College Conspiracy

I found this to be a great video. It is an hour long, but well worth the watch. There was a quote in the video that I think is so profound:

“All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity”
-James Fenimore Cooper

Are You Rapture Ready?

So are you rapture ready? Me and my homegirls decided to dress up in our hooker-best for the occasion! (That’s me all hooker-licious in the photo to the left) Gina got busy drinking the Shiner Bock, Vicki was sippin back on the UV Lemonade Vodka with Diet 7 Up and I started off with Fat Tire beer, rounded second with a Samuel Adams Boston logger, and last but not least made sure that my glass never reached empty on the cheap ass vodka I picked up at the Discount Liquor store down the road. Of course I gotz to mixed that stuff with a little Sierra Mist Natural. Geez, do I sound like a commercial?

The other day Noah tells me this strange news…”Mom” he said cracking a smile, “Did you know the world is going to end on Saturday?” I thought thought to myself “Why didn’t I get that memo?” You’d think that would be really important information right? It must be that damned computer of mine acting up again, because it never allowed through the memo that the world was going to hell in a hand basket. (Can you tell I’ve been partying a little tonight?) Ok, so yesterday Mr. Sexy news anchor Anderson Cooper comes on and talks about the end of the world and this is what he has to say:

And of course since the dreamy Coop said it, it must be true right? Anyway, as I said in the beginning of my post, we dressed in our hooker best, and decided to document the whole thing from beginning to end. Only one problem…we were never taken up like Harold Camping said would happen. I thought for sure I was on the right track when we put on our make up, got a good buzz going and had a LOT of fun taking all the pictures. I was hoping for a little levitation, but that never happened as you can see from the photos that will follow. What did we do wrong ya’ll? Maybe I didn’t drink heavily enough to watch something float! Why do I say that? Well, because you have to be totally drunk or high to believe that God would set a date for the end of the world. Shit, even I got that memo!

We had sooooo much fun though, I must say. Thanks Uncle Jack for inspiring us to dress like hookers, drink like lushes and hope for the best! Here are some photos of our night LOL ENJOY!

My homegirl (and daughter Gina) asking the vital question of the evening.

Vicki in the first photo looking all sexy and rapturous, and in the second photo proudly displaying her rapture birds. Aren’t they so cute?

The Denver Airport Murals

I do lots of research for my own curiosity, enjoyment and also to learn more about the different kinds of people that exist in our world…especially in this information driven age. You can go online and look up a bevy of information, all at your fingertips. You can find health information, connect with people from your distant past, explore cultures and religions, read blogs about anything that interest you, find ‘love’ and marriage prospects, make new friends, and the list will just keep going and going of what is possible at your fingertips. It seems endless what you can find online, doesn’t it?

Well, in my research of some medical curiosities, I found this random link to these rather terrifying paintings that are displayed at the Denver International Airport. I was jarred at first, looking at the depictions of the death of children, Nazi imagery, flowers, dead animals, happy children, and what seemed to be this collection of life and death, hope and despair, victory and defeat. What is one supposed to think of such things when viewing such a huge piece of artwork in a place like the Denver airport? At first glance, I thought to myself “what the hell is going on here?” And then I decided to read the “interpretation” according to the conspiracy theorist who’s site I stumbled on. It was a conspiracy of hate, the devil, mass extinction and servitude the author of the blog would proclaim. I began to look more on other sites after putting “Denver airport murals” into the google image search and found that all of them had theories about prison camps located under the Denver airport, places for aliens, mason and Illuminati conspiracies, reptilian people (that one was truly funny!) and I was left with this gnawing feeling in my gut that something just didn’t seem right about all this conspiracy talk. I searched for the artist’s name and found out that this man was a celebrated artist. His name is Leo Tanguma and once I got past all the minutia about how he was paid by some “shadow government”, I decided to go his website. Mr. Tanguma has the most beautiful artwork, and what he brings out through his art is no less than the truth driven home with feeling! So often artists are misunderstood, and I guess he is no exception to that rule.

There is a saying in the bible “From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” and this is true of those who make comments on an artists work. The saying is really true in all situations though isn’t it? If your heart is true, you’ll speak the truth, if your heart is filled with lies and deceit and fear that’s what will come out of you, if you lack compassion in your heart, it will be known by how you speak and act toward others. This is an essential truth concerning the abundance of the heart.

I’d like to take another look at some of these paintings because Leo Tanguma has poured out his heart on canvas for the world to see. Are these really a dark conspiracy to kill man kind? Or is this a record of things that have already taken place? Some want to say the images are gruesome and macabre, and to that I would say yes! it is gruesome and macabre in that war and death is nothing pretty to look at. I would have to say it took courage and conviction for Mr. Tanguma to tell the truth about war and how it devastates humanity. We have no problem saying “We will never forget” when it comes to  9/11 and show images of the trade towers before and after. Why? Because we claim we will never forget. Well what about war? When others take the lives of the innocent? Should we just brush that aside? Or shall we never forget that as well? Mr. Tanguma’s portrayal of death and carnage is a way of saying “we will never forget” what has happened. Women, children and the elderly are often the most devastated by war and violence, and I feel that he captured that beautifully.

But I guess that others can view the death, carnage and mourning in his work as a clue as to what will happen to the rest of us in the future. In that, I must give them a little credit, because as the saying goes “those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” But to me that is where the interpretation ends. We will all subjectively see what we want to see. Some will see only the carnage and death, hidden images of the devil and aliens, and others, like myself, will see an artist who decided to spit in the face hatred and bigotry and show it for what it truly is. In his portrayal of death, Mr. Tanguma showed the utmost respect and beauty of each of his subjects, as can be seen in the first photo of the black woman. Check it out again, and look at the fact that he didn’t take away her humanity, her beauty, her suffering. Even more relevant is the fact that she is clothed in her cultural identity. Each of his subjects alive or dead have a cultural identity…something that seems to get brushed aside in our modern times. His portrayal of the masked nazi holding different weapons is also culturally relevant through the ages. He combines all the attributes of war and destruction in the garb of a killer. Whether it is the German Nazi, the Arabian saber, the flowing robes of a Catholic monk, the modern machine gun, simple aggression at the tip of a knife, handguns, gassing, they are all accounted for in the aggressor. There is one thing I found extremely clever about his work in painting the aggressor with all his “equipment”, Mr. Tanguma included a hair brush on the shoulder of the aggressor. LOL How clever of him to include this item, because to me the hair brush stands for the vanity of war.

With compassion and heartbreaking meticulous care, he showed women mourning the loss of their children, people displaced and herded off like cattle, and the sadness of what happens during war. When viewing these images, I don’t think only of the past, I think of all the women and children that are being harmed right now in these needless wars in Afghanistan and around the world.  This is what the vanity of war does to humanity. It strips us down, and for what? For resources? For power? All war is vanity. Yet conspiracy theorists act like there is no war right now, so it MUST be what is to come. Are we so impotent in thought and deed that we do not realize that the wars going on at present are our responsibility? So yes, if you want to make a theory that these paintings are about some nefarious shadow government, well you better include yourself in that little factoid you’ve contrived, because you are just as guilty for the war, death, bloodshed and genocide as those who order it. If you voted for the war or were too apathetic to realize what the wars are really about, then that painting is about YOU. Don’t go blaming others for something that you had your hand in. If you want to really make a difference, then END THE WAR. Isn’t this a democracy? Leo Tanguma implicitly shows human suffering that has happened and many don’t really see that? Incredible.

But Mr. Tanguma doesn’t stop at war, he continues on with another topic…environmental devastation. There are four paintings he’s done at the Denver airport.

Everyone will see what they want to in these paintings. I’m no different obviously. I have my own interpretation of a few very controversial images in the paintings, but I’ll keep those to myself, because as I have viewed his other work, I have come to understand why he uses certain imagery. If you check out some of his other work on his website, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

In closing, before I show the rest of his work, I want to say that I hope that his work and the beauty of his heart will not be cheapened by conspiracy theories. With love and respect he captured what has happened to humanity at the tip of a weapon. His hope for mankind is poured out into his art as he shows children of different waring countries unite and wrap up the weapons of war to end the bloodshed. The hope of humanity rests in the hearts of our little ones, and they must learn the ways of peace, not the vanity of war. If not, they and we are doomed to repeat the past.

Here are more images from the Denver airport:

The above painting has a description from Mr. Tanguma’s website:

Smaller mural – The Present State of the Environment

Humanity, represented by multi-racial children, is shocked and saddened at finding our natural world in a trampled and abused state. Surrounding the youthful group are endangered or extinct wildlife species. The bewildered children view the Snow Leopard, said to be the most beautiful of the large cats, laid out lifeless before them displaying its exquisite fur and colors. To the left, a young girl gazes at a Great Auk in a display case, a vanished species made extinct in 1844. On the right front, a young boy touches a display case containing the last of the Passenger Pigeons, a species existing in immense numbers throughout the Eastern U.S., and finally extinguished in 1914. Shown also are a harpooned Gray Whale, a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle enmeshed in a fishing net, and a wall mounted buffalo head. Fluttering over the central scene, is an agitated Quetzal bird, with parts of a display case ominously surrounding it, as if foretelling its extinction.

Behind these central images, a fire rages, consuming a rainforest, while in the foreground we see endangered plant life, such as the Holy Ghost Orchid, from Panama, the Flower of the Gods, South Africa and others. In the immediate foreground are three concrete coffins, each containing a young girl clutching cultural articles. These three girls symbolize our own humanity as victims of our self destruction, notably through war, slavery, genocide, exploitation and violence of all kind.

This second mural also has a description from his website:

Larger mural – A Hopeful Future in which Humanity Rehabilitates the Environment

On this mural, I depict humanity, represented by children of the world arrayed in national or folkloric costumes. They move from both ends towards the center, and are shown smiling optimistically as they strive to rehabilitate our natural environment. On the background to this jubilant procession, are depicted various temperate zones of our planet beginning, on the extreme left with the ocean, temperate forests, frigid, tropical rainforest, and desert.
These “zones” are pictorially described with relevant geographical features, as well as wildlife indigenous to those regions. For example, the Quetzal bird signifies tropical rain or cloud forests, while the Snow Leopard is representative of frigid mountainous environments. Moreover, these different zones are shown as robust and healthy, as are the various wildlife species depicted. This portrayal is confluent with the ideal of a rehabilitated natural environment resplendent in all its beauty.

The elated children, in the colorful and lively costumes of thirty-two nations, move happily to where a special and unique flowering plant is about to be placed in the soil. This flower, its radiating leaves reflecting all the colors of the rainbow, reveal within its folds the configuration of a small white dove (reminiscent of the Holy Ghost Orchid). With this image, I sought to symbolize a new appreciation of our environment as a spiritual as well as a physical entity, a precious and delicate domain entrusted to our care.

Are You Ready for Economic and Social Collapse?

Normally, economic and social unrest sit in the back of my brain throbbing and pulsating like a deep migraine ready to explode. These days however, the throbbing has moved to the forefront of my brain, creating the perfect storm within me for a rant. I guess this is a rant of sorts, even though I feel fairly contained and at peace right now. I have questions, because I guess I want to know if others feel this economic and social unrest? Do you think our country is in for a major economic collapse? Beyond an economic collapse always follows a social collapse…are you concerned with this as well? Maybe its just a small percentage of us in the U.S. and around the world that are concerned, but I truly want to know what you all think.

How will the economic collapse of the dollar affect you personally? Have you invested in silver and gold as your “backup plan” or is it just a way to diversify your portfolios? What would happen if that gold and silver was confiscated by the government, as can be done in a TIME OF WAR? What would you do then? My point is that paper money can not feed or care for you and neither can gold and silver. Huh? What was that you say? Well, haven’t you ever heard the expression “money doesn’t grow on trees”? I’m sure all of you have. What good is gold and silver if there is no food to eat? If you can’t go out and buy it? You’d have to hoard food now for any impending crisis, and for how long do you believe that will last you? It won’t last. It will spoil or rot, unless its canned foods. Gold and silver can definitely pay to keep the electric on, pay for gas, and other utilities, but for how long? What happens in the event of social collapse and the major infrastructure of your town or city is no longer functioning correctly? How will silver and gold help that little predicament? It can’t. My point is that silver and gold, while important and valuable is not the end all-be-all for making it through an economic and social breakdown. Anyone that does have a portfolio knows that you never put all your “eggs” in one basket, and the same is true with gold and silver.

So what else can you invest in? Invest in purchasing and planting fruit trees and learn how to grow food in a sustainable way. The investment in all kinds of fruit trees, vegetables, grains, nuts, and livestock will create real food not only for you and your family, but for your community. It is an actual commodity that others can not live without. Investing in your own fruit trees, nut trees, veggies, grains and livestock also creates an increasing yield each year if managed properly. I know that when these kinds of questions about surviving come up, the first thing we think of is Y2K. Everyone who believed that our world was going to hell in a hand basket started building bunkers and hoarding food for when the collapse happened…it never did happen. Hoarding food and gold and silver is not the answer. It just perpetuates the same problems over and over. Why? Because people have not learned how to actually grow good food…to get down upon your knees and plant some seeds. Growing food is not a method of survival…it is a way to thrive regardless of the economy. It creates a firm foundation in which you can assist others in learning how to thrive as well. Our economy is consumer based and not product based, and in order to begin to reverse this trend, we will need to start getting on our knees and actually produce things of real value. One seed can produce and produce, year after year, and without getting into the politics of big pharma genetically engineering and patenting seeds NOT to produce, buy organic seeds and watch those seeds perform endlessly. A $2.50 package of organic seed will provide a yield where you will no longer ever have to buy that kind of seed or fruit or veggie again. $2.50 investment and never have to pay for another zuccini, tomato, watermelon, wheat product, rice, and anything else that can be grown in the ground. Purchase an organic fruit tree for $25.00 and that tree will bear you fruit each year for that one time investment. $25.00 and never have to pay for another apple, pear, plum, peach or what ever else will grow in your region. It seems such a small investment, but few do it. How about owning chickens and never having to pay for another egg or poultry product? Some may say “I don’t have enough land” but to that I say, do a little homework and research and you will find out that you can in fact grow a huge amount of food on a very small plot of land. It also gives you the opportunity to create community gardens. We have just forgotten or haven’t been taught in the first place to grow things. Its either a novelty, or a “lower occupation”, which has been taken advantage of by big corporations.

If it takes a good three years for fruit trees to produce from the time you plant them, why not start now? Even if there is no economic collapse or social unrest? The least you will be doing is utilizing your hard earned (almost worthless) dollar on something else you may want after planting some real products. I have a dream which is becoming a reality for me and my family, the dream of thriving and producing something of real value that not only helps to create stability to us, but to our community that surrounds us as well.

One of the things I find repugnant are actions of well meaning people here and abroad that believe that they are the saviors of others by providing goods to developing and/or impoverished nations. What will happen to them in the event of our own economic and social collapse? Will we actually be traveling to those distant exotic lands to put store bought goods into their bellies, and claim we are helping them? We can’t help them unless we teach them to grow their own food, show them how to get access to clean water, and when we stop making them think that they should be thankful to us for the handouts. Because you know what?? they won’t be thankful when you don’t come anymore. They will think they have been abandoned. We will never truly help others until we learn how to put the tools in their hands (and our own!) that will fight poverty. Learning to grow food and share the surplus. Honestly, in an economic crisis, are you really going to be concerned with the well being of starving people thousands of miles away? I AM! I’m concerned that we have made them dependent on our way of life which, if we open our eyes, is in danger of extinction. In the end, I believe that those in poverty has been defrauded of what they really need. They need to know how to care for themselves, and instead they have been enslaved by many well meaning people who think candy, bread, pasta and other commodities (even medicines) will help them out of their plight. How many have gone oversees and taken pictures with these poor people, holding and cuddling their babies? And how many took a picture with these people while working along side them in a field, teaching them how to be self sufficient…not just to survive, but to THRIVE? They hang around the cities, pour loads and loads of food, clothes and other products into their laps and then leave at the end of the week. Yes I’m ranting about this…well I’m railing on this topic, because when we can NO LONGER provide these kinds of services what will happen? What? Out of sight out of mind? Will we really even care? Or will we say “I did the best I could, now I have to take care of my family. I can’t afford the trip to that distant land to bring candy and toys to these “poor” children I need to find a way to provide candy and toys for my own.” I know that some (or a majority) of people will take offense to what I’ve said, but that is the truth, hard and cold. I’m sorry to burst the “good will” bubble and self congratulating attitude of those who think they are doing good, but unfortunately all you have done is create an even longer slow death of these indigenous cultures, who for thousands of years were able to create their own medicines, clothing, goods and services. We have globalization to thank for that one. It is a slow and painful death which we bring to these people, and in the end, bring upon ourselves if we do not begin to make a change.

Why is the American Dream to own a home, have a couple cars, a couple of kids that go to college, and to keep buying shit? Why is that the American Dream? Its more like the American Nightmare, from which we will not be waking up anytime soon. The American Dream should be about freedom and independence, but we are neither free nor independent. We think we are because we have money in the bank and we have a job. But as we can see over the last few years, more people are losing their homes, their jobs, even their families. We think “this can’t happen to me”, but it can. I have had this throbbing ache in the back of my head since the year 2001, and I remember thinking back then how much better it would be if we knew how to grow things, live off the land and live in a new way. Ten years later, we are on road to making our dream an actual reality. Back then the only talk in circulation happened before the year 2000 with the Y2K event, and I was not worried about that in the least.

My American Dream is to be able to grow fresh fruits and veggies, livestock, honey, grains and to be able to pass this knowledge on to my children and my children’s children. There is so much information out there on how to grow fruits and veggies naturally without the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Ways of caring for animals that’s simple. How far we have strayed from real knowledge. We go to college to get a degree, but what will that piece of paper do for you if you can’t get a decent job? Worse yet, what if you already have a great job that pays quite well, but all your bills and mortgage keep you tied to that job and POOF! your job is gone because you are expendable? What then? How do you feed your family? How do you care for your community? What true worth is there in money? Even gold and silver? We all need to eat, yet the knowledge to actually produce our own food is quite limited or non existent for the average person. Utilize the internet to learn how to produce real products that will help your family and community.

To summarize my long winded rant, don’t hold on to tightly to that money, gold or silver that you believe will save you or at least get you through. Unless you own your home outright, it is not an asset, but a liability. If you pay a mortgage, it is a liability until you own it outright. An asset pays you! What are your real assets right now? If the housing market continues to decline as it has, you won’t be able to even sell it and break even. We are just getting started on our road to freedom and independence, and this spring will begin our investment into an agrarian life. Our home is owned outright, so no mortgage, but for those who do have a mortgage, start investing fruit trees and other real products onto that land, so that your liability will start to become an asset for you. Let your land pay you back! It could in the end guard your greatest investment (your house) from foreclosure. If we are not headed for an economic collapse, then you can go into your yard and smile as you pick fresh fruits and vegetables for your family to enjoy before going on that long awaited vacation you’ve been saving a year to go on. I’m not against buying things, raising the standard of living and enjoying the finer things in life, but just as you “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” when it comes to saving and investing, you have literally put them all in one basket because one crucial element has been neglected…sowing and harvesting of real products.

Here are a few videos that I feel should alarm everyone:

TSA Screening and Molestation

We all want to be safe right? We all want to know that when we get onto a plane that our lives are in good hands, but don’t you think that it goes a little too far to have naked images of us taken in order to keep us safe? How about my children? My children travel a few times per year and I don’t want naked photos of them kept at anytime, nor do I want someone viewing them naked even in that moment. Wouldn’t that be called child pornography? Is it just me, or does this seem so bizarre? I’ve read reports that Americans think the TSA new screening and enhanced pat downs are a good idea. What? are you on crack? Why would you think that’s a good idea? Why would anyone think that’s a good idea? It violates us as humans on every level. Rape survivors for one could have a major problem with this type of procedure, which could trigger traumatic memories in him/her. Children who are taught at a young age about not letting others touch you in your private parts are now told to submit to a stranger touching them WHILE their parents watch. It takes away our rights as parents to protect our children from predators, which is MY GOD GIVEN RIGHT, it makes a man stand there and watch helplessly as another man touches his wife inappropriately and he can do nothing about it. It violates us, and we’ve been sold a bill of goods stating that this keeps us safe! Really?

Some may think, “what the fuck is the big deal? who cares woman! as long as we are safe!” Really? You think that is what keeps us safe? It doesn’t! As a matter of fact, we are more unsafe now because of such things. Why are we less safe? Well, lets start with the fact that we have NO PRIVACY! That’s right, no privacy, it is taken from us. How can a person feel safe if their very privacy has been violated? Ok so that’s not so bad right? You can always Opt Out of having that screening, and then ‘thank god’ all you have to do now is go through the enhanced pat down! Oh that makes me feel REALLY SAFE! It will make me feel extra secure knowing that if I opt out of the screening, that someone can molest me instead! Gee I feel so much better knowing that! Bullshit. Major bullshit, hot, steaming and smelling to the high heavens. But what if you wanted to opt out of both the advanced screening AND the pat down? Oh, well at the discretion of the TSA they can file a civil suit against you up to $11,000 for not cooperating as well as denying you the right to fly, even though you already paid for that ticket! That makes me feel SUPER safe, how about you? Don’t you see? You have no safety. There is no guarantee that these machines will keep us safe. Its a false sense of security. The only thing that these machines have done is line the pockets of those who sold them. That’s it.

Maybe it comes down to the voyeuristic nation that we have become. Personally I find it very creepy that others would be looking at me at the airport or groping me. Then again, that’s just me. I’m not fond of others watching me as though I were some sort of lab rat, or better yet as though I were a terrorist. LOL What’s the difference between the TSA stating that these things need to be done to us and to our children, and a pedophile in a car with an injured puppy asking a child for their help? To me, there is none! I’m sorry to have such strong opinion about these things (no I’m not sorry), but pedophilia is pedophilia whether it’s done by some disgusting deviant on the street that just got out of jail, or by a TSA officer touching my minor child or looking at his or her naked body. No DIFFERENCE! It is sexual assault, especially if you are not given a choice. What are your choices? Don’t fly. LOL Then that is the ONLY way you can maintain your safety 100%.

Join National Opt Out Day

Here are a few videos I thought would be good to watch:

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