August 24, 2006

• Some Followup Stuff

  ‘shrooms

  Several
  people asked about mushrooms and me.  When I first moved to this
  valley 23 years ago, I carried a field guide around, collected caps,
  made spore prints, and identified as many specimens as I could.  I
  discovered that there are many species here on the ground that are not
  in any field guide.  That same thing is true of insects, too.

  In this pic there are two mushrooms prominent in the lower left
  corner.  The colorful red one with white spots is Amanita
  muscaria, and the big brownish one above it is a Boletus species. 
  Boletes are abundant and ubiquitous here.  They are edible in the
  non-toxic sense, but must be collected as soon as little round knobs
  emerge.  By the time the caps open, they are full of larvae and
  have begun to turn to slime.

  When I was healthier and more vigorous, I did a lot of wildforaging,
  including for mushrooms.  Now that chronic fatigue curtails my
  activity, it is catch-as-catch-can.  There are about half a dozen
  tasty edible species I can easily distinguish from poisonous varieties,
  and when I find them I eat them.

  I used to collect and consume a few of the psychoactive ‘shrooms as
  well.  Psilocybes are rare this far north.  The only species
  I have found here is coprophilia, a tiny translucent bell-shaped cap
  with a distinctive white line around its margin and a delicate
  flavor.  An effective dose is about thirty or forty of them, and
  weather conditions must be ideal for them to appear at all, so it’s not
  even an annual treat.

  Amanita muscaria or fly agaric is toxic and psychedelic.  Popular
  folklore is full of contradictions and misinformation.  Some say
  the active ingredient is only in the little white warts on top, while
  others say that the warts are poisonous and you should only eat the red
  part.  An authoritative source, Andrija Puharich, in an appendix
  to his 1973 book, Beyond Telepathy,
  states that the red film or skin of the cap contains either atropine or
  muscarine (I forget which), and the warts contain the other, and that
  the two poisons interact to boost each other’s psychedelic effects and
  help prevent each other from stopping the user’s heart.  He
  includes preparation instructions and dosage information based on body
  weight.  [DISCLAIMER:   uninformed or careless use is harmful and possibly fatal.]

  ---

  POLITICS

  My readers reminded me that the democratic process follows different
  forms in other countries and does not exist at all in still
  others.  My situation here was characterized as “lucky”. 
  That’s a judgement I could dispute on grounds that I don’t believe in
  luck, nor do I wish to try and determine whether such alleged luck is
  “good” or “bad”.

  Since sometime in the past century, when I began Working to transcend
  dualism, judgement, and other such false and limiting beliefs, it has
  become increasingly difficult for me to decide whether one thing is
  better than another.  Rather than waste time in that effort, I
  focus on details, similarities, differences, subtleties and
  alternatives.

  There are difficulties inherent in communication when one possesses
  such an attitude.  I use words that have emotional load for my
  readers but are simply labels or descriptive terms without pejorative
  connotations to me, or implications of approval.  Things just are,
  and I try to see them as they are and say what I see.  I try to
  remain cognizant of things such as blessings in disguise and unintended
  consequences, but despite my efforts I still have opinions and
  preferences that come through in my word choices.

  Although I tend to accept the idea that no person who is truly worthy
  of governing others would actively seek such a position, I still would
  not characterize the candidates for governor as gubers or
  goobers.  I just wouldn’t, even if I felt it was more or less accurate.  It’s unkind and
  inaccurate.  A goober is a harmless (unless one happens to be
  allergic) legume, also known as a peanut.   Calling a
  politician a goober or guber is slander (or libel) on a peanut.

  As I considered the compusory democracy in Oz, where people are fined
  if they fail to show up to vote, I realized that such a system would
  have some interesting consequences here in the U.S.  Presumably
  more poor people, those who can’t afford to pay the fines, would
  vote.  More rich people might opt to just pay the fine and avoid
  the bother of going to the polls.  This might result in a more
  egalitarian form of government than the one we have, which is probably
  the reason this system hasn’t been instituted here.

  I view the “closed primary” instigated by the Republican Party in
  Alaska to be an attempt to eliminate parties such as the Greens,
  Libertarians and Alaskan Independence.  In this state, in order
  for candidates to get their names on a ballot (as opposed to having to
  run as a write-in candidate), their party has to have a certain number
  of registered voters or the individual candidate has to submit a
  petition with a certain number of valid signatures from registered
  voters.

  The way the primary used to be run, everyone’s names were on one ballot
  and the voters picked the ones they chose.  They could choose a
  Libertarian to run for governor and someone else to run as the
  Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.  That was especially
  useful in cases where someone not in one’s own party of choice was
  particularly objectionable.  It enabled votes against people from other parties.

  The Republican Party recognized that and moved to eliminate the
  practice for their candidates.  As a result, any Libertarian,
  Green, Democrat, Independent, etc., who wishes to engage in such
  strategic voting must now register as Undeclared or Non-Partisan. 
  As Alaskans change their registration, the public rolls of the smaller
  parties shrink, and some of them, such as the Greens and Libertarians
  in particular, may find themselves off the ballot in the near future,
  making it more difficult to field candidates. 

  Since it has recently become nigh onto impossible to get anyone other
  than a Republican elected in Alaska, I ask myself why the Party thought
  it was necessary to go to such lengths.  The answer, of course, is
  fear.  Fear is the greatest resource at the disposal of the
  Republican Party.  The Party’s followers are mired in fear. 
  They do all in their power to spread that fear to everyone.  I am
  impelled to question whether the fear-mongering leaders are likewise
  fearful, or if they are cynically preying on the fears of others to
  consolidate their power.  Who knows?

  
  

  • 4:43 pm
  • 3 Comments