Outlaws of the Soil

Pat Gardiner of Self-Sufficiency in Style, whose writing I’ve linked to once or twice on Strike the Root, has written a passionate and beautiful essay on one sort of today’s Outlaws – the self-sufficient farmers determined to preserve their way of life.

Very quickly, the self-sufficient homesteader discovers that the world of work and pay cheque finds it difficult to cope with those that choose to leave orthodoxy behind…

They will simply refuse to obey laws and requirements that make no sense to them.

They have become outlaws in their own small way engaged in a guerrilla war with the forces of law and restriction.

The natural heirs to the pioneers that carved a country out of wilderness with a six-gun in one hand and a cattle brand in the other.

A wonderful must-read for Outlaws and gulchers alike. It does my heart and spirit good to know that the tribe, even internationally, is strong and growing. Thank you, Mr. Gardiner.

Deep reading…

Damn, there’s some amazing stuff out there to read lately. Just this week I’ve picked up two books that look to be powerful Outlaw page-turners: Dr. Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Belief, and Starhawk’s The Fifth Sacred Thing.

The Lipton book is a research biologist’s narrative of paradigm-shifting research he conducted, showing that the nucleus of a cell, with its DNA coding, is not the cell’s brain, or processor if you will, but merely its hard drive.

A tip o’ me hat…

…to some new and welcomed members of the blogroll! In particular, Dare2BFree’s Restored Spirit, Sunni Maravillosa’s Sunni and the Conspirators (how did I miss listing you sooner???) and Gospazha’s Lunaya Pravda.

Also, David Gross’s The Picket Line, PintofStout’s Murphy’s Bye-Laws, and Joe Plummer’s Stop the Lie are now on the list. Great to have you all here under the Outlaw umbrella.

And a name change to announce: David and Cherie’s New Freedom Blog is now known as Freedom Port: Firefly.

I’ll be adding more in coming weeks, both blogs and site links of interest, that I’ve been collecting for a while now. Y’all come back now…

Holy Confucius, Batman…

Private property rebellion in Communist China?

‘Chemical Ali’ Massoud at Strike the Root links to an astonishing news article today. And what’s equally amazing – and appealing to Outlaw types – is the manner in which the protesters conducted the whole affair (emphasis added):

Up to 10,000 blockaded the warehouse entrance in the village of Sanzhou, trapping 300 assembled dignitaries, including Guangdong officials and Hong Kong and foreign businessmen inside, the newspaper said.

Around 1,000 police and riot police arrived to defuse the standoff, but the villagers stood their ground, refusing to leave unless the corrupt officials were investigated, the paper said.

It was only when police began firing tear gas the following morning that the crowds dispersed, according to witnesses quoted by the paper.

It’s a shame they only demanded investigation of the government thieves. But wow. Mao must be spinning in his grave. And there must be quite a lot of current Chinese bureaucrats sitting up and taking notice.

New and improved working title

Recently I had a brainwave (believe it or not!) I’ve changed the working title of the novel to Liberty TRAIN (formerly Liberty Rain, which made sense in the context of the story, but presented some ticklish issues and seemed a bit abstract).

And the funny thing is, it didn’t occur to me until just this moment that the new title does suggest the underground railroad that the book is about! I hadn’t thought of it like that before – I was mainly trying to substitute something for Rain so that, as literary agent Dorothy Vincent warned me, the title wouldn’t be confusing for readers and buyers to spell and search.

But I think now that the new title, like the old one, is mysterious. Unlike the old one, it suggests action – and what’s more, this isn’t a train someone else is driving. There isn’t any engineer to get you there. You’ve got to drive the train or be an active part of the crew, because it’s headed for liberty. And the mystery is something I really want to delve into, all the way into the black. What kinds of mystery? The magic, of course, and the invisibility/shield concept [more on this in future posts]. Trains are magical and mysterious and haunting in a way, too.

The vault

Uncomfortable silence lately. The kind of silence that doesn’t know whether to scream truth in the darkest night to the few who might be listening, or clam up and preserve what little I understand within a vault of purposeful quiet. If it weren’t for you few but very loyal and supportive readers, I might even let the blog go into oblivion. And I’ve been considering quitting my stint as Friday guest editor over at Strike the Root.

Why? It’s not despair, not hopelessness – although with the increasingly oppressive news of late, it is partly fear.