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February 8, 2010 Newsletter
Who Said A Woman Can't Chop Wood? Plus: Don't Get Mad, Get Even.
Since my daughter and I are by ourselves with my husband working on an extended basis, and have been left with insufficient fire wood--it was not his choice to leave us that way, for sure--I have had to try to do what I did not think possible for me to do. I have had to chop wood myself! With an axe. On a chopping block.
The day before he went on this extended work load, he brought up large pieces of soft cedar for me to practice on. Soft, aromatic cedar. After a few swings of directly up-to-down motions, I was able to chop up a roughly 10 inch diameter cedar piece into about four sections, afterwhich I did another. Easy stuff. But, wouldn't you know it, I eventually ran out of cedar, and had to try to chop oak.
If you live on the East Coast you might think chopping oak is no big deal. But this is DRY, DRY far west Texas oak, the kind that gets all gnarly and twisted and hard as a rock. I had an elderly friend once out here who came from Rhode Island, and he claimed that had he not had many years of experience chopping wood of all kinds, he would have given up on trying to chop this VERY HARD oak that we have out here. Hardest wood he's ever had to chop, he said. Is the wood as hard as it is because the climate is dry, or is it because of lack of rain to the trees? Probably both. Not that my husband has too much trouble, but for me to try to do it? I mean, I'm a bit overwieght but generally in good health for 57 years old...but still...
Yet, I've already cut up at least seven large pieces to give us enough firewood at night for the duration. The secret is to find large pieces that can sit still on the chopping block, and these pieces must have "cracks" in them already that prove they can be broken up without killing oneself doing it, falling over from exhaustion. Aim the axe blade to the crack in the wood, and chop. The axe blade should hit hard enough into the wood that the blade sticks into the wood, and then without falling over swinging the axe with the wood attached, swing both down onto the chopping block as often as is necessary to break the wood into two pieces. Try to break the wood into as many pieces as you think you'll need. On any given day, I can break up two large wood blocks, and, after that, I am tired! Plus, it's great for the waistline.
I also learned how to jump start a dead vehicle battery, such that I can now do this myself without aid...in the dark. Although various websites suggest one way to do this, the way that works for me is hooking up the jumper cables this way: having your "good vehicle battery" running, first hook up the cable to the black ground terminal on the good battery, then hook up the red cable end to the red charged terminal on the good battery, and then (without letting cable ends touch! this will short out the cables!) thirdly, hook up the cable to the black ground terminal of the dead battery, and finally hook the cable up to the red terminal of the dead battery. Since the grounds (black ends) get hooked up first, it is the safest way to do this. Thing is, when you try it the first time, do it under supervision from someone who knows what he or she is doing.
Don't Get Mad, Get Even
Blog comments on alternative news and "revolutionary" or "anti-new world order" blog sites, from non-Americans, show that Americans aren't the only idiots out there, though these folks are committed to believing that. I couldn't possibly counter-comment every single comment I read that displays this ignorance, but every now and then I do so, just to keep up the practice. This is especially so for, say, Frenchmen or Russians who seem to implore that Americans "rise up" and "get rid of" the ruling class here or else, we are "sheeple." Information Clearing House in particular seems to draw these non-American "agitators." Or for those who seem to say the US is the cause of all the world's problems (except of course for the folks who blame Israel instead), saying Americans are the world's worst murders, etc. Now all this BS could make me mad, but I refuse to cave in. I comment back, "Oh, and it was Americans who tried to wipe out every last Haitian slave who revolted in 1804?" or "Oh, it was Americans who tried to genocide the Jews of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s?" or "It was Americans who starved millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s?" or "Unless you are Icelandic, your country has also committed atrocities!" and stuff like that. In other words, just because the American government almost since its inception has committed evil acts like slavery, genocide against Natives, wars, wars, and more wars, against mostly non-white peoples, doesn't mean Americans are inherently bad. In fact, Americans aren't any better or worse than anyone else. It's just that non-Americans are jealous because they can't get away with what the American government has gotten away with...but I suspect that is changing.
So, when some blogger from France (in fact it seems the majority of these types of bloggers are from France! If not France, then Russia...I guess they never heard of Stalin) calls Americans "sheeple" or "cowards" because we haven't already "rioted" over worsening economic conditions, I comment back: "Gee, riots sure are helping the Greeks!" or "Gee, the French demonstrate every two months and things sure have improved over there!" or some such. Or, best yet, "What branch of the CIA do you work for?" Because hypocrites come in all nationalities.
Now, really, what have all the riots in Greece and all the demonstrations in France and all the propaganda videos on Russia Today with Max Keiser or Iran's Press TV done for the folks in Greece of France or Russia or Iran? Not a damned thing! Does some Greek guy throwing a molotov cocktail go home later and tell his wife about what he's done to feed the kids that day or get drunk from his own sense of hubris? Is Max Keiser doing what he does on Russia Today videos because he gives a crap about America or because the KGB or whatever it is they call themselves now is paying him a bundle to do it? (If you visit What Really Happened every day like I do, you know who Max Keiser is. In his videos, I swear I can see him smiling at America's woes!) Is he trying to "wake Americans up" or is he just trying to piss us off? Is the demonstrator in France better off after he demonstrates, or is Sarkozy still robbing him blind? Does Iran's Press TV do its videos to piss off Iranians about America when it could be pissing Iranians off about Iran's fascist and theocratic government? Folks, I suspect that the actual change these critters clammer for is going to happen sooner than later because, well, "events are reaching their logical conclusions." Too bad I can't copyright that phrase!
What is the point of "getting mad" when all one is doing is screwing oneself? Show me one thing all those demonstrations in France have accommplished! If they were accomplishing stuff for the French people, then why is it they have to demonstrate all the time? Thus it seems to me the demonstrations are accomplishing nothing, and maybe it's just "the French being the French." Since the Greeks did their riot thing all the time under the dictatorial rule of George Popadopoulus in the 60s and 70s, maybe this is a "Greek thing." But, is the "American thing" "passivity"? Hardly! Whom, after all, made the very first successful revolt against tyranny? Folks, it wasn't Frenchmen, or Greeks. In fact, considering all the various ethnicities that make up Americans, perhaps the most telling is the Scots-Irish ethnicity, which is paramount today in the Appalachian areas of the South, as well as the Mid-Atlantic states and basically all over the west. Now Virginia Senator James Webb, several years ago, wrote "Born Fighting," about the influence of the Scots-Irish ethnicity on American politics and society. Since I am part Scots-Irish and as "stubborn as a mule" (some say), I decided to read his book. Webb explains that the US military almost from inception has been almost overwhelmingly Scots-Irish, and is still prominently engaged in the military today. One of the reasons southerners (and rural ones) are so overly represented in the military today isn't because they are "poor" or "war loving rednecks" (as so many eastern liberals believe) but because they are either Scots-Irish or married into Scots-Irish. In other words, Webb is saying that "fighting" and being a "warrior" are part of the Scots-Irish genetic make-up. Other "fighting" ethnic groups could be Germans (guess what? I'm also part German, making me really "stubborn as a mule!"), Pacific Islanders (who are now turning that agression into playing NFL football...think Troy Palamalu and Rey Maualuga), Scandanavians, Russians, and various East Asians (think Samurai and martial arts).
It is becoming vogue again to discuss why Americans "love" or "want to make war." I'd like to think that once war came to this country (as it did in the Civil War) that American would no longer "love" war (if indeed American DO love war! Clearly, some Americans do love war because they profit from it, but I think, considering that at the height of the Iraq wae recruiters had to pull teeth to get the bodies, it is a fallacy to say Americans "love war."). Of course, the American elites always seem to want to make war, not just for profits, and not just to steal resources. As the above article explains, since American leaders never have to deal with the consequences of their actions [that is, the article says, they never get charged with war crimes), they never have to send their own to war (because the "lower classes" are always stuck fighting them), and because of their own hubris ("we never lose wars"...now that's a laugh!)], they continue to want to make wars. But, think about it, if it is true that there is something in the make-up of many Americans that predisposes us to "fighting": if I was an elitist, whom would I rather these "fighters" fight? Some brown-skinned ragheads or yellow-skinned "gooks," or me and my fellow elitists? I think we know the answer to that from an elitist point of view. They know there are millions of fed up Americans, and their job is to make sure We the People stay fed up (or mad), without taking the next step (getting even). Right now I "get even" by not involving myself in the system they have made more than I have to.
That might be the reason that the "Tea Party" movement has already been co-opted by Republican leaders like Palin and talk-show demagogues like Glenn Beck. To open the Tea Party convention, Tom Tancredo, who ran for President in 2007 on the single issue of immigration, seemed to say that blacks should not be allowed to vote. Just what We the People need--a leader who will likely destroy the movement's credibility over perceived racism! In my opinion, having seen movements be infilltrated first hand, it is highly unlikely that We the People will ever be able to build some sort of movement using mainstream media means (since either lefties or righties will use the establishment-controlled apparatus to co-opt it), and must do so by other means. Until this happens, count me out of "joining" a "movement." I can't count anymore just how many "movements" have turned sour, and I suspect the Tea Party "rank and file" folks will see the same thing happen to them. It is too bad a movement Ron Paul started has been done that way.
Finally, congratulations to the New Orleans Saints, winners of Super Bowl 44, and the once flooded city of New Orleans! Especially to our Saints fan relatives...
Don't forget, if you have a comment on this or other posts, e-mail me with your comment, and put the name of the article in the subject line. Or, you can post it here.
