Summer is coming, and with it hordes of mosquitoes. We can either try to destroy the mosquitoes, or we can design our living spaces so that mosquitoes play a smaller role. The advantage of this second approach is that we do not suffer from the means used to destroy mosquitoes.

Here are some plants that, if you seed them and nurture them in barrier gardens (semicircular beds in areas of approach to your living spaces), will keep mosquitoes repelled. It's either that or smearing yourself with bear fat as the American Indians did (which if you ask me, is a waste of tasty bear fat).

Lantana (genus Lantana) - many people plant this just because it's an attractive flower, but keeping bugs away is a bonus.

Lemongrass (genus Cymbopogon) - You may be familiar with this from your favorite dishes in Asian restaurants, but it's also a hardy, fibrous grass which repells insects.

Catnip (genus Nepeta) - Cats love to get high on this stuff, but it was harsh smoke for us. Nevertheless, it is an attractive and hardy flowering plant.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) - a woody herb that adds flavor to cooking worldwide, despite its rigidity. Bugs hate it.

Mexican Marigold and Marigolds (family Asteraceae) - In Mexico, emo kids get beaten for being irritating. Mexican Marigolds dump unpleasant scents on mosquitoes. Many people don't like the scent as well, which is why you will often see Marigolds planted around a bed of flowers with a stronger smell.

American Basil (Ocimum americanum) - Strongly fragrant leaves often used to disguise odors come from a pretty little plant that will keep bugs away from your house and flavor your pasta sauce.

Horsemint (Monarda punctata) - anecdotally, peppermint and spearmint also work, and enhance the power of marigolds. A mint bed bordered by marigolds, int he path of morning breezes, seems to keep mosquitoes confused and/or frustrated. They go home to play on their Wiis instead.

Ageratum (genus Ageratum) - Clusters of pretty flowers, often strikingly refreshing. Although this is an irritant, and you shouldn't get it on your skin, mosquitoes don't like to hang around it.

Eucalyptus (genus Eucalyptus) - Trees with a unique, lightly oily scent that is reminiscent sometimes of lemon and sometimes of willow trees.

Chrysanthemum (genus Chrysanthemum) - Round, cheerful flowers from which we extract pyrethrum, also rumored to dispell mosquito populations.

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) - Shrubs with chains of flowers that leave shiny, colorful berries in their place, and bug bugs, for a bonus.

Geranium (genus Pelargonium) - Pleasant, stalky flowers which emit a strong fresh odor that is likened by many to the smell of a healthy hothouse (but not bathhouse).

Six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the amber cycles
below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras
meant to catch red-light runners. The local governments in question have
ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and
decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration,
and collect the profits instead.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/six-us-cities-tamper-with-traffic-cameras-for-profit.html

How incessantly the herd bleats "absolute power corrupts absolutely," without any knowledge that, given one simple abstraction layer, moral authority is absolute power. Government does not have moral authority
until it becomes the Nanny State, but then, it's in your best interests that they do things to you. If you object, then you must disagree with their aims and not their actions.

This separation between methods and ideals occurs in several areas amongst the levels of interpretation required. If we object to Nanny State methods, it is seen that we must object to their ideals as well. If we look at life honestly, we see either ideals (goals beyond the individual) or methods (preserve the individual) as a means of social glue, but little crossover. Humanism or idealism, pick one.

I've often been accused of racism in the past few years because I'm against excessive immigration. I keep retorting that I'm not a racist, I'm a culturalist- I'm fine with immigrants who want to come here to join our American/Canadian culture and all the high lifestyle standards that provides, in return for being some of the hardest working people in the world. I'm against people who want to colonize our land, bring in their culture, and replace it with theirs. I'm also against bringing in more people to areas where the carrying capacity is already at it's limit.

I've been rightly or wrongly criticized for that in the past- but apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way: Illiad of UserFriendly Fame, who apparently lives near a casino I once did technical support at in the mid 1990s, wrote a very good essay on his blog about the difference between "immigrants willing to join the community" and "immigrants who cut themselves off". Just so happens most of the ones down here in the states who are of the later variety start their life in the United States with an overtly criminal act, but the attitude is the same. They're sending the message, by forcing Spanish on the rest of us (or Cantonese in the sake of Richmond, BC) and by breaking our laws to come here, that they don't want to become a part of our community, that they only want to colonize us.

I'd also point out that's exactly what we English and French speakers in North America did to the Native Americans- and we should learn from their failure what happens when you let too many immigrants in who don't want to be a part of your community.

http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=637462

Is it "racism" to notice that only one culture can exist, and mixed culture is destructive to all original cultures?

Search your heart, and your uncensored mind, and you'll realize Rome is falling again.

It would be nice to preserve the good things we've made.

The Pragmatism Party wants to create an organic social order to replace institutional society:

* Reward morally upright individuals
* Localization
* Reverence for nature
* Focus on goals not methods
* Economy serves culture

It's more than politics: it's a way of life. For more information:

http://www.pragmatism.us/

A prostitute, recovering from whatever bad decisions she made to get herself into prostitution, wants to lecture us on freedom:

"Sawyer asked me about preserving the 'sanctity' of my body, as though sex without the imprimatur of love were inherently degrading," the blogger chides.

"I feel like I can only sigh, because I doubt I can begin to penetrate the many layers of misunderstandings and preconceptions, let alone that relentless working assumption that a woman's value as a human being decreases as she gains sexual experience."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04222008/news/regionalnews/hookers_laid_bare_on_show_107500.htm

She can only sigh, because if she looked within, she'd see that she's still a whore and in a few years no one will care. She will gain sexual experience, which is sort of like getting good at backrubs, and in exchange she'll also gain sexual alienation. No stable marriage for her, but more years of getting old alone and wondering what she did with her youth.

And she wants us to follow her in the name of "freedom."

Drug addicts, pedophiles and swingers feel the same way.

Somehow, I don't think my path -- or that of anyone I know who is not a loser -- will go in that direction. Even if they've memorized words like "imprimatur."

People in a modern time seem paralyzed. Why might this be?

Today's order requires surviving a gauntlet of choices: Latte or Americano? Flavored or plain? Cream and sugar? Small, medium or large? And the list goes on.

New research shows that such daily decisions eat up limited mental resources, ultimately rendering our self-control into mush. Which means making too many decisions might be why many people can't stick to a diet, finish a big project or even complete simple daily tasks.

"It's a strange paradox because human beings are drawn to choice," said study co-author Kathleen Vohs, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "We love having more
choices, but at the same time the human psyche is easily overcome by them."

http://www.livescience.com/health/080418-too-many-choices.html

This view of the study shows us that the same decisions, day after day, wear us down. Often, we'd prefer to have fewer options, because these decisions don't matter as far as our effectiveness goes. They don't even make us all that happy, our coffee choices (and other trivia).

Study author Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD, of the University of Minnesota's marketing department, and researchers from several other universities have determined that making choices, as opposed to just thinking about options, can be mentally draining. Those with too many choices -- good or bad -- have trouble remembering to take their medicine and staying focused on everyday tasks.

The findings are based on seven experiments designed to test how the simple act of choosing or not choosing influences a person's ability to remain focused and productive.

http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080418/too_many_choices_exhaust_the_brain

The above summation gives us a better view: choice-making itself wears us out. If we can make 20 good choices a day, and we have to make 50, maybe that overloads us. And certainly our exhausted society looks overloaded.

PRESERVATION OF TRADITIONAL VALUES AGREEMENT

Knowing that in the modern time, the tail (technology, individualism) often wags the dog (all of us living together in civilization), we collect these declarative values for the preservation of our cultures that arose
before human consciousness, and by all inclinations, will preserve us where our technology and bureaucracies fail. To endorse this document is to endorse the RIGHT OF individuals to pursue these values, not these values as a SINGULAR form of government for all. They are:

Reasons people leave california:

1. Pluralism. Multiculturalism doesn't work, and people want to have a shared culture and values system with their neighbors.

2. Globalisation. Multinational (multicultural?) corporations rule Los Angeles, and are happy turning most of it into a ghetto.

Yet another study that shows the mechanism of scientific study can itself be tenuous without careful interpretation, but in the hands of monkey-men, it's a total disaster.

The British Institute for Social and Economic Research send out a survey to 10,000 working moms and found, not surprisingly, that they defend their current position in life and argue that it's happier.

Clearly someone got a promotion for helping to increase the influence of economics in the lives of proles.

For men, meanwhile, life satisfaction depends on having a full-time job.
...

AUSTIN, TX (N3) - As the government of the United States announced plans to investigate websites that provided inspiration for the school shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinen in Jokela, Finland, CORRUPT scientists announced the discovery of a new mathematical principle that may explain human delusion.

Genetic information is slipping out of the laboratory and into everyday life, carrying with it the inescapable message that people of different races have different DNA. Ancestry tests tell customers what percentage of their genes are from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. The heart-disease drug BiDil is marketed exclusively to African-Americans, who seem genetically predisposed to respond to it. Jews are offered prenatal tests for genetic disorders rarely found in other ethnic groups.

Those Who Joined Jokela Shooter Group Under Surveillance

JOKELA, FI (N3) - Finnish citizens who have of their own choice joined a Facebook group supporting the ideas (but not actions) of Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the school shooter who finished off eight people after writing a manifesto condemning our society's lack of natural selection, have found themselves under investigation by secret services in their home countries. One example:

Most smart people believe society is insane

JOKELA, FI (N3) - Normal, functional members of society agree with the statements of Jokela shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinonen, although most condemn his actions. "People believe society is screwed up," said CORRUPT agitactivist Olli Herjata, "and they see how his words have been censored, and think that any society which cannot accept valid criticism from an invalid source will not last long."