JEREMIAH
Today is Nevada Day where we celebrate the day we turned from a territory to a state. At the time it must have seemed like a wonderful idea. I think it sucks right about now, but no one ever asks me. So, I like to look at it as a celebration of how we are a much better place to live than any of the other suck ass states. Look at Alaska. Eighty degrees below? Leave it for the natives. Texas, I think you have to be born there. That was one weird place. Florida has been colonized and taken over by New Jersians. Enough said about that. But, hey, I don’t have time to insult every state we have. I’ll just say, you suck. We rock. Please don’t move here. But my point is that I don’t have to work today, so I’m posting this ahead of time. Enjoy.
*
I looked forward to watching Jeremiah, the series on DVD. From cable, perhaps HBO. It wasn’t a bad show, there was nudity. But from a survivalist perspective it kind of blew chunks. A disease wipes out everyone over the age of puberty. Okay, not horribly original, but any disaster will do. We need all the doom and gloom we can get ( and all the nudity, but I’ll leave that for a guys night out while we stay busy drinking beer and scratching ourselves ). But by the end of the hour and a half first disc, I simply wasn’t sold on the concept. There was too much wrong with the story. Take the original collapse. In six months, six billion adults die. That leaves all the kids. So, how do they eat? Are you seriously trying to tell me that with a global Just-In-Time delivery system, there is enough stored food there for the taking? Were the kids able to take over the tractors and semis to haul food around? And even if there was enough food initially, enough for fifteen years? I don’t think so. The only food production seen was an indoor hydroponics set up and that itself was a bit unrealistic ( they had enough nutrients for fifteen years? A closed loop system breaks down with entropy, you need continual fresh inputs ). How was everyone eating all this time?
*
Next up, we have a town with a swap mart. Our guys go there and there is a scene where an attempted hijack is met with security forces blasting away. Fifteen years after the collapse and folks are still blasting away with semi-autos. That fantasy alone probably made the show popular enough for another season. Whatever you do, don’t skimp on firepower or boobs! Hey, like I said, it was a pretty good show if you ignore the reality behind these things. But I’m not paid the big bucks to ignore the collapse. Another thing about that swap meet. One guy is selling charged batteries. No way dude! No one has batteries anymore! So says one character. A half hour later in the show, another character is using a flashlight ( and, no, it wasn’t the guy with the batteries ). Does anybody do fact checking here? Or are movies becoming like the airline industry which cuts back on manpower enough that serious oversights happen? And speaking of fact checks, later in the movie, our two characters get a vehicle ( the two guys are Luke Perry and the Cosby kid Malcolm Something Hyphenated Something- good actors, good chemistry together ), and simply drive away into the night. Hints have been dropping left and right about how scarce resources are ( except, evidently, batteries, food and ammo ) and a car is a wonderful thing. Yet the guy just hops in and drives, easy as pie. The dude is like eight years old at the collapse, and driving is natural. Go to a High School driving class and tell me how natural that is.
*
The evil bitch in the show was a smidge over the top. Okay, we’re just following in the footsteps of James Bond villains here ( which, by the way, seem to be rather weak and pathetic since the end of the Cold War-coincidence? ) and playing it Super Psycho. But it didn’t fit, she was insane and power hungry rather than just trying to steal resources as is the historic norm. Insanity might come later, with extreme paranoia and fear as a lifestyle, but not before. And another thing. Most characters didn’t seem to be doing much except living a Slackers type life. Hang out in night clubs. If the world has ended and everyone is dying, there are night clubs? But then we are back to never ending cans of food and plenty of non-rotting clothes and everlasting ammo. No one is suffering much, just hanging out and chillin, yo! Not a huge disappointment. Perhaps in the same vein of the Jericho series. Not realistic on most levels, but not a bad show overall.
END
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
pink slips
PINK SLIPS
I hope I didn’t mislead anyone yesterday. It isn’t that I think the boonies and a small town are bad ideas, just that they aren’t viable places for during the collapse of the oil age. Just like when I warn about farming- it might be a great idea, you just need to beware the pitfalls ( retreats, small towns and farms are not talismans, in other words ). Today, I’ll pretend to know what I’m talking about for when I’m unemployed.
*
Our social safety net is still holding up. That will be the case as long as people still take dollars ( which are soon to be hyperinflated ). The only thing that will short circuit this slow to middlin decline other than the oil supply is a sudden derivatives market collapse. Which of course we can’t know for certain. I do know that time is running out for you to do something to prop up the paper currency insurance we all have available. Forget oil depletion this article, there are still plenty of reasons to panic. Iranian war. Widespread drought. Wheat rust. Manufactured barnyard flu being taken off its leash. The aforementioned derivatives ( at a quadrillion bucks, only a very small percentage needs to fail to collapse the whole thing ). Right now, a whole bunch of seniors are pissed about COLA cutbacks and medical increases. And guess what? They ain’t the banks so they get no bailout. If this is what they needed to do in just the first year of the Boomer retirement wave, imagine how much worse it will get. The point is that everything that used to be our insurance is unraveling. Real buying power for retirement is decreasing. Unemployment funds in almost every state are running out. Food Stamp applicants are backlogged weeks if not months rather than days.
*
What are you doing to get ready for unemployment? The question is not if but when. That goes for everybody, no matter your position or its historic security. We aren’t just preparing for the collapse of civilization anymore, but also the collapse of the welfare state. Total collapse consists of a staircase down and you need to prepare for every level. It isn’t just wheat and ammo but lack of debt or mortgage and a way to feed yourself. After the collapse, it will be easy. Eat wheat berries and Californians. During the collapse of the welfare state, you need to feed yourself within the confines of the law. Will Food Stamps be there for you? Will food prices triple before you are issued more? My advice would be to eliminate all expenses, if humanly possible, besides food and heat. Why else am I in Elko ( well, besides the great location away from everyone )? I assure you, it was entirely by accident. It was close at the time, it was cheap. I bought the land and then started discovering its collapse potentials. Come unemployment, I can move out to my paid for lot fifteen miles from town. Then I only have to worry about food and propane. If propane falls through, there is sagebrush. Food can always come out of the stash, but I need to protect that until after the true collapse if possible. I do have the silver stash if the black market is operating.
*
I won’t lie, it can really suck here. Two days ago it was colder here than Anchorage Alaska. Of course, come January it will be ten here and thirty below there so it’s not a great comparison. But it still astounds the mind at times how it can drop. But despite wishing for warm, I also know everyone else likes it too. I’ll stay here regardless, because that is where the paid for junk land is ( Texas isn’t feasible in my mind due to population ). I live in one of the areas with the lowest unemployment and have a pretty secure job ( both, again, by accident rather than design ). But I don’t count on either for more than a short reprieve. My pink slip is ready to be mailed, I just don’t know why they are waiting. Yours is too. Sure, Food Stamps will be there for you. If you are lucky. In the meantime, get secure. Get ready. Or, hey, get stuffed. I tried to help.
END
I hope I didn’t mislead anyone yesterday. It isn’t that I think the boonies and a small town are bad ideas, just that they aren’t viable places for during the collapse of the oil age. Just like when I warn about farming- it might be a great idea, you just need to beware the pitfalls ( retreats, small towns and farms are not talismans, in other words ). Today, I’ll pretend to know what I’m talking about for when I’m unemployed.
*
Our social safety net is still holding up. That will be the case as long as people still take dollars ( which are soon to be hyperinflated ). The only thing that will short circuit this slow to middlin decline other than the oil supply is a sudden derivatives market collapse. Which of course we can’t know for certain. I do know that time is running out for you to do something to prop up the paper currency insurance we all have available. Forget oil depletion this article, there are still plenty of reasons to panic. Iranian war. Widespread drought. Wheat rust. Manufactured barnyard flu being taken off its leash. The aforementioned derivatives ( at a quadrillion bucks, only a very small percentage needs to fail to collapse the whole thing ). Right now, a whole bunch of seniors are pissed about COLA cutbacks and medical increases. And guess what? They ain’t the banks so they get no bailout. If this is what they needed to do in just the first year of the Boomer retirement wave, imagine how much worse it will get. The point is that everything that used to be our insurance is unraveling. Real buying power for retirement is decreasing. Unemployment funds in almost every state are running out. Food Stamp applicants are backlogged weeks if not months rather than days.
*
What are you doing to get ready for unemployment? The question is not if but when. That goes for everybody, no matter your position or its historic security. We aren’t just preparing for the collapse of civilization anymore, but also the collapse of the welfare state. Total collapse consists of a staircase down and you need to prepare for every level. It isn’t just wheat and ammo but lack of debt or mortgage and a way to feed yourself. After the collapse, it will be easy. Eat wheat berries and Californians. During the collapse of the welfare state, you need to feed yourself within the confines of the law. Will Food Stamps be there for you? Will food prices triple before you are issued more? My advice would be to eliminate all expenses, if humanly possible, besides food and heat. Why else am I in Elko ( well, besides the great location away from everyone )? I assure you, it was entirely by accident. It was close at the time, it was cheap. I bought the land and then started discovering its collapse potentials. Come unemployment, I can move out to my paid for lot fifteen miles from town. Then I only have to worry about food and propane. If propane falls through, there is sagebrush. Food can always come out of the stash, but I need to protect that until after the true collapse if possible. I do have the silver stash if the black market is operating.
*
I won’t lie, it can really suck here. Two days ago it was colder here than Anchorage Alaska. Of course, come January it will be ten here and thirty below there so it’s not a great comparison. But it still astounds the mind at times how it can drop. But despite wishing for warm, I also know everyone else likes it too. I’ll stay here regardless, because that is where the paid for junk land is ( Texas isn’t feasible in my mind due to population ). I live in one of the areas with the lowest unemployment and have a pretty secure job ( both, again, by accident rather than design ). But I don’t count on either for more than a short reprieve. My pink slip is ready to be mailed, I just don’t know why they are waiting. Yours is too. Sure, Food Stamps will be there for you. If you are lucky. In the meantime, get secure. Get ready. Or, hey, get stuffed. I tried to help.
END
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
relocation
RELOCATION
For lack of much new and exiting, by default I’m visiting some of the old and familiar themes. Yesterday, bribing a buddy for a place to stay. Today, a bit on where to relocate. E-mail me at jimd303@netzero.com or leave a comment here if you have any ideas you would like me to address which belong to the old school survivalism/prepping. Perhaps we can get a week long thing going here. For instance, I’m sure you would all love me to berate you once again on how your arsenal should be bolt action and revolver. Can’t get enough of that, right?
*
Creekmore (http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/ ) had an interesting article on Mel Tappon a week or so back. I never knew he married into money, the Mack truck fortune. See, just as I was spewing venom into my minions ears about him, he turns around and gives me a neat factoid like that, titillating my brain. So I quickly have to cancel the smear campaign orders which is a real pain. Paperwork has to be filled out in triplicate. Anyway, enough about my clerical problems. The point was made that old Mel was nothing more than a Yuppie Scum Survivalist who could buy whatever toys his heart desired and thus his advice might be suspect. Good point. I guess that is why no one is rushing his books back into print, since the family doesn’t need the cash. Even his good advice on relocation has financial strings attached. If you don’t have non-employment money available, it is a lot harder than it used to be to live in a small town.
*
Living out in the boonies is not the greatest idea unless you have a group. Even then there are a lot of problems. I know this is going to piss half of you off, but follow me here. Boonies requires gasoline which requires oil which requires that we live in a time that isn’t looking at 9% oil import declines a year. I know you are tired of hearing this, but what disaster is happening determines your prepping strategy. If you plan on living out in the middle of nowhere, you need to be able to get into town for supplies, or else you must grow or stockpile everything you ever need. You aren’t rich enough to do that. Even the rich guys aren’t rich enough to do that which is why they work in the big city and plan on bugging out to a retreat. That is just as fraught with problems as the frugal method is. No strategy is close to perfect, whether it costs you a few thousand bucks or several hundred grand. Living in the boonies requires a gasoline supply that won’t be there much longer. And here is the problem. Long after consumers run out of gasoline, the local government will still be around collecting property tax. A mortgage on a boonies retreat is an invitation for repossession. Even a paid for piece of property might become uninhabitable if it is too far from supplies. If you can’t walk it or bike it, it is too far away. Our car centered life is already in the process of ending.
*
Small town living is also not viable with a need for employment. Either there are no jobs there to begin with or the casual employment you find will end soon. If the trade isn’t in necessities, the business will go bankrupt. Marble countertops, video rentals, gas stations eventually, building suppliers ( perhaps even lumber mills ), etc. will all close down. If you can even find the mom and pop businesses anymore. I haven’t visited true small town America for some time, but I imagine a lot of shopping is done miles and miles away. My last small town was twenty years ago. Good luck finding a job there now. I’ve pretty much had to resign myself to middlin size towns, around twenty or thirty thousand rather than two to five thousand. Not what I’d prefer, but by living past the edge of town I maintain the illusion of country living. As I’ve said before, even in a really small town of a few hundred, if just one person knows you have supplies you are screwed. True isolation is impossible because of soon to be impossible commutes. Small towns have no jobs. Middle size towns are most likely the best you can do if you need employment. Just try to be far enough away to avoid the sewer breakdowns, water main breaks, fires sweeping out of control and grid failures.
*
It is far from ideal, but a few miles from a middle size town solves the problems you have now which are employment, affordable land, and being out of the big city. Soon, there will be no gasoline for driving in for supplies. An isolated retreat fully stocked with MRE’s and semi autos and underground tanks of gas are great in theory. But you and I can’t afford it. Aim within reality, and keep in mind the energy equation.
END
For lack of much new and exiting, by default I’m visiting some of the old and familiar themes. Yesterday, bribing a buddy for a place to stay. Today, a bit on where to relocate. E-mail me at jimd303@netzero.com or leave a comment here if you have any ideas you would like me to address which belong to the old school survivalism/prepping. Perhaps we can get a week long thing going here. For instance, I’m sure you would all love me to berate you once again on how your arsenal should be bolt action and revolver. Can’t get enough of that, right?
*
Creekmore (http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/ ) had an interesting article on Mel Tappon a week or so back. I never knew he married into money, the Mack truck fortune. See, just as I was spewing venom into my minions ears about him, he turns around and gives me a neat factoid like that, titillating my brain. So I quickly have to cancel the smear campaign orders which is a real pain. Paperwork has to be filled out in triplicate. Anyway, enough about my clerical problems. The point was made that old Mel was nothing more than a Yuppie Scum Survivalist who could buy whatever toys his heart desired and thus his advice might be suspect. Good point. I guess that is why no one is rushing his books back into print, since the family doesn’t need the cash. Even his good advice on relocation has financial strings attached. If you don’t have non-employment money available, it is a lot harder than it used to be to live in a small town.
*
Living out in the boonies is not the greatest idea unless you have a group. Even then there are a lot of problems. I know this is going to piss half of you off, but follow me here. Boonies requires gasoline which requires oil which requires that we live in a time that isn’t looking at 9% oil import declines a year. I know you are tired of hearing this, but what disaster is happening determines your prepping strategy. If you plan on living out in the middle of nowhere, you need to be able to get into town for supplies, or else you must grow or stockpile everything you ever need. You aren’t rich enough to do that. Even the rich guys aren’t rich enough to do that which is why they work in the big city and plan on bugging out to a retreat. That is just as fraught with problems as the frugal method is. No strategy is close to perfect, whether it costs you a few thousand bucks or several hundred grand. Living in the boonies requires a gasoline supply that won’t be there much longer. And here is the problem. Long after consumers run out of gasoline, the local government will still be around collecting property tax. A mortgage on a boonies retreat is an invitation for repossession. Even a paid for piece of property might become uninhabitable if it is too far from supplies. If you can’t walk it or bike it, it is too far away. Our car centered life is already in the process of ending.
*
Small town living is also not viable with a need for employment. Either there are no jobs there to begin with or the casual employment you find will end soon. If the trade isn’t in necessities, the business will go bankrupt. Marble countertops, video rentals, gas stations eventually, building suppliers ( perhaps even lumber mills ), etc. will all close down. If you can even find the mom and pop businesses anymore. I haven’t visited true small town America for some time, but I imagine a lot of shopping is done miles and miles away. My last small town was twenty years ago. Good luck finding a job there now. I’ve pretty much had to resign myself to middlin size towns, around twenty or thirty thousand rather than two to five thousand. Not what I’d prefer, but by living past the edge of town I maintain the illusion of country living. As I’ve said before, even in a really small town of a few hundred, if just one person knows you have supplies you are screwed. True isolation is impossible because of soon to be impossible commutes. Small towns have no jobs. Middle size towns are most likely the best you can do if you need employment. Just try to be far enough away to avoid the sewer breakdowns, water main breaks, fires sweeping out of control and grid failures.
*
It is far from ideal, but a few miles from a middle size town solves the problems you have now which are employment, affordable land, and being out of the big city. Soon, there will be no gasoline for driving in for supplies. An isolated retreat fully stocked with MRE’s and semi autos and underground tanks of gas are great in theory. But you and I can’t afford it. Aim within reality, and keep in mind the energy equation.
END
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
sleepovers
SLEEPOVERS
Every time I mention Peak Oil and impending doom, you would all argue with me about how the oil will last forever because, well, we want it to. I would refute your flimsy arguments with hard logic and facts. This embarrassed you and so now every time I mention it you just ignore the issue. Hey, you’re Bison Loyal Minions, I expect you to be smart enough to learn and adapt. Congratulations. But I keep trying. Here’s an article by persons more professional than myself telling you the same thing. I swiped the link from Survival Acres. http://dailyreckoning.com/the-truth-about-energy/
*
A minion wrote and asked about bunking over with a buddy during the collapse. He felt he might be asking the obvious, but I think a lot of what we don’t think about is obvious. We have a lot going on, a lot distracting us. Heck, most of the distractions are on purpose from the asshats in power. The whole issue of politics is a smokescreen to hide the bankers looting the system. I used to think Democrats and Republicans being in power was important. Yet, whichever party wins, the same old policies are pursued. Look at Baby Bush and Obammy. The only difference between the two is one has a better tan than the other. TV is a great distraction, as is sports. Whenever you see an ad for GM or look at the high school budget for sports, that is the government throwing paid distractions our way. I can’t believe they are supporting the football team and cutting music/art/science/computer classes, you fume. To them, it is a great investment. The entire structure of sports must be maintained as a mirage they hide behind. And whenever you see an ad for a government owned car company or Medicare supported drug company, that is the support of the broadcasting industry which otherwise would be broke already. But I digress. Again.
*
I advocate junk land as a cheap legal squat so that during the financial collapse you won’t be harassed by Johnny Law. And hopefully it will also hide you from most of the city HORDE ( please note correct spelling ). But, alas, a lot of you think a thousand bucks is too much to pay for a lifetime of security for shelter. Some of you think it’s a great idea but live in some overcrowded craphole were there is no cheap land nearby. If you live out West there is always the possibility of BLM squatting. Check to verify, but I believe it is two weeks in one spot and then you must move at least twenty miles away. Of course, the only problem there is needing a reliable vehicle and for gasoline to stay affordable forever. Well, that plus if you are a witness to cattle mutations by CIA sponsored UFO’s you might get disappeared. Anyone can do the tarp and camping routine, but it is far from ideal except under emergency situations. The suggested camping at a buddies is, as I said, perhaps too obvious, but let’s talk about it in case you never gave it much thought.
*
This isn’t much cheaper than buying junk land because you must bribe your buddy for a camping spot. You provide the food, guns, ammo and whatever and you have a place to stay during the collapse. Of course, even if it is no cheaper, there is the benefit of having more people you trust besides you. Obviously, his land needs to be mortgage free or you might as well just plan on having him come along camping. But that is what you should be trying to avoid because come the collapse, a hundred million idiots are trying to camp out in the pathetically small mountain chains of New York and the South. I give it a month and they are all eating each other. I think the biggest thing that would trip you up, as our helpful minion suggested, is the buddies spouse not being on board. You can’t just make the arrangement with him without bribing her. First, she would feel ganged up on and make your life hell and second, piss her off and it would take a week without sex and your buddy would turn on you. Think Lucifer’s Hammer and the assistant at the astronomy observatory.
*
Whatever you decide to do, don’t wait forever to do it. It takes time to cultivate a relationship, and you must buy the supplies. Here is a great time to buy just the bare minimum of grain and beans. Hey, you promised a year supply of food, you didn’t say it would be freeze dried and canned ( same with the surplus bolt action ). But why listen to me? Keep donking around, the water, oil and fertile soil will last through another six billion people, right?
END
Every time I mention Peak Oil and impending doom, you would all argue with me about how the oil will last forever because, well, we want it to. I would refute your flimsy arguments with hard logic and facts. This embarrassed you and so now every time I mention it you just ignore the issue. Hey, you’re Bison Loyal Minions, I expect you to be smart enough to learn and adapt. Congratulations. But I keep trying. Here’s an article by persons more professional than myself telling you the same thing. I swiped the link from Survival Acres. http://dailyreckoning.com/the-truth-about-energy/
*
A minion wrote and asked about bunking over with a buddy during the collapse. He felt he might be asking the obvious, but I think a lot of what we don’t think about is obvious. We have a lot going on, a lot distracting us. Heck, most of the distractions are on purpose from the asshats in power. The whole issue of politics is a smokescreen to hide the bankers looting the system. I used to think Democrats and Republicans being in power was important. Yet, whichever party wins, the same old policies are pursued. Look at Baby Bush and Obammy. The only difference between the two is one has a better tan than the other. TV is a great distraction, as is sports. Whenever you see an ad for GM or look at the high school budget for sports, that is the government throwing paid distractions our way. I can’t believe they are supporting the football team and cutting music/art/science/computer classes, you fume. To them, it is a great investment. The entire structure of sports must be maintained as a mirage they hide behind. And whenever you see an ad for a government owned car company or Medicare supported drug company, that is the support of the broadcasting industry which otherwise would be broke already. But I digress. Again.
*
I advocate junk land as a cheap legal squat so that during the financial collapse you won’t be harassed by Johnny Law. And hopefully it will also hide you from most of the city HORDE ( please note correct spelling ). But, alas, a lot of you think a thousand bucks is too much to pay for a lifetime of security for shelter. Some of you think it’s a great idea but live in some overcrowded craphole were there is no cheap land nearby. If you live out West there is always the possibility of BLM squatting. Check to verify, but I believe it is two weeks in one spot and then you must move at least twenty miles away. Of course, the only problem there is needing a reliable vehicle and for gasoline to stay affordable forever. Well, that plus if you are a witness to cattle mutations by CIA sponsored UFO’s you might get disappeared. Anyone can do the tarp and camping routine, but it is far from ideal except under emergency situations. The suggested camping at a buddies is, as I said, perhaps too obvious, but let’s talk about it in case you never gave it much thought.
*
This isn’t much cheaper than buying junk land because you must bribe your buddy for a camping spot. You provide the food, guns, ammo and whatever and you have a place to stay during the collapse. Of course, even if it is no cheaper, there is the benefit of having more people you trust besides you. Obviously, his land needs to be mortgage free or you might as well just plan on having him come along camping. But that is what you should be trying to avoid because come the collapse, a hundred million idiots are trying to camp out in the pathetically small mountain chains of New York and the South. I give it a month and they are all eating each other. I think the biggest thing that would trip you up, as our helpful minion suggested, is the buddies spouse not being on board. You can’t just make the arrangement with him without bribing her. First, she would feel ganged up on and make your life hell and second, piss her off and it would take a week without sex and your buddy would turn on you. Think Lucifer’s Hammer and the assistant at the astronomy observatory.
*
Whatever you decide to do, don’t wait forever to do it. It takes time to cultivate a relationship, and you must buy the supplies. Here is a great time to buy just the bare minimum of grain and beans. Hey, you promised a year supply of food, you didn’t say it would be freeze dried and canned ( same with the surplus bolt action ). But why listen to me? Keep donking around, the water, oil and fertile soil will last through another six billion people, right?
END
Monday, October 26, 2009
mumble, barnyard flu, babble
MUMBLE,BARNYARD FLU,BABBLE
Silver Loyal Minion, I got your care package today, thank you very much. Okay, a loyal minion inquiry into flu avoidance coupled with the Black Knights emergency proclamation over the weekend added to yet more great news on the oil front has provoked today’s article. All Knowing And Great Bison Leader, a minion e-mail began ( okay, it might have been addressed Dear Asshat, but my memory is a bit hazy on this point ), what are your thoughts on avoiding the flu? Well, I’ve already covered this, but I’m cutting you a break here because I assume you are a new minion. I offend several a day and they leave in a huff, only to be replaced by other suckers, I mean new readers. Hey, just because you draw Social Security doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I just feel like I need to point out the flaws in your revenue stream. As I’ve said, indirectly through grants, I’m on minimum wage government pay. I know I’m casting stones in a glass house. Anyway, since you can’t be expected to go back and read hundreds of thousands of words of my wisdom/drivel, here is another one thousand word article condensed down into a sentence. Mega-dose on vitamin C. The trick is, you can’t wait until the last minute. Taking vitamin C as the flu breaks out is a waste of time and money. You need to build up the dosage in your system, and give your system time to build up the immunity.
*
I’m sure there is some other vitamin you are supposed to take along with it to increase its effectiveness. I’m sure someone will share that with us. I take my 3k mg of C a day and I have for years. I might catch everybody else’s crud but it is in an abbreviated form. Not enough to put me in bed, just enough to make me wish I could hurt the carrier. I’m not sure how long it took me to build up the vitamin. I do know that when I started taken that crap for your prostate ( ginko something, I think ) it took six months of ingesting before I didn’t get up as often to pee at night. The point is, don’t wait. Start mega-dosing now. If you feel time is of the essence, you might think about the oral spray rather than the pills. I know the pill form is not very efficient, most is wasted. Some claim that the spray is ingested better, but I can’t say for sure. You do want to stock up now. This second, without delay. Once this man made flu starts in earnest, you won’t find any C in any store. The stocks will be immediately wiped out.
*
Why do I include His Muslim Highness in this equation? Or the ramblings of www.americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com ? Simple. If you go over to that site, as I keep trying to tell you, you will find that we are coming up on three years of oil import depletion. Eight percent each the first two years and this year we are going on 9% ( if the trend continues, which it should ). 70% of our oil is imported. A lot of that isn’t even real oil anymore ( tar sands ). Gulf Of Mexico wells get capped because they aren’t paying for themselves, even at $70 a barrel. Oil decline is accelerating. It is no longer a blip on the radar but a fact of life. It isn’t going away. There is a double trend of decreasing production and import country domestic population increase. Hell, even James Bond is mentioning the decrease in oil. Peak Oil has entered the popular entertainment lexicon. Yet, you all live your lives as if nothing bad will happen. No mass grain stockpiles, still living in the city as if your job and mortgage will be around in thirty years.
*
If the oil decline started years ago, which turned into a Greater Depression with just a few percent decrease in supply ( remember, continued energy growth equals continued economic growth ), how do you think things are going to look like when serious declines take place? Forget crap like one world government ( impossible with energy contraction ), the problem now is simple survival. Our government will attempt to survive as long as possible ( ultimately futile, but they can’t stop trying ). A great way to start is by killing us off before the food and oil is gone. Do not get the Barnyard Flu vaccine. Either the flu was manufactured, or the vaccine is poison, or the threat is an excuse to declare martial law, or a combination thereof. I would play it safe and avoid the vaccine ( I can’t believe the number of idiots lining up to get the “free” shot. I could wrap a turd in Christmas paper and have a line of people as long as it was free. I could even advertise what it actually was, as long as I included the word “free” ). Am I overreacting? Most likely. But the point is that something soon will be done, something bad. You can deny depletion and coming scarcity, our leaders will not. Guaranteed.
END
Buy My Crap At www.bisonpress.com or go there for my mailing address to send canned bacon, silver, etc.
Silver Loyal Minion, I got your care package today, thank you very much. Okay, a loyal minion inquiry into flu avoidance coupled with the Black Knights emergency proclamation over the weekend added to yet more great news on the oil front has provoked today’s article. All Knowing And Great Bison Leader, a minion e-mail began ( okay, it might have been addressed Dear Asshat, but my memory is a bit hazy on this point ), what are your thoughts on avoiding the flu? Well, I’ve already covered this, but I’m cutting you a break here because I assume you are a new minion. I offend several a day and they leave in a huff, only to be replaced by other suckers, I mean new readers. Hey, just because you draw Social Security doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I just feel like I need to point out the flaws in your revenue stream. As I’ve said, indirectly through grants, I’m on minimum wage government pay. I know I’m casting stones in a glass house. Anyway, since you can’t be expected to go back and read hundreds of thousands of words of my wisdom/drivel, here is another one thousand word article condensed down into a sentence. Mega-dose on vitamin C. The trick is, you can’t wait until the last minute. Taking vitamin C as the flu breaks out is a waste of time and money. You need to build up the dosage in your system, and give your system time to build up the immunity.
*
I’m sure there is some other vitamin you are supposed to take along with it to increase its effectiveness. I’m sure someone will share that with us. I take my 3k mg of C a day and I have for years. I might catch everybody else’s crud but it is in an abbreviated form. Not enough to put me in bed, just enough to make me wish I could hurt the carrier. I’m not sure how long it took me to build up the vitamin. I do know that when I started taken that crap for your prostate ( ginko something, I think ) it took six months of ingesting before I didn’t get up as often to pee at night. The point is, don’t wait. Start mega-dosing now. If you feel time is of the essence, you might think about the oral spray rather than the pills. I know the pill form is not very efficient, most is wasted. Some claim that the spray is ingested better, but I can’t say for sure. You do want to stock up now. This second, without delay. Once this man made flu starts in earnest, you won’t find any C in any store. The stocks will be immediately wiped out.
*
Why do I include His Muslim Highness in this equation? Or the ramblings of www.americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com ? Simple. If you go over to that site, as I keep trying to tell you, you will find that we are coming up on three years of oil import depletion. Eight percent each the first two years and this year we are going on 9% ( if the trend continues, which it should ). 70% of our oil is imported. A lot of that isn’t even real oil anymore ( tar sands ). Gulf Of Mexico wells get capped because they aren’t paying for themselves, even at $70 a barrel. Oil decline is accelerating. It is no longer a blip on the radar but a fact of life. It isn’t going away. There is a double trend of decreasing production and import country domestic population increase. Hell, even James Bond is mentioning the decrease in oil. Peak Oil has entered the popular entertainment lexicon. Yet, you all live your lives as if nothing bad will happen. No mass grain stockpiles, still living in the city as if your job and mortgage will be around in thirty years.
*
If the oil decline started years ago, which turned into a Greater Depression with just a few percent decrease in supply ( remember, continued energy growth equals continued economic growth ), how do you think things are going to look like when serious declines take place? Forget crap like one world government ( impossible with energy contraction ), the problem now is simple survival. Our government will attempt to survive as long as possible ( ultimately futile, but they can’t stop trying ). A great way to start is by killing us off before the food and oil is gone. Do not get the Barnyard Flu vaccine. Either the flu was manufactured, or the vaccine is poison, or the threat is an excuse to declare martial law, or a combination thereof. I would play it safe and avoid the vaccine ( I can’t believe the number of idiots lining up to get the “free” shot. I could wrap a turd in Christmas paper and have a line of people as long as it was free. I could even advertise what it actually was, as long as I included the word “free” ). Am I overreacting? Most likely. But the point is that something soon will be done, something bad. You can deny depletion and coming scarcity, our leaders will not. Guaranteed.
END
Buy My Crap At www.bisonpress.com or go there for my mailing address to send canned bacon, silver, etc.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
guest article
GUEST ARTICLE
A DATE WITH DOOM
Who knows when Doom is going to pay you a visit? And will it be just you, your employer, the town, the U.S., or even bigger? It’s not like you’re going to get a letter in the mail requesting the honour of your presence, Sunday, 4pm, wear formal attire. But let’s pretend. Let’s choose a U.S.-wide date with Doom. EMP, crop failures, dollar collapse, name your poison. Be semi-real though, golden hordes are OK, zombies are not. Oh, and somehow you did receive credible warning, Doom will hit Monday morning, about coffee break time.
Our regional one-stop grocery store constantly advertises, “What’s On Your List Today?” So, for your Date With Doom, are you fully ready? What’s on your list? And I don’t mean simply what do you need to spend money on. (But hey, feel free, use Jim’s buymycrap link. )
Information
Is there anything you need to print out from Instructables, other web sites? Books that you need to read and/or buy? Notebooks to be assembled, bookshelves to organize?
Warm Fuzzies
Have you visited with your neighbors recently? Traded for squash, offered to pet sit? And for your religion, have you done anything to support the fellowship? How about your family? Does everybody know that if they lose their jobs, they do not have to commit suicide, there are cookies waiting at home for them?
Food, Water
How is your pantry looking? Garden? And your stash of seeds, fertilizer? Is it time to gather up leaves, make compost? Do you have enough to make it through your particular doom scenario?
Security
I’ve read your comments, you all have guns & ammo skills, let’s just agree that you’re covered. But can you arrange to have someone home most of the day, holding down the fort? Is Fifi willing to tear a chunk out of your local burglar? How are your locks? Does your house broadcast, “Rob me first!”? Is your car secure? Do you have any qualms about swinging a 2X 4 when necessary?
Mind & Body
Are you in reasonably good shape? Have a decent supply of remedies? If you suddenly have to stay home, do you have enough projects to keep you busy? Or know someone who does? What are you going to do for entertainment?
Heat, Lights, Rent, Transportation
Well, there’s nothing like a well-insulated trailer in the desert, with reasonable payments.
And of course there are more categories. So. Pretend our date with doom is next Monday. What’s on your list today?
A DATE WITH DOOM
Who knows when Doom is going to pay you a visit? And will it be just you, your employer, the town, the U.S., or even bigger? It’s not like you’re going to get a letter in the mail requesting the honour of your presence, Sunday, 4pm, wear formal attire. But let’s pretend. Let’s choose a U.S.-wide date with Doom. EMP, crop failures, dollar collapse, name your poison. Be semi-real though, golden hordes are OK, zombies are not. Oh, and somehow you did receive credible warning, Doom will hit Monday morning, about coffee break time.
Our regional one-stop grocery store constantly advertises, “What’s On Your List Today?” So, for your Date With Doom, are you fully ready? What’s on your list? And I don’t mean simply what do you need to spend money on. (But hey, feel free, use Jim’s buymycrap link. )
Information
Is there anything you need to print out from Instructables, other web sites? Books that you need to read and/or buy? Notebooks to be assembled, bookshelves to organize?
Warm Fuzzies
Have you visited with your neighbors recently? Traded for squash, offered to pet sit? And for your religion, have you done anything to support the fellowship? How about your family? Does everybody know that if they lose their jobs, they do not have to commit suicide, there are cookies waiting at home for them?
Food, Water
How is your pantry looking? Garden? And your stash of seeds, fertilizer? Is it time to gather up leaves, make compost? Do you have enough to make it through your particular doom scenario?
Security
I’ve read your comments, you all have guns & ammo skills, let’s just agree that you’re covered. But can you arrange to have someone home most of the day, holding down the fort? Is Fifi willing to tear a chunk out of your local burglar? How are your locks? Does your house broadcast, “Rob me first!”? Is your car secure? Do you have any qualms about swinging a 2X 4 when necessary?
Mind & Body
Are you in reasonably good shape? Have a decent supply of remedies? If you suddenly have to stay home, do you have enough projects to keep you busy? Or know someone who does? What are you going to do for entertainment?
Heat, Lights, Rent, Transportation
Well, there’s nothing like a well-insulated trailer in the desert, with reasonable payments.
And of course there are more categories. So. Pretend our date with doom is next Monday. What’s on your list today?
Friday, October 23, 2009
jail threat
JAIL THREAT
Before I forget, there will be yet another guest article tomorrow. Don’t think it’s easy getting free labor like this. Last week I had to beg, this week I had to play the “who’s my bitch” game just to get the article submitted. The things I do for my loyal minions. Some of you show your appreciation with bribes, gifts and outright payoffs. I’ve now gotten canned bacon, cold weather gear, dried fruit, books and recently silver. The only thing left is any 303 British brass, but I’ll settle for 38 if it’s all you got. Today I would like to talk about the newest subject being discussed, nearby prisons. Actually, it’s the newest oldest thing, but let’s face the sad truth here. Most of the survival topics were well covered decades ago. We are all pretty much just beating dead horses here. But what else could we possibly have to do until the collapse? Speaking of which, the newest figures as reported at www.americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com for import decline is 9.1%. Oh, look at that, golly gee, the declines continue. 70% of our energy is imported, that is declining year after year, and the decline is increasing. But nothing to see here, move along, no need to panic, we’ll all run our cars on electricity we get from natural gas, ah, coal, no, ah, what hasn’t started to run out yet?
*
The conventional wisdom is that living near a prison is the equivalent of a nuclear missile silo upwind, a toxic waste dump over the aquifer or a lesbian nude beach on the other side of the fence ( if you think lesbians are like the girl on girl porno films, you need to go to one of their bars- they got some nasty looking bull dykes waiting to kick your pasty hetro ass ). Here is the reasoning. Big and bad evil dudes are locked up by the government and if they ever get out you are going to be skinned alive and then sodomized. I’m just as guilty as the next guy, thinking I didn’t want to live near any of the prisons, just in case. Who wants to get sodomized ( other than the aforementioned lesbians, and then only with synthetic members rather than biological ones, or with tongues )? But let’s think about this for a second. More than likely, you live in an urban area. Cities have the same per capita crime rate as the rural areas, more or less with the crack epidemic, but they suffer from having all those criminals in a concentrated area. If you doubt the effect of concentration, compare battery acid straight from the case as opposed to in a barrel of water.
*
Here is my point. If the rate of crimes solved is low, with the corresponding rate of incarceration resulting in something like single digit percentage of criminals ending up behind bars, why are you fearing prisoners rather than free criminals? There are more bad people out free and able to strike at you than there are bad people in prison. I don’t remember the exact figures, but I think the number of criminals caught was something like twenty percent. Of those, the number that ended up in prison were a fraction. And so something like 9% of all crimes ended up in a prison sentence ( I’m going by imperfect memory here, forgive me if I’m way off). Some of that is the criminalization of drugs which might consist of some non-violent crime and thus skew the figures, but I think a lot is simple lack of law enforcement resources ( we spend a lot to do a little at all levels of government ) and the nature of the game. Unless you have a police state with 100% citizen reporting of all activity, how can you hope to catch the ones that don’t smoke a bowl and brag on what they did?
*
If you live in a city, with all its criminals still roaming free, why is that any safer than living near a prison? I think the whole line of reasoning fits in with government propaganda, how much safer they make us and what a great job they do keeping bad men away from us taxpayers. Stop…I’m dying here! I’m laughing so hard I’m going to beshat myself! The government helping us!!!
END
Before I forget, there will be yet another guest article tomorrow. Don’t think it’s easy getting free labor like this. Last week I had to beg, this week I had to play the “who’s my bitch” game just to get the article submitted. The things I do for my loyal minions. Some of you show your appreciation with bribes, gifts and outright payoffs. I’ve now gotten canned bacon, cold weather gear, dried fruit, books and recently silver. The only thing left is any 303 British brass, but I’ll settle for 38 if it’s all you got. Today I would like to talk about the newest subject being discussed, nearby prisons. Actually, it’s the newest oldest thing, but let’s face the sad truth here. Most of the survival topics were well covered decades ago. We are all pretty much just beating dead horses here. But what else could we possibly have to do until the collapse? Speaking of which, the newest figures as reported at www.americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com for import decline is 9.1%. Oh, look at that, golly gee, the declines continue. 70% of our energy is imported, that is declining year after year, and the decline is increasing. But nothing to see here, move along, no need to panic, we’ll all run our cars on electricity we get from natural gas, ah, coal, no, ah, what hasn’t started to run out yet?
*
The conventional wisdom is that living near a prison is the equivalent of a nuclear missile silo upwind, a toxic waste dump over the aquifer or a lesbian nude beach on the other side of the fence ( if you think lesbians are like the girl on girl porno films, you need to go to one of their bars- they got some nasty looking bull dykes waiting to kick your pasty hetro ass ). Here is the reasoning. Big and bad evil dudes are locked up by the government and if they ever get out you are going to be skinned alive and then sodomized. I’m just as guilty as the next guy, thinking I didn’t want to live near any of the prisons, just in case. Who wants to get sodomized ( other than the aforementioned lesbians, and then only with synthetic members rather than biological ones, or with tongues )? But let’s think about this for a second. More than likely, you live in an urban area. Cities have the same per capita crime rate as the rural areas, more or less with the crack epidemic, but they suffer from having all those criminals in a concentrated area. If you doubt the effect of concentration, compare battery acid straight from the case as opposed to in a barrel of water.
*
Here is my point. If the rate of crimes solved is low, with the corresponding rate of incarceration resulting in something like single digit percentage of criminals ending up behind bars, why are you fearing prisoners rather than free criminals? There are more bad people out free and able to strike at you than there are bad people in prison. I don’t remember the exact figures, but I think the number of criminals caught was something like twenty percent. Of those, the number that ended up in prison were a fraction. And so something like 9% of all crimes ended up in a prison sentence ( I’m going by imperfect memory here, forgive me if I’m way off). Some of that is the criminalization of drugs which might consist of some non-violent crime and thus skew the figures, but I think a lot is simple lack of law enforcement resources ( we spend a lot to do a little at all levels of government ) and the nature of the game. Unless you have a police state with 100% citizen reporting of all activity, how can you hope to catch the ones that don’t smoke a bowl and brag on what they did?
*
If you live in a city, with all its criminals still roaming free, why is that any safer than living near a prison? I think the whole line of reasoning fits in with government propaganda, how much safer they make us and what a great job they do keeping bad men away from us taxpayers. Stop…I’m dying here! I’m laughing so hard I’m going to beshat myself! The government helping us!!!
END
Thursday, October 22, 2009
aint your daddys starving mob
AINT YOUR DADDYS STARVING MOB
I thought that I’d briefly return to the subject of the vast hoards of well meaning but uneducated people who consider themselves religious and moral either taking your food by force through proxies such as government or directly through mob action. Because it’s for the children. Their children. Your children don’t count, obviously. When their dear little once well fed rugrat starts crying for food those mouth breathing slack jawed drooling scum sucking dillholes will think nothing of killing you and taking your food you worked so hard to acquire, thus killing you and your children. That is why I’m all for high powered rifle fire cutting down their ranks without thought or concern. It is either you or them. One of you is going to die, so it might as well be them. Three years old, eighty years old, a 23 year old hottie with double D’s. Kill them all and let Baby Jesus worry about their souls ( may they be damned for all eternity for trying to kill you ). If some cute little puke comes knocking at the door and the wife wants to let him in, you need a quick smack down on her stupid ass. That is where being a nutless sniveling man-whore in the marriage gets you in trouble. When you say NO, it means you know what the hell you are doing and she is a clueless twit. She needs to listen.
*
Now, the question arises as to the validity of your fear and paranoia. After all, history has shown that starving mobs pillaging the countryside usually doesn’t happen. The norm is for folks to slowly wither away and then be too feeble to do much of anything, certainly not forcibly take anything away from anyone. With a few notable exceptions such as the French Revolution ( let the bitches eat cake ), nobility usually got a free pass from the peasants. There is a certain validity to this view. Hungry people usually have the common courtesy to die without bothering their betters. But let me say one word in warning. Crazy African Bitches Hacking Each Other Up With Machetes. That conflict was not about anything other than decreasing farmland for an expanding population. Plenty of energy left to kill each other, because they didn’t wait to get hungry and weak. They most likely saw the same TV shows with those nasty bloated dudes sitting around with fly encrusted eyeballs that we did and decided that there was no way they were going to wait for Sally Struthers to get her fat ass in gear and ask for donations of corn gruel to feed them after they had all died off. Better to go preemptive and start forcibly taking eaters out of the equation.
*
Now, I can already hear you bleating in the background, but Jim, we ain’t no stinking Third World peasants that need to kill each other or starve. We are America ( cue in patriotic music that brings to mind killing off unpatriotic Confederates who wouldn’t voluntarily die off for the northern industrialists ) and will feed the world for as long as the buffalo roam and the wind blows. Oops! Those puppies were already killed off and the only wind blowing is from Al Gores ass. Warm air ( okay, I know, a hundred thousand comedians out of work… ). I hope everyone realizes our soil is pretty much all depleted of nutrients and totally dependant on imported energy to produce. Now what does that remind me of? I know, friggin Rome before their collapse. But enough about our high probability of mass die off that no one wants to hear about. The point is that our future will be Rwanda, nor Ireland.
*
The Irish starved quickly and for the most part quietly. I’m sure the literal overnight destruction of the potato crop allowing no warning had something to do with it. Hmm. Overnight destruction of food supply…oil being cutoff from the middle east, atmospheric EMP attack…manufactured Barnyard Flu through vaccines…No, absolutely no way that could happen to us. Yet when it does, there are two reasons Americans will slaughter each other for the remaining food supplies rather than wait until they are weak and sickly. One, most have so much blubber on them that they can go weeks without eating and still have plenty of energy left. Two, we are all so spoiled and with a feeling of entitlement ( I’ll be good and won’t mention Social Security ). We will quickly turn vicious and kill each other for what we are entitled to. We deserve others to support us. Even if we feel all independent and Daniel Boon-like, it will be for the children. It takes a village. Well, an unarmed village anyway.
END
Buy My Crap, unworthy ones! www.bisonpress.com
I thought that I’d briefly return to the subject of the vast hoards of well meaning but uneducated people who consider themselves religious and moral either taking your food by force through proxies such as government or directly through mob action. Because it’s for the children. Their children. Your children don’t count, obviously. When their dear little once well fed rugrat starts crying for food those mouth breathing slack jawed drooling scum sucking dillholes will think nothing of killing you and taking your food you worked so hard to acquire, thus killing you and your children. That is why I’m all for high powered rifle fire cutting down their ranks without thought or concern. It is either you or them. One of you is going to die, so it might as well be them. Three years old, eighty years old, a 23 year old hottie with double D’s. Kill them all and let Baby Jesus worry about their souls ( may they be damned for all eternity for trying to kill you ). If some cute little puke comes knocking at the door and the wife wants to let him in, you need a quick smack down on her stupid ass. That is where being a nutless sniveling man-whore in the marriage gets you in trouble. When you say NO, it means you know what the hell you are doing and she is a clueless twit. She needs to listen.
*
Now, the question arises as to the validity of your fear and paranoia. After all, history has shown that starving mobs pillaging the countryside usually doesn’t happen. The norm is for folks to slowly wither away and then be too feeble to do much of anything, certainly not forcibly take anything away from anyone. With a few notable exceptions such as the French Revolution ( let the bitches eat cake ), nobility usually got a free pass from the peasants. There is a certain validity to this view. Hungry people usually have the common courtesy to die without bothering their betters. But let me say one word in warning. Crazy African Bitches Hacking Each Other Up With Machetes. That conflict was not about anything other than decreasing farmland for an expanding population. Plenty of energy left to kill each other, because they didn’t wait to get hungry and weak. They most likely saw the same TV shows with those nasty bloated dudes sitting around with fly encrusted eyeballs that we did and decided that there was no way they were going to wait for Sally Struthers to get her fat ass in gear and ask for donations of corn gruel to feed them after they had all died off. Better to go preemptive and start forcibly taking eaters out of the equation.
*
Now, I can already hear you bleating in the background, but Jim, we ain’t no stinking Third World peasants that need to kill each other or starve. We are America ( cue in patriotic music that brings to mind killing off unpatriotic Confederates who wouldn’t voluntarily die off for the northern industrialists ) and will feed the world for as long as the buffalo roam and the wind blows. Oops! Those puppies were already killed off and the only wind blowing is from Al Gores ass. Warm air ( okay, I know, a hundred thousand comedians out of work… ). I hope everyone realizes our soil is pretty much all depleted of nutrients and totally dependant on imported energy to produce. Now what does that remind me of? I know, friggin Rome before their collapse. But enough about our high probability of mass die off that no one wants to hear about. The point is that our future will be Rwanda, nor Ireland.
*
The Irish starved quickly and for the most part quietly. I’m sure the literal overnight destruction of the potato crop allowing no warning had something to do with it. Hmm. Overnight destruction of food supply…oil being cutoff from the middle east, atmospheric EMP attack…manufactured Barnyard Flu through vaccines…No, absolutely no way that could happen to us. Yet when it does, there are two reasons Americans will slaughter each other for the remaining food supplies rather than wait until they are weak and sickly. One, most have so much blubber on them that they can go weeks without eating and still have plenty of energy left. Two, we are all so spoiled and with a feeling of entitlement ( I’ll be good and won’t mention Social Security ). We will quickly turn vicious and kill each other for what we are entitled to. We deserve others to support us. Even if we feel all independent and Daniel Boon-like, it will be for the children. It takes a village. Well, an unarmed village anyway.
END
Buy My Crap, unworthy ones! www.bisonpress.com
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
storage
STORAGE
Thanks to the big To-Do over at www.survivalblog.com on commercial storage units, I feel compelled to throw in my unsolicited advice on the subject. Hey, do I put a gun to your head demanding you send me funds to continue publishing ( BTW, Sam, I know you said I shouldn’t mention it, but I got your snail mail donation- I love you man! )? No. You foolishly do that on your own ( cash preferred, but will gladly except canned bacon, 303 Brit brass, silver or books ). So in effect, you are paying me to abuse you. Suckers. On a related note, you can now officially buy my post-apocalypse movie review book through the link at www.bisonpress.com. I took the 120 recommended movies over at Wiki, discarded half as having no real connection to the genre, watched 61 movies and reviewed 38 of them. The one third I didn’t review were either really horrid or had nothing to do with post-apocalypse. Some I reviewed had the same flaw, but were either good to watch or so bad I had to warn you off. “The Happening”, not post-apoc, got reviewed. “Cyborg”, only post-apoc in plot structure but in reality being nothing more than chop-suey set in the future ( and a very improbable future where the ammo had run out but someone had the resources to construct a high tech cyborg for little apparent reason ), was not reviewed. Hey, it’s all subjective. And, no, I didn’t make a list of the good ones. Buy the damn book.
*
First, other than the money issue, I never had a problem with a commercial storage unit. The summer I lived in the Hippy Bread Van in the driveway of my stepdaughter, I rented a unit across the street ( literally ). It was the standard 10x5 metal box, but it did have fiberglass batt insulation on the ceiling. It stayed nice and cool in there just with that single layer of insulation held up by chicken wire. At least compared to the outside. The van was 110, the outside was 95. It was actually a relief to go get something out of the storage unit. I put in one pallet and had plenty of room for all my bulk grains plus all the normal household crap such as books ( I never own furniture, it comes with any trailer ). I wouldn’t hesitate to do that again if I had to. Now, granted, being across the street is far better than clear across town or several states away. But even then, I don’t think it is a fatally flawed plan. I don’t think storage units are the first place to get picked clean during a collapse. And even if yours doesn’t come with insulation, you could jerry rig something.
*
Forget about needing to relocate problems. You know I don’t think highly of the idea. I worried enough about relocating just 300 miles that I moved to Elko. Cold weather, long commute, living primitive, less pay, all are better than worrying about Barnyard Flu or war in Iran shutting down the ability to travel. Being at your collapse community is peace of mind. So, whether you have commercial storage because you have no room at home or if you are going to attempt to bug out, even if I don’t like the idea, let’s just focus on the storage idea rather than the reason for it. Several prime targets for criminals, mobs and Yuppie Suburban scum are Wal-Mart, Costco, the gun shop or National Guard armory. Eventually they will get around to the feed store. Far down the list is the library ( I think you should prioritize the last two for best results/least danger ). Even farther than that is storage units. Yes, they will eventually be looted, but the most common item in a storage unit is most likely a damaged particle board entertainment unit or sagging ripped couch. Regardless of the actually number of food items or firearms, I think the average member of the Golden Hoard is going to envision rooms full of damaged household furniture.
*
As far as being too hot, rent yourself a unit with insulation. Not climate controlled. My God, people, it’s a few years of slightly elevated heat, not a lifetime next to a spewing volcano. How long do you actually think we have before renting a storage unit is going to be as quaint as driving an SUV or ordering on line? Your food won’t be in there that long. If you must, spend $30 and slap up a sheet of rigid insulation held up with silicone. Just don’t ask permission. You’re improving, not destroying, but just bypass rules and regulations and asking pretty please. And don’t let them know what you are storing. Just say books and dishes.
*
My point? Commercial storage can be a good place for supplies. No, it’s not 100% safe. Neither is your home. Fire, theft, etc. Half at home and half at a unit might not be a bad idea. Hell, I spend $50 a month for insurance and registration on the truck and trailer, just in case I suddenly need to legally move. Insurance is never really about the true money worth, it’s about the worth of peace of mind.
END
Thanks to the big To-Do over at www.survivalblog.com on commercial storage units, I feel compelled to throw in my unsolicited advice on the subject. Hey, do I put a gun to your head demanding you send me funds to continue publishing ( BTW, Sam, I know you said I shouldn’t mention it, but I got your snail mail donation- I love you man! )? No. You foolishly do that on your own ( cash preferred, but will gladly except canned bacon, 303 Brit brass, silver or books ). So in effect, you are paying me to abuse you. Suckers. On a related note, you can now officially buy my post-apocalypse movie review book through the link at www.bisonpress.com. I took the 120 recommended movies over at Wiki, discarded half as having no real connection to the genre, watched 61 movies and reviewed 38 of them. The one third I didn’t review were either really horrid or had nothing to do with post-apocalypse. Some I reviewed had the same flaw, but were either good to watch or so bad I had to warn you off. “The Happening”, not post-apoc, got reviewed. “Cyborg”, only post-apoc in plot structure but in reality being nothing more than chop-suey set in the future ( and a very improbable future where the ammo had run out but someone had the resources to construct a high tech cyborg for little apparent reason ), was not reviewed. Hey, it’s all subjective. And, no, I didn’t make a list of the good ones. Buy the damn book.
*
First, other than the money issue, I never had a problem with a commercial storage unit. The summer I lived in the Hippy Bread Van in the driveway of my stepdaughter, I rented a unit across the street ( literally ). It was the standard 10x5 metal box, but it did have fiberglass batt insulation on the ceiling. It stayed nice and cool in there just with that single layer of insulation held up by chicken wire. At least compared to the outside. The van was 110, the outside was 95. It was actually a relief to go get something out of the storage unit. I put in one pallet and had plenty of room for all my bulk grains plus all the normal household crap such as books ( I never own furniture, it comes with any trailer ). I wouldn’t hesitate to do that again if I had to. Now, granted, being across the street is far better than clear across town or several states away. But even then, I don’t think it is a fatally flawed plan. I don’t think storage units are the first place to get picked clean during a collapse. And even if yours doesn’t come with insulation, you could jerry rig something.
*
Forget about needing to relocate problems. You know I don’t think highly of the idea. I worried enough about relocating just 300 miles that I moved to Elko. Cold weather, long commute, living primitive, less pay, all are better than worrying about Barnyard Flu or war in Iran shutting down the ability to travel. Being at your collapse community is peace of mind. So, whether you have commercial storage because you have no room at home or if you are going to attempt to bug out, even if I don’t like the idea, let’s just focus on the storage idea rather than the reason for it. Several prime targets for criminals, mobs and Yuppie Suburban scum are Wal-Mart, Costco, the gun shop or National Guard armory. Eventually they will get around to the feed store. Far down the list is the library ( I think you should prioritize the last two for best results/least danger ). Even farther than that is storage units. Yes, they will eventually be looted, but the most common item in a storage unit is most likely a damaged particle board entertainment unit or sagging ripped couch. Regardless of the actually number of food items or firearms, I think the average member of the Golden Hoard is going to envision rooms full of damaged household furniture.
*
As far as being too hot, rent yourself a unit with insulation. Not climate controlled. My God, people, it’s a few years of slightly elevated heat, not a lifetime next to a spewing volcano. How long do you actually think we have before renting a storage unit is going to be as quaint as driving an SUV or ordering on line? Your food won’t be in there that long. If you must, spend $30 and slap up a sheet of rigid insulation held up with silicone. Just don’t ask permission. You’re improving, not destroying, but just bypass rules and regulations and asking pretty please. And don’t let them know what you are storing. Just say books and dishes.
*
My point? Commercial storage can be a good place for supplies. No, it’s not 100% safe. Neither is your home. Fire, theft, etc. Half at home and half at a unit might not be a bad idea. Hell, I spend $50 a month for insurance and registration on the truck and trailer, just in case I suddenly need to legally move. Insurance is never really about the true money worth, it’s about the worth of peace of mind.
END
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
scary sheeple
SCARY SHEEPLE
A good trick the military uses to increase the effectiveness of their troops is to reduce the enemy to an equation. They are rendered less than human in order to make it easier to kill. Back in the day, it was pretty simple to get your troops to kill other people. They were used to a much harsher world, and killing didn’t hold so much of a taboo. You were a farm boy that killed animals all the time or you were at least exposed to death as a matter of course. Without antibiotics folks were keeling over all the time ( Bring out your dead!, Bring out your dead! ). Today, we have to all get along, everything is puppy dogs and rainbows. Some twice removed cousin we never met dies and everyone is running around all grieve stricken, calling a $200 an hour psychiatrist to offer counseling for the inevitable post-traumatic stress disorder. I’m not trivializing the death of your cousin, twice removed, from overdosing on crack ( okay, I might be ), just pointing out that we’ve held deaths reality too far away.
*
The survival movement has pretty much done the same thing, reducing the mindless hoards of sheeple to a less than human mob. By dehumanizing them it will be a lot easier to sit back on our stool by the firing slit, casually picking off their asses as we munch on a Slim Jim and congratulate ourselves on our food stockpile. Hey, I have absolutely no problem with that. I was pedeling my butt to work in the middle of winter, earning minimum wage, while they were waking up in central heat comfort, getting into their SUV and driving to their government job strip searching eighty year old women at the airport. I was able to set aside food for myself and the ball and chain. There is no way on Baby Jesus’ green earth I’m going to share any of that food with anyone else, especially those making five times my wages. If you are too stupid to protect yourself with incredibly cheap food/security insurance, you deserve to be removed from the gene pool.
*
However, we might be blinding ourselves somewhat. By making these slack jawed college educated idiots into something less than ourselves, something undeserving, yes, it does make it easier to kill them and put their choice cuts of flesh into the stewpot ( for the love of Pete, don’t eat the organs, but especially not the brains of bone marrow, if you want to decrease your chances of disease ), but we are fooling ourselves into how motivated and cunning they will be in stealing our food. Most of you are parents. Think back to when your first born popped out. I know it was the happiest day of my life. And it wasn’t even that. It went beyond mere happiness and was almost spiritual. This from a cynical callus bastard. It is really about the only time in your life you really feel that way. I’ll admit, the next kid was far more routine. Of course, at the time I was also still going on continuous sleep deprivation from the first Little Bison. They weren’t that far apart ( don’t think for a moment that the combination of female lactation and the withdrawal method always work ). And conversely, the worse day I ever had was when the kids left with their mother moving away for the first time. I bring this up for a reason.
*
Think about your own kid. Think about having no food for him/her. Think back about the day they were born, about how that made you feel. Now think about them starving. You would do anything to prevent that. I understand you all realize this. What I suggest is that you don’t continue to forget it, as applied to others. Unprepared people are just as human. I didn’t say that they shouldn’t be killed without hesitation ( can you tell I’m not into charity? ). But by forgetting they have the same feelings as you ( in order to make it easier to kill ), you might not prepare yourself sufficiently for their response. They aren’t slow shuffling zombies, but crafty shifty highly motivated hoards of vermin.
END
A good trick the military uses to increase the effectiveness of their troops is to reduce the enemy to an equation. They are rendered less than human in order to make it easier to kill. Back in the day, it was pretty simple to get your troops to kill other people. They were used to a much harsher world, and killing didn’t hold so much of a taboo. You were a farm boy that killed animals all the time or you were at least exposed to death as a matter of course. Without antibiotics folks were keeling over all the time ( Bring out your dead!, Bring out your dead! ). Today, we have to all get along, everything is puppy dogs and rainbows. Some twice removed cousin we never met dies and everyone is running around all grieve stricken, calling a $200 an hour psychiatrist to offer counseling for the inevitable post-traumatic stress disorder. I’m not trivializing the death of your cousin, twice removed, from overdosing on crack ( okay, I might be ), just pointing out that we’ve held deaths reality too far away.
*
The survival movement has pretty much done the same thing, reducing the mindless hoards of sheeple to a less than human mob. By dehumanizing them it will be a lot easier to sit back on our stool by the firing slit, casually picking off their asses as we munch on a Slim Jim and congratulate ourselves on our food stockpile. Hey, I have absolutely no problem with that. I was pedeling my butt to work in the middle of winter, earning minimum wage, while they were waking up in central heat comfort, getting into their SUV and driving to their government job strip searching eighty year old women at the airport. I was able to set aside food for myself and the ball and chain. There is no way on Baby Jesus’ green earth I’m going to share any of that food with anyone else, especially those making five times my wages. If you are too stupid to protect yourself with incredibly cheap food/security insurance, you deserve to be removed from the gene pool.
*
However, we might be blinding ourselves somewhat. By making these slack jawed college educated idiots into something less than ourselves, something undeserving, yes, it does make it easier to kill them and put their choice cuts of flesh into the stewpot ( for the love of Pete, don’t eat the organs, but especially not the brains of bone marrow, if you want to decrease your chances of disease ), but we are fooling ourselves into how motivated and cunning they will be in stealing our food. Most of you are parents. Think back to when your first born popped out. I know it was the happiest day of my life. And it wasn’t even that. It went beyond mere happiness and was almost spiritual. This from a cynical callus bastard. It is really about the only time in your life you really feel that way. I’ll admit, the next kid was far more routine. Of course, at the time I was also still going on continuous sleep deprivation from the first Little Bison. They weren’t that far apart ( don’t think for a moment that the combination of female lactation and the withdrawal method always work ). And conversely, the worse day I ever had was when the kids left with their mother moving away for the first time. I bring this up for a reason.
*
Think about your own kid. Think about having no food for him/her. Think back about the day they were born, about how that made you feel. Now think about them starving. You would do anything to prevent that. I understand you all realize this. What I suggest is that you don’t continue to forget it, as applied to others. Unprepared people are just as human. I didn’t say that they shouldn’t be killed without hesitation ( can you tell I’m not into charity? ). But by forgetting they have the same feelings as you ( in order to make it easier to kill ), you might not prepare yourself sufficiently for their response. They aren’t slow shuffling zombies, but crafty shifty highly motivated hoards of vermin.
END
Monday, October 19, 2009
survivalists and fear
SURVIVALISTS AND FEAR
Fear is good, paranoia is justified. We are going to end up in the stewpot, just hopefully after everyone else. Otherwise, buying Israeli surplus gas masks instead of going out to eat at the pizza buffet would be a waste. And by the way, I took #4 out to eat at the Last Honest Pizza buffet for her birthday and they pretty much sucked. Very doughy. Plus, they waited until the end rush to put out the good stuff on the salad bar like tomatoes and broccoli which really upset herself, hence upping the color threat level to red for me as I then had to tiptoe around for a half hour least she exploded in anger. I liked the salad bar, as I heaped on enough olives and cheese and bacon bits ( most likely little more than soy and food color with a secret ingredient to make it extra hard ) and dressing to wash down the rabbit food, but the pizza bar sucked. Only two kinds of pizza without veggies and as I said, doughy. And while I’m off subject, I watched the last post-apocalypse movie this weekend so the review book is on schedule to come out sometime this week. I keep telling you because I spent $100 renting all those damn DVD’s and need enough sales to at least pay for itself. Also, Wal-Mart.com is selling the new Stephen King hardback for a paltry $9. It looks vaguely survival orientated. Buy it, so hopefully they lose money on more sales.
*
More than likely, we survivalists are overly fearful. I’m sure that a lot of us carry some level of neurosis because of our fear. So friggin what. That is the price you pay to survive the collapse of western civilization as the Oil Age ends. There is no such thing as a free lunch and the price of preparedness is fear. Now, having said that, there are some downsides. One is the appearance of racism. Whether or not you actually have an issue with skin color isn’t really my concern. I think you are stupid if you do because more likely than not pigmentation is merely an environmental adaptation. Don’t let your fear and loathing of other tribes be confused with such an aversion of others because of a superficial difference. Look, the West sees an average of a quarter of the population being Latino. I have no problem with them, as they are Catholic and family orientated and hard working ( in general ). In short, a close fit with the blue collar protestant work ethic white population ( or at least the ideal of such ). I’m generalizing to point out the tribal nature versus the color issue. But…I’m not holding my breath. In a collapse, both sides will separate and be hostile with one another even if they can live together now.
*
A lot of survivalists are going to be racist, pure and simple. Although, any other skin color is apt to be the same. A lot are simply frightened of everybody. They hate and fear all, regardless of race. We can all pretend to love each other, but the simple fact is there will never be peace between the races. Because of that tribal difference. Tribes can be race segregated or economically separated, or whatever. Whites killed each other by the millions over oil sixty years ago. Blacks enslaved fellow blacks for profit three hundred years ago. People will always hate each other. Tribes are a survival mechanism. War is a survival mechanism. No, we can’t all get along. To my way of thinking, racism is a minor problem. It deflects from the main issue which is fear. Fear of the apocalypse. Fear of others.
*
Whitey can live secluded his whole life, never seeing a Black in person. And he will fear. But not because of skin. Because all other tribes are dangerous. More than likely, the person that kills and eats you will be the same skin color.
END
Fear is good, paranoia is justified. We are going to end up in the stewpot, just hopefully after everyone else. Otherwise, buying Israeli surplus gas masks instead of going out to eat at the pizza buffet would be a waste. And by the way, I took #4 out to eat at the Last Honest Pizza buffet for her birthday and they pretty much sucked. Very doughy. Plus, they waited until the end rush to put out the good stuff on the salad bar like tomatoes and broccoli which really upset herself, hence upping the color threat level to red for me as I then had to tiptoe around for a half hour least she exploded in anger. I liked the salad bar, as I heaped on enough olives and cheese and bacon bits ( most likely little more than soy and food color with a secret ingredient to make it extra hard ) and dressing to wash down the rabbit food, but the pizza bar sucked. Only two kinds of pizza without veggies and as I said, doughy. And while I’m off subject, I watched the last post-apocalypse movie this weekend so the review book is on schedule to come out sometime this week. I keep telling you because I spent $100 renting all those damn DVD’s and need enough sales to at least pay for itself. Also, Wal-Mart.com is selling the new Stephen King hardback for a paltry $9. It looks vaguely survival orientated. Buy it, so hopefully they lose money on more sales.
*
More than likely, we survivalists are overly fearful. I’m sure that a lot of us carry some level of neurosis because of our fear. So friggin what. That is the price you pay to survive the collapse of western civilization as the Oil Age ends. There is no such thing as a free lunch and the price of preparedness is fear. Now, having said that, there are some downsides. One is the appearance of racism. Whether or not you actually have an issue with skin color isn’t really my concern. I think you are stupid if you do because more likely than not pigmentation is merely an environmental adaptation. Don’t let your fear and loathing of other tribes be confused with such an aversion of others because of a superficial difference. Look, the West sees an average of a quarter of the population being Latino. I have no problem with them, as they are Catholic and family orientated and hard working ( in general ). In short, a close fit with the blue collar protestant work ethic white population ( or at least the ideal of such ). I’m generalizing to point out the tribal nature versus the color issue. But…I’m not holding my breath. In a collapse, both sides will separate and be hostile with one another even if they can live together now.
*
A lot of survivalists are going to be racist, pure and simple. Although, any other skin color is apt to be the same. A lot are simply frightened of everybody. They hate and fear all, regardless of race. We can all pretend to love each other, but the simple fact is there will never be peace between the races. Because of that tribal difference. Tribes can be race segregated or economically separated, or whatever. Whites killed each other by the millions over oil sixty years ago. Blacks enslaved fellow blacks for profit three hundred years ago. People will always hate each other. Tribes are a survival mechanism. War is a survival mechanism. No, we can’t all get along. To my way of thinking, racism is a minor problem. It deflects from the main issue which is fear. Fear of the apocalypse. Fear of others.
*
Whitey can live secluded his whole life, never seeing a Black in person. And he will fear. But not because of skin. Because all other tribes are dangerous. More than likely, the person that kills and eats you will be the same skin color.
END
Saturday, October 17, 2009
guest article
GUEST ARTICLE
Taking The Middle Road For Your Survival Pantry
My agenda:
For a lot of reasons, it would be good for all of us to have full pantries. Fewer MZB’s and starving children on your doorstep, easier for everyone if we store extra. More food, less need for ammo – think of all the money we’ll save. Imagine every one of your neighbors with a full pantry, the luxury to self-quarantine for swine flu, the cushion if someone goes unemployed. There’s some peace of mind in that.
So you read Jim’s post last Tuesday about the $7989 super deluxo food and survival package? Impressive, and when you take that high-cost road, you get 2440 calories per day for 4 people for 3 months. Plus the cool survival gear and water storage, of course.
And, at the other end of the spectrum, the low cost road, there’s Jim’s pantry, the Rubbermaid totes with wheat and rice, corn from the feed store, plus sacks of pinto beans in the pickup truck. Doesn’t get any cheaper than that, even if you grow your own. Sure, it deviates from the norm, but doomers and people with food storage are already aware of being “different”.
The $7989 package has its attraction – just charge the card, the cases show up, all you have to do is find storage space. Regrettably, my budget cannot even pretend to be upper class. Or even upper middle class, come to think of it. Oh well, maybe in my next life. On the other hand, I’m not comfortable doing the Jim Plan and wheelin’ on in to the parking lot at work with sacks of pinto beans in the passenger seat; I already give them enough to talk about. Some appearances must be maintained if I want to stay employed. Besides, it gets hot in that car in the summer, bad for shelf life.
So, I propose taking the middle road, the middle class road, which runs right through Costco and a few websites.
The following list is from Jack Spigarelli’s Crisis Preparedness Handbook, 7-Plus Basic Plan, to feed 4 people for 3 months. You’ll get 2600 calories and 100 grams of protein per person per day. Oh, and I don’t want to hear any shit about white sugar or Crisco, I don’t care how bad they are for you. They have excellent shelf lives. When it is time to eat dirt cookies, you’ll be glad to have these on hand. If you don’t use them and TSDNHTF, donate them to a food pantry. Yes, you’re going to do more food prep with this middle road than if you had the fancy freeze-dried just add boiling water food, but we’re saving the medium-big bucks here, it’ll be OK if you have to soak beans overnight, bake bread, and/or boil pasta.
The List:
Salt, 8 lbs.
Powdered milk, 60 lbs.
Oil, 2 gallons liquid
Shortening, 6 lbs
Sugar, 65 lbs
Grains, 375 lbs
Peas, Beans, 60 lbs
Vitamins, 1 per person per day
Leavening agents & spices
In keeping with the $7989 package, you want the luxury of just being able to buy the food. No pressure canners or food dehydrators required. You are still middle class, more or less, time is an issue, we want it all now. Most of these items you can get from a warehouse store like Costco, and your grocery store. Add in what your family likes to round out the menu – a case of spaghetti sauce, 3-4 cases of canned fruit, Jell-o, brownie mix, clam chowder, corn muffin mix, fancy Basmati rice, canned chicken or tuna, canned vegetables if anybody will eat them, mac n cheese, peanut butter, Pringles have a good long shelf life, better get some of those, brown sugar, vanilla, no sense suffering, god forbid you should run out of ketchup, you get the idea. You want to be storing meals. 2-3 mega shopping trips and you’re good. Or, make up a prioritized shopping list, and methodically add to your pantry every payday. If your family will eat it, don’t be afraid to buy a case of it. Keep the shelves full and the food rotated.
Specialty items to consider:
2 cases whey-based milk substitute, 60 lbs, $145 includes shipping from Honeyville Grains.
From survivalacres.com or beprepared.com (prices are from beprepared.com because the shipping costs are less location dependent, but do your shopping):
Superpails
1 white rice, $47
4 wheat (2 red, 2 white), $148
Superpails are good for set it and forget it, don’t bother to think about rotating that food for 20 years. #10 cans will work too. Do whatever works for your budget, your family size, and your storage space.
Empty food grade buckets, plus Gamma lids
Use your buckets to store your sugar, pinto beans, rice, flour, and oats if you chose any of those. Don’t be a dope with your food. Do a little reading about how to protect the grains and legumes from pests, understand how to freeze it for a few days, use diatomaceous earth, how long your flour will last before going stale, etc.
Water storage, you can do that on the cheap, or buy some cases of bottled water.
Cooking gear, fuel, you guys camp and barbecue, you know what to get.
The money:
You can do this middle road for under $800. $1000 and your family is WELL fed for three months with a good variety of food. You can cut costs by making up your own super pails with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, but that involves some extra work. If you go to your local LDS dry cannery, you can do three months of long shelf-life storage food for four, about 25 cases, for $650-ish, yes, some work there too. A few years back I was a Bad Person, took out a modest loan from my 401(k), divided it between survivalacres.com, the dry cannery, and Costco. Monthly payments were pretty affordable, and I got the satisfaction of having a large chunk of food storage DONE. As I paid the account back with interest, my portfolio performance was better than that of my peers. Mutual funds lost value, food inventory gained value. No regrets.
The results of taking the middle road:
A good variety of food, full shelves, enough to share with people who are having hard times. Knowing that when tough times arrive, you can keep your family fed? That’s a damn good feeling, and a worthwhile investment.
Taking The Middle Road For Your Survival Pantry
My agenda:
For a lot of reasons, it would be good for all of us to have full pantries. Fewer MZB’s and starving children on your doorstep, easier for everyone if we store extra. More food, less need for ammo – think of all the money we’ll save. Imagine every one of your neighbors with a full pantry, the luxury to self-quarantine for swine flu, the cushion if someone goes unemployed. There’s some peace of mind in that.
So you read Jim’s post last Tuesday about the $7989 super deluxo food and survival package? Impressive, and when you take that high-cost road, you get 2440 calories per day for 4 people for 3 months. Plus the cool survival gear and water storage, of course.
And, at the other end of the spectrum, the low cost road, there’s Jim’s pantry, the Rubbermaid totes with wheat and rice, corn from the feed store, plus sacks of pinto beans in the pickup truck. Doesn’t get any cheaper than that, even if you grow your own. Sure, it deviates from the norm, but doomers and people with food storage are already aware of being “different”.
The $7989 package has its attraction – just charge the card, the cases show up, all you have to do is find storage space. Regrettably, my budget cannot even pretend to be upper class. Or even upper middle class, come to think of it. Oh well, maybe in my next life. On the other hand, I’m not comfortable doing the Jim Plan and wheelin’ on in to the parking lot at work with sacks of pinto beans in the passenger seat; I already give them enough to talk about. Some appearances must be maintained if I want to stay employed. Besides, it gets hot in that car in the summer, bad for shelf life.
So, I propose taking the middle road, the middle class road, which runs right through Costco and a few websites.
The following list is from Jack Spigarelli’s Crisis Preparedness Handbook, 7-Plus Basic Plan, to feed 4 people for 3 months. You’ll get 2600 calories and 100 grams of protein per person per day. Oh, and I don’t want to hear any shit about white sugar or Crisco, I don’t care how bad they are for you. They have excellent shelf lives. When it is time to eat dirt cookies, you’ll be glad to have these on hand. If you don’t use them and TSDNHTF, donate them to a food pantry. Yes, you’re going to do more food prep with this middle road than if you had the fancy freeze-dried just add boiling water food, but we’re saving the medium-big bucks here, it’ll be OK if you have to soak beans overnight, bake bread, and/or boil pasta.
The List:
Salt, 8 lbs.
Powdered milk, 60 lbs.
Oil, 2 gallons liquid
Shortening, 6 lbs
Sugar, 65 lbs
Grains, 375 lbs
Peas, Beans, 60 lbs
Vitamins, 1 per person per day
Leavening agents & spices
In keeping with the $7989 package, you want the luxury of just being able to buy the food. No pressure canners or food dehydrators required. You are still middle class, more or less, time is an issue, we want it all now. Most of these items you can get from a warehouse store like Costco, and your grocery store. Add in what your family likes to round out the menu – a case of spaghetti sauce, 3-4 cases of canned fruit, Jell-o, brownie mix, clam chowder, corn muffin mix, fancy Basmati rice, canned chicken or tuna, canned vegetables if anybody will eat them, mac n cheese, peanut butter, Pringles have a good long shelf life, better get some of those, brown sugar, vanilla, no sense suffering, god forbid you should run out of ketchup, you get the idea. You want to be storing meals. 2-3 mega shopping trips and you’re good. Or, make up a prioritized shopping list, and methodically add to your pantry every payday. If your family will eat it, don’t be afraid to buy a case of it. Keep the shelves full and the food rotated.
Specialty items to consider:
2 cases whey-based milk substitute, 60 lbs, $145 includes shipping from Honeyville Grains.
From survivalacres.com or beprepared.com (prices are from beprepared.com because the shipping costs are less location dependent, but do your shopping):
Superpails
1 white rice, $47
4 wheat (2 red, 2 white), $148
Superpails are good for set it and forget it, don’t bother to think about rotating that food for 20 years. #10 cans will work too. Do whatever works for your budget, your family size, and your storage space.
Empty food grade buckets, plus Gamma lids
Use your buckets to store your sugar, pinto beans, rice, flour, and oats if you chose any of those. Don’t be a dope with your food. Do a little reading about how to protect the grains and legumes from pests, understand how to freeze it for a few days, use diatomaceous earth, how long your flour will last before going stale, etc.
Water storage, you can do that on the cheap, or buy some cases of bottled water.
Cooking gear, fuel, you guys camp and barbecue, you know what to get.
The money:
You can do this middle road for under $800. $1000 and your family is WELL fed for three months with a good variety of food. You can cut costs by making up your own super pails with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, but that involves some extra work. If you go to your local LDS dry cannery, you can do three months of long shelf-life storage food for four, about 25 cases, for $650-ish, yes, some work there too. A few years back I was a Bad Person, took out a modest loan from my 401(k), divided it between survivalacres.com, the dry cannery, and Costco. Monthly payments were pretty affordable, and I got the satisfaction of having a large chunk of food storage DONE. As I paid the account back with interest, my portfolio performance was better than that of my peers. Mutual funds lost value, food inventory gained value. No regrets.
The results of taking the middle road:
A good variety of food, full shelves, enough to share with people who are having hard times. Knowing that when tough times arrive, you can keep your family fed? That’s a damn good feeling, and a worthwhile investment.
Friday, October 16, 2009
dollar two
DOLLAR TWO
See, not only do I write less, I can’t even keep track of what I wanted to say in the first place. Let’s continue from yesterday. The very good point I made which you were all busily scurrying out of the way so you could safely ignore was that the dollar is toast because of energy decline. With the US not consuming 25% of global oil production, the other countries can stretch out the remaining supplies for a longer period of time.
*
The oil production is something like three quarters controlled by governments. Only a quarter is from private companies. This means, amongst other things, that oil can be used strategically. In the past, oil has been used to generate currency ( in US dollars as the de facto global currency ) which was used to buy whatever that country needed. In the case of the Saudis it was food ( the military protection was the price for preferential treatment ). One could argue that food production is set to decline along with oil due to weather disruption/overpopulation and decreasing petroleum inputs but I would argue that military supplies trump food ( witness the nitrates from manure going to gunpowder rather than food ). Oil is vital to a regimes survival. Food is secondary. Plus, all things being equal the oil should diminish quicker than food. Also, I think the US is one of the more vulnerable to oil scarcity and won’t to be able to use the food for weapon card.
*
Why would any country wish to disrupt the current arrangement of US military protection of trade for the bulk of the oil? Because trade is in danger. A decline in energy means a decline in trade which means that a global trade policeman is no longer as important as before. The world will need us less and less, and haven’t we moved from protector to thief anyway? This is why it is important to think clearly, without jingoistic blinders on. It helps you see what is coming down the road. If the world views us as plunderers, they will be more inclined to decline our “protection”. And by declining, they benefit from more oil. Not that it is about more, as much as keeping the supply from running out as quickly.
*
As I tried to point out before, it isn’t about wealth as much as it is about energy. Our rulers are blinded by the importance of money. It is the Be All and End All for them. They insist everyone else thinks just like they do. Yet I can assure you that plenty of other rulers in other countries are not as blind as that. They see their survival in energy, not in worthless paper. Look at gold, just as one example. The US national debt has a higher dollar amount than all the gold in the world. The US debt is higher than all the oil reserves in the world ( and that is all the “official” estimate numbers which are in reality much lower ). Clearly, currency is a sea in which commodities are a few small islands. But certainly you agree that oil, natural gas, grains and whatnot are all far more important for survival than hyperinflated paper currency?
*
Most other countries place more importance on the future supply of oil than they do a future pile of paper currency. It might seem inconceivable to us that other economies would be willing to take trillions of dollars in losses. If you are talking about first world countries, you would be correct. However, most first world countries can’t survive outside the money economy. Other countries can. They can make what will be a relatively smaller sacrifice going from money to barter. It would totally decimate our economy, most others would have a lot less painful transition period. It is like jingle mail to other countries to lose our promise to pay. Short term pain, long term gain. As banker, we can’t see everyone else wanting to be free of our debt.
END
Tune in tomorrow for a guest article. I hope you appreciate it, I had to beg and cry for one. I feel so cheap. Speaking of cheap bastards, buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
See, not only do I write less, I can’t even keep track of what I wanted to say in the first place. Let’s continue from yesterday. The very good point I made which you were all busily scurrying out of the way so you could safely ignore was that the dollar is toast because of energy decline. With the US not consuming 25% of global oil production, the other countries can stretch out the remaining supplies for a longer period of time.
*
The oil production is something like three quarters controlled by governments. Only a quarter is from private companies. This means, amongst other things, that oil can be used strategically. In the past, oil has been used to generate currency ( in US dollars as the de facto global currency ) which was used to buy whatever that country needed. In the case of the Saudis it was food ( the military protection was the price for preferential treatment ). One could argue that food production is set to decline along with oil due to weather disruption/overpopulation and decreasing petroleum inputs but I would argue that military supplies trump food ( witness the nitrates from manure going to gunpowder rather than food ). Oil is vital to a regimes survival. Food is secondary. Plus, all things being equal the oil should diminish quicker than food. Also, I think the US is one of the more vulnerable to oil scarcity and won’t to be able to use the food for weapon card.
*
Why would any country wish to disrupt the current arrangement of US military protection of trade for the bulk of the oil? Because trade is in danger. A decline in energy means a decline in trade which means that a global trade policeman is no longer as important as before. The world will need us less and less, and haven’t we moved from protector to thief anyway? This is why it is important to think clearly, without jingoistic blinders on. It helps you see what is coming down the road. If the world views us as plunderers, they will be more inclined to decline our “protection”. And by declining, they benefit from more oil. Not that it is about more, as much as keeping the supply from running out as quickly.
*
As I tried to point out before, it isn’t about wealth as much as it is about energy. Our rulers are blinded by the importance of money. It is the Be All and End All for them. They insist everyone else thinks just like they do. Yet I can assure you that plenty of other rulers in other countries are not as blind as that. They see their survival in energy, not in worthless paper. Look at gold, just as one example. The US national debt has a higher dollar amount than all the gold in the world. The US debt is higher than all the oil reserves in the world ( and that is all the “official” estimate numbers which are in reality much lower ). Clearly, currency is a sea in which commodities are a few small islands. But certainly you agree that oil, natural gas, grains and whatnot are all far more important for survival than hyperinflated paper currency?
*
Most other countries place more importance on the future supply of oil than they do a future pile of paper currency. It might seem inconceivable to us that other economies would be willing to take trillions of dollars in losses. If you are talking about first world countries, you would be correct. However, most first world countries can’t survive outside the money economy. Other countries can. They can make what will be a relatively smaller sacrifice going from money to barter. It would totally decimate our economy, most others would have a lot less painful transition period. It is like jingle mail to other countries to lose our promise to pay. Short term pain, long term gain. As banker, we can’t see everyone else wanting to be free of our debt.
END
Tune in tomorrow for a guest article. I hope you appreciate it, I had to beg and cry for one. I feel so cheap. Speaking of cheap bastards, buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
disposable dollar
DISPOSABLE DOLLAR
Another quick note on the “new” article lengths. I went back and did a bit more in depth research and found to my titillation that I had been averaging 25-27 thousand words a month, not just 20. So I’ve officially surpassed a million words in the last three years. I included the forthcoming post apocalypse movie review book that will, if all the gods smile down upon me and the post office doesn’t withhold this weekends DVD’s, be done sometime next week. After a million words I’m burned out. I don’t want to quit, so I’m taking a break here by writing less each day. I’m sure eventually I’ll get back into it and spout too much drivel each day, but for now I need to slow it down. Here’s a joke, I don’t know if you’ve already heard it. Obammy is in a school, talking to kids about Great Tragedies. He asks for an example. One child says a bus wreck killing kids is a tragedy. Obammy says, no, that is an Accident. Another says terrorists attack a city. No, that is a Great Loss. A third says the Prez and his wife getting shot down over Afganistan would be a Great Tragedy. Obammy asks why he thinks so. Because, says the kid, it certainly wouldn’t be an Accident and also no Great Loss.
*
Citizens of empires are usually well indoctrinated. Part of that is that they have only known the system they grew up in. Part is that subconsciously we always agree with what puts food on our table. A small part is public propaganda. But I think the biggest factor is that people can justify any bad behavior as long as they benefit. We invade the same country the evil Soviet Union did thirty years ago, and we are the good guys. We give a Nobel peace prize to the guy wanting to put more boots on the ground. Hey, I have no problem invading others and stealing their stuff. I just hate that so many idiots put lipstick on the pig and call her a beauty queen. But let’s not get too sidetracked. Here is an example how believing your own propaganda is dangerous. Part of the whole, We Are Great, We Are Good, We Deserve Victory Parades Down Our Invasion Route thing we have going means we have bought into the Super Duper Greatness of our currency. You say you haven’t, but does the following argument sound familiar?
*
Foreigners hold a Gabizillion dollars in our debt. Therefore, they would never dis on the dollar and stop using it as the default world currency, especially to buy oil. To bolster their argument, they point out all the fluff over the last ten years about threats to pull away from the dollar. It has always been thus, and thus it shall ever be. Sound like empires from the past that failed? All the arguments for the dollar assume the future is the past. In the past, we had energy surplus, and the dollar was treated like gold. Now, we have declining energy. All bets are off, everything will change. One certainty is that soon the dollar will not be accepted for oil. Why? All currencies are worthless toilet paper, so why stop taking the dollar? Simply, in a world of energy decline, the biggest user must be inched out to provide the other users more oil to stretch out the supply. The US uses a quarter of the production. That extra oil will stretch out everyone else’s energy supply if we can’t have it. They actually know how to produce something besides lawyer services and retail space, and with a lot less energy.
*
Up to now, the world’s policeman has secured the oil for himself and provided relative security for others. But foreigners, unlike our own citizens, can see the death spiral of the dollar jeopardizing our military and the decline in oil making a switch inevitable. I think it will happen sooner than you would all wish for. It isn’t about who’s TP is more valuable, it’s about the oil supply.
END
Panic now, then buy my crap with your near worthless money www.bisonpress.com
Another quick note on the “new” article lengths. I went back and did a bit more in depth research and found to my titillation that I had been averaging 25-27 thousand words a month, not just 20. So I’ve officially surpassed a million words in the last three years. I included the forthcoming post apocalypse movie review book that will, if all the gods smile down upon me and the post office doesn’t withhold this weekends DVD’s, be done sometime next week. After a million words I’m burned out. I don’t want to quit, so I’m taking a break here by writing less each day. I’m sure eventually I’ll get back into it and spout too much drivel each day, but for now I need to slow it down. Here’s a joke, I don’t know if you’ve already heard it. Obammy is in a school, talking to kids about Great Tragedies. He asks for an example. One child says a bus wreck killing kids is a tragedy. Obammy says, no, that is an Accident. Another says terrorists attack a city. No, that is a Great Loss. A third says the Prez and his wife getting shot down over Afganistan would be a Great Tragedy. Obammy asks why he thinks so. Because, says the kid, it certainly wouldn’t be an Accident and also no Great Loss.
*
Citizens of empires are usually well indoctrinated. Part of that is that they have only known the system they grew up in. Part is that subconsciously we always agree with what puts food on our table. A small part is public propaganda. But I think the biggest factor is that people can justify any bad behavior as long as they benefit. We invade the same country the evil Soviet Union did thirty years ago, and we are the good guys. We give a Nobel peace prize to the guy wanting to put more boots on the ground. Hey, I have no problem invading others and stealing their stuff. I just hate that so many idiots put lipstick on the pig and call her a beauty queen. But let’s not get too sidetracked. Here is an example how believing your own propaganda is dangerous. Part of the whole, We Are Great, We Are Good, We Deserve Victory Parades Down Our Invasion Route thing we have going means we have bought into the Super Duper Greatness of our currency. You say you haven’t, but does the following argument sound familiar?
*
Foreigners hold a Gabizillion dollars in our debt. Therefore, they would never dis on the dollar and stop using it as the default world currency, especially to buy oil. To bolster their argument, they point out all the fluff over the last ten years about threats to pull away from the dollar. It has always been thus, and thus it shall ever be. Sound like empires from the past that failed? All the arguments for the dollar assume the future is the past. In the past, we had energy surplus, and the dollar was treated like gold. Now, we have declining energy. All bets are off, everything will change. One certainty is that soon the dollar will not be accepted for oil. Why? All currencies are worthless toilet paper, so why stop taking the dollar? Simply, in a world of energy decline, the biggest user must be inched out to provide the other users more oil to stretch out the supply. The US uses a quarter of the production. That extra oil will stretch out everyone else’s energy supply if we can’t have it. They actually know how to produce something besides lawyer services and retail space, and with a lot less energy.
*
Up to now, the world’s policeman has secured the oil for himself and provided relative security for others. But foreigners, unlike our own citizens, can see the death spiral of the dollar jeopardizing our military and the decline in oil making a switch inevitable. I think it will happen sooner than you would all wish for. It isn’t about who’s TP is more valuable, it’s about the oil supply.
END
Panic now, then buy my crap with your near worthless money www.bisonpress.com
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
more homemade MRE
MORE HOMEMADE MRE
I’ve noticed that I’ve been slowly but surely inching back up towards my old 800-1.5k word count on articles. I was supposed to stay down at half, around 600. That would only take half my lunch hour rather than the whole thing. Lately I’ve noticed zero time left at lunch and just thought I was suffering from brain constipation, until I did a word count. At first I was thinking I should try for more booklet length work, but then ( after doing nothing extra ) I realized I was simply burning out and needed to rest. If you take the last three years of my blog and add in all the books I’ve done, the word count is close to a million. Twenty thousand words a month just for the blog. That’s several full length novels a year. The problem with the long articles is I’m constantly stressed over finding a good idea to write about. The smaller length allows less weighty ideas to be presented. Like today’s, yet another lame attempt at homemade MRE’s.
*
You know how I feel about spending serious money on anything. Frugal living is cheap living which is less stress living. Okay, I know, most gals won’t give you the time of day unless you have a big fat long wallet. You can be fat, bald and have a very small member, as long as your wallet compensates. Hell, it hardly seems fair, as my only criteria for a female is she has all the parts ( well, okay, I draw the line at hugely fat ). But as you never tire of reminding me as I complain in self pity about my terrible life where the only love shown to me from myself ( being a one man marching band for all the greatness that is Jim ), life ain’t fair. Fair is were you go to sell your pig. Anyway, can we please get to the friggin point here? Another boring and overblown idea for a homemade MRE is as follows. A can of chili, a small can of sweet condensed milk and several Top Ramen packs. You’ll recall our other article. Bags of chocolate chips or jars of peanut butter. Or, everyone’s favorite, a jar of Karo corn syrup. All have 2k calories, except the PB which has 3k. But, those will soon be tiresome to eat. They all cost about the same $2 also. By spending $3 you get more variety and plenty of calories.
*
Remember, we are talking about cheap, easy to prepare and plenty of fat and calories. You could go with rice and chili. Two thousand calories and two bucks. But too much prep time and fuel needed. If needed, you could eat the chili cold and the Ramen uncooked. Not as tasty, but manageable. You wake up, eat a Ramen. Snack on a Ramen for brunch, one for a late lunch. Heat up a can of chili for dinner, eaten with a Ramen. Desert is a can of sweet milk. Three thousand calories, three bucks. Plenty of fat and calories. I like the bulk of my calories at night, if you don’t you can always drink the milk at dinner. Almost two thousand calories to start the day ( the milk and a Ramen combined ). The problem with MRE’s, or at least one of the problems, is the high cost. Five to six bucks for 1200 calories. So this is half the cost for twice the calories. No one is asking you to live on this, it is for a short term emergency only. Long term food is grains and beans. Those are even cheaper and much more nutritious.
*
Try a dry pack of Ramen. Crush up the noodles while in the pack. Add the seasoning pack and shake. Finger food munching, almost like a bucket of popcorn ( and about as healthy ). You’ll like it I’m sure.
END
I’ve noticed that I’ve been slowly but surely inching back up towards my old 800-1.5k word count on articles. I was supposed to stay down at half, around 600. That would only take half my lunch hour rather than the whole thing. Lately I’ve noticed zero time left at lunch and just thought I was suffering from brain constipation, until I did a word count. At first I was thinking I should try for more booklet length work, but then ( after doing nothing extra ) I realized I was simply burning out and needed to rest. If you take the last three years of my blog and add in all the books I’ve done, the word count is close to a million. Twenty thousand words a month just for the blog. That’s several full length novels a year. The problem with the long articles is I’m constantly stressed over finding a good idea to write about. The smaller length allows less weighty ideas to be presented. Like today’s, yet another lame attempt at homemade MRE’s.
*
You know how I feel about spending serious money on anything. Frugal living is cheap living which is less stress living. Okay, I know, most gals won’t give you the time of day unless you have a big fat long wallet. You can be fat, bald and have a very small member, as long as your wallet compensates. Hell, it hardly seems fair, as my only criteria for a female is she has all the parts ( well, okay, I draw the line at hugely fat ). But as you never tire of reminding me as I complain in self pity about my terrible life where the only love shown to me from myself ( being a one man marching band for all the greatness that is Jim ), life ain’t fair. Fair is were you go to sell your pig. Anyway, can we please get to the friggin point here? Another boring and overblown idea for a homemade MRE is as follows. A can of chili, a small can of sweet condensed milk and several Top Ramen packs. You’ll recall our other article. Bags of chocolate chips or jars of peanut butter. Or, everyone’s favorite, a jar of Karo corn syrup. All have 2k calories, except the PB which has 3k. But, those will soon be tiresome to eat. They all cost about the same $2 also. By spending $3 you get more variety and plenty of calories.
*
Remember, we are talking about cheap, easy to prepare and plenty of fat and calories. You could go with rice and chili. Two thousand calories and two bucks. But too much prep time and fuel needed. If needed, you could eat the chili cold and the Ramen uncooked. Not as tasty, but manageable. You wake up, eat a Ramen. Snack on a Ramen for brunch, one for a late lunch. Heat up a can of chili for dinner, eaten with a Ramen. Desert is a can of sweet milk. Three thousand calories, three bucks. Plenty of fat and calories. I like the bulk of my calories at night, if you don’t you can always drink the milk at dinner. Almost two thousand calories to start the day ( the milk and a Ramen combined ). The problem with MRE’s, or at least one of the problems, is the high cost. Five to six bucks for 1200 calories. So this is half the cost for twice the calories. No one is asking you to live on this, it is for a short term emergency only. Long term food is grains and beans. Those are even cheaper and much more nutritious.
*
Try a dry pack of Ramen. Crush up the noodles while in the pack. Add the seasoning pack and shake. Finger food munching, almost like a bucket of popcorn ( and about as healthy ). You’ll like it I’m sure.
END
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
real security
REAL SECURITY
Here was what I considered an inspiring article, http://cryptogon.com/?p=11551 . Forget about the fact that this was a freeze dried food purchase. Forget that beans and legumes would provide ten times the security, cheaper. That is not the important point. The point is that someone actually gets it. Paper promises are worth exactly what they are printed on. Your promise of a pension, worth spit. Your promise that your bank account will be there for you, worth spit. The promise that your tax dollars will provide police, fire or military protection, worth squat. On the contrary, your tax dollars went to the bankers, who made a loan to the government who will use the funds to throw your ass in a concentration camp. Anything anyone promises you, from undying love to future security, is a god damn lie. They might mean it at the time but they never deliver. People are bastard coated bastards with creamy bastard filling.
*
This guy cashes out his retirement fund and buys eight grand in food. Why? No specific reason, he just feels that those funds are in jeopardy and the only real security is food. Bravo. It doesn’t matter if everyone else is right and we have a slow collapse. Or, if me and the guy over at Survival Acres are right and a die off is coming. Either way, your paper promises are soon going to be ass wipe. In a long slow collapse we keep seeing AIG bailouts and GM bankruptcies. All well and good, you gush with a song in your heart and a smile on your lips, our hero the black knight will bail out every thing and every one. That worked pretty well for Zimbabwe, right? It isn’t just about economics anymore. If it was, the debate about more centralization and socialism being able to bail us out again like with the Great Depression might have merit. But it is all about a declining energy supply. That has never happened in this country before, so the old solutions won’t work ( which was more energy and more growth ).
*
When was the Great Rice Scare, a year ago? More of those are coming, but this time it will be foods you are more familiar with such as wheat, flour, beans, potatoes, etc. Every basic has doubled and tripled in price, and that was due to tame inflation and ethanol. Throw in a drought caused crop failure or two. Or a real inflation. Or a ramp up in food exports as the bankers screw us over again for more money. If we see less than a one percent increase in the population turning into hoarders, I think the shortages would accelerate. Shortages, then higher prices, then that new price being the new floor in price. Rice last year, what is next? With just in time inventories, increasing population, decreasing energy and increasing drought/floods, food price spikes and shortages are guaranteed. I personally guarantee them. If I’m wrong, a 200% refund on your subscription price.
*
But wait, you screech in righteous indignation. What about the huge new super duper oil field off of the coast of Brazil? That was one test well. No secondary wells were sunk to verify the guess to those billions of barrels of oil that are supposed to be there. It is all hype and no production. All the recent articles on the warning that we will peak production in 2020 are total BS. They pretend to be alarmed and warning us, but all they are doing is throwing down a false scent for you to follow. The globe has already peaked. 2020 we will be fighting each other with steel rebar clubs amidst the radioactive fallout from Iran, wearing rabbit furs for cloths and scratching our lice infested armpits. Stockpile the heck out of food. Grain first. Years and years worth per person. Then add your beans. If any time remains after that, then the tasty, more nutritious items. Don’t wait for the kitty to get to eight grand. Go to the feed store and buy two hundred pounds each of whole wheat berries and corn. $100. Buy a $25 grain grinder from my Amazon page, www.bisonpress.com to get that link. Repeat repeatedly. For each family member. Soon enough, $100 will buy one loaf of bread. Get the grains before the rush.
*
When will we collapse? My best guess is June 2010, or August 2011 or 2012. Why? The first date is when I stop paying child support on my oldest. The second date is when my youngest is paid off if I keep doubling up on the payments to one child instead of keeping half what I pay now. The last date is when all my child support is finished. The fickle finger of fate will not allow me to keep the fruits of my labor ( please keep in mind that the ex makes four times my wages, on a job I put her through school for. My support is not for the children’s needs but as a punitive action towards me. Kindly excuse me if I feel ripped off ). You have been warned.
END
Here was what I considered an inspiring article, http://cryptogon.com/?p=11551 . Forget about the fact that this was a freeze dried food purchase. Forget that beans and legumes would provide ten times the security, cheaper. That is not the important point. The point is that someone actually gets it. Paper promises are worth exactly what they are printed on. Your promise of a pension, worth spit. Your promise that your bank account will be there for you, worth spit. The promise that your tax dollars will provide police, fire or military protection, worth squat. On the contrary, your tax dollars went to the bankers, who made a loan to the government who will use the funds to throw your ass in a concentration camp. Anything anyone promises you, from undying love to future security, is a god damn lie. They might mean it at the time but they never deliver. People are bastard coated bastards with creamy bastard filling.
*
This guy cashes out his retirement fund and buys eight grand in food. Why? No specific reason, he just feels that those funds are in jeopardy and the only real security is food. Bravo. It doesn’t matter if everyone else is right and we have a slow collapse. Or, if me and the guy over at Survival Acres are right and a die off is coming. Either way, your paper promises are soon going to be ass wipe. In a long slow collapse we keep seeing AIG bailouts and GM bankruptcies. All well and good, you gush with a song in your heart and a smile on your lips, our hero the black knight will bail out every thing and every one. That worked pretty well for Zimbabwe, right? It isn’t just about economics anymore. If it was, the debate about more centralization and socialism being able to bail us out again like with the Great Depression might have merit. But it is all about a declining energy supply. That has never happened in this country before, so the old solutions won’t work ( which was more energy and more growth ).
*
When was the Great Rice Scare, a year ago? More of those are coming, but this time it will be foods you are more familiar with such as wheat, flour, beans, potatoes, etc. Every basic has doubled and tripled in price, and that was due to tame inflation and ethanol. Throw in a drought caused crop failure or two. Or a real inflation. Or a ramp up in food exports as the bankers screw us over again for more money. If we see less than a one percent increase in the population turning into hoarders, I think the shortages would accelerate. Shortages, then higher prices, then that new price being the new floor in price. Rice last year, what is next? With just in time inventories, increasing population, decreasing energy and increasing drought/floods, food price spikes and shortages are guaranteed. I personally guarantee them. If I’m wrong, a 200% refund on your subscription price.
*
But wait, you screech in righteous indignation. What about the huge new super duper oil field off of the coast of Brazil? That was one test well. No secondary wells were sunk to verify the guess to those billions of barrels of oil that are supposed to be there. It is all hype and no production. All the recent articles on the warning that we will peak production in 2020 are total BS. They pretend to be alarmed and warning us, but all they are doing is throwing down a false scent for you to follow. The globe has already peaked. 2020 we will be fighting each other with steel rebar clubs amidst the radioactive fallout from Iran, wearing rabbit furs for cloths and scratching our lice infested armpits. Stockpile the heck out of food. Grain first. Years and years worth per person. Then add your beans. If any time remains after that, then the tasty, more nutritious items. Don’t wait for the kitty to get to eight grand. Go to the feed store and buy two hundred pounds each of whole wheat berries and corn. $100. Buy a $25 grain grinder from my Amazon page, www.bisonpress.com to get that link. Repeat repeatedly. For each family member. Soon enough, $100 will buy one loaf of bread. Get the grains before the rush.
*
When will we collapse? My best guess is June 2010, or August 2011 or 2012. Why? The first date is when I stop paying child support on my oldest. The second date is when my youngest is paid off if I keep doubling up on the payments to one child instead of keeping half what I pay now. The last date is when all my child support is finished. The fickle finger of fate will not allow me to keep the fruits of my labor ( please keep in mind that the ex makes four times my wages, on a job I put her through school for. My support is not for the children’s needs but as a punitive action towards me. Kindly excuse me if I feel ripped off ). You have been warned.
END
Monday, October 12, 2009
dog attack
DOG ATTACK
Jay, got your snail mail donation. Many thanks, that’s a third of my winter propane needs! Glad the move went okay, best of luck. Okay, nothing came to mind for an article, so I’m starting on my list of minion questions. One question was what to do about a dog attack. Now, I can’t say I’m an expert here. It’s not like I have dog packs attacking me on a regular basis. But I thought I’d just get the ball rolling, throw out some ideas. Hear from the comments section how I’m an idiot. The usual. I’m going to list the tactics in order of cost. The first being free and the last costing thousands of dollars. Yuppie Survivalist fans will be well served to simply go to the last one and discount all the rest. I hope the fight doesn’t take place near your six thousand dollar solar panel. First, the buddy system. Then a bayonet. Next, bear spray. A handgun. And finally, semi-automatic carbines.
*
Once things fall apart so far that you have to worry about rabid dogs traveling in packs looking to eat you as the Alpo runs out, you should already always be going places with another person. Whether it be increased crime, dog attacks, whatever, it is foolish to be on your own. I don’t care if you are just going to the mailbox ( OK, I understand that by then the Post Office will be out of business, this is just an example we can all relate to ), to get an armful of firewood or are forced to run to get a doctor after the idiot husband uses a chainsaw to shorten his height. You should never go outside alone, and I also think you should be so paranoid that you don’t wander around inside alone. That might seem extreme, but if the house is big there might easily be an undetected break in at one part and you are all relaxed and happy, la la la, the ex wife is dead in riots and her city nuked, and then, blam, some super ninja dude bashes your head in with a crowbar. Then you end up one of first ones in the stew pot. Don’t relax to the point of danger, just because you are inside. I would have overnight guards, and even a “fire watch” if possible if you have a group. Then, never assume anything but danger once you go outside. I’m not saying that a dg pack won’t attack you just because there are two people, I’m saying that any of the following tactics will be much more successful if you use the buddy system.
*
Next up at twenty to thirty dollars is a bayonet. I’ve written before on bayonets as a survivalist necessity. You can read the whole article in my Bison Newsletter e-book at www.bisonpress.com . Once you accept the need for the bayonet as part of your arsenal, it becomes much easier to pick a real rifle that one attaches to and is useful. Hint, hint, a WWII bolt action wood stock surplus rifle. Attaching a bayonet to an AR-15 is like a hermaphrodite keeping both hanging parts. They don’t work together. You can’t attach a cool stabbing/slashing instrument on a light weight plastic carbine and expect it to work properly. Is the bayonet a proper piece of equipment for dog attacks? Of course not. It is simply a “better than nothing” tool. It means you can kill two or possibly three dogs ( shoot one, stab another ) before the pack takes you down, rather than just a single one. I’m not suggesting it is a great tool, merely that it slightly increases your odds of survival. Odds are with a bolt action, a pack will kill you. With an attached bayonet your odds only really increase a little bit. But a little is better than none.
*
Next is a can of bear spray. Supposedly, this is much more effective than a small can of dog spray. I don’t know for sure. You can do more research if you so desire. The cost is around $35-$45. I’ve used the dog spray on a few of the mutant mutts on my route to work. The spray does work, not to the point of incapacitation, but it stops the dog. They don’t fall to the ground in pain and howl, unfortunately, but they do stop and rub their face and look confused. And after that they don’t get too close again. Even if the bear spray doesn’t use any stronger of a pepper spray, at least it delivers a much bigger dose. And it can be used more often before depleting. Dog spray is $10, but I would feel much more comfortable with the bear can if you have the extra room.
*
Last is firearms. For two to three hundred you could get yourself a good used revolver, if not a new one. You should have one anyway. One would hope that if you took down three or four of the bastards that the rest would lose interest and run away. It beats the other options anyway. And not too horribly expensive. Not like that solar panel. And imagine what two people thus armed could do. Of course, the loner will have no need for a partner, because he is armed with an AR carbine with 75 round drum magazine and 17 round 9mm auto pistol with laser sight. He is a pimp daddy ninja bad ass and his semi auto carbine will keep him alive forever and ever. Well, one hopes at least as long as his gasoline tanks are full. After the SUV is without fuel, life isn’t worth living anyway.
*
Being ultra paranoid, always having a buddy and always being armed, and a dog attack should be pretty low down on your list of problems. Of course, perhaps if you go hunting the dogs you can eat them and then the starvation problem is solved for a few more days.
END
Jay, got your snail mail donation. Many thanks, that’s a third of my winter propane needs! Glad the move went okay, best of luck. Okay, nothing came to mind for an article, so I’m starting on my list of minion questions. One question was what to do about a dog attack. Now, I can’t say I’m an expert here. It’s not like I have dog packs attacking me on a regular basis. But I thought I’d just get the ball rolling, throw out some ideas. Hear from the comments section how I’m an idiot. The usual. I’m going to list the tactics in order of cost. The first being free and the last costing thousands of dollars. Yuppie Survivalist fans will be well served to simply go to the last one and discount all the rest. I hope the fight doesn’t take place near your six thousand dollar solar panel. First, the buddy system. Then a bayonet. Next, bear spray. A handgun. And finally, semi-automatic carbines.
*
Once things fall apart so far that you have to worry about rabid dogs traveling in packs looking to eat you as the Alpo runs out, you should already always be going places with another person. Whether it be increased crime, dog attacks, whatever, it is foolish to be on your own. I don’t care if you are just going to the mailbox ( OK, I understand that by then the Post Office will be out of business, this is just an example we can all relate to ), to get an armful of firewood or are forced to run to get a doctor after the idiot husband uses a chainsaw to shorten his height. You should never go outside alone, and I also think you should be so paranoid that you don’t wander around inside alone. That might seem extreme, but if the house is big there might easily be an undetected break in at one part and you are all relaxed and happy, la la la, the ex wife is dead in riots and her city nuked, and then, blam, some super ninja dude bashes your head in with a crowbar. Then you end up one of first ones in the stew pot. Don’t relax to the point of danger, just because you are inside. I would have overnight guards, and even a “fire watch” if possible if you have a group. Then, never assume anything but danger once you go outside. I’m not saying that a dg pack won’t attack you just because there are two people, I’m saying that any of the following tactics will be much more successful if you use the buddy system.
*
Next up at twenty to thirty dollars is a bayonet. I’ve written before on bayonets as a survivalist necessity. You can read the whole article in my Bison Newsletter e-book at www.bisonpress.com . Once you accept the need for the bayonet as part of your arsenal, it becomes much easier to pick a real rifle that one attaches to and is useful. Hint, hint, a WWII bolt action wood stock surplus rifle. Attaching a bayonet to an AR-15 is like a hermaphrodite keeping both hanging parts. They don’t work together. You can’t attach a cool stabbing/slashing instrument on a light weight plastic carbine and expect it to work properly. Is the bayonet a proper piece of equipment for dog attacks? Of course not. It is simply a “better than nothing” tool. It means you can kill two or possibly three dogs ( shoot one, stab another ) before the pack takes you down, rather than just a single one. I’m not suggesting it is a great tool, merely that it slightly increases your odds of survival. Odds are with a bolt action, a pack will kill you. With an attached bayonet your odds only really increase a little bit. But a little is better than none.
*
Next is a can of bear spray. Supposedly, this is much more effective than a small can of dog spray. I don’t know for sure. You can do more research if you so desire. The cost is around $35-$45. I’ve used the dog spray on a few of the mutant mutts on my route to work. The spray does work, not to the point of incapacitation, but it stops the dog. They don’t fall to the ground in pain and howl, unfortunately, but they do stop and rub their face and look confused. And after that they don’t get too close again. Even if the bear spray doesn’t use any stronger of a pepper spray, at least it delivers a much bigger dose. And it can be used more often before depleting. Dog spray is $10, but I would feel much more comfortable with the bear can if you have the extra room.
*
Last is firearms. For two to three hundred you could get yourself a good used revolver, if not a new one. You should have one anyway. One would hope that if you took down three or four of the bastards that the rest would lose interest and run away. It beats the other options anyway. And not too horribly expensive. Not like that solar panel. And imagine what two people thus armed could do. Of course, the loner will have no need for a partner, because he is armed with an AR carbine with 75 round drum magazine and 17 round 9mm auto pistol with laser sight. He is a pimp daddy ninja bad ass and his semi auto carbine will keep him alive forever and ever. Well, one hopes at least as long as his gasoline tanks are full. After the SUV is without fuel, life isn’t worth living anyway.
*
Being ultra paranoid, always having a buddy and always being armed, and a dog attack should be pretty low down on your list of problems. Of course, perhaps if you go hunting the dogs you can eat them and then the starvation problem is solved for a few more days.
END
Friday, October 09, 2009
go, team
GO, TEAM
Okay, I apologize for being blinded by my own brilliance yesterday. I must have neglected to underline my basic point. Gold used to be more directly tied to food. Then hydrocarbon energy took its place as a store of wealth. Gold will once again become more important as a store of wealth. Wealth being a universal means of trading for food security. If I have to point out to you how great I am, it loses a bit of its luster. To punish you, not only must you now sit through another of my crackpot theories, I’m going to try for maximum irritation. And what better way to offend 99% of my loyal minions than make fun of their favorite pastime. Sports.
*
I hate sports. I hate organized sports, I hate individual sports ( with perhaps the exception of paintball, but only if it is casual ). When I see a team of organized chimps dressed up and grunting at each other, I feel a little of my hope for mankind die a horrible death. And don’t give me any “substitution for tribal warfare” crap. I love running around the woods with guns, in a vain hope of killing anything. But sports are just a pale imitation of that. And I don’t think it is just because I hate competition. Or unintelligent displays of testosterone driven machismo. I think my basic problem with sports is that it relies on the group surrendering any mental effort and collectively assuming the IQ of a drooling idiot. Oh, I understand that these guys memorizing tables and pages of statistics is no mean feat. It isn’t that they are stupid individually. And I understand the escapism aspect. But when you crowd them together they act like a herd instead of as smart individuals. I don’t like herds, whether it is of movie goers, sports fanatics of music fans. Herds all act stupid, not just at the arena.
*
But here’s the next aspect of it. Like all Bread And Circuses acts, the participants are distracted. If you have your nose in the feed bag or your mind on the pigskin, you don’t tend to focus on those things around you that might prove dangerous to your well being. In other words, you become livestock led down the chute to slaughter. Now, while I love pissing off vast percentages of my loyal readers and having them take their dollars over to competitors sites that have advertisements from companies that sell a metal can of seeds for a hundred bucks ( purchased individually through the mail for a grand total of $23- metal can at Home Depot for $7 extra ) or grain grinders for a grand, I do hasten to point out that I’m not questioning the intelligence of my loyal minions that enjoy sports. Me reading a paperback book is no more worthy than you watching a football game. Both are a way to relax. I’m merely saying that the time and effort involved in following sports year round will be a distraction. Perhaps enough that you easily accept explanations that on the surface sound plausible but in reality fit right in with how our handlers want you to act. Like the implausible explanation given for Obammies Nobel peace prize. All he’s done is flapped those lips of his. Nothing concrete got done. By reflecting on this, one can only conclude that he is the new Antichrist and will kill us all. As one unemployed comedian announced today, he’s bombing the moon on the same day he gets the peace prize.
*
To be honest, you might actually be smarter than me. You live your life, enjoy it, take things easy. Sports entertains you. Meanwhile, I’m studying all the ways we can die, making myself miserable and devoting my life to fear and paranoia. However. If I’m right, and you were distracted enough to die early, if I’m one of the last ones in the stew pot, then I will be vindicated. And won’t you feel silly after you’re dead?
END
You're not doing anything better this weekend, so BUY MY CRAP at www.bisonpress.com
Okay, I apologize for being blinded by my own brilliance yesterday. I must have neglected to underline my basic point. Gold used to be more directly tied to food. Then hydrocarbon energy took its place as a store of wealth. Gold will once again become more important as a store of wealth. Wealth being a universal means of trading for food security. If I have to point out to you how great I am, it loses a bit of its luster. To punish you, not only must you now sit through another of my crackpot theories, I’m going to try for maximum irritation. And what better way to offend 99% of my loyal minions than make fun of their favorite pastime. Sports.
*
I hate sports. I hate organized sports, I hate individual sports ( with perhaps the exception of paintball, but only if it is casual ). When I see a team of organized chimps dressed up and grunting at each other, I feel a little of my hope for mankind die a horrible death. And don’t give me any “substitution for tribal warfare” crap. I love running around the woods with guns, in a vain hope of killing anything. But sports are just a pale imitation of that. And I don’t think it is just because I hate competition. Or unintelligent displays of testosterone driven machismo. I think my basic problem with sports is that it relies on the group surrendering any mental effort and collectively assuming the IQ of a drooling idiot. Oh, I understand that these guys memorizing tables and pages of statistics is no mean feat. It isn’t that they are stupid individually. And I understand the escapism aspect. But when you crowd them together they act like a herd instead of as smart individuals. I don’t like herds, whether it is of movie goers, sports fanatics of music fans. Herds all act stupid, not just at the arena.
*
But here’s the next aspect of it. Like all Bread And Circuses acts, the participants are distracted. If you have your nose in the feed bag or your mind on the pigskin, you don’t tend to focus on those things around you that might prove dangerous to your well being. In other words, you become livestock led down the chute to slaughter. Now, while I love pissing off vast percentages of my loyal readers and having them take their dollars over to competitors sites that have advertisements from companies that sell a metal can of seeds for a hundred bucks ( purchased individually through the mail for a grand total of $23- metal can at Home Depot for $7 extra ) or grain grinders for a grand, I do hasten to point out that I’m not questioning the intelligence of my loyal minions that enjoy sports. Me reading a paperback book is no more worthy than you watching a football game. Both are a way to relax. I’m merely saying that the time and effort involved in following sports year round will be a distraction. Perhaps enough that you easily accept explanations that on the surface sound plausible but in reality fit right in with how our handlers want you to act. Like the implausible explanation given for Obammies Nobel peace prize. All he’s done is flapped those lips of his. Nothing concrete got done. By reflecting on this, one can only conclude that he is the new Antichrist and will kill us all. As one unemployed comedian announced today, he’s bombing the moon on the same day he gets the peace prize.
*
To be honest, you might actually be smarter than me. You live your life, enjoy it, take things easy. Sports entertains you. Meanwhile, I’m studying all the ways we can die, making myself miserable and devoting my life to fear and paranoia. However. If I’m right, and you were distracted enough to die early, if I’m one of the last ones in the stew pot, then I will be vindicated. And won’t you feel silly after you’re dead?
END
You're not doing anything better this weekend, so BUY MY CRAP at www.bisonpress.com
Thursday, October 08, 2009
the new old role of gold
THE NEW OLD ROLE OF GOLD
Since gold has gone up so much in the last week, I decided to once again visit its irresistible allure. If anyone anywhere with any IQ score above room temperature needs proof that the stock market is no longer in the same universe with the economy, this was it. As gold goes up and up, the stock market matches the trend. And the dollar index stays flat. Something is amiss in FantasyLand. Of course, that is not why we are here today. You’ve heard enough of my extreme paranoia ramblings of Central Bank conspiracies. I’m sure I’m wrong and Helicopter Ben is going to open up all that untapped oil any day now. We don’t need no steenkin non-renewable resources. Nonrenewable resource + wishful thinking = oil forever.
*
As I keep repeating ( and it isn’t even my own thought but that of others far more intelligent than I which is why you should listen ) It’s The Energy, Stupid. It all comes down to surplus energy equating to economic growth. Diminishing energy equals contracting economy followed by collapse. In the good old days, wealth was basically land and solar making crops which was the way to generate energy which equated to wealth ( of course, you could generate even more energy by using slaves- the reason why it always existed before coal and why it will return ). Military force and precious metals were about the only way to get that wealth. Before industrialization, precious metals were, well, much more precious. There was a lot less of it and it was a much more concentrated form of wealth. You could buy farmland with precious metal, much more than so today ( Ure over at http://www.urbansurvival.com/ mentioned the other day the historical one ounce gold for one acre farmland price. A good yardstick, but I don’t know if that was pre-petroleum or not ).
*
Gold and silver have been historical stores of wealth, at least as long as the Agricultural Revolution made trade feasible and desirable ( the ten percent not working the land needed more than barter soon enough ). Because you can’t destroy it and there is so little of it, it became the universal form of wealth. Ten thousand years of greed have proven its role. From a bamboo hut in China to a city in Europe, every uneducated peasant knew that gold and silver were a store of wealth. Well, that all changed when coal became a viable energy source. Central banks started slowly but surely substituting paper for metal. And I think the basic reason that it was acceptable was not because those peasants with no knowledge off the farm were idiots, they were smart enough about practical matters ( more than urban folk in more than a few instances ). They accepted the substitution because it represented wealth in another form. Paper currency could represent energy. Everyone other than TV brainwashed Americans knows that paper currency in and of itself is worth less than toilet paper ( TP is softer and doesn’t cause paper cuts to your bung ). They also know that governments are liars and thieves and glorified bandits. A government guarantee of paper currency is worthless. What is worth something is the energy that the government controls. That energy equals food, just like land used to represent a future promise of food. Just like gold used to represent the ability to buy that land anywhere there was farmland, regardless of location, government, culture or any other obstacle. Gold was portable farmland.
*
For over two hundred years, coal, then oil, represented the new energy. Energy that produced food. Paper currency was a form of trade for that energy, indirectly. A central bank coupled with a central government that issued paper, that issued debt, could raise armies to defend or steal energy. Stealing farmland was secondary, because oil was the new way to eat. I’m not talking about the recent 75 year tendency to turn natural gas into fertilizer into food. That helped, but I’m talking about oil as wealth to buy food also. Oil equaled industry equaled wealth which turned into food. Hence, Japan for instance turning oil and ore into machines which sold for enough wealth to buy more oil, more food, and a nice surplus besides. In the past, Japan was only as wealthy as its farmland. Now, even though it imports all its oil and a lot of its food, it is/was wealthy because it knew how to leverage petroleum into wealth. It wasn’t that the Yen was worth much of anything. But it bought the Japanese form of oil wealth.
*
All that, the last two to three hundred years of coal/oil wealth, is coming to an end. The end that is already started. That is why paper currency is not a good bet now. Not because the government suddenly became untrustworthy. They always have been. But because the oil wealth behind the paper is running out.
END
Damn, I was good today. Buy my crap at http://www.bisonpress.com/
Since gold has gone up so much in the last week, I decided to once again visit its irresistible allure. If anyone anywhere with any IQ score above room temperature needs proof that the stock market is no longer in the same universe with the economy, this was it. As gold goes up and up, the stock market matches the trend. And the dollar index stays flat. Something is amiss in FantasyLand. Of course, that is not why we are here today. You’ve heard enough of my extreme paranoia ramblings of Central Bank conspiracies. I’m sure I’m wrong and Helicopter Ben is going to open up all that untapped oil any day now. We don’t need no steenkin non-renewable resources. Nonrenewable resource + wishful thinking = oil forever.
*
As I keep repeating ( and it isn’t even my own thought but that of others far more intelligent than I which is why you should listen ) It’s The Energy, Stupid. It all comes down to surplus energy equating to economic growth. Diminishing energy equals contracting economy followed by collapse. In the good old days, wealth was basically land and solar making crops which was the way to generate energy which equated to wealth ( of course, you could generate even more energy by using slaves- the reason why it always existed before coal and why it will return ). Military force and precious metals were about the only way to get that wealth. Before industrialization, precious metals were, well, much more precious. There was a lot less of it and it was a much more concentrated form of wealth. You could buy farmland with precious metal, much more than so today ( Ure over at http://www.urbansurvival.com/ mentioned the other day the historical one ounce gold for one acre farmland price. A good yardstick, but I don’t know if that was pre-petroleum or not ).
*
Gold and silver have been historical stores of wealth, at least as long as the Agricultural Revolution made trade feasible and desirable ( the ten percent not working the land needed more than barter soon enough ). Because you can’t destroy it and there is so little of it, it became the universal form of wealth. Ten thousand years of greed have proven its role. From a bamboo hut in China to a city in Europe, every uneducated peasant knew that gold and silver were a store of wealth. Well, that all changed when coal became a viable energy source. Central banks started slowly but surely substituting paper for metal. And I think the basic reason that it was acceptable was not because those peasants with no knowledge off the farm were idiots, they were smart enough about practical matters ( more than urban folk in more than a few instances ). They accepted the substitution because it represented wealth in another form. Paper currency could represent energy. Everyone other than TV brainwashed Americans knows that paper currency in and of itself is worth less than toilet paper ( TP is softer and doesn’t cause paper cuts to your bung ). They also know that governments are liars and thieves and glorified bandits. A government guarantee of paper currency is worthless. What is worth something is the energy that the government controls. That energy equals food, just like land used to represent a future promise of food. Just like gold used to represent the ability to buy that land anywhere there was farmland, regardless of location, government, culture or any other obstacle. Gold was portable farmland.
*
For over two hundred years, coal, then oil, represented the new energy. Energy that produced food. Paper currency was a form of trade for that energy, indirectly. A central bank coupled with a central government that issued paper, that issued debt, could raise armies to defend or steal energy. Stealing farmland was secondary, because oil was the new way to eat. I’m not talking about the recent 75 year tendency to turn natural gas into fertilizer into food. That helped, but I’m talking about oil as wealth to buy food also. Oil equaled industry equaled wealth which turned into food. Hence, Japan for instance turning oil and ore into machines which sold for enough wealth to buy more oil, more food, and a nice surplus besides. In the past, Japan was only as wealthy as its farmland. Now, even though it imports all its oil and a lot of its food, it is/was wealthy because it knew how to leverage petroleum into wealth. It wasn’t that the Yen was worth much of anything. But it bought the Japanese form of oil wealth.
*
All that, the last two to three hundred years of coal/oil wealth, is coming to an end. The end that is already started. That is why paper currency is not a good bet now. Not because the government suddenly became untrustworthy. They always have been. But because the oil wealth behind the paper is running out.
END
Damn, I was good today. Buy my crap at http://www.bisonpress.com/
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
credit rating chumps
CREDIT RATING CHUMPS
Sometimes technology is good, and sometimes it is bad. LED lights are great, e-books are bad for long term storage of knowledge. LED’s will eventually die from lack of workable batteries, but they will long outlive the old school way of emergency lighting. Even storing a 55 gallon drum of kerosene ( assuming you can find it and then afford it ), LED’s and batteries, while providing worse quality light, do provide illumination for a much longer period. In the case of books, the old way is much better. In the case of light, the new is far superior to the old.
*
It used to be that you were forced to jealously guard your credit rating as if it was the passport to all of life’s necessities. Oh, goodness golly gosh, if I don’t kiss the bankers ass and pay 200% of the department store merchandise price through interest, then I won’t get the loan to pay 300% of the auto after paying interest, and then I won’t be able to pay four times what the house is worth by paying thirty years of interest. Well, thank goodness for E-Bay and its real estate section. Now you don’t need credit to buy land on payments. Technology is working for the poor trailer trash for once. Of course, we all know you don’t need good credit to buy a used car. Just go down to Joe Bobs Honest Injun Used Car Emporium and pay 20% interest on a piece of crap. Yes, you will end up paying too much for junk land, and a beater trailer and car, but at least you didn’t need good credit to over pay. Pay interest to get more loans to pay interest, or just bypass the middleman and pay all the interest at once.
*
I bring this up after reading a question on www.survivalblog.com . Should I pay off my debt or should I buy supplies? Okay, I love reading this site every day, and I throw Rawles a financial bone every once in awhile to pay for the free read. I try to be nice, because despite any flaws I point out, there are a lot of things he does better than me, I believe he is quite sincere, and, hey, it’s free so why am I bitching? But, God, sometimes I am just simply amazed at some of the thinking behind things over there. Should you spend SIX FRIGGIN GRAND on a solar panel? Of course not, I don’t care if the CEO of the company hand delivers it to the door. I don’t care how high quality it is. To throw back the Rawles rule to folks wanting to buy this, one is none. These things can be stolen or damaged, and you want to gamble with six thousand bucks? Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Back to the debt question. You should buy supplies first. Too many bad things are just down the road to take a chance. Buy the hell out of food. Not $1200 grain grinders ( the $25, bought in multiples, will work just fine with extra elbow grease ). Not six thousand dollar PV panels. Bucket after bucket of wheat, corn and beans. Years and years of food per person. After that, then you can buy toys and luxuries like semi-automatic guns. And you should be able to buy all your toys, because you should tell your creditors to dig up your ass for their payment.
*
Stop paying on the house, and take the two to twenty months of saved mortgage and buy your junk land and trailer or cabin. Park the car at the bank and give them the keys. And file bankruptcy. Who gives a crap if your credit rating is shot? If we collapse, it doesn’t matter. You have tangibles, they have a bad report card on you. If we don’t collapse, who cares? As long as you did it all legal and proper ( I offer no legal advise-if you want some I’ll charge a 10% finders fee for a lawyer ) your only problem is not being able to get a low interest rate again. I understand there are several problems. Tax liabilities, unemployment at your junk land destination. I’m just making the point that your credit rating, your debt paid in a good little wage slave manner is not as important as getting supplies right friggin now. Why do you want to gamble your life against your standing as a debt holder? You need to figure out what is more important, going down with the ship with the bankers approval ( it isn’t even borrowed money you owe, its thin air created money ) or bailing out like a smart rat.
END
Sometimes technology is good, and sometimes it is bad. LED lights are great, e-books are bad for long term storage of knowledge. LED’s will eventually die from lack of workable batteries, but they will long outlive the old school way of emergency lighting. Even storing a 55 gallon drum of kerosene ( assuming you can find it and then afford it ), LED’s and batteries, while providing worse quality light, do provide illumination for a much longer period. In the case of books, the old way is much better. In the case of light, the new is far superior to the old.
*
It used to be that you were forced to jealously guard your credit rating as if it was the passport to all of life’s necessities. Oh, goodness golly gosh, if I don’t kiss the bankers ass and pay 200% of the department store merchandise price through interest, then I won’t get the loan to pay 300% of the auto after paying interest, and then I won’t be able to pay four times what the house is worth by paying thirty years of interest. Well, thank goodness for E-Bay and its real estate section. Now you don’t need credit to buy land on payments. Technology is working for the poor trailer trash for once. Of course, we all know you don’t need good credit to buy a used car. Just go down to Joe Bobs Honest Injun Used Car Emporium and pay 20% interest on a piece of crap. Yes, you will end up paying too much for junk land, and a beater trailer and car, but at least you didn’t need good credit to over pay. Pay interest to get more loans to pay interest, or just bypass the middleman and pay all the interest at once.
*
I bring this up after reading a question on www.survivalblog.com . Should I pay off my debt or should I buy supplies? Okay, I love reading this site every day, and I throw Rawles a financial bone every once in awhile to pay for the free read. I try to be nice, because despite any flaws I point out, there are a lot of things he does better than me, I believe he is quite sincere, and, hey, it’s free so why am I bitching? But, God, sometimes I am just simply amazed at some of the thinking behind things over there. Should you spend SIX FRIGGIN GRAND on a solar panel? Of course not, I don’t care if the CEO of the company hand delivers it to the door. I don’t care how high quality it is. To throw back the Rawles rule to folks wanting to buy this, one is none. These things can be stolen or damaged, and you want to gamble with six thousand bucks? Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Back to the debt question. You should buy supplies first. Too many bad things are just down the road to take a chance. Buy the hell out of food. Not $1200 grain grinders ( the $25, bought in multiples, will work just fine with extra elbow grease ). Not six thousand dollar PV panels. Bucket after bucket of wheat, corn and beans. Years and years of food per person. After that, then you can buy toys and luxuries like semi-automatic guns. And you should be able to buy all your toys, because you should tell your creditors to dig up your ass for their payment.
*
Stop paying on the house, and take the two to twenty months of saved mortgage and buy your junk land and trailer or cabin. Park the car at the bank and give them the keys. And file bankruptcy. Who gives a crap if your credit rating is shot? If we collapse, it doesn’t matter. You have tangibles, they have a bad report card on you. If we don’t collapse, who cares? As long as you did it all legal and proper ( I offer no legal advise-if you want some I’ll charge a 10% finders fee for a lawyer ) your only problem is not being able to get a low interest rate again. I understand there are several problems. Tax liabilities, unemployment at your junk land destination. I’m just making the point that your credit rating, your debt paid in a good little wage slave manner is not as important as getting supplies right friggin now. Why do you want to gamble your life against your standing as a debt holder? You need to figure out what is more important, going down with the ship with the bankers approval ( it isn’t even borrowed money you owe, its thin air created money ) or bailing out like a smart rat.
END
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
sipping propane
SIPPING PROPANE
Well, I can tell from yesterday’s lack of comments that no one seems to be too concerned about ten friggin percent oil production decline. Oh, not to worry, the illuminati conspiracy will simply uncap millions of top secret oil wells buried under the polar ice and flood the market after the price goes over a hundred bucks a barrel. Not. Listen up, people. There is no giant secret plan to rape us over the price of oil. That is chump change ( the government gets more in taxes on gasoline than Chevron gets on finding/drilling/delivering the stuff ). The big money is creating currency out of thin air and charging interest on it. And that has already been done until it killed the economy ( yes, lack of energy ultimately is responsible, but the derivatives market imploding would have gotten us anyway ). Thinking that the powers that be control secret untapped oil is just another form of wishful thinking, trying to deny that we are in for a serious die off. Fine. Believe what you wish. I tried, using hard facts. You want to believe that the Easter Bunny of Saudi Arabia will come along at the last minute to save your mortgage, SUV and college education in liberal arts. Have fun with that. In the mean time, the one or two loyal minions that are silly enough to panic along with me might want to see my propane use figures for last year. I can’t remember if I’ve already covered this, but it’s what you get.
*
Northern Nevada ain’t some crap hole like Montana or Michigan ( winter cold wise, anyway ). But it is cold enough for me. Keep in mind that there are two separate Nevada’s. Both politically and weather wise. Las Vegas in the south is low desert, hotter than hell ( literally ) in the summer. It is also more violent and liberal than Hades. Picture it as another L.A., with hotter and drier summers. The rest of Nevada is part of the Great Basin, much higher in elevation. It is cold in the winter, and not really hot in the summer, usually no more than 90 ( 95 is as hot as it gets on average, 100 is a heat wave ). The great thing about the Great Basin is the lack of people. Subtract Salt Lake City on the eastern edge, and take away Carson City and Reno on the western edge ( all living off mountain snow run off ), and you have almost no population at all over a huge chunk of land. Perfect for taking over and holding after the apocalypse. If you are interested in buying a commission in my future army, feel free to contact me. Winter weather is usually a low in the teens. When lucky, it is a low in the twenties. Worse than that, the cold weather starts immediately in the Fall and only slowly retreats after the start of Spring.
*
As I keep bragging about, I get plenty of heat from solar exposure. No, it isn’t an elaborate or expensive add on to the trailer, just the correct exposure. It can be in the 30’s or 40’s outside, and as long as the sun is out and we stay bundled up inside, there is no need to turn on the heater. The norm is to wear two sweaters and two pairs of socks and a beanie during the winter. And that is before we get dressed to go outside. After that, when we get cold, then it is time to turn on the heater. Taking a shower is usual a thrill, let me tell you. And, no heat at night. That is what wool blankets and comforters are for. They only cost you once, not every night. Yes, there is a little discomfort involved. Get over yourself, King Shit. You might think you deserve to wake up to an eighty degree house, but that won’t last long into the future.
*
Anyway, a quick run down on propane use from last year. We stay a little cold in the morning ( hey, you are already drinking coffee, you might as well use it to stay warm ) and then in the late morning, if it isn’t going to warm up because of clouds or it is abnormally cold outside, the heater gets turned on. Otherwise, if the sun is out, we can wait until early afternoon. Sometimes we don’t have to turn the heat on until the sun goes down. The first week of last December, we used the following hours of propane. Day one, 4 hours. Then 4,3,2,5,4,5. By the end of the month it was in the 7 and 9 hour per day range. Mr. Buddy heater uses a gallon of propane every twelve hours on low. We used an average of two hours a day in the fall and six hours a day during the winter. $1.25 a day on average in the winter in propane cost, filling up the five gallon tank every ten days on average.
*
A bit uncomfortable at times, but whether you are frugal or if there are future gas shortages ( listen to me, IF…I’m too funny ), a little insulation, a little discomfort, a few extra blankets and good southern exposure will help you stretch out your propane supply. Half a gallon a day might be all you can afford in the future.
END
Well, I can tell from yesterday’s lack of comments that no one seems to be too concerned about ten friggin percent oil production decline. Oh, not to worry, the illuminati conspiracy will simply uncap millions of top secret oil wells buried under the polar ice and flood the market after the price goes over a hundred bucks a barrel. Not. Listen up, people. There is no giant secret plan to rape us over the price of oil. That is chump change ( the government gets more in taxes on gasoline than Chevron gets on finding/drilling/delivering the stuff ). The big money is creating currency out of thin air and charging interest on it. And that has already been done until it killed the economy ( yes, lack of energy ultimately is responsible, but the derivatives market imploding would have gotten us anyway ). Thinking that the powers that be control secret untapped oil is just another form of wishful thinking, trying to deny that we are in for a serious die off. Fine. Believe what you wish. I tried, using hard facts. You want to believe that the Easter Bunny of Saudi Arabia will come along at the last minute to save your mortgage, SUV and college education in liberal arts. Have fun with that. In the mean time, the one or two loyal minions that are silly enough to panic along with me might want to see my propane use figures for last year. I can’t remember if I’ve already covered this, but it’s what you get.
*
Northern Nevada ain’t some crap hole like Montana or Michigan ( winter cold wise, anyway ). But it is cold enough for me. Keep in mind that there are two separate Nevada’s. Both politically and weather wise. Las Vegas in the south is low desert, hotter than hell ( literally ) in the summer. It is also more violent and liberal than Hades. Picture it as another L.A., with hotter and drier summers. The rest of Nevada is part of the Great Basin, much higher in elevation. It is cold in the winter, and not really hot in the summer, usually no more than 90 ( 95 is as hot as it gets on average, 100 is a heat wave ). The great thing about the Great Basin is the lack of people. Subtract Salt Lake City on the eastern edge, and take away Carson City and Reno on the western edge ( all living off mountain snow run off ), and you have almost no population at all over a huge chunk of land. Perfect for taking over and holding after the apocalypse. If you are interested in buying a commission in my future army, feel free to contact me. Winter weather is usually a low in the teens. When lucky, it is a low in the twenties. Worse than that, the cold weather starts immediately in the Fall and only slowly retreats after the start of Spring.
*
As I keep bragging about, I get plenty of heat from solar exposure. No, it isn’t an elaborate or expensive add on to the trailer, just the correct exposure. It can be in the 30’s or 40’s outside, and as long as the sun is out and we stay bundled up inside, there is no need to turn on the heater. The norm is to wear two sweaters and two pairs of socks and a beanie during the winter. And that is before we get dressed to go outside. After that, when we get cold, then it is time to turn on the heater. Taking a shower is usual a thrill, let me tell you. And, no heat at night. That is what wool blankets and comforters are for. They only cost you once, not every night. Yes, there is a little discomfort involved. Get over yourself, King Shit. You might think you deserve to wake up to an eighty degree house, but that won’t last long into the future.
*
Anyway, a quick run down on propane use from last year. We stay a little cold in the morning ( hey, you are already drinking coffee, you might as well use it to stay warm ) and then in the late morning, if it isn’t going to warm up because of clouds or it is abnormally cold outside, the heater gets turned on. Otherwise, if the sun is out, we can wait until early afternoon. Sometimes we don’t have to turn the heat on until the sun goes down. The first week of last December, we used the following hours of propane. Day one, 4 hours. Then 4,3,2,5,4,5. By the end of the month it was in the 7 and 9 hour per day range. Mr. Buddy heater uses a gallon of propane every twelve hours on low. We used an average of two hours a day in the fall and six hours a day during the winter. $1.25 a day on average in the winter in propane cost, filling up the five gallon tank every ten days on average.
*
A bit uncomfortable at times, but whether you are frugal or if there are future gas shortages ( listen to me, IF…I’m too funny ), a little insulation, a little discomfort, a few extra blankets and good southern exposure will help you stretch out your propane supply. Half a gallon a day might be all you can afford in the future.
END
Monday, October 05, 2009
energy down
ENERGY DOWN
“Energy, not money, is the root of all economic activity.” Michael C. Ruppert, A Presidential Energy Policy.
*
I told you before about the above book and how much I enjoyed it. Since yesterday was overcast and cold with a dusting of snow I decided that it was a perfect time to reread the book, to further depress myself. Let me share a few fun filled facts. Alaskan oil is down to one third its peak production twenty years ago. 42 of the 50 largest oil producing nations have declining oil production. In billions of barrels of oil, discovery rates are below that of 1930. And, global production is declining, net, 9% a year. Let’s look at each one and hopefully you will see why it is imperative for you to start panicking yesterday if not sooner.
*
Alaskan oil is not going to save out butts like it did in the 1970’s. It is a shadow of its former self production wise ( Alaska, and the Gulf, and lower 48 all together are only half our lower 48 production of 1970 ). And you can forget about North Sea oil ( which provided the same Lone Ranger rescue thirty years ago ). That peaked in 1999. England has become dependant on Russia for its natural gas and Norway is on a crash course to invest in alternate energies. Our Federal government will not follow that course, mainly due to the banker elite needing every possible dollar to stay afloat just a little bit longer. It is all up to the individual, just like food reserves and self protection.
*
The fact that almost all the oil producing nations are in decline should be cause enough for you to worry. And that is just what they confess to. Canada and Venezuela count their non oil tar sands as oil reserves. And they are in our top five exporters. Saudi Arabia won’t admit to decreases, instead disguising them as production cuts to stabilize prices. Assume that Saudi Arabia is the only country to ever ignore the laws of nature and its main field hasn’t started to decline after forty years of heavy production. Then why are they buying up record numbers of off shore wells? If their land based main field isn’t in terminal decline, why are they pumping so much from lesser underwater fields?
*
Oil discovery has been declining since the 1960’s. And that is after new advances in technology to find oil fields. Seventy five years ago, we were finding more oil than we are now, and that was back when population was a lot lower and not every farm was dependent on petroleum and natural gas to produce food. You need to seriously ask yourself how having a lot more people and a lot more oil dependence can’t backfire now that we are finding less oil. Oil discoveries are down in gross numbers and way down in per capita numbers. Back in the day, oil was not used to any extent compared to today. We lived near our work, we ate from near by farms. Not today.
*
Taken in total, net production after new discoveries, we are seeing 9% less oil being produced every year. Which dovetails nicely with our 8% decline in oil imports. How long do you honestly think our economy and our government and our civilization can last seeing almost 10% a year in energy decline? Our whole economic model was based on more oil being used every year. That is over and done with. Mass money creation is holding it together for a short period, but that is only a band-aid. Money can’t run your car or heat your home. Energy is the base, and energy is in terminal decline. Economically, it is all over but the crying. Now you have to worry about saving your sorry butt, because soon enough lack of energy is going to effect our food production ( 20% of our energy use ). It is nice to lie in a flower strewn meadow and soak up the sunshine and dream of organic farms and Birkenstock wearing saviors of mankind feeding everyone on the few plots of fertile land left, but it ain’t going to happen with our population.
*
Don’t worry, I’ll keep hollering about this until you panic properly. Or, just go back to looking for green shoots. Forget oil depletion hard facts, just listen to empty promises designed to keep the herd from bolting.
END
Your dollars will soon be useless, so you might as well just send them to me by BUYING MY CRAP www.bisonpress.com
“Energy, not money, is the root of all economic activity.” Michael C. Ruppert, A Presidential Energy Policy.
*
I told you before about the above book and how much I enjoyed it. Since yesterday was overcast and cold with a dusting of snow I decided that it was a perfect time to reread the book, to further depress myself. Let me share a few fun filled facts. Alaskan oil is down to one third its peak production twenty years ago. 42 of the 50 largest oil producing nations have declining oil production. In billions of barrels of oil, discovery rates are below that of 1930. And, global production is declining, net, 9% a year. Let’s look at each one and hopefully you will see why it is imperative for you to start panicking yesterday if not sooner.
*
Alaskan oil is not going to save out butts like it did in the 1970’s. It is a shadow of its former self production wise ( Alaska, and the Gulf, and lower 48 all together are only half our lower 48 production of 1970 ). And you can forget about North Sea oil ( which provided the same Lone Ranger rescue thirty years ago ). That peaked in 1999. England has become dependant on Russia for its natural gas and Norway is on a crash course to invest in alternate energies. Our Federal government will not follow that course, mainly due to the banker elite needing every possible dollar to stay afloat just a little bit longer. It is all up to the individual, just like food reserves and self protection.
*
The fact that almost all the oil producing nations are in decline should be cause enough for you to worry. And that is just what they confess to. Canada and Venezuela count their non oil tar sands as oil reserves. And they are in our top five exporters. Saudi Arabia won’t admit to decreases, instead disguising them as production cuts to stabilize prices. Assume that Saudi Arabia is the only country to ever ignore the laws of nature and its main field hasn’t started to decline after forty years of heavy production. Then why are they buying up record numbers of off shore wells? If their land based main field isn’t in terminal decline, why are they pumping so much from lesser underwater fields?
*
Oil discovery has been declining since the 1960’s. And that is after new advances in technology to find oil fields. Seventy five years ago, we were finding more oil than we are now, and that was back when population was a lot lower and not every farm was dependent on petroleum and natural gas to produce food. You need to seriously ask yourself how having a lot more people and a lot more oil dependence can’t backfire now that we are finding less oil. Oil discoveries are down in gross numbers and way down in per capita numbers. Back in the day, oil was not used to any extent compared to today. We lived near our work, we ate from near by farms. Not today.
*
Taken in total, net production after new discoveries, we are seeing 9% less oil being produced every year. Which dovetails nicely with our 8% decline in oil imports. How long do you honestly think our economy and our government and our civilization can last seeing almost 10% a year in energy decline? Our whole economic model was based on more oil being used every year. That is over and done with. Mass money creation is holding it together for a short period, but that is only a band-aid. Money can’t run your car or heat your home. Energy is the base, and energy is in terminal decline. Economically, it is all over but the crying. Now you have to worry about saving your sorry butt, because soon enough lack of energy is going to effect our food production ( 20% of our energy use ). It is nice to lie in a flower strewn meadow and soak up the sunshine and dream of organic farms and Birkenstock wearing saviors of mankind feeding everyone on the few plots of fertile land left, but it ain’t going to happen with our population.
*
Don’t worry, I’ll keep hollering about this until you panic properly. Or, just go back to looking for green shoots. Forget oil depletion hard facts, just listen to empty promises designed to keep the herd from bolting.
END
Your dollars will soon be useless, so you might as well just send them to me by BUYING MY CRAP www.bisonpress.com
Saturday, October 03, 2009
guest article
GUEST ARTICLE
Doom As A Hobby -- A Partial Rebuttal
I met Jim last summer. For the curious: he's cute, personable, witty, a good talker but quiet, a serious thinker with a great smile. Good thing wife #4 moved back in, or some smart girl might've taken her place. And yes there are $7.77 prime rib specials at the casino, and while doing the tour of Elko, I got to see several Bison Survival Blog monuments, his bicycle, the Wal-Mart (ack), the grocery stores, the main street. I didn't see where he works or the feed store or the Bison Survival compound, there is a limit to my nosiness. Although I love when he publishes his budget.
At one point in the conversation, Jim suggested that doom was just a hobby. I really had to think about that. It was nearly semi-offensive. But when you hear things like that, best to sit back and ruminate a bit. And then he said it again in the 9/29 post, "Even those of us that are cynical and paranoid fear to imagine much past the long slow collapse. It is too scary seeing a future without luxury. Doom and gloomers are mostly playing. It’s just a weird hobby."
MSN dictionary defines a hobby as an enjoyable activity, and activity engaged in for pleasure and relaxation during spare time. I can't argue with that. But it doesn't exactly cover all aspects of doom preps, does it? Doom lite is my specialty. I only have one girly gun, and anybody in the vicinity should be worried if I try to point it somewhere. Over the last few years I've gotten plenty of practice with food preservation techniques, and now I have a pretty respectable pantry. We installed a big rain barrel and got a water filter. Our finances are just about in order. Between me and the spouse, we have a few skills, but we don't do shoe repair, plumbing, or a host of other things, probably for the best. It seems like we always know somebody who knows someone, so we're covered. Health issues are likeliest to be the biggest concern in the event of collapse. You do what you can.
But to get to the point. Doom prepping is beyond hobby level. Thinking about collapse, financial, personal, governmental, that's enough to make you reach for the anti-depressants or maybe the TV remote. You have to give up your ideas about government, corporations, social security, political parties, money, American history, etc. I'm just wrapping up 2-3 years of Peak Oil anxiety, and easing into acceptance-of-death mode. Doom has altered some personal relationships, sucked up a good chunka paycheck, practically dictated how my leisure time is spent, which books I read, etc. I've had to give up being an introvert, and get out there and meet other doomers, learn doom-worthy skills, buy tools & ammo, etc. Sure the canning of food can be fun work, and I like keeping an inventory of the pantry and I like petting the bunnies we keep for garden manure. The morbid humor is funny. And it's good for me to get out there and meet and greet. But it is practically all-encompassing, getting one's doom act together. Knitting is a hobby. Collecting old Barbie dolls is a hobby.
Doom? More than a hobby. Maybe an obsession. Make it work for you.
END
MY NOTE- No, people, I didn't write this one. I almost blushed reading it. This is from our eastern correspondant who has posted guest articles before. I inserted the breaks, pasting the original gave me one lump of words. BUY MY CRAP www.bisonpress.com
Doom As A Hobby -- A Partial Rebuttal
I met Jim last summer. For the curious: he's cute, personable, witty, a good talker but quiet, a serious thinker with a great smile. Good thing wife #4 moved back in, or some smart girl might've taken her place. And yes there are $7.77 prime rib specials at the casino, and while doing the tour of Elko, I got to see several Bison Survival Blog monuments, his bicycle, the Wal-Mart (ack), the grocery stores, the main street. I didn't see where he works or the feed store or the Bison Survival compound, there is a limit to my nosiness. Although I love when he publishes his budget.
At one point in the conversation, Jim suggested that doom was just a hobby. I really had to think about that. It was nearly semi-offensive. But when you hear things like that, best to sit back and ruminate a bit. And then he said it again in the 9/29 post, "Even those of us that are cynical and paranoid fear to imagine much past the long slow collapse. It is too scary seeing a future without luxury. Doom and gloomers are mostly playing. It’s just a weird hobby."
MSN dictionary defines a hobby as an enjoyable activity, and activity engaged in for pleasure and relaxation during spare time. I can't argue with that. But it doesn't exactly cover all aspects of doom preps, does it? Doom lite is my specialty. I only have one girly gun, and anybody in the vicinity should be worried if I try to point it somewhere. Over the last few years I've gotten plenty of practice with food preservation techniques, and now I have a pretty respectable pantry. We installed a big rain barrel and got a water filter. Our finances are just about in order. Between me and the spouse, we have a few skills, but we don't do shoe repair, plumbing, or a host of other things, probably for the best. It seems like we always know somebody who knows someone, so we're covered. Health issues are likeliest to be the biggest concern in the event of collapse. You do what you can.
But to get to the point. Doom prepping is beyond hobby level. Thinking about collapse, financial, personal, governmental, that's enough to make you reach for the anti-depressants or maybe the TV remote. You have to give up your ideas about government, corporations, social security, political parties, money, American history, etc. I'm just wrapping up 2-3 years of Peak Oil anxiety, and easing into acceptance-of-death mode. Doom has altered some personal relationships, sucked up a good chunka paycheck, practically dictated how my leisure time is spent, which books I read, etc. I've had to give up being an introvert, and get out there and meet other doomers, learn doom-worthy skills, buy tools & ammo, etc. Sure the canning of food can be fun work, and I like keeping an inventory of the pantry and I like petting the bunnies we keep for garden manure. The morbid humor is funny. And it's good for me to get out there and meet and greet. But it is practically all-encompassing, getting one's doom act together. Knitting is a hobby. Collecting old Barbie dolls is a hobby.
Doom? More than a hobby. Maybe an obsession. Make it work for you.
END
MY NOTE- No, people, I didn't write this one. I almost blushed reading it. This is from our eastern correspondant who has posted guest articles before. I inserted the breaks, pasting the original gave me one lump of words. BUY MY CRAP www.bisonpress.com
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