SORRY EXCUSE FOR AN ARTICLE
Today's sorry excuse for an article. A flippin link. Thanks a lot, Jim. Bastard. Just because you don't work today ( I'm putting in a few hours picking up donations, but I can't stick around using the computer ). I want my subscription money back!
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/11/lurching-toward-gomorrah-more-signs-of.html
Cool article on the sky falling economically.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
guest article
GUEST ARTICLE
Another Book Review
Hey Jim,
You told me to ignore the trolls and continue to share information after they trashed my last book review. Well, ok, damn the trolls and full speed ahead.
My wife, sister and I have just returned from our fourth trip to Death Valley. There is something about the desert that just draws me. I love the stark beauty there. For another time I will share with you the desert survival kit I take. It is minimal because I had to fly it out with me and is not all that I would like to take, but again, that is for another time.
I read a lot of books on the history of Death Valley to get a real good grasp of the sites and places I am visiting. While there this trip my sister handed me a book at one of the “trading posts” we were at and told me to buy the book, it looked my kind of read. I paid for the copy of Burro Bill and Me by Edna Calkins Price. Mrs. Price was born and raised in Virginia to a well to do family. Most of her brothers and sisters went on to teach at colleges. Edna became a trained nurse and met a rugged man by the name of William Price at one of the hospitals she worked at and they married.
Bill was not a settle down and work for a living type of guy. They finally quit work and drove into Death Valley and lived there for a number of years. After going into business selling all the items they could find in the numerous ghost towns in the area they traded their car for a string of pack burros and walked through Death Valley, across Nevada and into Arizona, around and through the Grand Canyon and back to Baker, California. They were footloose and fancy free for ten years of their life.
What does any of this have to do with survival you ask? Well, plenty frankly. This book was written about their trip made in the 1930s, during the height of the Depression and the western drought known as the Dust Bowl. Throughout the book Edna writes about the different skills that had to be learned to eke out a living. They started out with a “nice camp kit” and later on she talks about how they kept tossing away items that served little purpose. The folding table and chairs were tossed and rocks became chairs. The big tent was traded for a much smaller one. Their gear finally got down to only the items they used daily and most of it fit on one burro. The point here for survivalist is that once we get in the field and start surviving we may well find that a lot of our gear is useless. As has been written many times, practice your survival skills now, do not wait.
Bill and Edna carried two guns with them. Bill toted a Savage in .30-30 and Edna carried a .22. At one point Edna writes that Bill took the .22 and shot deer near the Grand Canyon and they made jerky for several weeks. He used the .22 because the sound was less, the bullets cheaper and they only had seven .30-30 rounds. The .22 was not very accurate and Bill finally got mad enough to wrap the barrel around a rock. Lessons here? How about the small caliber gun for deer and the small number of guns. I know a lot of survivalist that couldn’t narrow down the number of guns to less than six. Granted times were different but still the areas they traveled were not “safe” and more than once they were in danger.
One of the things I found interesting was the list of supplies that they carried was the thirty day food supply. They carried; “fifty pounds of flour, ten pounds of cornmeal, twenty pounds of beans, ten pounds of honey, two pounds of coffee, two pounds of sugar, one pound of oil, salt, soda and if anything remained of a ten dollar bill it was invested in a few onions, ten-cent can of cocoa and a small piece of salt pork.” All of their meals were cooked in a Dutch oven or over the coals. Cocoa flavored biscuits were baked to make the only desserts that they had. Oh, and I researched the cost in today’s dollars and $10 in 1934 is the same as $155 today.
Several other interesting nuggets of information panned from this book were the importance of footwear that Bill and Edna had. Bill custom ordered their walking boots for the desert area they were traveling through and a pair lasted over a year. They turned down a job because it would put too much wear on their boots. They would not make enough on the job to replace the boots they wore out. In a survival situation replacing worn boots and clothing just might become one of the most important things concerning you.
One time they traded for a dog and goat. They took the goat to get milk from and the dog to protect the camp. Neither worked out well for them and they ended up returning the goat and the dog ran away. Maintaining animals in a survival situation will be difficult and if you are on the move it may be impossible. If your plan includes animals make sure you are prepared for trouble and loss.
More than once in the book Edna writes of the trouble they had finding good drinking water for them and the animals. On several occasions they strained cow manure out of the water and boiled it just to get a drink. They had no water purification to help them other than an old shirt to strain it through and a Dutch oven to boil it in. Not the best way to live off the land. Water is one of the biggest needs in survival. Make sure you have multiple ways of obtaining good pure water.
I enjoyed Burro Bill and Me a lot. I read it in one day while up at deer camp. There is entertainment value in the book, and there are some good survival hints in the book too, written by one that lived it. I bought in on sale for $10 and feel I got my money’s worth.
Wolverine
Another Book Review
Hey Jim,
You told me to ignore the trolls and continue to share information after they trashed my last book review. Well, ok, damn the trolls and full speed ahead.
My wife, sister and I have just returned from our fourth trip to Death Valley. There is something about the desert that just draws me. I love the stark beauty there. For another time I will share with you the desert survival kit I take. It is minimal because I had to fly it out with me and is not all that I would like to take, but again, that is for another time.
I read a lot of books on the history of Death Valley to get a real good grasp of the sites and places I am visiting. While there this trip my sister handed me a book at one of the “trading posts” we were at and told me to buy the book, it looked my kind of read. I paid for the copy of Burro Bill and Me by Edna Calkins Price. Mrs. Price was born and raised in Virginia to a well to do family. Most of her brothers and sisters went on to teach at colleges. Edna became a trained nurse and met a rugged man by the name of William Price at one of the hospitals she worked at and they married.
Bill was not a settle down and work for a living type of guy. They finally quit work and drove into Death Valley and lived there for a number of years. After going into business selling all the items they could find in the numerous ghost towns in the area they traded their car for a string of pack burros and walked through Death Valley, across Nevada and into Arizona, around and through the Grand Canyon and back to Baker, California. They were footloose and fancy free for ten years of their life.
What does any of this have to do with survival you ask? Well, plenty frankly. This book was written about their trip made in the 1930s, during the height of the Depression and the western drought known as the Dust Bowl. Throughout the book Edna writes about the different skills that had to be learned to eke out a living. They started out with a “nice camp kit” and later on she talks about how they kept tossing away items that served little purpose. The folding table and chairs were tossed and rocks became chairs. The big tent was traded for a much smaller one. Their gear finally got down to only the items they used daily and most of it fit on one burro. The point here for survivalist is that once we get in the field and start surviving we may well find that a lot of our gear is useless. As has been written many times, practice your survival skills now, do not wait.
Bill and Edna carried two guns with them. Bill toted a Savage in .30-30 and Edna carried a .22. At one point Edna writes that Bill took the .22 and shot deer near the Grand Canyon and they made jerky for several weeks. He used the .22 because the sound was less, the bullets cheaper and they only had seven .30-30 rounds. The .22 was not very accurate and Bill finally got mad enough to wrap the barrel around a rock. Lessons here? How about the small caliber gun for deer and the small number of guns. I know a lot of survivalist that couldn’t narrow down the number of guns to less than six. Granted times were different but still the areas they traveled were not “safe” and more than once they were in danger.
One of the things I found interesting was the list of supplies that they carried was the thirty day food supply. They carried; “fifty pounds of flour, ten pounds of cornmeal, twenty pounds of beans, ten pounds of honey, two pounds of coffee, two pounds of sugar, one pound of oil, salt, soda and if anything remained of a ten dollar bill it was invested in a few onions, ten-cent can of cocoa and a small piece of salt pork.” All of their meals were cooked in a Dutch oven or over the coals. Cocoa flavored biscuits were baked to make the only desserts that they had. Oh, and I researched the cost in today’s dollars and $10 in 1934 is the same as $155 today.
Several other interesting nuggets of information panned from this book were the importance of footwear that Bill and Edna had. Bill custom ordered their walking boots for the desert area they were traveling through and a pair lasted over a year. They turned down a job because it would put too much wear on their boots. They would not make enough on the job to replace the boots they wore out. In a survival situation replacing worn boots and clothing just might become one of the most important things concerning you.
One time they traded for a dog and goat. They took the goat to get milk from and the dog to protect the camp. Neither worked out well for them and they ended up returning the goat and the dog ran away. Maintaining animals in a survival situation will be difficult and if you are on the move it may be impossible. If your plan includes animals make sure you are prepared for trouble and loss.
More than once in the book Edna writes of the trouble they had finding good drinking water for them and the animals. On several occasions they strained cow manure out of the water and boiled it just to get a drink. They had no water purification to help them other than an old shirt to strain it through and a Dutch oven to boil it in. Not the best way to live off the land. Water is one of the biggest needs in survival. Make sure you have multiple ways of obtaining good pure water.
I enjoyed Burro Bill and Me a lot. I read it in one day while up at deer camp. There is entertainment value in the book, and there are some good survival hints in the book too, written by one that lived it. I bought in on sale for $10 and feel I got my money’s worth.
Wolverine
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
population density
POPULATION DENSITY
Before we begin today, two things. One, a hearty and genuine big-hug-and-little-kisses to the Loyal Minion First Class for a very generous $100 PayPal donation. I almost choked on my bread when I saw that one. I tried e-mailing a thank you but it was kicked back to me. Thanks! Second, Thanksgiving Day will be a guest article. The same tired minion that donates most of the guest articles since the rest of you won't write my blog for me. Just send money instead. Seriously, everyone is so generous it astounds me. Thanks to everyone- even comments with serious contributions to our learning, helpful links or remembering me when ordering from Amazon are just as appreciated as money. Who could ask for better readers? Anyway, getting back on track, Friday will be a very lame article, so don't expect much. I'm crazy busy with the glut on Christmas donations to the food bank and have been sacrificing my break times a lot, so I've had no time to write ahead of time for when I can't get to an Interweb connection. I'm lucky I just got the guest article or both days would have sucked.
*
Population density is the reason the conventional advice is to flee from east of the Mississippi river. There are 181 people per square mile east of that line, but only 44 west of there. However, that number fails to tell the whole tale. I knew the eastern seaboard was crowded, but until I came across the following numbers I had no idea how crowded. The United States has 82 people per square mile. China, similar in land area with vast stretches of waste land with people crammed into the cities, has 357. And Haiti, a real crap hole if there ever was one, is 796. So, one can imagine that number in a country with dwindling resources as problematic. How about these numbers- the District Of Columbia has 8,738 people per square mile! New Jersey has 1,162. Road Island is 1,025. Taxachusetis is 820. New York a mere 406. And everyone's favorite whipping boy, California, is 231.
*
Not bad, right? You can live with those numbers. However, consider the West. Alaska has one person per square mile. Wyoming is only 5. Montana, six. The Dakota's 9 and 10. New Mexico is 16. Idaho is 17. Nevada, because of those bastards in Las Vegas ruining the averages for the rest of the state is still only 22 people per square mile. If you are stuck back east, Maine only has 43. So, living in the west definitely gets you away from the teeming masses. Let's say you were daydreaming about Canada, which only has 8 people per square mile. Why go there, when you can go to several states with similar densities? See what fun statistics are.
*
Perhaps you can see my attraction to northern Nevada. Subtract LV and the densities are some of the lowest in the country. Yet, unlike Wyoming or Montana, land is actually affordable here. I know, I can't farm and I'll freeze to death one winter. But at least I'll do it uncrowded. The above numbers were taken from the book "Five Short Blasts" by Pete Murphy. A fascinating book with a riot of tables, graphs and statistics. I loved it. And a well thought out theory on population and wealth. However, at $17 it seems a bit pricey to recommend to anyone except economics junkies.
END
Before we begin today, two things. One, a hearty and genuine big-hug-and-little-kisses to the Loyal Minion First Class for a very generous $100 PayPal donation. I almost choked on my bread when I saw that one. I tried e-mailing a thank you but it was kicked back to me. Thanks! Second, Thanksgiving Day will be a guest article. The same tired minion that donates most of the guest articles since the rest of you won't write my blog for me. Just send money instead. Seriously, everyone is so generous it astounds me. Thanks to everyone- even comments with serious contributions to our learning, helpful links or remembering me when ordering from Amazon are just as appreciated as money. Who could ask for better readers? Anyway, getting back on track, Friday will be a very lame article, so don't expect much. I'm crazy busy with the glut on Christmas donations to the food bank and have been sacrificing my break times a lot, so I've had no time to write ahead of time for when I can't get to an Interweb connection. I'm lucky I just got the guest article or both days would have sucked.
*
Population density is the reason the conventional advice is to flee from east of the Mississippi river. There are 181 people per square mile east of that line, but only 44 west of there. However, that number fails to tell the whole tale. I knew the eastern seaboard was crowded, but until I came across the following numbers I had no idea how crowded. The United States has 82 people per square mile. China, similar in land area with vast stretches of waste land with people crammed into the cities, has 357. And Haiti, a real crap hole if there ever was one, is 796. So, one can imagine that number in a country with dwindling resources as problematic. How about these numbers- the District Of Columbia has 8,738 people per square mile! New Jersey has 1,162. Road Island is 1,025. Taxachusetis is 820. New York a mere 406. And everyone's favorite whipping boy, California, is 231.
*
Not bad, right? You can live with those numbers. However, consider the West. Alaska has one person per square mile. Wyoming is only 5. Montana, six. The Dakota's 9 and 10. New Mexico is 16. Idaho is 17. Nevada, because of those bastards in Las Vegas ruining the averages for the rest of the state is still only 22 people per square mile. If you are stuck back east, Maine only has 43. So, living in the west definitely gets you away from the teeming masses. Let's say you were daydreaming about Canada, which only has 8 people per square mile. Why go there, when you can go to several states with similar densities? See what fun statistics are.
*
Perhaps you can see my attraction to northern Nevada. Subtract LV and the densities are some of the lowest in the country. Yet, unlike Wyoming or Montana, land is actually affordable here. I know, I can't farm and I'll freeze to death one winter. But at least I'll do it uncrowded. The above numbers were taken from the book "Five Short Blasts" by Pete Murphy. A fascinating book with a riot of tables, graphs and statistics. I loved it. And a well thought out theory on population and wealth. However, at $17 it seems a bit pricey to recommend to anyone except economics junkies.
END
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
is it worth it?
IS IT WORTH IT?
A loyal minion asked, is it worth it? Living off the grid. Roughing it. Most folks, secure in a weather proof mansion with a vegetable plot and a couple of chickens, living next to a national forest with $20 a cord wood permits available, in debt with the bank for their mortgage and truck purchase, would of course say "yes". They are comfortable, thinking their pensions or 401(k) or Social Security check secures them against the ravages of reality. They believe their grid can't crash, their pantry inexhaustible. I'm a lot more paranoid than that and won't take on debt, so I'm squatting on junk land in a trailer. Their ain't no comfort involved. So the question is, without the regular amenities associated with farming and back-to-the-landers, is it worth it?
*
Worse case scenario, I have to move down the road to my lot that's paid off already. A lot further from town, running water, a decent road. Then, I pay ten dollars a year taxes. That is my only housing expense. I only need food then. I have dig a hole in the ground and burn sage brush for cooking and heat. I have enough silver saved up for that ( assuming civilization holds together ). I can afford to give up the vehicles, the cell phone, a few other expenses. Bare bones survival. And my stored food will get me through the initial danger of a collapse. I think I'm well set up. I didn't want to live in Carson and have to worry about traveling here when the time came. Too much could go wrong, from mechanical failure to gas shortages to government travel restrictions. Living here, I'm one tenth a gas tank away from where I need to be, all accessible on back roads ( bypassing I-80 ).
This last weekend, I woke up to thirty degrees. Anymore, not unusual. I layered up as usual. But, it took a bit of time to warm up and I got so cold the chill didn't leave me all day. I could have done the sensible thing and went outside and cleared brush or dug in my hole to warm up. Instead, I started feeling sorry for myself. I sat in my chair and started moaning and pissing about how I wanted to live down south were it never got cold. At first, the wife was in complete agreement. As the hours went by with me still ranting and raving and pouring over an atlas, she got a bit pissy herself. She finally snapped that I was being stupid, once again willing to move based on encountering difficulties. Ouch. That hit a little close to home. Guilty as charged. The fact was, wanting to move was stupid. I've put almost all of my investments into Elko. To move would mean one paycheck away from homelessness. And, anymore, that is an invitation to police harassment. Alone, you can hide well. With a vehicle full of wheat and guns, a wife and two cats, there is no real hiding. Plus, no job would mean no child support payments, another reason to get harassed.
*
So, the answer to this particular riddle is that while it might not be worth it as far as the hassle and lack of comfort, it is a really smart move right now. I had no idea what was in store for the economy when I decided to move the beginning of July. I simply got lucky that I did move before it all went down. If I gave up those gains in security I would be a damn fool. All because I become a puss when it gets cold ( the last two mornings were 18 degrees on the pedal into work- and its still officially spring ). I'm not Superman, I have my weak moments. I have resolve dissolving moments. But, doing the math, yes, it is worth all the hassle to be more secure. No one grants a medal for doing the smart thing. It used to be normal that you sacrificed to be more secure in the future. Then it all became charging the credit card to live comfortable immediately, paying for it later ( with interest ).
*
I think it has already started, the end of our luxury life based on oil. I guess you need to get used to it one sacrifice at a time.
END
A loyal minion asked, is it worth it? Living off the grid. Roughing it. Most folks, secure in a weather proof mansion with a vegetable plot and a couple of chickens, living next to a national forest with $20 a cord wood permits available, in debt with the bank for their mortgage and truck purchase, would of course say "yes". They are comfortable, thinking their pensions or 401(k) or Social Security check secures them against the ravages of reality. They believe their grid can't crash, their pantry inexhaustible. I'm a lot more paranoid than that and won't take on debt, so I'm squatting on junk land in a trailer. Their ain't no comfort involved. So the question is, without the regular amenities associated with farming and back-to-the-landers, is it worth it?
*
Worse case scenario, I have to move down the road to my lot that's paid off already. A lot further from town, running water, a decent road. Then, I pay ten dollars a year taxes. That is my only housing expense. I only need food then. I have dig a hole in the ground and burn sage brush for cooking and heat. I have enough silver saved up for that ( assuming civilization holds together ). I can afford to give up the vehicles, the cell phone, a few other expenses. Bare bones survival. And my stored food will get me through the initial danger of a collapse. I think I'm well set up. I didn't want to live in Carson and have to worry about traveling here when the time came. Too much could go wrong, from mechanical failure to gas shortages to government travel restrictions. Living here, I'm one tenth a gas tank away from where I need to be, all accessible on back roads ( bypassing I-80 ).
This last weekend, I woke up to thirty degrees. Anymore, not unusual. I layered up as usual. But, it took a bit of time to warm up and I got so cold the chill didn't leave me all day. I could have done the sensible thing and went outside and cleared brush or dug in my hole to warm up. Instead, I started feeling sorry for myself. I sat in my chair and started moaning and pissing about how I wanted to live down south were it never got cold. At first, the wife was in complete agreement. As the hours went by with me still ranting and raving and pouring over an atlas, she got a bit pissy herself. She finally snapped that I was being stupid, once again willing to move based on encountering difficulties. Ouch. That hit a little close to home. Guilty as charged. The fact was, wanting to move was stupid. I've put almost all of my investments into Elko. To move would mean one paycheck away from homelessness. And, anymore, that is an invitation to police harassment. Alone, you can hide well. With a vehicle full of wheat and guns, a wife and two cats, there is no real hiding. Plus, no job would mean no child support payments, another reason to get harassed.
*
So, the answer to this particular riddle is that while it might not be worth it as far as the hassle and lack of comfort, it is a really smart move right now. I had no idea what was in store for the economy when I decided to move the beginning of July. I simply got lucky that I did move before it all went down. If I gave up those gains in security I would be a damn fool. All because I become a puss when it gets cold ( the last two mornings were 18 degrees on the pedal into work- and its still officially spring ). I'm not Superman, I have my weak moments. I have resolve dissolving moments. But, doing the math, yes, it is worth all the hassle to be more secure. No one grants a medal for doing the smart thing. It used to be normal that you sacrificed to be more secure in the future. Then it all became charging the credit card to live comfortable immediately, paying for it later ( with interest ).
*
I think it has already started, the end of our luxury life based on oil. I guess you need to get used to it one sacrifice at a time.
END
Monday, November 24, 2008
baby with the bath water
BABY WITH THE BATH WATER
I got two books last week, thanks to the legions of loyal minions who shop Amazon through the links at my web page www.bisonpress.com . When you mosey on over to the official web page of All Things Bison and click on one of several links listing pages of Amazon products, and then you actually open up that wallet that's tighter than a prisoner on his first night in the pen and buy something, Amazon gives me a commission of between four and six percent. You don't even have to buy what is listed, I still get the commission on any purchases made after you first use any linked product ( as long as you don't go elsewhere in between ). For instance, I list a book called " How to survive zombie attacks". You don't want to buy that one, but you click on it, then use the Amazon search engine for "Nerds guide to finding love with a zombie" and buy that. I still get a commission. Then, with this credit I buy whatever books pertain to Bison and I share that wisdom with you. Or, if none, I review the book and tell you to save your money. The more products you buy, the more wisdom and learning I develop.
*
So, I get the two books which I shall review soon, and I read "The Long Decent" by John M Greer ( the Arch druid dude ). I fall in love with it, it is a great book. But one thing that troubled me was his throwing out the baby with the bath water when it came to survivalists. He raised many valid points as he was criticising the movement, but used them as the reason to dismiss the practice. I think what he missed was that we ourselves are quite aware of the pitfalls we face and attempt to plan around them. For instance, the point was made survivalists ignore history because Roman rural settlements were raided while city dwellers stayed safe. Survivalists themselves realize this is a dangerous practice, being alone in the wilderness. Olson Scott Card touched on that long ago in his fiction. And we certainly do not ignore history. I think as a group survivalists recognize the importance of history more than almost any other hobbyists.
*
Now, don't get me wrong. As I said this was a great book. Very rational, well researched, the clear work of intelligence. But while painting others as blind due to the "religions" of progress or apocalypse he himself has a few areas his blinders covers up. Could it be a fear of guns? He does lean towards tree hugging while wearing hemp sandals. Is it a dedication towards a non-consumer lifestyle, a hatred of capitalism? Yes, they are flawed. But everything has its place. And abuse can ruin the best practices. Ah, well. Minor complaints about a great book. I'll give better details another day. Now, how about some other great whoppers survivalists can be accused of? Which, by the by, are not in the above book. It's just that I'm on a roll here.
*
The gun nut criticism. We all go overboard here. A few really poor preppers might only own a rimfire or single shot shotgun, but they are sneered at and made to feel guilty and slink home from the range and sell their first borns organs on the Chinese black market for enough money to buy a few semi-automatic battle rifles. It seems that anything less than semi-automatic will instantly kill you, so you might as well just give up and turn in your one case of MRE's and your survivalist membership card if you don't procure several of them. And don't stop there. Anything less than several high tech radios and night vision devices will also disqualify you from this elite club.
*
The myth of self-sufficiency. No one, not even a successful farmer three hundred years ago, was truly self-sufficient. Everyone needed to trade. The only reason some shipwrecked fool was able to survive alone on an island was the fact of undiminished natural resources. Good luck finding an area like that. When the focus is just on gardening, one gets the dangerous illusion of invincibility. I'm not saying it is an unworthy goal, just that it alone won't save you. For one thing, any crops are set in place and apt to be stolen. Either thieves in the night or more likely a local dictator taxing your harvest. You are stationary and vulnerable. History is ripe with examples of farmers being taxed to the point of starvation or at least malnutrition.
*
Reliance on consumerism. We all shop before we drop. It is a dangerous practice, being reliant on procurement rather than production skills. We are stockpiling a lifeboat, but they are vulnerable to theft and damage. Not that a lot of us have a choice. We work nine to eleven hours a day and that leaves little time or energy left to train for any skills helping us live without the Industrial Machine. Almost like it was planned that way. Keep the serfs chained to the machine and the currency.
*
I could go on and on, but I'm running out of time. Survivalism is full of bad ideas and bad choices. On the other hand, it is a far worse deal relying on others to keep you alive. As flawed as some practices are, it beats doing nothing. Strive to correct the bad choices, if possible. And then smirk at the idiots doing nothing. It's our only compensation, that feeling of superiority.
END
I got two books last week, thanks to the legions of loyal minions who shop Amazon through the links at my web page www.bisonpress.com . When you mosey on over to the official web page of All Things Bison and click on one of several links listing pages of Amazon products, and then you actually open up that wallet that's tighter than a prisoner on his first night in the pen and buy something, Amazon gives me a commission of between four and six percent. You don't even have to buy what is listed, I still get the commission on any purchases made after you first use any linked product ( as long as you don't go elsewhere in between ). For instance, I list a book called " How to survive zombie attacks". You don't want to buy that one, but you click on it, then use the Amazon search engine for "Nerds guide to finding love with a zombie" and buy that. I still get a commission. Then, with this credit I buy whatever books pertain to Bison and I share that wisdom with you. Or, if none, I review the book and tell you to save your money. The more products you buy, the more wisdom and learning I develop.
*
So, I get the two books which I shall review soon, and I read "The Long Decent" by John M Greer ( the Arch druid dude ). I fall in love with it, it is a great book. But one thing that troubled me was his throwing out the baby with the bath water when it came to survivalists. He raised many valid points as he was criticising the movement, but used them as the reason to dismiss the practice. I think what he missed was that we ourselves are quite aware of the pitfalls we face and attempt to plan around them. For instance, the point was made survivalists ignore history because Roman rural settlements were raided while city dwellers stayed safe. Survivalists themselves realize this is a dangerous practice, being alone in the wilderness. Olson Scott Card touched on that long ago in his fiction. And we certainly do not ignore history. I think as a group survivalists recognize the importance of history more than almost any other hobbyists.
*
Now, don't get me wrong. As I said this was a great book. Very rational, well researched, the clear work of intelligence. But while painting others as blind due to the "religions" of progress or apocalypse he himself has a few areas his blinders covers up. Could it be a fear of guns? He does lean towards tree hugging while wearing hemp sandals. Is it a dedication towards a non-consumer lifestyle, a hatred of capitalism? Yes, they are flawed. But everything has its place. And abuse can ruin the best practices. Ah, well. Minor complaints about a great book. I'll give better details another day. Now, how about some other great whoppers survivalists can be accused of? Which, by the by, are not in the above book. It's just that I'm on a roll here.
*
The gun nut criticism. We all go overboard here. A few really poor preppers might only own a rimfire or single shot shotgun, but they are sneered at and made to feel guilty and slink home from the range and sell their first borns organs on the Chinese black market for enough money to buy a few semi-automatic battle rifles. It seems that anything less than semi-automatic will instantly kill you, so you might as well just give up and turn in your one case of MRE's and your survivalist membership card if you don't procure several of them. And don't stop there. Anything less than several high tech radios and night vision devices will also disqualify you from this elite club.
*
The myth of self-sufficiency. No one, not even a successful farmer three hundred years ago, was truly self-sufficient. Everyone needed to trade. The only reason some shipwrecked fool was able to survive alone on an island was the fact of undiminished natural resources. Good luck finding an area like that. When the focus is just on gardening, one gets the dangerous illusion of invincibility. I'm not saying it is an unworthy goal, just that it alone won't save you. For one thing, any crops are set in place and apt to be stolen. Either thieves in the night or more likely a local dictator taxing your harvest. You are stationary and vulnerable. History is ripe with examples of farmers being taxed to the point of starvation or at least malnutrition.
*
Reliance on consumerism. We all shop before we drop. It is a dangerous practice, being reliant on procurement rather than production skills. We are stockpiling a lifeboat, but they are vulnerable to theft and damage. Not that a lot of us have a choice. We work nine to eleven hours a day and that leaves little time or energy left to train for any skills helping us live without the Industrial Machine. Almost like it was planned that way. Keep the serfs chained to the machine and the currency.
*
I could go on and on, but I'm running out of time. Survivalism is full of bad ideas and bad choices. On the other hand, it is a far worse deal relying on others to keep you alive. As flawed as some practices are, it beats doing nothing. Strive to correct the bad choices, if possible. And then smirk at the idiots doing nothing. It's our only compensation, that feeling of superiority.
END
Friday, November 21, 2008
fifty years of decline
FIFTY YEARS OF DECLINE
I've often wondered what made the 1960's such a time of upheaval. The Vietnam war alone does not account for it, as witness today's mindless patriotic fever for the war in Iraq which only benefits big business and government. And it wasn't the draft, as there was nary a protest for the draft in WWI which served no other purpose than to bail out the banks which lent way too much to Britain and France. The country didn't go off the gold standard until 1971 and oil production was on a rise throughout the decade prior to the oil shocks. I like the answer given in "Century Of War" ( heck of a good book, buy your copy today through www.bisonpress.com ).
*
In 1957 the country entered a recession, and that started a trend that continues to today. Business decided to lower quality, and the banks started looking elsewhere for more profitable returns than could be realized through manufacturing or infrastructure investments. In other words, corporations started living off the seed corn of past accomplishments and big money went overseas. Neither went back to what made America great, its factory floors. It was an initial small step, but it was never reversed. It just got worse and worse, one bad decision after another was made to continue profits regardless of long term consequences. It would have been one thing if it was a temporary measure during an economic downturn, but it was really the beginning of the end. Business saw no point in investing to upgrade plants and tools which were war vintage or older, and banks have never been noted for their patriotism at the expense of money. This was the start of our half century of decline.
*
Again, it started out small. It was not a sudden crash and abandonment. But I would wager that after nearly ten years of these practices, the effects were enough to cause quite a bit of social unrest. Whites didn't suddenly wake up one day and notice they hated blacks. But if blacks started to threaten their livelihood because the jobs were shrinking the races would have clashed. Women's rights were so messy of a fight since they were fighting for the same jobs males had. And why be forced to go to war if instead of fighting to preserve the American Way Of Life ( loosely translated as increased prosperity ) you were just enriching the fat cats as your social class slipped into a lower standard of living? I'm not saying blacks rights or woman's equality wouldn't have happened since it was right thing to do, but I think it was more of a struggle with money involved as a prime motivator.
*
The country didn't fall into poverty when middle east oil was held hostage or when Tricky Dick decided to close the gold window. The seeds had been planted over ten years previously. Quality was no longer job one. The plundering had begun. It continues today at an accelerated pace. Why is all this important? Because we can never go back. It isn't as simple as policy changes. Our entire economic base has been squandered. You don't suddenly decide after fifty years you can turn back the clock, too much damage has been done. Going back, even part way, is a fantasy. Give it up and learn to love the decline, already visible in a neighborhood near you.
END
I've often wondered what made the 1960's such a time of upheaval. The Vietnam war alone does not account for it, as witness today's mindless patriotic fever for the war in Iraq which only benefits big business and government. And it wasn't the draft, as there was nary a protest for the draft in WWI which served no other purpose than to bail out the banks which lent way too much to Britain and France. The country didn't go off the gold standard until 1971 and oil production was on a rise throughout the decade prior to the oil shocks. I like the answer given in "Century Of War" ( heck of a good book, buy your copy today through www.bisonpress.com ).
*
In 1957 the country entered a recession, and that started a trend that continues to today. Business decided to lower quality, and the banks started looking elsewhere for more profitable returns than could be realized through manufacturing or infrastructure investments. In other words, corporations started living off the seed corn of past accomplishments and big money went overseas. Neither went back to what made America great, its factory floors. It was an initial small step, but it was never reversed. It just got worse and worse, one bad decision after another was made to continue profits regardless of long term consequences. It would have been one thing if it was a temporary measure during an economic downturn, but it was really the beginning of the end. Business saw no point in investing to upgrade plants and tools which were war vintage or older, and banks have never been noted for their patriotism at the expense of money. This was the start of our half century of decline.
*
Again, it started out small. It was not a sudden crash and abandonment. But I would wager that after nearly ten years of these practices, the effects were enough to cause quite a bit of social unrest. Whites didn't suddenly wake up one day and notice they hated blacks. But if blacks started to threaten their livelihood because the jobs were shrinking the races would have clashed. Women's rights were so messy of a fight since they were fighting for the same jobs males had. And why be forced to go to war if instead of fighting to preserve the American Way Of Life ( loosely translated as increased prosperity ) you were just enriching the fat cats as your social class slipped into a lower standard of living? I'm not saying blacks rights or woman's equality wouldn't have happened since it was right thing to do, but I think it was more of a struggle with money involved as a prime motivator.
*
The country didn't fall into poverty when middle east oil was held hostage or when Tricky Dick decided to close the gold window. The seeds had been planted over ten years previously. Quality was no longer job one. The plundering had begun. It continues today at an accelerated pace. Why is all this important? Because we can never go back. It isn't as simple as policy changes. Our entire economic base has been squandered. You don't suddenly decide after fifty years you can turn back the clock, too much damage has been done. Going back, even part way, is a fantasy. Give it up and learn to love the decline, already visible in a neighborhood near you.
END
Thursday, November 20, 2008
living away
LIVING AWAY
Class, before we start today, the Minimalist Rant. This is where I want to spew about something but it won't take up the whole article. When I go to write this engraved stone worthy wisdom, I log into the Blog section through Google. Every day they have an article. Inspirational, instructive, etc. Today was something about celebrating trans-sexual day or something. I don't really pay too much attention, I'm just logging in. But that caught my eye. Could we perhaps be any more PC? I'm practically vomiting blood here. What's next? Celebrating Rim Job Day? Golden Showers Day? Baby Jesus have mercy. While these idiots are busy sucking ass with the pillow biting carpet munchers, normal folks are busy writing crap that brings eyeballs to Google ads. Let's alienate them, shall we. Anyway, if you've never watched the 90's flick "PCU" you have got to watch it. Friggin Hilarious Fred.
*
I feel I might have been doing a less than stellar job describing how to survive away from utilities and civilization. Plenty of folks still clamouring for details. Perhaps it was because I've been slowly evolving towards that goal over many years. Researching, practicing by living in RV's or a vehicle. Relying on a bicycle instead of a car for transportation. Or am I thinking too highly of myself and it is actually rather simple? Much simpler than most other writers let on. I guess if you are selling a back to the country magazine it pays to over-complicate things. They keep subscribing. I keep trying to sell you crap, but you get to read first, then pay. So I feel I'm being as honest as possible up front. Heck, most of the time I tell you most of my writing is just reworked repeats.
*
Perhaps I am being too harsh. In truth, they are selling a high comfort country living. My level of simplicity is attainable only through discomfort. And what am I saying that some crazy hermit on a pond dodging war taxes 150 years ago hasn't already said? It is all very simple. Instead of a water well powered by solar panels which feeds a water tank up on a hill that supplies your toilet that flushes into a septic system that had to be purchased and permitted, you crap in a sawdust bucket. Haul water from town in portable containers. You can do that on a bicycle when you can't afford a car anymore. Live in a small structure to cut back on heat in the winter. Cook on a propane camping stove. Sleep on top of a foam pad for insulation, with wool blankets covering you. It can be below freezing at night and you won't even notice until you get up. If you can't get a supply of firewood, or don't want to install the stove, go with a $75 propane heater for warmth. No, it isn't self-sufficient. For that, live in a dugout with solar gain.
*
Land can be under two thousand dollars for west Texas land ( several acres ). It can be as low as $100 a month payments ( if you aren't adverse to risking unemployment ). Living in the desert disallows farming, but it also lacks huge populations and expensive land ( obviously, avoid such crapholes as Phoenix ). Or, move to the South. Low wages, if you can find a job, but warm winters and plenty of cheap land in certain areas. What else do I need to cover? I've done the land buying thing, the trailer living, the sawdust toilet, the icebox, the low water need thing, bicycle commuting, eating without a fridge, LED lights, van living. Leave your requests for specifics in the comments section. But I don't think it is all that complicated. By foregoing comfort levels associated with Yuppies, you can drop out and live free and easy as can be. Only fear of discomfort, fear of a low paying job, or reluctance to leave family is keeping you tied to The Beast with a pair of golden handcuffs.
*
It isn't all peaches and cream. When I'm freezing, naked and wet, trying to bathe in fifty degrees, I really hate my life. When I can't do much of anything at night because the solar panels were under clouds for two weeks and the batteries are drained and the only light is LED's and/or candles, I really hate my life. When I'm reduced to the level of eating fried Spam and I try to fool myself it isn't too bad since it tastes better with BBQ sauce, I really hate my life and my ex-wife for helping me get here. When I'm craving butter instead of lard, or cheese instead of peanut butter, I hate my life. When I have to ration the propane until true winter hits and the high for the day is 48, when I can't watch TV or go on the Internet or watch a movie or talk more than three hours a month on "anytime" minutes, I really think this whole things sucks large donkey member. But guess what? I feel safe and secure. I'm not at the mercy of an employer or a bank or a landlord or the utility company, and I've reduced my exposure to government to a slight degree ( I hope ). Nothing is free. Not even frugal living out of the rat race. Any minimum wage earning slob can drop out quickly and cheaply, but you will pay for it in other ways.
*
Remember, ask specifics. If you haven't tried it, you don't know about it. There are no stupid questions when traveling the unknown. And, while tied to the money economy and the grid, buy all of my crap or at least donate a buck or two. Books and the PayPal link at www.bisonpress.com
Class, before we start today, the Minimalist Rant. This is where I want to spew about something but it won't take up the whole article. When I go to write this engraved stone worthy wisdom, I log into the Blog section through Google. Every day they have an article. Inspirational, instructive, etc. Today was something about celebrating trans-sexual day or something. I don't really pay too much attention, I'm just logging in. But that caught my eye. Could we perhaps be any more PC? I'm practically vomiting blood here. What's next? Celebrating Rim Job Day? Golden Showers Day? Baby Jesus have mercy. While these idiots are busy sucking ass with the pillow biting carpet munchers, normal folks are busy writing crap that brings eyeballs to Google ads. Let's alienate them, shall we. Anyway, if you've never watched the 90's flick "PCU" you have got to watch it. Friggin Hilarious Fred.
*
I feel I might have been doing a less than stellar job describing how to survive away from utilities and civilization. Plenty of folks still clamouring for details. Perhaps it was because I've been slowly evolving towards that goal over many years. Researching, practicing by living in RV's or a vehicle. Relying on a bicycle instead of a car for transportation. Or am I thinking too highly of myself and it is actually rather simple? Much simpler than most other writers let on. I guess if you are selling a back to the country magazine it pays to over-complicate things. They keep subscribing. I keep trying to sell you crap, but you get to read first, then pay. So I feel I'm being as honest as possible up front. Heck, most of the time I tell you most of my writing is just reworked repeats.
*
Perhaps I am being too harsh. In truth, they are selling a high comfort country living. My level of simplicity is attainable only through discomfort. And what am I saying that some crazy hermit on a pond dodging war taxes 150 years ago hasn't already said? It is all very simple. Instead of a water well powered by solar panels which feeds a water tank up on a hill that supplies your toilet that flushes into a septic system that had to be purchased and permitted, you crap in a sawdust bucket. Haul water from town in portable containers. You can do that on a bicycle when you can't afford a car anymore. Live in a small structure to cut back on heat in the winter. Cook on a propane camping stove. Sleep on top of a foam pad for insulation, with wool blankets covering you. It can be below freezing at night and you won't even notice until you get up. If you can't get a supply of firewood, or don't want to install the stove, go with a $75 propane heater for warmth. No, it isn't self-sufficient. For that, live in a dugout with solar gain.
*
Land can be under two thousand dollars for west Texas land ( several acres ). It can be as low as $100 a month payments ( if you aren't adverse to risking unemployment ). Living in the desert disallows farming, but it also lacks huge populations and expensive land ( obviously, avoid such crapholes as Phoenix ). Or, move to the South. Low wages, if you can find a job, but warm winters and plenty of cheap land in certain areas. What else do I need to cover? I've done the land buying thing, the trailer living, the sawdust toilet, the icebox, the low water need thing, bicycle commuting, eating without a fridge, LED lights, van living. Leave your requests for specifics in the comments section. But I don't think it is all that complicated. By foregoing comfort levels associated with Yuppies, you can drop out and live free and easy as can be. Only fear of discomfort, fear of a low paying job, or reluctance to leave family is keeping you tied to The Beast with a pair of golden handcuffs.
*
It isn't all peaches and cream. When I'm freezing, naked and wet, trying to bathe in fifty degrees, I really hate my life. When I can't do much of anything at night because the solar panels were under clouds for two weeks and the batteries are drained and the only light is LED's and/or candles, I really hate my life. When I'm reduced to the level of eating fried Spam and I try to fool myself it isn't too bad since it tastes better with BBQ sauce, I really hate my life and my ex-wife for helping me get here. When I'm craving butter instead of lard, or cheese instead of peanut butter, I hate my life. When I have to ration the propane until true winter hits and the high for the day is 48, when I can't watch TV or go on the Internet or watch a movie or talk more than three hours a month on "anytime" minutes, I really think this whole things sucks large donkey member. But guess what? I feel safe and secure. I'm not at the mercy of an employer or a bank or a landlord or the utility company, and I've reduced my exposure to government to a slight degree ( I hope ). Nothing is free. Not even frugal living out of the rat race. Any minimum wage earning slob can drop out quickly and cheaply, but you will pay for it in other ways.
*
Remember, ask specifics. If you haven't tried it, you don't know about it. There are no stupid questions when traveling the unknown. And, while tied to the money economy and the grid, buy all of my crap or at least donate a buck or two. Books and the PayPal link at www.bisonpress.com
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
urban junk land
URBAN JUNK LAND
A loyal minion sent me a cool link to an article on a guy in Detroit living the frugal life. An urban lot with a travel trailer parked on it, the guy didn't have to work and only needed to concern himself with food and kerosene.
http://www.detroitblog.org/index.php?paged=2 (scroll down to "Solitary Man" story Sept 17 2008 entry ).
*
Now, reading this story the first thing to keep in mind that the guy is not a survivalist. He is merely living the frugal lifestyle. Pissed on the Rat Race, drop out of the consumer lifestyle. Obviously he was a lot less concerned with shopping than preppers are. There are a few obvious points you might make, such as it would be cheaper for him to buy a water filter instead of buying water from the store. Or, his breaking zoning laws and being at the mercy of the city parking an RV there. But there were other obviously brilliant things such as his unconcern with sewage. He just walks the bucket to a sewer drain and dumps it in. And he can survive with only sparing use of fuel ( no small feat in Detroit ). He might need a pointer or two, but on the whole he is doing a much better job than the rest of us transitioning himself away from dependency.
*
No need for any utilities. No need for transportation. No need for land payments. How many survivalists can say the same? He probably didn't move, other than from one part of the city to another. He bought a cheap lot from a tax sale ( I would wager from almost zero to only a few hundred bucks, given the condition of the city and the property values ). This is one of the success stories we should pay attention to, along the lines of the former reporter that moved out into the Mohave to a $300 lot and built a sandbag hut for a few bucks ( and commutes for seasonal employment and water/food in a gas sipping Geo ). Anyone can transition away from the Rat Race very cheaply and very easily. An urban lot in the ghetto might not sound as appealing as a farm in the mountains, but it has the benefit of not having a mortgage. And staying close to home ( Easterners can move a short distance to numerous distressed areas ).
*
Life is not about living in comfort and security. That was ended the last generation or two ( and they will soon feel the sting ). Life is about living the best you can with the means at hand. In case you have failed to notice, the means are rapidly shrinking. I won't beat around the bush, you are simply a moron if you wager on a mortgage. You might win that bet, and I might lose. But if you lose you are destitute and might die. I only have to suffer a bit of comfort by doing without one ( yes, I might be making lot payments now for land closer to work, but in an emergency my paid for lot is 17 miles down the road ). You don't need more than a minimum wage, if that, to realize this kind of dream. Okay, calling it a dream might be a bit much. Living with a feeble 12v light and crapping in a sawdust bucket while eating Spam might be more of a nightmare. But the dream is the Independence and much lower stress level.
*
Give the above article a read. You will be inspired to imagine the possibilities for yourself.
END
I love you all- now buy my crap www.bisonpress.com
A loyal minion sent me a cool link to an article on a guy in Detroit living the frugal life. An urban lot with a travel trailer parked on it, the guy didn't have to work and only needed to concern himself with food and kerosene.
http://www.detroitblog.org/index.php?paged=2 (scroll down to "Solitary Man" story Sept 17 2008 entry ).
*
Now, reading this story the first thing to keep in mind that the guy is not a survivalist. He is merely living the frugal lifestyle. Pissed on the Rat Race, drop out of the consumer lifestyle. Obviously he was a lot less concerned with shopping than preppers are. There are a few obvious points you might make, such as it would be cheaper for him to buy a water filter instead of buying water from the store. Or, his breaking zoning laws and being at the mercy of the city parking an RV there. But there were other obviously brilliant things such as his unconcern with sewage. He just walks the bucket to a sewer drain and dumps it in. And he can survive with only sparing use of fuel ( no small feat in Detroit ). He might need a pointer or two, but on the whole he is doing a much better job than the rest of us transitioning himself away from dependency.
*
No need for any utilities. No need for transportation. No need for land payments. How many survivalists can say the same? He probably didn't move, other than from one part of the city to another. He bought a cheap lot from a tax sale ( I would wager from almost zero to only a few hundred bucks, given the condition of the city and the property values ). This is one of the success stories we should pay attention to, along the lines of the former reporter that moved out into the Mohave to a $300 lot and built a sandbag hut for a few bucks ( and commutes for seasonal employment and water/food in a gas sipping Geo ). Anyone can transition away from the Rat Race very cheaply and very easily. An urban lot in the ghetto might not sound as appealing as a farm in the mountains, but it has the benefit of not having a mortgage. And staying close to home ( Easterners can move a short distance to numerous distressed areas ).
*
Life is not about living in comfort and security. That was ended the last generation or two ( and they will soon feel the sting ). Life is about living the best you can with the means at hand. In case you have failed to notice, the means are rapidly shrinking. I won't beat around the bush, you are simply a moron if you wager on a mortgage. You might win that bet, and I might lose. But if you lose you are destitute and might die. I only have to suffer a bit of comfort by doing without one ( yes, I might be making lot payments now for land closer to work, but in an emergency my paid for lot is 17 miles down the road ). You don't need more than a minimum wage, if that, to realize this kind of dream. Okay, calling it a dream might be a bit much. Living with a feeble 12v light and crapping in a sawdust bucket while eating Spam might be more of a nightmare. But the dream is the Independence and much lower stress level.
*
Give the above article a read. You will be inspired to imagine the possibilities for yourself.
END
I love you all- now buy my crap www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
for just a little bit more
FOR JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE
Before we begin today, let me give a big hand and extend a Extra Appreciation Award to a Super Loyal Minion for a very generous donation. I have Loyal Minions who have given more, by donating a bit here and a bit there until it really adds up and I feel a tear forming because it finally appears that somebody actually does love me all signs to the contrary, but for the biggest single contribution I have to acknowledge Eugene. Thanks a lot. You are a gentleman and a scholar and there are few of us left. Of course, I would never assume he was so generous because he is a fellow Nevadan while the rest of you are living in putrid dens of Socialism.
*
As I was reading the comments section from my bike article I was a bit disheartened to realize that I have failed to communicate to you the One Great truth of The Bison Way. Allow me to enlighten those of you still dwelling in the darkness. You can't keep saying, "for just a little bit more". This is the path that leads to ruin. The path of plastic shrouded semi-automatic battle rifles, eating 70 cent rounds of ammunition fed from twenty dollar magazines. The path to $6 meals of MRE's. The path to $30 cans of freeze dried mystery meat. The path of quarter million dollar retreats, reachable with fifty thousand dollar SUV's. What you need to be thinking is, "what is the cheapest way to provide the tools I need to survive". I do not teach how to live in comfort after the Apocalypse, how to maintain the Yuppie lifestyle after PODA ( Peak Oil Dark Ages- trademark pending ). I teach how to live as cheap as possible and how to prepare to survive as cheap as possible.
*
I don't throw caution to the wind, advising a space blanket, a few bags of white flour and a .22 rifle as all you need to survive the collapse. The cheapest POSSIBLE way to survive. I'm not advising the dollar store hammer as the tool you need, but rather the cheapest required size of hammer even if it is made in China. In a lot of cases, the cheapest is the best, such as cast iron grain grinders or bolt action military surplus rifles. In some cases, it doesn't pay to be as cheap as possible. Such as using non food grade buckets to store grains, or using nothing but steel cased ammunition. But I will give you the cheapest way to safely survive ( well, to increase the odds of your survival anyway ). I have trained myself to seek the cheapest way to do everything. Sometimes it is a curse. Most times I have something to contribute to help you out. Let's face it, I don't receive such generous donations and sales because you like me. It is because I am giving you value added advice. You save you a heck of a lot more than you send me. Or, at the very least, I talk trash in an entertaining manner.
*
When you start saying, "it's much better to do it this way, and it only costs a little bit more" you defeat the whole frugal survive method. I'm not saying I am the final authority. Readers comments help me to be a lot less of an idiot than I normally would be. Your criticisms are essential. I never understood the saying that the best teachers learn from their students until recently. And that is thanks to my loyal minions. You help me be better by your knowledge, since I will be the first to tell you I don't know much of anything. And there are instances where "for just a little bit more" are valid. Such as a french coffee press versus sun brewed coffee. Sun brewed is free, french pressed is a $20 tool. You save some energy doing the sun brewed, but it really does taste like crap. Buying the press gives much better coffee. If you look at it as a luxury, that is fine as an upgrade. Just don't make the mistake of treating it as an essential.
*
Survival can't be about continuing your present lifestyle and still remain cheap to accomplish. It has to truly be about nothing more than surviving. The cheapest food that will deliver calories and nutrients. The cheapest way to defend yourself ( listening to most authors it is a wonder any white men survived with single shot rifles while the natives had short range rapid fire weapons ). The cheapest shelter situated on the cheapest land. The cheapest tools to do the bare minimum. As soon as you adopt this philosophy you not only quickly accomplish your emergency stockpiling, you can free up funds to buy even more since your everyday living expenses are drastically lowered ( I bought land by only spending half my take home pay during one period ). It is not about luxury or comfort. It is about getting the tools you need. Even on very slim wages. If your spouse or friends don't complain that you squeak when you walk because you are so tight, you are not doing it right. Get out of the trap of looking for the perfect tool. You need to look for the minimally adequate tool.
END
Before we begin today, let me give a big hand and extend a Extra Appreciation Award to a Super Loyal Minion for a very generous donation. I have Loyal Minions who have given more, by donating a bit here and a bit there until it really adds up and I feel a tear forming because it finally appears that somebody actually does love me all signs to the contrary, but for the biggest single contribution I have to acknowledge Eugene. Thanks a lot. You are a gentleman and a scholar and there are few of us left. Of course, I would never assume he was so generous because he is a fellow Nevadan while the rest of you are living in putrid dens of Socialism.
*
As I was reading the comments section from my bike article I was a bit disheartened to realize that I have failed to communicate to you the One Great truth of The Bison Way. Allow me to enlighten those of you still dwelling in the darkness. You can't keep saying, "for just a little bit more". This is the path that leads to ruin. The path of plastic shrouded semi-automatic battle rifles, eating 70 cent rounds of ammunition fed from twenty dollar magazines. The path to $6 meals of MRE's. The path to $30 cans of freeze dried mystery meat. The path of quarter million dollar retreats, reachable with fifty thousand dollar SUV's. What you need to be thinking is, "what is the cheapest way to provide the tools I need to survive". I do not teach how to live in comfort after the Apocalypse, how to maintain the Yuppie lifestyle after PODA ( Peak Oil Dark Ages- trademark pending ). I teach how to live as cheap as possible and how to prepare to survive as cheap as possible.
*
I don't throw caution to the wind, advising a space blanket, a few bags of white flour and a .22 rifle as all you need to survive the collapse. The cheapest POSSIBLE way to survive. I'm not advising the dollar store hammer as the tool you need, but rather the cheapest required size of hammer even if it is made in China. In a lot of cases, the cheapest is the best, such as cast iron grain grinders or bolt action military surplus rifles. In some cases, it doesn't pay to be as cheap as possible. Such as using non food grade buckets to store grains, or using nothing but steel cased ammunition. But I will give you the cheapest way to safely survive ( well, to increase the odds of your survival anyway ). I have trained myself to seek the cheapest way to do everything. Sometimes it is a curse. Most times I have something to contribute to help you out. Let's face it, I don't receive such generous donations and sales because you like me. It is because I am giving you value added advice. You save you a heck of a lot more than you send me. Or, at the very least, I talk trash in an entertaining manner.
*
When you start saying, "it's much better to do it this way, and it only costs a little bit more" you defeat the whole frugal survive method. I'm not saying I am the final authority. Readers comments help me to be a lot less of an idiot than I normally would be. Your criticisms are essential. I never understood the saying that the best teachers learn from their students until recently. And that is thanks to my loyal minions. You help me be better by your knowledge, since I will be the first to tell you I don't know much of anything. And there are instances where "for just a little bit more" are valid. Such as a french coffee press versus sun brewed coffee. Sun brewed is free, french pressed is a $20 tool. You save some energy doing the sun brewed, but it really does taste like crap. Buying the press gives much better coffee. If you look at it as a luxury, that is fine as an upgrade. Just don't make the mistake of treating it as an essential.
*
Survival can't be about continuing your present lifestyle and still remain cheap to accomplish. It has to truly be about nothing more than surviving. The cheapest food that will deliver calories and nutrients. The cheapest way to defend yourself ( listening to most authors it is a wonder any white men survived with single shot rifles while the natives had short range rapid fire weapons ). The cheapest shelter situated on the cheapest land. The cheapest tools to do the bare minimum. As soon as you adopt this philosophy you not only quickly accomplish your emergency stockpiling, you can free up funds to buy even more since your everyday living expenses are drastically lowered ( I bought land by only spending half my take home pay during one period ). It is not about luxury or comfort. It is about getting the tools you need. Even on very slim wages. If your spouse or friends don't complain that you squeak when you walk because you are so tight, you are not doing it right. Get out of the trap of looking for the perfect tool. You need to look for the minimally adequate tool.
END
Monday, November 17, 2008
bologna bricks
BOLOGNA BRICKS
Well, today is another brick in the wall of my sanity, knocked out by vicious punks high on sniffed glue and totally incapable of ever working an honest job. You might think I'm referring to teenager thugs, amusing themselves between welfare checks by spray painting walls with graffiti and mugging old ladies for their blue wigs, but I refer here to bankers. After decades of economic colonialism which destroyed most Third World nations, the natives have over fished the seas in a desperate quest of animal protein. Yes, of course they were helped along by wealthy Japanese sucking up sushi and fat Americans eating buckets of deep fried shrimp at Long John Silver's, but the sheer numbers of poor people was what helped the trend along for so long. And then the cost of credit and energy has increased the cost of metal cans. So, due to the greedy bastards in the banking industry and the jerks in charge of the oil industry that helped kill ( well, okay, damper growth anyway ) the nuclear energy industry to increase their profits, my primary source of canned meat has reached a price tripping point.
*
I can easily afford to still buy tuna. It has doubled in price, taking into account the price increases and the size reduction. Nothing new there, all food has doubled in price over the last few years. Inflation, energy prices, ethanol, drought, etc. But now certain items are no longer worth buying. I don't care about flour going up in price, it was cheap and is still affordable considering the amount of calories you get from it. But tuna has never been a favorite of mine. It was the least offensive canned meat, but only because it was so cheap. At fifty cents a can you could not only cheaply store meat in your food stash, it helped you eat cheaply everyday ( not that you want to eat it literally everyday, I'm talking about day to day shopping ). Now, I'm not sure if someone messed with the price stickers and I've been fooled, but I think Wal-Mart tuna went up from sixty eight cents to seventy two ( the reason I'm unsure is that the stickers were messed with and the type right next to it used to be that higher price ). No matter. Even if it didn't increase, it will soon anyway. It was time to rethink Tuna Tuesday's.
*
The generic Spam was about a buck and a half, but the Virgina Ham type ( Armour? ) was only $1.18. And that was for twelve ounces. Ten ounces of tuna is almost a quarter more. I'm not a big fan of Spam, but neither am I a big fan of spending more for food than rent. If I was still on grid and had a freezer, I would just buy beef brisket for under $2 a pound. It is passable without elaborate preparation and has no preservatives. And I could eat beef pretty much every day. But, noooooo. I have to run like a frightened rabbit and escape the city and live on junk land with no utilities. Sometimes it sucks, like when the damn sun doesn't come out for two weeks and your batteries are almost completely drained and you sit huddled in a corner under the weak ass LED lights and try to read by flashlight and curse the Gods or when you are forced to eat crap meat a few times a week. Why do you care? Because the national electric grid has been neglected for quite some time and you shouldn't be surprised if it flickers out one day ( and never to return if the economy keeps getting worse ). You need to prepare for living without electricity.
*
Why do you think I love LED's? Because their light output is pathetic? No, because it is the light source that leaves you the least dependant on imported goods. The same with canned meat. What is the cheapest source you don't need electricity for? For your emergency food source, you should buy wheat first, then beans, then last of all canned meat. And you should only buy enough for short term emergencies ( under a month ). Every day eating without utilities, not post-Apocalypse eating. They are much too expensive for that. A pound of beans is seventy cents, a can of Spam over a buck. And you don't need the whole pound of beans for your protein each day. We can say goodbye to canned milk as a survival food ( at almost a buck a can now ), and soon to tuna also. And ( just to stir up a hornets nest for my own sick pleasure ) semi-automatics for our defense. Ah, the good old days pre-Y2K of $5 fifty pound sacks of wheat, $1 disposable propane, $3 tins of dried potatoes, $99 SKS's and $300 an ounce gold ( and $1 gasoline ).
*
Welcome to the future, canned brick bologna.
END
Well, today is another brick in the wall of my sanity, knocked out by vicious punks high on sniffed glue and totally incapable of ever working an honest job. You might think I'm referring to teenager thugs, amusing themselves between welfare checks by spray painting walls with graffiti and mugging old ladies for their blue wigs, but I refer here to bankers. After decades of economic colonialism which destroyed most Third World nations, the natives have over fished the seas in a desperate quest of animal protein. Yes, of course they were helped along by wealthy Japanese sucking up sushi and fat Americans eating buckets of deep fried shrimp at Long John Silver's, but the sheer numbers of poor people was what helped the trend along for so long. And then the cost of credit and energy has increased the cost of metal cans. So, due to the greedy bastards in the banking industry and the jerks in charge of the oil industry that helped kill ( well, okay, damper growth anyway ) the nuclear energy industry to increase their profits, my primary source of canned meat has reached a price tripping point.
*
I can easily afford to still buy tuna. It has doubled in price, taking into account the price increases and the size reduction. Nothing new there, all food has doubled in price over the last few years. Inflation, energy prices, ethanol, drought, etc. But now certain items are no longer worth buying. I don't care about flour going up in price, it was cheap and is still affordable considering the amount of calories you get from it. But tuna has never been a favorite of mine. It was the least offensive canned meat, but only because it was so cheap. At fifty cents a can you could not only cheaply store meat in your food stash, it helped you eat cheaply everyday ( not that you want to eat it literally everyday, I'm talking about day to day shopping ). Now, I'm not sure if someone messed with the price stickers and I've been fooled, but I think Wal-Mart tuna went up from sixty eight cents to seventy two ( the reason I'm unsure is that the stickers were messed with and the type right next to it used to be that higher price ). No matter. Even if it didn't increase, it will soon anyway. It was time to rethink Tuna Tuesday's.
*
The generic Spam was about a buck and a half, but the Virgina Ham type ( Armour? ) was only $1.18. And that was for twelve ounces. Ten ounces of tuna is almost a quarter more. I'm not a big fan of Spam, but neither am I a big fan of spending more for food than rent. If I was still on grid and had a freezer, I would just buy beef brisket for under $2 a pound. It is passable without elaborate preparation and has no preservatives. And I could eat beef pretty much every day. But, noooooo. I have to run like a frightened rabbit and escape the city and live on junk land with no utilities. Sometimes it sucks, like when the damn sun doesn't come out for two weeks and your batteries are almost completely drained and you sit huddled in a corner under the weak ass LED lights and try to read by flashlight and curse the Gods or when you are forced to eat crap meat a few times a week. Why do you care? Because the national electric grid has been neglected for quite some time and you shouldn't be surprised if it flickers out one day ( and never to return if the economy keeps getting worse ). You need to prepare for living without electricity.
*
Why do you think I love LED's? Because their light output is pathetic? No, because it is the light source that leaves you the least dependant on imported goods. The same with canned meat. What is the cheapest source you don't need electricity for? For your emergency food source, you should buy wheat first, then beans, then last of all canned meat. And you should only buy enough for short term emergencies ( under a month ). Every day eating without utilities, not post-Apocalypse eating. They are much too expensive for that. A pound of beans is seventy cents, a can of Spam over a buck. And you don't need the whole pound of beans for your protein each day. We can say goodbye to canned milk as a survival food ( at almost a buck a can now ), and soon to tuna also. And ( just to stir up a hornets nest for my own sick pleasure ) semi-automatics for our defense. Ah, the good old days pre-Y2K of $5 fifty pound sacks of wheat, $1 disposable propane, $3 tins of dried potatoes, $99 SKS's and $300 an ounce gold ( and $1 gasoline ).
*
Welcome to the future, canned brick bologna.
END
Friday, November 14, 2008
better bike bargain
BETTER BIKE BARGAIN
I've covered this before, somewhat. And a loyal minion expanded on it in the comments section. But why not put it all together, shall we? Then after that is done we'll have some fun with more conspiratorial ramblings. I used to be of the "use it up and replace it" school of thought on crap from China. It used to be that a bicycle from China-Mart cost $60 ( for this article and for all my writings when I say bike I mean a single speed pedal brake, just like the Schwinn you had as a kid- to my mind geared bikes are overly complex and unnecessary unless you earn money from them ) and to replace the rear wheel it cost $50. It made little sense to take the bike to the shop, just replace the whole thing. Now, a rear wheel cost $70 but a new bike is $95. It no longer makes as much sense to treat it as disposable.
*
Why do I like single speed bikes? You have essentially only three things to replace. The rear wheel, the chain and the tubes. No pads, no shifter, no cables. Actually, you could call tubes and a chain the same on either type, so it's fair to say there are only one third as many items to break on a coaster type bike. So you go and buy an aluminum frame bike from Wal-Mart for $95. As the loyal minion remarked, the big mark up on a bike shop bike is from the frame, so why not just get it at Wal-Mart? Don't wait too long to replace its worst parts, the chain and the rear wheel. I've owned countless Wal-Mart bikes over the last fifteen years, so I can speak with a bit of experience here.
*
Almost immediately, your bike will start making nasty noises. A metal on metal sharp crack. This is the cheap pot metal parts inside the rear wheel breaking. I've had them start as soon as the first week with very few miles. My last wheel had four hundred miles on it before I replaced it. I don't recommend waiting that long, as they can seize up whenever. The rear wheel is about $60 to buy, about $70 if the bike shop does the labor. I can do it myself, but I pay the labor. We have only one bike shop in town and I need to help keep them in business and acting friendly towards me. I might be cheap but I know ( usually ) when there is a need to spend money ( for instance, I now know to spend the extra ten friggin cents a gallon for gas without ethanol after a few times the old truck didn't want to start ).
*
Your chain is another item you need to replace. Very cheap metal. Mine started snapping links after about two hundred miles. Like a dumbass, I kept replacing links instead of realizing that the whole thing was made of poor quality metal. $15, $20 installed. Next, don't wait at all to replace the rear inner tube. The front tire takes almost no weight from the rider, whereas the rear wheel absorbs almost all of it. A goat's head in your rear will get you a flat 100% of the time, but only about 20% in the front. Spend $10 and buy a 5x tire ( five times the thickness of regular tubes ) inner tube. They come with the green goo already inside. A regular tube is about three bucks and will only last a few weeks, if that. If you add $3 in green goo, you've spent $6 instead of $10 and have an inferior product. Buy the thick tube. It only costs a bit more and is really worth it for an almost completely care free tire. It is much cheaper than the foam type tires, is not a pain to install and is familiar to all of us.
*
A $95 bike, a $70 wheel, a $20 chain and a $10 rear tube is a hopping total of $195. You can't come close to that picking from the bike store stock. Yes, eventually the bearings in the pedal area will need to be replaced. Another thirty bucks or so. But not right away. And don't forget a good lock. The low price of gas won't stay long. More bikes will start to be used, and bike thefts will spike upwards. Be prepared.
END OF THIS ARTICLE, CONTINUE BELOW
*
The Obammy camp has rumored that Hillary might be the Secretary Of State. I think she would make a better Attorney General since she has experience burning babies, but no one asked me my opinion. But think about it. If she was appointed that position, she would be #4 in the line of succession. If a "lone gunman" of Southern Cracker persuasion killed the First Muslim then you have the VP, then Speaker Of The House, then President Pro Temp of the Senate, then Hillary. I would resign if I was any of those guys above Clinton, in fear of my life. I wouldn't put it past her to manipulate a terrorist group into nuking those above her so she could take over as Supreme Ruler For Life. But now, the twist. Suppose Clinton thought she was being all smart and clever, scheming to wipe out the opposition. But who is next in line if the Secretary Of State is dead? Secretary of Treasury!! The same guy who begged for $700 billion and as soon as he got it decided to spend it any way he wanted. There's a closet Napoleon if I ever saw one. He could be helping out Hillary to steal the Presidency, but secretly plan on killing her too. Then he takes power and becomes the new Hitler Of America. He'll control tens of trillions, not just billions. Watch out, Hillary!
END
I've covered this before, somewhat. And a loyal minion expanded on it in the comments section. But why not put it all together, shall we? Then after that is done we'll have some fun with more conspiratorial ramblings. I used to be of the "use it up and replace it" school of thought on crap from China. It used to be that a bicycle from China-Mart cost $60 ( for this article and for all my writings when I say bike I mean a single speed pedal brake, just like the Schwinn you had as a kid- to my mind geared bikes are overly complex and unnecessary unless you earn money from them ) and to replace the rear wheel it cost $50. It made little sense to take the bike to the shop, just replace the whole thing. Now, a rear wheel cost $70 but a new bike is $95. It no longer makes as much sense to treat it as disposable.
*
Why do I like single speed bikes? You have essentially only three things to replace. The rear wheel, the chain and the tubes. No pads, no shifter, no cables. Actually, you could call tubes and a chain the same on either type, so it's fair to say there are only one third as many items to break on a coaster type bike. So you go and buy an aluminum frame bike from Wal-Mart for $95. As the loyal minion remarked, the big mark up on a bike shop bike is from the frame, so why not just get it at Wal-Mart? Don't wait too long to replace its worst parts, the chain and the rear wheel. I've owned countless Wal-Mart bikes over the last fifteen years, so I can speak with a bit of experience here.
*
Almost immediately, your bike will start making nasty noises. A metal on metal sharp crack. This is the cheap pot metal parts inside the rear wheel breaking. I've had them start as soon as the first week with very few miles. My last wheel had four hundred miles on it before I replaced it. I don't recommend waiting that long, as they can seize up whenever. The rear wheel is about $60 to buy, about $70 if the bike shop does the labor. I can do it myself, but I pay the labor. We have only one bike shop in town and I need to help keep them in business and acting friendly towards me. I might be cheap but I know ( usually ) when there is a need to spend money ( for instance, I now know to spend the extra ten friggin cents a gallon for gas without ethanol after a few times the old truck didn't want to start ).
*
Your chain is another item you need to replace. Very cheap metal. Mine started snapping links after about two hundred miles. Like a dumbass, I kept replacing links instead of realizing that the whole thing was made of poor quality metal. $15, $20 installed. Next, don't wait at all to replace the rear inner tube. The front tire takes almost no weight from the rider, whereas the rear wheel absorbs almost all of it. A goat's head in your rear will get you a flat 100% of the time, but only about 20% in the front. Spend $10 and buy a 5x tire ( five times the thickness of regular tubes ) inner tube. They come with the green goo already inside. A regular tube is about three bucks and will only last a few weeks, if that. If you add $3 in green goo, you've spent $6 instead of $10 and have an inferior product. Buy the thick tube. It only costs a bit more and is really worth it for an almost completely care free tire. It is much cheaper than the foam type tires, is not a pain to install and is familiar to all of us.
*
A $95 bike, a $70 wheel, a $20 chain and a $10 rear tube is a hopping total of $195. You can't come close to that picking from the bike store stock. Yes, eventually the bearings in the pedal area will need to be replaced. Another thirty bucks or so. But not right away. And don't forget a good lock. The low price of gas won't stay long. More bikes will start to be used, and bike thefts will spike upwards. Be prepared.
END OF THIS ARTICLE, CONTINUE BELOW
*
The Obammy camp has rumored that Hillary might be the Secretary Of State. I think she would make a better Attorney General since she has experience burning babies, but no one asked me my opinion. But think about it. If she was appointed that position, she would be #4 in the line of succession. If a "lone gunman" of Southern Cracker persuasion killed the First Muslim then you have the VP, then Speaker Of The House, then President Pro Temp of the Senate, then Hillary. I would resign if I was any of those guys above Clinton, in fear of my life. I wouldn't put it past her to manipulate a terrorist group into nuking those above her so she could take over as Supreme Ruler For Life. But now, the twist. Suppose Clinton thought she was being all smart and clever, scheming to wipe out the opposition. But who is next in line if the Secretary Of State is dead? Secretary of Treasury!! The same guy who begged for $700 billion and as soon as he got it decided to spend it any way he wanted. There's a closet Napoleon if I ever saw one. He could be helping out Hillary to steal the Presidency, but secretly plan on killing her too. Then he takes power and becomes the new Hitler Of America. He'll control tens of trillions, not just billions. Watch out, Hillary!
END
Thursday, November 13, 2008
planned collapse
PLANNED COLLAPSE
The current financial collapse is easily explained by the over reliance on derivatives for fun and profit by the bankers. And of course their trained whores in the government who benefited from the country holding off on its economic black hole implosion. But that is the rational explanation and if given a choice I prefer a convoluted and improbable conspiracy theory instead. So how about this- The Gnomes On Manhattan actually have a good big picture idea of world population and resource depletion and Peak Oil and have decided that now is a pretty good time to introduce a planned collapse to cushion the coming Malthusian melt down.
*
If you were an Evil Overlord, you could introduce a program of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, decreasing automobile use, etc. Kind of how Cuba was forced to survive after the Soviet Union collapsed and eliminated subsidized mechanized aid. Of course, if you were an Evil American Overlord then you chose a different path long ago that bought off the populations subservience with luxuries. You can't go back and reintroduce a life of austerity and deprivation on a bunch of soft and weak paper pushers. So the only way to manage a path back down towards less resources would be an economic collapse. The evil corporations indulging in obscene profits could be blamed ( along with a bunch of patsy bankers you control ). Oil use would fall drastically, thus enabling the true Masters Of The Universe to enjoy its use for a long time to come. When you start to run out of something as valuable as a highly concentrated liquid fuel, it simply won't do to have the proletariat waste it by cruising up and down the town strip, going to visit grandma in the nursing home once a year, or sending the spouse to a job so that her offspring can get a quality education at a private school.
*
Obviously, collapse happens when resources get scarce. But if you can control timing to a degree you can profit off of the process. By introducing collapse early you can control population, pick up assets pennies on the dollar, conserve desired non-renewable resources and live like a king. If the collapse lasts as long as previous ones you need not fear being caught in the avalanche. Now, why do I introduce this outlandish theory, other than for my amusement and desire to showcase my mental instability? Because it means our future could be an ever decreasing life style. Not a happy He-Man Rules The Ruins, not a sharp dip with a recovery at the end. But a continuation of the past. A slow collapse with government fully in charge, with money still being the only tool that counts ( rather than plastic assault rifles ). With our inability to do a darn thing but to accept a decrease in living standards.
*
There is every reason to believe the Depression was controlled and a certain group benefited to the detriment of all others. Why can't it happen this time? Don't think a fantasy farm with imports of energy and Chinese farm machinery is in the cards. Hope you can go the junk land/trailer/stored grains route. In the future it will beat living a Soylent Green urban ghetto life. It might be the only way you retain some independence with a slight bit of luxury compared to your neighbors.
END
The current financial collapse is easily explained by the over reliance on derivatives for fun and profit by the bankers. And of course their trained whores in the government who benefited from the country holding off on its economic black hole implosion. But that is the rational explanation and if given a choice I prefer a convoluted and improbable conspiracy theory instead. So how about this- The Gnomes On Manhattan actually have a good big picture idea of world population and resource depletion and Peak Oil and have decided that now is a pretty good time to introduce a planned collapse to cushion the coming Malthusian melt down.
*
If you were an Evil Overlord, you could introduce a program of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, decreasing automobile use, etc. Kind of how Cuba was forced to survive after the Soviet Union collapsed and eliminated subsidized mechanized aid. Of course, if you were an Evil American Overlord then you chose a different path long ago that bought off the populations subservience with luxuries. You can't go back and reintroduce a life of austerity and deprivation on a bunch of soft and weak paper pushers. So the only way to manage a path back down towards less resources would be an economic collapse. The evil corporations indulging in obscene profits could be blamed ( along with a bunch of patsy bankers you control ). Oil use would fall drastically, thus enabling the true Masters Of The Universe to enjoy its use for a long time to come. When you start to run out of something as valuable as a highly concentrated liquid fuel, it simply won't do to have the proletariat waste it by cruising up and down the town strip, going to visit grandma in the nursing home once a year, or sending the spouse to a job so that her offspring can get a quality education at a private school.
*
Obviously, collapse happens when resources get scarce. But if you can control timing to a degree you can profit off of the process. By introducing collapse early you can control population, pick up assets pennies on the dollar, conserve desired non-renewable resources and live like a king. If the collapse lasts as long as previous ones you need not fear being caught in the avalanche. Now, why do I introduce this outlandish theory, other than for my amusement and desire to showcase my mental instability? Because it means our future could be an ever decreasing life style. Not a happy He-Man Rules The Ruins, not a sharp dip with a recovery at the end. But a continuation of the past. A slow collapse with government fully in charge, with money still being the only tool that counts ( rather than plastic assault rifles ). With our inability to do a darn thing but to accept a decrease in living standards.
*
There is every reason to believe the Depression was controlled and a certain group benefited to the detriment of all others. Why can't it happen this time? Don't think a fantasy farm with imports of energy and Chinese farm machinery is in the cards. Hope you can go the junk land/trailer/stored grains route. In the future it will beat living a Soylent Green urban ghetto life. It might be the only way you retain some independence with a slight bit of luxury compared to your neighbors.
END
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
deflation?
DEFLATION?
I know, I said no more chicken little stories on the economy, but I've been force feeding you warmed over election news and Peak Oil stories so perhaps now economic news won't be so hard to swallow. I got all worked up over a blurb at www.survivalblog.com so I thought I would bend your ear over that. The case for deflation was made and housing and oil were used as examples. It was argued that credit contraction was leading us into a depression. It wasn't a bad argument, and we all do tend to forget that our economy is mostly credit rather than paper currency. Yet something was nagging at me over the article.
*
Excess credit creation might have been inflationary in the housing market, and that collapse is causing housing costs to deflate to a degree. Yet, rental costs are rising as fewer people are willing to sell at a loss and credit dries up for others. And I would argue that credit creation has been deflationary in the retail sector. Yes, a lot of businesses had to pay extra to cover the increased cost of interest plus principle on loans as they were forced to expand to survive. But economics of scale allowed a profit as long as interest rates were low. Can you imagine all those Wal-Marts and Home Depots would be in existence if it weren't for an orgy of cheap credit being created. Credit creation allowed growth to continue. Now the lack thereof will rise prices. At first intense pressure will force some price lowering as firms are desperate to survive the credit drying up. There are already countless examples of bankruptcies due strictly to lack of credit. After excess firms are dead, there will be both lack of competition and increased interest costs to drive prices up.
*
Oil is falling drastically, and only some of that contraction can be blamed on a sudden ( and I'm sure short lived ) surge in the value of the dollar and the decrease in demand. We used eight percent less imports this last year and I'll call ethanol use a ballpark 2%. Does a ten percent decline in demand drop the cost of oil two thirds? Plus, China seems to be buying up what we don't use, so it seems odd the decrease has been that much. And the dollar has increased in value about 15%. Even with futures markets queering the price it still seems oil should be closer to $75 than $50. Of course, the drastic slowdown in international trade due to the freezing of letters of credit might account for the lower oil sales leading to decreasing prices.
*
Yet, if oil is now so much lower, why are food prices still so high? Food is mostly oil, from machinery to fertilizer to transport to packaging. If oil went from $150 to $60, why did a bag of flour go from $1 to $2 and only ever so slowly creep down to $1.80? Rice and beans remain high, as does anything in a can. And Rawles is also reporting that can costs are going up. I would hazard to guess the following. This time it is less about the value of currency and more about true supply and demand. Population is up, water availability and fertile land is down. Food prices will continue to rise. Oil will fall to a point. People can continue to cut recreational driving ( prices may be falling but credit is drying up faster, and unemployment is increasing ). Businesses failing means less energy needed. For a time that demand destruction will keep costs on gas down. But eventually supplies will fall enough that oil costs will rise even with less demand. Oil isn't effecting food because we have already reached a point of increased demand canceling that out. More mouths to feed every day.
*
In other words, resource depletion has its own pricing mechanism.
END
I know, I said no more chicken little stories on the economy, but I've been force feeding you warmed over election news and Peak Oil stories so perhaps now economic news won't be so hard to swallow. I got all worked up over a blurb at www.survivalblog.com so I thought I would bend your ear over that. The case for deflation was made and housing and oil were used as examples. It was argued that credit contraction was leading us into a depression. It wasn't a bad argument, and we all do tend to forget that our economy is mostly credit rather than paper currency. Yet something was nagging at me over the article.
*
Excess credit creation might have been inflationary in the housing market, and that collapse is causing housing costs to deflate to a degree. Yet, rental costs are rising as fewer people are willing to sell at a loss and credit dries up for others. And I would argue that credit creation has been deflationary in the retail sector. Yes, a lot of businesses had to pay extra to cover the increased cost of interest plus principle on loans as they were forced to expand to survive. But economics of scale allowed a profit as long as interest rates were low. Can you imagine all those Wal-Marts and Home Depots would be in existence if it weren't for an orgy of cheap credit being created. Credit creation allowed growth to continue. Now the lack thereof will rise prices. At first intense pressure will force some price lowering as firms are desperate to survive the credit drying up. There are already countless examples of bankruptcies due strictly to lack of credit. After excess firms are dead, there will be both lack of competition and increased interest costs to drive prices up.
*
Oil is falling drastically, and only some of that contraction can be blamed on a sudden ( and I'm sure short lived ) surge in the value of the dollar and the decrease in demand. We used eight percent less imports this last year and I'll call ethanol use a ballpark 2%. Does a ten percent decline in demand drop the cost of oil two thirds? Plus, China seems to be buying up what we don't use, so it seems odd the decrease has been that much. And the dollar has increased in value about 15%. Even with futures markets queering the price it still seems oil should be closer to $75 than $50. Of course, the drastic slowdown in international trade due to the freezing of letters of credit might account for the lower oil sales leading to decreasing prices.
*
Yet, if oil is now so much lower, why are food prices still so high? Food is mostly oil, from machinery to fertilizer to transport to packaging. If oil went from $150 to $60, why did a bag of flour go from $1 to $2 and only ever so slowly creep down to $1.80? Rice and beans remain high, as does anything in a can. And Rawles is also reporting that can costs are going up. I would hazard to guess the following. This time it is less about the value of currency and more about true supply and demand. Population is up, water availability and fertile land is down. Food prices will continue to rise. Oil will fall to a point. People can continue to cut recreational driving ( prices may be falling but credit is drying up faster, and unemployment is increasing ). Businesses failing means less energy needed. For a time that demand destruction will keep costs on gas down. But eventually supplies will fall enough that oil costs will rise even with less demand. Oil isn't effecting food because we have already reached a point of increased demand canceling that out. More mouths to feed every day.
*
In other words, resource depletion has its own pricing mechanism.
END
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
full of gas
FULL OF GAS
When you are full of gas you tend to allow some to escape through your backside. Polite company speaks of passing gas. Females "phoof". Less polite society says you fart. I prefer fart. It is direct, to the point and leaves no room for lawyers to debate the term ( your honor, my client was merely belching ). When you are really full of crap, your brain is effected and you also tend towards brain farts. David Goodstein is full of gas. What passes for thinking can be summed up as brain farts. Full of crap. Or, if these charges are false, he is an unscrupulous con artist ripping off the public.
*
I went to the library and procured a stack of reading material. The only book on Peak Oil was "Out Of Gas" by the aforementioned author. He is a physics professor at Cal-Tech. His book was small and thin. Only about a hundred pages. His introduction covered the field of Peak Oil briefly. At most twenty pages, about six thousand words. The rest of the book was bullcrap I had no need of reading. The history of scientific discovery, mostly. Science that explained energy, yet was unnecessary. The history of the first steam engine does not tie in with Peak Oil. Nor did much of anything else he talked about. Yet the hardback book of his that came out four years ago was priced at $23. What a ripoff! This is the worse Peak Oil book, ever. No contest. I've pretty much read them all and this was crap. I was pissed just to have wasted my time. Imagine my reaction if I had spent money on this slop. Pass on this sham, and tell all your friends.
END
When you are full of gas you tend to allow some to escape through your backside. Polite company speaks of passing gas. Females "phoof". Less polite society says you fart. I prefer fart. It is direct, to the point and leaves no room for lawyers to debate the term ( your honor, my client was merely belching ). When you are really full of crap, your brain is effected and you also tend towards brain farts. David Goodstein is full of gas. What passes for thinking can be summed up as brain farts. Full of crap. Or, if these charges are false, he is an unscrupulous con artist ripping off the public.
*
I went to the library and procured a stack of reading material. The only book on Peak Oil was "Out Of Gas" by the aforementioned author. He is a physics professor at Cal-Tech. His book was small and thin. Only about a hundred pages. His introduction covered the field of Peak Oil briefly. At most twenty pages, about six thousand words. The rest of the book was bullcrap I had no need of reading. The history of scientific discovery, mostly. Science that explained energy, yet was unnecessary. The history of the first steam engine does not tie in with Peak Oil. Nor did much of anything else he talked about. Yet the hardback book of his that came out four years ago was priced at $23. What a ripoff! This is the worse Peak Oil book, ever. No contest. I've pretty much read them all and this was crap. I was pissed just to have wasted my time. Imagine my reaction if I had spent money on this slop. Pass on this sham, and tell all your friends.
END
Monday, November 10, 2008
and they don't learn a thing
AND THEY DON'T LEARN A THING
You buy them books, send them to school, and they don't learn a thing. I'm at work today, because basically you are all very generous except for a few of you that poison the minds of the others, speaking ill of me and aborting the Bisonia Empire, yet no matter how generous you are there simply are not enough of you to support my ex-wife in the style of luxury she has grown accustomed, and I'm listening to National Pravda Radio. Some idiot from Newsweek magazine is almost is tears of ecstasy at someone he knew ( or related to, whatever ) having managed to vote for Obammy before she kicked the bucket. He went on and on about her being in prior conflict about which Commissar to vote for ( the lesbian or the Muslim Democrat ), her being helped to the polling place, workers there accepting her X because the old biddy was too feeble to sign her whole name ( I think she was so friggin old she was born before public schools ), she managed to pull the lever and shortly thereafter collapsed. The next day she was told her favorite Oreo was elected. Then she died. Ahhhh! Oh sweet. Her life long dream come true. The radio idiot ( it was Diane Ream- not sure about the spelling, it's the radio jerk- who I simply detest because of her slow droning voice that is worse than fingernails on the chalk board ) made cooing sounds and shared with her guest a Warm And Fuzzy Moment. It was at this point that I projectile vomited blood on to the windshield, almost running off the road and impacting an immovable object. Way to go, ancient and senile bitch! Thanks for helping to make your great grandchildren's life a living hell before you die. Stupid pukes.
*
If I was to ask why public schools dumb down their students, the answer would be that it is a propaganda vehicle to brainwash the masses. Okay, fair enough. But the question I want an answer to is why people can't think for themselves. Is it so friggin hard to question everything? I mean, heck, even if you only seek wisdom through the movies, didn't "Sneakers" tell us you need to follow the money ( or was it, "who benefits?"- little rusty there )? Even being brainwashed for twelve to sixteen years, don't people realize they can educate themselves? Is it too much of an effort to get away from the TV? Are we really just dumb herd animals? I understand it doesn't matter who is elected. The new Titanic captain. But the idiots dancing in the street seem to think it matters. Yet they can't connect the dots. More welfare means more taxes or inflation or interest payments on debt. More control means less freedom. Yet their simplistic minds only see free money. The old lady had the excuse of a feeble and worn mind. What about the rest of them?
*
All this shouldn't bother me. It is all just bread and circus fun and games. I'm just constantly amazed at the lack of intelligence out there. Our only tool besides opposeable thumbs to differentiate us from the animals is an enlarged mental capacity ( and, ladies, you'll be happy to know, proportionately larger penises ). And most people can't be bothered to think. Spitting into God's eye, as it were. Wasting a valuable gift. Is it lead in the paint? Mercury in the fish? Plain laziness? I weep. Perhaps it is a good thing we are in line for a drastic die-off. It will cull the herd. That's me, always looking for that silver lining. In that half empty glass.
END
Tuesday is a holiday. I'm writing a very short article and pre-posting it. Be warned. Also, be warned that you must BUY MY CRAP or I will be all hurt and disappointed and I know you don't want that.
You buy them books, send them to school, and they don't learn a thing. I'm at work today, because basically you are all very generous except for a few of you that poison the minds of the others, speaking ill of me and aborting the Bisonia Empire, yet no matter how generous you are there simply are not enough of you to support my ex-wife in the style of luxury she has grown accustomed, and I'm listening to National Pravda Radio. Some idiot from Newsweek magazine is almost is tears of ecstasy at someone he knew ( or related to, whatever ) having managed to vote for Obammy before she kicked the bucket. He went on and on about her being in prior conflict about which Commissar to vote for ( the lesbian or the Muslim Democrat ), her being helped to the polling place, workers there accepting her X because the old biddy was too feeble to sign her whole name ( I think she was so friggin old she was born before public schools ), she managed to pull the lever and shortly thereafter collapsed. The next day she was told her favorite Oreo was elected. Then she died. Ahhhh! Oh sweet. Her life long dream come true. The radio idiot ( it was Diane Ream- not sure about the spelling, it's the radio jerk- who I simply detest because of her slow droning voice that is worse than fingernails on the chalk board ) made cooing sounds and shared with her guest a Warm And Fuzzy Moment. It was at this point that I projectile vomited blood on to the windshield, almost running off the road and impacting an immovable object. Way to go, ancient and senile bitch! Thanks for helping to make your great grandchildren's life a living hell before you die. Stupid pukes.
*
If I was to ask why public schools dumb down their students, the answer would be that it is a propaganda vehicle to brainwash the masses. Okay, fair enough. But the question I want an answer to is why people can't think for themselves. Is it so friggin hard to question everything? I mean, heck, even if you only seek wisdom through the movies, didn't "Sneakers" tell us you need to follow the money ( or was it, "who benefits?"- little rusty there )? Even being brainwashed for twelve to sixteen years, don't people realize they can educate themselves? Is it too much of an effort to get away from the TV? Are we really just dumb herd animals? I understand it doesn't matter who is elected. The new Titanic captain. But the idiots dancing in the street seem to think it matters. Yet they can't connect the dots. More welfare means more taxes or inflation or interest payments on debt. More control means less freedom. Yet their simplistic minds only see free money. The old lady had the excuse of a feeble and worn mind. What about the rest of them?
*
All this shouldn't bother me. It is all just bread and circus fun and games. I'm just constantly amazed at the lack of intelligence out there. Our only tool besides opposeable thumbs to differentiate us from the animals is an enlarged mental capacity ( and, ladies, you'll be happy to know, proportionately larger penises ). And most people can't be bothered to think. Spitting into God's eye, as it were. Wasting a valuable gift. Is it lead in the paint? Mercury in the fish? Plain laziness? I weep. Perhaps it is a good thing we are in line for a drastic die-off. It will cull the herd. That's me, always looking for that silver lining. In that half empty glass.
END
Tuesday is a holiday. I'm writing a very short article and pre-posting it. Be warned. Also, be warned that you must BUY MY CRAP or I will be all hurt and disappointed and I know you don't want that.
Friday, November 07, 2008
view from the farm
VIEW FROM THE FARM
Okay, view from the junk land dirt. It just didn't sound that great for a title. This is obviously just common sense, but also one of those things you need to experience for it to sink in proper. I'm looking at things differently since I've been here. Everything went according to plan when I first got here, almost exactly as I had been envisioning and planning. The things such as utilities and sewer and water. What changed was how once all those details had been attended to, my priorities could then shift to more of a post-collapse planning.
*
It used to be everything was about getting out to some land. Making a living, living off grid, transportation. Stockpiling what you can't produce, which of course out in the desert includes all your food but small game. But now that I'm here and gotten everything settled ( it took a couple of months ) now I can focus on how to survive without my few umbilical cords. Propane. Not for cooking, which is easy enough, but heating. Before, it was how to heat without the grid. Now, the focus is on the entire transportation system failing- so, how to survive without propane from thousands of miles away or for that matter wood from hundreds of miles away. How to eliminate the need for vehicles. Easy enough in principle, a bit harder in practice. And it does consume a disproportionate amount of income while you are tied to town with a car.
*
I don't yet have the finances for these. I can hope the system stays together long enough to solve the problems but I really know better. I have primitive solutions to the problems ( hauling water for clothes washing/ living in a dugout with a sagebrush fire ) but hope I can fashion something a bit more comfortable. If the center holds long enough, great. I solved the problem of moving out here, I can solve the renewable energy and transportation problem. The point here is that by actually moving, I cleared my focus and viewpoint to work on the next problem to be solved. First, you try to escape from the landlord. Then from the power company and the auto industry. One thing at a time. I thought the escape from a landlord was the most critical due to my paying a disproportionate amount of my income to one. And due to there being few options when you are homeless. It is easy to survive without heat, or at least easier than doing so without any shelter at all.
*
Another point here is that once you escape rent or a mortgage, don't relax. You are still dependant in other ways. No one can be truly self-reliant. But you do want to try to get as close as possible. Get out of town, get to a more secure place to live. Then you can focus on solving your other dependency issues.
END
Buy My Crap www.bisonpress.com
Okay, view from the junk land dirt. It just didn't sound that great for a title. This is obviously just common sense, but also one of those things you need to experience for it to sink in proper. I'm looking at things differently since I've been here. Everything went according to plan when I first got here, almost exactly as I had been envisioning and planning. The things such as utilities and sewer and water. What changed was how once all those details had been attended to, my priorities could then shift to more of a post-collapse planning.
*
It used to be everything was about getting out to some land. Making a living, living off grid, transportation. Stockpiling what you can't produce, which of course out in the desert includes all your food but small game. But now that I'm here and gotten everything settled ( it took a couple of months ) now I can focus on how to survive without my few umbilical cords. Propane. Not for cooking, which is easy enough, but heating. Before, it was how to heat without the grid. Now, the focus is on the entire transportation system failing- so, how to survive without propane from thousands of miles away or for that matter wood from hundreds of miles away. How to eliminate the need for vehicles. Easy enough in principle, a bit harder in practice. And it does consume a disproportionate amount of income while you are tied to town with a car.
*
I don't yet have the finances for these. I can hope the system stays together long enough to solve the problems but I really know better. I have primitive solutions to the problems ( hauling water for clothes washing/ living in a dugout with a sagebrush fire ) but hope I can fashion something a bit more comfortable. If the center holds long enough, great. I solved the problem of moving out here, I can solve the renewable energy and transportation problem. The point here is that by actually moving, I cleared my focus and viewpoint to work on the next problem to be solved. First, you try to escape from the landlord. Then from the power company and the auto industry. One thing at a time. I thought the escape from a landlord was the most critical due to my paying a disproportionate amount of my income to one. And due to there being few options when you are homeless. It is easy to survive without heat, or at least easier than doing so without any shelter at all.
*
Another point here is that once you escape rent or a mortgage, don't relax. You are still dependant in other ways. No one can be truly self-reliant. But you do want to try to get as close as possible. Get out of town, get to a more secure place to live. Then you can focus on solving your other dependency issues.
END
Buy My Crap www.bisonpress.com
Thursday, November 06, 2008
ghost town usa
GHOST TOWN USA
My readership is around nine hundred people a day. Those are my loyal minions. No one else in their right mind listen to my fear mongering, paranoid delusions. But as they say, genius is rarely recognized in its own time. So when I get comments left that question a basic philosophy I have been repeating for some time, I just know it has to be a visitor. I can hope they tune back in and I can try to cram some learning into their void of a cranial cavity. For the rest of you, this is old hat. As mean spirited readers that don't send me money every payday or sign over their home deeds or join my still to grow army in Elko have already pointed out, I could post one article on frugal survival and cease to publish thereafter and no one would miss much ( after the basics of wheat, bolt guns, trailer, junk land are covered- yes, I agree with the charge- the only thing left is just details ). As an aside, in a supreme burst of Super Loyal Minion charity, a kind and now favorite of the day reader sent a case of canned bacon. Oh, glorious and happy day! I shall indulge in the best of all pork products as Chinese nuclear devices detonate in our harbors from cargo containers as the rest of you munch on rancid granola bars and swill it down with tepid water as you gaze in wonder at the settling fallout clouds. Envy me, mere mortals!
*
I used to be a happy prepper. I had my years worth of wheat with Corona grinder, a half dozen gallons of bleach, a .45 pistol with a few boxes of ammunition. I wouldn't be the first to die, and if I survived the riots I could eat for awhile. Life was simple and I was happy. Then, like a supreme dumbass, I thought writing would be oh so friggin happy and joyous. I had always entertained that notion, and once I could afford a computer ( well, the payments on one anyway ) I had the proper tool I needed. I started a terribly written newsletter I hope no one has a copy of. From then on I was hooked. I had a few starts and stops, but I was on my way to shouting that the end was nigh from the largest soap box I could find. And as time went on and the more research I did, the more troubled I became. I was no longer content with the very basics because I kept perceiving more and more threats. The deeper I dug the worse it got. The more I knew, the more dangerous I became.
*
So here we are at the point where, yes, I am bitter and cynical and paranoid and fearful. Is it bad enough that our economy is imploding? Or that the weather is changing at the same time our soil is degraded? Or that ( fill in the blanks- bird flu, terror attacks, American dictatorship, etc. ) poses a clear danger? On top of all that, we have Peak Oil. Energy is life. Period. It can be short term solar energy stored in wood or crops. Or carbon fuels ( even if the fantasy of abiotic oil is true, usage rates far exceed replenishment rates ) consisting of highly concentrated, aged solar energy. When the energy supply falls, collapse follows. We, as a nation ( globally too, but who cares about fuzzy foreigners ) are the same as a prosperous Western mining town that soon turns into a ghost town.
*
The usual trend is that a smelly anti-social type is kicked out of town for molesting farm animals. He wanders away into a remote post, and one day while digging a cat hole, he discovers an ore containing a valuable metal. Word gets out when he comes back to town to buy a mail order goat bride with gold dust and before you know it everyone and is brother is stalking a claim. A town goes up, full of canvas sided buildings, unshaven six gun toting bachelors, prostitutes and merchants ( about the same thing ). Everyone hurries to make a fortune before the ore plays out. When that happens, a ghost town is all that remains. If the vein doesn't give out quickly, in time the permanent residents forget that they are living off of a non-renewable resource. After a few generations, the logic of depletion might be there but the emotional response is denial all the same. I have few illusions of mining here in Elko, but thousands of mortgage holders here are blind to it.
*
Oil is being mined, and very quickly globally. Despite a history of boom and bust, no one is paying heed to the coming ghost town. Their fortunes are tied up in oil mining and they refuse to think about the mine drying up. When an area over depletes its energy, the population falls to a very small fraction of its glory years. It is merely a matter of when, not if, you will see Ghost Town USA. You can hope you die before it arrives, but more likely you will die during its arrival.
END
Send Bacon, or at least Buy My Crap at www.bisonpress.com
My readership is around nine hundred people a day. Those are my loyal minions. No one else in their right mind listen to my fear mongering, paranoid delusions. But as they say, genius is rarely recognized in its own time. So when I get comments left that question a basic philosophy I have been repeating for some time, I just know it has to be a visitor. I can hope they tune back in and I can try to cram some learning into their void of a cranial cavity. For the rest of you, this is old hat. As mean spirited readers that don't send me money every payday or sign over their home deeds or join my still to grow army in Elko have already pointed out, I could post one article on frugal survival and cease to publish thereafter and no one would miss much ( after the basics of wheat, bolt guns, trailer, junk land are covered- yes, I agree with the charge- the only thing left is just details ). As an aside, in a supreme burst of Super Loyal Minion charity, a kind and now favorite of the day reader sent a case of canned bacon. Oh, glorious and happy day! I shall indulge in the best of all pork products as Chinese nuclear devices detonate in our harbors from cargo containers as the rest of you munch on rancid granola bars and swill it down with tepid water as you gaze in wonder at the settling fallout clouds. Envy me, mere mortals!
*
I used to be a happy prepper. I had my years worth of wheat with Corona grinder, a half dozen gallons of bleach, a .45 pistol with a few boxes of ammunition. I wouldn't be the first to die, and if I survived the riots I could eat for awhile. Life was simple and I was happy. Then, like a supreme dumbass, I thought writing would be oh so friggin happy and joyous. I had always entertained that notion, and once I could afford a computer ( well, the payments on one anyway ) I had the proper tool I needed. I started a terribly written newsletter I hope no one has a copy of. From then on I was hooked. I had a few starts and stops, but I was on my way to shouting that the end was nigh from the largest soap box I could find. And as time went on and the more research I did, the more troubled I became. I was no longer content with the very basics because I kept perceiving more and more threats. The deeper I dug the worse it got. The more I knew, the more dangerous I became.
*
So here we are at the point where, yes, I am bitter and cynical and paranoid and fearful. Is it bad enough that our economy is imploding? Or that the weather is changing at the same time our soil is degraded? Or that ( fill in the blanks- bird flu, terror attacks, American dictatorship, etc. ) poses a clear danger? On top of all that, we have Peak Oil. Energy is life. Period. It can be short term solar energy stored in wood or crops. Or carbon fuels ( even if the fantasy of abiotic oil is true, usage rates far exceed replenishment rates ) consisting of highly concentrated, aged solar energy. When the energy supply falls, collapse follows. We, as a nation ( globally too, but who cares about fuzzy foreigners ) are the same as a prosperous Western mining town that soon turns into a ghost town.
*
The usual trend is that a smelly anti-social type is kicked out of town for molesting farm animals. He wanders away into a remote post, and one day while digging a cat hole, he discovers an ore containing a valuable metal. Word gets out when he comes back to town to buy a mail order goat bride with gold dust and before you know it everyone and is brother is stalking a claim. A town goes up, full of canvas sided buildings, unshaven six gun toting bachelors, prostitutes and merchants ( about the same thing ). Everyone hurries to make a fortune before the ore plays out. When that happens, a ghost town is all that remains. If the vein doesn't give out quickly, in time the permanent residents forget that they are living off of a non-renewable resource. After a few generations, the logic of depletion might be there but the emotional response is denial all the same. I have few illusions of mining here in Elko, but thousands of mortgage holders here are blind to it.
*
Oil is being mined, and very quickly globally. Despite a history of boom and bust, no one is paying heed to the coming ghost town. Their fortunes are tied up in oil mining and they refuse to think about the mine drying up. When an area over depletes its energy, the population falls to a very small fraction of its glory years. It is merely a matter of when, not if, you will see Ghost Town USA. You can hope you die before it arrives, but more likely you will die during its arrival.
END
Send Bacon, or at least Buy My Crap at www.bisonpress.com
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
election coma
ELECTION COMA
If we start at the point where it is believed that our elections are fixed with either/or computerized fraud/corporate purchases through contributions, then we need to ask ourselves why Obammy was appointed as the new Titanic captain. A lot can still happen, what with the rumors of foreign birth or some backwoods cracker character being used as the stoolie in an assassination, but assuming our new boy actually takes power, could it be he is the new opiate for the masses?
*
I know, you know and even Ross Perot knows that the economy is going into Big Flush Mode. Besides the question of when and how bad, the only other thing to wonder about is if only the masses suffer or if the elites are going down with them. My vote is that everyone is going down, but that is through the lens of Peak Oil Dark Ages. So, if the economy continues the Big Flush ( I believe that is from the Robin Williams movie Survivors ) what good does Obammy do? It is naively simplistic to think the Democrat party is meant to be the scapegoat. Both parties tow the corporate/banker line. My best guess is that the election is meant to calm peoples fears and give them something to cling on as hope.
*
Look, kids, our hero is riding in on a pale horse, er, I mean a shiny knight rides in on a noble steed and is going to save the day! Goodie gumdrops, more welfare for us, more civil service jobs for the ambitious ( mostly Homeland Security I'm sure ). We are saved once again. All hail FDR and his clones for ushering in the People's Republic! So, assured that the SUV's are safe in the driveway ( and golly gosh look at the new low gas prices! ) and the adjustable rate mortgages will be turned into fixed rate forty year loans, the masses can now stop panicking. Wow, that was a close call! Those evil Republicans only stimulated the economy with two wars and a prescription drug plan and a banker bailout and a Detroit bailout. Let's get the Democrats in office so they can nationalize whatever is left over. Only when the nation is run like the Post Office will we be safe and secure.
*
The panic was quelled last night. Time to go back to sleep. All is well.
END
Short today, things to do lunch hour. I'll try to get back on track Thursday. I said try, don't pressure me. Buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
If we start at the point where it is believed that our elections are fixed with either/or computerized fraud/corporate purchases through contributions, then we need to ask ourselves why Obammy was appointed as the new Titanic captain. A lot can still happen, what with the rumors of foreign birth or some backwoods cracker character being used as the stoolie in an assassination, but assuming our new boy actually takes power, could it be he is the new opiate for the masses?
*
I know, you know and even Ross Perot knows that the economy is going into Big Flush Mode. Besides the question of when and how bad, the only other thing to wonder about is if only the masses suffer or if the elites are going down with them. My vote is that everyone is going down, but that is through the lens of Peak Oil Dark Ages. So, if the economy continues the Big Flush ( I believe that is from the Robin Williams movie Survivors ) what good does Obammy do? It is naively simplistic to think the Democrat party is meant to be the scapegoat. Both parties tow the corporate/banker line. My best guess is that the election is meant to calm peoples fears and give them something to cling on as hope.
*
Look, kids, our hero is riding in on a pale horse, er, I mean a shiny knight rides in on a noble steed and is going to save the day! Goodie gumdrops, more welfare for us, more civil service jobs for the ambitious ( mostly Homeland Security I'm sure ). We are saved once again. All hail FDR and his clones for ushering in the People's Republic! So, assured that the SUV's are safe in the driveway ( and golly gosh look at the new low gas prices! ) and the adjustable rate mortgages will be turned into fixed rate forty year loans, the masses can now stop panicking. Wow, that was a close call! Those evil Republicans only stimulated the economy with two wars and a prescription drug plan and a banker bailout and a Detroit bailout. Let's get the Democrats in office so they can nationalize whatever is left over. Only when the nation is run like the Post Office will we be safe and secure.
*
The panic was quelled last night. Time to go back to sleep. All is well.
END
Short today, things to do lunch hour. I'll try to get back on track Thursday. I said try, don't pressure me. Buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
patriotic non-voting
PATRIOTIC NON-VOTING
I know I can be a bit flippant at times. I throw out a "don't give two crusted craps about who wins" and you automatically roll your eyes, wrap yourself in the flag, cash your welfare check and paint me as anti-American as you circulate a petition in the neighborhood to raise money for a one way plane ticket to Moscow for me. So today of all days is a good time to go into a bit more detail. I think I am being patriotic by not voting.
*
The more cynical amongst us might observe how America was founded as a fight between rich British and rich Colonists as to who got the right to steal and plunder Indian land. I made that point a week or so ago. However, even being cynical, I can agree that for a society to work properly there needs to be an understood agreement between everybody. The rich, the poor, the rulers and the ruled. Our basic understanding was that we inhabited a rich land and there was no need to steal so much of the workers labor in the form of taxes. We agreed that a Constitutional Republic was the way to do this. We agreed on certain natural rights that were not allowed to be violated. I observe that these understandings are no longer honored by the higher end of society anymore, so my attitude is that I am no longer required to uphold my end of the bargain. I won't work hard, since taxation levels have risen too high. I won't act in the public interest unless forced to. And I certainly won't condone what our society has become by joining in the facade of voting.
*
Today's vote is an illusion that the people still have a say in what happens to them. I am not advocating Democracy, which is merely mob rule. I am saying that the peoples right to vote out politicians that refuse to abide by the spirit and the law of the Constitution has been null and void for some time. By voting I am agreeing with our rulers that it is okay to be blinded and hoodwinked. I am saying that it is okay to crap on the Constitution as long as my welfare checks come in. I am agreeing to be ruled by either a fascist or a communist. I am saying that I don't mind living in the Homeland, stealing others resources, as long as I get to partake in the goodies. I agree it is okay to turn in my neighbor for "unpatriotic" thoughts. I am agreeing that patriotism has a new meaning, those actions that support the current rulers. Well, guess what. I don't agree with any of that. By not voting I am saying that I only accept the old understanding between the ruled and the rulers. Minimum rule for minimum taxes. The individual over the collective except under limited, very clear circumstances. I won't vote for increasing taxes to pay for ever more rule. I'm voting for the Constitution by not voting for the current corrupt regime. And don't hand me the tired excuse that we can vote change in. From vote count fraud to third party exclusion to laws on the books authorizing such abominations as a central bank or martial law clauses, it is obvious that nothing will be allowed to change.
*
Don't vote- don't give your consent to be screwed.
END
I know I can be a bit flippant at times. I throw out a "don't give two crusted craps about who wins" and you automatically roll your eyes, wrap yourself in the flag, cash your welfare check and paint me as anti-American as you circulate a petition in the neighborhood to raise money for a one way plane ticket to Moscow for me. So today of all days is a good time to go into a bit more detail. I think I am being patriotic by not voting.
*
The more cynical amongst us might observe how America was founded as a fight between rich British and rich Colonists as to who got the right to steal and plunder Indian land. I made that point a week or so ago. However, even being cynical, I can agree that for a society to work properly there needs to be an understood agreement between everybody. The rich, the poor, the rulers and the ruled. Our basic understanding was that we inhabited a rich land and there was no need to steal so much of the workers labor in the form of taxes. We agreed that a Constitutional Republic was the way to do this. We agreed on certain natural rights that were not allowed to be violated. I observe that these understandings are no longer honored by the higher end of society anymore, so my attitude is that I am no longer required to uphold my end of the bargain. I won't work hard, since taxation levels have risen too high. I won't act in the public interest unless forced to. And I certainly won't condone what our society has become by joining in the facade of voting.
*
Today's vote is an illusion that the people still have a say in what happens to them. I am not advocating Democracy, which is merely mob rule. I am saying that the peoples right to vote out politicians that refuse to abide by the spirit and the law of the Constitution has been null and void for some time. By voting I am agreeing with our rulers that it is okay to be blinded and hoodwinked. I am saying that it is okay to crap on the Constitution as long as my welfare checks come in. I am agreeing to be ruled by either a fascist or a communist. I am saying that I don't mind living in the Homeland, stealing others resources, as long as I get to partake in the goodies. I agree it is okay to turn in my neighbor for "unpatriotic" thoughts. I am agreeing that patriotism has a new meaning, those actions that support the current rulers. Well, guess what. I don't agree with any of that. By not voting I am saying that I only accept the old understanding between the ruled and the rulers. Minimum rule for minimum taxes. The individual over the collective except under limited, very clear circumstances. I won't vote for increasing taxes to pay for ever more rule. I'm voting for the Constitution by not voting for the current corrupt regime. And don't hand me the tired excuse that we can vote change in. From vote count fraud to third party exclusion to laws on the books authorizing such abominations as a central bank or martial law clauses, it is obvious that nothing will be allowed to change.
*
Don't vote- don't give your consent to be screwed.
END
Monday, November 03, 2008
collapse minus oil
COLLAPSE MINUS OIL
This weekend I didn't get out of the tin box much. It wasn't very cold but it was overcast and raining the entire time. My entire three day weekend. Bastards. I did get out for about a half hour to further deepen my Super Deluxe Bison Underground Command Lair. This summer I started an eight by eight hole. I don't half much of an idea what it can be other than a tarp lined hole covered with whatever I can afford, used in the event of propane shortages in winter. I can keep it warmer with a limited amount of sage brush if needed. Since it had rained so much I decided it wouldn't hurt to scrape off the wet layer, a bit easier than pick and shovel work. I think I got an inch. Only about sixty to go. God forbid I need it this winter. Anyway, I got a lot of reading done. After three and a half fiction books I needed to get some real reading done and decided on "Collapse" by J. Diamond. It had been about three years since I read it last and I knew it would take me awhile to plow through it.
*
The incredible detail in the book makes it very interesting for those that like "big picture" work. And I enjoyed it once again. But one thing that stuck with me this time was the connection with oil. I hadn't gotten so far into Peak Oil the first time I had read the book, so this time it I had a different perspective. The author goes through lengthy contortions to try to appear to be as far away from doom and gloom as possible. Evidently he not only didn't want to appear in Cammo Rednecks Monthly as a guest writer, he also didn't want to convince himself he should move the heck out of L.A. That is really the only fault I can find with the book, the glossing over of the real danger of oil depletion. He repeatedly points to historical examples of people that worked to reverse or halt resource depletion/pollution, soil infertility, etc. In effect, he was telling us we would avoid the fate of so many collapsed societies because, as everybody knows, America is super duper special and can do no wrong and if we just join hands and sing a song for the children we can defeat any problems. Sort of how we've done so well the last thirty years becoming energy independent, making Social Security fiscally safe, keeping our industry at home, keeping the dollar sound and stable, etc.
*
Every point about what helps a society collapse is already here, only held in check by the use of petroleum. We already have soil depletion. We already have a dependence on foreign trade for our necessities. We already have enemies ready to attack as soon as we weaken. We already have used up our resources. We definitely have overpopulation. We have changing weather. Without oil, it all hits us at once and we die a horrible death. "Collapse" sidesteps around all of that. He coyly makes a remark once in awhile, but it is really a hidden message. Yes, I've only gotten half way through the book. He could prove me wrong in the end. In which case I'll call myself an idiot, again. I know you never tire of that. I needed something to write about today, okay? Work with me here.
*
Soil depletion is easy. We know the soil only produces through petroleum inputs. A few Amish farms or hippy communes won't feed us all. Foreigners provide 70% of our oil and all the SUV's being parked with all the corn being turned into ethanol won't diminish that by much. China, Russia and all their allies would love to see us defeated. And we've turned most everybody else against us recently. All the good will earned in WWII was used up long ago. We've used up our oil and our steel. We have forests left but only as long as Canada keeps supplying us. And even our supplies of wood are in danger as forest mismanagement leaves them vulnerable to super fires ( now barely controlled by lots of money and fuel hungry planes ). And it isn't hard to see the overpopulation problem. Four years ago we had 280 million. Now it is inching over 300. And that doesn't even include illegals. Decrease oil, or eliminate it and all those problems hit. We can't join the "saved" societies, rather we jump both feet into the "doomed" category.
*
If you want a good book on how far people fall when they run out of resources, this is it. Just don't buy into thinking it gives us a happy ending. And, wait for it, here it is, you can buy this book through my Amazon products page at www.bisonpress.com
END
This weekend I didn't get out of the tin box much. It wasn't very cold but it was overcast and raining the entire time. My entire three day weekend. Bastards. I did get out for about a half hour to further deepen my Super Deluxe Bison Underground Command Lair. This summer I started an eight by eight hole. I don't half much of an idea what it can be other than a tarp lined hole covered with whatever I can afford, used in the event of propane shortages in winter. I can keep it warmer with a limited amount of sage brush if needed. Since it had rained so much I decided it wouldn't hurt to scrape off the wet layer, a bit easier than pick and shovel work. I think I got an inch. Only about sixty to go. God forbid I need it this winter. Anyway, I got a lot of reading done. After three and a half fiction books I needed to get some real reading done and decided on "Collapse" by J. Diamond. It had been about three years since I read it last and I knew it would take me awhile to plow through it.
*
The incredible detail in the book makes it very interesting for those that like "big picture" work. And I enjoyed it once again. But one thing that stuck with me this time was the connection with oil. I hadn't gotten so far into Peak Oil the first time I had read the book, so this time it I had a different perspective. The author goes through lengthy contortions to try to appear to be as far away from doom and gloom as possible. Evidently he not only didn't want to appear in Cammo Rednecks Monthly as a guest writer, he also didn't want to convince himself he should move the heck out of L.A. That is really the only fault I can find with the book, the glossing over of the real danger of oil depletion. He repeatedly points to historical examples of people that worked to reverse or halt resource depletion/pollution, soil infertility, etc. In effect, he was telling us we would avoid the fate of so many collapsed societies because, as everybody knows, America is super duper special and can do no wrong and if we just join hands and sing a song for the children we can defeat any problems. Sort of how we've done so well the last thirty years becoming energy independent, making Social Security fiscally safe, keeping our industry at home, keeping the dollar sound and stable, etc.
*
Every point about what helps a society collapse is already here, only held in check by the use of petroleum. We already have soil depletion. We already have a dependence on foreign trade for our necessities. We already have enemies ready to attack as soon as we weaken. We already have used up our resources. We definitely have overpopulation. We have changing weather. Without oil, it all hits us at once and we die a horrible death. "Collapse" sidesteps around all of that. He coyly makes a remark once in awhile, but it is really a hidden message. Yes, I've only gotten half way through the book. He could prove me wrong in the end. In which case I'll call myself an idiot, again. I know you never tire of that. I needed something to write about today, okay? Work with me here.
*
Soil depletion is easy. We know the soil only produces through petroleum inputs. A few Amish farms or hippy communes won't feed us all. Foreigners provide 70% of our oil and all the SUV's being parked with all the corn being turned into ethanol won't diminish that by much. China, Russia and all their allies would love to see us defeated. And we've turned most everybody else against us recently. All the good will earned in WWII was used up long ago. We've used up our oil and our steel. We have forests left but only as long as Canada keeps supplying us. And even our supplies of wood are in danger as forest mismanagement leaves them vulnerable to super fires ( now barely controlled by lots of money and fuel hungry planes ). And it isn't hard to see the overpopulation problem. Four years ago we had 280 million. Now it is inching over 300. And that doesn't even include illegals. Decrease oil, or eliminate it and all those problems hit. We can't join the "saved" societies, rather we jump both feet into the "doomed" category.
*
If you want a good book on how far people fall when they run out of resources, this is it. Just don't buy into thinking it gives us a happy ending. And, wait for it, here it is, you can buy this book through my Amazon products page at www.bisonpress.com
END
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