MIA Son Re-surfaces

Keep Your "Good Intentions" Out of My Garden!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

There has been a very active conversation going on one of my herb lists. The conversation stems from a large soapmaking supply company’s blog post which implies that anyone who makes and sells herbal products for the health benefits of humankind is in effect and I quote "a drug dealer", and "in violation of FDA regulations".

So, to simplify this statement, If I make a salve that is infused with herbs that are reputed to help soothe and heal minor scrapes, scratches, and skin irritations. Though I make no claims that MY product will "heal" anything, only what the herbs themselves have been believed for centuries to do. According to the above mentioned article I'm a "Drug Dealer" and to the FDA this violates theirs regulations.

Now I find out that if we make soap that is moisturizing, or skin-softening, or has any kind of “special” qualities beyond just cleansing the skin the FDA now considers that not a soap, but a cosmetic, and thereby they have the right to regulate it.

This kind of legislation makes me crazy!
Just because a bar of soap is superfatted or still has the natural glycerin intact and therefore is more moisturizing than the average bar, does NOT make it a freaking bottle of lotion, face foundation, or a damn tube of mascara! If I eat a damned hamburger, does that make me a freaking hamburger until it is digested and comes out the other end? For cripes sake!!

And to go one step further into the land of petty ridiculous government interference…..you’ll love this. Now the FDA wants us to be mind readers. We can make and sell a product that has herbs in it but make no specific herbal claims. However, if the end user (customer) buys said product with the intent to use it as a natural healing product, then we the manufacturer of said product have just violated FDA regulations. WTF!?

Now for all of you that are saying, “Oh, the FDA is just trying to protect the consumer. We need to have some kind of regulatory system in place. Blah, blah, blah.” Let me refer you to the following articles:

Aspartame - Rumsfeld's Bioweapon Legacy
http://www.rense.com/general67/rum.htm

Some of you may be old enough to remember the big gumball marketing push for Aspartame. Gumballs of every color in the rainbow were mass mailed to homes all across the U.S. Perfect! We could consume artificial coloring and sweetener all in one step! The timing just so happened to coincide with the ban on stevia. Coincidence? I think not!

Stevia & the FDA
http://www.feingold.org/PF/pf_stevia.html

Interesting how we are now seeing products like Truvia on the market that have been released by the big box companies like Cargill, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. For years the FDA claimed that there was no solid evidence to prove that Stevia was safe for human consumption as a food additive. And now all of a sudden the big companies with the big money have been given the approval to use it as such! Hummm???

Bush/Monsanto Push to Give FDA More Power
http://current.com/items/89162342_bush-and-monsanto-pushing-to-give-fda-more-power.htm

One question? Who is regulating the FDA?

Roundup—the American Weed-Killer—Is Likely Killing American People, Too
http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/roundupthe-american-weed-killeris-likely-killing-american-people-too/

We can’t use stevia as food additive. We can’t put herbs in our soap. But our neighbor can spray poison on his lawn and the shrub between our houses with no regard for which way the wind blows, thus potentially causing Sally two doors down to miscarry her first child, or Joe across the street to suddenly become afflicted with prostate cancer. And worse yet possibly contaminate the ground water in the area causing birth defects in children born to families on that block for years to come!!!

Still think that the FDA, EPA and the government in general is “just trying to protect the consumer”? Well, if so then I dare say that you are very naive indeed! The FDA is nothing more than another corrupt money making entity for the government. And we are just guinea pig pawns to be used for their experimental money making ideas.

Between this and the recent fear mongering blog posts I've been seeing lately from others in this industry, pretty soon there will be no such thing as the soapmaking cottage industry, or any other small business/cottage industry. And then big brother, big box manufacturers, and big pharmacology will have won and the general public will have no say over what they can and cannot use on/in their bodies, what they can eat or drink, etc. Gods forbid that anyone should have the audacity to think for themselves, or any little cottage industry of should possibly take one dime out of big commercialisms pockets!!

I have a cousin (in-law) with a very large farm (around 100+acres) and the flipping government pays him NOT to farm it! What is wrong with this picture? He is one of many farmers in the U.S that Monsanto and the FDA do not want to compete with. So the farmer is simply paid off instead. And we wonder what has happened to American Pride. The government has paid its people not to have any!!

What’s next? Will the government be mandating what we can and cannot grow in our own gardens? Oh, I forgot. They already do!!

Tired of the Battle

Have you ever been so fucking tired from fighting life itself and all it's bullshit that you just want to runaway and hide someplace or just go to bed and never wake up? I mean everything is always a fucking fight! From the mundane to the spiritual it and freaking battle. Nothing is ever just simple. Easy. Why can't the universe for once, just once say, "Here, you have fought long enough, here is a gift. Just take this one on the house".?

I have to fight the wi-fi company. I'm paying $60/mo. and it never works! I'm on back-up dial-up 95% of the time.

I'm still fighting with the re-fi company. We closed on June 23rd and STILL have not funded even though they said that we funded on the 30th.Tthe company that supposedly funded the loan has never heard of us! Seriously??!!

We are fighting L&I and have been since Aug. '08 for and injury my husband suffered at work. The sergeon says he is medically stable. Meaning there is no more they can do for him. Our doctor says "Bullshit! Lawyer up!" It's all a fucking nightmare.

Now my husband job is a nightmare too. Three years of cutbacks and worker abuse. Now the workers are trying to unionize and the place has become a hostile inferno. More cutbacks have been levied. As if we can handle more? Christ!! Now husband has applied for a job in Bear bumfuck River, Utah at another white paper mill. Give me a break! He didn't even ask me first. And they want to interview him the middle of the month. there is absolutely not one fucking thing about Utah that appeals to me. I have zero desire to visit the place let alone move there! Fuck!! I know that he is trying to find emplyment that will offer more stability than the newsprint industry will. And I appreciate that part of him that is honerable and wants to provide for us. But I can't help but to wonder if it is not partly selfish too since he grew up in Utah and has a fondness for the area and environment.

There is a battle raging between myself and my in-laws (they live next door with 10 acres separating us). The last time they were in my house for a bbq, my sister-in-law was seriously rude to our very best friends saying something very mean, hurtful and cutting. I pulled her aside and nicely told her that it was rude and uncalled for. She told me "for once in you life Donna just shut the fuck up". WTF? Then she left. Well, she is no longer welcome here and I found out later that she and most of the inlaws think that I'm a gold-digging leach, a burden to thier brother and that I have no right to own my own business and I should go out in the "real" world and get a "real" job like other normal women do. WTF?? I've spent 25 yrs. trying to make those people happy. And they think this of me? Fuck 'em!! I'm tired of trying to jump through hoops for them. I want nothing more to do with them.

The las time that we traveled to Sedona (a spiritual mecca and home for us), we made a commitment that we would someday live there. It make us happy, joyful, full of peace when we are there. It feels like home. We decided that if the universe so allowed it, or saw fit, that we would move to Sedona, even if it meant selling everything and living in our travel trailer. What an easy, romantic notion to have when you are in the midst of paradise. It seems almost as if the universe has been testing and making us eat our foolish words since we have been back home. Because life has been hell since our return.

I'm so tired of fighting for and with everything. And I'm so angry that I have to fucking fight for everything. I'm so stressed all the time anymore that I have so much shit going through my head at any given time that I can't even grasp one though long enough to focus on it so that I can accomplish anything. I find myself just standing in the middle of a room staring into space not even knowing why I'm int the room. Or sitting staring out the window into oblivion.I don't answer the phone anymore because I simply don't have the energy to put into a conversation. I wake up in the morning and I'm exhausted. I even caceled out on the Farmer's Market today because I didn't have the energy or the motivation.

I'm just so tired......

Enough!!

Rant Alert!!!

Grr!! So, we have been in the process of a VA Refinance for the past 3 months. We were scheduled to close two weeks ago. We have had 5 different appointments set up and canceled at the last minute.

They always have some crazy ass excuse for why the have to cancel on us. There have been so many cases that they are swamped and can't get the docs finished in time. Or their systems are down so they can't get the docs sent in time, etc. Today was supposed to be THE day. No more cancelations. Ya right!

This time they found errors on the docs! Damn it!! They have had 2 fucking weeks to get the damn docs right! WTF? They find an error 2 hours before we are supposed to sign? Do they have morons doing the paperwork? At one point ( a few weeks ago), they even called us and wanted to know why we had canceled the process. WHAT? Are you fucking idiots?! We DID NOT cancel anything. We should have already closed and funded you imbeciles!!  No I didn't really say that, but I wanted to.

So, now we wait again, for then to call us and tell us that we can close. In the mean time our house payment is over due because they told us we would fund over a week ago and not to make the payment. Cool! We used the money to pay other bills. Now it's not so cool. We've never had a late house payment.

If this does not fund this week I honestly don't know what I will do.  I don't know how much more frustration I can take.

News just came two days ago from hubby's job that they are cutting everyones wages by a minimum of 5% and possibly as much as 20%, among a long list of other cuts. But they won't tell them yet how much the cut is going to be. It is yet to be determined. So we are all in limbo waiting to see just how much of our lives we will loose. Some of the workers will loose their homes just at the 5% cut. This comes after 2 years of deep cuts already.

And to top it all off, the surgeon told hubby today that there is nothing more they can do for his totally fucked up knee. Which is the result of a bad fall at work last year. And the stat is fighting with us to close the disability case with no compensation.

We are both on maximum overload here!

A Heartfelt Thank You

Wow, I sure did not expect the reaction that has come from my little rant. But you know, it was been so assuring, and confirming to see/read/ "hear" all of your comments here.

This incident happened way back in March. You would think that I'd be past it. Over it! And most of the time I am.I will be going along just fine as frogs hairs thinking that I'm fine with it all. That if that is the choice they want to make, then so be it. They have every right to make whatever choices they feel necessary for what they deem to be the "well being" of their family. And I hold no ill will toward them. And then it comes..........

All of a sudden BAM! I'll have one of those days when I'm feeling all dejected, and persecuted just for being true to myself all over again. Then all those same old feelings instilled in me from the "church" come flying back in my face. Feelings of not being adequate. Not measuring up. Of always being a "sinner, born into sin, God rejected me because I was such a sinner, and so his son another human being had to DIE for me." Blah, Blah, Blah. And now I find myself being rejected again because I'm such a horrible human and didn't follow the "right" path.  I HATE those days!!

But I can honestly say that coming here to PNN and posting my rant helped make this episode very short lived. Your response has been overwhelming. You've helped restore my confidence. You've helped to re-ground me again. For that I thank you all from the bottom of my heart <3

Blessed Be, Love & Light!

Who Made YOU God?!

This is a question that I have silently asked many times. When I find myself in a situation of being judged for one of my veiws on something, how I've raised my children, what kind of wife I am, yada, yada. Or when I see it happening to someone else. Mostly I just try to keep my mouth shut, smile, and walk away.

Recently we; my husband and I were informed by longtime friends (a close 10 year friendship), who were very aware of our chose faith and pagan path, that they have chosen to end the relationship because of our religious views. The same views they themselves have been earnestly seeking for several years now. They were quite judgemental in thier announcement of this decision.

Naturally this came as huge shock to us. And we are very deeply hurt by thier choice to just walk away from a long, close relationship in which one of thier sons is a godson of ours. They were the last people on the planet that we ever expected to pass judgement on us! We would have NEVER judged them for any reason. We felt that we had a completely open, natural relationship with them. Surprise! I guess things are not always what they seem.

It positively baffles me that something like this could happen. That you can go along as friends thinking that everything is groovy and then BAM! one side of the equation just walks away. WTF? Did those 10 years mean nothing? Were they so trivial that they could just be thrown away over your religious intolerance? Are you walking the path of christianity now? If so, I thought your savior preached of love? Instead what I see is the same hateful, arrogant judgement that I experinced and dished out for the 15 years that I walked the path of the mainstream christian. Thinking I was God himself. Brandishing the authority to pass judgement on those that didn't walk the same path as me. LIES!! It was all LIES! And deceit! Beware of those that pass judgement upon others. For they will be judged by thier own sword!

Who made Who?! Who made You?! Who made You God?!