Monday, November 21, 2011

Tonight!! Attention Christian County and Ozark!

Tonight...if you live in Christian County, this applies to you...

Christian County Planning and Zoning Commission meets tonight at the Christian County Courthouse at 7 PM in Room 208 (old courtroom).

They will be discussing rezoning 4381 Selmore Rd. from R-1 (suburban residence) to C-2 (general commercial)

They will also be discussing and possibly voting on new and/or revised definitions of recycling centers, junkyards and automobile graveyards and for what zoning district these might be appropriate.

So why is this important? Well, it has the potential to impede on personal property rights if not done properly. So the public needs to be there...and ready to speak out to make sure the commission makes regulations that are fair to all parties involved.

http://christiancountymo.gov/planningandzoning/agenda.pdf

Also tonight is the Ozark Board of Aldermen meeting at 7 PM in the Council Chambers of Ozark City Hall.

They will be discussing contracts to powerwash the water towers at Wal-mart and Tracker. They will also talk about an amendment to the city ordinances about Board of Aldermen meetings. I believe this is the ordinance that Mayor Pro Tem wanted to throw out completely and start over because there was an amendment to the amendment. These are open for public comment.

They will also be voting on a zoning change for 604 E. Jackson and a conditional use permit for 2114 E. Robin. They will also vote on amendments to the current year budget. These bills are final reading and not open for public discussion.

http://www.ozarkmissouri.com/archives/42/Board%20of%20Aldermen%20Packet%2011-21-2011.pdf

Crap. Now I have to decide which one to go to. Why do they both meet at the same time??

I'm leaning toward planning and zoning just because it seems property rights are a more pressing issue, but I know there will likely be people there that will represent my point of view. At the city council meeting, the only person there besides the council and people who are supposed to speak to the council will probably be the former mayor. That makes me think maybe I should go to Board of Aldermen...

OK well I don't have to decide right now...

Monday, November 7, 2011

Tragedy, property rights, building codes and Agenda 21

This is bugging me...

Did you hear about those boys in NYC who pushed a shopping cart off the 4th story of a parking garage and it landed on a lady and killed her? Fortunately, a doctor was right there and witnessed the whole thing and handed off their baby to his wife so he could do CPR. She was revived and taken to the hospital. The lady, Marion Hedges, had her 13 or 14 year old son with her, who was hysterical (understandably) so the wife of the doctor comforted him and helped him call his grandmother. Mrs. Hedges is still in critical condition according to the news reports I found in a Google search this morning.

A couple of things disturb me about this story. First of all, if these boys had no more sense to know that dropping a shopping cart four stories is a bad idea, they should have not been out in public without adult supervision. This has gotten a lot of media coverage and some sources describe the boys as good kids. I highly doubt that. Another source was surprised these kids hadn't been to juvie yet. That's more like it.

In spite of what happened to his wife at the hands of these little punks, Michael Hedges told the NY Daily News they would like to create a foundation to help kids like Jeovanni and Raymond, the "alleged perpetrators". My gut tells me tossing them off a four story building would be a good first step. However, they are just kids, and apparently they don't have a lot of supervision. Maybe we should chuck their parents off instead.

But wait...we have to find their parents first. Apparently these boys are growing up in the projects in Harlem and their daddies are long gone. One of the boys' moms spoke out and said she needs help, she's a single mom. Well, if she's living in the projects, chances are she's already getting some "help". Some Food Stamps, some Medicaid, some Welfare, some Section 8 housing. Could it be that all the "help" she's getting isn't really the kind of help she needs? Could it be that the kind of "help" the Feds have been doling out for over 40 years is hurting more people than it's helping?

I pray for everyone involved in this tragedy. The victim, her family, the kids who injured her, their families. The witnesses, the doctor and his wife who stopped to help. The older boy who tried to stop the boys from tossing a shopping cart to begin with and eventually turned them in when they ran away instead of taking responsibility for their actions.

So...how does this tie into property rights and building codes? And what does Agenda 21 have to do with any of it? Oh, oh, oh, I'm glad you asked!! I love it when I can tie it all together.

"The pedestrian walkway at East River Plaza was erected by a private developer, but if it had been owned by the city, builders would have been required to construct an 8-foot high fence over the wall, city officials said."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/tragic-error-city-loophole-led-cart-toss-horror-walkway-east-harlem-target-article-1.972201

The title of the article is "Tragic error: City loophole led to cart-toss horror on walkway at East Harlem Target."

Therefore, it's not the fault of the boys who threw the shopping cart. It's not the fault of the parents who were not supervising their children. It's the fault of the builder and the city. Really?

First of all, if you're going to have building codes at all, they should be consistent. Why should the city have to build thousands more into the budgets of their building projects for safety devices that privately-owned buildings are not required to have? Either it's needed or it's not, doesn't matter whether the government owns it or Donald Trump owns it! Second of all, you cannot legislate common sense. These boys had been in school for at least six or seven years, surely the schools there aren't so bad that they haven't touched on gravity and momentum in science classes. So I'm guessing they knew a shopping cart dropped from 40 feet was going to make a big bang. They'd already been dropping shushies and seen their cups exploding.

I guess technically if there had been an 8 foot tall one inch mesh barrier curved inward at the top, the boys would not have been able to toss a shopping cart over. OK I'm convinced. Totally not their fault they rolled a cart out from the store or parking garage, picked it up and chucked it over the 42 inch railing.

Since Bill Clinton had an office in Harlem, let's blame him. And Michael Bloomberg is mayor of New York, so it's his fault too. New York is in the United States, so let's not forget to blame President Obama while we're at it.

Agenda 21 proponents want us all in sustainable living zones. Big cities. Where you can go everywhere by foot, bicycle or train. Parts of New York are much like what Agenda 21 invisions...mass transit, high population density, tall buildings. But a tragedy like what happened at the East River Plaza could only happen in an Agenda 21 city. It couldn't happen in Ozark, Missouri. We aren't so crowded here that we have to build multi-level stores and parking garages. I'm safe from falling shopping carts here (I hope).

The UN and proponents of Agenda 21 (sustainable development) want all the people in human zones so the rest of the land can be used as appropriate to raise food. No family farms, no country life. No hunting and fishing for recreation and food. No raising a few chickens for the eggs and a couple of goats for the milk. No backyard garden for a few tomatoes and cucumbers.

Our Federal agencies are doing the best they can to burden farmers with so much regulation that they cannot survive. You have to know the rules to be able to play by them, and you can't understand all the bureaucracy and still have time to make a living. So you do the best you can until you get caught breaking one of their rules. Then they slap you with fines and put you out of business. A bigger operation buys up your land for the taxes and you move into one of the human zones.

Bureaucrats have taken what is supposed to protect our citizens and have turned it around to use it against them. Big commercial farming operations have lawyers to interpret and relationships with inspectors to make sure they stay out of trouble. I believe there have to be some rules in place to keep unsafe food off our tables. Unfortunately, food that may not have bacteria or bugs in it but has been filled with hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals does make it to the store and there are no warning labels that say we don't know what this may do to you or your kids 20 or 50 years down the road. If I want to stay away from all this, I have to raise all my food myself. But I can't sell any of it to my neighbor because I have to play by all these rules. I can't band together with 50 other people and each raise something and trade with one another.

This is America! We have to wake up and defend the rights of people who may be doing things we don't agree with or would never do ourselves, but aren't hurting anyone else!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Priorities

I've been thinking a lot over the past year and a half about what is important to me. I guess losing your job and then having your health threatened will do that to you. I am thankful every day that when things started falling apart with me, DH was there to pick up the pieces and keep our family afloat. Since I've not been working, I've had a lot of free time on my hands. I've read books, watched a lot of TV, surfed the Internet, played games on my smart phone. I've been decluttering my house SLOWLY (too slowly for DH, he's ready to rent a dumpster and chuck it all!!) and cooking more. I've been trying to get away from using convenience foods. It really doesn't take much longer to make cheeseburger macaroni from scratch than it does to open a box of Hamburger Helper.

I'm trying very hard to buy local and buy more natural. I read labels of food, I look for more natural alternatives to some of the convenience shortcuts that are common in recipes. I recycle paper and try not to bring things into my home that I don't need, love or use.

And I've gotten more involved in my community. Not just in PTA, but church, the Republican Central Committee and the Ozarks Property Rights Congress. I'm going to public meetings, researching what I hear, blogging about what I think of what I hear. I'm trying to do something about the problems I see around me.

Education problems, erosion of freedoms, lack of personal responsibility. Decision making bodies who were ELECTED by the people rubber-stamping every proposal that comes before them from the superintendent or city attorney or health department director or city manager or planning and zoning administrator, without researching, discussing or getting the opinion of their constituents.

All these meetings are cutting into my TV time. The research I do has cut into my Facebook time. Meal-planning has taken me away from the book I've been trying to read for the past 3 months. Walking into the local coffee shop to get my caffeine fix takes longer than going through the McDonald's drive-thru. But I feel like I'm doing SOMETHING to improve things.

If people like me don't get involved in PTA, church and community/political organizations, then we will get what we've always got. You don't like the way things are going in your PTA? Get involved. Volunteer for stuff, maybe a job no one else wants to do. Let people get to know you. Work your way into becoming a decision maker. And then be a part of the change. Don't just walk away from the group because you don't like how it's going or one of the leaders. Help them see how it could be better. And work to make it better. Don't just complain.

You can replace "PTA" in the paragraph above with any other group you are or would like to be involved in. I use PTA as an example because it was the first organization I got involved in that I stuck around long enough to become part of the change, rather than just get frustrated and quit. And what I've learned from PTA I've taken with me to the other groups I've gotten involved with.

So what is important to me?

Family is at the top of the list. I want my kids to become independent, self-reliant adults. So they have chores and responsibilities around the house. I provide healthy food for my kids and I'm teaching them how to cook and prepare their own food. I tell them I love them every day. I give them opportunities to make choices so they will learn to make good decisions for themselves. I make sure they get to bed at a decent hour and are ready for school each day. I talk to them about what they are learning. I'm available to help with homework but they have to do it themselves. I try not to nag. That's hard. But much better for them to make mistakes now than when they are older and the consequences are greater.

When I think about it, EVERYTHING I do is for my kids. I want them to inherit the best country in the world. I want them to experience the freedom and prosperity that DH and I have experienced. It's an amazing feeling to get out of bed in the morning and know that if you want to pick up and move 1000 miles away, you can start planning and do it. You can get in your car and go anywhere you want. You can buy land and build a house or a barn. You can hunt and fish, own guns and shoot them. You can do almost anything if it doesn't hurt anyone else. Well, kind of.

In some places, you can't sell vegetables you grew in your garden or even give them to your neighbors. You can't milk your goats and sell the milk to someone who wants to buy it. I'm not talking about taking your tomatoes and raw milk down to Price Cutter and letting them sell them to the general public. I mean you can't put an ad in the newspaper or on Craigslist and someone come TO YOU and buy these items.

Why not? If you have something to sell, why can't you sell it? The "powers that be" talk about protecting the public health. They have a point...but at least if I buy milk from John or tomatoes from Bob, I can go back and tell John and Bob if said items made me sick. I have an actual connection to them. I bet John would even let me come look at his milking and bottling operation if I asked. I doubt I could go see where my gallon of milk from Wal-mart was produced.

Where DH grew up, there were multiple meat processing operations (when I say meat, it could be bovine, porcine or poultry, I'm not giving any other details). I know people who worked in some of these plants. I know the stories they have told about things that happened on the line. And the meat that was being processed still made it to grocery store cases, in spite of some questionable sanitary practices.

And I worked in restaurants. Don't even get me started on what I've seen or heard what has happened to food that was served to customers.

Seems to me if you actually KNOW your customers, you might be more likely to make sure you treated the food properly. If you knew your mom was the one who was going to eat that steak, you wouldn't pick it up and throw it on the grill when you dropped it taking it out of the fridge (that was one I actually witnessed for myself. I told the cook to throw it away but he just laughed. I told the manager. He laughed too).

So here's the deal. Give some consideration to your own priorities. What do you want for yourself, for your children, for your country? Do you think we are headed in the right direction? If you think not, get involved! Involvement can be as little as making a donation to a worthy organization or reading a news article or blog about what's going on. Or it can be as much as starting your own organization or your own blog and informing as many people as possible. Or anywhere in between. But I will warn you...once you start paying attention, you will have trouble stopping.

But in the long run, I think it will be more beneficial than keeping up with the Kardashians.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Upcoming events

Here's a couple of upcoming events...

The Christian County Chapter of the Ozarks Property Rights Congress will meet Thursday, November 3 at 7 PM at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 877 State Hwy JJ, Sparta (take Hwy 14 east through Ozark, turn north on JJ, church is about 3/4 mile on left). We meet in the fellowship hall unless the group is huge and we'll move to the sanctuary. This is not a church service, just a group of concerned citizens who have decided to DO something about our eroding personal freedom and big government encroachment on our property rights.

This month Doreen Hannes will be explaining Codex Alimentarius. If you've never heard of, this is directly from their official website:

"The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations."

Guess where this originates? (I'll give you a hint...the key words are "Programme" and "non-governmental organizations.") If you said United Nations, ding ding ding, you are correct!! A gold star for you.

So what's the problem? Don't we need safe food? Of course we do, but they keep over-reaching! Forcing private citizens to adhere to the same standards for their personal food supplies encroaches on individual rights. If I want to raise a cow or goat and drink unpasteurized milk from it, why shouldn't I make that decision for myself? Or if I want to buy unpasteurized milk from an individual, knowing the risks, why shouldn't I? There are certainly no labels on pasteurized cows milk that say we use hormones to make our cows produce more milk and we have no idea what problems this may cause in the future or in children who get much of their daily caloric intake from milk! But I digress.

She will also talk about the "China Hub," a plan to open up trade between China and the Midwest, using St. Louis Lambert Airport as the "hub." As usual, the devil is in the details.

Doreen knows these subjects inside and out and I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say.

So be there!! Questions? Email help@StopFarmerCDLs.Com or klanehall@gmail.com or call Bob Estep at 417 844 8406 or Mike Wasson 417 634 5679


The other event is somewhat political in nature...

"The 7th District Congressional Republican Committee, the Missouri Federated Republican Women and the Evangel College Republicans will present an ABC (About Basic Campaigning) grassroots custom workshop for candidates, campaign workers, grassroots activists or any Republican interested in learning the political process of a successful campaign."

This will be held Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 8 am to 5 pm at Evangel University, Trask Hall Room 101, 1111 N. Glenstone, Springfield, MO

It's $25 but free for students with a current school ID (not just Evangel students or even college students...political teens welcome!!) The fee includes lunch. Casual dress.

I will be there and I just e-mailed Mavis Busiek this morning and there are still a few seats left. If you're interested, e-mail her at mbusiek@aol.com or call her at 417 864 4333 or find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Missouri7thDistrictCRC

School board and Bill Randles blogs coming soon...I promise!!