Phone tag #1 done, #2 begun

Continuing the game of phone tag from yesterday, I called David Brown again.   This time he called back after the first message I left on his cell phone, and we finished our one-minute-43-second conversation.   He was with his wife at the emergency room, and referred me to the Attorney General's office, since David's bureau (Dairy Products Control) deals only with dairy sales and nothing else.

It's kind of ironic that the Attorney General's office transferred me to the Department of Ag only a few weeks ago, but this is a bureaucracy, after all.

I feel better now that business is concluded with Mr Brown instead of hanging unfinished.  

Then I called the Attorney General's office and left voicemail for Dave Sheridan, Director of the Environmental Law Division, at 12:41 pm.   No calls in return yet.   I'll probably try again on Monday.

Bad luck on a beautiful day?

When I am unlucky enough to miss someone's call, I like them to have a little entertainment before they leave me a message ~ that's why I craft outgoing messages with some thought for my listeners.   And they usually like them.  

Poor David Brown thought my last one, the "send me to sizzle" was, in his words, "really weird."   That was the message he left when he returned my call.   So maybe we got off on the wrong foot.

David Brown is the bureau chief for Dairy Products Control, one of the many bureaus in the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.   The Dairy Products Control Bureau is charged with ruling on details about dairy products in Iowa.   And I had a question about dairy products, specifically, raw milk.   As the publicist for Milkers Get It, I want to make sure that the information I send out is as accurate as possible, so I do a lot of fact-checking, and I don't just make stuff up.   I go to the source.

As I was explaining to David about milking lessons and introducing people to raw milk, our connection dropped out.   Thinking that maybe a cell tower went haywire, I called right back.   And the call dropped again.   Hmmm.   Such bad luck on a beautiful day in Iowa.   This is how the calls went ~~~

afternoon of Wednesday, August 10, 2011  ~  I left a message at David Brown's office in Des Moines

Thursday, August 11 :

11:35 am  ~  I left a message at David's office in Des Moines

between 11:52 am and 12:36 pm  ~  David left a message on my voicemail (commenting it was "really weird")

12:46 pm  ~  I got his voicemail and assured him that he got the right number

12:49 pm  ~  He called and we talked live for 00:01:15.   That's 75 seconds.

12:50 pm  ~  I called right back thinking a cell tower had dropped him.   He answered and we spoke for 3 seconds before another disconnect.

between 12:50 and 12:52 pm, I texted him about the connection problems

12:52 pm  ~  I called; the phone rang; went to voicemail; I left a message

2:06 pm  ~  I called; phone rang; voicemail; I left message

It could all be just very bad luck on a beautiful Iowa day.  

OGM: Beautiful day

Hi.   This is Christy.   I hope you're having a beautiful day, 'cuz I am.

(NEWS) More understanding, less mystery: milkers get it

Today I sent out a news article announcing "Milkers Get It", a concept for improving the public image of Real Milk in Iowa.   Here it is ....
______________


* * * * *     NEWS RELEASE FROM Milkers Get It     * * * * *

More understanding, less mystery: milkers get it

21 July 2011
Fairfield, Iowa


Iowa may soon have as many milking coaches as lactation consultants. After a lapse of about four decades, human breastfeeding has secured its place once again in our culture as the premiere way to nourish an infant. In a parallel narrative, fresh wholesome milk from cows, sheep, and goats is regaining its reputation as a premiere health food. To boost that growing reputation, milking coaches are pulling up another milking stool to help people learn more about the realities of milk fresh from the udder.

"We've only used manmade milk (formula and pasteurized milk) for around 60 to 70 years but we've used breast milk and raw milk for 6000 years. If it wasn't for breast milk and raw milk, we wouldn't be here!" says Brad Hopp, a milking coach near Lawton in northwestern Iowa. "Learning more about milking helps people understand it better, and I'm all for that."

Although mothers' milk retains some of its mystery in the face of scientific inquiry, mothers these days know how precious it is to their babies' health and growth. A little mystery in the food supply passes when it's balanced by strong instincts and a solid record of success. But mystery can feel uncomfortable when it strays too far from knowledge and experience.

"The idea of raw milk feels exotic and mysterious to many people in Iowa," says Christy Ann Welty, homeschooling mother of two who helps milking coaches and new milkers find each other. "More understanding and less fear will help everyone as they make decisions about the best ways to feed their families."

More understanding and less mystery: that's the meaning of "Milkers get it."

A second meaning of the phrase relates to Iowa state law.

Drinking wholesome, fresh milk -- fresh from a healthy, grass-fed cow, sheep, or goat without processing through a pasteurization vat -- has been illegal since 1968 for most people living in Iowa. The privilege of choosing whether to drink milk fresh or pasteurized is reserved to the few who control livestock, land, and have mastered the skill of milking; everyone else is restricted to only Grade A pasteurized milk, except for those who are willing to operate in the gray areas of the law. "Giving away milk is not covered by our rules," says Dustin VandeHoef, communications director for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), "but all sales are illegal."

Passages from Chapter 192 of the Iowa Code (state law) say, "Only grade 'A' pasteurized milk and milk products shall be sold to the final consumer, or to restaurants, soda fountains, grocery stores, or similar establishments;" and later, "No person shall within the state produce, provide, sell, offer, or expose for sale, or have in possession with intent to sell, any milk or milk product which is adulterated or misbranded;"

VandeHoef says, "We interpret the words 'adulterated' and 'misbranded' to include raw milk, and this is also the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] interpretation which is adopted into the Code."

The IDALS interprets "sales" to mean "exchanges of value." During a phone call to his office, VanderHoef was reluctant to specify which circumstances would be considered prosecutable and which would be outside IDALS's rules.

A broad interpretation of the meaning of "sales" puts giving away raw milk, and even drinking raw milk from one's own animal, into the gray area between legal and illegal: renting a stall in a farmer's barn to shelter your cow if you do not have a barn; bringing a sandwich to the person milking your goat for you; bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party where the hostess serves raw milk. Membership in a private kitchen club could be interpreted as a "sale" if one of the members gives away samples of raw milk.

To steer clear of potential gray market entanglement, all milking lessons from "milkers get it" coaches are free, and no donations are accepted. "We're not trying to get around the law," says Welty. "Our purpose is to pass along a valuable skill to people who want to be self-sufficient or live a sustainable lifestyle or simply exercise choice about the food they eat."

In order to exercise the simple choice of "Fresh or Pasteurized" without engaging black markets or gray markets, a person has to learn how to milk and has to control livestock plus enough land to support it. One mission of "Milkers get it" is to help people overcome barriers that state law and bureaucracy have erected. Another mission is to assist efforts to change the state law.

Challenging the statute with a court case is lengthy and expensive. One current lawsuit disputes one circumstance in the gray area of the law: Freitag v Secretary of Agriculture was filed in January 2010 and litigation continues in Linn County's district court. Representing two milkers who boarded their cow with a Linn County farmer, the Farmer-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund "is acting in the capacity of a public interest law firm to protect the fundamental rights of the public at large ...."

Changing the statute directly with new legislation is another option. Small-scale dairy farmers, health food customers, legislators, and many others worked together during Iowa's 2011 legislative session to lift restrictions against consumers buying raw milk directly from farmers. "We made progress," says Francis Thicke, organic dairy operator and former candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, "but not enough to pass it this year. We'll try again next year."

Meanwhile, you can pull up a three-legged stool and try a free milking lesson for yourself, and encourage your state legislators to get some hands-on experience, too. Accurate information and authentic experience are often the best tools for changing engrained habits of mind and for updating rules and procedures. Milking coaches are ready to introduce all comers to the wholesome experience of squirting fresh milk from the udder of a healthy animal into a warm, foamy pail of milk. When you feel the rush from a satisfying squeeze, you'll understand. Milkers get it.

# # #

Contact:
Christy Ann Welty
Fairfield, Iowa
(641) 472-4426
ispiritkin@yahoo.com

OGM: Send me to sizzle

Oh, it's so hot, I'm steamy!   But when I hear your voice, it's gonna send me to sizzle . . . tsssss!

Up, down, or splat ~ how will they go?

Somebody invented a pretty good wheel for helping people assert justice in spite of abuse by police.   It's called CopBlocking (cute name!).   An interview with the founders of CopBlock.org is here:   http://rtr.org/videos/22105/23674   Nice website at CopBlock.org with advice and examples of what works and what doesn't across the nation.   Wonder how people in Fairfield would do with that approach?

And I invented my own wheel to put Real Milk right in front of people so they can see how wholesome and not scary it is.   Minutes ago I submitted it to Iowa's yahoo group for food choice to get their feedback.   Wonder what they'll say?   I've never seen any other plan like it.  

Just juggling those balls to see what goes up, what comes down, and what goes splat.

Stewing in my juices

It's been almost four years since I burnt out on political activism.   My soup of projects had boiled down to a ragout and then dried up into a lumpy casserole of limp noodles under a tough, overbaked shell of confounded former juiciness.   In other words, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

So I turned my attention to friends and music and having fun.   That was awesome ~~ delightful and refreshing as a cuke'n'lime cooler!  

Now I notice the heat is building again.   I have less tolerance for intolerance, less enjoyment of frivolity, and a bigger urge to urge others to action.   Feels like Mars* is at the kitchen stove again cooking up a big pot of hot and hearty stew.   Temperature is on the rise and at this rate, my blood will boil soon!

Poking around in the stew pot, I see . . .

Raw milk . . . Every mother has made milk ~ it's visceral and close to the heart.

Official bullies . . . Many of us feel anxious around armed, uniformed officers.

Tenants' rights . . . Scorned & trampled ~ a bellwether for everyone else's rights

How 'bout a big bowl full of bully right milk stew?   Mm, mm, make my day!
__________________________

*   Found it: Mars is coming into opposition with Rahu, and the Rahu opposition to natal Rahu will be exact this December.   Major life pivot ahead!  

Bootleg ... sauerkraut?

I blame misty-eyed romanticism for my gross naivety about farmers markets in Iowa.   See, I thought these gatherings were informal get-togethers, unhindered by rules and regulations that strangle brick-and-mortar stores.   The vendors seemed kind of like gypsies ~ setting up their wares for a few hours and then vanishing ~ poof.   It should have aroused suspicions when I saw the same people selling the same things week after week after month after year.   Where was the dynamism and enterprise of a free market?   Where was the experimentation with novel ideas?   And where was the home style food?

Outlawed ~ that's where.  

Outlawed and over-regulated.   Turns out that it's illegal to sell home style canned goods at Iowa's farmers markets.   And for other foods, getting all the permits, licenses, and paraphernalia can be very costly before you can legally sell a single cream pie.   Raw sauerkraut or raw fermented beet pickles?   Forget it.   They are totally prohibited for sale at markets or "licensed food establishments", and they are prohibited for use in preparing other foods to be sold in Iowa at such places.

And here I thought selling raw milk would make some kind of a statement for freedom.   Nope.   That gesture would just get lost in the noise of all the other food violations that the food goons ('scuse me ~ "food safety inspectors", as the vendors carefully say) regularly nab people for.  

Here is the two-page list of what can and can't legally be sold at farmers markets and the twenty-two page "Temporary Food Service Establishments and Farmer’s Markets Operator’s Guidelines".   I weep.

My heart goes out to any vendor who is trying to make a bit of money at a Saturday morning market in Iowa.   Kudos to you folks ~ it's a costly, messy headache to deal with all that bureaucracy.  

And I would like all of us buyers to note the real target of the regulations.   The real target is the essence of the market itself, the human need to make one's way with self-worth and dignity, to give and receive value in a voluntary exchange.   These needs and values are marked by money, and regulators intrude where the money flows ~~ to govern it, to throttle it, to strangle that pulse of life that signifies the way we use our precious energies.

The real concern isn't and has never been the safety of canned food, or raw milk, or any other excuse the regulators spew to distract you from their real agenda, which is control, especially control of money.   If regulators could convince people that the safety of raw sauerkraut or raw milk were really the issue, then it would be easy to outlaw giving it away (like alcohol to minors).   Or making it (like whiskey).   Or feeding it to calves (like arsenic).

It would be easy because people have gotten used to losing their choices, one after another, to the steady drumbeat of "protection from the risk" of those choices.

But giving away raw milk is not illegal.  Yet.

So me and the genie . . . we're gonna throw a big ol' party and give away lots of wholesome Real Milk.   And the regulators?   Well, I'm not inviting them, and I hope nobody else does either.

Raw milk

The raw milk topic lit up my research screen recently.   I had studied its health benefits in Weston Price's book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" and decided most definitely that raw milk is a valuable food for overall radiant health.   I wished that I'd known about Price's research much earlier  ~  maybe my children could have been born with better basic health and fewer troubles.   Nevertheless, we're doing the best we can as we learn more and more about better nutrition and better living.

Then a month ago, fellow activist Doug Murguia (whom I'd met 3 weeks before) said that after talking to several people, he thought the raw milk issue would galvanize people to push back against strangling regulations.  

"Great idea," I said, "I'm on it!"   There's something about milk  ~  flowing white nourishment  ~  that pushes emotional buttons like no other food, like no other plant, animal, or mineral on the planet.

Doug and I learned more about each other in the next weeks.   Doug likes to practice civil disobedience to make things happen fast.   I like to practice incrementalism to fasten changes into place.   We're both very dedicated and neither of us says a compromise is a win.   Yet, our activism is from opposite ends of a spectrum of, shall we say, intensity.

So I study raw milk and the masses of laws around it.   Then I sit for a while and conjure ideas.   I talk to people who know more about cows and goats than I do ... then I sit for a while and conjure some more.   I'm putting a lot of attention on rubbing that little glass milk bottle.   

Pretty soon the raw milk genie has to splash out, spluttering and splattering little white drops everywhere, saying, "Holy Cow!   What a gusher of a let-down!"   She wipes her face, looks around, and says, "Come on, girl, we gonna party 'til the cows come home!"

And I say, "Right ON!"

Herbs for hair

Yesterday I got all motivated to try a totally herbal hair treatment.   It had been a week since my last wash.   The hair was slightly oily near the scalp and was showing signs of mineral build-up at the ends  ~  the water filter had lost its effectiveness over the last few weeks, but by yesterday the filter was replaced, so no chlorine, less gunk.

Shampoo: Shikakai and Fenugreek
Chelator: Wheat bran
Rinse: Chamomile and lime

In a stainless steel pot on the stove, I heated water with shikakai powder, then ground some fenugreek in the spice grinder and added that.   It was not the consistency of yogurt (advised for deep-oil treatments).   This was a few tablespoons of shikakai in less than a quart of water, plus maybe a tablespoon of fenugreek for its mucilage.   Came to a low boil, kept warm on a low simmer while I got other things ready.

In a stainless steel bowl, I heated 20 ounces of chamomile tea: bulk chamomile flowers in a fill-your-own tea bag.   When the tea became golden and seemed well-steeped, I poured it into a glass bowl to chill in the fridge.  

Next, using the same steel bowl, I simmered wheat bran ~ about a quarter cup in a quart.  

Then came action over the tub.   I brushed my hair upside-down so it was hanging down in front of me.   Bending over, I dunked the back of my head into the shikakai/fenugreek mix, which I had poured into a big steel bowl.   I like to use steel in the bathroom so if it slips it won't shatter.   Then I applied it by the handful to the scalp and got it very soaked.   Remember that I did NOT wet my hair before soaking with the mix.   When I got the scalp hair soaked, I moved along the hair, soaking it in the remaining mix until all the mix was gone.   The very ends were still dry, but they had not been oily, so that was okay.   I wrapped it around in a coil and clipped it with hair jaws, then wrapped a plastic grocery bag around like a shower cap, draped a brown towel around my shoulders, and rinsed out the tub.   Now I could go back to the kitchen and do other work while the shikakai/fenu did its work.   It was drippy, but the towel caught the drips.   Drips were dark brown, so they would probably leave stains on a light towel.

I fried up some eggs for supper for the three of us (three batches in the pan ~ we were hungry!) and then went to rinse out the shik/fenu.   Since the shik/fenu warming pot was free, I poured the water off the top of the wheat bran into it so I wouldn't have all those wheat flakes in my hair.   Brought the warm wheat bran water into the bathroom along with the cooled chamomile tea.   I had planned to put the cooled tea into a plastic 20 ounce bottle, but forgot.   So I rinsed out the shik/fenu.   The fenu makes it somewhat slippery and easy to tell when it is rinsed out ~ plus the flakes of fenu are easy to see, too!   I rinsed and rinsed (all upside-down under the tub faucet), and since the water filter was new, I felt some confidence that it was doing good things.   The feel in my fingers did not have the slick or squeak of a conventional shampoo.   Felt kind of coated.

Then I squeezed the water out.   The hair seemed like strands of fabric.   I've been going no-cones for a while, and I think that's part of the new no-cone feel.   With most of the water squeezed out, I poured the wheat water over the back of my head to drain into the big steel bowl on the tub floor, and soaked the ends in the water that drained into the bowl.   Then squeezed out the water, put the drained water back into the small pot, and did it again, and a third time.   The last time, I didn't squeeze out the water.   I coiled the hair onto my head, clipped it, dumped the last of the wheat water over the coil, let the excess drip for a while, and wrapped it in a different plastic shopping bag.   Rinsed out the big steel bowl.

With my hair all up out of the way, I showered as usual while the chelator went to work on the mineral build-up.   At least, I hope that's what it was doing.   After showering, I took down the hair and rinsed and rinsed with warm water until it felt like the wheat water was gone.   Then a thorough cold water rinse.  

The final rinse was cold chamomile tea.   I had forgotten to put lemon juice in it, so I called out for a bottle, but we were out of lemon juice.   Used lime juice instead ~ just a bit, less than a tablespoon.   Poured that through the hair using the big steel bowl to catch it, squeezed it through, poured through again, squeezed, and then one more pour and a soak in the bowl.   Squeezed the excess out and wrapped in a towel.

I put waters and oils on my skin and dressed before taking the towel off my hair.  By that time the hair was not drippy.   I shook it out over the vinyl floor, and a bunch of fenu flakes fell out.   I saw almost no flakes after that.

Seems like a lot of work, but I was up for it that day.   That's not always the case ~ sometimes just thinking about all that process daunts me and I don't start it.  

Then I had to wait for it to dry to see what really happened.   That's today.  

My hair is fluffy and weightless, feels clean on my scalp.   Smells fresh.   It feels like there is some kind of coating on it ~ my wooden bristle brush doesn't slip through it like it does through coned hair ~ maybe fenu built up since this is the third time I tried fenu.   But the hair is soft and floaty and smells nice.   And I know that whatever the coating might be, it isn't a bunch of weird chemicals.

I think the chelator removed some of the mineral build-up.   The hair is softer and more pliable than it was ~ it may have a different build-up now, but it isn't as much mineral.

One more note: I had soaked a small spot on my scalp with castor oil and vitamin E oil.   The shikakai left that spot as clean as the rest.   No oil residues at all.

Through the Oven Door

Last winter I read a book about Feng Shui explaining that the wisdom area of one's home is just to the left of the entrance.   In my place, that's where the stove and a fridge are, and since I moved here two years ago, I've become somewhat obsessive about researching nutrition.   Not just any nutrition, but the kind that happens to use the stove and fridge.   My sudden passion for nutrition could be just a coincidence, but maybe Feng Shui is right on.   

After accumulating such an abundance of information, I'm afraid my urge to educate the people around me has begun to bore them.   I'd rather blog about it than monologue, thus the new tags "food" and "hair".   Yes: Hair Nutrition!   Use the stove to cook up teas for shampoo, conditioner, and rinse; use the fridge to chill tea for a final rinse.   I'm a kitchen chemist at best, not a cook, and this is a weird path for me, but this path is not narrowing or growing over with bramble ....   Feels like it's drawing me deeper into the shadowy mysteries beyond.

This path of the bagua leads me from left of my entry, through the oven door, and deep into studies of biology and chemistry.   Novel and exotic, unknown to nearly all my friends, this path impels me to feed my curiosity, and then to share my adventures.

OGM: You again

The OGMs have continued even though I haven't blogged them.   Here's the latest.
Don't know how to post a purr, but this OGM sounds like a smiley purr.



Mmmm ... it's you again.   Nice.

OGM: Sizzlin' Hot

I am sizzlin' hot this week, so my fan club is running a special promotion ~ a free hug for every new fan.

OGM: Casting Thousands

We're casting thousands for the off-planet production Christy's Little Red Cell Phone.  You can audition for a lead role Right Now in 3  ~  2  ~  1  ~  [beep]

OGM: Coconut Oil

(These are the first lines in a song I wrote this summer .... I sang them for the OutGoing Message.  Replacing with a new one today.)

When coconut oil is thin and clear, the day is hot and summer's here.

The Seventeen-Percenters (17%ers)

A 17%er is a politically active person who cares about liberty. Only about 17% of politically active people do care about liberty for everyone. The other 83% care about things like political power, clout, or money, or they care about being part of the crowd who aims to gain power, clout, or money, or they care about getting or maintaining special privileges for themselves (see power, clout, or money for routes to privilege).

"Seventeen percent" comes from taking note of statistics in three races.

First was Hughie Tweedy's race for Iowa State Representative in 2000. Hughie and his political views were well-known among the like-minded in Lee County. He ran as a Libertarian against an entrenched incumbent of the most active party in his county and a much lesser known candidate of the second-most active party of the county. In this three-way race between R, D, and Libertarian, Hughie got 17% of the vote.

Next was Clyde Cleveland's race for Governor of Iowa in 2002. Clyde ran an energetic campaign and became well-known for his political views in his hometown of Fairfield. In the race with Clyde were a one-term incumbent governor and a several-term congresscritter, both of the two most active parties in the state, and an unknown minor party candidate. In this four-way race among R, D, Libertarian, and Green, Clyde got 17% of the vote in his own Jefferson County.

And then there was my race for the At Large seat on the Fairfield City Council in 2007. I ran a $10 campaign, but my name and my views were well-known due to my four years as city councilor for Third Ward. In the race with me were three others. One was an unknown candidate whose campaign chair was a county supervisor and whose campaign treasurer was a past city council member of eight years, and both were influential in the most active party in the city. Another candidate was a local officer of the second-most active party in the city and a several-time candidate for office. The third candidate appeared to be unknown and unaffiliated with any particular party. In this nominally non-partisan yet actually heavily partisan four-way race among R, D, Libertarian, and unaffiliated, I got 17% of the vote in Fairfield.

Judging by the results of these three races, it seems that 17% has special significance for libertarians and liberty-oriented people.

Rookie Alert!

Just saw my name in a blog post about Iowa Senatorial candidates.  So I had to tag back, 'coz I'm such a rookie.  ;-P
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2010/06/roxanne_conlin_poised_to_hold.php
Excerpt ~ 

"After [Jones' top performance], the next best performance by a female in an Iowa U.S. Senate race is just 1.0 percent, when Libertarian Christy Anny Welty finished third out of five candidates during Grassley's last victory in 2004."

Just one letter off, and they got the spelling right later in the article.  :)

Healing Starts Here

Friday's book: Femininity Lost and Regained

Enterprises in western culture are weighted, loaded, and rigged against the feminine. When the feminine is weak, the masculine rampages, and downward they spiral to ultimate destruction. That is the thesis of Robert A. Johnson’s 1990 book Femininity Lost and Regained . I bought it last Friday night, read it through, and now the contrast is much more vivid as I watch the dramas unfold in our human enterprises.

Saturday's Book: Seeds of Deception

I bought Jeffrey Smith’s Seeds of Deception (2003) after watching his video about genetically engineered foods, or transgenic foods as I’ll call them. What an eye-opener!

Until now, the battle for our food supply has seemed to me like just another tawdry political mess – bureaucrats ignoring citizens, industries buying judgments, politicians jockeying for control. It is all that, but it’s more. As I learn more about transgenic foods, I wonder, “Is this some kind of plan to wipe out the human race? Who actually wants to do such a thing? Are people that clueless?”

Well, actually, yes. Some people are that clueless. Americans have had it pretty easy, so they think, as they rack up material gains and pursue ever more. But there is a price ….

Johnson uses Sophocles' play Antigone to show the price paid for the drive for power. I agree with Johnson: “The pursuit of power is the most serious danger that faces feminine values” ... values like love, kindness, compassion, loyalty, forgiveness, and relatedness.

The antagonist Creon’s single-pointed drive for power over the city of Thebes pushes a cascade of events that ends with him standing alone after the violent deaths of his son’s fiancee and his son and his wife – his whole family is dead. So much blood stains the stage in a quest for power and denial of love.

And it was all foretold in the play – the Greek chorus and the oracles warned of the terrible fates. But characters who spoke for love and compassion did not exercise enough strength to prevail over the forces for power and the artificial order imposed over natural vibrance.

Such a fateful cascade is arranged for us, you and me, here and now, as our little blue planet spins through space. The chorus and oracles have been warning us for years, decades, and our fate becomes ever more obvious to those who are listening.

To represent those who are not listening, I’ve chosen one who spoke Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, during the hearing of Monsanto’s GM alfalfa case. He said to the farmers’ attorney, Mr Robbins, 

“It's the creation of plants of -- of genetically engineered alfalfa which spring up that otherwise wouldn't exist. It doesn't even destroy the current plantings of non-genetically engineered alfalfa. This is not the end of the world. It really isn't. The most it does is make it difficult for those farmers who want to cater to the European market, which will not accept genetically engineered alfalfa, it makes it more difficult for them to have a field of 100 percent non-genetically engineered. But that's not the end of the world, Mr. Robbins.”

Mr Robbins replied, “I don't think we bore the burden, an end-of-the-world burden, Justice Scalia."


That’s true, the farmers bringing the case don’t need to prove the likelihood of the end of the world. But in the end, in an ironic turn of the phrase, all of us bear the burden of the potential end of the world.

DNA’s double helix symbolizes the intricacy and vitality of creation on our planet. It is marvelous and mysterious, and it tantalizes industrialists to apply their hard logic and their hard probes, to fantasize about wielding their power over the slinky and unpredictable sex symbol. Like Creon’s drive for power over Thebes, the industrial drive for power over DNA is pushing at the head of a cascade that will ripple through every living organism on earth. Like Creon, alone on the stage after his family has perished because of his policies, will the last lone industrialist see the perishing of the human race and wonder?

“I am nothing. I have no life.

Lead me away,

That have killed unwittingly

My people, my race.

I know not where I should turn,

Where to look for help.

My hands have done amiss, my head is bowed,

With fate too heavy for me.”

This is our fate if the feminine of our culture, like that of the ancient Greeks, continues to be too weak to challenge the masculine drive for power. The drive for power is one-tracked and heavily invested – not easy to guide, slow, and turn. Thus, Robert Johnson calls us to regain the strength of femininity through understanding it in the Hindu culture. His examples come from the Mahabharata.

Of all the places on earth for this understanding to grow, for healing to begin, for wounds to mend and bonds to become strong, my little town is the place. If we can’t do it here, then the world has not much hope.

OGM: I'm happy, not sad

Just wrote most of a new song. Here's the hook on my outgoing message:

Hi! This is Christy, and I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy, not sad.

"from the ground in iowa"

A Ron Paul supporter from North Carolina wrote "...from the ground in iowa how is our chances looking.In your opinion does Huckabee really have the support that the MSM is reporting?..."

My reply:

Well, last week a "survey firm" with a name not associated with any candidate called me with what seemed to be a thinly disguised promotion of Huckabee.   I found it amusing that when they asked me which Republican on their list I was likely to support, they didn't even list Ron Paul's name.   VERY slanted poll.

We are working hard here in Fairfield, and the signs in our town are for Ron Paul something like 10 to 1 over all other candidates combined.   Fairfield is a pretty unusual place, though.   On the other hand, I see more Ron Paul signs wherever I drive than all others combined by a good margin.   The caveat is that the caucuses are not truly a poll of the masses.   It's a poll of the politically active, and those people tend by nature to favor government over liberty.

Definitely an uphill climb.