The world of miniatures

Alaskan Cultural Heritage Museum Model 2008

We're building a miniature "eco-village" in the office as soon as it quits snowing and it all goes away finally. I've got spring fever bad ths year, we've been living in a tiny space for a long time. For theraphy I started making a model gertee and it blew into this huge project. We'll also have a 16 inch teepee, Tim's minature cabins, and even a cardboard travel trailer (which is an Alaskan heritage). So our little "camp" will be as authentic as we can make it, except for the smells. Along the way to setting this up I learned there are few pictures on the miniature market. So I've taken thumbnails of the Redington family photos and will sell them as framed miniatures to our summer visitors with portions of the profits going toward building the Alaskan Cultural Heritage Museum (which is what Nordica wants to call it now).

Alaska has always been filled with funny little dwellings, it is a badge of honor here to claim to have roughed it your first decade in the state. While my tent lifestyle seems brave and amazing to people outside, we know all kinds of people who lived in wall tents and 13 foot travel trailers with 3 or more people. My girlfriend Mary in Fairbanks had three babies at home in their dinky little place, Catherine had Jamie in their tent in Chitina, it's nor the norm but it is a fact of life here. Low-income and young Alaskans make do, and they feel like they're better people because of it. To Nordica and I, that is our true "cultural heritage," and that is what we intend to honor with our living Alaskan history project.

Mini Alaskan hutch with framed 1940s prints
from the Redington family collection

Visitors on our road increased 26 percent last year... that's the National Park Service count. The park also has their own cultural heritage project going on. They too are gathering the stories of the old Sourdoughs and Indians and saving their history for future generations. All we're doing differently is saying we're still here and our Alaskan spirit is still alive. The park explanations for why people are "allowed" to hunt out here is well worth the read for anyone who doesn't believe we've lost our lands to the international community. They think we're a Scenic ByWay and a buffer zone, and we're at the tip of the Wildlands Project (Y2Y?).

We've got more bike trails coming and meetings on motorized access to trails... same crap they went through in Yellowstone is now on our doorstep. But who knows for sure where it will all lead. NAIS is a growing topic in forums across the country, that program alone is waking up the people who (I think) have the most power to stop the plan... the rural landowners. They've been the most organized from the beginning and have a huge linkage.. I can't imagine that the Sawdust Rebellion and the Klammath Bucket Brigade have fallen off the face of the earth. I'd imagine they're all over the y2y issue and be shocked if they aren't. Once our people connect the land grabs to LA21 it's all downhill for the communitarians from there, right?

Man versus human being -- an alien theory

Comments on the post a few days ago have exceeded my expectations; how about this for an off topic turn:

I have a very interesting friend out here who has his own version of current events. I've read a LOT of far-out things since I began studying communitarianism, but this theory is just so horrible and unbelievable I usually bust out laughing when he gets really into explaining it (I'm one of those jerks who laugh when they're astonished). It goes something like this:

He insists there are more than one species living on the planet. He says all the different "stages" of man's evolution were designed to keep us from learning the "truth" about the difference between us. He uses a lot of Biblical history to back up his theory (as do Marrs, Ike et. al.) He says the difference between the two main species is hu-mans are a DNA experiment who have an alien conscience, and that the way to tell the difference is how they react to being "caught" doing something immoral. He says the human will feel guilt and shame but the man will only worry about being caught. His theory is that "man" does not have the capability to feel remorse and ultimately is nothing more than food for the carnivorous hidden alien rulers. He says I am "obviously" human and that my job is to keep the cattle happy and calm before the slaughter, and he can't see why I want to "stir them up when it won't do a bit of good anyway."

I have to admit the first time I heard him explain his theory to me I went back to my tent and thought about it all night. I really do try to be fair to anyone who wants to tell me what they think is going on. But there's one thing these Wiccan/freemason religions seem to have in common, and that is they have NOTHING to hope for. They are the most depressing and defeatist beliefs I've ever been exposed to. Either we all have to die to save overpopulated Mother Earth, or we all have to die because the gods are hungy.

These beliefs do not incur a sense of obligation to "help" their fellow individual man next door. Had I been a Wiccan I would certainly never have undertaken ACL work. Ironically, the first placed I camped after I decided to go "homeless" in 2001 was a private park that had been used for Wiccan ceremonies for decades. Their little icons were everywhere, so the first night I went outside and announced to the manevolent spirits that I would tolerate their presence and avoid their alters only if they stayed out of my tent space. I stood there in the mist and lightly falling snow and I had no fear, because I knew in my heart that my weak, wavering and often non-existent belief in Jesus is more powerful than any petty "god" that needs sexual orgies to survive. So while I can't join in any discussion about what the Bible says or doesn't say, I can attest to the living presence in my heart of a power so overwhelming that I was compelled to drop everything in my life and work day and night for seven years to study the Plan. I have lost hope hundreds of times and I've shed a thousand tears, but then something wonderful always happens to change the way I feel. For bookworms like me it's easy to know exactly what I think. But it's difficult for me to examine my feelings, and I've never been able to explain them.

I know that one primary goal of the planners is to cause us to lose hope and give up.

John Milton defined Hell as something like, "hope never comes that comes to all."

Thinking about summer camping

Two years ago we arrived in the Copper River Basin for a short vacation. I'd never been down the Edgerton Hwy, not in all my years in Alaska, and it was a huge suprise to see the view of the mountains from here. Our state is so huge there are so many places I've yet to see. I fell in love with my camp in Chitina and was able to stay a full five weeks without seeing one park ranger.

Lori, me, and Donna, Chitina, AK. July 2006.

Me with wild fresh picked sage.

Bed frame made of aspen poles and rope.

Photos by fishtaxi.blogspot.com

H.R. 2016: 26 million acres in jepordy

This just came in from Pete. It looks like it legalizes the Yellowstone to Yukon project but it isn't described as such. This also looks like it establishes more LA21 levels of government.

DO WE STILL OWN OUR OWN CONTRY?

Liberty Matters ACTION ALERT
http://www.libertymatters.org/

26 Million Acres in Jeopardy
HR 2016 Up For Vote This Week

The House Natural Resource Committee has sent HR 2016, the National Landscape Conservation System bill, to the House floor and could be voted on as early as today. The measure would place 26 million acres under jurisdiction of the National Park Service in the 13 Western States, and could lead to the end of multiple-use on much of those lands. {bold emphasis mine}

The legislation codifies a system that former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt initiated in 2000. It includes 17 National Conservation Areas, 15 National Monuments, 38 Wild and Scenic Rivers, 161 Wilderness Acres, 5203 miles of National Scenic and Historic Trails, and 604 Wilderness Study Areas -- all in the 13 Western States. Not surprisingly, the bill sponsors are predominantly from the east, and no member from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Utah or Wyoming is cosponsors. These five states alone have 82% of the Wild and Scenic Rivers, 62% of the National Historic Trails, 45% of the Wilderness Study Areas, and 33% of the National Scenic Trails. Specifically, HR 2016 will:

1. Codify by statute the NLCS, adding an additional layer of bureaucracy to traditionally multi-use BLM lands in the restrictive fashion of the National Park Service.

2. Elevates “protecting the values for which the components of the system were designated,” above existing management requirements, placing a higher value on “landscape preservation” than what the existing law provides.

3. Elevates the purposes of “conserve, protect, restore” above other purposes.

4. Management requirements set forth in the bill are vague, opening an invitation for environmental groups to unduly influence how the lands will be managed.

5. Authorizes land managers to trump access rights and productive uses if viewed to conflict with “protecting the values” for which the land was designated.

6. Contains no provision where local governments can raise and address local impacts.

The Bush administration has shown no interest in protecting the multiple-use status of the 26 million acres either, as Interior Secretary Kempthorne’s staff was sent to testify in favor of the measure. The Senate has already passed the companion bill out of committee, where it is also waiting for a floor vote.

It is imperative to contact your Representative immediately asking them to vote against HR 2016. Any Congressman can be reached by calling 202-225-3121. Don’t delay. Remember, the bill could come up for a vote anytime this week, including today, so call immediately.

Then somebody from our neighborhood made a very interesting search for terms that led them to my blog, and led me to this:

http://www.democracynature.org/dn/vol8/takis_transitional.htm

DEMOCRACY & NATURE: The International Journal of INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY

vol.8, no.1, (March 2002)

Transitional strategies and the Inclusive Democracy project

Takis Fotopoulos

Abstract: The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to critically assess the various transitional strategies for radical social change which have been proposed in the past, as well as some recently developed strategies, like the civil societarian approach, the Libertarian Municipalism strategy and the ‘lifestyle’ strategies. Second, to propose a new transitional strategy which aims at the transition to a confederal Inclusive Democracy. In this context, the emancipatory subject in present society is discussed, a new type of politics and political organisation is suggested, and a series of steps for the transition to a political, economic, ecological democracy, as well as a ‘democracy in the social realm’ is proposed.

The collapse of actually existing socialism and the parallel failure of Western social democracy and its replacement by today’s neoliberal consensus in combination with the rise of the ideology of postmodernism[1] and the decline of antisystemic movements[2] have inevitably led to a corresponding decline of a discussion which was still flourishing a few decades ago: the discussion on a transitional strategy towards an alternative society. This was inevitable, because the abandonment by the Left (Old, New, and Green) of any vision for an alternative society in effect made such strategies redundant. A basic criterion which we may use in distinguishing between the various transitional strategies which have been proposed in the past and the few being proposed today is whether a strategy aims at reforming the present institutions without proposing any alternative institutional framework, or whether, instead, it aims at replacing the present society’s institutional framework, that is, the system of the globalised market economy and the complementary institution of representative ‘democracy’, as well as the corresponding system of values that constitutes the dominant social paradigm on which the present society is based. On the basis of this criterion we may distinguish between ‘non-systemic’ and ‘anti-systemic’ strategies.

This is a very long scholarly presentation that I need time to review, but here's their conclusion:

Finally, the transitional strategy should involve steps in the development of institutions and values which aim at the reintegration of society with Nature and the elimination of any human attempt to dominate the natural world. This implies, apart from participating in struggles against the activities of the political and economic elites which have resulted in the present ecological crisis, the initiation of moves for the establishment of alternative ‘eco-friendly’ institutions and renewable forms of energy. In fact, as I showed elsewhere,[94] the establishment of the new political and economic institutions itself and particularly the drastic decentralisation that the new institutions involve is a crucial step in this direction, as it allows the development of new lifestyles , new patterns of work, production, energy use and consumption, which are perfectly compatible with the aim of an ecological democracy.

In conclusion, no one should have any illusions that the establishment of democracy will be a swift process or that the implementation of a transitional strategy program will not have a hard time from the elites controlling the state machine and the market economy. This process is bound to be a long one involving a huge popular movement and will extend over an entire historical period. However, without underestimating the difficulties involved in the context of today’s perfected methods of brain control and economic violence, which, in fact, might prove more effective methods than pure state violence in suppressing a movement for an inclusive democracy, I think that the proposed strategy is a realistic strategy on the way to a new society.

Foot note #36 is: "see also Takis Fotopoulos, ‘Social Ecology, Eco-Communitarianism and Inclusive Democracy’, Democracy & Nature, vol 5 no 3 (November 1999), pp. 561-576"

Eco-Communitarianism? Gee...what's that?

Now the real "people" who live on the land and want to own what they legally own have become the "elites" standing in the way of inclusive democratic progress. I find it interesting that the conclusion affirms the concept of "brain control aand economic violence." Definitely worth studying... but I won't be able to get to it for months. We're moving into our new office this week and getting ready for summer tourist season. We have a major book editing project that will take our course of thinking into the more spiritual realm of ACL research. I need to contemplate what motivates me. I don't often consider what role my beliefs play in my devotion to exposing the communitarian lie, knowing as I do how twisted up it is with false patriotism and new age Christian religion. Who are the new breed of Christians who practice snobbery and condemnation of others as a daily ritual? How can people do so much meddling and manipulation, while spreading gossip and lies, always claim to go to "church" and use THAT as their justification for their rudeness and evil acts toward others? My childhood experience with Jesus taught me to be kind, above all other things. Yet, to my sister Judy, and her growing clique of "church" affiliates, kindness is reserved for above poverty level members only. So what "God" do they pray to in their oft cited claims to superior morality? It's incredibly painful to see the communitarian church's influence on our family and friends. Wasn't "brother against brother" something predicted for the end times in their Bible?

Jean Monnet Working Paper

I'm on this mailing list from the NYU Jean Monnet Center. It looks like it might be kind of interesting to look into "the slow and at times controversial process of 'Europeanizing' the Italian legal system."

Dear friends of the Jean Monnet Center,

We are pleased to announce the online publication of the first paper in the 2008 Jean Monnet Working Paper series. We include the abstract of this paper below:

Silvana Sciarra, "Trusting Judges to Deliver Changes: Italy, the EU and Labour Law" (JMWP no. 1/08)

The paper looks into the slow and at times controversial process of 'Europeanising' the Italian legal system, in order to exemplify how adaptation to changes takes place within entire branches of the state administration. Three examples are selected, all within the domain of labour law: state aid illegally granted to support training and work experience contracts; fixed term labour contracts in the public sector; free movement of foreign language assistants. Multi-level regulatory techniques are at the origin of adaptation, geared by institutional and quasi-institutional actors. The main emphasis is on national judges engaging in a dialogue with the ECJ and delivering changes into the legal order as a whole.

We invite you to access this Working Paper on the Jean Monnet Center website at www.jeanmonnetprogram.org.

We just got a half a foot of snow dumped on us last night! Dang, and we were under the delusion that it was spring here already.

Yellowstone to Yukon

I accidentally went to this site just as I was logging off. I wrote about y2y in an earlier post but I don't remember going to their website. This is very dangerous propaganda and I'm sorry I haven't addressed it properly. Ya have to go see the map. I've driven all through the big swatch of land these folks plan to steal, and it's spectacular landscape, very well taken care of by the locals for thousands of years. How arrogant do you have to be to claim to "ensure" it continues to function? The worst part about all this is the plans to TEACH us stupid locals how to become "better stewards" of the land. Locally, we have WISE offering seminars in the Wrangells area to help us to better preserve the park for global eco-tourism. These are people going in for the pillaging after the war has been fought and lost. They know LA21 is the law now.

They see NO barriers to this ludicrous plan to steal prime real estate for thousands of miles. What a nightmare for all landowners along the route.. the big, fat, wide piece that stretches all the way to the Cascades!!! These communitarian thieves aren't just taking us down one by one anymore... this affects millions of people... millions. Most of whom haven't got the first clue their land was robbed well over 15 years ago. Like vultures in Armani suits, the communitarians arrive on the scenes with their big Idea. Now I know why they outlawed guns in Canada. Those people in Yukon never struck me as wimps, and I hope they find something in common with the rural people in the U.S. Western states before this program develops any further. But the word I get is most people still refuse to believe any of this is really happening. Does this tie into the rumor that 10,000 people a week are losing their homes? Or is that real news too?

How do you spell CARPETBAGGER? S`U`S`T`A`I`N`A`B`L`E D`E`V`E`V`E`L`O`P`E`R.

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is combining science and stewardship, we seek to ensure that the world renowned wilderness, wildlife, native plants, and natural processes of the Yellowstone to Yukon region continue to function as an interconnected web of life, capable of supporting all of its natural and human communities, for current and future generations.

http://www.y2y.net/

Abstract - The Anti Communitarian Manifesto

What is the Hegelian Dialectic?
and The Historical Evolution of Communitarian Thinking
by Niki Raapana and Nordica Friedrich, 2003
Seattle, Wyoming, Alaska.

(Update June 6, 2013: Ten years ago when we first published our free online antithesis to communitarianism we were, like most Americans, identifying it as a softer version of communism. A decade of further study showed us conclusively that communism is only one piece of the whole system introduced under communitarianism. Free trade and corporate capitalism are just as much a part of the economic theory, and unlike atheistic communism, Communitarianism is also a religion. There are just as many communitarians on the political right as there are on the political left. Almost all major organized religions have embraced Communitarianism. Many new movements that sound like they're promoting freedom from corporations and bankers promote communitarian solutions. The thing to remember is communitarianism is NOT a natural part of anything, it is a virus that attaches itself to everything and desrtoys wahtever value the true believers place on it. As Anti Communitarians we do not oppose any of the individual religions or political or economic beliefs that are part of the scam. We oppose the Communitarin influence on everything, and we are convinced Amitai Etzioni, the "everything expert" behind all of it, is a con.

In order to fully grasp the enormity of the system of global governance we faced in 1999, we started by understanding the formula for changing society. The Hegelian formula was well identified by many writers before we began our studies. What no one else had ever done before us was to identify the final synthesis in the Hegelian dialectic as communitarianism. The Anti Communitarian Manifesto is the only antithesis to communitarianism in the world. We were also the first to show Local Agenda 21 as communitarianism and provide ample sources for our claim. We were the first Americans to do an indepth study of Communitarian Law and provide sources for our claim that LA21 is a blueprint for communitarian law. Our works have been much plagiarized over the past decade. Regardless of what you may hear or read, Agenda 21 planners do not now nor have they ever identified their sustainable development plans as "Communitarian." The only evidence for LA21 plans being based in communitarian is our thesis and research.)

Abstract

Background: Communitarianism is the theory that individual rights must be balanced against the rights of the "community." Its many proponents insist that individual rights and liberties pose a real threat to the health and safety of the "community at large." The founders of the Communitarian Network began "shoring up the moral, social and political environment" in the early 1990s. Today the communitarian theory is the basis for hundreds of new global rules and regulations eliminating individual rights, yet fewer than one percent of the affected population knows about it.

Results: The progression of recent history clearly shows a dedicated effort to lead the world into unknowingly accepting communitarian solutions. To understand how philosophical Communitarianism advanced itself, the authors traced it back to the original source. Using the works of the leading Communitarian theorists, they followed the path from Seattle Neighborhood Plans all the way to the International Court at the Hague.

Conclusion: The foundation for the communitarian theory is undisputedly the Hegelian dialectic; Part I, a tutorial on the Hegelian dialectic is fully substantiated by Jesuit priests, Renowned Marxists and Pope John Paul. Theoretical analysis, i.e.. (A) Communitarianism did not evolve naturally (B) and it was never a movement that arose out of U.S. society (C) therefore, communitarianism has no natural home in the United States., is further substantiated with 70 verifiable, solid references that overwhelmingly support it. Part II, also heavily referenced, outlines historical events leading to the global communitarian synthesis. The changing duality of the new legal system clearly indicates Communitarianism is a criminal enterprise whose aim is to destroy all legal institutions established under national and state constitutions. Both Part I and Part II establish the aims and shared goals of the lesser arms involved in the global communitarian insurrection, showing direct ties to the War on Terror business, the European Union's integration under Communitarian Law, the emerging North American Free Trade Zone, UN Local Agenda 21, global sustainable development programs, Regionalization, Faith-Based Initiatives, Volunteer America, Community Oriented Policing, Rebuilding Community and Community Development.

To order your copy of the "ACL Manifesto" and "2020: Our Common Destiny" combined and updated in 2012:
http://nord.twu.net/acl/books.html

For more detailed analysis of UN Local Agenda 21:
United Nations' Local Agenda 21 (LA-21)
& Communitarian Development Programme
http://nord.twu.net/acl/research/agenda21.html

Travel the Wayback Machine to access older pages from the Anti Communitarian League.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040319220638/http://nord.twu.net/acl/standfor.html

Here's what the Hegel tutorial looked like ten years ago:
http://web.archive.org/web/20031114005342/http://nord.twu.net/acl/dialectic.html