Archives for April 2012

Well, I’ve done a decent number of videos around here but never accounted for the fact that it’s harder—way harder—to do a 1:30 video than something that goes for far longer. Just not much room for much error.

So I flailed around doing this, this afternoon, in-betwixt bewilderment over the crazy comment thread on my last that probably won’t die any time soon. Luke, in pointing out that so many think I’m a total dick (I’d have preferred a certain adjective right in front), put it this way:

Somewhat off topic, but germane to your last tweet, I want to thank you profligately for running such an open forum on your blog. *Every* other paleo blog out there that I’m aware of is over-moderated to the point where it’s nothing more than a back-slapping echo chamber for bloggers to be congradulated on their prowess, or, at best, to receive some mild and contributory links related to the post. Very few if any other bloggers tolerate any sort of open exchange of ideas. This space is needed and valuable especially as this movement expands and grows, and I dare say this is one of the most influential paleo/primal blogs. You broke open the CT discussion into a wider sphere, as an example. You talk politics and religion, and maybe even relish it, two areas other bloggers pale with dread to discuss.

People think you’re a dick, but you encourage free expression. If that’s what being a dick means, count me in. At the same time, if being ‘nice’ is stifling expression and conversation, I want no part of this ‘niceness.’ At some point, I’ll begin blogging again (I had a blog a long time ago, deleted it because I grew out of it), and I hope to take a similar tack that you’ve taken here.

We need to tackle these issues head-on, and not skirt them because it makes some people ‘uncomfortable.’ If people want to be comfortable and unchallenged in their lifestyle or their assumptions, they best sit back on the couch, grab a corporate beer and eat some processed express-meal.

Carry on. Viva La Raza.

Yep. We’re all about that, here. No fear. I’m in the process of gathering the best, sharpest, most fuck-you minds in the Paleosphere and all you others can have those looking for the next 10 Ways To Do X.

So here’s the video. It’s only a minute and a half.

So soon, there will be another book promotion. The last one was buy one copy, give away five for free, which is running indefinitely. The next one is being queued up for release soon.

I had not intended for my last post about food quality and a certain sacredness about this thing we call Paleo to go totally off the rails into politics and social structures in comments, but it pretty much did anyway. Thank Shaun.

…Which prompted me, since I’d been saving up ideas to use in a Human Animal Political Post (TM), to forego it…maybe in favor of some food pics…how it’s going in the backyard with the cold plunge and kettlebells, and so on. But to hell with that, just for now. I don’t exactly have any idea how this post is going to come out in the end, but I have quite a bit of stuff saved up. So here goes.

My overall theme, always, is not which thing to vote for. It’s to not vote at all; to withhold your sanction from convention; from just getting along. That’s right. Be an “irresponsible citizen.” Shirk your “duty.” Get uninvolved. Unparticipate in the process. Above all, get middle finger exercise. Hey, new Paleo product: Middle Finger Kettlebells.

Flip it high & often.

New idea: live for yourself, your family, your friends, the best food you can make…and your Facebook Friends and Twitter followers.

Here, let me show you why. And no, you will never, ever vote your way out of this mess and no,  Ron Paul is not your Messiah. He’s just as worthless as any politician, just less overtly destructive than most.

~ The American Experiment In Liberty Has Failed. I know you don’t believe me, but, it’s actually pretty short, under 10 minutes to read and I lead off with that because it’s perhaps the most important of all the links, which I do select carefully.

It is, perhaps, a fact provocative of sour mirth that the Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the seizure of private property without adequate compensation and the invasion of the citizen’s liberty without justifiable cause…It is a fact provocative of mirth yet more sour that the execution of these prohibitions was put into the hands of courts, which is to say, into the hands of lawyers, which is to say, into the hands of men specifically educated to discover legal excuses for dishonest, dishonorable and anti-social acts. — H. L. Mencken, Prejudices: A Selection, pp. 180-82

That was written a long time ago and this, just the other day.

…The greatest fear of America’s Founding Fathers has been realized: The U.S. Constitution has been unable to thwart the corrosive dynamics of majority-rule democracy, which in turn has mangled the Constitution beyond recognition. The real conclusion of the American Experiment is that democracy ultimately undermines liberty and leads to tyranny and oppression by elected leaders and judges, their cronies and unelected bureaucrats. All of this is done in the name of “the people” and the “general welfare,” of course. But in fact, democracy oppresses the very demos in whose name it operates, benefiting string-pullers within the Establishment and rewarding the political constituencies they manage by paying off special interests with everyone else’s money forcibly extracted through taxation.

The Founding Fathers (especially Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Madison, and James Monroe), as well as outside observers of the American Experiment such as Alexis de Tocqueville all feared democracy and dreaded this outcome. But, they let hope and faith in their ingenious constitutional engineering overcome their fear of the democratic state, only to discover they had replaced one tyranny with another. As one contemporary libertarian has put it :

“It is hard to think of other examples in history where so many checks and balances were placed upon centralized political power – and it is also impossible to think of a more dangerous and powerful government than the modern American leviathan. The abysmal failure of such a noble experiment should give all moralists pause. If the smallest possible government has grown into the largest conceivable government – within a few hundred years – it is hard to imagine what kind of theoretical system could conceivably control state growth in the future.” […]

Some of us observed other frailties of the U.S. Constitution years later, but deluded ourselves into believing it was all just a consequence of inadequate constitutional design, which could be overcome and rectified with appropriate constitutional changes. Alas, it is impossible any longer to labor under the delusion that democracy can be fixed by tinkering with constitutions, appointing the right judges to the bench or electing the right politicians to office. As Frank Karsten and Karen Beckman have written in Beyond Democracy, democracy cannot be fixed because it is inherently broken:

“The problems of democracy are inherent. It’s like having dinner with a million people and deciding up front the bill will be split evenly. Everyone has a strong incentive to order more than he would individually, resulting in a huge bill that everyone deplores but no individual could do anything about. Democracy therefore has a very limited self-cleansing capability. Our politicians have a natural short-term outlook since they are only temporarily in office. They will overspend, overtax and over borrow knowing their successors will have to deal with the negative consequences. Besides that, they spend other people’s money anyhow.”

But now we come to the hard part: What is to be done? If not democracy, what? If the ballot box won’t work to reverse the arrow of democratic politics, if better constitutional design can’t overcome democratic entropy, are we left with rebellion and revolution? History demonstrates that violence begets violence and the violent overthrow of tyrants begets new tyrannies, frequently worse than those they replace. Is peaceful rebellion feasible? Will non-violent, civil disobedience work to reorder our dysfunctional politics, and if so, what kind of “new order” is to replace the old order?

The fact is, we don’t know how to structure society, and any effort trying to do so by constitutional/political/social engineering—no matter how well intentioned, no matter how smart the designers—inevitably leads to disastrous outcomes. The key, therefore, is not to think about replacing what we have with something else but rather to replace it with nothing, i.e., freedom from government, not enslavement to a new form of government.

The only way human societies can possibly develop successfully to satisfy the needs and desires of the individuals that make them up is through a process of gradual evolution, not juridical, legislative and bureaucratic incrementalism, but rather a social, political and economic evolution that occurs free of all three; a trial-and-error, evolutionary process where millions of free individuals work it out on a case-by-case, day-to-day basis at the individual level of bilateral trade, voluntary contract and discourse with each other. Coercive collective action in the name of the greater good not only is immoral—who decides who has the gun?—it also is destructive of human happiness and ruinous of human potential. [emphasis added]

Yea, unusually long “excerpt,” but that’s how it rolls, sometimes. Go read the other 5 minute’s worth. Then sit back and long for your next chance to vote. You’ll Get ‘er Done in no time, Larry.

But I hope you see a distinction between that and a lot of the other stuff you see about how to “fix the system.” Fuck the system. There really is no other way, and you begin by simply ignoring it in terms of activism, encouraging others to do likewise. All you can do as an individual.

What if they held an election and nobody showed up?

Stop wasting your life on such unmitigated bullshit. Look, hasn’t The Messiah proved it, even to you lefties? More on that, later.

~ In the meantime, let’s take the cases of a doper and a faggot. No sympathy for you! You don’t get your human rights!

First up, filmmaker Rick Ray on Charlie Lynch.

In 2006, Charlie Lynch opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California. He was such a stickler about following California state law that he called all the legal authorities he could. The ribbon-cutting for his shop was attended by local pols and chamber of commerce types and his shop flourished due to his outgoing personality, dedication to customer service, and strict enforcement of all laws related to medical marijuana.

In 2007, his dispensary was raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local sheriffs. Thus began a legal nightmare from which Lynch – and the country – has yet to awake. Placed under house arrest, threatened with an effective life sentence, and stripped of his income, Lynch became one more casuality in the war against medical marijuana.

Eventually, Lynch was tried in federal court, where the Kafkaesque proceedings meant his defense was not allowed to tell jurors that medical marijuana was legal under California law. Eventually, Lynch was sentenced to a year and a day, and was allowed to be free pending an appeal that seems unlikely to ever be fully resolved.

Lynch’s ordeal – and the country’s – is the subject of Lynching Charlie Lynch, a new documentary made by Rick Ray, who helped produce Reason.tv’s original coverage of the Lynch case as it unfolded.

Where’s your Fucking Obama-Messiah, commies? Everyone expected Republican fucks to do this sort of thing. But in matters such as this, you should be held to a far higher standard and when you don’t live up, should suffer ridicule—not for being stupid fuckheads like Republicans—but for being far worse: having zero recognizable integrity. At least republicans engage in the tyranny they promise and defend stupid behavior they uphold, like praying in school, withholding science, and teaching kids to fear sky fairies.

~ Who cares about a faggot in jail, eh? Shouldn’t they be locked up anyway? Alright, so here you go, Messiah Jesus-Obama, nowhere in sight.

Duncan Roy: Director Trapped in Men’s Central Jail

Director Duncan Roy casts a courtly image of a baronial figure as he sits in his home atop Las Flores Canyon, a modernist, Bohemian hideaway with a jaw-dropping view of the Pacific. His surroundings project an image of California’s creative lifestyle at its most alluring. But in February, Roy found himself standing alone outside Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, released after three months of harrowing and wrongful incarceration.

During his ordeal, he learned to dodge angry Los Angeles County Sheriff’s jailers and to trade with fellow prisoners for dried ramen toppings. He was helplessly trapped in a Kafka-esque corner of America’s immigration war, where he disappeared into the bowels of the system without explanation or apparent legal recourse.

In 2006, Roy was an up-and-coming star of the British independent-film community. His first picture, AKA, had received notice and awards around the world, and he followed the well-worn path to Hollywood in search of a bigger canvas — in particular, a film adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, to which he was attached to direct. He purchased the Las Flores house with the help of his then-boyfriend, a Malibu real estate agent who later would be featured on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing.

Well, when the geologist who did the survey in advance of purchase later admitted to falsifying it, implicating said ex-boyfriend, and Roy called ex-boyfriend on it, he soon found himself in jail under charges of “extortion,” then an INS hold, even though he was here legally…

And now Duncan Roy understands what almost every other productive member of society who never hurts anyone does not. Please read his story. He spent 3 months locked up for absolutely no good reason. Read his story.

~ If I Wanted America to Fail.

I dunno, but as I hear the endless psychodouche from the likes of “occupiers” and other do-nothings, all I hear is STOP PRODUCING! Didn’t they try that before, like in the 1950s and 60s in China and other places? But, y’know, 15 million dead of starvation here, 20 million there? I’m sure it was for a good cause.

~ Alright, Sky God worshipers of all sorts. The gig is up. You can no longer dishonestly use that Steven Hawking “mind of God” bit from A Brief History of Time as your second favorite appeal to authority.

Stephen Hawking: ‘There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story’

Now, does anyone have an old Einstein interview we can perhaps haul out and call it a rational day?

~ Social Suicide?

OK, this is where I give back, because I really don’t care for this video. What’s next, a new victims class: atheists? I think a video like this seriously compromises what ought to be the root theme of atheism: you’re nobody’s bitch; not some fantasy in the sky or fiery pits, and fuck anyone who doesn’t like it. You’re superior (and you are).

Interesting this came out as “Bully” hit theaters. New movie idea: Bully 2 The Atheists.

Alright. That should do it. I had one more but upon closer inspection, it wasn’t what it pretended to be. I hope that was enough to offend just about everyone though. I don’t like to disappoint.

Comments are open. Everyone feel free to be on their worst behavior.

Count me surprised.

At 140 comments so far on my last post about being a blogger first, expanding my topical area beyond just Paleo diet and exercise mostly, the support is pretty damn remarkable. Even some commenters like Nakhil Hogan who disagree with me on my approach to politics (stop voting, fer crissakes!), have their hearts solidly in the right place. For most of them, their minds will eventually follow. I’ve been at this aspect of my online presence for 20 years, now, and when the heart is right, the mind follows, eventually.

I’ll cover more of the political angles in a subsequent post. For now, in one comment to that post, I wrote:

I view the paleo movement as a movement to liberate the mind toward independence, individuality and freedom in a human evolutionary context.

It’s not about fucking paleo brownies and cookies.

At a point, one commenter added:

What would be the bestest possible Paleo product? Imo a line of Paleo frozen dinners from a subsidiary of Lean Cuisine. Takes all the stress and wasted time out of preparing a healthy Paleo dinner for your family.

Commenter Brent replied, in A++ fashion, in my view:

I can’t tell if this statement is meant to be ironic or serious, but I am seeing that attitude expressed more frequently as paleo goes more mainstream. And it indicates that the paleo movement is close to jumping the shark.

I am reminded of some investment advice I got a while back, which is basically: when the mainstream jumps on an investment idea, sell. Now, a paleo lifestyle is not something I’m going to leave, but – like others – I may have to leave the label behind as it starts to become a marketing term instead of a lifestyle concept.

I saw the same thing happen with low carb when it became a “fad.” One thing I will always be grateful for, from my low carb days, is heightening my awareness of what I was eating, as opposed to just how much of it. In addition to cutting down on carbs, Atkins admonished his readers to also cut out hydrogenated oils and some artificial sweeteners, like aspartame. Suddenly I was checking food labels for ingredient lists instead of just macronutrient content. It made me laugh at ludicrous products like Better’n Peanut Butter, with its inch-long ingredient list of processed additives that made it “healthier” than a product that was made of “roasted peanuts and salt.” That kind of thinking led me to paleo/primal living.

Paleo is (was?) a concept, not a brand, not an ingredient list, and not shorthand for gluten and/or dairy free. The latter is what the food industry wants it to be, because they can make their crap without gluten, and simply use a whole bunch of other potentially toxic crap to make the same foods palatable. They did the same thing with maltitol, which made products sugar free and “low carb,” but also caused diarrhea.

You may or may not have seen the report on the gorillas in the zoo whose health improved when they were taken off their diet of standard-issue gorilla food pellets. The which were high in sugar and other processed crap, but met all the “nutritional requirements” for gorillas, but was giving them heart disease and making them lethargic. Their health and energy improved when they were given whole foods more like what they would eat in the wild: fresh leafy vegetables and fruit. Sound familiar?

A “healthy Paleo frozen dinner by Lean Cuisine” is contradictory. Frozen dinners are the equivalent to food pellets for zoo humans. I’m looking at my copy of Paleo Magazine and I see an ad for “Paleo Coffee Creamer” – which is an oxymoron. Paleo creamer is called “cream” – preferably raw from 100% grass-fed cows. The act of sourcing fresh, quality ingredients, “wasting time” by preparing them properly, and enjoying them with good company is what makes the meal Paleo, not just its gluten/dairy content. Paleo is about changing our attitudes about our food – its quality and preparation – and our lifestyles. I think Richard’s point is that it is also about changing our mindsets towards life in general. That is, breaking away from the mindset of civilization – aka, the zoo. In other words, free the animal.

Again, Paleo is a concept. When we start looking for Paleo in convenient, processed, pre-packaged containers — so that we can continue being zoo humans eating their food pellets — the concept is dead.

OK, so a few years back when the first packaged snacks you could order like Paleo Kits came on the market, I was glad for it. Have ordered them a few times and they seem pretty wholesome to me. Same with Jerky Chews. I’m sure there are others. But where does it stop? It probably doesn’t, and I find it a tad sad.

As everyone knows, I’m not religious and I’m not at all in favor of The Church of Paleo either. At the same time, the notion of sanctity transcends religion. In the narrative of Jesus tossing the money changers out of the temple, It’s not about Jesus, sky fairies, or anything supernatural. It’s about the idea that some things are sacred, and we should hold ourselves to high standards and low compromise. To put it in purely secular terms, it would be like having vendor booths set up for the photographer, caterer, planner, decorators, et al, at your daughter’s wedding.

It’s about there being an appropriate time and place. And Paleo, if it means anything at all, is about a little more effort, a little more care, a little more involvement, a little more time and attention. It’s about the sanctity of something fundamental about not only our physical health, but our mental and social health. Think families going out and sourcing their food with care, collaboratively coming up with menu plans, all hands on deck for the preparation, and enjoyment mutually…sitting around the table talking to one another.

Saying grace, optional. Or, just take a moment of silence to contemplate “Mother Nature,” or something.

How far removed is that idea from getting stuff in a bag or box with “Paleo” stamped on it, that takes no more effort than point and click, and which the family members grab to take on the road before heading out the door?

How about a new Paleo book being published almost weekly, now?

How about print and blog publications that are little more than vehicles for advertising all of the foregoing, and very light on substance?

…And all the while, a guy like Jimmy Moore gets criticized relentlessly for some of the sponsorships he has, even in the face of his clear move to cleaning things up with higher quality, including embracing Paleo in general and promoting grassfed and pastured animal products. At the same time, the Paleo world seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

So as a free market capitalist kinda guy, all this might surprise you. And honestly, I’m torn. I have no problem with making money…on the contrary, it’s a virtue.

But I also believe in freedom and policing one’s self and ourselves. So proceed with caution. Ask yourself when you opt to buy that next whatever in a bad or box, whether you’re advancing your values or taking a step back.