No Nanny State - Molon Labe!

Going Dark

2009-10-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
--James Madison

[Insert tongue in cheek] Ya know what? If you pay attention, the average American could pretty easily become jaded with their government. Really. [remove tongue from cheek]

One of my brothers and I were having a discussion about bailouts and greed and all the bullshit that goes with it. It is abundantly clear that our various levels of government simply do not represent the individual people. They represent themselves and special interests.

Pick a topic or subject, and there is corruption involved - at least when Nanny gets her mitts on it.

But what do we do about it? I was reading a story in the Sacramento Bee this morning about millions and millions of dollars that were spent by the state government on cars and trucks that are just sitting there. No one needs them, no one uses them, but some bureaucrat knows that if you don't spend your entire annual budget, you get less money the following year.

One department still has pickup and larger trucks parked in its yard that it bought during 2006, 2007 and 2008, a Bee investigation found. The vehicles are awaiting final assembly and are undeployed.

No one will be called on the carpet for this. It will be swept under the rug with promises of tougher reforms. Then it will happen again, and again.

I read that 60 Minutes (I won't watch shit on CBS) did a story last night actually ripping government management in health care. There is a 12%-20% fraud rate - but that's only the fraud they KNOW about.

We now want to increase the size of government in health care by at least 50%. The word, "insane" does not adequately describe that consideration. In private business, it would be like putting an incompetent manager in charge of a bigger department simply because he promises to do a better job going forward.

It would never happen because you'd lose your ass, financially. Nanny doesn't have that same concern. They have no capital invested in the enterprise.

It's gonna happen, and there's not a damned thing we can do about it. Cap-and-Trade will soon follow. More bailouts, more favors, more expansion of government. Logic and responsible government have, "left the building". Regardless of how poorly it's run or how corrupt it becomes, no one will ever be held accountable.

Look what Barry is doing with his various Czars. They're all "presidential advisers" - not vetted by Congress or anyone other than Barry himself. As such, they can't be compelled to testify before Congress. These people are running the country, but we have no right to question what they're doing.

With the single exception of National Security advisers, anyone who whispers into the president's ear needs to do so publicly. Of course, everything then becomes a national security issue. I screamed long and loud when the oil companies were giving back rubs and prostrate gland massages to the Bush administration. We couldn't even get those bastards names, much less what was discussed at the meetings. "National security, you know!"

Regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, the same shit happens. Too many secrets and not enough accountability.
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I guess we can just keep trying to plug along and absorb the blows. Don't prosper, just get-along.

If you go off into your own little self-sufficient property, your county will increasingly tax your ass to pay for their largess. You will need to at least occasionally buy stuff from "the world" and they'll hammer you with sales or VAT taxes. If you don't show enough income to pay for the goods you have, they'll come after you for tax evasion.

Perhaps the only hope is that the big, fat bloated government won't notice your tiny existence and will leave you alone. What a horrible way to live. Cowering so the bully doesn't kick your ass. Don't strive for excellence, settle for mediocrity.

I'm just not built that way.
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I said a while back that I wanted this blog to evolve into a "things you can do" blog, and not a bitch-and-moan fest.

I try and do that with some of the prepper articles, some financial education and some political insight. But it's not enough.

The problem is, talking about the things that need to really happen tends to draw the attention of the people in power, regardless of the legality of what you're suggesting. Some guy screaming at the top of his lungs on his blog is not going to change one single thing, other than his freedom and maybe his pulse rate.

I seem to keep coming back to the Secret Freedom Fighter paper. It was published back in 1986 by Paladin Press, and is now available online. In broad terms, its philosophy is to fight-the-fight as an individual.

There's a lot I agree with and a lot I disagree with in the book. But I think the philosophy is sound - do your own shit for the sake of doing what you feel is right, not for the spot light. And keep your mouth shut about what you're doing.

When I started this blog 5 and a half years ago, I hoped to bring the rot of big government to people's attention. Things have only worsened in that period of time.

It is unrealistic to think this or any blog will "rally the troops". People will either see what's going on around them, or they won't. I cannot affect enough people to make a real difference, and my time can be better spend focusing on things that will.

So, I'm packing up my soapbox. I don't know if I'll convert it to a prepper's storage bin, or an ammo box. Probably both.

My prepper posts will continue elsewhere on my business' website. In fact, I'll probably poach most of my prepper posts from this site to the new one to help build some content quickly. I won't be publishing that URL here in an attempt to keep my business "persona" separate from my political beliefs.

I'll still drop by my favorite sites to rant and rave. My cranky ass will still be around, just not quite so visibly!

Many thanks to the couple of hundred people that stopped by here each day. Really - I cannot express my thanks enough.

Continue to stay educated on the issues, and do what it takes to get things turned around. Fight the good fight.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
--Thomas Jefferson

Green Casualties

2009-10-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability.
--Jerry Falwell

We all know we're going to see a lot more crap like this -

On October 31, 2009, the once largest aluminum plant in the world will shut down. With it goes another American industry and more American jobs. The Columbia Falls Aluminum Company in Montana will shut down its aluminum production because it cannot purchase the necessary electrical power to continue its operations.

Hmm. I wonder what's the reason for not being able to get electrical power. Surely, a place this big has made arrangements to take care of things like this.

Columbia Falls Aluminum negotiated a contract with Bonneville Power Administration in 2006 for Bonneville to supply electrical power until September 30, 2011.

See? American industry taking care of business. What could have possibly happened?

But, responding to lawsuits, the 9th US Circuit Court ruled the contract was invalid because it was incompatible with the Northwest Power Act. Therefore, the combination of the Northwest Power Act and a US Circuit Court were the final villains that caused the shutdown of Columbia Falls Aluminum.

Oh. What kind of anti-business, anti-American asshole would bring such a suit?

We need to look no further than the many environmental groups like the Sierra Club and to America's elected officials who turned their backs on American citizens and in essence themselves, for they too are citizens of this country. These officials bought into the green agenda promoted by the heavily funded environmental groups. Caving to pressure, they passed laws and the environmental groups filed lawsuits that began turning off the lights in America. The dominos stated to fall.

Read the rest of the article. You'll see how as early as 1988, the EPA was laying the groundwork for the CO2 horseshit.

I was the first to raise my hand to ask a question, "How can you defend your global warming hypothesis when you have omitted the effects of clouds which affect heat balance far more than carbon dioxide, and when your hypothesis contradicts the paper by Lee in the Journal of Applied Meteorology in 1972 that shows the atmosphere does not behave like a greenhouse?"

He answered me by saying, "You do not know what you are talking about. I know more about how the atmosphere works than you do."

Not being one to drop out of a fight, I responded, "I know many of the atmospheric scientists in this room, and many others who are not present but I do not know you. What is your background and what makes you know so much more than me?"

He answered, "I know more than you because I am a lawyer and I work for the EPA."

I hope you all have a way of providing for your own power, heat, and probably food. In the very near future, getting any of them commercially is going to be increasingly difficult and costly.

But it's for your own good, you silly, stupid citizen. Be thankful for the people we have showing us The Way.

I'm sure the 200 workers at the Columbia Falls plan are very thankful, indeed.

Number 100

2009-10-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

The 100th bank to fail this year happened today -

Partners Bank, Naples, Florida, was closed today by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Stonegate Bank, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to assume all of the deposits of Partners Bank.

More green sprouts for Florida, huh?

Feel Good Nonsense

2009-10-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth.
--Phaedrus (Roman fabulist, 15-50 B.C.)

Pond Scum is going to save the world! The eco-freaks are talking up algae as a way to suck up evil CO2 from the air AND provide a fuel source. It's a miracle!

Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.

Yeah. There are a couple of problems, though. First off, there's the whole "great CO2 suckers" thing. After the algae eats up the CO2, then what? If you burn it to produce heat, the CO2 is returned to the atmosphere. If you somehow squeeze the fat out of the algae, what do you do with the now CO2-riddled fat-less algae sludge? Bury it (like evil nuclear waste)? Feed it to cattle (only to be farted out as methane, and even scarier Green House Gas)?

And then there's the whole "cost" thing -

Even though algae grows like gangbusters, it currently costs up to 100 dollars to make a gallon of algal fuel-- hardly a savings.

Hey, price is no object when you're saving the world, right?

These pinheads need to do some significant research into the term, "unintended consequences". When you start dicking around trying to force-feed a solution, shit happens. Just off the top of my head, they'll need to figure out what land to set aside for this, where will they get the fresh water for the scum to live in, and how much will our taxes be increased to pay for this (see: Ethanol from corn for supporting documentation).

Hey, I'll help the cause. I nominate DC as the land mass to be used. Plenty of pond scum is already in place (sorry, that was too easy to pass up!).
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Talk about, "Passing The Buck" -

The Federal Reserve would police banks' pay policies to ensure they don't encourage employees to take reckless gambles like those that contributed to the financial crisis, according to a proposal unveiled Thursday.

So the government in general, and the Federal Reserve in particular were major, MAJOR drivers of the policies that put us in the current national financial crisis. What does any good political body do? It attempts to divert attention from its culpability, and blame someone else. In this case, it's the Evil Banks.

The Fed and their Bank Regulator bretheren were responsible for monitoring and REGULATING the business activities of the banking system. The system has gone to hell in a hand-basket, WHILE THEY WERE IN CHARGE, but they had nothing to do with the problems? Right.

It's like a parent who tells their kid not to smoke pot, but who gives them money to score some weed. As long as the kid brings mom and dad a little reefer for their troubles, things are good.

When the kid gets busted for selling the pot, the parents protest to the judge that they tried their best to raise good kids, but the little rascals just wouldn't listen. They're going to immediately add more house rules, and their weekly allowance is going to be cut in half.

A wise judge would throw the book at the parents for providing an environment that encouraged reckless behavior and lawlessness. Instead, the judge - the American people - will applaud the "decisive actions" of the parents. But the money will still flow and the drugs will still be bought, and after a time, things will be back to normal.

A nice, dysfunctional American family.
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Got Threat?

"The danger to progressive causes and the institution of journalism [ed. - Insert chortle] has become too significant to ignore," says the introduction to a memo by Media Matters founder David Brock. "At Media Matters, we believe it is of paramount importance that progressive leaders have the information necessary to understand exactly what Fox News has become. We hope this brief memorandum will assist you in reaching your own decision on how best to engage this threat."

Forget that whole, "First Amendment" thing. Forget media objectivity. Forget vigorous debate.

If you're not parading with the Obama Marching Band and Smothering Debt Society, you are an insect that must be crushed.

Tune up those instruments and play along! It feels sooooo good! Enjoy yourself now - we'll send you the bill later...
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Got Home?

Nationally, sales of existing homes jumped almost 8 percent from September last year, without adjusting for seasonal factors.

Woo Hoo! Life is good, things are peachy-keen and Viagra is no longer needed in America!

What? There's a sub-text?

Real estate agents and economists attributed the brisk sales to a temporary federal tax credit. First-time homebuyers can receive a credit of 10 percent of the sales price, up to $8,000.

Oh. Nanny, once again, was standing on the street corner handing out $100 bills and people actually accepted them?! Shocking.

It's funny, but as a taxpayer, I've now bought banks, car companies, insurance companies, private automobiles and private homes. I have yet to receive my stock certificates, car title or property title. I get the liabilities but not the assets.

What up wit dat?

TVP Test

2009-10-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.
--Unknown

When searching for dehydrated or freeze-dried foods for our preps, I kept running into Textured Vegetable Protein, or TVP. It is a dried soy product designed to act as a vegetarian meat substitute. Most of us have eaten TVP and not realized it. Many "bacon bits" are actually flavored TVP.

The stuff I saw was either beef or chicken flavored, or plain. I noticed that my grocery store was selling the plain stuff in the bulk section, so I picked up a couple of pounds to test out.

TVP is very healthy food. If I'm doing my math right, it has about half the protein as an equal portion (by weight after re-hydration) but twice the value, as chicken breast.

[Snap to! Pay attention here!]

1 1/4 cups of dried TVP combined with 1 1/4 cups of boiling water will roughly give you a pound of TVP "meat".

The TVP costs approximately $2.50 a pound, dry. The 1 1/4 cups of dry TVP weighs approximately 4 ounces (or a quarter pound). To get a pound of TVP "meat" costs $0.63 ($2.50/4). You get 60 grams of protein in that pound (12 grams per quarter cup dry, times 5, one-quarter cup portions), at a cost of about a penny per gram.

Raw, boneless chicken breast costs approximately $2 per pound. You get 108 grams of protein in that pound (27 grams per quarter pound portion), at about two pennies per gram.

Soooooo, TVP is about twice as protein-rich on a penny-for-penny basis when compared to chicken breast.

[OK, you can nod off again...]
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So, it appears to be a good value, but if it tastes like crap, who cares? It has to be something you'll eat and use to actually have value.

Here's what the stuff looks like before being re-hydrated -

It's kind of a dry, crunchy breakfast cereal texture. You add equal volumes of boiling water, cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes before using. It puffs up in volume by about 75%. A cup and a quarter of the stuff puffed up to about 2 and a quarter cups of "meat".

The smell and taste of the re-hydrated stuff was OK. I can't tell you what it was like, but it wasn't unpleasant. Perhaps along the lines of cooked, unflavored chicken breast - pretty non-descript.

I took the re-hydrated TVP, added one egg, a tablespoon of flour and a teaspoon of beef bullion and made up a "burger" patty. I wanted to see what the stuff tasted like with just a bit of seasoning.

It browned up pretty well, though it was a little "crumbly" in texture -

Not bad in taste, but nothing to write home about.

Most of the 100% vegetarian recipes I had viewed were heavy on the spices and herbs. I took the remaining "meat" and added a bunch of Mexican-food spices - cumin, red pepper flakes, a bit of chile powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

I decided to pan fry it to resemble diced meat for tacos or burritos -

It was much tastier than the patty, although the texture would not fool anyone into thinking it was ground beef or chicken. It looked, smelled and tasted very good.
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The vast majority of recipes I found for TVP used them as a meat extender. The recipes called for anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 addition of TVP. I decided to make up some Italian sausage using 2 pounds of pork and 1 pound (re-hydrated weight) of TVP.

I added approximately a tablespoon each of fennel seed, dehydrated diced garlic, dehydrated diced onion, and dehydrated parsley, two teaspoons of salt, plus a teaspoon each of red pepper flakes, black pepper and onion powder.

I made up a patty to check for flavor -

It was moist, tender and friggin' delicious! The only "give-away" was that the crust was a bit more crunchy than a normal sausage patty.

Emboldened by my success, I made up a couple dozen meatballs for dinner -

They were absolutely indistinguishable from "regular" meatballs.

Since I added the TVP, I didn't add any bread crumbs to the normal recipe. They were incredibly moist and flavorful.

Most importantly, they got Two-Thumbs-Up from my family.
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TVP will absolutely, positively be added to our preps. It's a great high protein, low weight, low cost addition.

I also definitely see it being added to our regular food menus in things like sausage or anything that needs ground meat such as tacos, meat sauces, lasagna and the like. It will simply be used as an extender of real meat, but probably not be used by itself.

TVP - It's not just for bacon bits anymore!

New Sheriff In Town

2009-10-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
--James Madison

I live in a Northern Californian county called Contra Costa. We are the third largest county in the SF Bay Area. With nearly 1 million residents (of the 6.7 million in the Bay Area) we're one of the Big Dogs on the block.

Our current Sheriff is retiring. This guy is a piece of work - at least regarding 2A rights. Basically, the only way you can get a Concealed Carry Permit is to be a part of the Sheriff's Posse. Even then, it's not guaranteed, even if you meet all of the other state standards.

There is at least one person who has officially thrown his hat into the ring for the job. David Livingston is the current Chief of Police of our county's largest city. There looks like there will be at least one other candidate - a current Lieutenant of the Sheriff's department.

I just sent Livingston this letter seeking his views on basic 2A rights:

Mr. Livingston,

I am a long-time resident of Contra Costa County, having lived here for 35 years, including the past 21 in Eastern Contra Costa. I am an NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, and Second Amendment rights are very important to me.

I would appreciate a response to the following questions:

1. Concealed Carry Permits allow law-abiding citizens to legally carry a handgun to defend themselves, their family and others in the community in the event a criminal chooses to harm or kill others. As you are no doubt aware, the state of California gives the Sheriff the ability to grant these Permits. Many counties in the state are considered, "Shall Issue" counties - as long as the applicant meets the requirements (demonstrate firearms proficiency, not a felon, etc.), they are granted a Permit.

Three parts: (A) If you are elected Sheriff, under what conditions will you issue Concealed Carry Permits? (B) Assuming an applicant meets all other applicable standards, will you consider, "Self Defense" as "Good cause" for granting a Permit? (C) Do you support laws similar to the AB 357 which would have made California a "Shall Issue" state?

2. The California Legislature recently passed AB 962 which will require, among other things, that law abiding citizens submit to registration and finger printing whenever they wish to purchase ammunition in this state. As with any law, the criminals affected by it will disregard it. They're criminals. California already has myriad laws addressing penalties for criminals buying or possessing ammunition. AB 962 will ONLY be followed by law abiding citizens. Since they are allowed to purchase and possess ammunition, it is a pointless intrusion into our lives and an invasion of our privacy.

Two parts: (A) What are your views on AB 962? (B) Will you support the NRA's and other Second Amendment Rights organizations in working to overturn this law before it goes into effect?

The same questions will be posed to anyone else that decides to run for the position of Sheriff. I will share your responses with my 1,400 fellow members of the Diablo Rod and Gun Club.

Thank you for your time.

The Other Mike S.

I'll pass along any responses. I'm not hopeful. His current city is as liberal as they come in Contra Costa.

Plus, I probably just put myself on an Enemies List. Oh well, now is not the time to go quietly into the night...

Head Shakin' Crap

2009-10-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

The headline:

Homebuilder Confidence in U.S. Unexpectedly Decreases

Huh? Unexpected by whom? US banks hold literally MILLIONS of foreclosed and other non-performing homes on their books, waiting for the market to turn, and new home builders are surprised no one wants their high-priced stuff? Really?!

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo confidence index declined to 18 from a reading of 19 in September that was the highest in more than a year, the Washington-based association said today. Figures less than 50 mean most respondents view conditions as poor.

Oh. So the home builders have a pretty damned pessimistic view of the market - a realistic view. Who, then, is fanning the Happy News flames?

The builder confidence index was forecast to rise to 20 this month, according to the median of 44 estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Projections ranged from 18 to 21. The gauge, which was first published in January 1985, averaged 16 last year.

Ahhh. Green eyeshaded "intellectuals" in conjunction with a news organization are the ones who are surprised. Who would have ever guessed THAT?

Idiots and propagandists.
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Is the White House starting to believe its own propaganda? Who is the brain surgeon that decided it was a good idea to personalize their distaste of Fox News?

They're all using the Talking Points memo that told them to question whether or not Fox News was a news organization.

And White House political guru David Axelrod, who had coffee a few weeks ago in New York with Fox News founder Roger Ailes, told ABC that Fox News is "really not news. ... Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way. We're not going to treat them that way."

You know you've seriously stepped on your own dick when even your stalwart propaganda outlets like the LA Times are questioning the sanity of your actions.

But some are wondering if this is smart politics. Given that Fox News boasts a far larger audience than cable competitors CNN and MSNBC, and given that most elections are decided by independents who might occasionally watch FNC, the strategy could backfire.

“It's a very risky strategy,” perennial presidential advisor David Gergen said recently on CNN. “It's not one I would advocate.”

Ya think? Me, I strongly recommend they continue. The more they injure themselves, the less we have to do.
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I've got an upcoming test of TVP - Textured Vegetable Protein. For some reason recently, I been seeing all kinds of articles on the stuff. My local grocery store sells it in bulk, so I'll play Lab Rat for (most of) you guys.

If it's even marginally tasty, I'll add some to my preps as it looks to be a great high-protein product that stores very well.

If I get ambitious, I'll make up some Wheat Meat (meat-like gluten from wheat) and compare the two. Go here to take a look at the test I already did with the wheat gluten.

2009-10-18T16:10:00.001-07:00

OMG! We win!

2009-10-18T15:58:00.001-07:00

Jamarcus sux. Can the D hold?

2009-10-18T15:54:00.001-07:00

13-9 with 6mins left. Nailbiter.

2009-10-18T15:40:00.001-07:00

C-bass got us 3 more - 13-6

2009-10-18T15:25:00.001-07:00

Still ten-6 after 3. Still hope.

2009-10-18T14:55:00.001-07:00

Phillys placekicker is as bad as Jamarcus.

2009-10-18T14:34:00.001-07:00

Ten-6 Raiders @ the half. Despite Jamarcus. Cool.

2009-10-18T13:53:00.001-07:00

7-3 Raiders after one qtr. WTF?

2009-10-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

Horrible horrible call by refs

2009-10-18T13:42:00.001-07:00

Zack Miller rocks!

2009-10-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

Jamarcus int. Could he b any worse?

2009-10-18T13:09:00.001-07:00

Raiders 3 n out? Shocking.

2009-10-17T20:39:00.001-07:00

Fil-Am dance. Take me now, Lord!

Biddy Day...

2009-10-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

I'm on the run today and tomorrow.

I'm teaching an Advanced Pistol student this morning, finalizing the training agreement with the new gun shop, helping a buddy move his office, then attending a Filipino/American dinner dance this evening (WTF?!).

Yesterday, I was able to get 10 more pounds of meat canned up - 8 of ham and two of chicken. It was tough not eating chunks of the ham - it was an uncooked, raw ham. Obviously, it had the salt and other flavorings already present, so it smelled great as I was chunking it up!

Tomorrow, I go to the Raiders game to watch them get their asses kicked - In person! They are 14 point underdogs at home. I'm going to try and post some crap while the game is playing. I tried it at the last home game and it didn't work. We'll see...

We're playing Philly tomorrow. I was looking forward to seeing the Dog Killing Bastard, Michael Vick play, but it looks like McNabb returned in fine form last week.

I'm a little conflicted, though. I was planning on bringing my Michael Vick Dog Chew Toy to the game. You know, all in support of Michael and all.

The problem is, he's wearing his old Atlanta jersey. What to do, what to do????

I'm sure I would be called a racist for having his likeness chewed up by a dog.

Cold Packed Meat

2009-10-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.
--Confucius

Before I get started, a bit of a heads up: I'm on a bunch of prepper mailing lists. There is a guy out there that sells seeds for survival (hint, hint). I bought some of his seeds and was/am very happy with the purchase.

I'm on one of his mailing lists. He recently sent out an email touting a new gig he has - dehydrated foods. He has a special offer of a year's worth of food -for two people - for $595 plus $50 shipping.

Sounded great. Almost too great.

I did some math based upon the nutritional information on his site for the foods you get. I sent him this email message -

How can you say this is enough food for two people for one year? Based upon the published numbers on your site, the total calories provided by your package is 224,215. For two people, that would be 307 calories per day per person. No one can survive on that. This isn't enough food for one person for a year, let alone two.

I am still waiting for a reply explaining a mistake in the numbers or in the claims, but none has yet been received, so I wanted to give you all the information in case you got the same email pitch.

Caveat emptor.
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Alright, on to the star of the show - Cold Packed Meat.

A while ago, Hermit did a post on how he did a test by living on his prep foods for something like 4 months straight. He had a lot of great information about how it worked out.

One of the things he noted was how he went through his canned meat faster than he had expected. This struck a cord with me. I've got meat in my preps, but my instincts tell me I don't have enough in terms of volume and variety.

I currently have Spam, corned beef, chicken, clams and sardines in my preps. They are all store-bought meats. In reality, I'm probably the only one that would willingly eat the Spam and sardines.

I've Hot Packed meat before. You brown the meat up, put it in hot jars, cover with a broth and pressure cook it. I liked the hamburger I did this way. Virtually no difference between regular and jarred meat once the jarred stuff is warmed up.

Where I was disappointed was when I Hot Packed chunks of meat. In my case, I did it to beef and pork. To my tastebuds, it was too dry and crumbly. My hope was to have the meat more resemble the texture of meat when you put it in a stew or similar dish - moist and juicy.

I had read about Cold Packed Meat. With this technique, you pack the raw meat into cold jars. The only thing you add is a bit of salt to the jar. After it cooks up, the meat is left in its own juices. My understanding was that it would be more tender, as it was only cooked ONCE - in the jar.

So, I cut up a bunch of beef, pork and chicken breast -

Each pint jar got nothing more than 1/4 teaspoon of salt. They were packed to within an inch of the rim. I put them in the pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes.

Here's a representative sample of each meat after cooking -

Left to right, that's pork, chicken and beef.

One of the things I got conflicting information on was how tightly to pack the jars with the meat chunks. Some said to pack them tightly, some said to pack them loosely. My gut said to do it loosely, as it would ensure that the meat near the center of the jars was fully cooked.

The pork and beef, being more "rigid" meats, packed loosely. The chicken breast naturally packed down more tightly.

As it turns out, tight packing is the way to go. When the meat cooks, it shrinks. Look at the pork and beef jars. The meat is sticking out above the juice line. It was VERY dry. Also, the beef and pork shrink up much more than the chicken.

In general, the texture of all of the meats was similar to commercially canned tuna. Very flaky.

From upper right, moving clockwise - Chicken, Beef, Pork. Of all the meats, the pork was the juiciest (the part that remained under the juice). Chicken was next, and the beef seemed to suck the moisture out of my mouth!

It looks like I'm not going to get my moist, juicy chunks-o-meat. The jarred meat will have to be used more as an accompaniment to a meal rather than being the main star. It (and the awesome juices) will be added to rice, barley and potato dishes, plus stews and soups.

I took some of the chicken and made chicken salad sandwiches. Mayo, relish, salt and pepper. Honestly, it was the best chicken salad I've ever had. Really great stuff.
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The Cold Pack method was much easier. You don't need to cook the meat first. Nor do you need to first make up a broth. Chop, stuff and cook. Easy peezy.

It takes a bit less than 1 pound of meat to fill a pint jar. Figure you'll need to buy a pound per jar, as you need to trim off as much fat from the meat as possible prior to cooking.

So, if you're going to do Cold Packed meat, be sure to tightly pack the meat, especially with beef and pork. Since the meat is going to breakdown anyway, cut it into smaller pieces to start with. This will aid in the tight packing, and ensure there is enough natural juice produced to keep all of the meat covered in the jar.

After the first experiment, I cooked up 4 more jars of chicken breast, and they turned out great. I'm heading to the store today and if there is pork or beef on sale, I'll buy up a bunch to put into the jars.

My next experiment will be with my homemade Italian sausage. I want to see how they will hold up in the jars. As I understand it, you need to brown and partially cook sausages before jarring.

I need to try jarring fish as well. They've been having sales on whole salmon, so maybe I'll give it a shot. I'll post the results whenever I get around to the tests.

Campaign For Liberty

2009-10-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Email, received today -

Dear Friend of Liberty,
For far too long, the Republican Party has been controlled by the “neoconservatives,” those who readily abandon the free market at the drop of a hat if it means expanding government power and who think the United States should be the policeman of the world. They want us to support those who throw substance and principle to the wind in favor of political expediency.

Last Monday night, Senator Lindsey Graham reiterated his disdain for Ron Paul and limited government conservatives at a town hall when he said that he was not going to allow the Republican Party to be “hijacked by Ron Paul.”

Instead, he thinks we should get behind those who he tells us “can win,” even if it means abandoning every belief we hold dear in the process.

In addition to his afternoon appearance on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch, Congressman Paul will be responding to the neoconservatives on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer tonight at 6 pm eastern and also on MSNBC’s The Ed Show at 6:30 pm eastern.

CNN has shared with my staff that they want to hear from you on this issue. Contact The Situation Room and let them know you think neoconservatism has had its day and it is time for our elected officials to stick to the Constitution.

In our efforts over the past two years, we have made it clear we will no longer be silent while those who claim to believe in limited government and freedom behave exactly the opposite and help run our country into the ground.

The freedom movement is growing larger every day, and we will take our country back without abandoning our principles to do so.

In Liberty,

John Tate

President

Make your voices heard.

Quikee

2009-10-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

The big post on my canning test is going to have to wait until tomorrow (very interesting stuff, at least to me!), as I am slammed against the wall right now.

I had a scheduled 30-minute interview about a magazine article on my company. It turned into a 2-hour lovefest (in a professional way, of course!). The writer was actually selling my company to the Editorial Director!

In addition to throwing them some article ideas and data (hopefully for a January or April article), I was given the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at a Rotary Club function (invited by the Editorial Director) and another business schmooze-fest. My mug and business will be in front of a couple hundred business owners, politicians and business movers-and-shakers.

Schwing!

On top of that, I need to get the SOPs over to my new firing range partners so we can get classes moving. Oh, and the script is done for the video I'm putting together, so shooting will start this weekend (weather permitting).

It's a great feeling to have all of this crap finally moving forward. I'm staying "cautiously optimistic" - I have to assume some of this stuff will fall apart - but it appears at least some of the parts are beginning to gel.

Rain, wind and stormy weather? Not here, baby!

Hodge Podge, Potpourri and Mishmash

2009-10-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

We journalists make it a point to know very little about an extremely wide variety of topics; this is how we stay objective.
--Humorist Dave Barry

A buddy sent me this link. Whew! Sure am glad THAT'S all over....

Latest survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics, which was released on Monday, explains that over 80% of economists hold a viewpoint that recession has ended and expansion has commenced.

I wonder if it's the same group of Nanny drones that believe the world's going to melt from Global Warming. A trustworthy and objective group if ever one existed...
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How disturbing is this? Not for what is says, but for what it doesn't say?

On both its news and opinion programming Monday, the Fox News Channel responded to the White House’s portrayal of the network as a part of the political opposition.

Fox is the ONLY network, newspaper or other media outlet being identified as confrontational. Isn't ALL of the press supposed to be that way? Isn't that their job?

Apparently, the White House views all other media outlets as compliant allies. That's the opposite of "the opposition," right?
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TOR motivated me to bake yesterday. He's been talking about making bread. Yesterday, I made a big pot of beans for dinner, and decided a loaf (or two) of bread would go nicely with them.

After kneeding and prior to the first rise -

After the first rise -

After forming and the third rise (there is a second one done in the bowl) -

Ready for butter, beans and my belly!

There are few things that smell better than a home filled with the aroma of beans and fresh-baked bread. Maybe turkey and stuffing roasting in the oven, but not many others.

There were no survivors..... ;-)
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A first for me with the beans: I made them in my pressure canner. I had forgotten to soak them the night before, and the morning had gotten away from me, so I couldn't do a mini-boil and rest.

On the package of Navy beans, they gave instructions for making them in a pressure canner.

One pound of dry beans, five cups of water and whatever spices you want are all dumped into the pot. I also added a jar of homemade canned beef. Cover it, set the canner to 15lbs of weight and let it go for an hour and a half.

They came out perfectly. I was actually kind of surprised they were so tender and fully cooked.
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I'm doing a major (for me) canning test today that I'll post tomorrow.
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We're getting HAMMERED by rain and wind. It is the tail-end of the typhoon that just hit Japan. We're supposed to get up to 5 inches of rain over the next 24 hours.

We really need the rain, but why all at the same time! I know our farmers will really like the downpour, though. It's the wind I hate so much...
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Good news: I was able to secure an agreement with one of the local gun shops - I'm now doing all of the training for them! We're working out the mechanics (scheduling students, whose credit card system will be used, etc) and should have the first classes scheduled near the end of the month or early November. Sweet!

Also, tomorrow I have an interview with a regional magazine to talk about personal safety, risk management and the like. If it goes well, my biz may be featured in an article in the magazine.

I'll take all the free publicity I can get!

Arnold Schwarzenegger Is A C*%ksucking Whore

2009-10-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Mike, tell us how you REALLY feel.

The Democrat governor with a Republican business card - Arnold Schwarzenegger - has signed into law AB 962. It will require, among other things, that law abiding California citizens now be fingerprinted before they buy ammunition for their self-defense weapons. It will also prohibit the purchase of ammunition from online sources.

"The purchase records will provide our police officers with yet another tool to track down and apprehend armed and dangerous criminals," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Really, Paul? How might that work? How in the fuck will this law result in the capture of one, single bad guy? They'll all know they will have to be finger printed to buy ammo. Do you REALLY think they'll do that? Really?

Bad guys will do one of three things: They will have their flunkies buy their ammo; They will steal the ammo from gun shops or homeowners, or; They'll do like I will be doing - taking my business to Nevada or Oregon.

The result? The bad guys will still get their ammo, crimes at businesses and home to get ammo will increase, and tax dollars will now be going - once again - to another state.

You God Damned mother fuckers have your heads so far up your asses, it is a wonder you can function without parental assistance. And you are 'God Damned', in the truest sense of the phrase. God looks negatively upon people who put other people in danger for no good reason. The 'mother fucker' part is supposition on my part.
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Arnold, you were finally showing some backbone by standing up to the unions and Democrats with the budget. You had spent all of your two terms acting as a member of the Kennedy family. You amazingly stood up for actual Constitutional principles in the last stretch of your term. I figured you were not worried about getting elected again, so you could actually LEAD and not cower.

Clearly, I was wrong. You're a Kennedy bitch. Heel, bitch. You clearly have already been trained to roll over.
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Some other bills The Kennedy Bitch approved:

-- Senate Bill 43 by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose, allowing Santa Clara to award a contract to design and build a proposed 49ers stadium to a firm of the team's choice - rather than to the lowest bidder as normally required under city law.

Do you THINK there may have been some unmarked bills handed around to get this approved? Why would you want to allow for anything other than the lowest bidder? You write the proposal to include required safety, quality and materials standards, and get the lowest bidder.

--Senate Bill 572, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would declare May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in California. Schools and government offices would remain open, the day would not be a holiday, but schools would be encouraged to conduct commemorative exercises to remember the life of the former San Francisco county supervisor and gay-rights pioneer.

California school tax dollars at work. Do you think that crap like this might contribute to the fact that California has the highest per-student spending, but is number 47 in results. What might help change that? Learning more math, or learning about a gay guy in San Francisco?
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I need to have another SERIOUS chat with my wife. This state is simply too far gone, and continues to make incredibly poor decisions. Seriously, it is amazing to watch - how a group of people in Sacramento can so consistently make bad choices, despite the indisputable evidence that their choices are ruining our state.

Odds and Ends

2009-10-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

This lady rocks. She is a firearms instructor that specializes in teaching women how to shoot. She has found a market niche, and is filling it. Good on ya.

A couple of months back, I noticed a problem women students were having in the range - particularly indoor ranges. They were much more jumpy and jittery than the men. Much more. I did some internet searches and came across her site.

One of her articles was talking about this. She made the observation that gun shot reports are in the lower "pitch" range. Just like mens voices. She hypothesized that this was triggering some sort of primeval "danger" response in the women, which in turn manifest itself as excess jitteriness on the range.

I needed a way to acclimate the women to the sounds prior to entering the range.

To test this, I brought a digital recorder to the range with me, and recorded about 3 minutes of gun shots. With new, female students, while we are doing some of the hands-on drills BEFORE we enter the range, I have them wear headsets with the recorded gun shots being played.

So far, it seems to be working!

I don't know if it has anything to do with getting them used to the lower pitch, or if it is just giving them a taste of what's to come. I don't care! If students are less jittery while on the firing line, I'm less likely to have someone freak-out and cause a problem.
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She had an article that was her own version of The No Buy Zone. Her focus is on anti-Second Amendment companies.

She's singin' to the choir on that one! Give it a look-see. And boycott those businesses.
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Many people know that JP Morgan Chase bought WAMU. I am/was a WAMU customer.

They are in the midst of the conversion from WAMU to Chase. Having been in banking for a million years, I understand how conversions go. Stuff NEVER goes perfectly. Never.

How you handle those screw-up tells what kind of company you're dealing with.

I went to my branch on Friday to make a deposit. I always use the ATM machines. These had been swapped out months ago and converted to the Chase machines.

I put in my card, punched in my numbers and got to the main screen. There was no "deposit" option. I figured I had pushed some wrong button, so I re-did everything. Same result.

I got in line and when I got to the teller, I was terse, but polite. I let him know what had happened. His explanation turned me verbose and rude.

He said, "Oh yeah. We JUST found out about that 45 MINUTES ago."

I proceeded to tell him - and everyone else in line - that I had just pissed away 10 minutes on their machine (they're MUCH slower now). If it was not taking deposits, why didn't they put a sign on the machine stating this?

He said, "OK. Oh, the other machine works just fine."

Thankful that I was constrained by California law from carrying a weapon (jk), I said, even louder, "Do I look like the Amazing Kreskin? Am I supposed to get brain-waves from the ATM telling me which one accepts deposits?"

I got lots of chuckles from the people in line behind me. My work here was done.
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I stopped watching the Raider game mid-way through the second quarter. At this time, they are behind 28-0, and it's not even half time. A top-notch Youth Football team could kick their asses today.

JaMarcus Russell is still their quarterback because.....?

They must already be eying the 2010 draft choices...

'The One' Will Fix Everything

2009-10-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

The trouble with government regulation of the market is that it prohibits capitalistic acts between consenting adults.
-- Robert Nozick

Reported on Fox News this morning (I have not verified it - sounds about right, though):

The Dow Jones is up 55% in the past year.

When accounted for in Euros, it is up only 20% (the dollar is weaker against the Euro).

When accounted for in gold, it is flat...

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OK, I did some quickee math. Gold is ONLY up 48% in the past year. Pretty damned close to what Fox said.

What's this telling you? That the value of the stock market - which is denominated in dollars - has produced no actual increase in wealth. It has been effectively "discounted" by a corresponding increase in a tangible asset, gold.
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Barry, Barry, Barry..... more smoke and mirrors. He's rushing ahead, arms a-flailin' in the wind, with the creation of some uber-regulatory agency for banks. Sure, that'll fix all our ills -

With a key vote nearing, the president slams banks and business groups, saying they want only "to maintain the status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Banks are evil, government is good. We've heard it before. We don't need another regulator. We need a return to sanity. We need to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act which was gutted under Billy Jeff Clinton.

Ten years of history crammed into a few paragraphs: In the late 1990's, commercial banks wanted to offer other products such as insurance and (more importantly) Investment Banking services. Glass-Steagall prevented that. The (sane) concept being that you wanted to keep the job of protecting people's insured deposits separate from the very risky business of gambling in the stock market. The law had been around since the 1930's.

Billy Jeff cut a deal with the bankers and congress: I'll drop Glass-Steagall, but I get a CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) on steroids. The Gramm/Leach/Bliley (GLBA) act was passed to meet these ends. Everyone was happy.

The charter of the CRA was expanded to force banks to either directly give money to the poor communities in their area, or....... make loans to people than did not meet the usual credit underwriting requirements of the bank (sub-prime). Income redistribution at its grandest.

The banks figured they could potentially make a couple of bucks by doing the loans - SOME of the borrowers would pay them back, plus they had the real property securing the loan.

It was working, but not in the volumes congress wanted. The final stab into our national financial heart was congress getting Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to guarantee these CRA loans. By having the Freddie/Fannie guarantees, the banks could now sell these loans to investors. If the borrower went tits-up, the government would cover their losses (yes, the market has always believed Freddie and Fannie to be government agencies and this was reinforced when they were both bailed out).

There was no down-side to banks making these loans or to the investors buying them. Nanny guaranteed their performance.

Because anyone that could steam up a mirror could now "afford" a home, prices went through the roof. Supply and demand was working perfectly. Demand outstripped supply, which forced up prices.

The result is the mess we're in. Banks and investors holding non-paying loans with collateral that doesn't cover the outstanding balances. They now won't make any loans because they can't count on the value of the collateral backing a loan (or whether a business will still BE in business before the loan is paid back).

The residential real estate market crashing because of loan defaults and the sudden flood of foreclosed properties on the market. The commercial property market following the same pattern very soon. Supply and demand at work once again.

You and me providing tax dollars to bailout the failing banks and their investors.
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The fix is as easy as it is unlikely: Reinstate Glass-Steagall, discontinue the CRA and have Freddie and Fannie only guarantee Conforming Loans (loans with a fixed maximum value and with a Loan-To-Value ratio of no more than 80%).

The commercial banks will be back in the business of only taking deposits and making creditworthy loans. The Investment Banks will be back in the business of only gambling on the stock market. Freddie and Fannie will be back in the business of only providing liquidity to the markets.

Of course, this will never happen. Greed and politics won't allow it. The banks would whine (and lobby) about having to divest their Investment arms and make dire predictions of imminent collapse. Congress, through the CRA, would no longer have the ability to redistribute wealth to "deserving, disadvantaged" people. Give up that kind of power?! Right.

Instead, we'll get another smothering bureaucracy that will further nationalize our banking system. Banks will be required to make crappy loans, which you and I will continue to guarantee with our tax dollars. The cost of credit to creditworthy individuals and businesses will continue to rise - when it's available at all - because banks won't make as many loans if they're not guaranteed.

The One will save us again. Give him another Peace Prize as thanks.
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Have I mentioned that you should buy some gold and silver? Real estate, too, while it's at these rock-bottom prices, and you'll be able to repay with soon-to-be hyper-inflated dollars. Tangibles. Get some tangible assets.

Just checkin'...

Mockery and Paranoia?

2009-10-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

Paranoia will get you through times of no enemies better than enemies will get you through times of no paranoia.
-- Pete Granger

I had this big post planned to slam Barry and the Peace Prize. Comparing it to T-ball for little kids. You're getting recognized for not doing anything special. Just show up, and you're rewarded.

But what are you gonna do? These idiots can give a Peace Prize to Al Gore for bald-faced lies on Global Warming, and Barry for his "aspirations", if they want to. It's their "prize". It's just too bad that it gets so much press. With some of their latest choices, I'm guessing the "blush is off the rose" - hell, Barry just came out and said he wasn't worthy!

The word, "mockery" comes to mind...
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Is it because I'm jittery, or does it seem like there are A LOT more incidents of over-bearing government actions?

The crap I watched happening in Pittsburgh during the G20 crap was truly frightening. I'm not talking about the anarchists that were purposely flaunting certain laws and trashing shit. I'm talking about people getting snatched up off the street and being shoved into cars - without being arrested or given their rights. I'm talking about college students being trapped in stairwells and being gassed. I'm talking about people just standing on the street and cops on bicycles hosing them down with pepper spray.

WTF?

We all saw the videos of old ladies in New Orleans being roughed up and having her guns confiscated - all while the cops were "bugging out". Thousands of other guns were confiscated, and the government lied, denying that any of them existed.

Look at this shit - these people were a part of a food co-op and back in December of 2008 had all of their goods confiscated by Nanny by a SWAT team.

It sounds like the cops justified the confiscations on the grounds of some bullshit Health And Safety crap, plus they wanted them to get a retail food license. Yep, always gotta have the cut for Nanny, don't ya know...

Thompson explained the genesis of the raid was a series of visits to the family by an undercover agent for the state agriculture agency.

"He showed up (at the Stowers' residence) unannounced one day," Thompson explained, and "pretended" to be interested in purchasing food.

The family explained the co-op was private and they couldn't provide service to the stranger.

The agent then returned another day, stayed for two hours, and explained how he thought his sick mother would be helped by eggs from range-fed chickens to which the Stowers had access.

The family responded that they didn't sell food and couldn't help. When he refused to leave, the family gave him a dozen eggs to hasten his departure, Thompson explained.

Despite protests from the family, the agent left some money on a counter and departed.

On the basis of that transaction, the Stowers were accused of engaging in the retail sale of food, Thompson said.

Can you say, "entrapment"?

Why would you need a SWAT team to serve papers on a house that is a member of a food co-op? Was there EVER any indication there might be violence?

It seems like every small town in America now has a SWAT team. They get all suited up like Star Wars Storm Troopers and go kick some ass!

These people look like a couple of "old hippies" who just want to live a simple life. A group of like-minded people and farms got together to make their lives easier. That's a crime now?

They offended some bureaucrat and all hell broke loose.

These people were able to get legal representation and are suing the ass off the government, but at what cost? They had a year's worth of personal food stolen, plus the co-op has been in disarray in the interim. Nanny wins regardless of the outcome. Don't fuck with us.
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There are entire websites devoted to this topic, yet nothing seems to be changing. The MSM just rolls over and plays nice. Just off the top of my head, I can rattle off a bunch of Nanny-Run-Amuck crap -

Waco
Katrina
Ruby Ridge
The Mormon's in Texas
The BART cop shooting the kid in the back
Countless "No Knock" warrants gone bad
Asset Seizure Laws
The USA PATRIOT Act

Good Lord, what's going on here?
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Cache - food, guns, money, ammo, durable goods. Don't have "all your eggs in one basket". Stay off the ridge-line, but don't cower. Exercise your rights, but be prepared for "blow-back". They WILL hurt you if they desire, at least in the short-term. Have a plan. No, have multiple plans.

Document - your best chance for proving your innocence is by having proof of what is taking place. I was recently telling a friend about a "trick" we used in our bank branches.

We had big, obvious cameras in all of our lobbies so everyone knew we were filming everything that happened. In the back of the office was the recorder - right out in plain sight. It was recording everything that happened. What was not so obvious is that we also had a web feed to our central office.

If the office was robbed, we expected the crooks to take the tapes (or even the whole machine). It gave them a sense of assurance that they were going to get away with their crime, and it lowered the likelihood that one of our customers or employees would get hurt.

The fact that the entire incident was simultaneously recorded offsite never entered their heads...

Document what happens and make sure you have duplicates. Assume your primary source of evidence will be "lost". Paranoia isn't always a bad thing...
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[Rhetorical question...] In the past, how have the "repressive regimes" been dealt with?

Actual News?

2009-10-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.
--Malcolm X

I had a great day with my biz yesterday, but it kept me from seeing what was going on in the world. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. I did a scan of the major news outlets this morning to get caught up, and here's what I found:

Michele Obama is descended from slaves.

What?! Stop The Presses! Can you believe it?! Slaves?! It must have been horrible living with that burden all these years. Didn't the slave masters know she was going to become the first-lady of the US? What WERE they thinking?!

OK, how could the New York Times spend more than 10 seconds on this? I'm surprised they didn't do a companion piece on some prominent Republican to show that he/she was a descendant from slave owners. Oh, the horror!

Maybe they could put in a half hour or so, and do a piece on something that actually matters outside of Obama's family.

Hey look! Here's something they could run with:

Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card. The chart below appears on page 5 of the 16-page report.

Any guess which health care insurance provider had the highest claims rejection - both in terms of actual numbers and as a percentage of claims?

You got it - It's Nanny!

Click the image to see the chart. For those of you who are "click challenged" (a medical malady?) the biggest denier was Medicare. They rejected 6.85% of their claims for service, which equated to 475,000 claims.

Aetna was the only insurer that was even close, at 6.8%, but that only represented 43,000 claims.

The biggest "bitch" against the current system is that the insurance companies deny claims or don't give you insurance if you have a pre-existing condition. I'm assuming Medicare has some regulation that mandates it to accept everyone, but if you can't get care once you're on The Nanny Plan, what good is the insurance?

The White House and Congress want to put Nanny in charge of the whole shooting match? Are they insane?!

Why wouldn't the Times have this information plastered all over their front page? Yeah, yeah, we all know the answer. Michele Obama's family tree is much more important to the health and welfare of the nation...
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Having lived in the Land Of Fruit And Nuts (that'd be California) for my entire life, I've written a number of times that all the rest of the nation needs to do is look at us for what's going to happen to the country in the future.

We've long been trail blazers in socialism. Basically, all you need to do is ask for money from the state, and you'll get it. That goes double if you can insert, "for the children" or "under-privileged" into your proposal.

Well, it seems as though things aren't working out so well. For some reason, when you tax and abuse the Producers for the sole benefit of the Looters, the Producers tend to leave.

Big time -

Now, incredibly, California, which has been a natural target for immigration throughout its history, is losing people. Between 2004 and 2008, half a million residents upped sticks and headed elsewhere. By 2010, California could lose a congressman because its population will have fallen so much – an astonishing prospect for a state that is currently the biggest single political entity in America.

It's getting so bad, even the Looters are FINALLY getting cut off from the teat-sucking:

Outside the Forum in Inglewood, near downtown Los Angeles, California has already failed. The scene is reminiscent of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, as crowds of impoverished citizens stand or lie aimlessly on the hot tarmac of the centre's car park. It is 10am, and most have already been here for hours. They have come for free healthcare: a travelling medical and dental clinic has set up shop in the Forum (which usually hosts rock concerts) and thousands of the poor, the uninsured and the down-on-their-luck have driven for miles to be here.

The bottom line is, it's bad here. It's failing because this state has bent over backwards to wipe the ass of anyone who asks. These policies have made it painfully clear that is can be more profitable to NOT work. Nanny will take care of all your needs, regardless of your education or skill - or most importantly, regardless of your motivation. You don't need to have any.

Why would the tax-paying Producers stick around?

Some other reasons this shit-hole of a state is failing?

At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years.
---

California's schools are ranked 47th out of 50 in the nation. Its government-issued bonds have been ranked just above "junk".
---

If it was an independent country it would be in the G8. And if it were a company, it would likely be declared bankrupt.
---

California's attorney-general, Jerry Brown, recently sued one county government for not paying enough attention to global warming when it came to urban planning.

Sound like the direction any country you know is heading?

So, where did this very extensively researched article come from? The LA Times? SF Chronicle? San Jose Mercury News? Oakland Tribune (OK, that was thrown in there for chuckles)?

No. It was The Observer/Guardian in England. For some reason, THEY have the time to do an article about what is likely to happen to the entire US unless we change our spending and taxing ways.

Apparently, no one in America wants to hear news like that.
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Buy gold and silver while you can still afford it. Seriously.

Figuring Out The Truth

2009-10-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.
-- Ben Okri

Follow-up: Firearms training question - In yesterday's post, I described a situation with a student that just could not get his shots on paint. Continually off target in the lower-left hand quadrant of the target.

As I noted, the problem was a two-part issue. When he had mentioned that he shot well with the rifle, but was off target with his pistol, my first guess was that he was left-eye dominant. It surprises me how many folks are this way (I'm one of them). We worked on a couple of techniques and brought his shots right to the edge of the target.

In hindsight, I want to kick myself for it taking another 30+ minutes to diagnose the remaining problem. The pieces I didn't connect:

1. Shoots rifle well - that's telling me that he most likely has a smooth trigger pull and is not startled by the report of the gun. Remember: Most California rifles do not have pistol grips.

2. When I saw he was tea-cupping, I figured he might be over-gripping. We did a couple of drills to keep the trigger finger loose. Historically, these will keep the entire right hand loose.

Overgripping was screaming out at me, but I figured it was the more typical jerking or pushing of the trigger finger. What I failed to do was to come over to his right side to watch him pull the trigger (I do most of the training from their left side). Once I did move over, I could clearly see the striations of his muscles and tendons in his forearm at trigger pull. He was "smooth as butter" in his trigger pull, but "nutted up" with just the lower 3 fingers on the grip just before the trigger dropped the hammer.

We did an over-grip drill and he was "fixed".

You folks were all touching on this, but Quiet Patriot was the first to call it correctly. Well done!
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Is the cheap veneer of our economy beginning to crack? Gold finished up yesterday just shy of a 10 year high, at $1017 an ounce. At 8:20am today, it is at $1041 an ounce, blowing through the previous all-time high record of $1036. Silver's up to $17.

It will be interesting to see if it holds through the day.

Have the magicians in DC lost their wands?
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Did you see that yesterday the stock market also had great gains? Weird, huh? Mostly financial sector stock gains. It seems that Goldman Sachs came out and sang the praises of the banking industry. And not just any banks, but BIG banks.

Wow. Who'd a-thunk it? A bailout recipient whoring for the rest of the bailout brethren. I'm sure that's just a coincidence...

Back at the end of August, I commented on the FDIC report on the health of the banking industry (What They're Not Telling You). It's bleak, but the compliant media continues to just take the Administration's word that 'everything is just fine'. Green Shoots for all!

In reality, the numbers are horrible, and only look like they're going to get worse. The FDIC is reporting this, but no one in the press is comprehending what they're saying.

What dat mean?

Banks are not making their money by lending out money and earning Interest Income. They're selling stuff off. They're earning income on the stock market (trading revenue). And they're charging YOU higher fees for the pleasure of them holding your money (or charging you for formerly free services). They look more like investment houses than like banks.

Glad to see the bailout money is going back into the economy where it is stimulating like crazy.

Banks are going to take an ass-whipping in the third- and fourth-quarters from commercial loan losses. They may be forced to start recognizing the MILLIONS of residential loans that have stopped paying, but the banks aren't showing them on their books because they will have to show the losses. They're playing a game of "prevent defense" - hoping that the real estate market will improve so they can unload the properties without taking a financial hit.

The precious metals market - manipulated or not - is beginning to reflect the disbelief of Nanny's "happy talk".

Place your tray tables in their upright and locked position, folks. We're headed for some choppy weather....

Shooting and Tapping

2009-10-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
--Martha Graham

The hectic pace continues, but I wanted to share some stuff.

I have a puzzle for the gunnies out there. I had an interesting training session this weekend, and want to see if anyone could determine the cause of this guy's problem. It is primarily a two-part problem. I nailed one part of the problem based upon our pre-lesson phone interview.

Based upon the information, plus one observation, I SHOULD have picked up the second issue more quickly (the second item took me a little over an hour to diagnose).

Interview information: He's been shooting this gun for a number of years - 5+. He is very confused and frustrated. The gun is a Beretta Elite II in 9mm.

He owns a number of rifles, and is able to shoot them all very accurately, but sucks with his handgun. He wants to have better accuracy, as he keeps the gun for self-defense in his home. The last time he shot the handgun was about 4 months ago. He buys his ammo in bulk, so training is only limited by motivation.

Observation: Relevant observations were that he tea-cups with his left hand (cups his left hand under the handle and right hand). His stance was a bit too closed and lock-kneed. Pistol presentation was a bit weak, with a lot of elbow bend in both arms. Lots of muzzle arc after presentation - he was having difficulty getting a sight picture (his Beretta had all-black sights). He had a nice, "soft" trigger pull - no slapping or jerking at all.

His shots were consistently 8-12 inches off bullseye at 7 yards. Most shots were in the lower left-hand quadrant - between 6 and 9 o'clock.

With that information, what do you think were his main problems (two of them)? He had a number of tweaks - each which improved performance, but two things produced MAJOR improvements.

Based upon this information, take your best guess as to what the major problems were. The one I figured out based upon our interview brought his shots consistently grouped just off of our 8" target (so, he had gone from 8-12 inches off center, to 4 inches off center). It took what seemed like forever to figure out the second part. In hindsight, it should have been the second or third thing I addressed - it seems so obvious now.

It was funny as hell, as soon as we got him consistently on target, I thought he was going to hug me right on the range! It was almost like he couldn't believe that is was HE that was shooting the gun. He had been shooting for years like this, and had just about given up. It was very satisfying to see.

Best part is, he signed up for two more hours...!

Post your guesses, and I'll reveal what the two major items were either in tomorrow's post or in the comments.

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I inadvertently got to build some skills this weekend.

We've been in our home since 2002. When we moved here, we bought a new lawnmower. For the past year or so, the engine has been having some problems, and I got a small leak in the gas tank. Then, two weekends ago, one of my son's called me out front to show me one of the rear wheels had snapped off. WTF?

They used a carriage bolt for the axle. The manufacturer had taken a 1/2 inch carriage bolt and then reduced the size of the threaded portion to 5/16", which screwed into the side of the lawnmower frame. The bolt snapped right where the threads met the smooth portion of the bold.

Well, you can't find bolt at Home Depot that are built that way. They're either 1/2' or 5/16" - not some Franken-bolt bastardization.

I figured I had two options: Bite the bullet and get a new lawnmower (a minimum of $200) or repair the wheel.

I chose the latter. I went out and bought a tap and die set. I drilled out the 5/16" hole, then used the tap to ream out and thread the hole at 1/2".

I'll be damned if it didn't work! The tap cut the threads like butter. I'm primarily a woodworking guy - I don't do a lot with metals. I thought it was going to be some complex, convoluted process. I watched a couple of Youtube video and was off to the races.

I bought an entire kit with multiple sized taps and dies for under $40, so this was a win-win for me. I got a new set of tools AND saved the money I would have to spend on a lawnmower.

I've got to find some steel rod and try making a bolt with the dies. I'm hooked!

The Coming Uber Czar

2009-10-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

I started reading the 821 pages of the Kerry/Boxer Carbon Tax-Your-Ass bill.

Amazing.

I am going to be slammed for time the next couple of days, so I won't be able to give you my thoughts for a while. I'll do some quickee posts, but that's about it.
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Suffice it to say, I want the job of "The Administrator". This dude will hold the reins of power, BIG TIME. How they could vest this much economy-destroying power in the hands of a single individual in mind numbing. The Uber-Czar.

Would you expect anything less from the Nightmare Team (as opposed to Dream Team - get it?) of Kerry and Boxer?

Let me just say, if this version passes and is enacted as planned in 2012, every-day citizens will start shooting at politicians. I'm serious. This is going to push people over the edge. All of these mouth-breathers that want this shit are going to freak out when their utility bill hits $2000 a month and their boneless chicken breasts are $30 a pound.

The price of lumber will go through the roof, as Nanny will pay lumber companies to NOT harvest trees. Enjoy your mud hut, you stupid pukes.

My stomach kept getting butterflies with each new section or paragraph I read. The depth and breadth of this bill is stunning. There is not a single industry in America that won't be negatively affected.

Kerry and Boxer will be remembered as fondly as King George was to the colonists.

Homemade Tamales

2009-09-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

I love you like a fat kid loves cake.
--50 Cent

For some reason, I got a Jones for tamales - those magical wads of steamed meat and dough that are wrapped up in dried corn husks.

I've eaten a lot of tamales in my time. They're like a drug - I can't just take one hit. I consume them to excess. Hell, the primary reason I married my wife (of Mexican and Irish descent) was to have a regular supply of tamales and corn beef and cabbage (big, BIG joke there! Love ya, hon!).

Anyways, I had never made them before, and decided to take a swing at it. I bought the masa harina (the special corn flour needed for tamales) and the dried corn husks to wrap them up. I read the instructions on the bag of masa and saw that I also needed to pick up some lard. I was just going to use some Crisco, but my wife said that pure pork lard is the way to go.

The biggest issue with tamales is the perception that they take a long time. This CAN be true. This is all dependent on what you're going to be stuffing in the centers. If you go with a traditional shredded beef, pork or chicken tamale, from start to eating will be about 6 hours.

If you're going to stuff them with leftovers, cheese, mild chiles or go for sweet ones with raisins, they will take about 3 hours. That's about the same amount of time it takes to prepare and cook a "regular" meal of a beef roast or roasted chicken.

OK, OK, they take a bit longer than normal fare, but it's worth it, damn it! AND, the vast majority of the time you're not doing any work. They're steaming or meat is boiling. Multi-task here, people! They are great, "set it and forget it" meals.

I actually spread my cooking over two days. I took a pork roast and 4 boneless chicken breasts, put them in separate pots, covered them with water and into each pot I threw in about a quarter cup each of dehydrated garlic and dehydrated onions. I brought them to a boil, dropped the heat down to a simmer, covered the pots and cooked them for 3 hours.

The next day, first off, I put 3 bundles of dried corn husks into one of those casserole dishes - something like 9x11 inches. I filled it with warm water and put a plate on top of the husks to keep them submerged.

I then took the meat and hand-shredded it into a bowl. I strained a bit of the remaining liquid and poured it over each of the meats (still keeping them separate). Just for ease of storage, I then transferred the shredded meat and liquid into 1-gallon zip lock bags and put them in the fridge.

DO NOT THROW OUT THE REMAINING BOILING LIQUIDS! I strained them both into a large measuring cup and put that in the fridge as well.

Every recipe I read online said that you needed to "fluff" the lard. WTF? The bag of masa said the same thing. So, I took the room-temperature lard, put it in a bowl and just whipped it up with a whisk. It really did fluff up!

In a separate bowl, I put in 2 cups of the masa flour, baking powder and salt. I added 2 cups of the reserved boiling liquid and worked it into a very soft, moist dough. According to the bag, this amount of dough will turn out 20 tamales.

The instructions said you want to then mix the fluffy lard with the masa and make a spongy dough. My wife had told me that this is the most difficult part. She explained that this was why her grandmother was such a tough old broad!

I turned to technology. I whipped out my Kitchenaid mixer, and let it go to it. In a couple of minutes, I had this awesome, spongy dough!

All of the recipes I found online said that you take a corn husk, smear the wide half of the husk with dough and plop about a tablespoon of filling in the middle. None of them said how thick to make the dough. Hmmm.

I spread it about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick. I didn't know if this stuff would "proof" or contract. I was flying blind! Here's what mine looked like -

Yeah, I went over the tablespoon of filling. Sue me.

You fold one side to the center, then have the other side overlap the first. The masa acts as a glue to hold it closed. You then fold the un-doughed bottom up over the crease and fill up the steamer.

I found that each of the bundles of dried corn husks had 6 husks in it. I made a dozen tamales - half of them pork, half of them chicken. I used a pasta steamer that sits 2 inches above the bottom of the pot. Everything I read said to make sure you don't have the tamales sitting in water, or they won't cook up right.

They take about 2 1/2 hours to cook. I checked the water level every 30 minutes and added more as needed.
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While the tamales were steaming, I made up a Tomatillo/Green Chile salsa. The recipe was for a canned salsa recipe from New Mexico State University. It was a water bath recipe that took no time at all.

Tomatillo Green Salsa

Yield: 5 pints

5 cups chopped tomatillos
1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped long green chiles
1/2 cup seeded finely chopped jalapeños
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup bottled lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp ground cumin*
3 Tbsp oregano leaves *
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot salsa into pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner 15 minutes at 0-1,000 feet altitude; 20 minutes at 1,001-6,000 feet; 25 minutes above 6,000 feet.

You may use green tomatoes in this recipe instead of tomatillos.

If you're going to make this recipe, DO NOT substitute vinegar for the lemon juice. It will negatively affect the acidity of the recipe, maybe making you very sick.

Oh, and it only made 4 pints (plus a little bit more) instead of the 5 pints. It is friggin' awesome! Not too hot, but with enough punch to get ya there. This would be great chilled and eaten with tortilla chips.

The picture doesn't do it justice. It's a nice green color with fantastic flavor. It went wonderfully with the tamales -

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What I learned:

Use one of those silicon spreader things for spreading the masa on the corn husks. It goes much more quickly than when using the back of a spoon.

If you mess up and throw out the meat boiling liquid, use a bullion cube to make up some broth. You really want to have that extra flavor in the masa once it is cooked.

Pull the steamer cage out of the pot and let them cool for a half hour or so before eating them. Aside from being cool enough to stuff into your face, the masa firms up a bit, making them easier to peel from the husks.

I've got at least half of the meat left, so I'll be steaming up a batch of these bad boys for lunch or an afternoon snack. Happy as a pig in slop.....

A Racist In The NAACP? Shocking!

2009-09-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
--Booker T. Washington

Waa waa waaa! Dry your tears, beeoch.

Shockingly (not), the Virgina NAACP has its panties in a wad over a huge Barry Joker poster that's been unfurled in Richmond -

The Virginia NAACP called it an abomination and a sign of disrespect. The owner of a downtown Richmond strip club called it exercising his right to free speech.

In predictable fashion, the Executive Director is doing his damnedest to drag race into an economic issue.

"It is apparent that he and others are comfortable disrespecting the president," King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia NAACP, told the crowd.

Hold on to your hats, folks, but I agree with him there. The owner DOES feel comfortable disrespecting the president. So what? So do I when he's promoting a socialist agenda.

That's allowed in America. Just ask all of the leftists that painted Bush as a Nazi, an unintelligent dullard, and a puppet of Cheney.

Oh, look! He was portrayed as a joker, too...

So, uhm, King... why might this strip club owner feel comfortable disrespecting Barry?

"Why? The answer is simple: because the president has African blood."

Holy shit. Could you have pulled out that race card from deeper in your ass?

OK, fine. Let's say it was racist. Then just as clearly, you leftist fucktards disrespected Bush because of his Caucasian blood. That can be the only logical explanation, right?

You make me sick to my stomach, you race-baiting, woe-is-me, piece of shit.
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The press, not happy with just promoting the agenda of these racist bastards, feels the need to do the old ad hominem attack on the club owner.

Moore's club is awaiting a Nov. 9-10 state Alcoholic Beverage Control hearing on alleged violations. Last year, Moore was convicted of three misdemeanor charges related to having sex with a minor and another female at his apartment above the club, and filming it illegally.

Wow, a strip club owner who's a scumbag. That's about as shocking as there being a racist heading a 'civil rights' group.

Why would the "reporter" feel the need to bring up facts that are totally unrelated to the issue at hand? Of course, it's used to cast aspersions on the guy - to detract from the message he's trying to make.

Well, here's a little ad hominem back at ya, asshole.

You are a racist, and are proud of it. You proclaim it at the top of your voice.

Here is the mission statement of the NAACP:

The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.

Equal rights for everyone. They state - at least publicly - that they are "color blind". You are the Executive Director of the NAACP for the entire state of Virginia. Here is your biographical information, taken directly from your website -

My greatest accomplishment is that I am by choice a revolutionary Afrikan Man. I am a Pan-Afrikanist. I am one who speaks truth to power unashamedly on behalf of Afrikan people. I have not cringed or cowered when faced with criticism, ostracism or threats of bodily harm. l have represented my people with Integrity.

Hmmm. That seems to run counter to the official mission of the NAACP. They specifically say they are for equal rights for everyone, and you specifically say you are ONLY for people of African (Afrikan?) descent.

Isn't promoting a specific race the very definition of racism?

Naw, it must be an oversight. Surely he is proud of some kind of non-race-based accomplishment -

He founded the Pan-African Resource Center. African Awareness Association, Sons or Africa, Operation STRIKE (Students Tackling Racial Issues with Knowledge and Enlightenment) and African Perspectives, a weekly live call-in television show ...

It appears as though this racist - this statewide executive of a national organization - doesn't have a single thing he's ever done for anyone other than blacks.

Where is the MSM in reporting THAT? Why wasn't that conveniently inserted into the article along with the information on the club owner?

[Insert chirping crickets]

And the newspapers wonder why they're losing circulation numbers.... At least they can look forward to some Barry Bailout Bucks.

How Is Prison Health Care?

2009-09-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
--Ayn Rand

I've just been crazy-busy, and it will continue this week (muy importante meeting/presentation on Wednesday), so posts may be a bit light.

Here's a quickee, "You must be shittin' me" item.

So, Senator Baucus has put together his flavor for the Universal Health Care scam. Instead of providing the entire thing like the House did, he only provided a summary. Without the specifics, it's much more difficult to pick something apart. Smart guy.

Still, someone sent the senator a question about being thrown in prison because of his bill.

Under the health care bill being considered in the Senate Finance Committee, Americans who fail to pay a penalty for not buying insurance could be charged up to $25,000 by the Internal Revenue Service or face up to a year in jail, according to congressional analysts.

Let that sink in: If you don't get health care insurance, you will go to prison. You are being threatened at the point of a gun to participate in a socialist scam.

Unlike Social Security, which is stolen from you by your employer on behalf of Nanny, this requires your active participation. People will not take this, and will fight back. Violently.

I will actively cheer the people that shoot back.
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I don't know if any of you watched the Raiders/Broncos game. It is always a sell-out, and the most raucous game of the year. You can taste the hatred in the air.

It's awesome!

This year, it wasn't even sold out. I'm guessing 20% of the seats were unsold. By half-time, the stadium was half full.

Our "quarterback" (in quotes on purpose) - JaMarcus Russell is a total loss. He was booed after each of his series in the first half. In the second half, he was booed as he came on to the field. Then the chants of, "Russell Sucks!" took over.

They did nothing to fix the situation. Russell was playing horribly - again - and it was clear that the Vote Of Non-Confidence from the crowd made matters even worse. This guy is Jello, not an NFL quarterback.

Put him in a pretty pink skirt, sit his ass on the bench, and go win some football games.

In Praise Of Capitalism

2009-09-25T09:03:00.002-07:00

There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.
--Mao Tse-Tung

I've been in a bit of a funk lately with so much of what's going on in the news. The video of the kids singing the praises of Barry. The video being shown to kids all around the nation on the evils of capitalism. Barry being lovingly embraced by all of the world's socialist rulers. It was a bit much.

What disturbed me the most was a side-show to the G20 conference. It turns out, this ended up being the center-stage for the little get-together -

Struggling with a contentious issue, world leaders have reached basic agreement on limiting the bonuses of bankers whose risky behavior contributed to the global financial meltdown, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday at a summit of the world's largest economies.

I read that line in utter disbelief. Can we really be joining forces with other countries in the world to regulate the income of a group of people? Can this really be happening?

Apparently so -

The treasury secretary said the G-20 countries had reached a consensus on the "basic outline" of a proposal to limit bankers' compensation by the end of this year. He said it would involve setting separate standards in each of the countries and would be overseen [by] the Financial Stability Board, an international group of central bankers and regulators.

Hmmm. The Financial Stability Board. That sounds like one of the many global organizations that were established in the (supposedly) fictional Atlas Shrugged.

Are they really going to let some entity other than a bank's Board of Directors set the pay of their employees? It is horrific enough to think of our own government doing this, but being dictated to by some quasi-New World Order organization is too much to comprehend.
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I needed some "hopeful" reading material.

Barry keeps popping off that he is a big capitalist - he just loves that shit. But everything he does is the exact opposite. He doesn't encourage individualism and entrepreneurship, he rewards the collective.

If he wants to get all "worldly" on us, maybe he should meet this international group of folks.

They are 10 entrepreneurs that turned hard work into billions. Daddy didn't give them a big pile of money. These folks earned every damned dime they have.

In fact, of the Forbes list of the 900+ billionaires in the world, two-thirds of them made their riches on their own. No silver spoon involved.

Here's another list (albeit with some repeats from the other list).

Black or white or Asian or Hispanic. Men or women. College educated or drop-outs.

If you allow and encourage people to take advantage of the gifts they were born with, the cream will rise to the top. This "coddle the down-trodden" bullshit IS KILLING US!
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Remember: That list was for billionaires. Our country has millions of millionaires.

I was watching the new Jay Leno show last night, and Rush was on it. I was surprised, but he and Jay got into it pretty heavily. Jay was basically asking, "How much is enough?" with regards to salaries (I'm guessing he would change his tune if Barry suddenly targeted the entertainment industry).

Rush made the precisely correct statement - It's not a zero-sum game. Just because someone is making tons of money doesn't mean it's coming out of the pocket of someone else. In fact, just the opposite is true.

If I buy something for $X, add value and sell it for $X + $10, my supplier and I BOTH make money - neither at the detriment of anyone else. This false thesis that people get rich off of the backs of others is bullshit.

Yes, there are unscrupulous people. In business, in religion, in academia and in politics. Especially in politics. But you don't shut down an entire economic structure because of a few bad apples. You destroy the rotted fruit.

That is a roll of government, although the market usually does a better job of it all by itself.
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So, what is your gift? What skill do you possess that you can leverage to make you buckets-o-money? The people on the Forbes list provided a product or service that lots of people wanted. They packaged it in such a way that they beat their competition - very few of them actually created something new. They produced a better product or service than what was being offered by the competition, and were rewarded for their efforts.

I've always preached that making lots of money is not an ends by itself. It simply gives you the freedom to do what you want. The more money you have, the more choices you have.

You had better get moving, though, on your earth-shattering idea. Barry and Timmy may be targeting your market niche next.
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An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia, “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?”

Gold Swap Scam

2009-09-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

It was beautiful and simple as all truly great swindles are.
--O. Henry

A buddy of mine sent me a link to a press release from GATA - the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee that discussed Gold Swaps. In particular it was about how the Federal Reserve was apparently lying about participating in these swaps. Go here to get an overview, and copies of the letters from the FRB basically admitting that they do these swaps, but have no requirement to disclose this fact.

I read the article and the accompanying documentation. From what I can see, GATA is right - the FRB does participate in Gold Swaps. I shot my friend an email basically asking, "So what? How does this affect anyone in a negative way?"
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WTF are Gold Swaps? I found a short report (PDF file) from the International Monetary Fund explaining what these are (pgs. 3 and 4).

In short, a Gold Swap is where a central bank "lends" gold to another central bank. There are a number of reasons they may do this, which generally have to do with foreign exchange accounts. At least that's the official story.

With these swaps there are two very important things to know: First, no gold is actually sent from one central bank to the other - it's a paper transaction. Secondly, the "sending" central bank does not show a corresponding reduction in their gold reserves once the swap takes place.

The result: The amount of gold shown as being held by central banks is essentially doubled.

The statistical implications of gold swaps and gold loans/deposits are complex and have not been fully worked through. Work is still being undertaken by the Committee to address the implications. In particular, gold may be double counted with either a gold swap or gold loan/deposit if the party acquiring the gold were to on-sell it outright, because both the original owner and the outright purchaser would report ownership of the gold.

Country A (who actually has the gold) does a swap with Country B. They may do a swap for 1 million ounces of gold. Both countries now show the SAME 1 million ounces of gold in BOTH of their reserve accounts that are disclosed to the public.

Since the FRB has a number of legal exemptions in their charter, they don't have to disclose which countries, and for what amounts they have done these swaps. The letters GATA received from the FRB show that the US in involved with these swaps, but we don't know how big this is.
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Why would we do this? What benefit would there be to the US to participate in these swaps?

One word: Confidence.

Supply and demand drive the price of commodities. More supply equals lower prices.

The dollar is the world's currency (at least for now). If the perceived value of the dollar begins to decline against gold, central governments that are holding dollars in their foreign exchange accounts will start getting jittery, possibly selling them off. Sell offs result in greater lack of confidence, resulting in more sell offs....

You get the idea.

BUT, if you're able to push the price of gold down in relationship to the dollar, you can keep the confidence in check. You can do that by either producing more actual gold, or you can artificially "produce" it by doing swaps with other central banks.

What do you think would happen to the value of the dollar if it were disclosed that a large portion of our gold reserves were being double-counted around the globe? It certainly wouldn't help things.

What kinds of things might bring on the lack of confidence in the dollar? Oh, maybe things like the fact we're printing up money left and right, reducing its value. The fact that we're now monetizing our debt. The fact that we're absolutely, positively going to have to raise taxes, which ALWAYS reduces productivity in the private sector.
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Waddaya do? Not much, really. The FRB will continue to do these swaps, and they'll continue to NOT report them.

Conspiracy Theory Alert: Since there's no world CPA auditing firm, what is to stop the FRB from doing swaps in excess of the amount of gold we hold?

Seriously, when we do a swap with Country B, we're not going to open our books to prove we have not done swaps in excess of our holdings. Both parties get what they want. We help to maintain confidence in the dollar, and the other country gets to show they have a butt-load of gold in their reserves.

Ponzi would be proud...

Gun Biz

2009-09-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

There is more similarity in the marketing challenge of selling a precious painting by Degas and a frosted mug of root beer than you ever thought possible.
-- A. Alfred Taubman

Check this out: I do a weekly newsletter for my biz. It gives tips and insights into personal protection. I touch on awareness, self-defense tools (from pepper spray to handguns) and home defense strategies. It is pretty well received.

I'm putting an issue together on selecting the right self-defense tool based upon your personal lifestyle. Are you young and agile, or older and less mobile? Do you have a lot of kids in and out of your home? What kinds of situations do you often find yourself in that MAY require you to defend yourself (like walking your dog in the park)? Stuff like that.

I was looking through the Internet to gather some crime statistics (fear sells!). I found this on the FBI website -

Astounding. What amazed me is that all of these numbers have improved (gone down) over the stats from 2007!

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I need some help. MOSTLY from folks that do not have much (or any) firearms training experience, although input/votes from anyone is appreciated.

I've been offering a couple of classes for firearms, and the response has been "tepid" to say the least. Everything has been through referrals.

The main class is one that is targeted (pun intended) at prospective gun buyers who don't know if they want/need a semi-auto or a revolver. The class is based upon the NRA First Steps class - I just expand it to include both types of firearms.

They get all of the classroom safety and technical training, then go to the range to shoot a number of semi's and revolvers.

The class includes 50 rounds of ammo (25 for each type of gun), eye and ear protection, plus all of the NRA handbooks/brochures/certificates. They pay for the range time and targets.

How much would you pay for this class? This assumes that you have picked me from Internet searches or newspaper ads - NOT from a personal referral. You're a "cold" lead.

We all have a perception of value in our heads. If a price exceeds that, we will often times automatically "shut down" and move on. Where is your, "no friggin' way" line?

Most you would pay for a 4-hour firearms training... » ProProfs Polls

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Next week, I am meeting with the owner of a new indoor range to try and work out an arrangement for me to do the training at their range. They will sell guns, ammo and other equipment - as well as offer training. So far, these guys are falling all over themselves to hear what I have to offer. We'll see if we can make this work.

Pricing for this will be interesting. I would categorize these leads as "warm" leads. They've taken the time to get off their butts and actually walk into the shop looking for a gun. They've crossed the, "guns scare me" barrier, and moved into the, "crime scares me more" space.

Budgets and Taxes and Bailouts, Oh My!

2009-09-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
--Oscar Wilde

A buddy and I were talking yesterday about what's going on in the economy. We were talking about some different strategies for buffering ourselves for what's coming down the line. The difficulty is in knowing exactly what's coming - and when.

We discussed everything from the purchase of real property to going big into precious metals. The idea being putting our money in places where we would have something tangible to hold on to if/when we get a financial SHTF, but not being totally screwed if by some miracle, the economy makes a real, significant rebound.

From where I sit, I simply cannot see a way around the US being battered mercilessly by both inflation and taxation.

From AIER - The American Institute For Economic Research

Over the next 10 years, federal spending is projected to remain at historically high levels, revenues are projected to rise from their current post-World War II lows to near postwar highs, and ongoing federal deficits are projected to add $10 trillion to the federal debt. This according to the latest analysis from White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

The AIER analysis is based upon projections by the White House, so I personally consider this to be a Best Case Scenario. In delving into the White House numbers, I see that they've only budgeted a bit over $600 billion (over 10 years) for Universal Health Care. Of course it will be considerably more than that. The recent "affordable" Senate version had a price tag of "less than $900 billion" according to Senator Baucus.

Reality will probably be triple that number. At least. And we're going to have to pay for it somehow.

On the spending side, outlays are now at 25 percent of GDP, the highest since World War II. This percentage is projected to fall as the economy rebounds and the financial crisis passes, leveling off at 23 percent of GDP, which again would be unusually high in historical terms.
One source of higher outlays will be rising interest payments on the ballooning federal debt. By 2019, the government is projected to spend more on interest payments than on national defense.

Where will THAT money come from? Does anyone who has lived in America for longer than 60 seconds believe that one, single Federal program will be cut to pay for the increased debt payments? Really?!

And then there are us Boomers -

Moreover, these projections stop in 2019, before the full wave of baby-boom retirements hits Social Security and Medicare. So the longer-term budget outlook is actually even worse. Barring some unexpected improvement or a stretch of exceptionally rapid economic growth, it would appear that some combination of higher taxes, reduced spending, or increased inflating (printing more money) is inevitable.

I guess some, "stretch of exceptionally rapid economic growth" could hit, but I'm not betting on it.

In the 1980's and 1990's there was a "buzz" with computers and the Internet. We could see progress. Chips kept getting smaller, faster and cheaper. Memory got bigger and cheaper. We went from 1200 baud to T-1 speeds seemingly overnight. There was reason for optimism because all of the changes were truly innovative. It wasn't a re-branding of old ideas.

What do we have before us now? Giving more free shit away to more people. Jobs will be all "green" - even though everywhere it's been force-fed in the past, it's failed. We have the government attempting to control the economy, instead of letting the capitalists do their thing.

Why innovate when the fruits of your labors will be taken from you?
----------

Fed Head Bernanke is now laying the groundwork for the excuses. The excuses for why the economy just won't respond to his ministrations -

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to stoke a U.S. economic recovery may be undermined by the central bank’s other goal of restoring the banking system to health.

The Federal Open Market Committee, at the conclusion tomorrow of a two-day meeting, will probably maintain its assessment that “tight” bank credit is impeding growth, said economists including former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley. Lending contracted for five straight weeks through Sept. 9, a drop that in part reflects Fed orders to banks to raise more capital and toughen lending standards, analysts say.

If you dig deeper into the article, the real reason for the tightened lending standards is uncovered - the soon-to-go-tits-up commercial real estate market.

Falling values of commercial real estate are also a problem for banks, with an “uncertain degree of losses” to come, said Ryding, a former Fed researcher. Loans made for commercial property will probably sour and lenders will need to raise more capital to cover credit losses, Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at CLSA Ltd., said today at a conference in Hong Kong.

Banks are preparing for the massive hit that's coming. To put it into perspective, the FDIC has $10 billion or so in cash. Some are predicting it will cost them in the range of $400-$500 billion (to a worst-case estimate of $800 billion) before this financial system hemorrhaging is complete.

How do we NOT raise taxes or feed inflation by printing more money?
----------

As I've written before, I hope TS doesn't HTF before late October/early November. If things can hold together until then, my family should be in a good position to plop ourselves down on a semi-rural piece of property with very little debt.

It will allow us to significantly reduce our monthly outlays. That, in turn, reduces the amount of reportable income that is necessary to justify our lifestyle to Nanny (should they come snooping around).

One of the reasons we're taking this path is that we can't see a down-side to it. If the economy is somehow able to rebound, we're sitting even prettier. If it tanks as I believe, we could slide under most of Barry's (and his successors) tax tiers to help us to NOT fund this bastardization of America.

As God is my witness, I hope Barry, Ben and Tim's plan works. But, I don't see a snowball's chance in hell of it happening, and I'm not willing to bet my family's future on "hope".

Coward!

2009-09-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

As the ostrich when pursued hideth his head, but forgetteth his body; so the fears of a coward expose him to danger.
-- Akhenaton, King of Egypt, 14th century BC

I purposefully didn't watch Barry and his PR machine running around to all the networks selling his snake oil. I hear his lies enough so that I don't need to hear them again on all stations.

I didn't even watch Fox, although I figured they'd at last ask him some real questions regarding the health care debacle-in-waiting.

I found out this morning that Barry purposefully snubbed Fox. They were the only major broadcast or cable network that was not given an interview with Barry. Univision got an interview, for goodness sake. I must say, I was shocked.

There isn't even a pretense that the Administration is doing something newsworthy. It's all about the propaganda -

The president's week-long media blitz has left no other network behind. The president has appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bloomberg and CNBC and will appear on five public affairs talk shows on Sunday: ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," CBS's "Face the Nation," NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN's "State of the Union" and Univision's "Al Punto, con Jorge Ramos." And he's doing CBS' "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday.

When Fox bitched about it, here was the White House's response -

"We figured Fox would rather show 'So You Think You Can Dance' than broadcast an honest discussion about health insurance reform," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told ABC News.

You gotta be shittin' me. What 'honest discussion'? They chose "news" outlets that would play nice. Aside from disgusting me, it sure says a lot about Barry. He doesn't have enough confidence in his ability to publicly justify ObamaCare - sans Teleprompters - and the associated costs. Why are none of the "news" outlets pointing THAT out?

Fucking coward.
----------

Don't shoot the messenger (that'd be me).

As much as it pains me to say, Congress needs to re-instate funding to ACORN - at least until they can follow the Constitution to stop sending them money.

Back in March, I railed against Congress when they were passing laws specifically targeting the employees of AIG. It's called a, "bill of attainder", and it's un-Constitutional.

A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution.

The House overwhelmingly passed the Defund ACORN Act. Could there be a more obvious example of a law targeting a specific group of persons?

IMO, ACORN needs to be de-funded because of the apparent criminal and Un-American activity that is prevalent throughout the organization. But only after they have been proven to have broken the terms that are placed upon them as a condition of receiving federal funds.

The Constitution is sacrosanct. We cannot bypass it simply because we detest a person, place or organization. Even the left-wing, commie, America-hating groups are protected by it.
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OT: Before the start of the NFL season, I predicted that the Raider quarterback, Jamarcus Russell would only last 4 regular season games. He has all of the "tools" to be a great quarterback, except one: He has no heart.

This dude is 6'5", 260 pounds. At quarterback. But he plays like a frilly-pantie clad school girl (no offense meant to frilly-pantie clad school girls!).

He needs to go elsewhere if the Raiders want any chance of having a winning season this year.

My morning radio show had the best line: Al Davis needs to trade him for a 14th round draft choice and a bag of footballs.

Ouch.

Make-Work Whiners

2009-09-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

You can't create a monster, then whine when it stomps on a few buildings.
--Lisa Simpson

Stuff like this just drives me bat-shit crazy.

A relatively small and peaceful group of about 500 protesters, most demanding new jobs programs, marched through city streets in the first full day of demonstrations targeting the Group of 20 economic summit later this week.

Translation: Give us more "make-work" jobs.

It seems like the normally compliant American Socialists are beginning to break ranks with Barry. They're beginning to see that he's a Global Socialist, not just an American one. That means he'll ship your job off to some God-forsaken armpit in the world if it suits his political ends.

Protestors were also critical of comments made by President Barack Obama in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, downplaying the effectiveness of mass protest on abstract issues such as global capitalism.

"You have revealed the real Obama!" Clarence Thomas, a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union told the crowd. He said the president's remarks were "very, very disrespectful" to the civil rights and other social movements.

Well, boo-friggin'-hoo. How do you like the "change", huh sport? Barry's got too many special interest groups he must "service" and you piddly little union members just got the shaft. Welcome to our world.

Take care of yourself - don't expect Barry to hand you some crumbs whenever you ask. We're running out of crumbs.
----------

Speaking of making millions of dollars (like that transition there?!), I was watching a show on CNBC called, "How I made my first million" or something like that. Very interesting show.

I was most drawn to the woman who co-founded Bert's Bees. They started off making hand-dipped beeswax candles and other labor-intensive stuff. She came up with some recipes for personal care stuff, and realized that the way to make some decent money was by automating.

They dropped all of the handmade stuff, and sales (and profits) went through the roof. She decided she didn't want to work behind a desk, and sold her portion of the business. For a cool $167 million.

Nice.

A unique "catch" (made from beeswax). Perceived high quality (beeswax has that 'organic' feel to it, which many people perceive to be better). Shelf and transportation stable (sitting in a warehouse won't destroy the product). Consumable (multiple sales when you use up your last purchase). Automated manufacturing without sacrificing quality (cheaper per-unit production).

Yeah, I'm making lists... If I could bottle grouchiness, I could make a mint.... ;-)
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Raider's won. Must replace the floor tiles where I hit my head after passing out. How did they manage NOT to choke?

Being An SOB

2009-09-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm only grouchy and moody on days that end with Y.
--Unknown

I just had a "lively" exchange on the role of government over at Pearl's place. The broad topic was about when private industry and government are in the same "business," private industry ALWAYS does a better job.

Hell yeah!

Still, I took issue with one paragraph she posted -

Here is where I am. Everyone wants people to get the medical treatment they need - EVERYONE. You have to be a rotten SOB to deny medical care - seriously. Thats why in this country you can walk into any hospital and get treatment. Yeah, we roll like that here in the USA.

My issue was that I don't believe health care is a right.

Health care, like any other service, requires the skills of another person and the assets of another organization. You don't have a right to require that they divest themselves of their skills and assets.

Meadowlark (of whom I'm a big fan!) took issue with me taking issue (click Pearl's link above to see the exchange)!

In my eyes, it all boils down to morality. I don't want the federal government imposing its definition of morality on my pocketbook.

As an example, in my discussion with Meadowlark, I noted that in the eyes of the federal government, a poor child needing health care is exactly equal to a heroin addict that has chosen to pump himself full of drugs. Both of them get exactly the same level of care, because Nanny says so.

I think that is immoral.

In yesterday's post, I grumbled about being pissed off because Nanny is giving away 10% of our national supply of Swine Flu production.

Why are they even involved in this in the first place? Shouldn't this be handled at the local hospital, or perhaps at the state level? The Feds have no Constitutional right to be doing this (only the brute force power), but in one fell swoop, they not only do so, then some bureaucrat in DC decides it's the "moral thing" to give a huge chunk of it away.

WTF?

Where's it going to go? Who's going to get it? Who decides who gets it? How much is this going to cost us for the vaccine AND its administration? If one single American dies because he or she could not get a dose, who will be held responsible?

If we want to encourage compassion, maybe Barry could squeeze in a public service announcement between his ObamaCare speeches, and ask American's to give to their favorite charity to send some vaccine abroad.

Ahhh, but then he loses the power and prestige of spending YOUR money for you. His compassion is coming out of your hide.
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Perhaps I AM a mean, grumpy SOB. I don't care. I've been a silent partner to this disgusting abuse of federal power for much too long. No more.

I know we're too far gone to get this to change - at least in my lifetime - but that doesn't mean I have to quietly go along for the ride. Maybe my kid's kids can reminisce about, "that old grumpy SOB, Grandpa Other Mike", and have things different for their lives.

Constitution Day

2009-09-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
--James Madison

Yep, today back in 1787, the first cut of the Constitution was signed by 39 freshly-minted Americans. It would take a few more years to get the whole thing re-worked and then ratified by all of the 13 former colonies, but it all started today.

I'm guessing they'd all be pretty disgusted to see what's become of their work of art today.
----------

I poached this from Gun Rights 4 Us. Spot on.

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I haven't had the time to dig into the newest iteration of ObamaCare put forth by the Senate, but this caught my eye - let's tax innovation!

This new tax will eventually be passed through to patients, increasing health-care costs. It will also harm innovation, taking a big bite out of the research and development that leads to medical advancements. The core of the industry (excluding a few conglomerates like Johnson & Johnson) spent about $9.6 billion on product development in 2007, according to Ernst and Young. The Baucus tax is nearly half that, and also exceeds $3.7 billion, the total venture capital invested in device makers that same year.

Let's turn our country into a third-world shit-hole, one tax at a time.
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A green shoot?

Housing starts climbed 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 598,000 in August from the previous month on an increase in multifamily home construction, the Commerce Department said Thursday. But single-family homes, which accounted for about 80% of all housing starts, fell 3% to 479,000.

I don't think so. What's this information tell us?

More people need multi-family living quarters - apartments and the like - and fewer need their own homes, or can afford one.

Plus, the builders know that the banks are holding millions (literally) of homes on their books from the gush of foreclosures. There is going to be a glut of homes available for a very long time. Unless the builders can put something together for less than what's on the market now, I don't see how they can stay afloat.

I don't know that I'd want to buy a new home built by a contractor with razor-thin margins...
----------

Clear this up for me: The US government works for us, right?

The United States will donate 10% of its supply of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza virus to developing countries that do not have the resources to procure it on their own, a White House spokesman said today. The U.S. has ordered 195 million doses of the vaccine, which means it will make nearly 20 million doses available to the World Health Organization for distribution.

So, we have 300+ million people in the US. Nanny has ordered 195 million doses - enough for 2/3 of the people that are paying for it. We're going to give away 10% of our stash, so we're now closer to only having 50% of the needed doses.

How do those bastards in DC figure on explaining any deaths of US citizens that could not get a dose?

I don't want my taxes paying for a flu shot for an American citizen - they can pay for their own shot - let alone paying for someone in another country.

But then, I don't have much say in the matter. Neither do you.

Don't Be Silenced

2009-09-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation.
--William Arthur Ward

I was watching TV last night, and this interview was shown. This is a US Congressman from Georgia saying that Joe Wilson is a racist because of his, "You lied!" outburst.

Well, he goes a bit beyond just calling him a racist. He suggests that this is the start of a new wave of the Klan.

"I guess we'll have folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again..... that's the logical conclusion if this type of attitude is not rebuked."

That man's lack of integrity is stunning. The thought that a grown man, let alone a congressman, could stand in front of cameras with a straight face and pull such an obscene conclusion out of his ass is mind-boggling.

That the MSM swallows his bullshit like the good little whores they are, is less surprising. At least wipe your chins and dust off your pant knees when you're done...
----------

Then there's Jimmy.

Look at this NBC News (LOL, 'news' and 'NBC' in the same phrase) clip of an interview they did with Carter. The anchor starts off saying that the Tea Parties and Town Hall meetings are full of racist tone and imagery.

Huh? The meetings are supposedly full of racist banter, yet, they are only able to show one single image from across the country of a swastika, and that one is on a placard that specifically says they are against Barry's brand of change. No racial messages at all.

**UPDATE** As you can see, NBC has pulled their approval to allow the clip of Jimmeh from being played. Kinda embarrassing when a major news organization has a pack of race cards shoved up their ass, huh?

A clip from the Glenn Beck show - complete with Jimmeh's lips saying the same disgusting words - is now embedded below the original. **

"An overwhelming portion of the intensly demonstrated animated animosity towards President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man."

WTF? How about the "fact" that Barry surrounds himself with racist Marxist and is trying to nationalize all major industry in our country? How about the fact that he is proposing to saddle us and our children's children with mind-boggling debt that can never be repaid? How about the fact that he wants to establish various, "tax it if it moves" schemes - from VAT to Cap-and-Trade?

But you disparage tens of millions of pissed-off people across the country because you think we care that Barry is black? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

By any sort of logical conclusion, since Barry now has a 50% approval rating, you MUST imply that America has 150 million racists. Half of the country.
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Enough.

If speaking against Barry makes you a "racist", then count me in.

If the media wants to hijack the word to include anyone who says anything counter to the Barry Express, then yep, I'm a "racist".

If it includes people who point out the lies in the socialist's speeches and writings, then I'm a "racist" by their definition of the word.

I will not be shamed into silence when I've done nothing shameful.

Recovery, My Ass

2009-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I would never lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation.
--Fox Mulder

I read - slack-jawed - article after article yesterday that Uncle Ben Bernanke says the recession is over. WTF?

"I've seen some agreement among the forecasting community that we are in a recovery," Bernanke said, "But the general view of most forecasters is that the pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate."

This disingenuous SOB is playing it cutsie - he qualified his statements by saying that it may only be a "technical recovery". If we have one single quarter with growth, we are technically out of the recession.

Let's see, is there any chance we might have an "up" quarter? Maybe one artificially 'stimulated' by, oh, I don't know, handing out $3 billion to people to buy cars? Hmmmmm?

The problem is, this was an artificial 'blip' - the stimulus brought people that would have bought cars in 3, 6, 9 or twelve months down the road, and front-loaded them into this past quarter.

What's going to happen in 3 to 12 months with the auto industry? All of those people already have their cars, so the auto manufacturers are going to take a shot to the nuts.

Since it "technically" takes 3 consecutive quarters of contraction before the next recession officially begins, Barry and Company have bought themselves at least a year of respite from the financial press.
----------

Gold and Silver continue to climb (which actually surprised me, as I expected some profit-taking to temporarily drop prices).

Gold ended yesterday at $1,008 and silver ended OVER $17.
----------

A buddy of mine sent me a link to a recent interview with Gerald Celente. He's the top dog over at Trends Research. He's one of the few folks out there that have been screaming that we're going to take it in the shorts unless we stop artificially messing with the markets.

This interview is a bit long but is well worth the time.

This thing isn't over until jobs steadily rise - not just end up being better than the number of job losses the government predicts. Until people are working, economic growth will be hampered since they have no money to spend. It's really a vicious circle.
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OT: My wife had made a comment about the ObamaCare scam - she didn't understand why a law being passed in 2009 would not start until 2013. You understand why that date was picked, right?

Barry and Company can claim a victory for getting it going, but nothing will happen to our economy as a result of the law. Barry can restore his reputation, get re-elected, etc. No one that voted for it has to be burdened at election time - in 2010 and 2012 - by what happens to the country when it goes into place.

By the time the shit starts hitting the health care fan in 2013, they'll all be comfortably re-elected. It's a great plan.

If the Repubs were smart, they'd throw a fit saying that if it's so good, it should start right NOW. Get right on it to keep poor babies from dying. Barry's a man of action!

At least they would then have a couple of years of this thing killing the country and seeing it reflected at the polls.

But they're NOT smart, so they'll just play along...

Astro-turfed ACORNs

2009-09-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

Bouncing around a bit...
----------

Astroturf? Headline on CNN online:

Tea party movement has anger, no dominant leaders

Shockingly, the headline hits the Tea Party movement squarely on the head. It is buckets of people, from widely differing backgrounds, from every state in the nation, that are pissed off. Pissed off enough to get off their butts to protest what is happening to our country.

And they're doing it all on their own. No conservative equivalent of ACORN or SEIU or any other major organization are coordinating this. It is the epitome of grassroots.

Isn't that a story in and of itself? Of course it is, but since the story runs counter to the MSM agenda, it is denigrated and marginalized.
----------

Have you folks heard of Scribd.com? Holy crap, what a great resource. They have zillions of documents available online. If you sign up for a free account, you can download most documents in PDF or Word format. Again, for free.

They sure seem to have a lot of stuff that says "copyright" all over it. I was looking for some information on knife making, and they have a number of books that I have purchased in bookstores available for the taking.

Seriously, pick a topic and see what they have. It's quite impressive.
----------

Tonight is either the start of a new era, or the continuation of a steady decline.

Am I talking about American freedom? Socialism and fascism creeping into our way of life? Taxes crushing the very soul of citizens for generations to come?

No. I'm talking about tonight being the season opener for the Raiders.

I'm off in a while to try and find parking for our tailgater. I'm bringing a 5-gallon keg of Amber Ale to help numb the expected pain after we play San Diego in front of the nation (although I'm guessing those of you on the east coast will be tucked in bed when the game starts at 7pm here on the left(ist) coast).

We'll try and set up camp in our usual place (the BART parking lot across the street from the Oakland Coliseum). We'll be eating brats and tri-tip while we watch the early game on rabbit ears. I just picked up one of the digital converter boxes, so this should be interesting.

It will be very difficult for anyone to explain why the Raiders don't win a butt-load of games this season. We have some incredible talent. Serious talent.

But we also have Al Davis. 'Nuff said (plus, I don't want to get sued by the leader of Walking Dead).
----------

ACORN popped again?

First Baltimore, then DC, now NYC.

I swear - I thought I heard the ACORN scum emphatically state that the Baltimore incident was isolated. Two bad employees that were dealt with quickly.

Hmmmm..... seems to be a bit deeper than that, huh?

Not surprisingly, the MSM is barely covering this. No questions of a massive, rotten organization - just excuses and (not so) subtle hints of prosecuting the reporters for doing their job.

Whistle-blower laws protect conservatives too, right?

Just The Facts, Ma'am

2009-09-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
--Mark Twain

Quite busy of late - sorry for the light posting.

I swear, you could make millions of dollars if you launched a news source that just reported the news. Leave out the left wing and the right wing, and just give us the facts. The Joe Friday Gazette, perhaps?
----------

I'm taking a break, watching some TV. I clicked on Fox News, and they're showing images of somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 people who have marched on Washington DC.

Out of curiosity, I flipped to MSNBC, CNN and Headline News (HLN).

MSNBC - Images of a gathering in Minnesota for Barry to continue with his con job on health care. They are showing the place filling up. They actually had a headline on the screen describing the images they were showing as, "Awaiting Obama At Healthcare Rally In Minneapolis".

They're not covering the news-making event that is ACTUALLY HAPPENING in DC - they're showing people taking their seats at one that will start in a few hours. I guess they don't have enough cameras to cover both events.

HLN - Running a piece on the Kennedy brain cancer - and how he was a 'champion' of health care. They followed that up with a stint about Larry Gelbart - the guy who produced MASH - and how he just croaked. They then showed a hard-hitting piece on a website that CNN has just developed where you can speak your voice if you're a veteran. Wow! A blog - who'd a-thunk it? Apparently, they ran out of cameras as well.

CNN - Doing a piece on boxer George Foreman - "Rolling with the punches" - about how to weather the bad economy. Oooooo, George shadow-boxing. Gripping stuff. Hey, maybe we could reduce taxes! They then went to some guy that makes hot pepper sauce - with prisoner labor. OK.....

On all three networks, I watched the rolling ticker of breaking news. Not a single one mentioned what's going on in DC. Not one.
----------

Cindy Sheehan and a half-dozen protesters sit outside the president's personal residence, and they get world-wide press attention. Upwards of 100,000 people gather in the nation's capital, and a single network covers this? Amazing.
----------

Did you see that another ACORN video has turned up? This time it was the DC office that was working to set up a whore house with our tax dollars.

Hmmm. I thought ACORN said the Baltimore incident was an "isolated incident". Apparently not.

The Census bureau has shockingly dumped ACORN to do the census next year. Really, I'm shocked. Call me cynical, but I'd bet a good number of dollars that they'll be involved when the actual census starts. Any takers?

What is it going to take to get Congress to start an investigation on these scumbags? Do they actually have to be filmed as they RUN a whore house? It's not enough they're using our tax dollars (with $8.5 billion MORE in the pipeline) to fund a whore house?
----------

Wow, gold ended the week over $1,005 an ounce. Silver was at a bit below $17 an ounce.

Squirrel some away while you still can...

Three more banks bit the bullet yesterday, bringing the total this year to 92 failures. These three will cost us a cool $2 billion.

Those green shoots just keep poppin' up all over the place...
----------

LOL! Fox is now showing Barry's health care con job in Minnesota. He's in the middle of a story about getting, "fired up". It's the exact same story he told the union members in Ohio on Labor Day!!

C'mon, Barry - get your speech writers to give you some new folksy, aw-shucks stories. We enjoy being treated as mouth-breathing, drooling idiots.

The Name Of The Game Is ...

2009-09-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

You lie!
-- SC Representative Joe Wilson to Barack Obama

Barry did his health care speech last night. I could not listen to it live. I had the same problem when Dubya would talk. I knew that if his lips were moving, he was lying to me, one way or the other. I knew that it would cost me either money or freedom, or both.

It's the same with Barry.

The TV and radio were both playing clips of the speech, and I had it in my head to discuss his comment that marginalized Americans who are exercising their right to petition the government for a redress of grievances as "bickering".

I spent a part of this morning reading the transcripts of the health care speech. I wanted to see what he said, not be influenced by how he said it.

The transcripts took me down another path.
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What is a 'right'? I found a definition that most matches with my beliefs on FreeRepublic.com -

A right is the sovereignty to act without the permission of others. The concept of a right carries with it an implicit, unstated footnote: you may exercise your rights as long as you do not violate the same rights of another—within this context, rights are an absolute.

I like that. You can do as you wish as long as it doesn't stop another person from exercising the same right. For example, I don't get to exercise my right to keep and bear arms, then use my guns to stop someone else from doing the same.

This concept of exercising rights while not infringing on the rights of another goes deeper, though. Your ability to exercise your rights cannot place a burden on another individual.

Simply because you want to exercise your first amendment right to free speech, does not give you the right to require a newspaper to spend their money on paper, ink, presses and manpower to print your words.

If you want your words in print, you must bear the burden of getting them printed.

Again, FreeRepublic said it very well -

A right must be exercised through your own initiative and action. It is not a claim on others. A right is not actualized and implemented by the actions of others. This means you do not have the right to the time in another person’s life. You do not have a right to other people’s money. You do not have the right to another person’s property. If you wish to acquire some money from another person, you must earn it—then you have a right to it. If you wish to gain some benefit from the time of another person’s life, you must gain it through the voluntary cooperation of that individual—not through coercion. If you wish to possess some item of property of another individual, you must buy it on terms acceptable to the owner—not gain it through theft.

The only legitimate claim or burden placed upon another is through taxes paid to the government to enforce your rights. Using the example from above, the government is not in place to provide you with printing presses. They are there to ensure you can operate your presses.
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fascism - a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

So, I read through Barry's speech, and I was horrified. Plain as day - with no qualification or excuse - he is conferring a right to a select few individuals, and requiring that I pay for it.

Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those -- especially the young and the healthy -- who still want to take the risk and go without coverage. There may still be companies that refuse to do right by their workers by giving them coverage. The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits. If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors. And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek -- especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions -- just can't be achieved.

In one fell swoop, he is granting a right to health care. It's actually more than that - he's requiring you have health care insurance if you live in the United States. Most importantly, it will be a crime if you don't have health care insurance.

In the good old days, before a new right could be granted, the congress and the states had to agree to it. It used to be called the 'amendment process' as detailed in Article 5 of the Constitution.

Now, we just pass a law, and it's called, 'progress'.

Suppressing dissent. Regimenting industry and commerce. Aggressive nationalization.

Sounds like fascism to me. What else could it be called?
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Look at what he's saying, and the implications -

If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits.

He's using a federal law that prohibits a hospital from refusing treatment to anyone that shows up on their doorstep, as rationale for requiring we all continue to pay for this treatment, but in a different way, and somehow it will be less expensive.

How about you allow private hospitals to turn people away, or to at least transfer them to the county hospitals that were established for the indigent?

But far and away, this was the single most frightening aspect of his 'vision' -

If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors.

I thought he was all about 'competition'. Why not just be right out front and say you are nationalizing all business in America?

There are a million things that go into a company business plan. Price, product, quality, location. A huge component is employees.

A business makes a decision on how to least expensively produce its product or service. It may decide that it doesn't give a damn who fills the jobs it has. Quality and customer service are irrelevant - it just wants to produce the most products for the lowest cost and charge the highest prices it can get. The market will decide if their business plan is correct - they'll either buy the product or not.

Another business may wish to pay a salary of 150% of the market, offer flexible scheduling, a great 401k plan, but no other fringe benefits. They may believe they can retain the best employees for their particular business with that model. Their employees can decide to spend the higher wages on health care insurance or on crack cocaine. Or leave and take a job with a company that DOES offer benefits. It's their choice. Again, the market will decide if their business plan is correct.

Barry's plan takes those options away. If a business is mandated to offer benefits, IT is now placed at a competitive disadvantage. It will either have to cut salaries, cut employees, cut retirement benefits or cut quality to stay competitive. Or go out of business.

Is Barry going to tell them what to cut as well - or allow them to make any cuts at all?
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I'm telling you, if this passes, there will be one way, and one way only to survive: Get out of the tax paying business.

The 'public option' will destroy the private insurers. Despite Barry's assurances that not a single tax dollar will be spent on the plan, do even the most parched Koolaid drinkers believe that?

Pretty soon, Nanny HealthCo will be the only game in town, and your tax dollars will be paying for it.

The end result will be crappy, rationed health care for all. If you're going to get the same care whether you pay for it or not, why pay?
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An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it...

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt.

Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

Tough Times Chit-Chat

2009-09-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I need some input and some ideas.

I'm working on a project that includes information on emergency communications. I've got the basics covered on how a family can communicate by having a pre-selected location to leave messages during a disaster.

You can generally use a cell phone to call outside of a disaster area - the circuits are jammed coming in, but going out of the area, they are generally available. You select a family member that is sufficiently geographically removed, and they act as a clearing house of sorts to pass along messages.

You can get a ham radio license. You can have CB radios. Standard land-line phones (NOT wireless models) will typically work even when there is a power outage.

For one-way communications, you can have battery-, solar- or dynamo-powered radios so you know what's going on in the outside world.

I've got this covered. But what do you do when communications are purposely disabled?
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I was watching the traveling chef, Anthony Bourdain, on the Travel Channel last night. He was in Thailand when a state of emergency was put into effect. It got me thinking about how you would communicate with others if the government effectively shut down all communications.

Let's say that Barry or one of his successors decides that we're under some sort of dangerous situation, and enacted any of the martial law-like powers they've granted themselves, and they restrict communication only to government entities.

They shut down cell towers, land lines and the Internet. They jam all CB and ham radio frequencies. No phone calls, emails, blog postings, Tweets or MySpace posts unless they go through government censors first.

Waddaya do?

What if the restrictions are only focused on you? What if you're a Randy Weaver or Branch Dividian? A situation where the "free media" - newspapers, TV, Internet - is still intact, but you are shut down?

How do you make sure people know what's going on with your situation?
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For the first instance - total shut-down of all communications - I guess it would be through word-of-mouth, and some sort of underground newspaper would emerge. Communications would be made via more "primitive" means - analogue versus digital. Fliers, rogue newspapers, graffiti, etc.

I'm at a loss for the second situation - where you or your group are the target. Do you set up some sort of message that is published in the event that X, Y or Z happens? A YouTube video journal or post-dated blog entry?

I'd love to hear some ideas for either of these situations. OK, I'm begging for some ideas!
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You know about steganography, right? It's the practice of using one digital object to hide another object inside the first.

A few years ago, I did a demonstration of steganography for our board of directors. I showed them a picture of our bank's logo - a JPG image.

I told them that I could hide any information about the bank that I wished right under their noses. They laughed, literally out loud.

I told them that I could hide our business plans, individual compensation information, confidential federal regulator reports or anything else I wished, and no one would be the wiser.

I ran the image through a program, and magically, out popped a Word document. The document said -

Mike just saved your asses. Give him a raise.

That got a nice chuckle from the board, but showed them how vulnerable we were to information leaks. Leaks that would be virtually impossible to protect against (at least at the time).

Steganography works by using the un-used "space" inside of every type of file. It fills that space with whatever data you wish without affecting the quality of the original file (usually an image file). The only way you can tell the file has been altered is if you know the exact size (in bytes) of the original file, and compare that with the new file.

You, too, can use steganography to hide information that you might want to pass along to someone else, but don't want an electronic trail that leads back to you.

There are a number of free programs out there (i.e. Invisible Secrets) free for the taking. You just take your image and whatever information you want and mash them together, and post the image somewhere on the Internet.

Let's say you have a bunch of photos of your latest outing to the beach that you upload to Picasa or one of the other free photo sites. You add the information to one of the images that is uploaded. The person that needs the information downloads that image to their computer, runs it through the program, and bang-zoom! there is the information.
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Wanna pretend you're a spy?

This image file has a super-secret, rarely used document hidden inside of it. Click it to enlarge, then save it to your desktop. I used Invisible Secrets (free) to hide the message. The password to gain access to the secret document is 'nanny' (all lower case - without the apostrophes). The encryption algorithm used was Blowfish (if it's not the default, just select it from the drop-down menu). Select the destination of the super-secret document (like your Desktop) and read away.

FYI - it's a simple TXT document that contains no other junk.
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Hey, spymaster! Don't forget to leave some comments on communications during tough times...

Laboring Over The Weekend

2009-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Most of what we object to as misconduct in children is a natural rebellion against the intrusion of an unimaginative adult despotism in their lives.
--Floyd Dell

Busy last couple of days.

Saturday, I was supposed to brew up some beer with one of my brothers and another friend. Instead, my buddy bailed on me [some weak story about a romantic weekend with his wife up in Tahoe - yeah right! ;-) ] and my brother and I did some emergency repairs to my backyard sprinkler system.

We got lucky and found two plumbers to speak with at Home Depot while we were looking for a part, and got it done very cheaply.

My brother also crawled up on my roof and sprayed WD-40 up under some eves. I have a HORRIBLE pigeon problem, and one of my next door neighbors told me he started with the WD-40 and hasn't had a problem since.

So far, not a pigeon to be seen!

I then went over to my brother's house to help him install a new stove, oven and range hood. It took us a good 6 hours or so, but it looks very nice.
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This whole weekend, we seemed to talk about Barry's speech happening today, and the health care scam.

The health care thing has gotten so divisive - I'm not sure I know what Barry is trying to fix. Tell me if there are any issues other than these:

The poor need to have access to health care.
Regular working folks need to have access WITH pre-existing conditions.
Gotta bring the cost of the insurance down.

Easy peezy.

Item one is already in place. Let them choose either their local county hospital (THAT is why they are built in the first place), or allow them access to Medicaid. Have congress pass a law to change the eligibility standards for Medicaid. The program is ALREADY IN PLACE!

Good health is important to everyone. If you can't afford to pay for medical care right now, Medicaid can make it possible for you to get the care that you need so that you can get healthy – and stay healthy.

Medicaid is available only to certain low-income individuals and families who fit into an eligibility group that is recognized by federal and state law. Medicaid does not pay money to you; instead, it sends payments directly to your health care providers. Depending on your state's rules, you may also be asked to pay a small part of the cost (co-payment) for some medical services.

While they're at it, pass a simple law that says -

It is illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

To allow insurance companies to spread their risk across a greater customer base, the prohibition against insurance companies offering their product across state lines is hereby rescinded.

With those three things - Medicaid, no pre-existing conditions and opening up the entire country to insurance companies (as is the case with life and auto insurance already) the problem is fixed.

If they really want to make a substantial change, they can introduce tort reform so that doctors aren't encouraged to cover their asses by testing you for every damned possible ailment under the sun so they don't get sued. The problem with health care costs isn't with "greedy insurance companies", it's with greedy trial lawyers.

Guess who has the better paid lobbyists?
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Hooch update: After sitting for 10 days in my freezerator, the hooch has cleared up considerably -
While not perfectly gin-clear, it is getting there. There is still just a hint of haze from suspended yeast, but it's much better than the grapefruit juice clarity from right after the fermentation. I transferred the liquid to a secondary container and will let it sit for another week or so.

I'll then put 1/3 of it on the rest of the blackberries I foraged to make a fruit brandy/wine of sorts. One-third will be left as-is to be used as a mixer for "girlie" drinks, and the last one-third will be used for experimentation. I'm just going to leave it at that.
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I read the speech Barry will be giving today. In general, I like the message. Stay in school, work hard and you'll achieve your dreams. Good stuff. He slid in some inferences to health care and other crap, but in general, it was OK.

(Did you notice all of the product placement ads included with the speech? Ipod, Xbox, Google, etc? I wonder if they had to pay for the mentions like they do when their products are shown or mentioned in movies.....).

I read the speech out loud to my brother and his kids. We had a little discussion afterwards about volunteerism and service to your community. My brother and I disagreed quite sharply.

My brother feels it is appropriate for schools to have a requirement that kids perform some sort of community service before they graduate (BTW, Mrs. TheOtherMikeS agrees with him). He feels it shows them what volunteerism is all about.

I have a HUGE problem with it. I have a problem with any required service to the state or at the direction of the state, for free people. It is nothing less than indentured servitude. It plants the seed that it is OK for the state to tell you what to do with your time.

I'd be OK with a civics class where volunteering got you extra credit, but not as part of the requirement to graduate.

The idea of civics is to want to make your community a better place to live. It isn't to make it a place conceived in the mind of some bureaucrat. Until people see with their own eyes that unless THEY do something for their community, it will rot, no real change will be made. If Nanny continually "rides to the rescue," people have no incentive to improve their community.

We're not teaching civics, we're teaching dependence on the state.

Movie: The Wave

2009-09-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism...
-- Angelina Grimke

In a recent post (Propaganda and Indoctrination), commenter John B made reference to a movie about how easy it was to move kids towards totalitarianism. Fellow commenter Jimbo noted that it was called, The Wave.

In 1967, at the Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, World History teacher Ron Jones was asked about the Holocaust by a student. "Could it happen here?". According to the press release accompanying the latest retelling of the events that followed, "Jones came up with an unusual answer. He decided to have a two week experiment in dictatorship. His idea was to explain fascism to his class through a game, nothing more. He never intended what resulted, where his class would be turned into a Fascist environment. Where students gave up their freedom for the prospect of being superior to their neighbors.

Each day, the teacher added one more seemingly innocuous aspect to the experiment. Rousing music. Propaganda ("Power Through Discipline" written on the chalkboard) and physical manifestations of conformity (sitting bolt upright in your seat with your hands folded over the small of your back - try it). A Group salute (The Wave).

The first sign of concern came when some students had taken it upon themselves to report others who did not conform. After just four days, things got out of hand. Jones feared for the safety of a few students who refused to participate. To his dismay and alarm, the experiment was so blindly embraced by the students, that he cut the project short. "Initially I just wanted to show my students how powerful the pressure to belong can be, but the exercise got out of control. A momentum began to build that I couldn't slow, or even deter. I became frightened by the day-to-day happenings in class, and was forced to call it off," recalls Jones.

Don't tell me that I shouldn't be worried when the Dear Leader is the star attraction in an event where his minions (The Department of Education) provide the teachers with the tools to move everyone in the same direction - No "dissenters" allowed.

The Dear Leader apologists are saying, "What could possibly be wrong with the president talking about staying in school or doing "service"?

Nothing. Maybe. But that's not what this is about. If the sole purpose is the school/volunteer gig, then why is this STILL in the DOE "Menu of Classroom Activities" -

Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate students by asking the following questions:

Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be president?
To whom do you think the president is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?

What does the office of the president of the US have to do with this subject? Nothing. It could be presented by an astronaut, or a pro ball player or a rock star. If some rock star were giving the pep talk, would the DOE have provided a list of questions as well?

Who is the most famous rock star in the US?
What does it take to snort a line of coke as thick as a number two pencil?
Do you think you'll be able to comprehend the thoughts of his alcohol-addled brain?
Do you think he'll share his drugs with YOU?

Is his talk about school and volunteerism, or is it about idol-ism of government? Is it about setting the framework that, Nanny Is Good - The Dear Leader Says So. Set the expectation that The Dear Leader is your friend - he's speaking directly to you.

This little Kiddie Fireside Chat is less about volunteering, and more about doing as you're told. Also from the "Menu" -

Why is it important that we listen to the president and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

WTF? Isn't the idea of America that THEY listen to US? HAVE THESE BASTARDS EVER READ ANY AMERICAN HISTORY!!
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Here is the two-part movie. Pay particular attention at the beginning of the movie (a dramatization of what happened in the classroom) with regards to the economic and social environment of the time.

Part 1

Part 2

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A question: In the schools that show the speech, but allow kids the option of not watching it, how will they be treated by their peers and teachers?

I think history has already given us that answer...

Public Option POV

2009-09-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

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Quiz time, boys and girls!

The „Public Option„ is... » create free polls
Tags : health care public option obama congress scam communism

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Here's the Public Option at work. It's probably best not to get old and bust a hip in America...

They’re not criminals. They’ve broken no laws. But they’re being held against their will by the State of Texas. Why? It’s a tragic story about what can happen when you are alone in the world and lose control of your rights, your money, and your ability to complain.

Well, I'm sure this is just a simple misunderstanding -

A judge determined the Kidds were incapacitated and unable to care for themselves. The state took over the Kidds lives, sent them to the Countryside Nursing Home in Pilot Point, and is now burning through their money to pay for their care.

Oh. Seems kinda harsh. Of course, I'm sure the state is taking the proper fiduciary care with regards to the couple's money, right?

The state appointed a financial guardian in Greenville to manage the Kidds money and pay their bills. When they asked for an accounting, the state refused. Representatives for the state stated the Kidds did not have the mental capacity to even ask for their own financial or medical records.

Yet somehow, the Kidds still managed to ask.

Crazy old fools! Don't worry - the state will take goooooood care of you. Yesiree...

Pledge Allegiance To Barack Obama

2009-09-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation.
--Dr. Carl Sagan

I am (nearly) speechless. Watch this, THEN come back for my comments:

I pledge allegiance to Barack Obama? To be his servant?! Are you kidding me? IN AMERICA?!

That honeycomb shot at the end was as borg-like as you can get. Resistance is futile.

Did you see who produced the thing? Harpo Productions. That would be Oprah.
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Holy shit, these guys know what they're doing. They suck you in by saying how they pledge to smile more, and get to know their neighbors, end hunger and kick fewer puppies. It was very moving.

After you've tasted the apple and savor the sweet taste, they go a bit further.

They get the plug in to go to USAService.org. When you key in that address, you're miraculously taken to the GOVERNMENT website, Service.gov. Amazing, huh? They give the impression that this is a private movement, but it's nothing more than a front for Nanny.

There are some (not so) subtle plugs for universal health care and discontinuing the use of products that produce that icky plant food called CO2. They intersperse dogma with humor. "I pledge to only flush after a deuce." Oh stop - you're killin' me!

Now it's time to Bring It Home. Hit them hard with the sales pitch - What's YOUR pledge?
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Ya know what, I DO have a pledge.

I pledge to stop this socialist infiltration into the fabric of American life. To stop this infiltration that is rotting the very core of America. This infiltration that is turning a once independent, proud nation into a centrally planned and operated oligarchy. To my dying day.

Propaganda and Indoctrination

2009-09-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

What matters is not what any individual thinks, but what is true. A teacher who does not equip his pupils with the rudimentary tools to discover this is substituting indoctrination for teaching.
--Richard Stanley Peters, Ethics and Education

The administration is pulling out all the stops in getting America to march to Barry's beat.

I see this stuff coming from our Department of Education, and it sends a bolt of anger and disbelief through my head.

Barry is going to be making some speech to kids this week. Here is some of the stuff that the DOE thinks would be good for the teachers to do before, during and after the speech:

Before the speech, ask your students:

Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

The technique they're using is to plant the seed in your child's mind that what elected officials say is the gospel. If someone from the government asks you to do something, you should do it.

During

Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

After

Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:
What do you think the President wants us to do?
Does the speech make you want to do anything?
Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?
What would you like to tell the President?

They are planting the expectation that what Barry is saying is important. The speech hasn't even been given, and we already have it "graded"!!

"Before" for grades 7 through 12:

Brainstorm or Concept Web: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say?

The DOE is again planting a seed. If Barry speaks, it must be inspirational. Follow The One where he leads you.
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Where are the questions about the role of government? Why is there nothing that suggests a challenge to what might be said? Where are the critical thinking skills development?

This is nothing more than Barry's opening salvo to get kids to sign up for his National Service program - United We Serve. The theme has gone from volunteer to service.

I would love to see how a child is treated who says that they were not inspired. They were not moved to action. They want nothing to do with a government that expects its citizens to all fall into line.

The kid would be chastised and belittled, and most likely given a failing grade. Billy has difficulty with class participation.
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Last night, Glenn Beck had a film producer on his show that had received an invitation to participate in a conference call - from the National Endowment For The Arts (NEA) to discuss what artists could do to spread The Word Of Barry.

Yeah, our tax dollars paying for propaganda.

The film producer, Patrick Courrielche, said he was one of roughly 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others on an Aug. 10 conference call hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a nationwide initiative launched by Obama to increase volunteerism.

Courrielche said officials on the hour-long call -- including NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant and Michael Skolnik, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons -- encouraged the artists on the line to create works of art in their respective fields related to health care, energy and the environment.

The organizers of the hush-hush event are all denying the intent.

"The service that we are encouraging through United We Serve is taking place with no direct tie to any policy initiative, but instead focuses on the areas of the greatest need of our nation and our neighborhoods," Dugan said in a statement to FOXNews.com.

Yeah, it was just a freaky coincidence that the subject matter just happened to be the very pieces of legislation that Barry is trying to get enacted. How lucky was that?!

The film producer recorded the entire conference call. My, my, my - isn't that a bit of Inconvenient Truth?

There is a section of it where the host of the conference call questions the legality of what they are doing (it's near the end of the clip). Amazing.

They are hitting us from all sides. They understand the power of propaganda.

Where is our response?

Bulgur Is Not Vulgar

2009-09-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

I've got a large supply of whole kernel wheat stored away in our preps. I have the tools and knowledge to turn those kernels into flour, and the flour into breads, "fake" meat and other assorted foods.

It dawned on me that I may not have access to my grain mill. It could be stolen or it could become broken in some way. I didn't want that wheat to become dead weight.

My wife is working on her diet to lower her blood sugar. She needs to eat more whole foods and stuff with fiber. One of the things suggested to her was bulgur wheat.

I've heard of the stuff, but really had no idea what it was. In my mind, it was something hippies ate. I was clueless.

So I whipped out my copy of The Amazing Wheat Book by LeArta Moulton. Back in August of last year, I had used it to make wheat gluten which became fake meat. With a couple of exceptions, it turned out pretty well.

The book had a page on how to make your own bulgur wheat. It explained -

Bulgur wheat is a pre-cooked and dried preparation of wheat, which gives the advantage of cooking faster than whole or cracked wheat.

It has a sweet, nut-like flavor and crunchy texture.

The instructions were fairly simple: Put some whole kernels in a pot, cover with lots of water and bring to a boil. Let is rest for two hours. Add more water, bring it to a boil again, and let it rest another two hours. Dry it out in the oven or dehydrator and viola! you have bulgur.

To use it, you put it in a pot, add double volume of water compared with the volume of bulgur you used, and boil for 5 or 10 minutes. Eat it up.

Not. But more on that later.
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I did the two boils and rests and ended up with nice, plump wheat kernels. They were approximately triple their original size. They had a texture very similar to barley - a bit chewy, but not unpleasant at all. They were tasty with a slight natural sweetness to them.

I took a portion of them, put them on a tray and put them into the oven.

I set the oven to 200F. Each hour, I took them out to check on their dryness, and stirred it up a bit so that the whole kernels would be dried. It took a total of 3 hours to dry out the tray.

Here is the "lifecycle" of the wheat -

Across the top, it's raw wheat, then the kernels after the first boil, then after the second boil. The pile at the bottom is the dried out bulgur.

The picture may not show it too well, but the final product was somewhere in size between the raw wheat and the first boil.
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OK, so how do you cook this stuff up?

The Amazing Wheat Book said to boil it for 5 or 10 minutes. I brought the pot to a hard boil, then turned it down to a slow boil - I was afraid all the fluid would boil away.

After 5 minutes, there was still a lot of water left. I pulled out a couple of kernels to taste. While edible, I wouldn't recommend them. A bit too hard and chewy.

I let it go 5 more minutes, and little had changed. Another 10 minutes (for a total of 20) and the water was gone and the kernels were nice and plump. Probably not quite as plump as after the second original boil, but probably double in size.

I found this took too much fussing over, though. I didn't want to leave the pot boiling for fear that it would burn.

I checked the Internet for how to cook brown rice, since I figured that was about as close as I would get for another grain. I brought the rice and water up to a boil. I then turned the flame down to low, and put on the cover. I cooked it for 50 minutes, then took it off the fire and let it sit for another 10 minutes.

Perfect. It was just like the quicker method, but a lot less work.

The flavor was good - a bit sweet and a little more chewy than after the second original boil. They were darker in color as well.

I put some of it in a bowl, added some butter, sugar and milk to see if it would work as a breakfast. Not so much. The thinness of the milk amplified the chewiness of the bulgur - they actual squeaked as you chewed.

These would be great as an addition to a meatloaf or casserole, or tossed cold into a salad (that's how we ate a bunch of the stuff after the second boil). It would also work as an addition to a soup. Below is a picture of the soup I made with the Rocket Stove. I just tossed in a bunch into the bowl. Very good.

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I'm making up another batch which I will coarsely grind. I see a bunch of recipes on the Internet for a breakfast cereal using the stuff, so I want to give that a shot.

At a minimum, a decent portion of my wheat is going to become bulgur. If nothing more, it will give us the ability to eat the wheat with much less preparation than starting from scratch.

I also want to try and sprout some whole kernels for wheat grass. The stuff is supposed to be very good for you. It can be juiced or added to salads and the like.

I'm sounding more and more like a hippie every day... ;-)

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

2009-08-31T17:30:00.000-07:00

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
--Albert Einstein

It appears as though my Raiders - once again - suck dirty dog ass. Someone remind me: I'm a season ticket holder BECAUSE....?
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I had to actually buy beer today for an upcoming event. Normally, I bring along a 5-gallon keg of my homebrew (equal to 2 cases and a 6-pack), but I'm hoarding it for the upcoming football tailgater season (the highlight of the games) and our upcoming Oktoberfest party.

So, I went to BevMo (I don't know if these are national - they're kind of like liquor warehouses). The beer I wanted was $11.99 for a 12-pack - a half case. I needed a total of two cases.

They had two of the twelve packs. I asked some mouth-breather if they had any more in the back, as there was nothing left in the aisle.

" Uhh, no. We only have wuts out there."

So I asked if I could get the same 12-pack price if I bought four 6-packs.

"Nope. You gotta pay 4 times the 6-pack price." Six-packs were $7.75 a piece.

Fucking asshole. So I put back the two twelve-packs and started looking for another beer. I found another acceptable brew for the same $11.99 per 12-pack.

You guessed it - only two of them left. I looked up top, and spied a whole, boxed case on the upper-most shelf. Sweet! I grabbed it and was off to the checker.

She scans the twelve packs just fine. When she gets to the case, she starts cracking open the box. I tell her I want the whole case.

"Sorry. This is a case of 6-packs. You gotta pay the 6-pack price." Also, 4 times $7.75 each. Fuck me hard.

I'm guessing I turned very bright red in the face. The clerk looked a bit worried.

As I was turning to walk away, to offer me consolation, she said, "Don't worry. You don't need to put the beer away. I'll do it for you."

I don't know if I've ever produced such a loud belly laugh!
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WTF? It's not like people were in there throwing elbows to get at the last 6-pack of beer. Me and one other guy were the only people in there. Aside from the 6 employees that were shuffling their feet to look busy.

So instead of making a $50 sale, they've got one pissed off customer that just made the decision to shop elsewhere (and Yes, I hold a grudge).

It's not like their prices crush the competition. I don't know if this was some sort of loss-leader promotion or if they're just incredibly inept. But they ain't gettin' my business any more.
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Get this: A while back, I wrote about how a childhood friend of my wife - an avowed communist - was invited to a "special people only" event with Diane Feinstein. They kept the lid on it so none of the Town Hall protesters would cause a ruckus.

So this woman has a couple of boys. They are both half-black (from their now-dead father - long story). The oldest boy was a big old bubba. Very good football player, but dumber than a retarded earth worm.

He went to a JC and somehow, he got an athletic scholarship to attend USC (can anyone say, "Diversity"?). He never played a down in his two years there, but he was smart enough to actually get his degree. Awesome.

Not knowing what to do with his life, he decided he wanted to become a doctor. Not of philosophy or literature, but of medicine. Really.

He now attends Harvard Medical School on yet another "diversity" ticket. I shit you not.

Dumber than a retarded earth worm, and he's going to be telling you to turn your head and cough, or be adjusting the stirrups for your pelvic exam. Oh Lord.
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The teacher's union-member commie mom is a big Barry supporter (shocking, I know). After the Di Fi get-together, she called my wife to say her son is having some sort of meeting with someone famous. My wife tells me she thinks it was some politician.

Someone named Henry Gates.

I damned near coughed up a lung.

I explained to her that Gates was not a politician, per se. He was that Harvard racist, Black Studies professor that cried, 'RACISM' when he was arrested by a white cop a while back. The cop that taught the Racial Diversity training for his police department.

The guy that then had a brew with Barry and the cop on the White House lawn.

Oh.

It's good to be connected and the right ethnicity, I guess. I gotta go get me a tan...

Field Expedient Rocket Stove

2009-08-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.
--Dave Barry

I've been researching different way of cooking in an emergency situation. I carry a homemade Penny Stove in my GHB. They are excellent for this purpose - small, heat up quickly, are pretty powerful, and don't use a lot of fuel.

They have their downsides, though. You need to carry fuel with you. While I carry mine in the fuel carriers designed for backpackers, it can sometimes be disconcerting knowing this fuel is kept in my car.

Even though they are thrifty with the fuel, when it runs out, the stove is useless. I needed to fix that. I needed a field-expedient stove that used wood as the primary fuel.

Of course, there's the campfire. Very easy to make, but not very efficient for cooking. By their very design, they throw off lots of heat.

I've made Dakota firepits. They work wonderfully, and are very efficient. But, like campfires, they're not portable. You use it where you build it.

It seems like I kept being brought back to coffee can-based stoves. It looked like the most effecient design was the Rocket Stove.

So I built one to test it out.

A Rocket Stove has a number of features. There is the large outer shell, an inner "L" shaped chimney and fuel feed ramp, and a shelf on the feed ramp to provide lots of air in the combustion chamber/chimney to provide a high level of efficiency.

Here are the basics:

The cool thing about rocket stoves is they can be made out of all kinds of materials, from bricks and clay for use inside of a home, to coffee can-sized for use while camping. It's the design that's important.

The first time I heard of a Rocket Stove was a year and a half ago over at the Dragon's place. He made a very nice one that is super efficient.

I wanted to make one that could be thrown together out in the field with discarded cans, items I keep in my GHB and things scrounged in the wild. My backyard would be considered "the wild" for this little test (and NO, I wouldn't allow myself to "find" my power tools in the backyard!).

That's two dog food cans, a larger coffee can and a multi-tool. The two dog food cans would make up the "L" and the coffee can would be the body.

Using the can opener on the multi-tool, I removed the bottom of one of the cans. This would act as the fuel feed hole. I lined it up at a 90 degree angle with the other dog food can to determine where I'd need to cut a hole in its side to complete the "L".

I marked it out (yes, with a Sharpie I keep in my GHB!) and made pie cuts with the point of the knife in the multi-tool (it cut through the can like butter).

Note: When making these cuts, make one center-to-edge of circle cut first. THEN make your other cuts from the outside of the circle towards the center. Your cuts are much more accurate. On the smaller can, while opening up the hole a bit, I was making one of the cuts on the upper part of the circle, and the knife ran on me, cutting the can to the very top of the lip. The reinforced banding on the lip was the only thing that kept me from slicing open the whole can.

After A LOT of tweaking, I got the cans together. I then lined up one of the dog food cans on the coffee can, marked it out and made similar cuts and slapped everything together.

Front view:

Top view:

You'll notice all of the "mess" in the top view from the folded edges of the can holes. I just pushed these flat with the pliers of the multi-tool to clean things up.

I had nothing for the ramp that is used to create the air channel in the feed tube. DING! I keep tins of sardines and kippered snacks in my GHB. The kippered snacks come in a long slender tin. The lid would work PERFECTLY!

I opened the tin, at the kippered snacks (I love these things!) and fashioned the fuel ramp. I basically measured it to length, and folded it so it was the same length as the can. I then folded down the sides of the lid to provide the stand-off to allow airflow. It sat in the can perfectly.

You need to add some sort of insulation between the outer walls of the chimney and the inner walls of the coffee can. It helps to make the stove more efficient. I poured some sand and dirt from my backyard into this void. Some of it started escaping from the bottom of the hole in the coffee can. I grabbed some aluminum foil from the fishing kit in my GHB and stuffed it into the voids. It kept out SOME of the sand/soil, but not all of it. I only filled the void up perhaps half way.

The last thing I did was punch 8, 1/2 inch air holes about a half inch below the rim of the coffee can. Since I intended on using the top of the can as my pot stand, I needed to provide a way to keep the air draft alive.

Now to see if this puppy works!

I scrounged up a piece of a stake made from oak to use as my fuel. I used my Kabar survival knife to split the pieces into usable sizes. I also grabbed an ashtray to start my fire, as it was windy and I didn't want to have my kindling blowing all over my backyard and catching stuff on fire. Here's what I started with:

Starting at top center of the picture moving clockwise: The rocket stove, 1qt camp pot, ash tray with 1 Vaseline-soaked cotton ball and two pieces of kindling with feathered edges, a fire sparker, the multi-tool, a nesting fork-spoon-knife kit, the lid to the pot and three bundles of differently sized oak stake pieces. Please note that this is ALL the fuel I was allowing myself.

You'll also note - right above the pot lid, a bag of light brown stuff. That is one of my Just Add Water (JAW) meals.

My test would be to bring 2 cups of water to a boil and to make myself some soup. Might as well be practical here!

I got the cotton ball flaming with a single strike of the sparker (these cotton balls RULE!) and threw in the two feathered pieces of kindling. They were then put into the feed ramp of the stove.

It was cranking out flame virtually immediately!

I threw the pot on top, and started my clock to see how long it would take to bring the water to a boil and cook my meal.

The flame promptly went out. I removed the pot, and it started right up again. Apparently, the air holes I punched into the coffee can were inadequate for the job. I found that I needed a very aggressive fire to keep it alive with the pot on the stove.

It took approximately 10 minutes to get bubbles to form at the bottom of the pan. I was never able to get a full boil going. I dumped the JAW soup mix in the pan, gave it a stir and covered it up.

I alternated between pushing more sticks into the fire chamber, removing the pot to get the fire going again, and stirring the soup. All told, it took another 10 minutes (for a total of 20 minutes) to cook the soup.

Very impressively, those little bundles of wood shown in the picture above were all I used. In a camp fire or even a Dakota fire pit, that would have been gone in a minute. I had perhaps a 1/4 cup of ash after the fire.

So, what did I learn?

Pro: Very sturdy. Very Cheap. Very fuel efficient. Portable.

Con: Dirty. Even though it was very efficient, there was a ton of soot on the bottom of the pot. No more than you'd have with a campfire, but with its touted high efficiency, I expected less.

Other than that, it was pretty damned impressive. My design didn't allow for enough air to reach the fire chamber with the pot on the top. That's not a problem with the Rocket Stove, it was a problem with how I put it together.

Along a similar line, the coffee can diameter should match the diameter of your pot, if at all possible. This will allow more of the flame coming up from the chimney to "lick" the bottom of the pot and give you quicker desired temperatures.
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I'd guess it took me about a half hour to make the stove. I went slowly so I wouldn't cut myself on any of the exposed edges.

It was a good exercise. I will probably put one together that is more like the one Dragon made - more precise, sturdy and larger. It could be brought along when car camping or similar situation or used at home during an emergency when you didn't have access to utility-provided fuels, electricity or other stored fuels.

The Rapist Next Door

2009-08-28T08:00:00.001-07:00

How does shit like this happen?

The above image (click to enlarge) is of the 2-acre lot in Antioch, California, where some twisted bastard held a kidnapped child for 18 years. He repeatedly raped her, and he fathered two children by her, now aged 15 and 11.

Go to Google maps or Zillow.com and key in '1554 Walnut Ave., Antioch, Ca' to get a feeling for where this property was located.

While not a typical Antioch residential neighborhood, it is certainly not out in the wilderness.

The back of the property, where the kidnap victim lived for all 18 years, had neighbors on all 3 sides. She lived back there in huts and sheds.

It appears as though some of the neighbors DID call the authorities. None of the authorities apparently had the skills to notice anything was amiss. No one noticed that the little girl never went to school? Or played with the other kids in the neighborhood? OR GAVE BIRTH TO TWO CHILDREN IN THE FUCKING BACK YARD?!

This bastard was a registered sex offender. He had physical visits by his parole agents, TO THIS HOME, at least once each and every year he was holding her. Perhaps the problem was because they came - every year - on his birthday. Perhaps he had the time to cover his tracks for each visit, since he knew exactly when "the authorities" were coming.

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We lived in Antioch for 14 years - from 1988 to 2002. This property is on the other end of town - it's actually closer to where we live now in another town.

We moved because the city was falling into disrepair - gangs had started openly tagging neighborhoods and businesses - and no one seemed to give a shit. Our boys were coming out of private elementary school and starting public high school. The town we moved to had a new high school with a great reputation. They were NOT going to attend Antioch High.

Perhaps the Antioch police were too busy with the gangs. Perhaps the parole agents each had too many felons to do a thorough job.

I don't give a shit. The primary job of government is to protect the rights of its citizens. They ALL dropped the ball, big-time.

It seems as though we have plenty of police and inspectors to make sure you are meeting the ADA laws, the fence height laws, the house color laws and the other codes where Nanny can make a buck when you cross the line.

Apparently making sure a child doesn't get raped for 18 years isn't worth the trouble.

What They're Not Telling You

2009-08-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press,” he said. “This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.
--Mark Lloyd, the nation's first, Chief Diversity Officer

Before I de-construct the recent FDIC report on the health of the US banking industry, I just wanted to kick around something that is very disturbing to me.

The socialists realize that the term, "Fairness Doctrine" is dead. Too many Americans understand that it is nothing but code for "censorship."

Not to be rebuffed in their efforts, they are using a backdoor approach to getting their plans employed. They simply installed the above-quoted Mark Lloyd at the FCC, and are letting him use the bureaucracy to get the job done.

To get their vision for America in place, Barry - or any politician running the joint - need to have a compliant press. They have it now with regards to TV, newspapers, and most magazines. The sole, glaring exception is talk-radio. It is the thorn in their side.

Here's what I wrote in September of last year -

Regardless of whether Barry O or Johnny Mac becomes president, I think conservative talk radio is in trouble. Barry will run right at it and push the Fairness Doctrine as new FCC policy. Conservative radio has called out enough powerful Republican politicians whom they no longer consider as conservative, that the days of this radio format may be numbered.

Again in January of this year, I made a similar prediction -

... I think one of the very first issues on Barry's agenda will be to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. It will silence the one significant threat to his ability to control the message in the media - Talk Radio.

Barry is seeing that talk radio is able to get unfettered information out to the masses. The masses (that would be us) are reacting - and not in a way that Barry is appreciating. It has (at least temporarily) killed the Cap and Trade bullshit. The Health Care boondoggle is on shaky legs. His administration's economic "reports" are roundly mocked as being nothing more than 'fluff' pieces.

He cannot let this continue.

Under the guise of 'diversity' - which only a racist would be against, right? - Lloyd is proposing to institute a teeny, weeny fee. A fee equal to the entire operating budget of a radio station to pay for government controlled radio -

Lloyd has written in at least 2 different sources that he believes all radio broadcast companies should pay to the government a fee equaling the company's entire operating expenses in order to fund public radio (NPR). The effect of this will, of course, drive most privately owned broadcast companies out of business.

And this is what Lloyd and Obama want. The 'diversity' of which they speak is not just about content but about ownership. They want minorities, which usually favor liberals, to own much of the broadcast entities doing business in the U.S. today.

I'm telling you, folks, if this isn't stopped, the next station on the Barry Express is the Internet. Blogs will be targeted for closure or regulation. We have a high-level federal employee in the nation's communications regulatory agency who thinks the First Amendment is a "distraction".

To call that 'chilling' would be an understatement.
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Why did Barry choose the FCC as the first federal agency to install a Chief Diversity Officer?

Why not Commerce Department, or the FDA, or the Interior Department? I know, I know, rhetorical question...
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The FDIC finally released their report on the State of Banking. It's not a pretty picture [gasp] -

The U.S. added 111 lenders to its list of “problem banks” in the second quarter, a 36 percent increase that pushed the group to a 15-year high.

A total of 416 banks with combined assets of $299.8 billion failed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s grading system for asset quality, liquidity and earnings, the most since June 1994, the Washington-based FDIC said in a report today. Regulators didn’t identify companies deemed “problem” banks.

What the "reporters" failed to report is that one year ago - 2Q 2008 - there were 117 banks IN TOTAL on the problem report. The current 416 banks represents an increase of 258% in one year (remember, a 100% increase means it doubled).

Banks are sucking wind, regardless of the 'green shoots' that Barry is planting in your butt. All of the Nanny accounting, "get out of jail free" cards have been played. They are having to report their actual earnings. The numbers of non-performing loans is still skyrocketing, and it's showing in the bank numbers -

FDIC-insured banks reported a net loss of $3.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with a $5.5 billion gain in the first quarter. The loss, the second quarterly one the industry has reported in 18 years, was driven by increased expenses for bad loans, the FDIC said.

So what? you say. Why should you care?

Because YOU'RE going to get to pay for the coming shit-storm.

I've written before that when a bank goes tits-up, it costs the FDIC fund about 25% of the bank's asset size to make things right (although that seems to have increased to about 35% recently). For instance, a $100 million in assets bank will cost the fund around $25 million.

They've just reported that nearly $300 BILLION of NEW crappy banks just hit the radar. That means it will likely cost $75 billion to make it right.

For all intents and purposes, the FDIC is insolvent, and will need to borrow from its line of credit (I forget if it's with the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department). That means more bonds will need to be sold. Bonds with interest that our tax dollars will be paying.
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Alright. So what was in the full FDIC report that the compliant (or ignorant) media didn't tell you about?

From the very first paragraph in the report -

Quarterly earnings were also adversely affected by writedowns of asset-backed commercial paper, and by higher assessments for deposit insurance.

Commercial paper means business loans. It can be lines of credit, real estate loans, or term financing for things like equipment and vehicles. Seeing as they called them 'asset-backed' loans, the reasons for the writedowns could be because the business stopped making payments OR the value of the assets securing the loans has decreased in value. Neither of these bodes well for us. American business is in trouble.

From the same paragraph -

Almost two out of every three institutions (64.4 percent) reported lower quarterly earnings than a year ago, and more than one in four (28.3 percent) reported a net loss for the quarter.

Two out of three banks are doing worse than a year ago (hey, I thought things were looking up!) and a quarter of them posted losses. Why isn't this reported as top-of-fold, headline blaring information?

From the very next paragraph -

These negative factors [commercial paper and other writedowns] were partially offset by higher noninterest income (up $6.5 billion, or 10.6 percent), increased net interest income (up $3.4 billion, or 3.5 percent), and a $1.5-billion reduction in realized losses on securities and other assets. Gains on asset sales (up $4.5 billion), increased trading revenue (up $4.5 billion), and higher servicing fees (up $3.6 billion) were the largest contributors to the year-over-year improvement in noninterest income.

Higher noninterest income. Gains on asset sales. Increased trading revenue. Higher servicing fees.

What dat mean?

Banks are not making their money by lending out money and earning Interest Income. They're selling stuff off. They're earning income on the stock market (trading revenue). And they're charging YOU higher fees for the pleasure of them holding your money (or charging you for formerly free services). They look more like investment houses than like banks.

Glad to see the bailout money is going back into the economy where it is stimulating like crazy.

So, where are all of these net charge offs coming from (loan balance minus asset sales income equals net charge off) ?

Net charge-offs continued to rise, propelling the quarterly net charge-off rate to a record high. Insured institutions charged-off $48.9 billion in the second quarter, compared to $26.4 billion a year earlier. The annualized net charge-off rate in the second quarter was 2.55 percent, eclipsing the previous quarterly record of 1.95 percent reached in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The sources of these charge-offs? Commercial loans (up 85.3%), credit cards (up 84.5%), real estate construction (up 117%) and single family residences (up 41.1%).

Well, we're out of the woods now, right? All of the bad times are behind us. The shit has been identified and things are ship-shape.

Not so much -

The amount of loans and leases that were noncurrent (90 days or more past due or in nonaccrual status) increased for a 13th consecutive quarter, and the percentage of total loans and leases that were noncurrent reached a new record. Noncurrent loans and leases increased by $41.4 billion (14.3 percent) during the second quarter,

That means we have AT LEAST another $41 billion in hits to absorb.
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There is lots, lots more, but you get the picture.

You need to think of banks as the canary in the mine. If they're making money, America is making money. The reverse is true, as well.

The Cancer is now plainly visible on the business side of the economy. The commercial loans are going tits-up. That means they don't have enough customers. We knew that because we see how the unemployment rates - even the massaged number from Nanny - continue to climb.

People have maxed out their credit cards, and stopped making payments. They've stopped making their house payments. Term loans to consumers - car loans and the like - will be next to show a beating. They let the credit cards go to hell because they don't lose anything - other than their credit rating. Car loans will be paid up to the bitter end if at all possible.

Someone tell me how we get out of this. If Nanny keeps taxing and maxing out the national credit line, we may get a short-term buzz, but nothing more. The bill will have to be paid eventually.

I don't even want to think about it any more...

Can of Financial Whoop-ass

2009-08-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

The great, unreported story in globalization is about power, not ideology. It's about how finance and business regularly, continuously insert their own self-interested deals and exceptions into rules and agreements that are then announced to the public as "free trade."
--William Greider

Kind of a heads-up on some disturbing financial trends. Are these "dots" connected? If so, what does it mean?

A starting point: The current national deficit is a shade under $12 trillion (as I was typing this up, the site was unavailable, as too many people are hitting the site!). When Bush left office, it was around $10 trillion, which was an increase of about $5 trillion over 8 years.

Today, the Administration says that their plans will increase the deficit by a mind-numbing $9 trillion. If you do the math, 12 + 9 = $21 trillion by 2019. The in-the-bag Washington post (mistakenly?) quotes an Administration source saying it will be $23 trillion by 2019 -

All told, the White House predicts that the nation will have to borrow an additional $9 trillion over the next decade to finance the annual deficits, driving the accumulated national debt to nearly $23 trillion in 2019 -- or 76.5 percent of gross domestic product, the highest since 1950.

Regardless, it is a number that simply can never be re-paid. Hey, a trillion here, a trillion there, who cares? It's for Barry.

Also, where do they get the 76.5% of GDP figure?

Our GDP is currently $14 trillion a year. For the $23 trillion deficit to equal 76.5% of GDP would mean that in 2019, Barry & Company are predicting our GDP will be a hair over $30 trillion a year - or more than double the current national productivity.

For that to be true, that means our economy will need to grow by AN AVERAGE OF 8% A YEAR FOR 10 YEARS IN A ROW. Have we EVER grown at 8% in modern times?

No.

According to this data (an Excel spreadsheet, BTW), since 1970, the single highest annual growth we've seen in GDP was 7.19% in 1984. One year. Yet they want us to believe that we're going to exceed that for 10 years running?!

Did anyone in the press ever take a fucking math class in college? Or were they too busy in their, Swallowing Socialist Dogma 401 graduate class?
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A report is supposed to come out today from the FDIC on its financial health. This should be interesting.

At the end of the first quarter, the FDIC had a cash balance of $13 billion. Since then, a butt-load of banks have gone belly-up. The cost to taxpayers for this is $16 billion.

That means that they are in the hole, which is against federal law (LOL!).

Vekshin goes on to report that 56 bank failures since March 31 have cost the FDIC an estimated $16 billion. (For comparison, in the 1st Quarter, bank failures only cost the FDIC $2.2 billion.) That $16 billion bank rescue would fully deplete the FDIC fund as it only had $13 billion at the close of the 1stQuarter. It’s possible the FDIC has already tapped into its line of credit at the Treasury Department without setting off alarm bells to the public.

The FDIC is required by law to maintain a reserve ratio, or balance divided by insured deposits, of 1.15 percent. It was at 0.27 percent as of March 31. It could be near zero at the current moment.

So, will they report that they have had to make emergency borrowings, or will they fudge the numbers - much like the budget deficit numbers described above - with the compliant press remaining silent on the issue?
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These next two stories go hand-in-hand -

If you have watched any sort of financial news, you know that the US Treasury is paying virtually nothing for our debt. It's how they've helped to keep a lid on the economy -

A new global reserve system is needed after the global financial crisis exposed the U.S. dollar-based system as flawed and risky, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Friday.

The "dollar now is yielding almost zero return," Stiglitz said in a speech at the United Nations regional headquarters in Bangkok. "The current global reserve system is fraying. It's falling apart. The issue isn't whether we go to a new system. The question is do we do so in an orderly or disorderly way."

The build up of the U.S. deficit, debt and "the boiling up of the balance sheet" is cause for anxiety, he said.

It seems that some countries are taking this warning to heart. Including the biggest buyer of our debt, China -

China reduced its holdings of US government debt by the largest margin in nearly nine years in June, according to data from the US Treasury.

While they currently hold more US debt than they did at the start of the year, the disturbing thing is that they did their reduction the same month that Treasury Secretary Geithner was over there selling them on the strength of the US economy.

Oops.
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Are these dots connected? If so, what will be the likely result of all of this?

With deficits projected to climb (and actual numbers will more than likely be higher), we need more money. It looks like we've got another bailout on the way - via the FDIC. More cash draining down the toilet.

We can raise the needed cash in a number of ways: We can raise taxes, borrow more money, or simply print it up to cover our costs. We're currently doing all three things.

Barry WILL raise taxes. You're a fool if you don't think that will happen. And it is unrealistic to think it will be targeted at only those making $250,000 or more. That lie has already been exposed with the cigarette and liquor tax increases, which hit everyone. The income tax "bar" will be lowered as well.

We're going to see excise and sin taxes go up, or they'll hit us with some sort of Euro-styled Value Added Tax (VAT) so Nanny can get a cut of everything - including food - without making it look like taxes are being paid by the naive consumer.

Borrowing more money is already becoming problematic. Nations are running away from the dollar. The risk/reward calculation just doesn't make sense any more. The Federal Reserve Bank is becoming one of the major buyers of Treasuries, which is scary in its own right. We're taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another and calling it 'revenue'.

So we're going to have to print up more money. Buckets of it. This can ONLY lead to inflation, with hyperinflation the likely outcome. The already weak dollar will have even less purchasing power.

The bottom line: Because of increased taxes, you're going to have fewer dollars to buy goods and services. Those dollars you do have, will have less purchasing power because of inflation. If a "bank holiday" is called because of loss-of-confidence in banks, you may lose unrestricted access to the money you need to stay alive.

Rock, meet the hard place.
----------

What do you do? I've preached these things before, but they still hold true -

1. If you have debt, try to eliminate as much as possible. Whatever is left, get it into a fixed-rate product. Unless Barry allows lenders to unilaterally adjust contracts to track inflation (which is not too far-fetched considering what they did to the GM bond holders), that portion of your expenses will be in a very good place.

2. Do whatever you can to reduce your reliance on purchased goods and services. Buy whatever you need as early in the production stream as possible. Buy whole wheat and grind it yourself instead of buying flour. Buy large pieces of meat and break it down yourself. Buy seeds and grow your own vegetables. Hunt, fish and forage for "free" food. Teach yourself how to can and otherwise preserve foods. Take advantage of a bounty whenever possible.

3. Hoard and hide what you absolutely, positively cannot live without. While I think it is unlikely - at this point - that the government will confiscate privately-owned goods, we have a lot of precedence that the government has no compunction in relieving you of your personal (and real) property when it is for "the greater good." Just ask farmers during the (last) Depression, people that owned gold, the Kelo family in New London, CT, or "assault rifle" owners. Remember: "The Greater Good" is based upon the world views of those in charge at the time. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, is no longer just a catchy little Maxist dream.

4. Pay attention and have a plan. As depressing as it can be, staying abreast of what is going on in the country is so very important. Set up some mental "trip wires" of events that you think may signal a turn for the worst. Watch for trends. Price increases, unemployment increases, bank failures, business failures/lay offs, etc. Along the same lines, question "happy news". If you see a story about an up-tick in some important indicator, verify the information. For instance, if a headline reads, "Unemployment Numbers Improve," see if unemployment actually went down, or were the losses just less than Nanny had predicted?

5. Reduce your tax profile. Buying goods and services earlier in the production stream is one great way to do this. Also look at garage sales, Craigslist and other similar venues. You can often buy new or nearly-new goods more cheaply and with no tax. Craigslist also has a Barter section. Of course, it's illegal to not pay your taxes. Do what's right for you and your family.

6. Unless you can provide for 100% of your needs through personal production or barter, have at least some of your reserve funds in gold and/or silver. How much depends on how likely you think a severe economic down-turn might be. If you need a real-life example of the utility of gold and silver in a recent, ongoing economic downturn, read about what is going on in Argentina. And remember: It is not an investment; It is a hedge.
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What is the down-side to this? If, by some miracle, taxes don't increase, crushing inflation does not appear, and prosperity is returned to America, what have you lost? Nothing that I can think of.

Maybe you're not traveling the world quite so often, or buying a new car/boat/toy every other year, but the lives of most folks will be largely unchanged. Except, you'll be prepared and less likely to become dependent upon Nanny.

Not a bad thing in my book...

Hooch, Part 2

2009-08-24T08:54:00.001-07:00

Well, between Scotch and nothin', I suppose I'd take Scotch. It's the nearest thing to good moonshine I can find.
--William Faulkner

Two weeks ago, I started a 5-gallon batch of high-alcohol fermented beverage - some hooch.

The batch is now fully fermented. It came out at 15.5% alcohol content! To put it into perspective, beer is generally in the 4-7% range, and wine is usually in the 10-12% range.

So far, the results are mixed.

When you make a beer or wine, when the fermentation is complete, the yeast dies off, and flocculates - falls to the bottom of the fermentation bucket. This leaves you with a fairly clear liquid that you drink.

The Turbo Yeast that I used doesn't seem to want to 'play nice.' The resulting liquid is very cloudy.

I decided to run the liquid through a make-shift strainer. I took 3 clean terrycloth towels and placed them in a colander on top of another bucket.

It did absolutely nothing.

I decided to, "kick it up a notch" and run it through a coffee filter. Nuttin'.

I ran it through 5 coffee filters stacked on top of each other. Nada.

Now I was pissed off. I went out and spent $25 to buy a Brita water filter. It uses activated charcoal to 'scrub' the water you pour into it. My concern was that the filter would clog from the yeast and I'd be forced to continually buy more and more filters.

I didn't care - I wanted a clear liquid!

So much for the activated charcoal -

If you compare this picture with the first one, you can see a slight clarification of the liquid, but not much.

I am not pleased.
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Before I started with the straining, I dropped the temperature of my fermentation fridge down from 66F to 50F. Typically, this will cause the yeast to fall out of solution to the bottom of the bucket. I gave the yeast 24 hours to flocculate. It obviously didn't work.

Soooooo, I took the bucket, and put it into my freezerator - a freezer that I have retro-fitted to serve my beer. It is temperature controlled to maintain a 42F temperature.

I'm going to let it sit for at least a week to see if I can get nature to clear up the brew. If this doesn't work, I may have to go with a type of plate filter that is used on wine. The rig costs $60 or $70, and the filters run around $4 each (and you need 2 per batch).

I do plan on making up a number of batches of this hooch to experiment with some other techniques and uses, so I might be able to justify the cost, but this is clearly not something I had planned for.
----------

You guys know what this 'hooch' is used for - commercially - right? Take a look at bottled mixed "cocktails" such as the hard ciders, or Zima, Smirnoff Ice and the like. Most will say something to the effect of "fermented malt beverage" or as plainly as "beer."

The reason for this has to do with our liquor laws. A beer and wine liquor license is much easier to obtain than a distilled spirits license. You can sell these stronger alcoholic beverages right next to your beer and wine without having to upgrade your license.
----------

Related filtration topic:

Last week, I helped a couple of friends to set up their homemade Big Berkey water filters. We drilled the holes and got everything set up.

The house we were doing this has a large swimming pool that the owner plans to use as his emergency water supply. To show him the effectiveness of the filters, we filled the bucket up with water, and waited anxiously as it filtered it into pure, potable H2O. These filters don't just filter the water, it purifies it to 99.99999% clarity.

The water trickled down to the bottom bucket, and it was high enough to allow us to use the spigot and pour ourselves a glass.

The owner took a sip, and scrunched his face up in disgust. I figured he was kidding around.

Not so.

I had explained to him that the Black Berkey filters scrub all of the bad crap out of the water. VOC's, pesticides, heavy metals, chlorine, bacteria - everything you might be worried about.

The information on the web site also had this information -

yet they leave in the healthful and beneficial minerals that your body needs and....

This is a good thing - normally.

What I didn't know, is that this guy adds salt to his pool. Apparently, the salt goes through some kind of gizmo that produces all of the bug-killing chemicals needed to keep the pool clean. But the water is salty.

Salt would be one of those "healthful and beneficial minerals" that makes it through the filter!

He's now ordering up some additional 55-gallon water barrels....

OpSec

2009-08-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.
--Sun Tzu

OpSec is a term used by the military that is a contraction of Operations Security. The idea is to ensure your enemy doesn't get wind of what you're planning for in your next mission. Think of the saying from WWII, "Loose lips sink ships."

It also has to do with adding inconsistency to what you do - don't be predictable, or your enemy will be able to anticipate what you're going to do next, even without having to gather any information.

In the latest episode of The Colony TV show , they had to deal with a man and woman who laid a claim to the group's building and its contents. The guy literally had a key to the back door, and walked right in.

Some of the group was leery, but a couple of the male members decided to give these two strangers a complete tour of their facilities, security and resources. Simply because the guy had a key to the door.

They spilled their guts, and not surprisingly, the strangers turned on the group. They didn't want to live by the rules of the Colony, and a good deal of resources were lost in a very short period of time.

If these two ever decide to come back with some of their friends, they now know the security arrangements, the head count, the skill-sets, the weaponry, power, food and water capabilities of The Colony. Unless the group makes some changes, they are a plum waiting to be picked.
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A reader of this blog sent me a link to this document Secret Freedom Fighter - Fighting Tyranny Without Terrorizing the Innocent. It's an interesting read, to say the least. If you have a Scribd.com account (free to set up), you can download the booklet in PDF format.

The book is largely based on the idea of OpSec - keep your pie-hole closed, and you are much more likely to be successful in what you're trying to achieve.

If I have any criticism of their efforts [people publicly fighting Nanny], it is that they have been too public. Too many of them will be easily identified and targeted by the authorities in control.

Take the case of the Mormons. Everybody in the country knows that every good Mormon is supposed to have a year's supply of food on hand. When the crunch comes, the first thing the military dictator's local representative is going to his list of members. A week later, the Mormons will be standing in the soup lines along with everybody else, only it will be their soup we'll all be eating.

He's right on the first part - if confiscations are to occur, Mormons will be targeted because everyone knows that's where the food is.

What he gets wrong, I think, is thinking that they'll end up in soup lines. I think the way you'll be able to identify Mormon homes is by the head count of Nanny bureaucrats that were sent to "repatriate" the food - that are now stacked like cord wood on the steps of these homes.
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So who knows your plans, capabilities and resources? Who knows where you keep your emergency food supplies? Who knows where you've cached food, water, weapons and ammo? Who knows where your precious metals are stored?

Can you trust everyone on that list? Can you trust them not to disclose your information, either through casual disclosure, or under threat from someone more powerful - like the government or some street thug with a knife to their baby daughter's throat? Do you trust them with your life?

Do you have contingency plans for the possibility that your privacy - your OpSec - is breached?

Most folks have some sort of a firewall or virus scan on their computers to keep hackers and malicious programs off of their systems. They perform back-ups of their hard drives so they don't lose everything in the event of a total system breach.

Do you have "flags" in place that might indicate a breach to your preps? Do you have back-up resources pre-positioned for the possibility of having your main plan obliterated? With finances, we are told, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket." Pretty damned sound advice, I think.

Have you added a level of unpredictability to your plans so that a moderately intelligent person could not deduce what your contingency plans may be?

Do you have some supplies that are "hidden" to be used as "ransom" in the event of a breach?

How long could you survive after the sudden loss of everything you have worked so hard to acquire? Would you be in that Nanny soup line or would you have other supplies and resources at your disposal?

No soup for me, thank you very much...

Media Bias

2009-08-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

No More Mr. Niceguy

2009-08-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
--Walt Whitman

I poached this article from Bitmap's site.

In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation.

Reprisals? Ya think?!

Challenge, 'The One' and you're suddenly hearing the rubber glove snapping onto the bratwurst-sized fingers of the examiner, with the reassuring, "This will only be uncomfortable for a moment."

An open letter to the health care insurance industry -

Welcome to 'The Show'.

I read that a couple of pinheads in Congress have sent you guys a letter asking for some pretty detailed financial information. They want you to disclose who has made over $1 million for the past few years, what kind of conferences and events you have attended, and how much you're spending on gifts and ~~hookers~~ entertainment.

Tell them to shove it, or you'll be sorry.

Tell them that as a publicly traded company, you dutifully follow the same rules as every other publicly traded company. You publish the salaries and other compensation of your senior executives. You provide an income statement and balance sheet, and all of the other minutia required by law.

Those laws do not include the disclosure of confidential personal information of your rank-and-file employees - regardless of how well compensated they may be. You refuse to break the myriad of confidentiality laws simply because they want to use your companies as the latest pinatas at the Health Care Reform party.

Tell them you won't participate in their grandstanding. You won't participate in their public witch hunt. You won't participate in their egregious abuse of power.

Let them know that, if they don't like it, they can change the laws. Warn them to be very damned certain that their new law had better apply to every publicly held company in this nation. If they abuse your Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law, you will come at them tooth-and-nail.

You will literally spend your very last dime fighting them. You will sue them. You will give money to every single political opponent of theirs that pops their head up. You will produce national advertising exposing every facet of their personal and professional lives. You will smear them, just as they are attempting to smear you.

Tell them that you realize that if you capitulate to their demands, your demise is at hand anyway. You will not sit by and watch all of your hard work and effort be robbed from you for some political experiment. Tell them, "Not on our dime! Not on our backs!"

Now, you are reasonable people. Tell them you do have a compromise to offer. If they will require a full and detailed financial exposure of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Office of The White House, Americorp and every single "community organizing" entity that receives our federal tax dollars, you will consider their request. But only after you've seen that the American people actually get the disclosures. You're un-trusting, but have reason to be.

So, there's your offer. They can take it or leave it. Fight or don't fight. Disclose or don't disclose. You don't care. You've had it with their shenanigans, and you won't play by their lopsided rules any more.

Sign it,

Hugs and kisses,

The Evil Health Care Insurance Industry

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HA! They'll cave.
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OT: I wrote a few weeks ago about fraudulent cashiers checks popping up all around the country. This trend has INCREASED. I'm getting email notices from the FDIC on an almost daily basis about new fraud cases.

If you accept cashiers checks, either personally or in your business, take a minute and call the bank to verify that the check is legit. You are assuming the check is as good as cash (chuckle) but you may get left holding the bag.

As Ronnie said, "Trust, but verify."

To Protect and Serve...

2009-08-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Many of you may have heard about the murders of the toll-taker and her friend that happened here in Northern California.

This sequence of events is sickening -

Recently dumped boyfriend (Burris) slashed the tires of a truck whose owner (Everette) had lent to the ex-girlfriend (Ross).

Burris watches the truck, waiting for Everette to call for a tow truck. Burris walks over to the truck with shotgun in hand, and kills Everette.

Two armed, Marin County sheriff's deputies (on-duty, in street clothes, in their cars at the toll plaza) see the muzzle flash - from 50 feet away. And do nothing.

Burris walks up to (ex-girlfriend) Ross' toll-booth, and shotguns her. Still nothing from the deputies.

Burris jumps in his car and escapes.

One [deputy] saw the muzzle flash in the south parking lot, where police say Burris shot Everette. Moments later, Burris jogged out into traffic toward the toll booth [where he subsequently slaughtered Ross].

The attack lasted less than half a minute. One of the deputies alerted her dispatch center in Marin County during the shooting, and the other used her car to block traffic so other drivers would not blunder into the gunman's sights, Richmond police said. They then checked on workers in the toll booths and the adjoining Caltrans building.

The deputy blocked traffic while citizens are being slaughtered. They finally caught him, a few hours later.

The cops were 50 feet away when they saw the muzzle flash. Seventeen yards. Even an average shooter, much less one that is expected to be proficient - such as a police officer - could place 10 rounds into an 8 inch circle at that distance (Oh wait... cops get to have the large capacity magazines us common California citizens are prohibited from owning, so they'd have more chances to stop the slaughter).

But because it's California, no one was armed and able to save the life of the toll-taker. Except the sheriff's deputies, who chose to do nothing.

DO YOU FEEL SAFE, CALIFORNIA?
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Of course, this will get spun by the press and the Brady Bunch as people can't be trusted with ANY guns. Hell, they're slaughtering government employees now!
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So, how do we protect and serve OURSELVES? With practice.

I went to the range yesterday with a buddy I haven't seen in 10 years or so. My old college roommate.

Most ranges in our area don't allow any type of rapid fire. Most require at least 1 second between shots.

While this somewhat limits the type of training you can do, there are still a number of self-defense exercises you can follow to keep your skills up.

Prep: Set up your large target with 4 smaller targets - in a diamond pattern. One top center, one bottom center, one middle left, and one middle right. All as widely spaced as the base target will allow.

1. Load 4 rounds into your magazine/cylinder. Start with your preferred two-handed grip, with your gun held chest-high with muzzle pointing down at a 45 degree angle (I believe some folks call this the 'high compact' position).

Extend the gun out-and-up to acquire the left-middle target as quickly as possible. As soon a you have your sight picture, fire. Count 'one thousand one'. With arms still extended, acquire the right-middle target, and fire.

Retract the pistol to the high-compact position.

Immediately re-acquire the RIGHT-middle target (the one you just shot), fire, one-thousand-one, acquire the left-middle target, fire, retract.

Clear the gun and reload.

I do this at 5, 7, 10 and 15 yards.

2. Repeat this exercise using the top-center and bottom center targets.

3. Repeat this side-to-side exercise one-handed strong-hand.

4. Repeat this exercise top-to-bottom one-handed strong-hand.

5. Repeat this exercise, side-to-side, two-handed, weak hand.

6. Repeat this exercise, top-to-bottom, two-handed, weak hand.

7. Repeat this exercise, side-to-side, one handed, weak hand.

8. Repeat this exercise top-to-bottom, one handed, weak hand.

Remember to count the 'one thousand one' before you move the gun to the next target (don't fire, move to the next target, THEN count one thousand one). The intention is to develop quick target acquisition skills while STILL putting lead on the target (I use 6 inch stick-on targets). Expect the acquisition and fire times to be longer as you move the target further away from you.

A shot that misses the target is a waste of ammo, and could result in an innocent being hit in real life. You want speed AND accuracy.

This will use up 128 rounds if you do all 8 steps at all 4 distances. It took me about 45 minutes yesterday. If you're worried about using up too much ammo, cut it in half and do the 8 steps at 7 and 13 yards. You'll get a good mix of up-close and semi-distant practice.

DO NOT cut out the off-hand and single-hand stuff. It would sure suck if you were shot in your strong hand and had no practice shooting with your off-hand.

Especially as the bad guy was walking up to a loved one with bad intentions in his eyes...

Fear and Freedom

2009-08-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.
--Mahatma Gandhi

We're learning to fight fire with fire.

There has been a very effective propaganda piece that has seen a lot of time on right- and libertarian-leaning websites and blogs. The Obama Socialism Joker -

This image has simultaneously brightened the days of liberty-loving folks, and seriously pissed off the socialists.

I call that a success by any standard!

What is great about the image is its simplicity. The insincere painted smile, coupled with the voodoo-like possessed eyes and the simple statement: socialism.

Fucking brilliant! It's disturbing to look at. It sells danger, deception, untrustworthiness and fear. Fear sells and it moves people to action.

It reminds me of the, "This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs." commercials of the 1980's (?). Simple. Straight-forward. Get's the point across: Do drugs, fry your brain.

The government got a big head, and took a good thing and screwed it up, IMO. The 10 second, "This is drugs" commercial was now a 30 second rub-your-nose-in-it morality play.

It lost the punch of the original.
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So what is propaganda?

information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

It's really marketing of an idea or an ideal, and we're in the middle of a war of ideals.

Our side needs more of this. Stuff that can easily "go viral" and spread across the Internet and not be stopped. Stuff that gets so big, even the MSM has to take notice (and promptly disparage).

The poster, which bears a very superficial resemblance to Shepard Fairey’s famous Obama Hope illustration, has been pasted on freeway supports and other public surfaces. It has a bit of everything to appeal to the drunk tank of California conservatism: Obama is in white face, his mouth (like Ledger’s Joker’s) has been grotesquely slit wide open and the word “Socialism” appears below his face. The only thing missing is a noose.

WTF? You know you've hit the bullseye when the socialist pull the Race Card out of their asses on something that doesn't even brush up against race.
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We need to stay focused. Keep the message simple. Don't do what Nanny did and mess up a very effective anti-drug message.

Sell the fear you feel towards Barry's Vision Of America. This is a war we can't afford to lose.
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Want a lift in spirits and enthusiasm? A family member sent me this commercial that was made for a tax-day Tea Party that was held in Alabama -

Hell yeah...

Sweet Tooth

2009-08-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
-- Alex Levin

I have a sweet tooth. Big-time. I only half jokingly say that I have coffee with my cream and sugar, not the other way around.

I'm seeing some news reports of a potential spike in sugar prices. Take a look at this article. It seems that our protectionist government limits sugar imports. World sugar prices are $0.22 a pound. US prices are $0.35 a pound. Thanks for looking out for us, DC.

So what would a guy like me do for his sugar Jones if sugar supplies suddenly dried up, or became cost prohibitive? Raiding bee hives and getting the hell stung out of me doesn't sound like a good idea.

My wife likes this sweetener called Agave Nectar. It's a natural sweetener made from the agave plant. This is the plant that is used to make tequila. For tequila, they cut up the core of the plant, roast it, then make a mash of sorts to extract the natural sugars. Once you have sugars, you can do with it as you please - syrups, crystallized sugars, fermentation - whatever you wish.

Hmmmm. Let's see. What do I have experience with in extracting sugars from raw materials?

Malted grains, of course! I've been brewing all-grain beers for decades. As long as I have access to malted grains, I can make a sweet liquid. Hell, in a pinch, I could malt my own grains - from my buckets-o-wheat for instance, if malted barley became unavailable (I hope my sweet tooth never becomes THAT desperate!).

Malted corn, rye, barley, wheat - hell, any grain you can get to sprout and then dry out will work.
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When you brew, you mash the crushed grains by steeping them in hot water. This process transforms the starches in the grain into sugar. You then wash the sugars off of the grains (in a process called lautering). The resulting liquid is called wort (pronounced 'wert'). Depending upon the quality of your crushed grains, the temperature of the mash and a number of other factors, you will end up with a wort with a sugar content roughly in the 10-12% range.

You boil the wort, adding hops for flavoring and bitterness, and to help evaporate the liquid to increase the sugar content to the 13-18% range.

Cool it off, add the yeast, ferment, consume.

If I want to make a sweetener, I need to leave out the yeast, and increase the amount of water evaporation. I want to concentrate the sugars, not have them consumed!
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I found two primary types of syrup made here in America: Maple syrup and cane syrup.

The maple syrup has a starting sugar content of around 2% - I couldn't find anything on the starting sugar content of the cane juice.

What they both had in common was the general techniques for turning the juice/sap into syrup. You boil the hell out of it, and when the temperature reaches 7 degrees above boiling - 219F - you have syrup.

What was a bit disconcerting is the volume of juice/sap you needed. To get 1 gallon of maple syrup, you need 40+ gallons of sap!

I needed to do a test.

I took a quart of water, and added a quarter pound of cane sugar. On my hydrometer, I got a reading of 1.046 specific gravity. That equals 11.5% sugar content (on something called the brix scale). So I'm starting at about the same point as I'd be by making a mash, and am WAY ahead of the game with regards to maple sap.

OK, a little bit of math (don't glaze over on me here!). I boiled everything down until I hit the magical 219F degrees. I ended up with right around 5.5 ounces of syrup. Since I started with 34.5 fluid oz of "cane juice" (32 oz of water "grows" to 34.5 oz of sugar solution once the cane sugar is added), that means I reduced it by a factor of 6.27. If I take the original sugar percentage of 11.5 and multiply it by the 6.27, I come up with a 72.14% sugar solution. Pretty damned close to the published maple syrup numbers of 67%.

----------

It's thinner than a corn syrup like Karo or imitation maple syrup. It's about the consistency of real maple syrup - kind of like the viscosity of vegetable oil. Sweet as hell, though!

I have some extra malted barley laying around, so I think I'll make up a batch of wort and give it a go.

The cost/benefit equation is iffy, at best. You use a LOT of fuel to boil down the syrup. For the sample I made, I used my kitchen stove gas burner for an hour straight, on high. An inexpensive fuel source is the key to making this stuff economically.

I'm going to try and produce a quart of malted barley syrup, so I'll make up 2 gallons of wort to give myself some cushion. From what I've read, this should take in the neighborhood of 2-3 hours. I'll do some hard math calculations at that time, so see what the cost per ounce comes out to be.
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Oh, and not to worry about "wasting" grains for my sweet tooth. The spent grains from a brew can be added to dough for a healthier homemade bread, fed to animals as part of their diet (horses supposedly LOVE the stuff), or added to compost piles.

There is also a technique in brewing called 'parti-gyle'. I've used this in the past to make two different styles of beer from the same mash. You take the first runnings from the grain, and make a high-alcohol beer. You re-mash the remaining grains, and get a weaker run-off that can be used to make a weaker style of beer.

This weaker run-off - as low as in the 5-6% sugar content range - could be used for syrup making. Beer AND syrup from the same batch of grains.

Waste not, want not...

Solutions

2009-08-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

Don't find fault. Find a remedy.
--Henry Ford

As you might have noticed from my past few posts, I'm concentrating on things I can control. Personally of late, I've been working on getting some better cash-flow into my business, developing my skills, preparing as best as I can for what I think is coming.

It has become too draining to focus on things over which I have virtually no influence. The deck is simply stacked too high.

Barry lies about the health care plan, and the compliant press go along, gleefully spreading the propaganda. When people begin to call, "BULLSHIT" to the lies, they are painted as unpatriotic mobsters and thugs. More MSM compliance.

When even that proves ineffective, they start with the demonizing. A man, exercising at least two of his rights - free speech and the right to bear arms - is hysterically painted as some sort of threat to society [BTW, well done, sir, for maintaining your composure with Matthews. I can't say that I would have been so calm.]

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The presumption of Matthew's bed-wetting is that regular people are not to be trusted. He points to the presidential assassinations and failed attempts as proof.

Consider this: Every president in the last 100 years has been surrounded by guns - government guns.

What is so maddening is that most regular people seem to agree with Matthew's view - only government guns can be trusted. That somehow, because you've taken a government oath, you are somehow anointed as 'trustworthy'.

Good Lord, how have we found ourselves in this upside-down world?

We have this great country because of the principle that government guns could not be trusted, and private guns were the guarantee for personal liberty. We built these beliefs into our Constitution.

I want you to add up the number of government officials assassinated by citizens, and compare it to the number of citizens assassinated by government officials. Ruby Ridge and Waco alone make the comparison lopsided. Work in the number of citizens killed by local police and federal alphabet-soup agencies and the comparison is off the charts.

But WE'RE not to be trusted.
----------

I can't continue to waste energy on things I can't change. No Nanny State is going to become a place where I will talk about what can be done to insulate myself from the madness of the lemmings and their circus trainers. I can't change what the press does, or reverse a law when a government official does something stupid.

I can insulate myself against their actions.

I'm not folding up my tent with regards to railing against Nanny - I'll still do some posts about grotesque abuses of government powers - but by and large, they will be the exception, and not the rule.

I'm going to do more stuff on how we as individuals can help maintain and increase liberties for ourselves and for others. For example, instead of bitching about how the government and the press try to oppress dissent, I may do a post on how to organize a Tea Party. The focus will be on the action, not on the reason for the action.

One of the topics I'm going to more deeply investigate is propaganda. The socialists in government and the press are masters of the techniques. We who love personal freedom have to learn from their successes.

I want to talk about things to deaden the blow, and how to make their jobs more difficult when they intrude into my life without my permission. It's time to actually exercise some rights while we still have them.

Berries and Bullets

2009-08-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice.
--Proverb

Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.
--Dave Barry

A buddy of mine and I went out and spent two hours picking blackberries. We did pretty well.

That, my friends, is 4 pounds, 5 ounces of fresh, ripe blackberries. At $5.33 a pound in the stores, we did OK.

We headed out for the Sacramento Delta levee roads to hit some of the bushes right on the road. At the first bush, we collected perhaps a quarter of a pound. The further and further we got off the main drag, the better the haul.

A couple of the bushes we hit looked almost untouched. We stopped at a total of 4 massive hedge rows of the stuff, and only picked the stuff that was easily accessible.

There was one problem: Spiders.

Click the picture to check out this sweet little pup -

These were some big-assed spiders - some perhaps with bodies of an inch and a half. They were everywhere on the windward side of the bushes. Not a spider to be found on the other side.

My guess is that they did this to get the grasshopper and crickets that were in abundance to blow into their webs. They were so thick, you'd think there wouldn't be enough food for them. We just took stick and moved the webs aside to get to the berries.

A portion of the berries will become blackberry jam (yessum!) and the rest will be crushed and added as flavoring to a portion of my hooch - a blackberry brandy of sorts. I'll ziplock these and freeze them, since the visual quality of the berry is irrelevant for this purpose.

If I get motivated, I may head out again for more berries to make an actual blackberry wine. The road we were picking on is 14 miles long, and we only picked from perhaps 2 miles of it.

LOTS of berries still available. I would say that the bushes we hit, the unripe-to-ripe ratio of berries was at least 10 to 1, probably higher. Should be a nice, long, plentiful season...
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Just before I left for the berry pickin', another buddy called about ammo. He was up in Reno at a gun show (I had to pass, and NO not for the berries!). He's picking me up a butt-load of 9mm and .223REM at some very decent prices - much better than anything offered online.

In fact, the .223 is cheaper per round than anything I've purchased in the last 2 years, except for one small purchase 18 months ago. He got the 9mm for the same price as we got it back at the last gun show in April.

All name brand - all new, factory stuff.

So why is it in such abundance at gun shows, but not online or in gun stores? This just doesn't make any sense to me.
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Here's a video of my wife getting the berries ready for the hooch...

Soupin' It Up

2009-08-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.
--Ludwig van Beethoven

Speed is king.

At home, we nuke foods in the microwave - we can't get our "meals" down our gullets quickly enough. In a grid-down situation or while camping, fuel resources may be limited. You want food to be prepared quickly, with as little valuable fuel consumed as possible.

Wyn had a video post about a group that teaches bushcraft and survival skills - Bushcraft On Fire. I sniffed around their site and YouTube page (60+ videos of some decent stuff).

The videos Wyn posted were about making soups using natural greens and legume/grain flours. This was right up my Just Add Water (JAW) alley! What I like about these recipes is that by using flours, the cook time is considerably reduced. After your water comes up to a boil, you only need 3 or 4 minutes to have a meal!

First up, it required some legume and grain flours. I broke out my Family Grain Mill and made flour out of dent corn, yellow split peas and lentils.

I was surprised by the lentils. Very yellow on the inside. When I grind stuff, I put it through 2 or 3 progressively finer steps so I don't over-stress the mill. Here's what the green lentils looked like after the first "crush" -

After I made the flours, I followed two of the recipes to the letter. First, corn chowder -

Corn Chowder

Approx. 3 1/4 c. hot water

1/3 c. rounded fine corn flour or Masa (here's what I do. I put cornmeal in my coffee bean grinder and grind it until it's flour, quick and easy!!)

3 Tbsp. pea flour

1 Tbsp. chicken or vegetable bouillon

Hot sauce or cayenne pepper is awesome in it too!

Whisk flours and bouillon into your hot water and cook, stirring, for 1 minute over medium high heat. Cover and turn heat to low; cook 2-3 minutes. Serve with broken corn chips. Makes 2 hearty bowls full.

The result was an edible, pretty flavor-less, though fairly thick soup. It passed the "standing saltine" test. Still, definitely NOT a chowder.

I added some black pepper and a shot or two of hot sauce, and it was much better. I think this would be very good with some sort of smoked meat - ham or bacon come to mind. Some parboiled corn kernels would work nicely as well.

It's a keeper recipe with some minor adjustments for the JAW recipe files.
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Next up was the lentil soup.

Just from looking at the recipe, I could tell it was going to be VERY thin. And it was.

Lentil Soup

4 c. hot water

2 tsp. lentil soup seasoning (See below this recipe)

4 Tbsp. green lentil flour

Have your canteen [your cooking pot] over medium heat (knock fire down to hot coals), whisk lentil flour into boiling water and add soup seasoning (below). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook 2 minutes. Serves 3-4.

Soup seasonings

8-10 Tbsp. salt

2 1/2 Tsp. garlic powder

3 Tbsp. black pepper

7 Tbsp. parsley flakes

5 Tbsp. dried chives

3 Tbsp. onion powder

3 Tbsp. paprika

Combine and store in airtight container (Keep in your kitchen and EDC kit)

As suspected, this was more of a broth than what I think of as a soup. It needed some sort of binder, as the lentils would separate from the liquid after a few minutes. It did not pass the "standing saltine" test -

The flavor was pretty good, though. I made up a batch of her Soup Seasoning, and used it to flavor this stuff.

It needs to be thicker, IMO. I guess if you were sick at home and just wanted some watery nutrition, it would do the trick. If I were out camping or in an emergency situation, I'd want a more substantial soup. As with the corn chowder, smoked meats would go very well with this.

In general, though, it's a keeper. I'm going to play with the recipes a bit, and I'll pass along any insights I come across.
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Since I was spending the late afternoon and evening with preps, I decided to dehydrate some mushrooms.

I LOVES me some mushrooms! The problem is, when they're out of season, they're expensive as hell. If you buy the dried ones, you might as well hand over all of your gold and silver reserves to buy a couple ounces.

Another thing: I prefer the regular, white button mushrooms. They have a very good flavor, but don't over-power a dish. I had purchased some dried Shitake mushrooms which I used in a lasagna dish. I was OK with them, but my family went on strike!

So, I took 2 1/2 pounds of mushrooms and cut them up. When I was done with the dehydrating, I was left with 2.8 ounces! When I filled the trays, they were all packed very tightly (but not touching). Not so much afterwards -

They took a long time to dry out, as well. It took 2 hours at 90F, then 7 more hours at 130F.

Oh, and don't make the mistake I made. I finished drying them out last night, and just turned off the dehydrator. When I turned it off, they were crisp little 'shrooms. This morning, they had sucked up some moisture from the air and were pliable again. It took another 30 minutes in the dehydrator to get them crispy again.

I took two ounces and vacuum sealed them in two separate packs. I'm going to play with the other 0.8 ounce in some of the soup recipes.
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Last item:

I took the split pea and lentil flour, plus the soup flavoring mix, and put them in mason jars. At the bottom of the picture is the two packages of vacuum sealed mushrooms -

I had also decided to add a paracord wrap for some knives I've been working on. I've been going down to Goodwill and buying old stainless steel butter knives for a quarter a piece. I grind them to shape, then sharpen.

They ain't pretty, but they're sharp as hell, and seem to hold an edge pretty well.

I'm going to make a couple of neck knives with a Trout and Bird knife style blade - not so pointy. I'll be putting wooden handles on those to improve the look, utility and longevity.

Financial Armageddon?

2009-08-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
--Thomas Sowell

Today will be interesting.

The Federal Reserve meets today to discuss what they will be doing in the very near future with regards to printing up more money. As a reminder -

When stock markets plumbed new lows in March, the Federal Reserve responded with nearly every tool in its box. It announced it would create new money to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgages and $300 billion in government debt.

They set a deadline of 6 months to git 'er done.

The good news is, the 6 months is almost up. The bad news is, they have almost spent every fucking dime they promised they would.

So, out of thin air, they "produced" one and a half trillion dollars. Nearly a quarter of that went from one pocket of our government, into the other, in the form of them buying Treasuries. Stunning.

The natural result would be spiked inflation (adding more money to the money supply cheapens those already in circulation). Inflation generally also results in higher interest rates. One of the reasons is that when banks have fixed-rate loans during inflationary times, the interest they are earning is less valuable - costs are rising, but income is not. That needs to be made up somewhere.

During the past year or so, the Fed has artificially controlled both inflation and interest rates, but they've been playing a very dangerous game.

If they continue to print money, hyperinflation WILL be the the result. But if they stop the presses and go to the market to borrow money to pay for BarryCare and the rest of the socialist agenda, they will have to raise the rates paid on Treasuries. That, in turn, will lead to higher taxes needed to pay the increased debt load, which leads to inflation, which....

Yeah, it's a vicious circle.

See Zimbabwe and Argentina for further clarification....

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A BarryCare Moment of Horror -

So Barry is walking around, sportin' wood because yesterday no one challenged him in his own extra-special Town Hall meeting. Funny, my invitation must have been lost in the mail.

If I had been there, I'd have asked him about the following -

Barry, baby! - you keep repeating the lie that we will always be able to choose the health care plan of our choice.
Retooling his message amid sliding support, he addressed some of his remarks to a vital and skeptical audience: the tens of millions of people who already have health insurance and are generally satisfied with the care they get.
He said the overhaul is essential to them, too, contending it is the way to keep control in their hands.
Barry, could you do me a favor and 'splain this to me? This is part of the Health Care Bill and starts on page 16, titled, Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage.

Snazzy title there, Barry.

The problem is, you are taking our choice away. Here's the actual text (FYI: Y1 is 2013, Y2 is 2014, etc.) -
(a) GRANDFATHERED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE DEFINED.
—Subject to the succeeding provisions of this section, for purposes of establishing acceptable coverage under this division, the term ‘‘grandfathered health insurance coverage’’ means individual health insurance coverage that is offered and in force and effect before the first day of Y1 if the following conditions are met:

(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.
So, Barry, let me see if I have this right - If I have the coverage in place before the start of 2013, I can keep it, ONLY IF, my carrier agrees not to enroll any other people into my plan - right?

Sounds like you're trying to cut the legs off of my carrier. If they can never enroll another person into the plan, how are they going to stay in business?

Here's a "for instance": I work for Company A. In the middle of 2013, I quit that job and go work for Company B. Company A hires a replacement for me that currently doesn't have health care insurance. My old insurance company is forbidden by law from offering my replacement the same plan I had.

If Company B does not offer the same coverage I had, I will have to select from the plans they offer, but they'll all HAVE TO BE BarryCare options.

How many years do you think it will take before my old insurance company goes out of business? What kind of business can survive if it is unable to replace lost customers?

But that's part of your plan, ain't it, Barry? It'll take a few years, and you'll point back to the parts of the bill proclaiming Choice For All. But the end result will be one big stinking Medicare-like hell hole of a health plan.

Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but go fuck yourself, Barry.

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An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

The wads of worthless paper money were growing heavier in the pockets of the nation, but there was less and less for that money to buy. In September, a bushel of wheat had cost eleven dollars; it had cost thirty dollars in November; it had cost one hundred in December; it was now approaching the price of two hundred - while the printing presses of the government treasury were running a race with starvation, and losing.

Bub, bub, bubblin'

2009-08-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

Busy day today - no time to chastise Pelosi, who is now saying she didn't call Town Hall protesters, "un-American" (didn't she read her own article?).

No time to bitch about my congress critter not holding any public meetings while he's on break.

No time to disclose how one of my senators - Lady Di Fi - is also not holding any public meetings, but the commie friend of my wife has been invited to a private get-together.

I DO have time to post a little view into the making of my hooch. Fermentation has begun!

This is the airlock, plugging away. You've got to love yeast: They fart CO2 and piss alcohol.

If I could only be so productive.... ;-)

Startin' The Hooch

2009-08-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.
--Frank Sinatra

About a week and a half ago, I wrote a post about Homemade Hooch. I ordered the turbo yeast (it is a dry yeast, not liquid, so it is much more stable while being transported) and it arrived on Friday. Here is what you'll need to get started with your own batch -

On the mat (clockwise, starting in the upper left-hand corner): A hydrometer (optional); a 4-piece air lock that consists of a rubber stopper, the main body, the floating lock and a lid; an instant thermometer; the turbo yeast.

Off the mat: Two, 10-pound bags of sugar; Iodophor sanitizer (tall thin bottle) OR acid sanitizer (the bottle with the wells at the top of the bottle).

You will also need a 6 or 7 gallon bucket (or carboy) in which to do the fermentation. I prefer the food-grade buckets (drying, upside down in the picture below) with a drilled lid (for the airlock rubber stopper). Glass carboys have the increased risk of being kicked or dropped, and exploding (been there, done that)!

The hydrometer is used to determine how much sugar is in your mix. It gives you the specific gravity (SG) of your "mash". This is very important when making all-grain beer, as you need to be certain that you got adequate amounts of sugar out of the grains during the mash.

Since you are adding a prescribed amount of pure sugar to water, it's not really necessary. Where it will come in helpful is in determining the exact final alcohol content of the hooch. You take the original SG reading and subtract the final SG (when the fermentation is completed). You take that number and multiply by 1.25, and you get the Alcohol By Volume (ABV) figure that we all yearn to maximize.

Our starting hooch had an original SG of 1.129. A fairly strong beer starts out at 1.067 and will result in a brew in the 7% range. This stuff should produce some crippler brew!
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The sanitizers are for anything that will come in contact with the mash during fermentation. That includes the inside of the fermentation bucket and lid, the rubber stopper, your stirring spoon (when stirring to cool the brew) and the stem of the thermometer.

I fill the bucket up with about 2 gallons of water and add the prescribed (on the label) amount of sanitizer. You must get everything wet with the sanitizer. I just take a cup and pour it down the sides of the inside of the bucket and onto the lid. I then pour the contents out of the bucket and into another bowl to use during the temperature taking and cooling stirring process.

Personally, I prefer the Iodophor over the acid, because the measurements are less exacting. I occasionally switch between the two to kill any "bugs" that may have become resistant to the Iodophor solution. I learned the hard way about this. I lost two full 10-gallon batches of beer (20 gallons total) because of this.

[Preppers note: Everyone should have some sort of sanitizing aspect to their preps, especially concerning water purification. You may use your Black Berkey filters to clean the water, but if the vessel the water is being stored in is not sanitized, that water is at increased risk of going bad. You can buy iodophor solution at any local or online homebrewing shop.]

One last thing: The yeast package has a recipe that makes 26.5 quarts, or a bit over 6.5 gallons. My buckets are 6.5 gallon buckets, and you must leave some headspace to allow the yeast to bloom (call krausen in beer brewing). If you don't leave this space above the brew, you will either clog your airlock, or blow the lid off the bucket (again, been there, done that).

OK, on to making the hooch!

So I scaled the recipe down to 5 gallons. Instead of using 18 pounds of sugar, you only need 13.85 (13 pounds, 14 ounces). No change is necessary in the amount of yeast, as when the yeast runs out of food, it will just die and fall to the bottom of the bucket (this IS normal).

Take about 2 gallons of water in a pot that will hold about 3 gallons. Bring it up to 180F degrees. I do this because this is the pasteurization temperature where you only need to hold the temp for around 1 second to kill all bacteria. You can also hold it at 161F for 15-20 seconds, but that adds an element of precision I don't want to have to deal with.

Once you hit the 180F, pour in your sugar. I went at about 5 pounds at a shot, stirred until the pot was clear, then added more until the full weight was dissolved.

You now have a decision to make. You need to drop the temperature of your mash as quickly as possible. The fastest way is to take your pot -being careful not to get ANYTHING into it - and put it into a deep sink with ice and water.

Stir the hot liquid until you get it to around 100F (this takes a half hour or so).

You then pour the liquid into your sanitized bucket, and add enough water to bring to total volume up to 5 gallons. The temperature of the liquid in the bucket will be around 80F.

DO NOT ADD THE YEAST UNTIL THE LIQUID IS NO MORE THAN 85F! Check it with your sanitized thermometer. If you do so, you'll kill the yeast, or end up with an explosive fermentation that will produce crap for hooch.

Before you add your yeast, you need to aerate the liquid. You can stir it vigorously for a minute or so, and this should provide adequate aeration. Pour in the packet of yeast, and stir for another minute.

Put on your lid, attach your airlock and place it in a location that has a fairly even temperature in the 70F range. Since I brew so much, I've converted an old refrigerator into a fermentation fridge. I pulled the shelving and made a simple box that will hold 4, 5-gallon buckets at one time.

I have a temperature controller in the fridge that allows me to set a temperature (in this case 66F) with a set fluctuation (4 degrees). When the air temp in the fridge hits 70F (66F plus the 4 degree fluctuation), the fridge turns on. It turns off when the temp hits 66F.

Most folks don't have this benefit. All is not lost! But it may take a bit of prep work.

First, kiss your wife's ass (or husband's ass if you're a female brewer). Then find a tub - a wash tub, bath tub, whatever - plug the drain and place the bucket in the tub. Fill the tub with cool tap water about 3/4 of the way up the bucket. Take an old, clean towel, and dip it in the water, then wrap it around the top 1/4 of the bucket.

While you may not be able to hit the exact fermentation temperatures, you'll at least get close, but more importantly, you'll keep the temps fairly consistent - no peaks and valleys. Yeast like consistency.

Check the towel each day to make sure it is damp. Leaving a bit in the water will generally allow enough to wick up and keep it moist.
----------

About 12 hours after you finish, you need to check to make sure the yeast is working. The airlock should be starting to bubble with the CO2 (YIKES, global warming!) escaping from the bucket. If it hasn't started by 24 hours, give the bucket a gentle shake to roust the yeast off of the bottom of the bucket. Try not to slosh the stuff around too much, as the excess oxygen at this point can cause off-flavors in the brew.

I'll post another item after the fermentation is completed in about 2 weeks.

BarryCare

2009-08-10T04:13:00.000-07:00

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A buddy of mine sent me an email that purportedly originated from some MD. It contains a massive list of items that we are going to have to live with if Barry gets his way with the health care bill.

I have found a number of inaccuracies with the list, but there are a couple of gems.

Until this whole festering pile of crap gets sorted out, I'm going to sign-off on a number of my posts with actual text from the health care bill. So as to make sure I don't end up on Barry's 1984-esque list of people supposedly telling lies about the bill, I'll provide the actual text of the section, a citation of the page where I got the information, and a link to the actual bill so the White House goons can actually go to read it to verify the accuracy of the information (YOU can go there too, be you a goon or not!).

[Full Text of Health Care Bill]

First up, health care choice - or lack thereof - page 167, line 18 to page 168, lines 1-4:

SEC. 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.

(a) TAX IMPOSED.—In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of—

(1) the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over
(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.

Subsection (d) mentioned above lists all kinds of plans that are acceptable to Nanny. But, YOU CAN'T OPT-OUT!

If you decide you don't want health care coverage, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR IT VIA YOUR TAX INCREASE!

Oh, there are a couple of exceptions to having to pay the non-use tax.

On page 170, line 1, I found this:

(2) NONRESIDENT ALIENS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual who is a non-resident alien.

Nice. Illegal aliens have the freedom to refuse government health care coverage (LOL, like they'd do THAT), but actual red-blooded American's can't make that same choice. Glad our representatives are looking out for our best interests.

Bastards.

A New Mobster Inductee

2009-08-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
--Elie Wiesel

Not a big fan of Rush. He had his nose up Bush's kiester until right at the end of his presidency. I don't trust him to be much more than a Republican party hack. He's like Alan Colmbs or Randy Rhodes - only with an audience.

Still, he is hitting a number of issues right now that I think are right on point. In particular, he's encouraging people to exercise their first amendment right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

This is driving the socialists crazy.

They are whining in concert about how non-socialists are getting organized to fight this unprecedented expansion of government.

The Democratic National Committee fought back Wednesday with an online ad calling the protesters "mobs" embittered by Republican losses last fall.

My first thought was, "Why is organizing a protest considered a bad thing?" Isn't that what the first amendment is all about - joining with like-minded people and getting your voices heard?

It's clear that it is only a bad thing when it goes against the hivist mentality. Why isn't Pelosi getting her panties in a bunch when people that share her views - like the AFL-CIO - are doing the exact same thing?

“We want your help to organize major unions to counter the right-wing ‘Tea Party Patriots’ who will try to disrupt those meetings as they’ve been trying to do to meetings for the last month,” Sweeney wrote, adding, “Remember the hooligans, many of them Republican Congressional staff, who harassed Florida vote counters in 2000? We can’t let it happen again.”

We all know that she won't get upset about it because the union bosses think as she does. And the main stream press is in the bag, so the contradiction of her words will never see the light of day.
----------

Over the past 24 hours, I have seen a wondrous thing.

My wife has traditionally had a liberal-leaning view of politics. We've had a couple of "go arounds" on socialized health care and other entitlement programs.

She has a life-long friend who is an avowed communist. Shockingly (not), she's also public school teacher and big into the California Teacher's Association.

This friend of hers has a FaceBook page where she was denouncing the Town Hall protests - you know, that unruly mob - and how these Nazi's and thugs had to be stopped.

I got home on Friday night and my wife asked me what I thought about these protests.

I could almost hear the shotgun slide racking in my brain. Fling me some clays emblazoned with socialist dogma. Pull!

I asked for some specifics about the claims her friend was making. It was the usual suspects:

Violent mobs. Limbaugh/Beck mindless drones. Shouting down speakers. Nazi symbols.

I asked her to ask her friend for any proof of these accusations. Not some posting on a communist blog, but a video of these things happening. Ask her to show you just one example of each of their charges.

Right after my wife posted the request, comrades of her friend started responding to my wife's questions. More of the same assertions, but still no facts. The links that were sent were opinion pieces, not evidence.

I asked my wife for them to explain the YouTube videos of SEIU and ACORN members being allowed into these meetings - literally through the back door - while regular citizens were not being allowed in.

I asked her to have them explain how they could justify the video of a vendor of pro-freedom buttons and t-shirts - who just happened to be black - was attacked and beaten, and had racial epithets hurled at him (by another black man, btw). [Listen at right around 1 minute into the video how the SEIU thug justifies attacking the guy - "He attacked America - we attacked him"]

I suggested she ask why only the left's thinking is considered valid.
----------

I've stressed to her, to question everything, even what I tell her.

My wife then spent virtually all of Saturday on the Internet researching these stories. She commented that in all of the videos she saw, the "unruly mobs" largely consisted of senior citizens! What was in the press reports didn't reconcile with what she saw with her own eyes. Yep, there was shouting and yelling, but none of the "mob" were inciting violence. That only occurred at the hands of the SEIU and ACORN thugs.

She is pissed off!

She's now looking up the names of the two women that organized the last Tea Party which I attended, to get information on what is planned for the future. She's asked me to give her some insight on how to cut through the crap on what's being portrayed on the media so that she can teach HER students (at a private school) how to dig for truth and come to their own conclusions.

I suggested that she use her US History lessons to discuss the Constitution and ask the kids how so many of our federal laws can even be legal. Have the kids cut through the rhetoric - on all sides of an issue - and get the the root constitutionality.

It's a start.
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Who knows? Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Other Mike will be part of a "mob" on YouTube in the future!

Do What Is Right...

2009-08-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.
--Carl Friedrich Bahrdt

Like so many bloggers I frequent, we're getting discouraged by what we see happening to our country. So many bad things are happening so quickly, it gets a bit overwhelming.

I have considered, "hanging up my spikes" and just taking what comes. It all seems so futile.

But that is exactly what they want. They want us to be so overwhelmed with the insanity that we just roll over.

What gets me back into the game is when I read comments like those made by the Speaker Of The House, portraying people who disagree with her socialist agenda as Nazi's -

"They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."

I just can't let that lie go unchallenged. Not just about the ad hominen attacks, but about this unprecedented desire to expand government.

I have a senator that follows a similar vein of thought by saying that this must all be staged, because the protesters are too well dressed. WTF?

Apparently, your opinion is only valid if you're wearing rags, are in a purple SEIU t-shirt, or are carrying a red ACORN sign.

So I do what I still can. I try to keep people informed, and I make my voice heard with my federal representatives -

Jerry McNerney
11th Congressional District

Since it appears from your site that you will not be doing any public appearances during your congressional recess, I want to make sure you are aware of my feelings on the health care bill.

At it's most basic level, it is unconstitutional at the federal level. Since it is not specifically enumerated in the constitution or an amendment, the 10th amendment disallows it.

Aside from that paramount point, there is the following: (1) There is not a single person in this country that cannot get health care if they so choose. Just walk into any hospital. (2) If this plan is so wonderful, why don't YOU MEMBERS OF CONGRESS have to accept it as YOUR health plan? (3) Haven't we seen enough destruction of the "dependent class" in our country? - Don't you in congress understand that handing out goodies makes people helpless? (4) We can't even come close to paying for what has been proposed. It would be criminal to place this financial burden on our future generations.

Your vote on this issue is my personal "line in the sand." If you vote for this, you will have turned me into a political activist, and whomever you are running against will get all of my political financial contributions and volunteer services.

Do what is right, not what is politically correct.

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Don't quit.
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Something I need to verify: I read that for a congressman to get the full federal pension (for life), they need to have served for 5 years. My guy is in year 3 right now. If he is not re-elected in the next election, he'll be SOL.

This might be a great hammer to use against this pinhead, PLUS it might be a motivator to other folks in my district to get this bum out.

We need to hurt these bastards where they're hurting us - in the pocketbook.