Whenever you make some kind of comment, you can sure several things will happen. I’ll ignore you. I’ll respond flippantly without length, if you are lucky. Or, just to teach you to be careful what you wish for, and you get really unlucky, I’ll make an article out of it and talk about it way to much. I pride myself on trying to explain something it such irritating detail that you will be sorry you asked. Today, what shall I do when I become unemployed? I could answer in a few sentences and then I would have to find something else to talk about, like how the Nebraska nuke plant
just flooded and all you sill Yankees are going to die. Of course, you’ve probably already been poisoning yourselves with the frac gas polluted groundwater so its no big deal. So, let’s take the lesser of evils and talk about unemployment. Regular folks, with bills equaling 110% of their two paychecks, an underwater house, spoiled kids, three ancient cars on the verge of breakdown and a TV cable and cellular bill combo that probably equals my entire regular net paycheck ( 50% of minimum wage
at 36 hours a week ). You, your family and the horses you rode in on are probably humped blue come unemployment. You will be homeless, hounded by creditors and your children will make up lies to protective services to get into a cozy foster home ( don’t laugh- that is exactly what wife #3’s two younger kids did. And you thought your family was dysfunctional ). *
Now, if you were to become Lucky Wife #5, you’d have a place to stay. Here’s my new plan. I know that even though all you gals not so secretly lust after me, you have several important reservations against dropping everything, moving to this craphole and becoming Lady Bison. Firstly, you are thinking to yourself, what if the apocalypse never happens? I’m stuck with this conceited asshat with his nose in a book all the time, freezing my ass off in the winter and crapping in a bucket. Hey, I understand. It’s a lot to risk. So, you move out to Elko, but move into town and get a job. There you can live with grid power, flushing toilets, retaining your independence. I’ll be little bother, merely insisting on regularly scheduled conjugal visits
. Then, come regular unemployment or the collapse of western civilization
, you can move out to the Bison Compound. Sure, I’d rather have a live in relationship. It’s much more warm at night with a body next to you, and if you are like most gals that have so little self esteem that you’d have a relationship with me, you are pretty fat and hence throw off extra heat in the winter. Ideally, I could have a skinny wife for the summer and a fat one for the winter, also cutting down on my food bill some of the year, but I don’t want to push my luck. Hey, think about it, that’s all I’m asking ( if you are skinny and have a best friend that is fat you can throw in as wife #5, share an apartment in town to cut expenses and BOTH reap the benefits- just not at the same time. I’m getting a bit old for that kind of stuff ). Anyway, as the economy really starts to take a crap I’m sure this offer will look better and better. Just beware rents here are a bit high, reflecting the fact we actually have a few jobs left to offer.*
Come unemployment, I’ll merely be forced to actually go through with my original plan, which is to be a full time writer. It is risky, since as the economy tanks, so do Amazon sales. Hopefully the economy is not so bad I can’t get Food Stamps. With only half my regular writing money, I can still pay for propane and a bike
. If that doesn’t have to buy food. Of course, by canning meat and eating mostly potatoes, grains and legumes I can drop my food budget to $100 a month, but I’d hate to do that if I still had to peddle into town several times a week. My body really demands a lot of protein or I move very sluggishly. The fly in the ointment is the land payment. I didn’t move to the paid off lot 50% farther away from town because of commuting. On my bike, hauling ( notice the bikes new name, Red Cargo Hauler, and its initials RCH? Think about it ) water and propane, that commute would be an extreme bitch. Remember, the wind here blows constantly late morning to dusk almost every day ( proof that global warming
exists? The norm here is to fight the wind going home. Every damn day. Once, at most twice a year, the wind is at my back. Last month, it was at my back twice in one friggin week. Abnormal weather proof ). With extreme cold, and the wind, six miles home is bad enough. Adding fifty percent even worse. But, the deciding factor was at the further lot, the last two miles are all up hill. Truly. If I was forced to, I could. But all my clearing and digging in is on the “mortgaged” lot, and I’m hoping to stay there.*
Bottom line, unemployment to me will be an inconvenience, not a life altering event. If there was no writing income or no Food Stamps, I’d wager it is collapse time anyway. As long as food can be transported and cooked, I can’t see the feds allowing people to starve ( under martial law
, yes. But not under the current business as usual, keep the bankers in profits no matter the cost mode ). Under the present arrangement of things, sure, shelter and transportation is up to you, but at least you can still eat ( I’m aware of the dilemma of getting Food Stamps while actually having assets- should be a minor hump ). Sure, it would be great to own enough good land and feed myself come unemployment, but then there is the property tax issue. I’d say baring collapse, this is as good as it gets as a plan for unemployment. Just needing food and a few bucks for power and peddling. Once the dwelling is paid for, and you have no debts, unemployment is no longer the nightmare you’ve come to use to motivate yourself to mount the gerbil wheel every day.END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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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.
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By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
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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.
. And, while we are on that subject-never fear, we shall return to the original teaser before you nod off- lately I’ve been reading more than a few older books that are simply astounding me. Not because they are the standard “change human nature at the same time you elect a leader actually worth a crap who isn’t controlled by the banking cartel and watch as all monied interests gleefully give up all their wealth and power and then by gum we’ll all be saved from the impending disaster” type of drivel that is pretty much the only thing out there ( 
is about the only exception I can recall, and that forces me to conclude that out of all the scumbag whore puke face lawyers out there, at least one is a human being ), but because contrasting the general consensus of reality then to actually reality now, a short five years later, is astounding. “
”, “
”, even “
” and “
”, all look about in wonderment at data from 2005 and before and admit they know Peak Oil is coming along but they just don’t know when ( hint- it happened as there books were being printed in 2005 ). They also admit ethanol might slightly effect food prices ( reality check-triple or quadruple price increases on food, and that is before this years bad weather in counted in ), but nuclear power ( Japan, Nebraska ), breeder reactors ( only two or three in the world today, more experimental than practical ) or hydrogen, or a few other magic bullets will help us ease into transition. This actually ties into today’s article, but for now just keep in mind that all the experts were really friggin overly optimistic about ONLY five years. Imagine how bad their twenty year forecast is going to be. 
and power, that without the Whites using repeating rifles the Indians might have won. I won’t dispute that because as 
as the pioneers were, the natives were a lot tougher and better at 
. They knew the terrain, they grew up living in nature and could use it to their advantage. On a small unit tactical level, the Indians were usually better fighters. Most indigenous non-farmers are, comparatively speaking. And, I get the casual reference to Back East Manufacturing. The Indians had no way to stop the railroads bringing supplies to the settled/being settled areas. Even if the repeating rifle had never evolved and muzzle loaders were the dominant military arm, the steady supply of them and their users from the railroads would have killed off the Indians.
wiping out the food source of the Indians didn’t help matters any ( the equivalent of salting all the fields of 
), it only finished the Indians off- it wasn’t the primary strategy that weakened them up to that point. The Indians were doomed from the start. Not because of disease, or our superior weaponry ( our laissez-faire capitalism ensured most weapons were sold to them in desired quantities, usually ), the far better technology, farming or our population explosion. All those things together killed them, but they were all made possible by the Old World way of doing business. Instead of living sustainably off the land as the Indians did, the new arrivals mined the land. Instead of living off the interest from the sun, they started digging into the principle. This is the underlying source of all our wealth on this continent, we are miners. And yet, all those wonderful books out there killing trees base their whole strategy of survival on living sustainably. The same strategy that doomed the Indians. 
and etc. Energy surplus in the form of NON-sustainable practices won them a continent. 
, 
practitioners, all the advocates of living close to the land, raising food sustainably, harmonizing your farming to Mother Nature, all of that is great, and the only way to live forever without damaging the land. But guess what? It is not a sound strategy outside of a vacuum because the guy next door will practice Farming/Energy Production Mining, non-sustainable and energy superior to you. And will defeat you. You can have all the cute plastic guns you want, and they will prevail tactically, but big picture, strategy wise, you’ve already lost the war. As soon as your stockpile is gone, surplus energy prevails.
). Sustainable farming, however, creates less of a return on investment. The surplus is being returned to the soil for perpetual health. If you mine the soil instead, steal from its future fertility, you create a surplus. Surplus energy wins. Get it? Even the Chinese example upholds this. They might have been able to keep their land producing century after century, but there was a hidden price. Non farmland was used for biomass harvesting, meat was nearly eliminated from most diets, regular famines dipped population low enough to keep pressure off depleting the soil, etc. 
? Why can’t he feel our pain? Most of my long time minions merely role their eyes and go back to hoeing their turnips and cleaning their semi automatic carbines. For them, I say, way to ignore everything I’ve said for five years. But, also, because just sticking around that long has to worth something, I promise we’ll make this first part short(er) and I’ll throw you a bone later. This opening is for my newer minions who not only are as we speak firing up their e-mails to whine about being called a “loyal minion” ( I’m nobodies minion, bitch! ), but also are pretty much confused about every other damn thing we talk about in these parts. Why, golly, 
, why doesn’t he just cover wilderness first aid and physical fitness like all good little survivalist sites are supposed to do?
have been far too clever for their own good and utterly and totally screw the entire economy, have a cheap stash on hand to cover the basic needs of survival. Just in case the propaganda is more than just a black ops mission from the intelligence agencies and there actually is some basis of truth about terrorists and they actually do nuke the crap out of us, have a few buckets of food and an inexpensive surplus bolt rifle and cheap water filter to keep you alive a year after 
still hasn’t shown up. Just in case all those other survival experts are wrong and we don’t have another twenty years to prepare because even as we speak our resources are dwindling faster than a chocolate cake at a Weight Watchers support group, have a Better Than Nothing stash set aside. One that cost only a few hundred bucks and anyone, from poor student to cat food eating Senior can afford. Other than the rifle, pretty much everything can be bought $25 or so at a time. Anyone cutting just 5% from their budget, and then only for a short time at that, can easily prepare for uncertainty in just a few paydays ( of course, I plead and beg of you to sell something unneeded immediately and get everything you need right friggin now. Not because the world will certainly end tomorrow, but because IF it does you will be screwed. And, more importantly, this process is so damn cheap that even if the room temperature fusion fairy shows up tomorrow and we all live happily ever after you won’t be hurt financially ). Alas, all this, to some people, seems to be rocket science.
with the freeze dried food and huge arsenals of death if you want. Why should I care? Just don’t do it until the basics are covered first. In case it all ends tomorrow. But I’m the monster, as if I was suggesting you give your buddy Earl a rim job. A minion send me another blogs article yesterday. It was pretty good. It was written for the gun rights crowd, but as said minion pointed out it aptly applied to 
. Condensed, it said that gun control pukes weren’t debating rights, they were debating their basic safety. If they admitted they needed guns for self defense than they admitted that their world wasn’t as safe and secure as they thought it to be. You were debating Constitutional rights and they were subconsciously crying out in fear that their structured safety zone wasn’t real.
. If fact, it has a good probability of happening in one form or another. And it could be tomorrow. Saudi Arabian oil has been in decline. You don’t cut back on production when oil is $112 unless you have to. First, that shoots the price up and destabilizes the global economy. Second, it hurts your treasury. The US has already demonstrated it will do whatever it takes to secure “its” oil in the middle east. If you were a Saudi, saw all the death and destruction in the countries the US is occupying, and your oil revenues were already in decline as you knew the downside of peak had already started ( and you knew it would fall quickly because of your past drilling practices ), what would be a natural thought? Blow your own oil production infrastructure.
occupying your country forevermore? Little oil goes to the US itself, right now, but it does prop up the rest of the worlds economy. Kick out that prop and the global economy dies immediately and the 
is occupied elsewhere and leaves you alone. Perhaps this won’t happen today with the current family in power. But look how likely regime change is all over the middle east right now. If you don’t think this sounds entirely implausible, don’t you think a years supply of food and water filtering and basic defense is a great friggin idea, even if the supplies aren’t perfect or 100% desirable? 
in me says, what goes on in the bedroom between two consenting adults stays in the bedroom. The amateur 
in me says, there has got to be a good reason that historically the norm has been intolerance for homosexuality. Perhaps there was no tolerance for taking breeders out of the 
, I don’t know. Laws against homoness are of course a slippery slope, but at one time they merely gave teeth to social mores. At this point in time there is nothing wrong with pillow biting carpet lickers, what with over-population and all, but the legitimizing of the practice is to me troublesome. It is one thing to leave bad behavior alone if it is hidden, quite another to make bad behavior “normal”. And before any of you anti-hetro’s get all bent out of shape ( pun intended ), it isn’t just you. I don’t think 
should have been legitimized, either. Even if a cultural bias hurts an individual, if it helps social stability it is usual best to adhere to it. There was, for instance, a very good reason to outlaw female promiscuity. Exclusive access to sex by the husband assured that the pair would stay stable. Thus assuring the children would be raised properly. The same reason why, by law, a husband had at one time legitimate grounds of complaint if the wife denied him sex. This wasn’t just guys being pigs and treating their mates as breeding cattle. It forced domestic tranquility ( if you talk to third world females, they have usually been raised culturally to see it as their duty to grant free sexual access to the husband ). And before you get all stupid and feminazi on me, it is also the husbands duty to die to protect the family, so don’t act all butt hurt ( pun intended ) you have to put out once in awhile.
and social pressure get to you. Be strong, don’t suicide, it WILL get better. Hmmm. So, the commercial is saying that you should never give in to the accepted standards. That cultural stability is a bad thing. Please, I make fun of everybody, including gays. I’m not anti-gay however, as much as I’m anti-social stability. I know your 
is pinging mightily and you aren’t listening to what I just said and you’ll get all butt hurt ( pun intended ) and start hating me. I don’t friggin care if you kill each other with AIDS, okay. Chill out dude. I’m saying that this commercial sucks ( pun intended ) because it promotes social and culture instability. 
. It’s called growing a callus on your sensitivity. 
, for goodness sakes. If I hadn’t looked like a generic experiment gone horribly wrong then, I wouldn’t have started hating people so violently ( I was already a loner prior to that ), I’d have stayed all fuzzy and cozy, and you wouldn’t be reading my greatness now. It was a win/win. Perhaps getting hazed for antisocial behavior is good. But, being gay, they think they are special and should be treated extra special. Okay, fine, give them a tax break for not bringing more kids into the world, then tell them to shut the hell up. And, free 
!
. Besides the danger of no social cohesion and destroying the family unit. I’d say, if this represents reality to most people, you need to do the exact opposite of everyone else to survive. Okay, a stretch ( pun? ). Shut up!
”. Not a bad read at all. The interaction between the two characters was a brilliant piece of work. However, it was only 180 pages. So rather on the expensive side. And, is was only a disaster tale, not a post-apocalypse book. Proceed at your own risk.
” is, purportedly, a 
book wherein a EMP strike takes out the nations electric grid and a dude escapes with family aboard a boat. This looked promising, covering grid vulnerability and boat bug out. While the first half of the book was great, which I’ll cover in a moment, the second half had almost nothing to do with either but instead degenerated into a emotional screed of a shameless religious fanatical nature. The author was an engineer type involved in power grids, who also worked with nukes in the 
, so I would have expected a more level headed amount of rational thinking. Which is notably lacking after page 175 or thereabouts. The author acknowledges the help of someone in a Christian Fiction Writers Group, so one can imagine without too much difficulty the following scene. “Dude, this is all about surviving. Guns and food and such. Where is more mention of His Most Holey Savior Who Died For Our Sins?” “Oh my Baby Lord Jesus, you’re right. I only mentioned long passages from the 
5% of the time. Let’s bow our heads and pray for guidance. Yep, as I suspected. We need to ramp that bad boy up to 15%, AND let everyone know how evil and sneaky those Muslim dudes are.” “Amen, my bother. Remember, unofficial church doctrine frowns on us stripping the Earth of its remaining trees unless it is for a good cause such as scaring the un-Born Again into fighting the new commie Evil Empire, right now being the Muslims because they are rudely occupying our oil fields in the middle east, which, under divine intervention of His Most Beloved Creator And Lord will become the 51st state soon.” “Can I get an Amen?” 
or Zeus ( I lean towards old Norse Gods but only because they have some really cool war deities-Go 
! ). I don’t care if you are religious, or not. What I care about is if you turn fanatical and try to get my ass involved in your delusions under coercion. This book ACTED all proper and pious. It preached love and understanding. The Muslim dudes were the ones cutting off heads. But it was all rather cartoonish. ALL Muslims were evil and bad. All Muslim leaders wanted to kill westerners. Christianity was ALL about loving your fellow man. I call BS. Both religions think nothing of killing the unbelievers. And Christians just love to invade the middle east, time and time again. How many 
were there? Four? More? Who invaded who several years ago? Which country has been invaded by western powers twice in forty years? While I don’t paint Muslims or Arabs as total innocents, neither do I strive to make them out to be the Next Big Menace. I know the masses need simplistic crap like this to support our wars. I don’t like being one of those idiots. Which I felt like after reading this crap. First half, a decent survivalist/prepper cautionary tale. Second half, intelligence insulting 
( and WAY over-simplification as in “if only we all believed in God our country would be great again” which is precisely where the danger lies in otherwise good Christian folk- they will kill you for your own good ). 
before everyone else panicked. But the general feel of the book was “look how realistic the danger is, and let’s walk through the things you need to do to prepare”. It could easily be a gift to fence sitters that was a prep road map. BUT. If you give this to 
, soon your neighbor will be burning you at the stake for blaspheme. If you give it to a more rational person, they might get disgusted with the end book religious hypocrisy and discard the whole message. I’d say one thumb up, one down. Not so bad as to unequivocally shun but with huge danger flags raised if you do read it.
I couldn’t admit I could as wrong as they come. Look at the 70’s energy crash. Plenty of edumicated folks were totally convinced we were all doomed. All indicators pointed to total economic collapse. They couldn’t possibly have seen that we would go from pay as you go government to twenty years of income borrowing. That we would go from manufacturing to paper pushing. That the Saudi’s would ever agree to backing our dollar with their oil. So, yes, as low as the possibility of nothing earth shattering changing, it could still happen. We could actually 
without death in the streets. I honestly don’t think we will be that lucky. But you notice I haven’t fled town. I plan on the Web to crash and my writing income to tank before I engage in firefights at the Bison Compound, but I’m acting like the writing will continue forever. Just in case. As far as stopping prepping, why? I’m barely hurting myself as it is. I’ve been getting ready on a serious money basis for about fifteen years now. It is second nature and barely noticeable. And I feel no compulsion to go back to a more “luxurious” lifestyle. Cars and well water and 24/7 heat are just shiny toys. You don’t need them to be comfortable, you just need them to be lazy. Plus, it also boils down to the stubborn cuss lives the longest. I wish to laugh on all your graves. Nothing personal.