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  • From: bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Kuntsler , new commentary, super-inflation
  • Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:57:52 -0800 (PST)

this opinion piece I just read on NRO made me think of what Lynn and others
said about not being in the mainstream economy and being more self -reliant.
This is an optimistic outlook on how being that way could be helpful. The
editorial writer is a staunch conservative, but my posting was for the
message , not the messenger

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November 28, 2008 9:00 AM

Self-Reliant Jen
Give thanks for Americans who do not pu their faith in the Cult of You Owe Me.

By Michelle Malkin

In the Year of Bottomless Bailouts, I am most grateful this Thanksgiving for
Americans who refuse to abandon thrift, personal responsibility and
self-reliance. When the moochers and entitlement-mongers drive you mad,
remember that our nation still serves as home to millions of citizens who do
for themselves. Like our Founding Fathers, they are God-fearing people — the
ones elitist pundits ridicule as “oogedy-boogedy” — who will never put their
faith in the Cult of You Owe Me.

They are people like my reader Jen, who runs a family farm called the Double
Nickel in New Mexico. Tired of all the handwringing, “in times like these”
rationalizations for unprecedented federal intervention in the financial
markets to rescue beleaguered businesses and homeowners, Jen wrote me a
letter this week about her own plight and triumph over adversity:




“I am writing to you to share my story of how one can survive hard times and
land solidly on one’s feet. … So here goes: My husband had an auto accident
on Jan. 1, 2005, and our lives and finances changed dramatically. Our income
was cut in half, as he has permanent injuries and went from being a field
officer to a desk job in a less fast-paced career.”

Instead of staying in a home they couldn’t afford and waiting for a mortgage
rescue from the savior Barack Obama, Jen, her husband and their four children
moved to New Mexico because of the much lower cost of living and college
tuition expenses. One of her sons is now a soldier — the third generation in
her family to serve, including Jen’s father, who was killed in Vietnam. The
other kids are home-schooled students (among a growing population of
home-schooled kids, whom “The View’s” condescending co-host Joy Behar
recently derided on the show as being “demented”). Jen continues: “We sold
our lovely home, bought a rundown, fixer-up place and converted it into a
farm that could provide garden vegetables to can and an area to have some
animals to provide eggs, chickens, ducks, turkey, geese, sheep and goats. …
Freecycle and Craigslist turned out to be wonderful assets, as most of our
animals came for free or for barter — and the
children and I mucked out stalls on a ranch for sheep.”

Yes, they raise turkeys and other animals, and sell them for profit. This
enterprise makes them, in the eyes of The New York Times editorial board,
which recently decried Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s visit to a turkey farm,
“executioners.” That’s language the Times would never think of using to
describe, say, the Weather Underground terrorists who targeted police
officers in cold blood. But poultry farmers? Brand ‘em with an “M” for
murderers.

But I digress.

Instead of awaiting the next stimulus check from the
Borrow-Spend-Repeat-Panic politicians in Washington, Jen explains how the
family has cut costs: “I learned how to make my own shampoo, toothpaste,
soaps, cloth napkins, dish scrubbies, potholders, skirts (mend all clothes)
and most meals from scratch. We heat our home exclusively with wood, and I am
currently growing a winter garden. The spring garden will be in containers by
the last week of December to prepare for spring planting. I do not see this
as a downfall or a tragedy. For those worried about holiday spending: I spent
only $100 for a family of six last Christmas, and most of that [on]
underwear, socks and the meal.”

And she adamantly rejects the victim card: “This accident has been a blessing
for my family. The pain that my husband has daily is not the blessing, but
that he is alive and able to continue to watch his children grow into
adulthood.

“It also has been wonderful to know that we live in a nation that affords us
the opportunity to reinvent ourselves from suburbanites to a country-dwelling
farm family. I am ashamed to see the American spirit that made our nation so
great now turned into nothing.”

Thanks to self-reliant Americans like Jen, that spirit lives. In times like
these, they are our greatest blessing.











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