There’s a saying in Kentucky: Everything we grow or make is either illegal, immoral or some way bad for you.
Moonshine, banned by the federal government, was a fierce battle carried into Appalachia by the Revenooers aka agents of the Treasury Dept/IRS. It was basically fought, not because of health issues as proclaimed by the federal gov’t, but because home brewers of the stuff didn’t want to pay the taxes on it. Today moonshine is sold in grocery stores and a trendy item in trendy restaurants in trendy parts of the country, iow blue areas.
Pot grows like a weed in Appalachia and we’ve spent a fortune trying to eradicate it and hunt down the people who grow it, primarily through federal mandates and the money the DEA hands out to state/local gov’t here. Hemp also grows like a weed here but it is related to marijuana so we also ban hemp. Other states – aren’t they all blue areas – are legalizing pot but we can’t legalize it here because we have a huge drug problem. Seriously, just ask a small restaurant owner about hiring short order cooks and servers. So we can’t capitalize on pot or hemp popularity.
My husband and I both grew up on raw dairy products, home-grown vegetables and home-processed meats, either our homes or family/neighbors. The gov’t outlawed all raw dairy, even though it’s an infinitely better product than pasteurized and we think it’s healthier. In fact, my preemie husband was a desperately ill baby raised by parents ordered by the doctor to give him only raw milk and then recommended the best seller of it. The French, who are drowning in socialist regulation, won’t give up their raw cheeses, cream and butter. Idiot socialist-light Prince Charles, who never met an EU or lefty regulation he didn’t love – long live the Queen, please dear God – is suddenly traumatized that the EU wants to outlaw importation of those lovely artisanal French raw cheeses into Britain and dismayed he has so little power as an individual to stop the ban. Hey go to The Federation, er the UN, to complain, Charles.
The key to raw dairy and home-processed foods such as sorghum or sausages or eggs Black Walnut Cake was to purchase from people you knew or thought you could trust. We bought certain things from certain neighbors or church people or relatives or farm stands. Sometimes you took a chance on a cake from a stranger but you checked it out to make sure it looked clean and it would be close to your home, the next holler over or on US 23, which had fierce competition in stands. We bought Mountainberry drink mix from the Raleigh rep or liniment from Watkins, we had some doughnuts or special breads delivered by the Omar bread-man to our homes, and we bought cute wooden ducks for the front yard by a rep.
Once during an extended strike at my FIL’s workplace, my MIL went door-to-door selling orders for her fabulous Jam Cake and Cream Candy to help pay the mortgage. I suspect that’s illegal today.
Just a few years ago, women celebrities joined men in smoking imported cigars. Now we can’t grow tobacco period. Is pot safer than tobacco. People say you only smoke one joint a day or okay maybe a few but people smoke dozens of cigarettes. That’s not always true. I know – knew – smokers who only smoked after a meal and I know pot-heads who have a joint every time I see them. Then they said it’s the pesticides that make cigarettes so dangerous. Excuse me but it you don’t think you need pesticides to successfully grow pot, then you don’t know pot.
We used to have small farms in Kentucky. Families didn’t make a lot of money but their kid helped on the farms and the kids went to a nearby small school and the family went to a nearby church. The gov’t keeps trying to farm work for kids. The gov’t consolidated the schools so many communities lost their town center in the school and many rural families lost their ties to a local school. The gov’t says it makes for a better education but I went to a one-room school, my parents and in-laws went to one-room schools, as did most of my relatives, and my husband attended small-town independent schools. I’ll match our educations with those of typical kids today at any time. The gov’t says it saves energy but seeing the heating/cooling/utility demands of monster schools just leads to vulnerability. It’s hard to believe the numerous buses save energy and it’s hard to believe the long rides are good for rural students. The infantilization of our young people is clearly seen in the lack of skills, other than using a cell phone. Kids used to know how to do things, accomplish work and possess grown-up skills.
Why the vague post headline about immigrants? It’s no secret drug cartels are using illegals to carry heroin and other drugs into the US. The heroin epidemic that’s ravaging not just Kentucky and Appalachia but numerous other states such as New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as urban areas. You can thank the open border policy of Obama and the Democratic Party for sudden onslaught. Without mentioning Obama, the DEA admits that not only are being paid by Mexican/Central American drug cartels to carry drugs here but the honchos of the drug cartels are comfortable waltzing in here anytime because in virtually all sections of the border, ICE and local authorities have been ordered to leave the borders alone. The only ones permitted there are social workers handing out US-taxpayer-paid freebies of ObamaCare, food stamps, ID cards, green cards, worker visas and cash. I’m betting there’s voter registration cards are included, too.
The terrorists waltzing in through the borders. That’s just extra, no cost to you, taxpayer.
It’s ‘in’ to smoke pot, it’s Neanderthal to smoke tobacco. http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-new-prohibitionists/article/2001395
Let’s keep shutting down coal; the hypocrisy is what burns. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/02/23/study-urban-backyards-contribute-almost-as-much-co2-as-much-as-cars-and-buildings/
And all that greasy fried foods and meat used in the South and Appalachia, oh my. http://www.popsci.com/fry-away-vegetables-cooked-in-extra-virgin-olive-oil-better-than-boiling
Organic is consistently shown to be more likely to result in a safety recall than regular food. http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2015/12/or.html
Bruce M. Chassy, food science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana scoured U.S. Food and Drug Administration data to conclude that organic food is four to eight times more likely to be recalled over safety concerns than conventionally grown products.
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Pull My Chain 