I’ve been curious about this … my favorite courses in college were in business law, which included such ideas as “legal tender.” Given that money is a necessary concept, there has to be some means whereby we all agree that there is a common and accepted means of exchange. We use currency. Once upon a time we used the gold standard, and then silver certificates, but all of that was tossed out the window, and we now use Federal Reserve Notes. Continue reading “Legal tender” →

I am taking on more of the writing burden here as others sort through stuff. I have been at this since 2006, and for better or worse I’ve never run out of things to write about. I was wondering what to put up today, and stumbled on this post, courtesy of the Skink: It is called Wear your damned mask, cover your damned nose. Let’s confront store employees who flout mask-up rules, and let’s file formal complaints with our boards of health. That’s a really long title. It is written by James Conner, a man who I used to read occasionally when I lived in Montana. I had forgotten all about him. At the top of his blog he has changed his photo to one of him wearing a mask. He’s always been an angry blogger, so what follows is true to form.

“At Walmart this morning, the checker wore his mask below his nose in defiance of our governor’s mask-up directive. I confronted him. Yesterday, at Super 1, my bagger also wore his mask below his nose. I confronted him, too.”

Continue reading “Too good to pass up … a snitch has had enough” →

The fight to protect native forests in the Northern Rockies region continues. After more than three decades of challenging US Forest Service-USDA timber sales, mining proposals, oil and gas leases and livestock grazing on federal public forests, we have still got a lot fight left in us. It’s nice to win a lawsuit in federal court. It keeps morale high and blues at a safe distance.

Two recent back-to-back court victories really fires up the troops. The “Gold Butterfly” project (the governments sick imitation of “Iron Butterfly”?) was withdrawn last week: https://bitterrootstar.com/2020/09/forest-withdraws-approval-of-massive-gold-butterfly-project/

The other project was a Bureau of Land Management project aimed at killing ancient juniper and limber pine for the livestock industry. They want more grass, less trees. https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/blm-withdraws-court-halted-conifer-removal-in-elkhorns/article_2d31c696-9e8b-59a8-9559-e9456f120f81.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1

One reason and one reason only underlies all such nonsense. Love of mammon. Mammon is not just money, but is a trust and valuation problem. Placing trust in the unreal, the legal fiction which opposes nature is the core belief in commodity production and ecological destruction. More specifically, mammon screws up one’s individual appreciation for reality, for all of (morally priceless) nature, replacing both with monetary valuation — and certain spiritual death. What wouldn’t these sociopaths not sell for a few shekels?

Still kicking. Growing old, but not sick of the fight to save a few patches of God’s country. If you can’t beat ’em, join with us. Never a dull moment.

Photo: Chessman Reservior; Helena, Montana’s water source.

Many years ago when I lived in Montana some friends and I were driving the countryside around Billings looking for birds. It’s still a hobby of mine, and I’ve never gotten very good at it, which keeps it interesting. My friend Jim was a self-trained expert, and a good guy to have along anyway. He was full of surprises. We crossed a small bridge, and down beneath were pigeons (since renamed “rock doves” and then again “rock pigeons” by experts who must earn royalties on new bird books). They were hunkered down, and Jim said it could only be for one reason. Look up, he said. Sure enough, soaring overhead was a red tail hawk.

Power is like that , but not openly visible like that hawk. It is seen in the behavior of those around it. I am new to this game, only awakened since 2015 or so, before that time stumbling through a mystifying swamp of inexplicable events and behaviors. Most befuddling were the behaviors of public people, openly lying yet never fearing exposure. The lies were understood by all around them to be an essential part of having a public life. Where once I thought there must be some threat of violence that kept them in line, as with our pigeons above, I later assumed that they are simply actors and probably oath-bound to keep secrets, not afraid and often enough not even lacking in moral character. The red tail hawk is not evil, just part of nature.

Continue reading “Ducktors” →

Our blog has about 1,400 followers, and that has not changed in the past few days. At the same time we have been inundated with hits due to a post that Fauxlex put up last April. If you have not read it, I urge that you do so now, as it is indeed a bombshell. I should have understood its significance back then, but did not.

It is called “BOMBSHELL: WHO Coronavirus PCR Test Primer Sequence is Found in All Human DNA.” Because WordPress insists that I use their new writing format, called “Gutenberg,” at this time I am unable to insert a link to the post. I have to be retrained in a format I regard as clunky and non-intuitive. But you can easily find the post by using the search box or by following the link in the post below called REBLOG: George Floyd, the Stiff Who Came in From the Cold. .

Continue reading “A note to regular readers” →