9/26/17
Eating apples mom
And dad picked from their farm in
Bluegrass Virginia
Posts tagged ‘Virginia’
New Study Shows Restored 200 Year Old Windows As Effective As Brand New Replacements
We have been saying it for years. I have even done a presentation on the environmental sustainability of restoring wooden windows over buying new. Restore your old windows instead of buying cheap, unsustainable, plastic ones!! Here is some proof. Hire us to help you maintain the historic and envoronmental integrity of your houses!!! My company is Karnage Creations LLC and you can find us online at Richmond Window Repair Call or text or email us today to get started on your window restoration process.
Read the full article for yourself here:
New Study Shows Restored 200 Year Old Window As Effective As Brand New Replacement
Country Life Change
Country Living
I grew up in Hanover County. David and I moved to Hanover last summer, to Beaverdam specifically. He was involved in a custody battle, and was not going to win time with his daughter if we had roommates. We could not afford to live in the large house I owned in Richmond without roommates. So we decided to fix up a small house my grandparents owned in Beaverdam and live there. It was all kind of a catch as catch can plan, where things just fell into place, or didn’t, and we just rolled with it. Fortunately David and I are both hard workers and both enjoy making manic decisions and following through! Or at least following through most of the way… We lived in my short school bus in the yard while we gutted and renovated the 600 square foot house. (more…)
Heathen Vegan
Heathen Homestead
I am a very open minded vegan, in that I would 10000% people move to eating local and kindly raised animals and animal by products, over factory farmed crap. But I am not personally interested in eating it. My use of vegan alternative products is pretty minimal, they didn’t exist and/or weren’t accessible to me when I went vegetarian and then vegan. I’ve also been doing this a while – veggie for about 20 years vegan for like 15 of that. And I grew up with chickens and cows at home. My mom is a veggie too (like 35++ years) and my dad still slaughters cows he raises and I still prefer he do that than buy from stores. My mom calls em animals that have one bad day. They get to live a good life in fields with food, and then one day someone kills em in the field. I also don’t knock hunters, they are small fries in the cruelty world compared to the corporations. I still cry every time I see dead animals and stuff, but it is preferable to the emotional detachment most people have about their food. If you cant handle the death, which I can not, you really shouldn’t eat it.
We have chickens, and they lay eggs, and I am hoping my family and friends will eat those eggs over eating store bought factory farm eggs. I know how our chickens are treated and I do not see a moral/ethical issue with people eating those eggs. It is better than purchasing processed crap from a corporation.
Audio
Restore Felon Voting Rights Now.
As an anarchist my enthusiasm around voting is very low.
However, my partner and the father of the baby I am about to have is a felon, and the ways that our shitty society treats felons really piss me off. He has been out for 5 years, off probation/parole, works so hard to take care of me and our animals, fought an uphill battle for custody rights to his first child, pays child support and old residual court fines on time, and is doing everything he can to make positive progress. So for me, this issue is personal. I am insulted on behalf of my partner every time felons are treated poorly.
Every job application that refuses felons enrages me. I saw one for Agriberry recently, that stated they would not hire felons to pick berries. What negative impact a felony conviction would have on one’s ability to pick strawberries is I really couldn’t say. (more…)
Anarcho-Redneck Response to Recent Richmond Open Carry
I’m really on the cutting edge of Paint technology here…
Anarcho-Redneck Response to Recent Richmond Open Carry
by Mo Karnage
Richmond has been all in a tizzy over some recent exercising of the right to open carry guns. We’ve had some folks carrying guns in Target, and other carrying them in Carytown. Appearances of guns and those toting them at both locations seem to upset the delicate sensibilities of those who enjoy their capitalism from a more middle class seat. As my friend Dave says, the violence that happens at Target is all in the products on the shelves (sweatshop labor, animal cruelty, and environmental destruction for yall who ain’t picking up what I’m putting down). We’ve also seen local activist Chris Dorsey get hauled out of a City Council meeting over a dispute, which was blamed on his openly carried gun, and then the media gallery of the Council Chambers be closed out of a weird fear of gun wielding journalists- or something.
Maybe I don’t watch enough tv news to be shocked and upset by visible guns, or maybe its because I’m from Hanover county, but to me, guns aren’t an upsetting sight. This is the South. I haven’t been able to find a year on the start Virginia’s Open Carry policy, leading me to believe that we’ve had the same laws on the books around Open Carry for at least several decades now, and more likely since the origins of Virginia time. This is a gun state, but unfortunately not everyone here has sufficient knowledge or experience with guns and gun safety to be coming to the table ready for debate. So we have some culture clash going on.
Allow me to paint a picture. In a world where our government engages in endless war, supplies arms to oppressive regimes like Israel, engages in torture home and abroad routinely, and uses police and private security to patrol our domestic neighborhoods with an ever increasing amount of technology and weaponry, liberals are worried about the potential of violence coming from some deranged white guy who thinks he is in a shoot em up video game or whatever.
To me this is a sign of a society which had it’s autonomy erased, and has become dependent on larger bureaucracies, to its detriment. To me, this is a sign of a society which has had its understanding of the concept of violence thoroughly muddled, and has fallen prey to the idea that violence only occurs from the little guy- not the powers that be.
I also see this fear and confusion as a result of a culture that routinely chooses to treat only the symptoms of any problem, as opposed to addressing the root causes. I would argue that this method of addressing symptoms is promoted through capitalism for several reasons – mainly that it encourages greater consumerism, and prevents folks from questioning the very system of capitalism itself as a root cause of or contributing factor in many of our society’s problems.
Now why, some folks I know have been asking, would someone open carry a rifle? Well for one, because you sure as heck aren’t allowed to conceal carry it. Conceal Carry Permits in Virginia are only for handguns. You are not allowed to conceal long arm guns like rifles or shotguns (hence rules about barrel length etc.). For two, because not everyone wants to or can get a Conceal Carry Permit for any gun – they require being 21, money, a class, and usually takes about 6 weeks to get to you anyways. Not everyone wants to go through the trouble and paperwork to get a CCP and you know what, that is their right.
I’m sure there are more reasons to open carry a rifle, including it being your only gun, as well. There are plenty of practical times where one might open carry a gun, going to a friend’s house nearby, not wanting to leave it unattended in a vehicle, etc. The folks open carrying in Richmond lately are doing so in a fairly unnecessary way. No doubt. Some might call them jackasses. No doubt. But I think that as much as liberals are ignorant about open carry and brainwashed to be fearful, these folks are ignorant about liberals and their fear, and brainwashed by the gun lobby. Essentially we’ve got apple and oranges cultures coming to a head. The people open carrying are not doing so to make others scared, and indeed are surprised by the way people are scared. Their intentions might be poorly thought out, or lacking understanding of broader issues but they aren’t bad. Actually, both sides are often coming to the table full of fear- fear of guns and fear of gun rights being taken away. To discuss these issues coherently we need to get beyond the fear to analyze where everyone is truly coming from.
The anti-open carry camp seem to have an out of sight out of mind approach to guns. They aren’t actively upset until they can see them. And the assertively open carry camp seem to have an idea that if they don’t exercise their rights they might atrophy. Other gun owners have chimed in, worried that the attention being drawn to the issue might cause more harm than good, and they bring a valid point to the table. If liberals can’t see the violence- because it happens in wars in other countries over oil, or in sweatshops where their kids’ toys are made, or in forced prison labor where their office furniture is made or asparagus is grown (holler at yer local asparagus Ellwood Thompson’s), then it pretty much doesn’t exist. It is the flashy, in your face, reminders that seem to get folks all worked up.
Eating Vegan On The Cheap in Richmond
This was originally something I published as a zine. I just wanted to get the information out there more since I’ve almost run out of copies!
Eat Vegan
on the Cheap
in Richmond
Many folks I have talked to about veganism share a similar complaint/concern. They are worried about it being affordable.
And let’s be real- there are many ways that veganism is presented in a classist way.
Some examples:
I have a bunch of vegan cookbooks that call for ingredients that are just totally obscure. I’ve been vegan for 10 years and I’ve never used them. These sorts of cookbooks/recipes can make veganism seem really intimidating and inaccessible to folks.
Another reason veganism can seem classist is definitely the unchecked privilege often found amongst vegans. There are plenty of militant asshole white-dude vegans, for example, who give other people a hard time for not being vegan in shitty ways. These types of folks (though clearly not limited to just white dudes) give the rest of vegans a bad name.
There are some things about a vegan diet that can make it less accessible for low-income people. But there is also a ton of kind of urban legend/misconception type stuff around veganism. This isn’t going to be a total coverage of all info relating to these topics. This zine is for folks interested in eating vegan, and want to/ need to be able to do it on a low-income. I am totally into having these conversations with people though if you want! My contact info is at the end of the zine, let me know what concerns you!
First though, I do want to take a little bit to briefly touch on some of the (many) things that can make eating vegan difficult for folks.
Food Deserts:
“A food desert is a district with little or no access to foods needed to maintain a healthy diet but often served by plenty of fast food restaurants.” wikipedia entry on food deserts. Check out more about the significant and intersectional issue here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert
Living in a food desert basically means in this context that it is a lot more difficult for people to access vegan food. There are all kinds of transportation and expenses related to accessing a real grocery store if you live in a food desert, and believe me, the corner store does not provide all of the things a vegan needs to survive.
If you are vegan, and have the ability, (or even if you aren’t vegan), you can take action to try to get more fresh produce and food into food deserts. Simply creating access where there wasn’t access before is both an act of vegan activism and social justice. You can organize a Food Not Bombs meal, or just produce distributions in neighborhoods where people lack access to healthy food. Talk to people to see where the need is, and what the community wants.
Time is Money:
Even when vegan food is affordable and accessible, there is the further complicating factor of whether or not someone can afford the time it can take to cook much of their own food. The convenience of fast food, prepared foods etc. which are mostly available in non-vegan forms is something that folks working multiple jobs, busy with families and kids, taking care of elders, going to school while working, etc. can understandably want to take advantage of. Folks who are low-income, or any of the things listed above, or other things not listed, often are already pretty stressed out, busy, and might not feel like they have the time or energy to make home-cooked meals all of the time. And home-cooked food is certainly one of the healthier, cheaper ways to eat a vegan diet.
There are plenty of other challenges, and I might go into them more in a later version of this zine. But I am a procrastinator, and I want to have resources to offer folks tomorrow- so I’m going to start into the ideas for how to deal with the challenges and difficulties of being vegan on a low income! (more…)
March Against Mass Incarceration – A good movement builder
Photo by Ira Birch, me and Phil Wilayto from the Virginia Defenders of Freedom Justice and Equality at the march!
Yesterday I attended the March Against Mass Incarceration, organized by Collective X. The rally met and parade started in Clay Abner Park. A huge, huge ‘Thank You’ to Collective X for organizing this event over the past few months, and collaborating with so many other local people and organizations to do so.
Some friends at the march- photo credit to Kontra RVA
There were speakers from a variety of anti-prison organizations there. Unfortunately the weather was gloomy, and it wasn’t the best for standing around listening. The marathon also made it difficult for folks to arrive and so the whole thing started late. But it was really great to see so many passionate people and to all get some exercise and networking together.
a picture I took from outside of the crowd at the MAMI rally and march
Two things I struggle to navigate with these types of events are how to best accommodate and be accessible to kids and differently abled participants. I would love to hear from folks who are kids or struggle physically with marches about what they might want to see changed in the future, or what is possible. I find this complicated, because I think that aside from the empowerment of participants, marches are vital for visibility of movements. I want to see marches with long routes, through highly populated areas. But I recognize that long routes aren’t accessible. I was carrying a fairly heavy medic pack, and I was definitely feeling the burn towards the end of the march.
The heavy medic pack in question- photo credit to Kontra rva
There were also folks with dogs (who I love, love, love seeing at these types of events) who ended up having to pick up and carry their dogs. It is also important to note that for many folks bringing a dog isn’t just a fun thing to do, but they might need their dog because it is a trained service dog.
photo credit to Kontra RVA
Kids also have shorter legs, and sometimes shorter or different attention spans. Figuring out how to truly make events all ages is important. I feel like this may sometimes mean keeping speakers shorter, or providing childcare or activities (like upcoming Wingnut Kid Kits which will be launched at the VPA in January).
Maybe it also means having parade floats kids and dogs and elders and folks with less mobility can ride on? I don’t have all the answers, but I’m pretty sure everyone in Richmond is smart enough to come up with a variety of solutions that will work for a variety of needs. Our movements will be stronger if we can figure out how to include more folks, and what they need to be included. Listening will be a huge part of this.
I had a great time at the March organized by Collective X- always nice to come together with so many friends. Photo credit to Kontra RVA
I was a volunteer street medic, but luckily we had no need for medical help. However, it is definitely good practice to have some trained medics at these events. We took the streets from Leigh to Adams to Broad to Harrison and back down Leigh. There were no arrests or altercations during the march. My understanding is that Collective X had someone or someones who as police liason ensured we would not be attacked by RPD. The bike ushers did a great job of corking intersections and helping to escort the march and keep everyone safe. There were also NLG trained legal observers, and no doubt, copwatchers in attendance.
Richmonders have taken to the street in greater numbers and more often this year than I remember in the past. We’ve had the VPA, March Against Monsanto, May Day Parade, Halloween Parade, Critical Mass Bike Rides, and this March Against Mass Incarceration. I hope we keep this momentum up, building our movements, empowering each other, and fighting for a better world.
I also see Richmond getting better at taking the streets and organizing marches and parades. More folks are organizing, and more folks are participating. We need to incorporate things like continuing education and self care into our movements to ensure we can keep this up, and so we can do it all better in the future.
In January of 2013 the Virginia People’s Assembly will meet and March, so stay tuned for information on that (below cut).
Much love, and see you in the streets!
No seriously, in the streets, join us next time! Photo credit to Jack Johnson of FNB and WRIR!
Links to relevant organizations and background info below:
Mo Karnage 
Written
on July 23, 2016