...felt like this:


And then I had to call Daisycat to talk about **her** computer issues (and *other* stuff...) and it felt like this:


I need a little bit of this to wash the bad taste out of my mouth:

Labels: life on the border, misanthropy

...in the valley.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

James O'Keefe Arrested for Attempting to Bug Senator Mary Landrieu's Offices? -- Ace of Spades HQ

Pretty damn stupid if true, dude.

...will likely be stymied by his own party.

Which is too bad, because it's the first good idea he's pursued since being sworn in. But we already knew that the key Democrat players are bought and paid for by the industry.

I'm looking at YOU, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Tim Johnson...

Republicans aren't likely to help. Which is stupid of them. Because if they wanted to ride a populist wave back into power, nothing would play better in Peoria than straightening out the mess that caused this recent destruction. They could gain a lot of ground by forcing the banks to separate their savings and loan business from their hedge fund business, changing the way mortgages are packaged into securities and how they are required to be valued, requiring "too big to fail" banks to break up into safer units of business, etc.

But of course, the Republicans are bought and paid for too.

FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy - White House nightmare persists

Labels: financial ponderings, politics, society and culture, The Failed Obama Presidency

Why Tiger Woods' "sex addiction" therapy is pure unadulterated emasculating bullshit:
Why Are We Surprised? | Psychology Today

Don't try to pull this "sex addict" bullshit explanation over on me. Women seek out high-status men and men seek to enhance their status for the identical reasons. Only several decades of sexual political obfuscation has blinded too many to the truth.

This crap is nothing more than the latest attempt by feminists to betafy men even more so than they already are.

------------------
Related

Labels: society and culture

Identifying Sure Signs Of The Final Economic Plunge : Neithercorp Press


What to look for to help us determine that the "other shoe" is finally dropping.

The parts for my new computer came this week, so Friday and part of Saturday was spent assembling them and installing the OS and software. This is a Windows 7 machine, AMD Phenom II X4 965 with 8 GB of memory. It is intended to be able to run AutoCAD 2010, enabling me to work from home. It is a once a week commute-saving measure now, but if a partial SHTF scenario arises, it could keep me in employment with minimal or no need for a physical presence in the city.


The cooler that came with the processor has heat pipes! That is cool. You usually have to pay extra for something like that--for that matter the last time I assembled a machine from scratch, the cooler was *not* included with the processor.

Right now I am still on the old box, because figuring out how to do stuff in Windows 7 is taking me a while. I've been using Windows 7 at work with no issues, but that is because we have an IT Geek who takes care of all the headaches for me. Here at home the headaches are all my own. I'm just taking a break now to post this update.

The winter storm ended up dropping a total of at least four to five inches of rain over the course of two days down here on the farm. That is a significant percentage of our annual total. As a result the washes were flowing. Here, the San Pedro River is living up to its name as a *river* and not the San Pedro Dry Sandy River Bed.


Friday morning the county closed the road because of this:


This is after the waters had receded substantially--the mud on the banks indicating the water had been at least three feet deep and flowing fast at one point earlier in the day.



By late Friday afternoon, I and a few other neighbors were braving the stream in our pickups and 4WD vehicles. I called Daisycat and let her know the coast was, if not clear, at least passable (the "road closed" sign notwithstanding). (Her *manner* of crossing said flowing wash led me to nickname her "Redneck Reba" however. She took a rather "Dukes of Hazzard" approach to the wash, lending about six feet of loft to the contents of her pickup bed as she hit the bank on the far side at significant speed...)

Yee Ha-aw-ww!!

Snow on the mountains:


I finished constructing the second door and hung it Saturday afternoon. This morning Daisycat assisted me with laying additional courses of flooring blocks.


She also brought over a few wheelbarrow loads of gravel to fill a low spot that puddles during heavy rains, while I was setting blocks.


This afternoon we returned our attention to her motorized bicycle. A few weeks ago I replaced the single brake handle with this dual brake handle, permitting both front and rear brakes to be actuated with one hand. Having both brake and clutch over on the left side was proving to be terribly problematic. This makes the setup virtually identical to a regular motorcycle, for which she already has kinetic memory.


The weight of the engine was taxing the ability of the existing kickstand to keep the bike upright. We replaced it with this motorcycle-style kickstand.


I also worked on the chain tensioner pulley, but failed in my attempt to disassemble it to modify it as planned. I ordered a new one from the supplier. It will be kept tight by a spring when I am done with it, rather than just by a nut that has a tendency to slip. But that will be another weekend.

Jasmine settling in for some "me" time, while I try to work at my computer:

............................................cat butt!

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Kicks a little?


This gets funny to watch after a while.

Only the last guy to shoot wasn't a gurly-man.

Via Ace-o-Spades who has more about this ridiculous rifle.

Labels: felicity and jocularity, firearms

Who'd think either in Tucson? Yet the southeast corner of the state is under a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow. Of course when you read the fine print, you see that it only actually applies to high elevation areas. We'll be lucky to see snow below 4000', and almost certainly not down here on the Cat Farm.

But this evening with the high winds and driving rain, it seemed more like we were in a hurricane. Seriously, gusts in high elevations had actually gotten into hurricane territory earlier in the day. When I stopped for gas this evening, the scene reminded me of video I have seen of hurricane areas--the trees bending over and lashing hard, debris flying across the parking lot at high speed, howling wind, etc. I was afraid for my house miles away.

Much of the trip had me driving the same direction or almost the same direction of the wind. It was only the last leg that I was fighting the wind directly. Elsewise it would have been a more "interesting" drive home.

Down in the valley finally, the wind did not seem as severe, and since I got home I have not heard any of the really intense gusts I was afeard of. This house is not anchored--an oversight I wish I'd had the movers address before they left the site. Now I either pay them to return or I attempt it myself, because weather like this makes me think of all the demolished mobile homes in the path of hurricanes in Florida.

Well I had written a longish post about this story. It got lost in the posting during a temporary internet outage here on the Cat Farm.

Obama's 'Volcker Rule' shifts power away from Geithner - washingtonpost.com

O well. This is good news. Republicans, don't stand in the way, lest you get blasted by the populist rage that knocked the Mass. Senate seat out of the hands of the Demos.

Update: Thankfully Vox says essentially the same thing I said in the lost post, in the last couple of paragraphs of his recent column. More here at his blog.

Labels: financial ponderings, politics

Here you go: for those of you who hate to read more than a couple paragraphs, this documentary recently aired on the History Channel. It is now in nine parts on YouTube. This is the stuff that keeps me up late at night planning and implementing my plans. This is the stuff that most people don't want to think about, and won't think about until it is too late. That is a recipe for disaster--disaster on the scale that Haiti is experiencing.

Watch. Be sobered. Take action:

YouTube - After Armageddon 1/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 2/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 3/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 4/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 5/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 6/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 7/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 8/9
YouTube - After Armageddon 9/9

Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic

Yes, auto-appendectomy*. In the wilderness. With no other medical staff present.

Whew...I get dizzy thinking about it.

*(For those of you in Rio Linda, that means he removed his own appendix.)

After finishing the cooking I started earlier in the weekend, I had to scrounge for containers. Seems I have a bit-o-food laid by in my freezer.

Just call me "Frugal Squirrel".

Real progress on the workshop this weekend. I framed in the west end doorway and hung one of two doors.

Inside view:

Here is door no. 2 under construction:


After the doors and their associated hardware are installed, I will pause this project for a bit. I ordered components for a new computer last week, and I expect them to arrive in time for next weekend. My laptop computer screen died a couple weeks ago, and the "other" computer out here was my Dad's old computer before his last upgrade. It is fine for web browsing but not anything high powered. I have permission to work from home one day per week, so this new computer will have the horsepower to run my CAD application at home. Then Daisycat will be moving a couple weekends later, and I will be helping with that, together with moving what little I still have from the Tucson house. (No, she's not moving out here with me.)

After that, I have taxes to file, and finally when I return to projects, I will need to do some garden work before starting on my solar cooling tower project. So finishing the east end of the workshop will be moved down the road a few months. Which is fine, because the immediate need for a sheltered central location for my tools, workbenches, etc. will be met. The rest comes later at a lower priority level, and will probably wait until I put up the second section of patio cover and build the associated deck up to the front door.

The upcoming gardening is what I put off last fall. February is the month to get any early spring planting done. I have three more beds to till, and part of one of those beds will be an experimental wheat plot. The seasons won't wait, so if I do not wish to lose a season of soil building I have to work when the time is right. I do have the benefit of one more scheduled holiday next month. Then the calendar is holiday-free until Memorial Day.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Ok, any Jeremy Camp fans out there? Because I think it happened again, where I was listening to a Christian Alternative song in my dream that does not exist in the world (yet).

There was only one pair of lines I heard as I was waking up:
"You give me who I am,
I give you who I was"

It sounded like it could have been Jeremy Camp, or another male vocalist similar to him.

Labels: art appreciation, dreams

I've been waiting for the local grocery store to put their boneless-skinless-chicken-breasts on sale again for a couple months now. Friday when I went in, they were on sale again, so I stocked up on several packages. However after I had cleaned out the boneless-skinless-chicken-breast section of the meat counter, I noticed they also had pork roast on sale. Oh dilemma! So I put two packages of chicken back (out of six) and grabbed a package of pork roast.

The chicken I cubed, cooked and froze for later cooking. The pork I just got finished with the first step of a nummy meal.

I cubed and browned the pork together with sage, salt and pepper, and poured off and saved a bunch of liquid during the cooking. I added more sage, onion powder and poultry seasoning to the liquid. Then I removed the browned pork from the pan, added lard and flour and browned the flour together with the leftover pork juices to make a roux. I poured the saved liquid into the roux, then threw the browned pork back into the bubbly, savory gravy.

One little bit-o-piggy tried to get away as I scooped it into a container for tomorrow. I nommed it and nearly passed out with orgasmic delight!

Oh Yes! This will be good over a bed of sage pilaf, yes it will! Together with some veggies on the side, this will go into serving size containers for lunches for a couple weeks.

Right now my house smells heavenly!

Labels: food

President Obama Signs Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors | The White House

The President today signed an Executive Order (attached) establishing a Council of Governors to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal Government and State Governments to protect our Nation against all types of hazards. When appointed, the Council will be reviewing such matters as involving the National Guard of the various States; homeland defense; civil support; synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.

...such as Operation Garden Plot.

You leftists who were shrieking about Bush's fascist plots are a real joke. It was not BUSH, per se. It was and is The Agenda. Your man Barry O, and every leftist and left-leaning politico in any and every major position of power around this nation are every bit on board with this, as are the internationalists and Neo-Trotskyites of the Bush Cabal.

Labels: fascism on parade, politics, The Failed Obama Presidency, watching the skies

I must issue an apology to my readers for having misspoken in one of my posts below. I compared our current economic condition to a car accelerating toward a brick wall or a cliff.

This is a misleading analogy.

We are, in fact, already over the cliff, in freefall and accelerating under the force of gravity toward the valley floor far below.

Everyone knows something is wrong now. Looking out the windows of our Short Bus, we do not see the familiar landscape breezing by and the road zipping along beneath the wheels. Instead we're tumbling through the air in a giddy, vaguely nauseating manner, and the scenery seems much farther away, except that some of the riders on our collective Short Bus notice a certain bit of scenery that pops into view from time to time that appears to be rushing rapidly toward us. But it pops out of view as the bus continues tumbling through the air.

Whee!! Nothing really bad has happened, yet, right!

The Driver says that anytime now the Short Bus will sprout wings and SO-O-O-OAR!!!

Me? I'm back at the emergency exit, frantically strapping on a parachute (that I hope to God will open when I jump out and pull the cord)!

"2010: Giant Gathering Storm Clouds" by Jim Willie, CB, FSU Editorial 01/06/2010

Labels: financial ponderings, society and culture, watching the skies

I recently received an offer to become an affiliate for an online "readiness" store. That makes sense, since one of my regular topics is preparedness in the face of the impending collapse.

However after checking out their website and their price for a one year food supply for one person, I nearly choked! Their package was unconscionably overpriced! For the price of their "one year for one person" food supply, you can buy a "one year for two people supply from this store: Best Prices Storable Foods. The contents of the package in terms of food quality and variety is comparable. I have done business with Best Prices Storable Foods and have been happy with their products and service. I've sampled some of their specialty items, in particular the canned meats, and they are very acceptable. They are top on my list for future purchases. Don't pay too much! Shop around, then check out this supplier.

Or better yet, if you have the time and resources to do so, put together your own pantry of long shelf-life foods, do your own canning, plant a garden and raise small livestock.

Sure, I'd love the 10% commissions, but I'm not going to misdirect my readers to collect it.

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing, preparedness

Obama TSA Nominee Erroll Southers Calls Pro-Life Advocates Terrorists in Video

President Barack Obama's nominee to head the agency charged with keeping American travelers safe from terrorism thinks pro-life advocates are terrorists. A new video shows Transportation Security Administration nominee Erroll Southers including pro-life advocates in a list of terrorist groups.

The word "terrorist" is rapidly losing the meaning it has always conventionally had--that is, a person or group of persons who attempt to effect political or military goals through the use of terror--typically random violence perpetrated against innocent civilians.

How then are Tea Party tax protesters "terrorists" by that definition? How are pro-life advocates "terrorists" by that definition. For that matter, this same idiot goes on to state that people who identify as Christian also belong on the list of "terrorists".

This is utter, gibbering drooling madness! And yet, these are the people who are currently running the government! Of course, opposition to the current regime paints a target on you as a BIG terrorist! Never mind if your opposition takes the form of advocating and contributing to the election of representatives that would return this nation to a Constitutionally sound form of government, returning it to "by the people and for the people" rather than by the oligarchs and for their personal enrichment.

There is no win here. There is just a really huge load of shit about to hit a really huge fan. When valid, constitutional opposition is recast as "terrorism" against a regime that is becoming increasingly illegitimate as it sets itself against the democratic will and interests of the people it is supposed to represent, then unpleasant things will inevitably result.

Personally I would like to be a million miles away when it does, but I may not have that luxury. Damned by the Chinese curse of living in "interesting times", I am...

Labels: fascism on parade, watching the skies

For those of you unwilling to read large tracts, here is a talk given by Dmitry Orlov regarding comparisons between the collapse of the former USSR and the collapse that is now occurring in this country, and what we can do to mitigate it: FORA.tv - Dmitry Orlov: Social Collapse Best Practices

Bonus: Dry Russian humor!

Labels: preparedness, society and culture

For those of you following the drama, he's back.

I didn't know what happened until just today. I am still unclear on some of the details.

Oh, and FeministX is now on the blogroll below his link. My opinion of her has gone through several iterations, but the fact that she stood up for him has elevated her stature several notches. Strange, interesting woman, and her coming around to him has proofed Roissy's true alpha cred in my view.

I know some of you despise Roissy, and that's perfectly understandable. But there are many potent grains amidst his chaff, and coming at the time in my life that they did, they have been of tremendous value to me. I begin to truly grok for the first time in my life. He deserves that credit.

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing

You've got competition:
FOXNews.com - Palin to Join Fox News as Contributor

Labels: politics, women

Sealift -- Desert Cat supports Iraqi security training

The 226-foot ship – nicknamed Desert Cat for its feline-like versatility in the Persian Gulf operating area – served as the platform for U.S./Iraqi port-security training in the Persian Gulf from Aug. 30 to Nov. 6.

The things you can learn from the searches that bring people to your site...

Hey sailors, you're confusing Google with your nicknaming!

(Should I be concerned that someone from the Bulgarian government has been parked on my site all morning looking for military information?)
(Update: Ok here might be why--Eight all-terrain vehicles to be delivered to Bulgarian military police. Besides being my moniker, "Desert Cat" is a brand of ATV.)

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing, minutiae

...showing why there is a long, long, long way to go before the bottom is reached.
A "Macro Level" Look At The Economy - The Market Ticker

Lots of stuff there, folks. Charts, analysis, some of which I've seen before, some that is new to me. We are still barreling along at 70 mph toward that brick wall (or cliff, whichever you prefer). Since the beginning of the Obama administration we have definitely accelerated, and the destruction will be more severe than ever.

Also this:

More than two years ago I wrote a letter to all 535 members of Congress in which I implored them to find and set aside $200 billion in actual cash - not for "hand outs" in the traditional sense, but rather for the provision of emergency food, shelter and clothing, possibly to be provided on formerly-closed military facilities for up to 25% of the American population for a period of one year or more. They of course ignored that entreaty to the best of my ability to discern, but the reason for it was clear to me at the time and still is - a hungry and homeless population is a dangerous population, and "discontent" when married to an empty belly can easily turn to armed rebellion, especially if and when the "rabble" discern (and they eventually will) that they have been systematically robbed for decades by Wall Street, K Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Don't count on them having ignored it. Given the information we have available, these gulags are up and ready to begin operation just as soon as the first groups of "discontent" Americans begin to raise their voices. And don't count on their being run primarily for economic refugess, either.

Labels: financial ponderings, politics, The Failed Obama Presidency

It must be the short days and long nights, because I have had a hard time making progress on my projects lately. I think what I really need to do is take time during the week for some conditioning exercise, because after sitting all week, my weekend activities are not enough to keep me in shape. I've been slowly sliding, and then everything I do takes longer when I have to stop and catch my breath.

I finally got past a hurdle on my workshop wall construction. I fabricated a means to attach another strip of siding to the patio cover gutters, above the top of the eight-foot panels I previously attached to the backs of the shelf units.


I took inspiration for the lapped siding installation from the detail of the west end of the mobile home itself.


The shelves are beginning to accumulate my workshop stuff, gathered from the four winds where it has been scattered up until now.


Next step would be fabricating the doorway frame at the west end. But first I need to lay the patio blocks to establish the final floor level. I bought 20 more blocks, because my little Mitsubishi hasn't got room in back nor weight carrying capacity for a whole lot more. If I get twenty at a time every weekend I'll have the floor done in no time.


I have not shown any photos of my garden lately, mostly because very little is happening. The winter temperatures have slowed the growth of my cover crops to a crawl, although it is encouraging to see them growing slowly anyway.

The first bed I planted is starting to look thick.


The later beds still look thin, although noticeable growth is still occurring. The beds I didn't get to last fall will wait until February before I turn them over and plant.


The crop of cats are doing nicely.


Over the past several weeks I have been soaking the ground under my drought-stressed mesquite bosques. I typically do this in the winter and early spring months to keep select areas growing more lushly, despite the decade-long drought we've been having. On New Year's Eve, I was not planning to stay up until midnight, but a 5 minutes after midnight I got up with a start. I suddenly remembered I had left the sprinkler running back there.

I padded outside in my bathrobe and slippers and turned the water off. The moon was full, and was literally directly overhead. It was rather amazing to see it straight up in the sky, like the sun would be at noon over the equator. I suppose I have never paid close attention to how high in the sky it gets when it is full nearest the winter solstice. It was very bright, and as always when the moon is full, it felt magical.

But I missed something even more spectacular, something that would have been awesome to see in the moonlight. Where I had been sprinkling, the bushes, trees and fence had become coated in ice. The next morning I beheld a winter wonderland!

By noon it was gone again.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Listen and weep...

The end result of the Tea Party movement.

More, more, more, more, and more.

Operation Garden Plot is a general U.S. Army and National Guard plan to respond to major domestic civil disturbances within the United States. The plan was developed in response to the civil disorders of the 1960s and is now under the control of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM). It provides Federal military and law enforcement assistance to local governments during times of major civil disturbances.

It defines tax protesters, militia groups, religious cults, and general anti-government dissenters as terrorists. It calls for deadly force to be used against any extremist or dissident perpetrating any and all forms of civil disorder

Here is my controversial addition to this subject: I believe the conflict in Iraq was/is training for what is coming in *this* country.

Related: Rex 84

Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, is a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of civil unrest or national emergency.

More. Also, Greg Evensen's site.

Ignorance is bliss. This is what I get for following my nose. Connect the dots, people. It's not too hard. I became aware of the fact that I was being scanned and analyzed a few months ago (I'd have to look it up--I believe I posted something at the time), and was deemed to be unworthy of serious attention. (Update-back on April 21 last year, and no, I didn't post on it here.)

Never Bow Down
Take me from my home
Drag me with the tether
Tell me it's all wrong
The things I've always known
Instill in me all that you think
Will make all of us better
Do just what you want
It matters not to me
I will never bow down
though I know I will be saved from the fire
I will never compromise
All that I have and everything I hold
Call us all around
To show us what you have made
Command us all to fall
When the music starts to play
And everyone from everywhere
Will show you their allegiance
Bu the child of God
Will faithfully stand tall

Mac Powell

Laugh at me if you will, Luciferians. Mock me and my pathetic "preps" if you will. I know your strength and the time it will last. You will prevail against us for a time, times and half a time...and no longer. Nothing I can do will stop you, and nothing you can do will stop the One Who sits on the throne of Heaven from pouring out his decreed justice upon you. Rage while you are able. Commit murder and mayhem while your hour lasts. It will come to an abrupt end, and those of us whom you have murdered will become a vast host of witnesses against you. Your end will be Justice.

We will rise again, transformed. Your end will be utter, and horrible.

You do not have to believe it. In fact, it is necessary that you do not believe it. Else why would you commit yourself to your own destruction? Tell me, why do those whom you serve gnash their teeth at the sound of the name of Jesus? Why do they quake and flee at the whiff of His blood in their nostrils? If they are so powerful, why were they unable to contain Him within the Grave? Ask them. Ask them if they believe that Jesus is who He says he is.

You dare not. You dare not, because *you* too, know the answer.

-----------------------
Warriors, gird yourself for battle. The time is upon us.

Labels: liberty, military stuff, society and culture, statism, watching the skies

Men: Wonder why women are so hard to understand? You're not the only one!

Terence Blacker: We men are in touch with our feelings - Terence Blacker, Commentators - The Independent

An authoritative study, published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour journal, has investigated 132 surveys, involving 4,000 interviewees, in order to analyse truthfulness when it comes to sexual matters.

The results are startling. Whereas men's mental and physical response to desire was found to be perfectly aligned, there was a disastrous mismatch between what women felt and what they said they were feeling. Some reported that they were aroused when, physiologically, they were not. Others claimed to feel nothing when in fact their bodies were absolutely fizzing with erotic need.

See, this is why Roissy and others of his ilk are so successful. They have figured out 1) that women have no idea what they actually want, 2) what exactly it is that women *do* want, and 3) how to exploit that gap to get what *they* want.

For those of us who are not playas, it is a safe assumption that whatever she is saying is only marginally related to what is actually going on inside her.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Labels: women

Ron Paul's ideas no longer fringe - latimes.com

Read it and weep, Republican Paul haters!

His ideas are becoming a rallying point for resurgent conservatism--ideas that you abandoned after the 1994 revolution--ideas that you had no business abandoning *ever* if you had any hope or desire to remain the dominant party.

Those of you who are content to remain the minority party, shucking and jiving and sniping around the edges of the Democrat juggernaut...you I look upon with all the disgust and contempt I reserve for a gob of snot stuck to the sole of my shoe! You know who you are, the Brooksies and the Frummies and the Noonans and all the rest of you mealy-mouthed, wishy-washed tossers of leftist posterior. You are no credit to the Republican party, and frankly I think the Big Tent would be all the more robust if it pulled in its flaps from your direction.

Labels: financial ponderings, liberty, politics

Preparing for a 'nuclear event' - LA Daily News

While the possibility of a nuclear attack in Los Angeles seems almost unthinkable, local officials are inventorying hundreds of old bomb and fallout shelters as part of their preparations for a 'radiological or nuclear event.'

Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas are drafting emergency plans while federal agencies study how to prepare the public for what county public health Director Jonathan Fielding describes as a 'low-likelihood, huge-consequences event.'

His department hosted a workshop last week for the emergency operations staff of the county's 88 cities in preparation for 'Golden Phoenix,' an exercise scheduled for June 2010 that simulates the scenario of a 10-kiloton nuclear device detonated in Los Angeles.

Yeah, it's just 'nutcases' like me who think about these things.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Just lovely. And you wonder why armed insurrection is being openly discussed in some quarters?

Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank: David Reilly - Bloomberg.com

----------------------------
Update: People! I see your eyes glazing over--KNOCK IT OFF! Liberals were having cows when Bush was running deficits in the hundreds of billions range. A trillion dollars is a THOUSAND BILLION dollars, and Barney Frank (D-MA) has seen to it that the very people responsible for the mess we're in are set to receive FOUR THOUSAND BILLION DOLLARS, backed by the American taxpayer--that would be you and me!

They are ripping us off (and our great grandchildren to a dozen generations), in order to prop up the oligarchy that has been ripping us off for at least the last 100 years!

Next time your liberal friends bloviate and flatulate about how liberals and Democrats are for the "little guy" and against "big corporate interests", smack them upside the face with *that* 2x4!

-------------------------------------
More: Banks accused of profiteering in 2009. Ya think?

-------------------------------------
Update 3
One for the "spitting into the ocean" file but probably worth doing anyway if only for the personal satisfaction: How To Protest Against the Banksters. I have done this myself a few months ago. A local credit union now gets my business instead of JP Morgan Chase.

Labels: financial ponderings, liberal stupidity, politics, The Failed Obama Presidency

My dreams occasionally astound me. Early in the dreaming sequence last night, I read the introduction to an article pertaining to me. It said something like "(my name), who is Jacobian and Bernardian in his outlook...", with the further understanding I had in the dream that it referred to "as opposed to the Kantian view, and per St. Bernard."

Now I am not studied in either philosophy or the history of the Catholic Church, so I had no idea what this referred to. In my sleep I made up my mind to **remember!!** these two terms until morning. I repeated them to myself several times throughout the night, so that I could look them up when I awoke.

Well.

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Bernard

Certainly the Jacobian perspective as outlined in that Wikipedia article does indeed encapsulate my philosophy. I am indeed a believer in the power of direct perception and knowledge as being the greater faculty over the faculties of reason and logic, which are applied post-facto to explain what was first perceived directly. Tell me this: if dreams are simply rehashments of stuff that I know or am aware of subconsciously, then where did that come from? Never in my life have I read anything about Friedrich Jacobi, let alone how his philosophy fits mine.

I'm not sure how St. Bernard fits into the picture, but perhaps I have not read enough yet. Perhaps, (as noted here), it pertains to his opposition to the heresy of Peter Abelard--relating to the elevation of reason over faith. Then again I see mention that he produced a substantial work on the topic of grace and free-will--a subject to which I have given considerable thought lately. Certainly it seems that a study of St. Bernard could take some time.

Labels: minutiae, ponderings