Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I see that folks in Florida are going to have the chance to either:
a) be glad they live a Zero lifestyle
or
b) wish to hell they had

Im always somewhat fascinated when the news shows people standing on lines for ice (whcih, I guess, is very important in the south) and bottled water. I dont get it..a hurricane doesnt just appear magically you usually have at least a couple days warning. Dont these people ever pause and consider that perhaps some bottled water and flashlights might not be a bad thing to have around when you live in an area that gets hurricanes?
————–
Over on misc.survivalism some nutjob has a very complicated zodiological chart that he swears shows that theres going to be a nuclear event during the Republican convention. While I may (opr may not) agree there’ll be a nuclear event Im pretty confident it wont be because planets are lining up in a particular order. This is only slightly less absurd then the people that use biblical prophecy.
————–
The Commander’s garden (which really isnt the Commander’s garden as much as it is the Commander and his girlfriends garden) is coming along pretty well. Its very inpsiring. I am looking forward to canning tomatoes in a few weeks. There is something absurdly smug about going into my fenced yard and pulling food out of the ground…completely independent from the rest of the world.

Next year will be more tomatoes, onions, peppers, possibly corn, carrots, maybe celery, and whatever else can grow in this clime. I’m reading “Square Foot Gardening” which is directed at small-space growing and its very interesting.
———–
And finally…
From the St. Petersburg times: (http://www.sptimes.com/2004/08/13/Weather/Residents_prepare_for.shtml)

Other bay area residents planned to stay put in their homes in evacuation zones.

At the BP station on Fourth Street near 62nd Avenue N in St. Petersburg, Mark Hillis hurriedly filled four 6-gallon containers with gas for the generator he plans to use if the power goes out at his Venetian Isles home.

“I’ve got the house boarded up, sandbags, gas generator, food and water for three days,” Hillis, 44, said as he loaded the full containers onto the bed of his pickup truck.

“I got all the precautions to survive without going to a shelter.”

Mr. Hillis has the right idea. Not a sheeple. (on the other hand, lets h ope no one who read the article finds their house destroyed and decideds to stay with ‘that guy in the paper with the food and generator’)

I see that folks in Florida are going to have the chance to either:
a) be glad they live a Zero lifestyle
or
b) wish to hell they had

Im always somewhat fascinated when the news shows people standing on lines for ice (whcih, I guess, is very important in the south) and bottled water. I dont get it..a hurricane doesnt just appear magically you usually have at least a couple days warning. Dont these people ever pause and consider that perhaps some bottled water and flashlights might not be a bad thing to have around when you live in an area that gets hurricanes?
————–
Over on misc.survivalism some nutjob has a very complicated zodiological chart that he swears shows that theres going to be a nuclear event during the Republican convention. While I may (opr may not) agree there’ll be a nuclear event Im pretty confident it wont be because planets are lining up in a particular order. This is only slightly less absurd then the people that use biblical prophecy.
————–
The Commander’s garden (which really isnt the Commander’s garden as much as it is the Commander and his girlfriends garden) is coming along pretty well. Its very inpsiring. I am looking forward to canning tomatoes in a few weeks. There is something absurdly smug about going into my fenced yard and pulling food out of the ground…completely independent from the rest of the world.

Next year will be more tomatoes, onions, peppers, possibly corn, carrots, maybe celery, and whatever else can grow in this clime. I’m reading “Square Foot Gardening” which is directed at small-space growing and its very interesting.
———–
And finally…
From the St. Petersburg times: (http://www.sptimes.com/2004/08/13/Weather/Residents_prepare_for.shtml)

Other bay area residents planned to stay put in their homes in evacuation zones.

At the BP station on Fourth Street near 62nd Avenue N in St. Petersburg, Mark Hillis hurriedly filled four 6-gallon containers with gas for the generator he plans to use if the power goes out at his Venetian Isles home.

“I’ve got the house boarded up, sandbags, gas generator, food and water for three days,” Hillis, 44, said as he loaded the full containers onto the bed of his pickup truck.

“I got all the precautions to survive without going to a shelter.”

Mr. Hillis has the right idea. Not a sheeple. (on the other hand, lets h ope no one who read the article finds their house destroyed and decideds to stay with ‘that guy in the paper with the food and generator’)

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Korean nuclear-missle subs?

North Korea is a madhouse. Youve got an entire county that mindlessly follows their leader like a god (or else), they have no idea what goes on outside their borders, they just had a brutal famine that killed off, reportedly, millions of people, and they are more than happy to bite the hand that feeds them with international aid.

And now they want/have ballistic missle submarines.

Lets hit the highlights:

“It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and could finally provide its leadership with something that it has long sought to obtain — the ability to directly threaten the continental U.S.,” the weekly said.

Apart from targeting the United States, South Korea or Japan, cash-strapped North Korea might seek to sell the technology to countries that have bought its missiles in the past, with Iran a prime candidate, the article added.

Ian Kemp, news editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, said North Korea would only spend the money and effort on developing such missiles if it intended to fit them with nuclear warheads.

“It’s pretty certain the North Koreans would not be developing these unless they were intended for weapons of mass destruction warheads, and the nuclear warhead is far and away the most potent of those,” he told Reuters.

Its hard to find references to it, but a while ago an Asian news service reported that DPRK missle parts (i.e. wreckage) were found in Alaska, implying that they’d been going for distance to see if they could hit the mainland US.

Personally, I think the Chinese are a bigger threat. In fact, the DPRK and the PRC arent exactly closest of buddies, despite their Revolutionary leanings.

My point? Well, the usual nattering nabobs of negativism will say that nuclear missle attacks are a thing of the past with the fall of the USSR. (Hence their vehement opposition to missle defense systems.) This shows that perhaps its not a bad idea to keep the Cold War mind set regarding threats and protective postures.

Korean nuclear-missle subs?

North Korea is a madhouse. Youve got an entire county that mindlessly follows their leader like a god (or else), they have no idea what goes on outside their borders, they just had a brutal famine that killed off, reportedly, millions of people, and they are more than happy to bite the hand that feeds them with international aid.

And now they want/have ballistic missle submarines.

Lets hit the highlights:

“It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and could finally provide its leadership with something that it has long sought to obtain — the ability to directly threaten the continental U.S.,” the weekly said.

Apart from targeting the United States, South Korea or Japan, cash-strapped North Korea might seek to sell the technology to countries that have bought its missiles in the past, with Iran a prime candidate, the article added.

Ian Kemp, news editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, said North Korea would only spend the money and effort on developing such missiles if it intended to fit them with nuclear warheads.

“It’s pretty certain the North Koreans would not be developing these unless they were intended for weapons of mass destruction warheads, and the nuclear warhead is far and away the most potent of those,” he told Reuters.

Its hard to find references to it, but a while ago an Asian news service reported that DPRK missle parts (i.e. wreckage) were found in Alaska, implying that they’d been going for distance to see if they could hit the mainland US.

Personally, I think the Chinese are a bigger threat. In fact, the DPRK and the PRC arent exactly closest of buddies, despite their Revolutionary leanings.

My point? Well, the usual nattering nabobs of negativism will say that nuclear missle attacks are a thing of the past with the fall of the USSR. (Hence their vehement opposition to missle defense systems.) This shows that perhaps its not a bad idea to keep the Cold War mind set regarding threats and protective postures.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Its pretty easy to get too wrapped up in firearms when youre talking about ’survivalism’/’preparedness’. In fact, the usual image people have of anyone who calls themselves a survivalist is some misanthrope in camouflage carrying a rifle and looking like a refugee from Beirut. At the same time, you cant really exclude firearms from your plans since you need to a) be able to protect yourself and your gear from predation and b) you might need to put meat on the table using a firearm. I mention this because since Im going to be talking about guns in this post I dont want to give the impression that Im that sterotyped image.

Anyway…

Took the AK out for a spin the other day and I continue to be impressed with it. Sure, we all know Kalishnikov’s gun is the benchmark for reliability and we shouldnt be surprised that it simply does. not. fail. But, still, I am constantly impressed with it. Ive had the Chinese AK knockoffs and they were reliable and all but this Bulgarian AK is just wonderful. Its gotten to the point that if I had to grab a rifle and a bag full of magazines in a mad dash out the door, Im not sure if Id take the AK or my AR. However, heres some interesting comparisons on the Ak/AR in terms of money. Obviously, other factors should be considered (magazine/ammo availability) if one were to choos between the two, but just from an economic standpoint:

Magazine, 30-rd – ($15$20~) AR —– ($14.95 or $9.95 if you buy 10)
Ammo – .223 55 FMJ S&B brand, $179.90/1000 ($0.18 @) —– 7.62×39 FMJ, $84.50/1000 ($0.09@)

(Prices do not reflect shipping, prices from Shotgun News 8/1/2004)

So AK ammo is half the price, mags are about half the price in quantity, and the gun is as reliable as a rock. Tradeoffs? Well, the .223 ammo is more common (as are the mags). “But Commander”, I hear you cry, “Since ammo is so cheap I’ll just stockpile 10,000 rounds and availability will no longer be an issue, right?” Wrong. Heres why: You can, for whatever reason, find yourself away from your stack of 7.62×39 (house catches fire, youre caught at work, house is robbed, whatever) and you have to use whatever ammo you can find. Assuming its a TEOTWAWKI sort of day, therell be cops, military, and Nat’l Guard running around and theyre all gonna be carrying .223 and magazines. You can strip them off the dead or trade amongst the living. (At this point, someone will say ‘No cop or NG is going to give ammo out to civillians’…and thats true. But if you strip some ammo out of a wrecked cop car, overturned humvee or off of a dead NG its going to be .223. So at least you always have that option)

Naturally, theres an ‘on the other hand’……… SKS rifles are so cheap, and AK’s are cheap compared to AR’s, that theres alot of guns and ammo out there in 7.62×39 in civillian hands. If you have to trade with Billy Joe Pickuptruck down at the creek, he’s more likely to have 7.62×39 than .223 since he’s more likely to be carrying an AK/SKS rather than an AR.

Me, Im playing it safe…I have both.

Another thing I like about the 7.62×39 is the ammo is packed in steel cans. A nice touch. Paint ‘em with roofing tar and they’ll keep in any environment for a long, long time. A tin of 800 rounds or so is the size of a shoebox and easily tucks away in a closet, truck box, or under a doghouse.

There are other factors I have to think about as well..the AR tends to surpass the AK in accuracy but at the same time I think that if youre going to have to do any shooting its going to be at ranges so short that accuracy is going to be fairly even between the two. That is to say, in the semi-urban environment Im currently in youre shooting across a street, down an alley, etc….ranges that the AK and AR are plenty accurate enough for. In the longer distances (200 yards+) Id say the nod is to the AR for accuracy. Then again, out to 300 yards or so I’d probably rather use the .308 bolt gun.
===============
In less dramatic news, my tomatoes have started to produce itty bitty tomatoes. I am pleased. I grew these plants from seed and am looking forward to having a shelf in basement lined with shiny Ball canning jars full of ripe, red Roma tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. I’ve got the pressure canner sitting at home just waiting. One of the things I need to do is head up to WalMart and pick up a few cases of quart jars and lids/bands. The idea of growing your own food and preserving it for future consumption has a very liberating feel to it. One of the things I need to do is pick up some non-hybrid/heirloom seeds for my tomatoes (as well as other vegetables) so that I can use the seeds from one plant for the next year. Also need to build a nice, lightproof cabinet in the basement to keep the jars of canned food in.

Its pretty easy to get too wrapped up in firearms when youre talking about ‘survivalism’/’preparedness’. In fact, the usual image people have of anyone who calls themselves a survivalist is some misanthrope in camouflage carrying a rifle and looking like a refugee from Beirut. At the same time, you cant really exclude firearms from your plans since you need to a) be able to protect yourself and your gear from predation and b) you might need to put meat on the table using a firearm. I mention this because since Im going to be talking about guns in this post I dont want to give the impression that Im that sterotyped image.

Anyway…

Took the AK out for a spin the other day and I continue to be impressed with it. Sure, we all know Kalishnikov’s gun is the benchmark for reliability and we shouldnt be surprised that it simple does. not. But, still, I am constantly impressed with it. Ive had the Chinese AK knockoffs and they were reliable and all but this Bulgarian AK is just wonderful. Its gotten to the point that if I had to grab a rifle and a bag full of magazines in a mad dash out the door, Im not sure if Id take the AK or my AR. However, heres some interesting comparisons on the Ak/AR in terms of money. Obviously, other factors should be considered (magazine/ammo availability) if one were to choos between the two, but just from an economic standpoint:

Magazine, 30-rd – ($15$20~) AR —– ($14.95 or $9.95 if you buy 10)
Ammo – .223 55 FMJ S&B brand, $179.90/1000 ($0.18 @) —– 7.62×39 FMJ, $84.50/1000 ($0.09@)

(Prices do not reflect shipping, prices from Shotgun News 8/1/2004)

So AK ammo is half the price, mags are about half the price in quantity, and the gun is as reliable as a rock. Tradeoffs? Well, the .223 ammo is more common (as are the mags). “But Commander”, I hear you cry, “Since ammo is so cheap I’ll just stockpile 10,000 rounds and availability will no longer be an issue, right?” Wrong. Heres why: You can, for whatever reason, find yourself away from your stack of 7.62×39 (house catches fire, youre caught at work, house is robbed, whatever) and you have to use whatever ammo you can find. Assuming its a TEOTWAWKI sort of day, therell be cops, military, and Nat’l Guard running around and theyre all gonna be carrying .223 and magazines. You can strip them off the dead or trade amongst the living. (At this point, someone will say ‘No cop or NG is going to give ammo out to civillians’…and thats true. But if you strip some ammo out of a wrecked cop car, overturned humvee or off of a dead NG its going to be .223. So at least you always have that option)

Naturally, theres an ‘on the other hand’……… SKS rifles are so cheap, and AK’s are cheap compared to AR’s, that theres alot of guns and ammo out there in 7.62×39 in civillian hands. If you have to trade with Billy Joe Pickuptruck down at the creek, he’s more likely to have 7.62×39 than .223 since he’s more likely to be carrying an AK/SKS rather than an AR.

Me, Im playing it safe…I have both.

Another thing I like about the 7.62×39 is the ammo is packed in steel cans. A nice touch.  Paint ’em with roofing tar and they’ll keep in any environment for a long, long time. A tin of 800 rounds or so is the size of a shoebox and easily tucks away in a closet, truck box, or under a doghouse.

There are other factors I have to think about as well..the AR tends to surpass the AK in accuracy but at the same time I think that if youre going to have to do any shooting its going to be at ranges so short that accuracy is going to be fairly even between the two. That is to say, in the semi-urban environment Im currently in youre shooting across a street, down an alley, etc….ranges that the AK and AR are plenty accurate enough for. In the longer distances (200 yards+) Id say the nod is to the AR for accuracy. Then again, out to 300 yards or so I’d probably rather use the .308 bolt gun.
===============
In less dramatic news, my tomatoes have started to produce itty bitty tomatoes. I am pleased. I grew these plants from seed and am looking forward to having a shelf in basement lined with shiny Ball canning jars full of ripe, red Roma tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. I’ve got the pressure canner sitting at home just waiting. One of the things I need to do is head up to WalMart and pick up a few cases of quart jars and lids/bands. The idea of growing your own food and preserving it for future consumption has a very liberating feel to it. One of the things I need to do is pick up some non-hybrid/heirloom seeds for my tomatoes (as well as other vegetables) so that I can use the seeds from one plant for the next year. Also need to build a nice, lightproof cabinet in the basement to keep the jars of canned food in.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Tom Ridge, our old buddy at Fatherland Security, is making noises that he may walk after the election because he needs more money than his $175k/year gig at Fatherland produces.

Okay, first of all, and I freely admit I never met the man, I think he’s about as useful as a hibachi on a submarine. This man’s public persona is limited to a Crayola-inspired warning system and pimping duct tape and plastic sheeting. Now, Im sure he’s doing alot behind the scenes that you and I will never know about but this smacks of pre-emptive CYA. How so? The election is coming up and we *know* theres gonna be a terrorist incident of some kind…exactly the sort of thing Ridge’s Raiders are s’posed to prevent. So Tommy makes noises about leaving *now* so that when terrorists machine gun a busload of delegates and the spotlight gets shined on Ridge he can say “Well, I was planning to leave anyway”.

This Orwellian habit of naming things so innocuously (Patriot Act, Homeland Security, free-speech zone, etc) has got to stop. Theres exactly one free-speech zone in this country and its bordered by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
=================
Its coming. You know its gonna happen. You’ve had that ’somethings wrong’ feeling for a while now but you dont know what it is. Lemme tell you you what it is. Its your subconcscious. While youre in your cubicle surfing porn, eating take out, driving home, reading the paper, watching tv your subconscious picks up a thousand different clues that you dont even notice. ‘Hey, there was never a cop stationed at that subway platform before’, ‘Hmmm…I dont remember there being concrete barricades outside City Hall before’, ‘I wonder when the fire department got those cool spacesuits’, etc. You dont notice it but your subconscious does…and thats where that vague undefined sense of unease is coming from. Each little clue to the upcoming Interesting Times is seemingly insignificant by itself..but two hundred of them add up to a ‘hey, maybe I should worry about this’. Solution: be ready.
=================
Product pimping: “Charmin To Go” Yes, the Zero is talking about ‘bathroom tissue’. This is a roll of Charmin toilet paper that is in a plastic cylindircal tube, has no hollow cardboard tube, and the protective plastic tube its in acts as a dispenser. 210″x4.5″ – 55 normal sized sheets. Less space than a usual roll, better than using the little packets of Kleenex, and alot easier to pack in a 72-hour kit. No, I will not be evaluating it and posting a report. Its toilet paper – if you dont know how it works, stay the hell out of my kitchen.

Tom Ridge, our old buddy at Fatherland Security, is making noises that he may walk after the election because he needs more money than his $175k/year gig at Fatherland produces.

Okay, first of all, and I freely admit I never met the man, I think he’s about as useful as a hibachi on a submarine. This man’s public persona is limited to a Crayola-inspired warning system and pimping duct tape and plastic sheeting. Now, Im sure he’s doing alot behind the scenes that you and I will never know about but this smacks of pre-emptive CYA. How so? The election is coming up and we *know* theres gonna be a terrorist incident of some kind…exactly the sort of thing Ridge’s Raiders are s’posed to prevent. So Tommy makes noises about leaving *now* so that when terrorists machine gun a busload of delegates and the spotlight gets shined on Ridge he can say “Well, I was planning to leave anyway”.

This Orwellian habit of naming things so innocuously (Patriot Act, Homeland Security, free-speech zone, etc) has got to stop. Theres exactly one free-speech zone in this country and its bordered by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
=================
Its coming. You know its gonna happen. You’ve had that ‘somethings wrong’ feeling for a while now but you dont know what it is. Lemme tell you you what it is. Its your subconcscious. While youre in your cubicle surfing porn, eating take out, driving home, reading the paper, watching tv your subconscious picks up a thousand different clues that you dont even notice. ‘Hey, there was never a cop stationed at that subway platform before’, ‘Hmmm…I dont remember there being concrete barricades outside City Hall before’, ‘I wonder when the fire department got those cool spacesuits’, etc. You dont notice it but your subconscious does…and thats where that vague undefined sense of unease is coming from. Each little clue to the upcoming Interesting Times is seemingly insignificant by itself..but two hundred of them add up to a ‘hey, maybe I should worry about this’. Solution: be ready.
=================
Product pimping: “Charmin To Go” Yes, the Zero is talking about ‘bathroom tissue’. This is a roll of Charmin toilet paper that is in a plastic cylindircal tube, has no hollow cardboard tube, and the protective plastic tube its in acts as a dispenser. 210″x4.5″ – 55 normal sized sheets. Less space than a usual roll, better than using the little packets of Kleenex, and alot easier to pack in a 72-hour kit. No, I will not be evaluating it and posting a report. Its toilet paper – if you dont know how it works, stay the hell out of my kitchen.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Hmmm….received a package today that I wasnt expecting. A book about the history of the Romanovs. No idea why it was sent to me. Didnt recognize the name on the return adress either. Anyone wanna shed some light on this?

Hmmm….received a package today that I wasnt expecting. A book about the history of the Romanovs. No idea why it was sent to me. Didnt recognize the name on the return adress either. Anyone wanna shed some light on this?