Felix! For crumb sake!

I know a woman who I've always liked. ( I know it's "Whom". Get over it, I'm not into putting on airs tonight) She is one of the most opinionated, obstinate, and abrasive people that I know. I would imagine that is probably why I like her. You never have to wonder what she is thinking, just ask her and she will tell you. I have a tendency to judge people by how they treat dogs. That being the case, I've often said that if I ever have a chance to do life all over again, I want to come back as Felix's dog. She practically packs them around on silk pillows. She is very slightly built, and she has a few joint problems, so she is not likely to be kicking anybody's butt. She describes herself as: "I'm a very loyal friend and a bad enemy." Truer words were never spoken.


So.... I wasn't suprized to find that she ran afoul of the law during an "Occupy Demonstration". I find it best to let you hear her tell it in her own words, Please find them printed below:


 "My take - for the record is: I had 2 banners clothespinned to inside the fences on the 101 overpass (they could not fall into traffic and I didn't have to hang over the fwy. to to put them up) one faced north, the other south. They said "HAVE YOU BEEN OCCUPIED?". The lettering was quite large and was not causing any hazard to read.

A cal-tran's woman pulled up and told me I couldn't do that. I refused to take them down. She said she'd have to call the cops. I said go for it (we shook hands even). If she was still there I'm sure she was horrified as to what happened....hopefully HER camera was not molested and I can find her. Short, nice redhead about my age - anyone?

I refused to take the banner down for the CHP too. Cops all over the country are ripping signs down - I wouldn't have tried to stop them................but I wouldn't do it.

They asked if I had any weapons in my bag and, as I was handing it to him I said "Yeah, sure.....". This BIG nazi looking fuck freaks, snatching it. I also told them there was a teency tiny leatherman on my key chain that had a blade maybe an inch and a 1/4 ("She told them she had weapons twice" they said on the News).

I'd had my camera running (in video mode) from the beginning of my conversation with the cal-trans woman and after cop #1 (hey, that's how they signed, "1 of 2; 2 of 2) so over- reacted to my (I thought obvious) sarcasm, I lifted the camera to get a shot of his face. He jammed the camera into my face like someone the paparazzi is abusing and wham they threw me to the ground. I don't believe the word arrest had even been spoken. Now I'm on my face, tangled in my camera strap and with my left arm pinned underneath me. My "resistance" was my inability to comply with the order to give them my left hand for cuffing. With one cop standing on my feet and the big Nazi grinding my face into the pavement and kneeling on me in an anatomically inappropriate way. It was impossible. They knew they'd fucked up and took me to the hospital. They x-rayed me and took blood, cause somehow they can tell if you've got internal bleeding going on (with a blood test? Makes no sense to me, but I'm not a Doctor - but they knew they'd hurt me bad if they were looking for internal bleeding). They needed to stick me 3 times to hit a vein - inexcusable on someone as thin as I am - really piss-poor phlebotomy!

So they took me all the way to Eureka for fingerprinting. They told me people had been calling - but they didn't tell me there was someone on their way to pick me up (Sonia Bauer). So I got a straggling 'Occupier' to give me a ride to a friend's.  Anyway, his phone wasn't working so I was just stuck there.

Made for a long painful bus ride yesterday...............and that's about it. Except for the fact that they failed to mention my camera in the list of my possessions. "Black, 'personal item" - when they had even noted the COLOR of the thermal underwear I was wearing. Though they did return it - they either deleted the incriminating video - it was running as I struggled, not to get away, but rather to attempt to get my arm out from under me - or screwed up my camera as it hit the ground with me. It would have been a very incriminating piece of video- but it seems unrecoverable.And now here's where you 99 %ers and pals come in - my first court date is Jan. 20th - HERE IN GARBERVILLE! Please PLEASE fill the courtroom! Can anyone afford to get some 'We are all the 99%' T-shirts? If not, I can make a stencil.

Please - they came to us this time - we want representation in County government? We're gonna have to SHOW them we're NOT just apathetic hippies. I'm sure it is not true of ALL of us..............help me help save the world. It's showtime folks!

                     Peace OUT!

                                    Felix"

Maybe she made some poor judgments when dealing with the cops. But, I think that the cops are going to find that they made some very, very poor judgments by jumping on her.

I often disagree with some of Felix's causes, but I think that I could have dealt with her a little more gently than the cops did. I will be at her hearing in Garberville, if for no other reason than to witness some of Garberville's history, and acknowledge my friendship for her.

Shed

I been busy...

As some of you know, I like to build things. Building things is a finite process. You measure a board, and cut it, and if you haven’t made a mistake, it always fits. I like things that are non-negotiable. Buildings are real, you can even hit them with a hammer. There is something satisfying about creating something real.

If you look through the photos, you will see that the left side of the photos has the remains of a thirty year old redwood deck. The newer cleaner boards next the house are the start of a new deck. I started building the deck one half at a time. I moved everything to the front side, took a 20 x 40 foot section of the old deck down and rebuilt it. I started this project this fall, while the weather was nice. I pretty much left my tools on the deck overnight. When the weather started getting iffy, I had to put my tools away every night. I spent more time picking up and moving tools than I did building.

On the right side of one of the photos you will see an old dove cage. The doves had long ago died of very old age, and we have been using the cage for storage. The cage is 3’ wide x 8’ long x 6’ tall. I was stashing my tools in there, but the problem is that everything that I needed was in the back. When it came time to move the cage, the bottom was so rotten that any attempt to move it proved to be futile. In my frustration with the poor storage and condition of the cage I half-jokingly told my wife, “I’ve had it, I’m going to build myself a new storage shed”. To my surprise, she said “Okay… but build it big enough, because I get half”. Wow… that was easy.

So, I started building the shed on the new part of the deck. When I get the shed fished, I will move all my outside stored stuff from the cage to the shed, then complete that section of the deck. The front deck is basically 40 feet by 40 feet. We justified the large deck because it is our only level yard. We have enjoyed it almost as much our house, so the deck has been darn well worth it. When I finish the front part of the deck, I will skid the shed onto a foundation on the front part of the deck. So, no, I didn’t build it too close to the house.

When I started it, I thought about a building permit, then I remembered that it would take a long time, so I just started building. I felt somewhat guilty, because as everybody knows, I have a thing about following rules… (NOT). I later found out that you can build a storage building of under 100 sq. ft. with NO permit! Well, that paved the way considerably.

The neighborhood people laugh at me, and my “grow room”. I’ve heard some pretty funny stuff. But, I don’t care. If the eradication teams ever want to check it, I’ll give them a key. After my wife gets through putting her stuff in there, there won’t be any room left. Can you make a deal with them, that if they check your shed, they have to take all your wife’s stuff with them?

As you can see from the bottom photo, I already have the shed filled with junk.

Pre-Occupied

Pre-Occupied.

To all the people that come here expecting to read history about the South Fork Canyon, I apologize for my apparent preoccupation with the grass roots movements afoot in America. The movement is happening as we speak. But, having been there, done that, I’ve seen these things before in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Whether you agree with what is going on or not, most of you have heard of some of the rumblings on the streets. Some of you are smart enough to know that there is a freedom and democracy movement all over the world.

To the people that truly believe that “we live in a world economy now” and that we just have to accept it. I understand. You are either deluded by the media, or you are a very wealthy stockholder.

The people that are on the streets in America right now are people like The Tea Party, who have a more conservative bent than the Occupy group. There is also the group that fits most of us that sit at home and watch the insanity unfold on our TV sets, scan the internet and watch for the most recent updates. Small few of us change the channel, or just don’t care. But, we all have something in common, only a fool would not realize that something is wrong. So, I did a little research to see if I could find what’s wrong with America. All along, I suspected that we had no real producers in America, that Joblessness was probably the root of the problem. The unemployment figures are deceptive, because they don’t include the people that have just plain given up and moved back in with Mom and Dad, so I looked up to see how many people paid federal income tax. I thought that would give me some idea of who was working and who wasn’t. Bad idea! I found that in 2009 51% of the people paid NO tax at all, and 30% of them actually got tax credits! Hummmm…

So, I looked up the see what the wealthy 1% of America actually paid. Low and behold, they paid more tax than they ever did since the Bush tax cut for the wealthy, and they pay a higher percentage than the rabble. The rabble actually pays less than ever before. The facts are that the wealthy’s income almost doubled. The taxes that they paid dropped, by percentage of their income, however they paid more in the long run. Even though the very rich now pay more taxes, the over-all tax collection has dropped, because more people are without jobs. The rich get richer, and the rabble are getting poorer. But, there is signs that the rabble are becoming roused. Most would rather be working at a good job.

Most of the Wall Street protesters have mental problems, probably about eighty percent are homeless. New York city now has 40,000 homeless people. I can’t blame them for crowding in around the Occupy Camps. Free food and entertainment. It’s no wonder they don’t make much sense. About twenty percent of the Occupy Group have a handle on what’s really wrong with America. Those few are hard to find, because if somebody holds up a microphone the rabble run to it. Some of the reporters aren’t that much smarter than the homeless. So making any sense out of what is happening is pretty futile. It takes a little understanding to know that the reason that people are protesting is because they know that something is wrong, even if they don’t know what. Most don’t have anything else to do, so they might as well protest.

So, even if you can’t identify with the protest, you can certainly understand why they are there. America needs jobs.

Now, the people that want to talk about Bigfoot are free to talk.




http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/08/john-cornyn/john-cornyn-says-51-percent-american-households-pa/

http://www.american.com/archive/2007/november-december-magazine-contents/guess-who-really-pays-the-taxee



e

Bigfoot

I'm working on my home computer that has so many problems that it is a waste of time to whine, but I will have to add a bunch of info tomorrow. However, I do want to get this started because it is such and interesting subject. I am surprised that I haven't done a post about Bigfoot before.

 As everybody knows, this blog has an element of "bullshistory" about it. So, the Bigfoot story fits perfectly upon these pages. Most of you also know that I don't believe in anything that I can't hit with a hammer. Those of you that REALLY know me, know that I will believe most anything that somebody tells me, so I have to fall back on my reality test, if I can't hit it with a hammer, it ain't real. As a romantic, I like to believe in fairy tales and legends, but the farther back that a person goes in history, the more fantastic the stories get, to the point where most everyone might say, "That probably didn't happen". One of my favorite legends is about "Bran the Giant" who was so large that he could wade the Irish Sea from England to Ireland. There is some lingering evidence that he really existed, how large he really was is open to speculation, but the birds in wales, called "Bran", are named after him, and the Bran in Branscomb is from the birds that live in a valley in England. So, to deny legend and fairy tales would be to deny my heritage. So, let's go from there and maybe you will all keep an open mind to the possibility of the existence of "Bigfoot".

Maybe the reason that I haven't posted about Bigfoot, is that it is rightfully the bailiwick of Ekovox, who was raised in Willow Creek and went to Hoopa High school. He used to have a blog called "299 Opine". It was an extremely interesting Blog, filled with local history and comment, but alas, he was ground down by the negativism that is rampant amongst blog sites and dumped the whole thing, much to my, and many others, consternation. But, Ekovox is the rightful expert on Bigfoot stories, so my natural instinct was to hope that someday he might relate his experiences.

I must warn you about Ekovox though.... In Indian legend, the Coyote is well known as "The Trickster". The coyote can be anything that he wants to be, he can be a man, a woman, a deer, a frog or a snake. He is very smart, but sometimes his intelligence gets him into trouble. He is very magical, but most of all, he is tricky and he has a great sense of humor. Ekovox? Well... he IS the Coyote.

Once, a while back, I found a 19th century hand-carved shaving horse, made from the trunk of a white oak tree. Not knowing what it was, I wisely put it on my blog, knowing full well that someone out there would surely know what it was. Ekovox wrote to me that it was a sluice box gate lock, used in mining the Trinity River. He told me something like, "that was the base that held the lever to the sluice gate, that when the sluice box filled with gravel and gold that they would open the lever that would let the gravel out and they could just pick the gold out of the bottom." He also suggested that I should donate it to a museum. Ekovox is steeped in Humboldt history. His father was a Willow Creek and Blocksburg historian of great renown, so I trusted him without question, and went about trying to secure my new found historic treasure for a museum. I was thinking that the Willow Creek museum would be an appropriate place.

Later Don Orazem told me what it really was. If you go outside and listen on a calm night, you can still hear the Coyote laughing at me.

I told you this story so you will know that not ALL things from Willow Creek, or in the case of Bigfoot, Bluff Creek, are true. Now that we are clear, I want to tell you that I know someone, that first hand, empirical evidence, saw Bigfoot. He was running across the road between Miranda and Myers Flat, about the area of Elk Creek. This is a man that I trust to be a "truth-teller". He explains it, "I saw what I saw. It was very tall, it walked upright like a man, and in ran down the bank like a man, not a bear. You explain what I saw if it wasn't a Bigfoot."

I was talking to a lady today who does some camping at Willow Creek, she said that someone out there told her that the kids get bored sometimes and they dress up like Bigfoot, then the run across the road to see if anybody will report it. They think that it's a big deal if it makes the paper.

I'll add more sometime tomorrow, I just wanted to get this started. The main point of this story is Robin wants to know if anybody knows anything about Jerry Crew and Ray Wallace from an incident in 1958?

Addendum 11-9-11:
Here is the link to the story that Robin was asking about: http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/true1959.htm

To anyone trying to make some sense out of this story, please read the comments in the post http://ernielb.blogspot.com/2011/11/nothing-holds-back-time-nor-tide-except.html



e

Nothing holds back time nor tide. Except bureaucrats.

Doncha just love "daylight savings time"? Myself? I have a particular loathing for it. As many of you know, I have installed or worked on hundreds of heating and air-conditioning systems. Some commercial freezer's defrost times are critical to when the store opens or closes. So, twice a year I get numerous calls to re-adjust timers. Also, as many of you know, night setback thermostats are required by the building code. Some people just can't seem to get the hang of adjusting their thermostats back or forth from daylight saving to regular time, and in the past, power failures would foul-up timers. So, I was particularly pleased when they manufactured a thermostat with an automatic feature to reset the time automatically, and had a battery back-up to keep the time correct. Needles to say, I started using those thermostats almost exclusively. Then, the bureaucrats, in their infinite wisdom decided to factor in Global Warming, bird migration, salmon runs, and the red-tides, so they moved the day that we set the clocks forward and backward. So, all the people that I sold the automatic clocks call me and say: " I thought that you told me this clock was automatic. The time just changed and I think that there is something wrong with my clock, it's still on the old time". I patiently explain to them to wait a few days and it will automatically change. Usually the next day they will call and say that they tried to adjust it themselves and the got it wrong, so they turned their heater off because they were afraid that they did something wrong, and could I please come by and fix it, because they are freezing". Of course I go by and "fix" their thermostats. And, of course I don't charge them anything, because they bought the heating system from me, and the "setback" thermostat. And, I really am  grateful for their business, and usually they are really great people. But, dang, it's frustrating.

If there is a God, please convince people to leave the time alone and drop this "Daylight Savings Time" foolishness!

Occupy Wall Street, Fourth Estate?

The history bug reached out and slapped my face today. I was over at my good friend Rose’s Coffee Shop Blog reading a political cartoon, and in it the bartender asked the question: “How’re you fourth estate guys holding up working with the OWS protesters?” He was of course referring to the reporters holding up with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. The reply was: “We speak truth to power, but the filth, the rapes, the violence…!” The bartender answered; “So, report it” (pause) The answer: “We… Never thought of that”. Bartender: “Truth, powerful stuff”.


I agreed with the cartoon and chuckled a little bit uncomfortably. Although I agreed with the essence of the cartoon, I seriously questioned the right of today’s reporter to be called “The Fourth Estate“. As all of you already know “The Fourth Estate” is thought of as an unofficial branch of government. Or, as something that forms our nations laws or direction. The first three are Executive, Legislative and Judicial.


The term, Fourth Estate, is actually derived from a quote from one of my favorite people in history, Sir Edmond Burke. He uttered the words in 1787 while addressing the British Parliment. (from Wikipedia) “Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.” As is often true in history, nobody is sure whether Burke was the first to use the term, or merely copied a phrase, but he understood the meaning well.


Being the Fourth Estate has variously been attributed to lawyers, the common people, or people like the Queen, who really has no power, but can be a strong force in suggesting change. Movements or protesters have often been referred to as the fourth estate. The civil rights movement that was led by Doctor Martin Luther king was a Fourth Estate force for government change.


Growing up in the sixties, I thought of the fourth estate as protest movements, like the Viet Nam war protesters, civil rights protesters, and so forth. Protests around the world by the proletariat (Po’ folk) is often referred to a fourth estate movement. There is even a famous 1901 oil painting of a workers protest in Italy that took place in 1890. The movement, and the title of the painting, was “Il Quarto Stato” (The Fourth Estate)

Even though the original quote by Burke was directed toward the press, it was more so loosely attributed anything that was a force to bring about change, especially in government. So it seems that the expression has come full circle and it belongs to the press again.


Now comes the rub… I think that the protesters deserve the title more than the reporters. Today’s reporters are nothing more than mouthpieces for their corporate sponsors. The true Fourth Estate is the movement that will bring about change. That would be the Occupy Wall Street protesters, not the reporters. The news services seem to be struggling to discredit the protests. While we are on the subject of Edmond Burke, he is also the one that said: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing".



At this point, I need to make myself completely clear… I disagree with most of what the OWS protesters are doing. They are disorganized and confused, and they have no clear focus. The same could be said about the Tea Party movement to a lesser degree. What I highly approve of is the “grass roots” have realized that something is wrong with America, and they want to be a part of changing it, whether it be OWS, Tea Party, or people like you and I. Hardly anyone would argue that we don’t need jobs. The American workforce is pathetically underutilized. Few people actually understand why we are in the difficult position that we find ourselves in. However, I had a friend who predicted this whole scenario with the collapse of the American economic system. He actually predicted that we would be a “Banana Republic” by 2008. However, he failed to see that the rich would rob the poor by bailing out the stock market, banks, and insurance companies. Not even in all his wisdom did he think that America would stand for that. He also failed to realize the power of the press to convince the average American that, yes indeed we needed to bail out the fat cats or America was dead.


I’m old enough to have seen real history happen and real change come about through demonstrations. Civil rights for the black people have been an issue since the beginning of America. Wise people preached for the abolition of slavery. Many people pointed out how unfair it was to hold a man in slavery. When the black slaves were freed, there was still extreme prejudiced against them, especially in the southern states. Many rallies and demonstrations were held in frustration of the way black people were treated. Most of them were futile and widely denounced as foolish, and ill advised. It wasn’t until a strong leader came forward with a plan to bring about civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King took charge and focused the civil rights movement. He had a plan of non-violent persistence. No matter how badly his demonstrators wanted to sink to violence, he was able to convince them that non-violence was the path. He had a dream, that all men would be judged by the contend of their character and not the color of their skin. He succeeded in bringing about civil rights for the black people, even beyond his wildest dreams. As you know, there is now a Dr. Martin Luther King memorial in Washington D.C. Most everyone views him as a great man.


The demonstrations on the streets, the last few years, are reminiscent of the first days of the civil rights movement. It smells the same. It smells like hope. Especially the last few months. I anticipate that a leader will step forward and show the demonstrators what they are doing wrong, and how to make to right. I expect this grassroots movement to continue until we finally see change. The good news… I have never seen change that wasn’t for the better!


I’m still rather fond of Capitalism, maybe it was because I was taught that there was an “American Dream”, where if you were honest and worked hard you could succeed. We trusted our government to keep the game fair and the playing field level. We were supposed to be protected against the likes of the Bernie Madofs of the world. I am very fond of even the most extremely rich people in the world. Bill & Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, and people like Richard Branson deserve nothing but my greatest admiration for the good that they do in the world, and they are very generous with their riches. But… there are greedy evil people amongst the very wealthy, people that don’t care that you don’t have a job, they would ship your job offshore in a heartbeat if it would improve their bottom line. They were taught in business school to make the tough choices. They figured out that if they controlled the media, “The Fourth Estate”, they could choose who gets elected. They have been very effective.  But, beyond my sage friends ability, that predicted the collapse of America, he was unable to see that they would rob the middle class for another round of wealth and bonuses. We are now poised upon the brink again. The stock market whipping wildly up and down is nothing more than the wealthy controlling the stock market, buying low and selling high. If the market doesn’t move, nobody makes any money… Hmmm. Maybe a great leader will step forward. Maybe we can actually elect people that represent us. The government no longer does that.
“He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” Edmond Burke


I know, as a consumer, you are required to get the most that you can for your money. If you need to shop at Walmart to stretch your dollar, and feed and clothes your kids, you should do that. That is simple family economics. BUT, if there were import tariffs on countries that don’t meet standards of fairness to the American worker, we would ALL be working and we would all be getting paid better. But, it is the job of our government t keep the balance of trade fair. Maybe you see things differently, but here are the facts. Lets use China for an example. The 12 year old kid that made your shoes, probably works 12 hours a day for very little. Only top communist party officials make good money. The magnificent new cities, that are being financed by the American dollar, are not for their workers, they are for the top party officials. They get their electrical power from a huge dam built across The Three Gorges. That dam is the equivalent of damming the Golden Gate and flooding the Sacramento Valley. They did it all without a permit. Can we do that in America? Would we allow it? Should we allow it? Heck no! So why do we buy Chinese products? Just because they are cheap? No, it’s because our government does not protect our markets from their unfair completion. The last point about China, is that they manipulate their money, to be valued lower than the dollar. So, that makes their products automatically cheaper, but it keeps dollars flowing to their shores.


So, I have great hopes that these grass roots movements will succeed in bringing forth a great leader.


“People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.”

Edmond Burke

Frost on the Punkin'

It was thirty degrees at my house this morning, how about you?

"When the Frost is on the Punkin"
James Whitcomb Riley. 1853–1916

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock
Then the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps 25
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The joys of alcohol use

Kym Kemp just did a post about the possible side affects of Marijuana use. In fairness, I thought that  maybe I should give my readers a few of the downsides of alcohol use. To illustrate my point, I decided that I should use a model that was unaffected by social pressures, like maybe animals.

There is a fruit tree in Africa that the fruit ferments on the tree. Animals wait to eat the fruit until it ferments, which show some kind of pre-planing. All good things are worth waiting for! Animals of all species seem to get along great while engaging in alcohol use at the local hangout.

I laughed until my sides split watching the elephant on it's knees while snaking his trunk out to grab more fermented fruit. He doesn't have that "Help I've fallen and can't reach my drink" syndrome. His trunk is long enough to reach it anyway. The monkeys, who are obviously husband and wife, seem to get it on real good, but he seems to have and impairment...

The video is in french, which makes no difference, the language is in the universal language which seems to come to every person (and animal) when enough alcohol is applied.

I watched the video several times, I had to quit because my sides were hurting and I can't push my face back into shape from laughing. You can make you own conclusions about who has the most fun, a drunk or a stoner.

Enjoy:



E

New blog in town.

There is a brand new blog in Garberville called "Garberville". You can use it for town news and events, help make your concerns public. Generally it's all things Garberville.

Please link to it if you will. I expect it to go viral. I can't believe that nobody thought of this before now.

Click on this link for more info.... http://garberville.blogspot.com/
Ernie

How many ways can you say "Group"

A group of antelope is called a herd.
A group of ants is called an army or a colony.
A group of apes is called a shrewdness.
A group of baboons is called a troop.
A group of badgers is called a cete.
A group of bass is called a shoal.
A group of bears is called a sleuth or a sloth.
A group of beavers is called a colony.
A group of bees is called a swarm, grist or hive.
A group of birds is called a flock, flight or volery.
A group of boars is called a sounder.
A group of buffalo is called a herd.
A group of bucks is called a brace or clash.
A group of caterpillar is called an army.
A group of cats is called a clowder or clutter.
A group of cattle is called a herd or drove.
A group of chickens is called a brood or peep.
A group of chicks is called a clutch or chattering.
A group of cobras is called a quiver.
A group of colts is called a rag.
A group of cows is called a kine.
Twelve cows is called a flink.
A group of coyotes is called a band.
A group of cranes is called a sedge or siege.
A group of crocodiles is called a float.
A group of crows is called a murder.
A group of cubs is called a litter.
A group of deer is called a herd.
A group of dogs is called a pack.
A group of donkeys is called a herd or pace.
A group of doves is called a dule.
A group of ducks is called a brace, paddling or team.
A group of eagles is called a convocation.
A group of elephants is called a herd or a parade.
A group of seals is called a pod.
A group of elk is called a gang.
A group of emus is called a mob.
A group of falcons is called a cast.
A group of ferrets is called a business.
A group of finches is called a charm.
A group of foxes is called a skulk or leash.
A group of frogs is called an army or colony.
A group of geese is called a flock, gaggle or skein.
A group of gnats is called a cloud or horde.
A group of goldfish is called a troubling.
A group of gorillas is called a band.
A group of greyhounds is called a leash.
A group of hares is called a down or husk.
A group of hawks is called a cast or kettle.
A group of hens is called a brood.
A group of herons is called a hedge.
A group of hogs is called a drift or parcel.
A group of horses is called a team, pair or harras.
A group of hounds is called a pack, mute or cry.
A group of kittens is called a kindle or litter.
A group of larks is called a exaultation.
A group of leopards is called a leep or leap .
A group of lions is called a pride.
A group of magpies is called a tiding.
A group of mallards is called a sord.
A group of martens is called a richness.
A group of moles is called a labor.
A group of mules is called a barren or span .
A group of owls is called a parliment.
A group of parrots is called a company.
A group of partridges is called a covey.
A group of peacocks is called a muster or ostentation.
A group of pheasants is called a nest or bouquet.
A group of plovers is called a congregation.
A group of ponies is called a string.
A group of rattlesnakes is called a rhumba.
A group of ravens is called an unkindness.
A group of rhinos is called a crash.
A group of rooks is called a building or clamor.
A group of snakes is called a nest.
A group of snipes is called a walk or wisp.
A group of sparrows is called a host.
A group of squirrels is called a dray.
A group of starlings is called a murmuration.
A group of storks is called a mustering.
A group of swine is called a sounder or drift.
A group of teals is called a spring.
A group of toads is called a knot.
A group of trout is called a hover.
A group of turkeys is called a rafter.
A group of turtledoves is called a pitying.
A group of turtles is called a bale.
A group of woodcocks is called a fall.
A group of woodpeckers is called a descent .




E

Toad

California, or Western Toad

Not many people here today have even seen this toad, but before 1964 there was a great abundance of these little guys. Often, after the first rain of the fall, the baby toads would migrate from the river to the inland areas to winter up. They would live in people’s yard or garden. If a board was left laying flat, a gopher or a mole would dig a tunnel under it, then the toad would take over the gopher tunnel. They could always be found in gardens and under woody debris. Every lumber pile had numerous toads under it.

In the fall there was sometimes such mass migrations that the toads getting run over on the rain wetted pavement would make the pavement slick and dangerous. In would smell like fish, and after the sun came back out it would smell like dead fish. The flies and the yellow-jacket wasps would invade the dead toad bodies.

The adult toads would mate in the river. The male grabs the female around her chest under her arms. When she lays her eggs in long strings the male fertilizes them as they come out. She lays up to 17,000 eggs. She sticks them to vegetation along the bank of a stream or a pond. They hatch into tadpoles, and feed in the pond or river until the fall when they form arms and legs. At the first heavy rains they would move inland.

Why is it that nobody wonders what happened to the once abundant toads? Can it be that they disappeared before the local environmental movement started? I wonder how many other species have disappeared without notice, because it was before our time. If I had not seen the once abundance of the toads I would have nothing to go on to know that they were even here.

Just a thought. Does anyone else remember the toads?

Reading test to see if you qualify to read on this blog

Read the following with out thinking about it.
700 MUCH 71M3 0N Y0UR H4ND5? 7RY 7H15!


7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG
7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N
7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N
7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15.
PL3453 5AY 1F U C4N R34D 7H15.

If you were able to read the above message you aren't alone. Some people can read it out loud as fast as regular print. I have to admit that I have an unfair advantage, I have practiced by reading Suzy Blah Blah.

Indigenous female person from a once great mystical land now called the Americas.

Explaining my writings re: the "squaw" issue

By way of explanation to readers, I wish to clarify my stance on the controversies regarding the use of the word "squaw." I have NEVER supported continued use of the word as a pejorative insult directed at Native women, and I am NOT opposed to the concept of changing place names.

What I have tried to do, is to provide background documentation and explanation of the actual linguistic origins of the word in Algonkian languages, and the relatively modern historical and social processes by which it morphed into an insult. I have asked that people try to understand, and respect, the difference between insulting uses and indigenous contexts, and between different indigenous languages, both past and present. I have also asked that people not promote fictional word origins that insult our ancestors, elders, and the many people who still speak Algonkian languages that contain some form of the word, or morpheme root of a word, commonly spelled as "squaw."
And yet, I have been repeatedly misquoted, misunderstood, insulted, defamed, and physically threatened by people who see my name associated with the word "squaw" and assume I am their enemy. I have received astonishingly vivid insults and physical threats, from people who refused to believe that "squaw" could have originated in an Algonkian language, or that it could ever have had any meaning but a pejorative one. Many people seem to believe that Europeans invented the word, and placed it on maps all over the country, with the sole intent of insulting Native women. It is even more absurd, in retrospect, to realize that some writers have been willing to hurl far worse threats than "squaw" at me, simply because I chose to investigate the history behind the problem, and the process by which the insulting meaning has come to predominate. One writer declared that from now on she would call me "Vagina" instead of "Marge," and suggested I have "squaw" branded on my forehead. And this was only the mildest of insults, compared to the profanity and physical threats I received. If we are trying to end the use of "squaw" as an insult, why must we insult each other with it?

For most of the historic era, "squaw" was a simple, non-pejorative descriptive word, a classic example of the same Pidgin speech that gave us "powwow," "tipi" and "mocassin" as generic terms, universally applied to all Native American peoples. It was widely used by both Native and non-Native speakers, and its non-pejorative meaning is amply documented in literally thousands of American and English documents and dictionaries, and both oral and written records of Algonkian languages, spanning the time from the 1620s to the pre-1970s. (When time permits, I will post some transcriptions for reference.)

Yet, in the modern era, given the tragic history of non-Native treatment of Native American Indian women, the word "squaw" is often interpreted as an insult. For some, it represents the rape and abuse of Native women by white soldiers and fur traders; for others, it represents the prejudice experienced by reservation Indians. That being said, there is no need to rewrite or reframe the history of America to imply that every instance of its use was pejorative.

If our goal is to enforce respect for Native Nations, we need to honestly discuss how and why these issues come to the fore. During my research into this issue, I have come to understand how deep the divisions can be between eastern and western, reservation and urban, traditional and modern, and recognized and non-recognized Native Nations, not to mention the racial tensions between Native and non-Native, and the differences between historical and modern applications of Native words.

Rather than twist history by insisting that the word has always been an insult, we need to understand how indigenous cultures, histories, and languages have been misrepresented. And we need to support, not modern misuse, but appropriate indigenous use, of Native names, symbols, languages, history and culture. Personally, I feel we would do best to argue for revision of "squaw" place names in the name of historical accuracy, tribal sovereignty, and basic respect, since "squaw" is neither historically nor linguistically appropriate as a universal term for Native women.

So how we can use the current controversy to further public understanding of how the colonial process, and the appropriation of things Native, has affected Native peoples? When we choose to change "squaw" place names, we can claim the opportunity to recover original indigenous place names, reinforce respect for local indigenous histories, and support Native language reclamation efforts. Out of respect, we can cease using "squaw" as a generic term for Native women, just as we can cease using "brave" as a generic term for Native men. We can educate the general public to understand the marvellous diversity of our histories, languages, homelands and cultures, instead of stereotyping all Indians as western Plains warriors in feather headdresses.

It is my fervent hope that our dialogues about the details of history will result in better understanding, and respect for, the diversity of Native Nations, the diversity of responses to the colonial invasion, and the diversity of processes for recovering indigenous histories, rather than further insult.

The above written By: Wlioni, Marge. 29 March 2001

Please click on the following link for a complete explanation from a very educated Indian Woman:

http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/squaw.html

Thank-you
Ernie

Something has made Suzy Blah Blah mad

I found this post in my spam box, but nothing else:

suzy blah blah said...
okay i'll try itt one more time. maybe hes not moderating right now. (before you delete this one ernie know atht the message i get when you do theat is that you think i'm insignificant)/... Anne, if you don't get to see this ot read my email I'll phone you when i get within cell pphone reange ... but i'm posting this here for others to-
see too; This is my las t post ot this blog. Not because, as ernie used to say, Suzy's the smartest one here, not cuz there arnt some other cool intelligent peeps here too, not cuz i still couldnt learn somehting here, or maybe even teach something... but becuz ernie's been deleting my last few posts. I gave my opinion of hte indians and now it's gone. I tryed it again and he deleted it again. Why? cuz i told the truth?! He'll likey delete theis one too. Idont like being censored and I don't liek ruels but hteres one rule i keeep, if anyone Zaps one of Suzy's posts --I never come back to that blog again. Simple as that. I'm not gonna waste my time posting to the internet only to have some thick headed lout erase it. Better that he say he's irritated by them, or to say he's too busy to think them thruogh, or anything. But my time is too precious. bye bye spy, oregon, olmanriver, robin, and my other fans. You can read me on other blogs who are more accepting and tolerant.
October 16, 2011 8:17 PM

I'm not sure what is happening folks, but I can assure you that I have only deleted two comments in the last two years, neither was Suzy Blah Blah. The first I can't remember, but just recently I deleted a very personal and vulgar comment about a friend of mine that doesn't even read my blog and would have no chance to reply. HOWEVER, I have never deleted a Suzy Blah Blah comment. If they are disappearing from this blog... It's not me!

Indian Summer

A little Indian lore from a complete White-Eye, albeit, I have a lot of Indian friends. Most of us live in peace together, so who says that a Whiteman can’t keep a treaty? The world is slowly becoming homogeneous. Sadly, what I miss the most, is the Indian history that has been lost and discarded. Most my relatives, that I knew, always spoke well of the Indian people, and our folks worked and played together and were friends. There are many Indian people in the Garberville area that have deep history right here in the local area. Most of them are not even thought of as Indians, but as friends, firefighters, business people, and so forth. Most of the people that don’t carry their own weight in Garberville are white.

On work parties for the fire department, we often get into respectful banter about standing in the rain or some other thing that our local Indians seem to like to point out that the white-eyes are sissies. I don’t know if they can take the cold better than me, or they are just more stubborn, but I do know that I will dive for cover before them. I know, that’s racist, but oh well. While I’m being racist, I sunburn easier than they do. Some differences are obvious and some less so, but they will be the first to point out differences. Does that mean that they shouldn’t be given the same opportunities as me? Not hardly.

We are in the midst of “Indian Summer”. Around here that is the little bit of real good weather after the first big rain of the fall. Most places it’s defined as the warm dry weather after the first killing frost. Back east, where the term started, it was the period of warm weather that melted the first snow fall. The eastern Indians would use that period to raid the white settlements, because they couldn’t be tracked on the wet ground, and they wouldn’t leave tracks in the snow. Whether or not the raids were justified is a point for another time and place. I’m just here to say that it was named “Indian Summer” because that was the time of the year that the whites had to keep a close eye out for Indians.

Here is another story that was also from the eastern U.S. Indians. It has to do with “Indian giver” meaning something given then taken back. Supposedly, an Indian person would give a miscreant a present to change their mean or evil ways. If the person didn’t change their ways, It was considered to be a dishonor to the Indian that gave the person the gift, so it was taken back. Indian summer is a gift that is taken back when winter sets back in, so the warm weather is a gift that is taken back. Thus: “Indian Summer”.

Another story about “Indian Giving” is that there was a large language barrier between the Whiteman and the Indian. Trade between the Whiteman and the Indian often became confusing. The Whiteman would try to trade beads or some other object of value to an Indian. They would sign back and forth until they reached an agreed price. Often the Indian person would give something to a White. Indians often gave gifts, so they just took what was offered without thinking much about it, but the Indian person was really placing something of value in the Whiteman’s hands, like a bag of Salmon jerky, as a question of “what can I get for this?” When nothing was offered in return the Indian person would take it back. I can’t say that I blame them, there is an old premise that “there is no such thing as a free lunch”. But, that became known as “Indian giving”.
 
With due respect to my Indian friends.... But, if you have any salmon jerky to trade, I'm well know as a fair and honest trader. I will trade beer or money. Charley Two Crows and I are looking for some canned pickled surf fish. Anybody else have any orders?

Homelessness Meeting

I went to the meeting last night, mostly to watch Garberville sink to the lowest common denominator and see what could come of it. We made some great progress, we scheduled another meeting. What is this a government program?

As we listened, mostly to all the problems, it occurred to me that people really haven't taken the time to understand the people that live on our streets. Most are extremely dysfunctional, their bathroom habits are mostly the same as displayed in a mental ward, and they continually leave a trail of destruction and filth behind them.

I loathe to lump them all together, because some are pretty decent people, helpful and polite. Some have even done me favors and helped me out, those people are not the problem, but the mental cases and the thieves filter in amongst the simply disadvantaged. I won’t go into detail about the problems that some of them cause, because if you don’t take the time to know them, you won’t try to sort the good from the bad.

I have video’s of some of them shoplifting, very brazenly, like they have the right. One man from ***** park, came in every day, we charged his cell phone for him, no charge, it's the least that we can do for someone down on their luck. When someone pointed out that he was a thief, we went back through our store security videos and sure enough, he was a thief. In watching the video, he walked past a row of bright red radios. As he came to them, there were three on the shelf, after he passed, there were two, otherwise there was no indication that he took anything. He went to another corner and altered it for concealment. (Hey, I can’t reveal all of the security tricks that we have to use to catch thieves, but isn’t it sad that we have people in our town that think that somehow honest working people should provide for them.) We called the sheriff and they found him in ***** park proudly displaying his loot.

Now, the thing that runs through my mind is, do the people in the park know that he is a thief? Are they, compelled to rat him out, or are they complicit in the crime?

One lady got up and proudly stated the she bought the homeless a porta-potty for her birthday, and somewhat chided the townspeople for not providing toilet facilities for them. I mused about that, and remembered a time that we allowed the street people, and tourists, to use our store restrooms. Then the guy from up north came through town. He sued everybody that allowed people to use their restrooms for the general public that didn’t have a handicap accessible restroom. If you saw where our restrooms are, you wouldn’t question why we can’t make them accessible. By notice of our landlord, and by our own recognition of the problem, our restrooms are closed. Nobody is allowed to use them, that makes them equal access to all. No access! Seems like a shame, but I guess that it is fair.

The other thought that I had about the lady that proudly bought a porta-potty for the homeless. Does she know that she is in violation of a federal law, making it a Civil Rights Discrimination charge? For providing a restroom that discriminates against the handicapped? Quite a few of Garberville’s street people have been in wheelchairs, what do they do?

Anyway, I didn’t hear anything that I haven’t heard before. It was suggested that we all adopt a homeless person. I know that that might sound a little alien to you, but there was a young homeless person that came to town a few years ago that I could write book about. Myself and another fellow did adopt him. We eventually became his legal guardian. He was a paranoid-schizophrenic with a hopeless dependency to any mind-altering substance that would fit in his mouth. He proudly proclaimed that he was not a drug addict, because he would not stick a needle in his arm. He also proclaimed that he was not a bum, because he earned every penny that he ever had, which was true. He was too paranoid to seek help. He washed windows. As he would leave a job a person could see the other homeless gather around him and "borrow" his money from him. I got so I would let him out the back door with the hopes that he would have the time to get some use out of his money before it was extorted away.

Like I said earlier, I could write a book about this guy, our attempt to house him, his medical care, etc, but the long and short of it, I got an unsigned note in the mail, no return address, other than cancel stamp from some city in Oregon , that he had died.

They guy came and went, as a paraniod will do, I didn’t realize how close that I had gotten to him. It kind of took my heart away from getting too involved in helping the homeless, so I put it on the shelf for a while. Going to the Homeless meeting last night, reminded me of it all. I think that I probably won’t be attending any more meetings.

Class Warfare? Gimme a break!

A fearful friend of mine is afraid that I drank Stephan Lerner’s cool-aid. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the less politically inspired, Lerner advoctes chaos and a “crisis for the rich”. He openly advocates people moving into empty houses, hi-jacking trucks, moving into Morgan Stanley’s lobby, and so forth. No sane man would follow his plan.

What I see going on in the demonstrations of America, is that people are feeling disenfranchised. They need good jobs, and they need a fair balance of trade against predatory trading countries Like China. China is not the only country that has predatory trading practice, but China is by far the major predator.

What I advocate is public gatherings where people can agree with their COMMON goals and bring about fairness in the work place. Those people that scream about the unfairness of “Class Warfare”, because they think that we are going after the super rich, are wrong. Most of us don’t give a damn about how wealthy that they are, we just want good jobs and maybe a little mad-money in our pockets. The rich can keep theirs for all we care. But, while we are on the subject of Class Warfare, why do the super rich think that it is alright to declare war against the American Worker? How many times have you heard that they had to take jobs off-shore because American workers “ARE GREEDY”? How many times have you heard the unions be criticized because they were too powerful and demanded too much?

Not too many years ago, there was a balance between the American worker and the Business people. Everybody had a good job and the wealthy were still wealthy. Somewhere along the line the wealthy figured out that all they had to do is buy the media and the politicians. They could eliminate workers rights by moving jobs to a communist country or a dictatorship. The thing that bothers me, is when it became apparent that our jobs were leaving our shores and we whimpered a little bit. The wealthy couldn’t help but gloat and rub it in. How many times have the American workers had it rubbed in their faces that “WE live in a World Economy now, get used to it!” and “The American worker is far too greedy, we needed to take our jobs off-shore” Or, how about this one, after people with limited ability, but had a great factory job for years, were told “get a good education and make something of your self” and maybe we will give you’re a job shuffling and counting our money. How utterly insulting to good honest hard working people!

My whole family had GOOD jobs in the timber and lumber industry. They watched thier jobs crumble around them. Now, most of them are out of work. Some are still working sending logs to China. But, that won’t last forever. I wonder how much longer it will be before China sends their own workers over here. Most of my family have very conservative values, are very hard working, smarter than the averages bears, and not very likely to identify with the bewhiskered dude with the blood stains in the corner of his mouth, and the google-eyed green glasses. Yes, it’s ridiculously humorous, but hardly representative of the people that want good jobs.

But, remember who owns the media! You are not likely to see much real objectivity, nor much desire to find the REAL roots of the populace movement. The movement that I’m talking about includes the Tea Party, the Democrat party, the Conservatives, the Liberals, and yes, the “Occupy Party” if you will. Right now, America looks a little Chaotic, but I doubt that we will gather around anyone that doesn’t understand our common goal. That would be, a Good job, and just a small amount of prosperity for the common man. The rich will stay rich. Unlike a few of my other friends, I don’t expect that the Dow-Jones average to dip below 8,000. But, the one thing I know is, the fat-cats will cash in on whatever happens. They are the last people on Earth that you should be concerned about.

Some people saw it coming

The following is a little bit raw. (Language) But it is amazing that George Carlin had it all figured out long ago. It is also a little bit dated, because he is talking about a time when people still had jobs and houses. Little old ladys should shy away, because they will be distracted worrying about the bad language and not hear the real message.

Town Hall Meeting on the Homeless

To be more accommodating, we will all be meeting around the communal fire under the Bear Gulch Bridge. No wait, somebody changed the plan, the following is official:

Another public meeting to discuss transient issues

Redwood Times, Posted: 09/28/2011 04:32:50 PM PDT
John Casali and Paul Encimer are organizing another meeting to talk about transient issues in our community and they'd like representatives from the business community and local residents to attend. A recent meeting was held at second district supervisor Clif Clendenen's office behind Garberville Library and was attended by an angry group of people.

This meeting will be held at the Vet's Hall in Garberville on Friday, Oct. 7 beginning at 6 p.m. Eric Kirk will be mediating the meeting.


The Garberville-Redway Area Chamber of Commerce is not hosting, nor affiliated with, the meeting but they encourage those with concerns and/or ideas they'd like to share to attend.

“Both sides will be there”

Oh really… we will shout and pound fists, point out everything that is wrong, when it all ends everyone will realize that nothing is going to happen. The homeless will still be squatting in their 1’’ of dust, by then, 2 inches of mud. Everybody will feel better or worse about themselves. It will be pointed out that there is really nothing for the homeless in Garberville, so why are they here? It will be pointed out that they are treated better here than most places. The growers will quite often drop a free baggy on them. Quite a few people that don’t have to live in, or run a business in Garberville, will give them money. It will be pointed out that most will use their money for drugs or alcohol. But, in the end nothing will change.

The law enforcement officers will still have their hands tied. They have less funding now than have ever had before. They never solved the problem when they had more money, so what makes you think that they can change things now? Nothing will change, but it should be a fun meeting. We can tell each other that we are acting like responsible citizens. But nothing will change. If the problem were changeable, wouldn’t we have done something by now? It can’t be from lack of interest. You can’t walk from one end of town to the other while thinking about anything but the downtrodden and hopeless that hang on our streets, hoping that their next treat might be a baggy, or maybe a twenty. For them,  It’s a like fishing in a great stream.

Hey, if I were a homeless person, I would hang out in Garberville also. No rules, no restrictions, no showers. Life is good in Garberville, and you can be a complete bum, and you have an excuse, nobody will do anything for you, you have to be they way you are. But, nothing will change.
There are homeless advocates, and emergency shelters in the more metropolitan areas. But, they make you take showers, you can’t use drugs or alcohol. They make you pray, and they continually thump on their Bibles. Crap, that’s no life. Pretty soon they start helping you find a job and give your life structure. Screw that! Garberville is better, no rules, and great benefits. But nothing will change.

The good thing about the homeless is, they provide our emergency services with great practice drills! Now that it is cold and rainy, they move under the local bridges. Some idiot “Good Citizen” will see the smoke from their communal campfire boiling out from under the bridge and dial 911. He will declare an emergency that a frikkin’ concrete bridge is on fire. Of course the dispatcher is a transplant from Los Angeles, and they don’t know that concrete bridges don’t burn, so they send two fire departments to check it out. Of course we firefighters have been to all these bridges umpteen-million times, so we are smart enough to know that spontaneous combustion doesn’t just happen under bridges. Knowing what we are heading into, we have to call for the Sheriff to clear the scene. There is the standard argument that the people under the bridge are entitled to a cooking or warming fire. Then we politely explain that you have to have the permission of the property owner, and the road departments don’t allow fires under their bridges. One reason that fires are not allowed under bridges is because some idiot will call 911... I would go through the whole thing again, but you get the idea. We do this at least once a week in the winter. But, NOTHING CHANGES.

I didn’t hear whether our not our Supervisor Clendenen will be there. He was at the last homeless meeting. You do remember what came out of that meeting don’t you? Nothing changed. If he is wise, he will stay away. Nothing good can come out of getting sucked into a SoHum fight. Remember the Mateel wars over Reggae? Anyone standing near the fight got sucked in and spit back out like a plucked chicken. You just don’t want to be to close to a SoHum fight, they can change your life!

If Clendenen is there, he will have to be in campaign mode. Estelle Fennell has announced her candidacy, and she is a well know Sohum local with a long record of hard work and accomplishment. It will be interesting to get her take on the Homeless.

One big thing about the meeting that is coming up. It will be moderated by a person that will enforcing order, I don’t want “ORDER”! I want to yell and scream, pound my fist and get things off my chest. “Order” is not going to do that for me. Nothing will change anyway!

If I go to this meeting it will only be because Suzy Blah Blah says that she will be there… Hmmm. She has fooled us before, is she fooling us again????

*****************************************************
Okay, I’m going to put all of my snide cheeky stuff aside for a bit. I always said that a person shouldn't complain unless they are willing to offer a solution.

The Homeless issue is something that I feel strongly about. The people who have punched their own cards, and taken themselves out of productive society, seriously anger me. They are along for the free ride because they know that people like me feel sorry for the downtrodden and unfortunate, who, through no fault of their own, found themselves dealt with a short hand from the deck of life. The fakers are the lowest form of humanity, because the soak up all the resources and help that would be available for the truly needy and deserving. I have, on a one-on-one basis, helped many homeless make their lives better. I could tell you many stories of pure frustration. Quite unlike Reagan, I fully believe that homelessnes, and the mentally ill, is a problem that can only be addressed on a federal level. If a person can’t care for themselves, they should be institutionalized, until such a time as they can take care of themselves. If not able to be rehabilitated, at least they will have a nice warm place to live and good food to eat. Forcing a human being to live in the mud is purely heartless. Now that I’ve said that… Do I expect anything to change? NO, I do not.

Methinks something Stinks in America

Even though it’s easy to see the results of the failure of our leaders, the problems with America run so deep, and so numerous, that no one man can comprehend them all. Are our leaders so consumed by their own greed that they can’t see the suffering of the people that once had jobs and homes?

People are often accused of not paying attention, or not educating themselves on the problems facing America. Most of us are steeped in the guilt of knowing that something is wrong, but we don’t know how to fix it. It doesn’t take much to embarrass us into being quiet. Some are afraid that their life-long philosophies of being a member of a group or a party may look foolish in the clear vision that something is wrong today. Were we duped? Was it wrong of us to be against the unions? I was, I now question that. Some people feel just the opposite. They are mad that the teachers want too damned much money, and the unions are insisting that they get it, to the detriment of the taxpayers. That was just an example, there are still vast difference in our philosophies.

What is wrong with America is not that the rich don’t pay enough taxes. They couldn’t pay enough to help America, the rich are a moot point tax wise. The BIG point is that our jobs have left our shores. If we all had good jobs, we could pay enough taxes to bring back America’s prosperity, and we could rebuild our schools and roads, and the rest of the infrastructure. Where the rich are our enemy is that they own our information services, and we will believe anything that they tell us. They tell us to vote for politicians that will take care of the wealthy first. The wealthy have made their fortune skimming a small percentage of the money leaving our shores. That is what has to be stopped. When the jobs come back, the rich can go on making money right here at home.

But, things need to change. Don’t be afraid to holler, even if you don’t know what you are hollering about. If you are being stabbed in the back, you aren’t going to see the knife. Scream bloody murder anyway. Our leaders need to know that they had better start moving in directions that will make the rabble happy again.

But, do me a favor, try to at least look normal... people in clown suits scare me!

At my age, of course, I have a lot of friends that have tried to figure it all out. They tell me about the Bilderberg Group, the Bohemian Grove group, The trilateral commission. The Kennedys, the Rockefellers, the federal reserve bank, and so forth. All of their theories seem to make a little sense. But, some of their theories seem to look like they’ve been led a little to close to the edge. They all tried too hard to figure it all out, but no one man can do that, be satisfied that you know that something is wrong, and make our government take that knife out of our back.

Most of the kids at “Occupy Wall Street” don’t have a clue what’s wrong… but they know it’s wrong. Sometimes that’s enough.

I have a friend who is a veteran of the Cambodian War, you know the war that they claimed didn't happen. They went into Cambodia to cut the supply lines to the Viet Cong. (I’m no expert, my friend is). It was at the top of the Flower Child anti-war demonstrations. The young demonstrators went nuts when they found out that troupes went into Cambodia. There was a major demonstration at Kent State in Ohio. Four young kids were killed for demonstrating against the war. The tide turned, and America pulled out of the Viet Nam War.

The point that I’m Making here is NOT that the flower children were right. In some cases they were demonstrating for the Viet Cong. They spit on our soldiers, and called them baby killers. There was no focus of the demonstration and no great leaders. One example of their ignorance is something that young Jane Fonda paid for until this day. She had her picture taken sitting on a Viet Cong tank! I was shocked, America was shocked, just about anybody would tell you that it was the wrong thing to do, but she was a hero to a small group of the Flower Children.

You may think that I’m way off of the subject here, but it is vitally important to my point. No matter how wrong, how stupid, how disrespectful, that the war protestors were… THEY STOPPED THE WAR!

The people in "Occupy Wall Street" are displaying the same look as the War protesters of the ‘60’s. So, when I say that they have a chance. It’s because I been there, seen that… several times before, I don’t think that this will go away, no matter what the Main Stream Media says.

Skippy analyzes Occupy Wall Street

I asked the question, this is Skippy's answer. Thank-you skippy.

Skippy has left a new comment on your post: "UNITED States of America":

Ernie, how do we make sense out of this Wall Street protest and the UNITED States of America? I'll give it a stab.

I think we’re witnessing America's first true Internet-era movement. The mainstream media seem determined in casting these folks as a random, silly blather of an ungrateful and lazy generation of weirdos. As journalists have pointed out, kids are criticizing corporate America while tweeting through their iPhones.

Are they Communists, Ernie? Anarchists? The unemployed? Union workers? College graduates left hanging without jobs, saddled in debt? The ‘99%’? Those showing up just for the fun and camaraderie? All of the above— and more.

While the Tea Party movement originated from the ‘right,’ this movement centers more from the left, I think. Their common denominator is of being disenfranchised while demanding accountability. Unlike civil rights protests, labor marches, or political campaigns, this one doesn’t take its cue from a charismatic leader, express itself in bumper-sticker-length goals, nor understand itself as having a particular endpoint. It’s not a traditional protest-- or narrative arc-- as we’ve seen in the past.

As one protester explained, "As far as seeing it end, I wouldn't like to see it end. I would like to see the conversation continue."

Yes, there's a wide array of complaints, demands, and goals from the occupiers: the collapsing environment, labor standards, housing policy, government corruption, World Bank lending practices, unemployment, increasing wealth disparity, corporate excess and bailouts, and so on. Are they ready to articulate exactly what that problem is and how to address it? No, not yet, Ernie. But neither are the Congress, the President, corporate America and Wall Street.

Anyone who says they have no idea what these folks are protesting is not being fully truthful. Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they’re upset about. Occupy Wall Street is a social movement spreading through contagion, creating as many questions as it answers, and aiming to force a reconsideration of the way the nation does business. Yes, it’s as unwieldy, paradoxical, and inconsistent as those of us living in the real world. Precisely. This movement is merely pointing the way.

And we're watching it, Ernie, because it offers hope to those of us who previously felt alone in our belief that the current economic system is broken.

That's my two cents-- for the 99%, Ernie.

This is Ernie.
I was watching a news broadcast this morning and they were interviewing various people. It looked to me like they were purposefully looking for people to give dumb answers, which must have been true, because they put them on the air. But, they did ask one young man wearing a suit and a tie. He was involved in some way with the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. The question that they were asking is "Is this a Liberal Tea Party movement". He gave the answer (paraphrase) "It would be a mistake to label it as anything. The surface of this demonstration speaks for itself. People are unhappy with the way the country is being governed. Its not a "party" idea. it's a populace movement."

UNITED States of America

There was a time that I was against the unions. They seemed to be too powerful and filled with thuggery. They participated in seniority instead of accomplishment. There was much graft and corruption in the management. I.E. the pension funds continually disappearing. If things weren’t going their way they would simply go on strike.

Then, Nixon went knocking on the bamboo curtain with the supposed premise that we could open doors to new markets, and help America prosper. It was a great idea, and heartily welcomed by the American manufacturing industries. They assumed that they would have new markets for their products. Little did they know that the great red beast would start sucking on our bones. Our bones are now almost licked clean and people are starting to wonder what happened to America. The “world market” is totally controlled by China. There is no way that we can ever compete against them without trade laws and restrictions. But China knows how to play the game. They just keep the Judas Goat (Our stock market) well fed and they will keep leading us lambs to the slaughter.

Reagan dealt the death knell to the unions when he fired all of the air traffic controllers and replaced them with non-union workers. It was a widely received signal that it was over for the American worker. Americans are so hungry for jobs that they will now cut each others throats for a job, any job, not just good jobs. The American worker has been defeated for twenty years now. The unions are now a moot point, the have no power. The can’t strike because the workers will be easily replaced by equally skilled, or readily trained workers.

It’s amazing what a human being will do to survive, pride, loyalty and honor will go right out the window when your family is suffering.

Now we are forced with forming a new country, where our politicians represent US. How do we defeat the wealth and influence of Wall Street? Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a Union representing us? We need to remember what brought the United States of America together. UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. We must stand together against the gathering tyranny of the greedy.

They say that if we impose tariffs, or import restrictions, that other countries will impose restrictions on us, and stop buying our airplanes and heavy equipment. I disagree, I think that we need to impose restrictions now, and subsidize our industries if we have to. We now have little electronics industry in the United States. The T.V. manufacturing industry was the first to go off-shore. Reagan opened the doors to trade with Japan. Japan subsidized their T.V. industry and “dumped” T.V.s on the American market. There was no way the American electronics industry could compete. People were amazed at how much better a Japanese T.V. was for the money than an American T.V. for the same price. ( Remember Sony?) Yeah, that’s because the Japanese government was paying for the difference in quality. Now that our industry in gone, they can charge anything they want. But, the Devil in the details is, that the Communist counties are doing the same thing to the whole free world. They subsidize ALL of their products by keeping the value of their currency below that of the free world. They can do that, they are a Communist country! I won’t even go into all that is wrong with trade with China. But, it is significant and onerous.

You will hear a lot about the evils of “Class Warfare”. It reminds me so much of Marie Antoinette, when she was asked what should be done about the poor starving people. She replied “let them eat cake”. To some of us that might sound like a good party, but back then “cake” was grain paste, made into a patty and roasted over a fire. That’s all they had to eat. In Antoinette’s mind. That’s all they needed, and couldn’t understand what they were complaining about. She was later executed by guillotine.

I don’t think a guillotine is needed yet, but we do need to do something more that complain. It is time... we’ve almost hit bottom. I seem to remember that some Russian fellowstarved millions of his own people to death. It seems that they wanted something. Jobs maybe?

Wall Street Protest

We're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore... Now all we need is a leader. The more that the cops try to slap down the protest, the more protesters seem to want to get involved. I wish I was a kid again. I would catch a bus to wall Street. They are finally protesting the right thing, Wall Street corruption. Why should we be ashamed of a "Class War"? Wall Street, long ago, launched an undeclared war on the working man. Sorry, I know that technically I am a business man, but if working people don't have jobs, I won't long have a business.

The populace of America is well aware that the wealth has been stolen by Wall Street. We are no longer going to be satisfied to live on Cake. If I were a Wall Street fat cat right now, I would be feeling a lot like Marie Antoinette. Their days are numbered. With the right leader, change will be as swift as a guillotine.

The Tea Party movement had promise in the beginning, because it was a true grass roots movement, but the Tea Party and the Republicans fell in love and ran off together. This latest movement will succeed, because it is founded in youth. Civil Rights succeeded because the youth of America was involved. The Viet Nam War was stopped by the young people.

I was watching Fox News this morning ( Yeah, I love the irony) They had a man that said that the kids are protesting Capitalism, and what the kids were advocating was Communism. The irony is that the "Capitalists" on Wall Street are partnered with China, a Communist country that can provide labor much cheaper than America, because they can control the value of their currency. China can always guarantee to deliver a cheaper product. America can NEVER truly compete with them. We need leaders that can regulate trade, and keep it in balance. We can't continue to borrow money from our children and give it to a Communist country.

This Wall Street movement will succeed in a heartbeat, as long as they don’t allow themselves to be hijacked by any Party. Not Democrat, not Republican, but some sort of a new party, and a new leader, not already owned by Wall Street. Can an unfunded party, that lacks the support of main street media succeed? Can a party without Wall Street backing Succeed? Time will tell.

I’ve never been so optimistic. It seems like the 60’s to me. I wish I was young again.

Who would you choose as a leader?

Meanwhile, sign up at Ernie's Place for an Occupy Redwood Drive protest. Our petition will be proof that we protested. That way we won't have to protest in the rain. The great thing is, if you don't like it, you don't have to sign. But think of all the people that wished that they had signed the Declaration of  Independence.
Just leave a comment about what you would like to make Better about America. You can even pretend that you are Thomas Jefferson and be Anonymous.

Link to CNN report on Wall Street Protest

Bless My Sole!

It's been a long time since I did a "Good Food Report". So here's a "Great Food Report!
First, my wife and I hardly ever eat out at restaurants. When we do, we mostly go out on VERY special occasions. So, I’m not to familiar with the dinner fair around Garberville. We eat lunch out fairly often. The Calico’s restaurant has one of the best “salmon Burgers” that I’ve ever eaten. The Eel River café has a “big bird” that is to die for. The Eel river also has better cheeseburgers than the top rated place in Eureka. (I won’t say where in Eureka, because there cheeseburgers are also good!) I like the “Turkey Dip” sandwich at the Water Wheel. The Paradise Grill has great cheese burgers, as does the House Of Burgess. Home Cookin’ has great take and bake pizza. And Sicilito’s has great hot pizza. At Cecil's I can't seem to get past the catfish, my wife usually has a fillet. I know that I’m leaving some great places out, but I’m getting full. Maybe some of you have some good recommendations of other places.

But, to get around to what this is all about. My wife and I found ourselves in Eureka last Wednesday evening, and it was too late to come home to eat. It was Janis’ turn to choose a restaurant, and she chose the Bless My Soul Café, on 5th street. I was surprised that she chose that café because she doesn’t like spicy food. Myself? I love spicy, so I didn’t argue. I should have known that there would be “sissy food” on the menu.

We were greeted at the door by “Sweet Daughter Desiree”. She told us to sit anywhere, so we chose a table by the front window. Desiree came to take our order. Janis knew exactly the red wine she wanted, but I wanted a beer. I don’t like the heavily hopped flavored bitter beers. I prefer something more mildly flavored. I didn’t see any thing that I liked on the menu, so I asked Desiree what she had that was like a certain “well known beer”. She told me that they didn’t have that beer because it was bought out by a major brewery, and she preferred to stock private label beers. I liked that, I like to see the small guy have a chance. She recommended a German wheat beer that was drop-dead delicious. My evening was off to a great start.

The menu came and Desiree told us about their specials and said that they shopped for, and prepared their food daily. I noticed that the restaurant was neat and clean. The table that we sat at had a full view of the neat clean, well ordered kitchen. I also Liked that.

The menu had so many great choices that I turned into a girl, and couldn’t make up my mind. Desiree was very helpful in recommending things that she thought that I would like. She was right all the way. I ordered the batter fried jerk-chicken breast. She warned me that it was spicy, I did notice that it had a two pepper rating after the menu listing. Quite a few listings had one pepper, and the hot sausage dishes had a three pepper rating. I wanted to order the sausage, but that third pepper scared me off.

We had a few choices like soup or salad and two side dishes. I had potato zucchini soup, with the appropriate other ingredients. It was delicious. The meal also came with a corn muffin. The two sides that I ordered was Creole Corn, and Sautéed Cabbage.

My wife stared reading down the menu until she got to the garlic beef. She decided instantly what she wanted she made me look more like an indecisive little girl when she ordered instantly. She ordered a side order of batter fried dill pickles. She had then when she was in Louisiana and wanted me to try them. The first one is great. The second one is interesting, the third one you eat because there are so darn many and you don’t want to be wasteful. So we took the rest home.

I was encouraged by Janis’ side order, so I ordered Crab Cakes. Any one of the dishes would have filled me up, so I also took one of the crab cakes home. I tried to guess the ingredients, but Desiree just grinned at me. It seems that the recipes around there are top secret. But, you can buy most of Sweet Mama Janisse’s secret sauces.

The jerked chicken was delicious, it was topped with caramelized bananas, a very interesting combination of sweet and spicy.

As we were waiting for our meal, Sweet Mama Janisse herself came out to our table and talked to us. It seems that we have many friends in common. I always have too many questions for interesting people, and I was able to ferret most of her life story out of her, which she shared with us graciously.

She knows Taj Mahal, and of course he recommends her café, and sings her praises. He is quoted as saying “The best food in the world”. He would know, he’s been everywhere.

If you watch the bottom video she talks about Oysters Rockefeller. She says that she doesn’t know what the bed of rock salt is for, but to follow the recipe anyway. I could have told her!!! The salt keeps the shells from rocking and turning over. She should have asked me. Oh well… Maybe she reads my Blog!

My jerked chicken was outstanding, but I told Desiree that it didn’t seem like it was a full two peppers hot, and she said that she was considering lowering the rating to one and a half.

Try it you will like it.






Oh, on a side note. You know that squeally baby that follows me around where ever I eat. Yep, you guessed it. There was an early shift baby and a late shift baby. They were seated far enough away that they were not a bother. My wife and I got a big kick out of the crying baby, it fit right in. They had some really great Guitar Blues playing over the speaker system. It came out: “My baby done left me” Waaaaaaa “My baby done left me”. Waaaaaaaa…. Somehow it just fit in, and it seemed like part of the fun.
If you go there, tell Desiree that I sent you. She might not remember my first name but she will remember “Branscomb”. She has a friend that owns property there. She connected my name to the town and asked the de-rigur Question, “Are you related to the town”? I told yes, and I even know where all the bodies are buried. I thought that would fit right in with the “Voodoo Pudding”. That’s a highly chocolate dessert that Janis had.