I don't have a quote of the day feature, but after this, I'm considering it. HAHAHA!
A principal trying to prevent walkouts during immigration rallies inadvertently introduced a lockdown so strict that children weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, and instead had to use buckets in the classroom, an official said.
Worthington Elementary School Principal Angie Marquez imposed the lockdown March 27 as nearly 40,000 students across Southern California left classes to attend immigrants' rights demonstrations.
Marquez apparently misread the district handbook and ordered a lockdown designed for nuclear attacks.
Tim Brown, the district's director of operations, confirmed some students used buckets but said the principal's order to impose the most severe type of lockdown was an "honest mistake."
"When there's a nuclear attack, that's when buckets are used," Brown told the Los Angeles Times. The principal "followed procedure. She made a decision to follow the handbook. She just misread it."
posted by Kevin at 5:01 AM
I helped slaughter a pig the other day. Becky's cousin, Paul, had fattened a pig, and we were out at the farm on the creature's last day.
The setting seemed right for killing a pig. There was rain outside. A bare lightbulb illuminated the barn. The pig snorted about its pen (known on that farm as "maximum security"), oblivious to what was about to happen.
Feeling the cool evening breeze and noticing the smell of animal manure in that barn, I thought about all the pundits and articles and armchair collapse theorists (of which I am one) bloviating on the Internet. Sitting in front of a nice, clean computer, writing about corruption and fascists and Peak Oil and killer robots suddenly seemed ridiculous. None of those topics really mattered for much out in that barn.
Learning how to get food without the assistance of a supermarket or a restaurant (or a dumpster, for some of the bum pundits---bumdits?---out there) matters a lot. It probably matters most of all. (Water actually matters most of all, but that's a different story.) Talking about how everyone, the government, or the person or group of your choice should behave, waving signs about it, making websites about it, selling t-shirts with pithy comments... That's a waste of time. How many people involved with all of that can resolve the food issue for themselves?
Get food that wasn't moved by truck or plane. And get it without paying money for it.
Set your computer mouse down and try that one for a while.
Paul shot the pig in the head with a .22 caliber rifle. I expected the animal to drop dead immediately, but that's not what happened. The cartridge had gotten wet, so the bullet didn't kill the pig. Instead, the pig went nuts, running around with blood going everywhere. Paul was inside the cage with the injured pig.
I think I was partially in shock when I asked Paul, "Do you want me to reload the rifle!?"
Paul, probably assuming that the other cartridges were also wet, drew his knife.
"Nope. We're going to do this the old fashioned way." I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something like that.
He proceeded to wrestle the pig to the ground. It may have had a bullet in its skull, but it wasn't going down easily. Then Paul stabbed it through the heart, twisting the blade so as to sever as many vital veins and arteries as possible.
The sound the creature made is the part I won't soon forget. The thought of it stands my hair on end even now. The pig flopped on its side, squealing, flinching, blood shooting from the mortal wound.
Less than a minute later, we had a large, dead pig, laying in a pool of blood and slop. I'll spare you the details of how we had to immerse the pig in hot water as we scraped off the hair, and the evisceration that followed, and what happens to the tub of entrails and the severed head.
What's the point of this story, you might be wondering?
All the talk about living a sustainable lifestyle, preparing for the crash, re-visioning the future etc. etc. is mostly a waste of time. By engaging in this sort of endless babble, all you're doing is postponing the acceptance of the hard---and sometimes ugly---realities involved with practicing what you preach.
As I helped Paul lift the bloody, dead pig out of the cage, that's when it hit me:
People, in general, aren't just going to wake up one day and be able to do this. People used to do this, but too many generations have passed since this was considered a part of everyday life. How will people go from office cubes to this? No way, man. No way!
The people who supposedly "get it" are taking classes on everything from permaculture to biodiesel, they're attending feel-good-me-too Peak Oil meetings, they're making websites, they're waving signs, they're writing books, they're buying books, they're selling books. Don't forget the endless DVDs and bumperstickers... and underwear, baseball caps and pins. It's nonsense!
If all you're doing is telling people about the next big Peak Oil lecture or contemplating your navel and your Toyota hybrid's place in the universe, you are in for the shock of your life when it comes time to dispense with all the bullsh*t.
My point, with all of this, is that if you don't get off your ass and figure some of this stuff out now, while the system is still somewhat functional, you're going to be in deep sh*t when things finally unwind.
posted by Kevin at 10:11 PM
