I tell my boss that his plans for expanding the business and making more money will only be contributing to the speed of our demise? How can I tell the government that I can no longer support them in any way? How can I ever make up the damage?

It's lonely out on this ledge. It's very long and sparsely populated, with only a few people visible way out in the distance. If you care to confront this lie and join me out here on this ledge at the edge of reality, this is the window to climb through.
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/index.html

Yes, the entire book is a long read. So far I've only gotten up to chapter 4. But you will know what the score is after reading just the introduction and the first chapter. It appears the second half of the book presents solutions to our dilemma. I look forward to that part. But first every insidious aspect of the lie needs to be exposed and every tentacle ripped from my mind and the poisons cleansed from my soul.

Getting down to business part 2

So where was I... oh yea, we were talking about food, a pretty important subject in the grand scheme of things. Everybody has got to eat and we are getting pretty vulnerable in this particular aspect of our survival. This is mostly due to our own irresponsibility, but we have certainly been helped and encouraged by those special interests who seek to make us totally dependent on and thus controlled by them.

The most visible one of "them" would be would be the corporation that has the dubious honor of being regarded in some circles as the most evil corporation on the planet, non other than the mighty malevolent monster, Monsanto. I say in some circles because, despite the fact that most people I know are aware of the enormity of their policy, Monsanto still racks up a huge amount of sales of their most popular poison, "Roundup"every year. Obviously the word is not getting out as quickly and as widely spread as it needs to. Everything from the lawns of suburbia to the farms of the world have been covered by this life destroying substance. The human species is fast becoming "Roundup Ready". I shudder to think what it's doing to our chromosomes and DNA!

Admittedly, I am no expert on the subject of Monsanto. I have never had to deal with them personally. I know just enough about them to be enraged. Since I don't think anyone really wants to hear me raging, I will once again turn my blog over to someone much smarter and more eloquent than I.

Monsanto is not just intending to control the food supply of America, but of the entire planet. The story of what they are doing to India is particularly disturbing and informative. Vandana Shiva is an author, scientist, ecologist and a crusader against the destruction of our natural food supply and has been battling Monsanto toe to toe for many years in her home country of India and around the world. Recently she gave a talk in Portland , Oregon and I recommend you take a look at it by clicking this link: http://vodpod.com/watch/1474602-vandana-shiva-the-future-of-food-and-seed?pod=dandelionsalad You can find the website for her organization here.
http://www.navdanya.org/index.htm

In addition I would like to acknowledge and thank a women who works tirelessly for many causes and who was responsible for bringing Vandana Shiva to my attention by interviewing here on her radio show. Maria Armoudian has a weekly show on KPFK in Los Angeles. "The Insighters" is heard Thursdays at 4:00pm pst. Past shows can be heard in in the KPFK archives. http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/ On her website www.armoudian.com you will also discover that she is a wonderful singer/songwriter!

See you next time in part 3.....Perhaps my sense of humor will have returned by then.

Time to get down to business

Human life and planet earth itself are being attacked simultaneously from so many different angles that most people can't even see it. It's too overwhelming. It's much easier to say that's just the way things are and simply keep your head down, work hard at your career, watch TV, chear on your favorite sports team, eat, drink and be merry and try to be the one who dies with the most toys. At least that is mindset in our gilded cage we call the USA and most of other nations that make up Western Civilization. Problems? Sure there are problems but there's nothing that a little American ingenuity and loads of cash can't solve, right? Man has been given dominion over the earth by God himself and that means we can do as we wish and implement any solution that we see fit. Right?

Well seeing as how things are turning out after a couple thousand years of this maybe we should re-examine this fundamental idea. Perhaps man has simply misunderstood what his role was supposed to be on this planet. We seem to have taken the idea of dominion, which connotes care and control, and stretched it to mean domination. Much like the governments and bankers who were supposed to be looking out for our interests but were actually robbing and enslaving us, have we not done the same thing, as a species, to the ones we were entrusted to care for, our beautiful planet earth and all it's resident lifeforms? In fact if you look at it real close you might come to the realization the many of the bad things that have afflicted man actually mirror the crimes and abuse we have inflicted upon the earth and all life.

Take cancer for example, the out of control replication of cells in the body that results in death of the human. Hasn't the human population, in the past few hundred years, grown like a cancer upon the earth, actually overwhelming and sucking the life out of it?

AIDS attacks the human immune system. Have we not done the same thing to the earth's eco-systems? Alzheimer's disease causes the reduction of the blood supply to the brain. I'm not sure where this planet's brain would be located but we have certainly been sucking the blood out of her for the past 100 years in the form of oil.

Were we really put here to strip the planet clean of all it's resources just so we can live in big houses and drive big cars and blow up people who disagree with us with big bombs?
It reminds me of the Marx Brothers film "Go West" where they tear apart a speeding train just to provide fuel to keep it going till they get to the end of the line. Well, we are stripping the earth bare just to keep our "civilization" going and what do you know, we are about to reach the end of the line, but the ending is not going to be as happy as a Marx Brothers movie, unless the idea of extinction tickles your funny bone.

So what do we do? Where do we start to address the problem of self inflicted impending doom?
Can we really stop this speeding train of civilization before it flies off the cliff? Quite frankly, I don't think so. The problem is a combination of too much speed and not enough track left, but more importantly the fact that mad engineers driving this thing think that they are invincible and refuse to release the throttle. Our only hope is to wake up the sleeping passengers and convince them to quietly slip off the train without bringing too much attention to themselves. Sure it's gonna hurt when we land on the dirt. Some may be injured, some may be killed but our chances are infinitely better than if we remain on the train. We just gotta learn to roll.

But before we jump we need a little bit of information. With this myriad of problems, where's the best place to start? Well we here in this country have been lulled into a false sense of security and we think we know where our next meal is coming from, the supermarket or McDonald's.
But we constitute only a small portion of the entire population. Food is a major and growing problem for most of the world and will likely be a problem for us in the near future. Food is the key means of control of a population and it is intended to be used for that purpose by those who currently run the show. So I think that this is where we start. How do you feel about food? Most Americans are totally disconnected from their sources of food. They just want it delivered to their mouths the easiest and fastest way possible. And as long as it tastes good to them, that's all that matters. How did we get so disconnected? What created this mindset in the American culture?

Michael Astera wrote a brilliant essay on this subject in his blog, The New Agriculture. So I'm going to shut up now and turn things over to him. http://thenewagriculture.blogspot.com/2008/12/let-stupild-grow-food.htm


Posted by m_astera at 12/06/2008 09:56:00 PM

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Let the Stupid Grow the Food

Let the Stupid Grow the Food

Doesn’t that sound like a good idea? Those who are not smart enough to do anything else, let them grow the food we eat. Intelligent and talented people should be doing things that require talent and intelligence, not wasting their lives doing stupid things like growing food.

Some aspects of food are admittedly important, requiring skill and training, but growing it is not one of them. An intelligent person, should they wish to be involved with food, could run a grocery store, or become a food broker, or own or manage a restaurant. They could go into government and make rules and regulate food production or food safety. A talented and creative person could be a chef, run a catering service, design menus, make fancy pastries and decorate cakes; these are all respectable occupations and often well paid ones, unlike farming.

One great thing about the free market is that it clearly lets us know what is important and what isn’t: Important work is well-paid. If producing food were an important occupation, it would be a well paid one. Agriculture is pretty much the lowest paying job worldwide, which clearly shows its lack of importance.

Growing food is perfectly suited for stupid people, as all it consists of is driving a tractor around, putting some seeds in the ground, and then harvesting the plants that grow from the seeds. Any moron can do that, and there is nothing sadder than to see talent and intelligence wasted on a boring, unskilled and dead end job like farming. Luckily our modern society has long since seen the truth of that and young, intelligent, creative, and especially ambitious people know better than to waste their lives in agriculture.

There’s a reason that people tell “dumb farmer” jokes, you know. Let’s face it, though farmers are a minority, they certainly don’t rate minority status and protection like women, colored people, or homosexuals do. It is not nice to make fun of those who can’t help what they are, but farmers can decide what they want to do, and if they are too stupid and lazy to find anything better to do, they should expect to be made fun of.

It hasn’t always been as clear and straightforward as it is today. Back in the days before modern education and communications, lots of people simply didn’t know any better than to be farmers. Much of the ignorance and misguided choices of the past can be forgiven because not only didn’t people know better, in a lot of cases they didn’t have much choice. There were no such things as supermarkets, and in most countries there weren’t even that many big cities to provide decent and respectable employment for smart people. Most people were born on farms and they needed to grow food just to be able to eat and maybe sell a few things for money. They had little education and relied on printed books and newspapers for information, and what sort of books would one expect to find on a farm? How to Grow Corn? Milking Cows for Fun and Profit? Ha ha.

Sadly, even those who should have known better seemingly didn’t. In the USA even educated men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were farmers. Both men went on and on in their journals about their farms, what and where and when they planted, how they fertilized the crops, incredibly boring subjects. Jefferson even had some wacky idea about the “yeoman farmer” who was self-sufficient, sovereign, and free. As if anyone digging in the dirt for a living cared about such lofty things. Whatever was he thinking?

Throughout the 1700s and up to the late 1800s countless brilliant minds were wasted on the dead-end of agriculture. What marvelous and truly useful inventions would Jethro Tull, John Deere, Eli Whitney, or Cyrus McCormick have come up with had they not wasted their time on farm equipment? The delusion got so bad during the mid-1800s that respectable scientists actually discussed agriculture in science journals. There were even whole magazines with names such as The Gentleman Farmer. Now there’s an oxymoron for you.

Luckily for us, the 1800s also brought the Industrial Revolution and the rise of corporate capitalism. Smart and ambitious people were no longer imprisoned in dead-end jobs like farming. Opportunity beckoned in the new factories and bustling cities, where one could work for real wages and buy the things they wanted and needed. Those in other hopeless careers benefitted as well: village carpenters and blacksmiths, weavers and seamstresses were no longer confined to purposeless obscurity in the countryside, no longer forced to make things one at a time for ignorant bumpkins. They could now move to the city and get a real job in mass production, tending the machines that made such better and more uniform products, perhaps even rising to the level of foreman or manager. These former “hicks from the sticks” were no longer at the mercy of the vagaries of weather and climate; they could rely on the comforting security of a paycheck at the end of every week.

By the early 1900s, some benefit came to those still stuck in agriculture from the tinkering with farm machinery and the invention of the steam engine and later the internal combustion engine. Farmers were no longer limited to using smelly, sweaty horses and oxen to pull their plows and their wagons. The self-propelled wheeled tractor came into its own, as did the threshing machine and later the combine. The equipment dealers selling the machinery offered incentives to modernize, often accepting a team of work horses as a trade-in on a new tractor, quite a kindness on their part, as all they were able to do with the now-useless animals was to sell them to the slaughterhouses and pet food factories, but at least the farmers didn’t have to feed them anymore.

A single farmer could now farm a large acreage, sell the crops, and use the money they earned to pay back the bank and the farm equipment dealer and often still have money left to buy food, fuel, seeds, fertilizer, and whatever else was needed or desired that he was no longer forced to grow or make himself.

Even some of the work of the nineteenth century agricultural “scientists” paid off eventually with the invention of new synthetic fertilizers that could coax bumper crops out of the most worn-out soil and new hybrid plant strains that didn’t need anything but modern concentrated fertilizers to thrive, along with marvelous insecticides to handle the bugs that seemed to be strangely attracted to the new crops.

The lone farmer now cultivating hundreds of acres and raising thousands of bushels of grain almost singlehandedly naturally benefited almost everyone as the price of crops fell, and there was need for far fewer farmers. The farmer’s children, the smart ones anyway, got the message and went to the cities where they could live a civilized life far from the dirt, sweat, and smells of their primitive forebears. They learned to be clerks and accountants, shopkeepers and secretaries. They lived in clean apartments with electric lights and running water. No longer did the girls need to perform degrading jobs like baking bread or sewing clothes for the family, no longer did the boys need to work at demeaning tasks like plowing and planting, or learn about greasy machinery or building or taking care of animals. In the cities they could earn money and buy the fruits of machine labor, marvelous and shiny and modern. Food and meals came from the supermarket or the restaurants without sweat or effort on their part.

Many of the smarter farm kids even went to college or University and learned how to do important things that could make them a lot of money in the city. The dumb ones mostly stayed on the farm, but there were a few who desired some education yet weren’t quite bright enough to understand that simple and unskilled tasks like growing food were best left to those who weren’t capable of anything better.

Back in the 1800s many state governments had created something called “agricultural colleges” and they still existed up ‘til the mid-1900s, more or less as a place where the farm kids smart enough to read and write but not bright enough for real colleges could go and get degrees in cow science or plow theory or something. Around 1950 the big chemical, fertilizer, and seed corporations saw an opportunity there and were kind enough to fund whole new programs where those students destined to return to farming could be educated in how to farm more efficiently using pesticides, weed killers, concentrated chemical fertilizers and hybrid crops. Thus the corporations were able to make the best out of an unfortunate situation: the semi-intelligent farm kids could at least be trained to buy and use the right things when they went back to the farm, and they could pretend that they were part of the important industrial economy and not just dumb farmers.

In some ways the whole process has worked as a speeded-up Darwinian selection program: over the course of a few generations we have managed to free the intelligent and valuable members of our society for truly productive and important jobs like being lawyers, business executives, and government bureaucrats while leaving something to do for those lacking in such vision, intelligence, and capability.

A few Luddites have raised the “alarm” by noting that there are now so few family farms left that the US Census Bureau no longer counts farming as an occupation, or pointing out that the average age of US farmers is over 65, but obviously this is a false alarm. The multinational corporations will as always come to our rescue; actually they already have. Corporate agribusinesses are farming millions of acres using the latest high-tech computerized farm machinery and GPS positioning; they hardly even need a person to drive the tractor. The wonderful new Transgenic GMO crops produce their own insecticides to kill any bug foolish enough to try to eat them, yet we know these systemic insecticides pose no harm to us because corporate scientists have assured us they are safe. Really modern corporate farms needn’t even worry much about plant or soil diseases; they can cover the entire field with plastic sheeting, then inject soil sterilants and fumigants to kill off any pesky soil life. Wouldn’t you really rather have your food grown in nice, clean, sterile soil? Of course you would.

As for the ninnies who complain about this efficiently grown food lacking a few nutrients, they should be thankful that those more intelligent and farsighted than them are now staffing the pharmaceutical laboratories and hospitals and have things well under control.

Meanwhile, the corporations will still need a few unintelligent button pushers to sit in the cabs of that computerized GPS-positioned farm machinery, at least for a while longer. By the time the great day comes that all food production is fully automated and industrialized, the more intelligent among us who are now running the corporations and the government may have found some suitable make-work position for those simply unable to contribute to modern society and unable to “fit in” in the city.

The best and brightest have left agriculture for at least the past two hundred years, leaving only the dullards behind to reproduce; surely that lineage has produced about all the worthwhile offspring it is going to and we can only expect things to get worse. If nothing else, perhaps special reservations can be set up in some unneeded parts of the countryside where these sorts of people can be kept out of harm’s way until they naturally die out. It would be a kindness to all concerned.

[Disclaimer and Note: This essay is meant as sarcasm. The point I'm trying to get across is that growing good food is a very important task and art. It should (and does) attract highly intelligent and skilled people and those growing excellent food should be honored and well compensated.]

Thank you Michael. And with that I'm gonna call it a night. Stay tuned, more to come....

Missed it by that much...

When I started this blog it was April 1st. But by the time I went through all the formalities and made my first post it had become April 2nd, too late for me to back out with the lame cry of "April Fools". So now I'm stuck. I guess I'll just have to buck up and start typing. I fear this is going to take an extraordinary amount of time, other aspects of my life are sure to suffer. Work will be pushed aside, bills will go unpaid, dishes will pile up in the sink, dirty laundry will be strewn around the house, personal hygiene will be neglected, the wife and kids will have to resort to extreme measures to break my attention away from the computer...
Hey wait a minute, that's exactly the way things are right now around here. Could it really get any worse? Well perhaps if I don't pay the electric bill very soon my blogging career will come to a screeching halt as the screen goes dark.

You know last night I was having some second thoughts about the title I chose for my blog, actually some other possibilities came to mind. For example,"Birdshit on your Doorhandle" kinda sets the mood, or how about "Ayahuasca in the Kool Aid" you'll understand how that might be appropriate a little later on down the road, or " Transgression Confession Digressions" has a nice flow to it, don't ya think? My personal favorite though has got to be "Bodacious Bouncing Boobies". After all I'm a guy and that's all guys really think about anyway. And heck if I put "boobies" in the key words, traffic to this blog would go out the roof. Where would the Internet be without boobies? Probably lining up behind the banks and the auto companies looking for a government bailout. Speaking of bailouts, it touched me so deeply to hear that Barack Obama cares so much about us that he will personally see to it that the Federal government will take care of any warranty problems on my new GM or Chrysler automobile. Did I miss the part where he announced the new government "Car Stamp Program" that will provide vouchers to po' folk like me so we can acquire one of those sleek shiny new cars? Just curious, where in the constitution does it list new car warranties as part of the role of the federal government, oh I see it's right there where it says "promote the general welfare" written between the lines in very small print just like in the 2nd amendment where it explains that we are not actually the "People" that were being referred to when it comes to the right to bear arms. But I digress...

Perhaps now that I have the attention of the whole world, before I start ranting I should say some nice things about some nice people. First up would be my sister since she was the first one to sign up as a follower of this rambling screed. One of these days when I figure out all the complexities of bloglife I will sign up as a follower of her blog but in the meantime this is her link.
http://ooglebloops.wordpress.com/
This is the place to go when you want to read about a couple of city folks adjusting to life on the farm, living with 2 horses, 4 pit bulls, an unknown amount of birds and one ferret and about finding antiques and creating found art and all that kind of homey stuff. Kind of like that old show "Green Acres" except that my sister doesn't have anywhere near the amount of shoes and pocket books that Zsa Zsa Gabor had.(Or was it Eva Gabor, memory fails me.) They also don't have the water tower where the young farmer's daughter would sneak a bath until the train passing by causes her to jump up thus exposing her bodacious bouncing boobies to the leering TV audience. In other words it's not a blog that you have to worry about exposing your kids to. It's sort of analogous to milk and cookies as opposed to what you'll get here which is more like week old, moldy, dumpster pizza served with gravel tea.

Next up would be my most lovely and talented wife. She very talentedly writes and sings lovely songs and has also lovingly help produce and homeschool two lovely and talented boys all while putting up with and actually loving this not so lovely or talented blogger. Here is her link. http://www.myspace.com/jeanniewilletsmusic

My oldest son is an amazingly talented sculptor and make up artist who wants to do special effects stuff for movies. Here is his site. http://www.myspace.com/christopherwillets

My younger son is an incredible movie maker specializing at this time in stop motion Lego animation. He plans to be a big time movie director. Check out his films. http://www.youtube.com/user/filmyguy1

Alright, so that's it for the niceties for now. Despite my lovely and talented family the world is completely fucked up. When I was young I used to read Mad Magazine. I loved parody and satire. These days Mad Magazine can't compete with the absurdities of the real world. Do any of you lobsters out there notice the water is getting mighty warm? Would you like to know what is really going on in the world? Well I'm not gonna tell you. I'm not ready to start writing a book. But this guy has, quite a few of them in fact, and his explanation is as good as any place to start. Pull up a chair, grab some cookies and watch this interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4UyEUldOLQ

Some of you, after having watched that interview might possibly be outside on the ledge wondering if it might not be a good idea to jump. If that's the case let me try to calm things down a bit. Recently I have been reunited you might say with an old friend. Anyone who grew up in NY in the 70's and liked good music might remember WNEW-FM. Well that station is long gone but one of it's great personalities survives and he continues to broadcast his freeform radio show on the weekends at http://www.wfuv.org/programs/idiotsdelight.html. Vin Scelsa has introduced me to more new and old great music than anyone in the world. More than just the music, he is such a pleasure to listen to, the most real and lovable voice radio has ever known. I lost him in my life over 20 years ago when I moved away from NY, but now thanks the magic of the world wide web he is back and I don't even have to worry about missing his show because they are available to download and listen to anytime on my IPOD from here. http://home.comcast.net/~iddiot_tree/ So if you find yourself out on a ledge make sure you have a way to listen to Idiot's Delight. I guarantee you won't jump at least for the 4 hours it takes to hear the whole show. And by then you'll be hungry for a snack and you'll climb back in the window and you'll realize there's no place like home.

My head hurts. Good night all.

Welcome to my head, grab a hammer.

What am I doing here? I don't have time to do this. I don't know how to write. I've never even kept a diary. I type with two fingers. Is anybody even gonna see this? This could be really fucking embarrassing. I could say things I might regret. I could accidentally expose my carefully concealed mental derangements. I could be labeled a seditious, subversive malcontent, be charged with a thought crime and disappear in the dark of night never to be heard from again. Do I have the guts to say what I really think? Do I even know what I really think? Is anybody gonna care what I really think? Do I even have an original thought in my head? I guess we are all gonna find out real soon. This is where the dirt meets the road. See, I told you I don't know how to write. This could get ugly. This is my first post. Will there be another? Welcome to my head! Grab a hammer and start whacking. Let's see what falls out shall we?