Monkeyfister

Tighter than ever. I really like the way they spring the rhythmic clockwork out in this song-- nice new treatment. This was live in Rio. Excellent sound and video.



I really wanted to see this tour, but I was busy buying this house and moving. So, I'm inflicting it all on you this weekend!


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FOOD!!!

Recipes, growing, canning, preserving, global food issues, everything food.

I'll be adding more to this new category in the next few days, as I sift through my many bookmarks for the good stuff.


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Labels: Food

Back To The Wilderness

Ke Xu is a NYC IT Consultant during the week, and a budding Permaculturist, and primitive skills practitioner on the off hours at his family home in PA. He takes great photos of his projects, and is very thorough in his descriptions of whatever project upon which he is posting.

He's energetic, enthusiastic, and inspiring. Check him out!


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Labels: Gardening, Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Suburban Permaculture, The Blogohood

My online friend Ke Xu, from the LATOC Forum has motivated me to try planting Potatoes In Large Containers.

I am going to plant up some Pontiac Red Potatoes, and see how they do. I like New Potatoes, and Pontiac Reds are pretty good early-Season keepers.

First off, I ordered the seed potatoes from The Potato Garden. They still have PLENTY of seed stock, so go and order some! Mine came in a few weeks ago. They are starting to send out obvious shoots, and I am ready to get started on them. DO NOT use store-bought potatoes that are putting out eyes-- they are more likely to rot, or harbor diseases-- get Certified (Organic) Seed Potatoes.

Here's what you do.

First, get the BIGGEST damned containers you can get. Mine are GIANT 3' tall and 3' wide things that one could easily plant a tree into. Make SURE the container has drainage holes in the bottom.

Two to four days before you plant the seed potatoes, grab the bag o' seed spuds, and a sheet of cardboard, or a shallow box, like a paper box lid, or an old screen, and a sharp knife.

Identify the eyes of the potato, and slice them off-- leaving at least a 1/4-inch to a 1/2-inch of potato "meat" for each eye-- this is where the sugar/energy comes from for the new plant. Each potato will have 3-4 eyes. As you cut the potato slices, place them meat up so that air gets to them. Let them sit for those two to four days. A thick, grey scab will for over the white flesh. You WANT this. It keeps disease away from the seed wedge, and helps in healthy growth.

Now, place about four inches of good soil in the bottom of the container. Lay your spud wedges EYE UP in the soil surface every 9 inches around the edge, and as many in the middle to allow that 9" spacing, and cover with 3-4 inches of soil. Give 'em some water, and let them grow, providing some water every couple of days. Yes-- you'll have two feet of container to fill up-- that comes later. Place some screen, or some floating row cover over the top of the container to keep bugs away.

As the potato plants grow about four inches above the soil, add another 3 inches of straw and soil-- two inches of straw, and cover with one inch of soil, and then water. Keep doing this until the tops of the plants peek out above the top of the container, add soil as the straw compacts. Add another 3 inches of straw and soil, and then plant in BUSH BEAN seeds in the spaces between the plant tops. The Bush Beans keep the Potato Beetle away, and the Potatoes keep the Bean Beetle away-- clever, eh? That's the miracle of Companion Gardening!

Now, all you do is wait until the potato plants brown out on top. When that happens, you'll probably have a fine little harvest of Bush Beans-- you can wait until the beans are ready-- the spuds below will be fine, and you'll have plenty of compostables. Harvest the beans, put all the foliage in the compost pile, and then turn out the entire container, and harvest your spuds. You'll be amazed at what has been going on under that soil surface.

You can do the same thing with old tires (drill the sides out for better drainage, and to keep mosquitoes from using the tires as breeding water). Or you can build a bunch of 3'x3' wood frames out of 2"x6".

Here's the deal with potatoes, and the soil in which they grow-- you MUST NOT re-plant potatoes in the same soil for at least 3 years, with a four year rotation the best. Disease is GUARANTEED if you do. So tip that soil into your compost pile, and turn it in. The containers shouldn't re-grow potatoes for at least a season-- I'll recommend using those containers as composters for the rest of the season.

There are several types of potatoes-- Early Season, Mid-Season, and Late Season. Plant them all at the same time-- the difference is how fast they grow. The Potato Garden has plenty of good advice on potatoes to choose.

Enjoy and Good Luck!



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Oh, for all that's right, please watch this and pass it on...



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Things continue to play out as I projected they would over this past year. The crisis is hitting the home goods sector now. Bed, Bath & Beyond can't be too far behind.... Yup.


via Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home goods retailer Linens 'n Things is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday.

The chain, owned by Leon Black's buyout firm Apollo Global Management, is negotiating with creditors, which include General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the source said.

While bankruptcy is "on the table," it is one of many options being considered, the source said. "It is not the top option, nor is it the option that the company is currently pursuing at this very second."

Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the retailer could file for bankruptcy protection by Tuesday.

Following a report by Bloomberg News that Linens 'n Things had hired Conway Del Genio Gries & Co, one of the restructuring firm's principals confirmed the hiring, but would not discuss any details.

Nothing we weren't expecting.

Oh, yeah-- remember 31 days ago, when Bear Stearns collapsed, and the FED opened that 28-Day Special Auction Window, and I said circle April 8th and mark it "Markets Fail Day"...

Well... It's on track, too. DOW shits out, today, down 257 points, with NASDAQ and S&P; dropping heavily as well. Looks like that shit-for-collateral plan has hit the skids. Next week should be a wild ride, as auctions keep bankers on tenterhooks. So it goes...


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Labels: Collapse

Live. 2007.





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I've been listening to this NPR show for nearly two decades now, and I must say that it gets better and better every night. I have to admit that many of the musical bits that I post here, I first heard on World Cafe. This is one of the best shows produced by the NPR network of stations-- specifically, WXPN 88.5 FM out of U-Penn. I recently stopped listening to my local NPR station, WKNO, out of Memphis, and went back to streaming my old favorite station, WCMU Public Radio(live stream), out of Central Michigan University, as WKNO's programming is terribly weak, unimaginative and repetitive-- and they don't run this show.

World Cafe

Since 1991, World Cafe® has emerged as the premiere public radio showcase for contemporary music serving up an eclectic blend that includes indie rock, singer-songwriters, folk, alternative country, blues, and world music.

The show is hosted by long-time Philadelphia radio personality David Dye. A passionate music enthusiast, Dye takes listeners on a unique journey of musical discovery as he presents a mix of music from both new and legendary artists.

The two-hour daily program features live performances and intimate interviews. The show's guest roster has included Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, Dolly Parton, Iron & Wine, Lucinda Williams, Paul McCartney, Ani Difranco, Damien Rice, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, REM, Feist, Yo Yo Ma, Lyle Lovett, Bela Fleck, Moby, Taj Mahal, and Coldplay, among thousands of others.

World Cafe also serves up segments on music as pop culture, gives listeners a voice as guest DJs and introduces new artists with their World Cafe Next feature. The show also periodically features interviews with authors, critics, historians, and television and movie personalities.

In 2006, World Cafe was awarded the prestigious ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.

World Cafe is produced by NPR Member station WXPN 88.5 FM, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, and distributed nationally by NPR.

The segment on Psychic TV is incredible. Don't know who PTV is? Why they gave birth to Industrial music, Acid House music, Nine Inch Nails, they were old friends of the late William S. Burroughs and Bryon Gyson, and the pioneers of digital sampling-- Roland. They aren't everyone's cup o' tea, but, they have influenced thousands of musicians and artists, and continue to pioneer new avenues of artistic expression. The interview is truly top drawer.

Do check out World Cafe-- you'll thank me later.


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Labels: Hot-Ass Music, NPR

Damn. Memphis is close to flooding.

A friend of mine, who lives in Downtown Memphis, says he can look out his window, and see 40-foot trees nearly covered with water on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. Arkansas has the Flood Plain, Memphis has a large Bluff that keeps us from flooding most of the time. Well, it looks like things are getting really ugly here, and shipping is stalled, as barges cannot get under the bridges now, and it keeps on raining.

Now, I live about 30 miles north of Memphis, way up on a hill, and the Bluff is taller here than it is down in Memphis. There is a very serious likelihood that Memphis just might flood in the next week or three, if the North gets a quick thaw.

But, the rains keep coming, and we just got word that a major levy has failed...

1045 AM CDT FRI APR 11 2008

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT MEMPHIS * UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE * AT 10 AM FRIDAY THE STAGE WAS 37.3 FEET * MINOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MINOR FLOODING IS FORECAST * FLOOD STAGE IS 34.0 FEET * THE RIVER ROSE ABOVE FLOOD STAGE AND WILL CONTINUE RISING TO NEAR 38.0 FEET BY MONDAY MORNING. ADDITIONAL RISES MAY BE POSSIBLE THEREAFTER.

Stay tuned. It would really suck to see a flooded Memphis with Bush still in office... We'd never recover.


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Labels: Global Warming, Nature

At this point in the collapse of Real Estate values, there is no logical way that a neighbor can argue that YOUR planting of edible plants in your front yard is bringing down THEIR Property Value-- www.zillow.com will prove YOUR side of the argument. And Go HERE, type in your Zip Code, select foreclosures. Print out copies of your neighbors' and areas' reports, today, and save them for when they lodge a bitch with the Neighborhood Nazi Association.

Their petty bitches will never hold up in ANY court, or Neighborhood Nazi Tribunal. Fuck 'em. Sympathetic neighbors will throng to your side if you plant your edible front yard attractively. Those people who are SO HEAVY about those Covenants are going to end up starving themselves out of the neighborhood. Go ahead and push them out, or teach them that eating is better than starving... TEACH THEM how to make an edible garden attractive.

There is NOTHING to stop you now. Just don't till up the yard and make an ugly row garden.

Make your edible plantings attractive and intersperse them with pretty flowers and herbs. Make a little arbor and plant Scarlet Runner Pole Beans with some Morning Glories or Trumpet Vines and Tomatoes (don't put the Pole beans next to the Tomatoes-- they hate each other). Instead of Decorative Cabbages-- plant edge rows of Savoy or Purple Cabbages. Ground cover with Thyme and Parsley and Oregeno... Plant Zucchini next to an Elephant Ear plant. Use a little bit of decorative subterfuge, and nobody will notice.

As I wrote to Kate in comments, below:

No one is going to notice or care if you've got edibles growing with pretty annual flowers and plants, Kate. At this point, I'd expect that most people in your neighborhood are wondering how to simply deal with the bills.

Once you see people letting their lawns go a bit, you can rest assured that they are not going to be eyeballing bush beans or tomatoes in your flower beds.

Trust me on this.

Those that DO notice, will start following your example, and then the Covenants become unenforceable. Next step will be Backyard Chickens.

Push.

Gently.

Artfully.

They are trying to prevent ugly row-gardens in the front yard... If it looks nice-- they'll never bother you.

The key is to render those Covenants moot-- null and void and have everyone planting edibles in the yard before a recovery.

Screw those Covenants-- they are WRONG in every way, and now pointless.

Nine bush beans per square foot. Four lettuces per square foot. 16 onions or beets or turnips per square foot.

Neighborhood Covenants are OVER. The arguments are dead. They cannot hold up. I don't know how more or better to say it. The idea was STUPID to begin with, and now it is DONE. LET IT GROW-- and EAT!

Grateful Dead-- Let It Grow Part 1:


Part 2:



Monkeyfister's Adage: "Rules are made to be broken. Laws are to be obeyed. Stupid Laws are to be quietly disregarded."


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Labels: Covenants Bullshit, Edible Lansdscape, Gardining, Neighborhood Nazis, Suburban Aesthetics, Suburban Permaculture

So, I was on my home from work, tonight, and came up on a truck with its bed FULL of bags of leaf and pine and grass waste. I pulled up alongside the truck, and shouted to the driver, "Are you taking those leaves to the dump?" He nodded, "Yes."

"Can I have some?"

He pulled off at the first crossroad. I told him that I was gardening, and would LOVE to have every last bag. He asked me where I live, and I told him it was just 10 minutes from the landfill. He followed me home, we unloaded his truck next to the garden, and I offered him $10 for his extra mileage. He turned it down, and admired my garden for a bit over a homebrew, which he DID accept. I gave him my phone number, and told him that I would ALWAYS accept his compostables. He said he'd be happy to bring them by, and I told him I'd be happy to offer him anything I had fresh in the garden, and/or homebrews for his effort. I sent him home with a six-pack of homebrewed Porter. Everyone was happy.

AWESOME!!! Twenty bags of quality future compost-- for FREE!!

It's that simple, folks.

And now it is storming like nobody's business outside. Good timing.



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Labels: Composting, Gardening

Perhaps, just perhaps, we are listening to the wrong people about Iraq. Ya know, I have this haunting feeling that Gen. Petraeus' and Amb. Crocker's words were provided by the White House... But that's just me.


via The Impolitic

If Iraq is really a sovereign country, and the majority of its population would like us to get out of Baghdad, maybe instead of listening to Crocker and Petraeus, who serve at his pleasure, Bush should listen to Maliki and get the hell out.

And George wants another $108 Billion in "emergency" War funding, without strings, demands for withdraw, or added conditions. The little fuck. Five years into this failure, and George still has the god-damned nerve to call this "emergency" funding? BULLSHIT-- Put this clusterfuck on the damned Federal Budget for everyone to see.

They're SO proud of their quagmire that they don't want it on the books-- tells me everything that I need to know.


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Labels: Bankrupting America One War At A Time, Clusterfuck, Iraq, War Crimes, Waste of Life and Money

Our good friend, The Political Cat, has assembled all the contact information for all of us to send the Chancellor and the Board of Regents UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law a letter regarding the employment of torture-justifier John Yoo. I strongly urge each and every American to do just that. The man has clearly broken the Law, International Treaties and Agreements, and destroyed our Moral Standing through his justification of torture, and his advocacy of the suspension of the Fourth Amendment.

He has no business corrupting the minds of young Law Students, teaching them how to destroy the Rule of Law in America. The man is a menace, and should already be in a cell at the Hague, NOT getting a fat paycheck as a tenured Professor at a PUBLICLY-FUNDED University.

As more and more news leaks out about the government's deliberate consideration of torture and ways to justify it and conceal it from a citizenry, you are probably worried. If not, you should be. A government that tortures prisoners can certainly torture YOU.

Bear in mind that the government has decided that it can define who is to be subjected to torture at its sole discretion. If it arbitrarily decides that you, Joe and Jane Average Citizen, meet its definition of "enemy combatant not subject to the protections of the Geneva Convention," whammo, scalammo, off you go to have interesting objects rammed into your various orifices and water poured into your lungs.

In large part, the Gee Dubya Darth Cheney Misadministration got to do this because they found a legal "scholar" who would write them a memo justifying their acts. That "scholar" is none other than John Yoo, current tenured professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California in Berkeley.

The University of California is a publicly-funded institution. Boalt Hall School of Law consistently ranks among the top ten law schools in the nation. The taxpayers of California and alumni/alumnae of Boalt must be wondering why they are paying to ensure the employment of a war criminal? At $164,000, Yoo is comfortably off — far more comfortably than most California taxpayers, whose median household income is a mere $54,000, less than one-third of Yoo's single salary.

Given that Yoo's wife, Elsa Arnett, is a writer who has been variously cited as being employed by Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau and the Miami Herald's Washington bureau, we can probably safely assume that she is making more than the median $54,000 per year.

So why exactly are we paying this monster at the public expense? Can't we, the taxpaying citizens, argue that his position as a war criminal nullifies any contract that the university might have negotiated with him?

GO-- read it all, put pen to paper, push some email pixels, or make a phone call:

Write, email, or call the Chancellor (politely, of course) at:

Dr. Robert J. Birgeneau
Office of the Chancellor
200 California Hall # 1500
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500

Phone (510) 642-7464
Fax (510) 643-5499

chancellor@berkeley.edu

Much, much more at the link. GO THERE!



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Labels: American Fascists, John Yoo, Torture, War Crimes

Busted Knuckles has done up and moved his place to wordpress-- which I am likely to do soon, as Blogspot is blocked at work. Please be sure to update your bookmarks. I've updated the new link in the Sidebar.

Ornery Bastard

Nice new lay-out, Fella!



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Labels: The Blogohood

More like this, please. Here's a program launched in Bristol, England. But, YOU can be doing this at your own home. Yes, even on your balcony or in a window, or window box.

via foodupfront.org

GROFUN is a beautifully simple idea with a beautifully silly name. GROFUN stands for 'Growing Real organic food in Urban Neighbourhoods' and coordinates groups of neighbours in communities cooperatively growing food in their own back gardens, sharing labour, skills, resources and last but not least-the delciious home-grown produce itself.

Search my blog using that little search window in the upper left, for the words "Balcony" and "garden" for some more tips on extremely small scale gardening. There should be several posts.




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Labels: Gardening, Small Scale Gardening, Urban Gardening

I'm thinking seriously about ditching the Political/Progressive aspect of my Mission Statement, as I believe that in very short time, the existing political structure won't matter, and most of my readers are at the point of being so irrevocably pissed at the system to render the "Progressive" thing moot. Especially now that Kos-- the Progressive Messiah-- has totally jumped the shark. I don't even click on links that lead anywhere in KOSsakstan. CAP/Think Progress still get my clicks, but, not like they used to.

I feel so unrepresented, and on my own, here in West Tennessee, that really, there is little that this existing system has to offer me any more. Basically, it's pay the taxes, drive on the road, Fire Department shows up if the house is on fire, Cops might put down the doughnuts and show up if you need them, Doods fill some potholes every now and then. Electricity is already pretty spotty, and telephone/internet is equally shitty.

I AM my Law here. Good thing I am a decent guy. Same with my neighbors. We've built up trust. The Police don't even ever come down my road. I have never seen them in the time I've been here.

No matter WHO ends up in the Oval Office, if the country collapses, the only people-- Law-Enforcement or otherwise-- who will care what plants I might have growing in my back yard, will probably be there to steal them.

Yes. I do see the SCOTUS situation as dire and very, very serious. But, if this Country continues on its road to total failure, as it seems destined, how will DC Law end up touching me in any meaningful way here in West Tennessee?

SCOTUS is only effective while the ruse of a National Rule Of Law is in place. George destroyed that premise when he was voted 5 to 4 into the Office in the first place. Reality is taking a bit to catch up, but the Lawlessness that he and Dick and their cronies have seeded is pretty palpable these days. Shock Doctrine.

Politics is a godsdamned clown circus anymore... does it even really matter? At what point will Politics become meaningless in the heartlands? In many ways, I think that DC already IS meaningless out here-- and its Laws. People are swapping, and selling guns without any paperwork, I bought my pistol without an up to date Driver's License-- just my word. They KNOW me, and all that, but, still-- that is the point-- the Law is breaking down, little by little, all over the place. If I was let slide, then thousands of others, in thousands of other gun stores were let slide. Good thing that I am Honorable.

All that seems left is to make sure to put someone in the Oval Office who will not get us into yet another war, and will push the Corporations and Banker/Creditors off of our throats. The two we've got left in the race don't seem interested in the latter. And George seems very likely to land us in the former before next January.

I'm not feeling very optimistic about America's future these days. I hope that might change soon, but the past 12 years have not provided out anything to reinforce that hope. Time for hope faded four years ago for me. I'm just glad that I live where I do now, and still have a job to continue to do so.

Maybe I just need some rest, and time away from the news...



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Labels: Collapse, Lawlessness, US Politics

They are looking more and more like the National "Canary In The Coalmine."


via Alabama.com

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

AS JEFFERSON County gets closer to bankruptcy, the rest of Alabama should prepare to deal with the fallout.

Jefferson County has managed to get itself $4.6 billion in debt. By way of comparison, the beleaguered state General Fund budget for next year is about $2 billion, give or take the latest hundreds of millions in projected shortfall.

Indeed, if Jefferson County goes under, it would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history.

About $3.2 billion of its debt results from sewer bonds issued with variable interest rates, auction rates and interest rate swaps of the sort that can bite the borrower if the rates go up -- which is exactly what has happened. The county's bond payments have doubled in the past two months, according to The Birmingham News.

Financial and local government experts predict that if Jefferson County does go into Chapter 9, it's going to be more expensive for governments and public agencies throughout Alabama to borrow money.

The county is trying to put a financing plan together and claims that a bankruptcy filing is not imminent. One element of the plan involves shifting education sales tax money to cover sewer bond debt.

The lessons here for other local governments are expensive. First, no matter who recommends a financing scheme, governments should borrow conservatively and -- as so many homeowners who made similar mistakes have found out -- they should be very careful with anything other than the lowest available fixed rate.

Second, cooperation is key to getting out of trouble. When the county asked its local legislative delegation to meet for a briefing on the subject, fewer than half of them showed up. If Jefferson County legislators can't be bothered to attend a meeting to talk about solutions, they're letting down not just their constituents, but the whole state.

Third, elected leaders in south Alabama need to do what they can to help Jefferson County. Mobile-area governments have invested large sums of money in major projects like ThyssenKrupp AG and Northrop Grumman-EADS. They should not allow the strong economic growth in the Mobile area to be undermined by the financial crisis in Jefferson County.

One might want to look into one's County Bond Issues, and inquire about their solvency.

NPR Has More. Can you imagine a $300-450 sewage bill? They are living it. This is how collapse happens. Take no Municipal Service for granted from now on.



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Labels: Collapse

Slow. Metered. Words.

But, when banks stop lending, that sort of stops their ability to raise capital. We're nowhere close to anywhere near the bottom the Big Ugly. They way that they are straggling this out, covering up their losses, finagling their statements is forcing one of those "Day Of Reckoning" situations, when everything finally snaps all at once, and goes to hell in a short period of time. The thing is, they are not fooling anyone at this point. Everyone knows how bad the situation is. Every day I check the Futures before I go to bed, and every day, I wonder at what little tiny drib of good news sparks a little rally. But, as you'll read below, the dam is really weak at the seams now.

via Bloomberg

Bank holding companies including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have the thinnest safety cushion against losses in seven years.

The margin may erode further in coming weeks. Credit ratings on $704 billion of bonds have been cut this year following the collapse of the U.S. housing market. Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said last week that the downgrades may compromise bank capital ratios enough that some of the largest institutions will no longer be considered well capitalized.

Falling below a regulatory benchmark that is intended to maintain a minimum level of capital to protect depositors against losses would subject banks to more scrutiny from regulators than they have ever experienced.

“This is a nightmare for the country,” said William Isaac, who was chairman of the FDIC from 1981 to 1985. Banks will “raise what capital they can, then they’ll slow down their growth and stop lending, and what should be a mild recession becomes a much more serious one.”

The biggest danger to the economy is that to preserve their ratios, banks will cut off the flow of credit, causing a decline in loans to companies and consumers. Banks have already raised $136 billion in capital, based on data compiled by Bloomberg, and cut dividends. More stock sales and payout reductions are likely to follow, says analyst Meredith Whitney at Oppenheimer & Co.

`Institutional Panic’

The credit crunch has already cost the world’s biggest financial companies about $232 billion and forced a government bailout of New York-based Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank. The International Monetary Fund said last week that banks were in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“Banks have to maintain their ratios,” said Dennis Santiago, chief executive officer of Institutional Risk Analytics, a Torrance, California-based research firm that monitors banking statistics. “This is an institutional panic. At what point will consumers feel the panic? I don’t know.”

So. OK. We all know what's on us, and more is coming. I don't think that I'll be laying out too many more of these sorts of "warning" articles any more-- there is no point in it. Too many people are already underwater, and getting washed away by the rising waters.

Gardening, simple living, canning, preserving food, cutting energy costs, the basics of how to weather this storm INEXPENSIVELY will be more of my focus. Anyone who hasn't figured it out by now, and started to make their own plans is either too stupid, too wealthy, or too America-centric to listen at this point. Good luck to them.

I'm still getting over the conversation that I had yesterday, with a co-worker in the smoke shake at work, who asked me what I was reading.

Me-- "Articles about world food shortages, organic gardening and the collapsing economy."
Him-- "Good thing we don't have those problems here. You garden???"
"Yeah-- everyone should be gardening. Do you?"
"I hate gardening. I kill everything I try to plant. Besides, I don't trust any food unless it comes from the supermarket."
"Really?"
"Yeah-- I mean, organic gardening? You put poop on your plants??? That makes you SICK! The stores pull that stuff off the shelves if it's bad, so we all don't get sick."
"I hope that keeps working out for you. I won't bother offering you stuff from my gardens then."
"Yeah-- I wouldn't take it."

That guy is doomed.

On the other hand, I print out and read at work, many of the articles that I post here in the evening. Many of my immediate co-workers happen across my copies on the printer, and read them while they do their own copying. Three of my co-workers are now planting raised-bed, square-foot gardens in their own yards, and we're getting into seed-swapping-- mostly me giving them seeds. But, they have glanced at enough of my articles to get a firm idea of what is still coming down on us, and at least they are taking some sort of action. Dale sold his big-assed V8 truck and bought a smaller car... stuff like that.

We're past the warnings now. We're in the widely-accepted beginnings of a very bad economic situation. Time to move into ways to survive it now.

What do you need to know that I might be able to provide you at this point?



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Labels: Collapse, Surviving, Wall Street Casino

So, I got home from work today, and decided to plant out some more radishes and some sweet onions. While planting the onions in the cole crop (broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower) bed, I noticed that the spring broccoli are already setting flourettes.

I don't even have an edible radish, pea or even a mature leaf of spinach yet, but, the broccoli is doing its thing. It will be very strange if I am eating broccoli before radishes this year.

The asparagus plants have now ALL sent up shoots, and they are beginning to fern up nicely, while the strawberries are all in blossom. This weekend, the hops beds are going to go in, and Bed #1 is going to be finished and properly planted. Bed #2 will also be fully planted.

Props to the good folks at The Ark Institute, for providing such vigorous and viable heirloom seeds this year. They never fail.


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Labels: Gardening, Raised Bed Gardening

These folks are new to me... Good stuff. Their hot with a rocket in Ireland, so I hear.





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The Rude One reads John Yoo's Torture Memo, so you don't have to...

via The Rude Pundit

It's truly hard to choose the most appalling, gut-wrenching, nutsack-twisting passage of the declassified 2003 memo on how to get away with torture, written, mostly, by pudgy wad of fuck John Yoo, a man who shouldn't be allowed to teach law to stuffed spider monkeys, let alone students at Berkeley. At least shove his ass over to Pepperdine, where "evil" is a specialty, alongside "corporate law."

Read.


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Labels: Illegal Activities, John Yoo, Torture

A film legend has died. Alzheimer's disease is a terrible way to die, and it is my worst fear. My Grandfather, and his Brother and Sister all died of the dread disease.

via Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actor Charlton Heston, whose chiseled features and commanding presence won him epic roles from Moses to Michelangelo and became the face of American gun rights, died on Saturday night at age 84.

Heston died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, with wife Lydia at his side, the family said in a statement. Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar for the title role in "Ben Hur" in which he did many of his own chariot race stunts, had announced in 2002 that he was suffering symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life," the family said. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country. In his own words, 'I have lived such a wonderful life! I've lived enough for two people.'"

The family said a private memorial service would be held.

Quick, grab his gun. He said we could have it now.

Yes. That was in extreme bad taste.


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Labels: In Memoriam

I could care less, but it seems obligatory.














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Labels: Sports

This is pretty cool. Colbert interviews Dean Kamen, inventor of what looks to be an amazing new type of water purifier. It's size and output would be great for small communities.



Colbert devoted his entire March 20th Show to water issues. See the videos at the link.



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Labels: Water

An animated companion video to his new book.





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Labels: American Empire