A Different Perspective

I guess I am just one of these people who was born out of time. I believe that hard work pays off. I believe that you should treat people with kindness and respect, not only because God tells us to, but because it is the right thing to do. I believe that the people should support the government, not the other way around. I believe that food and meal time should be a joy, and not just something to keep your body alive. And I believe that every action, every decision, every desire of every person, affects everyone else .

Work is hard. Otherwise it wouldn't be called work. If something isn't difficult to achieve, we just don't value it. For instance, 2 people of very different social classes, decide they want or need a barn. The poorer of the two has to build it himself while the rich man hires a contractor to build it. The poor man saves his money, asks for salvaged materials, plans extensively so that the barn will do everything he needs or might need for the future. It takes him several months to gather supplies, prepare the building site, and build the barn. It rains, it is hot, it is cold, he bashes his thumb with a hammer a few times, but finally the barn is finished. It may not be pretty, but it is dry and will do what he needs it to do.

The rich man only has to pick up the phone and call a contractor. The contractor comes out with his crew, prepares the site and builds the barn. It takes about a week, then they are gone. The Rich man fills the barn with all of the things that should be in a barn, then stops thinking about it at all.

The rich man never lifted a finger to build his barn. To him it is simply a building. To the poor man, it is an extension of himself, something that he provided at his own expense to better himself, his animals, and his property. He works in it every day. He sees the condition of the walls, the floor, the roof. He will repair anything that needs to be fixed. He adds on to it as needed, because you see, it has to last. He cannot afford to build another one. He values the building, not just because he needs a barn, but because his sweat went into the construction. And his barn is probably more solidly built and of better quality than the barn of the rich man who paid someone who doesn't care about it.

Hard work creates value and self worth. It makes you feel good about something and yourself.


Being kind should be a no brainer. There are many admonitions in the Bible to be kind to others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The story of the Good Samaritan. Just to name a couple. But seriously, wouldn't the world be a better place if every one were kind to each other? Smile at a stranger. Help someone who is struggling. Take a meal to a sick friend. Do any of these things hurt you in any way? No. But they help someone else in ways that are beyond belief. That stranger you smile at walking down the street may have just gotten fired from their job and has to go home to tell their family the bad news. That smile may just give them the encouragement to apply for a job on the way home. The person that is struggling may be your elderly neighbor who is having trouble getting the trash can to the street every week. Your little bit of help may be the difference that keeps her from falling in the driveway and hurting herself. That meal you take to a co-worker when she is sick may feed her children so they don't have to go to bed without dinner. None of these things cost you much in either time or money, but by simply being kind, you have brightened the lives of others, who will in turn, be more willing to be kind to the people they meet. If everyone was kind to 1 person each day, it could change the world.

This country was created to give the people a nation where individual freedoms were considered an inalienable right. The governments sole duties were to provide security to the entirety of the nation and to provide the structural framework for a free society. And gradually, over the last 236 years, the people have asked the government to do more and more of the things we should be doing for ourselves, mostly because we don't want to be bothered with it.

Your granny is old and sick and can't really live by herself any more. So instead of moving her in with you, you sign her Medicare check over to a nursing home and move her in there. She will get minimal care, but they will make sure she gets her meds and someone will check on her every few hours and you will not be burdened by having to deal with her. You live in a small town where there are not many jobs. You have always always lived there and don't want to move or get the education you need to get one of the few jobs there are available. So you get the government to provide you with a welfare check. It pays the bills and provides you with some money for food. Your children see that you get a check every month without having to work for it, so they don't bother working either when they come of age.

The people in a small town want want to be able to commute to work in the city a little faster, so the contact their State Legislators to get a better highway. The bill passes and the highway is built. But it also raises their taxes, but only a little bit. The tax money more than pays for the highway but the tax doesn't go away. Then someone wants to upgrade the civic center. So the taxes go up to pay for it. But the tax doesn't go away after the building is paid for.

Over time, all of those taxes provide the government with a lot of money to use at their discretion. Some of the money is used for the good of the people as a whole. But a goodly portion of it is used for things that only benefit a select few. Our tax money is being used to support programs that are either not necessary, are beneficial to only a few, or are to the detriment of society as a whole. Our tax burden on the whole is many many MANY times higher than what triggered the Boston Tea Party. And yet, no one complains. It makes me rather sad.

As a society, we have gotten away from cooking meals ourselves. With the advent of inexpensive drive thru service, it is easier and faster to just pick up some questionable food from a chain restaurant or pick up the phone for take out. Our busy, hectic lives prevent us from having the time to spend an hour or so making a good healthy meal and enjoying it with family and friends. A home cooked meal has become a luxury. Is it any wonder the Old World countries where meals are prepared at home look down on us for our eating habits?

I try to cook our meals myself at least 5 or 6 nights a week, health permitting. I know the quality of the food we eat, and can make sure that we are all getting the proper amount of vegetables and fruits we need. I try to grow as much of our food as possible and what I can't grow, I try to buy locally. I generally do not buy mixes and kits for the things we eat because they are loaded with salt and preservatives. My children had rather eat a meal that I prepare than to spend a lot of money to eat out. It makes me feel good to know that they understand the difference in quality that a home cooked meal provides because the secret ingredient is always Love.

And finally...

Your actions make a difference. You work hard at what you do. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment. That in turn makes you feel good about yourself and more willing to feel good about the things and people around you. And the effect is viral. The better you feel, the more those around you want to feel that way as well. If you don't work hard, that good feeling isn't spread around and everyone is simply plodding along. If you treat others with kindness and respect, they return the favor. If you treat others poorly, you will also be treated that way. If you tell the truth, no matter how hard that truth is to bear, you will receive the truth as well. When you want only the things you actually need or already have, then you are not wasting your resources for frivolous things. You can focus on Enough, and not on the media driven consumer driven compulsion to buy, you do not need a McMansion that you cannot afford to house all of your things that you don't need or even really want. You don't have to work every second of every day to be able to pay the credit card bills for all the things you have bought. You have time to actually be a parent and spouse. You have time to do the things that make you feel good about yourself. And you have time to sit down at the table to a home cooked meal, prepared with Love.

Unfortunately, none of these things are very common in the fast paced society we now live in. We do not have time to sit and think about the things we do and how it effects ourselves and others. We have become greedy with our time, our money, and our feelings toward others. We all want MORE, without having to give of ourselves in return.

Well, I for one, will not live that way. I challenge the WORLD to join me.

We are all gonna die!

Every so often, I get a bee up my butt about things. Generally, it has to do with the state of our government. Or the Economy. Or Big Agri. Or lobbyists. Or our elected officials. All of which are essentially the same thing, when you boil it down to the bare minimum.

Today, I am irritated by the fact that we are all going to die. Sounds silly, I know. We all have to die sometime, from some cause or another. But what is bothering me today is the absolute staggering numbers of ways to day that no one is telling you about.

Where to begin. Pesticides. That seems to be a given, right? If it can kill a bug, it can kill a person, right? Seems simple. So we all try to limit our pesticide use. Except for Big Agri. See the connection here? To get the increased yields that the GMO (again, see the previous rants about Big Agri) grains and seeds are supposed to supply us with, you have to keep the bugs out of it. So, pesticides are sprayed over the fields. Supposedly, they can't be used within so many days of harvest so that the effective half life of the chemical of choice is degraded enough to be safe for consumption. That all sounds lovely, doesn't it? In reality, only part of those chemicals have degraded enough for the arbitrary levels that the EPA sets to fall within the "safe" limits. The rest of it is still on the product. Well, we all wash our fruits and veggies to make sure we get rid of the rest of it. The problem is that if it has rained at all during the growing cycle, and we all know it has or the crop wouldn't grow, that pesticide gets washed into the soil where it is taken up by the root system and deposited into what ever the crop is. So that beautiful tomato that you wash so carefully, probably has pesticide residue inside it that can't be washed off. So all of that careful washing, while it will remove anything left on the surface, is irrelevant to the overall picture.

And another overlooked fact is the that when Big Agri first started it's boom in the 1950's and 60's, there wasn't a lot of research on the long term effects of some of the pesticides being used. DDT for instance. DDT was wonderful for vector control of insects, like mosquitoes, but had the disturbing side effect of hanging around long after it was sprayed. DDT has been linked to diabetes, cancers, hormonal changes in both men and women, miscarriage, developmental problems and hypothyroidism. And all of that isn't even counting the enviromental effects on wildlife. Thankfully, DDT was banned for use in agriculture in 1972 in the U.S. but it wasn't until 2004 that it was restricted to vector control worldwide. So most of use who are at least 40 years old probably have come in contact with it at some point in our lives.

These days, other less persistent insecticides are used yet the long term effects of these poisons are being overlooked or deliberately withheld from the general public. Even pesticides labeled for use in "organic" crops haven't been sufficiently tested because the companies that make them make billions of dollars from them and will not allow anyone to say they are bad.

OK, Enough on pesticides.

Another way we are all gonna die is from the food itself. Lets say you know about the pesticide issues so you grow all of your food organically, including grains, for your family. You have the 5-10 acres and the time needed to do that. First off, that makes you part of the extreme minority. But lets say you do it anyway. That is Great! You eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, eat a hot multigrain cereal for breakfast every day, bake all of your own bread, eat less than 4 ounces of lean meat a day if you eat meat at all. OK, lets look at what you are eating. Look at all the carbohydrates you are consuming every day. All of that cereal and bread. Every bit of those carbs turn into sugar in your body. If you are not a highly active person who actually uses all of those calories you are eating, all of that sugar will do one of two things. It either gets stored as fat or it gets burned as fuel. If you do not burn all of the calories, you will get fat. Seems simple right? Well, there is another problem. If you are constantly, consistently, eating too many carbs, you will run the risk of diabetes. And that is just from all the bread, grains, and starchy vegetables.

Most of us do not get the right mix of vitamins and minerals from our food. We just don't eat a varied enough diet. Even if you think you do, you probably don't. We have a tendency, as a society, to eat maybe 10 different vegetables on a regular basis. Peas, carrots, corn, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, with a couple of more thrown in on the individual basis. And we have a tendency to load those few up with butter or other fats to make them tasty. Then we eat more of them than we actually need. There are micro-nutrients in things like squash and leafy greens (which most people won't eat) that we just won't get from our normal diet. And if you don't cook or use highly processed mixes and "kits" to save time, or eat fast food a lot, your diet is even more lacking in nutrients.

All of this boils down to high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, etc. and the associated diseases like heart disease, arthritis, gall bladder issues, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, the list goes on and on.

So the food we eat will kill us even faster than the pesticides.

Then there are the environmental factors that we can't control. A little over 6 months ago, there was a devastating earthquake and tsunami to hit Japan. It severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant and they lost containment. Radiation poured into the ocean because they were having to use ocean water to put out the fires. Radiation poured into the air through the smoke from those same fires. The land around the plant has been so thoroughly contaminated that the people who used to live there will probably never be able to go home. In the days after the accident, people in the U.S. were very concerned about airborne radiation being carried by the Jet Stream. The folks in California got down-right panicked about it. But after the first month or so, the media thought it was a non-story anymore so the coverage stopped. You have to really look to find any stories about it, even on the internet. But there are stories out there. Radioactive iodine 131 was found in milk collected in the South Central parts of the United States. Radioactive rainwater was collected in California that contaminated reservoirs used for drinking water. And again, the list goes on. But the government doesn't tell us these things because it would just cause panic and there is nothing we can really do about it anyway.

Then there is the fact that rice from the Fukushima Prefecture has been banned for export because of the high radiation levels found in the rice grown there. Has no one thought that maybe the world might need to know these things? What about all of the radiation that is falling in California as rain? What will that do to the crop land there? All of those strawberries we all gobbled up last spring probably came from California unless they were from a verified local source. But you know what? It rained here too. Hmmm, makes you wonder, doesn't it? There are places in Scotland that still cannot sell their sheep as meat because the grass they eat was contaminated from the Chernobyl accident back in the 1980's. Kind of a scary thought.

But the big concern here is that the Fukushima Daiichi plant is STILL releasing radiation. They hope to have it contained by the first of the year. So all of that radiation that made the news back in March and April is still floating around us, unseen and unreported. Pleasant thought, huh?

What this all boils down to is the fact that we are all going to die. Not necessarily because we are just old and worn out, but because the Powers that Be either don't want us to know they are poisoning us, don't want us to know what is going on around us, or they give us mis-information so we cannot make informed choices.

None of these things make me trust the media or the government.

State funding linked to graduation rates

Our illustrious Arkansas State Legislature, in all of their infinite wisdom, have decided to discuss the possibility of linking the funding provided to State colleges and Universities to the graduation rates of the individual schools. What they are saying is that the schools who have the highest grad rates, get the most money.

Now, that being said, the University of AR at Fayetteville is the most exclusive State University in Arkansas. It is in the area of the state that also has the Walton Family (Wal-mart headquarters), the Tyson Family (Tyson Chicken), JB Hunt Trucking, and has been the only Republican area of Arkansas for the last 150 years. They have the highest graduation rate in the state because you have to have a higher GPA and test scores to even be accepted.

But there are also 2 Universities in the Delta region of the state, aka the poor folks. These are Arkansas State University in Jonesboro (where DD goes) and University of AR at Pine Bluff.

ASUJ( Northeastern region) has a history of being a "regional" college but they have recently been focusing on helping students stay in school and graduate with a useful degree. They also have a network of "feeder" schools, aka junior colleges, that offer 2 year degrees and let the students transfer into ASUJ after the first 2 years.

UAPB on the other hand, is a 4 year college that focuses on giving minorities a chance to get an education. They are in the poorest(Southeastern) section of the state, and in Arkansas that means the least educated. Their graduation rates have a tendency to correspond to the general education of the region.

This legislation is specifically designed to keep the rich, well educated area of the state, well educated and rich, and keep the poor, uneducated areas, poor and uneducated.

This is absolutely not what the legislature is supposed to do. They are supposed to educate the poor, economically depressed areas so they are not so poor and economically depressed. This is a classic example of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. The Democrats want to keep that minority voting block on the public dole.

It is just so counter-intuitive.

The more things change...

Well, the election is over, my hand is healing, and the leaves are falling from the trees. And change is in the air, on many different levels.

We the People have shown the Powers That Be that we didn't like the way they were doing business on our behalf and fired a good many of them. What that means for the future is anyone's guess. It could be that we will be hopelessly gridlocked and nothing will get done. Or it could mean that we will have a brand new set of problems. No one can predict the future, but it will be a change, regardless.

I finally got that club of a bandage off of my hand. Now I am in a brace full time, except for bathing, and I start physical therapy on Monday. Should be interesting how that goes. I am fairly certain that I will be in the brace at least until after Thanksgiving. The brace bugs me, but it is still better than the bandage. My hand is still peeling from that thing. So that is another change, hopefully for the better this time.

And Fall is falling. The days are getting shorter and cooler. High school and college football are starting to wind up their seasons. Most folks are starting to think about Christmas gifts and special meals with family and friends. The harvests are done. I have been doing some of my shopping online so I don't have to fight the crowds or the weather. We don't have a lot of gifts to buy anyway, but at least online, I can find the best prices and actually get something unique and not the same old stuff the local stores offer. I am not able to make gifts like I have in the past because of my hand, but that is OK. There is always next year.

So, change is coming. For good or bad.

The Economy, the Election, and What it means for Us

Continued from yesterday...

So what does the upcoming election mean for us as Americans? I personally don't think it really means all that much. I know that people get passionate about their favorite candidate, and sometimes are very vocal, but I don't feel that either of the major party candidates will be a good choice.

We have allowed our leaders to destroy the Democratic process by our apathy. We just don't care what they do in Washington as long as they give us money every now and then and stay out of our way. We do not care that they are bought and paid for by lobbyists and special interests groups. On a local level, we do not care that lucrative state and county contracts go to good friends and relatives instead of the lowest bidder or the most qualified. We do not question where the campaign funds come from. We just don't care. And as a result, the only people who want to become politicians are those who are in the business for personal gain, not for the want to do good.

What it all boils down to is that politicians, as a species, are not politicians so that they can help the people. And that being the case, one is just as good as the other. Either way, the American people lose.

The US economy is in such bad shape from lack of oversite, that there will not be a good or easy way out. The economy will collapse. How far, and for how long, is really the only question. Home prices have been way, way over-valued for the last 10-15 years so the local governments could collect higher property taxes. Gasoline has been over-taxed so the DOT could collect more money to pay civil engineers to design new bridges and roads that we have nowhere to put. Income taxes have been raised time and again to pay for social programs that encourage people to not work and have more babies instead of training them for good paying jobs. The Social Security Program has been tapped into for decades to fund congressional pet projects instead of being used to keep healthcare costs for senior to a manageable level. Farmers are being paid to NOT grow certain crops to keep the prices artificially high instead of letting the market take care of itself. Factory farms are pushing traditional farmers out of the business through over regulation and higher production costs.

Every dollar you earn is taxed a minimum of 4 times. Yet we are going to pay $700 BILLION to bank CEOs for driving their businesses into the ground. Where is that money going to come from? You guessed it, higher taxes...again.

Higher taxes mean fewer jobs. Fewer jobs means higher unemployment. Higher unemployment means more people default on their loans and credit cards. More defaults means more banks will fail. See a cycle here?

My guess is that it will be a very lean Christmas season for retail sales. And come January, credit card companies will start failing. That will mean all the people who live on their credit cards will no longer have access to credit. It is very possible that the card companies will demand payment in full. That would mean that every card that you have a $2000-$10,000 balance on will say, "Pay it off now or we will sue." Blood from a turnip I know, but if they get a judgment against you in court, they can seize your assets to settle the debt. Like your house, your kid's college fund, your IRA. See the picture? And the government will be on their side because they do not want the banks and card companies to fail.

Your best bet is to do what every you have to do to pay those suckers off and never look at a credit card again. Pay cash. Or use a debit card. Or better yet, do without it if you can.

I Hate Politicians

Well, we have done it now. Our wonderful Congress has passed the bill to put the American people farther into debt than we will ever be able to get out of, and The Prez signed it.

We have have 900 Billion dollars worth of pork to pay for.

I heard someone say today that if you are not stockpiling guns, MREs, and converting your mini-bike to run off of tree sap you are going to be wishing you had. It makes me incredibly glad I have some food put back and all of our debt except the house paid off.

I cannot think of anything scarier than a complete lack of order in this country. There are so many people who think they are entitled to everything all paid for by the US government that if things start going South, there will be looting, food shortages, and total chaos. And the really bad part of it is that the majority of US citizens don't have a clue how to survive without a McDonald's nearby.

Granted, I can get by on a lot less than I have. It won't be fun, or easy, but I at least have spent the last couple of years learning. My reasons for learning are different than a lot of people's, but it is still a good reason to learn. I don't want to have to have any, or at least much, money. If something happens where we cannot get a job, I want to be able to live with at least some moderate standard of living.

There are still some things I would have to barter for. Sugar, coffee,tea, yeast, fabric, oils, tools, that sort of things, but just about everything else, I can make due. We don't HAVE to have coffee, but it sure makes the morning better. I guess I could make herbal teas like mint and sassafras. Those are fairly easy to do and it could be sweetened with honey.

I guess I could spin my own wool for yarn to make sweaters and socks. I have never done it before but I guess I could. I might convince my husband to build or buy me a loom to make my own fabrics, but I think it would just be cheaper to buy it. Some things just aren't worth the trouble.

Leather goods are do-able but not much fun. And very smelly. And hard to work. So...probably not.

But if it comes down to it, I imagine that there is a lot of things I could do if I really needed to.