A right-wing hippie writes

Just don't let me catch you passing notes while the rest of us have our heads bowed in prayer. ;-D --snort-- Just so, Rod. Just so. I traded in my Republican Party membership card (well, in spirit anyway) about 12 years ago when I made the leap from agnostic, secular law student to ardent Roman Catholic.
To that point, I was probably indistinguishable from your self-described "right-wing hippie" respondents. Strict Constructionism still rings my bell, though I have become completely disillusioned with the R party's sincerity in championing federalist constituationalism. I find the rapidity with which our federal government is removing its rule-of-law mask to be quite frightening, actually. In the meantime, let me offer your respondents a hearty welcome to the Crunchy Con party. But be careful - you might wake up one day and find yourself wondering about the reasonableness of agnosticism, like I did.

Rod, By my definition a crunchy con is a devout Christian. These sound like wonderful nice people, but another title should apply. Please resist the desire to apply the standard PC tolerance doctrine when you determine who is in or out of the tent.

Please excuse this post-- it's a test of my ability to post. Thanks, Marica

Professor Bickle and wife will have food and probably arms when the night falls. Most people won't. Will he swap food and protection for their allegience, and what form of government would he inagurate? Given his background, he might make himself a philosopher-king. My own inclination leanstowards the feudal, but there'll be plenty of room in which to try out various alternatives. Cuius regio, eius religio, right?
It does seem to me that there's an authoritarian subsoil in crunchyness, which can grow, or regrow, many worthy manners and customs. Too bad it will take the decline and fall of everything for it to happen. On the other hand, no doubt we'll finally be rid of Old Mill, Bentham and the 19th century econocrats.

Curious. All the cookbooks I ever find (at garage sales) from the 50's and 60's start with add one can of tomato soup or slice hotdogs vertically and bake at 350 in a casserole dish. Seriously, I found those cookbooks to filled with recipes for busy moms. I thought they were cool until I actually sat down and want to try and use them. Do you mean "junior league" cookbooks? Just curious.

Robin-- you're exactly right. Most of those cookbooks were for busy moms on the go. But you've got to dig in. A typical cookbook will only yield 40-50 recipes worth making. And you've really got to go back in time. Case in point, The Fredericksburg (TX) Home Kitchen Cookbook published by the Fredericksburg PTA, 1962 edition that I inherited from my grandmother, opens with the following dedication: "To the parents and the teachers who bestow on our children and inculcate in them the physical and spiritual strength for our Christian, democratic way of life this edition is respectfully dedicated by The Fredericksburg Parent-Teacher Association". I foound a leter edition from the early 2000's and needless to say the dedication had changed. Elizabeth(Marica speaking)-- It's Bickle & Bernstein. Not going femi-Nazi here-- don't vehemently object to being called "Mrs. Bickle"-- just clarifying.
(from both) It's not guilt that motivates us, it's just an increasing understanding that the latest couple of generations of Western culture are not capable of defeating a dedicated enemy with a long range vision. We're just trying to increase the probability that we and our children survive. We don't recall that an event like September 11th happened in the late 60's or early 70's.

Marcia, The late 60s and the early 70s saw a homegrown terrorist movement in the form of various radical organizations. The most "successful" (ick) of them, the Weather Underground, carried out a large number of bombings.
There were attacks on our troops and sailors abroad in the 80s. In the 90s we saw the Oklahoma City travesty, also homegrown and from the right, and the first World Trade Center bombing by the same network that eventually succeeded on Sept. 11. In the latter, there was also the factor of a new government that could not be induced to take the threat seriously.
Apparently the Clinton administration weighed heavily the idea of going after Al Quaeda between the election and the changeover, but decided to hand the information to the new government. How seriously they took that threat is history. Is that a failure of a generation (or two) or of a government? I don't think this is a distinction without a difference. The current situation in Iraq is the result of a government, as may be an impending disaster in Iran if the neo-con insanity is allowed to play out. Let's hope it does not. I am not sure where this idea that we don't have the mettle, as a people, to fight a real struggle. The "war on terror" is a travesty, an excuse for creeping fascism and implementation of an agenda that was cooked up long before Sept. 11. The actions taken by the administration have played into the hands of the enemy, creating more danger than was originally at hand. There is a large population in the world with no hope, and instead of being the beacon of hope, this government... oh, never mind. Everyone knows. As for cookbooks, the best ones I find are the last 30 years of natural foods cookbooks and even some of the fancy ones, now that organic and natural foods are considered chic instead of a throwback. The Farmhouse Cookbook, the French Farmhouse cookbook, the Italian - er - some farm cookbook by Lynn Rosetto Kasper (the book after The Splendid Table) are great. So is Annemarie Colbin's The Natural Gourmet and Greens, Glorious Greens by XX?. Prairie Home Cooking (I'm in Minnesota) and Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland are great.

As far as I'm concerned, a Crunchy is anyone who believes with Ennius: "The Roman State stands on its ancient customs and its manhood."; but of course you must replace the adjective modifying 'state' with one that fits your case.
Rod?