Perhaps it is the organic ingredients, or the mountain spring water.  Could it be the natural hops, grains, and honey right from the farm?  Or, is Brett Nichols the greatest brewmaster to ever make beer.

Too much, you think?

Wait until you take the top off a Shooting Creek Farm brew: taste the silken, pure, complex taste, and then join me in exalting the best small brewery in North America.  High on the Blue Ridge, Shooting Creek Farm Brewery sits on Brett and Johanna Nichols’ certified organic Five Penny Farm in legendary Floyd county.  

There are six distinct brews offered by the farm, and while I am the type to pick favorites, with this roster I am undone. [Read more →]

The editors recommend checking out Ahniwanika’s blog regularly

In the month’s Underreported Struggles: 20,000 Lepchas Vow to Die for Their Community; Nicaragua Recognizes Indigenous Land Rights; Dam workers attack the Enawene Nawe; and 18 other stories about the ongoing, world-side struggle for land, rights, and life.

December 29 – Indonesia Police Destroy Indigenous Village – Indonesian police forces have violently evicted 400 indigenous people from their land in the province of Riau on the eastern coast of Sumatra. According to Amnesty International, approximately 700 local security forces entered the village of Suluk Bongka, firing bullets and tear gas. As the villagers fled into the forest, two helicopters dropped what was thought to be a fire accelerant on the village, burning it to the ground.

December 26 – We shall give up our lives but not our land – “We shall give up our lives but not land.” The slogan is overwhelming across the state of Jharkhand against displacement induced by the development projects. It is not only a slogan for the Adivasis but it is also their determination, pledge and hope to ensure their ownership rights over the natural resources i.e. land, forest and water.

December 24 – Uprising against Barrick Gold in Tanzania – Earlier this month, thousands of villagers raided a gold mine in Northern Tanzania, setting fire to $7 million worth of mine equipment. Most reports claim the action was performed by “gold-seekers”, however, local reports say the uprising was the result of a murder by a Barrick Security Guard. [Read more →]

Republican’s like to say, it is not just the bank’s fault that this housing bubble has burst, but that some people spent beyond their means.

Bubble after bubble, each bailout finances the next overblown contraction. The savings and loan bailout, created by Bush Sr. and McCain’s deregulation festival, financed the dot com bubble. The 500 billion dollar hedge fund bailout, following the tech bubble bursting, financed the real estate bubble. And the prime irrational actor in spiraling home costs, little blamed by democrats or republicans, were REITs.

Real estate investment trusts are rich people funds to buy land and property. No one lives on the land, few ever see or know what a REIT holds, but half the drive in prices is attributed to their activities taking land and homes off the market for speculative purpose. In fact, the surge in available properties which drives home price drops in many regions is very much a reflection of the rich having dumped much of their REITholdings.

Here is some recent history of this profitable den of irresponsibility in the guise of savvy. Three years back-

Two years back… FED culpability and a Mickey in your drink

And one year back.

And today? Good old lessons.

“Buy when there’s blood in the streets” (Baron Rothschild in 1871)

This bailout will fund the bio-tech bubble.

And none of it is a mistake. The expansions and contractions are part and parcel of elite control and dominance techniques.

Some say buy low sell high. I say, don’t buy and aim for the chest.

(I also say, buy as much woodland as you can afford and preserve it and make a well organized militia.)

Post by: Johnny Civil has written extensively under many names for Cañamo, Hanf!, The Shadow, The East Coast Ledger and many other outlets.

By Charles Mostoller

Supreme Court case pits exploitation of the Amazon against Indigenous rights in Brazil

On August 27th, the Brazilian Supreme Court will decide a case that could have far reaching effects on the Amazon and the half-million indigenous people who live there. The case questions the legality of a process that created an Indigenous Territory in northern Brazil, and threatens to reverse decades of progress on indigenous and social rights throughout the country.

In 2005, after more than two decades of struggle for recognition, five indigenous groups in Brazil’s northern Roraima state won official recognition of their rights to their ancestral lands. Their efforts culminated in the creation of a new Indigenous Territory, Raposa Serra do Sol, covering a large swath of the Amazon Rainforest on the border with Guyana. [Read more →]