"You don't "own" shit anymore, even if your mortgage is paid off. Don't believe me? Skip your property taxes this year."
-Mayberry
Monday, November 30, 2009
Cansolidators, Canned Goods and Stocking Up
So awhile ago I had a technological fail on the Shelf Reliance website and they were gracious enough to offer me the product I was looking to purchase for free. Well a few days ago a box showed up in the mail. My work schedule being what it is the time to fiddle with it waited for the weekend. While falling short of a full product review I would like to talk about it some.
My awesomely free Pantry System was super easy to put together.The one thing that took me awhile was figuring out the right combination of can sizes for our individual needs. There was a good half hour sitting at the table with a stack of various sized cans to come up with the right setup. Still tonight I tweeked it again. The setup I went with was 3 normal 16oz cans and one for real small 6oz ones. I have one row of refried beans (the only kind of bean we eat but don't make, lard is gross), one for canned corn, the tiny one for tomato paste and another for a variety of heavy soups (chilli, clam chowder, etc).
I don't think any sort of setup will make food rotation super duper easy and effortless but this is sure going to help. We eat the first can of corn and the newest one goes into the top when purchased. Also the most useful part of this whole process might be that it has really made me think about the canned foods we actually eat on a normal basis. One of these systems will not help rotate a bunch of different cans of all sorts of stuff ("sorry honey I know you wanted Chicken Noodle Soup but Stewed tommatoes were in the front, better luck next time") but will go a long way towards organizing and rotating the stuff you regularly use and thus should stock in quanity. We are going to order another one tomorrow or the next day, I noticed they are on sale for just $25 a piece which is a bargain for sure.
I think this series of products is ideal for smaller families, those who just don't eat that many canned goods or limited space situations. Their huge free standing systems are awesome in their size and capacity but just aren't right for everyone. We will surely have one someday when a couple of hungry kids, a busy schedule (which makes eating a few more can based meals desirable), and a basement make something in their Harvester series an easy choice.
One thing we have done recently is to set a sort of preparedness food budget. Please note that we are only buying food we normally eat and in quantities which are such that rotating them before expiration should not be an issue. One mistake lots of people make (and I have myself) is buying preparedness/ survivalism food which is distinctly different from what they normally eat and thus will actually rotate. [Of course having relatively small quantities of some freeze dried stuff and MRE's for low prep meals is a good plan and if you have the $$$$$ a few cases of mountain house (got to do this at some point) would be great in the basement.]
People say you need to store what you eat and eat what you store. Of course they are right but they often follow that up by giving a list of various stuff you should store. The lists are very comprehensive and tried and true and all of that stuff but that isn't the point. If you don't eat oatmeal but instead eat poptarts (yeah they are expensive and unhealthy but isn't the point of this) for breakfast every morning then store a few cases of poptarts. If you hate tea but love Doctor Pepper then store that. Buckets full of wheat will not do you any good unless you are in the habit of regularly turning that into food which your family then eats. History is full of examples of people starving to death while surrounded by various foods which for whatever reason they were not culturally open to eating.
In the process of moving to a streamlined (normal food and storage/ preps blended seamlessly) situation you will almost inevitably give up some foods (I miss frozen pizzas and microwave burritos) which probably isn't a bad thing anyway, your wallet and waistline will surely thank you. However I suggest you move cautiously and if in any doubt error on the side of what you actually eat. Better to have some slightly more expensive and less long term shelf stable stuff you will eat and know how to prepare than a bunch of stuff which you won't eat and aren't used to preparing.
In any case we decided on $25 a pay period for the goal of stocking up on food a bit faster. We do pretty well already but a certain husband might have been throwing stuff in the cart all the time and really bothering his wife who wanted the groceries to stay under their $50 a week food budget. By codifying the extra amount that will be going in this direction we will do a couple things. First of all this is seperate from a certain wife's food budget which is very important to her. Second of all a certain paranoid husband can pick up some stuff every time they go to the store which makes him happy. Third it will help give us a sort of jump start to getting to a really well stocked pantry. This time I got a bunch of canned goods.
I recall the LDS Preparadness Manual had a pretty good month to month type of list in it somewhere. Got a copy of it for free online (don't remember where but I found it again in 30 seconds on google) and have been meaning to read it. Willtry to at least skim that section in the next two weeks.
In any case I wrote a lot and am ready to be done for the night.
Thoughts?
My awesomely free Pantry System was super easy to put together.The one thing that took me awhile was figuring out the right combination of can sizes for our individual needs. There was a good half hour sitting at the table with a stack of various sized cans to come up with the right setup. Still tonight I tweeked it again. The setup I went with was 3 normal 16oz cans and one for real small 6oz ones. I have one row of refried beans (the only kind of bean we eat but don't make, lard is gross), one for canned corn, the tiny one for tomato paste and another for a variety of heavy soups (chilli, clam chowder, etc).
I don't think any sort of setup will make food rotation super duper easy and effortless but this is sure going to help. We eat the first can of corn and the newest one goes into the top when purchased. Also the most useful part of this whole process might be that it has really made me think about the canned foods we actually eat on a normal basis. One of these systems will not help rotate a bunch of different cans of all sorts of stuff ("sorry honey I know you wanted Chicken Noodle Soup but Stewed tommatoes were in the front, better luck next time") but will go a long way towards organizing and rotating the stuff you regularly use and thus should stock in quanity. We are going to order another one tomorrow or the next day, I noticed they are on sale for just $25 a piece which is a bargain for sure.
I think this series of products is ideal for smaller families, those who just don't eat that many canned goods or limited space situations. Their huge free standing systems are awesome in their size and capacity but just aren't right for everyone. We will surely have one someday when a couple of hungry kids, a busy schedule (which makes eating a few more can based meals desirable), and a basement make something in their Harvester series an easy choice.
One thing we have done recently is to set a sort of preparedness food budget. Please note that we are only buying food we normally eat and in quantities which are such that rotating them before expiration should not be an issue. One mistake lots of people make (and I have myself) is buying preparedness/ survivalism food which is distinctly different from what they normally eat and thus will actually rotate. [Of course having relatively small quantities of some freeze dried stuff and MRE's for low prep meals is a good plan and if you have the $$$$$ a few cases of mountain house (got to do this at some point) would be great in the basement.]
People say you need to store what you eat and eat what you store. Of course they are right but they often follow that up by giving a list of various stuff you should store. The lists are very comprehensive and tried and true and all of that stuff but that isn't the point. If you don't eat oatmeal but instead eat poptarts (yeah they are expensive and unhealthy but isn't the point of this) for breakfast every morning then store a few cases of poptarts. If you hate tea but love Doctor Pepper then store that. Buckets full of wheat will not do you any good unless you are in the habit of regularly turning that into food which your family then eats. History is full of examples of people starving to death while surrounded by various foods which for whatever reason they were not culturally open to eating.
In the process of moving to a streamlined (normal food and storage/ preps blended seamlessly) situation you will almost inevitably give up some foods (I miss frozen pizzas and microwave burritos) which probably isn't a bad thing anyway, your wallet and waistline will surely thank you. However I suggest you move cautiously and if in any doubt error on the side of what you actually eat. Better to have some slightly more expensive and less long term shelf stable stuff you will eat and know how to prepare than a bunch of stuff which you won't eat and aren't used to preparing.
In any case we decided on $25 a pay period for the goal of stocking up on food a bit faster. We do pretty well already but a certain husband might have been throwing stuff in the cart all the time and really bothering his wife who wanted the groceries to stay under their $50 a week food budget. By codifying the extra amount that will be going in this direction we will do a couple things. First of all this is seperate from a certain wife's food budget which is very important to her. Second of all a certain paranoid husband can pick up some stuff every time they go to the store which makes him happy. Third it will help give us a sort of jump start to getting to a really well stocked pantry. This time I got a bunch of canned goods.
I recall the LDS Preparadness Manual had a pretty good month to month type of list in it somewhere. Got a copy of it for free online (don't remember where but I found it again in 30 seconds on google) and have been meaning to read it. Willtry to at least skim that section in the next two weeks.
In any case I wrote a lot and am ready to be done for the night.
Thoughts?
Sunday, November 29, 2009
quote of the day
"We,again as gunny folk, know that there is no such think as a gun specifically designed to kill cops, for any gun could kill a cop. Hell, a baseball bat could kill a cop if you one hard enough, are we going to start calling them cop killing bats - yeah, didn't think so."
-Conservative Scalawag
-Conservative Scalawag
Money: Talk and Budgeting
One thing that consistently amazes me about this blog is how our collective knowledge far exceeds our individual knowledge multipled by the amount of people involved. It is probably a lot more like individual knowledge squared by the amount of people involved. One person knowing a bit about this part of the problem plus another person knowing a bit about that part of the problem leads to some truly amazing stuff.
I think we do ourselves a great disservice by not talking about money. Not so much on this blog because it is only somewhat in the range of the blogs topics but in our real lives. We will have no problem asking a family member or friend how they fixed that squeeky noise in their door or grow corn or how to draw and fire a pistol faster and more accurately but tend to avoid money like the plague. A friend who knows you steal whole boxes of printer paper from work and helped you bury that homeless guy you killed back in '03 won't know how much you make or what you do with/ to said money. You know he is fooling around with Suzy the waitress at the Bucket of Blood but don't have a clue what he is doing to prepare for retirement. It is sort of rediculous.
Why do we do this to ourselves? First of all talking about money brings up awkward stuff. It brings up the proverbial self worth measuring contest of how much you make and it can be embarrassing for those who make less and awkward for those who make more. It brings up all sorts of classiest crap also and makes us talk/ think about economic/ political values and beliefs.
I am not saying you need to ask a friend exactly what they took home last year or tell them what you did. More that we should benefit from each others knowledge/ experiences and mistakes when it comes to money. To be blunt we all have a pretty darn good idea what people make anyway if we know them halfway well. Your buddy the doctor probably makes a pretty good living and your cousin who is a marginally skilled often unemployed 'jack of all trades' doesn't make very much.
Anyway moving on to my main point.
I find money interesting. It is interesting because it is pure economics. We have infinite desires and finite resources to meet them with. Of course you can work more or invent something or otherwise make more money in the big picture but between now and next pay day you have what is in your accounts right now. This means we all have to make choices and prioritize in some way. We need some sort of shelter, food and fuel to live a decently comfortable existence. We need to have car insurance to legally drive and not get hassled all the time. We need to pay our debts (if applicable) to prevent all sorts of various unpleasant things from happening. After that it is smart to save for the future. Of course getting a couple beers and a burger out now and then is nice.
The main point is that no matter the perceived wisdom or frivolousness of a persons choices at the end of the day if they don't make at least as much as they intend to spend there are going to be problems. You might live in a McMansion and havve two new leased sports cars plus a wicked Keno habor or you might want to save for your kids college and pay off the house fast while buying 1oz of gold every month and go to that whizz bang shooting school and yadda yadda yadda. No matter the prudence or frivalousness of your intentions the income still needs to exceed the outflow.
This would be a great lesson for government at all levels to learn.
Wifey and I finally decided to get onto a real budget to keep our finances in a non messy situation. On the bright side we have been making more than we spend and saving the difference so things could be a whole lot worse. Wifey went to Mint.com and signed us up and we built a budget this afternoon.
I think having connectivity with our accounts is really going to help make a budget into a living thing instead of a piece of paper saying what we should spend on stuff. Also going in and categorizing every transaction will probably really help. Being visual folks seeing where our money is going compared to where we want it to go should really be good. I imagine that for the next couple of months our budget will change some. To a large degree we just wrote down our expenses and quantified what we had been sort of passively trying for up to now so it should be sort of close. However as we balance what we theoretically would like to spend with what we do spend and our desires there will surely be some adjustments.
Lots of smart financial talking head type folks say you should have a budget with every possible expense listed and decide where every nickel you make is going to go. I find this a nice idea but just not realistic. Some expenses are sudden (traffic ticket) or just not entirely 100% predictable (electric bill, gas, etc). I don't feel the need to save on a monthly basis for the few times a year we buy someone a birthday present. Gee I need to save $2.19 a month to buy the nephews toys on their birthdays would just be a pain and coming up with $25 or whatever from time to time isn't going to make or break u. Some folks with lower incomes and less slack might need to plan for a couple months for a birthday and all year for Christmas but others do not.
My goals in budgeting are to increase visibility and cut out a bit of fat. Having almost 100% visibility of where our money really goes is going to help greatly in making decisions thereon. It will let us make smart intentional decisions instead of taking wild guesses. Also seeing how say, a decision to save a full 10% for retirement or whatever is going to affect the big picture will let us (from now on) make fully informed decisions instead of uninformed ones.
As for cutting out some fat I think identifying exactly where a certain % of our income goes will help. Seeing exactly where a problem occurs is generally a prerequisite to addressing it effectively. It is one thing to look at your bank statements and say "We are spending too much and have to cut back" but it is a very different one to see that you are spending twice as much as you planned on eating out or books or whatever the case may be.
I imagine this topic will be revisited in upcoming months.
I think we do ourselves a great disservice by not talking about money. Not so much on this blog because it is only somewhat in the range of the blogs topics but in our real lives. We will have no problem asking a family member or friend how they fixed that squeeky noise in their door or grow corn or how to draw and fire a pistol faster and more accurately but tend to avoid money like the plague. A friend who knows you steal whole boxes of printer paper from work and helped you bury that homeless guy you killed back in '03 won't know how much you make or what you do with/ to said money. You know he is fooling around with Suzy the waitress at the Bucket of Blood but don't have a clue what he is doing to prepare for retirement. It is sort of rediculous.
Why do we do this to ourselves? First of all talking about money brings up awkward stuff. It brings up the proverbial self worth measuring contest of how much you make and it can be embarrassing for those who make less and awkward for those who make more. It brings up all sorts of classiest crap also and makes us talk/ think about economic/ political values and beliefs.
I am not saying you need to ask a friend exactly what they took home last year or tell them what you did. More that we should benefit from each others knowledge/ experiences and mistakes when it comes to money. To be blunt we all have a pretty darn good idea what people make anyway if we know them halfway well. Your buddy the doctor probably makes a pretty good living and your cousin who is a marginally skilled often unemployed 'jack of all trades' doesn't make very much.
Anyway moving on to my main point.
I find money interesting. It is interesting because it is pure economics. We have infinite desires and finite resources to meet them with. Of course you can work more or invent something or otherwise make more money in the big picture but between now and next pay day you have what is in your accounts right now. This means we all have to make choices and prioritize in some way. We need some sort of shelter, food and fuel to live a decently comfortable existence. We need to have car insurance to legally drive and not get hassled all the time. We need to pay our debts (if applicable) to prevent all sorts of various unpleasant things from happening. After that it is smart to save for the future. Of course getting a couple beers and a burger out now and then is nice.
The main point is that no matter the perceived wisdom or frivolousness of a persons choices at the end of the day if they don't make at least as much as they intend to spend there are going to be problems. You might live in a McMansion and havve two new leased sports cars plus a wicked Keno habor or you might want to save for your kids college and pay off the house fast while buying 1oz of gold every month and go to that whizz bang shooting school and yadda yadda yadda. No matter the prudence or frivalousness of your intentions the income still needs to exceed the outflow.
This would be a great lesson for government at all levels to learn.
Wifey and I finally decided to get onto a real budget to keep our finances in a non messy situation. On the bright side we have been making more than we spend and saving the difference so things could be a whole lot worse. Wifey went to Mint.com and signed us up and we built a budget this afternoon.
I think having connectivity with our accounts is really going to help make a budget into a living thing instead of a piece of paper saying what we should spend on stuff. Also going in and categorizing every transaction will probably really help. Being visual folks seeing where our money is going compared to where we want it to go should really be good. I imagine that for the next couple of months our budget will change some. To a large degree we just wrote down our expenses and quantified what we had been sort of passively trying for up to now so it should be sort of close. However as we balance what we theoretically would like to spend with what we do spend and our desires there will surely be some adjustments.
Lots of smart financial talking head type folks say you should have a budget with every possible expense listed and decide where every nickel you make is going to go. I find this a nice idea but just not realistic. Some expenses are sudden (traffic ticket) or just not entirely 100% predictable (electric bill, gas, etc). I don't feel the need to save on a monthly basis for the few times a year we buy someone a birthday present. Gee I need to save $2.19 a month to buy the nephews toys on their birthdays would just be a pain and coming up with $25 or whatever from time to time isn't going to make or break u. Some folks with lower incomes and less slack might need to plan for a couple months for a birthday and all year for Christmas but others do not.
My goals in budgeting are to increase visibility and cut out a bit of fat. Having almost 100% visibility of where our money really goes is going to help greatly in making decisions thereon. It will let us make smart intentional decisions instead of taking wild guesses. Also seeing how say, a decision to save a full 10% for retirement or whatever is going to affect the big picture will let us (from now on) make fully informed decisions instead of uninformed ones.
As for cutting out some fat I think identifying exactly where a certain % of our income goes will help. Seeing exactly where a problem occurs is generally a prerequisite to addressing it effectively. It is one thing to look at your bank statements and say "We are spending too much and have to cut back" but it is a very different one to see that you are spending twice as much as you planned on eating out or books or whatever the case may be.
I imagine this topic will be revisited in upcoming months.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
This Made Wifey Laugh
She isn't really into politics but laughed the whole way through this SNL skit.
What Do You Want For Christmas?
We went Christmas shopping today. Got all sorts of stuff and now that is done. We ended up at a book store and even though you aren't supposed to buy yourself stuff in this season I couldn't resist purchasing End The Fed by Ron Paul.
I got to wondering what people want for Christmas and how much of it is Prep stuff vs various other stuff. So what do you want for Christmas?
Here is my Christmas List:
1. Boot Dryer.
2. Book: The Creature from Jeckyll Island
3. Amazon Gift Card (to buy books or whatever)
4. An emergency candle
5. First aid stuff.
6. A black stocking cap. Just the normal type.
7. A Cleaver.
Most of the stuff I want is prep or vaguely liberty orriented. A boot dryer is number one because I wear boots to work and it is wet here.
I got to wondering what people want for Christmas and how much of it is Prep stuff vs various other stuff. So what do you want for Christmas?
Here is my Christmas List:
1. Boot Dryer.
2. Book: The Creature from Jeckyll Island
3. Amazon Gift Card (to buy books or whatever)
4. An emergency candle
5. First aid stuff.
6. A black stocking cap. Just the normal type.
7. A Cleaver.
Most of the stuff I want is prep or vaguely liberty orriented. A boot dryer is number one because I wear boots to work and it is wet here.
Friday, November 27, 2009
OUR FIRST ADVERTISER!
Today I got an email from Jeff at Direct21. He noticed I linked to his post on the Suspension of Berkley Products to California and was interested in advertising here. We talked a little bit and TSLRF now has an advertiser!
Please check out their Site and their Ebay Store! If you see something you like and decide to buy be sure to mention TSLRF.
Also worth noting is that we now have a donate button located on the right. Not going to pressure anybody or anything like that but if you want to donate that would be great. 100% of the proceeds will go towards preps!
Please check out their Site and their Ebay Store! If you see something you like and decide to buy be sure to mention TSLRF.
Also worth noting is that we now have a donate button located on the right. Not going to pressure anybody or anything like that but if you want to donate that would be great. 100% of the proceeds will go towards preps!
UNICO Wants New MTV Series Killed
The hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos.
This leads me to several thoughts. First of all this show looks funny and if it is on here at a convenient time we will likely watch it. Second of all on the topic of race/ culture I think everyone needs to chill the heck out a little bit. These trashy brazzen kids don't define Italians or residents of NJ any more than Alabama Man defines the South or some fucking 5 dollar coffee drinking birkenstock wearing dope smoking anarco communists long hairs define the PNW. If instead of getting pissed about these steriotypes we would all just have a good chuckle or shake our heads the world would be a better place.
This leads me to several thoughts. First of all this show looks funny and if it is on here at a convenient time we will likely watch it. Second of all on the topic of race/ culture I think everyone needs to chill the heck out a little bit. These trashy brazzen kids don't define Italians or residents of NJ any more than Alabama Man defines the South or some fucking 5 dollar coffee drinking birkenstock wearing dope smoking anarco communists long hairs define the PNW. If instead of getting pissed about these steriotypes we would all just have a good chuckle or shake our heads the world would be a better place.
quote of the day
"Given the current situation, 'tis best to get on with your new life as a criminal. As a warm-up exercise, I'd suggest violation of at least one malum prohibitum law per day -- be it speeding, tax avoidance, unauthorized concealed carry of a deadly weapon, removing the flow restrictions on showerheads and faucets, tossing a rock through an appropriate statist window, or any other of an almost-infinite number of other meaningless rules."
-Western Rifle Shooters Blog
I cannot say I totally agree with this quote in its entirety but it is definitely thought provoking which is why I quoted it. Read the rest of the post it came from here.
-Western Rifle Shooters Blog
I cannot say I totally agree with this quote in its entirety but it is definitely thought provoking which is why I quoted it. Read the rest of the post it came from here.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thanksgiving
Today is Thanksgiving. Y'all are probably about to get on the road to go to Grandma's house or drinking a cup of coffee in a leasurely manner or maybe even still sleeping as I write this. Today has been a pretty chill day for us so far. Woke up late and tossed the bird into the oven. Had some coffee with a bit of Baileys in it this morning which is my own little holiday tradition. Been sitting around watching TV and fiddling on the net while Wifey bastes the bird every half hour.
I have spent some time today thinking about what I am thankful for. I am thankful that I was born to a good (amusingly crazy and a bit drunk) family in the greatest country in the world. My life would be a lot different if I was born in socialist statist Europe, the backwards Islamic fundamentalist oven that is the middle east or the dangerous, AIDS ridden, starving, nepotistic dump that is Africa. I am thankful to have an amazing wife. This year in particular I am thankful to have a good stable job which supports us. I am also thankful that instead of being in some sandy dangerous hell hole I'm sitting in my Man Chair drinking a beer. Lots of folks in my line of work aren't so lucky these days.
Thanksgiving is a pretty awesome day. Giant drumsticks, stuffing and pie are darn hard to beat.
There is however one thing about it that has always bothered me, that awkward hungry time between breakfast and turkey time. You never really want to eat lunch because there is going to be a huge meal but it is always too late to comfortably wait. Most folks do some sort of orderves but they usually come out like a half hour before dinner time. It is just sort of an awkward anticipatory period that I am not a fan of.
AXN is having a bad American 80's TV show marathon today it seems. First it was Knight Rider and then Miami Vice. Maybe it is their normal schedule I duno because I don't generally watch TV all afternoon during the week.
Anyway I don't really have anything productive to say today. Oh yeah on the bright side apparently MIL got us a navigation system for Christmas. It sort of got spoiled because we were going to buy one today and she had been hinting at it then Wifey sort of asked so we didn't duplicate efforts. In any case we are going to eat pretty soon so I am going to wrap this up.
I have spent some time today thinking about what I am thankful for. I am thankful that I was born to a good (amusingly crazy and a bit drunk) family in the greatest country in the world. My life would be a lot different if I was born in socialist statist Europe, the backwards Islamic fundamentalist oven that is the middle east or the dangerous, AIDS ridden, starving, nepotistic dump that is Africa. I am thankful to have an amazing wife. This year in particular I am thankful to have a good stable job which supports us. I am also thankful that instead of being in some sandy dangerous hell hole I'm sitting in my Man Chair drinking a beer. Lots of folks in my line of work aren't so lucky these days.
Thanksgiving is a pretty awesome day. Giant drumsticks, stuffing and pie are darn hard to beat.
There is however one thing about it that has always bothered me, that awkward hungry time between breakfast and turkey time. You never really want to eat lunch because there is going to be a huge meal but it is always too late to comfortably wait. Most folks do some sort of orderves but they usually come out like a half hour before dinner time. It is just sort of an awkward anticipatory period that I am not a fan of.
AXN is having a bad American 80's TV show marathon today it seems. First it was Knight Rider and then Miami Vice. Maybe it is their normal schedule I duno because I don't generally watch TV all afternoon during the week.
Anyway I don't really have anything productive to say today. Oh yeah on the bright side apparently MIL got us a navigation system for Christmas. It sort of got spoiled because we were going to buy one today and she had been hinting at it then Wifey sort of asked so we didn't duplicate efforts. In any case we are going to eat pretty soon so I am going to wrap this up.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Berkley Filters Banned in California
The explanation is here but the bottom line is that you should pick up a couple of spare elements for your water filter ASAP.
Cupnds
Maggy sent me this. Save 15% on your next purchase of a Shelf Reliance purchase. These are the folks who make the Cansolidator and all sorts of other awesome stuff.
Yummy Spanish Rice
Rice is a pretty solid preparadness food. We also like rice because it is really cheap. It doesn't last 12,000 years like wheat does but it is a lot easier to incorporate into your diet with minimal adjustments. That being said plain rice pretty much sucks. We have rice as a major part of dinner once just about every week. The two ways we tend to have it are with Terriaki Chicken and as Spanish rice.
Spanish rice couples well with Tacos or Fajitas or Enchilladas. Those meals tend to be meat and dairy (cheese and sour cream) heavy and thus relatively expensive. Adding Spanish rice as a side dish gives us roughly double the meals for the same amount of expensive stuff and thus greatly drags down the total cost per meal. If you have huge tortillas and are down with the whole mission style thing just put the rice into the burrito. Also it is just frickin good.
I can heat up a nice big plate of the Spanish rice and it is a great meal. The recipe makes a bunch of the stuff. Usually enough for us both to have dinner and about two lunches.
This is the recipe Wifey uses. Also here are her hints:
First of all when you brown the rice in the olive oil it is uncooked ie measure out of bag and pour it strait into the olive oil. This is noted because in just about everything else where you add rice cooking the rice first is an implied task. Secondly when you add the broth to the rice ...it should be hot enough to simmer immediately. Then you put the lid on and DON'T TOUCH IT AGAIN, just let it cook until it is done. When you turn off the heat and let it 'rest' for 5 minutes don't lift the lid. Just let it be.
Spanish rice couples well with Tacos or Fajitas or Enchilladas. Those meals tend to be meat and dairy (cheese and sour cream) heavy and thus relatively expensive. Adding Spanish rice as a side dish gives us roughly double the meals for the same amount of expensive stuff and thus greatly drags down the total cost per meal. If you have huge tortillas and are down with the whole mission style thing just put the rice into the burrito. Also it is just frickin good.
I can heat up a nice big plate of the Spanish rice and it is a great meal. The recipe makes a bunch of the stuff. Usually enough for us both to have dinner and about two lunches.
This is the recipe Wifey uses. Also here are her hints:
First of all when you brown the rice in the olive oil it is uncooked ie measure out of bag and pour it strait into the olive oil. This is noted because in just about everything else where you add rice cooking the rice first is an implied task. Secondly when you add the broth to the rice ...it should be hot enough to simmer immediately. Then you put the lid on and DON'T TOUCH IT AGAIN, just let it cook until it is done. When you turn off the heat and let it 'rest' for 5 minutes don't lift the lid. Just let it be.
Question of the Day
Coming back to the two guns for an unknown scenario post for one final time I have a question.
Do you own the two guns you would take into an unknown scenario?
I don't mean to put people on the spot but I am curious. There are numerous reasons you might not own them with price and your scenario not being unknown (a generally great gun like the AK might not be the best choice for the flat wide open plains or whatever).
To answer the question myself I do own the guns I would want.
I do not however own an Aimpoint optic. Haven't bought one yet because given the political climate of the recent past I have been more worried about acquiring bannables such as semi automatic guns and full capacity magazines. Also as Chris noted the EOTech is pretty cool. I think it has a lot of potential for my use. I have heard very good things about them from people I really respect but haven't been able to use one personally to date. I would like to at least fiddle with one on the top of an AR if not shoot one before putting a bunch of money into an Aimpoint.
Do you own the two guns you would take into an unknown scenario?
I don't mean to put people on the spot but I am curious. There are numerous reasons you might not own them with price and your scenario not being unknown (a generally great gun like the AK might not be the best choice for the flat wide open plains or whatever).
To answer the question myself I do own the guns I would want.
I do not however own an Aimpoint optic. Haven't bought one yet because given the political climate of the recent past I have been more worried about acquiring bannables such as semi automatic guns and full capacity magazines. Also as Chris noted the EOTech is pretty cool. I think it has a lot of potential for my use. I have heard very good things about them from people I really respect but haven't been able to use one personally to date. I would like to at least fiddle with one on the top of an AR if not shoot one before putting a bunch of money into an Aimpoint.
Resturants Brace For Sour Season
As usual when I was reading Survivalblog this morning I saw an interesting piece of news. Restaurants are hurting this season. Guess it doesn't suprise me as lots of people are unemployed. I don't think it is so much that a whole lot of people aren't eating out. Of course folks who got laid off and have no money are likely not dining out but matter of factly most people who were employed before this are still employed now. Still a lot of people are hurting.
I imagine most folks are dining down a notch if you will. Instead of going to that trendy little Italian place they are going to the less trendy chain place like the Olive Garden. Folks who were going to chain place are likely now looking at family dining 8 dollar burger places. The folks who were going there are now probably going to Dennys and those folks are now ordering a #7 at their favorite fast food place.
People are also watching their dollars more closely and going where the deals are.
Anyway I have to get back to work.
I imagine most folks are dining down a notch if you will. Instead of going to that trendy little Italian place they are going to the less trendy chain place like the Olive Garden. Folks who were going to chain place are likely now looking at family dining 8 dollar burger places. The folks who were going there are now probably going to Dennys and those folks are now ordering a #7 at their favorite fast food place.
People are also watching their dollars more closely and going where the deals are.
Anyway I have to get back to work.
quote of the day
" SAVE MOTHERFUCKER!"
-CPL F
I heard his concise, profane, and entirely accurate perspective on financial planning from the other room at work early this morning. I knew immediately it was going to be the quote of the day.
-CPL F
I heard his concise, profane, and entirely accurate perspective on financial planning from the other room at work early this morning. I knew immediately it was going to be the quote of the day.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Knives and Guns
I have been meaning to get back to a couple of posts and it seems like as good a time as any to do it.
From the EDC Knives Post:
I should have known this one would get a bunch of comments. Most folding knives in the general range I am talking about cost between $35 and $100 which is an amount that lends itself toward a lot more experimentation than $500+ for guns. Thanks a ton for the input.
Wrote Spyderco an email today. I have been a long time user of their products buying 4 knives (to the best I can recall) from them over the course of about a decade and it seems a shame to leave that sort of relationship on a sour note. If they will make it right I will give them another shot. Good customer service gets my loyalty and overshadows whatever else happened.
Also noted that they switched their clip design away from that crappy rivet thing in favor of multiple bolts going into steel holes.
I am pondering the purchase of a Cold Steel knife. I own one of their amazing though expensive Kukri's and few of their other random fixed blade knives hanging around and have never had a bad experience with them. A large tanto point Voyager with the 50/50 blade might just be the ticket.
On the Two Guns for an Unknown Scenario post:
First of all I should have titled it two guns not rifle and pistol as that was sort of an assumption everyone would choose a rifle and a pistol as I did. Most everyone chose a rifle and a pistol for some very good reasons but a few folks went in other directions. Also most folks picked mag fed auto loaders for both rifle and pistol but a few folks went in other directions.
As Anon 4:39 said more or less I didn't ask you to criticise my choices and I am not going to criticize any of yours. For the vast majority I nodded my head in a maybe not my choice but I can totally see the thinking behind it sort of way.
Thanks a lot for participating in this and making it fun instead of getting into some tired dogmatic arguments.
From the EDC Knives Post:
I should have known this one would get a bunch of comments. Most folding knives in the general range I am talking about cost between $35 and $100 which is an amount that lends itself toward a lot more experimentation than $500+ for guns. Thanks a ton for the input.
Wrote Spyderco an email today. I have been a long time user of their products buying 4 knives (to the best I can recall) from them over the course of about a decade and it seems a shame to leave that sort of relationship on a sour note. If they will make it right I will give them another shot. Good customer service gets my loyalty and overshadows whatever else happened.
Also noted that they switched their clip design away from that crappy rivet thing in favor of multiple bolts going into steel holes.
I am pondering the purchase of a Cold Steel knife. I own one of their amazing though expensive Kukri's and few of their other random fixed blade knives hanging around and have never had a bad experience with them. A large tanto point Voyager with the 50/50 blade might just be the ticket.
On the Two Guns for an Unknown Scenario post:
First of all I should have titled it two guns not rifle and pistol as that was sort of an assumption everyone would choose a rifle and a pistol as I did. Most everyone chose a rifle and a pistol for some very good reasons but a few folks went in other directions. Also most folks picked mag fed auto loaders for both rifle and pistol but a few folks went in other directions.
As Anon 4:39 said more or less I didn't ask you to criticise my choices and I am not going to criticize any of yours. For the vast majority I nodded my head in a maybe not my choice but I can totally see the thinking behind it sort of way.
Thanks a lot for participating in this and making it fun instead of getting into some tired dogmatic arguments.
quote of the day
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors"-Plato
I think this one pretty much speaks for itself. The people who vote for Pamela Anderson or Chuck Norris or someone on the ballot who might as well be one of them albeit without total badass awesomeness or huge fake boobs and a dozen sex tapes should mull this quote over.
Interesting Stuff
Check out this stuff from Shelf Reliance at Costco
I wouldn't know, since I don't get out too much, but is this an early example of the "normal" world and the "prepper" world coming together?
Humongous sent me this.
I wouldn't know, since I don't get out too much, but is this an early example of the "normal" world and the "prepper" world coming together?
Humongous sent me this.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Initiation of Force
Some political parties and groups say that America should never initiate force. I personally believe they are well intentioned but none the less significantly misguided. Here is why I believe that.
The idea comes from two main places. First some various political/ philosophical theories about natural rights and such and secondly that your momma might have told you that you should never hit someone first but can hit them back if you must. While nice ideas and not bad for little kids they certainly don't measure up in the real adult world.
I don't remember my Mother ever telling me that. I do remember my Dad telling me when I was little that sometimes you have to fight to stand up for yourself. Even if someone else is bigger and stronger and a bully if they know you will fight if they mess with you they will almost always go pick on someone who will not fight. Experience and observation have shown this to be true. Somewhere around the double digits Dad and I had a conversation about actually fighting (not little kid playground shit) which is a subject he was well versed in. He said if you have to fight hit them first and knock the hell out of them.
It has been a long time since that conversation. During that time I have been in enough fights to confirm my Fathers words as truthful. I have gotten into fights at parties and bars and most other places you can get into a fight, winning most, having others which were closer to a draw and occasionally taking a random shot to the dome. Not saying these experiences are something to be proud of but like a lot of growing up they are what they are. While my experiences are by no means exceptional they then again are almost becoming so. So many people are fucking pussies these days. In any case I come from a place where people (particularly younger men) sometimes settle disputes with physical violence. I hope that my children grow up in such a place lest they might become fucking pussies.
The world really is much more polite in places where people realize that if they step too far out of line someone might well smack them in the mouth. People sure think a lot more about what they are going to say and do. The same thing that can be said about an armed society can be said about a society where people are willing to physically fight with each other.
Matter of fact if the two sides are halfway even matched the guy who gets a good first shot and follows up on it (never got the idea of getting a real good punch then letting someone recover and come at you) almost always wins. If a 140 pound guy who has drunk them self strong decides to sucker punch a behemoth or a serious MMA guy they are going to have a bad night. I once saw a behemoth of a fellow take out about 5 of those guys in a row, pulled him off the last one because after the second time he kicked the guy in the face I was a bit concerned he would kill the fool. Never understood the "I am going to get really drunk and hit that huge/tough guy right in the face" train of thought but alas I digress. The point is that the person who gets the first shot usually wins.
In a larger and far more serious context these days (really the last 60 years but increasing with precision guided missiles and bombs and bad assed planes in the last 30-40 years) military engagements are faster and more final than ever before. The Jeffersonian era where a country could just hang out (aided by relatively weak neighbors, wild indians and an ocean then later weak neighbors and two oceans) and have a tiny army then get word something is going to happen and then have at least a year to call up, train and equip a huge force are over. [Also not to stomp too much on the "we could just defend our country with a militia of riflemen" myth (really another post for another day) but it is also a lot more technological and complicated now than training men to load muskets on command and walk in tight lines.] Mechanized warfare put that era to bed and modern air power put it entirely to sleep. Both of the Arab Israeli wars illustrate what can be done with a devastating first strike. Numerous other examples apply.
Matter of factly the "don't hit them unless they hit you" rule is best left to elementary school children on the play ground. Adults need to be brutally realistic about things and when it is time to fight (without getting into details social groupings and countries both have somewhat clear lines here) it is stupid to intentionally let the other guy take the first shot and is almost a sure way to get your ass beat. Take the first shot yourself and capitalize on the advantage to decisively finish the fight.
The idea comes from two main places. First some various political/ philosophical theories about natural rights and such and secondly that your momma might have told you that you should never hit someone first but can hit them back if you must. While nice ideas and not bad for little kids they certainly don't measure up in the real adult world.
I don't remember my Mother ever telling me that. I do remember my Dad telling me when I was little that sometimes you have to fight to stand up for yourself. Even if someone else is bigger and stronger and a bully if they know you will fight if they mess with you they will almost always go pick on someone who will not fight. Experience and observation have shown this to be true. Somewhere around the double digits Dad and I had a conversation about actually fighting (not little kid playground shit) which is a subject he was well versed in. He said if you have to fight hit them first and knock the hell out of them.
It has been a long time since that conversation. During that time I have been in enough fights to confirm my Fathers words as truthful. I have gotten into fights at parties and bars and most other places you can get into a fight, winning most, having others which were closer to a draw and occasionally taking a random shot to the dome. Not saying these experiences are something to be proud of but like a lot of growing up they are what they are. While my experiences are by no means exceptional they then again are almost becoming so. So many people are fucking pussies these days. In any case I come from a place where people (particularly younger men) sometimes settle disputes with physical violence. I hope that my children grow up in such a place lest they might become fucking pussies.
The world really is much more polite in places where people realize that if they step too far out of line someone might well smack them in the mouth. People sure think a lot more about what they are going to say and do. The same thing that can be said about an armed society can be said about a society where people are willing to physically fight with each other.
Matter of fact if the two sides are halfway even matched the guy who gets a good first shot and follows up on it (never got the idea of getting a real good punch then letting someone recover and come at you) almost always wins. If a 140 pound guy who has drunk them self strong decides to sucker punch a behemoth or a serious MMA guy they are going to have a bad night. I once saw a behemoth of a fellow take out about 5 of those guys in a row, pulled him off the last one because after the second time he kicked the guy in the face I was a bit concerned he would kill the fool. Never understood the "I am going to get really drunk and hit that huge/tough guy right in the face" train of thought but alas I digress. The point is that the person who gets the first shot usually wins.
In a larger and far more serious context these days (really the last 60 years but increasing with precision guided missiles and bombs and bad assed planes in the last 30-40 years) military engagements are faster and more final than ever before. The Jeffersonian era where a country could just hang out (aided by relatively weak neighbors, wild indians and an ocean then later weak neighbors and two oceans) and have a tiny army then get word something is going to happen and then have at least a year to call up, train and equip a huge force are over. [Also not to stomp too much on the "we could just defend our country with a militia of riflemen" myth (really another post for another day) but it is also a lot more technological and complicated now than training men to load muskets on command and walk in tight lines.] Mechanized warfare put that era to bed and modern air power put it entirely to sleep. Both of the Arab Israeli wars illustrate what can be done with a devastating first strike. Numerous other examples apply.
Matter of factly the "don't hit them unless they hit you" rule is best left to elementary school children on the play ground. Adults need to be brutally realistic about things and when it is time to fight (without getting into details social groupings and countries both have somewhat clear lines here) it is stupid to intentionally let the other guy take the first shot and is almost a sure way to get your ass beat. Take the first shot yourself and capitalize on the advantage to decisively finish the fight.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
quote of the day
The Future of Conservative Parties in the US
I remember much discussion about this on Conservative Talk Radio (Rush and Hannity mostly) at one time and have been meaning to talk about it. I say Conservative as opposed to Republican because by and large the issues and positions are not that different at least from the observation angle of this discussion. A recent conversation on facebook got me thinking about it again. So here we go.
First I think it is essential to take a real look at how American politics work. Not even talking about our two party system but the essence of winning elections and thus power. Unlike a Parlimentary System there is no benefit to winning 49% if someone else gets 51%. The folks who get 51% have all the power and the ones who got 49% get to take it like a champ for a few years. In this respect I like Parlimentary systems better because people can come out and say what they really mean. Look at the English Parliment, they have a few nazis, a few commies and probably somewhere in the back a gay midget who ran on a pro drunken driving platform. Yeah they have that whole Coalition boondogle but we are getting too far from the main point anyway. Comparing and contrasting our system with a parlimentary system isn't my objective. The point of this paragraph is again that those who get the majority win totally and those who (even by a tiny margin) come in second get nothing.
Think about this for a second. To win a party needs to grab a significant amount of "the center" (in the analogy where some folks are left/ liberal and some are right/ conservative and the middle are centrists with roughly equal amounts in each group) in order to win that essential majority and have power. By definition having a highly conservative fringe agenda is not going to lead to serious political power. It might work for an elected official here (Ron Paul) or there (Nancy Pelosi) but to win real broad power parties need to be able to appeal to a broad range of beliefs. Of course within a party there can be some serious extremists but as long as they can win their district/ state they can contribute to their party and of course their own agenda.
The tent analogy is one that keeps coming up. People talk about a "Big Tent" as a party that is willing to accept almost anyone who is willing to show up. The talking heads say that Conservatives need to stick to their core beliefs and "get back to what the party is all about" often throwing in Regan's name somewhere. I think something of a middle approach is best.
First of all in any party all the elected officials are not going to perfectly tow the party line. To be honest people who perfectly and mindlessly chant the party themes sort of scare me. A Democrat from ND or MT probably has little in common with one from MA or CA. If all the reps can't get entirely on the same page there is no way all the voters possibly could or even should. People come to parties as elected officials or voters for many different reasons. If the Republicans reject people who do not completely believe in every party position they are going to have an empty tent and not a lot of seats in congress. Conversely if they accept everyone regardless of all of their beliefs they will not have a cohesive party which is capable of coming together to push through or block various legislation. Recently we have seen how essential it is in a fairly balanced legislature how it is essential both to be able to pull your party together for essential legislation and to be able to prevent the other side from picking off a couple key votes.
I sort of look at it like friends (talking more about attitudes and behaviors than politics but you will see where I am going), if I only was friends with people who absolutely agreed with me on everything I would be a very lonely guy hanging out all alone in my tent. Conversely of I surrounded myself with anyone who wanted to hang out in my tent there would be a bunch of assholes who I have nothing in common with in my tent. Some of us would want to go shooting, some would want to sit around and play cards, a couple others would be getting down in a sleeping bag in the corner and some stoned asshole would be eating all the hotdogs. My tent would be full of people but we couldn't do anything cohesive plus also my tent would smell of sex and we would be out of hotdogs.
While my friends don't necessarily believe or act exactly like I do in everything but they tend to generally agree with me on most things. Not all of us even eat breakfast let alone the same thing. Maybe one friend will skip the shooting because they want to take a nap and another friend will want to go for a walk alone later but we will all get together after dinner (which we can have because some stoner didn't eat all of the hot dogs) and have a few drinks (an average with one person having one and one picking up their slack) while listening to some country or classic rock on the radio and talking in a loud manner about how we can easily fix all the country's problems well into the night. And best of all in this scenario my tent doesn't smell of random sex and nobody ate all the hotdogs.
Expecting a party which will perfectly stick to the tenants absolutely is not realistic and at best would be a very small party but then again a party that believes in nothing will not get anything done. Getting a party where most people stick for the most part to the core beliefs is probably realistic and the best course of action.
To a lesser degree I think this applies to the libertarians also. While much can be done by spreading the word about your party and trying to get people to see that they actually fit there at the end of the day without being able to get a significant amount of whatever given population we are talking about a party cannot be effective.
Thoughts?
First I think it is essential to take a real look at how American politics work. Not even talking about our two party system but the essence of winning elections and thus power. Unlike a Parlimentary System there is no benefit to winning 49% if someone else gets 51%. The folks who get 51% have all the power and the ones who got 49% get to take it like a champ for a few years. In this respect I like Parlimentary systems better because people can come out and say what they really mean. Look at the English Parliment, they have a few nazis, a few commies and probably somewhere in the back a gay midget who ran on a pro drunken driving platform. Yeah they have that whole Coalition boondogle but we are getting too far from the main point anyway. Comparing and contrasting our system with a parlimentary system isn't my objective. The point of this paragraph is again that those who get the majority win totally and those who (even by a tiny margin) come in second get nothing.
Think about this for a second. To win a party needs to grab a significant amount of "the center" (in the analogy where some folks are left/ liberal and some are right/ conservative and the middle are centrists with roughly equal amounts in each group) in order to win that essential majority and have power. By definition having a highly conservative fringe agenda is not going to lead to serious political power. It might work for an elected official here (Ron Paul) or there (Nancy Pelosi) but to win real broad power parties need to be able to appeal to a broad range of beliefs. Of course within a party there can be some serious extremists but as long as they can win their district/ state they can contribute to their party and of course their own agenda.
The tent analogy is one that keeps coming up. People talk about a "Big Tent" as a party that is willing to accept almost anyone who is willing to show up. The talking heads say that Conservatives need to stick to their core beliefs and "get back to what the party is all about" often throwing in Regan's name somewhere. I think something of a middle approach is best.
First of all in any party all the elected officials are not going to perfectly tow the party line. To be honest people who perfectly and mindlessly chant the party themes sort of scare me. A Democrat from ND or MT probably has little in common with one from MA or CA. If all the reps can't get entirely on the same page there is no way all the voters possibly could or even should. People come to parties as elected officials or voters for many different reasons. If the Republicans reject people who do not completely believe in every party position they are going to have an empty tent and not a lot of seats in congress. Conversely if they accept everyone regardless of all of their beliefs they will not have a cohesive party which is capable of coming together to push through or block various legislation. Recently we have seen how essential it is in a fairly balanced legislature how it is essential both to be able to pull your party together for essential legislation and to be able to prevent the other side from picking off a couple key votes.
I sort of look at it like friends (talking more about attitudes and behaviors than politics but you will see where I am going), if I only was friends with people who absolutely agreed with me on everything I would be a very lonely guy hanging out all alone in my tent. Conversely of I surrounded myself with anyone who wanted to hang out in my tent there would be a bunch of assholes who I have nothing in common with in my tent. Some of us would want to go shooting, some would want to sit around and play cards, a couple others would be getting down in a sleeping bag in the corner and some stoned asshole would be eating all the hotdogs. My tent would be full of people but we couldn't do anything cohesive plus also my tent would smell of sex and we would be out of hotdogs.
While my friends don't necessarily believe or act exactly like I do in everything but they tend to generally agree with me on most things. Not all of us even eat breakfast let alone the same thing. Maybe one friend will skip the shooting because they want to take a nap and another friend will want to go for a walk alone later but we will all get together after dinner (which we can have because some stoner didn't eat all of the hot dogs) and have a few drinks (an average with one person having one and one picking up their slack) while listening to some country or classic rock on the radio and talking in a loud manner about how we can easily fix all the country's problems well into the night. And best of all in this scenario my tent doesn't smell of random sex and nobody ate all the hotdogs.
Expecting a party which will perfectly stick to the tenants absolutely is not realistic and at best would be a very small party but then again a party that believes in nothing will not get anything done. Getting a party where most people stick for the most part to the core beliefs is probably realistic and the best course of action.
To a lesser degree I think this applies to the libertarians also. While much can be done by spreading the word about your party and trying to get people to see that they actually fit there at the end of the day without being able to get a significant amount of whatever given population we are talking about a party cannot be effective.
Thoughts?
Blog Matters Update
I have been getting a lot of spam lately in the comments. It doesn't take a ton of time to click reject but it sort of bums me out when it says I have 6 comments and 3 are spam. I am not talking about the Chinese (I think?) comments. They are almost surely adds for getting perscription meds or about how to make that certain part of the male anatomy bigger but they sort of amuse me so they will get approved. Because of this I enabled the dreaded CAPTCHA feature so you have to read some weird letters and type in what they say before being able to publish a comment. I imagine that will deal with this problem and it was the best way I could do so while still allowing anonymous comments.
On a slightly related note I would appreciate if everyone who reads and comments (even from time to time) would come up with some sort of a name to go by. It could be your actual name or your porn name or the name of your favorite rifle and your state or whatever sort of psuedonym you desire. It is just cool to see who comments on what and what they thing about a variety of posts/ issues over time (my memory is pretty good) instead of anonymous thinks this and anonymous thinks that.
Have a good Sunday. Off to help Wifey make a pecan pie.
On a slightly related note I would appreciate if everyone who reads and comments (even from time to time) would come up with some sort of a name to go by. It could be your actual name or your porn name or the name of your favorite rifle and your state or whatever sort of psuedonym you desire. It is just cool to see who comments on what and what they thing about a variety of posts/ issues over time (my memory is pretty good) instead of anonymous thinks this and anonymous thinks that.
Have a good Sunday. Off to help Wifey make a pecan pie.
Home Made Belt Fed Shotgun
EMBED-Home-Made Belt-Fed Shotgun - Watch more free videos
One of these would be pretty useful for protecting a choke point or a final protective line. Hat tip to Maggy for sending it to me.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Essentials if a Garand is your Go Gun
I own and love the M1 Garand. If you rely on one of them for your rifle defense needs I would strongly suggest picking up a buttstock pouch and one of these grab and go pouches. Though the Garand isn't my number one rifle I will have to think about getting a set myself.
Go South Carolina
They are offering a Tax Holiday for guns!
Also they have some really good chow and Charleston both of which are spifferific.
Also they have some really good chow and Charleston both of which are spifferific.
Plan For Your Pets Too
It was a pretty busy day today. Went to do some shopping and had a reasonable if not complete success. Now we are watching a show on National Geographic about some folks who came to NO after Katrina to rescue animals that had been left behind. They found all sorts of animals and one particular dog which got rescued from on top of a roof drank 3 gallons of water without stopping. The poor thing looks like a walking skeleton. It was one of dozens of examples just on this show.
The lady on the TV first said that she believes people should never evacuate without their animals. Secondly she said the government should never force people to leave their animals behind.
I think a long complicated discussion could be had about the government (really at all levels and in all agencies involved) did wrong during Katrina. However that isn't so much my point in this post.
My point is that you need to plan for your pets too. Plan to feed them and take care of their basic needs. Plan to take them with you.
Whatever government agency comes to save the helpless and the foolish can make whatever rules they want about under what conditions they will help you. Sometimes they might even compel you to evacuate with force.Then you are defenseless in the fucking Superdome. I am a tough well trained guy but against 4 or 5 thugs without a piece or a machete I am going to loose.
If you evacuate yourself you can do it under whatever circumstances you are capable of. I personally would like to with my wife and our poorly behaved fat disrespectful cats and the means to protect my wife and the previously mentioned fat disrespectful cats. I would also bring enough food and water to sustain us for awhile, some form of shelter and cash to keep us going wherever we end up.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
The lady on the TV first said that she believes people should never evacuate without their animals. Secondly she said the government should never force people to leave their animals behind.
I think a long complicated discussion could be had about the government (really at all levels and in all agencies involved) did wrong during Katrina. However that isn't so much my point in this post.
My point is that you need to plan for your pets too. Plan to feed them and take care of their basic needs. Plan to take them with you.
Whatever government agency comes to save the helpless and the foolish can make whatever rules they want about under what conditions they will help you. Sometimes they might even compel you to evacuate with force.Then you are defenseless in the fucking Superdome. I am a tough well trained guy but against 4 or 5 thugs without a piece or a machete I am going to loose.
If you evacuate yourself you can do it under whatever circumstances you are capable of. I personally would like to with my wife and our poorly behaved fat disrespectful cats and the means to protect my wife and the previously mentioned fat disrespectful cats. I would also bring enough food and water to sustain us for awhile, some form of shelter and cash to keep us going wherever we end up.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Americans Want Smaller Government
A substantial majority of Americans prefer smaller government to bigger government.
That's the finding of an Associated Press poll conducted between October 29 and November 8, 2009.
The poll asked this question:
"If you had to choose, would you favor a smaller government providing fewer services, or a bigger government providing more services?"
Fully 55% chose a smaller government providing fewer services.
Only 39% favored a bigger government providing more services.
(5% said they didn't know; 1% refused to answer.)
Now if someone will just tell Congress...
TOR adds: I got this from the Liberator Online. They have a newsletter and publish a real gem from time to time.
That's the finding of an Associated Press poll conducted between October 29 and November 8, 2009.The poll asked this question:
"If you had to choose, would you favor a smaller government providing fewer services, or a bigger government providing more services?"
Fully 55% chose a smaller government providing fewer services.
Only 39% favored a bigger government providing more services.
(5% said they didn't know; 1% refused to answer.)
Now if someone will just tell Congress...
TOR adds: I got this from the Liberator Online. They have a newsletter and publish a real gem from time to time.
quote of the day
"Advocates of government control [of health care and insurance] want you to believe that the serious shortcomings of our medical and insurance system are failures of the free market. But that's 
impossible because our market is not free. Each state operates a cozy medical and insurance cartel that restricts competition through licensing and keeps prices higher than they would be in a genuine free market. But the planners won't talk about that. After all, if government is the problem in the first place, how can they justify a government takeover?"
-- libertarian journalist John Stossel,
impossible because our market is not free. Each state operates a cozy medical and insurance cartel that restricts competition through licensing and keeps prices higher than they would be in a genuine free market. But the planners won't talk about that. After all, if government is the problem in the first place, how can they justify a government takeover?"-- libertarian journalist John Stossel,
Saving Money on Stuff
I am cheap, like real cheap. I like to eat out sometimes and spend money on guns/ammo/pm's and of course various preps but other than that am somewhat tight with a buck. Wifey is really tight with a buck. Quite frankly after seeing a friend of mine who always scrimped and saved to save a hundred bucks (or whatever) over a month to see his wife come home with a couple pair of shoes which he had to pay for a marrying woman who was reasonable and of like mind with me on money was essential.
We have been needing to get more and better furniture and such for awhile. Up to last night the contents of our living room cost us precisely 60 dollars. Everything else I got at some point or salvaged from by the dumpster at an old residence. Our place definitely has the look of a college apartment except bigger so it is even more empty.
As we noted previously those bastards at Direct TV stole a bunch of money from us. After numerous phone calls and about 3 months later we got our money back. After some talk about what to do with it we decided to just have it be the start of the furniture fund. Wifey has been checking the local craigs list like sites daily for awhile now and this week we got a couple of winners.
A really nice green oversized (big but not so big your arms can't touch both arm rests) was ours for just a hundred bucks. They bought it last fall for $400 and it has been gently used since. It is very comfortable and really goes a long way to round out our living room. Also it is very comfortable to sit and write in.
Getting a nice wooden end table for $15 was a non decision for us. We have been using this drawer thing but it is way too tall. Now my cup of tea sits on a proper end table at just the right level.
We could have easily spend $550 on these two items like the people we bought them from did. However we took a longer vision and showed patience which saved us a bunch of money.
The living room still needs a love seat and a nice flat screen TV plus eventually a nicer coffee table to tie it together. We have heard here that lots of folks buy the biggest newest TV's as preasants to their spouses for Christmas and sell their (still pretty big and nice) TV's for cheap. If that doesn't pan out we will just buy a new one. Nothing insane for us but a 36-40 inch flat screen would be really nice. Sooner or later a love seat will come along for a steal.
The point of this is that in almost all areas (PM's and land are somewhat exceptions) if you are patient and willing to wait you can get darn good deals on nice stuff.
We have been needing to get more and better furniture and such for awhile. Up to last night the contents of our living room cost us precisely 60 dollars. Everything else I got at some point or salvaged from by the dumpster at an old residence. Our place definitely has the look of a college apartment except bigger so it is even more empty.
As we noted previously those bastards at Direct TV stole a bunch of money from us. After numerous phone calls and about 3 months later we got our money back. After some talk about what to do with it we decided to just have it be the start of the furniture fund. Wifey has been checking the local craigs list like sites daily for awhile now and this week we got a couple of winners.
A really nice green oversized (big but not so big your arms can't touch both arm rests) was ours for just a hundred bucks. They bought it last fall for $400 and it has been gently used since. It is very comfortable and really goes a long way to round out our living room. Also it is very comfortable to sit and write in.
Getting a nice wooden end table for $15 was a non decision for us. We have been using this drawer thing but it is way too tall. Now my cup of tea sits on a proper end table at just the right level.
We could have easily spend $550 on these two items like the people we bought them from did. However we took a longer vision and showed patience which saved us a bunch of money.
The living room still needs a love seat and a nice flat screen TV plus eventually a nicer coffee table to tie it together. We have heard here that lots of folks buy the biggest newest TV's as preasants to their spouses for Christmas and sell their (still pretty big and nice) TV's for cheap. If that doesn't pan out we will just buy a new one. Nothing insane for us but a 36-40 inch flat screen would be really nice. Sooner or later a love seat will come along for a steal.
The point of this is that in almost all areas (PM's and land are somewhat exceptions) if you are patient and willing to wait you can get darn good deals on nice stuff.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Succession and Thoughts Theiron
This one comes up from time to time. The states mentioned are usually the inland west (ID-MT-WY) and Texas and of course the Free State Project in New Hampshire. It is also the plot of at least one book.
I think we have already pretty much settled this one with numerous small rebelions and of course a Civil War. I just don't think it will happen and I am far less optomistic about a successful succession attempt. Matter of factly the US has a very large and advanced military which in almost any scenario (this could be a wild card) would stand fast with the Federal Government.
The North mollywhopped the South because they had more people and the ability to make more stuff. This fundamental situation will always lead to a predictable outcome provided the bigger stronger group does not loose will. Since we are talking about part of the contiguous US it is not very likely that they would loose will.
The theoretical involvement of the National Guard in such an event could go a lot of ways. I just know that today's battlefield is too complex and technologically advanced (talking tanks and air assets, arty more than satellites and computers) for a hearty group of guy with rifles to stand up against conventional forces in battle. Narry but you and your buddies can't take on a Platoon.
This is where someone would inevitably mention guerrilla warfare and how in that context a group of guys with a few rifles and some explosives can in fact cause some havoc. Insurgents are able to function because they are an accepted part of the population and the distinctly different occupiers are not. I find that scenario flawed for this situation. People would have mixed affiliations and the occupiers (for lack of a better word) would look and talk the same. The Patriot vs Loyalist conflicts of the revolutionary war or the Kansas- Missouri Border War would IMO be better examples.
I just don't see it happening.
However I do think that a serious rebalancing of the relationship between state and federal power could be possible. States staying in the union but just deciding to take greater freedoms could happen. Montana and Tennessee doing their own thing with gun laws could well be a start to that trend.
I think we have already pretty much settled this one with numerous small rebelions and of course a Civil War. I just don't think it will happen and I am far less optomistic about a successful succession attempt. Matter of factly the US has a very large and advanced military which in almost any scenario (this could be a wild card) would stand fast with the Federal Government.
The North mollywhopped the South because they had more people and the ability to make more stuff. This fundamental situation will always lead to a predictable outcome provided the bigger stronger group does not loose will. Since we are talking about part of the contiguous US it is not very likely that they would loose will.
The theoretical involvement of the National Guard in such an event could go a lot of ways. I just know that today's battlefield is too complex and technologically advanced (talking tanks and air assets, arty more than satellites and computers) for a hearty group of guy with rifles to stand up against conventional forces in battle. Narry but you and your buddies can't take on a Platoon.
This is where someone would inevitably mention guerrilla warfare and how in that context a group of guys with a few rifles and some explosives can in fact cause some havoc. Insurgents are able to function because they are an accepted part of the population and the distinctly different occupiers are not. I find that scenario flawed for this situation. People would have mixed affiliations and the occupiers (for lack of a better word) would look and talk the same. The Patriot vs Loyalist conflicts of the revolutionary war or the Kansas- Missouri Border War would IMO be better examples.
I just don't see it happening.
However I do think that a serious rebalancing of the relationship between state and federal power could be possible. States staying in the union but just deciding to take greater freedoms could happen. Montana and Tennessee doing their own thing with gun laws could well be a start to that trend.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Lazy Thursday
Would You Store Your PM's for Safekeeping This Way?
Samantha sent this to me:
A story from Yahoo news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_
TOR adds: That is certainly a novel idea and at least in this case it was successful. Broadly speaking I think private storage would be safer than storage (in plain sight or hidden/ obscured) because the less people around the smaller the chances that someone will find and steel your precious. Something like putting it into the bottom of a bag of flour in the back of the pantry or doing something like this is probably advisable.
A story from Yahoo news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_
TOR adds: That is certainly a novel idea and at least in this case it was successful. Broadly speaking I think private storage would be safer than storage (in plain sight or hidden/ obscured) because the less people around the smaller the chances that someone will find and steel your precious. Something like putting it into the bottom of a bag of flour in the back of the pantry or doing something like this is probably advisable.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Your Pistol and Rifle for an Unknown Scenario
I got to thinking about this the other day. What if I could only have two guns to take with me towards an unknown and dangerous situation? It could be in a city or in the wild, mountains or jungle, hot or cold, defensive or a bit more pro active, you don't know.
This is different from the first gun/ rifle and pistol debate for one significant reason, cost isn't an issue. I didn't say what two guns would you take with you that you can afford to buy this week, I asked what two guns you would want.
I would personally take a Glock 9mm (19 or 17 it doesn't really matter) and an M4 with an Aimpoint optic. I would take a Glock pistol because they are utterly reliable and rugged as can be. The M4 is a rifle I am totally familiar with and also one that is very easy to use well between point blank and 300 meters and I imagine could give a decent accounting out another hundred or so.
What would you take with you?
This is different from the first gun/ rifle and pistol debate for one significant reason, cost isn't an issue. I didn't say what two guns would you take with you that you can afford to buy this week, I asked what two guns you would want.
I would personally take a Glock 9mm (19 or 17 it doesn't really matter) and an M4 with an Aimpoint optic. I would take a Glock pistol because they are utterly reliable and rugged as can be. The M4 is a rifle I am totally familiar with and also one that is very easy to use well between point blank and 300 meters and I imagine could give a decent accounting out another hundred or so.
What would you take with you?
How To: Survive in a Redneck Bar
I saw this link and it sort of amused me in a tounge and cheek way. This is not for the prudish. I didn't see anything NSFW on this page but if you cruize the site you will probably find something which is.
Probably enough to keep you amused for part of a coffee break.
Probably enough to keep you amused for part of a coffee break.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Welcome to the Post 1950's World
Today Wifey was offered and accepted a job! She has been going stir crazy here, moreso than in Georgia because the TV is crappy and with the 9 hour time difference it is harder to communicate regularly with folks back home. We don't have any kids and while my schedule is more regular now I still work long days so there is a lot of time to just sit around with the cats watching bad TV and generally being bored.
She won't start for a couple weeks and hours haven't been guaranteed but that doesn't totally matter anyway as any progress is good progress. They said if you want to and can work different shifts you can get 40 hours or so. Also she has a couple of lines on better paying more full timeish jobs anyway which would be ideal.
This is a very good thing.
On the downside it means she will not be a full time domestic engineer which I have really enjoyed. Just having my work be at work and hers at home has worked well in a sorta 50's style. Our division of labor is going to have to shift significantly for the first time in our marriage. In that narrow sense it sort of sucks but probably isn't a bad thing. I lived fully independently for a few years and was 95% fully independent before that but have been forgetting (she thinks it might be intentional) how to do all sorts of basic household things. It will be a shock to the system for awhile but shouldn't be too bad in the long term.
Being more involved in the cooking will give me the opportunity to do some interesting food storage/ staple experimenting which will be nice. We intend to stick with (even though it isn't real convenient) eating real staple foods. Between really long cooking meals (crock pot) and quick meat and taters/ veggies stuff we should do OK there.
Additional income will likely be split between paying off debt and acquiring stuff we can really use like a second and more importantly semi newish reliable car. Of course at least 10% will be saved for the long term.
The big trap for us to not fall into is depending on a second income. First of all we at least want the option for her to stay at home with young kids so we must be capable of being a single income household when that time comes. Secondly I firmly believe that military families need to be able to live on the SM's income comfortably and depending on a second income is a recipe for disaster. Even if the spouse has a really portable skill like nursing there is always a real chance of being stationed somewhere (like Antarctica) where they just can't find a job. We are going to avoid this trap by not letting our regular expenses (and particularly debts) expand with the income growth.
Anyway my wife got a job in a place where jobs are very hard to get so kudos to her for being awesome.
That is all
She won't start for a couple weeks and hours haven't been guaranteed but that doesn't totally matter anyway as any progress is good progress. They said if you want to and can work different shifts you can get 40 hours or so. Also she has a couple of lines on better paying more full timeish jobs anyway which would be ideal.
This is a very good thing.
On the downside it means she will not be a full time domestic engineer which I have really enjoyed. Just having my work be at work and hers at home has worked well in a sorta 50's style. Our division of labor is going to have to shift significantly for the first time in our marriage. In that narrow sense it sort of sucks but probably isn't a bad thing. I lived fully independently for a few years and was 95% fully independent before that but have been forgetting (she thinks it might be intentional) how to do all sorts of basic household things. It will be a shock to the system for awhile but shouldn't be too bad in the long term.
Being more involved in the cooking will give me the opportunity to do some interesting food storage/ staple experimenting which will be nice. We intend to stick with (even though it isn't real convenient) eating real staple foods. Between really long cooking meals (crock pot) and quick meat and taters/ veggies stuff we should do OK there.
Additional income will likely be split between paying off debt and acquiring stuff we can really use like a second and more importantly semi newish reliable car. Of course at least 10% will be saved for the long term.
The big trap for us to not fall into is depending on a second income. First of all we at least want the option for her to stay at home with young kids so we must be capable of being a single income household when that time comes. Secondly I firmly believe that military families need to be able to live on the SM's income comfortably and depending on a second income is a recipe for disaster. Even if the spouse has a really portable skill like nursing there is always a real chance of being stationed somewhere (like Antarctica) where they just can't find a job. We are going to avoid this trap by not letting our regular expenses (and particularly debts) expand with the income growth.
Anyway my wife got a job in a place where jobs are very hard to get so kudos to her for being awesome.
That is all
Monday, November 16, 2009
EDC Knives
I have carried a Spyderco Endura pretty much every day for about 5 years now. Carried the first (better) fully serated one for a really long time. Eventually the plastic around the clip wore out and it was no longer secure in my pocket. Still got it somewhere and it will cut fine but doesn't fill the pocket knife role. I then switched to a partially serated one which I had purchased as part of a long story I won't get into. That was about 5 months ago.
Today my knife was in a screwy position in my pocket so I took it out and looked at it. The darn plastic where the clip attaches to the handle is shot. With the first one I wasn't too bummed because it lasted for about 5 years and 10 bucks a year is not a bad average to have a real cutting machine in your pocket. The second one isn't even broken in yet and it is not useful for pocket carry. Of course it is still a good blade and in a pouch I could find some sort of a use for it. I treated them both the same (carry in pocket and use to cut stuff) and one lasted far longer than the other. Maybe the first one was lucky or maybe the second one was just lame but I am not going to buy another to find out.
So that leaves me without a dedicated folding knife to live in my pocket. I tried the Buck 110 (great knives!) for awhile but carrying it didn't give me a warm and fuzzy. I am just an easy open folder with a clip sort of guy. Not however planning on getting another one with a plastic handle as they get weak around the clip which gives me a big sad face. The good news is that my personal money has just been accumulating for awhile now so buying a new folder is more a matter of choosing and picking up or ordering than cost.
I am looking for a good easy open type folder with a metal handle and a clip. Not enormously concerned about cost but unless it is also a gun and a universal remote I wouldn't want to spend more than $100 or so. Any suggestions?
I am going to look at knives online till dinner time which judging by the good smells coming from the kitchen is about 5 minutes.
Today my knife was in a screwy position in my pocket so I took it out and looked at it. The darn plastic where the clip attaches to the handle is shot. With the first one I wasn't too bummed because it lasted for about 5 years and 10 bucks a year is not a bad average to have a real cutting machine in your pocket. The second one isn't even broken in yet and it is not useful for pocket carry. Of course it is still a good blade and in a pouch I could find some sort of a use for it. I treated them both the same (carry in pocket and use to cut stuff) and one lasted far longer than the other. Maybe the first one was lucky or maybe the second one was just lame but I am not going to buy another to find out.
So that leaves me without a dedicated folding knife to live in my pocket. I tried the Buck 110 (great knives!) for awhile but carrying it didn't give me a warm and fuzzy. I am just an easy open folder with a clip sort of guy. Not however planning on getting another one with a plastic handle as they get weak around the clip which gives me a big sad face. The good news is that my personal money has just been accumulating for awhile now so buying a new folder is more a matter of choosing and picking up or ordering than cost.
I am looking for a good easy open type folder with a metal handle and a clip. Not enormously concerned about cost but unless it is also a gun and a universal remote I wouldn't want to spend more than $100 or so. Any suggestions?
I am going to look at knives online till dinner time which judging by the good smells coming from the kitchen is about 5 minutes.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Financial Mess
Our finances have become a complete and total mess. The only good part about it is that it isn't the classic all of a sudden you realize your flat broke after a card gets rejected at the store scenario. We are doing OK at the income vs outflow thing but that is the only part that is going well. We didn't have a clue what was where and money for different purposes was muttled together and things were a complete mess.
We have 5 accounts at 3 different banks and squirrel away fixed amounts for various things plus also a wad of cash for this and a wad for that, etc. Between saving cash from every paycheck, metals purchases, personal money and a few bucks from the blog here and there it has gotten completely confusing and impossible to keep track of mentally.
To fix things we first got the personal money we owed ourselves out of checking. Having money in accounts which is allocated for various things has been a real issue since either you forget about it or more dangerously get an inflated vision of what you have in said account. If you look at the balance in checking and it is $2,400 that is good unless you have $1,000 allocated for various things and thus not available to pay bills or whatever.
Things are mostly fixed now though a couple more transactions need to be made to get the right money into the right places. For money allocated for various purposes we are going to use an envelope system which has worked well for me in various prep stuff. Also the main thing we have done is to create a money notebook to keep track of transfers and allocations with date, amount and description. Being able to look at stuff online is priceless but knowing that you transfered $250 on the 12th of last month is less useful that knowing you transfered $250 on the 12th to save up for your next trip or buy metals or whatever. If we transfer money or have money in an account for a certain purpose we will write it down.
It took about an hour of looking at accounts and figuring stuff out but we are a long way toward getting it fixed and hopefully this new system will keep it fixed.
We have 5 accounts at 3 different banks and squirrel away fixed amounts for various things plus also a wad of cash for this and a wad for that, etc. Between saving cash from every paycheck, metals purchases, personal money and a few bucks from the blog here and there it has gotten completely confusing and impossible to keep track of mentally.
To fix things we first got the personal money we owed ourselves out of checking. Having money in accounts which is allocated for various things has been a real issue since either you forget about it or more dangerously get an inflated vision of what you have in said account. If you look at the balance in checking and it is $2,400 that is good unless you have $1,000 allocated for various things and thus not available to pay bills or whatever.
Things are mostly fixed now though a couple more transactions need to be made to get the right money into the right places. For money allocated for various purposes we are going to use an envelope system which has worked well for me in various prep stuff. Also the main thing we have done is to create a money notebook to keep track of transfers and allocations with date, amount and description. Being able to look at stuff online is priceless but knowing that you transfered $250 on the 12th of last month is less useful that knowing you transfered $250 on the 12th to save up for your next trip or buy metals or whatever. If we transfer money or have money in an account for a certain purpose we will write it down.
It took about an hour of looking at accounts and figuring stuff out but we are a long way toward getting it fixed and hopefully this new system will keep it fixed.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Just Saying
The Hefeweizen in America sucks. I tried all the readily available ones and they pretty much sucked. Basically wrote off that category of beers. Tried the hefeweizen here just because and it is amazing. First of all they call it Weissbier and second of all it tastes like the most amazing thing ever. Seriously it is like heaven and will get you drunk. If you are here and you buy a beer that ends in weizen you are almost sure to be a happy camper. I am going to have to learn to brew the stuff because as far as I know a decent equivalent isn't available CONUS.
Money, Characterization and Classification
SGT. Jarhead wrote a good post today. It also at least roughly meshes with something I wanted to talk about anyway. First of all here is an of old post of mine to review (1) to get to the same page I am at now. Also since I couldn't find another post I wrote a few more of my thoughts need to get covered.
The term "middle class" is a loaded and almost meaningless phrase. Darn near everyone thinks they fall into it and often people have social/ cultural beliefs and attachments theiron. Look at it like this, I know multiple families barely scraping by living in a ratted out single wide trailer on a little piece of land who would honestly say they are middle class. At the other end I know a few very professional people who pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year who would also say they are middle class. It is cool and acceptable to be part of the middle class so anyone who is anywhere near its theoretical lines identifies there.
Also people talk about how the middle class drives everything and makes our economy go around are sort of missing the point. Some vision of a bunch of guys making 30k a year (I know that is a bit below the average but just go with me) all creating business for each other and making everything work is though appealing to some groups ridiculously flawed. Not to say that some guy with a decent stable job and a nice little house isn't wonderful but he doesn't stimulate the local economy in a significant way. He pays the bills and maybe saves a bit and goes on a little vacation now and then but since most of his income is going to meet the basics he doesn't have much in the way of discretionary spending and certainly can't employ anyone.
Real quick lets look at how three different people in 3 approximate income ranges deal with different situations. Joe makes about 30k a year at his stable job and has a nice little house on the outskirts of town. Tom is an accountant who makes about 200k a year working for (among other clients) Bill who owns a chain of businesses from which he brings home 6 million a year on average.
Each of these men want to put a deck on the back of their house:
Joe find a way to get his hands on some lumber on the cheap. He buys some cement and screws and press gangs his friends with the reminder of how he helped them with their various projects and the mention of brats and beer. Joe gets his deck built over a long weekend for about $1,200.
Tom calls Tim his cousin who does construction work and is currently not working much. He tells Tim what he wants and has Tim draw up some sketches and work up an estimate. Since Tom wants it done in time for his annual gathering Tim hires his friend Bob to help and the neighbor kid Jimmy to cut boards and carry stuff.
Bill calls a local designer Sue who works up some drawings he and his wife really like. Sue then gets in touch with Ron who comes out with his crew of 5 guys (its getting hard to keep track of names and it doesn't matter any way) to build the deck. Somewhere along the line Bill decides they might as well put in a gas BBQ and a hot tub.
So to do more or less the same thing (albeit on a different scale) Joe did not stimulate his community in a significant way. Some guy got a few hundred bucks for lumber and another couple hundred on cement and hardware then about a hundred bucks for beer, food and chips to bribe his labor. Tom put some money into the local hardware and lumber place and also employed 3 people for part of the week. Bill probably had a dozen people work on his project and did business with at least 4 different companies.
They all want to go hunting for bear:
Joe buys a box of 180gr JSP ammo for his old 30-30 and a bear tag. On the Saturday he goes hunting he wakes up really early and drives up to the mountains buying a tank of gas, some coffee and a plate of biscuits and gravy in a little town along the way. He shoots a bear, guts it, quarters it and hauls it to the truck. At home him and a friend cut it up, wrap it and put it in their freezers.
Tom decided maybe he can use a new gun to go bear hunting. He settles on a nice Marlin 45/70 and picks up a few accessories and several boxes of ammo to zero and practice with it. Since he wants to get a nice early start he spends Friday night at a little lodge up in the mountains so he can start early. He shoots a bear, guts and quarters it then takes it to Johnsons Butcher Shop. He has harvested his own game before but likes the sausage Johnsons makes and beside it helps the old man out.
Bill decides to go bear hunting also and bring his brother and his son along. Since he had an excuse and it was cold this winter he went to the local shop and picked up a nice set of Filson wool clothes and a good pair of Danner boots. He has some older stuff in storage somewhere but figured why not. Renting a cabin for the long weekend was a logical choice because that way they can have a place to relax and be ready to hunt as soon as they walk out the door. Bill decides to hire a guide because he won't be able to get away for any other weekends during the season and wants to maximize his odds of getting a bear. He also takes the meat to Johnsons and has a nice rug made out of the skin by a local taxidermist. He has a great time up there and even picks up a couple of ads to look at getting a cabin of his own. A couple months later after working with a local real estate agent he finds a nice little cabin on a few acres in great hunting country which can double as a retreat.
Each of these men went hunting. Joe put a few bucks in the pocket of the local ammo shop and a few more bucks in the pocket of a gas station and the local greasy spoon. Tom spend a few hundred bucks at the gun shop and rents a room in a lodge for the night and puts some cash into the local butcher shop. Bill spends aroound a grand on some nice Filson clothes and a set of Danner boots. He also rented a nice multi bedroom cabin from some local folks for the whole weekend and hired a local guide. Spending a few bucks on getting the bear hide made into a nice rug was an easy decision and buying a little cabin in the area would make future hunting trips easy as well as being that retreat he has been meaning to buy.
I think you get the point. While spending within reason and their means people who make more simply stimulate the economy more. They pay more in taxes, they buy more goods and in particular they employ far more people than those with less money. It is true for each step up the economic ladder.
Before I wrap up this post I have one final thought. I recently talked some about retirement. I make about 45-50k a year depending on exactly how you calculate it [in the military things get confusing with what is and isn't taxed, etc). I can't complain at all but it certainly not amazing or exceptional. For me to retire at about 60 I will need to have right about $2 million in cash to maintain my lifestyle until it is dirt nap time. Quite frankly I sure hopethat between now and then my income increases at least a bit so I would need to have more cash! Lets just stick with 2mil as it is a nice round number. By then I will own a decent house (200k) ideally one on some land (add 100k) and maybe have a little rental house (140k) plus a nice emergency fund and some other miscellaneous assets totaling 100k. I could easily have a net worth of over 2.5mil and a decent income shortly before retirement time. Would that make me an evil multi millionaire who should be exploited to help the poor innocent downtrodden masses? By a lot of definitions it would. The point of this little talk is that we need to think real carefully about exactly how the talking heads classify people in order to vilify and eventually persecute them. Saying that this potential 58 year old me is a guy who consistently had a pretty decent job and invested and saved for his future while diligently paying down his mortgage and even acquiring a modest rental property would be accurate. One could also say that 58 year old me is an evil multi millionaire with an unethically high income (heres hoping!) who even has the gaul to own more than one home!
When the talking heads say not to worry that they won't do anything to harm you good hard working folk and will just take more from those who can afford it they are setting up the folks one or two rungs up the ladder. Beware because in a few years when you have some more experience and skills (people generally don't stay in the same income bracket for very long, Thomas Sowell said so) you will be that guy another rung up the ladder! Playing the poor against the working poor and the both of them against the middle class (whatever the hell that means anyway) and the lot of them versus the moderately well off (between the 'middle class' and lets charter a jet to take us to my Chateau this weekend crazy rich) and everybody versus the crazy rich is as old of a political game as is the wonderful children's game of the 5 and 7 year old blaming the broken lamp on the toddler who can't really talk yet.
Might or might not post tomorrow. Going to draw back my presence on Sundays in any case. Did that for awhile and am just getting back to it. Starting this week I will save the first guest post (sometimes there are a bunch and lots of weeks there are none) for Sundays.
The term "middle class" is a loaded and almost meaningless phrase. Darn near everyone thinks they fall into it and often people have social/ cultural beliefs and attachments theiron. Look at it like this, I know multiple families barely scraping by living in a ratted out single wide trailer on a little piece of land who would honestly say they are middle class. At the other end I know a few very professional people who pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year who would also say they are middle class. It is cool and acceptable to be part of the middle class so anyone who is anywhere near its theoretical lines identifies there.
Also people talk about how the middle class drives everything and makes our economy go around are sort of missing the point. Some vision of a bunch of guys making 30k a year (I know that is a bit below the average but just go with me) all creating business for each other and making everything work is though appealing to some groups ridiculously flawed. Not to say that some guy with a decent stable job and a nice little house isn't wonderful but he doesn't stimulate the local economy in a significant way. He pays the bills and maybe saves a bit and goes on a little vacation now and then but since most of his income is going to meet the basics he doesn't have much in the way of discretionary spending and certainly can't employ anyone.
Real quick lets look at how three different people in 3 approximate income ranges deal with different situations. Joe makes about 30k a year at his stable job and has a nice little house on the outskirts of town. Tom is an accountant who makes about 200k a year working for (among other clients) Bill who owns a chain of businesses from which he brings home 6 million a year on average.
Each of these men want to put a deck on the back of their house:
Joe find a way to get his hands on some lumber on the cheap. He buys some cement and screws and press gangs his friends with the reminder of how he helped them with their various projects and the mention of brats and beer. Joe gets his deck built over a long weekend for about $1,200.
Tom calls Tim his cousin who does construction work and is currently not working much. He tells Tim what he wants and has Tim draw up some sketches and work up an estimate. Since Tom wants it done in time for his annual gathering Tim hires his friend Bob to help and the neighbor kid Jimmy to cut boards and carry stuff.
Bill calls a local designer Sue who works up some drawings he and his wife really like. Sue then gets in touch with Ron who comes out with his crew of 5 guys (its getting hard to keep track of names and it doesn't matter any way) to build the deck. Somewhere along the line Bill decides they might as well put in a gas BBQ and a hot tub.
So to do more or less the same thing (albeit on a different scale) Joe did not stimulate his community in a significant way. Some guy got a few hundred bucks for lumber and another couple hundred on cement and hardware then about a hundred bucks for beer, food and chips to bribe his labor. Tom put some money into the local hardware and lumber place and also employed 3 people for part of the week. Bill probably had a dozen people work on his project and did business with at least 4 different companies.
They all want to go hunting for bear:
Joe buys a box of 180gr JSP ammo for his old 30-30 and a bear tag. On the Saturday he goes hunting he wakes up really early and drives up to the mountains buying a tank of gas, some coffee and a plate of biscuits and gravy in a little town along the way. He shoots a bear, guts it, quarters it and hauls it to the truck. At home him and a friend cut it up, wrap it and put it in their freezers.
Tom decided maybe he can use a new gun to go bear hunting. He settles on a nice Marlin 45/70 and picks up a few accessories and several boxes of ammo to zero and practice with it. Since he wants to get a nice early start he spends Friday night at a little lodge up in the mountains so he can start early. He shoots a bear, guts and quarters it then takes it to Johnsons Butcher Shop. He has harvested his own game before but likes the sausage Johnsons makes and beside it helps the old man out.
Bill decides to go bear hunting also and bring his brother and his son along. Since he had an excuse and it was cold this winter he went to the local shop and picked up a nice set of Filson wool clothes and a good pair of Danner boots. He has some older stuff in storage somewhere but figured why not. Renting a cabin for the long weekend was a logical choice because that way they can have a place to relax and be ready to hunt as soon as they walk out the door. Bill decides to hire a guide because he won't be able to get away for any other weekends during the season and wants to maximize his odds of getting a bear. He also takes the meat to Johnsons and has a nice rug made out of the skin by a local taxidermist. He has a great time up there and even picks up a couple of ads to look at getting a cabin of his own. A couple months later after working with a local real estate agent he finds a nice little cabin on a few acres in great hunting country which can double as a retreat.
Each of these men went hunting. Joe put a few bucks in the pocket of the local ammo shop and a few more bucks in the pocket of a gas station and the local greasy spoon. Tom spend a few hundred bucks at the gun shop and rents a room in a lodge for the night and puts some cash into the local butcher shop. Bill spends aroound a grand on some nice Filson clothes and a set of Danner boots. He also rented a nice multi bedroom cabin from some local folks for the whole weekend and hired a local guide. Spending a few bucks on getting the bear hide made into a nice rug was an easy decision and buying a little cabin in the area would make future hunting trips easy as well as being that retreat he has been meaning to buy.
I think you get the point. While spending within reason and their means people who make more simply stimulate the economy more. They pay more in taxes, they buy more goods and in particular they employ far more people than those with less money. It is true for each step up the economic ladder.
Before I wrap up this post I have one final thought. I recently talked some about retirement. I make about 45-50k a year depending on exactly how you calculate it [in the military things get confusing with what is and isn't taxed, etc). I can't complain at all but it certainly not amazing or exceptional. For me to retire at about 60 I will need to have right about $2 million in cash to maintain my lifestyle until it is dirt nap time. Quite frankly I sure hopethat between now and then my income increases at least a bit so I would need to have more cash! Lets just stick with 2mil as it is a nice round number. By then I will own a decent house (200k) ideally one on some land (add 100k) and maybe have a little rental house (140k) plus a nice emergency fund and some other miscellaneous assets totaling 100k. I could easily have a net worth of over 2.5mil and a decent income shortly before retirement time. Would that make me an evil multi millionaire who should be exploited to help the poor innocent downtrodden masses? By a lot of definitions it would. The point of this little talk is that we need to think real carefully about exactly how the talking heads classify people in order to vilify and eventually persecute them. Saying that this potential 58 year old me is a guy who consistently had a pretty decent job and invested and saved for his future while diligently paying down his mortgage and even acquiring a modest rental property would be accurate. One could also say that 58 year old me is an evil multi millionaire with an unethically high income (heres hoping!) who even has the gaul to own more than one home!
When the talking heads say not to worry that they won't do anything to harm you good hard working folk and will just take more from those who can afford it they are setting up the folks one or two rungs up the ladder. Beware because in a few years when you have some more experience and skills (people generally don't stay in the same income bracket for very long, Thomas Sowell said so) you will be that guy another rung up the ladder! Playing the poor against the working poor and the both of them against the middle class (whatever the hell that means anyway) and the lot of them versus the moderately well off (between the 'middle class' and lets charter a jet to take us to my Chateau this weekend crazy rich) and everybody versus the crazy rich is as old of a political game as is the wonderful children's game of the 5 and 7 year old blaming the broken lamp on the toddler who can't really talk yet.
Might or might not post tomorrow. Going to draw back my presence on Sundays in any case. Did that for awhile and am just getting back to it. Starting this week I will save the first guest post (sometimes there are a bunch and lots of weeks there are none) for Sundays.
We've Got a Saint on our Side!
Somehow at a work function we got to talking about Patron Saints. St George is the Patron Saint of the Cavalry which pretty much means Armor these days but pretty much everyone knows that. Also he is on the back of Gold Soverigns which is sort of cool. In any case we got to wondering who the Patron Saint of the Infantry is.
Now it is a couple weeks later and for no reason in particular I decided to look it up. Our Patron Saint is Maurice.
Now it is a couple weeks later and for no reason in particular I decided to look it up. Our Patron Saint is Maurice.
quote of the day
"Ya know how people say think before you talk, think before you spend. "
-Some Gal who got herself into a lot of money trouble and was on a TV show.
-Some Gal who got herself into a lot of money trouble and was on a TV show.
Friday, November 13, 2009
quote of the day
"Don’t forget that Canada is a socialist country. You may think of them as a sort of arctic Nebraska, but they do not have a Constitution and Bill of Rights like we do. They have socialized medicine and they ban books."
-John Ross
Hamthrax, Vaccinations, Statistics and Paranoia.
Today I got vaccinated for Hamthrax. Hamthrax is my favorite name for the H1N1 Pandemic because it is funny. Unless I hear otherwise I will attribute that awesome title to Commander Zero. In any case while I was waiting around for the shot I got to thinking.....
It is interesting and somewhat baffling to me that so many survivalists are so horribly against getting vaccinations, particularly for the dreaded Hamthrax. We often have strong opinions on things but some folks seem aweful whipped up about this stuff.
Part of it seems to be that independent minded folks do not like being told what to do or having it suggested to them. Seriously sometimes we can be this way beyond any logic or common sense. If you say "at my house we are having all of your favorite food and drink tomorrow for dinner, you should come over" some folks will sit at home hungry just because.
When it comes to vaccinations to me people really just need to get beyond the hype and supposide "news articles" and look at the statistics. Seriously vaccinations save like a Kazillion lives a year by preventing all manner of sicknesses. Remember Polio? Yeah it was bad and stuff but it is gone (or pretty darn close and at least in the western world) because of a simple vaccination. Remember Small Pox? Ya know the stuff that pretty much destroyed an entire continent of Indians? It also killed 300-500 MILLION PEOPLE during the 20th Century alone. That stuff was real nasty but is not an issue (at least in the western world) because of VACCINATIONS.
Are there some side effects to various vaccinations? Yes. Then again pretty much anything kills a few people a year. Because Jim Fixx died on a morning run doesn't mean that it is unhealthy to run and anyone with half a brain could see that running (or certainly physical fitness in general) saves far more people than it kills or hurts. This is like the inane argument that it is better to not wear a seatbelt because you will safely be ejected from the crash. Maybe your friend who doesn't wear his seatbelts cousins sisters aunt knows a guy who this happened to but everyone else who wasn't wearing a seatbelt and got into a bad accident went through the windshield or the window and was really fucked up.
Paranoia is fine and good but try to have some perspective and apply real world examples with a healthy dose of common sense.
This might be fun.
It is interesting and somewhat baffling to me that so many survivalists are so horribly against getting vaccinations, particularly for the dreaded Hamthrax. We often have strong opinions on things but some folks seem aweful whipped up about this stuff.
Part of it seems to be that independent minded folks do not like being told what to do or having it suggested to them. Seriously sometimes we can be this way beyond any logic or common sense. If you say "at my house we are having all of your favorite food and drink tomorrow for dinner, you should come over" some folks will sit at home hungry just because.
When it comes to vaccinations to me people really just need to get beyond the hype and supposide "news articles" and look at the statistics. Seriously vaccinations save like a Kazillion lives a year by preventing all manner of sicknesses. Remember Polio? Yeah it was bad and stuff but it is gone (or pretty darn close and at least in the western world) because of a simple vaccination. Remember Small Pox? Ya know the stuff that pretty much destroyed an entire continent of Indians? It also killed 300-500 MILLION PEOPLE during the 20th Century alone. That stuff was real nasty but is not an issue (at least in the western world) because of VACCINATIONS.
Are there some side effects to various vaccinations? Yes. Then again pretty much anything kills a few people a year. Because Jim Fixx died on a morning run doesn't mean that it is unhealthy to run and anyone with half a brain could see that running (or certainly physical fitness in general) saves far more people than it kills or hurts. This is like the inane argument that it is better to not wear a seatbelt because you will safely be ejected from the crash. Maybe your friend who doesn't wear his seatbelts cousins sisters aunt knows a guy who this happened to but everyone else who wasn't wearing a seatbelt and got into a bad accident went through the windshield or the window and was really fucked up.
Paranoia is fine and good but try to have some perspective and apply real world examples with a healthy dose of common sense.
This might be fun.
Burger King Franchises Sue Chain Over $1 Double Cheeseburgers
Read the article here. Businesses won't run at a loss.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A Guest Post: Survivalism
• noun: the policy of trying to ensure one’s own survival or that of
one’s social or national group.
I have noticed a very sad trend in the prepping community. It’s a lack
of critical thinking and rationality. It’s a problem of illusions and
fear. This is my attempt to help dispel some of that, or at least
channel it constructively. Most new preppers are told to create a
threat analysis as their first step. This is a fantastic idea, except
that a moment later they are usually then given really bad advice.
That advice is in terms of suggestions of things to worry about. I
have seen dozens of these lists, and almost always have a very serious
flaw. They list everything from home invasion, to local natural
disasters, to TEOTWAWKI events. They seem to uniformly fail to
actually have a rational threat analysis in them.
Statistics are your best friend and worst enemy. Statistics can be
scary. They can also be horribly misleading if you lack data. Everyone
is told that most car accidents happen close to home, but nobody
bothers to think about the fact that most car Trips happen close to
home. Seeing the statistics for the number of people who get mauled by
bears is interesting, but more helpful if you include the statistics
for the number of people who think it’s funny to poke them with
sticks. Yes there are 18 thousand homicides each year according to the
CDC. Very scary until you realize that that’s 0.006% of the
population, and that 630 thousand die from heart disease and 117
thousand from accidents. That doesn’t even take into account how much
of those deaths are gang/drug related, and the fact that most people
are killed by someone they know, and not a stranger. I’m not saying
you shouldn’t have a defense plan; just that the diet/exercise and
safe driving plans need to come first.
Plan for the things that are most likely to kill you first, plan for
the unlikely things that scare the shit out of you second.
Planning for survival does not just mean planning for some future
event that might change your daily routine and the face of the world
around you. Planning for survival means doing things that increase the
statistical likelihood that you and your loved ones will live long
lives.
Having a huge cache of food to survive natural disaster or TEOTWAWKI,
while eating fast food every other day is Not Planning For Survival.
If you have a large collection of guns, but don’t practice the 4 Laws
of Safety, , you’re still not a survivalist.
If you have a great bug-out-bag, but can’t carry it up a flight of
stairs without getting winded, you’re still not a survivalist.
If your car trunk is equipped with enough tools and supplies to get
you through any disaster, but you drive like a soccer-mom on her
cellphone, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you have the best plans for TEOTWAWKI ever, but can’t manage your
day-to-day life, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you can hunt, clean, and cook your own food, but spend most of your
paycheck on booze and cigs, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you can make your own candles, forge your own steel, and farm your
own food, but can’t be bothered to switch off the modern electric
light when you change the bulb, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you can cut your own trees and build your own house with them, but
can’t take tool safety seriously, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you have tons of tactical training and the best equipment in the
world, but don’t bother to pay attention to your surroundings on a
normal day, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you drive drunk, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you eat tons of junk food, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you smoke three packs a day, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you drown your problems with alcohol, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you can’t maintain relationships with others, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you can’t be bothered to exercise regularly, you are an anti-survivalist.
This list goes on and on.
TEOTWAWKI events happen, just ask a European Jew. However they are few
and far between. The likelihood of you being killed, or even living
through one is less likely than some asshat running a red light and
t-boning you. Getting struck by lightning is rare, but avoiding large
open spaces while carrying your fishing pole in a lightning storm is
easy to do. Being eaten by zombies is pretty scary, but more people
die from infected paper cuts than zombie bites.
Prepping isn’t about creating plans that you will put into effect when
X Y and Z events occur. It’s about organizing your life to maximize
survival. Your daily routines will affect your rate of survival more
than any emergency response plan. Prioritize you preparations, plans,
and routines based on the true risks, and the ease of responding to
threats. First create a plan to alievate the risks you are already
artificially creating for yourself. A personal example is I don't
drive at night on the roads most infested by the rats with hooves, or
if I have to, I drive slower and more carefully. Wearing the proper
safety gear for whatever activity you are doing can make you more of a
survivor than any pug-out plan. After you fix the day-to-day problems,
then you can create a matrix of potential future threats by their
likelihood, severity, and the ease/cost of response.
Critical thinking is the single most important survival tool you have.
Use it as often as you can.
-Michael N
one’s social or national group.
I have noticed a very sad trend in the prepping community. It’s a lack
of critical thinking and rationality. It’s a problem of illusions and
fear. This is my attempt to help dispel some of that, or at least
channel it constructively. Most new preppers are told to create a
threat analysis as their first step. This is a fantastic idea, except
that a moment later they are usually then given really bad advice.
That advice is in terms of suggestions of things to worry about. I
have seen dozens of these lists, and almost always have a very serious
flaw. They list everything from home invasion, to local natural
disasters, to TEOTWAWKI events. They seem to uniformly fail to
actually have a rational threat analysis in them.
Statistics are your best friend and worst enemy. Statistics can be
scary. They can also be horribly misleading if you lack data. Everyone
is told that most car accidents happen close to home, but nobody
bothers to think about the fact that most car Trips happen close to
home. Seeing the statistics for the number of people who get mauled by
bears is interesting, but more helpful if you include the statistics
for the number of people who think it’s funny to poke them with
sticks. Yes there are 18 thousand homicides each year according to the
CDC. Very scary until you realize that that’s 0.006% of the
population, and that 630 thousand die from heart disease and 117
thousand from accidents. That doesn’t even take into account how much
of those deaths are gang/drug related, and the fact that most people
are killed by someone they know, and not a stranger. I’m not saying
you shouldn’t have a defense plan; just that the diet/exercise and
safe driving plans need to come first.
Plan for the things that are most likely to kill you first, plan for
the unlikely things that scare the shit out of you second.
Planning for survival does not just mean planning for some future
event that might change your daily routine and the face of the world
around you. Planning for survival means doing things that increase the
statistical likelihood that you and your loved ones will live long
lives.
Having a huge cache of food to survive natural disaster or TEOTWAWKI,
while eating fast food every other day is Not Planning For Survival.
If you have a large collection of guns, but don’t practice the 4 Laws
of Safety, , you’re still not a survivalist.
If you have a great bug-out-bag, but can’t carry it up a flight of
stairs without getting winded, you’re still not a survivalist.
If your car trunk is equipped with enough tools and supplies to get
you through any disaster, but you drive like a soccer-mom on her
cellphone, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you have the best plans for TEOTWAWKI ever, but can’t manage your
day-to-day life, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you can hunt, clean, and cook your own food, but spend most of your
paycheck on booze and cigs, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you can make your own candles, forge your own steel, and farm your
own food, but can’t be bothered to switch off the modern electric
light when you change the bulb, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you can cut your own trees and build your own house with them, but
can’t take tool safety seriously, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you have tons of tactical training and the best equipment in the
world, but don’t bother to pay attention to your surroundings on a
normal day, you’re still not a survivalist.
If you drive drunk, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you eat tons of junk food, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you smoke three packs a day, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you drown your problems with alcohol, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you can’t maintain relationships with others, you are an anti-survivalist.
If you can’t be bothered to exercise regularly, you are an anti-survivalist.
This list goes on and on.
TEOTWAWKI events happen, just ask a European Jew. However they are few
and far between. The likelihood of you being killed, or even living
through one is less likely than some asshat running a red light and
t-boning you. Getting struck by lightning is rare, but avoiding large
open spaces while carrying your fishing pole in a lightning storm is
easy to do. Being eaten by zombies is pretty scary, but more people
die from infected paper cuts than zombie bites.
Prepping isn’t about creating plans that you will put into effect when
X Y and Z events occur. It’s about organizing your life to maximize
survival. Your daily routines will affect your rate of survival more
than any emergency response plan. Prioritize you preparations, plans,
and routines based on the true risks, and the ease of responding to
threats. First create a plan to alievate the risks you are already
artificially creating for yourself. A personal example is I don't
drive at night on the roads most infested by the rats with hooves, or
if I have to, I drive slower and more carefully. Wearing the proper
safety gear for whatever activity you are doing can make you more of a
survivor than any pug-out plan. After you fix the day-to-day problems,
then you can create a matrix of potential future threats by their
likelihood, severity, and the ease/cost of response.
Critical thinking is the single most important survival tool you have.
Use it as often as you can.
-Michael N
Hyper Inflation, Inflation and Random Thoughts Theiron.
First of all I want to thank Michael N again for his guest post. Secondly I think it would be good for us to get a common definition for hyperinflation, maybe one that is a bit more quantifiable than "very, very bad". A 100% increase in prices over the course of a year is probably as good a definition as any other. To put that into perspective US annual inflation in 1980 was 13.5 percent and in Yugoslavia in 1993 prices increased 20% a day.
Of course hyperinflation makes us think of the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe and pictures of little kids playing with giant stacks of money.
I have some thoughts on Michaels post:
The big problem with inflation is that it doesn't happen evenly in all areas. Lets say for example that all monetary transactions added 3 more zeroes tomorrow as did all wages, savings and investments. Yeah a quarter pounder with cheese meal will cost like 5,000 bucks but minimum wage will be like 8,000 bucks an hour and your savings will have grown proportionately also.
As noted above prices would not all change at once or necessarily change evenly at least for awhile. Some stuff would not change in price and peoples debts would be relatively speaking far smaller. Some contracts would live their lives but I think many would be broken, more on that later. Housing would probably be pretty safe (at least till leases ran out) but lots of other stuff would change.
Lets look at the given example but take it a step further. Say we have someone who owns a reasonable home with a fixed rate mortgage, a solidly reliable job with a set salary and some other various fixed rate debts. The amount of your take home pay that is consumed by house payments and whatever other debt would not change but if everything else increased significantly (say even a relatively mild 30%) just about anyone would be in some trouble! Specifically food and fuel are areas which would adjust rapidly and you can only insulate yourself from these areas so much.
Some contracts would certainly be honored for awhile. Businesses are around to make money and provide a product or service. In the long run (for most small businesses it would be pretty short) businesses will not continue to sell goods or provide services at a loss. They will either renege on fixed price contracts or go out of business. I am not sure how that sort of thing has played out in the past and will have to try and remember to send FerFal an email about it. I could certainly see a lot of companies thinking it is better to have a long drawn out law suit and be in business then have no law suit and go under. Also potentially I could see a lot of jury nullification coming into play with that sort of law suits. You wouldn't sell goods for the equivalent of pennies so why should you expect someone else to.
Make no mistake prices would change and some of them would change rapidly. Food, fuel and energy would likely be first followed by commodities (and stuff made from/ of them) and imports. It would certainly take time for adjustments to make it all the way through some long complicated supply chains but it would happen in a prolonged inflationary scenario.
Anyway I do not think America will suffer hyperinflation. Not saying it COULDN'T happen but just that I don't think it WILL happen. That being said I think inflation will surely rise in the coming years. I agree with Michael that our economy is probably too big and too inter connected with other countries for hyperinflation to be a realistic scenario. However lets say inflation is 25% or 50%. While hyperinflation causes a spiral which almost surely leads to an economic collapse just high inflation would definitely bring it to a grinding halt. Interest rates would rise as the powers that be tried to shrink the monetary supply; also the various private parties which loan money would started being concerned not just about risk but about the dollars they get paid back being worth less.
I don't think we will go all Weimar Republic but what is coming might well make the late 70's and early 80's look like a nice stable time.
Of course hyperinflation makes us think of the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe and pictures of little kids playing with giant stacks of money.
I have some thoughts on Michaels post:
The big problem with inflation is that it doesn't happen evenly in all areas. Lets say for example that all monetary transactions added 3 more zeroes tomorrow as did all wages, savings and investments. Yeah a quarter pounder with cheese meal will cost like 5,000 bucks but minimum wage will be like 8,000 bucks an hour and your savings will have grown proportionately also.
As noted above prices would not all change at once or necessarily change evenly at least for awhile. Some stuff would not change in price and peoples debts would be relatively speaking far smaller. Some contracts would live their lives but I think many would be broken, more on that later. Housing would probably be pretty safe (at least till leases ran out) but lots of other stuff would change.
Lets look at the given example but take it a step further. Say we have someone who owns a reasonable home with a fixed rate mortgage, a solidly reliable job with a set salary and some other various fixed rate debts. The amount of your take home pay that is consumed by house payments and whatever other debt would not change but if everything else increased significantly (say even a relatively mild 30%) just about anyone would be in some trouble! Specifically food and fuel are areas which would adjust rapidly and you can only insulate yourself from these areas so much.
Some contracts would certainly be honored for awhile. Businesses are around to make money and provide a product or service. In the long run (for most small businesses it would be pretty short) businesses will not continue to sell goods or provide services at a loss. They will either renege on fixed price contracts or go out of business. I am not sure how that sort of thing has played out in the past and will have to try and remember to send FerFal an email about it. I could certainly see a lot of companies thinking it is better to have a long drawn out law suit and be in business then have no law suit and go under. Also potentially I could see a lot of jury nullification coming into play with that sort of law suits. You wouldn't sell goods for the equivalent of pennies so why should you expect someone else to.
Make no mistake prices would change and some of them would change rapidly. Food, fuel and energy would likely be first followed by commodities (and stuff made from/ of them) and imports. It would certainly take time for adjustments to make it all the way through some long complicated supply chains but it would happen in a prolonged inflationary scenario.
Anyway I do not think America will suffer hyperinflation. Not saying it COULDN'T happen but just that I don't think it WILL happen. That being said I think inflation will surely rise in the coming years. I agree with Michael that our economy is probably too big and too inter connected with other countries for hyperinflation to be a realistic scenario. However lets say inflation is 25% or 50%. While hyperinflation causes a spiral which almost surely leads to an economic collapse just high inflation would definitely bring it to a grinding halt. Interest rates would rise as the powers that be tried to shrink the monetary supply; also the various private parties which loan money would started being concerned not just about risk but about the dollars they get paid back being worth less.
I don't think we will go all Weimar Republic but what is coming might well make the late 70's and early 80's look like a nice stable time.
Top 10 Cash Strapped States
Read the article here. It strikes me that none of these states are seriously cutting spending. They will furlough employees for a day or two a month and make some other mainly cosmetic 'cuts' but won't really accept that they can't spend like they could a couple years ago. I know sometimes Wifey and I spend more than we should and deplete the checking account more than is ideal or maybe even prudent. Sometimes a bunch of expenses come up at once and sometimes we just spend too much or decide to take a spur of the moment weekend trip. We fix these problems by adjusting our spending downwards to get back within our means at a maintainable level.
Conversely at other times it seems that we are just rolling in money. In these times we might splurge a little and go on a trip or buy something we have really been wanting and generally are a bit more free than normal with spending. The thing is that we realize these times are not permenant so we don't permenantly change our spending with commitments we will not be able to make at more normal income levels. It is easy enough to not to out to a nice dinner or whatever but it is a lot harder to say pay half of the loan on your fancy new car. The issue here is that we can make choices in that way and adjust our spending as needed while government (at any level) has a very hard time doing that. They can look at funding some building or repairing some stuff but many (pet socialist) programs which get started 'temporarily' are difficult or impossible to stop. As they say there is nothing more permenant than a temporary government program.
Conversely at other times it seems that we are just rolling in money. In these times we might splurge a little and go on a trip or buy something we have really been wanting and generally are a bit more free than normal with spending. The thing is that we realize these times are not permenant so we don't permenantly change our spending with commitments we will not be able to make at more normal income levels. It is easy enough to not to out to a nice dinner or whatever but it is a lot harder to say pay half of the loan on your fancy new car. The issue here is that we can make choices in that way and adjust our spending as needed while government (at any level) has a very hard time doing that. They can look at funding some building or repairing some stuff but many (pet socialist) programs which get started 'temporarily' are difficult or impossible to stop. As they say there is nothing more permenant than a temporary government program.
This is a Bad Month to be a Photographer
Mike Tyson was arrested for alegedly punching a photographer. I am sure the whole thing was blown way out of purportion because Mike Tyson is a nice, easy going, mentally balanced guy in addition to quite possibly being the scariest man alive. I would rather simultaneously slap the ass of crazy soccer girl while making a very unkind remark to James Gandolphini than do anything which could posibly make Mike Tyson unhappy.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Hyper Inflation, NOT
Hyper-Inflation and other things you shouldn't worry about.
I believe that inflation Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe style just isn’t
possible in the US without a complete collapse of the Federal and
State governments. It would literally take a TEOTWAWKI event to
trigger that kind of inflation here, and honestly, in that case, the
value of the dollar will be the least of your concerns. The incredibly
complicated and interwoven economy we have, that is the cause of this
current recession/depression/recovery (depending on who you ask) is
also the saving grace.
Yes, large inflation is possible and likely, but not supermassive
inflation. Why? Because everyone and everything is so locked into
contracts and pricing agreements. Inertia and interlocking complexity
will prevent it.
I will use my fairly average life as a general example for the
consumer end. My girlfriend and I are locked into a 13 month lease
(you could also use a fixed rate mortgage here) and the amount we
spend on housing cannot go up until the lease gets renewed, no matter
what the value of the dollar. We both are salaried full-time employees
who will not see a raise more than once a year, no matter how fast
inflation went up. If there were 5000% inflation, the amount we owe
would drop by 5000%, but then so would our earnings, meaning that our
spending power in that regard stays unchanged. Most Americans are
locked the same way, and rent/mortgages make up a large part of the
spending most households do. 50+ years ago (and in third world
countries) this wasn’t (isn’t) the case. Contracts naming prices are
fixed until they expire. Every dollar locked into one of these
contracts is protected, meaning that while the value of the dollar can
fluctuate, the buying power stays the same. Also, while we aren’t the
industrial giant we used to be, we are a productive country, unlike
third world countries, a certain German republic, and our own nation
in the thirties hammered by economic collapse and the dust bowl. Our
dollar is not backed by gold, it’s backed by the productive capacity
of the nation. As long as that capacity exists, the dollar cannot
completely crash, especially since every employee and company has so
many future prices/payments locked into contracts. Sure, the prices of
commodities can go up, and probably will, but you won’t see them
doubling each day. Everyone has seen the piles of Zimbabwe billion
dollar notes needed to buy one egg. However your eggs are safer. The
vast majority of our nation does not buy eggs from some guy down the
street. Some guy or vendor can decide to charge twice what they did
the day before, supermarkets cannot. The laws of our country prevent
that.
Sure we all know that Price Fixing defies the laws of supply and
demand and will always End Badly. The exception is when the laws of
supply and demand have already been violated. This current crisis was
Not Caused By Lack of Supply. We still have more than enough food and
materials to go around. We still have our productive capacity.
Price-gouging and profiteering are mostly prevented. This means that
Inflation may be continuous, and it may be large, but it won’t run
away like crazy unless our society falls apart first. Sure, there will
be pain, there will be loss. The economy will be stunted. Our buying
power will be cut. But saving non-precious-metal coins because you
think their face-value will be worth a billion% more after the
government slashes 6 zeros off the currency (a la Zimbabwe) is silly.
Sure, invest in tangibles that you need and use. Sure, plan for
inflation. But the sky is not falling, it’s just a nasty storm, buy an
umbrella.
-Michael
I believe that inflation Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe style just isn’t
possible in the US without a complete collapse of the Federal and
State governments. It would literally take a TEOTWAWKI event to
trigger that kind of inflation here, and honestly, in that case, the
value of the dollar will be the least of your concerns. The incredibly
complicated and interwoven economy we have, that is the cause of this
current recession/depression/recovery (depending on who you ask) is
also the saving grace.
Yes, large inflation is possible and likely, but not supermassive
inflation. Why? Because everyone and everything is so locked into
contracts and pricing agreements. Inertia and interlocking complexity
will prevent it.
I will use my fairly average life as a general example for the
consumer end. My girlfriend and I are locked into a 13 month lease
(you could also use a fixed rate mortgage here) and the amount we
spend on housing cannot go up until the lease gets renewed, no matter
what the value of the dollar. We both are salaried full-time employees
who will not see a raise more than once a year, no matter how fast
inflation went up. If there were 5000% inflation, the amount we owe
would drop by 5000%, but then so would our earnings, meaning that our
spending power in that regard stays unchanged. Most Americans are
locked the same way, and rent/mortgages make up a large part of the
spending most households do. 50+ years ago (and in third world
countries) this wasn’t (isn’t) the case. Contracts naming prices are
fixed until they expire. Every dollar locked into one of these
contracts is protected, meaning that while the value of the dollar can
fluctuate, the buying power stays the same. Also, while we aren’t the
industrial giant we used to be, we are a productive country, unlike
third world countries, a certain German republic, and our own nation
in the thirties hammered by economic collapse and the dust bowl. Our
dollar is not backed by gold, it’s backed by the productive capacity
of the nation. As long as that capacity exists, the dollar cannot
completely crash, especially since every employee and company has so
many future prices/payments locked into contracts. Sure, the prices of
commodities can go up, and probably will, but you won’t see them
doubling each day. Everyone has seen the piles of Zimbabwe billion
dollar notes needed to buy one egg. However your eggs are safer. The
vast majority of our nation does not buy eggs from some guy down the
street. Some guy or vendor can decide to charge twice what they did
the day before, supermarkets cannot. The laws of our country prevent
that.
Sure we all know that Price Fixing defies the laws of supply and
demand and will always End Badly. The exception is when the laws of
supply and demand have already been violated. This current crisis was
Not Caused By Lack of Supply. We still have more than enough food and
materials to go around. We still have our productive capacity.
Price-gouging and profiteering are mostly prevented. This means that
Inflation may be continuous, and it may be large, but it won’t run
away like crazy unless our society falls apart first. Sure, there will
be pain, there will be loss. The economy will be stunted. Our buying
power will be cut. But saving non-precious-metal coins because you
think their face-value will be worth a billion% more after the
government slashes 6 zeros off the currency (a la Zimbabwe) is silly.
Sure, invest in tangibles that you need and use. Sure, plan for
inflation. But the sky is not falling, it’s just a nasty storm, buy an
umbrella.
-Michael
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