Laws are in place for our protection, right?

I mean, let's be real here.  We vote people into office whom we believe to have our best interests at heart and will be our voice in the grand scheme of things.  However, even at the local level, it seems some politicians have more of a personal agenda than a logical one.

For example, in the city of Eastpointe, MI (my home town) it is considered illegal to keep chickens or other farm animals.  Their reasoning?  From what I was told by the mayor is that chickens, especially roosters, are just so loud.  They're a nuisance.  However, when we measure the noise caused by chickens (male and female), we find that they are no louder than the average dog.  In fact, they'll crow at the same things dogs will bark at!  The average dog barks anywhere from 60 to 100 decibels.  Hens?  Roughly 60 decibels AT THEIR LOUDEST.  And roosters?  They HAVE to be just ridiculously loud, right?  Nope.  90 decibels.  But wait a minute, why do they seem so much louder???  Because, my dear Watson, it's not a typical "city sound".  Tell me, when you go to a black tie type of event and you see a huge sea of suits and ties, nothing really stands out.  Now stick a man wearing a bright green t-shirt and blue jeans in there and tell me where your eyes are drawn.  The same concept works with sound.  It's why we notice the sound of sirens over our music and the other driving noises on the road.

Well, then there must be a logical reason for why chickens are illegal, right?  I mean, they must carry diseases, or stink, or maybe their fecal matter is damaging to the ground-water or something?

Ha, therein lies the real kicker.

NONE OF THE ABOVE.  Let me just repeat that: NONE OF THE ABOVE!

Chicken diseases aren't transmittable to humans when they're kept in small flocks.  Avian flu and viruses like it are only a danger in commercial-grade situations where the animals are kept in completely unsanitary conditions and uncomfortably close quarters with hundreds and thousands of other chickens.  What happens is their immune systems are worn down to nothingness due to breathing in their dried, powdered fecal matter and ingesting nutritionally deficient food.  The only way to combat these diseases in this situation is with heavy drugging both for their comfort and for their "health".  Comfort?  What?  Oh, you didn't know?  Commercial chicken feed contains traces of fluoxetine (aka Prozac) and drugs like it.  Why?  To keep them from tearing each other apart.  Literally.  They also cut their beaks for this reason.  So they pump them full of antibiotics (great for us, too right?  I mean no harm can come from that....), mood altering drugs, and literally the junkiest "food" money can buy.  Then, they sell them plucked and packaged to us, the unquestioning consumer.

Stinky?  HA!  Have you smelled dog poop lately?  Better yet, have you compared the two in both quantity and stench?  How about in value?  Yes, value.  Chicken poop is worth its weight in gold.  In fact, you can buy it as an all natural fertilizer/manure product.  It's basically a nitrogen-charged super growth supplement from what I've seen in my experience (which happens to be first hand).  It composts like a champ and makes commercial "fertilizers" look like crap (HAH!).

Contamination and ground-water....hmmmm well if we're going to take THAT route, which would have a case of, salmonella or cancer?  Don't answer that.  I know you're not stupid.  But let's think about this for a minute.  RoundUp is readily sprayed to take care of those pesky weeds.  I mean that crap is about 99% carcinogenic and pure poison to everything it touches.  It is NOT biodegradable, NOT environmentally safe, and we're (please note that the "we" in this is NOT myself.) dumping it by the bucketload practically on our lawns and crops that are now available in RoundUp Ready form.  As for commercial fertilizers, unless you buy organic and REALLY know what you're getting, they're pretty much all oil based and do more damage than good.  THAT crap will leak into groundwater a lot faster than poo of any sort will.

So let me just put this into perspective for you all:

It is perfectly legal to purchase and pour into our lawns ALL sorts of chemical poisons.  It is perfectly legal to keep dogs which can get louder than roosters.  It is considered normal to ingest eggs and meat from chickens pumped full of growth hormones, mood altering drugs, and low-grade feed that have lived their short lives in cramped, unsanitary spaces.  These chickens aren't processed one at a time with care.  They're processed in a factory by machines....hundreds....thousands at a time.

However, it is illegal to keep and raise chickens on property YOU pay for.  It is illegal to experience the joy of harvesting eggs from your own backyard chickens each day.  And why?  For no apparent reason.

"Oh, but people will complain if their neighbors raise chickens!"  Really?  Let them.  I mean honestly, I complain about so many stupid things and nothing gets done about those....Actually, the last time I complained about something, I had it tossed back into my face (regarding the building of Eastpointe's 10,000th senior home).  So why isn't the same tactic used here?  The only conclusion I can find that makes any sense is that someone within the city government at some time had  personal agenda.  I'm NOT accusing the current mayor of this, just to be clear.  I don't believe she wrote the law on this.  However, laws without purpose are not only unjust, but VERY scary things.  It's a slippery slope down the road to dictatorship and yes, even cities can be dictatorial.  Look at New York.

I suggest any and all readers contact their city officials about any unjust or pointless laws or ordinances and do what you can to nullify them.  Maybe it seems like a lot of pointless effort, but it makes a point more powerful than a riot could.  Riots are pretty simple to put down.  Rebellion involving intelligent minds is a much harder flame to extinguish.

Viva la Revoltion.

Hippie Hair

So this may come as a surprise to some, but minus the free-love, I'm kind of a hippie.  My fiancee` says that according to the internet, we're what you'd call "granola crunchers".  We've got a strong love of nature, try to buy all organic, gmo-free, fair trade products, and enjoy having our home decked out with plants galore!  When the sun is out, I open the blinds and just sit and enjoy its rays.  Glare on the TV?  Shut it off!  TV is for late nights when you're tired, but don't feel like sleeping.  Sunny days are for yard work, reading, and long walks with the dog.

That being said, my wedding is in May.  JUST AROUND THE CORNER!  And Samm and I wanted to have an outdoor wedding, but didn't want the risk of rain so we decided on an indoor/outdoor venue at Metro Park.  We've had a little bit of slack about this, nothing bad and nothing really worth getting too deep into, but slack nonetheless.  Those that know me know I'm a strong Christian.  So why wouldn't we get married in a church?  Churches are God's houses, so it's said.  Well, the way I look at it, God made the world, right?  All life comes from Him.  Churches are beautiful works of art, but they're man made.  But being out amongst the trees, flowers, grass, and all the bugs and birds....that to me is where you truly connect to God.  Seeing His handy work gives me more appreciation and more of a sense of spirituality than any man made cathedral ever could.

Dread Locks.

Random?  Seemingly so, but just keep reading.

I've been thinking about dread locks for a while now, but had always heard that they're dirty, smelly, and that if you don't like having them after a while, you have to cut them off.  One day, I jokingly mentioned that I should get them and she told me that I really should.  I would look "totally hot" in dread locks.  So I started looking into it.  What would it really be like to have them?  What is maintenance like?
http://www.dreadheadhq.com/
This website had all the answers I was looking for.  I watched some videos, read some articles and blogs, and came to my own conclusions.  The preconceived notion that dreads are dirty and stink can be both true and false.  As with any hair, it can be maintained and look and smell good, OR it can be left to rot on your head and stink up the joint.  Dreads can and should be washed as often or as little as you like.  Now there are other methods rather than washing for those who choose not to do it.  I've heard a lemon juice rinse does the trick just as well, but I think I'd miss washing my hair.
Sounds great, but I don't want to risk having to lose all my hair JUST to see if I'd like having dreads.  What's that?  You don't have to cut them out???  I'm listening....
It's true, the quickest way to de-dread your head is with a big ole pair of garden shears.  However, they're absolutely able to be combed out!  Even after years of being locked up tight, with some water, conditioner, a dental hook, and a strong comb, you'll be able to get your old hair back!  It'll take a while since the longer you've had dreads, the tighter they become and the thicker they get, but if that means not losing a whole head of hair, so be it.

Now, I definitely want dreads, but I've never been a fan of the thick ones that could brain an elephant (thank you iCarly).  I think thinner is way cooler and way more my style.  But another appealing part of having dreads is the so called "spiritual journey" involved with it.  No, it's not some sort of cult.  Basically, with most hairstyles, we have a decent sense of instant gratification.  We go to get our hair done and whether it takes 15 minutes or 15 hours, when it's done, that's it.  When you walk away from your stylist (or the mirror), your hair is finished and lookin' good.  But that's the best it's going to look until it gets styled again.  With dreads, you get them put in and they look pretty good.  Then you have to deal with a couple months of real maintenance.  Loose hairs, frizz, reshaping, it all takes time.  Then, once you hit about the 3rd or 4th month, they start locking and looking better and better.  The maintenance lessens and they start coming into their own.  At the one year point, they're fully matured and require little fixing or messing at all.  Simply tie in the new growth and that's that.

The spiritual part is really just an inner peace thing.  It's kind of nice to be different and to express it in your own way.  For me, it's just nice to do something so natural.  Dreadlocks date back millennia and are a very natural hairstyle.  Now, obviously them forming naturally and freely is one thing, but I also want to fit into the modern world somewhat.  So free form ain't my thang.
The journey part is that it takes such a long time to develop them and it requires such a vast amount of patience.

Yeah, I know this makes me sound like a total weirdo, but I'm fine with that.

Alright, that's my two cent rant and now I'm off to bake some bread!