One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever

One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever | Mother Jones.

One weird trick? Seems like this ‘trick’ has been around forever, it’s just our modern factory farming techniques that tend to overlook it.

I don’t really know enough about farming to say with a definite yes or no to any of this stuff. I have been learning more about it lately and I’m coming to find out that contrary to what our government schools are telling us, that no, factory farming is NOT necessary to feed all the people on this planet now.

I always thought that because of the humongous amount of people running around and needing to be fed, that factory farming was the ONLY solution. Now, I’ve been learning, it isn’t. In fact, it is causing a lot of harm. Not only to the animals, but to the water, to the soil, to the plants, to the people involved in the farming, AND to all the rest of us.

Check out the article, read it all the way through and even the comments at the end. If you want some more info, check out this book I read called “Genetic Roulette” on GMOs (they even made a movie out of it). We’re working on showing that one at our local (Campaign for Liberty) meetup groups movie night sometime soon. Or another movie called “Farmaggedon”. There are lots more but those are a couple of good ones that’ll open your eyes and get you started asking questions. I’ve been a fast food junkie my whole life and they did open my eyes to a lot of things. Even tho I’m still eating all the crap food, at least I’m learning 😉

Map: All the Countries John McCain Has Wanted to Attack

Map: All the Countries John McCain Has Wanted to Attack | Mother Jones.

Personally, I think McCain got some serious brain damage when he was in solitary during the VietNam War and its coming out more and more. Too bad the people can never seem to vote out ANY incumbents, no matter how bad they are 🙁

Check out the article, the comments are especially ‘entertaining’.

Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat

Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat | Mother Jones.

Another instance of the law of unintended consequences… here we go with the use of (usually) expensive face cleansers causing environmental damage due to the inclusion of ‘microbeads’ in the formulas. What’s the matter with just using plain old soap and water to wash with? I almost never use anything else and most people say my skin is still in pretty good shape. Even after a lifetime of working on the water. Most of it outside in the sunshine (and I DO get sunburned easily). I have to admit, I do use some lotions sometimes. Usually just the ones I’ll pick up from the hotel rooms when I go to work, they smell real nice 🙂

Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math

Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math | Mother Jones.

Well, this is a different kind of article but I still found it interesting. Remember, I did manage to get a degree in math so it might not be interesting to many of you 😉 I think its interesting since it seems to show that the better you are at math, the more you’ll let your political views skew your outcomes to other problems, even math. I think some of the comments below the actual article come up with some other results.  I do think this sort of study could be useful. I definitely think people need to question EVERYTHING they are told by the so-called experts. Especially when those ‘expert’ opinions are going to be used to dictate how the rest of us are going to be able to live our lives. It’s worth paying attention to how they design their studies and so how they get their results.

Growing US Police State: War on Drugs

Growing US Police State: War on Drugs.

Here’s another excellent article from Global Wealth Protection (GWP). This one written by Paul Seymour. Its a good reflection on how far we’ve come from once being the land of the free, to becoming a police state. Besides wasting over $90 BILLION (just in the US) to prevent people from living their lives the way they choose, we have restricted ALL of our lives and turned this country into a full-fledged police state! Don’t believe me? Watch the video!

MV Gold Star Becomes Epic Cannabis Campfire Off Malta

MV Gold Star Becomes Epic Cannabis Campfire Off Malta | gCaptain

Interesting story. Wondering just how they got their estimate? Before or after they hung out downwind for a while??

Maritime Monday for September 9th, 2013

Maritime Monday for September 9th, 2013: Movies About Sailors Part II; Shape Ahoy! | gCaptain

Maritime Monday- movies about sailors part II. Thanks to gCaptain and MonkeyFist for putting all this together every week. There are lots of good old movies in the mix here. Pretty entertaining…

Corals

Corals

Corals

Sea Urchin

sea urchin

Beautiful Spiral Shell

beautiful shells at the Boston Museum of Science

beautiful shells at the Boston Museum of Science

What SwedenCare Can Teach Us About Obamacare

What SwedenCare Can Teach Us About Obamacare – Liberty Crier.

Excellent article in the Liberty Crier about Obamacare. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am totally and completely against Obamacare or any other type of socialism/communism that isn’t completely voluntary. Of course, Obamacare is based totally on FORCE.

That alone should be enough to discourage anyone from accepting it. In addition, it flies in the face of the laws of economics AND the laws of human nature! How on Earth could ANYONE think this will turn out to be anything but a major disaster?

The article explains it all a lot better than I can. Please take the time to read it to the end (and comments below). It really does a good job of explaining the situation.

For-Your-Own-Good Tax

For-Your-Own-Good Tax.

A good article from Kelly Diamond writing for Global Wealth Protection. She mentions a few instances of taxes that have been enacted “for-your-own-good”. One of which is the law stating that you MUST wear a seatbelt or pay a huge fine. This has been a pet peeve of mine for years, so I’ll concentrate on that one in my comments and you can read her article for the others (rain, sunshine, recycling).

I have been bitching about that seatbelt ‘law’ since they first started talking about it here in Texas. I’ve been ticketed for it and it just infuriates me that I can’t find even ONE lawyer to fight against the law itself! As usual, the legislature lied through their teeth to pass this “law” and so now we’re stuck with one more unconstitutional bunch of BS on the books just to make more money for the state to waste. I consider it a major violation of my rights. Yeah, most people think I’m flat out nuts to think that way but what else would YOU call something that literally restricts your bodily freedom as it TIES YOU UP???

I am not hurting anyone by not wearing a seat belt. I am not even hurting myself. I might have a very slight chance of being more hurt one of these days by not wearing one then if I was. Who the hell knows??? I may or may not ever get in an accident. I may or may not be hurt. I may or may not be hurt badly enough to need medical attention. I may or may not be helped by wearing a seatbelt. In fact, I could be hurt WORSE by wearing one! When did we start punishing people for something that hasn’t happened yet???

It should be MY decision and mine alone whether to wear a seatbelt or not. This all ties into the BS brainwashing going on that we’re all responsible for each other and we need to take care of each other. All because they forced us to buy insurance that we wouldn’t have needed if they hadn’t forced us to buy it (it more than tripled in price when they made car insurance mandatory)! Because everybody thinks their insurance cost goes up if anybody else gets hurt, they insist that they need to make sure that nobody gets hurt (so their insurance doesn’t go up any more). That is nothing but a load of CRAP! We are adults, we are supposed to be responsible for OURSELVES! If I am responsible for myself, and you are for yourself, we do not need anybody else to step in and make stupid rules about what kind of choices we can make in OUR lives.

“They” are stealing away my choices with their ridiculous “laws”, by stealing my choices, they ALSO take away any responsibility I have for whatever actions I take from that point on. Of course, they don’t admit the truth of that. They want me to still take the responsibility when I really have no option, no choice, no freedom. If someone is being FORCED to do something, then how in the hell can you say they have any responsibility??? They don’t! You took that away when you took away their choices!!

The other point to make in regards to their stealing away my choices, is that by taking away my choices, they are taking away my freedom and my liberty. By doing that, they are making me a slave. They are in effect taking away my very LIFE. How can someone say they are living THIER life if they have no say-so about what happens in it????? In fact, your life becomes someone elses! You are now nothing more than some sort of zombie, out there in the world working your ass off so someone else gets to tell you what you can and can’t do down to the nit-picking little detail of telling you that you MUST conform to their wishes and wear a seat belt! In the meantime, stay safe and healthy so you can keep working to pay the taxes they’ll waste on something stupid like one more war in the Middle East we have no business being involved in.

Monterey Bay Megapod – Humpbacks, Dolphins, & Sea Lions, Oh My!

Monterey Bay Megapod – Humpbacks, Dolphins, & Sea Lions, Oh My! | Old Salt Blog – a virtual port of call for all those who love the sea.

I just got this in this morning from the old salts blog. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves ships and the sea. It’s at www.oldsaltblog.com. I subscribe to it and they send me emails with what they’ve recently published, (just like if you sign up to follow ME 🙂  –  hint, hint). There’s a link in the article to the Monterey Bay Whale Watch website. There are lots of interesting photos and videos there. I’d love to take a trip out there and go see all those whales and dolphins. I love to see all those beautiful sea creatures :-).

I’ve seen plenty of dolphins up close and I always love it when I do get to see them. They always seem so happy and carefree. They love to play in the bow wave of the ships. But I’ve only seen whales a few times in all my years at sea and never up close while I’ve been working.

The only time I’ve been on a trip specifically to see whales/dolphins was down in Argentina a couple of years ago. My gravatar is a picture of some dolphins I took on that trip. We (me and my friend B. who is also a chief mate- probably master by now) went out in those little zodiacs to hunt down some dolphins, locally they call them toninas or “pandas of the sea”. Commerson’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) is the more common name for them. It was really great! Hard as heck to get any decent pictures cause those dolphins were fast as all hell! Plus the boat was very crowded. Here’s a closer look at some…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ja8ZSY-_n4E

We also took a trip out to the Valdes Peninsula to watch the whales. Humpback whales. They gather there to give birth and fatten up before heading off for distant waters. That was a great trip too. You walk down the broad, brown beach to climb aboard the boats they have pulled up in trailers for the night. They push you down the beach into the water and you’re off. Here’s a picture of us getting ready to go.

On the beach getting ready for a wild whale watching ride

On the beach getting ready for a wild whale watching ride

There were a lot of whales around so we found a few different ones to get up close to. A couple of them had babies with them. It was really wonderful to watch the babies. They were so cute 🙂 Even tho they were just about as big as the boat we were on. Here’s a picture of the mother and baby…

mother whale with baby

New Music: Humming House

I just found out about this great new band. It’s cool, I never would have known about them but they stopped by my blog and liked a post of mine. So I went to check them out. I found out they have some stuff online and a few videos on utube and an album out (Live at the Red Clay Theatre). You can go to their website and check them out. Its www.humminghouse.com. Here’s a sample…


Italy Approves Costa Concordia Parbuckling

Italy Approves Costa Concordia Parbuckling | gCaptain

Here’s the latest update from gCaptain on the progress of the Costa Concordia salvage operations.

BEIL FYI: Mysterious Dolphin Deaths on the Rise

BEIL FYI: Mysterious Dolphin Deaths on the Rise : Bryan Ellis Investing Letter.

Could it be measles??? It sure seems like its taking them a long time to figure that out if it was something that simple. I just hate to see this happening to those beautiful playful dolphins 🙁 I hope they can figure out what’s killing them soon and find some way to help them survive whatever it is.

We’re All Edward Snowden Now

We’re All Edward Snowden Now | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Another good post from the Laissez-Faire Bookstore… Yes, I agree, we are all in the position of having to make a choice. Make a stand. How much are we going to put up with? How many wrongs are we willing to just stand by and allow them to perpetrate in our names???

You can no longer deny that ‘our’ government is acting illegally thanks to Edward Snowden. THANK YOU EDWARD SNOWDEN! They have absolutely NO reason, NO authority, NO permission, NO consent to violate our rights and spy on us! They never did, they do NOT NOW!

They are spying on everybody here in the USA and around the world. NOTHING they could find would ever be able to justify this kind of thing, NOTHING! IF they had some kind of reasonable cause, they could always go and get a warrant. Since they don’t do that, obviously they do NOT have any kind of cause.

This needs to STOP NOW!

Underwater Volcano Dubbed World’s Largest

Underwater Volcano Dubbed World’s Largest.

More discoveries under the ocean! We really need to learn more about the earth, we keep finding all kinds of stuff we never knew about. This volcano, the Tamu Massif, is 120,000 square miles! Its worth reading the article 😉

Coast Guard Recognizes WW II Veteran

Coast Guard Recognizes WW II Veteran.

Sure took ’em long enough! I guess they had to wait til almost all of these poor guys died??! They should have been eligible from the very beginning for all the honors and perks the military got.

I might piss off some military people by saying that, but they probably don’t know the history of the Merchant Marine. They should! The US Merchant Marine has served in every war since before this country was even formed, in fact, without their service in the time of the Revolution, we never would have been able to do squat against Britain!

The Merchant Marine has lost more men in these wars then every other branch of the military. Easy to figure out why when you realize that we were not ever allowed to defend ourselves. Oh yeah, occasionally they would stick a few marines on board with some guns as a half- assed measure of protection, but only during the major wars- WWI and WWII pretty much.

To this day, the Merchant Marine is out there supplying the troops overseas while trying to get around the pirates and they STILL get no recognition from anyone. I hope the new movie with Tom Hanks playing Captain Phillips on the Maersk Alabama gets some attention. Maybe people will appreciate what the sailors go through to get them the everyday things they need.

Here’s a link to the story of the Maersk Alabama…

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Alabama_hijacking

Here’s a link to the movie trailer, it looks pretty good…

TGIF: The Phony Trade-off between Privacy and Security

TGIF: The Phony Trade-off between Privacy and Security The Future of Freedom Foundation.

OK, first of all, there should be no ‘trade-off’ between privacy and security. There is no such thing as total security, ever! You want to go lock down the entire country? Go take a look at what goes on in our maximum security prisons! There’s your trade-off! You TRY to get security by giving up your freedom and you’ll get neither! Ben Franklin said it 200+ years ago, the principle has not changed and it never will.

I’m so sick and tired of having to live under this corrupted system where somehow people here have been brainwashed into believing that this is a democracy. NO, it is NOT! It is a Constitutional Republic! My RIGHTS are NEVER up for any kind of vote, NO, NOT EVER!!!

You do NOT have a right to security since there IS no such thing in the real world. Yes, it is the governments job to protect us from others who would harm us, but NOT if they have to violate our rights to TRY to do that! We would ALL be a hell of a lot better off if we would take responsibility BACK from ‘our’ government and start protecting ourselves. Start LIVING life as a grown-up, free human being instead of the sheeple the government is turning us into, using our FEAR against us.

Climate Activists, Eco-Terrorism, and the Green Scare

Climate Activists, Eco-Terrorism, and the Green Scare – Politics – Utne Reader.

Another great article from Utne Reader. I really love that magazine, even tho I usually don’t agree with how they state the problem or the solutions they come up with. They are usually VERY statist and I am the opposite. Sometimes they are communitarian (people choosing to live together in a voluntary manner and helping each other by CHOICE), which I DO agree with and support. There is a world of difference between voluntary cooperation and all other systems which are based on force. I will not support any of those in any way (which includes “our” system here in the USA now, since it has utterly violated the original constitution set up and intended to PROTECT our rights, and instead it now constantly violates them).

As for the article, it reports on the usual cooperation between big government and big business to keep the people in their places. Lots of spying on anyone engaged in community organizing or otherwise politically active by both private companies and government to benefit the corporations . Of course, this damages the ability to get anything useful done. They talk a lot about fracking specifically but also mention the Keystone pipeline and animal rights, factory farming,etc. I really can’t say I’ve made up my mind which side of the fracking issue I’ll take.

I DO like the fact that it is helping us get off the Arabic tit and become energy independent again. I like that very much! I would LOVE to be able to say to the entire Middle East to go jump in a lake! They’ve had us over the barrel (of oil) for so long and we’ve been sucking up to them for years because of it. We spend BILLIONS of dollars “protecting” their countries so we can get access to that oil. I say let them keep their oil! We should’ve spent all those billions developing alternative energy all those years and we’d be a HELL of a lot better off by now.

So, now our oil people have come up with directional drilling and fracking to get more of our own oil out of the ground. I’m happy about that. Lets concentrate on making fracking safer, if the environmentalists concerns about groundwater pollution are valid, we need to fix that problem somehow before we continue fracking near any problem areas. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, lets FIX the specific problems with fracking and use it for our benefit. Since we have NOT developed our alternative energy supplies to where they’re anywhere near competitive yet, it gives us some control over our foreign policy again, IF our politicians will just THINK about things and do whats right for the country for once instead of being their own usual greedy pandering selves.

I would LOVE to see solar, wind, geothermal, ocean current, fuel cell technology become as efficient and affordable as fossil fuels. Is any of that going to happen in my lifetime??? In the meantime, we CAN get affordable, politically cheap oil- (meaning NOT located in some foreign country where they all hate us). I say go for it.

As to the environmentalists and other critics of fracking, I want to know just what exactly are THEIR solutions to the issue of our need for energy? I’ve already heard about their ideas that we all go back to living off the land. Yeah, well, I agree with that but don’t think that’s at all possible unless and until we’re ready to eliminate at least a few billion of us humans off the face of the earth. Birth control would be my preferred method, space colonization would work for me just fine, our so-called leaders would prefer we kill each other off in expensive wars, and mother earth will probably do it with some sort of plague sooner or later.

OK, so what OTHER solutions are there???

Call the Midwife… Coast Guard Delivers Baby at Sea | gCaptain

Call the Midwife… Coast Guard Delivers Baby at Sea | gCaptain

OK, here’s a good one… I want to give a HUGE thanks to the USCG for this one and also give appreciation to all the rescue workers. They do a fantastic job and they are very welcomed by all of us seafarers for the help they give us when we need them.

In all my years out here I’ve very rarely seen any pregnant women out here. I think I’ve seen 1 recently (that I know was pregnant). In fact, its still pretty rare to even see ANY women out here. I’m on a rig right now for instance, and out of about 135 people aboard, there’s only 1 other woman. Most of the time, I see between 2-5 women on the ships I sail on now. That’s a HUGE increase from when I started sailing ‘professionally’ back in 1978, when I was almost always the only one aboard.

I wonder how long that ships hitch is? Why was she still working on the ship if she was so close to delivery?? I do think women should be able to work offshore (obviously). Even pregnant women. But I do have to say I have serious issues with women who are close to delivery time being on a vessel that they might not be able to get off of for weeks or even months at a time. My tuna boat crew had a minimum hitch of 18 months for the officers! The unlicensed crew stayed 2 years!! I don’t think its fair to either the ship, the rest of the crew, the owners, or even the woman herself to take a job offshore that could endanger everyone involved like that. Women DO need to take into consideration the risks involved to themselves, their fetus, and the ship and other crew as well.

Any other seafarers on here? Comments???

Google Offers First Street View from Inside a Ship | gCaptain

Google Offers First Street View from Inside a Ship | gCaptain

This is pretty cool! If you’ve never been on a ship before, or if they’ve never let you look around the bridge, engine room, or other areas usually restricted to the crew, this post from www.gcaptain.com will give you a virtual tour. It was taken on board the research vessel Falkor (owned by the Schmidt Ocean Institute). SOI was founded by the same guy (Dr Eric Schmidt) who founded Google- cool!!

Enjoy the tours and let me know what you think 🙂

How Do Innocent People Find Justice In America?

How Do Innocent People Find Justice In America? : Personal Liberty™.

They don’t! Unless you have a LOT of money for a GOOD lawyer, you are better off taking the plea bargain. You will be found guilty by a jury (unless that jury knows their rights to nullify bad laws and keeps their mouths SHUT about it so the judge doesn’t disqualify them)! I know this from personal experience. Yes, (woooo, scary music), I am a “criminal”. I hope that doesn’t chase off too many of you 🙂 I was convicted of DWI back in 1982, the jury insisted over the pure physical impossibility of my breathalyzer results that they were indeed correct and NO police officer would EVER tamper with the evidence or LIE. In fact, the officers involved did BOTH.

Since the invention of cell phone cameras and the internet, more people are coming to the realization that the cops DO in fact LIE and tamper with the evidence. They do that quite often. So, knowing these FACTS, how can anyone trust the “justice system” in the good ol’ USA???

I think they have a good idea with these “affiliate newspapers”. To help “vindicate the innocent”. We definitely need something to stop the rise of the police state we are becoming. We actually have a pretty good one started around S Texas. It’s called the Texas Free Press. I think they publish it in the Corpus Christi area. My local Campaign for Liberty meetup group was helping to distribute it around the Brazoria County area but I think we’ve stopped lately due to lack of advertising interest. Too bad 🙁

We need to get creative and find ways to take back our freedom. We are never going to win this war against us if we can’t do that. We are totally out financed and out gunned (literally). We need to win the war of ideas! Newspapers are still a great way to get the word out. Too bad all the mainstream media that most people read are all owned by the big money and so they are NOT doing their job! We need newspapers for the PEOPLE, NOT corporate owned shills!

Mounds Brownies Recipe

Mounds Brownies Recipe – In Katrina’s Kitchen.

Alright! I finally got it to work 🙂 Here’s that mounds brownie recipe. It looks a LOT better than that potato soup now doesn’t it? Oh well, you can make the soup for dinner and since its ‘lite’ you can have the brownie for dessert guilt-free 🙂

Baked Potato Soup

Ziplist Sous Chef Recipe Clipper – Baked Potato Soup.

I was actually trying to find a postable (?) recipe for those delicious looking mounds brownies that showed up on my facebook page from www.inkatrinaskitchen.com .

I couldn’t find a way to get the recipe on here and got sidetracked with this one instead. It looked pretty good too so… here it is! I know its not any kind of substitute for BROWNIES, but its the best I could do for tonight. Maybe I can figure out the brownie one later, or you can look it up yourself, they’re called Mounds Brownies. In the meantime, the soup looks worth a try on a cold night. Not sure if it’ll measure up since its a ‘lite’ version but sometimes they come out alright despite having less of the bad stuff 😉

Wooden boat festival – WorkBoat.com

Sound Waves – Wooden boat festival – WorkBoat.com.

I would REALLY love to go to this festival! I love wooden boats. I love Washington State, its SO beautiful up there. It seems like every year I’m working and can’t get off anywhere close to the dates they’re having the festival. 🙁

Hopefully I’ll make it one of these days. If you like boats, you really should try to make it. (I know its late 🙁 )

WalkFree.org – The Movement to End Modern Slavery

WalkFree.org – The Movement to End Modern Slavery.

I just got an email from Mother Jones about this campaign. I’ve known about and been interested in modern slavery for a while now. This is the first I’ve heard of this group Walk Free. It looks like they are worth supporting. I am totally against any kind of slavery and I think its just sickening that it is STILL going on in so many places around the world, including right here in the good ol’ USA.

I did sign the petition even though I have some reservations about it. I’ll probably get some shit for saying this but…

I don’t really think I know enough about other peoples lives to be the one to make decisions for them. IF they are actually making these decisions for themselves, if they think they have no other options, then maybe they should be allowed to do that. Yeah, I can sit here in my nice cozy (comparatively) life here in America, I have no real idea of what life is like for those poor people in India. I do know that when I was a kid, I worked 2-3 jobs to support myself (illegally). I was very grateful that the people who employed me were willing to do it anyway. It gave me options and a way to escape from a lot of very bad situations with my family. I just wonder if the prohibition of allowing work before 14 is going to backfire in ways we can’t know yet. It is pretty much a given that any governmental action requires the use of force, most of such actions will cause the Law of Unintended Consequences to come into play. I don’t know what is worse, the slavery or what could come about from trying to fix it with the use of force.

Any thoughts? comments? anybody from India on here that can tell me more about this???

A REAL lion!

A real lion (at the Houston zoo)

A real lion (at the Houston zoo)

Here’s a photo I took at the Houston zoo, which unlike the Chinese zoo mentioned in my earlier post today, does NOT try to trick people into thinking a DOG is really a lion! Just compare the photos, would you think that dog was a lion? look anything like these guys???

Another (real) lion at the Houston zoo

Another (real) lion at the Houston zoo