A pattern of behavior

            All the below made me think.  Make up your own mind! Now, for me, I don't believe more than 50% of what I read, but the percentage does go up if I read it twice from two independent sources. The trouble these days is that so many articles reference each other, kind of like a circular problem for the geeks in the crowd. Whatever, we citizens are subject to some pretty good propaganda these days.

      Do Obama's Executive Orders Reveal A Pattern?

By Warren Beatty

President Barack Hussein "kill list" Obama has offered over 135 Executive Orders (EO), and he is not even through his first term. He is creating a wonderland of government controls covering everything imaginable, including a list of "Emergency Powers" and martial law EOs. And while Obama is busy issuing EOs to control everything inside the US, he has been issuing EOs to force us to submit to international regulations instead of our US Constitution.

And comments by North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue and former OMB director Peter Orszag only contribute to this pattern.

Is it now time to start connecting the dots? Obama signed EO 13603 on March 22, 2012. Then he signed EO 13617 on June 25, 2012, declaring a national emergency. Then he signed EO 13618 on July 6, 2012.

In EO 13603, entitled, "National Defense Resources Preparedness," Obama says (among other things) that [we must]:

be prepared, in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements;

Obama has the power, through this EO, to "nationalize" (not seize) private assets in order to protect national interests. Further, the EO effectively states that he can:

1. "identify" requirements for emergencies

2. "assess" the capability of the country's industrial and technological base

3. "be prepared" to ensure the availability of critical resources in time of national threat

4. "improve the efficiency" of the industrial base to support national defense

5. "foster cooperation" between commercial and defense sectors

There are pundits that suggest that by signing EO 13603, Obama has given himself power to declare martial law and suspend elections.

The main problem with EO 13603 is that the words/phrases in quotes can be interpreted in many ways, including ways that favor Obama and Democrats. Wait, we can have our Supreme Court decide what they mean. But that won't work since we know four of them to be Democrat hacks, and one justice can be influenced by the MSM.

In EO 13617, entitled "Blocking Property of the Government of the Russian Federation Relating to the Disposition of Highly Enriched Uranium Extracted From Nuclear Weapons," Obama says (among other things)that"

the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material in the territory of the Russian Federation continues to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

Obama, by signing this EO, actually declared a national emergency. I guess that President Theodore Roosevelt's famous saying, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," can't apply in this case because we don't want to offend the Russians by having them honor treaties they signed (the "HEU" Agreement). But what's more important is that Obama can now "justify" any action he wants to take by citing EO 13617 since it declares a national emergency.

Then, in EO 13618, entitled, "Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions," Obama states (among other things) that:

The Federal Government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions. ... Such communications must be possible under all circumstances to ensure national security, effectively manage emergencies, and improve national resilience.

Obama cites "national security" in this EO. I guess Obama sees ANY excuse for declaring a national security emergency will appear better than taking over the nation's communications assets by force

Want more examples of what Obama is doing?

• EO 10990 allows the Government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.
• EO 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels, and minerals.
• EO 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision
• EO 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.
• EO 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
• EO 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate and establish new locations for populations.
• EO 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways, and public storage facilities.

Are we beginning to see a pattern here? We're being prepared for a national emergency. Then there's taking control. I personally think that what Obama is doing goes way beyond being prepared.

North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue (Democrat), on September 28, 2011, suggested that perhaps elections should be suspended for two years by canceling, until the economy recovers, the 2012 elections. After that remark got the reception it deserved, Pardue's staff tried to pass it off as a joke.

Former White House director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag, who, on September 14, 2011, in a The New Republic article entitled "Too Much of a Good Thing: Why we need less democracy," said that we are that we are hampered by too much democracy, that the constitutional system (not really a democracy) is too slow to react, and the deliberations and negotiations are simply too cumbersome. Orszag suggests that the constitutional rules of limiting government offers impediments to autocratic, dictatorial actions, and are just too great.

That North Carolina governor Perdue would even joke (if it was a joke) about canceling an election is frightening enough, but that Orszag, a former official in Obama's administration, believes that doing away with the US Constitution is a viable solution should cause every AT reader to quake.

I'm never comfortable with laws that give the government broad reaching powers in the event of a "national emergency," especially when there is no clear, set, unchangeable definition of what actually constitutes a "national emergency."

Circumvention of the US Constitution by any means possible is the ultimate goal of Democrats and the Obama administration because the 2012 election is shaping up to be a repeat of the 2010 election.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but these three latest EOs and previous EOs Obama signed, coupled with Perdue's and Orszag's comments, suggest that something besides coincidence is going on.

Dr. Beatty earned a Ph.D. in quantitative management and statistics from Florida State University. He was a (very conservative) professor of quantitative management specializing in using statistics to assist/support decision making. He has been a consultant to many small businesses and is now retired. Dr. Beatty is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 22 years. He blogs at: rwno.limewebs.com.

 

Will Obama Keep Power 'by Any Means Necessary'?

By Stella Paul

Let's go there: if Obama thinks he's losing, will he allow safe and fair elections on November 6? And if he does lose, will he peacefully turn over power to Mitt Romney on January 20, 2013? Or will he cling to power "by any means necessary," as a highly placed insider alleges?

Now, I'm truly sorry to raise such disgusting, un-American, crazy-sounding questions, but, alas, they're not crazy, and I've got a disquieting amount of evidence. The Democrats have already accused Romney of murdering a woman with cancer, financial felonies, and not filing taxes for ten years -- the last charge delivered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Senate floor, on the basis of absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

By Democrat standards, I've got enough proof to put away Obama, et al. for life without parole.

Whatever chicanery Obama and his investors may be contemplating, it will probably unfold against some gargantuan crisis, manufactured or otherwise. So cast your mind back to September 11, 2001, the day of the New York mayoral primary.

In the chaos after the attacks, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was term-limited from running, pleaded that his leadership was essential and that he should be granted an extra three months in office after his term ran out on January 1. Giuliani's unprecedented power-grab was rightfully scorned by his eventual successor, Michael Bloomberg. So what did Bloomberg do when he ran into term limits? He deployed his multi-billion-dollar fortune to manipulate the law and buy himself a quasi-legal third term, claiming that only he had the expertise to handle the 2008 financial crisis.

My point? Politicians a great deal more conventional than Obama have loathed giving up power, and they have used crises and unethical machinations to try to keep it.

Now, let's look at just some of the disturbing evidence that indicates that Obama and his investors are plotting something big:

Super-High-Level Trial Balloons

USA Today reported that on September 27, 2011, Governor Beverly Perdue, Democrat of North Carolina, told a Rotary Club audience, "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover[.] ... You want people who don't worry about the next election." When outrage greeted her suggestion, she retreated to the standard defense: she was just joking. What a kidder!

Meanwhile, that same month, Peter Orszag, Obama's former director of the Office of Management and Budget, published an article in The New Republic titled "Too Much of A Good Thing: Why We Need Less Democracy." In it, he posited that the country was too polarized; hence, "radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic."

Please note that these suggestions to suspend elections and radically reduce democratic control did not come from basement-dwelling bloggers. They came from the governor of the very state in which the Democrats are holding their national convention and from one of Obama's most prominent Cabinet members. Their close timing suggests that these ideas were circulating at the highest levels of the Democrat power elite.

"Whom Does the Government Intend to Shoot?"

That's the question recently posed by retired Major General Jerry Curry in the Daily Caller, in light of horrifying reports that the Social Security Administration is buying 174,000 rounds of hollow-point bullets for distribution to 41 locations in the U.S.

According to Major General Curry, Social Security's ammo spree follows the purchase by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of 46,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition. Will they be shooting fish in a barrel?

Most terrifying of all, Major General Curry reports that the Department of Homeland Security ordered 750 million rounds of hollow-point ammunition in March, then subsequently ordered an additional 750 million rounds, including bullets capable of penetrating walls.

"This is enough ammunition to empty five rounds into the body of every living American citizen," writes Major General Curry, who wonders what plan might require "so many dead Americans."

I strongly suggest that you read Major General Curry's article for yourself, so you can appreciate the full horror of what he describes. After pointing out that Congress has done nothing to investigate these weapon purchases, Major General Curry, a 40-year veteran, concludes with these chilling words:

This is a deadly serious business. I hope I'm wrong, but something smells rotten. And If the Congress isn't going to do its duty and investigate this matter fully, the military will have to protect the Constitution, the nation, and our citizens.

Executive Orders

Obama may not be fond of governing, but he certainly does enjoy issuing executive orders -- 135 so far. As American Thinker's Warren Beatty points out, these little-reported edicts reveal an all-too-predictable pattern: concentrating all national power and resources in Obama's hands, in case of "emergency."

So far, Obama has granted himself the right to control all transportation, including highways, airports, seaports, and railroads, and all modes of communication, storage facilities, electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels, and minerals.

Should you resist any of these emergency measures, rest assured that the U.S. government is now well supplied with bullets.

Openly War-Gaming against American Citizens

A recent issue of the well-respected Small Wars Journal featured an article titled "Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A 'Vision' of the Future." Written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army's University of Foreign Military and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert, the article helpfully game-played, in full operational detail, how the Army would destroy a local Tea Party insurrection.

The authors claim that should Tea Party rebels take over a City Hall, "Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas"; therefore, "the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment."

The brazenness of this scheme for the U.S. military to kill Americans created a small, temporary stir. The Washington Times editorialized, "This is a dark, pessimistic and wrongheaded view of what military leaders should spend their time studying." The Washington Times also noted:

A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The Obama administration contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy. Because there is no disclaimer attached to the Small Wars piece, it is fair to ask, at least in Col. Benson's case, whether his views reflect official policy regarding the use of U.S. military force against American citizens.

Active Partnership with America's Foreign Enemies

Many spectacles have enlivened presidential elections over the years, but 2012 marks the first time that high-level military personnel have felt compelled to publicly tell the president to stop leaking national security secrets.

A group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives created a 22-minute video, "Dishonorable Disclosures," to shame Obama into shutting up about priceless intelligence related to bin Laden's death, British-Saudi penetration of al-Qaeda, and the Israeli-American Stuxnet virus attack on Iran's nuclear program.

Normally, presidents don't want to endanger American citizens and military personnel by leaking top-secret information -- but aiding and abetting the enemy is apparently all in a day's work for Obama.

And so, if he wants to stir up trouble before the election, either at home or abroad, he'll have plenty of enemy partners to help. First, he's got the Russians, to whose president he was caught whispering on a hot mic about missile defense, "This is my last election[.] ... After my election, I have more flexibility."

Second, Obama is this close to the Muslim Brotherhood, who are world-class experts on unleashing political violence. Obama helped the Muslim Brotherhood ascend to power in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya, and he's placed its operatives in the highest levels of the American government. Surely, such clever characters as Huma Abedin, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deputy chief of staff, and Mohamed Elibiary, a Homeland Security Advisory committee member, can be trusted to think up some exciting turmoil to apply where needed.

And finally, close to home, Obama can rely on the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, whom he supplied with thousands of guns. Gratefully, they used their American taxpayer-funded AK-47s to wipe out rival drug gangs and to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Attorney General Eric Holder is presently in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents on Operation Fast and Furious, and Obama ("President Transparency") has claimed executive privilege to withhold them.

Sending hordes of expensively armed drug gang members across our border should be a snap, now that Obama has crippled our Border Patrol. Just think of all the headline-grabbing distractions these energetic young men can unleash!

Active Partnership with Domestic Criminal Groups

When Louis Farrakhan met Ahmadinejad: now there's a romance made in the bowels of hell. Toss in the head of the New Black Panthers and fifty radical imams, and you've got the "Beast Axis" that was forged in a Manhattan hotel on September 27, 2010, according to The Blaze.

New Black Panther Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz boasted on Black Panther Radio that he "stands on solid ideological ground" with "His Excellency, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," who understands "the dynamics and the politics of world revolution."

Apparently, Obama approves of these antics, because his attorney general, Eric Holder, dropped charges against the New Black Panthers, even though they were caught on tape allegedly intimidating Philadelphia voters in the 2008 elections. Naturally, Holder's Department of Justice then lied about its actions, covering up its political motivations.

Holder specifically protected King Samir Shabazz, who now serves as national field marshal for the New Black Panthers. Shabazz spearheads the Panthers' ambitious new plan to "create inner city militaries that would go into nurseries and kill white babies and murder white people in the street."

Let's hope this "inner city military" is not what candidate Obama mysteriously referred to in 2008 when he pledged, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

Imagine, for one monstrous moment, the destructive potential of this burgeoning alliance between the Obama-protected New Black Panthers, Obama's old Chicago associate Louis Farrakhan, and the genocidally obsessed Ahmadinejad. If your blood didn't run cold, you weren't imagining hard enough.

A Tsunami of Voter Fraud

On June 15, 2012, Obama bypassed Congress and issued de facto amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. Suddenly, whole new vistas of voter fraud opened up to the Democrats. Admittedly, they've got to ramp up quickly for November, but this gang should prove up to the challenge.

Helping matters along, Holder is busy suing states that require photo ID to vote and attempting to disenfranchise the military. Together, these well-coordinated efforts should provide Obama with the means to pull off staggering amounts of voter fraud.

"By Any Means Necessary"

If all else fails, Obama and his investors may be prepared to keep power "By Any Means Necessary." This information comes from an uncannily predictive website called The Ulsterman Report. Those who have followed its fascinating interviews over the last couple of years with two anonymous sources, Wall Street Insider and White House Insider, have seen its scoops confirmed again and again.

Well over a year ahead of any other media, The Ulsterman Report was informing readers that Valerie Jarrett ran the White House and that Obama was strangely disengaged from the actual tasks of governing. It predicted the emergence of obscure figures -- Kamala D. Harris, who's now attorney general of California, and her brother-in-law, Tony West, the newly named acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice, who's being groomed as Holder's successor.

Most crucially, shortly after the bin Laden operation, the Ulsterman Report revealed that Valerie Jarrett had canceled three previous bin Laden raids. That information now has been confirmed by Richard Miniter in his book, Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him.

Recently, a source known as Military Insider (MI) met with Ulsterman (UM) at the urging of Wall Street Insider (WSI) to issue a warning. A section of their conversation follows below:

MI: Approximately two years ago...not quite two years ago...I received information pertaining to an election contingency plan. For 2012. After the 2010 elections there were particular operatives...specific to the Obama administration and Democratic Party leadership...indicating an overwhelming need to secure a second term for President Obama. That document's title was...(pauses)

WSI: He can be trusted - I give you my word. Please proceed.

MI: That document's title was "By Any Means Necessary". It was unofficial - but we know it came directly from channels specific to the administration. We confirmed that.

UM: What channels? Who are you talking about?

MI: We believe it to have been authored by Mr. Sunstein. Reviewed and approved by Valerie Jarrett. Preparations for implementation are being done in part by Mr. Leo Gerard coordinating with...with high ranking officials within the Department of Justice, Homeland Security...and...the U.S. military.

We could dismiss the anonymous Military Insider's warning as overheated, unsourced hysteria. Or we could examine it as one more piece of evidence to place alongside all the evidence I've described above.

The greatest asset of Obama and his investors has been their warp-speed audacity. We're too stunned to believe what's happening in front of our eyes, and too embarrassed to mention it. Who wants to speak up and be ridiculed as an unhinged paranoid, marching with the tinfoil hat brigade?

But our best bet -- perhaps our only bet -- is to frankly confront this ugly reality. As Iran prepares to go nuclear and the global economy teeters, any number of "national emergencies" can suddenly erupt, demanding unprecedented measures by Obama to "save" us. We must be prepared with skepticism, outrage, and defiance of any actions to deprive us of our Constitutional rights.

America remains the last best hope on earth. And We the People must keep our power, by any means necessary.

correction: erroneous link to executive orders removed

correction: reference to work brigades and relocation centers removed

correction: number of executive orders issued by Obama changed to 135

Write Stella Paul at stellapundit@aol.com.

What are you gonna do if California goes under?

       First let me define going under. The State government can't pay its bills, loans don't cover the difference (or are denied), and the citizens vote to not raise taxes enough to pay the bills, including the debt interest payments, both now and in the future.

            For the record, I used to live in southern California, and moved out because I could see it coming, that is probable default.

            Never the less, if and when California state government goes under, the whole thing will probably drag the rest of us down, like affect our lives adversely.

            So, if this all comes to pass, what you gonna do to protect your Family wherever you live?

            One thing I read about is having the federal USA government step in to finance the deficit to protect the nation. Fine, but are you willing to work longer to pay more federal taxes just to finance the California way of life they have chosen?

            The dilemma to me in Tennessee is to bite the bullet now, and get it over with, as painful as that might be to me; or Plan B is just to try muddle through. Let my fellow American voting citizens who live in California suffer or gain by their own fate is my opinion.

            For me I was tripped off by a proposed million dollar fish ladder at Malibu Beach to help fish migrate into a creek that was a periodic wet-dry stream. Now I am not willing to pay for that from Tennessee. Maybe you are where you live, or are willing to pay for that with borrowed money you and your descendents will pay for. I say no, like, it's time to bite the bullet, now.

Dual Use

      Some of us think this way routinely.

            Here are some obvious examples:

                        Long term vice short term.  An example is the food we eat, shelf lives, storage ideas, and mostly I have to ultimately eat it; and whether it is now or later just depends on the circumstances. Otherwise I am wasting my money, especially if food goes bad.

                        A foxhole is basically a hole dug in the earth, but it can be both a military type position, and a kids play hole; and should be set up for both if one even digs such hole.

                        Manual widgets that work whether we have electricity or not obviously work in both cases.

                        Medicine. We can use it short term and long term. Storage is important for the long term. I have learned that the stated sell or use by dates in the USA can often reasonably be extended for most over the counter and prescription drugs.

                        Financial plans can have both long term and short term objectives. One example is the type of timber contract a Plantation I used to work at favored it after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and I and many others reaped the benefits half a century later.  All the decision makers back then were deceased at the time, that is the half century later time, but all the descendents and other people like me benefited from their dual use plan.

                        Manual tools can be used whether we have electricity and fuel, or not.

                        Pet dogs are good companions, but also can be good guard dogs, too. And food for them can feed us first, with leftovers going to them rather than the garbage, within reason of course. And today's dog food can feed them, and humans if need be if times get hard. Even Lewis and Clark ate horse meat when they had it, during hard times.

                        Clothes bought for use, vice fads, can be used to keep warm both in the near term, and the far term; and by one or more.

Well the examples could go on and on, but the idea of dual use appears to be timeless, at least to me.

It's probably predictable

      Well, if you buy the idea of rehearsing things if you have the time, then follow on.

            Talk about a jack of all trades and master of none. That's my case.

            In this post, I was taught many times to rehearse things, since that gives me an advantage. Yep, I had to be taught this idea since it was not part of my upbringing or natural born knowledge.

            And my Grandmother (my mother's mother) was a good cook, and taught me a lot, but in my case not about bread making.

            Now in this post I was making bread, and in this rehearsal,  using barley flour and an electric bread maker.

            And I failed. By that I mean I ate some of the unleavened bread product, but "shared" the rest of it with my local dogs, who scarfed it just fine. Yep, I do like leavened bread more than I thought.

            So my lesson learned was this:

                        1) Sometimes one should follow the directions, like the recipe in this case. I had just winged it using ideas, and that failed, in my opinion.

                        2)  The amount of liquid in the mix is crucial, and in my rehearsal, I just screwed that part up, like had too much.

            Last, in my past I have used store bought bread mix and scrupulously followed the directions, and done OK using my electric bread maker. By OK, I mean I ate it all, and did not share with the local dogs.

            So I will lick my wounds like a local yard dog, and try again in the near future.

            Hope springs eternal.

Solar and wind energy on a budget

      Where I live it is called a clothes line.

            It is probably healthier to use than a clothes dryer, and thriftier, too.

            Every house used to have one. Some still do, I think.

            Now there is no free lunch, like even a clothes line is not perfect, like suppose it is cloudy and rainy or birds poop on it or it is the winter. No wonder clothes dryers are so popular.

            But, again, where I live in east Tennessee, I put one back in, and intend to use it, too. My latitude is 36 degrees north, by the way.

            And I don't expect to pick up all the dirt my wet clothes gathered when drying in the Saudi desert. At least my hand washed clothes, then, smelled better; though when everyone stinks together we humans usually don't notice it as quickly, or at all.

            Nothing like the old time idea of a bath every so often, whether we need one or not. And along the way baby wipes or a water wipe (even a pond swim should count) often come in handy, too. And the sex usually takes care of itself, like normal.

How does a collapse happen?

      Usually quickly, and usually unpredictably.

            The best analogy is that of the breach of a dam. It usually starts with rivulets, and ends up with a breach, like a wash out. And in this analogy, all the critters who depend on the dam and the status quo it has provided will suffer, including death.

            And nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to do a bad job, including  building a bad dam. But it does happen, like bad dams are built.

            And if it happens in the new world USA, it will probably be like the dam breach analogy.

            Already, to me, there are so many examples of rivulets already happening, that I am now hedging my bets, like even making my own electricity, and preparing for some kind of ensuing pandemic. What a shame I can even think or worry this way.

            After all, mission first, and the mission is to preserve my Family as best I can.

            And maybe I am overreacting to change, including the pace of change. But I spent a career exploiting change, so I don't think this idea applies to me, at least, very well.

            Now I also don't want to be a serf or vassal in the European old time terms, nor do I want just to be a bread basket for the rest of the World. Nor do I want to reenter the Dark Ages, and recover from that level.

            Rather, I want to just go forward in a way that benefits my Family here in the new world USA.

            And maybe it has fallen upon my generation to make this happen?  It will take a lot of work to change things, if this comes to pass. But if I can make electricity where I live, you can make our future where you live, too.

            Last, one can suggest there are better ways to be ruled than what we have in the new world USA today.  They have a point. But, I also think we the people have other choices, like the vote, and an educated proletariat. Now that is an idea we need to work at, in my opinion.

            I'm no anarchist. Now if I have a bitch, then I better offer a solution to fix whatever I am complaining about.  That's a moral obligation, to me.

            Nobody said resurrecting after a dam breach will be easy. It's not.

            And, of course, many fellow Americans don't think well of dams these days, nor my analogy. So be it. And I wish them well in life. But there are so many more who need to be supported, and I also wish them well in life.

            By the way, where I live, the water that makes my electricity will go down the mountain anyway, so why not harvest the energy from its fall before the same water still goes down the mountain as it has for thousands of years.

            Of course this idea takes the most basic education to understand, and we in the new world USA have been dumbing down our children for decades, plus living off the hard work our ancestors who did just infrastructure establisment work, to including their taxes paid . Now that may be part of the breach of the dam analogy, and implies just how long it will take to correct.  But one does have to start somewhere.

Mosquito stuff

Take care of your Family and yourself, as best you can.

I have the advantage of being so old I can remember when worrying about mosquito delivered diseases was a big deal where I lived.

Even when we lived at Cherry Point, NC (late 40’s timeframe) , the periodic mosquito fogging truck came through the neighborhood, and all the kids, including me (maybe pre-kindergarten), just ran behind it kinda dancing. I still don’t know what I was sucking in, but it was fun.

And during my time at Groton Plantation (1990’s), I note we had dug around 65 miles of drainage ditches in the recent century past (over 23,00 acres and from my GIS work), mostly to drain wetlands that bred mosquitos and ensuing malaria, often now thought of as a third world disease. Later, when we had dams washed out in this Low Country, the government policy (federal and SC state) had changed so it was 100% in favor of wetlands, including restoration. Now 3 to 4% of my Plantation income budget came from the government, so that was a big deal, to me.

And I read before TVA came into Tennessee where I now live, malaria was still a big deal in river Tennessee areas, like a big problem (maybe 80 years ago).

Last, after hurricane Katrina, a lot of mosquitoes got blown up here, mostly along the Mississippi River basin area; and sure enough, even the West Nile Virus disease reports went up big time, including where I live. We had a lot of downed dead birds here as an example of this non-scientific report.

So there are a few things you can do today.

1) Drain/dry out any wetland type things around where you live, including bird baths.

2) Buy some cheap oil and put a little of it into wetland type areas near where you live, like leave an oil sheen on top of the water.

3) Consider drugs. There are preventives for malaria, but still no known cure once one gets it. I, as an example, have taken preventives just so I did not get malaria (like in the Philippines) , and never did. By the way, malaria may not kill you, though it may; but it will sure make you sick, and come back at unpredictable times. If you know someone like this, then they can tell you better than I can. And if you have to take care of someone with malaria, that is not fun.

4) Keep your Family healthy, as best you can. Our best human defense is our own bodies, both preventive, and often even corrective.

If civilization collapses

      Then it has fallen upon us to restore it.

            In our own way, and where you live, of course.

The collapse of an American culture

Now I personally thought it would happen in the future, like after I am dead from old age. Now I am beginning to wonder if it might be sooner.

Now all of us humans know about all the doom and gloom usual forecasts, often religious, and often based on even cosmic events. Basically End of the World stuff.

But in the same vein, even in the USA during their time, many ancestors could perceive a war coming, and even the Naval Academy graduated a class of 1941 early just to get them ready. Well fast forward to today's times, and apparently many others are worse casing things, too. Like Federal warnings to banks, the USA Federal government buying a lot of ammo and other crowd control stuff, and even updates to military doctrine about domestic work. That list could go on and on... Even the President issued new updates to Executive Orders on this subject in March, June, and July. And even I, lowly I, have begun stockpiling and doing other similar things in the recent past, like even making some local electricity.

What seems a shame is that so many presently alive are now going to have to die to get peoples' attention. This is kind of like the military idea of knowing how wasteful war is when one has been through it, and lived. Yet it may happen, even in the new world USA. Here it may be called a Revolution, or a Civil War, but whatever; I even don't want to have to go through road blocks and pay bribes (sometimes called taxes). Heck, even I at age 64 may go under, too, like die. Now I will even update my tetanus shot in the near future, just in case, and as an example.

I think many of my fellow Americans may ignorantly choose this route of self-destruction, like bringing their death upon themselves and their Family, though nobody would knowingly do this. That is most likely do to our leaders leading some poorly educated serfs, or vassals if you will. So in this culture collapse idea, the seeds of poor education have been sewn decades ago, brewed over decades, and now we get to reap the lack of benefits, like poorly educated voters. There was a time, by the way, when educating our children had a higher priority.

Now I may have to relearn how to live off the land, which is difficult at best, like not my strong suite. My assumption is that I will be pretty bad at it, but being a Marine, I will persevere, best I can. I will survive, as will my Family, barely, of course, and painfully I am sure. I have a square mile of land to work with.

Last, I listen to a visiting 20's something friend who still supports and believes in all this present status quo stuff, or so he tells me. He is just the kind of person who will benefit in the end by being cold and hungry, if he even lives. I figure he has screwed up his life enough, but I still refuse to let him screw up my life with his ideas, and his vote.

My point is that the time for political debating is well over, like for the last recent past. It's (the change) is already happening in front of us. Now is the time for human culture change (already happening), all for the better, again. Thank goodness our children will figure it out since it affects them a lot, and they will change things better, I hope. Said another way, perhaps our present adult USA citizens will not do as well, like many may die, including me.

And I hope we don't have to lop off some heads, like what happened in the French Revolution. And I hope we have future smarter leaders (both elected and appointed) to handle the coming problems. Think Naval Academy Class of 1941 as an example.

Only time will tell how quickly, or slowly, it happens.

Right now I am hopeful; even as many people will die along the way.

What a waste of fine people.

It ain't me, babe!

      We may be seeing and hearing the last hurrah of the two national parties of the last 100 years in the new world USA.  They and many pundits don't see it or know it, I also think. By 2020 they should be minor parties on the way to oblivion, kind of like the Whig Party, as an example.

            The times they are a changin'!  Now times are always changing, but it sure seems to be going at a faster pace these days. Even where I live many people wish we had another choice. Yep, people have hope for change, and the "movement" has already begun to make it happen...it just takes time to manifest itself, in my opinion. I just hope it doesn't take a revolution to make it happen.  I, myself, have been through road blocks, and having a pistol in my lap to help get through it is not the way to go in the new world USA. Maybe in the third world, but certainly not here. Nor does lopping off the heads of the king and queen like happened in the French Revolution appeal to me.

            Now anybody can complain, but a leader then offers solutions, usually up to three, for his or her leader to pick from. There might even be a recommended solution.  Venting for emotional relief is of little value to any leader who usually seeks to know the problems, and the proposed solutions. Recently I suggested to my idealistic young friend that he should go down to join the local hippy settlement near here, but I suspect that he would rather just bitch, than actually do hippy work to keep from being cold and hungry. I myself think a good dose of cold and hungry will help in his future life.

            Anyway, if he is the face of the political future, then I hope to die before he can screw up my life, having already screwed up his life so far. For example, he is more casual about other people's deaths that I ever was. So again, the times they are a changin', and it affects all of us, old and young.

            So my sales pitch is to do what you can where you live, offer solutions for change where you live, if you are a leader consider these solutions, and watch the times change. Yep, it ain't me babe...it's you.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Here's more on this post, including the author John McCrae:  http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

On the nature of we humans

       What got my attention was an email this morning.  It was by a fellow who is in his 20's. Here it is:
                   I am bringing back true hippietism. Screw the modern hippie/hipster and the modern liberal. Screw the conservative and the ones that want to regualte (his mispelling)  your bedroom. Let the individual be the individual. This is not communism, this is toleration.

            Now I enjoy the company of this single friend, who I also think of as an idealistic drifter, and somewhat lazy to boot. He has expressed that he should be admired for just going to work. But he is also idealistically motivated, which appeals to me.

            And as luck would have it, there is one of two big USA hippy communes less than 100 miles from here in Tennessee (the other I think is in California). So if he even asks my opinion, I will suggest he move down there, where he will probably get a good dose of reality about we humans, including his need to work.  It's August now, so the winter is coming, and let's see how being cold and hungry affects him and his idealism. In my case, thanks to the USMC, I have been cold and hungry, and I did not enjoy the experience.

            Now my admiration for his idealism is balanced by my own questioning about what is "true hippieism"?  After all, I experienced it firsthand (my experience), while all he has done is read about it, and feel it in his heart and gut, and maybe his brain.

            That's why this post is entitled about human nature. In my case, I am torn both ways.

            After all, any unsolicited advice from me as a friend will most likely be blown off.  That's what I would do. In the same vein, that's what a parent is supposed to do, like provide unsolicited advice or requirements to their children, like a curfew time.  That idea is about human nature, too. And even the Amish lifestyle is starting to appeal to me, too.

            And on USA human culture, because I am a Marine I am supposed to be some kind of neo-reactionary, conservative pig, which I have to accept reluctantly, since it is not correct about me.

            Last, and still on the idea of human nature, is my question about what does he think is "true".  My guess is it is his sincere opinion, but I don't really know for sure, and have asked about this with no response so far.

Picking & Canning Green Beans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KApMaw1qEDM&feature=related

Enjoy.

This flic might be made near where I live in east Tennessee. But the idea is all over.

The New World USA Defense Budget

       In the bloated idea of a new world USA defense budget, I rest my case. We tend to make the best and most expensive solution, albeit in smaller and smaller numbers.

            Yet, in fairness, some of the research does pan out to our benefit, like our National Defense, like enhancing it.

            Now numbers count, too, like swarm theory ideas. But I also trust the geeks who work so hard to come up with ideas that they develop for our benefit. Last, I think I know about the abuse that goes on, like scientists and even engineers who milk the system for their Family's benefit, vice our National' benefit. Heck, they've got to make a living, too.

            Now the obvious, to me, example, is one of lining up 100 tanks against 100 shooters. Just how do we make sure we shoot at all 100 tanks, vice a lesser number, like all aim at one tank.

            That's the kind of idea from WWII that spawned the idea of operations analysis.  And it worked back then, and it can work today, if we want it to work to our benefit.

            So if times get hard, and they are already here, perhaps we can still have a pretty good National defense, perhaps even better than what we have today,  and on a smaller budget.

            Of course, only time will tell. And we will have to give up some defense stuff, too. But in the same vein, we can grow our own gardens, in WWII called Victory Gardens, that raised up to 40% of our vegetables. Yep, our fate is still in our hands.

            Especially time will tell how we sort things out, and most especially if we get into a real war, like people dying, airplanes going down, ships getting sunk, ground soldiers dying, etc. We new world USA people are a tough and savvy breed, by the way.

            Last, just what a shame it may happen, like a real big war, but that in the end is a voter and political decision to allow it; like let our present  politicians start it, and let our probably new politicians end it.

Garden Song
(Dave Mallet)

Inch by inch, row by row,
Gonna make this garden grow,
All it takes is a rake and a hoe,
And a piece of fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row,
Someone bless these seeds I sow,
Someone warm them from below,
'Till the rain comes tumblin' down.

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones,
Man is made of dreams and bones,
Feel the need to grow my own,
'Cause the time is close at hand.

Grain for grain, sun and rain,
Find my way in Nature's chain,
Tune my body and my brain
To the music from the land.

Plant your rows straight and long,
Temper them with prayer and song,
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her loving care.

An old crow watching hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree,
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there.

Copyright David Mallett

By the way, even John Denver, and Peter, Paul, and Mary, recorded this song.

Just what is life?

    Warning...this is a kind of geeky article from a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech.

            What set me off was two things. One is the present Mars landing coming due, which will look for life like on the earth, which means like us earth people, which means carbon based, and needing some water.  All in all, this is a big bucks USA operation suffering from assumptions, in my opinion. The second was a book I read around two decades ago by some English fellows, and in my mind they changed the definition of life from earthly things to the ability to reproduce, by whatever means. They offered other means to reproduce than carbon and water, like we have on the earth.

            The obvious example, to me, are the life forms around the thermal vents under the ocean and on the earth. That kind of life gets its energy from other than the sun, and its nutrients, too, like to reproduce and replicate. Who knows what goes on at Titan, for example? The answer is nobody knows.

             Think of a big successful chemistry experiment.

            No wonder other life forms, call them aliens, have such captivating appearances that infatuate so many human movie viewers. And who knows, those who create aliens might be close. Anyway, other people obviously think about this, too. As for me, I enjoy the Alien movie series, especially the imaginations of those humans who constructed the aliens and the sets. Even Predator catches my attention, where the alien was, an alien.

            Last, my intent is to suggest not all life is carbon based, and needing water. If one buys that assumption, perhaps we can advance, and defend, our earth selves better!

            One more last. While other life forms on  the earth, maybe even aliens, may be smart with good technology, don't discount we humans, too. We are smart, with good technology, too.

            That's what bothers me about a lot of the UFO types, like if they can't explain things, then it must be another life form, like an alien. This person suggests don't discount we humans of all ages and technologies, who are a smart and savvy life form, too.

            So back to the basic question...just what is life?

Do you remember?

      I was born in 1948 to give perspective to this post. Monterey and the Hemlocks is in east Tennessee in Putnam County, all USA.  My father, "Dad", died in 2002 at age 84. His ashes are in Verble Hollow here, locally.

            Most homes in my time had an outdoor clothes line.

            I’ll be putting one in soon at the Hemlocks (weather determined time) just to say we have one, too.

            Most young people don’t know what they are, I think.

            Even at Monterey I have not seen any outdoor clothes lines these days.

            Now Dad had one up, but it was made from detonating cord I assume he had scrounged, and which I objected to, and I took it down.

            Part of my past is knowing what det cord is, and what it looks like. Bummer these days.

Screwing our kids over

    You ain't seen nothing yet.

            The basic premise is pretty easy.  Like educate our children to be good workers and citizens, and along the way have self-respect and happy Families.  This is a cultural problem, to me, if we fail to do our adult responsibilities to our kids.

            And if fairness, many places are doing a good job at educating their children, and good on 'em for it.

            But in the same vein, here's two written practical consequences by Victor Davis Hansen:

                        The public schools were once the key to California’s ascendance. Universal education turned out well-prepared citizens who were responsible for California’s rosy future — one based on an excellent tripartite higher education system of junior colleges, state colleges, and universities; sophisticated dams and irrigation systems; and a network of modern freeways and roads. In the private sphere, the culture of shame still prevailed, at least in the sense that no one wanted his 16-year-old son identified in the papers (with his home address no less) as arrested for breaking and entering. And such crime was rare. Rural California was a checkerboard of 40- and 80-acre farms, with families that were viable economic units and with children who worked until dark after school. It is hard to steal when you must disc ten acres after baseball practice.

I think it is a fair assessment to say that all of the above is long past. Since about 1992, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing, California ranks between 41 and 48 in math and science, depending on the year and the particular grade that is assessed. About half of the incoming freshmen at the California State University system — the largest public university in the world — are not qualified to take college courses, and must first complete “remediation” to attain a level of competence that was assumed forty years ago in the senior year of high school. The students I taught at CSU Fresno were far better prepared in 1984 than those in 2004 were; the more money, administrators, “learning centers,” and counselors, the worse became the class work.

I finally threw out my old syllabi last month: the 1985 Greek Literature in Translation course at CSU Fresno seemed to read like a Harvard class in comparison to my 2003 version with half the reading, half the writing, and all sorts of directions on how to make up missed work and flunked exams. It wasn’t just that I lost my standards, but that I lost my students who could read.

                Here's a second practical example of what is coming, or may be here right now, depending on where you live:

                                Does any of that matter? Well, yes. Those who are not educated soon inherit the reins of public responsibility. In practical terms, the symptoms are everywhere. I now expect that my county property tax returns will have common errors, from the spelling of my name or address to the particular acreage assessed.

When entering the bank, I expect people not just to not speak English, but occasionally not to write any language, and thus put a mark down, in Old West fashion, to cash their checks.

When I deal with a public agency, I assume the person on the opposite end of the counter or phone will not to be able to transact the requested service, or at least not be able to transact any other service other than the narrow one trained for. Calling any public agency is to receive a recording and then an incoherent order to press numerous buttons that lead to more recordings. Woe to the poor fool who walks into a Department of Motor Vehicles office on an average day, seeking to obtain a copy of his pink slip or find a registration form. The response is “get a number,” “make an appointment,” “get in line,” “wait,” or “see a supervisor.” 

                Well, the obvious answer to me is to vote for school board people who will advance our children for our common good, as well as these children's future self-respect and happiness.

Michael Malone: A Century of Eagle Scouts

The Eagles' service project is the single greatest youth-service initiative in history, and one that has touched every community in America in an important way.

One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank. Eldred, tall, quiet and with a shock of dark hair, had joined scouting largely at the behest of his widowed mother, who hoped it would give some structure to his life. Yet as Eagle Scouts would continue to do throughout the next century, Eldred caught the scouting world by surprise. He was the first of an extraordinary new cohort of young men who were to prove very different from the classic 13-year-old Boy Scout in short pants.

Eldred's initial accomplishment was to complete the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout only six months after that supreme award in American scouting was announced in April 1912. The leaders of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), assuming it would take several years for any boy to earn the required 21 merit badges, hadn't yet devised a final review system for Eagle candidates; they hadn't even settled on a design for the medal.

Unsure how to proceed after Eldred qualified for all the badges, the BSA ordered him to come down to its headquarters in Manhattan and put him through what had to be the most intimidating board of review in scouting history—led by the BSA's founders themselves. Eldred apparently passed with ease. And then, as an indication of what kind of remarkable person scouting would now have, while awaiting his award that summer Eldred saved two of his fellow Scouts from drowning.

Out of the more than 115 million boys who have passed through the Boy Scouts of America in the last 102 years, approximately two million have become Eagle Scouts, a 2% rate that has climbed to about 4% of all scouts in recent years. Some may have excelled in outdoor challenges and troop leadership, or while earning merit badges for oceanography and entrepreneurship. Yet all have been changed by the experience of what has been come to be called "the Ph.D. of Boyhood." And these Eagles in turn have changed the face of American culture in ways both obvious and unexpected.

Many went on to notable careers and distinguished service to the country. The list of famous Eagles over the last century includes movie and television stars, six Medal of Honor recipients, Nobel Prize winners, novelists, a number of astronauts (including most Shuttle astronauts), Tuskegee airmen and Japanese-American internees, congressmen, senators and governors, an endless number of corporate CEOs and university presidents, a U.S. president (Gerald Ford), and the first man to walk on the moon (Neil Armstrong). But there are other, perhaps less obvious, Eagles as well: sexologist Alfred Kinsley, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Washington's disgraced ex-mayor Marion Barry.

Two summers ago, during the BSA centennial parade in Washington, D.C., the adult Eagle contingent of official marchers featured a diplomat, a journalist, military officers, a bomb-demolition expert, doctors and a department-store Santa Claus. Despite what you might think, America's Eagles are spread across the political spectrum. They include individuals across all races (scouting was officially integrated from the start) who hold beliefs as diverse as other Americans. What they have in common is that they chose a life of achievement and assumed leadership roles at a very young age.

Scouting as a whole has regularly (and falsely) suffered the indignities of various stereotypes: the ardent escorts of little old ladies crossing the street, the secret paramilitary militia, the synecdoche of all things reactionary.

Yet the image of Eagle Scouts has only risen over the decades in American life and culture—Indiana Jones, like Steven Spielberg, is an Eagle Scout, and so is Will Smith's character in "Men in Black." It is as close to a gold standard of youth as we have, which is why it is regularly noted in the obituaries of octogenarians alongside a lifetime list of other achievements.

And that reputation is deserved. A recent Gallup survey (for Baylor University) of Eagle Scouts, former Boy Scouts and men who never joined scouting found that America's Eagles are far more engaged with the world around them in almost every way—in community service, club membership, churchgoing, outdoor recreation, and the fields of education and health.

Eagle Scouting's biggest contribution to American life is the one most recognized: the service project, the "dissertation" of the boyhood Ph.D. Since the mid-1960s, all Eagle candidates are required, beyond earning the traditional 21 merit badges, to devise, plan, execute and manage a community-service project.

Most of these projects are small: a new bench at the park, painting a school building, collecting blankets for a homeless shelter. But some are hugely ambitious: restoring wetlands, building a library in Africa or a playground at a Russian orphanage, creating an artificial reef—and they consume thousands of hours.

You cannot read a small-town newspaper in America without running across the story of an Eagle service project at least once a month. But it was only recently that the National Eagle Scout Association decided to look beyond the anecdotal and tally up all of the Eagle service projects ever done. It came to the jaw-dropping total of more than 100 million hours of service. Eagle Scouts are adding more than three million more hours each year.

Those numbers likely make the Eagle Scout service project the single greatest youth service initiative in history, and one that has touched every community in America in an important way.

Mr. Malone, a veteran journalist and Eagle Scout, is the author of a new history of Eagle Scouting, "Four Percent" (WindRush Publishing, 2012).