Urban Runner

More Steps Towards Our Permaculture Homestead

    Well, its been a busy few weeks here at our homestead. We have added four chicks and now three ducks to our family. I have been working hard to complete an up-armored duck kennel (we have lots of raccoons and possums to defend against). We also will be taking delivery of a stagecoach chicken tractor this week. If we are going to be stuck here in Central Texas we may as well do our best to fully develop or sustainable permaculture homestead.
    We also took delivery of some more railroad ties as a first step towards expanding our large raised bed garden. Incidentally, our kitchen counter has an assortment of produce from our garden, Nilda has been doing a great job keeping things productive.
    All of this requires a great deal of physical labor and financial resources. However, in the end it will be well worth it. We look forward to a fully sustainable life and are focused on the defend in place principle.

Prepare to unfurl the red flag...

BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Arlen Specter joins Democratic Party

    Well, this continues to get interesting, and better! Senator Arlen Specter has just announced that he is switching from the increasingly extremist and loony Republican Party to the Democratic Party. Why not? It still baffles me why ANY person would still want to associate themselves with the party of Sarah Palin, James Inhofe, etc.
    This is very good news! Now, if only the obstructionists in Minnesota would get out of the way of Al Franken we might really have some progress in Washington...

Backside of Forty

    As a continuation of the thoughts from my last post: Well, here I am on the backside of forty and sitting in the midst of an economic meltdown and climate crash. I had plans, and dreams, of moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2008 or 2009 but that dream is becoming increasingly fleeting and crushed by events. As I have mentioned to several acquaintances, "Its hard to sell low and buy high", which would be exactly what we would end up doing if we sold our homestead in Texas and moved to Oregon (Ecotopia) at this point. On top of this, is the pretty much impossible stipulation set by Nilda that once we pay off our mortgage this year that we never have a mortgage again. This pretty much backs me into a corner and means we're stuck in Texas baring a catastrophic change of events. Which, unfortunately, is probably not completely out of the question...
    So what do we do if we are apparently stuck here in central Texas? I guess this moves us back to the defend in place position that I had mentioned several posts ago [use Lijit search box on right - directly below the calendar to find it]. Plans include exponentially expanding our current large garden. We will also be adding a chicken tractor soon so that we can have hens for the production of eggs. I plan on developing our backyard into a private garden area to focus on our immediate sustainability. The front yard will also have significant elements of sustainable food production but will also have a significant social element. I plan on adding a major patio area for socializing and political discussion.
    The major weaknesses of this sustainable / defend in place plan is the in-availability of water and general criminal instability. I'm prepared and preparing to defend against the criminal element but the water shortage is a problem that may defy solution.
    Its a shame that the political "leaders" of central Texas seem so unable to foresee and react to the coming disaster. Instead, its going to be up to individuals to fend for themselves. The hard times are coming and I'm increasingly mentally prepared for the onslaught. Nuts...

Passing the Tipping Point

    Well I'm unsure if I'm just in a rut or if I'm actually watching the tipping point pass us by as far as relocating. We are comfortable enough in this area at the moment but my concern has always been what the future may hold for us if we remain.
    Texas' reliance on the automobile (which continues into post-Peak Oil) and the ongoing extreme drought conditions don't bode well for the future. Add religious extremism to this mix and who knows what forms of social unrest will emerge in the future. Although the Texas Rangers did a thorough job of "eliminating" Native Americans from Texas, the surviving cultures remain strongly tribal in nature. Will hard times lead to open tribal warfare?? Unfortunately, it looks like we will be here to find out. The sad thing is that as I look around it appears that the majority of Texans have absolutely no clue of the approaching storm. We are vastly better off with Obama in the White House but he is only human and won't be able to fix the unfixable.

President Barack Obama

January 20, 2009 has finally arrived. Nuff said...

Cut Foreign Aid to Israel

    We have long passed the time to cut our foreign aid to Israel. We commonly hear an aid estimate of $3 billion per year but that figure may actually be closer to $5 billion per year [LINK]. What do we get for these hard earned taxpayers dollars? A Middle East in flames, death to civilian populations around Israel, and the justifiable hatred of America for funding these atrocities. Jews suffered a fate so horrible it is beyond words during WWII. However, that does not justify the current horrific acts of the Israelis. Regrettably, we are learning that the forming of the Israeli state in response to the Holocaust of WWII was a mistake. We should have realized what a monster we had created no later than when our own USS Liberty was attacked by Israel in 1967 with many of our sailors being slaughtered [LINK].
    Now is the time to end this aid to Israel. This aid only produces evil! Instead, these resources could be put to use for good and at home. One such option would be using the resources for the federal stimulus package with green initiatives to build a sustainable economy.

Eco-socialism

    If capitalism is the root of our problems what then would be a better form for the world to function under? Currently, the elites in the private sector are making a killing (even literally so) under the capitalist system. The Bush&Co administration has even pushed this to an extreme with its anti-government privatization efforts coupled with the wedding of remaining government focus to supporting corporate agendas; a shift towards fascism.
    The Republican Party in the form of McCain/Palin with its proposed continuation of Bush&Co's private sector emphasis (with a Christian extremist angle) was soundly rejected by the voters. During the campaign, McCain/Palin tried to smear government service with its claims of government action and regulatory functions as being "socialism". This was pathetic and ignored by voters who had any amount of common sense and knowledge. Unspoken was the Republican preference for the near opposite of socialism... which would be fascism. Obama is in no shape or form a socialist, but he does understand the merits of government service and even NGOs (community organizers). If the Obama administration can't move towards fixing our problems under a centrist approach to capitalism, and this may be an impossible task, then we need major structural changes and a move to something else.
    That new winning approach increasingly looks like Eco-socialism - the melding of the green and the red. From Wikipedia: is an ideology merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, Green politics, ecology and the anti-globalization movement. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expansion of the capitalist system is the cause of social exclusion, poverty and environmental degradation through globalization and imperialism, under the supervision of repressive states and transstatal structures; they advocate the non-violent dismantling of capitalism and the state, focusing on collective ownership of the means of production by freely associated producers and restoration of the Commons.

Corporations Must Go

    As I increasingly wonder if capitalism is the root of much of the world problems, I am certain of one thing, corporations most certainly are a major obstacle to our relief from these tribulations. The legal entity of the corporation is at the surface and seemingly omni-present at our worst failures. While just a few years ago during the Reagan years it was popular to sing the merits of the private sector, recent history has absolutely crushed this fantasy. The profit motive, quest for constant growth, absence of ethical behavior, and a freedom from responsibility has proven the wrongness of this philosophy. We now have a rogues gallery of shameful corporations on the top of the public's mind such as ExxonMobil, Enron, Halliburton, WorldCom, and the list goes on [LINK]. It becomes painfully clear that government is the answer and that NGOs must also play a major roll. The private sector has a roll but must be kept in check by regulation, government oversight, and the removal of the corporate entity.
    Al Gore has advocated civil disobedience and a British court recently cleared six Greenpeace activists for their damage to a coal plant finding their action reasonable and justified. These are positive signs but may not be enough. The threat by corporations is proving to be so overwhelming that the need for immediate action is becoming increasingly obvious. At the same time actions such as civil disobedience is becoming obviously inadequate. We now have the hope of the Obama administration in the US, but can they overcome the evil that appears to have gained the upper hand?
    Direct action appears increasingly necessary to fight for our planet home. Particularly so if the Obama administration fails against the right wing corporate powers. Those patriots that undertake this battle do so at great personal peril. Draconian laws enacted at the behest of corporations and their lobbyists await those that are taken prisoner (one should consider the movie Braveheart before any such undertaking). Right wing paramilitary forces such as Blackwater will be deployed against those that fight for our planet (see the history of Central and South America). Who exactly will be the fighters for our planet home if the Obama administration is overwhelmed? Who has the will, the courage, and commitment for this battle? Could this battle prove to be the real Armageddon?

Obama Victory !!

     What a wonderful turn of events! The horrible weight of the last eight years of Bush&Co are being lifted off of our collective shoulders. It is truly amazing how a week can achieve such a dramatic change in outlook. Yes, America is back!! This election has been a reaffirmation of all that is good in America and a triumph over evil, ignorance, and fear.
    The joy is tempered only by the knowledge that the right wing and Christian extremists, coupled with white supremacist whack jobs are loosing their minds and becoming desperate.