Margaret Schaut
One more conservative viewpoint on the world at large.Seeking Hope: Spring Season Crocus
spring season crocus
This winter has been plagued by -40 weather, blizzards and relentless bad news. What human being can live without hope?
But, there is a magnificent reminder, an exquisite and tender light at the end of this tunnel of misery we’re being dragged down. Hope shows itself precious and beautiful; and that is the spring season crocus.
I’ve built you a garden of crocus so that, even if in your neck of the woods they haven’t poked their bright and beautiful faces at you, you can still see them.
Woo- and a recipe! A great and happy breakfast recipe that I love and save just for spring.
So, my fellow americans, in whom ‘hope springs eternal’, take a quick look. I hope it encourages you to face what’s coming with new energy, strength and freshness of purpose.
Depression: Look and Learn
The Cure for What's Coming
As I’ve written before, as goes Michigan, so goes America. America’s prosperity – even the world’s, was built on manufacturing, especially automobiles.
Oh, Michigan! Oh, Detroit!!!! Officially the unemployment rate is 21%. That DOESN’T COUNT the people who lost their jobs and never qualify for unemployment benefits, like sub-contractors and 1099 people. It also doesn’t count all the people who have fled the area because the economy is so bad.
As goes Michigan, so goes America. It was said before, and with horror we see it coming true before our very eyes.
Americans won’t give away their sovereignty unless we’re homeless and starving. There couldn’t possibly be a NAU or an NWO unless America was on its knees. Or, six feet under.
Inflationary Depression: Quick Trillionaires in No Time Flat!
bag of money
When I visited Mexico some years ago, I heard that our border guards were incensed because Mexicans BELIEVED that Americans walked around with bags of money. To their mind, this was laughable, a sign of how IGNORANT people were in Mexico. I mean, wouldn’t ANY American be suspicious of someone who walked around with BAGS of money?
However, when I went to cash a couple of hundred of dollars in for pesos, I discovered that the exchange rate was in the area of 3600 pesos PER DOLLAR and I did, indeed, NEED to walk around with a bag full of money.
Well, what’s a few zeros between you and me, hey? In Zimbabwe where their inflation increases the necessity to add zeros to their currency (at the rate of 215 MILLION percent) BY THE HOUR, knocking off ten or twelve every few months and re-setting the value of their currency is quite a common occurrence.
Shortly, when Obama calls a ‘bank holiday’ as predicted by Gerald Celente, your money won’t be available until the holiday is over, at an anticipated rate of ten cents on the dollar. Its either that, or you’ll be an instant trillionaire overnight, month after month after month.
Isn’t governance by the Federal Reserve a dream?
Inflationary depression. Not just for the Third World anymore! By the way, its all your fault.
Surviving the Depression Strategy: The NEW Homesteading
Homeless by Banksy
The economic collapse, this new Great Depression, is afflicting States and Municipalities as never before also. New strategies are required for the citizens to survive this coming disaster, and set themselves up to succeed and prosper in the years to come.
Recently Rep. Marci Kaptur captured everyone’s attention by telling homeowners facing foreclosure to “Stay PUT.”
Readers of this blog will know that several months ago I recommended a similar thing, and as wonderful of an idea that this representative from Toledo has, I suggest that Americans begin taking this idea much farther.
I call it ‘The New Homesteading.’
Finally this year, the local municipalities are suffering so much from foreclosures, that they are beginning to realize that their interests actually lie with the CITIZENS, and NOT with the bankers, the investment class, the wealthy.
A few years ago I had a direct and very painful experience with the prevailing attitude of a local municipality when my house burned down to the ground. The city, in the habit of picking the carcass of every citizen, made sure that they got as much money as possible from my disaster- going out of their way to charge huge fees for unnecessary mowing & other stupidities; requiring things that were completely senseless but damaging to the re-building process and charging huge amounts of money for those things, refusing to negotiate reasonable rebuilding plans (like a smaller, more affordable house) and so on, and therefore finally the entire project was cancelled- my being tens of thousands of dollars poorer and the entire catastrophe becoming a total loss.
Worse, the authorities refused to hold the insurance company accountable to the insurance contract as written.
The State of Michigan, its politicians and its cities have long been in the pocket of the insurance companies, bankers and mortgage companies.
Now, however, as the cities see growing areas of wastelands in their towns- formerly occupied homes that no longer pay taxes, no longer use the utilities, no longer receive maintenance, because they are ‘owned’ by some vague financial institute through some vague financial instrument somewhere in the world, the cities are discovering that their best asset is what it always has been- its citizens.
I want to point out one very important thing here- one of the most FOUNDATIONAL aspects of wealth building and equality that ever occurred in these United States was HOMESTEADING. There were VAST tracts of land that were unoccupied, uninhabited, undeveloped, unproductive, and a growing immigrant population that was desperate to get a good start in this country- by the sweat of their brows, by their work and ingenuity.
The government, at that time set out a program of ‘homesteading’ whereby landless peasants could go and find a piece of unowned property, and if they developed it, after a certain length of time could lay claim to that property and become its owner.
The modern version of this is the ’squatters laws’ that are on the books almost everywhere.
Up until now, the State would claim properties because of unpaid taxes, and sell them to the investing class for the tax money only, and the mortgages and liens on those properties would simply be void.
However, there is no longer an ‘investment’ class that is able or willing to take on ‘abandoned properties’, fix up and maintain them and offer them to sale to a population that doesn’t even have work enough to sustain them.
Just because the State SAYS it is ‘owed’ taxes does not MEAN that those taxes are ‘owed.’ There are altogether too many cushy tax breaks for the friends of any given administration that do not apply to the citizens at large.
How many times have you heard the scream to heaven by government saying ‘WE ARE LOSING MONEY to taxes that are OWED to us because people are …. buying stuff from another state… aren’t paying enough cigarette taxes…. have stopped vacationing here and we are losing tourists tax dollars…’
Let us be clear here. The STATE DOES NOT LOSE MONEY because they have failed to find enough ways to tax people! THOSE MONEYS WERE NEVER OWED TO THE STATE UNTIL THE LEGISLATION LAID CLAIMS IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE LAID. Sales taxes are not OWED until a person decides to purchase, for example.
In the boom times, the ’state’ made YOU and every working American pay over half of their money in taxes. Rather than being in service to YOU, the citizen, YOU the citizen were enslaved six months of the year to a vampire government.
Properties that ‘belong’ to the State ACTUALLY belong to the PEOPLE who ARE the state. They belong to the citizens, to the taxpayers. All the infrastructure that supports these buildings was paid for by the taxpayers- infrastructure that is going to hell in a handbasket as the citizens lose their jobs and lose their incomes and no longer even qualify to pay taxes or stay in their homes because of the usury charged them- usury that the laws SHOULD have protected the people from in the first place.
It is time for the citizens to begin a NEW government policy of their own- the New Homesteading. Are you and your family homeless already? Go find a decent foreclosed house and move into it. Get it livable, see if you can find work. This spring plant the entire yard as a food-producing garden. Set out your garbage and recyclables for city collection. Enroll your kids in the area school. Turn on the cable and utilities. BELONG there.
Life is much more affordable with no mortgage payment, no insurance payments and no property taxes.
Homestead the place as Americans used to do.
Make the city, the state, and any ‘investor’ pay the expense of throwing you out, the expense of proper records, the lawsuits to evict or ‘foreclose.’ Do everything you can to transform the legislation in your new city to permit homesteading, to lift wasteful lawn requirements and home-based business restrictions. Demand the city permit animals besides cats and dogs so you can keep chickens, or goats or sheep.
There is a limit to how much any of these entities will spend, especially if there is a mass movement of citizens laying claim to the properties of this country that belong to them and no one else.
It is a true statement that possession is 9/10 of the law. It is time that it worked for the citizens and not the elites only.
CellAdam Cancer Treatment Debate: Damian Thompson & Zenit
Nancy & Ronald Reagan
Now, here’s a REAL quandary. ANOTHER ‘push-me pull-you’ debate from two EXTREMELY RELIABLE sources, Zenit and Damian Thompson of Holy Smoke.
ANOTHER ‘push-me pull-you’ debate about stem cell research, embryonic stem cell research, the church and the church, and in the center of all of this, and the ones paying the price, are those poor souls struggling with cancer and other diseases.
Let’s begin talking about WILD claims, shall we?
The stem-cell industry has dragged every pity party who has had more than 15 minutes of fame into the presence of an adoring Congress & Senate in order to promote stem cell research, and MORE specifically, EMBRYONIC stem cell research, for the potential cure of everything from spinal injury paralysis, Alzheimer’s Disease, cancer, diabetes, baldness, Muscular Dystrophy, and on and on in the universe of potential miraculous cures, all the way down to freckles.
This is the magic CURE ALL according to the ‘industry.’
In fact, it is so believable that bankrupt states like Michigan and California have purposely gone out of their way to invest countless hundreds of millions, even BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars in the bio sciences, slavering at the thought that these technologies will create a very high ROI and turn those states back into powerhouses of economic booms.
In all this, from the far stretches of liberaldom and even conservativedom come vicious, livid, screeching accusations that the Vatican is opposed to all science, all medicine, all human progress for the reason that it condemns dismantling embryos cell by cell for research or medicinal purposes.
The Vatican is NOT opposed to stem cell research and never has been. It is opposed to the useless and unnecessary experimentation on, and destruction of, embryos for the purposes of stem cell research. The Vatican is totally in support of ‘adult stem cells’ – so named for obfuscation purposes clearly, but available in huge quantities in umbilical cord blood and in amniotic fluid, and proving very effective in a wide range of illnesses.
But with all this hoopla, all the blame-game and accusations, per business-as-usual there are almost no treatments available in the United States with the breakthroughs that have been made in other countries. Citizens attempting to obtain the same medicines, at prices lowered in other countries, faced immediate action by the FDA and the government, making such international purchases illegal. Medication and treatment prices are kept artificially so high that an entire new class of tourism has developed for Americans- medical tourism.
Not so wild claims:
In 2007, census figures revealed there were more than 45 million Americans without health insurance, many more who were underinsured.
That was BEFORE the massive job losses due to the collapsing economy that we have been experiencing the last two years.
We also know that the Congress, under pressure from big pharma, attempted to ban and/or restrict alternative nutritional supplements. Citizen outrage was so great that the bill never passed.
So in the face of a cancer treatment that is helpful AND effective, inexpensive, is ethical according to Christian standards, discussed in a highly respected Vatican journal and used in Catholic hospitals, Damian Thompson considers all this ‘counter knowledge?’
Damian says:
I should add that Pentin writes authoritatively for The Catholic Herald on Vatican affairs, where he knows what he is talking about. I am at a loss to explain the disappearance of his critical faculties on this occasion.
In my estimation, it is Damian Thompson’s critical faculties, and especially, his compassion that have disappeared on this occasion. Blocked by a softening Nanny State cushy health system that most Americans can only dream of, the man has become possessed by arrogance.
The loss is YOURS, Damian, yours and those who read your information like it is gospel.
Either stem cells are living up to those incredible claims or they are not. Just like other supplements, Americans can and do have a right to give them a try.
Having been one of those many souls who has lost loved ones with cancer, loved ones who lived, worked and died without health insurance, who paid the taxes that went into the wild claims of health research; I can only say that if there are any out there who have a chance that this alternative will work, that this alternative will even help, then in every possible way I support this effort. If anyone is interested in trying this ethical new treatment, I have created a page just for you to easily obtain the ‘nutritional supplements.’
God bless you and your difficult, and very sacred, journey with cancer.
Curioser & Curioser: Obama’s White House Blog!
Barak Obama
You can tell a LOT about a blogger by the information, categories and links on their blog. Obama’s White House Blog is very telling in that regard as well.
It is the Agenda itself that is supremely of interest, in these days of economic collapse, impending depression, widespread and growing unemployment, layoffs, business closings both small and large, incredible numbers of home foreclosures and homelessness…
Yes, the President has his hands full and it wasn’t his fault.
To be SURE we know what his priorities are, we must look at his agenda as he has it categorized on his blog. Here is the list:
# THE AGENDA
* Civil Rights
* Defense
* Disabilities
* Economy
* Education
* Energy & Environment
* Ethics
* Family
* Fiscal
* Foreign Policy
* Health Care
* Homeland Security
* Immigration
* Iraq
* Poverty
* Rural
* Seniors & Social Security
* Service
* Taxes
* Technology
* Urban Policy
* Veterans
* Women
* Additional Issues
Notice anything missing? Anything at all? Is there ANYTHING on this list that strikes you as, well, critically MISSING given the current free-fall of our economy?
What I noticed missing right away is BUSINESS. No Commerce, no Small Business, no Large Business, no Business Development…
Unless it comes under ‘additional issues.’
On the other hand, social issues are broken out very widely. There is ‘family,’ ’seniors,’ ‘women,’ ‘civil rights,’ ‘immigration,’ and ‘disability.’
Nothing under ‘housing,’ ‘banking,’ or ‘Federal Reserve.’ No ‘agriculture.’
Aside from that, want to add some political pics to Flickr? Here’s quite the group!
Almost instantaneously after the swearing in ceremony, the section on women, with its new and radical pro-abortion stance, was posted on this new blog. Change indeed.
While the administration seems to intend to include everyone under its mantle, the prominent absence of business related issues, agriculture, banking, and the profound commitment to abortion is guaranteed to bring on a firestorm of controversy almost overnight.
This will certainly be an interesting blog to watch, and to watch for actions and deeds related to this new administration. A platform like that can only be one thing- divisive.
Stupid Pontifical by Melinda Beck
Obama's New Ashtray
Melinda Beck, an opinionist for WSJ, has decided that her BEST advice for the new President is that he quit smoking.
Assuming that Melinda Beck is a female, and not a drag queen, she must be aware of the monthly mood-swings associated with menses. The extremes of mood swings with something so normal and regular are legendary.
Its surprising that she doesn’t take reality AS reality.
Our new President has just taken on an impending depression, illegal wars, a collapsing financial structure, and a hideous host of other problems, a warning by global leaders of a massive catastrophe tomorrow or the next day, and she wants him to
QUIT SMOKING???
She wants the world leader, who’s got his hand on the button, who has been warned of a catastrope to meet or exceed 9/11 to happen in the next few days, who is in charge of a military in the midst of illegal and very violent wars, a military who performs torture, in charge of a government who has unconstitutional militias and international troops poised to quell all civil disturbance as food riots and unemployment riots break out…
and she wants him to go through the most difficult and mood-destroying process known to man, quitting smoking?
NOW????
Someone ought to send him a case of his brand. He’s going to need them.
Keep Your Laws off MY Body too, Hypocrites!
who owns you and your mind?
Pro-abortionists are so often recognized by their bumper sticker ‘Keep Your Laws Off My Body’ that it is synonymous with the abortion industry.
But the hypocrites have no problem putting THEIR laws on YOUR body- namely your BRAIN.
When people from doctors to pharmacists to small business people refuse to participate in activities that promote, support, or engage in abortion or abortifacients, they are accused of violating a ‘woman’s’ right to choose.
The right to free thought, the right to privacy, the right to property are all trampled on anyone who doesn’t think the same way as the pro-abortionists, and they aren’t ashamed of demanding the removal of professional’s jobs, their right to practice their expertise, the right to a clear conscience, their rights to freedom of religion.
WHO invested the money for the education that made these professions possible? The promiscuous who would rather kill the results of their profligacy or the student who paid for their education and did the work? Who invested their brain power, their time, their efforts, who sacrificed years of their lives, who dedicated themselves to careers and OATHS?
It wasn’t the ones who are demanding that all that value be set aside, was it.
No, it is the ‘thought police’ who want their own wanton willfulness to take the day, to trump every other value.
And they have the states, too, who are bringing suit against the only law that has been passed to protect those professionals.
You can’t have it both ways hypocrites, or our society will REALLY lose. Lose its brain power. Lose the value of such a huge investment.Lose its professionalism. Lose the true intellects that can still think sanely and still value YOUR life and the lives of YOUR children and loved ones.
RFID Chips? That’s SO 2008!
Cyborg
They’ve just finished denying that RFID chips are real, and now we discover that that little bit of technology is, well, obsolete.
Well, my fellow Americans, you SUBSPECIES you, let’s begin to grapple with REALITY, shall we?
Moo moo, you Terran herds. The ‘artillects’ are here, with implantable nanoteched brain chips, cyborgs ready for global slaughter, encouraging mothers to kill their babies’ humanity for snob appeal. Its the fashionable thing to do, or you won’t have a ‘baby Einstein.’ Like the aborted unborn, you can expect all the compassion that was shown for the animal that provided your steak last night.
HERE is the reason they want mass approval for embryonic stem cell research. They admit they don’t need the stem cells from the embryos- there are way more than they can use just in umbilical cord blood. They need and WANT the EMBRYOS themselves, to generate cyborgs even before birth. They need them as ’spare parts farms’ to sustain their new found ‘immortality’.
Neo was SUCH a party pooper, wasn’t he?
Just in Time for WWIII, A Re-Release?
I just received these pics of rare WWII posters:
WWII Men of Valor
WWII Do It Right
WWII- More PTs
WWII Americans Fight for Liberty
