This site supports the "No National Animal ID System" Campaign! Click here to find out what you can do to stop THEM from RFID chipping your livestock animals! Because if THEY can chip your chickens or horses, they can CHIP YOU!
Thinking of moving to a rural remote location? Then read this first! Learn what you need to consider before you buy your land and homestead!
September 2, 2008 Newsletter
Higher Ground, Physically and Spiritually
This post is going to be the short form...a more rigorous piece will appear probably later in the week and I had every intention of getting this one up the final day of August. Sorry about that. There has been some turmoil around here, and as everyone who has read the Resiliency in Katrinaland post knows there is a reprise of cause for concern in the Lagarde household over Hurricane Gustav...and then there's my son in Sea Aggieland in Galveston, the same Galveston which is NOT evacuating because Gustav isn't supposed to be hitting Galveston, but just west of New Orleans close to the Achafalaya Swamp area. Texas hurricane authorities, I suspect, still remember how they overreacted to Hurricane Rita, sending about a million fleeing motorists up I-45 in a ten-hour traffic jam, and are undercompensating this time. Yet, by the time this is posted we'll know just how much damage Gustav will have done, and and who it was done to. And, oh yeah! We'll also know if FEMA has learned it's lesson...and just how much the Republicans give a crap. If Gustav wipes out NOLA, will the dumbos cancel the convention out of sympathy? Out of political expediency? Or say to heck with it, let's party?
The levees Katrina destroyed are not completely rebuilt yet. CNN showed this morning how Plaquemines Parrish folks are maintaining dirt levee mounds. I don't feel too comforted by the thought of dirt levees holding back a storm surge. Not when Cuba, which, being Communist and being able to easily marshal thousands of volunteers (on pain of re-education camp if they refuse?), still wound up devastated in the western flank with a superior plan for hurricanes. Gustav was Category 5 when it hit yet no one died in Castroland. I am not very reassured that when it hits Louisiana it will "only" be a Category 3...yeah, like Katrina was! [Note: Gustav hit just west of New Orleans early Monday morning September 1. The Weather Channel reporters have claimed no levees have broken yet, but have been "topped" meaning the water line is at the top. but the water isn't done yet... a CNN video has shown that at least one lower 9th Ward levee has broken. And the latest I have heard was that Galveston might be evacuated anyway...seems Gustav is in for the long haul, skirting the Gulf Coast into east Texas.]
But what am I worried about? My son the Sea Aggie who is a campus leader will show extraordinary judgment, not panic, and rightly deal with it. The Lagardes mostly have moved from NOLA to higher ground. I had told you my husband's aunt and uncle moved from the Mississippi Gulf Coast about 2 years before Katrina wound up completely destroying their old house, and now live much farther inland. Besides, we live at about six thousand feet in the Davis Mountains. At this point it would probably take an act of God to make my husband (who grew up in various place, among them Biloxi, Mississippi and Panama City, Florida) move us back to humidity and mosquito central. [Note: Gustav completely missed Galveston. The irony is that when NOLA was evacuated folks were told to head to Baton Rouge and thereabouts...precisely where Gustav hit much harder!]
Now, onto higher ground, spiritually. If Gustav does do some major damage it will be the Spirit that will keep the survivers keeping on. We know this. However, I mention matters spiritual because just when I thought I would totally ignore what the dumbo wing of the Gates of Baradour were doing this week (I'll have a comment on the jackasses in a bit), McBush goes and picks a woman to be his running mate. Sarah Palin is either the pick of genius or sheer evil in goodly disguise. I should be quite suspicious that the FOX in the hen house, home boy Sean Hannity on XM's America Right (yep, my husband won't stop listening to that bozo!), was gushing peans of pusillanimus platitudes to the lady governor of Alaska who "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere" (she didn't, but since when did that stop Hannity from replacing truth with BS?), so that, though she sounded like a Ron Paul in skirt (okay, okay, maternity dress), she must be too good to be true (or else Hannity would not have approved of her so highly). And about how, claimed Hannity, his e-mail box is overflowing with praise for her, even though McCain had just picked her that morning! And about how Palin just won the election for McCain...the same McCain Hannity was lambasting just a few weeks ago for being such a "liberal"! But I got very suspicious when Newt Gingrich came on and claimed the same stuff, about her anti-abortion positions. And how Palin will grab all the disaffected Hillary fans. But so what if Palin and Newty are political soul mates? Heck, she even likes Ron Paul, right? Yet according to this site, Palin just happens to be a darling of the neocons. It was Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard who recommended her to McCain. Further, the "Conservative CFR," aka the Council for National Policy, "vetted" her. Tim LaHayefounded it in 1981 and Richard Mellon Scaife, a card carrying member of the "Illuminati" (due to his Mellon parentage), funds it through the Heritage Foundation (which, BTW, is connected to the CFR as well). RJ Rushdoony, founder of Christian Reconstructionism and Chalcedon Foundation (and Gary North's late father-in-law), was a member, as are more than a few present-day Dominionists.
According to this post on Daily Kos--not the most authoritative site in the world, what with Kos himself being closet CIA--as with Newt, Palin is a Dominionist (also called Christian Reconstructionist), belonging to a sect, Assemblies of God, which leans toward Dominionism. Her church was one that was once affiliated with Dominionist extremists called Joel's Army, both now in Juneau and when she was mayor of Wasilla. Dominionists want two things: one, a theocracy in the USA, and, two, to legally force non-Christians to either convert or be subsumed in a hell of the Dominionists own making. Israel's treatment of the Palestinians comes to mind. And these are the folks who cry out about "Islamo-fascism"! They want to destroy women's rights granted by God under the guise of "wives being submissive to their husbands" (which some Dominionists and others use as a pretext to beat their wives--I've known a few men to do this!), women will be banned from even voting, will as this article claims, be euphamistically kept "barefoot and pregnant", and will raise children who--and I've known a few of these as well--might later become gay or psychopathic if they are not developing into missionaries or religious right political hacks (Monica Goodling, the Regent University [founded by Pat Robertson] graduate who helped several US attorneys such as David Iglesias be kicked out of their jobs for political reasons, comes to mind). You know, "Jesus Camp" kids, kneeling before a cardboard figure of President Bush. I do not paint a very nice picture of Dominionism for a number of reasons. One, they want to outlaw the Constitutional "separation of church and state" (you know, the Second Amendment: "no establishment of state religion"). Two, they want to make the Mosaic Law American Law, using religious freedom to end religious freedom. I have no problem in general with the Ten Commandments, but I thought Christians believed that Christ's death and resurrection fulfilled the Law? And I thought the Apostle Paul (Romans 8, for instance) preached Christ's will that Christians are justified by grace, not the Law? And I thought Christ died and was resurrected for the sins of all mankind, including those of the gay and the abortionist? That Christ died so that (1 Timothy 2:3-4) all mankind would be saved? And that Christ said, "My Kingdom is not of this world"? Three, they will, by their acts of vengeance against those who "oppose God", abuse their power against innocent non-Dominionist Christians (such as myself) and non-Christians (Jews especially...I don't care how much they love Israel, they hate Jews), and could turn non-believers into Christ haters, and really make the typical atheist's day! They might turn Christianity into a death religion, a vile thing, and suck the life out of the beauty of the works of the Holy Spirit. Instead of sharing Christ with gays and atheists and Muslims and Jews and everyone else with love, Dominionists want to shun and persecute gays, women who have abortions--some because their husbands force them to--Muslims, Jews, and non-conformists--Christians (like me) or not. Folks, do you think I am making this up to scare you about Dominionism? Well, I know a few Dominionist folks, and, yes, many Dominionists do believe these things. They range from fairly rational types like Gary North to nutcase cultists like Palin's pastor (see link above). What's so wierd about all this is that I started out actually liking Palin: she's pro-gun-rights, behaves in a more self-sufficient way than the majority of Americans, knows survival skills, has fought some corruption, and is not a member of AIPAC--yet. Further, I know plenty of Christians who seek a more-God-centered society but within the confines of Consitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, and know, as Christ said, "many are called but few are chosen," that is, God chooses who His children will be. Trying to force Jews or Muslims or atheists to become Christian is an affront to God. Dominionism, like all the other parlor tricks of "power" Christians, is of the world. Christ commands Christians be NOT of this world!
You know I really do not care if Palin is Dominionist or not...except for the fact that it is clear that McCain chose someone young like her to be his successor precisely because he knows he is old and he has medical problems. Quite frankly, I DO NOT WANT for President someone who really believes she and her Dominionist fellows must set up a Consitituion-violating Christian fascist state in order for Christ to make His "second coming." This is no better than what the Pre-Millennialist-Rapture crowd believes, that 2/3 of the world's Jews must die and billions of others in order for Christ to return. We'll get Armeggeddon either way. So now I have an even bigger reason NOT to vote for McCain!
Well, being "fair and balanced" (oops, FOX News has a "copyright" on this...will they sue me for using it? But, what the heck, I am definitely more mentally balanced than any FOX News talking head! That means YOU, home boy!), what's good for the dumbos is good for the jackasses. Since I did NOT watch any of the actual proceedings inside the Dumbo convention save for a three minute clip on last week's "Democracy Now!" broadcast on DirecTV's "Link" channel--it was Hillary announcing she endorsed Obama and was releasing her delegates--I supplemented that with watching You Tube videos outside the convention. The funniest and most telling was one with some black MSNBC commentator along with Rachel Madow (subbing for Olbermann), which you can see below. If you don't have "Flash Player," this is what's going on: while Madow and the others are talking in normal voices, in the background, Alex Jones, with a very loud bullhorn in a very loud voice, is shouting "9-11 was an inside job!" And MSNBC is letting him do it! They didn't even try to talk him down or drown out his shpiel otherwise. Folks, freedom of speech is not quite dead yet.
Joke: What do you get when you cross a Dumbo (Republican) with a Jackass (Democrat)? A dumbass!
Still, according to Glenn Greenwald and others following the issue of the use of police state tactics at the two conventions, the ghosts of Joe Stalin, Hitler, and Mao are busy up in Minnesota. They just arrested Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, among others.
Don't forget, if you have a comment on this or other posts, e-mail me with your comment, and put the name of the article in the subject line.
Like what you read? Then subscribe to the Something Happening Here Newsletter! I do not have a set time for it to come out, but I try to make a newsletter once a week or as much as possible with hints and tips on how to live better and more naturally on your rural remote land. From handling garden insects to collecting valuable resources like water and firewood to raising your children to dealing with neighbors, I believe my 25 years experience living on the land can help you make the most of your rural remote life.
