No One Reads Our Blog

There’s a house in Washington DC. A large-ish place, but not terribly remarkable. It’s officially a church, and thus tax-exempt. At any time, around a half-dozen US Senators and/or Representatives live in the house, paying well below market rent. The people who own the house, an organization called The Family, run Bible studies there, teaching Washington’s elite about Jesus.

What they teach is that Democracy is “rebelliousness”, and that the people should be taught to “soften our hearts to authority”. They enumerate and revere the more noble aspects of men like Genghis Khan, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, and bin Laden, primarily for their being able to form a strong ‘covenant’ with a ‘brotherhood’. The proper sort of brotherhood to have, the current leader of The Family claims, is like that of the Mafia.

Their beliefs include some attention to what many Christians consider to be important morality–lying, stealing, killing, etc.–but also the belief that the Free Market Economy is of incredible importance to Christianity. It’s pride, they teach, for people to think that they can control the economy through regulation. Thus, regulation is wrong. Oversight is wrong. In fact, Democracy is wrong.

Their goal is to bring the world together under Jesus…by training the power elite, and having that small minority rule over the rest of us. Because if those few people have Jesus in their hearts, they will do right by the rest of us. We don’t need a voice in our governing, as long as we have good people in power. Trickle-down social justice. Like the Taliban.

And The Family likes to be quiet. They don’t like publicity or attention. They have no website that I could find. So what you have is a secret society whose mission is to teach the leaders in our government all about how they have been chosen by God, and therefore should be leading us like sheep…like Jesus leads his people as a shepherd.  A very small minority of very secretive men who believe it is their duty to tell the rest of us about real Christianity, and then to rule over us.

Some names associated with The Family: Don Nickles (R-OK), James Inhofe (R-OK), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Pete Domenici (R-NM), John Ensign (R-Nevada), Bill Nelson (R-FL), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Hillary Clinton (Sec of State), Mark Sanford (Gov-SC), Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Doyle (D-PA).

I’d love to give you a bunch of clickable links, but they are a secret society, afterall. However, given the publicity of Ensign and Sanford right now, Google should turn up some results if you’re interested. Here’s a link to the Googlebooks preview of some pages from Jeff Sharlet’s book about them.

-Tom

This is a short but very interesting part of the discussion. In order to fully make sense of this, you have to know that they are talking about the Upper Peninsula of Michigan–small mining towns full of Swedes, Italians, Poles, and the Cornish. What people in their right minds from anywhere south of Europe would even consider living in a place where summer sometimes falls on a weekend, and everyone has two mailboxes (one four feet higher than the other, for use in winter)? In fact, we’re not even sure exactly why the Italians ended up there. Must have been those northern Italians from the mountains. And she’s talking about during the Depression, to boot.

So it’s a short listen, but very interesting.

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-Tom

(If you can’t read the text, click here)

-shauna-

Good gracious…sugar snap peas and bleu cheese dressing. There are times of the year when my body runs almost entirely on raw vegetables and bleu cheese. The healthy sort of gets balanced out that way…

We’re doing something new in the garden this year…exploring the wide world of greens. We’ve grown fancy-pants lettuce for 10 years, so we decided to branch out and try growing some stewing greens. Here’s a look:

At the front is Russian kale…it lasts thru the first frost and may even come back up next year. Behind that is a row of beets, then a row of Swiss chard. We’ve tried all 3 lately as sauteed greens. (I pick the largest leaves off the beets…I’ll harvest the roots later). The Swiss chard is the winner…tangy and tender. I liked the kale, but it was a little too bitter for Tom. All we do is heat up some olive oil, wilt the greens, add salt and pepper, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Sooo good, and about as healthy as it gets. I’ve become a big fan of sauteed greens because the cooking process does some of the work of digestion for you. Tom and I can put down a whole grocery bag of greens as a side dish…if we ate that much raw lettuce in a salad, we’d be joining Jim’s cows down the road for a lengthy cud-chewing session.

I think eating in New Orleans has helped us develop an affinity for greens…I suppose they usually make collards, and they stew the living daylights out of them. There’s always big hunks of pork intermingled with them…nummmmm slobber slobber….

Tonight Tom’s going to make bread salad…you cube up sourdough bread, toast it till it’s crunchy, and put it in a bowl with tomatoes, fresh mozarella (the kind floating in water/whey…not the kind in a block), and arugula (a spicy, peppery lettuce). You splash the whole thing with a citrus vinaigrette, which soaks into the bread and makes it all juicy and yummy. We had this in a restaurant somewhere…it’s another of Tom’s excellent reverse-engineered dishes. We got the tomatoes from the farmer’s market ‘cuz ours aren’t ready yet. It’s a cryin’ shame that by the time tomatoes are ready, lettuce is past its prime. Someday in my bright future as a greenhouse owner, I’ll be able to get a 2-month jump on tomato planting, and everything will fall into sync.

-shauna-

If you have listened to the first part, I think you’ll find the remaining parts more of an informal discussion, as everyone got used to just talking with the tape recording away.

You can also get a good feel for my grandma as a person from these, even if you never got the chance to meet her. She’s one of those people you just know you’re going to see again later.

Anyway, here’s the next part, wherein the discussion turns to living through the Great Depression in a small town in Upper Michigan:

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Or download the file here.

-Tom

First there was this evidence, all those years ago…

And now Newt Gingrich reveals all:

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Seriously? I mean…all this time, was ‘Newt’ just an obscure reference to interstellar travel that we all missed?

I have managed, after extensive Googling, to get the entire recording of the speech:

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No wonder the republican leadership doesn’t care about global warming…it’s probably much hotter on their home world.

For their part, a spokesman for the Democrats responded maybe a little too harshly:

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-Tom

Back in 1993, I had a sudden attack of ancestral concern. I was in undergrad, and was starting to become aware that family history was an important thing. So I suggested to my mom one day that it would be nice if someone were to sit down with my grandmother and interview her, record something for descendants to listen to later. This was 1993, 16 years ago. My grandma died in 1995. And I never expected how warm and happy these recordings, recently ‘remastered’ from cassette, would make me feel all these years later.

There’s over an hour recorded on the tapes, so I’ll be posting them here a segment at a time.

This is my mom and my aunt Ann, chatting with my grandma. This first part is about how she met my granddad. The first voice you hear is Ann’s.

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You can download the file here.

-Tom

So if you all need any further evidence that I’m completely out of my mind, take a look at this:

Here we go…the raw materials for my next hairbrained garden project (see previous post). As Tom pointed out, “Um, this whole idea better, you know, work…” Indeed.

So Granddad…I’ve been keeping tabs on you. Sounds like you could use something to prime the ol’ appetite. I’ve assembled a few of your favorites…maybe this will help.

A bowl of popcorn in your chair in the family room:

Washed down with some ice cold WHOLE milk:

And the best part…your all-time favorite…a bunch of green grapes, cold from the fridge:

Hang in there! You’ll get your mojo back soon and be home before you know it. I’ll see you Saturday…love you!

-shauna-

Gardening update: over the holiday weekend I worked on the new garden in the backyard…the big circle where the pool used to be. I’ve got the paths marked out and have dug out the planting beds. The soil was completely compacted…several tons of water for several years had been sitting on top of dirt that’s pretty much clay, anyhow. I’ve been working in leaves and compost and have tilled a couple times…it’s looking lots better.

The plan is to use recycled concrete for the paths…it would look sort of like flagstones. I’ve talked with an earth moving company in the area…they’re planning to bid on a sidewalk demolition job soon and would deliver me a load of concrete chunks (sans rebar) for the cost of fuel. I’ve got my fingers crossed…hopefully this will be a cheap way to get about 200 square feet of paving material. I’d be looking at breaking all that concrete into manageable chunks with a sledge, but hey…I’m a full-contact gardener.

Toward the center of the circle, where the paths intersect, I want to do some sort of circular fountain/pool with the bricks that Brandon gave me.

I’ve got one section finished…I amended the soil so it would drain fast and hopefully allow lavender to grow. Hopefully in a few years I can sit on this bench and be surrounded by that incredible smell…

For now I’m enjoying some new plants I bought on clearance at the end of last summer. Even though it got down to -25 one night last winter, pretty much everything came up this spring. I don’t do pink, and I thought these columbines would be purple, but they’ve won me over.

-shauna-

Who’s that stately creature in the barnyard?

Why it’s Jade! Das Fraulein! Hogan’s supermodel girfriend, the Gisele Bundchen of the canine world!

We LOVE dogsitting when Jade’s parents go travelling. She and Hogan have the BEST time.

If we ever adopted a second dog, we’d want one just like Jade. She’s smart and very tuned-in to people.

In other news, my dearest Kathleen continues to serve as my fixer for religious publications. She loaned me “On Living Simply - The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom“, which I’ve been sampling in little bites for the last week. St. John was a priest in Antioch and Constantinople in the 4th century. The common people loved him so much that they called him “Chrysostom”, meaning “golden-mouthed.”

I must pause here and reiterate again for Tom that “golden-mouthed” was not a moniker that St. John gave himself; it was bestowed upon him by his adoring parishoners. So no, you are not allowed to subtitle your dissertation “The Golden Voice of Tom J”. End of discussion.

St. John preached on the responsibilty of the rich to serve the poor…something the church hierarchy and the Empress didn’t want to hear. They eventually had him abducted during Communion, restored him to his position when the commoners threatened to riot, and eventually compelled him into exile, where he died. The things he preached sound astonishingly modern; all people are created equal by God (another thing the Empress didn’t dig), laws should serve the common people and not favor the rich, redistribution of wealth (ie socialism) can only breed resentment among the rich, not foster compassion in their hearts for the poor. Here’s a sermon snippet that sounds distressingly familiar:
“There are two sorts of arts. There are those arts necessary for survival: these are the arts concerned with growing crops, making clothes, and building houses. Without food, clothing, and shelter we should die; so the arts associated with producing these things are noble and fine. Then there are arts whose purpose is to provide luxuries, such as confectionery, embroidery, sculpture, and so on. I do not regard these latter arts as superfluous. For example, it is right that we should adorn our churches with embroidered cloth and sculptured stone. It is right also that we should celebrate our festivals with delicious sweetmeats. And it is good that even the humblest of families should enjoy a few luxuries, to bring pleasure to their lives. Yet when luxuries become normal we should be ashamed. When the decoration that we lavish on the house of God is also lavished on the houses of human beings, the pleasure which they afford turns to dust - and the sight of such private luxury is morally obscene. The test of a good society is that the great majority are engaged in the basic arts, and only a few in the arts of luxury. When large numbers are engaged in producing luxuries for the rich, that society has become corrupt.”

Hello, America?
We employ about a billion people in the developing world to produce luxury items for our consumption. I know of a person who is building a new home…he plans to have TVs in his bathrooms…

St. John also preaches against hypocricy, so mea culpa.

Here’s another wise thing he says:
“A person who owns nothing - or, more precisly, who desires to own nothing, and regards nothing as a personal possession - in spirit owns everything. He can look at a beautiful valley, regardless of who the legal owner is, and rejoice in its beauty. He can look at any fine building, and marvel at the artistry in its construction. He can use any tool which someone lends him, and admire the skill with which it is designed. The man who owns much and is concerned only with the things he owns - in spirit he owns nothing. He cannot admire the beauty of any part of God’s creation unless he is the legal owner. He cannot rejoice in the artistry of any building unless it belongs to him. Beauty and artistry belonging to other people simply evoke jealousy and envy in his breast…this sense of ownership is a terrible snare, because it prevents a person’s soul from marching onward to God. The person who wishes to move toward God must free himself from all sense of ownership. He must regard all things as loans from God, even the things which he himself owns. A loan is to be used for a period, and then paid back. This is precisely how we should regard our houses and fields, clothes and furniture…To be poor in spirit does not mean to be destitute, lacking in even the basic comforts and necessities. It means to regard nothing as your own, and everything you have as a temporary loan.”

So because I’m deeply entrenched in a consumerist, materialist culture, and because I struggle not to let my possessions own me, I’m grateful for St. John’s golden voice. Living more simply is a major goal for my life. I’m grateful for his guidance.