What Could Happen: The Collapse of Big Cities, Big Governments and Subsidies
Feb 27th, 2009 | By Don Stott | Category: Featured, Macro Economics, Politics
First of all, I really believe that we have another FDR on our hands. Obama is a superb orator. With those teleprompters at hand, he is an absolute master. He has a deep, resonant voice, is extremely intelligent, and can read those speeches with total ease and composure. His speech Tuesday night was masterful in its delivery and composition. Exactly like all the great orators in the past, who said nothing with great aplomb. Obama told America and the world that he was going to cut the deficit in half, all the while proposing more and more spending and bureaucracy. In his campaign speeches, he said that he was going to not allow earmarks, but the spending bill before him has 8600 earmarks in it. His speech was an incredible exposition of pure BS. The Republican rebuttal was so pitiful as to be embarrassing. Bobby Jindal may be smart, but he isn’t an attractive man, is a terrible speaker, and even with coaching, he would never be able to compete with Obama’s oratory. If he is going to be the ‘up and coming’ Republican man, I’m re-registering independent. Sarah’s my gal.
I am not trying to be an alarmist, but I am worried about a lot of things. I just have to imagine what the chain reaction of the current downhill slide of the world’s economies can bring. Here’s what I imagine can happen in years to come:
Pensions will go bankrupt or be a shadow of what they were before, causing millions of retirees to be broke and maybe even hungry, with no recourse. Stocks and gold will probably cross at about 3,000. Robberies of banks and citizens will increase many fold, and make the streets of big cities dangerous. The danger will cause movie theatres, night clubs and restaurants to do poor business because of citizen fears of venturing out at night. Cars not in garages or in some way protected, will be subject to theft, break ins or stolen tires and parts, especially in big cities.
With the populace unable to pay millions of mortgages, arson and fires of foreclosed or about to be foreclosed homes will be rampant. Many of the elderly may resort to arson, in an attempt to become solvent enough to rent an apartment till they die. Fire and police departments, especially in big cities, will be run ragged. Insurance companies may refuse to renew in large cities or in certain neighborhoods, as they have done in Florida and New Orleans already, due to the hurricane damage possibilities. Remember; an insurance company will never insure unless there is little chance of having to pay.
Mexican illegals will continue to go back home, since they will be unable to find work here. Broke Americans, rather than starving, will gladly do any sort of work in fields or other places, to eat and stay alive. Unions will find their memberships declining drastically, and many will simply cease to exist. Travel and tourism will decline to the extent that many attractions, cruise lines, and amusement parks may become bankrupt or cease to exist. Citizens will arm themselves and not hesitate to shoot robbers breaking into their homes.
Many will grow their own vegetables in home gardens, to save valuable dollars. Oil consumption will stay low, and maybe even go lower, due to the lack of travel. Church attendance and offerings will decline, due to the poverty of memberships. Service club membership, such as Kiwanis, Lions, and Rotary will decline, and many individual clubs will cease to exist. Travel agents will close their doors by the thousands, as will restaurants, clothing stores, auto dealerships, and chain stores of many things, because of their requiring a percentage of the operator’s gross. Why pay 7% or 10% of a store’s gross, just to be able to use the parent company’s name?
The big cities, with their large numbers of out of work minorities, will become extremely dangerous places to live, and there will be an exodus to safer, small towns, by those who are able, even if it means selling a big city home at a sacrifice price, just to be safe. The infrastructure and utility providers in big cities may become insolvent or fraught with vandalism. Out of work minorities won’t be able to pay utility bills. Without electricity, gas, or water, even for a short time, life can be extremely difficult, and especially in a high-rise building or multi-storey apartment.
Government size will grow, and grow, and grow. More and more departments will be formed and bureaucrats hired, in a feeble attempt to ‘fix’ the depression. It’s doubtful that most will realize that it was government that got us here, and the majority will wrongly think that more government will fix things, rather than make them worse.
How did government get us here? It didn’t start with George Bush, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, or even Ronnie Reagan. Lovable Ronnie did his best, but while doing his job, he quadrupled the national debt. The trouble began with Woodrow Wilson, when he got us into World War One. It was about over, when Wilson and Colonel House decided to get America involved. But it was FDR who really started the road to ruin. I’ve been over this with you readers many times, but when a government begins to subsidize anything, be it farmers, old people, poor people, cold people, minority people, sick people, or any people, business, or other entity, the end is in sight. The subsidies, no matter how innocent they may seem to be at the beginning, will grow like a cancer, till the entire economy and national life style is destroyed. Governmental subsidies and handouts, are indeed like a cancer, eating and spreading out of control, and most especially at the federal level. Once a citizen gets a check from D.C., they are 100% going to depend on their continuance. Public housing residents are several generations old now, and each subsequent generation is more worthless than the previous. Public housing occupants believe it is their actual right to have free housing. All recipients of subsidies and handouts actually come not only to depend on them, but begin to believe they have an unconditional right to them. The first public housing, Social Security, and various other handouts, are now over seventy years old, and have grown like weeds in springtime.
As each year has passed, more and more handouts and bureaucracies who hand them out have been formed and populated. Each succeeding handout, such as food stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid, brings more and more on the dole, and more and more think it is their right to have it. Each handout and subsidy destroys a part of our free economy, substituting the marketplace, which is self-regulating, and gives highest quality and lowest prices, with wasteful, expensive, totalitarian bureaucracy. Obviously, the national debt has grown like Topsy, because there are never enough taxes collected to pay for the handouts. Taxes have grown thousands of percentages since FDR, and taxes are levied on every single thing a human uses, consumes, produces, or buys, thereby destroying freedom and the marketplace.
Candidates for public office, realizing that they can’t get elected unless they promise more handouts and largess from the public treasury, always do as they promised. Now, as we are in another deep depression, the spending and handouts will grow more and more, as will the government. Donald Trump, this morning on Fox News said, “It’s 1929 all over again.” Panic and paranoia will grow, and millions more will buy guns and ammunition to protect themselves. They should, because I believe that in the big cities, riots will break out, with much physical damage and loss of life. The jobless, hungry, and homeless, will multiply in big cities, and riots will be the logical result.
With currencies failing around the world, it will become obvious to more and more people, that saving in them is futile, and sure road to bankruptcy. More and more shysters will be discovered who had been running Ponzi schemes, defrauding millions of people out of billions of dollars. (Gold and silver require no trust of anyone or anything.) Former wealthy people and families will discover that their former wealth in dollars, has bought less and less, to a point where annuities, and whole life policies will become virtually worthless, as all tangible prices go sky high in currencies, as has always happened with hyper-inflation throughout history.
Government will also become paranoid and attempt to legislate away the Second Amendment under the ruse that it is to ‘protect people,’ or other nonsense. In reality, millions of guns in the hands of the citizenry will protect them from crooks, robbers, and rapists, but also from government, if it all comes down to that, and it might. Will American soldiers shoot their own citizens, if ordered to do so by government, under some sort of phony charge? If a citizen writes or talks against government actions and policies, will they be prosecuted? Will it be seditious to speak one’s opinion?
Here’s today’s quote from Atlas Shrugged, page 995, and everyone PLEASE buy, read, and pass this book on to your kids. “The wads of worthless paper money were growing heavier in the pockets of the nation, but there was less and less for that money to buy. In September, a bushel of wheat had cost eleven dollars; it had cost thirty dollars in November; it had cost one hundred in December; and it was now approaching two hundred, while the printing presses of the government treasury were running a race with starvation, and losing.
“When the workers of a factory beat up their foreman and wrecked the machinery in a fit of despair, no action could be taken against them. Arrests were futile, the jails were full, the arresting officers winked at their prisoners and let them escape on their way to prison. Men were going through the motions of the moment, with no thought of the moment to follow. No action could be taken when mobs of starving people attacked warehouses on the outskirts of the cities.” Whet your imagination? I hope so. If you’ve ever read a book that seemed to come true, this is it.
As a grotesque finale of FDR’s feeble attempts to get America out of the great depression, contrary to his campaign promises, he virtually forced Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor, and we were in a World War, which of course got us out of the depression. Will a ‘false flag’ attack or some other specious happening, eventually get America into WW III? We seem to be following FDR in most other ways. Protect yourself, and buy and read Atlas Shrugged.
Regards,
Don Stott
February 27, 2009
I live and work in the heart of Baltimore — literally in the geographic center — and I find Don’s assessment of the future of big cities both frightening and accurate. And I agree about Sarah Palin, but not because of her politics.
I’m pretty much stuck in this powder keg of decrepitating industrial urban blight for now. And for the record, I count the automobile suburbs as part of the unsustainable metroplex. It’s all bound to fail. Tiny cities, small towns and villages surrounded by lots of arable land…now that sounds like an idea…but how to get there from here for the average city slicker or suburban commuter?
Yesterday I asked you Shooters to send me your plans for riding out the coming chaos. The replies were uniformly wonderful, but far too numerous to print. I ask again for your plans today, but this time you may want to post them to our website http://www.whiskeyandgunpowder.com in the comments section if you’d like them to be seen by all. (Some of you have already done so.)
Speaking of the comments section: the Parting Shot will be appearing there from now on. Feel free simply to post replies there instead.
Medium to small towns will not be safe either. Only the towns with a surplus of conservative citizens will be safe. The immoratlity of our nation has spread into the nooks and crannies of our country. The lack of morals will unleash the beasts when desperation strikes. Marshall law and its road blocks will keep the creeps local.
Cheers,
Dear Mr. Stott and W&G,
I consider myself a Randian having discovered her books during a very low point in my life while I watched others steal my work and get the credit and the monetary rewards. Her work helped me to see what type of people I’d been dealing with and how to effect changes going forward.I am an African-American who has worked hard all of my life (not as a prostitute or drug dealer or fill in the blanks….) but in the Insurance, Retail
and Hospitality industries. I have no children and have never used public assistance (with the minor exception of three months when I was homeless and signed up for Food Stamps to insure I would be able to eat no matter where I was.) I spent three months homeless after resigning from my last awful, mindless job to attempt to start my own business. I did not spend those three months on the street, however, I spent them volunteering for room and board at a “commune”in Rowe, MA It was the closest I could get and still stay in my home state. I am writing to tell you all of this so that my comment can be placed in the proper perspective. I find it incredibly disgusting that you would allow Mr. Stott to use such racist terminology as”out of work minorities ” not once but twice. I am an “out of work minority” but I am not using that as an excuse to stop expect the best I can from myself. Individuals are responsible for their actions no matter what race they are. Therefore, Mr. Stott needs to be held accountable for his racism and you need to be held accountable for propagation of same. There are out work Asians, Anglo Saxons, Chinese, Russians, Japanese and any other race you’d care to think up. The implication that only minorities are causing the problems are divisive and unhelpful. Drug dealers are just as likely to be white and selling meth as Mexican or black and selling cocaine and crack. You are focusing on race as the issue when actually a lack of personal responsibility is the problem and it is color blind. Hopefully, someday you will be also.
John Robb has written extensively on the topic of resilient communities. Inner-ring suburbs (I live in one myself) could be in for an interesting time if worst comes to worst. The residents themselves will need to be able to arrange vital services, including security.
I buy a roll of either silver eagles or maple leaves and $50 in ammunition per paycheck. To hell w/ the mortgage, it’s $40k upside down and BofA doesn’t want it either. Learn how to shoot, hunt and clean/butcher game. Start a garden now to learn how because the time is near when providing for you and yours will be necessary, not merely fashionable.
You were certainly right about it starting under Wilson but you missed two very important things Wilson did.1. He passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and 2. He passed our first income tax. in 1917. Without these he would not have been able to get in the war, there would have been no Conference at Versaille, the mideast would not have been as screwed up as it is, Hitler would not have risen to power and it’s likely we would not have experience the Great Depression which was caused in large measure by the Fed
Without these pots of unlimited supply of money none of what has happened since would have been possible. We would likely have not have had the unbelievable growth of the National Debt. Congress needed this money to do what bureaucrats do. Wars are in some very large measure the result of availability of money provided by Central Banks, without that the French could not have had their continuous wars with the English etc. Old man Rothschild knew the secret and it got transplanted to the USA.
It is not time to give up yet. The media’s mumbling doom-and-gloom aside, there is far more resilience in the system than is reported. That said, someone needs to look for the best conductor for the Free market orchestra because right now there are so many fragmented voices an outsider has no chance to hear anything of value. If Mr. Obama wins a second term it will because there is no coherent voice against him. That is why John McCain didn’t make it – the lack of a coherent voice.
If the second term is the same-old-same-old, set sail in the lifeboat.
cheers gary seinen
Seeing the writing on the wall (Thanks to the Ann Raynds, Bill Bonners and other “Prophets, yes a well worn, dog-eared copy of Atlas sits on the credenza bookcase, next to Empire of Debt, Mobs, Messiah’s etc’) We relocated our “offices” to a 60 acre parcel about 45 miles SE of lovely downtown Denver, CO. We’re surrounded by a 2500 acre ranch and the closest town doesn’t have a single frickin (edit as you will) stop-light. Yahoo! Telecomuting with clients (check our website for details) and carefully managing our trips to “the cesspool” as we affectionately refer to the metro area, we’ve laid out the garden, built a couple of functional wind generators to charge our back-up system and yes, stocked up on the G’s. (Guns, Grub, Garden, etc…). Is it an “adjustment”? You damn-betcha but the family knows where the refuge is when the poop hits the prop and all have instructions for their role in the upcoming upheaval. Being a former “Road Warrior” doing nationwide corporate relocation, I’ve seen firsthand what happens when just one industry/company pulls out of a town. As the song says: “We ain’t seen nothin yet”. Thank goodness for a law-enforcement/EMT background before my “professional” careers. To put your mind at ease… there are still “real people” in the law enforcement community as well as local military bases. Many “shots” have been downed talking about the eventuality of having to control the masses and what I’m hearing is that too many of the boys in blue and cammo have family that belong to the masses… Time will tell the veracity of their chatter, in the meantime, we’re preppin and enjoying each sunrise. Keep the great content coming!
g
“Only the towns with a surplus of conservative citizens will be safe. The immoratlity of our nation has spread into the nooks and crannies of our country.” Valenzuela
I am glad to learn that morality has a political leaning. I guess living in a small town in Vermont, full of liberals, will be dangerous. Thanks for the heads up, I will look elsewhere.
Quantella,
Mr. Stott’s language can seem a little harsh, but I find his bluntness a breath of fresh air in an anally politically correct world. Don’t take it personally. I’m black, but I’ve lived in or near enough urban blight to know that the characterizations like “minorities on the dole” is pretty appropriate. It’s bound to hurt some feelings, but nothing can be done about that. I’ve learned the hard way that truth and reality care very little how I feel about them.
Good onya for pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.
Human behavior can change very quickly once desperation sets in. “Normal” people can turn into monsters almost overnight. This is especially true when people become part of a mob. Then individuals who normally would be law abiding peaceful citizens can be transformed into outraged foul mouthed, rock throwing, perhaps gun shooting, rabid instruments of violence. Just a few words of encouragement from a leader inclined towards disorder would be enough to incite a riot.
With life in the big cities of America likely to become miserable and dangerous as the long crisis continues fascism in America becomes a major threat. It is a dangerous time for America. The convergence of financial and economic turmoil, climate change, and peak oil make two things certain. Changes in the way we live and organize ourselves as a nation are going to be required. And Americans will not see a return to the “normal” American Dream. Those happy motoring, consumer oriented, spend, spend, spend, for the sake of your nation’s economy and your own amusement days are gone
This will make the America of a year or two from now a fertile field for a fascist dictator to emerge. The more disorderly the next couple of years become the more likely Americans will embrace someone with good oratory skills who promises to restore order, even if it is at the point of a gun..
FDR forced the Japanese to attack? Huh?
The seeds of WWII were firmly planted in the soil of WWI.
Dear Sir,
The first site below is quite overboard on several levels. However – some of the links in the site
are excellent if you desire to prepare for the worst possible events. The second site gives one insight
into what some “survivalists” are thinking. Some thoughts are worth considering others are probably
from raving lunatics. These sites will lead the reader to other sites etc. etc.
For what it’s worth —
“The letter from the reader that mentioned вЂgold, cans of coffee, soap, liquor, and such’ got me thinking. I’d be interested in hearing what other W&G readers are stockpiling for the tough times ahead and, I’d imagine, so would others. Would love to see that in future newsletters (and with very specific ideas including brand names, sizes, calibers, etc.).”
http://standeyo.com/News_Files/Hollys.html
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum140.html
I was amused to read that the free market is best and “controls” everything, then to read a little further down that “More and more shysters will be discovered who had been running Ponzi schemes, defrauding millions of people out of billions of dollars.” Don’t you see the self-contradiction? These shysters of yours were all the product of an unregulated market. Same for the banks and their Ponzi schemes of derivatives…I agree with you about Jindal; he’s toast. As for Palin, please. She could possibly get in on a populist platform if all hell breaks loose, but she has nothing to offer beyond drivel. You also need to stop reading Atlas Shrugged and junk like that. Look, it was a disciple, Alan Greenspan, who encouraged the irrational greed and exuberant indebtedness that got us here. And your alarmism is no different from the claptrap we get from the Al Gores of the world. Yes, things could get bad, but Americans could lose 90 percent of their alleged “wealth” and still be well off and able to manage. As for gold, that is another bubble, another scam. If things get really as bad as you proclaim, I ain’t about to exchange my can of beans for 100 ounces of gold. Gold is useless; it is so finite that only a few people can afford it; and it is useless as a form of wealth. But if it makes you feel better to own some, go right ahead. How about some pet rocks instead?
Learn how to make superpails – Thats a 5 or 6 gallon bucket with lid, mylar bag liner and oxygen absorbers. Then make a weekly trip to your local dollar store and buy all the rice, beans and lentils you can get your hands on. If you are only just now starting, concentrate on the rice and beans (which make a complete protein) and also buy vitamin C tablets. This is a monotonous diet, but it will keep you healthy, and you can build up a store fairly quickly. Start networking with people you can trust, and do it NOW. Cooperation and forethought is the only thing that going to keep decent people alive through what is coming.
Small towns that are building solutions on the local level will be the best places to be.
Bear river nova scotia canada was not affected buy the great depresion as the had a tight community and little money anyhow. that kind of socail structre works well. it will be well worth seeking out those who are have already made the move and are actualy working on these problems .learn from their experiances regards jason taylor http://www.bear-river-dollar.com
learn from the people who have already moved out and are working on the problems they know are comming Propertygeek .
To Whom it may concern,
I am currently residing in the Eigth Largest Economy in the World, Kalifornication, albeit temporary for I am packed and prepared to head for the Heartland. They don’t call it that for nothing and I plan on becoming a member soon. Grow some food, can it, store it along with fresh water, gold, silver, and plenty of ammo to protect it all.
As I told my more useless Senator, I am buying silver coins, cigarettes (for barter), liquor (for barter), storable food and ammunition. I am also keeping my car’s gas tank at least half full.
I am also making money in this market because I recognize that we are in a bear market, unlike the lackeys on CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business News.
Both political parties are totally useless and aren’t worth a pitcher of warm urine. The media is worth even less.
I would simply dismiss such extreme social rhetoric except for one major reason. The same people who started warning me of our present day economic condition (as early as late 2006) are the same people who are now warning us of the social implications of out of control greed. Are these men and women prophets,absolutely not, they are just tapped into the pulse of relative outcome. I do not believe in coincidence but that all actions have their ultimate outcome. It is not out of the realm of possibilities that our social picture reach such a violent outcome. Survival is the ultimate driving force in human beings. With that being said, depending on how deep and long this economic recession/ depression progresses will determine the degree of survival violence. I live in the seventh largest city which at this time has an unemployment rate of 5.3% and pray that it doesn’t reach the national norm. In closing remember survival is color blind.
Thanks for the article, on the strength of which I’ve ordered “Atlas Shrugged”. I don’t think people over here in Britain generally appreciate the depth of the abyss into which we are staring.
Who is John Galt? By your account you say FDR while I always thought it was Alan Greenspan. After all he was a member of Ayn Rand’s Collective and maybe even her lover. Further, his Ph.D. thesis was on how gold was the only true currency and then did everything in his power to prove himself wrong once he became Federal Reserve chairman. Surely he is smart enough to know that his wreckless actions could eventually extinguish the last light in New York and then his work would be done.
This was right on as it may be and it looks like it just may be. I have been preaching this since Goldwater’s non-election. That defined me as I was then and now except that I have a lot more documentation to back up the facts of what you are saying now in this article.
This is no evolutionary process. It is the progressive loss of personal integrity due to our people seeing -and feeling helpless to do anything -about the Federal Reserve System of fiat money theft that was invented by the European central banks. By keeping the nations in debt via eternal war crying peace, peace, peace. Their clubs and fraternities visible and occultic, train and support their cadre for government, corporate, media and religeous infiltration and advancement. The Professoriate has our schools from the top down — all of them.
I have the likes of my own family and good friends to blame but I have to also include myself. I did not give everything I had for the fight. I only gave my saveings, home equity, most of my free time for 45 years as an ingineer to make people aware and understand. But I will say this. It is not too late if the American people, still armed, would vote for the likes of a Ron Paul and get out from behind the TV, out of sports and work your community for Constitutional candidates. If they claim to be Democrats they are traitors. If they claim to be Repulicans they are traitors, Bring all of our troops home from everywhere. Obamanation says he is not a Communist he is a socialist. The difference is in who has the most guns-the people or unpatriotic UN soldiers that would shoot our fellow citizens. The United Nations is the culmination of the Communist goal for World Government for their New World Order.
Stop being shocked by this type of thought-you just show your idiocy. Put down your bible get off of your knees and do something to save your country. God help us!
I suppose us rural Canadians will do ok through all of this. We hunt, fish, butcher our own game, have a ready made deep freezer outside half the year and can grow a lot of our own food. I’d reckon the southerners (US South) who live in similar rural areas are the same, save for the ready built deep freezer) will also survive. First Nations people have lived through all of this and they likely would ease back into such a lifestyle much quicker than us.
But do most people hold the values of family first, friends next? See, it goes back to that ‘tribe’ mentality that it took to survive before we ‘capitalized’. It’ll be interesting to see how our cities survive. Imagine if people can’t pay for cocaine and marijuana, for meth and crack. Then what?
But even so, I believe there will be a return to religion should things go sideways. Smaller groups of people making a way for themselves. Sounds rather anti-establishmentarianist, doesn’t it.
[...] one of you should go to Whiskey and Gunpowder and read the article posted by Don Stott entitled “What Could Happen: The Collapse of Big [...]
WOW! A home run! Don has nailed it….there is really no free lunch…but government will try to pretend that there is…until the bitter end. This article should be REQUIRED READING for every U.S. Citizen who cares about our future! Look at history people…every government that has promised everything to everyone has gone down in flames. We may be past hope…time to load up on your food, guns and Whiskey & Gunpowder and head for your bunker in the hills! CYA
I have been working for eighteen months on the problems Don foresees AND the probability that when the cities collapse locusts will spread across the land destroying crops (sometimes through ignorance and anger), slaughtering livestock to hack off a couple of steaks clumsily, taking over isolated farms and the “show off” estates which proclaim from the road, “Doctor/Lawyer money, lots of nice stuff, probably no one at home!” and maybe occupying small towns. Roving gangs, the enormous population which already breaks the law, and the plain fact that desperate people do desperate things…it’s going to be hairy.
I am a philosopher and analytical project report writer, and I have averaged 14 hour days thinking, purchasing, and implementing plans. Pay attention, y’all, ’cause there is likely to be a real life test soon.
I’ll share my knowledge, analysis, and preparations if I get encouragement, so tell me or Gary if you think what I say is useful. Gary, if anyone asks for my e-mail address, give it out.
I’m going to start at the bottom and work up:
“I DON’T HAVE MUCH AND CAN’T QUIT MY JOB” PRAPARATIONS:
1. Start with collecting a minimum of three months’ food for your family. NEVER touch your supplies except to rotate stock–and don’t worry about “expiration dates” which are another Liberal method of destroying wealth. I have friends who are just now finishing up what they got for Y2K and all of it is still good!
As a former commenter said, start with rice and beans which MUST be eaten in combination to form complete protein. I have NO business interests and have not owned a single share of stock in well over a year, so all name suggestions are the result of my research. Sam’s sells EAS protein powder, the most nutritious and palatable I could find, available in chocolate and vanilla. That will provide COMPLETE nutrition for a dollar a day per adult, stores dense nutrients in a small space, and can be mixed with any liquid. Go to your local feed store and buy calves’ milk replacer. This is, basically, powdered milk, but at a much lower price. WalMart’s Great Value “Luncheon Meat” is far superior to Spam at a medium price, currently $1.56. It is good on sandwiches cold and has many uses for casseroles or even to mix in potato salad. Stock up on pasta and potato dishes. Again, WalMart’s GV products such as Garlic Potatoes and Scalloped potatoes are quite palatable. and still barely under a dollar for two foil packets in a box. Buy two fifty pound bags each of flour, rice, and beans and 25 pounds of sugar for each family member. Use bay leaves or chinaberries to keep bugs out of grains and rice, and remember that the pioneers and those in middle eastern countries today just sift the bugs out. (Ask about chinaberries if you don’t know.) If possible, freeze each bag of grain or rice for two days before storing.
Watch for sales, and don’t worry about trying to stock equally; if it is on sale and meets other parameters, buy all you can afford. Pasta sauce has MANY uses, such as soup base, and comes in glass for longer shelf life and jars you can use to protect other things. LOTS of salt! Coarse ground will be used to preserve meat, and you will die without salt. Plenty of spices, condiments, and bouillion. You will be eating the same ingredients frequently and you want to be able to provide some feeling of variety. Raid an oriental market for the Red Rooster hot sauce and Thai green (or red) curry place. Don’t pay over a dollar a can for coconut milk (get lots), and if you see it for half that get several cases. Forget Mr. Campbell’s expensive, lousy soup.
Buy in bulk. Sam’s, again, will sell you butter for under $2/pound still (NEVER eat margarine!) You can freeze it or keep it at room temperature so long as it is solid for a very long time. I have a very small, well-insulated room I use for grains, butter, oil, peanut butter, cigarettes, and so forth that I don’t want to go rancid or hatch bugs. (Sorry, but your flour and cornmeal frequently COME with the eggs in there. It isn’t anything you did.) You can get similar bargains on cheese which freezes beautifully. You can’t slice it afterwards, but who cares? Parmesan, cheddar, mixed Mexican, whatever y’all like best.
There is no such thing as enough toilet paper or laundry detergent. Buy each family member’s idea of “luxuries,” whether that is chocolate bars or smoked oysters. Absolutely, dried onions, minced garlic in jars, plenty of peppercorns and a grinder, olive oil (ouch on the price of ANY kind of oil these days), and canned (ugh) vegetables per your family’s tastes. I have been informed that eggs dipped in paraffin (i.e., wax) will keep up to six months, although I haven’t tried it.
LOTS of tea bags, coffee, and hot chocolate mixes. You may well be without heat when it is cold, and all make great trade goods. In Alaska during the Gold Rush a single egg sold for a day’s wages in Texas, so think of what others find irreplaceable: coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol, books, fuel, ammo, matches, even soft drinks which I don’t think justify storage space for my crew. We’re Texans and we drink sweet iced tea, milk, and bourbon and branch water! (Oh, all right, so I’m sipping Riunite Lambrusco, and my love is sipping Tullamore Dew, but you see my point…)
2. Start saving all containers and lids, including milk jugs and water bottles, as well as banana and other sturdy boxes. Get lots of plastic bags and wrap. Get a dehydrator and experiment after you have mastered the basics. You can make your own jerky “inexpensively.” (Dehydrator, 200 degree oven, cardboard box with a 100 watt light bulb, air dry between screens, smoker) I just wondered about dehydrating bacon. Sure, you could cook and freeze it, but what if you have no refrigeration? Bacon ain’t hamhocks, y’all, but it would be a lot better than nothing with pintos and rice. Also on my list to try is making plain thin omelets and dehydrating those! Hey, why not? Eggs are superb nutrition. Campbell’s baked beans “soupled” up with onions, bacon, molasses, a bit of mustard are mahty fahn eating. Get plenty of molasses (good for several things) and honey. Buy only local honey because that way you know you’re getting 100%! Are you aware that they can adulterate honey up to 90% with corn syrup and not tell you?! Also, local honey will help cut down on your allergies. Ah…15 pounds per person? Pick up some Masa Harina (corn flour) and learn to make tortillas.
3. See the basic ARMAMENTS list I will post later tonight. Right now when seconds count 911 is at least minutes away, and the situation will get far worse. Some day I may hear, “Dang it, Miss Linda, y’all know I don’t have time t’ come git another no ‘count drifter what tried t’ kill y’all. Jes’ bury, him, huh? He got any ID on him?” (I have a quaint sense of humor, but who knows…? Before you think I’m a psychopath…Nah, in over sixty years Ah ain’t nevuh shot nuthin’ but paper targets.)
4. Blankets, a Coleman lantern and stove (or something similar), some way to prepare meals. A small charcoal grill will do, but don’t use it in the house. Three buck Space Blankets from Gander Mountain. Plenty of bleach and go to a pool supply and get the equivalent of dry bleach powder. For real fun spend this evening pretending you have lost all power and water. Oh, my!
5. Upgrade your locks to Schlages and install deadbolts. View your residence as an intruder would.
6. Hide most of what you have and do NOT talk openly about what you are doing. When times worsen NEVER share food. Keep only a small amount in the kitchen. Have a place where you “hide” your “proud ofs,” but keep serious money and guns hidden as best you can. A cheap little safe from Harbor Freight with two or three hundred dollars in small bills and some flashy costume jewelry may save you at least a beating. Or stick ‘em in a coffee can in the refrigerater; anything to make the bad guy think he has outwitted you and found all you have.
7. The ‘net is full of sites with the “100 Items which will disappear first,” so check those for ideas. Some you won’t need. THEN make notes for a week on everything you use normally, because we all have different ideas of what is indispensible. I GUESS we’re lucky because our idea of a “convenience food” is mayonnaise, but that means we have to stock many more items.
8. If at ALL possible locate a relative in the country. You need a place of refuge, we hope for only a few weeks, but who knows? You can store your supplies there; if you don’t make it out of a metroplex at least those you care about will get your stores, not an enemy. Acquire skills which will be useful in pioneer times if you do not have any. If nothing else, what about an RV park out in the boonies somewhere?
Dang it, I’m editing and I’m serious: do NOT let the enemy have your goods, your lares and penates, or anything else he wants. Destroy what you have before you let anyone else take it, and that includes your flag, dumping five pounds of sugar in your gas tank to ruin both automobile and gas, and anything else nasty you can think of. Resist if you can, run if you can’t, hide if it is possible, but DO NOT surrender. Anyone who would break into your house probably has other nasty habits, such as being willing to rape your teenaged daughter and kill you. Again, and again, and again: if at ALL possible, get out of the city, and the sooner the better.
9. Work out the fastest exit route from your city to small roads. This is perhaps your most serious preparation. In times of disaster cities can be cordoned off, freeways become parking lots, and interstates are cleared of all except military traffic. This means Farm to Market roads at the largest. A couple of guys with stop signs can lead to an hour’s delay…and just possibly they aren’t TXDOT but road agents, hmmm? Remember Watts? Cordon the area, let people rape, steal, kill, and burn, and don’t risk firefighters or police.
Remember New Orleans? In NO FEMA wouldn’t let in relief supplies until the govenor geeked politically and turned over command of the National Guard.
ALWAYS have your gas tank at least 3/4 full and have two five-gallon cans of gas in the trunk along with water, food, and clothing for at least three days. (BOOKS! As Louis L’Amour said about cowboys, we’ll read the label on a peach can if there is nothing else available.)
The MOST essential matter is to be prepared to hit the road within minutes of getting warning. Have a bag with ID, cash, guns, ammo, and other vital papers ready to pick up. Do NOT go to the drycleaners or wander around aimlessly trying to find an open gas station, and nevver mind the appointment with your hairdresser or to have your teeth cleaned.
In Houston, during Ike, grocery stores had a 5-item limit! Gas stations had long lines and ran out, and more people ran out of gas while “parked” on I-10 than from any other cause. Get in the car and don’t stop until you are well clear.
Grab pets, the cash/gun/jewelry/ID stash, and all the food in the refrigerator and hit the road. Nothing else is worth endangering your life for. Have a rendezvous set for other family members, particularly if you do not have sanctuary in the country. (Hah! Do you have food for Pooch and Kitty in your trunk?) Remember that cell ‘phones will probably be disabled by the government if the precipitating factor is a terrorist attack.
10. Repeat after me: “If I can’t eat it or protect myself with it or store intrinsic value with it, I’m not going to buy it!” For over forty years I have bedded out my lawns lavishly…but the last two years I have turned coldly away from flats and flats of Gerbera Daisies, Dahlias, Pansies, and marigolds. They are only beautiful. Put your money into things you can eat, shoot, or trade to those who won’t take greenbacks any more. We all waste a great deal of money. “Dinner and a movie” money will buy a great deal of security. You don’t need a new suit nearly as much as you need a Berkey Water Filter and a big grocery run.
I’ll come back and speak vividly and well on what sorts of far arns y’all ought to have.
Rancher Lady
There may still be hope to turn it around before it gets to the scenario described in the article. We must look at the FACTS of history. First fact is Congress controls the purse-strings. Reagan couldn’t get a balanced budget because the democrats controlled Congress. The only reason Clinton was able to do it was because Republicans controlled Congress (and thus, spending) during the years of surplus.
Second fact is the Tax code is a joke. Half of Obama’s cabinet can’t even file their taxes correctly and obviously the IRS couldn’t identify them. The IRS needs to be abolished. The tax code is set up to make winners and losers. Proof? Their are 70 lobbyists for EACH congressman in Washington. They buy off congressman to get favorable tax treatment for their constituents. It’s not working and will only get worse. We need the “Fair Tax” which will tax consumption, not production. It will also make the cheaters (which, as we are learning is more widespread than previously thought) pay.
Jindal is not ready for prime time; I like Sarah, but she needs to take a few world history courses during the next 4 years; the best bet is Huckabee, who is more articulate than Obama a proven administrator, and a true conservative who sticks to his core convictions, doesn’t waffle like the other faux-cons.
Many will say that “We should get back to the Bible”. Fine. But the book in the Bible that has been all but ignored for centuries is the Book of Proverbs. This book is all about the getting of wisdom, something sorely lacking virtually everywhere. Given today’s all too predictable crisis, it is hoped that maybe now folks will begin to take this as seriously as they should. Just for starters, Prov. 3:17b reports that ” all the paths of wisdom are peace”. Prov. 8:20 says that “I wisdom, lead in the way of righteousness.” Please note that this missive is way beyond the superficiality of what we commonly refer to as religion. The Founding Fathers understood wisdom. Ben Franklin surely did, when he replied to the sincere lady who asked him what form of government the Founders had come up with at the Constitutional Convention. He replied: ” A democratic republic, madam. IF you can keep it.” There is a danger that we won’t. The cure for today’s ills, as for all the ills of history, is to follow after the admonition of God to “Get Wisdom, get understanding…with all your getting”. Can God get any more emphatic than that???? ONLY by obeying this will we ever untie the many gordian knots placed in our path. It’s the only thing that will work.
GUNS 101
Ah’m gonna suppose that many of y’all are a bunch of benighted Nawth’ners who don’t know guns from gumpdrops, so let’s take it from the top. Wa’al, how do I know? I learned to shoot at eight, in an era when ten-year-old boys got a single-shot .22 rifle by their tenth birthdays. In over sixty years I have NEVER seen a shot loosed in anger or by accident, which is why we’re going to go over the rules first. If you know them–nah, read it anyway. Responsible gun owners don’t have accidents.
1, ALL guns are to be regarded as loaded unless you just looked for yourself AND the gun has not been out of your possession. That is, in your hand or in your lap, not that you put it down and returned from the kitchen or bathroom.
2. NEVER point a gun at anything you are not prepared to shoot.
3. I don’t care WHO says that gun is unloaded, look anyway. An amusing pastime in Texas is admiring a new gun, because every single person who handles it makes certain it is unloaded, even if we swap it back and forth six times. Hey, th’ first date mah sweetie an’ Ah had, we played show and tell, of course. I watched very carefully to see what he would do, because if he had taken my word for it that my sweet little piece was unloaded that would have been our LAST date! No foolin.’ That big, tall Texas galoot one-upped me: he slipped the safety on and chortled when I could’t rack the slide to be certain that in some mysterious way a round hadn’t been chambered in the last couple of minutes. It wuz luv at first sight, dang near.
4. An unloaded hand gun makes a poor nut cracker. An unloaded rifle might make a decent club but it is a terrible way to treat a nice piece of machinery. Follow your local laws, teach your kids gun safety, and keep guns secured, but if you ever need one you aren’t going to have time to hunt the key to the trigger lock, the key to the gun box, the key to the ammo box, all in different places. When the danger becomes great enough, you will know how to work all this out. We don’t allow any of our hands to go into the woods because there are large, fierce wild hogs in there, and none of ‘em climb trees fast enough to talk about. On a working ranch, a rifle is just another tool. We respect our guns, but we aren’t afraid of them. They are roughly as complicated as a Dazy canopener, and about as dangerous when treated respectfully. When you need one, nothing else will do, and we have bob cats, panthers, several varieties of venemous snakes, coyotes, small vermin that menace the stock, and even deer…and you don’t want to get up close and personal with Bambi!
5. NEVER touch another person’s gun without permission. That’s worse than spittin’ in his soup or bad mouthin’ his truck.
6. When target shooting, appoint a formal Range Master and put down something (if only the belt off your bright red bathroom) for the firing line. NOBODY fires until the Range Master has okayed it, and most of us shoot one at a time on private ranges. A bank of earth or (right! I’m sure you have this) big, round, 1500 pound bales of hay piled several deep makes a good range. You city slickers can go to commercial ones. NOBODY goes to look at his target until the RM has said formally that the range is clear. The rest of you let him/her look first.
7. Police up your brass! (The shells your gun has ejected if you really don’t know any of this.)
Y’all got that? ALL GUNS ARE LOADED. DON’T POINT AT ANYTHING YOU AREN’T PREPARED TO SHOOT. DON’T MAKE JOKES OR CLOWN AROUND.
If you have never shot before, for goodness’ sake call the NRA or go to a local range and get lessons. You may as well learn right and you’ll be a lot more confident.
UNLOADING A GUN
1. A REVOLVER is a gun which has a cylinder that revolves (duh), and usually holds six shots. In order to unload one, look on the left side and you will see a little button. Push the button which releases the pin and the cylinder will swing out into your hand. Dump the rounds out. At that point the weapon is totally safe other than as a bludgeon. I advocate teaching this to all responsible children, because some day they may face a little friend who has come across a weapon. Sometimes these are called “wheel guns.”
2. A SEMIAUTOMATIC PISTOL will fire one shot every time you pull the trigger until you are out of ammunition. An automatic will spray bullets like a garden hose until it is empty. They are inelegant, suitable only for pitched battles, and you can’t afford the ammunition.
TO UNLOAD A SEMIAUTOMATIC:
1. Look on the left side, again, probably near the bottom but it might not be. Push the button and the clip, or magazine, will release and pop out. Pull it out completely.
2. “Rack the slide,” which means to pull the top mechanism back until you can look in the firing chamber to ascertain that there is not a round in there.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS DO IT IN THIS ORDER!!! IF YOU RACK THE SLIDE FIRST, YOU WILL LOAD A BULLET INTO THE CHAMBER. THEN WHEN YOU DROP THE MAGAZINE THE GUN IS STILL “LIVE.”
I agree that things are going to get really bad and we have to plan for it now as best we can. I also commend the person who brought the Wilson and Roosevelt eras to the forefront, since I don’t think many people realize how we society has allowed this day to come. Unfotunately my wife and I and are both retired and live on our social security. We worked hard all our lives and raised four children, but never had enough to go around to save for retirement. But we don’t do food stamps and always par our bills including medical. We have a very small old place in the country with a garden and some fruit trees and even though I have a lot of medical problems we manage. We even learned about investing on our own a few years ago and manage to eke a little money out from it here and there. Thank goodness I’ve learned enough to stay safe during the bear so far,but I’m just hoping the market doesn’t come to a total halt. It’s too late now, but before 2010 we each have to do whatever we can to change the senate and the house. I think anyone democrat or republican that ’s been in Congress more than two terms or that had an earmark has to go. We have to start electing intelligent moderates who are businessmen and not lawyers. Lawyers should be in the supreme court and the justice department. We also need to find a way to ban together publicly and have our voices heard. Americans also have to wake up and recognize that while we are responsible for ourselves, we shouldn’t worry about ourselves so much that we forget about others like our employees and neighbors. I could never understand why there was always a big fight in congress over minimum wage. I had a very small business and a couple of employees who were paid a reasonable wage. Maybe that’s why I only made enough to get buy on, but I needed them and they needed to get buy too! But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. And yes during periods of inflation we may have to raise our prices! But at least the changes would be more gradual and everyone has a chance to make a living. It should be a part of our business training. And we need to teach our children to think that way too.
GUN SAFETY AND HANDLING 101, AND RECOMMENDED PURCHASES
Ah’m gonna suppose that a bunch who are interested didn’t grow up as I did, when I was taught to shoot at eight and every boy I knew got a single shot .22 rifle by his tenth birthday. In over sixty years I have NEVER seen a shot fired in anger or a round loosed carelessly. I’m going to write down the rules for you and urge you to take an NRA course or private lessons if you have never handled a gun before. In responsible hands a gun is less dangerous than a canopener unless you drop it on your bare foot. (We are very careful not to drop guns. No, they are exceedingly likely to discharge, but we take care of our firearms.)
HOW TO UNLOAD ALL TYPES OF WEAPONS
“Beans, bullets, and Band-Aids” as they say.
Water.
Mountain House Cans.
Heirloom Seeds.
Battle rifle and ammo.
Sidearm and ammo.
Buy some damn silver or gold.
This survival stuff is easy. Weee!!!
P.S.
Couldn’t agree more with the Ayn Rand thing.
Sorry, crew, my gun-handling skills are far superior to my computer skills.
Rule One is that ALL GUNS ARE TO BE REGARDED AS LOADED UNLESS YOU JUST LOOKED FOR YOURSELF AND THE WEAPON HAS NOT BEEN OUT OF YOUR POSSESSION. That means literally in your hands or in your lap, not on the coffee table or in a gun rack.
I managed to send before finishing, and guns are NOT likely to fire if dropped. Don’t do it anyway.
TO UNLOAD A REVOLVER:
A revolver has a cylinder that revolves (duh), and is sometimes called a “wheel gun.” In order to render it harmless, look on the left side. Push the button you will find, and the cylinder will swing out. Dump out the cartridges and snap the cylinder back in place. The gun is now totally harmless unless you smash your finger with it. Revolvers, as an almost universal rule, do not have safety devices to prevent them from firing.
TO UNLOAD A SEMIAUTOMATIC HANDGUN
“Semi-automatic” means that the gun will fire every time you pull the trigger until you are out of ammunition. It is NOT an “assault” weapon that sprays expensive ammo around as though you were holding a garden hose. You unload one in two steps:
1. Find the button on the left side (when the barrel is pointing away from you. Please do not ever look down the barrel of a gun if you have any choice in the matter.) and push it. The magazine, or clip which holds the ammunition (rounds, cartridges, even bullets, speaking loosely) will pop downward. Remove it completely.
2. “Rack the slide,” pulling back the upper mechanism so that you can look into the firing chamber to ascertain that it is empty.
NEVER, EVER, EVER DO STEP 2 FIRST BECAUSE YOU WILL CAUSE A ROUND TO BE LOADED INTO THE CHAMBER. THEN WHEN YOU DROP THE CLIP THE WEAPON STILL CONTAINS A CARTRIDGE AND IS “LIVE.” IF YOU PULL THE TRIGGER IT WILL FIRE.
Rifles and shotguns are unloaded in very similar ways. A few have clips, but most hold the ammo in a long tube.
GUN SAFETY
1. ALL guns are to be regarded as loaded unless you just looked for yourself AND the gun has not been out of your direct possession. ALWAYS.
2. NEVER take anyone else’s word for it that a gun is not loaded. Look for yourself. For one thing, a responsible gun owner will despise you if you do not. Th’ first date mah sweetie an’ I had, we played show and tell. I handed him my favorite weapon and observed him carefully, because I guarantee that would have been our last date if he had taken my word for it. I would never trust my heart and hand to a man who is careless with guns!
He one-upped me by slipping the safety on so that when I attempted to rack the slide, or be certain that in some mysterious way a round hadn’t found its way into the gun, I couldn’t do it. It wuz luv at first sight, and I know he wouldn’t have been likely to ask me out again if I hadn’t followed gun etiquette punctiliously. When Texans get together we end up laughing, because if we swap a gun back and forth six times we will check for ourselves every last one of them!
3. NEVER point a gun at anything you do not intend to shoot. We do NOT clown around, EVER.
If Charles or one of the hired hands ever points a gun at me I am going to assume one of two things: either there is something so menacing behind me (a doped up thief with a knife, possibly a grizzly bear) that he has no other choice in order to save my life, or else someone has come down with senile dementia, in which case I am going to speak softly and gently, move very slowly, and curse myself for not being armed. There are NO circumstances under which we point even “empty” guns at each other. ALWAYS keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, be that down, up, or away.
I have told all of them firmly that if I am ever being held by a gun-wielding fellow prepared to murder me…shoot through me if you must, fellows, but take him out, ’cause Mama’s going to be REALLY mad if you drop your guns and endanger all of us. All of you THINK about this issue because you may face it if Don Stott is right. If a man is menacing your wife do you think he will stop if you drop your gun? No, he will have her tie you up, and then he will tie her up, or he will shoot both of you. Just as most police officers go their entire careers without firing a weapon, in the old America you would never expect such a thing to happen, but in times of disaster desperate people do desperate things. The most slack I’ve cut the guys is that if three of us are captured and one is still free, they can “cooperate” because I will trust any of them to rescue the rest.
Cheer up. Take your first NRA course and you’ll analyze hundreds of “shoot–don’t shoot” scenarios, and then take another. It is far better to do your thinking ahead of time. I have never, in over sixty years, shot at anything other than paper targets (well, I had to shoot red balloons once in an NRA course.) I hope I never have to do so, but I know that an enormous percentage of new soldiers are unable to fire at other humans even in combat. Maybe it will turn out that I cannot defend hearth and home either…
4. Count the rounds when you load your gun, and count again as you shoot. Then pull the trigger again just to make sure! Counting does not insure the gun is empty, but if you ever need to defend yourself you had better know how many shots you have left. Develop good habits. When I’m shooting with friends I not only stay behind the firing line but I count THEIR shots and listen for the “click” out of habit.
5. Police up your brass! That means to pick up the expended shells which semi-automatics eject. Some shells can be reloaded, but responsible gun owners are always polite and we don’t make messes.
6. Until you are skilled and have practiced do your shooting in classes or at a range. Ask questions, pay attention to what others are doing, and read books. If you have a country place and are shooting with friends obey all the rules AND set up a safe place to shoot. Appoint a Range Master and mark the firing line with something bright–last time we used the belt off my red bathrobe! NEVER cross the firing line until the Range Master has given his approval. NEVER approach or touch another shooter. Don’t even speak to him. Shooting is serious business.When the Range Master has signaled all clear allow the shooter to approach his target first.
7. NEVER touch anyone else’s weapon without permission! This is worse manners than spitting in his soup or kicking his dog.
Okay, so you think, sensibly, that you should get at least one gun, but you don’t know how to start to figure out what or how many. My recommendations are based on guns I have shot, cost, and the circumstances you think you may have to face. I have not owned a share of stock in well over a year, and I do not sell anything other than milk, meat, and free-range eggs.
1. Start with a .22 semiautomatic pistol, such as a Ruger Mark III. This will run you about two hundred, and it is very suitable for both target practice and defense. It uses .22 LR (Long Rifle) ammunition which still runs a little over two cents a round. It is small enough for a lady’s hands, but not too small for a man. Nice little weapon. Use that as you and your family learn to shoot.
2. In time, you will probably want a second hand gun, and most men are drawn to miniature cannons. You really don’t need a .45 for “stopping power.” You aren’t likely to face mountain lions or drug-crazed…well, maybe those. A Glock Nine or .45 is going to set you back a thousand dollars, easily, and they fire expensive ammo. Still, if you can afford it, go ahead. Fire it enough to get the feel of it, but do your serious practice with the inexpensive ammo. A Bursa .380 is an excellent small gun, around $400, and .380 is serious ammo. One of the best shots I know uses that for his concealed carry. .357 is a good caliber and will also shoot 38 Special.
3. Even if I were in the city I would get a long gun, and some depends upon how many family members there are and how old they are. Again, start with a .22 rifle, a Ruger or anything else you like so long as it isn’t pink. It COULD be that you are an apartment dweller and your whole building will be attacked, and a rifle would be a very handy thing to have. A very important thing is how a gun “feels” to you. I, for example, am diminutive, so I have a youth-sized .22 with a shorter stock. I prefer my hand guns to be “butt heavy,” and always recommend a longer barrel for accuracy. We’re not going to get into concealed carry, here. Go consult Masaad Ayoob, America’s foremost self-defense expert, or buy a bunch of magazines. Handle a variety of guns at Gander Mountain, for example, and you’ll see what I mean by “feel.” It is a very personal thing. Most men I know prefer barrel-heavy guns, but they’re stronger than I am.
4. Those of us in the country tend to have several rifles for different purposes because they are one of the tools we use. If you expect to come across 500 pounds of vicious wild hog, you’re going to want a 30-30 or a 30-06, or a nice, big shotty gun. A .223 (such as the Ruger Mini-14. Okay, so I like Ruger!) is a great deal more gun than it sounds like. While it sounds as though it is only a little bigger than the smallest caliber, it’s serious weaponry. As Masaad says, “A .25 is a nice thing to carry when you haven’t got a gun!” We face hogs, several kinds of venemous snakes, bob cats and mountain lions, and you really don’t want to tangle with a grown deer in close quarters. That’s no Bambi, friends. A buck goat will stand over six feet on his hind legs and has sharp hooves and maybe horns. We had to corner a sweet little first-time mother, this week, weighs maybe 75 pounds, and I swear we thought we had been wrestling a Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker by the time we got her collar on. At which point Jelly Bean turned into a perfect little lady again! Yes, you need to know such things. You may have to flee the city, and just like in Jelly Stone, don’t feed the bears and don’t try to pat the cute calf because his mother weighs over a thousand pounds and is likely to object!
5. For all around self-defense, particularly at close quarters, almost everyone recommends a shotgun. a 12 guage will do fine. Double ought buck is sexy, but it’s hard to come by. Even a 20 guage will do, with the proviso that shotguns are not usually suitable for delicate females to fire! I’ve shot a little 410, but I don’t want a gun that hits back. Rifles are a much better choice for most gals.
6. Look for used guns first.
Hope this helps you with the basics. The .22 was the Nintendo of our generation, and I grew up around people who love to shoot and pride themselves on their gun safety and handling. You can learn easily, and it just may save your life. As the recent statistics from Australia show, as expected, a year after
the government destroyed every gun it could find crime has shot up enormously. Why not? If you’re big, and have no morals, and KNOW the law-abiding citizens don’t have guns, what’s to stop you from using force? Hey, and surprise…the bad guys didn’t surrender THEIR guns. Why do they shoot tourists in Florida? Easy. Tourists drive rental cars indicating they just got off planes and ships and aren’t armed. Other than that crime, particularly violent crime against women, went down dramatically after Florida adopted a concealed carry law.
As Masaad Ayoob (one of my heroes) says, there is an aura around those of us who are prepared to defend ourselves. Good luck on becoming one of them, and teaching every family member of suitable age to do the same.
RANCHER LADY
Having read Ann Rand many years ago- I found her work interesting , and about as realistic as a John Grisham novel. Alan Greenspan ( the creator of our present debacle ( or at least partly) comes across as a guru in his book, only to the point where you realize his great love for creative destruction and capitalism are great for everybody else while he lives in his bureaucratic little salaried payroll job and everybody else is supposed to be an entrepreneur. Anyone who thinks Sara Palin is anything but a pretty good milf, is really too far gone for there own good, unless of course you find it necessary to vote for or support religious zealots because you are one.
Dear W&G,
I am a very young professional who stumbled accross W&G by accident several months back. I have been reading most of the newsletters and wondering why I came accross you guys and what I was supposed to do. As mentioned I am very young, only 23 but if you were to ask any one I work with they would say I am much older. In fact, they call me the office valey short for valedictorian.
I grew up in a small rural area, I am truly and most honestly the farmer’s daughter. My entire life was spent on the farm. A year ago, in an attempt to spread my wings, I moved to New Orleans. I work in hospitality and New Orleans was the logical choice. City life is an experience that I would not trade and I will remain a city dweller until I have no choice but to return to my agricultural roots, crime or no crime.
After reading “The Collapse…” I now realize that me & my family will persevere but others may not be so lucky. See what I failed to mention above is that my family & I are land owners. All of this land is farm land in rural North Carolina but if the system should collapse, what will people rely on to live? The answer: the only thing they do not make anymore, land. People have been living off of land alone since, well since the beginning of people.
So, my advice don’t invest in a system that is flawed and involves so much risk. Invest in land. When the human species evolved, it was all we were given to survive. We have since then abused our God given gift. But it looks as if we will be forced to remember it, and to appreciate it, whether we like it or not.
Sincerely,
Samaritan
why does Mr Stott have such a frightening bias against minorities? I’d be more scared of redneck whites instigating violence, I imagine if one researched the stats they’d find that true too – going back to the crusades even?
You want a clear example of how government can mess up a strong culture look no further than the plight of the Native American – we took away their means of support and lifestyle and of course they came to depend on the handouts and now expect them, and the poor ones I work with were raised to think that the government was responsible to care for them – sad sad sad IMO. I do occasionally encounter a family who has adopted their traditional beliefs and works to care for themselves and their children are smart and pleasant compared to the ones with the entitlement mentality.
I agree with the views regarding the subsidies and bailouts – those should be written with stepped down benefits over time – like our food stamps here in NM – 5 years max. that’s long enough to get an education and get on your feet – all forms of assistance should have a plan to get folks (or businesses and industries) off assistance and onto the tax payer roll. Then our government could do the things we expect it to do, like clean up after a mess like Katrina, keep the various infrastructures (roads, electric grid, ports of entry?) strong and well maintained and stay out of the things we should be doing ourselves, like providing for our families and communities.
At my church we teach that ones reality starts with the vision you hold as a result of your thoughts, if this is what Mr Stott envisions then he’s likely to see it all realized – hopefully it’s not the vision for most folks – BTW – how’s it feel to be a minority in this case – hehehe
Hoping you get away from rampant negativity and offer some serious workable solution that doesn’t involve “me and mine” but rather “us and ours” save youself yes, but reach out to others too, as the mob mentality points out, we can do more as a group than we can individually – but lets do good rather than add to the bad
I do not have much to say at length, except that I agree with the statement made by Quantella C. Owens. I was equally disturbed at the mention of “out of work minorities” as the primary problem here in America. I do believe the author should reexamine his premises and look at the world for what it is, not what he has imagined it will become with out of work minorities on the loose. We are all in this boat together and fortunately skin color is the least of our problems (for once).
Last year agriculture products were at record highs. Agriculture was spending money in all communities of our nation. This year farmers are having a hard time getting financed. This will be a much bigger prblem than bank or auto failures. When the farmers quit spending money it will affect every county in America in more than one way.
The only solution I see to save our nation is for our gov,t. to start building food storage. Every county should have 2 or 3 yrs. of food on hand for every citizen within its border. The farmers would gear up to start filling that storage which would immediately start production from the ground up in every community in America. Let’s put our fate in our greatest industry instead of our poorest.
Dear Whiskey,
You have asked us in the article “What could happen” by Don Stott to reply here with our ideas of how to ride out the coming chaos, and I will attempt to do so.
The first thing I would say would be the most helpful for people is to not buy into the attempt to frighten people. Mr. Stott says he is “not trying to be an alarmist” and then proceeds to do exactly that.
He starts out by painting a picture of the complete collapse of society in most places. Folks, that simply can not and will not happen. This current crisis is a Financial crisis. That means that there is a crisis in finances and availability of credit. In other words, we are talking about pieces of paper here
I do not want to get into a discussion about Mr. Stotts political theories, as that is completely irrelevant here. Suffice it to say that all the real wealth of this country and the world still exists, all the factory machinery, the farmland, the farm and construction machinery, etc. still exists. The world has seen financial panics of this sort many many times, and the world does manage to work its way out in relatively short order. One good thing for us in the US is that the dollar is, and will remain indefinitely, the worlds reserve currency. In this liquidity crisis, the US dollar is stronger on every new crisis, and will remains so. The stock market, a six month leading indicator, is currently signaling a bottom.
My father personally went through the period after WWI in Germany, when both the physical wealth and the paper currency were destroyed. People do manage to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again.
I understand how people in inner cities look at their situation and feel uneasy. As I said, the first thing is to resist fear mongering and look at some of the realistic steps they can take.
First, a word about myself. I am a 3rd generation commercial farmer, whose ancestors go back to the 16th century as German peasant farmers. I have always been interested in survival and security for my family. I myself read all of Ayn Rand’s works many years ago in school, and I continue to be a conservative and believe in the free market. But these apocalyptical scenarios are simply not tenable. Millions of good people get up every morning and try to do what is best for their families. This is the real reality.
I agree that there are some individual places in the inner cities that are, and will continue to be, unsafe. Would I council relocation, yes of course, especially in any place close to a seacoast. There are many good places around the country with good neighborhoods intact that will continue to be safe. The complete breakdown of civilization everywhere is simply not a tenable outcome.
If you move, be prepared to have a good job lined up, or be able to bring your job with you. What people should not entertain is the fantasy that you can move back to the land and be self sufficient. I have seen too many people buy into that hippy nonsense and last only a few years. Should you start to learn the art of gardening? By all means. But to think that you can support yourself by subsistence agriculture is a cruel hoax. Anyone who does move to a rural area and has land will have to have at least one member of the family with a good paying job to support cash flow during the off season. For those thinking to move into larger scale commercially viable farming, be advised that one has to have many thousands of dollars of capital investment required for machinery, and a large store of many and varied practical skills.
I know that it is fashionable in many places, notably this Whisky journal, to postulate these armageddon scenarios. Do not buy into them. The worst by far is Mr. Kunsler, who seems to have gained the ear of the editors here. I could go on for pages refuting his childish nonsense about the “coming Armageddon”
Finally, look at the motivation for this bias here. As most readers of this journal will of course realize is that this “free” email is really not free, it serves as a vehicle for people to tout their investment schemes and newsletters. Case in point, Mr. Stott’s link to his gold sales site. While I believe it is quite legitimate to offer investment theories and newsletters for money, what I do not feel is ethical is to deliberately use fear as a motivation to then make money. I believe that this is what is happening here.
My only objection in this article is the statement, “we were in a World War, which of course got us out of the depression.”
No, the war did NOT end the depression; taking your production and blowing it up on a battlefield some place destroys your wealth, it does not augment it. Indeed the idea that war helps the economy is another faucet of the Keynesian ideology that suggests we can spend ourselves rich.
The depression ended AFTER World War II when the new Republican Congress repealed many of the New Deal assaults on the economy.
the shysters was not the only contradiction
the idea that
>Public housing occupants believe it is their actual right to have free housing. The jobless, hungry, and homeless, will multiply in big cities, and riots will be the logical result<.
many other contradictions
half a truth is dangerous
the issue is
how to regulate
i get the feeling that a superiority complex is at work here
the need to be justified in ones hate and contempt of others as a QED
a little anthropology may be useful in the bar
i will break some out another time if gary asks
a little anthropolgical perspective may help
whether you in to darwin or science or inteligent design
dont matter
a little anthropology is useful to pose some logical peramiters
positive as much as negative around this problem called society
especially if it does all go pair and squashed eden apple shaped
shrinkage seems inevitable
could be just a twist of bird flue or common cold
but we are a burden and resevoir
so perhaps a little anthropology
not the rubbish practices in babylon that are as corrupt as the bankers
but evolutionary psychology
i think we need to seperate the ssues
yet look continually at the whole
i dont think the government or anyone will stop a gang of ferrel city energy unleashed
they struggled with that 13 group – just imagine ???
they come to your veg patch
you wont stand a chance
they aint stupid
we are
it may be useful to work out how to use your gold to stop the collapse
till the next generation
may be they will overstand cooperation theory by then
one has to wonder
from my small overstandin of the abrahamic texts and faiths
they had the right idea and you seem to agree about governments abuse of same
interest
no interest and no gambling
what you think
i cant see any good that comes from gambling?
shysters
if things get to the stage where we need silver coins and guns, then its going to be mad max time, and those who think they are prepared might last the first 100 days or so, but who will win will be the tough, the smart, the mobile and the ones in govt. positions of power
you can be prepared for a hurricane, you can be prepared for an earthquake, a one off shock event, ok…. but if total social disorder takes hold, it will be totally unpredictable and you cannot really be prepared for it
buy a farm, some silver and some guns, ok….install solar power, wind power, grow your own food, make your car run on the animals methane…. great….. but what will you do when a biker gang or an angry hoard arrives to loot your nest egg ? are you really prepared to gun down 40-50 people, are you really capable and trained enough to take on such a battle just with your wife and children for back up ? even with miltary training the best solider would probably fail in this situation
its a false friend
if you really believe in this total max max world breakdown, you better start building a huge community, practically a seperate country, not a just some wincy nest egg… it will be the first to go….
The federal government should have more sales taxes, decrease taxation of savings and investments, and decrease the federal corporate tax rate.
It is about jobs in the private sector. People who are employed in the private sector are able to make mortgage payments, reduce their debts, buy things, and pay taxes to the federal government and state governments.
The federal government and state governments should immediately stop taxing interest from savings accounts, dividends, capital gains, and estates.
The highest federal corporate tax rate should NOT be greater than 15 percent. This would encourage investment and job creation.
The highest federal income tax rate on individuals should NOT be greater than 15 percent. Middle class people and wealthy people will be more likely to consume which may help create many jobs.
I discuss dealing with the financial crisis on http://www.newgeography.com/users/kenstremsky
My website is http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky
I work with kids at risk. I have written a survival manual for natural disasters, but also for economic hard times, that the kids and families can use.
For myself, I temporarily rent a Stor & Lok space that I have been back stocking 5 gal plastic buckets of flour, sugar, rice, beans, etc. Currently, I have 58 buckets filled , and I also keep at least 25 cases of bottled water rotated, and add 2 new cases each month. I also have a years supply of MRE’s. I own 5 acres, and am in the process of putting in an old fashioned root cellar to store my supplies.
I purchase multiples of dish and laundry detergent, and bleach, hydrogen peroxide, (better than bleach,) and all the personal items, when stores run sales on them. I buy canned goods in bulk, and large #10 cans.
I back stock anything, and everything that we use in our daily lives, including pet food.
I can meats, and fruits & veggies, and also have 3 freezers, and a generator in case the power goes out.
We have a large garden, and I process our own yield.
Since I am not able to afford gold, I buy stock in mining,and,- I buy bags of coins from the U.S. Mint every 3 months. I do not believe our paper money will be worth much in the near future, but retailers WILL take hard coinage. If the economy turns around, they are “collectors items,” for the future.
I am 64 yrs old, and I was raised on a huge farm in PA. I was taught how to grow, preserve, and store food from childhood. I am a survivalist, and I will take care of me, and my own, along with some close friends.
My “thing,” is to TEACH the people I come in contact with how to take care of themselves.and prepare for the future. This encompasses any race, social status, and even homeless people. Yes, they can be self sufficient too! I teach a class on self survival, and cooking once a week..
I have 4 different types of guns, ( will not say the caliber here,) and at least 10 boxes of ammo per gun.
I will shoot anyone trying to steal from me, or do harm to me and mine, but I am hoping that will never happen.
I still believe in the good old USA, and that eventually things will turn around, but, I am also a realist, and I for one, will be prepared, should things go into the toilet.
It would be a sad state of affairs if we become a nation of gun toting, paranoid populace, shooting at any shadow that we feel threatens us, ( most likely our neighbors cat or dog,- or child) instead of learning, AND teaching normal, non druggies how to take care of themselves.
Yes, the druggies ARE a real problem, and I for one do not know how we can deal with them, but, if that is the up and coming caliber of people we have to contend with, I say shoot to kill, if they threaten you.
We will become a nation of individual vigilantes. A shame.
My webpage has not been updated in a while, ( I am busy!) but I will be happy to help others learn how to be self sufficient and responsible for themselves, instead of depending on the government.
I just bought my 31st oz of gold and have on hand about 7,000 oz of silver. I have the gold in a few suisse bars, but mostly divided between gold eagles and maple leafs. About half of those are 1/4 oz of 1/10 oz pieces. My goal is to accumulate 50 oz of gold and 10,000 oz of silver. I keep them in hidden safes on site. Silver is about half “junk” (old halfs, quarters, and dimes), and half silver dollars, bars and rounds. I want fungibility, so I like junk silver. It is the poor man’s gold.
I have an AK-47, with about 1500 rounds, two shotguns with only about a box apiece. I need at least 500 rounds of shotgun shells. I have 3 nine mm pistols with about 2 cases of ammo, a 40 caliber kel-tec, two .380s with a case of shells, and a couple of .32 caliber Mausers with some ammo. With the current craze in ammo and the current AG, don’t look to get “bargains” in either rifles or pistols. All mine are “paperless” meaning no one knows who has them. I have a concealed carry permit, so that means someone has a good idea I have weapons, though.I also have a few other rifles and pistols. Why so many guns? Well, besides the fact that I just like to plink when I can get away from work, I think they will function as a valuable means of exchange if things get real out of hand.
At this point in time, shotguns and shotgun ammo are FAR easier and cheaper to find and acquire than rifle and handgun stuff. My advice is for your average joe or joline to stick with a shotgun. Every household should have a basic 12 gauge pump and some size 3 or lower shot. Any person who has had NO training with a weapon can use these for self defense. Although I have more guns than most folks, the only gun “left out” is a shotgun in my bedroom closet (I have no small children). Mossberg, Remington, Browning…. all are good. Pump is best. Learn how to clean and oil it. You don’t need much practice. Get a cheap safe from walmart and a rechargeable dessicant dehumidifier (I have a plugin model with a color bar that tells you when the grains are wet, but there are models you can stick in the oven), buy a case of so of shells with a few slugs, a few 00 buckshot and some 2 or 3 shot (shotgun loads are graded, with the size shot inverse to the
numbering). Ammo will keep a long time if it is cool and dry. You don’t want to fight a war. You just want some line of recourse when 911 is not only overloaded, but non-functional.
We have NO nonperishable food, which I plan to remedy by buying about 3 months or so of nonperishables. I need to start researching this. I have no generator.
I plan to buy some of the following: Candles, matches, soap (hand and box), toothpaste (powdered), a few brushes, twine and rope, rechargeable batteries, a good bit of clorox (quick and lo cost method of getting your water potable), coleman lantern with fuel (a leadin to basic camping/cooking accessories). A good first aid kits with a book on basic medicine (my wife has a degree in nursing). I would like to learn to can and store food.
I don’t want to sell my home and move, but I have been thinking of purchasing a couple of acres and putting a mobile home on it, out of town. I may rent it out to have cash flow. I would just to have “someplace to go.” I would like to have a generator on site there, as well as a large tiller and small store of non-genetically altered seed.
Just a few thoughts above.
I have to say, though, that if I could figure out how to get all the “stuff” transported (esp the gold, silver and guns!), I would just make plans to leave and go to a friend’s farm in rural Guatemala if things went really bad. They have little electricity and are already living closer to a Kunstler life than we are. I vacation there simply to slow down and find the pace and style of life delightful……, as a “rich” (by their standards) gringo. I am sure it would be a different story were I penniless and forced to live on making what they make.
Gary, I design guns for a living. I’ve worked at Colt’s, Smith &Wesson, and helped start StagArms. I also did a hitch in the Marine Corp, and think I know something about firearms.
My first suggestion would be to take up target shooting and handloading. There’s no reson to own a gun unless you know how to shoot it, and familiarity is needed for competence. Most modern smokeless powders don’t explode on their own. They need to be confined inside the cartridge case to function, and are far safer than what’s under your sink.
Handloading, especially with cast bullets you mold yourself, is safe, fun (you get to play ballistics engineer, and it really is cool to try different combinations to get the best accuracy), and it’s cheap.
You can make perfectly legal rifle ammo that is subsonic and totally quiet, and you can shoot highpower rifles with little to no recoil for a few cents each. With cast bullets you only use a few grains of pistol powder, so a one pound can of Unique or a similar powder, costing about twenty dollars, will produce 1,500 rounds of .45 acp pistol ammo or about 600 rounds of rifle ammo.
The lead you would melt into the mold is actually an alloy, with a bit of tin and antimony added. Used wheelweights from the tire store, with a bit of hardware store tin added, work really well. If you can find a print shop with some old linotype for sale, that’s even better. All stuff thats easy to find now, stroble for centuries, and good trading stock.
The critical thing to stockpile is primers. The little shiny cylinders that are pressed into the back of the cartridge case. The fireing pin smacks them, they go pop, and their flash is channeled into the cartridge case, where it sets off the powder charge. Get them now while they’re cheap and legal. They come in two sizes, small and large, and are also differentiated by type, either pistol or rifle. They are indispensible for modern ammunition, and would be perfect swapping stock even if you didn’t reload yourself. A thousand cost less than $30, and they will keep in a cool, dry cellar for at least fifty years.
Also .22 long rifle ammunition, which costs about the same for a 500 round “brick” as you would pay for 1,000 rifle primers. There are litterally something like 200 million .22 rimfire rifles and pistols in the U.S.A., and, with proper shot placement and choice of ammo type they can be used for anything from hunting rabbits to self defense. Again, stored in a cool and dry cellar, they’ll be useful for your grandchildren. Should everything go to hell in a handbasket, I suspect the definition of a dollar might well be one .22 long rifle high speed hollowpoint cartridge.
Join a gunclub and get a pistol permit and/or a hunting licence, regardless of the cost and inconvenience. It lets you but ammo without funny questions, and there is a chance you might be “Grandfathered” if the day comes that permits are no longer allowed.
Also, I don’t want to start a s–tstorm with Speaker, but rice and beans don’t make a complete protein, the combination lacks two needed amino acids. There’s a reason every third world village you see has lots of chickens wandering about.
Even Incaparina, the much more complicated protein substitute the U.N. worked up in the 1950’s, failed miserably in the field, as the portions had to be mixed with extreme precision and cooked over a low and constant heat.
I would lean in the direction of a simple pantry, again in a cool, dry cellar, stocked over time with canned goods you would normally eat. I’ve been stocking up on meaty soups whenever they’re on sale, dating them, and rotating every six months. I’m eating the same as always, I’m building a buffer, and I’m actually saving money. Also, the survival sites have 20 serving vacuum packed trays of chile, hamburger, salmon, and other high protein foods for less than you would pay for the same portions in a supermarket today.
Cheap, starchy calories will be available free off the back of the National Guard truck for at least a while before things fall apart, if they even go that far. It might happen, however I suspect we’re looking at a bad time, but not a return to the stone age.
Store the high value stuff, hide it if needed, and make up the caloric difference with the government issued junk food. The vitamin idea is a good one, but get complete multivitamins. C for example, is chelated (absorbed) better if taken with E, and various other vitamins are also paired.
Those who “refuse to think,” who deliberately choose to not see the logic of your argument, are themselves the enablers of this entire governmental/regulatory fraud. Thank you for your excellent piece.
“If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows. Reason in epistemology leads to egoism in ethics, which leads to capitalism in politics.” — Ayn Rand
As they say, follow the money to find the truth.
Surprise, surprise!
Don Stott is a long-time seller of precious metals.
How to make a profit?
Get everyone scared as hell, so much so they start buying
and storing a piece of yellow metal whose only
major intrinsic value is that it doesn’t rust.
Not rusting is also what we need to practise in our thinking!
Sincerely
(from someone who thinks the best gold is being a good friend to
good people)
If you expect the worst, then there is little point in saving anything. Nothing you can externally possess, cannot be taken away from you. Not precious metal, not food, not land, not guns, not even the milk goat are safe. You cannot live long in a bunker. Think of Germany in the late nineteen thirties. You could be the richest Jew in Germany and still could have kept nothing. Or the best prepared chinese family in the village at the time of Mao”s Red Guards and kept nothing. In the US ,recall the period of reconstruction in the south following 1865. Short of taking your life, governments can take all but one thing, what you know and can show by doing. If you plainly see the future, consider flight. The jews who fled Europe survived, while many who stayed behind did not. It is difficult to leave, but we are a nation of people who left their homes.
Even the dumbest fox has more than one hole.
Buy guns and ammo soon, the prices have already doubled in about eightteen months. The push to ethanol will drive even more corn out of the food chain. Shot guns are best for close range home defense, with a rifle as backup. Buy a car that is as manual as possible, repairs will be hard to come by. Note that FEMA has already built their version of concentration camps, and if you missed it, the Iowa National Guard was planning a town takeover in arcadia, iowa for this weekend; but it was cancelled when word got out. Lastly, buy a copy of Tragedy and Hope by Quigley, it is the blueprint for what is happening.
Sarah??? Because she attends a church where the members and pastors speak in tongues??? Get a grip Gary!
WOW…this really is a gathering place for the lunatic fringe…..what a collection of alarmists, paranoid losers
and ugly people who are 30+ years old and still living in their mom`s basement !!!
go ahead and gather up all your “end of days” crap…..the maurading hourdes will simply over run you, rape and/or kill your family and then take all your stuff…..
have a nice day losers….
I built a shelter 3 feet down with concrete blocks. A buried container would also work for when the soldiers come for us. Freeze dried food lasts 30 years and is not too bad tasting. lots of water. They have plastic on the inside and outside of the cans. I also buy gold and silver and ammo whenever possible. I keep debating whether to cash my 401K in now or next year. I think maybe we got another year, but who knows? When I heard they were going to start licensing bullets, that one bothered me alot! But that is the way it is going. I also plan on starting a garden this year. Fencing my windows off also. Should probably get a dirt bike big enough to get outa town if the shit gets too weird, but I guess by that time, it’d be too late. May you live in interesting times,huh?
“This will make the America of a year or two from now a fertile field for a fascist dictator to emerge. The more disorderly the next couple of years become the more likely Americans will embrace someone with good oratory skills who promises to restore order, even if it is at the point of a gun.”
The Fascist is already here. His name is Barack Obama. You might want to read “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg. He makes many of the same points about Woodrow Wilson that Mr. Stott does.
Ed Foster and Linda Chastek–excellent articles!
Ed, I didn’t get deeply into “Nutrition” because those who don’t know would have to do about 30,000 pages of reading, or at least good old Adelle Davis (a MUST have for your library is “Let’s Eat Right to Get Well”), and supplementing for superior health is a very pricey business. The newbies can’t start by putting several thousand dollars into things with polysyllabic names. Better to give them simple guidelines that are reasonably correct. Here’s a fine one:
if at ALL possible get live chickens now. Research shows repeatedly that on a diet of zero eggs to nothing but eggs, the more eggs consumed, the healthier dogs were, and it works for people to. (Cholesterol is vital for brain function and sexual health. The average adult will manufacture 2000 mg/day if there is none in his/her diet!) Eggs contain lecithin, which emulsifies the cholesterol, which keeps it from sticking to your arterial linings. Eggs average 12 grams of protein, and adults should aim for at least 125/day. Eggs are the only good source of sulfur-based compounds such as methionine. Do NOT eat raw egg white because the avidin in it will destroy the B vitamin biotin. B-vitamins should be taken in a balanced formula such as a B-50 by beginners; start with half a tablet. If your urine turns bright yellow, that’s enough. (If anyone wants to know the “subclinical” signs of vitamin deficiency, those you can see before your doctor can, ask me or read Adelle. Here’s a simple one: white flecks on your fingernails are caused by insufficient zinc and nothing else. Another: if your tongue has fissures and crannies like a dog’s, that is insufficient B vitamins, and it is what is wrong with the dog, too.)
Chickens are noisy and hard on lawns, but they reproduce naturally and live primarily off the land.
If you have access to a country place for when the hard times come, put a couple of thousand dollars into a cow with calf, a heifer who can be bred the next year, and eventually a young bull. (You can figure out why any sort of cow costs at least a dollar a pound!) Hold off on the bull as long as possible because he eats all year for a few minutes’ work.
Get one of the small breeds: Kerry, Dexter, Scottish Highlander. They browse, as goats do, eating brush, the leaves they can reach on trees, and grass. They are placid, calve easily, and produce more meat and milk proportionately than bigger breeds. We have some Dexters, and their milk is as rich as a Jersey’s. If you don’t need it, let the calf have it all or feed it to other livestock. THAT gets you milk AND cream AND sides of beef if we end up replaying the Thirties; if not, they will still be a good investment. Take a calf to the locker plant every six months or so. Yours will be hormone and antibiotic free and of better quality at far less cost.
We started with milk goats, which are superior in every way other than the flavor of the meat and producing cream easily. Goats’ milk is naturally homogenized, and about the same butterfat as cows’ milk. They are smaller, cheaper, and the females (”Does,” not “nannies”) make good pets. The milk makes magnificent cheese of almost every variety if you buy the right enzymes. A VERY good rule: make pets of the females, but not the males of any species. Either you are going to eat them or sell them, or you don’t want 200 pounds of buck who stands over six feet high on his hind legs acting the way he did when he was a precious little kid butting you playfully because he wanted his bottle and jumping up on you. Again, get a doe with a female kid for your first project. Learn to milk her (see the web site for Fiasco Farms! Good advice, funny, nice folks.) Basically, you don’t pull: trap the milk in the teat between your thumb and forefinger, then roll the other fingers around rhe teat to express the milk. Release and repeat. Practice on a rubber glove full of water. A good Dairy goat will give on the order of a gallon and a half a day, and do not forget that the Masai live totally on milk. (Wow, that sounds like a desperation diet to me.)
With twenty hens (which have to be protected from skunks, possums, raccoons, and so forth), a rooster, and two goats which would be in milk between them virtually all year, you could feed your family very well if you could grow or find vegetables. LaManchas, Nubians, and French Alpines are all grand. A registered Doe will run you at least $300 for a very young one, $350 for one in her productive years, and well worth it. We prefer French Alpines, which are smaller, as LaManchas are, than Nubians, give as much milk, and are the easiest to milk because they have nice, big spigots. They are sweet, funny, insatiably curious, and will raid your gardens and plants enthusiastically. We’ve been looking at the Pygmy goats, smaller than many dogs, which are said to produce more meat and milk proportionately than the large breeds. Cute?! Cute. You could toss them in a vehicle if you had to…
Again, we aren’t trying to become pioneers, we’re looking for an EDGE, a significant edge, and improving our diets while lowering the cost of food even in “good” times. To answer someone else, NO, I really don’t want to have to stand off fifty desperate townies or Big Bubba, Slim, Killer, and Murdoch on their motorcycles…but nobody asked me what I want.
I DO consider it likely that there will be a period during which roving desperadoes in both cities and the country will be very dangerous, indeed. If we can get through the hundred days whatsit posited, I think it likely that things will pretty much be under control from a variety of factors, but those 100 days are going to be a nightmare. We can’t begin to protect ourselves from armies, but I’m always in favor of making such preparations as we can. The shortest war I can recall was the 7-Day one in Israel, but even seven days of anarchy would be very unpleasant. Those who want to line up like Muzahks awaiting Genghis Kahn can do so, and hope he still only whacks off every tenth head (hence the term “decimate”), but many of us think it makes a lot more sense to do what we can. Anybody who wants to try to kill my precious Faith, the Head Goat, is going to have to kill me first. She’s FAMILY, as well as a good milker! (She’s the one who is just SURE she should be allowed to come in the house and eat the ivy and climb up on the sofas. No, you cannot potty train goats.) The same goes for sweet Angie, shy Jelly Bean, and Minnie the Moocher who will stick her head in the bucket and drink all the milk if she isn’t watched: they’re four-legged “people” I will defend just as will dogs and children. Goats and chickens alone would carry us through a lengthy spell when there was nothing to be had in grocery stores.
The problem we are contemplating here is that there may well come a time when anyone who wants what we’ve got WILL be prepared to kill us to get it.
I do NOT agree that commercial dried foods and MREs are good value for your money, although if you have lots that’s an easy way to get an emergency stock in one order, and the things could be used for barter. One well-known site regards 3/4 of a cup of beans and a couple of tiny mystery meat “wienies” as an entree. What they claim will feed 27 might feed five. You can do better than that by far watching sales, learning to can, root cellar, and dehydrate, and making your own jerky and smoked meats. You know what your family members like, and buying anything else is a waste of storage space and money, within common sense limits. Rice, beans, dried potato products, pasta, cheese, oil, sugar of all sorts, even brownie and cake mixes when you catch them on sale, canned vegetables for when the fresh and frozen run out, plenty of seasonings, and big supplies of basic household necessities are the obvious place to begin, and even if everything turns butterflies and roses you’ll still be able to use them.
Absolutely, at least a 5K generator that runs on propane or diesel, better two, better two 10K. There will surely be periods when the electricity is off, and the ability to run a generator an hour four times a day (about half a gallon of diesel) will keep the freezers frozen and supply enough juice to cook, run the pump on the well, wash, and even the luxury of a little light other than candles of an evening.
What haunts me is the thought that some day WHAT WE HAVE WILL BE ALL THERE IS. The stores will almost certainly be empty in at least some areas–could be yours–and it could be dangerous to get on the road even if they weren’t. I’m hedging my bets by not buying anything (such as an MRE) that wouldn’t be useful and desirable in “normal” times, but how stupid are those who are making NO preparations going to feel? For a good exercise, go inventory your refrigerator, freezer, and larder.
How many days could your family eat on what you have? The milk and produce would be gone in three or four days even if you were careful. Few families can answer even a thought-provoking…”Ten days, before we were eating very odd things and not much of them.” An old good read is Pat Frank’s “Alas, Babylon.”
Time and money. On this site we probably have a little more rapidly-declining FRNs than most people, but who knows how much time we have? Laws already demand sacrificing 20% of the corn crop on the sacred altar of ethanol, an inferior fuel that ruins motors. That proportion is going to go up, by decree. Oil is up to $44, and not likely to stay down for long, since Americans, especially, haven’t learned to reduce their driving and aren’t likely to any time soon. Except around here! We don’t go to town until something becomes urgent, and then we handle all the errands that have accumulated. Not having a job is a very good luxury if you have at least a reasonable pension.
Today we had 7 wild hogs that had been tearing up the pastures in the trap. They range from a large sow and boar to their “babies” (about 75-80 pounds each of pure ugly and bad temper.) If you were out in the woods on the run, you really wouldn’t want to meet that family. Would you know how to turn one of the “little” ones into hams, pork chops, and sausage? Me, either! I DO know an assortment of men who are versed in such matters, fortunately…
Canadian guy, want to suggest some books to tell readers where the little dotted lines are?! Sudden thought…baked potatoes make good hand warmers and you can eat them later.
Other Linda, I wouldn’t worry much about shooting the neighbors’ kids, something that would be far more likely in cities, because if it all goes bad kids are going to be kept very close to moms’ sides. Mind, it COULD happen; one of my young friends in Iraq DID tell of his platoon running up against a singularly dim-witted family who had given a ten-year-old girl a water pistol. The kid was out in the midle of a FIRE FIGHT playing cops and robbers. Yes, she got shot. When a soldier is under fire and comes around a corner and sees a gun barrel, his first thought is NOT “Children at play!” Your point is correct, in that if it sounds as though someone is trying to break into your house, YOUR assumption isn’t going to be that little Jimmy from next door has come over to play or try to borrow a cup of sugar.
Grief, I’ve got to share this one. I was alone one night, late, reading, when I heard someone trying to tear off the screens in Derby, a BR community of Wichita, KS. I broke records leaping up, grabbing my gun and ‘phone, and cranking that window shut before locking myself in the bathroom and calling the Sheriff’s Department. I’m not dumb and I’m not a cowboy looking for an excuse to shoot someone! The deputies arrived and searched carefully, but found no one. They assured me they were glad to be of service and that I had done the right thing. I said, “Guys, let’s at least go look at where the screen was being attacked, because maybe the burglar is still in the neighborhood.” So we did, and the fellows and I are still laughing about it, I’m sure: there, trapped between the window and the screen, was a somewhat flattened, totally bewildered and outraged…tom cat! So we let him loose and he never returned.
That was 30 years ago, not what conditions may be this year or next or two decades from now. Sure, you call 911 FIRST before you start spraying ammo around. You get your family to the safest spot in the house, put little ones in the bath tub lying down, and pray. That works fine in a world where there is law and order.
Well, pretty well. My best friend lives in SAT (San Antonio), and TWO people she knows have been killed this year. One lived in a gated community in a MacMansion, but opened the door to a teenaged male who beat, raped, and killed her, and stole her car. He was caught, at least. The other was victim of the increasing trend to “home invasions” there–and elsewhere. Nice neighborhood, but sweet little old ladies are being targeted more frequently. When this sort of thing happens now, what is likely when food, gas, and money are scarce? Do only Haitians riot when they get hungry? Obviously not; there were food riots in many countries a few months ago, and they were rioting over prices, not actual scarcities.
No, we shouldn’t go overboard and become trigger-happy paranoiacs. We SHOULD be realistic and prepared to protect ourselves against as many factors as we can, no reference to Bill O’Reilly.
Off to water in the greenhouses, and I hope you are spending your evenings planning and reading.
Rancher Lady
Agora should be ashamed to publish this right wing nut clown….what garbage. This clown thinks Sarah Palin is the answer? Good grief.
I find the end of civiliztion scenarios as written here to be about as likely as a magnetic pole shift in 2012 and I’ve alway’s been a fan of conspiricy history. Reminds me of when I worked on the Hanford Nuclear Plants in the 70s. God doesn’t want you to pay taxes, the movie star wars is satanic.
Better stock up on guns and ammo to stay safe the government is gonna come and get em. I guess the Liberal and Conservative code wording is working on the side of paranoia.
I foresaw this insanity back in 2004, so I sold my house in North County San Diego at the top of the market and moved to Costa Rica. Here the living is easy, simple, and focused on what’s important, like family and friendships. My partner and I bought 60 acres of land that we would like to develop into a sustainable survival community. We have many ideas we’ve researched as far as sustainable architecture, permaculture for growing food, solar energy, biologic waste and water cachement systems, and more. We can also help with residency. All we can hope for is that some will see that there is little time left to debate what is certainly coming. I do believe that the small communities here are still so close to the land, that they will merely go back to riding horses and farming, just as they’ve been doing for hundreds of years before they were unduly influenced/coerced by U.S. governmental stupidity. At least there is no standing army and the people pay close attention to what government is doing. Some complain that the gov’t here is slow to make changes, but I see that as a plus. So if anyone is interested in a sane lifestyle for under $100,000 (land plus house), we can help with that. If someone would like to joint venture with us to help develop the property, that’s needed, too. And anyone with real world skills, like architectural/agricultural/mechanical/electrical/plumbing knowledge can certainly make a good living here. So this is what we are trying to do in order to create an alternative for people besides standing frozen while the growing fiscal disaster barrels down on them. Pura Vida!
Dear Rancher Lady,
I am shocked, Shocked that anyone remembers Adele Davis and her “Let’s…” books. My mom was a disciple and I grew up eating her wonderful recipes. Thanks for the memory. -D.
Thanks for the comment Dixie. Adelle has been dead over thirty years, I guess, but not one thing she said has ever been proven wrong! The last fifth or sixth of each book tends to be line after line of references to reseach papers and studies. Anyone versed in Adelle would never have restricted eggs or salt, and never eats margarine.
She quoted government research done in the Thirties, not for profit, not commissioned by big business. This is the best, and most of, the research ever done on vitamins. They can’t be patented or sold as “drugs,” so why bother? Look in a used book store. Her recipe for “fortified milk,” alone is incredibly valuable for those who are ill, injured, or recuperating. MY kids associate IT with Adelle, and disliked it intensely! They still got a quarter of a cup of eggs, milks, protein powder, and supplements every hour on the hour on those rare occasions when they needed it.
Dear Mike in Seattle:
I spent 15 years living in Washington, nine in Tacoma and six over in the Tri-Cities area, and came home to Texas five years ago after my husband died unexpectedly. I enjoyed your response, reproduced here:
“I find the end of civiliztion scenarios as written here to be about as likely as a magnetic pole shift in 2012 and I’ve alway’s been a fan of conspiricy history. Reminds me of when I worked on the Hanford Nuclear Plants in the 70s. God doesn’t want you to pay taxes, the movie star wars is satanic.
Better stock up on guns and ammo to stay safe the government is gonna come and get em. I guess the Liberal and Conservative code wording is working on the side of paranoia.”
Mike, I was a professional Editor and Analytical Project Report Writer before I “retired” to tend goats and herbs and research privately, and I tell my friends that they are judged on originality and content, not grammar, spelling, or typing ability.
What did you do at Hanford? I don’t suppose you were an engineer because all those I know are upbeat, and all of them are preparing for Apocalypse Soon! (Engineers are my favorite people! Magnificent minds, marvelously inventive, and sometimes very funny. On purpose…and not. I tease my best friend because if I give him a seemingly impossible task he will come up with a fast, easy, inexpensive, workable brilliant solution every time…but when he questioned whether or not a maritime shipping container could be delivered easily across a standard cattle guard, he came up with three weeks and thirty thousand dollars to restructure our entrance! He proposed to tear down a hundred feet of fence, put down four truck loads of gravel, double the width of the cattle guard, and rebuild the fence and remove the gravel later!
Naw, you just tell the driver that your truck-driving friends who have visited here say any good ‘un can deliver easily, and he does fine. In fact FOUR of them delivered over-sized loads without problems, and so do men in very large feed trucks…Of COURSE Ah’ve got several friends who are big rig drivers, as well as a world class biologist, a zookeeper, and a couple who are very well known in America, in different fields. Never mind who! I choose my friends on their character and their “culture,” in the sense of their ethics, their principles, their manners, and whether they are good-humored, interesting people. The love of my life, who prepared a glorious omelet stuffed with our homegrown eggs, sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, cheese, and sausage while I was writing you, is an electrical engineer. Never mind what my deceased husband did; it is still classified, but it involved being a genuine mathematical genius and _____. Me? I’m an expert on arithmetic! Our kids are both MG, though…)
I’m having trouble following your last statement,
“I guess the Liberal and Conservative code wording is working on the side of paranoia.”
BOTH Liberals and Conservatives? Since when does a Liberal admit he has “codes,” which they surely do, such as “mean-spirited,” “working families,” “education,” and “fair?” I can’t imagine one admitting he is paranoid!
Since when do Liberals and Conservatives agree on anything? “Bi-partisan” means “Doing it my way!” when spoken by Democrats, and “Doing it your way but not as fast” when uttered by many purporting to be Republicans. I don’t want to be bi-partisan; I want to do what is best for my country, my family, and myself in strict accordance with what the Constitution provides for and forbids. I’m certain I’m right and that most issues are black or white, with very, very few shades of gray (which we call “extenuating circumstances.”) I’ve never heard a Left Wing proposal I thought even vaguely sensible, although I admit freely that a great many RINO (Republicans In Name Only) are nearly as idiotic about what constitutes good public policy. I’m willing to stand by my choices and take my lumps if I’m wrong.
You may be amused to know that when I was an elected public official (won by a Reagenesque landslide!) the ONLY reason I had to hear more than one vote to know which way was right was that there were two fence-sitters on the Commission. ABSOLUTELY, if the big union boss or his crew was in favor, the answer was “NO!” If that man had told me the sun was shining I would have looked for myself. There were others I trusted implicitly to have done the research and made sensible, intelligent decisions. (No, I didn’t shirk my job, and I may be the only politician you’ll ever talk to who didn’t even take what she was entitled to, never mind creative accounting and imaginative charges. Laugh again: I could handle the enemy easily, but “my” party sometimes drove me crazy!)
Sure I think Liberals are paranoid, want to destroy business, and would like to see everything that isn’t mandatory forbidden, but I’m having trouble figuring out what appears to be a Leftist who can put “liberal” and “paranoid” in the same sentence…or was the aim to disassociate yourself from both groups?
WHY do you think that “end of civiliztion (sic) scenarios” are impossible, and why did you stigmatize the basic premise in that way? We’re not talking about the end of civilization; we’re speaking of a time when the declining economic climate and increasing governmental expenses, mandates, and regulations are quite likely to cause devastating hardship and very bad behavior.
Do you know what “just in time” inventory is? That is a quick, easy explanation for why Seattle has a three-day supply of food, at most; restock is on eighteen-wheel trucks in various places. That’s why New Orleans ran out of food after Katrina and Houston got down to a five-item maximum in grocery stores after Ike.
What will happen if Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., calls a national truckers’ strike, as he threatened to do last May? When the trucks aren’t rolling, and big, unionized truckdrivers with tire irons are telling other truckers they aren’t leaving the truck stops (anecdotes from the friends mentioned above), exactly where are lattes and sushi going to come from? Coffee certainly grows on trees, but it does so in places like Colombia and Hawaii. Yes, Dale Foreman grows terrific fruit over towards the western side of the state (Dale, you still owe me three crates of apples!), but that won’t get them over the mountains.
It is an easily-demonstrable fact that people steal NOW to supplement their needs or for pleasure. Are you so well-to-do (I’m not.) that you have failed to notice that we’re on an endless cycle of raising prices, cutting quality, cutting quantity, repeat? That your money doesn’t buy as much?
Can you not even envision a time when it might be that the shelves are bare and that the lawless elements among us will take matters into their own hands? Has the Russian “Mafia” which engulfed WA turned into Boy Scouts and good citizens? Have former Governor Gary Locke’s tong connections all gone back to China? About 1990 an excellent study pointed out that 90% of juveniles before the Court in Seattle were at best functionally illiterate. Are schools there teaching so well now that they are turning out knowledgeable youngsters with job skills and glittering SAT scores? If not, it sure isn’t for lack of throwing money and regulations at the problem. I analyzed a Federal program for the Tacoma schools in 1992; accepting a one million dollar grant would have added ten million in strings!
It is easy to laugh at old fogies, but back in the Fifties MY (gasp) segregated high school insisted that EVERY graduate be able to type and that those who weren’t going to college mastered short hand and bookkeeping as well. ALL students had basic office skills sufficient to get jobs. Only three failed to be graduated from my class: two killed in accidents and the ONE who “had to get married.” (No, we still haven’t forgotten Nancy! We were scandalized. Yes, three of them had to go to summer school after graduation exercises, and THEN they got their diplomas. Diplomae!) Today the kids are taking bowling. I didn’t make that up!
The national literacy rate then for whites was 95%, and the incidence of illegitimacy was under 5%. At the all black High School here the statistics were very nearly as good for academic achievement. The national rates were 7% illiteracy for blacks, and 25% for unwed mothers. Along came JFK and Lyndon and his “Great” Society, and now there is growing illiteracy (estimated conservatively at over 50%, realistically at over 70% for youngsters) and the illegitamacy rate is 25% for whites and 75% for others. Some groups take longer to destroy than others. I guess I never told you that my “public service” for over two decades has been rescuing illiterates one at a time and tutoring for the GED…
Washington is the USA in miniature, with the Left holding the big population areas (although Tacoma tries to balance) and the sea coast, while the rest of the population is pretty conservative. WA is one of the five most expensive areas in America, and Seattle was the third most dangerous place in America for women a few years ago besides being depressingly overcast and drizzly most of the time. I used to wonder if Germany wasn’t really fighting wars for aggressive purposes, it was just trying to find some sunshine. I’ve spent over a dozen years in Germany, and the climate is very similar. A lot of people become very depressed without adequate light, and perhaps that’s what the problem in Seattle is…”Summer” is three weeks long, if you are lucky, and the temperature has been known to soar to 85 degrees!
I can laugh at myself. I am quite positive that Global “Warming,” Global “Cooling,” the purported dangers of DDT, salt, and eggs, and similar things are totally unscientific. I don’t “believe” in acid rain, and the hole in the ozone layer has always been there and belongs there to vent gases, such as those from volcanic eruptions. I know that according to the Smithsonian, which compared samples from around 1900, the mercury levels are exactly the same in fish now as they were over a hundred years ago.
I do NOT think that man can influence the climate in either direction, and I get the giggles when told that average temperatures are nearly a degree higher than they were back…actually back before they started keeping records!…and proposals that we lower the temperature .2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050! Did you know that there was smog over Los Angeles and Mexico City hundreds of years ago? Those darned Aztecs and Mayas, cooking their tortillas and grilling sacrifices, d’you think?
Open your eyes, Mike, smile, and laugh. Would it really be so bad to stock up a little extra food and at least get a Louisville Slugger?
We aren’t afraid, we’re aware. While proof-reading this and eating my omelette, with an enormous hairy hound at my feet to remind me to leave her a nice portion, there were five shots. What would YOU do or think if you heard that many? I counted blandly…four…then one…
I didn’t panic because even in 2009 I was sure there was a good reason, and there was. We’re dealing with a wild hog infestation, and one big sow came to the party early tonight, as I supposed when I heard shots. My foreman was surprised by her while finishing preparing to deal with the herd later, and he was “only” carrying his 9 mm handgun. An hour from now he’ll have a large-caliber rifle and a backup with a shotgun, because that’s when the herd of 50 or more has come the last couple of evenings, but suddenly he was in danger from several hundred pounds of nasty temper with sharp hooves, big teeth, and no conscience.
It may be sobering for some of you to note that a good shot needed four rounds to stop her and a fifth to deliver the coup de grace. You may not know that hogs think human makes a nice entree.
Asia’s a former combat veteran and crack shot and what surprised me was that HE lost count of how many times he had fired. He was so sure he had fired fewer that he unloaded the clip and counted the remaining rounds. I may tease him about losing his edge, later. The reaction of most inexperienced people faced with sudden death is to keep pulling the trigger until the gun is empty. If you ever face danger routinely you had better know how many rounds are still left in your gun.
People sneer at the “pioneer spirit” and traditional virtues, but when–”If,” if you insist–the chips are down you will need them. At any given moment you may need preparations you haven’t made. You may need to react in ways you haven’t considered ahead of time.
Asia’s “duty uniform” is fatigues, a tactical load-bearing vest, a machete, survival tools, bloused combat boots, and a nine mil because he and I think that every last thing he carries may be necessary for his survival some day, raht heah, deep in th’ hort o’ Texas, and we’re only talking about critters. (Sure, he looks cute as a button! When he’s being “butler” and chef, which he loves, he wears combat boots, black bloused trousers, and black turtlenecks. He is ALWAYS prepared to deal with the unexpected. His clothing and accoutrements are part of his employment package, along with living quarters and lavish board, as well as keys to the cigarette, liquor, and wine stowage. His salary is clear profit because we take care of all his expenses. He’s worth it!
Chuckle…I hear him “lecturing” the dogs, and I know good and well he’s feeding them handfuls of sliced pepperoni! Babe, the Big Black Lummox, has days when she insists he, and only he, should feed her off his own plate, with a sterling fork, of course…and he obliges. All of us adore Asia and would be lost without him.)
He would be aghast if I said anything more than “Don’t take your guns to town, son, don’t take your guns to town!” (Country-Western song.) He is my first line of defense, my blood brother, and as cool-headed as they come. He’d take a bullet for me or pick up a rattlesnake that menaced me. I braced half a dozen “cops” in the bank the day a jittery clerk called them because he looked “dangerous.” Dam’ straight he is dangerous to anyone who would hurt those under his care! Other than that, I trust him with the keys to the safe and never question his expenditures. He’s totally honest and devoted to “his” people.
And…when an elderly lady is going to pick up twenty-five thousand in cash, I think it sensible to take a body guard.
I went boiling out of the manager’s office where I was passing the time of day, stuttering incoherently demanding that they un-cuff my Asia instantly, and totally ignoring a Cop-ette who was menacing me with her badge, her hand on her gun,waving the other in my face, demanding that I “KEEP BACK!” Hey, that’s MY Asia, and NOBODY threatens him. They could have arrested ME (Miss “I’ve never had so much as a parking ticket!”) before I would have backed down.
I virtually never say “cop,” but those were a bunch of bored, self-important thugs with no probable cause, and when they started demanding loudly if he were “sleeping” whith his fat, twenty-year-older boss I wasn’t amused. Then they started in on ME, demanding to see ID and wanting to know if I were a hostage!
Bernanke and Paulson think we need SWAT teams in banks to prevent runs and maintain order at other times.
I don’t know how old you are Mike, but this isn’t 1950, or 1960, or even 1970. It isn’t even the Reagan years. Boy, is it not the Reagan years. The government becomes more abusive and dictatorial, and the criminal elements expand, and one of these days the nation may well reach boiling-over point.
I’m going to include my e-mail address, in case you want to respond privately. Now I will tell you part of why I rambled on with our wild West saga, all of which is quite true, as odd as that may sound to a Seattleite.
We had never had trouble with feral hogs before last year when lack of feed pushed them our way and they found a promised land. They’ve been tearing up the pastures for over a year…and little by little they have eaten all the nut grass, eaten all the cedar berries, and eaten everything else the cattle didn’t get, and we’re in drought times, still.
Now they are raiding their equivalent of “the public treasury,” the creep feeders set out to “finish” the show calves. (”Creep feeders” are surrounded by bars, so that the calves can get in but the cows can’t. The little ones “creep” under the barriers.) My engineer friend in the next county is having the same problem because he has woods and stock.
When natural food was plentiful they preferred to stay away from humans, but desperation has driven them ever closer. I hear them out there in the night, right now. They will dare and risk what they must, and dogs and men are worth facing for the prize of rich feed in large amounts redolent of the sweet molasses they crave. I also find it interesting that after four days in captivity the hogs we captured are settling down nicely, quite content with gifts of grain and fresh water daily.
Can you see the parallel with where our government is? We have seventh generation welfare families and 25,000,000 illegal “immigrants” the government admits to. Nancy, Harry, and the 0 are determined to increase the number of those feeding and punish those who produce the feed. Wild hogs don’t think they are “entitled,” they just know what they want and are willing to take it. At what point do domestic feeders decide they aren’t satisfied with their largesse? We don’t know. We just say that it is wise to be prepared.
Do write me at ranchLT4@aol.com if you want to explain your position more clearly or refute my conclusions or even question my facts.
Rancher Lady
.
There is hope those for some. It is mankind since Adam and Eve that have screwed up. We have walked away from what our Creator has given us. We did not learn from the Flood of Noah’s time. We did not learn from the Chosen People of God and their escape and wonderings for 40 yrs. Mankind is to blame because he has walked away from, ignores, debates what god there is, who to believe or not believe, creationism vs evolutionism, good vs evil and so forth…..Our doom has been prophesied from the beginning-Genesis to Revelations in God’s Holy Word. We are now seeing End Times on the horizon. Wars and rumors of wars. Natural disasters on the increase with frequencies of tornadoes and earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and so forth. Diseases that kill and many that anti-biotics no longer work. Economies and countries falling each moment and new leaders overtaking by any means possible.
For those who believe, have faith in God, there is hope. It will not last, the Bible says for 7 years. Then PEACE will come for a millenium with the Reign of the King of kings-Son of God, Jesus Christ. Not Muhammed or some other god mankind has believed in…..
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Y’all are my bedtime treat, and tonight I want to talk about the attacks on Sarah Palin’s religion. I’ve written two books on theology, but with luck I won’t rip off 250 pages…
Paul wrote, “I speak in tongues more than the rest of you,” when addressing early church members. Uh. I have seen the argument that “miracles were just to get the early church started,” which I regard as being similar to accusing God of “bait and switch.” Or is ithis like the Mormons saying, “Well, honest, the Angel Moroni brought down these two golden tablets, but he took them with him when he left?”
I am not a Baptist, but they have a very good saying: “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.” You can’t just pick and choose what you like. It is either all true or none of it is worth the flimsy paper it is written on. Life is very simple once you choose.
The New Testament does not say you HAVE to speak in tongues; it says that you can become able to do so and that there are spiritual advantages. It doesn’t say you HAVE to handle snakes, it only indicates you can, a proposition I intend to test only when there is NO other recourse. Ditto on eating poison.
Someone admonished me with, “Can’t we leave race out of this?” when I wasn’t talking about race. How Mrs. Palin chooses to worship her God is her business, and whether or not others do so in a similar manner is a large part of what America is about. She has a RIGHT to do so, and I submit that she has a right to practice her beliefs without being mocked for them. Imagine the furore if anyone had said that killing chickens isn’t a very godly activity; a bunch would have been all upset over “hate” speech directed at Rastafarians. I would disapprove of blood sacrifices no matter who practiced them, but am constrained to point out that the story of Cain and Abel demonstrates that God felt differently about it. He was younger then…
I said that those on welfare at any level would resent having taking their “entitlements” away from them, up to and including giant conglomerates. I didn’t say that slaves love slavery, but many of them are quite content. Every day the wild hogs we captured become happier with ample rich grain, fresh water they don’t have to hunt for, and today’s largesse, a large pan of fabulous goats’ milk. One sniff and they dove in and finished it off.
If you go get “The South Was Right,” by a pair of Kennedy brothers, in Alabama, you will find several pages of interviews done with former slaves after 1865. Their memories of their former owners were all good, and they were confused and dismayed by having had their lives torn apart to give them something they didn’t want. The ones who cared ran.
I wouldn’t make a good slave because I do not value anything above liberty. I don’t want “government” money to help me make my way. I just want to sing my little song, as Ray Stevens said, take care of myself, my dependents, and my livestock, and live free, exchanging the fruits of my labor for those of others, harming no one, being kind to all. (I have done “social service” all my life, before you ask. In general I rescue illiterates and tutor for the GED.) I want to make my own decisions and take my lumps if my judgement is faulty.
What a dangerous little old lady I am!
Good morning. He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
I am from Republic and know bad English, give true I wrote the following sentence: “Com is a portal for pakistanis to get latest news, classifieds, deals on airline tickets and talk to each other.”
Thank you so much for your future answers
. Primrose.
[...] Bigger is not better and “too big to fail” is incorrect. When a company, gets “too big” relative to it’s environment it’s a “dinosaur”. It is then susceptible to the same thing that did in the dinosaurs. A sufficiently severe “environmental” shock will destroy it. [...]
Thanks for posting, I