DickVille

One of my favorite movies of all time is Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It’s an old movie, released in 1974 and was Roman Polanski’s last film before he fled the country. I don’t know, maybe Roman knew something we didn’t and was smarter than we thought. Anyway, late in the movie Nicholson’s character discovers that Dunaway’s character has been less than forthcoming and he becomes angry. He asks her who the child in the movie really is, and she says “she’s my daughter.” Nicholson slaps her, so she says, “she’s my sister.” He slaps her again, and she says, “she’s my sister and my daughter,” indicating that her father had raped her and that the girl actually was her “sister and her daughter.” Mystery solved. The scene reminds me of our world today, mostly when I think of the vampire Dick Cheney.

While I’ve been withdrawn from society and watching from afar, the Boosh administration has created and executed the most horrific “secret society” that has ever led this nation. I have kept thinking that they can go no further nor become more absurd, but naturally I’ve been wrong. I actually thought the pathetic Alberto Gonsalez saga was about the furthest they could go and get away with it, but that turned out to be nowhere near the truth. I can't imagine how they can possibly top DickVille, but if I’ve learned nothing else, it is NEVER to underestimate what these evil creatures are capable of.

In a move to subvert Congress’ ability to provide oversight over this administration by recently stating that he is not a part of the executive branch, Dick Cheney has become a nation of one. He is not the Vice President of the United States; he is not the leader of the Senate of this country. He has become a country within himself, one that incidentally is without boundaries or laws other than those set by him and him alone. He does what he wants, when he wants, and there is no one to stop him. He deals in oil, arms, and Haliburton cash. He hires mercenaries to do his dirty work, has co-opted the US military to die for oil for as long as he can get away with it. George W. Boosh, the one man on earth who could do so, has neither the balls nor the wherewithal to stop him. Or, for that matter, the desire to do so. Meanwhile, our constitution has become irrelevant.

His argument is so absurd on its face that the Republican lawyers cannot begin to defend it. Hell, they can’t even keep a straight face while talking about it, so they don’t. Way back when, Cheney was asked by Congress for records regarding his little secret energy meetings. They started with simple questions, like who in the hell was present, and were told that he would not give up that information using the “executive privilege clause” as cover. He did this knowing full well that the follow up to that was to be, “hey, and what did you guys talk about?” I’ll give you a clue, not that you need it. Those present were the leaders of Exxon, Mobil, BP, etc., and they talked about how to maximize profits from us poor suckers in Middle America, (see price gouging,) and discussed just how to divide up all the profits on the Iraqi oil that they were soon to steal. Everyone already knew this; they just wanted it on the record for future reference and likely prosecution.

Fast forward to today. Now he’s being asked for information regarding certain communications involving the fired prosecuting attorneys and he now says that he is not a part of the “executive branch” at all but the leader of the Senate. In other words, he said “bite me.” He might not be the first Veep to tell Congress to shove it, but is clearly the first who is allowed to do so by his boss. Tony Snow won’t even touch this one. He sends his merry band of Bimbo communication hacks out to answer questions these days and they can’t keep a straight face. They just say that they don’t really know what “theory” the vampire is working under, and that you really need to ask his office for clarification. That’s great, except they don’t answer the phone in DickVille. Or, if they think it’s Aunt Sally calling and accidentally pick it up only to find a member of the press on the other end, they say “bite me” and hang up. That’s how it works in Dickville, and if you don’t like it, tough shit. Sue me, and we’ll drag it out until we’re out of office and then it won’t matter. Now that Alito and Roberts are in charge of things, Dick might even win. But then you have jurisdictional issues; I’m not sure that SCOTUS has any say in what goes on in DickVille. They would probably refuse to hear the case anyway. After all, they put the bastards in office in the first place.

Rob Emanuel has it right. De-fund the Vice President, take away his salary, secret service detail, Air Force II, give him one damn secretary and pay him a Senator’s salary. Great thought, but it will never happen. You’ll just be told “bite me” when you try to take the plane.

Slap/ I’m in the Executive branch, Slap/ I’m the head of the Senate, Slap/ I’m in the Executive branch AND I’m the head of the Senate. Welcome to DickVille.

We’re in serious trouble folks.

Cyclone

IT WAS NOT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Or, this was all planned out ahead of time. from Murph

Since the last post on the 9^th, I have been trying to get a feel for how the forecasters on several fronts tie in together. I am sure that most of you are seeing much the same forecasts as I am. It is looking pretty grim, but of course, for the last 2 years it has been looking grim.

Looking at what appears to be happening.

Food prices at the grocery store and restaurants have been increasing steadily since last year. The primary reason? Ethanol production.

Gas prices at the pump have been fluctuating all over the place, but keep increasing overall. The primary reason? Lack of refinery ability to keep up.

Inflation is in full swing. The Feds are in a bind. If they do what has traditionally been done to slow or stop inflation, that is, to raise interest rates the economy will tank. The primary reason? Running the printing presses full blast has increased the money supply beyond the ability of the economy to support its value. You increase money supply beyond production and capital investment needs and the value of the money goes down. That is called inflation.

Currently, according to some figures I have recently read, the economic top 25% or the of the population control 55% of the national assets. That is, the gap between wealth and low income is widening and becoming more severe. The primary reason? Policies of the Federal Reserve and the government. Every economic policy since Reagan has resulted in a further concentration of wealth into fewer hands. You think we learned that trickle down economics doesn’t work? But nooooo, more of the same is what we need.

According to everything I see, our military is stretched beyond its ability to be affective. We have too many military bases all over the world and our million personnel force is scattered also. Why do you think we have hired over 500,000 mercenaries? The primary reason? The present administration has ambitions of having controlling interest in world affairs, that is, empire building. Plus, we need energy in the form of fossil fuels to keep things rolling while that last of the loot is carried away, and currently, the last of the big oil is in the east under countries that really don’t like us much. They must come under our control or our economy will all fall apart. Think it’s possible?

The U.S. is now the biggest debtor nation in the world, exceeding many nations in conglomerate.
This debt is so huge, there is no way it can be paid. China and Japan hold most of it. Latest figures I have read say the debt is increasing by $800 billion per year and in aggregate, stands at around $17 trillion, including consumer debt. The primary reason? Government policies on money and the ambitions of the Bush dynasty to own the world at any cost.

Already, the administration is preparing the American population for explanations of why we aren’t going to get out of Iraq later this year. In September, there is supposed to be some kind of fork in the road for a decision about this, depending on how the Iraq government is performing. It sure appears to me we have a one way 6 lane expressway rather than a fork in the road ahead of us. Let’s admit it, this government is not going to give up Iraq. If they do, the power shift in that part of the world will be to our long deserved detriment. Iran, our hated part of the ‘axis of evil’, will gain enormous influence and will virtually, if not actually, control the remaining large reservoirs of oil, and this cannot be allowed to happen. Unless the U.S. can somehow establish a puppet government in Iran that is entirely beholding to Western interests, we have no choice but to ‘stay the course’.

The ‘greenies’ and ecological buffs are screaming for alternative sustainable sources of energy. None of which are sustainable. The American public is gaily paying higher prices for energy with no thought of having to give up even a part of the lifestyle we are so entitled to due to birthright.

Now, back to the title of this post. Is all of this just unforeseen consequences? I haven’t event touched on other aspects of what is going on. The consequences of the events and circumstances going on around us is horrendous. The biggies are going to be huge social disruption, rebellion and eventual die off. Could this be by mistake by those people that have the ability to affect policy? Could they really be that stupid?

Despite anything else that can be said about the elites that have control of how things are done, they are not stupid. I personally suspect that we are not seeing unforeseen consequences. I think this has been carefully planned out for the most part. Now that most of the wealth of the world has been focused into the hands of a very small minority, I think that they are going to let it all come tumbling down. Thus reducing the population to more manageable size, and keeping and iron control over just about everything and everyone.

Do you remember the stuff going around the internet by J. Gould some time back? The attitude in his writings was dominated by the concept of the majority of people should shut up and do what they were told by their betters. When you look at the mechanizations and thinking of the elitists groups, it sure looks to me that this is how they see the rest of the world. Well, controlling 6 billion people to that extent is simply impossible. We got to be trimmed down to size that can be controlled. On top of this attitude is what sure seems obvious to me. Right now, the third world countries are increasing their population by 80 million per year, and most of those populations exist in a state of hunger, much less arguing about what movie to watch tonight. This earth, obviously, has overshot the amount of people it can support. And it is all due to oil. If the elites want to continue to live their life of luxury and being waited on hand and foot, a bunch of us have to go. If the population of the world is to be fed and housed to make them productive for the elites, a bunch has to go.

I speculate that the biggest problem for the elites in accomplishing this is avoiding the die off themselves. That is one of the problems with the chemtrail conspiracies, the introduced viruses conspiracies and others that are circulating around. How do you keep from being adversely affected by what you do to reduce population? That could just be the ‘unintended consequences’ for unleashing stuff to get it done and over with post haste. Of course, there is the preemptive nuclear war solution, the starve ‘em solution, and God knows what else that can be dreamed up.

In any case we might imagine, I do not think all that we see going on right now is unintended. If I am correct, we are indeed toast.

BOY, THE PROBLEMS RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY,

Or am I (Bush) in trouble or what? By Murph

It almost borders on the absurd. You and I as citizens can read about what is going on, with little or no direct experience and only be in awe and wonder at what these people in Washington are thinking. How can anybody be so wrong all the time on everything?

The Kurds, Israelis, Turks and the U.S. now have another problem. I am sure it is another example of ‘unforeseen consequences’. The Kurds and the Turks have been at it for a long time now, constant border clashes and they hate each other. The Kurds have Israeli people setting up oil infrastructure at the behest of the U.S. in a secrete agreement. The Kurds are making incursion across the border in Turkey. The Turks are sending all kinds of military stuff to the border. The Israelis are spying on the Kurds, noting where their military stuff is located and deployment of troops to give the information to the Turks. Now into this situation, the Kurds don’t like the Sunnis or the Shiites and the Kurds are sitting on a whole bunch of oil. Not only that, but the Kurds are not very fond of us either since we supplied the gas that Saddam used to gas them and with our blessings. The Turks don’t like the Israelis monkeying around with the oil the Kurds are supposed to be in control of. If the Turks do a military operation on the Kurds, the Israelis are in danger of being hurt or driven out and yet we want to keep the Turks on the side of the U.S. It appears that there most certainly will be some kind of Turkish military action on the Kurds and with the help of the Israelis. In fact, it has been reported that the Israelis have cut off any kind of retreat by the Kurds if that happens. Does this sound like a catch 22 situation for Bush? I wonder how he figures to pull his chess-nuts out of the fire on this one. If this didn’t have such dire consequences it would be a hoot. I did laugh when I first read about this, but now the humor escapes me.

On another front, the Greenland Ice cap is melting fast enough that it will be gone in 5 years, not the 500 that was originally predicted. Gosh, I wonder if Washington D.C. might actually be under water soon. Course, we might blow a couple of bridges and close off some highway escape routes and let them drown, but I guess that’s just wistful thinking. Sort of like the burlap sack and the pond way of solving problems.

But of course the really really big story on the news for that last couple of days is Paris Hilton.

And on the Home front, the economy. I got to admit that I really would like to know what the big boys are doing or planning on doing about that situation. This country and the rest of the world is awash in money (money? Really?), right now, that is called liquidity. It is driving incredible amounts of inflation, and not just in the U.S. If you haven’t been paying attention, food prices have gone up by 7% this year alone. That works out to about 15% if it keeps up for the year. I really wonder what the economic advisors to this administration are going to recommend when about 50 million retired people can’t buy food anymore. Us old farts can get real ornery when we get hungry or cold.

And, oh yeh, there is the price of fuels. Notice that the national average price of gas went down 9 cents lately? Just in time for the tourist season? Now that is unusual since normally it goes up. I thought our reserves were down and refinery capabilities were depressed for maintenance and the cost per barrel had gone up. Who is lying to us about what? According to what I read, there is no big influx of oil anywhere. And then we got the hurricane Gonu in the shipping lanes in the Gulf of Arabia. They don’t build infrastructure for hurricanes over there since hurricanes have never happened in that area before. Are we going to see $100 per barrel soon? Last analysis I read was that if it hits land and does much damage it will be no less than 18-20 days before things are back on line. That is a lot of interruption. I haven’t seen any damage reports as of this writing.

According to the news services, the Iraq parliament has not yet decided whether to take one or two months off for the hot part of the summer starting on July 1. I bet that has Bush tied in knots too. If them folks don’t get their act together then Bush is going to have to make a decision concerning why we are there at all. Of course we could bomb them some more, and Iran too while we are at it and just take over the oil fields and screw Russia, China and Europe.

And talking about oil, a little Michigan piece of news. The oil companies want to get the states to subsidize the reopening of the oil fields there that have at least half the oil that cannot be recovered unless a very large amount of money is invested in the newest CO2 state of the art oil recovery technology. But, they want the states involved to put up guarantees and the money for the infrastructure that involves capturing all the CO2 from polluting industries. According to the information I read, the total amount that could be recovered in two of the four states is around 11 billion barrels, about enough to make up our imports for 90 days. So, 11 billion divided by 12 million (the amount we import) is less than 100 days. Oh boy!

For those that are curious about this, the U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day, approximately 25% of world production and which we import 60%, or about 12 million barrels per day. The current world production is about 84 million barrels per day.

Oh yes, one final thing. The terrorist plot for blowing up the fuel at Kennedy Air Port. That one is turning out to be a hard one to sell to a lot of the population. The experts say not even possible. The guys involved sure spent a lot of time being homeless too. I am sure they had access to what is needed to do the job. Yeah, right!!

So, I reckon Bush ol’ buddy has his plate full. All them decisions about stuff that he would really rather not have to deal with, after all, he has some wars to run and congress to keep buffaloed and a population to keep terrified and on his side, although that doesn’t seem to be doing very well lately. Reckon he will just have to put the boys in the basement on the problem of keeping people in line. Probably have to dream up another terrorist event to keep the wheels greased. Sure puts a crimp in having to be pleasant at state dinners and this is not even to mention vacation plans at the ranch.

A REPUBLICAN DEMISE? by Murph

Freeacre and I listen to the Sunday morning news most of the time. This last Sunday, we turned it off not very far into the talking heads spewing forth more of their drivel. There seems to be absolutely no ability of these people to recognise or deal with the reality that seems so obvious to us, that is observable every day. Of course, I would suspect that big fancy paychecks are not dependent on dealing with observable information and then commenting on it. News and discussion of events are trivialized to the point of absurdity. One of the subjects they were talking about last Sunday was the viability of the Republicans as opposed to the Democrats in the next election. The Repug guy was saying that they would do just fine since the Dems have nothing more than bitching and whining about the Bush administration. The Dem guy was just smirking about the Repugs being dead meat.

Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan speech writer, came out with another analysis and comparison of various presidents on June first. I presume it first appeared in the Wall Street Journal. In this piece titled “TOO BAD”, she moans over the Republican base being eroded by the ineptitude of Bush. Of course, one thing she does not do is a definitive analysis of what his base really is. She manages to blither on about a lacking of wisdom in the administration and how both Bush presidents have squandered their political capital. It is so bad, in her opinion that the Republicans are going to have to put tremendous effort into rebuilding the Party, I assume she is referring to the misbegotten tenure of the failed actor Reagan’s administration as an ideal. Personally, it always appeared to me that his presidency was only an extension of his acting career, mostly trite and full of himself.

Frank Rich, an op-ed columnist, put out a piece comparing presidents and states he actually shed a tear for Nixon when comparing the Bush and Nixon administrations.

One of his statements; “Yet if he lacks Nixon’s larger-than-life villainy, he will nonetheless leave Americans feeling much the way they did after Nixon fled: in a state of anger about the state of the nation.” And; “at the personal level his [Bush] is not a grand Shakespearean failure.” He further laments the internecine warfare within both parties.

Other than on the internet, I have heard no comments anywhere concerning the shift in the Republican party from what its platform was in the 1800’s. Nowhere on the popular media do we hear about the corporate influence in government, nor the background for the economic policies that this country has been tracking down since the Lincoln presidency. I hear or read nothing in the mainstream news about the really dismal news concerning the economic situation in this country and how it relates worldwide. I suppose there is reasons’ enough for this, but it speaks volumes about investigative reporting and dissemination of information. I am presuming that the regular readers of this site are firmly cognizant of how the mass media is misleading and promoting trivia to the population. In the past, we could always count on a few brave publications and investigative reporters to eventually get some real information out to the population. We were also able to count on at least a few columnists to put out some in depth analysis of what was being revealed. Now, we have to sort through an ever increasing array of commentaries and reports on the internet to catch a gleam of truth.

BTW, did you catch on CNN internet, additional information concerning that 1000 lb. boar hog that was killed by an 11 year old kid with a 50 caliber S &W scoped handgun? Seems that the ‘wild feral hog” was a farmer raised hog that was sold to the hunting reserve of a fenced 150 acres. He was sold because the family was getting out of the hog business and this huge boar was becoming a nuisance and was too big to send to slaughter. So much for the advocates of shooting these ‘wild feral hogs’ because they cause so much damage. When I lived in Arkansas, there was a hunting lodge not far from where I lived that did the same thing. They would buy farm raised hogs and put them in a restricted area then charge big bucks for ‘city hunters’ to come in and kill wild feral hogs as a hobby and an enlightening hunting experience. The locals thought it was a hoot. As we can see, there is much more to the story than was originally put out. How much worse when the political story is not told?

I digress. Back to politics.

The talking heads on TV and in print, are having a heyday with the early announcement of candidates, examining voting records and speeches, never really getting down to the basic elements of these people. I suspect that this is on purpose. By the time the elections actually get here (if it ever does) the public will be so fatigued that voting will be on personality and appearance only. How can you even try to make an objective choice when the information is not out there to look at?

We hear very little about where the money for these campaigns is coming from, only snippets.

We hear almost nothing about where the allegiances of the candidates lay.

We hear nothing about their actual political outlooks. What they say in a speech or write about tells us nothing. We know what they say up front is what they perceive we want to hear.

We are hearing precious little about most of the candidates background. Introducing more wealthy families into the political stage seems to by pass most commentaries. Do we really want more Bush type families as a dynasty telling us how to live?

I have seen very little on the economic concepts of the various candidates. Ron Paul is one of the few that publicly has made any kind of a definitive statement.

I haven’t heard anything publicly stated about constitutionality, or the packing of the judicial system.

I haven’t heard anything concerning the whole new world order concept; NAFTA, and CAFCA and all the other three and four letter designations that center on consolidation of corporate power.

We hear nothing about overall corporate influence in the government.

In short, we hear nothing that is about the underlying basis for the messes that have been created. Instead we hear about agendas that are pabulum in the political arena.

One concept that I think is very true is the attitude of the American public toward war in general. If we were winning hands down in Iraq, how many people would then be against it? Does the fact that we aren’t kicking the camel jockeys asses have anything to do with wanting out? In fact, a great deal of the dissent about the war has to do with the observation that we can’t win, not that it was an immoral and unnecessary war to begin with. Americans are used to winning wars, or at least the appearance of winning. When it becomes obvious that we can’t or aren’t winning, then they are against it. Was there many voices dissenting to the first invasion of Iraq? No, it was won hands down and the evil guy was pushed back inside his own line. That Sadam had a legitimate bitch against Kuwait was beside the point. We won. How many people dissented about the invasion of Afghanistan? Hell no, we won that one too, or at least aren’t losing it yet. Besides, there are all those poppy fields to prop up the stock market. Hear any dissent about the Falkland conflict? We offered military support and gave $60 million to our staunch allies in that one and the Brits won hands down. Viet Nam? When it became evident that we couldn’t win that either is when the really heavy dissent started. How about Granada, the invasion of Panama and all the covert operations in South America? Just how much dissent did we hear at the time? As far as I am concerned, the dissent over Afghanistan and Iraq is hypocrisy on the part of most of the dissidents. A very few people genuinely opposed those wars at the beginning for at least some reason. You also don’t hear much from the Dems anymore about the Iraq mess that was drummed up on false evidence. But then I guess that was old news and time to get on down the road to new issues. If we bomb the hell out of Iran, then we can decide again whether kicking ass was worth it. Ho hum. I don’t think the neocons are going away at all. They just change clothes and put on a new face.

Aw well and what the hell. I even doubt that there will be another presidential election; rather I expect the current administration to either take advantage of some event or create an event to facilitate more of the same agendas and ideology. And even if by some chance we do have an election I do not expect a reversal of direction. If we did it would be to the detriment of the money people, the bankers. They simply are not going to allow that to happen if they can help it. The 1% or so of the population now hold all the cards and looks like a royal flush to me with no need to try a bluff.

More optimism from Murph.

Notes from the Preparedness Front – RIP Otis

freeacre

I am going to feature my last comment from this site with Palookas’s Revenge’s response as a post of its own. The subject matter has drifted from “Bush as Dictator” and the conversation has taken a turn that deserves its own space, I think, however briefly. So, here goes:

“Well, on the Preparedness Homefront, I have some news for the collective memory banks...
Our rooster, Otis, who was a very spectacular, committed, and determined bird, became quite difficult to live with. He had begun to grow spurs and became very aggressive to the Murphman and myself. But, when we discovered severe injuries to the females, we decided that he had to go. So, this morning, after thanking him for being a terrific rooster in many ways, and wishing him well on his journey, we dispatched him with as little trauma as we could, although beheading is not exactly a peaceful act. He was a tough bird. I had to boil him for about 3 hours before he became tender enough to eat in a pot pie. Not bad, though.
All in all, I believe that if we have to butcher all the meat that we eat one day, we'll be eating a lot less meat.
I'm hoping that the hens will grow some feathers back and learn to stick together on their own. Time will tell.
The four new chicks are getting bigger, and probably at least one will be a male. Also, one new dove has hatched from the 3 new eggs, so life, as they say, goes on..”.

Palooka’s Revenge said…

“rip otis!

i wonder if he'd mind one final indulgence post feast to speak to murph's last question to me... how does this (by "this" you meant the role of denial?) tie into the deterioration of specific parts of the brain from environmental stress and the hard wiring of nerve synopses.

i really can't prove a connection there. but something was going on for him to become aggressive. was it just the old rooster syndrome? was he just being a rooster gettin cantanquerous in his old age cuz he's wired to do so? or did something happen in his environment to trigger it? and, if so, why did it manifest in this form?

whatever was going on on an energetic level likely was instrumental. his body responded by growing spurs to help him carry out the agenda of aggression. the aggression is a reflection of him using his power to over-ride and prey on his environment for some reason in his energetic politic relative to his environment.

something happened for him to respond this way and 10 to 1 he felt threatened for some reason. i grew up on a farm and not all roosters get aggressive in their old age. but they are wired with a tendency to be aggressive, even in young age. and they all grew spurs. we had chickens free-ranging around the homestead. the roosters used to chase my baby sister all the time. certain ones more than others but they were all in on it.

8 of us in the family and she was the only one they chased. she was afraid of them. i asked her once if she could remember if she was afraid of them before they started chasing her but she couldn't. all she could remember was being terrified.

yet she was the only one they chased. were they picking up on the fear and preying on it? what in her energy field mixing into their energy field triggered 'em? if she had been able to move with that fear allowing it to express in a state of acceptance for it to teach her what it was really all about and rooted in, would she still be afraid of roosters? would the roosters still have chased her?

only the fear and otis know.”

Back to me again…

Well, Palooka, that’s a damn good question…and, I don’t know if relates to the larger concepts of energetic responses and how we deal with aggression in society and in our personal lives. I know that when Otis would attack Murph, Murph’s reaction was warrior-like. He didn’t get mad, particularly, he just grabbed him by the throat and shook him until his attitude changed.

Now, being a female, I found myself identifying with the hens, who were getting quite beat up by this aggressive rooster. Two out of three had big bald spots on their backs and about a third of their wing feathers broken off, due to Otis being more of a pig than a rooster. Why did your roosters pick on your little sister? Probably because she was the smallest. Those who like to dominate, usually pick on the easiest to dominate. I was beating Otis off with a broom or a stick every time I walked out the back door to go to the garden or the greenhouse. It was becoming a hassle, as I am usually carrying something and didn’t have hands free to defend myself. Once we discovered deep puncture wounds on Cindy’s back, I felt keeping him around was becoming a form of “enabling” Otis to be abusive. Otis had to go.

Now, is it a coincidence that I was raised in an abusive home? That I am better equipped now to protect my hens and myself than I was to protect my mother? That I found a certain sense of “closure” and satisfaction in Otis’s demise? Maybe my step-father came back as Otis! Am I nuts? Who the hell knows?

I think you are right, though, that our lives and our culture play out our own often denied or repressed issues. If we are to make any real progress, I think forgiveness, big time, is in order. But some things are hard-wired. If you plant carrot seeds, you are going to get carrots, not apples or rutabagas, no matter how free they are.

It’s a new day on our little farmlet. We’ll try to make it a little better this time around.

As for The Empire? Darth Chaney, the Pod People, the Waterboarders, the Greedheads, the Frankenfiends, Pharma-fuckers, Moneymonsters, and other assorted misbegotten minions – for now, I am going fishing.