A different take on survivalism

Are you ready for a contrarian view on survivalism? If you think you can handle one man's opinion on survivalism's sacred cows, read on. If not, I guess you shouldn't read the following piece. For what it's worth, I happen to agree with many points he brings up, one of which is to plan on cooperating with your neighbors in a crisis situation and not try to maverick it. Is he anti-gun? I don't think so, but the way I read the blog post, using guns exclusively to protect a stash in the boonies, or relying on perceived seclusion, is a losing proposition. Read it for yourself and see what YOU think. It's not short, but it's worth the time. Even if you don't buy anything he says, he does bring up some important considerations.

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The Art of Survival, Taoism and the Warring States
This week's theme: Survival + (June 27, 2008)

by Charles Hugh Smith

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I can't help cutting against the grain on topics like surviving the coming bad times when my experience runs counter to the standard received wisdom.

A common thread within most discussions of surviving bad times--especially really bad times--runs more or less like this: stockpile a bunch of canned/dried food and other valuable accoutrements of civilized life (generators, tools, canned goods, firearms, etc.) in a remote area far from urban centers, and then wait out the bad times, all the while protecting your stash with an array of weaponry and technology (night vision binocs, etc.)

Now while I respect and admire the goal, I must respectfully disagree with just about every assumption behind this strategy. Once again, this isn't because I enjoy being ornery (please don't check on that with my wife) but because everything in this strategy runs counter to my own experience in rural, remote settings.

You see, when I was a young teen my family lived in the mountains. To the urban sophisticates who came up as tourists, we were "hicks" (or worse), and to us they were "flatlanders" (derisive snort).

Now the first thing you have to realize is that we know the flatlanders, but they don't know us. They come up to their cabin, and since we live here year round, we soon recognize their vehicles and know about how often they come up, what they look like, if they own a boat, how many in their family, and just about everything else which can be learned by simple observation.

The second thing you have to consider is that after school and chores (remember there are lots of kids who are too young to have a legal job, and many older teens with no jobs, which are scarce), boys and girls have a lot of time on their hands. We're not taking piano lessons and all that urban busywork. And while there are plenty of pudgy kids spending all afternoon or summer in front of the TV or videogame console, not every kid is like that.

So we're out riding around. On a scooter or motorcycle if we have one, (and if there's gasoline, of course), but if not then on bicycles, or we're hoofing it. Since we have time, and we're wandering all over this valley or mountain or plain, one way or another, then somebody will spot that trail of dust rising behind your pickup when you go to your remote hideaway. Or we'll run across the new road or driveway you cut, and wander up to see what's going on. Not when you're around, of course, but after you've gone back down to wherever you live. There's plenty of time; since you picked a remote spot, nobody's around.

Read more here...

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Take care.
DAL357

Ol' Heller

Thank you very much, Supreme Court of the United States, for seeing things as clearly as you did on the Heller case, relatively speaking. At least, that is, the five of you who voted to uphold the lower court's decision; the four of you who didn't have been educated far beyond your intelligence.

Note to criminals, occasional and inveterate alike: This is just another reason to vacate your "profession" and find legal, productive employment. If that idea doesn't appeal to you, and I have no idea how it could since you are scumbag criminals, be ready to accept the consequences of your actions.

Note to gun-hating politicians who have illegally and immorally kept their consituents from acquiring the most productive means of self-protection available to the average citizen today: The writing is on the wall and you will lose in the long run, although I'm sure you'll waste multiple millions of taxpayer dollars before you figure that out.

Take care.
DAL357

Talented?

My wife found this link to a gallery of paintings and sketches by possibly the most evil monster ever to walk the earth, Adolf Hitler. Take a look at them and see what you think.

My opinion is that he had some aptitude for art, but it was nothing outstanding, a fact which his fragile ego couldn't handle. So, instead of perhaps bettering his technique and developing a unique style, he turned his back on artistic improvement and parlayed the blame-game into a political platform. This just happened to coincide with a country/people down on its luck and eager to re-inflate its own opinion of itself (of course, it did get a raw deal [thanks to the vindictive French, emboldened by its American ally] at the end of WWI, but that's another post for a point far in the future, if ever).

What would have become of the moron had he been born just ten years earlier? Most likely he would have never amounted to much, and he probably would have come to the same end: suicide.

Take care.
DAL357

My tip for mankind

We're all adults here, right? If you don't indulge in the following practice at least once in a while, I'd be stunned. Now I have empirical evidence as to why you should just stop it.

Would you like to gain the upper hand on that bane of mankind's existence, the common cold? Simply do the following: Do not, under any circumstances, pick your nose, or put any of your digits near your nostrils.

NEVER, EVER.

Even if you've just thoroughly washed your hands and underneath your nails, you can't ever be sure that each and every cold-causing microbe is gone, so don't do the digital-nasal probe. Use tissues or toilet paper (preferably unused) to clear/clean your nose, and nothing else.

Without going into all of the details, I decided to do this last fall, and except for a very minor scratchy throat this spring, I did not get sick last winter, even though my son got several colds during the same period.

No need to thank me; I'm happy to help. Try it yourself and see the difference.

Take care.
DAL357

My first funnel cloud

While doing some work on the rental house we own and will be putting up for sale soon (good luck on that, right?), my wife, son, nephew and I saw our first authentic funnel cloud! It was not very big (click here to see a video), but darned if it wasn't the real McCoy, with cloud rotation to boot. We were apparently a few miles away from it, but from the looks of the video, it happened within a couple of blocks of where my father lives.

Take care.
DAL357

Guns, unfortunately, don't always save lives

What follows is a horribly sad story. The only part of it with even a whit of good was the swift way the officer dispatched the perpetrator.

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Calif. police ID man they say fatally beat toddler Tue Jun 17, 2:29 AM ET

Police on Monday identified a man [a man in only the strictest biological sense; this was no man] who was fatally shot by an officer for allegedly refusing to stop beating a toddler to death along a remote road.

Sergio Casian Aguilar, 27, parked his truck on an unlit road Saturday night, removed a 2-year-old boy from his car seat and proceeded to stomp, kick and punch the boy to death, authorities said. The boy was unrecognizable when he was pronounced dead at Emanuel Medical Center, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said.

Authorities have not released the boy's name but say they believe he was Aguilar's son. The Stanislaus County coroner and the California Department of Justice are testing DNA to confirm the relationship.

Several motorists called 911 and tried to stop the beating, authorities said. [Apparently, none of them carried a gun. Of course, we are talking about California. I wasn't there, but what about a tire iron? This probably happened so quickly and was so shocking that people were stunned into effete gestures of intervention. In another story, I read he pushed away those who tried to restrain him and went back to beating the child to death.]

Dan Robinson, a local volunteer fire department chief, told The Modesto Bee that at first glance, he thought the child was a dead animal in the road. He said when he realized it was a child, he tried to stop Aguilar.

He said Aguilar had a "total hollowness in his eyes" and talked calmly of the boy being filled with "demons."

Witness Lisa Mota told the San Francisco Chronicle that Aguilar told people who tried to stop him that the boy was "trash."

Responding to 911 calls, a Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department helicopter landed in a dairy pasture near the scene. A Modesto police officer, Jerry Ramar, fatally shot Aguilar after he failed to heed the officer's warning to stop beating the child, authorities said. Aguilar flashed his middle finger at Ramar before Ramar shot him in the forehead [YES!], police said.

"I have never seen anything like that before and I hope I never have to again," Ramar said of the beating.

Authorities have not released the name of the boy's mother.

Aguilar had no previous criminal history, police said. Results of toxicology tests on Aguilar are expected in four weeks.

Ramar has been placed on paid administrative leave, a routine response for officer-involved shootings.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

*****

Even though I know things like this happen numerous times a year, it still sickens my soul to read about them.

Concerning the puke who murdered this toddler, likely his son, he got what deserved, albeit too late. Unfortunately, guns don't always save lives, but sometimes they do deal righteous justice.

Take care.
DAL357

Hardcore survivalism

So, you think you're a hardcore survivalist? Have you made up a few of these, assuming, of course, you have one or more members of the fairer sex in your party? I don't know about you, but I consider this a pretty darn good idea for extended societal problems that might disrupt supplies of personal hygiene items, along with last year's Yellow Pages (crinkle first for maximum utility and comfort--I speak from experience) for another task in that vicinity of the body that both sexes are heir to.

BTW, here's the how-to link.

Take care.
DAL357

P.S. Just in case some thin-skinned individuals might take umbrage to the above, I may have written it in a light-hearted manner, but it is a subject that should be thought of as carefully as food, water, guns and ammo, etc.

Peek-a-boo(bs)

If you thought there was no silver lining to the continuing meltdown of the airline industry, think again. The fact that fewer people are flying on fewer airlines at rates soon to be prohibitive for all but the very well to do, means fewer American citizens will be subject to the following treatment.

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Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports
Tue Jun 10, 5:11 PM ET


Security scanners which can see through passengers' clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 US airports, the US Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

A random selection of travellers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York's Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.

The booths close around the passenger and emit "millimeter waves" that go through cloth to identify metal, plastics, ceramics, chemical materials and explosives, according to the TSA.

While it allows the security screeners -- looking at [and rating?] the images in a separate room -- to clearly see the passenger's sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger's face is blurred [oh, okay then], TSA said in a statement on its website.

The scan only takes seconds and is to replace the physical pat-downs of people that is currently widespread in airports.

TSA began introducing the body scanners in airports in April, first in the Phoenix, Arizona terminal.

The installation is picking up this month, with machines in place or planned for airports in Washington (Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International), Dallas, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Miami and Detroit.

But the new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights activists.

"People have no idea how graphic the images are," Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.

The ACLU said in a statement that passengers expecting privacy underneath their clothing "should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies such as evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances, penile implants, catheter tubes and the size of their breasts or genitals as a pre-requisite to boarding a plane."

Besides masking their faces, the TSA says on its website, the images made "will not be printed stored or transmitted." [At least not directly. Hey, TSA, ever hear of cell phones with cameras?]

"Once the transportation security officer has viewed the image and resolved anomalies [With what, a gloved hand?], the image is erased from the screen permanently [but not from the memory of a TSA officer]. The officer is unable to print, export, store or transmit the image." [They will, however, be allowed to make allusions to the size of passengers' body parts using cupped hands held chest high or the right and left forefingers held varying distances apart.]

Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines [just as we are not obliged to let them board].

"The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down," [Heck of a choice there, much like being given the choice to be probed with or without a glove.] she told AFP.

TSA foresees 30 of the machines installed across the country by the end of 2008 [this makes the big assumption that there still will be airports to need them]. In Europe, Amsterdam's Schipol airport is already [inappropriately] using the scanners.

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This is just one more in a slew of reasons why I haven't flown in nearly 10 years. Flying used to be an enjoyable experience, but it sounds like too much hassle to bother with anymore. Oh well, I've seen a good portion of the world I want to see already, so it's not that big of a loss for me, and isn't it all about me? (Thank goodness my wife doesn't read my blog.)

Take care.
DAL357

Liberty lost

If you’ve been paying attention during this presidential election cycle (come to think of it, ditto practically every other presidential election cycle in the last 20 years, at least), you have probably noticed folks with a Republican perspective urging a vote for McCain, not so much on his own merit, but as a vote against Obama. What a sad state of affairs.

Those same people who urge you to vote for McCain also say voting for a third-party candidate is tantamount to voting for Obama, as if voting for what you really believe in (usually actual liberty vs. ephemeral political promises that never materialize) is somehow treasonous. Yeah, that’s it. Millions of American soldiers fought and bled, and many thousands had their lives cut short, just so you could use your vote not for the candidate who offers liberty, but because he doesn’t suck as bad as the other guy. Your precious vote is just a pawn to run political interference.

I submit that those who vote this way are the real traitors to America and the ideals it purports to stand for. Voting in this way ensures we will continue to get more of what is essentially a non-choice in the future. Which of these two candidates really speaks for liberty? The answer, of course, is neither.

The founding fathers never intended, and when setting up the structure of our government, never envisioned or made provisions for political parties as we know them, although I’m sure they were aware of the concept. This was, and is, the Achilles heel of the U.S. Government, and it will destroy us in the end. (Actually, I believe it already has; we are just feeding on the carrion of past liberty, and that can’t last forever.)

The irrational factionalism we see today--where the group or party comes first, the country as a whole country be damned--is antithetical to liberty. Sure, it parades itself as honest debate, but that’s just for public consumption. It’s real aim is the acquisition and concentration of power from the people, who willingly give it every time they vote for any person who sees liberty as an antiquated idea.

Liberty is a simple concept; it doesn’t need much government apparatus to guarantee its continuation. A small, part-time government with the following features is all that’s necessary: a simple, easily-understood document stating inviolable rights, a court system to address/redress legitimate grievances between parties, a reasonable import/export tariff on trade (hey, money to run even a small government has to come from somewhere), and the wherewithal to protect its citizens from domestic or foreign force or fraud. This is the medium in which liberty reaches its full fruition. But where’s the payoff in that for those fractured souls known as power seekers?

What a wonderful world the above paragraph describes. America came close to this ideal long ago, much closer than any country in history ever has, although it never actually grasped it. It took its liberty for granted for so long it eventually lost it and will never regain it. So be it.

Take care.
DAL357

Can this be far away?

Are you old enough to remember the 55 mph speed limit of the 1970s and 1980s? I suspect that somewhere, and probably not too far, down the line, those old speed limit signs are going to get dusted off and reinstalled nationwide. If this doesn't happen within the next three years or so, I'll be extremely surprised.

Take care.
DAL357

Simultaneously sick, sad, and funny

I found the following piece over on the Onion to be distrubing, yet funny. Will you see it the same way? Is it an anti-Iraq-war piece disguised as satire? You be the judge. Do I care whether or not you find it humorous? Not really. Report: Love Letters From U.S. Troops Increasingly Gruesome .

Take care.
DAL357

Nearly a lifetime ago

Don't forget that 64 years ago today, the long-awaited (especially by the Soviets) second European front was started in France by Allied forces against the Nazis. Historians can, and will, debate the significance of this event ad nauseam when compared to the massive battles of the Eastern front, but I'd rather look at it from a worm's-eye view. In other words, from the fighting man's perspective.

These young men went into battle not knowing what they were facing (to maintain secrecy, most were not even aware of where they were specifically headed until very late in the operation). They were scared and, no doubt, wished they were elsewhere, but they pushed themselves while facing the prospect of sudden death and achieved a slow, grinding victory against a tough, entrenched enemy.

Please pause today, if only for a moment, to give thanks to those courageous men who helped bring about the defeat of the evil, immoral Nazi empire.

Take care.
DAL357

Don't be a dipstick: it's supply and demand

To those woefully ignorant of basic economics, please read the excerpts of the following essay with as open a mind as you can muster. In fact, you should probably read it in its entirety.

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Wishful Thinking, Speculation and Oil (May 30, 2008) by Charles Hugh Smith


Everyone and their sister seems to have jumped on the "oil prices are being driven by speculation" bandwagon, but perhaps that is nothing but wishful thinking. From the very beginning of futures trading--back in the 1600s when traders in Antwerp would buy and sell contracts on the cargo coming from the East Indies--the easiest game in town has been to blame speculators for price movements.

If the price of a commodity is rising, then the villains are speculators. If the price is dropping, it's the short sellers' fault.

Speculators are active wherever and whenever speculation is allowed. It's wishful thinking to expect oil will fall from $130/barrel back to $70/barrel if only those darned speculators would leave the market alone.

Note to hand-wringing, finger-pointing pundits: those darned speculators are the market.

*

As for the "solutions" to supply:

1. The Iranians have 20 supertankers filled with oil floating around somewhere. Nice, but it's heavy crude, and the few refineries able to process it are already running flat out. Also, 20 supertankers is a drop in the bucket of global demand.

2. Deep abiotic oil is abundant. The Russian have the technology. If the Russians have the technology, why is their production declining so rapidly? Where are the pipelines from their deep wells?

3. It's all the weak dollar. Once the dollar starts rising, the bubble in oil prices will pop. Then how come oil is rising in all currencies and even when priced in gold?

4. Canada and the U.S. have nearly unlimited supplies of shale oil and tar sands. Great, but real-world production will top out at 2.5 million barrels a day, about 10% of North America's consumption, and the process uses vast quantities of natural gas.

5. If only the tree-huggers would let us drill in the Alaska Wilderness. The U.S. consumes 22 million barrels a day or 8 billion barrels a year. The Alaskan North Slope everyone talks about contains about a billion barrels--a whopping 45 days' supply for the U.S. Whoopie.

In other words--it's all wishful thinking, folks: that it's all the speculators' fault, that new supplies will magically come on line and save us--there is simply no credible evidence for either supposition. It's supply and demand. Prices are set on the margin, and as a result a shortfall of a few percent has an amazing leverage on price.

Go ahead and ban speculation, and see what happens then. Prices will not drop, they will simply become more disorderly/chaotic.

As for demand destruction--let me know when China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Mexico et al. stop subsidizing the price of fossil fuels for their hundreds of millions of consumers.

And as for supply, let me know when global production of oil from any source exceeds 90 million barrels and day and keeps climbing as producers take advantage of the high prices.

*****

Those same people who believe this is a contrived crisis for the purposes of extracting the maximum amount of moola from the pockets of Americans often are also the ones who simultaneously detest government intervention and yet want government to do something so that they can continue living their cheap-oil lifestyle. One thing to remember is that "Big Oil" companies actually control a relatively small share of the marketplace relative to several decades ago, approx. <20%. The real players in the market are national oil companies where countries own the oil wealth: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc. They don't answer to shareholders, so they can do as they please, even if their actions contradict rational economic principles. Couple this with the apparent fact that there just isn't that much easily-pumped crude to meet demand (that's WORLDWIDE demand, not just American demand, which may see demand destruction due to a faltering economy, but there are a lot of folks in India and China who are becoming first-time car owners and each vehicle will need fuel) and you have a recipe for upward-spiraling prices. Don't look for this to change anytime soon, if ever.

Take care.
DAL357

Hitting (relatively) close to home

Although my wife and I did not know the young woman who was murdered in the story below, we did know her mother and last visited with her some years back in her home. As a father, I can only imagine the grief this horrid tragedy must be inflicting upon her family. (The photo to the right is of victim and murderer.)

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Gendernalik killed by gunshot wound to head
by Trevor Hughes
May 30, 2008

Valerie Gendernalik was shot on the left side of her head by a gun held close by, Larimer County Coroner's officials announced this afternoon.

Gendernalik's death was ruled a homicide, with the cause listed as "loose contact gunshot wound to left side of face."

Gendernalik's body was found by police Sunday at the apartment she shared with her live-in boyfriend, Justin Moore, at 1610 Westbridge Drive #A10, in Fort Collins. Moore is being held at the Larimer County Detention center on murder charges.

The announcement puts to rest speculation among friends of Moore and Gendernalik that her death was an accident, although they have acknowledged that the two had an at-times tempestuous relationship that sometimes became physically violent.

According to friends and family, Gendernalik and Moore had been dating for at least a year and living together for approximately six months.

Moore had an extensive criminal background, something Valerie Gendernalik thought she could help him overcome. Gendernalik was herself serving a sentence for an Oct. 31, 2007 drunken-driving arrest.

“I know she really wanted to get him up on his feet,” her brother, Alex Gendernalik, said earlier this week. “She wanted him to get in school.”

But friends and family were worried about the troubled relationship.

“Some of us had told her we weren’t so sure about him, hanging out with people he had gotten in trouble with in the past,” Alex Gendernalik said. “But I wanted to like her boyfriend. I wanted her to be happy.”

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Such a waste.

I know what you are probably thinking. That the victim shared some responsibility for the events that transpired, and you are, of course, correct, at least according to this version of the story. I'm not sure what it is about losers that attracts intelligent young women, but this story is not unique. Sometimes they eventually get a clue that just loving a person is not enough and move on with their lives; sometimes they never wise up and waste their lives on unworthy scum. Then there are stories with tragic endings like this where the woman never gets a second chance to see the light.

If I could give one bit of advice to the young women of the world, it is this: Don't be so egotistical as to think that you have the power to change anyone. Influence, possibly, especially when dealing with a child. But change an adult, never. Change comes from within a person, not from without. That old maxim that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still" will be true as long as humans exist. Trying to change a loser into a winner is tantamount to changing lead into gold. In other words, it can't be done. If you want to accomplish something worthwhile, go climb a mountain, get an education, learn a new skill. But don't take on the impossible task of changing a reprobate; he will only abuse you for your efforts and leave you disillusioned and bitter. Or worse.

Take care.
DAL357