Great Quote for Obama

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

-Winston Churchill

Hey, Obama, chew on that you socialist nitwit.

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

- Norman Thomas (US Socialist Presidential Candidate)

Crunch Time

Well it's crunch time in a few ways. I have come to the conclusion that Obama is a god damn Commie pink-O, and we are fucked if he wins. Work's been going bonkers with server maintenance, We are rolling out a new AV program, and patching the servers with the out-of-band patch I mentioned last week. Working nights and days is starting to make me grumpy.

I heard a Smiths song I have not heard for a while, and here is some of it:

They said :
"There's too much caffeine
In your bloodstream
And a lack of real spice
In your life"

I said :
"Leave me alone
Because I'm alright, dad
Surprised to still
Be on my own..."

Oh, but don't mention love
I'd hate the strain of the pain again
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
It has been before
So it shall be again
And people who are uglier than you and I
They take what they need, and just leave

I know The Smiths are not everyone's cup-o-tea, but they have that 80's British angst. Figure in another 20 years when we Americans realize that the heyday is over, we will have a similar angst.

I live where the blood of patriots soaks the ground. I was out last week and swung by the site of the Boston Massacre. To me, it's holy ground. I asked myself if we had the men of character, the men of action, the people with enough gumption to be the second wave of patriots. Would there be another Tea Party when Obama takes form the middle class and gives it to the poor? Will there be another senseless massacre of people to prove the Will of the American Citizen?

Would enough of us tell the Fed to fuck off when they tax us harder so the poor can buy more booze, crack, meth, and heroin? I am firmly convinced that the vast majority of the population on welfare wants to be on welfare. Money for nothing. Fat and happy on the government dime. My fucking dime.

Biden already slipped up and said those who made more than $150k would be taxed for the wealth redistribution. I figure by Jan 20th, anyone making over $20k will be taxed for this sham, this farce, this whoring of this great country of ours.

The problem is if something is not earned than it has no value. I remember the first paycheck I got. I was 9, and busted my ass in a fishmarket for 40hours in 4 days. That check for $120 was a treasure, riches beyond belief. My aching fingers and back didn't hurt quite as much as I held out my hand and the boss counted those sawbucks into my hand. Life was good.

Contrast that with when I was on unemployment. I got "laid off" because I was three times as smart as my new boss and he wasn't too pleased that I was the go-to guy to keep the company going. I was up at the crack of noon, loafed off all day, went and played games with some friends until oh god thirty in the morning then crashed. Nothing productive came form this time in my life. I didn't study, I didn't write. Hell, I could have written a novel, but did I? Fuck no. Why should I? I got a check every week, and I worked a few hours here and there to make some cash under the table. It wasn't until unemployment was running out that I got off my ass and got a job.

I have to admit it was relaxing not to have to run the rat race every day.

So although I understand the lure of the slacker lifestyle I know that's not how to succeed. After that slacker phase I busted my ass for years, taking my natural gift for tinkering and engineering and forging it into a technical skillset that took me to the pinnacle of my field. I used to get home from working all day and studying into the night, tinkering and fiddling with Windows NT and Linux. It's payed off, as I make five times what I did in those days. It's a lot of work, but I now have a house, something I never dreamed I would get. I might get to retire at some point.

These welfare-people who get this Obama-money will just buy more crack and booze. They didn't earn it so it might as well be Monopoly money. Make the fuckers earn it, just like I had to.

"The dignity of man is not shattered in a single blow, but slowly softened, bent, and eventually neutered. Men are seldom forced to act, but are constantly restrained from acting. Such power does not destroy outright, but prevents genuine existence. It does not tyrannize immediately, but it dampens, weakens, and ultimately suffocates, until the entire population is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid, uninspired animals, of which the government is shepherd."
- Alexis de Tocqueville

Just too much going on

Well things are going bonkers in a major way. At work we have that security patch to hit all of our servers with. At home I'm reading up on what's going on with the election and the economy. And trying to relax some for the next days work. Then trying to get a good nights sleep. Fat chance of that happening.

I have reloaded about 75 shotgun shells so far for skeet. It's easy enough to do, but there seems to be a trick to get the shells to stay closed tightly. Some shells I just need to hold in the pres for 2-3 seconds and they are fine, others will open up no matter what I do. Some shells seem to not want to close correctly, leaving a hole big enough for shot to leak out of - I just jammed a little paper in there to hold it and marked the shell with a marker so I'd toss it.

I still have to test these shells to see if they are up to snuff. They look just like the shells the other guys have reloaded, so my confidence is high. I'm not using a lot of powder either, so I'm not too worried it will blow up in my face.

I am buying a book on shotgun shell reloading, It will have better info than the manual that came with the press, and I hope it has more info on how to load oo buck, including what wads to buy. I want to store up a bunch of oo buckshot, makes a good home defense round.

Onto other preps. My mylar bags and O2 absorbers have arrived! Now I can move up to the "big leagues" and add grain storage to my preps. If you are going to store for very long term, you cannot beat whole wheat in mylar bags. It should last 15 years at least!

Now I just need a flour mill. If push comes to shove I can grind it like they do in 3rd world contries. Not sure how they do that, but I'll look it up online soon.

I just went through the post I made in August about what I'd like to have done before winter. And I've met most of my goals. I still want to buy a generator, but I just cannot swing that much cash right now. I need supplies for my Jeep, mostly spare parts, but that is of secondary importance to food. I really, really want to get my hands on a battle rifle as well. Saving is hard enough, but I am saving some every week for this.

It's a never-ending project, just like owning a house. With the progress I have made in my physical preps and in my increased knowledge, I am getting more confident that I will survive the oncoming problems. Even with a blizzard or two thrown in. If you are not prepping then start. It's not too late to start stacking the deck in your favor.

Environmentalism

I consider myself a environmentalist. Now I'm no hippie fruit-loop driving a Prius, or hugging every tree I come across. I'm a practical Environmentalist. I recycle what I can, and toss into the garbage what I cannot. I willingly spend extra money on items that have less poisons in them, like mercury - free batteries, etc. I think everyone needs to step back and look at the big picture.

A good example of this is I-95 and Boston. You see back in the 50's they were building the highway infrastructure around Boston, and they were going to connect Rt 1, I-93, I-95 and Rt. 3 into Boston. But there is a 5 acre swamp that has some endangered bird that nests there right in the way. Well the "Environmentalists" shit a brick that this bird would have to find somewhere else to nest, and sued the government to stop the highway from being built. So they won, and I-95 was never connected to the hub of Boston.

I often ask myself, while stuck in traffic, just how many animals and plants have died from the pollution caused by not continuing I-95 into Boston? Environmentalists are trying to stop a commuter rail (i.e. purple line) from connecting to Fall River. There must be hundreds of people who want to ride the train, but they keep fighting the rail line. Let's see 1000 cars times 51 mile commute = an assload of pollution. That's a lot more pollution than 10 train trips a day, and the trains are wicked efficient.

I think that there is a global warming problem. I don't think it's anywhere near as bad a Al Gore thinks it is, but I have seen changes in my own lifetime. Now that solar activity has decreased, bringing on a micro-ice age we won't see the temperature changes at all. But if we were in a very active solar period I think we would have melting ice caps, etc. I figure it makes hot periods much, much hotter, and cool periods only slightly warmer.

I look at it this way, I could go shit on my lawn, but it's just common sense not to. Likewise, we could just pump assloads of CO2 into the atmosphere, but there is a better way. We can pollute out rivers and streams with PCP's or figure out a different way to make our products. We can continue to have urban sprawl of abandoned buildings in the city while companies build new facilities in the 'burbs, or we can give tax breaks to companies that use buildings in the city.

To me it's all common sense, but these days "common" sense isn't to common. Use the methane given off by landfills and cowshit. Use solar and wind electricity. Get our space program back on track and build and orbit to ground power station using solar electricity. Buy products with less packaging. Buy American products that didn't have to be shipped from Asia. Take advantage of community composting. Cut back on the insane taxes on diesel fuel so we can buy common-rail diesel engines for our cars?

Oh yeah, the Prius has a bigger carbon footprint than a Hummer. Don't even get me started with the make-believe statistics they use.

How to drive in Boston

A few years ago there was a study of traffic in major cities, and they were graded from A+ to F. An F would be traffic similar to a hurricane evacuation of the Grand Banks. Boston was ranked a D-.

This boils down to a commute of over an hour each way, in the toughest traffic in America. Now before people from LA, or DC, or New York start bitching about their traffic is worse than Boston's, It's not. I used to travel a lot for my last job, and spent weeks in those cities. For me it was a freaking VACATION!

Ok, so how do you deal with traffic. First off knowledge is power. Knowing there is a breakdown in the zippah lane (a.k.a. the HOV lane) before you get in it is priceless. Likewise having on-the-fly traffic updates saves your ass. I use the traffic function on the Maps applet on my iPhone for this.

Aside from the day to day changes, you need to learn the traffic pattern for your ride in. I have to take 93N in (God damn environmentalist shitheads didn't let I95 come into Boston!) so I have exactly one way to get into town. I know that at certain points some lanes are much faster than others. By using these lanes I can shave 20 minutes off of my commute, compared to staying in one lane the whole ride in. So as you commute pay attention! Keep your eyes open for patterns in the traffic then exploit them. Know when and where the breakdown lane is open for use, know how many people you need for the Zippah lane. Learn about road work before you're late for the big presentation.

Knowing backroads to and from work is invaluable. Being able to bypass clogged traffic arteries in an evacuation is nice, but so is sliding around the overturned truck on 128... From almost any point on my ride home, I have at least one alternate way of getting home. If that level IV Bioterrorist Lab starts spawning mutant zombies, I'll be getting home :)

Now how to drive. The first thing is to be aware of your surroundings all the time. Women are notorious for only looking in a mirror just before they are going to change lanes. I check all my mirrors at least once a minute. If the meatball to my left decides to see if our two cars can occupy the same space at the same time, I'll know what is around me so I can take the appropriate action to defend myself. Then again, by keeping aware I would have determined he is a meatball, and made sure I wasn't near him.

I cannot stress that enough. I've seen cops pull up behind someone in the left lane waiting for them to get out of the way, riding their ass hard, and have them drive for miles without a clue they had a Crown Vic on their ass. Then the cop figures they are going to be late, and pulls them over and write them up the MOAT (mother of all tickets). Now the cop has a reason for being late, so his ass is covered.

When driving, try to stay with the pack, but on the lead edges of it. This allows you the protection of the herd, while having the best visibility of the road ahead. Cops almost never pull over speeders in traffic, so as long as your not drawing attention to yourself you'll be just fine. If traffic is moving, up here traffic flows at 75-85 mph, so as long as we are all going at a good clip I won't be making many changes. Once we start to slow I'll be looking for lanes that are moving better than others, and exploit them.

The "two second rule", or "one car length of space for every 5 mph of speed" is absolute horseshit. (In my best 300 impersonation) This is Boston! I leave just enough space so the guys in the lanes next to me cannot cut me off without hitting me, the car in front of me, or both. It's about survival on the freeways, and nice guys finish last. It's not like I'm out there trying to cut everyone off, I'm just trying to stop people from cutting ME off, then having them slam on the breaks so I'm at fault. The only way you can drive like this is to look through the car's windows in front of you and see what's going on with the car in front of that one. The extra reaction time is so you don't rear-end the car in front of you.

Because of the razor's edge we hardcore commuters ride, you will not see us shaving, reading a book or newspaper, texting, applying make-up, or using a laptop while in traffic. Even CD changing is done during the "stop" portion of traffic. Yet I have seen all of the above done by people in traffic.

There is a courtesy extended between hardcore commuters that the average traveler has not a clue about. We all use our blinkers so everyone knows what's going to happen. Granted, you might get a single blink before I switch lanes, but I did use the blinker. A wave after a particularly close lane change smooths things over. I drive with aggression, but it is sensible aggression. I have seen plenty of aggressive drivers, cutting from one lane to another as I out distance them by staying in the best lane for that section of road.

Also, we don't use the breakdown lane unless it's allowed. I have personally seen people intentionally hit cars driving in the breakdown lane because they knew the driver in the breakdown lane would be at fault. Now if your a hundred yards shy of an exit you are going to take that's different, I've been pulled over by cops and just given a warning once I proved that I was in fact taking the exit to get where I was going.

Now over the years I have been involved in all kinds of incidents, but I have a step 9 for insurance which is the lowest you can get. It might seem that I am a lunatic behind the wheel, and you may very well be right, but I'm a lunatic with a plan. My level of aggression is directly proportional to risk vs. reward. If I am already late then I'll ease up quite a bit. I will still switch lanes to the pattern of traffic, but I'm not going to run yellow lights or anything. No matter what you do, no matter how early you leave you will be late sometimes. There is nothing you can do if they close the highway for a life flight. So relax. Take a deep breath and try to get where you are going in one piece. The hardest thing to do is switch from Boston Traffic mode on M-F to regular driving on the weekend.

I was in Kansas City years ago, and the site manager was from Rhode Island. We hit it off pretty good, and he wanted to treat the office team and I to a lunch at a fancy Chinese restaurant. So I drove my rental with the manager and two secretaries in the back. I'm zipping across town on the highway during their version of rush hour traffic, and discussing things with the manager when I heard a quiet shriek from the back. The manager turned to check on the two secretaries, and one of the gasps "Oh my GOD he is going to kill us!" The other one says threw clenched teeth, "He drives just like YOU DO!" The manager and I proceeded to laugh our asses off. The secretaries were not too happy as the manager said to them "I was just going to yell at Natog for driving like a pussy!"

Futures Trading Halted

After free-falling in trading before markets opened, dropping over 500 points futures trading was halted. Jim Rawles had a list of stuff he looks for to consider bugging out. FerFAL added a few as well. I can't find it so I'm re-printing without permission. Keep your eyes out for 2-3 items on this list. If you do see several of these items than assume the worst.

A sharp spike in the Federal Funds Rate
News of a failed Treasury auction, or news that Treasury rates have spiked
Overt talk of a US default by Asian or European bankers
Multiple (8+) simultaneous US bank failures on one Friday
Any large Northern Rock style bank runs in the US (with customers lined up on the streets)
A stock market drop of more than 1,200 points in one day
A large and sudden spike in inflation
Any suspension of US stock trading
Draconian new stock trading limits (for example any new "circuit breaker" rules, followed by news that the trading was halted because of the limits)
New restrictions on either precious metals purchasing reporting requirements
New limits on moving funds outside the US
Any large derivatives trading collapses.(Because of disappearing counterparties or illiquidity.)
News that hundreds of hedge funds are suspending redemptions
News that many Money Market funds are dropping below $1.00 Net Asset Value (NAV)
The US Dollar Index (USDI) dropping below 68 for more than one full week of trading.
Any sudden large interest rate moves by the FOMC. (Up or down.)
Gold spiking past $1,500 per ounce
News that any major western power is no longer accepting US Dollars in payment for key commodities
News that any major trading partners are no longer rolling over the majority of their US Treasury paper
A closed session of the full congress that lasts a full day or longer.
*Limits to withdraw amounts per day. This happened just one or two days before banks actually closed.
*Sudden inflation. A few weeks before, but careful, it only turned into hyper after banks closed.
*Rumors of default. Those had been going on for a while and that’s when we slowly started investing elsewhere and slowly moving the money out of the accounts.
*Limits to moving funds out of the country
*Limits to the transactions. At the end you could just withdraw like $250 per week, if you found an ATM with money. Otherwise you had to suffer the terrible lines at he bank.

Patch your computer

There is a new windows exploit out in the wild, go to Microsoft.com and patch your computer! All windows versions are affected, if your running anything older than XP you're screwed.

Details here: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 - Critical

Rumor has it this will be as bad or worse as ZOTOG which hit three years ago.

Supplies delivered

So last night I had the Lee Load-All II waiting for me when I got home. I could not resist and ripped open the box, poked around at it, then sat down and read the instructions carefully three times. Reloading ammunition is nothing to do half-assed. So before I start reloading I'll re-read the instructions a 4th time. Seems pretty straightforward, but last thing I want from a shotgun is a surprise!

I took some crappy hulls I had and checked out how to pop out the old primer, and how to walk though each stage (no powder or shot though) to see how it all works. I have to admit it seems like it will do a fine job. Although it is going to be kinda slow going. I'll only be reloading the freshest hulls I have to start, and bring some of the crappy ones to the club to ask the more experienced loaders what's good to reload and what is best to toss out.

Hopefully, I will be able to swing by the gun shop tonight to pick up 1oz wads, a 1# bottle of Clays powder, some primers(with closed flash hole), and #8 shot to make some skeet rounds for this weekend. No sense in buying a lot of materials while I am looking for the right combination of sullpies will work best for me and my shotgun.

My mylar bags and O2 absorbers shipped yesterday, so next weekend I'll swing by the Agway and buy me two 50# sacks of hard red winter wheat to put up. So I have lots going on on the prep front! Still waiting for the bulk of my heirloom seeds though... I hope they get here soon!

Another Prowler

If you don't have dogs, go buy some now. Last night about 9pm I was playing some games on the computer and watching my beloved Patriots whup Denver's ass when my dogs went bonkers outside. Now for those of you who don't own dogs, they make different barks for different occasions. I know of four different patterns of barking depending on what's going on. There is your "ZOMG a Squirrel" bark, the "OMG there is another dog" bark, the "Someone's jogging by the house" bark, and finally the "I'm going to eat your balls for breakfast" bark.

Hearing the latter, I grabbed my Sig, tucked it in my pants in the small of my back, grabbed a flashlight and went outside. Sure enough, my dogs were eyeballing a pile of forsythia bushes. It's 1/4 on my property and 3/4 on the neighbors. (The neighbor is cool, and his wife likes it a lot, so I just trim back my side, instead of killing it.) I talked the dogs into calming down, when I heard the distinctive snap of something big breaking a stick in the brush. Something bigger than a dog, raccoon, skunk or squirrel.

I shined the flashlight in there, and didn't see anything. Although I was armed, there was no sense in drawing and scaring some kid who was running through the neighborhood. There is no way any adult would fit in there without making a huge dent in it, which is what I was looking for when shining my light in there.

So I backed up so they wouldn't see the Sig, and went back in the house. Whoever was in there hauled ass, because the dogs didn't bark any more. The thought of someone crawling through that mess of thick brush makes me laugh. Oh, I forgot to mention there is an assload of bull briars in the middle, the real nasty ones.

Practicing with my firearm with an empty clip was very helpful. I grabbed the gun and mag from the safe, and had it loaded and ready to go in seconds without looking at it, while moving rapidly through the house. It's easy to practice, put a empty clip in your front off hand pocket, another in your off hand butt pocket, and the empty firearm in the other. draw the weapon with your primary hand and the clip with the off hand. As you bring the weapon up, slap the mag in and cycle the action. At the end of the motion you should be in a two handed stance, ready to shoot. I drop the clip with the release, and grab and slap a second empty mag in the weapon, thumbing the release. I then drop the second mag, check to make sure the weapon is empty(can never be too safe), and reset for the next exercises.

I've done this at least 1000 times. Now I practice in my hallway kneeling or prone. I practice drawing from my pocket, my holster or from the small of my back. I practice one handed as if one arm is injured, and the same with the off hand. I practice reloading while moving.

It's cheap, and I usually do it while cooking dinner. 10-15 minutes a night is all it takes. It is no replacement for formal training, but it's better than standing there in a incident fiddle-fucking with your magazine. It's all about muscle memory, knowing in your mind what to do is one thing, pre-programming your muscles so you don't have to think about it is a million times better.

Mass ballot question #1

So they got on the ballot a referendum to repeal the income tax in Massachusetts. I've done a little reading on it and so far I like it. Force the nitwits to choose between pork and teachers, cops, and firemen.

So I think I'll vote for it. Then follow up with e-mails to the nitwits that they better trim the pork and not the services we all need, like firemen and police.

The national teachers unions are dumping 1 million in advertising to stop the bill. That's stupid. They should be spending that million to make sure the State House and Senate keep bills lean and mean. That would be a better way to spend money than fear mongering. We citizens need to reduce our spending and pay off our debts, I think it's just desserts that the government should have to do the same.

Brisk!

Wow, it was pretty damn cold this morning. Until DST is taken off I get up before sun-up to begin my long ride to Boston. It was 30 degrees at the house when I let the dogs out this morning. My body is in summer mode, so anything below 50 feels chilly. By November I should be adjusted and can resume wearing shorts down to below freezing again.

I got my first package of seeds last week. Mainly herbs and salad greens from this company, but I did pick up another variety of beans. Appropriately named "Mayflower Beans" They took the trip to Plymouth with the Pilgrims. I hope I get the other shipment this week. That one contains the bulk of my items for next years garden.

I wonder If I should just toss them in an ammo can in the basement, or If I need something special. I wonder if they need to breathe at all while stored. If you have any advise please leave a comment.

I shot Skeet this weekend, and I manged to score a 22. Not bad for a 20" straight bore barrel on a tactical shotgun. I have to admit I like the gun club, they never gave me crap about it, and now we give each other crap. They taunt me with my "1/2 a shot gun" and I give them hell with "You need to upgrade, I hit that station with this." or "Your shotgun needs a flashlight on it, that's your problem"

I ordered that reloader last week so it should be here in the next couple of days. I scavenged a lot of hulls from the field, plus all the ones I've saved, and another shooter gave me a garbage bag full of hulls last week. I got at least 1000 hulls ready. The problem is that most of them have steel bases. These are fine, and unlike rifle rounds, can be reloaded safely. Most hulls give you 6-8+ reloads before the plastic breaks down. Once the reloader shows up I need to go to the local gun shop and pick up a pound of sporting clays powder, some wads and some #8 shot. I'll load 3-4 shells, then go to the range to see if I can blow myself up.

Once I get some reloading experience under my belt, I think I'm going to load buckshot. I will not use the steel-based hulls, as the intention is to store ammunition long-term for home defense and food acquisition. I have no illusions that this is going to be the best ammo around. It is better than nothing, and being able to load up 200ish rounds to store as part of my preps in case of mutant zombie attack is a sensible thing to do since it's going to be cheap.

The gun club offers members deep discounts on boxes of 5000 primers, #8 shot, and several powders. Since I'm just starting out I plan on buying small quantities until I find what I like for a load, then invest in the bulk quantities. Ideally, I want to just change the amount of powder, the wad and the shot. There will be some experimentation, but I assure you that I will be starting conservative and working my way up.

Now I did spend time re-organizing my preps this weekend, and I need to add some shelf space in my stash. I bought some plastic tubs at 40% off the weekend before, and put them to good use filling them with pasta. I'll be going to BJ's tonight to stock up on some bulk items. Speaking of which I got to track down my order of mylar bags and O2 absorbers! Well THAT company's not getting any return business from me.

Well be safe out there everyone, I got to do me some research on Question #1, which will repeal income tax in Mass. Basically, it means the property taxes will go through the roof, but I want to be well educated before I say boo on the subject.

Remember to invest in tangibles, Stock up on fuel since it's so cheap!

Headache

This wrinkle in time, I cant give it no credit
I thought about my space and I really got me down
(got me down)
Got me so down, I got me a headache
My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound
Frank Black - Headache

I should go back to college, With all the reading about Credit Default Swaps, Bonds, Stocks, etc. I should be able to CLEP out of 3/4 of an economics degree. Let's see how bad the Friday sell off is... only 59 points down! huh. I didn't see that one coming. I figured about 300-400 points down.

I'm starting to get mad at a lot of people lately. The way I see it America had a good thing going for quite some time, and people started fucking with it to get an extra buck out of it. You had stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and commodities like oil, metals, and pork bellies. It was simple and money could be made or lost in the free market. Now we have Credit Default Swaps, Hedge funds, and people buying and selling commodities that never are delivered. They just couldn't leave well enough alone, they just had to fuck with it.

Just remember that this is just the beginning. We have a long row to hoe before we see the real spectacular fireworks. It took four years for the Weimar Republic to collapse. They were doomed to fail because they wanted to finance a war without paying for it. No taxes or bonds were issued, they inflated their economy to pay for it. This sound familiar? If the NIC (Nitwit in charge AKA George W. Bush) wanted to war on Afganistan and Iraq and issued war bonds, I would have bought some.

Remember back at the time we just survived Y2K, the economy was booming, and all was pretty much right in the world. I had extra cash, and would welcome the bonds as I could use them to bolster my retirement. They did issue "Patriot Bonds" but they were just a re-branded EE series bond. No real reason for me to invest some spare cash there. You gotta give me something extra. But no, the NIC took the Republican way, and inflated the economy to pay for the war. The Democrats would have taxed us to all hell, so we would be just as fucked.

In the Weimar Republic the Papiermark was so hyperinflated due to the government printing monopoly money to pay the reparations set by the Treaty of Versailles and to pay the state workers. It was cheaper to burn money than to buy wood, how fucked up is that? The citizens had enough of that bullshit and elected Stresemann to fix it. The first thing they did was to switch currencies to the Rentenmark, which was based on the price of land. More importantly he stopped the printing presses. These two factors stabilized the economy for a little while.

The interim currency was replaced with the Reichsmark in 1926. There was good times in Germany then, they were experiancing a cultural revival at the time, which got swept up by the Nazi war machine and exploited to its fullest. The crash of 1929 destabilized the contry once again, and led to the rise of Hitler. No crash of 1929, and odds are Hitler wouldn't have become Chancellor. I wonder how many facist states will rise after this crash? Is America the next "bad guy"?

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
--George Santayana

So we are pretty much fucked. I'm giving more credence to the theory that the government will try to ram the Amero down our throat. I say fuck'em, let's just switch to silver. What could the FED possibly back the Amero with when they issue it? Gold? Pork Bellies? They have nothing! Do not let them do it, don't let them sweep this crisis under the rug. It needs to be dealt with now. The time for letting the Fedz manipulate this country is OVAH! (That's Bostonian for over.)

Popcorn time!

I think I have a new hobby. Sheeple-watching. I'm getting a big kick of watching the panic spread, just hope more of those banker crooks and politicians would take short walks out of very high windows.

The tension in the workplace is pretty palatable, most are worried about either their jobs, their sub-prime mortgage, or both. After the sleeper debate last night, most have resigned themselves that Obama will win. Then again, up here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, conservatives are used to getting beat up by any liberal with a pulse.

Over at CNN.com I read a pretty good article by Glen Beck. He's mentioned preparing before, but now he's just one step short of hitting the full panic button. I like it. Might wake up a few people and help them survive the coming crisis.

There has been more and more talk about the possibility of the dollar being replaced by the Amero. I don't think the majority of Americans will accept it, regardless of what Uncle Sugar says.

Well this post is being rudely interupted by work, I got to go play field tech and fix someones printer. Sending an Engineer to do a Tech's work makes sense to someone, just not me.

Autumn

I love this time of year. The trees are a riot of color, the air is crisp and clean as new sheets. Soon, the rain and snow of winter will come, but for now, life is quite good.

I don't think I could leave New England. There is a certain something to the land here, it's hard to describe to someone from another part of the country. I've visited most of the country, and I lived in the deep south for a while, but there was nowhere that felt like home, or that could become home. Maybe the rest of the country isn't rude enough for me.

My preps are going well. I'm going to cut down on the amount I shoot, as I've gotten pretty damn good in the few months I've been slinging lead downrange. I am to the point that instructor-led training will be needed for me to continue to advance. My birthday is coming up, maybe I'll treat myself to the Sig Academy for a couple days. It's up in Exeter, NH so it's reasonably close.

Above is a photo of my secret stash. It's not the best quality photo, but it came out better than I though, considering I was stuffed into the corner behind my galvanized garbage can which has some pasta and boxes of mac and cheese inside. The photo from the doorway didn't come out at all, as the lighting is just awful. Since I am single, you are looking at about two months of food if I drop my caloric intake to 2500/day. Every shopping trip I get another two or three days worth of food, or food-related supplies. There is a shelf above the photo with more canned goods, and a big metal box full of more pasta.

On the floor I have a 6-pack of propane cylinders and two 7 gallon jugs of water. I have 22 gallons of water here, with another 5 or so upstairs. I regret not getting another pack of those propane cylinders, I got them really cheap from BJ's in the summer, and they had run out a week later.

The ammo boxes are all labeled clearly. I have 12 gauge slugs and buckshot, .22 LR, .45 ACP, and 7.62x54R for my Mosin. I need more ammo, and I will be buying more here and there as I switch gears in my prep buying. I invested in mylar bags and O2 absorbers to store grains. I'm having trouble with the company I bought the bags and absorbers off of, they have yet to bill my account and ship it, so I'll have to call them up and see what's going on.

Some of the more interesting items I have are big bottle of hand sanitizer and a huge box of baby wipes. Tons of salt, it's cheap and can be used for food preservation and trade. Needles, thread, etc for barter items. Gallon jug of EVOO, and 5 lbs of honey. I have an extra bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide for trade, next trip to the dollar store and I'll pick up travel-sized hand sanitizer and more Hydrogen Peroxide.

I guess the point of all this is to encourage everyone to start to prepare, no matter how small an amount you can set aside each week. Over time it will add up to a surprising amount of food. I can easily survive a couple weeks without power, and maintain a healthy and relatively clean lifestyle. Even with this looming financial crisis, you need to stock up, it is not too late. Focus on gathering food, water, and medical supplies. Then worry about security. My stash is deep in the back corner of my basement, obfuscated by crap I have running around. The way my basement id laid out, you would have to have a pretty good sense of 3D space to figure out there is a 2 foot closet back there. It's not even locked, as a big padlock would draw attention to it. I plan on building another closet in front of it to help hide the second closet, but that is lower priority until lawlessness rises sharply.

Monday, Monday

Well it is a glorious autumn day up here in Mass today. I m typing this from my iPhone while eating a huge brunch at a local resturaunt. No spell check, so I apologize for all the spelling errors.

Today, I think I'll practice with the pistols, it is just perfect for shooting today. I can easily hit a torso at 25 yards, using either a 1 hand or 2 hand grip. With any sort of support I can garanteehead shots. As lawlessness increases, I hope I never need to use these skills. Especially in my house. You see, even if it is 100% lawful, it is myresponsibility to cleanup after they haul the corpse away. Lovely!

Well my belly is quite full, so I am off to settle the bill and head to the range.

Gardening plans

Last night I ordered a bunch of open-pollinated seeds. I am planning on starting one of those square-foot gardens this spring. I bought and read the book, but I'll hold of on reviewing it until I actually try the techniques. Sounds like a good idea, even if the author comes across as a pompous ass most of the time. The layout is terrible and hard to read. Lots of little bubbles of text crowd most pages with blurbs from the exact page the bubble is on and stuff. Like one quote from the book "Your Square Foot Garden needs to have a grid of 1' squares or it's not a Square Foot Garden!" How about I grid or not grid my garden as I see fit you horses' ass?

I have some definite issues with where I can put my garden, with maintaining enough sun and security. I got a few months to figure it out. I plan on having a 8' by 4' garden to start. That's enough to keep me in veggies and salads all summer. I'll be growing lettuce, beans, tomatoes, some peppers, carrots, cucumbers, onions, garlic, corn, and herbs. The corn and beans are more of an experimentation than any real amount of production. I don't have enough yard to grow enough food for myself, but I want to try to grow it as a learning experience. Plus, I'll turn it all to seed so I have more seed than I started with.

I'm going bargain hunting for gardening supplies, I might find enough supplies to get me started. for a 32 sq ft garden I need 12 cubic feet each of three ingredients: compost, peat, and vermiculite. I figure with fall coming hard as hell I might be able to score some supplies cheap.

Basically, you put down weed cloth, and build a frame of 2x10 boards (might be 2x8) for the perimeter of the garden. Then drop the frame on the ground over the weed cloth, and shovel in the mixture. Water the snot out of it and your ready to roll. The book is lacking a lot of basic gardening stuff, like which plants are self-pollinating and which are not. I got more research ahead of me, but at least I got he ball rolling.

My yard is open to the streets and neighbors, and dominated by three big maples and a MONSTER oak tree. The back yard is the most secure, but it is completely shaded. To the point that I need to powerwash the house regularly to get rid of the mildew and algae growing on the house. Perhaps I'll increase the fencing for my dogs so they can protect the garden in the side yard. That gets the most sun, by far.

We had a garden, a few years as a kid, but Dad wouldn't take care of it or show me how to. So the plants wouldn't do well and the produce would be diseased or rot. This is a big project for me, I hope I can keep up with it all. I'm about as far removed from an agrarian society as you can get. But these skill will be valuable if things keep tanking they way they have been.

Damn interweb

I guess a tube was blocked, as my post yesterday got lost somewhere. Thankfully I had a copy in Word. The MIA post is just before this one.

Well the European and Asian markets went down this morning so I fully expect another 200-700 point loss today in the stock market. So we have the Friday sell-off, and the down Asian markets holding off a natural rebound when the market dips that low.

Last night I went through all my ammunition, I have a small amount in the gun cabinet, with the rest being stored with the bulk of my preps. That ammo is stored in ammo cans I got off of e-bay, all labeled and neat as can be. I also keep any of the ammo used for target practice in the cabinet upstairs as well. I certainly do not have all the ammo I would like, but I am trying to save up for a .308 battle-rifle.

I do have my Mosin-Nagant, which I will be shooting this weekend. The heat shrink tubing fell off, so I need to re-zero it. This time I'll use some brass tubing from a hobby shop to extend the post, then use an epoxy paint to blacken it. This will let me zero the rifle for 100 yards, I doubt it will drop much more for 200 yards. That is about a long a shot as I will have to make here in the densely populated Northeast.

Last night I wore my belt holster while doing chores around the house to get used to it. I practiced drawing at different imaginary targets, and I'm getting good at drawing it without getting it twisted up. I think I'll need to buy a shoulder holster for carry though, the P220 sticks out about 3" from my hip. I'm a pretty tubby guy, so getting something loose to conceal that isn't going to happen. I know shoulder holsters are not the best option, but it's cheaper than buying a smaller handgun. And if things degenerate to the point I am carrying every day, then I'm not going to have a popgun on me, I'd want the .45 ACP Sig on my hip.

Things are getting really sketchy out there. In the last 3 days I heard four people say there will be rioting election day. Obama has bought a full 30 minutes of prime time for an infomercial a week before the election. The Treasury Department is scrambling to fix the economy. Ha. They all know they are out of a job in 3 months anyway, so they are just putting on a good show.

I got caught up on the new season of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles last night. I like the show a lot. Generally it is very well written, and the acting is quite good. At least it takes my mind off of the unfolding financial implosion. I think they are all up free on Fox.com, so have at them.

Another 600

Well the market's down about 600 more points. Never mind dipping below 10,000 we are below 9,000! there was a slight rally going on as the market closed, but it is inconsequential in the light of the slide in the DJ&I average.

Now is the time to go through your preps and see what you got, and what you need. Make a list, and keep your eyes peeled for the stuff you need. Most sales at the national chains were planned months ago, so I fully expect that for the next few weeks we might be able to take advantage of that by shopping smart.

I'll admit it, I am worried. I am not allowed to carry at work, so I am vulnerable for about 11 hours a day. If I am caught with any firearm or firearm-related item I'll be terminated as soon as the fuzz comes to escort me out of the building. So I couldn't even carry to and from work, and disassemble the weapon, leaving some parts in the car's trunk. Last thing I need is a food/race/political riot between me and my home.

I have my mini-bob, so I will not lack food or water or the other bits of gear. I will lack protection. I've got my brains and my brawn, but the odds are stacked more in my favor with my Sig. Damn.

All we can do is take a deep breath and try to weather the storm. Surprisingly, I have several friends at work turning to me to interpret what's going on with the economy, etc. I'm close to feeling comfortable with one that I can share what I have been doing. He's rapidly getting the understanding that something really bad is going on. He won't listen to me about getting a class A LTC, so I'm a bit hesitant to explain the whole prepping thing.

Up here in the Northeast there is a definite stigma against prepping. As I work with these guys I need to be careful as the rumor mill around here is way out of control. That at least explains my hesitancy. I need to keep this very hush hush at work or there could be direct consequences from the left wing moon-bats who run the joint.

You might think I'm a little paranoid, but when I got my Class A LTC I had a meeting with my manager expressly explaining that there is a zero-tolerance firearms ban on campus. If they found anything bigger than a pocketknife on me I'd get a write-up at the minimum, the boot as a worst case. Although that aspect of the job sucks, I am mostly recession-proof here. Not 100% but then again no one ever is.

I got a lot of thinking and planning to do tonight. Take care, and stay alert!

MS-13

Quite some time ago, I suggested scouting your area if you live in an suburban or urban environment to look for gang activity. My scouting has involved nothing formal, just taking different ways to the grocery store, driving behind buildings to scout if they have been tagged, etc. Nothing too crazy. I have a large police force in my town, and the community is pretty good at not putting up with groups of youths running around causing mayhem.

On an abandoned building I saw this:

Using the gang identification link I learned this is none other than MS-13 in my area. That's just great. I have not seen any other gang activity, which makes them more dangerous. Somewhere in town there are a few houses loaded with guns, drugs, and nitwits who are just waiting for law and order to break down.

If you live in a suburban or urban environment, knowledge of what area is claimed by who will have a direct impact on your survival in a lawless situation. I will be assembling a map in my survival book with notations on where and when I have seen gang graffiti and other activity.

If the government screws me, does that make me gay?

Gee, and I didn't get a steak dinner and a movie before getting bent over and screwed sideways. I just checked my 401k and the year to date is -40%. NEGATIVE FORTY FUCKING PERCENT. I think they bruised one of my kidneys with the proper fucking I've received.

The finance guys say that it's OK because with the prices down, and the same money going in, that I'm actually not losing anything because I'm buying more stocks so when the market rebounds, I'll have more money.

Huh?

He got mad when I asked him how he could spew bullshit out of his mouth with a straight face. I then pressed him if he was going to be the next spokesman for big tobacco. I love watching suits squirm. Market rebound... that's a good one. Maybe in 2045 it will rebound.

Well I figured I would die either at my desk, or like Elvis, on the hopper. Maybe on the hopper at work! There is no way in Sam Hill I'll be able to retire, so I'll be working from my deathbed to pay the hospital bills.

First Frost

I love New England. We had our first frost in my area this morning, and there is not a cloud in the sky. The sky is the color of your childhood, that pristine blue that you won't find on a color pallet.

The first frost is pretty much right on the average for this area. Scraping the car this morning sucked. We have a ritual in New England where we are late to work the first frost because everyone needs to hunt through the house, garage, and shed for the ice scraper. You figure after all these years we would plan ahead for this occurrence, but my elderly neighbors were doing the same thing.

Another bit of good news, my unofficial diet has me skinnier than I have been in a while. I got 1 notch left in my belt before I have to go and add more. I have not been following anything in particular, matter of fact I had ice cream this weekend, but rather cutting down on my portions, and trying to eat a little healthier.

Last night I experimented with my preps to make sure I would eat what I was storing. The beans are no problem, I love baked beans. I took a can of sauce and made my own sauce by jazzing it up some. Lots of garlic and fresh onion sauteed in EVOO. Add the sauce from the can with a can of tomato paste, and water to thin it out. Oregano and fresh basil, salt and onion powder. Not too shabby, actually, quite yummy.

Mind you, I have been begging, threatening,cajoling, etc. my Mum for her spaghetti sauce recipe for thirty years, with no luck. Time to make my own. Next trip to the grocery store I need to grab some crushed tomatoes in cans so the sauce is a little thicker. Next time I'm at BJ's I need to grab some more oregano, basil, etc. They have big canisters for $5 a pop. Need to store extra in case I'm eating my preps.

I have been buying buckshot left and right. It sucks at $1 a round, but it is the best home defense round you can buy. I also bought an extra mag for my Sig, only $25! It is not as nice as the factory, but it was $10 cheaper. It feeds ammo fine, which is what I bought it for.

If anyone has experience with shotgun shell reloading please take a look at this loader. I've been shooting Skeet to hone my reflexes and to get out of my man-cave. I shoot an average of 3 boxes of shells a week, but this will go up as I'm in a winter league now. From what I've been told you save about $1 a box if you reload it yourself. Now if I take my empty hulls and load buckshot, then I'll save about $18 per 25 rounds... Granted, it's only a 2 3/4" hull so that's 9 OO buck instead of the 15 in a 3" hull. But it's better than nothing!

The reviews on that loader are good, but the guys at the gun club were saying to buy a $250 one. Regardless, I need more than just the press. You need a scale, all the materials, etc. I suspect it will still be worth the cash. But let me know if that looks like the right idea, I'll do some more research before I buy, that is for certain! I got to start saving my hulls, the guy I give them to at the club is going to be pissed :P

About that bank run....

Well, Glad I was wrong. It was tough weighing between the possible help I would provide, versus the hurt I could cause by causing people to panic.

I went a re-read all of FerFAL's blog, and the wiki entry on the Argentinian economic collapse. I'm no dummy but trying to keep track of all this financial stuff is hard for an Engineer like me. I can tear apart and rebuild thingamajigs all day, but I never followed the market until recently. Now trying to tie it all together while filtering out the bullshit is hard, hard work. When the poop does hit the fan I'll be thankful for the vacation!

Buy food, water storage, ammo, then a little silver. The poop is incoming, and It's not a dainty little poop, it's the "I've been hammered since 3 in the afternoon and ate at an all you-can-eat Chinese food buffet for 4 hours" poop.

Epic Fail?

For those not up to the latest SOTA (State of the Art) internet morphing into real life slang, when your buddy goes to pour milk in his coffee and spills it all over himself, you just say "Fail". When something really dumb, like leaving his brand new truck in gear and it rides over a cliff, that's an "EPIC FAIL".

I not going out on a limb by saying the bill HR1424 is an apocalyptic fail.

Check this out from Reuters:

We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars.

The lesson of the 1930s is that any country trying to reflate in isolation will be punished. The crisis will ricochet from one economy to another until every one is crippled. We are seeing it play again in this drama as our leaders fail to rise above their narrow, parochial agendas.

Just fucking ducky. As they say on those moronic medical dramas, "note the time, brain death has occurred." I'm calling it, the crash cart of HR1424 has more pork in it than my favorite breakfast. Even the smart minority, i.e. preppers & survivalists, have no clue on how bad it's going to get. We can hope for the best, plan for the worst but let's face it - you don't know your at the bottom of the barrel until you start climbing out.

Although I don't know FerFAL from Adam, as the saying goes, I trust his assessment of what we are going to see as we slide into third world status. Please take some time and read what he has to say.

Bank run?

Take this with a grain of salt. I'm not your financial advisor in any way, shape or form.

I heard from a friend that there was a bank run going on at Bank of America. Rumor has it that accounts will be frozen for a week because they are strapped for cash. I do a LOT of banking with BoA, as they bought the bank that bought the bank that bought the bank I opened my account in 15 years ago.

Like I said, it's only rumor. I need to withdraw a few hundred in cash for gas and food (don't want to eat the preps) just in case. If you were smarter than me, and have a months worth of cash around the house, then DON'T take out extra. I don't want a bank run started when there wasn't one to begin with.

Like I said - not your advisor, not responsible for the collapse of the banking system, etc.

It's the end of the...

world as we know it, and I feel fine.

Odds are the fuck Americans in the ass bill is going to pass the gaggle of boobs we call congress. I expected the senate to pass it, as the senate is supposed to do what is good for the State. Congress is supposed to listen to the needs of the people.

I watched Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay the other day. Although I don't use or condone drug use, it's a funny as hell movie for my sick and twisted mind. Seriously, I have never done weed, or anything worse. I'm happy enough killing brain cells with tequila and beer. But onto my point. In the movie, George W Bush says "Hate your Government, but love your Country." Profound Truth found in the modern version of Cheech & Chong movie.

I love my country, and I love it's citizens. I can't stand government and the heavy hand of that government muddling in my business. This just takes the cake. This bill is exactly how Argentina dropped from a first world country to a third world country in a few years. Thanks to Michael for pointing this out. Foreign banks can dump their toxic debts (i.e. bad mortgages in the US) and get bailed out by to US government. So we collapse and the international banks profit.

How could I possibly feel fine about this? Is it some smug assertion the I was right when everyone else was wrong? That all this effort into preparing was not in vain? NOT AT ALL. I feel fine because I know I'll be OK, and my friends and family will be better off because I did prepare.

I need to buy a few sturdy trash barrels and put them under my downspouts. I'll need the water for my garden next year. I did order mylar bags and O2 absorbers yesterday. I slacked off on the job and put together a big order for heirloom seeds, but they are not taking orders until after Nov 1. Hate to say it but they lost my business this year. I fully intend on buying from different companies so I can have the best chance of success.

I'll be buying more silver tonight. Wish me luck as it's in a shitty section of town.

Buy tangibles! Take a deep breath! Buy more tangibles!

odds and ends

First, go check out this article I saw on Code Name: Insight.

Combat troops in America. Although a Brigade Combat Team is going to do jack shit against a major metropolitan area. I'm poking around in another tab while I write this to see what their TO&E is. For those who are not up into their eyeballs in military acronyms that is the Table of Organization and Equipment. I wanna know how many abram's and bradley's they got. Looks like they are an Infantry brigade, so the number of tanks will be minimal. They have a cavalry battalion, the rest of them are in Hummers. This means they can move, and deploy fast.

3,000-5,000 soldiers are enough for a hot spot, like the OJ riots in LA. If more than one city riots, then these troops are not going to do much.

Well enough musing about that. Onto more important things, like cellphones. I have a helio, and the company sucks, so I'm ditching them. The screwed me over by double drawing my account, which bounced a check so I'm getting out of the two year contract. I think I'll get an iPhone because of the number of cool applications it has on it. Real-time traffic updates are real handy, right on Google Maps on your little screen. By switching plans I'll save $184 dollars in 12 months, and that includes the cost of the iPhone. AT&T's is about as good as sprint's, which is what the helio used. Verizon is king here, with the best coverage, but their draconian lock down of their phones, with a steep fee to re-enable them made me switch a year ago.

I doubt I'll watch the VP debate tonight. They are not going to go after each other with responses and such, they are just going to read off little speeches. Big whup.

Go read up at Ferfal's blog, Surviving in Argentina - there are a lot of similarities with what went down in Argentina that will help us be ready for what might happen here in the US.

I am off to buy some heirloom seeds for the spring. I also am buying some O2 absorbers and mylar bags too. Hopefully next week I'll have all of it here so I can put away some grain for preps. I was thinking about buying some rice, but it's still pretty pricey.

On another note I'm almost out of .22LR ammo. I got 100 rounds of the cheap stuff left, and I don't see any bulk packages of my current favorite "CCI standard velocity" which I consider good stuff. My marlin will shoot the real expensive Eley ammo, but the performance gain versus the cost isn't worth it. I have to find me someone who sells the bulk packages so I can get a deal. I know I can get it cheaper than $6.60 per 100.

So another goal was met, I have enough JHP for my .45 stored away. Now I need to get more slugs and buckshot. Especially buckshot. Damn Mass laws! I have a lead on a police supply place in Rhode Island that sells ammo cheap, cheap enough to cover the 7% sales tax and the gas to drive all the way down there. I'll see Saturday morning.

Well enough rambling for now. I hope everyone is getting their preps ready. We still have a lot of hurricane season left, and a long cold winter ahead of us. Don't run to the store just before the storm, make sure you and your family are ready for these thigs ahead of time. Buy TANGIBLES!