You know that done-to-death nonsense about ‘May you live in interesting times?’. Well, that’s not the whole thing. It’s cleverly phrased to make it sound like a blessing but is meant as a curse. The whole thing goes like this – May you have everything you want, may you live in interesting times, and may you come to the attention of important people.

This promises to be the interesting year.

Not much you can do on the big scale. You may not be able to repair the hole in the hull of the Titanic, but you can certainly make sure your life jacket is snug as you make your way to the exits. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

And while we’re quoting good ‘ol TR, here’s an interesting one I hadn’t heard before: “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” (Interestingly, that juxtaposition reminds me of someone else’s thoughts about force and votiong – “To vote is to wield authority; it is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives—such as mine to make your lives miserable once a day. Force if you will!—the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax. Whether it is exerted by ten men or by ten billion, political authority is force.” [In the movie it was distilled even further – ““When you vote you are exercising political authority. You are using force, and force, my friends, is violence.”]) More on that as November draws closer.

Spring-like weather is here in Montana. February is usually the coldest month of the year but it’s been absolutely balmy. However, it often does this – Mom Nature gives us a few weeks of truly wonderful weather and then, when we lower our guard, donkey punches us with a week or two of below-zero teabagging. I’ve lived here long enough to be wary about these lulls.

But, springlike weather means its time to start seeds, and restock things used up over the winter. Today’s trip to CostCo wasn/t cheap (nothing is, these days) but I feel better when i go through my spreadsheets and see that there’s food, toiletries, batteries, medical supplies, ammo, fuel, and that sort of thing stacked on the shelves.

Shopping, putting stuff away, and then updating the spreadsheets took most of the morning but it is an absolute necessity. You cannot, no matter how clever you think you are, wisely use your resources if you don’t know what you have and what you need.

Other things to do as spring approaches – generator maintenance, annual bicycle tune up, gas rotation, put away winter gear and clothes, head to the range more, and perhaps, if time permits, get out there and do some fishing. I picked up a tenkara fishing rod I’m looking forward to playing with this summer.

Your tax dollars at work…destroying your tax dollars.

It’s the place where military weapons go to die.

Once a weapon is marked for destruction, it is sent to Anniston Army Depot, where it will more than likely spend its final moments being chomped apart by the military’s Grim Reaper for guns: “Captain Crunch.”

The massive metal shredder has been in operation since the early 1990s and has used a pair of intertwined blades to chop up more than a million weapons during that time.

You’d think they could at least pull off the ‘non threatening’ stuff like sights, handguards, sears, triggers, stocks, etc, and resell them to bidders for the private market.

You know where there are so many Mosin Nagants floating around? Because the Soviets, after getting caught waaaaaay undergunned during WW2, never destroyed anything. Captured Mausers, Arisakas, etc, etc, all got tucked away in Peoples Glorious Warehouse No. 388 and sat there awaiting the next war. And here we are destroying this stuff. You’d think they could at least resell it and recoup some money. Or just bundle it onto pallets and airdrop it to whoever our current ‘indigenous forces’ allies are.

But..more than likely, Hillary or some other madman will think these things are awesome and every state should have a couple for disposing of those nasty ‘ol guns that those ‘bitter clingers’ love so much.

I was wandering through CostCo the other day when, much to my surprise, I came across these:

Military ammo cans…or are they? Here was the first clue that these were military-style rather than military-issue or military-surplus: the “.30 can” is packed inside the “.50 can”. I’ve gone through, and continue to go through, a lot of ammo cans. By and large, your average .30 can does not fit in your average .50 can. Oh, maybe you can stuff one in the ‘tall .50′ ..maybe..but these are clearly not the real deal ammo cans.

I looked ’em over fully expecting to see the usual ‘Made In China’ markings but found nothing indicating where these things came from.

I suppose they might be better than some of the plastic ammoc cans but if you want real ammo cans you can still find them here and there. I’ll save my money and pass on the CostCo wannabe’s.

Austrians should have the constitutional right to use cash to protect their privacy, Deputy Economy Minister Harald Mahrer said, as the European Union considers curbing the use of banknotes and coins.

“We don’t want someone to be able to track digitally what we buy, eat and drink, what books we read and what movies we watch,” Mahrer said on Austrian public radio station Oe1. “We will fight everywhere against rules” including caps on cash purchases, he said.

Signs of the times. It’s bloody convenient to just swipe a card or bump your cellphone to pay for something. And there is a degree of safety that comes from not risking carrying around large amounts of cash. But…safety and convenience aren’t compelling reasons to sacrifice privacy.

‘Cashless society’ is a society where people who you don’t even know have access to knowing what you bought, how much of it, when you bought it, where you bought it, and how much you spent on it. It isn’t hard to imagine that in the name of ‘fighting terrorism’ your several thousand dollar purchase from BobsAmmoEmporium.com will be flagged. Heck, the .gov already drops in onfolks who buy too many guns at once.

The Austrians have the right idea. Although the right to privacy shouldn’t need to be enumerated somewhere, the encroachments upon it may make it necessary. And I’d rather have an enumeration of the obvious than not have it at all.

In the meantime, cash is always the best way to buy your survival goodies. If not cash, then those prepaid debit cards work well as long as you exercise good security measures and destroy them immediately after use.

Keep watching the news…you’ll see more and more folks in ties and pantsuits standing in front of microphones urging that ‘something’ be done to create ‘common sense’ legislation to restrict large cash purchases … all in the name of fighting terrorism. Ironic, since heavyhanded government intrusion like this is the sorta thing that makes rebels out of citizens to begin with.

The fight to create Jefferson is the longest of long shots, a Hail Mary pass made by folks who are sick of being underrepresented in the state legislature and ignored by California’s urban centers. Cut off from the seats of power by geography, alienated by the state’s left-leaning politics and tendency toward regulation, enduring stubbornly high unemployment, facing the decimation of traditional industries such as logging, and harboring few prospects for economic growth, these disaffected citizens — overwhelmingly white and mostly conservative — share many of the concerns about central state overreach as the militia members who recently took control of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. They, however, are committed to a political solution rather than an armed rebellion.

Every so often, various states talk about seceding and forming their own independent little countries. Usually, it’s Texas or Alaska or a handful of other states. However, it isn’t often theres talk of seceding to form a new state and remain within the union. (A little history from wiki)

Each state in our glorious little union is, essentially, it’s own country. Each one agrees to operate under an agreed upon framework and cede some authority to that collective government, but still retain a degree of autonomy. This is why something that is illegal in California can be perfectly legal in Montana. Once in a while some folks agitate to leave this happy  little family and are forced at gunpoint to stay in the pot with the rest of us lobsters. (See the War Of Southern Overconfidence for an example of this). The practical upshot of this is that if you don’t like the rules/taxes/laws/politics of where you live, you have around 49 other places to try and see if you like better. (Of course, those federal laws and regs are a different matter.) [Tangentially, it seems to me that the Union should be like any other club..high standards to get in, and an open door policy if you want to leave

The notion of seceding from a state, though…that’s a path that hasn’t been trod nearly as much as the one of seceding from the union.

There is probably a huge degree of merit to the claims being made….California is a big state and it’s ludicrous to think that the guys living in the hills of northern California should have to bend knee to the polices coming outta Sacramento that are written for the mostly urban southern regions of the state. Kinda like how the folks up in Albany shouldnt subject the rest of the state to the laws meant for NYC.

As a ‘rugged individualist’-type, I like the idea of a bunch of like-minded folks staking out a piece of land and setting up their own system of rules. Of course, thats as long as those are rules that I like. But, as I said, there’s 49 other states I can try out if the .gov in this state gets too heavy handed for me. But…pulling up and heading for greener pastures is only an option after youve tried fixing the situation at home first.

Nothing will become of the state of Jefferson. It’ll be a nice little novelty show, but it would set a precedent for things like East and West Colorado, North and South New York, Upper Michigan and LowerMichigan, etc, etc. Ain’t gonna happen…not officially, anyway. There are plenty of ‘invisible borders’ and boundaries in various states..making them official is just not in the cards, methinks.

But…I salute the spirit of the Jeffersonians, in a very ‘Moon Is A Harsh Mistress’ kind of way.

Living in Montana isn’t always sunshine n’ stun grenades. There’s seven months of winter, jobs are hard to come by, there’s some narrow-mindedness, and its damn expensive to fly anywhere from here. But….when you can drive ten minutes out of town and be knee-deep in things like this…well, then it’s almost worth it.

Nice, right?

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In other news, I haven’t mentioned that silver is heading towards $15/oz. so it might be time to give the Metals Pimp a holler and get while the getting is good. Speaking of the Pimp, I saw him today and he palmed a pair of silver rounds and told me they were a gift from one of you crazy paranoid survivalists who was a loyal reader. So..whomever that mysterious benefactor is, thank you…I will sing your praises as I use that silver to barter for food and skimpy clothing for the desperate-yet-still-hot college coeds that come to me seeking shelter as the Aryan blood gangs and rogue military units storm across the post-apocalyptic landscape scavenging for supplies.

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Watching the political news is an exercise in disbelief. Young, impressionable, college-age kids are drawn to a out-n-proud socialist, while the closet socialist is clamoring that you should vote for her because she’s a woman, rather than on her merits. On the other side of the fence, everyone’s loud uncle is leading the pack and the also-rans are all trying to catch up.

It seems like every year since 1988 we’ve been saying “This will be the most important election ever”…until the next one. Then that one becomes ‘the most important’.

Oy vey.

Well, at least I have beautiful scenery to bask in as Rome burns.

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Had a little ‘oops’ with my celphone a few weeks back. Specifically, several ‘oopsies’ as my phone was run over repeatedly by traffic. The screen was destroyed, but I was able to get it replaced for $125. The rest of the phone worked fine..in fact it started ringing even as I was examining the amazingly shattered screen. Why’d it survive? Otterbox Defender, baby. Yes, it will make your phone a bit bulkier….boo hoo. I routinely drop my phone and have it land on a hard surface on one of its corners. And it survives just fine. When i stand in line at the post office I see plenty of people with iPhones with cracked screens and they all have those little thin rubber sleeves on their phones that offer virtually no protection. Get the Otterbox Defender and, yeah, your phone will be a bit bulkier in your pocket, but it is going to survive next time you drop it, sit on it, or watch it bounce down a fligh of stairs. Zero recommends!

If you ever peruse the brochures and advertisements that urge you to invest your money in stocks or gold or pork bellies, there is always the caveat that “past performance does not guarantee future performance”. In short, yes, the stock we’re trying to sell you did awesome for the last five years…but thats no promise the next five years will be as good.

Keep that little grain of salt at the tip of your tongue as you read this insightful piece:

If you could time travel, say, back to the time between the wars.  And live a life starting then.  You wouldn’t need to get a rifle.  You KNOW what happenned from 1916 – 2016.  And no emergency happens that require minute man type action except in very small, local, and specific situations for a very short time. 

Pistols, on the other hand… Get a pistol and spare.  For everything else, shotgun and a spare.  A thutty thutty might do you just fine for that.

If I pause and fire a few synapses, I do believe that in the almost fifty years I have been trodding the Earth I have never had an episode where I needed an AR more than I needed a handgun. And, as the poster points out, in the last hundred years, Joe Sixpack hasn’t really needed one either except for some small localized issues. (Of course, just because there was no big national call-to-arms episode doesn’t devalue the localized issues that made having an AR handy.)

I suppose the argument is that, historically, a pistol has proven to be more useful and necessary than a rifle for defense. (Outside of actually going to war, of course.)

However….in the last fifty years I haven’t needed life insurance either because, well, I haven’t died. But that doesn’t mean that not having it is a good idea. So I’ll continue to acquire those evil rifles as I can, but perhaps I should appreciate the pistols a tad more.

And just to make sure there is no doubt about my thinking…”need” is not a criteria for owning a gun of any kind. Need it or  not, I should be able to own as many darn thundertoys as my skinny wallet can afford.

There’s some pretty nice snow coming down at the moment. When I first moved to Montana I assumed that we’d get three or four feet of snow every time it snowed. Nope. Turned out I had moved to the warmest part of the state. The snowfall in this region is absolutely pathetic. But…once in a while Ma Nature decides to remind us who wears the meteorological pants in this region.

I have fuel, generator, food, blankets, four-wheel drive, and communications. I’m…unconcerned. Which, naturally, frees my mind to wander in other directions.

I am ready for this political season to come to an end. Sorta. Part of me says we should elect Bernie Sanders, skip the foreplay, and just head right into the revolution. On the other hand, I can use the next nine months to get more mags and stripped lowers put back. Given the ‘screw freedom, gimme safety’ mentality of some of the candidates, it might not be a bad idea to start laying back unregistered drones, pay-as-you-go cellphones, laptops and phones bought at a distance second-hand for anonymous communications, etc, etc.

Personally, I’m throwing what meager resources I have into gun stuff. It’s a field I’m very intimate with and have enough connections to get good deals. AR and Glock mags are where I’d put my resources. While some of the exotic stuff will command more in the next ban, it makes more sense to play to the commonly available stuff. For every $300 Valmet magazine I’ll sell, I could move a hundred AR mags or a hundred 9/40 Glock mags. Or 10/22 mags.