Homestead mailing list

[Marie McHarry <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 12:41 AM, EarthNSky<erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Good.  I'll be anxious to read them.  I live in an Anti-Obama area, and
> for balance, I'm interested in knowing what those who were Pro-Obama are
> thinking these days.

I'd say the mood among the people who were pro-Obama is wait-and-see.
He came into office facing a mess and he may or may not have the
cojones to deal with it. Just making nice ain't gonna do it as the
opposition has demonstrated multiple times that if he proposed a tax
holiday for everyone making over a million dollars they wouldn't vote
for it. At some point he has to put the hammer down or be irrelevant.

It's not a time of goodness & light, and I doubt he thinks it is, but
hard times call for hard actions, and it's yet to be seen if he can
take hard actions and carry them through.


They say his numbers are dropping and the
> honeymoon may be over.  The simple fact that the media is even
> discussing the 'end of the honeymoon' is amazing to me.

It doesn't amaze me. The Great Unwashed have an attention span of
about 30 seconds, if that, and if things aren't fixed in that time --
well, jeebus, let's find us a real messiah.

 It has only
> been 6 months, and yet many of his supporters are already disillusioned.
> It had to happen as so many saw the Messiah instead of a President.
> Since you are in IL, I'm sure your media outlets are more friendly to
> the President and his administration.  Do you think his support base is
> still rock solid?

Actually, Illinois isn't that different from the rest of the nation.
After all, Obama is from Chicago, and a large percentage of the
downstate population (including me some days) thinks that Chicago
should be partitioned off and made a state of its own. True, some 60
percent of downstaters voted for Obama for the Senate, but he was
running against Alan Keyes, and that was a no-brainer. Blago didn't
help Chicago's reputation in any way -- most Dems (left, right, and
middle) would gladly pay to have him shot. The rest of the population
would probably chip in if the Dems came up short.
>
> I think we all realize that this list of homesteaders and homesteader
> wannabes is not really about homesteading, it is about community as much
> as anything.  It would be great if everyone talked about their homestead
> plans, projects, and doings, but they don't.  Generally, only about 15
> of us post at all, and I know that many have jumped ship, looking for
> more substance than opinion.  That is fine, too.  Personally, I'm about
> there myself.

One of the things that keeps me here is James (well, and others like
you and Gene and Don and -- well, I'll get myself into trouble with
naming people) because he can answer questions. I have my new scythe
from Scythe Connection, which I've been wanting to get for about five
years, and if I have questions about using it, I know he can help.
When I first thought of getting a scythe, I had a couple of people who
could have helped me, but they have up and died, as has one of my mule
people. I bought the video because I got nobody to show me. Plus, my
sister is interested in learning, so it should get some use. She is
living on the family farm and using a scythe would be very, very
useful to her.

I notice in the videos of people scything that I've seen that they are
all lean. I think that is not due to chance.


 I can blog elsewhere and not have what I say pop up in a
> Google search.

No kidding! One of my sisters googled her name and found the story I
told about her being scared by a snake. She was mortified. And then
she disputed every bit of the story. (It was all true for anyone who
cares.) I figure it keeps me honest.


Being in the minority here, sometimes it is hard for me
> to not take things to heart when things get nasty.

What minority would that be? If we're talking left and right, well,
darlin', it seems we're split right down the middle -- maybe between
the young and/or healthy and the aging and/or diseased, but still
split

Sometimes I get very
> upset and my feelings get hurt by the things that are said by those I
> like or respect.  However, in the end, I try to look at it as personal
> growth.

Bev, Bev, Bev -- repeat this:  We are family and we love you even
when, on occasion, your ideas are full of bull crap. And we mention
this.
>
> To be honest, I kind of feel like you all know me pretty well after 15+
> years on the list.  I think I know some of you, too.  There's a lot of
> familial love on the list, and as long as we can avoid saying hurtful
> things to each other(which is hard because we know each other so well
> that we know which buttons to push), I think it is good to discuss
> things.

You nailed it. Knowing the buttons to push absolutely proves that you
are family.

>  I know many of you hate Sarah Palin, for
> example, but I live in a region of the country where she is wildly
> popular.  If you look at the info pages of my Facebook friends, you will
> see a huge number of Palin supporters.

With due respect to anyone who thinks she's swell, the woman doesn't
have a flipping clue. She was a media wonder. As a Democrat, I can
only hope that she goes forward, but any Republican who hopes to play
a part in national politics is going to drop her like a particularly
hot rock.


   It is interesting to me that
> the Dems, who are supposedly open minded and very liberal, want to sling
> mud at the families of Republicans.....Mary Cheney, Bristol Palin, etc.
> and the mud just stirs up talk of homophobia and pre-marital sex and
> contraception, all issues that find more tolerance in their own party.
> I just don't get why they throw stones at family members, something that
> used to be off limits.

I don't know either. I'm not hearing that on the progressive radio I
listen to (which is, admittedly not that much). Who is spouting this
stuff?


> Anyway, back on June 1, right after Sotomayor entered the public eye, I
> wrote a blog entry about my feeling and thoughts.

I'll check it out.

Marie