Comments

Episode-1585- Listener Feedback for 6-1-15 — 59 Comments

  1. Great show. “Not perfectly safe” is a pretty understated way of describing fracking – LOL.

    • No I get that. But you and I are realists is fracking more dangerous than buying energy from Iraq, Syria, Etc.?

      Exactly how dangerous is it and in what way. We are both environmentalists but as part of said group we must both acknowledge many of our ranks are quick to freak the fuck out about anything and everything. There are also many that hate all fossil fuel so much (ironically while using them daily) that will freak out about any and all new technologies to provide them.

      Is fracking good, no, is it less dangerous than say deep water drilling, that is what I don’t know. If we are going to use this shit for the time, and we are, I think we should use it in the least bad way.

      There is a LOT of it going on here in Texas so my concern is both large scale and personal. It matters to me. That said with it going on here, I can actually go look at what is being done. I have to admit compared to what I saw 20 years ago with oil drilling in West Texas, it seems to be a lot cleaner and tons of concerns are addressed and addressed well.

      Note that doesn’t mean it is clean, note the ER there. Cleaner than other current alternatives.

  2. You had me excited about the day of “Pie” but then I figured out you meant “pi”. So I then became sad.

    • The day you, I, and probably Paul Wheaton are after friend, is January 23rd — designated by the American Pie Council as National Pie day.

      • Paul Wheaton is the reincarnation of the Cookie Monster but he came back as a pie monster. It’s true Alex jones said so!

  3. I asked a strong proponent of the Patriot Act which events it stopped that weren’t agent provocateur. He couldn’t name one. “But, but we need it to stop people” I interrupted with” to stop the Boston Marathon guys? The Garland Texas cartoon shooter guys? ” Crickets. But under the provisions of the PA, the IRS has ruined at least innocent business man in NC. Congrats.

    PS only the government would build a huge computer center, dependent on water for cooling, in a desert.

  4. Regarding the Pledge lets first acknowledge that it isn’t completely accurate… Indivisible was not originally in our constitution. The ability for a state to suscede, whatever the reason, was protected.

    As a Christian, I pledge my allegiance to no one but Christ and a first century Christian would by horrified at the pledge. In fact, there were many murdered because they would not pledge allegiance (worship) Caesar..

    • First as many know I am not a Christian but I do respect those that are. I do find it interesting though that the most devote defenders of the Pledge tend to be Christians.

      They did add “one nation under God” to appease Christians (though it has been removed, put back, etc) but this I think is MORE not less a reason to object to it.

      While I know modern Christians and Jews are not going to stone anyone for blasphemy isn’t it something they themselves are not supposed to do?

      So follow me, isn’t professing that this nation provides “justice for all” and does so “under God” blasphemy?

      I mean it isn’t true, so why would anyone who believes in God profess this in the name of their God?

      As a Deist I would not dishonor the creator now that I understand this by claiming this nation is Godly in anyway or that our GOVERNMENT or the STATE is in any way run in a Godly manner. Nor would I lie in God’s name claiming all are granted justice in this nation.

      That is just my view but I would actually think with critical examination most Christians would be even more upset than I. Bryan you seem to be an exception to the way many of your brothers and sisters view this issue. I’d more expect you to be the rule if again this were critically examined.

      • I don’t understand it either Jack. In your recent episode on Mental Sovereignty, everytime you mentioned “news” or “media” I could have substituted “sermon” or “church”. The same maladies that infest the media infest the Christian church. Goals: ratings, emotion, agenda. Critical thinking is out the window there too.

        • Yea I leave that for people to do themselves out of respect for faith.

          To me God is real, the state is an illusion. I respect a belief in God as long as it doesn’t lead to aggression no matter what belief it is.

          Sort of like why I don’t say the F word or GD on the air. Those words are not offensive to me but I understand why some would consider them “to far” so I don’t do it out of respect.

          It sure as hell ain’t to avoid pissing people off in general, I do that daily. The truth is a bitch to many.

          Personally I think Jesus was an anarchist. There is only one verse used to counter that, “render unto Caesar that which is Cesar”.

          Taken in total context it is weak!

          1. Jesus was being tricked by the person asking the question
          2. The quote doesn’t say to obey government AT ALL

          What is says is if you use their money you use it under their rules. That is exactly what it says. It also is quite anarchist! Use what they don’t tax, love one another and support each other, YOU DON’T NEED THEM, THEY NEED YOU.

          Now all other “orders to submit to authority” are from apostles not Jesus. Yet if you believe the bible, they all constantly broke the law, every dang day. Both the Jewish Law and the State Law. Peter and Paul made careers of violation of the law from day one of the movement for Peter and from the conversion on for Paul.

          Jesus did this constantly. Jesus never submitted to any government authority, ever. Jesus made a whip of rope and turned over the money changes tables.

          Peter and Paul wrote the most on obedience to man, but Jesus called Peter weak every time his faith faltered.

          The apostles also were writing letters, there is NO EVIDENCE that any had any idea that their letters would become part of a “bible” via a canonization process to take place over 200 years later. Just perhaps they had wised up enough to tell people, practice and spread your faith but stay alive, let us take the risks?

          If you are Christian your duty is clear, obey God, not man, period. For every line in the Bible that supports obedience to man, there are 25-30 that counter it with obedience to God first.

          Personally I think Christians suffer from centuries of programming that the bible (the book itself) is sacred. With what it took to make a book 1500 years ago, I get how it started. Today though the bible is a book, period, it is the message Christians are to hold sacred, not the book, the material object, likely printed with toxic ink in China.

  5. For a more radical thought experiment:
    (yes.. you will be pissed off)
    ;-p

    This is for CONTRAST.. so just notice how it makes you feel.. and then ask why..

    Put your arm up in a Nazi salute, and say the pledge of allegiance.

    Did you feel any incongruity between the pledge and the salute?

    Now put your hand over your heart USSR style, and say the pledge..

    Now put your arms down to your sides, military style.. and say the pledge to our fearless leader Kim Jong-un..

    Energetically, I find no discernible difference.

    Now before you bother trolling the post.. I have a deep and abiding love for my ‘fellow Americans’ especially my ‘brothers in arms’.. but it has nothing to do with the state (or its worship).

  6. Wow, the Appleseed Project is amazing. I just checked and they have classes in my area (California) every month for only $60 for an entire weekend. I will definitely be taking one (or more).

    Jack, thanks for all you do!

  7. I recall reading somewhere (can’t recall where) that it was customary in the US to salute the flag with an arm raised open hand gesture till the 1920s when it was changed because of the issues in Europe at the time. Please correct me if I am wrong.

  8. Jack’s favorite tea…just had to smile and wonder just how many people have been influenced to just do “stuff” by your podcast. I’m usually too busy to respond but I listen to the podcast with earphones while doing chores (usually outside) My brother suggested I might enjoy the TSP a little over 2 years ago and I have been hooked ever since.

    I had never heard of permaculture and now it has changed completely how I look at life. Some might even say I’m obsessed but you could do worse. Both my brother and I are on a journey to walk toward freedom. We are both in our fifties, close to retirement age but not close enough. Our jobs are stressing us out and we are working toward a better future.

    I managed to escape to my brother’s farm where we have several projects in the works. He has a solar powered battery bank with generator back up that would make Steven Harris proud and water collection and purification systems to boot. He is always adding more plants to his system and I try to help out as well. Lots of edible and medicinal species.

    We love adding more elements and walking the property checking things out. The ginseng is now about 2 inches tall for example. Among other things he is taking up beekeeping and has built a nice secluded “honey house” camp to process honey, maple syrup, dry herbs and rewild back by to pond.

    After a long day of preparing a small annual garden addition to plant several varieties of F1 and F2 tomato, pepper and basil grown from seed and receiving and unloading a massive load of lumber that will be the start of the building of the main homestead we collected a mix of herbs for a refreshing tea. Before construction of the honey house was fully complete we added a perimeter of several mints to repel rodents and make for easy zone 1 type tea prep.

    The mints include lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, motherwort and bee balm (Monarda fistulosa is the local species…I think Monarda is the genus you refer to when you mention bee balm although it sounds like you call it Morenga or something like that…if I have the wrong element to make Jack’s favorite tea I will have to check it out.

    We just added chocolate mint and golden garlic to the mix this weekend. Our tea getting back on track included peppermint, lemon balm and bee balm along with heal all (Prunella vulgaris), spicebush, raspberry leaves and stevia.

    Same core players as Jack’s core mix with a few more nutrient dense ingredients. Once again we worked till dark and had dinner and a campfire, listened to tree frogs and whippoorwills under the moonlight scheming more projects. We have planted almonds, pecans, chestnuts, hazelnuts in addition to oaks (we made awesome acorn pancakes) hickories walnuts and sugar maple (made syrup too but we still need ducks and chickens to round out breakfast).

    Have many other elements as well thanks to Jack’s inspiration…comfrey etc but this post is getting long. Usually too busy to get online but I just wanted to say thanks but you are helping to create a few monsters going wild one step at a time.

  9. I have had somewhat negative feelings about the pledge for several years now. All these memes floating around Facebook blaming the reduction of the recitation of the pledge being the problem with america, however, in many respects, it can be as easily labeled as the cause of our problems.

    I have often wondered if it had been a pledge to the Constitution recited every morning with a copy of the Constitution on every school house wall, if our country would look different today.

    Yet the pledge to the flag is so ingrained in our society. In discussions of secession I have actually had people support their argument with “it says indivisible right in the pledge” like the pledge is law or something.

    • OOOOOOO a pledge to the constitution! Way to late at this point, they crap on it daily, but yea say in the 1890s we did this instead, I wonder.

      Pledge would be the wrong word though, one takes an oath to defend said Constitution.

  10. Oops forgot, too busy drinking tea but there is no way that the Pledge story could be plausible today with BHO in the Whitehouse. It is completely different…you would have to change all the players to say Francis Bellamy for example. I truly miss America (the idea) and am not quite ready to blindly pledge my alliegence to the Obama Nation we have today. Only hope is that All the worlds problems can be solved in a Garden so I am gonna shut up and Plant Shit and get Dirty.

    • Think about this though it did happen in what people want to believe was a far more free version of America. So was it really far more free, and if so was that more free for all, or perhaps just some.

  11. Can anyone post the recipe for Jack’s Tea? Im losing it in the podcast.

    • It is to taste but basically I use

      1 part pepper mint
      1 part lemon balm
      1/2 part bee balm

      I use a LOT like a loosely packed quart jar is 3/4 full. I make three such jars for a gallon. I sweeten that with 3 TBS of sugar or 3TBS of honey. I dissolve the sweetener when the liquid is still warm. I do this by straining the tea into a 1 gallon container, dissolving the sugar and then adding one more quart of water.

      The reason and I didn’t mention this that I use quart jars is this is also doable as a “sun tea”, I just haven’t been getting around to making it early enough in the day to do it that way. And I realized that while I have no stove (kitchen remodel) that a quart jar in the microwave for 3 minutes gets good and hot.

      So I stuck with the three jars, it is a LOT easier to pour a quart of boiling water then a gallon without getting burned.

      • I think you said something about being able to do this tea with dry leaves. What are the quantities for a gallon of tea.

      • Which species of bee balm do you prefer, Jack? I’m ready to make this and want to be sure I follow your recipe.

        • Stop the recipe stuff! But you will like today’s show.

          FWIW I have purple bee balm but I would and have used any. This isn’t baking a cake, chill out and make some damn tea and blend it to taste.

      • Really wanting to try this… I need to go out and get some of these plants. Lowe’s has them on sale right now. I’m stuck on the issue of neonics. I know it’s way overblown, but I’m scared to hurt my bees. I need to ping Michael Jordan.

        • Bryan, so you have a bee fence?

          Dude, first bee balm won’t give you flowers until next year.

          Second your bees range about 2 miles, think about that, THINK ABOUT THAT.

  12. To the guy who asked about the long range rifles. As an active police sniper and informal long range target shooter, I cannot find any fault in the advice Jack gave.

    If I were asked to outfit a new long range shooter with a rifle, to practice shooting the smallest groups they can at those ranges, with a $1500 budget, I would put together the same thing I am currently shooting, a savage 10fp in 308winchester, with a Vortex viper PST 4-16×50 scope mounted on a 20 moa canted base in good rings. Spend the rest on cases of federal gold medal 168gr hpbt match.

    My savage is every bit as accurate as my issued Remington 700pss, and I have shot them both at 1000 yards.

    If they were truly bit by the long range bug, and eventually wanted better equipment, I would steer them in the direction of handloading their own ammo, and upgrading parts of the savage rather than replacing it. Better stock, bedding the stock, match grade barrel, better trigger, having a good gunsmith who knows what they are doing square, true, and polish the action, etc, and roughly in that order.

    And if the day ever comes that I needed to snipe blue helmeted illuminati zombies, I wouldn’t feel under gunned.

    A national match M1A is a beautiful rifle , but last time I checked they were going for $1600. If money were no object, and I could buy my dream extreme long range rifle, it would still be a bolt action.

    • Thanks for the input. I asked a local expert that I respect here and also got the same answer. I’m looking at taking a precision rifle course this fall and want to make sure I have a gun that will work well. While I’d like an AR-10 (who wouldn’t), I think there’s wisdom in starting with something less expensive and then buying up if needed.

    • You beat me to it. I agree with Jack on almost all points and you took it one step further to clarify that you can have incrementally huge gains in precision by handloading. Independent of what rifle you purchase, one of the nest things you can do to increase the precision of your rifle is work up a load for it.

      I made a pretty good trade a couple years ago where I traded a built lower receiver for an early 1980’s era factory Savage 110 in 30-06. I had my mind set on an early model Winchester model 70 or a Remington 700 but after I got my hands on the Savage and saw what is was able to do with a factory sporter barrel, crappy scope, crappy stock, etc. I was impressed. I was shooting at just over 0.5 MOA at 100 yards using hand loads which were worked up for a completely different rifle. I spent a lot of time on savageshooters.com educating myself and picking up some replacement parts from people on the forums there and I’ve built myself a beautiful rifle for $975. This was with a custom stock sized to my length of pull, custom barrel/nut/shank….this includes tools to rebarrel the rifle myself. I did spend another $1k on base, rings and scope but obviously this is a variable cost. I’ll likely be a savage guy for life, I no longer have an interest in Remington 700 patterned or Winchester bolt action rifles.

      The Savage design doesn’t really benefit much from squaring/truing the action due to the Savage design, namely the floating bolt head. This makes sense when you understand how the savage works; this was also the feedback I received from two reputable gunsmith’s who I contacted about performing this work on my rifle, I tried to give them my money and they told me to spend it elsewhere.

      I have zero experience with M1A’s but they are sexy and I love them, both the original format with wood and the newer tac’d out versions. I did hear from the guys over at forgottenweapons.com on a recent podcast is that their experience with the M1A was that it can be very accurate when first setup but over time it loosens up and loses precision. These guys have quite a bit of time with M1A’s of different flavors so I put a bit of weight into their opinion.

      Takeaway for guy who asked question:
      -Very hard to go wrong with Savage
      -Get over to savageshooters.com and join their forum. I would also recommend joining as a paying member so you can participate in the member sales portion of their forum where you can pick up parts and complete rifles for amazing prices.
      -Easier to work on Savages at home when compared to Remington’s due to switchbarrel system anf floating bolt head.
      -Learn to handload. You should have no problem getting started within the $1,500 budget after you buy your savage.
      -Participate in an Appleseed shoot. As Jack said, there’s not a better value when it comes to improving your skill swith a rifle.

  13. RE: Fracking and Representative Democracies (RD)

    RDs only work if those represented don’t allow the elected representatives to be corrupted and bought, which is probably what the fracking interest did in this cases. How much money did they give Abbot or state reps to pass that law?

    Regarding the rights of fracking companies (if you can consider them people) they end the minute their activities are in detriment to my rights, specifically my right to breath clean air. I have driven by fracking operations and they stink from a distance, so I can’t imagine living 1000 feet from fracking field.

    Regardless, this law will probably be challenged in court, the third branch of our government. If that still does not work, people should boycott paying property taxes.

  14. My 2 cents on the rifle issue. Now I may not be the average shooter, but I TOTALY agree with Jack on the Basics. Being on active duty for almost 17 years(Marine) the basics allow you to grab darn near any decent weapon and with a little adjustment and shoot effectively.

    I routinely go almost an entire year without shooting my duty rifle M16a4. We get maybe 45 min of shooting and adjustment before we have to use those settings for qualification. I do not shoot the same weapon from year to year and during our longest distance shooting 500yds prone(laying down) and can consistently hit the standing man target 8 out of ten times from that position with a well used weapon. Before our optics(Acog) I was still 6-7 out of 10 with iron sights at 500yds.

    Now a few years ago I was able to shoot a newly built basic AR10(.308) with iron sights that was about $1100. With that basic set up I was able to hit a pizza box sized target standing(off hand) unsupported at 775+ yards pretty consistently. In a supported position with moderately decent optics I am sure I could reach out much farther than that. In that I am sure my “Basics” helped out, but personally I loved that platform.

    • Agreed the only reason I can’t hit a silhouette at 500 meters with irons, is I can’t see them. My vision even corrected isn’t great.

      Truth told the pop ups we shot at in BRM in the Army at 300, I could not actually see. What I could see was them popping up, the movement.

      With that I shot 39 for 40 when I qualified and my one miss was actually a 250 meter target, so I hit every time on the 300s. NOT SEEING THEM, only knowing where they were and holding based on that knowledge.

      Yea you don’t need a 1500 dollar rifle.

      This was a big lesson for me in the Army when it came to rifles. Hitting anything with a scope at say 500 for a standard kill shot, man or large beast, became almost too easy after that.

      It really wasn’t skill they developed in me, I had that it was knowledge that it was possible and trust that the gear would do the job.

      At 800 meters with my 250 dollar savage the only thing I think that would save a blue helmet would be one of the following,

      A – a perfectly timed unexpected wind gust
      B – body armor
      C – talking a step or two at the shot, 308s take a while to travel that far

      • Yeah when they transitioned over to the ACOG from irons I was really nervous. I was so familiar with irons that I didn’t want to change. After zeroing in and shooting my first string of fire afterwards I was a fan. The best part was the windage adjustments a the 500yd line. We had to manually adjust for windage click a knob, reset and take the shot. There was so much movement plus the wind could change making you have to readjust. With the optic all it needed was an opening of one eye to check the range flags use Kentucky windage and fire a much easier and quicker adjustment and all can be done without really moving. It is nice though to still know you can shoot with Irons if it came to it.

      • I was laughing when you went off on the zombie rant. You must be getting a lot of questions from the Doomsday Prepper crowd lately. Is paranoia of paranoia possible? 🙂

  15. On the banning banning.

    (Full Disclosure, I work in the oil and gas industry though I totally supported fracking before I entered it.)

    I have to say it is time the states did “ban banning” of this kind of thing. For multiple reasons. First, “banning” things generally takes rights and property away from people. Right now there is talk, longshot of course. of parts of the southern tier of NY wanting to leave and become part of PA because the state took away their rights to the oil and gas underneath their property. No good reason, just wanted to ban fracking. Any compensation? Of course not!

    When localities do these kinds of “bans” they become in essence a glorified HOA, though with power at the point of a gun and not just to your money. No HOA can put you in jail for violating their codes.

    What happens on these bans is almost always the same. A few locals decide they do not like something. So they get a few more people to get together and petition for the ban. Next thing you know, rights and property are lost.

    True story, locals tried to ban my company from simply storing pesticides in a safer way. Why? Because the word “chemicals” was on the application. The “chemicals” had been there for 10+ years with no issue. Their concerns ranged from rational to so-far-out as to be unbelievable. Of course I had to answer every question, which I did. 9 issues before the board that night and I took just over 50% of the time. Looked and felt like when you see Congress summoning some leader of industry for whatever issue. I won and I really learned about life while proving I could conduct myself professionally. But I was almost “banned” just because someone did not like a word.

    • The other thing is “issue separation”.

      There are two issues here, most people see only one.

      Issue One – Fracking

      Issue Two – The limitations of negative power on local governments, in conflict with higher governmental level laws.

      This particular instance is more about number two than number one.

      This also shows how fucked up we are in our government. The purpose of smaller bodies of government should be to defend not impede individual rights. In other words smaller governments should be challenging the states on things to the affirmative. Yes you can farm in our town, yes you can carry a gun in our town, etc.

      I personally think if fracking is to be banned it should be banned by a state not a township, and seriously your explanation of why is spot on.

  16. RE: Pledge

    For what it’s worth Jack, you are not alone in your thoughts regarding the pledge. SCOTUS is its 1943 – West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, decision stated in (with respect to the expulsion of students who would not salute the flag) what I consider to be a very liberty oriented opinion:

    “The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.”

    Further:

    “The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure but because the flag involved is our own. Nevertheless, we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds. We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. When they are so harmless to others or to the State as those we deal with here, the price is not too great. But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.

    If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.”

    So you stand in good company!

    PS: The “Under God” bit was added as a jab at the Soviets not as a concession to Christians. The salute was brought into national significance and legislation by the Knights of Columbus a Catholic order to begin with.

  17. Jack,

    The US leaders are sociopaths and here is proof…Here is the definition of gas-lighting and they do it all the time:

    Gaslighting or gas-lighting is a form of mental abuse in which information is twisted or spun, selectively omitted to favor the abuser, or false information is presented with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity.

    • Just heard the “rant” on public education and standardized education. Geez man, in my opinion you’ve just been absolutely nailing these topics. Excellent analysis. I definitely appreciate a fully fleshed out and well thought out argument and that was an excellent one. Especially the summation at the end about effecting the weakest among us.

    • The software issue is definitely a quagmire. I think you’ve done a pretty decent job explaining the actual situation as it exists today.

      Into the rabbit hole Jack was avoiding (for reasonable reasons):
      My biggest problem is the amount of implied contracts going on. By buying your car you agree (without you even saying you agree) to having unknown parties do whatever the heck they want to whenever they want to, which is only becoming more the case. With new cars we’re talking software that controls every single aspect of the vehicle. New vehicles “fly by wire”.

      Not too long ago software started becoming more of a continuous integration of features and bug fixes rather individual releases and with IOT (internet of things) becoming a reality, companies (or others) have the ability to push and pull software changes whatever they want. You effectively agree to having undocumented open holes into devices that are extremely dangerous.

      At what point in time did we think it was ok to agree (implicitly) to an unknowable amount of conditions that can and will change any time without your knowledge that can and will effect your life and that of your children? Isn’t that the epitome of not taking personal responsibility, as laid out by the permaculture prime directive?

  18. Was Jack more right than he knew? 2 days after this podcast Boston police find a guy wanting to behead police from monitoring his communications? I can’t seem to get a full story just news blips here and there.

    • This is what a lot of people seem to fail to realize. This is what people have been talking about with backlash overseas, just coming back to the US. Until the system relinquishes its grip (it won’t) there’s going to be more….. and more…… and more of that kind of stuff.

      This is one reason why I enjoyed the Galen interview so much. It focuses on what we can do personally in our own communities by taking personal responsibility for ourselves, and then others. Even more combine this with Toby Hemingways liberation permaculture ideas such as hazy and grey systems…..

  19. Jack, I understand what you are saying about fracking and people’s rights. When it comes to destroying the earth, we can’t just go along with what’s good for business. I know we need gas and oil. Hopefully humans will wake up and work more seriously on alternative options.

    I personally know people who have had their health and their land destroyed by fracking. The problems associated are too serious to let it continue.

    For anyone who wants to research this further, here are a few documentaries.

    http://www.gaslandthemovie.com, Gasland and Gasland II. Josh Fox does a great job on both of these films.

    http://www.rootedlands.com, Rooted Lands documentary about how fracking changed the Farmington New Mexico area. Real people who have been lied to by the oil and gas companies, their homes and lands destroyed.

    http://www.splitestate.com, Documentary about fracking in SW Colorado and the terrible impacts on people’s health and the land.

    Thanks for listening!

    Kate

    • But again, that is the problem.

      This is NOT really about fracking. Denton banning fracking won’t do any good for any of the problems you point to, at all, it isn’t a mouse fart.

      In our form of government Denton doesn’t get to do this, just like they don’t get to ban guns or free speech.

      Now unlike guns and free speech fracking is not defended by the State or state constitutions. But the state does have the power to regulate or ban it, the city/town doesn’t.

      What people here are doing is making this about fracking, it isn’t, it is about who has the power to regulate what.

      If you are pro 2nd amendment you are glad it takes a constitutional amendment, if you are anti you are unhappy with that, but we all live in that system for now, right?

      So if you are anti fracking you are upset that the power over it is at the state level where it is harder to change but that is also the system we live in. I don’t want local ordinances stamping on the state level rights I agree with so I can’t support them stamping on the state level rights I disagree with.

      I have also found four distinctive types of anti fracking claims…

      Type One – the claim is true
      Type Two – the claim may be true (we don’t really know yet)
      Type Three – the claim was true but no longer is
      Type Four – the claim was never true but is accepted is true

      I have to say I hear a lot of 3s and 4s claimed as 1s from the anti fracking crowd.

      Example – the famous burning water coming from a garden hose because fracking contaminated a well. The guy is named Jeff Fox and he is featured in Gasland you link to above. Problem, “two years before the release of Gasland, Colorado regulators had investigated that exact case, and determined hydraulic fracturing and oil and gas development had nothing to do with it. “There are no indications of oil & gas related impacts to water well,” according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission report.”

      Oh and he knew it when he became part of the movie, likely the producer did too!

      This is a type 4 claimed as a type 1! It is up there with a polar bear on a small melting piece of ice as an iconic image! That polar bear likely swam out to kill a seal 5 minutes later but it is the image of global warming though it has NO BASIS in fact. That is what these burning faucet images are, people with wells drilled into methane deposits blaming fracking.

      There are also a ton of type threes, “this happens all the time”, you check and NO this did happen sometimes and now doesn’t because of changes to procedure. XYZ is in fracking fluid! No XYZ was in fracking fluid and no longer is. OR, XYZ isn’t in fracking fluid it is in the earth and is in the reclaimed fluid after it is removed.

      Fracking isn’t “safe” but it is being done a LOT more safely than even 10 years ago. What I do know is most of the extreme examples of why fracking is so dangerous, tend to end up being not true at all and never were. I am sure there are plenty of type one issues, the anti crowd would do well to stick to them. The film makers you mention above didn’t.

  20. Hi Jack. I hear what you are saying. This is not about fracking, really. It’s a totally different issue, and it’s complicated!
    When it comes to fracking, watch the film http://www.rootedlands.com. I personally know some of the people in that film and it is true. The gas companies come in and say they will be gone in 10 years and everything will be back to normal. Not so. The ground water is totally polluted with their fracking chemicals. It’s not even safe to live there. People are getting sick just from breathing the air. I certainly don’t know what the answer is, just that it is NOT what we should be doing.
    I guess that all I can do is set up my life so that I’m giving and not taking. So that I’m not such a burden on the earth and also using less petroleum products. That’s what I’m doing, setting up an off grid homestead with solar and wind. Also setting up a biodiesel maker for my diesel truck. (This is a short term solution, yet better than doing nothing.) Also setting up a food forest.
    These seem like small steps yet are actually pretty big. The more of us that do similar things, it will all add up.
    Thanks for listening, and thanks for all you do.
    Kate

  21. Thanks for having my comment on the show. I literally could have gone on for hours about our pathetic, indoctrinating, school system. I have been there so many times to address issues that school personnel roll their eyes when they see me walk through the door. I have been there for everything from not being able to bring peanut butter sandwiches in their lunches to be being disciplined for the actions of others. Again, I could have written a book on these issues, and could have provided a foundation for why they have not been removed to date, but i imagine nobody has the time or desire to read my repsonses for hours……. The fact of the matter is that I wanted to put the issue out on the blog, and let the listeners know this shit is happening in states like Montana !!! I have not been able to remove them because of the fact I am divorced, they live with their mother, and I work out of the country as a security contractor. As alot of you probably know, it is impossibe to get your kids into the system that you want without both of the parents blessing. I plan to be quitting this work soon, after 10 years of deploying to foreign countries, and look forward to spending time with them, hunting, fishing and trapping full time…. please wish me luck in my endeavor to homeschool them.

  22. Putting asside the arguement if fracking is good or bad. I agree with you that is infringing on others rights to frack but the people of that town feel that that corporations fist would be connecting with that towns face :). as you would say your freedom/liberty stops with your fist connects with the other persons face.

    The problem I have with it is the people of whatever town got together to ban something that they believe was bad for them. Ok so the people were the ones to say hey we dont want that here.

    Then the big corporations came in lobbied and got the state to ban banning Fracking, not the people. If majority of the people in Texas said wait a sec, Facking is our god given right you cant ban facking here. Then I would just think Texas is crazy. But it wasnt the people saying vote yes for facking. They werent out on corners with signs. This was money hungry corporations paying to get this law through.

    Anyway thats my problem with this ban on banning fracking. that and the documentaries listed above make me believe that their fist is connecting with all our faces.

    I dont have a better solution either 🙂