More Perspectives - Homesteading Thoughts

 Here is another collection of thoughts regarding the last discussion, and there are some interesting things to talk about.  I wanted to first off just acknowledge that I have been busy this week with these reflections, as there seems like a lot to say.  That being said, let's get into the discussion.

One of the things about the ideological Left is this campaign they have about "climate change."  We are encouraged to "go green," reduce our "carbon footprint" by not eating meat, driving cars, or wearing furs, and we are constantly lambasted by crazy people like that Greta Thunberg person about how dangerous the planet is, and that the next cow fart (in the illustrious Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's pearls of wisdom) will blow up the planet and kill us all.  Some of the more radical proponents of this movement even want to kill off people, and they are self-hating humans who actively promote things like genocide, abortion, and other indignities against personhood.  They want to give chickens the right to sue KFC for frying them, and some of them want to even charge the Jolly Green Giant with a felony for encouraging the murder of innocent peas and carrots.  The more unhinged these Leftists become, the more inconsistent and ridiculous their own arguments look.  Let me just cite one glaring example that proves this is a control issue, and not real environmental stewardship.

I live in Baltimore, which is rife with Leftist politics.  You cannot go down a street here without seeing a dozen rainbow LGBTQ flags, painted "Black Lives Matter" and "Abolish ICE" slogans, and other fiery rhetorical garbage being flaunted like a skirt on a French poodle.  Yet, take a closer look at those same streets - they are full of abandoned row houses, some with trees growing out of the top of them,  and the streets are littered with garbage while any surface is choked with the incoherent markings of graffiti.  I would say that those are very big "carbon footprints," but the ones that holler the most about "global warming" and "climate change" are not out attempting to clean up those neighborhoods.  In Baltimore it is on blatant display, but you see it in other cities as well.  If these Leftist loonies were really that concerned about the environment, you should be seeing armies of them out there with trash bags and pressure-washers cleaning up the streets and walls, but where are they??  If anything, with a corrupt city government in place, it seems to actually be getting worse.  The utopian paradise the Left promised looks just like that - trash all over, graffiti vandalizing every constructed surface, and the nasty tangy smell of mercaptin (our housemate here says it smells like marijuana - who knows?) wafting through the air as the city slowly decays.  It is also not uncommon to see rats the size of Welsh corgis out there, and the official city bird of Baltimore is a giant cockroach.  Yeah, good job AOC and Greta - where are you??  Let me just expose a dirty little secret the Left doesn't tell their voters.

Many leftists and their billionaire benefactors actually don't believe actual "climate change" exists either.  It's mainly a talking point to where they can extort more money, tally more votes, and make fabricated scenes of their own proported victimhood.  They seized on a tactic of fear to hold onto power, and there are enough stupid idiots who buy it.  It's really a brilliant scam when you think about it - the newest Leftist politician promises to save the planet, and yet the city he or she rules over is a garbage pit.  That describes Baltimore's political establishment to a tee.  The bottom line is that they don't give a damn about a nonexistent manufactured crisis - they just want power.  And, they will lie, cheat, and steal to get it.  Until we change the system, it will continue as a vicious downward cycle too.  And, that friends is your bottom line.  

The other half of this argument is that it is "White Christian men" who are the fault of all this, and that is almost laughable considering that in Baltimore especially, many of the communities with the worst urban blight haven't seen a White face as a neighbor in decades.  However, are conservative religious people - in particular men - the real problem?  Do we just not care about the world around us?  Let's blow that argument out of the water.

When God initially created our world as recorded in the first couple of chapters of Genesis, his exact words at the end of each creative cycle were "it is good."  Then he created our ancestors, Adam and Eve, and gave them dominion (stewardship) over the earth.  What that means is that we are mandated to take care of God's creation.  For this reason, littering and waste, as well as urban decay, are not acceptable, and indeed the most recent cleanup efforts often do come from more conservative  activists, not liberals - Scott Presler is a good example.  Scott is as gay as a picnic basket, and while I would differ with his lifestyle choices, one thing about him is that he has done commendable work cleaning up cities, and he is politically conservative.  A few years ago he did a campaign to clean up streets in Baltimore, and you have to admire someone like that.  However, often for his efforts Scott is put in situations that could potentially endanger his life - many of the blighted neighborhoods in cities are also strongholds of criminal activity, and a White guy like Scott probably sticks out like a sore thumb.  Scott and others like him need our prayers for their protection, as they are doing a valuable service that often the local political establishment doesn't appreciate, and we need more out there like him.  Too bad Greta Thunberg, who is all mouth and no brains, doesn't have similar convictions to put action behind her words like Scott Presler does.  Greta is an attention whore (forgive the language, but it fits) and she couldn't care less about actual environmental cleanup work.  Do you think that seeing people at risk in the inner cities concerns her?  Of course not!  And it doesn't matter to other mouthpieces like Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Congressman who isn't worth the taxpayer dollars that pay him.  It is also not a concern of greedy Maryland Governor Wes Moore, or crooked Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (a dude that really needs a good introduction to a comb).  These people don't care that rats the size of rottweilers roam the neighborhoods they claim to serve, and this is why all of them would do the world a service if they just resigned and were replaced with more capable leadership.  Democrats - and Leftists in general - don't care about service; they care about control.  And for all the loud rhetoric, I have yet to see any of them who put some substance behind their speeches.  Yet, conservatives are the bad guys - really?  All is not as it seems, and let me now get into why.

Unlike much of the propaganda, many of us who are conservatives actually hate trashy neighborhoods, and we try to clean up after ourselves.  And that has led to some radical conservation ideas that are not only appealing, but would be a huge benefit to society as a whole.  One of the things I read about and would love to try myself at some point is to build something out of discarded glass and plastic bottles as well as aluminum cans.  I watched a couple of things on YouTube recently where some guy actually collected plastic soda bottles, melted them, and then molded them into beautiful walkway tiles.  With a firepit and a bit of epoxy and cement, you can actually do a lot with discarded materials.  I saw another TV documentary years ago where a guy built a house out of glass bottles, and it looked amazing.  If I am ever blessed with the land to do it, I would love to undertake a project like that.  This would even extend to reclaimed building materials from demolished properties.  As the old saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," and some truly beautiful things could be created from what we dismiss as garbage.  That means there needs to be an uptick in recycling as well - some cities have constructed power plants at city landfills, and they burn garbage as a fuel source to power homes in the city.  That is a great idea.  Imagine the amount of paper, cardboard, and other stuff like that which could be turned into something sustainable.  Once the combustible stuff is burnt, then the ash could also be repurposed as actual landfilling material, and it would be a way to reclaim landscapes.  Or, the ash could be mixed with certain chemicals and even turned into a sort of concrete to aid in public works.  Obviously, vegetable and organic waste can be used to cultivate flora, both as sustainable gardens as well as providing composting to parks and other natural features to enrich the plant life.  The thing is, the ideas are out there, and they could be easily executed with minimal expense, but we again have greedy bureaucrats (often the same Leftist hacks that whine about "climate change") who block those efforts, and that is truly reprehensible.  In all honesty, they should be recycled too by firing them from their positions of authority and making them sort the garbage to recycle - it would be a humbling and educational experience for them.  I could see Jamie Raskin now with his elbows deep in piles of garbage, sorting what is to be useful and what can be incinerated for fuel - that is a beautiful picture, and he could have Greta Thunberg and AOC join him.  And, have a true conservationist like Scott Presler as their boss, and give him full authority to really crack the whip on them.  That would be a scenario of true, poetic justice.  I see the potential of a book in the works here as well as a lot more discussions.

When I talked about intentional communities yesterday like those of the Catholic Land Movement, I see those as the places where things like this could be put into practice.  The key attribute of a homestead is minimizing waste and making use of everything - that means the manure the chickens and horses create nourishing the gardens, and the parings of the vegetables and fruits as well as meat bones making the recipe of a rich compost possible.  As intentional communities are not Luddites like our Amish and Mennonite friends, this also means the recycling of plastic, paper, and other things as well.  This is why, if I had a homestead, I would want to build a huge incinerator kiln on the property and put it to use - it would have to be a kiln that would get to at least 800 degrees inside, and could reduce even the toughest material to a fine ash.  The ash in turn could be utilized in other ways - it can be mixed with clay and water to create a cement, or it could provide even exterior insulation and other uses.  Nothing is wasted, in other words.  That is what true conservation is all about, and if it is done right, there will be no need for garbage collection or anything unless it absolutely was necessary.  With trash ash, manure, composting material, and other things readily available, it would ensure that a place would have a raw material available with which to sustain operations.  This is not even utopian fantasy, because the one realization of this is that you will get your hands dirty if you are consistent, and you may have to endure some smells and other things you don't find pleasant either.  But, the reward in the end is accomplishment, and the satisfaction of knowing you were a responsible steward over your resources.  Again, this would definitely warrant more examination, and I may revisit this at some point to develop it more.  

Thank you for allowing me to pontificate again today, and I promise, this is the last screed until at least the end of next week!  Have a great weekend everyone.