REVIEW BISON
I must share this great find. Two wool coats for $20 plus shipping from Sportsmans. Sure, it will look a bit funny, but warm is warm.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=877182
*
As I’ve said before, I have two things I do badly. Well, three if you count marriages. But mainly, my dire predictions are always off time wise, and I have little conception of what pleases others ( including wives ). Honestly, I have no idea what you all see in my drivel. Which is okay, I just keep churning it out and you all come back for more. And I’m a poor judge of which days are good and which are bad. I write some articles, congratulate myself, and it passes inspection with you all like a turd in the punchbowl. Other times, I worry what I wrote sucked and you all seem to love it. So as I said, I’m just going blind here, bouncing off the wall and thanking Baby Jesus for the soft landing. Lately, I worry that I’m being a bit of an ass. I mean, above and beyond my normal level. Am I getting shrill and toxic? Am I being too judgmental? I think so, but I don’t know if you agree. What I’m thinking is, as the collapse gathers speed, we are all acting badly. I’m spitting venom the way of folks that just deny louder or desperately seek the answers. Is this wrong on my part? Should I have a better understanding of other folks handicap?
*
I think we are all looking about in bewilderment. Even the doomers. They see clearly and are confused both by other folks blatant disregard for reason and worry and the inane responses by our leaders. I mean, the Fedgov spends several trillion a year, yet can’t see their way to coming up with an additional $5 billion for FEMA. Where the heck is all the money going to? All the flash and yelling in DC is just “blame other political parties”. But both are captaining the Titanic. If they both merged into one and all agreed 100% about everything, the sucker is still going down. But I don’t think their confusion is a game, I think it is genuine. They can’t think outside their box and so to them, the solution is simple. The solution to the wrong problem, of course. So I guess I shouldn’t hate them so much. Other folks see the problem clearly and are so frightened they are in subconscious denial. Like fracking the Rockies will keep us in Empire another seventy five years. So perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on them either. I don’t know if I can stop hating them, but I should try to cut them some slack. But even if I don’t, that in itself isn’t the main problem. I think I’m responding so badly to other peoples denial, I’m focusing on hating them and all I’m doing is churning out rants. I mean, I’ve always ranted. But it wasn’t a daily occurrence. I’m worried I’ve become a one horse show and I’m just spewing venom and doing nothing else.
*
I like to think I was balanced in my writing. Analysis and how-to’s with the once or twice monthly good healthy purging rant. But if all I’m doing is ranting, this blog won’t last too much longer. I know I can’t sustain readership numbers and financial support if I don’t stay true to my usual formula. But, again, I’m terrible in judging my own writing. I can’t tell if I’m just in a bad mood and that is coloring my thinking, or if I’m looking at things clearly. So I really need your feedback. Please comment, or e-mail if you would rather. It might be that I’ve reached the end of anything useful to say ( it seems I’m repeating an awful lot ). It has been five years next month, after all. If that is the case, I could always just turn this over to daily fiction. You would get the same old crap, but in fictional form. I hate installment fiction, but I can’t just leave you for two months until I’ve finished a novel. You would forget about me. I can’t summon up the mental energy to write both the non-fiction blog and a piece of fiction the same day. It would have to be one or the other. After all, my best book, my first, was written before I started the blog. I need to focus and not spread myself too thin.
*
It could just be that in my gut, I know it is all over but the crying ( remember last weeks financial crash warning because of the child support? ). I could care less anymore, perhaps I’ve given up truly trying to think up new subjects because we are all going to be fighting for our lives within months ( you know the collapse will happen during a winter, just to maximize our misery and difficulty ). I don’t honestly know, which is why I need your feedback. So, should I stop trying to be so annoying, stop reading into things, just stay the way I’ve been? Am I being too negative, losing focus and just hating on people? Have I come to the end of a good run and focus on fiction? Any information you can share would be appreciated.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
*
Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
43 comments:
Oh I'm going to miss you.
Why dont you write something about the .303 briSHIT and junk land.
Trailer living will be nice.
James, keep writing. I have gotten used to your "Hey, I'm an asshole and don't care who knows it" attitude. While not everyone will dive headfirst into your "Buy junk land and live on wheat" philosophy, you may provide the little extra nudge to get some idiots out there to at least half-ass prepare for what's coming.
One less unprepared idiot means one less half-starved suburban yuppie zombie scratching at all of our doors when the worst comes.
Your cautionary tale of marriage/divorce/child support may give some man pause out there...before he marries the buxom cheerleader that wants/needs 142 pairs of shoes in her closet and a salon visit every two days.
You provide a service, dammit! You inform, entertain, warn and berate your audience in an effective manner.
Don't leave us, great hirsute one! Even if we deny it, we need you!
Besides, if you stop writing, you'll piss off Baby Jesus.
your off the cuff writing is what I look for... the occasional useful prepping nugget is just icing on the cake :)
Just keep doing what you are doing. I stop by daily anyway....sometimes you make sense, and others I just sit here shaking and scratching my head...but I am always checking in. Others are too damn repetitive, yours is always different.
I don't care if you are an asshat sometimes. Reading your blog is a digital sitting around having a beer and shooting the shit.
I have my opinions about things and what is going on, but am not able to fill alot of time with writing articles. Don't have it in me. Just an occasional bit of brilliance is all I got. You been doing this for almost five years? Dayymmm.
SemperFido
Suggestions:
1. Five days a week
2. Rant limited to one day a week
3. Bring back fundamental Fridays
4. Organize the website by topic or at least provide links to broad subject areas that contain important 'how to' articles.
5. You need another project. That results in fresh writing and more and better comments.
6. I think the site and your viewer counts are limited by the small, stale comments section. You don't need 100 comments for every post, but you need a little back and forth, an exchange of ideas. And that doesn't happen when comments are published only once every 24 hrs.
7. I don't know if it can be done with BLOGGER software, but you could add some photos, links and advertising images to update the site and make a few bucks off it. I don't think people would mind as long as you don't go overboard with annoying 'mouse-overs' that won't disappear.
8. Related to No. 7, Creekmore has a good balance of content, images and non-obtrusive advertising. And judging by the size of his comments section, readership is way up. Find a middle ground becaue Creekmore has gone a bit soft lately. I'd LOVE to read about his move and big project setting up a new homestead, but it's all guest post this, contest that. Blah... I rarely visit that site anymore.
9. Don't discount the continual demise/slow burn crowd, even if that's not the way you think things are going to pan out.
Hi Jim,
Well, hell...I like your blog more than most others. Ranting??? Nah...you aren't. At least not in my book. Fact is....I like your "style". Much rather have that than those that pussy foot around and are afraid of offending people. Something I can't understand....You read what some folks post and yes, it is about prepping but it seems a lot of posts just deal with the food and things like that. They never want to admit that they may have to waste some low life. To me, that seems like they are riding for a fall. I dunno..I really believe the shit will hit the fan sooner rather than later.
Curt
I like your drivel, please keep going.
Two things that distinguish you:
You don't get into political rants.
You don't tke youself too seriously - or at the least are self-depricating.
I thought you were always ranting. So long as you are sticking to your core topics of collapse and survival I don't see a problem.
If you run out of topics you can always go over to your favorite yuppie blogger site to find expensive survial ideas to rant about.
As a preacher, I learned in seminary that you always deliver 3 messages. There is the one you gave, the one you thought you gave and the one everyone heard you give. Don't try to analyze it, just share what's on your heart. As far as being to negative and hateful, well, that's why I tune it. You say the things I can only think quietly.
-Novice
I read your blog because you are, as 'Ol Remus once described you, "...an original thinker". That is getting to be a mighty rare trait in this land of Group-Think
Plus, you often write very well. Some wonderful, LMAO turn of phrases are often found on this blog ("...green shoots growing out of Obammy's ass". And a million similar ones). I wouldn't change a thing, but it's obviously your blog and your time investment.
I also always read the comments. While sometimes informative, they're also often hilarious and thought provoking. A few of them I would even put in the All Time Blog Comments Hall Of Fame.
An incurable cynic might quote Bob Dylan when describing this blog: "Everybody wants to pull you down into the hole they're in". But I have never felt pulled into any hole. Instead, I often feel myself being invigorated by your acerbic wit and unbending spirit in response to your circumstances. Your commentary on the state of world affairs is, more often than not, quite unique. I would bet many others feel the same.
Your fiction could benefit from some tough-love editing, but that is not the worst thing in the world. Many college composition teachers have an habitual phrase: "There is no writing, only re-writing".
What you refer to as your 'extreme paranoia' I would call 'discernment'. It has served you well, so I wouldn't start doubting yourself now.
In addition to all that, I have learned many practical 'how to' tips and ideas about survival living from this site. Most of them written, of course, with some kick-ass, in your face, wickedly stinging wit.
Sir, I think, like all of us, you can have a bad day or week where the pressure of the potential collapse and the feeling of futility in sticking your finger in the dam is getting to you. Please carry on. Get a lot of good info and food for thought from your articles. And your 'ranting' diatribes always have an element that slaps people up side the head, as it were. Stimulating. If you lose faith in yourself what about the rest of us. You've been at it for five years! Probably raised a lot of awareness. Woke people up. I'm SAR so I'm a sucker for helping folks. You've probably done more for people, in the long run, than I ever have pulling their asses (or corpses)out of the desert. Don't let those insidious doubts creep in. Keep on keepin' on , sir. Good job. S.D.
Being one of the females you love to bash and no I don't get affended that easily...bring it!
I actually like your blog, you have insight that just amazes me at times. Hope you continue your blog.
PS. Butt hurt is my new favorite phrase
Jim,
We love your piss and vinegar. Your rants are wonderful because while you can be totally pissed off about something you can still see the humor in it.
That's why I have read you for years. Your true believer minions all realize that we are heading for the crapper (or the stew pot) but we NEED the gallows humor to get through it. You know when to call BS on the sacred cows of preparedness.
So quit over analyzing yourself and get back to doing what you do best--pissing off everyone--the old farts, feminist, gays, nazi's, everyone.
You will always have readers if you keep on telling it like it is in your own dysfunctional way.
Idaho Homesteader
Na dont stop writing, I would hate to creep over to " you know who" for my survival fill. Also, so you know, my favorite saying is " taking the big flush " I use it regularly ( sorry I dont credit you often enough , I guess I am an asshat, it is what you get for calling a minion, it works). Our buddy over at TAEC doesnt do much nowa days, so I would be extra lonely. Take it easy and keep pumping the drivel, probably more pumping then the oil companies do.
peace
Jim,
Couple of things. First off, I don't come to this blog for a warm and fuzzy. I can get that on most any blog I read.
Next, I come to Bisonia daily with one question in my mind; I wonder what he's torqued off about today? I come for the truth and vitriol. I come to hear you speak your mind, in text of course.
Lastly, I'll reference a few lines from the movie "Patton", where Patton announces: "If we are not victorious, let no man come back alive!"
To which a subordinate reply's "Sir, sometimes the men can't tell if you're acting or not."
Patton responds, "It doesn't matter if they know, it only matters that I know."
As long as you know when your acting is what is important. Spew away...
PS Baby Jeebus would like you to continue as before.
Hey Jim,
Seems like yer gittin a tad bit of humanity, what with doughtin yerself and all... It proves you're, real. It proves you care enough (about us) to question yourself. (All good leaders do it... just don't do it too often or yer panties will show!)
Even though the venom you spew is delish, it DEOES make it hard to feel good about donatin to ya. (Ya mean old bastard!) But at least you don't have the fuckin PERPETUAL CONtests! If I could afford to, I'd donate or at least commish ya.
Your sour repeated drivel is still, MUCH BETTER, than the happy droids BAU-ishness. (The plastigun crowd...) Think of it like building a house... THE FOUNDATION COMES FIRST! Some folks want a roof full of solar panels and windgens, while their floors are rotting out from under them!
As fer the "rats jumpin yer (reader)ship," fuck-em! I think yer still doin a fine job, hatin and all! Nothin wrong with hate, it keeps you honest.
But...
If you had to choose between writtin yer book, and writtin yer site, I would say the book comes first! (= Bigger Payback4ya.) You could do a weekly spew - like Remus - and we'd read it. Five (5) years is a long time... even though you just took a break, sometimes you just need to step back and look at your work from a distance. Like doing a paintin.
The picture you paint ain't pretty, but it sure is realistic!
In July 2005 Doc Van suggested that I would like Bison newsletter. I read BNL #91 July 28 2005, and everything since. Mr Dakin is in touch with what I perceive to be reality. He is one of the few who realize that Joe Average does not think, plan, or prepare, and would be lucky to have a poncho, rifle and a can of beans after SHTF.
Were you payng attention July 15 2007? I commented on the thread Pro Survivalists,"Our present time of peace and plenty is like a vacation on the Love Boat. Everything we need is at hand.Place a telephone credit card order. UPS delivers in three days. Life is good. Jim is the officer in charge of life boat drills. He teaches the nuts and bolts of survival in the life boat when the Love Boat sinks and we are adrift. Our lifeboat is the junk van with guns, corn mill, and foam mattress on plywood on top of food for a year in 5 gal pails."
Pls see http://tinyurl.com/6knjrt
I learn something every time I read this blog.
I just like to know I'm not the only "loser" on the play ground. Those days I start comparing myself to the normal folk. Thinking I "should have" and "if only" I get to read your view. We are screwed. I tend to forget. We are screwed. No one in power is even looking at real solutions. We are screwed. The climate, economy, resources, social, and medical issues are headed toward a cliff. We are screwed. Hopefully a few tribes will have enough to survive and to rebuild. Your rebuilding plan is herding, are you really ready to do that? Ever birth a calf? Trim a goats hoof? Deal with a sick lamb?
Lord Bison, I love your blog just the way it is. Pure you. You have the balls (giant ones that clank!) to say out loud to the entire world what the rest of us are only brave enough to share with a few (if at all).
Of course I read this with an eye to your prepping advice - but I can piece that together from a million other sources. I read this regularly because of YOUR awesome, funny, grim-as-hell, smart arsed, unique opinions, your spin, your outlook.
So, quit second guessing yourself! I don't know what is spurring this bout of low self opinion, but SHAKE IT OFF, MAN ;p
I really hope you don't stop. How will I ever find someone else to quote that will make people look at me so funny?
Lord Bison,
Perhaps you could get a few Bisonians to moderate the comments so that we can have discussions?
-MBP
El Chupacabra
I actually like the guest posts on Creekmore's Survivalist Blog. It gives everyone a chance to share their knowledge and individual perspective. He has not tried to make the site all about him but about his readers.
I have learned more from his site than any other and my preps and level of preparedness have increases because of it and the other members of The Wolf Pack.
And to be honest I doubt Mr. Creekmore has a lot of time to write on the blog having a seven book contract with Paladin Press and moderating hundreds of comments each day on his blog.
you are an original. you speak your mind, let the chips fall where they may. i agree with most all of the others here. keep on blogging. a picture every now and then wouldn't hurt.
Nate
Look, I do not come here for sugar coated BS. Besides, your shrill rants are a good barometer for my own paranoia ;)
Pickdog
III
just keep doing what you're doing. i have shit seperator built into the laptop. i'm too old and tough for you to hurt my delicate feelings[group hug?] and baby j does love me too. you pissed him off with then oly beer. scotch next time; single malt. your tips are damn good. thanks for the work. delr
Dang! lost the long post I was going to reply with.
Well, to boil it down, you converse on your blog as we will all be conversing like after this crumbling collapse is over.
If people get offended by it let them.
Please continue to focus on the HOW to prepare, WHY to prepare, WHEN to prepare (yesterday of course but the heads up of every sort is good), and WHAT you specificly are doing to improve your preps/lifestyle.
The Government does as much "have some food stored""have some water stored""have warm clothes and a flash light" "duct tape and trash bags"(to put your bodies in)etc. We can read that bland pap anywhere. Your spicy writing helps the stuff go down, and gives us a spark to keep us working to be ready.
-Grey
If you have to commit more time to your book then give us our dose of ranting 'drivel' 2 or 3 times a week.
Sure I get on some other sites but there's something missing. Grit. Style. Honesty. Sometimes another author is arguing a point with a reader and it's just politically correct, watered down pablum so as not to offend his readers. You tell us where to stick the colonoscopy tube! The type of angry screeds with the hateful invectives you sometimes spew gives your writing color and comes from strength. Sometimes there is indeed plenty to get mad about. Said my piece (again). Whatever is best for you, sir.... S.D.
Keep it up! Yours is my first stop of the day along with my coffee and smoke!
Your survival philosophy (hide out in the most God forsaken place possible to survive the die off) is distinct enough to claim it's own name - the Bisonian Survival Philosophy.
If I was single and had no family, it's what I'd do. I'm a hermit by nature, it'd be easy.
You'd be perfect if you just embraced the Mosin Nagant and spurned the ~$1/round .303 rifle.
Anon 3:53,
Sorry, you're on crack. You're right that it does take a lot of time to edit comments to remove any hint of criticism for the occasional stupid idea posted, but he has the time. YMMV.
Jim you have to keep writing because YOU LOVE IT.Now a thousand words a day is a hard qouta to fill fall back a little.We come here because we like the raw and unsweetend way you put things.I know there is a monetary aspect in a lot of blogs but i respect you{damn that hurt}for speaking your mind even if it turns those away that want sweetness and sunshine survival out comes. P.S. remember if you do away with daily posting the wife will expect more of your time and mite even want to talk to you for a few hours when your home.
Great article. Does your husband write too?
I am fairly new to reading your "blog" And I do find it rather refreshing but.... If you need to hear all the spineless sheeple out there tell you how great you are I would have to suggest some sort of intense therepy might be in order. If however you are truly wondering what you could do to refresh your writing let me make this one suggestion. Quit being such a "Dickhead" to people who like you share an interest in surviving the coming "shit storm" but are going about it differenty from you. Not everyone shares your love of eating almost nothing but wheat. And constantly reading that if you don't love the same obsolete bolt action rifle as I do you're a "Yuppie Prepper" Personally I belive that most people not only buy the firearm they are most comfortable with but also the one that they can afford. And really what does it matter if someone has a "$10,000" arsenal. It wasn't your money that bought it. Or are you jealous? And if somebody wants to spend a little (or a lot) more money to see to it that they and their loved ones eat a little better so be it.
Sincerely Eric(The Mad Irishman)
Well, you are kind of a mental kind of porn in a way. I think I should read more uplifting stuff, but yet I seem to keep drifting back. You actually do make many good points about prepping. And you make me feel positively un-paranoid by comparison at least. I am sure I am not the only one you provide that service for. Some days the picture you paint even manages to make me grateful that I am a female of sufficient age I might die before I saw it all. Still, I prep as best I can hoping family will have the stuff if needed. And I think it will be needed
Are you kidding me? Guys like you were meant to blog. Even if you wrote about radio-controlled cars, or wrote about your hobby of collecting maxipad advertisements from the 1970s, I would still read your articles.
A bicycle-riding maniac that lives in Elko, Nevada and works in a Food Bank?
Well, he has got to be a complete and utter freak. Tell me more.
He changes wives like other guys change their trousers and kicks around in trailer-parks?
He sounds like a guy I did time with.
He shits in a bucket and brags about his hair?
Man, I want to party with this guy.
Jim, dont you go changin'.
The demons of ecstasy should have have begun their Hellride through the dark, damp corridors of your mind at this point:
You are free from the impressment of child support, the collapse draws ever nearer, and the fruition of a lifetime of preaching doom awaits you on the next horizon.
Bear down, suck it up, and lead your minions into the glorious future we have envisioned, as a gnawing unfulfilled yearning for so long!
"Onward!! For the glory of Bisonia!!"
Loyal Minion
Yes, yes, group hug! You're all great, thanks for the many comments. Short version, nothing changes. Long version will lard up half an upcoming article.
Is there any way you can open up the comment section even a little?
For example, when you post an article on Mon - Fri moning, you could have open comments until you do your afternoon check of your blog. You could then catch any libel/inappropriate stuff in just a few hours time.
Your open comment section was the envy of all.
Idaho Homesteader
IH-that is not too bad of an idea, on the comments section. Let me think on it. If you don't hear anything half way thru next week, remind me again ( its not that I'm forgetful, just that I'm having So Many Important Thoughts, I can't keep track of them all ).
Just came back, from setting up my winter bug out camp out in the swamps.
Don't wanna hear this crap about you're being too harsh. If anything the yuppie scum which read your drivel, need to be bitch slapped even more regularly !
Gotta always hope that you are out there with a reality check.
Keep up the excellent work
Bison, please keep writing.
Have learned important stuff at the same time as laughing uncontrollably.
Your writing style is unique.
I see your 'paranoia' as simply a sincere and uncomplicated man reaching out to others who are similarly 'paranoid' at seeing the sad state our world has devolved into in just a few decades.
Yes, we are awake to the dire state of our nations.
The millions on food stamps, loss of jobs, being thrown out of their homes, seeing the imbalance of power between police and citizens, the contempt politicians mete out to the voting citizens. Jobs that do not even meet the ever increasing costs of living, while the fat pigs in banks laugh - as they are bailed out by tax-payers money, while the tax payers are thrown out on the street, and their tents are then cut up and they are moved on...people dying for lack of funds to buy life-saving medicine.
While greedy/corrupt/fat politicians go on taxpayer funded trips.
Keep spitting venom - while we have the internet like-minded people have a place to also vent; to share useful information while we all slide into the purposefully created shit-hole.
Your insight and way of writing has enlightened me.
The painful honesty that you write about, your life and your current experiences show me that I have nothing to complain about, and to continue to get myself organized - as this shit-hole continues to spread worldwide - the financial collapse will be brutal - we know it, you know it - some people are only just starting to wake up now - millions are still knocking themselves out trying to keep their heads above water.
Your blog shows that it is possible to survive/live at a basic level. It gives people hope that if they too are living in a trailer on land some distance from town, they can manage.
Yes, there are other blogs - however the painful truth of our collapsing financial institutions, the all-to-visible lack of morals and personal integrity in people who are in public positions, these are not being expressed as eloquently and succinctly as you do on your blog.
Cassandra sounded warnings - but nobody listened...so, you are in good company.
You have a following - do not change your writing style. However, Idaho Homesteader had a great suggestion - open up the comments section - and the comments are moderated by you before public posting...
Let your readers now give some insight back to you - we can share our experiences and knowledge. Those that want to participate can.
What I have connected with is your brutal honesty and humility - you spare no one, not even yourself.
And we are feed total bullshit from the media and their feeders.
So, when you give your view of the crap we read/hear on the news, it is refreshing to see that there are others out there that are also recognizing the crap being dished out - and they expect us to take it...so, if the only avenue we like-minded people have is the internet and blogs, specifically your blog - so be it.
Perhaps more interaction between readers and yourself will help.
You have been carrying a heavy load on your shoulders, so, do not be too proud to accept help or take up viable suggestions from your readers.
Cheers, Old Timer from Down Under.
Damn, I was almost moved to tears from some of those sappy comments. Seriously, a beautiful thing.
All good suggestions with the exception of "don't bash on yuppie survivalists"...oh, please, that's what makes you, YOU.
If nothing else, you have brought together a community of like-minded individuals that someday may have each other's back - who knows?
There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said, so, keep a'-churnin' out yer drivel, Lord B.
Post a Comment