Rebuilding Capitalism?

Not only am I about to immediately renege on my suggesting viewing material in the summertime, but I am going to ask people to watch a Fox presentation. On the upside, the video is only a little over 10 minutes long. It also happens to be one of the most disturbing 10 minute periods that I can recall. Please please please have a watch and then, hopefully, come back for some thought sharing.



Now, one of my first thoughts was, "this host sure seems to be calling people (including himself) stupid, selfish and/or lazy a lot". Really though, coming from Fox, this kind of commentary is hardly surprising.

What was far more worrisome was the way in which Steve Brant, who I have this annoying urge to call Stuttering Creepy Android Guy (or SCAG), seemed to be suggesting that next year the UN will be hosting a gathering of some multinational corporations and NGO's. Since these entities claim to be dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility, we seem to be expected to accept that they will design a system of balance which will lead to an eternal period of prosperity for all life on the planet. It isn't hard to imagine that the UN will be presented as the new world authority providing or coordinating the physical muscle needed to enforce this new system of "balance".

Does anyone else think that this sounds like an awful lot like global technocratic fascism?

IOUSA or Being a Grasshopper, Not An Ant

Summer is hardly the right time to be offering up video suggestions but here's another doozy. IOUSA is a 2008 documentary that offers a very sobering look at yet another massive and darkening cloud on the horizon, the US national debt and government commitments to INCREASING spending significantly, the $50 Trillion kind of significantly. The numbers are so huge as to be barely fathomable...and they're growing...fast.



As a Canadian, I am worried about this for two reasons. First of all, as much as I feel this situation is a bit deserved due to lack of public responsibility, I wouldn't wish what is coming on anyone (except perhaps for a few of the central drivers of this situation). Second, when the US cannot borrow any more money to buy food or water or energy, Canada is likely to be consumed, or ripped apart in the dogfight between the US and China. It just doesn't look good for we Canucks, beyond perhaps a couple of relatively easy years of resource profit.

I know I have oversimplified these reasons for concern (as well as ignoring Canada's own not-insignificant national debt situation), but hopefully my point comes across anyway.

May we wake up to the necessity for balance before it is too late.

Seeds of Tyranny

I may have suggested watching this important documentary before but it is worth mentioning more than once.

"Controlling Our Food" or "The World According to Monsanto" is the best Monsanto documentary I have seen so far. Anyone who is invested in funds containing Monsanto stock, or who is not aware of transgenics, or who might be in favor of it, really ought to give this a watch. Hell, everyone ought to give it a watch. Twice even.

Max Keiser

Max Keiser is the new Ron Paul...only much more cool. I think he should return to the US and run for VP next to Gerald Celente.



I highly recommend checking out his website on a regular basis:

http://maxkeiser.com/

Vermiculture Update

It might sound a little odd but I just love my bin of red manure worms. I always end up with a silly grin on my face after digging around in there. I was almost embarrassingly excited when I first noticed cocoons. Cocoons means that plenty of happy worm sex has been happening and that baby worms are on their way, to the tune of 1-5 per cocoon.

About two months into the process we got a few days of rain which kept me off the farm and kicking around home. Since I had been wondering whether my worm population was holding stable, or even increasing, I decided to pull the box apart, count all the worms, and repack the box.

I likely missed a worm here or there (although I may have had the odd cocoon already release its baby worms, which I would have missed) but I ended up with around 160 worms, which is a few more than I had started with. Of greater importance though, most of these worms were significantly larger and thicker than any I had bought from the Canadian Tire bait section. Here is the lot, all in a bunch:


After all the composting materials and the worms were put back into the box, a new top layer of cardboard bedding was added and moistened with a spray bottle. I then chopped up a nice macintosh apple and put it in as a nice treat for the happily breeding buggers. Subsequent searches had led to discovering a large number of cocoons. Not only that, but I am now discovering many broken open cocoons and a large number of baby worms.

Within a month or two, this should be one VERY active compost box. When I started, one of the things I wondered was how I could tell the difference between the dry cow manure that has been added and the worm castings. Well it turns out to not be such a difficult thing to do...the castings really do look just like little turds. The castings are already beginning to pile up and I have some plants already looking forward to them!

Until next time, brothers and sisters, be good to each other.

Heavenly Oddity

So, this was the sky over the farm last week:



Now I know, mentioning the word chemtrails can get a person labeled a conspiracy nut pretty fast, even these days...which is part of why I remain semi-anonymous in my blogging. But chemtrail or contrail, this is crazy.

I first noticed this on a clear evening last summer as I was clearing out barns. It is kind of a monotonous job so I find myself pausing for a breath and to look around quite often. In looking up I noticed that the sky had several parallel trails running the entire length of the sky, and two or three that ran perpendicular. I had heard of chemtrails before but this was the first time that I looked up and thought, what the f*ck is that?

I have noticed this again this summer, quite often, on the many clear evenings we've had. So last week, I had thought to take my camera with me and I'm glad I did; the sky overhead had as many as 11 different trails, all parallel, across it. They all remained in the air for hours, leisurely spreading out and eventually forming a very light cloud cover. From the trail that went directly overhead, I could see a dark something falling from the trail to the ground. If the sun wasn't behind me I doubt I would have been able to see it. I should also mention that there were a few planes flying much higher as well, in no real order like the planes which left the parallel trails, which left the type of contrails I remember as a kid...the kind that dissipate after a few moments.

So I dunno, seems pretty odd to me...and I'd reeeally like to know what the dark falling stuff was.

Like a Rolling Stone

Surprisingly enough, Rolling Stone manages to come up with some sincerely important reporting.

In the months following 9/11, Rolling Stone was the first widely distributed publication (that I was aware of) to print an article detailing the Bush/Bin Laden family connections. I am sure there have been other important articles since then, but I would say the recent article by Matt Taibbi, "The Great American Bubble Machine", has to be one of their most important.

I HIGHLY suggest checking out the link and giving this notion a good, long, hard think.

The Grande Prairie Brand

I don't read the local paper, the Daily Herald Tribune, as much as I likely should. I get my distant news online and I miss out on too much local news by focusing too far abroad, other than when I am driving with the radio on. But yesterday I happened to notice an article on the front page that drew my eye and led to much cursing. It seems that Grande Prairie is spending $36,000 on a consultant who will help us choose a "brand".

I see this as yet another frustrating example of dedication to a consumptive, constant growth paradigm. Between 1995 and 2005, Grande Prairie was one of the fastest growing cities in the world, thanks to a booming energy industry. As the system finally started to implode, growth here also started to wane. Unemployment is an issue locally for the first time in around 30 years and instead of realizing that our recent growth was unsustainable and irresponsible, the City seems to be trying to work hard to return to the expansion days. It seems to me that much of the population here will happily go along with these efforts, oblivious to the fact that the old ways were incredibly flawed.

Reality is just too hard I guess.