Seasteading

Today I went to a lecture down at the University of Rhode Island to see Patri Friedman speak about seasteading. It was only an hour long, but it was a very thought-provoking talk abut the nature of government, and how to turn government into a business model.

I was the only non-student to make the trek, and I did stick out like a sore thumb. I find the whole idea of founding your own community fascinating, as that is what I would love to do. Post-TEOTWAWKI I plan on doing just that.

I probably shouldn't have taken a day off so close to my D-Day, but WTF, I needed to get away. And Patri rarely comes out to the east coast.

HR hasn't said squat about my supposed termination tomorrow, I still think my asshole boss was bluffing. well i will sure find out tomorrow, right? I did get a chance this afternoon to go to the range and run some of my pistol loads through the chronograph to compare the different loads I am choosing between. One thing I can say from my preliminary look at the data is the reloading book is way, way off. By about 200fps. I figured it was because of different pistol barrel lengths, but it turns out that they used a Sig P220 for thier test gun, so WTF, over?

Anyway, check out the idea of Seasteading sometime. It's really interesting for us Libertarian-types.

As the Days Crawl By

It is interesting on how we humans perceive the 4th dimension. Time can zip by, or slow to a crawl. For me, it is crawling along.

One of the side effects of this slow economy is that employers can take their sweet-ass time when hiring a new employee. This sucks for me because I have a financial gun pointed at my head.

I went to HR to see if they could do anything for me. Well suffice to say this HR department is like every other HR department, they just try to fuck you over, and avoid a lawsuit. I do have excellent grounds for a lawsuit, but whatever cash I could get wouldn't be worth the stain on my reputation.

Time, time, time. The collapse of the American dollar is just a matter of time. Just look at this graph:
It is in freefall. a few micro-rallies aside we are going straight for the magic number of 72. Rawles feels this is the magic number for collapse, and if he is right then we will dance around it for a week or two before finally plummeting through it. It is a weird psychological barrier, like gold breaking $1000, or the DOW breaking 10,000. Break 72 it it will. The question is what do our bondholders do about it...

I'm old enough to remember Carter's presidency. What I do remember was that America was the world's bitch, to put it in the modern vernacular. Iran taking th hostages, OPEC acting tough, the CCCP throwing a coup in Afghanistan. I'm going to come out and say it: Obama is a pussy. Now I feel he will have an excellent post-presidential career as a peacemaker, like Carter. I have always respected Carter's work in that regard, but as a president he was a clusterfuck. Obama is just like him. Willing to push the Progressive "America sucks" mantra to the rest of the world. I bet that if we weren't neck deep in a multi-war shitstorm that he would be cutting military spending, even if to fund his own S.A.

This got me to thinking on how Carter and Obama are different. Carter wasn't involved in actual warfare when the rest of the world figured out he could be pushed around. The US military is under strain from fighting two wars. Our whole post WWII military has been designed and geared to support two major wars at once. What happens if China invades Taiwan? Or North Korea goes over the top into S. Korea? Our military needs to finish up Iraq and Afghanistan pronto, before something really, really, bad happens.

Question Everything

By default, we accept the viewpoints and opinions of others. It’s a natural byproduct of our tribal heritage to agree with those in our tribe and to distrust those from another tribe. Of course I don’t mean tribes in the literal sense, as tribes in modern society can be numbered in the millions. And you can belong to many tribes. I am a member of the American Tribe, the Libertarian Tribe, the Geek Tribe, the Gamer Tribe, so on and so forth.

What we need to do is question everything. The white house has admitted they don’t release anything without an iron hand controlling the media. The most sought-after position is that of a “spin-doctor” or “Press relations” or “Media consultant” In other words liars. Worse than liars, as they limit access to all the facts to prevent you from making an honest opinion on whatever happened.

This is why I question everything. Nothing is accepted as fact without evidence to back it up. Let’s take a look at the Gold investment people. You have seen them quoted on survivalist websites and I know you see their banner adds everywhere. They have an agenda – to sell you gold – and they will spin any economic DNG (Doom and Gloom) news to get you to do so. They are a business, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you’re using those articles to plan for an economic crisis, realize the whole story is not presented. Avoid the trap of using only limited information.

With All this fact checking, you run the risk of being late on making some calls. The most pressing for us is when/if to bug out. I’m finding that with the research and checking of facts I’m better prepared to make calls of what’s going to happen. But understanding the information behind what crap’s coming out of the talking heads mouth, you can put together a better picture of what’s the real story going on.

A funny by-product of all this is I’m in between the two main “survival circles”. There are those who feel Waco was completely orchestrated by the illumanati, or those who think David Koresh deserved everything he got. Likewise, there are those who feel 9-11 was an inside job, so on and so forth. I’m smack dab in the middle of both sides. My brother, “Bill”, who thinks I’m “asleep” because I don’t think the jet contrails are medicine being dispensed to keep us depressed. Or my good buddy “Joe” who thinks I’m an idiot because mass passed that law to kick in doors and forcibly quarantine you and I feel that the cops are going to take advantage of it, since the WHO already declared a pandemic.

So question everything. Question why that ad wants you to buy gold. Question why they want to raise taxes. Question why Executive orders are not subject to approval by congress or the Supreme Court. Question why milk and bread prices are going up, but inflation is negative. Question why towns are cracking down on speeders and performing “taxation by enforcement”. Question ALL of it. If enough of us ask these questions maybe then we can get the truth for a real journalist, rather than some shithead who can read of a teleprompter and whiten his teeth.

2+2=5 (for very large instances of 2)

So we are in the midst of a Great Revival. The worst has past. Unemployment is a lagging factor, after all, and the consumer economy is beginning to boom once more.

But wait. Why are there so many homes for sale in my town? In the last month, 25 homes have gone up for sale, and that is just the ones I can see going to the market or to work every day. there is no way in a healthy environment that there are so many homes for sale. Most are not foreclosures, possibly families want to move up in size or retireees want to move down, but that's not all of them.

Please lock your trays and return your seats into a full, upright position. We are all in for a bumpy ride.

I have focused almost exclusively on an economic collapse at this point. My personal issues aside, the dollar's value is plummeting. China will only hold onto American toxic treasuries for so long. When China dumps them we get flushed down the shitter. Our economy collapses. I am prparing for this to happen as best I can. I'm looking for side work to make some extra coin. If I don't need the cash for the mortgage, then i can invest it into land, or silver. I am 99% certian the economy will collapse, I see it an inevitable. The trick is, what happens? Do we face a slow decline into oblivion, or do we face the Zombie Apocalypse? I hope it's not the latter.

On a personal note, I've done 13 phone interviews. I have second interviews with 3, and I bet another 1-2 more will ask me for second interviews. Two of the jobs involve a lot of travel bt pay well, the other is a dream work environment at a gaming company. Wish me luck.

Now get your self some silver to go with all that food and ammo!

Decline is a Choice

This article is a must read. My feeble writings are unable to summarize what this well-written and thought-provoking article articulates.

The liberals have to be stopped. I am not responsible for the sins of my father. This is America, and we laid the foundation for the removal of the feudal class system. I am not responsible for the sins of my ancestors who were slave owners. I will not apologize for something I was unable to prevent. I don't practice slavery, I didn't elect the officials who led us to war in Vietnam. I didn't fly a plane into the WTC.

I will not, cannot, and would not grovel or debase myself or my fellow Americans to the altar of "Political Correctness". I will not bend my knee to the Chinese Communists, nor to the Saudi King. They can go kiss my ass!

But yet I'm the "bad guy" because I think America has a lot to offer. I feel the idea of America is the best thing to hit this planet. What's written in the Constitution is not what we live under. Sure it is a Utopic vision that we never will reach, but we have a blueprint that works as long as everyone does their part.

I'm not making a heartfelt plea for us to return to the 1950's - fuck no. What I do want is to have the National Pride of the 1950's. People didn't litter because THEIR country wasn't a trash heap. Walk through almost any area of the country and let me know how many plastic grocery sacks are in the trees. It's the perfect yardstick to determine who has pride in themselves and their country.

I also would like to see the economic policies of the 1950's - to some extent. Industry and innovation to provide real wealth - not the funny money of wall street. I could rant for hours.

Please take the time to read it for yourself, it outlines exactly some of the things I just never understood about the Liberal mindset.

Freedom and the Welfare State

I'm not crazy. Well, not completely crazy. heh. The majority of Americans don't see the welfare state as slavery. This recent article on CNN.com proves otherwise.

In this aspect, freedom is financial freedom, and slavery is being subjugated to the whims of the government. There are how many hundreds of thousands of people wondering if they will have money for food or groceries because the Senate is wringing it's hands about who should get the money. In other words, these people are slaves to the government teat.

Funny coming from me, as I'm about to go on unemployment myself. I'm looking hard and fast, but so far everything I can get quick is out in AZ, NM, NYC, or TX. All temp work too. I really don't want to live in a hotel for 3+ months, and if the balloon goes up have to cross 3000 miles just to get back home.

I'm not desperate yet, I got a few irons in the fire. The problem is at my level it takes a while for the hiring process. It's one thing if you're a desktop tech, those are a dime a dozen. Engineers are harder to get and more expensive, so companies need to interview you 4-5 times before you get the job. That's the one thing I'm short of: time.

This has got me to thinking, which is always dangerous, about the nature of freedom. What is Freedom? Is owning your own business freedom? Or is it just another form of confinement as you are slaved to your customers.

King Missile has a song called "I wish" and it's one of my favorites. In the lyrics he says "Freedom is within where I shall never find it." I suspect this is the real truth of the matter. We are all dependent on each other and our society in ways we cannot fully comprehend because we accept being dependent.

I look at the world in shades of gray, there is no absolute good, and there is no absolute evil. This has to be the case with freedom as well. You can never be 100% free, and likewise, never completely imprisoned. All degrees of freedom or slavery we find ourselves in.The $64,000 question is what are we going to do about it?

Rough Times

"I'll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken." -Duke Leto Atreites

Things have come to a head at the job. I've been told I have a month to find a job elsewhere. Such is the reward for a decade of working 60+ hour weeks. I am already interviewing, and have a few irons in the fire. I do need to move quickly, though. If the new employer finds out I'm out of a job, then they can lowball the offer, figuring I'll be desperate enough to take it.

It is my responsibility. I was too dense to see the truth of the working relationship between my inept manager and the higher levels of management. I have misread the relationship between my boss and the enterprise architect. Arguing with the architect is pointless, as my boss is drinking the magical kool-aid this guys' spouting. Regardless if I am 100% right, I should have been perceptive enough not to make these kinds of mistakes.

Now the company is going to have to break a whole lot of internal policies to fire me. I'm not sure why they don't just lay me off, other than they don't want to spend any money. I have an excellent case to collect unemployment if they do fire me because of these neglected HR procedures. I can easily demonstrate that this was a hostile workplace. If I quit I get nothing, and my Boss really, really wants me to quit. So since he might not be able to get rid of me, then I almost certainly have more than 4 weeks. It takes 1 year to fire someone where I work from normally.

My plan is to get out of there without lawsuits and everything else. The reason is there are only a few companies that can hire and pay IT guys of my level, so if a stink is raised, then they will catch wind and I might fuck myself out of a job. So I'm keeping quiet for now, but documenting EVERYTHING.

I had two interviews yesterday, one with a headhunter, and another with a company a friend works at. Both were "getting to know you" interviews, but at least I'm out there. I feel I made a good impression. I had to drop $1,000 on suits for interviews, a required expense for my salary bracket. I almost bought a stainless steel Savage in .308 for a hunting rifle on Sunday. Good thing I held off.

So I'm sorry I haven't been posting a much, but once I get settled somewhere else I will post more often. I almost have the next segment of the story done, and I want to talk a bit about the conspiracy craziness out there., and the American Police Force and who knows what else.