What does the future hold?

I cannot say what the future holds. I lack the wisdom to see if any of the multitude of possibilities presented by fellow bloggers, by zealots, or mass media are correct. All I can do is use my best judgment to try to focus on the more likely scenarios. These days, an external threat would be comforting in at least we could band together as a nation to face this threat. The partisan politics that are tearing this country apart would be cast aside in the face of such a threat.

I fear we don’t have a convenient bogey-man to focus the nation’s will on. Someone somewhere said the best way to judge a man was by his enemies. America no longer has the Soviet Bloc as its adversary. We have a nebulous, terrorist organization that exists all over the world, and is harbored and sheltered by our own allies. How would such an enemy bring America to greatness? The average citizen feels that they would never be the target of such an enemy. Without a defined threat to the individual citizen, then such an enemy is no threat at all.

Without the threat of Soviet ICBMs raining from the sky, America has decided it’s the biggest kid on the block. Look how our current Chief Idiot bullied everyone to let us beat up on Iraq. Would any cold-war era president allow us to be involved in a two front war with the Red Menace waiting for us to blink?

Our economy is in shambles. The Chief Idiot is printing money so he can continue his wars. The Defense contractors are practically cuming in their pants, as brand-new Predators roll off the assembly line. Politics dictate weapon choice, so our troops are fielded with inferior weapons. Shady firms like Blackwater and others are getting big, fat contracts to provide “protection” to our overseas companies. Halliburton, those scumbag fucks have relocated their HQ to Dubai so they don’t have to pay corporate taxes on the no-bid contract for whatever billion dollars. No fucking bid. No competition. Fucking nepotism, cronyism, pure stupidity. The worst is that the republican party machine is going to get away scott-free!

Ok, so Clinton got his dick sucked, whoop-dee-fucking-do, and he got impeached, but the mindless masses send their sons and daughters off to fight a war for Halliburton’s bottom line and no one says shit? WAKE THE FUCK UP! I swear the next republican who brings up Clinton’s impeachment is getting a punch in their junk.

Forgive me, I digressed from my point.

So the government, i.e. politicians, are looking for the next bogey-man, and we have already seen how they have suspended our rights with the Patriot Act. Will America’s next Great Opponent become its own population? Without a global force to counter America will it decide to go after China when it decides it can annex Taiwan? Will the smaller 2^nd and 3^rd world nations gang up to pull us down like a pack of wolves taking down an elk? Will the west rise up in a second civil war, the Reconquista? Will it be our economy? Will a major international conglomerate buy off the government with a quick influx of cash to boost our poor dollar?

I am convinced the status quo can no longer be sustained. Something big is going to happen, and it’s going to happen in my lifetime. What this will be I cannot say. There is a possibility we all get through the next 100 years with nothing more than the recession of '08 to set us back a little bit. I honestly hope that is the case. I am a betting man, and I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I'm putting my $ into canned goods and a good shotgun!

I’m almost done with my first phase of preparation. I just need to properly arm myself. What I have for a budget depends on if I get a buyer for my paintball equipment, but even if I don't get a buyer I'll have a decent weapon in my home to defend myself.

Flea Market finds

Just got back from a bike ride in the sweltering heat we have here today. That's a petal bike, BTW. Thought it's be a good idea to bike to the market since I'm out of mayonnaise. Humidity's up about 90% and it's 90+ outside right now.

I braved the early morning heat to hit a flea market. Some major finds this trip! I got three compression sacks for sleeping bags and such, $3 each. A huge mosquito net for $6. A military duffel, with shoulder straps for $5. And a folding shovel for $10. Not too shabby a haul.

I am still looking for a decent pair of binoculars and a decent hatchet. No luck with either, yet. Nothing good enough that's cheap enough. What I am seeing are vendors asking $20+ for a pair that are so scratched I can't see through one side. Likewise, I can get a hatchet for $10 new so why pay $5 for one beat to hell?

So here is what I'm still looking for:
Hatchet
a few bandannas
bug spray (Keep forgetting to buy some)
Binoculars (pref 50mm)
firearms (still waiting on the LTC first)

So far so good. I should be getting my LTC in the next 3 weeks, here in the nanny state, it takes 4-6 weeks. I'm starting to get worried they'll give me a class B :( we shall see.

Grendel by John Gardner

I'd like to share with everyone one of my favorite books, Grendel by John Gardner. It's a excellent story about the monster from the Beowulf saga. Every time I read it, I find new passages that poke and prod my understanding of myself, of humanity, and of the gods.

Do not think my brains are squeezed shut, like the rams, by the roots of horns. Flanks atremble, eyes like stones, he stares at much of the world as he can see and feels it surging in him, ... His hindparts shiver with the usual, joyful ache to mount whatever happens near ... I cannot bear to look. "Why can't these creatures discover a little dignity?" I ask the sky. The sky says nothing, predictably. I make a face, uplift a defiant middle finger and give an obscene little kick. The sky ignores me, forever unimpressed.

(used without permission)
One of the ideas of the book is that Beowulf is just as much a monster as Grendel. I have argued that the Shaper is the true villain of the book, but that might be my mistrust of Organized Religion and Mass Media.

It's only 150 or so pages, and well worth the read. I'm reading again, for I think the 12th time. the only book I've read more is The Hobbit. The margins are filled with notes and asterisks, highlighting a particular thought for further digestion. There is a bit of swearing in the book, and it's a shame that some school systems are banning the book from study just because of a stray F-Bomb or two.

I'll try to post other reviews of my favorite books from time to time, hope you enjoy them.

Fire testing complete

So I spent some time here and there over the last week testing the best way to reliably make a fire in a survival situation. I found that the best way to make a fire in all cases was dryer lint mixed with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly.

It doesn't take much, about a dime-sized spotch of Vaseline, and a quarter-sized tuft of dryer lint mixed together. This is easily ignited by a swedish steel, match, etc. Just keep it out of the wind and your going to have a good fire in no time.

In my BOB, I now have a film canister with some Vaseline in it and a small plastic bag of dryer lint. I'll also have waterproof matches, as it's good to have two of everything really important. I no longer carry any newspaper, as it's pointless, and in a pinch I can use a little TP to help things along.

I found a great deal on firesteels here, at survivaltopics.com.

Education, part 2

Continuing my thoughts on how we can re-vamp the current educational system. At the end of the first part, I listed what needs to change in order to make an educational system that benefits the teachers, the citizens, and most importantly - the students.

1) Hold Teachers accountable
2) Hold Students accountable
3) Privatize the educational system
4) Reduce governmental involvement to oversight

I have friends that are teachers and they would (attempt) to beat the snot out of me for even mentioning this: remove tenure for any educational system below the university level. Teachers kill them selves to get tenured, once tenured it's nearly impossible for them to be fired. Because the teachers are not held accountable, in general, they no longer care for the individual student. They just are "punching the clock" until they can retire. Only in extreme cases have teachers been held to task for how they treat the students. My fourth grade teacher survived calls for her termination for 10 years before she retired on a fat pension. She wasn't a teacher, she was state-run day care.

If through standardized tests, students are not getting what they need to know then the teacher and school will get in trouble with government oversight. That's when the beauty of private schooling is revealed - the teacher gets fired - a better one is then hired. Teachers have more motivation to help the students. In a privatized system, the teachers benefit as well, more on that later.

Now we hold the students accountable for their own education. If you don't hand in you homework, parents get notified. Because schools will be competing for students, you can bet they will have "value-added" services like comprehensive reporting on the student's progress, virtual parent-teacher conferencing, and excellent care for the student's education. Additional tutoring will be available for the students either as an added fee, or as a value-added program of the school.

If the students misbehave, they can be tossed out on their ass. Bring a gun to a private school, and your PHUCT. As a private institution they can have drug-sniffing dogs walking the halls every day. I like the idea of that. As the situation progresses, private schools will be able to rapidly change their security situation. Gangs becoming a problem, hire armed security guards, dress them up like SWAT and roam the halls. problem will be solved quite nicely, I think.

Privatizing the school system reduces governmental waste. Teachers can be paid according to the school they teach at. If they want more $, then the can go to another school. Part of the issue with teachers is once they are settled in at a school there is no longer any room for growth. Sure, they can become a principal, or whatnot, but their career is stagnant. I think this is one of the leading causes of the apathy of so many of my teachers in public school.

Schools will specialize. I see schools that are devoted to special needs. Those working there have the training and desire to work with special kids, rather than forcing them to integrate with regular student populations. Some schools will be known for engineering, others for religious education. If your a creationist, then send your kid to a creationist school. I'm big on the separation of Church and State, and all lot of the bullpucky with creationism, vs. evolution vs. Intelligent design goes out the window. All three classes can be offered in the largest schools, and you tell your kid which one to take.

How would teachers benefit under a privatized system. For one, they might not get as good benefits, but they also would not be shacked with students that were forced to be there. Their jobs would become easier, as they would specialize in what curriculum they taught. Security would be increased as the school was on private land, and could hire Blackwater for security if it was needed. Since it's easier to dismiss problem students, the threat of gang violence is reduced to nil. From the teachers I know, most would saw off their own right arm for a room of students that actually wanted to be there. Although state pensions would be gone, and the school year would probably be longer, teachers would have choices in which 401k, or health plan they would get. Also with the adoption of technology to make their lives easier, they would have the benefit of being able to work on other projects, research, writing books that could not be done under the current load of paperwork. Imagine teaching in a facility that is kept up maintenance-wise! The past threats of black mold and such would never happen in an environment where schools were competing for students.

Now how much of your tax dollar goes to the school system? How much of that $ is wasted on no-bid government contracts? How much is wasted on the lunch program for kids that don't eat the food because it's gross? If we ran education like a business, then a lot of cost-saving technology would already be implemented, instead of waiting 10+years for them to finally adopt it. Tele-learning for kids out sick from school. Online recorded lectures so the students can review for study? A secure, online, examination system so teachers can work on lessons and tutoring instead of grading exams. In high-school, give seniors part-time jobs as teaching assistants helping with tutoring freshman algebra?

The government would be there as a independent, fair, and logical body to determine what is the minimum to graduate from one grade to another. This governmental body would ensure a minimal quality for sanitation, food services, etc.

Perhaps a rating system like we have for restaurants could be established. This rating would track the core knowledge of math, English, American history, reading, health education, basic sciences, etc. and post it for the world to see. So if a school wanted to charge a lot for tuition, then it'd better have the basics down cold. Note that a large amount of some schools curriculum is not included. I had to take four years of Religion in high school, and under this system those classes mean squat for the rating. However, the Catholic Church could post whether or not the school is teaching correct doctrine. Likewise, a commie-pinko school could be endorsed by the US Communist Party.

Changing the way we educate our children should be one of the top priorities of the next few Presidents. The US has fallen way behind in how our students compete vs. other major industrialized nations, and to compete in the global markets we need new ideas and big thinkers. With the current educational system, the crop of such gifted students is rather thin to say the least. This is something that can be changed now, even with the government clusterfuck we live under now.

Education, part 1

Well this is a bit of a sore subject for me. What I am going to try in this post is outline what an educational system needs, in my not-so-humble opinion. I am going to try to maintain balance between the individual, and their rights, and the needs of a society at large. This first part is my personal experiences at the mercy of the current educational system. The next part wil begin to outline the end goal, at least in my eyes what it should look like.

I attended a small town educational system until high school, which I transferred to a Catholic high school 20ish miles away. The town's high school was atrocious, college prep was the second most available curriculum, behind shop. This class also had a piss-poor agricultural program.

I entered the school system a year early. The town has some arcane method of selecting when students could enter school, but my mum fought the system and managed to win. Later the Skool system would try to use this against me.

In Kindergarten I had my first run-in with how abysmal the town's educational system was. I used to get terrible ear infections, pain was a constant in my life as a child. My parents did what they could, but nothing could stop the pain. Eventually, I lost hearing in both ears. No one at skool even noticed until they called out all the kids for recess after nap time, and I didn't go until the teacher shook me, even after calling my name in my ear for a few minutes. You see, even back then I was a wily bugger, I had taught myself to read lips. I'm still figuring out who to thank (I'm agnostic), my hearing returned mostly intact after the eardrums healed. It's kinda my own damn fault, as I adapted to my new surroundings. Even to this day my mum swears I never lost my hearing, that's how bamboozled I had her. Now did the Skool take any time to make sure I was seeing a doctor? Did they at least contact my parents face to face to discuss what's going on? Nope. Nada. If my ears didn't heal then I would have been the "student left behind"

For my next escapade in the piss-poor skool system here in town It's actually rather funny. Well It's funny now, but as a kid once I figured out what they were doing I went postal. It was in the 3rd grade when it started. I was never one to get good grades, I was a C student, and never showed much interest in getting anything else. Well in it's infinite wisdom, the skool system decided that I was "special". Not the gifted "special" but rather the hockey-helmet-wearing "special." My mom fought to keep me in regular classes, but behind her back they would stuff me in with the other 2-3 special education kids. It's one thing to be bored, it's another to be bored out of your skull while some kid rambles on for 6 hours about the Beatles albums. I was 7, I didn't know who the heck the Beatles were, never mind who produces what album...

I'll never forget the fourth grade so long as I live. For the entirety of the fourth grade I never learned any math, nor social studies, not even how to improve my cursive handwriting. I drew trucks. The skool system decided that due to my obvious problems with learning, that the only jobs I would be suitable for in society was:

1) truck driver
2) fisherman
3) farmer

Now, I have nothing against those professions. There are smart and dumb people in all walks of life. But in the 70's, the dawn of the information age, if you drove a truck then you were assumed to be as smart as a box of hammers. As for fishing and farming, only morons did manual labor. your father was a fisherman to put you through college. Such was the wisdom(HA!) of the 70's.

Now to say I drew trucks, that's exactly what I did. On big and small sheets of manila paper me and my classmates drew Peterbuilts, Kenworths and Mack's. For an entire school year!

Now that little school I was in only went to the 4th grade. I would go to another school in town for 5th grade then it's off to middle school for 6th - 8th grades. It's in 5th grade when the skool system finally realized the mistake they were making. In town, 5th grade is finally where the entire body of students merged into one giant group. This school was new, only 5 years old at the time, and none of the existing teachers for the earlier town schools transferred there. So by and large, the teachers were young, and enthusiastic, and most importantly not tenured. The first few months of the 5th grade were spent in a much larger group of "special" kids. And then my salvation arrived in a small standardized test.

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills, how I love thee. So one day I'm bored out of my skull in "special class" when they give us these exams where you fill in the little dot with a #2 pencil. Most of the kids drew on the paper, drooled on it, wiped their ass on it or yes, even masturbated on it in class. I sat down in the corner away from the bodily fluids and took the exam.

Not to toot my own horn, but I am way above average in intelligence. The reason I had always done poorly in school is because I was bored. Nothing was challenging me. Turns out once they got the results back from the test, I was called in to the principal's office. I scored so high they thought I cheated. After several teachers coming in with questions they realized the mistake they made. the very next day I was moved into the advanced classes. Needless to say the Skool never apologized for it's mistake.

So how can we improve things? Consider this a teaser for my next pot on the subject.

1) Hold Teachers accountable
2) Hold Students accountable
3) Privatize the educational system
4) Reduce governmental involvement to oversight

A quick thanks

I'm stuck here at work (on Sunday no less) and before I work on my big post for the day, let me just give a quick thanks to those that take the time out of your busy days to read my rants, and my follies.