Category Archives: Uncategorized

The winter of our discontent

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Paratus is this coming Friday. I’ll be putting cards out Monday since it seems the postal service, ever since the election, has somehow managed to actually become even less efficient. If you want to get on the Paratus card list, all you have to do is either become someone I interact with on a fairly regular basis or be someone who kicks in a few bucks once in a while AND provides a mailing address. Anyone who signs up for Patreon gets a card if you provide an address. (Also, sending yours truly a Paratus gift is an excellent way to get  one back as well.)

Summer is slowly giving way to fall, which means winter is just around the corner. While heating a house in winter is never a cheap affair, I’m wondering if it will  be worse this year. Why would it be, you may ask? Well, first off we have that bugaboo of inflation going on. But, additionally, we have ‘supply chain disruption’ which means when your 30-year-old furnace craps the bed, or your brand new 101% efficiency furnace blows a circuitboard, finding (and getting) that replacement part may be…tricky. And, if you do get that part, finding an outfit that has enough staffing to get around to repairing your furnace in a timely manner may be an issue as well. And, of course, the fuel delivery system (gas, oil, electric) may take a hit in the reliability department as well for similar reasons.

As always, it’s a good idea to have some backup systems in place. For me it’s a couple kerosene heaters and a whole mess of five-gallon-drums of kerosene. Enough to keep the house above freezing for a good while. I’m not necessarily tryying to keep my house at 72 degrees on a winters night…I just want to keep my pipes from freezing. (and, yes, worst case scenario I could drain the pipes as well to reduce the risk and then only have to heat one room as a ‘lifeboat’.)

These current shortages, logistics issues, occasional hacking-related shutdowns, and Wuhan Flu restrictions are going to make winter interesting. Especially since staying indoors with lots of people is sort of the opposite of what you want to do during a pandemic.Will ‘the numbers go up’ as people spend more time indoors around other people over the winter and holidays? Will the regular flu get mixed up with Wuhan Flu and send panicked people to the emergency rooms as their temperatures rise? Will whoever is actually running the country impose even greater restrictions ‘for the greater good’? We’re gonna find out.

This should be an interesting winter.

Article -A deputy mayor in New York faces charges after federal authorities found him with dozens of unregistered guns and bogus FBI badges

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Remember, kids..some animals are more equal than others:

A deputy mayor of a city in New York state faces federal charges after authorities discovered unregistered firearms and bogus badges for federal agencies, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

Last week, Brian Downey, a Republican who serves as deputy mayor of Airmont, New York, was taken into custody for “purchasing a rifle suppression device over the internet,” according to a statement from the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office.

Authorities later executed a search warrant on his home and found at least 13 illegal suppressors and 16 unregistered assault weapons, including a short-barrel rifle and sawed-off shotgun.

First, you have to admit, the guy has some good taste in thundertoys. Secondly, as far as I can tell in the documents, the ‘short barreled rifle’ is an arm-braced PSA AR. Im betting the supressors are dummies, but the sawed down side by side looks legit. Regardless, this guy is out a metric buttload of money in addition to all the other problems he’s about to encounter. As for the badges..well… play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I bet if you canvas the local Gyno-Americans they’ll tell about some fed in an unmarked car pulling them over for various reasons that usually are defused by them agreeing to go on a date with him.

But…it’s NY. where guns like that are supposed to be verboten for the regular volks.But, there’s always that cog in the .gov machine who thinks maybe he has just a little extra juice and the rules don’t apply to him as much as the other guy.

Moral of the story: ordering questionably legal gun accessories off the interweb under your real name is a bad idea.

That Facebook thing

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It’s one of those things that maybe-its-true-maybe-it-isn’t. What are we talking about? Facebook’s latest foray into the social credit and pre-crime fields – if you’re “too prepared” you might be an extremist.

Some linkage of varying pedigree……

I know, I know….we’re all on a list already, whats one more, right? But, if there’s any truth to this then it’s the classic ‘marginalize a group so you can persecute them freely’ ploy.

You’re preparing for [martial law/hurricanes/Xenu/blizzards/Rapture/blackouts]? Then you’re showing a lack of faith in .gov’s ability to protect and that means you are, de facto, ‘anti government’. Or something like that. The logic, such as it is, will be pretty convoluted.

But, regardless, you’ll be marginalized…anything you say will always be discounted by other people because “Oh, he’s one of those…”. And at some point, that whole ‘if you see something, say something’ nonsense will include guys like you and me walking out of Sportsmans Warehouse with too many Magpuls or too many gas cans.

And just like that, Facebook made everyone’s grandmother into a terrorist……….

Paratus in two weeks

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A friendly reminder that Paratus, the holiday for survivalists, is in two weeks. In case you’re new here, Paratus is the holiday that was founded to give survivalists a reason to socialize, buy new gear, and do cool stuff. You can read about it here at the world famous Paratus FAQ.

Some of you beautiful freaks will be getting Paratus cards and gifts this year. But even if you don’t, you’ll have my warmest wishes for a Happy Paratus.

Get your survivalist buddies a nice gift…or make plans to head to the range…or hang around the house eating pizza and watching Walking Dead and Jericho episodes. The only wrong way to celebrate Paratus is to not celebrate it!

Got a favorite online vendor for gear? Ask if theyre having a Paratus sale this year. Spread the word!

And, as always, if you wanna get the Zero a little somethin’ for the holiday you can always send Amazon gift card codes or you can sign up for Patreon… either one gets you on the card list. And, really, who doesn’t want to be on yet another List?

L. Neil Smith passes

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It was brought to my attention that L. Neil Smith, author, has passed away. What you need to know about him was that he was never “L Neil Smith, the author” he was almost always “L. Neil Smith, the libertarian author”. He wrote books that enshrined, sometimes almost to reductio ad absurdum levels, libertarian ideals about liberty and personal freedom. His most notable book probably was “The Probability Broach” but my favorite was “Pallas“.

I don’t get maudlin or misty-eyed over the death of an author, but I do get a bit sad over the death of a like-minded individual. If he really believed the principles and ideas about the things he wrote, the he was my kinda guy and the world could stand to have a few more people like that in it.

Also worth pointing out that this last year also saw the death of Dean Ing…another author whose work resonated with me.

Tough time to be an author with libertarian and survivalist tendencies.

Waiting on bubbles to burst

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Well, it’s September which is not really the actual beginning of fall but for me it’s definitely a benchmark that it’s time to get out the Filson, but away the summer gear, and make darn sure the winter gear modules are ready for the vehicle and the Bag O’ Tricks(tm).

I’ve been wanting to purchase a chunk o’ land somewhere and have been keeping my eyes open, as well as being rather aggressive in my investing. Thanks to some reckless disregard and a whole lot of covered calls I’ve hit my goals for my real estate fund a tad early. I was talking to someone the other day about when to buy and I mentioned that I thought the current super-hot market couldn’t last forever and I wanted to be in a position to take advantage of it when it eventually cooled/burst. I speculated that when the feds finally raise interest rates and mortgage rates go back up, the housing market will slump a bit. He opined that he agreed with that but he had another take on things that I found fascinating.

He thought that as the eviction moratoriums come to an end, and recalcitrant ‘tenants’ are finally shown the door, fed-up landlords and people who had been meaning to sell their properties will flood the market with houses, driving the prices back down and perhaps ‘bursting’ the current housing bubble. An interesting thought. Regardless of the cause, at some point the prices will eventually ‘adjust’ downwards and I hope to be there, cash in hand, ready to put Rancho Ballistica aka Commander Zero’s Post Nuclear Bunker O’ Love And Lingerie Proving Ground into reality.

 

Self-looting and restocking

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One of the most true things in survivalism is that ‘you are your own worst looter’. You, your kids, your spouse, whoever, will ‘borrow’ from your stash and not replace/return it long before any panic-driven locust horde breaks down your basement door and helps themselves.

Case in point: I keep some Advil and Tylenol in my Bag O’ Tricks(tm), which is good because I had a bangaroo headache the other day. Popped open the tube, took two Advil, went on with my life. Did the same thing the next day. Sooooo…my stash is down four pills. Now, this isn’t a big deal. There’s another twenty or so in there. But the way things are supposed to work is that a) you use it, 2) you replace it, III) you replace the replacements.

But, no, I sat onmy hands and waited until this weekend to go to the Big Bottle Of Advil, shake out a half dozen tablets, and replace them into my bag.

Bad survivalist.

Yeah, yeah, its only a few tablets…whats the big deal, right? The big deal is that nits become lice, acorns become mighty oaks, and little minor oversights become Three Mile Island…want of a nail,. buddy.

Its so bloody easy to get complacent about doing what we’re supposed to, in terms of preparedness, when the sense of urgency isn’t as great as it could be… we take a jar of spaghetti sauce from the food storage stash and forget to update the list, we use one of the emergency flashlights and figure we’ll just pick up a new one ‘next time’ to replace it, etc, etc.

You’re your own worst looter. I am too, and I’ve been doing this crap for decades. But the day you get stuck in your office because of a power outage is no time to discover that you ‘forgot’ to replace the flashlight you ‘borrowed’ from your EDC and never put back.

That little stuff adds up fast, and although something simple and basic like aspirin, batteries, a razor blade, or a bottle of water may seem like not a big deal today…when you’re in a situation and one of those items is exactly what you need and it’s not there, you’ll sing a different tune.

Moral of the story: yeah, its a pain the butt…but suck it up, go to the store, and replace that item that you pulled from storage that you really shouldnt have used. Future You will thank you.

Scenes from a coin & gun shop

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Me: Still have that Wolf 7.62×39 ammo you wanna sell?
Him: You want it? You’re not gonna like the price.
Me: How much?
Him: Twentyfive cents per round.
Me: I’ll take it all.
Him: :::Suspicious::: Why are you buying all my ammo?
Me: Maybe I know something you don’t…
Him: Like?

And, yeah, he had no idea about the import ban.

Yeah, I had plenty (for my needs) of 7.62AK ammo but I can always resell this for a profit but, lets e real, it’s just gonna get bunkered.

Tula and Wolf…. gone the way of Chinese ammo?

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In case you missed the news, the Biden-figurehead administration has put the kibosh on the importation of Russian guns and ammo. On its face, it seems like a repeat of the Clinton-era Chinese gun/ammo ban.

Life Goal #267

I would imagine the smart money is creating new packaging an trucking all that Tula ammo over into some border country where it will be relabelled and imported in a grey-market fashion.

I have very few guns in 7.62×39, a pair of AK’s and a pair of SKS, and I bought my ammo a long time ago. Plus, the 7.62AK guns were never more than a tertiary level of backup for me. When the wheels fly off of civilization, it’s gonna be .223 and 9mm topping the charts.

But, it’s further evidence that things like imported ammo are ‘uncertain goods‘. Can a US manufacturer make 7.62×39 ammo? Of course they can. Can they do it cheaply to the point that it’s worth competing with the literally billions of rounds the Russians and Chinese have produced and already recovered their capital outlays on? Heck no. Thats why no US manufacturer has ever really gone heavy into 7.62AK production. As a result, American shooters became dependent on cheap imported ammo. Which is now neither cheap and nor imported.

This is not to say that having an AK or SKS or Ruger American in 7.62 is a bad idea logistically, it just means that, going forward, it’s less of a good idea.  As I said, I’ve stocked a goodly amount of 7.62, and I know people with tens of thousands of rounds of the stuff sitting in their basement, so in those cases there’s no real reason to ditch your AK. But, if you didnt have an AK, and were thinking about getting one today, you might want to rethink the ammo situation and perhaps get a .223 AK or just skip the AK and grab an AR.

Lesson to be learned: a consumable product, like ammo of a particular caliber, that is not supported domestically and is available almost only though imported channels is not something that can be considered as ‘reliably sourced’.

Duty towards others

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Does a person have a ‘duty’ or ‘obligation’ to another person? Or, put from another perspective, do you have a ‘right’ to someone else’s labors?

I was reading about doctors who refuse to treat people who are unvaccinated, and how those people are outraged that they are being denied care.  I understand that from a licensing standpoint, perhaps picking and choosing who you’ll help will result in you getting some sort of state sanction against. But do you, as a professional of any type (doctor, lawyer, dentist, etc.) have a right to refuse to assist someone for a reason as simple as ‘I don’t like you”?

I wonder about this because as the balkanization continues, we’re going to see more and more of what I call ‘bumper sticker apartheid’. Thats when someone comes to you for assistance, or commerce, or simply asking for directions and, when you see the bumper sticker on their vehicle describing their politcal beliefs that are fundamentally contrary to yours, you decide that you’re simply not going to engage them. At all.  Or vice versa…once they see your Trump sticker or NRA decal, you suddenly become some sort of untouchable troglodyte who is now beneath their contempt.

For better or worse, I’m starting to adopt that attitude. It used to be that I didn’t care what youre political, religious, sexual, racial, economic stripe was. You may be of a demographic I don’t like but I’d be willing to make a case-by-case determination if I wanted to deal with you. Sure, maybe you had a BERNIE 2020 sticker on the back of your Subaru, but you seem nice enough so I’ll help you change your tire. No more.

I used to feel that you and I could still get along even if we differed on political issues. Nowadays, though, politics has become a full-contact sport and when someone proclaims that people like me are the problem and that we need to be forced to conform/shut up/embrace the cause du jour/disavow a belief/support something we disagree with, it makes me want to simply not engage with that person. Like they don’t exist.

“But..people are, beneath it all, still people and those fellow humans deserve your help/sympathy/respect”, I hear the more moderate say.

Hey, you think Anne Frank’s dad would have pulled over to help the local SS guys when their car broke down by the side of the road? Because, you know, politics aren’t important when another person needs a helping hand….

So, if some doctor doesn’t want to treat me because I’m unvaccinated, do I have the right to be outraged and demand that he treat me? To my way of thinking, no. He’s a sovereign individual and doesn’t have any responsibility towards me at all. As an individual, he is free to refuse me treatment for any reason, as far as I’m concerned. And I’m free to take my business elsewhere. And, as an individual, when I see him getting curbstomped in his emergency room because a couple thugs didn’t think he was respectful enough when  their buddy was brought in from a drive-by, I’m free to step to the side and ignore his pleas for me to intervene.

I have no desire or intention to be the least bit supportive, assistive, or cooperative to anyone who, in my opinion, is actively working towards trying to discount me from society. Why would I interact in any beneficial way with people who want to censor, marginalize, deplatform, or ‘cancel’ me?

Thats the direction the world seems to be going, I’m afraid. First it was politics, then it was race, now its vaccination status. We never seem to find a shortage of things to fight amongst ourselves about, do we? Which is probably for the best since a cohesive nation would present a bit of a challenge to….

We’ve been calling it the Culture War for the last few years and it only shows signs of worsening. I have no desire to be on the front lines of it, but it appears that like many wars it’s going to be one I’m going to be forced to pick a side on. Perhaps sanity will be restored and we can all be civil while disagreeing, but I don’t see that coming for a while.

In the meantime, I’ll be happy to support those of my tribe, and I’ll, unfortunately, continue to shun those who work against it.