The Santa Claus Lie – A Gateway Drug to Collective (Self) Deception

The Santa Claus Lie – A Gateway Drug to Collective (Self) Deception

By

Cognitive Dissonance

I spend what some might imagine is an inordinate amount of time thinking about lies and self deception. But from my point of view it is a fundamental flaw that cripples us as individuals and as a society. Lying and lies permeate our culture from top to bottom in ways we often never perceive and rarely wish to see. Essentially it is the foundational building block that supports all that is wrong with us and why we continuously repeat our oftentimes disastrous personal and societal mistakes. Deception, self and societal, is the fatal flaw, something we have come to call ‘being human’.

Do as I Say, Not as I Do

Consider for a few moments how often we as parents come face to face with the sometimes embarrassing problem of explaining to our young children why we tell public and private lies, but that they should not lie to us. How our telling a lie can actually be good under certain circumstances, such as shielding our self and others from a painful (self) truth or a blow to (our) their ego. What is often unspoken is that we lie to others in order to be lied to by others.

The odd thing is that if you were to ask random people on the street if they believed themselves to be honest you would get answers along the lines of “Yes”, “It depends”, “For the most part” or “Most of the time”. I suspect my readers have answered the question in a similar vein; I know this author has. We really do believe we are (basically) honest because we have willingly (eagerly?) deconstructed the dividing line between ‘honest’ and ‘dishonest’ and reformed it into a soft squishy malleable moving target somewhere near the center.

In other words we ‘know’ that stealing $1,000 from our employer or family is dishonest, but taking some pens and paper from the office or an old mechanics socket set from gramps………well, that isn’t really ‘stealing’ per se, just sort of borrowing on a semi permanent basis. Unless of course we want to believe that they ‘deserve’ to be stolen from, thus righting some previous wrong. Then all bets are off.

Seven Billion and Counting

The examples of personal and social dishonesty are as numerous and varied as the people who practice (self) deception, which pretty much means all of us. And while just about anyone can conduct a reasonably honest philosophical discussion about self and social dishonesty, few of us would reveal our deepest darkest secrets to even our closest friends, family or spouse because those secrets often revolve around overt or covert dishonesty, even if only to ourselves.

And then there is the self deception that we aren’t consciously aware of, clouded by both denial and social programming. While my previous articles have discussed denial ad nauseam I wish to focus a bit on the social programming aspect promoted mostly by herd behavior and alluded to by the title of this article.

I have long felt that religion was (and in many respects still is) a gateway drug to rampant self deception and public enabling of the cultural lie. Please understand that I am talking about manmade and man administered ‘religion’ and not about whether or not there exists a supreme being. But as the world’s population slowly drifts away from blind religious obedience and begins to recognize the inherent hypocrisy of those who promote religious fervor and division (my God way or the highway) another mind control mechanism has risen to take its place……...narcissistic consumerism based upon the lie of endless resources and ever increasing debt.

I propose that some of, if not most of, our lying behavior is programmed into us culturally by social acceptance of ‘harmless’ self deceptions such as the Santa Claus lie. The key is that the lie must be perceived as harmless or as causing less harm (a wonderfully relative term that can be made to accommodate any lie) than the ‘truth’ might cause to the victim of the lie. From that point on our own internal psychological rationalization and justification process takes over and we reform the lie into a (relatively) harmless half truth/white lie in our own ‘eyes’. Or at least a lie softened enough for most of us to stomach.

Of course this entire process is infinity more complex than I have just outlined and yet amazingly it is that simple. And it all starts when we as very young children begin to receive our own personalized imprinting courtesy of our initial programmers, our parents and primary care givers who themselves have been, and continue to be, imprinted by society at large and their inner social circle of personal peer review. From there it trickles down into our inner consciousness for final fine tuning and assimilation.

Infinite Creativity

We are all individual conscious entities engulfed within a herd of like minded individuals, interconnected yet separate, seemingly born without an operating manual yet infinitely capable of self expression, creativity and inspiration beginning at a very young age. We are born into this reality as individuals, yet we spend our entire lives trying to be just like the rest of the herd, a product of centuries (millennium?) of conditioning to ignore the innate knowledge and wisdom that springs from within in order to blindly follow the herd and the alpha directly ahead.

Seen from this perspective, something like The Santa Claus Lie has great utility in the conditioning process. Something that started out innocent enough, a tale of Saint Nichols, is slowly hijacked and commercialized by entities who wish to condition us in a way that creates ‘demand’ for products and services, many of which we do not need or even desire except for the fact that others in the herd are conditioned to believe they ‘need’ them, thus we do.

I find it endlessly fascinating that in ancient indigenous cultures the shaman or healer’s purpose was not just to administer the natural healing arts to his local tribe members, but to teach and guide the tribe to be emotionally and psychologically healthy and fit. Call it original sin, call it ‘being human’, call it herding behavior, but the shaman understood these self destructive tendencies and worked to help his people overcome this strange attraction in order to grow and blossom as powerful reality creators.

Intraspecific Kleptoparasites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoparasitism

Yet the modern sociopathic man, essentially parasitic individuals who present themselves as our so called ‘leaders’ and thus the ultimate in Intraspecific Kleptoparasites, (Kleptoparasitism may be intraspecific (the parasite is the same species as the victim) or interspecific (the parasite is a different species) make every effort possible to exploit and enflame the very human flaws ancient shaman tried to heal. At the very least the shaman helped the tribe be aware of, and thus better able to defend themselves from, their own psychological and emotional flaws.

Seen from the perspective of the larger battle between reality creating humanity and those who wish to subvert and control humans for the parasite’s own benefit, one must question everything and anything that presents itself as (innocent) cultural expressions.

We tend to think that large population ‘control’ is nearly impossible because there are so many different human (re)actions to control. The key to understanding how this is done is to recognize that subverted humanity is perusing what it believes is its own self interest rather than that of the parasites. Thus total control is not needed, just a deceptive nudge here and there to move the willingly compliant herd along in the general direction desired by the Intraspecific Kleptoparasites.

Cognitive Dissonance

01-01-2014

Comments

[suteibu]

Curiosity?  That requires neither faith nor belief.  Nor acceptance nor judgement, for that matter.

[Musashi Miyamoto]

Quite

[new game]

lol, opiate of control of other mankind. quite effective... lol

best selling book ever... lol

i believe in nothing... lol

[Musashi Miyamoto]

Perhaps, Less hate none the less.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

"You in effect confirm that, WITHOUT religion, one is dependent upon one's own "sense of 'what's right' or 'the good thing' to do"."

There is a universe of difference between manmade religion and that of the spiritually divine found within. In my opinion manmade religion has been used for 1,000's of years to control and abuse. Once I recognized this I realized that truth can only be found by looking deeply within, the true source of all knowledge and inspiration.

Thank you for your feedback.

[Dinero D. Profit]

I believe kindness and tolerance should permeate the earth

I believe beauty is the worthy search for truth

I believe in the minute and steady click of the clock

I believe the beat goes on

I believe we are born to live, and

I believe we are born to love life, and

I believe we are meant to fulfill our humanity

I believe in flower people and, 

I believe in ballerinas

I believe the ballerinas, during the intervals, stink like horses

I believe in going into no further detail here

I believe rock and roll is here to stay

I believe in Roy Orbison, and

I believe in Bridges Over Troubled Water

I believe in Fleetwood Mac

I believe in hippies hitchhiking, (long time no see) and,

I believe had it not been for the serene moral courage of hippies,

                       we’d still be fighting in Vietnam.

I believe Nixon was a crook, and

I believe people should say nasty things at funerals, and

I believe audible wisecracks would serve as well

I believe I have a mint of beliefs in my head

I believe despair is always conservative, and

I believe hope is always liberal

I believe in kind and tender mothers

I believe in decent people, and

I believe in people on the side of justice

I believe in reasonable people, fair-minded people

I believe people should not kill in any manner or degree

I believe people should not kill the human spirit

I believe people should not kill hopes

I believe I am enjoying everything generally supposed to confer happiness

I believe in girls with bouncing breasts, and

I believe in gobs of whipped cream

I believe in showy flowers

I believe peacocks are fond of ostentation

I believe in following the winding and wide road

I believe the y in beond is not useful

I believe it is very healthy to split a bottle of wine at supper

I believe capital punishment teaches us all to render deeds of killing

I believe in progress

I believe in professionally organized closets, clapping light switches, ovulation kits, and

I believe in gimmicks of all sorts

I believe in surgically altered schnozzolas, but

I believe in natcheril tits

I believe in skimming from one topic to another

I believe everybody wants to live a gay and extravagant life

I believe there are some witches to be told off

I believe Islam is a crazy, absurd religion, and

I believe Christianity is preposterous, and

I believe Judaism is a sheer, blank, bottomless lie

I believe the earth is a real honky-tonk joint

I believe a mental home should be built instead of a godatorium, and

I believe a deed should be done instead of a prayer said

I believe in living a vigorous life, with a vitality of feeling

I believe in the out of doors

I believe in taking a sweet morning mouthful of country air

I believe in the bracing effect of seaside air,

I believe in drawing a deep breath of clean pine scented air.

I believe in a soft wind that kisses the flowers

I believe butterflies are in cahoots with tulips

I believe in fields of young sweet clover

I believe in a dappled fawn

I believe in alpine cottages

I believe in wolves prowling the forest

I believe in soaring quail

I believe in babbling brooks, and

I believe the fullest and sweetest ears of corn hang lowest to the ground

I believe in smells sweet to my nostrils

I believe in freshly cut grass

I believe in the odor of a tack room saturated with rawhides

I believe in the musk of an aroused woman

I believe in taking things easily and

I believe in ignoring trivial irritations 

I believe in coffee, and

I believe in apple fritters, and

I believe bacon and eggs were made for each other

I believe in simple milk chocolate

I believe in ham and swiss on pumpernickel

I believe a knit dress packs well

I believe a traveling person lives more in one day

                        than a staying home person lives in a month

I believe there is always something around the bend

I believe Mexican food is the eleventh plague of mankind, and

I believe they eat hot little green peppers called jalapenos, and

I believe they eat chilies of all sorts, and

I believe they wonder why the next day they are so constipated

 they need to keep their finger up.

I believe Africa has flies galore going around annoying people

I believe people in Africa live in minus neighborhoods, and

I believe some live in little globular houses, like mud-wasp nests

I believe they are a sad, shabby, shaggy-looking lot

I believe in vines intertwined and monkeys trapezing

I believe there were two cannibals sitting beneath a dense cover of jungle trees, and

I believe they were having a clown for lunch, and

I believe one said to the other, ‘does this taste funny to you?’

I believe climate has much to do with cheerfulness.

I believe pot keeps the birds off the antenna.

I believe Bush needs a poke in the puss

I believe people not in shape should be taxed, say, 20%.

I believe in keeping my appearance up to par

I believe in liberty, real liberty

I believe liberty is the absolute freedom from mind control

I believe the motto ‘In God We Trust” is a slap in the face to atheists,

            a kick in the cajones to Madison, and

            contradictory to the principles of pluralism  

I believe this motto is cognitive capture of the dark, war-enabling kind.

I believe this stinks, and

I believe we’ve all been stunked upon.

I believe the state has taken a leap of faith to recognize a supreme being, and 

I believe this leap of faith is beyond its power or competence, and

I believe this warrants revolution.

I believe at times life is a perfect ecstasy of song, clear, ringing, copious

I believe in singing sometimes a nonsense song

I believe in a lively woman who can dance, weep and love, and

I believe in veiled women, dancing with their entire bodies, moving slowly,

 Undulating their abdomens to the sound of gongs

I believe there is a long list of acts in foreplay

I believe in doing the agreeable

I believe in to and fro, up and down, side to side

I believe “oh!-god!” is an acute expressive of severe pleasure

I believe in scandalous intimacies, skillfully curled, lay many worlds

I believe in the radiant mist of the afterglow

I believe a secret to pleasing is being pleased

I believe in having all of one’s wishes granted

I believe my day will come, but

I believe you can draw your own conclusions from what you have seen

I believe a poem should be fat with wisdom information

I believe life is a living process, yet

I believe in the present, and a nowness well seen to.

I believe tomorrow is another day

I believe in Friar Tuck.  Friar Tuck shows us the way.

[El Vaquero]

I believe Mexican food is the eleventh plague of mankind, and

I believe they eat hot little green peppers called jalapenos, and

I believe they eat chilies of all sorts, and

I believe they wonder why the next day they are so constipated

 they need to keep their finger up.

LOL.  Just...LOL. 

That is all.

[Cabreado]

While you believe in many good things, we are at a point in history where skipping through the poppy fields is not what the doctor ordered.

ps. and this:

"I believe they are a sad, shabby, shaggy-looking lot"

You expose yourself...

[Dinero D. Profit]

This list of beliefs lends itself to selective reading.

I am a hippy,-ever since the 60's.  Peace and Love, twist up a joint, dig Ferlinghetti, join a comume: picket segregated movie houses, get billy-clubbed, protest the Vietnam war, get billy-clubbed, (or shot, if you attend Kent State,) mention that the back of JFK's head was blowed-out, get billy-clubbed.

The establishment backlash against hippies and the peace movement was amazing.  You would have had to live thought it to believe it. Agent provocateurs in SDS: FBI frames the Black Panthers: hysterical reaction to pot: full bore oppression of dissent.

Anyhow, I made it through.  Its a long story. (You would hardly believe the resources and the surrepitious lengths that narcs will go through to nab an outlaw.) 

Oh well.  Now pot is legal.  There's American vacation resorts on China Beach.  Pornography is legal.  And, we live in a Stasti-state.  One little national emergency, and ga-broom! we have martial law.

My doctor ordered me to prepare.  I turned myself suddenly into an intense gardener, and I am quite suprised by gardening's intrinsic rewards.  There's a soft climax of achievement in growing your own food.  Also, home grown food tastes better.

The doctor also ordered me to stay away from cities and mind my own business.     

[Tall Tom]

After having my good senses assaulted I believe that you are a Socialist.

I believe that Socialism is a lie, the greatest lie of all.

I will not be complicit in a lie.

I most certainly will not celebrate it as it is iniquity.

I will find my joy in the ugliness of the Truth.

[Squiddly Diddly]

Cog,

Thanks for all your contributions to the site, I always find them thought provoking.  I don't mean to start a Jeremaid but Jeremiah 17 came to mind.

5Thus said the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

7Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

"the spiritually divine found within."...."Once I recognized this I realized that truth can only be found by looking deeply within, the true source of all knowledge and inspiration."

I'm going with the Bible on this one, because it sounds like you are replacing God with Cog.  Happy New Year to all.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I do not wish to be disrespectful to you in the least. Just as I am, you are in your right to believe what you wish to believe.

I start with questioning the very premise that the bible is the word of "God". Too much political meddling and revisions over the centuries to suit my tastes. In my opinion it is a political manifesto masquerading as the word of God. Both man made religion and man made government seem to serve the same purpose, and that purpose is not to serve or save the common man....but to enslave man while feeding him false hope and feel good phrases.

This does not mean I don't believe there is a supreme being. But any man who claims to speak for "God" or "Government" is not speaking to or for me. For me that is as plain as the nose on my face.

[uplicidlit]

Hi Cog - I enjoy your articles. May I offer an observation (and a thought, I guess)?

Do you notice the difference between your article style of writing and the style used when posting comments? You must do what you prefer, of course. But, your more casual and direct way of presenting your comments is most appealing.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Thanks.

I do notice the difference. It is one thing to blurt out a quick paragraph or two in response to someone or something else. For me at least it is a whole other ball of wax to be writing a three or four page article. I am also in the middle of changing style and length and seem to have screwed everything up in the process. :-)

[Squiddly Diddly]

We can disagree and fight nice here in Fight Club.  I agree religion and politics have been and are bent from God's intended design by fallen man.  After all, Satan is the god of this world  The true church exists by grace alone as does the rest of God rejecting humanity.  God has planted His kingdom in our midst and it will prevail, it is no false hope and it is liberty not slavery because the age to come has already begun.  For me that is as plain as the nose on my face.

MT 20:

25But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,^c 27and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,^d 28even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

CS Lewis
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

[pain_and_soros]

<The true church exists by grace alone as does the rest of God rejecting humanity>

I agree - tho problems arise in the "church" when man begins to drift from this realization and in so doing (necessarily) substiutes something in place of God's grace, which leads to self-righteousness, self-justification (by "good" works), etc.  

Jesus warned especially against smug, self-righteous religious people & their doctrine - who somehow think outward appearance (& ceremony, etc.) mean more than genuine inward regeneration or rebirth produced only by the Holy Spirit of God.

It can start when a Christian becomes self-satisfied & complacent and stops examining their own life via the mirror of God's Word & His righteousness - there simply is no substitute for God's righteousness - the Bible teaches that man's righteousness is as a filthy rag - there are countless current day (& very public) examples of that to clearly refute any suggestion that this is untrue.

The plain truth of the Bible is that man is inherently evil by nature - yes, God created him in his own image & with a free will - but the first man's choice was to disobey & not listen to God & thereby was alienated from Him (along with ALL of his descendants). There is only one means of escape of that evil nature - the one that God provided on Calvary over 2000 years ago, which offer is still available today.  

The good news is that this escape (aka amazing grace & truth) is offered freely & unconditionally to anyone who simply accepts it without any pre-condition, pre-qualification or other such thing....

[logicalman]

If you think Santa's bad, take a look at 'god' - choose your religion - Watches everything you do and judges you based on you conforming to rules you can only guess at.

There are more stars in the observable universe than grains of sand on all earth's beaches. The planet we live on orbits a very average one. There are 7 Billion, and counting, humans on said planet.

Feeling important yet?

[Cognitive Dissonance]

To quote my article above.....

"I have long felt that religion was (and in many respects still is) a
gateway drug to rampant self deception and public enabling of the
cultural lie. Please understand that I am talking about manmade and man
administered ‘religion’ and not about whether or not there exists a
supreme being. But as the world’s population slowly drifts away from
blind religious obedience and begins to recognize the inherent hypocrisy
of those who promote religious fervor and division (my
God way or the highway) another mind control mechanism has risen to
take its place……...narcissistic consumerism based upon the lie of
endless resources and ever increasing debt."

[sumo]

"Please understand that I am talking about manmade and man
administered ‘religion’ and not about whether or not there exists a
supreme being"

You threw a good punch and then pulled it. Out of fear? Overwhelmed by (Cialdini's) social proof?

Religion, including the Supreme Being trope, has to be one of the best low-tech methods of mind control, with a long history

attesting to its effectiveness. Like an opiate keying into a brain receptor, religion plugs into and subverts

our hunger for meaning and structure. Few people, in my experience, really want to live delusion

free - most just want an upgraded delusion with a better high, so they take their childhood religious indoctrination

and tweak it until it works more effectively.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I wanted to mention God and religion without dwelling on it. Another time, another article.

But most of all I wanted to be briefer than I have been in the past. I am trying to keep my articles to three or four "Word" pages using 12 font.

[Pseudo Anonym]

i look forward to your forward looking plan to dwell on this topic:

...religion without dwelling on it. Another time, another article.

i enjoy observing your progress in your search for the top controller of this monstrous lie and fraud.  you may recall that sometime well over three years ago i commented on one of your essays re control and willful blindness where you dismissed a top down control structure.  i broached on opinion, and suggested to you, that the head of this con rests in vatican.  i wonder if 2014 will be (or not) the year when we agree.  you've seen me post this link a few times in the past but here it is again for your convenience.  perhaps it will assist you in looking for the master mind corporation that runs this shindig:

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican37.htm

[mkkby]

I think your writing still suffers from stating too many generalities, without enough supporting examples.  Long time ZH readers can probably guess what deceptions you refer to, but others will just be scratching their heads.

A rhetoric class would help you write more persuasively.  It just needs to be better organized.

[DaveyJones]

I love the God of Narcissim almost as much as he loves himself 

[skistroni]

Happy New year, CG. And please don't dissect this common wish as another cultural lie, which it is. Warmth and appreciation, which I want to express towards you, was there before New Years were invented and it will be there long after they don't matter anymore. 

[oddjob]

Having a bit tof trouble reconciling your position on marijuana (if i recall it correctly) and the social programing part.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I have been clean and sober since Jan 1990. What others do with their drug of choice is their business, but for me it's poison. I'm not sure what you are referring to as "my position on marijuana" but I have joked about it, including using it, several times in the threads.

For example I have said several times "Don't Bogart that joint my friend" and linked the YouTube song. I'm a permanently 'retired' drinking, smoking and hard drug using hippie from the 70's. In many ways I miss the lifestyle, but not what I did to myself and to others while pursuing that lifestyle.

[Hulk]

Since you are now officially a farmer, you can now only say that you have been sober since 1990 !!!

You are no longer clean...

[Cognitive Dissonance]

LOL

Not really a farmer. Just outside letting the 5 year old in me play in the dirt a bit. Lately it has been playing in the woods with the chainsaw.

I piloted a desk for 24 years. Before that I worked residential construction for almost as long. One of the things I most missed when at my desk was the physical work and the satisfaction of walking away and 'seeing' what I had done today, of knowing that I had created something with my mind AND hands. Now that I'm tracking dirt across Mrs. Cog's floor I also have the satisfaction of looking back and seeing the dirt trail I have created.

<And then cleaning it up with my hands.>

[DaveyJones]

the good news is, the world was not built on farmers, it was built on gardeners.  We'll all be returning soon.

[Seer]

?

I suspect that domestication of animals was fairly early on as well.

Nothing wrong with the word "farmer."  Modern corporate types have given "farmer" a bad image.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Yes. And we are expanding our garden this spring.

Any ideas on what we can grow across the dirt road on some level unfenced land I keep cut for a neighbor that won't be ravaged by deer, wild turkeys, bears, possums, raccoons or gophers?

[Kayman]

Anything with a bitter or hot leaf.  But when you're hungry and have limited options animals will eat just about anything.

[El Vaquero]

...some level unfenced land I keep cut for a neighbor that won't be ravaged by deer, wild turkeys, bears, possums, raccoons or gophers?

Hrrrrm.  I don't have to deal with deer, bears or wild turkeys where I am.  If you want to try corn, you could try Hickory King for some flour corn.  It grows tall enough that harvesting can be an issue, so as long as the deer don't eat the stalks (just hoping here,) they're not going to get to the cobs. You could also try some of the hotter varieties of NM chiles.  If they do eat them, but some make it to maturity, you'll at least have the satisfaction of burning their asses with your failure. 

I would try a multitude of things, and if it doesn't live long enough to go to seed, it doesn't belong in your garden. 

[tip e. canoe]

that last paragraph is most excellent advice

[Bagbalm]

I just followed a different planting stratagy. I planted green beans where I was assured the rabbits would eat them all. But instead of rows I planted a solid mass...30 feet on a side.The rabbits and other critters ate 3 or 4 feet in from the edge. But even they couldn't eat that many green beans.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Interesting. Time to huddle with Mrs. Cog.

[tip e. canoe]

camelina sativa aka gold of pleasure (especially if you are burning oil for heat and/or hot water)

wink wink nod nod

http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/0203181-camelina-sativa-a-multiuse-oil-crop-for-biofuel-omega-3-cooking-oil-and-proteinoil-source-for-animal-feed.html

[Hulk]

How about some snow art in the winter COG ???This guy is amazing !!!

http://www.viralnova.com/simon-beck-snow-art/

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I limit myself to snow angels and Mrs. Cog's cold nose. :-)

[Hulk]

Lucky you !!! A cold, wet nose is a sign of a healthy wife !!!

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Now that made Mrs. Cog laugh out loud. :-)

[DaveyJones]

I second the edible trees and any thorned berry. Jerusalem Artichoke has all sorts of qualities

(when I was young) Wild Turkey ravaged me more than once

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I once learned to drink Scotch

to win the heart of a young lass who unfortunately did not last

but the Scotch hung around to sink me.

Sorry, wrong Wild Turkey. :-)

[Hulk]

You could plant alfalfa, it will attract deer like mad, keeping them out of your garden, Great way to harvest the deer too...

[Cognitive Dissonance]

The deer already patrol the field across the road. Below is an image of our Maine Coon cat checking out the deer from a safe distance. No sense being brave. He only goes after mice 1/100th his weight.

[Seer]

I have a picture of seven deer in my front yard!  That was BTD (Before The Dog): since then I only get a rare glimpse, and when the dog is elsewhere- stumbled across a couple when I'd putted the tractor up to last cut up a big fallen tree trunk.

I'm more of an elk guy.  For now that is...

[nmewn]

Only looks like 100-125yds, right behind the shoulder, as long as your neighbor doesn't mind ;-)

[logicalman]

I'd need to get a bit closer with my bow!

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I have a Gentleman's agreement with the three neighbors on three sides. The four side is the ridge and the quarter mile drop off the plateau.

I treat their land as if it were mine meaning I keep things neat and tidy, and they allow me to use it as I would use my own land. None of my 'neighbors' live on their land and only come to visit it every few years or so. So I have effectively quadrupled the land I can use without the expense of purchasing it or paying taxes on it. And they all love that they have someone on site who is watching over their property including cutting the woods back from the road, mowing the open fields and cutting back the dead wood and Kudzu.

Win win win all around.

[indygo55]

Hi Cog and Happy New Year. May I ask what State you are in?

Im in South Florida and looking for a change.