"A wood burner offers energy independence, and for that reason, like everything else that offers any kind of independence, they are considered a threat.
The existence of anyone or anything outside of the system, even in token or vestigial ways, threatens the idea that the system is even necessary. Therefore they must be attacked.
It’s an autoimmune response, a reflex; they can’t help it.
They need to know everything you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why.”
https://off-guardian.org/2025/10/22/theyre-coming-for-your-wood-burning-stove-again/
"You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both. Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions. If you will have that precision out of them, and make their fingers measure degrees like cog-wheels, and their arms strike curves like compasses, you must unhumanize them. All the energy of their spirits must be given to make cogs and compasses of themselves... on the other hand, if you will make a man of the working creature, you cannot make him a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing; and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out come all his roughness, all his dulness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure, pause after pause: but out comes the whole majesty of him also; and we know the height of it only when we see the clouds settling upon him."
-John Ruskin
I don't remember having ever heard Charlie Kirk's name before his assassination. I still dont really know much about him. However, I was
struck by the memorial that Pete wrote about him...
I am interested to hear what you all think about Joel Salatin's recommendations for government reform?
https://www.thelunaticfarmer.com/blog/9/25/2025/the-way-home
Beautiful example of a flow-spreading, self-terracing erosion control device called a "media luna" found on a trail on the central coast of California. This one is built from sandbags, but we usually. build them with rocks, timber, or other natural and locally-available material. 
"the new world trade system is ... a system with rules designed by corporations, run by corporations, for the benefit of corporations. Its rules exclude almost any feedback from any other sector of society. Most of its meetings are closed even to the press (no information flow, no feedback). It forces nations into positive loops “racing to the bottom,” competing with each other to weaken environmental and social safeguards in order to attract corporate investment. It’s a recipe for unleashing “success to the successful” loops, until they generate enormous accumulations of power and huge centralized planning systems that will destroy themselves"
-Donella Meadows
“I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don’t quite know what problems are worth working on… He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. … [T]here is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder."
-Richard Hamming
I hadn't realized how much "Read it Later" apps could help with minimizing digital clutter, maintaining high quality inputs, and organizing highlight- and note-worthy excerpts until reading this great article by Tiago Forte. I'm now experimenting with "Omnivore", a free and open-source Read-it-Later app, and enjoying it thus far!
https://fortelabs.co/blog/the-secret-power-of-read-it-later-apps
While I love my '86 Ford IDI diesel work truck... I continue to be so impressed by the quality of design and build of this 4Runner. Especially when the truck is nonoperational (again)!
Just signed this petition, because I'd love to see the debates include the candidate from every party - not just two.