When I was a kid we had this low marshy area full of nut grass and I wanted to add it to my garden area. I sunk trenches and filled with logs, leaves and wood chips. I planted all kinds of stuff experimentally but blueberries, strawberries, mint and garlic evolved into the main crop. That became my favorite part of the garden. Later I found out about chinampas and hugelkultur. I always thought it would be cool to have a little marsh farm on that kind of model with ducks grazing through it on rotation.

Hey, just wanted to give a big +1 for that callout to LEOs on their take of how to properly handle a threatening and abusive situation when an officer is truly overstepping his bounds and immedietly harming you. Any time I’ve gone through that scenario in my mind, it doesn’t end well no matter how I play it.

What do you do if a detainment is unlawful, I want to know.

BUMP

I think that you MAY have been a bit too strong about people who get diabetes. A number of years ago I ran across a Scottish study that found that rats fed a GMO diet had changes in the bacteria in the gut, but they had no idea what if anything that might mean.

More recently, in another study, others found that changes in gut bacteria is a precursor to diabetes. This may have something to do with the surge in the incidence of diabetes quite apart from the eating of fast food. Not to say that isn’t an issue, but this is just another example of how GMOs may be causing long term medical issues which nobody is paying any attention to at all, just like 99% of scientists, including medically trained, were adamant that thalidomide was safe for pregnant women in spite of thousands of babies being born with flippers or no arms and legs instead of normally developed limbs.

A very good documentary for simple living is “Happy People: A year in the Taiga”. It is the story of people that live in Siberia with little outside influence. It shows them making their own tools like skis and canoes. I found it funny that they live under a very oppressive government but enjoy an insane amount of freedom.

Check out the trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1pOjj49d9Y

You can watch the whole thing on Netflix or on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpq__m6gh_I

RE: Looking for TV shows about living without power or technology. It’s not exactly along these lines, but there was a British show called Castaway (now referred to as Castaway 2000) that put folks from around Britain onto a remote Scottish island for a year. It’s an early ‘reality’ show, but there isn’t any competition or elimination, just people trying to survive and make a community and filming themselves. I’ve not been able to find it recently, but here’s a wikipedia article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castaway_2000 and the BBC One show page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0179h0r

I am a Deputy Sheriff in west Texas and I would agree with John, call 911 and tell the operator what is going on and ask for a supervisor. If the Police Officer tells you to get off the phone, just put the phone down, but do not hang up and verbally describe what is going on. Key things to remember is to remain calm and comply with the officers orders, remember you may not be aware of circumstances that have the officer drove up (ie. You or your vehicle may be similar to someone who just committed a violent crime). The officer should have his in car camera running recording everything, if you are connected to 911 they will also be recording everything. In Texas it is against the law to resist an unlawful arrest, if you do you have now committed an offence where there was not one before. Do not fight the officer, it will not turn out well for you. Responding officers may not know you are trying to defend yourself and any claims you have against the offending officer will be harder to prove. Try not to argue with the officer, courtrooms are for presenting arguments not on the side of the road. I believe that all peace officers should be held to a higher standard and the few bad apples out there give all of us a bad name. If you have a bad encounter with a peace officer you can always file a complaint later with the department, if nothing is done I would complain to the DA , then to whatever organization licences peace officers in your state.

Regarding the woman and her actions with the LEO…

I have not seen the video, but she provoked the escalation of the situation in my opinion. With that said, the officer did let his adrenaline kick in with someone that did not deserve it based on just being a snarky obstacle in his day. Clearly this woman was trying to cause a problem by being ‘passive aggressive’ for lack of a better term. At the end of the day she may have needed her window broken and physically removed from her car. But would it not have been better for him to stay calm and let the other officer (woman it sounded like?) talk to the lady while he took a step back? Just my thought when I listened to the recording. I’ll admit that dealing with a situation in person is a whole different ballgame vs. internet quarterbacking but I’ve seen/heard/read so many disturbing accounts of police stepping over the line. Maybe mine is a psychological knee jerk reaction…
There are so many reports of legitimate police crimes being captured recently it begs the question on how this overall issue will trend and where a tipping point might be. I hope and pray that all LEO agencies will recognize the scrutiny. Even their moderate or arguably minor overreaches are making their way past the county paper and starting to piss a lot of people off. I can’t go more than a week without hearing about someone being ‘detained’ unlawfully, roughed up, dog shot, etc. Yes this lady was being a PIA but it seems to go from 0-60 a lot faster than it should have. Again though, I wasn’t there and maybe this officer is a great guy and felt it was time to end the BS standoff this lady created on her own.