Today in 1943, “pay-as-you-go” income-tax withholding began. (Oh thank you, Milton Friedman.)
Today in 2004, Marlon Brando died, age 80.
There was probably no connection between the two, but I have friends who could spin conspiracies proving me wrong. Today is also the day the Battle of Gettysburg began (1863). I had a Confederate cavalry re-enactor friend who, with his comrades, almost won that battle once. It was very embarrassing for the event organizers. Not to mention the Union troops.
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The wind has been howling more than usual lately. Making me crazy. Makes me dream of northwest forests. But some evenings it goes still and then it’s pleasure to pull up a chair on the hillside and sit gazing over a sun-setting vista. Watching thunderstorms off in the distance that somehow never seem to come here. In the high desert you learn a use for that otherwise obscure word, “virga,” meaning rain that starts to fall but never reaches ground. Curtains of it everywhere.
This time of year it’s cloudy and the storms seem to be all around us, in a circle. They’re dry and dangerous with lightning strikes. Then when the rains come, they come in wash-filling torrents that even the dogs are smart enough to avoid.
And the junipers. Suddenly they’re all in berries without having given a sign of blossom. I can see the little purple buds when I look close. But only real close. I wonder how many juniper berries it would take to flavor homemade gin? Hm. Not enough of a drinker ever to try that experiment.
And yesterday afternoon I had a chat with some horses. A family on the road in has three, including a gorgeous palomino Morgan mare — the very horse I’d love to have (although geldings seem to be a little more sensible — if the word “sensible” can ever be applied to a horse). For the first time ever they were moderately close to the road as I drove by. And surprisingly, when I slowed down, all three strolled over to the fence. I stopped, got out, and said hello and scritched them all behind the ears and on the forehead. If they were disappointed that I didn’t bring food, they were too polite to say. If I stay in this place I’m going to have a Morgan horse one of these days. A dun or a palomino, maybe even that very horse I scritched today. Don’t care whether it’s a mare or a gelding. But I want sensible. That’s why I want a Morgan.
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Monsanto lost a Supreme Court case yesterday on GMO faux food. Or animal feed grains, in this case. I don’t quite know what I think about genetically modified foods. On one hand, I can see the possibility of there being excellent plants, modified for drought resistance or higher nutrient content. But any company that produces a product called “Roundup Ready Alfalfa,” specially designed to do well with Monsanto-produced poisons, and goes around threatening hapless farmers who have Monsanto seeds blow into and take root in their own fields … I like to see them lose, just on principle.
Besides, they’re too tight with the fedgov. They’ve given me the creeps ever since I learned that the gov owns part of the patent on Monsanto “Terminator” seeds. Ugh.
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This is an interesting NYT op-ed on Alcoholics Anonymous that — surprisingly — has something to say about limited government and personal freedom. When you have some time, be sure to follow the link to the Wired article that got David Brooks to musing. I haven’t finished it yet myself but it takes a pretty interesting tack.
I don’t quite know what I think about AA, either. Although I believe the “surrendering to a higher power” bit is just a mind game, I know it works for some when nothing else has. But the whole model of permanent addiction seems so toxic. I know there are permanent addicts, for sure. I’ve known many of them. Unfortunately one of the most “hooked” people I ever knew was hooked on AA. She’d had a five-year career of drinking. But she’d been in AA for 12 years and if she couldn’t go several times a week, she felt as if her world would collapse. Sad woman. Tons and tons of promise. Everybody liked her upon first meeting her. She seemed interesting and unique. But nobody ever wanted to be around her very long because every dinner party, every trip to the beach, every card game would eventually turn into “The Tragic Tale of Francine,” as she halted all the fun and told the same, endlessly repetitive story of her woes. All attempts by friends to show her another side of life failed; she was so addicted to her addictions, including sorrow and AA.
I think it makes more sense to see addiction as a complex phenomenon that starts and ends with personal choice. I think at least it helps to give an individual addict more eye-opening choices.
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Tumbleweed Tiny Houses is giving away free plans for one of their simplest little wheeled abodes. You just have to buy a copy of The Small House Book. (NFI, BTW.)
This particular house, the Popomo, is a super-modern cube. I like that, but I know it’s not for everybody. They estimate materials costs at $20,000. I’m betting any 10 BHM readers could build it for under $5,000. Maybe way under, with some good scrounging.
The tumbleweed site is amazing. Thanks for the link!
Claire,
If you want a “sensible” equine, get a Mule.
I don’t mind GMO that improve a strain of plants normal characteristics like drought tolerance, disease resistance etc. I look at it like a fast forward version of selective breeding, an accepted method of getting GMO results. I DO NOT like the GMO to make them more chemical ready or resistant, or to include strains of nutrients/bacteria/virus, etc that don’t normally occure in that kind of plant. No franken plants for me please. Monsanto needs some serious reigning in too!
How did you happen to know of the Tumbleweed “sale”? : )
As for GMOs, I don’t mind them altering crops to make more food quickly, ever since the first farmers put seeds in the ground, they’ve been looking for better “yields”. What puts me off is their insistence on copyrighting every seeds that they not only invented, but every seeds the natural world has made as well. And making everyone pay for the use of every seed.
I consider AA very helpful, I’ve been a few times. (I’m not an alcoholic, but I have a family member who is who I used to go with sometimes)
Most people who go do so because they want to kick the habit an move on with life, and it offers support from people who have already been there and done that.
Some people can’t seem to get with the “move on with life” part…Most of these folks just have emotional problems though. Totally common to see people like this get up in front of a crowd that’s been through more than they can imagine, and and cry that “NOBODY UNDERSTANDS WHAT I’M GOING THROUGH!!!!” (Probably becuase AA is non-judgemental, and they can crave all the attention that everyone else is to annoyed to give them. Still, I think most members secretly prefer the bums who just come in for the coffee and donuts to the self centered emotional trainwrecks)
An heirloom plant over a period of time establishes its own resistance to drought, or disease, or bugs. When it’s modified, even by nature, it may become stronger and more resistant or, if weaker, may die out. (Of course it’s not as pretty – it adheres to the “natural look.”) A totally man-made plant such as those Monsanto or other companies now patent and produce, becomes “sterile” in every sense——in taste, looks, and ability to reproduce itself, and has no resistance to anything outside of a sterile environment. In fact it probably shouldn’t be grown out-of-doors at all; it is, in fact, a laboratory specimen.
There’s no real need to “modify” a strong, healthy, natural plant seed——unless to ensure that it can travel hundreds or thousands of miles and remain fresh and unspoiled during the travel. That’s the reason modification began in the first place, about a century ago, when East Coasters wanted California fruits and vegetables in the dead of winter. If we’re now going back to local/CSA/farmers’ markets, and to community gardens, we have to get used to eating what’s available seasonally again, not just what we happen to want in the middle of February. And this is not about rejecting progress or technology, it’s about health.
OUR health, as well as the animals’ health. If modified alfalfa is eaten by cattle, sheep, or goats, do we know what part of that “modification” is passed on to us through either milk products or meat?
We already know that hormones and antibiotics are passed through the animal into our food system. What else will be coming? I’m sure we already get enough Round-up through our corn, soybean and rapeseed products that are patented by Monsanto. We don’t need more through our animals.
Undoubtedly AA has been the reason many alcoholics are now “recovering” … (there is no cure according to the AA gospel).
For me, reading Wilson’s “Big Blue Book”, the bible of AA, was the solution. I went to several meetings but always came away from the meeting wanting a drink more than when I went in.
As Winston noted above, I much preferred the bums who came in for coffee and donuts over the pity-party attention seekers. I have a low tolerance for Drama-Queens (of either gender).
In the end, I read Bill W.’s book cover-to-cover several times, selected the parts that were useful for me, and stopped cold turkey. It’s been so many years now that I don’t even count them.
Cheers. (LOL)
Matt, maybe I shoulda said a sensible and good-looking equine. 🙂 A mule??? Yeah, I know people who swear by ’em, especially for heavy trail riding and packing. But I just don’t want to look at one all the time.
Jim B., I knew about the Tumbleweed sale from being on Jay Shafer’s mailing list. Wheetabix, glad you found the site useful. I love their little houses; in fact, Jay’s first house was my inspriration for Cabin Sweet Cabin (I already wanted small; he opened my eyes to the possibilities). The costs he cites are scary. But the designs are incredibly elegant, aren’t they?
Matt, Jim B., Pat — good comments on GMO plants and Monsanto. Exactly. Well-informed group we have around here. 🙂
Winston and desert fox — Yeah. Virtually without exception, the happiest & most successful former substance abusers I’ve known have just decided to quit — and then done it. Without fuss. Without drama. (That’s not to say that they didn’t earlier learn from trying many methods, going to AA meetings, or whatever. Not to say that they didn’t go through hell first. But in the end, after all their learning experiences, they just made a decision and followed it and got on with life.) Winston, OMG, you described my friend “Francine” so exactly! That was precisely her routine. Sad thing was, I don’t think she really meant to be an egotistical drama queen. I think she really believed she was some sort of freak of nature who would never, could never, had never experienced the same sorrows and trials that other humans did — never mind that she was surrounded by people who were ready to take her to their hearts, in some cases people who had suffered plenty of trials of their own. But eventually she just drove them all away — and no doubt told herself that they avoided her because she was such a freak no one could relate to her.
Ah well … what can you do?
Re: Gettysburg re-enactment reminds me of “This isn’t over. Oh no, not by a long shot” (from the South Park episode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Badge_of_Gayness).
Ramblings indeed. (I sympathize. 🙂
I had the great good sense to marry a woman with a substantial background in horticulture, including some genetics. Probably the most eye-opening thing I have learned about plant eugenics is that it is just like human eugenics (which is another way of saying “government”; whether anyone considers that a step up or down is just a semantic matter). It is stunning how parallel the examples are; keep the idea in mind for a few weeks as you go about your normal life and see if you don’t agree.
The example Cathy is most familiar with is corn. (Please keep in mind: she is just about as disinterested in politics as you can get–sometimes I envy her ability to simply ignore it all. Meaning: she is not the liberty crank; I am. Also, any errors in interpretation are almost certainly mine, not hers.) Apparently, almost all corn commercially grown in the US–and it may well be wider than that–is genetically identical, the result of years of “genetic modification” varying from the technical to simple selective reproduction. We certainly seem to have improved a number of factors this way–tolerances and durability, yield, etc.–but what struck me is that Cathy related that there is a national seed storage facility at Colorado State University, which protects a genetic sample of that corn in simply Cold-War-apocalypse fashion.
Why? It’s rather obvious, when you think about it. We have developed an utter dependency on this singular genetic strain of corn, and if the right disease found its way into the supply, it could effectively wipe out the entire crop as we know it, commercially. Cathy said a number of folks consider this a matter of “when” rather than “if”, and even as a layman I find it hard to doubt that.
And so The Powers That Be, who are perfectly aware of this, have decided that solving the problem consists of “protecting” these seeds from “contamination”. With what sounds like a military fortress to me. And of course, looking after that existing crop, in case it should–ahem–need “health care”.
Your irony meter pinging yet? Let’s check in:
– Manufacture a dependency by stifling or removing natural competition? Check.
– Position a singular (state) monopoly in the event of disaster? Check.
– Exploit the dependency by insisting on ever more Rube Goldberg schemes to “protect” the “valuable national asset”? Check. (Aside from the “secure storage” angle, think of all the related regulation regarding pesticides, contaminant inspections, “interstate commerce”, import/export, etc. Porkus unlimitus.)
– Exploit the monopoly by cynically invoking the risk of the (certain) failure of the Rube Goldberg schemes, always as reason to do more? Check.
– Perpetuate and entrench the problem through arbitrary incentives (e.g., subsidies) looted unaccountably from the, ah, “public treasury”? Check.
– Stifle, muzzle, or otherwise marginalize any sort of meaningful long-term solution that erodes either the monopoly or the dependency, regardless of its merits? Check.
– All the above enforceable on your and my ass, using your and my looted money, in your and my name? Oh, checkity-checkity. “It’s good ta be da king!”
My word, what could go wrong there?
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Okay, back now. Got my “uppity peasant” on a little bit. (Yeah, that was just a little bit.)
Aside from all the typical state shenanigans, I think what this observation does for me is help me to view the overall issue of “plant eugenics” a little more clearly. I mean: what’s wrong with improving things, if it’s done openly and accountably and voluntarily?
Well, nothing, I think. I can always choose not to go that route, with no harm to anyone, and that absolutely hits me where I live. Get the state out of the equation and I suspect most things will resolve themselves peacefully and quickly. Go nuts, farmers.
But I will probably choose to steer clear of the obviously modified stuff when I can, even when it seems to be a real improvement. After all, if humans can ruin humanity by fancying they have a better solution than individual sovereignty (which seems to be the natural condition of every other species in the history of life, and I daresay our own natural condition too), it just seems like a pretty high-percentage shot to conclude that any efforts to “improve” on something as complex as genetic variation and selection are going to wind up in the same place, given enough time.
Seems to me that the natural world not only functions, but thrives, on variation, differentiation, competition, and (dare I say) chaos, and it has a number of perfectly accessible mechanisms by which these take place quite naturally. Maybe we’ll someday understand genetics in the same way that we now understand the wheel (although frankly, the romantic in me hopes we never do), but until then, I’m gonna assume that Mother Nature knows better than we do. 🙂
In the meantime, I really appreciate that my lovely wife can make such fantastic liberty points with no effort at all (she’d doubtless roll her eyes at this comment). One of the things that makes me sure that I’ve arrived at a stable, peaceable, sustainable place philosophically is that the most unlikely characters perpetually validate basic liberty/anarchy/freedomista tenets through their everyday actions, without ever meaning to do so. It’s one thing (and a healthy thing) to throw arrows at your own thoughts to see if they stick, and I try to do that regularly. But there is just something about seeing positive validation all the time…
Hell, it must drive the control-freaks positively nuts. 🙂
“Ah well … what can you do?”
Give them a good hard kick in the ass. Don’t accept weak promises that they’ll get better, just kick their ass and tell them not to come back until they’ve gotten it together. Seriously, my family has been so full of alcoholics going all the way back to Ireland that it’s pretty much a genetic trait now…and the screw-you-don’t-come-back-till-you’re-sober method is the only one that actually works. AA meetings and blue 12 step books are just there to make it easier.
(But that was a rhetorical question wasn’t it? LOL I’m bad about answering those)
For an answer to a rhetorical question, that was a pretty good one, Winston.
But for my own life, I’ve got a better one. I’ve been around enough addicts, drunks, womanizers, users, etc. in my life that I don’t even bother kicking ’em in the ass any more. I figure if somebody really wants to mess up his own life and the lives of people around him — I simply won’t be one of the people who’s around. I walk. My days of trying to change anybody (other than myself) are over.
I still understand why families have to do it. But man, what a waste of a life. Not only to drink it away, but to try to deal with somebody else who’s drinking his or hers away.
Couple observations:
Selective breeding is genetic modification. It’s been used for millennia, of course. Like any tool it can be used wisely or foolishly.
AA worked well for a friend of mine. I can’t generally say whether it helps or hurts most people. I don’t know most people.
What reasonable objection, though, is there to “mind games”? If they’re used to manipulate others to their disadvantage – sure, they’re bad (that “tool” thing again.) Why not make use of them for our own benefit, though? Much if not most of what we perceive is heavily filtered. Much of what we’re taught is wrong. And the abstract truth of a lot of things is simply not knowable.
Playing mind games on myself – that being the only person I can speak for – has helped me a lot in overcoming malignant habits and training. And since I decided, years ago, that I’d rather be happy than “right,” whatever that even means, my life has improved steadily.
As always, YMMV.
To amplify a little on Winston’s remark – from what I’ve read, alcoholism has pretty definitely has a genetic component … and probably other chemical addictions do as well. I know that I am addicted to coffee now instead of booze. LOL.
Maybe the geneticists (or their spouses) in these comments can figure a way to genetically splice out the addiction gene(s).
And, I agree with Claire, walk away from people that you just can’t tolerate. You’re never going to change them, only they can change themselves. Life’s too short to surround yourself with people that disturb your serenity.
Of course you can’t choose your relatives (bummer), but you can choose whether or not you associate with them.
Cheers.
Hi, Victor. Good points. Just to clarify, I wasn’t dissing that particular mind-game; just stating that I believe it is one. Do I believe that any real “higher power” — Jesus, Buddha, Eris, or the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster — steps in and takes over? Nope. (I could be be wrong; it’s just my observation.) I think that by “surrendering to a higher power” a person who’s been struggling for control relaxes and gains a different type of control — but is still in control.
I like your example of deciding you’d rather be happy than right.
Another sort of example: If you had a militaristic parent who taught you to “STAND UP STRAIGHT! STICK YOUR CHEST OUT! SUCK YOUR STOMACH IN!” the result is likely to be all manner of aches and pains and breathing problems, possibly for the rest of your life, because all that is an artificial attempt at controlling your body section by section. That’s akin to the addict trying to control his problem by “developing character” or saying “I’ll stop after one” or “I’ve got to do this for my wife’s sake” or whatever.
If, on the other hand, you simply imagine a string attached to the top of your head, and imagine that string being tugged gently upward by some “higher power,” you’ll develop good natural posture– chest out, stomach in and all that — and feel wonderful. You’ve “surrendered to a higher power.” And it works. Much better than trying to “control” chest, stomach, etc. But the higher power is just a different use of your own mental & physical capacities.
As you say … if it works, who cares? But it’s definitely a mind game.
The prices listed at that tumbleweed site are a little ridiculous given what it is.
A little rougher, but easier to do, there are websites dedicated to pallet house designs. Here’s one: http://www.tinypallethouse.com/
There are narcissists in every field, it seems. There’s a part of those drama queens that honestly believes the entire AA meeting is about them. After all, why would anyone else want to share when they could be listening to his/her fascinating self? Sort of like how Obama was paid to write a book on race relations, and instead wrote his autobiography.
This is why I’ve never been able to stand any of the support groups I’ve visited. (I was referred to one by a doctor back when my health problems were at their worst) I was looking for hope and coping techniques, but kept hearing hopelessness and woe-is-me, with the drama queens competing for the most miserable story. I don’t think I even stayed 5 minutes.
I like attention once in a while too. But I’d rather get it for what I can do, rather than what I can’t.
Hey in my very limited experince with alcholices, I really wonder if
there is any hope for them.When we used to live in Bahrain the
Navy would send them to Rota,Spain for a 6-8 week dry out and then they would come back and start drinking again.It seemed like
that they couldn’t find some else to do. And yes there was very little
to do there.
Since that time I have known to people who have gone to AA and they also seem not to be able to get on with life. I mean that they
keep on going for like years. They can’t seem to get a grip on life and do something different and stop talking about it. And there is so
much more to life than AA. Or maybe there isn’t the way our government is going.
Well any way that is my 2 cents.Take care
Debby
Ellendra — nice link! And not only for the little pallet houses.
I agree that the Tumbleweed prices are high — perhaps not for urban yuppies willing to pay extra so they can pride themselves on reducing their ecological “footprint,” but certainly for the BHM and freedomista crowd. The prices make me wince, for sure. But OTOH, the homes as built by Jay Shafer are very well crafted. And aren’t the designs lovely?
I’m also with you on support groups. Well, most support groups. I’ve seen some good ones.
Debby Rich, I suspect that a lot of those who get “sent off” by the Navy (or by courts or whatever) simply have no desire to change. So they don’t. OTOH, I’ve known plenty of addicts who did change when they were darned well ready to, so I’d never say they’re hopeless. I do believe that every addict I’ve ever known remained addicted to or extremely compulsive about something just about forever (e.g. alcoholics who become addicted to A.A., druggies who give up heroin for huge quantities of sugary snacks, ex-smokers who always have to suck on candy or toothpicks, etc.). But the smart ones understand that about themselves — and often have a great sense of humor about it, too.
Well the “just forget about em” is deffinately plan B, and it works even better, unless you’re related to that person.
The problem with that…is that if it’s inside your family, you can never seem to fully let go no matter how much distance you make…not even for sentimental reasons…but inevitably others will hold out hope and the whole thing will be the elephant in the room at every get-together…everyone will still have to hear the continuing tales of the wayward uncle. It can be a mess…but probably not as big a mess as having the relative in question around, so I guess that’s just the way it is…
(And what is it with uncles, anyway? it seems like everybody has “THAT uncle”. The only people I know who don’t are the people for whom that uncle is “dad” lol)
Winston- I know I am “THAT uncle” for my nieces. But for some reason they seem to enjoy showing me off to friends. And my kids seem OK with me.
Like father, like son.
I was a slave to addiction for over a decade, and owe much to the 12 steps.
I have recently found smaller (and more serious) meetings with no “drama queens”.
Prior to that I was forced to chose between being a slave 24/7 and mingling for two to three hours a week with people I would generally avoid.
A relatively small price to pay for sobriety.
This tiny house is great, When I was young and single, my pets and I lived in an Airstream by a river. I loved it. The only problem with that lifestyle is having enough room for my books.