Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Today was the day I dropped Nuke at the vet for a little surgery…you know the kind.
I handed the leash to the gal and she led him (or, more accurately, he led her) down the hallway to where they keep the animals until they’re ready for the surgery.
It was really weird and disturbing to watch someone else walk away with my dog. I kinda choke up just thinking about it.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Someone sent me a link to an article about proposed anti-terror legislation that includes some fairly broad language about who may be a ‘potential terror suspect’. First off, every human being on the planet is a ‘potential’ terror suspect. Potential being a pretty inclusive term, I can also say that everyone reading this is a potential rapist, potential arsonist, potential Nobel Prize winner, potential movie star and even a potential potentate. It’s one thing to go after the sharks but when you throw a big enough net you sometimes get all the wrong fish.
One interesting take on how to gauge new legislation is through the Jews In The Attic test.
I explained to the others in my little band of activists that I looked at all laws that restricted freedom with a view to the impact it would have in a worst case scenario of our government run amok. Will this law make it difficult or impossible to protect innocent life from a government intent on their imprisonment or death? Although I pretty much made everything up on the spot I told them I called this test my “Jews In The Attic Test”. Furthermore I told them that if it fails this test no further discussion is really needed, the law must be opposed in the most vigorous manner possible.
A lovely thought experiment that is interesting to hold already established laws against as well as proposed ones.
What does any of this have to do with preparedness? Well, according to some reports (which I have not established the veracity of), the feds are urging sellers of things likely to be on a survivalists checklist to be suspicious of:
People or groups who:
* Provide identification that is inconsistent or suspect or demand identity “privacy”
* Insist on paying with cash or uses credit card(s) in different names
* Make suspicious comments regarding anti-US, radical theology, vague or cryptic warnings that suggests or appear to endorse the use of violence in support of a cause
* Demonstrate interest in uses that do not seem consistent with the intended use of the item being purchased
* Possess little knowledge of intended purchase items
* Make bulk purchases of items to include:
-Weatherproofed ammunition or match containers
-Meals Ready to Eat
-Night Vision Devices; night flashlights; gas masks
-High capacity magazines
-Bi-pods or tri-pods for rifles
A person spends thousands of dollars on food to feed their family in a crisis but they want to pay for it in cash and refuse to identify themselves? How utterly horrible for the .gov. Speaking as someone who has moved a lot of MRE’s and storage food into the consumer pipeline, I can tell you that if someone walks in and drops $1600 for twenty cases of Mountain House, pays with cash, and doesn’t offer up their name…well…as long as those are real hundred dollar bills I don’t care who you are and why you want it. And, honestly, it’s no one else’s business either. I’m sure some would say that I’m “part of the problem” and that “if those people have nothing to hide” they shouldn’t have any problems with their name being attached to a receipt. Rightly or wrongly, I consider those people to be …. unwise.
Having nothing to hide is not a condition of privacy, in my world. Is it possible that some nutjob will buy a half ton of fertilizer a drum of diesel, whip up a bomb and blow something up? Sure, it’s possible. Should that possibility mean that every person buying fertilizer or gassing up a truck be compelled to show ID and get on a list somewhere? Not to me, it doesn’t.
Is there really a .gov plan to come after people who ‘hoard’ food, fuel, guns, ammo, etc.? I doubt it. It may happen, sure, but is there actually a written plan somewhere that starts off with “Find all the survivalists and take their gear”? Doubtful. This isnt to say that it doesnt happen, but rather that it isn’t part of a greater contingency plan somewhere. I remember reading about people tossing gas cans and generators into the back of their trucks, driving to New Orleans to help out friends or family after Katrina, and getting stopped at checkpoints and having their ’spare’ fuel and generators confiscated by the authorities who justified it on their ‘needs’. Again, not something I’ve researched the veracity of but seems plausible considering some of the other amazingly outrageous things that happened down there.
Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of purchases I’ve made (and make) are cash transactions at places where no one really asks for a name. (Like supermarkets, pawn shops, and those sorts of venues) If I did go into some place to buy, say, a couple 50# bags of wheat and the salesperson asked me for ID I would tell them that I didn’t bring it and if its a dealbreaker, so be it. About the only things that really call for ID are gun purchases and I usually try to buy unpapered guns as much as possible.
So…’potential terrorist’, indeed. I should have that put on a business card. “Hi! My name is….potential terrorist”.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
As I’ve mentioned before, the amazing shrink ray has been getting quite the workout in the supermarkets. This article discusses it but what jumps out about it is that they pointedly mention Breyers, my favorite ice cream, jumping from 2 quarts ( half gallon) to 1.75 qt. to 1.5 qt. And it wouldnt surprise me if they whipped a little more air into it to make it look like a full container. I love Breyers but , man, was I pissed when I saw that.
This is why, when shopping, I always go by the weight (or quantity) divided by price. Coke is $6 for a 20-pack (What happened to the 24-pack? Oh, thats right, take out four cans but keep it looking like a case of 24) but 12-packs are on sale 3-for-$11…what to do, what to do. The answer, obviously, is do the math and see that one comes out to thirty cents a can and the other comes out to .305 per can. These are the details youve gotta keep in mind. Thats what I love about smartphones…I can keep track of pricing at various stores and have a calculator handy to do the math. Are two 12-oz. bottles of Tabasco a better deal than one 20-oz. bottle? That sort of thing. Of course, things like price arent always the only thing to consider….a #10 can of corn is cheaper than a handful of 15 oz cans but I’ll waste more than half the can before I can finish it off…so thats a false economy right there.
The point, though, is that it isnt just me…things really are subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) changing with regard to the economy. I know companies do this to keep sales high and prevent customers from walking away in disgust, thats business….the interesting side effect is that people who are less observant will say “Inflation? What inflation?”..after all, their $5 still gets them a ‘half gallon’ of ice cream just like it did five years ago.
Check the fine print, man…you may learn more about the economy from reading the label on a box of cake mix than you will from reading .gov inflation reports.
Another tragic story about a couple who Jim Kimmed themselves.
GLOBE, Ariz. (AP) – Dana and Elizabeth Davis had spent nearly five grueling days stranded in their car in the rugged Arizona mountains during a snowstorm when they finally realized they needed to venture out for help.
The car had run out of gas, and their rations of sandwiches, cookies, chocolate bars and juice were depleted. Dana, 86, bundled in multiple layers of clothing, put socks on his hands for warmth as he and 82-year-old Elizabeth started walking.
What happened next became a story of incredible tragedy and survival. Elizabeth collapsed just 15 to 20 feet into the walk, her body in a weakened state after five days in the cold. Dana forged ahead, walking eight miles, spending a night under a tree and leaving behind pieces of his wife’s knitting yarn to create a trail to the body.
My usual comment about this sort of thing is ’stay with the vehicle’. Easier to do when you’ve actually got a pack of gear in the vehicle for just this sort of an emergency….sleping bag, blankets, candles, food, water, etc. But, beyond that, one of the biggest factors in these cases is that people made a mistake and then compounded it. If youre not driving a four wheel drive vehicle and your not equipped for an impromptu roadside campout then you need to stop and turn the frak around when you realize you’ve a) gone in the wrong direction and b) the pavement has disappeared. Taking unfamiliar ’short cuts’ seems to be a common thread here too. It seems like amny of these situations could have been avoided by just turning around and going back the way you came once you realized you were not where you were supposed to be.
On the other hand, I’ve also come across stories of people who stayed with the vehicle and died anyway, usually from starvation over a course of several weeks. So, even staying with the vehicle, while normally a good choice, can sometimes prove to be equally ineffective. In every case, however, prior planning would have made a difference…more than anything else, knowing when to turn around and say ’screw this, I’m going back’ would have made all the difference. After that, having a bag of gear for just such a situation would probably have turned several of these tragedies into happy endings.
I’ve a surplus military pack that has a goodly selection of items I’d want to have in such a situation…the absolute first thing that went in the bag was a sleeping bag and a wool blanket. After that, a broad selection of the usual things you’d want to have….matches, firestarter, candle lantern, water, flares, flashlight, batts, etc, etc. Stuff like that would have made the difference in some of these cases, myabe not in others….but at least the opportunity is there with the right gear.
Previous posts can be found under the category: strandings
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Pearl Harbor Day today. A good reminder that sometimes things can change in a heartbeat.
Speaking of sneak attacks, the mainstream media (kinda) is catching on to one of the more outrageous things about ATFE’s “Fast and Furious” program. They let thousands of guns go into Mexico and then used the excuse of thousands of guns being in Mexico as cause to try to enact more regulations. This is like the moms at MADD going out to bars, getting liquored up, and then purposely driving their cars into pedestrians in order to encourage tougher DUI laws. It really is the classic case of government creating a problem so it can position itself as the solution. And, mind you, this is just an instance of this sort of behavior that we know about. Perhaps they’ve done this sort of thing before.
But, remember, this administration has no agenda for gun control. None. We’re all just paranoid bitter clingers.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Here’s a link Ive been sitting on for a while.
While many of these ‘bunker’ houses are built the way they are for aesthetic reasons, there are some properties of the designs that would translate quite nicely to my own needs. I’ve always thought a concrete house would be nice but they would all look like parking garages. Then I spot this lovely Japanese house:
Nice, isnt it? Check out the other pictures at the link. I might put in less large glass windows, but I like the way it looks. Solid and impervious without looking like the Führerbunker . I wonder about the durability of the waterproofing treatment on the roof, but Im sure there are alternatives.
Either way, nice looking place and I wouldnt mind having something along those styles.
The other buildings in the article are interesting, although most of them arent really bunkers in the sense that theyre more secure than the average home. Still, fun to read.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
This guy hits all the Ballistic-American high points:
1911? Check.
Attitude? Check. (“”In Idaho, there’s a lot of folks like myself who are not willing to stand by and let evil triumph,” he said.”)
Freedom-lovin’ guy? Check. (Well, it’s Idaho..thats a given.)
R2KBA sentiments? Check. (“He lives by what he calls the sheep dog, sheep and wolf theory.”)
I’ll buy this guy a free box of ammo just for saying all the right things.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
The Chinese have called it their “Underground Great Wall” — a vast network of tunnels designed to hide their country’s increasingly sophisticated missile and nuclear arsenal.
For the past three years, a small band of obsessively dedicated students at Georgetown University has called it something else: homework.
Led by their hard-charging professor, a former top Pentagon official, they have translated hundreds of documents, combed through satellite imagery, obtained restricted Chinese military documents and waded through hundreds of gigabytes of online data.
The result of their effort? The largest body of public knowledge about thousands of miles of tunnels dug by the Second Artillery Corps, a secretive branch of the Chinese military in charge of protecting and deploying its ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads.
What’s interesting here isn’t that the Chinese are busy doing this sort of thing…you’d have to be insane to not think that they’ve been doing stuff like this for years. What’s interesting is the level of intelligence, assuming it’s accurate, gathered by what amounts to basically a buncha hobbyists.
China is building up their economy, becoming the purseholder for several nations, buying up swaths of Africa for farmland, and generally positioning itself to be the dominant world power. Eventually, at this rate, they’ll become the 800-pound gorilla that can sleep anywhere it wants to. Truly, it’s empire building. Sixty years ago it was a nation of feudal warlord-controlled states with virtually no influence outside of its immediate neighborhood….now it buys all of our debt, builds all of our merchandise, competes with all of our industries and influences our foreign relationships.
Anyway, an interesting article. I wonder if the professor that is mentioned in the article will suddenly experience a tragic accident that puts the kibosh on his little endeavour.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
In email, someone asked me what got me started in preparedness. Being a smartass, I replied “An overwhelming desire not to die.”
But, in all seriousness, I thought I had perhaps posted about it at some point but as I trolled through the posts trying to find it I discovered that I may not have made such a post.
So, how did I get involved in this?
I can’t recall the exact date, but I can get the year down: 1980. When I was 13 I was doing some book reports for extra credit. One of the books I read was ‘Alas, Babylon’. No idea how I came to read that book, but I do remember the book report. For some reason that book struck a chord in me and it was followed by a few handfuls of similar literature, including ‘A Canticle For Liebowitz’ which wasn’t exactly light reading for a 13-year-old. At about this time I stumbled onto a copy of Aherns first book in ‘The Survivalist’ series. Again, for some reason it just made an impression on me. Yeah, it was pulp fiction of the dorkiest kind but I devoured every book in the series. At that point in my life I was very much enamored with being outdoors and being alone. I suppose in some ways, to a young boy (read: idiot), being on your own in a post-apocalyptic world would be the ultimate adventure. This was, of course, before I had the maturity to think about the unpleasant consequences of such a lifestyle…little inconveniences like dysentary, DIY dentistry, compound fractures, hypothermia, food poisoning and the like.
Anyway…….
So the idea of survivalism (which is what it was called back then, this being the 80’s and all) was put into my head. At that point, like many impressionable youth (read: morons), I glossed over the mundane things like food and energy and focused on, naturally, guns and big honkin’ Rambo knives. And thats pretty much where things stayed for a number of years. After all, when youre 13 years old you really arent in a position to do much about preparing for the seemingly inevitable Soviet-American nuclear exchange that we were always hearing about. Plus, guns and knives were cool!
Flash forward about six years. Nineteen years old and moved to Montana to go to college. Away from home, away from draconian gun laws, and still a ways from being a mature adult…….I started buying guns as fast as I could (and couldnt) afford. No rhyme or reason, just whatever struck my fancy. Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while and I wound up with a lovely HK93A3 that I paid the enormous sum of $600 for. Wish to hell I’d kept it. Those suckers are rare. At the time, I didnt consider myself a preparedness/survivalist type of person, although I did consider my self a world class ‘gun nut’. Around the age of 24 I went from living in crappy rentals to a nice house. Lotsa room, big basement….pretty nice. I was still more a gun crank than anything else. I was hanging out with more people and started developing what might be politely termed ‘conservative values’. It was also about this time that Ruby Ridge occurred and the crowd I was running with was full of talk about black helicopters and Executive Orders and that sort of thing. Hey, it was Clinton and Reno’s America…it looked like anything could happen. More and more, the talk was about just wanting to be left alone by .gov and pretty much everyone else.
Also about this time I hit a very rough patch in my life where I was no longer in school, had no job, no money, and was staring down the barrel of being darn near homeless. Food was a little hard to come by and there were some days where it was easier to just not eat than deal with trying to figure out how to get ahold of something to eat. I wouldn’t call it ‘going hungry’ but it was about as insecure an existence as a person could get without hitting bottom and landing in a cardboard box. That little episode didn’t change anything for me at that moment, but years later it would.
By now we’re rolling up into the mid-1990’s. The Clinton Assault Weapons Ban has occurred, Brady background checks are a new inconvenience, Black Talon ammo is in the news, and someone just blew up a building in Oklahoma. At this time all my friends are gun nuts and ‘patriot’-types. Some folks talk about how armed uprisings seem inevitable, others talk about things like UN interference in American government. I may or may not agree with what my friends say and think, but they’re my friends, we get along, and I enjoy being with them.
Move ahead a few years. It’s 1998. People are starting to make noise about Y2K. On some levels it seems as absurd as can be, and on some levels it seems to be a genuine threat. Gradually, I start moving in the direction of increasing my level of preparedness as best I can on my budget. At this time all of my friends, except for one, are people who are to some degree or another into preparedness. 1999 is the year I started making bigger steps into preparedness. Bythe time Christmas of 1999 rolls around I’m more prepared than I ever have been and my way of thinking has changed. I’m taking a more ‘well rounded’ approach to preparedness….meaning I’ve stopped thinking that being prepared starts and ends with something that has a caliber marking stamped on it.
Y2K comes and goes without so much as a hiccup in my world. Doesn’t matter. I like the feeling of security that comes from being prepared, and smaller, local, events like blackouts and blizzards have convinced me that I’m on the right track. 2001 changes the threat likelihood to terrorism-related events and suddenly ’security moms’ are the norm and airport travel takes a turn for the worse. I continue to lay back food, ammo, gear, etc, etc. I read more, research more, think more, play ‘what if’ more, and start to think that perhaps the biggest threat isnt terrorism as much as the economic consequences of terrorism. In short, I start moving towards the notion that the biggest threat is economic…high unemployment, prolonged recession, a new depression, that sort of thing.
2003 I start the blog. From there you can read about what happens or doesn’t happen. And that’ll bring you to….now.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
It’s the run-up to the gift giving season…Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Flying Spaghetti Monster Day, etc, etc….The day after Thanksgiving is usually the semi-official kickoff for the shopping frenzy. What is on the Zero’s wish list for Christmas? Well…a lot of stuff, actually. And while I am focussed mostly on the gimme, I’ve been introduced to some cool products I’ll share with you for those still in need of gift-giving ideas to fellow like-minded individuals:
Nanostriker XL – I’m loving the clever design on this ferro rod firestarter. The scraper and rod are integrated into the handle to create a compact, slender package that can fit anywhere. Matches are my first choice for firestarting but I usually carry around a striker of some kind ‘just in case’. This looks to be slimmer and perhaps more rugged than the Gerber product I’ve been carrying for quite a while now.
Buck Hoodlum – Buck gets back in the ‘big knife’ market with this headchopper. Made in USA, which is not always a guarantee with many manufacturers these days, this thing is marketed as a survival knife. Personally, I like my BK&T knives for their affordable sheer brutality, but I wouldn’t mind having one of these…it’d go great with my first-gen BuckMaster as a collectible.
SAR Eclipse Signal System – A buddy of mine showed me this little gizmo and it was love at first sight. It’s the size and shape of a dogtag but contains a signal mirror, sighting device, and a clip to keep it on your gear. Simple and cheap, this would make an awesome stocking stuffer.
So many wonderful toys out there….trick is weeding through the ‘wants’ to trim the list down to the ‘needs’. Money is a limited resource, y’know.
