Recent Blog Posts: Tehachapi News

Another question from the "newbie"

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:44:11 PDT

Does anyone know where I might purchase local honey? I tried Apple Shed and then looked at the vendors as the Mountain Festival yesterday and so far have found none. Hmmm, maybe I should look at Farmers Market?

I need it to be honey from here in the Tehachapi area. There is a school of thought that consuming honey made where you live helps seasonal allergies to be less severe. It makes sense to me because bees make honey using pollen and exposing yourself to local pollen in small amounts helps build immunities. The same principle as getting allergy shots, I guess. I don't know if it works or not but I am willing to try. My allergies have in INSANE this summer so I am looking for help. I've been using all the standard stuff, antihistamines, decongestants and allergy eye drops. Thank goodness for allergy eye drops or I would never be able to go out in public, my eyes are a thing behold, and not in a good way! I never had allergies until we moved to the high desert. I was hoping that when we moved up here they would get better. But of course...they got worse! Oh well...we love living here so I will just have to cope. No use whining...

I goggled "Tehachapi Honey", kind of giggled then cringed as I waited to see what came up. All I got was a pre-school and the Apple Shed but my visit to Apple Shed came up empty.

Thanks once more for any info.

Oh...update on the critter situation. My son heard heard the young lady next door yelling for her brother because there was something in the backyard. We have not gotten to speak with them yet to find out what is was...I'm just dying to know. But, now we know that there is definitely something prowling around.

past due amount: $462,345.59

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:49:59 PDT

Thought I'd pass this along. I am soo glad I didn't get one of those bills.........I would have probably had a heart attack!

www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/524701.html

The Weedpatch Gazette

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:18:04 PDT

Bang! You’re dead! Ah, to go back to the innocent days of childhood when Cops and Robbers was a favorite game amongst us children. At that when I was a boy we were far more interested in shooting marbles than we were each other. Come to think of it, I don’t recall that children shooting each other was some rite of passage back in those really, really old days of my childhood in Kern County. Toy stores were filled with cap guns of every description when I was a boy and I had several, and there were G-Man kits with badge, handcuffs, and fingerprint powder so kids could identify with Dick Tracy and Gangbusters and our motto was Crime does not pay! My oh my, how the times have changed.

One of the truly big events of my childhood was earning my genuine Daisy Red Ryder Carbine by selling Cloverine Salve and garden seed door-to-door, and my cap guns were all but abandoned thereafter. Once I had that childhood dream of every boy my age in my hands I then actually belonged among the Riders of the Purple Sage and could shoot it out with the bad guys alongside Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, and Hopalong Cassidy, though the best I could really do at the time in place of the real thing was to walk out into the alkali and sagebrush fields surrounding Little Oklahoma in Southeast Bakersfield and plink stinkbugs and grasshoppers. Nevertheless, in my imagination so long as I was carrying that Red Ryder Carbine, cocking, aiming and shooting it I was transported to that mystical world, that special and all too soon to pass domain of fantasy and make believe belonging to childhood, in which so many other children like me dwelled.

However, making the transition from childhood to real guns designed to kill has a very long tradition in America. From the time of colonization on our history as a nation has been steeped in bloodshed and even Henry Thoreau recommended boys should shoulder a fowling piece and learn to shoot. Our Founding Fathers recognized the liberty of our nation could only be maintained by an armed citizenry prepared to do battle against any tyranny of government, which was the basis of our Second Amendment right to own and bear arms.

But whether rocks, sticks, bows and arrows, sword or gun play, children in all cultures, primarily boys, are raised with the idea of battle being a part of that culture. And the worst part is a warrior culture breeds the concept there is something honorable and heroic about doing battle in wars, romanticizing the idea that killing people is the correct thing to do. For our species to even survive in the face of such brutal conditions in the past makes this sensible, but the hope has long been civilization would eventually displace such violence. However, when conditions deteriorate for any nation and it becomes a question of survival the veneer of civilization is quickly stripped away.

Much like the monster in Forbidden Planet that Morbius said he felt was never far away, such is the monster human beings have always had to live with. The monster of the wars men make is known by the battles and bloodshed outwardly, but that unseen monster not far away is always at the ready to pounce even in the most civilized of cultures.

As a nation America has a long history of glorifying violence, of romanticizing wars, honors and laurels going to our most illustrious heroes, monuments built, stories written and films made doing homage to Mars, and even the Psalmist thanked God for “teaching my hands to war.” Yet the sanest of minds realize violence only begets more violence, and a civilized society that permits violence to be romanticized in any fashion cannot long remain a civilized society.

When I was a boy it didn’t enter my mind to take either my cap guns or my Red Ryder BB gun to school. Children way back then were taught better, and we knew the proper place for such things. This had changed considerably when I became a teacher in Watts during the 60s and I did carry a gun to school. But I quickly realized the dangers pupils and teachers faced in that environment were going to become the same dangers in schools across America.

As an expert gunsmith and a handloader of several decades now, being born to guns and hunting being a part of my childhood I am a steadfast member of the NRA and proponent of Right to Carry. But now the present lunacy of encouraging teachers to carry guns in their classrooms is nearly beyond my comprehension! But I can understand the events in our culture leading up to such a thing, and none of them are encouraging for our survival as a civilized society. You simply cannot encourage barbarism and violence without reaping the whirlwind.

One might think children being recruited by barbarian nations for their armies and as homicidal suicide bombers only a peculiarity of such nations, throwbacks to the time when even children were taught the lessons of the survival of the fittest against the brutal times and circumstances in which they lived. But now the barbarians roam the streets of America and attend our schools, and children are being taught by Hollywood and TV, so-called games that violence is to be an acceptable part of their culture!

It is no longer safe to walk the streets of America, and it all goes back to the difference in the culture in which I was raised and what has overtaken America in its place. Like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons with which I was raised, we children knew that despite the violence they were only cartoons and did not mistake them for real life. But when perverted cartoons began to intrude with a different form of violence actually intended to promote violence in real life, ah, that was something quite different.

For all its deficiencies my Norman Rockwell generation was able to muddle through with a system of education that actually taught Johnny to read, write, and cipher, a generation that held teachers to certain standards and schools were a place of discipline and safety as well as instruction. That has long been betrayed and traded for a failed system of education in which none of these is true.

But for those of us who experienced Norman Rockwell’s America, for those like me that experienced as a teacher what was happening in our schools during the 60s the trend forecast was not that difficult to make. As to safety for children in the schools, that went the way of an entire society that began to act as though it actually hated children! And now we have come to the sorry pass where it is even a matter of debate as to whether to arm teachers! God help America because no one else can when Bang! You’re dead! is no longer a game children play.

Book Club Forming in Cummings Valley

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:16:15 PDT

Love to read. Join our book club

Forming a book club which will meet once a month on a specific day (like 3rd Tuesday etc). This group will meet at member's homes, providing an inviting atmosphere to relax and enjoy conversation. The host will provide some refreshments and the book selection will be discussed.

A great way to meet new people and make friends. Share your enthusiasm for a writer or book and get other opinions. Opens up many interesting discussions.

Great opportunity for Stallion Springs, Cummings Valley, Bear Valley residents to get to know one another.

Call Linda Carhart for more info at (818) 519-7144 cell.

Animal Abandonment Is Against the Law!

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:19:10 PDT

Two large, male, neutered adult cats were stuffed into a very small carrier and dumped on our doorstep on Monday, August 11^th at 7:51 a.m. Your picture was taken as you did this and if you are recognized you will be turned in to the authorities. It is against the law to abandon animals!

These poor animals sat crammed in this small carrier in the sweltering heat for three hours before our licensing person came in at 11:00 a.m. and discovered them. This is very cruel to the animals...not to mention very difficult for us. We have no animal shelter, (this fact is POSTED on our door, so don’t say you didn’t know) and we have no foster homes available for these two cats no matter how nice and friendly they are. It is also posted that your picture would be taken.

Don't have someone else do your dirty work...if you can't find a home for them, and we have no place for them, it's up to YOU to take them to the shelter.

What could have been in my backyard?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:39:59 PDT

Hello,

My family and I moved to Tehachapi in April. Let me start off by saying that we absolutely love it here. The lifestyle suits us just perfectly and we have really enjoyed settling into our beautiful new home. It took us two years to sell our home "down the hill" but being here now made those two years well worth it. There were times we wanted to just give up, and take the other house off of the market, but I am so glad now that we stuck out.

Where we lived before, we were on a couple of acres, backing up to a National Forest. We were on a dirt road, pretty far off the beaten path. We were quite used to being on the look out for Mountain Lions, Bobcats and such, had rattlesnakes in the yard every year. Here, we are on a "regular" residential lot in town toward the eastern end of town. We are completely fenced in. When we landscaped the back yard we made it dog friendly and safe. There really is no way anything can get in as far as under the fence. We have a dog door, so the dogs have free access to the backyard. Which brings me to my question.

Last night the dogs were out in the backyard as usual. My male dog came in the dog door, absolutely terrified! He was whining and crying like a baby, ran under the sofa and stayed there until we lifted to sofa to get him out. I checked him over several times, looking for physical injury and found none. He was just trembling, poor baby. The female dog seemed OK, but she was obviously aware that the other dog was quite upset. It took a good hour before he settled down. So, now I am left to wonder, what could have caused such reaction? We expected to have critters to deal with at the old place. We did not really expect to worry about it here. Since we are pretty certain nothing could have come in via the fence, something must have come over the fence. My question is what? Does anyone know of any critters that we need to on the look out for? Could it have been a bird of prey? We used to be concerned with owls and hawks, should that be a concern here? (These are small dogs, under #15). Our groomer seems to think it was probably just a cat and he got smacked across the nose! I have not seen any cats wandering the neighborhood, but I guess they probably do and though the fence is 6 foot I imagine that a cat could get over it. Maybe I am just being fearful out of old habits from where we previously lived....or worse...my little boy dog is a big sissy??

Bear Valley Springs Employee Embezzling $$$$$

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:00:48 PDT

I just read in the Bakersfield Californian that a Bear Valley Springs employee is under investigation due to "hundreds of thousands" of dollars that are missing from the BVS Association. Apparently this embezzling has been going on for 2 years now. Why hasn't the Tehachapi News posted anything on their website? It has been referred to the DA for further action.

Liberal Pinko Bleeding Hearts?

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:44:43 PDT

My recent blog entry written by an old friend of mine, entitled "Letter From A Dear Old Friend" got me to thinking about how everything has changed. My friend noted that we have invented "new names" for "things and acts" that already have names, as a technique of denying what those things and acts actually are or represent.

I would add to this, the very word "conservative" itself. Talk radio provides a constant drum beat of those who call themselves "conservative" but are they?

Not by any traditional criteria that I can think of. Yes my friends, "neo-con" which of course stands for "neo" or "new" and "con for of course, "conservative" translates into "new style conservative" which of course means NOT conservative at all by any definition known to literate man other than by virtue of demonstrating abject contempt and hatred for all things perceived to be "liberal" or "progressive", two words which translate in the "neo-con lexicon" loosely into "anything for the social benefit that has the potential to interfere with commerce". It also translates into "contempt for any military restraint" what so ever as was graphically illustrated when Ron Paul, THE ONLY TRUE CONSERVATIVE in the GOP crop of candidates was all but ridiculed and booed off the stage during the Republican debates.

To underscore my point, I will post a speech that will be familiar to many in my age group and I will challenge you younger citizens, particularly talk radio listeners, to identify the "non-troop supporting" "liberal pinko commie" "terrorist loving" "America hating" "leftist" who said the following:

"Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

and is gravely to be regarded".

Now I ask you mah chilluns, what "unpatriotic" "military hating" "pinko commie liberal" uttered these words?

If you guessed - 5 Star General, Conservative Republican and 34th President of the United States - Dwight D. Eisenhower, you are correct, go to the head of the class!

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist" - Dwight D Eisenhower

Once Upon a Mountain: a Pet Parade

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:31:06 PDT

This evening is the Tehachapi Mountain Festival Pet Parade at West Park / Read Field on D Street. Sign ups are at 6 with the Parade beginning to march at 6:30. Contests and Raffle will be directly after the parade. Contests this year are Most Unusual Pet, Best Costumed Pet-Owner Look-a-like, Best Trick, Shortest Legs, Tallest Pet, Best Tail Wagger, and the Howling contest (when audience participation is mandatory!). So load up the kids and the animals (and your camera) and head over to Read Field for the evening. See you there!

Watch the register

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:21:53 PDT

This is the 3rd time this has happened to me at K-Mart and frankly, I just wanted to warn all of you. Watch the register people. I shopped for several "ON SALE "items at K-Mart........when it came time to purchase my "ON SALE" items I watched the register list some of the items that I was buying at regular price not sale price.

This seems like a reoccurring issue with me and the K-Mart. I was wondering if this has happened to any of you out there recently?

Family Guy for Alien rights

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:58:44 PDT

hehehe i saw this and thought i should show this to Gube hehehehe

http://www.hulu.com/watch/2711/family-guy-padre-de-familia#x-0,vepisode,1

Peter starts an anti-immigration group after being caught up in the pro-American sentiment at a Veterans Day parade, but later learns that he was born in Mexico.

Even Pop culture is falling to saving the immigrants

A LETTER FROM A DEAR OLD FRIEND!

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:26:16 PDT

Yo!

Marty Tryon is one of my oldest, dearest, and most respected friends. Apparently, someone sent him that e-mail that we have all seen a million times about "the good old days" that asks "how did we manage to survive growing up" with lead based paint and playing on the streets without supervision etc. Of course in his inimitable fashion, he clicked "reply to all" on the e mail list and passed it along to me as one of the recipients. I think there are a great many truths herein and that it is a brilliant little piece of writing so now I will share his wit and wisdom with you!

Larry

Hello my friend,

That was a REALLY FUNNY letter, and so true! Thinking of all the really dangerous things we kids used to do or were exposed to in the old days really brings back some wonderful memories, and no, I didn’t make the little league team on my first attempt either! But I did love standing up in the front seat of my dad's '51 Chevy! No seatbelts! That old Chevy was great. The musty smell of old corduroy upholstery still lingers in my mind...and an old tube AM radio that took ages to start playing...I miss that.

You know, the only part of your fun letter that is bothersome, is in the last paragraph---and it is NOT so funny that this is such a common misconception. This misconception is often spread around like it is here in your funny letter, and I don't think much thought is given to it by most of us. We hear it so much, and joked about it so much that we are numb to it. It’s upsetting that a lot of people believe it, and even though it's not true, it is useful to those in power, because it gets the people to direct their anger in the wrong direction---diverted away from the true cause of the underlying problems. It seems to me we aren't thinking much for ourselves anymore...we happily forward something like this along without looking at the deeper meaning it carries, and it’s the deeper meaning I find so worrisome. I would like to elaborate.

The problem sentence reads; >> "You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the LAWYERS and the GOVERNMENT regulated so much of our lives for our own good" <<

The lawyers and government did all this? Oh really? No, I think not, and the only purpose that incorrect statement serves is to make people angry, and divert their anger away from the true cause of our problems.

That bothersome sentence is what "THEY" want you to think. "THEY" want you to think that all the values and freedoms that are slipping away from us are brought about by evil liberal lawyers, the extremely evil ACLU, and the evil government---but who are "THEY" anyway? And what could “THEY” possibly gain from spreading misconceptions like this?

Please indulge me with an admittedly over simplistic but true explanation; you see, corporations don't like being sued, (toxic wastes, employee safety, unions?) Addressing those issues is bad for profit, so "THEY" hired lawyers. Corporations also don't like governments regulating them, so "THEY" invented lobbyists, and made sure renaming the word "bribing" to “lobbying” was legal, and slowly over time, “THEY” BOUGHT the government. It took a while, but now that "THEY" are running things, "THEY" have gone back to their corporate "owned" congress and had their buddies re-write many of our long-standing laws in their favor, or worse, “THEY” now have the power to just ignore them. Has anyone noticed lately that corporations are beginning to have more rights than citizens---or is it just me?

(“This conversation may be monitored for quality control purposes”…but don’t say that you are also recording them. “THEY” won’t allow it. For fun try it sometime!)

And while we're reading of the funny dangers we were exposed to as kids, here are a few good old-fashioned American concepts that I think should be brought back and put on the fun list you just sent me. Maybe they could be added for a whole new meaning? (But I think perhaps it is naïve of me to think this, for this was NOT the author’s intent.)

I'd like to see the following good ol' American values come back; Obviously, I'd love for our kids to be able to play outside until the street lights come on, and while I'm dreaming, I'd like for my phone conversations and mail be private again too. I'd also like my bank records, where I shop, and what I read be my own business---just like the good ol' days. I'd also like what I buy, eat, sell, and where I go, be my own business---but those days are over now. We must all be WATCHED very carefully, for it is a very dangerous world! How silly of me, I should have known that all this “watching” and prying into my private affairs is only for my own protection. After all, “THEY” keep telling me “THEY” want to keep me safe from all the new and evil worldly dangers. But personally, I find this to be tragically sad, as I would rather take my chances, keeping my privacy and my freedoms intact thank you.

It seems to me there is something in our wonderful Constitution about guaranteeing my right to privacy and freedom---or have “THEY” re-written that? Oh yeah, "THEY" did. It's called the "Patriot Act". Gosh... I would hate to be thought of as un-patriotic, so I guess I’d better not question that…

Speaking of the "Patriot Act", something else is very troubling. It seems “THEY” are using so many euphemisms these days. Here's an important CLUE for everyone---please pay attention to this---and think about it; If there is one thing that you can be absolutely sure of these days, it is THIS; If your philosophy requires you to rename something that already has a word for it...then you must be up to no good, or at the very least trying to fool somebody.

Here are some examples; Torture is now called "enhanced interrogation technique". There are clearly written laws against torture, but I haven’t found any yet for "enhanced interrogation techniques". The America I grew up in wouldn’t torture anybody, but I’m not so sure about the America I live in now, and that makes me very sad.

Allowing more coal producing air pollution now falls under "The Clean Air Initiative", more logging for lumber production is now "Save the Forests", and my favorite one of course; the loss of freedoms under the guise of protecting all of us is called "The Patriot Act". Naming something to do with “patriotism” must be good---right?

Is all this nonsense really necessary? What ever happened to Constitutional Law? I miss the good old dangerous and unsafe days. I really do. I would like to be left alone to simply take my chances with the laws in place that served us so well for so long, and give me back my old tried and true freedoms. I liked them very much, and it was those laws that built up America. It seems like the new laws now have us in serious decline.

So that’s another old-fashioned concept I'd like brought back and put on your list---constitutional law. How simple... Silly me for thinking this, but when Congress issues a subpoena to an elected official, I think they should be required to show up, don't you? Now THAT would be patriotic wouldn't it? You and I would have to show up. Why don't "THEY" have to show up? Think about it---who is running things if "THEY" don't have to show up? Well, I guess "THEY" are.

Here's another old concept that I seem to remember that served America pretty well for the last couple of hundred years---and I'd like to see it brought back and put on your list too; It would be nice if you still had the freedom to criticize our government and our elected leaders without it costing you your job, being blacklisted, or being labeled “unpatriotic”. Redress of grievances maybe? Yeah, that's an old-fashioned Constitutional idea. It’s OK for the little guy to shoot his mouth off because he doesn’t have a dangerously powerful forum. But if you have a great job, or position of notoriety, then you had better keep your mouth shut! Just ask the Dixie Chicks... Corporate censorship is alive and well when "THEY" own over one-thousand TV and radio stations and decide "THEY" are NOT going to play someone's records anymore because of a simple statement of personal individual opinion. (Lawyers and the government didn't do that---the Clear Channel Corporation did!) By the way, I think they are getting into the newspaper business now, or trying too---oh joy. I wonder why? Well…

I’ll tell you why, and here is the really sad part; In case anyone hasn't noticed what has been sneaking up on us, and what it is called, I can tell you. A corporate controlled government is not called a Democracy, or a Republic---it is called Fascist. (Go look it up). Fascism, coupled with the new militarization of our citizenry and society, and you end up with what we live under now---A CORPORATE RUN POLICE STATE. And “THEY” keep pummeling us with subliminal reminders of this all the time. It’s just little reminders, but it’s constant.

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe I’m silly, but I really don’t like F-16's flying over my football half time, and I find it pretty creepy, that I have to stand and sing “America the Beautiful” and salute our troops at the baseball game’s seventh inning stretch. And lastly, I find it pretty creepy, all these spooky whispering voices in subliminal TV commercials for stuff you and I can't buy, like Lockheed Martin's "how" commercial that capitalizes on peoples fears. Why does that guy whisper? Is it a secret? If so, what is the secret? And what is he trying to sell me? I don’t see any Lockheed Martin products on the shelves. If I can’t buy their products then what do “THEY” get for their millions of dollars spent on advertising? Influence in the news reporting? Nah, that couldn’t be---could it? “THEY” must get something…

I’m uncomfortable too with all this new "super-nationalism" that "THEY" manipulatively created after the events of 9/11. You see, I get a little nervous when there are TOO MANY American flags flying all over the place. Now don’t get me wrong here, our flag is wonderful, and I love what it used to stand for, but I seem to recall the overly used “flag look” got a little out of hand in early 1930’s Germany, and I’m starting to sense that happening today, right here in America.

As Chalmers Johnson so aptly puts it in the last book of his eloquently written best-selling trilogy on economics; We are living in, and experiencing, that which will bring about the "Last days of the American Republic" (title). We peaked long ago---it is over---and the Fascist's greed and self-serving actions will assure it is irreversible. I suggest we all get in line, and march in step. You will march in step won't you?

The only question I have at this point is; I wonder what color our arm-bands will be...and hopefully there will be a little pocket in them for our national I.D. cards. Of course some of us may opt to have RF chips implanted rather than carry those pesky little ID cards. (See, it starts with those cute little American Flags on our lapels and grows very slowly from there...) They'll probably be red, white, and blue I guess huh?

But at least we will be safe...

Your friend in cynicism,

Marty

(=O=}===##

PS - This email was (without my permission) run through the super computers at the National Security Agency (NSA and DARPA) using a spy software program called "Echelon". “Echelon” is truly robust and monstrous. It reads ALL our emails AND records ALL our phone conversations, looking for "buzz words" containing terrorist, dangerous, and/or otherwise unpatriotic comments. I just thought you might like to know that “THEY” are doing that... Sleep well... We are all safe... Very very safe...

Only three illegal immigrants accept vouluntary deportation

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:48:31 PDT

These three illegal aliens should be awarded for doing the right thing. I think they should receive some sort of visa or something and be allowed to remain in the USA for their honesty...................

Only three illegal immigrants have accepted an offer from the U.S. government to turn themselves in without threat of arrest, the Washington Post reported this week.

The offer was part of a pilot program which targeted 457,000 illegal immigrants.

“The cold reception given to the rollout of the three-week pilot self-deportation program, called Scheduled Departure, presents an apt metaphor for the state of relations between U.S. enforcement officials and immigrant advocates in the year since Congress killed President Bush’s proposed overhaul,” the Post said.

Read the story here.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/immigration/entries/2008/08/12/only_three_illegal_immigrants.html

Romance Without a Soul?

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:39:50 PDT

The 1960 film Inherit the Wind I thought one of Gene Kelly’s best roles because I never cared that much for him as a song and dance man. But he showed his versatility as an actor in this particular film. However, when Spencer Tracy asks Fredric March “Where did this extra woman come from?” regarding Cain’s wife virtually nothing was known about “Mitochondrial Eve” that scientists say suddenly appeared from out of nowhere some 200,000 years ago, a real embarrassment to devout evolutionists, and became in the words of Genesis “The mother of all living.” It may be the Genesis story is based on facts long lost and the source of the story about Adam and Eve may be of far greater antiquity than anyone has speculated though I still hold to the thought Modern Man capable of extraordinary achievements is a special creation of God.

But when our human ancestors might have been reduced to near extinction some 70,000 years ago as some believe to a population of only about 2,000 the story of Noah predating the Gilgamesh Epic by thousands of years may have involved a very small number of humans at the time, and from this miniscule number of survivors we now total over 6,000,000,000 it really staggers the imagination! Sometimes I find myself asking God; Hey! What’s with all the people? It certainly is putting a strain on our planet.

Despite all the theories surrounding the Big Bang while intensely interesting none are satisfactory in explaining how life could have come out of this unimaginable explosion, though visually delightful portrayals abound; what life is and its origin continue to be the mysteries they have always been. I believe God is the originator and giver of life as declared in the Bible, and nothing in science contradicts this belief. But how the mystery of Romance came about, ah, that is the stuff of another area of intense interest and speculation to me, one about which I have written at great length.

From the Genesis account I conclude there was a great amount of chaos in the beginning (the Big Bang?), and out of this chaos God brought order and ours became a privileged solar system and a miracle earth in which the miracle of intelligent life could be formed and survive. While W. G. Scroggie wrote about the “Romance of Redemption” I don’t believe he gave due hermeneutical attention to the miracle of romance between a man and a woman; but the implication of it is found in the creation of Adam and Eve where it is stated the husband shall cleave to his wife putting her first above all others. Jesus commenting on this confronted the Pharisees declaring a bill of divorcement was allowed only because of the hardness of their own hearts, but from the beginning of God’s creation of Adam and Eve it was not so.

Enter Satan and things really fell apart for Adam and Eve, but the issue of romance continued. Women became the softer and gentler, civilizing influence on men, attempting to make homes despite the wars of men, and they became the subject of romance. Take away the romance between men and women and you have wiped out all the civilizing influences of women. But poets can only flourish in an atmosphere of romance, and if deprived of women inspiring romance in the hearts of men you really don’t have much of a civilization to brag about, and sex has never been a satisfactory substitute for romance.

So it is I have come to despair of conditions for women ever prospering where their youth and beauty is debased to being the encouraging of lust rather than romance, the kind of romance God intended in the creation of Adam and Eve. But when the romance of courtship and all that should go with this is treated of no consequence, when women cheapen themselves and show they do not value themselves the brute nature of men is unchecked. An excellent example of this is Harper Lee’s choice of an innocent little girl to disarm and disperse that lynch mob, something that no man or boy could do; nor could a grown woman where the value of chastity has fallen to the wayside. The proverb is all too true: Beauty fades; virtue remains.

Hollywood and TV have certainly danced to the Devil’s tune when it comes to marriage, ridiculing and cheapening it at every turn. When divorce became as simple as buying a bottle of shampoo, the shampoo sometimes requiring more thought before making a choice, it became increasingly difficult for poets to entertain the notion the romance of fidelity was worth the effort. Such a thing as the sanctity of the marriage bed became a quaint anachronism, and the inspiration of poets fell victim to this as well. But as with the Pharisees of old, it was the hardness of hearts that twisted and distorted the intention of God.

What is a nation without ideals? When I wrote Birds With Broken Wings it was with all due consideration for prostitutes, for the unfairness of life where women bear the larger burden of the curse of God, where men brutalize women and sometimes divorce is the only way out of a brutal marriage, but the value of little Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird remained unchanged though even a prostitute may have a virtuous heart.

We humans sublimate all kinds of things when our ideals are betrayed; when life delivers such catastrophic blows to our finer sensibilities the ideals often give way and bow to grim realities. But somehow the ideals remain unchanged, though when it comes to the romantic relationships between men and women leading as God intended to marriage there is little left now in America for poets to work with.

Damned by faint praise is a familiar expression. No real friend is going to do this to you; a real friend loves at all times despite Emerson’s cautionary words about expectations of friendship, though friends will welcome each other’s gifts no matter how the gift itself may disappoint. It really should come down to the value of the person, not matters in which they may disagree. Such should be the way of a courtship.

A courtship is the way an ideal marriage should begin; a time for a man and woman and their respective families to get to know each other, whether it is a suitable match. But without romance, without the love letters and flowers such a marriage must be a roll of the dice at best, and while it takes an entire society to work together for the benefit of children, this is no less true of marriage; and a society may be fairly judged concerning being civilized on these. We value marriage and children or we don’t, we encourage both or we don’t. It becomes increasingly clear these are no longer the criteria of values for America, and fidelity in marriage has now become nothing but fodder for those that would cheapen the value of this and have no soul for real romance.

A point I raise in the Birds book is the all too prevalent attitude encouraged by a callous society, “There is nothing wrong with me another partner won’t fix.” Hollywood and TV agree with this, and while a better partner may be found this will not take the place of God’s intended romance between the original couple. But when fidelity and marriage are denigrated, when divorce is a commonplace and women are only valued for their sex, for their youth and beauty there is no room for romance; there is no longer any inspiration for poets to write about women and extol their genuine virtues.

Women have long been the inspiration for the best and most civilized works of men, but when women are reduced to being only objects there is nothing to inspire such works of men. I believe there are many soulless people in the world, and in the end it may prove the loss of romance is where America lost its soul, and that America has become actually fearful of romance since it contradicts what has become success by worldly definition and lost its soul I have little doubt. Nor do I doubt men and women realize this loss of romance in their lives, this loss of a soul and inwardly yearn for the salvation of its return.

PET FOOD RECALL - Pedigree from Albertson's in So. Cal.

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:05:23 PDT

Mars has announced a recall of Pedigree dog food sold through Albertson's grocery stores for salmonella contamination. It affects the Southern California area, according to this press release dated Friday, August 8th:

http://tinyurl.com/6n47ff

Please pass along this information to pet owners on your contact list.

Susie Atherton
Canine Creek Dog Wash & Boutique