Phrase of the Day #23 – ‘Home Grown Tyrannists’

The Phrase of the Day #23 for Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 is:

‘Home Grown Tyrannists’

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Why?

I’d like to coin a new phrase for people to start using. I’m a big fan of using the system against itself, and as such, I’m a fan of catchy phrases.  One that I recently came up with, is:

‘Home Grown Tyrannists’

Yea, I know what ‘Tyrannists’ isn’t officially a word, but it is now! I think it is very apropos. 😛

People who believe, that under color of law bullshit, that you should be fucked with, fleeced, and interfered with in any way possible.

They are cowards who believe that the state should be used as a truncheon to force you to comply with the way that THEY think things should be.

They are bullies who truly believe that you must be made to ‘conform’ to their point of view, no matter how unlawful it may be to force you to do so, or in spite of the fact that you have broken no law.

Beware of Home Grown Tyrannists. They are absolutely EVERYWHERE.

Your neighbors, co-workers, fellow citizens, and local government employees. All of these people have a very high chance and probability of being a Home Grown Tyrannist.

Ye Hath Been Warned! 😉

Phrase of the Day #22 – ‘Bullshit Modern Lawns’

The Phrase of the Day #22 for Friday, April 20th, 2012 is:

‘Bullshit Modern Lawns’

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Why?

One of my neighbors yesterday decided, out of the clear blue, to just mow my entire front and back yard for me, without warning, and without asking. I was in the bath at the time, and I knew they were mowing our other neighbor’s yard, as they usually do because the fellow is older and doesn’t get along well, so having a huge industrial sized professional riding mower, they mow it for the old guy.

But this time they decided to mow MY yard as well.

Why is this a problem? Because I have edible wild food plants that encompass the entirety of my yard. It isn’t a ‘lawn’ it is my wild food garden and where I get about 85% of my food from during the spring, summer, and early fall!

In other words, they just mowed over my fucking food. Damn near all of it!

On a foraging forum I frequent, someone was talking about how modern lawns are nostalgic to some people.

Nostalgic eh?

I have got some nostalgia too. From when we actually had a country where people respected the rights of others, and left others alone to live their lives the way THEY wanted to live them, as long as they were not harming anyone else. Does anyone else remember about reading something like that in history class? Because it sure does not work that way in real life these days.

This reminds me of a short story that I think is apropos:

My great uncle once told me a story about his father. Long story short, he worked at a mill back in the early 1920s. There was this guy that worked there that always had to have his nose in everyone else’s business. The fellow had zero business being in anyone else’s business, he just was a nosy little weasel. You know the type. Apparently one day the nosy fellow poked his nose into one too many things, one too many times, and my great uncles father clobbered him with his metal lunch pail. This was not a kids tin lunchbox either, but one of those big old steel mill lunchboxes. Rung his bell darn good. The guy was then apparently told that the next time he stuck his nose where it did not belong, it would be a bit shorter, if ye get the drift. Well, needless to say, they never had a problem with Mr. Weasel ever again. Maybe we can all learn something from history, eh? 😉

I have never quite understood the attraction in the 65 and up crowd to their perfectly preened putter lawns.

Traditionally the only people who had lawns were the idle rich. It was a status symbol that they could afford to have such huge tracts of land unused and worthless. It was the equivalent of the middle finger to the rest of the classes, as the rich could buy whatever they wanted and did not need to use their own land to grow it.

The post WWII generation is the perfect example of nearly a whole generation of Americans trying to be something they are not. The new idle rich. The so called American Dream and all that sad rot. Where there is a chicken in every pot and a Model T Ford in every garage and where they will enforce redistribution of wealth at gunpoint. Where you have to keep up with the Joneses and unless you have the most modern this or that you are somehow less than your neighbors or peers.

Personally, I take issue with people just waltzing into my yard and mowing my lawn for me, no matter how helpful they think they are being. It is the equivalent of someone setting my pantry on fire. But these are older people, that do not take a hint. I have also known them all my life. They are good people, and they think they are helping, no matter how many times they are told that we like the lawn to grow wild, and that we eat the plants. They look down their noses at us that we eat the weeds. I have even had one ask me recently I saw you out there picking dandelions. Do you have enough food? Do you need help?

Jesus, Mary, and Joe the Plumber. No, I do not need help.

They just do not understand, no matter how many times they are told, that I eat the things I eat because I like them, and because they are healthy. Not because I cannot go to the store and buy some GMO death food alternative if I so desired.

Well the real answer to the first question now, is no, I DO NOT have enough food. Why? Because you goram idiots killed it all, and now I will have to go on a very long walk each day to get what I need. Could not have it 10 feet away from my back door, where I can harvest it rain or shine no, that just makes too much sense. No, it is better to mow it down to the earth.

We just lost our ENTIRE spring greens harvest. There is no recovering from that. It was a bumper crop this year from the early spring. The most I can hope for is to find a little bit here and there, but nothing like the density and concentration that they were in my yard. We have been nursing this area along for years to be this thick with food plants so that all we have to do is literally walk out the door, and 5 minutes later with minimal effort, we have enough for a meal.

We do keep the front lawn trimmed, but we have a method to it so that our resources are not wasted.

Those lovely 10 inch long dandelions all had a purpose. My wife and I had set aside this entire weekend, and we were going to harvest the leaves, buds, flowers, and stems of as many as we could. This would also be done with any thistle, plantago, cats ear, or any other wild edible that is tall enough to be mowed over. It would be harvested, cleaned, and then either mixed together into an assortment of different plants and blanched and made into what I call soup packs, or separated by plant and part time and frozen separately in plastic bags for use in other dishes.

There were enough wild greens destroyed yesterday that would have sustained us for most of the coming winter. A conservative estimate would have been 30 or so plastic bags full. And I mean FULL. Our freezer would have been packed to the brim, ready to go for winter. Now that it has been cut it will NEVER look that way again this year, even if we totally let it go and never cut it again. Which would just cause ANOTHER of our oh so helpful retired neighbors with too much time on their hands to come over and help us out by mowing it down. Again. We will be lucky to get a quarter of that come this Fall now. It is the SPRING greens that we freeze for eating over the winter, as they are much more prolific, easier to harvest, and much less bitter.

The weather is going to be changing into longer hotter days, instead of cooler shorter days where those plants thrive here without being bitter. Sun on leaves of things such as dandelion equals more bitter. Just taste one that has been growing in the shade vs one that has been growing in full sun. You will see.

These ones were growing so fast from the early spring and the lack of hot sunny days, that there was not even barely a bitter trace to them. I mixed a salad two days ago, half and half with regular lettuce and dandelion leaves (and some stems and flowers), and wolfed it down with some balsamic vinegar as dressing. I would not usually do that, but these were so mild it was absolutely delicious.

But all that is now gone.

Oh. And the guy cut down a row of my blackberries in the front that I have painstakingly cut around for 3 years straight trying to get the canes to propagate, and 4 small sugar maple trees that I had intentionally planted and grown from seed last year and were about a foot tall that did not have wiring or any protective barrier around them. Why would they? No one but us should be on our lawn operating any kind of lawn equipment.

Closer to the heart, they also destroyed a small rose bush that my now deceased father had planted for my mother some 45 years ago. It was barely clinging on to life, as the area where it was planted is now too wet for it, and too shady, as the trees have grown up all around it. It was in full sun when originally planted, and the grade of the yard was higher back then.

All in all, I think I have had just about as much helpful neighbors as I can handle.

Phrase of the Day #13 – ‘Taraxacum officinale – Dandelion’

The Phrase of the Day #13 for Sunday, March 25th, 2012 is:

‘Taraxacum officinale – Dandelion’

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I could have just as easily named this article “What’s That Called?”

Why?

Probably one of the top 10 most annoying things in the world to me, is when people give me flak for not remembering a Latin name when I’m trying to explain to them that a certain plant is good to eat. The more snarky of people will throw in something like… “Well if you’ve been eating this plant for 30 years you SHOULD know what the Latin name is… are you SURE you know what you’re talking about?!?”

If I’m feeling more mild mannered I’ll reply that I learned the plants by their common name not their Latin name, and it’s only the past few years that I’ve had to ‘re-learn’ the plants and attach new names to every single one. It’s just like learning the names for all of the plants in, say, Chinese. You already know the names, and what they do. But now you have to learn them in Chinese.

If I’m feeling less mild mannered, I’ll reply that they’ve been eating apples, oranges, and chicken for 30 years, so they SHOULD know what the Latin names are. They never do. 😉

To which I reply… “Are you SURE you know what you are talking about?!?

People hate it when you turn their own bullshit argument back upon them. 🙂

Hungry in America – An analysis from a Wild Rantery! point of view.

Though I do try to keep the other blog focused on ‘Wild Cookery’ related topics, and bring you things related to wild plants and cookery in general, there are times I get a burr in my saddle and certain things just irk me, especially being someone who gets at least ¾ of their food from the wild three seasons out of the year.

That is what THIS blog is for. So I can keep the other one ‘family friendly’ for the most part.

I will tell you right now, that this is a total ‘opinion’ piece. It’s not politically correct in any way, shape, or form. It’s raw, it’s harsh, and it’s a taste of something I like to call reality.

If you don’t want to read it, simply skip over it or hit the back button now and go back to the other blog, as I make no apologies for this post going forward.

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Ok, so let’s take a look at the video…

Panorama, a show on BBC, decided to take a look at “Poor America”

This is about a 30-minute video that will probably shock the average individual who gets their news from the mainstream, as things like this typically don’t air on American TV. One has to usually go OUTSIDE the country to get some real news on what’s going on. It’s the same in other countries. No one reports what’s going on in their own country. But they have no problem reporting what’s going on in YOURS. 😛

The video talks about tent cities, and people living in storm drains in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the first part they talk to a couple who live in a storm drain. These people hand out flyers for a local club, just trying to get by.

Next it showed a school bust stopping at a motel to pick up school children who lived there.

Then it highlights a family of 5 living in a motel.

The mother says “I want my kids to be kids, I don’t want them to have to worry about ‘grown up’ stuff.”

Excuse me?

Mayhap that’s one of the reasons our country is so utterly screwed up. We’re so busy wanting to give our children a ‘childhood’ that they are absolutely unprepared for anything else. We regularly graduate 18-year-old CHILDREN who can barely read from American schools. 18 years old, physically mature, with the mindset of a pre-teen. Parents then expect these young men and women to somehow be magically ready for the real world, when the prior 18 years they spent focused on wanting them to have a ‘childhood’. Gee, is it any wonder little Timmy is a disappointment?

Not even 100 years ago in this country, someone who was 14 years old was reliable, competent, and worthy of trust, admiration, and praise. Now… ye gods. Most teenagers couldn’t find their arse with both hands if their life depended on it.

The father even goes so far to mention that he’s considered suicide. “A couple of times, I really wanted to kill myself…” On mainstream TV no less. (Gee, what a great way to invite the CPS to SWAT team you and take your children, you bonehead!)

All they’re mourning over is nothing more than material bullshit. And the Mom talks about not being able to go get her son a haircut. Oh boo hoo. For feck sake, get a pair of scissors and cut his hair yourself, it is not like it is difficult or anything. Problem solved. My mother cut all of our hair growing up. We didn’t need to go to a salon and spend $25 for a 15-minute clip job.

But no, that would require an ounce of motivation, and would require taking responsibility for the situation that you find yourself in. She’d rather play the role of the fluffybunny victim.

The show goes on to quote U.S. Census Bureau statistics of over 47 million Americans who qualify as ‘poor’, the most in over half a century.

Personally, I think there are far more than that, and it’s growing every day.

It then goes on to talk about the ‘poor’ not really being poor. They have wide screen HDTVs and computers. Of course the guy talking about this is obviously well fed with a double chin, so it’s kind of hilarious for this kind of guy to be referencing the poor in any way, shape, or form.

But I tend to agree. If you have any of those digital luxury items and the cable and internet and electricity to use it, you aren’t really ‘poor’. You are just currently inconvenienced. ‘Poor’ to the rest of the world is living under a bridge with nothing but the clothes on your back. Americans have a very different meaning for the term ‘poor’ than the rest of the globe. America on a whole hasn’t seen ‘poor’. Not yet.

For a highlight of the show, the kids of families who are known to be poor are singled out and talked to in school. (Likely without their parent’s knowledge or permission.)

Now, let’s stop for a moment and take a look at something here.

Why are they hungry? Because they’re eating all of that hollow poison commonly and mistakenly called ‘food’. Such as those canned ravioli. Not only do they get the GMO death toxins, but they get the BPA as well from the liners and/or the plastics. Yum!

All helping to ensure that the next generation of males in this country are as effeminate and ineffective as humanly possible.

One girl with chubby cheeks is asked what it’s like at home, and she says she’s missed dinner, and when she is asked how often that has happened, she says ‘It’s happened five times already.’ However, she failed to specify whether that was 5 times in the last week, the last month, the last YEAR… what exactly? She also states that she got ‘dizzy’ one time. Also notice that she looked up and to the left… the creative side of the brain.

Then they talk to a boy. This child has no idea what ‘hungry’ is. He misses one meal and thinks it’s the end of the world.

And they always ask the kids “How does that make you feel?” Like that has anything to do with anything. How you feel isn’t going to put fish on your plate for dinner tonight. But getting off your fat ass might.

It then goes into a bunch of people being given volunteer medical help and consultations. A lot of these people have problems that they can’t afford to fix, and who do not have insurance because they simply cannot afford it.

The fellow with the hernia did go to the ER and was told that he needed surgery which would cost $20,000. Needless to say, he didn’t get the surgery done.

So much for ‘hope and change’, eh?

I did notice that they managed to get in a cheap shot on Ron Paul by highlighting the fact that is was the individual’s responsibility, not the government’s, to take care of them.

Of course, what do we really expect from a country who frequently call themselves ‘subjects’ instead of ‘citizens’ eh? 😉

They finish with a few shots of the hellhole that is Detroit, which looks like a bombed out relic from WWII. The show closes with highlights of how homeless shelters are sending people to a tent city next to a highway instead of providing service to them. In the middle of winter, no less.

How’s that song go… ah yes… “I’m PROUD to be an American, where at least I know I’m free…”

SUMMARY:

As I always say, the further you have to fall, the more shock the sudden stop when you hit bottom.

Like that one family who went from a posh life of a 3 car garage, 3 bedroom house and hot tub, to living in a motel room can be shocking I suppose for a bunch of people who could never conceive of such a thing.

But they still have their pink-sweatered Chihuahua and can somehow to afford to feed that thing. They can’t be too bad off, all things considered. If I couldn’t feed my family, the useless yap dog would be the first thing to go. And they’re all fecking fat. Even the kids are fat. Now, granted, that most of that is from the trash ‘modern’ food they are eating, but still. They’re not exactly trying to be or stay healthy here.

It’s because people are so disconnected from their foundations and basic knowledge that has been part of mankind since the dawn of time, that these people are having such difficulties.

It has nothing to do with the economy. These people are ignorant. And thus, they suffer. The greater the ignorance, the greater the suffering will be. Everyone will likely be made to suffer for their ignorance. The system will see to that. And they’ll have no one to blame but themselves. But by and large they’ll never step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own survival. It’s always someone else’s problem.

It’s not bad now. The bad is yet to come. There is still welfare and food stamps and assistance. Wait until there isn’t. Then the nice peaceful folks in the tent camps will be the Mongols at the gate of Rome.

One of the things that really, and royally, pisses me off is people going hungry in this country. There is absolutely no excuse for it at this current point in time, no matter how bad the economy is, or how bad it gets.

As I coined years ago: “The DOW doesn’t affect the dandelion!”

THE SOLUTION:

Notice that not ONE of these people have any clue how to feed themselves other than by handouts. Is that how we solve this problem?

No. How we solve this problem is by educating people on how to eat the natural wild foods around them, and teaching them basic survival techniques. The problem here is that the people are just existing. They have no real hope of breaking out of the rut they are in, with the current economy the way it is, and with it about to become exponentially worse.

These people need to be developing REAL survival skills. Not just sitting there waiting for someone to bring food to them. But rather organizing and planting community gardens so they are somewhat self-sustainable. If they must live in tent-cities, and the actual cities are sending people from homeless shelters TO the tent-cities, then at least have some chickens so that everyone has fresh eggs for breakfast. There are thousands of different things they could do to get these little communities somewhat more ‘self sufficient’ and in doing so, rebuild the worth and value of these people in their OWN eyes, and help them feel like they are doing something worth doing every day, instead of merely existing on other people’s handouts. They’ll also be developing very valuable real world skills in farming, animal husbandry, etc.

Or, if nothing at all is done, when the day comes, be it 1 month 1 year, or 5 years from now when there is a REAL disruption in services, be it by war, solar flare, uprising, whatever, these people may just decide that they’ve had enough of ‘handouts’ and decide to take the whole enchilada. And, all things considered, they’ll be used to a lot more hell than the folks in the city who just had their power turned off a few days ago. And the people inside the city, will just be statistics.

It doesn’t need to come to that. We can teach people to fend for themselves and not only rebuild their self worth and self esteem, but in the process, rebuild this country by having a foundation of strong, reliable, self motivated people rediscover what it means to be a real American. Something most of us only read about in history books. We still have a choice. And no matter the odds or obstacles, there is always a right choice.