BRITISH SAILORS AND ETHANOL SUBSIDIES
If one was really a cynic, the latest news stories tie together. British sailors are taken into custody for sailing in Iranian waters. And projected corn crops due to ethanol needs are said to be a record amount, the most since 1944. In case any of you were scratching your crotch during history class, that was when we were supplying a lot of grain to other nations since they were a bit busy blowing up their countryside during a war.
*
The afore mentioned cynic might think that oil and agricultural interests are being rewarded for both election results and future retirement book deals. Higher oil prices help both the Iranian and Russian governments with increased revenue. It is in their interest to heighten tensions by beating the war drums. Bush’s oil buddies also profit handsomely. As do the big agricultural companies with ethanol subsidies. The more it looks like middle eastern oil might be cut off or disrupted, the better the rational is for further ethanol production. Not to mention that a war would be a good way to prop up a sagging economy suffering from a real estate bust.
*
I think we can all agree that war with Iran is going to happen. But perhaps what we should remind ourselves is that it might be a lot less serious than we think. It might be that instead of
fighting over control of the oil and exchanging nuclear bombs and dragging in the Russians, maybe, just maybe this is all just about control and money. I am not saying that things won’t start out innocently and dangerously escalate beyond control. That could happen, a replay of World War One. But we are all worried about the worse happening and it might just be simply a case of greed on all sides.
*
Iran isn’t getting any richer with its oil production falling. And the American oil companies know they need to make hay while the sun shines ( make as much as possible before Peak Oil starts getting serious ). The agriculture boys are always ready to suckle at the government tit. A few incidents in Iran will shoot the price of oil up. Iran, Russia and American oil companies make billions more. A few percent reduction in middle east oil will have everyone screaming for more ethanol to replace oil. Already the Federales are paying more for corn than the market will bear. A good way to avoid slumping prices with increased production, a continued incentive to plow under fallow fields and wetlands and plant more corn. Corn grows well on marginal land so expect some damage to a lot of soil. And the corn can even be damaged and still sell since it isn’t going into the food chain.
*
I at first thought that the Iraq war was about controlling oil as we ran out. Now it just looks like it was a way to remove a lot of daily production off the market and make the oil company a lot of profit. It could very well be that governments refuse to believe Peak Oil will happen and are just out to maximize revenue. After all, the price of oil has doubled during the Bush administration. It is hard to argue with Democrats blaming Bush for that. Does business as usual, profits above all else, point to the widespread refusal of politicians to accept Peak Oil? It would seem so. Heck, one could wonder if that is also the case with the oil companies. Could they think that more will always be found and that the only reason for the lack of new fields has been low oil prices stemming exploration? It could very well be.
*
So if no one is concerned with oil supply, but merely its control, nations will move to maximize the amount they can buy or profit from. Iran might think disrupting the supply will harm the US. Russia sees that as controlling the US. And thus their assuming a leading roll in their own back yard. The US just sees dollars, profits, easy oil and re-election. No one sees it actually running out. So the interests behind the powers that be pull strings to manipulate markets. They think nothing of dead soldiers or radioactive cities. And most voters will go along with it as they need military contractors to take over the closed auto factory. Let us hope that all of the saber rattling will merely produce insanely high prices instead of another world war. We can live with one, not both.
END
sale on my e-books, buy one and get the second full price! www.bisonpress.com
Actual sign posted at a tire shop in my town. "Free Air With Tire Purchase". Someone still has a sense of humor. You might as well laugh at it all as the train falls off the cliff.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
make money off others suffering
MAKING MONEY ON OTHERS SUFFERING
In the fantasyland of a true free market, the theory is that both parties will always be equally compensated in a trade. Both parties will be happy and feel they got full value for their good or service. In the real world there is usually one half of that equation that cheats and gets overly compensated. One example is a bag of sugar. You buy it for a lower than usual price at Wal-Mart. You think you got a good deal at forty cents a pound. Wal-Mart was happy with its nickel profit ( they make a lot of nickel profits ). The Mega-Agri-Corp. that sold the sugar was really happy since in any other country without the government adding a tariff the retail price would have been twenty cents a pound. They made double the profit due to government intervention.
*
Now you too can play the game. If you are inclined to gamble and have the money to lose ( nothing is ever a sure thing, go in prepared to lose it ), a good bet is going to be the coming semi-auto and large capacity magazine ban. I would imagine a few extra semi autos, even as cheap as an SKS, are beyond the budgets of most readers here. But magazines just might be a good bet for those lacking a whole lot of cash. If mags are ten bucks each now they will be fifty to eighty after a ban takes place. I of course assume you have all the prep items you need first. And we are not talking about a big profit here. If you put a grand down you would get a serious return. But that is an insane amount of money to gamble ( of course, my idea of a sane amount to gamble with is a two dollar roll of nickels at the slot machine ).
*
To me, silver and gold are not a bet or a gamble at all. They are just real money whereas paper currency is not. Hyper-inflation or depression, your buying power stays constant. And don’t give me statistics for precious metals performance over the last twenty five years. The market was manipulated by government intervention. I am talking over the history of man, tens of thousands of years, since metal replaced barter. Silver and gold retain their purchasing power over generations. Of course there are a few short term exceptions such as the last few decades or the Spanish inflation from South American exports. But long term they never lose value.
*
So buy whatever you can because one day a single coin will buy a whole lot more than it can now. When everyone is panicking and trying to unload worthless dollars you can buy almost anything for pennies on the dollar. Perhaps an ounce of silver will buy a barrel of oil ( I’m talking purchasing power here, not actual trades ) or a rimfire rifle. A gold coin will buy a nice used mobile home. Or a decent used car ( although when oil gets dear enough a silver coin might buy a decent used v-8 engine vehicle ). Even a few ounces of silver ( $100 right now buys after tax and dealer fees at least five or six ounces ) will put you in a wonderful exchange position when things get crazy ( I’m talking functional society crazy obviously, not total collapse type ).
*
Wheat has doubled in the last ten years but it is still quite affordable. As droughts and crazy weather become more common we might start to see shortages. Keeping food stashed until needed for exchange after a collapse is feasible if you have the needed security for it. But you can also make money off of it now. A five gallon poly bucket is $5. A Mylar bag is three. Thirty three pounds of wheat is six bucks. Call a nitrogen flush a buck, gas and equipment. Your cost is fifteen bucks ( buying at retail prices in small quantities ). You can easily sell it for $25. You might have to sit on it for a bit but it will equal the price of silver or a box of hunting ammo at your cost, so sell for that same equivalent price ( if panic drives up the cost of silver to $50 you can bet stored food such as wheat will be about the same price ).
*
Use your imagination. A little foresight now and a small investment could give you good returns in just a few short years. Again, there is no such thing as a guaranteed gamble. You could see unknown circumstances wipe out your plan. Look at all the people that thought real estate prices could only go up. Betting on a bomb shelter in the eighties seemed like a sure thing. You get the picture, I’m sure. This is just something to consider if you have time and money to spare. But it might become worth your while.
END
An alert and generous reader sent this link on cheap improvised shelter.
http://howtolivewiki.com/en/hexayurt_project
Another reader who might be alert but never visits my web site at www.bisonpress.com in fear that he might see something delightful and spend a buck or two wanted to know my e-mail address ( the address is always posted on my web page ). It is jimd303@netzero.com and I am giving it here because he wanted to pass on suggestions for article ideas, which I really nead so I forgive him for not buying my crap and supporting my cats, of which I now have three and they are taking over the place and always getting underfoot. But I love them and it is sad that so many of you wish to see them starve by not helping out a bit around here. I feel a tear welling.
In the fantasyland of a true free market, the theory is that both parties will always be equally compensated in a trade. Both parties will be happy and feel they got full value for their good or service. In the real world there is usually one half of that equation that cheats and gets overly compensated. One example is a bag of sugar. You buy it for a lower than usual price at Wal-Mart. You think you got a good deal at forty cents a pound. Wal-Mart was happy with its nickel profit ( they make a lot of nickel profits ). The Mega-Agri-Corp. that sold the sugar was really happy since in any other country without the government adding a tariff the retail price would have been twenty cents a pound. They made double the profit due to government intervention.
*
Now you too can play the game. If you are inclined to gamble and have the money to lose ( nothing is ever a sure thing, go in prepared to lose it ), a good bet is going to be the coming semi-auto and large capacity magazine ban. I would imagine a few extra semi autos, even as cheap as an SKS, are beyond the budgets of most readers here. But magazines just might be a good bet for those lacking a whole lot of cash. If mags are ten bucks each now they will be fifty to eighty after a ban takes place. I of course assume you have all the prep items you need first. And we are not talking about a big profit here. If you put a grand down you would get a serious return. But that is an insane amount of money to gamble ( of course, my idea of a sane amount to gamble with is a two dollar roll of nickels at the slot machine ).
*
To me, silver and gold are not a bet or a gamble at all. They are just real money whereas paper currency is not. Hyper-inflation or depression, your buying power stays constant. And don’t give me statistics for precious metals performance over the last twenty five years. The market was manipulated by government intervention. I am talking over the history of man, tens of thousands of years, since metal replaced barter. Silver and gold retain their purchasing power over generations. Of course there are a few short term exceptions such as the last few decades or the Spanish inflation from South American exports. But long term they never lose value.
*
So buy whatever you can because one day a single coin will buy a whole lot more than it can now. When everyone is panicking and trying to unload worthless dollars you can buy almost anything for pennies on the dollar. Perhaps an ounce of silver will buy a barrel of oil ( I’m talking purchasing power here, not actual trades ) or a rimfire rifle. A gold coin will buy a nice used mobile home. Or a decent used car ( although when oil gets dear enough a silver coin might buy a decent used v-8 engine vehicle ). Even a few ounces of silver ( $100 right now buys after tax and dealer fees at least five or six ounces ) will put you in a wonderful exchange position when things get crazy ( I’m talking functional society crazy obviously, not total collapse type ).
*
Wheat has doubled in the last ten years but it is still quite affordable. As droughts and crazy weather become more common we might start to see shortages. Keeping food stashed until needed for exchange after a collapse is feasible if you have the needed security for it. But you can also make money off of it now. A five gallon poly bucket is $5. A Mylar bag is three. Thirty three pounds of wheat is six bucks. Call a nitrogen flush a buck, gas and equipment. Your cost is fifteen bucks ( buying at retail prices in small quantities ). You can easily sell it for $25. You might have to sit on it for a bit but it will equal the price of silver or a box of hunting ammo at your cost, so sell for that same equivalent price ( if panic drives up the cost of silver to $50 you can bet stored food such as wheat will be about the same price ).
*
Use your imagination. A little foresight now and a small investment could give you good returns in just a few short years. Again, there is no such thing as a guaranteed gamble. You could see unknown circumstances wipe out your plan. Look at all the people that thought real estate prices could only go up. Betting on a bomb shelter in the eighties seemed like a sure thing. You get the picture, I’m sure. This is just something to consider if you have time and money to spare. But it might become worth your while.
END
An alert and generous reader sent this link on cheap improvised shelter.
http://howtolivewiki.com/en/hexayurt_project
Another reader who might be alert but never visits my web site at www.bisonpress.com in fear that he might see something delightful and spend a buck or two wanted to know my e-mail address ( the address is always posted on my web page ). It is jimd303@netzero.com and I am giving it here because he wanted to pass on suggestions for article ideas, which I really nead so I forgive him for not buying my crap and supporting my cats, of which I now have three and they are taking over the place and always getting underfoot. But I love them and it is sad that so many of you wish to see them starve by not helping out a bit around here. I feel a tear welling.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
girl scout cookies
THE CURSE OF THE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES
One of the evils of an affluent society ( whether the affluence is from real production or from charging the national credit card ) is Girl Scout cookies. If you have a job that has more than one employee, someone has a kid selling the darn things. If you have a kid, the little rug rat is selling them. If you go shopping at Wal-Mart little uniformed hoards are waiting at each entrance to ply their wares. You can’t escape the cursed things. And a lifetime load of guilt weighs heavy on your soul if you fail to purchase at least one box of the rat poison bars. So you pony up and buy the damn things. And they taste like crap. AND inevitably they have sat in the warmth somewhere on their way to you and fused together.
*
It used to be some kid would wander the neighborhood and hawk chocolate bars. But you don’t even find those cheaply anymore. So you can’t even enjoy real chocolate for charity anymore. It is nasty mock-late flavored cookies. The last time I enjoyed buying candy for a good cause was in high school when the German Club sold authentic German gummi bears to raise funds to travel to Germany. I haven’t been able to eat an American gummi product since. Only the Krauts know how to make them tasty. The silly bastards can’t make an affordable car anymore but they can still crack the whip over the Spaniards churning out gummi candy. Well, they also make a mean firearm. But the only product they turn out cheaply and in quantity are Arab immigrant babies.
*
The short time ago when my daughter was selling Girl Scout cookies I think I paid two bucks and change. Last year they were three dollars. Now they are three fifty. I don’t want to send the kid to college, just on a field trip or some damn thing. The more expensive something is and if it still tastes average, the more I hate it. I don’t mind the fund raising aspect, but can they at least make the things taste better than a box of dollar store generic cookies? Is it because they stopped using the evil fats in it and went to healthier stuff? Or is it just a sign of the times, high inflation and declining workmanship? Inflation is easy to figure out, the government is evil, out of control, and perpetually starved for funds as it tries to control everyone and every activity. Soon in Kentucky you will only be able to buy a special cigarette made with papers that extinguish themselves if not puffed on. We can’t have anymore drunks torching themselves in bed ( like we really care about the dregs of society killing themselves off ). And locally a man got eight years in prison for child porn pictures on his computers. Yes, it is sick, but who has he harmed? Rapists and even murderers can get less time in jail.
*
Our economy is rampant with waste in almost any activity. A case in point is the food bank were I am working. We get day old donuts in and put a certain amount in plastic bags and give them out along with bags of groceries. The health department, in its infinite wisdom, degreed that all repackaged foods must have printed labels on them with ingredients and date. The rationale is that rice kernels look like a certain rat poison. Sure, a fritter donut is really hard to figure out. The point is the cost of computer/printer/ink/labels on an activity that is striving to do good and reduce waste. And it is illegal to scrounge at the dump. I imagine some mental giant shoved his hand into some broken glass and sued them. Now it is illegal to recycle without permission. The political correctness associated with banning trans fat is a perfect example of what is driving costs up. If you want to eat a rancid fat chemically altered, that is your business. It shouldn’t be the governments.
*
The Girl Scouts, doubtlessly, are getting less in personal benefits from their cookies than they used to, even with the increased price. They are paying for imported paper as our trees are left to die and combust in a lightning storm to appease the Greens. They must avoid certain fats in the recipes to avoid Fat Boy lawsuits. Sales are certainly down as the girls must roam in packs with adult supervision to avoid being abducted. The sugar prices are artificially heightened by the US sugar lobby jacking up the prices through quotas. The organization itself must employ lawyers to protect itself against boys bringing lawsuits against it in order to join while making the parents rich. The only way a business can survive anymore is to be small enough to fly under the radar or big enough to crush rivals or bribe the Congressman or Senators or Presidents. All other are slowly driven into bankruptcy by a thousand little parasites clamping on to it to slowly bleed it to death.
*
Food for thought when you ask yourself if we can survive multiple economic strikes.
END
www.bisonpress.com for books
One of the evils of an affluent society ( whether the affluence is from real production or from charging the national credit card ) is Girl Scout cookies. If you have a job that has more than one employee, someone has a kid selling the darn things. If you have a kid, the little rug rat is selling them. If you go shopping at Wal-Mart little uniformed hoards are waiting at each entrance to ply their wares. You can’t escape the cursed things. And a lifetime load of guilt weighs heavy on your soul if you fail to purchase at least one box of the rat poison bars. So you pony up and buy the damn things. And they taste like crap. AND inevitably they have sat in the warmth somewhere on their way to you and fused together.
*
It used to be some kid would wander the neighborhood and hawk chocolate bars. But you don’t even find those cheaply anymore. So you can’t even enjoy real chocolate for charity anymore. It is nasty mock-late flavored cookies. The last time I enjoyed buying candy for a good cause was in high school when the German Club sold authentic German gummi bears to raise funds to travel to Germany. I haven’t been able to eat an American gummi product since. Only the Krauts know how to make them tasty. The silly bastards can’t make an affordable car anymore but they can still crack the whip over the Spaniards churning out gummi candy. Well, they also make a mean firearm. But the only product they turn out cheaply and in quantity are Arab immigrant babies.
*
The short time ago when my daughter was selling Girl Scout cookies I think I paid two bucks and change. Last year they were three dollars. Now they are three fifty. I don’t want to send the kid to college, just on a field trip or some damn thing. The more expensive something is and if it still tastes average, the more I hate it. I don’t mind the fund raising aspect, but can they at least make the things taste better than a box of dollar store generic cookies? Is it because they stopped using the evil fats in it and went to healthier stuff? Or is it just a sign of the times, high inflation and declining workmanship? Inflation is easy to figure out, the government is evil, out of control, and perpetually starved for funds as it tries to control everyone and every activity. Soon in Kentucky you will only be able to buy a special cigarette made with papers that extinguish themselves if not puffed on. We can’t have anymore drunks torching themselves in bed ( like we really care about the dregs of society killing themselves off ). And locally a man got eight years in prison for child porn pictures on his computers. Yes, it is sick, but who has he harmed? Rapists and even murderers can get less time in jail.
*
Our economy is rampant with waste in almost any activity. A case in point is the food bank were I am working. We get day old donuts in and put a certain amount in plastic bags and give them out along with bags of groceries. The health department, in its infinite wisdom, degreed that all repackaged foods must have printed labels on them with ingredients and date. The rationale is that rice kernels look like a certain rat poison. Sure, a fritter donut is really hard to figure out. The point is the cost of computer/printer/ink/labels on an activity that is striving to do good and reduce waste. And it is illegal to scrounge at the dump. I imagine some mental giant shoved his hand into some broken glass and sued them. Now it is illegal to recycle without permission. The political correctness associated with banning trans fat is a perfect example of what is driving costs up. If you want to eat a rancid fat chemically altered, that is your business. It shouldn’t be the governments.
*
The Girl Scouts, doubtlessly, are getting less in personal benefits from their cookies than they used to, even with the increased price. They are paying for imported paper as our trees are left to die and combust in a lightning storm to appease the Greens. They must avoid certain fats in the recipes to avoid Fat Boy lawsuits. Sales are certainly down as the girls must roam in packs with adult supervision to avoid being abducted. The sugar prices are artificially heightened by the US sugar lobby jacking up the prices through quotas. The organization itself must employ lawyers to protect itself against boys bringing lawsuits against it in order to join while making the parents rich. The only way a business can survive anymore is to be small enough to fly under the radar or big enough to crush rivals or bribe the Congressman or Senators or Presidents. All other are slowly driven into bankruptcy by a thousand little parasites clamping on to it to slowly bleed it to death.
*
Food for thought when you ask yourself if we can survive multiple economic strikes.
END
www.bisonpress.com for books
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
make hay while sun shines
MAKING HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES
Everything to its season. Strike while the irons hot. In other words, do today what you can’t put off until tomorrow. The economic storm clouds are gathering on the horizon and it looks like it’s going to be hundred year storm. Every time there is a bit of troubling news I and every other doom and gloom writer trips over each other trying to warn you that the sky is falling, the end is nigh and in general we are all going to die. And this time it is no different. The end is indeed near. I just think that there are too many ominous signs this time, far too many to ignore and figure they will take care of themselves. A perfect storm is building. An act of God might somehow save us, but I fear the worse and think everyone should prepare now.
*
A few years ago, despite eight years of Clinton ravaging the countryside, I was far more optimistic about the economy than I am now. Perhaps it was the fact that oil was still abundant and cheap. Perhaps it was because Bush had not sold out the country to the corporate elite. Perhaps it was because the Baby Boomer retirement hoard was still far away. But I was surely no where near panic mode as I am now. I am not just blowing doom and gloom up your orifice to make money, I am trying to infect you with my fear. I always acknowledge I could be wrong. But always better ten years too early than ten minutes too late ( about how long it would take to strip the grocery shelves bare ).
*
The housing bubble popping is not really a surprise to most of us. But before it was a looming disaster and now it is reality. China is stopping its accumulation of foreign reserves ( that means our debt ). More and more countries are diversifying away from the dollar. More and more countries are joining the list of nations past their oil peak production. More and more governments are feeling the pinch as revenues fall. There are a few more odds and ends I might be missing here, but the end of the dollar standard, credit, oil and employment should be enough to frighten anyone. Now is the time to sell your first born and buy preps. And not the expensive kind. If nothing happens here it is better to be out hundreds rather than thousands. This just might be my becoming exceptionally extra uber-paranoid. I just got a catalog the other day. A years worth of freeze dried food is twelve grand for the family!!!
*
The US dollar has seen its value eroded before as the Fed plays footsie with other central banks and sacrifices our purchasing power to survive a bit longer. In the eighties we took a big hit against other currencies. Not a huge deal then, it helped our exports. Now we have no exports. China does. And if they stop the peg to our currency the cost of everything will go up. Necessities such as clothing and footwear and plastics and metal and every-friggin-thing. China is either flexing its muscle to get favorable treatment or it is getting to the point where they no longer need the US to buy its goods. And as more and more oil sellers demand currencies other than the dollar our currency will really take a hit. Oil is life, and the ability to trade worthless paper dollars for energy has kept us afloat much longer than normal. The end of dollars for oil is the end of our economy.
*
The end of credit is bad. Now, instead of paying interest on a loan we have to print the extra money and increase inflation. This will be felt by everyone in increased prices. Imagine a year long freeze on produce. The prices you would pay for fruits and vegetables. Now imagine everything you buy doing the same thing. As the value of your house plummets so you can’t sell it. And the areas main employer starts laying off people. And the gas to go job searching is $5 a gallon. All of this stuff is tied together, people.
*
Oil depletion does not mean we run out of oil. It means the cheap and abundant oil we have become used to and based all of our economic activity on is going to run out. After the last Arab goes back to herding sheep on a camel there will still be some oil in the ground. But it will be far down in the ground in small quantities. But stop and think. How much can you do without it? Literally, we can do almost nothing without oil inputs. Remember than oil production is a bell curve. It slowly starts to decline and then production plunges off of a cliff. We are now in the slow decline part. Plunge coming soon ( sooner than the Boomers retiring perhaps ).
*
I don’t think falling employment is news to anyone. Layoffs are getting worse and the government paid jobs can’t be manufactured forever. I am talking about economic sectors propped up by the government such as defense contractors and health care. You won’t become a civil servant with job protection or with benefits. You will for a time live off tax dollars indirectly until the gravy train derails. Remember the 40% of all jobs in the last five years being real estate related? Now that is ending.
*
All signs of disaster. All interrelated. All happening now. Drop everything and seriously prepare. Now. If I’m wrong you bought supplies cheaper and when they were in stock. If I’m right you are gambling with dinner ( every night ).
END
www.bisonpress.com for e-books
Everything to its season. Strike while the irons hot. In other words, do today what you can’t put off until tomorrow. The economic storm clouds are gathering on the horizon and it looks like it’s going to be hundred year storm. Every time there is a bit of troubling news I and every other doom and gloom writer trips over each other trying to warn you that the sky is falling, the end is nigh and in general we are all going to die. And this time it is no different. The end is indeed near. I just think that there are too many ominous signs this time, far too many to ignore and figure they will take care of themselves. A perfect storm is building. An act of God might somehow save us, but I fear the worse and think everyone should prepare now.
*
A few years ago, despite eight years of Clinton ravaging the countryside, I was far more optimistic about the economy than I am now. Perhaps it was the fact that oil was still abundant and cheap. Perhaps it was because Bush had not sold out the country to the corporate elite. Perhaps it was because the Baby Boomer retirement hoard was still far away. But I was surely no where near panic mode as I am now. I am not just blowing doom and gloom up your orifice to make money, I am trying to infect you with my fear. I always acknowledge I could be wrong. But always better ten years too early than ten minutes too late ( about how long it would take to strip the grocery shelves bare ).
*
The housing bubble popping is not really a surprise to most of us. But before it was a looming disaster and now it is reality. China is stopping its accumulation of foreign reserves ( that means our debt ). More and more countries are diversifying away from the dollar. More and more countries are joining the list of nations past their oil peak production. More and more governments are feeling the pinch as revenues fall. There are a few more odds and ends I might be missing here, but the end of the dollar standard, credit, oil and employment should be enough to frighten anyone. Now is the time to sell your first born and buy preps. And not the expensive kind. If nothing happens here it is better to be out hundreds rather than thousands. This just might be my becoming exceptionally extra uber-paranoid. I just got a catalog the other day. A years worth of freeze dried food is twelve grand for the family!!!
*
The US dollar has seen its value eroded before as the Fed plays footsie with other central banks and sacrifices our purchasing power to survive a bit longer. In the eighties we took a big hit against other currencies. Not a huge deal then, it helped our exports. Now we have no exports. China does. And if they stop the peg to our currency the cost of everything will go up. Necessities such as clothing and footwear and plastics and metal and every-friggin-thing. China is either flexing its muscle to get favorable treatment or it is getting to the point where they no longer need the US to buy its goods. And as more and more oil sellers demand currencies other than the dollar our currency will really take a hit. Oil is life, and the ability to trade worthless paper dollars for energy has kept us afloat much longer than normal. The end of dollars for oil is the end of our economy.
*
The end of credit is bad. Now, instead of paying interest on a loan we have to print the extra money and increase inflation. This will be felt by everyone in increased prices. Imagine a year long freeze on produce. The prices you would pay for fruits and vegetables. Now imagine everything you buy doing the same thing. As the value of your house plummets so you can’t sell it. And the areas main employer starts laying off people. And the gas to go job searching is $5 a gallon. All of this stuff is tied together, people.
*
Oil depletion does not mean we run out of oil. It means the cheap and abundant oil we have become used to and based all of our economic activity on is going to run out. After the last Arab goes back to herding sheep on a camel there will still be some oil in the ground. But it will be far down in the ground in small quantities. But stop and think. How much can you do without it? Literally, we can do almost nothing without oil inputs. Remember than oil production is a bell curve. It slowly starts to decline and then production plunges off of a cliff. We are now in the slow decline part. Plunge coming soon ( sooner than the Boomers retiring perhaps ).
*
I don’t think falling employment is news to anyone. Layoffs are getting worse and the government paid jobs can’t be manufactured forever. I am talking about economic sectors propped up by the government such as defense contractors and health care. You won’t become a civil servant with job protection or with benefits. You will for a time live off tax dollars indirectly until the gravy train derails. Remember the 40% of all jobs in the last five years being real estate related? Now that is ending.
*
All signs of disaster. All interrelated. All happening now. Drop everything and seriously prepare. Now. If I’m wrong you bought supplies cheaper and when they were in stock. If I’m right you are gambling with dinner ( every night ).
END
www.bisonpress.com for e-books
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
sharing the pain
SHARING THE PAIN
There is rarely much justice in life, but it does happen. While private sector workers have been getting the high hard one for many decades now, at last the public workers get to share their pain. Not the Federal employees yet, as they are still protected by the printing presses. Ah, but their time will come as we all suffer from a hyper-inflation meltdown. For now, a worthier class of workers are suffering. The farther down the food chain you descend the less parasitical the public servants tend to be so it is unfortunate they must suffer first.
*
But they are suffering as state after state quickly became bloated by property taxes on inflated real estate values and ramped up spending, never thinking economic common sense would interfere and pop that speculative bubble. They were just as stupid as all the homeowners that bought on no down, no initial interest loans. Sure, not everyone of them was a moron, they just made a stupid decision. I’ve been there so I shouldn’t point any fingers. But since few people study history they are unaware of speculative financial bubbles. And so they go in blind, hope as high as can be. When the paranoid people are wrong, they are faced with good times. When the optimists are wrong they suffer.
*
So now they are all desperate to cut spending and one of the first targets is health insurance to the civil servants. Or worse, the retirees. After they are retired they are being informed their insurance is going up. While I personally have little sympathy with public parasites getting shafted like the rest of us are being screwed by the corporations, it does set a dangerous precedent. You outrage the rest of the workers and performance suffers. Plus it is not cool to break agreements made previously. Weasel lawyers might find legal loopholes but the spirit of the contract was broken.
*
Being an anarchist myself I don’t think we should have any government and all government tasks could be done by the private sector, even law enforcement and the military. But most folks want at least a minimum of government and look at police and firefighters and the military as vital. So screwing with their retirement violates the public trust. And it surely doesn’t help that the contractors with juice and the upper echelon bureaucrats don’t suffer while the rank and file must pay the price. And this is just the beginning. Right now it is just insurance premiums being adjusted. And the only thing going wrong is the real estate market is not growing anymore. Image what happens when we really have a down turn.
*
If the government is going to shaft its workers, you can bet that the average Roger Retired or Wendy Welfare is really going to feel the pain. To be frank with you, if you are counting on the government for your survival, you are an idiot. You could get lucky and meddle through but you are making one heck of a gamble. Perhaps with your life. I think it better that you over react and play if safe than count on business as usual. To make it through all the previous revenue dips most levels of government have played some series financial games to survive. A lot of bad investments were made with retirement funds. Some that could be effected by the housing slowdown. All that will disappear if the derivative market gets into trouble.
*
Everyone is going to suffer along with the retirees as taxes go up, inflation goes up and vital public services suffer. If You are in a Union as a policeman or firefighter you will not take kindly to the screwing over of your retired brothers. Remember, Unions resulted from corporate excesses. The Unions themselves then became excessive and killed off many industries, but the fact remains that Unions are sometimes the only protection workers have. Expect them to react violently if their wages or pensions are tweaked too much. I wonder if we will see strikes again? Perhaps only if the Dems are in power.
*
I warned my father years ago about the unpredictability of public pensions. He is old school and thus thinks government is necessary and benevolent so he doesn’t listen to me. Which is okay, I’ll help him out if needed. But don’t make the same mistake. If the monetary pinch gets too bad promises to everyone will be broken. This is just the first sign of it.
END
There is rarely much justice in life, but it does happen. While private sector workers have been getting the high hard one for many decades now, at last the public workers get to share their pain. Not the Federal employees yet, as they are still protected by the printing presses. Ah, but their time will come as we all suffer from a hyper-inflation meltdown. For now, a worthier class of workers are suffering. The farther down the food chain you descend the less parasitical the public servants tend to be so it is unfortunate they must suffer first.
*
But they are suffering as state after state quickly became bloated by property taxes on inflated real estate values and ramped up spending, never thinking economic common sense would interfere and pop that speculative bubble. They were just as stupid as all the homeowners that bought on no down, no initial interest loans. Sure, not everyone of them was a moron, they just made a stupid decision. I’ve been there so I shouldn’t point any fingers. But since few people study history they are unaware of speculative financial bubbles. And so they go in blind, hope as high as can be. When the paranoid people are wrong, they are faced with good times. When the optimists are wrong they suffer.
*
So now they are all desperate to cut spending and one of the first targets is health insurance to the civil servants. Or worse, the retirees. After they are retired they are being informed their insurance is going up. While I personally have little sympathy with public parasites getting shafted like the rest of us are being screwed by the corporations, it does set a dangerous precedent. You outrage the rest of the workers and performance suffers. Plus it is not cool to break agreements made previously. Weasel lawyers might find legal loopholes but the spirit of the contract was broken.
*
Being an anarchist myself I don’t think we should have any government and all government tasks could be done by the private sector, even law enforcement and the military. But most folks want at least a minimum of government and look at police and firefighters and the military as vital. So screwing with their retirement violates the public trust. And it surely doesn’t help that the contractors with juice and the upper echelon bureaucrats don’t suffer while the rank and file must pay the price. And this is just the beginning. Right now it is just insurance premiums being adjusted. And the only thing going wrong is the real estate market is not growing anymore. Image what happens when we really have a down turn.
*
If the government is going to shaft its workers, you can bet that the average Roger Retired or Wendy Welfare is really going to feel the pain. To be frank with you, if you are counting on the government for your survival, you are an idiot. You could get lucky and meddle through but you are making one heck of a gamble. Perhaps with your life. I think it better that you over react and play if safe than count on business as usual. To make it through all the previous revenue dips most levels of government have played some series financial games to survive. A lot of bad investments were made with retirement funds. Some that could be effected by the housing slowdown. All that will disappear if the derivative market gets into trouble.
*
Everyone is going to suffer along with the retirees as taxes go up, inflation goes up and vital public services suffer. If You are in a Union as a policeman or firefighter you will not take kindly to the screwing over of your retired brothers. Remember, Unions resulted from corporate excesses. The Unions themselves then became excessive and killed off many industries, but the fact remains that Unions are sometimes the only protection workers have. Expect them to react violently if their wages or pensions are tweaked too much. I wonder if we will see strikes again? Perhaps only if the Dems are in power.
*
I warned my father years ago about the unpredictability of public pensions. He is old school and thus thinks government is necessary and benevolent so he doesn’t listen to me. Which is okay, I’ll help him out if needed. But don’t make the same mistake. If the monetary pinch gets too bad promises to everyone will be broken. This is just the first sign of it.
END
Monday, March 26, 2007
book reviews
BOOK REVIEWS
The Protectors War by S.M. Stirling. This is book two of the series on low tech survival after an event renders explosives inoperable. The first one was Dies The Fire. The first book was great, the only down side being the Druid/Celtic mythical bull hockey. I have read it more than once. It is actually better the second time around as you know to skip ahead a few paragraphs whenever the “mystical Mother who dwells in this living tree grant me the power to smite my enemies, so mote it be” crap starts. No one doubts the researching abilities of the author, it is just that sometimes we don’t share his sense of wonder at certain things.
*
The second book was also a good read. It was an entertaining book. But it is nowhere near as good of a post-apocalypse book as Dies The Fire was. It is not worthy of a re-read, unless someday you have a few spare days to read the whole series through at once ( I think #3 is already in print ). The whole book is basically a British guy escaping England and showing up in Oregon to meet up with the Bearkillers. British guy knows how to handle chemical weapons stocks, Lord Protector wants the guy to help him use this new weapon. There is no actually war with the Lord Protector, it is just events leading up to it ( one presumes ). Border skirmishes are about it.
*
Don’t get me wrong, I did say this was an entertaining read. It is just that it isn’t really a good post-apoc novel. More of a sci-fi one. For one thing the action skips ahead years after the last book. Little detail is given on post collapse living methods, one of the things I really liked about the first book. If you can spare the money, go ahead and read it. But if you can’t, don’t worry too much about it. You aren’t missing anything in your survivalist fiction library.
*
The Collapse by Jeff Stanfield. About 700 pages, but the print is on the large size. The only problem with this book is the price. $25 at Amazon. I was really reluctant to buy this, but my never ending quest to reinvest proceeds from my book sales finally convinced me to give this a try. All the Amazon reviews were positive about the story. They also warned about the huge number of editing errors. And there were, several per page. The author did the same as me obviously. Self editing saves a butt load of money, it just makes for an unfinished product. If he had shrunk the print some and reduced the page numbers and was thus able to charge less for the book I would have been happier.
*
But, for a first time author, this was a great story. Unfortunately it is more of a militia type genre than a survivalist one. The only self sufficient character was an old mule farmer. The rest of the characters were the semi-auto and MRE type preppers. Nobody ever ran out of ammo or food. And there were plenty of firefights. But if you go in knowing what kind of story this is ( and are prepared for the spelling/grammar errors ) it is an entertaining book. It is definitely a page turner. It keeps your interest and moves you along quickly.
*
The Chinese and North Koreans smuggle in commando teams to coordinate terror attacks all over the US in small towns, supposedly to magnify panic ( as in, NYC is other people, but if it could happen in Dog Turd Tennessee it could happen to me too ). Then the US nukes China. I personally feel this is improbable. A financial attack is more likely. However, the author is a cop, not a financial professor. And I guess it would make a certain amount of sense, being a way to reduce the population of China before Peak Oil did it.
*
Things collapse. Our story characters deal with last minute preps and must fight outlaw motorcycle gangs and then FEMA troops. In the end the regular Army troops fight the FEMA storm troopers but then try to turn the entire US into a military dictatorship. And the book ends with a opening for a sequel. Not a bad story, although at times you feel events get a bit unrealistic. But no matter, a good story of how events could unfold. As I said, the only drawback is the price. $25 is a heck of a lot of money for a entertainment book. For a reference book I would have no problem paying that amount. For fiction it is an extravagance. A luxury. If you only have three months of food in the cupboard, this book is not how you want to be spending your money. However, for the survivalist who has everything…
END
bison books www.bisonpress.com
The Protectors War by S.M. Stirling. This is book two of the series on low tech survival after an event renders explosives inoperable. The first one was Dies The Fire. The first book was great, the only down side being the Druid/Celtic mythical bull hockey. I have read it more than once. It is actually better the second time around as you know to skip ahead a few paragraphs whenever the “mystical Mother who dwells in this living tree grant me the power to smite my enemies, so mote it be” crap starts. No one doubts the researching abilities of the author, it is just that sometimes we don’t share his sense of wonder at certain things.
*
The second book was also a good read. It was an entertaining book. But it is nowhere near as good of a post-apocalypse book as Dies The Fire was. It is not worthy of a re-read, unless someday you have a few spare days to read the whole series through at once ( I think #3 is already in print ). The whole book is basically a British guy escaping England and showing up in Oregon to meet up with the Bearkillers. British guy knows how to handle chemical weapons stocks, Lord Protector wants the guy to help him use this new weapon. There is no actually war with the Lord Protector, it is just events leading up to it ( one presumes ). Border skirmishes are about it.
*
Don’t get me wrong, I did say this was an entertaining read. It is just that it isn’t really a good post-apoc novel. More of a sci-fi one. For one thing the action skips ahead years after the last book. Little detail is given on post collapse living methods, one of the things I really liked about the first book. If you can spare the money, go ahead and read it. But if you can’t, don’t worry too much about it. You aren’t missing anything in your survivalist fiction library.
*
The Collapse by Jeff Stanfield. About 700 pages, but the print is on the large size. The only problem with this book is the price. $25 at Amazon. I was really reluctant to buy this, but my never ending quest to reinvest proceeds from my book sales finally convinced me to give this a try. All the Amazon reviews were positive about the story. They also warned about the huge number of editing errors. And there were, several per page. The author did the same as me obviously. Self editing saves a butt load of money, it just makes for an unfinished product. If he had shrunk the print some and reduced the page numbers and was thus able to charge less for the book I would have been happier.
*
But, for a first time author, this was a great story. Unfortunately it is more of a militia type genre than a survivalist one. The only self sufficient character was an old mule farmer. The rest of the characters were the semi-auto and MRE type preppers. Nobody ever ran out of ammo or food. And there were plenty of firefights. But if you go in knowing what kind of story this is ( and are prepared for the spelling/grammar errors ) it is an entertaining book. It is definitely a page turner. It keeps your interest and moves you along quickly.
*
The Chinese and North Koreans smuggle in commando teams to coordinate terror attacks all over the US in small towns, supposedly to magnify panic ( as in, NYC is other people, but if it could happen in Dog Turd Tennessee it could happen to me too ). Then the US nukes China. I personally feel this is improbable. A financial attack is more likely. However, the author is a cop, not a financial professor. And I guess it would make a certain amount of sense, being a way to reduce the population of China before Peak Oil did it.
*
Things collapse. Our story characters deal with last minute preps and must fight outlaw motorcycle gangs and then FEMA troops. In the end the regular Army troops fight the FEMA storm troopers but then try to turn the entire US into a military dictatorship. And the book ends with a opening for a sequel. Not a bad story, although at times you feel events get a bit unrealistic. But no matter, a good story of how events could unfold. As I said, the only drawback is the price. $25 is a heck of a lot of money for a entertainment book. For a reference book I would have no problem paying that amount. For fiction it is an extravagance. A luxury. If you only have three months of food in the cupboard, this book is not how you want to be spending your money. However, for the survivalist who has everything…
END
bison books www.bisonpress.com
Saturday, March 24, 2007
pallet shelter
ANOTHER SHANTY IDEA
And yet another wild hair brained idea for shelter. So far my one idea fits all sizes was to live in a travel trailer. Tow it on to your land, unhitch, hook up a propane bottle and a PV panel. You can now live rent free. Well, that pesky Peak Oil is getting in the way of my shelter utopia. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, no more cheap propane ( or gas or food or anything else ). So you need a good bit of insulation between your trailer and the outside elements. It used to be propane was cheap enough for heating a trailer all winter but those days are long gone. If you don’t live in a region with abundant wood ( meaning abundant enough when everyone starts switching over to it ) you are literally staking your life on the amount of insulation you have. Due to the cost of zero, my favorite insulation is dirt.
*
Unfortunately dirt needs to be contained so as not to crush you like the small pathetic insect that you will become, burrowing deep into the earth to avoid freezing to death in the winter or roasting in the summer. That is what costs the money. I have already suggested sandbags and stucco, but that carries a cost of near $300 for a thousand bags. Alternately you could use tires as they are free. They are a bit harder to stucco, however. You could build a shredded newspaper in cement structure, providing a insulated light weight structure. But you need a home built shredder/mixer for that. Fortunately for you my little brain has been furiously at work while you have been scratching yourself and playing your PlayStation 3 games on your big screen TV.
*
A wood pallet adobe hovel is just the thing. It is free other than the roof. There is no need to form blocks of adobe. You have an easy area to stucco. And the walls are four feet thick, just the thing to stop bullets and some radioactive fallout. It should be very comfortable with minimal fuel inputs. The only things you need other than what is available on the building site is a bit of cement and chicken wire. Some sheets of plywood. A lot of wood pallets and plenty of digging. The roof is going to be the bugger. If you aren’t near a forest with nearly free timber you are going to need to figure out how to roof the place cheaply. I figure a number of 4x4’s are not going to be cheap, but it beats casting cement and rebar beams and hoisting them in place.
*
Take your free wood pallets you were able to scrounge. Place them down flat over a rock trench if you want to get fancy. Otherwise just lay flat on the ground ( and later dig a drain trench outside the wall ). Stack the pallets like a brick wall. You will need to cut one in half for the ends of each row. Make your wall as high as desired. Since a normal pallet is only five or six inches tall laying flat you will need at least a dozen to two dozen high for each wall. An eight by sixteen foot by eight foot tall ( interior space ) is a lot of pallets-around 200. Place plywood on either side of the wall and nail/screw on. Place braces along wall on both sides. Then pour in mud ( preferably with a binder such as sawdust ). When dry enough remove the plywood and reuse for the roof. The outside is cement stucco and the inside can be sheetrock if you are wanting to reduce fire hazards.
*
You could build down in a hole, both to make it easier to fill with mud and to allow more dirt to surround it. A straight up from the ground structure is going to be difficult to fill, but if it is on a slight rise it will also drain water better. Remember, this is a nearly free structure, not the perfectly engineered Yuppie mansion you would prefer. I like the idea of building it as a garage and parking the travel trailer inside. Then you need less finishing ( or a floor for that matter ) and leaks won’t matter as much. You could build the walls underground and face with plastic sheeting and then there is no need to stucco. So, dig a hole for your home, setting the dirt aside. Allow for drainage ( my land in all gentle slope so water will escape easily ). Set the pallets down and prepare the mud above the hole for easy filling. Line the earth facing wall with plastic sheeting. Rocks on the inside floor. Plywood is only needed on the inside facing wall as the walls of the holes are earth and will hold the mud.
*
Roof over and insulate well. Perhaps fiberglass bats, or foam. Weatherproof the roof and build at a slight angle. The above 8x16 would run about $700 if using new 4x4 and outdoor plywood. Waterproofing/insulation would be extra. This assumes you can’t get trees for a pole roof. If you are living in a water rich environment, consider your building carefully. Underground might not work. And you might need a bit more cement and waterproof coatings. Just don’t get too darn fancy. This is a dirt sheltered home. Think more of military field fortifications than fancy homes featured in Sunset color books. And consider the tax implications. A trailer on an axle with it wheels still on is considered a vehicle and thus not a home with property taxes. And the earth building has no plumbing or wiring to be subject to code.
*
This is just a basic idea. You will need to fill in the blanks and add building expertise. But a quick and dirty guide to winterizing your trailer.
END
bison books www.bisonpress.com
And yet another wild hair brained idea for shelter. So far my one idea fits all sizes was to live in a travel trailer. Tow it on to your land, unhitch, hook up a propane bottle and a PV panel. You can now live rent free. Well, that pesky Peak Oil is getting in the way of my shelter utopia. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, no more cheap propane ( or gas or food or anything else ). So you need a good bit of insulation between your trailer and the outside elements. It used to be propane was cheap enough for heating a trailer all winter but those days are long gone. If you don’t live in a region with abundant wood ( meaning abundant enough when everyone starts switching over to it ) you are literally staking your life on the amount of insulation you have. Due to the cost of zero, my favorite insulation is dirt.
*
Unfortunately dirt needs to be contained so as not to crush you like the small pathetic insect that you will become, burrowing deep into the earth to avoid freezing to death in the winter or roasting in the summer. That is what costs the money. I have already suggested sandbags and stucco, but that carries a cost of near $300 for a thousand bags. Alternately you could use tires as they are free. They are a bit harder to stucco, however. You could build a shredded newspaper in cement structure, providing a insulated light weight structure. But you need a home built shredder/mixer for that. Fortunately for you my little brain has been furiously at work while you have been scratching yourself and playing your PlayStation 3 games on your big screen TV.
*
A wood pallet adobe hovel is just the thing. It is free other than the roof. There is no need to form blocks of adobe. You have an easy area to stucco. And the walls are four feet thick, just the thing to stop bullets and some radioactive fallout. It should be very comfortable with minimal fuel inputs. The only things you need other than what is available on the building site is a bit of cement and chicken wire. Some sheets of plywood. A lot of wood pallets and plenty of digging. The roof is going to be the bugger. If you aren’t near a forest with nearly free timber you are going to need to figure out how to roof the place cheaply. I figure a number of 4x4’s are not going to be cheap, but it beats casting cement and rebar beams and hoisting them in place.
*
Take your free wood pallets you were able to scrounge. Place them down flat over a rock trench if you want to get fancy. Otherwise just lay flat on the ground ( and later dig a drain trench outside the wall ). Stack the pallets like a brick wall. You will need to cut one in half for the ends of each row. Make your wall as high as desired. Since a normal pallet is only five or six inches tall laying flat you will need at least a dozen to two dozen high for each wall. An eight by sixteen foot by eight foot tall ( interior space ) is a lot of pallets-around 200. Place plywood on either side of the wall and nail/screw on. Place braces along wall on both sides. Then pour in mud ( preferably with a binder such as sawdust ). When dry enough remove the plywood and reuse for the roof. The outside is cement stucco and the inside can be sheetrock if you are wanting to reduce fire hazards.
*
You could build down in a hole, both to make it easier to fill with mud and to allow more dirt to surround it. A straight up from the ground structure is going to be difficult to fill, but if it is on a slight rise it will also drain water better. Remember, this is a nearly free structure, not the perfectly engineered Yuppie mansion you would prefer. I like the idea of building it as a garage and parking the travel trailer inside. Then you need less finishing ( or a floor for that matter ) and leaks won’t matter as much. You could build the walls underground and face with plastic sheeting and then there is no need to stucco. So, dig a hole for your home, setting the dirt aside. Allow for drainage ( my land in all gentle slope so water will escape easily ). Set the pallets down and prepare the mud above the hole for easy filling. Line the earth facing wall with plastic sheeting. Rocks on the inside floor. Plywood is only needed on the inside facing wall as the walls of the holes are earth and will hold the mud.
*
Roof over and insulate well. Perhaps fiberglass bats, or foam. Weatherproof the roof and build at a slight angle. The above 8x16 would run about $700 if using new 4x4 and outdoor plywood. Waterproofing/insulation would be extra. This assumes you can’t get trees for a pole roof. If you are living in a water rich environment, consider your building carefully. Underground might not work. And you might need a bit more cement and waterproof coatings. Just don’t get too darn fancy. This is a dirt sheltered home. Think more of military field fortifications than fancy homes featured in Sunset color books. And consider the tax implications. A trailer on an axle with it wheels still on is considered a vehicle and thus not a home with property taxes. And the earth building has no plumbing or wiring to be subject to code.
*
This is just a basic idea. You will need to fill in the blanks and add building expertise. But a quick and dirty guide to winterizing your trailer.
END
bison books www.bisonpress.com
Friday, March 23, 2007
we're all going to die!!!
WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!
Close to ten years ago Gary North started sounding the alarm over Y2K. His web site and link numbers were one of the biggest around. And unlike a lot of financial wizards that cry the sky is falling yet continue to live in LA or other crap holes that look like a post-apocalypse society even before a collapse, he put his money were his mouth was and moved out to the boonies to become more self sufficient. I hope no one thinks badly of him for calling a disaster when none occurred. I was firmly convinced the event would happen and even moved from Oklahoma to Florida so as not to freeze when the grid crashed. Howard Ruff was a best selling author waking us up to an imminent collapse that never happened. Bruce Clayton told you how to survive a nuclear war that never occurred. Howard and Bruce made a lot of money for their efforts. As far as I can tell Gary’s efforts were more along the line of charity.
*
These gentlemen are ridiculed for crying wolf. But really, the only sin they committed was that their timing was off. The simple fact of the matter is, We Are All Going To Die!!! And not as in, we all die eventually. The simple fact is that we are living in an empire in decline. It started a long time ago. One could even argue that the victory of World War Two started the process of decline ( if it wasn’t sooner with the creation of the Central Bank ). It is no longer a matter of mending our ways or we will crash and burn. The process is too far gone to halt. My favorite scenario for collapse is running out of oil. Already all the new discoveries are merely arresting the amount of decline from existing played out fields. It could be as simple as the rest of the world declining to further support our worthless dollar. China just announced she would halt buying any more foreign reserves. Japan is raising the Yen borrow rate. And our housing market imploding will challenge our currency.
*
Forget natural disasters. We are screwing ourselves much faster than Mother Nature is thinking about doing ( unless she really has a nasty surprise for us like Yellowstone blowing ). It almost seems Bush ( well, more accurately his controllers ) can’t wait to get us into conflict with Iran which could easily escalate into a nuclear conflict. China has the economic wealth to increase its military whereas we will see ours shrink as Senior welfare goes out of control. The shrinking economic options we face can only lead us into hyperinflation. We are living on borrowed time. Any preparations you make will be put to use soon. The only question is when
*
That is the whole problem we face. We are gambling on a timeline. We are all freekin doomed and just don’t know when. Look, I could be wrong. We might be able to muddle through. Nothing disastrous could happen. But we are all here together in a figurative huddle around the fire reading my troubled rantings because obviously we think something bad is going to happen. So my question to you is, do you feel lucky punk? Well, do you? You know our goose is cooked, but you still live in harms way, don’t you? Granted, I’m just as guilty, but you are all ( mostly ) still living in the wrong location and have the wrong priorities as far as preparation supplies. There are 101 excuses why we don’t move forward swiftly. Uncooperative spouse. Bills to pay off. Blah, Blah, Blah.
*
You are simply gambling on if you can make it before anything bad happens. And every day that nothing happens you convince yourself that the odds of anything ever happening are a little less. Perhaps not consciously, but at some level. So you keep making excuses as to why you don’t take the necessary precautions. The hard choices. Moving away from friends and family. Taking a job cut. Giving up equity in a house. Threatening the spouse with dire consequences if preps are not budgeted. Moving to an area of uncertain employment. Every one of us has a good reason why we are not living in the right area with the right amount of supplies. And as I said I am just as guilty. And the only real way I can help any of you is to give you options that cost less so that finances are less of a problem.
*
But we all know we are doomed. Perhaps it is just our children or our grandchildren, but eventually the end will come. Be honest with yourself. Are you making excuses why you are not doing what needs to be done? I understand all decisions involve sacrifice and pain. But it will far less now than in the future. You can be sure of that. Start thinking about making those hard choices and sticking to them. In the end it will be worth it.
END
you're all doomed!!! unless you buy my books www.bisonpress.com
Close to ten years ago Gary North started sounding the alarm over Y2K. His web site and link numbers were one of the biggest around. And unlike a lot of financial wizards that cry the sky is falling yet continue to live in LA or other crap holes that look like a post-apocalypse society even before a collapse, he put his money were his mouth was and moved out to the boonies to become more self sufficient. I hope no one thinks badly of him for calling a disaster when none occurred. I was firmly convinced the event would happen and even moved from Oklahoma to Florida so as not to freeze when the grid crashed. Howard Ruff was a best selling author waking us up to an imminent collapse that never happened. Bruce Clayton told you how to survive a nuclear war that never occurred. Howard and Bruce made a lot of money for their efforts. As far as I can tell Gary’s efforts were more along the line of charity.
*
These gentlemen are ridiculed for crying wolf. But really, the only sin they committed was that their timing was off. The simple fact of the matter is, We Are All Going To Die!!! And not as in, we all die eventually. The simple fact is that we are living in an empire in decline. It started a long time ago. One could even argue that the victory of World War Two started the process of decline ( if it wasn’t sooner with the creation of the Central Bank ). It is no longer a matter of mending our ways or we will crash and burn. The process is too far gone to halt. My favorite scenario for collapse is running out of oil. Already all the new discoveries are merely arresting the amount of decline from existing played out fields. It could be as simple as the rest of the world declining to further support our worthless dollar. China just announced she would halt buying any more foreign reserves. Japan is raising the Yen borrow rate. And our housing market imploding will challenge our currency.
*
Forget natural disasters. We are screwing ourselves much faster than Mother Nature is thinking about doing ( unless she really has a nasty surprise for us like Yellowstone blowing ). It almost seems Bush ( well, more accurately his controllers ) can’t wait to get us into conflict with Iran which could easily escalate into a nuclear conflict. China has the economic wealth to increase its military whereas we will see ours shrink as Senior welfare goes out of control. The shrinking economic options we face can only lead us into hyperinflation. We are living on borrowed time. Any preparations you make will be put to use soon. The only question is when
*
That is the whole problem we face. We are gambling on a timeline. We are all freekin doomed and just don’t know when. Look, I could be wrong. We might be able to muddle through. Nothing disastrous could happen. But we are all here together in a figurative huddle around the fire reading my troubled rantings because obviously we think something bad is going to happen. So my question to you is, do you feel lucky punk? Well, do you? You know our goose is cooked, but you still live in harms way, don’t you? Granted, I’m just as guilty, but you are all ( mostly ) still living in the wrong location and have the wrong priorities as far as preparation supplies. There are 101 excuses why we don’t move forward swiftly. Uncooperative spouse. Bills to pay off. Blah, Blah, Blah.
*
You are simply gambling on if you can make it before anything bad happens. And every day that nothing happens you convince yourself that the odds of anything ever happening are a little less. Perhaps not consciously, but at some level. So you keep making excuses as to why you don’t take the necessary precautions. The hard choices. Moving away from friends and family. Taking a job cut. Giving up equity in a house. Threatening the spouse with dire consequences if preps are not budgeted. Moving to an area of uncertain employment. Every one of us has a good reason why we are not living in the right area with the right amount of supplies. And as I said I am just as guilty. And the only real way I can help any of you is to give you options that cost less so that finances are less of a problem.
*
But we all know we are doomed. Perhaps it is just our children or our grandchildren, but eventually the end will come. Be honest with yourself. Are you making excuses why you are not doing what needs to be done? I understand all decisions involve sacrifice and pain. But it will far less now than in the future. You can be sure of that. Start thinking about making those hard choices and sticking to them. In the end it will be worth it.
END
you're all doomed!!! unless you buy my books www.bisonpress.com
Thursday, March 22, 2007
gender roles
GENDER ROLES
For a society to endure, certain social conditions must be encouraged and protected. One of these is gender roles. Nature, which knows how to gamble by playing the odds, creates almost every conceivable trait in a species. During a cataclysmic event one trait out of many will be able to adapt to the new conditions and see that species through the disaster. So in humans you will find many different physical and mental traits. Not all of them are optimal for present conditions, some are good should conditions change. A good example are the Southwestern Indians. Eating white flour tortillas makes them fat and prone to diabetes. Their bodies evolved for feast and famine conditions. A traditional diet heavy at harvest time and lean at other times put weight on them for coming scarce food conditions. Their body easily gains weight. Feed them the wrong foods at all times and obesity is predominant.
*
So, even if a trait is shown in some, that does not mean it is a good survival trait. It is just Mother nature increases her odds. Tendencies in one gender to ape the other is not generally a desired survival trait. The reason homosexuality is traditionally disfavored by society is pretty obvious to all but liberal college professors. You can’t procreate very well if you are eyeballing the other guys ass. And the reason females should embrace their natural tendency at child rearing is because that is what insures species survival. Do not be fooled by our ability to philosophize so eloquently. It might mean we are smarter, but it in no way means we are immune to the influences of our DNA.
*
DNA is our core computer processing. We cant escape it. We can play around the edges, but in the end we are captives to its power. And the number one priority of our DNA is its own survival. Does a rational human being really want to get married, have a litter of children and then stay with their spouse the rest of their unnatural lives? No! But that selfish little bastard along for a free ride yanks our chain, cranks up hormones and plays all kinds of tricks on us to get its way. The best species survival trait for humans is to have a stable family unit so that our brains are fully developed in the proper way. For humans, our brain is all that keeps us alive and predominant on the food chain. It must be nurtured and taught properly.
*
Now, I defy any one of you to argue with me that the recent American ( to some degree other Western nations also ) social mores is a healthy way to raise children. We encourage female independence that grudgingly gives permission to pop out children, and then go on with their lives as inconvenienced as little as possible. Child are not to be raised, they are to be created and then in general ignored. We pay more attention to how the kids eat than how they are raised. Television and video games are their entertainment and school is the baby sitter. The government wants fatherless homes, they provide financial incentives for it. Corporations want both financially dependent females and double consumption of a two income family. Feminism and equal rights are code words for the destruction of the American family.
*
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of good parents that sacrifice to have the mother stay home and properly raise kids. But they are not the norm anymore. They are almost circus freaks. In general, over many generations, women have been told it is okay to work at the money economy. It is almost required. Divorce is encouraged financially. The female is taught to be independent and financially secure. As reinforcement it is pointed out that the divorce rate is 50%. It is a self perpetuating loop. Divorce is encouraged to get females under the economic thumb of the corporations and government. But that is no way to nurture children. It was better for society in general when divorce was illegal.
*
And don’t play the battered wife card with me. Unfortunate for them, but this was not the norm. It was just played up as such to justify the whole independence movement. We think we are so friggin special, but sometimes we are no different than a group of social insects. Sometimes the individual needs and wants are sacrificed for the good of society. It sucks when you are one getting short shift, but that is the way of the world. I’m not saying politicians should be the ones to decide as they pervert the process, but social good is a valid criteria for curtailing individual freedom. Quarantine is a good example.
*
After the fall of the welfare state, expect a return to traditional gender roles. It is the only way that makes sense for long term species survival. Those gals out there that relish being independent of a man will go from normal to a minority. One, the means to do so will be diminished. Two, it will be actively discouraged. And don’t think this is a one way street. Male gender roles need to be reintroduced also. Back in the day knocking up a gal was a life time sentence. You married her and stayed that way. At least now you can sign the walking papers and be off the hook financially in no more than eighteen years. That behavior should not be allowed either ( and I am guilty of it ).
*
Mostly I bring this up as a result of my survivalist fiction reading. It seems to be the norm anymore in the genre that female warriors are predominant. Go back and read Lucifer’s Hammer. In general the whole question of family was ignored, but you will notice the strong female movement aspect of it. A mirror of the times. Females were becoming empowered and encouraged. Today, read anything by S.M. Stirling. Female warriors are normal. Look, I love Linda Hamilton kicking butt and spraying the Terminator with 223 slugs just as much as the next guy. But it is a fantasy. Like female elfin archers from Middle Earth. Real life is being confused with fantasy. Females are meant to be nurturing the family. Sure, that might mean knowing how to use a firearm to defend the cabin when husband is away hunting or tending the fields or fighting an invader. It does not mean she should be out there with the guy, side by side.
*
And guys. Screw your feelings and your feminine side. Act like a provider and a protector. I actively discourage my wife from working. Our respective children are no longer living with us but I am still responsible for bringing home the bacon. You could look at it as a control issue, or you can look at it as a dominant individual running things for the good of all. When you run things and do a good job both parties benefit. Not allowing survival prep spending is a good example of the man of the house wearing the skirt. You should be embarrassed. Of course you might not have a choice, the laws being as they are today. But you should still be embarrassed. Although it is ironic that today a man only has the choice of breaking up the family to become dominant again, as he should be. The captain of a ship does not steer by committee.
END
buy bison books www.bisonpress.com
For a society to endure, certain social conditions must be encouraged and protected. One of these is gender roles. Nature, which knows how to gamble by playing the odds, creates almost every conceivable trait in a species. During a cataclysmic event one trait out of many will be able to adapt to the new conditions and see that species through the disaster. So in humans you will find many different physical and mental traits. Not all of them are optimal for present conditions, some are good should conditions change. A good example are the Southwestern Indians. Eating white flour tortillas makes them fat and prone to diabetes. Their bodies evolved for feast and famine conditions. A traditional diet heavy at harvest time and lean at other times put weight on them for coming scarce food conditions. Their body easily gains weight. Feed them the wrong foods at all times and obesity is predominant.
*
So, even if a trait is shown in some, that does not mean it is a good survival trait. It is just Mother nature increases her odds. Tendencies in one gender to ape the other is not generally a desired survival trait. The reason homosexuality is traditionally disfavored by society is pretty obvious to all but liberal college professors. You can’t procreate very well if you are eyeballing the other guys ass. And the reason females should embrace their natural tendency at child rearing is because that is what insures species survival. Do not be fooled by our ability to philosophize so eloquently. It might mean we are smarter, but it in no way means we are immune to the influences of our DNA.
*
DNA is our core computer processing. We cant escape it. We can play around the edges, but in the end we are captives to its power. And the number one priority of our DNA is its own survival. Does a rational human being really want to get married, have a litter of children and then stay with their spouse the rest of their unnatural lives? No! But that selfish little bastard along for a free ride yanks our chain, cranks up hormones and plays all kinds of tricks on us to get its way. The best species survival trait for humans is to have a stable family unit so that our brains are fully developed in the proper way. For humans, our brain is all that keeps us alive and predominant on the food chain. It must be nurtured and taught properly.
*
Now, I defy any one of you to argue with me that the recent American ( to some degree other Western nations also ) social mores is a healthy way to raise children. We encourage female independence that grudgingly gives permission to pop out children, and then go on with their lives as inconvenienced as little as possible. Child are not to be raised, they are to be created and then in general ignored. We pay more attention to how the kids eat than how they are raised. Television and video games are their entertainment and school is the baby sitter. The government wants fatherless homes, they provide financial incentives for it. Corporations want both financially dependent females and double consumption of a two income family. Feminism and equal rights are code words for the destruction of the American family.
*
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of good parents that sacrifice to have the mother stay home and properly raise kids. But they are not the norm anymore. They are almost circus freaks. In general, over many generations, women have been told it is okay to work at the money economy. It is almost required. Divorce is encouraged financially. The female is taught to be independent and financially secure. As reinforcement it is pointed out that the divorce rate is 50%. It is a self perpetuating loop. Divorce is encouraged to get females under the economic thumb of the corporations and government. But that is no way to nurture children. It was better for society in general when divorce was illegal.
*
And don’t play the battered wife card with me. Unfortunate for them, but this was not the norm. It was just played up as such to justify the whole independence movement. We think we are so friggin special, but sometimes we are no different than a group of social insects. Sometimes the individual needs and wants are sacrificed for the good of society. It sucks when you are one getting short shift, but that is the way of the world. I’m not saying politicians should be the ones to decide as they pervert the process, but social good is a valid criteria for curtailing individual freedom. Quarantine is a good example.
*
After the fall of the welfare state, expect a return to traditional gender roles. It is the only way that makes sense for long term species survival. Those gals out there that relish being independent of a man will go from normal to a minority. One, the means to do so will be diminished. Two, it will be actively discouraged. And don’t think this is a one way street. Male gender roles need to be reintroduced also. Back in the day knocking up a gal was a life time sentence. You married her and stayed that way. At least now you can sign the walking papers and be off the hook financially in no more than eighteen years. That behavior should not be allowed either ( and I am guilty of it ).
*
Mostly I bring this up as a result of my survivalist fiction reading. It seems to be the norm anymore in the genre that female warriors are predominant. Go back and read Lucifer’s Hammer. In general the whole question of family was ignored, but you will notice the strong female movement aspect of it. A mirror of the times. Females were becoming empowered and encouraged. Today, read anything by S.M. Stirling. Female warriors are normal. Look, I love Linda Hamilton kicking butt and spraying the Terminator with 223 slugs just as much as the next guy. But it is a fantasy. Like female elfin archers from Middle Earth. Real life is being confused with fantasy. Females are meant to be nurturing the family. Sure, that might mean knowing how to use a firearm to defend the cabin when husband is away hunting or tending the fields or fighting an invader. It does not mean she should be out there with the guy, side by side.
*
And guys. Screw your feelings and your feminine side. Act like a provider and a protector. I actively discourage my wife from working. Our respective children are no longer living with us but I am still responsible for bringing home the bacon. You could look at it as a control issue, or you can look at it as a dominant individual running things for the good of all. When you run things and do a good job both parties benefit. Not allowing survival prep spending is a good example of the man of the house wearing the skirt. You should be embarrassed. Of course you might not have a choice, the laws being as they are today. But you should still be embarrassed. Although it is ironic that today a man only has the choice of breaking up the family to become dominant again, as he should be. The captain of a ship does not steer by committee.
END
buy bison books www.bisonpress.com
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
fat
FAT
Hmmm. Fat. Besides salt, what is as tasty? The body craves salt and fat. Both are essential for life. Both can kill you if you take too much. But so can water and oxygen. These pasty faced Volvo driving sprout eating granola crunching tree huggers that go home to a climate controlled house preach the evils of meat and fat. They would change their tune after a winter off the grid. Your body needs fat. It just doesn’t need a surplus of it, which is where most people go wrong. McDonalds ( well, okay, its competitors- the golden arches loses its appeal after about age 14 ) as a regular diet is a bad idea. But no saturated fat is a bad idea too. All things in moderation ( except my writing which strangely is the exception to the rule- just ask Ross Perot, he knows ).
*
Lately I was feeling sorry for myself after I went grocery shopping. Spending an average of $2 a pound for meat. Oh, the humanity! Granted, most times as of late the price of produce is worse than that of meat and dairy. But who knows how long that will last after Bush went stupid over ethanol. Here I am, telling anyone who will listen that Hillary is an evil bitch, straight from the bowels of Hell to Arkansas ( the two places are not much different from what I understand ) and then Bush goes ahead and really pisses me off by causing the likelihood of animal products to rise in price. Okay, he started a war to pay off his oil buddies. I can live with that, we need to cut back for Peak Oil anyway. And he started a prescription drug welfare program that could rival Medicaid and bankrupt us even quicker. But I don’t even care about that. If he didn’t do it the Democrats would have as they have never met a tax and spend program they didn’t like. But causing artificial shortages for corn that in the end won’t help matters at all, that just plain pisses me off.
*
I like my meat and potatoes every day at dinner time. I don’t want to be like some Third World peasant that eats beans and corn and hot sauce and only gets meat on holidays. I am an American and I want my slaughtered animal products daily. It is a birth right, I tell you. And I want it cheap. Hell, we pay farmers not to grow crops and prices are still dirt cheap. There is no excuse for high food prices other than government meddling in the markets. But lately, seeing as how I only get a raise when they jack up the minimum wage, the rise of food prices are starting to pinch my pocketbook. Almost twenty years ago I could smoke as much as I wanted, use as much electricity as I could while renting, eat as much meat and produce as I desired and still only spent half my take home pay on minimum wage. Today I can’t even come close to that on the higher proposed minimum wage, let alone the official one. Inflation has taken its toll.
*
So I have to cut back on the amount of meat I eat. I went from a pound to a half pound per day. No big deal, it is likely much healthier for me. Except while cutting back on meats I had to entirely cut out fruit from my diet. And veggies are root crops only with an occasional dark green plant. Vitamin pills keep me alive. No big deal, soon I will start to just consume sprouts. The bastards are trying to kill me with produce inflation but it wont work, so there! In the seventies the government tried to stunt my growth by double digit inflating the food supply where meat was too expensive to eat other than a small portion at dinner. My dad is 6’6”, I am four inches shorter, and thinner. I blame the politicians. Now they are trying to kill me by lack of vegetables. But I have outfoxed them on the veggies. Now to figure out an end run around the protein issue.
*
Soon we won’t be able to raise our own livestock due to regulatory costs pushed through by the big corporations. Foul bastards. But I wont be living on a farm anytime soon so I have to just cut costs from the supermarket. One trick I have started to use is to substitute one night of meat with fat. A pound of hamburger meat at Wal-Mart is $1.89 or so. I eat one half pound each dinner. But first, I fry up the meat and then save it for the next two nights. The grease left in the skillet is that nights meat entrée. It fills me up and satisfies my meat craving and it takes my hamburger meat cost from $1.50 a day to sixty five cents. And the beautiful thing is, as generations of Southerners have discovered, you can fry up anything and it tastes wonderful. They even have a contest every year ( I think in Texas- hey, where else, right? ) at a fair to see who comes up with the best new fried food recipe. Fried Snickers bars, who was that friggin genius? I’m finishing lunch as I type this and it still makes me hungry thinking about it.
*
I have fried up cooked rice. Cook your rice, throw it in the grease to fry. Add salt and pepper. Or Top Ramen. This way actually makes it taste good. Boil your noodles, then fry them. Out of the grease, add the seasoning. Two packs in the grease from a half pound of burger and you will be so full you get bloated. Macaroni and cheese. Boil the noodles, drain, fry. Out of the grease add the cheese. No need to add the butter or milk as per the usual prep method. One box worth makes a whole meal. And of course the usual foods such as potatoes fry up nicely without the added cost of oil. And when done frying you still have some grease left you can make some gravy to go along with it. Then since you ate all the grease there is no oil down the drain or in the garbage. We are not wasting, the Greens should be proud. And you went from seven nights a week meat cost to six. It’s a good start.
END
Hmmm. Fat. Besides salt, what is as tasty? The body craves salt and fat. Both are essential for life. Both can kill you if you take too much. But so can water and oxygen. These pasty faced Volvo driving sprout eating granola crunching tree huggers that go home to a climate controlled house preach the evils of meat and fat. They would change their tune after a winter off the grid. Your body needs fat. It just doesn’t need a surplus of it, which is where most people go wrong. McDonalds ( well, okay, its competitors- the golden arches loses its appeal after about age 14 ) as a regular diet is a bad idea. But no saturated fat is a bad idea too. All things in moderation ( except my writing which strangely is the exception to the rule- just ask Ross Perot, he knows ).
*
Lately I was feeling sorry for myself after I went grocery shopping. Spending an average of $2 a pound for meat. Oh, the humanity! Granted, most times as of late the price of produce is worse than that of meat and dairy. But who knows how long that will last after Bush went stupid over ethanol. Here I am, telling anyone who will listen that Hillary is an evil bitch, straight from the bowels of Hell to Arkansas ( the two places are not much different from what I understand ) and then Bush goes ahead and really pisses me off by causing the likelihood of animal products to rise in price. Okay, he started a war to pay off his oil buddies. I can live with that, we need to cut back for Peak Oil anyway. And he started a prescription drug welfare program that could rival Medicaid and bankrupt us even quicker. But I don’t even care about that. If he didn’t do it the Democrats would have as they have never met a tax and spend program they didn’t like. But causing artificial shortages for corn that in the end won’t help matters at all, that just plain pisses me off.
*
I like my meat and potatoes every day at dinner time. I don’t want to be like some Third World peasant that eats beans and corn and hot sauce and only gets meat on holidays. I am an American and I want my slaughtered animal products daily. It is a birth right, I tell you. And I want it cheap. Hell, we pay farmers not to grow crops and prices are still dirt cheap. There is no excuse for high food prices other than government meddling in the markets. But lately, seeing as how I only get a raise when they jack up the minimum wage, the rise of food prices are starting to pinch my pocketbook. Almost twenty years ago I could smoke as much as I wanted, use as much electricity as I could while renting, eat as much meat and produce as I desired and still only spent half my take home pay on minimum wage. Today I can’t even come close to that on the higher proposed minimum wage, let alone the official one. Inflation has taken its toll.
*
So I have to cut back on the amount of meat I eat. I went from a pound to a half pound per day. No big deal, it is likely much healthier for me. Except while cutting back on meats I had to entirely cut out fruit from my diet. And veggies are root crops only with an occasional dark green plant. Vitamin pills keep me alive. No big deal, soon I will start to just consume sprouts. The bastards are trying to kill me with produce inflation but it wont work, so there! In the seventies the government tried to stunt my growth by double digit inflating the food supply where meat was too expensive to eat other than a small portion at dinner. My dad is 6’6”, I am four inches shorter, and thinner. I blame the politicians. Now they are trying to kill me by lack of vegetables. But I have outfoxed them on the veggies. Now to figure out an end run around the protein issue.
*
Soon we won’t be able to raise our own livestock due to regulatory costs pushed through by the big corporations. Foul bastards. But I wont be living on a farm anytime soon so I have to just cut costs from the supermarket. One trick I have started to use is to substitute one night of meat with fat. A pound of hamburger meat at Wal-Mart is $1.89 or so. I eat one half pound each dinner. But first, I fry up the meat and then save it for the next two nights. The grease left in the skillet is that nights meat entrée. It fills me up and satisfies my meat craving and it takes my hamburger meat cost from $1.50 a day to sixty five cents. And the beautiful thing is, as generations of Southerners have discovered, you can fry up anything and it tastes wonderful. They even have a contest every year ( I think in Texas- hey, where else, right? ) at a fair to see who comes up with the best new fried food recipe. Fried Snickers bars, who was that friggin genius? I’m finishing lunch as I type this and it still makes me hungry thinking about it.
*
I have fried up cooked rice. Cook your rice, throw it in the grease to fry. Add salt and pepper. Or Top Ramen. This way actually makes it taste good. Boil your noodles, then fry them. Out of the grease, add the seasoning. Two packs in the grease from a half pound of burger and you will be so full you get bloated. Macaroni and cheese. Boil the noodles, drain, fry. Out of the grease add the cheese. No need to add the butter or milk as per the usual prep method. One box worth makes a whole meal. And of course the usual foods such as potatoes fry up nicely without the added cost of oil. And when done frying you still have some grease left you can make some gravy to go along with it. Then since you ate all the grease there is no oil down the drain or in the garbage. We are not wasting, the Greens should be proud. And you went from seven nights a week meat cost to six. It’s a good start.
END
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
urban environment
POST COLLAPSE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
Most of us live in an urban setting. That is where the jobs are. It’s not like we have a whole heck of a lot of choices ever since the mom and pop stores were all killed off by overseas manufacturing ( only bulk purchasing by the cargo ship allowed low retail prices ). It is near impossible to live in a really small town unless you bring a job with you. So we live in cities. If you are smart you will avoid the larger cities but at a smaller scale almost all of us will see a crap storm come a collapse since we all live in cities.
*
So what can we expect? The worst. Before the Industrial revolution cities were supported by the immediate farms surrounding them. There were exceptions, such as cities near a salt or ore mine. Long distant trade allowed the town to function without farmland. Today however, almost all cities are not supported by an immediate farm area. They are supported by petroleum. L.A. is five million people living off imported water. They really serve no purpose in the great scheme of things. Once the oil runs out China will stop using the cities ports and the water will stop flowing ( either blackmailing terrorists or lack of energy ) and LA will be a bowl filled with panicking, starving, thirsty millions upon millions. You could not get me to live there for love or money.
*
Research the history of your location. What was the original purpose for building there. Carson City Nevada is the capital of the state, but other than the ranches and farms controlling the melt water rivers, nothing else could be supported here. There is no more lumber for mines ( and no more mines ) and no more need for a railroad town. Without state wide taxes supporting a bureaucracy there is nothing to support fifty thousand folks here. A lot of cities in Florida were ports ( an easy guess given their names ). Now they are mobile home parks for old farts on welfare. Not economically viable locations after a crash. Your area must be able to survive in a pre-industrial economy. Otherwise it has no long term future. Short term, expect chaos until the area reaches its natural holding capacity. In blunt terms, the excess people will starve to death.
*
In the aftermath of Katrina, supplies could not get to their destination. That was one city supported by a whole nation ( one with some of the best farmland in the world, it might be added ). Now imagine more than one area being effected. There will be no rescue. People will begin starving after a couple of weeks. First they will start looting. As in immediately. Fires will get out of control. Later there will be no more fire control as the firefighters lack the infrastructure but at first it will just be the vast numbers set separately. The cops that don’t leave to take care of their families will treat it as business as usual until it dawns on them no help will be coming. Then they will start shooting criminals instead of arresting them. Expect cops and gang bangers to have firefights and there to be stray bullets flying about.
*
If a military unit is nearby, expect them to try to take over, declare martial law and steal all your food and ammo ( a good reason not to have an AR-15, they won’t steal 303 British ). So expect firefights between soldiers and civilians. After mass killing have died down, expect diseases to be widespread as corpses are allowed to rot in place. Sewers will back up. All surface water will be polluted. The cops are out to get you, as well as the military and criminals. Diseases will be widespread. Water will be polluted. If you have a garden expect it to be subject to night time theft. If you have a dog it will be killed. If a dictators troops don’t steal from you, criminals will. If criminals don’t kill you, disease will. Expect the Black Plague. Perhaps not the first year, but soon thereafter. Your house could be destroyed by fire before then, though.
*
The bigger the city, the more crime and chaos and rival fighting for control. The smaller the city the easier neighbors will work together and help protect you ( especially if you have a vital skill- if you are unskilled and poor, tear up the lawn and grow organically- they will come to you hat in hand for seeds and teaching ). Any city needing imported food ( from any serious distance ) is going to have die-offs. But the smaller the population and the further away from others the better. A city of five thousand will work together, a city of five million will tear itself apart. You will still face all the problems in a small city, but your odds of survival increase the more people know you can help them.
*
It is not much safer being by yourself in the boonies, being easy pickings for mobile bandits. Unless you are well hidden. There is strength in numbers ( hand grown crops and fighters take numbers ) but weakness in huge numbers. We must all live in the city, just try to minimize its size.
END
pretty please buy my demented scribblings www.bisonpress.com
Most of us live in an urban setting. That is where the jobs are. It’s not like we have a whole heck of a lot of choices ever since the mom and pop stores were all killed off by overseas manufacturing ( only bulk purchasing by the cargo ship allowed low retail prices ). It is near impossible to live in a really small town unless you bring a job with you. So we live in cities. If you are smart you will avoid the larger cities but at a smaller scale almost all of us will see a crap storm come a collapse since we all live in cities.
*
So what can we expect? The worst. Before the Industrial revolution cities were supported by the immediate farms surrounding them. There were exceptions, such as cities near a salt or ore mine. Long distant trade allowed the town to function without farmland. Today however, almost all cities are not supported by an immediate farm area. They are supported by petroleum. L.A. is five million people living off imported water. They really serve no purpose in the great scheme of things. Once the oil runs out China will stop using the cities ports and the water will stop flowing ( either blackmailing terrorists or lack of energy ) and LA will be a bowl filled with panicking, starving, thirsty millions upon millions. You could not get me to live there for love or money.
*
Research the history of your location. What was the original purpose for building there. Carson City Nevada is the capital of the state, but other than the ranches and farms controlling the melt water rivers, nothing else could be supported here. There is no more lumber for mines ( and no more mines ) and no more need for a railroad town. Without state wide taxes supporting a bureaucracy there is nothing to support fifty thousand folks here. A lot of cities in Florida were ports ( an easy guess given their names ). Now they are mobile home parks for old farts on welfare. Not economically viable locations after a crash. Your area must be able to survive in a pre-industrial economy. Otherwise it has no long term future. Short term, expect chaos until the area reaches its natural holding capacity. In blunt terms, the excess people will starve to death.
*
In the aftermath of Katrina, supplies could not get to their destination. That was one city supported by a whole nation ( one with some of the best farmland in the world, it might be added ). Now imagine more than one area being effected. There will be no rescue. People will begin starving after a couple of weeks. First they will start looting. As in immediately. Fires will get out of control. Later there will be no more fire control as the firefighters lack the infrastructure but at first it will just be the vast numbers set separately. The cops that don’t leave to take care of their families will treat it as business as usual until it dawns on them no help will be coming. Then they will start shooting criminals instead of arresting them. Expect cops and gang bangers to have firefights and there to be stray bullets flying about.
*
If a military unit is nearby, expect them to try to take over, declare martial law and steal all your food and ammo ( a good reason not to have an AR-15, they won’t steal 303 British ). So expect firefights between soldiers and civilians. After mass killing have died down, expect diseases to be widespread as corpses are allowed to rot in place. Sewers will back up. All surface water will be polluted. The cops are out to get you, as well as the military and criminals. Diseases will be widespread. Water will be polluted. If you have a garden expect it to be subject to night time theft. If you have a dog it will be killed. If a dictators troops don’t steal from you, criminals will. If criminals don’t kill you, disease will. Expect the Black Plague. Perhaps not the first year, but soon thereafter. Your house could be destroyed by fire before then, though.
*
The bigger the city, the more crime and chaos and rival fighting for control. The smaller the city the easier neighbors will work together and help protect you ( especially if you have a vital skill- if you are unskilled and poor, tear up the lawn and grow organically- they will come to you hat in hand for seeds and teaching ). Any city needing imported food ( from any serious distance ) is going to have die-offs. But the smaller the population and the further away from others the better. A city of five thousand will work together, a city of five million will tear itself apart. You will still face all the problems in a small city, but your odds of survival increase the more people know you can help them.
*
It is not much safer being by yourself in the boonies, being easy pickings for mobile bandits. Unless you are well hidden. There is strength in numbers ( hand grown crops and fighters take numbers ) but weakness in huge numbers. We must all live in the city, just try to minimize its size.
END
pretty please buy my demented scribblings www.bisonpress.com
Monday, March 19, 2007
survival guns
SURVIVAL GUNS ( AGAIN )
Faithful readers will find little new here ( except fresh sarcasm ). This is for the new guys. Just a general overview of survival weapons, assuming you are not yet armed. If not, get armed now. I don’t care if you have to steal money from your mother in law, you need a means of self-protection. If a nuclear bomb leveled New York City today and our economy did a belly flop into the cesspool from the high dive, you would at least have the contents of your kitchen cupboards to feed you for a few weeks. Sure, rice and chili might get old for breakfast but it is food. However, if you are not armed you won’t even survive that long. You will become one of the first casualties of the collapse as gang bangers go from house to house trading one 9mm bullet for a bag of groceries. Yuppie Soccer Mom Scum might only have a few days food in stock as they are used to stopping off at the Quick & Expensive for whatever dinner ingredients they need while junior is practicing the trombone at a private tutor ( the musical experience will look good on the Berkley application later on ) but add them all up from one neighborhood and T-Dog and his home slices can eat good until the next raid.
*
These Peak Oil folks that poo-pah survival preps and advocate a community salad garden and coffee klatch instead have their heads seriously shoved up their butts. Before we can settle down to organic gardening there is going to be a big Die-Off first. You need stored food to bunker down and weapons and ammunition to defend yourself ( you also need neighbors to help out which is why you need extra food ) first. Then after the cities have imploded and the government troops have all been killed off in guerrilla warfare ( with most caught overseas, perhaps left to fend for themselves ), you can get on with community agriculture. America is a seriously screwed up place to live now, imagine after the welfare mobs don’t get their first of the month check. It used to be survival advice was to avoid the big city because of ghetto welfare mobs. Now, everyone with any wealth is on welfare. Social Security mobs will howl to politicians to either steal or print up benefits. Lawyers, contractors, civil servants, retirees, half the friggin economy ( or more ) is dependant on Uncle Sugar for a paycheck. If the economy melts down all these people are now a danger to you. They wont get their own hands dirty, they will pass laws and send out cops. But official forced redistribution of your emergency supplies is just as bad as the street crime variety. You need to defend yourself against all.
*
Where do you live? The West is open land and needs a heavy rifle to reach distances. If you live in the East in heavy forested/treed areas or built up urban areas you need a carbine for shorter reach. How poor are you? If you can’t afford to even print out my pearls of wisdom, the financial aspect is paramount. I usually say buy a WWII surplus bolt action rifle. Cheap, robust, practical. It doesn’t waste money or ammunition. But not everyone needs a twelve pound monster of wood and metal using a thirty caliber full power round. And even if you are eyeing a cheap Russian surplus gun it might beyond your financial reach for those of you living the good life and under employed ( I do envy you ). So while the gun is cheap enough you can’t afford the ammunition. Or not enough anyway.
*
If you live in the East ( I’m sorry ) you can get yourself a carbine. A bolt action works just as good there, but a lot of folks just love semi-autos all to pieces. They must have an ammo spewer. I recommend against it. Bolt actions ( military ) have wonderful bayonets, are full powered ( the round won’t be deflected by vegetation and will punch thru barricades ) and darn cheap to buy. Of course you can have a carbine in open spaces. Most areas are less than totally flat and you might not be able to shoot long distance. But keep in mind the limitations of under powered rounds. They are used by the military to push a lot of lead a short distance. As a survivalist you need to stay out of harms way. A fully powered bolt action is best for that.
*
But if you feel more comfortable with semi-auto ( feral dog packs, jack-booted thug ninja attacks ) be smart about it. A Mini-14 is too expensive ( $500 ) and some parts must be sent to the factory for repair. The M-16 type is a piece of crap being a very delicate flower ( although light weight and very accurate I admit ) and much too expensive ( $700-$800 ). Plus both use the .223 which is rather expensive right now due to military use. And magazine costs are an extra few hundred ( buy less mags than you need and your expensive rifle becomes useless ). An AK-47 is a great weapon for the field, being almost indestructible. But it is far from accurate, moderately expensive ( $350 ), the mags are ten bucks each, you can’t fire from a prone position and the ergonomics are plain sucky on it.
*
If you must have a semi-auto go with the SKS. It is half the cost of an AK. It is more accurate ( relatively speaking ) and even more robust than the AK ( which is saying a lot ). You can fire it prone and there are no mags to buy as it uses stripper clips. As ammo is twice what it used to be ( again, the Iraqi war ) the ability to save in other areas ( gun, no mags ) really helps out. An AK, fifteen mags ( a bare minimum ) and a thousand rounds of ammo ( no where near enough for a semi, but better than nothing ) are going to run you about $650. An SKS with that same ammo is about $300. The crappy ergonomics don’t allow that quick of a mag change on the AK, so you might as well do stripper clips on the SKS. And if you need thirty rounds instead of ten you aren’t practicing fire discipline and your thousand rounds will be gone in a week or two. Then you are really screwed.
*
For bolt actions I have always favored the Lee-Enfield 303. The No.4 has peep sites, much better than leaf and post. You can buy the super cheap “tent stake” bayonet or the cool knife style for about $20. You can buy $40 scope mounts that don’t need a gunsmith. It used to be the 303 ammo was very expensive, but now with the ammo supply being shipped directly to Iraq before the glue on the box label gets dry, 308 ammo is just as expensive as the 303British. The Mausers are more prone to failure due to dirt but are much more accurate than the Enfields ( I prefer robust to accurate as I foresee dirty field conditions as the norm ). They are also less hostile to brass for reloading purposes. The Mausers are a bitch to scope, however. The Russian bolt guns are dirt cheap, with dirt cheap ammo, and laugh at dirt in the field. However, they are almost impossible to cheaply scope and potentially dangerous. I know, I know, I seem to be the only one out there who is bothered by this, but the Russian M-N rifle has no primer/case rupture gas deflect feature. If the primer ruptures you are injured. If the case ruptures the gases go straight back into your face, and you are dead ( although unfortunately not right away ). I have readers tell me they have shot thousands of rounds, tens of thousands, without a problem. Your call. A super cheap gun and ammo despite my misgivings. And the action is said to be very strong.
*
If you are dirt poor but must be armed, and envision a total collapse where ammo must last for decades, get a .22 rimfire. It is the only gun where you can stockpile ammo dirt cheap and still practice every weekend on a budget. Everyday low price of rimfire is $9.89 plus tax for 550 rounds. Surplus corrosive 7.62x59Russian is ten cents a round after shipping costs. The price difference for a box is negligible. But after a few thousand rounds the difference is huge. I’m talking tens of thousands of rounds, enough for a lifetime of post-collapse survival. On a extreme prep budget. The only way to go. The 22 sucks raw donkey member as far as stopping power, but once the rest of the population is down to flintlock black powder rifles it wont matter as much.
*
Shotguns are good for improvised rounds, but the weight of the ammo makes this a niche weapon in my opinion. Unless you are in heavy wooded areas, then it might do you for a good survival weapon. The only affordable type is the single shot, though.
*
Okay, I hope that about covered it. Peace thru firepower.
END
www.bisonpress.com for my e-books
Faithful readers will find little new here ( except fresh sarcasm ). This is for the new guys. Just a general overview of survival weapons, assuming you are not yet armed. If not, get armed now. I don’t care if you have to steal money from your mother in law, you need a means of self-protection. If a nuclear bomb leveled New York City today and our economy did a belly flop into the cesspool from the high dive, you would at least have the contents of your kitchen cupboards to feed you for a few weeks. Sure, rice and chili might get old for breakfast but it is food. However, if you are not armed you won’t even survive that long. You will become one of the first casualties of the collapse as gang bangers go from house to house trading one 9mm bullet for a bag of groceries. Yuppie Soccer Mom Scum might only have a few days food in stock as they are used to stopping off at the Quick & Expensive for whatever dinner ingredients they need while junior is practicing the trombone at a private tutor ( the musical experience will look good on the Berkley application later on ) but add them all up from one neighborhood and T-Dog and his home slices can eat good until the next raid.
*
These Peak Oil folks that poo-pah survival preps and advocate a community salad garden and coffee klatch instead have their heads seriously shoved up their butts. Before we can settle down to organic gardening there is going to be a big Die-Off first. You need stored food to bunker down and weapons and ammunition to defend yourself ( you also need neighbors to help out which is why you need extra food ) first. Then after the cities have imploded and the government troops have all been killed off in guerrilla warfare ( with most caught overseas, perhaps left to fend for themselves ), you can get on with community agriculture. America is a seriously screwed up place to live now, imagine after the welfare mobs don’t get their first of the month check. It used to be survival advice was to avoid the big city because of ghetto welfare mobs. Now, everyone with any wealth is on welfare. Social Security mobs will howl to politicians to either steal or print up benefits. Lawyers, contractors, civil servants, retirees, half the friggin economy ( or more ) is dependant on Uncle Sugar for a paycheck. If the economy melts down all these people are now a danger to you. They wont get their own hands dirty, they will pass laws and send out cops. But official forced redistribution of your emergency supplies is just as bad as the street crime variety. You need to defend yourself against all.
*
Where do you live? The West is open land and needs a heavy rifle to reach distances. If you live in the East in heavy forested/treed areas or built up urban areas you need a carbine for shorter reach. How poor are you? If you can’t afford to even print out my pearls of wisdom, the financial aspect is paramount. I usually say buy a WWII surplus bolt action rifle. Cheap, robust, practical. It doesn’t waste money or ammunition. But not everyone needs a twelve pound monster of wood and metal using a thirty caliber full power round. And even if you are eyeing a cheap Russian surplus gun it might beyond your financial reach for those of you living the good life and under employed ( I do envy you ). So while the gun is cheap enough you can’t afford the ammunition. Or not enough anyway.
*
If you live in the East ( I’m sorry ) you can get yourself a carbine. A bolt action works just as good there, but a lot of folks just love semi-autos all to pieces. They must have an ammo spewer. I recommend against it. Bolt actions ( military ) have wonderful bayonets, are full powered ( the round won’t be deflected by vegetation and will punch thru barricades ) and darn cheap to buy. Of course you can have a carbine in open spaces. Most areas are less than totally flat and you might not be able to shoot long distance. But keep in mind the limitations of under powered rounds. They are used by the military to push a lot of lead a short distance. As a survivalist you need to stay out of harms way. A fully powered bolt action is best for that.
*
But if you feel more comfortable with semi-auto ( feral dog packs, jack-booted thug ninja attacks ) be smart about it. A Mini-14 is too expensive ( $500 ) and some parts must be sent to the factory for repair. The M-16 type is a piece of crap being a very delicate flower ( although light weight and very accurate I admit ) and much too expensive ( $700-$800 ). Plus both use the .223 which is rather expensive right now due to military use. And magazine costs are an extra few hundred ( buy less mags than you need and your expensive rifle becomes useless ). An AK-47 is a great weapon for the field, being almost indestructible. But it is far from accurate, moderately expensive ( $350 ), the mags are ten bucks each, you can’t fire from a prone position and the ergonomics are plain sucky on it.
*
If you must have a semi-auto go with the SKS. It is half the cost of an AK. It is more accurate ( relatively speaking ) and even more robust than the AK ( which is saying a lot ). You can fire it prone and there are no mags to buy as it uses stripper clips. As ammo is twice what it used to be ( again, the Iraqi war ) the ability to save in other areas ( gun, no mags ) really helps out. An AK, fifteen mags ( a bare minimum ) and a thousand rounds of ammo ( no where near enough for a semi, but better than nothing ) are going to run you about $650. An SKS with that same ammo is about $300. The crappy ergonomics don’t allow that quick of a mag change on the AK, so you might as well do stripper clips on the SKS. And if you need thirty rounds instead of ten you aren’t practicing fire discipline and your thousand rounds will be gone in a week or two. Then you are really screwed.
*
For bolt actions I have always favored the Lee-Enfield 303. The No.4 has peep sites, much better than leaf and post. You can buy the super cheap “tent stake” bayonet or the cool knife style for about $20. You can buy $40 scope mounts that don’t need a gunsmith. It used to be the 303 ammo was very expensive, but now with the ammo supply being shipped directly to Iraq before the glue on the box label gets dry, 308 ammo is just as expensive as the 303British. The Mausers are more prone to failure due to dirt but are much more accurate than the Enfields ( I prefer robust to accurate as I foresee dirty field conditions as the norm ). They are also less hostile to brass for reloading purposes. The Mausers are a bitch to scope, however. The Russian bolt guns are dirt cheap, with dirt cheap ammo, and laugh at dirt in the field. However, they are almost impossible to cheaply scope and potentially dangerous. I know, I know, I seem to be the only one out there who is bothered by this, but the Russian M-N rifle has no primer/case rupture gas deflect feature. If the primer ruptures you are injured. If the case ruptures the gases go straight back into your face, and you are dead ( although unfortunately not right away ). I have readers tell me they have shot thousands of rounds, tens of thousands, without a problem. Your call. A super cheap gun and ammo despite my misgivings. And the action is said to be very strong.
*
If you are dirt poor but must be armed, and envision a total collapse where ammo must last for decades, get a .22 rimfire. It is the only gun where you can stockpile ammo dirt cheap and still practice every weekend on a budget. Everyday low price of rimfire is $9.89 plus tax for 550 rounds. Surplus corrosive 7.62x59Russian is ten cents a round after shipping costs. The price difference for a box is negligible. But after a few thousand rounds the difference is huge. I’m talking tens of thousands of rounds, enough for a lifetime of post-collapse survival. On a extreme prep budget. The only way to go. The 22 sucks raw donkey member as far as stopping power, but once the rest of the population is down to flintlock black powder rifles it wont matter as much.
*
Shotguns are good for improvised rounds, but the weight of the ammo makes this a niche weapon in my opinion. Unless you are in heavy wooded areas, then it might do you for a good survival weapon. The only affordable type is the single shot, though.
*
Okay, I hope that about covered it. Peace thru firepower.
END
www.bisonpress.com for my e-books
Sunday, March 18, 2007
reader submitted article
Some random survival thoughts
What is the difference between survival and living? Come on, you know what I mean. You stay alive in both cases, but in one case you carry on some semblance of life. A debris shelter and a rabbit over a flint and steel fire is survival. A wood stove in your house with a meal cooking on it is living. Be honest with yourself. Which would you rather be doing after the balloon goes up? I for one do not want to be setting deadfalls if I can preplan ahead and buy traps and snares that work better. I have books on wild edible foods, but a garden would be better. Now, this is Bison so it is about prepping on the cheap. We can do that and still be better prepared than just looking to get by. Can’t afford a nice Soapstone wood burner? Me neither. However, I can pony up a few bucks for some 55 gallon drums and order the package that will turn them into a nice wood stove to heat my place. For under a hundred dollars you can have better heat. Check out http://www.vogelzang.com/barrel_stoves.htm.
Remember the phrase “burning the midnight oil”? It was not burning the midnight candle. Many an educated person has done their studying by kerosene lamp. A pressured lantern would be even better. You can buy them for five bucks if you are willing to hit some garage sales and flea markets. (I just picked up a pair of kerosene lamps, the old heavy glass ones for $5 each at a consignment shop.) Again, be honest, what would you rather have, lamps or candles?
It is called preparations. I read several blogs that talk about how great things are in Jericho, yet I see a town where many, many people have done nothing to prepare or help themselves afterwards. Some light with multiple candles at one time. There must be a boat load of candles in the town to waste them like that.
Do you have any bad prep habits? I do. I am a book hoarder. I am always looking for books that will go in an already crowded survival library. Just last week I bought a Bradford Angier book on wild edibles and two color mushroom identification books. Books are heavy to haul around so they will be left behind in a bug out, but I find great comfort in the fact that if we find ourselves in a multi-generational TEOTWAWKI, I might have knowledge for my family to help them get through for several generations. I don’t get rid of my books either. I still have the first Poor Man’s James Bond volume I bought in the 70s.
As much as I love books and reading I did learn early in life that you can not learn some skills by reading. I learned more in a few months of martial arts training as a college PE class than I did with all the books on judo and karate I read in high school. Since Jim and I were both MPs I’ll bet he’ll agree that you can read the 95B10 books twice through, but a week on the street teaches a lot more. While you are prepping with food and ammo you need to prep with survival skills as well. Hands on is probably the best way to do it still, so pick a skill and find a good teacher and like the ads say, “Just Do It.”
Do you have any “cheap” silver for barter? I don’t mean low cost silver coins, but rather silver coins that are a lower value. Let’s say you find a kerosene lantern that someone wants to sell for $1 in silver. You could use the lantern but the guy won’t bargain on price. Do you give him ten silver Mercury or Roosevelt dimes or do you hand him ten Canadian silver dimes? I have bought several rolls of Canadian silver dimes and quarters to use in trade for things I think I might like but are just a little over priced. US silver is .900 fine while Canadian silver is .800 and cost less to buy then US. Just a thought.
Thank you Jim for letting me spout about a few things and get them out of my system. I yield the soapbox back to you.
Wolverine
What is the difference between survival and living? Come on, you know what I mean. You stay alive in both cases, but in one case you carry on some semblance of life. A debris shelter and a rabbit over a flint and steel fire is survival. A wood stove in your house with a meal cooking on it is living. Be honest with yourself. Which would you rather be doing after the balloon goes up? I for one do not want to be setting deadfalls if I can preplan ahead and buy traps and snares that work better. I have books on wild edible foods, but a garden would be better. Now, this is Bison so it is about prepping on the cheap. We can do that and still be better prepared than just looking to get by. Can’t afford a nice Soapstone wood burner? Me neither. However, I can pony up a few bucks for some 55 gallon drums and order the package that will turn them into a nice wood stove to heat my place. For under a hundred dollars you can have better heat. Check out http://www.vogelzang.com/barrel_stoves.htm.
Remember the phrase “burning the midnight oil”? It was not burning the midnight candle. Many an educated person has done their studying by kerosene lamp. A pressured lantern would be even better. You can buy them for five bucks if you are willing to hit some garage sales and flea markets. (I just picked up a pair of kerosene lamps, the old heavy glass ones for $5 each at a consignment shop.) Again, be honest, what would you rather have, lamps or candles?
It is called preparations. I read several blogs that talk about how great things are in Jericho, yet I see a town where many, many people have done nothing to prepare or help themselves afterwards. Some light with multiple candles at one time. There must be a boat load of candles in the town to waste them like that.
Do you have any bad prep habits? I do. I am a book hoarder. I am always looking for books that will go in an already crowded survival library. Just last week I bought a Bradford Angier book on wild edibles and two color mushroom identification books. Books are heavy to haul around so they will be left behind in a bug out, but I find great comfort in the fact that if we find ourselves in a multi-generational TEOTWAWKI, I might have knowledge for my family to help them get through for several generations. I don’t get rid of my books either. I still have the first Poor Man’s James Bond volume I bought in the 70s.
As much as I love books and reading I did learn early in life that you can not learn some skills by reading. I learned more in a few months of martial arts training as a college PE class than I did with all the books on judo and karate I read in high school. Since Jim and I were both MPs I’ll bet he’ll agree that you can read the 95B10 books twice through, but a week on the street teaches a lot more. While you are prepping with food and ammo you need to prep with survival skills as well. Hands on is probably the best way to do it still, so pick a skill and find a good teacher and like the ads say, “Just Do It.”
Do you have any “cheap” silver for barter? I don’t mean low cost silver coins, but rather silver coins that are a lower value. Let’s say you find a kerosene lantern that someone wants to sell for $1 in silver. You could use the lantern but the guy won’t bargain on price. Do you give him ten silver Mercury or Roosevelt dimes or do you hand him ten Canadian silver dimes? I have bought several rolls of Canadian silver dimes and quarters to use in trade for things I think I might like but are just a little over priced. US silver is .900 fine while Canadian silver is .800 and cost less to buy then US. Just a thought.
Thank you Jim for letting me spout about a few things and get them out of my system. I yield the soapbox back to you.
Wolverine
Saturday, March 17, 2007
adjusting to inflation
ADJUSTING FOR INFLATION
Ah, inflation. House sellers friend. Free money for the government. And the shaft to almost anyone wanting to eat or drive to work. For almost two generations wages have either been stagnant or in decline, but inflation never rests. I wont bore you with financial details, I’ll just say inflation is easy to understand. The value of currency is degraded, either through printing more money ( supply and demand, the more supply the less demand for it ) or creating credit through the national banking system. Inflation is not caused by prices being raised, but by government trying to get something for nothing ( and their chicks for free ).
*
We might eventually see deflation, come a depression. But as long as it is able, government will inflate the money supply. You will have no choice but to try to cope with it as best as you can. We have been spoiled for some time now. First oil was plentiful enough that products and services were cheap, and then China became our factory, always lowering prices to make a profit from volume ( both for full employment and to ratchet up their economy from agrarian to industrial ). We are only now feeling the pinch of inflation as oil prices rise. The government kept debasing the value of its currency but most consumer prices were kept low. Now those prices are rising as energy prices double and triple. So even with inflation with us for all these years we are just now starting to feel the pain. On a quarterly or at best a semi-annually basis food prices are rising overall and gas prices go up and down weekly with a general upward trend.
*
Most of us are going to have no other choice than to change our behavior. We must substitute items, do without others, trade down or pony up more regardless. We are all familiar with substituting items. If chicken is on sale one week we eat a lot of it. Once beef goes on sale we eat that. Or we eat a cheaper cut of meat from the same animal. Of course some of us eat what we want regardless as we work for the government and tomorrows Stormtroopers must keep up their energy for the coming dictatorship. They get raises adjusted for inflation. Those of us reading this are part of the great unwashed and so must suffer. Some days we are poor enough to eat fake food as substitutions. Such as hot dogs. Yuch.
*
Doing without is fun, like lowering the thermostat and doing without as much warmth in the winter. Or consolidating vehicle trips and using up all of our little time off on the weekend doing errands. Or just giving up on owning a vehicle and being forced to take our lives into our hands as we pedal our bicycle down the road filled with traffic ( full of people that don’t seem to worried about the price of gas as they zoom in and out of traffic at twice the speed limit so they can be the first to get to the red light). Or doing without as many calories for our meals. Sure, it is not enough to kill us, might even be healthier, but that doesn’t help the fact that the Feds are taking food out of our mouths.
*
Trading down is another wonderful activity. We go from meat to beans. Or from whisky to wine. Or from cigarettes out of Virginia to those straight from the heavy metal polluted fields of China. Or from a solid steel Cadillac to a plastic and aluminum Yugo. Or from a cinderblock home to a sheet metal trailer in hurricane country. Going from an office job to Domino’s Pizza delivery as the white collar jobs are shipped over to India. Ten years ago a large apartment with paid utilities was the same price as what I pay now for a narrow travel trailer space with utilities extra. Cars now cost what a house used to. You just trade down to lesser accommodations since your wages don’t go up.
*
Doing without is the last resort. You need to do without a lot of vegetables now that California had a freeze ( not that it was really cheap before that ). Soon you will do without a car as we run out of oil. A lot of us are doing without health insurance now ( it was almost affordable just a few years back ). We just do without medical care and reserve the emergency room for life and death situations. Doing without really sucks. You want to avoid that category if at all possible.
*
Dealing with inflation is no picnic. It only gets worse as time goes on since we make the easy choices first. Of course dealing with deflation is worse as we have no job. Then the chore is to eat, period. Not just substitute one food for another. The sad fact is that we are lucky, right now. Inflation, but not too much. And no crashing economy. Yet. Enjoy it all while you can. Even if you are now eating Top Ramen instead of sirloin.
END
e-books, rarely subject to inflation
buy mine at www.bisonpress.com
Ah, inflation. House sellers friend. Free money for the government. And the shaft to almost anyone wanting to eat or drive to work. For almost two generations wages have either been stagnant or in decline, but inflation never rests. I wont bore you with financial details, I’ll just say inflation is easy to understand. The value of currency is degraded, either through printing more money ( supply and demand, the more supply the less demand for it ) or creating credit through the national banking system. Inflation is not caused by prices being raised, but by government trying to get something for nothing ( and their chicks for free ).
*
We might eventually see deflation, come a depression. But as long as it is able, government will inflate the money supply. You will have no choice but to try to cope with it as best as you can. We have been spoiled for some time now. First oil was plentiful enough that products and services were cheap, and then China became our factory, always lowering prices to make a profit from volume ( both for full employment and to ratchet up their economy from agrarian to industrial ). We are only now feeling the pinch of inflation as oil prices rise. The government kept debasing the value of its currency but most consumer prices were kept low. Now those prices are rising as energy prices double and triple. So even with inflation with us for all these years we are just now starting to feel the pain. On a quarterly or at best a semi-annually basis food prices are rising overall and gas prices go up and down weekly with a general upward trend.
*
Most of us are going to have no other choice than to change our behavior. We must substitute items, do without others, trade down or pony up more regardless. We are all familiar with substituting items. If chicken is on sale one week we eat a lot of it. Once beef goes on sale we eat that. Or we eat a cheaper cut of meat from the same animal. Of course some of us eat what we want regardless as we work for the government and tomorrows Stormtroopers must keep up their energy for the coming dictatorship. They get raises adjusted for inflation. Those of us reading this are part of the great unwashed and so must suffer. Some days we are poor enough to eat fake food as substitutions. Such as hot dogs. Yuch.
*
Doing without is fun, like lowering the thermostat and doing without as much warmth in the winter. Or consolidating vehicle trips and using up all of our little time off on the weekend doing errands. Or just giving up on owning a vehicle and being forced to take our lives into our hands as we pedal our bicycle down the road filled with traffic ( full of people that don’t seem to worried about the price of gas as they zoom in and out of traffic at twice the speed limit so they can be the first to get to the red light). Or doing without as many calories for our meals. Sure, it is not enough to kill us, might even be healthier, but that doesn’t help the fact that the Feds are taking food out of our mouths.
*
Trading down is another wonderful activity. We go from meat to beans. Or from whisky to wine. Or from cigarettes out of Virginia to those straight from the heavy metal polluted fields of China. Or from a solid steel Cadillac to a plastic and aluminum Yugo. Or from a cinderblock home to a sheet metal trailer in hurricane country. Going from an office job to Domino’s Pizza delivery as the white collar jobs are shipped over to India. Ten years ago a large apartment with paid utilities was the same price as what I pay now for a narrow travel trailer space with utilities extra. Cars now cost what a house used to. You just trade down to lesser accommodations since your wages don’t go up.
*
Doing without is the last resort. You need to do without a lot of vegetables now that California had a freeze ( not that it was really cheap before that ). Soon you will do without a car as we run out of oil. A lot of us are doing without health insurance now ( it was almost affordable just a few years back ). We just do without medical care and reserve the emergency room for life and death situations. Doing without really sucks. You want to avoid that category if at all possible.
*
Dealing with inflation is no picnic. It only gets worse as time goes on since we make the easy choices first. Of course dealing with deflation is worse as we have no job. Then the chore is to eat, period. Not just substitute one food for another. The sad fact is that we are lucky, right now. Inflation, but not too much. And no crashing economy. Yet. Enjoy it all while you can. Even if you are now eating Top Ramen instead of sirloin.
END
e-books, rarely subject to inflation
buy mine at www.bisonpress.com
Friday, March 16, 2007
paperless gun
PAPERLESS WEAPONS
A reader brought up a good way to get paperless weapons- place an ad for the gun you want. If you offer enough over cost someone will want to sell. It used to be that there was plenty of used guns advertised. Then Hillary passed the semi-auto and large capacity gun ban and suddenly no one was selling anymore. That plus the fact that daily newspapers are a terrible way to sell your used goods anymore. The Internet killed them and they don’t even know it yet. And by the way, before some Leftist wienie pipes up about how bad Bush is and I shouldn’t pick on poor misunderstood Hillary by calling her evil, I hate both political parties. The one is Fascist and the other is Communist. They are both bad. But while Bush is pro-big government and incompetent and greedy, Hillary is all that PLUS evil, so she is the worst of the two.
*
But how much should we worry about needing a traceless firearm? I grant you that there is a possibility of a total ban, but I think the odds are small. It might make sense to protect against that threat, but if it is small, spend accordingly. One of the favorite ways politicians enact laws is to pepper them with loopholes and grandfather clauses. That way there is a lot less opposition to them. The semi-auto ban is a good example. When they get around to passing a permanent version it will kill anything other than rimfires in semi-auto, but what is already out there will be allowed. It will take some time for the prices to reach “rich Yuppie Bastards only” status, and by that time most people will have grudgingly accepted it and gotten on without a revolution. The last ban with ten year sunset law and limited type bans was a trial balloon. We accepted it without a fuss. The next one will be draconian ( so, as Jim over at www.survivalblog.com says, buy as many magazines as you can now, before they are all gone ).
*
Even in Soviet Russia there were certain weapons such as shotguns allowed. Only in Great Briton is it getting to be a total ban ( tragically amusing considering you could buy an over the counter pistol without paperwork or ID up until the late teens of the twentieth century- the Irish terrorists were the excuse to start controls ). You could even set up shop in Australia and still buy some bolt action rifles, but they are a controlled item. The cops would know where to come looking after a total ban ( although, you could disappear into the bush ). That is the problem with paperwork, the eventual ban. But could it happen here? We have already proved we are sheep, accepting gun control for almost 90 years. Would a total ban be accepted? Perhaps, just perhaps, the politicians know enough to not enact a total ban. I would hope there are enough folks out there that would treat that as the last life preserver against a total dictatorship that we would finally get our asses out of the La-Z-Boy in front of the plasma screen TV and go wipe out every politician and lawyer out there. And I include myself in that question. Would I have the stones to stand up to the bastards?
*
We certainly have the guns and the numbers if we wanted to resist. Even with the government chipping away at our freedoms, even with the taxpayer and printing press paid welfare mob and government work pukes unwilling to allow the Constitution to get in the way of their paycheck, there are still a few people interested in freedom enough to resist. So perhaps a total ban will never be tried. The relentless propaganda against guns has turned entire states into gun free zones, turned neighbor against neighbor, done away with shooting ranges and safe zones ( only cops are safe in public schools ) and in general bred generations of people that won’t touch guns. But there always will be enough of us to successfully rebel if prodded into it. So other means are used. The above mentioned brain washing. Making pistols uneconomical to a majority of people through high litigation costs showing up in retail prices. Partial bans such as the semi-auto one. And the fight against the gun owners and the gun haters ( the ones who will narc on you after a ban ).
*
Perhaps a total ban will be tried. I said I doubt it, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. So how much money do you want to spend as insurance against that? A pre-1899 gun starts at over two hundred bucks. A black powder pistol is almost as much. And any private sale you will pay a premium. The only cheap way to do it is to buy a fifty dollar flare gun, or make yourself a plumbing pipe shotgun “zip gun”. Both are hazardous and inaccurate. If you are really poor but fear a total ban, consider this. A Molotov cocktail is a low dollar way to steal a police or military firearm. If you don’t have the guts to do that, you might as well just meekly accept the ban and join the line into the concentration camp.
*
And who really thinks a ban would work anyway? The black market would sell you a fully automatic AK-47 in Soviet Russia. In Hillary’s Soviet Amerika, the black market will sell you any weapon you have the cash to buy. A few silver coins now ( while the price is artificially low compared to paper currency now, buy the heck out of bullion ) could be a good saving account for a gun later on. Drug prohibition doesn’t work. Not even in prisons. Alcohol prohibition never worked. Gun prohibition won’t work either. I can see why people are worried and would want insurance in the form of a paperless weapon now. But that is an unnecessary expense in my opinion. Just as freeze dried food is a way to avoid learning how to cook by substituting money for skill, buying an expensive paperless gun is a way of substituting the will to resist by ruthlessness with money. It is one thing to snipe from afar at oppressive troops, but another to firebomb the local deputies squad car to get his Glock and Remington. The Yuppies don’t want to get their hands dirty like that. Joe Bob Trailer Park may have no other option come the rebellion.
*
If you want a really cheap method, just buy a box of ammo and buy the Improvised Weapons e-book from me for $2 at www.bisonpress.com ( you will need broadband, otherwise see the site for ordering a CD of the book ) and get the plans on making a rifle or pistol zip gun. Less than perfect, a little safer than a shotgun zip gun. Super cheap for having a paperless gun, if you feel you need it. Hey, if it will allow you to sleep better at night, go for it.
END
A reader brought up a good way to get paperless weapons- place an ad for the gun you want. If you offer enough over cost someone will want to sell. It used to be that there was plenty of used guns advertised. Then Hillary passed the semi-auto and large capacity gun ban and suddenly no one was selling anymore. That plus the fact that daily newspapers are a terrible way to sell your used goods anymore. The Internet killed them and they don’t even know it yet. And by the way, before some Leftist wienie pipes up about how bad Bush is and I shouldn’t pick on poor misunderstood Hillary by calling her evil, I hate both political parties. The one is Fascist and the other is Communist. They are both bad. But while Bush is pro-big government and incompetent and greedy, Hillary is all that PLUS evil, so she is the worst of the two.
*
But how much should we worry about needing a traceless firearm? I grant you that there is a possibility of a total ban, but I think the odds are small. It might make sense to protect against that threat, but if it is small, spend accordingly. One of the favorite ways politicians enact laws is to pepper them with loopholes and grandfather clauses. That way there is a lot less opposition to them. The semi-auto ban is a good example. When they get around to passing a permanent version it will kill anything other than rimfires in semi-auto, but what is already out there will be allowed. It will take some time for the prices to reach “rich Yuppie Bastards only” status, and by that time most people will have grudgingly accepted it and gotten on without a revolution. The last ban with ten year sunset law and limited type bans was a trial balloon. We accepted it without a fuss. The next one will be draconian ( so, as Jim over at www.survivalblog.com says, buy as many magazines as you can now, before they are all gone ).
*
Even in Soviet Russia there were certain weapons such as shotguns allowed. Only in Great Briton is it getting to be a total ban ( tragically amusing considering you could buy an over the counter pistol without paperwork or ID up until the late teens of the twentieth century- the Irish terrorists were the excuse to start controls ). You could even set up shop in Australia and still buy some bolt action rifles, but they are a controlled item. The cops would know where to come looking after a total ban ( although, you could disappear into the bush ). That is the problem with paperwork, the eventual ban. But could it happen here? We have already proved we are sheep, accepting gun control for almost 90 years. Would a total ban be accepted? Perhaps, just perhaps, the politicians know enough to not enact a total ban. I would hope there are enough folks out there that would treat that as the last life preserver against a total dictatorship that we would finally get our asses out of the La-Z-Boy in front of the plasma screen TV and go wipe out every politician and lawyer out there. And I include myself in that question. Would I have the stones to stand up to the bastards?
*
We certainly have the guns and the numbers if we wanted to resist. Even with the government chipping away at our freedoms, even with the taxpayer and printing press paid welfare mob and government work pukes unwilling to allow the Constitution to get in the way of their paycheck, there are still a few people interested in freedom enough to resist. So perhaps a total ban will never be tried. The relentless propaganda against guns has turned entire states into gun free zones, turned neighbor against neighbor, done away with shooting ranges and safe zones ( only cops are safe in public schools ) and in general bred generations of people that won’t touch guns. But there always will be enough of us to successfully rebel if prodded into it. So other means are used. The above mentioned brain washing. Making pistols uneconomical to a majority of people through high litigation costs showing up in retail prices. Partial bans such as the semi-auto one. And the fight against the gun owners and the gun haters ( the ones who will narc on you after a ban ).
*
Perhaps a total ban will be tried. I said I doubt it, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. So how much money do you want to spend as insurance against that? A pre-1899 gun starts at over two hundred bucks. A black powder pistol is almost as much. And any private sale you will pay a premium. The only cheap way to do it is to buy a fifty dollar flare gun, or make yourself a plumbing pipe shotgun “zip gun”. Both are hazardous and inaccurate. If you are really poor but fear a total ban, consider this. A Molotov cocktail is a low dollar way to steal a police or military firearm. If you don’t have the guts to do that, you might as well just meekly accept the ban and join the line into the concentration camp.
*
And who really thinks a ban would work anyway? The black market would sell you a fully automatic AK-47 in Soviet Russia. In Hillary’s Soviet Amerika, the black market will sell you any weapon you have the cash to buy. A few silver coins now ( while the price is artificially low compared to paper currency now, buy the heck out of bullion ) could be a good saving account for a gun later on. Drug prohibition doesn’t work. Not even in prisons. Alcohol prohibition never worked. Gun prohibition won’t work either. I can see why people are worried and would want insurance in the form of a paperless weapon now. But that is an unnecessary expense in my opinion. Just as freeze dried food is a way to avoid learning how to cook by substituting money for skill, buying an expensive paperless gun is a way of substituting the will to resist by ruthlessness with money. It is one thing to snipe from afar at oppressive troops, but another to firebomb the local deputies squad car to get his Glock and Remington. The Yuppies don’t want to get their hands dirty like that. Joe Bob Trailer Park may have no other option come the rebellion.
*
If you want a really cheap method, just buy a box of ammo and buy the Improvised Weapons e-book from me for $2 at www.bisonpress.com ( you will need broadband, otherwise see the site for ordering a CD of the book ) and get the plans on making a rifle or pistol zip gun. Less than perfect, a little safer than a shotgun zip gun. Super cheap for having a paperless gun, if you feel you need it. Hey, if it will allow you to sleep better at night, go for it.
END
Thursday, March 15, 2007
moped
MOPED MAYHEM
I think I beat the horse of mortgage holding silliness to an ugly extent, blood and entrails polluting the scene, flies buzzing around and a vile stench permeating the area. So today I’ll shift gears over to transportation. A lot of us are lazy, ignorant bastards, quite content to have our every whim satisfied at a moments notice. Cell phones allow us to avoid planning ahead for communication. Five hundred channel satellite TV allows us to be entertained without any effort. And giant gas sucking SUV’s allow us to negotiate the crumbling road infrastructure with ease and comfort. One day soon a fat American is going to burn the last gallon of gas without a clue that several tons of metal with air conditioning surrounding himself and his 64 ounce Big Gulp is not sustainable behavior. Before that time I will assume my readers are smart enough to see the beginning of the end of oil and plan ahead, before the bulk of sheep wake up, and get a more fuel efficient vehicle.
*
If you wait too long all the two wheelers will be sucked up and no more will be available. They constitute a niche market right now and there won’t be enough of them to go around come panic time. I know, I could ask you all pretty and nice like to pretty please just shoot your car and start pedaling. But you won’t. The car in imbedded in the American culture and can’t be pulled out without a crowbar and some nitro. So you all want to be whisked along in ease and comfort. So I’m willing to compromise with you here. You can still have an internal combustion engine, just get one that is a lot easier on the gas. Not only that, it will save you a bunch of money. Then you can buy lots of other toys such as guns and such. If you make the moped your primary commuting vehicle, or at least a supplement that can fill in for the car if needed, you are miles ahead of the average working Joe insuring against not being able to get to work and thus stay employed. Maybe even making enough to keep the house a few months longer ( okay, sorry, couldn’t resist ).
*
Any kind of machine transportation, figure about ten cents a mile vehicle cost. That is not gas or insurance or repairs or loan interest payments. As a general rule call it a dime a mile to drive before major repairs are likely. A fifteen grand car will go about 150,000 miles before you have to worry about major repairs. A scooter that costs a grand will go about 10,000. A bicycle mounted engine, because of its extreme high RPM’s will get about two thousand miles and cost about $200. This is all general rule of thumb, but I think a reliable rule. Ten cents a mile, just for the machine. Now add the gas. A car is another ten cents a mile for gas, minimum. Insurance is averaged out to about three cents a mile for a low cost insurance. Lets call financing a ridiculously low two cents a mile. It cost you 25 cents a mile to drive a car, at a minimum. A moped costs ten cents for the machine and three cents a mile for gas. There is no insurance on it. It costs half as much to drive a moped as it does a car, and that is if gas stays at three bucks a gallon and the car is very fuel efficient.
*
Yes, a moped is less safe than a car. But it is far easier to replace a thousand dollar machine than it is a $15k one. And there is no insurance. And gas mileage is 100 miles to the gallon. You have to buy a thirty thousand dollar car to come close to getting over fifty miles a gallon. And if gas goes to five dollars a gallon ( without a raise in pay, it can be assumed ) you will be a very happy camper. If gas stays at three bucks a gallon you still make out like a bandit. Who likes paying $50 to fill up? Traditionally, gas mileage was the worse reason to buy a certain vehicle, as that was the cheapest component of driving. But as we start running out of oil that will not always be the case. Plus, insurance just keeps increasing and mopeds don’t require insurance or a motorcycle license.
*
Beware the mechanical aspect of a moped. Shop for a mechanic before you buy the vehicle. The $700 scooters from China are great, except that a regular motorcycle shop can’t repair them for lack of compatible parts. To get around that you need to buy a Japanese moped ( and they are twice the price even if getting better total mileage ). If your town has a willing small engine repair shop you might have a mechanic. Or, if you are really lucky, the moped dealer does his own repairs. Just beware of this before buying. You should get X amount of miles without problems, but there are no guarantee’s in life. You could experience mechanical problems right away. You need to plan for it.
*
An alternative might be the bike mounted motor. If you find a company that will repair through the mail you could buy two and use one up, send it in for a rebuild and use the other. Or just use it until it wears out and replace it. Or find a local mechanic. Then, a hundred dollar bike from Wal-Mart and a two hundred dollar attachable motor will send you down the road with little effort. If you are too poor for a regular moped. Whatever you do, just have some kind of alternate transportation planned. A regular $65 bike, a $300 bike motor, a moped from China or a Japanese bike. It might make the coming gas shortages and price hikes manageable.
END
bison books www.bisonpress.com buy them all or feel really glum.
I think I beat the horse of mortgage holding silliness to an ugly extent, blood and entrails polluting the scene, flies buzzing around and a vile stench permeating the area. So today I’ll shift gears over to transportation. A lot of us are lazy, ignorant bastards, quite content to have our every whim satisfied at a moments notice. Cell phones allow us to avoid planning ahead for communication. Five hundred channel satellite TV allows us to be entertained without any effort. And giant gas sucking SUV’s allow us to negotiate the crumbling road infrastructure with ease and comfort. One day soon a fat American is going to burn the last gallon of gas without a clue that several tons of metal with air conditioning surrounding himself and his 64 ounce Big Gulp is not sustainable behavior. Before that time I will assume my readers are smart enough to see the beginning of the end of oil and plan ahead, before the bulk of sheep wake up, and get a more fuel efficient vehicle.
*
If you wait too long all the two wheelers will be sucked up and no more will be available. They constitute a niche market right now and there won’t be enough of them to go around come panic time. I know, I could ask you all pretty and nice like to pretty please just shoot your car and start pedaling. But you won’t. The car in imbedded in the American culture and can’t be pulled out without a crowbar and some nitro. So you all want to be whisked along in ease and comfort. So I’m willing to compromise with you here. You can still have an internal combustion engine, just get one that is a lot easier on the gas. Not only that, it will save you a bunch of money. Then you can buy lots of other toys such as guns and such. If you make the moped your primary commuting vehicle, or at least a supplement that can fill in for the car if needed, you are miles ahead of the average working Joe insuring against not being able to get to work and thus stay employed. Maybe even making enough to keep the house a few months longer ( okay, sorry, couldn’t resist ).
*
Any kind of machine transportation, figure about ten cents a mile vehicle cost. That is not gas or insurance or repairs or loan interest payments. As a general rule call it a dime a mile to drive before major repairs are likely. A fifteen grand car will go about 150,000 miles before you have to worry about major repairs. A scooter that costs a grand will go about 10,000. A bicycle mounted engine, because of its extreme high RPM’s will get about two thousand miles and cost about $200. This is all general rule of thumb, but I think a reliable rule. Ten cents a mile, just for the machine. Now add the gas. A car is another ten cents a mile for gas, minimum. Insurance is averaged out to about three cents a mile for a low cost insurance. Lets call financing a ridiculously low two cents a mile. It cost you 25 cents a mile to drive a car, at a minimum. A moped costs ten cents for the machine and three cents a mile for gas. There is no insurance on it. It costs half as much to drive a moped as it does a car, and that is if gas stays at three bucks a gallon and the car is very fuel efficient.
*
Yes, a moped is less safe than a car. But it is far easier to replace a thousand dollar machine than it is a $15k one. And there is no insurance. And gas mileage is 100 miles to the gallon. You have to buy a thirty thousand dollar car to come close to getting over fifty miles a gallon. And if gas goes to five dollars a gallon ( without a raise in pay, it can be assumed ) you will be a very happy camper. If gas stays at three bucks a gallon you still make out like a bandit. Who likes paying $50 to fill up? Traditionally, gas mileage was the worse reason to buy a certain vehicle, as that was the cheapest component of driving. But as we start running out of oil that will not always be the case. Plus, insurance just keeps increasing and mopeds don’t require insurance or a motorcycle license.
*
Beware the mechanical aspect of a moped. Shop for a mechanic before you buy the vehicle. The $700 scooters from China are great, except that a regular motorcycle shop can’t repair them for lack of compatible parts. To get around that you need to buy a Japanese moped ( and they are twice the price even if getting better total mileage ). If your town has a willing small engine repair shop you might have a mechanic. Or, if you are really lucky, the moped dealer does his own repairs. Just beware of this before buying. You should get X amount of miles without problems, but there are no guarantee’s in life. You could experience mechanical problems right away. You need to plan for it.
*
An alternative might be the bike mounted motor. If you find a company that will repair through the mail you could buy two and use one up, send it in for a rebuild and use the other. Or just use it until it wears out and replace it. Or find a local mechanic. Then, a hundred dollar bike from Wal-Mart and a two hundred dollar attachable motor will send you down the road with little effort. If you are too poor for a regular moped. Whatever you do, just have some kind of alternate transportation planned. A regular $65 bike, a $300 bike motor, a moped from China or a Japanese bike. It might make the coming gas shortages and price hikes manageable.
END
bison books www.bisonpress.com buy them all or feel really glum.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
hillaryvilles
HILLARYVILLES
During the last Great Depression there were makeshift camps set up made up of the homeless. In ( dis ) honor of the current president they were named Hoovervilles. In the next Greater Depression homeless camps will exist and be named after the current president, Hillary. The Constitution actual forbids a president from serving more than two terms, and Hillary has already used up her two turns, but we don’t need no steenkin Constitution anymore. Like all good Disciples of Satan, lawyers can always argue over the definition of “is” and change the meaner as they see fit. In order for the biblical prophesies to be realized the Evil One must take power pretending to be our savior. And you don’t get much more evil than Hillary. In fact, word on the street is that she lead a hostile takeover of Hell already. Poor Beelzebub might be out of a job. Sure, he got a golden parachute, but what a blow to your ego. You rule for millennia and then some Botox Barbie kicks you out on your butt.
*
A lot of folks are going to lose welfare and a lot will lose their homes after they suddenly have negative equity and the last factory job is sent over to China and the last construction job to Iraq. They will need some place to go. Anywhere there is free space the homeless will converge with tents, RV’s and shacks made from junk. Hillaryvilles. This phrase just came to me this morning, out of the blue. Any lawyers reading this, I want to trademark this word and get royalties from any gathering being referred to in this manner, officially or otherwise. I’ll cut you in on the action. We can be one of the first to exploit the new jobless former middle class.
*
Hillaryvilles. I’m rolling it around on my tongue, savoring my sharp and delicious wit. Remember, you heard it here first. Beware of cheap imitators. You might be one of the unlucky ones stuck in a mortgage right now. You poor bastard. The new bankruptcy laws are a lot tougher than the old. Can you walk away from your home? Or are you stuck owing the bank the difference between your loan and what they resell it for? Along with owing the IRS the income tax amount on the sale, even though you lost money. Oh, they are lining up wanting their pound of flesh. Only when the entire economy collapses and millions are thrown out of their homes will you be safe from reprisals. Then you can slink away into the night owing tens of thousands of dollars. You might see hyperinflation, but don’t count on it to allow you to pay off the place in worthless dollars. Odds are even that we could see a deflation as interest rates must be jacked up in order to get foreigners to continue to buy our debt and keep us afloat.
*
When you are kicked out of your home, you do not want to go to a government run camp. Thank all the gods that Katrina happened. For all the suffering the poor did down there at least on the positive side the rest of us were warned what evil the government is capable of. Bush was less of a threat, at least he was only guilty of benign neglect. And that was bad enough. Imagine how bad it will be if Hillary tries to “help”. A good idea is in the film “V for vendetta”. Without trying really hard in the last disaster the Feds herded people into an oven like shelter and forced people to stay there without water or food or sanitation or the means of self protection. In the next event, Hillary will activate a national gun confiscation and steal everyone’s food. Then she will kill us off by neglect, allowing us to starve. Thus, the surplus useless eaters will be eliminated and a new glorious era of a Socialist Paradise will begin. You and me will be the new Ukrainians, starved into extinction. And there are plenty of places to begin our version of Siberian work camps. So don’t help the government out by meekly going to a camp, ready to be processed and shorn. Make them work for your imprisonment.
*
So, you must at all costs avoid government camps. But by banding together in voluntary governed groups you gain the advantage of numbers without the drawback of becoming a slave. If it looks like a redistribution scheme, don’t waste any time leaving. But if it looks like a gathering of semi-prepared individuals you are in luck. Now you have someone to help guard, both against predators and dangers such as fire. A division of labor, a pool of talent. Perhaps not everyone showed up with much food, but some talents deserve to be fed. Such as a doctor that knows how to use herbs. Or a mechanic. Or a professional scavenger. There is strength in numbers, just don’t surrender your freedom. Voluntary servitude for an exchanged value is one thing, being governed by force another.
*
Beware government raids. And infiltrators. And sanitation must be agreed to by all or you will get nasty contagious diseases. A minimum amount of supplies to guarantee your independence is vital. Arms and ammo. Food, water or water filter. Shelter. Transportation. This all shouldn’t be much of a problem for my readers. $150 for a M-N Russian bolt gun and a thousand rounds of ammo. $50 for a filter. $50 a person for three or four months of food comprised of rice, beans and flour. A used bicycle for under thirty bucks. A tarp for shade and a few wool blankets for warmth. $300 or there abouts. A pittance compared to what it would cost you to buy a retreat in the country or other prep strategies.
*
Two unrelated items. Dollar Tree right now has one hundred disposable gloves for a buck. Fifty pairs of plastic gloves in a small compact bag. Good prep item. Also, the Dow dropped 240 points Tuesday. A few folks walking up to the housing bubble popping. And I’ve read as far as gold falling, it might be that a lot of trading is in gold paper and thus the Yen Carry Trade short sellers are selling their gold financial positions to cover their debts. These folks aren’t actually taking bullion coins and cashing them in at the coin shop. So don’t read too much into gold going down. It will eventually gain a lot of value against the dollar.
END
buy buy buy book from bison www.bisonpress.com
During the last Great Depression there were makeshift camps set up made up of the homeless. In ( dis ) honor of the current president they were named Hoovervilles. In the next Greater Depression homeless camps will exist and be named after the current president, Hillary. The Constitution actual forbids a president from serving more than two terms, and Hillary has already used up her two turns, but we don’t need no steenkin Constitution anymore. Like all good Disciples of Satan, lawyers can always argue over the definition of “is” and change the meaner as they see fit. In order for the biblical prophesies to be realized the Evil One must take power pretending to be our savior. And you don’t get much more evil than Hillary. In fact, word on the street is that she lead a hostile takeover of Hell already. Poor Beelzebub might be out of a job. Sure, he got a golden parachute, but what a blow to your ego. You rule for millennia and then some Botox Barbie kicks you out on your butt.
*
A lot of folks are going to lose welfare and a lot will lose their homes after they suddenly have negative equity and the last factory job is sent over to China and the last construction job to Iraq. They will need some place to go. Anywhere there is free space the homeless will converge with tents, RV’s and shacks made from junk. Hillaryvilles. This phrase just came to me this morning, out of the blue. Any lawyers reading this, I want to trademark this word and get royalties from any gathering being referred to in this manner, officially or otherwise. I’ll cut you in on the action. We can be one of the first to exploit the new jobless former middle class.
*
Hillaryvilles. I’m rolling it around on my tongue, savoring my sharp and delicious wit. Remember, you heard it here first. Beware of cheap imitators. You might be one of the unlucky ones stuck in a mortgage right now. You poor bastard. The new bankruptcy laws are a lot tougher than the old. Can you walk away from your home? Or are you stuck owing the bank the difference between your loan and what they resell it for? Along with owing the IRS the income tax amount on the sale, even though you lost money. Oh, they are lining up wanting their pound of flesh. Only when the entire economy collapses and millions are thrown out of their homes will you be safe from reprisals. Then you can slink away into the night owing tens of thousands of dollars. You might see hyperinflation, but don’t count on it to allow you to pay off the place in worthless dollars. Odds are even that we could see a deflation as interest rates must be jacked up in order to get foreigners to continue to buy our debt and keep us afloat.
*
When you are kicked out of your home, you do not want to go to a government run camp. Thank all the gods that Katrina happened. For all the suffering the poor did down there at least on the positive side the rest of us were warned what evil the government is capable of. Bush was less of a threat, at least he was only guilty of benign neglect. And that was bad enough. Imagine how bad it will be if Hillary tries to “help”. A good idea is in the film “V for vendetta”. Without trying really hard in the last disaster the Feds herded people into an oven like shelter and forced people to stay there without water or food or sanitation or the means of self protection. In the next event, Hillary will activate a national gun confiscation and steal everyone’s food. Then she will kill us off by neglect, allowing us to starve. Thus, the surplus useless eaters will be eliminated and a new glorious era of a Socialist Paradise will begin. You and me will be the new Ukrainians, starved into extinction. And there are plenty of places to begin our version of Siberian work camps. So don’t help the government out by meekly going to a camp, ready to be processed and shorn. Make them work for your imprisonment.
*
So, you must at all costs avoid government camps. But by banding together in voluntary governed groups you gain the advantage of numbers without the drawback of becoming a slave. If it looks like a redistribution scheme, don’t waste any time leaving. But if it looks like a gathering of semi-prepared individuals you are in luck. Now you have someone to help guard, both against predators and dangers such as fire. A division of labor, a pool of talent. Perhaps not everyone showed up with much food, but some talents deserve to be fed. Such as a doctor that knows how to use herbs. Or a mechanic. Or a professional scavenger. There is strength in numbers, just don’t surrender your freedom. Voluntary servitude for an exchanged value is one thing, being governed by force another.
*
Beware government raids. And infiltrators. And sanitation must be agreed to by all or you will get nasty contagious diseases. A minimum amount of supplies to guarantee your independence is vital. Arms and ammo. Food, water or water filter. Shelter. Transportation. This all shouldn’t be much of a problem for my readers. $150 for a M-N Russian bolt gun and a thousand rounds of ammo. $50 for a filter. $50 a person for three or four months of food comprised of rice, beans and flour. A used bicycle for under thirty bucks. A tarp for shade and a few wool blankets for warmth. $300 or there abouts. A pittance compared to what it would cost you to buy a retreat in the country or other prep strategies.
*
Two unrelated items. Dollar Tree right now has one hundred disposable gloves for a buck. Fifty pairs of plastic gloves in a small compact bag. Good prep item. Also, the Dow dropped 240 points Tuesday. A few folks walking up to the housing bubble popping. And I’ve read as far as gold falling, it might be that a lot of trading is in gold paper and thus the Yen Carry Trade short sellers are selling their gold financial positions to cover their debts. These folks aren’t actually taking bullion coins and cashing them in at the coin shop. So don’t read too much into gold going down. It will eventually gain a lot of value against the dollar.
END
buy buy buy book from bison www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
good money after bad
GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD
I pretty much like to harp on one subject long enough for everybody to do as I suggest, if for no other reason than to shut me up. Being married as many times as I have ( still on my forth one- she moved back in so I failed to get rid of her ) I have picked up that unpleasant habit. Whine, bitch, and scold enough and the other person eventually gives in. Just to shut you up. Today, I am going to tackle the subject on throwing good money after bad, accompanying all my other anti-mortgage tirades. I am not opposed to other people being in debt for thirty years ( not for me, thanks ) but that presupposes a healthy economy for the life of the loan. I don’t think we are in a healthy economy any longer.
*
The trick to all this is that you must be emotionally detached enough to admit this to yourself. Most people can’t do that. They can give you 101 reasons why a house is a good investment. But they can’t step back objectively and say, is this a good idea? If you had sold your soul to the company store, sure, what the hell. You weren’t going anywhere. Why not set down roots? You were working for the Man for the next fifty years, might as well have something to give to the kids or grandkids. But that was old school. There is no more corporate loyalty to the workers. None. Oh, some of them play the game. Try to get on the Fortune Best Companies To Work For list. But come crunch time, you can bet you will get a pink slip. And I don’t know why so many folks bought into this anyway. The worker holding the upper hand had a really short history. I’m not being anti-capitalism here. Perhaps anti-mercantilism. But mostly a realist. Betting the house and the kids college on the generosity of your boss was almost always a mistake. It definitely is now, and for the foreseeable future.
*
A mortgage is just one of many ways that you become emotionally blinded. A place where you live and the work that you do and your lifestyle are others. You make a choice and then deny it was a bad one. Someone with twenty years into a mortgage is loathe to admit the area he lives in is bad. Or that his gum and glue dwelling doesn’t stand a chance without cheap oil supplies. He won’t admit commuting is a bad idea in an era of scarce oil. How can, for instance, twelve million people actually believe that living in New York City is anything other than a death sentence? How can folks think their houses will be a safe investment after our economy collapses? How can they spend thirty grand on a SUV when we are running out of oil? How can they live in a large metropolitan area knowing how bad crime is just to make a few extra grand a year? It is self delusion.
*
Number one, you need to learn to be honest with yourself. Then, number two, you need to learn to walk away from bad decisions regardless of how much you have invested in them. Being honest with yourself is the harder of the two, so once you have that licked the other is easy. Look, we live in a money society. You can’t escape it. It cost 90-110% of your income to live every year. Your money is gone as soon as you make it. Don’t look back at what you spent and try to see what you can keep for it. It is all wasted money. Over priced rent or house payments. Cars that are 70% interest payment, taxes or overblown Union wages. Mandatory car insurance even if you never use it ( actually, if you do use it your cost rises so it is just extortion money to drive ). About the only bargain for the American consumer is food, and that is only because the true costs are hidden.
*
Your money is gone. Forget about it. Don’t try to hold on to things just because they represent that money. Such as a overpriced house or car. Both are energy pigs and we are running out of cheap oil. Fast. Or staying at a job because it pays a little better. Or living in a dangerous area because of your house or job. Just stop throwing good money after bad. You can never recover the money already spent but you can save the money you would keep throwing down that money pit. Look at the Jews before World War II. A lot had no idea anything bad would happen to them. But I’m sure many were also blinded by their economic or emotional investment in where they were. They blinded themselves. And no, I don’t think leaving this country is a good idea. There is enough space here to get lost. We can still buy guns and carry them ( if you are in an area where you can’t- move ). And I think must folks that leave either have government pension checks sent to them or have telecommuting jobs dependant on a good economy. At least here you are on familiar territory.
*
Before Y2K, a lot of you said, it can’t happen. What you meant was, I can’t believe it will happen because of my economic and emotional investment here. The few that did move, you just reacted a bit premature to a calamity. It will come, just hang in there. You can’t allow yourself to be blinded by the odds of disaster striking just because of poor past decisions. At the time you made the decision it was the correct one. Now circumstances have changed. You weren’t an idiot then, don’t be one now. It is not your fault a good decision based on old circumstances changed into a bad decision. But it will be your fault if you continue on the old course of action. Things change. Stuff happens. Be a willow and bend with that. An oak looks tough and majestic until a wind blows it down. Than the willow doesn’t look so puny anymore ( or at least it doesn’t look like firewood ).
*
Too many things are lining up to form a perfect storm. It may not happen. Then your traditional investments are safe. But if it does, you are dead. You can gamble all you want. But don’t think wishing hard makes any difference in the end.
END
its never good money after bad buying my crap www.bisonpress.com it's just good after good :)
I pretty much like to harp on one subject long enough for everybody to do as I suggest, if for no other reason than to shut me up. Being married as many times as I have ( still on my forth one- she moved back in so I failed to get rid of her ) I have picked up that unpleasant habit. Whine, bitch, and scold enough and the other person eventually gives in. Just to shut you up. Today, I am going to tackle the subject on throwing good money after bad, accompanying all my other anti-mortgage tirades. I am not opposed to other people being in debt for thirty years ( not for me, thanks ) but that presupposes a healthy economy for the life of the loan. I don’t think we are in a healthy economy any longer.
*
The trick to all this is that you must be emotionally detached enough to admit this to yourself. Most people can’t do that. They can give you 101 reasons why a house is a good investment. But they can’t step back objectively and say, is this a good idea? If you had sold your soul to the company store, sure, what the hell. You weren’t going anywhere. Why not set down roots? You were working for the Man for the next fifty years, might as well have something to give to the kids or grandkids. But that was old school. There is no more corporate loyalty to the workers. None. Oh, some of them play the game. Try to get on the Fortune Best Companies To Work For list. But come crunch time, you can bet you will get a pink slip. And I don’t know why so many folks bought into this anyway. The worker holding the upper hand had a really short history. I’m not being anti-capitalism here. Perhaps anti-mercantilism. But mostly a realist. Betting the house and the kids college on the generosity of your boss was almost always a mistake. It definitely is now, and for the foreseeable future.
*
A mortgage is just one of many ways that you become emotionally blinded. A place where you live and the work that you do and your lifestyle are others. You make a choice and then deny it was a bad one. Someone with twenty years into a mortgage is loathe to admit the area he lives in is bad. Or that his gum and glue dwelling doesn’t stand a chance without cheap oil supplies. He won’t admit commuting is a bad idea in an era of scarce oil. How can, for instance, twelve million people actually believe that living in New York City is anything other than a death sentence? How can folks think their houses will be a safe investment after our economy collapses? How can they spend thirty grand on a SUV when we are running out of oil? How can they live in a large metropolitan area knowing how bad crime is just to make a few extra grand a year? It is self delusion.
*
Number one, you need to learn to be honest with yourself. Then, number two, you need to learn to walk away from bad decisions regardless of how much you have invested in them. Being honest with yourself is the harder of the two, so once you have that licked the other is easy. Look, we live in a money society. You can’t escape it. It cost 90-110% of your income to live every year. Your money is gone as soon as you make it. Don’t look back at what you spent and try to see what you can keep for it. It is all wasted money. Over priced rent or house payments. Cars that are 70% interest payment, taxes or overblown Union wages. Mandatory car insurance even if you never use it ( actually, if you do use it your cost rises so it is just extortion money to drive ). About the only bargain for the American consumer is food, and that is only because the true costs are hidden.
*
Your money is gone. Forget about it. Don’t try to hold on to things just because they represent that money. Such as a overpriced house or car. Both are energy pigs and we are running out of cheap oil. Fast. Or staying at a job because it pays a little better. Or living in a dangerous area because of your house or job. Just stop throwing good money after bad. You can never recover the money already spent but you can save the money you would keep throwing down that money pit. Look at the Jews before World War II. A lot had no idea anything bad would happen to them. But I’m sure many were also blinded by their economic or emotional investment in where they were. They blinded themselves. And no, I don’t think leaving this country is a good idea. There is enough space here to get lost. We can still buy guns and carry them ( if you are in an area where you can’t- move ). And I think must folks that leave either have government pension checks sent to them or have telecommuting jobs dependant on a good economy. At least here you are on familiar territory.
*
Before Y2K, a lot of you said, it can’t happen. What you meant was, I can’t believe it will happen because of my economic and emotional investment here. The few that did move, you just reacted a bit premature to a calamity. It will come, just hang in there. You can’t allow yourself to be blinded by the odds of disaster striking just because of poor past decisions. At the time you made the decision it was the correct one. Now circumstances have changed. You weren’t an idiot then, don’t be one now. It is not your fault a good decision based on old circumstances changed into a bad decision. But it will be your fault if you continue on the old course of action. Things change. Stuff happens. Be a willow and bend with that. An oak looks tough and majestic until a wind blows it down. Than the willow doesn’t look so puny anymore ( or at least it doesn’t look like firewood ).
*
Too many things are lining up to form a perfect storm. It may not happen. Then your traditional investments are safe. But if it does, you are dead. You can gamble all you want. But don’t think wishing hard makes any difference in the end.
END
its never good money after bad buying my crap www.bisonpress.com it's just good after good :)
Monday, March 12, 2007
ebay way
THE E-BAY WAY
Listen folks. I am only going to tell you this one more time ( well, one more time this week anyway ). We have hit global peak oil. Saudi Arabia production was down 8% in 2006. It would have been as bad as Mexico ( down 14% ) but they are putting up new wells in a desperate attempt to stem the tide. The world production is crashing. North Sea oil, Russian, Mexico. Big production declines here and elsewhere. Before, more than half of the countries exporting oil were past their peak oil production ( we hit ours in 1971 in the lower 48 and with Alaska and the Gulf Of Mexico added we still produce much less now ). But we always looked at the Saudi’s as our savior. Why, I don’t know as their main field is old and abused. Now independent sources state they are in decline.
*
From my reading on the subject I think 2005 was the peak production year globally. We are now seeing the decline. I have been telling you about this for some time because I think it is THE survival issue of our times. Iran with nukes is a circus freak side show compared to Peak Oil. Only oil, cheap and free flowing, allows 6 billion people to live on this chunk of rock. Minus oil, about one billion is a more realistic figure. That is why the US population hitting the 300 million mark was a bad omen. It tells us how many illegal immigrants and their welfare kids we can’t support in the arid West. Oil is not about our inability to drive from the suburbs to work. We could work around that, to a degree. It is more about our crops and water being dependant on oil inputs. And our military’s addiction to oil to function. And our economy being dependent on the black goo. Oil is life, in the first world. Without it we die.
*
Now, this instant, is the time to get your house in order. I could be wrong. A giant conspiracy could be at work holding back ( until the last profit was made on oil ) super cheap solar panels could blanket the worlds deserts and turn salt water into hydrogen and we could all live happily ever after. But I seriously doubt it. I think things will unravel too fast for that to happen. But say I am wrong. It could happen, wouldn’t be the first time. Despite all the research from learned educated men, my conclusions could be off and we don’t crash from lack of energy. You lost your equity in your home. You destroyed your credit rating. Perhaps even gave up your job to move to a safer area. It now sucks to be you. Can you do all that? If I am right, you save your life and that of your family. It is your call, of course. Just remember, all the farmland in the US turned to corn would power less than five percent of our auto fleet. And we would be eating algae, I guess. The best case scenario for Canadian tar sands production is less production than five percent of today’s oil usage. In countries with strong leaning towards alternate energy, they have yet to see more than single digits of use from alternate sources. In other words, solar, wind and tidal generation combined are under ten percent of needed energy ( and that is without private cars and almost all public transport ).
*
One of the best things you can do to escape the coming crash is to be out of debt. Unfortunately, easier said than done. If you must be in debt, try for a more manageable kind. Instead of a house mortgage, try for a payment on a lot with a trailer. Or a lot with a home built cabin. You could live in an apartment and save the difference from the mortgage payment until you have the three grand needed to buy a lot and trailer. But most of you can’t do that. Okay, I understand. No way the trophy wife is going to live in a tin box. And won’t see two grand of “her” money going to buy a piece of raw land in west Texas as a prep item. So, here is my suggestion. As much as I hate debt, if it is the only way to secure a cheap affordable piece of land, buy one on payments.
*
When the economy crashes and banks start repossessing houses after the jobless rate rockets up to fifty percent ( the only workers left are government subsidized and that is paid for by hyperinflation ) you need a place to live that doesn’t have a mortgage. It seems bizarre to recommend getting in debt for land then, but a three thousand dollar plot of land is far more easily paid for than a three hundred thousand dollar house in the burbs. I can’t see being able to sell assets to pay for that three grand either, as everyone will be doing the same thing at the same time. But it is a better bet than what you have going now. The perfect solution would be to buy land for cash. You can still find land under a grand. A 60 by 100 foot lot in west Texas ten miles from Dell City ( a very small farming community 60 miles from El Paso ) is $750. Crap land in west Utah is still $500. A mining claim ( $125 a year to the Feds to keep it ) is about $500, outside of the Phoenix area. East Texas land is still under $1500 and most lots are not zoned so you can set up a trailer. But, tornados and high unemployment are an unwanted bonus there.
*
I went to E-Bay and looked under Real Estate, then under Land, All Parcels. I put in all land under $500 to get low down payment land. You can use other search criteria. I just wanted to get a sample of what was available. Nothing was under $3,500 total cost, but plenty of payment were under $150 a month. That might be a more important criteria for you right now. An Elko NV land deal was $50 down and $110 a month, total $9k. An Arizona lot was $25 down and $75 a month. $3.5k total. Both lots are close to rivers ( close being more of a bike ride than a walk, but better than no surface water at all ). A lot outside of Albuquerque in MN was also $25 down, $75 a month, $3.5k total. Just beware the poor economy there. Colorado land is pricey. About eight to twelve grand to start. $150 down, $150 a month. An Oregon lot was $100 down, $150 a month outside Lakeview. Looks like high desert country, and the neighbors are poor so you might get by with living in a shack. Total $9k. You can get a east Texas lot for $90 down and $59 a month, $5k total. Mobiles only, though. No trailers.
*
As I said, this was just a sample. You can find cheaper, or much more expensive. One 20 acre lot in Oklahoma ( outside Hanna ) was $500 down and $400 a month, total $50k. Or a Missouri lot outside Branson was $300 down and $300 a month for just under $30k. You might think that is affordable, I think it is outrageous. But most folks make a lot more than I do. Your best bet on E-Bay is to do a search of all properties in the state of your choice. If you live in Georgia chances are you will never visit Utah, so why buy a lot there? My criteria has always been that come an emergency if you could move to the land and continue payments ( assuming the economy is still working ) it had to be cheaper than what I was paying currently. Six years ago I was making payments of $60 for a lot in west Arizona. It was for about seven years. Power to the lot, thirty miles from Kingman. I had to stop payments and give up the land. I wish I hadn’t. Currently lots in the area are $300 a month with total cost being $40k. Talk about an increase!
*
Yes, debt sucks. But so does being unprepared. I would rather owe $500 and have a rifle with ammo, wheat for a year, a grinder and a water filter. And I would rather have a debt of $3k than no where to live if I was evicted. It beats living in a car. Well, you might be living in a car but it would be on your own lot of land. Not squatting and getting harassed by the cops. And $3k is a lot cheaper than most cars. It is an investment for retirement, an emergency crash pad, a port in the storm. It might be a piece of crap, but it is better than being homeless. Just do your research. It would suck to buy the land and then not be able to park your trailer ( like with the AZ land ) or build a septic system ( NM requires two acres minimum, I believe ) or what not. In the boonies you can ignore the zoning laws if your neighbors don’t narc on you. Careful what you do close to town.
*
I hope this helps. Get your ducks in a row now. Better ten years early than ten minutes late.
END
buy now, before its too late, last chance, for the love of all that's holy www.bisonpress.com
Listen folks. I am only going to tell you this one more time ( well, one more time this week anyway ). We have hit global peak oil. Saudi Arabia production was down 8% in 2006. It would have been as bad as Mexico ( down 14% ) but they are putting up new wells in a desperate attempt to stem the tide. The world production is crashing. North Sea oil, Russian, Mexico. Big production declines here and elsewhere. Before, more than half of the countries exporting oil were past their peak oil production ( we hit ours in 1971 in the lower 48 and with Alaska and the Gulf Of Mexico added we still produce much less now ). But we always looked at the Saudi’s as our savior. Why, I don’t know as their main field is old and abused. Now independent sources state they are in decline.
*
From my reading on the subject I think 2005 was the peak production year globally. We are now seeing the decline. I have been telling you about this for some time because I think it is THE survival issue of our times. Iran with nukes is a circus freak side show compared to Peak Oil. Only oil, cheap and free flowing, allows 6 billion people to live on this chunk of rock. Minus oil, about one billion is a more realistic figure. That is why the US population hitting the 300 million mark was a bad omen. It tells us how many illegal immigrants and their welfare kids we can’t support in the arid West. Oil is not about our inability to drive from the suburbs to work. We could work around that, to a degree. It is more about our crops and water being dependant on oil inputs. And our military’s addiction to oil to function. And our economy being dependent on the black goo. Oil is life, in the first world. Without it we die.
*
Now, this instant, is the time to get your house in order. I could be wrong. A giant conspiracy could be at work holding back ( until the last profit was made on oil ) super cheap solar panels could blanket the worlds deserts and turn salt water into hydrogen and we could all live happily ever after. But I seriously doubt it. I think things will unravel too fast for that to happen. But say I am wrong. It could happen, wouldn’t be the first time. Despite all the research from learned educated men, my conclusions could be off and we don’t crash from lack of energy. You lost your equity in your home. You destroyed your credit rating. Perhaps even gave up your job to move to a safer area. It now sucks to be you. Can you do all that? If I am right, you save your life and that of your family. It is your call, of course. Just remember, all the farmland in the US turned to corn would power less than five percent of our auto fleet. And we would be eating algae, I guess. The best case scenario for Canadian tar sands production is less production than five percent of today’s oil usage. In countries with strong leaning towards alternate energy, they have yet to see more than single digits of use from alternate sources. In other words, solar, wind and tidal generation combined are under ten percent of needed energy ( and that is without private cars and almost all public transport ).
*
One of the best things you can do to escape the coming crash is to be out of debt. Unfortunately, easier said than done. If you must be in debt, try for a more manageable kind. Instead of a house mortgage, try for a payment on a lot with a trailer. Or a lot with a home built cabin. You could live in an apartment and save the difference from the mortgage payment until you have the three grand needed to buy a lot and trailer. But most of you can’t do that. Okay, I understand. No way the trophy wife is going to live in a tin box. And won’t see two grand of “her” money going to buy a piece of raw land in west Texas as a prep item. So, here is my suggestion. As much as I hate debt, if it is the only way to secure a cheap affordable piece of land, buy one on payments.
*
When the economy crashes and banks start repossessing houses after the jobless rate rockets up to fifty percent ( the only workers left are government subsidized and that is paid for by hyperinflation ) you need a place to live that doesn’t have a mortgage. It seems bizarre to recommend getting in debt for land then, but a three thousand dollar plot of land is far more easily paid for than a three hundred thousand dollar house in the burbs. I can’t see being able to sell assets to pay for that three grand either, as everyone will be doing the same thing at the same time. But it is a better bet than what you have going now. The perfect solution would be to buy land for cash. You can still find land under a grand. A 60 by 100 foot lot in west Texas ten miles from Dell City ( a very small farming community 60 miles from El Paso ) is $750. Crap land in west Utah is still $500. A mining claim ( $125 a year to the Feds to keep it ) is about $500, outside of the Phoenix area. East Texas land is still under $1500 and most lots are not zoned so you can set up a trailer. But, tornados and high unemployment are an unwanted bonus there.
*
I went to E-Bay and looked under Real Estate, then under Land, All Parcels. I put in all land under $500 to get low down payment land. You can use other search criteria. I just wanted to get a sample of what was available. Nothing was under $3,500 total cost, but plenty of payment were under $150 a month. That might be a more important criteria for you right now. An Elko NV land deal was $50 down and $110 a month, total $9k. An Arizona lot was $25 down and $75 a month. $3.5k total. Both lots are close to rivers ( close being more of a bike ride than a walk, but better than no surface water at all ). A lot outside of Albuquerque in MN was also $25 down, $75 a month, $3.5k total. Just beware the poor economy there. Colorado land is pricey. About eight to twelve grand to start. $150 down, $150 a month. An Oregon lot was $100 down, $150 a month outside Lakeview. Looks like high desert country, and the neighbors are poor so you might get by with living in a shack. Total $9k. You can get a east Texas lot for $90 down and $59 a month, $5k total. Mobiles only, though. No trailers.
*
As I said, this was just a sample. You can find cheaper, or much more expensive. One 20 acre lot in Oklahoma ( outside Hanna ) was $500 down and $400 a month, total $50k. Or a Missouri lot outside Branson was $300 down and $300 a month for just under $30k. You might think that is affordable, I think it is outrageous. But most folks make a lot more than I do. Your best bet on E-Bay is to do a search of all properties in the state of your choice. If you live in Georgia chances are you will never visit Utah, so why buy a lot there? My criteria has always been that come an emergency if you could move to the land and continue payments ( assuming the economy is still working ) it had to be cheaper than what I was paying currently. Six years ago I was making payments of $60 for a lot in west Arizona. It was for about seven years. Power to the lot, thirty miles from Kingman. I had to stop payments and give up the land. I wish I hadn’t. Currently lots in the area are $300 a month with total cost being $40k. Talk about an increase!
*
Yes, debt sucks. But so does being unprepared. I would rather owe $500 and have a rifle with ammo, wheat for a year, a grinder and a water filter. And I would rather have a debt of $3k than no where to live if I was evicted. It beats living in a car. Well, you might be living in a car but it would be on your own lot of land. Not squatting and getting harassed by the cops. And $3k is a lot cheaper than most cars. It is an investment for retirement, an emergency crash pad, a port in the storm. It might be a piece of crap, but it is better than being homeless. Just do your research. It would suck to buy the land and then not be able to park your trailer ( like with the AZ land ) or build a septic system ( NM requires two acres minimum, I believe ) or what not. In the boonies you can ignore the zoning laws if your neighbors don’t narc on you. Careful what you do close to town.
*
I hope this helps. Get your ducks in a row now. Better ten years early than ten minutes late.
END
buy now, before its too late, last chance, for the love of all that's holy www.bisonpress.com
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