More Odd Books

More odd and interesting books that I've collected over the years.

The Owen book was one of many that I bought in a box for $2.00 in a yard sale in the early 70's when I lived in Paradise. I have a lot of other interesting books of a similar time period from this great find. Ah yard sales!! The junk, the treasures.

Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World. 1860 R D Owen

Spiritualism.

From Wikkipedia: "Robert Dale Owen (November 7, 1801–June 24, 1877) was a longtime exponent in his adopted United States of the socialist doctrines of his father, the Welshman Robert Owen, as well as a politician in the Democratic Party.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Owen emigrated to the United States in 1825, and helped his father create the Utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana. After the community failed........"

As socialism always will fail.

Owen became a politician and was actually quite progressive for the time "was instrumental in securing to widows and married women control of their property, and the adoption of a common free school system. He later succeeded in passing a state law giving greater freedom in divorce"

I've tried to read the book, but just can't get past the flowery language that was used at the time.

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Eve's Daughters 1882 Marion Harland

Probably one of the first seimi-feminist books. She had the unorthodox ideas that exercise and the outdoors were not completely unsuitable for the young woman. Although she didn't consider herself a "feminist" (who did? ...the word hadn't been invented then) I believe she was a pioneer for women.

She wrote a slew of other books on domesticity, cooking and household management.

Odd Books: Kitchen Garden

In response to Ann Althouse's request for interesting and strange books:

I have been collecting cookbooks for years and came upon this very strange book that was wrongly filed in the cookbook section.

It isn't a cook book AT ALL. Copyright 1878 by Emily Huntington. New York City. The book is actually a 'primer' to teach little children how to be maids, servants and to work in the houses of the rich.

QUOTED "To My Friends and the Young Ladies of New York City. Whose noble and persevering efforts have enabled me to deveop this scheme.

And to the MUSICIAN (she capitalizes it this way) Whose inspiring accompaniments have ever fanned our enthusiasm" Um....yeah. I bet the MUSICAN was fanning more than just Ms. Huntington's enthusiasm.

It contains music scores and rhymes and games to teach the children how to lay a fire, set the table, clean the dishes and answer the door!!

Evidently this was shortly after the Civil War and with all the orphans and immigrants from Europe pouring into the City there was a lot of poverty. Poor sweet wealthy Ms. Huntington pondered and pondered on how to fix this.......

I know!! she said.....let's make all these children into servants. "In schools they are taught to read in class; why not to cook, sweep, make beds, and wash dishes?" Don't bother to teach them skills that might help them rise above poverty. Nah..... we need servants and LOOK a whole crop that we can train properly.

Hilarious... even then the elites in New York City were completely out of touch with the "common" people. Some things never change.

They have songs, piano scores and learning exercises. Here is part of one song for Washing the Dishes.

• Washing dishes, washing dishes
• Suds are hot, suds are hot,
• Work away briskly, work away briskly;
• Do not stop, do not stop.

• First the glasses, first the glasses;
• Wash them well, wash them well
• If you do them nicely, if you do them nicely
• All can tell, all can tell

• Then the silver, then the silver
• Must be bright, must be bright
• Work away swiftly, work away swiftly
• With your might, with your might

And so on until the dishes were done. Next......how to sweep the floor.

The Shoemaker's Children Have No Shoes

And the Dumbplumber's wife has a leak in the pump house. Poetic justice I guess.

It has been cold, cold, cold here and as I said in my last post my hubby has gotten sick from being out in it fixing broken pipes and thawing out pump houses. He has been bitching and complaining about how people can't figure out how water freezes at 32 degrees and when it is -12 degrees it really really is going to freeze. Stupid people!!.

Well........despite keeping a nasty (and about to be banned in California) incandescent bulb on for heat inside our insulated and air tight (more about that in a minute) pump house, we sprung a leak. No. Not just a leak ......a flood. On Sunday, we went into the pump house for a few supplies and a necessary bottle of wine and everything was just fine. Yesterday (Monday) the hubby goes to feed the quail who have been nagging vociferously for their hand out and tries to open the door. We have two doors on the building. One that opens outward and another that opens inward. Hmmmmm? What's the deal? Why won't the inward door open? Because there is a foot of water flooding the building, due to the airtight condition!!!! That's why.

Opening the door, by forcing back the floating bags of now totally soaked bird seed, the water comes flooding out. Why is the pump still on? Um.... we forgot? Ok. We're stupid just like all of the people he has been complaining about.

So, Mr. Dumbplumber gives his wife a call at work to spread the bad news. Oh SHIT!!!!. I had a couple of boxes of books on the floor that I was planning to bring inside. They are history. Really sad, because some of them were hard back books from college that I liked that are now out of print and a couple of collect able Rex Stouts. Sigh. I guess, I'll start perusing EBay and ELibris to see if I can find replacements.

Also on the bottom shelves were several boxes of craft books/clippings, some old clothing patterns and boxes of fabric that I had collected over the years for quilting and was saving until I got my craft room up and running. CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! To put it mildly.

So, I drag in as many of the clippings and books that aren't completely soaked and strew them all over the floor in front of the heater. Put the totally soaked fabric in plastic bags and lug them into the laundry room. Well, I guess I would have had to wash the fabric anyway to make more quilt projects....how's that for trying to look on the bright side? Spin dry and tumble dry 8 loads of fabric. Wooooo fun.

Actually, it was fun. I sat on the floor with a glass of scotch and sorted the fabrics into color coordinated piles as they came out of the dryer. "Ooooh. Look there is the fabric that I made a dress out of for my Daughter when she was in 3rd grade and a piece of a really cool tropical fabric that I had made into a sun dress for myself when I went to college" (30 yrs ago). Memories like the corners of my mind.....

"What! Don't look at me that way, this fabric is valuable and irreplaceable and who left the water on in the pump house anyway!?! Would you pour me another scotch please?"

I found a couple of unfinished quilt projects that I had forgotten about.



And I started a project I've been wanting to do for quite some time. I'm scanning the clippings and idea files to disk and getting rid of the paper. Some of these things I've had since the 70's.

What!! Don't look at me like that.

As I go through these, I think.....What were we thinking, that this was a cool outfit to wear? Much less to spend hours upon hours crocheting?

Another thing that is now interesting to me about these old clipping is the advertisements. Cigarette and booze ads are all over Family Circle, Sunset Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens. Some products have survived the times and others have not. Some clothing and decorating styles have survived and thankfully, some have not. I'll scan some advertisements and post them later.

So, while this has been a disaster and I mourn for my lost books and craft supplies, there is a silver lining. I got my fabric cleaned!

Ho Ho NO!!

Christmas comes each time this year......at least that's what the Beach Boys tell us. AND the stores, radio stations and television stations are determined to pound the Season as soon after Thanksgiving is over. The turkey isn't even digested yet and you can't go for more than 15 minutes without a Christmas song on the radio, even on satellite jazz radio stations that you pay for. If I have to hear Ertha Kitt or Madonna sing Santa Baby one more time, I'm gonna explode.

"Grandma got run over by a rain deer" "Rocking around the Christmas Tree" "Jingle Bell Rock" ....worthless and annoying Christmas songs that you just can't escape from this time of year.

I don't hate all Christmas songs. This is one of my very favorites.

Now, don't get me wrong. I actually like Thanksgiving through Christmas. Its a great time for cooking up all the goodies like candy, cookies, cakes, pies, breads that you really have no excuse for making during the rest of the year, with the added bonus that you can give most of it away as gifts. Getting together with friends for a cocktail, glass of wine, some hors d'ourves and being thankful for just being alive.

What I don't like is the pressure. The commercial pressure: to buy things, to decorate, the decorating wars going on in the neighborhoods, the Christmas Tree versus Holiday Tree vs Festivus Pole controversy. The religious pressure: If you don't decorate your office, send out hundreds of dollars worth of cards, being careful to sort out the religious cards from the secular cards.....after all we don't want to offend anyone by actually reminding them that Christmas is a religious holiday. ....then people think you are a Grinch, Atheist or sick. How about I don't decorate because I'm lazy and it is a pain to drag all the decorations down from the attic only to have to undo the decorations in a few weeks, clean up and put them back in the attic? Sigh.....the pressure.

This year all my best laid plans were set astray by Global Warming in the form of the current Ice Age we seem to be experiencing. I was planning to go to a surprise party for my Father's 80th birthday, which is Christmas Eve. However, the constant snow we have been getting made me think that, while I might be able to take my gas guzzling earth destroying evil SUV over themountain pass......I might not be able to get home.

It has been snowing 1 to 3 inches every day since these photos

In the meantime, my husband The Dumbplumber (he's really a plumber, but not dumb at all), having spent the last week in sub zero temperatures (-12 to 8 as the high temperature for several days) trying to unfreeze people's pipes and well pumps so they could have water and then when it warmed up to 32 degrees standing and laying in icy water fixing gushing pipes under homes, has come down with a nasty cold and fever. So......his trip to see his Mother and my trip to see my Father......cancelled.


So....Ho Ho NO!

Infected Video Imbeds

I have deleted the recent video embeds from the posts 3rd rock and Playing for Change. It appears that there is a new virus actns/swif.t that opens in IE or Firefox when the web page displays the embedded video.

Sorry for any inconvenience. I strongly suggest you update your virus software, run a full system scan and do NOT open any pop up windows that might appear. Check with Bleepingcomputer for more information.

UPDATE: Crunch Gear has a bit more information on this virus

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/02/actnsswift-virus-affecting-embedded-youtube-vids/

It seems to be a trojan that will redirect you to a phishing site to install AntiVirus 2009 which is a malware program and is very difficult to get rid of.

If you get redirected to any strange websites, just don't click on anything.

Black Friday For The Retail Industry

Black Friday, for some reason, is the name for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Stores open early, prices are down and the sheeple are whipped into a frenzy of buying. In order to get the good sale prices on big and small ticket items for Christmas, people line up and mob the store entrances as if they were rabid drug addled fans at a rock concert. It's a mob scene in the classic sense and I've never understood why anyone would do such a thing. Of course, I also never understood the hysterical screaming and crying girls throwing themselves at the fences separating them from the Beatles.

This year, yet another person was trampled, suffocated, pressed to death in the stampede of bovine shoppers at a retail store. Unfortunately, this year it was Wal Mart, the favorite target of the unions, who are salivating at the idea of unionizing and collecting dues from the approximately 2 million employees. Woooeeee!!!. The union dues would be enormous and the union bosses would be able to really give themselves a well earned raise.

Already the Unions are jumping all over this tragic event to stick the shiv into the Wal Mart ribs according to the New York Times. They can't wait to use the death of Mr. Damour as leverage to get their foot in the door or more aptly the camel's nose under the tent. As if the mere presence of the Union would have deterred the mindless stampede.

"Wal-Mart has successfully resisted unionization of its employees. New York State’s largest grocery union, Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, called the death of Mr. Damour “avoidable” and demanded investigations."

So far Wal Mart has resisted unionization because the employees have voted down becoming unionized. They are no dummies. Wal Mart, contrary to the propaganda put out by the NYT, the Unions and left leaning liberal media, treats it's employees well. They have a good safety record according to OSHA: better than GM the poster child for the Union's successes in helping business (sarcasm in case you didn't get it). WalMart does provide health insurance for its employees and they get to participate in the $4.00 prescription plan.

Speaking as self employed people who have zero health insurance, the plan linked above sounds pretty good to me. It may not be the 'Cadillac' plan (pun intended) that the unions have forced up GM's butt but still a decent plan. We take advantage of the $4.00 prescription offer as well, saving $76 a month on one of my husband's prescriptions.

Obama, our President Elect (who takes every opportunity to remind us of this fact with his never ending radio addresses and press conferences) is in favor of "Card Check" voting for union organizing. In case you didn't know, this is a way for Union organizers to strong arm people into voting for unionization. It removes the ability of the employees to cast a secret ballot. If you have people hanging over you and haranguing you while you vote and harassing you at home and at work to cast a "Union Ballot", people will be intimidated into voting for the unionization whether they want to or not.


Read the whole thing: Two examples illustrate this problem. During a card-check campaign at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, union organizers threatened that workers who did not sign union cards would lose their jobs when the union was recognized. In 2002, a long-time organizer for the United Steelworkers felt compelled to quit his job after "a senior Steelworkers union official asked me to threaten migrant workers by telling them they would be reported to federal immigration officials if they refused to sign check-off cards." Forcing workers to express their beliefs in public leaves them vulnerable to threats and can discourage them from exercising free choice.

It will get nothing but worse when card check is the law of the land.

How would you like to have your neighbors standing at your elbow when you voted for the President or for any of the Propositions that were just on the ballots in California? How about a crowd of gay rights agitators looming over you if you decided to vote Yes on 8? A secret ballot process is integral to Democracy. When others can coerce your vote or your vote is determined by peer pressure, we will have lost a central freedom in our lives.

If the workers at WalMart or any other industry DO want to unionize, then they should be allowed to hear both sides of the proposition from management and from the unions. They should be allowed to weigh the benefits or pitfalls and then vote in a SECRET BALLOT process.

I'm not completely negative on the place of Unions in the work place. They have a long and distinguished history of protecting people from unfair or unhealthy work conditions. However.....the conditions that brought the Unions to power, no longer exist. We have labor laws up the booyang to keep people safe. Smart businesses today (like Wal Mart) treat their labor force well. The power struggle now between the Union and retail is not so much about the employees as it is a money grab by the Union organizers.

You think our economy is in trouble now? Let the Unions get a strangle hold on retail like they have had on the auto industry, the steel industry, the airline industry and watch retail jobs evaporate. Retail is one of the last places that unskilled workers can have decent jobs in decent environments (instead of working outdoors digging ditches).

Unionize retail? Jobs will be lost, stores will close, prices will go up, no more $4.00 prescriptions, suppliers for the retail giants like Wal Mart will have to shrink their production to accommodate the shrinking demand. Poor people who rely on the bargains now offered will have to cut even further back on their budgets.

Good job Unions. Hey, but at least you get to collect those dues from the workers that are remaining.

What's For Dinner Thanksgiving

Whew!! Cooking for Thanksgiving. Good thing it's something I like to do othewise we might have tacos instead :-)

Menu

Brined Turkey (normally would be smoked but we are just baking it this time)

Pear compote (we are still trying to use the last of those wonderful but numerous Asian Apple Pears. I'll be so glad when they are finally gone)

Stuffing Casserole (sour dough, with dried apricots, pecans, celery, onions, butter, spices and chicken broth)

Green Bean Casserole (a request by my hubby, the old traditional Grandma type recipe from a can)

Juliened Carrots in orange sauce

Turkey Gravy (not as good as my future son in law's gravy, but it will be adequate)

Home made No Knead Yeast rolls (a super easy roll recipe that I've made for the last 30 years at least) slathered in butter, of course.

Dessert: Gingered Pear Pie with Ice Cream

I decided since it wasn't going to be a lot of people that we wouldn't have....... a green salad, mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce. I think we'll have enough food.....for a small army, even though my husband is whimpering about not having mashed potatoes. When he decides to cook, he can make all the potatoes he wants.

Playing for Change

This is an awesome video and an incredibly wonderful concept. Playing for Change is a foundation dedicated to connecting the world through music. I love this video. I shows the commonality that we all have to each other throughout the world. In a time when it is easier to stress the differences, music brings us together.

Enjoy.

3rd Rock From The Sun

With the never ever ending election season that we just went through and the beginning of electioneering for 2012, the political overload just got to be too much for me. Talking heads all parroting the same thing. People on talk shows yelling and screaming over each other so that you can't even hear what they are saying. STOP.....just STOP!!!

Surely there must be something entertaining on at least one of the 150 channels we have on Dish Network? Scrolling through the channels that I haven't blocked (all ESPN and shopping channels) I landed on the "old television show channel" and lo and behold. 3rd Rock From The Sun!! I forgot how funny that show was. Pure laugh out loud, belly laugh entertainment. Quick.....program the DVR to record and watch when I need a laugh a break and want to retreat from the insanity of real life into the insanity of the 3rd Rock world.

One of my most favorite episodes. Dick is from Mars, Sally is from Venus. Sally has a date that didn't go very well and the guy gives her the "I'll call you" line. Being aliens in human form, Sally just doesn't get it.


Watch out....you might find yourself on YouTube for hours watching old episodes. Better yet just buy the DVDs and be prepared to laugh your ass off.

Gender Analyser....I'm So Conflicted

This is pretty funny. I ran across this post from Gateway Pundit about a program that can analyze your writing style and determin if you are a man or a woman. http://www.genderanalyzer.com/

So, I thought, let's see...... Entering in the URL for Dust Bunnies of the Mind

We think http://dustbun.blogspot.com is written by a man (65%).

OK....how about my other blog Recipe Junkie??

We think http://recipejunkie.blogspot.com is written by a woman (89%).

I guess it matters what you are writing about. Either that or I have a split personality and need some serious help. When I'm Dust Bunny Queen. I'm 65% man, but when I'm talking recipes and food 89% woman.

More test result from the genderanalyzer site. Here is a personality profile. Evidently my writing style on Dust Bunnies is

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters

This is interesting because my formal personality profiles taken for work purposes have usually turned out to be INTJ or ISTJ. My husband is an ISTJ.

HOWEVER....analyizing Recipe Junke, it seems that I'm

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions

It's official. I'm schizo!!

Dust Bunnies is 32% Mark Twain. Recipe Junkie is 46% Frank Baum. The Wizard of Oz.

I am a bit worried however, since my husband's blog is 45% Edgar Alan Poe

World Toilet Day

Holy Cow. The 19th was World Toilet Day.....how could I have missed this significant event!!

The big news that may affect us all is the proposal to have flush less or waterless toilets. I know, we need to cut down on excessive water usage, especially in the more arid places of the world like Australia where they are proposing a toilet tax. Earth groovy and all that stuff and I'm not opposed to saving water, energy, whales or anything else.

We already have the government intruding into our lives telling us what to eat and what not to eat. What kind of light bulbs we must use and even proposing to regulate the temperature in our homes with remotely controlled thermostats. We already have low flow shower heads that can barely get the soap out of our hair. Low flushing toilets that you have to flush several times to .....well you know.

I don't know how a dry toilet would actually work and remain sceptical.

But I have to admit my first thought on this subject was.....how are you going to clean it!!! Eeeeeewwww.

The Man Behind the Curtain

What is going to happen when the bloom is off the rose, the halo slips and the man behind the curtain is finally revealed? I'm afraid it isn't going to be pretty.

Obama has promised the world and the kitchen sink to his supporters. He is going to make the oceans recede, lower taxes for everyone (except those nasty rich people), new stimulus packages to jump start our staggering economy, redistribute wealth from those who work to those who don't, hire armies of teachers, create a new corps of civilian community organizers, credits for college, create renewable energy, stop the Iraq war, create peace in our time, reverse global warming. It goes on and on and the price tag is in the trillions.

Others of his supporters have been led to believe that the world will change, butterflies will flutter, and that with Obama ascendant they won't have to pay for their own gasoline or mortgages. Yeah, and monkeys are going to fly out of my butt.

The sad truth is that Obama made empty promises to starry eyed believers. Promises he knows, or will soon know once in office, that he cannot keep. Promises he never intended to keep. In the process, Obama's policies, that he is able to enact, will depress our economy and that of the entire world even more. We will be further attacked by terrorists and bogged down in Afghanistan.

Once the disappointment sets and and he is revealed as the empty shell that he is, as the political tool of a political machine, will the people who bought this line of bullshit wake up and blame themselves for irrationally putting all their hopes and dreams in a flawed man. Not likely. The scary reality is that they will look for a scapegoat upon which to lay the blame for their own failures and upon whom to take vengeance.

This is already happening in the gay community in California who are targeting the Mormons for the passage of Prop 8. Not the black community or the Hispanic community that overwhelmingly voted for Prop 8, but the Mormons because it is politically correct to show prejudice against Mormons. We've seen it over the last 8 years in the pillorying of George Bush, who it seems is to blame for everything that has occurred and who will be the cause of everything that will occur in the future.

No. The blame will not be assumed by those who created the disaster by falling for the empty promises and being distracted by the shiny penny. In depression era Germany, we know who the scapegoats were, the Jews. Who our chosen victims will be and what form the retaliation takes remains to be seen. The always poplar choice of the Jews again? Pandering to the Muslim terrorists might make this a reality. The wealthy capitalist pigs who evilly have created jobs and industry? Mormons? Republicans?

Who knows for now. But it is going to get ugly.

The Sunday Drive from Hell

It has been a beautiful autumn season. Exceptionally so with the gorgeous colors and warm afternoons. After a week of working inside an office, I look forward to being outdoors on the week ends and working on some projects in the yard. One, that I'd been putting off, is to dig in the compost in the planting beds and plant french shallots and elephant garlic for spring. The cold winters here require that you get them planted before the first frost, which could be at any time. I was also looking forward to making another pie with the Asian Apple Pears that we have an abundance of. Maybe some jam.


However, best laid plans and all that stuff. Hubby, who has been working 7 days a week, 10 hour days for the last month had the bright idea that we take a Sunday drive in our classic 72 K5 Blazer to get away and relax.













The idea was to take a back road called Fender's Ferry, an historic stage coach road that would take us ultimately to I-5 and we would have lunch at a cutesy restaurant in Mt Shasta.

So, I'm like....."Ok....how long do you think it will take because I have some things I want to do. OK?"

He says: "It should be just about 3 hours. I took this road from Redding in the 70s"

Looking at the map it didn't seem to be all that many miles. I now realize that those roads in blue lines represent unimproved road. Really really unimproved. Tip number one. Avoid the blue roads.

The road at first wasn't too bad. Graded and obviously well traveled..... and look, there are even some people living in cute cabins up the hill and down by the creek. Soon the road became narrower and narrower. We were already too far to go back....we thought. Three hours of bumping along on a one lane crumbling dirt road clinging to the side of a mountain averaging at best 8 miles an hour. Don't look down!! OMG it's straight down.!!! The only thing between us and certain death are those humongous pine trees that are at least 4 feet on the stump. No one had ever logged this area.......because it is freaking impossible to get to it unless you are .....insane!!!! I'm gripping the side of the seat and bracing myself with a hand on the dash. No seat belts aaaaaagh! Is this ever going to end. My hand is still cramped.

We did see some pretty country side, discovered a water fall that was at least 100 feet high. Met up with some people on quad runners. I forgot it was deer season, so at least if we broke down someone would be by sometime. I just hope that they haven't seen Deliverance.

At several points we came across pretty open meadows planted with fruit trees. Really old fruit trees. Also the foundations of barns or houses made out of rocks. These must have been old homesteads or stage stops. Probably made by people who gave up traveling on this God forsaken road and decided to just stay where they were out of desperation. Seriously, people were tough in those days. No wonder they all married their cousins. It was too much work to find anyone else.

About 3/4 of the way in, according to the squiggly blue line that represented the road the car started acting up. Clue two....there was no way the map maker could possibly make the line squiggly enough to represent all the hairpin turns in such a small line.

Me: "Um... the car is missing and sounding funny. Are we ok? " "And, just how drunk were you in 1970 when you went on this road?????"

"No problem " he says, "We are just loading up with carbon and the spark plugs need to be cleaned." The hubby, I find out later is glossing over the problem, thinks we have sucked two of the 8 cylinders and is freaked out. We have no cell phone reception and there is no way in hell that we are going to get AAA to come out here and tow us.

So, we plow on and eventually make it to I-5. We wanted to get out and kiss the asphalt.

Not lunch but now early dinner in Mt Shasta and back to home. Seven hours and it felt like we had been gone for a month and like we'd been beaten with a rubber hose.

Needless to say. No pie.

Serenity Prayer and Apple Pears

This election cycle is getting the better of me. With all of the voter fraud and the mysterious (most likely illegal) donations to Obama's campaign and that no one in authority seems to be concerned, I've come to the conclusion that the election is being stolen out from under us. We are turning into a third world banana republic and our votes count for nothing. I waffle between angry and depressed.

Sooooo. It's time to take a deep breath and step back and recite the Serenity Prayer

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

There is nothing I can do about ACORN filing fraudulent voters. Nothing I can do to stop them from busing in illegal immigrants who can't read English and casting their votes FOR them....for you know who...of course. Nothing I can do to stop people like Jive Turkey and Jjlthi htios from fraudulently channeling untraceable contributions to the Obama campaign, while McCain, the stupid shlub, is being over run and out maneuvered. I cannot change these things.

However, I have found something that I can change.

For years we have had a tree in our yard that produced mystery fruit.























Gigantic pear looking things, as big as softballs, that turned yellow on the tree and inevitably fell onto the ground. The deer enjoyed them. Turns out these apple pear looking things are just that. Asian Apple Pear. Go figure. They are quite delicious and a delicacy

They need to be removed from the tree while green and ripened on the counter or in the pump house. Crisp, sweet and slightly tart they were a wonderful addition to a salad last night.


So in my quest to change the things that can be changed and ignore the things that I can change.

I'm going to change these, and the other 30 pounds of Apple Pears, into pear pies, pear tarts and pear jam.

Making Patterns and Sewing Clothes

I just recently was going through boxes of photos ranging from 30 years ago to pick out some pictures for my daughter's up coming wedding. Yes.....photos. On real paper in envelopes with celluloid negatives. Remember? Before digital cameras. Before photoshop.

It was like digging into a box of memories. Remembering when and where I took these photos. Pictures of my daughter as a baby, a toddler, a gangly pre teen and finally a beautiful young woman. Pictures of people I haven't seen in 30 years. Pictures of people I don't even remember who they even are.

While scanning many of the early photos to put onto a disk, I realized just how much sewing I used to do. Almost all my daughter's best dresses and outfits were those that I made for her. Most of my clothes were made by myself for myself. We were poor, collected food stamps for a while, and had to make do with what we had. Even so, we got by pretty good and we look spiffy in our home made clothing.

This got me to thinking about our current economic situation and reflecting on my previous post about "Going Galt". Why pay top dollar for clothing that is poorly made, doesn't fit, probably made in Guatemala or China and continue to contribute to the "machine".

So, my creative juices started to flow and I pulled out a book that I've had for some time on making custom clothing patterns. I'd forgotten how easy and fun it was. When I was younger, ahem...thinner and gravity wasn't such a big drag on certain parts of my body, the patterns from McCalls or Vogue worked just fine. However, it seems a little alterations are in order.

If they can do it on Project Runway, heck yeah........ so can I. One more thing to liberate myself from the yoke of government control.

Going Galt

PJM (pajamas media) and Dr. Helen have put up a post about the idea of 'going Galt' If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, you should. I admit that she isn't the best or most entertaining writer in the world. I read this book in high school and it made a profound impression on me that shapes my world view today.

For those who haven't the time to plow through her massive book, the main theme is that there are those who are productive in society, the John Galts and then there are the takers and the users. Stealing shamelessly from Dr. Helen.

"the basic theme is that John Galt and his allies take actions that include withdrawing their talents, “stopping the motor of the world,” and leading the “strikers” (those who refuse to be exploited) against the “looters” (the exploiters, backed by the government)."

My husband, who has a plumbing business (just like this guy) and also has his own blog http://dumbplumber.blogspot.com/ and I are both self employed. We have seriously discussed this concept and are already "going Galt". Cutting back on production, cutting back on business and contributing the least we possibly can to the government. We aren't the only ones. Some cattle ranchers and farmers in our area are cutting back. Less food production and laying off workers. Contractors are not going to be building. Less lumber needed. Less logging and mill production and it goes on. The economy grinds to a halt and there is no one productive to rob from to give to the leeches and looters.

Actually, by cutting back, we will ultimately have more retained income (less taxes) and more quality time to do things that we enjoy. We have already seen this.

I suggest that we ALL do the most we can to stop the engine of the world and let the looters starve.

A Little ACORN Topples the Mighty Oak

ACORN the community activist organization that is supporting Obama and who has been supported by his campaign to the tune of $800,000 dollars is under investigation FINALLY for fraudulently submitting fake voter registration forms.

They have been, for years, stuffing the ballot box and overwhelming the county voter registars offices with a flood of late arriving fake registrations. This isn't an accident or sloppy work. They are doing it on purpose. The technique is part of a plan to bring down captialism and change the 'regime' in our country to socialsim. Saul Alinsky laid out the rules and literally wrote the book on how to bring down our country. The Cloward-Piven Strategy provided the blueprint for the plan that is in effect now. I'm not going to go into depth on this as there are many more sites that have done the heavy lifting. Here Here Oh , Hell....just google it.

While I agree that everyone who is legally eligible should be able to vote. Voting for our Representatives, Senators and the Executive office by the people of this country, instead of having our leaders imposed on us by fiat, is what has made America a great and free country. Up until now......the system has been working. Now with the subversive actions of a socialist/communist group we are in danger of being toppled and hamstrung by our own goodwill and our own rules.

Most of us, who read blogs and write blogs are fairly well aquainted with the issues and the candidates. However, the same cannot be said of the people that ACORN is registering, often multiple times.

Just listen and weep. This is the future of our country. Ignoramuses who vote based merely on the color of skin or merely on Party affiliation without any critical thinking or any idea of who or what they are voting for.



If it weren't so sad, it would be funny.

Predictions for the next 4 years

1. Obama will be elected President through fraud and the media will refuse to do any investigative journalism. Mainly because they are implicit in facilitating the fraud and want to have Obama elected no matter what.

2. The "fairness doctrine" will be rammed through Congress and talk radio will be diminished if not completely taken down. The only "news" and opinions we will be allowed to hear are those that are filtered through the media.

3. The internet will be next. Websites that are right leaning will be forced off of the web or mandated to express views that don't contradict the 'regime' of Obama

4. This suppression of the First Amendment will extend to individuals and our personal webpages, facebook sites and possibly even our emails will be scrutinized

5. Anyone who deviates from the 'right thinking' will be accused of racism, sued to be taken off of the television or movie screens. Only the proper expressions will be tolerated and all others will be shouted down and silenced.

6. Taxes will be levied against the so called rich to the ends of redistributing wealth. In that case, the truly wealthy will be able to save themselves by moving out of the country or moving their assets out of the country. The small business owner and entrepreneurs will be driven out of business, will lay off workers or will just go underground. The middle working class and small business owners will cease to exist. Power and wealth will be concentrated in the hands of government functionaries and there will be an even wider gap between the rich/governmental mandarin types and the rest of the population.

7. The economy will go underground. It is already happening as I type. People will be trading for services and goods. Cash economy will rule instead of a paper trail. Tax revenues will go down, and the 'regime' will demand that more taxes, fees and excises be imposed. Downward spiral.

8. The 'regime' now having controlled the sources of information will concentrate on the children. By taking children away from families at an ever younger age, they will be more able to indoctrinate the children. Teaching the children to spy and report on their parents when the adults deviate from the pre-approved programing.

9. There will be a very bad terrorist attack that will polarize people even more, with the 'regime' seeing this attack as a Godsend to allow them to maintain more power. Perhaps even repealing the 2 term Presidential rule and attempting to sieze permant status. Elections as we know them will be a thing of the past.

Within 25 years the United States will cease to exist as a free country. We will either be a socialist nation like Russia or the country will splinter into geographically drawn political fragments. Urban vs Rural. The US will no longer exist as a country at all.

Ah...The Law Of Unintended Consquences

Don't you just love the way the law of uninteded consquences continually comes around to bite us all in the ass. Thanks to mostly, not always, but mostly liberal nanny state laws we have all kinds of messes to clean up.

The mother of all messes of course has to do with the melt down in the financial markets caused by socialist goals embodied in the CRA act and the relaxing of loan standards by Bill Clinton and the erosion of the "Chinese Wall" also by Clinton that removed the barriers between banking and investment companies.

But....enough of that. I'm talking laws meant to protect us from a slight chance of harm that ultimately put us ALL in real danger. Laws like this one in California. To protect us from the slight chance that our house might catch fire, we are now polluted in our bodies by 100% more levels of flame retardent in and 1000% times more in our environment.

As I sit on my couch typing on my laptop and absorbing even more PBDEs, I ponder what other great surprises the meddling government will be bringing to us in the future in the name of saving us from ourselves.

New Game Show: Congressional Sweep

Anyone remember the gameshow Supermarket Sweep? This is what Congress is reminding me of lately and especially with this latest rush to shove a lard laden bill through which supposedly is going to rescue us from ourselves.

In the game show, contestants would frantically race through the store throwing the most expensive items in the cart they could at the fastest pace they could, and the one with the most at the end would win.

Toss in the caviar, hams, cheese, canned luxury goods......whatever cost the most. Didn't matter if the combination of food and goods in the basket made any sense or were of any actual use. Just throw it in there.

Congress is doing the exact same thing, with our money. Rushing around and throwing in the pork and the caviar. Never mind that we can't use this crap. Don't need this crap. Don't want his crap. Whoever has the biggest most expensive basket WINS!!!..

Well... except for us of course, since we don't get to actually eat any of the groceries, but have to pay for them.