On Eating Meat

People who survived the Soviet satellites of the former Iron Curtain, socialist countries run by their respective Communist Parties, can attest to the lack of food and especially meat they were subjected to daily.

One person who recently talked about his experience with food in Poland brought back painful memories. It was common for hungry kids to bully or beat up weaker kids for their sandwich, he said; their parents were members of the Communist Party and thus had access to healthy food. He reminisced about his mom buying a sliver of meat to flavor the soup or stew she was making. Drago was so shocked when he was first offered a piece of steak in the U.S. He thought it was the food ration for the month.

My mom bought bones with which she flavored our soups and potato stews. She could not have bought even a sliver of good meat if she wanted to because it was not available or it would have been too expensive for our meager budget to buy it on the black market. At best, she could have bartered something, but she had nothing of value to exchange for meat.

Such was food rationing on coupons under tyrannical regimes – empty stores and long lines for bread and other necessities that were always in short supply.

I visited Dachau’s Nazi concentration camp 31 years ago and I saw a list in German with the food rations for the camp’s prisoners. They received every morning 350 g of bread and half a liter of ersatz coffee, 3 liters of soup for lunch each week, one noodle soup and other two liters white cabbage soup, and for evening meals four times a week 20-30 g of sausage or cheese and ¾ liter of tea. No wonder the prisoners who survived were skeletal. Meat was almost non-existent in their nutrition; they were starved on purpose.

I watched my mom kill a chicken sometimes and grandpa slaughter at Christmas the pig he raised; it kept many in the family alive throughout the year. In retrospect, it did not look like a humane killing and the pig knew what was happening to him but we needed meat in order to survive and stay somewhat healthy and functioning.

I also remember grandpa burying a pig one year in the back yard because the village vet tech told him that it had trichinosis, and it was not fit for human consumption. But some villagers did eat their sick pigs and died or survived through treatment. A few of my childhood friends died of parasitic infections - they were not lucky to be close to a free medical clinic for treatment.

Some village kids drowned in the creek or in the Proava River when it rained a lot, and the muddy brown water concealed their bodies until the level dropped. Nobody knew how to swim. I never learned until I was almost 21 and living in the U.S.

My aunt Nuta used to take me and my best friend Steluta to the Prahova River - the water was clear and so cold, coming down from the mountains. There were pockets between large boulders where the water was deeper, and the fish were trapped in. We bathed with fishes swimming around us. We were hungry all the time, but it never occurred to us to try to catch the fish. We were afraid that someone would report us to the communist government, and we would go to jail.

Finding abundant meat to eat in the U.S. reminds us of the reality that every day we live, a creature dies to keep us alive. We just do not realize how much killing we do because someone else does the killing for us.

I am obsessed with the show ALONE for several reasons. One is the killing of animals in a survival setting where they are truly alone and must find meat protein, clean water, build a good shelter, and provide heat. Part of finding food is not just picking berries or edible plants which can be boiled and turned into soup. They must hunt and catch wild animals; unless trained, we lost that skill a long time ago. Most of us today would not know how to humanely trap and kill an animal to eat. We do eat meat but are squeamish about the actual killing.

A lady survivalist snared a squirrel, and the momma squirrel came and was trying to revive her baby and she was making all these crying sounds. It was heartbreaking to hear - animals are sentient beings.

A survivalist from West Virginia who hunted and killed with his bow and arrow a beaver in Labrador, Canada, contracted giardiasis, a parasitical infection from the beaver meat - he called it ‘beaver fever.’ Worse still, he had to undress down to his underwear and swim in the freezing river water to retrieve the dead beaver which was floating in the middle.

He got so sick after eating undercooked meat and fat from this beaver that he had to tap out to seek medical help. This was the revenge of the beaver for killing him and leaving his mate alone for life.

But we know that in the circle of life animals eat other animals and maul humans as well if they are in their habitat or vicinity, and they happen to be hungry. Some even slaughter humans for the sport even when not hungry.

Meat has been part of the human diet for 2.6 million years despite the modern time push for vegetarianism. We are lucky in the U.S. that we have such a supply of meat, enough to trade with other nations.

No Gas Stoves, No Cars, No Electric Cars, and No Flying

People in many U.S. states keep voting more and more communists into office, on a wave of anti-American sentiment and hatred of the white race, replacing Americans who love our country and want what is best for their families. Illegals are the new face of America. Leftists want open borders and a globalist government that will control everything and everybody, with the help of the corporatist technocracy and the police state.

The new politicians come from the left and from third world nations that do not care at all about the fabric of American society, about our history, our language, and do not wish to assimilate. They just want better lives now, as soon as they cross the southern border.

The replacement “Americans” leave their pathetic countries in order to come illegally to the U.S. for generous welfare. All they have to do is vote Democrat and move into conservative states. Who can blame them? Life is short, why be poor in your own country when you can be richer in America on the dole paid by hard-working Americans’ taxes’?

These new and instant Americans hail from failed socialist countries and other totalitarian regimes and do not understand that their ignorant and illegal voting is fundamentally transforming our country into the tyranny they left behind. They help the one-party state, the Democrats, to fundamentally alter our way of life.

What are some of the fundamental changes we are forced to make? The one-party state is forcing us to give up fossil fuels, our cars, our electricity consumption, our meat consumption, travel, flying, most amenities that make our lives easier and worth living, and even our gas stoves.

I already experienced totalitarian control under communism and I ran away to America. But America is no longer the shiny city on the hill, and there is nowhere else left to escape to.

The communists of yesteryear did not have such technological control like we have today in America; the communist one-party state had an army of spies, policemen, secret police, economic police, neighborhood and block informers, and the military. There was nothing we could do but obey. Armed dissenters who tried to live alone in the mountains were hunted down, imprisoned, or killed.

Citizens had to ask permission to move, change jobs, go on vacations separately from their spouses, and only children of communist party leaders had a place in the free day care, kindergarten, and in greatly sought after free universities.

We had to carry I.D.s at all times, to obey curfew, to have our homes were searched on demand, without a warrant, checking for extra food, hidden cash, and for extra possessions. They tapped our phones, opened our correspondence, and packages. There was not much anybody could do without them knowing it.

We were deprived of heat, water, electricity, food, medicines, and most basics. People in the cities were cold in winter and hot in the summer. Villagers had to buy wood or cut it illegally in order to stay warm in winter time. They cooked with gas stoves fed by bottles of propane.

Gas stoves helped us cook meals, heat cold water for washing and laundry, and the gas oven kept us warm in the tiny kitchen in wintertime. The steam from the radiators never made it hot enough to the fifth floor to keep us warm.

I remember when gas used to be called in the U.S. the “clean burning alternative.” You could retrofit cars and trucks with gas in the 1980s when oil became too pricey and scarce. Now the globalists are after gas usage as well and New York has become the first state to impose a ban on gas stoves, furnaces, and propane heating in new construction.

Dr. Lawrence R. Huntoon, a New Yorker, wrote, “It gets brutally cold in the winters here, and massive snowstorms often knock out the electric power, frequently for days. Some people have natural gas generators to keep from freezing to death. Without electricity, thermostats don't function. The electric grid is fragile. Under the substantial increase in load caused by this woke policy, rolling blackouts would become the norm.”

But the globalists are not stopping at gas stoves and furnaces. According to Technocracy Now, globalists want, via the World Economic Forum (WEF), a 75 percent reduction (by 2050) in the private ownership of cars, including electric vehicles.  WEF claims that most of the world’s population will be urban by 2050 and the public won’t need a private car or the use of commercial air travel. The general population will be locked up in the 15-minute cities.

Politicians and unelected policymakers are making the middle-class poor and people will die from their policies. When you keep voting for the communist Democrats who are destroying our country, while you are living a comfortable life now under a capitalist economy, but you wish to transform it into a communist-controlled society, I wonder how sound is your judgment.

 

 

Survival and Respect for Our Food Sources

I am obsessed with the show ALONE for several reasons. Number one is the killing of animals which I could not do. I do eat chicken and fish and I know how and where that meat comes from.

I watched my mom kill chickens and saw her holding its head while the body was dancing in the grass, dying. She then submerged the whole thing in boiling water to make it easier to pluck its feathers. I always left the tiny apartment because the smell made me sick to my stomach.

When I was growing up, I knew grandpa slaughtered a pig every year for the extended family during the Christmas feast, The red blood splattered in the white snow remains in my memory to this day. In retrospect, it did not look like a humane killing and the pig knew what was happening to him.

I remember grandpa burying a pig one year, far in the woods, because the village vet tech told him that it had trichinosis worms, and it was not fit for human consumption. 

A few of my childhood friends died of parasitic infestations, the result of living off the land, just like these contestants on ALONE. The children who died were not lucky to be live close to a medical clinic that could have treated them. There was no doctor assigned to the village even though it was only 10 km from a large city. The bus ran twice a day, but people had little money to travel.

I remember when Mom’s youngest sister used to take me and my best friend Steluta to the Prahova River. The water had the clarity of crystal and was so cold, coming down from the mountains. There were natural pockets between large boulders where the water was deeper, and large fish were trapped.

Prahova River

We played in the water with fishes swimming around us. We were hungry all the time, but it never occurred to us to try to catch any. We were afraid that someone would report us to the communist government, and we would go to jail. Technically everything belonged to the party, including the river, and we did not have their permission to fish.

The ALONE survival show brings to life for me the reality that every day we live, some creatures die to keep us alive. We just do not realize how much killing we do indirectly because someone else does the killing for us.

The reality show’s participants have revealed survival skills, gathering, hunting, fire building, shelter building, bow hunting, primitive survival, endurance in the face of starvation, standing up to large predatory animals, basket weaving, tool-carving, and other skills. They all have shown respect and gratitude for what they fished, hunted, and killed to eat. It was not pretty, but it was life.

Survivalists knew what plants to collect to supplement their food and which have medicinal properties. In our modern world, we are entirely removed from such knowledge, and from our meat sources if we consume meat.

Urbanites, who often are vegetarians, do not have gardens and have no idea how to plant, grow, and harvest vegetables and legumes; they are just as far removed from their food sources as meat eaters are.

A lady survivalist snared a squirrel. Momma squirrel came immediately, trying to revive her baby, and she was making all these crying sounds and chittering loudly. It was heartbreaking!

A survivalist from West Virginia who hunted and killed with his bow and arrow a beaver in Labrador, Canada, contracted giardiasis, a parasitical infection from the beaver meat - he called it ‘beaver fever.’

He had to undress down to his underwear and swim in the freezing water to retrieve the dead beaver’s body which was floating in the middle of the river. Hunger was stronger than the potential for hypothermia.

Within hours of consuming the undercooked beaver meat and fat, he got so sick that he had to tap out to seek medical attention. Was it the revenge of the beaver for killing him/her and leaving his/her mate alone for life? I have empathy for both the man and the poor beavers. But then larger animals maul humans all the time as well if they are in their habitat or vicinity, and they happen to be hungry.

Joe Keller wrote about his haunting hunting encounter. “I shot a deer once. Never again. There were two of them that jumped over a stone wall in the woods. The first was a doe and the second was a spike buck, three-four years old. I shot the buck, and it dropped on the spot. The doe was about 30 yards away and turned around. I called for my brothers-in-law, and they came running. We were all bent over the dead buck and the doe, its mother, stuck her head in-between us and tried to get the buck to stand up by nuzzling it a few times. She looked at us, as if we could help her. After a couple of minutes her eyes got watery, her head drooped, and she slowly plodded herself way away from us. I have not killed as much as n insect since that day. It still haunts me.”

The worst health scare in the Alaska wilderness of this reality show was the case of a young man who contracted trichinosis and it attacked major organs so severely that he was hours from death. His former 32-year-old heart resembled the heart of an 87-year-old. It took him months to recover from the damage to his organs and he suffered from debilitating congestive heart failure.

Watching these survivalists choke down roasted crickets, worms, and other bugs convinced me even more that the globalist plan to destroy our food sources and supply and replace them with farmed bugs in the name of saving the planet from an invented global warming is not for me.

 

Do You Take Your Grocery Store for Granted?

Bread line during the 1980s
Photo credit: adevarul.com

The Ceausescu clan and their communist useful idiots were quick to remind us of what an enchanted life we lived under his leadership and how terrible life was under evil capitalism and how their people suffered under the boot of the bourgeoisie.  We were so protected and full of hope under “mother” Elena and “father” Nicolae’s leadership, we were told ad nauseam, while the opposite reality hit us in the face every day.

Commies lied to us in order to cover up their mismanagement of the economy, the disastrous five-year plans, the gross misuse of the land, squandered resources, sold produce and grain to the west for hard currency while people were on rationing cards and hungry, and funds stolen from the treasury or from citizens accused under dubious circumstances of treasonous activities such as enemy of the proletariat.

The five-year plans had impossible to achieve goals set by those apparatchiks with high ranking in the Communist Party.  People would go to jail for not meeting these goals in the time frame dictated by the Stalinist bureaucrats, illiterate community organizers, who understood nothing about the economy, about industrial or agricultural planning.  When things went missing in factories, and they did often, accountants and managers would go to jail as theft occurred under their blind watch.

More tight lines for food
Photo credit: adevarul.com

At some point, they ran out of cattle feed and Ceausescu had to distress-slaughter cows. I remember mom saying that beef was tough to chew and purple-looking. To this day, we don’t eat beef. The meat was rationed to 2.5 kg per family per month.  Butchers would chop up bones in the meat which turned it into a purplish grey mass thrown on the counter with contempt. We had to bring our own wrapping newspapers and expandable jute shopping bags to carry food home. In addition to this shopping jute bag, people carried extra cash in case a line developed somewhere which meant that they could not pass up the opportunity to buy whatever was on sale.

This type of pathological lying to the people is not unlike the Democrats covering up their failed economic policies by telling Americans for eight years now how the economic status quo is our new normal, we should get used to the global economy, to the manufacturing sector moving entirely outside of the U.S., and how our jobs are never coming back.

Living under the boot of communism, we could not compare our meager existence with how other people lived because we were forbidden to travel, television programming was tightly controlled, and so were radio broadcasting and the press. 

Once in a while those in power slipped and broadcast successful mini-series like “Dallas” which gave us a glimpse of the opulent and dreamy life of the Ewings in Texas, the faraway Shangri La where money grew on trees and oil bubbled out of the ground.  American movies were smuggled into Romania, translated by a very courageous lady, and sold on the black market when VCRs became available.

Romania was not the only Iron Curtain communist regime to treat their people this way, but it was one of the worst.  Joe Keller described in a recent post, “When Victor Belenko defected and flew his Mig-25 Foxbat into Japan, he was taken to a safe house in Warrenton, Virginia, for debriefing and subsequent resettlement. Warrenton was not much of a town at the time. We had Peebles, shoe stores, grocery stores, an IHop and a couple of other restaurants and a bunch of gas stations. Belenko thought the Agency had staged the entire town for his benefit and did not believe stores had clothes, and restaurants had food in America. It ran against everything he had been told.”

The dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, a man with no formal education, ordered in 1982 the passage of the “Program of Scientific Nutrition for the Population,” a law that established the rationing of food, how many calories a person could eat, and how much one could weigh.  Two years later, the nutritional standards were reduced even more.

Portions and consumption were controlled through the issuance of cards which could only be used at the local neighborhood grocery store where residents had to register each family member, present proof of identity and residence, and the number of people living in the house, including renters or temporary visitors.  Food could only be bought based on the number of people registered.

Lying was impossible as the police informers, the beat cops, and the housing registration office knew exactly where each person lived or if they moved and where. Cards were color-coded by cities and towns. Urban residents could buy more food while farmers were given less rations on the assumption that they grew some themselves. Those who tried to purchase in excess of their rations, when found out, were sent to jail. It was considered speculation punishable by law if a person tried to barter goods or sell food on the black market.  Many enterprising Romanians were clever enough and were never caught. http://adevarul.ro/locale/alexandria/ce-mancau-romanii-vremea-ceausescu-jumatate-paine-zi-litru-ulei-kilogram-zahar-luna-pui-marimea-porumbeilor-1_555f0c0acfbe376e3578994d/index.html

Imagine how mesmerized I was when I first entered the one and only grocery store in a small town in the south, population 3,000, Horn’s Big Star. It was filled with food to the rafters.  I was in awe and I kept filling the cart to the brim. My husband was laughing, putting things back and telling me that they will be there tomorrow. I did not believe him at first, I expected empty store shelves on my second trip.

I was so incredulous! I went to the grocery store every day to buy nectarines and Red Delicious apples. I was so shocked that I could buy fresh fruit in early January. I just knew that it was all staged for my benefit. Albert, the owner, who was a friend of the family, always greeted me with a big smile which I thought odd. Why is this man always smiling?  I was used to sour employees, shouting and treating us like animals, while we pushed and shoved each other in endless lines, often getting to the front of the line and finding out that they ran out of whatever we were waiting to buy.

We have an abundance of food and people get irritated in the U.S. when they can’t find their particular brand. Few have any idea that our grocery stores only stock a three-day supply of food. When major storms strike or even the potential of inclement weather in the U.S., shelves of milk, water, and bread disappear really fast at Walmart. 

Until you have to stand in endless lines to buy food and basics for survival, such as bread, milk, sugar, oil, flour, butter, or toilet paper and vitamins, until you have to live in the dark and cold when lights, heat, and electricity go out daily, when you have no running water at all or hot water is a rare occurrence, you cannot claim that you are poor, living in an “unjust country.” What you really need is a lesson in history, a trip to Cuba, to some other third world country, and an attitude adjustment to reality.