Posted on 02/09/2009 12:36:11 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny
Yahoo ran an interesting article this morning indicating a rise in the number of survivalist communities cropping up around the country. I have been wondering myself how much of the recent energy crisis is causing people to do things like stockpile food and water, grow their own vegetables, etc. Could it be that there are many people out there stockpiling and their increased buying has caused food prices to increase? It’s an interesting theory, but I believe increased food prices have more to do with rising fuel prices as cost-to-market costs have increased and grocers are simply passing those increases along to the consumer. A recent stroll through the camping section of Wal-Mart did give me pause - what kinds of things are prudent to have on hand in the event of a worldwide shortage of food and/or fuel? Survivalist in Training
I’ve been interested in survival stories since I was a kid, which is funny considering I grew up in a city. Maybe that’s why the idea of living off the land appealed to me. My grandfather and I frequently took camping trips along the Blue Ridge Parkway and around the Smoky Mountains. Looking back, some of the best times we had were when we stayed at campgrounds without electricity hookups, because it forced us to use what we had to get by. My grandfather was well-prepared with a camp stove and lanterns (which ran off propane), and when the sun went to bed we usually did along with it. We played cards for entertainment, and in the absence of televisions, games, etc. we shared many great conversations. Survivalist in the Neighborhood
“Makes no difference if you are using gas or regular electric range... “
That’s pretty much what I thought. I have a gas stove and didn’t think it should really affect the heat/pressure in the canner.
Thanks Granny, I am always glad to see more vegan recipes.
A message to all members of Homeland Security Response Network
New Homeland Security Response Network Promotes Preparedness and Mobilizes Citizens for Challenges Ahead
Grassroots Network of Citizens and Community and Government Leaders Take on the Challenge of Readiness
PHOENIX, Ariz. (March 18, 2009) – While many U.S. citizens fear terrorist attacks and other threats to homeland security, very few are aware of basic emergency plans or strategies that could potentially save their lives, and the lives of those around them in the event of an attack or disaster. To help better equip citizens with the knowledge and resources they need to become more prepared, the creators of the National Terror Alert Response Center have launched the Homeland Security Response Network, an online, collaborative community of concerned citizens, and government and community leaders. The network is designed to promote discourse and community involvement, and help to create safer, more secure communities, with an emphasis on engaging citizens at the community level.
The Homeland Security Response Network is the first online, social networking community designed to foster interaction and dialogue between government officials, community and organization leaders and citizens. The site’s primary goals are to leverage technology and social media in preparing and organizing communities, and to bridge the gap between community preparedness and government preparedness. The developer of the site also hopes the Homeland Security Response Network will reintroduce preparedness into the national educational curriculum, and re-energize neighborhood and community preparedness partnerships and programs.
Read full release:
http://www.homelandsecurityresponse.com/notes/Press_Release
Visit Homeland Security Response Network at: http://www.homelandsecurityresponse.com
When Supremacism Uses A Religious Disguise
March 17, 2009
by Jeffrey Imm
Responsible for Equality And Liberty
http://www.realcourage.org/2009/03/disguise/
http://anti-jihad.org/blog/2009/03/disguise/
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/imm-articles/131.html
Prior to World War II, what if Adolf Hitler had tried to infiltrate the United States, not with a series of German “Bund” organizations, but with a series of groups claiming that they were “religious” organizations? What if American federal, state, and local government organizations then engaged with such groups, gave them respectability, and even offered government support for their propaganda mission for fear of offending such “religious” organizations? During the 1960s, what if the American federal government feared to act against the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacist organizations, and white supremacist segregation laws for fear of offending their “religious” beliefs?
Far-fetched? In fact, supremacist ideologies using the disguise of “religion” is one of the most serious propaganda threats to our human rights of equality and liberty today.
All Americans are entitled to freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.
But we must recognize that supremacist organizations have been leveraging these freedoms to gain institutional support within America by disguising their supremacist goals with “religious” identities. If we support the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty, our citizens and our government agencies should denounce supremacist organizations that promote hate, inequality, and even violence, regardless of their use of such “religious” disguises. The solution to unmasking such disguises is to honestly ask if such organizations support equality and liberty.
By looking at threats to our liberties from a human rights perspective, we can see threat patterns and avenues for public action in struggles with supremacist ideologies - past and present - whether we are dealing with Islamic supremacism, racial supremacism, Aryan Nazi supremacism, or other supremacist ideologies. We need to remember that our response must be a consistent responsibility to equality and liberty in defiance of such supremacism, no matter how it is disguised.
The Growing Islamic Supremacist Threat to Virginia
The Northern Virginia suburb of Washington DC has been growing as an Islamic supremacist haven. Amidst the many hard-working Virginians who serve our nation’s defense, civilian federal government, homeland security, and commercial businesses, Islamic supremacist groups, organizations, and institutions have quietly expanded and gained members. Northern Virginia has been home to a wide series of Islamic supremacist groups and leaders that have resisted investigations and challenge by the government and concerned citizens. For years, Northern Virginia has long been a target of a network of Islamic supremacist organizations.
Among these have included:
— Dar Al Hijra Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia - Freedom House has reported that Dar Al Hijra has had publications that spread hate, demanding that Islamic nations be given nuclear weapons “to face Israel and India,” (p. 46), and demanding segregation of the sexes (p. 64). Dar Al Hijra’s previous imam, Anwar al-Aulaqi, has been suspected of links to Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 jihadists, and has been described as an “inspiration” to terrorists, suspected in “plotting attacks against America,” reported as praising Palestinian suicide bombers, and posting an essay on “Why Muslims Love Death.” Dar Al Hijra’s subsequent imam, Sheikh Shaker Elsayed, has also been reported praising Palestinian suicide bombers, stating that “Jihad is a must for everyone, a child, a lady and a man.” Per Dal Al Hijra’s web site, this supporter of Jihad continues to preach to Muslims in Northern Virginia.
— Dar Al-Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia - also known as the “Center for Islamic Information and Education” was a place where Ali al-Timimi frequently lectured. Ali al-Timimi was convicted “on charges that he encouraged followers to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops.” It was also a focal point for the “Virginia Jihad Network” that trained to support the Islamic supremacist Lashkar-e-Taiba group — the same Lashkar-e-Taiba suspected in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and that is suspected of designs for attacks on the United States. According to the FBI, “eight individuals from Dar Al-Arqam ... either obtained jihad training from Lashkar-e-Taiba or otherwise associated with the group in Pakistan, another from Dar Al-Arqam who joined Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia in 2003, two specially designated global terrorists, and an individual suspected of being an aide to Abu Musab al Zarqawi and affiliated with Al-Qaeda of Iraq.” Al-Timimi and Al-Arqam have also been linked to terror groups in the United Kingdom.
— International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Herndon, Virginia - created from “seed money from the Muslim Brotherhood”... the same Muslim Brotherhood that calls for creation of an Islamic supremacist caliphate and whose motto is “Jihad is our way.” IIIT has been under investigation for financing terror organizations, and was part of the Operation Green Quest investigation. This is also the same IIIT, whose Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo has gone on to advise on Sharia Finance boards for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, and who last month advised on Sharia Finance (PDF of presentation) in a conference in Washington DC. This same IIIT provided a $1.5 million grant to Virginia’s George Mason University a few months ago to expand its “Islam studies program.”
— Muslim World League in Falls Church, Virginia - reported in 2005 that “U.S. agencies have been investigating the Muslim World League for years because of suspicions that it knowingly or unknowingly provided funds to Osama bin Laden.”
— The Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in Fairfax, Virginia - where the Freedom House Center found “[s]everal hate-filled publications” (page 3), publications to “show that religious freedom is un-Islamic” (page 45), and promoting jihad (page 61).
This history should make Northern Virginia government officials and citizenry rightly concerned about the growth of Islamic supremacism in their area. The Washington Times has reported that those individuals in Falls Church, Virginia that have exercised their freedom of religion and have converted from Islam to Christianity live in fear.
But while federal government individuals are willing to challenge those Islamic supremacists in Northern Virginia who have clearly been documented in committing a crime (like any other citizen would be), there remains little willingness to challenge the anti-equality, anti-liberty ideology of Islamic supremacism itself, or even acknowledge that the ideology of Islamic supremacism exists.
So it should not be surprising that supermarkets in Northern Virginia sell pro-Jihad books, as Dave Gabautz has researched and found at the Halaco supermarket in Falls Church, Virginia a book that calls for:
— “It is, in short, time to identify the enemy and declare the Jihad.”
— “He who equips a fighter in the way of Allah, or looks after a fighters family at home is as good as one who fought”
— “Priests in their churches, unlike recluse worshipping monks, should, of course be killed without any exception. Nuns along with Monks, deserve killing even more”
— “Not taking the Jews and Christians as friends, not following their deen, not submitting to bid’a, neither its holidays (National Days, etc), nor in habits, not entering their places of worship, nor participating in their festivals-all this is vital in the prelude to the attack of a new Jihad.”
— “Strike at the time least expected. It follows that one should also strike at the place not expected. By extension, in light of the current situation, one may strike at several centres all at the same time, thus causing havoc in the enemy and in their response”.
In 2007, Virginia Governor Kaine appointed former Muslim American Society (MAS) president Esam Omeish to a Virginia state commission on immigration. This is the same Muslim American Society founded by the “Jihad is our way” Muslim Brotherhood. Not surprisingly, there were online videos available shortly thereafter of Omeish calling for “the jihad way,” which prompted his resignation. But two years later, we have a different story. Now this same jihad-supporting Esam Omeish is running for office for the 35th district of the Virginia House of Delegates, portraying himself as the all-American immigrant success story. Esam Omeish is meeting with voters at public libraries to discuss issues... but conveniently ignoring his background with the MB-founded MAS or his support for Jihad - asking voters to “meet and greet with Esam Omeish, and talk to Esam about the issues most important to you.” How about equality and liberty? How about defying Islamic supremacism?
It is in this same Northern Virginia, where Jihad books are sold in supermarkets, where Jihad supporters are running for public office, where Islamic supremacist organizations donate large sums of money to influence universities, and where Islamic supremacists can lead “houses of worship” largely unchallenged by the majority of the citizens and its government, that we also see a growing academy designed to indoctrinate youth with the ideology of Islamic supremacism.
In Fairfax County, Virginia, the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) has had a long and disreputable history, reported by the Washington Post as an institution whose “indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to ‘spread the faith.’”
This is the same Islamic Saudi Academy whose textbooks taught jihad to children, attacked all other religions, and told its children “As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus.” This is what the Islamic Saudi Academy books previously read AFTER the hate and intolerance was removed from them.
As the Associated Press has recently reported:
“In December 2001, two former ISA students, Mohammed El-Yacoubi and Mohammed Osman Idris, were denied entry into Israel when authorities there found El-Yacoubi carrying what the FBI believed was a suicide note linked to a planned martyrdom operation in Israel. In 2005, a former ISA valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted in federal court of joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush. Last year, the school’s then-director, Abdalla al-Shabnan, was convicted of failing to report a suspected case of child sex abuse. Last year also was when the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report saying the school’s textbooks contained several troubling passages, including one saying it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam and another saying ‘the Jews conspired against Islam and its people.’”
During this time, the Fairfax County Government has leased the Islamic Saudi Academy facility to spread such hate and incite such violence. As the Mount Vernon Gazette has reported, “The school building at 8333 Richmond Highway, is leased from Fairfax County. That lease recently came up for renewal and was renewed for one year with an option for two one year extensions on a motion from Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerald Hyland, in whose district the school is located.” Would the Fairfax County government have offered such leases to racial supremacist organizations? But when supremacism wears a “religious” disguise, there is no willingness to ask this question by local officials.
On March 12, 2009, the Islamic Saudi Academy has now claimed (once again) that it has now truly removed all of the hate and intolerance from its textbooks. However, AP reports that Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington Director Ali “Al-Ahmed, whose group monitors politics and education in the Gulf, said the revised texts now being used at ISA make some small improvements in tone. But he said it’s clear from the books that the core ideology behind them — a puritanical strain of Islam known as Wahhabism that is dominant within Saudi Arabia — remains intact. ‘It shows they have no intention of real reform,’ al-Ahmed said.”
The timing is not likely to be a surprise, since on Wednesday, March 18, the Fairfax County Planning Commission will be considering a “special exception” to zoning laws to allow a further expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy. The Fairfax County government will be holding this meeting at 8:15 PM at the Board Auditorium of the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, Virginia 22035. Activist groups are encouraging local citizens to attend and speak out. I will be speaking as will others, who are opposed to the growth of Islamic supremacism intolerance, as represented by the history of the Islamic Saudi Academy’s teaching in Fairfax County.
This expansion of intolerant Islamic supremacism is not unique to Washington DC’s suburb of Northern Virginia. In Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, California, and states around the country, new beachheads of Islamic supremacism are developing. Many in Virginia and around the nation are not yet willing to act in the face of growing such havens for intolerance and Islamic supremacism. But lessons can be learned from dealing with other supremacist ideologies on the vital necessity to confront supremacist groups in communities and states, before they develop a stanglehold of fear and intolerance in an area.
Those struggling with the growing institutionalization and development of facilities to promote Islamic supremacism in Virginia and around the United States feel that they are dealing with a unique challenge. And in important ways, they are correct. The large-scale tolerance of Islamic supremacism disguised as “religious” freedom is unparalleled. But in other ways, we have seen this challenge before in defending human rights. Nazis and white supremacists have been using this tactic long before 9/11 to gain respectability, influence, and acceptance. Like Islamic supremacists, they remain a threat to equality and liberty. Like Islamic supremacists, those responsible for equality and liberty must defy their ideology and those who would appease them.
Our freedom of religion ensures that individuals will not be unfairly discriminated against because of their beliefs. Such freedoms are designed to ensure equal rights. But these equal rights - are simply that - rights of equality, not superiority. With such equal rights come the equal responsibilities to be accountable for intolerance, promotion of hate, and incitement of violence, like any other citizen.
Lessons Learned From Other Supremacist Threats
In Idaho, Richard Butler’s Nazi Aryan Nations organization maintained a 40 acre compound, where 300 to 400 Nazis joined Butler in his quest for a new “Aryan nation.” In a 1999 report, the FBI said the goal of Aryan Nations was to forcibly take five states — Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Montana — and form an Aryan homeland. Some of the Aryan Nations members broke into small groups that “carried out string of bank robberies, murders and counterfeiting activities.”
In a twisted move designed to gain further credibility for the Nazi organization, Richard Butler also created a “religious” organization for the Nazis called the “Church of Jesus Christ Christian.” This shows the danger in interpreting our religious freedoms as providing superior, rather than equal rights. While Adolf Hitler may not have thought of using “religious” organizations to infiltrate America with Nazi hatred, Nazi Richard Butler did. The “religious disguise” of a Nazi organization claiming religious protection for hatred, intolerance, and incitement demonstrates the folly of ignoring supremacist threats in “religious” disguises. The fact that the Nazi Aryan Nations had relatively small recruitment and success in its supremacist goals does not make it any less of a lesson on why a “religious” disguise must never be tolerated to mask supremacism - whether it is Nazi supremacism, racial supremacism, or Islamic supremacism.
As the people of Idaho were initially slow to respond, they paid a price for allowing supremacist hate and intolerance to grow in Idaho. Marshall Mend, a member of Idaho Human Relations Task Force, said “There are still people who will not come to Idaho because they think it’s a haven for hatred.” Tony Stewart, a political science professor from North Idaho College, warns “Never, never take the position that because there are few of them, they will not do harm.” Over time, the people of Idaho responded to this Nazi supremacist threat. The Aryan Nation Nazis eventually made a mistake, and when their security guards attacked a woman and her son, a court awarded a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations, bankrupting them and costing them their 40 acre compound in Idaho. The lawyer leading the lawsuit against the Aryan Nations, Norman Gissel, stated “Other than our professions and our families, that’s all we did for 15 to 20 years was fight the Nazis.”
Idaho is still recovering from the stigma of supremacism. The press later reported that “[t]he compound has been renamed Peace Park, Mend said, but northern Idaho’s image has not recovered.” “’It’s difficult to quantify the amount of the impact,’ said Jonathan Coe, president of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce. ‘But I can tell you for a fact, we lost business because of them. Some vacationers didn’t visit, businesses didn’t locate here, and people chose not to retire here.”
But the people of Idaho have a message for you on the seriousness of supremacism: “Please, please never remain silent. Please do not confine yourselves to a counter-rally, and please commit your life to the dignity of others.”
Other racial supremacists have tried the same tactics to gain credibility with a religious “disguise,” ranging from the white supremacist “Christian Identity” hate group, the white supremacist “World Church of the Creator” hate group, and absurdly even a Ku Klux Klan group that calls itself the “Church of the National Knights.” But the Indiana-based “Church of the National Knights” group didn’t have the people of Indiana laughing with a five acre property designed to promote Ku Klux Klan white supremacism and hatred. The LA Times reported that “[r]esidents there can hear the gunshots, the shouts and the screech of the public-address system the Klan has used at some ceremonies. When the corn is low, several can see the cross burnings from their backyards. Property values in this modest neighborhood are shot. ‘Our homes aren’t worth a plug nickel now,’ one resident said bitterly.”
Some may ask, what relevance such lessons have to such transnational challenges as Islamic supremacism. The relevance is not in the relative “legitimacy” of a “religious” disguise for supremacist hatred and intolerance. Nor is it in the degree to which such supremacism is widely adopted, accepted, or tolerated. The relevance is in what supremacists have in common and what those of us responsible for equality and liberty have in common.
Despite their differences and their different “religious” disguises, supremacists have one thing in common — hate. This hate is always the same hate — whether it is a Neo-Nazi “church” calling for hatred against Jews, whether it is a white supremacist “religious group” calling for hatred against blacks, whether it is the so-called “Westboro Baptist Church” desecrating the funerals of soldiers and calling for the death of homosexuals, whether it is the “Nation of Islam” group sadly tolerated and accepted by some traditional human rights groups while its leaders spread hate, intolerance, racial bigotry, and Islamic supremacism — or whether it is Islamic supremacists calling for jihad, calling Jews apes and Christians pigs, and oppressing women around the world.
Hate is hate. No matter what its color, no matter what its brand, and no matter what its “religious” disguise. Such hatred, intolerance, and incitement to violence deserves no “religious” disguise and “religious” protection. In every case, and every permutation, such hatred against equality and liberty is wrong - and is an attack on our inalienable human rights of equality and liberty.
There are plenty of important lessons to be learned in looking at these things that supremacists have in common, regardless of whether they use a “religious” disguise or not to justify hate and intolerance. The Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan has been proud of being compared to Adolf Hitler, who he calls “a great man.” The Nazi Aryan Nation’s later leader August Kreis has praised Al-Qaeda and has said that “I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples’ heart, in the Aryan race.” The Nazi Aryan Nations gladly promoted the hate-mongering rants of ex-Nazi David Myatt, now Jihadist Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt. And the list of the common campaigns of hate among supremacists goes on and on and on.
Such campaigns of hate and division are why it is so essential to recognize the common characteristics and goals of supremacism. This is why it is so essential to acknowledge them as “supremacist.” This is why it is vital that we do not allow “religious” characterizations to protect those who seek to promote hate, intolerance, and violence. While there are many who would employ euphemisms in describing supremacist organizations — such as calling racial supremacists as “nationalists,” or calling Islamic supremacists as “Islamists” (as it has currently been re-defined by Washington policy wonks, not as previously defined by the 9/11 Commission) — such euphemisms simply shield supremacist ideologies from the bright light of the truth of equality and liberty.
This challenge is further compounded by those who believe that supremacism that claims a “religious” origin is automatically exempted from scrutiny, criticism, and challenge. If we accept the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Declaration of Independence, we must reject such false protections from those would turn our own freedom of conscience against us by claiming “religious” supremacism as an untouchable platform to promote hatred and the destruction of equality, liberty, and freedom itself. For Americans, we fiercely defend freedom of conscience and religion. But we also recognize that all citizens share both equal rights and equal responsibilities. The Free Exercise Clause of the American Constitution ensures that those claiming exercise of their religious beliefs are not singled out for discriminatory treatment — not that they have any superior rights or lesser responsibilities to the law from other citizens. We believe in equality for all.
For those religious individuals who worship a God of love, there should be no fear in challenging those who would leverage so-called “religious” beliefs as a safe haven and harbor for hate.
A New Hope - Our Common Bond of Humanity
Consistency in challenging supremacist organizations truly matters. Some traditional human rights communities have not grasped that challenging supremacist groups is the same problem — whether they claim to be empowered to spread hatred, intolerance, and violence based on a “religious” claim — or not. That must change. We must recognize the problem of supremacism itself as a monolithic threat to all of humanity’s equality and liberty. We must defy those who would give supremacism any other name and allow it to fester in the darkness of public inattention.
What supremacists believe is that they can endless draw upon the weakest parts of humanity, on hatred, on differences, and on divisions. Supremacists are dependent on our inhumanity to others. They believe that the truths that we hold self-evident that all men and women are created equal is a lie. They count on you questioning it too. They depend on our unwillingness to seek out the true essence of the goodness and decency in humanity. They live to exploit the divisions among us. They count on our FEAR. They hope to manipulate our fear over our hope in human rights. They seek to leverage our fear to further divide us away from each other as human beings and to get us to deny our shared human rights in equality and liberty. They play upon on our fear to deny that those of us who are different from each other may not deserve the same human rights.
But the fears that we have as individuals are smaller than the hope that we can offer one another by our shared consensus in the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. When we say the words that “all men and women are created equal,” we tap into a force greater than ourselves as individuals by recognizing, just as supremacism has a common bond in hate, humanity has a common bond in the hope of equality and liberty for all.
Those responsible for equality and liberty have no choice but to oppose supremacism — to do otherwise we be to deny who we are as human beings and our common bond and destiny together.
This leads to the fundamental decision that all free people must make - you can’t hold two different standards on equality and liberty. You either support these inalienable human rights or not. In the same way, you can’t have two different standards in defying supremacists threatening equality and liberty - you are against them or you’re not.
There are no “but not in this case” clauses in the American Declaration of Independence’s support of the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. There are no “exception rules” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Everyone deserves equal rights, not just those who are like us, and not just people who we like. Everyone means everyone. The inalienable human rights of equality and liberty are for all of humanity. It is “ideological” to believe in the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. It is the ideology of what humanity is all about.
The survival of our common bond of hope means setting aside our differences to stand united against the existential threat of supremacism. Supremacists of every kind share their common goal of spreading hatred and exploiting fear to divide and conquer all of humanity. The shared goal of supremacists is to enslave the human spirit and to crush the human rights of equality and liberty. Our responsibility for equality and liberty must be to defy supremacists and to deny them a safe haven or protection by using a “religious” disguise to spread hate and violence throughout society.
We have a new hope. That hope lies in a humanity that can reach out to each other and find the good and decent part within each other. That hope lies in our ability to remember the importance of respect and decency towards one another. That hope lies in humanity’s ability to reject blind hate and deny those who would manipulate us with fear to ignore the threat of supremacism.
But most of all, that hope lies in our common bond within a humanity that defends the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. It is this new hope that will demand that we...
Fear No Evil. Because We Are Not Afraid.
[Postscript - see also Sources documents for additional reading and background information.]
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/imm-articles/sources_disguise.html
__._,_.___
If reposting elsewhere, please credit source of this research as UnitedStatesAction.com
[This post is full of hidden urls and do look at the links for his sources, it is full of articles, this is not a conspiracy post, Jeffrey Imm backs up what he says, look at the sources, the information is out there, but few will take the time to put it into one package....
granny]
The controlling continues:
House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
Senate Bill 425, or the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92002
<<<<
Yes, these bills are all over the net and the liberals with gardens are as upset as we are.
All I can say is, “he is following the communist plan to take over a country”.....
A couple, maybe 4 years ago Chavez nationalized the grocery stores in Valenzuela and they reached the point that the only meat in the butcher shop was chicken legs, which those that could afford them bought for making soup.
I posted a couple days ago the Chavez plan to take over the ports in the states that did not vote for him and that put in governors who are not in his party.
I am still punchy, have been every since the election, what I see happening is far worse than any novel that I ever read or conspiracy post.
There will be trouble, before it gets better.
It is amazing how some of the oldest practices are actually some of the best for production and management.<<<
Yes, I agree with you.
LOL, but get the young to believe you.
It has to be better, if it is new, that is the message the tv has given them, so they think it is true.
I am finding more and more of the greenie/liberal sites are looking for the old information and it is beginning to sound like the hippies have been reborn, only these are not in a
VW Van, they want a garden and roots.
So the cycles go.
Just as Mother Nature planned.
This message consists of the following:
1. Cannondale Recalls Road Bicycles Due to Fall Hazard http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09155.html
2. State Farm(r) Recalls Good Neigh Bears(r) Due to Choking Hazard
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09156.html
3. Nordstrom Recalls Girl’s Shoes Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09157.html
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/japanese-style-avocado.html
Kimberly from Hartke is Online, is hosting the first Natural Cure Blog Carnival today (a weekly happening). Isn’t that a great idea? I think that food can be one of our best medicines (and on the flip side, it can be our biggest threat to our health as well!). I love finding out the different healing properties of food. Take avocado. It’s a fiber rich fruit that is a great source of lutein, which keeps your eyes and skin healthy. It’s also full of healthy fats.
And who can beat that smooth, rich taste of avocado? Enjoy it to the fullest with the following recipe.
Japanese Style Avocado
2-4 servings
1 large avocado
soy sauce
olive oil
toasted sesame oil
1-To make, cut the the avocado in half and take the pit out. Leaving it in the peel, slice into thin strips (being careful not to cut through the peel). Take a large soup spoon and gently scoop the slices out onto a plate. Arrange in a pretty fashion.
2-Drizzle a little olive oil over it, then about the same amount of soy sauce and a small amount of toasted sesame oil. Enjoy.
Variations:
Joel’s Grandma would use Tabasco sauce to add a bite. Sono, his mother would add a light sprinkle of cayenne or a bit of a mild chili powder for the same result. Another delicious option is adding garlic powder as well. They would sprinkle the garlic powder and cayenne on before they drizzled the sauce on.
Karen 03.17.09 at 9:42 pm
I appreciate this new variation of yours on a favorite sauce that I tasted at a friend’s house over 30 years ago and have enjoyed ever since! Try equal parts of apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and olive oil. It makes a great sauce over an avocado (too) and a wonderful dressing for salads!
Napa Cabbage Sauerkraut
Fermentation Workshop Sparks Interest in Ancient Food Preservation Methods
Next week, I am planning to tell you about a workshop we held in Northern Virginia, where we demonstrated lacto-fermentation methods of preserving foods and making beverages. But, a blog reader and her mom who attended the workshop have already submitted a cool recipe and question that I can’t wait to share with you. Sophie’s mom has given up her family recipe for making sauerkraut. Enjoy!
Traditional Chinese Method of Making Sauerkraut
Thank you for the demonstration about sauerkraut. Great that this traditional food will be revived this way. I talked to you briefly about the sauerkraut that my grandma made. You won’t believe it is that easy to make. To be more specific, this recipe is a Northern Chinese sauerkraut, because of different weather conditions, different regions of China have different methods in doing this, although the basics are almost the same.–Sophie
1. choose a stoneware - no metals.
2. clean napa cabbages and put them as a whole in the stone ware, press hard downwards so that there is not much air left between leaves. Add one layer of whole cabbages and one layer of salt, so forth and so on.
3. add water, and put a heavy stone on top of the cabbage to prevent floating.
4. After 1 month, it’s ready to eat. It can be kept 3 or more months at winter room temperature - which is around 50F.
The cabbage leaves or core will not be split or separated. They just press the whole cabbage into the pot.
How much salt is added? I asked my mom but got no answer. In China, we don’t measure while cooking - you might know that. So all is depend on experience: error and trial.
After the long process, we have to cut the cabbage. It will not shred by itself. We usually cook it with fatty pork meat.
Question from Sophie
I read in many places that sauerkraut contains Nitrite, which can cause cancer. Is that true?
Answer:
from Sara Tung, the co-chapter leader of Weston A. Price Foundation in Reston, VA:
Nitrites occur naturally in fermented foods. Nitrites have been found to help preserve foods, which is why the food industry started adding nitrites to foods. High quantities of nitrites do cause cancer, although I don’t believe a study has been done that compares naturally occurring nitrites found in foods as a result of fermentation vs artificial nitrites added to processed foods. I would bet that the studies are done based on the nitrites used as an additive in processed foods.
Just like MSG is naturally occurring in certain foods like bone broth and cooking mushrooms, people don’t usually have health issues or reactions to the nitrites naturally occurring found in fermented foods. (Many people react to added MSG or chemical MSG but have no trouble with foods that naturally produce MSG during the cooking process.) This is the same debate of vitamin A & D toxicity — all the conventional studies show that A & D can be dangerous; yet, they are found to be crucial and dense in traditional sacred foods. Vitamins A & D have not been shown to be toxic when consumed in their natural forms and in the correct ratios found in whole foods.
The other thing too, is that there has been scientific studies that found that if left to pickle longer, that the nitrites disappear. I believe for sauerkraut, it’s something like after 20 days. I believe this is why our ancestors actually age their ferments much longer. I also think nitrites are nature’s way of preserving the foods before enough acid appears in the ferment to ensure that no bad microbes can spoil it. I remember reading that the Swiss villagers aged their breads 3 weeks. If you look into traditionally fermented foods the way our ancestors made it, the aging period is a lot longer. Many sauerkraut recipes will call for a room temperature ferment of anywhere from 3 to 7 days; however, I believe most ferments should age further in the fridge. Not only does the nitrites go away, the ferment goes through a maturation process in terms of taste and flavor.
If nitrates are a concern, you may want to find research and confirm the length of time before the nitrites disappear. If you find the answer, please come back and post it as a comment on this blog article. Thanks!
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Our New Blog Carnival Logo
Fermented Foods can be used as part of a healing protocol. If you have experienced healing as a result of adding fermented foods to your diet, please join our Natural Cures blog carnival next Tuesday, and submit your healing story or recipe!
>>>Spoke protector discs, required on bicycles to prevent the bicycle chain from interfering or suddenly stopping the wheel, are missing from these bicycles. This poses a fall hazard to the rider.<<<
You mean that if I get the chain in the spokes or even my foot, I might fall?
I can’t believe that anyone could take such risk...
Or, does it mean that the whole rest of the world is so much smarter than we Americans are... They know something we don’t... (Foot in wheel=Fall on ground) Hey, was that Confucius who said that? /s
>>>It has to be better, if it is new, that is the message the tv has given them, so they think it is true.<<<
LOL, they are now ‘discovering’ SRC... Short Rotation Cropping.
Well, that is what they are calling that ‘NEW’ practice of getting 10-15 tons of wood per acre per year...
SRC is the ‘buzzword’ to replace that outdated ‘coppice’ that has been around for so long that it has been forgotten in most parts...
CB - you asked what coppice is, well it is the cutting of trees just above the ground and letting them send up shoots from the roots that are already established. They grow much faster than seedlings as they have a massive established root system already. This reduces erosion and produces much more wood from a given space. Poplars, Willows, Chestnuts, Maples, Oaks, Gum and other trees will send out new shoots from the root. Conifers which we plant by the gillions do not...
Some of the ancient coppiced forests have root systems up to about 30’ in diameter and continue to produce.
I particularly like the hybrid poplars as they grow about 8 feet even in the first year... They can be used at almost every stage of growth. Several of the pulp wood processors are now planting thousands of acres of the poplars in the Pacific NorthWest for paper making - they are working to biologically ferment the wood for biofuel, and also plants are being built now to pyralize the wood for biogas production.
Sometimes we have to use the jargon of the day - Phytoremediation, Carbon Sequestration, Carbon Neutral, Reparian Buffers, and all those other terms that the ‘greenies’ seem to value... I call it common sense conservation.
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/03/17/the_urban_farm_store_or_omg
The Urban Farm Store; or, OMG BABY CHICKENS!!
Posted by Alison Hallett on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 9:30 AM
ccfb/1237306980-scaled.chick04.jpg
When I was a kid, I made extra cash every year selling baby guinea pigs to the local feed store (to be purchased by nice families who would love them and care for them and change the sawdust in their cages every day and give them lots of carrots and broccoli florets and most certainly would NOT feed them to snakes. WHAT.)
Upon wandering into the Urban Farm Store on Southeast Morrison over the weekend, I was immediately struck by how similar it was to the feed store we went to when I was younger, albeit selling organic dog food instead of the kind made with, you know, decaying horse hearts and kitten fetuses. It’s a very practical store, not boutiquey at all, stocked with bags of wild bird seed, chicken scratch, kitty litter, cat and dog food, organic garden seeds, and an edible plant nursery outside. And in the back? TINY BABY CHICKENS. They’ve got a few bins of chicks which have been selling like mad, according to Robert, the store’s owner (when I asked him where they come from, he said he orders them by mail and they arrive in “cheeping boxes” at the post office).
Future plans for the store include selling full-grown chickens, beekeeping supplies, and rabbits (for petting and loving and cuddling. Certainly not for eating. WHAT.). Oh, and goat feed: Apparently people are into raising and slaughtering their own goats these days? This I did not know. They also offer free chicken keeping classes, for all you aspiring urban farmers out there. (Robert was super helpful, too, even before I disclosed that I’m a media spy; when I asked if they sold cat treats, he said “not yet,” but ran to get me a cat food sample. It’s definitely a place I’d feel comfortable asking for help and advice.)
This store is great. And of course, business has been booming, because this is a brilliant idea at absolutely the right cultural moment. Check it out for yourself: 1925 SE Morrison, 234-7733, or visit their very comprehensive website, which even has a schedule of when new chicks will be arriving
http://perennial-food-crops.blogspot.com/
Chou Daubenton
Chou Daubenton is the first of the perennial Kale’s I will talk about and one of the more readily available perennial Brassicas.
Plants are naturally branching, and form quite a neat mound eventually attaining a size of 3ft x 3ft (’Daubenton’ is actually quite attractive as Kale’s go, and wouldn’t look out of place in an ornamental bed).
The plants live for 5-7 years and are easily propagated by semi ripe cuttings using the usual techniques (flowering is rare and seed is not available).
So far ‘Daubenton’ has been less affected by pests and disease than its biennial cousins, with Woodpigeon’s being a notable exception. Woodpigeon damage is however no worse than that found on other Brassicas, and can be controlled in the usual manner.
When eaten raw, as with most Kale’s, there is a slightly bitter overtone during the summer, but it is very slight and I find it quite pleasant. And like other Brassicas it sweetens after frost. I would say the flavour and texture is as good as ‘Ragged Jack’ and only marginally inferior to Black Tuscan Kale.
Cooked ‘Daubenton’ is as good as the best of them, and you can harvest individual leaves, or cut the individual heads and cook them whole. My personal preference is to harvest individual leaves as it doesn’t spoil the look of the plant; but they will re-sprout vigorously when the heads are harvested, so long as you don’t over crop individual plants.
And if all this isn’t enough to convince you that ‘Daubenton’ is worth growing, there is a variegated form with slightly grayer leaves and irregular yellow variegation around the leaf edges.
In all other respects it is like the non variegated form; perhaps a little less vigorous but no more so than could be expected from a variegated selection. It is a little more difficult to come by but well worth the effort.
‘Daubenton’ is available from Fabre-Graines (France), and PlantesPet Jardins (France), both sites are in French. You may also find other suppliers if you Google “Chou Daubenton”.
You may also want to read a rather informative post on perennial Brassicas at Homegrown Goodness. Just follow the link if you want to check it out:
http://alanbishop.proboards60.com/index.cgi?board=brassica&action=display&thread=1930
US Congress Food Safety Legislation Tracking
You can now follow the progress of the following proposed legislation-
S.425 Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act
H.R. 759: Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009
H.R. 814: TRACE Act of 2009
H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
-via the “widgets” that immediately follow this one.
Track S. 425: Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act
S. 425: Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act
There are no recent events for this tracker.
(Powered by GovTrack.us)
Track H.R. 759: Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009
H.R. 759: Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009
Mar 11, 2009 - House Debate
H.R. 759 Will Ensure a Safe Food Supply
Excerpt: “H.R. 759 WILL ENSURE A SAFE FOOD SUPPLY — (House of Representatives - March 11, 2009) [Page: H3148]”
(Powered by GovTrack.us)
Track H.R. 814: TRACE Act of 2009
H.R. 814: TRACE Act of 2009
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Track H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
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Above is live at:
http://clarkfoodfarm.blogspot.com/2009/03/great-tom-wagner-tater-mater-grow-out.html
A Clark County, Washington blog, gardens, interesting article on growing potatoes and several links to check out.
Thank you..
It’s amazing what the controllers deem as important to our safety..
Nothing surprises me much anymore..
http://www.seedambassadors.org/wp/
Here’s a slide show to get people excited about the 2009 season.
View Slide Show Full Screen
Thailand 2009
Feb 21st, 2009 by Sarah Kleeger
This month we took a short trip to Thailand, where we combined family time with my dad (who lives there), with some Seed Ambassadorizing in a small village called Nong Ta Klong in Buriram Province, in the northeast.
View Sideshow in Full Screen
- We recommend changing it to 5 seconds per photo.
On a previous trip to Thailand we had made friends with Loong Yoot, a brilliant and inspirational man whose motto is to “teach by not teach.” Loong Yoot received a scholarship to study Permaculture in Australia many years ago, and has spent the past eight years riding his bicycle around his home country teaching people by example about sustainable living. In a country where most structures are made of resource consumptive wood or cement, he teaches people to build adobe structures for community learning centers and other uses. In a culture where consumerism and materialism are rapidly stripping both rich and poor of their sense of self, he shows that another, simpler way of life is possible and in many ways preferable. Loong Yoot’s workshops bridge the class divide by bringing the rural poor together with elite city folk searching for a new way of life, and enable travelers to develop meaningful connections with people and places in that elusive “off the beaten path.”
The last time we were in Thailand (early 2004), we spent five weeks working and learning with Yoot in a village close to the Cambodian border. This time, due to a limited time frame, we spent only three days.
Po Tongbai, the former village head man of Ban Nong Ta Klong, had already started a bit of a “Center for Sustainable” in this increasingly dry region when he dug three large ponds on his land a few years ago. Some questioned his sanity, but his family and friends now enjoy fresh fish year-round, and his family has a lush, irrigated garden in the dry season. But the invitation to build an adobe structure, to invite people from near and very far away to learn about living a less resource-consumptive life, was initiated by his daughter Noi. Over the course of three weeks, dozens of people will come to Po Tongbai’s land to have fun, make connections, and learn by doing.
In the short time we were there we made many bricks and built two walls of the structure; learned how to make rice noodles in the traditional way; did a teensy bit of gardening; ate lots of delicious food; and gave a seed saving workshop. We brought some international seeds with us to share with the villagers, and in return some of the women in the village walked us around and gave us seed for many beautiful food and flower plants, some of which might even mature seed for us here in Oregon. We are thrilled to grow their authentic Thai holy basil, an edible species of cleome (spider flower), and Loong Yoot’s edible ball-shaped loofa from the northern mountain regions, among others.
[An interesting blog, about saving seeds, collecting seeds and the trips to share seeds around the world....granny]
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92095
Feds reverse policy cutting ammo supply
Respond to senators representing outraged gun owners nationwide
//snips//
Georgia Arms is a company that for the last 15 years has been purchasing fired brass shell casings from the Department of Defense and private government surplus liquidators. The military collects the discarded casings from fired rounds, then sells them through liquidators to companies like Georgia Arms that remanufacture the casings into ammunition for the law enforcement and civilian gun owner communities.
But earlier this month, Georgia Arms received a canceled order, informed by its supplier that the government now requires fired brass casings be mutilated, in other words, destroyed to a scrap metal state.
The policy change, handed down from the Department of Defense through the Defense Logistics Agency, cuts a supply leg out from underneath ammunition manufacturers.
The policy has compelled Georgia Arms, for example, to cancel all sales of .223 and .308 ammunition, rounds used, respectively, in semi-automatic and deer hunting rifles, until further notice. Sharch Manufacturing, Inc. has announced the same cancellation of its .223 and .308 brass reloading components.
"They just reclassified brass to allow destruction of it, based on what?" Georgia Arms owner Larry Haynie asked WND. "We've been 'going green' for the last dozen years, and brass is one of the most recyclable materials out there. A cartridge case can be used over and over again. And now we're going to destroy it based on what? We don't want the civilian public to have it? It's a government injustice."
Additional links:
Obama seeks 'assault weapons' ban
Is bill lying in wait to ban handguns?
Big Brother's new target: Tracking of all firearms
http://www.seedambassadors.org/wp/?cat=88
Category Archive for ‘Biodynamics’
Dottenfelder-hof
Posted in Biodynamics, Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 27th, 2007
“One of the central hubs of German biodynamic plant breeding community”. We were told this by many people through our travels and we decided that we had to visit Dottenfelder-hof (translated version). After a nice hike in the morning from the train station we arrived invigorated to meet with our host [...]
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Sativa Rheinau part two: Breeding Projects and More
Posted in Biodynamics, Seed Saving, Switzerland, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 24th, 2007
The folks at Sativa do a lot of work with maintaining and reinvigorating old varieties for PSR. (Pro Specie Rara, the Swiss seed saver’s organization, see next posting). Most of this work focuses on brassicas, which often suffer from inbreeding depressions, leading to sickly plants and poor yields. By the time inbreeding depression is recognized [...]
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Sativa Rheinau part one: Swiss Biodynamic Seed Company
Posted in Biodynamics, Seed Saving, Switzerland, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 23rd, 2007
From Gerhard and Susanne’s we traveled by train south to Sativa Rheinau, a biodynamic seed company in Switzerland near the border town of Schaffhausen, home to the largest waterfall in Europe. Set in a seventeenth century monastery on an island in the Rheine, Sativa is blessed with being one of the most beautiful places we [...]
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Bingenheimer part two: effects of musical notes on dandelions?
Posted in Biodynamics, Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 17th, 2007
Bingenheimer’s resident plant breeder, Ute Kirchgaesser, is on to something. Really, she’s probably on to many things, but to describe them all would take a book and I only have one blog posting.
Ute has what equates to a master’s degree in horticulture, but her German title sounds much better; Meistergartnerin. She got her start in [...]
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Bingenheimer part one: arival
Posted in Biodynamics, Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 16th, 2007
We left Greifswald for Bingenheimer Saatgut AG, the largest biodynamic seed company in Germany, Leaving super extra early on Tuesday morning, we traveled via “Mitfahrgelegenheit” through Berlin and on down to a small town northeast of Frankfurt. “Mitfahrgelegenheit” is the musical word for ‘organized rideshare’, and there are several websites that one can use to [...]
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Plan B… More Hamburg, then Grain
Posted in Biodynamics, Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Dec 18th, 2006
Our plans for Poland on the 9th of December fell through, and so we found ourselves in Hamburg with lots of options but no plans. We did what we could to pursue new seed-related contacts, even recruiting the help of Christina and Juan, but we found last-minute arrangements around the holidays to be somewhat difficult [...]
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Germany: Into the Heart of the Matter
Posted in Biodynamics, Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Dec 8th, 2006
Early morning on Monday, December 4, we arrived at the doorstep of Christina Henatch, a pivotal player in the German Biodynamic seed breeding scene, Working at the Gut Wolfsdorf Farm outside of hamburg Germany. Christina was gracious enough to host us for several days during a very busy time of year for her. We talked [...]
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Or, does it mean that the whole rest of the world is so much smarter than we Americans are... They know something we don’t... (Foot in wheel=Fall on ground) Hey, was that Confucius who said that? /s<<<
No, not Confucius, rather it was a few million liberals.
Some of this comes from the twins of those who want us old one dead, for we are a drain on the system [not I, as I am not in any system, I pay or do without..].
And all kids are better in a state run village.
You know them folks.
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