Everything expressed here is just my opinion.

8 March 2010

Zombieland Rules

Survivalist Portfolio Update

California Paul scores it this way:

Food - RAH (private label packaged goods), HRL (SPAM and other canned meats), HNZ & CPB (canned goods), ADM & CALM (need to grow more), TSCO (local farming supplies)

Clothing - JAS (make your own clothes)

Protection & law enforcement - RGR & SWHC (guns), TASR (tasers)

Shelter - JOUT (tents & backpacks & small watercraft)

Trade & banking - CSH & FCFS (pawn shops for trading, lending and barter); CRMT (used car trading)

Minerals & Natural Resources - ABX (biggest gold producer), BHP (coal), BP, XON, TOT (oil) - I'm not a big fan of gold.it's primarily a speculative asset with little useful value beyond a few specialized industrial uses. In a really bad situation, I'd much rather be the guy with some oil or coal that I can use than a bunch of gold bars.

National Defense - ADG, NOC, LMT, GD, RTN (defense contractors)

Reconstruction - FLR, GVA, TPC, SHAW, FWLT, MDR (heavy construction, power grid, infrastructure)

Atlanta Jeff agrees on ADM, adding Halliburton and Caterpillar.

Paul brings up a point I've been making for some time now. How useful is gold in a collapsed or severely depressed economy?

7 March 2010

I Hope This Generates Some Discussion

Last Saturday, the Anti-Joel and I took a break from our brush burning session and sat in a Chili's in Bastrop, TX discussing the nation's problems over quesadillas and ribs. As we sat there in our diesel and smoke tainted clothes (for which I received a complaint email from the Anti-Victoria, as she had to wash them twice to get the smell out), our conversation naturally turned to our economy and national debt situation.

I admit I am a neophyte student of public finance. I actually got a hard earned B+ on the subject in college. It's an interesting course - understanding the various issues surrounding public debt, taxes and entitlement programs. But the economic news of the last two years has made me spend more time on the subject, especially our national debt.

One option we discussed is for the U.S. to invoke the "D word." And by the D word, I mean default. As in don't pay it back. To anyone. Regardless of who they are.

I ran across this article which really goes a long way in explaining how we got here (and spares the GOP nothing along the way) and why default (or in the author's parlance, repudiation). Consider part of his argument:

So what can be done now? The current federal debt is $3.5 trillion. Approximately $1.4 trillion, or 40 percent, is owned by one or another agency of the federal government. It is ridiculous for a citizen to be taxed by one arm of the federal government (the IRS), to pay interest and principal on debt owned by another agency of the federal government. It would save the taxpayer a great deal of money, and spare savings from further waste, to simply cancel that debt outright. The alleged debt is simply an accounting fiction that provides a mask over reality and furnishes a convenient means for mulcting the taxpayer. Thus, most people think that the Social Security Administration takes their premiums and accumulates it, perhaps by sound investment, and then "pays back" the "insured" citizen when he turns 65.

Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no insurance and there is no "fund," as there indeed must be in any system of private insurance. The federal government simply takes the Social Security "premiums" (taxes) of the young person, spends them in the general expenditures of the Treasury, and then, when the person turns 65, taxes someone else to pay the "insurance benefit." Social Security, perhaps the most revered institution in the American polity, is also the greatest single racket. It's simply a giant Ponzi scheme controlled by the federal government. But this reality is masked by the Social Security Administration's purchase of government bonds, the Treasury then spending these funds on whatever it wishes. But the fact that the SSA has government bonds in its portfolio, and collects interest and payment from the American taxpayer, allows it to masquerade as a legitimate insurance business.

So - is defaulting on our debt (or implementing something akin to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the federal government a viable option?

4 March 2010

Feedback On The Survivalist Portfolio

Two good friends with MBAs - Atlanta Jeff and California Paul - weighed in with their their thoughts on the portfolio. I will be putting something together over the next few days. Stay tuned.

And Speaking of Portfolios....

Doomsayer Marc Faber makes the case for gold and why Europe sucks. Note where he says “If you compare the Depression years, we didn’t have credit cards and we didn’t have unfunded liabilities from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade,” he explained. “In other words, in 10 years time, between 30 to 50 percent of tax revenues will be spent on interest payments on the government debt...and that will lead to a weak dollar.”

And For Those Critical of Sen. Jim Bunning...

There's a reason PAYGO is needed: Our national debt grows about $2.74M a minute as best I can tell.

2 March 2010

To Continue Or Not?

Every six months, I get a bill from the web hosting company which powers this site. As it's fairly pricey, I am contemplating pulling the plug on it.

I haven't made a decision yet, but I am leaning towards shutting it down. When I started this back in 2002, there were only a handful of sites talking about preparedness. Now there are dozens of great ones. Couple that with the fact blogging takes time (and money), and it makes me think it's time to move on to other endeavors.

A Survivalist Portfolio

For fun, I'm thinking I will build a survivalist portfolio. I have no idea what I'd put in it - precious metals, food production stocks, stocks benefiting from infrastructure investment perhaps. If you have ideas, let me know.

A New Book Straight Outta China

Atlanta Jeff sent me this article on China's ever growing nationalism. The eery thing for me about this article is how objective the Chinese thinking is on this issue.

Brush Burning Report

The Anti-Joel drove up last Saturday and helped me put at least 10 more brush piles on the ground. It was a perfect day to burn. He saved me at least three more days of work. We also got some Glock time in as well. Hopefully I can get a retreat set up there so his family will have some infrastructure they can utilize as well.

21 February 2010

New Survival Novel Out

20 February 2010

Weekend Reading

• Thanks to Parke for this tip on the Time magazine article on crime rates in the U.S.
• I'm considering taking a class, time permitting, at this place between facials and sea weed wraps at our vacation resort in Tucson.

Share Your Knowledge

I've enjoyed helping a neighbor learn how to shoot a big bore handgun. She's retired and lives with her husband about two blocks away. He, a retired Army officer, wants her to be able to defend herself. So when I offered our HOA some free training on handguns, she took advantage of the offer.

In short order, she's becoming quite proficient with 40 and 45 calibers. Her gun of choice? A Springfield XD, chambered in 9mm.

I find people who enjoy being prepared are quite eager to share what they know. I encourage you to keep it up.

18 February 2010

Austin Joins the Club

It's not often one gets to drive by the scene of a recent terrorist attack. I got to do that this morning.

But let's back up a bit. I'd been at the orthodontist getting my Invisaligners tricked out by the fine folks at Westlake and Arboretum Orthodontics, some three miles away from the crash scene. Due to some poor planning on my part, I had to drive back to my office to get my laptop before heading out to my next meeting.

I got into the office and triaged emails before packing my briefcase for a meeting on the west side of town. Scotty emailed me with a simple message: "KLBJ reports small plane hit building at 183 and 360." I reached over and turned on my radio, also tuned that station and started getting the details. As this scene was on my way to my meeting, I emailed the guy I was to meet and let him know what had happened and that I might be late. I also sent a quick email to an acquaintence at the Austin FBI office (whom I met through Infragard) as the FBI offices in that same office park.

As I left the office, I called the Anti-Joel in Houston to discuss plans to burn brush in a couple of weekends on the ranch. He hadn't heard about the crash. I told him I was on my way and would likely drive past it.

Approaching Duval heading south on 183, the smoke started becoming more noticeable. As I listened to the radio, and started doing the math in my head, I realized if I had my laptop with me earlier and gone straight to the meeting, I would have been in the area when the plane hit the building.

I called Scotty in the office to give him an update on what I was seeing.  Traffic had predictably slowed down as we approached 360, about a mile from the crash site.  The smoke had gotten thicker.  He and I were comparing notes on what he was hearing on the radio and what I was seeing. 

And then I saw it.  Coming down the hill from the 360 exit, a ladder truck for the Austin Fire Department pumped water full bore into the smoking building, the point of impact not 100 yards from where I was.  I noticed the hole dead center of the building on the first floor.  The whole time I am describing it to Scotty on the phone.  As I came abeam of the point of impact, I paused for a moment and simply said, “Scott, that was intentional.” 

A few minutes later, the guys on KLBJ were continuing to take calls from passers-by on 183.  They also indicated the plane in question was a Piper Cherokee, similar to the one I used to own. Having been a passer by and having some experience in that particular aircraft, I called into the show to offer what I knew. 

Funny thing about call in talk shows – if you’re just saying what everyone else is, you wait a while to get on the air. But when you have something to add, they move you to the top of the list.  I might have been on hold 20 seconds before Todd and Don took my call.  I described what I saw and talked about the Cherokee in a bit of detail.  My main comment was that I was surprised that much fire and damage could have been caused by a plane only carrying 50 gallons of fuel.  (I hope to get the link with the audio of my phone comments up tomorrow).

By the time I got to my meeting, the word was the FBI had information this was, in fact, an intentional act.  We now know some of the key and horrific details of what happened.

So what can you and I learn from this?  I think there are a number of lessons here.  Some include:

• Your workplace needs to be prepared to evacuate.  How often do you practice it? 
• From a business continuity standpoint, if your building was hit like that, would you have another place to resume business operations?  What is your plan to do so?
• Do you have basic emergency supplies in your vehicle?  I suspect those people out in the parking lot, watching their building burn and co-workers endure the trauma of such an event would have been better off if they had some key supplies with them.
• How would you communicate with family members post event if your phone was in the building and you couldn’t get to it?  Social media sites like Facebook are a great tool for getting the word out on your whereabouts and situation to a large number of people.

And so Austin joins the club of cities affected by terrorism. I've taken a fair amount of ribbing over the years preparing for the risk of terrorism in what they see as a safe city. Today's events sadly show "safe" cities are not immune.

Let’s continue to pray for the families involved in this, learning what lessons we can.

17 February 2010

Sit Rep

Every so often, we should assess what's going on around us. Some thoughts:

• The Economy and the U.S. Government's Finances. I don't want to beat a dead horse here. But for reasons I can't explain, it seems Sen. Evan Bayh's retirement announcement triggered a number of articles talking about how screwed we are when it comes to our national debt picture. For instance, consider this article in the New York Times (yes, that New York Times) in which the first sentence contains the phrase, "the unwillingness of the two parties to compromise to control a national debt that is rising to dangerous heights." Lest you think this is all Obama's fault (and while I am not a fan of his, I would be intellectually dishonest if I said it was), consider this graphic and discussion of the comparison between Bush 43's deficits and Obama's projected ones. Obama's deficits are gargantuan, but that's not to say President Bush's reflected fiscal responsibility.
• Iran. Read pages 2, 6, and 15 of this report.
• China. Experts like Bill Gertz and Atlanta Jeff point out China's nationalistic attitude belie its decision to buy U.S. debt. Make no mistake - China is a force with which we will reckon. I quickly point out China will need a sound economy long term to be a viable threat. Whether it can do that remains to be seen.
• Mexico. You read correctly. It's not been in the news lately, but that's not to say everything is good south of the border. Consider this assessment on the Mexican situation.
• Terrorism. The failed underwear bomber attack on the flight into Detroit on Christmas Day should give all concern for our safety from terror.

So how do we play this?

1. Get your financial affairs in order. Reduce debt and save money.
2. Get healthy. Get in shape and take care of medical issues now, especially if you have health insurance.
3. Start storing up the basics. Food, food prep and water purification are the foundation. No amount of guns and ammo will make up for a lack of food.
4. Gear up. Start thinking about alternative energy, communications, and medical supplies.
5. Learn some new skills - first aid, self defense, gardening, and mechanical skills.

Guns Don't Prevent Crime. Snow Does.

Texas Todd and Sis In Law Kristin must feel safer knowing the snow cut down on crimes dramatically.

Shout Out to New Reader in Kentucky

A co-worker in my office, Natalie, reports her bro-in-law has been checking out the blog lately. We're glad to have him on board.

14 February 2010

Texas Todd, Spas, and Low Left

Todd emailed me this morning, asking whether I was really serious about going to a spa on vacation. Hell yeah I'm serious.

For my very first Valentine's Day present from Kendel, I received a facial from her ethetician. I was hooked. The science behind all of it is very interesting. These days, I do a weekly home glycolic peel (using a 30% solution - beat that, ninjas!) and microderm abrasions at my monthly appointment with my local ethetician. I use a number of moisturizers and eye creams, anti bacterial soaps, and an occasional session with our very own high frequency machine (think bug zapper for your face).

Okay - so at this point, many of you may be wondering why I do it. It's because I shoot low left.

For years, I have been plagued with shooting low left with a handgun. Glock, Beretta, Kimber - you name it - I consistently shoot low and left of the bullseye. I've worked with a number of shooting coaches with minimal improvement. Recently, I swore off all future trips to the range until I had dry fired at least 1,000 times in an effort to fix the problem. I'm up to 150 times so far, and I am already seeing changes in how I pull the trigger.

In life, there are really only a handful of things we can really control. Think about it. Can you make yourself taller or shorter? Can most people learn how to dunk a basketball? Paint like Michelangelo? Sing like Pavarotti? Most of us can't make ourselves do these things. But that shouldn't stop us from trying to improve ourselves.

When we facial, work out, learn a new skill, improve an old skill, improve our shooting, focus on being a better spouse/worker/friend/employer, we are taking control of our lives in ways most people on earth rarely do.

Why do you read this blog? Because you want to be better prepared. Or maybe because you enjoy laughing at my misfortunes. Either way, you're trying to improve a skill set.

So the next time your spouse asks you to try something new or to improve yourself, do it. And then insist they go to the gun range with you to improve their skills as well.

Speaking Of New Skills....

I de-thatched my lawn this weekend. I had never done that before. I am amazed at the number of things you can go and rent at various tool places. The company which rented me the dethatcher (and if you've never done it, you need to, especially if you have St. Augustine grass in your yard) will also rent you things like bulldozers and other machines of destruction.

We're going to take on our yard mowing this summer on our own, rather than contract it out. The money we save will go towards repaying ourselves for the Tuff Shed we bought last summer.

Nose In or Nose Out?

Jim Rawles has an article on his website on this subject, which reminded me of a conversation I had with Meana Gina in my office not too long ago. When you park your vehicle - in your garage, parking lot, wherever - do you park nose in, where you have to back out, or nose out, where you just pull out of the space and keep going?

Here in Texas, it seems many people - especially those of us who drive trucks or SUVs - park nose out. I park nose out whenever I can, including in my garage. For me, the benefits include:

• Not having to back up out of the space an accidentally hitting someone. This is the insurance claims background coming out of me. We pay a lot of claims because someone backs into another car. The risk of hitting someone when you back into a space, in my opinion, is far less than backing into them when you are pulling out of a parking spot.
• Safer exit from the parking spot. When you can see more clearly in both directions when pulling out, you're less likely to pull into someone's way.
• Faster exit. This is self explanatory.

"We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world."

Vice President Joe Biden, back in 2002, made these remarks when asked whether Saddam should be taken out. Guess he's changed his mind now.

13 February 2010

Nothing Says "Keep Off My Lawn" Like a Medina For Governor Sign.

I'll say it. I like Debra Medina.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, let me 'splain. We've got a gubernatorial primary here in Texas (yes, I did just say "guber") in March. On the GOP side, ten year incumbent Rick Perry faces a challenge from U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (or KBH as she is called in political circles) and Debra Medina. Medina, a registered nurse with little political experience and no money, is currently polling a whopping 24% - just three points behind KBH and 15 points behind Perry.

Here in the reddest of the red states (McCain carried all but a handful of counties in 2008), the idea that an unheard of candidate could come within a stone's throw of a popular U.S. senator has surprised a lot of people. Medina rides a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment and taps heavily into the Ron Paul base.

A few days ago, she made an appearance on Glenn Beck's radio program, where she made some less than unequivocal statements regarding her beliefs on whether the goverment had a role in the 9/11 attacks. Rather than just saying "no, I don't believe our government was involved," she danced around the issue a bit.

Beck, along with Perry and KBH, smelled blood in the water and unloaded on her for not coming out and disavowing the "9/11 is an inside job" movement. She of course clarified her comments on her website, but the damage had been done.

Memphis Jeff and I discussed this over a series of emails. At the end of the day, I don't think her comments will hurt her with her current or potential supporters. As voters' memories of the horrific attacks of 9/11 begin to take second place to the concerns of our government's willingness to expand its reach and indebt its citizens to the world, I suspect in the coming months and years people will care less about a candidate's position on the 9/11 issue.

I quite often don't agree with my candidate of choice's position on every issue. I suspect a growing number of Americans are willing to get Medina et al. a pass on the subject. I certainly don't agree with the 9/11 truthers, but I can't say it's a litmus test issue for me.

And so given her recent comments, I am toying with getting a Medina sign for the front yard. It will certainly raise some eyebrows of my neighbors. Sometimes it's better for your neighbors to wonder about you.

Drive or Fly?

Kendel and I are planning our annual vacation. We usually ship Tox off to Camp Grandparent for much of June and do our own thing. It's a win-win - Tox gets to see her grandparents, and we get some time where we aren't responsible for the care and feeding of the Tox.

We're leaning towards a health spa in Tucson where we can eath healthy, do "yogilates," and do all sorts of metrosexual stuff at the spa. The flight options into Tucson on Southwest Airlines suck to put it mildly. So we're toying with the idea of driving from Austin all the way there.

I'd like to do it. I've not spent much time in West Texas, which is dry and arid. I think it would be a lot of fun. Plus the speed limit now on I-10 is something like 125 mph these days.

Of course, if we do this, I will have all sorts of planning to do in the event of an on the road emergency. Should be fun to plan.

A Very Funny Blog

Katlhleen, the sister of a friend and law school classmate Patti, and I reconnected on Facebook recently. Her blog isn't for everyone, but I found it laugh out loud funny. I highly recommend it.

12 February 2010

Lots Going On

Work has kept me really, really busy lately. I haven't been able to work out as often as I would like, which is cramping my weight loss/better flexibility efforts. No, I have not made any progress on my book this week either. And it shows no signs of letting up through the end of the month.

So, some quick hits for the weekend....

Security System Upgrade

The security system in this house should have been replaced ten years ago. Today, I had some major modifications installed. For obvious reasons, I won't discuss them here. But suffice it to say we are far more secure tonight than we have been for some time.

I know people who won't get a security system because of the cost. Please. For a buck a day, you can get a great system with monitoring. When things go really wrong at your house, it's nice knowing the system will help you out of a jam.

A New Tool for Increasing Water Intake

My trainer has been on me for some time now about not drinking enough water. (Truth is, I drink plenty of fluids....the fizzy, calorie free kind which come in 20 ounce bottles). However, I recently picked up a Nalgene bottle at Academy, in a 32 ounce size. The bottle claims to be "bpa free," whatever the hell that means. (I guess that's a good thing.)

Since I started using it, I have increased my water intake by 60+ ounces a day and decreased by soda intake by half. No joke. We'll see if I can keep it up.

China Watch/Banking Watch

Atlanta Jeff continues to keep a close eye on the Chinese and banking news for us. First, here's a story regarding the PRC's military advocating the dumping of U.S. bonds to "punish" the U.S. And he also reports world bank leaders gather for yet another secret meeting.

7 February 2010

Texas Todd Reports

Just spent almost 4 hours shoveling snow, I wont be able to move tomorrow.  We are at about 30 inches, we had almost 5 foot drifts in the front driveway. Luckily my neighbor came over and did part of my driveway, the sidewalks have not been touched, and I had the boys helping.......

Sis In Law Kristin Reports From Baltimore

I'm actually concerned about whether I have enough dog food, but since I live just over a block from the supermarket, I'm sure I can find the buggers something to eat if I need to.  (Alas, their actual food is a PetSmart item, not grocery store.)  I made my grocery run on Wed. night instead of last night, but I heard that last night's check-out lines stretched clear from the register to the back of the store and took an hour to get through.  Jeez! 

The current predictions are for 20-30 inches, but since I'm on the southern border of that heavy part, I'm hoping I'll end up on the lower end of that range.  We'll see.  If we get that much it'll be the first time on record (since they started keeping them in 1883) that we've gotten two 20 inchers in one year.  Or two that even approach that depth in one year, actually.  (Right now, 3 of the top 7 snows on record have taken place since I moved here in 1995 - kind of crazy!  And this one has the possibility of making me 4 for the top 8.) 

Pau's note - Kristin did send me a great link for keeping up with the latest blizzard info for the D.C. area - check it out.

Who Dat?

New Orleans now has a Superbowl win to brag about. Let the celebratory riots begin!

"In the Land of the Blind, the One Eyed Man is King."

Atlanta Jeff continues to pull weekend duty here at Paul T, sharing this article from the New York Times. And since it's in the Times, it must be true. Right?

Gretchen Morgensen makes some very good comments about the world debt situation. Her quote from former Merrill Lynch chief economist David Rosenberg, cited in this entry's caption, is poignant indeed.

This Week...

5 February 2010

Texas Todd Reports on Blizzard 2010

Firmly ensconced in a gated Maryland golf course community, Texas Todd submitted this report earlier this evening:

Yesterday, all of the supermarkets were completely packed, lines coming out of the parking lot with people trying to stock up.  It really drives home how fast everything will go to hell in a real situation.  Personally, it was very comforting to feel like I was prepared and didn't really need to do anything.  I have friends who have lost power in VA, which makes me wish I had a generator, but I have plenty of flashlights, lanterns, etc. so we are OK there too.  Our weather this winter has been great timing; my wife has really warmed up to this prepping thing. She still thinks I'm nuts but has totally bought in to it just based on the weather.

As long as he has power, Todd has promised to keep us apprised of the situation up there.

Lesson One from Todd's Talk - the disaster you're preparing for won't likely involve a governmental collapse or invasion from Al Qaeda. Instead, it will be some sort of natural phenomena. God's still in charge, after all.

Lesson Two from Todd's Talk - If your spouse isn't into preparedness, they will be when it hits the fan. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark, but I am quite sure his wife eased up on his ass when the storm rolled in. Use these mini-disasters as a training tool for the rest of the family and friends.

Burn Notice

I've pushed tomorrow's burn back a bit, due to the fact everything down at the ranch is still soggy from the days of rain we've had this week. I will be getting down there early afternon, rather than first thing in the morning. I'd like to light up a few more piles and save the regrouping of previous piles for a day less soggy. The Anti-Joel and I plan to meet out there and burn some towards the end of the month. Let me know if you want to join us.

H1N1 - As Predicted

I told y'all months ago - this H1N1 thing was blown way out of proportion. The AP reported today in a headline "US swine flu epidemic shows signs of being over" that "Vanderbilt University's Dr. William Schaffner, said the epidemic has 'one foot in the grave.'"

Game ball to Paul T for getting this one right.

NASDAQ + NYSE = WTH?

So I am sure all of you monitored the stock market's mini meltdown this week. What caused it? Apparently a number of things, including:

• The credit worthiness of Greece. Now I don't know about you, but the fact Greece's inability to make good on some bonds caused a selloff on worldwide markets really bothers me. It's Greece, for God's sake. They ain't China or Russia. While I am well aware Greece ranks about 27th on the GDP rankings, it should bother us the world equity markets get so easily spooked by the financial problems of a second quintile nation.
  
  
• The credit worthiness of the world as a whole. Lest you think I am unfairly singling out Greece (and for the record, I have nothing against our Greek friends), I will be quick to point out other nations - Portugal and Spain come to mind - also expressed concerns this week about their ability to make good on their debt. Here's reality - the credit crisis, in my estimation, will go on for years. That's because we have no idea just how bad (or good) the credit quality is for these omnibus debt packages sold as investments. When we package stuff up with no real idea of how good the ingredients are (like Fannie and Freddie did with mortgages, for example), we are simply making financial sausage. Saugage is good - until it gives you a heart attack from eating too much of it.
  
  
• Obama's 3.8T budget. Do the math - if George Clooney's Haitian Relief Telethon (during which he raised $66 M; kudos to him) were held once a day and he raised that same amount every day, he would have to do a telethon every day of the week for 157 years to pay for Obama's budget for the year. Don't believe me? Do the math yourself, ninjas: $3,800,000,000,000/$66,000,000 = 57,575 days of telethons. Divide that figure of days by 365 and you'll come up with 157 years.
  
  Wall Street fears - rightfully so - tax increases are on the way.
  

And let me say this while I'm on the subject - (it must be Friday since I normally don't have time to blog this much) - this is not a "Democrats suck" thing when it comes to the budget. Any chart you pull up shows the debt escalation we're having to deal with now began with Ronald Reagan and continued with every president since (yes, even with Bill Clinton, despite his statements to the contrary). This is not a Democrat or Republican thing. Both parties have gone nuts spending money we don't have on programs we don't need.

4 February 2010

Update - Personal Training

Back in December, I made the decision to plunk down some serious cash and get a serious personal trainer. I needed help with a number of things, including:

• increasing flexibility
• losing weight
• making my work out routine more efficient
• dietary issues

I'm pleased to report I've seen a large improvement in my flexibility and stength. I haven't seen the weight loss yet, but I know that's coming.

Being prepared is about doing the basics really well. Being healthy is being prepared. I encourage you to start if you aren't already working to improve your health.

Hoping to Burn Brush This Weekend

It may be too wet this weekend (we've had several inches of rain here in Austin the last few days), but I would really like to go down to the ranch and burn more brush piles. I will be checking the humidity tomorrow to see if they have a chance to dry out.

My Book Project

I mentioned the other day I need to get back on track with this. You may recall I am writing a book for the State Bar of Texas on incident response and business continuity for law firms. I am editing the first draft this week, and along they the way I am writing up my "wish list" of things I want the Bar to help me with.

For example, I believe there are ethical reasons lawyers should prepare their practices for possible disasters. In addition, economic concerns should also motivate someone to prepare. If you lose your firm and your clients, how will you be able to make a living?

If I am scarce in the coming weeks, know that I am working on this project.

Ukraine's Got Talent

...was the subject line of the email I received from Mary today. I figured it was a joke. However, it contained this You Tube link (which I watched) and the following text:

This is truly amazing.

"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there's surely no bigger compliment."

In our current times, it's easy to become wrapped up in fear and despair. But take heart - many people have endured far graver conditions than we have and have lived to tell about it. God bless and protect our country.

3 February 2010

Remington 870 - The Official Shotgun of the Internal Revenue Service

Looks like your favorite agency is picking up 60 of them this year.

What Are You Worrying About These Days?

Aside from the economy, the escalating tensions with Iran should keep our attention. Spring storm season will be here soon.

1 February 2010

Why Are We In This Mess, You Ask?

Because we keeping electing these clowns to Congress. If it were possible to "spend our way out of the recession," don't you think we'd never been in a recession to begin with?

Atlanta Jeff Is Keeping Score

In addition to serving as our Chinese Affairs expert, Atlanta Jeff serves as the official Obama Bow Counter here at Paul T. He reports our Commander in Chief recently bowed to the mayor of Tampa.

Some Final Thoughts From It's The Economy

I ran across this piece over the weekend. I would love to start doing this....but the reality is growing your own food in the 'burbs is quite daunting.

In the end, I continue to bet long on America. It will just take a while to recover from this mess.

29 January 2010

It's The Economy, Part 5

Y'all need to read this. Global leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum meeting. Note the predictions for the recovery to fizzle this year.

Aged Tires Report

You may have seen this before. Please learn how to determine the age of the tires on your car, and don't put old, albeit never used, tires on your vehicles.

Cleaning the 45

I volunteered to tear down, clean and lubricate a neighbor's seldom used 1911 Colt. I've never spent much time with one. Getting it apart was easy; putting it back together was a bit challenging. I will take it to the range to test fire it this weekend.

26 January 2010

It's The Economy Week, Part 4

Today's info - our national debt picture. It's sobering when you read the note that the last six zeroes on all of the figures have been omitted.

Do the math - we owe $12,248,872,000,000. That's twelve trillion dollars. Put another way, each American owes approximately $40,000.00.

For you purists, take a look at Q3 real (i.e., adjusted for inflation) GDP figures - our GDP at that point was $14,242,100,000,000. Let's tack on an additional $90B for fun to give us an estimated full year's GDP. That gets us to $14.332T. Dividing our debt by our GDP reveals we have a debt ratio - the comparison of debt versus income - of 85%. Put another way, the lower the percentage, the less debt we have compared to our income.

Many will argue such a ratio is acceptable - after all, many families have a mortgage and car loans far exceeding their household income. While that's true, people earning money get to use as much of it as they want to pay down debt.

The government, on the other hand, doesn't "make" $14.2 T a year. Rather, it gets a cut - via taxes - of a portion of that. So if the goverment gets 20% of that figure (I am just using that figure as an example; I can't cite you the actual number), then the government has debt totaling 3.5 times its income.

As our Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security obligations increase with the aging baby boomers, and you add on the interest to this debt, you can see how quickly that 3.5 multiplier could grow into something much, much larger. Simply put, it's unsustainable. It's arguably unconstitutional as well.

Ham Radio In Haiti

If Bush Had Done It, We'd Never Hear The End Of It

But instead, it's Obama using a teleprompter. To talk to sixth graders. Really?

Short Vacation From Blogging This Week

25 January 2010

It's The Economy Week, Part 3

Halfway There

Miscellaneous

24 January 2010

It's The Economy Week, Part 2

On Saturday evening, Kendel and I visited Barnes and Noble (note to Barnes and Noble staff - if you're the only cashier on duty, and there are ten people in line, do NOT spend five minutes talking to the guy you just waited on about how to build a computer. Those customer people you're delaying unnecessarily - the ones who buy stuff from your employer - are the same ones paying your salary. But I digress.) so I could pick up a copy of the weekend edition of Investor's Business Daily (IBD). I wanted to share some observations with you about the last few days in the markets.

First, the numbers. The S&P dropped 5.1% in three days. The NASDAQ coughed up 3.1% on Friday alone. Oil and gold closed lower as well.

But these numbers are a bit misleading. Equity markets closed on Friday in below average volume, meaning the sell off wasn't driven by swarms of people selling stock. Earnings estimates coming in this week continue to support the notion the economy is getting stronger. And despite the fact 77% of investors are wary of Obama's policies as they pertain to businesses, as Atlanta Jeff reported yesterday, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumers showed investor optimism hit a two year high this week. For what it's worth, IBD reported on page A2 "the top gains in positive sentiment came from homes with lower incomes and wealth, in terms of home values and stock portfiolios, data showed."

The market's recent decline seems to be coming a combination of three factors:

• Fading support for Bernanke's re-appointment as Federal Reserve Chair. Both Democrats and Republicans continue to bail on the Fed chair. This uncertainty disturbs the markets.
• Obama's plan to tax banks. Needing a target to direct his policy upon, banks seem like an obvious choice. Markets fear Obama's tax on banks will further stifle the recovery.
• China concerns. China took steps to discourage lending as its economy grew 10.7% in Q4 compared to teh same quarter last year. (Still think China is telling us the truth about the condition of their economy?)

So - here's the question. Was this week's market action the beginning of the second dip of the recovery as anticipated by some? Or was it the result of a fair amount of fear created in the markets because traders didn't have any other significant data to inspire them to hold their positions? In other words, will we find out on Monday the sell off was just a knee jerk reaction to news which really isn't going to come to fruition?

Needless to say, I am still trying to figure that out.

22 January 2010

It's The Economy Week

Over the next few days, I want to discuss various economic issues facing us. As prepared people, economic downturn has to be on our list of possible contingencies. Today, my college friend Atlanta Jeff shares his thoughts on the economic situation:

First, inflation has to be coming. We have printed dollars with reckless abandon, which has been proven to be inflationary (see Weimar Germany circa 1930s, which eventually led to the rise of Hitler). Also, while oil is off of its highs, it is still not cheap. With problems in various oil producing countries, like Nigeria and, somewhat, Yemen, we are one shock away from a spike in prices, which would be inflationary. Lastly, I am reading that some crop yields are falling, which leads to higher food prices. All three of these things point to less purchasing power (i.e., higher prices) coming our way.

Second, job creation is not materializing. We continue to see people dropping off of the unemployment roles, as their benefits expire. Also, claims for unemployment are not falling. Some people are writing that the real un/under-employment rate is 17%. Without increasing employment, you cannot grow the economy.

Third, government regulation is on the rise. Despite the Scott Brown victory and what it did to health care, we will still see increased government regulation (look at Obama taking on the big banks yesterday). While some pundits may think Obama will move to the center like Clinton did in response to the 1994 mid-term elections, when the Republican party gained control of the House of Representatives, you have to remember that Obama does not have to do so. Obama only lost a supermajority in the Senate, not both houses of Congress. I think with an increasingly disillusioned electorate, Obama will use government regulations to get what he wants because it will attract less attention.

Fourth, interest rates have to go higher. There is a reduced appetite for US government debt. PIMCO, the world's largest bond dealer, and Kokusai Global Sovereign Open, the world's second largest bond fund, have announced in recent weeks that they are going to avoid purchasing US debt. Also, the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC”) may have less of an appetite for our debt. With less demand, interest rates willl have to rise to entice buyers. Those higher rates flow through the economy to raise rates for businesses and consumers.

All of that said, from my perspective, rising risk of inflation, increasing government regulation, rising risk of interest rates and decreasing employment do not make me enthusiastic about the US economy over the next two to three years. That also probably colors investor sentiment and has contributed to recent market declines. As an aside, a recent Bloomberg survery found that 77% of investors think Obama is anti-business. Also, please note that I really have not considered our unsteady relationship with the PRC or the possibility of a destabilizing shock. When I add those elements to the mix, it causes me more concern.

I do not know what to say in summation other than that we all need to have our financial affairs in order, live below our means and buy at the point of deepest fear. And pray Obama does not screw up too much.

Jeff holds an MBA from Wake Forest and works in the consulting industry.

21 January 2010

Trijicon Story Part 2

DoD forced Trijicon to take off the bible verse off the side of their sights.

Continued Fallout Over the Scott Brown Election

Atlanta Jeff found this footage on line showing Hitler's response to Coakley's loss.

A Hiccup? Or the Second Dip Of The Recession?

Today's stock market drop - the largest since October - along with gold's 3% drop this week have caused some concern among various investors. Couple these with an unexpected increase in jobless claims, Obama's proposed bank tax, and his efforts to increase the debt ceiling to 1.8 trillion, and you can see why they are concerned.

I'm no economist, but it seems some of Roubini's predictions (which I have mentioned in previous blogs) are coming true. A couple of days ago, we saw some strength in the dollar as China's economy shows signs of overheating. Some fear China won't be able to continue to buy debt from other countries. As a result of the dollar's strengthening, those who have shorted the dollar (ie, bet that the dollar will continue to fall) are now having to "cover" those short positions (ie, pay up on the bet). To pay up on those bets, the big boys sell stock to come up with the cash. Hence the stock market drop.

This warrants close attention in the coming days.

20 January 2010

Practice Paid Off

Aound 2:30 this morning, a loud crashing sound awoke Kendel and me. I quickly got my flashlight and gun out of the lock box and began looking for the problem. Turns out it was a shelf in the playroom which collapsed. While I was not thrilled about waking up in the middle of the night, I am quite pleased I was able to get my gun and light out so quickly. The practice I've done helped quite a bit.

More Financial Food for Thought

Regardless of who won the 2008 election, we'd still be in this position. One person's thoughts on future economic conditions.

And Are We Headed For Major Conflict With China?

Some think so.

19 January 2010

Random Things

Lots to do at home tonight so not a lot of time to blog, so here are a few things to consider:

• Here's a good reason to use Trijicon sights on your gun.
• Watch for a rally in the markets Wednesday.

Are You A Ruralpolitan?

17 January 2010

Tutorial Audio On Calling 911 When Using Lethal Force

Listen and take notes. A lawyer couldn't have written a better script.

NRA Instructor Class Notes

In the class of 16 or so, four were women - rather unusual but a great sign that women are getting into guns for protection. It's a rigorous three days of training. We ran some shooting contests as well. I even ran one course as a participant - shot fairly well and with an okay time. I really should start shooting some matches to get more experience.

Survival Math Lesson Two

In case your kids are playing along .....

1. Tox and two of her friends – Nat Cat and Lil’ La – decide to create bug out kits for their school back packs.  They group up various supplies to fill their kits.  In their kits, one quarter of the space is taken up by first aid gear.  One eight of the space is taken up with fire starting materials.  One tenth of the space is taken up with emergency signaling devices. 

1. What fraction of space is still available for additional gear?
2. Lil’ La wants to use 3/5ths of unused space for snacks.  Does she have enough room to do so?
3. Nat Cat adds a small sewing kit to her kit, taking up 1/18th of her unused space.  How much unused space does she have now?

2. Schools remain closed due to the Swine Flu pandemic.  Tox is put in charge of keeping all bottles of hand sanitizer in the house full at all times.  Paul’s bottle of sanitizer is 12 ounces.  So far, he’s used 1/3 of it.  Kendel’s bottle is 20 ounces.  So far, she’s used 2/25 of hers.  Tox has an 8 ounce bottle and has used 1/3 of it.  All put together, how many ounces of hand sanitizer has the family used?

3. Paul trains people how to shoot.  Currently, he has taught 10% of the neighborhood basic gun skills.  Of those people Paul has taught, 70% of them can shoot well enough to qualify for a concealed handgun license (CHL).  If there are 200 people in the neighborhood, how many of Paul’s students can shoot well enough to get their CHL?

4. Kendel prepares a fine survival meal of poppy seed chicken.  The recipe calls for 2 pounds of chicken, a can of soup, and 50 crackers.  She has 10 cans of chicken, each containing 4 ounces of chicken.  How many cans does she need to make the poppy seed chicken?
   
   
5. Tox is put on sniper duty during the collapse.  Her gun can shoot a bullet 400 yards before it hits the ground if held level at her shoulder.   For every 100 yards the bullet travels, it drops 1 foot.  At 250 yards, how far will the bullet have dropped from the height of the barrel of the gun?  See the illustration below.

15 January 2010

Survival Math

After I blogged last night, Kendel asked me to help Tox with some word problems involving fractions. She needed some extra practice, so I created the following questions:

1. Paul bought 1,000 bullets for his assault rifle.  On the first day of the collapse, Paul fired 1/10 of his bullets.  On the second day, he fired ½ of what he had left over.

1. If each bullet cost $0.25, how much did the ammo he shot on the second day cost him?
2. How many rounds did he fire on the first day?
   
   

2. Hoping to talk to some survivalist on his ham radio, Paul set up the antenna for it.  The instructions say the antenna must be 20 feet tall.  Paul has 10 equal sections of the antenna pole which total 100 feet in length.  What fraction of the antenna pole sections does Paul have to use?
   
   

3. Since the collapse, the water faucets no longer work. Paul makes a deal with Mike, Chip and Warren.  He tells them “For every two gallons of dirty water you bring me, I will give you 1 gallon of clean water.”  Mike brings 2 and 1/2 gallons of water, Chip brings 5 gallons, and Warren brings 8 and 1/3 gallons.  How much water does Paul owe each person?

4. Paul finds 2/3 of residents in the neighborhood are still alive after 7 days from when the collapse occurred.  Of these still alive, ¼ of them own assault weapons.  What fraction of the residents own assault weapons?

5. On the day of the collapse, Tox ignores school rules, as instructed her step dad, and heads home through the woods.  On her trip, 1/3 of the time she is in the woods.  It takes her 30 minutes to get home.  How much time does she spend in the woods?

6. Paul, Kendel and Tox leave the house and head to their retreat.  It cost them $12,000 to build it.  In doing so, they spent 1/3 on the house, 1/10 on the well, and ¼ on the shop.  How much money did they spend on everything else?

Off To Karl's To Help Train NRA Instructors

I will be at KR Training off and on this weekend helping with the annual NRA Instructor Certification Class.

14 January 2010

The Hell Of Haiti

I'm sure you've seen the footage. Haiti, a very poor country by anyone's standard, just got it handed to them in a horrific way. It should remind us to stay prepared for all risks, as well as to be thankful we live in a country with the resources we have.

Did Haiti's Pact With Satan Play a Role In The Earthquake?

Pastor, occasional presidential candidate and television icon Pat Roberston said yesterday that Haiti's pact with the devil, made in an effort to free Haiti of French control, was to blame for the earthquake which hit the island nation. Curious as to why he would say this, I did a little research into the matter. From what I gather, there's a school of thought which believes a group of Haitian revolutionaries - who practiced voodoo - made a deal with Satan, promising the devil they would serve him if he would help them run off the French.

I don't know if it's true or not. What I do know is saying dumb things like that - by someone who doesn't have a great track record on such matters - hurts the perception of the Christian faith.

New Radio Station Recommendation - KFYO 790 AM in Lubbock, Texas

I spent some time in Lubbock earlier this week. If you have Wunderradio on your iPhone, add this station to your favorites, especially if you live in Texas. Every Wednesday morning they give the "Ammo Report." Pratt on Texas in the late afternoons is quite entertaining as well.

10 January 2010

And When The Goverment Takes Control of Our 401(k) and IRA Accounts....

....we'll all be much better off. Read this, grab a trash can, then vomit. Thanks to Survival Chic Barb for the link.

Tox Birthday Party - "I Want To Do Paintball."

The eleven year old of the house recently turned twelve. This means yet another gathering of neighborhood girls the same age at our house for a night of sugary junk food, squealing, jumping off of furniture and having conversations about subjects I'd rather not mention here. Tox announced last night she wanted to have a paintball birthday party, which warmed my heart.

Kendel polled various people via Facebook on whether a bunch of twelve year old girls would like paintballing. Most said they would not enjoy it. So we've nixed those plans, but Tox got a Disaster Dollar nonetheless for wanting to do it.

Rest of the Week

Busy week coming up - my after work hours will be tied up on other things. It will likely be Thursday or Friday before I blog again. Until then, stay safe.

09 January 2010

Winter Disaster Exercise 2010

Today's adventure began around 6:45 this morning. Several items in the house began a chorus of beeping. I got up to investigate to find out we had no electricity.

To set the stage for you, at 6:45AM in Central Texas this time of year, it's still dark outside - maybe 30 minutes before dawn. I went upstairs to continue my quest to shut off all things beeping, and so I switched on the local AM radio station to learn it was 12 degrees outside - record cold temperature for us.

I called our power company to let them know the power was out. The nice lady advised 123 homes were without power and that they were working on the problem, but given the weather it might take a while to resolve.

I shut off the security alarm to silence the low battery alert, and in doing so aroused our dogs. They wanted to be on our bed, and so to keep them quiet I let them into the bedroom. This, of course, woke up Kendel, who a minute later had this exchange with me:

Kendel: "It's sleeting outside, isn't it?"

Me: "Can't be. There's not a cloud in the sky."

Kendel: "I hear it. It's sleeting."

Me: "Can't be. There's not a cloud in the sky."

Kendel: "Come over here and listen."

Me: (after listening to a sleet-like sound): "Sounds like some condensation is coming off of the heat pump, but that's impossible in this weather. I will go check."

As I went outside and rounded the corner of the house, I heard a water rushing sound. Apparently, a gasket on part of the yard irrigation system failed due to the extreme lack of temperature (kinda like the O-ring on the Space Shuttle Challenger rocket booster). All of the exposed pipes on this particular piece of the irrigation system have been insulated, except for this one large metal valve/junction/doo-hickey where the gasket is located.

I went out back inside to get my tools to shut the water main off at the street. After digging the crud out around our valve (which begs a collateral question - can't the water meter reading people take 5 seconds every month and pull out a handful of dead leaves and compost?), I find the geniuses who set the meter set my valve at a 30 degree angle off center, making it difficult to get a tool in there to cut it off. My neighbor's dog alerted him to the fact I was out in the yard. With his plumbing wrench, we were able to cut the water off.

We went back to investigate the leak. Because I hadn't put my contacts in, I failed to notice the first time the cut off valve in front of the metal valve/junction/doo-hickey where the gasket is located. We shut that valve off, turned the water main back on, and all was well.

In the interim, Kendel called a plumbing service and got us in line for a repair guy. I was less concerned about the plumbing issue at that point, since we isolated the problem and still were able to have running water in the house.

I came back inside for breakfast. We ate our cereal and contemplated what, if anything, we should do next. Multiple burglar alarms from various homes in the neighborhood cried out, presumably due to some issue with the power outage. I told Kendel, "this will be what it's like when the collapse comes."

I went upstairs now that the sun was out and worked through some to dos in my study. Kendel had the better plan - go back to bed. I was still pretty tired and so I returned to bed myself around 8AM.

The power came back on around 9:30AM after several sputters. The plumber showed up at 1:30 this afternoon, said we'd need a specialist, and lined one up for us for later this week.

Given all of this, here are my observations and assessments:

Flashlights and Radios - I give myself high marks here. All flashlights had good batteries, and only one radio needed a battery replacement, which I have now done.

Phone Numbers for Utility Companies Programmed Into Phone - I did not score well here. I was able to call information and get the number on my cell phone, but I need to program those numbers so I don't have to dial 411.

Initial Assessment - I am either uber prepared or a complete nutjob - maybe both. Want to know the first thing I thought of when I realized the power was out? Verify if we've been hit by an EMP. Even while half awake, I assumed the worst and started verifying that it wasn't. I am not sure what that says about me as a person, but at the end of the day, I am glad I thought to check on that.

Plumbing Issues - Here's where I really didn't perform well. In my defense, the weather we're having challenges our previous experiences. While this is not an excuse, it is a mitigating factor. To be sure, I should have done a better job insulating all exposed pipes. I do have insulators on all outside faucets. I spoke with the plumber and got his thoughts on how best to cover the metal valve/junction/doo-hickey where the gasket is located. His solution? A beach towel wrapped around it, covered by trash bags or grocery bags. Easy enough.

In addition, the water meter issue represented the lowest point in my response. I have cut water off at homes before - as a fireman, that was standard operating procedure - but I had never cut the water off at this house. Organic matters of various sorts caked the cut off valve. I was lucky - I got to fool with it at 7AM in 12 degree weather. Doing it in 30 degree weather in freezing rain at 3 AM would have been a far worse scenario.

The plumber suggested I get a cut off tool at Home Depot. I am not sure it will work, given the fact the valve is at such an angle. I will get one and try it, and if it doesn't work, take it back. I do need to get a plumbing wrench - my big Channellock wrench Dad got me some time ago wasn't able to grasp the cut off with enough surface area to generate the needed torque.

Alternative Energy - I have talked about doing this in the past but haven't made it a priority. That needs to change. I perused Northern Tool this morning, and I saw they have several sizes of Generac generators on sale as well as some basic "plug and play" solar systems.

Car Adaptor for iPhone - I shopped for one earlier this week. I need to buy one.

Alternative Heat - We've never used our indoor fireplace. I keep kindling and firewood staged out on the covered patio to keep dry in case we need to light a fire. I figured we would do our cooking and water heating out on that fireplace and on the propane stove. However, given the extreme weather conditions, we need to start thinking about using the indoor fireplace for those activities to take advantage of the heating it could give us in the house.

Work Gloves In The House - We have several pair, of good quality and condition. The only problem is that they all stay out in the shed - where it's cold. It's not fun putting on 12 degree gloves when it's 12 degrees outside.

All in all, today's events gave me a good preparedness exercise on a non-work day.

08 January 2010

Your Reading Assigment for The Weekend

It's a bit lengthy, but it's cold outside and most of you will be stuck indoors anyway.

First, is the Chinese economy on the verge of collapse? If so, what does that mean for us? I think it will have a stunning effect on public finance in the U.S. for at least another decade. Does this story incentivize you further to prepare for harder times?

Next, contrast that story with the largest non-crisis of the last few years - H1N1. Seems as though New York is drowning in all of their unused vaccines, which would explain why you can essentially get it for free in Austin.

For those with a lot of time, here are two reports - dated 2004 and 2008 - from the EMP Commission on - you guessed it - EMP.

President Obama is touting yet a third stimulus package - yes, you read correctly - a third stimulus package. Here's a great explanation as to why it won't work (just like the other two didn't.)

This Weekend To Dos

I am sticking around the house this weekend. I have a lot of paper to sift through, a study to clean, a shed to organize, and a lawn mower to take to the shop to get running again. We're going to start mowing our own lawn and save the money we pay for the yard service. I need to get the mower going to help pick up all the leaves and dead grass out in the yard at the moment.

Update: Delta Tool Box

Some time ago, I mentioned I changed out the Dee Zee tool box I bought at TSC and upgraded to a Delta box. I really like it. It works much better.

06 January 2010

The Next Time I Go to McDonald's, I Am Wearing Body Armor.

You people out there are losing it. Seriously. That's twice in a week now.

Deep Freeze Inbound

This evening, we covered up some of Kendel's flowers, and I checked on the hose bib covers one more time before the Arctic blast hits us overnight. We're not accustomed to highs in the mid 30s with 30+mph winds. Tomorrow and Friday won't be fun for us.

Eight Clips of Obama

.....promising to hold open, televised negotiations on C-SPAN. To date, we've had zero televised negotiations by my count.

04 January 2010

Just One Drop Will Do

Check out this sobering video of what is simply called a modern binary explosive. Can't wait to get on another airliner again, knowing terrorists are learning how to make this stuff. Thanks to Big Stan for sharing.

Chicken McNuggets - The Next Crystal Meth?

Why do you people insist on assaulting McDonald's employees when they run out of McNuggets? I never knew demand for low grade chicken parts, deep fried and over battered, would be so inelastic.

03 January 2010

If the GPS Told You To Drive Off A Cliff, Would You Do It?

The Magic 8 Ball tells me "signs point to yes."

Get Your Cold On

A cold snap is gripping much of the CONUS, with our area possibly receiving sleet later this week. It's on. Get ready.

This First Sentence Of This Article Says It All....

And The Mayo Clinic Won't Accept Medicare Anymore...

At their Arizona facility. Funny how Obama touted Mayo as a shining example of how health care is supposed to work...only to have them dump Medicare. I owe my life to the Mayo Clinic, so my view of this is quite biased - but those in Washington had better start re-thinking the current health care legislation, lest this becomes a recurring theme.

01 January 2010

Happy New Year

It's my hope you have a great 2010. I'm optimistic it will be a great one.

Burning Brush

I went to the ranch today and burned five of the thirty-plus brush piles down there. Here are some random thoughts about the process:

1. There's no such thing as "too much diesel" on your brush pile. The piles that didn't burn well did so on the second attempt when more diesel was applied.

2. Carry burn ointment in your first aid kit. I had to doctor a thumb which suffered a first degree burn when I picked up a hot stick to throw it back in the fire.

3. Had I worn gloves like I should have, I would not have gotten burned.

4. To light the fires, I used a propane canister with a plumber's torch burner. I feared running out of propane; I should have carried a second canister, especially given the fact they are so cheap.

5. When the pile isn't burning the way you want it, add more diesel.

6. One trick I learned to help spread the fire evenly over the brush pile was to turn the back pack sprayer into something of a flame thrower. I use the sprayer to apply the diesel. Squirt the diesel onto the edge of the flames, and the flames will spread towards the diesel. That way, you can rapidly move the fire over the portions of the pile which aren't on fire.

7. Take a chain saw with you. When the piles started to settle down, I cut some of the bigger logs not burning very well and threw them back into the fire. It makes for a more efficient burn.

8. Cedar trees are awesome to burn.

9. Take more diesel than you think you will need. See Point #1 above.

10. Be sure to keep law enforcement apprised of your activities. I called the local sheriff's office dispatch as well as the chief of the local fire department to advise them what I was doing.

More on Flight 254

I provide the link. You reach your own conclusions.

Texas Todd Ain' t Buying or Selling This

Double T sent this link to me today. People of faith continue to prepare for hard times. (As a side note, the pic of Woody Harrelson in the link is awesome).

As a Christian, I believe - and I am assuming all Christians do - Christ will return to earth one day. According to the book of Revelations, Christ's return will be preceded by a time of great troubles.

Of interest to those Christians who prepare because of their concerns over those troubled times are the dire warnings found in Revelations 13. Specifically, consider verses 11 through 17 (of the New International Version):

Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.

Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

It's the last sentence - referring to the mark of the beast - which causes so much consternation among many devout Christians. The idea you cannot buy or sell unless you have the mark (which you could receive only by worshipping the beast) concerns many of those who study end times prophecies.

I am not a scholar of Revelations. I haven't even read the entire book, in large part because its extensive use of imagery and symbolism makes it so difficult to understand. But I certainly can see why it would motivate a believer to take steps to prepare.

Regardless of whether you Christians out there believe this interpretation of Revelations, you can certainly relate to Joseph's efforts to prepare Egypt from seven years of famine, as told in Genesis 41. I like the story of Joseph because a) it's clear cut - in times of abundance, prepare for times of need, b) Joseph, a man of God, was asked to head up these efforts while reporting to Pharaoh, who wasn't a man of God, and c) Joseph never allowed his misfortunes to get him down - when he was given a bad deal, he always stayed faithful and made the best of it.

Know Anyone Who's Actually Read Some Of The Financial Reform Legislation? I Do.

Bloomberg's David Reilly sat down and read all 1,279 pages of Barney Frank's "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act." Suffice it to say, it's full of more bailouts and more government control of the financial system.

Need a Different Type of Excursion? Try a Porn Vacation.

I've noticed more and more stories on CNBC about porn. Here's the latest. After you've prepared for the Second Coming, you can take relaxing vacation with a porn-themed vacation. If any of you do this, let me know. And send lots of pictures.

29 December 2009

More Proof We Are Trend Setters

Texas Todd, despite an illness, shared this Newsweek story with me today. It's fantastic. The video is really good as well.

Burn o Rama on 1 January

I will be at the ranch Friday morning, burning brush. I test fired one pile on Thanksgiving Day; it burned really fast. I have approximately 35 piles to burn. I hope to get 10 of them burned on this trip.

America's Team On TV Tonight

The University of Miami plays Wisconsin tonight. Pick Miami to cover the spread.

28 December 2009

So the Anti Joel Will Rest Easy....

I am breaking my blogging sabbath so he will have something to read. All is well - just enjoying some time off and spending my free time working on some projects around the house and my two writing projects which I have to get done soon.

I took some time off - Kendel and I spent a few days in Miami before making the annual Christmas pilgrimage to Tennessee. Our families were quite generous with us again this year.

Goals for 2010

Every year I share most of my personal goals with you - this year will be no different. I sketched them out on the flight back to Austin the other night. Once I have them completed, I will get them into the blog. In short, this year I will have 90 day action plans for each goal - something I have never done before. We'll see if that helps.

Terror in the Skies

We're getting used to this, I am afraid - some clown tries to set off his boxer brief bomb while flying into Detroit. In response, America yawns.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, whom I've previously chastised (26 April 2009 blog) as making Michael Chertoff look like a rocket scientist (and by the way - that's really hard to do), said the "[transportation security] system worked" on the date in question. If by "worked" you mean "a terrorist was escorted to the airplane without having a passport," then yes by all accounts it did.

But don't worry. I am sure the Messiah in Chief is monitoring this situation from his surfboard in Hawaii.

15 December 2009

The iPhone Nation

I got an iPhone this weekend as an early Christmas present. My main motivation for getting it includes the fact a) it's an AT&T serviced product, and AT&T is apparently the only service that works out on the ranch, and b) my other phone is two years old and is showing signs it's about to konk out.

The iPhone has many applications (called "apps" by the kids) which you can add to it. I have already added several survival oriented apps and sure I will add more. I will keep you posted on what I order and like.

The Local Boogeyman

Despite the fact the powers that be in our local HOA insist we do not have a crime problem in our hood, some of my neighbors beg to differ. Here's an email I sent to selected neighbors last night:

In the last few hours, I’ve received two reports of a suspicious man in the neighborhood.  One neighbor on Marybank reported a man, approximately 5’10”, was in the neighborhood going door to door ostensibly collecting money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters this past Saturday.  This occurred between 5pm and 6pm.  The neighbor added the man talked on a walkie talkie while walking between houses.  The police were called to investigate.

On a side note, Kendel reported hearing our doorbell ring multiple times around that same time on Saturday evening.  She found it very unnerving, even though she did not see anyone.

This evening, on Westerkirk, I am told a male knocked on the front door and asked the female resident several times if the lady of the house was present.  He refused to say what he wanted.  When the resident said she would get her husband, the man took off.

While I don’t know if it was the same guy or not, it’s certainly worth noting.  Please stay aware over the next few days. 

The holidays are a prime time for theft crimes. I strongly suspect this individual is casing our neighborhood.

First Annual DUC Gun Extravaganza

On Sunday, we had our Sunday School Christmas get together. After we ate breakfast and had a planning session for the next year, many of us with to the range for what I am calling the "First Annual Disciples Under Construction Gun Extravaganza."

Kendel attended, along with two other wives and their husbands, as well as our class mentor. Kendel, having not shot her gun since she qualified for her CHL last December, did remarkably well with her 40 caliber XD. I was very proud of her.

What's on the Survival Radar?

The economy bears watching for sure. Creating as much debt as our goverment has means we'll be printing money as fast as we can, in theory resulting in inflation. We've just now seen some of the price index numbers turn positive for the first time in close to a year. So short term, it does not seem like inflation will be a factor, although long term it may very well be a huge problem for us.

Updates the Rest of the Year

With the holidays coming, blog entries will continue to be fewer. It's my hope to start back with more frequent updates after the first of the year. I have made good progress on a couple of writing projects in the last six weeks, so hopefully that will free me up to work on the blog more often.

6 December 2009

Patching Tires

Kendel's car has one of those features which tells you when a tire is low. Her right rear tire has suffered from chronic deflation for some time. I took it to Sam's today to get them to fix it (they are under warranty there) but the wait was going to be too long.

I had a patch kit in my truck, so I figured I would do it myself. Long story short, I couldn't get the job done and ended up taking the tire to a local tire shot and having them do it instead.

Lessons learned:

• The big problem I had was getting the awl into the hole. When I watched the pros at the tire shop repair it, they used power tools to help the process. Next time, I will have a drill ready to drill out the hole a little wider to ensure the patch materials can be pushed into the hole.
• The tire shop reports mixed results with tire patch kits. They say they do work but start to leak after a few months.
• Looking back, I should have just waited at Sam's and let them do the repair - for free - rather than wasting my time and $20 at the tire shop to get the problem fixed.

John Batchelor Show

Some time ago, unbeknownst to me, the John Batchelor Show is back on the air. It's on 7 days a week, from 8PM to midnight, on WABC AM. Click here to be taken to the site.

Batchelor's show is fantastic. He does not take calls from listeners. It's a very erudite discussions on world events from a conservative perspective.

29 November 2009

Growing Interest in Guns

I continue to hear from people who are wanting to learn more about guns for security. Kendel's stepdad was in town for the holidays, and I took him to the ranch so he could fire the AR and Glock. He did well with both. Given the economy, crime is on the rise, even in rural areas where he and Kendel's mom live.

I have also heard from neighbors and co-workers who want to learn more about guns. It's my hope to get them to the range in 2010.

A Long But Good Video

I watched this video this morning (we played hookey from church to catch up on some things and because I'm a bit under the weather today). It's long - over 2 hours - and it extolls the virtues of a Christian lifestyle to the point of being rather repetitive. Having said that, it's a great documentary on people who have moved to the country to be more self sufficient. Included in the video is a very long interview with Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland (wonder if that's Texas Todd's congressman?) and a tour of his compound. I think you will enjoy this.

In addition, there's a wealth of info on the website. You'll want to book mark it.

How Much Concern Should We Have for the Dubai Situation?

In case you were too busy eating/watching football/tracking on how Tiger Woods' wife kicked his ass with a golf club over the weekend, you might not have heard the story coming out of Dubai on Thursday. Apparently, Dubai - one of the richest cities in the richest countries (United Arab Emirates) in the world - and its state run real estate business can't make payments on its debt. These bonds, held around the world by countless numbers of banks and institutional investors, were once thought to be a sound investment, given the revenues for petroleum the UAE earns every year.

Think about it - if you can't make enough money to cover your debts when you're in the oil and gas production business, what does that say about our economy?

As I have said before, much of our economic problems today come from cheap and easy credit. Moving forward, we should dramatically reduce our dependence on credit to help keep the financial system strong.

24 November 2009

A Quick Update

I've spent much of the last week creating the four week long Sunday School lesson series we'll be using in January. It's mushrooming to say the least - I've dictated close to 3 hours worth of tape so far. I hope to finish it up over the holiday weekend.

Force on Force Training

As I mentioned last week, I helped out at a force on force seminar, using Airsoft guns. The students learned a lot, as did I. I am looking forward to getting the Airsoft gun out in the back yard and start using it for some inexpensive target practice. It's about as close to the real thing as you can get.

Wasp and Hornet Spray?

My mother in law sent us an email extolling the virtues of wasp and hornet spray over mace as a less than lethal self defense tool. I never really thought about it, but it makes sense in many ways. Having never been shot in the face with neither mace/pepper spray or wasp spray, I can't say which is worse. But having a can of wasp spray around won't raise the suspicions of others and is a cheap solution (no pun intended) to a more expensive problem. I would like to hear from any of you who have had any experience with this.

Burn Ban is OFF!

After two plus years of burn bans, the local fire chief of the community where our ranch is located reports the recent rains have allowed him to lift the ban. It's my hope to get down there this weekend and light up a few of the brush piles to see how long it will take to burn them.

Some Light Reading for the Holiday Weekend

What's worse than H1N1? Eurobank tells its customers how to prepare for the possibility of economic armageddon. Be sure to bring up the latest scandal in the global warming hoax around the dinner table on Thursday. Apparently, once upon a time Mars was a lot like Houston.

17 November 2009

My Newest Toy Arrived Today

I am helping out at KR Training this Saturday with force on force training, In the training, students use Airsoft guns which shoot plastic BBs about six millimeters in diameter.

Airsoft guns are fantastic training tools. I used them as a student when I was taking force on force classes a few years back. And so this upcoming class spurred me to get my own for training purposes at home. I am looking forward to training with Kendel on home invasion scenarios with it.

Dr. Doom Says Hunker Down

Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the economic crash, says the worst is yet to come. Please continue to keep a watchful eye on the economy.

Gun Sales Remain Strong A Year After Hope and Change

Despite the fact we're a year into the Obama Administration, many continue to fear further restrictions on gun ownership. This article really drills down into the data.

13 November 2009

The Second Time The Obama Administration Was Correct

When I became a Libertarian back in 2003, I did so in large part to achieve a level of intellectual honesty and freedom which I simply could not attain as a card carrying member of the Republican Party. That freedom allows me to side with both parties from time to time.

And while I side with the GOP more often than the Democrats, on this issue, I must say I believe President Obama is correct.

The first time President Obama was correct was when he gave the order to whack those ass clown pirates from Somalia who hijacked the freighter back in the spring. The second time occured today, when AG Eric Holder announced we would try the Gitmo 5 in New York City.

The objections to trying them in a U.S. District Court, affording them Constitutional rights, make no sense to me. In essence, we're told by Republicans we cannot try them in a U.S. court because:

• By affording them rights, they may be able to walk from the charges.
• Because we water boarded them, we may not be able to use their confessions.
• By trying them in a U.S. courthouse, we make the courthouse a terrorist target.

Nonsense.

First of all, we will be trying them in New York Freakin' City. Don't you think the jurors of New York Freakin' City will be very inclined to send these people away forever? And if they can't get a fair trial in New York Freakin' City, where might the move the trial? To Texas? Only if we could be so lucky.

Next, the rights we will be bestowing on them in a U.S. court is more than any other country would do. Those bedwetter European Union nations had to borrow our notions of constitutional rights since they were too inept to come up with it on their own accord. And those third world nations from where many of these choir boys hail don't even have a constitution except for perhaps the Koran, a model document for solving conflict peacefully.

Third, we water boarded them for intel on where the next attack might be. Even if they did admit to wrongdoing as a result of waterboarding, we have plenty of evidence to support their conviction independent of any alleged torture. And since we're only charging them for the 9/11 attacks, the water boarding issue is irrelevant and thus inadmissible to the jury, made up of people from New York Freakin' City, who still remember what happened on 9/11.

As a lawyer, I cannot think of any legitimate reason why we would not use our judicial system to hold an open, fair, adversarial proceeding to determine their guilt or innocence. These people have been charged with murder of civilians. And when you murder people in the U.S., we use our open court system to adjudicate their guilt. We did it for Timothy McVeigh, for Eric Rudolph, and for a number of jackasses associated with the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. Why is this any different?

We cannot try these people in military tribunals. They are not soliders from a nation's military; they do not follow the rules of combat set forth in the Geneva Convention. Military tribunals have their place, to be sure. But this is not it.

A Survivalist Site Aimed At Women

Check out the Survival Chic's site - men will like it too.

Airsoft Gun On Order

I ordered a KJW G23 Airsoft Gun. This is the one which runs on gas and has a slide which cycles, adding to the realism. Kendel and I have been discussing our tactics in case of a home invasion scenario, and so I hope the gun will be a good training tool.

11 November 2009

Was Hasan A Terrorist?

I believe so. Poltical Correctness killed those soldier at Fort Hood. Hopefully the Army will wake up and start being objective. If you have a nutjob in your ranks, remove him. Even if he's a Muslim.

4 November 2009

Space - The Next Battlefield

Our Chinese affairs expert, Atlanta Jeff, sent me this story today. The Chinese military apparently can't wait to make their dreams of creating a real life Star Wars come true. As the heavens become more weaponized, the risk of one nation's satellite "accidentally bumping" into another country's satellite grows exponentially.

So Much For Acid Rain

Remember back in the 1980s when we heard acid rain would wipe life off the planet as we know it? Well, apparently it's not much of an issue now. Researchers have concluded drinking rain water is healthy and better for the environment.

This is actually good news for us. More people getting into preparedness are implementing rainwater collection systems to supplement their water supply. It's good to know we can drink the stuff falling from the sky.

Blog Updates The Rest Of The Year

....will be fewer. I have two writing projects I am working on - my book on disaster preparedness for law firms and a four week bible study for my Sunday School class I've promised to roll out in early January. I still have some home improvement matters, and coupled with the upcoming holidays, my postings will likely be irregular for the rest of the year.

1 November 2009

Two Things To Worry About

Before I get into this, let me say I am an optimist. I do think positively. It's my hope the American people will start paying attention to what's going on and demand their political leaders act in the best interest of future generations.

Having said that, we have two pieces of news to keep us motivated. First, Nouriel Roubini - the celebrated Dr. Doom on Wall Street, called such as he predicted the market collapse before anyone else did - wrote this piece in today's Financial Times. Most disturbing, Roubini opines "but one day this [current stock market] bubble will burst, leading to the biggest co-ordinated asset bust ever." The article is rather technical, but it's worth your time to read it.

Second, I ran across this story about the build up of the Chinese military. Atlanta Jeff has expressed strong concerns about these reports in the past, noting while China holds much our debt, its nationalistic goals may trump its desire to cash those bonds in at some point. He astutely noted over the weekend, "Red China is our second most dangerous enemy.  Unfortunately, our first is the complacency of the American people."

29 October 2009

Winterize Your Life

Fantasic to-do list - please review.

Congressman Rogers from Michigan

Who said all Yankees were obnoxious? This guy is good.

Does It Bother You <<Insert Name of Group Here>> Has Been Appointed To <<Insert High Level Government Position Here>> by President <<Insert President's Name Here>>?

This afternoon, the Anti-Joel emailed me something entitled, "Muslims Appointed to Homeland Security by Obama," seeking my comments. I have reproduced a large portion of the email he fowarded:

In his own book, Obama stated that if it comes to conflict between the West and the Muslims, "I will stand with the Muslims."  As to the politics of it for Obama, at the very least these appointments should raise serious doubts among thinking moderates and independents regarding Obama's judgment, with these irresponsible, ridiculously politically correct appointments of Muslims to critical positions in Homeland Security.  These doubts should be extremely damaging to Obama and the Democrats in the mid-term elections next year, and in the next Presidential election in 2012.  Political worst case, while these Muslim appointees are serving, we will suffer a devastating Muslim terrorist attack on our soil.  In such a case, when the dust is settled, a "normal" President would be crucified, perhaps impeached, for appointing possible traitors to positions privy to our most closely held intelligence and homeland defense secrets. 

 

By making these appointments, what gain can Obama possibly achieve that outweighs their negatives?  The only possible conclusion is that Obama is no "normal" President with a traditional, though leftist, political agenda.  These appointments make no logical political sense unless one considers that Obama doesn't care about political backlash, and is intentionally lowering our defenses to make a devastating terror attack on the American homeland more likely. 

 

I'm truly beginning to believe Obama would welcome seeing our homeland attacked and temporarily reduced to chaos as an excuse to reorganize it under a martial law / military enforced communist state that is congruent with his socialist one-world government ideology.  As additional support of this thesis, take a close look at the extreme leftist profiles of the 30 odd "czars" that Obama has appointed as an unprecedented shadow government that is now actively exercising authority over virtually all areas of our society, all reporting directly to him - appointees, none approved by Congress, who circumvent Congressional authority and Constitutional restrictions on Presidential powers.

 

Am I accusing Obama of treason?  Not yet.  However, I wouldn't rule it out if and when he stands at the center of a tremendous crisis with the opportunity to choose between honoring his Oath of Office or treasonously becoming the first communist dictator of a new United States.  This is certain:  I do not believe Obama's agenda as President is "to preserve the safety of the people and the Constitution of the United States".  Virtually all of his actions since taking office have demonstrated that.

My thought? Nothing to worry about.

Assuming these gentlemen who've been appointed have nefarious motives (an assumption I won't make beyond this paragraph), the scrutiny they and their families would undergo after such an attack would be unbearable. Can you imagine being an honest, life loving Muslim in charge of helping protect America on a day we're attacked by Muslim extremists? Who would want that job at that point?

Obama isn't planning to assist in a Muslim take over of the U.S. He knows the American people would never stand for it, assuming that's his goal. While I do think President Obama wants to see a weaker America on the international stage, I don't believe for a minute he wants us to be attacked again. To do so would be to jeoparize his legacy, something he will try to protect at all costs.

Mr. Obama is, to use the parlance of the day, "too big to fail." He won't let that mantra be hamstrung by turning a blind eye to our homeland security measures.

26 October 2009

Want My Advice? Don't Worry if the Media is "Liberally Biased."

You people need to quit worrying about the liberal media. No one's watching them.

I had this conversation today at work with a fellow conservative. I want to share my thoughts with you, as this discussion comes up regularly these days.

It's popular for many of us (and in the past, I would include myself) to complain about the "liberal media." To be sure, many in the main stream media are biased to the left. I can give you countless examples of their bias over the years.

Fox News, on the other hand, is biased to the right. No, they are not "fair and balanced." Know why? You people wouldn't watch them if they were.

My theory on this is fairly simple - there's no unbiased media today, because if there were, none of us would watch it. There's no market for objective news. We want bias in our news. We feel better by getting our news from "one of our own," so to speak. Fox News would not spend every evening broadcasting Beck, Hannity and O'Reilly if you wouldn't watch it. These gentlemen are clearly biased to the right.

On the left, MSNBC serves as flagship for all things liberal. CNN drags behind in second place. Both networks attract left of center viewers because.....well, liberals, like us, want their news from one of their own.

And so here's why you shouldn't worry about left wing bias. In short, NO ONE is watching CNN or MSNBC. Don't believe me? CNN officially fell into last place this week for cable news programming. The network which started it all - which today brings us Anderson Cooper, what's her name with the beautiful Georgia accent who yells at criminal suspects until they commit suicide (or is she over on Headline News? Who knows. She's on CNN or a CNN-owned outlet, either way), and Larry King (is sorta A)live.

Here's what's even more compelling: the Nielsen ratings for early October. Note across all demographics, Fox owns the market, with the top thirteen highest drawing shows across all time slots. Simply put, if you're getting your news from cable news outlets, odds are you're getting it from Fox News.

So liberals don't get their news from cable news, you say. They get their news from newspapers and print media, right? If so, they're certainly losing ways to get it through hard copy. Circulation continues to shrink - down 10.6 per cent over a six month period ending in September, according this article today from the Associated Press.

Perhaps they get their news online. Maybe so, but those opportunities are changing, too. Big media names continue to toy with charging for on line content. What's free now may likely come to you via subscription-only in the near future. And thus for many Obama supporters who voted for him because they are barely "getting by" (as opposed to hundreds of millions of Chinese and Africans living in squalor who would gladly trade places with them), I am sure they won't be able to afford to get their news from on line sources, either. (On a side note - to lawyers out there who take pro bono cases from a legal aid agency from time to time - ever noticed how so many of your indigent clients have nicer and more televisions, computers, and cable television subscription packages (to watch Olbermann stick it to the man every night, no doubt), own more cars and have more kids than you do? Just curious.)

Most importantly, despite the alleged proliferation of "liberal media," a recent Gallup poll showed self described conservatives outnumber moderates and liberals.

Bottom line - right of center news outlets are doing well; left of center outlets fare poorly. More Americans call themselves conservatives now than at any time over the last five years.

So relax, homeys. Our message continues to get out.

25 October 2009

Whether to Take the Drug

Last night, Kendel and I had dinner with some friends of ours. Our hosts - both of whom are medical doctors - indicated they would take the swine flu vaccine once it becomes available.

Like you, I hear many opinions about the safety of the vaccine. Here are my issues with it:

• Track Record To Make a Safe Vaccine. The Swine Flu outbreak of the 1970s took one life. The vaccine to combat it took hundreds and permanently injured, by some accounts, thousands. We don't have a great track record on vaccine safety for pandemic flu strains.
• Waiver of Immunity for Manufacturers of Vaccines. At the risk of sounding a bit Alex Jones here, check out this site - maintained not by conspiracy kooks but rather the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - and read about the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (the "PREP Act."). I found this text on the site alarming:

  Passed primarily to address the pandemic influenza threat, the PREP Act provides liability protections after a Secretarial declaration of covered countermeasures for any disease or health condition that the Secretary views as constituting a public health emergency, either presently or in the future. Liability protections cover the manufacture, testing, development, distribution, or use of the designated covered countermeasure absent willful misconduct as defined in section 319F-3(c)(1) of the PHS Act.

So think about it - would you inject something into your body made by someone immune from suit for making a defective product.

• Unimpressive Lethality Rates. As best I can tell, we've lost 1,000 Americans to H1N1. Please note I am not saying it's not a bad disease...but the Spanish Flu of 1918 took out over 20,000 Americans in its first month of being on American soil.
• Track Record on Predicting Pandemics. We ran scared from a potential Bird Flu Pandemic a year or so ago, only to find out it never came to fruition.

I reserve the right to be wrong about all of this, but so far I am not buying it.

24 October 2009

A Unique Threat Here In Austin

Now, here are a few questions I have. First, this reminds me of those idiots I'd hear about when I lived in Miami (yes, there are some stupid people in Miami - I realize this is shocking to many of you) who kept cobras as pets. About once a year, some fool (actually, I can be more specific - a white male, aged 19-25) in South Florida would get bit by his "pet" cobra and need to have serum flown in from Orlando. Who keeps cobras/six foot monitor lizards as pets?

Do they taste like chicken?

Do their hides make great cowboy boots?

The Anti-Joel Must Be Feeling Better

He emailed me this link today. Here's the deal. Apparently, some credit cards contain a RFID chip. RFID stands for radio frequency identification. In essence, it's a chip which emits signals from whatever it's imbedded. Here's a video of someone removing a RFID chip from a credit card.

I hear a fair amount of RFID on the radio and internet from privacy advocates. I am not as well versed in this subject as perhaps I should be. I need to do more research.

Continuing Home Improvement and Realizing I'm Not In As Good As Shape As I Thought

Today I had a couple of neighborhood kids come over and help us put down three cubic yards of decomposed granite (which is a very dense form of gravel). Moving hundreds of pounds of stuff in wheelbarrows really worked on my shoulders, lower and mid back muscles., as well as my abs.

I lift weights three days a week. In a perfect week, I get three cardio sessions in as well. I need to get in better shape.

22 October 2009

Food Insurance

I ran across FoodInsurance.com the other night while checking out the usual preparedness sites I visit. I am seeing more and more references to the notion that food equals insurance.

This marketing technique by disaster food suppliers reflects an interesting shift in strategy. In the past, disaster food suppliers simply promoted fear of things - famine, terrorism, hyperinflation, civil unrest, and climate change to name a few. While this would appeal to some, to many others unable to comprehend the possibility of such events, the strategy would fail.

By calling food a form of insurance, it's much easier for people to justify buying the product. We can all relate to insurance - you pay a premium year after year, although you never receive a tangible benefit from it. By analogizing the purchase of survival food to paying an insurance premium, the consumer will be more likely to be receptive to the seller's message.

It will be interesting to see if this strategy helps the industry.

More Good News

Rumor has it the bearer of bad news, the Anti-Joel (named so due to his propensity to share bad news, unlike the ever positive pastor and fellow Houstonian Joel Osteen) has been under the weather lately (according to a Facebook note posted by his wife, the Anti-Victoria). And so I wasn't surprised he failed to share this day brightener with me. Sounds like many in Washington continue to worry about the risk of terrorism.

Regardless of which risk is greater - bioterrorism or nuclear attack - the basics on how citizens prepare are the same. Remember - when a citizen prepares, that's one less person FEMA and Red Cross have to house in a refugee camp.

So - Can I Declare I'm Right?

Back on 24 August, I said, "[Swine Flu] is being completely overblown." Apparently, some at CBS news contend I may be right.

Knock on wood - no one at the Martin house has suffered from the Swine Flu. But this article makes a great point - if you were sick and really didn't have H1N1, you're not immune from H1N1. Continue to stay vigilant, but not fearful.

19 October 2009

50 Days to Armageddon

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown continues to baffle me. In the latest installment of Goofy Things Gordon Brown Says and Does, we get this gem: "Negotiators ha[ve] 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the 'impasse'."

If my math is correct, Brown's predicted environmental Armageddon will begin on 9 December.

How do we respond to this? Laugh, remind your friends how silly global warming theorists are, and plan a big party for December 10.

Kendel's Now Reading Rawles

Kendel began reading the new Jim Rawles' book referenced in recent blog entries. She finds it quite informative and well written. Encourage your spouse to read it as well.

This Week

Many work and family commitments this week, so blog entries will be sporadic. Stay safe.

16 October 2009

Dee Zee Sucks; TSC Rocks; Jury Still Out on Delta

I got a truck bed tool box from Tractor Supply Company about a month ago. Being cheap, I went with the cheapest model - one built by Dee Zee. From the get go, the Dee Zee box just didn't hack it. It was hard to keep closed. The holes for the bolts latching it to the bed weren't pre-drilled. The aluminum was quite thin.

I let all of that slide until earlier this week, when I tried to lock it for the first time since I bought it. Not surprisingly, the lock wouldn't work.

The paperwork which came with the box had a warning on the front, in what had to be a font size of 72: DO NOT RETURN THIS TO THE RETAILER! CALL 1-800 ....... FOR ANY PROBLEMS. Quite perturbed at their warning, I called the number and explained the problem. The lady who took my call was very nice; however, her explanation on how to fix the problem made no sense.

I then called the manager of the TSC where I bought the thing. Fortunately, I kept the receipt. I explained the situation to the manager. He told me they'd swap it out for a full refund, no questions asked. So I took it back to TSC, and this time used the credit toward a more expensive Delta brand box (identical to one my neighbor has and really likes).

Later that evening, I started to bolt the box down to the bed. Wouldn't you know it....one of the pins which goes inside of the latch had completely sheared off along the way, meaning only one latch works. So at this point, I am 0-2 on recent tool box purchases.

Not to be outdone, I called Delta today and explained the situation, giving them the model number. They were very nice and promised to ship me a new pin. Installation should be really easy. We'll see how it works out.

Home Repairs Continue

A few months back, the CEO at our house (and in case you're wondering, it's not me) assigned me the duty to maintain all things exterior. I like to think I've taken the job fairly seriously.

Since my assignment, I've overseen the installation of the Tuff Shed, acted as the general contractor for the upgraded security light installation (which entailed calling my secretary's husband, a master electrician, and saying "can you come over and put some lights up for me?") and running the chain saw from time to time. The current projects I'm working on include putting down decomposed granite in a large portion of our yard and getting the gutters unclogged and repaired.

I am trying to get as many things fixed as quickly as possible. With the economic slowdown, this is an IDEAL time to get things repaired, installed or renovated. I am getting lots of phone calls returned and some very competitive bids to do work these days. If you're able to to swing it, take advantage of the slowdown to take care of your home investment.

15 October 2009

"I Still Want My Free Stuff."

A short blog tonight - work has been busy lately. I read this story about the coat store riot in Ohio. You can only laugh at it.

This story gives us yet another good idea what we might expect in a crisis situation. Many, many people will be looking for their "free stuff" when things get bad. We saw this in the L.A. Riots in 1992 after Hurricane Katrina.

12 October 2009

Update On My Book Writing Efforts

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing a book on disaster preparedness for law firms, to be published by the State Bar of Texas. On Sunday afternoon, I finished the first rough draft. I believe I am roughly 60% done with it. No date on when it will be completed. It's my hope to have a full rough draft by the end of the year.

Welcome Back Debbie

My co-worker Debbie is back after a nearly year long deployment to Ethiopia with the Army Reserves. I got caught up with her over lunch today, and I discussed my Texas Todd Homework Assignment with her (see the 9 October entry). Debbie says most infantry would only carry about 3 days worth of food with them. She added in African armies, soldiers are expected to live off the busy and forage for their own food.

I will be interested to hear what Todd comes up with.

This Week

11 October 2009

Go Buy This Book. Today.

I am a third of the way through Jim Rawles' How to Survive The End of the World As We Know It. I highly recommend each of you get a copy.

"Because He Hasn't Done Anything Peaceful."

Tox, my eleven year old step daughter, scoffed at the notion President Obama deserved the Nobel Prize. Her remark above, which came from her with ZERO influence from me or her mother, reflects the sentiment of millions of Americans.

First Aid Kit Update

I've successfully consolidated first aid kits, which revealed some glaring holes in my supplies. I need to work on adding stuff to it.

9 October 2009

Guest Blogger: DJ

Have you heard what our local hospital is telling it's nurses about the H1N1 vaccine? A friend is a RN in the ER at the hospital. They had a meeting this morning on the H1N1 vaccination, and the doctors at the hospital are advising that their staff and patients NOT get this vaccination.

They have had several reports of people getting Guillain-Barre Syndrome. They are also concerned about how fast this vaccination has been developed and the lack of testing that has been done concerning this vaccine.

One nurse has a son that took the vaccination and has developed Guillain-Barre’s. (Guillain-Barré syndrome is a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.) The first symptoms of this disorder include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs. In many instances the weakness and abnormal sensations spread to the arms and upper body.. These symptoms can increase in intensity until certain muscles cannot be used at all, and, when severe, the patient is almost totally paralyzed.

In these cases the disorder is life threatening, potentially interfering with breathing, and, at times, with blood pressure or
heart rate ... and is considered a medical emergency. Such a patient is often put on a respirator to assist with breathing
and is watched closely for problems such as an abnormal heart beat, infections, blood clots, and high or low blood pressure. Most patients, however, recover from even the most severe cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, although some continue to have a certain degree of weakness.

DJ is a retired police officer and MSN degree candidate in Nashville.

Homework Assigment for Texas Todd

In cleaning out my survival gear closet and preparing to load gear into my truck, I've been bothered quite a bit about one scenario. I travel a fair amount for work - often to Dallas and Houston (each of which are three hours from Austin). In a situation such as an EMP attack, causing widespread failure of vehicles, how would I get home?

I am not a backpacker. However, Texas Todd served in the Army and continues to prepare intensely by hiking good distances. I've asked him for a guest blog on what to carry in my backpack, how to best pack it, and how am I going to feed myself for the 20 plus days it will take for me to get home. He's working on it. I look forward to reading his conclusions and advice.

With any luck, he will get a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. They're handing those things out to people who've accomplished far less, it appears.

Rawles Book Arrived

Jim Rawles How to Survive The End of the World As We Know It arrived today. It looks great. I look forward to reading it. Texas Todd got his copy today as well.

InfraGard This

I went to my first InfraGard meeting yesterday. InfraGard, a collaboration between private industry and the FBI, shares information about homeland security. Yesterday's topic: dam security. Bottom line: many of our dams are in need of repair.

Next month: Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo will speak. For those of you in the Austin area, you know this will be good.

This Weekend's Preparedness Activities

I'd like to work on consolidating all of my first aid supplies into one kit. I would like to go to the ranch and spray mesquite, but the recent rains have made it rather messy to be out in the field.

7 October 2009

Guest Blogger: Memphis Jeff

In a recent news story out of Memphis, the vandalism of a billboard was described as an attack on the gay-lesbian community.  The billboard showed a war veteran reminding us of his sacrifice for us and that he was gay.  This story was followed by another news report about this veteran speaking @ a local church, stating, and I paraphrase in part, that when God made him (gay), He did not say oops!  Now I do not condone hateful actions against anyone, including gay and lesbians, but the follow up comment by this war veteran at a church pointed out an erroneous assumption or traditional teaching among Christians that we are all created in the image of God and therefore, the reasoning follows, if you are born gay, it was how God intended you to be.  Those who adhere to the clear teaching of scripture that practicing homosexuality is a sin will also waffle in their opposition to its practice when they hopelessly try to reconcile the assertion that one is created gay and scripture’s teaching that we are in the image of God.  If,  for example, we are all created in the image of God, how can God at the same time condemn one He created gay (or with any other condemned proclivities)?

This idea that we are created in the image of God produces  similar tension in other settings.  How  many times have we heard someone say  that everyone  is created in the image of God  and should  therefore  be  given some deference  when being judged  for their otherwise ‘bad’ conduct.  Well, I do not believe we were created in the image of God, at least not in the  way its assertion is  being used  today.  Any error used as a premise for analyzing or logically determining a conclusion to a question, will, by necessity, lead to an erroneous conclusion.  Let me explain my position from Scripture.

• Adam and Eve were created by direct action from God (Genesis 5: 1,2  ).  They were in His image (Genesis 5:1 ).  They, out of their personal relationship with God, were dependant on God for all their needs (faith, trust) and consequently reflected Him, a spiritual, unseen being, in the material world.  They were given tasks to perform at God’s behest (Genesis 2:15 ).  That reflection of God was His image in our world.  The Gospels tell us that Jesus, who was God, was the exact representation of God (His image) in the material world(Colossians 1: 15  ).  In Jesus, God, as one writer has said, put on an ‘earth suit.’

• The generations that followed Adam and Eve were not created in God’s image.  Scripture alludes to this when describing the birth of their son Seth.  He was not created in the direct  sense in which Adam and  Eve were, but instead born, and not only that, born in the image of Adam! (Genesis 5: 3)  If you will check your Bible, you will find that the births of Adam and Eve’s children, in Adam’s image, was after the ‘fall.’  Adam, the one whose image the offspring reflected, had already made his choice to make his own way, in rebellion of God, including the desire to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong, (remember, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the ‘knowledge of good and evil.’ Genesis 2: 17 & 3: 5)  It is this rebellious, sinful nature of Adam that would be the image reflected in the lives of the offspring born (not created in the original sense) thereafter.

• Read the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans (5: 12, et. seq.) in which he describes how we are born ‘in Adam’ and that rebellious and sinful nature is why Jesus had to die for us, to pay a debt we could not pay, in order to restore God’s image in us (‘in Christ’) by giving us His life through the spiritual birth we undergo as the Holy Spirit indwells us and we learn to depend on Him more and more (faith).  This new life of faith, trust and dependence produces the ‘fruit of Spirit’ ( Galatians 5: 22-25 ) and people can then see God (Jesus) is us.  In short, God is glorified in the world through us.  God intends for us to reflect His image just as Adam did before the fall.

So where does this revelation of God’s word take us in terms of concluding whether our sinful nature is as God wants us since He ‘created’ us that way?  Well, first, God did not say ‘oops’ when he created Adam and Eve.  I guess in a sense He may have thought something similar when he saw the objects of His love choose to go their own way, in rebellion to God.  We, as offspring of Adam, share his fallen nature and were physically ‘born’ into it.  We were not ‘created’ to be sinful, just ‘born’ into that condition. That is why He sent His Son, to ‘save sinners.’ (Those not in need of a physician were not sent one, Matthew 9: 12 ).   The apostle Paul described those who not only turned their back on calling sin, sin, but actually promoted it, as having a ‘debased mind.’(Romans 1: 28-32 ).  So when the Bible condemns my or anyone else’s actions as sin,  it is not inconsistent with what the Bible reveals about our birth or nature.  God did not ‘create’ any of us in His image, only the attributes to do so, and a Savior to make it an option for us.

To assert that God created me a jerk (and much worse) and therefore acting like one is acceptable is ludicrous.  No matter how many other ‘good’ things I may do, it doesn’t make my sins acceptable.  Love does not rejoice in sin but in truth (1 Corinthians 13: 6); truth sets us free (John 8: 32) By recognizing the truth of my condition, I can cry out for the Great Physician.  I need one and so do war veterans.

Jeff is an attorney in Memphis, Tennessee.

6 October 2009

Update: Putting Together Preparedness Gear For The Truck

This is much more daunting than I originally planned. I have gear spread out all over my study. It may take another day or so to formulate a coherent plan.

Jim Rawles On Laura Ingraham Show

Jim Rawles, proprietor of the Survival Blog, visited Laura on her show Monday morning. He has a new book out, entitled How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times. I ordered it and hope to receive it next week.

3 October 2009

Popular Mechanics Take on Car Repairs Out In The Field

Here's their suggestions on emergency repairs, found in their October 2009 issue, pg. 114:

• Crack a raw egg into the radiator filler cap to fix a leak in the radiator.
• Top off the radiator you just repaired with diet soda or water. Or beer. Or "recycled" beer. (It's like Archie Bunker once said..."You don't buy beer; you rent it.)
• Fix a hole in an oil pan, whittle a stick down and hammer it into the hole, making sure to trim off the excess so it doesn't get hung on something.
• To replace the oil you lost, add a quart of water. According to Popular Mechanics, "the oil pump pick up is not on the exact bottom - the remaining oil will float on top of the water."
• To repair a hole in your fuel tank, "stuff a wedge from a bar of soap into the hole."

   

Flashback - What I Used to Carry In My Old Truck

I found this list of gear in Phase Three of the Preparedness Guide I created back in 2002. It's a lot of stuff:

Gerber Hunting Knife
Leatherman Multi-tool
Tool kit
Bungee Cords
100 feet nylon rope
large tarp
WD 40
12 V light with magnetic mounting base
12 V air compressor
Glock folding shovel
2 quarts motor oil
20 feet plastic tubing (1/2 inch diameter)
duct tape
electrical tape


Old Towels
Biodegradable toilet paper

Notepad
Mapsco Map of County
Compass

Dust masks
Fire extinguisher

Sleeping Bags (2)
Army Surplus Wool Blanket

Tennis Shoes
Wintertime Boot Socks
BDU pants
Shorts
t-shirt
3 piece rain gear
rain poncho
hiking boots
extra pair of eye glasses

Salt/Pepper/Hot Sauce
Bouillon
Hot Chocolate mix
Measuring cup (1/2 cup size)
Gatorade mix (enough for 2 gallons)
Freeze Dried meals (4)
MREs (2)
Hand held can opener/bottle opener
6 gallons of water
1 qt. Canteen with water
Mess kit
Fork/knife/spoon combo
energy bars


8 cylume light sticks
150 waterproof matches
newspaper (for starting a fire)
Citronella Candle
Coleman Exponent Stove
20 oz of white gas for Coleman stove
"Aim and Flame" lighter
Magnesium Fire starter
Safety Flares (3)
Benzomatic plumber's torch & igniter
Maglite flashlight (3 D battery size)
Fire Paste fire starter

Hand held ham radio (2 meter band)
Ham Radio Repeater Directory Book
Portable TV
AM/FM Wind up/solar radio
Handheld 40 channel CB radio with Weather Band
Radioshack handheld weather radio


First Aid Kit
EMT Sissors
Glass Punch
Potassium Iodide Tablets (for radioactive fallout)

Wintertime kit:
· Insulated coveralls
· Insulated duck boots
· Scarf
· Balaclava
· Ski gloves
· Tobaggan
· Thermal underwear

My preparedness profile has changed significantly since then. I can walk home from work these days in about two hours. Plus, I routinely cart around Tox and her sixth grade posse now. So I am thinking I will have two groupings of gear - one which stays in the truck 24/7, and one which goes with me on longer trips.

I spent much of today inside, cleaning my study (and purging a lot of paper and other things I didn't need). One of tomorrow's projects is to build the 24/7 kit.

2 October 2009

Red Dawn Remake

My blood ran cold at the 1:12 mark of the trailer.

More Preparedness for My Truck

This morning, on my way to work, a lady pulled up beside me to say I had a tail light out on my truck.

Normally, I would take it to the dealership or quick lube place to have it fixed. I am not mechanically inclined at all, and when I try, I usually end up messing it up even more. However, I am getting better at a) making repairs and b) recognizing what's outside of my skill set.

So I pulled the owner's manual and stopped by Pep Boys to pick up the right size bulb. I picked up a set of spare rear turn signals, too. When I got home, I read the manual and made the repair. Even though the original bulb looked to be in good condition, the new bulb worked right away.

While I was looking around the fuse box, I noticed the positive end of the battery terminal was really corroded. So I spent some time getting the connector off of the battery and cleaning it and the terminal. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get gross again.

Things I learned:

• I need to pick up some extra bulbs, relays and fuses to keep on the truck at all times.
• I need to take a basic course in simple auto repairs so I can fix things out in the field.

1 October 2009

Do You Keep Spare Clothing In Your Car?

Atlanta Jeff and I exchanged emails over the last two days about what one might keep in their car to be prepared for winter weather. Personally, I want to have a change of clothes, especially in the winter, appropriate for the season. If your car broke down on the interstate and you had to change a tire or walk to the next exit for help, could you do it with what you're wearing?

Decent Chance of Rain = No Mesquite Spraying This Weekend

I had hoped to go to the ranch and spray the brush with herbicide, but the forecast for several inches of rain this weekend have caused me to postpone that. Instead, I will stick around here and work on various survival projects.

Get Your Rain X Out

Cooler temps are coming....eventually many of you will be facing winter precip. Pick up some Rain X for your vehicles' windshields. It's awesome stuff.

But ignore the directions and apply it the Paul T. Martin.com approved way. After you've cleaned the glass, directly pour the Rain X onto the windshield from the bottle (and NOT with a rag). Take a rag, moisten it with a spot of Rain X, and then use that to work it into the glass. Let it sit for a minute or so, then take a dry rag to buff the dried Rain X off. You will love it!

29 September 2009

What One Motivated Terrorist and His Rectum Can Do

As many of you know, my favorite all time movie is "Full Metal Jacket." In one scene, Lee Ermey is extolling the virtues of a competent Marine. He says something to the effect of "What one motivated Marine and his rifle can do....."

I was reminded of that scene when reading this story about an al Qaeda member who hit explosives in his ....you guessed it....rectum! Turns out al Qaeda has a thing for the Saudi counter terrorism chief and decided to take him out using a butt bomb. Someone remotely detonated it using a cell phone. With the bomb still inside of him.

Yes, I know....this is rich for jokes. Please keep them to yourselves.

Forecast for This Winter

Cooler temps always motivate me to get prepared. Today's lunch meeting included a talk from local television weather guesser Mark Murray, who's been with the same station in Austin for twenty years - an eternity in the television business. Mark's a funny guy and a wealth of weather knowledge.

This got me to thinking - what's the long term outlook look like for this winter? The Climatic Prediction Center believes most of the country will have above average temperatures, while the Deep South and Central Texas will have below average temperatures (Note to Atlanta Jeff - you're at Ground Zero - start thinking about winter preps). Meanwhile, Texas and Florida will have above average rain fall, while back home in Tennessee they will likely see below average rain this winter.

A Kennedy Said It, Not Me: Prepare for Rioting

Congressman Patrick Kennedy (for those of you like me who need a program to know one Kennedy from another, this one is Teddy's son) told an AARP crowd he fears violence stemming from you people being all worked up over health care.

Whatever.

Shout Out

...to DJ, my childhood friend back home, who hooked up with me on Facebook. He read the blog today, sending me a nice email afterwards.

27 September 2009

Busy Weekend

Very busy weekend - lots to report.

Friday night - I chaperoned Tox's first school dance. Three hundred thugs in training showed up to get all jacked on Moutain Dew and various forms of candy. One girl stubbed her toe (note to young ladies reading this - don't wear flip flops to your school dances) and needed a bandaid. I got my first aid kit out of my truck. ZERO bandaids. None. Found another small first aid kit - took them in to tape her toe up. Turns out they were old and had minimal adhesive ability.

The first aid kit is in my study. I will rebuild it from scratch.

Saturday morning - As Kendel flew to Minneapolis to visit some friends of ours, I had Tox Duty on Saturday. I took her to her volleyball game where her team, The Crox, upset the predicted winning team. We then got in the truck and drove to Cabela's to meet her grandmother on her dad's side for the weekend.

We were a bit early, so we went inside to shop. I needed a BB gun to help control the starlings which keep raiding my bird feeder. Much to my surprise, she was facinated with BB guns. I let her pick the one we bought. While we were in line, she asked "Can I keep the gun in my room so I can shoot people who break in to our house?"

I reached her.

While we were there, I also got a seat cover for the back bench seat of the truck. It's not the best fit, but it works effectively.

Saturday afternoon - spent a hot and muggy afternoon on the ranch, cutting mesquite brush off the main trail going through the middle of the ranch. Many problems with the chain saw....had a hard time keeping the chain on it. I plan on taking it apart in the coming days to work on it.

Saturday evening - came home and fired up the ham radio. I made several contacts on the 40 meter band, as Texas ham radio operators were having a contest. Highlight:contacting a ham in Kansas on a whopping 5 watts of power. I am getting more used to the radio, which is good. However, I am still trying to figure out the best way to use a ham radio in a post event situation.

Sunday morning - skipped church (first time in a long time) and worked outside on the shed. I installed a couple of garden hose holders to the side of the shed, which I use to store the two shore line extension cords which supply power to the shed. I also cut the PVC (which I am using for conduit for the shore line cords coming into the shed) to size to cleanly fit the hole. I realize these are simple tasks for most of you; as I am useless when it comes to home improvement, it was a good exercise for me.

Sunday afternoon - my secretary's husband is an electrician. I had him come over to write up an estimate for some projects. The main project will be the most expensive - creating a flood light to cover the half of the front yard not currently covered by the other light. He's come up with a way to put that light on a switch in our bedroom, which I really want. He's also planning to put a larger circuit breaker for the shorelines feeding the shed so I can have a little more juice flowing out there.

I also went to the gym. My routine takes about 90 minutes now, which is rather long for me. Fifteen minutes of it is for PT for my knees and shoulders. I find if I allow myself to complete the entire routine, I get a great work out.

24 September 2009

Swine Flu and Terrorists

Various people in my office report contracting Swine Flu themselves or someone in their family. It's going around.

FBI picked up an alleged terror suspect for planning to bomb a high rise office building in Dallas. I try to keep my co-workers vigilant, as we routinely have people in downtown Dallas. Texans please remain aware.

Of Fundamentals and Jihad

California Paul, a college buddy of mine, was in town today on business. We met for lunch and caught up. He's an investment banker, so I always like to get his take on the markets.

His answers surprised me a bit. While acknowledging the coming Federal spending tsunami from the stimuli packages, he said our economy goes through cycles and will correct itself. His main concern, however, came not from the economy but rather geopolitical concerns in the eastern hemisphere. A major upheaval could result in an oil shock, damaging the recovery.

Like me, he struggles with the notion of buying metal coins as an emergency currency. As an asset, it produces no income and has no value or utility other than what someone else will pay for it. (Personally, I think you're better off buying barter items than coins.)

Speaking of Jihad.....

Streetlight Jihad 3.0 started back up in our neighborhood. Some neighbors want streetlights, while others don't. The email exchanges on the HOA's distribution list betwen the "street lighters" and the "anti-street lighterss" have been downright ugly.

Fortunately, membership in the HOA is purely voluntary.

21 September 2009

The Case Against the "9/11 Was An Inside Job" Theory

This article about the recent arrests of alleged terrorists reminded me of the "Truther" movement afoot in America. As you may know, "Truthers" believe our government either knew or even sponsored the 9/11 attacks.

Like many of you, I've read the chain emails and even watched a couple of the movies on line aimed at bringing this story to light. While I will concede they raise some interesting points, they fail to address a few others, which in my mind MUST be addressed in order to drink the Truther Kool-Aid. These include:

• If the Pentagon wasn't hit by a plane, but by a missle instead, where's the airplane which disappeared? And its occupants?
• If President Bush staged the attacks as a pretext to war in Iraq, why did he then not plant the weapons of mass destruction there to be found by the inspectors? Are we to believe the President of the United States was smart enough to mastermind the attacks on 9/11, only to be dumb enough not to ensure the weapons inspectors didn't find something really juicy?
• With regards to the crash in Pennsyvania, allegedly brought down by a missle according to many Truthers, why would you have expected an airplane hit by a missle to have made a different looking crater than the one currently there? Doesn't the current crater - which covers a relatively small amount of space, actually support the official version that the hijakcers scuttled the plane nose first, thus reducing the debris field?
• Finally, with regards to the World Trade Center...and the other attacks that day, for that matter....why is it the scientific community has easily debunked the myths with theories readily accepted by scientists and engineers around the globe? Don't you think if scientists could in fact show the World Trade Center was brought down by explosives, they'd be falling all over themselves to do so?

Look - I understand the distrust many have of our government. Yet I fail to see how the anomalies seized upon by the Truthers makes a plausible theory.

20 September 2009

1650 Miles

I gave my ham radio another try today, hoping to make some long distance contacts. I needed to have a good experience to build my confidence...I was beginning to think it would take a lot more equipment and money to make my system work.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed. Hams in Washington state were holding a DX Contest (where people try to make long distance contacts over a weekend, earning points towards a prize...probably a pocket protector or a gift certificate to Radio Shack). Today I spoke with three operators there - including one on the Washington/Canadian border. In addition, I made one contact with a maritime weather net in Toronto.

Google Distance Calculator puts these contacts around the 1650 mile range. Not bad.

This proves to me:

• I could talk to family in Tennessee in a disaster (assuming they had a radio, too or knew someone who did).
• I could reliably talk to locals around Texas. I encourage my Texas readers to get on board with ham radio so we can set up a regular net.

Disaster Drills

Tox ran two fire escape ladder re-qual drills this evening. In her first one, she completed it in 2:15, entitling her to $5 in Disaster Dollars. She ran it a second time in 1:30, earning her a $3 bonus for beating the goal of 1:50. I sleep better knowing she can get herself out of the house with the fire escape ladder during an emergency.

19 September 2009

Where Do I Begin With This?

If I haven't said it lately, let me remind you the United Nations sucks.

Tonight (and lest you think I am a geek with no life, I am watching Texas/Texas Tech as I do this), Drudge posted a story from the UK's Guardian with the headline, "Swine Flu Could Kill Millions Unless Rich Nations Give 900M Pounds." So many member nations incessantly whine, complain and malign the United States....and yet they seem to have no hesitation asking the Americans they despise so much for more money.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization - the alleged public health voice of the United Nations - refused to fund life saving DDT - yes, you read correctly - life saving DDT - in poor African countries to combat malaria back in the 1970s. In 2006, in a rare moment of intellectual honesty, revisited its policy on DDT and elected to start using it again. How many millions of people in poor nations died due to the WHO's reliance on political correctness than sound science? In short, the WHO has a poor track record when it comes to protecting those people it purports to help. Why would we believe them now? (Thanks to Mark Levin for his poignant discussion of this in his book, Liberty and Tyranny, pp. 118-119.)

From My 13 September Post Below - Getting Into Shape

My lovely wife Kendel and some of her co-workers begin a Weight Watchers group next week. Candidly, I didn't understand Weight Watchers at all. This evening, she showed me her calculator and how it works. In short, foods are assigned a point value. Weight Watchers determines this point value based upon the food's fat, fiber and caloric content.

I must admit it must be the most logical and sensible diet plan I've ever seen. Rather than worrying about carbs (which you need) or fat (which you need) or calories (whihc you need), you eat the right combination of them, which is easily determined by a simple slide rule calculator.

I mentioned the need for us to take better care of ourselves...Kendel and I are both making this a priority.

BREAKING....Kendel just asked me if I wanted some chocolate chip cookies. Apparently our diets start tomorrow.

Are You Prepared for SURVIVAL?

...read the headline in this month's edition of Piper magazine. One of the things I have enjoyed the most about aviation over the years has nothing to do with seeing the scenery or putting the plane on a dot on the map 300 miles away. Flying forces you to think constantly about possible contingencies....what might go wrong and how am I doing to deal with it at 8,000 feet, at night, in the clouds? In short, any pilot concerned about safety is a survivalist.

There's a lot of great information in the article, which I am told can be accessed here, and then scrolling to page 32, (although I haven't had much luck getting the link to work). In short, the author suggests:

1. Prepare for Every Cross-Country Flight as if Your Life Depends on It. Amen. I couldn't agree more.
2. Always File a Flight Plan and Let Someone Know Where You Are Going. When you're on the road, you need to let someone know what your plans are and check in with them to let them know you're progress.
3. Stay With the Airplane. This reminds me of the tragic story a few years ago where a young family got off the beaten path in winter conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Dad left the vehicle and froze to death. Mom and small child stayed with the vehicle and survived. You need a compelling reason to leave your vehicle - car, airplane, whatever - in that situation.

I will be using some of the advice in creating a packing list for my truck in the next few weeks. I will keep you posted.

18 September 2009

How Do You Eat An Elephant? One Bite At A Time.

About three weeks ago, I drew a calendar on my white board in my study. On the calendar, I track whether I met my five daily goals:

• stretching my legs for five minutes
• doing pushups, 15 x 3
• studying the Bible for 10 minutes
• working on my book for the State Bar on disaster preparedness for law firms for 10 minutes
• eating healthy all day

In the last three weeks, I've managed to do all five things only five times. Most days I've done at least two of the five. It's a great motivator for two reasons.

First, keeping score in a highly visible manner like my dry erase board is forces me to be accountable. And second, by setting realistic, attainable goals and doing them regularly, I've been able to make a lot of progress on my flexibility, my pec and shoulder strength (bursitis in my shoulders has kept my from bench pressing), my book writing, my Sunday School lesson development and my diet.

This evening, while perusing Survival Blog, I read one article (posted September 13) on a method to train to be a "civilian" operator in 8 hours a week. While I don't know if his proposed plan would work, it utilizes the same system I am using. Do realistic and attainable tasks, daily, and you will see progress.

Let me challenge you to identify five things you want to accomplish or areas in which you want to approve. I can tell you from my own experiences you will see results.

13 September 2009

Today's Reading Assignment

...is a short but poignant one. Thanks to Reason Magazine for the nice bio on the life of Norman Borlaug. As people interested in preparing for horrific scenarios, let's remember all "horrific scenarios" need not come to pass. Further, this innovative man saved millions of people from starvation and disease...while simultaneously advocating for the free market.

Water Rights and Water from the Sky

Many landowners in the area where Kendel and I have our "ranch" prepare to sell of their water rights to a local governmental entity. We are blessed to own land over the Carrizo Aquifer in Central Texas. This aquifer contains a sizable amount of high quality of water.

Yesterday, they held a "town hall meeting" with the governmental entity. I am still getting up to speed on the details of the proposed deal. We'll see if we sign on.

Speaking of water, we've receivd over seven inches of rain at our house since Thursday. The local meteorologist for the water conservation district says we need another 15 to 20 inches to break the drought here. As we're moving into an El Nino weather pattern now, that rain should start to arrive in the next 30 to 60 days.

10 September 2009

The Health Care Debate and the Survivalist Mindset

Let's stop talking about left or right, blue state or red state, who's a liar and who isn't, and who's at fault for the state of health care for a moment. As survivalists, we should be focusing on what might happen and how best to prepare for it.

Here are my thoughts in the event some major health care reform bill becomes law:

The health care system is about to become more bureaucratic and more expensive. Your response should be:

• Get as much treatment as you can now. If you've been putting off medical care, go get it ASAP. It's not going to get cheaper or more available.
• Get in shape. Star Parker lays it out for us - we have this health care situation in large part not because of evil doctors or greedy insurers, but because you people are out of shape and eat crap all day long. Reduce your dependence on the health care system by staying healthy and getting preventative care.
• Start budgeting now to spend more on health care. Quit listening to Obama et al. It's going to cost more. And we will all bear the burden.
• Start looking for ways to reduce your taxable income. If you don't participate in your company's 401K, start. If you don't have an IRA, set one up. Depending on your financial situation, look at real estate investments as a way to reduce your tax burden.
  

Some in your extended families (including those friends you treat like family) will suffer as a result of the changes. Your response should be:

• Start thinking about how you can help them. It may not be financial - it may be by helping their families with in kind assistance - but we need to get conditioned to seeing people we love in need. We may not be able to make their problems go away, but we can ease their burden.
• Start talking to your family about the need to do the action items described above. Lead by example. Get in shape, start budgeting, start taking care of your body and finances. And then tell others what you're doing and encourage them to do the same.

We may see some form of a "death panel" provision, for lack of a better term. Your response should be:

• Set up an estate plan. We should be doing this regardless of the state of the health care debate. I know what you're thinking, however - I don't have enough assests to warrant an estate plan. Don't be so sure of that. If you have life insurance, someone will get a lot of money when you take the big ride out of this world. Make sure it's going to the right people with the proper protections in place to keep creditors at bay. An estate plan is more than just who gets your stuff when you die. It creates the necessary documents for your family to make life-ending decisions for you when you aren't able to make them yourselves. It also helps protect money for your family when you're trying to "spend down" to qualify for Medicaid.
  

Girl Scouts - America's Next First Responders

You decide which spin you want for this story. Here's the AFP version, and here's Alex Jones' version.

9 September 2009

Then There's That Guy in Pennsylvania

...who shot a cannon in his backyard and hit a house 400 yards away. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Having said that, it's an awesome story.

So What Do I Put In My Truck?

Now that I am driving a truck again, I need to equip it with the necessary survival gear. I used to carry a lot of it in my F-150 years ago....enough to survive for at least a week.

I want to take a strategic approach and pack what I need. Over the next few weeks, I will develop a packing list to ensure I get the right gear on board.

8 September 2009

Checking In

It's been a busy nine days - three days and two nights out in El Paso, followed by four days of visiting from my parents and three year old niece.

This past weekend, Dad and I went down to the ranch and experimented with the herbicide Remedy. We applied it in an 85/15 mixture of diesel and Remedy to a stand of mesquite. The mesquite has started to come back from where we dozed it down a couple of years ago. In a couple of weeks, we'll know for sure how well it worked.

Also, we found a place renting tractors and bush hogs (or shredders as they are called in Texas). So this fall I can get down there and do some serious mowing.

Something to Fear

Texas Todd and the Anti-Joel routinely try to outdo the other on being the bearer of bad news. Advantage this week goes to Double T for catching this story in World Net Daily. Apparently, Massachusetts lawmakers want to enact a Pandemic Response Bill, granting the goverment extraordinary powers in the event of a pandemic.

While I do not fear the Swine Flu, I do fear our response to it. Please study up on this and the efforts of other governmental agencies similar to this.

Suggested Reading

While in the grocery store today, I just happened to see the October issue of Popular Mechanics. The editors deemed this month's effort their "Self -Reliance Issue," with the headline "Beyond Survival." I am just starting to peruse it. It looks great - go get your copy.

30 August 2009

First Contact

I'm pleased to report I made my first long distance contact last night on my ham radio. I checked into a hurricane net via relay with a station 35 miles east of Texarkana. Google says I'm 325 miles from the relay station. Not bad.

I am still struggling to learn how to use my radio. I've read the parts of the manual which explain how to use repeaters on 2 meters...and I still can't figure out how to program it.

I may change my mind on this....but at the moment, I am thinking ham radio capability needs to be pretty far down the list of skill sets a prepper needs. The time and money I've spent buying the radio and getting the licenses, etc. could have been well used learning basic skills like home repair, gardening or first aid. We'll see.

Coming Days

26 August 2009

Transparency At the Federal Reserve

25 August 2009

Red Dawn 2.0?

Hell yeah. I am camping out for tickets.

Let's Say You Had a Bird Problem

....and you needed a way to remove the pesky birds without harming the other birds. And you have neighbors and other things around you that don't react well to bullets.

One loyal reader asked that question. I would recommend a basic pellet or BB gun, preferably one with a muzzle velocity of at least 350 fps.

As always, check all local and state laws before engaging in such an activity.

24 August 2009

The Case Against H1N1

While Team Obama vacations and recouperates from the ass beating its taken in the poll of public opinion over health care, White House stategerists attempt to direct the public's attention on other topics. Taking a page out of the Bush 43 playbook, Team Obama opted for a two pronged strategery:

• Play the "Remember How Bad My Predecessor Sucked?" card, and
• Scare the public with talk of the boogey man.

In Obama's case, this amounted to sending Attorney General Holder after CIA operatives allegedly involved in torture and ratcheting up the hype about H1N1.

The CIA torture issue makes for a great discussion; however, this evening I want to focus on H1N1. And here's my opinion: This whole thing is being completely overblown. Why?

We have a lousy track record of predicting pandemics. The Swine Flu of the 1970s is a case in point. One person died of the disease; hundreds, if not thousands, suffered a range of serious side effects from the vaccine. Such side effects included death and permanent neurological damage.Further, take a look at Swine Flu's good cousin, Bird Flu, or H5N1. Our experts missed the boat on that one, too.

Please note I am not being critical of those experts devoting their life's work to public health. However, I think we need to be honest about where we are in our abilities to make such forecasts.

Using the experts own estimates, this pandemic won't come close to the 1918 pandemic. During that horrific pandemic, an estimated 675,000 Americans died as a result of the disease. Compare that to the estimated loss of life from H1N1: 30,000 to 90,000 Americans.

Further, put these numbers in perspective. The 1920 Census reported over 106M people living in the U.S. Today, we have over 300M. If we do the math, we see the 1918 pandemic killed 0.6% of the U.S. population. Using the midpoint figure of 60,000 for the H1N1 estimates, this means 0.02% of the U.S. population would die as a result. That's a 96.6% change for the better.

Please don't misunderstand - I am not saying we should not monitor this and take things seriously. However, a healthy dose of skepticism and reality needs to be interjected into this discussion.

Why I Traded Cars

Last week, I traded cars. I went from a very reliable, fuel efficient Toyota Camry to a one year old, not as fuel efficient Toyota Tundra pick up truck. It has four wheel drive and a 5.7 liter engine. It's the Crew Max variant, so the cab has a lot of room for people, dogs, and gear.

It's my hope this truck will help me do a number of things, including:

• Spend more time at the ranch, improving the property.
• Provide a good platform upon which to build a BOV over time.
• Allow me to participate with some local charities who need assistance moving food and other items for their clients.

My Trip to Tennessee

I spent a couple of days last week in Tennessee, visiting my parents, brother, sister in law and nieces. Doc (that's what my nieces call my dad) has done a great job converting their pasture land into a wildlife habitat. He's put up several food plots already. We saw several turkeys, lots of various birds, and evidence of deer as well.

Dad and I patterned two shotguns for turkey hunting this fall. We think the 12 gauge at 25 yards using number 6 shot is our best bet.

16 August 2009

Two-fer

Your National Hurricane Center monitors two systems - Ana and Bill - making their way towards the CONUS. It's a good reminder for folks along the shore to begin thinking about preparation.

If the Swine Flu Doesn't Kill You, The Vaccination Might.

As if this is a surprise - neurologists worry about an alarming side effect of the H1N1 vaccine. Apparently, 25 people in the U.S. have died as a result of the vaccine.

Roll your sleeves up, America. It's patriotic to pay more taxes (according to Joe Biden) and to get your goverment flu shot.

15 August 2009

In Case of Emergency, You Best Not Be Disabled

14 August 2009

The Left Continues To Eat Its Own

Apparently, in my last blog entry when I challenged the Left to take "hope and change" literally and adopt Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's health care plan, the Left didn't follow my instructions. Instead, they showed their true colors - rather than listen to logic and reason, they opted to boycott Whole Foods.

Here's what Mackey is saying in a nutshell:

• Socialism won't work, because eventually you run out of other people's money to spend.
• Most of our health care ills are the result of lifestyle choices - poor diets, little exercise, overconsumption of alcohol and tobacco. They are NOT the result of a lack of health care.
• Health insurers need to be able to compete across state lines.
• Cut taxes.
• Reform Medicare.

I shop at Whole Foods intermittently, but I will start shopping there more. Plus, with fewer Priuses, Smart Cars, and Volvos in the parking lot now, it should be easier to find a spot closer to the door.

12 August 2009

Alfonzo Rachel For President

If this guy runs, I will donate the maximum allowable by law to his campaign. In fact, I will take it one step further - if you don't support him, you must be a racist.

The Left Begins To Eat Its Own

Camille Paglia at Salon.com asks some honest questions about our Commander in Chief and the Speaker of the House.

...And Why Robert Reich Is Dead Wrong

Former Secretary of Labor and all around apologist for the Left, Robert Reich, outlined some strategery to help President Obama get his health care reform efforts back on track. There's only one problem - Reich himself is dead wrong in his assertions. Consider:

• Being the one public plan, it will have large economies of scale that will enable it to negotiate more favorable terms with pharmaceutical companies and other providers. (Here, he must clear up any confusion about any deal made with Big Pharma.) But this won't lead to a government takeover of healthcare. The whole point of cost containment is to provide the public with healthcare on more favorable terms. If the public plan negotiates better terms -- thereby demonstrating that drug companies and other providers can meet them -- private plans can seek similar deals.
  Kinda like the large economies of scale the U.S. Postal Service has...and yet it regularly gets its teeth kicked in, as President Obama admitted yesterday, by Fed Ex and UPS. Do you want the same people who run the postal service to run your health care?
  
  
• It will have low administrative costs -- Medicare's administrative costs per enrollee are a small fraction of typical private insurance costs -- but that's no problem, it's a strength. One goal of healthcare reform is to lower administrative costs. Competition with a public option is the only way to push private plans to trim their bureaucracies and become more efficient.
  Wrong again. As Tom Bevan points out, "Medicare is devoted to serving a population that is elderly, and therefore in need of greater levels of medical care, it generates significantly higher expenditures than private insurance plans, thus making administrative costs smaller as a percentage of total costs. This creates the appearance that Medicare is a model of administrative efficiency. What Jon Alter sees as a "miracle" is really just a statistical sleight of hand." Don't believe me? Look at the data yourself.
  
  
• While it's true that the public won't have to show profits, plenty of private plans are already not-for-profit. And if nonprofit plans can offer high-quality healthcare more cheaply than for-profit plans, why should for-profit plans be coddled? The public plan would merely force profit-making private plans to take whatever steps were necessary to become more competitive. Once again, a plus.
  For profit plans are coddled? Really? By whom? The state and federal regulators breathing down their necks? News flash, Bobby - there are over 1,300 health care plans currently in the marketplace. Since when has there been a lack of competition among plans?
  
  
• The public plan won't be subsidized by government. Subsidies go to families who need them in order to afford healthcare. They're free to choose the public plan, but that's only one option. They could take their subsidy and buy a private plan just as easily. The public plan may not dip into general revenues to cover its costs. It must pay for itself. And any government entity that oversees the health-insurance pool or acts as referee in setting ground rules for all plans will not favor the public plan.
  What news outlet are you watching? Every report I've seen - including those from OMB - contradicts this. And even the Washington Post - which ain't exactly Fox News - debunks this myth as well.

Tell you what - what if we had someone who was really into providing healthy foods for consumers, creating sustainable agriculture, paying decent wages to workers, and reducing pollution and protecting the environment come up with a health care reform package? Would you liberals out there listen to them?

Being the open minded, hope-and-change oriented people you are, I am sure you would. And so in that case, read what your guru John Mackey, the founder of the holy grail of liberal corporations - Whole Foods - has to say about fixing our health care system.

Remember, Mr. Secretary - dead wrong ideas only brings us dead Americans. And that's exactly what Obama's plan will do.

9 August 2009

Ham Radio Operations

On Friday, I attended the local ham radio convention. They had vendors there, and so I was able to score a great deal on an Icom 706 MKIIG. The vendor selling it said he was selling it on behalf of a customer - it had never been out of the box. Got $200 off of the after rebate price.

I brought it home and set it up. I also worked on elevating the dipole antenna all afternoon yesterday. With the new radio and improved antenna height, I am pleased to report I communicated on the 20 meter band with my ham radio mentor (called an "Elmer" in ham communities....which begs the question, "when will the ham radio community hire a consultant to choose cooler venacular than "Elmer?") who lives one street over. However, I am still unable to communicate much further than that.

Next project - getting a better and taller antenna. Like other things in life, size matters.

Coming Banking Crisis?

Texas Todd and Co-worker David, independent of each other, have pinged me over the last 24 hours to discuss the possibility of a bank holiday due in part to the upcoming FDIC report to be issued later this month.

Here's why I think this won't happen. First, I can guarantee there will be a bank holiday - write this down - on September 7, 2009. Every bank in the U.S. will be closed that day. However, it won't be due to some pending banking collapse.

September 7 is Labor Day.

Second, the only reason I can surmise that we could have a bank holiday would be a lack of liquidity in the national banking system. The way to fix this is easy - print more money. Banks get additional greenbacks to hand out to customers, and as a result, the government assuages the fears of the public.

But Paul - such a move would create inflation! Adding more dollars to the economy necessarily devalues it.

That's correct. It will. But let's review the latest inflation numbers for 2009:

January 0.03%
February 0.24%
March 0.38%
April 0.74%
May 1.28%
June 1.43%

Note those numbers in red are negative. So since March, we've had deflation of over 3.7%. This deflation occurred even the wake of rising oil and gas prices. Adding more currency won't necessarily mean noticeable inflation in the short term.

Please don't misunderstand what I am saying - I would encourage you to re-read my 19 July post - we cannot assume all is well in our banking system. But I don't foresee any banking holidays in the coming days. To do so would be catastrophic for the Obama administration - something they can't afford with the President's poll numbers plummeting at such a rapid rate.

I welcome other observations on this issue. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts.

Welcome New Readers

In talking with David today, he told me his friend Todd is becoming a regular reader. Since Todd lives in Texas and since we already have a Texas Todd, I've decided to call him Metroplex Todd.

I haven't run the numbers lately, but I am hearing more and more stories of people who weren't really into preparedness deciding it's not such a bad idea. Economic concerns, coupled with public policy initiatives of the Obama Administration, alarm many people who you may not think would be into preparedness.

If every American family would improve their ability to be self sufficient - even for just two weeks - and to have plans to get to a safer area (when such plans do NOT involve relying on the government) - our nation would be much, much stronger. I hope interest in this subject remains strong.

Hotlanta Jeff Reads National Geographic

...and in doing so, ran across this interesting article full of advice.

4 August 2009

Tuff Shed Pics

Here's the workbench in the shed. The air conditioner puts out 8000 BTUs, which ably cools the 8x12 structure.

I struggled to find a way to neatly run electrical cords into the shed to provide power for the AC, shop lights, tools, etc. By pure luck, I ran across an article in a ham radio book on how to run antenna lines through the wall of your house. Simply put, cut a hole in the side of your house, stick some PVC into the hole, run your cords through the PVC, then fill the PVC with insulation. The neat thing about this is that if I elect to add more cords (such as coax) in the future, all I have to do is take out the insulation, run the additional cords through, then repack the insulation.

I realize to you purists that "shorelining" the electicals to an outside socket is considered cheating. However, doing so allows us to avoid getting city permits and approvals for the shed. Plus it's a whole lot cheaper.

In case you're wondering, that's two inch PVC. Total diameter of the exterior of the pipe is 2 3/8 inches. I bore a 2.5 inch hole, so my gap is a mere 0.031 inches, or 1/32 inch, once the pipe is centered. I will caulk it this coming weekend.

Inside view of the PVC. I will cut the pipe down to fit this weekend before caulking and put a 90 degree elbow on each end. I won't glue the elbows in place as I want to be able to remove them from time to time. Note the gray floor paint. I went with an oil based paint (two coats) which really did wonders to improve and protect the floor.

31 July 2009

One Vote for The Whalers

Texas Todd checked in this evening, reporting in response to my post of 29 July. Todd roots for the whalers.

I should have disclosed I root for the Steve Irwin crew. They are bumbling, inept, far left wing idealists who probably think Obama is a Republican. But as I pointed out to Todd, they are not liars (I used stronger language in my email back to him), unlike the Japanese whalers who masquerade as “scientists” obtaining “tissue samples.”  Plus I like animals…generally more so than people.  Whales are incredibly smart creatures.  The Japanese need to learn to eat more chicken, fish sticks, Taco Bell and Krispy Kreme donuts like we do. Cuz' our way of life is better.

Tuff Shed To Dos

I am blogging at this late hour, speckled with paint primer, waiting for the first coat to dry on the floor of the shed. One more coat this evening of primer, and then it's off to bed. I will finish painting in the morning. I also hope to get the PVC conduit I am using for power cords cut to size and caulked into place.

30 July 2009

WHAT? Corporations Might Profit From H1N1?

There's at least three ways to view this article.

Option One: Thank God corporations will profit. Profit motives create incentives to find life saving technologies. By giving them a reason to innovate, we are all better off.

Option Two: Figures. They are just hyping this to make money. What else is new?

Option Three: Alex Jones says this whole pandemic was created intentionally for a plethora of reasons. This story further proves that.

Speaking of Alex

I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't listen to Alex Jones' shows. Further, I'd be lying if I said he does make some intriguing observations from time to time on current events.

And so when I read this story yesterday, I caught myself in a dramatic paradigm shift. In the past, I would have read this article (describing how the U.S. military will play an active role in "assist[ing] civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall") and thought, That's a good use of our military resources. These days, however, I catch myself saying, Our military is going to do what exactly? Act as a quasi-law enforcement agency?

While it's true our military could provide a huge shot in the arm (no pun intended) to our pandemic response, I am leery of simply calling them in - especially when our forces worldwide are spread thin - to do things "such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients." Further, it sets an alarming precedent - whenever things get bad for us as a nation, we feel the need to use our military to impose law and order.

Perhaps I've had a little too much of the Infowars Kool Aid.

More Talk of EMP

Hotlanta Jeff shared James Carafano's latest musings on EMP.

29 July 2009

Busy Busy

It's been a busy ten days. To recap:

• Since my last blog, I've been to Dallas once and Houston twice. Four nights in a hotel over an eight day period really wore on me.
• Sold my airplane on Saturday. I thought it would make me sad, but it really didn't. It's actually a nice relief. The plane was a lot of fun and went to a good home where it will be well maintained. But it's nice knowing a) I just plugged a several hundred dollar a month hole in my budget now that the plane is gone, b) my weekends are free again, which is nice as work is busy these days.
• Got a "Tuff Shed" installed in the back yard on Monday. Pics will soon follow.
• Went over to a neighbor's house who's a big time ham radio guy. I learned a lot as he showed me around his shack and antenna farm. I got an antenna the other day to go with the radio I am borrowing. I hope to get on the air this week.

Thou Shalt Join the Libertarian Party

Memphis Jeff shared his thoughts on his resistance to joining the Libertarian Party. Like many conservatives, he has grown tired of the GOP but finds it difficult to embrace the Libertarian Party's platform, especially on the issue of abotion. Jeff shares his theological perspective on the conflict man has following God's law and the law of governments:

My political philosophy is consistent with that which formed the Constitution's limited form of government. However, man is the weakness in any form of government and any political philosophy. As John Adams and Thomas Jefferson pointed out, this limited form of government and democracy is not an intended for and cannot work successfully to govern anyone other than "a moral and religious people." The extensive rights and freedoms under a limited form of government leaves open the temptation for man to take advantage of others. Hence we see the moral decline in societies affecting action to take away freedom. Just like when the abuse of free enterprise and business led to the need for labor unions (who are now corrupt as well), child labor laws and moves today to regulate business more. I think the moral decline is inevitable and consequently the difficulties of maintaining order with all the freedoms intended by our Constitution become increasingly difficult.

This pattern is found throughout history under every form of government. Even when government, ostensibly, moves toward tyranny under the guise of additional regulations to protect people from the immoral "entrepreneur", the government itself is infected with the fallen nature of man to take away the freedoms of others and self righteously impose their own perverted moral code. This cycle, I believe, is inevitable and assures us there will always be this conflict on how best to govern. A "moral and religious" society simply cannot be maintained indefinitely. This, I also believe, is why the Bible teaches us that we "are to obey God rather than man" when any political government limits the spread of the gospel which is the only hope for mankind to act morally.

I suggested to Jeff he look at the Constitutionalist Party as a viable option.

Who Does a Survivalist Root For? Hippies or Whale Killers?

I love watching Whale Wars on Discovery. While dining at Hooters (a family friendly establishment known for its quality food) with the Anti-Joel in Houston on Monday, we got to talking about the show. Like many of you who watch the show, we are perplexed by it. Namely, we don't know who to root for.

Interestingly, Co-worker David shared this link with me, written by a blogger who covers athletics of the University of Texas. I cried when I read it I was laughing so hard. If you know anything about the show, take two minutes to read it. You will laugh your butt off.

Extension Cords n' Stuff

In addition to discussing Whale Wars while dining at Hooters (a family friendly establishment known for its quality food), the Anti-Joel quizzed me on my choice of extension cord I am using to run the small AC window unit I have installed in my Tuff Shed. To me, a cord is a cord. However, I've since learned not all cords are created equal.

I now have a 12 gauge extension cord going out to the unit to run the AC. It seems to work really well.

Berkey Test

I finally got around to testing the Berkey water filter. According to the manual, the best way to test the filters requires you to put food coloring in the pre-filtered water. So I put some in the pre-filtered chamber and watched what happened. D- Tox took some before and after pics, but unfortunately I am not having any luck getting them to format to fit onto the page. But suffice it to say the filters took the food coloring completely out of the water.

19 July 2009

Hank Paulson - Worried About "the possibility of a breakdown in law and order and the logistics of feeding US citizens if commerce and banking collapsed as a result of last autumn's financial panic."

Props to Jim Rawles at Survival Blog for piecing this all together in his blog today. I'm going to repost large portions of it here, but in the reverse order Rawles does.

In case you've forgotten, Hank Paulson served as Bush's Treasury Secretary during the last year of Bush's tenure. Read closely:

March 16, 2008:

"I've got great confidence in our financial market, our financial institutions. Our markets are resilient and flexible. Our institutions, our investment banks are strong."

October 14, 2008 (from a Paulson press release):

"America is a strong nation. We are a confident and optimistic people. Our confidence is born out of our long history of meeting every challenge we face. Time and time again our nation has faced adversity and time and time again we have overcome it and risen to new heights. This time will be no different...

...President Bush has directed me to consider all necessary steps to restore confidence and stability to our financial markets and get credit flowing again. Ten days ago Congress gave important new tools to the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC to meet the challenges posed to our economy. My colleagues and I are working creatively and collaboratively to deploy these tools and direct our powers at this disruption to our economy.

Today we are taking decisive actions to protect the US economy. We regret having to take these actions. Today's actions are not what we ever wanted to do – but today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence to our financial system...

...While many banks have suffered significant losses during this period of market turmoil, many others have plenty of capital to get through this period, but are not positioned to lend as widely as is necessary to support our economy. Our goal is to see a wide array of healthy institutions sell preferred shares to the Treasury, and raise additional private capital, so that they can make more loans to businesses and consumers across the nation. At a time when events naturally make even the most daring investors more risk-averse, the needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it...

...These three steps significantly strengthen financial institutions and improve their access to funding, enabling them to increase financing of the consumption and business investment that drive U.S. economic growth. Market participants here and around the world can take confidence from the powerful actions taken today and our broad commitment to the health of the global financial system.

We are acting with unprecedented speed taking unprecedented measures that we never thought would be necessary. But they are necessary to get our economy back on an even keel, and secure the confidence and future of our markets, our economy and the economic well-being of all Americans.

JUST LAST WEEK (a verbatim copy of the story in the UK's The Independent):

The Bush administration and Congress discussed the possibility of a breakdown in law and order and the logistics of feeding US citizens if commerce and banking collapsed as a result of last autumn's financial panic, it was disclosed yesterday.

Making his first appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving office, the former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson said it was important at the time not to reveal the extent of officials' concerns, for fear it would "terrify the American people and lead to an even bigger problem".

Mr. Paulson testified to the House Oversight Committee on the Bush administration's unpopular $700bn (£426bn) bailout of Wall Street, which was triggered by the failure of Lehman Brothers last September. In the days that followed, a run on some of the safest investment vehicles in the financial markets threatened to make it impossible for people to access their savings.

Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat, asked Mr. Paulson to reveal details of officials' concerns, which were relayed to Congress in hasty conference calls last year. The calls included discussion of law and order and whether it would be possible to feed the American people, and for how long, according to Mr. Kanjorski.

"In a world where information can flow, money can move with the speed of light electronically, I looked at the ripple effect, and looked at when a financial system fails, a whole country's economic system can fail," Mr. Paulson said. "I believe we could have gone back to the sorts of situations we saw in the Depression. I try not to use hyperbole. It's impossible to prove now since it didn't happen."

The Oversight committee is investigating the takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, a deal forged in the desperate weekend that Lehman Brothers failed, and which later required government support because of Merrill's spiraling losses.

Mr. Paulson defended putting pressure on Bank of America when it had last-minute doubts about the deal in December. Not to have done so could have rekindled the "financial havoc" the bailout had calmed.

(emphasis mine).

In short, while telling us in October "all is well" and "don't worry," Paulson et al. were discussing a doomsday type of scenario behind closed doors.

Friends, make no mistake - when you are preparing for hard times, for collapse, for disasters, for emergencies - never, never, never assume it couldn't happen or that the goverment can fix it if it did. If the Treasury Secretary of the United States is worrying about whether the goverment can feed everyone (BTW, I know the answer to that one - no, it can't) during a collapse, then I would submit you need to be thinking about it too.

18 July 2009

Stop Counting

Thanks to Atlanta Jeff for sharing this New York Times article. Apparently the WHO decided it's best NOT to count how many of you people have H1N1, to they're going to stop. No joke.

Test Driving The Yaesu Ham Radio

Rubicon Tony, who lives here in Austin, saw where I posted on the Alpha Rubicon site I passed my General licensing exam. He's generously allowed me to borrow his Yaesu to take it for a test drive. My plan is to get with a neighbor who is an experienced ham and figure out how to make it go.

For Sale: 1971 Piper Cherokee 140

14 July 2009

"A Disturbing Resemblance"

Could H1N1 be the pandemic we've been expecting? Some think so.

11 July 2009

Ham Radio Bad Ass

It only took me six years, but today I passed the exam to upgrade to General license for my ham radio, with a score of 91%. I told Kendel when I came home she was married to a Ham Radio Bad Ass. She did not seem that impressed.

I don't have a high frequency rig yet, so that will be in the works. I am looking at either an ICOM IC 706 MKIIG or a Yaesu FT-897 or 857. Any thoughts from those of you with experience in this area would be appreciated. Email me.

On a side note, if you're looking for a fun way to study, here's a link for practice tests I used.

Maybe Kendel's Not Impressed Because She's Recovering From Surgery She Had at 1 AM Friday Morning

Kendel had been complaining of stomach pains off and on the last two days. On Thursday evening, they got worse. She was hell bent on going to see a doctor the next morning rather than seeking treatment now. I suggested she call our friend Mona, who is a gastroenterologist. Mona told her to go to the emergency room (which is what I had suggested earlier, but my suggestions apparently don't mean that much).

We got there at 8 PM. By midnight, they diagnosed her with appedicitis. And by 1:30 that morning, the surgeon had removed it.

Some preparedness tips for hospital stays:

• Take coins for the vending machines. Sometimes the dollar bill changers don't work.
• Take LOTS of reading material. I studied for my ham exam for several hours.
• Facebook is a great way to keep friends and family updated on the situation. Beats having to call/email the world every thirty minutes.

One other note - we learned Kendel has O negative bloodtype - the universal donor. She was quite pleased to learn this.

So To Help Kendel Recover, We Stood Out in the Heat Today Looking at Tuff Sheds

We've been discussing the need for a bit more storage and a place to work on projects. For Kendel, that means making stained glass. For me, that means cleaning guns.

After some shopping around, we elected to get a Tuff Shed. You've probably seen these in the Home Depot parking lot. Note the ones you get at HD are not the same quality Tuff Shed sells directly to its customers. In fact, we ordered a better made shed and paid less money for it by dealing direct with Tuff Shed than had we bought it at HD.

We looked at several today on the Tuff Shed lot. We hope to have it put together here in a couple of weeks. Construction is included in the price. Best feature of all - we're having an AC unit put into it. We'll shore line it to an outside electrical socket. So we'll be able to work out there even in the hot months.

Then After We Got Home, We Had Teenagers In Our Backyard

We'd been home for an hour this afternoon when my neighbor across the street came knocking on the door. He reported two juveniles were spotted running out of my back yard and down the street. He knew one of them and gave me an ID.

I got in my car and took off after them. I found them in short order. When I asked what they were doing, the first story was "we lost a baseball back there and went to get it," which was a crap story. The other kid then piped up and said "I used to live there and I wanted to see what y'all had done to the place."

I informed them if they needed something from someone's yard, all they had to do was knock on the door. I added that entering someone's property without permission was trespassing.

By the time I got home, Kendel had found the parents' phone number. I made a quick call to report them to one of the boy's father, who agreed with me the boys shouldn't have done it.

I know kids will be kids. I don't mind them going back there to shag balls (especially if their property is tangent to mine) provided they ask first. And the asking part isn't about making them grovel....it's letting me know they're back there just so I won't be surprised by their presence.

I hope they learned something today.

Britons Gear Up for Swine Flu

The UK remains nervous over the increase in swine flu deaths. As I previously reported, many in the British public health services fear the next several months will bring a full blown pandemic.

Not sure why they're so worried. They have socialized medicine, right?

7 July 2009

The Anti-Joel, Ph.D

Apparently the Anti-Joel's week long furlough from his wife, the Anti-Victoria, gave him ample time to review my blog with a microscope. I got an email from him Sunday, complaining the title of one of my 2 July blog entries had a typo in it. He claims the word is "baited," rather than "bated." As in "waiting with baited [sic] breath."

I didn't realize Cliff was an English major. Lucky for him, he has a day job which does not require him to use his Ph.D in English, 'cuz the word is bated.

In Other News from the Anti-Joel

He did provide this link, raising the alarm for all of those who grow their own tomatoes. On a side note, we're supposed to have gardening experts out to the house in the coming days to give us some ideas on how to go about starting our own vegetable garden.

One More Thing To Monitor

Hong Kong picked up its first case of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1.

4 July 2009

Heat Conditioning

Like most of you, I live and work in an air conditioned environment. While it's comfortable and convenient, it does me no favors when I am outside for an extended period of time.

But I think I learned the trick to working out in the heat today. This morning, I got outside early - before 8 AM - to work on a variety of projects out in the yard. At that time, it was pleasant outside. As the day got longer, the temperatures predictably went higher. By the time I was finished just after 1 PM, it was 97 degrees outside.

While I was hot by then, I was not too tired or weak. I could continue to work all day if had I to (fortunately I didn't). I seemed to adjust to the temperature as it gradually rose with the day's sun. Had I stayed inside until noon and then tried to go outside and work, I'd be miserable, without question.

Do Batteries in Dynamo Powered Radios Ever Go Bad?

Apparently so. When I was outside working today, I wanted to listen to the radio to help pass the time. My normal everyday radio died after 15 minutes or so, as it apparently needed new batteries. So I decided to get out one of my hand crank radios instead.

I got out my Grundig FR-200 and cranked it up. Nothing. I cranked it again. Again, nothing came out of the speaker. The built in flash light was also Tango Uniform. Hmm.

Apparently, the dynamo on this model recharges a battery similar to the one you'd find in a cordless phone. As the battery is about 8 years old, I suspect it's well past its useful life. Another good reason to check your gear regularly.

Kendel Figured Out the Water Heater Issue

After being covered with dirt, paint, decomposed granite, dog hair, sweat, bug spray, a few other substances I'd rather not mention and sunblock for 6 hours, I needed to clean up. I didn't want to take a hot shower, but I did need a bit of warm water to ensure everything got cleaned off of me.

Needless to say, I was disappointed to find we had no hot water today. I was also rather surprised - our attic (where the water heater is) stays around 125 degrees this time of year, so you'd think by pure convection the water heater would be capable of producing some hot water, even without power.

I mentioned this to Kendel, and she promptly got on the internet and figured out the problem. Apparently, if the water heater itself gets too hot (like heating water in an attic which is already 125 degrees ambient), the reset button kicks out to keep it from overheating.

So I reset the water heater and turned down the thermostat to ensure it wouldn't cook itself. Game ball for Kendel for figuring this out without the need for a plumber's service call.

2 July 2009

Space Station's Gonna Git Cha

NASA posted the fly by schedule of the ISS for the next several days. You can see it at night as it flies over your house.

Kinda reminds me of Skylab from the 1970s. I remember being scared it was going to fall on top of my house when I was a kid.

North Korea - Freakin' Do It Already or Shut Up

Our friends the NorKs shot four short range missles overnight, raising concerns they will launch something more substantial on July 4 as promised. These people need to either put up or shut up.

They are testing our new administration. We'll see shortly what they're made of. And by "they," I mean both the NorKs and the Obama Administration.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Joel in Houston Waits With Bated Breath...

....to see if ATF shows up at his house searching for evidence of "suspicious" weapons sales. I ask you - if you lived in a lousy part of town, wouldn't you spend a few bucks to by decent equipment to protect your home?

Your Emails Work!

Thanks to all of you who emailed in, cheering my co-worker, Mean-ah Gina, on in her quest to be a guest blogger. She tells me she is writing it. I hope to post it soon.

The Two Minute Drill

We're standing with Castro and Chavez in siding with the dictator in Honduras, despite the fact both the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court thwarted his efforts to side step their constitution.....H1N1 infections in Great Britain expected to reach 100K people a day by August.....Remember this name - Alan Carlin - a victim of President Obama's "transparency".....The State Bar of Texas asked me today to move forward on my book on disaster preparedness for law firms, which they will publish....tomorrow I will fly 26 kittens at once (a new record for me) to the animal shelter in Austin to help them get adopted.

28 June 2009

Reflections on Michael Jackson's Death From A Preparedness Perspective

Without question, few have influenced pop culture and music as much as Michael Jackson. To that end, he ranks up there with Elvis and Madonna as icons.

Sadly, this status in large part led to his tragic death. What can we learn from this from a preparedness perspective?

Debt Kills. MJ planned a grueling 50 show tour (one story says he thought he only agreed to ten shows, only to find out later his "people" upped it to 50 without his knowledge) to help pay off his nearly 500M debt. He acquired much of this debt fueling his exotic, eccentric and egomanical lifestyle. Had he used his finances wisely, the tour for which he was preparing (and which may have led in large part to his early death) would never have taken place.

Drugs Kill. No news here - drugs have taken the lives of countless artists and laypeople alike. He certainly had the resources to afford the best medical care, yet in the end, that care let him down. I am not a doctor, but I would be shocked if anyone taking the kinds and quantities of medications would ever recover from whatever problems they might be having.

Legal Problems Kill. Much of MJ's legal problems were self inflicted - the civil and criminal complaints of child molestation, as well as the claims of creditors - took their toll on MJ's emotional health. To be sure, anyone facing the kinds of legal issues he regularly faced would be quite stressed....perhaps to the point of turning to drugs or alcohol to help manage it.

What lessons can we learn? Reducing debts, staying healthy and not exposing ourselves to needless legal problems will only improve our lifestyle and overall well being.

The Berkey Has Arrived!

I got the Imperial Berkey water filter delivered on Friday. It's producing a fair amount of water, and the water tastes great. I highly recommend it. We'll be testing it in the coming weeks.

One Man's Life Off the Grid

I read about this site in this month's issue of Texas Monthly (the one with Ted Nugent on the cover). It's really cool.

D-Tox Returns To Base

22 June 2009

Studying For My Ham License

I made a lot of progress last week on vacation towards my General class ham radio license. I mentioned in an earlier blog I wanted to upgrade my ticket. So on July 11, I take my upgrade exam. I'm looking forward to it.

I Won The Bet

Last June, Kendel bet me $500 I could not go a year without caffeine. I won.

So, instead of collecting $500 from her, and having her picture made handing me the money and posting it on this site, I opted to do something with the money we could all enjoy. This evening, she ordered us a Berkely water filter (Imperial size) with some extra elements. I am looking forward to using it.

11 June 2009

Level 6 Playa

Congrats. We're now at Level 6 on the WHO's Sliding Scale of Death. What will you do differently as a result?

Will "Meana" Gina Guest Blog?

I'm trying to get my co-worker, "Meana" (pronounced "MEAN-ah") Gina, to write some guest blogs for me. Help me by sending me emails encouraging her to blog by clicking here. Put "Go Gina Go!" in your subject line. Yes We Can!

Next Several Days

I'm off the air for the next several days for a variety of things. Stay safe.

10 June 2009

Thoughts On Summer Reading

I spent a few days in Rochester, MN earlier this week at the Mayo Clinic. My time enabled me to finish some of the books I'm reading this summer.

So far, I've finished:

• Liberty and Tyranny by the Great One, Mark Levine
• One Second After by William Forstchen (a novel about what will happen after an EMP attack on America)
• Emergency Power For Radio Communications, which is supposed to be a great primer on solar power

Truth be told, I didn't really finish the Emergency Power book, since much of it was technically over my head. But I will continue to research using solar and will keep the book for a reference.

I HIGHLY recommend the Levine book. The first three chapters or so read as a 300-level political science college class. As a public policy major, I could stomach it, but I bet many will lose interest since it's heavy in political philosophy and theory. However, I encourage all to plow through that part and get into the later chapters, which are phenonmenal. Levine makes perhaps one of the most compelling cases for conservatism I've ever read.

One Second After, while well written, may not be an accurate in its depiction of an EMP attack. The more I read up on EMP, the less I worry about it. Don't get me wrong - the threat is very real and its effects would be quite severe - but I don't think it would be as bad as Forstchen would have us believe. From what I'm reading, the EMP attack would affect primarily those circuits in use at the time. In other words, if your car is turned off when the attack takes place, it would not affect it. I am still researching this.

Next week, I start studying for my General exam for my ham radio license in earnest. We'll see how it goes. I am thrilled they dropped the code requirement, so people like me can pass it.

5 June 2009

Today's Edition of "Are You Freakin' Kidding Me?"

• A judge in New York ruled cops can taser someone in order to take their DNA sample. I ask: why use up a precious Taser when obviously a cattle prod will do? Or battery acid? Or branding irons? How a judge in the United States can claim a Taser is the appropriate remedy to enforce compliance with a court order to obtain samples of your own bodily fluid is beyond me. This sounds like something they would to in Iraq or Libya.
• The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1440 which effectively allows workers from Child Protective Services to enter people's homes to conduct investigations without having to show good cause to a judge. Does the Fourth Amendment no longer apply to Americans?
• Your White House plans to create a "Pay Czar" to regulate pay of companies receiving stimulus funds. And all of us who said throughout the campaign Obama would try to make us a socialist nation were just right wing nutjobs, because EVERYONE knows Obama "will govern from the center."

Wow.

I remember listening to a talk given by the late Southern comedian Jerry Clower. In a moment of serious reflection, Clower commented over 25 years ago that America's undoing would not come from a foreign power, but instead would come from within. I fear he is right.

And The One Thing I Found Out I Don't Have In My Car's Emergency Kit Is....

the means by which to start a fire. I went to my stepdaughter's Girl Scout promotion ceremony (she is now a Girl Scout "cadette, " whatever that means) last night, and in Girl Scout fashion, they wanted to make S'mores. I was amazed to learn when I went to look for a firestarter in my kit I have no such device. Live and learn.

Scopion Hollow John Reports from Scorpion Hollow, Georgia

Hi Paul,

I preordered [the book One Second After] when I first found out about it.  I loaned it to two friends when I was done, and both returned it mostly unread; they just couldn’t take it (one of them was a Marine Corps veteran).  It has some intense parts, and some downright depressing parts, and as such it probably a realistic look at how unprepared most people are for a real emergency.  I am looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

My preparedness books for the summer include:

How to stay alive in the woods by Bradford Angier

When all hell breaks loose by Cody Lundin

Just in case by Kathy Harrison

The backyard beekeeper by Kim Flottum

Do you mind a gun review?:  I bought a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 a few months ago and only cleaned it up and fired it for the first time this past weekend.  It was a highly rewarding experience.  I would recommend this rifle to anyone who is considering buying a prep rifle.  It was built to be used by illiterate Russian peasants, and other than some practice needed to correctly use the stripper clip to load it, the rifle is easy to learn and use.  The notorious “kick” of the weapon can easily be countered by an inexpensive buttpad that is easily installed (I put one on mine before even the first firing and the kickback was negligible).  This is the main weapon featured in the movie Defiance about the Jewish partisans in Belarus in WWII. 

I appreciate the reports. It's good to hear from others who put the effort into preparedness.

Weekend Reading Assignment

Thanks to those who shared this with me. It's in depth analysis of the geopolitical challenges we currently face.

The Next Week

I will be scarce this coming week due to some commitments. I will blog next weekend.

3 June 2009

More Stories of Preparedness Gone Mainstream

CNBC reported on this story earlier in the week. I was rather disappointed in the tone of the CNBC reporters towards those who are becoming self-reliant.

This Summer's Reading List

I've ordered my books for the summer. They include:

• Liberty and Tyranny by the Great One, Mark Levine
• One Second After by William Forstchen (a novel about what will happen after an EMP attack on America)
• The ARRL General Class Licensing Exam Guide, so I can finally upgrade my ham license
• Emergency Power For Radio Communications, which is supposed to be a great primer on solar power

Oil On The Way Back Up?

The Peakniks will take this story as further evidence we are running out of oil. OPEC says they see oil going to $90 a barrel by early 2010.

29 May 2009

Did I Say $11T Of Debt? I Meant $65T

On 25 May, I blogged about our national debt. This article from USA Today provides updated figures on our national debt. Our debt has grown to $65,000,000,000,000.00. That's almost $550,000 of debt for every household in the U.S.

Way to go, America. Prepare for inflation.

11 Women. 21 Kids. One 29 Year Old Dad.

A big part of the reason we have $65T in debt is because we have people like Desmond Hatchett. Mr. Hatchett, prolific sperm donor in the Knoxville, TN area, has managed to father 21 kids. How much are we spending in welfare to support his hobby?

28 May 2009

Water as Currency

Prediction: Drinking water will become a currency in the event of the unthinkable. Strategery: Be the first kid on the block (and perhaps the only kid) who can provide people with drinking water. But how?

First, read this. Second, go buy a water purification system of some sort. I hope to order my Berkey this weekend. Third, be prepared to tell your friends and neighbors you like you will give them a gallon of pure water for every two/three/four/insert number here gallons of untreated water they bring you. This way, you don't have to go out and look for water. Your neighbors do it for you.

Yes, there are operational security (opsec) issues with this strategery (yes, I know the word is "strategy," but ever since Will Ferrell said "strategery" when portraying George W. Bush one night on Saturday Night Live, I can't help myself). Opsec is best addressed in another article. Just remember if you're going to do this, you need to be aware others will quickly learn you have water filtration capabilities.

New Travel Rules in Effect.

Stratfor reports on the new WHTI rules. With all due respect to Stratfor, until we can figure out how to keep people from walking across the border from Mexico and Canada, these rules only slow down those of us who are legitimately coming into the U.S.

Quick Hits

Relax on North Korea, as they are just ticked no one is giving them attention lately....Only 3 days until the 2009 Hurricane Season starts....Start thinking about how to prepare your finances for rampant inflation to begin in the coming months....If George W. Bush nominated a Hispanic with a 60% reversal rate to the Supreme Court, the Democrats would have crucified the nominee....look for my summer reading list in a blog entry soon.

26 May 2009

You People Continue To Be Trendy

Congrats - you are trendy folks. More and more people are preparing and becoming more self reliant.

25 May 2009

Ranger Rick - In Custody

Early Friday morning, Rick got caught in the live trap I'd set for him. The bait? Dog food.

Lessons learned:

• When I first baited the trap, I used dog food but I set it inside the trap in a way allowing Rick to simply eat the food without putting his little paws on the trigger. Put the food back in the cage as far as possible.
• I tried tuna fish as bait. He showed no interested in it. I should have stuck with what I knew he liked - dog food.
• When trapped, they are mean little animals. He growled, hissed and lunged at me from inside the cage.
• Could I trap as a means of procuring meat during a crisis? Possibly. I need to learn more about trap placements and baits.

I released Rick, without incident, at a nearby nature preserve near a well stocked creek.

Guess What? We're Out of Money

President Obama, in a moment of blunt candor, announced what we all knew - "We are out of money now."

Let's take a look at a few numbers.

Your government has a national deficit in 2009 of $1.7T and a national debt of $11T. Compare that to government revenues (ie, taxes) of $2.52T in 2008.

So right now, our goverment takes in roughly 59% of what it will spend in 2009. These numbers do not include whatever health care program Washington rams down our throats this year. Add to those figures the $11T mortgage we've burdened upon our children.

Put another way - imagine your family makes $100K a year. Using the figures above, if your finances mirrored the same ratios of the federal goverment, you have debt of $436,000, and you would spend $166K a year. Is this a viable way to run your family's finances?

Some will point out our GDP in 2008 of $14.29T is the true measure of our assets. In other words, if we can generate $14T in revenue every year, why do we worry about $11T in debt? I can think of three reasons.

First, we still live in a (sorta) capitalist system. The GDP does not belong to the goverment (at least not yet). In my opinion, creating a debt to GDP ratio implies the soundness of our nation's fiscal policies should be determined in large part on how productive we are. Put another way, when we're successful as an economy, it's okay to incur more debt. Isn't that the same logic which in large part created the current housing crisis?

Second, the growth of the federal goverment's budget will continue to strain the economy, effectively burdening it with higher taxes and more inflation. The dollar will depreciate, reducing our purchasing power dramatically.

Finally - and admittedly this is rather esoteric - I don't think the government should be in the business of regulating all of the things it regulates and handing out entitlement program dollars to U.S. citizens. This attitude created the budget mess we are in.

Want some good news? Most of us won't have to pay for it. Your kids will be picking up the tab instead.

Suburban Survivalists Stock Supplies

Again, we're not crazy. Everyone's doing it. Let's pray we look at this as a fad, kinda like parachute pants, rather than something the wise did before trouble set in.

20 May 2009

Ranger Rick 1, Paul T. 0

I've got a raccoon issue. He comes into the garage through the doggie door and eats the dog food. I don't really mind it that much, except for the fact a) they often carry disease and b) it drives our dogs nuts.

So I sent out an email to my neighborhood association in search of a loaner live trap. I got several offers. I've set it out twice now - once, he ate the bait and walked away, and again last night, where he failed to come at all.

I don't mind - it's a good learning experience. With the number of squirrels, opossums, and raccoons in my neighborhood, trapping during hard times may become a necessity. I don't intend on eating Rick when I catch him. Rather, he will get a nice relocation package a mile away....to the local creek where there's plenty of woods, plants, bugs, fish and water for him.

Gardeners=Criminals

I think I mentioned the other day I've taken to listening to the Genesis Network radio programming, which is a bit "out there" so to speak. However, as Steve Earle says, "just because you ain't paranoid don't mean they ain't out to get you."

The other day, I heard a story on there about how the feds want to make it illegal for you to have a garden in your backyard. I thought that had to be bad reporting, since it's inconceivable the goverment would do such a thing.

So I googled it....and I found this bill, filed in Congress this year, supported by 60 Democrats. I encourage you to review it. It would require every food producer to register their operations with the govenment. There's no exclusion for home gardens or livestock raised for your own personal consumption.

My parents have a garden every year. Will I get a Crimestopper reward if I narc on them? Will we have a "Garden Enforcement Agency" similar to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) which will run around with Glocks, taking down aunts and grandmothers around the country growing corn and beans in their back yards?

18 May 2009

But I Thought Bush Was The Dumb One

The media never missed an opportunity to ridicule George W. Bush for any misstep or misspeak during his eight years as Commander in Chief. Often criticized for being dumb (despite the fact unlike his critics, Bush graduated from Yale and from Harvard with an MBA), I don't ever recall him saying anything as dumb as Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden is truly the gift that keeps on giving. In an effort to impress his friends in the media no doubt, Biden revealed the location of the super secret VP bunker where Dick Cheney spent much of his time immediately after 9/11.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. At yet just a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Shoo, Shoo Swine Flu

The CDC believes as many as 100,000 of you in the U.S. may have swine flu cooties. That's not the part I find troubling. Note the line in the article that says, "the 5,123 confirmed and probable cases and six deaths in the United States were "the tip of the iceberg."" It's that tip of the iceberg verbage I find troubling.

H1N1 has not gotten much press lately, but the WHO is discussing it at their annual meeting this week. My dad the dentist, who is the official health advisor to paultmartin.com, opined at the onset this could become a pandemic.

This bears monitoring.

Add Pakistan To Your List Of Worries

The headline alone ought to get your attention: U.S. Has Plan To Secure Pakistan Nukes If Country Falls To Taliban. The same people who supported Al Qaeda in their efforts to bring us 9/11 could conceivably get control of Pakistan's nuke arsenal.

Please pray for the people of Pakistan and their ability to thwart the efforts of these extremists.

Guns, Hogs and Helicopters

While I should be tracking on bills in the Texas legislature affecting insurance, bills dealing with guns are far more interesting. And when you add helicopters and feral hogs to the mix, it gets really good.

Late last week, the Texas House of Representatives passed Rep. Sid Miller's House Bill 836 allowing feral hog hunting from helicopters. Just imagine - being strapped to a helicopter, flying over rural Texas at a high rate of speed, shooting at hogs. Does it get any better than that?

16 May 2009

Basic Gun Training Remains Quite Popular

I spent most of today helping out at KR Training's Defensive Handgun and Pistol Competition classes. I can attest interest in acquiring basic handgun skills remains strong. Many people attended both classes.

After Bankrupting America, Obama Warns Americans of .....Bankrupting America

After his Administration supported or engineered bailout packages which made past deficits look like a drop in the bucket, President Obama said earlier this week the nation faced massive economic problems due to our national debt. No joke.

So - assuming inflation is a real risk for our economy - how do we prepare for it? Some strategies include:

• Invest in assets which consistently appreciate over time by financing the acquisition cost. For example, invest in real estate by putting down as little as possible and financing as much as you can. The bet here is that as inflation grows, you will be paying off the loan with dollars that are worth less than the ones you borrowed. To be sure, going into debt isn't a recommended investment vehicle for most people. It has to be done responsibly.
• Invest in precious metals. I still don't know enough about precious metals. I need to learn.
• Invest in a foreign currency. The London Telegraph reported this week a renowned economist believes the Chinese Yuan will surpass the dollar as the reserve currency of choice.

13 May 2009

Urban Chickens

A growing movement in urban areas - raising chickens - is coming under fire from some city governments. My next door neighbors are raising three hens, by the way. I suspect we will see more of this in the coming months.

Another Survival Blog

M.D. Creekmore emailed me some time ago, inviting me to check out his website. He was just getting it off the ground then. Today he claims over 300,000 hits. Congrats to him for helping get the word out.

Advice From the UK

Paul from the United Kingdom checks in with his thoughts on the posts below regarding my Coleman Lantern problem and Scorpion Hollow John's inquiry as to lice:

1. Lice - Try adding Tea Tree, and/or Eucalyptus oil to their/your shampoo. My finacee stands by them, and she works in a Nursery full time. The combs also really work but they hurt.

2. The Coleman Spotlight - I would be amazed if they made their own power connection, so a trip to radio shack might be worth it. It is only the mobile companies who seem to do that.

Bubba Gump On Domestic Terrorism

Remember that scene in the movie Forrest Gump, where Bubba dutifully rattles off every single dish which can be made with shrimp? Your Department of Homeland Security's recent tome, "Domestic Extremism Lexicon," reminds me of that scene. Start on page two and see how many "extremisms" you might fit. Here's the article in the Washington Times.

Some of you might say, "Since I'm advocating violence or criminal activity, none of these apply to me." Like you, I don't advocate violence or crime either....but I fear the goverment may label people who have certain beliefs as "extremists" even when they are law abiding citizens. This criminalization of thought should trouble every American of every faith, race, nationality, political or social belief.

10 May 2009

Still Digging Out

My desk is a train wreck - I need to work on it this evening. More substantive blogs will be forthcoming.

Machine Gun Preacher

I would love to meet this guy. Click on the "short film clip" link. I ordered the video.

One More Thing To Add To Your List of Things To Worry About

Swine Flu, Terrorism, Economic Collapse, World War III......please include solar storm in that group as well. Will a tin foil hat protect me?

7 May 2009

1 May 2009

Dash Cam of a Gun Fight

Brought to you by the fine folks at the Austin,TX Police Department. The perp is facing attempted murder charges for firing at the cop.

Weekend Reading

Being prepared means being physically well. That's hard to do when you don't have health insurance. Some plans advocated by the left will destroy our healthcare system. Here's one which uses market based principles and has the attention of some in the Obama Administration.

Coloring Books To Scare the Hell Out of Your Kids

I've been listening to the Genesis Communications Network on a low powered FM station here in Austin recently. Admittedly, some of the stuff they talk about is "out there." However, over the last few months many of these crackpot commentators accurately predicted dire economic times just as we've seen over the last year or so.

The other morning, I heard a commentator talk about the FEMA coloring book which depicted - get this - jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center. Little kids were to color these books to learn about disasters.

My stepdaughter will quickly tell you - I don't know squat about kids. However, even I - who makes said stepdaughter do all sorts of disaster drills for allowance money - can see this idea is problematic.

And so I didn't believe it when I heard about it. I dismissed it as more fodder from the Tin Foil Hat Brigade. Later that same day, I was on The Smoking Gun, looking at this week's mugshot round up (always a real hoot), when I stumbled upon this.

Score one for the conspiracy theorists.

28 April 2009

In Search of 380

A neighbor called yesterday, telling me he is scheduled to requal for his concealed handgun license this weekend. He shoots .380 caliber ammunition in his handgun. Despite looking all over, he couldn't find any ammo anywhere and wanted to know if I had any suggestions.

I poked around a bit on the internet, but quickly concluded he was right - 380 simply doesn't exist anymore. I even checked in with the Anti-Joel in Houston, our firearm expert, for suggestions. What's the fascination with 380?

I suspect it's a factor of a couple of things. First, the huge demand for ammo of all types since November caused many gun owners to stock up on ammo for their own use as well as an investment. I've heard stories of people walking into WalMart and buying every round of handgun ammo in stock....spending thousands of dollars to clean them out. Whether these people are selling this ammo on the secondary market remains to be seen.

Second, with 380 specifically, it's a popular round for first time shooters - (somewhat) large enough to do the job, small enough to have minimal recoil. With a record number of new shooters coming on line in response to political and economic concerns, 380 guns and ammo are likely in high demand.

Now - for you economics geeks - let's play through this. I predict a huge ammo surplus in a couple of years, provided no legislation passes restricting ammo sales or manufacturing. That's because manufacturers are ramping up big time to meet the demand. Couple that with the fact most of the people who are buying up this ammo won't shoot it for a long, long time. Invariably, demand will come down out of the stratosphere with a lot of ammo in circulation.

Until then, shoot sparingly.

By the way - how should people interested in preparedness handle situations like this long term? Buy in bulk, of course.

Are You Sick Yet?

I'm telling you......this swine flu thing is being blown way out of proportion.

27 April 2009

Your Swine Flu Shopping List

I got an email this afternoon asking what kind of viral masks are best for flu prevention. I figured I should post a list of things you might consider stocking up on if you're concerned about the swine flu issue.

Let me get this on the record - I don't think this outbreak is THE ONE we've all been fearing. As you know, we are due for a centennial pandemic - the last one was in 1918. However, this is a good excuse to start practicing some pandemic procedures and equipping ourselves for what may come.

If I were starting with nothing, here's what I would want:

• N 100 masks. N 95s let in too much crud. Here's one of many places you can order from. Spring for the extra protection the N 100 mask provides, as the virus is such a small particle.
• Meds. Get some Tamiflu from a medical provider if you can get it. Also, it's a good idea to keep antibiotics on hand (they won't help with the flu but can reduce the chances the flu will cause a respiratory infection.
• Electrolytes. Gatorade, salt tablets, Pedialyte, orange juice - things your body will want to stay hydrated.
• Simple foods. Foods easy to digest, such as crakers, oatmeal, etc will be a premium.
• Latex gloves. If you're caring for someone who is ill, you will want these.
• Hand sanitizer. Sanitizer is cheap; funerals are expensive. Stock up and use liberally.
• Kleenex.
• Toilet paper and paper towels.
• Laundry detergent. Wash those sheets regularly.
• Bleach. Bleach is the wonder drug....for sanitizing things.
• Anti-inflammatories, such as Aleve, to help relieve aches and pains.

26 April 2009

'Cause Then, You're Protected

As if you need me to tell you - swine flu stories and rumors circulate faster than Paris Hilton at a Hollywood party. One story I keyed in on had the headline "Americans Told To Wear Masks As Swine Flu Spread Round Globe." Wear a mask, and you'll be fine.

You have three courses of action, from where I sit:

• Do nothing.
• Do what the CDC recommends (wash your hands a lot, avoid obvious sick people, keep healthy).
• Treat this as a crisis/conspiracy and go to DefCon1 at your house.

Personally, I like option 3 because a) it's more fun to talk about, b) it gives me a reason to find my masks and sort through my gear, and c) it generates interest in this site.

If you don't like option 3, but still want a reason to fret, here are a few things to think about:

• Janet Napolitano is running DHS. This woman makes Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff look like a rocket scientist. Her two most recent statements, including the one where she said crossing the U.S. border without the goverment's permission was not a crime and anyone with a Ron Paul bumper sticker might be a terrorist should give us all comfort. She will be coordinating our nation's response to this potential crisis/conspiracy/epidemic (circle your term of choice). I hope you have confidence in her. I certainly don't.
• If you believe the nation's economy was about to turn the corner, a major flu outbreak won't help things. Again, regardless of your position on how serious this is, such a story can't be good for the markets. As I type this, the Asian markets are mixed in early trading.
• Assuming this turns out to be a mild event, it will underscore how inadequate our preparations are for a real pandemic. On a brighter note, if that is in fact true, it may - just may - wake up the nation collectively to start preparing for a much larger crisis.
• Watch for more calls for more government intervention into our lives to stop this problem. Before all of you socialists start sending me hate mail about how the government is supposed to get involved in matters of public health, remind me how many black men in Tuskegee died from syphilis over the forty years the U.S. goverment "experimented" on them. Remind me how many died from the swine flu vaccine back in 1976. Remind me how great our VA hospital system is. Still want those people managing your health care?

25 April 2009

This Is Not An Exercise. Or Is It?

You've seen the story by now - a version of the swine flu has taken the lives of over 60 in Mexico and infected some in California and Texas.

I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. And I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. So what am I doing?

• Looking for my N-100 masks I bought two years ago. Since Kendel and I got married, I have misplaced several things as a result of moving in. I need to find them.
• Checking the expiration date on my Tamiflu.
• Monitoring the news for the latest. As I live in a state whch shares more border with Mexico than any other state, we're obviously a likely target for ground zero.
• Implement heightened hygiene at home and out in public.
• Continuing to live my life as I normally would.

No need to panic here, friends - just take some common sense precautions for now. Trust me - if we need to panic, the media will let us know. Count on it.

So Why Am I At Home and Not In Nashville?

We were supposed to fly to Nashville this evening to participate in the half marathon there tomorrow morning. However, the women of the house came down with some sort of illness (swine flu perhaps?) which kept them home from school and work today. So we cancelled the trip.

I'm not that disappointed, truth be told. The goal was to get in good enough shape to walk 13 miles. For me, mission accomplished.

20 April 2009

Required Reading

Not a survival article - but an economic article. You need to understand this in the coming months. The crux of the article:

A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue. That's less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.

Still think Obamanomics works?

More on Lice

Tom weighed in on some Lice Strategery, in response to yesterday's article: "In a post fan situation, the answer for lice can be simple.  Shave.  Lice need a safe place.  You take away that place, they are gone.  Works for pubic lice too (crabs)."

Ed Rendell Is A Complete Tool

I rarely, if ever, get worked up over liberal rhetoric. But I wanted to punch my computer monitor this morning when I watched this video clip of Pennsylvania Govenor Ed Rendell on CNBC's website this morning. Even more disappointing were the unusually weak ass questions the Sqauwk Box team threw at Rendell during the interview.

Rendell needs to worry less about guns and more about how to account for money. The State Auditor for Pennsylvania warned the Federal Government the state is not open and accountable enough to receive federal stimulus money.

If you live in Pennyslvania and are reading this, move. Now.

19 April 2009

Got Lice?

Scorpion Hollow John posed this question:

Due to a shocking and somewhat disgusting problem at my stepdaughter’s elementary school, I was forced to wonder if you had any plans for combating an infestation of lice at a time when the contents of modern drugstores would not be available.  I confess that this is something I had never considered. 

I stockpile anti-bacterial soap as part of my medical supplies, but I don’t think that would help.  There are dog shampoos that claim to get rid of lice, but dogs don’t get people lice and vice versa, so I don’t know if that would work either.  And I don’t know what the shelf life of this brand of dog shampoo would be or even if it would be safe for humans.  And I suppose that to be truly useful, any lice eradication system would have to herbal-based to be sustainable so that a new supply could be obtained.  Forgive me for not being a trouper, but I am not willing to contract lice myself in order to experiment.

It sounds like I’m joking, I know.  But lice carry typhus and other diseases, not to mention the effect such an infestation would have on energy levels and group morale.

Candidly, I haven't though about this much until now. Here are my thoughts:

• If things are so bad that drugstores are bare, I wonder if schools and other places where kids swap cooties will be open. For example, if a community can't get basic medical supplies, will it spend resources keeping schools open and bus routes moving? I doubt it.
• Let's assume I am wrong and answer John's question. It certainly wouldn't hurt to stockpile cootie repellant.
• Alternative methods to controlling lice can be found here.
• Don't be like the college age girl who recently treated herself by washing her hair with gasoline. Near an open flame.

Copper Hoarding

Atlanta Jeff shared this financial article about the Chinese strategy to convert cash to copper. Copper is a vital metal to industry. It's a wise strategy.

Note as I type this, I am watching a story on CNBC about the booming business McDonalds is doing in China. So they will have tons of copper but be as fat as we are.

Once Again, It's America's Fault

Obama's quest for America to take the heat for every global ill continues. We are now responsible for the violence in Mexico, as Texas Todd recently discovered.

Of course, this ignores the jerks in Mexico who are actually pulling the trigger. These guns are no more responsible for those deaths as pencils are responsible for misspelled words.

10 April 2009

Good evening from Austin -

It's been a while since I made a substantive blog entry. As I indicated back on the 5th, I've been rather busy lately. I thought I would share a few thoughts with you this evening in an effort to catch up.

On the international front, we have a couple of alarming issues brewing. First, let's not discount the gravity of North Korea's little stunt earlier this week. Their rocket test proves a) they have the technology to put a missle into orbit and b) have an alarming lack of fear of the West.

Couple that with what's going on off the coast of Somalia. This piracy issue is quickly becoming a test of what the Obama foreign policy team is made of.

Nationally, our economy seems to have turned a corner. This week, Wells Fargo upped its guidance and beat earnings estimates for this past quarter. This proves banks can make money in this environment. Unemployment numbers, while saddening, seem to no longer surprise financial experts. As a result, the bad news may be priced into various markets. Long term stability remains to be seen, given the extraordinary debt the Obama administration seems impatient to create.

So what do we make of all of this? And how does it factor into our preparedness efforts?

First - and perhaps I am letting my fear of the worst case scenario get the best of me - the North Korean situation should remind us just how easy an EMP burst over the continental U.S. would be. North Korea, unlike China or Russia which holds a tremendous amount of U.S. debt (and thus needs the U.S. to survive in order to pay it off), has less incentive to be rational. Further, by demonstrating its ability to launch such a rocket, other nations with less than amiable relations to the U.S. may try to buy this technology from the North Koreans. Would you feel comfortable if Venezuela ordered a couple of North Korean rockets?

How do you prepare for an EMP situation? I am no expert on this by any means, but I would suggest preparing as you normally would for any other power outage type of scenario. In previous blog entries, I provided links on EMP turtorials. Check those out, or search for the subject on the web.

Financially, I am still uneasy about the equity markets, but I am becoming less uneasy. We need to see a less than awful earnings season in the coming weeks before we can affirmatively say we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I realize many of you may feel a bit silly thinking about getting prepared for some unforseen peril. Truth be told, I feel the same way, quite often. Note you are not alone. I ran across this article about people in the Dallas/Fort Worth area who are getting prepared for uncertainties. You are the trendy ones, friends. Reducing debt, preparing for uncertainty, focusing on the things that are important in life - lean times have a Puritanical effect on us. In most instances, I think that's a positive thing we can take from these uncertain times.

Should trouble not come our way after we've prepared, don't fret. You buy insurance regularly, without much thought, hoping you never have to find out how good the claims service is. Your preparedness efforts are simply another form of insurance against uncertainty.

On a side note, if you want a great source for public policy info from a truly conservative perspective, the Heritage Foundation now will send you a daily email - for free - on a different topic with fantastic analysis on issues facing us right now. I suggest you look into it.

5 April 2009

Update

It's been a while since I last blogged. My work with the Texas Legislature and my real estate business is really eating into my free time these days. I think things should calm down a bit in the next week or so allowing me to get back to blogging regularly.

Let's continue to watch the North Korean situation. How our government handles this will give you some insight as to how we will handle bully nations in the next four years.

More to come. Stay tuned.

23 March 2009

All Sorts of Stuff To Tell You...

Lots of stuff pouring in. Here are the highlights.

The Economy

The Dow finished up over 497 points today, in large part due to better than expected existing home sales and the government's toxic asset purchase plan. Have we turned the corner? I still think it's too early to say. I would like to think we have. I believe I blogged back a few months ago that economists anticipated we would start coming out of the recession in the spring or summer of 2009. If the market leads the recovery (which historically it does), there's a good chance this is the real thing.

Of course, there are a lot of things that could derail it. Timmy Geitner speaking in public, for example. Obama's budget. This new world order nonsense of one global currency as promoted by Moscow and now Beijing.

Continue to be weary.

More Big Goverment

This story really bothers me to the point of anger. Your goverment - the organization supported by your tax dollars - now has a checklist to determine whether you are a terrorist. Such telltale indicators include Ron Paul bumper stickers and possession of "subversive" literature, whatever that means. And now a town in upstate New York considers implementing martial law as a means to deal with its inept police department.

The last time I checked, the Constitution was still the law of the land. Does this bother you? I think it should.

Are There Leprechauns in Mobile?

As if current events weren't enough to worry about, we now have a brewing crisis in Mobile. Please check out this link, and then share with your friends.

15 March 2009

And WHY Are We Still A Member of the United Nations?

Beats me. If our paltry donation consisting of 22% of their operating budget (or $4.4B, which is more than the GDP of 40 developing nations) makes us a dead beat, I say we ask the UN for a stimulus package.

But No Fears....Obama Now Says The Economy's Fundamentals Are Sound.

Gotta love politicians. During the campaign, Obama crucified McCain for McCain's declaration the economy's fundamentals are sound. Now after talking down the economy non-stop since he took office, driving the exchanges far lower than many experts thought were possible, Obama is singing a different tune. Today on Meet The Press (which will never be the same now that Russert's gone), the White House took McCain's position on the economy, declaring "of course [the economy is] sound."

Let me guess - economic recovery will start in early 2010 with strong growth noted, say, Q3 of 2010....right before the mid term Congressional elections.....with nearly full recovery by Q3 of 2012...right before the presidential election? Please forgive my cynicism. But I won't be shocked if we see this.

Maybe those Mexican Gang Bangers Aren't Getting Their Firepower from the U.S. After All

Texas Todd, our Mexican security correspondent (who is embedded with fellow suburbanites on a Maryland golf course, in a gated community no doubt) found this interesting article today which shoots a lot of holes (no pun intended) into the whole "Mexican drug cartels get their guns from the U.S." theory. Apparently, those weapons - including hand grenades - are coming from south of Mexico and not as much from the U.S. as once thought.

This timely piece comes during a national discussion on renewing the assault weapons ban. I listened to Beyond the Beltway this evening (a great, balanced syndicated radio talk show that's on from 6pm to 8pm central time on stations all across the country), and their liberal guest commentator talked about how Americans shouldn't own assault weapons because they might end up in Mexico.

News flash - despite our large, private ownership of what some call "assault weapons," we still don't have the level of violence here they do in Mexico. It just goes to show - it's not the gun that does the killing, but the person pulling the trigger.

Russian Bombers in Cuba or Venezuela? Don't Worry About It.

Drudge linked to an article on Russian bombers in Cuba or Venezuela. They're just jerking Obama's chain. Chavez is becoming more irrelevant by the day as oil prices plummet. And since Obama is considering opening up trade with Cuba (and which I think he should), Cuba is close to becoming far less communistic in the coming months and years. Don't sweat the Russians, at least not their bombers parked in this hemisphere. Oil prices are killing them, too. It would be financially difficult to keep too many bombers in our hemisphere.

Don't you wish Reagan were still president?

Miscellaneous

Neither Vandy nor Miami got into the NCAA Tournament, so who cares....props to Karl Rehn for the link to this very interesting study on shoot/no shoot decisions....various spring storm awareness week campaigns in the various states taking place right now....blog entries the coming week will likely be sparse due to my work with the Texas legislature.

12 March 2009

This Past Saturday

I helped out again at Karl Rehn's training facility. In the afternoon, we taught basic defensive shooting. In the evening, we taught shooting in low light conditions, including "no light" conditions.

During the low light exercise, Karl assigned me to help with the tactical exercise part. We role played that the range house was actually a barbeque shack, and each student would have to go in, one at a time, try to find the bad guy and confront him. Guess who got to be the bad guy?

It was a lot of fun. Students got to meet a number of different "bad guys" (many were not bad at all......just drunk or mentally challenged), including "Drunken Obama Supporter," "Rick James," "That Person who Called 911 the Other Day To Complain They Didn't Get All of Their McNuggets," "Dude In The Closet With A Long Knife," "Drunk Guy Passed Out On A Table," among others.

Chimps are Smarter than Sheeple

This great story from the Guardian should be sobering. Even chimps know they should prepare.

9 March 2009

Baghdad or Juarez?

Gun to your head - where would you rather spend a week: Baghdad or Juarez?

If you chose Juarez, think again. Texas Todd picked up this article today which says you're almost 3.5 times more likely to take the big ride (ie., get killed and go off to the afterlife) in Juarez than in Baghdad. And last time I checked, we didn't have troops in Juarez.

Perhaps Saddam wisely hid all the WMDs in Juarez. The place practically begs to be used as a terrorists' cache of unthinkable implements of destruction.

5 March 2009

Obama The Statesman

Tomorrow May Really Suck

You heard it here first.

Survivalist Play of the Day

Or is it? How many of you would get back into a car if you knew a spitting cobra was inside of it?

The Onion - The Only Source of News You Need

Little Brother was instant messaging me ( I think that's what it's called) furiously on Facebook the other night for having the gall to post something on his wall which was less than sworn allegiance to President Obama. Perhaps he needs to lighten up...and I have the cure for him - The Onion.

I go to Chipotle weekly just to pick up a copy of it. Here's a news clip all survivalists with children should read. Trust The Onion to take on the tough issues.

25 February 2009

Real Men of Genius

If you're not going to Reason magazine's site on a daily basis, you need to start.

23 February 2009

Foxy is a Bad Dog

I love little Foxy. She's a terrier mutt of some sort with pointy ears. Kendel adopted her so the other dog, Meg, would have someone to play with when we weren't around.

Foxy, a/k/a Foxbat, a/k/a "Bat" (a nickname I gave her because I felt Foxy sounded too girly) is quite the escape artist. She's been known to dig her way out from under the fence to roam around the neighborhood. A few years ago, she learned she could take her nose and slide the doggie door partition up with her nose and go outside in the middle of the night when she wasn't supposed to.

She's a smart dog. Everytime we've come up with a counter measure to keep her from doing something (like sliding up the doggie door partition with her nose), she comes up with a work around. Not only does she come up with work arounds, she does it in complete darkness. Put another way, Bat is smarter than many welfare recipients. And more industrious.

So last night, Foxy decided she wanted to leave the safety of the laundry room (where she and Meg sleep at night) and go outside to do whatever. To do so, she pushed a container filled with 20 pounds of dog food, with a gallon of bleach sitting on top of it for extra weight, out of her way (again, in total darkness), lifted up the partition stop which would keep most dogs inside, and went outside for some fun.

Around 3 AM, she'd had enough apparently. I awoke to her barks at the door from which she left. Apparently Miss Smarty Pants hasn't figured out a way to keep the partition to stay up while she's out and about. Being out in the cold last night didn't appeal to her, so she barked and barked to let Daddy know he needed to get up and let her back in.

And I did just as she has trained me to do. I turned off the alarm system, opened the door, let her back in, scolded her, turned the alarm back on and went to bed.

About five minutes later as I lie in bed trying to go back to sleep, I heard my cell phone ringing. Damn fax machine calling my cell at 3 AM, I thought. It's a normal occurence, and so I didn't think much of it. I closed my eyes again and tried to go back to sleep.

After another five minutes, I noticed lights from cars driving past our house. That's not unusual, but I found it odd I didn't hear the cars....I just saw the lights.

And that was about the time all hell broke loose.

Someone was on my front porch, pounding on the front door. Meg and Foxy, hearing the commotion, went bezerk. I turned on a light, grabbed my gun, and told Kendel someone was at the front door.

I went to the front door and peeked outside, only to see two Austin Police Department officers standing on my front porch. They asked me to open the door. I told them I'd need to turn off the alarm first.

So I released the dogs, who ran into our bedroom, turned off the alarm and then shut the dogs up in the bedroom with Kendel. I went back to the front door (I'd gotten rid of my gun at this point, lest I get shot) and opened up the door.

Apparently, in the 3 AM sleepy fog I was in when I turned the alarm back on after bringing Foxbat back inside, I inadvertently set off the silent panic button function. APD showed up ready to take action. They were glad it was a false alarm and went on their way.

Some observations and lessons learned here:

• I did not know our alarm had such a function. Tonight, I will read the alarm manual cover to cover.
• We need to take my inlaws in Tennessee off the call list. I'm quite sure they were amused to get a call at 3 AM from the alarm service in San Antonio, telling them the silent panic alarm had been activated and asking if they were on their way over to our house. And that was the call I got on my cellphone - it wasn't a fax - it was the alarm people calling to ask me if everything was okay.
• The lock box in which I keep my handgun worked very well - I was able to open it quickly in a stressful situation.
• I need to keep some clothes nearby the bed. I wasn't exactly dressed for visitors at 3 AM this morning. I had to quickly grab a pair of jeans in order to answer the door without looking like some dude on Cops.
• I hid my gun from the cops' view at all times. Thank God I did. Otherwise, if they had seen me come to the door armed, it could have become very interesting, very quickly.
• If I see what I think are headlights, but don't hear any car-sounding noises, we go to battlestations from now on. Those weren't headlights, it seems. They were the police officers shining flashlights into our windows.
• I need a new way to keep Foxbat inside.

Texas Todd and Atlanta Jeff Have One Thing in Common

22 February 2009

The Story That Keeps On Giving

20 February 2009

Three Videos You Need to Watch This Weekend

19 February 2009

Did the Revolution Begin Today In Earnest?

Today had to be the best day on CNBC television. Ever.

This morning, Squawk Box guest host Wilbur Ross (who I really like) succinctly described why we got into the current economic mess better than I ever could have on my best day. He said our current economic crisis was caused by the American middle class being overleveraged - having too much debt to support their lifestyle.

It couldn't get any better than that - until Rick Santelli roused the traders at the Chicago Merc in what has become a You Tube sensation.

Watch the Santelli video. The first shot may have just been fired. Let's pray it has momentum.

Mexican Government Collapse Update

Thanks to McKinney Marty for the tip on this story. Texas state senator Dan Patrick weighed in on Glenn Beck's program recently about the state of Texas' preparedness efforts for the possibility of a collapse of the Mexican government.

Iran Continues to Play With It's Chemistry Set

18 February 2009

This Week

Sorry I have not been more active on the blog - I've been working on various things in the evenings, including my income taxes and culling through my ever growing in tray. I hope to catch up a bit in the coming days.

Another Site for You to Peruse

Check it.

The Economy

Like you, I am taking a massive hit in my portfolio, and it doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Kendel attended a breakfast meeting for her financial executives group yesterday morning; they had a speaker who is a renowned economist (so renowned his name escapes me) who predicted much of what we're going through today. He opined the stimulus plan will fail, just as a similar plan failed in Japan years ago. His money is in Treasuries and paying down debt.

We're focusing on debt elimination. We're refinancing the house to a 15 year note in the next few days, which will put us on the down hill side of the amortization schedule. Interest rates are at all time lows - I am telling my real estate clients we will never see them this low again.

In addition, I continue to work on getting in shape for the half marathon. Getting in physical shape is a preparedness task which can cost you little to nothing.

I'm encouraging people to take steps to prepare for rough times which, if the rough times never materialize, will still be of benefit to you.

15 February 2009

A Second Article on Contingency Planning for Mexico's Collapse

14 February 2009

Internet Talk Show

We had a very good conversation this evening on the basics of preparedness. I hope you were able to tune in.

Texas Government Planning for Mexican Violence?

Texas Todd shared this sobering article from Newsmax. I commented previously many federal and state officials worry about the possibility of a collapse of the Mexican government, which could have devastating effects in border communities. My heart goes out to those Mexican citizens who would be affected by this. In such a situation, we would have no winners - only chaos, violence and heartbreak.

The Anti-Joel Says Hello

Not to be out done, Anti-Joel took advantage of his wife's vacation and perused the internet for bad news. (Many men would look for porn in that situation; Anti-Joel looks for the gloomiest stories he can find). He succeeded in finding this piece of day brightening news.

11 February 2009

33 Minutes

10 February 2009

D Tox Wanted Me to Mention This

8 February 2009

Guns, Gold and Gins

David and I were on the road this week for work. We met up with his in laws. His father in law, Hoot, showed me around his place. He's a big believer in gold and guns as a viable investment in these troubling economic times. He also drove us over to a local cotton gin to show us how it worked.

I promised him I would share a few links he should bookmark:

Cheaper Than Dirt

Ammo Price List

Major Surplus And Survival

Demand for Firearm Training on the Rise

Karl at KR Training asked me to come out and help him train a class of new shooters. He reports a huge surge in demand for first time gun training, CHL classes, and of course, guns.

2 February 2009

One Passenger's Account of the US Air Crash Into the River

Atlanta Jeff hooked me up with this one. It's a great story.

31 January 2009

Gun Fun

I always enjoy hanging out at KR Training. I helped run the Defensive Long Gun class this morning. I didn't get to stay for the whole thing, since I had to fly to Woodville to pick up the rescue cats (discussed below).

One of the instructors was a Texas State Trooper. He had many students change their stance from a Weaver style stance to more of an isosceles stance. I asked him why he did that. Without going into a lot of detail, he made me a believer in the isosceles stance.

In addition, I learned:

• I need to put a laser and a flashlight on my rifle.
• I should use the magazine as a grip for my non-trigger hand. I tried it at home - by bringing in my other had closer to my body, I get much better support on the gun.
• A twelve gauge slug makes one hell of a hole in a target.

Airplane Fun

Scotty and I met at the airport and flew to Woodville to pick up the two rescue cats for their new lives in Austin. Despite some early issues with the intercom, we had a good flight. The animal rescue volunteers were the most appreciative people. The cats were great passengers, sleeping most of the way.

The grandkids of our animal rescue volunteers were curious about the plane, so I let them take a peek inside.

We've just taken off, turning back to Giddings.

This Week

I've got a lot going on this week...so blog entries will be sparse until next weekend.

29 January 2009

Facebook Is Great For Stalkers

I caved and joined the Facebook nation. If you are a fellow Facebooker, search for Paul T. Martin and you'll find me there. Little Brother quickly "wrote on my wall" (there's a whole subculture with Facebook, or "FB" as it's called, which I am learning) and started to taunt his older brother. He forgets I can still kick his ass.

I'm sure hundreds of people I know are now going to search for me on Facebook. Not.

The Founder of The Weather Channel Says....

Global warming is a hoax. The tide is beginning to turn, friends. We will find out by the time Obama leaves office (four to eight years, take your pick) we were being duped.

This Weekend

Saturday is quite busy. I am helping Karl Rehn out at KR Training with the Defensive Long Gun class he runs every January. I enjoy helping people learn how to use guns safely and effectively. As the economy continues to suffer, we can count on crime rates going up. Being able to defend our families from harm is our duty.

Later that afternoon, Scottie is meeting me at the hangar and we're flying to Woodville, Texas to pick up two cats recently rescued by a humane association and flying/driving them back to Austin to their new home.

On Sunday I will be taking it easy. I doubt I will watch the Super Bowl. Pick the Steelers to cover, by the way.

27 January 2009

Watch This Four Minute Video

This video does an outstanding job of showing you how screwed we are financially as a nation. And you thought the bankers on Wall Street know what they're doing. Anti-Joel down in Houston will love this one.

A Survival Podcast

I'd like to welcome Texas Todd (who now lives in Maryland) as a regular reader to the site. He sent me this link for a daily survival podcast. I'm listening to it as I blog this evening.

26 January 2009

Required Reading

A link from Jim Rawles' site. No comment needed. If you read one link this week from anybody, this is the one.

Good Reading from The University of Georgia

UGA is the second best university in the SEC. I found it interesting a major university spent its research dollars putting together this well thought-out survival food plan for emergency use. Atlanta Jeff can take some solace not all of his state tax dollars were spent in vain.

24 January 2009

Re-provisioning On The Road

I spent three days and two nights in El Paso with a couple of co-workers, David and Gina. We were out there to teach classes to 25 or so employees.

My secretary, Valerie, rocks. She always books us at the same Residence Inn, so we all get kitchenettes. Not that we use the kitchenettes for cooking, but it's nice to have a means to store and prepare food for a few days in the event of civil unrest while we're on the road.

God forbid we get hit with an EMP burst - in many respects, my worst case scenario - which would cripple electronics over gargantuan amounts of the U.S., rendering most electrical devices and systems useless. Exposed to an EMP attack, a modern vehicle's electronic chips would be fried, making most of the cars on the road inoperable. If you aren't concerned about EMP, or have no idea what I'm talking about, go read this right away.

If we'd been hit with some form of event while we were out there - EMP, NBC attack, whatever - how would we get back to Austin, some 600 miles away without a car or air travel? On foot, of course. And so began my efforts to start figuring out what we would need, where'd we get it, and how we'd travel home.

On foot, if we covered 30 miles a day, it would take us three weeks to get home. So we'd need to be able to carry a pack with us of some sort to carry what little food and water we'd be able to take over the West Texas desert (this is sounding scary already) back to Austin. Of course, this assumes an EMP burst which affects the El Paso area. Otherwise, we're taking our borrowed company car, throwing our luggage in it, and driving non stop until we get back home.

I decided that on future trips, I need to take some sort of small backpack with me, if for no other reason to carry my laptop and related office gear. In a bug out situation, I'd pull the hard drive out and put it in my backpack, reprovision the best I could, then hit the road.

So where would I get my provisions? I got out on foot one night to get some exercise and to find what resources are nearby the hotel.

Jackpot.

Within less than half a mile of our hotel, I found a Sam's Club, a Costco, a Super Target, and a really, really good survival tools shop. I still need to track down the nearest Academy for sporting goods.

Of course, we won't be able to buy things from these stores if EMP fries all of our circuits. In that case, whatever food and supplies we can scrounge from the hotel will be what we have for the trek home. So I need to start thinking about taking some basic supplies in my luggage when I travel now (as if my suitcase isn't full enough).

One risk indigenous to El Paso might be the potential collapse of the Mexican government. I mentioned this possibility a few days ago. El Paso is located on the Texas/Mexican border, in the westernmost part of Texas, where Texas, Mexico and New Mexico all come together. In the event of a Mexican governmental collapse, I suspect we could see a massive wave of immigration from Mexico in a matter of hours to a point our law enforcement and border patrol assets would be completely overwhelmed. And if you're in El Paso when it happens, you would definitely be at Ground Zero. The masses of people in Juarez (the Mexican town directly across the border from El Paso), tired of years of violence, corruption and economic depression, would have nothing to lose by trying to come over to the U.S. And I don't blame them - I would too. In such of an event, El Paso would be in chaos. We would need to be able to get to the airport or back on the road very quickly.

I will keep you posted on my thoughts on how I will manage these risks.

A Fair Criticism of Bush

Seven State Johnny provided this fantasic link from the Wall Street Journal, critiquing President Bush. Regardless of what you think of his handling of the Iraq war, it's hard to rebut the criticisms outlined in this article. The author, Nick Gillespie, is editor in chief of reason.com, a Libertarian publication I read fairly regularly.

My Lettuce Project

When my parents were here for Thanksgiving, we planted a couple of patches of lettuce. Here's a picture of how much they've grown:

The picture is rather small - taken from my cell phone. I'd say the plants are about three to four inches tall. They are too small to eat right now and are growing slowly. However, it's proof you can grow veggies in Texas in winter. If only my back yard got more sunlight.....

22 January 2009

A Quick Note

I've been out in El Paso for the last three days. I have some observations from the trip I want to share with you; I'll do it this weekend.

Dick Morris on Capitalism

Atlanta Jeff and I both read this column by Morris and found it quite disturbing.

17 January 2009

That Guy Who Put The Plane In the River Without Getting Anyone Killed

I'm not going to say a lot about this, since much has already been said. Captain C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger's training and refusal to quit flying the airplane saved a lot of lives. Never stop training. Never give up.

Storable Food Expo

Kendel and I hooked up with one of my homies from the Alpha Rubicon and his family this evening. We went to the Storable Food Expo held at a local bookstore.

It was fairly lame. They were selling freeze dried foods you can get at REI and heirloom seeds. You can check out their website if you want to learn more; you will get to hear a personal message from Red Stegall if you do.

I often wonder if businesses who cater to the preparedness movement stay in business with any frequency.

Add This To Your List of "What Else Could Possibly Go Wrong?"

In the event this actually happens, prepare for people to stream across the border into the U.S. at rates we could never have conceived.

Crack House Simulator

Next weekend, we will have a bunch of fifth grade girls over for a slumber party, celebrating Tox's eleventh birthday.

Imagine a bunch of kids all jacked up on sugar, playing Rock Band on the Wii, squealing, yelling, and jumping off of things. I figured this is similar to a crack house. I suspect it's It's a long night to say the least.

This year, we will implement some timeframes. At 11:30, the girls will be told they should prepare to go to bed. At midnight, I will issue the "All Quiet" command, which means they may talk and watch TV quietly, but will be prohibited from making noise.

We'll see how it goes.

The Funniest Thing I've Seen In A While

You know those annoying Capital One credit card commercials which pitch the "design your own credit card feature?" One creative citizen and frequent reader of The Smoking Gun used a great mugshot of Nick Nolte for his card:

14 January 2009

Report on the Green Corn Project

I failed to mention my Saturday morning trip to East Austin to attend the Green Corn Project workshop. We learned to start vegetable plants from seeds. My team planted cherry tomatoes. We report back at the end of the month to transfer them from their sprouting trays into pots.

I learned from Peaknik Bret (a "peaknik" is slang for those subscribing to the Peak Oil Theory, which states we have used more than half of all of the crude oil on the planet already and thus will experience radical societal change in the coming years as a result) a local organic gardening supply business will send someone out to your house for $50 or so and tell you exactly what you need to do to get started in gardening, tailored to your back yard. I am seriously considering it - $50 will help me get through a huge part of the learning curve quickly.

The Latest from Anti-Joel

Clifford (aka "The Anti-Joel") sent me a great article from the Wall Street Journal. I've heard a lot about Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged lately. This article describes the book in great detail - and it's alarming how Rand's work of fiction decades ago became reality. Please read the article linked. It's astonishing.

Best wishes to Clifford and Martha's son, Colt, who recently became engaged.

Market Mess

Let's see - I own a few shares of Saytam, which we learned this week is the Indian version of Enron. On Monday, the shares fell over 93% from my original purchase price. I also own Apple, headed by the sometimes ailing/sometimes aloof/always perplexing Steve Jobs. My Apple position has fallen about 50% in value in the last few months. I wish I could say these are my only losses.

I don't know if I am just being Pollyanna, but many economists still believe we will begin to see a recovery in early Q3 2009. I hope they're right.

In the interim, I'm like many of you - curtailing expenses, refinancing mortgages ( we will never see rates this low in my lifetime again) and doing my best to think long term.

Should you own gold right now? I must admit there's a lot about owning gold as a part of a survival plan I don't understand. For example, if I own an ounce of gold, worth several hundred dollars, how do I exchange it for something of far less value? And if I am supposed to use gold coins which have less value due to other metals in them, how would you exchange it for other goods and services if others in the community don't know how to value the coin?

11 January 2009

What to Wear in Cold Climates

Even the liberals at National Public Radio are curious how to survive cold weather climates.

Survival Food Expo in Austin Next Weekend

Date night next weekend will take on a survival twist. A local alternative bookstore will be holding a "Storable Food Expo" next Saturday and Sunday. Kendel says we can go and then get dinner afterwards. If any of you are interested in a group outing, let me know.

What I Am Doing Right Now

I'm doing some winter cleaning/culling/organizing. Today I went through a fair amount of my meds and got them organized/consolidated. I'd like to get the attic cleaned out as well. In Texas, we only have a few months a year where you can stand to be in your attic. By doing so, it will free up some space to store non-food items.

In addition, Kendel and I are training for our first half marathon. We're going to walk it, rather than run or jog. Being prepared means being in good physical shape.

05 January 2009

A Disappointing Experience with Coleman

Coleman makes a tremendous amount of camping and outdoor gear. Years ago, I got a Coleman cordless spotlight. It's rechargable and puts out a lot of light.

It comes with a 110 V cord you use to recharge it. Like most of you, I have tons of these type of cords lying around. I carefully labeled the box the cord came in to remind me what it was for.

Two home moves later, I can't find the cord. So I emailed Coleman asking them I how go about getting a replacement cord.

I got my email reply today. Apparently Coleman contracted out a large amount of their manufacturing and customer support to another company, which - you guessed it - is bankrupt. Replacement parts aren't available, according to the email. And I haven't found any on eBay, either.

If you buy Coleman stuff, be wary.

04 January 2009

"We have developed a sense of pandemic-preparedness fatigue."

Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, commented on two recent H5N1 reports. "What alarms me is that we have developed a sense of pandemic-preparedness fatigue," he said.

Many experts and government officials recognize Osterholm as one of the best. In fact, Oprah had him on her show a few years back talking about bird flu.

Stay vigilant.

01 January 2009

Happy New Year!

The Gator

My dad had knee surgery a couple of weeks ago, and so my mother decided he needed some way to ride around the farm without having to get into a truck or tractor. She called me mid November to discuss what kind of four wheeler she should get him.

I researched it and decided the John Deere Gator would be the best fit for his needs. It arrived on Dec. 22nd. Despite frigid temps, he and I got on it and rode around the farm, checking on his cows.

It's a lot of fun to ride. I suspect they will both continue to find uses for it. Mom is already planning on using it to check her trail of bluebird houses on the farm this summer.

The Trip Home

Rather than fly commercial, I took my plane to Tennessee. By removing the back seats, I could haul a fair amount of presents and luggage. A couple of random thoughts about the flights there and back:

• I need to make a better survival kit for my plane. What I have right now is too basic. I need to be prepared for any weather condition and to fend for myself for at least three days. Preston Westmoreland is an expert in this field, and I have a couple of his videos. If you read the bio, you'll see he's "one of us."
• Could the three of us and the two small dogs bug out to Tennessee in the airplane if we had to? Only if we went with the clothes on our backs. It would be a long ride but we could do it, provided we could stop for fuel along the way.

Garden Training on January 10

Previously, I blogged about the Green Corn Project in Austin. I'm signed up for their training on 10 and 31 January. I hope to learn a lot about backyard gardening.

Upcoming Projects for January

I think the biggest priority we have - even more important than stocking up on food stores - is creating room to do so. Now that it's cool enough to work in the attic comfortably, I hope to de-clutter the attic in January. While I won't be able to store food in the attic, I can store non-food consumables (toilet paper, for example) as well as make room for things I will move from climate controlled areas of the house so may store edibles in those places instead.

29 December 2008

Get Ready to TiVo

Homeland Security reality TV comes to America in January. Get ready.

This Week

20 December 2008

A Report from Ethiopia

A colleague of mine serves in the Army reserves. She's in Ethiopia for the next year, teaching their army officers some sort of military stuff. Debbie agreed to send periodic reports of her stay in Ethiopia. Here's the first installment:

Notes from Addis Ababa
LTC Debra Summerlin
Instructor, Ethiopian Defense Command and Staff College

Dec 12, 2008

"71 and 53" - That is the forecasted temperature today. That was the
forecasted temperature yesterday. That will be the forecasted
temperature next week and next month. Despite it's proximity to the
equator, Addis Ababa's high altitude (8000 ft and no snow?) ensures a
temperate, moderate, even somewhat chilly climate. I'm in short sleeves
mostly, but Africans, especially those visiting from the hot zones, are
often in winter coats. There are two rainy seasons, a short one from
late January to early March and the longer, heavier one which lasts from
June until Mid-September.

Driving - The folks we are replacing call it "playing chicken". Near
misses is the name of the game. Cars, trucks, Toyota SUV's by the
boatload, people by the thousand, dogs, donkeys, cattle, and goats all
share the same space we think of as a road. There are unwritten rules,
such as don't stop at a stop sign or stoplight unless there is a
policeman standing in the intersection. Horns are used all the
time...not in anger but to let the other driver know you are there. The
lines in the roads are just suggestions. Here if you hit a pedestrian
then you are at fault no matter what. So you are responsible for their
medical bills...of course medical care is not really expensive (you get
what you pay for). Needless to say I will not be getting a driver's
license. I will continue to rely on my driver Allumoo. I have found
that my break on the passenger side of the car does not work but he
seems to know how to drive here. Near misses only count in hand
grenades and heart attacks.

Diesel Fumes - How long can you hold your breath? I'm getting better at
it. I have a 10-15 minute ride to work each morning. I can almost hold
my breath the whole way. Ever had a diesel fume headache? Why do the
buses and trucks here all have exhaust pipes that shoot fumes sideways
directly at the window level of the cars next to them? We think the
US contributes to global warming or the depletion of the ozone? Come to
a third world country where there are no emissions control laws.

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro - That's what we call it when we climb the 3
or 4 stories of the office building where our school is and where we
hang our hats each day. Somewhere between the third and fourth floor
there has to be a different layer of thinner air because we start to
sweat and breathe hard right about there. You can't hide it. I have
started to work out here and am running every day but doesn't seem to
help with those stairs. Maybe once you hit 8001 feet in altitude?

Mobilized - Here comes some Army speak, so be prepared for a new
language. I was mobilized as a an instructor, assigned to the staff at
3rd Army/ARCENT Headquarters. ARCENT is the headquarters element that
serves as the Coalition Land Forces Component Command (CFLCC). In Army
speak that means that they are the headquarters that directed the two
corps-sized formations involved in the initial invasion of Iraq in
March, 2003 (US V Corps and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force). CFLCC
remains in charge of logistics for all land forces in theater, and is
the headquarters for the US Army Central Command, managing Army service
component issues in the CENTCOM theatre. The CENTCOM theatre until 1
October 2008 stretched from East Africa to the Middle East and Central
Asia. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are in the CENTCOM area of operations.

As of October 1, 2008 Africa Command (AFRICOM) was stood up and they now
have assumed responsibility for US military programs in Africa. So they
are paying for the four of us to be here but because they are so new
ARCENT(CENTCOM) is handling all the paper work. At some point during
this year we believe AFRICOM will take control of us.

To put this in historical perspective, ARCENT is also the Third US Army,
the same unit that George S. Patton commanded during WWII. Its Forward
Headquarters is now at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, with Primary Third
Army/ARCENT headquarters at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia.
AFRICOM's headquarters is in Stuttgart Germany.

One of the taskers in 2007 for ARCENT from CENTCOM was to provide two US
Army instructor qualified officers to assist the Ethiopian Defense
Forces (EDF) as they started a new officer training school for
Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels called the Ethiopian Defense Command
and Staff College (EDCSC), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This year the
program has expanded it now includes an advanced course similar to War
College for Colonels and Generals. I will be teaching the advanced
course along with another instructor. We now have five US instructors
for the program.

Living in a Hotel Room - Now here I am, staying in a Hilton Hotel in
Addis Ababa. It is sanctuary from the difficult living environment of
Addis. The staff is wonderful and the food is safe (kind of). But have
you ever even thought of living in a hotel room for more than a few
days? The walls do tend to close in on you. You don't go home for the
weekend. It is amazing how many people come inside your room during
the course of a day, and usually it is just as you are entering the
shower, taking a much needed power nap or entering the bathroom for your
daily constitutional. There is the cleaning staff, which is followed
later by the person who handles the vacuum, and then by the man who
brings condiments and water for the Hilton Honors members. Then of
course there are the others who come occasionally to clean the drapes,
check the serial number on the TV, bring the laundry or whatever. It is
a regular revolving door.

Prior to this assignment, whenever I have been deployed with the Army it
has been as a member of a unit of people. You can find comfort in
numbers. The battalion or brigade members are your family. There is
security in numbers. Here in Addis there are four Army officers and one
Air Force officer outside the small staff at the US Embassy. It's just
us five. Imagine being virtually alone in a city, in a country, in a
continent full of people who look different than you, who have a
different culture than you and who speak a different language than you.

The Job - Think about your college. Think of the college curriculum for
your area of study. Think of the syllabus for the program. Think of
the vision and mission statements and the list of objectives for the
program. Think of the selection of each of the courses that went into
the make-up of the curriculum. Think of visualizing and describing all
of the classes that made up all of those classes. Think of the complete
writing and development of all of the classes that went into making the
program. Think of the staff of PhD's that it took to make write the
classes and develop the complete program, the whole curriculum. Now
think of trying to do all of that with a staff of five instructors, in a
foreign country, for a group of students and staff who barely speak or
understand your language. Then think of instructing those students.
That is our job here at the Ethiopian Command and Staff College. You
gotta love it to do it.

Happy Holidays

The holidays will keep us busy....look for more updates to the blog next week. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

16 December 2008

How Long Can You Stare At This Picture?

While I don't believe humans are causing global warming, I do think we have a tremendous responsibility to be good stewards of God's creation. And so it warms my heart to hear stories of new species being discovered.

They found this bad boy in the Mekong River region in Laos. I can only look at the picture for about three seconds before my blood runs cold and I have to close the browser. I know it's just a picture, but the photographer did an outstanding job capturing the animal's intimidating presence:

Dick Morris Weighs in on The Impact of Falling Oil Prices

Thanks to Atlanta Jeff for sharing this:

THE IMPENDING COLLAPSE OF OUR ENEMIES

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Published on DickMorris.com on December 15, 2008

Printer-Friendly Version

The Depression -- let’s call it what it is -- leaves us, well, depressed.  But there is very good news from around the world.  Our enemies are collapsing under the strain of dropping oil and gas prices.  What we had all hoped conservation and off-shore drilling would achieve, the global economic collapse is accomplishing: the defeat of OPEC, Iran, Chavez, Putin and the weakening of the financial underpinnings of Islamist terrorism.  In each of these nations, the hold of the dictator is weakening as, one after the other, they face the consequences of dropping oil prices.

The question for Ahmadinejad and for the Ayatollah who stands behind him is: Can their regime survive economic collapse?  Unable to buy social peace by handouts and subsidies, will the top blow off an country that hates the regime, is predominantly very young, and is only 40% Farci?

Chavez, in Venezuela is not in any better shape.  Because of corruption and incompetence, Venezuelan oil production has dropped from over 3 million barrels per day when Chavez took over to about 1.7 million today.  As long as oil prices were quadrupling, it didn’t matter, but when they crashed, a harsh wind of reality blew in the door.  Chavez was losing popularity before the oil price dropped.  He lost a constitutional referendum to give himself lifetime tenure and he just lost his municipal elections in the largest cities and states in the nation.  After knocking out most of the major opposition candidates on phony charges of corruption, he managed to hang on to the governorships of the small, rural provinces, but he lost the cities – even the poor areas of the cities vote d against him.
         
Now, beset already by food shortages and galloping inflation, Venezuela has to make do with less subsidization and drastic cuts.  Feeling cold times ahead, Chavez is desperately pressing ahead with a new attempt to abolish term limits in a vote set for the end of February, but, if he falls short – which we think he will – he could be out in a matter of months.
       
Chavez’ client-states -- Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia –- have to face life without subsidies.  Evo Morales, the head of Bolivia who got elected pledging to allow cocoa cultivation again, already faces a virtual civil war as the energy-rich half of his country wants autonomy and, possibly, independence.  Argentina, whose corrupt regime has held onto power by massive borrowing from Chavez, must now seek sustenance from the global markets, only recently burned by its default on its foreign debt.  Fat chance.
         
Putin’s Russia, which so recently threw its weight around by invading Georgia, faces perhaps the biggest hit of all to its economy.  Producing 10 million barrels per day, Russia will be hit the hardest by the collapse of prices.  (Again, do the math:  Assume Russia budgeted at $60 oil prices and the price drops to $40.  $20/barrel x 10 million barrels per day x 365 = a $73 billion annual shortfall).  With a GDP of only about $1.4 trillion, Russia faces the loss of about 5% of its economy.  And Russian oil production has dropped by one million barrels per day for each of the past two years.  With prices at rock bottom and nationalization an ever-present threat, who is going to invest in increasing Russian production? 
          
And what of OPEC and the economic base of the Islamist terrorists?  Countries like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait will be OK because they have small populations among whom to divide their oil earnings.  Saudi Arabia will make it because of its massive production and relatively small population.  But every other OPEC nation has a large population where the ruler, usually a dictator, buys social peace with oil money.  The pressure to stay in power will be so intense that these leaders will force production as high as they can to offset the shortfall.  The result is that there will be constant deflationary pressure on oil prices, a vicious cycle that will impoverish all the right people.

15 December 2008

$160 A Cord, Delivered. Or Not.

A neighbor called Saturday to say he was getting a quarter of a cord of wood delivered for $40. He wanted to know if I wanted the other half, and I said "sure."

Dude was supposed to show yesterday, but no such luck. Turns out his truck broke down and asked if he could deliver today. My neighbor and I said "sure." Again.

You guessed it - no show, no call to explain why. Oh well.

One of the things I want us to work on is stocking up on alternative energy sources - such as firewood - in case the power goes out. I need to get on the stick on stocking up on more wood.

Oil Change DIY Training

I'm not mechanically inclined in the least. But I do know how to change oil in my lawn mower. So when it came time to change oil in my airplane today, I took notes and asked lots of questions of my mechanic, hoping I can do it myself next time.

It's a messy process, but I think I can manage it. I will likely have him check my handiwork when I decide to try it on my own.

Aside from saving money, you learn a lot of things. For example, I learned you can put mineral spirits on oil spots on your garage floor to help remove them. I also learned a lot about safety wire, fuel line inspection, and keeping engines warm during the winter months.

Batt Check

We're under a Winter Weather Advisory here in Austin tonight. I must admit I got behind on this one. Kendel called me on my way back into town from the hangar to tell me we may have some winter weather tonight. I'd been listening to the local AM news station all morning and afternoon, but they never mentioned it.

So I pulled out one of the weather radios I keep in the car and turned it on to hear the latest. You guessed it.....the battery was dead. Even worse, when I got home to replace it, I found the battery had started to corrode.

I attribute my lack of attention to this to the fact a) I live so close to work now and thus don't worry about getting home or stuck in traffic, and b) the lack of severe weather here in Central Texas over the last year or so.

Don't be like Paul - check the batteries in your critical devices now.

14 December 2008

233

I'm pleased to report my wife shot a 233 on the CHL shooting test, well qualifying her for her license. We'll get her official very soon.

12 December 2008

Bird Flu's Back?

I briefly had a post for today up on the blog saying nothing was happening, only then to see this article about a bird flu issue in India.

Is bird flu an issue? We haven't heard much about it lately. Bear in mind we're to expect a major pandemic every 100 years. It's not a matter of if, but when.

9 December 2008

And Then They Went Negative

Today, the U.S. T-bill yield fell below zero. Put another way, professional investors were willing to buy something like a bank CD for negative interest. Imangine purchasing a CD for $1,000, and getting something less than $1,000 when it matures.

This has never happened. Ever.

Why is this happening? As the article linked above discusses, people are so desperate for a safe place to park their money, they are willing to lose a bit of it to have security.

I'm not sure what to make of this. I do remain optimistic our economy will begin recovering in 2009. How much more pain we must endure remains a big question.

I had lunch yesterday with my friend Amit, a lawyer turned financial advisor. I felt better about my financial decisions after talking to him.

Setting Goals for 2009

In the past, I've shared with you - usually in December - my survival and preparedness goals for the upcoming year. I tend to be too optimistic in my goals, so this year I want to be mindful of that.

I'm working on my 2009 goals. What do you hope to do to be better prepared next year?

"Paul's Nut Job and Wacko Discussion of the Coming Apocalypse"

Next week, I will provide my annual talk to various people at my company on upcoming threats for the next year. My co-worker David shared this name for the calendar entry for the meeting.

I will post my notes from that meeting next week.

7 December 2008

Advent and Pearl Harbor

Dr. Dan gave us an excellent talk this morning in Sunday School on Advent, at times comparing some of the concepts with Pearl Harbor. To be sure, the two don't go together at first blush, but he found some common ground between the two.

My Lettuce is Sprouting

I mentioned last Sunday Mom and Dad helped me plant some lettuce. The lettuce in the large bed next to the house isn't coming up, but the lettuce we put in a large flower pot started coming up late last week. I will post pictures in the coming days.

4 December 2008

The D Tox Report

My stepdaughter regularly clamors for her own website. Rather than turn her loose on Facebook or some other predator-rich environment, I told her she could set up her own page on my site.

You may have noticed the link to her "D Tox Report" ("D Tox" is a nickname I gave her when I first started dating her mom) on the home page. She's going to blog about girl stuff. Please don't email me asking what she's talking about, since it's likely I will not understand it myself.

The Armchair Survivalist

Check out this site. Apparently he has his own radio show on short wave radio on 5.070 MHz. In fact, I'm listening to another survivalist show on the same frequency - via the internet. It's great entertainment. To listen on line, click here, then choose "32k Live Streams" for Network 3.

What To Do While Traveling

My co-worker David, in response to the attacks in Mumbai (BTW - it changed its name from Bombay in 1995 - just in case you were wondering), asked me for some best practices in the event we're facing a terrorist attack while on the road.

In our jobs, we travel around Texas a lot. I am regularly in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio, and Lubbock. If we were hit with an EMP burst while I am in El Paso or Lubbock - each a 12 and 8 hour car ride, respectively - getting home with no car or airline service will be daunting to say the least. I am still trying to figure out how I would go about doing this.

Say it's not an EMP, but just a garden variety Mumbai-style attack. What then? I'm re-reading a book on the subject and hope to post my thoughts and suggestions to this pressing question in the coming days.

Am I Worried Too Much About Something Like That Happening?

Clifford thinks not. Always Johnny-on-the-spot with gloomy information (to the point I've decided his new name on the blog is "Anti-Joel," the antithesis of the ever-positive Houston pastor Joel Osteen), he sent me this story on Tuesday entitled, "Nuclear or Bioterror Attack on U.S. Likely by 2013, Panel Warns." It's a sobering account of what non-preparedness type people in the government say about our terrorism forecast.

The black helicopter folks will say such articles are designed to scare us, in order to coax us into giving up our Constitutional rights in the name of security. I think that's flawed for a number of reasons (although I don't disagree our rights and sovereignty are being eroded). Rather, we need only to look at the surging Russian nationalism and western hemispheric alliances, China's geometrically growing military build up, and Iran's little science project to realize the world is fast becoming a shooting gallery.

I should point out Anti-Joel's impeccable timing in providing this article worked well for me. I was in Dallas Tuesday morning speaking at a business continuity conference for my company to a group of people who were less than motivated about being saddled with business continuity responsibilities. Starting off with a word or two about the article helped me set the tone for the rest of my presentation.

Not to be without solutions, he suggested this report as a start to understanding the risk we face and providing suggestions on how we should proceed.

30 November 2008

Workplace Violence Memo

Mormon Pantry

The Mormon church continues to take care of their own in hard times. Known for their strong preparedness mind set and strict tithing culture, one Mormon food bank ensures their membership won't suffer in times of need.

Many criticize the Mormon church for its emphasis on Mormon-only aid programs. However, many critics fail to realize Mormons use their tithes in part as a social insurance plan. You become a member, you pay your tithes, and so when something bad happens and you need assistance, the church provides you with the necessary resources.

While I have issues with Mormon doctrine, I'm fascinated with their discipline and preparedness mentality. I suspect if the government tried to run a food bank like the one described in the article, it would cost three times as much and be a fifth as effective.

29 November 2008

An Eventful Weekend

Lots going on here and abroad this weekend, so let's get to it.

Trip to the Ranch

My parents came to town for the holiday weekend. On Thursday, Dad and I went to the ranch to take a soil sample. I'll be sending the sample off to Texas A&M (who got stomped by Texas on Thanksgiving) for a full blown soil analysis. While we were there, we test fired some new ammo. Here's Dad with the AR, re-living his Vietnam experience:

Lettuce Planting

My parents love to garden. I didn't particularly enjoy working in the garden as a kid, probably because all I was ever allowed to do in the garden was to pull the weeds.

So today, before they left, Mom and Dad helped me plant some lettuce in two spots in the yard. Dad re-worked the bed I used this spring to plant various things (where I had no luck growing anything) by improving the soil. We're concerned the bed won't get enough sun, so for the second spot, we took a very large flower pot and placed it in the middle of the yard. I will work on both and update you on our progress.

This Mess in India

India joined the "9/11" Club a few days ago with its own massive terrorist attack. I'm sure you've read the articles and watched CNN between meals this weekend. Atlanta Jeff succinctly noted, "I think that the lessons are to stay aware of your circumstances, find some way to communicate, and be ready to move when the time is right."

His thoughts serve as a great reminder when we travel, especially abroad. We'll likely see more of this sort of thing the next twelve months, as third world thugs, Russian surrogates, and terrorist gang bangers test the new Obama administration. As such, we need to be more alert and ready to move when it all goes to hell around us.

This Mess In America

Again, thanks to Atlanta Jeff for sharing this well-written piece by Dick Morris on the death of free markets. I realize articles on financial crisis permeate our news cycles. However, this one should be required reading.

If Morris is correct, it seems to lend credibility to those like Andy Gause who advocate buying assets which appreciate on credit, using future dollars (worth far less due to inflation) to pay back the debt. While I don't subscribe to this strategy for a host of reasons, the threat of inflation should make us mindful we will be paying back our mortgages with cheaper dollars than the ones we're using to make payments with right now.

Speaking of Financial Matters

I am re-reading Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" book. I read it for the first time over the summer. I know many don't like him because he's a Christian, and all Christians are idiots and intolerant and hypocrites and (insert other negative stereotypes here). However, I find his advice, for the most part, quite sound. And he's dead on right when he laments about our hyper -consumerism, overuse and abuse of credit, and the ailments which come with it.

I also find it interesting men who wrote the bible thousands of years ago had such insight into money, credit, work ethic, and human behavior for that matter. It seems the problems of today were foreseen long before any of us were around.

But Since No One's Going to Stop Buying on Credit...

You people need to quit being so tight with your money - go out there and stimulate our economy! Preliminary data from Black Friday shows we're ahead of last year's Black Friday, but not by much. The CNBC article says the three percent increase over last year's Black Friday fell far short of the 8.7% increase from the year before that. However, I am simply pleased in this age of financial Armageddon we're still selling more stuff than we did last year.

Good work, America! Now get back into the stores and buy more stuff!

25 November 2008

The Un-U.S. of A?

I ran across Drudge's headline story this morning; both Atlanta Jeff and Seven State Johnny sent it to me as well. I give the odds the U.S. will break up very slim to none. But it's interesting to think about. Plus, it's good to know what other global powers think about us.

One Nuke

I listened to Neal Boortz this afternoon, and he referenced a story in the Wall Street Journal about what one nuclear weapon could do to the U.S. We need to wake up to the risks we face in this area. I'm disheartened President-elect Obama says he will end all "unproven" missile defense system funding.

Errata

Cliff caught my mathematical mistake on calculating sugar costs and storage space requirements. Those numbers have been revised.

The Next Few Days

23 November 2008

Earthquake's a Coming

I found this over on Jim Rawles' blog. A large fault, called the New Madrid Fault, runs along the Mississippi River through Arkansas and Missouri. Many experts believe this fault will generate an earthquake akin in size to the 1811 - 1812 earthquakes. These quakes reportedly cracked sidewalks in Washington, D.C. and rang church bells in Boston.

How would a quake in the area affect places like Memphis? Below is a graphic comparing a quake the same magnitude of the Los Angeles quake of 1994:

Here's the scary part - the earthquake in 1812 was an 8+ on the Richter scale. The graphic above shows the areas impacted by a 6.8 quake. Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati would all feel a tremendous blow from a big quake. In such an event, Katrina would look like a minor inconvenience. Think about all of those bridges crossing the Mississippi River in Tennessee, Illinois and Missouri which would likely be destroyed. Shipping goods across the country to the affected areas would be almost insurmountable.

But rest assured - Obama's FEMA will surely be able to handle it.

The Dumbing Down of Weather Forecasts

This evening, Kendel and I were watching the local evening news. The weather guy came on and put on all of his cutesy graphics, with a little sun and cloud on each day to let us know what to expect this week.

It took me back to a conversation I had with Dad about a year ago. Back in the old days, weather people gave you data, rather than dumbed down graphics. I can remember watching Bill Hall, the weatherman on WSMV in Nashville, as a kid. He provided barometric pressure, humidity, as well as wind direction and speed. Today, you're lucky to get anything beyond temperature.

I suspect it's a sign of the times. As we have fewer farmers in our economy, fewer people have a real need for meaningful weather data. And for those of us who do, weather radio and the Internet provide it for us. Just don't go looking for it during your six o'clock news.

22 November 2008

The Green Corn Project

It doesn't take much to get a survivalist excited. This certainly did it for me.

I was reading our local newspaper this evening and came across an article about the Green Corn Project. As you can tell from the link, this Project helps people in "underserved" Austin neighborhoods grow their own food. Fortunately, those of us who live in "overtaxed" neighborhoods can still receive training on how to do this through the organization.

And they aren't bashful about telling you what to expect:

In only 100 square feet and in less than 20 minutes each day, a person can grow enough vegetables and soft fruits in our climate to meet the needs of one adult throughout the year. For a family, this amount of fresh food can mean increased nutrition and other benefits that a healthy diet provides. As people gain knowledge through growing biointensively, they can expand their growing area to include grains, root crops (such as potatoes), and food for market.

If that's true, sign me up now.

This proves what I've been saying for years - the survivalist movement and the environmentalist movement have grown unexpectedly closer over the last ten years. When survivalists are talking about "sustainable living from the land" while environmentalists talk of "supporting yourself in uncertain times," we witness an alliance forming no one could have foreseen some twenty years ago.

A Cheerful Article To Start Your Week

Clifford always knows how to make us feel better. He came across this article, which starts with the sentence:

The next two decades will see a world living with the daily threat of nuclear war, environmental catastrophe and the decline of America as the dominant global power, according to a frighteningly bleak assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.

When I read stuff like this, I sometimes ask myself, "Why do I bother to contribute to a 401K or try to take care of my health? It apparently won't matter in the long run."

But I know better. And so do you.

For example, I read an article recently in Time magazine, sounding the alarm for environmental apocalypse. It said the effects of "[environmental changes]could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic." Time further went on to warn

Even if temperature and rainfall patterns change only slightly in the near future in one or more of the three major grain-exporting countries—the U.S., Canada and Australia —global food stores would be sharply reduced. University of Toronto Climatologist Kenneth Hare, a former president of the Royal Meteorological Society, believes that the continuing drought and the recent failure of the Russian harvest gave the world a grim premonition of what might happen. Warns Hare: "I don't believe that the world's present population is sustainable if there are more than three years like 1972 in a row."

That reference to 1972 isn't a typo. Time published the article in 1974.....warning America of - you guessed it - global cooling. The article, titled "Another Ice Age?" fretted over man's impact over the environment and how it's causing global cooling:

Man, too, may be somewhat responsible for the cooling trend. The University of Wisconsin's Reid A. Bryson and other climatologists suggest that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the earth.

Two things I'd like to point out here. First, notice how you can interchange "warming" for "cooling" in the article and have it sound like what we hear and read today about environmental change. The governmental agencies and academics who cannot tell us where a hurricane will be in 48 hours with any certainty want us to believe they can tell us the average temperature thirty years from now. Please.

Second, and more on point, we've had people writing articles for decades telling us how crappy life is going to be in fifteen to thirty years. Guess what? Our standards of living continue to improve. That's not to say the world moves towards perfection, but it does move towards bringing innovations to the market and thus to the world - innovations which save lives and improve our standard of living.

And so while I don't think we're facing a doomsday scenario, I continue to blog about preparedness. I do so because I don't think it's the government's role to take care of us, and because we are far less self sufficient than we were a 100 years ago.

For those of you who are people of faith, remember one thing - everything is in God's hands. We need not fret over tomorrow. We simply need to be prepared as best we can, and trust God will carry out his will in such a way we will understand.

NOAA vs. Wooly Worms

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its 90 day winter weather outlook on Thursday. Jeff Masters over at Weather Underground breaks down the forecast and its accuracy in past years.

20 November 2008

Update on Wooly Worm Readings and Squirrels

I mentioned this back on 26 October - Dad believes wooly worms (also called "woolley bear worms") provide us with an accurate winter forecast. Jeff Masters over at Weather Underground blogged about this today.

I emailed this story to him. He reports he's only seen one worm this fall, not enough to draw a conclusion on the upcoming winter. I asked him about the large number of squirrels I've seen this fall and their hard work at planting nuts. He said he's always heard it was a sign of a cold winter. We'll see.

Testing Ammo

At an election night party, a neighbor lamented about the Obama presidency, and how it will affect our God given, Constitutionally endorsed Second Amendment rights. He planned to go home that evening and buy ammo in bulk. I told him, "if you're buying .223, double your order and I will take half of it."

So the ammo came in this week. I need to take it to the range and test it out, hopefully this weekend.

This Weekend

Speaking of this weekend, as we have company coming in for the holidays, I probably won't blog again until early next week to give me some time to finish up some stuff around here. Have a great weekend.

19 November 2008

We Read Your Letters

A nice lady took the time to comment on my last blog entry. She had a lot of good points, and so I wanted to share them with you:

I've only just found your blog, so maybe I'm missing part of your 
thoughts on food storage for survival.  The point of having survival 
food is not just to store it, but to use it. Don't just buy it and put 
it away but work it into your daily food plan.  Replenish as needed - 
typically every 3 months is adequate but do it on a rotating basis.

My husband and I currently have enough food stored to eat, without 
going shopping, for 4 months. This includes meat/fish, veggies, 
starches, spices, sugar\honey etc.   We grow sprouts and living in 
Florida can garden outside for all but the hottest 2 months, Aug & 
Sept.  We've just started harvesting our lettuce, swiss chard, chives 
and have tomatoes, peppers, sugar snap peas, carrots coming along.  
Sprouting seeds and garden seeds should be included in survival food 
stores and don't forget your favorite spices/herbs.  By the way, we've 
been doing this for the 41 years we've been married - it just make 
sense. In the early years he was in the Navy, then college, then the 
kids came along, changes in the economy, lay offs, etc. We have NEVER 
worried about where our next meal was coming from.

You should also only buy & store what your family will actually eat.  
Beans, except canned baked and canned kidney for chili, are not eaten 
in our household - and we've tried them every which way, so, we don't 
store them.  We do use honey and small amounts of sugar so we bought 
and are using 5 gallons of honey instead of white sugar.  We bought a 
"year's supply" of whole wheat and a grain mill.  Because of some 
required dietary changes (heart disease and pre-diabetes) our use of 
bread/flour products has been radically diminished so the grain will 
last more like 2 1/2-3 years.  I've been making bread, biscuits, 
muffins from scratch for the past 50 years so it's not new to me. We 
do have canned clams, crab, tuna and #10 cans of freeze dried sausage 
crumbles, roast beef cubes, turkey.  Yesterday I made chili with 
canned tomatoes, tomato powder freeze-dried, the roast beef & sausage, 
canned kidney beans, chili powder.  Cornmeal muffins, from WW flour, 
cornmeal, dried milk, dried eggs, honey, etc. completed the meal.  We 
use freeze dried fruit and oranges from the tree outside for dessert.

Storage of these foods is accomplished by using floor space in 
closets, under the bed, and using kitchen cabinets for survival foods 
in use. The kitchen cabinets are used for food, food prep and 
tableware - not decorative items, home office supplies, etc.

Why am I so opinionated about survival foods?  In 2004 my husband and 
I went thru Hurricane Charlie - we had sustained winds of about 145 
with higher wind gusts.  Two mobile home 55+ communities less than a 
mile away were almost completely destroyed, ours was about 50% 
destroyed.  We planned ahead, after all, you have 3-5 days of warning 
for a hurricane.  We stored water, cooked food, gathered our necessary 
paperwork, packed clothes, money, etc.  Our home had slight damage, 
the Red Cross approved shelter we were in for the hurricane didn't do 
as well.  If the water had not been turned off 10 days after the 
hurricane we would have stayed - we had a generator for electricity.  
Out of about 1000 units in our park, only 2 other couples we know of 
prepared at all.  The biggest problem - food & water.  Without 
electricity, grocery stores had to close, water & sewers don't work.
If we had stored the typical survival foods we would have been  in 
trouble - most residents of our park ate out 3 meals per day, for 
almost 6 weeks.  We don't have that kind of money and think more of 
our health than that.

My only disagreement with her opinions stems from the implication that there's one "best" way to store food. I think we all have to make decisions as to what works best for us. Her food plan will certainly keep her family well fortified; I suspect most advanced survival types would fully agree with her.

The point I've made in my posts over the years is that a good plan is customized to fit your lifestyle. Currently, we're not in a position to store what we eat in large quantities. If you are, that's fantastic. If you're not, then store what you can. It's better than nothing.

I Bet This Never Happens to AAA

The Shuttle astronauts lost their tool bag into outer space while repairing a solar panel. No joke.

This story serves as a good reminder. When we're doing the daily routines in life, take a moment to do them with fewer resources to see how well you adapt. I have some ideas on what I can do better in this area.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

Mitt Romney, the son of a automotive executive, weighs in on why we should not bail out the Big Three.

17 November 2008

Pricing and Sizing Staples

Following up on my 29 October post, we went to Sam's after dinner Saturday evening to price and size up bulk staple food items.

We analyze this project using three metrics:

• Acquisition costs
• Amount needed for a year's time
• Amount of space needed to store a year's worth of a particular product

To start this discussion, let's remind ourselves what Uncle Ragnar says a family of four needs for a year:

Five 50 pound sacks of sugar
Six 50 pound sacks of flour
Ten 25 pound sacks of cleaned, treated lentils
Ten 25 pound sacks of split peas
Ten 25 pound sacks of dried beans
Two 3 gallon jugs of vegetable oil
100 pounds of dried milk

We didn't find all of these items, but we did find a lot of them, plus a few others. I've captured what we discovered below:

• 25 pounds of sugar costs $17 and takes up approximately 1 cubic foot. For 250 pounds, we would need 10 cubic feet and $85.

• 25 pounds of flour costs $7 and takes up approximately 1 cubic foot. For 300 pounds of flour, we would need 12 cubic feet and $84. Flour has a shelf life of approximately 1 year.

• 50 pounds of pinto beans costs $32 and takes up approximately 2.3 cubic feet. For 250 pounds of beans, we would need 11.5 cubic feet and $160. Bagged pinto beans have a shelf life of less than a year.

• 4.5 pounds of powered milk costs $14 and takes up approximately 0.3 cubic feet. For 100 pounds of dried milk, we would need 22 cubic feet and $308. Powdered milk has a shelf life of one year.

• 1.25 gallons of vegetable oil costs $22 and takes up approximately 0.375 cubic feet. For 6 gallons of oil, we would need approximately 2 cubic feet and $105.

So, if you multiplied the beans by three (since Ragnar says to get three kinds of beans or peas above), it breaks down like this:

• 85.5 cubic feet of storage (which equates to 4.4 feet x 4.4 feet x 4.4 feet)
• $1,062 in acquisition costs

In addition, we found a few other items we would likely add as staples:

• 5 pounds of Bisquick costs $4 and takes up approximately 0.125 cubic feet. For 250 pounds of Bisquick, we would need 6.25 cubic feet and $200. Bisquick has a shelf life of approximately one year; however, I have some I have kept frozen for 5 years I recently tested which worked just fine.

• 50 pounds of rice costs $21 and takes up approximately 2.3 cubic feet. For 250 pounds of rice, we would need 11.5 cubic feet and $105.

• 3 pounds of canned chicken costs $8 and takes up approximately 0.6 cubic feet. For 50 pounds of chicken, we would need 30 cubic feet and $133. Note this is a very expensive proposition. For 4 people to get 6 ounces of chicken daily, we're talking $1,460.

These items add:

• 48 cubic feet of storage (which equates to 3.6 feet x 3.6 feet x 3.6 feet)
• $438 in acquisition costs

Finally, Kendel put together a list of a few other items of interest:

Green beans: 101 ounces in a can for $2.50. 3 year shelf life.
Pinto beans: 111 ounce can for $3. 3 year shelf life.
Special K cereal: 38 ounces, $8.28. 1 year shelf life.
Instant Oatmeal: 40 servings $10.00 2 year shelf life.
Multi-vitamins: 450 ct, $10.00. 1 year shelf life.

So for $1,500, we could squirrel away enough stuff to keep us alive and healthy for a year. If we were to double that amount of money, we could load up on extra chicken or other meats, as well as a variety of carbohydrates and fiber sources.

To be sure, $3,000 sounds like a lot of money. However, what if we were to donate our food stores every year, before they expire, to the local food bank? We would get a deduction as a charitable donation (thus subsidizing the purchase), help someone less fortunate, and then re-stock with fresh supplies.

We're still putting pen to paper to see if this would work. Our challenges now include:

• Finding 132 cubic feet of climate controlled space in the home to store this stuff.
• Determining what assistance agencies would take large bulk food staples for donations.

I think the first item will be more challenging. I will report back as I learn more.

15 November 2008

Spam Sales Up

As a kid, I could eat Spam. However, in the days following Hurricane Andrew, I cooked Spam in a skillet over a gas stove top. I vowed I would never eat it again.

Apparently, Spam sales are through the roof. I encourage you to read the article as it shows what people are stocking up on. The article implies people are buying up staples as a hedge against economic hard times, which may be true. Are people stocking up for something other than an economic slowdown? Who knows. But it's good to know people are getting better prepared for something.

I do keep Spam in our disaster supplies - as a "throw down" food. Someone comes to the door during a crisis, needing something to eat? They're getting Spam. It's not meant to be an insult - it's easy to store, loaded in protein, and relatively inexpensive to purchase.

Pushing the Envelope

I've been walking our dogs a fair amount lately. I've been pushing them (terrier mutts) to do at least two miles three to four times a week.

The other night, we did a two mile patrol in the rain with lightning and thunder. I told them it was good for them to train in adverse conditions.

So today, I took my own advice. I went to fly my airplane this morning. The winds were fairly strong - 19 miles per hour, gusting to 24 miles per hour. I decided today was a good day to practice landings in challenging winds.

I made five landings. Just as an experiment, I made all five as "no flap" landings. (For those of you who aren't pilots, flaps are those metal pieces that stick out of the back side of the wing during take off and landing. They generate lift so you can fly slower.)

I learned something really important. I've not been able to make smooth landings in my plane like I can in Cessna or Beech products. Apparently, using no flaps on landing may be the best way to land the plane after all.

More than likely, I wouldn't have figured that out if I hadn't decided to fly when everyone else said it wasn't a good day to do so. It's good to push ourselves from time to time in adverse conditions. We learn a lot and gain confidence by doing so.

So We Should Fear....Or Shouldn't We?

Yesterday afternoon, the Times Online from the U.K. reported "[British] security officials say that there is genuine concern that alQaeda will attempt a 'spectacular' in the transition period, but suggest that it may be aimed more at Mr Bush than Mr Obama." Yet in the next sentence, the source told the Times "As far as we know there is nothing from the intelligence world to indicate that anything has changed dramatically in recent months to put us on alert for an attack at the moment.”

So....which is it? Is our intelligence community worried about a specific threat or aren't they?

I fear it's 2002 all over again. Stories quoting high ranking government officials saying things like "While we don't have evidence of a particular threat, we do believe Al Qaeda is planning another attack on the U.S. in the coming days" filled the media a few years back. Such reports made terrorism forecasting less of a science (or art, for that matter) and more of a Psychic Friends Network approach to predicting terrorism.

I was just thinking earlier this evening - if President Bush had just shared some information about arrests or terrorist attacks thwarted in the U.S. - I suspect his approval rating would be through the roof right now. Of course, this assumes such information exists or such attacks were indeed thwarted. Part of convincing the American people for the need for a "War on Terror" includes showing us, from time to time, just what the threat is. We've not seen that.

Sadly, Americans in my opinion have a short term memory. We forget about those poor souls who jumped from the World Trade Center on 9/11 to escape the hell consuming their buildings, or the people on board those hijacked airliners. We forget about those soldiers and sailors who lost their lives at the Pentagon that morning. We're more concerned with gas prices and who Paris Hilton is dating than we are the security of our country.

You and I can't fix any of that. But we can be prepared to take care of our own if and when something bad happens.

Why Do I List GMT Time on My Homepage?

I suspect some may be wondering why I do this. Years ago, I had (and may still have for all I know) a growing readership in Europe and Africa. One devoted reader, Sergio from South Africa, routinely read my posts and emailed me regularly. Cliff and I even got a chance to chat with him online one afternoon years ago. (Sadly, as I reported on 24 August, Sergio passed away due to injuries in a motorcycle accident.)

People around the world know Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the world's central time zone. It refers to the Meridian of Greenwich, which is also called zero longtitude. This line runs through the London outskirts.

At any rate, GMT is used as a time reference point, from which we can all convert to our local time. Providing the information allows overseas readers to determine when the blog was last updated.

14 November 2008

Assemble Your Crew

There's a really funny Chappelle Show episode where they do a sketch about Prince. In the episode, Prince is hanging out with Eddie Murphy's brother, Charlie (who is a regular on the Chappelle Show). Prince and Eddie are going to go back to Prince's house to hang out. Prince (played by Dave Chappelle) tells Charlie it's time to head out by oddly saying "Assemble Your Crew."

Lately, as I talk to my neighbors, I have been mentally "assembling my crew" in the event of some sort of area wide disruption. In the past, I've taken the position it's better to just lock yourself in your home. However, the more I read and study on the subject, I think we'd be better off if we knew who "is one of us" so to speak.

So, who exactly is "one of us?" Characteristics I am looking for include:

• A healthy disdain for large government involvement in people's lives.
• Resourcefulness.
• Strong advocates for the right of gun ownership and self defense.
• An appetite for news - both local and global.
• Success in a given field, showing commitment and work ethic.
• Strong commitment to their family.

This Nation Voted for Obama

I found this on Rush Limbaugh's site. Take a good, hard look at this:

We could spend hours drawing conclusions from this. Some of mine include:

• The urban areas of our nation will have a growing influence on our national politics.
• Despite the tone you get from the media, America is not infatuated with Sen. Obama. In fact, 49% of the voters supported a weak candidate - from the incumbent party whose sitting president has a chronically severe approval rating problem - rather than supporting Sen. Obama.
• Thank God for the Electoral College. It gives Fly Over Country a powerful voice. Just ask Al Gore.
• Oklahoma, with all of its faults, managed to not concede a single county to Obama. Who said Sooners were stupid?
• If the GOP ever decides to be a conservative party again with charismatic leadership, it could easily take Washington back from the Democrats.

12 November 2008

Texans On Alert

I spend time in border town such as McAllen, TX and El Paso. In the past year, border towns have had a growing violent crime problem, especially on the Mexican side. Stratfor provides a very interesting analysis on the recent arrest of a Mexican gang leader.

Bill Gertz' New Book

I may ask for this book for Christmas unless I can get it at the local library soon.

Solar Oven

Another Christmas toy I may ask for is a solar oven. Any of you ever use one? Good idea or not?

5 November 2008

How We Respond to Obama's Election

I sat in front of the television Election Night, like many of you, wondering how our new Democratic president would affect our country. For years, the pro-freedom and pro-capitalism GOP held the White House and implemented policies helping our economy grow and creating opportunities for so many people to succeed.

Watching the President-elect's election night speech, I felt an uneasy feeling come over me. Should we fear a loss of our liberties? Higher taxes? A diminution of our our military strength? Economic stagnation? High unemployment?

That particular election night to which I am referring - back in 1992 - began an eight year run where the stock market made phenomenal gains (much of which were lost during the "tech bust") despite higher taxes and less liberty.

Take a deep breath, everyone. The world isn't going to end. At least not yet.

To be sure, Obama's election represents a new chapter in our nation's history. His huge support among white voters attests to our nation's willingness to accept a non-white as President. I hope our nation's racial minorities take comfort in this important fact. As a nation, we continue to move forward in race relations. And for that, I am thankful.

Here's what I think preppers should expect in the coming months:

• Higher taxes. This notion of a tax cut for 95% of the population is utter nonsense. Half of those people don't even pay federal income taxes. The only way this would work, in my opinion, is for the U.S. to increase its borrowing rate.
• Far reaching gun legislation. Such legislation would not only affect guns but ammunition and magazines as well.
• Stock market gains. During the first year of Democratic presidencies, the Dow on average goes up 6%. Given its recent losses, it has only one direction to go now. I suspect we will see a much larger increase than 6%. (Ironically, it only goes up about 3.5%, on average, during the first year of a GOP presidency.)
• Increased risk of a terrorist attack on American soil. The last two presidents faced terrorist attacks on U.S. soil during their first year in office (Clinton in the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center; Bush in 2001 on 9/11). Note this particular point isn't a criticism of Obama; it is only an observation.
• Increased emphasis on solar and wind energy. One of the few, if not the only, good ideas Jimmy Carter had was to offer tax incentives to those who installed energy efficient technology in their homes. If Obama is true to his word and wants to increase our usage of renewable energy, we could see something similar. Such incentives could entice many preppers to install alternative energy set ups at their homes.

I am interested to hear your thoughts on this, and what you're doing in response to Obama's election.

Kendel's Reading Hoag

I referenced Philip Hoag's book the other night. Kendel needed some reading material to put her to sleep the other night (no joke), and so she elected to start reading "There's No Such Thing As Doomsday." She got several ideas on what we need to be doing now. I told her she should read the entire book, and then we should sit down and prioritize what we need to buy and what we need to do.

Paul T. Martin Survivalist Play of the Day

Damn. That's hard core.

4 November 2008

More on Food Storage

As I mentioned on 29 October, I am re-thinking my food storage plan. Last Sunday, I perused the dried beans section of my local grocery. Dried beans are very inexpensive, quite nutritious (providing 7 to 9 grams of protein per serving; your RDA is 50 grams), and easy to store.

I haven't put pen to paper yet (or keyboard to spreadsheet), but my plan is to buy this stuff and store it, carefully tracking the expiration date. As that date approaches, we would donate the food to local charities who receive bulk food donations. So we get a food storage plan with adequate rotation, the less fortunate get nutritious food, and we get a tax write off in the process. I need for my wife the accountant to run the numbers and come up with a workable plan.

So How Do We Cook Said Stored Food?

First, we must assume in a crisis situation we won't have electricity. In wintertime in Texas, it's an inconvenience, but without AC in the summer it's brutal. Then again, people around the world still live without air conditioning.

I am more concerned with the need for energy to cook and purify water. One great option for us, I am thinking, is a solar oven. I'm starting to research this in earnest. They are relatively inexpensive and apparently work quite well with a little practice.

4 November 2008

I'm Rich!

I perused my survival library this evening and found a classic - No Such Thing As Doomsday by Philip Hoag. I learned a lot from this book, and I think you will too.

So I decided to put the Amazon link up to the book in case you wanted to buy it....only to see the book is now selling for freaking $90! I might have paid $20 for it back in 2001. Is there a run on survival books? If so, screw the stock market. My personal library just became my 401K.

Peggy Joseph - Nobel Prize Candidate for Excellence in Economics and Political Science

If only Einstein had been half as smart as this lady. Since when did it become the role of the government to put gas in our cars and pay our mortgages? Of course, John McCain would have you believe the same thing.

3 November 2008

WHAT?

If any of you figure out what this means, please let me know.

30 October 2008

Cloward-Piven For Fun and Profit

I suggest you read this article. It's a bit heady, but it will give you a blue print into the next four years, barring a GOP replay of the 1994 Congressional election.

Neighborhood Watch for Halloween

I've organized a neighborhood watch for Friday night. I will report back this weekend if we have anything of signficance happen.

Rednecks for Obama

As I previously posted, Little Brother is the Tennessee Director of the Obama campaign. He sent me this picture, which I thought was hilarious:

29 October 2008

Cooler Weather + Uncertain Economy + Strongly Likelihood of Democratic Control of Washington = X

You can determine what "X" means to you. Here's what it means to me:

• A great time to buy stocks. See my previous posts. However, we should not expect the kinds of growth in the stock market we've seen in the past.
• A threat to our liberties. Memphis Jeff provided an article quoting Obama and Biden on their belief guns are bad. Further, regardless of who wins the election, watch for goverment spending to grow exponentially. This undoubtedly will burden American taxpayers for years to come.
• Cooler weather reminds people of what's coming - winter time. Fall always motivates me to get prepared. I think it's an innate response.
• A renewed focus on personal finance. I like to think I do a good job on this, but when you're married to a CPA, it's a daily discussion. I like that.
• Speaking of guns and my wife, it also means people are flocking to get their concealed handgun licenses, first time gun purchases, extra gun purchases, and ammo purchases. She will attend her CHL class in December.

Food Storage Plan Ideas

Simply put, we need more food stored up.

I ran across Ragnar Benson's suggested food storage shopping list, which is quite simple:

Five 50 pound sacks of sugar
Six 50 pound sacks of flour
Ten 25 pound sacks of cleaned, treated lentils
Ten 25 pound sacks of split peas
Ten 25 pound sacks of dried beans
Two 3 gallon jugs of vegetable oil
100 pounds of dried milk

According to his 2000 book, Ragnar's Urban Survival, this shopping list should cost about $537. Benson claims this food list will provide basic sustenance, supplemented occasionally from the field and garden, for a family of four for one year. To be sure, eating this daily for a year would get old in the first week; bear in mind it's called "survival" and not "dining at Chili's."

I want to start working on this ASAP. The first trick, however, will be finding where to store this stuff in the house.

Bocephus Has Spoken

Hank Williams, Jr. makes a key endorsement. Act accordingly.

28 October 2008

Preparedness Tutorial Back Up

The tutorial on preparedness is now accessible. I hope it helps someone.

Today's Suggested Quick Read

When MSNBC isn't telling us how freaking awesome Obama is, they're writing about survivalists.

26 October 2008

Squirrels and Wooly Worms

Dad's always been big on reading the wooly worms- those fuzzy little worms which are tan and black. Each fall, the wooly worms come out in various shades. Dad says that if you start from the head and move to the tail, observing the colors in the worm's coat, you can determine what sort of winter we're going to have. For example, if a worm has a long brown patch (warm) in the front, a short brown patch in the rear, with a black (cold) patch in between, it means much of the early winter will be warm, followed by a cold snap, then followed by a warm up.

He says it's been fairly reliable as a way to predict winter temperatures. He recalls one fall where all he saw were black wooly worms, and the winter following that was brutally cold.

I don't see many wooly worms in Texas, but I have seen more squirrels this fall than ever. And they are all burying nuts at a frantic pace. I am not sure what's gotten into them - I've never seen them work at this pace before, nor so many of them running around. Could it be a sign of a cold winter? We'll see.

Study of Mormonism

Our Sunday School class is doing a comparative religions study. We just finished Islam, which was fantastic. I learned a tremendous amount about Islam, and we even had an Imam from a local mosque come and speak to us. He then joined our class for Sunday brunch at our home, so we had a great opportunity to talk to him about the tenets of his faith.

We just started Mormonism today. I am interested in this study, primarily because a) those in the faith whom I've met seem quite happy and fit, and b) Mormons are really into preparedness. Check out this link to read more about their philosophy.

21 October 2008

Hi-larious

I hadn't planned on blogging tonight, but I couldn't pass this one up. As many of you know, I serve as the Traffic and Safety Chair for my neighborhood association, in which membership is voluntary. The Austin Police Department sent out an email about one of their upcoming community meetings, where APD leadership meets with citizens to discuss crime and police issues in our community.

I fowarded the email to the membership, simply commenting concerned citizens should attend. Within a few minutes, I got this response:

After reading all of the panicky e-mails about the state of what is portrayed as our “High Crime” neighborhood I am getting very tired of all the negative communications.  We have live in this neighborhood for over 23 years and I have not developed the impression that we live in a crime ridden neighborhood.  After reading the past years’ communications one would think we really need the street search lights, corner guard towers, and neighborhood posies to canvas the neighborhood.  I even recall an e-mail suggesting that we all get handgun carry licenses so we can deal with the occasional youth that toilet paper a neighbors tree.

Now we feel we need to have neighborhood meetings at Commander’s Forms with the APD to help define our strategy and incite even further fear mongering.  I am also tired of hearing the numerous reports of occasional car break vandalism, or home vandalism that has happened in neighborhoods not even remotely close to our neighborhood.  If it didn’t happen in a 5 block radius of our neighborhood I don’t want to hear about it, it only confuses and further perpetuates the distorted image that we live in a high crime area.

Please remove me from further communications on these subjects.  I don’t know what neighborhood you feel you live in, but the neighborhood I live in is pretty decent.

I am still laughing.

20 October 2008

The Scandal on Page 46

For those of you who get the NRA's First Freedom magazine, take a look at page 46 of the November issue. Specifically, look at the rounds in the belt. Some believe (it may be true, although I am not an expert), that the black tipped round is actually an armor piercing round....something you would not fire out of a six gun.

I've heard several people around town and at work comment about this. I'm not sure if there's a hidden meaning to the ad or not, but it's interesting to say the least.

Pepper Spray Pros and Cons

Atlanta Jeff asked a great question today about using chemical sprays for self defense. Here are my thoughts:

Pros - you can take it a lot of places you can't take a gun. Plus its easy to use & requires little training.

Cons- its nothing you'd want to bet your life on. Many people aren't affected by it.  It has a shelf life which isn't always predictable.

Bottom line - its better than nothing, but not by much. I would steer you towards carrying a good folding knife (I carry one daily) which with a bit of training can really help you turn the tables on an uncomfortable situation.

 

Global Warming. Not.

Many of you saw this, I suspect. If the trend continues, whatever will Al Gore do? I wouldn't be surprised that in ten years from now, we unilaterally declare the global warming war officially over.

19 October 2008

Suggested Readings

It's been a very busy week for me, having been on the road two nights this past week and hosted two different get togethers at our home this weekend. So I haven't had much time to blog, despite the fact there's so much to talk about. I am playing catch up today, so for now I want to leave you with a couple of articles.

First, thanks to Seven State Johnny (because he's licensed to pratice law in seven states, raising questions about his sanity) for this article from CNN on Ron Paul's take on TARP.

How would things look with an Obama win and a Democratic Capitol Hill? The Wall Street Journal does a great job laying it out for us in this piece.

Finally, thanks to Atlanta Jeff for sharing this NYT op-ed piece from Warren Buffet, below:

Buy American. I Am.

13 October 2008

Training the Next Generation of Preppers

This afternoon, I left work a few minutes early to help my step daughter's Girl Scout troop out with its monthly activity. I led an exercise where the girls pretended to be stuck on a deserted island, and they had to come up with a list of five things they would want to help them survive.

Some did fairly well, while others struggled a bit. I encouraged them to think about their basic needs, both short and long term. Hopefully, they got something out of it.

What the World Goverments Did This Past Weekend

Whatever it was, the stock markets certainly approved. Stratfor weighs in with its analysis.

12 October 2008

Another View On the Economy

I don't normally quote from the New York Times, but given the fact the writer interviewed Ken Heebner, I found it quite compelling. Enjoy your Sunday -

Those Who Know History May See a Time to Invest

By ALEX BERENSON

The four most dangerous words for investors are: This time is different.

In 1999, technology companies with no earnings or sales were valued at billions of dollars. But this time was different, investors told themselves. The Internet could not be missed at any price.

They were wrong. In 2000 and 2001 technology stocks plunged, erasing trillions of dollars in wealth.

Now investors have again convinced themselves that this time is different, that the credit crisis will push economies worldwide into the deepest recession since the Depression. Fear runs even deeper today than greed did a decade ago.

But in their panic, investors are ignoring 60 years of history. Since the Depression, governments have become far more aggressive about intervening when credit markets seize up or economies struggle. And those interventions have generally succeeded. The recessions since World War II, while hardly easy, have been far less painful than the Depression.

Now some veteran investors, including G. Kenneth Heebner, a mutual fund manager who has one of the best long-term track records on Wall Street, say that the sell-off has gone much too far and stocks are poised to rally powerfully if the downturn is less severe than investors fear.

“The fact is, there are a lot of tremendous bargains out there,” said Mr. Heebner, who manages about $10 billion in several mutual funds. Indeed, by many measures stocks are as cheap as they have been in the last 25 years.

He pointed to Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas producer that he owns in his CGM Focus mutual fund. In July, Chesapeake traded for $63 a share. On Friday, it fell as low as $11.99.

He says that investors with a stomach for risk and a long time horizon should consider following Warren E. Buffett, who in the last three weeks has invested $8 billion in Goldman Sachs and General Electric.

Mr. Heebner expects world economies to contract over the next year. But he said the market plunge in the last week was no longer being driven by rational analysis. Stocks are probably falling because of a combination of panic and forced selling by hedge funds that must meet margin calls from their lenders, he said.

Mr. Heebner’s funds have not avoided the carnage this year. The CGM Focus fund is down about 42 percent so far in 2008. But his long-term track record is impressive. In the decade that ended Dec. 31, 2007, CGM Focus rose 26 percent a year, including reinvested dividends, making it among the best-performing mutual funds.

Mr. Heebner is not alone in his optimism.

“I think in years to come — I wouldn’t say months to come — we will perceive this as being a great value-buying opportunity,” said David P. Stowell, a finance professor at Northwestern and a former managing director at JPMorgan Chase. “Two and three years from now, it will seem very smart.”

Even before their jaw-dropping plunge of the last month, stocks were not expensive by historical standards, based on fundamentals like earnings and cash flow. Now, after falling 30 percent or more since early September, stocks in stalwart, profitable corporations like Nokia, Exxon Mobil and Boeing are trading at nine times their annual profits per share or less. Many smaller companies are even cheaper. Some of those stocks are trading at five times earnings or less.

Those ratios are historically low. Over all, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is trading at about 13 times its expected profits for 2009, its lowest level in decades. In contrast, at the height of the technology bubble in early 2000, the stocks in the S.& P. traded at about 30 times earnings, the highest level ever. At the same time, the 10-year Treasury bond paid about 6 percent interest, compared with less than 4 percent today.

Investors have fled stocks in favor of government bonds, insured bank deposits and other low-risk investments because they are deeply afraid of the worldwide economic crisis, said Stephen Haber, an economic historian and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. But he said he believed that fear might have gone too far.

“If there is good and wise policy, and government moves effectively, this need not play itself out in ways like the Great Depression, which is the image that is playing itself out in people’s mind,” Mr. Haber said. Government action typically does not work immediately, and banking crises around the world often require multiple interventions, he said.

Still, optimists remain in the minority on Wall Street. Most investors seem to believe that the credit crisis will do substantial damage to stocks and overall economic activity.

“We have never before seen for such sustained periods of time such a sustained turn away from risk taking,” said Steven Wieting, the chief United States economist for Citigroup. “This has broken out of the boundaries we’ve seen.” Economic activity appears to have slowed sharply in September, Mr. Wieting said.

The panic last week took the biggest toll on financial companies, as well as companies that are highly leveraged. But stocks fell 10 to 30 percent even for companies typically thought to be resistant to economic downturns, like the manufacturers of consumer staples.

For example, Newell Rubbermaid fell to $12.82 on Friday from $17.34 on Oct. 1, a 26 percent decline in 10 days. Newell Rubbermaid now trades at its lowest levels since 1990, and just eight times its expected earnings for next year.

Yet Newell Rubbermaid, whose brands include Calphalon, is profitable and insulated from the credit crisis, said William G. Schmitz Jr., who follows household products companies for Deutsche Bank. “There’s really no balance sheet risk,” Mr. Schmitz said. The company also pays a 6 percent dividend.

Newell Rubbermaid said in July that it would earn $1.40 to $1.60 a share for 2008, excluding restructuring charges. For 2009, stock analysts predict it will make $1.53 a share. And while a slowing economy may mean that people will be buying fewer products from Newell Rubbermaid, the recent plunge in oil prices will reduce its costs, Mr. Schmitz said.

“The way the stock’s reacted, you’d think they were going out of business,” he said.

Martin J. Whitman, a professional investor for more than 50 years, said that as long as economies worldwide could avoid an outright depression, stocks were amazingly cheap. Mr. Whitman manages the $6 billion Third Avenue Value fund, which returned 10.2 percent annually for the 15 years that ended Sept. 30, almost two percentage points a year better than the S.& P. 500 index. The fund is down 46 percent this year.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Mr. Whitman said. “The most important securities are being given away.”

11 October 2008

A New Era

I submit we're living in yet another brand new era. Here's why:

1. The American people now realize irrational consumerism can kill our economy. Consumerism is good in many respects. It spawns innovations and improves the quality of our lives - no question. But easy credit and low introductory payment terms seduced consumers to overextend themselves financially. As a result, the housing market faltered (which rarely happens, further panicking the public), banks holding their mortgages suffered, credit markets in turn responded negatively, culminating in a plummeting equities market.

Many of you know I sell real estate part time. Recently, I read an article in one of the monthly trade journals heralding the return of "compliance" in mortgage lending. From now on, lenders will have to comply with strict guidelines, including such draconian rules as "you must have a job," and "you need to put at least 10% down," and "you need a decent credit score."

When you read these so called "new" rules (which, as you know, aren't all that new), there's no doubt in my mind people will realize their irrational consumerism and irresponsible spending got America into this position. This lax attitude towards spending by Americans is mirrored by our government. The Feds mandated irresponsible mortgage lending via the Community Investment Act (a Ted Kennedy bill which the Clinton Administration used as a Taser, threatening to zap banks who refused to lend to people who couldn't pay the loans back).

But we cannot lay all of the blame on Kennedy and Clinton, or the government for that matter. Banks and businesses extending consumer credit profited from easy credit, encouraging consumers to live beyond their means. In short, the government threatened banks, who made up for bad loans by selling them as complex packaged investments to investors world wide, to feed the addiction of American consumers. Wall Street supplied the heroin - money for mortgage lending - and the American people gleefully injected it into its collective arms, while Democrats in Washington looked the other way.

2. Despite the spread of capitalism, many superpowers haven't bought into world peace. One of the great lessons of the second Iraq War is that freedom does not beget freedom. History will eventually prove or disprove this, but if I had to guess, I would submit Iraq will eventually move away from U.S. imposed democracy and back to some sort of dictatorship or theocracy.

Of course, we've seen other signs of that as well. As China and Russia embraced capitalism, they have not felt a need to contract their military spending or expansion. Rather, both countries test long range missiles regularly, and Russia recently invaded Georgia to "liberate" its people (who, ironically were living with a democratic government).

Back in the Eighties, Reagan often said the best way to instill freedom in these countries was to introduce capitalism to them. We did just that, but the "peace dividend" we discussed ad nauseam in the Nineties after the Cold War never seemed to materialize. We replaced Cold War planning with anti-terrorism planning.

To date, our national defense system remains inadequate to fend off a missile attack. I suspect most Americans don't believe there is a risk of such an attack; regretfully, many experts disagree. Further, nations like Russia with strong links to terrorism sponsors could conceivably supply them with nuclear supplies and technology to inflict damage on us here in the U.S.

In my discussions with people on this, many ask "what's in it for those nations do that? Why would China attack the U.S., its largest customer base for cheaply made Chinese products?" We ask questions like this, I suspect, because we fail to truly understand the motivation of these nations. These nations are motivated to become as strong or stronger than the U.S.; they are NOT motivated to be our allies or even friends. Our economy provides them with a means to strengthen their own economies and military, as they strive to become the biggest kid on the planet.

In short, we will always have dangerous risks abroad - be it from terrorism or other large national actors. The sooner we grasp that concept, the better off we will be.

3. Economic fears at home cause American politicians to adopt more socialist type policies. Let's face it - in this presidential election, we are not selecting between a Republican or Democrat. We are choosing between two candidates promoting their own trademark brand of socialism. Obama wants to raise taxes on the achievers in America; McCain wants the government to become America's mortgage company. Obama wants to create a national health care system, which according to health care policy expert Robert Laszweski would "actually increase the rate of health care inflation and ultimately create an imperative for more draconian government intervention in the health care markets both Obama and Clinton would preserve." McCain, despite his claims he dislikes earmarks, votes for bills with them, and thus often supports more government spending and limits on freedom.

I fear the American people, out of desperation and because neither party offers a candidate with any solution other than government intervention into our lives, will elect candidates who fear individual liberty and promote larger government.

So if we don't like this, what can we do? Here are my thoughts:

• Strengthen your personal balance sheets. Eliminate all unnecessary debts and live within your means. Prepare as though Medicare and Social Security will be non-existent at retirement. Plan to retire later in life. After all, why should 65 be the magic retirement age? We are living longer lives; plan to be productive and contributing to the economy (and not a drain on the system or your family) beyond 65.
• Prepare for uncertain times. I made a decision earlier this week to completely scrap all of my preparedness plans and start over. Now that I am married, with a stepchild, living in the suburbs, my situation has changed dramatically. Fortunately, my wife agrees we need to prepare (she's put Ragnar's Urban Survival on her reading list). This doesn't necessarily mean all of you need to run out and buy guns and MREs. It does mean you need to think through and plan for the possibility of infrastructure failure due to a number of possible causes.
• Encourage elected officials - as well as friends and neighbors - to stress personal responsibility in our public policy and consumer decisions. It's not up to our employers or the government to provide us with healthcare and retirement funds - it is up to us. Our founding fathers believed this, creating a blueprint for a government which inherently limited itself to a few basic functions, leaving citizens to their own devices to take care of their own needs and to advance humanity.

We live in the greatest country on earth, and I believe we are blessed by God with that privilege. Daily, hundreds of people from Mexico and Central America leave their homes and families, often risking their lives to come here to do the crap work our welfare recipients won't....for a few bucks a day. When I see these individuals, I'm humbled to think how richly blessed we are. Through these times, let's remember it's up to us as stewards of that blessing to preserve it for our children.

09 October 2008

A Mere 679 Points

Are you panicked? I hope not.

The Dow dropped precipitously today. Until the credit markets get their sea legs, we are likely to see more of this.

Here's the inside tip - watch the TED spread and the LIBOR rates. As those numbers get smaller, the more likely we will see stocks start to rebound. You heard it here first.

Test Your Knowledge

Fire Prevention Week always gives us good reason to refresh our knowledge. Keep an eye on these things as you make your home safer.

08 October 2008

Brief Updates

It's been busy this week....but I want to share a few things with you.

First, if you're scratching your head over the new financial speak you're hearing on the news, check out this short glossary of common financial terms you're hearing lately. It's quite helpful.

Second, Little Brother is mentioned in this "special investigative report" in a Nashville television news broadcast.

Also, I am hearing from several sources that many people continue flocking to survival/preparedness type of websites. These are "foul weather" friends. Start doing the basics now.

I will try to blog more this weekend.

03 October 2008

Y'all Suck

I think I've figured this economic mess all out. YOU are the problem.

The largest car dealership in the South closed its doors recently because YOU couldn't get loans to buy cars. CNBC reported on a sod farm in Florida going through tough times because YOU can't buy a home (and thus need new sod) because YOU can't get the loan to purchase that home.

Of course, some of YOU can still manage to get a mortgage, provided YOU have good credit and a down payment. I got an email today from my local Ford dealer offering Texas sized discounts on all sorts of great new vehicles, which YOU can take advantage of....if YOU have decent credit.

So because so many of YOU have crappy credit, our economy can't function. Well done, America.

For me, the most troubling aspect of this bailout mess - aside from the fact it's chocked full of earmarks - is that it highlights how the American economy really works. As long as we can buy crap on credit - most of it stuff we don't need - our economy does well. But as soon as the country overextends itself financially, the panic lights come on.

Friends, this bailout package is a band aid on a larger problem. The American people simply must learn to use credit wisely and responsibly. To be sure, we need to figure out a way to keep Americans from going into bankruptcy due to unpaid medical expenses - the number one reason for bankruptcy filings. Until we do that, our sovereignty is in jeopardy.

And Yes, I Do Read Books From Time To Time

But not often. Cliff suggested I read a novel (okay, I admit - I NEVER read fiction) written by James Wesley Rawles, the proprietor of the Survival Blog. His book, Patriots - Surviving the Coming Collapse contains a plethora of survival information. The characters go into excruciating detail explaining their training, philosopy and preparedness tips. The book represents an excellent use of andragogy (the theory that adults learn best from real life examples) in educating readers on preparedness strategies. I will tell you it's hard to put it down. It can be a bit depressing at times, as well, as it deals with life after a complete economic collapse of the United States.

It's been weird reading it during the recent economic turmoil. But I do encourage you to read it. You'll learn a lot.

02 October 2008

The Yuppie Survivalist

01 October 2008

Is al Qaeda Getting Stronger or Weaker?

McCain and Obama debated this issue last week. Here's Stratfor's analysis.

Liberals Say Minorities, GEDs and Dropouts Are "Idiots" to Be Educated.

We all knew they thought that...and now here's proof. Share with others.

30 September 2008

Preparedness 101

All right. I promised I would walk you through the steps of basic preparedness. If I were going to start all over from scratch, and assuming I knew nothing about preparedness, I would read two books. First, I would read "Crisis Preparedness Handbook" by Jack A. Spigarelli. I would then read "Ragnar's Urban Survival" by Ragnar Benson. I read Benson's "The Survival Retreat" when I was 10 years old.

If you want to read something really, really basic which is FREE - order "Are You Ready? An In-Depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness" from FEMA's website.

29 September 2008

Simmah Dahn Nah!

Remember that Saturday Night Live bit with Cheri O'Teri, where she played this cajun sounding woman who would tell people to "simmer down now" when they would get all uppity with her? Of course, her character had an accent which made it sound more like "simmah dahn nah!"

Watching and listening to cable news and talk radio this afternoon and evening reminded me of O'Teri's bit. We all need to take a collective breath and remember a few things.

First, I will go out on a limb here - I don't believe we are on the verge of some economic armegeddon. As much as I would like to get out my glowsticks, wind up radios, MREs and other survival gear, it won't be for this event. Warren Buffett would not be buying large stakes of Goldman Sachs, Citi would not be buying Wachovia, and JP Morgan would not be buying WaMu if the end was near. No way.

Did you know you can still get a 30 year fixed mortgage for 6%? Yet to hear the experts tell it, credit has dried up and we'll all start bartering for food soon.

Did you know only 8% - that's right, only 8% - of home mortgages in Texas are of the "subprime" description? I read that today in the Texas Association of Realtors magazine. Put another way, 92% of Texas home mortgages are with people with decent credit, income and sufficient down payment. To hear the media tell it, you'd think half of America has a subprime mortgage.

I'm not saying we don't have issues in front of us. But articles like this and this, spurred by Wall Street Journal editors, do nothing but promote unnecessary panic.

And people are panicking. I am hearing reports people are starting to stock up on precious metals, extra food, etc. Folks, there's a time and place to prepare, and a right way to do it.....but doing it during a panic is not the best idea.

Yes, I could be wrong. But I figure I've got a 50/50 chance here. There are too many things going well for our economy for the doomsday sayers to be right.

In the coming days, I will outline some ideas on how I would prepare if I had to do it all over.

26 September 2008

Trip to Houston

I spent much of this week in Houston. Cliff and I had a good dinner meeting to discuss possible threats to the U.S. We agree an EMP burst is the greatest threat we face here in the U.S.

Lots of plywood sheets have replaced windows in the high rise offices spaces around Houston. Many are still without power but are showing up for work to keep the city humming.

I hope to blog a bit more on Sunday.

22 September 2008

Information Overload

These days, I come home and sit in front of the computer, trying to decipher all of the day's news stories. These days, it seems my brain ends up playing Dance Dance Revolution (that arcade game where you try to step on the squares as the illuminate in the right order).

First, the markets. A third of the articles are just gloom and doom, another third, like this one, debate who's at fault for this mess, and the last third analyze the options on how to get us out of it.

Then there's the presidential race. Most of the main stream media hates Palin and her family, McCain is a nutjob, and Obama is the messiah. Whatever.

And then there's the threat of terrorism. Thanks to Jeff in Atlanta for the heads up on this one.

No Gas in Nashville

I am not an Obama supporter. However, I will concede one thing where I think his ideas are superior to other candidates - our need to improve our infrastructure. Senator Obama has been quite vocal, for some time, about our need to improve infrastructure.

The lack of gasoline in places like Nashville (where Little Brother lives) exemplifies our infrastructure problems. Roads, bridges, railways, airports, electrical grid and generation systems need improvement.

And Whom Do I Support in the Presidential Race?

I am trying to get psyched up about McCain. In the primaries, I pulled the lever for Ron Paul. It looks like McCain has Texas in the bag, so I will likely support Bob Barr this election. This is the first time I've voted for someone other than a Republican for President.

I felt a bit odd about my voting plan, but today talk show host Neil Boortz announced he plans to do the same thing. I suspect many conservatives will do the same thing.

On a side note, I am proud to say Little Brother is running point for Obama's efforts in Tennessee now. It's a great honor for him as well as an opportunity to develop his skills and make more contacts. If Obama wins, I hope Little Brother gets to be an ambassador somewhere tropical so I can visit him.

19 September 2008

A Long Week

On Monday afternoon, a co-worker and I left Austin for Dallas. We provided several hours of legal training to catastrophe claims adjusters our company hired to help out in Houston and Galveston.

We stayed in a hotel designed for long term trips - it had a nice kitchenette, huge bathroom and two televisions. My co-worker got the nicer of the two rooms, as he had something akin to a little conference room in his place.

Here are a series of completely random thoughts and observations over the past few days:

• Our hotel overfloweth with evacuees from Ike and Gustav. We overheard them talking about how FEMA (that's you and me, by the way) was paying for their stay. They'd sit in the lobby all day or outside, smoking and drinking cheap beer and otherwise doing little. That would drive me nuts. I would have been at the local Wal Mart asking for a job just to give me something to do.
• The Federal Goverment's (again, that's you and me) 80% equity stake in AIG Insurance made me feel richer. How about you?
• The Federal Goverment's (we be them) decision to buy every crappy loan, collaterized debt obligation, bottle cap collection and other useless asset Thursday night underscores the notion we are on the bullet train to socialism, and the throttle is stuck in the wide open position.
• Remember when I blogged about CNBC madman Jim Cramer's head exploding back in August? Turns out he was right on. Who knew?
• Joe Biden says it's patriotic to pay more taxes. Thank God he wasn't at the Boston Tea Party.
• The IRS announced its hit parade of statistics once again proving the achiever class gets the shaft in America. For example:
  • The richest 1% pay 40% of all federal income taxes.
  • The 45% of people at the bottom of the pay scale pay no federal income tax.
  • The 50% of people at the bottom of the pay scale pay 3% of the federal income tax.
  Think about that - almost half of the citizens in the U.S. pay no federal taxes for the services of which, arguably, they are the greatest consumers.
• Another tropical disturbance threatens the Gulf. Wonder if those who stayed in Galveston will be dumb enough to try that again?
• "Fine Mexican Dining" is an oxymoron. My co-worker chose some fru-fru Mexican place in Irving/Grapevine/South Dallas (the Metroplex all looks alike to me....I have no idea exactly where we were) on Monday night and the food was wretched. If they haven't failed a health department inspection in the last three years, don't waste your time or money by going there.

14 September 2008

The Aftermath

As most of you have seen, Ike created catastrophic damage in Galveston and Houston. Those folks are getting a real time tutorial on living without infrastructure.

I ran across this handy link of ham radio frequencies. I am picking up a fair amount of traffic on 7290 kHz LSB. The radio operators are trying to track down their buddies in the affected areas.

My neighbor across the street is heading to La Marque - near Galveston - tomorrow morning. He's borrowing some fuel cans from us to ensure he has adequate range there and back. Gas shortages along the way necessitate taking fuel with you.

I've also been listening to KTRH 740 AM in Houston. People are calling in, complaining the government isn't doing enough to take care of them. I shouldn't be surprised by that, but after Katrina you would think people would learn not to rely on the government to meet their needs after a major hurricane or other disaster.

I'm also tracking the breaking business news on Lehman Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch. It's not good to say the least. We need to stay aware of what's going on in our financial markets - what's happened this evening is unprecedented.

13 September 2008

10:30 AM

12 September 2008

10:30 PM

Today's Events

Today was fairly typical in Austin - sunny skies, a few clouds - except for the incessant coverage of Ike.

We look to be in good shape in Austin tonight. We are expecting winds gusting to 50 mph with some heavy rains, but we're on the west side of the storm. So I don't expect anything here like what's going on in Galveston.

I did play with my shortwave receiver at lunch. One ham operator conducted a net check in on 7.290. He broadcasted from northwestern Arkansas loud and clear. I really do need to upgrade my ham radio license. It can really come in handy during a disaster.

I also got out the battery powered Coleman lantern I got from my employer's annual "Select-a-gift" program a few years ago. I'd never used it until last night. It runs on 8 D batteries and has a remote control. It puts out a decent amount of light. I moved it into our storm closet in the event we have to evacuate into it.

A while ago, I took the dogs on a combat patrol of our neighborhood. Not sure what's so "combat" or "patrol" about it, but it sounds good to the two little lap dogs who live here. Foxy hates severe weather - so they won't be sleeping in the laundry room tonight.

I will be going to bed soon - I figure the storm will wake me up in a few hours. I will blog off and on throughout the day and reporting what's happening here. Pray for those in the Galveston and Houston area - they've got it rough tonight.

11 September 2008

10:00 PM

Last Minute Preps

I told Kendel we should run some laundry lest we lose power and need clean clothes. So we're running a couple of loads tonight.

The models seem to be holding, putting the storm into Houston and Galveston. We're still forecasted to get some really strong winds on Saturday.

8:00 PM

That Beer Looter Guy

Remember this guy from New Orleans? Wonder if he's in Houston now.

You know these folks are in Galveston as we speak.

Storm Drills Complete

In the event the 10 year old does not go to her father's tomorrow, she needs to know what to do if severe weather strikes here. We ran storm drills this evening, simulating a power outage. She had to get out of bed, get her flashlight, run downstairs into our bedroom, wake us up, then run into the storm closet, turn on the weather radio, and assume crash positions. She ran the first drill in 24 seconds and the second drill in 17 seconds. She is more prepared for a severe weather event than the majority of adults in our county, I am willing to bet.

6:45 PM CDT

Ike Will Rename Corpus Christi Galveston "Tina Turnerville"

Props to Scotty in my office (our department's new Business Continuity Coordinator, having inherited the job from me after I went on the Crisis Management Team). He ran across a quote Dr. Jeff Masters, the Weather Underground blogger, found from the National Weather Service office for Galveston:

All neighborhoods... and possibly entire coastal communities... will be inundated during high tide. Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one or two story homes will face certain death. Many residences of average construction directly on the coast will be destroyed. Widespread and devastating personal property damage is likely elsewhere. Vehicles left behind will likely be swept away. Numerous roads will be swamped... some may be washed away by the water. Entire flood prone coastal communities will be cutoff. Water levels may exceed 9 feet for more than a mile inland. Coastal residents in multi-story facilities risk being cutoff. Conditions will be worsened by battering waves. Such waves will exacerbate property damage... with massive destruction of homes... including those of block construction. Damage from beach erosion could take years to repair.

(emphasis mine).

What Am I Doing To Prepare?

Thanks to all who've emailed to check on us. We're in good shape, I hope, for the storm. We've got enough food, water purification supplies, gasoline for the chain saw, etc.

I'll start monitoring the hurricane net tonight. For those of you with shortwave radios, try picking it up on 14.325 MHz.

Speaking of ham radio, I will also start monitoring two meter traffic (for you non hams, that's the high frequency bands used for local communications) for local storm reports. We're told to expect gusts in excess of 50 mph. So I suspect we could lose power at some point, although the outages will be in pockets.

Schools are on early release tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if our office doesn't close early tomorrow as well. There's a chance I will need to take the 10 year old to Blanco to meet her dad for the weekend. Ideally, we'd do this in early afternoon rather than waiting until the usual 6pm pick up time.

10 September 2008

Ike Will Rename Corpus Christi "Tina Turnerville"

I've been in Dallas the last couple of days, so I've been away from the blog. But I've paid close attention to the track of Ike, which apparently will be in Austin Saturday afternoon at cat 2 strength.

I made a quick run to the local grocery story this afternoon, picking up a few last minute top off items. I've got to make another run tonight for a few items I missed, but all in all we're in good shape, I hope.

As the storm progresses, I will blog more on what I'm hearing and doing.

7 September 2008

National Preparedness Month

As we are days away from the anniverary of 9/11, it's appropriate to observe National Preparedness Month.

6 September 2008

Anything is possible these days. First, John McCain picks a little known governor for his veep choice, putting the Obama camp into panic mode. Second, Vanderbilt beats 24th ranked South Carolina Thursday night. And now, it looks like Hurricane Ike won't hit Florida, but rather may come towards the Louisiana/Texas coast:

Let's continue to track this currently Cat 4 storm.

2 September 2008

Put "Prepare for Race War" On Your To Do Lists

I fully understand we're in the middle of a hotly contested presidential race. Yet some in the media have allowed their emotions from the race to spill over into their writings.

Consider Fatimah Ali. In typical class warfare fashion, Ms. Ali writes "If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness!"

Lovely.

An Obama Supporter's Assessment of the Sarah Palin Pick

Outspoken Obama supporter Mr. Sean Combs assesses Sen. McCain's choice of Governor Palin in this video. I must warn you of the graphic language in it.

In short, Mr. Combs laments Sen. McCain's choice of vice presidential candidate, noting "There's not even no crackheads in Alaska! There's not even no black people. There's not even no like -- crime or, uh, uh like -- Foreign policies, you all may be versed on foreign -- foreign policies."

No crackheads? No crime? Wouldn't we want the governor of that state to replicate the achievement nationwide?

And for what it's worth, the Census numbers I found show in 2005, over 31,000 African Americans lived in Alaska. I'm pretty sure 31,000 is more than "not even no" black people.

31 August 2008

Labor Day Forecast

Check out the forecast for Houma, LA for tomorrow:

Labor Day

Hurricane conditions expected. Showers and isolated thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds and heavy rainfall. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Highs in the lower 80s. Northeast winds 70 to 90 mph shifting to the southeast in the afternoon. Gusts up to 115 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.

If you have a forecast like this, it's time to think about changing your Labor Day plans. God help these folks.

Trip to the Gun Range

Our Sunday School class decided last week to cancel today's session, due to the holiday weekend. So Kendel and I did what any bitter Bible and gun clinging couple would do - we took Kendel's new Springfield XD to the range.

She shot quite well, certainly well enough to qualify for a CHL. We hope to get her in class for that soon.

28 August 2008

Got .223?

What do you think is the main item in demand in Louisiana as Gustav takes aim at the state? A friend of mine sent me the answer.

27 August 2008

Possible Terrorism Threats Facing Us

The boys (and ladies) at Stratfor never disappoint with their level of analysis. Required reading.

Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Gustav

Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana won't be making the same mistakes New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Former Louisiana Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco made when Katrina approached the Louisiana coast. (Apparently Nagin left the Freak Show in Denver to return to New Orleans to "help prepare".....I would submit New Orleans would be better off if he stayed at the Freak Show in Denver.)

______ (insert storm status here) Gustav killed 22 in Haiti and is now forecasted to turn north to hit New Orleans at Cat 3 strength just in time to pre-empt coverage for the Freak Show in St. Paul next week. Don't underestimate the impact this may have on the GOP convention.

Hope all of you along the coast are ready for this.

24 August 2008

I must confess I've lost some interest in preparedness. I believe three things acted together to diminish my interest in the subject.

1. No terrorists attacks in the U.S. in 7 years. Next month will mark the 7th anniversary of 9/11. We are blessed we've not been hit again. Of course, I fully realize it could happen again. A friend of mine pointed out a few months ago our last two presidents were tested their first years in office (Clinton with WTC 1 in 1993; Bush with 9/11 in 2001). It's hard to stay vigilant when the threats are more remote. Now that I've typed this, I will eat my words, I am sure.....

2. The lost opportunity costs. How much have I spent in money and time preparing for something that never happened? Y2K, terrorism, etc? Answer: a lot. While I did enjoy my efforts (I'm weird like that) and I did sleep better knowing I was ready, it's still time and money I will never get back.

3. My spiritual beliefs. In the last couple of years, I've re-examined my faith (something I believe we should all do from time to time). I worry less now and trust God more. I realize this doesn't give me license to slack off in all aspects of my life, my attitude towards worrying about risks has changed dramatically.

Many of you who've read this site over the years (and yes, this month this site has been around - in one form or another - for five years now) know I've altered my approach to preparedness on more than one occasion. While it may seem flaky to do so, I've learned self evaluation and improvement comes only when we're willing to admit we have to change how we're currently doing things. And so I shall.

I'm still re-thinking how my newest evolution will look - it's a work in progress - but rest assured I will share it with you.

Speaking of sharing it with you, remember when Little Brother sent me this email back in January 2006?

Your narcissistic ramblings have got to be tedious for your readers.....How many times can people read about your sprouts, your guns, your obsessive list making, your plans for the apocalypse, etc. ?  They need a diversion.  Who wants to read “Today, I discovered a new use for aluminum foil. If you wrap your head it in it, it helps you get better reception on your ham radio.  You can also use it to wrap stuff in. So I went to Costco and bought 3,000 yards of it.”

I still laugh when I read this. At any rate, the whole point of sharing this stuff with you is so that hopefully you'll learn from my missteps and get some food for thought. I don't claim to have all the answers. I just hope you take something positive away from your time here.

Speaking of Little Brother (he's asked me not to refer to him as Governor Martin on this site), he's in Denver this week as a delegate for Obama. I will share my thoughts on the election in subsequent posts.

Finally, on a sad note, some of you will remember Sergio from South Africa who posted from time to time on the message board. I received an email telling me he passed away earlier this summer in a motorcycle accident. Compounding this tragedy is the fact his wife and mother of their two children died during a surgery six weeks earlier. Please keep their family in your prayers.

22 August 2008

Well, I am back on the air again. I hadn't blogged in a long time, so I hadn't checked out my own site in quite a while. A got a note that my site had been hijacked by Turkish muslims....no joke. If you saw it a few weeks ago, you know exactly what I am talking about.

At any rate, I switched webhosting companies and upgraded my web software to prevent that from happening again.

I will be putting the website back together in coming days. At this moment, I am not sure what I direction I am going to take wth the site. Stay tuned.

Farmer's Almanac

This year's almanac predicts a very cold winter. I haven't a clue how accurate the Farmer's Almanac is. Note if they are right, this will no doubt increase demand for energy even higher this winter.

My New Toy

Due to a lack of common sense, I fulfilled a life long dream this spring and bought an airplane. N2684T is a 1971 Cherokee 140D. I am learning to enjoy aircraft ownership - lots of pleasant evening flights, after work, to and from the repair shop for various things.

I am keeping the plane hangared about an hour outside of Austin. The hangars closer into town are unbelieveably expensive to rent.

And no, I have no idea what sort of preparedness need the airplane fills....other than another means of escape if and when the collapse occurs. But it did give me a great excuse to create yet another survival kit.

Kendel's Got A Gun

Kendel had a birthday recently. She'd been to a basic gun class back in the spring, and she shot several guns including a Springfield XD. So for her b-day, she got one - a 40 caliber version with a 4 inch barrel. Next stop - CHL class.

It's like I always say - The family that shoots together, shoots each other.

18 December 2007

Below are my notes for Friday's presentation at work.

In the coming weeks, several threats should give us reason not to let our guard down. While some of these problems have been with us for some time, others are relatively new phenomena to the extent they are more common recently than they have been in the past.

I believe we currently face four threats for which we should remain prepared:

1. Winter weather. Here in Texas, we are already experiencing winter weather in the northern part of the state. The official forecast from NOAA is for a warmer and drier winter than average, however. Ironically, recent ice and snow storms in the central U.S. (which is in this warmer than normal forecast area) left over a million people without power and claimed over 20 lives. We should not allow this forecast to cause us to feel complacent.

2. Avian Influenza. The recent report out of China of a father and son becoming infected with H5N1 has people concerned the virus may have been transmitted human to human. As we are entering flu season, this concern warrants more attention. Earlier this week, the WHO dispatched a team to Pakistan to investigate the deaths of four brothers in South Asia's first reported outbreak of avian influenza. The AP quoted one WHO official as saying "it's possible" the transmission was human to human. Human to human transmission, if possible, would indicate the H5N1 virus has successfully mutated into something much more problematic than the strain of H5N1 officials have dealt with previously.

And if you don't get it while traveling to South Asia, you may very get it from your hotel room.

3. Cyber attacks. A recent CNN report showed how quickly our powerplants can be destroyed with a cyber attack. We, the general population, really doesn't know just how big of a risk such an attack is. We do know, however, that if such an attack took place, it would have a catastrophic effect on our society and economy.

4. Random violence. Recent shootings at malls and churches remind us this time of year can be unsettling for many people. The recent rash of violent attacks, however, are relatively new to the United States, in terms of frequency and severity.

How do we prepare for these events? I suggest six steps to maximize your family's ability to withstand one of these events.

1. Know the basics, and execute them well.

• Having food and water on hand at home and in your car for an extended period will give you a huge advantage. For winter weather, a week's worth of supplies should be sufficient. Experts on avian influenza recommend at least thirty days worth of supplies allowing you to be completely self contained in your home.
• Being aware at all times of your surroundings - in malls, churches, at work - will improve your odds in the event of a violent incident.

2. Prepare your family now for the possibility of these events.

• Do you have a strategy to contact your family in the event of an emergency?
• Do you have a strategy to get home or to shelter in the event of an emergency?

3. Regarding winter weather...

• Monitor the weather regularly. At a minimum, check the forecast daily. Winter weather events have a way of forming rapidly and changing rapidly. What starts out as a forecast for rain 48 hours from now can turn into an ice or snow event. A weather radio is always a good investment.
• If you are traveling away from home, have winter weather clothes and other necessary items with you in case you get stranded by weather or breakdown. Plan your travel when possible to avoid traveling at night.
• Having food and water on hand at home and in your car for an extended period will give you a huge advantage.

4. Regarding avian influenza...

• Get your flu shots.
• Wash your hands and use hand sanitizer.
• Have enough food, water and supplies to cut yourself off from the world for 30 days. Note I think this would only happen in a very extreme circumstance - I expect life to go on, with a few interruptions here and there - during a pandemic.
• If you have to stay home, have enough activities for you and your kids available to keep yourselves entertained.
• Remind kids the importance of good hygiene.

5. Regarding cyber attacks on the power grid...

• Having food and water on hand at home and in your car for an extended period will give you a huge advantage.
• Emergency cash is a good idea - since ATMs, banks, etc. may not be accessible.
• Be prepared for basic home protection.

6. Regarding random violence...

• Be prepared for basic self protection.
• Be prepared to leave an area quickly, and make sure the family knows the plan.
• Trust your instincts.

16 December 2007

I had a long drive home from a business trip last Friday afternoon - in the rain. My car looked nasty from hours of splashing through road grime. So this afternoon, after I cleaned my car, I applied Rain X to my car's windshield, as well to as my wife's.

I am a big believer in Rain X. If you've never tried it, by all means go to the store and buy some this week in the automotive section. It's a miracle drug for improved visability in the rain. It purportely improves your windshield's abiltity to prevent ice and snow build up, but I don't know about that first hand.

The experiement I did today was to apply two coats to my car, and one coat to hers. I want to see if there's a noticable difference in effectiveness and duration between one coat and two.

Also, I got an early birthday present from Kendel this year - a Palm Treo 755. It's a PDA with all sorts of cool features. I got it primarily for my real estate business, but it has all sorts of preparedness applications. For example, I can watch Tropical Update from the Weather Channel on it, as well as access the internet. On Friday, I used it to pull up local radar to see what was in front of me on the way home. Another cool feature is "Google Maps," which as the name implies, lets you use your PDA as a map.

I am making a plan for preparedness activities for the first quarter of 2008. I am primarily focusing on creating a new plan for my new situation - a different neighborhood, now with a spouse and stepchild. I don't see the challenge being insurmountable by any stretch, but it will be challenge from living in a rural area, to an apartment, and now to a suburban home environment.

Later this week, I will post my notes from this Friday's work presentation on upcoming threats.

12 December 2007

Just a quick note to let all know I am well. My friend Paul from college was in town last night and took Kendel and I to dinner. It was great seeing him. He mentioned I had not blogged in quite some time.

I am scheduled to lead a discussion at work on the risks we face in the next ninety days. The way I score it, it looks like this:

1. Winter weather. Here in Texas, we are already experiencing winter weather in the northern part of the state. The official forecast from NOAA is for a warmer and drier winter than average, however.

2. Avian Influenza. The recent report out of China of a father and son becoming infected with H5N1 has people concerned the virus may have been transmitted human to human. As we are entering flu season, this concern warrants more attention.

3. Cyber attacks. A recent CNN report showed how quickly our powerplants can be destroyed with a cyber attack. Such an attack could have catastrophic effects on our economy and society.

4. Random violence. Recent shootings at malls and churches remind us this time of year can be unsettling for many people.

These are the things I am preparing for over the next few weeks.

20 September 2007

I came across a very interesting story you weather junkies might appreciate. I am glad to see the National Weather Service will be issuing more precise severe weather alerts starting this fall.

Big changes coming to paultmartin.com in the not so distant future. Tomorrow, I will be placing my newly minted real estate salesperson's license with a local real estate broker. You know that means.....the site will (hopefully, if I am successful) cease being a disaster preparedness site and instead become a real estate site. I gotta do what I gotta do.

My plan is to save much of the disaster preparedness content I have created over the years and place it under one link on the tool bar. So for the three or four of you who use those materials from time to time, they will in large part remain on the site. However, when you visit the website after the changes, it will be clear to the casual customer the site is about real estate and not about preparedness.

16 September 2007

I am almost done with the move into Kendel's. Moving into a new home is always challenging, no matter how much stuff you try to get rid of before the move.

It also presents a number of issues to be addressed once I'm settled in. I need to think about how to be better prepared for a disaster now that I am back in a house, rather than an apartment. Now that I have a family and pets to think about, it necessarily makes the plan more complicated. However, Kendel remains interested in improving our prepardness level, and having more storage space for my gear makes things much easier.

I also need to get a better feel for security issues facing the neighborhood. To that end, I am meeting with some folks from the neighborhood association to talk about crime issues. We're also going to discuss the feasibility of a neighborhood watch. It should be quite interesting.

7 September 2007

First, it was great visiting Cliff and Marty this week in Houston. I was there for a continuing legal education conference; I met up with Cliff and some of his gun buddies Tuesday night, and then I had dinner Thursday night with both Cliff and Marty. They are very prepared people indeed.

I also went to Lakewood Church - housed in the former Compaq Center in downtown Houston - for Wednesday night services. Regardless of what you think of the church's pastor, Joel Osteen, you owe it to yourself to attend at least one service there. It's impressive to say the least. Kendel asked me to describe it - the best I could do was to say "imagine what a church would look like if a cruise ship ran one." I don't say that to be critical - quite the contrary - as they have had to shoe horn a very large church into a building designed for NBA basketball and Metallica concerts.

Joel's sister Lisa delivered the message that night. She is much more "fire and brimstone" than her brother, in my opinion. She did a great presentation on Ephesians 5 and how we all need spiritual mentors, citing Psalm 101:6 as an example.

At any rate, I was driving home from Houston this afternoon when Cliff called to say the Osama Bin Ladin video had just been released. He added "Bin Ladin asked America to convert to Islam."

Without thinking, I made my usual flippant, yet predictable response. "I'll get right on that," I told Cliff. (Personally, I figured I'd convert to Islam only if I got sent to prison, because that's apparently what you're supposed to do there. I saw it once on an episode of Oz on HBO one night).

Then Cliff reminded me OBL got in trouble with some clerics after 9/11 since he failed to warn Americans and offer them an opportunity to convert before the attack. From the news reports I saw, I learned some Muslims believe that in order to attach a non-believer, you must give the non-believer the opportunity to convert to Islam.

Cliff raised a very good point. Does OBL's invitation to convert act as a trigger or final warning of some impending attack? If so, what should we be doing in the short term?

Having just moved, I am still trying to get settled into my new crib. But I will be spending some time this weekend working on ways to improve security and preparedness around here.

30 August 2007

A few quick items:

.

The National Hurricane Center is tracking four - count them - four systems in tne North Atlantic right now. It appears this one is the only one that warrants any further watching.

I also wanted to mention that while I am a big fan of my Surefire flashlight, it is going back to the factory. It has some sort of short in the switch. It won't reliably activiate when I hit the switch.

Finally - Texans - September 1 is almost here. That means we are literally hours away from the expansion of the castle doctrine. Prepare as you see fit.

27 August 2007

My stepdaughter got her wish this evening - a used guinea pig. Her mother said this was "y'alls" project (for those of you not from the South, the term "y'all" denotes the second person plural, as in "If there are problems with the guinea pig, y'all deal with it - not me). A nice co-worker of mine gave her the cage and supplies, and another friend of her mother's gave her the guinea pig.

I'm terrified the dogs will see the guinea pig as a snack and try to rip its head off. We'll see.

On the news front, Newsweek is doing a big splash on the current risk of terrorism.

20 August 2007

We got back from our cruise vacation last night - tired but happy. We had a great time, always one step ahead of Hurricane Dean. Speaking of which, I am pleasantly surprised at how proactive the state of Texas is being in its preparedness efforts. Gov. Rick Perry will not make the same mistakes New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin or Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco did.

A few things to share with you this evening:

• In the wake of recent norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships, Princess placed Purel dispensers all over the dining areas and strongly encouraged people to use them. One guy wouldn't give you silverware until he saw you take a hit from the dispenser. Good for them.
• What provisions are in a life boat you ask? I saw the checklist in one of the lifeboats, which was used to tender us from the ship to shore. For every person, each life boat contained three liters of water and 10,000 kiljoules of food. What is a "kilojoule" you ask? It's basically the metric version of the calorie. One kilojoule is equal to 4.2 calories. Thus, the boat carried approximately 2380 calories per passenger. Not much if you ask me, but then again, in our obesity plagued nation, I suspect many of us have a few calories stored up in reserve (including me - I didn't miss many meals during the cruise in their "all you can eat 24 hours a day" format).
• Perhaps a bit more interesting was the "fishing tackle" that was carried on board as part of the mandatory equipment on a lifeboat. So let's see - three liters of water (which won't last long in the Caribbean heat), 2380 calories in food (which, if you're curious, is the rough equivalent of 4.5 Big Macs), and all the sushi you can catch and eat.

Ironically, I was hardly prepared for this cruise. Given the move into Kendel's house, I hardly had time to pack. I took no extra provisions nor my shortwave radio. I suppose this is my version of living dangerously. I am lucky to have survived.

Meanwhile, the stock market is going nuts. I mentioned Jim Cramer's cranial detonation in an earlier blog. Not a week later, the Fed did exactly what he was screaming for them to do - open the discount window and put some liquidity into the markets.

I don't know about you, but I think this whole subprime thing should come as no surprise to anyone. It's called subprime for a reason. Please note I am not being critical of anyone who buys a house with a subprime loan - we're all entitled to live the American dream and make decisions for ourselves, without interference from the government or others. But when lenders are loaning people far more than the value of their homes, with no credit or salary checks, they run the risk of getting burned when the economy hiccups - which is what's happening now.

One other thing - I found a really cool feature you all need to know about. You can send a text message via email to any phone capable of sending them by emailing XXX-XXX-XXXX@teleflip.com. (And yes, the Xs stand for your cell phone number you're trying to email.). I tried it and it works quite well. This could be quite useful in an emergency.

9 August 2007

So are we melting down or aren't we? Today's 400 point drop in the Dow, along with comments from leading economists, make you wonder. I have to think that with consumer confidence at a high level, unemployment at a low level, and a healthy global economy, this has to just be a hiccup. However, I've been wrong before about things like this.

While I am not hearing any stories on the terrorism front, I did come across this story today by some guy advocating we have another 9/11 in order to "bring the country together."

7 August 2007

In transition this week - moving from my old place to Kendel's. I just got my computer hooked up and doing a quick test blog. I recently had my computer overhauled - increasing RAM from 256 MB to 2 GB. What a difference it makes.

Weather out in the tropics looks good for our upcoming cruise, much to my chagrin. I'd like nothing better than to get buffeted by a tropical system.

What do you make of Trent Lott's recent comments about getting out of Washington in August because of terrorist threats?

And what's up with the stock market? Did you see Jim Boo-yah Cramer's head explode the other night?

30 July 2007

This evening, Kendel wanted me to post something on my website via a backdoor for some project she's working on. It was rather challenging to do, since it's been over 7 months since I've blogged or messed with the site for that matter. So I figured I'd put up a short blog just to see if I still remember all of the procedures and functions to do so.

She and I are getting married soon. This means I am moving out the "Old Apartment," which is quite reminiscent of that song by the Bare Naked Ladies. Moving is a real pain. Fortunately, I am donating the majority of what little furniture I do have to a homeless program at my church. It's a win-win: homeless people get furniture, I get a tax write off AND I don't have to move this stuff again.

Other things going on with me - I got my Texas real estate salesperson's license earlier this month. I haven't quite decided how to use it yet, but I am looking forward to being able to get access to the MLS and see what only the realtors see.

I haven't been to my ranch lately - getting ready for the real estate exam has taken up a bunch of my weekend time. I need to get down there very soon.

Books I'm reading - "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferazzi, a great book on networking techniques (because I am not very good at networking). And much to the chagrin of many, I am re-reading Joel Osteen's book, the title of which I can't remember. I didn't pay any attention to that guy until I was cleaning the apartment and had CNBC on one Sunday afternoon. He is a great communicator, and I find his message interesting. I don't agree with all of his points, but I do find some of his comments helpful to me.

As for preparedness stuff, I am moving into Kendel's house, which means I will be starting yet another phase of my preparedness plan. I have postponed a lot of prepping and planning, knowing I am moving in the next couple of weeks. I figure I will get over there and settled in