|
|
|
|
Rookie Wine Sweep Sticky, of San Diego, California A while back, I had the day off work. With absolutely nothing to do, I slept through breakfast and into the morning, a rare treat. I'm guessing, but I'd say it was about 9:30 A.M. when a cop keyed my door, telling me to step out. Though my brain was still in a fog, it was still a nice wake-up call. Otherwise, I probably would've slept until noon. Exiting, I heard one cop instructing the other to look for extra laundry and obvious contraband. It sounded like they wanted me to hear this. They were in my cell all of two minutes. I suppose it pays to keep the house tidy and clean. Something tells me they were not looking for laundry. There were no clothes bins nearby, nor piles of confiscated clothing outside other cells. This was an intelligence gathering mission. This kind of thing happens every once in a while. This is a training facility for cops fresh out of the academy. It could be worse. Now and again the Goon Squad (Investigative Service Unit, ISU) shows up with their crime kit briefcase & dogs, in search of drugs, cell phones, weapons, etc. Usually, when they arrive, there is nothing random about it. The Gooners hit a certain house knowing exactly what or who they're after. This is prison, after all, and there is no shortage of rats, no matter where you go. When Squad leaves an inmate's house it looks like Beirut in the aftermath of a Marine air strike. Skip forward to Super Bowl LI. That morning our entire building was slammed down tight as we awaited breakfast release. At one point the Sounder swarmed our tier, about 20-deep, pulling inmates out cell-by-cell, instructing them to wait in the dayroom. Gee, what kind of fresh hell is this? Through the walls, I could hear toilets flushing, everywhere. You'd think they'd have shut off the water before the raid. As I looked around I could tell these were not Squad cops. There were no special briefcases, no K-9's, no blacked out insignias. Nope, in fact, all of these uniforms were too new; the deeper green shade of a rookie. It became obvious to me, judging by the particular day, that this was a "Wine Sweep." Just as I thought, three cops (one old dog and two trainees) were in and out of my house in all of 1 1/2 minutes. As they entered my neighbor's cell, old dog cleared my cell. Looking around, on my way back to the hovel, I noticed some peer's cells being torn up with gusto. Some cops are more thorough than others but, in all fairness, there was no wine in ours. Call me lame, but this guy is going home in three years! Surprisingly, my cell looked pretty much like how we left it. Plastic storage bins were strewn about but, otherwise, no mess. Yup, wine search. No bags full of cloudy liquid or suspicious odors, so they didn't visit long. In hindsight, I think the Laundry Sweep was a ruse. They were trying to catch people slippin'. Give dudes a false sense of security. The trainees come through, looking for batches being started, all the while knowing they'd be back in a couple days to catch people straining their Apple Jack, thinking the coast is clear. Nothing changed the festivities for me and my cellie. Our half-time vittles were home made burritos with lots of heat, nacho chips, and ice cold soda's from the swamp cooler. Yup, we fashioned a swamp cooler. I just wish the commercials had been better this year. Only one single good one, an incognito deer and two dimwitted hunters. Go Brady! God Bless. Reflections of Themselves
|
Letters to the Editor
Hi, Sam, Greetings to ya from Arkansas! I don't know if any of your old timer Frontiersmen can still remember that many years ago when a Cherokee Indian died, or when one of their dogs died, their family members would go to the woods to search for a young healthy dogwood tree, and they would dig it up, and then they would dig a hole to bury the body, and then directly above the grave, they would plant the dogwood tree. You see it was the Cherokee's belief that the dogwood's roots would be nourished by the dead body, and then the body's spirit would live within the living tree. But these days, all human bodies are buried in coffins in a cemetery, and it's against the cemetery rules to plant any tree above a grave site. But if your beloved pet dies, you could buy a young fruit tree such as an apple, peach, or plum, and then dig a hole on your own property or in the woods, and bury your pet and plant the fruit tree directly above its grave, and the roots of that tree will absorb the nutrients from the decaying pet's body, so now your pet's spirit is within this living tree, and when your tree bears its fruit, and you eat of that fruit, then you and your pet's spirit are together again as one, and this tree will continue to grow, and this tree will be your pet's grave marker for many years. —Howie
It's interesting how similar behaviors can be so different in principle. The behavior that you attribute to the Cherokees was harmless. During the French colonial occupation in Southeast Asia, Vietnamese slaves on Michelin plantations, who died from starvation or overwork, were buried under the rubber tree as fertilizer. So far as I can tell, slavery, and other such abusive behavior, seems to have been more the rule than the exception, throughout the known history of human society. I don't see any reason to suppose that future human societies will be any more humane (strange word) than past human societies have been. In my writing, I refer to human society rather than to human civilization because I don't see much evidence to convince me that human civilization is anything more than a contradiction in terms. —editor
To Whom it May Concern: Hello & good day, I saw one of your newsletters from a friend, & got your address. Will you please add me to your mailing list to get your monthly Frontiersman newsletter? As I was very interested in everything that I did read. Looking forward to getting these to read & share with some other's also.... —a prisoner
Dear Sam: I recently wrote a letter to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News. They didn't print it, and I'm glad that they didn't, because I made a big mistake in the text. I said that government has a duty to protect people. I was thinking of the idea that the government's moral right to use force is really the citizen's delegated right of self-defense. However, if it's accepted that the government has a duty to protect people, then that gives it the right to do almost anything in the name of "protection". —Sir Donald
According to the propaganda, the government can exercise only powers that were delegated to it by the people. Logically, the people can delegate only powers that they have themselves. If they don't have a power, then they can't delegate that power to the government. The government exercises the power of capital punishment. If you accept the premises, above, then people must have a legitimate power to kill one another, or capital punishment is an illegitimate power of the government. —editor
Dear Mr. Milam, Thank you for dignifying Ma$tering Word$, Not Deed$, [June, page 1] and most of all tearing down "Potemkin villages." Your fodder for thought; Penalty for Being an old man dying in one of these penal shrines, I'll hold on to Dylan Thomas' words "Do not go gentle into that good night." I'm not government livestock, I'm a human being! Until people realize The Great Oz hides behind the curtain for a reason, and Potemkin villages hide reality, you'll never be able to cut yourself from the herd of human livestock. Keep pulling those curtains back, and know the light of reality makes cockroaches nervous. I remain, In admiration and appreciation, —Robert H. Outman
Dear Sam,
Prisoner P-79939 What a joy it was to read Robert Outman's
|
true and accurate disclosure of the Calif. Penal
System [Ma$tering
Word$, Not Deed$, June, page 1], plus your reference to 2 other
fine publications.
Proposition 57, passed Nov. 8, 2016, was written to open the doors to thousands of inmates who continue to serve unreasonable and undeserved terms, effective Nov. 9, 2016. However, CDCR has decided that it has the power to sort out previously undesignated classes of prisoners and to "give" them various assorted discounts according to their types and durations of offenses, to commence at future dates. Many lawsuits are being filed against CDCR for their revision of Prop. 57 and their deliberate stalling. Some suits are already at the Calif. Supreme Court level. Obviously, by stalling as long as possible, CDCR gets to keep the inmate count as high as possible and as long as possible. They haven't issued their final regulations yet so it's remotely possible that public pressure could bend their will. For now, though, Robert Outman's world is 100% current and valid. —James, of Ione, California
Breakfast Baloney
Sam Aurelius Milam III Over the years, I've seen various advertisements about breakfast food. The Jimmy Dean clouds and planets, and the cannibalistic, talking shredded wheat characters come to mind. Whatever the product, I've noticed the recurring warnings about the dangers of skipping breakfast, which is touted as the most important meal of the day. Even lacking any other fault, the advertisements have a problem with the definition, which makes me wonder. What's the problem with the definition? Breakfast is the first meal of the day. The time of day when it's eaten is irrelevant. Even if it isn't eaten until sometime in the evening, it's still breakfast. The only possible way to skip breakfast is by not eating anything at all, for the entire day. That really makes me wonder. I haven't noticed any concern about the risks of "skipping breakfast" on the part of companies that sell clothes or pickup trucks or houses or anything else. Such concerns appear to be entirely limited to the companies that sell breakfast food. Call me skeptical or even cynical but maybe the breakfast food companies don't really care about the harm to their customers that's allegedly caused by "skipping breakfast". Maybe their warnings are intended only to intimidate people into buying their products. It sure makes me wonder. I don't usually eat breakfast until at least late in the morning. Sometimes, I don't eat it until sometime during the afternoon. I've been getting away with such cavalier disregard for my health for many years. So far as I can tell, it hasn't caused me any harm. Thus, the observed data, at least in my own case, appear to contradict the alleged concerns expressed by the companies that sell breakfast foods. Since their statements appear to be at odds with the observed data, and seem to suggest an ulterior motive, it ought to make everybody wonder. Amended But Not Ended Sam Aurelius Milam III The Thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crimes. Thus people, but not prisons, were denied the use of slave labor. The Fourteenth Amendment established the jurisdiction of the United States over citizens. The dictionaries tell us that jurisdiction means power and control. So, the United States has power and control over its citizens. Power and control enable the use, or at least the possibility, of slavery and involuntary servitude, which means that it's necessary for citizenship to be voluntary. Otherwise, there isn't any difference between citizenship and slavery. Citizenship might be voluntary in theory but, in practice, it's effectively mandatory. Thus, citizenship isn't much different from slavery. Bad News, Worse News
|
Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Betty; Sir Donald the Elusive; James, of Ione, California; Robert, of San Diego, California; and Eric, of Ione, California. — editor
Websites http://frontiersman.org.uk/ http://moonlight-flea-market.com/ http://pharos.org.uk/ http://sam-aurelius-milam-iii.org.uk/ http://sovereign-library.org.uk/ Blonde Jokes
Claims About the 1500s
Frontiersman Availability — Assuming the availability of sufficient funds, subscriptions to this newsletter in print, copies of past issues in print, and copies of the website on CDs are available upon request. Funding for this newsletter is from sources over which I don't have any control, so it might become necessary for me to terminate these offers or to cancel one or more subscriptions at any time, without notice. All past issues are presently available at the address shown below. Contributions are welcome. Cancellations — If you don't want to keep receiving printed copies of this newsletter, then return your copy unopened. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription. Reprint Policy — Permission is hereby given to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must apply to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material. Submissions — I consider letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. Payment — This newsletter isn't for sale. If you want to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders, please inquire. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.org.uk. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. — Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
|
|
|