He’d had this feeling before, beyond the dullness and the despair. The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of Birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The scared idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality. Drawing down like something trying to preserve heat. In time to wink out forever.
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Radical SAHM is now a year old. What better excuse for a extemporaneous round up of some of the ideas that consume all the non-cooking, shopping, cleaning, soothing, screaming and butt wiping hours of my day.  Here is what’s on the top my mind this snowy January first of twenty ten. 

Just in case you weren't already sold on the idea of paying more for local meat:

from Safety of Beef Processing Method is Questioned

I am trying to come up with a list of do-ables to lob at willing do-ers in the next election. Things that promote VT independence and security that can be done within the existing political framework. The Bank of Vermont is a good example of what I'm thinking about also IRV, simplification of rules for forming political parties, civics education, regulatory support for small agriculture, public finance and other election reforms etc. I welcome all suggestions, no matter how verbose or how brief. Thanks!

I recently asked my representatives to reinstitute the draft and impose a war tax. I’ve watched the discussion of these ideas on several forums and I’ll clarify my position by responding to some of the most common criticisms of these ideas.  First, let me reiterate my position:

Dear Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy and Peter Welch,

Before another cent or another human being is allocated to fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, I would like to see you move to re-instate the draft. The US Empire will continue to wage unending war as long as the sacrifice is hidden among the ranks of our voluntary military. I also believe war should be self-funded and so I support a war tax.

reposted from http://radicalsahm.blogspot.com/

The Bushways Inc. slaughter house in Grand Isle VT was closed this week due to violations of federal humane treatment laws documented by an undercover Humane Society employee.  I know this kind of horrific shit goes down all over the place at greater scale and probably greater intensity but Grand Isle is my backyard so I thought it necessary to comment here.

I dare anyone who watches this video to ever buy factory meat again while still claiming to have a soul.

So often I ask myself how we've arrived at this sad state of affairs. Well, this guy has some ideas.

Dehumanized by Mark Slouka

Seems to me we’ve been offered 2 solutions to our political and environmental crisis. We can participate in various forms of lobbying and we can exercise consumer choice. These options suck.